California June YA Book Events!

These are the California book events for the month of June. If you know of any YA events in the month of June in California, store please let me know so that I can update this list.

June 3rd: 

Morgan Matson, approved Leila Howard and Joanna Philbin

Mysterious Galaxy, advice Redondo Beach at 7:30 pm

June 9th: 

Jessica Brody, Lauren Miller, Anne Carey and Jessica Khoury

Girls Gone Sci-Fi Special Event

Barnes and Noble, Montclair at 7 pm

June 10th: 

Jessica Brody, Lauren Miller, Jessica Khoury, Alexandra Monir and Gretchen McNeil

Girls Gone Sci-Fi Special Event

Mysterious Galaxy, Redondo Beach at 7:30 pm

June 12th: 

Kendall and Kylie Jenner Signing their YA Novel, Rebels

Barnes and Noble, The Grove at 7 pm

NOTE: This is a wristbanded event. Barnes and Noble at The Grove will begin distributing wristbands at 9:00 am on June 12 with the pick up of Rebels. Please note that once we have distributed all priority bands, we will distribute stand-by tickets. No personalization and photos from line only.

June 12th: 

Catherine Linka Signs her Debut Novel, A Girl Called Fearless

Mysterious Galaxy, Redondo Beach at 7:30 pm

June 16th: 

Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising Launch Party

The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles at 7:30 pm

For more details on the event, and to reserve your books, please visit this link here.

June 17th: 

Leigh Bardugo, Emmy Laybourne, Ava Dellaira, and Jennifer Mathieu

Fierce Reads Tour

San Diego Public Library

June 18th: 

Leigh Bardugo, Emmy Laybourne, Ava Dellaira and Jennifer Mathieu

Fierce Reads Tour

Book Passage, Corte Madera at 6 pm

June 23rd: 

Sarah Ockler, CJ Flood, Suzanne Young and Jody Casella

Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego at 7:30 pm

June 24th: 

Sarah Ockler, CJ Flood, Suzanne Young and Jody Casella

Summer Lovin’ 2.0 Tour*

Barnes and Noble, the Americana at 7 pm

June 25th: 

Sarah Ockler, CJ Flood, Suzanne Young and Jody Casella

Summer Lovin’ 2.0 Tour*

Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena at 6:30 pm

June 26th: 

Sarah Ockler, CJ Flood, Suzanne Young and Jody Casella

Summer Lovin’ 2.0 Tour*

Book Passage, Corte Madera at 6 pm

June 27th: 

Sarah Ockler, CJ Flood, Suzanne Young and Jody Casella

Summer Lovin’ 2.0 Tour*

Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park at 7 pm

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May Book Wrap Up

Books Pledged to Read in 2014: 150 Books

Am I On Track: I am actually 2 books ahead right now. This is the first time I’ve been on track all year haha.

Books Read So Far: 63

Total Books For May: 20

Remember, viagra buy as always, try to click the book title in order to read the review!

A Girl Called Fearless

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Summer State of Mind

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Rebel Belle

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Since You’ve Been Gone

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The One

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Open Road Summer

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To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

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All Lined Up

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Re-Read)

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In Honor

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Free to Fall

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The Prince and the Guard

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Noggin

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Don’t Look Back

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The Truth About Forever (Re-Read)

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City of Heavenly Fire

(You can also watch my spoiler FILLED vlog here)

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Shadow and Bone (Re-Read)

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Rules of Summer

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Just One Night

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Favorite and Least Favorite City of Heavenly Fire Moments! (Spoilers!)

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I don’t really think I need to warn you but I’m going to do it anyway because I know people just don’t pay attention.

This entire post is literally spoilers for City of Heavenly Fire. If you havent’ finished the book, buy more about or don’t want to be spoiled, sildenafil please turn back now!

Okay, buy information pills jumping in. With both of my spoiler filled vlog and my spoiler free review here on the blog, I tried to be as vague as possible, to talk about as much as I could in a short amount of time and space. So I wasn’t really able to get into all my favorite and least favorite parts. That’s the purpose of this post, to share exactly what I loved and what I didn’t.

I hope you’ll share yours as well!

