Cleaning Up My TBR With a Giveaway (US Only) - Down the TBR Hole #26

This meme was started by Lost in a Story.  Here is how it works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Because I have so many to do, I'm going to try to do this weekly, and do 10 at a time.


1.   Jane Austen Made me Do It - Original Stories Inspired by Literature's Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart:

Stories by: Lauren Willig • Adriana Trigiani • Jo Beverley • Alexandra Potter • Laurie Viera Rigler • Frank Delaney & Diane Meier • Syrie James • Stephanie Barron • Amanda Grange • Pamela Aidan • Elizabeth Aston • Carrie Bebris • Diana Birchall • Monica Fairview • Janet Mullany • Jane Odiwe • Beth Pattillo • Myretta Robens • Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway • Maya Slater • Margaret C. Sullivan • and Brenna Aubrey, the winner of a story contest hosted by the Republic of Pemberley
“My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” If you just heaved a contented sigh at Mr. Darcy’s heartfelt words, then you, dear reader, are in good company. Here is a delightful collection of never-before-published stories inspired by Jane Austen—her novels, her life, her wit, her world.

In Lauren Willig’s “A Night at Northanger,” a young woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts meets a familiar specter at the infamous abbey; Jane Odiwe’s “Waiting” captures the exquisite uncertainty of Persuasion’s Wentworth and Anne as they await her family’s approval of their betrothal; Adriana Trigiani’s “Love and Best Wishes, Aunt Jane” imagines a modern-day Austen giving her niece advice upon her engagement; in Diana Birchall’s “Jane Austen’s Cat,” our beloved Jane tells her nieces “cat tales” based on her novels; Laurie Viera Rigler’s “Intolerable Stupidity” finds Mr. Darcy bringing charges against all the writers of Pride and Prejudice sequels, spin-offs, and retellings; in Janet Mullany’s “Jane Austen, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!” a teacher at an all-girls school invokes the Beatles to help her students understand Sense and Sensibility; and in Jo Beverley’s “Jane and the Mistletoe Kiss,” a widow doesn’t believe she’ll have a second chance at love . . . until a Miss Austen suggests otherwise.

Regency or contemporary, romantic or fantastical, each of these marvelous stories reaffirms the incomparable influence of one of history’s most cherished authors.

Look for special features inside.
 
My thoughts:
Honestly, I'm not a Jane Austen reader.  Oh, I'll admit I enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice movie, but I'm not really one for reading her writing.  So, don't know that I really will ever want to read these?  Although it's exciting to see a couple of the authors that are supposedly a part of this.

Verdict:  Toss



2.  An Infinite Thread - A Merry Sisters of Fate Anthology by Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater, and Brenna Yovanoff:

A collection of the best early stories from the Merry Sisters of Fate website (www.merryfates.com), written by Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff, and Tessa Gratton.

My thoughts:  
Because I love all three of these authors, and I never did get to reading anything from when they had the website up, I know that some day I'd love to read through what they collected in this book.  I'm guessing it is impossible to get a copy of these days, but it is something I'd love to have, so I want to not forget about it. 

Verdict:Keep




3.  Shivers VI by Richard Chizmar (Editor):

Cemetery Dance Publications is proud to announce the sixth entry in this award-nominated and best-selling anthology series! Shivers VI is by far the largest volume to date and the first volume in the series to be published as Limited Edition and Lettered Edition hardcovers signed by the editor for the collectors in addition to the affordable trade paperback edition for general readers!

Shivers VI weighs in at 410 pages and contains more than 110,000 words from today's most popular authors of horror and suspense including Stephen King, Peter Straub, Al Sarrantonio, Jay Bonansinga, Lisa Tuttle, David B. Silva, Melanie Tem, Brian Hodge, Brian Keene, Alan Peter Ryan, Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn, Bev Vincent, Brian James Freeman, Norman Prentiss, and many others.

Two of the longest pieces are a long lost novella -- "The Crate" by Stephen King, which has never been in one of his collections and hasn't been in print in more than three decades -- and "A Special Place: The Heart of A Dark Matter" by Peter Straub, a novella that is "creepy to the core" and "shines a terrible light on the backstory of Straub's acclaimed A Dark Matter" according to the coveted Starred Review from Publishers Weekly.

