So, this happened.

Hi Guys!

I meant to have a shiny and new review for you today, but then this happened:

DAMN ALL OF YOU WHO RECOMMENDED THIS SHOW! It's been completely distracting. In the best possible way.

At first, I was all "he's pretty to look at" and then I found out he was Kili in The Hobbit movies AND I FELL HOPELESSLY IN LOVE! I adored Kili so much, and now I've found him again in non-hobbit size and life is glorious.

Needless to say I've been watching instead of reading (though I'm almost through Promise of Fire and am loving it!), so I have no post today other than this one professing my undying love for Aidan Turner.

*wanders off to watch more episodes*

Stealing Snow Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Today I'm so pleased to welcome author Danielle Paige back to the blog as part of the promotional tour of her newest release, Stealing Snow. You guys know already how much I love a good fairytale retelling, so I couldn't be more excited about this book. A huge thank you to Danielle for taking the time to answer my questions, I hope you guys enjoy!

To introduce us to the fantasy world of Algid, what are three things we should know before we follow Snow on her journey there?

Algid is ruled by a prophesy that foretells Snow’s rise to power
Her father is an evil King who may just want to kill her
There is snow and magic everywhere and a lot of cute boys.

If you could write yourself into any one fairytale/ folktale, which one would you most like “visit” and what role would you play?

I want to be Maleficent for a day! Before Danerys (from Game of Thrones) was Mother of Dragons, Maleficent actually could turn into one. The power...the horns...loved!

But also the fairy godmother in Cinderella—I really want to know her story. Who the heck is she? And why is she sprinkling fairy dust on the world? In my mind there may be a less Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo-version of how she got to Cinderella.

If the Disney version of the Snow Queen were to meet your version, what do you think her initial reaction would be?

I am assuming she would attempt a “Let It Go” duet. I think Elsa would understand Snow! Snow is Elsa without the sisterly intervention. Disney’s Elsa grows up knowing about her power and fearing it. But Snow has grown up in the dark about her identity and her power. For Elsa, it is a journey of acceptance. For Snow, it is both acceptance and self-knowledge. And since Snow is a little bit older than Elsa, she also gets to deal with some more grown up complications, like romance!

Before making her escape, Snow is confined to a high security mental hospital, a situation that just happens to be one of my recurring nightmares. *shudders* If you were to find yourself in The Whittaker Institute alongside Snow, would you try to reason with the doctors to prove your sanity, or would you immediately start planning your escape route?

I am definitely much more of a mental strategist than an escape artist. I would have to try and outwit Dr. Harris.

Looking forward to this series as a whole, what warning or piece of advice might the Snow of the later installments give to the Snow in this first book?

Without being too spoiler-y, I would have to say be prepared for a pretty epic ending with a lot of twists and turns! The first book ends very, very far from happily ever after.

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STEALING SNOW

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent her life locked in Whittaker Psychiatric—but she isn’t crazy. And that’s not the worst of it. Her very first kiss proves anything but innocent…when Bale, her only love, turns violent.

Despite Snow knowing that Bale would never truly hurt her, he is taken away—dashing her last hope for any sort of future in the mental ward she calls home. With nowhere else to turn, Snow finds herself drawn to a strange new orderly who whispers secrets in the night about a mysterious past and a kingdom that’s hers for the taking—if only she can find her way past the iron gates to the Tree that has been haunting her dreams.

Beyond the Tree lies Algid, a land far away from the real world, frozen by a ruthless king. And there too await the River Witch, a village boy named Kai, the charming thief Jagger, and a prophecy that Snow will save them all.

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DANIELLE PAIGE

Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, and the upcoming  Stealing Snow series (Bloomsbury, 2016). In addition to writing young adult books, she works in the television industry, where she's received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in New York City.

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GIVEAWAY

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Review: The Bird and the Sword

THE BIRD AND THE SWORD
Amy Harmon
New Adult/Fantasy
352 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Source: Bought

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

MY THOUGHTS
The Bird and the Sword is immensely satisfying from beginning to end, giving us a heroine robbed of words on a beautifully-told journey to find them again amidst the backdrop of a sweeping fantasy epic.

Lark is a Teller, gifted with words that create a call to action when spoken, bringing to life inanimate objects, controlling animals, and healing when needed. After her mother's dying rhyme rips away her ability to speak, she's assumed to be deaf and dumb in addition to being mute, but we're treated to her innermost thoughts and feelings and therefore know she's as smart and strong as they come. She quickly finds herself a pawn in a game of politics, taken from her father and held as insurance to make sure he provides promised assistance to the young king in his war against the monstrous Volgar (vulture-like birdmen). She could have easily spent her days wallowing in self-pity for the position in which she finds herself – in a strange place and forced to be a weapon in the service of her king – but instead she does as she is asked with a quiet pride and a lick of defiance, one that brings a smile to our faces every time she wields it. 

Her romance with King Tiras is of the slow burn variety, one with a start rooted in antagonism as she resents being made into the tip of a spear and hurled at the Vulgar with little care for anything other than her usefulness. Her feelings for Tiras seemingly develop quicker than his for her (though it takes her plenty of time to begin to see him in a romantic light), and she keeps those feelings close to her vest because she knows he's unlikely to return her affection. She is a means to an end for him, an ace up his sleeve in the war against an impossible enemy, and she protects her heart as best she can by defying him in the most perfect of ways when he proves to be too presumptuous.

Their story has my highest recommendation for all those who love apparent underdogs with unparalleled strength, love interests who challenge at every turn, and grand romances that share the spotlight with well-executed paranormal and political wars.

Rating: 5/5

Find Amy:

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Movie Tie-In Giveaway!

To help celebrate the release of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (which hits theaters on Friday!), I have a fantastic giveaway to share with you today. And a little sneak peek at a few stills from the movie. Win.

I have to admit that I have yet to read this book (I'm saying that about WAY too many books lately), but I couldn't be more excited for this movie and have little doubt I'll rush to read the book just as soon as I'm out of the theater. I actually prefer to see the movie first, that way I don't spend my time fixating on what was changed or left out, and can enjoy it for what it is. Then I go and obsess over the book ;-)

For those of you who aren't familiar with the book or movie, check out the description, movie stills and trailer below, and be sure enter to win a Miss Peregrine's prize pack!

From visionary director Tim Burton, and based upon the best-selling novel, comes an unforgettable motion picture experience. When Jake discovers clues to a mystery that spans alternate realities and times, he uncovers a secret refuge known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As he learns about the residents and their unusual abilities, Jake realizes that safety is an illusion, and danger lurks in the form of powerful, hidden enemies. Jake must figure out who is real, who can be trusted, and who he really is.
 
Starring: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O'Dowd, Ella Purnell, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, with Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson

Directed By: Tim Burton

Rated PG-13

 (click to enlarge)

Seek the Peculiar. Get tickets to see Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, in theaters Friday!

Official Site • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to a partnership with 20th Century Fox, I have an epic prize pack to give away today! One lucky winner will receive a $25 Visa gift card to see the film as well as a movie tie-in version of the book. Giveaway is open to US addresses only. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below!

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Early Review: The Cruelty

THE CRUELTY
The Cruelty #1
Scott Bergstrom
Young Adult/Thriller
384 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available February 7th, 2017
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When her diplomat father is kidnapped and the U.S. Government is unable to help, 17 year-old Gwendolyn Bloom sets off across the sordid underbelly of Europe to rescue him. Following the only lead she has—the name of a Palestinian informer living in France—she plunges into a brutal world of arms smuggling and human trafficking. As she journeys from the slums of Paris, to the nightclubs of Berlin, to the heart of the most feared crime family in Prague, Gwendolyn discovers that to survive in this new world she must become every bit as cruel as the men she’s hunting.

MY THOUGHTS
The Cruelty is not the average young adult thriller, one where the protagonist strikes out on their own and is able to access information, bypass security, and thwart criminal masterminds with seeming ease. Though Gwen does strike out on her own in search of her father, her path is hardly an easy one marked by the luck of fiction as pieces fall together to help her along, instead her journey is darker and more brutal, each leg taking a piece of the girl she was before and crushing it under the boot of the girl she is becoming.

Gwen is a young woman who feels very real in the beginning, someone whom we could pass in our everyday lives and strike up an easy conversation with as opposed to a teenage super spy to whom we can hardly relate, something that makes her story feel more personal even as she falls deeper and deeper into a criminal underworld rabbit hole. Because she possess no special skills when we meet her–no exceptional fighting prowess, hacking specialty, etc.–it's easy to project ourselves onto her, rooting for her to take matters into her own hands when her own government and her father's colleagues fail her. She has to become a badass the hard way, learning to fight and hide in plain sight but making innumerable missteps along the way, as someone with only a crash course in spy training and a determined spirit would do.

Gwen's search for her father is intense and detailed, with Mr. Bergstrom showing no interest in keeping us on the surface and instead plunging us under along with Gwen as she fights for the smallest of clues about her father's whereabouts. The Cruelty is gritty and complex and clearly just the beginning for Gwen, and I for one look forward to seeing just what she's capable of in the next installment.

Rating: 4/5

Find Scott:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

This Adventure Ends Blog Tour: This Adventure Creates

Happy Friday Everyone!

It's been a tour kind of week this week, and I'm wrapping things up today with a very special tour for This Adventure Ends, the upcoming YA release from Emma Mills. A tour that involves Crayola markers and a teeny tiny canvas.

As part of the tour, a handful of us were asked to pick a verb to pair with "this adventure" and then create an artistic masterpiece (or not, as the case would be with me) that represents the theme we've chosen. Since I spend my days designing book covers, I went with "This Adventure Creates" as it so perfectly fits the job I love so very much.

As it turns out however, washable markers and canvas are not my medium, and my "masterpiece" turned out a little bit wonky. You see, I can't draw anything without sketching it out in pencil first, and when I went to color everything in, I quickly discovered that washable markers and pencil lines are not the best of friends. I had to stick with darker colors to try and hide the pencil otherwise I got a muddy mess, but oh well, I had fun with it anyway!

Behold the glory that is my "This Adventure Creates"!

Apparently my wand of creativity spews a bunch of upside down commas, who knew? O.o I hope you guys got a kick out of my piece and add This Adventure Ends to your must-have lists!

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THIS ADVENTURE ENDS

Releases October 4th from Henry Holt & Co.

Sloane isn't expecting to fall in with a group of friends when she moves from New York to Florida—especially not a group of friends so intense, so in love, so all-consuming. Yet that's exactly what happens.

Sloane becomes closest to Vera, a social-media star who lights up any room, and Gabe, Vera's twin brother and the most serious person Sloane's ever met. When a beloved painting by the twins' late mother goes missing, Sloane takes on the responsibility of tracking it down, a journey that takes her across state lines—and ever deeper into the twins' lives.

Filled with intense and important friendships, a wonderful warts-and-all family, shiveringly good romantic developments, and sharp, witty dialogue, this story is about finding the people you never knew you needed.

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