Featured Follow #3: Great Characters and Plot vs Gorgeous Writing

How does this work?

The goal is to increase blog followers and make friends. First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools — keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them “hi” in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! What sets this Hop apart from others, is our Feature. Each week we will showcase a Featured Blogger, from all different genres and areas. Who is our Feature today? Find out below. Just remember it is required, if you participate, to follow our Features and you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee & Alison Can Read) as a courtesy.

Armchair BEA 2014: Beyond the Borders

Welcome to Armchair BEA 2014!

Beyond the Borders

It’s time to step outside your comfort zone, outside your borders, or outside of your own country or culture. Tell us about the books that transported you to a different world, taught you about a different culture, and/or helped you step into the shoes of someone different from you. What impacted you the most about this book? What books would you recommend to others who are ready or not ready to step over the line? In essence, let’s start the conversation about diversity and keep it going! SOURCE: Armchair BEA Headquarters

Armchair BEA 2014: Expanding Blogging Horizons & Novellas/Short Stories

Welcome to Armchair BEA 2014!

Expanding Blogging Horizons 

What do you think about when you think about going beyond blogging or expanding your horizons? Is it a redesign of your blog? Have you branched out into freelance writing or even published a novel of your very own? Or, have you moved into a different venue like podcasts or vlogging? This is the day to tell us about how you have expanded on blogging in your own unique way. 

 Novellas/Short Stories 
 Now it is time to give a little love to those little stories in your life. Share your love for your favorite shorts of any form. What is a short story or novella that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves? Recommend to readers what shorts you would recommend they start with. How about listing some short story anthologies based upon genres or authors? SOURCE: Armchair BEA Headquarters

Audiobook Review: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars #1)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Authors: Rob Thomas, Jennifer Graham
Format: Audio | Narrator: Kristen Bell
Published on March 25th 2014 by Random House Audio

The first book in an original mystery series featuring twenty-eight-year-old Veronica Mars, back in action after the events of Veronica Mars: The Movie.

With the help of old friends—Logan Echolls, Mac Mackenzie, Wallace Fennel, and even Dick Casablancas—Veronica is ready to take on Neptune's darkest cases with her trademark sass and smarts. An unabridged recording (8 hours, 45 minutes).

Armchair BEA 2014: Introductions and Literature

Welcome to Armchair BEA 2014!

Today is the day that we kick off our fifth annual event that parallels Book Expo America in New York City. This year, we are starting a couple of days earlier than the usual event, which will allow all you participants a little extra time to meet each other and chat from your armchairs before we start bringing in the goodies that we have for you directly from the streets and floors of the Expo.

Throughout this week, we will be posting a variety of things throughout the day. You will see special guest articles, announcements of our giveaway winners and special featured giveaways, as well as articles, photos, and videos live from BEA. We will have multiple posts each and every day, so make sure you are following along closely so you don't miss out on any of the action. SOURCE: Armchair BEA Headquarters

Featured Follow #2: Have you ever... ?

How does this work?

The goal is to increase blog followers and make friends. First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools — keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them “hi” in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you! What sets this Hop apart from others, is our Feature. Each week we will showcase a Featured Blogger, from all different genres and areas. Who is our Feature today? Find out below. Just remember it is required, if you participate, to follow our Features and you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee & Alison Can Read) as a courtesy.

Audiobook Review: Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Author: Kelley Armstrong
Format: Audio | Narrator: Jennifer Ikeda
Published April 8th 2014 by Harper Audio

They hear the spirits.
They must obey.
In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.
Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.
Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters’ journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they’ve ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court - one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

Freebies: I am a YA Blogger

Hi! I made these for you. Feel free to use these shiny memes to add some pizzaz to your blog! Simply copy the code in the box and paste it to your lovely sidebar.

Book Review: Disruption (The Cambridge Files, Book 1)

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and totally unbiased review.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Author: Steven Whibley

At fourteen, Matt Cambridge has executed so many pranks-the latest nearly destroying his school-that his parents are out of discipline options. So his father pulls a few questionable strings to get his son into Camp Friendship: a camp that promises to strengthen the moral compass of today's youth. With a name like Camp Friendship Matt imagines three punishing weeks of daisy chains and Kumbayas. Within minutes of arriving at the camp, however, Matt's nearly killed-twice. It doesn't take long for him to realize there's more to this picture-perfect place than meets the eye. What sort of summer camp has classes in forging passports? Why do they have endless fight training, and weapons drills, and what is with the hidden rooms? Matt wonders if his parents realize they've enrolled him in what seems to be some kind of freakish, elite spy school. What Matt doesn't yet know is that Camp Friendship's ultimate purpose is far more sinister than he could possibly have imagined. With each dot he connects, he begins to understand that in the end he'll be left with two choices: pull the prank of a lifetime to escape this place . . . or die trying.

Custom Blog Design Giveaway!

Hi! How are you? It's been a year since my last post, well not really, but you know what I mean.

I AM BACK!!! So happy. :-)

And I couldn't just go back without style. So notice something different? I bet you do. And no, it's not my renewed enthusiasm. I'm talking about Bluest Ribbon's new design to celebrate my come back!

Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1)

“Yearning for love made her feel like a cat that was always twining around ankles, meowing Pet me, pet me, look at me, love me. Better to be the cat gazing coolly down from a high wall, its expression inscrutable. The cat that shunned petting, that needed no one. Why couldn't she be that cat?” 

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Author: Laini Taylor

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review: A Temptation of Angels (repost from my Goodreads review)

Disclaimer: This is purely a result of me having no life. If you have any complaints or violent reactions, then I suggest that you go amuse yourself. Thank you.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

 Author: Michelle Zink

Even angels make mistakes in this page-turning epic romance

When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world's past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel.

Michelle Zink masterfully weaves historical fantasy with paranormal romance to create a gripping tale of love and betrayal.