All About {n}

Tuesday

GIVEAWAY: An Object of Beauty

Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Her ascension to the highest tiers of the city parallel the soaring heights - and, at times, the dark lows - of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today.

GIVEAWAY: I have 1 copy up for grabs thanks to the lovely folks over at HBG.

As always, leave a comment for one entry. If you'd like extra entries just say so in your comment or separate comments (extra entries for followers, Twitter, sidebars, All About {n} button, Facebook, etc.) Make sure to leave an e-mail address, especially if you are leaving comment under Anonymous.

Rules: This contest is open to US and Canada only. Winner will be drawn Sunday, December 12.

GIVEAWAY: Rescue

A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma--streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast.

Can you ever really save another person? Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Peter is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. But Rowan is veering dangerously off track, and for the first time in their ordered existence together, Webster fears for her future. His work shows him daily every danger the world contains, how wrong everything can go in a second. All the love a father can give a daughter is suddenly not enough.

Sheila's sudden return may be a godsend--or it may be exactly the wrong moment for a lifetime of questions and anger and longing to surface anew. What tore a young family apart? Is there even worse damage ahead? The questions lifted up in Anita Shreve's utterly enthralling new novel are deep and lasting, and this is a novel that could only have been written by a master of the human heart.

Rules: This contest is open to US and Canada only. Winner will be drawn Sunday, December 12.

GIVEAWAY: The Wolves of Andover

In the harsh wilderness of colonial Massachusetts, Martha Allen works as a servant in her cousin's household, taking charge and locking wills with everyone. Thomas Carrier labors for the family and is known both for his immense strength and size and mysterious past. The two begin a courtship that suits their independent natures, with Thomas slowly revealing the story of his part in the English Civil War. But in the rugged new world they inhabit, danger is ever present, whether it be from the assassins sent from London to kill the executioner of Charles I or the wolves-in many forms-who hunt for blood. A love story and a tale of courage, The Wolves of Andover confirms Kathleen Kent's ability to craft powerful stories of family from colonial history.

Rules: This contest is open to US and Canada only. Winner will be drawn Sunday, December 5.

GIVEAWAY: The Monstrumologist and The Curse of the Wendigo

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will's world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus—a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest—and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late. Wanna read the first chapter? Find it here.

THE CURSE OF THE WENDIGO

While attempting to disprove that Homo vampiris, the vampire, could exist, Dr. Warthrop is asked by his former fiancé to rescue her husband from the Wendigo, a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh, which has snatched him in the Canadian wilderness. Although Warthrop also considers the Wendigo to be fictitious, he relents and rescues her husband from death and starvation, and then sees the man transform into a Wendigo. Can the doctor and Will Henry hunt down the ultimate predator, who, like the legendary vampire, is neither living nor dead, whose hunger for human flesh is never satisfied? This second book in The Monstrumologist series explores the line between myth and reality, love and hate, genius and madness. Wanna read the first chapter? Find it here.

To learn more about The Monstrumologist - check out the website.

About the author:

Rick Yancey is the author of The Monstrumologist series (Book #1 of which won the Michael L. Printz Honor Award in 2010) as well as the critically acclaimed series Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp. He has also written several novels for adults including The Highly Effective Detective and A Burning in Homeland. He earned a BA in English from Roosevelt University in Chicago, and worked as a field officer for the Internal Revenue Service before turning to writing full time in 2004. Rick lives in Florida with his wife Sandy, three sons, two dogs and one lizard. Visit him at http://www.rickyancey.com for more info.

GIVEAWAY: I have 2 sets of both books up for grabs.

As always, leave a comment for one entry. If you'd like extra entries just say so in your comment or separate comments (extra entries for followers, Twitter, sidebars, All About {n} button, Facebook, etc.) Make sure to leave an e-mail address, especially if you are leaving comment under Anonymous.

Rules: This contest is open to US and Canada only. Winners will be drawn Sunday, December 5.

Bookcase of the Week - Starring... Stephanie & Athenna of Paranormal Haven

In today's Bookcase of the Week we have the duo team of Stephanie & Athenna who run the wonderful Paranormal Haven. I don't know about you guys, but Paranormal Haven has become one of my favorite hangouts as of late. For one, these girls love a good urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and then they have these posts called Eye Candy of the Week - yowza! Anyway I contacted Steph & Athenna and invited them to play along and show us their bookcases, here's what they had to say:

Stephanie's Shelf

I've seen more than a few really awesome bookcases here on Bookcase of the Week. Mine is nowhere near as fancy so I decided to take my pictures in black and white to make it seem a little less.....blah.

