Once Bitten Giveaway

This month I am giving away a copy of Once Bitten by Kalayna Price. Here is the description:

Kita Nekai, on the run and the smallest of her shifter clan-a calico cat among lions and tigers-is being hunted. She was expected to accept her role as her father's successor whether or not her cat was up to the task of leading the clan. She disagreed. Now she's less than a step ahead of the hunters, bone-tired, cold, and living hand-to-mouth in the city of Haven. And that's the high point of her day. She's also drugged, "accidently" turned into a vampire, and sentenced to death for recklessly creating a rogue shifter who tortures its human prey. She's got seventy-two hours to find the rogue, evade a city full of hunters, prove she's not responsible for the rogue, and keep the vampire council from killing her. All while sorting out an apprentice mage, a married ex-boyfriend shifter-hunter, and the vampire who made her.

The rules are below::

• 1 (one) winner will receive a copy of Once Bitten by Kalayna Price
  


• Please allow about 3 weeks to receive your prize.


• I will e-mail the winner and also post the winner on the blog. If the winner does not reply within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen.


• U.S Only


• Ends June 29th

Enter HERE

Winner of Everything is Fine

The winner of Everything is Fine is....

Briana

Congrats Briana! I am e-mailing you right now. If you don't respond within 48 hours I will choose a new winner.

A post will follow this one announcing the new contest. Once again, it won't be very big but I am doing all that I can.

Thank you everyone for participating! I got a decent number of entries, and I hope the number goes up with this next contest.

The Cadence of Gypsies by Barbara Casey

Title: The Cadence of Gypsies

Author: Barbara Casey

Publisher: Hungry Goat Press

Age Group: Young Adult

Grade: 72% or C-

On her 18th birthday Carolina Lovel learned that she was adopted and was given a letter written by her birth mother in an unknown language. After years of research she travels to Italy on a mission to find the truth about her past. Carolina is accompanied by three extremely gifted but mischievous students the FIGs from Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women. In an effort to help their favorite teacher, the FIGs will have to use their special abilities to decipher the Voynich Manuscript, the most mysterious document in the world, and the one thing that is strangely similar to what Carolina was given. Their search will take them into the mystical world of gypsy tradition and magic, more exciting and dangerous than any of them could have imagined.
The way that I read this book was a new experience for me. I started it months ago, but got sidetracked by books for school. Then..I forgot about it. I read a book or two from my reading pile before seeing it on a dusty pile of books (it really was dusty, it was my pile of books to giveaway. I completely forgot that I set it there). Fortunately, I was able to pick up where I left off. I finished the book on the last day of my Junior year of High School whilst sitting alone in my pre-calculus class.

The book itself wasn't very exciting. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it, but I couldn't connect with any of the characters. When something good or bad happens, I want to feel emotion, not just register the fact that it was positive or negative for that character. Part of the problem I think was the large amount of characters. Casey tried to pack so many headlining characters into one show. I barely got to know any of them, and I wish I could have. I just couldn't help but feel they were all very one dimensional.

I do give her props for research though. What she lacked with characters, she made up for with beautiful descriptions and a very nice plot. Though, I could have easily dealt without the love interest. It seemed very unnecessary and rushed. It didn't add to the plot at all for me, and came across as too convenient.

Oddly enough, I think I enjoyed reading about Lyuba's life and the way that the gypsies lived. I found it much more exciting than reading short tidbits of what the FIGS were thinking before bed.

Overall, I enjoyed the idea of the book, the descriptions of Italy, and the way that the gypsy culture was fleshed out. I would recommend this book to someone who is in the mood for a short read that will give them a nice little mystery to think through.

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a post where I tell you the books that I received this week either by buying them from the bookstore, going to the library or from my mailbox. In My Mailbox was created by Alea and turned into a meme by Kristi.

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.

It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

Happyface by Stephen Emond

Enter Happyface's journal and get a peek into the life of a shy, artistic boy who decides to reinvent himself as a happy-go-lucky guy after he moves to a new town. See the world through his hilariously self-deprecating eyes as he learns to shed his comic-book-loving, computer-game playing ways. Join him as he makes new friends, tries to hide from his past, and ultimately learns to face the world with a genuine smile. With a fresh and funny combination of text and fully integrated art, Happyface is an original storytelling experience.

Forgotten by Cat Patrick

Every night, while sixteen-year-old London Lane is asleep, her memory of that day is erased. In the morning, all she can “remember” are events from her future. London is used to relying on reminder notes and a trusted friend to get through the day, but things get complicated when a new boy at school enters the picture.

Luke Henry is not someone you’d easily forget, yet try as she might, London can’t find him in her memories of things to come. When London starts experiencing disturbing flashbacks, or flash-forwards, as the case may be, she realizes it’s time to learn about the past she keeps forgetting—before it destroys her future.