Percy Pack: Celebrating the Release of Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes and a Giveaway!

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Hello everyone! Today I am excited to bring you some awesome things. In less than a week, this a brand new book hits the stands, Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. Here all the stories about your favorite Greek heroes straight from my favorite demigod, Percy Jackson :) Greek Heroes is a companion to Greek Gods, both of which are written by the awesome Rick Riordan and illustrated by the equally awesome, John Rocco.

What is even MORE awesome is that the same day Greek Heroes hits the shelves…is the same day we’ll be celebrating Percy Jackson’s birthday! Yes, that’s right folks, Percy turns 22 years old on Tuesday. Wow, Percy, when did you get so old?! Its okay, have a blue cupcake!

Now for those of you unfamiliar with Mr Rick Riordan, here’s a little more info!

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Rick is the #1 New York Times bestseller author of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, the Kane Chronicles, the Heroes of Olympus, and Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard. You can find out more about himand all his fantastic books on his official website. You can also follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About Greek Heroes

Who cut off Medusa’s head? Who was raised by a she-bear? Who tamed Pegasus? It takes a demigod to know, and Percy Jackson can fill you in on the all the daring deeds of Perseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, and the rest of the major Greek heroes. Told in the funny, irreverent style readers have come to expect from Percy, ( I’ve had some bad experiences in my time, but the heroes I’m going to tell you about were the original old school hard luck cases. They boldly screwed up where no one had screwed up before. . .) and enhanced with vibrant artwork by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco, this story collection will become the new must-have classic for Rick Riordan’s legions of devoted fans–and for anyone who needs a hero. So get your flaming spear. Put on your lion skin cape. Polish your shield and make sure you’ve got arrows in your quiver. We’re going back about four thousand years to decapitate monsters, save some kingdoms, shoot a few gods in the butt, raid the Underworld, and steal loot from evil people. Then, for dessert, we’ll die painful tragic deaths. Ready? Sweet. Let’s do this.

You can pre-order Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes at your local bookstore or the following links:

Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Books-A-Million / IndieBound / Indigo / iBooks / Book Depository

My Favorite Greek Story

Because we are celebrating the release of Greek Heroes, which is the companion to Greek Gods, I thought I would share my favorite story from Greek mythology! I absolutely LOVE Greek mythology and gobble up as many stories as I possibly can!

Artemis and Actaeon

I have always adored the myth of Artemis. I loved that she was a twin (I had a weird obsession with twins when I was a child), and I loved that she was all silver, and she was the goddess of the moon and she was lethal with her bow and arrow. I loved everything about her, and she remains my favorite Greek myth, period. There’s just something about her stories that I just love. When she became part of the Percy Jackson series in The Titan’s Curse, I was even more sold. I loved her, her Hunters, her sacrifice for Annabeth and more. She’s a great goddess.

My favorite story is a small one. One thing I like about Artemis is that she has a bit of a temper, kind of like her father, Zeus. She’s bathing one day, when Actaeon comes across her. He’s staring at her, mesmerized by her beauty when he gets caught. Now Artemis is not a fan of men, in general, and has vowed a life of being chaste and unmarried. She is angry with Actaeon and turns him into stag, where he is eventually chased down and killed by his own hunting dogs. Its not the happiest of stories but I just love it.

The Giveaway!

One lucky winner will win an exclusive, limited edition Percy Jackson backpack, and a copy of Greek Heroes!

How to enter: 

Head to my instagram and find this picture! To enter, you must:

Follow me on IG
Repost the photo with the hashtag #NerdGirlB2SGiveaway
Tag three friends so they know about the awesome giveaway!

The giveaway runs until August 16th! You can enter once per day. All prizes are provided by Disney Hyperion and are only available to US addresses only. 

Good luck!

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Happy Anniversary Percy Jackson! + Giveaway

 

I am SO incredibly excited to announce that I will be part of an amazing celebration this year. Yes, this year we are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This partly makes have such happy feelings and it also makes me feel very old because that means I was 17 years old when these books came out! CRAZY! But I love them and their counterparts and I am excited to be part of the celebration.

Continue reading

Book of the Week-The Ring and the Crown

In just a few days, drugs Melissa de la Cruz’s brand new novel, cialis 40mg The Ring and the Crown, information pills will be hitting bookstores and I was lucky enough to receive a copy in the mail for review. Check out what I thought below!

The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz 

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GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy given to me in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my review in the slightest, and everything said here is my honest opinion. Thank you Megan Beatie and Disney-Hyperion for the ARC. 

Genre:

Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy

Part of a Series?:

Not entirely sure. Its listed on GoodReads as The Ring and the Crown #1, but it wraps up like a standalone.

You May Like if You Liked:

The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima,

Age Recommendation:

13+

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

Princess Marie-Victoria, heir to the Lily Throne, and Aelwyn Myrddn, bastard daughter of the Mage of England, grew up together. But who will rule, and who will serve? 

Quiet and gentle, Marie has never lived up to the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor the Second, Supreme Ruler of the Franco-British Empire. With the help of her Head Merlin, Emrys, Eleanor has maintained her stranglehold on the world’s only source of magic. She rules the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. 

But even with the aid of Emrys’ magic, Eleanor’s extended lifespan is nearing its end. The princess must marry and produce an heir or the Empire will be vulnerable to its greatest enemy, Prussia. The two kingdoms must unite to end the war, and the only solution is a match between Marie and Prince Leopold VII, heir to the Prussian throne. But Marie has always loved Gill, her childhood friend and soldier of the Queen’s Guard. 

Together, Marie and Aelwyn, a powerful magician in her own right, come up with a plan. Aelwyn will take on Marie’s face, allowing the princess to escape with Gill and live the quiet life she’s always wanted. And Aelwyn will get what she’s always dreamed of–the chance to rule. But the court intrigue and hunger for power in Lenoran England run deeper than anyone could imagine. In the end, there is only rule that matters in Eleanor’s court: trust no one.

My Review: 

Melissa de la Cruz is definitely an author that has been on my radar but I haven’t had much of a chance to explore her books. I read Blue Bloods, and while I think it was incredibly well written, it wasn’t the book for me. I hadn’t even heard of this book, to be completely honest, until it was sent to me in the mail by Disney-Hyperion. I thought it sounded quite interesting so I knew that I had to dive into it.

I’m very glad that I did.

Its obvious from the start that Melissa is a fantastically talented writer. The way she effortlessly moves through her story is incredibly impressive. Its easy to accept the world that she has created because she makes it so believable in her writing. Its confusing at first because she jumps in so fast, and its hard to keep up with this complicated world that she has created. She creates this world of intrigue and gossip and mystery mixed with the politics of nobility and royalty and, just for fun, why not, then throws in magic. It reads like a scandalous gossip novel set in the intriguing world of royalty. Its beautiful.

I did feel like the characters lacked a bit of emotional depth that I usually love about characters. I did not find that I was attached to the characters, but more so the story that was building up. The only character I felt genuinely attached to was Wolf and that was because he felt the most real. True, he was cliche, as most of the characters felt. Marie, the princess, wanted a life of simplicity, away from the pressures of royal life. Aelwyn is the daughter of the Merlin, bred to serve but with a desire for power.

Wolf is the younger prince, not good enough, living under the shadow of his elder brother and rebelling at every turn. Very cliche like. However, I felt a sort of kinship with Wolf. No matter the cliche, those sort of feelings are quite real and familiar. It is not uncommon to feel that sort of desperation of living in someone’s impossible shadow, and yet having a fierce love and loyalty toward them. The way Wolf felt toward his brother, Leo, was so familiar to my own heart that it was incredible to read.

I do feel the story wrapped up quite quickly. I would have taken another book, or even extra fifty to hundred pages to really wrap up that ending.

But the story was addicting. It really read like a bunch of scandal stories. You know when you read Pride and Prejudice and they talk in giggles and whispers of the “scandalous” things that are going on behind closed doors. It kind of felt like that, with a mix of Gossip Girl in there. It’s hard to explain. Oh, like Reign! Have you watched Reign. Reign is basically a TV show that took a bit of history, completely changed it (which, as a former history major, drives me insane haha), and made it scandalous and sexy. That’s exactly how this book reads. Its sort of addicting, to see the dark and winding world of this court.

The Last Word

The Ring and the Crown is a book full of mystery, scandal, sex and lies, and magic and it reads beautifully due to Melissa’s incredible talent. While some of the character’s personalities fell a little flat to me, and I felt the ending wrapped a little too quickly for my taste, all in all, I felt that it was an incredible book. She’s a talented writer, with a gift for story-telling, and this is definitely a book to keep on your radar. It releases in bookstores on April 1st.

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