FAVORITE:

Isabelle’s Vision

When Jace, Clary, Alec, Isabelle and Simon enter into the demon realm to rescue Luke, Jocelyn, Magnus and Raphael, and find Sebastian, they are immediately stopped by a demon that force them to see sort of visions. Clary sees the family that she could have had: Jocelyn married to Luke, a real brother in Jonathan, a little sister. Alec sees himself as loved by everyone that he’s wanted to love him, to be appreciated and praised, and to be the person that is the center of attention. Isabelle’s is the most heartbreaking because its the one that you honestly wish was real. Its her birthday and Simon has thrown her a party, and at her party is Max. Max, frozen at 9 years old, when he died. And I lost it. I couldn’t stop crying. I was so heartbroken. Max’s death has been the most hard hitting in all six books for me, and it hurts when you know how much he is missed and how responsible Isabelle feels for his death. It was beautiful.

Simon’s Band Name

Simon’s memories have been taken from Magnus’ father, as payment for them returning to their world. Its heartbreaking (until you read the epilogue), but when you see the flyer for Simon’s band’s show…I just had this half laugh, half sob thing going on, because I thought it was SO funny and so awesome. His band name? The Mortal Instruments. It was too perfect. It’s been a fan theory for so long and its one of those things that I was actually kind of glad made it into the book.

Jace and Clary-Cave Scene

Um, can we say about time? I mean, I know, they’re like 17 years old, and that’s not exactly old or anything but we’ve all been hoping for some steamy Clace sex for six books now and I’m glad it finally happened and IN A CAVE. The first thing I thought of when they had sex in the cave was…did they really just have sex in a cave like the way Will and Tessa did in Clockwork Princess. Plus it was just beautiful. It was the right moment for it to happen. The world was falling apart around them, and they could die at any moment, and they truly love each other, and it was perfect. I could never write a scene like that, and that’s okay. My sex scenes are going to be a bit rougher, realistic, but Cassie’s are beautiful and I loved every detail of it.

Sebastian’s Redemption

I didn’t expect that, and while it was cheesy, I actually liked it. When Clary stabs Sebastian with the sword that contains the heavenly fire, and Sebastian momentarily becomes Jonathan Morgenstern, complete with green eyes. He expresses his grief, his wish that he hadn’t been born with the demon blood and his hope that there would be another dimension where he was the good son and brother. It was SO cheesy but I actually kind of liked it. It was sweet, and sad, and it was another blow of loss to Jocelyn and to Clary, of what could have been. It was both expected and unexpected and I enjoyed it.

Jem and Jace Talking For the First Time

I LOVED THIS. I had to stop and breathe in and out about this. I loved hearing Jem talk about his past, the people in his life, and all of that. If I had thought for even a moment that I was okay with the feels that Clockwork Princess had brought me, I was so very wrong. All the feelings from just the CP2 epilogue alone came rushing back, and it was beautiful to see him again. I loved his reuniting with Tessa and their appearance and Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding. Just all those feels from Clockwork Princess. I couldn’t handle it.

Maia’s Transformation

I was talking to a few people and they weren’t happy with the Maia thing in the book. I do admit, her relationship with Jordan was weird, especially since he died, and she appeared to be making something happening with Bat, but I was just proud of her as a character. Having the guts to take over the NY wolf pack, and to lead it, and to inform the Shadowhunters of the plans going down. I was really proud of her, and the way she stepped up and became a force to be reckoned with. I think Maia has always been sort of a background character but she really proved herself in this book and I honestly really loved it.

Jem Stealing Church

You don’t really need to go further than that. I honestly just couldn’t stop laughing. It was such perfection.

Clary and Jace Fighting Side by Side

I LOVE THIS. Before this, Clary and Jace had an inequality about them. Jace was an amazing Shadowhunter, Clary had her rune powers but there was always something kind of separating them in the Shadowhunter world. But watching them fight side by side, was just truly beautiful. I really felt like…its not about Jace protecting Clary physically or Clary using her powers to save Jace…they’re equals and fighting together and taking on the world together. They can protect each other. They recognize the strengths in each other and I think its awesome. There no angst, none of that struggle. They had finally reached a balance in their relationship and it was all about keeping themselves safe while taking Sebastian down.

Simon’s Sacrifice

I really liked this part, until the epilogue, which you’ll see later. By the time we had gotten to this part, I was kind of disappointed that no one had died. Again, see later. But when Simon steps up to sacrifice not only his immortality as a vampire, and his memories of everything of the shadow world, I was heartbroken. This, to me, was even worse than death. Simon had found his confidence in being part of that world. He would never remember his absolute best friend, Clary. He wouldn’t remember the girl he loved, Isabelle. That would be all gone. What a fate to fall upon one of the best characters in this series.

Anytime Emma is On the Page

OHMYGOD. I am absolutely adoring of Emma. I have been excited for so long for The Dark Artifices. This is the Shadowhunter world in Los Angeles, the place that I love. This is my home. Of course, I am so excited about it. But now after reading CoHF, I’m even more excited about it. We got to see so much of Emma, Julian and the Blackthorn children and so many hints at what to expect in TDA. I adore Emma. She’s a little spitfire and she’s going to be a great Shadowhunter and I want to see her climb rooftops again…haha. I can’t wait to see her grown up in TDA. I eagerly await it.

LEAST FAVORITE:

Lack of Deaths

Seriously? Who dies? WHO DIES? No one really. Jordan. Maureen. Amatis. Raphael. Andrew Blackthorn. Sebastian. All sad deaths, to be honest. Well, not Maureen. She was just insane. But none that hit me. None that made me feel heartbroken. I felt…like Cassie went way too safe with this ending. They were in the demons realms, there was Endarkened EVERYWHERE, and no one hugely important died? That bothered me. A really good author knows when to make a good sacrifice. Look at JK Rowling. Its war, and the deaths that she did: Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Fred, Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevy, Hedwig. All important deaths that make cringe just typing them.

But Cassie went super safe and that made me sad. I wanted to feel the heartbreak, I wanted to feel the true loss of war. People lose friends, family members, lovers when there is war, and no one really had that. I honestly felt that Jocelyn, Luke, Jace, Clary, Alec, Magnus, Simon, Isabelle…one or two of those people should have died. It would have made the story that much better.

Simon’s Memories Coming Back

Which brings me back to Simon. I was feeling the disappointment in the lack of sacrifice in this book, when Simon decides to give up his memories and I almost felt like that was worse than death. Simon is one of the VERY first characters you meet, right after Clary. He’s important, and to have him lost to them, and have him lose all memories…it was heartbreaking. It was perfect. Then I read the epilogue, and I was disappointed again. I could see Simon having some memories buried deep, look what happened with Clary and her memories. But the idea of Simon ascending and suddenly remembering a good amount of Clary, Jace and Isabelle just kind of bothered me. It was TOO happy. It was a great sacrifice that was wasted by being wrapped up too quickly.

Magnus’ Dad

Did anyone expect way more than what he was? I expected this big scary guy that was mean, someone that Magnus didn’t want to claim himself to, someone that he was afraid of but it didn’t really turn out that way. He was just kind of silly, and Magnus seemed more annoyed with him than frightened. So that was a slight letdown.

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So what do you guys think? Share your favorite and least favorite moments in the comments! I love to hear from you but BE NICE. No hating on anyone for anything. Remember rule #1

Fictional Crush of the Week: Clary Fray from The Mortal Instruments Series

In celebration of the end of the Mortal Instruments series, cure this week’s Fictional Crush post is on a character that started it all in this series.

There is a quote from City of Heavenly Fire in the quotes section so if you’re avoiding spoilers, cialis 40mg I would avoid that section.

Character Name:

Clarissa Morgenstern aka Clary Fray

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Book or Series They Appear In:

The Mortal Instruments Series

City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire 

Author/Creator:

Cassandra Clare

Played By: 

Lily Collins

Who They Are:

Clary Fray is the main character of the Mortal Instruments series. She’s short, redheaded, and has a love for drawing. She’s an ordinary teenager living in New York when she witnesses a murder, by a group of people that only she can see. When one of them comes back, she meets Jace, who is a half-angel, half-human warrior called a Shadowhunter. She soon discovers that she too is a Shadowhunter, kept secret by her mom for years. She soon gets wrapped up in the Shadowhunter world when a Shadowhunter gone rogue named Valentine starts to threaten the peaceful world that they’ve managed to create. In the second trilogy of the series, she’s forced to come face to face with her brother Jonathan, who literally wants to burn down the world, so he can rule among the ashes.

Why I Am Crushing On Them: 

Clary! Clary is a fantastic character in this series and I honestly did not give her enough credit at first, even though she was the main character. I thought she was kind of a trouble maker and that she whined a lot but as I read the books over and over again, I began to like her more and more. I mean, first off, she’s a teenager, of course she whines. And secondly, her troublemaking ways are just her ways of being stubborn and strong. She’s not all that different from me, to be honest. I love that from the beginning, when she’s a simple mundane (human) girl, she’s so brave and strong. She throws herself, untrained, at demons and vampires and more just to save the people that she loves. Its incredible. Its incredible that she struggles to come to terms with her new life, and that she works so hard to become a true Shadowhunter. Without too many spoilers for CoHF, she really becomes a fighter, and fights alongside Jace and Isabelle and Alec and its absolutely incredible. Its so great to see her come that far. She’s determined. She’s also hilarious and has beautiful sarcasm. Plus she’s a little hot tempered redhead and you can never go wrong with that!

Notable Quotes: 

“I don’t want tea,” said Clary, with muffled force. “I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them.”

“But I don’t want anything else in the world.”

“I figured all your classes were stuff like Slaughter 101 and Beheading for Beginners.”

“The other ten percent.”

“Well, when I was five, I wanted my mother to let me go around and around inside a dryer with the clothes,” Clary said. “The difference is, she didn’t let me.”

“You know,” Clary said, “most psychologists agree that hostility is really just sublimated sexual attraction.” 

“I’m not an angel, Jace,” she repeated. “I don’t return library books. I steal illegal music off the internet. I lie to my mom. I am completely ordinary.”

“When you love someone, you don’t have a choice. Love takes your choices away.”

“I love you, Clary wanted to say. And, I would do it again. I would always ask for you. But those weren’t the words she said. “You’re not my brother,” she told him, a little breathlessly, as if, having realized she hadn’t yet said them, she couldn’t get the words out of her mouth fast enough. “You know that, right?”

“Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.”

“There are a hundred trillion cells in the human body,” she said, “And every single one of the cells of my body loves you. We shed cells, and grow new ones, and my new cells love you more than the old ones, which is why I love you more every day than I did the day before. It’s science. And when I die and they burn my body and I become ashes that mix with the air, and part of the ground and the trees and the stars, everyone who breathes that air or sees the flowers that grow out of the ground and looks up at the stars will remember you and love you, because I love you that much.”

Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend Book Challenge!

For those of you who may not know, about it I was lucky enough this year to become part of the Fierce Reads Street Team. I was SO incredibly excited about this because I adore Fierce Reads and all the amazing authors that are a part of it. I was even more excited when I was asked to help promote Katie Finn (aka Morgan Matson) and her new contemporary YA novel, Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend.

I was sent a challenge to complete for this book, so I definitely want to do it. Check out the synopsis for the book first:

Summer, boys, and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long? 

When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma’s plan is working (she’s finding it hard to resist Josh), but she’s finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is? 

Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.

You can check out my spoiler free review here!

Now on to the challenge!

Gemma or Hallie? 

As much I love both of these characters, and the sort of balancing each other out they do and the antics they get into it, I have to say Gemma. I don’t know if its because we’re in Gemma’s head, but I just adore her. I love that she’s stumbling along, trying to do the right things but not always accomplishing that. I love that she knows she makes mistakes and that she tries to fix them, but sometimes, she also messes that up. She’s a very real character and I adore her.

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Favorite Character? 

Oh that’s so hard! I loved so many of the characters in this book. AGH. How dare you make me pick! This is too hard. Sigh. I think I’d have to choose…Sophie. Sophie doesn’t have a ton of “screen” time because she’s back home while Gemma is in the Hamptons with her father, but when she is, she’s fantastic. She’s the kind of best friend that we would wish to have. She’s fun, and she’s ready to step into her best friend duties at any moment. When Gemma is like “I’m you and you’re me”, she just goes with it. She questions it, like a real best friend, but she gives in and helps in every where she can, and she’s just awesome. She’s so much fun. I love Sophie!

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Gemma Fancast: 

“We still had brown hair and freckles, but Sophie tended to cover hers with make-up, and her hair was cut in a stylish, choppy bob while mine was kind of long and shapeless.”

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The first person I thought of was Sarah Hyland because, yes, she’s absolutely pretty but she’s also fun, and sort of fun looking. You look at Sarah and you think, she’s going to be so much fun to hang out with. She would be a really great fit for Gemma. The only thing she doesn’t have is the height for Gemma but she has a good look and I think she’d capture her personality so well that it wouldn’t matter :)

Favorite Quote: 

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This just makes me laugh, just thinking about it. It just hints at the absolutely fun hijinks that this book is.

I also like a quote from the beginning of the novel:

“I could never remember the details of the documentaries Teddy wanted to watch. All I knew was that they were never the ones I wanted to see, which were mostly about penguins.” 

And I swear, it has NOTHING to do with my obsession of penguins ;)

Hallie Fancast: 

“She had the same eyes, green and almond-shaped. Her hair was a slightly darker shade of the bright blond I remembered, but it was still long and curly, and it flowed over her shoulders and down her back.”

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I’m not going to lie, I literally googled young blonde actresses because I didn’t quite know who to pick and Maika Monroe popped up. She has this fun, beautiful look to her and she’s how I’d imagine that Hallie looked. I think Hallie has this beauty and confidence about her, something that both intimates and attracts Gemma to her, and you can see that in just this picture alone.

Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend Theme Songs

Here are some songs that I enjoyed listening to during the summer, and they are the ones that immediately came to my mind when reading it. I don’t know that they have anything directly to do with Broken Hearts, but they’re very summer songs, and they are what I thought of. These are  two songs that I listened to when I was about Gemma’s age!

Boys of Summer – The Ataris  

Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue

Josh Fancast

“He had light brown hair, cut short, and eyes that looked greenish, but that might have just been because he was wearing a pale green T-shirt. He had dark eyelashes and eyebrows and though it was hard to tell because I was sitting, but it looked like he was a few inches taller than me, which meant he was pretty tall.”

"X-Men: First Class" New York Premiere

Lucas Till. I think he’s absolutely adorable, you can believe him as the brother of Maika and he would make a really great Josh. He looks like a boy who belongs on the beaches of the Hamptons. Plus I just have a massive crush on him, and its my fancast, so a girl can dream! Haha!

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I hope you enjoyed learning more about Broken Hearts and that you’ll make sure to check it out and grab yourself a copy! Katie Finn is constantly on the road, promoting her books, as either Katie or Morgan, so definitely look out for her, and this awesome book.

And watch out tomorrow for my Top Ten Reasons to Read Broken Hearts!

Weekly Fangirl Round-Up!

Nerd Girl News

Doctor Who, look Series 8 has a premiere date AND a teasing teasing teasing teaser trailer!

The first chapter of Marie Lu’s new book, The Young Elites, has been revealed!

Debut novel, Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira, has been optioned for film!

Stephanie Leigh Schlund, Cashmere in Catching Fire, confirmed that she joined the cast of Insurgent, as a yet to be revealed member of Amity.

Alfonso Cuaron has been confirmed as NOT directing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

More promotional images for The Maze Runner have been shared!

Mockingjay Filming continues in Berlin, check out some photos!

Two More People have Been Cast for Insurgent!

More Dragons are coming our way! Netflix confirms a How to Train your Dragon spin-off TV series!

Watch the new trailer for Daniel Radcliffe’s rom com, What If!

Pixar’s 2015 film “Inside Out” has an official synopsis.

Some news of True Detective, season 2, has been revealed: it will have THREE main characters.

Emma Watson, queen bee, and our Hermione Granger, has graduated from Brown University!

One Direction fan fiction “After” has officially gotten a publishing deal.

Robbie Amell, my future boyfriend, has been cast in a role in the movie adaptation of The DUFF.

Secrets about the could-have-been season 2 of Starcrossed were revealed.

Posts and Vlogs

Happy 2nd Blog Birthday What A Nerd Girl Says and HUGE HUGE Giveaway! (One more week to enter!)

Monday Missions Vlog

City of Heavenly Fire Vlog Review (Spoilers!)

Book Review: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (No Spoilers!)

Book Review: All Lined Up by Cora Carmack

Ontario Teen Book Fest Recap!

Why The Mortal Instruments is Important to Me!

Book Review: Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn