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If I Stay Giveaway and Secret Booooook or Treat Buddy-Only 4 More Days!

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There are TWO very exciting things going on right now and I wanted to remind you all of them so that you don’t forget to participate.

If you want to, dosage of course. I mean, I’m a dictator or anything. I’m not going to force you to. I mean, you would be missing out on super epic fun but that’s totally your choice. I’m not cruel! Mostly.

So right now, I have a giveaway going on! Yay! Its for a signed copy of If I Stay! If I Stay just hit movie theaters last week and didn’t do half bad, so I’m massively proud of it right now. I have a movie tie-in edition of the book, signed by the author of the book and the director of the movie up for grabs.

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This giveaway ends September 1st so don’t miss out on this opportunity! Click this link to find out how to enter, and all the (simple) rules involved!

I also have something else VERY exciting going on as well!

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The most recent of my book exchanges is open for sign ups! There are so many of you who have signed up already and I hope that more of you do! This could potentially be the last time that I have open sign ups so I hope that everyone who wants to get involved does!

Basically, its kind of like a Secret Santa gift exchange, but after I did Santa with so much success, I decided I would do it four times a year. Its simple: you’ll receive some information about another person that signed up: what sort of books they’re interested in reading, what fandoms they’re in, what sort of things they enjoy doing, a mini bio, if you will. You’ll take that information and build a care package for your buddy: a couple books, a goodie or two, maybe snacks and candy for them to enjoy and you’ll ship it off to them.

But the best part is (besides making a new friend!), you get to receive a package in return! Which is always fun right? To learn more about the exchange, see pictures of previous exchanges and to find out how to sign up, you can click the link here.

Last day to sign up is August 31st so hurry hurry!

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Movie Review: If I Stay

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If I Stay

new-if-i-stay-movie-poster

Official U.S. Release Date: August 22nd, find 2014

Rated:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some sexual material

Directed By:

R.J. Cutler

Cast:

Chloe Grace Moretz, this Jamie Blackley, Liana Liberato, Joshua Leonard, Jakob Davies, Mireille Enos

Find the rest on IMDB here.

IMDB Movie Synopsis:

Mia Hall thought the hardest decision she would ever face would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at Juilliard or follow a different path to be with the love of her life, Adam. But what should have been a carefree family drive changes everything in an instant, and now her own life hangs in the balance. Caught between life and death for one revealing day, Mia has only one decision left, which will not only decide her future but her ultimate fate.

My Review:

The thing about contemporary novels is that a huge part of what they are is based on emotions. They don’t have the constant action that usually comes hand in hand with a science fiction, fantasy or dystopian novel. They literally have to carry the entire book with emotion, whether good or bad. If I Stay is perfect at doing that…and I had hoped so much that this emotional journey would carry over to the movie.

I was so please to find that it did.

First off, just a shout out in general for making a movie that actually is a good representative of the book. I had just recently reread the book a few days before seeing the movie so it was completely fresh in my mind and I loved recognizing so many scenes in the book. They really made sure to get all of them. Some were tweaked a bit but that was okay, because it made sense for the movie. But they really did a great job at adapting and I don’t often say that.

But what made me so incredibly happy is that I felt the same emotions when watching the movie as I did with reading the book. That book is an absolute emotional roller coaster. One minute, I’m laughing and the next, my heart is racing and I’m envious of the romance between Mia and Adam, and the next, I’m literally sobbing in the middle of the theater. All the characters in the movie felt so real, so genuine that it was so easy to connect with them and believe in their story.

If you’ve read the books, you know that the accident, the loss of her parents, even the loss of her brother, comes very fast and yet, you feel that pain. You connect with all of them so fast, and they accomplish that in the movie as well. But what is absolutely beautiful about it is that the flashbacks make you fall in love with the characters even more, so you’re torn between feeling the happiness at getting to know this extraordinary family and the gut wrenching sadness at the fact that they are already gone. The movie does that, and every flashback is so painful and you know why its so hard for her to stay. Every person who was cast, was cast so perfectly for the role. They played the perfect rocker parents, the little brother, the best friend, the boyfriend, they all did. It was incredible how much I believed every single one of them was that character.

But I think what really makes this movie stand out so much is the music. The music is something that we need to picture ourselves in the book, something that we have to imagine, but in the movie, the music is a character all on its own and I’m just so blown away by that. The music is there through all the emotions, the sadness, the joy, the love, family, friendship, loss, all of it, comes through in that. Music is magical that way and I think having the music that is so central in the book in the movie just makes it that much better. It captures the very essence of the film.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

It’s Time for an If I Stay Giveaway!

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I love giveaways, viagra 40mg don’t you?

Today I have a special treat for you!

In celebration of the release of If I Stay in movie theaters today, visit this site I am holding an If I Stay giveaway.

Last week, visit this site I went to a signing event with Gayle Forman and RJ Cutler. For those of you not in the know, Gayle is the fantastically talented author of If I Stay and RJ is the director of its movie adaptation.

I grabbed an extra copy of If I Stay and managed to get it signed by both of them. I had hoped to get it signed by others, but the premiere didn’t go quite the way I had expected (as you will see later in my recap of the event) but you know what…this is still a SUPER epic giveaway!

The Prize 

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One Copy of the Movie Tie-In Edition of If I Stay signed by author, Gayle Forman, and director, RJ Cutler

The Rules (yes, there has to be rules!)

The contest will run from today, August 22nd to September 1st!

The winner will be contacted within 24 hours of contest end. If winner(s) do not respond within a 24 hour period of contact, their prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be chosen.

Come back every day to share on Twitter and Instagram to earn more entries!

If you check off an option on the rafflecopter, please make sure that you have fulfilled that option. Please be honest! I double check every winning entry and if you are dishonest, you will not win the prize!

This giveaway is in NO way endorsed by any authors, their publishers, the movie studios or any other affiliates.

What A Nerd Girl Says is not responsible for lost, stolen or damaged prizes. It HAS happened before, but only once!

How to Enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Good luck!

What I’ve Been Up To…

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Hello! How are all my lovelies doing?

As you may have noticed, sick I’ve been very…underground the past few weeks. I had some free time last week and wrote a TON of book reviews and sort of prescheduled them, web so while my blog has been full of reviews, treat I haven’t actually been working on it for awhile. I’ve been massively behind on Monday Missions, and Tuesday Top Tens and I’m SO behind on Weekly Round-Ups.

And I apologize massively for that!

Last time I was this neglecting to my blog was when I was finishing up the first draft of my science fiction romance-ish novel, The Awakened. So it goes mostly without saying that this second bout of neglect comes from the fact that I was rushing to finish the second draft in order to get it out to my beta readers.

I’m going to pause here for a moment and give a shoutout to my beta readers: Jackie C, Jackie Z, Ashley, Marlee, Alex, Taylor, Lindsey and Kameron: I love you all already and I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about my book!

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Also a massive shoutout to my cousin, Gina, who has been helping my to edit the little bugger.

But other than that, I’ve just been SO massively busy. The last even I even blogged about on here was James Dashner at the end of July. I’ve been doing all kinds of amazing things since then, keeping busy.

First off, I saw one of my absolute favorite bands, Set It Off, again. They BLEW my mind, once again, and I loved being able to hang out with them.

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Some of you may know that Set It Off was a new discovery back in October of 2013. Not that long ago. They opened up for one of my favorite bands, Story of the Year, and they played their song “Dream Catcher”, and Cody (below) talked about living your dreams, not listening to people bringing you down, and all of that. The night, I went home and started The Awakened and not even a year later, I’ve finished it (TWO drafts), have sent it on to beta readers and am starting to query agents. WHAT. So I talked to Cody, told him how inspiring he is, and basically cried in front of him. Then I had all the boys in the band write my favorite lyric of theirs and hopefully that’ll be a tattoo soon!

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I also discovered a “new” band (new to me) called One Last Night. I’ve been listening to them ever since, and I”m just in love with their songs “Same Old War” and “Sunrise”.

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The next day after that, my friends and I headed down to the beach for an all day fangirl beach day. We relaxed, read, played in the ocean and took a TON of pictures. Then we spent the evening, roasting marshmallows over the bonfire and literally talking about books for hours and hours. I LOVE that so much.

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The day after fangirl beach day, my friends and I headed to the Barnes and Noble in Glendale at the Americana to meet Gayle Forman, the author of If I Stay and other amazing books, and RJ Cutler, the director of the If I Stay movie. I had a great time meeting the two of them, and Gayle’s parents, who were in attendance but I honestly don’t think that I’ll be going back to that location again. I sent an email into corporate, which I hardly ever do, because I usually have an amazing time at events. This one, however, was massively unorganized and most of the people working the event were insanely rude, and I just was so frustrated by the end of the night that I wanted to go home. Later this week, I’ll be heading to the If I Stay premiere so hopefully that’ll work out better haha!

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Just a few days ago, I went to another concert (I’m so musical, all of a sudden haha). Paramore and Fall Out Boy were touring together, and that was just awesome. I hadn’t seen Paramore since Warped Tour…2006? 2007? Basically, a really long time ago. And Fall Out Boy is an ABSOLUTE favorite of mine. It was cool too because my friend Jade snuck me up front with her (my seat was pretty far away haha), and I ended up SO close for the FOB set and it was just PERFECT.

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Yesterday was one of my fangirl bestie’s birthday. She turned 16 and had a fangirl birthday party. It was so much fun and we basically hung out, pigged out on delicious food, talked books and took hilarious pictures. I’ll share those once they are up on FB.

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Now today, I’m getting back into blogging, outlining the sequel to The Awakened, and hoping to catch up on my reading. The last book I read was Opposition when it came out and that was nearly two weeks ago. I’m in a major slump, but hopefully with the break in writing, I can focus on reading again. I have SO many books in my TBR and I need to get to them ASAP.

I also started a new Instagram and Twitter today, focused completely on ME. They are my personal, author accounts, focused on my journey to become a writer. What A Nerd Girl Says will remain for my book loving and my blog life but hopefully I’ll be able to share all the fun of me, my writing, my novel and hopefully my life as a published (!!) author. I would love if all of you followed me on my new accounts below!

Twitter: 

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Instagram: 

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Until next time, my loves! I will hopefully be blogging more!

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Book Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

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18081809Genre: 

Adult Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 

310

Part of a Series?:

Standalone

Release Date: 

July 8th, drugs 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary: 

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

My Review:

I told myself that in the year of 2014, I would read more adult books. Now…I’ve struggled with that but I knew that when Landline came out, I had to read it. There were no ifs, ands or buts. I think Rainbow Rowell is an absolutely fantastic writer, and I knew I had to read this book.

And this book is INCREDIBLE. I don’t think its for everyone, and I don’t think its for everyone who reads my blog. This book is about the deep emotional journey of a long term relationship, and I don’t think that’s something that everyone who reads this blog can relate to. I know a lot of you are young so this may not be the book for you. And that’s okay, put it on your “to-read” for the future. Its a wonderful book, but not for the YA readers that tend to read my blog.

But that being said, Rainbow Rowell made me cry so much while reading this book. This is not a particularly sad book and the ending is not heartbreaking or sad but she has a way of writing a relationship that feels so real. Like when I read “Fangirl”, there were so many moments when I just wanted to scream “Yes! Yes, exactly. You know exactly how I feel.” She writes so real, so genuinely and in such a familiar way, that its easy to get caught up in the stories of this characters.

