Waiting On Wednesday: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Waiting On Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine, lets us book hoarding bloggers highlight a book we're excited for each week.  This week I'm waiting on Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor.

GoodReads Description:  In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed "Daughter of Smoke and Bone," Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was declared a "must read" by Entertainment Weekly, was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, and The New York Times called it "a breath-catching romantic fantasy."

Why I'm Excited: This is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which totally broke my heart.  And... I love books that break my heart.

Days of Blood and Starlight comes out November 6, 2012 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Blog Tour: Recipe For Trouble (The Cupcake Club #2) by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk

I met Sheryl Berk at at the Book Blogger Convention at BEA this summer and loved her, so I am really excited to be a part of the blog tour for the second book in the series she writes with her daughter.

Book: Recipe For Trouble (The Cupcake Club #2) by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk
Published October 1st 2012 by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Summary (from GoodReads): Meet Lexi Poole. To Lexi a new school year means back to baking with her BFFs in the Cupcake Club. But club president, Kylie, is mixing things up by inviting new members. And Lexi is in for a not-so-sweet surprise when she is cast in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet. If only she was as confident on stage as she is in the kitchen. The icing on the cake: her secret crush is playing Romeo. Sounds like a recipe for trouble!
Can the girls' friendship stand the heat, or will the Cupcake Club go up in smoke?

Characters:  I really like Lexi.  She is cute and insecure, but learning to stand up for herself.  It bothered me how jealous she gets of Kylie's camp friend, Delany, but for the most part I thought she was adorable.  I had a lot of fun cheering her on as she stalked her crush... I'm all for crush stalking.  Her friends didn't deserve her occasional bad attitude, but I loved watching them stick together and have fun.  Of the adults, Aunt Dee was my favorite.  She is Lexi's eccentric, perpetual student aunt who lives in NYC.  She was a great contrast to Lexi's shy and reserved nature and, I think, a good influence on her.

Plot/Pacing:  This is a really quick read and I found myself smiling and giggling as I read.  I loved watching Lexi grow as a person and deal with her first crush.  The subplot where Lexi is jealous of Delany felt undeveloped to me, but I didn't mind, because it was my least favorite part of the book.

Moments I Loved:  The moment when Lexi confronts her crush with the spaghetti and meatball cupcake (so cute) and at the very end when he talks to her and their friends are hiding close by so they can hear what happens.  I'm totally that friend crawling under the table so I can hear.

WTF Moments:  None.  This book was adorable.

Overall:  Seriously, this book was sweet and now I want a cupcake.  Good thing there is a recipe at the back of the book.

Recipe For Trouble gets a FakeSteph rating of...

**I received a copy of Recipe For Trouble from the publisher for participating in the blog tour.  I was in no way compensated for my review or participation in the blog tour and all opinions expressed here are my own.  Feel free to check out my full FTC Disclaimer on my About This Blog page.**

Top Ten (Tuesday) Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that combines lists and books.  This weeks topic is... favorite kick-ass heroines.  I seriously can not wait to see everybody's answers to this topic. As always, covers link to GoodReads.

   

 

   

 

If I remember correctly, every single one of these is a five kiss book and I had three times this many when I first started adding covers.  Kick-ass heroines are one of my favorite novel elements.  What's your weakness when it comes to novels?

Bloggers Dressed In Blood: My Favorite Scary Books and Movies

Today I'm going to share my favorite scary stories.  These aren't necessarily the most frightening in the moment, but these are the ones that stayed with me and creeped me out.

BOOKS

Lord Loss--The book starts out with the main character discovering that demons have killed his parents and sister... and by "having killed", I mean playing with their dead bodies.  ( I LOVE this book, by the way.)

I Am Legend--It's more gruesome than scary, but the moral questions it raises are haunting and the last line still gives me shivers every time I think about it.

Bumped--I realize this isn't horror, but a good satire should scare you when you see the parallels to modern culture.

MOVIES

The Exorcism of Emily Rose--The whole 3 am thing.... yeah.... I hate being awake at 3am now.  For someone who grew up in a very conservative Christian home, this horror film has just enough "totally could happen" to stop my heart.

Jurassic Park - That Raptor scene!

Scream - This movie is so self-aware that I almost want to call it intellectual.  It is smart, funny, and scary all at the same time.

The Watcher In the Woods-- I have no idea what this was about, but it terrified me as a kid. 

TV

Are You Afraid of the Dark?  Yes, in fact, I am, but who can forget these words: "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society..."

The Twilight Zone-- So many of these scared me, but I still spent many New Years Eves watching the marathon on the Sci Fi Channel with my friends.  These were seriously good stories.

Bloggers Dressed In Blood


Any post that celebrates scary books AND links back to this event using the Bloggers Dressed In Blood button will be entered into our giveaway to win some of our favorite scary books from our personal collections, candy, AND a like-new kindle touch with ads (courtesy of Danielle).  Enter your link below and make sure to check out all the details here.

Sundays In Bed With... Recipe for Trouble

Sundays in bed with is hosted by Kate at Midnight Book Girl.  This week, I'm in bed with...

I'll be on the blog tour this week and it's so cute so far.  As usual, I'll also be doing tons of homework.  I'm going to LA next weekend for two weeks, so I need to work ahead in all my classes and right now it feels completely impossible.  What is your best time management tip?

Review: Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan (Bloggers Dressed In Blood)

I read Lois Duncan non-stop in middle school, so I loved reading one her teen thrillers as part of Bloggers Dressed In Blood.  I'll definitely be rereading Daughters of Eve or Killing Mr. Griffin soon.

Book:  Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan (First published in 1976)

Summary (From GoodReads):  Why is Rachel the only one to sense the evil that surrounds Julia?
From the moment Rachel's cousin Julia arrives that summer, she seems to seep into Rachel's life like a poison. Everyone else is enchanted by her--including Rachel's boyfriend. But what does Julia really want?

Characters:  Rachel is whiny and ridiculous, but it is understandable.  She is in a terrible situation as the only who sees the truth about her cousin.  It puts her into conflict with everyone she loves.  The boyfriend is... well, if this were a movie, he'd be nothing but eye candy, but Rachel likes him, so there is that.  Julia is an excellent antagonist.  She has a purpose and she has a powerful confidence.  Even though, intellectually, I knew things would turn out okay, I still also wondered how Rachel would ever beat Julia.

Rachel's family is very Brady Bunch.  The dialogue is hilarious to a modern reader, but I still completely enjoyed the story.   The actions of the parents seem unfair, but Duncan does a good job of making it clear that their actions are reasonable with the information they have.  I liked that they were never villainized, even when Rachel was in conflict with them.

Plot/Pacing:  The book is short, easy to read, and fast paced.  I always saw the twists coming and it frustrated me that Rachel didn't.  However, there was still a ton of tension and conflict that balanced out her slow ability to put the clues together.  The only thing I didn't really like is that the book doesn't have comedic moments that release the tension, so I was SUPER stressed the whole way through.  But some people like that...

Moments I Loved:  The final confrontation between Rachel and Julia.  It was a long time coming.  And *SPOILER* I totally loved it when love saved the day.  *END SPOILER*

WTF Moments:  Rachel's brother, Peter, falls in love with Julia... his cousin.  I'm thinking... no disrespect to Ashley and Melonie, but whaaaaat?  THEN, then, then (picture big freaking hand movements as I say this) when Rachel mentions that first cousins can get married in some states, he says, "Marry!  Who's talking about marriage? At last--well, if something like that came up it would be pretty far in the future, after college and everything.  You don't worry about that sort of thing until you're right to it."  Yeah, read that last sentence again.

Overall:  The cheesiness of this book does not detract from it all.  It still holds up as a thriller and I totally understand why I was obsessed with Lois Duncan in middle school.

Summer of Fear gets a FakeSteph rating of...

Bloggers Dressed In Blood


Want to read Summer of Fear?  I'm adding my copy to the box of books you can win in Bloggers Dressed In Blood.  Link up your scary reviews for the chance to win some of our favorite scary books, AND a like-new kindle touch.  Enter your link below and make sure to check out all the details here.

Blog Tour: Dear Teen Me

I'm really exited to be a part of the Dear Teen Me blog Tour.  I'm going to share a short review and then share a letter I wrote to my teen self.

Book:  Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves

Edited by Miranda Kenneally and E. Kristin Anderson

Zest Books
October 30, 2012
ISBN 978-1-9369762-1-8

Summary (from GoodReads):  Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he’d had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you’ll find friends--and a lot of familiar faces--in the course of Dear Teen Me.

