Sunday 27 March 2011

Let's Talk...

Enter my contests here!

Okay well my birthday is on the fifth of April which is the day that some amazing books come out such as Red Glove by Holly Black and City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare. I love them both so much and I wish I could get their books right away but unfortunately I am writing exams this week and then next week I am away on a camp up until Thursday but after that I will receive all of my birthday presents which will only consist of books as per my request to my parents! I am going to be so happy when I get them! I plan on just reading and submitting reviews everyday during the one month holiday which will take place after the camp. So expect to see much throughout April. I will also be working on my novel called Death Walker which is about a heart thief! *grins*

I wish that people on the net loved me enough to buy me books but that is just a dream that will never happen! But I will look forward to the ones that I will be receiving.

I wanted to use this post just to let out whatever I want to talk about and here I am I will now start to blab away!

I have not yet started receiving ARCs which is something I know I have to be patient for and I am. I cannot wait to fill some shelves in my room not that they do not contain enough books already but I am a collector and avid reader so yeah! :)
However I have received and ARC on Net Galley but unfortunately for some reason my adobe digital editions does not seem to be working...

Anyway, I am so grateful for all of you who are supporting me and I hope that I will be able to pay you back by creating an awesome blog which kind of sucks right now...

So I started a poll! Its on the top right hand corner if you would like to answer. If you would like to see all the books that I currently have please select yes!

Saturday 19 March 2011

Carrier of the Mark Promo(contest)

Help me support this amazing book:


It looks like it is going to be really good and I read some of it over at Inkpop and well what can I say? Amazing! And the best part about that was that it wasn't even fully finished! It is going to be an international bestseller I can just see it!

Here are some bookmarks I have made to support this lovely book:


So I am trying to help promote Carrier of the Mark! Help me? Tweet it (1 point) Blog it (1 point) like the Carrier of the Mark facebook page(1 point) and Tweet #likedCarrier once you have liked the facebook page(1 point) you have to be a follower of my blog as well as Leigh Fallon's blog (2 points) and you also have to be a follower of @clouse-ever on twitter as well as @LeighFallon on twitter(2 points)
That gives you a total of 8 points you can get. In the comments below leave links to all of your entries.

I will randomly select a winner using a number generator. Then there will be two runner ups!

What are the prizes you may be asking?
1st place will receive either and ARC or finished copy of Carrier of the Mark! and these awesome books! :
As well as:



 Please note that all of these prizes were bought for the competition so they are brand new! :) I will add more i I get 30 followers! :)

2nd and 3rd place will each receive a free bookmark request. I will make you a bookmark with whatever you wish on it, it will then be emailed to you to print out.


Contest is open internationally and all entries must be in by April the 20th. I will announce the winners on the 21st.:)

Prizes might be added! :)

Start getting your entries in!

 Edit:
Because you are all being so great I have decided that every time I get 10 new followers I will up the prizes for the first place winner and I might add to runner ups! Yes more will be added! So get that news out there about the competition if you want to up the amount of prizes you could win!!! :)

SO CHECK BACK OFTEN TO SEE IF PRIZES HAVE BEEN UPDATED. I WILL TWEET IT.

Blabbed Blurbs(1)

You can find out more about Blabbed Blurbs here

My Blurb: "Darkly thrilling and wonderfully eerie..."

Cover Reveals



Aren't they all so beautiful. I think that the new covers for the paperback versions of Wolfsbane and Nightshade give the books a more adult feeling and portray Calla very well!

Friday 18 March 2011

Guest Post by Andrea Cremer

Here is Andrea's Guest post on writing Wolfsbane:

Writing the second book of a trilogy can be frustrating. I think I had an advantage when I began WOLFSBANE because I kept thinking of it as my “Empire Strikes Back” book. In the original STAR WARS trilogy Empire is the film where things go bad and even at the end of the film, things are still pretty bad. The movie also ends on a total cliffhanger – Lando and Chewie fly off in the Millennium Falcon and you’re left to hope they’ll find Han and get him out of that nasty carbonite.

Sounds pretty frustrating, right?

Despite the downward spiral and loose ends Empire remains my favorite of the STAR WARS films. It’s a brilliant story, tense and perfectly paced, with some of the best dialogue ever:
Han: “We don’t have time to discuss this with the committee.”
Leia: “I am not a committee!”

I don’t think anyone who has read NIGHTSHADE will be surprised for me to say that WOLFSBANE takes its characters to some dark places. Though not without hope, things get bad, very bad, before the possibility of getting better appears. And yes – it ends on a cliffhanger. Sorry.

Cliffhangers don’t bother me. In fact, I think they’re essential to power a story that takes place over the course of several books rather than a single volume. I knew Nightshade was a trilogy from the first page I wrote – I think of the series as 1,000 page book broken up into three parts. Still I know that some readers will want to throttle me when they reach the end of this book. But you have to go through the darkness to find the light.

A few book 2 facts:

1)     I rewrote the first half of WOLFSBANE twice, throwing out most of the original version along the way.

2)     WOLFSBANE originally ended at what is now the second chapter of BLOODROSE

3)  In early drafts I toyed with the idea of changing POVs, but soon realized that the Nightshade series is Calla’s story; thus, she remains the narrator of all three books

4)  WOLFSBANE may be my Empire Strikes back, but there are no Ewoks in BLOODROSE


Thanks so much Andrea for this Guest post it was great to hear from you. I am so stoked for the second book; Wolfsbane!


Saturday 12 March 2011

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Release Date: March 27 2007
Publisher: Atom Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 302
Buy the Book: Amazon

Within New York City’s most elite families, there lurks a secret society of celebrated Americans whose ancestors sailed on the Mayflower. They are the powerful and the wealthy—and in fact, they are not human. They are the Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires.
Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne, her prestigious New York City private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapidated mansion. Schuyler is a loner—and happy that way.
But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler’s life changes dramatically. She has a mosaic of blue veins on her arms, and craves raw meat. The death of a popular girl from Duchesne is surrounded by a mystery that haunts her. And strangest off all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.
Schuyler wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?

Well, this was a very surprising and interesting read for me and I found that I liked it mostly. This book has a very interesting and new take on vampires.

The way Melissa writes will leave you breathless and will keep you wanting more until finally you will be so addicted. This applies to me mostly if not to you; I mean I read the book in about four hours and this is pretty fast for me to read a 300+ page novel. My copy was only 302 pages long but yes it took me four hours and you wanna know why? Well it is because I found this book to be so addictive.

I really enjoyed reading about Schuyler. I think she is such a great character and she seems different to the rest of the Blue Bloods; more...reserved? This is how I read and imagine Schuyler while reading this book. Schuyler as well as the rest of the characters are great and I am sure you would all enjoy reading about them.
One thing about this book that I did not like was the fact that some of the story was written from Bliss’s point of view. I guess it was okay and that Melissa needed to get some of the story told through other eyes.

Two great things about this book were: 1) The weaving of point of views and 2) The historical aspects. The way in which the author weaved and entered and exited from certain point of views was amazingly well done, I was able to read comfortably exiting and entering in to a new character’s point of view without being disturbed. Melissa de la Cruz just makes the story flow so well. The way in which the flashbacks and such about the Blue Blood’s history was really well done too, the information was not just dumped but rather done very tastefully.


Friday 11 March 2011

Entice by Carrie Jones Review

Zara and Nick are soul mates, meant to be together forever.
But that's not quite how things have worked out.

For starters, well, Nick is dead.
Supposedly, he's been taken to a mythic place for warriors known as Valhalla, so Zara and her friends might be able to get him back. But it's taking time, and meanwhile a group of evil pixies is devastating Bedford, with more teens going missing every day. An all-out war seems imminent, and the good guys need all the warriors they can find. But how to get to Valhalla?

And even if Zara and her friends discover the way, there's that other small problem: Zara's been pixie kissed. When she finds Nick, will he even want to go with her? Especially since she hasn't just turned...she's Astley's queen.


Review: 
Well it was great to return to this wonderfully written world that Carrie Jones has created. He writing is fun and has a bit of what seems to me as a teenage edge to it. This book has some defiant spunk and is a great read.
I loved the characters and I loved the way in which the author writes. I was not so sure about Zara anymore as she was supposed to be different from the main female characters we mostly read about that are weak and fragile, instead Zara was supposed to be butt-kicking chick who could defend herself and believe me in most parts of this book she could but I just felt like that was almost a facade of sorts and that the weakness was supposed to peek through but I do not know if this was supposed to be what Zara was supposed to be like for this book. Anyway I still loved this book and could not put it down.
I am so happy for the ending it had me dancing with joy and I cannot wait to read the fourth book. Well I don’t have much to say all I can really say is that you should definitely read this and I am positive you should enjoy this series as it has lots of fun and serious elements and there is also romance and action. It is perfect and wonderful and oh-I better stop gushing. Just go and read it and fall in love with the words that will keep you bound to the book.

Toroment by Lauren Kate Review

LOVE NEVER DIES
Lucinda is sure that she and Daniel are meant to be together forever. Now they are forced apart in a desperate bid to save Luce from the Outcasts–immortals who want her dead. As she discovers more about her past lives, Luce starts to suspect that Daniel is hiding something. What if he has lied to her about their shared past? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?




  
Review:
Well, I really hope that I do not get killed for this review but I am giving my honest opinion. Do not fear though it is not all bad and I am not taking anything away from Lauren Kate’s amazing writing talent. I am just stating my opinion and if you do not like it then do not read any further.
Okay so I felt that everything was basically happening all over again as Luce is forced to go to a brand new school just like she was in the first book, although this was not a reform school and it was a school that would help Luce understand better, it just did not work for me. It felt like a retelling. I mean Lauren Kate’s writing is fantastic and she really knows how to get a reader addicted this just did not work for me.
I cannot really explain, yes this book had its moments but I think Lauren could have done better by putting Luce in some sort of new setting other than a school as it would have made it more interesting, she could made Luce’s surrounding a little tougher to love in to make the story more complex perhaps, I mean the surroundings that Luca has to live with in this book are fairly challenging as she is put into a completely new school and has to live with the fact that she has to make new friends, however some of the students from Sword and Cross do show up at the new school.
The new characters were very interesting and refreshing just shows you how Lauren Kate can write realistic characters that will seem vividly real.
The ending was spectacular and I cannot wait for the third book in this series titled Passion, I am sure that it will be amazing and I hear it is a prequel of sorts and half of it is from Daniel’s point of view. Lauren Kate is a great writer and this review is just my opinion.
Thank you for the wonderfully and compelling story that many have fallen for. Although I may have said a few negative things about the book, it was still very addictive and I enjoyed the words that flowed effortlessly on the pages.

Shadowland by Alyson Noel Review

At the start of this breathtaking novel, Damen and Ever travel to Summerland in search of an antidote to reverse a powerful poison. But instead of the cure they seek, they find something far more sinister: the truth about their existence and the fate lying in wait of an immortal’s soul.

Now, with Damen fighting to save them from the Shadowland, Ever turns to magick, hoping to break Damen’s curse. Along the way Ever encounters the mysterious Jude, finding herself drawn to him in a way that will test her love for Damen like never before . . .


Review: Wow...another amazing book by Alyson Noel. This just like the previous books had me engrossed in the tension and plot. Wonderfully writing books are wonderful to read and I must say that this was one of them. I don’t really know what to say because these books just leave me speechless, the author keeps on finding a way to keep you guessing with all the new challenges that the main characters have to face and it is great to explore the tension between Ever and Damen.
Well there was a great ending and it will have you killing people just to get the next book, luckily I had waited a long time before I officially decided to read the series and now I have all of the books except for the final one called Everlasting. Anyhow I can stay captivated and compelled by Alyson’s wonderful words that are like magic.
Alyson Noel writes beautifully about magical characters that seem real and entice you to want to live in this wonderful world you are reading about.
For some reason when I read this book I kept on thinking about what I would do if I were immortal and the one thing that kept on coming to mind was that if I could manifest anything in the whole world that I wanted most would probably be to manifest all the books that I want and we would be able to read them before the release date and I would be so happy. Yes  I know there are such things as ARCs that exist but I am not at that stage yet where I am able to receive them yet.
Wonderfully written Alyson. I love your books to bits!