Mini Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Hi everyone, Jenn, here. I just wanted to update you on our Clean Sweep ARC Challenge month. We're in the month of May but I have only one book down and several to go.

Today I finished Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols. As most of you may know, Mary and I adore Echols. We have read all of her published works. I will only post right now that I loved it. It was a short but generous read, about 288 pages. Leave it to Echols to get me interested in Country Music and the technical aspect of the guitar and fiddle. I highlighted countless quotes, song titles and musical references so I could google them later on. This is obviously the mini review as the book does not come out until July 16th, but please, add it to your "TBR" list on goodreads!

Don't forget to come back, we'll have a giveaway challenge up on the blog very soon!

Next on the #arcmonth reading list: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

Clean Sweep ARC Challenge: May 2013

Springtime, la la la la springtime. Mary and I are participating in Clean Sweep ARC Challenge hosted by Kimberly of The Windy Pages and Kimba  The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. (There should be a procrastinator challenge as I am late on posting this!)

Speaking of procrastination, we have some lovely ARCS on file and I've decided to read an armful of ARCS I've had on hand. By the end of May, I will challenge myself to read the ARCs pictured below as well as some choice ones from Netgalley and Edelweiss.

All in all, I think it'll be fun and it'll encourage me to broaden my scope. So far this year, I've been partial to contemporary novels and it'll be nice to get back into some fantasy, dystopian and paranormal.

We'll host some challenges and four winners will be able to choose some of the ARCS pictured above. There is still time to sign up, just click on Kimberly or Kimba's links.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Pitch Dark Days Event in Huntington Beach

On Monday, Jenn and I, along with our favorite photographer (Jose aka Jenn's super cool husband) attended an author event for the Pitch Dark Days Tour at Barnes and Noble in Hungtington Beach, CA. Brodi Ashton (Everbound), Cynthia Hand (Boundless), Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me), and Veronica Rossi (Through the Ever Night) were kind enough to talk about their books, answer questions, and sign our copies.

Young Adult Giveaway Hop

Hi there and welcome to our first ever participation in a hop! (I hope we're doing it right!) Anywho....we wanted to showcase some 2013 YA books that we're super excited about. Winner will get to choose one title by one of the YA authors listed below. Thanks for stopping by! :) 

Review & Giveaway - Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

After reading/inhaling Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, which I loved, I had very high expectations for the author's upcoming young adult release Eleanor & Park; and, sure enough, I was far from disappointed.  Rowell has a special talent for putting realistic and seemingly ordinary characters in a new light where they can shine and grow without changing who they really are or what they stand for.

Bringing YA to YOU!: Spread the Word!

Bringing YA to YOU!: Spread the Word!: We want to come to your hometown and give you signed books--but in order to do that, we need YOUR help! Spread the Word in Your Hometown...

I entered and requested Montrose, CA as my first choice at Once Upon a Time Book Store and second, Pasadena, CA. Come on So Cal, let's win this :) Have you entered? You could win signed books!! Which sequel are you looking forward to...I can't wait for Scarlet by Marissa Meyer!

Jenn & Mary's Top Ten Favorite YA Books of 2012

*Booktwins through and through, we chose the same five out of ten books! We had such a great year. Now we're looking forward to 2013 debuts and finales.

Review - The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

The word amazing isn't enough to describe The Sea of Tranquility. The story unfolds and you just fall in love with these characters who are broken and in time mend themselves together, or try to at least. 

At first when I read the book, I thought it was going to be a good, light, love-hate read, but it was that and so much more. The Sea of Tranquility made me feel things, when Nastya hurt, I was hurt, when she was surprised, I was surprised, when she laughed, I laughed.

The end of third chapter threw me for a loop. I didn't get it at first, the story is written so well that it concealed something very important, which of course is revealed.

Natsya dropped hints of what demons she lives with day in and day out. It's terrible what has happened to her and by the middle of the book, we have enough to piece together some of the horrific details.

The story switches back and forth through Natsya and Josh's POV.

Josh lives a "hard life", he really does, without the Leighton family, he would pretty much be alone. Natsya basically  forces herself in this force field that he has created himself, which is difficult because they both have their guard on. They don't want to let the other one in, but they're so drawn to each other, that it's inevitable. Josh really transforms and he opens himself so much to her and doesn't know if he should regret the simple expectations that have implanted themselves into his everyday life.

Drew is a character that gets to you, I thought I had him pegged in the beginning book, I really did. I just didn't know how his role was going to play out or how significant he would be, but I fell in love with him too.

I don't want to give anymore away, but really, I just can't stop replaying scenes in my head. Remembering those special moments they shared make me smile, I'm really big on wishes.

I read the book at 11 PM last night, slept around 4:30 AM, woke up around 9:30 AM and didn't stop reading until I was finished which was around 11:30 AM. I absolutely love this book, I was not frustrated at all with the mystery surrounding both characters. The story was well paced and flowed incredibly well, even when situations were rocky, you read through them and experienced what the characters experienced. The Sea of Tranquility had everything you could hope for in a contemporary romance.

The last two words of dialogue are what get me. I went full circle and I cried happy tears. The Sea of Tranquility will stay long with you after you've read the last page. You'll want to go back, reread highlighted or dog-eared pages and fall in love all over again. Believe me, after I collected myself, I immediately went on Goodreads and starting "liking" all of my favorite quotes. You might also be itching to bake something or eat some ice cream.

I really can't wait to read more by Katja Millay.

Review by Jenn
5/5 Stars

Author: Katja Millay - follow her on Twitter.
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: September 5, 2012
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 362

Buy the book!

The YAbooktwins take Manhattan! And Boston. And Nantucket! Giveaway!!

Okay, those were a lot of exclamation marks. But who cares? It's our blog and we are SO excited. Our trip was inspired by a YA book and then one day a picture of Nantucket showed up on bing.com and I immediately took it as a sign (I look at bing.com every day to see what types of photos are posted. It's actually really sad because my internet access is limited at work. It's kind of a highlight of my morning). Anyway, we thought about all the places we could go to and every time a place came up in a book we just started to imagine what it would be like to see it in real life.

Review & Giveaway - Throne of Glass.

Mary and I inhale fantasy reads but oh wow, we couldn't get enough of Throne of Glass. I highlighted so many lines from the book just so I could go back and reread them. We were so excited when one of our favorite bookish friend told us Sarah Maas was going to be at Vroman's in Pasadena. Check out our pics from the event, read Mary's gush-worthy review and don't forget to enter our giveaway.