Friday 30 September 2011

The Fear (The Enemy #3) by Charlie Higson review


The Fear (The Enemy #3)

The fear is book three in the enemy series it follow five days before the last book ends. If you have not read the series DO! This series is like no other. Any way The fear followers the story of a few groups of kids in deep trouble they are all trying to survive in a world where all the grownups seem to have been turned into zombies . While zombies and dead kids is bad enough there is also lots of other things going on that give you chills the way some kids have turned into power hungry cold beings while other seem to really be working for a better future. The series is set in London and as I live close to there you can’t help but feel cold shivers when going by a building that’s been used in the book.

The Author has brilliantly written the book in a way were everything feels so real and downright creepy and scary at times. There was long moments in the book were I held my breath fearing for the characters and willing them to KEEP GOING! It was easy to get hooked into this world that the author has written. The book showed you lots of things you never got to see in the first or second book and if you have read all the books like I have you will see that each book is like a piece of puzzle and they all fit together in a wonderful and perfected way.

I felt that while the book is action packed with more blood and guts then a slaughter house there was so much more going on. David is one character while power hunger and evil to me he also kind of makes the book cool because you’re willing other character to over thrown him. There are lots of other characters that you start to love but you’re always scared that they will not last with all the zombies about.  I loved every moment of the book and by the end all I could think was...please Charlie Higson write the next book fast I’m dying to know what happens next.

I give the book a massive 5 stars

This series just keeps getting better and better. 

Ashfall by Mike Mullin GIVE AWAY


Ashfall (Ashfall #1)

Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.
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Well as today is the last day of my Ashfall madness on the blog. i wanted to do something nice so i'm going to give one winner a hard back copy of Ashfall all you have to do is complete rafflecopter form below. 

Winner is picked at random by Rafflecopter so good luck all.
Extra entries available.

Thursday 29 September 2011

bookaholics book club give away

there is a massive give away going on at bookaholics book club. Head over say hello and congrats on reaching 300 followers. 


http://bookaholicsbkcl.blogspot.com

Give away on Carolina Valdez Miller blog!!

Another great review for Ashfall by Mike Mullin and massive give away head over to the blog now 


www.carolinavaldezmiller.com


Mike Mullin interview

This is day 3 of Ashfall madness 


Mike Mullin author of Ashfall release date 10/11/2011


I want to say a big hello and thank you for Mike Mullin for taking the time to do this interview for best books.

You’re most welcome. Thanks for having me on your blog.

1.      Five fun facts about yourself?

  1. I keep a pet alligator in the guestroom bathtub. It’s really friendly with my wife’s three cats.
  2. I earned a black belt in Songham Taekwondo in April.
  3. The broken arm I got in fourth grade was caused by an unfortunate run-in with a grizzly bear.
  4. I shelve my books in binary. You can find The Story of Edgar Sawtelle under 010110100101010.
  5. I’m not entirely sure what the word “fact” means, but I’ve got fun down to an art.


2.      What most people on best books like to know is what got you into writing?

Until I was eleven, I attended a brick box of a school, antiseptically clean and emotionally sterile. The children marched in files down the halls, mumbled math facts in unison, and occasionally did a craft project about a book.

When I turned twelve, I escaped from that intellectual prison camp and went to a noisy, dirty, chaotic school where I was—gasp—expected to write. Every day. And—double gasp—read. I wrote my first novel in sixth grade—Captain Poopy’s Sewer Adventures. Sadly, Dav Pilkey beat me to publication with Captain Underpants, although I still spell better than him. (You don’t see me typing Mik Mullin, do you?) I’ve been writing ever since.

3.      Where did the idea for your first book Ashfall come from?

Ashfall was conceived in the stacks of Central Library in downtown Indianapolis. Sadly, that’s not nearly as dirty as it sounds. I can’t convince my wife to try that particular trick—she’s smarter than me, as you can no doubt discern.

Anyway, I found Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything and checked it out because it’s way too small a book to be a history of nearly everything. I read the section on the Yellowstone supervolcano and was hooked.

4.      Did you have to do lots of research for your book?

Yes, had a team of 100 monkeys with laptops (they won’t work on typewriters anymore) researching ASHFALL for more than two days. Then I had to fire them because they changed the ash to monkey poo. And flung it all over the manuscript.

So, I spent almost a year researching ASHFALL the old fashioned way. I read every book, website, and journal article on supervolcanoes I could locate. I even consulted with two geologists near the end of the process. If you’d like to know more about the science and research process behind ASHFALL, check out this blog post.

5.      Are any of the characters in the book based on anyone?

Yes, they are all based on the monkeys. Except Target. He’s based on the gorilla I hired to chase the monkeys out after I fired them.

Actually, I had real people in mind when writing most of my characters. Alex, for example, is very loosely based on Ben Alexander, a teenager who trains at my dojang. He can kick my butt up and down Pendleton Pike while sipping a Chai Mocha Latte.
Uncle Paul, Aunt Caroline, Max, and Anna are based on my brother’s real family. They have a small farm near Dayton, Ohio where they raise goats, ducks and kale, just like in the book. My brother taught me everything I know about greenhouse farming. If it’s all wrong in ASHFALL, blame him.

6.      You plain to make Ashfall a series do you have any new shocks and surprises in book two?

Um, yes. I just finished the third draft of ASHEN WINTER, which is the sequel to ASHFALL. It’ll be published by Tanglewood Press in October 2012.
One important character dies. It’s a disaster—if everyone survived it wouldn’t be realistic. Some people are going to hate the huge plot twist about a third of the way into ASHEN WINTER. What can I say, I learned everything I know about writing from Nick Lowe, of “Cruel to be Kind” fame.

7.      How long did it take you to write Ashfall? And was there every a time where you thought you would never make it to the end?

I wrote 5,500 words in the middle of one insomniac night, and then spent about eight months on reading and research before resuming the draft. The drafting process took another six months and then I spent another six months rewriting, editing and submitting the manuscript.
I got badly stuck at one point in the drafting process. Instead of moping, I jumped in the car and took a road trip. I drove every mile of Alex’s route through northern Iowa and Illinois. That provided the inspiration I needed to power through to the end.

8.      I don’t want to give too much away about the book but what I loved most about the book was Alex’s will power to keep going. As the author do you have any favourite parts in the book?

Chapters 37 and 38. They were never part of any outline for ASHFALL. I added those two chapters spontaneously as I was visiting my Uncle Chuck, who was in the final stages of his battle with cancer. The first time my wife read those chapters, we were driving. (Well, I was driving. She was riding along. It’s safer if you don’t read and drive.) I looked over at her and tears were streaming down her cheeks. I thought, yes! Those chapters work! (I’m a really terrible husband.)

9.      Do you have any favourite authors?

Richard Peck, Neal Shusterman, Cinda Williams Chima, M.T. Anderson, Michael Grant, Suzanne Collins, Francisco X. Stork, Kristin Cashore, Cormac McCarthy, E.B. White, Jandy Nelson…. Oh, heck, who am I kidding? I could turn this into a list so long that I’d still be typing the end while you were reading the beginning. Become my friend on Goodreads to see everything I’m reading and talk books.

10.  Do you have any advice for people that want to be authors?

Read. Read more. No, read more than that. You read to learn your craft and to learn whether you’re doing original work or not. Read everything you can in your genre, then read some work outside your genre. Carry a book or e-reader everywhere.  The minutes spend waiting here and there during the course of a day add up to a lot of reading time. Unless you’re writing television scripts, turn off the boob tube. Better yet, throw a brick at it. It’s cathartic.
Just to give you an idea, here’s a shot of my to-be-read pile on August 19th:


Before I finish is there anything you want to tell fans on best books page and blog?

Thanks so much for hosting me here, and for all that so many of you have done to support me and my debut novel, ASHFALL. I’m humbled and deeply grateful.

Thank you so much for letting me interview you and I can’t wait to read the next book.

Author Photo
Book Jacket

 Bio
Mike Mullin’s first job was scraping the gum off the undersides of desks at his high school. From there, things went steadily downhill. He almost got fired by the owner of a bookstore due to his poor taste in earrings. He worked at a place that showed slides of poopy diapers during lunch (it did cut down on the cafeteria budget). The hazing process at the next company included eating live termites raised by the resident entomologist, so that didn’t last long either. For a while Mike juggled bottles at a wine shop, sometimes to disastrous effect. Oh, and then there was the job where swarms of wasps occasionally tried to chase him off ladders. So he’s really hoping this writing thing works out.
Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and her three cats. ASHFALL is his first novel.

