Gretchen C. Hohmeyer's Blog, page 67
July 11, 2013
Book Blitz: “Rush” by Eve Silver – Excerpts + Giveaway!
Rush (The Game #1)
by Eve Silver
Release
Date: June 11, 2013
Publisher:
Harper Teen
Summary
from Goodreads:
So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to
know?
When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into
some kind of game—her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos. In the
game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau,
terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no
training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but
maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really
a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival,
and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t.
And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.
Available from:
Teaser #1:
He smiles, a faint curve of his lips that reveals the barest hint of a long dimple carved in his right cheek. “No, but I can read your expression. And I’ve been doing this long enough that I know what most people tend to think when they first open their eyes.”
“Doing what long enough?”
“This,” he says, and nothing more. A second of silence stretches into two. Though I can’t see behind his glasses, I have the feeling he’s not looking at me anymore, that he’s scanning the area, looking for…something. But as I stare at him, I see me—tiny distorted reflections of me in the shiny, convex lenses.
Copyright © 2013. Eve Silver. All Rights Reserved.
Teaser
#2:
I stare at the things in front of me: the Drau. I can’t look away. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember Jackson talking about Medusa.
Don’t look at their eyes.
Their mercury eyes.
They’re poison.
They will kill me.
Copyright
© 2013. Eve Silver. All Rights Reserved.
Teaser
#3:
Color and sound explode, too bright, too loud. Even the air on my skin feels like it’s too much. My fingers go lax. The bag’s handle slides down my palm, then along my fingers to the tips, impossibly slow. The world tips and tilts and I flail for balance.
Luka grabs my hand and holds tight. I blink. My house, my open front door, Dad, they’re all gone. My breath comes in short gasps and every muscle in my body feels like it’s knotted up tight.
I’m standing in a grassy clearing bounded by trees. The lobby.
We’ve been pulled.
Copyright
© 2013. Eve Silver. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Eve Silver lives with
her gamer husband and sons, sometimes in Canada, but often in worlds she dreams
up. She loves kayaking and sunshine, dogs and desserts, and books, lots and
lots of books. Watch for the first book in Eve’s new teen series, THE GAME: RUSH,
coming from Katherine Tegen Books, June 2013. She also writes books for adults.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
Signed copy of Rush, US and Canada only.
Hosted by:
July 9, 2013
Waiting on Wednesday #41
Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine!
Title: Unhinged (Splintered #2)
Author: A. G. Howard
ETA: January 7th, 2014
Summary from Goodreads: Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she’s always dreamed of.
That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.
As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.
If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she’ll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.
Read my review of Splintered HERE!
Bibliomancy for Beginners: Hangout Video for “The Teleportation Accident” by Ned Beauman
Welcome to this week’s episode of Bibliomancy for Beginners! This one is going to be a doozy, let me tell you. The video will be below starting live at 8:30 PM! If you can’t make it this week, check back next time when we read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides! Now, let’s talk about this … book … thing.
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
HISTORY HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE HUNGOVER
When you haven’t had sex in a long time, it feels like the worst thing that is happening to anyone anywhere. If you’re living in Germany in the 1930s, it probably isn’t. But that’s no consolation to Egon Loeser, whose carnal misfortunes will push him from the experimental theatres of Berlin to the absinthe bars of Paris to the physics laboratories of Los Angeles, trying all the while to solve two mysteries: whether it was really a deal with Satan that claimed the life of his hero, the great Renaissance stage designer Adriano Lavicini; and why a handsome, clever, charming, modest guy like him can’t, just once in a while, get himself laid. From the author of the acclaimed Boxer, Beetle comes a historical novel that doesn’t know what year it is; a noir novel that turns all the lights on; a romance novel that arrives drunk to dinner; a science fiction novel that can’t remember what ‘isotope’ means; a stunningly inventive, exceptionally funny, dangerously unsteady and (largely) coherent novel about sex, violence, space, time, and how the best way to deal with history is to ignore it.
LET’S HOPE THE PARTY WAS WORTH IT
July 8, 2013
Top Ten Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations
This is a late post, but I’m gonna do it! No preamble, here we go!
BEST
The Hunger Games - This one snuck up on me. I really didn’t think I’d like it, because I didn’t like the books. But wow this movie. I enjoyed it a lot.
The Harry Potter Movies – Okay, some of them. Certainly not all of them. But a lot of them. Some of them depend on my mood.
The Da Vinci Code – I just enjoy the National Treasure esque feel it gives. But, you know, for adults. 
Pride and Prejudice – Only seen the Keira version, but wowza. I enjoyed that one.
P.S. I Love you – ALL OF THE TEARS.
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – I never read the book, but I heard some fans were unhappy about it. I enjoy it solely as a movie my brothers and I laugh at together.
WORST
Twilight – Nuff said.
The Host – Best part of this movie was ripping it up with Michaela from The Pied Piper Calls.
Nancy Drew – Hopefully, you don’t remember the Emma Roberts version of this. If you do, I feel your pain.
Avalon High – Just. No. And no.
Review: “Venom” by Fiona Paul
Venom (Secrets of the Eternal Rose #1) by Fiona Paul
Cassandra Caravello is one of Renaissance Venice’s lucky elite: with elegant gowns, sparkling jewels, her own lady’s maid, and a wealthy fiancé, she has everything a girl could desire. Yet ever since her parents’ death, Cassandra has felt trapped, alone in a city of water, where the dark and labyrinthine canals whisper of escape.
When Cass stumbles upon a murdered woman—practically in her own backyard—she’s drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, killers, and secret societies. Soon, she finds herself falling for Falco, a mysterious artist with a mischievous grin… and a spectacular skill for trouble. Can Cassandra find the murderer, before he finds her? And will she stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for Falco?
Beauty, love, romance, and mystery weave together in a stunning novel that’s as seductive and surprising as the city of Venice itself.
4 stars
When I first heard about this book, I knew I had to have it. I’m a huge historical fiction buff, and this was BEGGING to be on my shelf. So I picked it up. I opened the pages. As it turns out, the historical fiction was not the only complex piece of the puzzle – the plot surprised me, the main character made me smile … and I had a weird reaction to the love triangle.
Given the reasons why I picked this book up, the setting was obviously my first concern. I’m very nit-picky when it comes to historical fiction. Renaissance Venice isn’t something I know a lot about, so I wanted to learn as much as I could–and I got a lesson.
Historical fiction novels often walk a fine line between too much and too little information, and I thought that Venom walked it beautifully. I felt like I was learning things about everything from the buildings to the literature to the art to the clothing to the language, but it never seemed to get in the way of the action. Each detail was placed exactly where it fit, nothing was shoehorned in, but no space where something could be placed was forgotten. I give this book a round of applause just for that.
I was sold on our main character, Cass, straight away. I know, I know, the “rich girl bound by constraints of society wanting to live” is a trope that’s been done to death, but I fall for them every time. Just in the opening scene, with Cass’s thoughts during the funeral and how she had to keep waking her aunt up–I fell hard. She doesn’t always know what she’s doing, but that never stops her from doing anything, and I like that. I also really liked that she was afraid when she should have been, but–again–she turned that fear into a weapon and powered through it. She never considered letting Falco lead the entire show an option.
Speaking of Falco… here’s where things get interesting. If you follow this blog, then you know I have a deep and intense hatred of insta-love on principle. This happens between Cass and Falco in the first chapter. Falco runs into Cass, puts his hands on her and BAM she’s intrigued. I’ll admit, though, that Falco is the swoon worthy, sassy artist that I fall for myself. I loved their partnership with all my heart, even if the romance did wear on me. This is just because I’m jaded with ya love at this point and need a miracle to make me invest deeply in a ship these days.
Which is why I was intrigued by my own reaction when the love triangle is introduced with Luca, Cass’s fiance. Usually, despite the insta-love, I always go for the guy who seems to clearly have the girl. Often times, the second guy who really has to fight for her attention … well, it’s obvious he’s never going to get her anyways. So I always ship the the insta-love ship despite myself. With this one, though, it was different. I found Luca’s far reaching devotion to Cass so sweet, and his awkwardness around her endearing. Given the statistical trajectory of ya love triangles, I still don’t think he’ll get the girl, but gosh I hope he does. I’m a Luca lover, hands down.
Enough love triangle talk! I don’t want you thinking that’s all this book is, because it certainly is not! In the beginning, I thought I had a handle on how this book was going to go. Girl gets kidnapped, Cass and Falco find her, catch the kidnapper - yay book! …this is not what happened. Paul kept on pulling out a new facet after new facet and suddenly there was body snatching and experimentation on dead people and masquerades and murders and more kidnappings and my jaw slowly dropped. The level of intricacy with even just the major side characters warranted a round of applause. I was also masochistically pleased that not every loose end was tied up by one thing in the end. There are multiple things going on of equal levels of creepy. Even if I didn’t adore Cass and Luca and, yes, even Falco, I’d be hanging on to figure out just what in the world is going on.
