Christmas present

Happy new year, and I hope you all had a great holiday.  Check out the book art my brother made me for Christmas!  Each letter was made by folding about 70 pages, and it took him 1.5 hours for each letter, I think.

How was your holiday?  What are you looking forward to in 2017?

Available Now: More than Friends by Monica Murphy

More than Friends by Monica Murphy

Release Date: November 14th, 2016
Genre: Young Adult Romance

Cover Designer: Hang Le

He's not perfect, but he's all I want...

I’m your average girl at your average high school, trying to figure out my place in life. After catching my now ex-boyfriend messing around with my now ex-best friend, I’ve made some big changes. No more band, no more backstabbing friends and no more boring old life. Now I have new friends, a new job and new interests.

But there’s a certain someone who’s interested in me, and I don’t get it. Jordan Tuttle could have anyone he wants. He’s the most popular boy in school. Rich, gorgeous, smart and the star quarterback, he’s perfect. Yet he acts like he wants no one else but…me.

So despite my fears and doubt, I let him get close. Probably too close. I discover that he’s not so perfect after all, but it doesn’t matter. I’m falling for him, even though he runs so hot and cold. I know someday he’s going to break my heart.

And I’m going to let him.

Add to Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32027656-more-than-friends

Purchase Links:

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2f4jdwJ

iBooks link: http://apple.co/2elBtCx
Nook: http://bit.ly/2e4sAPn
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2fwwj9U
Amazon US (print): http://amzn.to/2e4tjAa

Read the prologue, One Night

Free on All platforms or on Wattpad:

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2dYSIO3
iBooks: http://apple.co/2dafC0z
B&N: http://bit.ly/2d7e63f
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2drEMeF
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2dkFokE

Wattpad:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/79420939-one-night

About the Author:

Monica Murphy is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of the One Week Girlfriend series, the Billionaire Bachelors and The Rules series. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is both self-published and published by Random House/Bantam and Harper Collins/Avon. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance.

She is a wife and a mother of three who lives in central California on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere along with their one dog and too many cats. A self-confessed workaholic, when she's not writing, she's reading or hanging out with her husband and kids. She's a firm believer in happy endings, though she will admit to putting her characters through angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA.

Connect with Monica:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MonicaMurphyauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MsMonicaMurphy
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2c9ViiI
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bRP5bR
Website: http://monicamurphyauthor.com
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/IW5U0y

Book Haul: Phoenix Books, Burlington VT

I am in Vermont for the summer, and of course I visited their bookstores.  Off of Church St in Burlington lies Phoenix Books.  It is a small store filled with the bestsellers and bookish art that you'd find on Etsy.  Downstairs is the bargain basement.  Here are the remainder marked books which I absolutely do not like buying for my collection.  However, I picked up a remaindered Vegan Express.  Who cares if a cookbook is remaindered?  Someone will probably spill food on it anyway.

Another thing I got from the Bargain Basement was an iPad case.  There are cats on it!! And it was $5.

From upstairs, I grabbed The Fireman by Joe Hill (which I still have not started, bad Carly).  The bookseller told me that the book is getting great review but the sales are poor.  How sad, but once I start reading it and liking it, I will promote it.

I liked Phoenix Books better than Crow Bookstore (Booksellers?) on Church St.  There, everything is jammed into small space, and it feels claustrophobic and not relaxing like how a bookstore should be.




Check out both stores, and tell me what you think of them!  What do you think of my iPad case?

Remember to support your indie booksellers!

Barnes and Noble Teen Book Festival

I was really excited for Barnes and Noble's Teen Book Festival. It was last weekend, and author events, swag giveaways, and teen book trivia happened all at the same time in stores across the country. Only, I didn't show up at the correct time. I missed one of the events and was too early for another.

On the way up to the teen/ young reader department of the store, we passed by a table. It was covered in a whiteboard table cloth and around it were a few young girls (elementary maybe middle school) and three adults. The adults were the founder of Young Writer's Project, a program/community that encourages young people to write and be confident about their work, an author, and someone whose position I've forgotten.

