Friday Face Off Cover Reaveal: Dance of the Red Death

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 done a Friday Face Off in a while and I have missed it!  I don't know how current this cover reveal is, but I love it so I really wanted to show it off.  This week I want to discuss Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin, the sequel to her debut novel, Masque of the Red Death.  This final book in the duology set to come out April 23, 2013 from Greenwillow books.

I LOVE these covers!  They are stunning and go together so well.  I own Masque and in real life it has a beautiful iridescent sheen to it that really gives the cover a magical quality.  I haven't read it yet, but I really want to own this lovely pair to decorate my shelves.

What do you guys think?  Post in the comments!

Top Ten Best TV Shows On Netflix Instant

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!

This week is a free week so I'm going to talk about my favorite shows on Netflix instant watch.  I LOVE the instant watch option for Netflix and I have watched many TV shows, so here is a list of my favorites (warning, this will be VERY Joss Whedon heavy!).

1.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The entire 7 seasons of Buffy are on Netflix instant (along with the spin off series, Angel) and is a cult classic and essential for all internet/Joss Whedon nerds.  In my opinion Buffy is a culture icon of the late 90s/early 2000s and a must watch.

2.  The Guild - Created by Internet maven Felicia Day as a webseries, The Guild is a fantastic show about a rag-tag group of MMO gamers that start to interact IRL.  I love this show because the characters in the show ARE my friends.  Anyone who plays WoW or knows someone who does will appreciate this show.

I love their avatar costumes!  I want to be Codex!

3.  Dance Academy - This Australian show is a stereotypical teen drama to be sure, but I still love it.  Dance Academy follows the story of Tara, a young dancer from the country who is accepted to the prestigious National Dance Academy.  While the show is super teen-cheese I still was really invested in the characters (I actually cried at the end of series 2, I'll admit it).  It's a great show for fans of Save the Last Dance or Center Stage.

4.  Revenge - Revenge is a new find for me, but it is completely engrossing.  I haven't finished the first season yet, but I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Emily work her way into the bed of her enemies and seeing her cope with chinks in her plan. 

5.  Sherlock - This modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes breathes some much needed life into the slew of crime dramas that are currently on tv.  It's funny and interesting and extremely clever and one of the best Sherlock Holmes adaptations I've ever seen (though as much as people seem to love Benedict Cumberbatch I cannot seem to get his creeptastic character from Atonement out of my head).

That mustache gives me nightmares

6.  Firefly - The only bad thing about Firefly is there's only one season.  Nathan Fillion is fantastic and so is the rest of the crew.  Be sure to check out not only the series but the follow up movie Serenity.

7.  Dollhouse - Another Joss Whedon show (told you there was a lot!) and Dollhouse introduced me to Topher Grace, one of my favorite tv characters ever.

One word - HOT

8.  The Walking Dead - I LOVE ZOMBIES.  The Walking Dead does a great job showing not only the awesome zombie murder-gore action but also the psychological, social, and ethical impact a zombie outbreak will have.  The best zombie tv show, ever.

9.  My So Called Life - My So Called Life was one of the first teen focused shows to deal with drugs, suicide, and homosexuality in a very real and honest way.  There's only one season and it ends on such a cliffhanger, I'm not sure I'm ever going to get over not knowing if Angela and Jordan ever got together and if there was anything to that Lesbian-ish vibe between Rayanne and Sharon.

10.  Skins (UK) - The first two seasons of Skins is absolutely fantastic.  The cast is phenomenal and the writing on point.  Ignore the 3rd season on and the US remake and you'll be good to go.

November 2012 New Reads

Hi everyone, here are the November new releases, and it is the month of red covers lol.  This isn't a complete list, just some of the ones I'm interested in. I hope this list will help feed your readers!

November 6

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
#2 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series

Why I'm Excited:  I adored Daughter of Smoke and Bone and I am so excited to continue the series!  I plan on re-reading Daughter before Days comes out because I don't want another Insurgent disappointment.

Deity by Jennifer L. Armentrout

#3 in the Covenant series

Why I'm Excited: I've heard many good things about this author and this series in particular.  I have the first book on my kindle and I really want to start it soon!






November 13

Bad Hair Day by Carrie Harris
#2 in the Kate Grable series

Why I'm Excited:  I read the first book in the series, Bad Taste in Boys, last year and I thought it was so cute!  It's a great middle grade zombie novel and I'm really excited to continue the series.  I have an egalley from netgalley so I know I will be reading this soon.




Black City by Elizabeth Richards
#1 in the Black City series
DAC

Why I'm Excited:  Black City sounds like a really cool mix of dystopian and urban fantasy.  I'm really interested in this series but I am a little worried it will be the standard paranormal romance disguised as science fiction.  We shall see....

Reached by Ally Condie

#3 in the Matched series

 

Why I'm Excited:  This is one of those series I'm really embarrassed to admit I haven't started yet.  It's gotten a lot of good reviews, I must start it soon!

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday 10/23/2012: Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit

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!

This week we're discussing Halloween reads!  I LOVE horror, so this is a really fun topic.  Let's discuss!


1.  Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz - These books were my OBSESSION as a kid.  I probably checked them out of the library about a hundred times.  Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a collection of short stories and poems with some of the freakiest drawings I've ever seen.  I read these books in fourth grade and they still stick with me.


Seriously?  What the hell is this doing in a kids book!?

2.  Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - I read Anna Dressed in Blood last year around Halloween time and loved it!  It has a great basis in real pagan/witchcraft practices that I found really refreshing.

3.  Velveteen by Daniel Marks - Velveteen is a 2012 debut and really awesome!  It's a story about about a girl who was murdered by a serial killer and is now trapped in purgatory but is determined to get revenge.  The writing is fantastic and if you're a fan of Kat Dennings you will love the sarcastic humour. 

4.  A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - Horror is a very visual genre and A Monster Calls has some of the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen.  It's a brilliant book that is best read in one sitting.  Just block off a few hours and settle in.  Be prepared for some waterworks though, this one has a surprisingly emotional connection.

Beautiful.

5.  Misery by Stephen King - I'm reading this one right now and oh my goodness, it is so fantastic.  It's probably my most favorite Stephen King work, and I would highly recommend the movie as well.  I'd say the movie is one of the best book to movie adaptations I've ever seen (plus Kathy Bates won the best actress oscar which almost never happens for a horror film).


6.  And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and Ten by Gretchen McNeil -  I read And Then There Were None in middle school and I think it just may be the best murder mystery of all time.  I absolutely love it and in my opinion it belongs on the classics shelf.  More recently is a modern YA adaptation Ten by Gretchen McNeil that just came out earlier this year.  I am very interested to see how she changes the original work to fit a modern teen audience and I plan on reading Ten very very soon.

7.  The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn -  As a large coffee table sized book with full color pages, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn is one of the most beautifully presented books.  Part fantasy part auto-biography, Emilie Autumn blends journal entries, photographs, and drawings from different eras together into a chilling novel.

8.  The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - The Marbury Lens is arguably one of the weirdest novels I've ever read, and I question it's YA label.  This novel doesn't hold back and fully immerses you in one of the most graphic and strange worlds in the YA genre.

9.  World War Z by Max Brooks - Listen to the audio book for this one, you won't regret it.  World War Z is told in a series of interviews about the zombie apocalypse.  I absolutely loved the complete picture that develops through first hand accounts of horrors experienced around the world. 

10.  Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park is another classic from my childhood.  Anyone who grew up in the 90s saw Jurassic Park and if you're liked me, absolutely loved it.  I read the novel in middle school and I found it to be just as exciting and frightening as the movie. 

So there  you go!  These are my top ten novels to get into the Halloween spirit.  What are you selections?  (stay tuned for a top ten movie list!)

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

#1 in The Body Finder series
Published March 16, 2010 by HarperTeen
4 Stars

Goodreads Review
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

Review:  The body finder has a really interesting premise that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I really liked the idea of the echos, how they worked and how they helped Violet solve the murders.  For me they were a unique concept that really added to the suspense of the mystery. 

Violet was a fairly likable main character in general, even if she is obsessively boy crazy.  I mean, I know most 16 year old girls are obsessively boy crazy, but Violet was taking it to a new level.  The teenager angst was a little too heavy for my taste, and I would have preferred more murder and mayhem, and less high school drama.  (though I have to admit the kissing scenes were pretty great, Derting knows how to write sexual tension (comeone adult romance novel!))

Speaking of murder and mayhem, I really loved the serial killer!  Some of the chapters were written from his perspective and they were FREAKY!  I really loved these chapters beacuse they were perfectly timed and added a lot of great suspense to the story. I was really surprised by some of the plot twists and had absolutely no idea about the killer's identity, so that's a pretty good sign of a good mystery in my book!

