Contests Around The Blog World

Alright guys, I have been saving up my contest links again to just do one big post rather than a bunch of little ones. One, I obviously want the extra entries but two, I love contests because they are a great way to see new blogs that you might otherwise not discover. How many of us link to other blogs for reasons that aren't for a contest? Not many apart from memes. So, here are some contests I have found in my wanderings this week, most of which I have entered- some I didn't but thought I would still tell you guys about it. This list will again be updated as the weekend goes so check back often- it is easier for me to do a few and get it posted so I can enter the contests and then come back and add more to this, enter, repeat. =) Otherwise, I get too many tabs open and get confused, I admit it.

This week, I am going to start with the 12 Blogs of Christmas. All these contests are going to run through December 31 no matter what order they came in. These are all great contests and I have respect for each blogger who is taking part on this.

Day 1: The Never Ending Bookshelf, with a total of 9 winners for various gifts and swag.
Day 2: Literary Escapism is giving away 6 paranormal romance type books to 1 winner.
Day 3: The Library Lounge Lizard with a total of 3 winners that each get 4 books off her list.
Day 4: Bites is giving away the first 3 books in Mari Mancusi's Blood Coven series.
Day 5: Ellz Reads who will have a total of 5 winners, each with a different prize pack option- one of which IS international.
Day 6: The Book Rat will have 5 winners who get to pick 1 book out of her list of 50- yes FIFTY- books and since they will all be sent out new, there is no worry of another winner picking the book you wanted.
Day 7: Luxury Reading is offering up an invisible bookshelf along with 4 books and 1 audiobook to 1 winner.
Day 8: Princess Bookie is going all out once again (anyone else notice how she does this a lot? She is pretty much awesome in my book for it, every time, whether I enter or not). She is giving away 2 prize packs to 1 winner and a mystery ARC to another.
Day 9: Shooting Stars Mag is giving away a $10 Borders gift card to one lucky winner- what a perfect gift for everyone to choose their own book!

Princess Bookie also has another Pre-Kick Off Contest going on that is going to also run through December 31 with one winner getting 1 out of 3 books- they choose a number and whichever book has that matching post it on the back of it will be their winner. The choices are 3 ARCS- all great ones.

The Bloody Bookaholic is having a huge Holiday Blowout over on her blog with 3 winners along with some other possible smaller gifts for other participants. Titles up for grabs include ARCS of 2010 release The Mark, Eyes Like Stars, Hush Hush, Ash, The Demon's Lexicon and Betraying Season along with Candle Man book 1, Deadtown, Lenore Noogies, The Nanny Returns, The Ever After (by Dan Elconsin, to clear that up), and Secret Society. This one ends Dec 25. Enter here.

Bookworming in the 21st Century is holding 25 separate contests in honor of her 25th Birthday. Head over to her site and start entering the ones that look good to you. Today's book is Firespell- which I definitely want. Other titles include Espressologist, Dark Divine, Beautiful Creatures and more.

Sophistikatied Reviews is having a 200 followers contest and giving away signed ARCs of The Dark Divine and Brightly Woven, ending Jan 11.

Sharon Loves Books and Cats is having a giveaway to help promote one of her local bookstores called Strand. Winner gets 2 books of their choice from the store and some swag. This ends Jan 2.

Books at Midnight is also having a 200 followers contest (Congrats Jenn!) with a total of 4 winners. This one is going to end Jan 15.

Explorer X- Alpha: LM Preston

Summary (Courtesy of Amazon.com):

For most kids, a trip to space camp is the trip of a lifetime for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. He realizes what is happening too late for a change of fate. The full experiment is set in motion when he and his co-pilot, Eirena, crash in a distant galaxy called Shrenas, where they change and realize the full extent of their power. This turn of events forces him to grow up quickly, accept his change, and to decide to save a world, or to do what he was trained to do dominate it. His power is coveted by the warring leaders of Shrenas, and he is forced to choose sides a decision that may prove just how much humanity he has left.

OPINION: 3 STARS

This is a middle grade novel, geared towards 10 and up, and that is very evident in the writing. The idea is strong, the plot is pretty unique and had me intrigued, but the writing fell through for me. Several times, I found myself very distracted by the story itself because of the writing and I never seemed to be able to just read it for long periods at a time. It is rare that writing detracts that much for me, but it did on this one. Even intended for a younger group of kids, I still had a hard time with this one. It is a lot of simple sentences and some of them even start with "So," and that just makes me cringe- maybe its different now, but if even when I was ten, if I turned a paper in to my English teacher and my sentences started with So, blah blah blah I would have been losing points. Much of the sentences are step by step- I did this then that then this, and there wasn't a lot of variation in how things were worded- everyone pretty much said this or replied with that without any of the other wonderful synonyms for those same words.

But as I said before- it is an interesting plot idea. Yes, there elements that have reminded me of other books but Preston ropes them together in her own way and many times, it did work for me. This is a very futuristic book even though I believe it is only set in about 2080- and a lot of the progress that has been made seems like it will never happen in just 70 more years but then again, look at where we are now compared to 70 years ago. In that sense, this book did make me think- writers, engineers, etc have all these ideas of things to do and ways we can advance and with as rapidly as our science is progressing, I can actually see us being this, well, progressed, in 70 years. I admire Preston for basically not holding back on her imagination- she has taken concepts seen in other sci-fi books/movies and things we only dream about and makes them her own while providing them with her characters.

Aadi and Eirena are the two major characters although there are several other prominent characters for most of the story. Both did have strong personalities but I felt they had little actual development- yes, they had changed at the end but it came off more as they were changed because of what happened and they had to be changed rather than having had any real strong epiphany. Their turning point wasn't really seeable- Aadi would start to get towards an epiphany and turn around and negate it. This is the first in a series so there is plenty of time for more development but I felt it lacked in this book. Eirena just bothered me, right from the start. Any changes that happened to her didn't really shock me or even seem that different because of how she came off right from the start. I do like Aadi and I was definitely rooting for him- particularly when he was fighting a battle for both himself and Eirena. Where she lacked, he stepped up but it didn't seem to really go the other way- he was the stronger of the two in my mind.

Overall, I give this one 3 stars. The idea is there, the plot is great and definitely interesting but the writing really detracted for me and I could have used a little more actual development in the characters that didn't involve a 'they changed because they had to because they were in this situation and this happened to them' kind of thing. I think middle grade kids would really like it- there is a lot of action, the descriptions are pretty okay especially for that level, with both a male and female lead for both sexes to root for and side with.

I also am having a giveaway for a copy of this book, courtesy of LM Preston, that is slated to end 12/27/09. Check the top of my blog page for the link to the actual post with the entry form.

Note: This ARC was received courtesy of LM Preston.

Chasing Brooklyn: Lisa Schroeder (ARC received as a part of Lisa's ARC/blog tour)

SUMMARY (Courtesy of goodreads.com):

Restless souls and empty hearts.

Brooklyn can’t sleep. Her boyfriend, Lucca died a year ago, and now their friend Gabe has died of an overdose. Every time she closes her eyes, Gabe's ghost is there, waiting for her. She has no idea what he wants or why it isn't Lucca chasing her through her dreams.

Nico can’t stop. He’s always running, trying so hard not to feel the pain of missing Lucca. But when he begins receiving messages from his dead brother, telling him to help Brooklyn, emotions come crashing to the surface.

As the nightmares escalate and the messages become relentless, Nico reaches out to Brooklyn. But neither of them can admit that they're being haunted. Until they learn to let each other in, not one soul will be able to rest.


