An Addicted Book Reader

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Unwritten Rule Contest Reminder and Happy Release Day!

Happy release day to The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott!! My contest for Unwritten Rule magnets and bookmarks ends today, but I will take entries until Thursday when I will announce the winners!
Go here to enter : )

Beautiful Dead Book One: Jonas - Blog Tour Review

Title: Beautiful Dead Book One: Jonas

Author: Eden Maguire

Pages: 271
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: March 1, 2010

My Edition: ARC Paperback

Reading Level: Young Adult
Received From: Sourcebooks Fire

Summary from Amazon:

Not alive. Not dead. Somewhere in between lie the Beautiful Dead.

Something strange is happening at Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street-fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer, and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances. Rumors of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss.

Darina, Phoenix's grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echos inside her head...

And then one day Phoenix appears to Darina. He tells her that she must help Jonas-the first of the four to die-right the wrong linked to his death. Only with her help can Jonas finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set it free?

Review:

Jonas was a intriguing, fantasy book filled with romance, action, and mystique. The story was very easy to follow, and I read it very quickly. The characters were unique, and I really liked the main character Darina. The characters could have been a little more developed and have a little more description. Darina's a troubled girl who has to mourn over her boyfriend's death, but then when she sees him and three other dead students, she feels like she's going crazy. But really, she has just been let in on a secret of the Beautiful Dead. The whole idea of the Beautiful Dead was pretty neat, and I enjoyed reading about them.

I really liked the plot and story because they were different than other fantasy books and had lots of originality. Some of the characters' names were cool and unique which was nice i.e. Darina, Phoenix, Jonas, Arizona, and ect. The end was very surprising and very action packed. I was not expecting what happened at all...lots of twists and turns. The book is pretty fast-paced, and I read it basically in one sitting. I really enjoyed the first book in the series, so I'm looking forward to reading the next book which is Beautiful Dead Book Two: Arizona.

Rating:

Sunday, March 14, 2010

IMM (26): An Amazing Week!

IMM was started by The Story Siren. In My Mailbox is where I post the books/swag I won, received for review, bought, borrowed, or ect. The book titles are linked to their Amazon pages. These are the books and swag I got this week:

FROM ELIZABETH SCOTT:
(FOR BEING ONE OF THE WINNERS OF THE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE UNWRITTEN WORD CONTEST!)

Meridian by Amber Kizer (Hardback)

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble (Hardback)

Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott (Signed Paperback!)

Dark Visions: The Strange Power, The Possessed, The Passion by L.J. Smith (Paperback)

BOOKS FROM THE STORY SIREN:
(FOR BEING FEBRUARY DEBUT AUTHOR CHALLENGE WINNER!)

The Naughty List by Suzanne Walker (ARC Paperback)
The Mark by Jen Nadol (Signed Hardback!)
A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker (Signed Paperback!)
Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu (ARC Paperback)

SWAG FROM THE STORY SIREN:
(FOR BEING FEBRUARY DEBUT AUTHOR CHALLENGE WINNER!)
Bookmarks: 8th Grade Superzero, The Mark (signed), Shadow Hills (signed), The Iron King (signed), The Secret Year, Princess for Hire (signed), Scones & Sensibility, The Naughty List, The Rise of Renegade X, Dirty Little Secrets (signed), Forget-Her-Nots (signed), Island Sting (signed), Leaving Gee’s Bend, The Body Finder (singed), A Match Made in High School (signed), Mistwood (signed), Faithful (signed), Shade (signed)

Postcards: A Most Improper Magik, The Naughty List, The Stillburrow Crush, Three Rivers Rising (signed), Dirty Little Secrets (signed), Forget-Her-Nots, A Match Made in High School (signed), Faithful, Mistwood (signed)

Other: Language of Flowers by Kate Greenway used by Laurel in Forget-Her-Nots, Handkerchief from Scones and Sensibility, Two The Naughty List stickers, Two Shadow Hills buttons and One Shadow Hills magnet, Everything’s Better with Highwaymen! button from A Most Improper Magik, The Cinderella Society goodie bag, Dirty Bear from Dirty Little Secrets, Change of Heart soccer ball, Two The Body Finder stickers, The Body Finder poster (signed), The Body Finder tote bag, A Match Made in High School pencil, A Match Made in High School gum, Awesome journal with a note from Kristina McBride

FOR REVIEW:

(WON FROM GOODREADS)
Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson and bookmark (ARC Paperback)

What books did you get this week?

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Dedication Review

Title: Dedication

Authors: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Pages: 305
Publisher: Washington Square Press

Publication Date: March 2, 2010

My Edition: Paperback

Reading Level: Adult

Received From: Engleman & Co.

Summary from Goodreads:

Kate Hollis's ex-boyfriend's face plasters newsstands and TV, the Internet, and the multiplex. Jake Sharpe is one of the biggest recording stars on the planet, and every song he's famous for is about Kate. For over a decade his soundtrack has chased her -- from the gym to the supermarket, from the dentist's office to the bars. Now thirty-year-old Kate gets the call that Jake has finally landed back in their Vermont hometown for an MTV special. The moment she has been waiting for has arrived.

On the eve of their prom, Jake Sharpe vanished, resurfacing when his song "Losing" -- about his and Kate's first sexual experience -- shot to the top of the Billboard charts. And the hits kept coming, each more personal than the one before.

Now Kate gets her chance to confront Jake and reclaim her past. But after eleven years of enduring protracted and far-from-private heartbreak, everyone in Kate's life has a stake in how this plays out. Kate must risk betraying the friends Jake abandoned, the bandmates whose songs he plundered, and her own parents, who fear this will dredge up a shared past more painful than any of them want to acknowledge. But after getting the call in the dead of night and jumping on a plane, can she turn back now?

Newsweek dubbed The Nanny Diaries "a national phenomenon" and the New Republic proclaimed, "Thank God for Citizen Girl." Now McLaughlin and Kraus have written a poignant, humorous tale about modern celebrity obsession and coming of age during the divorce boom. With flawless depictions of the 1980s, a charismatic heroine, and their signature biting wit, the authors offer up another lively and hilarious tale of a smart young woman looking for satisfaction in the chaos of contemporary culture.

Review:

Dedication was a funny, entertaining novel about a woman who has to relive her private teenage relationship every time she hears one of her ex-boyfriend's famous songs. I really liked how the story switched from her teenage years to the current year around Christmas 2005. It was a very pleasurable book to read and was very hard to put down. I read the last 200 pages non-stop, and altogether I really liked the entire book.

I was really surprised by the ending but felt happy with her decision in the end. The characters, especially Katie (teenager name)/Kate (adult name), were great and pretty easy to relate to. It was interesting to read about Katie's and Jake's relationship through their middle school and high school years, and then find out what happens when they finally see each other again, thirteen years later.

Dedication is now my favorite Adult book by Emma and Nicola because it seemed more YA than Adult, and it was much easier to follow. The Nanny Dairies was good, but Dedication just had a little more entertainment and drama/romance to it. So far, I have enjoyed reading their books, and I especially look forward to hopefully more Young Adult books by them in the future!

Rating:

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday (27)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that I'm eagerly awaiting. This week I can't wait for Grace by Elizabeth Scott! Grace sounds so good and a lot different than Elizabeth's other books. She has written many great YA books, so I know this one has to be good : ) I'm excited to read it when it comes out September 16, 2010!

Summary from Elizabeth's website:

A fable of a terrifying near future. Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

Monday, March 8, 2010

200 Followers Contest!

In honor of all of my amazing, lovely followers, I'm hosting a 200 followers contest with 3 winners! The first two winners will pick one book from a list, and the third winner will win a swag pack full of bookmarks, stickers, postcards, and ect.

These are the books you can choose from
(linked to Amazon pages):