City of Fallen Angels Trailer 2 - DSAS

I am sure EVERYONE has already seen it...however in case you were not aware the second trailer for the City of Fallen Angels was released yesterday.

If you follow Cassandra Clare on twitter (or read the teasers she gave out) you most likely heard about the DSAS or the the Dirty Sexy Alley Scene. This is that trailer. It's hot, you should watch.

It was provided in the form of a fun treasure hunt so I am not going to spoil the surprise by posting the video here. Start out at Cassandra Clare's blog and follow her instructions.

Here is a tease to get you excited...

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Release Date – March 22, 2011
Publisher – Simon & Schuster
Pages - 358
My Rating- 10/10

Here is the GoodReads synopsis:

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

I had heard a lot of advance buzz about this book. I was excited but also a little leery as I have read books with buzz that ultimately fell flat. Wither is worthy of all the buzz, and more. I was enthralled by this novel. This review is most likely going to be a whole lot of gushing (sorry!). I can not recommend this book strongly enough.

The part of this novel that haunts me the most is the age cut off - 20 for females. I am 30 (well 2 weeks away). I would have been dead 10 years ago if I lived in this society. That might be why I felt as horrified as I did; the author managed to make me feel unsettled.

There are a lot of characters in the novel that we meet. The heroine of the story is Rhine. She is strong, smart, and no damsel in distress. I loved her. Her fellow sister wives are Cecily and Jenna. I liked the relationship between the 3 of them. It was shown as having it’s ups and downs, but they were supportive and there for each other. They each have their own thoughts about being a sister wife and they each react differently to it.

The love story between Rhine and Gabriel was sweet (if a little under developed in this book). I wonder what Linden’s role will be in the next two books as there was some genuine feelings there. It might just be me, but I think Rhine had feelings for Linden too. I am interested to see if it’ll become a “love triangle”. I liked that Rhine was having moments where she wavered. It made her feel real as a character, which is amazing when an author can accomplish it.

The novel is dark. Very dark. You have a lot of death, sadness, and mature elements. One of the sister wives for example is only about 13 years old. It’s very provocative and I tend to think that adults might love it even more than young adults. The fact that the author does not shy away from the more provocative or risqué elements is one of my favourite parts of the novel. I applaud her for it.

The writing is beautiful, and flows well. The author is talented and can create moods and feelings with just a few words. I honestly felt like I was trapped along with Rhine. I also loved how she managed to make nothing black and white. Nobody was all good or evil. Nobody was perfect. This made it feel that much more real. The secondary characters are well flushed out, and complicated. Considering that there are a lot of characters we meet, it’s impressive how much we get to know about so many of them.

The novel ends on a “I want to know more” moment. It’s very open ended and I am excited to see where the author is going to take Rhine’s story next. I have questions that I hope are answered in the next two books. I also want someone to make June Beans for real. They really do sounds yummy.

Wither is officially released March 22, but you can find it in quite a few bookstores already. If you haven’t read it already, go pick it up! You won’t be sorry.

Follow Friday/Book Blogger Hop

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee. It's a great way to meet new blogger friends. This weeks question is:

Q. How did you come up with your blog name?

Pretty easy - I enjoy a glass of wine while reading a really good book.



Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-For-Books.com. It's a great way to meet new people and friends around the blogworld!

Today's question is

"Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?"

I tend to read one book a time. They usually don't last very long anyways, so I am starting the next one pretty quickly.

If you do comment or follow me please leave a link to your blog post so I can take at a look at yours in return.

Happy Friday everyone.

I love Ireland

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone. This post will only have a little bit to do with books/reading/etc but I thought in honour of today I would do something a little different.

I decided to talk about why I love Ireland. I've been to Dublin and hope to go back again really soon to see more of this amazing country.

So in no particular order here is a list of what I think makes Ireland AMAZING:

1. Oscar Wilde - Anyone that can reply "I have nothing to declare except my genius" to being asked by a customs offical if they have anything to declare is awesome. It's made even more awesome by the fact that he could get away with it. If you haven't read any of his works, do so (I like The Importance of Being Earnest or The Picture of Dorian Gray). I was able to visit his gravesite while in France and it was an experience I will never forget.

2. The history - I got to see so many great pieces at the Dublin Writer's Museum while there. The amount of history there was mind blowing. If you want to find out more about the museum please go here. We also had a fantastic time learning about Ireland's history while on a haunted tour. I especially loved getting to see the house where Bram Stoker lived was pretty awesome.

3. Cute Irish Boys - Ok, so many of my "Hollywood Boyfriends" are Irish. I adore Jonathan Rhys Meyer, and Cillian Murphy especially. I was lucky enough to have met Jonathan Rhys Meyers in New York City last time I was there and he was simply lovely. Johnny (as he told me to call him) even gave me a kiss (um, yes I freaked). When I went to Ireland I was happy to discover that the hot Irish guy didn't just come in the Hollywood variety (I mean you adorable guy working at the tourist centre). I think it's the accent.

So those are just some of my favourite things about Ireland. Enjoy St Patrick's Day, drink some green beer and kiss some cute Irish boys!

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick this Wednesday is Abandon by Meg Cabot.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis -

New from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a dark, fantastical story about this world . . . and the underworld.
When Pierce first sees him, she thinks he is a murderer. She's right about one thing -- he does take lives. But not in the way she ever imagined. Pierce is drawn to the dark stranger even as she tries to uncover the mystery surrounding the tragic death of someone close to her. As she gets closer to the truth -- and the stranger -- unexpected secrets are revealed, even in her own heart.

This is based on a Greek myth I believe (this seems to be a big trend right now) and it sounds awesome. The cover is also lovely.

Expected release date is April 26, 2011

The Chemical Garden Trilogy - Wither Trailer

The trailer for Wither by Lauren Destefano was released yesterday.

It is AMAZING! It makes me even more excited to read the novel which is to be released on March 22.

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors
Release Date – January 4, 2011
Publisher – Walker Books for Young Readers
Pages - 323
My Rating- 7/10

Here is the synopsis from GoodReads

When you're the daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalized for mental illness. After putting on a brave front for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue, and the Queen can't write it. Alice needs a story for her mother—and she needs one fast.
That's when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol's voice in her head and see things she can't explain, she must face the truth—that she's either inherited her mother's madness, or Errol is for real.

When I picked up Mad Love I was not sure what to expect. I thought it would be a cute love story. I couldn’t have been more wrong. There is a love story element to it, but it’s
more than that. It was much more serious that I was expecting.

We meet Alice Amorous after her mother has been in the hospital for awhile. Alice is taking care of the house, paying bills, and lying to everyone about where her mother really is. I felt for Alice. She had to grow up and take care of everything and she was only a teenager. I liked that she was different from most girls in novels. She was extremely capable of taking care of herself.

I was happy to see that it took Alice quite awhile to believe Errol. In most novel that have a supernatural element the heroine ends up believing the vampire/werewolf/etc and falling in love with him rather quickly. Alice not only thought Errol was crazy but thought she had the same mental illness as her mother.

The other characters in the novel that I enjoyed were Tony and Realm. Realm’s story got to me. I was really rooting for her in the end (even if I didn’t like some of the things she did). I felt she was really flushed out and at time even more interesting than Alice

The issue with me was that the story didn’t stay with me. It was one of the those quick reads that you forget about once finished. I didn’t feel strongly for any of the characters. I felt like they were kept at a distance and that we didn’t get ‘past the surface” with some of them. I found it especially hard to connect, or really get a picture of Errol.

In the end, the author does have a great underlining message about mental illness which I felt was important, however, the characters were hard to relate to.