Here is my bookcase. The books facing away represent my TBR pile. Well half anyways. I have an equal amount, if not more, waiting for me on my Kindle. Question: Am I the only one who likes to put their books on the shelf according to how much I like them? I.E. favorite books get the top shelf and books you'll probably never read get the space close to the floor?

This is a picture of my bed (guess you could have figured that one out on your own huh?). There is my laptop where I do most of my blog work on and my Kindle 2 in its lovely plaid cover. That annoyed looking creature front and center is my cat Jaz. Apparently he didn't care for me interrupting his nap time.

Athenna's Shelf

Here is my reading spot. Yes in all the madness I manage to actually read. They yell , fight and crawl all over me while I'm reading but it doesn't slow me down a bit . Just an occasional " Stop that! " or " Leave your bother/sister alone!" then back to the book.

My ever growing TBR pile!! lol I swear one day I will actually get to read some of them and not keep getting new ones first. lol I'm doing better, I have read two books from this pile since I took the picture.

We currently are in between homes so I don't have an actual book shelf so I have more of a book pile that looks like it is about to fall over. lol. You can see all the good ones are front and center so I can reread often.

Stephanie & Athenna you guys rock!! Thank you so much for allowing us into your homes. Stephanie I love black and white pictures, but even without that, your bookcase is pretty amazing. Athenna your reading space looks like mine - except you have one more kid than I do. I read with little feet on my face, or someone sprawled across me, etc. but that's alright, I love having my little monkeys around me at all times.

For those of you who haven't passed on through to Stephanie and Athenna's yet, please visit them here (tell them I say HI!)

Monday

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Title: Reckless

Author: Cornelia Funke

Pages:400

Genre: YA / Fantasy

Source: Purchased

It has been years since Jacob Reckless discovered the world behind his father's mirror - a world for which his father abandoned his family. Since his discovery, he has been disappearing into this world for longer and longer periods. The mirror world is Jacob's escape from reality. For in this world, he has made a living as a treasure hunter going on magnificent quests for elusive items. A world where witches, fairies, giants and dwarfs roam freely. A world that is at the mercy of a deadly war.

Jacob's secret has remained safe for years, until the day his younger brother Will follows him. Now Will finds himself cursed by the Dark Fairy and rapidly turning to stone. Jacob will have to act quickly to find a cure before his brother is lost to him forever.

I had high hopes for Reckless - I really did! But sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations. I'm not saying it was a waste of time either and if there are more installments in this series, I will pick them up, because they do have potential. There were many things of this story that I liked, yet there were also a few that I didn't. I'll start with what got to me and finish on the good points.

As Reckless starts you almost feel like you are thrown into the middle of a story. Yes, there is a prologue and you get the back story for the mirror, Jacob as a young boy and his missing father. But from there you are flung into the story. You know Jacob has been to and from the Mirrorworld countless times throughout the years and that he is known for his treasure hunting abilities. There are all sorts of danger and adventure that you catch glimpses of, but only remotely. I would have liked more detail into his earlier journeys. It almost feels like this would be the second book in a series. I think that it is because of this lack of character building that I really could not relate so much to the characters in the story. You only get very limited glimpses into who they are - and that includes all of them Jacob, Will, Fox (Jacob's shape-shifter companion), and Clara (Will's girlfriend).

But, I must also say, that aside from the lackluster characters, I was very intrigued by this story. This was an adventure that I felt as if I truly were a part of. I loved the Mirrorworld with all its magical elements - the descriptions were mind candy. You could almost see the forest, smell the woods, feel the urgency to find a cure for Will before he turned Goyl. I also loved how Ms. Funke tied in well-known faerie tale tidbits like that of Sleeping Beauty (who never got kissed by her Prince and now remains a shriveled up corpse), Rapunzel (her magical hair), Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, etc.

One last thing I want to mention, although this book is being presented as a YA novel, Jacob is only a child in the prologue of the book. He, as well as most of the other characters in this story are all in their twenties. Although there are no actual sex scenes, sex is alluded to more than once.

All in all, I must end this by saying that it did take me a little bit to get into the story. After about 100 or so pages I ended up really liking it. The story was engrossing, angsty, action-packed and full of fairy tale adventure! So, although there were a few things I didn't like about it, I also found that I couldn't put it down. My final say would be, if you've read Cornelia Funke before then you may already know what I'm talking about (Inkspell series) - for those of you haven't then I'd say enter at your own risk.

My Rating: