Winner - Spring Blog Carnival

The winner of the Spring Blog Carnival is:

Coreena!

The winner has been emailed and has 48hrs to respond, or else a new winner will be drawn.

Spring Blog Carnival

Hi guys!! I'm kicking off the end of my blogging hiatus with a fun giveaway! What's up for grabs? A book of your choice valued up to $10 USD from the Book Depository! (If the winner is a US resident, they may choose their prize from Amazon OR the Book Depository). I figured it'd be nice to give you guys the choice of whatever you want, because I always enjoy when other blogs do that.... and because I couldn't decide on what books to give away haha! I'm going to make the entry form super-simple. All that's required is your name & email address so I can contact the winner. No need to follow, though it is always appreciated =)

 Rules:

• Must be at least 13 years of age to enter
• I am not responsible for any items lost in the mail
• Ends May 8th 12:01AM EDT

Open to wherever the book depository ships!

Check HERE to make sure your country is on the list before entering!

Fill out the form below:

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.

Several of the blogs are having fun challenges. Here's the schedule:May 1st-
Reading Angel: Haunted House
Reading Teen: Fortune Tellers Booth

May 2nd-
Candace’s Book Blog: Food Court
The Mod Podge Bookshelf: House of Mirrors

May 3rd-
The Book Swarm: Roller Coaster
Actin’ Up With Books: Karaoke Booth

May 4th-
Pure Imagination: Kissing Booth
Lovely Lit: Once Upon a Time Booth

May 5th-
Awesomesauce Books: Gaming Booth
Books R Us: Medieval Booth

May 6th-
Extreme Reader Book Reviews: Guessing Booth
Colloquium: Cotton Candy Booth

May 7th-
The Minding Spot: Teacups Booth
Miss Remmers Review: It’s a Bad World Booth

Also, be sure to check out all the other stops in the carnival!

April RAK

Random Act of Kindness (abbreviated R.A.K.) is a monthly event hosted by Book Soulmates, in which everyone creates a wishlist, and some good-samaritan blogger may buy or send you one of the books you want! Also, you get to make someone happy by sending a book or two from another blogger's wishlist. Good karma all around!

Here are the rules, taken from the sign-up post:

• Sign up each month you'd like to participate in.
• Show off your participation! Grab one of the buttons available :)
• Create a wishlist and post it in the Google Doc located in each R.A.K post for the month.
{Post on your blog, Amazon, where ever as long as there's a link to it.}
• If you choose to do a R.A.K for someone, check out their wishlist and contact that blogger for their address.
• At the end of the month, SHOW US YOUR R.A.K!
Make a post saying 'Thank You' to whoever granted one of your wishes and share it with us :)

OPEN TO EVERYONE!
Lets's keep our International bloggers in mind and in our hearts.
Remember, there's always the Book Depository and they offer FREE shipping!

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In March, Cynthia sent me a SIGNED copy of Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins!!! I was so excited that I recorded a vlog in which I ramble on and on / make a fool of myself. Enjoy!

Thanks so much Cynthia this really made my day! <3

In My Mailbox (#13)

  In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren

Books Mentioned:
Purchased

• Dark Lover by J.R. Ward
• Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
• Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
• City of Bones by Cassandra Clare *UPDATE: when I went to put this on the shelf it wasn't the same size as my copy of CoA. I had a small meltdown/freakout*

Bargains on Amazon

In an attempt to stay awake during my break between classes, I've been browsing the bargain books on amazon. I found a bunch of great deals that you might be interested in:

Wake by Lisa McMann (mini review)

Title: Wake (Wake Trilogy #1)
Author: Lisa McMann
Source: Purchased; paperback 210 pages
Challenges: 2011 Blogger Recommendation

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can’t tell anybody about what she does they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant…

My Rating: 3.5 stars ★★★1/2
My Thoughts (mini review):

This was a very quick read. I finished it in two sittings (though it would’ve only taken one if I hadn’t started reading the book at 10PM on a school night). It’s written via third-person narrative, and usually in short simple sentences (which was personally kind of off-putting for me); here’s a few lines quoted from the book, so you can see what I mean:

“She sighs and rests her head on the table. Tries to pull herself out of it, but fails miserably. She’s too tired today. Too hungry. She really doesn’t have time for this.

And then.”

The book was kind of dark, but I liked it. I enjoyed the plot and characters very much, but I was left with A LOT of unanswered questions. Hopefully most of them will be answered in the next book, which I am eager to read. Overall I thought the book was good, but not fabulous. I definitely had higher expectations.

Warnings: There was a lot of mature content in this book – sex, drugs, underage drinking, and even some child abuse.

In fact, when this book came in the mail, my thirteen year old sister said that she would like to read it when I was finished. Will I let her? Of course! I would never censor a book from my sister; I just don’t think it’s right to do that - ever.  However, this isn’t something I’d go out of my way to recommend to her. I’m definitely going to mention some of the content that I think may be “questionable” for a reader her age, and then let her decide on her own whether or not she still wants to read it. 

Next in Series: Fade

The Clock - A Short Story By Me

I haven't blogged in a while, and I'm stilllll working on my half-finished reviews, so I decided I'd post a short story that I wrote for one of my classes last semester. To be honest, I hate creative writing because I always get super-frustrated, and this was one of the first things I've written that I've ever been proud of. Hope you guys like it & thanks for reading =)