OPINION: 5 STARS

Reverberating- that's the main word that comes to mind after reading this book because many parts of it continue to stay in my head. This story and the characters have nestled their way into a niche all their own within my heart, right alongside some of the other angsty/tragic greats (Greats in my mind). This is a story of life and death, sorrow and happiness, good and bad all rolled into a ghost story. Whether you believe in ghosts or not doesn't matter- whether you agree with the way Schroeder has posed those we love coming back after their deaths doesn't matter. What does matter is the way she integrated it into the story and the way those ghosts played just as big a roll as any living character.

Brooklyn is your high school student struggling with the death of her boyfriend- even one year later when this book opens. What makes it more tragic is his death is just a short 6 months after the accidental death of a classmate- but for Brooklyn, losing Lucca is unimaginable. While the school moves on, she stays locked in her sorrow and loss. The only person who seems to really understand is Lucca's brother Nico- a senior and just one year older. While their paths have crossed in the past because of their mutual association with Lucca, these two aren't particularly close. Neither are there for each other until certain things pushes Nico towards her.

Nico is the older son but the one who takes all the fault- where Lucca could do no wrong, Nico can do no right. Or so it feels for him, made more clear after his brother dies. Though he never states it flat out, as a reader I couldn't help but wonder how many times in the past year his parents wished that just maybe it had been him that passed rather than Lucca. Would his parents be in the same distant, broken state if they had lost their eldest son or was it Lucca himself that did this to him? Of course, Nico's side is biased- we see what he sees, we think what he sees, but things that are hard to imagine like that still crossed my mind because of the way Nico was played out. My heart broke more for Nico than for Brooklyn and though her name is in the title, it is as much about Nico as it is Brooklyn.

Although the total word count of this book is low because of the style in which its written, the whole thing still slipped into my mind. Even reading in my downtime at work, I would forget about everything but this book and would become instantly engrossed each time I picked it up. At one point I even startled when the phone rang, staring at it like it was something offensive before it clicked that oh hey, I need to answer that. I wanted more, more and more as I read this book because Nico and Brooklyn were both painted so beautifully. They each have their own personalities and interests but much of that has vanished in the past year- made worse by the death of Lucca's best friend Gabe when he couldn't handle things anymore.

His suicide is never verbally called that but it is clear that's what happened. This is where I fell in love with this story even more- often times in our society, anyone who commits suicide is a coward and taking the easy way out. As Schroeder said in the book, there's a hundred places to go. But what if you are so lost and alone- where can you go? The way she explains this mind set is so simple but completely poignant. Schroeder has covered a few rough topics in one novel and she weaved it together in a magnificent way.

When I first flipped through the book, I thought it was written in verse- it is typed as though poems but it isn't poems. It is the same story but written in a different format and I actually think it did add to it on this one. It rapidly shifts between Brooklyn and Nico's perspectives but that never slipped me up, causing me to stop and reread to catch up. They each have a short time that is there own and then pass the microphone to the other- they are telling the same story and Schroeder twined it expertly.

Overall, I give this one 5 stars. I couldn't get enough of it as I read it and though it was a very fast read for me, it stuck with me and stood out so profoundly in my mind that I actually sat in silence thinking about this story after I had finished. There are a handful of books that really stick with me for a long time after I am done with them- there is an even smaller amount that makes me stop everything and just think about it.

As part of this ARC Tour, I needed to take a photo of one word to describe the book, something important in the book, etc. The word I chose is Fortitude- both Brooklyn and Nico had to show intense courage, strength and resilience and I think this word sums it up perfectly. I used my kids 100 piece Shrek and Madagascar puzzles to make most of the letters and used the ARC itself as the I in the center (It worked out great with 4 letters on each side).

24 Hour Contest: Chasing Brooklyn ARC Tour

***NOW CLOSED: CONGRATS TO DHALIA AT THE BOOK SHOPAHOLIC- SHE IS THE NEXT STOP ON THIS ARC TOUR. PLEASE GET ME YOUR EMAIL ASAP- I HAVE SENT YOU AN EMAIL***

Okay guys- it took awhile but I have finally gotten the touring ARC of Chasing Brooklyn. I will finish it this week- Thurs or Fri- but wanted to go ahead and get the contest posted and choose my winner so I can get it in the mail on Saturday since that is really the only day I can get to the post office.

Here are the full details about this contest and what you have to do should you win:


This book will be released January 5, 2010. Due to publishers cutting back, ARCs are not as plentiful these days. BUT, Lisa has one ARC that she's sending out on a multi-state tour, and she will be trying to chase it down as it goes from reader to reader.

If you would like to read CHASING BROOKLYN, add your name to the comments below. One name will be randomly drawn 24 hours from the date and time of this blog post, and the winner will be contacted via e-mail (please leave your e-mail address in your comment). Not only will the winner get to read CHASING BROOKLYN before it hits the shelves, but each winner will receive a $10.00 gift card from the bookstore of his/her choice from Lisa. If Lisa guesses what state the winner lives in before the state is revealed to her, that amount doubles to $20.00!

Participants in the Chase Around the USA have 5 responsibilities. If you don’t think you can meet these responsibilities, please, PLEASE do NOT volunteer to be a part of the chase.

1) READ - CHASING BROOKLYN within 7 days of receiving it. If you can read it sooner, even better!

2) Take a photo of ONE word - about the book, to describe the book, something in the book that’s important, etc. How do you show us your word? Be creative! Write on paper, on a t-shirt, in the sand, on the wall, in cereal – the possibilities are endless! Please TRY TO INCLUDE THE ARC IN THE PHOTO SOMEHOW. The only requirement is that it cannot be something negative. Of course some people may not like the book. But Lisa plans to use these pictures in a special way when the chase is over, so positive is best. If you don’t like the book, simply pick a word that shares the tone of the book, describes a character, etc. (By participating in this contest, you agree to e-mail the photo to Lisa for her to use as she chooses.)

3) Post the ONE WORD photo on your blog - along with a picture of the CHASING BROOKLYN cover and these rules, and hold another contest just like this one, drawing a name within 24 hours of the blog post. Do what you can (tweet, facebook, etc) to point people to your blog about the contest.

4) Post a comment on Lisa Schroeder's blog - that you've held the contest and drawn the next blogger's name (without revealing the name) to receive the ARC. Lisa will then try to CHASE the ARC down by posting a guess on her blog of what state the ARC will go to next. Once Lisa's blog post goes up with the guess, the current holder of the ARC will post the new winner's name and the state he/she lives in on his/her blog. If Lisa guesses the correct state, the next recipient of the ARC receives a $20.00 gift card to the bookstore of his/her choice!!

5) Mail the ARC - to the winner IMMEDIATELY after receiving the winner's address, so the book can get into as many hands as possible. Lisa is hoping for at least 7-8 stops on the chase, but that will only happen if people get the book read and sent off quickly. Use the flat shipping rate envelopes at the post office for a low price and speedy delivery! Whoever has the book on the release date of 1/5 will mail the book back to Lisa. Please feel free to write notes in the ARC for Lisa to read when the book is returned to her.

At the end of chase across the USA, Lisa will draw three names from the bloggers who participated in the chase to receive FREE signed copies of one of her books - I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, FAR FROM YOU or CHASING BROOKLYN.

Finally, the blogger who has the most creative one word photo (judged by three teens in Lisa's neighborhood) gets a signed copy of FLASH BURNOUT by L.K. Madigan, a signed copy of LIPS TOUCH by Laini Taylor, and a copy of CRASH INTO ME by Albert Borris.

So if you want to participate, then fill out this registration form. All I need is your name and email- I HAVE to be able to contact you and you HAVE to get back to me ASAP so I can get this in the mail by Saturday and you can hopefully get the book before Christmas as it will go out priority mail. I am not going to do extra entries in this contest but please help spread the word.

This contest will end at 8:00 PM Thursday, December 17, CST. Any entries posted after that cut off will not be included.

