In My Mailbox 29

This meme is by TheStorySiren

I'm so excited about all these books(!), but I won't even get to them until late July or mid August because the books were all sent to NC but I'm "vacationing" in Maryland. I hope they're all as good as they sound.

Contest Winners

I'm so sorry it took me this long to announce the winners. I haven't been near a computer all day! With the help of Random Line Picker, the winners are Spav and Lasha!! I'm sending you both emails riiiiight now!

Ballad Review

Description: In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.

My Thoughts: I was very cautious about starting Ballad. Lament was ok, but I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to. When I won Ballad, I decided I would give it a try because my favorite parts about Lament had something to do with James. I also really wanted to like Maggie Stiefvater’s writing.

I’m glad I read Ballad because I loved it! Although I could never call any book perfect, I have no complaints about this book (no big ones at least). It was everything I’d hoped Lament would be.
Dark (funny) sarcastic characters always attract so it made sense that I’d fall hard for him. I hated Dee in this book (you’ll see if (I mean when) you read Ballad). I’m very fond of the new characters, including Nuala, and a teacher at Thorking-Ash school of music.

The story was clear this time. In Lament I was sort of lost in certain scenes; it was confusing when it came to figuring out what was happening with the characters in relations to the big problem in the story. Everything flowed; it never felt awkward to me, like if the author had forced scenes together to get to the middle or end of the story. I am now in love with Maggie’s writing, and hope to read more of her books very soon (as in Shiver).

Looking foward to Eclipse

As I wait "patiently" for my cousin to get ready, I can't help but get excited about Eclipse. We're going to go see it (hopefully) in 3D. All my fav. scenes from the book keep on playing back in my head, I can't wait to see them on-screen.

Fav Scenes (these are not in order):

Campfire

Bella's punch

Fight scenes

Tent scene

Jacob & Bella's kiss (the real one)

When Bella goes to Jacob after the fight

Graduation party

Scenes where the vampires and wolves are training (especially the Jacob and Bella parts)

Vampire Academy the Movie?

Preger Entertainment has picked up the film rights to Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy. I know this doesn't make anything official yet, but i hope it does get turned into a movie. I just hope it doesn't get compared to Twilight past the fact that they both have vampires, problems, and hot guys.

What are you reading on Mondays?,

This meme is by J. Kaye

Book(s) read last week:
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost

Currently Reading:
The Ghosts of Ashbury High by Jaclyn Moriarty

Possible Upcoming Read(s):
The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa
The Clearing by Heather Davis

Winter's Passage Review

My Thoughts: I thought Winter's Passage was a great way to prepare me for The Iron Daughter. I appreciated that it was there to connect The Iron King with the next book. I never really like when there is a fairly big piece of story left out between two books in a series. If I had just read the first two books, I would have known that the characters were on a journey at the end (1st book), but wouldn't have known what happened on that journey, (except for the too short 2-3 sentence summary)always making me fill like I'd missed a huge piece of the overall story. Plus it gave me more Ash and Grimalkin!

Head here to read this novella for free until July 31.