Sunday, May 19, 2013

Cover Madness Giveaway Hop Sign Up

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When Jenni of Alluring Reads and I got together to do a team giveaway we never thought it would get so popular. To this day those giveaways are the ones who have gotten the most entries and pageviews of all the giveaways I’ve ever posted on this blog. If you’re not familiar with the giveaway you can have a look here. Basically what it is, is we find a bunch of fabulously covered upcoming books (we try to find recently revealed covers) and we throw a giveaway for a chance to win a pre-order of one of the pretties! We’ve done 3 very successful Cover Madnesses so far, and for the 4th we decided to invite you all along as well!

So this is the dealio:

  • Sign ups will stay open for 6 weeks, to close on July 1st at 8:00AM EST
  • The hop will run for 2 weeks from July 1st to July 14th, 2013
  • Your giveaway post must be live by July 1st at 8:00AM EST (you may post up to 24hrs early)
  • When your post is live, the linky will be updated with your direct post link.
  • Your post must include the linky (or a link to either mine or Jenni‘s giveaway post where the linky will be located)
  • You may handle your giveaway as you wish as far as how you collect entries and choose a winner (you may have more than 1 winner if you wish).

What you give away:

Through Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or any other means, you find your favorite newly covered book(s) to feature in this giveaway. You can pick just 1 book, or you can pick 30 and let the winner choose–that is up to you. The book cover must have been out for no longer than 6 weeks at the start of the giveaway. This means the winner will most likely be winning a pre-order of the book (we recommend using The Book Depository as it’s free to ship anywhere, but you can use Amazon or any book seller, or you can wait until the book is released, buy it locally, and ship it to your winner).

Here is an example of how me and Jenni have done it in the past, feel free to follow the same format.

Want to participate in this awesome? Sign up below with your blog name and who your giveaway will be open to (Example: Xpresso Reads (INTL) and an email will be sent a few days ahead as a reminder and with the linky code, etc.

If you have any questions, ask away in the comments!

If you want to post the button on your sidebar to help spread the word you can use the code below:

Xpresso Reads



After you’ve signed up, Tweet/Facebook about it so more people can join!

Stacking the Shelves (56)

Stacking the Shelves (56)

Posted by on 05/19/2013 • 35 Comments

Xpresso Weekly is my edition of Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviews featuring the books I got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week.

This week at Xpresso Reads

Oh Em Gee not even 2 weeks before I leave for New York City! Actually, in 2 weeks from today BEA will be over! Who are you most excited to meet (authors)? For me it’s def. Holly Black! Time to start packing soon, lovelies! Ok so holy crappers I have a lot of new sign ups for tours and events over at Xpresso Book Tours so go check that out and sign up for stuff! 😉 And don’t forget to enter the Dare You To prize pack giveaway that went up this week because…

Fresh Batch (May 19th – 25th)

Fresh Batch (May 19th – 25th)

Posted by on 05/18/2013 • 11 Comments

Exclusively titled for Xpresso Reads, Fresh Batch features the hottest releases of this upcoming week. Flavor of the week:

The Book of Broken Hearts Sarah Ockler  Publication date: May 21st 2013 by Simon Pulse

When all signs point to heartbreak, can love still be a rule of the road? A poignant and romantic novel from the author of Bittersweet and Twenty Boy Summer.

Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one.

Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s…

Review: Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown

Posted by on 05/17/2013 • 26 Comments

The first Jennifer Brown book I read made me an instant fan of her work, and Thousand Words shows me she has more than one story to tell; one she tells admirably. This time, we meet a girl – Ashleigh – who had her life turned upside down when a private picture text to her boyfriend goes viral.

With technology allowing us constant and worldwide communication, sexting is an issue that was not even possible when I was in high school (way to make me feel old!), so stories like these are real eye openers to the damages that an online world can have with a simple error in judgment. Especially to someone as young as Ashleigh who is in an age where you feel invincible, yet mistakes happen, friends…

Book Girls Don’t Cry: Best of 2013

Posted by on 05/16/2013 • 32 Comments

Inspired by Book Buzzers, Book Girls Don’t Cry is a weekly feature where we each discuss/vent/advise on the chosen weekly bookish topic. Don’t miss Jenni on Mondays, and Amy on Saturdays:  

Best of 2013 (so far)

Since we’re hitting the half year mark very soon, we decided to do up a list of the best books we’ve read so far this year, and the top ones we’re excited for that are releasing before the year ends.

Let’s start with my top 5 books of 2013 so far:

Sins & Needles (The Artists Trilogy #1) by Karina Halle 

Ellie Watt is used to starting over. The daughter of a grifting team, Ellie spent her childhood being used as a pawn in her parents’ latest scam. Now she’s…

Review: The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan

Review: The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan

Posted by on 05/15/2013 • 35 Comments

Set in beautiful Paris, 1899, The Beautiful and the Cursed is a unique, violent, sometimes disturbing YA Gothic involving demons, Gargoyles, and… something unexplained that is one of our main characters.

With the appearance of two dead bodied within the first 70 pages, I knew I was in for a good time. Though not a bad thing (for me), this book was a little more violent than I expected. Aside from the initial dead bodies we’re treated to gory bodily remains and beastly attacks–which were pretty cool I might add. Hell hounds make for really awesome evil! To protect from these creature are gargoyles; amazingly described as these massive beasts, gargoyles have to protect the humans residing in their estates, and can turn to and from human form. This gargoyle…

Review: Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne

Review: Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne

Posted by on 05/14/2013 • 27 Comments

Sky on Fire, the sequel to Monument 14, is more action packed and exciting, but the writing is still filled with irritating quirks that doesn’t allow me to give it a higher rating, no matter how much I might have enjoyed the rest–which was actually quite a bit.

Since we’re at it, let me tell you what I mean about the writing. I knew from the first book that the author likes to write as if her readers are a little… slow? The first novel was filled with commentaries and unnecessary repetitions to make sure we understood clearly what was happening. This sequel is, unfortunately, not without these redundancies. The best example:

“Right before Castle Rock, there was a long stretch of open highway. (“Open” meaning that there was one…

Dare You To Tour Stop: Playlist Song, Excerpt + Giveaway

Dare You To Tour Stop: Playlist Song, Excerpt + Giveaway

Posted by on 05/13/2013 • 56 Comments

Pushing the Limits was one of my favorite books of last year so I am very excited to be on the tour for its companion sequel, Dare You To. I have a short excerpt for you today with a playlist song, plus a fantastic giveaway for you lovely peeps! Thanks to Kismet Book Touring for organizing this tour!

Dare You To Katie McGarry Series: Pushing the Limits #2 Publication date: May 28th 2013 by Harlequin Teen

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. “Dance with me, Beth.”

“No.” I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again….

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old…