Wednesday, January 27, 2010

another contest link

Here's another link to a Jen Nadol contest (hey, when you have a migraine, you don't really feel like writing reviews, so....blog readers get contest links-sorry!).

But you can read how she loves one of Theodore Dreiser's books (though not the one I have to read) and likes to cook fire things.

Bonus? It's at Amy Brecount White's blog so you can find out about Forget Her-Nots after entering to win The Mark here's the link. I'm going to sleep now (ends the 30th at noon)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Contest-ness link

Internet/computer time has been far too little lately due to some health reasons but asfter typing 'Jen Nadol' into my address bar/Google search to see if The Mark was out yet, not only did I find out it is in fact out, there's also a release-ness celebratory contest....

Check it out... daily until the 4th (Jen Nadol's birthday--Happy Birthday!)



and if any of you lucky ducks have gottena copy of The Mark already and reviewed it, that gets you an extra entry, too.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Helping Haiti

There's a fantastic event happening tomorrow to help raise donations for Haitian relief (and somehow-not entirely sure how) some uber fabulous prizes are included... Here's the page. Benifits Partners in Health.

It's a webcast Saturday (the 23rd) from 2-6pm Eastern...

and the little Twitter thing to post:
We're Helping Haiti Heal - learn about a huge fandom event happening Sat. from
2pm to 6pm ET! http://bit.ly/5603s6 #hhh

or
We're Helping Haiti Heal - learn about a huge fandom event happening Sat. from
2pm to 6pm ET! http://bit.ly/5603s6 #hhh


and the website for the television fundraiser that's currently on TV now: HelpForHaitiNow.org (and itunes.com/Haiti-but I don't know what's there yet.)

and here's Heifer International's website specific to donations for Haiti here

of course, there's also 'Haiti' to 90999 will donate $10 to the Red Cross (without fees to the phone companies as per my understanding). And with Wyclef Jean's charifty Yele Haiti, Yele to 501501 donates $5 and Haiti donates $10.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Today's Releases....

....at least some of them.

Just a reminder since my reviews were posted last week for two of these and the third I haven't read yet because it's the fourth in a series....but these three great books are released today:















Firespell: a Novel of the Dark Elite Book One by Chloe Neill (review)
Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (review)
Bad Blood: Blood Coven Book Four by Mari Mancusi (no review yet but I'm going to be reading the series soon!)


and also re Firespell BittenByBooks, has a contest running here until the 8th

Monday, January 4, 2010

Numbers ~ Rachel Ward review

Numbers
The Chicken House
336 Pages
February 1, 2010 (US) / January 5, 2009 (UK)
Amazon US / Amazon UK


Since she was a little girl being pushed around in a stroller by her mother, Jem has seen when people are going to die. As soon as she looks someone in the eye she sees a number in her head, the date of their death. Used to be she didn't know what the numbers meant...then her mother died and she figured it all out.

Now she avoids relationships of any kind, knowing she can't get close to someone while knowing the entire time when they're going to die. It's not a great life, but it's mostly working for Jem. Until she meets Spider and he manages to worm his way past her defenses.

Jem knows things are going to be different, it's been years since she's let herself care what happened to another person, let herself be involved in someone else's life like this. And then things get more complicated when Jem and Spider take a trip to London and are waiting in line to ride the Eye.

Everyone around them has the same number, the same date of death, and it's that day.

It's the choice Jem and Spider make then that really gets the book going and where things get really interesting and develop beyond the 'Jem knows when people will die' basic story.


This book caught my attention (with the cover at first) before I even knew it was going to be released in the US and it wasn't until I'd already been reading it that I found out it was being released here as well. The idea of a girl who can look at people and know the date they're going to die is an intriguing one to be sure but it could get tired very easily.

What was great about Numbers is that the ramifications of Jem knowing when people were going to die seemed to really be thought out (and it didn't become some sort of freak show thing or something she used to get attention). And the story took off in a direction I never would have anticipated, both in the larger plot and in the individual events that happened--it really was great.

Jem and Spider (and the other characters, as well) were really interesting characters and not predictable or stereotypical either.

I'm really interested, actually, in reading the US version of this, too because I want to see what changes between the two because it seemed pretty British to me (in language at least--maybe more).

This little book (mine's paperback) was one that I definitely underestimated. It was something that I thought just sounded like...well, maybe a good gimick (Medium had an episode where she could see how many days people had left to live so it's not enitrely original), but it turned out to be about some great characters and a lot deeper than I ever woud have guessed. I know I'm definitely going to be looking for more from Rachel Ward (and the publisher-I have two books by that publisher and they're awesome!).


10/10

Book Trailer Friday [@RandomHouse @TransworldBooks]

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