The Wicked King by Holly Black Giveaway!!!

I am having an awesome giveaway on my Twitter for the next couple of days. 

I am giving away a copy of Holly Black’s latest book, The Wicked King along with an XL Read Like a Girl Book Beau!! 

U.S. Residents only.

The contest ends 1/16/2019, so make sure to enter ASAP!!

To enter, just visit my Twitter account, follow me AND Retweet my giveaway post!

https://twitter.com/BookAddict4Life/status/1083766241498550272

Dead Silent (Poppy Sinclair #2) by Sharon Jones

Publication: February 6, 2014

Publisher: Orchard Books / Hachette

A snow angel etched in blood. An elite society. A secret dying to get out. ​ The second Poppy Sinclair Thriller. When Poppy Sinclair and her boyfriend visit snowy Cambridge, she doesn't expect to discover the body of a student - arms outstretched in the act of smearing bloody angel wings on the chapel's floor. Suddenly, Poppy is faced with the possibility that the one closest to her heart might be the one committing the most malicious of crimes. Dodging porters and police, dreading what she might find, Poppy follows the clues left by a murderer bent on revenge... Long-hidden secrets are chillingly revealed, an avenging angel seeks forgiveness and red-hot vengeance must be quelled in the amazing new Poppy Sinclair thriller.

Dead Silent was a fun Teen/YA thriller.  Even though this is the second book in the Poppy Sinclair series, it was the first book that I have read in this series. It can be read as a solo book without having read the first one. A story involving murder, mystery, and a secret society? What’s not to like.

When Poppy Montgomery and her boyfriend Michael decide to visit Cambridge for Michaels interview, they did not plan on being involved in a murder investigation. But after Poppy stumbles upon a bloody murder scene and body, it’s what she gets.

I liked Poppy’s inquisitive personality. She wants to discover the truth and figure out who is behind it all, but she doesn’t get herself caught in anything too crazy thankfully. Though at times she made me feel frustrated. Especially when she decided to make some questionable choices.

You might like Dead Silent if you’re into Nancy Drew type mysteries and don’t mind a few gruesome murders occurring. The writing and the flow of the story were done well. And there was an air of mystery/suspense that was constantly maintained throughout the book.

RATING: 3½ out of 5.

**I received this book on behalf of the publisher in exchange for nothing but my honest opinion. Thank you.**

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Love, Lucy by April Lindner Book Blast!

I am so excited to be able to help spread the word that LOVE, LUCY by April Lindner is now available to pre-order at Amazon and The Book Depository. LOVE, LUCY releases in January 2015, but until then I am thrilled to share an awesome guest post from Lucy Sommersworth on the Top Ten Things she loves about Italy. It sounds like she had an amazing time and I can’t wait to hear all about it in January.

If you haven’t yet heard about this amazing-sounding book, there’s some information and places to find it online below. And if you haven’t yet met April Lindner, her details are also below.

This blast also includes a giveaway for an Amazon eGiftcard, so if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

About LOVE, LUCY

Title: LOVE, LUCY

Author: April Lindner

Publisher: Poppy

Release date: January 27, 2015

Available to pre-order now at Amazon and The Book Depository

Description:

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, 17-year-old Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.

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The Guest Post

The Top Ten Things I Love About Italy

By Lucy Sommersworth

10. Train stations. They make my heart beat a little bit faster. I especially love the departure signs lit up with the names of exotic cities. They make me want to pick a destination at random—Venice or Milan or Naples, basically any place I’ve never been before—and just jump on, trusting that some kind of wonderful adventure will be waiting for me when I hop off. I would do it too except for the fact that Charlene, the friend I’m traveling with, likes schedules and order. I could never talk her into doing something that reckless.

9. The language. Italian is so lush and musical. Not that I can speak it, exactly. I took Italian in high school, and I can remember just enough to say basic things like excuse me and I would like the Spaghetti Bolognese, please. But even just reading the street signs out loud makes me feel like a different version of myself—more worldly and glamorous. And even the most ordinary words, the ones that mean ATM or supermarket—sound glorious in Italian.

8. Italian men. What can I say? I’ve always had a thing for dark brown eyes.

7. Window shopping. I could do it all day long. Window displays are different in Italy, quirkier and more colorful. I especially love the sparkling little jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio, the funky clothing store displays, and store windows full of colorful, exotic treats—marzipan fruit, and candied rose and violet petals.

6. Sidewalk cafes. Nobody minds if you linger forever over a single cappuccino, just soaking in the atmosphere and watching the people pass by.

5. Gelato. After a few hours, walking around Florence can make a person exhausted. Luckily, wherever you turn, there’s a glass storefront gleaming with refreshing gelato—a miniature rainbow-colored mountain range of it: raspberry, mango, lemon, dark chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio—and all of it amazing.

4. Street Performers. Though Charlene insists they’re just begging and we shouldn’t give them our money, I can’t help myself. I love them all: street musicians, the people who draw chalk masterpieces in the street, the folks who dress up as statues and pose for tourists. I’ve even got a soft spot for mimes!

3. Riding on a Vespa. Please don’t tell my mom, okay? She would have a panic attack if she knew.

2. Pretending I’m Audrey Hepburn. Roman Holiday is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the reason I wanted to go to Italy in the first place. Audrey Hepburn plays Princess Ann, who has grown deathly bored with having to give speeches and act stiff and regal. On a stop in Rome she runs away, and wanders through the city pretending to be a commoner. Of course she falls in love with Gregory Peck. Like her, he’s pretending, acting like a nice, ordinary guy who just wants to show her around Rome, when really he’s a reporter with ulterior motives. He recognizes her, and plans to write a tell-all story about her for his newspaper.

I won’t spoil the ending. I’ll just add that if you’re planning a trip to Rome, you need to see Roman Holiday first. And then, if you happen to meet a gorgeous, dark-eyed stranger, maybe you can get him take you on a Roman Holiday tour, and you can pretend to be Audrey Hepburn the way I did.

1. The amazing people I met along the way. Swapping stories with other backpackers about our travels and misadventures. Vacation flirtations with dark-eyed strangers. And, just maybe, experiencing a real summer romance.

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About April Lindner

April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

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The Giveaway

This blast includes a giveaway for a $15 Amazon eGiftcard to ONE winner.

++The giveaway is open to anyone who can accept Amazon eGiftcards from the U.S. store.

++The giveaway ends on May 26, 2014 at 11:59 p.m.


Just enter in the Rafflcopter below...
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Book Review: Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society #2) by Ally Carter



Synopsis:

Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life. Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she’s simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That’s why Kat isn’t surprised when she’s asked to steal the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners.

There are only three problems. First, the gem hasn’t been seen in public in thirty years. Second, since the fall of the Egyptian empire and the suicide of Cleopatra, no one who holds the emerald keeps it for long, and in Kat’s world, history almost always repeats itself. But it’s the third problem that makes Kat’s crew the most nervous and that is simply… the emerald is cursed.

Kat might be in way over her head, but she’s not going down without a fight. After all she has her best friend—the gorgeous Hale—and the rest of her crew with her as they chase the Cleopatra around the globe, dodging curses, realizing that the same tricks and cons her family has used for centuries are useless this time.

Which means, this time, Katarina Bishop is making up her own rules.

******************************************************************

After enjoying Heist Society so much, I was eager to begin the second book in the series. Uncommon Criminals is just as much fun as the first book. I was happy to discover that because sometimes the second book is not as good as the first.

This time Kat finds herself as a Robin Hood of sorts. Stealing precious artifacts and returning them to their rightful owners. She is contacted by an older woman named Constance Miller, who requests the assistance of Kat and hew crew in retrieving a supposedly cursed Emerald that several thieves have tried and failed to steal. All the characters are back this time around. Though this time they have a smaller, but just as valuable role in the book.

If you are looking for a fun and light contemporary read then I would recommend Uncommon Criminals. It isn’t completely necessary to read Heist Society first, but you would definitely understand Uncommon Criminals more if you did.  This story had a couple of surprises and twists that made the story more enjoyable. It was easy to get sucked into Kat’s world and I loved every second of it.

Rating: 4½ out of 5.

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The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn.

Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions.
White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups.

This is Manhattan, 1899. Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone--from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes, to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker, to the spiteful maid Lina Broud--threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future.

With the fate of the Hollands resting on her shoulders, Elizabeth must choose between family duty and true love. But when her carriage overturns near the East River, the girl whose glittering life lit up the city's gossip pages is swallowed by the rough current. As all of New York grieves, some begin to wonder whether life at the top proved too much for this ethereal beauty, or if, perhaps, someone wanted to see Manhattan's most celebrated daughter disappear...

In a world of luxury and deception, where appearance matters above everything and breaking the social code means running the risk of being ostracized forever, five teenagers lead dangerously scandalous lives. This thrilling trip to the age of innocence is anything but innocent.

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The Luxe takes place in Manhattan, New York during the year 1899. If Gossip Girl were to take place in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s then this is what it would look like.

Elizabeth and Diana Holland are sisters who spend their time in Manhattan’s elite social circles, attending glamorous parties dressed to the nines, and crushing on handsome guys.

Elizabeth is considered the mature and responsible one. She usually does what she is told.

Diana is more adventures. She longs to be a free spirit and not trapped by society’s rules and restrictions for women.

 This rich and exciting life they lead is all they have ever known and when they find out that their life isn't as secure as they once thought, a sacrifice has to be made.  A sacrifice by way of an engagement between Elizabeth and Henry Schoonmaker; son of one of the richest families in New York. This further complicates things because Elizabeth is already in love with someone else.

Enter Penelope Hayes, who is supposed to be Elizabeth’s friend, but is more like a friend you would never want to trust with anything. Penelope is in love with Henry. So while Elizabeth opens up to her friend, Penelope is trying to plot against Elizabeth in order to get what she wants and what she thinks she deserves.

“Don't go looking for boys in the dark.
They will say pretty things then
leave you with scars.
Do go looking for boys in the park.
For that is where the true gentlemen are.”

-Anna Godbersen, The Luxe (Luxe, #1)

Secrets, deception, jealousy, and romance all mix together in this teen/young adult historical fiction novel. The Luxe is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good historical fiction read and is a fan of the Gossip Girl series. There were some parts in the book that were obvious and I felt anyone could guess, but other than that I enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

You can buy The Luxe here: 

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads: 

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

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I was very excited to read The Raven Boys this month. I kept looking at it at the bookstore, debating whether or not I should try it out. And finally, I gave it a go. I thought by reading the synopsis that I had the story all figured out. I was wrong. It was so much more than what I was expecting and I loved every bit of it.

During each chapter of the book, the story is told from alternate characters points of view. I enjoyed this feature a lot more than just the regular one person POV because instead of seeing everything through one person’s eyes you get several which help you to understand each character and the story a little bit better.

I loved Blue. I felt like she was relatable. She is eccentric, strong, and sensible; surprisingly so for just a sixteen year old. I liked how determined she was to find a way to help Gansey. She wouldn’t just accept his imminent death, for her there has to be some way to change things.

“Once she’d seen his death laid out for him, and seen that he was real, and found out that she was meant to have a part in it, there had never been a chance she would just stand by and let it happen.” – Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

All the raven boys...Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah are loyal to each other. I liked their friendship and how they would protect and stick up for each other.  And how easily they took Blue into their group like one of their own.

Maggie Stiefvater creates a one of a kind world filled with magic and unique solid characters that pique the readers curiosity and makes them want to not only explore Blue, Gansey, Adam, Noah, and Ronan’s world alongside with them, but to explore further into the characters themselves.

The Raven Boys is not a fast paced story, and there was not a constant amount of action going on either. That being said though, there were enough things happening that kept be interested and engaged the whole time. Each time I finished a chapter, all I wanted to do was finish the next one and the next one.  The surprises and little twists in the story helped to create a thrilling read.

The ending had me saying WHAATTT????!??!?? It teases you just enough so that you cannot wait to read the second book in the series. Unfortunately for me, the next book isn't scheduled to be released until September 2013!!! Though I am hopping it might be released early…I know that is wishful thinking on my part, but a girl can hope right?

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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