Thoughts:  I love the idea of this book.  I found myself nodding along with many of these letters, recognizing my own teen experiences in them.  All of the letters are unique, because they are all deeply personal.  They are broken up with a few letters written as comics, two authors who were and are best friends and wrote their letters to each other, and fun Q&A pages where the contributors answer questions about their teen experience.  I was familiar with some of the authors going in, which made reading their letters interesting, and there are many, many authors whose books I want to read now that I've read their letters.

Hands down favorite line, that I think anyone, regardless of age can relate to: "It's so easy to be dissatisfied with your life, to wish for and plan for better things, but take a moment to look at the things you already have.  They're pretty awesome." -Tera Lynn Childs

MY LETTER

Dear Teen Me,

You deserve to be happy. That doesn't mean anybody owes you anything. It means that you need to find joy in everything, where ever you are, regardless of what you have or don't have. 

If there is one thing I wish you learned sooner it is how to be alone.  Contrary to popular belief... you're an introvert and once you start spending time alone, you're the happiest you've ever been.  Go see that band that none of your friends like.  Get in your car and take a road trip even though nobody wants to go.

The jury is still out on your decision making process: will this make a good story?  At least you're consistent... and interesting.

Right now, you feel like you're going to live forever. You won't. Try your damnedest to get stuck with nothing but laugh lines.

Love,

Steph... and here is a camera phone pic of my senior yearbook photo.

 

MORE INFORMATION

Zest Books website
Dear Teen Me website

Dear Teen Me events page

Zest Books Dear Teen Me book page

More about the book's 70 contributors.

THE EDITORS

Miranda Kenneally is the author of the contemporary YA novels Catching Jordan, Stealing Parker (just published), and Things I Can't Forget (Spring 2013). Miranda is also the co-editor, with E. Kristin Anderson, of Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves (Zest Books), and is co-creator of the Dear Teen Me website.

E. Kristin Anderson, in addition to co-editing Dear Teen Me and co-creating its eponymous website, is a writer and poet who has been published in dozens of literary journals. She is also an assistant editor at Hunger Mountain for their YA and Children's section.

ZEST BOOKS

Zest Books is an award-winning publisher of smart and edgy titles that focus on the colorful chaos of teen life. These nonfiction books cover timely topics in creative ways by incorporating solid life advice, practical how-to instruction, and humorous commentary. Zest Books’ catalogue includes 97 Things to Do Before You Finish High School, Where’s My Stuff: The Ultimate Teen Organizing Guide, and Scandalous! 50 Shocking Events You Should Know About So You Can Impress Your Friends. In Fall 2012, Zest Books launches a new line of memoirs and first-person accounts, and Dear Teen Me is the first book in this new line. Zest Books is distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Learn more at www.zestbooks.net.

Waiting On Wednesday: Venom by Fiona Paul

Waiting On Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine, lets us book hoarding bloggers highlight a book we're excited for each week.  This week I'm waiting on Venom by Fiona Paul.

GoodReads Description:  Cassandra Caravello is one of Renaissance Venice’s lucky elite: with elegant gowns, sparkling jewels, her own lady’s maid, and a wealthy fiancé, she has everything a girl could desire. Yet ever since her parents’ death, Cassandra has felt trapped, alone in a city of water, where the dark and labyrinthine canals whisper of escape.

When Cass stumbles upon a murdered woman—practically in her own backyard—she’s drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, killers, and secret societies. Soon, she finds herself falling for Falco, a mysterious artist with a mischievous grin... and a spectacular skill for trouble. Can Cassandra find the murderer, before he finds her? And will she stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for Falco?

Beauty, love, romance, and mystery weave together in a stunning novel that’s as seductive and surprising as the city of Venice itself.

Why I'm Excited: I'm not usually excited for historical, but Kim read it and told me it was awesome.  Plus there is a cool mask on the front and I have a thing for cool masks.  I was going to buy the audio download, but I couldn't help myself and went ahead and ordered the hardcover.
 
Venom comes out October 30, 2012.

Top Ten (Tuesday) Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that combines lists and books.  This weeks topic is... books to get you in the Halloween spirit.  As always, covers link to GoodReads.

   

 

   

 

Speaking of scary books... have you checked out Bloggers Dressed In Blood?  It's a fun Halloween Event that I'm co-hosting, where you can enter to win a ton of scary books from our personal collections AND a Kindle Touch.