Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Waiting On Wednesday #2

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Bitter Kingdom
(Warning, third book in the series!)




Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature any book(s) that we are eagerly waiting to read. 

So, if you don't already know by now, I am really bad at waiting. It just doesn't work for me. I want that book and I want it NOW. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, this mindset does not make the publication date get here any faster. So I have to read other books and push these to the back of my head, until Wednesday comes along and they force their way in so I can bemoan the lack of them in a blog post. You know, like, right now. 

Isn't it pretty?!
 

Title: The Bitter Kingdom
Author: Rae Carson
Publisher: HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books
On-sale date: August 27th 2013
Genre: YA, Fantasy
  Pages: 448
 
 
Summary (From Epic Reads):

The champion must not waver.

The champion must not fear.

The gate of darkness closes. 

Elisa is a fugitive. 

Her enemies have stolen the man she loves, and they await her at the gate of darkness. Her country is on the brink of civil war, with her own soldiers ordered to kill her on sight. 

Her Royal Majesty, Queen Lucero-Elisa n�e Riqueza de Vega, bearer of the Godstone, will lead her three loyal companions deep into the enemy's kingdom, a land of ice and snow and brutal magic, to rescue Hector and win back her throne. Her power grows with every step, and the shocking secrets she will uncover on this, her final journey, could change the course of history. 

But that is not all. She has a larger destiny. She must become the champion the world has been waiting for. 

Even of those who hate her most. 




I CAN'T WAIT. I. JUST. CAN'T!!! See, now I am having a meltdown because I need to read it so bad. I'm gonna go dunk my head in a bucket of ice water, or fire, or something, before I pitch a fit.

I'll see you all next time on Let's Test My Sanity. Thanks a lot Rae Carson, really, thank you.


Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Not "Top Ten Tuesday"



Hey guys! I'm back! Yes I disappeared. Weren't you obsessively checking my blog every day to see if I'd posted?


Anyway, I had a really busy week, plus I got bit by two different spiders a total of four times. Ah yes, I do love having numb limbs. And then I got The Major Wicked Double Book Hangover that you will hear more about in the post.

This is NOT "Top Ten Tuesday", which is a weekly meme hosted by BrokeAndBookish. I was going to do today's "Top Ten Tuesday" but this list rushed into my head. So I will be posting it instead. It is just a Top Ten list that happens to be posted on Tuesday, not a part of the "Top Ten Tuesday" meme.





However, I will be participating in "Top Ten Tuesday" in the future.



My Top Ten Ways To Break A Book Hangover.
 


1. Reread all the lovey-dovey scenes until you are a warm, giggling, puddle of foot popping goo.


This is the one I normally use; it makes me feel like the book didn't really end. P.S. Hillary T. Smith, I reread and reread until I was rolling on the floor chanting "love-bison".


2. Run around the house clutching the book to your bosom, hugging the life out of it, yelling "This is so good, this is so good, THIS IS SOOOO GOOOOOOD!!! Until a poor unsuspecting member of your family asks what it is, then proceed to melt their ears off with the whole story reiterated at top speed and maximum volume.



I tend to use a combo of 1 & 2 when the hangover is really bad. Just ask my poor siblings with no ears.


3. Sit in a big comfy chair, hold the book in your lap, and just bask in the glow of it. Occasionally stroke the cover and pages, and rub your face on the book like a cat would to your leg. Don't forget to sniff it!


I usually do this with all books, hangover or not. I have issues with endings, I always think I must have missed something, and keep looking to make sure there isn't another page. Doing this makes me feel one with the whole book, not like I must have forgotten to read something.


4. Throw yourself with the force of Yoda being launched out of a high pressure cannon into another book immediately.

This one is very effective, although brutal. It's as if someone brought you out of a trance by knocking you off the high-dive into a pool freezing water.


5. Watch an eighties movie.


So far the most enjoyable of cures, and the most thorough. Example: I had two over lapping book hangovers. Yes, TWO.

I had the brilliant idea, after having a hangover from Hilary T. Smith's "Wild Awake" (WA) for a full day and NONE (besides #4) of the other methods working, to use #4 and throw myself into Sarah Dessen's new book "The Moon and More" (TMM) which did work at first, and #4 was way less harsh because I had already been done with WA for a day. But every time I stopped reading TMM my WA hangover came back, so when I had finished TMM I still had the WA hangover PLUS the fresh one from TMM. I was FREAKING OUT. It was too much for my poor brain, I needed a distraction. So for the first time I watched "Dirty Dancing" AND IT COMPLETELY WIPED MY MIND. Watching crazy teenagers with gravity defying hair as they grind on one another, kicked those books right outta my head. After that I just stared at the wall and drooled for a while. Talk about mind wipe.


6. Read other books by that author.



If I hadn't used #5 and gyrating teenagers to break my "The Moon and More" hangover, I would have just reread the rest of Sarah Dessen's books. As a nice bonus, all of her books are set in the same world and often in the same town, so characters from past books run into each other, which is awesome, it makes you feel like you never left the other book's world. 


7. Go to the author's website and read the WHOLE THING, including as far back into their blog posts as you can before your eyes cross.
I am guilty of doing this WAY too often and losing up to hours at a time. It is a very informative and calming way to break the hangover, although it does make your eyes hurt.


8. Write a blog post/diary entry/just write on a scrap of paper, about the book. 

All your thoughts on it, anything that is circling around in your head, just get it out. I promise, you'll feel much better.


9. Go on the internet and hunt down non creepy people who have also read the book and MAKE THEM TALK ABOUT IT WITH YOU DAMMIT.

I get sucked into one liners back and forth across twitter that could go on forever, but they are more fun than a lengthy email holding all you have to say in one go.


10. Just bang your head against a wall! Knock those suckers right out.



Have I actually done this? Yes, yes I have. Until I realized that if I continued in that fashion I would have no brains left to read with. Even though sometimes I still find myself attempting a head-butting contest with my wall, I refrain by thinking what it would be like to never read Harry Potter again. *shudder*


So these are my top ten ways to break a book hangover, feel free to use any of them, or make suggestions of your own. How do you guys break your hangovers?


Saturday, July 6, 2013

Review: Entwined, By Heather Dixon

Review: Entwined


Title: Entwined
Author: Heather Dixon
   Publisher: Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins
On-sale date: March 27th 2012
Genre: YA, Fantasy
  Pages: 472
Summary (From Epic Reads):

Come and mend your broken hearts here.

Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing—it’s taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He’s trapped too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. So he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest, but there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

Where do I even begin?! 

Let me start by saying: Thank you Heather Dixon, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your book made me feel that magic that has no name.

Now, on to the fangirling! 

The characters, good lord the characters! I don't think I have ever loved a cast of characters as much as I love the vibrant, heart wrenching, hilarious, brilliant characters in this incredible book. It takes talent to have 12 girls, sisters, in one book, and make them all as lovable and unique as the last. And to create three different love interests who are hardly there, but still make them important characters in the story who stand out, yet never upstage the girls. They were the most perfectly imperfect men I have ever read. And the King! You'll just have to read about him. I'll start crying if I talk about him.

I cannot begin to express how much I LOVE the dialogue. Every time I got up from the book and opened my mouth I was furiously upset that I didn't talk like the girls, especially Bramble. I mean, who wouldn't want to say things like: "Dry your tears young peep." and "The food looks corking!" or "Not there, Ivy, you great idiot" As Lord Teddie would say: "I say, now, I say, that is absolutely corking!"

The world is gorgeous, and by world I mean the palace and the secre-, I mean it's incredible, you should go read it.

I love the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" and I was worried at first that this wouldn't live up to my expectations. I put off reading it for a long time, and I am currently making a "Why, why did you wait so long?!" face print in the wall because of my silly, silly thoughts. I never learn my lesson. Every time there is a book I put off reading because I am worried it won't be that good, it BLOWS MY MIND.
http://img.pandawhale.com/45822-Keanu-Bill-and-Ted-whoa-gif-49A7.gif


List of procrastinated books that BLEW MY MIND:

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Entwined

The Madman's Daughter

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Boyfriend App

Clockwork Princess


And more to come, because, as I said before: I NEVER LEARN MY LESSON. And it schools me every time. (He he, punny.)

So, I recommend this book to anyone and everyone, and everyone and anyone, and the whole world, and any English reading Martians. 

Also, someone please box Keeper for me, would you?

Thanks.

5 SCARABS!



 Plus this extra one, just because of Bramble. (It's colorful, like her language.)


Thursday, July 4, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday #1



"Waiting On" Wednesday: Crown of Midnight


(Warning, this is a sequel. Spoilers abound!)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature any book(s) that we are eagerly waiting to read. 

I am late posting this seeing as today is decidedly not Wednesday, but I was in a funk yesterday, and I can't just not post it.

Here is the book I am waiting for, if you can call what I'm doing waiting... *pets cover through computer screen*


Is this not the prettiest thing you ever did see? My cover lovin' heart is weeping.


Title: Crown of Midnight
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury U.S.A Children's Books

On-sale date: August 27th 2013
Genre: YA, Fantasy
  Pages: 432
Summary (From Goodreads):


After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice.

Where do the assassin’s loyalties lie, and who is she most willing to fight for?

                               Yayyayyayyayyayyayyayyay!
 Reaction GIF: excited, dance, Seinfeld

 I. Cannot. Wait. *fist pump*  AND, for some reason, I thought this book came out in OCTOBER. It does not. IT COMES OUT AUGUST 27th!!! Only 7 weeks 5 days, or 54 days, or 1296 hours, or 7776 minutes, or 46656 seconds. Somehow that makes it seem smaller, so I'm just going to count to 46656 now, see you on publishing day. *waves* *goes to counting cave*


What are you waiting on?