Into The Old World Reading Challenge

This is so my Kind of Challenge.

About the challenge:

Hosts : Splash of Our Worlds and My Love Affair With Books

Starts: 1st January 2011

Ends: 31st December 2011

Eligible Books: Any books published BEFORE 2009 . All Genres included

For more information and sign up: Head over to http://intotheoldworldchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/intro-post.html

I love this Challenge because I love reading old books. I always feel like there's a book out there for me, waiting, alone the shelves, to be read.

Here some books for the challenge:

1.Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli (Published November 1st 2000)
2. Mackenzie, Lost and Found by Deborah Kerbel (Published November 17th 2008)
3. Dead-End Job by Vicki Grant (Published September 1st 2006)
4. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Published September 18th 2007)
5. Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To-Do List by Janette Rallison (Published September 17th 2005)
6.
7.
8.
9.

I will add as I go on...

Sudden E-Book Giveaway!

I planned on something else for my first giveaway but Debra Chapoton was kind enough to send me an e-book of her book:

~*~

EDGE OF ESCAPE reveals the fractured heart of Eddie, an emotionally impaired 18-year-old who has spent most of his school years in special education classes. Placed there by an over protective mother who also blames her son for his unintentional part in his father's death, Eddie is kept separated from normal student interactions. Eddie's guilt and his place among the unaccepted serve to keep him invisible to the rest of the students, especially the popular ones. His uncontainable obsession for the popular Rebecca compels him to devise a plan to pull her into his world and win her over. What should have been appropriate advances become, for Rebecca, the terror of stalking and abduction. She wakes up trapped, she escapes, and then she makes a wrong choice and is trapped again. Throughout her ordeal as she escapes again and again, there are flashbacks into both Rebecca's and Eddie's lives and how those lives have been intersecting all through their school years. If she falls for the fragile spirit who stalks her, does love erase evil intent? If she fails to see the innocent infatuation for what it is, will she be responsible for the inevitable tragedy that foreshadows their tangled fate?

~*~

I'm planning on reading this very soon and said what the heck? let me give what I was offered and share it with a giveaway!

~*~

For the future winner: You'll have head over to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/21973

Then you'll enter the code I will have given to you.

If you wish to enter this giveaway, kindly follow my blog if you wish and enter your email address on a comment below.

Ends December 4, 2010 11:59pm Eastern Time

**CLOSED**

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Review

Published: May 27th 2010 by Definitions
Paperback, 418 pages

Sixteen-year-old Maya and seventeen-year-old Lochan have never had the chance to be 'normal' teenagers. Having pulled together for years to take care of their younger siblings while their wayward, drunken mother leaves them to fend alone, they have become much more than brother and sister. And now, they have fallen in love. But this is a love that can never be allowed, a love that will have devastating consequences ...

How can something so wrong feel so right?

FYI, This Book is not Suitable for Younger Readers. As said on the back of the book itself.

Quote(s): "...Her face glows like an old fashioned streetlamp, lit from the inside, and everything else in the room disappears as if into a dark fog" -pg 120

This book was, well, let's just say I have never in my life been so emotional distraught...and amazed. At first, I couldn't believe the praise this book got because lets be honest...rarely does a person relate to a book about incest but to my astonishment, I haven't related to a book as much as I did this one.

Forbidden stole my heart on November 26, 2010 in which I couldn't think anything more important to do than to learn as much about the characters lives as possible. Every part of me felt for them to the point where I officially believed they were real, the writing is that good.

I couldn't sleep well that night and on the day after I'd tear up now and then as I helped my 9 year old brother with his homework, or hung out with my big sister at Starbucks. Tabitha Suzuma writes a compelling story about every kind of love there is.

Officially my second favorite author and second favorite book. After Stolen by Lucy Christopher.

5/5







Goodreads link: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Amazon link: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles Review

Title/Series: Leaving Paradise (Leaving Paradise, Book 1)

Published: April 1st 2007 by Flux
Paperback, 303 pages

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares—has been canceled.
After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers.
Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.

So as you may already now, I love this author. To me, Simone Elkeles never disappoints. Leaving Paradise was actually the first I've read from her books and so this is how the glorious discovery of this super spectacular author started...

I began reading this book in Barnes and Noble, my back lay against the teen favorites book shelf and when I saw that I couldn't stop reading I had to run to the cash register because whether I finished there or in my bedroom, I wanted
Leaving Paradise in my possession.

For Simone Elkeles, it's all about the characters and how they live. She works with the idea of confused and/or troubled teens who need a some positive energy to get them thinking of their life's worth and what better positive than love and forgiveness.

Caleb Becker for one isn't feeling to good about himself, he not sure if he wants to live life portraying a boy who physically impairs teen girl, Maggie Armstrong by crashing into her while driving drunk. He's done his time in jail but things just don't feel how they should be.

Maggie is trying to live as best she could with her permanent limp but she can't help her fury from being mad at the world...and Caleb. She finds no use in crying over the past but when she grows a curious relationship with Caleb she can't help but feel a number of emotions, ones that shouldn't even be worth a thought.

This story was the first and certainly not my last by this author. I can never fully tell the ways of how Simone Elkeles stories have this amazing affect on me...it's all life, love, raw emotions, and humor...it's some of the best ya fiction out there...

I strongly recommend Simone's books, you might hate it, you might love it, you might just think they're okay...but at least try them because one can never fully explain all the ways why her books are so likable.

5/5




Sequel: Return to Paradise (Book 2)

Follow Friday (11.25.10)

Here's another feature for book bloggers, such as myself *smiles*, who want to spread the joy of book blogging!

Hosted by Parajunkee Blog

For more information and entry head to http://www.parajunkee.com/