SO it's been two years....

Today, April 14th 2012, marks my two year blogoversary.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?

I've been doing this for two years! The idea of that is so insane and I can't believe i'm turning sixteen next week when I was turning fourteen the week after I started Radiant Reads.

There are so many people I want to thank and so many hugs to be given, but I can't possibly name everything that has helped me in my journey to becoming a book blogger. These past few months have brought on amazing things for me and hard things for me and everything in the book blogging commmunity has been through with her regardless.

Some of my best friends are bloggers (including my best friend, who is miles away and is still the person I confide in the most) and I thank you all for making me feel so welcome in this community.

I thank publicsts and marketing teams and publishers for helping me figure out what I want to do with my life and what I love doing above all else. Authors who let me, little old teenager me, review their books and respect my opinion.

But finally, my readers. Because where in the world would I be if you guys didn't exist? I know people always say that even if zero people read their blog, they'd continue. But I am Team Candor and I will not tell lies: I wouldn't. I write for myself, but I also write for your guys. Every follower, every comment, makes me the happiest person. I love writing for my audience and I love to entertain. So thank you, because you find me funny for some strange reason and keep coming back to hear my opinion.

And to thank you, I am giving away my arc of INSURGENT by Veronica Roth. Yup; I know. I'm gonna have to cuddle it a bit before sending it off!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Reading and thank you for joining me on this amazing journey! See you tomorrow!

Character Interview: America from THE SELECTION + GIVEAWAY

Hey guys! I don't usually do character interviews but HarperTeen contacted me about having America, the heroine of The Selection by Kiera Cass, on the blog and I thought you guys would dig it! Here's the description:

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

AND THE INTERVIEW!

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11. What was the first thing you thought when you were selected?

Honestly, I was shocked. If my sisterhadn’t kept screaming about how amazing it was, I don’t think I would have thought it was real. And I was scared. I considered getting out of the competition before even going to the palace, or seeing if someone else could go in my place. My mom said that if I quit, that was it for our province. I felt guilty, so I stuck it out.

22. What was it like growing up as a Five?

I don’t mind it as much as some of the others in my family do. When we’ve got enough food and money, it’s great to make a living singing. But my little brother, Gerad? He’s not really good at any of the fine arts, so we don’t know what he’s going to do yet. And my sister May is a bit obsessed with the finer things in life. I wish I could give her more than we have, but that’s just how it is. The only thing that gets me down is how people like Tessa Tamble make all this money singing on TV, and I get paid next to nothing for the same thing. I work so hard on my voice lessons and playing my instruments! But she has to be in public all the time, and I would want that part of her job, that’s for sure.

33. How did you meet Aspen?

Have you ever known someone so long you can’t even remember how you met? I’ve been friends with Aspen and his family forever. He and I didn’t really get along until we were older. He spent lots of time with my older brother growing up, and they were really rough, and I was more interested in playing my piano anyway. But about the time he turned seventeen… well, he was pretty hard to ignore. This is making me blush!

Next stops:
4/13 http://www.abouttoread.com/ Author This or That + Review
4/16 http://www.thestorysiren.com/ Interview
4/17 http://imaginaryreads.blogspot.com/ Character Interview, Maxon
4/18 http://www.one-page-reviews.blogspot.com/ Top 10 (Ways to Meet the Man of Your Dreams) + Review
4/19 http://www.forbiddenpassionsreviews.blogspot.com/ Aspen vs. Maxon
4/20 http://www.bookswithbite.net/ Interview

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Happy Reading!
p.s I know some of you follow me on twitter so you know what I thought about the books so there will be a review with my honest opinion. But I know SO many people who loved it, I wanted to give you guys the opportunity! 

Why Don't I Have A Genie? (3)

Inspired by features/memes like Books To Pine For and Waiting on Wednesday! But I dno't like being constricted to Wednesdays so here we go! And as for that title...I don't even know, guys. Just go with it.

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 Title: A Midsummer's Nightmare

Author: Kody Keplinger

Release Date: June 5th, 2012

Publisher: Poppy; Little Brown

Pages: 304

Edition: Hardcover

Note: Not a fan of the cover but I like Kody's books!

Goodreads: Link

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorced dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great. Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Title: Lucid

Author: Adrienne Stolz, Ron Bass

Release Date: October 2nd, 2012

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: --

Edition: Hardcover

Note: SO EXCITED FOR THIS. 

Goodreads: Link

What if you could dream your way into a different life? What if you could choose to live that life forever?
Sloane and Maggie have never met. Sloane is a straight-A student with a big and loving family. Maggie lives a glamorously independent life as an up-and-coming actress in New York. The two girls couldn't be more different--except for one thing. They share a secret that they can't tell a soul. At night, they dream that they're each other.
The deeper they're pulled into the promise of their own lives, the more their worlds begin to blur dangerously together. Before long, Sloane and Maggie can no longer tell which life is real and which is just a dream. They realize that eventually they will have to choose one life to wake up to, or risk spiraling into insanity. But that means giving up one world, one love, and one self, forever.

Title: Auracle

Author: Gina Rosati

Release Date: August 7th, 2012

Publisher: Roaring Book Press

Pages: 304

Edition: Hardcover

Note: Sounds pretty awesome!

Goodreads: Link

16 year old Anna Rogan has a secret she's only shared with her best friend, Rei; she can astrally project out of her body, allowing her spirit to explore the world and the far reaches of the universe.

When there's a fatal accident and her classmate Taylor takes over Anna's body, what was an exhilarating distraction from her repressive home life threatens to become a permanent state. Faced with a future trapped in another dimension, Anna turns to Rei for help. Now the two of them must find a way to get Anna back into her body and stop Taylor from accusing an innocent friend of murder. Together Anna and Rei form a plan but it doesn't take into account the deeper feelings that are beginning to grow between them.

In Which I Actually Say: "I hope thieves are the new vampires."

Alright, so i'm doing a very not-traditional review of a book called False Covenant by Ari Marmell. Why? Because these books are AMAZING and since Pyr is a new imprint, it's not getting enough attention. So what am I going to do? Fix that, obviously. 

Reasons why you should be writing Thief's Covenant and the sequel, False Covenant:

1. The heroine. 
Widdershins don't play games. She's seriously one of my favorite heroines of all time; which is SAYING something. She's funny and strong and super brave -- she's a thief! One of the best thieves in her city and she doesn't take lip from anyone but she also has this fantastic vulnerable side that I just loved watching develop when she becomes not Widdershins, but Adrienne. The backstory of Widdershins really is heartbreaking and you really see her transition from being this badass to slowly unveiling a sad girl who just happens to kick some ass.

2. The setting
High Fantasy is where it's at, guys. The writing in this book completely captures the mood of the world Marmell has created using a town to show this elaborate system of gods and government that rules across the nations. You're focused on the small town of Davillion but there's so much going on there, you're not gonna want to go anywhere else!

3. The thievery
I hope thieves are the new vampires, because dammit, I love a good steal. I love reading about thieves which is why Widdershins happens to be awesome in my book. Sometimes she steals for fun, sometimes she steals for a reason, but she's just good at it. She always has been and you get to see how she got into this whole thing in the first place back when her parents were still alive and she was a young girl. And then the thieves guild! Oh the tangled webs that are woven over there! It's funny to me that in a place where there are so many thieves as to have a guild, there is still honor and alliance amongst thieves. Widdershins isn't very good at following orders, from the Shrouded Lord that is the thieves' guild's leader, or from anyone else, which is always refreshing.

4. Julian
HE NEEDS HIS OWN CATEGORY OKAY? This book isn't soaking in the romance but it's subtle enough to take backstage to Widdershins but enough that i'm not pulling my hair out in frustration. (Especially the second book guys, my heart. MY HEART.)

5. The side characters
Renard is hilarious. He bounces around like a peacock, preening his feather and stealing at his leisure, and I just love every scene with him in it. He is sarcastic and witty but there are some moments where I really feel for him and his unrequited love. And then you have Robin who is young and adorable and willing to do anything for Widdershins. The Shrouded Lord is BOSS (no pun intended) and he would scare the living hell out of me and basically everyone in the Thieves Guild was awesome or awful, in the best way.

6. People like people and it's not a big deal
There are side characters in the book who like Widdershins. You know, elementary style, like-like her. And it's not a big deal. It's not made into this torrid love triangle or love square and it doesn't seem annoying or fake or "Why does everyone even like Widdershins?". It just...is. And it seems realistic and your heart breaks for them but you love them and just....guys.

7. Olgun
The best god ever. He is attached to Widdershins in the sense that she can kind of "hear" him and he helps her be an awesome thief and they are just such a funny pair together.

SO GET THESE BOOKS. I'll have the information down below.
Happy Reading!

Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city’s aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces—human and other—stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder.
Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon’s underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It’s not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it’s hers.
But now, in the midst of Davillon’s political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she’s built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, something ancient is reaching out for her, a past that refuses to let her go. Widdershins and Olgun are going to find answers, and justice, for what happened to her—but only if those who almost destroyed her in those years gone by don’t finish the job first.

A creature of the other world, an unnatural entity bent on chaos and carnage, has come to stalk the nighttime streets of the Galicien city of Davillon. There’s never a good time for murder and panic, but for a community already in the midst of its own inner turmoil, this couldn’t possibly have come at a worse one.

Not for Davillon, and not for a young thief who calls herself Widdershins.
It’s been over half a year since the brutal murder of Archbishop Wil­liam de Laurent during his pilgrimage to Davillon. And in all that time, Widdershins has truly tried her best. She has tried to take care of Genevieve’s tavern and tried to make a semihonest living in a city slowly stagnating under the weight of an angry and disapproving Church. She has tried to keep out of trouble, away from the attentions of the Davillon Guard and above the secrets and schemes of the city’s new bishop.

But she’s in way over her head, with no idea which way to turn. The Guard doesn’t trust her. The Church doesn’t trust her. Her own Thieves’ Guild doesn’t trust her.


Too bad for everyone, then, that she and her personal god, Olgun, may be their only real weapon against a new evil like nothing the city has ever seen.

Food For Thought: Character VS Plot (3)

So I was recently reading a book and found myself encountering a problem that comes to me often these days: I was intrigued by the plot, but I hated the characters.

This was me:

I'm a big believer that a good book should have both realistic and strong character AND a stable and interesting plot but what if you had to pick between them? What if you had to choose a novel that had great character and an okay plot or the other way around?

I think for me, I would pick characters.

I love high-concept plots, evident by the fact my favorite genres are high fantasy and historical fantasy/fiction. They're the type of novels that require a lot of backstory and planning and world-building and I love reading every second of it. But if you have an amazing plot with characters that I want to punch in the face? Then it ruins the entire story for me.

Take, for example, Dark Parties by Sara Grant. It was this amazing dystopian plot about teenagers rebelling against their country's rules and society forcing them to be isolated from the rest of the world using an invisible force-field around the city. Awesome right?

And I wanted to love it, I did. But I hated the characters so much that I hated flipping every page.

On the other hand, I can read a book with fantastic, engaging characters and an alright plot, because then I feels like i'm with people that I would actually want to interact with as opposed to being in this amazing place with people that I hate.

What about you?
Would you prefer great character or great plot if you had to choose?
But in the end, I think we all hope for that different combination!
Happy Reading!