Harper Price, and peerless Southern belle, order was born ready for a Homecoming tiara. But after a strange run-in at the dance imbues her with incredible abilities, information pills Harper’s destiny takes a turn for the seriously weird. She becomes a Paladin, one of an ancient line of guardians with agility, super strength and lethal fighting instincts.
Just when life can’t get any more disastrously crazy, Harper finds out who she’s charged to protect: David Stark, school reporter, subject of a mysterious prophecy and possibly Harper’s least favorite person. But things get complicated when Harper starts falling for him–and discovers that David’s own fate could very well be to destroy Earth.
With snappy banter, cotillion dresses, non-stop action and a touch of magic, this new young adult series from bestseller Rachel Hawkins is going to make y’all beg for more.
My Review:
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book except that I knew I really wanted to read it. Rachel Hawkins was both at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and WonderCon and I kept spotting the cover, and people kept reading it, and I knew I had to get my hands on it. I bought it just a few days ago, and ripped through it. I am still not sure what I expected from this book but I it wasn’t what I was handed. What I was given from this book was much more and I absolutely loved it.
Harper Price seems like one of those characters that you’re not sure you’re going to love or you’re going to hate. When I first started reading the book, I felt myself rolling my eyes and I thought, this is not going to happen. But as soon as Harper gains her Paladin powers and shoves her heel the neck of an adversary, I knew that I wanted to be her best friend.
The thing that really gets me about this novel is that it brings together the theme of a contemporary novel mixed in with the fantasy elements. Its not too heavy on each side, and its a perfect balance. We have Harper trying to balance out her boyfriend, her friends, her social life and her new life as Paladin, protecting David. It makes for an amazing, compelling and absolutely addicting story.
And its so funny! That, I think, was my favorite part of the entire novel. I love the fantasy of it, and the mythology that you learn as Harper delves into this Paladin thing but I love that Rachel Hawkins keeps the realness of the book. Its fantasy, but its approachable fantasy. Its fantasy lite, for those who want to read fantasy but get overwhelmed by the world building and that sort of thing. Harper is kicking butt and dealing with Mages and Oracles and such things like that, but she is doing it while trying to keep her boyfriend and dropping for dresses for Cotillion. Its hilarious. Harper is absolutely hilarious and she has little quips that would just make me burst out laughing. I loved that while she would be beating someone up, she would also having you smiling and laughing. It makes for a really fun book.
Plus, in the end, I ended up with a new fictional crush in David…he strangely reminds me of my boyfriend and you can never go wrong with that.
Jamie Campbell Bower. My Jace Wayland. Actor. Model. Musician. Has been in movies such as The Twilight Saga as Caius, nurse Harry Potter as Gellert Grindwald, The Mortal Instruments as Jace Wayland and more. Modeled for several different brands, most recently, Burberry. Part of the awesome band, The Darling Buds.
Just recently, Jamie did a random live acoustic set in the UK for anyone and everyone who wanted to show up and I must admit, I was a bit jealous. Yay for UK fans ;)
Just this week, however, Jamie announced on his twitter that he would be repeating this trend, in NYC on Saturday May 3rd and in Los Angeles on Tuesday May 6th.
And I DIED. I’m ALWAYS off on Tuesdays from work AND Los Angeles is my home. Jamie was going to be playing beautiful, beautiful music in my own backyard. AGH!
Once Jamie had given us a location and time (Venice Boardwalk, 7 pm), my friends and I decided to make a day of it. I hung out with my friends Sylvia, Alex, Ally, Cassie, Stephanie, Jade and Mina and had a blast. I bought the new Morgan Matson book and Kiera Cass’ new book, and spent some always wonderful time in Barnes and Noble. We ate lunch on the Santa Monica Pier at good ‘ol Bubba Gump’s, and then made our way down to Venice Beach to the boardwalk to wait for Jamie.
AND IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME.
Jamie pulled up, SO super cool, and pulled out his acoustic guitar, and proceeded to play some songs for us, which was amazing! He is so incredibly talented and even though I’ve met him three times already, I still found myself swooning like crazy!
But don’t just take my word for it! I managed to grab some video while I was there. I took a TON of pictures, and then Facetimed with my dear friend Carmen from Oh the Book Feels, so I only got a little bit of video: small samplings of two songs BUT I did record a full song: Get Your Guns, so watch them here, and see if you don’t swoon a bit!
SIGH!
If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures (there are a lot), check out the full album here, on the What A Nerd Girl Says Facebook page!
The best part? After Jamie was done with his amazing set, my friends and I jet across town to the Americana to meet two wonderful authors, Tammara Webber and Abbi Glines! But more on that later!
I’ve been blogging for What A Nerd Girl Says for nearly TWO years now, sildenafil and I absolutely love it, more about and I love how much my life has changed since starting it. I love the people that I’ve met, and the things I’ve gotten to do, and I love writing for it.
I got a ton of feedback from you guys, all the time, and I LOVE hearing from you and one thing that I get a lot is “I’m starting my own blog; do you have advice?”
And you know, I always do the best that I can to give the best advice that I can. I have been doing this for two years but I don’t know everything and I’m learning every day how to be a better blogger and to have more and more fun with it.
So I decided to reach out to my blogger friends, and get some advice from them to share with you guys! It turned into an awesome vlog, which you can check out here:
There is a TON of great advice in this vlog, if I do say so myself, but there was also a ton of advice from these bloggers that I could not fit into the vlog so I wanted to share it below.
ADVICE and TIPS!
“Don’t be afraid to be controversial. Show up. Make your site look good. Keep your brand consistent.”
“Be serious. Don’t do it for the wrong reasons (like for perks or special admittance to events) – it shows in your work. If you genuinely love it, you’ll want it to be great, and it will be better for it.”
“Seek out other bloggers who share interests and work together.”
“Be honest about what you write/blog about. Be true to yourself and your love for it. Be yourself. Don’t be afraid about what others will say.”
“It’s not a competition! Just do what you love! Write what you love! Share what you love! Everyone else is doing it…so don’t be afraid to share as well. Blogging is supposed to be fun where people can share their thoughts and feelings about whatever they want to share!”
“I’ve learned if you are blogging for a particular fandom, competition can fester even if you don’t mean for it to. Fight against the urge to fall into the trap of trying to beat people, as hard as that can sometimes be. There is always someone who will feel threatened when you gain followers and they don’t. Just be true to the followers you have. Don’t be afraid to share your own personality. You can be consistent, but don’t forget to be real and to be nice. The golden rule should apply.”
“There will always be petty drama. I don’t care what bloggers you deal with. Just ignore it, blow it off. It’s never going away. My advice; never respond to it nor let it show that it bothers you. If you do that the you’ve let them win and you’ll forever be miserable. Just do you and be you and eff everything else.
That doesn’t mean you can’t make friends. I’ve met 3 of my closest besties from this world but it’s not often that happens or that jealousy will get the best of them. Especially if you come up with a really stellar feature to do. It’ll kill them that they didn’t think of it first and some may even try to sabotage you and your blogging rep. The blogging world is very, very similar to high school drama which is crazy considering a lot of bloggers are at least in the late 20’s.
So. Have fun with it, don’t let anyone bring you down and you’re golden.”
“Seeing as I’m still new to the whole blogging thing I’d just say do it because you love it. If you love books so much and fangirl over characters then put those feelings out there, if you love a certain celebrity, then do a whole post about them. Don’t be afraid to show the real you.
Oh and the followers will come haha. Just because you only have 60 followers (me) and other people have love thousands, don’t let that put you off. Like everyone has been saying; it’s not a competition. It’ll soon lift off. Even if you don’t have a lot of followers, it doesn’t mean that you’ve failed. Be proud of it. Love it. Talk to your blog like you would talk to a friend.”
“Do you. Love what you do. Do what you love because it’s what you truly enjoy and don’t do it for the recognition. There will always be people with more connections, even people who have less traffic will sometimes get better perks and it may feel sh*tty for a bit. Just…you have to have that passion for what you’re actually doing on your site. The perks are few and far between and you have to view them as a present. A thank you for all your work. The studios don’t owe you anything and as soon as you seem entitled to them, you’re done. Be kind, to a point. Be a hardass when protecting your reputation and brand – this is a must no matter how meek and kind you want to be (I feel like I am the epitome of meek and kind, this was a learning experience). If you view the perks as the be all end all you will go crazy and destroy your mental health (I’m saying this from experience).”
“Do it because you love it. Don’t ever do it because you think it’ll get you perks. That’s completely the wrong reason to have a blog. Work hard, have a passion for it, love it, get involved. When you show how much you love it and how much you love the community that comes with it, the rest falls into place. The rest is just an added bonus to the fun that you have just writing your blog. I don’t get paid to run my blog, and yet I spend a TON of time, and money and effort on it. Why? Because I genuinely enjoy doing it. I enjoy the community that I’m a part of because of it, and I enjoy meeting people who are like me. I enjoy writing it, and I enjoy interacting with anyone who comes my way. The perks that came are just an added bonus and they are still so far and few between. Start a blog because you are passionate about something and you want to share that passion with others.”
I hope you enjoyed watching the vlog and reading all of the fantastic and amazing advice from all these wonderful bloggers. I hope you’re able to check out each and every single one of them because they are all TRULY awesome!
And if you have a site, please definitely share in the comments because I would love to check it out!
And a HUGE good luck to all of you who hope to start one. I hope that we didn’t scare you off (haha!) and that you’ll be writing alongside us VERY soon!
Hello everyone! I am currently hosting a TMI Read-a-Thon, sales re-reading all the books of the Mortal Instruments series in anticipation of the release of City of Heavenly Fire. You can join in by clicking this link.
Every Friday, viagra dosage for the next couple weeks, treatment I’ll be posting my favorite quotes from each Mortal Instruments Book!
As this is my first week, of course, these are all my favorite quotes from City of Ashes.
Enjoy! And make sure to share yours in the comments!
