New Cover...

This has been floating around for a little while, but Penguin posted it on their Facebook page...this morning? Last night? One or the other so I'm guessing it's offical now, when I'd seriously been hoping it wasn't the final version. Here is the UK cover for Last Sacrifice, the final Vampire Academy book by Richelle Mead.

Please excuse me while I now scream and rant some. (want to skip the fuss, scroll down...)

WHAT THE EFFING HELL!?!?!

Okay, I feel a little better. Sort of. Now let me explain. For those who don't know, when the UK (finally) had rights for VA and started releasing them, they took the new versions of the US covers for Vampire Academy and Frostbite (books 1 & 2). Then before 3 (Shadow Kiss) they decided on a redesign. Books 1-5 took on the US modal image and put it on a black background with some pretty swirls (see below). Not my favourite covers, I love the VA gates on the US ones, but good covers anyway (in person, they don't look good on screen, and okay, I'm not a fan of the Spirit Bound cover at all). Now, for the final one, they decided to change things agian. For the final one!!! Instead of the US cover modal, it's a black heart design (which I don't like). Instead of all black, it's all red. The only thing they haven't changed from the 'new' UK versions, is the font for 'Vampire Academy' (which I've never really been a fan of).

When Penguin posted this cover, I commented that I wasn't happy because a) I didn't like it and b) it was different to the rest. They commented back that the rest of the series are going to be rereleased at the same time as Last Sacrifice is released with all red covers to match. I've seen no sign of this on Waterstones or Amazon.co.uk's sites though, so...guess we'll see.

So once again I'm screaming in frustration and anger. One change to make UK covers different to US I get. A second change, for the final effing book, just one year later, I really, really don't get. It's annoying because it means covers don't match. It means no continuity. And for new readers I'm sure confusing, for potential readers, how are they going to know they're all the same series? Sure they all say 'Vampire Academy' on them but do they look like they're from the same series? Um, I think not. Not a happy VA fan today. Not at all.

Straight comments on the cover minus all the side fuss. It's not pretty. The fonts/title/author name placement don't work with a solid background like that and no design to fit around it. The 'blood dripping' from the top right corner seems a little tacky and cliched to me, along with the dripping black heart. The birds in the black heart along with whatever else is there that I can't make out, I just plain don't get. It's plain and I don't think it's the kind of thing I would look at and go 'ooh I wanna read that!'. Instead I'm looking at it and thinking 'erm, tacky, cliched vampire crap...??' Which is very, very unfortunate because I'm a huge Vampire Academy fan and Richelle's work is a gazillion miles from cliched, tacky and crap. I'm curious though, to what others, who care less or none about the cover change, what do you think of it? I promise not to delete comments simply cause you disagree with me ;-) I'm genuinely curious and want to know what others think of it, because clearly, I am not impressed.

There are so many beautiful, stunning YA covers out there, and yes I know you can't please everyone, but it kind of seems to me like VA (in the UK at least) has never been given a chance with a stunning cover. Which royally pisses me off because they're some of the very best YA UF books out there. I like the current UK covers, but I don't love them, I think if they were going to change from the US versions, they should have been given a complete overhaul, not a half-assed one which they then decided to change again, because this is crazy.

The one thing about this that makes me laugh? Around April/May, I bought the UK covers, despite having the US ones, because I had to get a UK copy of Spirit Bound in order to read it on release day. I thought what the heck, they're pretty covers and then I'll have a whole matching UK set alongside my US one. One of my best twitter buddies (I forget which of the two it was, we were all chatting together that night), Aly or Nikki, said 'I'd wait til the last one is out, in case they change them again'. I basically blew the comment off saying 'Nah, it'll be fine, they won't change them again now.' How wrong was I. And I owe one of them, possibly both, an apology!! 

The 'new' (old now I suppose) UK covers for 1-5:

Meeting Jennifer Lynn Barnes & Maggie Stiefvater + Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED. Winner announced shortly.

Last night was such an awesome night!! Brits won team gold and individual silver in the eventing at WEG!! So awesome to watch, really wish I'd been there in person. But if I had been then I'd have missed earlier awesomeness of listening to and meeting Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Raised by Wolves) and Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver/Linger) at the Bath Children's Lit Fest! And that would have been very sad, so I'm not really disappointed to have not been in Kentucky yesterday ;)

Jen reading from Raised by Wolves

Maggie kicked things off by (in theory) answering questions such as why she chose werewolves, where her inspiration came from, things like that. But she's very good at dodging questions and never really gave a straight answer to them. Which was just fine because she was so hilarious going about it that it really didn't matter. I think the audience spent half the time she was talking, laughing.

Then Jennifer stepped up and spoke about the same things, only she gave real answers ;) Not to mention sharing a very amusing story about being attacked by/running away from a monkey she was studying a few years ago. She got away because she dropped the lemons she was holding at the time and the monkey decided they'd be nicer than her. *chuckles* And you'll just have to trust me when I say the story had relevance.

After that they both did a short reading, followed by a q & a, in which Maggie didn't dodge questions and both continued to show their sense of humor. It was a really awesome time. They were both so full of energy and passion for what they were talking about, not to mention very funny! Then there was the signing and they're both really lovely as well!! Jennifer signed a UK copy of Raised by Wolves so I could give it away here, as well as my personal US copy (she apparently hadn't seen the two next to each other before then, which I find oddly cool). And when Maggie asked me if I'd cried reading either Shiver or Linger I admitted no, not quite (I got pretty close towards the end of Linger, but I didn't actually cry). She was clearly disappointed with my answer:

Suffice to say it was a fantastic event, and I'm really hoping they both come back to the UK at a later date (preferably when I've managed to read both their backlists so I can give them lots more books to sign!).

Giveaway!

First off, big apologies for not being able to offer a signed copy of any of Maggie's books. I would have loved to be able to offer both, but couldn't afford more books :(

- Open to UK only - again, big apologies. I wish I could open this up internationally but right now I can't afford shipping outside the UK.
- To enter, fill out the form below. Only thing you must do is to leave a name and email address, but there are bonus entries you can gain as well.
- Closes Sunday 17th October midnight UK time.
- Winner will be picked via Random.org, announced on the blog and emailed, will then have 48 hours to reply before a new winner is picked.

Extra entries available as follows:
+2 for being a follower (old or new)
+1 for being a twitter follower (@cem_214)
+2 for tweeting about the giveaway (mention @cem_214 so I can keep track)
+5 for blog post about the giveaway

If you don't leave links for the extra entires, they won't count!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday, what are you reading? is a weekly post hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey, giving the chance to share what you've been reading over the past week and plan on reading over the coming one.

Lack of reading again this week because it's WEG (Wold Equestrian Games) *happy sigh* so I've spent at least half the week sat watching TV or the online coverage and watching the Brits win world silver Dressage medals and break British dressage score records and the Eventing team win and basically having an awesome time, but wishing I was there to see it all in person!! Still, I managed to read a little:

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams [review]
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater [review]

And I'm currently reading To Kill a Warlock by H. P. Mallory.

My plans for this week, though likely to be hampered once more by my desire to watch more of WEG, include yet another repeat from the previous two weeks, Gone by Lisa McMann (but I really will read it this time because I'm starting it soon as I'm done with my current read), and also:

Matched by Ally Condie (the ARC copy I won a couple weeks back)

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.

Okay, so if you've been around a little while you'll know I adore Vampire Academy and have read all the books a few times (well, except Blood Promise, but that's irrelevant). But Vampire Book Club are hosting a reread for the series through October and November in the run up to the release of the final (*sob*) book of the series, Last Sacrifice. So I'm hoping to start on said reread with VA this week :)

So what have you been reading?

Contest to Check Out! [7]

The lovely, awesome Heidi over at Nice Girls Don't Read Naughty Books has a new interview with author Rachel Vincent up. And she's offering someone the chance to win a Shifters tote bag she made herself, which is awesome and I soo want one! It's a US only contest though so sadly I'm out for this one. But you all should go check it out anyway here, because it's awesome, ends Oct 15th. :)

Also don't forget that soon as I hit 100 followers (I'm at 80 as I post this) I'll be hosting a followers giveaway and I'm offering the chance now to gain some bonus entries. See my post here for details!

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Book two of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Some spoilers for book one, Shiver, ahead.

"I feel the weight of the pack's gaze...

Grace and Sam must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past...and figuring out a way to survive the future.

But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace realizes she's changing in ways she could never have expected..."

Linger is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series from Maggie Stiefvater. I made no secret of my dislike of book one, Shiver. I barely got through it, and then just about everyone who was reading it around the same time was loving it and I was wondering what the hell I had missed. It wasn't bad exactly, but it was all romance and nothing else. Sometimes, I can deal with that, but I didn't like Sam. He was too sappy and soft. I didn't like Grace much more, so between them, I had no interest in seeing if the relationship would work or not. I think, had Maggie not been coming to the UK, not been taking part in a joint talk about writing werewolves with Jennifer Lynn Barnes (author of the awesome Raised by Wolves) this weekend one town over from me, I wouldn't have bothered reading Linger. But she is, and as such I felt I should probably read book 2 before I go. To say I'm surprised in my opinion of Linger would be an understatement. I liked it. A lot. Verged on loving it at times. *shakes head wryly*

Linger continues Sam and Grace's story, but it involves two other characters as well: Isabel, and Cole one of Beck's new wolves from Shiver. So instead of being from two different view points, the story is told from four. I could very happily have read a book solely from Isabel and Cole's POV's. I still don't like Same or Grace very much, they grated on my nerves several times, but when ever it switched to Cole or Isabel, I struggled to put it down. Both characters are, to me at any rate, far more interesting, with a much bigger story to tell.

