Jinx Contest Results

First off, I would like to thank everyone who entered for making my first contest a huge success! I was totally overwhelmed by the number of entries and the level of participation. So thank you, guys!

So I cut up everyone's names into little tiny slips of paper, I stuck them all into my left over coffee cup (dont' worry it was clean :P)...

and after mixing it all up very thoroughly, the name that I drew was...

Lauren!!! Congratulations! I have emailed you so if you could just respond with your info ASAP that would be great. If I don't hear from you within a week or two I might have to pick a different winner...

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and I'm so sorry I don't have any more books to give away. I wish I did!

And now, on another Meg Cabot related topic; yesterday I recieved a totally unexpected package that had an ARC of Meg's newest book Airhead in it. I was so excited because it's a book that I have been dying to get my hands on. I will be reading it right after City of Ashes so look forward to that review soon!

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess and Rose Hathaway is her best friend. Rose is a dhampir-a half vampire-who has a special mental connection with Lissa and who is training to become a guardian to protect Moroi from the evil Strigoi vampires. When they are brought back to the Vampire Academy after two years of running, they find that nothing much has changed. The royals of the school are still stuck-up and the social scene is still as hard to navigate as before. But soon Rose and Lissa are on top and have almost everything they want. Then someone finds out Lissa's secret. She is different than all of the other Moroi. She can use mental force to manipulate people and she can heal maladies at will. When Lissa's powers are tried, Rose must figure out who is threatening Lissa and give her all to protect the person who means the most to her.

Yet another good vampire book. Really, I don't know what it is about things that suck blood that makes them so interesting, but pretty much every book I've read about vampires has been good. This book has a lot of similarities to the House of Night series. The vampires live during the night, there's forbidden romance, and the characters are rebellious. But there are a few different aspects like the servitude of the dhampirs to the moroi and the feeders that the moroi use to get blood. I found that these different twists were all that was needed to help the story become its own thing entirely. I liked the mystery of the plot and the originality of the characters. I also loved the romance. With vampire books, you're bound to have some kind of romance thing and this book definitely does. My one small complaint was that there were some incidents that occured that weren't really told about. Like there was some car crash that played a big part in the story but it was never fully narrated, it was just hinted at which was kind of maddening. You never got the whole story in that part. But other than that, I think that this book was written very well and explored some new aspects of vampires that I hadn't read about before which was great. I highly recommend this book and I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Frostbite which is due to be out very soon!

How NOT to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler

Sugar Magnolia Dempsey (Maggie for short) has never lived in one place for more than a year. Her hippie parents are continuously uprooting her from her school and her friends to move her all around the country. And she is sick of it. When they last moved, she had her heart broken because she had to leave behind her boyfriend who she thought she loved. But she's learned from her previous mistakes and now has a plan so that she doesn't feel the pain of moving ever again. She will try to avoid everyone at her new school. She will become as unpopular as possible so that when she has to leave, she won't be sad, she'll be happy to leave the place in which she was a social outcast. But what happens when her plan goes wrong and people start liking her in spite of her outrageous outfits and loud personality? Will her plan work?

Aw, I really liked this book. It was a funny, unique topic that had me cracking up all the time. People would give me strange looks whenever I would laugh outloud at the crazy thing that Maggie had done in that part of the story. You really can't help but enjoy her hilarious plight. I also loved how she becomes friends with the outcasts of the school without planning too. This book shows well how the dynamics of a highschool really work with all the cliques and the popularity hierarchy. I loved how we were able to see what might happen if that order was disrupted. I also liked how wacky her parents were and I think they were probably the funniest part in the whole story. I think that the author did a great job creating all of the characters. She got really in depth with them, which I liked a lot. I did find my self resenting Maggie at some points in the story for how selfishly she treated everyone around her, but thankfully in the end there was some kind of pennance for that. I think that the whole idea of this book was really heart-warming, cute, and entertaining. This is definitely a super fast, light read that I would highly recommend.

Magic Study Contest!

Yes, it's true. Over at Kinsmen of The Shelf you can win a signed copy of the book Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder. This looks like a really good book, so you guys should all go over and show Anidori-Isilee some support for hosting her first contest!

And I swear that this is my last post for today. :P

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Attending the prestigious Alabaster boarding school isn't all that it's made out to be. Especially when your Frankie Landau-Banks. With a hot new senior boyfriend, Frankie thought that her sophmore year at Alabaster would be easy peasy. That was until she found about the secret all male club known as the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound. Many well known and influential men have belonged to this club and Frankie wants in. But how is she supposed to join when she's not supposed to know about it and she's a girl? Why, she could pretend to be someone else of course. Which is exactly Frankie does. She has the boys of the Order perform all kinds of pranks and hijinks but with the members of the club following her every order will she be satisfied? Or is she in seriously over her head?

I loved, loved, loved this book! I finished it in a day. And I am not usually that fast of a reader so this is pretty impressive for me. I was completely drawn in from the first sentence. I loved Frankies attitude. I was laughing numerous times during the book. I also liked E. Lockhart's writing style. As the narrator, she is frank and edgy which was exactly the kind of writing that was needed to spin out Frankie's twisting story. I also loved the pranks that the boys in the book pulled. They were completely genius ideas! I think the aspect of the book I liked the best though, was the feminism. Many of the guys in the story treat the girls like accessories and Frankie's mission was to prove to them that the girls are just as smart, or even smarter, than the guys which I think was a point she was successful in proving. There was one itty bitty part that I didn't like though and that was the ending. I'm crossing my fingers that there'll be a sequel because from the way the book ended, we were kind of left hanging, like there was more of the story yet to be told. And if there is a sequel, I'm going to be extremely excited because I don't think that I'll ever get tired of Frankie's sass and spunk. She's definitely a one of a kind character. I highly recommend this book; you'll be laughing the whole way through and left wanting more.

You Know Where To Find Me by Rachel Cohn

Miles and Laura were blood cousins; joined at the hip. And although they might have drifted away over the years, they were always able to find some time to be together regularily. When Laura commits suicide, Miles is left to her own agony and the repercussions of the event. She turns to prescription drugs and smoking to fill the voide, through with she connects with Laura's gay father. Then Miles' best guy friend all together forgets about her and she doesn't know who to turn to anymore. This is the story of one girl's struggle with depression, drug abuse, and obesity, but it is so much more than that. It is a story about recovery, survival, and hope.

This is the second bok I have read by Rachel Cohn, the first one being Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist which I wasn't too fond of (although I admit that my review of that book might have been a teensy bit harsh...). My hope for this book was to form a second opinion of the author. I don't like not liking books and authors and thankfully my goal was completed. I really did appreciate this book. I don't think that with the topics it covers it was possible to thoroughly enjoy it, but it stretched my thinking and pulled me into a world drastically different from my own. Rachel Cohn did an amazing job of getting into the mind of a troubled teen and she wrote about it with conviction and reality. The main character, Miles, is really very intelligent but she has so many problems and issues that she has to deal with. And although she doesn't always solve those problems in the smartest way, you can see where she's coming from. I liked how realistic and plausible the host of characters were and how you came to understand each of them thoroughly in the span of this book. The author managed to cover so many things in a short number of pages which is very impressive. Also, it's not easy to write about so many controversial topics in the same piece. This book deals with obesity, drug abuse, gay rights, suicide, and racism. I liked reading a book that forced me to think. It's good to gain new insights and knowledge which this book really helped me to do. I would highly recommend this book if you're looking for something to challenge your thinking with. I liked it a lot.

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

In the last book of the Gemma Doyle trilogy, Gemma is faced with many troubles. She has bound the magic of the realms to herself but now she must find some way to split it equally among the tribes of the realms. Life in the real world is changing too. Her friends face their own unique hardships and rely on Gemma to help them escape their lives and find comfort. The pressure is building for Gemma. When an offer of help comes from a former enemy, she gladly takes it, but will her new ally prove trustworthy? Then she finds that the dark forces of the realms are building strength and planning something sinister. When Gemma is betrayed by someone who was formerly seen as loyal and trustworthy, she is in danger of being overwhelmed with pressure and stress. Will she be able to live up to every one's expectations for her and bring safety and peace to the realms at last?

Whew. I feel like I have just finished a marathon or something equally as exhausting. This is one extremely long book. It doesn't help that I have been completely swamped with homework for the past week, so this book just dragged on for me. And yes, that was a really horrible plot summary thing, but I think this book is just way to complex to explain thoroughly and still make sense. Not that it was a bad book. Far from it. I was not thrilled with the first two books in the Gemma Doyle trilogy, but this one really blew me away. The first two books were really building up the characters and the conflicts leading up to the stunning conclusion in this book. The beginning was a little hard to get into, but once I got farther in, I was swept away. The plot is seamlessly woven with many details and twists. The characters are built beautifully; you can see all their different aspects and you really come to understand them. I had some issues with a few characters in the previous books, but they really redeemed themselves when I saw what they were capable of in this book. And the conclusion of this book was breathtaking. I loved the mystery and the sorrow and the bittersweet feel it had to it while at the same time it kept its hopeful note. I admit, I cried a little at the end which is very rare for me. I am so glad that I stuck it out through this series because once you look back on the books you see that everything is connected and that it really was a story worth reading. I highly recommend the whole Gemma Doyle trilogy. These books are a must read.