Cover Fever #13 Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

 

 Jasprit and I are back with another Cover Fever.  Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta is one of my all-time favorite books and I know Jasprit loved it as well.  There are several different covers, but I only picked four to display.  Down below Jasprit and I will pick our favorites but let us know in the comments which you prefer!

US Hardcover                                        AU paperback

Swedish edition                                Norwegian edition

Jasprit: 
Since I read this book, I've known it for its vibrant coloured US hardcover, it stands out and I love having it on my shelves. The three other covers give off a more somber tone and I know the book does have aspects of that, but its not what I remember this book for, so that's one of the reasons that I prefer the US edition. Also the Norwegian and Swedish covers tend to come across as a bit dull and boring.

Jasprit's Verdict: The US cover for sure!


Rachel: 

I have a copy of the US Hardcover on my shelf and I've always loved the look with the vibrant orange poppy that ties right into the story.  I've never really liked the AU Paperback cover but it does tie in with the story the best. Maybe it's the coloring. I wish it wasn't so yellow. I do like the Swedish cover, the tree looks a little sparse to be the one from the story, though. The Norwegian cover is just okay to me.

Rachel's Final Verdict:
The US Hardcover.


Which of these covers would you like to have on your shelves?

Come Back to Me By Mila Gray giveaway!

Hi everyone, if you know me by now, you'll know I'm a huge fan of Sarah Alderson, when I first heard that she was writing a New Adult book, I was way excited, firstly I haven't fallen in love with NA books as I know a lot of readers have, but I knew if Sarah was writing anything, I would totally love it, and I was spot on. I had to deal with all the swoon and heartbreak that was thrown at me in Come Back to Me, you can read my review here. 

Mila (Sarah) has been having a great amount of success with Come Back to Me so far, its been set up for release in the US sometime in 2015 and in Australia in November 2014. It's also reached number #8 in the bestsellers chart in WHSmith in the UK. So to help celebrate its paperback release here in the UK on October 23rd, Sarah has a great giveaway for you guys, which you can enter by completing the rafflecopter form below. But before that here's a bit about the book.  

Come Back to Me by Mila Gray

Home on leave in sunny California, Marine and local lothario Kit Ryan finds himself dangerously drawn to his best friend's sister, Jessa - the one girl he can't have. But Kit's not about to let a few obstacles stand in his way and soon Jessa's falling for his irresistible charms. What starts out as a summer romance of secret hook-ups and magical first times quickly develops into a passionate love affair that turns both their worlds upside down. When summer's over and it's time for Kit to redeploy, neither Kit nor Jessa are ready to say goodbye. Jessa's finally following her dreams and Kit's discovered there's someone he'd sacrifice everything for. Jessa's prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart they're forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for. A breathtaking, scorchingly hot story about love, friendship, family and finding your way back from the edge of heartbreak.

Review: On the Fence by Kasie West

Review: On the Fence by Kasie West
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: July 1st 2014
My rating: 4 stars

For sixteen-year-old Charlotte Reynolds, aka Charlie, being raised by a single dad and three older brothers has its perks. She can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows—including her longtime neighbor and honorary fourth brother, Braden. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world of makeup, lacy skirts, and BeDazzlers. Even stranger, she's spending time with a boy who has never seen her tear it up in a pickup game. To cope with the stress of faking her way through this new reality, Charlie seeks late-night refuge in her backyard, talking out her problems with Braden by the fence that separates them. But their Fence Chats can't solve Charlie's biggest problem: she's falling for Braden. Hard. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

You’ve probably noticed a pattern in my reviews the last couple of weeks, I’ve either had a hard time connecting with books, so they’ve taken me either days or weeks to finish or there’s been a few spectacular books which all I’ve wanted to do is read all day. On the Fence was one of the latter books, I started it late one night and before I knew it I was already half way through and thoroughly loving it,  This book was just freaking adorable.

Charlie was a fantastic character, she’d grown up with three older brothers and her dad and Braden next door, so she was always one of the guys, played soccer, was used to messing around with them, so never really had time for herself or even paid attention to what other girls focused on; hair, make-up, thinking through her out fit for the start of the day. I knew what it could be like for Charlie, I’d grown up with my cousins, so had been engrossed into sports from a very young age (I still am) and was used to being chucked about just so they could practice the latest wrestling move. I liked that Charlie felt comfortable in herself with the guys and who she was. But I was delighted that many more opportunities were thrown her way, which gave her the opportunity to try out things which she hadn’t done and actually hang around with girls. It was really sort of confidence building for Charlie, having three over protective brothers around all the time, I liked that Charlie finally had time to herself.

What I also enjoyed about On the Fence was how family played a forefront in this book. There are far too many YA books where, family don’t give a toss about what their kids up to or are never around when they get into trouble. But in On the Fence this was not the case, we had a father, who was in the know how (most of the time) with what was going on in his kid’s lives and actually put his foot down and made them take responsibility for when they messed up. He actually made Charlie get a job to pay off her speeding tickets. Then there was Charlie’s brothers; Jerom, Nathan and Gage, I absolutely loved these guys, especially Gage. I loved the fun they could have with each other, which was mainly goofing around. But also how they had Charlie’s back (maybe the over protective brother came through strong a few times, but isn’t that what brothers are there for?)

Then there’s Braden, he wasn’t your typical character which created all the swoons when you first meet him, for me it did take a while to totally fall head over heels for, this may be largely due to the fact that whenever Gage was about he was quickly able to distract me. But I loved the secret meetings him and Charlie had at the fence, how he was great at distracting Charlie when she was stressed out. There was that will they won’t there for a while, and a bit of heart break along the way, but I think West did a great job in dealing with it all.

What surprised me the most I think was that I was expecting a light, fluffy book throughout, but there was also a darker underlying theme, and I really did like it, as we were never fully clued in on what was going on, until the very end. I always knew that West was a super talented author after devouring Pivot Point and Split Second, but for me I think On the Fence was my favourite book of hers yet. I highly recommend giving this book a go if you haven’t already done so, it was a cute funny read and full with many memorable characters. 

Showcase Sunday #60

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. The aim is to showcase our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders this week.  

Hey lovelies! I hope the autumn weather has been treating you well, this season and Winter are my favourite couple of months, as I enjoy nothing more than cosying up with a nice hot drink and a good book. The last couple of weeks, I ended up buying a few books that I had my eye on for some time. I totally blame my co-blogger Rachel, Lauren @ Love is not a Triangle and Joy @ Joyous Reads for my copy of Archetype, I had heard so many great things that I needed to know what I was missing out on. And of course I was thrilled to receive a copy of The Mime Order, I thoroughly enjoyed The Bone Season, so can't wait to continue with this series.

Jasprit's Haul:

Rachel's Haul:
(Click on title for Goodreads link)

 

Thank you to: Scholastic, Karen Rock, Penguin Group, and Netgalley!

I’m so excited to continue on with Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the third book in The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater, but I want to re-read The Dream Thieves first for a refresher.  I’ll listen to the audio book this time.

I got the audio book of Lethal by Sandra Brown through my library after Heidi’s @Rainy Day Ramblings very informative Tell Me Something Tuesday post.  You can download titles directly onto your phone through the phone app: Overdrive. Yay for free books! Lethal is amazing so far, by the way! I also got Shattered the seventh book in the Iron Druid Chronicles through the library and I can’t wait to start that one because Hunted left on a bit of a cliffhanger!

Leave us a link to your book hauls in the comments, we'd love to see what you received! 

Author Event Recap & Giveaway: Becca Fitzpatrick & Christina Lauren

 

I (Rachel) had the pleasure of attending an author event for Becca Fitzpatrick and the writing duo known as Christina Lauren to launch their new releases Black Ice and Sublime respectively.  I read and LOVED Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick and I'll be giving away a SIGNED copy below. 

It was a fun event with the authors, each had stories of writing and inspiration that really captivated the whole crowd.  Here are some of the highlights:

Becca Fitzpatrick:

• Inspriations for Becca Fitzpatrick’s Black Ice are a missed Spring Break camping trip to the Tetons and a cheesy 90’s romantic suspense movie: The Companion.  The books plot has almost nothing to do with the movie, other than kidnapping and a mountain cabin, so don’t worry there.  She did eventually go back to the Tetons and hike some of the trail featured in the book.

• Becca decided on writing at the young age of eight when she watched the movie Romancing the Stone in which the heroine who is a romance writer traveled to Columbia, hunted for treasure, and fell in love with a tall dark and handsome man! She thought: how could you go wrong there?!

• In college she was sidetracked from this goal and instead wanted to be a spy. She applied to the CIA twice and never heard back. Their loss.

• Becca sometimes struggles with dialogue in a story. To make sure her teen dialogue is authentic she’ll sometimes go to movie theaters, coffee shops, etc, and eavesdrop on teen conversations.

• It took her five years of queries to sell Hush, Hush. Each time she’d work on it some more and resubmit. Her writing advice is persistence, determination, and hard work.

• Becca was asked if she had Drew Doyan’s phone number (The male model for the covers of the Hush, Hush series).  Lol! FYI: She does have it! 

• Becca had sold film rights to Hush, Hush sometime back, the screen play was written and she read it and liked it, but it just didn’t feel right. She’s a firm believer in going with your gut and it just didn’t feel right to go forward with the movie at this time. She let the film rights expire and they have now reverted back to her. At this time there are no plans for a Hush, Hush movie but that may change in future.

• Favorite books: The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Hahn because she felt exactly the awkward teen girl in the pages when she was growing up.

 Christina Lauren:

• Christina Lauren is a writing duo who met through writing fan fiction. They liked each other’s stories and so decided to collaborate.

• Sublime was inspired by: the Wordsworth poem, Lucy Gray about a girl who walks out into a snow storm and never comes back, the urban legend of The Lady in White and by stories of someone falling into a frozen lake and coming out intake after a long period of time. They compared it to Flatliners meets ghosts.

• The title of Sublime comes from the process of Sublimation where a substance is converted directly from a solid into a gas without going into the liquid phase. They were happy the publishers let them keep their original title.

• Christina Lauren’s adult book Beautiful Bastard has been optioned by Constantine.  They’ve read the script and love it. They had script approval, but beyond that they trust to the film makers.  As Lauren put it: They know how to write books, make a great quesadilla, but don’t know anything about making movies.

• Lauren said getting published is luck and a weird convergence of things. It's not enough just to write a great book. Writing a book of your heart that also happens to be on trend is a big factor. But write the book you’re passionate about, not what you think would sell, otherwise you'll never be happy with the work.

• Favorite books: Fobidden by Tabitha Suzuma, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, and anything by Stephanie Perkins.

I attended this event at the Huntington Beach, California Barnes & Noble and that place is huge! The YA section goes on for days:

I LOVED Black Ice so I had Becca Fitzpatrick sign an extra copy for one of our readers! The giveaway is restricted to US and Canadian Residents. Just fill out the rafflecopter for a chance to win.