This is a weekly meme hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine < Check it out 







Summary: 
The most tragic love story in history . . . 
Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

I can honestly say I have never read ANYTHING like this and I read TONS of Romeo and Juliet remakes. I looove them. I can't wait till this one comes out in September. .. thats seems so far away. I'll be a Junior then. Weird. Still I can't wait for this book. What do you think?

--Danielle

In My Mailbox: 35

I tried to post this early while I was at my friends house but she has  Macbook. I had no idea how to use it, so I had to wait till I got home to write up this post.

I only got one book for review this week..



I was so excited to get this one. I adored Kim Culbertson's first novel, and couldn't wait to start this. I'm half way done now but sadly you won't see my review till May.

I am going to do an interview with Mrs. Culbertson soon so watch out for that. If you have yet to read her first book Songs For A Teenage Nomad I highly suggest it.

What did you get this week?
--Danielle 

E-Piracy

When I here the word piracy the first thing that come to my mind is Pirates. Most of us would probably even get an image of Jack Sparrow with the theme song playing in the background.  Pirates of the Caribbean being my favorite movie (at least one of them) I know that what I think when I here piracy. Mostly I remember this scene, when I first met Jack Sparrow when I was nine years old.



Since then I’ve had a fascination with pirates. In books and movies, I think that’s even why I started fencing.  The word piracy to me had always been something good, almost comical (because of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy) so we tend to forget why piracy is such a bad thing.

Piracy doesn’t just mean pirates with swords in the 1800’s  or the hot jack sparrow. Piracy is stealing.  Right now there’s a problem with e-piracy and e-books. Everyone should know that it’s WRONG. I just don’t understand how anyone could see a good side to it. An author sat down and wrote a book, most of the time it takes them YEARS to finish. Then you go and steal they’re work. 

If you can’t afford to go out and buy every book you want to read, that’s okay! Just go to your local library, and if they don't have the book you want to read then REQUEST IT! The librarians there want to help you, they love to read and see people reading. I’ve requested so many books at my local library. You can also borrow E-BOOKS from many libraries now. So there is no excuse to steal someone’s hard work.

I made these button's awhile ago and they have been on my blog ever since but I recently saw this topic come up again. I thought I needed to make another post. 

Feel free to use these buttons ANYWHERE! E-piracy needs to stop, people need to see how wrong it is. 

<br /> <center><a href=" http://withabook.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz192/withabook/j0439527-1.jpg" /></a></center><br />

<br /> <center><a href=" http://withabook.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz192/withabook/armymil-58082-2009-12-07-081241-1.jpg" /></a></center><br />
Would you walk into Borders and take book? Then why download one illegally. If you are one of those people that do this I dare you to talk to the author you stole from. Almost all authors have twitters, blogs, or websites now. Go and talk to them, meet them and then tell me you don't regret downloading illegal.
Everyone should help spread the word.  

--Danielle

Blog Hop

I use to do the blog hop every week but it slowly dwindled down to never doing it at all. I thought I should pick it back up this week. I really loved finding all the new blogs. The Blog Hop is hosted by Jen at http://www.crazy-for-books.com/ , and go there to find out more about the Hop.


"If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?"


Hardest question ever. I would love to live in most of the books that I read, but my top one would probably have to be The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker. This was one of my favorite books in elementary school and I would love to hang out with these characters. I would also love the have magic powers that Emma (the main character) has. I have always wish I could just point at the lights and they would turn on. Yea I'm lazy but having magic powers just seems like so much fun! 




If you're here from the hop leave a comment so I can hop over to your blog! 


Thanks for stopping by, 
Danielle

A Journey To The Past: Stick Figure

Journey To The Past: When most people go to the bookstore or library they look at the new releases, but what about all those other books? They deserve some love too. So once a week I write about a slightly older book.

It's been MONTHS since my last JTTP. I miss these, I'm going to have to try and do them more often. 

Stick Figure

By Lori Gottlieb

First published in 1998

Goodreads

This is a touching story about an eleven-year-old girl, Lori who has a problem with anorexia. The book is actually about the author, it was her journal that she kept during her struggle with the eating disorder. I have read a few books about girls struggling with their body image and eating disorders but never one about a girl so young. Specifically knowing this was a true story really makes it stick with you.

