Wednesday Chatter #9: How Blogging Changed Me

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

 

Hey guys! Happy Wednesday! I thought I'd get a little personal with today's topic and I figure since I've seen so many other bloggers do this, why not do it as well? Especially since I just noticed my blog is 5 years , 5 months and 1 day old (I counted, I'm a geek).

Before starting this blog I never would've contemplated writing a semi-intelligent sounding formal email to any publisher. Ever. Even having to write something to my teachers sounded terrifying. I was just about to finish college and I was super, super shy. Now, I'm still very shy, but at least I've learned to sound confident and smart in an email. And I've emailed to publishers. And agents. Which brings me to how this affected my real-life self. I've learned how to write that formal email. I probably would've done it eventually, but blogging helped A LOT.

Pre-blogging days meant no written English exercise from this girl. I understood the language, I even could've convince someone that I can speak it. But to write a full text in English? HA. HAHA. No. I would've been able to write a few sentences, but definitely not a full text. Now, thanks to this blog (*virtual hug to blog*) I'm writing my thesis in English. And I'm doing a damn fine job at it. And that's not me saying it, that's my teacher. So yey *pats self on the back*

I also didn't have any friends with similar book interests before. I realized fast before having this blog that I may be alone in my love of vampire romance, chick lit and fantasy. I used to have no one to talk to about these books. Back then, even reading was a solitary activity. Sure, I had my mom who I convinced to share my love for Marc Levy and we used to read Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampires Mysteries books together, but still, there were tons of other books that she didn't enjoy that I did. Now I have tons of people to talk to about these books. Even better, I have people that can recommend me similar books. Or other books that they enjoyed and that I might as well. Not to mention the fact that I increased my reading rate a lot ever since I started book blogging.

All of these changes are good, however I still have tons of stuff left that need to change:

• better organization;
• ditch the "oh god, what if this post sounds like crap" fear. This one is still present, people. You wouldn't believe the number of posts I've written that I've later deleted because they sounded bad or controversial or just plain stupid. I have this issue with lack of confidence;
• be more social. This one is difficult not only because I'm shy and a nervous wreck when it comes to approaching people I don't know (if we know each other, you know that I'll have absolutely no issue with bugging you to talk about whatever), but also because of the different time zones. I live in Europe and when I get on Twitter I'm either way too early for most people, or way too late. I also always miss the fun stuff and chats. 

There are probably a lot more stuff that I need to deal with, but it's a start, right?

Let's talk: How did blogging change you? Did it affect you on a personal or professional level?

Release Blitz: Every Last Breath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Epic Finale in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Dark Elements Series...Who Will She Choose?  

Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, the gorgeous, protective Warden she never thought could be hers. Hardest of all, Layla has to decide which side of herself to trust. Don't miss the conclusion to this stunning Young Adult Paranormal series filled with danger and romance published by HarlequinTEEN.  

Grab your copy today!  

 Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks ** IndieBound ** Kobo ** BAM<   

  EVERY LAST BREATH Synopsis:

Some loves will last ‘til your dying breath Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, the gorgeous, protective Warden she never thought could be hers. Hardest of all, Layla has to decide which side of herself to trust.

Layla has a new problem, too. A Lilin—the deadliest of demons—has been unleashed, wreaking havoc on those around her…including her best friend. To keep Sam from a fate much, much worse than death, Layla must strike a deal with the enemy while saving her city—and her race—from destruction.

Torn between two worlds and two different boys, Layla has no certainties, least of all survival, especially when an old bargain comes back to haunt them all. But sometimes, when secrets are everywhere and the truth seems unknowable, you have to listen to your heart, pick a side—and then fight like hell…

Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks ** IndieBound ** Kobo ** BAM

