Apr 24, 2012

Cover Reveal: The Evolution of Mara Dyer (+ contest on GR!)

The people at Goodreads have just revealed the new cover for Michelle Hodkin's second book in the Mara Dyer series: The Evolution of Mara Dyer! And here it is!

Two days after Mara walks into a police station in Miami at the close of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, she is committed for psychiatric treatment for what her parents believe is a mental breakdown. But what seems like a hallucination to everyone else is a chilling reality for Mara. Someone from her past has discovered her strange, disturbing secret and that someone wants her to pay. But she's about to discover that the price is more than she can bear. [summary from GR]
Goodreads is having a contest with Pinterest too:
We've exclusively revealed the new cover for Michelle Hodkin's upcoming book The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #2) and we now challenge the users of Goodreads.com to PIN the cover at least 500 times!

If this Pinterest goal is met by May 6th we will release an exclusive excerpt on May 7th!

You can find the PIN button on the right hand side of this book page under SHARE THIS BOOK.

Start PINNING!

If you want to receive a reminder about the excerpt release don't forget to join the COVER/EXCERPT REVEAL event. 
AND, they also have an ARC contest, here. I loved The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and can't wait for this one. They both have beautiful covers!

Apr 23, 2012

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Volume One: The Promise, #1, by Gene Luen Yang

Contributors:
With: Bryan Konietzko
By (artist): Gurihiru
With: Michael Dante DiMartino
Release Date: January 25th, 2012
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Age Group: Children's
Overall: 4 out of 5 Stars
Categories: Avatar: The Last Airbender, NetGalley, Comics
Goodreads Page 
Read in April 2012 

Summary: 
The wait is over! Ever since the conclusion of Avatar: The Last Airbender, its millions of fans have been hungry for more--and it's finally here!

This series of digests rejoins Aang and friends for exciting new adventures, beginning with a faceoff against the Fire Nation that threatens to throw the world into another war, testing all of Aang's powers and ingenuity!
 
The continuation of Airbender and the link to its upcoming sequel, Legend of Korra!
My Opinion: 

I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, so when I saw this title in NetGalley, of course I had to have it!

The Promise starts off just where the TV show ended: with the Fire Nation's Lord defeated, Aang victorious and with Katara (YAY!) and Zuko at the Fire Nation's throne. 

It is now Aang's job to ensure that everything goes peacefully with the Harmony Restoration Movement, aimed at bringing the people from the Fire Nation living in their colonies back to their land. But of course, when stuff like this happens, people tend to make roots in the place they're taken to, and that's what the Fire Nation people have done. Now they don't want to leave, and this may bring problems to Aang and Zuko's plan.

Aang is a young boy, playful and loveable like always, as the rest of the characters: they're the same as they were in the TV show. The art was also very faithful, I loved some of their expressions! Especially Toph, love her! 

This was a very short read, at 74 pages, and we'll have to wait until next month for the next installment. Avatar fans, this is a must read, as it works as a link between A:TLA and Avatar: The Legend of Korra (now on TV!) 

Apr 20, 2012

Team Damon? Hell YES. [TVD s03e19]

**SPOILER ALERT: Don't read if you haven't read Dark Reunion or watched episode 19 of the TV show.**

OK, so I've been a TVD fan since reading the books a couple of years ago (look at my old review! LOL), and I've always loved Damon. Even when he was stalking Elena in his crow form (remember that? I wished they'd included it in the TV series! LJ gave drinking human blood a whole new meaning!).

He comes off as a tough bloke, but deep down, he just wants to be loved (queue *awww*). And the fact that he's played by Ian Sommerhalder in the small screen doesn't hurt either. 

My favourite parts would always be when he and Elena would be together in the books. His love for her is so different than Stefan's, so much more intense. He'd always be in the sidelines watching his brother be with the one he loves. 

Book Damon becomes absolutely adorable, even though he doesn't want it to show. And TV Damon is the same. Can you love a character so much? He makes me swoon every time I see him! 

TVD producers: THANK YOU! Thanks for this:

Those abs! They kill me! And his face, so cute! 
Then Elena looks at him with her big, alluring eyes...
...and of course he goes to her!

When Damon tries to take her hand... (I'm going to be a total fangirl now, I don't even care). OMG, SWOON. It made every butterfly in my tummy dance with happiness! But dumb Elena up and leaves.

Seriously? What is wrong with you, girl?!

But, oh oh! THE MOMENT WE'VE (OR AT LEAST ME) ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!

Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket

That was a sexy scene! FINALLY!!! Damn you cockblock-Jeremy!!! 

(Oh, Jeremy finally comes back. I wonder if Steven had to be somewhere else, and that's why he was away?)

All in all, a great episode. Esther, Original Momma, comes back, and dies. Or does she? Tyler's back too. YAY! 

But I just can't take that kiss off my head!
Team Damon, everyone? YES.

Apr 18, 2012

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (DoSaB, #1), by Laini Taylor

Release Date: September 27th, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Age Group: Young Adult
Overall: 5 out of 5 Stars (Unputdownable!)
Categories: Paranormal, Romance, Angels, Reincarnation, Magic
Goodreads Page 
Read in March 2012

Summary:
Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.


Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
My Opinion:

I started this book without having read any reviews, so I didn't know what to expect. Laini's world definitely blew me away. I was not expecting that! 

The writing style of this book is so light and at the same time, intense; I couldn't put it down (but there were times when I had to). Taylor's descriptions made my imagination soar through the cities she wrote about, imagining scenes, towns, people, like a good book is supposed to do.

We start out not knowing who Karou is, or where she comes from; we only know that she has a lot of secrets, like her family and Brimstone, the closest thing to a father she has. With her blue hair, she's a rebel that seeks the truth about herself, but at the same time, does not want to disappoint mighty Brimstone. 

Her human friend Zuzana, is an ordinary girl, your typical teenage friend. I'd love to see more of her, see how she progresses in the story. Karou keeps many secrets from her, but she's still loyal to her, and that says so much about her character. She's definitely an anchor for Karou, who's losing touch with everything that means something to her. 

There are so many characters worthy of mentioning, but then this post would be very long. Karou's "monster" family is extremely caring, I started loving them just as much as Karou does. 

The veil between our world and the Other Side (I read the book in Spanish; how do you call Brimstone's world?) is thinner than Karou could know, and she'll soon learn that there's more behind Brimstone's closed doors than she could ever have imagined.

Then there's Akiva. A tortured soul with a heavy bagagge. He's here to destroy Karou's world, but when they meet, sparks fly. He's such a deep character, I loved him from the start, even when he was trying to kill Karou!

A legendary battle is playing our between the monsters that have raised Karou and Akiva's own race, and she's stuck in the middle. But what part does she play?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a book filled with hope: hope of a better world, of happy endings, and of sad stories. You'll pick it up and won't want to let it go until you're finished, and then you'll cry because you'll want to know more! 

Is it November already?
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