Featuring original dark fiction with a handful of rare reprints, Shivers VI is available only from Cemetery Dance Publications.

My thoughts:  
As much as I really want to read the Stephen King short story, and I used to love and devour these types of anthologies, it looks as if this is a difficult book to get ahold of.  So, I probably won't keep it on my list.

Verdict:  Toss



4.  Another Piece of My Heart  by Jane Green:

From The New York Times bestselling author of Jemima J and The Beach House comes Jane Green’s most emotional and powerful novel yet:  a story that explores the complications of a woman marrying into a ready-made family.

Andi is a woman who has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him.  Ethan—divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia—is a devoted father and even better husband.  Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own.  But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood—leaving both women standing at a crossroad in their lives and in their hearts.

Another Piece of My Heart is a novel that illuminates the nuances and truths about relationships and is Jane Green at her absolute best.
 
My thoughts:
While Jane Green is a very popular author that I don't think I need help remembering, many of her books other than a few, are more what I call women's lit rather than the chick lit that I prefer.  This one however, just about fits what I would kind of hope for myself if I ever find the right guy. Since I have no kids and can't ever have them, I kind of think it would be nice to find a man with kids.  So I think I'll keep this on my list.

Verdict:  Keep

5.   Walden 3.0 - A Dystopian Romance by Phil Fragasso:

If Steve Jobs designed a utopian community, had it filtered by Lewis Black and then painted by Picasso, it would look like Walden 3.0.

Jacob Botticelli is a young reporter who’s been asked to tell the story of Walden 3.0, a secretive, self-sustaining community in Vermont with its own unique culture, educational and healthcare systems, religious beliefs, and economic structure. Almost immediately, Jacob’s head swirls with revelations that the monogamy of the "outside world" has been replaced with serial marriage; parenting is a communal responsibility; death panels are a reality; and everyone gets to be god for a day. The more Jacob learns of Walden's ways, the more uncertain he becomes of his own beliefs and the life he wants to lead.

Torn from today's headlines, Walden 3.0 offers a worldview that will alternately delight and dismay pretty much everyone. Rather than the traditional Red State-Blue State blather, this no-holds-barred, Purple-State black comedy aims its sights on parenting, romantic love, higher education, gay marriage, universal healthcare, circumcision, the bloated legal system, organized religion, reality television, social networking, conspiracy theories, plastic surgery, and much more.
  
My thoughts:
Eh, sounds like it might be good.  But don't know that it is grabbing me enough that I have to read it. 

Verdict: Toss



6.  12.21.12 (The Altunai Annals #1) by Killian McRae:

The only way to save the future is to decode the past. The only way to decode the past is to save the future.

Archaeologist Sheppard Smyth has staked his career and the honorable memory of his wife and partner on proving his widely panned theory: Cleopatra VII, the last sovereign pharaoh of Egypt, was not a victim of suicide as history suggests, but of a well-concealed murder. When a statue of the doomed Queen is unearthed in a pre-Columbian excavation site in Mexico, Shep rushes to investigate and, hopefully, find the proof that has evaded him for so long. The statue, however, is only the first clue suggesting a mysterious connection between Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica, and possibly - beyond. Suddenly thrust into the heated rivalry between sexy and enigmatic antiquities thief Victoria Kent and the infamous Russian mafioso Dmitri Kronastia, Shep finds himself a common pawn played by forces working to see out a quest older than the pyramids and cloaked in the Mayan Doomsday prophecy of 12.21.12.

My thoughts:
There was a time, before 2012, when the whole doomsday prophecy of the Mayans was frightening.  Now, not so much.

Verdict:  Toss



7.  Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt:

According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton Gritas needs a focus object-an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas-it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never really known him.

The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean Griswold . . . all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.

In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding young romance.

My thoughts:  
Cute, but eh, not sure I'll get to it.

Verdict: Toss



 8.  Bone Dressing by Michelle I. Brooks:

Time is running out and the Dark that's been chasing Syd for many lifetimes has finally caught up with her.

Sydney Roberdeau lost her parents as a young girl. Waiting for her life to start and the freedom that will come with her eighteenth birthday, Syd spends much of her time haunting the local cemetery. It is there, stretched out among the dead, that she feels most alive, most at home. Until one rainy night when Beau, Sarah and T.J. crash her ghostly sanctuary, appearing out of nowhere, turning her already inside-out world one degree past upside down.

Syd must now revisit past lives, dressing in the bodies of her previous selves and bone dressing. Her only chance to outrun the evil breathing down her neck is to face her own worst nightmares and her strongest desires. But if she can't stay out of trouble in this life, how can she possibly fix mistakes from past lives? And just how many lives has she lived, loved and lost? What is Syd exactly, and what will she risk for the life of a man she doesn't remember, the man she spent a lifetime with, the man she loves? Everything including her very own life?

Bone Dressing, the first in a series of seven books, will carry Syd and Beau on an adventure that transcends life itself.  

My thoughts:
Don't remember adding.

Verdict: Toss



9.  Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance:

Is winning a writing contest worth risking your life?

Nothing exciting ever happens in the town of Maplewood—that is, until famous thriller writer Ian Tremblin holds a short-story writing contest with a prize that seems to be the opportunity of a lifetime: five finalists will get to spend the evening with Tremblin himself in the haunted mansion Daemon Hall, and the winner of the best short story will see publication.
Wade Reilly and the other finalists could never have imagined what they find lurking in the shadows of this demonic mansion. During a suspenseful night of tale-telling, strange incidents mix the realms of the real and the supernatural. What is Tremblin really up to, and can he be trusted? What about Daemon Hall—is it alive? And, more to the point, will any of the contestants make it out of this hall of horrors to tell their story?
In the tradition of Stephen King, this chilling novel will have teen readers on edge in anticipation of what's to come with the next extinguished candle.

My thoughts:
Once upon a time I read this kind of stuff constantly, now, not so much.

Verdict:  Toss


10.  Bedtime Stories for Dogs and Bedtime Stories for Cats by Amy Neftzger and Eli Stein:

This unique volume combines Bedtime Stories for Dogs and Bedtime stories for Cats into one book. These engaging stories and essays are specifically written for individuals who love their pets and enjoy imagining what these animals would like to read. The topics range from mythology to magic and horror stories, combined with a little sprinkling of canine poetry.



My thoughts:
Sounds cute, and yes I would read a story to my dogs before bed if I had something silly like this. But, I don't need to buy, and who knows where I'd even find this anymore.

Verdict: Toss


Final Thoughts:
Only keeping two this week out of ten, so that's good! Once again you can see that I may have dropped some, but you can also see how many I've added during the week as well because I'm also pointing out how many books are on my Want to Read list on Goodreads each week.  This week, after taking these 8 off, I have 3,189 books listed now, and last week I ended with 3,190. Like last week, I did get rid of more than I added for a change.  It may just be one book, but still!

Have you read any of these?  Would you suggest I keep any I'm tossing?  And if you're inspired to do this on your blog, please feel free to join in and share a link in the comments, since it will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway at the bottom of this post.      
 

Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way.  This week I'm upping the prize, you get to pick any two books from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice.  Here are your choices:   

2018 ARCs:

2017 ARCs:

2014 ARC:

I'm continuing to add in my early 2019 ARCs now.  You can pick one of your two choices from the picture below, the other book you pick needs to come from the pictures above.

Once again I'm going to let you pick two, along with me throwing in a surprise third book!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Anatomy of Curiosity (The Curiosities #2) by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff

First, I have to say thank you to the publisher, Carolrhoda Books and Lerner Publishing, for sending me an ARC of this when I emailed and requested it last spring.  At first I was feeling bad that I didn't get to it until right before it was going to be published.  But as I have been starting to prepare for NaNoWriMo, reading this at the same time was really helpful!  The writing tips that each author gave either with their stories, or in the in-between sections when they'd all chime in on some writing topic, were very useful and gave me definite clues on how to work on my writing this year.  While the first Curiosities book, had more stories in it, and this one only has three, one from each author, the stories are longer, and the way they are done is more helpful in seeing the process of writing.  Each of the authors chooses one aspect of writing that they feel they are the most comfortable with to talk about with their story.  And I definitely agreed with them for the most part, based on their books that I have read.

