Splash into Summer Blog Hop

The Splash into Summer Blog Hop is hosted by I am A Reader, Not a Writer and Page Turner Blog. There are over 300 blogs participating, so lots of chances to win.

Since there are so many sites to visit i'm going to keep this short and sweet.  Enter the giveaway to win up to $15 in books from The Book Depository  (if they ship to you, check here):

Must be 13+ to enter:

+1 blog follower which is the original entry
 +1 twitter follower(optional)

+1 A Late Night Reader Blog follower (optional)

This giveaway is International!

Enter Here

Armchair BEA Day 1: Introductions

Hi Armchair Bea participants!
I am really excited to join in this event. I love this idea we can still meet fellow book bloggers and authors even though we can't attend BEA in New York. This week is going to be amazing and I can't wait to learn about new books and meet all of the wonderful bloggers participating in Armchair BEA.

Todays Armchair topic is Who are you, and How do you Armchair? 

Name: Elaina 

Website: http://newreadingmania.blogspot.com/ and http://alatenightreader.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @ereader89

Goodreads:http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1309457-elainareads-watler

Tell us about yourself in 140 characters or less:

College student, Bookseller, Book blogger and all around Book Addict.

What book are you looking forward to reading the most in 2011?
This is a really hard question so i'm going to list my top 3: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, Vanish by Sophie Jordan and Supernaturally by Kiersten White

If you could have lunch with any author, living or not, who would it be and where/what would you eat?

Definietly J.K. Rowling, I would want to a feast at Hogwarts. 

I look forward to getting to learning more about everyone doing Armchair BEA!

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a topic brought to life by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. With Waiting On Wednesday I get to introduce everyone to upcoming books I am excited about!


This week I'm waiting on:

Fins are Forever(Fins#2): July 1, 2011

On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mer girl, true, but signing the renunciation paperwork will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being human thing once and for all.

Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer-bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassinia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassinia and stuck in terraped form, when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody?

The seafoam on the surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up. Tellin asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her dreams?

Flying Blind(Dragon Diaries #1): June 7, 2011

The next generation of shape-shifting dragons from the popular author of the Dragonfire novels.

Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she's been told she's destined for great things. Zoë's the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she's sent to a Pyr boot camp.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.

What are you waiting on this Wednesday? 

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

Summary(from Goodreads): Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush. 

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life. 

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned


My Review: 


I started this book one night after work and I stayed up until I finished it, which didn't take long. You fly through this book laughing the whole time. I've read Oh. My. Gods. by Tera and I loved it. I'm really glad this one didn't disappoint.The cover is gorgeous and its one of the main reasons that I picked this book up to read.  The story line is great Lily is the girl that most of us are in high school. She is in love with the guy of her dreams. She has the boy next door who she is convinced has made it his life goal to annoy her to death. She has her best girl friend who she calls to gush too about everything that happens to her. Then she has her mer-best friend who she meets every week to keep up with the happenings of her home Thalassinia. I loved loved loved Lily's terminology:

"Lord love a lobster, he has a beautiful chest."

This is one of my favorite lines, i'm not sure how long I laughed over this line its just so awesome. 

I can't wait for the next book which comes out June 28th. You can learn more about the author and her old and new books on her website. If you are looking for a great, fun beach read I suggest all of her books. 

My Rating: 

In My Mailbox- May 17,2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. 

This IMM is going to cover things I got week before last and last week. I won some pretty awesome stuff and bought a few books I've been dying to read.

Books Bought:

I bought these two from Bookperk which is an amazing website. The deal was to buy Roses & Bones and get a copy of Abandon for free. If you haven't already you should so sign up for their emails and they will let you know when they have a new deal.

I also bought a few books from the SC Book Festival:
The 1st and 3rd Book in the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter
Werewolf Smackdown by Mario Acevedo

 I'm going to post more about the book festival in another post because I want to show the awesome signatures and gush about how nice everyone was.

Books and Swag I Won: 

I won this swag along with 5 books from Suzanne Lazear @ Steamed

The books were: 

The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis 

Green-Eyed Demon by Jaye Wells 

and 3 hist. rom. books that I've actually given to a friend who loves hist. rom. 

