The day: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Who: Beth Fantaskey

What: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Where: Barnes & Nobles Amazon

When: December 1st, 2008

Why: Interest

How: Borrowed

The undead can really screw up your senior year ...

Marrying a
vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life”
plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius
Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by
birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy
of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions,
Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam
European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on
Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a
global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction

If you have never read this book before, get your butt to a bookstore and buy it! I HATE the summary, because it makes the story sound light and fluffy, and because of it, I had been expecting a chick-lit book about vampires. I. WAS. SO. WRONG. This book was perfectly angst, full of tension, consequences, all that good stuff. And it was surprisingly....dark. LOVED it!
The beginning pretty much starts out like any average vampire book. Girl does to school, blah blah blah, feels like something mysterious is going on, blah blah blah, THEN meets boy. But don't let that discourage you because Beth completely re-wrote this genre. Seriously, I never once went "Hey, this kinda sounds like _____ or _____" because it never did. Beth gave me a new, refreshing world with a unique take on vampires.
Jessica's character is strong, determined, and not annoying. Because really, there are a lot of heroines that just annoy. But she was logical and thought Lucius was high when he said she was a vampire, which actually MAKES sense! I love it when the heroine is shocked when they're love interest is a paranormal creature, because you are seriously not just going to go: "Oh, really? That's cool." Your going to either 1)Scream 2)Laugh or 3)Be in denial. Jessica was insecure (like most girls are), headstrong, and stubborn. Loved her.
And Lucius *swoon*. Is it weird to find him especially smexy when he's angry? He was a gentlemen, kind yet arrogant (which I kinda really love in fictional guys) and perfectly scarred. He wasn't emo and depressed all the time because of his past, but instead accepted it as part of him and didn't try to push it away. And he's perfectly dangerous ;)
I really, really, really loved this book. It was the perfect combination of love, freedom, consequences and the right to be one's self, not the person people have molded you to be.
I rate: AWESOMESAUCE

Comment! Discuss! Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.

ETA:
I read my friend's review of Jessica's Guide and remembered something. I was a bit ticked off about the whole sob-plot with Faith and did not like it at all. That was something I did not like at all.

Once Upon a Readathon Wrap up

I FAILED EPICLY PEOPLE!

Like seriously, epicly.

Day one:

Recieved crap-load of books.
Changed all my books from my lists to the ones I recieved.
GOT KIDNAPPED BY MY SISTER TO GO TO THE BEACH!
Started Personal Demons

Day two:
Didn't get any reading done because Tuesdays are Total Revision Lockdown days with the co-writer. She wouldn't dare let me sneak some reads into it. LOCKDOWN!

Day three:
FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!

I did manage to finish ONE book and it wasn't even on my list! (Feel the failness) which was Maximum Ride Number 5. My friend made me.

*Sigh*
Happy Reading and expect a Jessica's Guide to Dating on The Dark Side review!
-Harmony B.

The day in which I kick off Emma Michael's Friday the Thirteenth Chime Blog Tour!

Hey guys! It's Monday, and I'm here to introduce the wonderful Emma Micheal's to the blog! She's a sweetheart and has an awesome book coming out called: The Thirteenth Chime.

I emailed her and asked if she wanted me to make a blog tour for her and she's been super sweet and nice ever since we met! This blog tour will be going on all the way until the release date, which is AUGUST, FRIDAY THE 13TH. Yeah, I know that's really cool!

If you guys wanna follow this blog tour, just click the button on the upper right corner and it'll take you to where we'll be posting the days! She'll appear on various blogs every 2 DAYS and you'll see seeing a lot of her on some of your favorite blogs!

The Thirteenth Chime:

No one knew of its existence until it was
removed from the attic upstairs.

In a beautiful house
that overlooks the sea, an antique clock has the power to change the course of their lives.

The power the clock resonates will not only force
Destiny and ex-boyfriend David on a journey into the depths of one man's mind long dead, but
into the mind of a man filled with hatred and bent on revenge.

With the
only clues to the nature of the clock having disappeared into the sea, Destiny and David must retrace the steps the man had taken into the darkness, before they fall prey to the trap he had set in motion over half a century ago.

Hatred never dies

Sounds crazy good, right? I'm excited to read it :)

INTERVIEW:

1) Hey, Emma! Welcome to Harmony's Radiant Reads! So you’re a book blogger turned author, how does it feel making that huge transition?

It feels wonderful! It's like when you are climbing a really big hill, you keep looking around and wondering if you will ever get to the top... it seems like such a hard climb. But it is so wonderful to finally make it to your destination! Now I just intend to hit the New York Times Bestsellers list so time to keep climbing!

2) Summarize your novel in 4 words!

True bonds never die.

3) So how'd you go about finding your agent? Any query stories to share?

Actually, I don't have an agent yet. I queried agents for over six months and I received nothing back but standard form rejections. No one even asked to see my manuscript! Then a dear friend pointed out that there was no way agents were basing themselves off of my writing as they hadn't read any of my work, so I took the plunge and submitted directly to publishers who would accept unsolicited work. I can't tell you how wonderful the responses have been! The difference is like night and day and I have been really grateful for the optimism and encouragement I have received.

4) Which one of your characters do you feel like you can relate to the most?

Probably Stephanie. I relate to her heart and spirit very much. I think others will agree with me, although there is no denying the deep bond between David and Destiny.

5) If you could live with 3 fictional YA characters, who would they be?

Willow from the new YA release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (come on, it's Willow!), Hermione from Harry Potter so that I would always have someone to answer my research questions, and David, my YA lead guy (read "The Thirteenth Chime" to understand why).

6) Have you always wanted to be a writer? If not, what did you want to be?

Yes, I have always wanted to be a writer, although for a time I also wanted to be a surgeon! Sadly, my body is not capable of keeping up with the long hours of surgery, but at least I managed to succeed in one of my lifelong dreams and I must say I would rather get stay at home and create new worlds and novels from my comfy chair with my laptop than have to feel the weight of a human life on my shoulders in an ER. I feel really blessed and grateful for the way my life has turned out.

7) Finally, what's your most recent YA read?

Currently, I am reading Beautiful Dead by Eden Magquire.

Thank you for having me here at Harmony's Radiant Reads. Your wonderful support means so much. Thank you to everyone reading this and I truly hope you will enjoy The Thirteenth Chime!

~~~

Hope you guys enjoyed this because I really loved working with Emma and organizing this whole tour! Check out Emma's site or click the Blog Tour Button at the top for the next tour stops!

Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.

The day in which I join my first Read-a-thon

Hello fellow earthlings. I have decided that I would join my first ever Read-a-Thon over at Lori's blog.

The Read-a-thon lasts three days, starting tomorrow. The goal is to...well READ!

Goal: 8 books (it'd be more but on Tuesday I can't read until the night time because it's total Revision day with the co-writer :)

1. Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
2. Evernight by Claudia Grey
3. The Thirteenth Chime by Emma Michaels
4. Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

6. Prophecy of The Sisters by Michelle Zink
7. The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum
8. Rampant by Diana Peturfreud. (I actually read this one half-way but then my friend had to take it back.)

Anybody else doing this? :)

Wish me luck! Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.

The day in which I get 13 to Life

Who: Shannon Delany

What: 13 to life

Where: Barnes and Noble Amazon Book Depository

When: June 22, 2010

Why: Been promoting like crazy, wanted my own copy. Also, Debut Author Challenge

How: Bought

Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now
even her hometown of Junction is changing. Mysterious dark things are happening.
All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around
Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr
Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a
dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to
Jessie’s small town. It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid…

REVIEW:

I've raved about this endlessly on twitter, the blog and now it's finally in my possession. And it was everything I expected (which was it being totally awesome).
The first 50 pages were kinda slow for me and I was getting very worried that I wouldn't like it as much as I thought I would. But I persisted, because Shannon Delany is awesome and I had heard so many good things about this book! And it's a good thing I did because after those pages the plot and the action really started to pick it.

Shannon has a type of writing that isn't beautifully written, but it's real. Jessie's thoughts, emotions, reactions, all of them I felt were things I would have done or thought if I was in her situation. Even in paranormal romance, I like being able to relate to my characters and feel their pain. And I was able to do that with Jessie and Pietr. I will never be able to understand the full pain of their losses, but it helped how Shannon portrayed it. It helped me divulge better into the emotions and horror of losing someone you love...and being there to witness it.

While about werewolves, this is unlike any other werewolf novel I've read. The "mythology" around werewolves is scientific and surrounded by Russian culture. Though it doesn't explain a lot about how the werewolves came to be and more specific things about them, I'm eager to read and learn more about this and it didn't irritate me.

While I did find some secondary characters flat (the girls, for example), the ones I didn't find flat was the Rusakova family! They were all lovable (some more than others) and I just wanted to find out more! Especially Max. Please Shannon, let him be in Secrets and Shadows a lot more than he is in 13 to Life. I LOVED Max. And his words are my favorite quote:

"You have to hold your arm shoulder length or above, it really triangulates
the body."

Ah, he is such a dog (no pun intended...ok kinda) Alexi was also incredibly mysterious and I'm inclined to know more about him and his motives, since they don't get explained much in the first book.
I felt that the ending was a bit rushed, as if everything happened too neatly and quickly. But I guess it fit for it, because I couldn't imagine such a tension-heated action-packed werewolf-loving book with a slow ending!
So in the end I rate it: AMAZINGNESS

Comment? Discuss? Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.

p.s Sarah is such a stupid whore. Hate her, hate her, Hated her since the beginning. Urghh.

ETA:

I have 105 followers! AHHHHHHH! This is crazy surreal and amazing and unbelievable and I can hardly even look at my followers without happy dancing! Thank you guys so much for making that possible and a special thanks to the lovely Nicole and Julie for helping me throughout my blogger journey and shamelessly advertising me :P

And Thank YOU guys!