The first story in this book is one by Stiefvater.  Stiefvater's aspect is characters.  And as I end up loving all of her books because of the wonderful characters, usually as my favorite part, I will definitely agree that she is very strong with this.  Her story is about an old woman, who is something more than an old woman, something dangerous maybe.  The other main character is a teen girl who has been asked to go sit and read to the old woman, that it will make her happy.  Her daughters ask her to do this.  There is something strange about the whole situation, but the girl, Petra, feels very comfortable with the woman, Geraldine.  While Petra tries at times to figure out Geraldine's secrets, they stay pretty well hidden.  Until one day when there is another person in Geraldine's home, a boy, one that doesn't look a lot older than Petra, but still is a little older.  Petra has no idea why this boy is there.  He is just sitting by the door every times she shows up. Soon enough his presence will lead to secrets being blown out into the open, and Petra will learn about who she really is.  Stiefvater goes on to point out parts in the story and how they add to the character, and she will mention at those points what things could be done differently, and sometimes why she doesn't do them that way.  I'm so excited to try out some of her tips while I write my story this November. 

The second story is all about world building, and the expert this time is Tessa Gratton.  If you have read any of her books, I think you will definitely agree with this.  Especially her United States of Asgard books.  In fact, I'm hesitant to read Riordan's new book because of how much I loved the world Gratton built using the same types of myths.  Gratton's story has to do with a kind of alternate world where magic exists.  In this world there has been a war, and the terrorists are able to set up bombs using magic.  The world is so different from ours.  In one of the main character's worlds woman are in charge.  This is the world of Rafel.  He is in the military, and gets sent out to help find and defuse these magical bombs, and each person must work with one of the magic people of a tribe that lives in between the warring lands, and the person he gets matched up with is Aniv.  It is the women in Aniv's culture that have the magic and are able to do the defusing.  After working together, Rafel begins to have feelings for Aniv.  But Aniv has more of a secret, one that may change the way Rafel looks at her and change his world.  A beautiful world created here by Gratton, but I do have to point out that she also creates great characters.  One thing she does talk about with her characters in the little tips she puts throughout the story is how they will help promote the theme and build the world.  While I'm still a little unsure how to come up with such vivid worlds, I have some ideas now on how to use the other parts of my writing to help develop the world.

The final story is from Brenna Yovanoff.  She talks about ideas.  What to do with them?  How do her ideas start?  Are they the same in the final story?  Her section is done a little differently from the first two.  She doesn't just write the story and give us tips along the way.  There is a story, and it does have tips along the way, but she also does some different bits at the beginning.  Gratton talks about how something that happened to her when she was young has always kind of rolled around in her brain giving ideas about possible stories.  She shared an original type of story written about this experience, and throughout it pointed out things that she had changed and why or how she had changed them. Then we get the more final copy of the story, and after that she points out how the things were changed between the two, and why she feels the changes worked.  I feel Yovanoff's part may not have had some of the more solid tips about how to write specifically.  But, that doesn't mean her part was any less useful.  Reading how she went through the realization of an idea from start to finally getting it into the story, and all the different steps in between, that is very helpful.  Seeing her talk about how parts, big parts, were just completely tossed out and changed as she went through this story definitely helped me when I'm writing to know that I need to just get things down, and go back and then fix the things that don't work.  And that it's okay if parts don't work, that doesn't mean the whole story is bad and has to be thrown out. 

Such a great book for anyone who wants help with their writing or maybe gets what they feel is writer's block.  I will be sharing it with all my friends who are writers, as well as with students at my school who are writers themselves.

Review - The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff

This review is a long time coming.  I received an ARC of this book back at BEA in the summer of 2012.  I kept it somewhere that whenever I had just a bit of time to read, I could pick it up and read.  Which makes sense as it is a collection of short stories.   These are three authors that are kind of favorites of mine.  Maggie Stiefvater I knew from reading her book Shiver for one of the Missouri state book awards, and then loving the whole series.  When she visited Kansas City, the first time I saw her, the other two, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff both just happened to be at the signing as well.  I had read an ARC of Brenna Yovanoff's first book, The Replacement, and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, not knowing she would be there, I didn't bring it to get it signed.  I hadn't heard of Tessa Gratton until then, but as she lives in Kansas, right by Missouri where I live, she was there, and they had her book, Blood Magic, for sale, so I bought it and got it signed.  Of course I got my picture taken with all of them at that time, I believe that was fall of 2011.  Then they were all three signing this book at BEA the next summer.  So once again, I got all their signatures, and pictures with them.  The even cooler thing about the picture below?  Well, I was contacted and paid to let a publishing company use this photo in a biography for Maggie Stiefvater.  I'm still on the lookout to find a copy of it.

