Cover Compare: Anna Dressed in Blood

I've missed the last few weeks on Cover Compare, but today we are back in action. I'm partway through this one and I have to say I love the cover I have (on left). However, the love the one on the right even more. The red dress is so much creepier! Do you agree or are you a fan of the white?

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Maggie Stiefvater Signing Recap

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to get to attend a Maggie Stiefvater signing with the lovely Ambur from Burning Impossibly Bright. We got there ridiculously early, but it was really nice to get the chance to chat and catch-up (and teach the lady beside me about the word "butthurt" and how it relates to Ronald Weasley).

Ambur (right) and I

Finally Maggie arrived. She is hilarious! She told lots of funny stories about getting good news in awkward circumstances, meeting her literary idol and car-attacking silky fainting goats. I was seriously grinning the whole time. She even had an audience participation reading of one of the scenes from The Dream Thieves and lucky miss Ambur got to participate onstage.

Audience participation reading. Ambur is on the far left and Maggie is 2nd from the right

Then it was book signing time. I had 9 books (3 for fellow book bloggers Aylee, Cass and Tammy and 6 for me) and then let me get them all signed at once (Ambur and I were both totally prepared to line up again if there was a limit). Maggie personalized all of them and even drew a horse doodle in my copy of The Scorpio Races. So cool! Plus since I was up there for so long, I got to talk to her a bit and I was so awkward and fangirly and we somehow got onto the topic of packhorses and she accused me of lying about the name of my uncle's packhorse. Seriously. It was awesome.

Look, I am making her laugh with my fangirl flailing!

Stacking the Shelves (1)

Ok, I'm officially switching to a biweekly post of Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews. For now. I haven't done a post in a while, so I have a backlog of books this week. I really wanted to do a vlog this week, but I ran out of time. :( I also wanted o have this post up earlier, but was busy with Halloween prep!


For Review:

The One-Eyed Man by L. E. Modesitt Jr. - Thanks to Tor!
Sekret by Lindsay Smith - Thanks to Macmillian
Cress by Marissa Meyer - Thanks to Macmillian
The Rule of Three by Eric Walters - Thanks to Macmillian
Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci - Thanks to Macmillian
The Riverman by Aaron Starmer - Thanks to Macmillian
The Adversary by Erin M. Evans - Thanks to Wizards of the Coast and Netgalley
Nil by Lynne Matson - Thanks to Macmillian and Netgalley
Anyone But You by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes - Thanks to Merit Press and Netgalley

Bought:

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lainy Taylor

Won:

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake - Thanks to Claire from Claire Reads

Gifted:

Black City by Elizabeth Richardson  - Big thanks to Ambur at Burning Impossibly Bright

Freebies:
Play With Me by Piper Shelly
Iron's Prophecy by Julie Kagawa
The Riddles of Hillgate by Zoey Kane and Claire Kane

What did you get recently! Link me up!

Truth or Dare Friday (#4)

So I've decided to try out a new meme I found from Jenna Does Books. Who doesn't love a game of Truth or Dare, especially when it's about books. This weeks choice is:


As tempting as a puppet play would be, I'm a bit short on time so Truth it is!

My biggest pet peeve inside a book is instalove. I'm so over it. Have some relationship development! I don't care what stupid reason for the characters professing their love within a week, I don't want to hear it. And sparks when they touch just adds insult to injury! A close second is a poorly done love triangle. The odd time a love triangle works, but most of the time, I'm just annoyed. It's bee so overdone.

My biggest pet peeve outside a book is when they arrive damaged! Recently my copy of Antigoddess by kendare Blake arrived and it had a medium-sized partial punctor on the back cover and it made me sad. The worst was my copy of Beautiful Creatures, which had 2 rips in the dust jacket. And I couldn't exchange it because it was on clearance and they were sold out.

Review: The Dream Thieves

Info:
Title: The Dream Thieves
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #2
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 17, 2013

Synopsis:

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same.

Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life.

Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after...

Review:
After my many questions and general confusion at the end of The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves brought me some answers, along with more questions. Which is a good thing, since otherwise what would the next two books be about?

The Dream Thieves opens and closes with prose about secrets and we sure did get a few doozies along the way. Obviously I can't tell you what they are (no spoilers here!), but I can tell you that it will help you make sense of that very confusing final line of The Raven Boys.

The Dream Thieves focused a lot more on Ronan, who went from being my least favourite Raven Boy to my most favourite. Through the book I fell completely in love with him. Not in the I-want-to-marry-him-and-have-babies way. More in the way that I love tigers or violent thunderstorms. Amazing, beautiful and terrifying and you know if you get too close you will be destroyed, but you just can't stop watching. I'm not a bad-boy-girl, but it would seem Ronan is that VERY specific type of bad boy that I do love. The type that is very nearly a villain.

At the end of The Raven Boys, I had no clue what was going on with Adam. At the end of The Dream Thieves, I had a sliver of a clue what was going on with Adam. Adam was a mystery to me the entire book. We get a little bit of information, but not enough for me to have a clear idea of what is going on. Gansey was the same Gansey as the first book and Noah just made me want to give him a hug in nearly every scene. Blue was much the same, although she began to comes to terms with some things near the end that she'd really rather not. And Blue's family continued to be awesome. So awesome.

