Bloodlines Blog Tour & Giveaway

Starting on August 23, there were 20 blogs participating in a blog tour event organized by Penguin Canada! And today I'm stop #16, so welcome!

Penguin Canada very kindly provided all of us with ARCs of Bloodlines, so I read it back in July- and I have to say it was amazing. I was so pleased with it, and I really can't wait for all of you to read it as well! It was the first book I read by Richelle Mead, so I'm now hoping to go pick up some more of her books soon. You can read my review of it posted here, where I gave it FIVE shiny gold stars!

And because I loved it so much, I'm going to give away a copy of Bloodlines from The Book Depository. Contest will run until September 20, when you can come back here to find out who won and stop by for the blog tour that day! The entry form is found at the bottom of this post, my regular contest rules apply. Since it's from TBD, this is open internationally as long as they ship to you.

But in honour of Penguin Canada's Bloodlines blog tour, I decided to post the Top Ten things I loved about Bloodlines:

1. Sydney Sage
   Simply put, I love Sydney. I totally related to her, and I think she's going to prove to be a fantastic heroine, one with real, applicable issues that are important ones to deal with. Plus, she comes across as such a different character from Rose (so I hear, and have that impression) that it's refreshing.
2. The Alchemists
   As much as I enjoyed the Bloodlines vampires, I have to admit that I adore the concept of the Alchemists. One of my favourite parts about Bloodlines was getting to read all the history and background information Sydney provided about the Alchemists.
3. Character development
   I like interesting and complex characters, with their own issues to work out. And Bloodlines only hints at the kinds of problems which will arise later on, but I'm already pleased to see teensy bits of development happening.
4. Vampires that are actually creepy
   I like reading about vampires that actually drink human blood (because that's just what vampires do!) and I thought it was great how Richelle Mead worked out a system for them to do so, even with difficulties.
5. A stand-alone spin-off
   I haven't read Vampire Academy. But I had NO problem at all following along with Bloodlines. Sure, there are some spoilers that I pick up from Bloodlines about VA, but reading this has actually convinced me to go and read VA sometime soon!
6. Adrian
   I like Adrian, even though I don't know him from Vampire Academy. But he was significantly less angsty and depressing than I thought he would be at first.
7. That ENDING!
   I won't spoil anything. But the ending is good. I REALLY can't wait for The Golden Lily now! Full of action and surprises.
8. The lack of insta-love
   I'm kind of getting sick of books where the main characters just see each other across a dark room and are instantly in love, and do everything to end up together. So needless to say, I appreciated that there was very little romance in Bloodlines- I know, I know. I enjoy some good romance as much as the next person. But I'm confident that when Richelle Mead actually DOES bring up more romance in this series, it will be amazing. Epic.
9. The nifty lily tattoos
   You know what? I actually really liked the Bloodlines cover. And I like the lily tattoo, I think it's a neat idea. Plus I think it's really pretty- so pretty I went and actually bought a necklace of it from Cadsawan.
10. The twists
    Confession: I didn't see most of them coming. And I really liked that they were surprising, and kept me guessing so that I wasn't sure of what to expect.

If you're curious about Richelle's new series, make sure to check out the Bloodlines official website: there are tons of trailers, extras, and info on the book there.

As well, if you want just a little teaser of the book before you buy it, you can read the first chapter!

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead, Chapter 1


Make sure to check out the rest of the stops on the Bloodlines tour, even if you missed some of the earlier ones! :)
Aug 23 Tynga's Reviews
Aug 24 Me On Books
Aug 25 A Cupcake and a Latte
Aug 26 whatchYAreading
Aug 29 Dreaming of Books
Aug 30 Just a Lil Lost
Aug 31 He Followed Me Home
Sept 1 Evie Bookish 
Sept 2 Ever Expanding Library
Sept 5 Knit Purl Stitch Read & Cook
Sept 6 Wicked Lil' Pixie
Sept 7 Hands and Home
Sept 8 Snowdrop Dreams of Books
Sept 9 Just Another Story
Sept 12 Bibliomama
Sept 13 Esther's Ever After
Sept 14 Simply Stacie 
Sept 15 Krystal's Stellar Book Blog 
Sept 16 Today's Adventure
Sept 19 Lost for Words

Drink, Slay, Love

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst
Release Date: September 13, 2011
Simon & Schuster: Margaret K. McElderry
ISBN13: 9781442423732

4/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King's feast -- as the entrees.

The only problem? Pearl's starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she's definitely dead if she lets down her family. What's a sunlight-loving vamp to do?

The best way I could think of to describe Drink, Slay, Love is satire for the vampire genre. Oh, and hilarious.
Seriously, this is one of the funniest books I've read. You can't help but laugh while reading this.

Sarah Beth Durst writes Pearl with wit and cleverness, and Pearl completely carries the book. The perfect heroine was created here, one who isn't completely driven by teen angst and hormones. Because Pearl is just a typical, blood sucking, human drinking vampire... who just happens to have been stabbed by a unicorn. The idea is completely ridiculous, but SOMEHOW Durst makes it work really, absolutely, convincingly well.

The vampires in Drink, Slay, Love are actually even kind of creepy. I know that I said this book is funny, but the vampiric lifestyle is actually vaguely disturbing as Pearl describes the life she lives, and particularly so when she begins to change and doesn't feel that she fits in any longer. It's so easy to relate to the story told through Pearl's voice that what once was harmless (drinking the blood from a teenage boy) gradually becomes creepier as Pearl realizes exactly how it affects said boy.

To be honest, I did still see some of the more obvious twists coming; and they didn't entirely make sense either. I thought the unicorn bit was clever and cute at first, but as more about it was revealed and the story begin to take on a more serious tone I found it even harder to take the unicorn's story as serious as I felt the book wanted me to take it.

And for what it's worth, I so wish I had an epilogue to this ending to find out exactly what happens a few months (or years) later down the road... just to see EXACTLY how things turned out.

But overall, I definitely enjoyed this and would easily recommend this to just about everyone. Especially those who are looking for something fun and fresh from the popular vampire genre!

e-copy provided from the Simon & Schuster Galley Grab; thank you!

Love You More

Love You More: The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter by Jennifer Grant
Released: August 9, 2011
Thomas Nelson
ISBN13: 9780849946448


2.5/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

An intimate family memoir written by a mother on the adoption process.
Following the invisible thread of connection between people who are seemingly intended to become family, journalist Jennifer Grant shares the deeply personal, often humorous story of adopting a fifteen-month-old girl from Guatemala when she was already the mother of three very young children.
Her family's journey is captured in stories that will encourage not only adoptive families but those who are curious about adoption or whose lives have been indirectly touched by it. Love You More explores universal themes such as parenthood, marriage, miscarriage, infertility, connection, destiny, true self, failure and stumbling, and redemption.


Those of you who have been following my blog for a while, know that I occasionally review Christian living and Christian fiction books as well.

I requested Love You More to review because adoption is something I've been interested in for a long time, and hope to be involved with personally in the future. And this book sounded like it would be such a touching read.

And parts of it were beautiful, and utterly moving but as a whole, I was disappointed with the book.

I appreciated Jennifer Grant's honesty in writing, as she fully acknowledges that adoption is difficult and that it is not for everyone. She continually emphasizes the idea that adoption is for people who are passionate about it and excited by the idea of it.

But when it came to the actual storytelling, it felt like something was lacking. The beginning chapters seemed to jump around a fair amount chronologically, which made it difficult to follow the order of events and took away from the natural reading flow of the book.

And similarily, those earlier chapters contained significant amounts of background information and stories. I was expecting more details about the actual adoption process and the aftermath of adopting Mia, rather than a (rather slow) build up that seemed to be filled with disconnected stories.

In that aspect, I was disappointed. The ending did contain more details about the process and how Mia and Grant's family adapted to living together, and those were my favourites parts by far. But there just didn't seem to be enough of them.

Copy received from BookSneeze in exchange for my honest review; no other compensation was received.

Across the Universe

Across the Universe (Across the Universe #1) by Beth Revis
Released: January 11, 2011
Penguin: Razorbill
ISBN13: 9781595143976

4/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

 I have no idea why I waited so long to finally get around to reading this one, because it was awesome. But the important thing is that I finally picked it up (probably because I have Million Suns ARC so I can get right into the second one... I hate waiting for sequels to come out. I tend to read series all at once) and LOVED it!

Beth Revis accurately captures feeling so well in her writing- the beginning of Across the Universe starts with the cyro freezing process, and it's downright creepy. I was actually squirming in my seat at the descriptions, and it's no wonder Amy felt so frightened by it at 17 years old.

I also find the idea of being frozen in time, only to wake up too far in the future to be terrifying. There's something about it that just feels so... lonely. Even if you're with people, it's like waking up to an entirely different world. Nothing like what you left. So needless to say, I thought the premise of this book was fantastic.

Also, this book is completely filled with twists in turn which make it so much fun! Some of them were expected and fairly predictable, but many others were not. I just didn't see some of them coming. The description really doesn't lie when it says that Godspeed is full of secrets and lies.

