Have You Joined The Army of Ten Yet?

To promote her latest novel Gretchen McNeil who you may know from her weekly vlogs on the YA Rebels or her horror novel Posses she has set up the Army of Ten! Ten is a YA horror novel featuring 10 teens on an island with a serial killer!

So go support Ten here!

Review: Anna Dressed In Blood

Title: Anna Dressed In Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
Pages: 316
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

My Review

Everybody has been ranting and raving about this book and after reading the summary about it, I knew it would intrigue me. It's supposed to be an ironic paranormal romance which made me slightly nervous because I honestly thought it would be cheesy and not my type of read. Don't get me wrong, contemporary and romance are great, but mixed with a paranormal plot, it just didn't sound too exciting.

I think the order of this book was very well written and it set up the story awesomely. It started out very action packed which I honestly didn't see coming. I didn't expect this ghost story to be gory at all, but this had some very disgusting aspects.

I can honestly say this book made me tear up at some parts. It makes you have hope for some characters. It makes you want to reach into the book and smack the hell out of the others. Point is, either way you felt about them, it still made you feel something. That's what I was hoping for in this book. It exceeded my expectations.

Winner of my 100 followers giveaway!

I seriously need to apologize to everyone for the long wait. I have been without internet for a while and can only get on maybe once a week or every two weeks. Still, that's no excuse for holding off on announcing the winner of my 100 followers giveaway. So, to get right to it, the winner of the $25 Amazon GC is....

Katie B.!!!

I've already received her confirmation email. Don't be discouraged, I still have giveaways going on and plenty more to come!

Review: The Maze Runner

Title: The Maze Runner
Author: James Dashner 
Publisher: Delacorte Books 
Pages: 374
Source: Public Library
My Rating: 5/5 Stars

 When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

My Review

Everybody is always ranting and raving about the awesomeness that is in the works of James Dashner's 'The Maze Runner'. So, when I walked into my library and saw it sitting there calling my name, I had to pick it up. The cover is boring when you first look at it. There isn't anything that's really eye catching. It's plain. The font is just..there. I was pretty sure I'd hate it for all it was worth.

I started reading the book out of curiosity. I told myself that I wouldn't read it until I finished all the books I was reading first. I figured, "Hey, why not? Just one chapter won't hurt anything." Oh, was I completely wrong. Apparently I didn't know what I was getting myself into. After reading the first chapter, I was hooked. Something about it sucked me in! Maybe it was the fact that this boy, Thomas, finds himself sitting there in the darkness of unknown territory without any memories of his life other than his name. It might have been the fact that only teenage boys of the male gender resided in the Glade. Or, it could have even been the weird dialect of the language. Either way, I devoured this book! It's one of those books that you don't want to finish in one or two days because you never want it to end, but you can't help it! I simple just couldn't put it down.

The story starts out with Thomas sitting in pitch-black darkness with no memories of a life he was sure he once lived. When light finally makes it's way to him, he realizes he isn't alone. Several dozens of boys, all around the same age, help him up out of the somber hole. They speak English, but with a weird, selective vocabulary. All seems casual in the Glade aside from having no adults present and having their memories wiped. Every month on the same day, a new boy is subjected to the Glade. But, the day after Thomas arrives, a girl is delivered, unconscious and with a message, and all hell seems to break loose.

This book is absolutely fantastic, a new favorite series for me! I'm already almost half way through the second book and it only get's better. I highly recommend this book to everyone that loves a good dystopian read. I laughed, I bawled my eyes out, and I hoped. I had so much hope for the characters of this story, but sometimes, all the hope in the world can't help them against the evils that find them. I never thought I'd say this, but it sure blows 'The Hunger Games' out of the water!

GIVEAWAY!! Audrey's Guide To Witchcraft

Falling in Love, baking a magical cake, fighting an evil necromancer—it’s all in a day’s work for Audrey Oliver, seventeen-year-old witch-in-training. When her mother goes missing and her twenty-one-year-old witchy cousin shows up out of the blue, Audrey knows something’s gone horribly, dangerously wrong. Now it’s up to her to get her own magical powers up to speed before everyone she loves is destroyed by the sorcerer intricately connected to her mother’s secret past.

 

Jody Gehrman

 Jody is the author of seven novels and numerous plays. Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft is her newest YA novel, available July 18th, 2012. Babe in Boyland was published in 2011 by Penguin's Dial books and has recently been optioned by Disney. She also writes stage plays, screenplays, and  sometimes even songs. Her plays have been produced in Ashland, New York, San Francisco and L.A. She and her partner David Wolf won the New Generation Playwrights Award for their one-act, Jake Savage, Jungle P.I. She's a professor of English at Mendocino College.

 

 

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What Should I Read Next?!

"First Frost" Promo!

Author Liz DeJesus has stopped by today with a teaser from her book First Frost.

At four o’clock in the afternoon, they closed the doors of the museum, a couple of hours earlier than usual. Thankfully no one complained. Bianca locked the doors, counted the money in the cash register, and locked it in the safe underneath Rose’s desk. Unfortunately, she hadn’t found anything in her mother’s office or in any other room in the museum, at least nothing that seemed like an obvious place to hide a really old spell book.

“Done?” Ming asked as soon as Bianca stepped out of Rose’s office.

“Almost. I have to set the alarm before we leave here tonight,” Bianca said.

“Okay. I’ll try to remind you,” Ming promised.

Bianca went to the utility closet and grabbed two flashlights. She handed one to Ming and lead the way up to the attic. She thought about the last time she was in that room. Rose and Bianca had explored one of the trunks and had found a treasure trove. She could only hope that she would find what she was desperately searching for.

“So what does this book look like? Any idea?” Ming asked.

“I have no idea what it looks like.” Bianca took a deep breath and added sarcastically, “This should be fun.”

“Well…I’m sure it’s not going to say Evil Queen’s Spell Book on the cover of it. Right?”

“Right.”

Bianca wondered why no one recognized that Queen Mirabel was evil sooner. How it was that she could hide her true nature for so many years. Most of the time people can sense when there’s something wrong with a person. Yet…Queen Mirabel was able to hide her intentions very well. The only one who saw right through the charade was Snow White.

Maybe that’s why she hated Snow White so much. Maybe it had nothing to do with Mirabel’s jealousy of her beauty and everything to do with the fact that Snow White saw right through her.

“Right!” Bianca shouted.

“What?” Ming asked with a frown.

“It’s not going to some big creepy book. She was a queen. She needed to hide what she really was from her husband, the king, and everyone else. It has to be in a book that looks harmless and possibly even…boring.”

“Boring, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Ye Olde Knitting Book?” Ming joked.

Bianca giggled. “Probably something along those lines.”

“Ye Olde Cooking Book?” Ming suggested.

“Ye Olde Cleaning Book.”

They made more jokes that involved “Ye Olde” as they looked in the boxes in the attic.



© Liz DeJesus 2012



Official blurb:



For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn’t really exist.

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.



About the author:

Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico. She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 31st 2011) and First Frost (Musa Publishing, June 2012). Liz is currently working on a romance novel and the sequel to First Frost.

Author's Links:

Website

Facebook

Purchase First Frost

Labor Day Read-A-Thon!

 

I needed some motivation to get reading some of the books I've been dying to devour for the last month or so. Therefore, I've decided to participate in the Labor Day Read-A-Thon! It's hosted by Letters Inside Out and sign ups are still open!

I'm hoping to read these 3 books:

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake

Taken At Dusk by C.C. Hunter

So, that's what I'll be reading for this Read-A-Thon.

What will you be reading this Labor Day weekend?

"Sweet Evil" Promo + Giveaway :)

Sweet Evil

Written by: Wendy Higgins

Published by: Harper Teen

Page Count: 447 pages

Synopsis:

Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

Link to the official trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lslJKxxUf7k

Read the first eight chapters here: http://browseinside.harperteen.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062085610

Add Sweet Evil to your TBR list: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11808950-sweet-evil

Sweet Evil on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Evil-novel-by-Wendy-Higgins/118348174915427

Sweet Evil Kai buttons: 

About the Author:

After earning a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from George Mason University and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford, Wendy taught high school English until becoming a mommy.

Writing Young Adult (YA) stories gives her the opportunity to delve into the ambiguities of those pivotal, daunting, and exciting years before adulthood.

She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, daughter, and son. Sweet Evil is her debut novel.

Contact Wendy:

Website/Blog: http://www.wendyhigginswrites.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendy_higgins

INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY!

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Nook Color Giveaway!

 

Welcome to the Nook Color 8MB Giveaway!

BuyDig has teamed up with Kate n' Kaboodle and co-hosts News Wahl and Colleen's Book Nook to bring you this wonderful Back to School giveaway!

This fabulous giveaway includes a 8GB Nook Color and a $25 Barnes & Noble Giftcard!

The Barnes & Noble 8GB Nook Color features the 7 inch VividView Touchscreen that displays 16 million colors ultra-bright. This touchscreen is specially designed for remarkable clarity, minimal glare and is ultra responsive. The Nook Color is fully customizable so you can make the text bigger, choose your favorite font or read in portrait or landscape.

Books, Magazines, Newspapers, Textbooks, Comics...if you want to read it, the Nook Color can deliver in seconds with it's built-in WiFi capabilities! With over 2.5 million titles available, there is something for everyone. There is an endless list of free books and you can even save up to 90% on textbooks!

Concerned about storage? Worry no more! With 8GB (up to 5,000 books) of built-in memory and expandable storage up to 32GB with microSD memory card, there is plenty of room!

Whether you want to watch movies with Netflix, read your favorite book, listen to music, check your Facebook, search the web or enjoy a wide variety of apps, the Nook Color is for you!

Read Kate n' Kaboodle's Review here and check out her other Back To School giveaways!

Connect with BuyDig

Online, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blog, G+

Buy It

BuyDig currently has the 8GB Nook Color available on their website for $149!

Win It

One winner will receive a 8GB Nook Color and a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card!

Enter on the Rafflecopter below. US Only.

Good luck!

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Disclaimer: This blog is not responsible for prize fulfillment, nor did I receive any compensation for this post.

UPDATE ON THE GIVEAWAY! EXTRA ENTRIES!

I've decided to add an option to get 25 EXTRA ENTRIES! It's very simple actually. All you have to do is sign up for Swagbucks through my referral link (seriously, that's all that's necessary) then comment below or email me (LiteraryGetaway@gmail.com) with the name and email that you used to sign up, so that I can confirm you're extra entries. If I get 20 people to sign up under my link, I'll add ANOTHER Amazon gift card!

^^Click the banner to sign up^^

Now, after you've signed up, for every Swagbuck that you earn through Search, it's yet another entry into the giveaway. (don't worry about emailing me for every SB you get; I can track these)

Another chance to get 10 EXTRA ENTRIES is to subscribe to my YouTube channel here!! 

Just comment on my YouTube channel with the keyword "NARWHALS" and you're entry will be counted. 

So, get to it! You have until September 9th to get all you're entries in!

If you haven't entered the giveaway yet, you can do so here and remember, you can tweet about the giveaway every day for more entries!

Good luck!