Friday Face Off Cover Reveal: A Midsummer's Nightmare

Friday Face Off is a meme hosted by one of my favorite book bloggers Misty over at The Book Rat.  Usually this meme focuses on different cover designs for the same book and decides which is better for the story.  I wanted to take this meme and add a little twist to it today by discussing a cover reveal!  

I haven't read any of Kody Keplinger's books, but I am really interested in them largely due to their covers.  A Midsummer's Nightmare is coming out June 5th, and it sounds really good.  I also really like this cover!

I love how the model is wearing a floppy sun hat and bathing suit - happy fun time vacation wear - but looks supremely pissed off.  I think it fits the tone of the book really well and also goes with the cover themes of her other books.  Looks like a great read!

These are Kody's other books.  I think they fit the themes of the books well.  I really love the colors used on the DUFF and even though you can't see it, the spine is totally eye catching.  I also love Shut Out's cover.  It fits the book perfectly, and I love the varsity font used in the title.  (and is it just me or does this model look a hella lot like Liv Tyler??)

73 Lessons Every Goddess Must Know by Goddess Leonie Dawson

Published August 17, 2011 by CreateSpace
5 stars


Goodreads Review
How would your world be different if you knew you were a Goddess? Join Goddess Leonie for the spiritual adventure of your life, as you discover just what it takes to become your very own goddess.


Review:  I discovered Leonie's Goddess Guidebook about a year ago and instantly fell in love with the turquoise mermaid magic that is her site.  There is so much wisdom in just her blog, let alone her amazing lessons and classes.  After a few months I decided to purchase a membership to the circle, and it was the best $99 I ever spent.  Hands down.  I have learned so much about my own spirituality and how to be a creative goddess, and I owe so much of that to Goddess Leonie.  Her classes, meditation, artwork, and writing are all beautiful and inspirational.  I am in total love.


73 Lessons Every Goddess Must Know is a lovely collection of some of Leonie's best work.  There are sections on creativity, motherhood, self confidence, and spirituality all peppered with beautiful photography and artwork.  My only wish is that this book was in full color.  I would have paid double for that :)


If you guys are interested in checking out her stuff, here are some links to some of my favorite stuff.  AND if you decide to buy something, please use the links below and I'll get a commission!  How totally awesome is that!  Please check it out! 

The 2012 Creating Your Goddess Year Workbook


The 2012 Creating your Goddess Year workbook, planner & calendar is an incredibly popular & useful tool to help you plan out & make happen your most incredible year yet. Over the last three years, thousands of women have used this workbook with the most amazing results. It’s the best planning tool available to help you make your year more inspiring than ever.

It’s filled with over 100 pages of worksheets & a printable calendar to help you dream, manifest, set your intentions, plan & cultivate your amazing new year. The workbook has been lovingly handwritten & rainbow illustrated… perfect for you to print out, soak up the rainbow colours of & get thoroughly inspired by!

You’ll get clarity on what you need 2012 to be. What you want to create during it. And most importantly, how to make it happen.  


This is one of the best things ever, if you only get one thing, make it this.  It's only $9.99!

Click here to buy your own copy!

Get it all.  Join the Goddess Circle!

The Goddess Circle is an online sacred space with e-courses, meditations & kits to help you discover the creative, wise, joyful Goddess in you! There are three e-courses you can enrol in to be a part of this amazing experience.

• The Radiant Goddess e-course: a 21 day journey to discovering the radiant goddess in you. This e-course comes with nutrition and movement plans, meditations, a recipe plan & soulful goddess projects to help you shine all over: mind, body and spirit!
• The Creative Goddess e-course: a six week path to discover the creative goddess inside you with sacred creativity, meditations & projects.
• The Creating your Goddess Haven e-course: six weeks to create a home that inspires you with spirited interior design, divine decluttering & magical space-clearing.

With each e-course, you’ll receive meditations, videos, guidance and projects. You also get access to a private online message board for you to share your journey with other Goddesses on the journey!

Over the last five years, Goddess Leonie has helped over a thousand women over the last five years discover the Goddess inside them.

Click here to buy your own membership!


Here's a video of my own 2012 workbook.  Definitely check it out, I love it!

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

#4 in the Iron Fey series
Published October 26, 2011 by Harlequin Teen
egalley for review from netgalley
5 stars

Goodread Review
Ash, former prince of the Winter Court, gave up everything. His title, his home, even his vow of loyalty. All for a girl… and all for nothing.

Unless he can earn a soul. 

To cold, emotionless faery prince Ash, love was a weakness for mortals and fools. His own love had died a horrible death, killing any gentler feelings the Winter prince might have had. Or so he thought. 

Then Meghan Chase—a half human, half fey slip of a girl— smashed through his barricades, binding him to her irrevocably with his oath to be her knight. And when all of Faery nearly fell to the Iron fey, she severed their bond to save his life. Meghan is now the Iron Queen, ruler of a realm where no Winter or Summer fey can survive. 

With the (unwelcome) company of his archrival, Summer Court prankster Puck, and the infuriating cait sith Grimalkin, Ash begins a journey he is bound to see through to its end— a quest to find a way to honor his solemn vow to stand by Meghan’s side. 

To survive in the Iron realm, Ash must have a soul and a mortal body. But the tests he must face to earn these things are impossible. At least, no one has ever passed to tell the tale. 

And then Ash learns something that changes everything. A truth that turns reality upside down, challenges his darkest beliefs and shows him that, sometimes, it takes more than courage to make the ultimate sacrifice.


Review:  I have to admit that I was very skeptical going into this book, but I am so glad I read it!  I think this may be my favorite of the series.  The setting in this book is just fantastic.  It is so interesting and vivid, I wish it were a movie because I think I could sit and watch just the scenery for days.  I also really loved the overall story of the book (no spoilers!).  The quest that Ash goes on is really interesting and looks at the moral implications of being fey as well as what the future holds for the fey as humans move into a more technology driven society.


One aspect of the story that I really liked was how it addressed where fairies go when people forget their names and stories.  What happens when you stop believing in them.  I've been a huge fan of Peter Pan ever since I was a little kid, so I know that if you want fairies to be healthy and strong, you have to clap your hands and believe!  


The characters were as fantastic as they always are.  I absolutely LOVED Ash as the narrator.  He has this sense of introspection that Meghan never had.  Meghan was basically just trying to stay alive, but Ash really contemplates stuff.  He's a deep guy, ya know?  He also goes through some MAJOR trials in this book, and I really enjoyed (even though it tore my heart up) reading about the different tests he had to face in order to reach his goal.  And of course the side cast of Puck, Grim, and the Big Bad Wolf (who we met in Winter's Passage, one of the short stories) are as hilarious as usual.  Grim really is just one of the coolest characters ever.  

This cat is Grim lol

Overall The Iron Knight is the satisfying ending that fans of the series craved.  I am completely in love with Ash as a narrator and I really wish there was more to the series.  (Though, there was some stuff with Puck at the very end that just has my praying there will be a 5th Puck book.  I WOULD DIE OF HAPPINESS.  Seriously, I liked Ash but I'm Team Ginger all the way!).

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

#3 in the Iron Fey series
Published January 25, 2011 by Harlequin Teen
5 Stars

Goodreads Review
My name is Meghan Chase.

I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it.

This time, there will be no turning back.

Review:  The Iron Queen is a gripping conclusion to the main trilogy of The Iron Fey series.  It's the final show down between fey, with the summer and winter courts teaming up to stand up against the full onslaught of the Iron Fey forces, and Meghan may be their only hope of winning.  

The best part of this book is what I've been saying is the best part for the entire series, the fey lore.  We learn even more about the iron fey and Meghan and the magic revealed in this book is awesome.   Kagawa is just an excellent world builder, as I have said before.  I kept thinking that there was no way that the setting could get any better or that the world could be more enriched with thoughtful detail, but man was I wrong.  I also have to commend Kagawa on her choices she made with the ending.  I won't post any spoilers, but I'm really glad she went in the direction she did, and I loved how the ending wasn't picture perfect, but realistic.  It fit the mythology she spent three books building and left me tearing up with a broken heart.  

I also have to say that after three books Meghan FINALLY because the awesome bad ass I knew she could be.  The growth from The Iron King to this book is just awesome.  I love it when characters find their inner  Chuck Norris and just start kicking ass.  I loved all of the characters in this book though, not just Meghan.  Puck and Grim are as awesome as ever, and we also got to meet more really funny and interesting iron fey.  I really liked the rebels, it showed that the iron fey aren't just heartless machines.  They're fey too with feelings and fears. I actually found myself liking Ash a lot in this book, unlike The Iron Daughter.  I found Meghan and Ash's relationship to be a lot more believable which was a total relief.  The character development for the entire cast was very well done.


Overall The Iron Queen is a fantastic finale to Meghan Chase's story.  We've seen her grow from a timid school girl to a kick ass faery queen, ready to fight for the people she has come to love.  The mythology set up in this series is superb.  It is a rich and detailed world that will stay in your imagination long after you've put the book down.  I cannot recommend this series enough. 

Friday Face Off Cover Reveal: Rebel Heart

Friday Face Off is a meme hosted by one of my favorite book bloggers Misty over at The Book Rat.  Usually this meme focuses on different cover designs for the same book and decides which is better for the story.  I wanted to take this meme and add a little twist to it today by discussing a cover reveal!  

This is actually a double Friday Face Off because I'll be talking about a cover reveal and series cover change AND a series title change!  You guys may remember I reviewed Blood Red Road back in August, and one of the best parts of the book was the beautiful cover.

Excellent cover, no?  Well, with the release of Rebel Heart, the second in the series, the series has not only gotten a face life, they've also renamed the book to Dust Lands: Blood Red Road.  Here are the new covers.

I know I rarely think this, but I really like the new covers more.  I love the colors, and I think they look like totally awesome action movie posters!  I really love the re-do for Blood Red Road, I think it puts off a way more "this girl is bad ass" feel than the original, which has a more desolate and sad feeling.   So what do you think?  Let me know in the comments!

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

#2 in The Iron Fey series
Published August 1, 2010 by Harlequin Teen
4 Stars

Goodreads Review
Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Review:  The first 100 pages of this book are pretty rough, not gonna lie. I was expecting a lot more with the winter court, like what we experienced with the summer court in The Iron King. It felt choppy and rushed, like we were trying to get to the "good stuff" as quickly as possible.  Also, I was not a fan of Meghan crying and moping about Ash during this part of the book.  I wanted her to become less damsel in distress than in The Iron King, not more!  I am not a big fan of that aspect of the series.  I know Meghan has that awesome kick ass-ness in her, I want her to realize it already!

Once we got to Leanansidhe's house though, the book really took off. The story got super interesting, the romance spiced up, and I found the magic I fell in love with in the first book of the series. Ironhorse and Grim were awesome (as usual), Puck really stepped up his sexy, and Ash was his usual brooding (and hothothot) self. Leanansidhe was an excellent character, I really hope to see more of her. There were also some very interesting things foreshadowed about Meghan and her magical abilities, and I think I might know who the "Iron Queen" is, and if I'm guessing right I'm SUPER excited for the next book. 

Overall The Iron Daughter is a very good second book in a trilogy that doesn't feel like a "transition" book.  It has it's own unique story that gets better and better.  I really enjoyed learning more about the iron fey, and while I would have liked more from the winter court, the set up for The Iron Queen is excellent and really shows the author's strong world building abilities.  

Top Ten Tuesday 1/17/2012: Top Ten Books I'd Recommend To Someone Who Doesn't Read X

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.  This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish.  We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new top ten list complete with one of our bloggers' answers.  Everyone is welcome to join.  All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on our post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share with us and all those who are participating.  If you don't have a blog, just post your answers in the comments.

TOP TEN BOOKS I'D RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T READ X

1.  Science Fiction/Dystopia - The Road by Cormac McCarthy or The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins  If you're looking for an adult book I would look no further than The Road.   It is a true post-apocalyptic book.  There really is no hope, society hasn't bounced back, it's just  barely hanging on, and the writing style is excellent in portraying this bleak feeling (for a similar YA book I'd recommend Blood Red Road by Moira Young.  It's like The Road meets Mad Max).  For a YA book I would recommend The Hunger Games trilogy.  Not only is is super popular, but it's an exciting sci-fi with a really interesting premise (For an adult book I'd recommend Battle Royale and the movie). 

2.  Romance - Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins  I'm not a big romance person, I tend to roll my eyes as sappy chick-flick type books.  But, I really liked Lola.  Yes there are many times where I want to just punch the stupid out of her, but I could really related to her at the same time because I'VE TOTALLY BEEN THERE.  Also, Cricket (despite his horrible name) is a total hottie geek.  

3.  Fantasy - The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques or The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis   These are two series from my childhood that I love.  They're excellent fantasy series that I recommend all the time for kids.  The Redwall books are just adorable, I love the badgers, they're my favorite.  The Chronicles of Narnia are classic children's literature and I would recommend that every kid read them.  (For an adult series it has to be A Game of Thrones).

4.  Paranormal Romance - The Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead  I really love this series (even though Blood Promise was a bit of a miss).  The vampire society is really well set up, and the main relationship is totally believable.  Lots of awesome magic, action, and yes, sexy times.

5.  Classics - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett  This is one of my favorite children's classics.  I was given this when I was a little kid and I've probably read it over 10 times.  I was so enchanted with this book I would play secret garden every spring in my grandmother's garden.  Combine that with the absolutely GENIUS musical written in 1991 and I am totally hooked for life.  (seriously people, check out the musical.  It is one of the best musicals ever written).

6.  Fairy Tale Re-Telling - Cinder by Marissa Meyer  I'm very critical of re-tellings.  There has to be a fine balance between the well known fairy tale core and a new twist that makes it entertaining and new.  Cinder walks that line perfectly.  I love this book, the science fiction is excellent and the character are absolutely wonderful. 

7.  Horror - Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton  Jurassic Park has been one of my favorite movies since I was 5 years old.  I read the book when I was 10, and I fell even more in love.  It's scary and science-y, which is the perfect mix for me.  It is definitely an adult book with lots of scary scenes and adult themes (like man becoming like god-creators for example), but damn do I love this book. 

8.  Mystery - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie  I would go so far as to say Agatha Christie is the #1 mystery writer of all time, and And Then There Were None is her #1 book.  It is perfect.  The pacing of the plot is perfect, I was kept wondering who was the killer the entire time.  And the ending?  All I can say is WOW.

9.  Tough Stuff - The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn  Self Harm.  Mental Illness.  Objectifying Women.  Depression.  Rape.  Suicide.  TAfWVG is an excellent book that is half memoir half historical fantasy that takes a very stark and open look at mental illness and how it is dealt with, or in many cases not dealt with and just pushed under a rug.  Emilie Autumn is a genius, both on stage and in writing.  This book is beautiful, with over 200 glossy full color pages, and is well worth the money.

10.  GLBT - Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan  I think a lot of heterosexual people are a little wary about reading a GLBT book because they're worried about how they will relate to a romantic relationship between two people to which they're not attracted.  I can totally understand this, but Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a story that can relate to anyone.  It's not so much about a gay relationship (though that is a big factor), it's more about being who you are and being comfortable with that person.