artsy musings of a bibliophile

Giveaway: I Choose You by Bethany Lopez

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Title: I Choose You (Friends & Lovers, #2)
Author: Bethany Lopez
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Self
Release Date: 27 December 2012
Pages: 312 (Paperback)

Synopsis

Up until now, Nicole’s life has been mapped out for her. She’d go to college, marry Jake and become the upstanding minister’s wife. When she leaves that life to begin again in a small town in Texas, she finally has the freedom to live as she chooses. There, she meets Kent, a guy whose charm and passion make it hard to stick to her morals.
Dodging his father’s fists and protecting his twin sister made Kent into the man he is today. He learned by watching his mother stay by his father’s side that it’s better to keep relationships simple. Then he meets Nicole. Her sweet smile and genuine response to him land like punches to his resolve. After a lifetime of learning to protect his heart, can he finally let down his guard?

The Excerpt

     They hit the trail hard. Nicole used the time to clear her head and to reflect on what Kent had told her about his childhood.

     They’d led very different lives, and Nicole couldn’t imagine the obstacles he’d dealt with growing up, but she was very impressed with the man he was today.

     Kent made sure they did some cool down stretches before getting back in the car.

     He’d worried briefly that Nicole would look at him differently when he’d told her a little about his upbringing, but he was happy that he had. He wasn’t ready to tell her everything yet, but he was comfortable with what he’d told her.

     He drove her back to her apartment and walked her to the door.

     “Do you want to come in?” Nicole asked him, her face was flush from exertion and glistened prettily.

     Kent felt a strong urge to gather her in his arms and take her to her room, kissing and stroking her gloriously toned body along the way. He imagined carrying her into the shower and lathering her up.

     He shook his head, trying in vain to calm his raging hormones. He felt like a teenager again: unbearably horny and unable to find release. Well… At least not the way he wanted to.

     “Um, no,” He replied gruffly. “I’d better not. You have to get ready for work and I have some stuff to do at my house. I’ll give you a call later.”

     He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead, then turned and jogged down the stairs, leaving her there staring off after him, the confusion she felt apparent on her face.

About the Author

Bethany Lopez was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Michigan and San Antonio, Texas. She went to High School at Dearborn High, in Dearborn, Michigan, which is where she has set her Young Adult novel. She is married and has a blended family with five children. She is currently serving in the United States Air Force as a Recruiter in Los Angeles, California. She has always loved to read and write and has seen her dream realized by independently publishing her contemporary Young Adult series, Stories About Melissa. Ta Ta for Now!, xoxoxo, and Ciao are available now. Bethany is currently working on a Contemporary Fantasy YA and a Contemporary New Adult Trilogy.

Bethany Lopez can be found at 

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Buy Make It Last (Friends & Lovers, #1)

The Giveaway
Bethany Lopez has offered a Kindle copy of I Choose You in the international giveaway below. Enter away!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks to ATOMR for the promo event.

Review: Shift by Raine Thomas

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Title: Shift (Firstborn, #2)

Author: Raine Thomas
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Iambe Books
Release Date: 24 August 2012
Pages: 323 (eBook)

Synopsis

Having the ability to shapeshift, Sophia is familiar with change. But even she feels the rising tension in her homeland.
A shadowy male and deadly beast reside in their midst. The births of the newest Kynzesti loom. Hostile Mercesti continue to hunt for the Elder Scroll, and a traumatized female is too afraid to use her abilities to stop them.
Topping off Sophia’s stress is Quincy, the male she’s convinced can’t stand her. She rues the loss of their friendship, but can’t figure out how to move past it. She’ll soon learn, however, that mending that rift bears more significance than she ever imagined.
The search for the Elder Scroll takes on unexpected urgency, and Sophia finds herself in a race across the mainland. To stop the Mercesti led by Eirik, she and her companions must get past their differences and unite against them. If they don’t, Eirik will acquire the immense power he seeks, and two of the beings Sophia loves most will die.


My Rating
* * * *
The Review
Shift follows the events that occurred in Defy as the back story but it focuses on Sophia and Quincy as the protagonists. I looked forward to reading Sophia’s story because she is different in appearance and abilities from the rest of her class due to her different DNA. Thus, it is curious to see how she sees herself and how she copes with the fact that she is different. Where Tate is defiant, free-spirited and stubborn, Sophia’s personality shines through her intellect and her ability to reason. However, this also makes her prone to come to wrong conclusions when it comes to the matters of heart and Quincy.
Quincy has been staying with the family to oversee the pregnancies of the Saraquel daughters as he is an obstetrician. However, Saraquel was his best friend and he is considered like family to them. His feelings for Sophia extend far beyond the love one has for family and it seems everyone is aware of it except Sophia herself. This is also true for Sophie. It is interesting to see two people apparently so in love with each other trying to hide behind the shadow of masked emotions. Both of them are convinced that the other cannot stand the site of them.
But when Quincy has to recount the events that led to Saraquel’s death, Sophia sees that he has no one to comfort him. This leads to an intervention where Sophia ends up blurting out her thoughts out loud. Quincy immediately sees the error of his way but the plans of Eirik and Metis stands in the way. Sophia also has to fully embrace her ability to shift and it is very interesting to see her change in that way.
The relationship of Tate and Zachariah also feature in Shift and it is good to read about their relationship and read more about the background of Zachariah. A big event occurs in Shift which changes their relationship forever and I didn’t see it coming at all.
Shift gives a deeper insight into the evil plan introduced in Defy. For the Mercesti to become an Elder, the help of abilities Ariana and Tate have are required. Hence, it becomes a race against time as the Elders seek to get to the scroll before Eirik can and this ensues much of the action in the book.
Even though the book deals with a lot of characters, each of them have something different to offer to the reader. Raine Thomas has written everything with such preciseness that it wasn’t hard to keep up with all that was happening in Shift. It would be interesting to see how things end for everyone in Elder as the big revelation at the end of Shift had me reeling for the last book. Shift is a great book with humor, awkwardness, romance, betrayal and action all packed in together making it a page-turner of a book.
Best Quotes:
“And this time, when she lashed out at him, it was with the arm of a bear. She ripped through fabric and muscle as her claws and power struck him. This time, he was the one who fell.”

““The kind of emotion required to create an avowed pairing is unparalleled,” he said at last. “Two beings have to love each other unequivocally. They have to be willing to commit their entire existences to each other…die for one another.”” 

Raine Thomas can be found at 
| Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Publisher |
Buy Shift (Firstborn, #2)
| Amazon | Amazon (Kindle) | B&N | Smashwords

Thanks to Raine Thomas for providing me a copy of Shift for review.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Resolve to Read In 2013

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Happy Brand New 2013, everyone!

How do you all like the new blog design? I am still learning the HTML ropes so I decided to tweak it and voila, this is the result. I wanted to tone down that red and do the classic white-on-black for ideal reading.

Also, this is my first ever TTT post as I’ve become a fan of lists recently and I thought why not give this a go. My Tuesdays need to be more interesting.

  1. Delirium by Lauren Oliver – I know of its existence since before it came out and I’ve been trying to read it but guess not that hard enough. I actually bought it today and I can finally say that I will be reading Delirium. Phew.
  2. Divergent by Veronica Roth – I never really planned to read it as such (I still don’t know what’s its really about) but all the buzz around Insurgent and then the countless ravings. I had to give in.
  3. Wither by Lauren DeStefano – Genetic time bomb. ‘Nuff said.
  4. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater – I never liked werewolves because of all the books (mainly Twilight)  hat made them look like a weaker, lesser version of a vampire. I want to let go of that and embrace the wolves. Figuratively, that is.
  5. Uglies by Scott Westerfield – I am so intrigued by the concept alone that it’s a surprise I didn’t read it during sleep or something.
  6. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter – I love spies and a teenage girl spy, I don’t know how I could have missed reading the books long before 2013.
  7. Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson – I love road trip books like it’s nobody’s business and I’ve dying to read this.
  8. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa – I am ashamed. In my defense however, I started it and then school knocked on the door so…
  9. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins – I love all things Eiffel Tower and I’d like to read this.
  10. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen – I’ve got to admit I’ve never read any Sarah Dessen *ducks head* but I plan to change that and go back to the roots of YA contemporary this 2013.

So this is it for me. How did you’ll fare?

Link up your Top Ten Tuesday’s post below and I’ll be sure to visit!

2012 End of Year Book Survey

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A survey by Jamie from The Perpetual Page-Turner.

BEST IN BOOKS 2012


BEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?
As a reader it’s always hard to choose just one and as a human being it’s impossible. So here how I cheated on the question based on the genres I read most this year.
BOOK YOU WERE EXCITED ABOUT AND THOUGHT YOU’D LOVE BUT DIDN’T?
Silver by Talia Vance, I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t connect to the characters or feel for them in any way unfortunately.

MOST SURPRISING (IN A GOOD WAY) BOOK OF 2012?
Through to You by Emily Hainsworths. I really thought this would be an okay read but the writing as well as the simplistic story took me by surprise and I fell in love with it.

BOOK YOU RECOMMENDED TO PEOPLE MOST IN 2012?

Take Me There by Carolee Dean because it is my favorite book. I just love Dylan Dawson and his story just breaks my heart and puts it together every time I read the book. I also recommended Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry a lot because you just can’t live without ever knowing the Noah Hutchkins and her siren, Echo Emerson.

BEST SERIES YOU DISCOVERED IN 2012?

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Duh.

FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR YOU DISCOVERED IN 2012?

Katie McGarry is definitely a favorite of mine even though I have to read more than a book to decide that. I also completely love Suzanne Collins and John Green is a pretty good author as well. Ada Adams is super talented and awesome, I adore her and her books. Heather Ostler and Jessica Therrien are both awesome authors who write kickass books.

BEST BOOK THAT WAS OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE OR A NEW GENRE FOR YOU?

This year I didn’t pick up much of those because I never felt like it but out of the ones I did, I guess it’d have to be Tundra 37 by Aubrie Dionne because I hardly ever read any sci-fi romance and the book really pulled me in.

MOST THRILLING, UNPUTDOWNABLE BOOK IN 2012?

ExtraNormal by Suze Reese because it had an alien among humans and I just wanted to know so bad what happens and how it will happen. Everything was live with an undercurrent of mystery and apprehensiveness and there were a lot of risks involved when it came to Mira’s job.

BOOK YOU READ IN 2012 THAT YOU ARE MOST LIKELY TO RE-READ NEXT YEAR.

A lot of them actually. I’ll definitely be reading The Hunger Games trilogy, The Fault in Our Stars, Pushing the Limits, From What I Remember…, Matched series and Angel Creek series.


FAVORITE COVER OF A BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?

MOST MEMORABLE CHARACTER IN 2012? 
Definitely Katniss Everdeen and Cinna from The Hunger Games trilogy, Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars, Noah Hutchkins and Echo Emerson from Pushing the Limits, Will Bixby from From What I Remember… and Anya Balanchine from All These Things I’ve Done. Freaking awesome characters.

MOST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BOOK READ IN 2012?

The bittersweet and dark prose of Pretty In Black by Rae Hachton was very engaging and a girl who hangs out in the cemetery? You just know it will be written beautifully and will be too good to ignore.


BOOK THAT HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT ON YOU IN 2012?

Even though I only read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green like two days ago, I know this book is going to stay with me for a long time.

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin also had a great impact on me because of the living conditions of Anya and what she goes through. It’s mind boggling-ly good.

BOOK YOU CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WAITED UNTIL 2012 TO FINALLY READ?

Definitely The Hunger Games trilogy even though I totally had to wait till 2012 because I wanted to read it in print and I couldn’t find it anywhere and when I did find it, I was so busy due to school and all. Sigh.

FAVORITE QUOTE FROM A BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (twatlantis)


SHORTEST AND LONGEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?

Longest book I read was From What I Remember… by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas with 480 pages. It’s surprising because I had so much fun reading it.
Shortest book I read was The Forever Contract by Avery Sawyer. Even though it is only 46 pages long, it managed to leave an impact on me. I wish it was longer though.

BOOK THAT HAD A SCENE IN IT THAT HAD YOU REELING AND DYING TO TALK TO SOMEBODY ABOUT IT?

The ending of Catching Fire totally caught me by surprise. For a minute there, my mouth was literally hanging open.

FAVORITE RELATIONSHIP FROM A BOOK YOU READ IN 2012.

I loved the relationship between Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games trilogy, they are just inexplainably just so good together, they got each others’ backs and have a sense of each other’s needs better than their own. I also loved the relationship of Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars, they’re like the best couple ever. I want that for myself sigh.

FAVORITE BOOK YOU READ IN 2012 FROM AN AUTHOR YOU READ PREVIOUSLY.

I read a lot of books by debut and indie authors this year so I didn’t read much of book two and such. However, I loved Crossed by Ally Condie. I wasn’t blown away by Matched but Crossed made me feel all sorts of emotions and it had everything I love in a book. All the time I was hoping and praying that Cassia meets Ky but I wasn’t sure what will happen if they do and how it will all play out. 

BEST BOOK YOU READ THAT YOU READ BASED SOLELY ON A RECOMMENDATION FROM SOMEBODY ELSE:

Inbetween by Tara Fuller because of all the buzz on Twitter about bloggers loving it and I decided to check it out. It’s an amazing read and Finn is pretty swoon-worthy. 

BOOK BLOGGING/READING LIFE IN 2012

NEW FAVORITE BOOK BLOG YOU DISCOVERED IN 2012? 

I started last year in November so I discovered literally a couple hundreds book blogs and out of those I really love Ron’s Stories of my Life, Mandee’s Vegan YA Nerds, Elena’s Novel Sounds, Sam’s Realm of Fiction and Amelia’s The Authoress.

FAVORITE REVIEW THAT YOU WROTE IN 2012? 

I really loved my review of Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs because it just flowed out of my mind and onto the page.


BEST DISCUSSION YOU HAD ON YOUR BLOG?
Sadly, I haven’t had any. I suck.

MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING REVIEW OR DISCUSSION YOU READ ON SOMEBODY ELSE’S BLOG?

A lot! From the top of my head: Amy reviewed Flawed by Kate Avelynn on her blog and I just loved that review so much! Also Vicky’s review of In the Woods by Tana French was totally awesome, I loved her choice of words.

I read several on Anna’s blog Literary Exploration and I loved the one titled ARCs – What they are, how to get them, and what to do with them, it helped me a lot as a newbie blogger. Vicky also posts great discussions and I really liked her post titled Is Blogging Becoming a Popularity Contest?


BEST EVENT THAT YOU PARTICIPATED IN?
I participated in Armchair BEA and Bout of Books 5.0 this year. They were both pretty awesome events and I got to discover a lot of great bloggers.

BEST MOMENT OF BOOK BLOGGING IN 2012?
All the Twitter chats for Bout of Books 5.0 were awesome, I had a lot of fun tweeting about the books I was reading, having bookish discussions and getting to know other Book Bouters.

MOST POPULAR POST THIS YEAR ON YOUR BLOG?
My blogoversary post which got 1200+ views.

POST YOU WISHED GOT A LITTLE MORE LOVE?

All of them! Ha ha no, I just wish more people read my review of Take Me There by Carolee Dean and discover what an awesome book it is!


BEST BOOKISH DISCOVERY?

I discovered the third floor of a bookstore I had been visiting for years and it had YA books! I was shocked because there are never any YA books in my country except for the extremely popular ones like Twilight or Fallen series. I am so glad that now I can read more print books. I don’t mind eBooks but still yay!


DID YOU COMPLETE ANY READING CHALLENGES OR GOALS THAT YOU HAD SET FOR YOURSELF AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR?

I wanted to read 100 books but I got to read 87 so had to reduce my challenge to 85 ha ha. Other than that I finished the YA contemporary as well as the Stand Alone reading challenges.

LOOKING AHEAD…


BOOK YOU DIDN’T GET TO IN 2013 BUT WILL BE YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IN 2014?

Get this: Before book blogging there were about a hundred books in my to-read shelf and today there are 500+. But from the top of my head I really want to read Delirium and Divergent series. I need moar dystopia nom nom nom.


BOOK YOU ARE MOST ANTICIPATING FOR 2013?

A lot. I’ll list a few of them here:


ONE THING YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH OR DO IN YOUR READING/BLOGGING IN 2013.

Cross the one hundred books read mark and bring out more of me in my book blog with spontaneous posts and discussions. Hopefully.

Review: Owlet by Emma Michaels Blog Tour + Excerpt + Giveaway

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Click the banner for the tour schedule.

Title: Owlet (Society of Feathers, #1)

Author: Emma Michaels
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Tribute Books
Release Date: 13 October 2012
Pages: 178 (eARC)

Synopsis
Somewhere between falling and flying… there is a girl.

Iris has a secret. She lost her memory eight years ago and never told a living soul. After an asthma attack one night she finds out that her dreams of a strange house on a snowy island may be a memory resurfacing but the more she learns about the past the more she realizes the life she has been living is a lie. As the façade her father has built starts to crumble around her she will have to decide which means more to her; the truth or her life.
My Rating
* * * *
The Review
Owlet begins and ends with a dream and in between, the words have a singsong and dreamlike quality to them as if they are floating inside the mind of the reader. 
I didn’t know what to expect from Iris and her story. It is so unique to read a fantasy book where the main character is asthmatic, dreams of flying and has more than a subtle conscience speaking to her about the life she no longer remembers.
While the reason behind Iris’s memory loss is not made clear, it is clear that Iris is being protected from humans that want her dead. Humans that are have birds as half-souls just like her. Iris was supposed to have dies as a baby because of what she was thought to be. But unconditional love made her parents want to protect her at any cost and that cost was not telling Iris who she really is.
Yet she dreams of an island she calls her Never-Never and flies to that island in her dreams and knows it like the back of her hand. When she finally gathers the courage to tell her father about the strange dreams, he is overjoyed and relieved. He decides to send her to the island with Diana, her caretaker telling her he’d join her soon and finally tell her the truth.
On the island, which is exactly like the her Never-Never, her mind tells her that she will also find him. He who has been waiting for her to find him and in her core she really knows him. Falcon was sent to harm her but he couldn’t do it and instead they fell in love as children. But then the dangerous circumstances and her memory loss made her forget him. Now he is adamant to never go through the pain of her not recognizing him.
Owlet is a very refreshing book in the fantasy genre. It isn’t long and when it ended I wanted to go on reading about the true self of Iris and what it means for Falcon. Though we only get to read about the secondary characters for a short amount of time, they really stick with you especially Diana and Nathanial. Emma Michaels is a talented author for having written Owlet with such an open mind and embracing the concept of the Stryx. I am looking forward to read more of her work.
Best Quotes:

“Chocolate chip pancakes are more important than grudges.”

“Closing her eyes for a moment, just wanting to clear away the tears from her lashes so that she could see Falcon clearly, Iris suddenly felt as though she was being pulled away from sweet oblivion as her moment of dreamless sleep slipped away from her and she felt snow against her skin.”

The Excerpt for the read along
The song is part of the legend. There is the original legend on the Vermilion but then there is also the Stryx legend of Tessa and Orinthian. Tessa was a Vermilion who fell in love with Orinthian. When word of their sad story spread songs were written about it, and this was one of them, a more recent version, in fact. My favorite…

Even as the stars shine, I only see the night.
Until I found a way to illuminate my sky;
A simple touch palm to palm with the man I came to love;
Sent the vivid colors of the world pouring into my gaze.
A simple touch that changed my life, as;
My heart started to dream in color.
I may be blind but he showed me the beauty the world had to offer;
By giving me one breath of his life at a time.
Slowly as he showed me sights I watched his face wither;
As my seeing the world’s beauty slowly stole him away from me.
I ran from him on swift wings to a place of safety;
And asked the Eyrie to lay me to rest.
I would not risk one of their own for my greed;
But as I asked them to let me pass,
I remembered that I had never seen the sun rise through the sky.
I asked them for only one favor,
I wanted to die flying;
On the Isle of White, from the highest cliff at sunrise;
I stood on the edge of death and felt the warmth on my face.
But before I could fall forward I felt gentle palms against my own,
And saw the sky was more than I ever imagined.
The colors set my heart afire.
As it did I watched my Orinthian’s sacrifice;
I faced a choice worse than the only one I had graced myself;
And learned to fly;
Flying to his side again;
Somewhere we would always see the world’s most exquisite beauty…
Together.

About the Author

Emma Michaels is the author of the ‘A Sense of Truth’ and ‘Society of Feathers’ series. Her goal with her latest YA novel ‘Owlet’ is to give others what she did not have growing up; a strong female protagonist with asthma. While her previous aspiration was to be a lady knight she realized that not being able to run more than a few feet might become a hindrance so turned to writing instead. Her day jobs include being a cover artist, marketing consultant and silk screen designer.

As the founder of The Writers Voice blog she loves to connect authors and readers. As a book blogger turned author, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, until she moved at eighteen to Washington State. Suddenly, the world was a new place filled with tall green trees that reached further for the sky with every moment, making her want to do the same. Ever since, she has tried to make her life something new and different from what it was before, pursuing her future career, setting high goals and reaching for them. With the support of her fiancé, Chihuahua, and her amazing blog followers and fellow bloggers, she wants to prove to the world that anything is possible and help inspire fellow literary lovers to reach for their dreams.


Emma Michaels can be found at 

| Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Publisher |
Tribute Books can be found at
| Website | Facebook | Twitter |
Buy Owlet (Society of Feathers, #1)

| Amazon (Kindle) | B&N | iBookStore | Payloadz (pdf) | Smashwords |

The Giveaway

The giveaway is open internationally and there are lots of prizes up for grabs! Enter away.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to Tribute Books for providing me a copy of Owlet for review.