I have a NEW winner...

Due to some communication issues I've had to choose a new winner to receive my extra ARC of Paranormalcy. Congrats to:

Becky Thompson!

Thanks for entering and I hope you enjoy Paranormalcy as much as I have! I've already emailed you and you have 48 hours to send me your address.

Thanks once again to everyone who entered, hopefully I'll be having another contest soon!

"Just Another One"-A Rocket To The Moon,

I have a WINNER and random babbling a plenty...

First, let's get down to business, the part you've come for: the Paranormalcy ARC winner...

The winner

is....

Caitlin Darrell!!!

Woohoo! Congrats! I'm emailing you as soon as I publish this post and you have 48 hours to respond. I'll send out your prize ASAP.

Now, onto other things. I miss you. All of you. I've missed reading your posts and responding to your comments, and I fully expected to come back to two followers. So, thanks for sticking around. I know I haven't been commenting on others' blogs or anything I should be doing. I even forgot about a blogfest and am thoroughly ticked at myself for it. (Sorry Jen!)

The truth is that I'm going back to school in a few weeks and I don't have the time I had earlier in the summer. Cheering has also started back up and I have 4-7 hour practices every week day, which means I'm usually ready for bed by 10:00. Anyway, the point is that I might only be posting once or twice a week now, but I'm going to try to put much more work into those posts and make them worth a week.

My first act of business though is catching up on what you guys have been up to. If you comment with a link to a post you've put up in the last two weeks I promise I will read and comment on it, because I've been horrible with that. Thanks and have a great weekend!

EDIT: I realize this post is all SRS BSNS and such. This is odd for me, so I decided to catch you up on my favorite eye candy of the moment. It's been so long since I've posted some! I give you Joel Kanitz from the band This Century (Enjoy.) :

*Before I go, some shameless promotion. I'm one of the thirty new bloggers participating in The Story Siren's Backstage Blogging feature and the first post is up here!

"Put Your Hands Up"-Family Force 5,

What I want in my mailbox... (9)

What I want in my mailbox is my version of Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.

This week I want Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John in my mailbox.

Synopsis:

THE CHALLENGE: Piper has one month to get a paying gig for Dumb—the hottest new rock band in school.

THE DEAL: If she does it, she'll become manager of the band and get her share of the profits, which she desperately needs since her parents raided her college fund.

THE CATCH: Managing one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl who is ready to beat her up. And doing it all when she's deaf. With growing self-confidence, an unexpected romance, and a new understanding of her family's decision to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, Piper just may discover her own inner rock star. 

Doesn't it sound fantastic? I'm so excited to read this and John's first novel, Busted. Five Flavors of Dumb will be released November 11, 2010, AKA too long from now. 

What are you waiting for?

"Weekend Wars"-MGMT,

Hi5 (3): Favorite First Chapters! + very late IMM...

 Hi5 is a weekly meme hosted by myself, Nomes @ Inkcrush, & Anne @ Potter, Percy, and I in which we all share our top fives. Each Friday you can get the next day's topic at one of our blogs and link to your post in the Mr. Linky. Have fun!

This week's topic is:

First chapters that hooked you!

This is an interesting (and very hard) topic for me. I'm one of those people that needs to be pulled into a book within 50 pages or I won't finish nine times out of ten. I'm just not that patient, and knowing that the next book I read will most likely be better makes it easy for me to put a book down within a few chapters. I really didn't know if I could come up with five titles, but I managed! :

5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare- I love this series so hard. Within a few pages Clare transports readers into the Shadow World, where anything seems possible and everyone seems terrifying. It's brilliant.

4. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson- This is my go-to book for everything. Oh, my favorite title? The Sky is Everywhere. Favorite cover? The Sky is Everywhere. Favorite-? The Sky is Everywhere. Jandy Nelson's writing style is so smooth, you easily slip right into the story. I felt like I'd always been in Lenny's world and just didn't realize it. Fantastic.

3. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White- Evie's personality comes through immediately. I mean, the first chapter title is 'Oh, bleep!' The characterization is seamless and I NEED THE SEQUEL.

2. Paper Towns by John Green- I don't think I'm skilled enough to adequately describe how amazing the prologue and first chapter of this book are. But, alas, I will try. The prologue is deep and horrible and makes you think...and then the first chapter is awkward and normal and pretty darn funny. Just that transition, and the fact that it works, is amazing to me.

1. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride- I may be a bit biased since I just finished reading this.  (In one sitting, FYI.) I don't care that much because it deserves to be on this list, whatever number it is really doesn't matter. Anyway, this entire novel is hilarious and the first pages sucked me right in. Seriously, everyone should read this book.

Now that that's done, I'm posting my IMM vlog for the last two weeks because I can't wait another week or it'll be ten minutes long. Anyway, here you go:

"Wake Up"-Arcade Fire,

Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White! + A CONTEST.

Hello my lovelies! I know I haven't been posting as much as I usually do and I have a good reason for this. It's called real life. It's kind of awesome sometimes. Anyway, to make up for it I come bearing a review and a contest!

Overall Rating: 4.6 out of five

Characters: 4.9 out of five

Plot: 4.5 out of five

Cover Art: 4.9 out of five

Originality: 4.3 out of five

Concept: 4.7 out of five

Favorite Line(s):

Everything that comes out of Evie's mouth.

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Evie's job is bagging and tagging paranormals. Possessing the strange ability to see through their glamours, she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. But when someone--or something--starts taking out the vamps, werewolves, and other odd beasties she's worked hard to help become productive members of society, she's got to figure it out before they all disappear and the world becomes utterly normal. 

Normal is so overrated.

Paranormalcy is one of my favorite debuts of the year...

I honestly don't know how to start this review so I'll just begin with my favorite part: Lend. He makes me want to dance around my house, carrying Paranormalcy of course, whilst singing show tunes.

I'll admit that I almost always like the 'bad boy' more than the good guy when love triangles are involved, mostly because they're usually much more interesting characters. This is most definitely not the case with Paranormalcy. Lend is interesting, more than a bit mysterious, and a genuinely nice person. *gasp* I know, it's unheard of. Lend's fantastic and I adore him.

I also adore Evie. She's such a fun, happy character. Instead of letting everything get her down she mostly maintains a positive attitude and actually works to get things done, as opposed to sitting on her bum moping. One character I despise with an intense passion is Reth. For some reason I imagine him looking a lot like the Shamwow guy:

...I think that alone says enough about my feelings for Reth.

Moving on! The concept of IPCA (the International Paranormal Containment Agency) is original and actually kind of logical. (I mean, if paranormal creatures were real, I'm pretty sure the CIA or some other government group that likes initials would know about and try to contain them. Hence, IPCA would most definitely exist.) It was refreshing to read a novel about paranormal creatures in which they're not ZOMGTHEHOTTESTTHINGSTOGRACETHEEARTH. Even more refreshing to see a protagonist that doesn't let the few hot paranormals mess with her head.


Besides having some awesome characters (Lish is also fantastic), the plot flowed very well and had a nice mix of Evie-teenage-superhero and Evie-sixteen-year-old-girl. The fairies were terrifying and the fairie paths even more so. Imagine being stuck somewhere that doesn't even exist in our world with a creepy, vindictive creature. Yikes! No thank you. While the action was pretty awesome and Evie's reactions were hilarious, the world of Paranormalcy is not one I'd want to spend much time in.


Summing it up:


Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. August 31st people!


Giveaway:


Thanks to a mix-up with mailing, I have one BRAND SPANKIN' NEW, never been read ARC of Paranormalcy to give to one of you fantastic readers. (Thanks to Kim at Harper Teen for allowing me to give it away!)


Since this is my very first ARC giveaway, this is followers only. I'm sorry, but this is a big deal to me! This is also US only. Contest ends one week from today or Friday, August 20th.


Fill out the form below to be entered. Good luck!

"Kiss N' Tell"-Danger Radio,