It's Monday! What are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

Last Week I Read:

 Hunted by Kevin Hearne (4 stars)

Two Ravens and One Crow by Kevin Hearne (4 stars)

Death and the Girl He Loves by Darynda Jones (4.5 stars)

Rogue Descendant by Jenna Black (3.75 stars)
Shadow Kiss the Graphic Novel by Richelle Mead & Ill. by Emma Vieceli (5 stars)

About to Start Reading:

Briar Rose by Jana Oliver

What I Plan to Read this Week:

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Other Posts of Interest:

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

Happy New Year!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Random Thursday

Follow Friday

URGENT NEWS!!

Top 5 Sundays

Stacking the Shelves

1500 Followers!!! Contest Time!!!

Graphic Novel Review--Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead & Ill. by Emma Vieceli

The third book in the series of New York Times best-selling adaptations of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy.

It's springtime at St. Vladimir's Academy, and Rose is close to graduation, but since making her first Strigoi kills, things haven't felt quite right. She's having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all ...might be seeing ghosts. Consumed by her forbidden love with her tutor Dimitri and protecting her best friend, the Moroi princess Lissa, Rose is in no state to see the deadly threat that will change her entire world - and make her choose between the two people she loves most.

Wow, wow, wow!! I absolutely love re-experiencing the Vampire Academy series in graphic novel form! It's truly remarkable! Now I've mentioned a few times already that this might be the LAST graphic novel and I really do not want to see that happen, so buy this people, buy it!!

Shadow Kiss the Graphic Novel is the third one written by the ever talented Richelle Mead and illustrated by the fabuloys Emma Vieceli! Together these two bring Vampire Academy to life! Sure, we get a movie next month, but there's something so compelling and beautifully stunning about a graphic novel series. And as I said, Vampire Academy is my favorite graphic novel series ever!

We get a nice condensed version of this story and to all have read the books, know how earth shattering Shadow Kiss was--more reason why we NEED Blood Promise as a graphic novel, so again, BUY, BUY, BUY! In this one, we get more Adrian time, we only got such a small page time with him in Frostbite, now he's on several pages in full colored glory! And if we want to see him in his shiny role in Spirit Bound, we need to BUY the heck out of this one so there can be another three books!

Shadow Kiss has everything its novel companion had. And again, that means we get to see Rose and Dimitri get ever closer with their relationship. We get to relive all those glorious moments, like Rose and Christian taking down Strigoi!

I truly do love this series in its graphic novel form. Emma is without a doubt my favorite illustrator. I don't read many graphic novels, but I always look forward to this series, because I truly love her drawings of all our favorite characters. As I might have mentioned, I always have a hard time picturing concrete images in my head while reading, there's pictures, just not full colored glorious ones with lots of detail. Just more like colorful blobs with some facial features! I am weird I guess! But Emma truly brings life to the Vampire Academy series and I would be absolutely, freaking devastated, ahem, hate to see it end.

For all fans of the Vampire Academy series, I urge you to read these books. Not just because they are in danger of ending, although that is another reason why I implore you all, but because they are remarkable pieces of art! They are meant to be devoured and enjoyed in one sitting--as I read them. They let you revisit the Vampire Academy world in a condensed way, but they're are lots of pretty pictures and they can easily be re-read over and over again!

So be sure to buy a copy asap! ;)


Overall Rating 5/5 stars

1500 FOLLOWERS!!! Contest Time!!!

I DID IT!!! I reached 1500 followers!! Hurray!!! You know what that means! Contest time! And not just 1 contest either! 

So my first contest is one I talked about awhile back, here's what I have to giveaway:

This is some of the goodies I received for being on Jordan Deen's Street Team. I have here:

A SIGNED copy of Losing Lauren

Magnets with some of Jordan's book covers

Pencils

A Tablet or E-Reader cover/carrying case

A lanyard

A Button

A Necklace with a blue gem and crescent moon pendant

This giveaway will have to be US only, so sorry!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Our next prize is a SIGNED copy of Julianna Scott's The Holders. I tried reading this one myself, but I just couldn't get into it. And since it is a SIGNED copy, I thought I would give it away since I have 1500 wonderful followers!

And sadly, this too, must be a US only contest. Since I have to ship these two myself, I can't afford international shipping. I am so sorry, but please do look to the next contests!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now onto some International contests!! These will be open to anyone anywhere, as long as The Book Depository ships to you!

Now this one might be tricky, because currently The Book Depository doesn't have any copies available, but once it does become available I will order and ship it to you right away! Since it did just release on December 31st, I am hoping that that is the reason they haven't gotten copies yet. Or something like that. The first two are available, so I don't know why this one isn't available! 

