Giveaway!!

Hi all!

I was contacted by CSN Stores, who have offered to host a giveaway on my blog!

If you haven't heard of CSN, you should check them out; they have pretty much everything. Anything from backpacks and bookshelves, to clothes and shoes, to kitchen supplies and furniture - even wood swing sets.

The prize is a $20 gift card for any CSN store.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post with your email address and favorite line from Star Wars (and if you don't like/know Star Wars, do your best to make me laugh). One entry per person.

I'll randomly pick the winner on Sunday, March 6th um, when I feel like it! Due to low participation, the giveaway has been extended.

Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

Summary (via the author's website): "Jane’s night was killer…
SEE JANE RUN
Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit-and-run.
SEE JANE HIDE
Everyone believes it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane’s boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface—not just from the party, but from deeper in her past . . . including the night her best friend Bonnie died.
SEE JANE DIE
With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. The clues point in one direction–and a killer a little too close for comfort."

Review: There's only one downside that I can see. It's not as hilarious as Bad Kitty or Kitty Kitty. Other than that, I loved it.

I don't agree with the V-Mars comparisons that the girls at Forever YA drew in the boys, but maybe that's just me. I mean, I can see Ollie as a Logan character, but David is not nearly good enough to be compared to Duncan.

I love the mystery in this book; also, I loved Jane, and I loved seeing her progress from the way she thinks about her friends and her family to the end, where she can see clearly what's going on with the people around her.

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, is-this-a-kissing-book, my-kind-of-woman, pretentious, thought-provoking

Rating:

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

Summary (via the author's website): "Avalon High seems like a typical high school, attended by typical students: There’s Lance, the jock. Jennifer, the cheerleader. And Will, senior class president, quarterback, and all-around good guy.

But not everybody at Avalon High is who they appear to be… not even, as new student Ellie is about to discover, herself. What part does she play in the drama that is unfolding? What if the bizarre chain of events and coincidences she has pieced together means—as with the court of King Arthur—tragedy is fast approaching Avalon High?

Worst of all, what if there’s nothing she can do about it?"

Review: So does everyone remember my opinion of Twilight? That I know they're badly written but I like them anyway? My opinion of Meg Cabot books is rather the opposite: I don't particularly like them, but I read them anyway. And usually can't put them down. And I know in my head that they're really not that bad.

Fluffy, yes. Heavens, yes. But still. They're well-written. Her main characters are always pretty kick-a. Cute boys abound, and plenty of the "then he looked at me twice" drama that I lahve. But something about them just makes me go, "ugh." And I'm really not sure why, especially since I keep reading them.

Maybe it's because the main characters are all the same? I feel like Ellie and Mia from The Princess Diaries, and Suz from the Mediator books, and that girl from Jinx, are all pretty interchangable. And maybe I wouldn't mind so much to read about a sarcastic teenager with body issues, over and over again, if I still WERE a sarcastic teenager with body issues. Hm.

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, is-a-movie, is-this-a-kissing-book, my-kind-of-woman

Rating:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Summary (via Goodreads): "Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight — she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme, and in her case horrifying, skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.


She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace — or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone."

Review: OH. WOW. I've been hearing good things about Graceling for a while, but I hadn't read it... BIG mistake. What an AWESOME book! I'm SO glad I sprang for the ebook, because now I can read it again whenever I want. Which I WILL.

What do I love about this book? A) Characters. Loved Katsa, Raffin, PO!!, Bitterblue. They were all awesome, all distinct. B) Story. WOW. A fully developed story, complete with resolution. I knew it was a trilogy, so I was kind of expecting a big story cut in three pieces. NOT SO. Hooray!

Also, I love that every time I tell people about Graceling, I describe Graces as superpowers. Because they pretty much are.

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, i-have-the-ebook, is-or-would-be-a-good-movie, is-this-a-kissing-book, my-kind-of-woman, thought-provoking

Rating:

Torn by Amanda Hocking (Trylle Trilogy Book #2)

Summary: "Torn, the second installment of the Trylle Trilogy...

Wendy thought she finally understood who she was and what she wanted, but everything changes when the rival Vittra come after her.

She's caught between two worlds, torn between love and duty, and she must decide what life she is meant to lead."

Review: So... OK. New villain, fine. Character development for the cold-hearted mother, great. New love interest... what the heck!? THIS is a perfect example of Girl Falls For Boy For No Apparent Reason. I mean, the Finn thing from the first book was a little shaky to begin with, to be honest, but the whole Loki business is completely ridiculous.

Anyway. The book was a quick enough read, and if the third book in the trilogy is less than $3 I'll probably buy it just to see what happens. Which, admittedly, is a sign of success from a storytelling viewpoint.

I still don't hate Wendy, which is good.

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, i-have-the-ebook, is-this-a-kissing-book

Rating:

This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger

Summary (via Goodreads):  "It's the year 2057 and fourteen-year-old Aurora couldn't be happier with her life on Earth: She's part of the "in" crowd, her best friend is a celebrity, and Matthew has asked her to Homecoming. But Aurora's parents have new jobs on the moon, and she and her little sister must leave their friends and schools to go with them. Aurora is sure she will hate life on the moon, because there are only 750 people in the whole colony. What if none of them is a cute boy her age?"

Review: I really loved this book when I was young, and I just now realized why. It's about a girl who moves to a small town where there are very few people with whom to socialize and she finds herself through acting. Which is pretty much the story of my life. Growing up as an Air Force brat, I moved around a lot. This story really spoke to me, since it's about a family that gets uprooted and all the members have to make new friends. Just say "Army post in Germany" instead of "colony on the moon."

Anyway, besides the fact that it deals with an issue that lots of teenage girls experience (as most Paula Danziger books do), it's a sweet, quick read with cute situations (SHOWING me romance instead of telling me about it-- hooray!) and characters that feel real.

Goodreads Shelves: fluffy, i-own-it, is-this-a-kissing-book, thought-provoking

Rating:

Switched by Amanda Hocking

Goodreads Summary: "When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn't until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might've been telling the truth.

With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - and it's one she's not sure if she wants to be a part of."

Review: I'll tell you the sentence that bugged me the most in this book. I don't remember it verbatim, but the gist of it was, "I hadn't really thought about him much, but now that he'd started being a jerk to me, I realized how attractive he was." Which, now that I think about it, describes the plight of quintessential Nice Guys rather accurately. Anyway, this is the Girl Who Doesn't Think She's Pretty Likes a Mean Boy story, although he stops being mean fairly soon into the book. LUCKILY, he doesn't stop brooding EVER, so the people on Team Edward still have something to drool over.

I was fairly ok with Wendy. Like, as a person. She's ok with standing up for herself; she's ok with getting into people's faces and speaking up when she thinks she should. She's frustrated that no one will tell her anything, which I think is reasonable.

The exposition, while frustrating, was well done, I think. It was frustrating in that Wendy kept getting a runaround, where she'd ask questions and people would be like, "oh, you'll find that out soon enough." But it was well done in that I didn't have to deal with three straight chapters of exposition, which, now that I think of it, is nice. It reminds me of the exposition in The Maze Runner.

Anyway, I'll let you know how the sequel goes.

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, i-have-the-ebook, is-this-a-kissing-book

Rating:

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Summary (via the author's website): "Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away.

Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves—Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love."

Review: So you may have noticed the Twilight-themed poll in my left sidebar... I'm kind of curious how y'all feel about those books. I fall into the second category. It's the "I recognize that they're poorly written, but something about them appeals to me." Not to say, mind, that I LIKE them, per se, but that when I read them I can't really put them down.

I feel a little better about the Host. I actually do like it. The characterization of Wanda is fairly well done, although I think if I met her in real life she might be kind of annoying in the crème brûlée way (has anyone seen My Best Friend's Wedding??). The story is fairly interesting, high in the "then he looked at me twice" drama that I love. The beginning and ending are slow, but I'm ok with that.

All in all, a pretty decent book. Kind of surprising from the author of Breaking Dawn, n'est pas?

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, i-own-it, is-this-a-kissing-book, pretentious, thought-provoking

Rating:

Reading My Own Darn Books

Hi guys. Can we talk for a minute? And by "talk," I of course mean that I'll type and you'll read. And if you're not ok with that, well, that's cool.

So anyway, I decided to take on a project. It's kind of epic. Here's the deal: I want to read my books.

I know, right? It seems pretty intuitive... yet most of you know that it's much easier said than done. You buy books, you check them out from the library, you win them, or you borrow them, and you end up with a huge stack of books that you own - paid money for, even! - that you've never even cracked open. What the heck?!

So my goal is to read, if not ALL of them (I have shopped many a book sale in my day), at least a lot. I think it's good to go ahead and read books I actually already have. Who knows, maybe I'll end up trimming my collection down a little. To that end, I'm enforcing a Ban on all books that I don't own, starting... well, about a week ago, actually.

As with all good Policies, there are a couple exceptions. In this case, they're very specific, and are as follows:

• I already have The Maze Runner out from the library, so I'm gonna read that. Probably.
• My father-in-law lent me two books about World War II, and I'm gonna read those.
• Audio books are excepted, because I only have one (Harry Potter 5, if you're curious).
• Ebooks don't count. I'll buy or download as I see fit, although I won't borrow any from the library.

Other than that,  the Policy, for the forseeable future, is that I'm not going to read or buy any book that I don't already own.

I'm actually pretty excited about this. I have a lot of books I haven't read, and I'm betting I'll find a new favorite or two. :)

I know that we all need solidarity sometimes, so if you want to join in, feel free! It's a good way to curb a book-buying habit, if you have one, or a library addiction, like I'm recovering from. Just link to your blog in the comments. Create your own rules (don't think you have to follow mine!), and go ahead and grab the button! Good luck!

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

Summary (via the publisher's website): "Miles Vorkosigan is back!

Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove-he's been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp-an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future-attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter Miles to check it out.

On Kibou-daini, Miles discovers generational conflict over money and resources is heating up, even as refugees displaced in time skew the meaning of generation past repair. Here he finds a young boy with a passion for pets and a dangerous secret, a Snow White trapped in an icy coffin who burns to re-write her own tale, and a mysterious crone who is the very embodiment of the warning Don't mess with the secretary. Bribery, corruption, conspiracy, kidnapping-something is rotten on Kibou-daini, and it isn't due to power outages in the Cryocombs. And Miles is in the middle-of trouble!"

Review: So... wow. This book kind of makes me sad, because the Big Thing that happens at the end kind of overshadows the rest of the book. So that there's this whole book, but the only thing anyone's going to talk about is the Big Thing. Which comes at the very end.

Other than that, though, good book. The storyline was a little confusing for me, but I'm going to blame that on rushing through the book for the sake of devouring it. Doing that tends to get me confused.

Random thought: On most planets in this universe, you can tell that there's some kind of Earth-based cultural influence (the idea being that everyone originally came from Earth when they colonized all these planets), but the cultural influence in Kibou-dani is the strongest I've seen in this series, from the architecture to the clothing to the way people speak. (It's all Japanese, if you were wondering.)

Goodreads Shelves: addictive, fluffy, funny, i-have-the-ebook, i-own-it, thought-provoking

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