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Showing posts from March, 2012

Book Trailers and Why Every Book Should Have One

Book Trailers have been around since 2002, but the concept didn't really take off until 2005 with the birth of sites like Myspace and Youtube. While many readers are reluctant to embrace them, preferring to rely on word of mouth, I love them. I started Trailer Tuesday as a way to showcase the Authors who could think outside the box and embrace a new style of media marketing. Trailers like their movie counterparts can vary. In the early years a Book trailer was nothing more than the Author sitting down and reading an excerpt from the book. While it was nice to see the Author, the "trailer" left very little to be desired. As the years went on they evolved into flashes of images usually related to the book followed with a narration of the synopsis. A step up certainly but still a little bland. Recently Book Trailers have evolved yet again into mini movies and these by far are my favorite. The Author or publishing house hires actors, finds a location and writes a mini scri

Zurvival Saturday (8)

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For this Week I am going to share with you my Top 10 Season 2 Walking Dead Moments. Let me just say I loved this season! I know a bunch of critics hated the pacing in the first half but I enjoyed it. Realistically if a Zombie Apocalypse happened life still needs to go on which means laundry, planting crops, fighting, making up and a whole bunch of shagging. So while they might have been disappointed with the lack of non stop zombie action, I praise the writers for seeing the bigger picture. So without further Ado and in no particular order, Here are my Top 10. So if you haven't seen Season 2 yet and don't want to be spoiled, STOP NOW. 1.) Shane Kills Otis - I loved this scene and honestly think anyone in Shane's situation would do the same. While it was a cruel fate for Otis, his death helped two people survive. Let us at least hope he died quickly. 2.) Dale's Death - I was so heartbroken over this. I didn't see it coming at all. Dale was the moral glue that h

Freebie Friday (8)

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It's time for another edition of Freebie Friday! Each week I compile a list of books that I've found for FREE and share them with all of you! All you have to do is click on the title and it will take you to the purchase page. Seventeen-year old princess, Clara Williamson, lives an old-fashioned existence in a biosphere of the future. When her sadistic mother, Queen Ada, betroths her to an abusive prince of a neighboring sphere, Clara determines to escape Outside where savages roam free. Clara escapes tyranny only to discover the savages are not the only people who survived the cataclysmic events of one hundred forty years prior. Once Outside, Clara finds herself trapped, unable to return to the abusive life of the sphere while facing certain danger Outside. Can Clara find love and freedom with the peril that threatens to consume her? Clara never asked to be special. She was perfectly happy e-stalking her crush’s blog, avoiding the attention of the Bronze Brigade

Review-The White Oak by Kim White

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ISBN:9781938280023 Publisher: Story Machine Studio Expected Release: April 9,2012 Series: Imperfect Darkness #1 Author: Kim White Language: English Goodreads Page: Click Here From Goodreads: In The White Oak, the first book in the Imperfect Darkness series, Cora Alexander falls through a sinkhole and enters the underworld still alive. Her living presence threatens the tyrannical rule of Minos and the infernal judges who have hijacked the afterlife and rebuilt it, trapping human souls in a mechanical, computer-controlled city that lies at the core of the earth. To survive, Cora must rely on her untrustworthy guide, Minotaur, an artificial intelligence built by Minos. She is helped by a mysterious voice, and by Sybil, underworld librarian and author of each person’s book of life. Sybil’s collection holds the key to humankind’s intertwined life stories. When Cora’s own book is destroyed, Sybil gives her a magical golden pen and sends her to the underworld city to write her own de

Booking Through Thursday (4)

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Are there any fictional characters whom you have emulated (or tried to)? Who and why? What literary character do you feel is most like you personality-wise (explain)? When I was a child, I have vivid memories of wanting to be Jem from Barbie and The Rockers. My cousin and I would dress like her and we even found Star earrings that resembled what she wore. I look back in horror and shudder at those pictures. Yellow tights, pink skirts and brown boots eeeeeek. I can't really say why I wanted to be like Jem. I doubt it was anything remotely interesting, most likely I just liked the clothes she wore (again eeek). As I got older though I realized I was way cooler than most people, and was completely happy just being me. As for the second question. I can comfortably say Hermione from Harry Potter is a lot like me. She is very bookish and has all these facts floating around in her head, which of course means she blurts them out at the most inconvenient times. I also think I clo

Waiting On Wednesday (7)

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Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog post hosted by Breaking The Spine . For this Weeks Waiting on Wednesday I chose *drumroll* This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers. ISBN: 0312656742 (ISBN13: 9780312656744) Expected Release: June 19,2012 Publisher: St.Martin's Griffin Page Count: 320 Author: Courtney Summers Goodreads Page: Click Here From Goodreads: It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by,

Trailer Tuesday (8)

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Trailer Tuesday is a Weekly Blog Post hosted by me at Blood Sweat and Books. Each week I will choose two Book Trailers to showcase. One will be for an upcoming book and the other will be one that has already been released. This Week I am showcasing The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch and BitterBlue by Kristin Cashore. Author: Jeff Hirsch Publication Date: September 1,2011 Publisher: Scholastic Books ISBN: 0545290147 (ISBN13: 9780545290142) Goodreads Page: Click Here Available Now Wherever Books are sold. n an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving. In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged and two-thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Steph

Book to Movie Monday (7)

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For this weeks Book to Movie Monday I have decided to cover the movie Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I love this Book series and I equally love the Movie Series, but I have never really sat down and compared how the two matched up, this one should be a lot of fun. First Let's Discuss The Book. Below Is The Cover: Now for a little back story in case some of you aren't familiar with the Novel. The Fellowship of The Ring is written by the Author J.R.R. Tolkien and was released for publication July 24,1954. Tolkien began writing The Lord Of The Rings in 1937 after the success of The Hobbit but didn't fully finish writing and revising it until 1949 when it was submitted to the publisher. It then took almost another 5 years to be put into print. The Fellowship of The Ring has been reprinted numerous times and translated into at least 38 different languages,and has over 256 covers, becoming one of the most popular and beloved works in twentieth-century litera

In My Mailbox (4)

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IMM is a Weekly Blog Post hosted by The Story Siren . Each Week I will post the books I have gotten for Review,Bought,Won,Gifted well you get the idea. For Review Netgalley Goodreads Page For Review By Author Goodreads Page Amazon Page Books I Won Goodreads Page Won From My Tower of Books Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop Goodreads Page Won From Authors For Henryville Raffle. Goodreads Page Won From Goodreads Giveaway. I also Won A T-shirt from Bibliophilia,Please. The Giveaway was a shirt of choice from shirt.woot.com so I'm pretty excited. Freebies From Amazon Descended By Blood By Angeline Kace Nine Tenths By Meira Pentermann Prison Nation By Jeni Merrit Phantom Universe By Laura Kreitzer I'm pretty sure that is all this week. If I forgot anything I will add it to next weeks post. As Always Thanks for stopping by and Checking out my In My Mailbox. Have you read,bought any of these? Let me know in the comments.

Blog Tour: As The World Dies Untold Tales by Rhiannon Frater-Interview

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Today is Blood,Sweat and Books Stop for Rhiannon Frater’s Untold Tales book tour. Rhiannon was gracious enough to give me an Interview and I am so excited to finally share it with all of you. 1. Which character speaks the loudest, to you? Do any of them clamor to be heard over the others? In UNTOLD TALES VOLUME 2 there are three stories from different points of view. I think the story that spoke most strongly in this collection was Katarina’s. Her story Revelation just pulled at my heart and I wept for her in the end. It was such a dark and intense story. In Ken and Lenore’s story Friendship in the Time of Zombies, both of their voices were equal in my mind. I think it’s because they’re so close and really complement each other. They don’t work against each other like sometimes characters can do. The Unknown’s story was really fascinating because we start with one point of view then it switches. At first you think the story is going in one direction, then it completel

Zurvival Saturday (7)

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I'm so sorry, things got away from me and so this Week's Zurvival Saturday is much later than intended. This Week I am sharing some of my favorite Zombie Book Covers. I love Book Covers, they are my sirens song. Even if I'm focused on picking something else up entirely a good cover can stop me in my tracks, make me pause, and if lucky introduce me to a new author or series. So in no particular order, here are a few of my personal favorites. Your Choice not on the list? Let me know what it is in the comments below. If you would like to participate in this or any upcoming Zurvival Saturdays, grab the button below and link me in the comments so I can check it out. <center><a href="http://bloodsweatandbooks.blogspot.com/p/zurvival-saturday.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Zurvival Saturday" src="http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c215/QueenKma/Decorated%20images/zombies.jpg"/></a></center>

Review- As the World Dies Untold Tales Vol. 1+2 by Rhiannon Frater

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ISBN:1441440461 (ISBN13: 9781441440464) Published: August 5,2011 by Createspace Series: As The World Dies Page Length: 170 Language: English Buy: Amazon The Book Depository THE FIRST DAYS: AS THE WORLD DIES introduced Jenni and Katie and their harrowing journey to the makeshift fort in the Texas Hill Country. But theirs is not the only tale to be told. In the first volume of the AS THE WORLD DIES UNTOLD TALES experience three terrifying tales of those who are forced to face the unrelenting and hungry walking dead. First off lets get the technicalities out of the way. Since I am participating in the Authors Blog Tour for As The World Dies Volume 2, I was given copies of both to read and review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any way for them. Untold Tales Vol. 1 Review: I Loved This Book from the characters, to the writing everything just clicked for me. Although I haven't read the series yet, I really did not feel I needed to in order

Freebie Friday (7)

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It's time for another edition of Freebie Friday! Each week I compile a list of books that I've found for FREE and share them with all of you! All you have to do is click on the title and it will take you to the purchase page. Dystopians Leonard Tramer’s time machine takes him nowhere near the past, but meddling with time destroys his future. When he steps out of the defective machine, he enters a totalitarian state which resembles East Germany more than the free world he left behind. In the Nation, no one is innocent - not even the children born behind bars. Millie 942B has spent her entire life locked away with her criminal parents and countless other inmates. She believes in the Nation, in its strict laws and harsh punishments. But when Millie is released on her eighteenth birthday, she finds things are nothing as she was taught. People vanish, never to be seen again. Lies cover every word. Trust is as fragile as ice. And then there is Reed. Born and raised outside

Booking Through Thursday (3)

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Ever read a book you thought you could have written better yourself? Oh sure I think we have all come across a book like that before. I have even spent hours writing down what I think needed to be changed and purposely started friendly arguments with people just so I could share my obviously far superior ideas. It gets even worse when some genius in Hollywood decides a movie needs to be made off the book. Now granted sometimes the Hollywood writer sees the flaws I do and changes them for the better, other times though they stay true to the book and then I have to spend even more time griping and moaning about it. Now I know your probably laughing, like why do you care? I care because I hate books full of plot holes, cliches, and errors being touted as brilliant fiction. That being said maybe I've just read so many books, I've become overly critical. Or possibly I just like hearing myself talk. Yeah that's probably it. If You want to join this or any upcoming Boo

Review-Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein

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Expected publication: May 15th 2012 by Entangled Publishing ISBN: 1620611198 (ISBN13: 9781620611197) Language: English Format: E-book Arc From Goodreads: Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing. Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe