Hey everyone! I wanted to update you all on what’s going on, what I’ve been doing and all the goodness included in that!

First off and most importantly/excitedly etc, a few months ago I got an email from the lovely Michelle Zink about wanting to redesign her site, and I excitedly clapped my hands, did a little dance, and sent her a quote. Last month we launched her new site and I have to say, it is by far my favourite site I’ve done so far!



I even got to do the bookplates, and bookmarks for Michelle!  It was an absolute pleasure working with her and I can’t wait for an excuse to do it again!

There is also the newly redesigned Book Nerds.net which I am in love with, so pretty and lacey and girly, and oh my! Purple! I can’t stand purple, but it works so well!

Sad news though… I am no longer accepting Blogger clients for web design – it’s just far too much work to match up to what people expect to pay. If you’re a friend, I’ve got you, otherwise, sorry!

On the review front, I’ve got a few scheduled for the upcoming months – including The Sweetness of Salt by Cecilia Galante, The Duff by Kody Keplinger, Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, The Karma Club by Jessica Brody, Secondhand Charm by Julie Berry. As of the 2nd of September I will be in Daytona, Florida until the 7th where I will be enjoying the beach and writing reviews whenever I’m not in the water!

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

His love captivated her… his secrets might kill her.

Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry.

After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all.

But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life.

Release Date: July 13, 2010 (Egmont)

Summary for ‘Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventures’:

Alison Dare is not your typical 12-year-old. The daughter of an archeologist/adventurer and the masked hero known as the Blue Scarab (and the niece of an international super-spy), Alison’s life has always been different from other girls her age. A craving for danger is in her blood. Unfortunately, her parents have locked her away at the prestigious St. Joan of Arc Academy for Girls, hoping that this would lead to a more “normal” life for their daughter. But despite all the strict rules at the school, Alison and her best pals — Wendy and Dot — somehow manage to get into adventures that rival those of Alison’s globetrotting, planet-saving relatives.

Summary for ‘Alison Dare, The Heart of the Maiden’:

Alison Dare: Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft in fabulous, graphic adventures.Alison Dare is not your typical twelve-year-old. She’s the daughter of an archaeologist/adventurer and the masked hero known as the Blue Scarab. To top it off, she’s also the niece of an international super-spy; it’s no surprise that a craving for danger is in her blood! Unfortunately, her parents have locked her away at the prestigious St. Joan’s Academy for Girls, hoping that this would lead to a more “normal” life for their daughter.

But despite all the strict rules at the school, Alison and her best pals – Wendy and Dot – somehow manage to find themselves involved in adventures that rival those of Alison’s globetrotting, planet-saving relatives. Whether it’s magic genies, super-powered bank robbers, or a dastardly baron bent on world domination, Alison Dare delivers the best thrills since Indiana Jones and more action than Lara Croft!

Anna’s Thoughts:

When I was first emailed and asked to participate in the Alison Dare’s Double Blog Dare Tour (try saying THAT five times fast) I was a little iffy, I hadn’t heard of the comics before (I am apparently the only one), and I’m not that fond of comics. I am a horrible nerd, I know. However after reading what each of the books were about I was instantly interested – especially when compared to Indiana Jones and Lara Croft – both of whom I love dearly. And while I wouldn’t rank Alison up there with Indy, she could certainly pull off a 12 year old Lara Croft.

Both of the books, Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventure and Alison Dare, The Heart of the Maiden are completely action packed, and full of mischief – she’s a girl after my own heart. I loved both of the books tremendously although I found Little Miss Adventures a bit jumbled, if you pay close attention it’s easy enough to follow along with. I loved Alison though, and her friends Dot and Wendy. Each of her friends have qualities that perfectly balance out the wild side in Alison. Not to mention as a person who has at least 20 reference books on Egypt it was fun to watch the stories that involved Egypt unfold, although I would hardly use them as reference materials themselves.

All in all I liked both books, they were fun, fast paced and full of action. If I had to label them anything I would say that they were a mixture of Indiana Jones’ mischief, Lara Croft’s action and a whole lot of fun. I would definitely recommend these to parents with pre-teen/early teen-aged girls who want to fuel their kids imagination and their thirst for adventure.

Contest time!

Along with the Double Blog Dare Tour, Tundra Books is also hosting an awesome photo contest wherein the top three winners will be getting an Alison Dare prize pack! The contest is open until July 27th so check out the rules and enter!

As for the awesomeness of Alison Dare, she has seemed to have found a new set of friends…


Alison Dare and the newly renamed Fantastic Five

Thanks to Tundra Books for including me on such an awesome Blog Tour! You can find out more information about the contest here, as well as the other stops on the Double Blog Dare Tour!

By Midnight: A Ravenwood Mystery by Mia James

April Dunne is not impressed. She’s had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents. She’s left her friends – and her entire life – behind. She has to start at a new school and, worst of all, now she’s stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn’t even have proper mobile phone reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students – and the only place her parents could find her a place, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. So she’s stuck with the super-rich, and the super-smart… and trying to fit in is when the rest of the students seem to be more glamorous, smarter, or more talented than she is, is more than tough. It’s intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson – and perhaps finds something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift. But there’s more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from… something… in the Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place, just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on… and whether or not she’s going to live through it…

Summary:

Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn’t mean that she’s averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian’s basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents’ murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she’s shaped?

Anna’s Thoughts:

I hate werewolves. That is important here, because I honest to Jebus hate them, can’t stand them, wish I’d never have to hear about them again, etc. So much that I haven’t even read Shiver. Yes, I know I’m going to hell, we’ll talk about that later though (or not). I’m not really sure what it is about werewolves that make me dislike them so much, I can’t put my finger on it. I like American Werewolf in Paris, Underworld, Dog Soldiers and Big Wolf on Campus, but that’s about where my acceptance of them stops. That’s why when Emilee offered me a copy of Raised by Wolves I was very skeptical. I looked around though and a TON of people were excited about it, including a lot of people I had similar tastes with – and then, I saw the cover. I am a picture person, plain and simple. A good and catching synopsis is very important – but a great cover that makes me stop in my tracks in the middle of a store is even better. And had the ARC cover made it onto the final copy of Raised by Wolves it would have done just that. It has absolutely got one of the most beautiful covers I’ve ever seen. I like the final cover, but the ARC cover is something I’d hang on a wall.

After such a GREAT cover you’d figure the book would have to suck because how could so much AWESOME be contained? But you know what? It was, because not only was the cover amazing, the story was even better. Bryn was such a strong and energetic character, it was hard not to love her. Really really hard, because I couldn’t (not love her, that is). Throughout the entire book the only thing that ever got on my nerves about any of the characters actually was Bryn and how defiant she could be. I can understand being curious and having the naivety to think that you know better than your caretakers but the absolute reckless abandon she had at times drove me insane. If you have an idea to do something, and chances are you’ll probably die doing it, you should probably NOT do it. Having said that though, it was really the only thing that bothered me about any of the characters. They were all really strong and very well developed.

The plot was just as good as the characters, if not better. There was never a moment once I started reading where I was bored, or where I considered putting the book down. Once I started, I was in it for the long haul. Raised by Wolves was fast paced and very entertaining, always giving you bits of information about characters, their back stories and sub-plots at all the right times. I never once questioned the world that Jennifer built and that Bryn and her family and friends lived in. It felt real, and the whole thing kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last page.

Other by Karen Kincey

Gwen Williams is like any other modern teenager with one exception: she’s a shapeshifter. Never having known her Pooka-spirit father, Gwen must struggle with the wild, wonderful magic inside of her alone—and in secret. While society may tolerate vampires, centaurs, and “Others” like Gwen, there are plenty of folks in Klikamuks, Washington, who don’t care for her kind.

Now there’s a new werewolf pack in town, and Others are getting killed, including Gwen’s dryad friend. The police are doing zilch. In the midst of terrible loss and danger, Gwen meets a cute Japanese fox spirit who’s refreshingly comfortable with his Otherness. Can Gwen find the courage to embrace her true self and find the killer-before she becomes the next victim?