Winner of Venom, Updates, and Harper Collins Haul

Congrats to the very lucky winner of a signed and personalized hard back copy of Venom by Fiona Paul, PAIGE! :-) Get back to me in 48 hours or I will pick another winner!

Some updates:
1) So I had been promising myself to spread out my giveaways, but things happen :-) I couldn't help but see the dystopian giveaway hop, hosted by Inspired Kathy of I'm a Reader, Not a Writer. Perfect to post the interview with Caragh O'Brien, author of the Birthmarked trilogy! And we have the spooktacular giveaway coming up on Monday-- enter to win a gift certificate!

2) I have a great lineup of some more great interviews/giveaways from various indie authors including:
-Tracy Rozzlynn, author of the Verita and Fast-tracked trilogies
-Jennifer Lane, author of Streamline
-David Litwack, author of There Comes a Prophet

3) I am currently an Amazon affiliate, so if you guys order a book through any link on my website that connects to Amazon, I'll get a few cents (which will all go towards funding this blog) at no extra cost to you! Also, I have hooked up to some minor ads. If you click on them, I will get a few pennies, again going to funding this blog. I thank you all in advance for doing that huge favor for me!

Harper Collins Haul
I just got my first stack of books from this publisher, and I couldn't be more excited.



Anyone as excited as I am to get started on reading these already highly rated books??

Don't forget to enter this giveaway!
1. International Giveaway of signed copy of If I Lie by Corrine Jackson OR Three swag packs!
IF I LIE giveaway

Feature and follow (16)

I cannot wait to be off service and to get some MUCH needed sleep. Yay for almost being done!

Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read

Here are the rules to the blog hop!
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

• (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
• (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers

• Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
• Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
• If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
• Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
• If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
• If you’re new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog! 

Q: When you step out of your USUAL genre what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

I don't typically read contemporary (I'm usually paranormal/dystopian/sci fi), but I just recently read one of the best contemporary YA novels ever, called If I Lie by Corrine Jackson. Just wanted to put a plug in for her awesome giveaway going on right now, a signed copy of this book! 

Goodreads Book Description: A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.

Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.

Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Current Giveaways
1. International Giveaway of Signed and personalized hard back copy of Venom by Fiona Paul
Venom Giveaway

2. International Giveaway of either Incarnate or pre-order of Asunder by Jodi Meadows and a signed bookplate by the author. Two runner ups get signed bookplates by Jodi!
Incarnate Giveaway

3. International Giveaway of signed copy of If I Lie by Corrine Jackson OR Three swag packs!
IF I LIE giveaway

Curmudgeon's Corner: The Last Survivors "Trilogy" Rant

Don't you hate it when a book is so good and then the author decides to write another, and ANOTHER, and you just wish they just left it at the one? That was my experience with The Last Survivors "Trilogy" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I put trilogy in quotes because I don't really feel like this fits the definition of a trilogy since the second book is a parallel novel that doesn't even have Miranda (the main character from the first novel) and her family in it.

Goodreads Book Description: Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Review

To put it bluntly, I loved this book. A good friend recommended it to me. I had started it a year ago, but stopped because I didn't think the first few chapters were that compelling. I'll get to that later. I'm just glad I went back to it.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer stars Miranda, a normal girl who lives in a small town. She is your typical teenager-- fights with her mom, whines about how life is unfair, and struggles with math. An asteroid hits the moon, and the tides cover many areas of land, causing wide spread destruction, panic, and death. Even Miranda and her family who live more inland are affected. They band together, hoard food, and cut wood in anticipation for what is to come. What begins is a very poignant portrayal of survival.

I'll stand by my initial words-- the beginning is still not my favorite. I know that we are supposed to get lulled into Miranda's normal life, but it's almost too much. The story really begins, ironically, when the world seems to come to an end (literally, not just in teen speak). That said, after the asteroid hits, the story gradually heightens the tension and suspense. We grow to love Miranda and her family, and she is forced to grow up fast. But she does, and I admire the woman she becomes in such dire circumstances. The side characters are just as wonderful and three dimensional-- including her two brothers, Jon and Matt, and her mother. Matt is probably my favorite, and I am awed by how well he keeps the family together. He is only a freshman in college. One of the most moving scenes, however, is when the family gets sick with flu. I won't say any more and have the reader discover this scene for themselves. I was moved to tears.

Overall, this book has the feel of the Diary of Anne Frank, as it is told in diary entries of Miranda. This feel was probably completely on purpose by Pfeffer, as the world that Miranda lives in can be compared to Anne Frank's experience, hiding with her family from the Nazis. I was impressed with the world building, the well thought out and three dimensional characters, and the emotional impact of this book. At the end, I was still left with the hope that not only people but the goodness in human nature would survive.

