Kat

Skylark Release Party @ One More Page Books in Arlington, VA

August 1, 2012 7 Comments

I love the details on the cake.

Last weekend, Kat and I headed to the Northern Virginia bookstore,One More Page Books, for the release party of Skylark by Meagan Spooner. We’ve been excited for this book since BEA, so we just had to go to the release.

The party was packed with friends and family of Meagan along with readers, booksellers and of course bloggers.

Meagan made a wonderful speech to start off the night. You can tell she has great friends and family supporting her. During the signing she took her time talking with each person and writing a personal message in each book.

Meagan has such a great energy about her and towards the end of the night she took the time to talk us about her journey to publication and her writing process.

We got to see the UK cover of Skylark and learned that the genre of the novel is less Dystopian and more Magical Steampunk. Doesn’t that sound like an awesome genre ?

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When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle

July 27, 2012 1 Comment

“What if the greatest love story ever told was the wrong one?”

― Rebecca Serle, When You Were Mine

Release Date: May 1st 2012

Genre: Contemporary

Pages: 334

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Synopsis: What’s in a name, Shakespeare? I’ll tell you: Everything.
Rosaline knows that she and Rob are destined to be together. Rose has been waiting for years for Rob to kiss her—and when he finally does, it’s perfect. But then Juliet moves back to town. Juliet, who used to be Rose’s best friend. Juliet, who now inexplicably hates her. Juliet, who is gorgeous, vindictive, and a little bit crazy… and who has set her sights on Rob. He doesn’t even stand a chance.

So, I love the concept of this novel. A modern re-telling of Romeo and Juliet, but from the perspective of Rosaline. I remember studying Romeo and Juliet in high school and when our teacher was talking about Rosaline I remember thinking, wait what ? There was a girl Romeo liked before Juliet ? Roalisne is an unseen character in the play so Serle had a lot to play with in developing her.

The character of Rosaline Caplet in this book was a blurry character to me, she didn’t seem to have any shape. She just existed, there was nothing special about her and I couldn’t get a feel for her personality. She does gain some definition through the book with her relationship with the character Len, but I just could not connect with her.

There seems to be two schools of reviewers who have read this; those who loved Rose’s friends and others who don’t. I found Charlie and Olivia to be annoying girls obsessed with boys and popularity. They are also kind of the mean girls I didn’t understand why they were friends with Rose, who seems nothing like them. It seems like in real life they would have drifted apart.

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Lazy Days of Summer Giveaway Hop

July 26, 2012 3 Comments

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Book Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

July 25, 2012 4 Comments

Release Date: July 31st 2012

Genre: Contemporary/ Coming-of-Age

Pages: 384

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Synopsis: No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Yay, my first Harlequin (okay, Harlequin Teen ) novel !

Echo Emerson is trying to honor her dead brother, as she recovers from a violent encounter with her bipolar mother that left her with plenty of scars, but no memory.

Noah Hutchins wants nothing more than to be a family again with the brothers he was separated from in the foster care system, but he just can’t seem to stop screwing up.

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Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (Delirium #2)

July 22, 2012 2 Comments

“In a world without love, this is what people are too each other: values, benefits, and liabilities, numbers, and data. We weigh, and the soul is ground to dust.”

― Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium

Release Date: February 28th 2012

Genre: Dystopian

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 375

Synopsis: I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, pushing aside thoughts of Alex, pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school, push, push, push, like Raven taught me to do.The old life is dead.But the old Lena is dead too.I buried her.I left her beyond a fence,behind a wall of smoke and flame.Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

Sequel reviews are always hard for me but, here we go. It was a bit of a shock going from listening to the audio book of Delirium to reading the print copy of Pandemonium. I was finally seeing names and places on the page instead of just hearing them. I had to remind myself our protagonist was Lay-na and no Lean-a and there are In-val-ids not In-val-eds

That said, Pandemonium is pretty much nothing like Delirium, in fact, it feels like a different series entirely.

Pandemonium is erratic with a faster paced and more passionate story than Delirium. Whereas Delirium is a discovery story, Pandemonium is one about a journey. This book embodies the kids in the woods phenomenon seen in a lot of post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. This idea where it’s mostly the teens and young adults that leave civilization to fight the status quo.

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