Loving the Reviews Feb 9th - Kate Kaynak

Head on to Brandi's blog and check out Kate Kaynak's guest post!, author of the Ganzfield series (Minder is book 1)!

Remember: If you review one of her books, you get 2 extra entries per review ^.^

Guest Post: Rabid Reads

Thank you very much to the wonderful Carmel of Rabid Reads for today's guest post!




When Sniffly Kitty put out a call asking for guest posts to help keep her blog content flowing while in the midst of exams I jumped on the opportunity. So thanks for having me! My name’s Carmel and I’m the blogger behind Rabid Reads. I read/review books mostly in the paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult genres but it wasn’t always so. The theme behind these guest posts is reading nostalgia and the first thing that came to my mind was the Anne of Green Gables series. It’s been a while since I’ve read them but I have nothing but fond memories. Back in the day, I devoured every book in the series and watched the movies until I knew every word by heart.


The main element that sets this series apart from the rest is Anne. She’s an amazing character with whom every girl/woman out there can identify with on some level. Anne is picked on because of her red hair. Every child gets bullied but it’s how we handle it that makes all the difference in the end. What originally seemed like a curse ends up making her beautiful and unique as an adult. Perhaps this explains my love of red hair, I’d never really thought about it until now! Anne has an adventurous spirit, loves reading and is always poking her nose around where it shouldn’t be. Her story is one of trials and tribulations but also of strength and perseverance. She’s a role model that every little girl should have and grows into a woman that every adult should strive to be like. This series is about so much more than just a great story. It’s about life, love and everything in between.

I can’t help but think about Gilbert and the childhood crush I had on him. Probably one of the first crushes I ever had! The perfect man for Anne but of course it wasn’t an easy road. It took time, distance and relentlessness for their love story to progress into an eventual happily ever after. Gilbert was blessed in the looks department. No doubt about that but he’s also practical, reliable, patient and incredibly devoted. It takes Anne forever to finally realize that he’s her perfect match but that’s a good thing because without her resistance this tale would have been much shorter and not nearly as enjoyable!

The Anne of Green Gables series reminds me a great deal of my childhood. I developed a love of reading at a young age thanks to my mom but it didn’t become an obsession until I met Anne. My mother bought me the entire series and later on the movies. It was one of the best gifts that I’ve ever received! I was immediately hooked. It made my awkward stages more bearable and taught me many valuable life lessons that are still with me today. This series has stood the test of time and is in no way diminished by the 21st century. If anything it reminds us that today’s world may be more technologically advanced but that our society as a whole hasn’t changed much. What was valued in the 1900’s is still just as important today. In my opinion, everyone will get something out of Anne of Green Gables and it should be a must-read for people from all walks of life.

Thanks again for having me and good luck on your exams! :)

Guest Post: Falling in Love with Your Novel - Maria Geraci (LRC)

Maria Geraci, author of Boyfriend of the Month Club, is here today so let's give her a warm welcome ^.^ She has a wonderful piece about falling in love (with your novel)!

Btw: You should read my review of Boyfriend of the Month Club.



Falling in love with your Novel
By Maria Geraci
Writing a novel is exhausting. Both emotionally and physically. The only thing I can compare it to is falling in love. As a matter of fact, it’s exactly like falling in love.

There’s the beginning stage which is always fresh and exciting. Two people see each other across a crowded room and there’s a spark. An instant attraction. Or maybe it starts out as friendship and then one day the friendship becomes something more. It’s the same way a writer begins a story. You imagine a character or a situation or a first line and you’re instantly intrigued. You want to know more so you sit down at your computer and start typing. The words flow like honey. You want to see each other every day. You can’t get enough of each other. You text till three in the morning. You get up and before you have your coffee you go to your computer and open up your word doc and write the one perfect line that you must have dreamed while you were sleeping because you woke up with it fresh in your mind. Ain’t love grand? If only things could stay this way.

Then you have your first fight. Maybe it’s just a spat or maybe it’s more serious, like a major blow out. This is the stage when you might just say the hell with it and walk away. Your friends tell you he’s a loser. You can do better than him. The story concept isn’t working. You send some pages to your critique group or to your agent or your editor and they don’t like. But… then he apologizes. And then you apologize. And then you kiss and make up. You take those pages you gave your critique partners/agent/editor and read them again. You can make this work. You know you can. So you rewrite. You’ve just gone through an important initiation rite and come out the other side with your relationship stronger

Next comes the most dangerous stage of a relationship. Boredom. You’ve hit a wall. The zing is gone. You ask yourself, is this really the person I want to end up with? The story becomes predictable. You have a hundred pages left to write and you don’t know which direction to take it. You edit. You rewrite again. You go away for the weekend and you rediscover why you fell in love in the first place.

You finally finish the story but you’re not sure if it’s really “done.” You love it one day. And hate it the next. You just know you can’t read it anymore. So you send it to your editor. She tells you that she loves it, but that you have to take out chapter 14 because she hates the character you’ve introduced there. But the character has to stay because without him the rest of the story won’t make sense! You go back to the computer (armed with lots of chocolate and coffee) and you take out chapter 14 and rewrite the ending completely differently. And it works! He tells you he hates your cat but you love your cat, so you compromise. You keep the cat but the cat doesn’t sleep on the bed anymore. Maybe things are going to work out after all.

~~~~~
A Big Thank You to Maria for this insight into novel writing! You can visit her website http://www.mariageraci.com/ and her Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/MariaGeraciBooks

Remember: if you review one of her books, you get 2 extra entries per review ^.^

Teaser Tuesday (Feb 8)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


"I kept wanting to take more. I ended up with another half dozen blue books tucked in under my belt." -Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Quick note for you guys: Blue Books are usually used in colleges/high schools for essay tests.

Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your own teaser post or just the teaser if you don't have a blog.

Loving the Reviews Feb 7th - Elizabeth Isaacs

Head on to Brandi's blog and check out her interview with Elizabeth Isaacs, author of The Light of Asteria: Kailmeyra's Last Hope (which BTW is one of Brandi's favorite books)!

Remember: If you review one of her books, you get 2 extra entries per review ^.^

Guest Post: Serena from Pensive Bookeaters

Thank you very much to the lovely Serena of Pensive Bookeaters for today's guest post!


Hi Guys :) I want to say a quick thanks to Sniffly Kitty for letting me take over the blog for a day. I’m one half of the crew over at Pensive Bookeaters. We review mostly YA books and like to do author interviews and giveaways! :)

When I was in 5th and 6th grade, my family and I lived in a small town right on the beach (oh man, I miss it... now I’m in Kansas :( currently being snowed in). I was allowed to ride my bike as far as my elementary school on the north and the library on the suth. Now... thinking about it the library now it was probably the smallest, under funded library I’ve ever been to. However, when I was a kid, that library was magical. I remember spending hours there reading whatever book I could. Mostly Babysitters Club and Goosebumps, though. Oh, and I LOVED those Choose Your Own Adventure Books! (I might need to track one of those down to read one soon). I would check out the maximum amount of books that I could, fill up my backpack and take them home. I would read and re-read anything, I just absolutely loved the stories. At the same library, I actually met our local congresswoman. At the time, I had no clue who she was of course (I was like, 10) but she was a friendly older woman! I believe they had free cookies so she was totally awesome in my book :)

I have to admit my overzealous love for reading didn’t continue through my whole life and it’s only been in the past couple years that I’ve started reading again. However, I really do believe that my love for reading started very young and that little library fostered my love.

~~~~~~~
Thanks again to Sniffly for letting me take over :) Come visit me at Pensive Bookeaters!

Review: Atomic Weight of Secrets by Eden Unger Bowditch

Atomic Weight of Secrets by Eden Unger Bowditch

Copy Courtesy of NetGalley and Bancroft Press
Release Date: March 15, 2011

Summary
Five brilliant children are taken by a whole host of men in black and taken to a farm. They are placed in the care of a teacher and nannies. Their parents are missing, and the children debate what they need to do to escape and find them.

Commentary
The kids are an amusing lot, and I seem to have a certain fondness for genius children so I enjoyed that part. I have to admit that I even found some of the more melodramatic characterizations of the kids amusing. There's also quite a bit of teaching about history which I thought was a nice touch.

The big big problem with this book is how it drags. You learn about the kids run-ins with the men in black, but I got so bored. The scenes went on and on... and on. I'm not sure that it would hold a kid's attention span, which is unfortunate because the book has some good teaching points mixed in with some whimsy.

Star Rating: 2.0/5.0

For an explanation of the Star Rating go here.

Check out prices for Atomic Weight of Secrets at Amazon

Loving the Reviews Feb 6th - CC Hunter

Head on to Brandi's blog and check out her interview with CC Hunter, author of Born at Midnight!

Remember: if you review one of her books, you get 2 extra entries per review ^.^

Guest Review: Stork - Khadija of Black Fingernailed Reviews

Thank you very much to the lovely Khadija of Black Fingernailed Reviews for today's guest review!


Title: Stork
Author: Wendy Delsol
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2010
Source: ARC from Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Teaser: Sixteen-year-old Katla LeBlanc has just moved from Los Angeles to Minnesota. As if it weren’t enough that her trendy fashion sense draws stares, Katla soon finds out that she’s a Stork, a member of a mysterious order of women tasked with a very unique duty. But Katla’s biggest challenge may be finding her flock at a new school. Between being ignored by Wade, the arrogant jock she stupidly fooled around with, and constantly arguing with gorgeous farm boy and editor-in-chief Jack, Katla is relieved when her assignment as the school paper’s fashion columnist brings with it some much-needed friendship. But as Homecoming approaches, Katla uncovers a shocking secret about her past — a secret that binds her fate to Jack’s in a way neither could have ever anticipated. With a nod to Hans Christian Andersen and inspired by Norse lore, Wendy Delsol’s debut novel introduces a hip and witty heroine who finds herself tail-feathers deep in small-town life.

My Review: The first time I read the summery it sparked my interest but not in any 'if I don't read this book I'll die' kinda way. The first chapter in I was feeling like the book would be 'ok' but not anything special. But by the second and third chapters I was hooked and couldn't put the book down until I'd read every last word.

I read several debut novels in 2010, but out of them all, this one surprised me the most. Delsol follows the masses into fantasy but she breaks away from the pack with an idea completely unique and different from any other YA book I've read. It's subtle but Delsol took a risk with this book. Personally, I pretty much loved every minute of it.

The idea of using Norse Lore in a YA novel was a bit odd at first. When you start reading it you're kind of like 'Ok...this is just freaky' but somehow as the story goes along Delsol convinces you that it's just plain amazing. Katla is spunky, interesting and different. Her relationship with her mother and father is usual, her attitude toward moving to a freezing town in the middle of nowhere is understandable, the big red mark on her head? That took me a little time to get used to.


The story is well paced, yet when you finish reading it doesn't seem like you've just read one book because so much happens.

Katla and Jack are probably one of the sweetest and most interesting couples I've ever read about. I absolutely loved the characters, even Wade. Yes i know what you're thinking if you've read the book already: Wade? No I haven't lost my mind, I did love his character. He was an evil little moron that's for sure, but he was a well written evil moron whose plans you don't realize until the very end when they smack you in the face.

So what all of that in short means is that if you're looking for a well written story that is different from any other YA book you've read, you should definitely give this one a try.


~~Khadija~~

Loving the Reviews Feb 5th - Suzi Davis

Head on to Brandi's blog and check out her interview with Suzi Davis, author of Amber Frost!

Remember: if you review one of her books, you get 2 extra entries per review ^.^