GIVEAWAY~ Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Swooners!!!!

Can you believe it's already Christmas time?!?! Well, I know i've been missing in action AGAIN lately but I have to admit that after surviving my first semester of nursing school I have really just been enjoying my time off. But I promise I really have been thinking about you guys all the time and attempting to do this post.

So to celebrate that we survived another year and made it to another beautiful Christmas day, I think we should do another giveaway. It's really multi-functional actually because we get to celebrate the end of the year AND I get to get back on your good side after being so flaky this year. So here we go!

Giveaway:

• 1 signed paperback copy of Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) by Leigh Bardugo

• 1 winner will be picked (U.S. only)

• Ends January 2, 2015

• Hosted by Lexi Swoons

Rules:

• To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below

• Must be 18 years of age or older

• Contest is open to U.S. entries only

• Winner will be announced on the blog via Rafflecopter

• Winner will be notified via email

• Check out my giveaway policy for more info

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BLOG HOP: The Twelve Days of New Adult Giveaway Hop

Morning Swooners,

Welcome to The Twelve Days of New Adult Giveaway Hop. This hop is hosted by Stuck In Books

As many of you may already know, I absolutely LOVE New Adult books! Well really, I love ALL BOOKS! But in honor of this love I am giving away one paperback book of your choice from ANY New Adult author. That's right, folks. Your choice of any new adult book! So enter the giveaway below an stop by the rest of the blogs featured on this giveaway.

Giveaway:

• 1 paperback copy of ANY New Adult book you want :)

• 1 winner will be picked (US and INT'L)

• Ends December 12, 2015

• Hosted by Lexi Swoons

Rules:

• To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below

• Must be 18 years of age or older

• Contest is open INT'L

• Winner will be announced on the blog via Rafflecopter

• Winner will be notified via email

• Check out my giveaway policy for more info

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Below is a list of bloggers who ALSO have a giveaway! Hop on over to see them :)

BOOK BLAST + EXCERPT: The Offering by Salah el Moncef

Title: The Offering 

Author: Salah el Moncef

Release Date: May 19, 2015

Publisher: Penelope Books 

EXCERPT: 

I was still disoriented and had no sense of space or time when the two uniformed policemen helped me up from the spot where I had wedged myself by the stairs.

I still had no sense of the limits of my mind either. I was suffering from loss of vitality and my body felt hollow and weak, as if from electric shock.


I remember the moment when Collin stood before me in the semi-dark landing: he looked as if he was wearing two round pieces of mirror glass on his eyes—probably the reflections from somebody’s flashlight on his oval rimless glasses.

He must have tried to address me in some way, but I was standing unsteadily between the two policemen and I did not say a word. He did not have time to wait for my words either—his men were already sealing the scene. (For some reason, with the light coming across the doorway now, I was beginning to see them all through a sort of reddish-black aura: they were all jarring and menacing and ominous-seeming, their sounds shrill and penetrating—these shadowy-red men caught in the insanity of their bustle like frenzied backstage actors.)


There was another man with Collin—possibly the police Prefect: the lead investigator, who was a commissaire de police, stepped aside and let him in first with a deferential gesture.

They were followed by Collin’s aides then the experts of the Police Technique et Scientifique—somber men with sinister white gloves and stacks of brown bag envelopes; and their ponderous, incomprehensible equipment—it came in black cases of various sizes that made them look like musicians. There were two white-clad-and-gloved men each holding a stack of dull-white plastic receptacles with thick numbers stenciled in phosphorescent orange.


I stood there and looked on as the two policemen held me. (Was it a routine gesture or did they both decide that I might try to run away?)

And then, during those unreal minutes, something happened that I had always retained in my memory—in my dream-thoughts and in my waking thoughts, well before the work of recall under hypnosis—the only words from that evening that I remember hearing in full clarity: a man with a black-inscribed red armband was talking on a cellular phone—I recall the rectangle glowing a phosphorescent aqua blue in his hand as he tried to put all the din behind him, leaning far out over the rail of the banister, like a careless boy, his hand cupped over his ear.

Apparently, somebody somewhere in the outside world was worrying about the size of the building, and the red-sleeved man was working on allaying their concerns, even as he peered into the dark downward gape of the stairwell, as if he was testing how far out he could lean before he went over.

The officer was almost shouting into his cell phone, hopelessly trying to be authoritative and convincing in the middle of the madness: “We’re working on the lights. The stairs are very roomy, believe me—it is an old building with a very wide roomy staircase. No, no. The landing—no. The landing is huge. We’ll let you know when we’re through.”

He was so close that I could have reached out and touched him—this man whose inscrutable words are the only utterances I have kept safely locked in my memory all along.

All at once, I began to shake and whimper: “It’s all gone,” I remember saying.

The reaction of the two officers was to turn me around and help me sit down on the stairs.

One of them leaned over me and tried to tell me something, but all I could register were the distortions of his face through the translucent rim of the reddish-black aura—that face looked like an empty rubber mask wobbling without support.

His colleague was shouting something on his transceiver as the men of the Brigade ran in and out of the apartment.


As I sat on the stairs, I suddenly began to feel that I literally did not know where to turn, that I was literally about to lose my head: was the building going to be invaded by another onslaught of piercing cacophony? Or maybe it was just my head—my nerves imploding in the cavernous recesses of my mind.

I put my hands over my ears and sat with my face cradled between my knees.

Time kept pounding and grinding inside me—its horrid, inhuman relentlessness.

Author Bio:


Salah el Moncef was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He is the author of Sleepwalking and The Offering. His short fiction, largely focused on the Arab diaspora experience, has been published in numerous British and American magazines and anthologies. He teaches at the University of Nantes, France.

Website / Goodreads / Twitter 

Quotes (#20)

Morning Swooners!

So lately i've been thinking about everything that I have in my life right now and I just had the craziest realization; I am so unbelievably happy! I've had so many bad experiences all throughout my childhood and early adulthood that I kind of feel like I never really knew what true happiness was. That's not to say that my life isn't crazy right now. I'm currently unemployed, attending nursing school full time, and have a ton of tests this month. So my life is crazy and stressful right now. But I have to admit that my heart has never felt so full and content. I still have sad moments when I think about how much I miss my family and friends back home, but I just can't get over how complete my life feels. So to commemorate the joy that I am feeling inside, I thought i'd share some quotes about happiness. Hope you enjoy them :)

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson


“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ― Mahatma Gandhi


“There's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.” ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower


“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” ― Tom Bodett


“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ― Marcel Proust


“It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables


“Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” ― Guillaume Apollinaire

“I've got nothing to do today but smile.” ― Paul Simon

REVIEW: The Storm (The Rain #2) by Virginia Bergin

The Storm (The Rain #2) by Virginia Bergin

Publication Date: October 1, 2015

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Received from Publisher 

Buy it at: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

*This eARC was received from the publisher, but it did not influence this review in any way *

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

DEADLY TO THE LAST DROP.

Ninety-seven percent of the population is dead. And the killer rain keeps falling. Ruby's not sure she can make it on her own much longer. So when a chance encounter leads her to a camp with the last boy she may ever kiss (it's not easy to date during an apocalypse), Ruby gratefully accepts the army's protection.
But safety comes with a price: If Ruby wants to stay, she must keep her eyes-and her mouth-shut.

Except Ruby stumbles across a secret she can't possibly keep. Horrified, she flips out and fights back-only to make the most shocking discovery of all...

I definitely enjoyed reading this book so much more than the first one. There was some serious character building that took place for all involved and some serious discoveries, both good and bad, that occurred. I will admit that i'm slightly disappointed with the end result for some of the characters but overall it was still a great book.

I am happy to say that in this book Ruby finally gets her act together. We see Ruby take on a much more serious tone with the whole "killer rain" thing. I think she finally gets that the world was almost destroyed by deadly, bacteria filled rain, and her sense of self preservation finally kicks in. Of course,  it wouldn't be Ruby without a few more "episodes" where she is almost killed because she is distracted and not cautious. But in the end she found a reason to stay alive and protect herself as well as others around her. I loved that some of the characters from the first book made appearances and other characters finally made an appearance, but the end results for some were a bit lacking and left me feeling unfulfilled.

What I did love was how believable the whole situation felt. Everything from the "killer rain" to the reactions of all the people involved, including the government, felt and sounded so real. Like if that ever happened to us today I believe this book will map out everything we should and shouldn't do.

So overall, I think that even though the main character was not as smart and safe in the first book, she definitely redeemed herself  in this second installment. Have you read this duology? What are your thoughts?