I always appreciate books with a good love story, but one that doesn't overpower everything else going on in the book and the interest between Amy and Elder is gradual, and doesn't take their focus away from uncovering as many secrets as they can.

I also loved the ending and how neatly Revis tied up a few less ends, but at the same time she had also introduced some new problems which will easily lead into the sequel. Satisfying endings are a must, but I didn't feel as if everything had been dealt with already so there would need new topics to be introduced in order for the series to continue. Luckily, that isn't the case here.

Across the Universe is, at a very basic level, a mystery whodunnit style novel; the enclosed space of the Godspeed made some parts move a bit slower than I would have liked, but the characters were rich (especially Harley, he was just wonderful) but I'd love to see more development from Elder in the future books.

Exiled

Exiled (Volume 1) by M.R. Merrick
Released: August 27, 2011
ISBN13: 978-0987726216

4.5/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
Chase Williams is a demon hunter in the Circle, or at least he was supposed to be. Failing to develop any elemental magic on his fifteenth birthday left him exiled in a world full of half-demons, and no hunters to protect him.

When Chase discovers the Circle's plan to unlock a portal and unleash pure-blood demons into the world, he vows to stop them. Knowing he can't do it alone however, he accepts help from Rayna, a sexy witch with an attitude and a secret.

As the pair attempt to stop the Circle, Chase realizes working with a demon is only half the battle. When they find themselves in the middle of the Circle's plan, it leaves one of them to decide what their friendship is worth, and the other's life depending on it.

Even though I'm always willing to take review requests from anyone, I confess that sometimes I'm a little bit hesitant when it's self-published just because you never know what you're going to get. It's kind of like a grab bag, in that sense. What's inside could be really awesome, or just disappointing.

I actually requested a copy of Exiled (Volume 1) by M.R. Merrick once I discovered it, and did a little bit of research on this book. By the way, if you look up Exiled to find out more about it, you will find raving reviews.

And they are all spot on; those reviews are well-deserved.

Exiled is an exciting and riveting paranormal fantasy, and is often compared to The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. I think that's a fair comparison.

The quality of writing is wonderful, and the story is extremely well presented. One of my favourite things is that Merrick writes such exciting action scenes! It seems to be a trickier part of novel writing for authors, but Merrick excels at it which is fortunate because Exiled is LOADED with fighting and adventure.

It's perfectly paced, laced with likeable and fascinating characters, and a thrilling wide into this new world created by Merrick. Background information was subtlely slipped in and given at the precise moment of time when it's applicable, which makes it easy to understand the world better. Chase was (somewhat surprisingly) an ideal main character; sympathetic, but less angsty than some of his typical YA MC counterparts. He doesn't just sit around and mope about the unfortunate events in his life; they affect him, and he tries to find a way to deal with them and move on with his life. And the chemistry between Chase and Rayna has such a flirtatious and witty build up that it comes across naturally, but without distracting from the bigger plot lines taking place.

The only thing I found a bit odd were the various dimensions, because I wasn't sure I saw how it fit in with the rest of the story to me. It's a creative add on for sure, but I'm not sure how it will play out in the series as a whole yet and I did find that it took a bit away from the rest of this first book.

It really is an enjoyable book, and I highly recommend it since I'm now eagerly awaiting the next book! This is the kind of book that's going to appeal to a broad audience, and in particular, I think teen boys would really love Exiled for it's perspective from a male character (and author) and thrilling action scenes.

A Kindle copy of Exiled was provided to me from the author in exchange for my honest review; no other compensation was received.

Bright, Young and Luxe Hop!

Hi there! Welcome to my stop on the Bright, Young and Luxe Hop in celebration of the upcoming release from Anna Godsbern, Beautiful Days! This giveaway hop is hosted by Tiffany @ For Those About to Read and Lea @ LC's Adventures in Libraryland! Lea and Tiffany are going to be hosting reviews, discussions, and this giveaway hop all as part of the celebration! Make sure to check out their blogs to follow along :)

I'm giving away THE ENTIRE LUXE series to one lucky winner! That's The Luxe (#1), Rumors (#2), Envy (#3) and Splendor (#4).
Since the winner will be receiving four books shipped by me, I'm only leaving it open to US/Canadian addresses for shipping purposes. That's FOUR books you can win, all in hardcover!

If you haven't read any of these books, I highly recommend them! I've only read The Luxe so far but it's a series that I really enjoyed a lot, and I'm so excited to pass my books on to one of you! Everything about them is so delicious, from the fashion, to the gossip, to the romance... it's like Gossip Girl at the turn of the century, but BETTER. The story was totally unexpected for me, and I loved all of them. Plus, the covers (oh, those dresses!) are to die for. Envy's dress is my favourite, *swoon*.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ENTRY FORM

Delirium: have you caught it yet?

