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Saturday, March 31, 2012

In My Mailbox (17)

Hi everyone! Guess what time of the week it is again?? Yep, you got it-- it's In My Mailbox time!! WOOHOO! IMM is hosted by the lovely Kristi over at the Story Siren, so go check it out if you're new. And of course, watch my v-log below to see what fab stuff I received this week! :)


~Goodreads Links~





Like my video? Please like it on YouTube and subscribe to my channel at Libraryland84 :)
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~Other News~
Congratulations to Lisa and Leanne for winning my Hunger Games Movie Premier Giveaway!
I am currently holding another Giveaway in celebration of my One Year Blog Birthday-- just click on the button below, or look in my sidebar to enter for a chance to win TWO books of your choice-- yes it is international!! :D
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday (25)


For those who don't know, Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly book meme where we get to let everyone know about what books we are eagerly anticipating the release of. WoW is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Want to participate? Grab the logo on her page, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave your link on her blog!
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OMGosh!! I have not done a WoW in FOREVER!! I've totally missed doing them and am so happy to post one this week, especially since it's for a book that I am just DYING to get my hands on!!

This week's Waiting on Wednesday pick is...

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Pages: 436
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Summary: In this exhilarating companion to Printz Award winner and National Book Award finalist Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi brilliantly captures a dark future America that has devolved into unending civil wars, driven by demagogues who recruit children to become soulless killing machines. Two refugees of these wars, Mahlia and Mouse, are known as "war maggots": survivors who have barely managed to escape the unspeakable violence plaguing the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities. But their fragile safety is threatened when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool, who is hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers. When tragedy strikes, Mahlia is faced with an impossible decision: risk everything to save the boy who once saved her, or flee to her own safety. Drawing upon the brutal truths of current events, The Drowned Cities is a powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.

Why I'm Waiting!

Um, OK guys so the first book in this series Shipbreaker?? Probably one of the best books I have EVER read and reviewed on LC's Adventures in Libraryland-- I mean, I LOVED it. I had no idea that there was going to be a sequel, so when I stumbled upon this in a library catalog I just about peed my pants. (Not really but you get the gist, I was flipping excited). I love YA books written by male authors with male protagonists, because they are so hard to find and this one ROCKS. If you haven't read Shipbreaker yet, I highly recommend it! Here is my review and here it is on Goodreads :)

Note! If you haven't entered my One Year Blog Birthday Giveaway yet, be sure to check it out in    my sidebar-- it's International and it's AWESOME!! :D  ------------------->                                              

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Birthday Giveaway! LC's Adventures Turns One Year Old!

So I can't even believe it, but today is March 26th and  it has been exactly one year (and 3 days haha) since I started LC's Adventures in Libraryland!! And boy let me tell you, a lot has happened in that year. I am beyond happy to have found such a wonderfully supportive online community of fellow book lovers, authors, publishers, and others who share an enthusiasm for reading, writing and blogging. I love all of you guys! No way did I think this time last year-- when I was still so new to blogging-- that I would now have the kind of blog that I have today. So here is a brief year in review-- and then a GIVEAWAY of course!!! :D

Some Highlights!

First Book Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate
First Blog Follower: Deborah from Deborah's Books (She also gave me my first blog award, and I cannot thank her enough for being such a cheerleader for my blog when it was just starting out!)
First Book Blog Meme: In My Mailbox!
Biggest Questions: What are these "ARC" things and how do you make a grab button?
Biggest Help: Parajunkee's Book Blogging 101-- I think I read every single entry she wrote!!

Favorite Part About Blogging:

My favorite part about being a book blogger is getting to know all the other amazing book bloggers out there and-- of course!-- talk about books. I love blogging because of the awesome community of book bloggers, and if it wasn't for you guys, blogging would not be nearly as fun or rewarding, so a big THANK YOU to you all! :)

 A Year in Review!

82,400 Page Views 1,654 Followers ❤ 194 Posts ❤ 84 Reviews ❤ 6 Giveaways

The Changing Faces of LC's Adventures in Libraryland:
My blog has undergone several changes over the past year! I've loved each and every design I created for LC's Adventures, and now I have settled on something that is all me :)

March 2011

July 2011

January 2012

Today:

A Big Thanks!