I posted yesterday that the Vampire Academy Graphic Novel series is in danger of being cancelled! EEK! This means that we will not SEE how Rose gets to Dimitri! Come on people, we all know (if we read the VA series that is) how Shadow Kiss ended! How devastated we all were! How AGONIZING the wait to Blood Promise was! Now imagine that there was NO Blood Promise! No Spirit Bound. No Last Sacrifice. NOTHING! That's it! The End. We cannot let this happen!!! Besides do we really want a world where there's only ONE graphic novel with ADRIAN?! What kind of world is that?!

Okay, tirade over...now what we can do to prevent that is by buying Shadow Kiss! It NEEDS good sales so the publishers decide to go another three books! To help aid in that area I am going to giveaway three copies!

Now as I said, The Book Depository doesn't have any in stock yet, so if you're international and you win, I will buy the copy for you as soon as I am able and BD tells me they have copies. If you're USA I will buy it through B&N and ship it to you that way. Cool? Okay, enter away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And finally, the good ol' win a book up to $10 (US), giveaway! Open to wherever the Book Depository Ships! (Oh and should you choose to ask for the Shadow Kiss Graphic Novel, I will be willing to buy that, it's over $10, but if you want it, here's another chance! But again BD doesn't have it in stock yet, so if you're international, you'd have to wait til they get it for me to order it, but the choice of course will be up to you should you win!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Okay, that's about all I can afford this time around! Still have my blogoversary coming up this month! Happy entering and Good Luck!

Stacking the Shelves

This weekly meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.
Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!


Had a pretty decent week for the new year! Added a few books, but not too many to the ol TBR mountain! And one of my books here is just a keeper copy!

Here's what I bought:

Ashes to Ashes by Melissa Walker

The Sharpest Blade by Sandy Williams--a keeper copy! Here's my review

Shadow Kiss the Graphic Novel by Richelle Mead and Emma Vieceli

And then for review from the publishers I got:

Shadowdance by Kristen Callihan (ARC)

And that was my fabulous haul! What did you all get?

Top 5 Sundays

Top 5 Sundays is a weekly blog meme created by Larissa at Larissa's Bookish Life.

Every Sunday I will post a TOP 5 list on the blog. It can be about anything and every week I'll have a new theme {You can vote on next week’s theme on my left sidebar!} and I will ad the Mr.Linky bellow the post so you can do a list with the theme and add you link to it.

Rules:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.

2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.

3 - Feel free to use the Feature's image (there is a smaller size version of it bellow)

4 - After you've finished your post, add you link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.

5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

This week's topic is: Best Books of 2013

*in no particular order

No matter how many times I do this, this post NEVER gets easier! ;)

FIFTH GRAVE PAST THE LIGHT

by Darynda Jones

 What Charley Davidson book isn't great?! Charley's freaking hilarious and awesome and Reyes...sigh...Reyes is Reyes! ;)

ORIGIN

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This was definitely a relief! After the Opal ending I was distraught and this finally brought my aching heart some relief! Of course now I am dying for Opposition! But I also LOVED this cover! Definitely a fave for the year 2013 as well!

OBSESSION

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Please, please, PLEASE tell me there's more Jennifer! Please!! 

TWICE TEMPTED

by Jeaniene Frost

Loooooove Jeaniene's books! Devastated that this series is nearly over and Cat and Bones are practically over, but eager to see how this series ends AND for whatever else Jeaniene cooks up!!

ALLEGIANT

by Veronica Roth

Despite how many people have felt about this one, I really did enjoy it! Really hope Veronica writes more books. Of course we have Four coming out next summer, but I still want MORE!

URGENT NEWS!!

Hey everyone! You all know that the fabulous Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead is a graphic novel series right? How we get to see illustrated versions of Rose, Dimitri, Christian, Dimitri, Lissa, Dimitri and this time ADRIAN!

Well, Richelle has posted on her blog (and do read the post! It's very informative AND gives you a sneak peek of Shadow Kiss!) that the series is is danger of being cancelled due to low sales!! Eek! No! You all know this means the graphic novels ENDS with Shadow Kiss! The one with that most dreaded cliffhanger ever! The one I ended with when I started the series and had to wait FOREVER for Blood Promise! People, we need to buy this copy so fast and so many times so that there's no way for this series can be cancelled! I've come to truly enjoy book based graphic novels and this is definitely MY FAVORITE!!

So buy, buy, buy!! I already preordered my copy and it's still in mailing limbo! But BUY, BUY, BUY!!

