Teaser Tuesday: Entwined by Heather Dixon {3}

It's Tuesday! And we all know what that means!!! TEASER TUESDAY! EGADS! (Egads is my word of the day, it would seem. ) Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading, and it is quite simple.

All you have to do is this:

1. Pick up whatever book you are currently reading.
2. Open it up to a random page.
3. Pick two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page. (Be careful not to spoil anything!)
4. Share those sentences! Be sure to include the book title, author, etc. so your readers can add it to their to be read pile if they're intrigued!

Easy peasy, right?

So I actually finished a book literally five minutes ago, but shall not be teasing it, given that I am not currently reading it. Technicalities, hah! So my next book to read is Entwined, by Heather Dixon. Pretty much all I know about it is that it is a retelling of the story of the twelve dancing princesses. (Who woulda thunk that I could get two retellings of that story in what library trip? Just a talent, I suppose.) I am happy to report, though, that this week I can actually remember the story.

Anyways, here is my teaser, from page 78:

"'Gentlemen, shmentlemen,' said Azalea. 'Don't you remember lessons with Mother? We danced reels and quadrilles and all sorts of things without a partner.'

'But it's different, with a gentleman."

Hmmm... I really haven't started the book, so I am as blank as anyone... I guess we'll see! :)

I hope you've enjoyed my teaser for this week, and if you have, check out the book! I'd love to see y'all's teasers, so you can post them here in my comments, or just check out the list of teasers over at Should Be Reading. I know that's what I'll be doing! Cheerio!

VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY!!!

I am so excited to announce my very first giveaway! Out of appreciation for you wonderful followers and readers, I am giving away a brand new hardcover copy of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel, so you can get ready for the December release of Clockwork Prince! If you haven't heard of these books, Clockwork Angel is the first book in a trilogy called The Infernal Devices, a prequel series to Ms. Clare's bestselling Mortal Instruments series. You do not have to have read The Mortal Instruments to understand The Infernal Devices; you will be quite informed.

From Goodreads: 

Magic is dangerous--but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by--and torn between--two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

Sounds good, right? I read it right when it came out, and I actually liked it better than the Mortal Instrument series, to be honest. No one hurt me, please. :) I am now very pleased to be giving one of you the chance to read it too!


The giveaway is open for entries starting today, and will run for two weeks. It will end at midnight CST on Saturday, August 6th. Here are the rules:

1. You must be a follower to enter. 
2. You must be 13 or older. 
3. The giveaway is open to US residents only. I am paying for shipping out of my own pocket, and I really can't afford international shipping. Hopefully, soon I can get an international giveaway up. :)
4. You can earn extra entries by following me on Twitter, tweeting about the giveaway, and commenting on this post. Just provide your twitter username, a link to your tweet, and some way for me to identify your comment on the form below.
5. Please follow the simple rules I've laid out. If you don't, I will have to disqualify you from the giveaway, which I really don't want to do. :(

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me or ask in a comment (which I will count towards your entry if you enter).

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop Numero Dos!

Friday has come again. That means Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop time!

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee each week and is a joint effort between all of us bloggers to get more followers. Plus, each week a different question is asked, and I get to answer it! So here goes:

Q. Name 3 authors that you would love to sit down and spend an hour or a meal with just talking about either their books or get advice on writing from?

 
Me: First and foremost, Robin McKinley. She is the first author I that I loved so much I read everything she had written. I didn't care what it was about. If Robin wrote it, I read it. And I was absolutely never disappointed. Her writing is lovely and lyrical, and I like to think she speaks in the same way she writes, which may or may not be true. :) Next, I would want to dine with Juliet Marillier.  I found Ms. Marillier relatively recently (as in 2 years ago), but I have been entranced by her writing since. Both authors have a poetic and very beautiful style, which I am obviously attracted to. Also, they both almost exclusively write with female heroines, and they are always strong, real girls (never not a plus.) My third author would have to be J.K. Rowling. Ms. Rowling wrote the world's biggest series, but stays so humble and real. Plus, I'd just have to learn how on earth she planned Harry Potter so intricately so far ahead! It blows my mind every time I think about it.

