CLOSED
Okay, it turns out that mom doesn’t HAVE a lucky number, so I told her to pick between 1 and 99, which were the lowest & highest numbers given in the contest. And the number she picked? Was…. 24! So congrats to Shawna, I will be emailing you for your address!

As always, you need to be a follower for this contest!
Okay, there are still thirteen days until Hush, Hush is released, and I know there are still a ton of people dying to read it, and I loved it so much that I def need to buy a non-ARC copy. SO! I’m going to give my ARC away to one very lucky person :) ALL you have to do is post your lucky number in the comments! Whichever is closest to my Mom’s lucky number (which, to be honest, I don’t even know) will win! Why my mom’s lucky number, you ask? Well.. she loved Hush, Hush just as much as I did, so that’s why!

If there is more than one of the same number that is chosen, out of those people, the final winner will be chosen by a random generator!

The contest will run for exactly 24 hours, from 12:01 AM on Wednesday, Sept 30th to 12:01 AM Thursday, Oct 1st. Winner will be announced on Oct 2nd! Good luck & don’t forget your email!

Main Characters: Anna, Ben, Cammie, Sam, Dee

Summary:

After twelve years of exceptional grades, Waldork-Astoria teas, and “working well with others,” Anna Percy has had it with her to perfect academic record and her perfectly boring prep school life. So she jets off to LA, where in the course of twenty-four hours she’ll hit an Oscar winner’s wedding, lounge at an after-hours back-lot party, and meet a guy she just might love. Life couldn’t be going better Anna. That is, until Cammie, Sam, and Dee enter the scene. They are the A-List, and no one steals their spotlight.

Anna’s Thoughts

The A-List is what one would call a guilty pleasure. I first read it sometime shortly after high school, and remembered liking it a lot – why I didn’t pick up the second book at the time, I have no excuse for except that maybe it was because I wasn’t TOO much into reading then. (Got in trouble a lot my first year for reading in class, so.. I stopped reading…) However, I re-read it last week and I cannot wait to get the second, third, fourth, and 5-10th book/s. In fact, I can’t wait so much I spent two of my Mooch points mooching the 2nd & 3rd books (sadly, there is no sign of the 4th book!).

If you manage to get into The A-List, at 256 pages, it turns into a very fast fun read. The plot is somewhat unique, and the characters are somewhat cliche. You have Anna who is the typical good girl, tired of her good girl life, so she sets off for LA, which I’m guessing she expects won’t be so.. good girlish. And then you have Cammie who is the typical get-in-my-way-and-i’ll-eat you bad girl, Sam and Dee who are the slightly ditsy following of Cammie, who are also ‘bad girls’ BUT with a conscious. Then of course, you can’t have a bad-ass chick book without something to fight over, which is where Ben comes in: The very typical good guy, who might be a bad boy, but he’s just really the misunderstood boy.

There isn’t really much you can say about The A-List without giving too much away, but if you liked The O.C, Gossip Girl or just Catty girl fights, then chances are you’ll love this book. And even if you didn’t like those shows (I certainly didn’t), then you might just like it anyway!

Main Characters: Connie, Sam, Deliverance Dane

Summary:

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem, she can’t refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest–to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance’s harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem’s dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Anna’s Thoughts

This book is, if nothing else, very descriptive. And that is not a good thing in this case. Don’t get me wrong, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was wonderful, it was amazing, but at points all I could think about was: I don’t want to know every little thing Connie does, or the color of the spider tangled in the dust on the ceiling. Which, they never mention, but as an example I am honestly surprised that wasn’t mentioned, that’s how detailed this book is. Details can be good, but too many can also be bad, because you get lost in them. There were a few times when reading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane that there were 2-3 pages of Connie detailing something and when I got back to what Connie was actually doing I was completely lost because we had just went through so much detail, I had no idea where we left off and found myself having to retrace back to whatever she was doing before she started describing. The book is roughly 384 pages long, but it seemed like it could have easily been 250-300 without actually losing anything.

Also, it sort of felt like it was a ‘smart persons’ book. Which sounds.. insulting in a way, but is the only way that I can find to describe it. There is a lot of talk of school and dissertations, and all that good stuff a college-going student might know and/or care about. However, I am not a college student, I have never been a college student, and quite frankly I couldn’t care less about school, so in that way I wasn’t able to connect with the book. I wasn’t particularly interested in how Connie did with her dissertation, or if she managed to impress her professor. Also, I had to actually stop and look words up because I didn’t know the meaning to them. Some of them, my sister didn’t even know the meaning for, and if you know her, her vocabulary and just general knowledge of words is completely beyond anything I’ve seen in anyone else I’ve EVER known, so her not knowing what something means is extremely rare.

Having said that though, I really did love the story! I loved the plot and the characters, and the revelations that Connie went through to find out what she did about her past and her link to the Witch Trials. I loved hearing about the places that Connie visited in Salem, including the ice cream shop where I so would have not been as patient with the girl as Connie was! When she described the houses or buildings, and surroundings of the town I really got taken in, and it’s now a mission in my life to visit Salem in the next few years! And Sam. Oh, Sam. It’s so nice to -for once in a long time- read a book that isn’t revolving around some type of forbidden love. Or love in general for that matter. But when Sam enters the story, it was always in the back of my mind no matter what Connie was doing: Where is Sam? What’s Sam doing? And Sams parents? I think the fact that they called her helped show what type of guy Sam was as well for obviously having mentioned her to them, and I was so glad that we got that little bitty glimpse into him and what he felt for Connie.

I also love, love, loved the flash backs to the Witch Trial Salem, and seeing the life that Katherine dreamed up for Deliverance! Very few authors can actually make you feel like you’ve been transported back into time, but Katherine does a wonderful job of it! The only thing that I don’t agree with in this aspect of what we see in the past, is what happens to Deliverance, as Katherine herself -with her multitude of knowledge and research- has said, was the exact opposite of what actually happened. I am not a fan of muddling past FACTS to fit your own purpose, fiction or not.

So in general, a little too detailed at times for my liking, and it might benefit you to have a very large vocabulary if you read it, but a VERY good and captivating story full of magic, love and well.. witches. Real or not? Guess you’ll have to read to find out!

Main Characters: Nora, Patch, Vee, Eillot, Jules

Summary:

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

Anna’s Thoughts

I have been hearing about Hush, Hush for the last few months, and it felt like Patch was Edward-mania all over again, and I rolled my eyes time and again and figured I’d buy it when it came out. No big deal. No big deal? WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING?! Patch is every bit as alluring and seductive as everyone has said he was, and then some. And some more.

I really enjoyed the storyline, and the characters – Nora was headstrong, she knew what she wanted, and didn’t want. Vee was a good friend, although a bit dim. If your friend seriously thinks there’s something wrong with someone, you do NOT go somewhere alone with them. Hello, got a brain much? Elliot and Jules were interesting, and Patch… well, Patch was Patch. (Aka: See above paragraph.)

The only thing that I really didn’t like was that the story was very predictable. Yes, there were things I hadn’t figured out in the end, there were twists that I didn’t see coming, and I kept going back and forth about who was the bad guy. I took my final guess about half way through the book, and lo-and-behold, I was right. Most of the plot I guessed at before it happened, so very good story, just predictable.

Another thing, that puts me off edge, is that this is being marketed as a YA book. I can see in ways how it is, but there is too much sexual tension in this book for me to even THINK about handing it to a 13 year old. The book is literally oozing with it, it’s from the very beginning to the very end, and intertwined through all of the spots in between. Having said that though, I am SO glad that Becca wrote a heroine who didn’t find the advances alluring, or at least to the point where she lost her brain and couldn’t eat/sleep/drink/breathe without Patch. She evaluated her choices, used her brain and didn’t become a love-sick puppy running after something that could very well kill her.

I really hate comparing books because all authors have their niche and their safe zone, and the people/things/places they know the best, but I can tell you one thing: Stephenie Meyer could learn a thing or two from Mrs. Fitzpatrick. Like how to create a love that evolves (aka, not completely irrational), and a bad boy who isn’t.. you know.. creepy. Or well, not completely.

So I say to all the Patchinites: I understand. And I’m sorry I judged you prematurely. Please forgive me?

Find out more about Becca, Patch, Nora and their world at beccafitzpatrick.com.

Anyone who follows me on twitter knows that I am dying to read Ruined by Paula Morris. They also know I’m broke as a joke on coke. Okay.. so that last part is only because it rhymed, but I guess it kind of makes sense?! Anyway in my process of trying to find contests to win the book I have discovered that there are far more than I thought, so to make things easy on those of you who want to read it too, I have complied a list of all the Ruined contests I could find! If you have one not listed here, or know of one, feel free to link it in the comments!

Enough already lady, show me the contests!

Main Characters: Rose, Lissa, Dimitri, Adrian, Avery

Summary:

Summary under cut just in case for spoilers!