Listmania Mondays: Graphic Novels

Another current trend in ya is the prevalence of graphic novels for previously published novels. I find this practice a little odd as in my experience, the manga/gn readers and the fiction readers have remained fairly separate. However, I have really enjoyed the graphic novels that I've read so far. It's really  cool to see artistic interpretation outside film and television. As always, please leave me comments with your favorite graphic novel adaptation or one you wish would get published or any I've left off the list. As for me, I hope that the Vampire Academy graphic novels lead to the publishing of Bloodlines and I REALLY would like Laini Taylor and her husband Jim DiBartolo to do an adaptation of Daughter and Smoke and Bone because I think that world would be RIDICULOUS in a phraphic format.

Listmania Monday: Male POV

Most ya fiction is really geared towared young women rather than young men, primarily because many studies have shown that teenage guys simply don't read as much as teenage girls. There are always other activities that young men are encouraged to do other than reading, but I really like how recently authors are trying to branch out more to reach that demographic by writing more novels with male protagonists. 

Questions to ponder (and comment on, if you're feeling chatty!): For everybody: Do you read male pov and if so, what's your favorite? How do you feel about the change in the ya genre for split povs in a single novel (these are noted in the list). For the guys: Do you find it difficult to find well-written male pov? Are male pov's written by women accurate? For the ladies: Do you get tired of female pov and turn to male pov for fresh narratives? I know I do!

Comments and additions are always appreciated!

Valentine's Day Giveaway!

 THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!

check HERE for open giveaways

To celebrate my new blog and the most romantic day of the year, I'm hosting my first giveaway! But more on that in a minute. Valentine's Day is (supposedly) the most romantic day of the year, full of flowers and chocolate and kissing and dinners out and all that. Personally, I have never in my life had a V-Day that included all that. I'd rather spend Feb 14 with great company like my girlfriends as we go out to dinner and to a rom com or handsome imaginary young men like those we read about in our favorite books. So two questions for you guys: 1. What books will you be reading during this oh-so-warm-and-squishy-feeling-inducing holiday? and 2. Which book character would you most like to be your valentine? Is it a shadowhunter? A vampire? An angel? A relatively normal guy or gal from a contemporary novel? As for me, I have a feeling this year I'll be cosying up to Adrian and Eddie! :D 

Now on to the good stuff...

Liebster Blog Nominee... x2!

Haven't been blogging all that long so imagine my surprise that I've been nominated for a Liebster Blog Award...twice! So many thanks to Jordan @ Jordan's Reading Nook and Cristyn @ The Book Cafe. It's really cool that you guys throught to include me.

Rules of the Liebster Blog Award: 

1. Tell 11 things about yourself.  

2. Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.  

3. Post 11 questions for those who will be nominated by you to answer.  

4. Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers.  

5. Get in contact with those 11 bloggers in order to inform them that you nominated them.

Listmania Monday: Novellas

Today is the inauguration of my new blog meme: Listmania Mondays! To start it off,  I thought I'd put up all the novellas & extras that ya authors write for us fans, whether the stories are actually published or not. Please leave me comments with more of your favorite extras and novellas and I'll update the list.

Review: Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Rating: 5 stars!!
Pub Date: January 8, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group)
Genre: young adult, sci fi, romance
Format/Source: Hardcover, borrowed from the library
Status: Book 3 of the Across the Universe trilogy (aka The End)

Summary:

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

YOU GUYS. If you haven't read Across the Universe and A Million Suns, RUN to your local bookstore or library and get them now if only so you can grab Shades of Earth, part three TODAY. I am hard pressed to think of a series finale that left me so satisfied as this one. While I have several beloved series, none of the endings have ever felt as complete and, well, final as this one. I think that may be because while I enjoyed (greatly) the first two books in the trilogy, I didn't obsess over the ending like I did with others (although I've spent the last six months in great anticipation), and I think that really improved my experience reading Shades. So if you haven't read the first two, you may not want to hop under the cut, just because some parts of the previous books will be spoiled.

YA2U: Team Dallas

Have you ever wished that a big YA book tour would make a stop in your hometown? Well, here's your chance for that wish to come true! YA2U is a program that features five award-winning and best-selling authors who are holding a contest to see what city they should visit in an exclusive tour stop!

The authors are collecting votes from January 1 to February 15, and any city in the continental US or any Canadian city that has an international airport can win an exclusive visit from all five authors, including an author panel and book signing! Entering is super easy--and if you help spread the word about the contest, you can also enter win a signed copy of all of their books (TEN signed books in total!)--and the book contest is open internationally!