Skippyjon Jones, Class Action by Judy Schachner

Title: Skippyjon Jones, Class Action

Author: Judy Schachner

Length: 32 pages

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Classification: Children's Book

Release Date: September 2012

Source: Paperback

Skippyjon Jones really wants to go to school. School is for dogs, his mama tells him. It's where they go to get trained. But nothing can stop Skippy-once inside his closet, he finds himself on the playground of his imagination, surrounded by dogs of all kinds. He bays with the beagles, learns French with the poodles, and checks out a Chihuahua book from the library. And when a bully starts sending shiver-itos down the spines of the little yippers, Skippy saves the day and earns the biggest gold star. 

GoodReads |  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

Let's Build A Fan Cast: Throne of Glass-Nominations

(You can view the introduction post here.)

Hello everyone! 

For the month of September and for the very first Let's Build A Fan Cast, we are going to cast THRONE OF GLASS!

So it has been a little bit since I read Throne of Glass so I am hoping I got most of the main characters. There is a spot on the form that you can add a character and your nomination for that character. And then I will go back and add it to the form so others can nominate too.

Also, I haven't read Crown of Midnight yet. I plan on reading it soon, since my Pre-order of Heir of Fire has shipped! *happy dance*

So as a reminder this is what I plan on us doing:

• I have created a Google Form that you will find down below with some of the main characters from the book. 
• Answer under the character name with the name of the actor/actress that you nominate to Fan Cast.
• You could also create your own blog post with your nominations and link it up to the nomination post in the comments. 
• After about two weeks I will take the nominations (either all of them or the top 5 for each character depending on how many different nominations there are) and create a voting poll so everyone can vote for their favorites.

I plan to keep the form open for nominations until the end of the night on Saturday, September 13th. 

So that gives you two weeks to get your nominations in.

I will open the poll for voting on the nominations on Monday, September 15th. 

Voting will remain open for 2 weeks, ending Monday, September 29th. 

I hope everyone has fun doing this!

Top Ten Tuesday #26: Ten Books I Really Want to Read But Don't Own Yet

Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Their blog can be found here.

August 26: Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Own Yet

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

 Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door
(Anna and the French Kiss #2)
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Length: 338 pages
Publisher: Dutton Books/Speak
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: July 2013 (reprint)
Source: Paperback
Read: August 2014

Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the negihborhood. When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. 

GoodReads ||  Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million

***This is part of a series. There will be spoilers of things that happened in the other book(s) so if you haven't read it and don't want to know things that happened, please stop reading now.***

Check Out the Compulsion Book Trailer

Hello everyone!

Recently I was approved to read an e-galley of Compulsion by Martina Boone on Edelweiss (and I really like it! Review to come closer to release date).

(source)

Isn't the cover gorgeous?! I was so excited when the cover was revealed and it just made me more anxious to read the book.

So you can guess how excited I was to be approved by Simon Pulse for an e-galley of this book.

And since I am sharing my review yet, I still want to share my excitement for this book with you so...
I want to share the book trailer with you all in case you haven't seen it yet.

You can find it HERE on YouTube.

And on top of that, Martina is having an epic GIVEAWAY!

Currently there is a  Compulsion prize vault giveaway with tons of prizes. As more people watch the trailer, prizes will be unlocked. So make sure you spread the word and share it with your friends! And make sure to pay attention to when new prizes get unlocked.

You can find all that information on the same website shared above under the trailer.

Here is a link for the current giveaway. (Update 8/23: This giveaway has ended)
And a link for the newest giveaway.
(It is one of those share the link you get an extra entry, so thanks to anyone that enters via my link!)

Mini Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

Title: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die

Author: April Henry

Length: 224 pages

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Classification: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Release Date: June 11, 2013

Source: e-book (purchased)

Read: July 2014

“Take her out back and finish her off.” She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her. And that she must run. In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive. 

GoodReads ||  Amazon || Barnes & Noble || Books-a-Million

Top Ten Tuesday #25: Ten Books I've Been Told are a MUST Read

Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Their blog can be found here.

August 19: Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read (whether because they think it's a "you" book or it's just been generally recommended so often)

Introducing: Let's Build A Fan Cast

So I really enjoy making Fan Casts, but sometimes I have a hard time coming up with that perfect person I think would bring that character to life the best.

Then I was singing "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" in my head and I thought to myself:
"Do you wanna build a Fan Cast?"

After doing some looking around online (Special thanks to Cassie @ My Thoughts Literally for helping me!) we found that The Selective Collective does a Fan Cast feature, I emailed some of the bloggers that are a part of the group and Brittany (The Book Addict's Guide) and Kristina (Gone Pecan) gave me the go ahead, so I am going to share my idea with all of you!

• Each month I will pick (sometimes there might be a poll for the next book to fan cast) a book and I will make a post with what book we will be fan casting along with a Google form for you to nominate your pick for each character.
• You could also create your own blog post with your nominations and link it up to the nomination post in the comments. 
• After about two weeks I will take the nominations (either all of them or the top 5 for each character depending on how many different nominations there are) and create a voting poll so everyone can vote for their favorites.
• After the voting period, I will take the winners and create the fan cast and post the list on the blog. 

I really think this will be a lot of fun.

Since Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas will be released September 2nd, our first Let's Build A Fan Cast will be Throne of Glass. So start thinking of your nominations, the form will open Saturday, August 30th!

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss 
(Anna and the French Kiss #1)
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Length: 372 pages
Publisher: Dutton Books/Speak
Classification: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Release Date: August 4, 2011
(reprint)
Source: Paperback

Can Anna find love in the City of Light?Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her  affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's waiting for?

GoodReads |  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million 

Manroot by Anne Steinberg

Title: Manroot
Author: Anne Steinberg
Length: 258 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Classification: New Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Release Date: March 15, 2014 (first published September 1994)
Source: e-book (Thank you to the author for gifting me a copy of this book.)
Read: August 2014

In the spring of 1939, Katherine Sheahan and her father, the taciturn Irishman Jesse, are looking for work in the isolated tourist town of Castlewood, Missouri, which offers bathing, gambling and adultery. Jesse gets a job as handyman and Katherine as maid at a small hotel. Jesse drinks and neglects his work and eventually disappears, abandoning his daughter. Katherine discovers the ginseng, the manroot, and other secrets of the foothills; she discovers herself as a natural healer who has inherited this gift from her Navajo Indian mother. She also has a special but unwelcome gift. She can communicate with spirits. 
Among the hotel s regular clientele is Judge William Reardon, a local hero who metes out justice by day, then drinks the foul taste away at night. Escaping his sterile marriage, he becomes captivated by Katherine. He is like a man reborn. Theirs is a union of like-minded souls, but a dangerous dark magic is released. Can their love survive? 
A powerful, haunting novel that explores the powerful themes of identity and destiny, love everlasting and its brutal twin, violence. 

Goodreads || Amazon 

**This e-book was provided for me by the author and/or publicist in exchange for a honest review.**

Anna and the French Kiss Giveaway!

I have been really busy this summer and haven't read nearly as many books as I have wanted. But I did join the #IslaIsComing read-a-long hosted by Andi, Meg, Judith, Jamie, and Lindsey. (It is still currently happening, so you should join and read the books or reread to get read for the release of Isla and the Happily Ever After).

Banner created by Meg from Cuddlebuggery

Isn't the banner amazing?!

I am so happy that I joined this read-a-long. I had been wanting to read Anna and the French Kiss for a while, but I kept putting it off. It was fun to be able to share some parts that I really enjoyed reading on Twitter with others. I am excited to post my review this week.

A big THANKS to all the bloggers that are hosting this Read-a-long. I am enjoying it (even if I am behind!)

I haven't started Lola and the Boy Next Door yet, but I will be reading it this week. Then when I get my copy of Isla and the Happily Ever After in the mail, I will be ready to devour it!

Since Isla is coming out this week and because I LOVED Anna and the French Kiss so much, I have decided to have a giveaway for a copy of Anna and the French Kiss.

While I was on vacation, I went to Ollie's Bargain Outlet a lot. (Love that place.) And found a lot of books that I have been wanting. I also found copies of Anna and the French Kiss. 

The copy I am giving away is a paperback copy with this cover:

It does have that bargain book black stripe on the bottom of the book. 

The Giveaway:

• US ONLY (Sorry International readers, shipping is just too expensive to ship out of country)
• I am not responsible for lost items in the mail.
• The winner will be notified by email. Please respond in 72 hrs or another winner will be picked.
• I will check the entries, so please enter correctly. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday Thoughts #11: My Favorite Bookstore

Thursday Thoughts is a weekly discussion meme hosted by Ashley on her blog Ok, Let's Read.

Join in on the discussion and check out Ashley's blog for the discussion topics and dates.

August 7: My Favorite Bookstore - When it comes to buying books which store is your favorite? Do you prefer big chain stores or independent bookstores? Do you even have any independent bookstores near where you live? And, here's the one that's going to be the most revealing; How often would you say you go to the bookstore? Do you buy something every time you go there?

Top Ten Tuesday #24: Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read YA Contemporary

Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Their blog can be found here.

August 5: Top Ten Books I'd Give To Readers Who Have Never Read Contemporary

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Title: Grave Mercy 

(His Fair Assassin #1)

Author: Robin LaFevers

Length: 576 pages

Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers

Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Release Date: April 3, 2012

Source: e-book (purchased)

Read: July 2014

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? 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? 

GoodReads |  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million

July Highlights

July was a busy month for me. I spent most of my time with my family and didn't read as many books as I usually do. I also started some new TV shows and caught up on a couple that I have been behind on. But I have been feeling like I haven't been reading much.