These are some bloggers who I'd like to thank-- and I'd thank many more if I had the room, because there are so many who have supported and/or inspired me in my blogging endeavors. Thanks girls! :)

Deborah at Deborah's Books
Evie at Bookish
Giselle at Book Nerd Canada
Haley at Ya-Aholic

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Giveaway Time!

WOOHOO, OK onto the good stuff! In celebration of my bloggy birthday, I'm hosting a fabulous giveaway to say "thank you" to all my wonderful followers! I will be giving away TWO (2) BOOKS to a first place winner, and ONE (1) BOOK to a second and third place winner!! Winners get THEIR CHOICE of any books they want from The Book Depository-- Up to a $24 value for first place and up to a $12 value for second and third place!

~Enter to Win!~

1.) Be a follower of LC's Adventures in Wonderland-- or become a new follower :)
2.) Fill out the Rafflecopter form below-- it's that easy!
3.) There are TONS of chances to win because there are TONS of ways to get extra entries, so go wild lol! :P

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Book Review: Born At Midnight

Author: C.C. Hunter
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Series: Shadow Falls #1
Release Date: March 29, 2011
Pages: 398
Read it in: 3 days
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Summary: One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

LC's Take:

So I know this probably goes without saying, but I just adore fun books with fun, snarky main characters who make me laugh. I love reading from the voice of a down-to-earth, yet slightly goofy chick who has confidence and isn't afraid to make fun of herself a little. I also love when that same snarky, fun character has a serious side as well, with real emotions and issues that are tough to deal with. And so the main reason I loved Born At Midnight was because Kylie, the main character, was all of the above.

Seriously guys, read this book just because of Kylie, that's all I'm saying! She was an awesome character who was easy to relate to-- you just can't help but love her. The poor girl has to go through so many things throughout this book, including her parent's divorce, dealing with her friend Sara's pregnancy scare, a broken heart from her ex-boyfriend Trey, and then to top it all off, dealing with a major identity crisis! After getting landed at Shadow Falls Camp, Kylie has to try and not only figure out who she is, but what she is, since it becomes clear that she's not totally human, but no one can really explain for sure what makes Kylie so different... To make matters worse, she has a creepy ghost she's nicknamed "Soldier Dude" following her around wherever she goes, and even in the supernatural world, it's not a common thing to be able to see dead people.

Another thing I totally loved about this book was that it took place at a summer camp-- and not just any summer camp, but one especially for supernaturals. This was such a fun twist on the typical "boarding school" kind of story, and I thought it made the book both unique and memorable.

And then we have the boy love interests: Trey is the guy who ditched Kylie awhile back, but she can't seem to get over him. Derek is the super-sexy half-fey guy she meets at Shadow Falls Camp, and he was definitely swoon-worthy! And then there's Lucas, a werewolf who's more on the dark and dangerous side, but who Kylie can't help but be equally attracted to. So yes, there was plenty of romance and love triangles and quadrangles going on in this book, but it was still fun to read about! 

The deliciously suspenseful cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter definitely made Born at Midnight impossible to put down-- it was like getting to the end of a TV show that you're just dying to see the next episode of because it ended by leaving you on the edge of your seat, biting your nails to get to the next plot twist. That really made this book fun to read!

The only thing that threw me off a little bit was the gigantic mish-mash of supernatural and paranormal genres-- I didn't mind there being faeries, witches, vampires, unicorns and werewolves all together in the same story,  but then there was also talk about Kylie being "descended from the Gods," and at that point I was just like, whoa whoa-- what?! There are gods in this book too?? Adding in mythology when there are already so many different things going on in the plot made it a little more difficult for me to follow. Oh, and the eyebrow-twitching thing was also a little weird. Basically, supernaturals can "twitch" their eyebrows to get a vibe about another supernatural, and I kept trying to picture this in my head, and every time ended up mentally giggling to myself :)

Overall Born at Midnight was a great book because it had a fun setting and fun characters, and the plot was definitely suspenseful and kept me reading. I would highly recommend picking up this book if you like the whole "boarding school" genre, or reading any kind of supernatural story. 

~Cover Love~

OMGosh, this is total cover love! Not only did this cover draw me in right away with the mysterious picture of the split tree and girl, but it's like, purple and silvery! This is one of those covers that is beautiful anyways, but when you see it in person, it's even better. I also think that the girl looks just like Kylie would look.

LC's Rating:
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Awesome characters and a suspenseful story line made this book a must-read! Add in the fact that it takes place at a summer camp for supernaturals, and you have yourself one awesome book-- definitely have this one bumped UP on your TBR lists! :D

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Book Blog Makeover: Lost Amongst the Shelves!

Hi guys! So today I thought I'd share with you the latest book blog makeover I've been working on, for the lovely Kristan over at Lost Amongst the Shelves...

Kristan emailed me a little over a week ago, looking for an entirely new look for her blog-- one that was super cute and girly with a peach and lavender color palette (lavender is her fave color!) and a header that had an illustration of herself and her long-haired chihuahua, Jack. So after chatting a bit about the entire design, I started work on custom avatars of Kristan and Jack, and added in a fancy bookshelf and some other details. Sticking with the lavender and peach theme, we also worked on some custom social media icons, post dividers, and a custom menu bar at the top. To tie it all together, we decided on a light-lavender background with a swirly scroll-pattern.

And here are the before and after pics!

~Old Design~

~New Design!~

Want to check out Kristan's fabulous book blog? Just click here, to see her entire site, and be sure to follow her too! :)

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Hunger Games Movie Premier Giveaway!!




OK guys, so I know everyone is SUPER EXCITED about The Hunger Games movie coming out this Friday, March 23rd, and I am pretty much dying to see it as well! So I thought in celebration of the movie, I would do an AWESOME GIVEAWAY for you guys with some sweet prize packs to win!! 






You can watch this short video clip to see what the prizes are! :)
Open to US residents only (sorry to all my int'l followers, I'll be having another giveaway VERY SOON that will be open internationally!)

Fabulous, right??! OK, so all you have to do is fill out this entry form to be eligible to WIN!!
Note: If you want to grab the giveaway button to put in your sidebar for extra entries, it is right below this Rafflecopter Entry Form...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And here is the lovely Hunger Games Giveaway Button you can grab to put in your sidebar for extra entries :)
Good luck everyone and-- may the odds be ever in your favor!!
(Duh, of course I had to say that lol )
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Saturday, March 17, 2012

In My Mailbox (16)

Hi everyone, and thank you for stopping by! Here is what I've gotten in my mailbox recently :)



~Goodreads Links~

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
Black City by Elizabeth Richards
The Right and the Real by Joelle Anderson
Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein
Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

What did you get in your mailbox this week??
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Saturday, March 10, 2012

Book Review: Fever

Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Series: The Chemical Garden #2
Release Date: February 16, 2012
Pages: 341
Read it in: Longer than you want to know, but it had nothing to do with actual book...
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Summary: Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

LC's Take:

So I have to start by just saying that Lauren DeStefano seriously puts me into a trance with her writing, it's that flipping good. Her world-building and descriptive abilities are incredible, and she was easily able to carry me back into Rhine's world in this second book-- one that is both beautiful and disturbing at the same time.

Fever begins after Rhine has managed to escape from the mansion where she was being held captive as a "sister-wife," forced to marry and ideally produce children to make up for the deadly virus that has overtaken the population. Rhine and Gabriel are now on the run, to escape from Linden's sadistic father, Housemaster Vaughn, and find Rhine's twin back in Manhattan.

Rhine has matured in this book, and continues to grow and become stronger and more resilient throughout her journey back home. I really liked that she wasn't afraid to fight for her life and protect those she loves. Fever also helped me to come to better terms with Rhine's decision to leave the mansion in the first place-- I remember thinking while reading Wither, why the heck is she so upset with being chosen to be a sister wife? You know, besides the whole being-kidnapped-to-become-a baby-machine-thing, the gig wasn't so bad compared to how crap-tastic her life in Manhattan was before. I think that you really see in this book how Rhine starts questioning whether or not life in the mansion was so bad after all, and what price she has to pay to have any sort of "freedom" in the real world-- which in this case, is pretty dark and nightmarish, too.

Then we have Gabriel... OK, so it's not that I don't like him, I mean he's a nice guy, he's always there for Rhine, and he does what is right, but at the same time I find him to be sort of generic. Well, actually scratch that-- I find him to be dull as a doornail. It's almost like, OK, we have to have a male love interest in this book, so we'll throw in Gabriel and make him the perfect guy but not spend too much time giving him an actual personality or anything that would help me to connect and relate to him as a human being. And not JUST a human being, but one who has just been torn from the only world he's ever known to run away with a girl who has no clue what she's doing or what her ultimate goal is. Yes, he gets sort of pissy at some points in the book, but seriously dude, punch a wall or something! Gabriel just seems like more of a (boring) ideal than an actual person.

As for the other characters, Housemaster Vaughn proved himself once again to be one of the evilest evil villains ever, and his sadistic experiments and torturous procedures were pretty hideous. And yet, the guy does have a motive, which I have to give him credit for. It's refreshing because I feel like in so many YA books it's difficult to figure out what everyone's motive is and why they're doing what they do, but all of this is laid out pretty well. His son Linden is a ghost we hardly ever see, even more washed out and unmemorable than he was in the first book, and Cecily returns with all her sweet, sexy charm to try and help Rhine. And can I just say, I loved Maddie-- seriously she was probably my fave character of the whole book, because without speaking a word, she had so much personality and quirkiness and this creepy-cuteness, that I just couldn't help but love her.

I also really loved the parts having to do with Madame's carnival and I could literally picture every scene-- the prostitutes in the tents, the rusty Ferris wheel, the feeling of desperation underlying this supposedly magical place-- just the whole atmosphere of rot and decay underlying an illusion of youth and beauty, it really stuck with me. That, and the world-building took my breath away.

I guess my one major problem with Fever was that it suffered a little from S.B.S.-- also known as Second Book Syndrome. S.B.S. is characterized by little to no action in the plot line, scenes that drag on and on and seem to have very little point to the overall story, and few if any ground-breaking revelations or "aha!" moments that would otherwise break up the monotony of description and inner-dialogue. There were parts of this book that just seemed to drag on for pages and pages at a time, leaving me wondering when on earth the plot was going to finally pick up again, and when they were going to stop wandering aimlessly around. (It wasn't as bad as Crossed, AKA Matched #2, but it got close a few times.) The first part of the book was absolutely brilliant, no doubt-- I just wish that it could have kept with the fast-paced action and suspense that it started out with!

Altogether, Fever was a good installation in The Chemical Garden series, and Lauren DeStefano is such an incredible writer. Admittedly, I didn't find this second book to be as jaw-droppingly incredible as the first one, but it was still enjoyable. I guess the problem with amazing debut novels is that any book coming after has a lot to live up to. Fever was a good read, but I was so excited and expectant when I got my hands on it finally, that I was ultimately a little let down with the overall story. How do you think it compares to the first? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

~Cover Talk~

When I first saw this cover on Goodreads and other people's blogs I wasn't initially a fan, I guess because I thought the girl looked stoned or something, but once I got an actual copy in my hands, it took my breath away. And did I mention that UNDER the book jacket the actual bound book is hot pink?! Oh yeah, that gives it two thumbs up in my book any day. Not to mention that the overall design of this series so far is absolutely stunning-- the credits, title page, even the publication info on the inside has this amazing detail throughout that is just gorgeous and totally unique. If I were ever to have a book published, in my dreams it would look like this!

LC's Rating:
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More beautiful writing and world-building, although somewhat slow about half-way through. Fever is another example of Lauren DeStefano's amazing ability to write, but the plot itself suffered a bit from Second Book Syndrome.
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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Book Blog Makeover: The Bookaholic!

Hi everyone, today I want to show you another book blog makeover that I just finished working on, for the lovely Pixie over at The Bookaholic!

Pixie was looking for a new blog header and grab button to give her bookish blog a bit of a face-lift, sticking with a purple theme with hints of hot pink and neon green, and including fairies. Here are the before and after pics of Pixie's design. Also, be sure to visit The Bookaholic and follow Pixie's awesome blog! You can click on the image of her new design to hop on over ;)

~Before~

~After~
Note: Pixie may be adding a patterned background in the future-- I was commissioned mainly for the header and grab button  ;)

Are you looking for a blog makeover? Check out my design page for packages and pricing and send me an email with your ideas!

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Creative Commons License