Tripping Over My First Blogoversary

They Say It’s Your Birthday

Over the course of time, lots of things have happened on October 29th. John Glenn went back into space at age 77 (astronauts are the best). Richard Dreyfuss and Winona Ryder were born. Duane Allman, one the greatest guitarists in the WHOLE WORLD died on October 29th. The stock market crash known as “Black Tuesday” started the Great Depression on October 29th. In 1964, there was this MAJOR jewel heist from The American Museum of Natural History. And, one year ago today, I wrote my first post on Tripping Over Books. Small potatoes, friends, but a big deal in the life of moi.

I can’t believe it’s been a year already. This must be what new mothers feel like on their first baby’s birthday. What happened to the time? One year seems like both hardly any time at all, and more than enough time for something epic to have a huge affect on my life. I know I’ve said before that I feel like I can be more myself on this blog, talking to you all about books and nerdy things and life, and that’s the truth. So THANK YOU for every time you’ve visited, commented, shared your thoughts. It’s been an incredible year, and that is really all down to you. Here’s to another year full of awesome people, awesome books, and more good times than we know what do with!

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Book Review + Giveaway: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven Boys

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Series: The Raven Cycle #1

Genre: Paranormal YA

Amazon | Goodreads

Publisher: Scholastic

Release date: September 19, 2012

Source: ARC from BEA

Summary: There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

In My Mailbox (50) / Stacking the Shelves (5)

October 28, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them!

Guys, Penguin had a blowout of awesome things on NetGalley this week and I was unable to resist. PLUS, I got some pretty sweet books in the mail, too. But honestly? I fell off the NetGalley wagon DOUBLE HARD. Please don’t judge. I have a problem.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

The Obsidian Mirror: Chronoptika #1 by Catherine Fisher (April 23, 2013 from Dial). I’ve read and enjoyed–although not loved–Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron series. But this new one from her, about a time-traveling mirror and a manor house full of secrets and a murder, sounds pretty legit.

Amazon | Goodreads

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith (March 7, 2013 from Putnam Juvenile). Dystopian that takes place in New Orleans, where there have been tons of hurricanes and disease, and so the whole area is quarantined from the rest of the US. The people left live according to blood type, and the main character has a baby (not hers, but still) to take care of. Sounds REALLY interesting.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar (March 21, 2013 from Dial). Umm, I had no idea until today that Lindsay Ribar is from New Jersey. HOLLA, HOMEGIRL!! Your book sounds super! This debut contemp/light fantasy has been on my radar for a little while, understandably because it is about a girl who comes into possession of a genie’s lamp and winds up falling for said genie, who is on the run from some baddies.

Amazon | Goodreads

How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller (February 1, 2013 from Razorbill). Story about a school in NYC that trains teenage criminals to be exceptional criminals. To what end, I have no idea, but STOP IT.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Ruining by Anna Collamore (February 7, 2013 from Razorbill). This one sounds good and creepy friends. It’s about a young girl who goes to start over as a nanny for a family, and weird things start happening to her. Sounds like a good old psychological thriller. I’m in.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock (February 21, 2013 from Viking Children’s). Yes, please, to this contemp about a broody, punk chick who starts high school looking to get back at some mean girls, but sees her plans put to the test by the new boy in town. Sounds great, PLUS another 2013 debut!

Amazon | Goodreads

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff (January 8, 2013 from Razorbill). I still haven’t read Brenna Yovanoff’s first two books, but this one sounds pretty chilling and dark. There’s ghosts and murders and a trouble-making boy with a soft spot for our main character, it seems. Plus, that cover is PRETTY.

Amazon | Goodreads

A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff (February 12, 2013 from Philomel). YAY, magicky middle grade!! The people in this world each have a Talent (honestly, it sounds like the graces in GRACELING, but lighter), and Cady, the main character AND ORPHAN has a Talent for BAKING. I can’t even.

BOUGHT & BORROWED

Amazon | Goodreads

Scarlet: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (February 5, 2013 from Feiwel & Friends). Guys, CINDER was one of the best books I’ve read this year. The world is amazing, the characters are top-notch, and the cleverness and creativity is super. To say that I am dying to read SCARLET, book number 2, is an understatement.

Mucho thanks to Tara from Hobbitsies for sharing the goods, and to Jen from Makeshift Bookmark for passing it along!

Amazon | Goodreads

The Lost Prince: The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten #1 by Julie Kagawa. Actually just finished reading this one from NetGalley. Friends, Julie Kagawa is special. Her fairy books aren’t like anyone else’s. I’ve read other fairy books that were good, but hers really are the best. Ethan’s story is really enjoyable and dramatic.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Crimson Crown: Seven Realms #4 by Cinda Williams Chima. AHHH I DIE! I can’t wait to read this book, even if it is the last in the series. Han and Raisa are such great characters with lots of intensity, and I think things are going to get a little bit worse for them in this book before they get better (better obviously being some kind of happily ever after/sexytimes).

SO STOKED! Hope you guys love your hauls this week!

Book Review: Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

Title: Flat-Out Love

Author: Jessica Park

Genre: Contemporary YA, New Adult

Amazon | Goodreads

Publisher: Amazon Children’s

Release date: September 11, 2012

Source: Ebook

Summary: Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie’s off-campus housing falls through, her mother’s old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side … and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there’s that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That’s because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie’s suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that … well … doesn’t quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Title: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Author: Rae Carson

Series: Fire and Thorns #1

Genre: Fantasy YA

Amazon | Goodreads

Publisher: Greenwillow

Release date: September 20, 2011

Source: Ebook

Summary: Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one. But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess. And he’s not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake. Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young. Most of the chosen do.