Today is the last day of the Divergent Nation promotion! That means that Insurgent comes out tomorrow and it's the last day you have to support Team Amity!! Doesn't Veronica look so cute in Amity colors? She posted about Amity here.

As a reminder, you support Team Amity by clicking this link AND this link. And to motivate you there are a TON of Team Amity giveaways. Here they are:

• I'm giving away a finished copy of Insurgent
• HUGE Giveaway of 15 prize packs (including 2 kindles!)
• Better Read Than Dead- Insurgent Giveaway & Divergent Casting Giveaway
• Hippies, Beauty, and Books- Insurgent ARC Giveaway & Blogoversary Giveaway
• I Swim For Oceans- Insurgent ARC Giveaway
• A Life Bound By Books- UK Insurgent & Divergent Giveaway
• Emily's Reading Room- Dystopian Grab Bag Giveaway
• All Things Urban Fantasy- Insurgent Recreate the cover Contest

Remember that you should click the links for EACH contest you enter. Don't just click them once and then enter all contests.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting Team Amity. I love you!

Wow. I have officially cut my hair short enough that you can no longer see in in my IMM vlogs. That's crazy! Especially considering that I used to be able to SIT on it.

Once again, I made both a vlog and picture version of this IMM so you can choose which you prefer. Picture is below vlog, links are below picture! I've been trying to hold the books still while I dance in the video, but this song was so happy that I slipped up a couple times. Enjoy!

• Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys (GoodReads | Amazon)

Borrowed:
From Library:

• Crossed (Audio), Ally Condie (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Kill Me Softly, Sarah Cross (GoodReads | Amazon)

From Emily:

• Shadows on the Moon (Audio), Zoe Marriott (GoodReads | Amazon)

From Super-Awesome Friend Debbie:

• Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo (GoodReads | Amazon)
• The Forsaken, Lisa M. Stasse (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (GoodReads | Amazon)

Traded with Gabrielle Carolina:

• The Predicteds, Christine Seifert (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Thumped, Megan McCafferty (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Once, Anna Carey (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Princess of the Wild Swans, Diane Zahler (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Shadows on the Moon, Zoe Marriott (GoodReads | Amazon)

For Review
From DAW:

• Black Dawn, Rachel Caine (GoodReads | Amazon)
• Silence, Michelle Sagara (GoodReads | Amazon)

From Amazon Vine:

• This is Not a Test, Courtney Summers (GoodReads | Amazon)

From Macmillan:

• Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo (GoodReads | Amazon)

Hey y'all! I just wanted to let you know that my monthly newsletter, Squeaky News, is making a comeback! Squeaky News contains a brief overview of what has happened on Squeaky Books this month, as well as some other cool things happening around the blogosphere. It sometimes will even have a contest open only to newsletter subscribers (but not every month, it's a surprise!).

The first edition of the revival is going to be going out on May 1st. Just wanted to let you know in case there are some of you who would like to sign up! I couldn't figure out how to embed it in this post, so you'll actually have to come to the website in order to sign up. It's on the left sidebar, just under the social media buttons. You can't miss it!

Release Date: April 24th, 2012
Genre:  Romance, Dystopia, Post-Apocolypse
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 320
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

Blurb: What a great atmosphere. Never once did I imagine the sun shining, even when the characters said "the sun was shining."

Review: This book was an interesting beast. I'm a HUGE Poe fan. I own a gilded collection of his most famous works. I adore him. So I was really excited for this book! And it didn't disappoint. Griffin has an amazing ability to create an incredibly dark atmosphere. I never once imagined the sun shining while reading this book. Even when the characters would say "the sun shone on his hair" or something, I would picture storm clouds and darkness. That's some writing ability. And the little Poe Easter eggs made me squeal with delight.

However, like Poe's original tales, the characters seem to be secondary to the plot. I couldn't relate with Araby AT ALL. She was just too wishy washy. I've never experienced guilt like she has, which may be why I couldn't relate to her. And the fact that she self-medicated her guilt with drugs and alcohol... not my favorite thing. And the two love interests just confused me. Yes, I said TWO love interests. There's a love triangle, brace yourself 'cause it's a doozy (mainly because I didn't like EITHER guy by the end, and I don't think you're supposed to).

