So today I bought Canvas from WooThemes, which lets you design your site via the wordpress panel. This is awesome for simpletons like myself!

There won’t be any updates until the end of the week, so please excuse the blinding whiteness of the layout until I make it all pretty and presentable.

And the winner of the signed copy of Blood Promise – chosen by random.org – is:

caroline A./ pattepoilue

Congratulations! I’ve notified the winner via email. Thanks for entering everyone.

This review contains some spoilers.

Blurb taken from authors official website:

When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie’s own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.

Ice is a very unique YA fantasy romance based upon the the Norwegian fairytale: East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

Cassie is a very headstrong heroine who has grown up on an Alaska Arctic research station all of her life, brought up by her Father who is a research scientist. Cassie’s whole life has revolved around the ice caps, and one day, while tracking a polar bear, she sees the most peculiar thing: the polar bear runs away at a terrifying speed and disappears into the ice… literally. Cassie, undeniably shocked, doesn’t realise how special this polar bear is, and most importantly who he is. When Cassie explains to her father about the polar bear disappearing into the Ice, he suddenly, and urgently, decides to send her away to live with her Grandmother in Fairbanks, and doesn’t give her a choice in the matter. Cassie is bewildered, hurt and angry. In a nutshell, she refuses to be sent away.

When her Grandmother arrives to take her away, Cassie gets the shock of her life when her Grandmother tells her that the tale she told her as a child, about the deal her mother made with the Polar Bear King, turns out to be very true. And her life is about to take a monumental change when she goes outside, and demands that the Polar Bear King showto uphold the original agreement her mother made: For her daughter to be the wife of the Polar Bear King. himself. Bear shows himself and it’s the very same bear that ran away from Cassie.  Cassie’s whole world is turned even more upside down, when she learns from Bear that her mother is very much alive, and is the prisoner of the trolls. Cassie agrees to a deal with Bear:  Her mother will be returned safe and alive, if Cassie agrees

I liked Cassie in some aspects of her personality; she was fierce, she was unafraid of going after what she wanted, and her emotions on learning about Bear were very realistic at first. When Cassie goes to live with Bear after agreeing to the deal, she remains suspicious, and conspires not to remain with him, but she builds up a slow trust with him – one that you don’t see in scenes unfortunately – and one day, she realises that she doesn’t actually want to leave Bear. Oh, and before you think: OMG, she’s falling in love with a polar bear, Bear is actually a munaqsri, the guardian of souls for the polar bears. He takes a form of a polar bear, but he has a human form also.

While I loved the worldbuilding and the colourful and very imaginative detail in Ice, I found it was lacking in character development and the relationship of Cassie and Bear. Cassie’s character was fleshed out, and her strong personality instantly shone through, but I wished that Bear had the same development. Knowing he’s the love interest wasn’t enough I thought. I wanted to see his emotions, his thoughts and feelings. There was no real depth and personality to him, and I felt he was rather one dimensional.

Cassie’s relationship with Bear gets stronger and stronger as she spends more time with him, but she soon realises that she feels like she’s missing a part of herself. Cassie misses the scientific work she did. Cassie then finds out that one of the main reasons Bear marries her, is to carry on the future of the munaqsri as there are fewer and fewer of them. Bear and Cassie do have a physical relationship, and she understandably feels instant betrayal when Bear does something that will change her life forever without her permission. As I was reading this, I was like: Oh my gosh. I would have done more than what Cassie did, and would have beaten the crap out of him.

While this is a fairytale story that has its unique worldbuilding, I’ve always been a person that’s character oriented, and I like to read about characters that have a dose of pragmatism. And this is where I’m torn with knowing that this is a book where you have to suspend belief, but the characters’ actions bugged me a lot – and I felt that some of Cassie’s decisions and actions were reckless.

When Cassie goes off to save Bear, again the world building and the adventure is wonderful to read about, but the reasons behind it make no sense as Bear could have avoided being taken away simply by telling Cassie the truth.

Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read, but while reading this book, you have to suspend a lot of belief while doing so.

I give Ice 3.5 out of 5.

Patricia Briggs Tour Dates for Silver Borne. Taken from Patty’s official website:

March 26-28, 2010: Northhampton MAOnce again, the awesome folks at ConBust are letting me come play with the ladies at Smith College for a weekend. It’s a hoot, so come join the fun!March 30 — April 10: Signing tour for Silver Borne

Seattle, WA: March 30 at the University Book Store, at 7:00 pm.

Portland, OR: March 31 at the Cedar Hills Powell’s, 7:00 pm.

Los Angeles, CA: April 6 at the Huntington Beach B&N, 7:00 pm.

San Diego, CA: April 7 at Mysterious Galaxy, 7:00 pm.

Houston, TX: April 9 at Murder By the Book, 6:30 pm.

Minneapolis, MN: April 10 at Uncle Hugo’s, 6:30 pm.

Charlaine Harris Tour Dates. Taken from Charlaine’s official website:

EUROPEAN TOUR

ITALY

• March 2 – 9:30 pm Shan Go, via San Saba 11, Rome, Italy – Interview with Rosaria Renna and signing

POLAND

• March 4 – 5 pm Empik Mega Krakow, Rynek Glowny 5/ Sienna 2, 31-042, Krakow, Poland – signing
• March 5 – 2 pm Wirtualna Polska – Chat video
• March 5 – 6 pm Empik Giga Junior, Ul. Marszalkowska, 116/122 00-017, Warsaw, Poland – talk and signing

UNITED KINGDOM

• March 9 – 6:30 pm The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Place, London England -Talk and signing – Tickets 8 pounds call 020 7494 3654 or www.princecharlescinema.com
• March 10 – 12:00 pm Waterstones, 1-5 Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham, England – signing
• March 10 – 7:00 pm Waterstones, 91 Deansgate, Manchester, England – signing

PORTUGAL

• March 12 – 6 pm Maxime, Praca da Alegria Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal – presentation and signing – Tel: 213467051
• March 13 – 9 pm FNAC, Columbo center Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal – presentation and signing – Tel: 711 4200

Per the FTC regulations, I must state that I received a copy of this book from the author for the purpose of reviewing it.

The following excerpt is from the back cover blurb, which can be found at http://www.loreliebrown.com/.

“Of all the juice joints he had to bust, this one had to be hers…

In the world of illegal speakeasies, Kate Kirkland has her life running smoother than a Model T. Maybe moving the family bar into the basement wasn’t the best choice for her alcoholic brother, but Kate’s making them a living—until a local gangster tries to expand his territory. Right into her bar.

Luckily Micah Trent, her handsome and too-suave bootlegger, is ready and willing to offer her a helping hand. If Kate can bring herself to accept it. Since sharing one sensual dance to seal their deal, she can’t ignore the delectably wicked way he makes her feel.

Micah is keeping secrets of his own. He’s a Prohibition Agent, sworn to shut down the gin mills and distilleries that keep illegal booze flowing. Kate’s speakeasy is next on his list—right after he uses her as bait to catch the gangster hunting her.

But even if Micah and Kate can maneuver their way through the gangsters’ dangerous underworld, will their love survive the trial by fire?”

And you can’t forget Samhain’s infamous warning, “Warning: This title contains steamy hot sex, big fancy guns that result in just a little bit of brains on the floor, and enough booze to float an armada.”

I am glad I decided to end my self-imposed exile because Ms Brown certainly did not let me down.  I was immediately drawn into the world of speakeasies, and undercover agents.  Not the “Secret Agent Man” but something that seemed more realistic and gritty.  I got a good feeling for both the corruption that existed in the upper echelons of law enforcement and the struggles/challenges faced by the speakeasy owners.  I had never considered that they didn’t have to just worry about Prohibition Agents, but also the entire underworld and its power struggles.  Ms Brown showed some of what lay underneath the glitz and glamour, not just on the business aspect, but also the personal by bringing her characters to life.  I could feel Kate’s struggles and frustration with her brother, her intense attraction to Mica, and her determination not to lose her family business by mixing business with pleasure – or by meekly giving into the local gangster’s demands.  I also felt Micah’s internal struggles between his job and loyalty to his partner, his equally fierce attraction to Kate, and his fear about what will happen when Kate finds out who he really is, and why he entered her life.

I have to admit that I was concerned that Ms Brown would use some stale tropes as she worked her way through the various points of conflict in Jazz Baby.  The first thing I was worried about was the hero’s sidekick revealing their true roles to the heroine in an attempt to “save his partner”.  I was also dreading the possibility that the heroine would suddenly lose her backbone and independence then depend on hero to rescue her, her family and her business.  While Micah does fulfil the role of a hero, Kate remains true to her character through the entire novel.  Thankfully I predicted the solutions incorrectly.  One of the few times I was glad to be wrong.  I can’t tell you exactly how Ms Brown resolved my various points of concern without divulging major spoilers but I can say there is some very satisfactory groveling on Micah’s part *grin*.

The supporting cast of characters provided more then just acting as foils to Kate and Micah’s character development.  They each played integral roles in furthering Kate and Micah’s relationship or added to the layers of tension between the key players, including the primary villain – cue ominous music.  One in particular that I wrote off as a gold-digging idiot managed to redeem herself from the idiot label.  A complete 180-degree character shift would have jarred me from the world Ms Brown painstakingly created.  That level of detail down to secondary and tertiary characters was just another reason I enjoyed reading Jazz Baby.

I give Jazz Baby 4.5 out of 5 stars since Ms Brown left some string untied involving Micah’s partner and the young lady Kate rescued from living on the streets, no not the two of them together, but possibly with other characters.  Maybe Ms Brown will provide a sequel.

Sometime early last year I was either browsing my favorite book related blogs or looking on Amaxon.com for their list of recommended upcoming releases when I came across a book called Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire.  The back cover blurb caught my eye with the mention of a half Sidhe-half human Private Investigator, October Daye, who had lost 14 years of her life.  At first I thought the 14 years were the price she had paid for working some magic spell.  Boy was I wrong.  Instead of paying a price, she was unwillingly transformed into something other then human or fae and spent those 14 years unable to sense or comprehend the passing of time. Intrigued I picked up a copy when it was published and Ms McGuire sucked me into a dark, complex enjoyable tale.

When The Bookpushers were contacted to see if there was interest in reviewing her upcoming book called A Local Habitation that just happened to be the sequel to Rosemary and Rue, I leaped on the chance.  Per the FTC I am obligated to inform you that I received an ARC of this book from the author for the purpose of reviewing it.  (Confidentially I will admit that I will purchase a copy release week.) I will attempt to avoid major spoilers from Rosemary and Rue but some smaller ones are inevitable.

Excerpt from the Back Cover as stated at http://seananmcguire.com/alh.php

“Half-human, half-fae, outsiders from birth, most changelings are second class children of Faerie spending their lives fighting for the respect of their immortal relations.  Toby is the only changeling who has earned knighthood, and she re-earns that position every day, undertaking assignments for her liege, Sylvester, the Duke of Shadowed Hills.

Now Sylvester has asked her to go to the County of Tamed Lightening – otherwise known as Fremont, California – to make sure that all is well with his niece, January O’Leary, whom he has not been able to contact.  It seems like a simple enough assignment – but when dealing with the realm of Faerie, nothing is ever as simple as it seems…For Tamed Lightening has somehow been cut off from the other fiefdoms, and now someone has begun to murder January’s key people.  If Toby can’t find and stop the killer soon, she may well become the next victim…”

Ms McGuire has succeeded in taking a common theme, the Sidhe, and adding some unique twists that sucked me back into October’s life.  Set once again in San Francisco, home to October “Toby” Daye, the opening scene showcases Toby in a much lighter mood then than readers of the first book are accustomed to seeing.  Fans of this series might also be interested in the fact that we also get to see Tybalt, a very powerful Cait Sidhe and the local King of the Cats *waggles eyebrows* very early on.  Don’t worry I promise you that Tybalt appears again.

Throughout the course of Toby’s investigation in A Local Habitation, I was treated to more information about the Sidhe culture, its various members and Toby herself.  I found it to be a mark of Ms McGuire’s skillful writing style that her character and world building were seamlessly merged with the pace of the story so I never lost my reading enjoyment as the story unfolded.  All of the characters showed unexpected depths, including those victims who died before Toby arrived at Tamed Lightening.  Based on the other characters statements about one of the victims I had painted a particular picture but when Toby examined their office area my mental picture drastically changed.  In another instance I thought I had figured out who one character was attracted to and found I was entirely wrong.   Toby and her sidekick (name is a major spoiler for Rosemary and Rue) also learned some interesting lessons and faced some situations when Toby’s connection to her liege wasn’t necessarily believed or even helpful.

The murder mystery was complex enough that while I guessed some of the roles the different characters played I was not expecting all of the twists nor did I accurately guess the culprit.  Despite the gritty nature of the investigation, Toby and the cast of assorted characters do experience some lighter moments.  Ms McGuire’s October Daye series does not shy away from showing how the Sidhe have a very different viewpoint on life and what death really means.   I also got to see the manifestation of power and what it means to have and control that power.  While dark and gritty A Local Habitation ends on a note of hope.  I enjoyed reading it and look forward to the next installment in October Daye’s life, An Artificial Night.  Ms McGuire has very kindly provided the reader with a sneak peek of into that third novel due to release in September 2010.

I give it a rating of 4 of 5 five stars for the slight predictability in some of the characters and their roles and the fact that I believe in order to fully enjoy the book and understand at least one key scene you need to read Rosemary and Rue.  A Local Habitation releases in North America on March 2 as a DAW Mass Market Paperback.

Blurb taken from Fantastic Fiction:

Can Kate Morgan stand up for herself – without being labelled a snitch?

Kate is just as confused as her best friend, Lan, when she arrives at Cleary High to find the building’s been “tagged” with a life-size graffiti mural. Could the culprit be one of their friends or classmates? And is the kind-of-amazing creation really vandalism, or a work of art? She’s tempted to stay out of it – mostly because, as the police chief’s daughter, she’s worried about being labeled a snitch. But when the same mysterious graffiti starts appearing throughout the state, putting more pressure on the authorities to catch the vandal, her investigative instincts kick in.

Now Eli, Kate’s favorite coworker at the local coffee shop, is MIA. With Lan preoccupied with her own boy troubles, Kate needs to figure out some things on her own. Like why she can’t stop thinking about Eli. And what she will do when all the clues about the graffiti point to someone she’s close to.

Tagged was such a fun book to read, and even though it doesn’t have complicated plot threads, it has a lot of depth. Kate, the heroine of the book, was extremely likeable, and I think a lot of teenagers would be able to relate to her. She wasn’t the most popular, nor was she the social pariah of the school. Kate saw herself as average, but I wouldn’t describe her character as that. When I was reading her story, I saw that she could be one of the million teenagers out there who struggle with the problems Kate struggles with, and that’s finding out who she really is, and what she wants to do in her life. I struggled with that while I was in school, and I thought it was a very realistic issue to use in the book.

The love interest between Eli – Kate’s coworker and friend – is quite tame and sweet. Kate has had a crush on him for a while, but he’s been going out with Reva, who hates Kate with a passion. Gotta love the mean and crazy girlfriend. *grins* While the romance aspect is not central to the book, it has a sweetness to it, and it works very well with the overall pace. What I really liked about this book was the simplicity of it all. There were no EMO emotions coming from the characters, or angsty rebellion that you see often. And hallelujah! The heroine of the book actually has a lovely relationship with her parents! While Kate struggles sometimes with her father being the chief of police and with how the kids perceive her at school because of her father, they love each other, and are a strong family unit. This is the first book I have read in a long while that doesn’t have piss poor parents. And this book managed to be a great read without having piss poor parent(s), which enables a teenager protagonist to go off and do their business in a book without worrying about pesky parents telling them off. Tagged also deals with racial tolerance, and Lan – Kate’s best friend – explains to Kate about her desire to fit in for the person she is and not be known as the only Vietnamese girl in school. Mara showcases that racial intolerance does happen when Lan is subjected to a racial comment and the consequences for the individual who made that remark is shown afterwards,  and there is a strong and great message that nobody should be made to feel inferior because of their race.

Tagged deals with a lot of real life issues, and the plot thread surrounding the graffiti and whether it can be called Art or Vandalism was made to be a powerful debate within the book. The actual mystery of who was drawing the Graffiti was predictable to me, and I did wonder why Kate didn’t figure it out beforehand, but the reasoning and purpose behind the graffiti I found to be realistic. The kids in Tagged are shown to be smart and savvy, and apart from the stereotypical rich mean girl that I thought was kinda clichéd, Tagged is a great YA contemporary read.

I give Tagged 4 out of 5.

I have a hardback cover of Blood Promise, the fourth book in the series, to giveaway. And it’s signed by Richelle Mead.

Here is the blurb from Richelle Mead’s official website. In this blurb, it has major spoilers from the previous books, so look away if you don’t want to be spoiled and scroll down until you reach the end of the bold writing:

Rose Hathaway’s life will never be the same.

The recent attack on St. Vladimir’s Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose’s neck, a mark that says she’s killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life’s vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She’ll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir’s and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?

I’m limiting this giveaway to UK/Europe only as international shipping is quite expensive. So my apologies.

To enter the giveaway, just comment below. The giveaway will be open until next Friday evening, GMT.

Good luck!

Giveaway now closed!

Using random.org to choose the winners, here they be:

Spav

Sapphire

Sara

Congratulations. I’ve notifed the winners via email.

Thanks again everyone!

For our blogaversary, we have decided to do a new feature to highlight a favourite, or newly discovered author. Since we are having a YA month here, we all agreed on Tamora Pierce for a profile, and our thoughts on her books.

Profile: Tamora Pierce. YA author

Bio: Tamora Pierce was born in Pennsylvania, but now lives in Syracuse New York and is a multi award-winning and popular Fantasy YA author. Her books predominantly have strong female heroines who are independent and strong willed. The last twenty years she has written over twenty books, which many readers have regarded to be amongst their favourite re-reads/best of lists. She is currently writing her latest book, Mastiff, which is the final book in the prequel series to her long running but very popular Tortall series.

Our thoughts:

Has: I remember the first time I picked up a Tamora Pierce book: I was in the library whilst on a school trip. I had already picked up five books, but I needed another one because they were not enough to satisfy this book addict. I quickly scanned the shelves and saw a book cover with a medieval hooded girl with haunting, but striking eyes. I quickly read the blurb and it was about a young girl who wanted to become a knight, and this girl disguised herself as a boy to become one. I quickly snatched it up because I loved Fantasy, and because it was rare to read books within that genre at that time – especially a YA that featured a girl as a leading character.

The name of the book was called Alanna: The First Adventure. The title didn’t sound particularly exciting, but the blurb and the cover did. I was sucked in by the first page alone. This was (and still is) a book that HAD everything I wanted: magic, action, a strong female heroine, humour and mystery. I later found out there was a sequel called In The Hand of The Goddess (one of my all time favourite books), which I quickly reserved from the library and it was even better that the first!  Several years passed before I finally read the final two books in the series. That wait was extremely difficult because I kept on wondering: what happened next? Even though the second book had resolved most of the important plot threads in the first book – I wanted and I needed to read more.

The Song of the Lioness series is one of those influential series for me. It’s one of those magical moments when you pick up a book – without any high expectations – and find that it literally shapes and effects future tastes in books. I think because of this, my love for strong heroines was strengthened. It’s why I gravitate towards more Urban/Traditional fantasy book with strong heroines.

Tamora Pierce has remained one of my favourite authors and I eagerly look forward to each new release of hers. I truly think she’s laid a lot of groundwork and influenced many authors today. Along with Anne McCaffery and Robin Mckinley, who also have done the same. Her strong female heroines, humour and imagination is a pure joy to read, and I will continue to bookpush her books to people of all ages because they will appeal to a universal audience.

E: I remember my first time too .  A certain bookpusher *cough* Has *cough* had mentioned several times – rather enthusiastically – about a YA author whose books were not EMO, and who helped keep her going during rough times.  Of course I had to ask about it, and boy did I get an earful! Well to be accurate, it was an eyeful since this was all on-line.  She then recommended that I start with Terrier, which was the first of the Beka Cooper chronicles.  She explained to me that those chronicles were actually prequels to the books she started reading, and that I would probably enjoy them.  Despite my resistance to buy a new-to-me author in large trade paperback size, my fellow bookpusher was insistent. I finally gave in in 2008 and I haven’t looked back since.  I was too impatient to wait until I had a complete series, so I bought the 1st book for all the series I could find.  Those ended up being: Wild Magic (Immortals), First Test (Protector of the Small), and Trickster’s Choice (Trickster series).  After I finished those I started searching out all the rest I could find.  I finally found the entire Song of the Lioness series this past year and that completed her currently published Tortall books.  Each series brought out something new.  Her characters, good or bad, or indifferent, were all strong and well fleshed out providing me with hours of entertainment.

Lou: I  literally lost my cherry to Tamora Pierces books last week, and I glommed two entire series in about four days. Oh yeah, I popped my cherry good!

The Lioness Series features a fearless heroine that I’ve not encountered in a YA series before. She was fiercely independent, and throughout the first two books, I sometimes forgot that she was actually a female and not a young boy. Her character was so against, and afraid, of showing any hint of femininity that I admired her that much more when she really gets treated as a young boy, and doesn’t complain about the treatment she receives.  When Alanna does discover her own sexuality and woman-hood, it made it that much more powerful knowing how frightened she was beforehand. That is something I have not encountered in a YA series before, and will stay with me for a long time.

While I admired this series and it’s heroine, it’s not my favourite. Nope. I adored The Immortal quartet, featuring a young girl who goes on her own personal journey of becoming a young lady, and learning and finding about where she belongs in the world, and learning and coming to terms about her own special powers. And while she has completely different characteristics than Alanna, and had an entire different outlook on the world, it didn’t make her story any less powerful. I found the world building, characters, and the magical creatures to be so much richer, and again, it was entirely original, and something I have never encountered in a YA series. I would have dearly loved to have read the books when I was young girl, as I think I may admired it and interpreted the story in such a different way, compared now as an adult.