I'm totally hoping my luck with contests lately holds out.

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores worldwide July 20th. You can Pre-order here.

(And also, you can enter to win ARCs of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog! SQUEE much?)

In which I start to suspect I have developed an addiction to CAPSLOCK.

I know I've been bad with the blogging lately. I"M SORRY. I fail at life. 

*humbly bows head*

My excuse is that I have been WRITING. I know, I can hear the shock in your voices. But I have! It's a true story! I finished part one of Karma Police- which sucked. But I did figure out how to break Adam! Which makes me happy, as always. *is happy*

And now I'm onto writing part two of KP, which makes me curse the fact I thought it would be a good idea to write in five POVs, including five keening stories, for most of the part 2. I curse myself SO HARD! (Oh, the follies of youth under the influence of Nano- I mourn.)

But yes, writing. (Not that I'm avoiding writing by posting on a blog, Nooooooo! Surely you jest!) Also I have been reading at least six books! I preen in the awesomeness of my reading majesty. *poses* And I went through a lot of stuffs at work, procedural FUN and all that funky stuff. And also I discovered Mass Effect 2. *cough cough cough*

The story is pretty, what can I say? I heart Jack! Though I do wish that shirt was larger... (If you've seen-played it, Please God you know what I mean.)

What else do I have in the line of random factoids? Oh yes, ME2 and a wicked awesome character in KP has made me realize that I seem to have a seemingly endless supply of wickedly amused, heavily tattooed, totally badass and possibly untrustworthy female characters. Some are a bit more deadly or adorable than others, but so far the well of AWESOME has not run dry. Not that those characters ever tell me a profane thing about what they're doing with my other charas or the plot, but I shouldn't ask for TOO much, should I?

Oh, Oh, Oh! Also I won a copy of Flash Burnout! SQUEE! 

Back to the grindstone, I need to hire Ewan and imperil Laura. *stumbles away, smiling dangerously*

History, it's hilarious!

Maybe you have to share my feeling that men dying of starvation while invading russia can be funny... But anyways. This is a lovely comic strip which I found belatedly, and these clips make me laugh outright every time. :D

Hark, a Vagrant!

Okay, these ones are not quite as dark, but still hilarious. :D (The Author is from my part of the world, which is perhaps why we share a bit of sense of what makes one laugh in the middle of the night. If you know what I mean. Ahem.)

Pure Tragedy

I'm not sure if you read XKCD (though you should, tis hilarious) but this comic almost made me cry.

Over a robot!

"Spirit"

The Mark, Jen Nadol

I actually won an ARC of this book, which makes me extremely squee-y. It also makes me want to write a good review! I am clearly doing very well with that objective, as evidenced by the inclusion of "squee-y" in my first sentence. Yay grammar and spelling!

Cassandra Renfield has been able to see the Mark on random people, usually strangers. As long as she can remember, a faint glow around passer-bys has been visible, but she's never thought much of it. It's just something she sees, and other people don't, but it hasn't come up enough for her to be worried about it. Her Nan doesn't seem worried either, so why should she? Then as the book opens, she has just realized what the Mark means. It means that the people glowing like that, are going to die soon- very soon. This is their last day alive.

And then THE question comes up. If you know that today is a person's last day alive, do you tell them?

The pacing of this book was not what I expected. I found I was able to predict what would happen next, but it didn't happen WHEN I expected. A lot of the book was not what I expected. I read the back and thought "Oh, a romance. Her new boyfriend is going to show her how to use her power to save lives, and then there'll be kissing!" Well yes, there was kissing, but it's not that simple. Nothing is really that simple. (The romance kinda freaked me out, to be honest. Isn't a 19 year old sleeping with a 16 year old, uh, statutory rape? I thought that's what it was in the US, at least?)

I really liked how the answers to Cassandra's dilemma had to be puzzled through, because it is a true dilemma. It's not that she just has a super power to save lives, it is revealed that what she chooses to do with her gift has consequences on other people's lives, beyond the person walking around with the Mark on them. (Think Greek myths, and the fact that traditionally, cheating death is frowned on by The Powers That Be.)

And right now, I have to mention a facet of the book that I loved. LOVED LOVED LOVED. Cassandra takes a philosophy course! *swoons* And it isn't just a token course, "Oh, Cassie's going to be late, her philosophy course is tonight." "Silly Cassie and her philosophy course, she's so smart." "She's really smart! She's taking philosophy, you know!" No, she actually TAKES philosophy, and it's PART OF THE PLOT.

There needs to be more YA featuring Plato. Nicomachean Ethics used in romance FTW! Let's argue Hume instead of making Hummus!

Ahem.

Right, back to the story. I really, really liked how Cassandra was a smart heroine. And that her intelligence was shown, not just told to me. (Though if I can have a moment, I was sad that she didn't read any Aquinas. What, we go straight from aristotle to Descarte? She even skipped the stoics!) [SPOILERS] However, I was frustrated by the rather post-modernistic answer she came to by the end of the book. There is no way to tell if what I do will be good, therefore do nothing? There's no way to tell, because you're ONLY ONE THIRD OF A TRIO. You need the other fates to know what to do! [/SPOILERS]

I gave it three stars out of five. And yes, I hope that a sequel will be written, so I can see more how she deals with this. (Oh! And Jen Nadol is going Release Party on her blog, where you can win swag and lovely free books! QUICK, you only have two more days!)

Continuing my tradition of CONTESTS YOU SHOULD ENTER, Steph Bowe is giving away The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, Paper Towns by John Green and Liar by Justine Larbalestier! These are ALL books high up on my Drool-worthy list, so I nearly had a spasm of joy when I saw the contest entry form. You can enter it here.

Only don't, so I have a better chance of winning. I want these books....

Also it's open internationally! YAYZ!

The 39 Clues: The Maze Of Bones, Rick Riordan

This was just a fun book. I started it to give my insatiable brother some safe ADVENTURE to devour, and then found myself really enjoying the ADVENTURE as well. (Not that that's any surprise. Everyone knows I have a juvenile mind, and I also delight in chase scenes- say- through museums in Paris. Or- say- dangerous weapons in Paris. Or- say-  Catacombs in Paris. Just as examples.)

Okay, the plot. Amy and Dan Cahill live with their great-aunt and a long succession of au pairs, and visit their fabulously wealthy other great aunt on weekends. Until Fabulously Wealthy Great Aunt dies, and then suddenly it turns out they have a huge extended family who all shows up for the funeral. And then the will is read, and the ADVENTURE starts.

Seriously, buildings catch fire, assassin/ninjas show up, and secret libraries are found within minutes of the will being read. This book certainly knows how to skip over the boring bits. :D I'm gonna let you figure out the clues for yourself if you read it, because that's fun, and also, for me, that wasn't the best part of the book. The best part was the characters!

Each book in the projected series is written by a different author, and I know Mr. Riordan for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. (Which is AWESOME, by the way.) This series is for a younger audience, so the bad guys are still fairly obviously The Bad Guys. You can tell cause they're mean/stupid/steal things from children. But they also have occasional flashes of kindness/wisdom/giving back. Notice I said occasional. But the possibility for redemption is there. Yay!

And the "good guys" have fights with each other, have weaknesses, and pull crazy unexpected resuces and talents out of their hats. *happy sigh*

I love that. So yes. Nuanced characters, fun, FAST PACED read, and a minimum of objectionable content for young readers. I don't even thing there's any bad words. I gave it four stars out of five.