Georgie and Neal have been together for quite a long time and their marriage, their relationship, is showing that strain. They hardly see each other, the affection seems to be gone, and its a daily struggle to keep their relationship going. When Georgie somehow is able to dial into the past and talk to Neal as she knew him in the beginning of their relationship, she remembers all the things she loves about Neal and the reasons they’ve been together for so long, no matter the bad. And its so true, and real to a relationship. There’s up and downs, and struggles and there are things that bring you down and sometimes you don’t think that you can pull yourself up. Its not always love and rainbows and butterflies. Relationships are hard work and she completely captures that in this novel.

But what she also captures is the hope as well. Yes, there are hard times. Yes, there are times when you’re struggling to keep it together and you’re not sure if you can keep fighting the fight and you wonder if you should just let it go, but then there’s hope too. There are reasons you got together, reasons you love each other, and you have to remember those to push through those hard times. She gives the reader hope, hope in all their relationships and I really love that.

What makes this a great novel is that its a very human story. Its not necessary full of action or a ton of plot but its full of character development and love and friendship and struggle and hard work. Its all told in the story of these two people and their relationship and their fight to keep it together. She makes it so real and so relatable and if you’ve ever experienced anything like this in your life, its going to touch you in so many ways. I found myself crying because it felt good to know that I wasn’t the only person in the world who felt these struggles or felt these emotions and even though its fictional, it helped me to not feel so alone.

Rating:

Book Review: Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future (ARC) by A.S. King

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17453303This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through Little Brown Books at the American Library Association Conference for free. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.

Genre: 

Young Adult, mind Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 

320

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date: 

October 14th, buy information pills 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary: 

Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities—but not for Glory, who has no plan for what’s next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she’s never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way…until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person’s infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions—and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying.

A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women’s rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she’ll do everything in her power to make sure this one doesn’t come to pass.

In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A.S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last—a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more.

My Review:

In true AS King fashion, I was absolutely blown away when I read this book. Literally and completely blown away. She is able to tell such a bizarre and unbelievable story in such a beautiful and relatable and addicting way. I can’t stop thinking about this book and I actually read this last month. There are so many parts to this book and that’s what makes it so good. It reminds me a bit of Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle but minus the horny, hungry grasshoppers taking over the world.

In the world of Glory O’Brien, she’s graduated from high school, with no set plans past that. She doesn’t know if she wants to go to college, what she wants to do with her life, anything. She struggles to figure out who she is while also being there for the people around her. She has an insufferable best friend, who drives her absolutely crazy but she also feels love and loyalty for. There’s her father, who has sort of fallen apart since her mother’s death years ago. Lastly there’s the actual death of her mother, which she’s never truly mourned the death. These are all such real problems, and they come off the page effortlessly.

AS King has a way of capturing humanity, their emotions, and problems and lives so well that it reads like this. Her line at ALA was easily one of the longest ones that I was in and there is a reason for that. She’s an incredible writer and she captures her characters so that they feel so real and genuine. Sometimes its less about the story and more about the internal story of the character and I think that AS King is just perfect at that.

But there’s also the secondary part of the story, the out of this world but so familiar story. Glory suddenly can see the future and what she sees is absolutely horrifying, not just to her but to me as well. The United States falls to pieces and is broken apart by civil war, and states seceding and the rights of women are stripped over and over and over again. What seems to be unbelievable, fantasy in this book is a glaring reality at what happens every day in our laws and in our world to women, not just in this country, but all over the world. AS King offers up a scary potential reality and its absolutely horrifying and frightening. She calls attention to the way things are now and what direction they could be heading in.

All in all, simply put, there are not enough words to describe what an incredible writer and storyteller that AS King is. She writes unbelievable deep, genuine characters and incredible stories, unique and memorable. Her books stand out every single time that you read them, and I definitely recommend putting in your pre-order for it, or reserving your copy at the library. Trust me, you will definitely not regret it!

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars