Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway! -- Blade Singer by Aaron de Orive and Martha Wells

 Tour Page & Schedule

Blade Singer by Aaron de Orive & Martha Wells
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher:  Cloak and Dagger Studios
202 pages

Synopsis:

Manuel "Manny" Boreaux, a troubled adolescent from Texas, is magically transported into the body of a goblin pickpocket in an alternate world inhabited by faerie creatures. Manny must quickly adapt to the danger all around him and try to find a way to get back home, a feat complicated by the pickpocket's association with a notorious gang of thieves. But when Manny uncovers a plot to assassinate a young king, he must enlist the aid of an elf cavalier and a cat burglar to thwart a Sidhe witch's scheme to ignite a civil war between humans and the Fae.

Goodreads | Amazon

Rating:

Blade Singer was a wonderful adventure! Manny a young boy troubled after losing his parents is having a hard time at school and at home. One day while avoiding a meeting with someone he decides to go for a walk and ends up in a used bookstore. There he is whisked away from reality and plunged into a realm of complete fantasy- with witches, goblins, fae, thieves and a town that looks like the Renaissance festival come to life. 

This story is wonderfully written, getting to know a little about Manny but really coming to know him through the adventure he begins and the changes in him throughout the plot, I really enjoyed it. The plot itself was interesting and captivating the whole time. There wasn't a moment where I wanted to put down the book - as a matter of fact, I read the whole thing in one sitting. The characters were fun and funny and I loved the setting. It was a great read for a relaxing evening. There was just enough action to keep me on my toes but not so much as to create anxiety in the reader. I loo forward to reading more from these authors.

 Recommended to young readers, fantasy lovers, and those who love The Neverending Story or even Harry Potter. I found reminders of these books throughout - but in a good way :) Happy Reading! 

(2) $25 Gift Cards to Amazon or B&N (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Authors:

Aaron de Orive

A graduate of the University of Texas' film program, Aaron de Orive began his professional writing career in the video game industry, serving as a lead or senior writer on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. He is also the creator of the fantasy role-playing game SHARD: World of the False Dawn. Blade Singer is his first novel. Aaron lives in Austin with his wife, daughter, and two very spoiled terriers.

Website | Twitter

Martha Wells 

Martha Wells is the author of a number of fantasy novels, including The Cloud Roads, The Siren Depths, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer. Her YA fantasy, Emilie and the Hollow World, was published by Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry in April 2013, and the sequel, Emilie and the Sky World, was released in March 2014. Two collections of Books of the Raksura novellas will be published in September 2014 and Fall 2015. She has had short stories in Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Stargate Magazine, and Lightspeed Magazine, and in the anthologies Elemental, The Year's Best Fantasy #7, Tales of the Emerald Serpent and The Other Half of the Sky. She has essays in the nonfiction anthologies Farscape Forever, Mapping the World of Harry Potter, and Chicks Unravel Time. She has also written media-tie-in novels, Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary and Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement, and a Star Wars novel, Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge.

Website | Twitter | Live Journal

 

Early Reader Review: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard

The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard
Series: Maddy Kettle Book 1
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Publication Date:  September 30, 2014

 

Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley and Top Shelf Productions for review. Receiving this book in no way effects my opinion and review.


Rating:




 


Goodreads Synopsis: 

Eleven-year-old Maddy loved working in her parents' bookstore... especially when joined by her pet flying toad Ralph. But that was before the mysterious Thimblewitch turned her mom & dad into kangaroo rats!

Now Maddy's on the adventure of a lifetime. To save her parents, she'll need to sneak past an army of spider-goblins, scarecrow warriors, and much more... Fortunately, an assortment of new friends await, including the cloud cartographers Harry and Silvio, a bear and raccoon who explore the world in their moon-balloon. They'll help her along the way, but in the end, the fate of everyone will depend on Maddy's courage, compassion, and creativity.

Full of surprises and stunning artwork, Maddy Kettle is a truly magical debut for Spectrum-Award-winning cartoonist Eric Orchard. Climb aboard and let your imagination soar!

 Review: 

This graphic novel is for the middle grade reader and it is wonderful. The pages are filled with creative settings and characters. The book features a young girl on a mission to help herself and her parents get back to a normal life, so the book jumps right in, no initial back-story. Maddy wants to go after the Thimblewitch, a magical creature that has ruined everything and now Maddy's parents have been turned into mice.

Maddy sets off on her adventure with her parents and a flying frog named Ralph and they are after the Thimblewitch - who has made life very difficult. As the story progresses you visit a variety of characters and creatures that will definitely spark a child’s imagination. The colors are rich and vibrant and the drawing is beautiful. I really enjoyed this story. Maddy is creative and imaginative and a real hero. She becomes friends with wonderful characters and the adventure is just that, an adventure. 

This was a wonderful read for me and I believe young readers will enjoy it as well.

 

Early Reader Review: Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch

Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date:  September 16, 2014

 

Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this book in no way effects the below review or my opinion.

Rating:





 

Goodreads Synopsis: 

A magical new series from Pseudonymous Bosch, the bestselling author of the Secret Series


Magic is BAD.
As in fake. Cheesy. Unreal. At least, that's what Clay, who has seen one magic show too many, thinks.

When words from his journal appear mysteriously on his school wall as graffiti, he never imagines that magic might be to blame. And when the same graffiti lands him at Earth Ranch, a camp for "troubled" kids on a remote volcanic island, magic is the last thing he expects to find there.

But at Earth Ranch, there is one strange surprise after another, until Clay no longer knows what to expect. Is he really talking to a llama? Did he really see a ghost? What is the scary secret hidden in the abandoned library? The only thing he knows for sure is that behind the clouds of vog (volcanic smog), nothing is as it seems. Can he solve the riddle of Earth Ranch before trouble erupts?

Elusive author Pseudonymous Bosch introduces an extraordinary new series that will have you believing in the unbelievable.

 Review: 

I am not sure what to think of this book. It started out so fun... a journal that may be magic, Clay the main character being a hater of magic, Shakespeare, being stuck on an island... all things that I was excited to read on about. I guess the ending just all kinds of threw me for a loop and now I am torn.

Clay has been given a journal and by some crazy turn of events, what he has written in the journal has appeared on a wall at school as graffiti. He is briskly shipped off to an island camp called Earth Ranch were he has a llama in his care, has to eat loads of vegetables, and he cannot go outside the Wall of Trust - the boundary of the camp. 

The lure of the mysterious palace that lies outside of the boundary pulls Clay into a crazy tale of ghosts, a rich man, and a library... but all of this is even more crazy because of how he landed at the camp in the first place. Is there really magic? Is everyone crazy?

I felt like this book was a whirlwind of crazy ideas, information and people. It was very creative story and I loved the interspersing of Shakespeare throughout. I really liked Clay. I liked where the story was headed and found myself hoping for a certain ending... what I got was not what I expected. It was fun but almost over the top silly. I wish I could tell you more but think I would overly spoil it for future readers. I enjoyed the book but it wasn't one of my favorites.
 

Bloggiesta: End of the Line

 

Another Bloggiesta come and gone...

Here is what I accomplished: 

I did back up the blog

Prep some reviews - I wrote/prepped 3 reviews (some progress)

Update my TBR sheet - I did this a bit, I do have more to add though.

Update my "Reviews by Author" Tab - yay did it, I hate this task... such a pain.

Do some mini challenges - most of what I did was read the posts and reflect on how I was going to utilize everyone's awesome info :) - thank you!

Visit as many Bloggiesta blogs as possible to cheer people on :)  - I got to 52 people. I am sorry to those of you after #52 on the linkup... next time the goal is EVERYONE!

 
Here are the items that were left untouched (sadface:

Clean up my inbox - DID NOT HAPPEN ...wa wa waaaaa :(

Participate in a Twitter Party - I couldn't :( -- I meant to but I had family in town over the weekend and it just didn't happen.

There was so much that I hoped to get done this past week and work and family kind of took over - which was fine, but I missed playing in the blogging community. I hope everyone had a wonderful time... 

Building the Book Pile #108

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

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

What's Happening?! 
This week has been fun but busy, Bloggiesta happened, Family is here to visit for the weekend, and work was crazy as the start of the term happened...
 

How was your week ? Let me know in the comments.



Giveaways Going on Now!!

GO ENTER!

 

Coming up on the Blog... 

Bloggiesta Final Re-Cap
 
Early Reader Review: Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch (MG)  -- Did not get to this one last week - whoops...

Early Reader Review: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry (MG/YA)

Recent Reads Review: Dreamwood by Heather Mackey (MG)

Books Received this Past Week
Ebooks

A Brave Day for Harold Brown by Mishana Khot from the Author for reivew consideration



Physical Books

 

Booger Bob by Paul Kramer - from the author to pass on to my brothers for review consideration

Louie the Lobster Mobster by Paul Kramer from the author for review consideration

Have you missed anything lately?

• Bloggiesta Mini Challenge: Conquering Bookshelves and TBR

• Recent Reads: Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Adult)- 3 stars

• Bloggiesta Day 1 Re-Cap 

• Recent Reads: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein (MG) - 5 stars

  Comment and leave me a link to your Round-up/ STS/ Weekly...anything post and I will happily stop by and say hello!

 Happy Reading!

Recent Reads: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date:  June 2013

 

Format:Paperback
Source: Borrowed from a friend


Rating:




Goodreads Synopsis: 

A New York Times Bestseller

Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

In this cross between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Night in the Museum, Agatha Award winner Chris Grabenstein uses rib-tickling humor to create the perfect tale for his quirky characters. Old fans and new readers will become enthralled with the crafty twists and turns of this ultimate library experience.

 Review: 


I loved this book! I want to share it with the world!... Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is like a combination of Willy Wanka, a puzzle book, and a library. It kind of make me think of the movie from the 90's called The Pagemaster, but instead of solving puzzles to get back to real life (out of an animated tale), these kids are figuring them out to get out of the library for a prize.

The book starts off telling the tale of Kyle, who is always competing with his brothers and when the chance arises to enter a school contest he originally thinks nothing of it. He then realizes that it is being held by his favorite game maker, the famous Mr. Lemoncello. Through the book there isn't much character building but Kyle realizes that the best way to play the game is with others versus being overly competitive - which is nice. 

The puzzles were my favorite part, the book is full of them. There are even ones outside of the story. I found myself wanting a piece of paper nearby to complete the puzzles for myself versus reading the answers as the kids in the story figured them out. It think Middle Grade readers who enjoy word and picture puzzles will have a blast with this as well. I could even see this as a great book for the family to read and experience together.

I think older readers will enjoy this book as well as it sprinkles various nods to classic books and events throughout. I found myself laughing out loud, participating in the puzzles and trying to figure it all out for myself before the kids did. It was a lot of fun.
 

Bloggiesta 2014: Day 1 Re-Cap

"The idea behind Bloggiesta is to spend four days working on perfecting your blog and connecting with other bloggers who are doing the same thing. Spread the word and get all your friends to come and fiesta with us!"

-Join in HERE-

See my full TO DO list Here

And my ORGANIZATION Mini Challenge Here 

Day 1 Fun

Organization Mini Challenge (tee hee - my challenge)

My shelves - I have three, one tall, two short. The tall one is my YA, I have one short one for MG and one for my Adult genre books. I then organize them by last name (most of the time).

I have a small section of my Monthly reads - these are the books I pull out of the other piles and shelves that I will be reading in the given month. They include review books, TBR jar pick, and any others I need to get through. 

I read through April from The Steadfast Reader's post about Negative Reviews and will be cataloging those tips for the future :)

I use Riffle already - I upload in mass quantities though, but Katie from Doing Dewey has a wonderful post about using it :) 

Day 1 I completed the following ...

• Back up the blog - DONE :)
• Prep some reviews- in progress...
• Visit as many Bloggiesta blogs as possible  - visited the first 52 people in the linky :)
•  

How are you doing!?

Recent Reads: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date:  July 8, 2014

 

Format: audiobook CDs
Source: Macmillan Audio

Rating:


 



Goodreads Synopsis: 

From the New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, comes a hilarious, heart-wrenching take on love, marriage, and magic phones.

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply—but that almost seems beside the point now.
Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her—Neal is always a little upset with Georgie—but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts. . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

 Review: 

Landline by Rainbow Rowell is an adult novel about a marriage and a magic phone told through flashbacks and present day occurrences. I knew going into this book that it would be very different from Rowell’s other books, most importantly it is not young adult. Landline was a difficult book for me to get through, not because it was bad, but because it was a very intense book. The book focuses on Georgie and her marriage and how it has been a bit on the rocks for a while now. After an argument between her and her husband, Georgie decides to spent the Christmas holiday at home working rather than going to her in-laws house, and in doing so may have ruined her marriage entirely.

What was so hard about this book, for me, was that I am married and so the whole time I was listening to this audiobook I had dreams of my husband avoiding my calls and leaving me. It was kind of depressing.

The book itself was interesting. I really liked the flashbacks to Georgie’s previous life with Neal and how well they were weaved into the present day hardships. The plot was so realistic, except for the crazy magic phone and that was the bit that I had the most questions about. 

