Teardrop Tuesday!

It's Teardrop Tuesday! Who's excited for Lauren Kate's brand new series? From now on until October 24 2013, we will be posting new exciting content - yep, you guessed it - every Tuesday!

First up is a sneak peek at the prologue & chapter one for all those people not lucky enough to have got their hands on a limited edition proof of Teardrop: http://www.scribd.com/doc/164830988/Teardrop-by-Lauren-Kate-Sneak-Preview

What do you think? Are you as excited as we are? We have a brand-spanking new ARC we cannot wait to get our greedy hands on - *drool*

Book Review: Shooting Stars (Allison Rushby)

Meet Josephine Foster, or Zo Jo as she’s called in the biz. The best pint-sized photographer of them all, Jo doesn’t mind doing what it takes to get that perfect shot, until she’s sent on an undercover assignment to shoot Ned Hartnett—teen superstar and the only celebrity who’s ever been kind to her—at an exclusive rehabilitation retreat in Boston. The money will be enough to pay for Jo’s dream: real photography classes, and maybe even quitting her paparazzi gig for good. Everyone wants to know what Ned’s in for. But Jo certainly doesn’t know what she’s in for: falling in love with Ned was never supposed to be part of her assignment.

Shooting stars gave me an insight as to what the photography industry is like. It was a cute and interesting read with an unexpected twist - not one that I expected at all. At first, I saw not so keen in reading it, but curiosity got the better of me and thank god it did!

Jo, the main character is a paparazza with an advantage and the book goes on about the mission she is sent to do. I found 'Zo Jo' - as she is known in the business - a talkative character that goes on and on about a particular subject. And while it was perfectly fine in the beginning, soon, it became almost unbearable, but mind you, it did turn down a bit and it was her constant need to blabber on and on that made it possible for me to relate to her (I myself am quite chatty in person). Jo seems to be an independent character certainly capable of taking care of herself - with all the years of being a paparazza, that is. However, she seems so unsure about herself and what she wants to do that it made her seem weak as well as how she seemed so motivated by money and how she 'needs' it to pay for her photography class. One of the characters I really looked forward to come across in the book was Seth. Rude and nosy, I particularly liked him without knowing why, but I do have a feeling that it may be his funny character.

The plot twist is one I definitely loved! Sure, hints we dropped throughout the book and I may have thought it possible but it was still quite good. But there were some parts in the book where I found it was quite weak.

Shooting Stars might not have drawn me in at the beginning, but it certainly made up for it in the end. It wasn't at all 'fluffy' but instead was funny with a hint of cuteness. It is definitely an eye opener for the world of paparazzi and the stars. (If that is how it is?)

Three Stars

Book Review: Siren (Tricia Raybun)

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of everything--the dark, heights, the ocean--but her fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to coach her through every challenge.  That is until Justine goes cliff diving one night near the family's vacation house in Winter Harbor, Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day. 

Vanessa's parents want to work through the tragedy by returning to their everyday lives back in Boston, but Vanessa can't help feeling that her sister's death was more than an accident.  After discovering that Justine never applied to colleges, and that she was secretly in a relationship with longtime family friend Caleb Carmichael, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor to seek some answers.

But when Vanessa learns that Caleb has been missing since Justine's death, she and Caleb's older brother, Simon, join forces to try to find him, and in the process, their childhood friendship blossoms into something more.  

Soon it's not just Vanessa who is afraid.  All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes home to a string of fatal, water-related accidents . . . in which all the victims are found grinning from ear to ear.  

As Vanessa and Simon probe further into the connections between Justine's death and the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance, and that will change her life forever.

When I first read the blurb of the Siren, I didn't expect to like it at all. Don't get me wrong, I find the subject of Sirens in Greek Mythology incredibly fascinating. So I though I should give it a go. Nothing wrong in trying right? It ended up not too bad at all. And although I can't exactly say I love it - because there are some moments that I would rather rip the book in half - it wasn't at all a bad read.

The beginning of the book actually drew me in and her fear of multiple things really helped me notice the change in Vanessa, the protagonist, throughout the book, which I found necessary in order to find her sister and Tricia Rayburn did exceptionally well in finding a moment that determined that change by placing Simon in the mix. I love love love the contrast of personality between the two sisters which was incredibly vital to help establish why what happened to Justine happened. The close bonding Vanessa and Justine really played a massive part in why Vanessa decided to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her sister and not jut leave it all behind and move on - a very heroic action, I think.

I actually ended up liking the twists - or lack thereof - in the story and even though hints were dropped throughout the book, it's still a slam to your face to actually confirm your suspicions so while reading I muttered a few "oh that's why...". There are a few mysterious characters that raise the questions about who they are and what role they will play - but that is always soon resolved. So it's an obvious - but good plot. I mean, it's still pretty weak, anyone is capable of knowing who the "villain" is, if they paid close attention.

What I felt most annoyed about was actually at the beginning of the book. The family argument. It's not exactly the worst thing that could ever happen to Justine, so I still cannot get over the fact that she went cliff diving. And even after then, when I thought that nothing stupid should come afterwards, does Vanessa find out about Justine's little secrets and spend most of her time whining and complaining about why Justine never told her. While the regrets and misery played on one half of Vanessa's mind, the other was focused on her and Simon which truly exhausted my patience waiting for something to happen. I expected a lot of butterflies in the stomach with Siren, but it didn't deliver. I hated the fact that they knew they were attracted to each other but did not exactly talk a lot about their feelings, of course with the solving the mysteries and all, there wasn't really much time for that.

To be honest, I found the cover extremely unappealing  I know that most became interested in the book because the cover caught their eye, but it caught my eye for a completely different reason. And Not the good kind. What I expected from the book was totally different from what I got, instead of romance (lots of it) and mystery - there was a fair bit amount of it, the book presented a load of worries, regret and family drama. ugh. Fortunately, it still gave a good amount of suspicion.

Two Stars

Book Review: Everneath (Brodi Ashton)

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smouldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

What can I say? The cover? Captivating. The blurb? Awesome. Everneath had me in the first few pages and I could never let go. It was that good. The plot was unique and exciting from the beginning so I found myself always wanting to know more even until the end and with Ashton bringing the story of Hades and Persephone together with Orpheus and Eurydice to produce Everneath, it just became too much for me to contain my excitement throughout the whole book.

Everneath follows the character Nikki in her hopes of finding redemption among her family and friends after being taken to the Feed to - of course - feed the everlivings. Unlike most YA books, Everneath not only explores the relationship between Jack and Nikki but with her best friend, brother and father as well, which is why I like it so much.

How Ashton sometimes inserted a memory from the past within a chapter made me realize how empty Nikki was when she left the Feed, that even some of her memories were lost so I always end up looking forward to the walk down memory lane, this brings more of the Jack and Nikki love story and we see glimpses of their past together. Not only that, 'Nik' or 'Beks' - as she is sometimes called- is able to taste the emotions of others and this emphasizes the emptiness within her. So Nikki became one of my favourite characters, not just because I felt sorry for all her troubles, but because of her selflessness and it's because of her selflessness that made such a strong character in the book.

With Cole's offer of ruling the Everneath or end up in the tunnels, I personally would rather feed of people's emotions than suffer in the tunnels as a battery. But as Nikki is the protagonist, she has to be selfless and her time during the Feed led her to believe that there is no hero for her. Which is where Jack - lovely lovely Jack- comes in. My super most favourite character on top of all. Why? Jack never gave up on her at all, ever. Jack was a super sweet character most will definitely fall in love with.Well, I did anyway. So I found it hard to believe that she felt that heroes did not exist and ended up shouting 'Jack's your hero, you fool!' most of the time.

The character I wasn't particularly fond of was Jules. For Nikki's best friend to lose hope in finding her and is then disappointed when she return because of her unrequited love for Jack is just... ugh. I liked her for trying to make things normal again when Nikki returned but at the beginning, Jules wasn't the best friend character I liked at all, but made it up towards the end. Jules' love for her best friend's boyfriend is just one I find too cliche.

I love the love triangle! Add this to the story's twist and you will find yourself wanting and craving more. Cole or Jack? Hmmmm I find it to decide, so we'll leave that to Nikki. While reading Everneath, I found my self captivated by its unique, fast-paced plot and twists with hints dropped from the very beginning. It's a must read and I cannot wait for the next book!

Four Stars!

Surprise!

It's been a long long time - nearly two years actually - since our last blog post. We have been kept terribly busy these past few months by school, work etc. so we haven't been able to post at all since last year. 

Sorry :/

Time was not our friend I'm afraid, but it was when we were looking at the mess created by our ever-growing unread pile that we realised just how much we've missed book blogging! So now that we finally have more time in our hands, we can finally get back to what we love best: reviewing!

Soooo....

We've decided to give Girls Without a Bookshelf another try, seeing how successful it was when it first started off and we hope it'll remain the same. Don't worry, we'll be posting as much as we can this time - not to mention competitions and giveaways!

We're also going to be reviewing a lot more than YA books so romance lovers watch out! There will be a lot of romance reviews are coming your way!

So watch out for our first review out very soon and the promised giveaways too!

Book Review: If I Die (Rachel Vincent)

Everyone else is talking about Eastlake High’s gorgeous new math teacher, Mr. Beck, but Kaylee Cavanaugh has bigger things on her mind. Kaylee’s a banshee—her scream is a portent of death. But the next scream might hit too close to home. Kaylee’s borrowed lifeline has almost run out. Yeah—it’s a shock to her, too. So to distract herself from her own problems, Kaylee is determined to defend her school against the latest supernatural threat. That hot new teacher is really an incubus, who feeds from the desire of unsuspecting students. The only girls immune to his lure are Kaylee and Sabine, her boyfriend’s delinquent ex-girlfriend. Now the unlikely allies have to get rid of Mr. Beck…before he discovers they aren’t quite human either. But Kaylee’s running out of time, and those who love her will do anything to save her life. 


Welcome to the 4th day of Rachel Vincent' IF I DIE blog tour! The 5th book in the Soul Screamers Series is a fantastic, fuel-filled rush of a book - so much so that my postman probably grabbed my copy for himself! Thank yo Lucy and MIRA for sending me a second copy, and I promise if the first one ever turns up I'll be giving it away for you guys to enjoy - watch out for it!

In the meantime, check out my review:

I've always been a fan of the Soul Screamers series, but I must admit - there is always a make or break book in every series and this is it. It is, in many case, a hit or miss, love it or hate it book. It's the book that completely changes the trajectory of the series, and although we readers have probably suspected this, Rachel Vincent still manages to surprise us with the twists in If I Die.

Luckily for me, I was one of the happy one after reading the book. It all begins in a rather awry way for Kaylee, and it seems that this time, she might not come out unscathe. Her relationship with Nash hangs in the balance, a very suspicious teacher is being rather unprofessional in his extra-curricular activities, and worse of all, Kaylee may not even have the time to correct all these and get her life back on track. Indeed, it was very possible she won't even have a life at the end of it.

Every book in the series is generally fast-paced, but If I Die was particularly. Because there were so many challenges for Kaylee in the book, it was inevitable that the book breezes through some of, in my opinion, the more important explanations. There were twists that I find were not of complete surprise - regardless, it didn't take the enjoyment out of it though, which was why, overall I still enjoyed it. I did still gape at some scenes and flickered through others like there was no tomorrow! 

Kaylee was undoubtedly under a lot of pressure in the book, and her resilience shines through quite spectacularly. While there were some actions of Kaylee that I found questionable, far be it for me to call it out; after all, unless you yourself have your days numbered, who are you to judge one who does? Having said that, Kaylee's maturity and her ability to act for the greater good even when she is in peril herself, really underscores everything admirable in her - not to mention it gives us readers some really good action scenes! Funny enough, I particularly liked the bloody scenes that I would usually otherwise have ignored. Rachel really does know her action scenes!

Of course, we learn more about the netherworld and the complexity of the creatures that inhabit it. For me, one thing that stood out was that the netherworld creatures that were featured in If I Die still had a heart. At times I even felt like perhaps Kaylee should not interfere with nature, because it was after all in the nature of these demons to act in their own interest and humans are, no matter how sad, the collateral damage in this case. Much like the animals are to provide for human needs. Only a very convincing character and a heartfelt speech from one does this to me, so kudos to Rachel for getting me all pro-demon in this case!

