Everlasting

It's 1855 and Camille is set to marry a man despite not loving him.  She desperately wants to continue to sail aboard her father's ships and not be tied down to land.  But on her last voyage with her father, tragedy strikes and Camille finds herself on a quest to discover the mystery of a map and an ancient stone.

Camille clicked the latches down on her trunk and glanced out her bedroom window. White haze chocked the small seaport, and the fog bells sounding across the bay echoed in her chest. Fitting weather to mark the death of her freedom." p.1 ARC

I think it says something that I finished this book and wondered immediately if there was going to be a sequel and why I didn't have it.  Then I remembered I was reading an ARC and so this book hadn't been published yet.  So yeah.  I will say that it doesn't have to have a sequel, but one would be awesome.  I liked it when a book will wrap up its storyline but still allow for more.

It also says something (maybe?) that my notes for this book read "Pirates (of the Caribbean)" + "Indiana Jones" + "romance" which doesn't make sense because there is romance in those two movie series, but it is not the point of them.  Just like it is not really the point of this book, but is still really nice.  But that leads into my next note on the title and cover for Everlasting.  The cover is really pretty.  I love the colors, etc.  But neither the title nor the cover really convey what this book is about.  It looks like some lame romance in a boat or whatever, but it's much more of a historical/adventure full of mystical objects and curses and ships and watery graves.  Don't be fooled.  This isn't some namby-pamby YA romance, this is a real adventure story that happens to have some romance in it.

release: June 1, 2010 Scholastic 
ARC from Traveling ARC Tours

Hogwarts: History of Magic
YA

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Provided by Traveling ARC Tours

Meet Will Grayson.  He's a quiet, introverted guy who has two rules: 1. Don't care too much and 2. Shut up.
Meet Will Grayson.  He's a quiet, introverted guy with chronic depression and a secret.
Soon these two Wills will meet in a very odd place and, as their lives begin to intersect, things will change for both of them.

"i want to tell him i should be out killing some people now, not taking a stroll with him.  but he takes a little of the murder off my mind.  it's not like it won't be there later. p.145 ARC

And the following makes me actually love John Green a little

"You're amazing, and I so want to be your boyfriend, because of what you just said, and also because that shirt makes me want to take you home now and do unspeakable things while we watch live-action Sailor Moon videos." p.257 ARC

I could actually quote the whole book, I think it is that good.  I was enthralled and saddened and overjoyed by this book.  I actually laughed out loud many many times.  The phrasing, the situations, Tiny, all very very good to me.  Tiny, you might be asking, who is that?  Well, Tiny is a 6'6" 300 pound gay football player/musical writer, and it is the main catalyst behind the changes to both Will Graysons.  Tiny was so great, both very real and a caricature of himself at the same time.  I've meet guys like Tiny before.  Not as over the top, but still very big personality, very generous heart, very selfish at times.

The Wills were both a little annoying, especially Levithan's Will (2) who was very moody.  But he was dealing with chronic depression so that was an interesting part of his character.  He was also so real.  They both were.  I found myself hoping that when my son is a teenager, we have a better relationship than the Wills do with their moms.  But it was very realistic.

I was little meh on Will's (1) relationship with Jane and didn't care much for Will's (2) problems with Maura.  They both felt in addition to, not reason why.  But I loved Tiny's role.  And it was nice to see them looked beyond themselves because of him.


Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT
YA
Take Another Chance

Perchance to Dream

Provided by Traveling ARC Tours
Bertie sets out to rescue Nate, who was captured by the sea goddess in the first book, Eyes Like Stars.  But she meets with a whole lot of trouble and some very interesting characters during her travels.  Meanwhile,  visions and dreams of Nate spur her on even as Ariel gets closer to Bertie.

Carrying it gingerly outside, she sat the stairs and braced the hatbox against her knees, sawing away at the cardboard until a scalloped proscenium archway emerged somewhat crooked for her haste to finish and set the knife down before a wayward tug caused her to pull an inadvertent Juliet.  p.93-94 ARC

There is something so odd about these books.  I enjoy them but sometimes I can't wrap my head around why certain things need to happen to move the plot forward.  But then at the end, I can see, ah, that's why.  I like Bertie and the message that the author was trying to convey was important though it felt heavy handed in a couple of places.  It didn't help that my head was in a different world than the one that this book occupies.  I was thinking it was the modern day world, but it's not and once I realized that it made more sense to me.  So that was reader fail, not writer fail.

I like Bertie and her two guys and that whole love triangle is very interesting since it is easy to see they both care for her and she for them.  I still like one better than the other for her though.  The fairies are hilarious as usual and I like the additional sneak-thief character and the circus made for a good visual in my head.  Perchance to Dream was definitely a strong book in this series and didn't suffer from "middle book syndrome" like some books.

Hogwarts: A History of Magic
Young Adult

Blog Tour - Random Magic

I'm participating in the blog tour of

Random Magic: When absent-minded Professor Random misplaces the main character from Alice in Wonderland, young Henry Witherspoon must book-jump to fetch Alice before chaos theory kicks in and the world vanishes. Along the way he meets Winnie Flapjack, a wit-cracking doodle witch with nothing to her name but a magic feather and a plan. Such as it is. Henry and Winnie brave the Dark Queen, whatwolves, pirates, Struths, and fluttersmoths, Priscilla and Charybdis, obnoxiously cheerful vampires, Baron Samedi, a nine-dimensional cat, and one perpetually inebriated Muse to rescue Alice and save the world by tea time.

Check out the trailer here.

There is a very cute quiz to find out what character you are:

Which Random Magic character are you? » Quiz Maker

My Result: You are: Nevermore

On the surface, you are: highly intelligent, introspective, sarcastic, mysterious, well-read, observant, pensive, good-natured, wildly attractive, occasionally mad, and completely amoral.

Your secret side: You absolutely know more about everything than you let on.

Random Magic Tour Oct. 15 - Nov. 25, 2009

Random Magic Tour
Oct. 17 - Nov. 25, 2009

Author site: Sasha Soren
Main blog host: The Other Shelf
Contact the tour: @RM_TheCoven