Bargain Books (3)

Here is another set of Amazon bargains in the teens section. Anyway I've never read a Francesca Lia Block book, I'm curious because she has been published so many times now. I guess this is a perfect time to try her writing out now :)

Warrior Princess by Frewin Jones

The Devouring by Simon Holt / review

The White Darkness by Gerladine McCaughrean

Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Dirty Laundry by Daniel Ehrenhaft

Look Both Ways (Midnight Twins) by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors

Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi

Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman / review

She's So Money by Cherry Cheva / review

How to (Un)cage a Girl by Francesca Lia Block

Bargain Books ~ 1

Bargain Books ~ 2

Books By Its Cover Week 1

We're going to start things off very simple. This month we're playing for my ARC of Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison. Here is the prompt:

Fire, passion, anger

Endless cycle—

a snake eating its own tail

If you are pretty sure you know which book cover I'm talking about, fill the appropiate section in the form. If not, think it over. You have until July 28 to guess as many covers as you can.

*For more information about Books by its Cover click here.*

And Then I Found Out the Truth + Giveaway

And Then I Found Out the Truth by Jennifer Sturman

Source: ARC from Publicist / Point

Grade: 4 stars out of 5

And Then I Found the Out Truth is the sequel to And Then Everything Unraveled. Some spoilers below:

“Delia Truesdale didn’t think life could get more complicated. Her mother’s on the run in South America and won’t be coming home anytime soon—at least, but until Delia can outwit the evildoers who are out to destroy them both.

But it’s hard to thwart evildoers from an entirely different continent, especially when everyone things you should be doing your homework instead. And Delia’s stuck in Manhattan, along with her slightly insane aunt Charley, her uptight aunt Patience, a petulant psychic, a love-struck detective, boy-crazy brainic, and Quinn, who defies description but has kissed her twice.

The answers are waiting in exotic Buenos Aires, and time is running out. Delia might not speak Spanish or know how to tango, but she does have a passport. Will she be able to uncover the truth—before it’s too late?”—from the novel.

And Then I Found Out the Truth was a high stakes adventure that will make even James Bond pleased. And maybe even Sherlock Holmes. Jennifer Sturman drops hints throughout the book like a Jeopardy game; vague enough making you scratch your head yet when the answer is presented it makes sense. But never once does Sturman make you feel like an idiot (because Delia is on the same boat as the reader).

I did enjoy reading the many characters that Sturman writes, each one so vastly different yet equally charming, but I did find some characters unnecessary—Erin for one. Her name is dropped a couple times, but with not much a real purpose. However, one thing that I found most impressive and that personally made me happy was the cultural—racially and ethnically—diversity that Sturman incorporated which is so rarely seen.

Despite my affection of the book I am stopping myself from giving it another star. And Then I Found Out the Truth lacks a certain finesse and sparkle that I always look for in a novel. In and out the novel gives two different experiences for me. In: immersing myself into a world of different sights, sounds, and smells. Out: a vague recollection of the novel; nothing really pops out with blurred scenes.

Overall And Then I Found Out the Truth was a fun and flirty (with danger and boys) ride.

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1. Was there a reason behind each country written in the novel or was it a random draw with a spinning globe and closed eyes?

The right answer to this question is probably that it was all the result of meticulous planning and exhaustive research. Sadly, the real answer is a lot closer to the spinning globe/closed eyes scenario! I started with wanting Delia’s mother to disappear somewhere. I also knew she’d be an environmentalist, and then I saw an article about the impact of global warming on polar ice shelves – anyhow, the next thing I knew, characters were going missing in the Antarctic, trekking through the wilds of Chilean Patagonia and chasing each other down the streets of Buenos Aires.

2. Can you quickly name some travel tunes you listen to?

I always have very lofty ambitions for all of the work I’m going to get done on long plane flights or train rides, and then spend the whole time staring out the window and listening to my iPod. Some favorites for spacing out include: Everything But The Girl, Mazzy Star, and old Van Morrison.

3. Do you believe in psychics and fate?

No – but also yes! I’m mostly a huge skeptic. I was once even uninvited from a séance because I couldn’t pretend that I thought it might actually work. That said, it would be nice to believe everything isn’t entirely random and unknowable, either. So I’m hedging my bets and saying maybe.

4. Which version of Bewitched do you enjoy watching the most?

The classic TV version (with the original Darrin, obviously!) – I desperately wanted to be Tabitha.

 

5. In the novel there are so many ethnicity and cultures discussed: any particular favorites?

Questions like this always stump me! It’s like being asked to choose a favorite color or song or book. That’s probably why I love living in New York City – there’s so much diversity. Take food – in the past week, I’ve eaten tacos, pad thai, falafel, and mac and cheese, and I enjoyed them all (probably a little too much given that it’s bathing suit season). Meanwhile, each meal probably tasted even better because of how it contrasted with whatever I’d eaten last. And now I’ve made myself hungry...

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Buy And Then I Found Out The Truth and And Then Everything Unraveled from Amazon. Or you can win copies here:

You Wish

You Wish by Mandy Hubbard

Source: ARC from Penguin

Grade: 3 stars out of 5

It’s Kayla’s Sweet Sixteen and nothing is going right. Her mother has taken over her party as a chance to advertise her business meaning it is absolutely nothing she wants. And yet her best friend Nicole, the one thing that might make this party bearable, ditches her. Still, Kayla grits her teeth and blows out her candles wishing that her birthday wishes would come true. All hell breaks loose. 

Turns out her wishes were not that great: Kayla is now stuck with a pink My Little Pony; all the gumballs you can eat (and die from); a Raggedy Ann that has come back to haunt you; and a Ken doll that has the hots for Kayla. There is also a wish that Kayla is most afraid of coming true: Ben Mackenzie kissing her. 

But Ben is Nicole’s boyfriend so that is clearly off-limits territory. Kayla always had a crush on Ben since forever and not even Nicole knows about that wish. One can only wish though…. 

In Mandy Hubbard’s second teen novel she makes dreams into reality, but reality is bittersweet. Prada and Prejudice lacked for me that extra pow to make it from an OK read to a great read and You Wish has that same problem.

Each wish is hilarious filled with mirth that borders on nonsensical. There was childhood innocence as seen with Raggedy Ann and the progression of puberty with Ken (bom chicka wah wah) that You Wish features. Hubbard does well to balance the slightly sane—gumballs—with heartwarming reasons—ability to speak Italian after her father left.

However I had strong feelings on Nicole and Kayla as well as the ending. I found both characters unlikeable at times: Kayla for her whiny attitude at times and Nicole for just not being a good friend many of the times. These are just personal feelings, which you may not have for these two characters. But I have a question to those who may have read You Wish (slightly spoilish so highlight to see): does that mean the last wish disappears? I wish Hubbard would write something to clear some of the confusing of the ending for me.

Cover A
Too cute

Preorder You Wish
Order Prada and Prejudice

Blog Tour: The Fixer Upper

The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews

Source: Harper for TLC book tours

Grade: 3.5 stars out of 5

Dempsey Killebrew has no other choice but to move to Guthrie, Georgia when her boss is caught in a political scandal of bribing a US Congressman. Her father just inherited a house in Georgia in which he wants Dempsey to renovate to flip for profit when she gets fired from her job and her reputation in D.C. is in shambles. But the house is in need of much more than a sweep of the broom and a little Windex and Dempsey plans to tackle this project head-on with Michael Jackson on her iPod. The FBI is at her door though demanding Dempsey to help them get her boss to confess and put him firmly behind bars or else she risks getting herself in jail for 15 years with a heavy fine. And let's not forget that Guthrie is a small town where everyone knows everybody's business.

The Fixer Upper was a book that I had procrastinated on reading. I cleaned the house, read a couple of other books, reviewed plenty more and finally, grudgingly, began reading. The Fixer Upper gave off this sense of heavy, boring, full of legal and house cleaning information, but it was surprisingly easy to read and time escaped me.

The legal and political aspect of the novel were straight forward, to the point, and just enough to make the reader understand without taking up paragraph after paragraph worth of pages. The house flipping, on the other hand, was pretty hefty in terms of going in depth and filling up pages. I particularly did not mind it much because I enjoy watching DYI shows, but some readers will find themselves frustrated at the details.

The characters were a bit off putting for me especially Dempsey. It seemed to me that she had an Electra complex where she liked men who reminded her a bit of her father; particularly in the age category. It seemed to be a reoccurring theme in The Fixer Upper: older men dating younger woman. Her father marries a woman who is only 4 years older than Dempsey and Dempsey finds herself attracted to men who are about her father's age. It gets into a creepy factor when Dempsey describes men whom she finds attractive and then brings her father up. But it gets better (in a good way, not in a sarcastic way), trust me. I do find many of the characters likable and easy to relate to at times.

The Fixer Upper is ultimately a fun, great read that helps time to pass by quickly. It is dramatic and scandalous and enjoyable to read.

Find out more stops to The Fixer Upper tour here. You can find Mary Kay at her website and her twitter.

The Fixer Upper is now available in paperback.

Wanna Get In My Head? [EDITED]

It's not as dirty as it sounds. Zoe interviewed me so time ago for her birthday celebration. A lot June babies I see! *points to self* So do you want to know who that hot, sexy, drool worthy guy* is (below)? Well it's at Zoe's blog~ 

EDITED: You know what would have helped? The link. A lot.

*me internally laughing.

Pucker Up

Pucker Up by Rhonda Stapleton

Source: Simon Pulse

Grade: 4 stars out of 5

Pucker Up is the final installment to the Stupid Cupid trilogy by Rhonda Stapleton and what a pleasant ending at that. I just have a confession to make: I thought Pucker Up was the second installment, not the third thus I read it before Flirting with Disaster. Despite that I had no trouble keeping up with the plot and will definitely go back to read Flirting with Disaster. I just do not recommend skipping Stupid Cupid, the first book in the trilogy.

NOTE: Synopsis of Pucker Up has spoilers.

Felicity finally landed her dream guy Derek in Pucker Up; superpopular, hot, and extremely talented Derek who is not stuck up at all. But during one meeting, Felicity notices that her name and Derek’s name are on her boss’s spreadsheet next to each other. It can only mean one thing: her head honcho of Cupid’s Hollow matched them up. Does that mean that Derek doesn’t truly love her? Is her whole relationship a sham? Felicity starts to spiral out of control and her matchmaking ability goes down with it.

Thankfully there are distractions to keep Felicity from having a total meltdown: Maya’s parents are going through a tough ride; Andy’s having car troubles; and prom.

Pucker Up has the same elements as did Stupid Cupid: fun, flirtatious, and funny. There is something wholesome and enjoyable about this series that makes it such a guilty read, but it has enough drama and sass like divorce and cheaters that prevents it from becoming a cavity-inducing book. If you read The Naughty List by Suzanne Young you might understand the cute aspects of the book. Now just replace strawberry smooth with words like “ballsy” and you have Pucker Up.

Pucker Up and the series in general is very modern in terms of diction and references (PDAs anyone?) that may not far well with the test of time. It does, however, have elements that are classics like concerns if your love interest really does care about you and toughening out through a divorce.

The ending was expected yet unexpected at the same time. I will not give it away, but I will mention that it was fitting. It was just a bit too quick and was settled too easily for me though.

Stupid Cupid was hilarious—laugh out loud funny—but Pucker Up was more tender. Rhonda Stapleton has a very stable writing and consistently delivers each time. Her characters are all likeable including the ‘villains’ and her humor is agreeable to almost every reader.

Cover B-/C+

Series in Order:
Stupid Cupid
Flirting with Disaster
Pucker Up

Manga Monday: Special A

Special A (S.A.) by Maki Minami

Serialized: Viz Media
Genre: Shoujo, Drama
Age Group: 10+
Plot: 2 stars
Art: 3 stars
Characters: 2 stars
Other: Anime
(note: picture is from the anime series)

During my last Manga Monday, Anonymous mentioned Maid-Sama, which quickly reminded me of a hot little title: Special A.

Special A is another shoujo manga that features a hot-tempered girl and a cool laid back, but with many secrets guy. Girl studies really hard to be at the top of her class, comes from a lower-middle class family, extremely dense and cannot cook to save her life—at all. I am talking about superhuman strength that makes riceballs into bowling balls. Guy is good at everything—EVERYTHING—yet he loves the hot-headed girl because she is different.

“Her whole life, Hikari Hanazono has been consumed with the desire to win against her school rival, Kei Takishima--at anything. He always comes out on top no matter what he does, and Hikari is determined to do whatever it takes to beat this guy...somehow!

At age 6 Hikari lost to Kei in an impromptu wrestling match. Now, at 15, Hikari joins "Special A," a group of the top seven students at a private academy, for the opportunity to trounce the guy who made her suffer her first defeat.” —Amazon

This sounds a great, fun read for the summer because it is. And then it is not. Reading this entire series in one go will make the reader go crazy. You cannot imagine how much I wanted to strangle Hikari with enough annoyance to kill her off. There is dense and naivety then there is Hikari. It is also with that vexing phrase constantly repeated by her over and over and over and over again! Think Naruto with “I will be Hokage” almost every chapter.

The other characters make this manga bearable. But S.A. is soap opera—dramatized, fluffly (sickening), and to be consumed in small portions. Some people will also go as far as to say that S.A. is hilarious. Their words, not mine.

S.A Vol. 1 / S.A, Vol. 2 / S.A, Vol. 3 / S.A, Vol. 4 / S.A, Vol. 5 / S.A, Vol. 6 / S.A, Vol. 7 / S.A, Vol. 8 / S.A, Vol. 9 / S.A, Vol. 10 / S.A, Vol. 11 / S.A, Vol. 12 / S.A, Vol. 13 / S.A, Vol. 14 / S.A, Vol. 15 / S.A, Vol. 16 / S.A, Vol. 17 (end series: Nov. 2010)

Winners and Quick Help!

Anyway onto happier news. The contest for Shade and Deception finally closed and I drew the winners.

The 5 winners of Shade (from US entries):

Anna (annasbookblog) -claimed-

Marianna (patronus) -claimed-

Andrea I (ainfinger) never responded. Julie is chosen as new winner

Amanda B (crazypplrok) [they so do rock!] -claimed-

Meredith Miller (meredithfl) -claimed-

The winner of Shade (from international entries):

Mariska (uniquas) -claimed-

(I will be shipping this copy of Shade to Indonesia, woot!)

The winner for Deception:

Mable -claimed-

If one of those emails is yours send me an email with your full name and mailing address! I will wait 36 hours before spamming you and then you have a limit of less than 24 to respond back before I give up your prize to someone else. Sound fair?

Order Deception (Haunting Emma) or Shade (less than $10) from Amazon.

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I typically use Iron Chrome (an Internet browser that not many have heard of, but my brother swears it load pages super fast. I just use it so he can shut up) but for no real reason I decided to load my blog on Firefox. What. The. @#$%. On Firefox my blog looks very different; you can see more of my background image (which I changed slightly) and everything shrank. On Iron the posts' font is legible, on Firefox it is squint-worthy.

I increased the font size by 10% and my sidebar font by 10% as well. Did it make a difference? Was it a helpful difference!? Maybe my Iron browser was fine and that Firefox was acting crazy? So can you let me know if the size of the font is too small or too large or if it is fine right now?

Then I noticed another difference.... I think my blog lags. Maybe it was just Firefox lagging. Opinions? *sigh*

Books By Its Cover

Books By Its Cover was a feature that I started on my blog because I love book covers (insert: duh). But I had to stop because of time constraints and deemed it in indefinite hiatus, which it was for the last 6 months. Now with some extra hours to work on my blog, I think I am ready to start the feature once more. Just differently though this time.

Previously I asked everyone to email me your "guesses" on the cover I was "talking" about. Not anymore. This time, I am using one Google document form for the entire month, meaning no more hints. I used to give hints out the people who were struggling, but then I realized my hints were a tad bit too strong.

EXAMPLE:

Description:

Light's opposite 

Gravity forces

Vase

Shattered

(first line will always have to do with the color of the book)

Answer:

Freefall by Mindi Scott

So say you guessed correctly and said that the book I was trying to hint at was Freefall, you would then fill out the Google form with the appropriate information. I will typically repost the form 4 times, once for each Saturday, for every new stanza I write. Each "stanza" will describe a different cover each Saturday.

At the end of the month I will tally how many correct guesses you made and each of those correct answers will serve as an entry to a contest. So you guessed Freefall, which is correct, that means you will have one entry in that month's contest. You only need one correct answer to be entered, but it would not hurt to have a few extra entries.

Now doesn't that all sound very confusing? It makes sense in my mind, but not in cohesive words. Next Saturday Books By Its Cover will restart with 4 stanzas, poems, words, whatever you call it.

The winning prize will be Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison. I know I did not love it, but I am sure some of you are interested. And yes, it will be an international contest.