Sounds awesome, right? So then we get to the second book, which is a parallel book, meaning it takes place at the same time as Life As We Knew It, but with different characters.

Goodreads book description: Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.

With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

My Rating: ??

So it turns out my Kindle knows me well and didn't even give me the option to read this book. So instead I read the third book (thinking it was the second book), which takes place a month after Life as We Knew It, and we are back in journal format with Miranda, who meets Alex, the star of the second book. Once I figured this out, I decided that if Alex seemed interesting in the third, I'd go back to the second. Not so much.

That leads us to the final book, This World We Live In.

Goodreads Book Description: It’s been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Yeah, wasn't a fan of this book.

My Abbreviated Review: 

Miranda continues to write about how life is after the meteor disaster and the struggle to find food and other necessities. Except it seems like all of the characters have regressed in their maturity. Miranda starts whining about how bad life is again and fights with her mom about ridiculous things. Matt, who may have been my favorite character in the last book, now is completely self centered and can only talk about a girl he's found while fishing. New characters enter the book (Alex and company), but they only add to the whine and dine that is this book, which is why I had no desire to go back and read the second book.

I was completely underwhelmed by this new entry in this series and hope that this is the last one. Life As We Knew It is a wonderful book and can act as a stand alone. I encourage people to see it that way.

What did you think of this "trilogy"?

1. International Giveaway of signed copy of If I Lie by Corrine Jackson OR Three swag packs!
IF I LIE giveaway 

Review of Unwholly

I was rather apprehensive of this book when I saw it. I took Unwind as a complete stand alone, and it's a terrific book, one that kept me thinking for days and one of my most recommended YA picks of all time. A sequel has to have its own story, its own voice, and something new to say. While I enjoyed reading UNWHOLLY, I don't think it quite succeeded in doing that.

Goodreads Book Description: Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simltaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.

Rife with action and suspense, this riveting companion to the perennially popular Unwind challenges assumptions about where life begins and ends—and what it means to live.

My Review: 4 out of 5 stars.

OK. I may have given this book a bonus star to give a nod to the terrific first book because honestly, this book could not really stand by itself. 

I was a huge fan of the first book, Unwind. Shusterman came up with a world we hadn't seen before, and brought up countless ethical situations, which really made me think. It worked very well as a stand alone, so I was a little surprised and worried when this second installment came out. That said, there was no way I wasn't going to read it.

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman takes place a little after the end of Unwind. We are immediately introduced to a new character, Starkey, who is undoubtedly going to be the villain of the piece, who vies with Conner (our protagonist from the first book) for leadership of the Unwinds. We are then in short order introduced to new characters in the next few chapters-- all who have eerie resemblance to the ones we all know. Miracolina is the poster child for a tithe, a person who is raised to be unwound. She is our new Lev. And so on. The story revolves around these new characters, and the struggle of Connor, Risa, and Lev to keep their ragtag band of teenagers safe from being unwound. It's a thankless job. The most unique addition to this group is Cam, a composite created from many Unwinds, taking the best from them and putting them all together in one being-- a modern day Frankenstein. I believe that this introduction saves the book.

I don't know if Shusterman had the intention of doing a trilogy at the beginning. To me, it feels like he wasn't ready to leave this fascinating world of the Unwinds, and it was undoubtedly a runaway success. But this installment has the feel of being a bit tacked on, rather than its own story. I feel that for the first half, we see the first book retold from very similar characters, and from an evil character that is not very interesting. As I said before, the introduction of Cam saved the book from entirely repeating itself, because he was a fresher idea. Even then, what happened was pretty predictable. The book is well written and flows well. I was able to make it to the end and was interested enough to keep going. Since the first book was so good, I was a bit disappointed in this book, but not much, because I already had reservations going in.

Overall, a well written follow up to Unwind, but its content makes me wonder if Unwind should have remained a stand alone.

What did you think? Did UNWHOLLY live up to the hype? 

International Giveaway of signed copy of If I Lie by Corrine Jackson OR Three swag packs!
IF I LIE giveaway
 

Part II Corrine Jackson Interview and International Giveaway

Welcome back to Part II of this awesome interview with Corrine Jackson, the author of IF I LIE! She is also coming out with a YA paranormal trilogy, so I'm going to take a quick moment to put in a plug for it!

Goodreads Book Description (Publish date Nov. 27, 2012): Remy O’Malley heals people with touch—but every injury she cures becomes her own. Living in a household with an abusive stepfather, she has healed untold numbers of broken bones, burns,and bruises. And then one night her stepfather goes too far.

Being sent to live with her estranged father offers a clean start and she is eager to take it. Enter Asher Blackwell. Once a Protector of Healers, Asher sacrificed his senses to become immortal. Only by killing a Healer can a Protector recover their human senses. Falling in love is against the rules between these two enemies. Because Remy has the power to make Protectors human again, and when they find out, they’ll becoming for her—if Asher doesn’t kill her first.

This is Book One in the Touched trilogy.

Author Blurb: Corrine Jackson lives in San Francisco, where she works at a top marketing agency managing campaigns for several Fortune 500 clients. She has bachelor and master degrees in English, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. Visit her at CorrineJackson.com or on Twitter at @Cory_Jackson.

1. I believe that editors are crucial in picking up problems that we don't see in our writing. Who was your best and most helpful critic and why? 

My editor at Simon Pulse, Annette Pollert, was crucial to making my manuscript shine. One of the main edits we made to the book was to add six new scenes with teenagers in order to balance the presence of teens vs. adults in the story. The tight structure of IF I LIE made this change scary and challenging, but it was the best thing for the book and I think the new scenes revealed a lot more about the characters. Annette also went through the book line-by-line, tightening up the language. This process was brutal. I felt battered some days when I was working on the line edits. I don’t think I appreciated how much work we did, though, until I read my ARC and felt total satisfaction with the finished product. There was nothing that I wanted to change, and I’m very proud of that. Serious edits hurt, but they are so vital. I’m thankful I had Annette to work with on IF I LIE.

2. I love that you did so much research for your book (and it totally showed). Can you tell us a little more about the Veterans History Project and the Wounded Warrior project, and how my readers can get more involved?

The Veterans History Project is an amazing project with a mission to record and preserve the stories of our soldiers for the Library of Congress. Their mission statement reads “The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war."
 
I was researching the wartime experiences of soldiers for IF I LIE, the Veterans History Project proved invaluable and life changing. I spent hours watching video interviews and reading documents. I learned what war and military life is like from the men and women who have experienced it firsthand. The stories left their print on me. I thought about my uncle, a Vietnam veteran who was changed by that war, and I wished that I could have recorded his story for the project. I had a bittersweet yearning for others to know about the project, and maybe be inspired to interview a veteran in their life. It’s a mark of respect to honor a soldier by listening to their story, and so George became an advocate and staunch supporter of the Veterans History Project. You can learn more about the project here and download a guide on how to create an entry for the project .

The Wounded Warrior Project has a mission “to honor and empower wounded warriors.” There are an estimated 400,000 soldiers suffering from PTSD as they merge their old lives with the traumatic things they’ve lived through. The Wounded Warrior Project has created programs to give back and take care of our “military service members who incurred service-connected wounds, injuries, or illnesses on or after September 11, 2001.” You can learn more about them and how to help here.

3. Tell us a little bit your next book, TOUCHED, without giving too much away.
TOUCHED is a romantasy about a girl who has the ability to heal people with her touch. Unfortunately, every injury or illness Remy heals becomes hers, and she’s grown up using her ability to hide the violence her stepfather inflicts on her and her mother. After a particularly brutal confrontation lands her in the hospital, Remy is forced to live with the father who abandoned her and his perfect family. The story deals with how she adjusts to her new life with all of her old scars. Plus there are people threatening her because of what she can do, and a boy who has powers that put her in danger. TOUCHED has a lot of action and romance.

4. SPOILER ALERT! I hope I am not giving too much away when I say that it is very brave and important to bring up the controversial topic of gay men in the military. Can you tell us about your experience with writing about this conflict?
I did a TON of research. I read a lot of books and interviews. The problem was that I was hearing conflicting takes. Some said it was no big deal to be gay in the military, but I’d also heard some opposing views on this. I decided to go right to the source - Marines – to get the truth. I was lucky enough to correspond with soldiers who were stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. I asked them what they thought would happen if someone came out in their troops, and they were willing to answer so long as I kept their names anonymous. And the truth is that there are a lot of people out there who would react with violence or small-mindedness. Even now with the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy repealed, there are soldiers keeping their sexuality a secret out of concern for their safety or ability to be promoted. I find that incredibly sad, and I wanted to start a discussion about that. I hope that IF I LIE makes people think about this in a new light.

Thank you so much, Corrine, for taking the time to do this interview! I loved your answers and know everyone else will too!

Don't forget to enter this great giveaway!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway