Win an Autographed Copy of Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s!

Yesterday, information pills I recapped meeting the awesome author behind Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and its sequel, find Hollow City, thumb the awesome Ransom Riggs.

You can read all about that here.

And I thought, while I was there, that it had been quite awhile since I had done a giveaway on this here blog.

So I bought an extra copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and decided to have a giveaway.

Here is the Prize: 

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Now Here Are The Rules: 

(yes, we must have rules!)

This giveaway will run from January 16th to January 30th

The winner will be contacted within 12 hours of the contest end. If the winner does not reply within 24 hours of my email to them, a new winner will be chosen.

The contest is MOSTLY international. If you have a question about your country, please feel free to contact me! Leave a comment below.

Tweet every single day for more entries!

Share with your friends!

Make sure you actually do what the rafflecopter prompts you to do.If the prompt says to “follow so-and-so on Twitter” and that entry gains you a win and you didn’t follow so-and-so, I will choose another winner. I don’t know how many times I have done that, but it is incredibly frustrating. Please play fair!

A Note: This contest is in no way, shape or form, endorsed by Ransom Riggs, Quirk Books or any affiliate.

Now that this is out of the way, now how to enter!

Its simple!

Click the link below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!

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Ransom Riggs Kicks Off Hollow City Book Tour at the Grove!

Yesterday was the release day for Ransom Riggs’ long awaited second novel in the Miss Peregrine’s series, remedy Hollow City. He’s kicking off a tour to celebrate and meet all of you, price so click this link to find out if he’s coming near you!

The kick off of his tour happened at one of my FAVORITE places to see authors at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove! I’ve been attempting to meet Ransom Riggs for months now, treat and somehow was missing him at every turn so I was VERY much looking forward to meeting him.

I hit the event with my fangirl bestie/parabatai Sylvia from Fangirl Feeels and my sister Jessica, and our friends Casey and Gabby met up with us there as well!

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We got there SUPER early so we were able to score seats in the front row. I’m kind of a snob and like sitting in the front row. It also doesn’t help my ever growing snobbery that Ransom Riggs is a VERY handsome man, and I wanted a great view of him while he talked about his books ;)

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Ransom Riggs is a seriously awesome guy, SO laidback. He hopped up onto the table within the first five minutes of talking and just spent his presentation answering questions from the audience. He let us know that Miss Peregrine’s the movie is in development and that he really loves the script that has been written. We learned that there will be three books for the series, and we learned the background story behind them.

I really love that Miss Peregrine’s was almost an accident, and just a product of a hobby that he had. He was just collecting weird, old school photographs when he thought it might make an interesting book, and Miss Peregrine’s was born.

He also has such a fun sense of humor. If you’ve ever watched the YouTube channel he has started with his wife, fellow author Tahereh Mafi, you know they have a fantastic sense of humor. That definitely comes out while he’s answering questions and all that.

Then we all lined up to meet Ransom. Yay! He remembered me from when I assaulted him and Tahereh at the Mortal Instruments premiere

***Side Note: After the City of Bones premiere, and after we watched the movie, Sylvia and I were hanging out in the lobby of the theater, and we were surrounded by all these, like, movie stars and stuff, and then Sylvia spotted them, with Leigh Bardugo and Margaret Stohl, and we practically assaulted them in our excitement to meet them. It was both amazing and embarrassing***

He signed my books, signed my writing advice poster (which is totally running out of room…), and he also signed an extra copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, so watch out for a giveaway coming up VERY soon!

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Me and the author, himself.

After I met Ransom, I introduced myself to some people (see, haha, I’m getting so much better at networking. I told you I would!). I saw Tahereh Mafi standing around, talking to some friends, and I had brought my Shatter Me and Unravel Me with me, and I wanted to ask her to sign them, but I got this unusual bout of nervousness.

Eventually, I got up the courage, and she was incredibly sweet and also remembered me from my assault at the City of Bones premiere (again, embarrassing. I’m nothing if not completely professional haha).

She signed the books I brought and my writing advice poster and was seriously sweet. I can’t wait for her event at the end of February at the Grove!

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It was an awesomely good time, and I went home a very happy fangirl and blogger!

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Ransom Riggs’ writing advice. His words: “My gut told me to write that, so it must be true!” Pretty awesome.

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Tahereh’s advice. If you can’t read it, it says “The only difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is TIME. Never give up!”

And check out my awesome signed books :)

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Thanks again to Lita and Barnes and Noble, The Grove, for an awesome event, as always! I can’t wait til Tahereh Mafi in February and Lauren Oliver in March! So many amazing events coming up!

And to all my awesome followers, keep an eye out in the next day or two. I scored an extra copy of Miss Peregrine’s for you guys, and I’m getting all geared up for a giveaway!

Yay!

Happy Reading everyone :)

December Book Wrap Up!

Books Pledged to Read in 2013: 200 Books

Did I Reach My Goal: Yes!

How Many Total Books Read: 203

Total Books For December: 20

Remember to click on the book title for the review. If there is no link, buy information pills there is no review. I got really lazy in reviewing toward the end of the month haha.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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Teen Idol by Meg Cabot (Re-Read)

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Nicola and the Viscount by Meg Cabot (Re-Read)

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Something Blue by Emily Giffin (Re-Read)

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Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

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Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

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Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

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The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

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Bloodlines by Richelle Mead 

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The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

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The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

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The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

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Fan Art by Sarah Tregay

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My Life Next Door by Huntley FItzpatrick

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The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith 

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This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith 

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Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon

This totally counts. My boyfriend got this for me for Christmas, pills because I’m obsessed with penguins and we’re in love, pharm duh! And he also got me this behind-the-scenes experience with penguins, so it all makes sense. And it counts

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What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

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The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson 

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Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Kami Garcia/Unbreakable

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So that was 2013 folks! Stick with me in the new year, as I delve into even more books!

How did you do on your own GoodReads challenge? Share in the comments!

WWW Wednesday!

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme, order hosted by Should Be Reading.

The three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading? (Click on the book covers for reviews!)

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

What are you currently reading? 

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After completely busting my way through Blood Promise last night, recipe I’m ready to dive into this book. I started reading it last night, visit web and got about 50 pages in when I realized it was 2 am and I had to wake up at 8:30. Not smart. But I can’t wait to get back into it once I’m outta work today!

What did you recently finish reading? 

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Finally read it. Finally! I’m so proud of myself. You can read the review here. Can’t wait to get my hands on Hollow City and finally, officially meet Ransom in January.

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I read the first three of this series SO fast, and then paused before reading this one, to finish the last three of the series. I heard they were heartbreaking and couldn’t do that to myself, not quite yet. But I finished this yesterday (late at night), and I loved it. Watch out for the review tomorrow :)

What do you think you’ll be reading next? 

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I’m pretty sure that once I read Spirit Bound, that I’m going to want to grab this one and devour it. So I’m preparing myself for that. I’m preparing myself for feels and heartbreak and possibly for tears too. Who knows? But I’m madly in love with Rose Hathaway, so its worth it!

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I discovered Lindsay when we started following each other on Instagram! Then I realized she was an author that was going to debut in 2014, and I was so excited! I’ve been watching her journey closely and nearly squealed when I saw that you could down the ARC on Edelweiss. I can’t wait to read it :)

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What are you reading this week? Share in the comments!

Book of the Week-Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Soooooooo it took me FOREVER to finally read this book, viagra but I finally did! I’m proud of myself. Its been on my “to-read” list for ages, and its been out for years so I’m glad I finally picked it up. Especially since the sequel, Hollow City, will be hitting bookstores in mid-January and he’ll be doing a signing around here (hopefully with his wife!).

Plus I just like Ransom as a person. I follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr and he just makes me laugh. And he’s always going to really cool places and eating really good food. I just want to be his best friend. Like, him and Tahereh should double date with me and my boyfriend. Because it would be awesome.

Okay, moving on. Here’s the review :) Enjoy!

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

Genre:

Young Adult, Science Fiction? Fantasy?

Part of a Series?:

Yes. It is the first novel of the Miss Peregrine’s series. The sequel, Hollow City, releases January 14th.

You May Like if You Liked:

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Age Recommendation:

14+ (More on that later)

Plot Summary:

From Amazon:

A mysterious island.??
 
An abandoned orphanage.??
 
A strange collection of very curious photographs.??
 
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive. ??A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My Review: 

I really liked this book, and I am glad that I finally sat down and read it. I actually read it a handful of days after my boyfriend did, so that made it even better. We don’t discuss books too often because we don’t tend to read the same books (he’s been attempting to read James Joyce’s Ulysses this year. Uh, no.), but when we do, we have some SERIOUSLY good book conversations. And we had a really good one about this book, which, in turn, really helped me to write this review.

I think the book started off incredibly slow. The book is called Miss Peregrine’s Home… and we don’t actually get to the home for quite a while in the book. The first third of the book or so dragged on a lot to me and it took me awhile to get through it. Once I got through it, I blasted through the rest of the book but that first bit is incredibly rough to read.

I also was kind of perplexed at how it can be classified as YA or middle grade. I would definitely call it YA but would say its older YA, more mature YA. And its not the content. The story is definitely a children’s story and there’s nothing inappropriate or mature about the actual story. But the writing style is incredibly mature. I know that over the past few years, with the boom in YA, we’ve really begun to give more credit to teenager’s intelligence than we did before but even I had struggles with the writing sometimes. Ransom is a beautiful writer; his prose is just beautiful, but I must admit, there were several times that I had to look up a word because I had NO idea what it meant and the context of the sentence didn’t help me. You may have noticed that I said 14+ in the age recommendation. Its honestly not the content. Its not. I just think the writing style is fairly sophisticated for middle grade and younger teens.

I was a little disappointed in the characters. I think that there could be a lot more to them, and am hoping with the release of Hollow City, we’ll learn more about them. The pictures that are in the book are fairly creepy but the characters…just aren’t that peculiar. Their powers are peculiar but they aren’t really peculiar themselves, if that makes sense. Its hard to describe. I just kind of wanted them to be weirder. I think the combination of the kind of creepy cover, and the fact that Tim Burton is directing the movie (set for 2015?) really gave me the idea that it was a creepy book and it just wasn’t as creepy as I thought.

I liked the characters of Emma and Enoch. I thought they had the coolest peculiarities about them, and I think there’s more personality to them than others.

But that being said, I think its a great story. I think that it was awesome that Ransom took these photographs and was able to build a story out of them. That’s incredible. While I was reading, I kept thinking, “to build a complex story, with all these twists and turns, and base it off all these photographs is incredibly creative.” There would be times where a character, most often Miss Peregrine, would be explaining things and a picture would appear on the next page, to fit perfectly with the crazy world that he was building. I thought that was really cool. My dad got me this book when I was in high school, its this really popular kids book. A picture book full of all these super weird drawings that have no story, no words. My dad always thought I could come up with stories for them, but its so hard! So I’m thoroughly impressed by that.

(I had to google that book. I couldn’t remember it and it was driving me insane. It was called The Mysteries of Harris Burdick)

I also think he really creates a potential for the sequel. While I think the first book started off slow, and he needs to work on the development and depth of his characters, his story is solid and I think as the story continues along into Hollow City, the rest will fall more into place. He creates an incredibly complex story, especially since it involves a bit of time travel. Time travel can be a bit messy and confusing sometimes and it definitely is in this book, but I like that because it creates mystery and uncertainty and that really carries the book along. His sophisticated writing creates twists and turns that you sometimes don’t even see until it is smack in your face. That’s really creative and great story telling so I really commend him for that. I hope that sort of twisted story telling continues in Hollow City.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

Recommended or Not?:

Yes, but be aware that it may surprise you. The description and cover don’t match the story as well as you think it would. I honestly was expecting a spooky middle grade book and ended up with a sometimes confusing, sophisticated style of writing story that was weird but definitely not creepy. But I did really like it. The story is really good, and he leaves it off in such a way that it really makes you want to read the sequel. I think he builds up the story enough to create a bigger and better story in the sequel.

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I hope you enjoyed this week’s Book of the Week post! Don’t forget, you can always check out previous Book of the Week posts here!

Happy Reading!

WWW Wednesday!

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme, try hosted by Should Be Reading.

The three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading? (Click on the book covers for reviews!)

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

Its been a REALLY slow reading week. I just can’t seem to get myself immersed in a book :(

What are you currently reading? 

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I know. This took way too long for me to finally read. And I adore following Ransom Riggs on Twitter and Tumblr and Instagram. I should have read this ages ago, sildenafil but I’m fully reading it now. So that’s all that matters!

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I’m still working on it. Its taking me a long time. I don’t know if its the actual book (because so many people LOVE it) or if its just my complete lack of motivation when it comes to reading. I really want to finish it. I’ve heard such good things so I need to get into it.

What did you recently finish reading? 

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This book was amazing. Make sure to check out my review. I’m honestly counting down the days until Cress comes out. Who knew I could go from being so completely indifferent about this series to loving in a matter of a week?

What do you think you’ll be reading next? 

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Robin Benway’s Also Known As was SUPER cute and fun, and I had NO idea there was going to be a sequel until it popped up on my NetGalley and I was like, “I MUST HAVE THAT!” And I got it! So now I need to buckle down and read it so I can review before it releases in January! Exciting!

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I downloaded this AGES ago when the ebook went on sale. I need to sit down and finally read it! I’ve heard good things so I’m looking forward to reading it.

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What is everyone reading right now? Share in the comments!