Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I have been really good, started wrapping all my Christmas gifts last night, and surprisingly I have *almost* finished my Christmas shopping! Two more presents and I am done!

I have a few books this week, and I am excited about them all - they’ve either been books I’ve been waiting on, or books I’ve been eyeing off for a bit - and I want to read them all!

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Mailbox Monday is originally hosted by Marcia from A girl and her books and The Printed Page.

The Hallowed Ones - Laura Bickle

Armish + Zombies. For real. Eeeee!! Been wanting this since I first saw it on Goodreads a few weeks ago and my copy finally came in! I am currently reading this and it’s pretty good (early days though) so far!

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community?

Black City - Elizabeth Richards

Bah, I’ve been waiting for this one for ages!!

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

Mystic City - Theo Lawrence

Another book, another city. How incredible is this cover?!

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City’s two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents’ sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn’t remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can’t conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.

Blind Spot - Laura Ellen

I adore this cover! This book is featured in this months giveaway!

Seventeen-year-old Tricia Farni’s body floated to the surface of Alaska’s Birch River six months after the night she disappeared. The night Roz Hart had a fight with her. The night Roz can’t remember. Roz, who struggles with macular degeneration, is used to assembling fragments to make sense of the world around her. But this time it’s her memory that needs piecing together—to clear her name . . . to find a murderer.

Out Of Reach - Carrie Arcos

How do you find someone who doesn’t want to be found? A girl searches for her missing addict brother while confronting her own secrets. Rachel has always idolized her older brother Micah. He struggles with addiction, but she tells herself that he’s in control. And she almost believes it. Until the night that Micah doesn’t come home.

Rachel’s terrified—and she can’t help but feel responsible. She should have listened when Micah tried to confide in her. And she only feels more guilt when she receives an anonymous note telling her that Micah is nearby and in danger.

That is all from me this week, what did you receive in your mailboxes? Let me know - leave your links in the comments section below!

Good afternoon!! Welcome to another edition of nail art inspired by fiction. This weeks nail art is inspired by Where The Wild Things Are! These images are not of my own nails, but pictures I’ve gathered online to share!

Welcome to Etsy Saturdays! What is Etsy? Think of Etsy.com as ebay for the homemade. Homemade is “in” again and everyone is doing it, including lovers of YA! And so each Saturday I am sharing with you some cool stuff I found on Etsy and hook you up if you want to buy up! I can’t promise that this post will be good for your hip pocket!

I think I’ve fallen onto the random side of Etsy and I can’t get out! I was clicking from one thing to another to another, and stumbled across these towels. But they are towels for book lovers. Random right? BUT kiiiiiinda cool.

Book lover towel by OffTheHookbyLora

I happen to find these pretty cute, but I wouldn’t have thought I needed these. I do want them however:

Book lover towel kitchen bathroom by OffTheHookbyLora

Really cute original idea! Worth checking out!

Stay tuned for next week! If you see anything on Etsy you think would be a good feature, let me know on Twitter @booknerdreviews!

Release Date: August 21st, 2012
Published By: Poppy
Pages: 208
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 3 out of 5

Synopsis: Seeking a fresh start, newly divorced Sarah and her daughter Elissa find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret. Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents in their beds, and disappeared - leaving only a brother, Ryan, as the sole survivor. Against Sarah’s wishes, Elissa begins a relationship with the reclusive Ryan - and the closer they get, the deeper they’re all pulled into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined.

Review: Short book, you could easily read this in one sitting! I could be wrong, but the impression I got was that this novella was written based on the movie, not the other way around. So based on this, I felt like the book was pretty good.

As a novella (just over 200 pages), the author didn’t delve deep into the psyche of each of the characters. You know a bit about the background of each character and then the action happens. Given that this is a horror themed book, I actually didn’t mind this though. Just like a horror movie, you’re not there to care too much about the characters lives in detail, but rather to get scared, and this book definitely delivered that!

I could see the twist in this story coming BUT I loved it when it happened all the same. This was a quick, fun, indulgent read, and I am rather keen to see the movie of this when it comes out here, it looks like it could be pretty cool!

Movie Trailer:

It’s Wednesday which means it’s time to tell you what I have been up to for the past week! W..W..W.. Wednesdays is a weekly meme bought to you by MizB from Should Be Reading.

What are you currently reading?

I am currently reading Burn For Burn by Jenny Han. I am about 3/4 of the way through and I am dying to see what happens next!

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished reading House At The End Of The Street by Lily Blake . It’s a short story but pretty enjoyable! Review tomorrow!

What do you think you’ll read next?

I have a few Netgalley ARCs to read so I’ll probably pick one of those to next read. I also want to read Girl Of Nightmares by Kendare Blake. It’s the sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood!

What is everyone out there reading at the moment? Share your links below!