We get a couple of new characters in this book as well. The Gray Man was such an interesting character. Exactly the sort of professional I like. And Joseph Kavinsky. He made me feel all kinds of icky. He's sleazy and spoilt and I kind of wanted to shake him, but at the same time I wouldn't want to touch him.

Overall, The Dream Thieves had everything I loved about The Raven Boys, combined with a more satisfying ending. I am eagerly awaiting the remaining books as I'm falling deeper and deeper in love with the amazing world that Maggie Stiefvater has created.

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Don't Just Take My Word For It:

The Daily Prophecy

I am meeting Maggie tonight! Cue awkward fangirling!

Review: The Raven Boys

 Info:
Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #1
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Source: Purchased.

 Synopsis:

“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.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

 Review:

This one would have been five stars if it weren't for the ending! It's kind of a shame. I was so into this one and then the ending really threw me for a loop. No spoilers, but it was not at all what I expected and I still don't actually know what happened. I'm very glad I have the sequel right beside me, so I can hopefully figure things out!

I didn't have an immediate connection with the characters, but by the end, I found myself caring about all of them. Well, except Neeve, who gave me the creeps. But all of the boys and Blue for sure. The boys are all different and I feel like each one was his own cautionary tale, showing the effects of traits like pride, obsession, recklessness and following blindly. Of the boys, I think Gansey ended up being my favourite, although there were aspects of all of them that I loved. Blue herself was probably the main character I had the least connection with. I did care about her, but I just felt she could be a touch blah. I hope to get to know her better in the sequel.

I fell in love with the world of Henrietta. I loved Blue's family, especially Calla and her snarky attitude. I also loved the creepy vibe Maggie Stiefvater was able to invoke. Probably not the best book to read alone in the dark. It's not scary in a goes-bump-in-night-jump-out-and-grab-you way, but in a more subtle way that still managed to send a few chills up my spine.

As I mentioned, the one thing that knocked this one down from 5 stars to only 4 was the ending. To give you a non-spoiler explanation, while I was reading, I realized I only had 18 pages felt. It felt like there was so much left to happen that I was sure it was going to end in a huge cliffhanger. But it didn't. It just sort of ended and then had a final chapter that felt like an epilogue. It left me a bit disappointed, although I'm hoping to find out what actually happened in The Dream Thieves, which I'll be starting next.

This one is worth the read for the atmosphere alone. I know some people found it a bit slow, but that didn't bother me at all. As I said, I'm excited to start on the sequel and I'm hoping to get all my answers from the ending answered shortly!

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Find the Author: 
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Don't Just Take My Word For It:
Xpresso Reads

Also, I'm super excited to be going to meet Maggie this week! Fellow bloggers Ambur and Lisa will be coming down as well, which is awesome, since I haven't seen either of them lately! Watch for my signing recap on Sunday! 

Review: Sometimes Never, Sometimes Always

Info:
Title: Sometimes Never, Sometimes Always
Author: Elissa Janine Hoole
Publisher: Flux
Publication Date: November 8, 2013
Source: I received an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

 Synopsis:

Cassandra fears rocking the family boat. Instead, she sinks it. Assigned by her English teacher to write a poem that reveals her true self, Cassandra Randall is stuck. Her family's religion is so overbearing, she can NEVER write about who she truly is. So Cass does what any self-respecting high school girl would do: she secretly begins writing a tarot-inspired advice blog. When Drew Godfrey, an awkward outcast with unwashed hair, writes to her, the situation spirals into what the school calls "a cyberbullying crisis" and what the church calls "sorcery." Cass wants to be the kind of person who sticks up for the persecuted, who protects the victims the way she tries to protect her brother from the homophobes in her church. But what if she's just another bully? What will it take for her to step up and tell the truth?

Review:

I am not a contemporary reader. I'm always happier when there are witches and/or wizards and/or werewolves and/or elves and/or dragons and/or whatever other magical creatures you can think. So it's not very often that I read a book that's set 100% in the real world.

With that said, Sometime Never, Sometimes Always marks my tiptoeing into the world do YA contempories (I think this is my second one ever). And I actually quite enjoyed it! Sometimes Never, Sometimes Always touches on a couple themes that hit fairly close to hope: morals and bullying.

Cass was a character I could definitely connect with. I think anyone who has ever disagreed with their parents' views (really, who hasn't?) could empathize with Cass's predicament. Cass is an atheist growing up in a deeply religious family. When a child becomes autonomous from their parents and begins to develop their own views on life, it can be a very interesting time and I enjoyed reading about this aspect of Cass's life, even though it was difficult for her. And as a note, religion obviously plays a bit of a role in this book, but it's not preachy at all because our narrator is a quietly rebelling atheist.

The other major theme here is bullying, both face-to-face and cyber-bullying. Bullying is an issue that is near and dear to me, so I'm always happy to see it addressed in YA books. And it was great to have aspects of cyber-bullying addressed as well. However, I was a little annoyed with how much Cass blamed herself for what happened, as their were other characters who played much bigger parts. That said, I probably would have felt the same was in Cass's position.

But don't worry, this book isn't all doom and gloom. There's a very sweet boy in the picture! Darin is pretty much everything I like in a YA love interest, so I was always smiling whenever he showed up! I also really liked that there were some significant sibling interactions, which I find are lacking in many YA books.

Sometimes Never, Sometimes Always is a interesting YA contemporary that touches on a variety of issues, including religious, finding yourself, sexuality, friendship and bullying. It was a contemporary win for this fantasy reader!

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