(ARC) Tour: My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies

My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies by Allen Zadoff | High school sophomore Adam Zeigler, who lost his father to a sudden accident two years ago, thinks the best way to live life is behind the spotlight. As a member of the theater crew, he believes he's achieved it all when he wins the coveted job of spotlight operator. But that was before a young actress, Summer, appeared in his view. Instantly smitten, Adam is determined to win her over. But to do so, he'll have to defy his best friend and break the golden rule of his school: techies and actors don't mix.
Set against the backdrop of a high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Zadoff's latest is a bromance, a love story, and theater story in one. The politics of love and high school collide as Adam struggles to find the courage to step out of the shadows and into the light.


Leave your interest below in the comments, if you'd like the chance to read and review an early copy of this book. If this is your first time participating, please first sign up here.

Daily Dose #19

I love that so many people have taken this meme under their wing and are enjoying the theme. It's brilliant to pop over to random blogs and catch some inspiring images. If you'd like to participate in Daily Dose, simply make a post on Monday with a bunch of images you find magical and hope to inspire your readers with then share the link below.

♥ holly

All images lovingly found on We Heart It!

(ARC) Tour: Moonglass

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby  | From Jessi Kirby, a debut novel about confronting the past in order to move ahead. 

I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now, I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both. 

Anna's life is upended when her father accepts a job transfer the summer before her junior year. It's bad enough that she has to leave her friends and her life behind, but her dad is moving them to the beach where her parents first met and fell in love- a place awash in memories that Anna would just as soon leave under the surface. 
While life on the beach is pretty great, with ocean views and one adorable lifeguard in particular, there are also family secrets that were buried along the shore years ago. And the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide means that nothing- not the sea glass that she collects on the sand and not the truths behind Anna's mother' death- stays buried forever.

SIGN-UPS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS TOUR.

1. Jessica | WA
2. Andrea | WA
3. Chelsey | WA
4. Amanda | KY
5. Shannon | KY
6. Eva | DE
7. Alyssa | PA
8. Alyssa | MA
9. Holly | Australia
10. Monique | Australia

Reading time is limited to 7 days and reviews need to be written within a month.

Waiting on Wednesday #42

Putting Makeup on Dead People

by Jen Violi

I guess, I'm kind of surprised a book so focused on death has made it onto my wish-list but it's just something about the quirkiness of this novel that has caught my attention and I hear the characters are full of wit and humor so I'm eagerly anticipating this college students step back pushing aside her past grievances.

Summary from Goodreads: It's been four years since Donna Parisi's father passed away, but it might as well have been four days. Donna makes conversation and goes through the motion, but she hasn't really gotten on with life. She's not close with anyone, she doesn't have a boyfriend and she's going to college at the local university with a major that her mother picked. 

But one day Donna has an epiphany. She wants to work with dead people. She wants to help people say goodbye and she wants to learn to love a whole person--body and soul. She wants to live her life and be exceptional...at loving, at grieving and at embalming and cremating, too. Even as she makes the decision, things start to change. Donna makes friends with the charismatic new student, Liz. She notices the boy, Charlie, at her table and realizes that maybe he's been noticing her, too. And she begins to forgive the rest of her family for living their lives while she's been busy moping.

Jennifer Violi's gentle, moving story of a girl who finds a life in the midst of death will appeal to any reader who's felt stuck and found inspiration in an unexpected place.

Released July 26th 2011 by Hyperion

Just Cruising!

hey guys! over the next couple of days, i'm going to be absent from the blogosphere as i cruise the high seas, yes that's right "i'm on a boat" ha ha. Always the effervescent reader, I've packed two books (Across the Universe + The Lying Game) plus my e-reader but I'm hoping we have such an awesome time that I won't have to resort to the written word even if I'm psyched to read both these books.

I actually have no idea how I'll go on this trip as I've always had a fear of boats even though I'm not the slightest bit scared of water or swimming. It makes no sense to me at all but at least it's canceling out any precipitation I would've held for the plane trip on the way there.

this is how i'm picturing the first night on the ship 

the arc tours will obviously be going on hold for roughly a week and anyone with a book currently in their possession, feel free to contact me for the next address when you're ready so i can reply once i get back. i'll be sure to fill in everyone on what the trip was like with in an obsessive compulsive type post, listing the much finer details so be sure to hit me up with any questions you might have in the comments.

i'd love to hear about anyone else with a fear of boats or any awesome experiences you've had on a cruise. i'll probably check in mid-way through the trip if they have any sort of internet access.

In My Mailbox #64

For more information on the blogopsheres obession with In My Mailbox, check out The Story Siren.

The Implosion of Aggie Winchester by Lara Zielin | This one looks like it'll be a rather cute read and I can't wait to get into it, it seems to remind me a little of The Ghost and the Goth so far.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer | I've been meaning to read this book for such a long time and couldn't resist when I saw it sitting in my libraries recommended reads section. Hoping it lives up to the hype!

First Light by Rebecca Stead | I have another book by this author on my shelves and this one looks really good too.

Enticed (The Violet Eden Chapters #2) by Jessica Shirvington | I've heard really great things about this series and the cover is pretty awesome too.

Q: Which of these books would you read first?

Music Monday #4 - Soundwave

Today, I'm taking a break from my regular bookie posts to celebrate Soundwave! A festival I've been attending since it's culmination, the line-up may resemble Warped Tour and that's completely fine with me as they never fail to bring out at least a few of my favourite bands. It's a sad fact that I don't exactly attend as many shows as I'd like to anymore so in place, I've promised myself to attend this festival every year as long as they keep bringing out the goods!

this year I'm hoping to see:

The Gaslight Anthem

The Rocket Summer

Mayday Parade

We The Kings

The Maine

Bayside

+ a whole lot more.

Some of my favourites over the years have been Motion City Soundtrack, The Matches, My American Heart, Say Anything, Paramore, Jimmy Eat World and All Time Low but I still regret ever making the decision to see the fun-times that is Forever the Sickest Kids over City and Colour's amazingness now that I'm that a major fan of Dallas' tunes.

I always promise to write up a lengthy review of the SW DAY but never end up getting it done so this year I must promise myself to complete it and if you don't see something posted in the next couple of days, you have my permission to bug me :)

(ARC) Tour: Purple Daze

Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan | What would you do if your boyfriend was shipped overseas to fight in a war? How would you feel if your best friend slept with your boyfriend? Who would you turn to if you got pregnant unexpectedly? And why is high school so boring? These are real and familiar dilemmas faced by today’s teens across America. They are also the issues explored in Sherry Shahan's provocative novel PURPLE DAZE (Running Press Teens; March 22, 2011; $15.95). 


Meet Ziggy, Mickey, Cheryl, Nancy, Don, and Phil, a group of six close-knit friends growing up in suburban Los Angeles in 1965. Through journal entries, notes, interconnected free verse and traditional poems, the six friends reveal their intense experiences and feelings about the world that is unfolding before them. Draft numbers are increasing, Malcolm X is assassinated, and the Vietnam War is escalating just as activism through the peace movement is revving up. As the United States is undergoing cultural and political revolutions, the lives of these six friends endure their own dramatic changes. 


PURPLE DAZE is informed by Shahan’s own experiences growing up in this frenzied period. Using letters she found from a friend stationed in Vietnam and a well-documented timeline of the year, Shahan is able to conjure up the raw emotions of the era. Each character reflects on how they are navigating the ever-changing world with deep honesty and raw emotion making the themes in PURPLE DAZE as relevant today as they were almost 50 years ago.

If you're interested in participating in this blog tour, please first sign-up here and then comment on this post with your name and location.

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Reading time is limited to 7 days and reviews need to be written within a month.

Mini-Review: We'll Always Have Summer

We'll Always Have Summer (Summer #3) by Jenny Han
April 26th 2011 | 

With the third and final installment, We'll Always Have Summer takes us once again into a love triangle of Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah but this time with the added mix of a marriage in the works. I'll always love this series for showing me exactly why I'd love a summer house of my own to share with friends and family but I did think this installment was lacking a little in it's usual summer breeze feeling. It did, however win me over with intrigue as I finished the book in only two short sittings and Jenny Han does the most amazing job of wrapping up the series in the utmost perfect way for the characters.

Waiting on Wednesday #41

Love Story by Jennifer Echols

FORGET YOU was one of my favourite books of last year so it's not any surprise that Jennifer Echol's next novel is sitting at the very top of my wish list. I usually steer clear of anything revolving around horses as it reminds me a little too much of The Saddle Club books I read as a kid but I'm going to push through anyway as I'm sure it'll be awesome.

Summary from Goodreads: Erin Blackwell is headed to college in New York City to study creative writing and earn a living as a romance novelist. Her grandmother has other plans: she approves of the college, but she wants Erin to major in business and then come back home to Kentucky to run the family’s famous racehorse farm. There is no way Erin will agree. Studying in New York and writing her way into a career is her escape from the farm and the family tragedy that happened there. So Erin’s grandmother decides Erin really will live life as a starving artist. She takes Erin’s future job running the farm, her inheritance, even her college tuition, and gives them all to Hunter Allen. 

Hunter has lived on the farm for years. He’s Erin’s age, he’s the stable boy, and he’s the romantic dream of every girl in her high school. But he was involved in the family tragedy. Erin has always given him a wide berth. And he’s a slick opportunist. She’s furious that he fooled her grandmother into giving him Erin’s birthright and sending him to Erin’s college. 

At least she’s free of him in her creative writing class. So she pens a story that has haunted her lately, in which the horse farm heiress at the very first Kentucky Derby starts a forbidden affair with the lowly stable boy. Unfortunately for her, the day she’s sharing this story with her New York classmates, Hunter walks in. He’s switching to her class. And after reading about himself in Erin’s story, he writes his own sexy assignments that lure Erin into dangerous fantasies about what could have been between them, and what might be.

Released July 19th 2011 by MTV books