The Weekend Update - 5.2.15

So, since my end-of-the-week post isn't just about what I got in my mailbox or on my Kindle each week -- though that is a big part of it, I won't lie -- I decided to change up the title and intro a bit.  I might tweak the format a bit over the next few weeks, but for the most part, it'll contain the same stuff: stuff I got, stuff I did, and stuff that's coming up on the blog.  Plus, I get to use the awesome GIF you see here and blow kisses to all the people who sent me lovely books and bookish things.  Oh, and I've started linking up to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews since I'm not using a specific meme title anymore.  April's also doing her own Stacking the Shelves posts on Sundays.  Stop by and say hi!  =)

Yesterday was my birthday, and I must admit, it was pretty awesome. My two favorite people in the world bought me a hammock, and I spent the whole day in it, reading and drinking wine and napping. A glorious day, indeed. :D

But after all the rain we've gotten in the last few weeks, this weekend is due to be absolutely gorgeous, so we'll be outside doing some gardening, maybe playing some corn hole, and whatever other activities we can get into that require we be outdoors. But I will find a way to get back into that hammock, whatever else happens. ;0)

Anyway, here's what I scored this week:

For Review:




Uprooted by Naomi Novik - I only just discovered this on Goodreads but it sounded fantastic, so I immediately requested a copy. I've already started it, and I am in love. Just my kind of read. =)

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis - Aaaaahhhh! I just know this is going to be great.

Future Perfect by Jen Larsen - I hesitated to DL this because I'd already grabbed too many, but it's a topic that NEEDS to be discussed.

Blood Passage by Heather Demetrios - Loved the first book -- and everything else this author writes.

Ice Like Fire by Sarah Raasch - Was super impressed with the previous book…needed the sequel stat.

The White Rose by Amy Ewing - The last 50 pages of The Jewel ensured that I'd have to pick this one up.

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas - This series just gets better with each book.



Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman - I love the backstory on this one!

Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly - Witchy books are always fun!

End of Days by Susan Ee - I can't believe it's over. But I'm so grateful to the publisher for sending me a finished copy for my collection! That eases my pain a bit, lol.

Gifted/Traded:

Nothing this week. :)

Library:



An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir - I totally just read and reviewed this, but when I heard that Fiona Hardingham and Steve West were narrating, I had to listen for myself. I thought I might flash back to The Scorpio Races feels, but it hasn't been a problem yet. :)

The Girl at Midnight - I tried to read my review copy of this, but I couldn't get into it, so I thought I'd try the audiobook version. Must be a lot of requests for it because my library bought more copies of it and my hold came through much faster than I expected. ;)

Purchased:

I may have pre-ordered a few things, but I'm going to say that technically, I haven't bought anything this week. This includes the massive Book Outlet order that's on its way to me right now, lol.


So, that's my haul. :) How about you? What did you get this week?

The Week in Review:

Reviews:

• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Jen
• The Game of Love and Death - Jen

Current Giveaways:












Promotional/Discussion Posts:  

• Our #TopTen favoritest books featuring characters who see dead people
• An Ember in the Ashes release day blitz + giveaway
• #WoW - this week, we're waiting on The White Rose & Slasher Girls & Monster Boys
• The Game of Love and Death Blog Tour - my review and an awesome giveaway
• It's our 4th Blogoversary and we'll give stuff away if we want to!
• Crimson Bound Blog Tour featuring flash fiction from the author & another amazing giveaway!

Jen's Currently Reading/Listening To:

OMG, I feel like I'm reading my favorite childhood fairy tales all over again…this book is so familiar and warm and welcoming and everything I never knew I needed. Okay, that's a lie. I totally knew I needed this book in my life. And it is amazing! :D

Having recently read this story, I'm not having trouble keeping track of it, but it is a little humiliating to know that I was saying names incorrectly in my head the whole time now that I'm listening, lol. Fiona and Steve are on point! But it still makes me want to re-listen to The Scorpio Races for the elventy-billionth time.

Upcoming Reviews:

Like honest reviews & giveaways?  Be sure to follow us on Bloglovin' so you never miss out!

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Labels: in my mailbox (imm), stacking the shelves, the weekend update

{Blog Tour} Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge: Flash Fiction & Giveaway

When I read Cruel Beauty last year, I was blown away by the Beauty and the Beast retelling. I adore retellings, but you know as well as I do that they don't always live up to our expectations. That isn't the case with Rosamund Hodge's novels. Because she doesn't just take one fairy tale and reimagine it for her readers. No, she takes that tale, joins it with another (that I usually haven't read before) and turns them completely on their head.

Crimson Bound is not a sequel to Rosamund's debut novel, nor is it even part of that universe. It's just another novel where she fuses a favorite tale -- this time it's Little Red Riding Hood -- with another, lesser-known story -- The Girl With No Hands, in this case -- thereby creating a lush, sophisticated world, gorgeous prose, and characters with questionable morals. I said in my review of Crimson Bound that her characters live in the gray areas, and I think that might have been my favorite aspect. Rosamund further explores moral ambiguity and insurmountable friendship in the piece of flash fiction she's written for you today.

The short story she's written for my stop is part three of a three-piece series, so be sure to catch the other two short stories on the tour! But before we get to that, here's a bit more about her sophomore novel:

Title: Crimson Bound
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Series: n/a
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

(This is a standalone novel, not part of the Cruel Beauty Universe.)

Three Girls Who Met a Forestborn: The Woodwife
by Rosamund Hodge

In the world of Crimson Bound, the magic of the Great Forest can still threaten people. In the countryside, they have developed a tradition of "woodwives": women who have learned to work magic by knotting and weaving thread. The charms they make can ward off the power of the Great Forest, protect against sickness, or help crops grow faster. This story is about one girl who wanted to be a woodwife.


All alone in the forest, there is a house where nothing moves.

Neither humans nor forestborn have found it yet. Perhaps they never will.

#

This is how it began:

They were cousins. They were dearest friends. For as far back as they could remember, they were Cécile-and-Jeanette, two halves of a single whole. Cécile was the laughter, and Jeanette was the listening silence, and neither one made sense without the other.

"I'm going to be a woodwife someday," Jeanette whispered to Cécile one evening as they leaned against each other, watching the stars come out.

Cécile giggled. "I'm going to marry a prince," she said, and Jeanette believed that she could, for all that they lived in a tinyvillage at end far end of nowhere. Cécile was clever and pretty and never afraid of anything.

Then they were twelve, and it was Midsummer Night, when the village burned bonfires to keep the forestborn away, and the children dared each other to run deeper and deeper into the trees.

Cécile laughed, and ran, and didn't come back.

#

This is how it ended:

Jeanette sat waiting by the fireplace, her needle going click-clack as she knitted yarn into an endless, lacy froth. The stump where her right leg ended just below the knee ached. Outside, the snow was falling gently, inevitably, smotheringly.

The door banged open, and Cécile came in, carrying a brace of skinned rabbits. "Good afternoon," she called out.

Wearily, Jeanette said, "How many did you kill today?"

"Two," said Cécile, holding up the rabbits.

"I mean people," said Jeanette.

Cécile clucked her tongue. "I told you not to worry about that. They were awful to you."

"They were my village," said Jeanette. "They were my family."

"They called you bad luck and no use and they would have worked you till you died. They deserve to have me hunt them one by one. Do you want soup? I want soup."

She bustled to fetch a pot and start chopping the rabbits.

Jeanette knitted a while in silence. "Why did you do it?" she asked at last.

"For you," said Cécile.

"No," Jeanette sighed.

Cécile wrinkled her nose and then laughed. It was exactly like when they were children, and she had been caught in a lie. "All right, then. I did it because I was bored. And they hurt you."

"I mean," said Jeanette, "why did you become a forestborn?"

"I met a beautiful prince," Cécile sing-songed.

Jeanette waited.

"They asked me to dance with them, and you know how I love dancing."

Jeanette waited still.

"I was human for nearly a year after they took me," said Cécile, as lightly as she had spoken before. "I cried so much, you have no idea, and so many times it was because I missed you."

She paused, and then went on, her voice soft and dreamy, "They kept me as a pet. You learn some things in the dark, chained up with other pets. You learn what anyone will do. And when you get the chance, you do it."

She spun around, to smile at Jeanette. "And now I will never weep again."

Jeanette sighed.

"Come," said Cécile. "There's a speech you always make, about how you love me still."

The silence was long and raw between them, and then Jeanette said slowly, regretfully, "I am a woodwife."

Cécile rolled her eyes. "You failed as a woodwife."

"I lost my leg in the accident, and nobody wanted to train a woodwife who couldn't run to a sickbed," said Jeanette. "So they sent me home. But in my heart, I am a woodwife. And I am going to stop you."

"You cannot kill me," said Cécile. "Even if you could, you still won't."

"No," said Jeanette. "I won't." Her knitting needles went click-clack.

"I know that's a woodwife charm you're knitting," said Cécile, "but I know you never learned anything powerful enough to hurt me."

"It's the first charm I ever learned," said Jeanette. She shifted in her chair, and the frothy knitting spilled out of her lap to puddle at her feet. "For making babies sleep. Actually, it's the only charm I ever learned."

Cécile laughed. "You always were a little stupid," she said.

"Yes," said Jeanette. "When you kidnapped me--I thought, for so long, that I could save you."

"Never," said Cécile. "Never, never, never." She knelt before Jeanette and rested her hands on her knees. "I have seen the hunger at the heart of the world, and I will be its mistress, not its food."

She blinked.

Her head started to drift down, then jerked back up.

"What," she gasped.

"I knitted a sleeping charm," said Jeanette. "A stupid, simple sleeping charm, over and over and over, all these past three weeks. Why did you think I asked you for so much yarn?"

Cécile clambered to her feet, but then she swayed, and collapsed. Jeanette caught her.

"Nobody . . . will thank you," said Cécile. Her voice was thick and clumsy with sleep. "Even . . . if you bring them my head. Never believe . . . you didn't help me."

"I won't go back," said Jeanette, shifting Cécile to rest her head in her lap. "I'm not strong enough to walk through the snow. Or resist the charm."

Cécile's eyes widened. And then they shut. She let out a sigh, and she might have been trying to say, "No," but if she was angry at her own doom or at Jeanette's, there was no way to know.

Jeanette pressed a kiss into Cécile's hair.

Her own eyelids were growing heavy. She would sleep soon; the charm was very strong. If the villagers found them, they would burn the house with them in it. If not, they would sleep forever.

"Here is the speech," she whispered. "You are my friend, my dearest friend. And you are a forestborn, and you have killed so many people." She yawned, smoothing a strand of Cécile's hair. "And I love you still."

She closed her eyes to rest.

If that doesn't make you want to know more about the Forestborn, I don't know what will. And how lovely that I get to showcase this piece -- on my birthday, no less -- and that it features a character with my given name! It's like the stars are aligning just for me! (That, or Wendy is the best tour host evar, and Rosamund just knows a good name when she sees one. :D) In all seriousness, though, if even a part of you likes dark fairy tales that are equal parts thrilling and romantic, you HAVE to check out Crimson Bound!

About the author:

Rosamund Hodge loves mythology, Hello Kitty, and T. S. Eliot. She writes YA fantasy that draws on two of those things. In her wild youth, she studied Medieval English at Oxford; she now lives in Seattle and writes wildly.

Find Rosamund:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Thanks to HarperTeen, we're giving away two prizes! The first prize is a bundle of Rosamund Hodge books, including hardback copies of CRIMSON BOUND and CRUEL BEAUTY, and the second prize is a giveaway for the fantastic audiobook narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden. Let us know in the comments which of the two you'd prefer, or if you're open to either one.

Open to U.S. and Canadian residents, see entry form for complete details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/20/2015 - The Midnight Garden - Fairy Tale Inspiration: Little Red Riding Hood & The Girl with No Hands

4/21/2015 - Mundie Moms - Cosmetics for Badasses

4/22/2015 - Two Chicks on Books - Audiobook Clip + Interview

4/23/2015 - YA Romantics - Flash Fiction #1

4/24/2015 - Cuddlebuggery - The Obligatory Strong Heroine Post

Week Two:

4/27/2015 - YA Midnight Reads - Writing a Bad Girl/Good Boy Romance

4/28/2015 - Alice Marvels - Flash Fiction #2

4/29/2015 - The Daily Prophecy - Interview

4/30/2015 - The Social Potato - Death Before Dishonor

5/1/2015   - The Starry-Eyed Revue - Flash Fiction #3

The tour is designed so that readers may earn extra giveaway points by visiting each stop. And as I mentioned earlier, this is part three of a three-part series of short stories, so you'll definitely want to check out the other two stories.

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Labels: blog tour, crimson bound, favorite authors, favorites, flash fiction, giveaways, harper-collins, little red riding hood, retellings, rosamund hodge

Happy Birthday Jen!!!!!

Today is a very special because it's 

Jen's Birthday!!!!

Is that gif creepy or what? lol

I can't tell you enough how wonderful Jen is. Everyday I'm thankful I have her in my life. 

I hope you will all join me in wishing her a very Happy Birthday today. 

And whatever you do, don' t ask what her age is. She's getting up there and might be offended. lol

In all seriousness, I hope she has the best day. Fun, relaxing, whatever she wants it to be. <3

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Celebrating FOUR Years With a Giveaway...or THREE!

The Starry-Eyed Revue is four years old! Well, technically, not till tomorrow, but we thought we'd get the party started early. You don't mind, do you? ;0)

When I started this blog, I didn't think it would become anything more than an online journal where I recorded my thoughts and feels on books and movies and the like. Never did I imagine that I'd meet so many awesome bookish people and find my little niche in this community.

There was a period where I wasn't sure if I'd continue, though. And then lo and behold, April mentioned wanting to blog WITH someone, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I felt the same way about blogging as Jen did early on. Just a little space to jot down my thoughts, but who cold have guessed all the amazing friends I would make. While I've only been blogging with her for a little over a year, I started up my own blog around the same time as she did. So we've been in this together from day one. The best experiences I've had blogging so far have been here with The Starry-Eyed Revue.

You have all been so wonderful and welcoming. The blogging community has changed so much over the last couple years. Just the feel of it all, but your love and support has remained steady and for that we are so grateful.

Truly. We know we haven't been around as much to respond to your lovely comments or to visit you at your own blogs, and we apologize for that. It's a struggle to find time to do all of that AND create new content on the blog, work full-time, and be awesome moms, too. :) We're not trying to make excuses...we just want you to know that we still value your thoughts and miss you guys terribly. 

Anyway, that's not why we're here today. (We'll get back to doing all of that and it will be like old times. :D) No...we're here to celebrate! We've both been blogging for FOUR years, some of that together and some of that separately, but dammit, we deserve to party like it's our birthday. [Incidentally, it is my birthday on Friday. ;0) ] And what better way to celebrate our FOURth blogoversary than by having Four dance a little jig for us?!? All in favor, say aye!

Whew, it's hard to follow up Four dancing, but I think we have something that will be just as enticing. For being the best followers ever, we have a few giveaways for you!

Last year for Jen's Bday, I sent her Jenny Hans' Summer series. It's one of my favorites and perfect reading for this time of year. So these are what I'm offering up...

Rules:

• This giveaway is US only. 
• One entry per household. 
• Entries will be verified. Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant.
• Please note that if you use your Twitter account solely for giveaway entries and you enter using the Tweet about the Giveaway entry, that entry will be disqualified. Please remember that this entry method is to spread the word about the giveaway, not simply increase your chances of winning.
• Winner will be notified via email. Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected. Please check your SPAM folder!!! 
• We are not responsible for lost packages.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And I've just been over here collecting ARCs and little goodies for you guys. Some I've read and absolutely adored and others I've heard great things about and can't wait till I can read them myself. And, of course, I had to share some of my favorite bookish things with y'all, too. This giveaway is US only, so the same rules apply as above.

ARCs of The Fill-in Boyfriend, Illusionarium, Crimson Bound, City Love, Things We Know by Heart & Vanishing Girls

The Happily Ever After mug

a Paddywax Jane Austen candle

the fantasy bookmark pack from craftedvan

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But we didn't forget about all of our international followers. For those of you outside of the States, we're offering up your choice of any book from TBD, up to $15 USD.

Rules:

• This giveaway is international. As long as The Book Depository ships to your location, you are good to go. (You can double-check that here.)
• One entry per household. 
• Entries will be verified. Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant.
• Please note that if you use your Twitter account solely for giveaway entries and you enter using the Tweet about the Giveaway entry, that entry will be disqualified. Please remember that this entry method is to spread the word about the giveaway, not simply increase your chances of winning.
• Winner will be notified via email. Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected. Please check your SPAM folder!!! 
• We are not responsible for lost packages.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Just our way of saying thanks for following and reading our rambling thoughts over these last four years. Here's to many more!

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Labels: 2015, blogiversary, giveaways