EXCERPT 

          Roth cleared his throat. “Shortie, look…look at your hand.”
          Look at my hand? Why in the world would he be asking me to do that in the midst of all the cray?
          “Do it,” he said quietly and too gently.
          The dread exploded in my gut like buckshot, and my gaze dropped to my left hand. I expected to see the weird marbling of black and gray, a mixture of the demon and Warden that existed inside of me and a combination I’d become almost familiar with by now. My nails had lengthened and sharpened, and I could tell they were hard enough to cut through steel, as hard as my skin, but my skin…it was still pink. Really pink.
          “What the…?” My gaze traveled to my other hand. It was the same. Just pink. My wings twitched, reminding me that I had shifted.
          Zayne swallowed. “Your…your wings…”
          “What about my wings?” I almost screeched, reaching be‑ hind me. “Are they broken? Did they not come out—” The tips of my fingers came into contact with something as soft as silk. My hand jerked back. “What…”
          Stacey’s watery eyes had doubled in size. “Um, Layla, there’s a mirror above the fireplace. I think you need to look in it.”
          I met Roth’s gaze for a second before I spun around and all but ran to the fireplace I was sure Stacey’s mom had never used. Clutching the white mantel, I stared at my reflection.
          I looked normal, like I did before I shifted…like I was going to class or something. My eyes were the palest shade of gray, a watered-down blue. My hair was so blond it was almost white, and a mess of waves that went in every direction like usual. I looked like a colorless china doll, which was nothing new, except for the two fangs jutting out of my mouth. I wouldn’t show them off at school, but that wasn’t what caught my attention and held it.
          It was my wings.
          They were large, not as massive as Zayne’s or Roth’s, and normally they were almost leathery in texture, but now they were black…black and feathered. Like legit feathered. That soft, silky thing I’d felt? It had been tiny feathers.
          Feathers.
          “Oh my God,” I whispered at my reflection. “I have feathers.”
          “Those are definitely feathered wings,” Roth commented.
          I whipped around, knocking over a lamp with my feathered right wing. “I have feathers on my wings!”
          Roth cocked his head to the side. “Yeah, you do.”
          He was absolutely no help, so I turned to Zayne. “Why do I have feathers on my wings?”
          Zayne shook his head slowly. “I don’t know, Layla. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
          “Liar,” hissed Roth, shooting him a dark look. “You’ve seen that before. So have I.”

“Armentrout is a major talent…I just can’t stop reading!”

--New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter

“Armentrout works her magic with swoon-worthy guys and a twist you never see coming.”

--#1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines on White Hot Kiss

 

And don’t miss the first titles in the Dark Elements Series!
BITTER SWEET LOVE Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks ** BAM ** Kobo
WHITE HOT KISS Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** BAM ** iBooks ** IndieBound ** Kobo
STONE COLD TOUCH Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** iBooks ** IndieBound ** Kobo ** BAM

About Jennifer L. Armentrout:


#1 New York Times and # 1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA. She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Website ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Novel Goodreads ** Author Goodreads  
 

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Obsessed With Covers #23: Sky Fall series

Y'all know how much I love a pretty cover. I think about...40% of the books that end up on my shelves (be they physical or digital) do so because of the covers. Call me shallow but you have to admit that a pretty, shiny cover will catch your eye faster than a dull, boring one. Two, simple rules that I'll follow:

• 1, 2 or 3 (no more than 3, though) covers per week;
• books should be new-ish; no more than 2 years old.

Oh, before I share the covers that made me drool or want to stare at them for hours and hours, I have to say something. This is a semi-original idea. Why semi? Because almost every book blogger has something similar. The only thing I came up with was the title. If by any chance there's another blogger with a similar feature with the same title, I assure you I'm not stealing your idea. I'm just THAT bad with titles. Believe me, I'd love to be smarter and have a witty name for this feature, but I don't. So, no copyright infringement/theft/steal or anything of the sort was desired. All I can say is sorry :P

     This week's edition of Obsessed With Covers is going to be a bit different. I recently set up an Instagram account and while searching for authors' accounts and pics, I came across the new covers for the Sky Fall trilogy by Shannon Messenger. No one can deny that the original covers for Let The Sky Fall and Let The Storm Break are gorgeous. I personally love them and I really, really need them in my life. However, the new covers are just as pretty. Which is surprising to me, because it takes a lot for me to like new covers. And I'm pretty OCD about series and covers as it is.

     It's pretty obvious that the cover for the last book in the series is very different from the original ones. In fact, had it not been for the similar title and the author's name, I probably wouldn't even have realized it belongs in the Sky Fall series. HOWEVER, the cover is just as gorgeous. Having read the first two books, I feel like, in a way, the new covers are more fit for the story. But I am now utterly confused. I read the first books on Pulseit, so I don't have to be mad that my covers don't match. Yet. But which ones to get? Forget the fact that the original covers are different for paperbacks, so the gorgeous sepia tones in the LTSF book are missing in the paperback. And apparently, the LTSB paperback has the new cover (or so I found it on the book sites I checked). So ignore for a second the tiny fact that if I want to own the original covers I have to buy *shudders* hardbacks. But the new covers are just as gorgeous. Would it be strange to own both? But then there won't be a second third book to match the original covers (My OCD is strong when it comes to covers for series!). Which makes me sad *pout*

     But let's talk about the new covers, right? I love the colors. I love how the pictures hint you to the story itself. I love how it seems as if the covers themselves tell a story. The cover artist did a damn fine job in my opinion in telling the story of the book without giving anything away.

     Did you see any great covers this week?

Confessions Of A Weird Reader #4: Book Titles and Songs

Hey there book lovers! Happy Saturday!

Here's the thing. I love music. A lot. I probably know more lyrics and songs than I know books and authors. That's not bragging, by the way, that's just stating a fact. A sometimes annoying fact, because, honestly, who wants to have that much information clogging their brain? Except on those occasions when I can annoy other people with said information, which is gratifying as hell (teehee!), but that's not the point here. The point is that I know a lot of songs. Which gets me to books.

Authors sometimes do something incredibly awesome, which is to use song titles or lyrics as titles for their books. I usually love to see book titles being song-related, because it makes me feel like a smart cookie - thumbs up for self-esteem! - and I can say "Hey, I know that song". (I was also the slightly annoying kid in school that when I knew the correct answer, I waved my hand excitedly to be picked by the teacher. In middle school anyway.) But here's where the weirdness gets bigger. Two things:

1. I sing the title in my head, I don't just read it like I would a regular text. If I make the connection between the title and the "correct" song, I sing the title in my head.




2. Sometimes, I get an earworm because of it. Which is annoying as hell. I am one of those poor, unfortunate souls people that wake up with an earworm already there. (This could also be fate's way of punishing me for my very limited attention span).

 Please tell me I'm not the only one suffering here! Pretty please?!

Anyway, sometimes I end up adding those books on my TBR, because I must know why that song and why that lyric. I'm curious that way.

How about you? Are you attracted to books that have song-inspired titles?

Follow Friday #22

Welcome to Follow Friday hosted this week by Parajunkee and Alison!
The main idea behind FF is just to go see a bunch of new blogs you may never have seen before, and follow the ones you like (and they’ll follow you back!) It’s a total win/win, so take a peek around!


This week’s question is:

What is your favorite movie?

I don't have a favorite movie. I have moods. I once watched The Fellowship Of The Ring for an entire summer. Once a day. Every single day. Because I could and because back then (I was in middle school) we had no internet. And we still used a VHS. Then I was in a romcon stage and I watched every time I could Dirty Dancing. So I get moods and I even watch one single movie until I get sick of it, or similar movies. Like when I binge watched the newer Marvel movies. I'm more of a TV show girl nowadays though.

What about you? What is your favorite movie?

Book Review: A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Author: Kody Keplinger
Series: N/A
Publisher: Poppy
Release Date: June 5th 2012
My Rating: 5 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

I love Kody Keplinger's books. With each of her books that I read I'm becoming more and more convinced I want to read every book she's ever published and every book she'll publish in the future.

The thing that I loved most about this book is that it was easy to understand Whitley. I am one of the lucky people that grew up with both parents, so I don't know firsthand the struggles that a child with divorced parents go through. I do have a glimpse into that drama through friends and one of my parents who came from divorced parents. Even so, Whitley's behavior was a bit understandable. I was so sad to see that Whitley's mom kept complaining about her ex-husband. I kept hoping that this woman, this ADULT woman would realize the damage she was doing to her daughter.

Whitley's dad isn't a role model either. She sees him as someone who can do no wrong and while I understand putting your dad on a pedestal, I had issues with how he treated this situation. He felt more like a buddy than a father to me and that didn't seem to help things.

I also found it easy to understand why Whitley had trouble accepting her dad's future wife. It felt like she was the kind of mother Whitley wished her own mom was. And it really is difficult accepting a stranger into that role.

Nathan is like a breath of fresh air. I liked the contrast between the two of them, how he tried to see past the anger and see the real Whitley. I really liked him. I also adored his little sister. I can only hope that we'll get a story for her in the future.