HELP!!!

So guys, I know I haven't posted in a while, I've been reading, just the writing part hasn't exactly gotten done. (Soon! I promise!) But I need all of your help! I am leaving for Mexico in the morning and I have a huge stack of books and not enough room in my bag (or time to read all of them in a week). SO... of the list below, which books should I bring?!!?! SOS!!!
The Timekeeper's Moon by Joni Sensel (Bloomsbury, March 2010)
Girlfriend Material by Melisa Kantor (Disney Hyperion, May 2009)
The Mark by Jen Nadol (February, 2010)
White Cat by Holly Black (May, 2010)
The Naughty List by Suzanne Young (February, 2010)
Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale (April, 2010)
Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson (May, 2010)
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Please comment!!!
Thanks,
OfficiallyMRS

Valentine's Day Contest

If you were to look up Valentine's Day on Wikipedia, this is what you would find.
Saint Valentine's Day (commonly simply Valentine's Day) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, hen the tradition of courtly love flourished.

ModernValentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass produced greeting cards, and Valentine's Day has become the second-largest greeting card-sending holiday in the United States, behind only Christmas.

Interesting, right? And I mean, what an awesome day! When you get to celebrate everyone and everything you love! With all of this hate and sadness in the world, how fabulous is it that we get to say, "you know what, despite it all, I love you"? It should be something that happens everyday, but somehow it seems limited to February 14th.

So to celebrate this day of giving what we love to those people who mean most to us, whether they be a boyfriend, hubby, child, cousin, best friend, frien-enemy or some random person you meet on the street, my friend Venessa from Simon and Schuster and I are hosting a contest!!! In place of a box of chocolates or a card, we've decided to give what we love the most (books, that is. What else?!) to you!

The books that you can win are...

STUPID CUPID by Rhonda Stapleton

WHAT WOULD EMMA DO by Eileen Cook

PERFECT YOU by Elizabeth Scott

KISSED BY AN ANGEL by Elizabeth Chandler

PERFECT SHOT by Debbie Rigaud

All of these books are ones that I either LOVED or heard great things about!!!

How to enter:

Simply comment on this post with your email address and one person, thing, book, activity, animal, ect. that you love by February 21st (one week after Valentine's Day). The first winner will be able to choose out of the five, then the second winner out of the four that are left, ect. until they are gone!!! This contest is open to those living in the United States only!

Don't forget to SPREAD THE LOVE by chatting about this post on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, ect.!!!

Happy Valentine's Day,

OfficiallyMRS

And the winner is....

And the winner of the signed copy of Melissa De La Cruz's BLUE BLOODS book is

Leigh!!!

Congratulations!! I've sent you an email!
Thanks to everyone who entered!!!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves ARC Review

So you guys remember how I am freaking obsessed with ARC copies? How I like knowing stuff before everyone else? You want to know what is better than an ARC copy?
An ARC with a story behind it.
While sending out emails to different publishers and authors about ARCs, I came upon Dia's book and immediately sent out an email to her.... requesting someone else's book. I was so embarrassed and immediately sent her an email explaining my add and complete lack of organization. Sorry about that Dia!!!


When I did get her book, I opened the envelope and stared at the sexy, beautiful and extremely purple cover.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, 1/5/10, Simon and Schuster

Love can be a dangerous thing. Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head
plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet
stuffed with frilly violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the
weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas, in search of a new
home. But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a
place for herself, she discovers the dark secrets that would terrify any normal
soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an
even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one
is safe.

From page one, I was fascinated by the beautiful and unique writing style, the strong sense of character, both from the main character, Hanna and her mother Rosalee. Add to it Hanna's hallucinations, a product of her maniac depression, and the strange town of Portero, Texas, and I could not put the book down.
People say that the difference between writing fantasy and writing real-life fiction can be defined by two questions. When an author chooses to write fantasy, the question the characters are trying to answer is what am I?
When writing fiction, they ask who am I?

"'I'm Finnish. And American. And white and black. And neither thing
excludes the other, regardless of what you've been taught to believe
(100).'"

While reading Dia's book, I found that both of these questions played a significant role as Hanna tries to cope with her mental instability, finding a place within this strange town, race, and unresolved family problems while also learning about the monsters that reside in Portero and how to become one of the Porterenes who have learned to live with and destroy them.

"'Because I'm biracial. People look at me and can't figure me out, so they
ask, 'What are you?' Like I', a whole other species. But you... are you
another species (97)?'"

Another thing I absolutely loved about BLEEDING VIOLET is that Hanna is a very strong character, and although she does have a tendency to vomit when under stress, she doesn't underestimate herself. As she says herself, she doesn't need a boy to take care of her, a fact which I don't think many teenage girls grasp. That being said, she does make mistakes, like any teenager. She isn't perfect by any definition, but she knows who she is and learns to deal with the consequences of her actions.
The subtle and gentle blend of the two questions is what makes BLEEDING VIOLET a unique and incredibly beautiful masterpiece. Although the book was a little gory for my taste, it had a perfect blend of romance, self-discovery, fantasy, and southern atmosphere, making it a book that is not to be missed. I loved it.
BLEEDING VIOLET is on sale January 5th, 2010. You can learn more about Dia Reeves by going to her website or following her on twitter.
Thank you Dia for the great read (and being cool with the whole I-emailed-you-about-someone-else's-book thing).
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Magic Under Glass by Jackie Dolamore

"Still, if I had a purpose, surely it must be to save Erris, and even Hollin himself. I had come to Lorinar to seek my fortune, but in four years, I had found nothing like fortune. I might as well have stayed in Tiansher if my life was to be an endless round of seedy halls and pennies for pay, watching the songs of my country lose their potency as they toughed indifferent ears. This was my chance to be something more, my chance to act."

-MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore

Bloomsbury, December 22nd, 2009

Nimira is a music-hall girl sed to dancing for pennies. So when wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing accompaniment to a mysterious piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it will be the start of a better life. In Parry's world, long-burried secrets are about to stir. Unsettling rumors begin to swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. When Nimira discovers that the spirit of a dashing fairy gentleman is trapped within the automaton, she is determined to break the curse. But even as the two fall into a love that seems hopeless, breaking the curse becomes a perilous race against time. Because it's not just the future of these star-crossed lovers that's at stake, but the fate of the entire magical world.

After being intrigued by the cover art, I contacted Bloomsbury books, who graciously sent me a review copy of MAGIC UNDER GLASS. When I recieved the book and read the back cover (above), I immediately put down whatever I was reading, pushed my homework aside and started in on this story.
However, when I continued to read, I found myself slightly disapointed. I am not going to say that I didn't enjoy this book. That would be a lie. I very much enjoyed it. The fact of the matter is that I found that I was not able to relate to anything going on in the main character, Nimira's, life, something that I find very important when writing fantasy.
The writing itself of the story added to this idea as well. Although extraordinarily beautiful and classic, the writing felt so remote to the world today that the characters and story felt even more distant.
That is not to say that I didn't love the writing style. Even though I felt it did make the story more remote, the words themselves added depth and detail to the story, making the fictional world in which the story took place to become unique, full and complete. The writing style also drove the story along. Sometimes, I felt as if the writing was a plot point in itself, something I have never before seen. Props to Jaclyn on making the book so beautiful in this regard.
The story itself was intriguing and unique. First off, the love interest, Erris, isn't even human. And when I say he isn't human, I don't mean he is a vampire or a werewolf or some other creature that children run from screaming. I mean he isn't alive. He is an object called an automaton, or a clockwork man. You know those little wind-up toys that you get as a kid that make wierd noises and jump around on the table? Yeah, Nimira falls in love with one of those, except there is someone trapped inside of it, who communicates with Nimira through a piano.
Another layer to the plot is the goings on in the house itself. Between Hollin, the master of the house, the crazy lady who roams the halls and the dynamic casts of maids, you are never bored even though 75 percent of the story takes place in the same Beauty and the Beast like castle. Not to mention the characters who don't live in the Hollin mainsion, such as the antagonist, the sorcerer Smollings.
The book itself was a quick read with a plot that wasn't at all repetitive or overdone in YA. A breath of fresh air, if you will. I was intrigued until the very end, and, although I am not compelled to read it over and over again, it was still a book worth reading.

Thank you Jaclyn for sharing your story with me and the rest of the world. Also, thank you Bloomsbury for sending me this ARC!

If you all haven't entered the contest to win a signed copy of Melissa De La Cruz's BLUE BLOODS, please do so! The link is posted in the contest box above this post. Also, I hope all of you guys have a safe and happy holiday!!!

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS