Book Banging Intro Post: In which I talk about my favourite book boyfriends!

So I was all over the place excited when Kelly mentioned that she was going to be doing this new feature and YAYYY!!! I love so many fictional guys and I can't wait to talk to you about all of them!

Here is my intro vlog, excuse my awkwardness and bad accent and just generally being crap at pronouncing names...
And seriously, this is me when I get excited. I talk with my hands (seriously, you can't even see them the whole time, but trust me, I'm flapping them around so much more out of frame...) and move all over the place :)



So yeah, I have no idea why I'm making that face at the end either...
Also, I have no idea how to edit a video, otherwise that part where you see me trying to figure out Shadow and Bone's name would so have gotten cut out...

Oh, and because I forgot to mention it in the video:
Man of the month: FOUR from Divergent by Veronica Roth

Anyway, let me know what you think. Should I be put in a box and never allowed to vlog again? Like any of my boys?

Blog Tour: Review and GIVEAWAY of The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

Title/Author: The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon
Publisher/Date published: Touchstone, August 6th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: What if Rapunzel was Snow White’s evil stepmother? From the author of Godmother and Mermaid, The Fairest of Them All explores what happens when fairy tale heroines grow up and don’t live happily ever after.

Living in an enchanted forest, Rapunzel spends her days tending a mystical garden with her adoptive mother, Mathena. A witch, Mathena was banished from court because of her magic powers, though the women from the kingdom still seek her advice and herbal remedies. She waits, biding her time to exact revenge against those who betrayed her.

One day Rapunzel’s beautiful voice and long golden locks captivate a young prince hunting in the forest nearby. Overcome, he climbs her hair up to her chamber and they fall into each other’s arms. But their afternoon of passion is fleeting, and the prince must return to his kingdom, as he is betrothed to another.

Now king, he marries his intended to bring peace to his kingdom. They have a stunning daughter named Snow White. Yet the king is haunted by his memories of Rapunzel, and after the mysterious death of his wife, realizes he is free to marry the woman he never stopped longing for. In hopes of also replacing the mother of his beloved daughter, the king makes Rapunzel his queen.

But when Mathena’s wedding gift of an ancient mirror begins speaking to her, Rapunzel falls under its evil spell, and the king begins to realize that Rapunzel is not the beautiful, kind woman he dreamed of.

I'm so excited to be part of this blog tour!! Head all the way down to enter the GIVEAWAY for this book, believe me, youwant this!

Guys, I love fairytale retellings. I love fairytales and all these retellings are just adding that extra bit of depth to them that I so, SO love! And The Fairest of Them All was definitely a lot darker than the original tale!

I love that Carolyn Turgeon is combining two of my favourite fairytales: Snow White and Rapunzel. And seriously, we're told in the summary that Rapunzel turns into Snow White's evil stepmother, but really, I was so rooting for that girl! She had an unconventional upbringing by Mathena Gothel and actually had amazing abilities with also a really cool link to her hair. Mathena teaches her basic herbal treatments and some spells, women mainly visit them looking for a cure to their heartache.

Rapunzel mainly grows up surrounded by women and it pretty naive in spite of her hearing about other women's heartache over men and I could see how she would get carried away when she met the prince. I mean, sure, it all progresses VERY quickly, they forget to actually forge a relationship before falling into bed together. And of course, things can't end well and the prince ends up leaving to marry another girl, leaving Rapunzel heartbroken.

This experience and some of the awful things that happen to her after really shape the rest of Rapunzel's life. And I can understand how she could change into a less kind person. She has to be to get what she wants and she's been hurt herself. The mirror really does urge the jealousy on and Rapunzel gets caught up in it.

And then we have Snow White. Who I LOVED when she first enters the scene as a little girl, but then she changes as well and it's easy to see how Rapunzel, who I felt really wanted to love her, would develop a grudge against her. It's easy to see how things spiral out of control from there and it's a bit scary as well, because it makes the traditional evil queen seem so human.

I love how everything unfolds at the end, I love the dark twists to this beloved fairytales and I love how Carolyn Turgeon made it all come together and that ending! Seriously! That still kinda broke my heart, though it's also filled with a little hope for the future. This is definitely recommended, though keep in mind there is some very mature content.

My rating: 4 stars

Made me crave: rhubarb

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn Turgeon is the author of five novels: Rain Village (2006), Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story (2009), Mermaid (2011), which is being developed for film by Sony Pictures, and The Next Full Moon (2012), her first and only book for middle-grade readers. Her latest novel, The Fairest of Them All, comes out in August 2013 from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster and is about Rapunzel growing up to be Snow White's stepmother. She lives in Pennsylvania and New York and teaches fiction writing at the University of Alaska at Anchorage's Low-Residency MFA program. She's currently at work on a new novel about Dante's Beatrice, set in thirteenth-century Florence.

Visit Carolyn's website at http://carolynturgeon.com.
Visit Carolyn's mermaid blog at http://iamamermaid.com/
Follow Carolyn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolynturgeon
Follow Carolyn on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolynturgeonbooks

***GIVEAWAY***
(1) Signed paperback of The Fairest Of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon.

And guys, it's open internationally! What are you waiting for??

a Rafflecopter giveaway


So, Question of the Day:
What is your favourite fairytale? Would you like a retelling of it?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish Had Sequels

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by my other blog The Broke and the Bookish.

This week we're talking about books we wished had sequels. And really, there are some books out there that I just can't seem to figure out there's not a sequel (yet)! I hope we'll see some of them pop up in the future :)

1. Witchlanders by Lena Coakley: Witchlanders is the first book that popped into my head when I saw the topic. You guys, it's SUCH a great book and it hasn't really gotten a lot of buzz, but this right here is me BEGGING for a sequel!

2. The Cadet of Tildor by Alex Lidell: Oh man, this is one of the best debuts I've read this year and it's fantasy and I am SO not done having adventures with all these characters!!

3. The International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams: This was such a fun book!! I loved the collaboration between these 3 authors and I really hope they'll write a sequel to the International Kissing Club!

4. The Demon Catchers of Milan by Kat Beyer: I really enjoyed this book and it FELT like the first in a series, but I can't find anywhere if there's gonna be a sequel or not...

5. The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson: Ok, so I know this isn't even out yet, but I LOVED this book and this whole series so much and more of Elisa and Hector can NEVER be a bad thing!

6. Tarnish by Katherine Longshore: SO much love for this book!! It totally made Anney Boleyn human and was just amazing and while we left it on a hopeful note, I would love to see Katherine Longshore describe the rest of Anne's story. Or write another novel about an amazing historical figure. Or anything at all. I'm not all that picky here.

7. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: as the other books will be companion novels, it doesn't really count and I'd love another book focused on Anna and Etienne!

8. The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab: LOVED this book! It read like a fairytale and I'm wondering what will happen in the town after the events in the Near Witch!

9. The Crimson Crown by Cinda Williams Chima: This is the ending to one of my favourite fantasy series EVER. And I so want to stay in this world and hang out with Han and Raisa again and everybody else!

10. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss and ALL THE OTHER SEQUELS IN SERIES I'M WAITING FOR: Yeah, there are so many books that I'm dying to read the sequels of and they will actually be published, but AAAH THE WAIT IS KILLING ME!

So there you have it, I cheated slightly on the last one, but the others are genuine wishes for more books PLEASE!
Leave me a link to your TTT and I'll be sure to check it out!

Review of Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title/Author: Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, May 3rd 2011
How I got this book: bought it TWO YEARS AGO (ugh, I suck)
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue — Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is — she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are — and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves... or it might destroy her.

So do you remember how I admitted to being majorly scared of this book?? AND OMG WHY DIDN'T I READ THIS SOONER??? AAAH IT WAS SO GOOD!!

Anyone want to do an I-told-you-so dance? Cause you totally can, I deserve it. Each and every one of you was totally justified in screaming at me.

My Broke and Bookish buddy Jana offered to read it with me and AAAH! I am SO glad I finally picked this up!! I did virtually nothing other than read it since I opened the book this afternoon!!

So I admit that at first I was a bit sceptic, because seriously, I didn't really see what all the fuss about Four was about. He seemed like a bit of a jerk for the first couple of chapters after we meet him, but after that HOLY WOWZA, consider me convinced! The boy is just *SWOON* So now we're totally cool :)

I love Tris. She's a beautifully flawed character and I loved that she struggled with the different qualities of her personalities, trying to fit in, but not really being able to conform. LOVED. At one point I was sort of wondering when the whole Divergent thing would kick into action and show some merit, but I'll just say that in the end Veronica Roth totally comes through on this aspect!

The whole world that Veronica Roth has developed is fascinating! People are sort of brainwashed to believe they belong in only one faction and then just adjust their whole life around the one quality of said faction and with each faction picking up different responsibilities, it's a well-oiled machine. Until something screws it up (because really, without conflict there would be no book, or at least not an interesting one). I was so intrigued by all the goings-on of Dauntless alone, and that's without seeing the inner workings of the other factions!

Divergent shows how cruel people can be when pushed to survive. Because that's basically what initiation in Dauntless is, a struggle to survive IN the faction. It's not safe and it's scary and I would definitely not have made it. It was amazing to see how Tris grows and develops strength and learns who her true friends are.

And again: THE BOY! FOUR! I am definitely a fan now! He was swoony and amazing and full of boyness and GAH! YES! And they had some totally hot and sweet moments and just fit together really well! They actually make sense together and I actually almost cried when something BIG happened and screamed at Jana over Whatsapp!

The pace was always up, but towards the end it really got running and my heart was racing and I was holding the book a little too tightly and just felt like I was there in the moment with Tris trying to make everything alright and knowing that it could never ALL be alright again! It was devastating and GLORIOUS!

I cannot stop gushing over this book and I already know it will be another book I start pushing onto other people (I'm gonna start with the boyfriend I think), because it is THAT GOOD. Seriously, if like me you have been too scared to read it, don't wait any longer: it lives up to the hype. It is that good. Go read it.

My rating: 5+ stars

Made me crave: NOTHING, too much tension to eat!

Daisy Update (48)

Hi guys!

Before I forget: I have a giveaway going on for Mist by Susan Krinard and it really needs some more entries! Open to US/CAN (sorry, I'm not shipping the books myself..) and you can find it at the bottom of this post!

I'm back on a shiny new laptop that doesn't overheat and is SO much faster than the old one! It does everything I want it to do and I'm just very happy with it :)

So in case you didn't know: my laptop couldn't handle the heat and decided it was time to retire. Which meant that I was basically trying to get everything on my external hard drive before it shut itself down again. Yeah, that took a lot of time... But it worked and with a little help from one of my friends and my dad I picked out a new computer which got delivered last Wednesday, so yay :)

It's been REALLY hot here the last couple of weeks! We had temperatures up to 34C and I am loving it. A lot of people are complaining that it's too hot, but really, it's finally summer here in Holland and as long as I'm not doing much of anything besides reading, I'm totally good with it. It's been nice and sunny and I've been spending a lot of time at the lake near our house, relaxing in the sun and taking a dip every now and then to cool down.

The upside to having my laptop crash was that because I wasn't spending so much time poking around Twitter and other random sites, and because of this I read way more books! And I've been cleaning the house and doing all those little things that need doing. And having lots of dance parties by myself! Ever since I started doing Blogilates, I feel so energized and whenever a song I like comes on the radio, I just get up and dance around :) I'm feeling happy and relaxed and guys, this time off from work has just been really good for me. I'm cooking yummy new recipees and spending quality time with the boyfriend and with my friends and it's just been wonderful :)

So these last two weeks have been pretty uneventful actually. And I love it!

I went out to dinner with two of my friends to try the new sushi place, and while I still loved the food, the pieces of sushi were a bit too big to eat comfortably. But we stuffed ourselves until there was just no more room left for ANY food and I went home in a sushi induced food coma :)

This week I've been unable to walk for a couple of days due to one of the Blogilates exercises I did last Saturday, it completely murdered my calves! So from Sunday till Tuesday, I couldn't straighten my legs when I got up and had to stretch for a couple of minutes before I could actually walk. It was REALLY painful and I felt like such a little old lady walking around like that! It felt like such a victory to be able to get up on Thursday and just WALK! So now I know to take it a little easier on that particular exercise.

Friday night the boyfriend and I went out to dinner, it was lovely! I love going out to dinner and just sitting down and talking all night. It was especially nice because he'll be at his parents' pretty much all of the coming week and I needed a little quality time together before that. I'm gonna miss him this week, he's doing volunteer work entertaining kids in the village he comes from all week, so while he'll make a stop at home maybe one or two times, I probably won't really get to spend time with him until Saturday/Sunday.

Yesterday we went out for drinks with another couple and we spend a relaxing evening sitting around and talking. We have such an easy friendship going between the four of us and I love spending time with them! And the weather has been so nice that we could sit outside till about 1AM.

So in about 15 minutes I'll be dropping the boyfriend off at his parents' house and then I'm going to spend the rest of the day at my parents'. We're having a barbecue and I need to catch up with my mom and cuddle the dogs :)

I hope you're all having a great week!!

Review of How To Marry A Highlander by Katharine Ashe

Title/Author: How To Marry A Highlander (Falcon Club #3.5) by Katharine Ashe
Publisher/Date published: Avon Impulse, July 30th 2013
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: With seven troublesome half sisters to marry off, Duncan, the Earl of Eads, has one problem: he's broke.

With the prospect of marriage to the pompous local curate, Miss Teresa Finch-Freeworth has one dream: to wed instead the handsome Highlander she saw at a ball.

How does a desperate lady convince a reluctant laird that she's the perfect bride for him? She strikes a wager! If she can find seven husbands for seven sisters, the earl must marry her.

Duncan has no intention of wedding the meddlesome maiden, and he gives her a deadline even the most audacious matchmaker can't meet — one month. But Teresa sets terms, too: with each bridegroom she finds, the earl must pay her increasingly intimate rewards...

So you guys may know how much I LOVE Katharine Ashe's books. Because I totally do! Her historical romance ranks among my favourites and I ALWAYS pick up her newest release because they always leave me smiling.

I hadn't seen that this was actually a novella before I started it, which explained why things progressed rather quickly and parts that we'd otherwise would have seen got skipped a bit. But this didn't detract from the storyline! Though I still love full length novels more.

So I can sorta remember this scene in one of the earlier books in the series where Duncan sees Teresa and just turns and walks out. I thought this was weird at the time and am glad it was explained in this novella!
Teresa is a free spirit, her parents have picked a man for her to marry and she's not at all inclined to waste herself on this boring, pompous man. So she devises a plan that is kinda ridiculous, but so much fun to read about! I mean, seriously, if she'd been one of my friends I'd have sat her down and talked her out of it, but I'd also have gone after Duncan for her. I liked that Teresa throws everything in accomplishing what she's set out to do: get Duncan's sisters engaged and then marry Duncan herself. And getting a little kissing and sexytimes action in the process!

I could respect Duncan's reluctance to get married again, he's been through a lot and to give your heart away and risk it after that... I can understand why he wouldn't be so eager. The scenes from his POV are actually the ones that made my stomach clench the most! I mean, he's so honorable and loves his sisters and he's fighting his attraction to Teresa and GAH it was just SO GOOD! He's full-on alpha male and you know guys, sometimes I love me some testosterone.

I started this right before going to bed and read all the way through because I could not put it down. I totally love Katharine Ashe's writing style and had to do some soft sniffling because the boyfriend was already sleeping and I was still reading and CRYING over their romance! Seriously, ALL THE FEELINGS! I don't think I've ever loved a novella this much!

My rating: 5 stars

Made me crave: peanut M&M's

Blog Tour and Giveaway of Mist by Susan Krinard!

Summary: Centuries ago, all was lost in the Last Battle when the Norse gods and goddesses went to war. The elves, the giants, and the gods and goddesses themselves were all destroyed, leaving the Valkyrie Mist one of the only survivors. Or so she thought.

When a snowy winter descends upon modern-day San Francisco in June, Mist’s quiet existence starts to feel all too familiar. In quick succession, Mist is attacked by a frost giant in a public park and runs into an elf disguised as a homeless person on the streets... and then the man Mist believed was her mortal boyfriend reveals himself to be the trickster god Loki, alive and well after all these years.

Loki has big plans for the modern world, and he’s been hanging around Mist to get access to a staff that once belonged to the great god Odin. Mist is certain of one thing: Loki must be stopped if there is to be any hope for Earth. But the fight is even bigger than she knows.
Because Loki wasn’t the only god to survive.

Hi guys!! I'm so excited to be participating in the blog tour for Mist by Susan Krinard! I recently read and reviewed the book and today I have the honour of having Susan Krinard herself here for an interview!

1. Tell us 5 (random) things about yourself that many people might not know about you

-I’m a big fan of superhero movies, especially the character Loki in the recent Thor movies and (pant pant) Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. This makes me a dirty old lady. (Well, not that old. 54 years young. How many 54-year-olds do you know who want to be Wolverine, not just wish you were about fifteen years younger and that he was still single? And that his abs are fab?)

-I was a huge tomboy as a kid and never, ever played with dolls. Dinosaurs and cowboys and superheroes were my thing.

-I stood on the ancient Hadrian’s Wall (what’s left of it) in Northumberland and imagined myself as a Roman soldier.

-I met my husband through our mutual love of the SF author C.J. Cherryh, and fell in love with him through old-fashioned letters. We met for the first time (physically) at LACon (Worldcon) many, many years ago. We have been married nearly 28 years, and he is a fellow nerd/geek.

-I wanted be a paleontologist when I was about six years old.


2.Have you always wanted to be a writer? Did you ever dream of doing something else?

Actually, I wanted to be a SF/Fantasy cover artist! I had always loved looking at cover art, so I went to what is now known as the California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA. However, looking back, I know I never really worked hard enough, so when I took my portfolio to NY, I didn’t get any jobs. Still, I always told stories to myself from a very young age, and wrote some fanfic before attempting a novel. It came very naturally to me, and I sold my first paranormal romance manuscript to the second publisher I sent it to. (I was actually afraid, in those days, to even try to sell straight SF/Fantasy, and it took until just a few years ago, after seventeen years as a pro novelist, before I felt up to it!)


3. When did you become interested in mythology? What draws you to Norse mythology?

For me—before I learned about SF/Fantasy—I was looking for other literary ways of escape, so as a young child mythology provided that kind of escape. In a lot of ways, mythology is SF/fantasy. Norse mythology attracts me because it gives me so much to work with: gods, elves, giants, monsters, valkyrie, etc. As with most pantheons, the gods are very “human.” And it’s a mythology that hasn’t been used much in urban fantasy.


4. Which part of Mist was your favourite part to write and which character? I found myself very much looking forward to seeing more of Dainn while reading Mist.

Favorite part? Hard to choose. I love the scene where Mist first meets Dainn under unusual circumstances, she doesn’t trust him, and they’re sparring on the way back to her loft. I enjoyed her first fight with Loki. And Dainn’s scenes with Loki near the end, especially the part where Loki is trying on clothes at the tailor’s.