Last but not least, Tod (insert heart sign here).

That is all - and I, as always cannot wait for Kaylee's adventure in Before I Wake!

Four Stars!

*

Book courtesy of MIRA INK.


PS - Pop into Endlessly Bookish for more If I Die tomorrow and check out the banner for the rest of the tour stops:

Heart of Stone Blog Tour: The Setting.

Hi guys! It's been a while since the last post, but the ball's rolling soon, so let me begin with The Heart of Stone Blog Tour! Today's the final day of the tour, and I'm pleased to have Melanie Welsh with me, author of the Mistress of the Storm and its sequel, Heart of Stone! Both are magical books I'm sure younger teens will enjoy!

Welcome, Melanie!

This month sees the publication of my second children’s novel, Heart of Stone, the follow-up to Mistress of the Storm. Both books are adventure-mysteries, and both feature a young girl called Verity Gallant and her friends.

For each book my editors, Bella and Hannah, were always very keen to emphasise that one of the most important things to aim for as a writer is creating a strong ‘sense of place’. In other words they wanted a world that was accurately described, so the reader found it believable and felt satisfied they could see it in their own mind.

My solution to this – in part – was to set both Mistress of the Storm and Heart of Stone in a fictional version of Ventnor, a remote town on the south coast of the Isle of Wight. Although I actually grew up in Cowes, which is on the north coast of the Island, I always had a fascination with Ventnor. It’s such a quaint town with a lot of privately owned shops but it’s also very striking: with steep tree-covered cliffs that tower over the houses. It felt like the perfect setting for an old-fashioned adventure story.

Using the south coast of the Island for Verity and Henry to sail around also meant that I stood a better chance of making my descriptions of their racing more accurate. I’m not a strong sailor at all, it’s just something I love, so knowing how the tides work and what the coast is like made me feel more confident that everything would hang together realistically.

I think if you get down to the nitty-gritty of why I chose the Isle of Wight in particular, then it’s probably also because, when I first started, I’d recently moved from London to Suffolk with my husband and was feeling very homesick. Writing the Verity stories gave me an excuse to at least be on the Island in my head.

Perhaps as a consequence Wellow is a very vivid place in my imagination, and it’s lovely when people tell me they feel like they can see the town and the coast themselves. I think possibly the ingredient that made this possible was that – to me – there’s something quite magical about the southern Island.  I took a trip back there earlier this year to make notes on the places I was writing about and it was incredibly inspiring. There are so many hidden spaces, mysterious buildings and atmospheric places – all the story elements I used to love when I was a child. I’ve tried to fit as many of them as I could into these two books. And I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

This is the last of Melanie’s blog tour posts to promote the hardback publication of Heart of Stone. If you’d like to know more about her first two books or ask her a question about writing go to www.veritygallant.co.uk

ANGEL FIRE blog tour: From Mexico, with Love

Hello there! You've probably have noticed the lack of posts and general inactivity of Girls Without a Bookshelf this summer holidays - much apologies, we did not have any wi-fi due to our recent move, but since I am back at university, thankfully wi-fi is also back!

I feel it is fitting to re-open the blog with a guest post from the author of one of my favourite books, ANGEL, and so as part of the ANGEL FIRE blog tour, I hugely welcome the talented L.A. Weatherly who is here to talk about the setting of the sequel to much beloved ANGEL!

Welcome Lee!

The Setting of Angel Fire

When I first started planning the Angel trilogy, I had no thought at all of setting the second book in Mexico – a country where, at the time, I’d never even been. The fact that Angel Fire takes place almost entirely in Mexico City is completely down to Alex. Remember that scene in Angel, where he suddenly starts speaking fluent Spanish? Well, I was as surprised as Willow; I’d had no idea that my hero was bilingual. (Sometimes characters just do things. You kind of get used to it, after a while.) Thinking it through, I decided that it made sense, when he’d grown up so close to the Mexican border. More importantly, I couldn’t see it impacting the story very much (ha!), so I just went along with it.

But then, of course, when it came time for Alex and Willow to discuss What Next, it was the most natural thing in the world for Alex to suggest going to Mexico. Because, you know – he spoke Spanish. And by then, I was so used to him as a fluent Spanish speaker that I hardly even thought twice. It wasn’t until later, when it came time to plan Angel Fire, that it suddenly hit me exactly what my hero had done. Holy cats, I had to set a book in Mexico! I’d never even been to Mexico. And Alex might have been fluent in Spanish, but I sure wasn’t.

My mental wheels spun for a while, trying desperately to think of a way out of this. (“OK, maybe they’re on their way to Mexico, but then something happens and they have to go back to the US! Yeah, that’s it!”) Finally, though, I knew that I had to resign myself to my fate: I’d promised readers a book set in Mexico, and that was that. So then came research. A lot of research. I read at least a dozen books about Mexico, and probably half a dozen more about Mexico City…because an exciting idea had started to form. Angel had taken place mostly in the wide, open spaces of America. So for contrast, why not set the sequel in Mexico City, and have a gritty, urban feel to it instead?

The more I read about the Mexican capital, the more I realised what an amazing setting I’d chosen – it’s one of the largest cities in the world; a place where Aztec ruins jostle for space beside Art Deco buildings; where the smell of spices from street-corner food vendors mingles with car fumes; where you hear the pulsing of rock music and of Aztec drums. During the writing of Angel Fire, Mexico City filled my senses: this chaotic, tilting city of concrete almost became a character in its own right.

Books and the Internet can only do so much, though; I was painfully aware that I was writing about a place I’d never been. I was determined to go and see it for myself – and a few months ago my husband and I were lucky enough to do just that. As I walked through the crowded Mexico City streets that I’d been writing about for so long, I had the most incredible sense of déjà vu; I could practically see my characters around every street corner. Especially Alex, raising an eyebrow at me and smiling. Because of course he’d known this would happen all along – back when he started speaking Spanish out of nowhere, that day in Spanish Harlem.

The Catédral Metropolitana, the oldest cathedral in the Americas. Little does Mexico City know that it’s soon to become a Church of Angels cathedral…!

The outskirts of Tepito: one of Mexico City’s roughest barrios, where one of the characters is from. Entering it is like going into a dark, rustling tunnel, with miles of plastic awnings from vendors’ stalls overhead (or so we were told – it was strongly recommended that we NOT go there!).

The Angel of Independence is one of Mexico City’s most famous statues. A huge golden angel, holding a wreath to the sky? Excellent, I can use that!

Thank you Lee!

Watch out for my review of Angel Fire coming up, and don't forget the next stop of the ANGEL FIRE blog tour at Daisy Chain Book Reviews on 11th October for the ANGEL FIRE Soundtrack!

Fury UK Blog Tour: An Extract from FURY!

Second day of the FURY Blog Tour here at Girls at Without a Bookshelf and your treat for today is an extract from FURY! Check it below -

Out of the snowy fog emerged one girl, then two more. Chase couldn’t help but let his jaw drop a bit; these chicks were amazing. The one in front, a redhead with fair skin, was smiling, while the other two—one blonde and a little curvy, the other petite with wavy, honey-colored hair and a paisley scarf around her neck—stood behind her with serious expressions on their gorgeous faces. All three of them seemed to be enveloped in some sort of white light; probably the moon, playing tricks with the snow.

Or maybe he was still drunker than he thought.

“Hey, sorry to startle you,” the redhead said, stepping toward him. “I’m Ty.  These are my cousins, Ally and Meg.

Chase stuttered, “Um, hi. Hey. I’m Chase.”

“Hi Chase,” all three girls said, practically in unison.

“Our car ran out of gas.” Ty motioned up the road a bit, where Chase thought he could just see the outline of a vehicle. “Any chance you could help us?” For a girl stranded in the middle of a snowstorm, she seemed fairly relaxed.

“Do you want me to, um, drive you to the gas station? Or something?”

“That would be great, thanks,” Ty said. “Why don’t I go with you, and Ally and Meg can wait in the car?”

Chase wasn’t one for new age crap—his mom had been to see a psychic a few times and always came back muttering voodoo bullshit, all about “affirmations” and chakra. Not to mention the fact that she’d gone to the psychic in the first place to try to communicate with Chase’s dead father, the deadbeat who’d leave them for week-long drinking binges and come back to eat their food while he “cleaned up.”

Nevertheless, for a split second, he felt like this was fate—like a sign from the universe.  Sure, the party might have been a bust—the Sasha news was pretty much the definition of a buzzkill, and he’d been in no shape to get numbers or hook up—but now he would get alone time with the hottest girl he had ever seen in his life. It was fate, clearly.

Everything was going to be okay.

“So, was there a party tonight?” Ty asked, once they were in the car. He could barely resist the urge to brush the snowflakes from her hair, to lean over and breathe in her musky, floral scent. He silently thanked the dudes at the local garage for letting him use their cleaning supplies for free in return for a couple hours on Saturday mornings. Without them, he couldn’t perform his bi-weekly car-cleansing ritual—the only thing that combated the stale smell of his mom’s Pall Malls.  As he put the car in drive, he felt like he was launching a spaceship into the night, into the snow. He and Ty would explore the dark, winding roads and stark, branch-lined fields between Minster’s street and the gas station.

“Yeah, a Christmas party type thing,” he said, mentally kicking himself for sounding so uncool. She was probably picturing people dancing around in elf costumes. He quickly added, “You know, just some high-school kids.” He was sure this girl must be in college.

“Sounds like fun. I love parties,” Ty said, smiling at him in the dark. “Don’t you wish we could go back to having parties like they did centuries ago? With dance cards and formal invitations and choreographed dances? Or masquerade balls? I’d love to go to a masked party. Wouldn’t you?”

“Totally,” he said, thankful she hadn’t been there to see him try to set up the beer pong game. “You, um, study history or something?”

“Or something,” Ty said, laughing. Her laugh was like the sound of clinking coins. Chase couldn’t think of anything else to say. He fumbled with the radio dial, trying to tune in to something sophisticated and moody.

“God, the snow is amazing,” Ty said, looking out the window. “It reminds me of that old poem—you know. Something about the snow in the air, something something, the secret of despair.”

Chase was so entranced that he could barely focus on anything outside the car; the trees blended together outside his window like a movie in fast-forward. This girl was driving him crazy. It was like she was wearing one of those pheromone perfumes.

Then she turned to him, her eyes piercing. “Did you hear all those sirens before? Any idea what that was about?”

His mouth went dry. The sirens were the last thing he wanted to talk about. “Nope. Maybe some kind of accident…Lots of people just don’t know how to drive in this weather.”

“Nothing’s ever really an accident,” Ty said, once again smiling at him. Her eyes glittered, cat-like. “Don’t you think?”

Chase didn’t really know what she meant, but he nodded anyway. One thing he was sure of: meeting Ty was no accident.

If that's not enough to entice you, I don't know what will! :) Check out the banner above for the rest of the stops for the FURY UK Blog Tour - and don't forget to visit The Crooked Shelf for tomorrow's feature post!

David Blog Tour: Mary Hoffman's Five Favourite Things to Eat in Florence!

A late blog tour post - my apologies, we do not have access to the internet at home, having just moved in - but here it is!

Today I'm very glad to have Mary Hoffman, the author of David, on the blog to share with you her favourite food - a must read if you're heading off to Florence for a holiday!

• Pizza and a cold beer at Nuti’s in Borgo San Lorenzo

The oldest pizza establishment in Florence, handily situated between the San Lorenzo

market and the cathedral square. I was last there on the 1st of April 2011 and had the artichoke pizza, as I usually do. Once when I was sitting outside, which is the best place, a hanging flower pot came crashing down between my table and the next, fortunately on to an empty chair!

• Coffee at Gilli’s in the Piazza della Repubblica

Oh, the pastries have to be seen to be believed! We went here in April too, for a celebratory “tea” (no tea actually consumed) I had a fruit tart and a spremuta of grapefruit and my companions had a millefoglie chocolate pastry with pistachio milk-shake and a very superior individual apple pie with a fruit smoothie.