The man asked us if we wanted to do a writing exercise, and I felt obligated to say yes so my friend and I sat down though we obviously were much older than the rest of the participants, and it seemed like they had signed up for the activity.

The activity was to pick words out of a bucket and write a story including all of those words in 7 minutes. This was really hard. My words were DJ, Pacific Ocean, and break. So, I picked another slip and got "Bill-28 hates his job, thinks he is stuck." What did other people get? Train station, crashing, aliens. Easy and creative. 

When I looked around after 7 minutes, people had mini novels written it seemed. I think I had 3 sentences.

My story was about Bill who works a 9-5 in a cubicle and decides to go on a solo sailing trip for a year, starting off in a port in the Pacific Ocean.

In the end, I liked this activity and was glad we sat down. First, writing on the table was great. Second, it was challenging to write continuously for 7 minutes and also to get creative and make something up that sounds interesting.  You should try this exercise too. It may make you more confident in your writing abilities, and it feels good to get out of your comfort zone.

Check out the beautiful pen and bookmark I got from the Young Writer's Projwct. Seriously, Geoff has some nice swag!

 

Author Event: David Levithan, Andrea Cremer, A.R. Kahler, TommyWallach, and Goldy Moldavsky

Hi all!
I was back in PA this week for spring break and there happened to be a fun event going on at Haverford's Children's Book World.  Coincidentally, I looked on their website yesterday and found that they were having an event today!

Who was there?

David Levithan- Another Day

 Andrea Cremer- The Conjuerer's Riddle (The Inventor's Secret #2)

A.R. Kahler- Shades of Darkness

Tommy Wallach-Thanks for the Trouble

Goldy Moldavsky- Kill the Boy Band

Each author read a passage from their newest book.  Some even had other authors playing different characters in their books, and the atmosphere was cheery and jovial.  

Some interesting things I learned tonight: 

• There will be a sequel to Dash and Lily's Book of Dares.  It will be Christmas themed.
• Andrea Cremer contributed to an anthology about women that came out yesterday on International Women's Day.  It's called A Tyranny of Petticoats
• Alex Kahler killed off the character based off of his ex.
• Tommy Wallach used to hang out in hotels in NYC often while he studied at NYU.
• Goldy Moldavsky thinks Justin Timberlake was the worst member of NSYNC because of his ramen noodle hair.

Signed books from tonight

Beautiful A Tyranny of Petticoats poster

Were you at this event?  Did you read any of the book written by the authors that visited?

  

Review: The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

THE FIFTH WAVE by Rick Yancey
My rating: 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.17 stars

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. 

Here I am making use of time while my flight is delayed;)

Overall, as you can see by my rating, I really enjoyed The Fifth Wave.  I picked this book up when it first came out because it had been getting good reviews, but I never read it until now to get ready for the movie.  In fact, I wasn't really sure what the book was about until I saw the movie trailer.  

The plot is engaging, and Yancey writes the prose in such a way that is exciting, thrilling, and intense.  Intense enough to make me question what the movie was going to be rated.  The choices for the waves are interesting and very believable of being capable to wipe out the planet.  If I hadn't read a spoiler, I would have been shocked at one of the plot twists.  I was on the edge of the pages of the book it was so exciting.  As another reviewer mentioned this book lies between Ya and adult which was nice since I'm trying to move away from YA.

I enjoyed the characters as well.  Cassie is brave, but I like her humor the most.  She is a bit childish in the beginning, but she was only sixteen then, and she grows over thee course of the book.  However, I have to say my favorite character is Evan.  Though some reviewers said his relationship with Cassie was creepy, I liked him.  Maybe their relationship had an unconventional start, but he treats her well and his flirty sense of humor is appealing.  Another favorite of mine was Ringer who took no nonsense from anyone and was very headstrong.

Go read the book.  It's great.  Don't watch the movie unless it is purely to stare at the beautiful actors.  I will be posting a review of the movie soon.

Quick update

Finished The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.  It was great.  Review to come.

Started the sequel, The Infinite Sea last night.

Excited to see The 5th Wave movie.

You should read this too.  Young adults and adults will like it.