SERIES CHALLENGE FRIDAYS: End of Month One

The Summer Series Challenge has begun! 

Hosted by Asheley @ Into the Hall of Books

Heather @ The Flyleaf Review

Lauren @ Love is not a triangle

Follow #serieschallenge

Happy Friday! 

(I'm in the middle of a 20 hour car trip*)

The end of June is coming up in a few days. Don't forget to link up your reviews below.

The June GIVEAWAY for a $15 gift card to Amazon (or The Book Depository) closes July 5. 

I hope the challenge has been a good experience for you so far, and that next month will be even BETTER! 

Our GIVEAWAY increases to $20 in July.

We also have some awesome author and blogger guest posts coming up, beginning with Miranda Kenneally visiting Heather @ The Flyleaf Review next Friday, July 5. Don't miss Kenneally's thoughts on why she writes companion series, as well as a GIVEAWAY for your choice of one book in her Hundred Oaks series. 

*I apologize for being MIA most of this week! I've been busy getting ready for our vacation. I may not be on much next week either, because I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have. But I'll be back soon. 

Don't forget to link-up your June posts and enter the GIVEAWAY!

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Cover Comparisons: Do you see what I see?

Do you see what I see? 

Below are some book covers that look similar to me.

Sentinel by Jennifer Armentrout and Looking for Alaska by John Green are both sending up smoke signals. Although these covers are similar, their stories are not. 

Even the titles of Golden by Jessi Kirby and Steal my Sunshine by Emily Gale sound like they're basking in the light. 

The girls on the covers of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder and Where it Began by Ann Redisch Stampler like to lie on the grass. (PS. It's almost always lie and not lay.)

The YA genre is rife with covers of girls in prom dresses. I'm getting lazy and am not going to name all of these. But this doesn't even scratch the surface of the madness. However, rarely does the heroine actually wear her cover dress. 

Red appears to be the seasonal choice of attire. Or is it desire? 

 Is it just me, or do all these girls appear to be making the same face?

 1) That City of Bones cover is one of the best movie tie ins that I've seen. I think I like it better than the original featuring Jace. (Although I do love Jace)

2) I like this cover of The Burning Sky MUCH better than the finalized version. Do you think it was changed because of its similarities to the TMI cover? 

Did you know that Jennifer Rush, the author of Erased (and Altered), took the photo on the cover of Jennifer Armentrout's Frigid? I don't think it's the same abs model though.

Shhhhhh. If you don't tell, I won't. The characters on the covers of Perfect Scoundrels and Pantomime are good at keeping secrets.

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1) I know there's been a lot of discussion recently about book covers and gender, and I'm not going to go into all of that here. But, I think it's pretty clear that 95% of the books on this page were written for girls to enjoy.

2) Which of the covers on this page most appeals to you? Are any of them turnoffs? 

3) Do you wish you looked as good in a a fancy dress as these YA heroines do? 

NOTE: I've been collecting images ever since people mentioned they wanted to see a Six Degrees of Separation post with covers (though this isn't exactly that), but it's nowhere near as cool as Heather @ The Flyleaf Review's The Doppelganger Effect (part II) from last week. Don't miss her awesome post and the creeeeppppppyyyyyy banner. 

Waiting on Wednesday: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine 
that spotlights upcoming releases that we can't wait to get our hands on. 

This week I can't wait for: 

Of Beast and Beauty

by Stacey Jay

Delacorte Press,  July 23, 2013

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love. (From Goodreads)

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Recently, I've been obsessed with Beauty and the Beast retellings. In fact just finished Beauty by Robin McKinley. I think this all stems from the fact that my daughter has been really into Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and has been listening to the soundtrack and begging for the movie non stop. But it's quickly becoming one of my favorite fairy tales. 

BONUS: Another upcoming Beauty and the Beast adaptation I'm DYING to read:

Cruel Beauty 

by Rosamund Hodge 

Balzar + Bray, January 2014

What's your favorite Beauty and the Beast adaptation? 

What are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & The Bookish

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2013

Looking back to what I've read this year, these are the books that stand out to me as my favorites. Do you ever find that over time, you sometimes love books you've read in the past MORE and sometimes LESS? These all fall into the MORE category! I've also reviewed all of them. Click on the titles to discover my thoughts on each book. In no particular order:

1) Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

  2) The Fire and Thorns trilogy by Rae Carson
The Girl of Fire and Thorns, The Crown of Embers, The Bitter Kingdom

3) Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith

4) Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

5) Written in Red by Anne Bishop

6) Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

7) Just One Day by Gayle Forman

8) Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

9) Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

10) Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

BONUS: Most disappointing books based on my expectations:

Boundless by Cynthia Hand and The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson.

Both of these books still make me want to break out in tears when I think about them. The Madness Underneath was only the second book in a series, so there's still a very slight hope for that one to turn itself around.