Waiting on Wednesday

                                                                                  


Waiting on Wednesday is a fabulous event sponsored by Jill at Breaking the Spine Here, I will highlight a book that will be coming out that I'm really looking forward to reading.

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Darkest Powers trilogy from Kelley Armstrong.  So when I found out that she was going to write a second  YA trilogy that takes place in the same world, I might have squealed like a fangirl at a Justin Bieber concert.  And she is apparently going to bring in the characters from the DP trilogy in the last book.  How could I not be excited about more Chloe and Derek???

So the book that I am waiting on this week is The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong.  It will release in April 2011.

"Maya lives in a small medical-research town on Vancouver Island. How small? You can’t find it on the map. It has less than two-hundred people, and her school has only sixty-eight students—for every grade from kindergarten to twelve.

Now, strange things are happening in this claustrophobic town, and Maya's determined to get to the bottom of them. First, the captain of the swim team drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. A year later, mountain lions start appearing around Maya's home, and they won’t go away. Her best friend, Daniel, starts getting negative vibes from certain people and things. It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret—and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy: Her paw-print birthmark."
(from Goodreads)

And if you haven't read the Darkest Powers trilogy, run to your nearest bookstore or library as fast as you possibly can!

Teaser Tuesday and philosophical rambling.....

So, before I post my teaser from the book I'm reading, I have to wax philosophical for a moment.

I received my textbook today for the class that I start next week on Children's literature. I wondered just how a $114 textbook would look! (I must admit that I wept inside as I paid for it on Amazon, thinking of all the "real" books I could buy with that much money!)

So I opened it immediately and being the bibliophile that I am, I had to crack it open and start looking. Of course, I turned to the section on fantasy books for children. The beginning of the chapter had a quote that I just loved:

"We call our individual fantasies dreams, but when we dream as a society, or
as a human race, it becomes the sum total of all our hopes. Fantasy touches
our deepest feelings and in so doing, it speaks to the best and most hopeful
parts of ourselves. it can help us learn the most fundamental skill of all--
how to be human.
(Lloyd Alexander as quoted in Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature
by Barbara Z. Kiefer)

Ok, so now on to the real business of the day.....a teaser!

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. You open up the book you're currently reading to a random page. Choose 2 sentences and share them. They should not contain spoilers!

"Even in my state of acute anxiety, I was astonished at the number of vampire books and vampire posters that Nefley Irving had managed to accumulate. (No Bloodstone Chronicles, though; as I said before, I'm not exactly Stephenie Meyer.)

from p. 263 of The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Cathy Jinks.

Leave a teaser from your current read in the comments!

Beautiful Moon Contest

The folks over at Page Turners blog are doing a fabulous giveaway! The winner will get not one, but TWO ARCs!! One is Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (insert squeal here!) and the other is Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin. I've not heard of the second book, but the summary sounds great. Plus I love the name Ivy! : )

Head over to Page Turners to check it out. You can also click on their button under the "Blogs That I Follow" in the sidebar!

The "Meet Us at the Crossroads" blog tour

From October 17-31, 16 YA authors will be at 16 different blogs. Follow the blogs and check out the authors' websites. All the details can be found by clicking on the button!

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Wow! My mind is still reeling from reading this book. It's a little hard to wrap my head around everything that took place. In fact, it's amazing that Ms. Werlin was able to cram so much.....stuff......into a book this size!

I have to admit, that I was skeptical about this book and not certain that I would even want to finish it. The main character gets raped near the beginning of the book. It's not a graphic description or anything, but it made me uncomfortable. I still think it's a point of contention for me but I can also see why the author would have made that choice now that I'm at the end. So be forewarned! If you are easily upset by even mild descriptions of rape, you need to avoid this book.

I have been trying to read a bit here and there for the last few days, but tonight I was finally able to just sit down and focus on reading. And it's a good thing! The book really picked up steam and it's now 2 a.m. because I simply could not put it down!

This book is like a good mystery with a supernatural twist. And a dash of romance. There are clues to be followed and the way the author weaves together an old folk song with modern technology tools is just amazing. I don't want to give too much away, but I really enjoyed trying to figure out how to solve the puzzle with the characters. I loved Lucy, the female protagonist. She is very strong and confident, but always knows when to rely on others. And I absolutely fell in love with Zach Greenfield. He really is like a modern-day knight in shining armor.

My final thoughts? If you love mysteries and you love ancient folklore with a healthy dose of the supernatural, you will love this book.

In fact, it might be impossible for you to not love it. : )

My grade: A-
(the minus for me is because of the rape in the plot)

Contest News

Here's another contest that I ran across and it's a GREAT one!

Looksie Lovitz over at Books and Wits. She is giving away an ARC of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer and an AUTOGRAPHED copy of Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl!!!

To enter, you need to be a follower of her blog and leave your email address in the comments. You can get extra entries by posting the contest on your own blog or in a group or on twitter!

Don't wait!

Good news Sunday

Well, Sunday seems like a good day to share some good news! Cassandra Clare shared some really big news last week! In addition to writing The Infernal Devices, she is going to write 3 more books in The Mortal Instruments series!! She had always planned to write a 4th book, called City of Fallen Angels that was going to focus more on Simon. Well, apparently that book has morphed into 3 books (squeals!) and they will include ALL the characters.

According to her website, this is what her publishing schedule looks like now:


August 31, 2010: The Clockwork Angel
April 5, 2011: City of Fallen Angels
September 2011: The Clockwork Prince
May 2012: City of Lost Souls
December 2012: The Clockwork Princess
September 2013: City of Heavenly Fire

Since I love reading her stuff, this is very good news indeed! You can read all about the new books and lots of other stuff on her website at

HAPPY READING!