I <3 your blog!

Thanks to the lovely Ms. Rachael (aka The Book Muncher!) for her kind words again!!



The Rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

Lenore of Presenting Lenore Lenore has great posts in general! Book reviews, blurbs, recommendations and other interesting tidbits! And don't we all just love the adorable pictures of Emmy?

Liv of Liv's Book Reviews I just love Liv's Bits 'n' Pieces interviews with authors!! That, along with some great reviews keeps me checking back at her blog often to see what's new!

Beth of Books and Love One of the first blogs I came across as I ventured into blogs featuring book reviews, and I've been checking her blog ever since! Beth is such a nice person with great reviews!

Carol of Bookluver-Carol Carol has great author interviews, reviews, and not to mention neat reviewer interviews!

Chelsea of The Page Flipper Chelsea writes some really detailed reviews that makes me really want to read those books! Not to mention that she's a fellow YABC demi-goddess and writes great reviews for YABC too!!

Kelsey of Reading Keeps you Sane Kelsey writes honest reviews that are to the point! And a very fitting title--reading definitely keeps me sane!! (Love the new layout, btw!)

Just Blinded Book Reviews First off, what a cool blog title!! Yet another site that I keep returning to for new, fantastic reviews!

Linda Gerber Ms. Gerber does plenty of interesting "ramblings" as she sometimes calls them, and has plenty of generous giveaways and some fantastic release parties!

Aella is a lovely person who has plenty of book reviews on great books!

And although she nominated me, I really do love Rachael's blog as well!!
Rachael of The Book Muncher Because she's just a wonderful person with a wonderful blog! Rachael posts so many great reviews and keeps adding more and more books to my TBR list!!

And an update on what I'm up to...
My computer crashed (yes, I know, again). My elderly IBM apparently decided it was through working for me and I now (or at least for the time being) must make my updates from other computer(s), which, needless to say, is not quite as convenient. I hope to get a new computer sometime soon (pity about my files, I hadn't expected my old computer to give out quite so soon) but school work and the like have been keeping me really busy as well. But I am reading! Or at least trying to, in between calc problems ;) And I am trying to keep up my reviews! Once December comes around, I think things will have settled down a bit, and hopefully I will find myself in front of a brand new, shiny, computer that isn't prone to crashing!
I have a few interviews and reviews on some great books to come!

Oh, and did I mention that I finally got a Facebook? :) If you have a moment, look for me there & friend me if you'd like!

Top 8 Contest!

Thanks to Scholastic, I have 5(!!) signed copies of Top 8 to give away to you all!!

Check out my review of Top 8 here & my interview with author Katie Finn here!

[EDIT] Sorry guys! I completely forgot to mention that this contest is only open to people in the US! So sorry!! Thanks to Ellie who brought this to my attention! [/EDIT]

A quick blurb for Top 8 (courtesy of Barnes & Noble):

Madison MacDonald is seriously freaking out
Madison MacDonald
16
Putnam, CT
Status: Single?
About Me:
Everything in my life was working out. I had my three best friends, a brand-new boyfriend, and the lead in the school play. Aside from that history paper I hadn't started, things felt perfect.
Then I returned from spring break to find my Friendverse profile hacked. Someone clearly out to ruin me had spilled the most damaging secrets - AND posted the worst photos of me ever taken - online.
Now my boyfriend and I are broken up, half the school hates me, and I'm in deep trouble.
Goals:
Get my boyfriend back, figure out who could have done this, and clear my name!
Also, pass history.

Want to win a copy of this great book? Just comment on this post with your name, email address, and your favorite social networking site!

Want an extra entries?
1) Post about this giveaway on your blog, myspace, etc. somewhere people can see it, and send me/comment with the link! (1 extra entry)
2) Know the answers to these questions? Drop me a line at bookvault@yahoo.com for 2 extra entries! (hint all answers can be found either in my interview w/ Katie Finn or my review of Top 8!)
- Where did author Katie Finn grow up?
- What color is main character Madison's computer?
- Where did Madison vacation with her family?

Please put "Top 8 Contest" in the subject line!!

Please get all you entries/extra entries in by November 16th (midnight, EST)!

Savvy Girl by Lynn Messina

Lily may be life-guarding on a beach with cute guys during the summer, but her best friend Chrissy Gibbons has really hit the summer jackpot—she gets to intern for the hippest, coolest magazine that so many people love: Savvy! Despite having to do some mundane things during her internship internship, there are some definite perks: parties, cute guys like Michael Davies, and meeting ex-supermodels like Jessica Cordero.

To top things off, Savvy is holding a contest for the interns to determine who the first teenage Savvy columnist will be! Chrissy knows she’s the perfect candidate for the job, but she doesn’t have to worry about that yet, right? I mean, she has all summer to write her entry column. In the meantime, Chrissy would rather be setting up “chance” meetings with Michael and hitting the hotspots with Jessica at night!

But when Chrissy bails out on Lily over and over again so she can attend parties of famous designers and other star-studded events with Jessica (and stagger into her home at unearthly hours, more than a little buzzed) Chrissy might be turning into someone completely different. She wasn’t the kind of person to ditch her best friend all the time, and definitely wasn’t the kind of girl to stumble in drunk past midnight without letting her parents know where she was. But all of those things Chrissy used to care about seem to be tossed aside without a second thought when she gets constant invites to attend classy parties with Jessica.

Surely Lily understands why Chrissy can’t turn down these fantastic parties, right? Doesn’t Lily have that cute guy Graham to hang out with, doesn’t she? And Chrissy can hardly turn down Michael when he wants to hang out with her!

But is all this glitz and glamour really that good for Chrissy? She’s come to work more often hung over than not, and she’s already caught Michael hitting on hot girls at the parties she brings him to, more than once. She’s become a rebellious party girl who’s lost her good sense and put herself above her friends and family. And with the summer quickly drawing to a close, Chrissy better shape up and think of what to write, or she may miss out on a great opportunity to become a Savvy columnist—and may even lose her best friend!

At first Chrissy didn’t act and sound mature enough to be a seventeen year old, but that quickly passed. Savvy Girl was a very realistic novel with, in my opinion, well crafted and believable characters. After becoming a Savvy intern and getting invited to a few bashes, Chrissy acted like most sixteen-year-old girls would after hitting a few high-class parties and meeting cutes guys for the first time. All the same, it was nice to see her grown up and learn more than how to file papers during her summer internship and adventure!

An interview with Katie Finn!

Check out my interview with Katie Finn, author of Top 8, which I just reviewed recently! A big fan of Facebook or other social networking sites? This might be the book for you!

Onto the interview:


1. What inspired you to write Top 8?
Well, at some point a while back I realized that I was completely addicted to my social networking sites. And I noticed that it was changing the way my friends and I were communicating. So I started thinking about how a story could be told using the framework of one of those sites – and then the story just came from there!

2. Did you base any events or characters from Top 8 on events that happened in your own life/people you actually know?
Not in any big ways -- I just used some small details. For example, I based the two towns in the novel, Stanwich and Putnam, on my hometown of Greenwich , Connecticut . And Madison shares my taste in books and theater. Also, I have a friend who is obsessed with all things French, so the character of Lisa was a little nod to her. The thing that was probably the most directly taken from real life was the Jimmy and Liz stuff. Two of my friends went through an ugly breakup and were constantly changing their MySpace names to insulting, revealing things, like Jimmy and Liz do in the novel. I remember at the time thinking, “I'll have to use this someday…” J

3. What's your favorite part about being an author?
I have LOVED getting feedback from readers! It’s just the best thing ever. I’ve gotten lots of comments, and it’s just so amazing to hear from people who’ve read your work.

4. Any least favorite parts of being an author?
I have to say, I really like most of it so far! But there are definitely days where the writing is a struggle and I sit in front of the computer for hours with no success. That's not any fun, and too many of those days in a row can start to feel discouraging. But it's all part of the process.

5. Any favorite YA books?
Sooo many! This is going to have to be a very abbreviated list; otherwise it would run on for pages. But I LOVE Sarah Dessen, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, and Shannon Hale. I also love the books Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe and King Dork by Frank Portman, and I just finished Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway, and really liked it. I also love David Levithan and Rachel Cohn.

6. Who was your favorite character to write about in Top 8?
It came as a surprise to me, but I really enjoyed writing Kittson. I had really not been expecting that. I think her character definitely became more prominent because I had such fun writing her.

7. What kind of computer do you use when you write? (is it bright pink like Madison 's?)
I wish! You can actually get your computer painted pink, and I really thought about it a few years ago. I guess putting it in the novel was my way of trying that out. I write on a Mac PowerBook that’s currently on its last legs. I desperately need a new one. Maybe I’ll get that one painted pink… J

8. Are you working on any other YA novels at the moment?
I am! I’m about 1/3 of the way through my new novel. It’s a little darker than Top 8, and with a main character who isn't quite as confident as Madison – she’s a little more like Schuyler, come to think of it. I don’t really want to go into specifics yet, but I’m having a lot of fun with it right now.

9. Any advice for aspiring authors?
Read and write as much as you can. I think there’s no better way to learn. Also, plot is important. I have an unfinished, 500-page novel in a drawer, because I realized at some point that it was just my characters talking to each other and wasn’t actually going anywhere. Now, I like to know my beginning, middle and end before I start writing. But mostly, the best advice I can give is to just sit down and write! Writing is like anything else -- you only get better with practice.

Brief BIO:
Katie Finn grew up in Manhattan and Greenwich , Connecticut . She now lives in Brooklyn and only checks her MySpace and Facebook three—okay eight—times a day. Friend-request her at www.myspace.com/katiefinnwrites or write on her Facebook wall!


Thanks to Ms. Finn for taking the time out to do this interview! I hope you get the a new computer of whichever color you'd like! :)

& Stay tuned for a chance to win a copy of Top 8!

In Too Deep trailer!!!

Check out this fab trailer for In Too Deep!! Jennifer Banash's long awaited sequel to The Elite will be available in book stores in January! Don't forget to pre-order your copy!!

Top 8 by Katie Finn

Madison MacDonald is just your average teenager; she attends her local high school, hangs out with her friends, has a (new!) cute boyfriend, and is part of the popular Friendverse network that just about every teenager has a profile on. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary until the day she gets back from vacationing in the Galapagos with her family only to find that her Friendverse profile has been hacked and utterly changed.

Unfortunately for Madison, the damage goes beyond the new bad songs posted under her ‘favorites’—her hacker has been writing nasty comments to and about her friends! Some awful secrets have been revealed about pretty much everyone Madison knows and more than a few unflattering pictures of Madison and others have surfaced as well! With only a handful of friends left on her Friendverse profile (and goodness knows how many in real life!), her boyfriend convinced that she broke up with him, people left and right hating her, and the class couple broken up, things do not look good for Madison.

The good news is that her three closest friends believe that she was hacked and did not write all those revealing comments herself, but the bad news is that not many others believe her, and her boyfriend, Justin, is now dating someone else! Many people are hurt by what Madison’s hacker posted about them—harsh comments that Madison knows that she may not have said to their faces, but did say behind their backs to others, or at least had thought to herself. Madison wants to know who did this (and her boyfriend back)! The hunt for Madison’s hacker is on!

Despite making a list and doing a bit of investigation, Madison doesn’t get very far. However, she does met this cute guy who she had actually previous met during her vacation in the Galapagos. But she mustn’t think about him, after all, she’s still trying to get Justin back! When most of her leads don’t get her very far, it looks like Madison might have been looking in the wrong direction all along…

I found this book rather predictable, but Top 8 does have some good morals/lessons behind it. It’s definitely more hurtful to speak about people behind their backs, and it’s a good thing that Madison learned a few lessons and matured a lot by the end! The format of Top 8 with the Friendverse profile and comments views was great as well! It really enhanced the story!

I also really like the title—it really fits for this book, but isn’t too ordinary or common, and after reading this book, I think it might have a bit of foreshadowing to it as well!

Book Trailer/An upcoming read!

Check out this trailer for The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill, which is due to hit bookstores in November!