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly par-tay for book bloggers to connect! It's hosted by Crazy for Books (follow that link to get to this week's Blogger Hop post!) and lasts Friday through Monday every week! And we get another exciting question, here goes:

Q. What’s the ONE GENRE that you wish you could get into, but just can’t?

Me: I would seriously love to love mystery novels. Can't. Just can't. I don't know why, but I can't seem to like them, no matter how many I try. I can do a book that more solidly fits into another genre, but has mystery (as, obviously, most books have SOME kind of mystery), but never a book branded just as mystery. Poo.

Wellllll. That's it! Feel free to post links to your Follow Friday or Blogger Hop posts and I'll check them out! Have a fine weekend all! 

Beautiful Iron Fey Buttons and Iron Knight Countdown Widget

If you are in any way a fan of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series you will be happy to learn that a fellow blogger, Touya of Reader's Garden has created some fantastic Team Ash and Team Puck buttons and an Iron Knight countdown widget.

The countdown widget can be seen on the right side of my blog. Check it out! I think it's fantastic, and kind of wish it were longer till the book came out so I could keep it. :) :)

These are the buttons:




Head on over to her blog to find the codes and show your support for a great blogger and a great series!

Teaser Tuesday: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George {2}

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading, and it is quite simple.

All you have to do is:

1. Pick up whatever book you are currently reading.
2. Open it up to a random page.
3. Pick two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page. (Be careful not to spoil anything!)
4. Share those sentences! Be sure to include the book title, author, etc. so your readers can add it to their to be read pile if they're intrigued!

Easy peasy, right?

So this week I am teasing Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. I am a major sucker for fairy tale retellings, so you know I'm all over this. It's a reimagining of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, a story I never seem to quite remember correctly, but have always liked.

From page 15 (And, yes, I know it's longer than two sentences. Two were just not enough this week!):

"She turned and began walking in the direction Galen had just come from. 'You will have need of it, Galen,' she said. 'When you are in the palace, you will have great need. He must not be allowed above.' 

'Who must not be allowed? And I'm not going to the palace,' he said to her retreating back, confused. 'I'm going to find work with my aunt and uncle, they--' He broke off. 'How did you know my name?'

'Remember, Galen,' she called over her should. 'When you are in the palace, you will have great need.'"

Sounds foreboding, eh? I'm not even this far in the book yet, so I really don't know much. :)

I hope you've enjoyed my teaser for this week, and if you have, check out the book! I'd love to see y'all's teasers, so you can post them here in my comments, or just check out the list of teasers over at Should Be Reading. I know that's what I'll be doing! Cheerio!

Need by Carrie Jones

From Goodreads: 

Zara collects phobias the way other girls collect Facebook friends. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara. 

I really am one of those people that get completely enticed into a book based on the cover. I had seen Need a few times at the bookstore and once on Goodread's Bookswap, but I had resisted. But one day recently, I had just gotten a paycheck, and Need showed up on Bookswap again, and I caved. I had, in fact, read the synopsis (above) and decided it looked intriguing, so I'm not completely superficial. :) And I am very glad I gave in to my cover lust.

Sometimes it really is flattering for someone to want you so badly they're a little creepy, but Mr. Pixie King in Need is on a whole new level. He stands outside and points at Zara and even impersonates her beloved, deceased stepfather, whom she is still mourning. Yes. Creep-o to the max.

Zara is such a fun character to read, in my opinion. Her phobia obsession is so quirky and unexpected, and I was quite interested to learn the names of so many things people are afraid of. On a random note, I have been reading a ton of YA books recently where the heroine is a runner. Is this to undermine me because somehow all YA authors know I look like a dope when I run? It's not a bad thing that they run, just an odd trend to notice... Think on it, guys... Maybe it's a conspiracy...

ANYWAYS, I also loved the supporting characters. Grandma Betty was the ultimate grandmother. She could be loving and understanding when you needed your grandmother, yet is totally kick-butt. She's active and funny, and can't cook, and I love her. Zara's friends are awesome too. They're definitely the type I'd like to hang out with. Issie is silly and sweet and totally loyal, and completely in love with Devyn. Devyn is crippled, but healing, and the son of psychiatrists, so he analyzes people, and knows almost as many phobias as Zara. And then there's Nick. Nick is gorgeous and mysterious, but has a raging hero-complex. We all know how that relationship is going to turn out. Wink wink.

I thought the storyline was well paced, and definitely kept me reading much longer than I'd planned. It did feel slightly like a set up, which was actually okay, because I enjoyed getting to know the characters and understanding the pixies and how they worked. While this is indeed a pixie book, it didn't feel so much like one. It's one of those books where it feels like real life, with something paranormal added into the mix. Because of this, it makes it feel like it could happen to me, which, of course, I love and fear at the same time.

I'm now quite anxious to read the next book, Captivate, which I have sitting next to my bed, just waiting. Hoorah! 

Risk a paper cut? Want something to read that has a good pace, likable characters, and is a promising beginning of a series? Well, you NEED to check Need out! (Hahahaha. I'm so punny.)

To buy: Amazon
           Barnes & Noble

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Tamsin Greene comes from an ancient line of witches. The day she was born her grandmother predicted she would be more powerful than anyone in her family, their beacon. The problem is, Tamsin never developed a Talent. So at seventeen, Tamsin is an outcast among her own family, and she attends school far away from them in Manhattan. But while home from school, she is mistaken for her very Talented sister, Rowena, by a professor who wants her to find... a clock. Tamsin takes the job, hoping for some recognition from her family. Tamsin's search for this heirloom sends her on a quest through time that unveils the dark past of her family, the true intentions of the professor, and unlocks the power she's always had within.

So Once a Witch was recommended to me by my cool friend from Australia, Kate (you should check out her blog here!), and I'm so glad she did. I really enjoyed reading it. I thought the relationships were well-developed and the storyline had a perfect, flowing pace.

Normally, I'm really not a big witch fan. Other than Harry Potter, I can't help but think of pointy hatted women with warts, and that's really not a happy sight. (Be pleased I didn't put up a picture. Believe me, I thought about it.) But the witches in Once a Witch have Talents, meaning each one can basically do one thing really well, and that's it. Some have more than one Talent, and some do potions and things, but they don't carry around wands and say incantations to turn you into a toad. For example, Tamsin's aunt can freeze people, not literally freeze them, but make their body stop. Completely. Which is pretty cool. Other people can find things someone is looking for, manipulate weather, and see into the future, but none of them can naturally do them all.

I found Tamsin easy to relate with (really, who doesn't feel overshadowed and stupid compared to someone?) and loving. She comes to her annoying sister's aid when she most needs it, despite having harbored bad feelings towards her for forever. Rowena is also a good character. She undergoes more changes than any other character, in my opinion, and becomes a much more likable and better person for it.

The secondary characters are great in Once a Witch. We have Tamsin's slightly unhinged roommate, Agatha,  Aunt Beatrice who has completely lost her marbles, and swoon-worthy Gabriel, who has the coolest Talent that I'd really like to learn more about!

The plot is fast-paced, keeping everything interesting. Once we get all of the major character introductions over with the book just runs away with the reader in tow. It is just complicated enough to keep you questioning, but not so complicated that you don't get it. The time traveling sequences were at first unexpected, but consistently my favorite parts.

Once a Witch is definitely an adventure you'll be tempted to read in one sitting, and can easily do so without an ounce of regret. Now may I please have the sequel?

Risk a paper cut? Once a Witch is magical (Hahaha. Pun.) and if that doesn't heal any incurred injuries, what will?

To buy: Amazon
             Barnes & Noble