Review--Rogue Descendant by Jenna Black

For Immortal Huntress and cunning P.I. Nikki Glass, vengeance trumps all in the newest novel in Jenna Black's addictive series.

Nikki Glass, descendant of Artemis the Huntress, is all for justice, but she draws the line at cold-blooded murder. Too bad she works for Anderson Kane, a god in disguise who just happens to be the son of a Fury. He wants Konstantin, the deposed leader of the Olympians, dead, and he needs Nikki's help to hunt his nemesis down. Saying no to a god might be bad for her health, but Nikki is no pushover...until Konstantin claims responsibility for a fire that destroys her parents' home.

Nikki would do anything to protect her family, and now she sets off on the deadliest of hunts, knowing that a single false step could trigger a war between Anderson and the Olympians--a war Anderson cannot hope to win. But is is possible she has another enemy? Maybe even one in her own house? As the mysteries deepen and the suspects mount, Nikki must try to put the pieces together and catch the real culprit before innocent people get caught in the cross fire.

Rogue Descendant is the latest in the Nikki Glass series by famed Jenna Black! A series that is riddled with Urban Fantasy goodness with the paranormal twist being descendants of gods and goddesses! And it's not just partial to Greek gods and goddesses either!

Nikki's life has been nothing but complicated since she became one of the Liberi, taking on the role of Artemis, the Huntress. She hasn't fully got a handle on her powers and abilities, but she's learning. Sadly, it seems her enemies don't care that she's still coming into her own, for there always seems to be someone who wants to torment her or wish her dead.

Konstantin has been the bane of her existence from the get-go, but now that he is no longer ruling the Olympians, his son Cyrus now has that role. He seems to be at least more sane than his father, but he's still more enemy than friend. And when Nikki begins to get harassing emails that predict gloom and doom for her and all she loves, she wants to take action on the real culprit, but finding him...or her isn't going to be so easy.

I feel like I read this one too long after I read the last one. Seems I am set at reading these books over a year apart and that's not good for my memory's sake. I was able to only recall things as they were mentioned and even then not in clear detail. Usually that shouldn't be a problem to enjoy the current read, but for some reason my brain likes to nag at me that I am not remembering things clearly.

There's still a good dose of action in this one, as Nikki is trying to find an arsonist and even when it looks like she has the arsonist in sight, she learns as always there's more than one enemy to be dealt with. Naturally, this led to some surprises and startling revelations.

Romance continues to be a bit touch and go. Nikki clearly has eyes for Jaamal, but things between them are always tense. And when romance starts to bloom, something usually happens that causes Jaamal to push Nikki back. It's kind of hard for me to feel their connection in this one. There's so much trying to start something and yet, it never really gets anywhere. Hoping Jenna is just planning a slow build up, and since this is book 3, let's hope that the unnamed book 4 brings Nikki a bit of happiness for the now.

The ending was explosive! A nice healthy action scene that leaves you pining for more! This is the stuff action movies are made of. Nikki totally kicks butt when all the odds are against her. Despite having a few difficulties of getting into this one right away, it was still a truly amazing read and I can only hope there is more to come!


Overall Rating 3.75/5 stars--yes the awkward rating again, but it's mostly due to me and poor memory and trying to enjoy the story and not focus on remembering what happened already.

Follow Friday

This is a weekly blog meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers

3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing.

4. 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

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can

6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers

7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!

8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

 

 

This week's question is: What were your favorite books of 2013?

 

 

 

MY ANSWER: Oh toughie! I did just answer this on Tuesday for my Top Ten Fave Reads for 2013. Some of those were Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder, Allegiant by Veronica Roth, Twice Tempted by Jeaniene Frost, Moonglow by Kristen Callihan, Replica by Jenna Black...lots of YA titles blew me away this year!

There were still some good adult books too, it's just hard to reflect back on the year of all that I read and what I loved and really loved and all that jazz! But these were a few of the ones that I could recall at the top of my head!

I read quite a bit of Alyssa Rose Ivy's Crescent Chronicles and the start of her Empire Chronicles and really enjoyed those! Quite a few NA books surprised me this year too! I think Greta and the Goblin King was one...meaning if it was considered NA.

Review--Death and the Girl He Loves by Darynda Jones

The fate of the world is not something a girl wants on her shoulders, and that is especially true for Lorelei McAlister. Unfortunately for her, that is exactly where the world’s fate has decided to take up residence. Lorelei has seen firsthand the horrors that lie beneath our everyday world. And those horrors are getting her friends killed. Because of this, she agrees to leave the sanctity of her hometown and is sent to a different world entirely. A boarding school. But even here she is being watched. Someone knows what she is. What she carries inside her soul. And on top of that she’s seeing visions. This is nothing new for Lorelei. 

But these visions are something more: death, destruction, and the end of the world. 

Lorelei must face the fact that there are people who want her dead, and no matter where she goes, no matter how far she runs, the lives of her friends and family are in mortal peril. Lucky for her, her friends and family include the handsome Angel of Death, a fiercely protective half-angel, and a ragtag group of loyal supporters who aren’t afraid to get a little dirty in the name of fighting pure evil.

Death and the Girl He Loves is Darynda Jones' finale to the Darklight trilogy. It was definitely an exciting and fast paced read, yet the last third of the book or so, got a mite confusing, but I think that might have been Darynda's intent. Possibly.

Yes, confusing indeed, but moving on! Lorelei is in Maine, attending bordering school as she intended to do at the end of the second book. She's there now, believing that since she's here, the world won't come to an end. But she quickly learns how wrong she is and hurries back home. Then it becomes a race against the clock to figure out how to put a stop to the world coming to an end.

The sole focus of the book ended up being trying to stop the world from ending, along the way we learn a few things about Lorelei and the demon who went into her when she was a child. There's more insight to Dyson--the man who wanted to possess Malhuk (I think that's the spelling to the demon's name). Pretty much the book reveals quite a few of its secrets.

There's still the usual snark and laughter between friends and that's what I have come to love about this series. Lorelei is like Charley's little sister, I swear! She's definitely a bit more innocent in some ways of her snark, but still, Lorelei is definitely a riot!

There were a few moments between Jared and Lorelei that were just epically sweet and to die for! Just because they seem to be a cute couple, doesn't mean Jared is a total sweetheart. He's got an edge to him but he and Lorelei just make it work...in the realms of YA romance!

Again, this ending, just blew me away! I was stumbling through the pages, thinking that "this kind of thing" was happening, but I turned out to be so wrong! Err! I can't say it without spoilers, but it's definitely a jawdropper in all ways!

One teeny-tiny thing that pestered me that we got no answer to was what happened that night of camping between Glitch and Cameron. It's mentioned in passing, again, in the book, but there was never a recounting of what happened! What happened?!! It's driving me bonkers!

But other than that mishap and the ending that totally twisted my mind around...I have no complaints with Death and the Girl He Loves! In true Darynda fashion, she delivered a totally amazing story with lovable characters, a delectable romance (of the teen variety), and lots of snark! Can't forget the snark!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

Random Thursday

It's the New Year! Or the second day of the new year! Yay!!!

I've decided that this year I really, really, REALLY want to get my book out there! I figure I'll pitch it one more time in person to an agent and if that doesn't pan out, I will do what I can to self-publish! I can't promise that my book will be published by the end of the year, but I hope to be in the process of it! 

So I want to turn this:

My actual manuscript, go ahead and read the first page if you can resize, reshape, reformat or whatever techy things I don't know how to do and read it! :D

Into this:

Or you know, the equivalent of that! Especially if I got the self-pub route and make it into an ebook. Then this one might not be happening, you know, physical bookwise.

Wish me luck! I have a feeling I will need it on both counts since I hate public speaking and technology! ;)

Waiting on Wednesday

I hate waiting...

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog post by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights releases we're eagerly awaiting.

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

I am absolutely DYING to read this one! I requested it on Edelweiss like 3 or 4 times and was rejected each and every time! I swear I have zero luck on that site! Cannot wait to read it though! Reviews are good and I love a good retelling of Beauty and the Beast!


TITLE: Cruel Beauty
AUTHOR: Rosamund Hodge
PUBLISHER: Balzar & Bray
GENRE: Fantasy YA
RELEASE DATE: January 28, 2014

The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

The first in a two-book series, Uninvited tackles intriguing questions about free will, identity, and human nature. Steeped in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's trademark mix of gripping action and breathless romance, this suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of James Patterson, Michelle Hodkin, and Lisa McMann.

This is yet ANOTHER title I am anxious to read! And yes, I requested it multiple times on Edelweiss and got multiple rejections as well. Early reviews give this one a bit of promise and I enjoyed Sophie's first YA trilogy, although it seems to be one of those hit or miss trilogies for some people. Oh well! Very eager for this one as well! And it releases the same day as my first pick!


TITLE: Uninvited
AUTHOR: Sophie Jordan
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
GENRE: YA Fiction? (what to call this since it doesn't seem like a dystopian and def. not a paranormal?)
RELEASE DATE: January 28, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Let's hope that this new year will be filled with lots of GREAT reads...and other GREAT "normal" stuff! ;)