Good evening readers! Small week for me this week… I am trying to NOT buy books in an effort to save money for Christmas pressies for other people! Of course, epic fail as I bought two books this week, but I justified it saying to myself that at least it wasn’t 5. lol And I didn’t buy any books last week. Sooooooo what’s that, 1 book a week then on average? haha

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Mailbox Monday is originally hosted by Marcia from A girl and her books and The Printed Page.

Going Bovine - Libba Bray

An oldie, but I hear it’s a goodie. After reading a couple of Libba’s books I have no doubt that this is going to be really good, especially with that nice fat gold sticker on the cover! ;)

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

Dollhouse (Dollhouse #1) - Anya Allyn

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of self published/indie books on the whole, but this one got my attention on goodreads through a recommendation and I sought It out. It sounds good, so I am going to give it a try! There’s a bit of a mystery happening with people vanishing into nowhere, and a mention of Australia piqued my interests also, since I am a bit of a fan girl for anything based on home soil! I’ll let you know what I think!

So that is all from me this week, what did you receive this week? Let me know - leave your links in the comments section below!

Good afternoon!! Welcome to another edition of nail art inspired by fiction. This weeks nail art is inspired by Lord Of The Rings! These images are not of my own nails, but pictures I’ve gathered online to share!

Welcome to Etsy Saturdays! What is Etsy? Think of Etsy.com as ebay for the homemade. Homemade is “in” again and everyone is doing it, including lovers of YA! And so each Saturday I am sharing with you some cool stuff I found on Etsy and hook you up if you want to buy up! I can’t promise that this post will be good for your hip pocket!

Time for a little something to help charge your iGadgets! I am eyeing off the Alice in Wonderland version personally, but it may have to wait until after Christmas, unless someone buys me one first! lol

Alice In Wonderland Book Charger for iPhone4S by Canterwick

I’m going to look into if they do chargers for the iPhone 5 since that has a different adapter… and I REALLY want one! If Alice doesn’t float your boat, how about Harry?

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows charger by angiesbookattic

I absolutely love this idea!!! Not only does it hide all your chargers, but you can make it a feature. Pretty cool.

Stay tuned for next week! If you see anything on Etsy you think would be a good feature, let me know on Twitter @booknerdreviews!

Release Date: December 6th, 2012
Published By: Harper Collins
Pages: 435
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: Beauty, romance, murder… A novel as stunning and seductive as Renaissance Venice itself.

Cassandra Caravello is part of Venice′s wealthy elite. Her world is one of fabulous gowns, society parties and privilege, yet she longs for something more. While her fiancé is away studying in Paris, she has a chance meeting with an artist called Falco. He is attractive, audacious…and highly unsuitable.

When Cass stumbles upon the body of a murdered woman - with a bloody X carved across her heart - she′s drawn into a dangerous world of secret societies, courtesans and killers. Falco is quick to offer his assistance, but then another body is found and Cass starts receiving death threats… Is Falco more involved than she imagined? And will she be able to stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for someone she′s not even sure she can trust?

Review: The first 30 or so pages were a bit tough for me to get through - this story’s opening scene takes place at a funeral, so no fun beginnings unfortunately, but I am so very glad I perservered through because this was an absolute gem of a book.

Historical fiction is a genre I’ve recently (in the last year or so) really started to enjoy. This story takes place in renaissance Italy. Cass is a wealthy upper class teenager. Her aunt has arranged a wedding between her and Luca, a boy she hasn’t even seen for the last three years, and doesn’t want to marry. Things become even more complicated when she bumps into (litterally) a young up and coming artist in Falco. Falco and Cass have nightly meetings trying to find a murderer on the loose. The same murderer who has threatened Cass, and they’re trying to find him before he finds her. And of course with all the time spent together, feelings start to develop between Cass and Falco.

I loved both aspects of this book, the crime/mystery aspect of this book as well as the love triangle that formed throughout this book. I really cared for the characters, and I developed a bit of a crush on Falco! His cheekyness and brazeness was something I found to be actually quite endearing, and I wanted Cass to just go for it as reserved (and engaged) as she was.

One thing I wished that we learnt more about was the actual Book of the Eternal Rose. At the start of each chapter is a quote from this mysterious book, and in the last 50 pages we hear a tiny mention of it, but ultimately, I am still none the wiser. I understand that the next book will undoubtedly answer many questions I have about this, but I just felt for a book that is the first in the “Secrets of the Eternal Rose” series, there could have been a little more explanation to at least leave me wanting more!

I loved the extravagant clothing, the description of the clothing, and the dresses as well as the different class types of the time. I appreciated the research that went into the background of this book with the little bits of Italian throughout and talk of time relevant items like chopines and courtisanes.

This book I might mention is not only beautiful on the cover itself, but the pages within are all stunning, with beautiful patterns on the inside pages towards the spine. Here’s a picture of what you can expect:

I very much enjoyed this book and am looking forward to finding out what happens next (thank you for the cliffhanger ending! lol).

Trailer:

It’s Wednesday which means it’s time to tell you what I have been up to for the past week! W..W..W.. Wednesdays is a weekly meme bought to you by MizB from Should Be Reading.

What are you currently reading?

I am currently reading Fever by Fiona Paul and whilst we had a rocky start for the first 40 pages or so, it’s done a 360 and I am reallllly enjoying this!!!

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished reading The Diviners by Libba Bray - LOVED it!! The review was posted yesterday so check it out if you haven’t already!

What do you think you’ll read next?

I have a few Netgalley ARCs to read so I’ll probably pick one of those to next read, but on my personal TBR list, I am at a bit of a crossroads, and not sure what I feel like next! There’s potentially about 5 books I am wanting to read, so I might just do an eenie meenie minny mo and pick one! haha

What is everyone out there reading at the moment? Share your links below!

Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Published By: Atom
Pages: 592
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: It’s 1920s New York City. It’s flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It’s after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it’s the opportunity to party like never before.

For Evie O’Neill, it’s escape. She’s never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she’s shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she’s always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be.

But New York City isn’t about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren’t crimes of passion. They’re gruesome. They’re planned. They bear a strange resemblance to an obscure group of tarot cards. And the New York City police can’t solve them alone.

Evie wasn’t just escaping the stifling life of Ohio, she was running from the knowledge of what she could do. She has a secret. A mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn’t catch her first.

Review: Wow!!! The Diviners has left me reeling, such an intense and engaging book! At first I was a little put off by the amount of pages in this book - almost 600, but I had heard so much buzz about this book that I looked beyond it and just jumped in. Honestly, you’ll be so drawn into what is happening that (at least for me), the pages just seemed to fly.

The only other book of Libba Bray’s that I’ve read is Beauty Queens, and I adored that book also, but The Diviners is completely different in genre and style to Beauty Queens which was a reality comedy style book. You can just see from reading this story just how much work and effort has gone into the study of the 1920s, as Libba pours a lot of accurate facts into her work from this time. As someone that loves the flapper era and the 20’s I truly appreciated the amount of sheer research she put into telling this story, she did an amazing job as far as that is concerned.

The characters themselves were fantastic. I absolutely adored the main character Evie, I thought she was just great. Very outgoing and doesn’t take no for an answer (which back in the days was frowned upon). She is what you would call a go-getter. Very inquisitive. Sometimes to her own deteriment for that matter. I felt like the character development was solid, for Evie as well as Memphis, Mabel, Jericho, Will and the background characters like Blind Bill. By the end of the book, I felt like I’d been through 2 books worth of a journey with them, and they resonated with me well after the time I finished reading it!

The plot itself is just awesome. I love a good murder mystery, and so this was really entertaining. I also thought it was really clever how Libba wrote some chapters (although they’re more like scenes really) from the perspective of some of the murder victims in their moments leading up to and including the time they encounter death. So well done, and really spiced the story line up even more having read the “other” side of the tale also.

Overall, read this. I’m going to say it…. it was my favourite read of 2012. I honestly, truly, really can’t think of a bad thing to say about The Diviners. Loved it, and I am looking forward to reading the next book!!

Trailer:

Good afternoon!! Welcome to another edition of nail art inspired by fiction. This weeks nail art is inspired by Macbeth! This image is not of my own nails!

Welcome to Etsy Saturdays! What is Etsy? Think of Etsy.com as ebay for the homemade. Homemade is “in” again and everyone is doing it, including lovers of YA! And so each Saturday I am sharing with you some cool stuff I found on Etsy and hook you up if you want to buy up! I can’t promise that this post will be good for your hip pocket!

It’s almost Christmas time! Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I haven’t. :( Worst ever. But I have been eyeing off these as ideas for some of my book-ish friends!

I Like Big Books & I Cannot Lie Canvas by PamelaFugate Designs

Cute right? I am thinking this would make the perfect library bag. :D OR if you’re not into the bag, you might like a t-shirt of it instead?

I Like Big Books & I Cannot Lie Ladies by Pamela Fugate Designs

Side note, the model looks extremely cheery. Not. :P lol Seriously considering a tote bag!

Stay tuned for next week! If you see anything on Etsy you think would be a good feature, let me know on Twitter @booknerdreviews!

It’s almost Christmas… my where has time gone? We are already up to December, which means it’s time to announce my new giveaway for this month!! The books this month are mostly contemporary YA types for a somewhat different flavour from my usual books!

The way this is going to work though, will be the same as previous giveaways. I am going to announce three winners at the end of this month, and each winner can select one of the books below of their choosing!

This month up for grabs is:

Ten - Gretchen McNeil
The Blessed - Tonya Hurley
Meant To Be - lauren Morrill
Blind Spot - Laura Ellen
Adaptation - Malinda Lo
My Life Next Door - Huntley Fitzpatrick
Touching the Surface - Kimberly Sabatini
34 Pieces Of You - Carmen Rodrigues

To enter, you can click on the various Rafflecopter entries below. The more you want to participate in = the more chances you have at winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! x