I won this Twilight inspired CD on twitter from Fire and Ice Photos and Eternal Conflict. 

I won this UK copy from Jodi at Books for Company.I like UK copies of things. 

I also won: 

Eternal Rider by Larissa Ione from Sherri @ Urban Girl Reader

Violet Wings from Victoria Hanley from La Toya @Lazy Girl Reads

A bookmark signed by Amy Plum from Me Myshelf &I

Some Possess by Gretchen McNeill Swag

So what did you get in your mailbox this week? 

Winners!!!

Update: Sorry I made a mistake its actually Carina from Fictional Distraction. When I went though my followers so that I could link to the winners blog I didn't realize there was more than one Carina. Sorry for the mix-up. 

Winner of Spring Blog Carnival: 

I used Random.Org to pick a winner and lucky number 13 was the winner. 

Carina @ Fictional Distraction

She will win a $15 gift card or book worth up to $15 from the Book Depo.

Winner of the super awesome prize pack: 

I used Random.Org to pick a winner and lucky number 27 was the winner:

The Story Queen: Sonia @ The Story Queen 

She is the winner of 2 books of her choice that I reviewed, a book journal, some bookmarks and a $15 gift card. 

I will be emailing all of the winners later this evening and they will have 48 hours to respond before I pick another winner. Thank you everyone for entering and look out for more chances to win soon. 

Update:

Hey guys

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm posting the contest winners Sunday evening. The past couple of days I had trouble with blogger where it wouldn't let me do anything. Also I'm super excited because a friend of mine made the last minute decision to go to Columbia this weekend and she agreed to take me along so that I could go to the SC Book Festival. I'm beyond excited because I've been dying to go. So Sunday expect a post of me gushing about the awesomeness plus contest winners and a huge IMM. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

~Elaina

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Summary (from Goodreads): Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn't know much about her background - the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip - but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island. 

Until now. 

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town - from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet. 

In The Gathering, New York Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong brings all the supernatural thrills from her wildly successful Darkest Powers series to Darkness Rising, her scorching hot new trilogy.


My Review:


I love Prologues they are a great way to help readers decided if they want to read a book. It also lends a lot of suspense to the book because it gives a glimpse of things the readers has to look forward to. That said The Gathering has a great start  and I started the book already on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next.  From there the book just gets better. I really like the characters they were all really well developed and I was able to get a feel for how I felt about each of them. Maya's character is amazing, she is a strong independent young woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. I love her boldness in situations and kind of wish I could be like that sometimes, combined with her sarcasm it makes her voice really awesome.  I wonder if Maya with let me borrow Daniel as my guy best friend and super hottie? Then there is Rafe mysterious, bad boy who I was falling for but then the ending has me confused about my feelings. We shall see. 


The plot is good, really fast paced. There are  a lot mysterious things happening in this small town! However the main thing that I found most surprising was how cooperative all of the kids were with different things. I know that its because of the way they were raised but they are really accepting of alot of things. The ending...a cliffhanger...those make me so sad because now I have to wait a year to find out what happens next. I've read the Darkest Powers series so it was really interesting to see names that I recognized from that series. 


The Gathering can be read without reading her other series, once you read it then I suggest you read the other series if you haven't. It may help a little with having to wait for the next book. Kelley Armstrong has many, many books. She has an adult series as well as her two YA trilogies.  You can read about her and all of her books at her website. 


My Rating:

Book Trailer:

White Cat by Holly Black

Summary (from Goodreads): Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.


Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

My Review: 

I picked up White Cat a few times to read it and I have no idea why but it took my 3rd try at the book to finally get into it. I'm not sure why it took me so long because it jumps right into the action. *Excuse me as I go kick myself for taking so long*.

I loved Cassel's character! I like reading books from a guys point of view and White Cat doesn't disappoint. My favorite thing about him was the way he talked about the con. I like his matter of fact tone about his family and their mob like style of doing things. Of all of his family his grandfather is my favorite, for being a Death Worker he is a pretty cool guy. Its hard to talk about the characters I didn't like because of spoilers, but the characters where all beautifully written I just didn't like them as "people".  The plot of White Cat is very well written and fast paced. Holly Black keeps the readers on their toes the whole time. I spent most of the book shocked, especially the end. Dearest Holly Black why must you kill me with that ending. WHY?! Overall the whole book was really good. The story was well developed and very very  original. 


The good thing about me taking so long to read White Cat is that Red Glove the second book is already out! If you haven't already I definitely recommend that you read a copy of White Cat also if you haven't already you should read her Fey series(Its awesome!). What to learn more about the awesome Holly Black? Check out her website! There is also a website for the Curse Workers books here, there you can find a excerpt for White Cat.

My Rating: 

Book Trailer: 

Its Monday What Are You Reading 5/9/11

It's Monday, What are you reading this week? is a weekly event hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read and the books to be finished this week. 

Sadly last  week wasn't a great reading week for me but this week I plan on having an awesome week. 

Books I finished last week:

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Blood Song by Cat Adams

Books I'm reading now:

Girl in the Steel Corset

A Brush of Darkness

Books to finish this week: 

Divergent 

Between Shades of Gray

Karma

Black Dust Mambo 

So what are you reading??

Happy Friday!

Sorry I haven't been around this past week. As of Wednesday evening I finished up with classes. YAY!! I hope everyone had a fun Cinco de Mayo yesterday. I spent all day outside cleaning my new car, DOUBLE YAY!
But now since school is out I should be around much more.

Don't forget to enter the Spring Carnival Hop   it ends May 8th at 11:59. Also if you haven't already enter my giveaway for a Prize Pack that ends tonight at 11:59.

Thanks to everyone who has gone over to follow my New Blog, there will be some new reviews up on there soon. Also look for a review for White Cat and The Gathering tonight!

 Hope everyone has a had a good week and will have an even better weekend!

Once Upon a Twilight Blow Out Giveaway

Hey guys! The bookshelves at Once Upon a Twilight are on the verge of exploding, so they've decided to share some with us! :D Two people will win 20 books each!!! Super awesome, huh? Go enter! 


Here's what's up for grabs:

1. Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson (HC)
2. Department 19 (ARC) by Will Hill
3. The Survivors by Amanda Havard (HC)
4. The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group (ARC) by Catherine Jinks
5. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
6. The Fallen: Volume 1 by Thomas E. Sniegoski
7. Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (UK Paperback edition)
8. Mackenzie, Lost and Found by Deborah Kerbel
9. Girl on the other side by Deborah Kerbel
10. Lure by Deborah Kerbel
11. Venomous by Christopher Krovatin (HC)
12. Drawing the Ocean by Carolyn MacCullough (HC)
13. Eona (ARC) by Alison Goodman
14. Mieradome (ARC) by Kate O’Hegarty
15. Human Blend (ARC) by Lori Pescatore
16. Logic of Demons by H.A. Goodman
17. Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter
18. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
19. These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf
20. The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
21. Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn 
22. The Thyssen Affair by Mozelle Richarson 
23. Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner 
24. Ghost Night by Heather Graham 
25. Night Moves by Heather Graham 
26. A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore 
27. Marked by Moonlight by Sharie Kohler 
28. Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole 
29. An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris (HC) 
30. Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan 
31. Much Ado about Marriage by Karen Hawkins 
32. One Night in Scotland by Karen Kawkins 
33. Threads West, An American Saga by Reid Lance Rosenthal 
34. A Question of Belief by Donna Leon 
35. Follow Me by Joanna Scott 
36. Relationship Obits by Kathleen Horan 
37. Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts 
38. Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea (HC) 
39. Healing the Highlander by Melissa Mayhue 
40. No Hope for Gomez by Graham Parke

Book Trailer for Witch Song

Amber Argyle's Book Witch Song comes out September 1, 2011. Check out this awesome book trailer. Be sure to checkout her Blog. She also has a pretty awesome Contest for anyone who shares this trailer.

In My Mailbox- May 1,2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. 

I got some really awesome things this week alot of swag and some books that I won from giveaways! 

Books and Swag I Won:

Jessi Kirby has been doing Moonglass Inspired Giveaways leading up to the Release of  her book Moonglass which will be released May 3, 2011. I won one of the giveaways and got the awesome stuff shown above. Thank you Jessi! If you haven't already check out her website and learn more about her book.

I won a mug, coffee, bookmark, stick note pad, keychain and amazon giftcard from Jessica McQuinn's Easter Hoppin' Blog giveaway. All of the swag has Indivisible on it which sounds really good. You can learn more about her by checking out her website. Thanks Jessica!

Intense Whisper had a guest post from author Tessa Adams a few weeks ago and she did an awesome giveaway while there. I won the first book in her Dragon Heart series Dark Ember. I can't wait to read it. There was also alot of swag with it including a preview of her second and newest book Hidden Embers.There were also lots of book marks and a preivew and poster for her YA book Tempest Rising which is written under the name Tracy Deebs. Thank you Tracy! 

Then last but not least I won a beautiful bookmark for Nova Ren Suma's new book Imaginary Girls which will be out June 14, 2011. I'm really excited about this book and can't wait to read it. Thank you Nova!

Books I Bought:

I bought some really awesome books this week. I've already read Clockwork Angel but I didn't have my own copy of it and I got an amazing deal on it that I couldn't pass up so i'm really excited about adding it to my collection. I also got Under Wraps and Grave Witch I can't wait to sit down and read both of these. 

So what did you get in your mailbox?

Spring Blog Carnival

Spring Blog Carnival!

Lori from Pure Imagination, Angela from Reading Angel, Candace from Candace’s Book Blog, Mary from The Book Swarm, decided to join together and throw a blog party!

The carnival runs from 12:01 May 1, 2011 through midnight May 8, 2011. All times EDT.
May 1st-Reading Angel: Haunted House
Reading Teen: Fortune Tellers Booth

May 2nd-
Candace’s Book Blog: Food Court
The Mod Podge Bookshelf: House of Mirrors

May 3rd-
The Book Swarm: Roller Coaster
Actin’ Up With Books: Karaoke Booth

May 4th-
Pure Imagination: Kissing Booth
Lovely Lit: Once Upon a Time Booth

May 5th-
Awesomesauce Books: Gaming Booth
Books R Us: Medieval Booth

May 6th-
Extreme Reader Book Reviews: Guessing Booth 
Colloquium: Cotton Candy Booth

May 7th-
The Minding Spot: Teacups Booth
Miss Remmers Review: It’s a Bad World Booth

Since there are so many sites to visit i'm going to keep this short and sweet.  Enter the giveaway to win a $15 giftcard to Amazon or  choose a book or two of your choice from the Book Depository up to $15 US (if they ship to you, check here):

Must be 13+ to enter:

+1 blog follower which is the original entry

+1 twitter follower(optional)

+1 goodreads friend (optional)

+1 A Late Night Reader Blog follower (optional)

+1 for tweeting the giveaway

This giveaway is International. Enter using this FORM. Entries done in comments won't be counted, if you have a problem with the form you can email me ereader89 AT aol DOT com. If you want me to follow your blog after you enter you can leave that in the comments =)

Don't forget to hop on over to the next blog to see what awesomness they are giving away!

Contest and Blog Updates!

Hey Guys! So I'm really excited this has been such an awesome month of blogging and making new blog friends. Also I have just over 300 followers (HAPPY DANCE). I love all of the comments ya'll are leaving for me, everyone is soo nice. I'm working on returning all of the new follows that i'm getting.

The Contest has had an amazing response and I'm super excited to pick a winner. However this week I have finals (not to excited about this). I wouldn't be able to pick winners right away so what i'm going to do is extend the contest for a week. So the last day to enter is May 6th at 11:59 pm EST. Then I will post the winner Saturday May 7th. If you haven't entered yet you should check it our HERE.

This week I am also taking part in the Spring Carnival Blog Hop so look out for that for a chance to win another gift card. That giveaway will be going up in a few minutes.

I've been talking about doing Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, ETC.. weekends. I have since then decided that I'm going to do a separate blog for reviews and such containing these. This is so that I can keep this as a strictly YA blog. For the first few weeks I'm going to post links here for reviews and such that I do for readers that read more than just YA. This is just so that I can spread the word about my new blog.
The blog is called A Late Night Reader.

Thanks!