So, my review.  Well, these stories really made me wish that I could be a part of a writing group like this.  It seems like such a great way to pull out your creative side and just write.  And what was even more fun was all the little doodles and extra writing on each page by both the author of that story, as well as the other two often adding their own thoughts.  And some of the stories either went on to be full length books, or more likely were kind of inspiration for a future novel by one of the three.  The stories were definitely a great way to kind of get a good feel for each of the authors' writing style or voice.  I'm going to pick one favorite story from each author to tell a little bit about.

1st is the story by Tessa Gratton that led to The Lost Sun, the United States of Asgard series she is now in the midst of.  The title of this short story is:  Berserk, which of course has to do with Viking warriors.  The story tells the tale of a young girl who watches as her family is killed by trolls.  A berserker comes along and finds her burning the house, as well as her family, as the culture does with their dead.  And while he wants to take her to safety, she tricks him into following the trolls and helping her to get her revenge.  One of my other favorite stories of the book is also by Ms. Gratton, Date with a Dragon Slayer.  And in a way is a bit similar in the Norse types of themes.

Okay, I think my favorite by Maggie Stiefvater is The Deadlier of the Species, a zombie story.  It's a bit unique for a zombie story, which only makes sense for this author.  The cause of the zombies is a little parasite that must be in water or it will die when not in the host, or zombie it seems.  I love the way Ms. Stiefvater writes her characters, the banter, and even the horror of this story doesn't keep her from doing that.

Finally, my favorite story by Brenna Yovanoff in the collection is titled Neighbors.  This is a story about a ghost.  The ghost of a child.  And they don't necessarily understand that they are a ghost.  It's a short quick way, maybe not quite so shocking and scary though, of telling a story similar to the movie The Sixth Sense.  You may or may not see the end coming.  But it's still a good telling.  Ms. Yovanoff is pretty good with ghost stories.

Those are just a few of the stories, and there are others that I really liked just as well, but I didn't want to tell about all of them.  I actually feel as I looked back through to pick which ones to talk about, that I may have enjoyed many of Tessa Gratton's stories the most.

P.S. - Check back this week, as I've now passed 1900 followers on GFC, so I see another giveaway in the future!

Waiting on Wednesday: Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've chosen a book by an author that I feel is a really unique author.  Her stories are different from other stories.  In a way that while they may cover the same kind of topics, fairies, ghosts, the underworld, there is just a unique twist or the characters are fleshed out uniquely.  I first read her book the first time I got to meet Maggie Stiefvater.  This author, Brenna Yovanoff, is a good friend of Stiefvater, and since she was there at the event, I had to buy her book and get it autographed.  Here is the information on this book from Goodreads.com:

Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten.

Now she’s out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.

When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher sets her free. Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged.

 Sounds kinda spooky, and definitely different!  Have you read any of Yovanoff's books?  You  might give them a try.  This comes out in August, so I'm kind of hoping I'll get an ARC at BEA this coming summer.
Hey, thanks for stopping by, and while you're here, I have two giveaways you really should enter:

•  Best of 2013 Giveaway Hop 
• 1800 Follower Giveaway  

 

3rd Time is the Charm

So I still have 100 pages left to read of my ARC of The Dream Thieves, so I'm not going to be ready to write the review till tomorrow.  Now normally I can get through 100 pages really quickly, but even the fact that Maggie Stiefvater's writing hooks me and doesn't want to let me go when I pick the book up, her books take me longer to read.  Why?  Because they are so detailed and so much to read, so much to catch, that they are not books that I can skim over and skip parts.  I want, need, however you want to describe it, have to read every little detail, every word.  And so, like I said before, it'll be tomorrow before I'm done.  So, I guess to tie my blog over with a post till then, I'll just have to talk about going to see Ms. Stiefvater speak tonight about this very book!
It was so neat to see her again!  So thanks to Rainy Day Books for hosting her visit and kickoff to the tour for her new book.  While we heard some of the same stories, (the wolf trainer), we also got to hear many new ones.  And as usual, she is such a great speaker, so funny!  Someone I wish I could hang out with in real life.  One main thing she started off talking about is how people always want to know which of her characters are most like her, or are her.  So then she went through all the main characters in The Raven Boys.  Afterwards she did a fun reading of one part of the new book, and even had guest readers!  One was Tessa Gratton, another author I really enjoy, in fact, I got to be the host for her during the Authors are Rock Stars Tour.  Along with Ms. Gratton were her parents, her dad was also in the reading, playing Mr. Gray, which was quite funny, until the parts where it kind of became awkward, as Maggie was reading the part of Maura, Blue's mom in the story, who may be interested in Mr. Gray.  Here is a picture of that scene:

After the reading, there was time for questions.  I waited till it seemed most others had asked their questions, and also after a mention of a deleted scene from a story.  And then I asked if the character who had an afghan, and was supposed to have my last name, that was in the first draft of The Raven Boys, might make an appearance in the 3rd book.  Happily at that point she remembered me, and explained to the rest of the audience what I was talking about.  Yay!  Then, after about half the people lined up for autographs, the other half got to go outside and start spray painting the Mitsubishi that she brought, that from her stories, was probably purchased accidentally while she was doing research for The Dream Thieves.  If you haven't seen the video about it yet, check this out:

I forgot to take a picture of the car tonight, and by the time I got to go out and paint something, it was dark outside.  So nothing else to add for that.
But I was in the first group to get autographs, so I'll share my pictures with Maggie and Tessa.  I only wish Brenna Yovanoff had been there as well, like she was last time, I brought two of her books to get signed.  And I also forgot to bring the copy of The Scorpio Races I just bought specifically to get signed.  Oh well, I guess it leaves me something to bring next time I see her!  I also told her about how my picture of her and Brenna and Tessa from BEA 2012 is going to be in a biography book about Maggie that is specifically for school libraries.  And while she and Tessa both told me not to give up on maybe my last name being used some day in one of her books, to keep bugging her about it, they said now I was kind of connected with her in print!  Anyway, below are my pictures, first with Maggie Stiefvater, then below that with Tessa Gratton.

So it was another rock star night for me!  Which means I'm not too upset that I was unable to finish The Dream Thieves today.

Authors Are Rock Stars Tour Stop Featuring Tessa Gratton, Guest Post and Giveaway

Let me just say I am sooooo excited that I get to host Tessa Gratton as part of the Authors are Rock Stars 2nd Annual Tour!  I have been lucky enough to meet her three times!  The first time was a total surprise. She just happened to be at a book signing for Maggie Stiefvater, and I was able to purchase her book Blood Magic, and I was immediately sucked in to her books and now love her writing!  I think she is awesome because her writing style is so unique, and her stories are also different from what is out there.  The sequel to Blood Magic was The Blood Keeper, and it too was really good.  Then her latest book, The Lost Sun, was incredible!  And she is sooo nice!  Not only online on Twitter, but also in person.  

Here I am with her the first time I met her!

Enough with my fawning, let's get on with the guest post!

What kind of books did you read growing up? Which ones would you say influence how you write today? Can you name your five favorite books?

Hi, Lisa and readers!
Thanks for having me here to talk about my favorite things in the world: books!

I grew up reading what my mom read: sci fi and romance and science or history magazines. I remember shelves of romance novels, stacks of National Geographic and Smithsonian, and the first time I discovered Anne McCaffery’s Dragonsdawn sitting on the counter in Mom’s bathroom. She handed me Jurassic Park and accidentally got me hooked on Jude Deveraux. And that was all by the time I was eleven. I also voraciously read Nancy Drew and Christopher Pike on my own, and of course when I was 2 years old apparently my favorite book was a retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff – telling now that I’m working on a series full of trolls!

When I began seeking out what I loved the most, though, I found myself always returning to fantasy novels and magic. My favorites as a pre-teen were Robin McKinley and Anne Rice. McKinley I discovered on my own, wandering the basement shelves at my neighborhood indie store: Beauty, her retelling of Beauty and the Beast hit me right where it matters and I reread it over and over again, recorded myself reading it in a home-grown audiobook so I could listen when I rode my bike or fell asleep. It was actually my 5th grade teacher who introduced me to Anne Rice, starting with The Witching Hour, but it was The Vampire Lestat who whispered to my budding-writer’s soul. It was Mercedes Lackey and Tamora Pierce who tuned me onto epic fantasy series, who taught me to crave the next book god when does it come out how can I wait a whole year?
Though these days it’s my writer peers who influence my writing the most – Maggie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff who read everything I write and share their work with me, who inspire me with their talent and make me want to be better than I am – I can still look at my writing and see pieces of Robin McKinley and Anne Rice in particular. I’m obsessed with meandering narrative and telling as a device, with Beauty and the Beast and subtle magic like McKinley, and like my favorite Rice novels, I tend to try to create atmosphere with lush prose and weave in layers of history and family into my stories. Someday I’d love to write a novel-length fairy tale, or turn my short story “The Vampire Box” into a Sunshine-like novel, or write a sweeping paranormal family history like The Mayfair Witches. I’m not good enough yet. That’s why we keep writing, AND READING.

I don’t think I could choose only five favorite books. It would be a tragedy worse than the zombie apocalypse if I could only read the same five books forever. But here’s a list of some forever books for me:

Beauty, The Blue Sword, and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinleyThe Vampire Lestat and The Witching Hour by Anne RiceThe Lumitare Chronicles by Melina MarchettaThe King of Atolia by Megan Whelan TurnerThe Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillipThe Scorpio Races by Maggie StiefvaterThe Space Between by Brenna YovanoffFire by Kristin CashoreHowl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne JonesThe Doctrine of Labyrinths series by Sarah MonetteThe Deverry Series by Katherine Kerr

I don't know about you guys, but I love that some of my favorite books, are hers as well!  I loved The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater and The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff.  Here's another shot I got of Ms. Gratton, this one was at BEA 2012.

Now, yet another reason that Tessa Gratton is such a rock star is that she is offering you all an awesome giveaway, and there will be two winners!  So make sure that you fill out the Rafflecopter below!  The author will only ship US domestic, so if you're not in the US, I apologize you'll have to wait for another giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

I am a huge, huge, HUGE fan of Maggie Stiefvater.  And really, I need to just go read all of her books whether they sound like something I'd like right off the bat or not.  This book is proof that whatever the synopsis might say, her stories are way more than what they say they are about.  The same thing happened with The Scorpio Races.  It just didn't sound like "my kind of story".  But it was sooooooo good!  And this one was really good too.  One I couldn't put down.  It was really involved though, and there were times I was a bit puzzled, or went back to refresh my memory about something.  Part of that was probably because I was in my read as fast as I can because I need to know what happens mode.
I was really excited to read this book because a year or so ago, the author put a tweet out asking for different last names.  She said she wanted one for a small character in a  new book.  I didn't see many people responding, so even though I'm not the biggest fan of my last name, I tweeted it to her.  She asked me the origin of it, and then asked if she could use it.  I was like, OF COURSE!!!!!  I checked back with her a few months later to see if the character had still survived, and she said yes.  Here is a picture of those tweets:

But then, sadly, when I got to see her at BEA this past summer, she had some sad news for me, the character had been cut.  She told me what part it would have been with, and I found it as I read.  But it was sad.  Here is how she autographed my book that day at BEA after giving me the bad news:

She did say that Brenna Yovanoff, another awesome author that she is friends with, had fought to keep the character in the book, and Brenna was there and even confirmed it.

Okay, on with the book review!  There are a few main characters.  Really, Blue, a girl from a family of psychics is the main character.  She has been told by her psychic family and their friends for as long as she can remember, that the first boy she kisses will die.  Now, Blue hasn't really found a boy to love enough to kiss yet, but in this book, she will meet & find a boyfriend, that she must keep from kissing.  The other main characters are boys from the private boys school in Blue's town.  Their names are Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah.  Gansey of course is not his first name, but the name he prefers to go by.  All of the boys except Adam are rich, or come from rich families anyway.  Gansey owns an old factory building that he has set up apartments in.  And all but Adam live there.  Adam is poor, lives in a trailer home with his parents, of which we find out that his father is a physically abusive alcoholic.  Gansey wants Adam to come live with him, but Adam wants to move out on his own, not from someone giving him charity.  Every year Blue and her mother go to the ghost road, where a line of people who are not yet dead, walk and say their names.  They write them down and then know who will die.  This year Blue goes with her aunt who has recently moved in, Neeve.  And she sees Gansey's ghost.  Turns out that Gansey is looking for the ghost road, which is what he calls a ley line.  He is looking to find an ancient king, that if found, will grant one wish?  Gansey just really wants to find it.  Adam is hoping to get the wish.  Noah is a bit odd, and we find out later on just why.  Ronan has a feud with his older brother having something to do with when their father died.  We're not quite given the exact reason, at least I didn't really find it.  And they aren't the only ones looking for this ley line, and the king, Glendower.  There is one of the teachers at the boys' school, Aglionby.  He used to be an Aglionby student himself, until his father lost their fortune.  And now he is back teaching there, and is very bitter.
There are so many twists and turns, it keeps you on the edge of your seat.  The characters are all really well developed so that you get to know them very well.  I'm so glad it is part of a series, because not everything is wrapped up at the end, and I need to know where this goes!
If you liked other Maggie Stiefvater books, you're going to enjoy The Raven Boys as well.  And to finish out my review, here is my picture with Maggie at BEA 2012.

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

First I have to say thank you to Razorbill Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read the e-galley of this title.  I have been a fan of Brenna Yovanoff since I read her first novel The Replacement, and then I got to meet her at a Maggie Stiefvater event in my hometown.  Maggie had two friends there, who were also authors, Brenna and Tessa Gratton.  I hadn't  heard of Tessa before, but I had read Brenna's book and was disappointed that I didn't know she would be there or I'd have brought my book to get autographed!  I also have enjoyed her book The Space Between, and have one from BEA that I have yet called The Curiosities:  A Collection of Stories, which also includes stories from Tessa Gratton and Maggie Stiefvater, and I got to meet them all together again at BEA this past summer!

But anyway, on to this particular book.  I was unsure at first what the actual story was going to be.  A ghost story, a serial killer mystery solved by a teen, or even just a plain old teen angst story.  Really, a little of all of these was in the story.  The main character is Hannah.  Her best friend Lillian, who died about 6 months ago, is now haunting her.  The death was caused by anorexia or at least some form of eating disorder.  Ever since then, Hannah has not been the same.  She comes out around people and smiles, but doesn't let them know what is going on inside.  Her old crowd of friends are still mostly friends, although one of them is really straying from Lillian's ways, and Hannah is less and less wanting to be around her.  Part of the problem for Hannah is that she is trying to figure out how much of the blame for Lillian's death can be put on her for either not making sure she got help, or even kind of helping her in small ways.
Along with the stress from this, it's been one of the hottest summers in her town, and there has been a murder of a young girl.  Hannah's aunt runs a photo processing place, about the only one left in town, and so of course the police use her store to develop their crime scene pictures.  Hannah sneaks a look at the photos before anything is released to the press, and she and Lillian see something that reminds them of a death from earlier on, that isn't necessarily being listed as part of the same crime.  And soon there is another girl found dead, with similar markings.  The killer has left all kinds of toys and stuff on the ground around the place where they leave the dead body.  Hannah and Lillian begin to be detectives and try to figure out what they can.  Now of course, what would a teen book be without some kind of romance?  A school bad boy, Finny, has caught Hannah's eye.  She's not sure why at first, he's trouble, and Lillian warns her to stay away from him.  But when he gets her bracelet back from another creep for her, she begins to see that maybe Finny isn't quite the boy everyone thinks he is.  In fact, she goes to his house, and learns a lot about him.
But, as Hannah starts to find more and more clues to the killer's identity, she even has a moment where she wonders if it might be Finny.  Especially when he is walking Hannah and her sister Ariel home, and they take a shortcut through the park, and end up walking right by where another girl's body has been dumped and left with the trinkets.
A lot of times I can get a list of possible suspects in my head as the story goes along, but this one I was in the dark until Hannah figured it out herself.  I think that is a good thing for the author to have done.  Says a little that you are surprised.  Although, I wonder if there could have been clues that I might find if I go back and read it again.  But that would require extra time, and giving up reading other e-galleys and ARCs and other books sitting around in my house waiting to be read.  So, that'll have to happen when I win the lottery or retire I guess.  But I definitely think this was a good read.  If you've read any other books by this author, you'll enjoy it.  And if you haven't, go ahead and read this, then go back and check out the others.  This will be published at the beginning of January, so put it on your TBR list.