Love-a-Thon 2014: Book Blogger Awards

I only had time to do one of the mini challenges today, but I think I chose the best one! This is the one that I've been most excited for. I have only given each blogger one award each even though they might fall into multiple categories, because there were so many people that I wanted to give awards to!

Love-a-Thon 2014: Mini Challenges Day 1

Here is my mini challenge post for day one of the Love-a-Thon! It'll be updated a couple of times, so be sure to check back in a few hours when the next mini challenge goes live. 

Mini Challenge #2: Book Valentines

For this challenge I had to write a love letter to my book boyfriend(s)/girlfriend(s). Since Valentine's Day was actually yesterday, we have already exchanged our letters and let me tell you, they're not fit to be shared in public. I think Nick (Altered/Erased) in particular would want to kill me if I showed you some of the stuff I have been writing to him. But never fear, I had a look through the treasure chest and found one that's fairly decent:

Dear Captain Thorne, 

Ever since that day on the ship, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. . It feels as though the distance between us grows further with every moment we spend apart. Now can I have my bloody ship back?!

Your co-captain,

Amber x

Mini Challenge #3: Mad-Lib

I'm not really sure how this happened. I was very sleep-deprived when I wrote this. I apologise in advance!

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One day, I was picnicking with Tod Hudson. Out of the blue, a hell hound came out of nowhere! It was so loud, scary and yet invisible. At first, we were afraid, we were petrified, but we channelled Dean Winchester. We hopped on a tricycle to make our getaway.

As we escaped, we turned up the radio because Call Me Maybe came on and made me dance. Everything was extremely smooth sailing until a Hippogriff appeared in the middle of the road. We swerved to avoid it, but while Tod stayed on the tricycle, I got thrown onto my side into the woods.

I couldn't get up, and felt paralysed as I lay there staring up at the trees. What was I going to do? I heard a rustle among the leaves, and felt scared. Surely, this was going to be my end. As my eyes fluttered shut, the last thing I saw was a head of brown hair and blue eyes.

When I woke up again, I was on a wooden bench. My body hurt a whole lot less, and I could sit up. There was a laptop and bookshelf in the room along with doughnuts and vodka. The door suddenly opened to reveal Christian Ozera, a concerned look on his face. I blushed and averted my gaze, but he sat next to me and said, "Don't be shy. It's okay."

He came over to sit by me, and we started talking after I told him my name. We chatted about reading, Once Upon a Time, and vampire slaying, and realized we had a tonne in common! I thought he was dreamy and couldn't help feel a little light-headed. 

Just as he reached out for my hand, the door crashed open and in came Captain Thorne. "Don't let him charm you away, my love!" He yelled, running at Christian. They each had rolling pins in their hands and began to fight. "Stop!", I yelled, feeling so frustrated. They didn't listen to me. Before I could intervene, Christian fell to the floor and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. 

"What was that?" I asked, staring at the empty space. Thorne dropped his weapon, and came over to me. "Magic, but you are safe now, sweetheart." He hugged me close, and I suddenly knew that this was the real deal and not just a dream.

Just as Frisky started playing in my head, I woke up. I cursed by shitty luck. Why had it only been just a dream?

Love-a-Thon 2014: Blogger Interview

This is my first time participating in Katelyn and Alexa's Book Blogger Love-a-Thon! I saw the event happen last year, but I didn't sign up in time, unfortunately! So when I saw it was happening again, I jumped straight in. 

I'm very excited about this weekend and all the different events and challenges that are going to go down. I'm looking forward to meeting new bloggers, as well as having fun with people that I already know. Since there are a lot of mini challenges, I won't be overwhelming you all with a trillion posts, so don't worry. I'll be posting today's mini challenges in one post together, and then do the same again tomorrow. Hopefully your readers and inboxes won't be too cluttered!

Kicking off this event are the blogger interviews. I was paired with Paige from What's Next? The Readers Go To Blog to Find Out What's Good, who started blogging early last year. We interviewed each other, and you can check out my answers to her questions over on her blog. 

The Returned by Jason Mott

The Returned by Jason Mott
Release Date: August 27th, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin
Source: Publisher (NetGalley)
Rating: ★★

Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That's what all the Returned were.

Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time ... Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.

All over the world people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he's their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

This was not a good book t b h. This was one of my first reads of the new year; I'd requested it late last year because the description intrigued me but the novel wasn't at all what I'd expected, and not in a good way either. Basically the plot describes a phenomenon in which the dead return to life - instead of an undead uprising, this novel presents the dead as they were in life. Government authorities are formed to deal with the phenomenon, mostly to return the dead to their families, which presents many unforeseen problems. Our main characters, Harold and Lucille, an aged married couple face this issue - their eight old year son, drowned in an accident many years ago, is returned to them. The plot drags literally from the first page; literally nothing interesting happens, then something mildly interesting happens but don't worry it soon becomes boring again, until the end in which bemusing shenanigans occur before boredom gets settled again. Soooooooo much talking, by characters I didn't care about, and not much doing. I just...

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Release Date: January 30, 2014 (UK)
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Source: Publisher
Rating: ★★★★

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words ...And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone. Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible ...

After reading Eleanor & Park last year (thank you, Judith), I knew that I would have to check out some of Rowell's other work. While Eleanor & Park wasn't a favourite read of mine, I did think that Rowell was very talented and some parts of the story struck a chord with me. So when I was offered Fangirl by the publisher, I was happy to accept.