It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet? [3]

I just started this meme thing and I'm already slacking. *sigh*

XXX

"It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet?" is inspired by the #fridayreads Twitter meme, Book Journey's "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", Should Be Reading's "WWW Wednesdays", Tynga's Reviews "Stacking the Shelves" and the various other book haul memes, and probably a few others I can't remember right now.

All covers/book title links lead to Goodreads.

I'm not liking it as much as the first book, Crash (see Past Reads), but I AM liking it. I love that it's the second book in a contemp romance series that focuses on the same characters throughout.

I put this on hold when Crash came in the mail. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I like it already!

I got a review copy of The Goddess Inheritance from the author last week, so I figured it was time to start the Goddess short story collection.

I'm really excited to start this, it sounds so good! And the movie comes out in less than a month, so I need to get reading.

I'm always looking for. . .darker, I guess you could say, contemp romances, so when Crash got traditionally pubbed I ordered it right away. And I'm happy I did. While I did have a few small issues with the story, overall I loved it!

This was a bowlful of awesome. Again, while there were a few small issues I had, overall I LOVED it!

(Books/Stuff that came in the mail.)

Nothing came in the mail this week. :(

(Books I bought.)

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Prepare yourselves, this week brought a bucket and a half of book news. And I put it under a cut, because WOW this section made the post long.

2012 Challenges Wrap-Up

So if you looked at my sidebar sometime in the past year, you probably noticed my giant challenges list (as seen below).

Since it's the new year I'm going to recap all of those challenges, so here we go!

1st in a Series Challenge

I didn't find this challenge until later in the year, but I rocked it nonetheless with 38 books. The highest challenge level was 25 books, though I shot for 35, because I was at 18 in July. My top 5 favorite books from my list of 1sts are (in no particular order):

1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
2. Grave Mercy by Robin Lafevers
3. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
4. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
5. Rift by Andrea Cremer

50 Book Pledge

My goal for the year was actually 100 books, but I figured this challenge would be a good way to keep track of the books I read. Picking favorites is SO HARD, because this is from ALL the books I read this year—I can't do it, I can't pick my favorites. Most of the books I read I LOVED.


A-Z Book Challenge

I knew I was going to have trouble getting X and Q, but I didn't realized how frequently titles start with V, A, B, C, S, and R. Though, I didn't really go out of my way to find books with the letters I was missing. Below is the list, so you can see what I was missing.

Now this list is much easier to pick favorites from (And, again, in no particular order).

1. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
2. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
3. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
4. Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
5. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Debut Author Challenge

When it was May, and I'd only read 3 debuts, I figured I wouldn't make my goal. But around August I hit a debut "boom", and just about completed my goal. Then, of course, I read 1 or 2 more to complete my goal.

My favorite debuts (as always, in no particular order):

1. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
2. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
3. Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
4. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
5. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Monthly Challenges

I started this to help me stay on track for my goal of 100 books in a year, and as you've noticed, I only reached 92. For some reason, I really slowed down in the summer, and that's what hurt me.

No favorite for this one as well.


TBR Pile Reading Challenge

I really didn't do well in this challenge, there were just so many new books coming out!

My 3 favorites of the 8 I read:

1. Fallen by Lauren Kate
2. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
3. My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

Blue Bloods Read-a-long Challenge

I didn't do so well with this either. I read the first 3 books in the series, but I only reviewed book 1. I also completed 1 mini-challenge.

No favorites, because it was all one series, but the Blue Bloods series *is* one of my favorite series ever!


That's all! Soon I'll have a 2013 Challenges post up with all of the challenges I'm doing, most of them different from the ones I did in 2012.

It's (Not) Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet?

This is way late, I'm sorry. Anyway, I'm traveling for the holidays so I'll be on another hiatus, but hopefully this one won't be nearly as long as my previous ones.

XXX

"It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet?" is inspired by the #fridayreads Twitter meme, Book Journey's "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", Should Be Reading's "WWW Wednesdays", Tynga's Reviews "Stacking the Shelves" and the various other book haul memes, and probably a few others I can't remember right now.

All covers/book title links lead to Goodreads.

I've just just just started this, so I don't have much to say, but I'm loving reading from Warner's POV.

I was reading this, but I put it on hold while I read Shatter Me. I'm not very far into, so I don't know what I think about it yet, either.

I just picked this up yesterday, because I was reading Shatter Me and this kinda seemed like the opposite MC power-wise, so I figured I give it a shot.

Also, I read a book/short story where the MC was a healer who discovered that she took injuries onto herself then healed herself. I can't remember the title, do any of you know what book I'm talking about?

I'm really excited to start this, it sounds SOOO good!

I re-read this for Pitch Dark's re-read-a-thon, and I loved it even more the second time around!

My plan was to save this for vacation, but I just couldn't wait, so I read it and LOVED it! I think I liked it even more than I liked Perfect Chemistry.

(Books/Stuff that came in the mail.)

I got these Altered bookmarks from the author, the lovely Jennifer Rush.

(Books I bought.)

Warrior Princess by Frewin Jones

Golden by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Such A Rush by Jennifer Echols

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

Chain Reaction by Elkeles

Secret Vampire by L. J. Smith

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

I also got:

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Touched by Corrine Jackson

No Book News this week, there were a few updated-cover reveals, so I'll link them below, but I don't have time to do a write up.

The Rules by Stacey Kade got a new font and altered cover image. IceyBooks revealed the update.

Jean BookNerd revealed the updated cover for The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett. This one took me FOREVER to figure out the change, only the girl on the cover changed.

It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet? [1]

"It's Friday! Have You Turned Into A Book Yet?" is inspired by the #fridayreads Twitter meme, Book Journey's "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?", Should Be Reading's "WWW Wednesdays", Tynga's Reviews "Stacking the Shelves" and the various other book haul memes, and probably a few others I can't remember right now.

I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to do any memes anymore, but I've hardly been posting since I said that, so I figured ONE shouldn't hurt. What I'm doing is basically a mash-up of a lot of the memes I see every week (as you probably guessed from the top paragraph). The title came from the "If you keep  eating those, you'll turn into one!" saying, but, you know, altered to be "If you keep reading books, you'll turn into one!" (And I think that would be awesome, by the way.)

Anyway, I'm not quite sure what all's going to be in these posts—it'll probably change, topic-wise, from week to week—though I know that I'll include what I'm reading, what I got for the week, and, since I'm not really doing reviews, a short bit on what I thought about the books I read that week. There might be a bit about bookish news (like in this post), but not always, and there will definitely not be this huge intro every week.

As always, all covers/book title links lead to Goodreads.

Now on to the meme part of this post. (Under a cut, because it got kinda long.)

Exciting Book Stuff! #2

So two AMAZING bookish announcements happened yesterday, and I just about fainted from all the excitement (the fact the I read them within an hour of each other didn't help). (Okay, I didn't come close to fainting, but I was a little lightheaded from squeeeeing.) On to the news!


For the past couple weeks Maureen Johnson, Cassandra Clare, and Sarah Rees Brennan have tweeting about a secret they had. Well, yesterday their secret was FINALLY revealed on EW's Shelf Life. Cassie, along with Maureen and Sarah, will be writing The Bane Chronicles, an e-serialization about Magnus Bane from Cassie's The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. Starting in February '13 one story a month will be released for ten months, and in 2014 all of the parts will be compiled into one print edition. Sarah talks more in-depth about it here.

Now that the important details are out of the way, I can get on with the fangirling. Magnus is my absolute favorite character ever, so I'm beyond excited that this is happening (like, he's my imaginary BFF, that's how much I love him).

Next, the reason I'm posting this today, and not yesterday when everything was announced. Hollywood Crush unveiled the cover for, and details of, Ally Carter's new novella "Double Crossed." The cover reveal's exclusivity ended at midnight, so here it is:

In "Double Crossed," when Macey McHenry (glamorous society girl or spy-in-training?) and W.W. Hale V (heir to an American dynasty or master thief?) meet at a society gala, the party takes a dangerous turn. Suddenly they're at the center of a hostage situation, and it's up to them to stop the thugs from becoming hostile. Will Macey's spy skills and Hale's con-man ways be enough to outsmart a ruthless gang? Or will they have to seek out the ultimate inside girl to help?

YES, Ally is coming out with a Heist Society and Gallagher Girls crossover story! The ebook-only novella comes out on January 22, and takes place in between GG 5 & GG 6. Not sure where it takes place in Heist, but I'm assuming in between books 2 & 3.

I love the cover, I think it's a PERFECT combo of GG's cover design and Heist's cover design. Below are the covers of GG 1 and Heist 1, for comparison.

 

Under-Cover Thursdays [5]

Under-Cover Thursdays is a monthly feature that was inspired by One A Day Y.A.'s Under-Cover Sundays. "The idea was to share that extra-special touch publishers sometimes put into a book, under the dust jacket of a hard cover." The third Thursday of every month will be an Under-Cover Thursday, so mark your calendars!

This month we have. . .

(Banner links to Goodreads)

The Cover:

Terrible picture, but isn't it lovely?!

Under the Cover:

Close-up:

Disclaimer: The quote in the Under-Cover Thursdays description is taken from One A Day Y.A.'s Under-Cover Sundays.

Under-Cover Thursdays [4]

Under-Cover Thursdays is a monthly feature that was inspired by One A Day Y.A.'s Under-Cover Sundays. "The idea was to share that extra-special touch publishers sometimes put into a book, under the dust jacket of a hard cover." The third Thursday of every month will be an Under-Cover Thursday, so mark your calendars!

This month we have. . .

(Banner links to Goodreads)

The Cover:

Under the Cover:

Close-up:

Disclaimer: The quote in the Under-Cover Thursdays description is taken from One A Day Y.A.'s Under-Cover Sundays. The "This month we have. . ." banner was made by I'm Loving Books.

Shoved Through My Mailslot #10

Shoved Through My Mailslot is a bi-weekly meme here at A Book Lover's Ramblings, it's purpose is to showcase all the books (or bookish items) I got in the mail or bought over a two week period.

So sorry I'm late, you guys. I totally forgot about posting this week, because my calendar alert is automatically set for next week. Anyway, today's STMM is going to go a little different. Instead of spitting up the weeks, they are all going to be lumped together, with the only categories being Mail, Bought, and Swag. Yes, swag has it's own category because I got A LOT of it this past week. On to the pictures!

Mail

First, Just for Fins, Wake, and Tempest Unleashed came signed from Melania who runs Fangs, Felines, Fins, & Fun Fiction. Her two-year blogoversary was a couple of weeks ago, and she was giving away 2 prize packs, the 1st of which I was lucky enough to win.

Next, on Tuesday I went to B&N for Starling, among others, but they didn't have it, so I ordered it to be sent to my house. It came on Friday.

Also on Friday, I received Claire de Lune from Amber at Me, My Shelf, and I via the ARCycling program.

Bought

This is the reason I lumped everything together this week. I went to NYC two weeks ago, and came back with Rift, Throne of Glass, Bitterblue, Origin, Scarlet, Lips Touch: Three Times, Palace of Stone, Dance with a Vampire, Vampire Kisses, Nocturne, Echo, and Ascendant. Rift, Throne of Glass and Bitterblue are signed copies I got at the amazing Books of Wonder. I picked up Palace of Stone at Crawford Doyle Booksellers, and the rest I got at the Strand.

As soon as I got back from New York I went up to my aunt's house, and while up there we went to Books-A-Million, where I bought Onyx and Fathomless.

The day I got back from my aunt's(Tuesday) I went to B&N. I picked up Foretold, Innocent Darkness, Glitch and The Iron Legends.

Last but not least, on Thursday I drove with my cousin down to Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL for the 5 Great Reasons to Read event with Susan Dennard, Leigh Bardugo, Dan Krokos, Erica O'Rourke, and Veronica Roth. New Leaf Literary Agency, who represents all the authors, had exclusive content for anyone who bought 2 books for the event through Anderson's, so I bought Bound and False Memory.

Swag

Last week I entered in a photo contest Suzanne Lazear had for Innocent Darkness, so she sent me the ID postcard in the upper right corner, as well as the 2 bookmarks directly below it and a signed bookplate (not pictured).

Everything else came in the package of books Melania sent me (mentioned earlier).

 All of this swag came from the 5 Great Reasons to Read event I went to. The booklet and the Grisha poster was the exclusive content you received if you purchased 2 books trough Anderson's. There were two different posters available, First Army and Second Army, and I was given Second Army while my cousin got First Army (can be seen here). Veronica had faction temp tattoos as swag, while Dan and Erica had bookmarks, and Leigh had special Shadow & Bone nail polish. Susan offered up character cards and bookplates, but I had gotten all that at her signing in Grand Rapids at the end of July.

Now do you see why I split it up differently? :D

What did you get shoved through your mailslot in the past two three weeks?