I selected this post to be featured on Book Review Blogs. Please visit the site and vote for my blog!

This past Friday, I was just hopping along the blogsphere reading the answers to the various blog hop questions for that day.

And to my dismay, I discovered just how many people haven't read Delirium by Lauren Oliver (yet).

I suppose this really struck me, because I loved Delirium. I can't even tell you how much I loved it, because there's just no way to describe it. Regardless, I'm going to attempt to do this.

I'm going to step out on a limb here and say this: Delirium was by far the best book I read in 2011 (and yes, I did read Divergent by Veronica Roth. No contest, in my humble opinion). I'm also aware that people are going to disagree with me on that, and that there are people who didn't enjoy it as much as I did. That's okay- I actually bought it as a birthday present for a good friend of mine and she did not share my enthusiasm for Delirium.

But for those of you who HAVEN'T read it yet... well, I'm writing this for you. I really want to encourage you to pick it up and give it a try, and then come back and tell me what you thougt of it. Comment on my blog, e-mail me, find me on Twitter... I don't care! I really want to hear how you felt about it. (And for those of you who have read it, I want to hear your thoughts as well! Positive and negative!) Plus, I want all of you to join with me in the agony that is anxiously awaiting Pandemonium's release. I would do ANYTHING, absolutely ANYTHING to time travel to the future just to read it. Seriously. That's how much I adore this series/book.

So, just stick with me here for a minute. And allow me to try and persuade you to read Delirium:

1. The very premise of this book terrifies me. A world where love is a disease to be destroyed? Um, that's scary. Really scary. Scarier-than-vampires scary. Because I CAN see how people could view love as a weakness.
2. Lauren Oliver's writing is brilliant. If you've read any of her other books, you know this. I've only read Delirium, but believe me, I have plans to read the rest of her works as well.
3. I cried after reading Delirium. No, scratch that. I SOBBED. I had to text my boyfriend to make sure he still loved me, I was so heartbroken. Then he asked why I was upset, and I had to explain that I had just finished the most beautiful, most incredible book. He didn't get it, but he supported me anyways <3 (he isn't a reader like I am).
4. If Alex wasn't so madly in love with Lena, I'd steal him away. He's just so brave and gentle, all at once, and completely swoonworthy.
5. Did I mention the action yet? There are some INTENSE scenes in this book, and I can't wait to see how all the mysteries and secrets unravel in the rest of the trilogy.
6. Do you have any idea how badly I want to read Pandemonium? If you've read Delirium, then I bet you do, because you're probably in the same boat as me! March 2012 simply CANNOT come soon enough! There are so many things I'm looking forward to, and although I was wary of the description at first after I read Lauren Oliver's blog post on Pandemonium I felt more relaxed and assured that I'm going to love Pandemonium just as much (if not more) as Delirium. You should absolutely go pre-order this item (or maybe start with Delirium first...) But warning: once you pick up Delirium, you will be hooked. Plus, look at how pretty the cover is:

So, have I convinced you to at least give it a try now? I normally don't go for the whole "Romeo and Juliet" vibe in a book, but this one surprised me. I actually bought it for my Kindle, and then I just ordered the new special edition hardcover just because it's so pretty and I like to have books I love sitting on my shelf so I can lend them out to people. And yes- I do already have a lineup of friends waiting to borrow my copy. So unfortunatley, no, you cannot borrow my copy.

BUT! Never fear! I loved this book so much that I want to share some of the love with YOU. I'm going to giveaway Delirium to some wonderful readers and commenters. But this is going to be a very different giveaway from my usual ones:

• Regular rules apply- check out my contest policy for those.
• It's international (as long as The Book Depository ships to you)
• You don't have to be a follower (but I love new followers too!)
• It isn't random- I'm going to be carefully selecting who wins a copy of Delirium. Your entry is a comment. That's all. Just comment and tell me why you want to read this book, and what you're excited for about this series. Leave me your name/alias and an e-mail so I can contact you. And since it isn't random, you better give me good reasons to impress me ;) CONVINCE ME TO BUY YOU THIS BOOK! Or just talk to me about it :) I enjoy that as well!
• I don't know how many people are going to win copies yet. It might be one, it might be two, it could be three... we'll see once I start reading your comments (and see what my bank account allows!)
• Contest will end at 12:01 a.m. on September 13th when I will announce the winners.