Top 10 Week #5: Top 10 Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2013

Top 10 of 2012 is one week of bookish goodness hosted by the fantastic peeps at Two Chicks on Books, Fiktshun, Confessions of a Bookaholic, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads! Every day from December 24th to December 28th, I'll have a Top 10 list up regarding to the day's topic. Today's topic is:

Top 10 Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2013

This was incredibly difficult to narrow down, simply because there are so many amazing-sounding books coming out next year, so there will be some honorable mentions. As usual, the book covers lead to their Goodreads URL!

Top 10 Week #4: Best Book Boyfriends of 2012

Top 10 of 2012 is one week of bookish goodness hosted by the fantastic peeps at Two Chicks on Books, Fiktshun, Confessions of a Bookaholic, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads! Every day from December 24th to December 28th, I'll have a Top 10 list up regarding to the day's topic. Today's topic is:

Best Book Boyfriends of 2012

In no particular order, here are the guys I swooned over and pretty much married in my 2012 career as a professional book boy addict:

Top 10 Week #3: Best Dual POVs of 2012

Top 10 of 2012 is one week of bookish goodness hosted by the fantastic peeps at Two Chicks on Books, Fiktshun, Confessions of a Bookaholic, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads! Every day from December 24th to December 28th, I'll have a Top 10 list up regarding to the day's topic. Today's topic is:

Best Dual POVs of 2012

In case you don't know what a Dual POV is: basically, it's when a story is told by two different people, typically the male and female protagonists.

Here are my top 10, in no particular order (once again, the book covers lead to the Goodreads pages):

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, my lovely lovely friends, and have the happiest of all happy holidays!

Top 10 Week #2: Best Book Covers of 2012

Top 10 of 2012 is one week of bookish goodness hosted by the fantastic peeps at Two Chicks on Books, Fiktshun, Confessions of a Bookaholic, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads! Every day from December 24th to December 28th, I'll have a Top 10 list up regarding to the day's topic. Today's topic is:

Best Book Covers of 2012

As a designer and art geek, this topic is one of my favorite ones. Since book covers and their design are the focal points of this post, the covers will be in big images while I provide a short cover analysis (pun off of one of my internet BFF Monica's blog). The images themselves will link to the book's Goodreads link. And, if I wrote a review for the book, the link will be provided, too.

Top 10 Week #1: Best Books I've Read in 2012

Top 10 of 2012 is one week of bookish goodness hosted by the fantastic peeps at Two Chicks on Books, Fiktshun, Confessions of a Bookaholic, and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads! Every day from December 24th to December 28th, I'll have a Top 10 list up regarding to the day's topic. Today's topic is:

Best Book I've Read in 2012

In no particular order, here are my choices (LOL, you'd laugh if you knew how long it took me to narrow this list down to just ten). You can click on the cover to reach their Goodreads link!

Crazy crazy news alert!

This is Rapunzel from the Disney movie Tangled. Her hair glows. FYI.

Usually, I don't do book news posts since my good buds Steph and Kat over at Cuddlebuggery already round up all the info you need to know so fantastically well. But there were a few things that popped up this afternoon that I am SO excited about that I just had to share it with y'all if you didn't hear about it yet!

1) ALLY CARTER HAS A NOVELLA CROSSOVER OF HEIST SOCIETY AND GALLAGHER GIRLS COMING OUT! See more (and the cover--it's exclusive to MTV Crush for the day so I can't post it on my blog) here! It's SO EXCITING. Basically, Ally has a novella called Double Crossed that's about Macey, Hale, Kat, Aunt Abby, and ALL THE AWESOMENESS, releasing January 22nd FOR FREE as an e-book. Ally said on Twitter that Cammie and Zach won't be in the novella since it takes place between GG5 & GG6, but hey, it's way better than I could've hoped for! :D

2) CASSANDRA CLARE, MAUREEN JOHNSON, and SARAH REES BRENNAN ARE COLLABORATING TO CREATE The Bane Chronicles! Do you love Magnus Bane? Do you want to know all the secret stories he's stashed beneath his ridiculously glamorous self? Well well well, looks like my personal favorite, Sarah Rees Brennan (SQUEE!) and the fabulous Maureen Johnson, as well as of course, Ms. Clare herself, will be working together to create an e-series of these chronicles, ten of them, starting February 2013 and all the way up until the City of Bones theatrical release! Read more on Sarah's Tumblr here!

3) CARRIE RYAN AND HER HUSBAND JUST SOLD A FOUR-BOOK MIDDLE GRADE SERIES! The news isn't bombarding the web yet, but Carrie announced it on Twitter, and can you just say EXCITED?!? I can't wait to read The Map to Everywhere, even if that means I have to wait until Fall of 2014! *cries* Arghhh the wait! I can't stand it! It's going to kill me someday, just you watch.


And that's all for now! Go check out Cuddlebuggery's post for last week's shenanigans here, and leave a comment below letting me know whether you are excited or excited about all this shiny new stuff in the works!


P.S. If you're looking for some kick-butt YA books as a holiday gift or just for your own reading pleasure, I created this graphic to help you out! I was humbly selected as one of Paper Lantern Lit's Trendsetters, so if you'd like, you can check up on my own book shenanigans by following PLL's Tumblr!

Winners of the Thanksgiving Giveaway!

3 International Swag Pack Winners:

-Tabitha S.

-Keertana A.

-Pavan

1 U.S. ARC/Hardcover Book Winner:

-Tayte

Congrats to the winners! I have already e-mailed them, and if they don't respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.

Thank you all for entering! I also passed my 300 Followers milestone (!!!), so a new giveaway will be up in the very near future! :)

ANTIGODDESS Cover Reveal + Guest Post by Kendare Blake

I don't really like horror-ish books. Actually, horror-ish books would be terrible for me, because I am such a scaredy-cat it's hilarious. (Unless you're me.) But there is one horror-ish book/series that I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove, and hey, if I, as a horror-NO reader can fall in love with a horror-ish series, then I think it's pretty obvious that that series is absolutely amazing.

It's Anna Dressed in Blood and the creepalicious (<--always wanted to use that word) sequel, Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake. (Here is my starred review of Anna!)

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, you want to see the darn freaking cover already. But before I can reveal it, you should probably know what Antigoddess is.

Antigoddess is Kendare's new series's first book. Here's the synopsis:

Antigoddess
By: Kendare Blake


Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

-Summary from Goodreads
Release Date: September 10th, 2013
Publisher: Tor Teen
Pre-order: Mrs. Nelson's (support indie stores!) || Book Depository

JADJGA;RJGJ;JGA.


AND DUDE. Just wait until you see the cover-

 
I love the awesome contrast between the white feather and the blood. The ripple in the water is so cool. Not to be negative or anything (just throwing it out there), I think I would've liked the feather to be a teeny bit stained with blood at the bottom, just to make it clearer that the blood is falling from the feather, but seriously? It's awesome as it is. I am just me. Le sigh.

So! What did Kendare have to say about this coolio cover?

The first time my editor and I talked about the cover of ANTIGODDESS was over lunch at ALA this past June. It was the first time she and I had met face to face, and I was worried I would make an ass of myself. Because self-ass-making is pretty common for me. And sure enough, I blurted out that I loved her. I actually said, "I love you." And I barely say that to my mom.

But I had a good reason. Well, sort of. When she started talking about the cover,I was paralyzed with fear, afraid her idea would be something I couldn't immediately visualize and I'd get caught with the look on my face. You know the look. The look you have when you get a sweater with a cat on it from your aunt, or a waffle-maker from your boyfriend for your birthday and he's the only one who eats waffles (true story). Only,I didn't get that look. Because the image she described was as close to the one I pictured as possible without creepy levels of clairvoyance.

She wanted to go with one iconic image. Something bold. Wasn't sure what that image might be. Turns out, it's a bleeding feather. We both wanted something that would convey the darkness of the story, the ominous action, and if at all possible, badassery. I think the pristine white of the feather hints at some innocence as well, and some sweetness. Which is in the book too, believe it or not.

Well, Kendare, it is bold alright. :D

So, what do you think of the cover? Will you read the book or will you read the book? ;)