artsy musings of a bibliophile

Armchair BEA: Beyond My Blog

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Design Credit: NinaReads

Armchair BEA is a virtual event for the book bloggers who can’t attend Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention in New York this June (June 4 – 8, 2012). Go to Armchair BEA for more details and to join in all the fun!

Today’s post is about going “Beyond My Blog” and so it’s all about sharing tips for getting beyond the blog! But as it doesn’t really apply I’m going to hare a fun aspect about my blog or life that may be completely separate from books. 


Today I want to talk about a fun aspect of my life is that I like solitude more than I like being among people. Now I know that doesn’t really sound like fun exactly but I love hiking! I think mountains are the most beautiful and serene part of nature and I can totally imagine myself living in a cabin up on the top of a mountain, preferably in a cold region. No skyscrapers view for me, I am all for the greens, the hills and the altitude! Think a cup of tea, a book and mountain, sounds divine.

Lucky for me, the city I live in is a valley and so I get a 24 hour view of mountains right from my window. A fun trivia is that one of the mountains form the shape of a sleeping beauty. You can see the face and bosom of in the picture below:

So what do you guys think?

Armchair BEA: Best of 2012

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Design Credit: NinaReads

Armchair BEA is a virtual event for the book bloggers who can’t attend Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention in New York this June (June 4 – 8, 2012). Go to Armchair BEA for more details and to join in all the fun!

Today’s post is about “Best of 2012”: So I am going to share some of my favorite books so far this year. I’ve read 27 books (yeah, I am going kind of slow but no worries, summer is here!) and out of that I am posting my Top 5 picks.


Oppression (Children of the Gods, #1) by Jessica Therrien
Night Sky by Jolene B Perry
The Shapeshifter’s Secret by Heather Ostler
ExtraNormal (ExtraNormal, #1) by Suze Reese
When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle
Click on the book title to read my review.

What are your Best of 2012 titles? Leave a link!

Armchair BEA: Introduction

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Design Credit: NinaReads

Armchair BEA is a virtual event for the book bloggers who can’t attend Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention in New York this June (June 4 – 8, 2012). Go to Armchair BEA for more details and to join in all the fun!

Today’s post is about getting to know the participants of Armchair BEA where the bloggers have to answer any of the five questions. So here I go!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I am Sana and I turned 22 years old this year (I still can’t believe that!). I am a university student majoring in Environmental Sciences and minoring in Food Science and Human Nutrition. I have been blogging since the November of last year. I decided to get into blogging because I was on Goodreads for abnormal amounts of time everyday and so discovered that most of the bibliophiles had blogs. I checked them out and I felt like this is something I can totally fit into: the blogging community. Needless to say, it has been a great experience and I have made more virtual book buddies in this short amount of time than I ever did in the real world.
What are you currently reading?
I discovered that I’ve been reading more ever since I started blogging and usually reading more than one book at a time, too. Currently, I am reading Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore for its blog tour as well as Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers which is actually on hold because I got busy with the university stuff.
What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?
Idris from The Mortal Instruments series. No doubt about that. The whole confrontation scene of Jace and Clary with Valentine and how Idris had the power to lure Jace actually made me want to snatch that piece of shattered glass from Jace and jump into Idris somehow. So definitely that. I mean who doesn’t want to see glass structures and endless greenery. Sigh…
What is your favorite part about the book blogging community?
My favorite part of the book blogging community is making friends that one can share the love of books with. The feeling of finding a friend who can understand why reading is not just a habit but a part of life is just exhilarating and unmatched. Also, I get to squeal. Virtually. *wink wink*
Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?
Definitely, I used to read more books from the adult genre than the young adult. However, being on twitter and following blogs I love, I have started reading more and more YA fiction and God knows, it is highly addictive!

Review: Spectral by Shannon Duffy Blog Tour

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Click the banner for the tour schedule.

Title: Spectral

Author: Shannon Duffy
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: Tribute Books
Release Date: 10 April 2012
Pages: 242 (eBook)

Synopsis
Convinced she’s a part of the witness protection program, sixteen-year-old Jewel Rose is shuffled around the globe with her family like a pack of traveling gypsies. After arriving at lucky home twenty-seven, she stumbles upon a mysterious boy with magical powers claiming to be her guardian . . . and warning of imminent danger. Despite the obvious sparks between them, Jewel discovers a relationship is forbidden, and the more she learns about dark, brooding Roman, she begins to question who she can even believe—the family who raised her, or the supposed sworn protector who claims they’ve been lying to her all along.

As she struggles to uncover who her family has really been running from, she is forced to hide her birthmark that reveals who she is. With new realities surfacing, unexplained powers appearing, and two tempting boys vying for her heart, Jewel battles to learn who she can trust in an ever growing sea of lies, hoping she’ll make it through her seventeenth birthday alive.

My Rating
* * *
The Review
I don’t think I have ever read a better book about witches and witchcraft than Spectral. Spectral is nothing like you would imagine it to be. Jewel Rose cannot remember the last time her family stayed in one place for enough time for her to make friends and feel like she belonged. In her almost seventeen years, she had been enrolled in 26 schools and counting. Being used to living the life she has, Jewel has stopped questioning. Out loud. But all she really thinks about is the absurdity of it all and how much she wants to life a normal life.
Her seventeenth birthday is a special one and being born during a rare time of the year a total lunar eclipse which occurred at the same time as the full moon during the summer solstice. However, Jewel isn’t too thrilled with the most unexpected of their moves till yet and the pink bedroom.
Jewel finds out more about herself and her family during a period of two months than she has in all her life. Chase, the guy at school, seems to like her and the new guy, Roman intrigues her. But then her grandmother, Aunt Eva and Uncle Boris arrive to stay for a month. Overhearing a conversation about her being a Spectral worries her and Jewel decides to take matters into her own hands and to find answers.
Her decision takes her on a journey to discover the truth about her family, decide who is it that she wants to be with: Chase or Roman and most of all, whether she going to come out of the chaos alive. Spectral starts out normal and picks up the pace as the story gets more complicated and a lot of action occurs with a dash of a budding romance, weird happenings, family pressures and petty jealousies. 
Spectral has marked its spot in the paranormal genre with a promising synopsis and a striking cover. It has it all from the first sentence on. What’s not to like in a book with a family hiding secrets longer than the years Jewel has spent on earth and a gorgeous boy who claims to be her guardian? Spectral is one of the must-reads of 2012.
Best Quote:

“Even in the middle of complete chaos, I felt something I’d never felt before. It was something I believed was hope.”

About the Author

Shannon Duffy writes young adult and middle grade fiction. She grew up on the beautiful east coast of Canada and now lives in Ontario, Canada. She is the mom of one boy, Gabriel, her angel. She loves writing, reading, working out, soccer, and the sport of champions-shopping. She is the author of the young adult paranormal romance, SPECTRAL. Her upcoming middle grade fantasy novel, GABRIEL STONE AND THE DIVINITY OF VALTA is scheduled for a January 2013 release.

Shannon Duffy can be found at 
| Amazon (Kindle) | B&N | iBooks | Smashwords |


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

Review: Want by Stephanie Lawton Blog Tour

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Click the banner for the tour schedule.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Want

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: InkSpell Publishing
Release Date: 7 June 2012
Pages: 283 (eARC)
Julianne counts the days until she can pack her bags and leave her old-money, tradition-bound Southern town where appearance is everything and secrecy is a way of life. A piano virtuoso, she dreams of attending a prestigious music school in Boston. Failure is not an option, so she enlists the help of New England Conservatory graduate Isaac Laroche to help her.
She can’t understand why he suddenly gave up Boston’s music scene to return to the South. He doesn’t know her life depends on escaping it. Julianne must face down madness from without, just as it threatens from within. Isaac must resist an inappropriate attraction, but an indiscretion at a Mardi Gras ball—the pinnacle event for Mobile’s elite—forces their present wants and needs to collide with sins of the past.
THE RATING
* * *
THE REVIEW
“The thing that makes us great is the same thing that drags us down.” This quote completely and utterly defines what I was looking for in Want. Artists are troubled human beings; they are unstable and moody at their best and at their worst. They are made out of stuff normal human beings cannot comprehend or are unable to. 
Julianne is on a path to self-destruction despite having a seemingly normal family life. But underneath all that normal are double-standards and secrecy which Julianne has had enough of. Her piano skills are the only way of getting her a one-way ticket out of the hellhole of a town. But when things go bad, they are bound to become worse for Julianne.
As Julianne’s piano teacher falls ill, she is forced to practice under a new teacher by the name of Isaac Laroche. Isaac is bad news for Julianne from the start, he has a ton of emotional baggage and a dark side surrounding him for a mile. But it is inevitable for Julianne to fall for him. Reading Want, I never gave a second thought to how bad Isaac really is for Julianne. Also, the other major issue in Julianne’s life regarding her mother kind of just sucked me in.
Want is a very emotional read because you can see that Julianne is going to spontaneously combust one of these days and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown with all the beating she has to take and the way Isaac keeps shutting her out more than he lets her in. Julianne is really unable to see that Isaac is just a shell of a man he was once. Moreover, she holds back when it comes to composing pieces. It is Dave who finally make her break free of her hesitation.
Dave is Isaac’s best friend and his complete opposite. Where Isaac is dark and broody, Dave is light and fun to be with. I was surprised at the role he played in Julianne’s life when her father is always too busy, her brother is away at college and a mother who is good for nothing. It is no surprise that for Julianne, playing piano is only the form of escapism she has and craves.
The way things ended in Want was pretty unpredictable for me and now that I think about it, I think I like the ending. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and I am glad I get to read a book where a musical instrument is the main focus. I look forward to reading more by Stephanie Lawton.

THE QUOTES

Isaac heaves a sigh and motions for me to scoot over. “Okay, listen. I’m going to tell you something. About a theory I have.”
“About me? Oh, sorry. There I go again with the selfish crap. It’s not all about me.”
“This kind of is. Both of us. It’s artistic burden, the theory that all creative people like being weird and moody and need some…unbalance or crisis. The thing that makes us great is the same thing that drags us down. Writers and painters suffer, too.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After collecting a couple English degrees in the Midwest, Stephanie Lawton suddenly awoke in the deepest reaches of the Deep South. Culture shock inspired her to write about Mobile, Alabama, her adopted city, and all the ways Southern culture, history and attitudes seduce the unsuspecting.
A lover of all things gothic, she can often be spotted photographing old cemeteries, historic buildings and, ironically, the beautiful beaches of the Gulf Coast. She also has a tendency to psychoanalyze people, which comes in handy when creating character profiles.
Stephanie Lawton can be found at 
Buy Want
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Thanks to Stephanie Lawton and EBT for providing me a copy of Want for review.