That’s me on the left, there. Small Review is the stunner on the right. Obviously.
I’m not superstitious. The thirteenth Weekly Reporter is just a number. JUST A NUMBER, I TELL YOU!
About the RRWR:
One of the things that I have major issues with as a blogger is…well, lots of things. However, today I’m focusing on one constant source of frustration for me: self-promotion. There are lots of problems associated with self-promotion, but the primary one is: When and where is it okay?
That question was, essentially, the catalyst for my newest feature. I wanted to create a place for people to promote their blogs without fear or shame.
- Did you write a discussion post this week and you need some help getting the ball rolling? This is the place to tell people about it!
- Maybe you’re having a giveaway? Link to it in the comments section!
- Have a review that needs a little love? Let us know so we can take a look!
- Need an associate reviewer? Get the word out in the Weekly Reporter!
Here are the rules (because, what would a feature be without rules?):
- If you have something you want to link up, please leave a comment with the link. I will then add the link to the post.
- Please state the name of your blog so I can attribute your link.
- If you’re linking up to a giveaway, please tell where the contest is open (US only, international, etc.) and the date it ends.
- If you’re linking up to an event (like the Historical Fantasy Jubilee), include the name, date, and host(s) of the event.
- If you’re asking for help (like an associate reviewer or guest posters for a special event), please leave a link stating where and with whom respondents should get in contact.
I’ve gathered a few odds and ends so the post wouldn’t look too empty. However, I’m hoping all of you will be able to help me flesh it out!
Giveaways:
- Small Review has a giveaway of Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George
- Stephanie at Once Upon a Chapter is having her 3rd Blogoversary! She’s giving away the Ultimate Book Blogger Plugin!
- Jenny @ Supernatural Snark is giving away copies of Stealing Harper and Dare You To.
- Sarah at Workaday Reads is giving away copies of The Watcher and Stars In Her Eyes.
- Emily @ Emily’s Reading Room is giving away The Rules.
- Confessions of a Bookaholic is giving away Truth or Dare.
- Cindi @ Mommasez… is hosting a giveaway of nine ARCs!
Giveaway Hops Going on This Week:
Click on the image for mine!
Don’t miss these stops:
- Books and Things–$50 Amazon gift card!
- The Book Barista–$20 gift card! I love the title of this blog, by the way. It makes me fantasize about a bar where you can order books and coffee at the SAME TIME.
Book Blogging Events:
It’s Christen’s birthday and she’s really celebrating it!
Help Wanted:
ME! I still need help! I’m starting a blog tour business (I know–eep!) and I want you to be a tour host. You can sign up to be on the mailing list and, if you’re feeling especially generous, grab the shiny (sparkly!) new button!
<div align="center"><a href="http://preciousgembooktours.com" title="Precious Gem Book Tours"><img src="http://i43.tinypic.com/2i17b9.png" alt="Precious Gem Book Tours" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
Other Good Posts:
- Spoilers about Nalini Singh’s newest Psy-Changeling book, Heart of Obsidian have made it to the internet. Not big ones, but they were trying to keep the identity of the hero under wraps (haha). Since it’s only a matter of time until the news becomes widely known, Nalini is releasing the first two chapters on Monday. Watch out for the post on her blog! And, at the risk of sounding pompous, I guessed correctly! And I’m thrilled to be right.
What’s happening on your blog?
Check out the rest of the tour!
Author Joy Preble joins me to today to share a day in the life of the main character of her newest book, The Sweet Dead Life. Although The Sweet Dead Life is Preble’s Soho Teen debut, she’s not new to the genre. Her Dreaming Anastasia series combines Russian Folklore with the ever-enthralling mystery of that epically missing princess, Anastasia. Read on to find out more!
“I found out two things today. One, I think I’m dying. And two, my brother is a perv.”
So begins the diary of 14-year-old Jenna Samuels, who is having a very bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold together what’s left of the family by working two after-school jobs— difficult, as he’s stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead.
Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn’t survive the accident at all. He’s an “A-word.” (She can’t bring herself to utter the truth.) Soon they discover that Jenna isn’t just dying: she’s being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother’s mysterious depression and father’s disappearance.
The Sweet Dead Life is available now!
/ And now, for a day in the life of The Sweet Dead Life‘s Jenna:
(Note from Joy: I think it’s best to let Jenna tell this in her own words, journal entry style:)
What Happened Today:
- Mom was still in bed when we left for school – no surprise there.
- Casey kept tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of the Merc as we drove. My brother has a secret and he’s not telling me. This makes me pissy.
- Maggie and I worked on our English project. Mags believes that the universe plans on giving us an A. I think Mags is batshit crazy.
- EMT/bartender stalker chick Amber called Casey five times. What is up with that? She was even there this morning when we stopped for donuts—sitting there, fresh a daisy eating a sausage and cheese kolache like she had all the time in the world.
- Mr. Collins tried to explain Algebra by using Aggie football plays.
- My brother kept rubbing this spot on his back. He is seriously a mental case, especially since our accident. And double especially about that damn Lanie Phelps who suddenly likes him again for no reason that makes sense.
- I’m still feeling a mite pukey. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but it’s not getting any better.
Joy Preble is the author of the popular and highly acclaimed Dreaming Anastasia series. A former English teacher, Joy grew up in Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University. She is now a full time writer and lives with her family in Texas, where she has learned to say “y’all” without any hint of irony. A tireless advocate for literacy and great books, she is at the center of the all-important Texas YA scene.
Website / Twitter / Goodreads
Contest Rules
- The giveaway is open to US entrants only.
- Contest begins May 17 and ends at midnight on May 24.
- There are optional extra entries.
- Winners will be notified via email, and will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.
For my giveaway, I’ve decided to keep it simple–and international! One lucky winner will get:
One book of the winner’s choice from the Book Depository
(up to $12)
Contest Rules
- The giveaway is open to international entrants, so long as The Book Depository ships to their country. Entrants are responsible for checking to see if their country is represented.
- Contest begins May 16 and ends at midnight on May 22.
- There are optional extra entries.
- Winners will be notified via email, and will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.
Have fun! And check out the other giveaways (below the Rafflecopter form)!
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: April 16, 2013
Format: ARC
Source: Received from the publisher for review.
Status: Fourth in the Body Finder series, following:
The Body Finder
The Last Echo
Genre: Teen Paranormal
Other Info: For some very bizarre reason, (that probably made sense to me at the time), I’ve only reviewed Desires of the Dead on this blog. I would like you to know that, despite that fact, I am current with this series.
Description and link from Goodreads):
Violet thought she’d made peace with her unique ability to sense the echoes of the dead and the imprints that cling to their killers…that is until she acquired an imprint of her own. Forced to carry a reminder of the horrible events of her kidnapping, Violet is more determined than ever to lead a normal life. However, the people who run the special investigative team Violet works for have no intention of letting her go.
When someone close to Violet becomes a suspect in a horrific murder, she finds herself pulled into a deadly hunt for a madman with an army of devoted followers. Violet has survived dangerous situations before, but she quickly discovers that protecting those closest to her is far more difficult than protecting herself.
Now I’m an “adult,” I sometimes reconnect with old, childhood friends. I’m always delighted to see them and I always enjoy the time we spend catching up. After we part ways, I have pleasant memories and, while I’ll likely say to myself, “It would be nice to see him/her again,” I won’t be counting down the days until we are reunited. I think about those friends occasionally and tell myself I should call them, but mostly, it’s out of sight, out of mind. Until the next time, when I’m just as thrilled to see them as I was before life swept me up in its busy tide.
I have much the same relationship with The Body Finder books. I know that Kimberly Derting will always show me a good time, and I know I’ll want to read her books as they are published, but my liking for her lacks the urgency I feel for, say, Kelley Armstrong’s YA novels. Which is a shame, really. I always think I should appreciate The Body Finder books more than I do but, hey, if I don’t feel it, I don’t feel it–right?
Dead Silence follows the same formula as the previous books–Violet senses an echo and is unable to resist following it. So far, despite her ability to sense and hear echoes, Violet has kept her school life at school and her crime-fighting life…not. This time the murders bring Violet’s two worlds to a collision point. And it doesn’t help that Rafe and Gemma have enrolled in her high school.
The collision of Violet’s two worlds is further emphasized by her relationships with the two males in her life. Jay, her best friend and boy friend is a constant–always has been, always will be. But then there’s Rafe. Dead Silence flirts on the edge of the idea of a love triangle and goes not a step further. There’s obviously some connection between Violet and Rafe but what it is and what it means for her relationship with Jay is murky at best. I’m getting mixed signals from Derting. One minute Violet’s world is complete with Jay. The next, Rafe has dug up a dead body to help Violet. Can Violet have both boys? I’m starting to wish it was possible. And if I had to pick the main characters in these books, they’d be Violet and Rafe, not Violet and Jay.
While Dead Silence is another solid entry in this solid series, I’d label it as its weakest. The story didn’t really go anywhere and even the emotional arc felt muddled. I found myself wondering if Derting herself knew where her series was headed. Furthermore, I had a really hard time remembering the details of Violet’s school life and friends, which made it difficult for me to care about the storyline with her best friend, Chelsea. At this point, even Jay is starting to blend into the background. Too many characters and flitting in and out of the story and I fail to become emotionally invested.
What I think (or maybe just what I’d like to see) is an end to Violet’s story (or maybe a firm direction for it). Then I’d like Rafe to have a story of his own. Rafe is clearly the male lead and the male lead needs to get his girl. If it’s not going to be Violet (and I sure hope it’s not Chelsea) then he needs a story of his own. I’d totally read that.
Questions to nibble on:
- Do you agree that Rafe is the male lead?
- What would you like to see happen next in this series?
- Why do think we saw so little of Jay in Dead Silence?
- If you haven’t read the book yet: How do you feel about a love interest that isn’t the male lead?
4 Matryoshkas: I would make dinner for this book.
Inspired by the gorgeous Small Review, I’ve decided to start doing monthly (or approximately monthly) “Books I Got This Month” posts. Small usually does “Books I Got This Week” posts, but I am not so ambitious. Once a month is good enough for me. Plus, who doesn’t like an occasional peek into someone else’s shopping bag/mailbox/ereader?
Okay…this is more than a month’s worth of books. I’m not even sure I’ve included all the books I’ve received in the last two (or so) months but this is more than enough to be getting on with.
For review, I received:
Thanks to the following publishers:
- HarperTeen
- Bantam (Random House
- SoHo Teen
- Spencer Hill Press
- Orbit
- Sourcebooks
- Harlequin
- Amulet Books
- Henry Holt & Co.
I bought:
I scoured Chicago for bookstores and visited quite a few (though none, sadly, as fawesome as the Strand) and bought League of Strays and The Madman’s Daughter from Market Fresh Books in downtown Evanston. Then I took Logan’s advice and visited The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. It was a tiny independent bookstore with a good YA selection. I pulled Broken and Gravity from their shelves and added them to my already bulging suitcase. Finally, for my birthday, I bought myself The Rising, Nameless and The Collector. I have so joined Dante’s harem.
Other Sources:
Sometimes you don’t win…and sometimes you totally do! I got these via Shelf Awareness. I’m really curious about Icons because I read Beautiful Creatures and I always wonder how co-authors will sound on their own. And Loki’s Wolves, while being a middle grade novel is co-written by Kelley Armstrong. I can’t lose.
- I got The FitzOsbornes at War via Random Buzzers. It’s a monster. Seriously. I’m keeping it in mind in case I need a doorstop.
- Unravel Me was a birthday gift from Lisa at Dizneeee’s World of Books. Now I just need to read (and get) Destroy Me.
- I won Christen at Goldilox and the Three Weres‘ Twice Tempted contest. Isn’t the cover nice?
- On Small‘s recommendation, I added The Changeling Prince to my Paperback Swap wishlist. And, lo, the wish was granted!
What bookish goodies did you get?
