Where She Went Teaser Tour + Contest!

Attention If I Stay fans: Adam was a pretty special guy, wasn’t he? The big emo-core heart in that cute rocker body. But, you know, no matter how good a person you are, it’s hard to escape tragedy unchanged. How have Adam and Mia changed? If you were wondering about that, the wait is almost over—New York Times bestselling author Gayle Forman has written a sequel to If I Stay. It’s called Where She Went, and it comes out April 2011, but right now she’s doing a teaser tour to give If I Stay fans the scoop on what they can expect from Mia and Adam’s new chapter.

Teaser Number 9:
Remember what a nice guy Adam was in If I Stay? In Where She Went, not so nice.

He’s been a bit, well, damaged by events.

Which isn’t to say you won’t still love him.


Watch the If I Stay paperback trailer!



Be sure to pre-order Where She Went, out in stores April 2011!



Not only that, but to prepare for Where She Went, I'm giving away a SIGNED PAPERBACK COPY OF IF I STAY! How awesome is that? All you have to do is just leave a comment talking about what you're looking forward to seeing in Where She Went or what you loved about If I Stay. Also, this contest is US ONLY! This contest will run until 11:59pm on September 7th!

To help you out with what to look forward to in Where She Went, be sure to check out the other tour stops:

August 19: Persnickity Snark- http://www.persnicketysnark.com/
August 20: Hope’s Bookshelf - http://princess2293.blogspot.com/
August 23: Bookworming in the 21st Century - http://www.bookworminginthe21stcentury.com/
August 24: The Story Siren - http://www.thestorysiren.com/
August 25: Sarah’s Random Musings - http://sarahbear9789.blogspot.com/
August 26: The Compulsive Reader - http://www.thecompulsivereader.com/
August 27: The Book Scout - http://thebookscout.blogspot.com/
August 30: Frenetic Reader - http://www.freneticreader.com/
August 31: Book Chic - http://bookchicclub.blogspot.com/
September 1: Presenting Lenore - http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com/

Radiance by Alyson Noel

Radiance by Alyson Noel
"Riley has crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. She has picked up life where she left off when she was alive, living with her parents and dog in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. When she’s summoned before The Council, she learns that the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possibly cute, seemingly nerdy boy who’s definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley’s first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But all of that was before he met Riley . . ."- summary from Amazon

So I haven't read the Immortals series yet though I have the first two books in my TBR pile but just wanted to state that right off the bat. I had no trouble whatsoever understanding what was happening in this book. It really is just a separate adventure. Ever is mentioned and plays a bit in the character growth but there's nothing here that suggests you need to have read Ever's series first.

Anyway, I really loved this book. It was just really cute but had some wonderful depth to it. This is a pretty short book (but it's paperback as it should be) but it works well and there is still good character development and it just feels like the right length for the story.

Riley is a great character and I loved her sense of humor. The interactions between her and Bodhi were probably my favorite parts of the whole book. I really liked the world building too that Noel did for Here and how everything works there; it was just very cool. Riley's first assignment with the Radiant Boy was really interesting to read too, and I'm looking forward to reading about her future assignments.

There's also a tiny excerpt of the next book, out in January. I can't wait to read more in this series and I really need to get to reading the Immortals series too!

If you want a chance to read this book, go to A Bookworm's Haven (a friend of mine) to enter a contest to win a copy! It ends September 10!

FTC: Received signed ARC at BEA (yes, I got to meet Alyson!). Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

How I Write Reviews

So in going around to my favorite blogs this morning, I stumbled across this post from John of Dreaming in Books. In that post, he linked back to the origin of all this- Adele of Persnickety Snark (I seriously wrote Snack instead of Snark originally. No, I'm not hungry. What makes you think that?). Adele is usually the cause of these sorts of things that make us think and share our processes because she likes to think and then torture us all by making us (or, at least me) think about what we do.

This makes me sound as if I hate Adele for making me do this thinking, but really, I'm trying to be sarcastic and probably failing at it. So let's just get started.

How do I write reviews? The simple answer is that I sit at my laptop (or work computer), open up a new post in Blogger, and just have at it until I finish.

But if we left it at that, that's just no fun. So here's a little breakdown of how I put a review together with some explanation of my thought process.

The essential things I need for a review are (in this order): The cover, the link to Amazon (with my Associate tag in it), the summary from Amazon or the author's website, my actual review, and then where I got the book from as part of FTC guidelines.

I'm not gonna go through each one as most are self-explanatory. I'll just focus on the summary and actual review. With the summary, I used to write my own back in the Myspace days if I could actually figure out how to summarize the book and get my readers interested. It took a lot of time to write these and I didn't do them for all of them, but I do think I did a good job with the ones I did them for. Nowadays, I am way too busy to summarize a book so I've just been using the ones given on Amazon or the author's websites. It's just easier for me and besides, everyone's here to read my review not what the book is about. Right?

On to the review, some reviews are easier than others. While I'm reading a book, sometimes thoughts formulate about what I'll include in my review. Most of the time though, I don't think about it until I finish the book. I try to write the review shortly after I finish, like within 24 hours. But now that I'm at least slightly ahead of my schedule, I can take a few days before sitting down to review a book.

I wanted to quickly touch on some reviews being easier than others. Some reviews I know EXACTLY what I want to say and they come out very quickly. Others not so much and they can take a day or so because I have to think about what I want to touch on in the review and what I thought about it and how to expand on it. It doesn't necessarily have to do with whether or not I liked a book but rather how much I have to say about it. I really loved You Wish by Mandy Hubbard but that's one of my shortest reviews because I didn't necessarily have a whole lot of specifics to expand on. With Paranormalcy by Kiersten White posted yesterday (btw, go comment! Only 1 comment is there!), I had a ton to say and it's probably one of my longest reviews. Both are books I loved but the length is vastly different.

I don't have any specific process to follow. Like, I don't always talk about characters, plot, setting, or whatever else. Each book is different and has it own pros and cons. So I may spend more time talking about the characters in one book, whereas another I may focus on how original the plot is. It really just depends on the book and how I feel about it. A lot of it is kinda stream-of-consciousness and I write down whatever pops into my head. Occasionally, I'll set up a post while I'm reading and make a note or two of something I want to mention in the review.

In recent months, I feel like I'm being at least a little bit more critical and I do end up finding things I don't like in the book and mention those in my reviews. I usually don't spend a whole lot of time on them (unless of course it's the ending of Will Grayson, Will Grayson in which case I will spend hours upon hours on how much I hate it).

I end the reviews now with an Overall sentence or two so people in a rush can see it and get my overall feeling of a book quickly.

I hope this is somewhat enlightening but it probably won't be. But hey, I have a post for Sunday! :) lol.

Fresh New Voice of YA- Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
"Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal."- summary from Amazon

This has become one of my most favorite books ever. It's funny, original, and has a sweet romance AND ends without a huge cliffhanger. Let's take this on step-by-step:

1) Funny- Kiersten White knows funny (I mean, really, just read her blog) and she incorporates it so well into the storyline. Evie is a wonderful, fairly sarcastic character and I laughed out loud several times at what she said or thought. Funny paranormal stories are sorely lacking- we need more!! I'm glad this is a trilogy so we can expect more funny paranormal from White.

2) Original- Now, maybe I haven't read enough paranormal books, but I thought this idea of a Paranormal Containment Agency was pretty original. Not only that, but I loved the inclusion of so many paranormals; those are my favorite kind of stories- ones that incorporate more than just one creature. It makes for a more interesting story. White did a great job with the Agency's backstory and everything; I really got a good sense of the place and how it all started and how it operates.

3) Romance- I don't know what Aprilynne Pike is talking about in her blurb on the book because there is only one romantic interest and that is Lend. Reth hardly counts and he is certainly not sexy. I didn't like him at all. Lend on the other hand was pure sexiness and I loved the scenes between him and Evie- they are so cute together!!! It's all awkwardness, blushing, and hand holding and it's just adorable. I loved it. I want a Lend of my own (Kiersten, get working on that!)!

4) Non-cliffhanger ending- This is a trilogy and I am eager to read the sequel, however White did something I wish more authors would do. At least with this one, there's a definite ending and I feel satisfied with what I read, but there's enough loose ends and overall arc to keep me reading. But the main adventure in this book was completed. It feels more episodic in a sense. Some series feel more like one huge book broken up into 3 or more books and so therefore just kinda end abruptly and with a huge cliffhanger. Not so with this one, at least for me. That is a HUGE plus.

So pretty much what I'm saying is GO BUY THIS BOOK ON AUGUST 31!! I promise you won't regret it. White is a fantastic new voice and I can't wait to read more from her, even past this trilogy.

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

Fresh New Voice of YA- Nevermore Excerpt Vlog

Here's my fragment of Nevermore by Kelly Creagh! Hope you all enjoy! :)



If you want to see more of me on video, head over to Brent's blog Naughty Book Kitties to see me involved in a book pr0n (I'd rather not put the actual word in the hopes I don't get even more spammers, lol) video where I talk about all the books I'm looking forward to reading and think you should know.

Also, if you want to see what bloggers are thinking, go over to Kristi's blog where she's featuring a bucket-load of bloggers (of which I am one, but my post isn't up yet) and get some insight into our world!