Just Letting You Know!

SO UPDATE:

I will not be posting here on Fridays anymore BECAUSE every Friday, I post a review over at Bookalicious, run by the lovely Pam.

That is why there is no post today but if you just can't get enough of me, go ahead and check out my Shadow And Bone review and comment!

See you guys tomorrow,
Happy Reading!

Can You Feel It? Can You Feel The Love? An Open Letter To Myra McEntire

Dear Myra,

First of all: Luff You. For serious.

You are honestly one of the sweetest people I have ever met. You are funny, creative, nice, and seriously a fantastic author. And I apologize in advance if this post isn't the most articulate but it's currently late and I just want to GIF spam you, really. But more on that later.

Hourglass is one of my favorite books of all time. I don't know how many people I've thrust it upon but I do know when I showed up to school with Timepiece, there was nearly a riot. I remember when I first met you, I had just received Hourglass. I read it to the same day and tweeted you immediately saying, and I quote: "If you wrote a book with a picture of poop on the cover, I'd read it." After reading Timepiece (which does not have poop on the cover, obviously), I can still say the same.

 A LONG TIME AGO, I wrote a post called Reasons Why Hourglass Is Epic:
1. I may or may not be reading it for a third time right now. Which means it has to be good! (As of now, I've read it four times)
2. Emerson. She's kickass, spunky, hilarious, and has abrown belt. I wish I could flip people over! 
3. THE ROMANCE AND SEXUAL TENSION. So well done. And not just Michael either! More on him, later. But Myra has this way of writing sexy scenes without it being overdone and you're just like: "GO GO GO GO." 
4. Michael Weaver. He's sweet and amazing and I just wanted to hug and hit him most of the time, which is good. I like the balance. 
5. Kaleb. Can I keep him? Sexy, smoldering, and funny, I absolutely love this guy. 
6. THE GENIUS. Seriously, Myra McEntire? A genius, quite simply put. There were literally moments where everything tied together and I was like: "Holy s***, this is insane. And brilliant. And why did I stop to think? KEEP READING." All her plot points, no matter where they come from, have such genius unraveling that you're just going to be amazing. 
7. TIME TRAVEL. Nuff' said. 
8. THAT COVER. Sweet Jesus, how can you not want to buy it? And it's gonna be all shiny and shimmery, and BEAUTIFUL. 
9. Emerson's best friend, Lily? Is Cuban. I'm Cuban. Cubans are FUN. 
10. Did I mention Myra has a blog and she's awesome? HERE IT IS. 
11. It's frigging amazing and YOU WANT IT. 

THIS ALL STILL STANDS. 

So I know deadlines are sucking right now but I want you to keep your chin up and keep being awesome! Because it's simply what you do best! We're all cheering you on and of course, as you know, my email is always open! Haha. I cannot wait for Timepiece to come out and all your other secrets to be revealed soon enough!

And finally, save this for when you're in need of a break and a laugh watch this:

All The Other Bloggers:
Fire and Ice
Mundie Moms

Almost As Badass As This Guy. ALMOST.

Swoontini
Jenuine Cupcakes
Shannon Messenger
Sara McClung
Jodi Meadows
Bloggers[heart]Books
YA Books Central Blog
Pageturners Blog
Jill Van Leer
CJ Redwine
Kate Hart
Book Love 101

Happy Reading!

“I am stronger than my trials.”

Title: Partials (Partials #1)

Author: Dan Wells

Release Date: February 28th, 2012

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Pages: 468

Edition: Hardcover

Cover Judge: I like it, the title font and the city in the background is great

Quote Choice: It's something that Kira tells herself a lot and has a lot of significance
Source: Bought

Goodreads: Link

Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.

When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.

Combining the fast-paced action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Battlestar Galactica, Partials is a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our sense of humanity is both our greatest liability, and our only hope for survival.

I thought this book was totally brilliant BUT I understand how some people might not dig this sort of this. Why? Here we go!

The book is centered around a young medic called Kira who is part of a dwindling human population that is being destroyed by a virus brought onto them by this super-human/robot race that they created (and consequentially, turned against them). This book is a dystopian but it's also a medical thriller and sometimes it can be, while action-packed, bulky. Bulky in the sense that it's long and it's full of science and medicine and genetics. Now, I love this, because even though I don't want to work in Medicine, i'm in the Medical Academy (so yeah, I eat that stuff up for breakfast). The science fascinated me and I think Wells did a great job incorporating it into the story but I see where some people might get bored or confused about the topic.

I, on the other hand, was hooked.

Kira is SUCH a good heroine, guys. She's strong and funny and is really one of the most virtuous character I've read about. She's willing to risk her life to find a cure for this disease, and she does risk it again and again, because she cares about humanity and where it's going and that's why she joined the maturity ward in the first place. The problem is, the virus attacks newborns and kills them within a few days or weeks of living. So she goes on a series of missions to try and save their lives and she's just so brave to the point of being stubborn (but not enough for me to want to knock her head into a wall) that I admired her the entire way. She was, in short, a very mature and lovely character to read about.

And the side-characters were awesome! Jayden, Haru, and Madison were all well-rounded teenagers stuck with the responsibility of leading this human population to success through (most of the time) illegal means. Xochi grated my nerves sometimes with her anarchy speeches but she was still endearing and MARCUS.

This doesn't happen often in books, but I love when the character is already in a stable and good relationship when the book starts and throughout the novel. Kira and Marcus are funny, lovable, and completely wonderful together that it was very refreshing! Now, I don't know where this is going in Samm's case but I'll talk about him in the same paragraph anyway! I feel like we didn't get to see a whole side to Samm yet since we were focusing so much on Kira but i'm excited to see his sweet, determined personality grow more than it already has.

Overall, loved it!
Happy Reading!

Guest Post: Julianne on researching for Edenbrooke + Giveaway

Marianne Daventry will do anything to escape the boredom of Bath and the amorous attentions of an unwanted suitor. So when an invitation arrives from her twin sister, Cecily, to join her at a sprawling country estate, she jumps at the chance. Thinking she’ll be able to relax and enjoy her beloved English countryside while her sister snags the handsome heir of Edenbrooke, Marianne finds that even the best laid plans can go awry.
From a terrifying run-in with a highwayman to a seemingly harmless flirtation, Marianne finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure filled with enough romance and intrigue to keep her mind racing. Will Marianne be able to rein in her traitorous heart, or will a mysterious stranger sweep her off her feet? Fate had something other than a relaxing summer in mind when it sent Marianne to Edenbrooke.
A Proper Romance is Shadow Mountain Publishing’s brand of clean, smart, engaging, romantic stories that will never embarrass the reader.

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A lot of my research for Edenbrooke was done through reading the novels of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. They gave me the important stuff--like social customs--that were essential to the plot. But there was a lot of other research I had to conduct to get the details as accurate as I could. Here are some of the things I had to research. 

   Regency names. I wanted my names to be historically accurate, so I found a great tool online called a Regency name generator that put together combinations of first and last names. I was incredibly picky about the names, and some were harder to come up with than others.

   Location. I knew I wanted the book to start in Bath and for the climax to take place in Dover. The traveling in the story is actually quite essential to the plot. So I had to consider how long it would take a carriage to travel from Bath to Edenbrooke, and from Edenbrooke to Dover. I set Edenbrooke roughly in Kent. What sort of carriage would be used? How many horses? What speeds could they travel? I had to consult maps and calculate driving distances and roads to answer these questions. Although I knew it was a stretch for Marianne to make it from Bath to Kent in one day, it was not impossible. Then that put her close enough to Dover to get her there for the climax.

    Costumes. For Regency era costumes I was able to visit the Fashion History Museum in Bath, as well as conduct research online. But this wasn’t just so I could describe what they were wearing—I actually do very little of that in my story, preferring to leave it to the reader’s imagination—but because at one point in the story, costume plays an important part in the plot. During a scene in which someone is shot, I had to figure out what Marianne might have used to staunch the flow of blood from a gunshot wound, and whether she would have known to do such a thing. That brought in research about common medical knowledge of the day, which gave me some surprises.            

      Dining. Several scenes take place around food, so I had to research what food would have typically been served at each meal, what the meals were called, and when they were served. This proved tricky, as this was a time period when lunch was beginning to evolve as a mid-day meal. Some people partook of it, but some did not. And during the Regency era, it was common for dining habits in London to be different from dining habits in the country. Dinner as we think of it was served as late as 8 or 9 p.m. in London.  

            Here are some other questions I had to address while I wrote:

            How common was travel to the Continent, and how did one get from England to France? What were the laws of inheritance? What constituted a Grand Tour? What were the most popular horse races to attend? Where and when did they take place? How did the postal system work? What did one use to sharpen a quill? What was a typical name for an inn? What weapons were used in a duel? How does fencing work? What dances are danced at a ball? What physical contact would the dancers have with one another? Where did a local ball take place, if not at a private residence? What types of vehicles were used in the country? How many people did the different vehicles hold?

            And I could go on. The research was definitely an ongoing part of the writing. Still, I will never claim to have written a perfectly accurate historical fiction. I think that may be impossible! But I did my best to avoid errors, and I had fun doing the research. 

In My Mailbox { 65 }

Hosted by The Story Siren (who is also Team Candor!)

For Review:
False Covenant by Ari Marmell
Taken At Dusk by C.C Hunter
Underworld by Meg Cabot
Ascend by Amanda Hocking
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

ALRIGHT TEAM CANDOR ASSEMBLE AND SUCH:

So when I received Insurgent, the box included instructions on my new position as a member of Team CANDOR. The idea is to promote Divergent and Insurgent leading up to it's release date but we need your help! April 2nd (which is Choosing Ceremony Day) through April 25th, the five factions will be competing to get the most hits on their Faction Tumblr Page (CANDOR FACTION NEWS).

And guys, CANDOR is where it's at. The bravest thing in the world isn't about going on crazy dangerous adventures! Really: it's telling the truth.

TEAM CANDOR TUMBLR

And as the Candor Manifesto states:

TRUTH MAKES US TRANSPARENT

TRUTH MAKES US STRONG

TRUTH MAKES US INEXTRICABLE. 

Happy Reading!