BUT, I still loved the world of the book. And in this case, that will be enough to bring me back to the next one. All in all Masque of the Red Death kept me twisting and turning and looking for more. Griffin says that the real action from the ORIGINAL "Masque of the Red Death" comes in the sequel to this book, and I can't wait!

Other Reviews:

• Good Choice Reading (Loved it!)
• Emily's Reading Room (It was okay)
• So Many Book, So Little Time (Didn't like it)

 

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

Hey, y'all! In case you weren't aware, Fairy Tale Fortnight is currently happening at The Book Rat and Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing. It's two weeks of celebrating my FAVORITE books: twisted fairy tales!

Today I guest posted about the 10 fairy tale books I can't wait to read, and I'm giving one away!

Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Publisher: Philomel
Pages: 344
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.

Blurb: I feel like my soul has been put through a paper shredder and then glued back together. Amazing. Amazing.

Review: Now, I had absolutely no desire to read this book. But Emily wanted someone to go meet Ruta with, so I grudgingly borrowed my grandmother's copy.

Ho. Ly. Cow. I'm usually not a big historical fiction fan, but when I like them I like them hard. Guys. I like this book hardcore. We hear a lot about what happened to the Jews and the Germans in WWII, but I've never read a book about the Soviets and Lithuanians. I get my Axis and Allies all mixed up, and so I was floored when I found out about 80% into the book that the "bad guys" were allied with the Americans! Hello, Enna! Your ignorance is showing.

Lina is a great narrator. She's such a powerful character. She's got spunk, and charisma, and an unwavering spirit. She was able to be strong, and still human. She broke down sometimes, she wasn't perfect, but she always knew when to pick herself back up. If there's ever a fictional character I want in my corner, it'd be her.

Please, if you don't know much about this side of WWII (or even if you do) PICK UP THIS BOOK. It is beautiful and it will open your eyes.

HOWEVER, the ending is very unsatisfying! Usually I'd be okay with that because it would mean there was another book coming, but the end of the book is followed by an epilogue that vaguely ties up the loose ends. Enough to close the story, but not enough to satisfy my curiosity! Again, I could spend another hundred or more pages with these characters. Ruta talked about why she ended the way she did (she didn't want the ending to be corny or false), and I guess I can understand where's she's coming from, but... I WANT MORE!

Other Reviews:

• The Story Girl (Loved it!)
• The Night Bookmobile (It was okay)
• Venn Librarian (Didn't like it)

 

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

Release Date: March 13th, 2012
Genre:  Sci-fi, Romance, Dystopia
Publisher: Delacorte
Pages: 352
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .(

Blurb: Fast paced and unique, Starters is a great addition to the genre!

Review: Decided to jump Starters to the top of my TBR pile last month when I saw that the author was coming to my area! I'm so glad I did. Starters reminds me a lot of the TV show Dollhouse (which I loved and was cancelled WAY too soon!). It's fast paced, engaging, and relatively unique in this blossoming genre.

I wouldn't call it deep. I didn't get absorbed into the world, or even really believe it for a second (I have a hard time believing books that make people act so terribly that I can't imagine them every being that bad), but I had fun reading!

My only complaint (aside from the cover**) is that it all wrapped up WAY too quickly. Here we have this kick-butt heroine who isn't afraid to take her fate into her own hands, and the last 70-ish pages are her handing over all responsibility to others. She just kind of goes with the flow, and flow it does. It was essentially A leads to B leads to C leads to resolution, rapid-fire. I wish Lissa had taken a deep breath, and slowed down a little. She probably could have added another 100 pages and that would have been okay with me.

Something interesting in this book, it's part of a duet. We don't get those a lot anymore. The second (and final, in case you aren't sure what a duet is) book comes out later this year. It's called Enders. I'll definitely be picking it up!

Other Reviews:

• Once a Reader, Always a Reader (Loved it!)
• Book Strings (Liked it)
• Epic (Chocolate) Fantasy (Didn't like it)

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

**This cover weirds me out. Is it supposed to be the main character? She's described as being beautiful, not an alien. In real life the cover has some cool foil effects, but that model is just too strange. The way her hair covers her eye makes her look reptilian.

Release Date: February 28th, 2012
Genre:  Post-Apocolypse, Sci-fi, Romance
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 468
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.

When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.

Blurb: Good for those who already love dystopia, not recommended for newbies

Review: This book is pretty entertaining. It has a fast-moving plot, a variety of interesting characters, and a splash of romance. What it doesn't have is a very strong world. I feel like there was SO MUCH left unexplained, and so I spent most of the book confused when the characters referred to anything other than what was immediately happening.

I mean... did they ever say what (view spoiler)(spoilers, highlight to view) made Partials, partial? No. Ever really tell us what ParaGen was? No. Ever explain what RM stood for or exactly what it did? No. Or if those questions WERE answered in the story, they were answered so stubtly/slowly that I missed it. ANNOYING! I need a fully flushed out world to be satisfied. But I'll admit the plot was still very engaging, if not very saturated. It was engaging enough to be worth 4 flowers, even with the unanswered questions. However, if Wells doesn't answer some of those questions in book 2 I will probably re-think those 4 flowers.

If you're already a fan of dystopia novels, then you'll probably like this one. If you haven't been exposed to dystopia before, I wouldn't start with this one because it might scare you away from the genre.

Other Reviews:

• Total Bookaholic (5 Stars)
• The Allure of Books (2 Stars)
• The Reading Housewives (2 Stars)

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

So I'm starting this new thing where I'm linking to other people's reviews at the end of mine. I hope to have a link to a "LOVED it" review, an "It was okay" review, and an "I didn't like it" review in each post. But here's the thing, I'm hoping y'all can make my life a little easier. If you would like me to link to your reviews in my posts, will you please fill out the following form? The first section just lets me know your blog exists, and I'll check it sometimes to see if it falls into any of the above categories. The second is asking about SPECIFIC books I need reviews for RIGHT NOW.

Much love!

Release Date: April 3rd, 2012
Genre:  Political Intrigue, Romance, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 549
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Blurb: An adult book in YA clothing. Disappointing.

Review: I'm afraid to say I didn't like this book. I posted the following review on Amazon, and (as Amazonites are wont to do) have recieved some... interesting criticisms. But I'm going to post the same review here and y'all can judge for yourself.

Okay, I stayed up late to finish this just because I wanted to write down my thoughts while they were still fresh. To keep it fairly simple, I'm just going to make a list of why I gave this book 2.5 flowers:

1. This does not read like a typical YA book. This reads like an adult book with a MC who is 17. But because it takes place in medieval France, she is a MEDIEVAL 17, which feels more like 30. There's a LOT of talk of sex, harlots, abusive men, etc. And the book culminates in a sexual act. Plus, it just reads like an adult book.

2. SO. MUCH. POLITICS. Here I was thinking I was going to read a book about a kick-butt female assassin, and what I got was about 400 pages of trying to remember which barons were the good guys and who were the bad guys. Listening to councils jibber jabber about who the 12-year-old duchess should marry, blah blah blah. All the while our assassin friend wasn't doing very much assassin-ing.

3. Ismae was a little flip-floppy. This may just be because I'm a love-skeptic, but she's spent her WHOLE LIFE fearing men and thinking that all men are evil, and after just a few weeks being SURROUNDED by men (many of which want to rape her) she falls in love with more than one. Granted, those she falls in love with (not all romantically) are really great men, but it just seemed a little strange that she would be so willing to become buddies with them. I'm not really a "feminist" but I do like characters to stand strong in their beliefs, or at least give me REALLY good reasons why their beliefs change (Sidenote: this was demonstrated very well in this book's religious beliefs. I loved Ismae's internal struggles with right and wrong.).

4. The world confused me. I personally don't like it when books have just enough stuff that is real that I can't tell what's fake. I'm not an expert on medieval France, so I didn't know which parts of this book were coming out of LaFevers' brain, and which parts were real. This is a minor thing, but still bugged me.