About ASHFALL
Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don’t realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano. It has erupted three times in the last 2.1 million years, and it will erupt again, changing the Earth forever.
Fifteen-year-old Alex is home alone when the supervolcano erupts. His town collapses into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence, forcing him to flee. He begins a harrowing trek in search of his parents and sister, who were visiting relatives 140 miles away.
Along the way, Alex struggles through a landscape transformed by more than a foot of ash. The disaster brings out the best and worst in people desperate for food, clean water, and shelter.  When an escaped convict injures Alex, he searches for a sheltered place where he can wait—to heal or to die. Instead, he finds Darla. Together, they fight to achieve a nearly impossible goal: surviving the supervolcano

Excerpt
The first two chapters are available on my website: www.mikemullinauthor.com. ((read the first two chapters online))

Social Media Links


Purchase Links



Wednesday 28 September 2011

Favorite quotes from Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Day 2 of Annmarie Ashfall madness! 

One of the things i loved best about this book was some of the things the character thought and said were brilliant. 

Annmarie’s favourite Ashfall quotes

“For the first time ever, I felt ashamed of my species. The volcano had taken our homes, our food, our automobiles, and our airplanes, but it hadn't taken our humanity. No, we'd given that up on our own.” 

“That whiff of smoke was enough to transform my sithere-trembling terror into get-the-hell-out-of-here terror.” 

“But unlike thunder, this didn’t stop. It went on and on, machine-gun style, as if Zeus had loaded his bolts into an M60 with an inexhaustible ammo crate.” 

“I felt bad about dirtying their comforter with my nasty clothes, but who knew what might happen later. If something else bizarre went down and I had to run, I sure didn’t want to do it butt naked.”

“Hunger of choice is a painful luxury; hunger of necessity is terrifying torture.” 

“Condoms instantly shot to the number-one position on my mental list of must-find survival supplies, far ahead of food, water, and a way across the Mississippi River.” 

“The few trees still upright were stripped of their branches, lonely flagpoles without a nation to claim them.” 

“For the first time ever, I felt ashamed of my species. The volcano had taken our homes, our food, our automobiles, and our airplanes, but it hadn't taken our humanity. No, we'd given that up on our own.” 

Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.

Buy your copy of the book today available at 




this are all clicked to the page you need. It will take you directly to Ashfall buy page 

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Ashfall by Mike Mullin review-annmarie




Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Ashfall tells the story of Alex how is left at home for the weekend when his family goes off to visit relatives. Alex’s happiness is short lived when the Yellowstone volcano erupts and all Alex can think about is getting to his family. Traveling to his family will be the hardest journey of his life. This new world of ash turns out to be a living hell where people will do anything to survive. 


This book gave me chills from the first chapter to the last. The story which within two chapters went straight into the action I felt like Alex’s town and the others around it had been dropped into the mouth of hell. I was at the edge of my seat watching Alex’s journey unfold. This whole book put me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. 


Alex is faced with challenge after challenge which left me wondering how much more can this poor boy can take. The people around him are going to horrifying lengths to keep themselves alive. Alex see’s and experiences things that would make a full grown man cry, scream and just plain give up.. 
I would recommend this book to others it’s an amazing book with lots going on. While this book at times can be dark and scary there is also lots of fun and some of the things Alex thinks and feels made me laugh. It was a mixed book which has so much to give action, love, horror, and so much more. 

A breath taking story that will keep you up at night.
5 stars.

Last words- This book was brilliant no review could sum up the true depth of this book. 
Go and buy the book and see your self this is one of the best-est books i have ever read! 

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Over the next few days ill be going Ashfall crazy and i hope by the end you will want to BUY this book it's brilliant!! 

BEAUTIFUL CHAOS - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE


Beautiful Chaos

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Published by Razorbill Paperback,
18th October 2011, £7.99


The third bewitching instalment in the spellbinding love story that began with the international bestseller Beautiful Creatures.

Garcia and Stohl have created an hauntingly beautiful world of gothic romance, deadly secrets and magic – bound to capture the hearts of true romantics everywhere.
But is falling in love the beginning or the end?

Ethan Wate is in love with a caster girl. When he looks at Lena, it’s like there’s no one else in the world. But Ethan is mortal, and on her seventeenth birthday Lena made a choice that changed everything.

The girl Ethan loves has broken the world with the supernatural powers she is struggling to control… Now, if they are to fix the chaos Lena has caused, one of them must make a terrible sacrifice.

Sometimes there isn’t just one answer.
Sometimes there’s no going back.
And this time there won’t be a happy ending.



ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Kami Garcia is a superstitious American southerner who is a teacher and reading specialist with an MA in education. Margaret Stohl has degrees from Yale and Standford Universities and has studied in the prestigious creative writing department at UEA, Norwich. They both live in Los Angeles, California, with their families. Beautiful Chaos is their third novel.



Praise for the series
“A hauntingly delicious dark fantasy, a cast of fascinating characters, a rich gothic setting – this debut novel is one to watch.” 
- Cassandra Clare, New York Times bestselling author of The Mortal Instruments



“Gorgeously crafted, atmospheric, and original. I devoured it.” 
- Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked Lovely



“Lush Southern gothic whose memorable, eccentric characters draw you into their captivating world.” 
- Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale



“Like a thick, hot Carolina summer, this story seeps into you until it’s all you can think about.” 
- Carrie Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth



“Perfect escape for romantics”
SHE magazine 


“A definite page-turner”
Daily Mail


“A magnificently crafted novel” Chicklish blog


“I adored this book” So Many Books, So Little Time blog


“Give this to fans of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight or HBO’s True Blood and they will devour all 600-plus pages of this teen Gothic romance.” 
School Library Journal



“[Readers] will be swept up by the haunting and detailed atmosphere”
Publisher’s Weekly



“Plenty teens will like: romance, magic, hauntings.”
Booklist


“This novel has been generating major Twilight-level buzz.”
Teen Vogue




For further information please contact Hannah McMillan in Penguin Publicity,

Monday 26 September 2011

win a copy of Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore


Between the Sea and Sky
For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air.

For a chance to win a hard back copy of this book enter below..

Sunday 25 September 2011

Currently reading The Fear (The Enemy #3) by Charlie Higson


The Fear (The Enemy #3)

HE DOESN’T KNOW IT BUT DOG NUT IS ABOUT TO SET OFF A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT WILL AFFECT EVERY KID IN THE CITY.

The sickness struck everyone over the age of fourteen.

Mothers and fathers, older brothers, sisters and best friends. No one escaped its touch. And now children across London are being hunted by ferocious grown-ups . . .

They’re hungry. They’re bloodthirsty. And they aren’t giving up.

Dog Nut and the rest of his crew want to find their lost friends, and set off on a deadly mission from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace and beyond, as the sickos lie in wait. But who are their friends and who is the enemy in this changed world? 


About Charlie Higson (from his website) http://www.charliehigson.co.uk/about/


Charlie Higson is a successful author, actor, comedian and writer for television and radio. 

He wrote the phenomenally successful Young Bond series which has now sold over a million copies in the UK and has been translated into over 24 different languages. The series began with SilverFin and was followed by Blood Fever, Double or Die, Hurricane Gold and By Royal Command. All five novels entered the children’s bestseller charts in the top five.

The first novel in his bestselling zombie-adventure series for teenagers, The Enemy, was published by Puffin in September 2009, with the second The Dead, following in September 2010. Both books have been published to great critical acclaim. Charlie is a huge fan of horror films and books, and even studied gothic literature at university. With three sons of his own, Charlie knows exactly how to terrify and captivate teenagers in equal measure.

After leaving university, Charlie formed a band, The Higsons. He then became a decorator before turning to the world of television and going into partnership Paul Whitehouse. His television successes have included Saturday Live, the Harry Enfield Television Programme, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars, Randall and Hopkirk Deceased, the film Suite 16, Swiss Toni and of course, the Fast Show. 
Most recently Charlie and Paul co-produced the controversial and award-winning spoof radio series Down the Line for BBC Radio 4, in which they also both performed, which became the television comedy series Bellamy’s People, on BBC 2, inspired by the Radio series.

Charlie is also a successful adult novelist and has written four thrillers, King of the Ants (1992), Happy Now(1993), Full Whack (1995) and Getting Rid of Mr Kitchen (1996).

Charlie lives in North London.



Dearly Departed By Lia Habel review- Annmarie



 Dearly Departed By Lia habel
The book is set in the future in a place called new Victoria while the new world is more advice in technology the people seems have taken to becoming a new world where ladies talk proper and men that are gentlemen. Nora Dearly is well known thanks to what her father did while he was alive, know Nora has lost both her mother and father is now under the care of her aunt. Nora does not mind her life but her aunt wants more for them to marry and be higher classed but Nora wants nothing of the sort. While Nora life seems simply now she is soon thrown into something to crazy to understand she is kidnapped by zombies and hidden away. Nora soon comes to see that more is going on in this world then she could ever imagine the things she thought were real were lies and the home she once loved is in grave danger.  War rages and the people Nora loves are about to die can she save them and work out how she feels before it’s too late.

When I got my copy of this book in the post I knew after reading the back that I would love this book. As a book blogger I see lots of books about vampires and werewolves and I have fallen in love with my fair share but this book did not have ether this book was different and new which grabbed you and sucked you in with every word.  I loved that the book was based on zombies and while most zombie book's I have read the zombies are pure mindless evil this book showed a different side to the undead. While you still had your evil one’s that would kill anything that still had a beating heart you also had a different kind of zombie ones that thought and felt and talked. I pretty much fell in love with the book from the first page the book was built up in a way that was brilliant and different. The people of new Victoria are great to read about and while the book is based in the future it’s like the character really are still in the Victorian age which is a really interesting. One of the reason they stood out was because of how advice there technology was but even with all the technology the people seem happy to live such an old style life. The whole story was original while there was horror in the book to me it was more like a twisted love story set in a post apocalyptic future with more action then any book I have read.  

Dark and fresh read it you will love it!

I give the book a massive 5 stars and recommend other's read the book.

Final thought: Put down your vamp books and take a taste of the undead you will not be disappointed. 

Friday 23 September 2011

In my mailbox #6

Big thanks to Nat from Facebook and random house and puffin books for the great books.

Currently reading ARC of Dearly Departed by Lia Habel.


Dearly Departed
Love can never die. 

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie? 

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. 

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire. 

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.



About author from Lia habel web site: http://liahabel.com/
 Lia Habel was born in Jamestown, NY, and has lived there the majority of her life. The only child of geeky parents (although her father would never describe himself that way, despite his Halo addiction), she was reared on a combination of horror and action movies, classic literature, cult television shows, and video games. A promising start.
She attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, receiving her B.A. in English Literature with honors, as well as the University of Leicester, UK, where she earned her M.A. in Museum Studies. Although she received an excellent education at both institutions, Lia was always unlucky when it came to finding work in her chosen field – a fact which compelled her to jump from low-paying job to low-paying job just to make ends meet. She was, at various times during her life, a makeup artist, an envelope-opener, a retail clerk, a grocery scanner, a door guard, and a substitute teacher. When Dearly, Departed sold, she was swimming in student debt, with only a few dollars to her name.
The first draft of Dearly, Departed was written in 2008, during one of her many periods of unemployment. The ideas came to her in a rush, and she wrote the first draft in roughly a month. A mix of silly sci-fi and paranormal themes, equally tongue-in-cheek and deadly serious, Dearly, Departed exists as a testament to Lia Habel’s deep love of horror movie monsters, “ugly” heroes, and sweeping tales of Victorian romance. Lia is especially dedicated to keeping her good-guy zombies true to the zombies she grew up with and so ardently admires – readers will watch their favorite characters rot before their eyes as the series progresses. (The next book in the series, Dearly, Beloved, is already in the works.)
Miss Habel lives with three former alley cats. She enjoys attending anachronistic and steampunk events, watching zombie movies (her goal is to watch every zombie movie ever made), commissioning ball gowns, and collecting Victorian and Edwardian books. She is incredibly grateful for the opportunities she has recently been given.


Interesting facts!
1.     I wear wigs. I lost quite a bit of my natural hair back in 2009, due to a combination of stress and mysterious medical factors. I’m a very all-or-nothing personality, so when it got to the point where I was going to have to rock a comb-over, I said, “Screw it. I’m going to buy a wig in EVERY COLOR.” And I did. I own scores now, in all shades and styles, but I don the brunette ones for professional gigs. I call it “Lia brown.”
2.     Nora, Bram, and most of the (only vaguely outlined) plot for Dearly, Departed were dreamed up on an eight hour bus ride to New York City for a neo-Victorian event. Despite this promising beginning, I did little planning before beginning to write. Most characters were nothing more than a first name and a random hair color before they first hit the page. Their personalities and backgrounds came to me on the fly.
3.     I wrote the first draft of Dearly, Departed in a little over a month. During my most prolific week, I was writing upwards of 10,000 words a day. I have no idea where it all came from. (It took me three months to write the first draft of the upcoming sequel, Dearly, Beloved.)
4.     Most hilarious edit made to date: My first editor was fine with the zombie who carts around his own useless eye, the headless zombie, the jokes about human boxed lunches, the guy with his throat ripped out, and even the zombie/living kiss – but, “Can Bram not be green? Can you make him really pale instead?” I happily obliged.
5.     I’ve watched over 100 zombie movies, read tons of zombie books and comics, run through the Monroeville Mall, cuddled zombie toys, perched on a tombstone in the cemetery where the original Night of the Living Dead was filmed, and even held a real human brain in my hands – but I have never worn zombie makeup.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