Isabel is obviously dealing with the death of her brother still. While Cole is, well, more than a little damaged for many reasons. But unlike Sam who is kinda lost in sadness a lot, Cole is a straight up asshole who makes it clear right from the start. Damaged, werewolf, being a total jerk because it's easier? Help. I totally fell for him. And Isabel with her issues and often less than warm personality I also liked. I a lot. I felt I could actually connect with these characters, get involved in their issues. I wanted to fight for them, hug them when they needed it and slap them when they deserved it as well. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that there is a little romance between the two. But what surprised me, was how little there was between them in that sense. Unlike Grace and Sam who have only ever had romance between them, these two have a whole lot more going on with them. Thank goodness. I don't mean to sound harsh saying that, but for me, it's needed. It's the whole reason why I liked this book so much.

And, I confess, I did like some of the story with Grace and Sam as well. It played well in to the rest, fitting with Cole and Isabel. Actually, there is more focus on Grace and Sam still, but I paid less attention to them. I wish there had been more of Isabel and Cole, more of their story, because while I am now interested in what's going to happen with Grace and Sam (something I really didn't think I could care about), I'm still far more interested and invested in Isabel and Cole's story.

I found Shiver pretty predictable, and because I didn't care enough about the characters, I was happy to skip to the end and see if I was right about it (which I was). Linger was similar, not in plot, but in how early you can figure out the outcome. I guessed early on what I thought would happen, but unlike Shiver, I wanted to see it unfold for Cole and Isabel, I didn't want to skip over anything. I wasn't wrong in my predictions, although there were a couple little things I hadn't guessed, but they weren't a surprise either. I'm already predicting the outcome of the final book, Forever (out 2011), but I am looking forward to it now, I want to see how it unfolds. I think my biggest disappointment with this book (which, admittedly I'm not too disappointed with cause hey, never expected to even like the book) is that while I felt Sam and Grace's story kind of got to a suitable 'stopping point' for the end of this book, I didn't feel the same about Cole and Isabel. I felt they got a little forgotten at the end when Grace and Sam's story took over completely again. But, like I said, I didn't expect to like this, so I'm not that disappointed really, just would have been nice to have more of them. Overall, very pleased with this book and while I don't think I can really recommend Shiver (plenty love it, I'm sure my best friend who has it but hasn't yet started will adore it) because of how much I didn't enjoy it, I would certainly recommend this. The internal conflict both Isabel and Cole face, and the way they play off each other, Sam and Grace, is very well done and makes for a very interesting story I found oddly hard to turn away from.

Rating: 7/10

Mini Reviews - Unraveled, The Chosen One

Been meaning to review these two titles for a while, if I don't review either of them soon then they won't get done, so rather than try and force full reviews that I just can't come up with right now, here's mini ones to give you an idea of what I thought.

Unraveled by Gena Showalter - Intertwined #2. Spoilers for book one ahead!

"For once, sixteen-year-old Aden Stone has everything he's ever wanted:
A home.
Friends.
The girl of his dreams.
Too bad he's going to die...

Since coming to Crossroads, Oklahoma, former outcast Aden Stone has been living the good life. Never mind that one of his best friends is a werewolf, his girlfriend is a vampire princess who hungers for his blood, and he's supposed to be crowned Vampire King - while still human! Well, kind of.

With four - oops, three now - human souls living inside his head, Aden has always been "different" himself. These souls can time-travel, raise the dead, possess another's mind and, his least favourite these days, tell the future.

The forecast for Aden? A knife through the heart."

I liked Intertwined a lot by the end and was really looking forward to finding out what would happen next for Aden, his souls, Mary, Riley and Victoria. Unraveled was a really good follow up for the most part, but it's long at 572 pages, and I found myself feeling very ready to move on long before I finished. It actually is good all the way through, not often dragging, but because I had other things going on it took me four days to finish and I get antsy staying on the same book for that long. I like Aden and Victoria, but more often than not, I was far more interested in what was going on with Riley and Mary. Riley is by far my favourite character (he's a werewolf and I'm a wolf-girl so this really isn't surprising) and with Mary being his love interest and having a complicated but great storyline, I'm wanting her story as well. If the book was purely about them I think I'd be perfectly happy.

There is a lot going on in the book, and it's got a fair bit of action, but it does feel like it takes a while to really get anywhere at times. There were some great moments, and some great twists as well. Overall I did really enjoy the book and I'm really looking forward to book three, Twisted (out 2011), because I want more Riley. I think I'd have been better off reading this at a time where I could have read it over 2 days instead and I probably would have gotten a lot more out of it. Still, it's a good read, good follow up to Intertwined, just a little too long and drawn out for me this time. If you liked Intertwined then this should be a must, it's a great continuation of the story.

Rating: 7/10


The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams - received for review from UK Book Tours.

"Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father’s three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. Or at least without questioning them much—if you don’t count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her 60-year-old uncle—who already has six wives—Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family."

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this book. It's a short read, barely 200 pages, and it's certainly got the edge to make it a very emotional read. But I found after a short time that while I wanted to know what happened, I was quite happy to skip to the end and read it. It wasn't too hard to see what would happen, and when I did get to the end (I did end up more or less reading it right through) it ended abruptly with little clean up. I liked Kyra, I felt very sorry for her, and the other kids, because they really didn't know any better than what was told to them. I know this should have been a read that made me think, that made me care more for those who are in this situation in reality, but somehow the book just didn't work for me. Wasn't a lack of care on my part, because it was uncomfortable, painful reading when I was in to it. But...I don't know. Maybe it was made too obvious who we were meant to hate, what we were meant to feel. It wasn't a bad read exactly, but it didn't work for me.

Rating: 4/10

Book Of The Month [2]

Book of the Month is a monthly post started by Giota over at Just Another Book Blog giving the chance to share your favourite read of the past month.

Choosing isn't easy, not even a shortlist is easy, but here it is (in no order):
Angel by L. A. Weatherly [review]
Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin [review]
Fade by Lisa McMann [review]
Hourglass by Claudia Gray [review]

But my Book of the Month for September goes to: Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews.

The second book from their The Edge series follows a very broken hero, William a changeling wolf, and a very kick ass girl, Cerise. There wasn't anything about the book I didn't love. See my review here for more details.

So what's your book of the month?

Book Shelves

Excuse the random post but I've been wondering about something. How do you arrange your books on your shelves/bookcases/wherever?

I've never been able to organize alphabetically because I have to keep all my faves together. And size matters as well! Until a couple of weeks ago I mixed YA/adult books on those top faves shelves. Then I ran out of space and split them because I could fit things better that way. Now I'm thinking about yet another change and having one of those top faves shelves become my signed books shelf (right now signed books are just with their correct series on the faves shelves, no special place).

In my room I've got two tall bookcases (only half of one is dedicated to books, the other half holds my TV and dvds), one short bookcase and two wall units, which have two shelves each. Those wall units are my faves shelves (really, it's a wonder the walls haven't fallen down with the weight on them) and as it stands right now this is what they look like:

Adults faves - (my walls are not that bright! Silly flash)

YA faves - (...also deeper red than they look here. *sigh*)

Very neat and I was very happy with the sort out I last did. But. It can't last because as you can see, there is not a lot of space to play with. It will take very little time for them to be full. So if I'm going to have to do yet another sort out, should I be switching how I organize by books?

How do you all organize books? What matters for you? Size? Alphabetically? Favourites? Genre? Comment away!

Cover Love!

Chances are you've seen this one already, I've been meaning to post it for a while. It's the US cover for Shadowspell by Jenna Black, the second book in her YA series Faeriewalker, follow up to Gimmerglass [review]. I adored Glimmerglass, it's got to be my favourite fae book to date, so I can't wait for the second one in Feb 2011 [edit: double checked that date, is actually out Jan 4th! Yay!!]. And I am soo in love with the cover for it as well!!

Simply stunning right? Thoughts, opinions?

BBB Event with Rachel Vincent

Rachel Vincent, author of the awesome Shifters series, and YA series Soul Screamers, is over at Bitten By Books today celebrating the release of the final (sob!) Shifers book, Alpha. (Which released yesterday by the way, I meant to repost my review which is here, but, erm, forgot. I blame WEG). She's answering questions left in the the comments as well as offering an awesome prize of an entire set of signed Shifters books and (as if that wasn't good enough!) a signed set of Soul Screamers book 1-4, which includes an ARC of My Soul To Steal which isn't out til Jan 1st!! A seriously awesome prize if there ever was one. So head on over there and check it out!!