#3 and #4 are more secondary concerns. They were at the back of my mind as a read, but not huge factors. What was HUGE was #1 and #2. #1 made me dislike the book just because there is a REASON I dislike adult books. I read YA on purpose. And #2 bothered me because it made the story SO SLOW. And I've never been interested in political intrigue books. The only time that kind of thing has been able to keep me interested is in books like the Attolia books (and those are a lot shorter and less dense than Grave Mercy, and the characters were more interesting) and the Trickster's Choice series (which has a LOT more going on than just political intrigue, even though PI is the main plot).

I really WANTED to like this book, but I just couldn't. I wish I had read it with lower expectations, then I probably wouldn't have been so dissatisfied.

Other Reviews:

• Emily's Reading Room (4.5 Stars)
• Reading Teen (5 Stars)
• Janina (2/2.5 Stars)

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

Finals week begins tomorrow. I don't have very many, but I still need to focus. Since I don't have anything pre-scheduled, Squeaky Books will return next week (the 23rd) with some awesome stuff (unless something comes up between now and then that I just HAVE to post). See you then!

I'm feeling inspired. I love making fake covers for books. For example, Jodi Meadows is having a create-the-cover contest for the sequel of her book Incarnate (which I loved). I was too late to enter officially, but I was inspired to create this:


Isn't that fun?! (and yes. I'm so ridiculously proud of it that I water-marked it. So there)

And so, I want to have a create-a-cover contest. I'd like the focus to be sequels, preferablly those without covers (like Incarnate 2, Days of Blood and Starlight, Shades of Earth, Everbound, etc.).

BUT, I'm aware that making these covers takes a lot of time. So my question to you is:


I'm thinking a pre-order of whatever book you create, and any previous books in paperback. Eh?

Thoughts?



EDIT: I polished up the cover for a contest (which I won!) here it is:

I made both a vlog and picture version of this IMM so you can choose which you prefer. Picture is below vlog, links are below picture!


People mentioned:

• Ashley (Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing)
• Shannon's Blog Post
• Fairy Tale Fortnight
• Emily (Emily's Reading Room)

Won:

• The Day Before, by Lisa Schroeder (Goodreads | Amazon)
• The False Prince, by Jennifer Nielsen (Goodreads | Amazon)
• Fjellprinsessen, by Shannon Hale

For Review:

• Masque of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin (Goodreads | Amazon)
• The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy (Goodreads | Amazon)

Purchased:

• Everneath, by Brodi Ashton (Goodreads | Amazon)
• Starters, by Lissa Price (Goodreads | Amazon)
• Das Buch der Tausend Tage, by Shannon Hale (Goodreads)
• el Fuego de Enna, by Shannon Hale (Goodreads)

Borrowed:

• Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia & Margie Stohl (Goodreads | Amazon)
• Insurgent, by Veronica Roth (Goodreads | Amazon)

I currently do not review self-published books or indie-published books, but that doesn't stop me from getting review requests from self/indie authors. I feel bad declining, and so I like to suggest other bloggers who might be interested. Unfortunately, I've noticed that my old list is woefully outdated, so I'm starting over.

If you review self-published or indie-published books and wouldn't mind me sending authors your way, please fill out this form! Anyone can sign up!

Breaking news! You can now, officially join Team Amity! And you get a bunch of cool stuff if you do!


You're going to want to do this, because on Monday there's a HUGE giveaway going on. Trust me. It's huge.

Each and every month on Squeaky Books I feature about 5-8 upcoming releases. You vote for the ones you are excited about via this form. At the beginning of the next month, the novel with the greatest amount of votes will be given away. Fun times, eh? You can vote for the April books from April 4th – April 30th at 7:59pm MST.  At the beginning of May I'll post the giveaway of the book with the most votes!

Feel free to ask questions in the comments or e-mail me. Now go forth and vote!



Release Date: April 10, 2012
Summary:

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

Release Date: May 1, 2012
Summary:

What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil.

Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

A cross-country trip to meet her father forces Anna to face the reality that hope and love are not options for her kind. When she confronts her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

Release Date: May 1, 2012
Summary:

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.

Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope—and to love—once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she not become... The Last Princess.

Release Date: May 8, 2012
Summary:

As a little girl, Daisy Appleby was killed in a school bus crash. Moments after the accident, she was brought back to life.

A secret government agency has developed a drug called Revive that can bring people back from the dead, and Daisy Appleby, a test subject, has been Revived five times in fifteen years. Daisy takes extraordinary risks, knowing that she can beat death, but each new death also means a new name, a new city, and a new life. When she meets Matt McKean, Daisy begins to question the moral implications of Revive, and as she discovers the agency’s true goals, she realizes she’s at the center of something much larger — and more sinister — than she ever imagined.

Release Date: May 8, 2012
Summary:

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

Release Date: May 22, 2012
Summary:

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he’s heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma’s gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom . . .

Told from both Emma and Galen’s points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

All right, guys, this is kind of a special circumstance:

So there's this super-awesome person named Asenath Rallison (you may recognize her last name. See? This is totally book-related) and she's getting married! That's exciting in its own right, but it gets better. She's entered to win a $10,000 dollar wedding package, and she's a finalist! But the winner is chosen by votes. That's where you come in.

If you wouldn't mind, would you vote for her? CLICK HERE to vote. She's #4.

She's also offered a little incentive. Those who vote will be entered to win either a $10 Amazon gift card or a book of $10 or less at TBD. So this is open international! That's enough to get this book, or this one, or this one, or this one. Or anything under $10! Lots of choices!

And all you have to do is vote. Really. That's it. Just tell me you did it using the rafflecopter below!

And if you want to, you can go tell Jannette Rallison you voted and she'll enter you to win one of her books!

The winner of March's Upcoming Release Giveaway is...

Do you know what comes out in less than a month? I'll give you a hint, it rimes with Invurgent. That's right! Insurgent! But such a magificant book cannot come quietly into the world. Oh no. That's why we're celebrating Divergent Nation! What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, 50 blogs were chosen to receive ARCs of Insurgent with each blog being assigned a faction (10 blogs to each faction). And their job is to promote their faction LIKE CRAZY. The faction that gets the most traffic to this link will win!

No, I didn't get an ARC, but that doesn't mean I can't still participate! What faction have I chosen?


You should join me in team amity! We're peaceful and happy all the time! We have fresh fruit, and cookies, and lots of love for everyone! And if you join Team Amity you'll be entered to win a pre-order of Insurgent!

How can you win? Well, the most important part of this whole shebang is visiting this link. (That's http://bit.ly/choose_amity) That's the link you want to spread around like crazy. But there's more you can do! To see specifics about what the "official" team Amity blogs are doing, you should check out Emily's post here. But for now, enter my giveaway and spread the peace of Amity!

This giveaway is open international. Winner will recieve a pre-order of Insurgent either from Amazon or TBD depending on whether you are US or international. The rafflecopter giveaway is below this button (which you should totally add to your blog).


Psst! There are a bunch of entries that you can earn EVERY DAY. So be sure to come back each day to get all the entries you can!
Also, that +1 on telling me whether you are US or int'l is a lie. You won't get any entries for just doing that. But when I try to delete it rafflecopter gets mad at me.

How sad! Bloggiesta is over. I could easily take advantage of another day. But here's my wrap-up post:

I didn't get as much done as I want to because I've spent most of my time editing Emily's layout so both her sidebars are on one side. It's taken a lot of time, but it's also made me feel like an HTML/CSS genius!


Things I got done:

• Wrote a new review policy
• Wrote a new contest policy
• Cleaned up labels (if it had less than 5 posts I merged it with another label)
• Made drop down menus (I'm so ridiculously proud of these. I keep playing with them)
• I sort of organized Google Reader, I added a folder for Utah bloggers
• Clean up my sidebars (Got rid of the fish and moved the FTC disclaimer and the rating system to their own pages)
• Update author interview page. Boy! I've interviewed quite the kaboodle.

Didn't get done:

• Schedule outstanding reviews (but I only have two, so that's not too bad)
• Learn what SEO is/means
• Catalogue all books I own
• Transcribe blogging panel
• Create template for monthly newsletter
• Make a list of 2012 books by month