Friday, August 13, 2010

Blog Survey: +5 Entries for August Celebration Giveaway

(I just had to add the adorable cookie monster cupcake again lol!)   

Since today is my blogoversary, I would love to have some honest feedback about my blog. The survey can be completed anonymously or if you want +5 entries in my August Celebration Giveaway then leave your name and email. If you have already entered my August Celebration Giveaway then I will add the +5 entries to your amount of entries myself. The survey is on Goggle Docs HERE! I can take any positive and negative feedback...so please honest. Thanks everyone!

It's My One Year Blogoversary!



On this day one year ago on August 13th 2009, I started this lovely little (kind of pathetic back then) blog An Addicted Book Reader! My blog has developed and come sooo far since then, and it couldn't have happened without the support of many fellow bloggers, my followers, and all the lovely authors, publishers, and bloggers that have sent me so many amazing books. Thank you everyone, and I <3 you all! 

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Here's some stats & firsts of An Addicted Book Reader over this amazing year:

# of reviews: 70
# of posts: 272
# of books read in 2010: 54
# of followers: 386
# of author interviews: 3
# of contests: 11
1st book reviewed: Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz 
1st ARC from blogger: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
1st ARC request: The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance: Candle Man Book 1 by Glenn Dakin
1st blog award: The Lemonade Award
1st blog contest win: box of 17 books from Elizabeth Scott

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Naughty List: A Debut Author Challenge Mini Review


Title: The Naughty List
Author: Suzanne Young
Pages: 272
 Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: February 4, 2010
My Edition: ARC Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Challenge Read For: 2010 Debut Author Challenge
Won From: Story Siren - Feb DAC winner

Summary from Amazon: 
As if being a purrfect cheerleader isn’t enough responsibility! Tessa Crimson’s the sweet and spunky leader of the SOS (Society of Smitten Kittens), a cheer squad–turned–spy society dedicated to bringing dastardly boyfriends to justice, one cheater at a time. Boyfriend-busting wouldn’t be so bad . . . except that so far, every suspect on the Naughty List has been proven 100% guilty!

When Tessa’s own boyfriend shows up on the List, she turns her sleuthing skills on him. Is Aiden just as naughty as all the rest, or will Tessa’s sneaky ways end in catastrophe?

The Naughty List. Is your boyfriend on it?

 
Review: 
The Naughty List was a funny and unique debut book and such a pleasant surprise! The plot wasn't like anything that I have read before and since it was light and also funny, it made for the perfect book for my reading mood. Moving along quickly with several unexpected events, I bonded with the characters right from the start and just loved the premise of the story. Once I started reading, it was just so cute and good I didn't want to stop, so it didn't take me very long to finish. Despite how unique the plot was and it also very unrealistic that a cheerleading squad would form a society that catches boyfriend cheaters, but it was enjoyable so I didn't mind that it was unrealistic.


Overall, I highly enjoyed reading about the funny and charming SOS cheerleaders! I recommend The Naughty List to any girl who wants revenge for a former cheating boyfriend or just wants to read a story about girls catching the dirty cheaters. I can't wait to get my hands on the second book in the series, So Many Boys

Rating:

Monday, August 9, 2010

Losing Faith Cover Remake!

Princess Bookie is having another recreate a cover contest (yay!) and this time for Losing Faith by Denise Jaden. Here's the original cover and summary from Goodreads:



A terrible secret. A terrible fate.

When Brie's sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie's world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don't know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.

As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith's final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.


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Official Rules:
Open To US Only (unless you have a friend who will ship to you OR your willing to cover shipping via paypal and I will ship to you)
One Entry Per Person
Open Until August 14 unless we hit 50 before that!
First 50 participates In Mr Linky
We will be voting in rounds!
Your Image Must be savable, meaning I can right click on it and save it.
Denise will comment on top 5!

Prize:
Signed Copy of Losing Faith
Signed Bookmarks
Poetry Journal

Here's My Cover!
 

Sunday, August 8, 2010

IMM (46)

In My Mailbox was started by The Story Siren. IMM is where I post the books I won, received for review, bought, borrowed, or ect.  

I only received one book this week, but it's one I've been dying to read plus it's a Debut Author Challenge book! Thanks to the hundreds of Got Books contest events where I won this hardback copy of The Body Finder by Kimberley Derting. Here's the book description & cover from Goodreads:


   
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.


Saturday, August 7, 2010

Queen of Secrets: A Debut Author Challenge Review


Title: Queen of Secrets
Author: Jenny Meyerhoff
Pages: 240
 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: June 22, 2010
My Edition: Hardback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Challenge Read For: 2010 Debut Author Challenge
Received From: Henry Holt InGroup

Summary from Goodreads: 
This year, Essie Green’s life is going to be different. She’s made the cheerleading squad and caught the eye of the captain of the football team. However, she didn't expect her estranged cousin to join the football team. Micah is instantly branded a freak for praying during games, and Essie doesn’t want anything to do with him. As the football team’s teasing of Micah shifts into hazing, Essie is forced to make a choice between the boy she might love and the cousin she barely knows.
 
Review: 
Queen of Secrets was a sweet and honest novel about a young teen torn between her best friends, her new boyfriend, her cousin and the popular crowd. The characters and storyline were a tad cliche but nonetheless very enjoyable to read about. I finished basically the entire book in a day while at work during breaks and was very sad when I finished, partly because I loved the characters and also because I didn't have anything else to read. The story moved along quickly through Essie's story and her many secrets and troubles. The ending ended a little too perfectly, but I liked that Essie, her friends, and her family were all happy and that she no longer had to keep any more secrets.

I liked Essie's character, but at some points I just didn't understand how she could be such a follower, naive, and secretive mainly about keeping that the weird, new kid is actually her cousin. She is a good girl but just makes several mistakes along the way of growing up. I liked the relationship between Austin and Essie a lot because Austin always was loyal and kind and also very different than the popular crowd. The back story of her family and dead parents was very troubled and sad, and I could never imagine going through both parents dying then growing up with my grandparents as my guardians.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading about all the great characters and story. I recommend Queen of Secrets to anyone looking for a fast paced, relatable, and fun story with some high school relationships and cliches. Meyerhoff's debut YA novel was a pleasant surprise, so I'm looking forward to hopefully more YA novels by her soon! 

Rating: