Countdown Survey - Happy New Year's Eve!

In honor of New Year's Eve, Erica and I thought that we would create a new Countdown Survey!  This one will have different questions from the previous one back in July, so even if you done that one, you can still complete this one as well!

The Countdown Survey was inspired by all the surveys and tags out there, such as The End of The Year survey by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner, and The Seven Deadly Sins Tag by BookiskMalayza just to name a few.

Like before, we are going to have a link up at the bottom of this post so be sure to share your link so that we can check out your answers!  You're welcome to grab our graphic and use it in your post.   The only thing that we ask is that you link back to Novel Ink if you decide to participate :)

Ok, here's how it works:

We are going to countdown from 10 – 1 with topics listed for each number. Whatever the number is, that’s how many things you have to list for that topic. Example: 10 – Books on your wishlist, so I would name ten books that’s on my wishlist…see?? SIMPLE

Feel free to do your own post and link up below!

Trivia Tuesday (5)

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Welcome to another Trivia Tuesday!

Here are the answers to last week's post.

Question 1: (First Lines) "He stopped trying to bring her back. She only came back when she felt like it, in dreams and lies and broken-down deja vu." [YA, Contemporary] Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Question 2: (Character Personality) This character isn't from this world, they are loyal and caring but this is hidden underneath a cocky, sarcastic attitude. [YA, Paranormal] Daemon Black, Lux Series by Jennifer L Armentrout

Question 3: (Where Am I) Dawn is approaching and I'm standing in a cage, suspended four or five stories high. From this view I can see several buildings, smoke rising and multicolored lights inside what looks like an old church. To the right-hand side, in back of the gate that seperates this place from humanity, bodies are being laid out in a single row. The cage begins its descend down into the city, where am I? [YA, Paranormal]  Coldtown, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Here's a reminder of how everything works...The first person to answer ALL three questions correctly will receive a shout-out on social networks and also gets the chance to generate a question for our next Trivia Tuesday. The second person also gets a little something (a shout-out on social media).  

Book Review | The Jewel by Amy Ewing

 

Format: e-ARC

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: September 2, 2014
My Rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

 

 

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.  

 

 

 

My Thoughts:

 

 

I have to admit that I was expecting to be blown away by this book. I mean, look at that gorgeous cover, surely the book will be just as amazing, right? Well, not necessarily. I enjoyed The Jewel, there were a lot of the elements that I liked but in the end it wasn’t everything that I was hoping for.

Violet was a strong MC, I can’t imagine going through everything that she has, with being taken away from her family, forced to carry someone else’s child, and come out on the other side intact. I’m usually a sucker for romances, but I wasn’t too fond of the one in this book. First, it felt too rushed, second, I didn’t really care all that much for the love interest.

The plot was interesting, although I didn’t feel like I got everything that I needed from the world building. I still don’t know how everything in this world came to be. There was a fleeting explanation of why the royalty couldn’t have their own children but that was pretty much it. There was no other explanation on how the surrogates came to be or even the Augury for that matter.

Even through the lack of world building, I was really enjoying this book until the whole romance thing came into play. Like I said above it was way to insta-love-ish for me. I think this book would have been a whole lot stronger without that aspect.

Now, that ending, that was a killer that I really wasn’t expecting. I’m excited to see where this series will go and I hope that some of my lingering world building questions will be answered in time.

 

 

 



Sunday Silliness (1) To Which Book Do I Belong?

Erica and I have had so much fun over the last week coming up with fun games for you all to play, so we thought we would get rid of Sunday Showdown and make it Sunday Silliness instead. 

This will give us the opportunity to broaden the posts that we do from just Showdowns, although we may throw a few of those in too.

You can probably expect to see more Bookish Scramble, Find My Home,  4 Pics, 1 Series, and anything else we can think of.

For our first post, we want to do something called

To Which Book Do I Belong 

We are going to post pictures of the first page of a book and you have to tell us which book it belongs to. 

Book 1

Book 2

 Book 3

Book 4

Book 5

Answers: 

1: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

2: Slammed by Colleen Hoover

3: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

4: Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

5: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Have Fun!



Stacking the Shelves (60)

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

Christy's Haul

Gifted: THANKS, ERICA!!

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Bought:

Black Widow by Jennifer Estep

The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel - Already read and LOVED! My review will be up 1/12/15

Trust Me, I'm Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Free Kindle Book

Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin

For Review:

 Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton- Thanks, Penguin Random House!

None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio - Thanks, Balzer & Bray!

Vanished by E.E. Cooper - Thanks, Katherine Tegen Books!

The Cage by Megan Shepherd -Thanks, Balzer& Bray!

Erica's Haul

Gifted:

 Looking for Alaska by John Green (thank you so much to Christy for this wonderful book).

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas *

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han *

 *Big thanks to my amazing mom :)

Bought:

TMI by Patty Blount

Free Kindle Book:

Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin

Review:

Polarity in Motion by Brenda Vicars 

ARC Book Review | Last Stop Klindenspiel

Format: e-ARC
Source: Author via Goodreads
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 
Publication Date: November 25, 2014
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Combining the survival instincts made famous in The Hunger Games with the intensity of The Book Thief, Last Stop Klindenspiel is a tightrope of horrors that will make anyone think twice about running away to join the circus…

It’s been eight years since the Second World War has ended – long enough for people to forgive and forget – but feelings of hate run deep in Norway against people like fifteen-year-old Katya Holberg and her family. Separated from her father when the Allies liberated Poland, Katya and the rest of her family are sent to an internment camp in Oslo where they’re eventually rescued by a Norwegian war hero.

After four tumultuous years together, he brutally murders her sister, forcing Katya and her mother to seek refuge with her grandmother in faraway Droeback where Katya’s mother is murdered by villagers soon after their arrival. Fearing for her safety, Katya’s grandmother sends her to Klindenspiel, the only circus of its kind in Europe, where all of the performers are children.

Once there, Katya quickly learns that all of the young performers share her terrible secret, making them more like her than she could ever have imagined. Things become complicated when Klindenspiel’s artistic director pairs Katya with Aleks, a good-looking but secretive seventeen-year-old, who’s skilled in acrobatics and dance.

Curious about, and attracted to her new partner, Katya secretly follows him one night and learns the horrible truth behind Klindenspiel’s magic. With the curtains about to rise on Klindenspiel’s newest show, Katya and Aleks must give the performance of a lifetime – both on and off the stage – because their lives, and those of their fellow performers, are depending on it.

My Thoughts:

*I received this book for an honest review from the author.*

Where do I begin? I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was nervous at first reading this because I was thinking it would be a lot more history oriented, but the amount of history in the book was perfect.  I enjoyed Marta Tandori's writing style so very much. Everything flowed together so well and it kept me intrigued as I turned each page (well as I my Kindle turned the page). 

Each and every paragraph added more and more into the book. I do not think there was a paragraph that was there and had no importance. You know how in some books there are pages/chapters that are there just for fillers - not in Last Stop Klindenspiel. Each paragraph was perfect and I think that's why I enjoyed this book so much. I learned so much throughout the first few chapters and I liked that. I didn't have to wait for it to get good...it started off that way.

The book had me on my toes - I never knew where it was going to go. Surprise after surprise hidden among many of the pages (although I predicted one of them). There is loads of heart-break, struggle, angst, and death...but there is also love, desire, happiness, and relief. I loved how there were so many emotions throughout the book and it kept my heart going on so many roller-coasters. 

I was on the fence about whether to rate the book with just 4.5 or move it on up to a five. The only read I wanted to bring it down is because I wanted more and the other books that go along with this book do not seem to give me the more that I want. But, then I thought, I am judging on this book and this book alone and I immediately chose the 5 stars. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate from Christy and I. We wanted to veer away from books just so we could do a lovely Christmas post. We wanted to showcase some of the gifts that we got today (although we won't have them all). You know how I said we wanted to veer away from books? Yeah, well most of our gifts are books so that was kind of hard to do.

Here they are:

Erica's Gifts

Everyone, I hope that you all are having a very Merry Christmas and are spending a wonderful time with your loved ones.

My morning has been spectacular. I picked out one of my presents, but my mother surprised me with the other's and for my mom not knowing much about books I have to give her props.

The Book Lover's Journal - as it says personal reading record. I get to record the book that I have read. Keep my TBR in shape and keep track of the books I lend/borrow/give as gifts.

I have been wanting To All The Boys I've Loved Before for some time now and I am so happy that my mom got it for me. Now Dangerous Girls was chosen by me, well honestly it was chosen by Christy (hehe). I asked her for a recommendation in the bookstore and this was hers and I am so so excited to start reading it.

Now for the other gifts that my mother surprised me with that are non-bookish. 

The winter jacket (that I oh so needed for living in Ohio) she got from Forever 21 -pure perfection. Phone case which is absolutely amazing and goes perfectly with my gold IPhone. My coffee cup that I have been wanting before Christmas that she bought while I was standing right there but was so sneaky with the purchase. Thank you to my amazing mother for the wonderful gifts. I can't wait to go back home to see the books Christy sent along with my dad and boyfriend's gift that they have awaiting me.

Christy's Gifts

I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas and I hope that everyone gets ALL THE BOOKS!

Mine has been great, although I must admit that I was a little disappointed that we didn't get a white Christmas here in Kentucky! It ended up being 66 degrees yesterday and that NEVER happens.

I did get some great presents though, I ended up with a shirt, jewelry, some bath and body works, a few things for the house and my mom gave me $50 for books!

I also got this surprise in the mail from my amazing friend and co-blogger, Erica! I'm so excited to read these.  Thank you, Erica!!

As for the $50?  Here's a few that I'm planning on buying/pre-ordering!

Be sure to leave us a comment and tell us what goodies you got!

INKED

Are you an author or blogger with a tattoo?  Then we would love to feature you here on the blog! 

A new feature is coming to Novel Ink in 2015 called INKED. 

Since we changed our blog name from Christy's Book Addiction to Novel Ink, we wanted a feature that would reflect the theme of our new name, thus INKED was born.

This feature is based around the idea of ink and we will have interview questions about your tattoos, along with pictures and section featuring your books or blog.

So if you're an author or blogger with a tattoo (it doesn't have to be book related, and it doesn't matter how big or small it is or how many you have) then we would love to feature you, your tattoo(s), and your books/blog in an INKED post! 

If you would like more information, or have questions just let us know!

If you would like to sign up for an INKED post, send us the answers to the interview questions below along with pictures of your tattoos to cbookaddiction@gmail.com and/or ericalmiller9@gmail.com

If you are an author, please include book covers, summaries and any links.  If you are a blogger, please include link to your blog!  If we left anything out or if there's something you would like to add to your post (giveaway, etc) just let us know and we can work something out!

Interview Questions

Name:

Website:

Tell us a little about yourself:

Show us the ink: (please include pictures)

When did you get your first tattoo?

When did you get your last tattoo?

Do you have a favorite?

Is there a special meaning behind any of your tattoos?

Are you planning to get anymore? (You can also include pictures of ones you are thinking of getting)

Tell us a little about your books/blog:

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Schedule

January 1, 2015 - Erica from Novel Ink

January 8, 2015 - Christy from Novel Ink

January 15, 2015 - Angie from Pinkindle

January 22, 2015- Author K. Larsen

January 29, 2015 - Samantha from I Heart YA Fiction

February 5, 2015 - Author Tina Gerow

10 Books We Recommend the Most

As readers I'm sure that we all have those certain books that we push on others constantly recommend to other readers.  Today, Erica and I are going to push a bunch of amazing books on you show you the books that we recommend the most ;) 

Books Christy Recommends the Most:

Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas are books that I constantly find myself recommending to people.  They are absolutely amazing and mind blowing!  So, if you haven't read them yet, you should...soon :)

Me Since You by Laura Wiess - This is one of those books that I feel hasn't gotten the attention that it deserves.  It's gut wrenching, and heartbreaking.  There were so many times that I had to put this one down because I couldn't see the pages through my tears.  I just feel that it deserves a lot more attention.

Far From You by Tess Sharpe - This book blew me away, there's mystery, loss, emotional subjects and a strong main character, what more could you want?

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales - Such a beautiful and thought provoking story. 

Jennifer L Armentrout - Okay, I'm going to cheat a little here because I can't choose just one book/series of JLA's that I recommend the most.  This is one of my favorite authors and all of her work is amazing so I'm cheating and putting some of the ones that I love on here.  I still haven't read all of her books because that woman is a machine and she writes them faster than I can read them hahaha.

Books Erica Recommend the Most:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - my boyfriend surprised me with this book and it is what got me out of a reading slump and I had finished it in one sitting. I recommend this book over and over.

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins - I absolutely love this series and yes, it is popular and most people have read it, but I would go to it for a recommendation 10/10 times.

Kissed by an Angel (1-3) by Elizabeth Chandler - I have not read the three books after this set, but as of now...I am in love. 

Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel - oh my goodness, just thinking of this book makes me get all teary eyed and upset. This is on my top five favorite books. The mystery, heart-break, tragedy throughout this book just made me have so many feels.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins - I absolutely loved her writing style. The way that you could read one of her pages a certain way then look at it a different way and it mean something else. I absolutely loved this book and will be re-reading soon so that I can finish of the series.