My Week in a Wrapped #5

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

It has been a busy week since I’m trying my best to juggle everything. Work, reading and a lot of other things. So much to do with so little time. Fortunately, I was able to fit them all. I was able to finished Winterspell, started and finished The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender for my October Random Reads and currently reading The Iron Trial. Work’s still a bit tough on schedule and really tiring, but I was able to accomplished a lot in all fairness. I’m so proud of myself. LOL! Anyway, the highlight of my week was that I got a day off from work for my son’s 12th birthday. Since it falls right after his actual birth date, I didn’t have much time to prepare for the celebration. We just had a nice and super fun dinner with the whole family. Here’s a photo of my birthday boy, Heaven Alessandre ♥

Isn’t he such a cutie? 😀 He’s growing up pretty fast. Refusing to hold hands with me in public now. Sniff. Next year, he’ll enter a new pace of his life, which is being teen and I’m really hoping that I could turn back those days that he’s still in his diapers. Oh wait! I’m being emotional now. It seems like I’m getting old too. LOL. How’s your week? 😀

Last Week On The Blog

• My Week in a Wrapped #4
• ARC Giveaway: Invaded (Alienated #2) by Melissa Landers
• Swag and Book Giveaways + Book Tours : A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
• Teaser Tuesday #15: Winterspell by Claire LeGrand
• Waiting on Wednesday: Atlantia by Ally Condie
• Book Review: Winterspell by Claire LeGrand
• Book Review: The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
• Book Beginning #3: The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare + Holly Black

Book Review: Winterspell

Name: Winterspell
Author: Claire LeGrand
Number of Pages: 464 in Hardcover
Published: September 30th 2014 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Retellings, Historical Fiction, Paranormal

“The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.
New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.
Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.
Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.
Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.”

A review of this, at long last. The cover is so gorgeous. Who would have resist not reading it? Especially if you know your fairy tales well. Do I know? No. I don’t. As for me, I still haven’t Google what The Nutcracker is all about after reading the book. Wondering if the fairy tale is somehow like it or not. Others confirmed that it is loosely based on it. I think the statue is just the mere thing that connects it with the fairy tale, but then again I learned that the prince on the book is not trapped to a Nutcracker as per the fairy tale and as per the reviews I’ve read before reading this so that didn’t compute.

Teaser Tuesday #15

I’ve decided to join this ’cause I think it’s pretty fun and easy. Plus I really want to quote smart retorts, full blown bullying, words of wisdom, swoon worthy lines and the like without giving much to readers about the entire book. A quote or two won’t hurt I guess. So this is how you do it:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Randomly open a page.
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is for this week’s Teaser Tuesday:

Winterspell (Winterspell #1)

by Claire LeGrand

“”I’ll follow your impressive example, but I might stay away from the.. whatever it is on the ground that you’ve pasted over you front.” “You’d do well to use it.” Her breath thinning; she found it increasingly difficult to tamp down her building sobs.”

“”We’ve got to help her.” The figures threw the girl to the ground. “Please don’t!” the girl screamed. “Please!” Clara rose and turned away. She itched to run to them, to wreak havoc with her blades. But the threat of being caught held her still — her family depended on her. That did not ease the sick feeling in her stomach.”

What are your thoughts about my teasers? 🙂 Anyway, you could share some teasers on your current read too. Comment the link of your own Teaser Tuesday so I can check it out and have an idea of amazing books that I would want to read.

Teaser Tuesdays (TT) is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

My Week in a Wrapped #4

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

The past week was all work, work and a lot of work. Nothing really new except for a new game I downloaded on my phone that’s been eating most of my spare time, other than reading of course. And guess what? I have also created an account on Net Galley. Yes. After years of reading I finally created my account. Loser I know. LOL! I need advice from you guys on how publishers could accept my requests since I’ve sent tons, but none of them was accepted. I don’t know. I was so upset when I’ve received emails confirming that none of them was approved. Perhaps I could edit my profile and say stuff. Sigh. I don’t have any idea on how to make it work so maybe you guys can give me tips and whatnot. I also want to know if there are books that’s already available for download so I could check them out. I’m really hoping you guys can help me out with this. Please. PRETTY PLEASE! 😀

Last Week On The Blog

• My Week in a Wrapped #3
• Update + Giveaway: Ensnared by A.G. Howard
• Teaser Tuesday #14: The Blood of Olympus
• Waiting on Wednesday #20: The Last Changeling (Faerie Revolutions #1)
• Book Review: The Blood Of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus #5)
• Book Beginning #2: Winterspell

Book Beginning #2: Winterspell

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader, where we share the first sentence (or so) of the books we are reading, along with initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Name: Winterspell
Author: Claire LeGrand
Number of Pages: 464 in Hardcover
Published: September 30th 2014 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Retellings, Historical Fiction, Paranormal

“Our stories say that when the human world was first made, not all of it fit. Pieces fell off the whole, like too much dough being stuffed into a small pan, and those bits dropped into cracks and were forgotten.
Our stories, the oldest ones, the ones most people no longer remember, say that my country,
Cane, is one of those forgotten places, hidden away in some cosmic pocket of existence, for the most part separated from the human world, but not entirely.”

So I’m back with Winterspell. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you would know that I set this aside for The Blood of Olympus and here I am, picking up where I left off. I initially thought about faeries and other creature not really human when I first read this. A world that somehow there, but a few could only reach. Wonderland for instance or Atlantica perhaps. Did you think about that too after reading it? 🙂

My Week in a Wrapped #3

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

There’s nothing worth sharing this past week. It has been slow like my reading progress. Argh. Caught up in work like the usual and reading in between it. Got to spend time with friends from the grave yard shift since I left the office really late Tuesday night because the traffic was unbearable. Thank God for Twitter, I was informed ahead of time about it. What else? Hmm.. Oh yeah. I got pissed because I initially requested to have a vacation leave from work the 20th this month because of my son’s birthday, but eventually approved for the 21st. How ridiculous is that? Who celebrates their birthday a day after? Sigh. We used to celebrate it on the exact date every year and that will not be the case this time. It makes me sad that I’ll be at work on my son’s special day.

One more thing, I got Blood of Olympus so I set aside Winterspell for now so sorry for all my friends who are eagerly waiting for a Winterspell book review. It would be moved probably next week.

Last Week On The Blog

• Update: Penryn & the End of the Days, Book 3
• Teaser Tuesday #13: Winterspell by Claire LeGrand
• Currently Reading #23: Happy Birthday Blood Of Olympus
• Waiting on Wednesday #19: A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1)
• Book Beginning #1: The Blood Of Olympus
• October Random Reads: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Teaser Tuesday #13

I’ve decided to join this ’cause I think it’s pretty fun and easy. Plus I really want to quote smart retorts, full blown bullying, words of wisdom, swoon worthy lines and the like without giving much to readers about the entire book. A quote or two won’t hurt I guess. So this is how you do it:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Randomly open a page.
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is for this week’s Teaser Tuesday:

Winterspell (Winterspell #1)

by Claire LeGrand

“That was her credo these days, and an increasingly difficult one to follow: Keep your head, Clara, while everyone around you loses theirs, or already has.”

“For a few moments Clara dug through the narrow compartment, searching through wrapped envelopes and pages of correspondence. At every slight noise from outside, she froze, sweat beading on her forehead. Then, when she’d started to lose hope, Clara found something promising–”

You could share some teasers on your current read too. Comment the link of your own Teaser Tuesday so I can check it out and have an idea of amazing books that I would want to read.

Teaser Tuesdays (TT) is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

My Week in a Wrapped #2

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

Got a three-day leave from work and guess what I did. Vacation? No. I slept all day and tried out recipes I found on Google. Fortunately, they turned out OKAY. Not really perfect, but tolerable. LOL! It was a nice feeling to finally have the time to rummaged the kitchen and threw away things that got spoiled and organized everything again.

It was just so refreshing having to wake up in the morning without worrying about work for a change. Not setting the alarm before I sleep and just snuggle up in bed as long as I want the next morning. A break I really needed. I have also tweaked the format of my blog. Not the entire blog really, but how I post each. Like a post layout. Got a refresher for my rusty HTML skills. If you are a long time reader of this blog, you’ll notice the difference. 😀

Last Week On The Blog

• Currently Reading #21: Gates of Thread and Stone
• Teaser Tuesday #12: Gates of Thread and Stone
• Waiting on Wednesday #18 + First Two Chapters: Chasing Power
• Book Review: Gates of Thread and Stone
• Currently Reading #22: Winterspell
• Excerpt: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2)

Currently Reading #22

Name: Winterspell
Author: Claire LeGrand
Number of Pages: 464 in Hardcover
Published: September 30th 2014 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Retellings, Historical Fiction, Paranormal

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.
New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.
Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.
Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.
Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time now. I’ve even featured it on a Waiting on Wednesday post back in July and I’m really excited that I finally have it. I’m already on Chapter Seven I believe and it’s intriguing to start with. Remember when I said that I forgot what the Nutcracker is all about? I still couldn’t remember. Ha! Ha! Loser. Loser. Yeah. So I’m practically plunging blind here. I’ve read reviews for reference though.

Here’s some of the good ones..

Newly Owned to Read! #1

I’m a super super happy kid! My most awaited books just arrived! Yahooo!

 That’s one bunch of awesomeness there. Who would not be excited?

Yeah. I’m literally doing this happy dance or is this Hula? Ha! Ha!

I only have one major problem. Which one to read first? You can help me by casting your vote. 😀

Linking this up with Stacking the Shelves and The Sunday Post