Characters? That’s also very hard to choose. I’d have to say Dainn and Loki. While I loved Mist, I grew up relating to male protagonists (not as many good female ones in the ancient days) and I do have fun writing them. Dainn is a very complex character and full of angst (which I love), torn between his desire to overcome a part of himself he hates, his feelings for Mist, and the fate of earth (Midgard.) And Loki, being so completely uninhibited, is also fun. Mist is very straightforward, so her conflicts are more subtle. Still, she has a lot on her plate to deal with, and she is at the center of everything.

(Also, please keep in mind that I wrote “my” Loki in a novelette for a Tor anthology well before the movies came out, so any similarities are purely coincidental!)

5. If you could only name one myth that you love, which would it be and why?

“Loki’s Flyting” in the Lokasenna in the Prose Edda. He attends a feast given by the sea god Aegir and proceeds to behave very naughtily (he kills one of Aegir’s servants because he didn’t welcome Loki properly, in Loki’s no-so-humble opinion.) Loki gets kicked out of the hall, sneaks back in, and proceeds to insult all the gods and goddesses feasting there. Many of the insults are sexual in nature, and he and Odin are particularly nasty to each other. Still, the laws of hospitality won’t let them throw him out again, so he hangs around making everybody very, very angry. But when Thor shows up, he threatens to knock Loki’s head off, and Loki finally admits defeat.

The funny thing about Loki is that he often helped and even saved the gods, but then he’d turn around and do something like this. Eventually, they got sick of him and bound him in a cave with a serpent dripping venom into his face.

6. On your site, you mention your pets, what is the worst/funniest thing they ever did? Did any of them ever chew on your shoes?

Our eldest dog, Freya (in the human equivalent of her 80’s now) once chewed two very large holes in our fairly new couches when we left her alone to go out somewhere. We learned not to leave her alone again, at least not free to roam around the house!

7. What do you do for fun when you're not writing?

Read. Watch old movies (30’s-early 60’s). Sit outside in spring or summer and look at my garden and the open space behind it (all high desert.) Go out for dinner with friends. Create art of all kinds, which I have been far too busy to do for all too many years.

8. Tell us about the last book you loved

“Love” is a big word, and I reserve it for only a very few books. I have liked many books, but love? Where I thought I’d die before I could get my hands on the sequel? I’d have to go back over a year to a book that isn’t even SF: Rebecca Cantrell’s City of Broken Glass, part of a series of a woman German reporter who slowly watches her country fall apart under Hitler and has to stay alive while helping those suffering under the regime. (Alas, she didn’t write another book this year and hasn’t got any mention of a fifth one on her website, even though she left the last book with a cliffhanger ending!)

9. What/who is your all-time favourite book/author?

I can’t say which book, because I’ve been reading SF/fantasy, historical novels and historical mystery for too many years. But C.J. Cherryh has consistently been among my favorites, along with Lois McMaster Bujold.

10. You walk into a bar, there's a guy with gorgeous hair (maybe resembling Mr. Darcy slightly, he definitely has the English accent down) sitting there. What would you tell him to convince him to read Mist?

There’s a guy in the book who looks a lot like you.

Thank you so much for being here today Susan! I love your answers to my questions and totally laughed at the last one! :)

SUSAN KRINARD is the author of twenty-three romance novels and twelve novellas. Krinard grew up in the San Francisco bay area. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband Serge Mailloux, two cats, and three dogs.
www.susankrinard.com






You thought we were done right? We're not! The nice people from Tor have kindly offered to let me give away a copy of Mist!

***GIVEAWAY***
-Open to US/Canada addresses only
-If under 13 you have to have approval from a parent/legal guardian
-Open from August 1st to August 8th 2013
-The winner will be contacted through e-mail
-The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me with their details, otherwise I will pick another winner

a Rafflecopter giveaway