Overall The Body Finder is a really cool start to this unique murder mystery series.  I'm really curious to see what kind of bad guy will show up in the next book, Desires of the Dead.  The title hints that maybe there will be more ghosty happenings?  Who knows, but I'm really excited to find out!

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

#1 in the Velveteen series
Pubished October 9, 2012 by Delacorte
egalley for review from netgalley
5 stars
DAC 2012

Goodreads Review
Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that's not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it's not a fiery inferno, it's certainly no heaven. It's gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn't leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what's really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she's figured out just how to do it. She'll haunt him for the rest of his days.
It'll be brutal . . . and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen's obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she's willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can't help herself when it comes to breaking rules . . . or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her. 

Review:  You guys.  Velveteen is freaking AWESOME.  FOR REALZ.  This is probably my #1 most anticipated book of 2012, and I know this book doesn't come out until October, and of course I have it already pre-ordered, but I could not resist reading it as soon as it landed in my Kindle (thanks netgalley!!!!).  And Velveteen does not disappoint.  If you guys watch Danny's youtube channel (and you should, shame on you if you don't!) you know he is sarcastic, intelligent, eclectic, and a little bit creepy (and I mean that in the most admiration filled way possible) and this is exactly what you get with Velveteen. 

The very best thing about this book is the main character, Velvet.  She is fan-freaking-tastic.  Of course I love her snarky and rude attitude that's wrapped in a bad ass goth exterior, but Velvet is SO MUCH MORE than that.  This character is deep, yo.  She's gone through some hardcore trauma and even though she acts all tough, I think she's a lot more wounded than she wants to admit (and you would be too if some sadist tortured you to death!).

I wanted to mention the world building too.  I absolutely LOVED this interpretation of purgatory.  The descriptions of purgatory aren't just descriptions, they're brush strokes.  Seriously, Marks has one of the best vocabularies in YA literature.  His writing is SO creative and descriptive.  I found myself googling a lot of stuff just so I could get a clearer visual in my head, and I almost never bother to do that.

Photo Credit

This is a nutmeg grater.  You're welcome for that visual.

There are a few things I wanted to change about the story.  I really wanted more Bonesaw!  I really liked that character and I liked how Velvet reacted to him and I wanted more.  It honestly felt like two books were being shoved together, and sadly my preferred story got neglected.  (side note, when I read this back in April the synopsis made it seem a lot darker and a lot more of a revenge story, it has since changed to better reflect the actual story within which I think was a really smart move. The original synopsis would disappoint people who were looking for a horror book and got PNR and scare away people looking for an urban fantasy or paranormal story.)

I also could have done without Nick all together to be honest.  I guess he was there to help bring out Velvet's soft nougat center or whatever, but he felt very one dimensional and kind of a crutch.  I would have rather seen Velvet deal with her demons on her own. 

All in all I really loved this book, but more so I really loved Danny's writing.  I am extremely excited for whatever project he puts out next, be it another Velveteen book or something completely new.  You KNOW I will be reading it!

Where I've Been and Changing the Direction of my Blog

Hi guys!  Long time no see, huh?  You may have noticed that I haven't been very active on here in the past two months.  Some of you might be wondering, Amanda, what happened?  Did work send out out of the country?  Did you get sick?  Did you die!?  Ha, well, I can safely say that nothing traumatic happened to me.  I just got burned out.  In the two months I've been away I haven't read a single book.  I've started quite a few, but I couldn't get into any of them.  I think I just put too much pressure on myself to meet certain goals and just got overwhelmed. 

However, I am back now and with a new focus!  I really want to start some changes on this blog.  While I love books I am also very passionate about movies and video games as well.  I want to start some video game and movie reviews as well as expand my blog to different topics of discussion as well. 

I also want to kind of change my focus when it comes to how I do reviews, what I choose to read next, and how I run my blog and youtube channel.  I really admire people who chose a monthly theme for what they read/review/watch ect.  One person in particular is Priscilla from The Readables.  I absolutely adore how she organizes her channel and I think I might start emulating that. 

So, my goal for the rest of October is to get all caught up on reviews.  I have around fifteen or so that I'd like to finish and while I may not get to all of them, I absolutely want to do every book from 2011.   Then starting in November I want to choose a theme for the month.  I also would love to do a book to movie adaptation review every month, so we'll see how that goes.  There are quite a few movies coming out that I think would be great to read the book before seeing. 

But yeah, that's where I've been these past few months!  Just taking a break while I clear my head and re-focus.  Thanks to everyone for sticking with me and look forward to more posts soon!