Monday, July 19, 2010

Contest: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Thanks to Harlequin Teen, I'm very excited to offer up 2 copies of The Iron King, book one of the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa to my awesome followers! I have heard nothing but great things about The Iron King and its follow-up, The Iron Daughter. I will be reviewing both books in the near future but until then, take a look at the synopsis, book trailer and bio below (then head on down to the bottom to enter my contest):


ABOUT THE IRON KING

In less than twenty-four hours Meghan Chase will be sixteen. Countless stories, songs and poems have been written about this wonderful age, when a girl finds true love and the stars shine for her and the handsome prince carries her off into the sunset.

But Meghan suspects that it won’t be that way for her.

After all, Meghan has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined….

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and a pawn in a deadly war.

Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.


ABOUT THE IRON DAUGHTER

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan Chase has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen.

As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off. She’s stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly.

But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.







ABOUT JULIE KAGAWA:

Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine, she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish and the odd eel.

When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks is at an all-time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian shepherd who is too smart for his own good and the latest addition, a hyperactive papillon puppy.


Rules for contest entry are as follows:

The contest is open to U.S. and Canadian mailing addresses only. The contest runs from July 19th, 2010 until midnight on August 5th, 2010. Winners will be selected using random.org. You must follow my blog (in a way I can verify) in order to enter the contest. Fill out the info below to enter and the data will appear on my spreadsheet. Thanks and good luck to all!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Double Blog Dare Tour

Welcome to day 8 of the Double Blog Dare Tour! Thanks for joining me from Books and Literature for Teens (the previous tour stop).

We're all helping Alison Dare go on tour by snapping a photo of her in our area. Here are mine:

My daughter and I took Alison out for the day and lo and behold an adventure ensued! Alison found herself overlooking a valley of giants!



At the edge of the valley there stood a mysterious cabin:


Alison found herself bouncing from one enormous leaf to the next in her attempt to access the cabin and see what secrets it held:



She had to work hard to wrestle herself from the firm grip of the giant's hand before making her way inside:


Having successfully maneuvered the scary giant's attack, gained access to the boarded up house, and retrieved the sacred treasure from inside (she wouldn't tell us what it was!!), Alison takes a moment to reflect on a job well done:


Alison takes a much needed breather before we all headed back home:



You can help Alison's adventure around the world! Just save this image, print and cut them out, then snap pics like crazy! Send your photo(s) to tundra@mcclelland.com and you'll be entered to win an Alison Dare prize pack! It could quite possibly include a signed copy of Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventure and Alison Dare, The Heart of the Maiden, and more!




A Review:
I was fortunate enough to be able to review Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventure and Alison Dare, The Heart of the Maiden, written and illustrated by J. Torres and Jason Bone, with my 8 year old daughter, Jordan. Jordan is big on graphic novels at the moment, so I thought that this series would be great for her.

What we found in the Alison Dare books seemed like a cool cross between Kim Possible and Indiana Jones. Alison is a strong character with enough quirk to keep her interesting while remaining realistic in terms of her age. That's a bonus for young readers looking for something they can relate to.

I think the storylines were just a little out of reach for Jordan but she will grow into these books soon enough. I would recommend them to 9-11 years olds. Jordan's big complaint was that the pictures are black and white; she's still a big fan of pictures books while steadily increasing her reading abilities.

I liked that these stories are geared to girls, in specific. With most graphic novels, I think the target market is boys, probably stemming from the larger culture of comic books. This shift to a female audience was a big hit with me!

Click on the book covers to check them out at Amazon or visit the publisher at Tundra Books

And, remember to check out the next stop on the tour at Got Cheeks?. Thanks for sharing our Alison Dare adventure today!


Monday, June 14, 2010

It's Monday! What are you reading? June 14, 2010

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Here we get to discuss the books we've finished over the last week and what we'll be working on this week.

Over the last 2 weeks, I've found myself in a literary funk. I can't seem to get into anything...or at least I couldn't, until I picked up Sea by Heidi Kling. Phew! So, I'm whipping through Sea while still reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (for school) and For the Win by Cory Doctorow. I'm also still working on Beautiful Creatures by Garcia and Stohl and will be picking up I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan once I've finished Sea. The YA books tend to perk me up a little more at the moment :-)

My reviews for Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale and White Cat by Holly Black have posted recently, too. That means my reviews are up to date but my reading is very far behind. Gotta make more of an effort to remedy this, I think...

What do you have in store this week?

150 Follower Contest!

Photobucket

My poor blog has been neglected recently but thanks to new friends, I have reached 150 followers! This calls for a celebration, don't you think? Well, I do! So here's what I'm offering:

I have a copy of The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson in paperback format up for grabs. Just enter the relevant info here (I'm not asking for much this time :-)

The contest will run until June 23, 2010. I will draw the winner on the 24th, using random.org. It is open to anyone that can receive mail but you must be a follower to enter (and in a verifiable way ie. Google Friend Connect).

As an added bonus, if I (by some freak chance) reach 200 followers before the contest end date, I will also give away a $20 Book Depository gift certificate (the only condition here is that BD must be able to ship to you.)

So, enter away and tell your friends!! And, thanks to all of my loyal followers for getting me this far.

*Note: Duplicate entries are only counted once to be fair to all other entrants :-)

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Review: Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale


published May 4th 2010 by Sourcebooks Casablanca (first published March 2nd 1987) detailsPaperback, 512 pages
isbn13: 9781402237027

Rumors of ruined maidens, coldblooded duels, swindles, and murder swirl around the impoverished 'Devil Earl.' But Faelan Savigar hides an even darker secret. Roderica Delamore longs for a normal life but fears she'll end up mad or suicidal like the forebears from whom she inherited her "gift" of sensing others thoughts and emotions. As the two find their way to each other against all odds, Roddy's growing love for Faelen may end up saving him or destroying her…

A breathtaking historical romance filled with poignancy, darkness, love, and an unexpected twist of Gaelic magic…
Earlier this year, I reviewed Laura Kinsale's Lessons in French, so I had a bit of an idea of what to expect. Or at least I thought I did. In starting Uncertain Magic, I didn't feel that same initial pull as I did with my first Kinsale experience. But Uncertain Magic is a pretty meaty read so I kept going, hoping to get more from it.

I think my issue here was the likeability of the main characters. They both came across as standoffish, which can be off-putting for the reader. Roddy and Faelan are brought together quickly, each for their own reasons, and married. I was expecting the romance, or the achieving of it to be the central part of the story and I suppose to some degree it was, just in a different way than I'd imagined. And in the end, I liked this approach. It's good when an author can mix things up a bit.

With the marriage out of the way almost immediately, I was unsure where the rest of the story would take me. Roddy's special talent and Faelan's mysterious past are repeatedly mentioned but Kinsale waits till the bitter end to reveal the truths. Reaching this point though is achieved through the background of battles between the Irish Protestants and Catholics.

Having grown up with this history (mine was from the Scottish view point, but still similar), I had some insights into how bad the blood could be between these arch-rivals. But Kinsale always manages to teach me a thing or two that I didn't know, for instance how the land of Catholic families was divided after the death of its patriarch versus Protestant land owners (I've always thought of the Irish as being more Catholic, but it seems this was not always the case.)

I grew to enjoy the characters but found the paranormal aspects of the story a bit tedious and confusing at times. Overall, a decent read, especially if you like your romance with a twist of history.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Review: White Cat by Holly Black


Margaret K. McElderry, May 2010
Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN-10: 1416963960
ISBN-13: 9781416963967
Ages: 14 and up
Grades: 9 and up

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

White Cat is the first book in the new series by Holly Black (click here for more info and to read an excerpt)

My first impression was: I love the name for this character "Cassel", it seemed very unusual. My second impression came from the flashbacks, going from past to present, making you feel a little disoriented as you're reading. In saying that, this method provides the background information needed to understand this alternate reality that Holly Black has created. It was a firm base for how The Workers have evolved, how the government sees them, and how the lesser elements of society work around the restrictions. This will bode well moving into the next book.

There are many mentions throughout the story about lying and how to be successful at it. Many of these lessons struck a nerve with me, having been exposed to someone in real life with this poor character attribute. But, I understood Cassel's lifestyle better as a result of my own exposure. I was also more aware that the lying is a cover for his insecurities and his lack of talent compared to the rest of his family. I felt for this boy though; his inability to trust even his own family made my empathy that much greater. He had been raised specifically to harness his inner con-man.

There were moments when I felt this story bordered on a much more mature level. There's one scene in particular that had such sexual energy about it that felt older beyond their years (they're supposed to be 14 years old at the time). It may have even leaned a little on the Dom/Sub side. I enjoyed the chemistry shared between Cassel and Lila, but just wished that they had been a little older at this point. In discussing this with Mel at He Followed Me Home, she mentioned how the criminal element may have made them grow up faster. It's a good point, so we'll go with that as the reason behind this :-)

Overall, I did really like this book and am looking forward to see where these characters go next. It's left with a bit of a cliffhanger, so I'll need to work on my patience, but I think Holly Black has a winner of a series ahead of her.

Monday, May 31, 2010

It Monday! What are you reading? May 31, 2010

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Here we get to discuss the books we've finished over the last week and what we'll be working on this week.

Over the last 2 weeks, I finished reading Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris and Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears.

I've started on Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale, Beautiful Creatures by K. Garcia and M. Stohl, and For the Win by Cory Doctorow.

What do you have in store this week?
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...