•

Pumpkin flower risotto at Il Santo Bevitore

This restaurant is a find of my youngest daughter’s and she says I should stop telling people about it. Oops! We had our best dinner of the week there in April, with black Sicilian wine – yum!

• Ice-cream at Festival or Vivoli Gelateria – coffee, nocciola or giandiuja (or all 3)

Italian ice-cream is so delicious it would be a crime not to eat it or at at the very least rude. You can tell how honest I’m being about my favourite things to eat because I went here on our last day in Florence in April and had coffee and nocciola flavours.

• Pasta all’olio e aglio practically anywhere.

With lashings of fresh parsley and some chilli.

YUM. I know, I'm hungry too :) Thank you to Mary for sharing (and making us drool over) these lovely delicacies - one thing's for sure, when I get to Florence I'm definitely not missing these!

You can follow Mary for more updates about the blog tour and David at:

www.maryhoffman.co.uk
www.twitter.com/@MARYMHOFFMAN
www.facebook.com/maryhoffman.fanpage
www.bookmavenmary.blogspot.com

And don't forget to check out the final stop of the blog tour tomorrow!

Book Review: Popular (Gareth Russell)

'AND HOW ARE WE?'

'BETTER.'

'THAN?'

'EVERYONE.'

MEREDITH HARPER is rich, popular, manipulative and almost unnaturally beautiful. At the age of sixteen, she's already a social legend.

IMOGEN DAWSON, beautiful and sexy-chic, she's Meredith's best friend and a total bombshell. And doesn't she just know it. Then there's . . .

KERRY DAVISON, daddy's little princess with a passion for pink and a penchant for Fabulous Induced Breakdowns. Now meet

CAMERON MATTHEWS, six-feet tall, blue-eyed and the most popular guy in school.

Together they're unfathomably gorgeous and like, totally beau. But under the glamorous surface of parties and spa-days is a wealth of comforting lies and convenient silences, bitching, break-ups and scandal. Let the games begin . . .

Popular by Gareth Russell was a very fun read. It was hilarious and exciting, which you could probably guess by the blurb, and it is such a girly-girl book, as you can totally tell by by the cover! It really was funny and full of typical high school socialites. It's like gossip girl and mean girls and ... you know, those girls!

The characters were funny and beautiful popular high school socialites. The life the characters live is an almost perfect one, although behind those parties and glamour were a pile of lies and scandals. This book is mostly based on high school life. They all have their own personalities and they are very (as you may have already known) rich, rich, rich. Made me envy them, but made me see how easily money can get into someone's head also.

I liked the plot and it showed high school life. It sounded like a typical high school I expect, too. Parties, secrets, break-ups. As it turns out, the life of the unmistakably gorgeous socialites aren't perfect at all. It's always good to appreciate the little things in life!

What I didn't really like was how some characters were without common sense sometimes. It happens in real life I know, but I felt like the book exaggerated and it became annoying. Maybe it's just the socialites in the characters that make them annoying, but I wish I liked them better.

I would recommend this book to readers who like the drama and flair of high school life and Gossip Girl. Popular is the perfect read for those of you wanting to read a very fun and glamorous book.

Three Stars.

* Thanks to Razorbill for my review copy!

QoTD Winners, Part deux!

All righty - part deux of the QoTD Winners will receive author copies of Queen of the Dead, courtesy of Stacey Kade! Here are the lucky winners!

Šárka O.

For the Special Giveaway Post we have two, whose answers to the question "If you were Will, what would you give Alona Dare for her birthday?", were chosen by Stacey herself!

•  Hannah S.

I would let her pick out my outfit for the day. Not only would that make her content for a little while but I won't have to hear about my clothes for the rest of the day.

• Kaitlyn K. 

If I were Will, I would try to find something from Alona's life that had meaning to her. Something that still has meaning to her even though she died. Whether it is a picture, a stuffed animal, or something else from her childhood, I would find it. Maybe it would bring a bit of innocence back into her life!

Congratulations! E-mail will be on your way soon.