I also appreciated where the love triangle went in the end. Which is huge for me, so you know.
All in all, I recommend this for those who enjoy well crafted plot and setting, as well as a spunky female lead. If you are morally opposed to love triangles and insta-love, you have been warned, but I wouldn’t write this book off just because of that. Which is a huge thing for me to say, so I’m not just saying that. And now that the covers have been redesigned once, it’s a fairly safe bet that your covers will all match. (I have the hardcover pictured above and an eARC of Belladonna, so nothing is going to match for me ever. )
Anyways, go! Go read! I’m snatching up Belladonna RIGHT NOW.
July 7, 2013
Weekly Wrap Up + Stacking the Shelves for 7-7-13
Welcome to another weekly wrap up and Stacking the Shelves feature here on My Life is a Notebook. This week on the blog, I’m ridiculously proud of a few of the posts I put up. As always, watch the video for the interesting details and my bad jokes. All the links will be below.
THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG:
Book Blitz: Haven by Laury Falter – Excerpt + Giveaway! – See the link in the sidebar! Only need to comment to enter. The same for the Queen of the Realm of Faerie!
Top Ten Most Intimidating Books – A list of 10 books created with the loosest definition of “intimidating” ever.
Bibliomancy for Beginners: Review + Hangout Video for Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas – The video may or may not include vague and nonspoilery hints about Crown of Midnight.
Waiting on Wednesday: The Falconer by Elizabeth May – Great cover, female assassin, set in Scotland. Nuff said.
C’mon guys, let’s get real: Why I stopped reading Ink by Amanda Sun – A RANT!
Reading Road Trip: New York – Giveaway! – The giveaway is for the first eight books in Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series.
WON:
Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan (from Lee @ Rally the Readers) ~ Goodreads
NETGALLEY:
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal ~ Goodreads
July 4, 2013
Reading Road Trip: New York – Giveaway!
Welcome to the 2013 Reading Road Trip, hosted by Hafsah @ Icey Books and Britta @ I Like These Books! This is my first time on the RRT, and I’m excited to be representing my home state of New York!
Now, when I say I’m from New York, people tend to assume I’m from a place that looks a lot like this picture here.
This is not true.
I mean, there’s nothing wrong with New York City. They’ve got some great stuff going for them, such as:
* The 4,000 street vendors to choose from each day
* The largest mass transit system in the world, which covers 842 miles of track and runs through 468 stations.
* The lowest crime rate of the US’s 25 largest cities
* And, with Chinatown, the largest concentrated Chinese population in the Western hemisphere
(For more weird facts, click HERE!)
I’ve just never been there. Seriously. I live in New York and have never been to the city. I know that’s weird.
Instead, I live here, in the Adirondack Park, right in the middle of the little triangle made by Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake and Lake 
Placid. If you’ve heard of more than one of these, you’re one of the few. If you’ve heard of one of them, it’s probably Lake Placid, which hosted TWO different Winter Olympics, first in 1932 and again in 1980. If you’re a fan of hockey, then you might remember the 1980 Olympics as the Games when the Miracle happened. My family should know – my dad was there.
Some other facts about the Adirondacks:
* It is the size of Vermont.
* It is the largest protected area in the contiguous US.
* It contains 85% of all the wilderness in the eastern US.
(For more facts, see HERE!)
Bonus, personal fact!
* The lake I live on, Lake Clear, is where Albert Einstein used to summer. In the summer of 1941, Einstein capsized his boat and had to be rescued by one of the locals (whom my parents know). Thank goodness he did! 
(For more details, see HERE!)
Okay, yes, we’re done with the facts and moving onto the giveaway!
This giveaway is US only, simply because of it’s sheer size. I can’t exactly mail 8 books out of the country on the cheap, even if they are all paperbacks. That’s right! I’m giving away the first 8 books in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane – some of my favorite books set in New York! (At least, originally. They go to Mars and a bunch of other places in the later books.) The Young Wizards had actually stopped at 8 books in 2005, but then she published 9 in 2011 and 10 is coming out in 2014. But anyways, here’s all the Goodreads info for these books!
So You Want to Be a Wizard ~ Deep Wizardry ~ High Wizardry ~ A Wizard Abroad ~ The Wizard’s Dilemma ~ A Wizard Alone ~ Wizard’s Holiday ~ Wizards at War
And here’s the Rafflecopter!
Follow the rest of the Road Trip HERE!
C’mon guys, let’s get real: Why I stopped reading “Ink” by Amanda Sun
*WARNING* *RANT INCOMING*
Today was supposed to be the day that I reviewed Ink by Amanda Sun (Goodreads). Today was supposed to be the day where I gushed to you all about how the book inside was as gorgeous as the book outside. Instead, today is the day I have to report that I DNFed Ink 19% of the way through because I couldn’t handle the two main characters.
There is no possible way I could be more disappointed.
I loved the premise of this book. I loved the setting, the believable way it was set in Japan and all the Japanese references. I loved, 
loved, loved, everything about the setting. Sadly, though, if a book is only setting, it might as well be a painting. Books live and die by their characters, and this was no exception.
I suppose I could have dealt with Katie, the main character. There are numerous heroines I could list right now who make stupid decision after stupid decision and fall for guys while I scream NONONO, but I still finish the books.
I suppose I could have dealt with Tomohiro, the male lead. Stuck up, gruff, self-entitled boys are, again, nothing new to the genre.
But the thing is, this is a trope I’ve seen a million times before, and I’m sick of it.
Let me be clear, before this goes any further, that I’m fully aware that there are books out there that do okay with relationships. There are also plenty of books who do good-girl-meets-bad-boy well.
I’m going to use Ink as an example for what bothers me, but it’s hardly the only offender. Bear with me while I explain…
Tomohiro is not a guy you are supposed to like. When Katie first sees him, he’s telling his girlfriend that he got another girl pregnant and being really nasty about it. Despite this, though, Katie finds him stunningly attractive. yes, I understand there is the whole thing where she thinks he’s making drawings come alive, but that tiny speculation is no reason for Katie to go chasing after Tomohiro like a crazed stalker.
Then she finds out that Tomohiro put his former best friend in the hospital.
Then she rearranges her entire life just to get even closer to him.
There is a certain point where I find a bad boy to have redeemable qualities, and a certain 
point where bad boy crosses into the territory of BAD NEWS KEEP AWAY. Tomohiro toed it from the second he walked into the story, and crossed it forever only a few chapters later. But Katie just keeps talking about how beautiful he is.
I freely admit that it’s entirely possible that Tomohiro’s character will be redeemed from all these things later on in the story. Like I said, I only read 19% of the book.
But I just couldn’t stand Katie’s reaction.
I don’t care how pretty a guy is. If , as far as I knew, he cheats on his girlfriend and gets the other woman pregnant, dumps his girlfriends like a bastard, puts his “best friends” in the hospital and looks up my skirt, I would stay FAR AWAY. There would be none of this stalking nonsense, especially into dark and abandoned places. If he started creeping me out, I would grab a can of pepper spray and a posse.
Like I said, maybe there’s a good reason for what Tomohiro’s done. Maybe none of it is what it seems. But it matters what Katie knows in the moment, and what she does with that information. Her reaction is not healthy. (Keep in mind, she has no proof of anything Tomohiro is doing with the drawings, only a theory as concrete as alien astronauts, and absolutely no personal connection or knowledge of him beforehand.) If she were real, I’d lock her in her room for a while until she agreed to stay away.
There’s a fine line between keeping your characters real and making them do things in order for the book to progress in a certain way. Katie’s actions screamed “plot device”–and that’s the kindest term I can give them. I’ve already ranted once about negative relationship portrayal in ya books and I’m not doing it again. Again, I don’t think this would bother me as much if I didn’t see this cropping up again and again in the books I’ve been reading.
Who knows? Maybe, one day, in a different, less easily annoyed mindset, I’ll revisit Ink and find it much better than I do right now.
But the next book I read that has the heroine making foolish decisions (especially when related to dangerous guys) in order to further the plot is getting attacked with fire.
July 3, 2013
Waiting on Wednesday #40
Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine!
Title: The Falconer (The Falconer #1)
Author: Elizabeth May
ETA: September 26th, 2013
Summary from Goodreads: Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother.
Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.
But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?
July 2, 2013
Bibliomancy for Beginners Review + Hangout Video for “Throne of Glass” by Sarah J. Maas
This week on Bibliomancy for Beginners, we’re reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas! This is my pick, and a book I’ve read before. If you want to see my review of the ARC I got last year, click HERE! If you’ve never heard of the book before, there’s some info below. Oh, and for next week we’re reading The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman.
Oh, and guess who just finished reading her ARC of Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)? Me. So guess who might drop some hints in this video?
Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.
Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her… but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead… quickly followed by another.
Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
