Genre: Contemporary


Thursday, February 06, 2014

Giveaway: A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Posted by 11 Comments

Giveaway: A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger
Published by Hodder Children's Books on February 6th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

Sun, sex, and ... step-brothers.

Another sizzling story from Hamilton High.

Whitley Johnson's dream summer of shopping, partying and tanning on the beach has just turned into a nightmare. Because Dad didn't tell her he doesn't live by the beach anymore, or that he's no longer a bachelor. He's picked up and moved to a tiny, lame town called Hamilton and gotten himself a fiance. A fiance whose son just happens to be what's-his-name from last week's drunken graduation party one night stand. Just freakin' great.

As if the summer couldn't get worse, Dad seems to forget Whitley's even there. She doesn't fit in with his perfect new country club family, and Whitley does what any kid lucky enough to go all summer unsupervised does: she parties. Hard.

So hard that she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a younger future step-sister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't 'do friends') and a smoking hot, sweet guy who isn't her step brother (yet) and who actually seems to care for her. It will take all three of them to convince her that they're not phoneys, and to get Whitley to get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

From the author of The Duff comes another Hamilton High story

We both really enjoyed this book when we read it back in 2012, so we’re happy to have a chance to share the awesome with our fellow book lovers! The wonderful people at Hachette Children’s UK is offering a pretty finished copy of the UK release of A Midsummer’s Nightmare to one of our lucky blog readers!


What did we think of A Midsummer’s Nightmare?

-Find Giselle’s review here!

-Find Jenni’s review here!





DividerXR1

Giveaway

Hachette Children’s Books UK has generously offered a finished copy of A Midsummer’s Nightmare (UK Edition) for giveaway.


  • Open internationally
  • Giveaway ends February 18th, 2014
  • Full contest terms and conditions found on Rafflecopter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review & Dream Cast: Deeper by Robin York

Review & Dream Cast: Deeper by Robin York

Posted by on 01/31/2014 • 13 Comments

A slow budding romance, loads of chemistry, and highly character driven; Deeper has a lot to offer. Revenge porn is something that happens all too often, and unfortunately continues to be legal in most States. Finding those sex pictures of herself after a break-up was only the beginning of a very long, very dark chapter in Caroline’s life. Not only is she plagued with the knowledge of everyone having seen her during such an intimate act, she’s ashamed, haunted by the voices of the men who call her vile names, describe the repulsive things they’d do to her in comments, making her wary of anyone that looks her way. This is not something that ever goes away.

Deeper is not a fast paced read. It’s a slow character-oriented story that…

Review: Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams

Posted by on 01/29/2014 • 20 Comments

I read two of Carol Lynch Williams’ books last year and I quickly became a fan of her as an author. This year I decided to venture into her verse stuff at the urging of Bekka from Great Imaginations. Since opening myself up to verse novels much more over the holidays I was more open to the idea and I am so happy that Bekka recommended this one to me.

Waiting is the story of London’s life in the aftermath of her brother’s death. The novel starts with a very bleak feel and I felt so sad as we looked in on London’s life. Since her brother’s passing her mother can’t even look at her and her father is never home. There was an intense darkness to the story and…

Review: Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Review: Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Posted by on 01/23/2014 • 18 Comments

I thought I had been a good blogger when I went out and bought the first book in each of Ellen Hopkins series. I even covered all my bases and bought her standalones as well. Well now look at me sitting here kicking myself because I’ve finished Burned and I don’t have the sequel to jump into immediately. Burned is the heartbreaking tale of Pattyn Von Stratten, a young girl raised in a strict mormon household who begins to question the way that her family lives and they way that her father treats all of the women in his life.

I’m not usually a fan of books that deal heavily with religion, but I always appreciate when a character is questioning the way that they have been brought up. Pattyn…

Review: The Lure by Lynne Ewing

Review: The Lure by Lynne Ewing

Posted by on 01/21/2014 • 20 Comments

The Lure and I went through a tumultuous relationship. I started out in love with it and that love slowly declined as the novel went on, eventually leading me to be pretty angry at where we ended up. See, in the beginning it was gritty, authentic and raw, but by the end I didn’t know if I was reading a contemporary novel or the screenplay for a daytime soap opera.

As the novel starts out we meet Blaise and her friends Melissa, Ariel and Kaylee as they are making their way home one night. The atmosphere is set right from the beginning and we realize that these girls don’t come from a good neighbourhood. Seeing a group of people drinking on a stoop and then hiding in the trees while…

Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Posted by on 01/17/2014 • 17 Comments

And We Stay is a book that will resonate with some, and left others feeling detached. It’s a very poetic writing style which on one hand gives us a beautifully written novel, but on the other hand it makes it hard to embed yourself into the main character’s thoughts and emotions.

The main reason for this detachment is due to the fact that it’s written in 3rd person present. This tense always makes it hard for me to feel anything but indifference towards a story and its characters. It does make for a pretty writing style – and it is – but Emily’s emotional turmoil is kept out of reach as a result. It felt like she was telling someone else’s story, not reliving her own. This writing is…

Review: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Posted by on 01/09/2014 • 29 Comments

Stolen was a surprise from my 2013 holiday season.  It showed up in the mail one day, a gift from Giselle of Xpresso Reads and am I ever happy that it did.  See, Giselle knows me. When trying to find books to get me for Christmas she looked at Listopia lists titled “Books that made me cry.”  She knew just where to go to find the books that I need on my shelf.  While this one didn’t effect me as emotionally as I had hoped (which I think was due to the long stretch of time I took to read it) it was a unique reading experience that tackled Stockholm syndrome in an incredibly interesting way.

So first I’ll talk about why I think it didn’t effect me as much…

Stir Me Up Character Spotlight + Giveaway!

Stir Me Up Character Spotlight + Giveaway!

Posted by on 01/06/2014 • 24 Comments

We’ve got the Stir Me Up blog tour on the blog today where we’re spotlighting Julian as well as a chance for you to win! In case you haven’t heard of this book yet – have a look at what it’s all about:

Character Spotlight: Julian Wyatt CHARACTER: Julian Wyatt AGE: 20 HEIGHT: 6’ 0” HAIR: Brown EYES: Hazel

PARENTS: Father: U.S. Marine Sam Wyatt, died in a Jeep accident in Somalia when Julian was four.

Mother: Angela Wyatt, a researcher at a think tank in Washington, died from breast cancer when Julian was nine.

CHILDHOOD: Raised by his aunt Estella after his mother’s death. Considers her son, his cousin Brandon, to be like an older brother. Got in a fair amount of trouble after his…