BOOK TRAILERS REVEAL & GIVEAWAY: Luminosity by Stephanie Thomas & Gravity by: Melissa West

Hello darlings! Today I bring you an epic post. Like seriously epic. Kaede will be presenting to you, my lovely readers, two great book trailers for two great books and you'll have two chances to win e-arcs of each of the books!
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Luminosity by: Stephanie Thomas

My name is Beatrice. When I was born, I was blessed with the Sight. I was immediately removed from my parents and enrolled in the Institution. At the age of twelve, I had my first true vision, earning my raven’s wings. And when I turned seventeen, one of my visions came true. Things haven’t been the same since. The Institution depends on me to keep the City safe from our enemy, the Dreamcatchers, but I’m finding it harder to do while keeping a secret from everyone, including my best friend Gabe. It is a secret that could put us all in danger. A secret that could kill me and everyone close to me. But the enemy has been coming to me in my dreams, and I think I’m falling in love with him. He says they’re coming. He says they’re angry. And I think I’ve already helped them win.

INFORMATION AND DETAILS:

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Entangled Teen (November 6, 2012) ISBN: 1620611279
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13425149-luminosity
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Luminosity-Stephanie-Thomas/dp/1620611279/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349120932&sr=8-1&keywords=Stephanie+Thomas
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/luminosity-stephanie-thomas/1108930419?ean=9781620611272
The Book Depository - http://www.bookdepository.com/Luminosity-Stephanie-Thomas/9781620611272


About Stephanie:

Stephanie Thomas has been writing ever since she could put letters together to form words. When she was a small child, she would present her mother and father with self-made newspapers filled up with make believe stories and pictures. Her love for writing followed her all throughout her schooling, where she entered and won writing contests of all sorts. Stephanie decided to become an English teacher and completed her B.A. at The Pennsylvania State University. While teaching, she later went on to get her Master’s in writing from The Johns Hopkins University. She completed her very first manuscript during her graduate studies, and by the end of the program, she had completed two more. Stephanie is quick to tell anyone that she’s a born and raised Philadelphian, and her heart will always belong there. She moved to Baltimore with her husband, and they’ve been living there for the last five years with their doggie, Sailor, and their rabbit, Buns (aka “T Sizzle).

Where you can find Stephanie - Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

The Raven Chronicles Facebook

Gravity by: Melissa West

In the future, only one rule will matter: Don’t. Ever. Peek. Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die. Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

INFORMATION AND DETAILS:

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Entangled Teen (October 30, 2012) ISBN: 1620610914
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12844575-gravity
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Taking-Melissa-West/dp/1620610914/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349120955&sr=1-1&keywords=Melissa+West
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gravity-melissa-west/1108785658?ean=9781620610916
The Book Depository - http://www.bookdepository.com/Gravity-Melissa-West/9781620610916

About Melissa:

Melissa lives in a tiny suburb of Atlanta, GA with her husband and daughter. She pretends to like yoga, actually likes shoes, and could not live without coffee. Her writing heroes include greats like Jane Austen and Madeleine L'Engle. She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and an M.S. in Graphic Communication, both from Clemson University. Yeah, her blood runs orange. GRAVITY is her first book.







Where you can find Melissa - Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

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200 Follower Giveaway- An ARC of Poison Princess

So on my last giveaway, I said that if you guys got me to 200 followers by the end of the giveaway, I'd hold a contest for my ARC of Poison Princess.

WELL...

You guys are ridiculous. It's only been a week, and you got me 200 FOLLOWERS!

Which isn't a lot, but still. I think it's pretty awesome.

Anyway, you probably scrolled down to just get to the giveaway, so...

I'm giving away this:




Hehe, pretty awesome, eh?

This is US only, as I don't want to go broke.

HOWEVER- If you're international and you win, I'll give you a pre-order of Poison Princess!

So, to recap- If you live in the US, you can either pick the ARC, or the pre-order.

If you're international, you get the pre-order, as long as the Book Depository ships to your country.

Cool? Cool.

Enter away!

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And don't forget to enter my other giveaway to win any summer release! (INT) 

End of Summer Giveaway- Pick Any Summer Release

So the end of August officially marks the End of Summer. (At least, for me.)

Because of that, I'm giving away any book that was released this Summer, 2012!

As this giveaway will last through the end of August, you can pick any, (since they'll all be released). Here are some suggestions (obviously you can pick something not on this list):

June

July

August

This is INTERNATIONAL as long as the Book Depository ships to you.

So that's it! Pick your poison!

Speaking of Poison....

If I get to 200 followers by the end of this giveaway, I'll be giving away my ARC of Poison Princess!

We got to 200 followers! Click here to go enter that giveaway!

There it is in all its glory!

So, share this giveaway if you want that ARC.

And please, be honest. I'm giving away something for FREE to you guys, and it breaks my heart when you take advantage of that.

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Seraphina Released Today! And Giveaways! And Other YA releases! (July 10 2012)

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman was released today. Everyone who read it before its release date held me at gun point and told me to read it as soon as it came out.

Unfortunately, I don't have the means to pick this book up, so I'm writing this blog post in compensation. HAPPY?

Seraphina is a mash-up of awesome: high fantasy, dragons, and incredible characters. You can quote me on that.

Also- there's a giveaway on Goodreads for this so if you want to win it, you should enter. Click that link like there's no tomorrow.

Or, if you have terrible luck like me, and your house is full of three leaf clovers and rabbit hands, you should just buy it on Amazon. Clicky!

In other new releases, we have Insignia by SJ Kincaid also released today! WOOT! From what I've read, it's a cross between X-Men and the Matrix, but a lot more kick-ass because it has World War III in it.The top reviews for this are all five stars, so I'll definitely be reading this in the future.

In another bout of awesome, Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse was yet another YA novel released today. I'm wary of this one, because the tag on Goodreads says its a dystopian trilogy, but who knows? There's a giveaway for this book as well- clicky to enter!

Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown was released today, and I'm not a fan of the cover, but you can't go wrong with a road trip novel. And if you can, you're doing it wrong, bitches.

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols was released today as well (wow, a lot of releases today). If you don't frickin like Jennifer Echols, you suck majorly. She is a goddess, so I must have this book in my hands soon. Also, Jen at YA Romantics is giving this one away- so enter there.

So Close to You by Rachel Carter was released today. It sort of sounds like the Matrix meets Area 51. Should I find out? Should you? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Yet another book was released today: Lost Girls by Ann Kelley. I haven't heard too many good things about it, not like Seraphina, but it's worth looking at all the same.

Okay, just one more July 10th release- I swear! It's Never Enough by Denise Jaden. There's a giveaway for this one too- clicky to enter!

This one was released yesterday- Crux by Julie Reece! It's been given awesome reviews, and has a healthily awesome cover, so I'm high anticipatory (new word!) of it.

In case you're itching to buy any of these, here are links to get them from Amazon. As the motif is- clicky!

The Gods Among Us Review and GIVEAWAY!

by Isabelle Doan

Website/Goodreads/Amazon

Random Information:

Publisher: Winged Lion Press
Pages: 278 (Paperback)
Series: Divine Masquerade Series (#1)
My Format: Received from author for review
Time to Read: 8 Hours
Rating: Library/Borrow/e-book/Paperback/Hardcover

(I'm going to recommend e-book because it's only a dollar on kindle!) 

Could you forgive a god for drowning your mother, if forgiving her made you immortal?

Pallas is a friendless teen from a backwater village on a forgotten shore. Born a slave like everyone around her, people hate her clothes, her parents…especially her strange name.

Pallas doesn’t believe in the gods except to blame them for drowning her mother. But she’s forced to shelve her moody cynicism when she accidentally rescues an obnoxious cat.

Suddenly caught in a celestial war, Pallas must do the unthinkable – champion the very goddess she hates. Masquerading as a mythic princess, she convinces everyone she’s a child of Atlantis. Jealousy hounds her at every turn as she battles dangerous fanatics, a boorish prince, and a stunningly beautiful princess.

Yet nothing can save her from certain doom, when the Volcano god reaches out to slay her. For how can a mortal fight a god?

I'm not going to lie. At the start of the book I was facedesking a lot, and very hard, I should add.

A lot of the book just didn't make sense, at the beginning especially. I was just zoning out completely, my authorial side kicking in and thinking about what Belton could have done to make The Gods Among Us better.

For starters, there's a few problems with the summary.

"Pallas is a friendless teen from a backwater village on a forgotten shore. [This statement is wrong- she indeed has one friend, and has been asked out by a guy before.] She really doesn't believe in the gods except to peevishly blame them for drowning her mother. [You'd think if Gods drowned your mother, you'd believe in them... right?] But she's forced to shelve her moody cynicism when she accidentally rescues and obnoxious cat."

Therein lies one of my main problems. Pallas did not accidentally rescue this cat. (Whose name, by the way, is Othello.)


You see, at times, it feels as if Belton doesn't know how to get his characters from one place to another. To rescue Othello, Pallas swam out to sea because she saw what looked like a giant orange egg in the sea. She was "drawn to it" or something like that. Othello turned out to be in the mystical orange egg.

This is what I imagined Pallas did.

Now, you know that I hate when authors use suddenly as a plot device, and it was used sporadically through the book, like when "exhaustion hit [Pallas] like a sudden wave." Um, ok. Suddenly being exhausted is a really good excuse not to get back to your family!


Some more problems with the writing surfaced in the beginning as well. For starters, the first chapter uses... too... many... ellipses... and... it... detracts... from... the... story...


Another problem is that some of the sentences make no sense. For instance:


"'He deserves to marry a shrew, have a dozen brats, and live a short and miserable life. But punching him in the nose...'"


Um.


When did being punched in the nose become worse than living a short and miserable life? I'd take the former any day.


Thirdly, another problem with the writing itself is that I felt like Belton wrote a first draft and then used Word to change all the small words into big fancy synonyms.


For instance:


"She martyred her boundful spirit; burying it alongside her alining soul."


.... I have no words. I honestly do not know a teenager who says that.

This cat is in cahoots with Othello.

Which is a problem, because, when later, Othello is talking to Pallas, Othello says, "'Of course, I can't expect much from a creature of your exceedingly limited intelligence..."


and then Pallas thinks:


"Is he insulting me? His words were so exotic I couldn't even tell."


Wut.


His words are more exotic than yours?? What parallel universe are you living in?


Oh, yeah, ones with Gods and such. Which is actually a very well built world that I highly enjoyed.


Anyway, I feel as if these problems could ALL be solved if Belton just wrote this book in 3rd person perspective, because it's obvious that he wanted to. After all, most of Pallas's and company's thoughts are in italics, which is weird, because in first person, all the narration are thoughts. Plus, the 3rd person would prevent so many perspective changes.


The story itself is rewarding, and gripping, if you can get over the mechanics. It made for a good reading experience, and I would recommend it, despite all the gripe.


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OKAY! So Mr. Belton has this awesome giveaway for us here at Wake Up at Seven! One lucky reader can win a SIGNED COPY of The Gods Among Us and a SIGNED COPY of its sequel, Whom the Gods Destroy.

Con­test Rules (which I totally didn't steal from Cuddlebuggery):

• To enter, please fill out the Raf­flecopter form below.
• We ask that all entrants be at least 13 years or older to enter.
• The give­away is open to US and Canada only. 
• When the win­ners are cho­sen, it will be announced here and the win­ners will be emailed. Please check your email because we are only giv­ing the win­ner 48 hours to respond! Oth­er­wise another win­ner will have to be selected.
• Please enter your email address in the Raf­fle­copter form and not the comments!
• Also, please under­stand that we reserve the right to dis­qual­ify any entries we find gam­ing the sys­tem. Cheaters never prosper!

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