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

I know this one has been done a few times by others but it is a book that I am really eager for. This is the ARC cover- the real cover is subject to change but my understanding is this is pretty close. This cover alone inspires several emotions in me and I hope it is a good peak at what the book will actually hold.


Summary (Courtesy of goodreads.com):

It’s been two years since Noelle disappeared. Two years since her bike was discovered, sprawled on a sidewalk. Two years of silence, of worry, of fear.

For those two long years, her best friend Tessa has waited, living her own life in a state of suspended animation. Because how can she allow herself to enjoy a normal high school life if Noelle can’t? How dare she have other friends, go to dances, date boys, without knowing what happened to the girl she thought she would share everything with?

And then one day, someone calls Noelle’s house. She’s alive.

A haunting psychological thriller taken straight from the headlines, The Tension of Opposites is a striking debut that explores the emotional aftermath of a kidnapping on the victim, and on the people she left behind.



This is a rough area to read, write and explore but I have high hopes that this one will pull it off and if so, what an amazing way to debut! This one is set for release May 25, 2010.

Random Rant

Okay so in my meanderings around the blogosphere, I have come across some topics which seem to crop up often- ones in which I cannot just ignore anymore. We've already learned I am opinionated so here is my opinion: I read a blog rant kind of recently (and I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was or I would link to it so I am really sorry and if it's yours, tell me and I will link....) about how people are saying Twilight is ruining literature and extending that, how every book now is compared to Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Twilight books but face it- those books hit it big because the characters were strong, they had the kind of innate, binding love that many of us only dream of, and because it was an entirely new take on vampires and not because it was some profoundly well written piece of work. And yes, they may be updating the covers on classics like Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet but if that gets people to read them as Edward and Bella’s favorite books, then so what? At least people are reading them and face it- if they REALLY didn’t want to read it, then an endorsement like that wouldn’t get them to pick it up. This is just a newer way to highlight the classics and honestly, I think that is amazing.

Now, anytime a vampire book hits the shelves people say the same thing: that author is just riding the Twilight wave. I disagree in so many ways with this. First off- an author doesn't write a book in one day, find a publisher the next, and have it hit shelves the next. Authors who are being published now have been working on their books for some time- then they had to find an agent, and THEN a publisher. Once the publisher picks it up, it doesn't immediately hit shelves either. It often takes at least a year-or at least that is the trend I seem to notice. Therefore things hitting shelves right now have been in the works for a few years- how can you ride a wave that you didn’t know really existed? So why everyone thinks that these authors who have worked really hard on a novel- developed an idea that was screaming in their mind and took the chance to actually go public with it- are just riding the Twilight wave I am not sure but to be honest, it really makes me mad. Vampires have been around well before Twilight- Queen of the Dammed, Lestat, Buffy- so why is Twilight the one thing that stands out so much? In truth, I think it is because it is the first YA book to hit it so astoundingly big since the Harry Potter series but also, I think THAT only happened because it got a movie deal. The same thing happened with Harry Potter- while it gained momentum with each book, it was the first movie that really sent everyone into a wizard frenzy and that was just as big if not bigger than the Twilight response. So for the people who keep saying that all these YA authors are just riding the Twilight wave- stop. That's disrespectful and rude. Maybe I only think that because I am an aspiring writer but it is my view. Actually, if I do ever get published, I will thank Stephenie Meyer because Twilight got so in my head after Eclipse that I wanted more and wrote fanfics to get the ideas out. I figured out pretty quickly that I was actually good at it and started getting a lot of reviewers telling me I should get published. That's when I really started thinking about it- and if Stephenie Meyer and JKR, two basically stay at home mom kinds, can make such popular works, then so can I. That is the effect they have had- something that they took the chance and did and has given many others the courage to take the same chance. They didn't write those books to get the movie deals- they just had these ideas and wanted to write them.

So the next part of my rant- how most everything seems to be compared to Twilight. WHY? Why does every book that is set in a high school science class suddenly become just another version of Twilight? Why is an immortal falling for a human a Twilight knock off? If it was true then these books would be about a vampire naked Edmund who could see people’s thoughts in a little thought bubble over their head who lived with a bunch of other vampires with different powers who fell in love with a smelly good human named Annabella. Are there books like that? No. So are these books knock offs? No so STOP saying that!

The immortal falling for a human is part of the intrigue with Twilight- that an ORDINARY, average human can be so wanted and loved rather than the beautiful, popular, skinnyass cheerleader that already has the attention of every boy in the world. Face it- the way it is now, if it is the average girl that the guy is after, then they are just knocking off Twilight but if its the popular girl, we don't like that either- we complain that that always happens, why can't for once it be the unwanted girl? So which is it because in a lot of reviews I read, we aren't happy with either. I say in some ways, it at least is a testament to how well Twilight got into our heads for that to be the benchmark for many other books but I really didn't think the writing was great in that series. There are books that are far more astounding and well written so when I read reviews of them where Twilight is mentioned somewhere, it irks me like crazy. My point of this: Stop comparing everything to Twilight. Stop making that the benchmark and stop being so sure that everyone who publishes a YA book- especially about vampires- is just riding the Twilight wave. Yes, early Twilight could have been an influence but I think that's why you see so many clumps of books with similar topics- writers are influenced by the same things in general but an author starting a book two years ago wasn’t doing it with intention of a riding a wave that barely existed. When the vampire books hitting shelves now were being picked up by publishers, Twilight was only just gaining so much momentum because of the first movie. That isn’t riding a wave- that’s being creative and taking a chance. And now look at how many vampire books there are and how many different takes there are now on vampires- these authors are making them unique so why are we focusing just on the fact that its vampires?

As for all the YA books that are getting movie deals now- I also don’t think that is riding a wave of any kind either. If that’s true, then couldn’t it be said that Twilight was just riding the Harry Potter wave? Harry Potter was still big until the first Twilight movie- then it was split. But guess what- when the next movie comes out, it will be wizard mania once again. Books will be selling once again, chocolates will be wrapped in Harry’s face, and notebooks geared towards teens will be plastered with all things Harry Potter. A whole lot more goes into optioning off rights to a movie than just a company or a screenwriter going I want to make that into a movie. Not any screenwriter can just pick up a book and write an adaptation- and yes, it is an ADAPTATION and NOT the book itself which is why movies are never the same as books.

And yes, some books do get optioned for movies before they even hit shelves but the screenwriters and movie agencies are getting access to these books. They aren’t taking the summary and basing it solely on that- believe it or not, they have indeed read the books, as have the screenwriters being optioned for it. Plus, just because a book is optioned or a deal is started doesn’t mean it actually happens. Some of these are straight to tv, some never happen at all. But a lot of books have always been made into movies- look through your DVD collection and really think about how many of them came from books. This isn’t something new- this isn’t some sudden wave. Yes, a lot of YA books are being looked at now for movies but so are adult titles- and those have been picked up longer. But I think that YA books hit a much wider range of people than adult fiction does. How many of you regularly read adult fiction novels, especially the teens? Not a lot. But how many adults read YA books? A lot. They are looking at their audiences and what they want- they are reacting to what we, as consumers, are after. So when the readers are falling in love with these titles, the movie companies take notice. If we love it, then so will the masses. That’s their theory because a lot more people are going to see the movies rather than read the books- or they will see the movie and THEN read the book. They aren’t riding off Twilight- they are riding off US.

Okay I will stop myself there but those are my thoughts on all this. If anyone disagrees- you’re allowed to. Feel free to leave comments but keep it nice. If you disagree- you can tell me- but if you attack me then I will delete your comment. This is my blog, my views, my outlet and safety ground so please don’t abuse that but I do want to know what everyone else thinks on this.