In the beginning Lori is this smart girl who could even skip a grade if she wanted. Therefore Lori has never cared what anyone else thought about her appearance or even what or how she eats.  At the dinner table she would eat as much has she wants, and not care. Till her mother and other adults start commenting on her un-lady like habits. As Lori watches all the other women and girls in her life not eat anything and see how skinny they are, she starts to question what she’s doing. Consequently she sees herself as fat and stops eating all together.

           

The book captures your attention and makes you think. It’s easy to tell that an eleven-year-old girl wrote the story. Likewise it’s easy to tell how Lori really didn’t know she was doing anything wrong. However I wish there was on emphasis on how Lori got better and her life after the disorder.  Otherwise this is really a book that every girl should read. More importantly every girl and boy should know the impacts and the dangerous of eating disorders. 

--Danielle

In My Mailbox (34)

I got THREE great books from the library this week. I can't wait to read them they all look fantastic! They are all part of series' that I adore. 

First one is Darkest Mercy. I don't know whether to be excited about this one or cry. I'm in love with this series and don't want to see them end but's been so long since I've last read one of her books. I'm dying to read it. 

Next is the Iron Queen. Team ASH! I hope to see much more of him throughout the novel. I might cry if I don't. I've heard great things about The Iron Queen which is good because sometimes sequels really can't compete with the first books.

Next is Beautiful Darkness. I really don't have an excuse for waiting so long to read this one. I loved Beautiful  Creatures and could wait for the sequel. Well I have it now and can't wait to start.

Lastly I went to Barnes and Nobles earlier this week and bought my first  Deb Caletti book. I've heard great things about her books but Have never picked one up. This week I bought Honey, Baby, Sweetheart and it sounds amazing!

(This is the cover I got on my paperback, not audio CD)

What did you get this week? 

'--Danielle

Covers!

School has been insane the last few weeks, well really the last month or two. It’s mostly my math class. I think my teacher is slowly trying to kill us with homework. So I haven’t been able to keep up with all the bookish news, mostly I haven’t seen the new covers to a bunch of sequels that I’m DIEING to read. Now that I have some time I decided to write a post about COVERS!

First one is Crossed by Ally Condie. This is the sequel to Match, I never got around to reviewing that one but I will! I liked it but for me it didn’t hold up to it’s expectations. I do think is set up what could be an amazing series. I’m hope I enjoy Crossed. The cover is just phenomenal. Just like the cover for Matched there is a bubble and the girl inside of it. This time she’s breaking out of the bubble, which goes well with the plot. If you’ve read Matched you know what I mean.

Next is Hades by Alexandra Adornetto.  I adored the first book Halo and it’s cover. (My review is HERE) The first cover was delicate and beautiful. It was just perfect for the book. While this one might represent what could happen in the book, I don’t like it, at all. To me it feels like someone just photo shopped this for a school project. It has a cartoon-ish feel that the first one didn't have. Putting the covers side to side they don’t look remotely similar. Well besides the title art and the wings. Even with the disappointing cover I can’t wait to get my hands on this one.

Illusions by Aprilynne Pike, number three in the Wings series. This one just is pretty, pretty, pretty, and more pretty-ness. Sorry for the lame adjective but that’s just what this cover is, PRETTY! I looooove this one. I’m also a fan of the whole series. I’ve adored every cover so far, and each book. In this cover I like how well the colors work together and the water reflection on the flower. It’s intriguing. Illusions comes out on May 3^rd!

 Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. This is the companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss, which happens to be one of the cutest romances EVER! (Review for Anna HERE) I am a sucker for cute fluffy romances. While I love paranormal you need a fun cute smile worthy novel every once in awhile. My bookshelves happen to be full of them. I like how they show the actual guy on this one rather then just an arm like on Anna and the French Kiss. Tease much?  This cover is just perfect and I can’t wait to own a copy. We only have till September….


Okay I could probably keep going on and on with more covers BUT I think I should stop here. I need to get some of that evil math homework done (and I use to like math...), and I'm thinking about doing a post like this every week. yet i'm not very good at keeping up with meme's. Do you remember A Journey To The Past? Yea I should start doing that again, it's been how many months has it been?


--Danielle

Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page 
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


I'm currently reading: The Last Little Blue Envelope! I literary FREAK OUT when I received this to read.  I read 13 Little Blue Envelopes about 4 years ago when I was in middle school. It one of those books that you could never forget.  It makes you think about important issues yet its funny dialogue made it perfect. This is a book I always recommend. If you haven't read it yet, GO NOW!


Here is my 'teaser': 
(The first part is an email that Ginny received in the first chapter.) 


"Sorry to interrupt. ... As you can see, I posses a letter (actually, a series of letters) that seems to belong to you. But since this  last letter contains very important information. I have to be sure that I am speaking to the right Virginia Blackstone...My name is Oliver, and I live in London. You can reach me at this address."


"This was fate. This was her brain going into hyperdrive... She got up and started to pack."


I put the "..."s there's because this is just a teaser and I always make them to long, so I took out a few sentences. I'm just about done with the book and it definitely held up to the expectations that the first book had set up.  I loved reading more about Ginny, Keith, and the adventures around Europe. 


--Danielle

Angelfire: Review

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you're having a good start to your week, I know I am. Here's a review thats a tad bit late. Sorry about that.
Angelfire

By: Courtney Allison Moulton

Publisher: Harperteen

Amazon/Goodreads

Thanks to Harperteen and Netgalley for letting me read this book. 

Summary:

This debut, the first novel in a trilogy, is achingly romantic, terrifying, and filled with blistering action. 

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul. 

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once. 

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

Review:

The dramatic mystifying cover captures your attention. It makes it look like an exciting action book, which it is. The cover stays true to the story and doesn't miss lead you.  The girl on the cover is Ellie, the main character of the book. She is one of those main characters that you wish you could be like. She knew what she wanted and what she believed in it. I also liked that she didn't jump right into things.

Then there’s the mysterious Will. He just shows up in Ellie’s life and at first I didn't really know what do make of him. H tells Ellie that she is a warrior who is reincarnated over and over again. But it seems like something is starting to go wrong this time. She isn't remembering everything. 

The whole book was gripping and exciting. Every time you turned around there were gory battles, or thrilling practices. The only time you got a break from it was during the romantic tension that was so thick you could have cut through it. It was almost impossible to stop reading.

 My favorite part of the book was that Ellie actually acted like a teenager. She wasn't like a 30 year old in a 17 year old body. She wanted to go to parties and hang out with her friends. Ellie was believable. She had crushes (the hot hot hot Will) a best friend, and a so-so relationship with her dad. She was human (well acted like it) and that’s what made the book so good. This is another must read book for 2011 but it seems like they all are so far. 

--Danielle

Waiting on Wednesday (On Thursday)

Blogger has been very temperamental with me the passed few days. Trying to post things or or not at all. This was suppose to be up yesterday but it wouldn't let me post till just now.

So here is my belated WoW.

This is a weekly meme hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine. 


My WoW for today is Bite Club by Rachel Caine. This is number 10 in the Morganville Vampires Series. If you haven't read these incredible book yet I highly suggest you do. Even for the ones who don't really like vampires. The whole series is incredible. They're full of romance, action, and mystery. What else could you need?

After discovering that vampires populate her town, college student Claire Danvers knows that the undead just want to live their lives. But someone else wants them to get ready to rumble.

There's a new extreme sport getting picked up on the Internet: bare- knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against each other-or humans. Tracking the remote signal leads Claire- accompanied by her friends and frenemies-to discover that what started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville...

I also have to say that the covers are getting much better. I'm not a big fan of the covers of the first few books. (The original covers) I own every book in the series but the first one was stolen from me. (Thats how good they are). I can't wait to add this one to the other eight. 

This is the cover of the first book... I have to admit it scared me. I like how the covers are taking a romantic yet still Gothic approach now. 

Bite Club comes out May 3rd 2011

I can't wait! This is one of my favorite series and I don't ever want to see it end. 

Have you read the series, or planning on reading it?

-Danielle

Vampire Crush Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway!

I'm kicking off the 10 day Vampire Crush Tour today! At the end of each post for the tour will be hints for the one big giveaway so make sure you visit them all! 

If you haven't heard of Vampire Crush here is the Goodreads page, and my review from December for more information on it. If you haven't read Vampire Crush yet I high recommend that you do, it was very good!

Here's the Gust Post from the author of Vampire Crush, A. M. Robinson. 

The Sims: Vampire Crush, or One Way to Cure Writer’s Block

All together, it took me about fourteen months to finish a first draft of Vampire Crush. Five months of writing the first half, five months of writing the second half, and four long excruciating months where I could only tap out a few sentences before getting frustrated and deciding that my time was better spent familiarizing myself with the available options on Netflix streaming. (“Oh!

How nice. Twenty bazillion seasons of everything.”)

I know that some people claim that writer’s block doesn’t exist; I suspect these people are robots. Or, okay, maybe that’s crazy. If they are not robots, perhaps their family is being held hostage by robots until they complete their manuscripts. Because a definite something happened to me around the halfway point, something that made it feel like writing two-hundred pages was the literary equivalent of climbing a crazy ton of stairs. To this day, I’m not sure why it happened; I still loved joking around with Sophie and the zany crew of vampires who descended upon her school for evil and teen magazines. And it’s not like I didn’t have any idea what would come next—gosh darn it! I had an outline! And, okay, it was on the back of a Starbucks receipt, but still! Basically, all I knew was that every time I opened the document, all I could manage was a few rounds of tweaking words back and forth before I inevitably had to go to bed so I would not be Work Zombie the next day. (Fiiilessss. . . Outlooook. . . Mrghhhh).

After months of this, I knew that something had to be done. Perhaps I just needed to find a way

to have fun with the characters that did not involve a Word document. Then, one day while I was decorating an elaborate mansion in The Sims, genius struck! (For those of you who aren’t as familiar with The Sims, it’s basically a computerized dollhouse where you create characters that look like all of your favorite TV characters and put them in elaborate houses you have painted in jelly-bean colors and then spend several hours of your valuable time trying to get them to make out in a hot tub that is not the normal hot tub but the hot tub specifically designed for making out. . . But your experience may vary if you are, in fact, sane.).

Anyway, I was convinced that this was THE BEST IDEA I HAD

EVER HAD. Not only did The Sims let you turn characters into VAMPIRES, they had aspirations that fit perfectly with all of my VAMPIRE CRUSH CREATIONS. I was so excited I was thinking in caps at this point. Vlad was obsessed with climbing up the vampire social ladder, so his aspiration would be Popularity; Violet was boy-crazy so hers would be Romance; Sophie just wants the facts so hers would be Knowledge; James missed his parents so his would be Family. THIS WAS AMAZING. All I’d have to do was watch and the rest of the book would write itself! I was going to get some sort of medal for this, and not just from the Society for Creative Procrastination.

Unfortunately, none of what The Sims gave me was usable. James’s Family aspiration made him want to grow up and have babies with pretty much every lady sim he saw, while Sophie would sneak away from every attempt to make things romantic to go look through the telescope on the roof in search of aliens. What’s more, none of computers vampire sims wanted anything to do with Vlad! . . . Okay, that one was

actually pretty accurate, but it also meant that I couldn’t vampirize Vlad. And if you can’t vampirize your main evil vampire, well then, what do you do?

According to the Sims, you throw water balloons and practice yoga. According to me, you decide that it’s much, much easier to just write the book the way you want it, without your characters wandering off to eat grilled cheese all the time.

Yep, I was cured. Although I imagine there are easier ways.

Thanks to A.M. Robinson for the guest post! I've never played Sims but i've always wanted to and making characters like that sounds fun. Plus if it can cure writters block whats not to like?

Here's the information for the Giveaway.

A.M. Robinson will be giving away three PRIZES to three different people who follow the tour. To enter, all you have to do is visit every Blog (Mine being the first)to copy the secret code and also follow A.M. Robinson on Facebook OR Twitter. At the end of the tour, your final stop will be Good Choice Reading where they will have a form for you to fill out and submit everything you have collected. It is not a requirement to follow my blog, but I would really appreciate it if you did. 

These are the amazing prizes!

Here are the prize packages and Andrea said it is INTERNATIONAL

GRAND PRIZE:
+++Signed HARDCOVER copy of Vampire Crush
+++A pair of whale-dotted pajama pants, a la Sophie.
+++Bat-shaped cookie cutter
+++Cute vampire monster mirror
+++"Vampire Blood" hand gel.

TWO ALTERNATE PRIZES
+++Signed paperback copy of Vampire Crush
+++"Vampire Blood" hand-gel

Here's the first part of the Secret Code : He looks

^I want all of these! Whale pajama pants? How awesome is that? (These are mentioned in the book in case you haven't read it yet) 

The next stop in the Vampire Crush blog tour is Once Upon a Twilight (www.onceuponatwilight.com). 

These are also the links to A.M. Robinson's Facebook and Twitter pages. Make sure you follow both if you want to enter the contest.

--Danielle

Vampire Crush Tour

I'm the first stop on the two week long blog tour starting tomorrow. This is the video made with all the blogs and dates on it.



Sorry I was MIA this weekend, I take the written part of my driving test on Wednesday so I've been studying my driving manual over and over. It will be for my permit. In NJ you get your permit at 16 then a restricted license at 17.  I don't know how it works in other states. 

I'm typing up some reviews and posts now so this MIA thing won't happen again. well at least till I go to Washington D.C. for the Cherry Blossom parade next month. (I'll be in the band performing with GLEE!)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Make sure you stop here tomorrow to see the Vampire Crush Blog Tour, there will be a giveaway involved!

--Danielle

BookExpo America

I’m lucky enough to live just a few hours away from the incredible New York City. I’ve been there a few times to see the Thanksgiving Parade, or the Christmas Tree.  I saw the Tuba Christmas list year that was pretty cool. Anyway because I live so close to New York it makes going to BEA possible for me. The only expenses that I’ll have to pay is travel and food, if I eat somewhere in New York.

As of today I’m am officially going to BEA, I’m registered and accepted (as editorial press!!!) so all that’s left to do is wait for May. I’m extremely excited to go to BEA because I've never been to a book event before. EVER. Well I went to the Breaking Dawn release party at my local Barnes and Nobles but I don’t think that counts. I have never met an author, or been to something as remotely as important as this. I do live close to NY but not close enough to go there for book signings whenever I want.  Now you can see why I’m so excited for this right?

As of right now I’m not sure if I can go all three days, I really want to but I can’t miss to many days of school right before finals. I’m also missing two days in April because I’m going to the Cherry Blossom parade with the marching band. (I've heard some thing about my high school marching band performing with Glee! Not sure if this is true yet.) We’ll see, as it gets closer, hopefully I can go all three days.

           

Well I’m making this post to get some advice from people that have been to BEA before because I have NO IDEA what I’m doing. I know I have over 2 months till the event but I’m freaking out! Also if your going to let me know I would love to meet some other bloggers while I’m there. I’ll be making some more posts freaking out about BEA as it gets closer, I promise. Just right now I have a billion and one questions floating around my head.

Here’s a few…

What do I wear?

What do I bring?

What time should I get there?

I’ve heard about needing business cards, what does that mean?

Is it important to go all three days?

When do you find out what authors are going to be there?

^See I’m kind of crazy…

Sorry that this posts was all ramblings, I’ll an actual review tomorrow, or maybe I’ll do a fragment Friday I’m not sure yet.

Leave a comment if you going too, or if you've read a great informative post that might help me!

--Danielle

Review: Outside In

Blogger just doesn't want to work with me. I tried to post this yesterday (on the release date) but it would't let me. At least it worked today!

Outside In

By: Maria V. Snyder

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Received from Net Galley. 

Amazon /Goodreads

Review:

This is the sequel to the book Inside Out, so if you haven’t read that one yet you should skip out on reading this review. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but if you haven’t read Inside Out I highly recommend you do. It is incredible and you can see my review of it here.

Outside In picks up just where Inside Out left off, there is even a quick review of what happened in the previous book. Since I had read Inside Out a while ago I loved the quick summary of it in the beginning. It didn’t feel forced like most summaries do in the beginning of sequels. It flowed very nicely, but I still think it would be confusing to read Outside In with out reading the first book.

            Now that Trella has lead a huge rebellion she just wants to be left alone, not wanting anything to do with the new government. She believes that the committee that was put together can govern just fine without her. Trella feels at ease in the pipes away from everyone else. Then events start to unravel that cause Trella to look over her choices.

            Through out Outside In you find much more action then in the first novel, politically and physically. With the quick pace and drama around every corner I found myself flying through the pages. There were so many unexpected twists and turns, if I hadn’t read the summary on goodreads I don’t think I wouldn’t have been able to figure anything out before it happened. (I recommend not reading the summary if you haven’t already, it is a slight spoiler)

            Trella while timid and a bit careless in the beginning of the novel is still this brave and strong character that I with I could be like. Sure she has her flaws but they make her realistic. Then there is Riley and really who need an Edward, Jace or Peeta when you can have Riley. He is on the list of fictional characters that I wish were real. There is more romantic drama in Outside In then there was in the first book. Which is something that I thought Inside Out was lacking in, so I’m glad to see more if it here.

            Maria V. Synder writes these amazingly realistic characters I think that’s why I love her books so much. She is an author that has never disappointed me, but she’s not afraid to kill of her characters like we saw in Inside Out, which keeps us on our toes. This is a series that I always recommend because it has something for everyone so you just can’t go wrong. While it is categorized as Sci-fi that’s just because of where it takes place, the story revolves around the characters. So don’t let that scare you away from this incredible book.

--Danielle