By the end of the book I was not sure how I felt about it. It was sad at times, depressing even, but there were some fun parts and some that made me relieved. So I am just going to say I liked it and nothing more. It was a good read but nothing spectacular. I still think very highly of Rainbow Rowell and I think this was a good book for her to write – the tone she gave Georgie throughout was very realistic.

 

Bloggiesta Mini Challenge: Conquering Book Organization and That HUGE TBR Pile!

 

Doesn't everyone just LOVE Bloggiesta?! 

It is time to revamp your blog, learn cool things, and play in the blogging community online :) 

YAY BLOGGERS!

Today here on Cover2CoverBlog, I am talking about BOOK ORGANIZATION and TBR PILES. 

I guess I should start my Challenge post by saying that I love to organize things. I can't stand to have books everywhere or not know what is coming up in my TBR pile. Are you like that? Am I the only crazy, obsessed person? .. I hope not :/

First things first, lets get organized! Here is my deal and then some tips and links.

So I... don't have enough bookshelves. I think we all run into that problem. So to make up for the lack of space I have been double shelving books - it is sad because I can't see all the titles... but you gotta do what you gotta do... Personally I shelve books by genre (YA, MG, Adult) then last name but I do keep a separate space for my next months TBRs. They are just kind of set aside and ready to go when I need them. Nothing too exciting I know, but there are awesome ways to organize your books and keep them off the floor (ahem ... buy another bookshelf...).

So on to the tips and tricks:

BOOK ORGANIZATION OPTIONS

• You can be traditional and go with Author Last Name all the way through your books.
• Or even more organize-y you -- can do by Genre and Last Name {oooooo AHHHH -- I am a nerd, I know} 
• A favorites shelf with all of your loved ones. Here are some fun shelves: 

 

• Or you can get super creative and be colorful and not care about authors, genres, series, etc...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/decorology/3323350377/

Blogger/Crazy Person Note: for some reason while I find this style pretty - I cannot for the life of me do it. If I have a series I want the books to be together and sometimes they have various colored spines... it hurts my crazy to think of separating them... How about you?

• You can make art with your books...   

• You can be like me and double shelve books due to lack of space. Here is a great link to a site about purging books if you need one. (I am a book hoarder with no shame  [keeps ALL the books])                       ...speaking of which...

not my shelf/ books

SWAPPING/PURGING/HOARDING? 

Still finding you have too many books and /or want new books? Here are some places you can swap books:
BookMooch
PaperbackSwap
YA Book Exchange

Some Bloggers that Trade/Swap books (If you are one let me know in the comments and I will add you):

Need to just get rid of books?

On to the other organization I need and love... 

THE DREADED TBR PILE {dun dun DUH!!!!}

So I love lists and spreadsheets. I work with them, I live with them, they make me happy -- also, all the color coding. As I have been blogging I have been using various ways to keep track of my books/posts and what I found was that I needed all the things.
  
I use a Google Calendar for seeing which posts are soon more like an at-a-glace version of my TBR spreadsheet which keeps ALL the info. But what we are really here to talk about it the TBR pile itself and its madness... I have so many books in my Goodreads TBR (320 right now) and that is even after I go through everyone once in a while and 'give up' so to speak on a few.

I normally open my calendar when I am in my email looking though Blog Tour requests and Author requests to see if I have the space and time to read another book. It shows me all the books I should be reading in the month, mostly it is just ARCs and copies I have gotten for Blog Tours and Review copies but I also add my TBR Jar book as well. I track the book, series, who I am reviewing for, that I posted to Goodreads/Amazon etc all the goodies.  

Here are some great tools about TBRs and the such...

LINKS TO ORGANIZATION

A great article from Lit Reactor about cutting down your TBR is HERE

Read.Sleep.Repeat has a Spreadsheet you can download and use: HERE

Snuggly Oranges has a Post about Managing your Reading Schedule/ ARCs : HERE

HERE IS THE CHALLENGE!!

Try something new, let me know how it goes.

Organize your books or calendar, or make a TBR spreadsheet, and then tell me...

 

 How do you organize yourself and all of your book goodies normally? Do you have any tips to share with bloggers? What works/ what doesn't? 

PSST....There may be a mystery prize in your future :) There were 11 linkups/comments and the winner is...

<<<<<<<<<DRUMROLL>>>>>>>>>

 

  Lady in Read - I will be emailing you soon.

Link up with your posts, or comment below :)

Happy Bloggiesta Everyone!