jamie magee cover reveal winner






thank you everyone for joing best books in helping reveal the cover for jamie magee's new book
the winner of the ebooks of book one and two is

PAM MANDIGO!!!! 

CONGRATS I HAVE EMAILED CYNTHIA AND SHE WILL BE GETTING YOUR EBOOKS SENT TO YOU :)

ALSO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED IS NOW ENTERED INTO THE GRAND PRIZE DRAW TO WIN SIGNED COPIES OF BOOK ONE AND TWO AND AN EARC OF BOOK 3

Monday 19 September 2011

Day 8 Cover Reveal: Image by jamie magee plus giveaway






look at the pretty cover for the 3rd book in the insight series by jamie magee, its going to look stunning when its finally revealed

There is an eBook giveaway of Insight and Embody (the first 2 books in the series) that is taking place right here, right now. Then there will be a GRAND Giveaway in which all the entries during the cover reveal stops will be entered to win physical signed copies of Insight, Embody, and a digital ARC of Image.

How to enter?

please go to jamie's facebook page and thank her for donating
Insight.Jamie.Magee

please be a follower of best books blog
fill out this form
FORM


ends 22nd september
international

GIVE AWAY Shifting by Bethany Wiggins



Shifting
After bouncing from foster home to foster home, Magdalene Mae is transferred to what should be her last foster home in the tiny town of Silver City, New Mexico. Now that she's eighteen and has only a year left in high school, she's determined to stay out of trouble and just be normal. Agreeing to go to the prom with Bridger O'Connell is a good first step. Fitting in has never been her strong suit, but it's not for the reasons most people would expect-it all has to do with the deep secret that she is a shape shifter. But even in her new home danger lurks, waiting in the shadows to pounce. They are the Skinwalkers of Navajo legend, who have traded their souls to become the animal whose skin they wear-and Maggie is their next target.
Full of romance, mysticism, and intrigue, this dark take on Navajo legend will haunt readers to the final page.

Winner is


The winner of glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan give away is wrathsqueen please email with details annmarieager@googlemail.com please keep a look out for next give away :D

Friday 16 September 2011

In my mailbox #5


Hi all 
my new in my mailbox video. 
it's be a really good week for books.

Thursday 15 September 2011

Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1) by C.C. Hunter review-annmarie



Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)
Kylie's life is really sucking right now her boyfriend has dumped her and is now shacked up with someone else her parents are always fighting and are now getting a divorce and to top it all off, she is seeing someone that’s not there her life could not get any worse right nope it can. Trying to escape for free hours, she heads to a party which ends up getting police searched and everyone is arrested. Her mum has had enough and send Kylie to camp over the holidays only problem is this camp is full of supernatural  weirdo’s and all Kylie can think about is getting home to her normal life the only problem is could Kylie really be a supernatural to.

When you start this book, the first thing that hits you is how much I loved Kylie’s thoughts and feelings when she is feeling down she always seems to think something so funny you want to laugh your head off. Kylie is really confused with everything that’s happening in her life, but I felt that really, deep down, she knew all along that something was not right. She was a great character that you could not help but love and her two roommates are brilliant they all worked really well together, which made the book really easy to get into.

Now the story line was all about supernatrals trying to get along at camp but there were also lots of other things going on like Kylie finding out who she is and whether she can trust Lucas and Derek. Then there is the fact that someone at camp is really out to close the camp down your mind spends lots of time trying to work out who’s doing it and which boy (Lucas or Derek) you like best and want Kylie to end up with which is really hard because I really loved both guys. The author gave you lots to think about and made the story easy and exciting to read.

The ending for me was good it sorted out a lot of loss ends and keeps it well open for the next book in the series all together the book was well written it had lots of dark and light moments that made the book fresh and fun to read.
Five stars 

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