50 Follower Giveaway!

Thank you guys so much for helping me to get 50 followers! So, as a thank you, I am hosting a giveaway! Here's what you could win:

New Found Land by Allan Wolf (Signed!)
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance edited by Trisha Telep
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Dragon Warrior by Janet Chapman
Eat, Prey, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Or, a mystery book that can either be one of the ones featured above or something completely mysterious!

Details:

• Be a follower!
• Enter this FORM to be officially entered.
• There will be three winners. The first winner will have first choice of prizes, the second winner gets second pick, and the third gets to pick from what's left.
• Giveaway closes 5/28 at midnight.
• Extra points for sharing the giveaway on Twitter/blogpost, etc.
• Winners will be chosen by Random.org
• Winners will be emailed and have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen
• United States only, sorry :[
• Good luck!

Follow Friday, Book Blogger Hop, and Book Blogger Tag Along (5/6/11)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee. It exists so bloggers can make friends and say "hi!".

Circle time! Time to share. What character in a book would you most like to be, what character in a book would you most like to date?

Oh, the possibilities!...Well, there are certainly some drool worthy characters in books I'd love to date. Though it would be quite the adventure to date a sexy romance hero, I think for the time being, I'll stick with a young adult hero. (Who knows? He could very easily morph into a rugged romance cover boy hero...) So therefore, my choices would be either Vincent Delacroix from Die For Me or Etienne St. Clair from Anna and the French Kiss. Ohhh, french boys, you are sooooo mine. As for who I'd like to be, I'd rather be me, I'm good at being an original specimen :]

(You can read my review of Die For Me here)

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. It's where bloggers connect via their love for books!

Which book blogger would you like to meet in real life?

I don't know if I'd rather meet a single blogger, or have a New England area book blogger partay! Who's with me? :]

The 18 & Over Book Blogger Tag Along is hosted by Laurie from Bitten by Paranormal Romance. The meme gives adult book bloggers a chance to unite over the love of books.

List 3 books off the top of your head that you read this year and really enjoyed.

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown (you can read my review here)
Wild Rain [Leopard People, #2] by Christine Feehan (I love this series!)
Invincible [Chronicles of Nick, #2] by Sherrilyn Kenyon (hollahhhh! :)

Have a great weekend!

Die For Me by Amy Plum

Die For Me

[Revenants #1]

Author: Amy Plum

Pages: 341

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: May 10, 2011

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Romance

Buy Die For Me: Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble

via Goodreads:

My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.
Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

4 Roses to Die For Me

There are the great romances, the ones that everyone wishes they had, and in Die For Me, Kate and Vincent have found the secret recipe. Add one lonely girl with one boy with a mysterious past, mix in party-girl sister and sudden move to a foreign country following the unexpected death of both parents. Stir gently and throw in a pinch of secrets and bad guys for flavor. Top it off with Parisian sunshine and true love. You're left with this book. Warning: you may feel a desire to inhale the whole story in one sitting.

Following the sudden and unexpected death of both her parents, Kate Mercier and her sister, Georgia, move from the United States to live with their grandparents in Paris, France. After a chance run-in with a sexy boy at a cafe, Kate doesn't know it, but her story's about to take a turn for the better. That boy is none other than Vincent Delacroix. Over a few dates and the death of his best friend, Jules, Kate and Vincent find themselves falling in love. Until she runs into Jules, alive, at the library.

Kate becomes determined to find out what is going on and so she goes to talk to Vincent. There's only one issue with her plan; Vincent is dead. What Kate doesn't know is that Vincent dies quite often (about once a month) for three days at a time. It's because hes a revenant, an immotal guardian of sorts. If he sacrifices himself to save someone else, he comes back to life three days later. Sounds like a sweet deal, no? Well, think again. Vincent died trying to save his love, and in all the decades he's been a revenant, Kate is his first ray of sunshine. He can never lose her...but the arch-rivals of the Revenants, the Numa, have a different opinion on that matter.

Locked in a battle that has raged for years, Vincent and the leader of the Numa will only stop fighting when one of them dies. And as the Revenants numbers dwindle, the chances are not staying in their favor.

Die For Me is an amazing love story that makes you smile when you read it. The characters are funny and so life-like, it's hard to imagine them stuck in their paper world forever. Kate and Vincent's story is one you should definitely read. If not for the adorable romance, then for the unique supernatural elements only found in this story. I enjoyed this book very much, and I hope you will too.

Wins:

• Adorable!
• Inforces my desire to move to France

Let Downs:

• Need a sequel asap!
• The explanation of revenants was a tad confusing

Favorite Quotes:

"There he was. Standing in the lashing rain, looking at me with an expression that made me stop in my tracks. It was an expression of dizzying relief. As if he has come across a pond of crystal clear water in the middle of a desert. I recognized it because I felt exactly the same." -page 216

"So I spent Thanksgiving Day on my bed reading, trying not to think of my boyfriend, dead on his bed a few blocks away." -page 271

"My normal world was gone, in more ways than one. But I had a chance for happiness in a completely new one. A world better suited to science fiction and horror films, perhaps, but also one where I could find tenderness, friendship, and love." -page 276

"And them I leaped outside, slamming the door behind me, and turned to face the devil." -page 303

Revenants series
1- Die For Me (2011)
2- Until I Die (2012)

Have you read Die For Me? What did you think?

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

Bitter End

Author: Jennifer Brown
Pages: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Hachette Book Group
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Source: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Buy Bitter End: Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble

via Goodreads:

When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole, a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her, she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate-someone who truly understands her and loves her for who she really is.

At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her best friends, Zack and Bethany, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all of her time with another boy? But as the months pass, Alex can no longer ignore Cole's small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats. As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose "love" she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose - between her "true love" and herself.

 5 Roses to Bitter End

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
 -Ernest Hemingway

This book can easily be summarized into one word: powerful. Jennifer Brown is used to writing on touchy subjects, her novel, Hate List, talking about murder in a school setting by a student. Bitter End surpassed all my expectations and then some. The topic is clearly one that the author was interested and you can tell how passionate she feels by the very voice of the main character, Alex.

When Alex meets Cole, he is everything she could ever have dreamed about. Finally, someone on Earth wants to pay attention to her, and all the care she's gone for so long without is exactly what Cole is bestowing upon her. Alex's best friends, Zach and Bethany, however, don't take as kindly to Cole as Alex would like. Zach especially. Cole tells her that Zach is just jealous that he can't have Alex all to himself since Cole came into the picture. Brushing it off as a little bit of guy drama, Alex falls more in love with Cole.

Then Bethany sides with Zach, saying that Cole isn't good news, and Alex shouldn't be so consumed with him. Instead of listening to her friends, Alex falls more under Cole's spell, spending as much time with him as possible. Even when her boss mentions how "creepy" it is that Cole waits hours for her to finish work, Alex doesn't put much thought into it.

In the car with Zach, Bethany, and Cole, Alex is thrilled that everyone seems to be getting along...until Cole yells at Zach and Bethany, kicking them out of the car, all the while gripping Alex's knee so tightly his fingers leave bruises. It's a one time thing, and he just got jealous, but he's so sorry over what happened that despite Zach and Bethany's reactions, Alex forgives Cole once he promises it'll never happen again.

They're soulmates, he tells her. But it does happen again, and the next time, it's not little bruises that Alex can easily hide. Each time Cole gets angry, Alex gets hurt. Each time she hangs out with Bethany and Zach, Cole becomes jealous and gets angry; and when he's angry, Alex gets hurt. Pushing everyone else aside, Alex tries not to make Cole any madder, but she's losing control, and people are starting to notice...

There are books that, when you're finished reading them, you feel as if you are the main character. That was this book for me. I closed this book feeling for the bruises, the emotional scars that I'm sure were there. Over and over, I keep dreading what was going to happen, kept begging Alex to leave, to have the strength to walk away. Each time she slipped deeper, I felt like a part of me was going along with her. Being able to relate to such a feeling of helplessness, I was under such a compulsion to finish Bitter End that when I closed the last page, I felt raw. This book is so powerful, it leaves you gasping for air at the end.

Wins:

• Amazing portrayal of the situation
• Helpful tips and information at the end of the book
• Addictive, compelling storyline

Let Downs:

• None

Favorite Quotes:

"As the night wore on and I though things over, I'd started to forgive Cole less and less." -page 142

"This was nothing, I convinces myself. I could fix it. We could fix it together... I would tell nobody. What happened would be our secret. He and I would share it alone." -page 220

"And when I felt his arms slide around my shoulders from behind, I jumped. Panic rocked me as I wondered what he would do to me this time." -page 239

Have you read Bitter End? What did you think?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Came Recommended

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It was created as a direct result of their love for lists and their desire to share their lists with other bookish people!

This week's theme is:

Books That Came Recommended

Here are my top ten books I never would have read without being recommended to:

10. Sweep series by Cate Tiernan

A girl I wanted to be my friend in seventh grade was raving about these books. She had decided to become a Wiccan and was praising this series as her holy scripts. I, desperate to make friends, read the series and decided they were great books! However, the girl and I never really did become friends, but I got a great series out of the deal! 

9. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

This was not so much a recommended read so much as it was a mandatory read for my English Lit class. I loved the story's complexity and intrigue. It really makes you question everything, including yourself. But if I hadn't been made to read it, I probably never would have given it a second thought and missed out on this awesome book.

8. The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

I'm not exactly sure how I was recommended this series. I know I tried to read it once, but the "mystery" part instantly turned me off. It's always the butler, the end. Mysteries never really were my kind of book, unless there was some paranormal or supernatural elements and a romance on the sidewings. This series has all that, and plus now it's a tv show! -fan girl squeal-

7. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephenie Perkins

Someone told me to read this and I told them I already had just to get them to stop annoying me about it. When they decided to talk about the book in more detail, I made up some stuff and continued on my merry way. A while later, my Momma Jeanne was sent an extra copy for review and gave it to me, highly recommended. With nothing better to do, I decided to see if it was really all it was being cracked up to be. It was! My copy is currently on loan to a friend after she got sick of me talking about it and wanted to read it. :]

6. Haven by Kristi Cook

I was sent some swag by Kristi Cook, and though swag is awesome, it's even cooler if you've read book. So in a way, Cook actually inspired me to read this. I felt wrong hoarding signed swag without even knowing the storyline. It then happened that I won a copy in a giveaway and decided to see if it was worth keeping the swag over. Turns out, it was worth keeping both the swag and the book!

5. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella

My sister actually recommended this to me. We were in Borders and she was trying so hard to find it after the store had just been rearranged. I remember asking her if it was such a good book that we had to search for it for such a long time and I thought she was gonna kick me from how appalled she was I'd never read it. Then I felt like I was missing out on something and borrowed her cope a.s.a.p. It's one of those comfort read books for me; the tone is light and happy, and the story is familiar. It's a rainy day kind of book.

4. Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

A former friend of mine is a Hate List fan clubber and though I read, and liked, Hate List, I had no intention of reading Bitter End. I asked the publisher for a review copy, intending to give it to my friend as a surprise, but by the time I got the book, we were no longer friends and there is no way I was going to give it to her. So I read it instead and was blown away by the power within those pages. I may be chilling at prom along because of her, but hey, thanks for the great book!

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

We had just read "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson in English when someone remarked that it was just like The Hunger Games. Our teacher, having read the series, agreed and that started a class-wide Hunger Games discussion, minus Nora. I like to be in on things, even if they don't pertain to me, so I had to read it. Lucky me, I had just found my first dystopian novel. I probably would have read the series before the movie came out anyway, but it would have been a while and I might not have been so interested in dystopian without having read this book first.

2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Another mandatory read for English Lit class, I really didn't want to read this book. A novel about the Holocaust told by the narration of Death? Erm.. thanks but no thanks was my response. However, a polite decline will not pass your test on the book, so I was forced to start reading. I go so involved with this book that I forced my mom to read it too. We cried together at the end; I would have never touched this book without pretty much being forced to, and now, it's one of my favorites.

1. Dark-Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Ahh, Amazon Listmania!, you are my friend. I was trying to find more books along my newly-discovered paranormal romance fixation and Listmania keep recommending different books from this series. I was glad to have found a whole series to focus my attentions on, but since it was a few years ago and I didn't work at the library yet, I felt weird asking the clerk to request romance books for me. So basically, I forgot about the series for a while. Then one day, my mom came home from the Salvation Army with some clothes for me and she had found two books from the series that she thought looked like something I would read. I didn't read them... I absorbed them. They only fueled my Dark-Hunter fever and within months, I had read every single installment published. I buy the newest book as soon as it comes out in paperback. This series is my absolute favorite!

What books have you read that you never would have touched without a recommendation?

Teaser Tuesday (Die For Me)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. It's where we bloggers share a tantalizing glimpse of a book we're reading, have read, or want to read, just to tease you :]

• 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! 
• Share the title & author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to the TBR lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser:

"So I spent Thanksgiving Day on my bed reading, trying not to think of my boyfriend, dead on his bed a few blocks away."
-Die For Me by Amy Plum, page 271

Die For Me 
[Revenants, #1]

Author: Amy Plum
Pages: 341
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Romance
Publication Date: May 10, 2011

via Goodreads:

My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.
Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

This book is so great! At first, the plot from the not-so-beaten path at first had me a tad confused, but when I caught on, it was well worth it! Not only are the characters loveable, but the Parisian setting reminds me a lot of Anna and the French Kiss, an amazing book that you need to read if you have not yet. Die For Me is splendid so far, I can't wait until it ends, but then it'll be over....sadness.

In My Mailbox #4

In My Mailbox is weekly meme hosted by Kristi, The Story Siren. This meme lets bloggers to socialize and network their blogs, it’s also a great way for bloggers to share upcoming releases! Here's what's new to me this week:

Library:

The Six Rules of Maybe by Deb Caletti
Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton [Angelfire, #1]


Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen
Fangland by John Marks


Roommates Wanted by Lisa Jewell

Bought:

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach

Sent for Review:

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown
I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan


The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch [The Magnolia League, #1]

Swiped from Momma Jeanne:

Die for Me by Amy Plum [Revenants, #1]

What's in your mailbox?