No Joke- Win Big: April Fools Giveaway

 

No Joke - Win Big April Fools Giveaway

Kindle Fire HD 7" Giveaway

The winner will have the option of receiving a 7" Kindle Fire HD (US Only)

Or $199 Amazon.com Gift Card (International)

Or $199 in Paypal Cash (International)

Sponsoring Authors

The Breeders by Katie French

"The Breeders is a YA dystopian read that's as gritty and dark as the cover and title suggest. It takes a look at how society might devolve if females were commodities: bought, sold, stolen, and traded to keep the dwindling human race going. Frightening concept. I loved it." --A.G. Henley, author of The Scourge

 Facebook * Twitter * Blog * Purchase

Dissidence by Jamie Canosa

"An amazingly snarky protagonist, two hot boys, a mass rebellion, and an ending that will blow your mind are the perfect ingredients that will make Dissidence the next big thing in YA." --Beth, YA Sisterhood

Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Purchase

The Moon Dwellers and Fire Country 

by David Estes

“Fire Country is an epic start to the Country saga and left me with my heart pounding and totally breathless. Phenomenal" --K-booksxo.blogspot.com

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Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas

Love between humans and androids is forbidden, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen...

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The Tale of Mally Biddle by M.L. LeGette

"To say I loved this book is an understatement." --April Holgate

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Terra by Gretchen Powell

"This could be your world... but it's definitely Terra's, and she navigates it with determination, and a longing for answers that makes her story engrossing and entertaining." -- abookobsession.com

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After the Fear by Rosanne Rivers

"The book is just breathtaking from the moment you start till the moment you put it down." -- Amazon review

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Entanglement by Dan Rix

A YA Dystopian Romance where every human is born with a soulmate, whom they meet on their 18th birthday...and the one boy who's the exception.

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daynight by Megan Thomason

“Sure to win over YA readers looking for a dangerous, dystopian adventure story” --Kirkus Reviews

 “Gripping; page-turner” --BlueInk Review (starred review)

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Fields of Elysium by A.B. Whelan

"The novel's take on otherworldly travel is a compelling one, and the romantic plot will likely appeal to Twilight fans." - Kirkus Reviews

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Giveaway Details
1 winner will receive their choice of a Kindle Fire HD (US Only), $199 Amazon Gift Card or $199 in Paypal Cash (International).
Ends 4/15/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the participating authors. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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Monthly Re-Cap: March

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

Another month down, Here's another wrap-up- complete with Goodreads and Review links. 

 

This was a slow reading month for me. I didn't really get into many things. Hopefully April will be more productive. 

 

What did you read or listen to in March? Link me up in the comments section!

~~Books Read in March~~

 Click the book covers to go to Goodreads

~~Links to Reviews ~~
The Grimm Chronicles Vol. 1 by Isabella Fontaine and Ken Brosky
Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson   
The History of Arcadia, Lily the Silent by Tod Davies 
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl  
Stitch Head by Guy Bass
The Grimm Chronicles Vol. 2 by Isabella Fontaine and Ken Brosky 
Wish (Faerieground #1) by Beth Bracken 

~~Audiobooks in March~~

 
Click the book covers to go to Goodreads

~~Links to Reviews ~~

Vortex (Tempest #2) by Julie Cross -- Review up April 3rd.

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer -- Review up April 4th.

Building the Book Pile #45

Welcome to Building the Book Pile! 
A Weekly meme inspired by Stacking the Shelves

Happy Saturday Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people!
This week has been pretty productive, lost of books reviewed :) and a few extras for the readers, a guest review-- compliments of my best friend, and some exclusive content from Jane Nickerson, author of Strands of Bronze and Gold
 

Giveaways Going on NOW!

March Kindle Fire Giveaway! --Enter NOW ends today
Grimm Chonicles Vol. 2 Blog Tour Giveaway
Ebook of Eustace by Alex Gulczynski

  Coming up on the Blog...

Sunday: April Fools Giveaway-- Kindle Fire
March Re-Cap
Monday: Cover Reveal - Kiss Off
Tuesday: Broken Secrets Blog Tour
Wednesday: Review -- Vortex by Julie Cross
Friday: Twisted Tales Blog Tour +  Reviews

Some things may be added :P

Things I got this week...

Ebooks for Review

 

  

The Faerie Guardian by Rachel Morgan from the author for review
Paranormal Properties by Tracy Lane from Bewitching Book Tours

Audiobooks for Review


   
The Flame in the Mist by Kit Grindstaff from Random House Audio
 

Have you missed anything lately?

Blog Tour: Review -- The Grimm Chronicles Vol 2 by Isabella Fontaine 
Guest Review: Strand of Bronze and Gold
Early Review: Wish by Beth Bracken
Blog Tour: Spotlight -- Return by Charity Santiago
Exclusive Content: Interview with Sophie from Strands of Bronze and Gold

Link me up to your piles! Happy Reading!

Exclusive Content: Interview with Sophie of Strands of Bronze and Gold

Hello Again!! Guess what?! More fun things from Jane Nickerson, brought to you by the Ambuzzadors for Strands of Bronze and Gold. 

This time the content is even more amazing! It is an interview with Sophie Petheram, the main character of Strands

(Interview with Sophie prior to her move to Wyndriven Abbey)

An Interview with an Adventurous Young Lady

“The Girls’ Friendly Companion of New England” takes this opportunity to interview a young lady who is about to commence a considerable journey. Seventeen-year-old Miss Sophia Petheram, of Boston, is shortly to leave the bosom of her loving family to travel the great distance southward to Mississippi, a destination that many in the more long-settled regions of our great country consider “the back of beyond.”

Q. Miss Petheram, will you tell our gentle readers what causes you to launch on this undertaking?

SP: My dear father passed away during the spring, and so my godfather and guardian, Monsieur Bernard de Cressac—along with his wife, of course—has invited me to come live with them at their home. It’s a house with a name—isn’t that charming? Wyndriven Abbey. He wrote once that it was brought all the way across the ocean from England. In pieces, of course. 

Q. And is your guardian well-known to you?

SP: Not in person. He only came to our home once when I was a mere babe, and of course I do not remember that meeting, and neither do my siblings. It makes him quite mysterious. My brother Harry calls him my fairy godfather, and plagues me by descriptions of M. de Cressac as an ogre with tusks of pure gold. Harry is a silly goose. But my father knew my guardian from long ago and says he is a distinguished gentleman.  I do feel I know him, though, through his letters to me. Such lovely letters. Through the years he has written of his travels and explorations with great detail. He even penned fanciful little tales in which I was the heroine.  And that he would take so much time for a motherless little girl, makes me believe he is a person composed of kindness itself.  And then there’s the delightful gifts.

Q. Has he been generous with you? I believe he is internationally well-known as a successful man of business. 

SP: Indeed he has. I cannot tell you how we all anticipated the arrival of his parcels. Sumptuous is the only word for them. There was a rocking horse with a mane of real horse hair—his name is Araby, since he is an Arabian steed. And a doll with a wardrobe fit for a princess—her name is Elodie, since she is French. Oh, I wish your readers could see her clothing! Glorious gowns in the height of style and underthings trimmed with the daintiest broderie anglaise. Tiny kid slippers and plumed bonnets. I still love them, even now when I am grown; there is something so enchanting about miniature things, isn’t there? I visit Araby and Elodie now and again in the attic.  Of course when I was older the gifts were more appropriate for my age.

Q. Did he never send presents for your siblings?

SP: Well…no. But then he is not their godparent. They were not jealous. I do not think.  I have always shared everything.

Q. Did you ever expect that the day would come when you would actually live with him and his wife?

SP: I suppose it has always been one of my fancies. For one thing, he has arranged for me to take riding and music lessons, and I have wondered if, perhaps, he were preparing me for at least an extended visit to his estate.  

Q. The southern states of our country are very different from our own New England. Have you any trepidation?

SP: Of course. Some. I shall miss my family dreadfully. I have never been anywhere, so everything will be new to me. Also, my people have abolitionist leanings. I must worry about living in a region that does not share those views. However, mostly I am excited. My heart begins palpitating when I think of where I am about to go. I hear that Mississippi has a lush and beautiful landscape.

Q. You appear to be a modern young lady, most brave and adventurous. Thank you so much for your time. We wish you great good fortune.

SP: Thank you for speaking to me. I adore your periodical. Especially the serial stories. They provide such scope for imagination. I sometimes daydream that I am living in one of them. I hope I would be as brave as those heroines.

If you are interested here are some other fun things Strands related:

ARC Giveaway

My Review 

Cover Reveal: The Mirk and the Midnight Hour

Exclusive Content with Jane Nickerson: Top 10 Things she would change in Fairy Tales

Guest Review by Michelle

 

Blog Tour: Trailer, Giveaway and Excerpt -- Return by Charity Santiago

Return (Lady of Toryn trilogy Book 1 ) by Charity Santiago

Genre: YA fantasy
Number of pages: 263
Word Count: 74,459 

 

Synopsis

For the last three years, eighteen-year-old Ashlyn Li has been running from her destiny. A free-spirited ninja, Ashlyn would rather loot an abandoned city or challenge a fiend to battle than assume leadership of Toryn, her father's kingdom. However, when a series of attacks reunites Ashlyn with the friends who helped her save the sun three years ago, she discovers that her kingdom is at war and her father has presumed her dead.

Suddenly Ashlyn is faced with not only fulfilling her birthright, but also making sense of her feelings towards two very different men- Drake Lockhart, the enigmatic vampire who captured her heart three years ago, and Vargo, the charismatic assassin who was once Ashlyn's sworn enemy.

Will Ashlyn ascend the pagoda and become Lady of Toryn?

Book Trailer

 

"I once knew a girl," he said, his voice a perfect monotone, "who was like a dying rainbow. Her colors were incomparable, her countenance a whirlwind of brilliance."

Ashlyn resisted the urge to pull away from his touch. If this was another story about his dear long lost Loritta or the perpetually bratty Trace, she really wasn't in the mood to hear it.

Three years ago, she would have immediately yanked away and jumped up, jabbering something about Drake's selfishness and his inability to let things go or think about anyone but himself.

Today, Ashlyn sighed inwardly and resigned herself to a drab sob-fest about one of two women she hated for the pure fact that they were both incredible and mature and…well, not her.

Drake went on, oblivious to Ashlyn's inner turmoil, "As much as she shone, however, she faded into nothingness, at times so quickly that I was unsure whether she had existed at all."

He paused, their breathing and the rain on the roof the only sounds in the room as he gently extracted a splinter from between her fingers. "Years passed, and she became a memory to me. It was a long while before I realized how difficult it must have been for her, attempting to find a balance- somewhere from oblivion to her own unmatched radiance."

His hand covered hers, emerald light gleaming from between their interlinked fingers as her flesh knitted beneath his touch.

"I never thought I would see her again," Drake continued. His lips were close to her ear, stirring the damp strands of her hair with his breath. "But she came to me one night, three years later, out of the rain, as much a walking contradiction as she'd ever been."

Ashlyn's throat tightened.

He was talking about her, sweet Drago, he was saying all that stuff about her. She'd spent a month with Drake before, in close proximity, and he'd never said this much during those entire four weeks, much less in a single conversation.

And what he was saying now…? If she hadn't already been pretty much collapsed into his arms, it would have happened, and probably with a bunch of drama and swoony fluttering, too.

"What seems impossible," Drake said, his fingers brushing across her palm with obvious reluctance as he let go of her hand, "becomes possible in the smallest, most trivial moments. The girl that I remember has become a woman I cannot forget. Her strength has united a kingdom once thought lost. Her passion has awakened the hearts of heroes unsure of their purpose."

"Her stupidity caused the war in the first place," Ashlyn said uncomfortably, folding her arms across her chest. Instead of utter elation at his words, she felt like a child receiving a precious gift that was completely undeserved, and as much as she wanted to let him console her, there was no way to deny the truth of the situation.

When she met Drake's gaze, his blood-red eyes were solemn, and he raised a hand to cup her face, brushing his thumb across her cheek to remove the last traces of her tears. "You can run from your destiny, Ashlyn, but it will find you regardless," he said.

"I was alone for three years," she told him. I am not leaning into his hand. I AM NOT leaning into his hand. "I'm not the same person anymore. Toryn isn't my destiny anymore. I'll just screw it up, like I have everything else."

"I was alone for almost twenty years," he replied. "You dragged me out of the coffin nonetheless."

"That's different." Don't do this to me, Drake. Don't make me fall for you all over again.

His eyebrows quirked, obviously in disagreement.

Ashlyn frowned, trying hard to focus. "I only asked you to start thinking of yourself as a man,                            Drake, instead of a monster. That's hardly the same thing."

"I'm asking you to think of yourself as a leader," he said. "You've spent so long running from responsibility that you think yourself incapable of fulfilling your birthright."

"We haven't seen each other in three years. You don't know what I'm capable of- I don't even know what I'm capable of."

He grabbed her hand, abruptly, and brought it up to his chest. Through the cloth of his shirt, his skin was warm to the touch, and Ashlyn let him press her hand against the solidness of his shoulder, confused as to what he was doing.

"This," he said, his voice low, "is where I was struck by Devlyn's sword."

After a moment, he slid her hand lower, until it was resting directly above his heart. Ashlyn paused, entranced by the lack of a pulse beneath her fingers, the scent of him filling her senses and enveloping her like the rain against the roof.

"This," Drake said. "This is where I would have been struck, if you had not deflected the blow."

She met his gaze, breathing so hard that she felt light-headed. His eyes bored into hers, piercing her straight to her soul.

"I know what you are capable of, Ashlyn," he said. "I know better than anyone."

Tour Wide Giveaway: $25 to Amazon

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About the Author

In February 2011, Charity Santiago's 7-month-old son was admitted to the hospital with severe respiratory issues. While Charity stayed at his bedside, she kept them both entertained by downloading several books on her new Kindle and reading them out loud. It was during this time that Charity learned about Kindle's self-publishing program, and realized that she had an opportunity to share her writings with the world.

Charity is a native of southeastern Arizona, and a writer since childhood. She wrote her first manuscript, Guinea Pig Code, at age nine. When she’s not writing books, Charity spends her time reading on her Kindle, wrangling children, watching Sylvester Stallone movies and pursuing a degree in Education.

Find the Author

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Goodreads

Early Reader Review: Wish (Faerieground #1) by Beth Bracken

Wish by Beth Bracken
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Available: April 1, 2013 (other editions available now)

 

Format: EBook
Source: Capstone Young Reader and Netgalley
 
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Background: Willow Forest is a mysterious and magical place and Soli and Lucy have been told never to wish while there. The forest has a connection to Faeries and they will make your wishes come true, only not as you intended them. When Lucy betrays Soli, Soli accidentally makes a wish while in the forest and her friend becomes trapped in Faerieground. It is up to Soli to retrieve Lucy and right everything.

Review: I really enjoyed this read. It was beautifully illustrated and I have a love for all things faerie, so it was right up my alley. The text is interspersed with vibrant and realistic illustrations of the girls and their events and the story is set up more like a short story/ graphic novel combination. The lines of text are very short and to the point, make wonderfully for young readers. The story really embraces the 'be careful what you wish for' theme to the extreme and the idea that friendships should withstand even the most trying of circumstances.

The images along with the story are absolutely captivating and it is only the first in this easy to read and beautiful series. I recommend it for lovers of short stories, faeries, and middle grade readers.


View all my reviews

 

Guest Review: Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

Hello Readers! Today I have a treat for you! A Guest Review from the Wonderful Michelle.

 She agreed to read Strands of Bronze and Gold for my Blog since I am an Ambuzzador for Random Buzzers  (I am very lucky to have such an awesome friend).

 

Here is her Review:

Orphaned after the death of her father, Sophia's family is not in the financial position to continue to take care of their youngest sibling as best as possible. Thankfully, she has a doting godfather who is wealthy and has offered to become her legal guardian. And so Sophia is whisked away in a train and then carriage from Boston to the whimsical Wyndriven Abbey in Mississippi. Her uncle, Monsieur Bernard de Cressac is extravagantly wealthy, and his French mannerisms sometimes unnerve young Sophie. But perhaps there is more to it when she discovers that like her, all of his past wives had shades of red hair and they all seem to have met untimely deaths.

A more modern retelling of the fairytale of Bluebeard, Strands of Gold and Bronze was highly enjoyable. I had never read anything about the fairytale before so I had no idea what to expect. Now, having researched the fairytale, I'm amazed by how many of the various elements of versions of the fairytale the author was able to weave into her story. It makes me appreciate the text for its multi-layers and references. The French connection, the reaction of the village people, and even the presence of the folly, all make the story a rich retelling of a classic.

However, I particularly enjoyed the original element of the presence of slavery and the Underground Railroad. It created an interesting parallel between the slaves and Sophie's predicament. I had thought there would be a bit more about the slaves, but I think the amount was perfect. It prevented the story from becoming too one-dimensional.

Michelle

I appreciate Sophie's naiveté and her initial excuses for her Uncle's behavior. But I was very grateful that she developed and changed, losing some of that initial ignorance and maturing as a character. I liked the Sophie at the end better than the Sophie at the beginning.

It was a wonderful story and one that I could imagine being the perfect read for a rainy autumn day, perhaps by a fire. As much as I enjoyed it, I don't think it's a story that quite earned that last star from me. I'm not sure I exactly understand why I feel that way, but I do believe it is a story that grows in esteem the longer it rests on your mind.  

Stars: 4/5

Want more of Michelle? Well you are in luck, she started her own blog recently, so head over and say hello. PlayingJokers is a blog of all things books not just reviews!

If you are interested here are some other fun things Strands related:

ARC Giveaway

My Review 

Cover Reveal: The Mirk and the Midnight Hour

Exclusive Content with Jane Nickerson: Top 10 Things she would change in Fairy Tales