Angieville

Christine over at The Happily Ever After  recently posted the following meme, and for some reason I copied the questions over and set out to answer them. There's no accounting for what pulls me into filling out one of these, but the always-genuine Christine is likely a big part of this one. Also, it had been awhile, and I liked her questions. So. 1. What is your favorite genre to read? Um. Except for this first one. This first one is hard. If I take a look at my beloved bookshelf, it does look as though the majority of my favorite books do fall under the (very) broad category of fantasy. Historicals and contemporaries after that. 2. What is the first romance novel you ever read and how old were you when you read it?  I come late to the game to this genre. The first romance novel I read was on a dare . It was Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase , and I was 31. It was, sadly, not love at first sight. But we parted friends, and I have since gone on several memorable dates with ro...

Morning, guys! Today I'm over at Melanie's Musings helping to wrap up her fabulous North & South Celebration . Melanie (aware of my strong feelings for the series) kindly invited me to contribute a post to her two-week-long love letter to all things North & South . So I'm talking about the study in contrasts that sucked me in and made me a permanent fangirl of the series. We'd love it if you stopped in to say hi and tell us why you love it, too.

I'm not usually a fan of having whole entire people on book covers. Especially when they're on the photo realistic side of things. But I have to say, I like all three of these covers just fine. Something to do with the defiance on their faces and how they look very much as though they're inhabiting who they are, if that makes any sense at all. The titles are a bit of awesome as well, and I'm just very excited to give each one a whirl. Nightshifted by Cassie Alexander Edie Spencer works on the secret ward of the county hospital. The one they don't want you to know about. The paranormal ward. She thinks she's got the hang of it when a vampire dies on her shift. All hell breaks loose--literally. I am in the mood for some great, new urban fantasy, and I just think this one's going to be right up my alley. Due out May 22nd A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix Brand spankin' new scifi from Garth Nix? Heck, yeah! The day Khemri is declared a p...

So I approached Where She Went with almost equal amounts trepidation and excitement. It's hard to follow up an ending like the ending of If I Stay . In many respects, I felt like the mere existence of a sequel might mar the beauty of the first book. I just . . . I loved how it ended so much, I wasn't at all sure I wanted to know what happened next. And if you know me at all you know how hilarious that sounds. I always want to know what happens next. I regularly fill my life with beloved series I can't quit. But I am also an enormous admirer of standalone volumes, particularly those featuring a judicious and perfect ending. Such was the case with If I Stay . But the tenor of my emotions for Mia and Adam by the end of that book ensured that I wouldn't be able to stay away from a follow-up in the end. Especially as that follow-up was set three years later . So I only lasted about 24 hours in between finishing the first book and plunging into the second. A warning: If ...

It was all the hype surrounding the release of Where She Went that actually got me interested in reading If I Stay . I was aware of the love it received upon its publication a couple of years ago. But even though it appeared to be universally loved, I never picked it up, as I tend to be somewhat leery of coma/out of body experience stories. It's not that I've read a ton of them, but in the few that I have read, I've had a hard time connecting to the main character. What with them being . . . well, comatose and all. So I'd pretty much decided I wasn't going to try this one, until the blogosphere had a collective meltdown over there being a sequel at all and then at how awesome it apparently was. You know how hard it is to resist that promise of a sequel that lives up to (possibly even surpasses) its predecessor. I'm certainly not able to hold out against it for long. So I snagged a copy of  If I Stay     and ignored my niggling concerns to see just what all th...

I bought the ebook version of Flat-Out Love when I saw what a good deal it was right now. I'd seen it read, reviewed, and loved here and there for several months now, but for some reason nothing pushed me over the edge into trying it out myself. I know. Then when I found myself in between books and casting about for the next great thing, I remembered I had it on my nook and pulled it out to see how we got on. The answer is: famously! This is one of those books you kick yourself for not picking up sooner and then attempt to make reparations by singing its praises in the hopes that others will be quicker and savvier than you. I also just ordered the paperback, because I can tell that a digital copy is not going to be enough. This is one I'll want to have on my shelves for lending and rereading and the like. Plus, it's pretty, that cover. I mean, it kind of fills me with a maelstrom of emotions after the fact. But pretty it is. This is my first book by Jessica Park and I...

I knew next to nothing about The Scorpio Races before it was published, and look how spectacularly that turned out. So my reaction to Maggie Stiefvater's announcement that she has another book coming out this fall, that it's called The Raven Boys , and that it features a girl named Blue and a guy named Gansey was pretty much . . . BRING IT. First in a four-part series, The Raven Boys is due out September 18th.