We have some winners!

So this week we started Fantasyfest with a fun giveaway. We gave away 1 mystery swag pack and copies of Frost by Marianna Baer and Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey.

Here are our winners chosen by random.org.

Winner of Cold Kiss and Frost:

Sniffly Kitty!

Winner of Mystery Swag Pack:
Lisa M!

Congrats guys!

Review: The God's Wife by Lynn Voedisch

Release date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: Fiction Studio
Age group: Older teens/Adults
Pages: 275
Flirt Factor: Playful
Source: Review copy from publisher - blog tour
Overall: 4/5 stars

This review is part of a blog tour from Pump Up Your Book. Visit www.pumpupyourbook.com for more tour dates and information.

Summary from Amazon: The women of ancient Egypt were the freest of any civilization on earth, until the modern era. In several dynasties of ancient Egypt the God’s Wives of Amun stood tall, priestesses of wealth and power, who represented the pinnacle of female power in the Egyptian state. Many called The God’s Wife of Amun second only to the Pharaoh in dominance. THE GOD’S WIFE follows the adventures of a 16-year-old girl, Neferet, who is thrust into the role of The Gods Wife of Amun without proper training. Surrounded by political intrigue and ensnared by sexual stalking, Neferet navigates the temple, doing her duties, while keeping her family name pristine and not ending up like her predecessor—dead. Meanwhile, a modern-day Chicago dancer, Rebecca, is rehearsing for a role in an ancient Egyptian production and finds herself blacking out and experiencing realistic dreams about life in Egypt. It’s as if she’s coming in contact with Neferet’s world. Are the two parallel worlds on a collision course? They seem to be, for Neferet has just used an old spell to bring protection to her world, and Rebecca meets a mysterious Egyptian man who says he’ll whisk her away to Alexandria. Magic and realism mix for a powerful ending in THE GOD’S WIFE.

If you've read several posts on our blog, you probably know I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, yet I seemed strangely drawn to this one. The setting switching between ancient Egypt and modern day Chicago was an interesting way to write a historical fiction novel, and I found I enjoyed the book a lot more than other historical fiction that I've read before.
The God's Wife centers around two strong female protagonists. First there is Neferet, a 16 year old Egyptian princess who has just been given the prestigious title of God's Wife. Her job is to perform the sacred rituals that keep the god Amun happy. The other protagonist is Rebecca, a talented dancer in Chicago who has just won the lead role in her dance company's performance of 'Anubia'. As Neferet's position is threatened and strange things happen to Rebecca, causing her world to fall apart around her, Neferet and Rebecca's worlds begin to intertwine. It was very interesting seeing how Rebecca and Neferet 'interact' and affect each other, an aspect I have never seen in a historical fiction novel. The Egyptian details in the book were obviously well researched, and the reader finds themselves immersed in the political ins and outs of Egyptian society. I will admit, it wasn't quite as interesting to read Rebecca's parts, just because she wasn't as strong of a female character and the events surrounding Neferet were much more interesting.

Lynn Voedisch does a wonderful job of world building and her writing draws you in even further. You can tell Voedisch has worked hard on her writing, because it's fluid, has strong word choice, and makes you feel as if you were in the novel. Overall, The God's Wife is a new take on historical fiction that anyone would love. It's full of excitement, romance, and many plot twists and turns that will leave you wanting more.

Writing: 5/5 stars
Characters: 4/5 stars
Plot/Setting: 4/5 stars
Ending: 5/5 stars

Love always,
Amanda

Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

Release Date: 08.16.2011

Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 308

Overall: (and a half if we gave half stars!)

Luis Fuentes has always been sheltered from the gang violence that nearly destroyed his brothers’ lives. But that didn't stop him from taking risks—whether he’s scaling a mountain in the Rockies or dreaming of a future as an astronaut, Luis can’t stop looking for the next thrill.

Nikki Cruz lives her life by three rules—boys lie to get their way, don’t trust a boy who says “I love you,” and never date a boy from the south side of Fairfield. Her parents may be from Mexico, but as a doctor’s daughter, she has more in common with her north-side neighbors than the Latino Blood at her school. Then she meets Luis at Alex’s wedding, and suddenly, she’s tempted to break all her rules.

Getting Nikki to take a chance on a southsider is Luis’s biggest challenge, until he finds himself targeted by Chuy Soto, the new head of the Latino Blood. When Chuy reveals a disturbing secret about Luis’s family, the youngest Fuentes finds himself questioning everything he’s ever believed to be true. Will his feelings for Nikki be enough to stop Luis from entering a dark and violent world and permanently living on the edge?

Fans of Elkeles won’t be disappointed in the last of the Fuentes brothers, Luis is just as hot and passionate as Alex and Carlos! He plays the Mexican hottie scandalously. His one defining characteristic is that he is a thrill seeker, an adventure junkie. So, it’s no surprise he finds himself in over his head and ends up in a perilous situation reminiscent of his brothers.

Chuy Soto says in the book, “Well, well…it’s a Fuentes family reunion,” and it totally is! We get bigger glimpses into Alex and Carlos’s life. Some of the best and most hilarious dialogue comes from Carlos. Seriously, I laughed out loud at some of the things he said. I also wanted to punch him in the gut for his stupidity too (he is my fav brother, if you couldn’t tell!).

The brothers make this book, their dedication and loyalty to their family is admirable and contagious. The love for they have for their girls (mama included) is sweet, endearing and such a precious thing that each of them holds so dear.

Oh, and least I forget Elkeles throws in a twist I didn’t see coming!!

While I enjoyed this book (I read it in one sitting) it's not quite as powerful as the first two books.

Cover:

Characters:

Plot:

Writing:

Ending:

xoxo,

Shelbie

In My Mailbox 10.9.11

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. For In My Mailbox, book bloggers post about the books they got that week in the mail, from the book store, the library, etc. Here's our IMM for the week of 10.2.11 - 10.8.11.




Won:
Sweetly by Jackson Pearce (signed)

Thanks to Jackson Pearce.

For review/giveaway:
In the Forests of the Night by Kersten Hamilton
If I Tell by Janet Gurtler
I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler
Going Underground by Susan Vaught

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sourcebooks, and Bloomsbury Teen

Bought:
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
Shut Out by Kody Keplinger
The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore
A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
Modelland by Tyra Banks
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan


xoxo and love always,

Shelbie and Amanda

The Mortal's Library Ratings

If you are an old reader of our blog, you are probably familiar with our ratings. We do our reviews on an overall five star basis and ratings within separate categories. Well, we decided we'd define exactly what those star ratings mean.

Five Stars
*Fan Girl Squeal* This book has it all. We were up all night reading it and immediately went out and bought enough copies so that we have three of them. One copy to loan to friends, one to sit all pretty on our shelf forever, and one for us to read over and over again and write our fangirlish thoughts in while highlighting our favorite passages. We would love to live in this book and possibly marry one of the characters from it. Heck, we'd marry the author if it meant they'd continue writing forever.

Four Stars
Yay! A new book/author that we're genuinely excited about! There's a lot going on with this book, and we'd highly recommend it to our readers and our friends. This is a book that we'd buy and reread, and we'd love to read more books by this author.

Three Stars
An overall good book, one worth finishing, but not something we'd buy for ourselves or push upon our friends. Three star books are great for rainy days when you need something new and interesting to read.

Two Stars
A lot of things about this book just didn't click for us. We finished the book, but sort of wish we hadn't. The writer made a good attempt at creating an interesting and compelling story, but it just fell flat. This is not a book we would recommend to our friends or really a whole lot of people who appreciate a good book. However, this writer still has some potential so we encourage them to try, try again.

One Star
*groan* We either did not finish this book or really wish we didn't take the few days it took us to read it. There is a lack of character development, the sentences just aren't very well done, and there is no plot. Or possibly, there are plots or characters, but they're boring and overdone. We usually say that you should still try the book if it sounds like something you'd like, but we highly recommend skipping this one.


ONE FINAL NOTE:

We have also decided to add a new part to our ratings system, and that is our Flirt Factor. Since our books tend to have a whole lot of romance in them, we thought we'd create a rating system for romance/pda. This can range anywhere from chaste to downright raunchy. This is an important rating to watch out for if you blush at certain scenes in books. Also, this rating may not be applied to a book if there really is no romance/love interest in the book.

Flirt Factor

Chaste
Little to no romance/pda. Characters may flirt a little and share a few short kisses, but really nothing that would make you blush.
Example: No example at this time

Playful
A lot more flirty and romantic. Characters may share some steamy kisses and there is definitely some sexual tension. May allude to further sexual acts but doesn't actually describe them.
Example: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Steamy
You might need the AC on for this book, and it'll probably make you blush. Full of flirting, fooling around, and sexual tension. The characters do... things. And describe them.
Example: The Duff

Raunchy
Not only do the characters do things, but they do them frequently and give you great detail about what is happening. These books will leave you blushing and overwhelmed with girlish desire. Recommended for older teens and adults only.
Example : We typically don't read these books so we don't have an example at this time.

Keep in mind, this is a rating system for YA books. The sexual scenes in these books are tame in comparison to adult romance novels and none of the books are inappropriate for people under 18.

Review: Frost by Marianna Baer

Release date: 9/13/11
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 400
Source: Publisher
Overall: 5/5 Stars

Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school starts with a cruel shock: Frost House, the cozy Victorian dorm where she and her best friends chose to live, has been assigned an unexpected roommate—confrontational, eccentric Celeste Lazar.

What Celeste lacks in social grace, however, her brother, David, a recent transfer student, makes up for in good looks and charm. But while he and Leena hit it off immediately, Leena finds herself struggling to balance her growing attraction with her fear of getting hurt.

As classes get under way, strange happenings begin to bedevil Frost House—frames mys-teriously falling off walls, doors locking by themselves, furniture toppling over. Celeste blames the housemates, convinced they want to scare her into leaving. And while Leena tries to play peacekeeper between her best friends and new roommate, soon the mysterious happenings in the dorm, an intense triangle between Leena, Celeste, and David, and the reawakening of childhood fears all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. But does the threat lie with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind . . . or in Frost House itself?(Summary from Amazon)

Fall and Winter of 2011 seem to be chocked full of eery ghost stories, and Frost by Marianna Baer is definitely one of my favorites. Baer starts off the book by introducing you to Leena's rambunctious group of friends and one very attractive David Lazar. Towards the beginning, I thought it was going to be your typical ghost story with a little romance thrown in, but it was so much more. As the characters deal with the stress of (possibly) having an angry ghost in their house, Marianna Baer introduces sensitive topics such as substance abuse, family relationships, and self-abuse (is that what it's called?)

Baer does a wonderful job of creating some complicated and interesting character relationships. Not only does she write a budding romance between Leena and David, but she also creates some interesting family and friend relationships. I really enjoyed the complicated brother-sister relationship between David and Celeste. It kind of felt like a scaled down version of the brother-sister relationship in Her and Me and You by Lauren Strasnick.

Along with character building, Marianna Baer also did a wonderful job of world building. I could see why Leena was so drawn to Frost House and had such strong feelings towards her school because Baer's writing made it feel comforting and homey. Her combination of interesting characters, a likable setting, and complicated plot twists made for an interesting new take on a ghost story and a book that is soon to become one of your new favorites. Marianna Baer has definitely got me interested in ghost stories and I can't wait to read more from her.

Characters: 5/5

Writing: 4/5

Plot: 5/5

Ending: 5/5

Love always,

Amanda

Fantasyfest 2011 kickoff with a giveaway!

Hey readers! If you were a follower of our blog last year at this time you probably remember that we hosted a month long event called Fantasyfest that focused on fantasy/paranormal YA fiction. We hosted tons of giveaways, had some author interviews, and some guest posts. That Fantasyfest was in August of last year. Well, this year we decided to push it back to October because we weren't ready for it in August and it's more fitting to have it in October. So... Fantasyfest is now moved to October!

Fantasyfest this year will be a bit different. This year it will be more giveaway-centered and will not feature any guest bloggers due to the fact that we didn't have the time to organize all of those and what not. So this year it will mainly be giveaways, themed reviews, and themed posts by us. The official schedule will be up within the next week. (Still waiting on some prizes to get in so we can be sure of the giveaways we're doing.)

Without further ado... let's have the first giveaway!

Majority of our giveaways this Fantasyfest will have (a) book(s) to giveaway and a swag pack. For our first giveaway we will have two winners. One winner will receive two books and the other will receive a (sort of) mystery swag pack. The swag packs are a sort of mystery because most of them contain the same things, but some will have more swag or special signed swag. We have loads of swag to give away including key chains, signed bookmarks/postcards from Victoria Schwab, Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton, and a whole lot more. Anyway, let's get to the prizes.

1st place winner will receive:
1 ARC copy of Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey
1 ARC copy of Frost by Marianna Baer

When her boyfriend, Danny, is killed in a car accident, Wren can’t imagine living without him. Wild with grief, she uses the untamed powers she’s inherited to bring him back. But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy she once loved.

Wren has spent four months keeping Danny hidden, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school and somehow, inexplicably, he can sense her secret. Wren finds herself drawn to Gabriel, who is so much more alive than the ghost of the boy she loved. But Wren can’t turn her back on Danny or the choice she made for him—and she realizes she must find a way to make things right, even if it means breaking her own heart.

Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school starts with a cruel shock: Frost House, the cozy Victorian dorm where she and her best friends chose to live, has been assigned an unexpected roommate—confrontational, eccentric Celeste Lazar.

What Celeste lacks in social grace, however, her brother, David, a recent transfer student, makes up for in good looks and charm. But while he and Leena hit it off immediately, Leena finds herself struggling to balance her growing attraction with her fear of getting hurt.

As classes get under way, strange happenings begin to bedevil Frost House—frames mys-teriously falling off walls, doors locking by themselves, furniture toppling over. Celeste blames the housemates, convinced they want to scare her into leaving. And while Leena tries to play peacekeeper between her best friends and new roommate, soon the mysterious happenings in the dorm, an intense triangle between Leena, Celeste, and David, and the reawakening of childhood fears all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. But does the threat lie with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind . . . or in Frost House itself?

2nd place winner will receive:
1 mystery swag pack!

To enter the giveaway, just fill out the form below. Make sure to check out our giveaway policy on our policy page first! This contest is USA only and ends 10/9/11 (not the 8th like the form says) at 11:59 pm Central Standard Time.