THIS MONTH...

Besides my new masthead and general style changes on the blog, the biggest event this month was the new feature Brittersweet from PLEASE FEED the BOOKWORM and I launched...

It is a weekly/bi-weekly feature, depending on how fast you read, where you tell us what you are reading now, and why, and what you will be reading next from your TBR choices, and why.

Tomorrow will be our fifth installment and we already have one feature follow: 

PILI from IN LOVE WITH HANDMADE 

I also started a monthly feature...

It was in answer to a need voiced during an Armchair BEA Twitter party by several people saying they wanted more discussion posts offered. The response was lukewarm, but I am going to try again in July.

I was nominated for a Liebster Award.

And....

I WAS THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER IN THE ENSNARED COVER REVEAL GIVEAWAY!!!!

Read about all of my FEELS, HERE.

  A.G.

There was no BoOk HAUL this month... 

I recieved one of my two LAME Armchair BEA prizes, the other one still hasn't come, but I really don't care.

Simon and Schuster still hasn't sent me my ARC of We Are Called to Rise, in fact I am not sure, at this point, if it is even an ARC any longer. I have been in touch with them twice and they said in two weeks, and that was almost a month ago. I was promised it almost three months ago.

 This is what I wish upon you Simon and Schuster...

On Netgalley and Edelweiss I was DENIED approval for: A Thousand Pieces of You, In a Handful of Dust, Pennyroyale Academy, Burning Kingdoms, and Vault of Dreamers. I was approved for The Queen of the Tearling, but I found out everyone was. :/

However, Press Play was a pre-approved "read now" on Netgalley and I gave it FIVE STARS!! Of Breakable Things was only $3.49 as an ebook, and it was a wonderful read, too. The Midnight Thief prequel novella Poison Dance was free on Amazon, and I can't forget how much I am loving The Queen of the Tearling, even if it really wasn't an Edelweiss "score." So I guess the month wasn't a total loss.

I did not write one blog review this month, I am ashamed to say, but I did do several mini reviews on Goodreads and I am two books ahead in the Reading Challenge. I am making a promise to do one review a week in July, starting with Summer on the Short Bus.

Let's hope next month there is some of this...

Oooopters... I forgot my BEA prize pack from The Book Landers came this month. Amongst the swag there were three books and a sampler of Four. One was a hardcover of Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly.

Can anyone tell me why I have been getting these ungodly long blank spaces at the end of some of my posts?

TELL ME TuEsDaY #FOUR ~ with Brittersweet and La La

NUMBER FOUR

NOW & NEXT

TELL ME TUESDAY #THREE

NUMBER THREE

NOW & NEXT

LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD...

A little foreword from me, La La. I have posted this blog entry before I found eleven nominees, as per the rules, *see below*, because things have gotten so competitive in the book blogosphere that not only are new bloggers not posting their stats (this made it difficult to find qualifying bloggers and I had to start emailing), many of the bloggers I contacted via email and Twitter DMs, who qualified, didn't want to be nominated because they didn't want it known they had less than 200 followers. This used to be an award everyone wanted because it showed that other bloggers had taken notice of your blog and felt, that even at this early stage,  you were an asset to the blogging community. This award is about spreading the blogger LOVE. The LIEBSTER is usually the first award a blogger gets, and I for one am going to be proud of it, and it will continue to be displayed on my sidebar as long as I have this blog, no matter how many other awards I receive (or don't) in the coming years.

I didn't want the bloggers who were excited about receiving this award (including me) to have to wait for it, so I am posting it with five nominees. I am going to make this blog entry into a page and will continue to nominate rookie bloggers well past the eleven rule. I am also going to challenge the awardees on my list to visit their fellow nominees and leave a blog post. I will go back and do the same with my list mates on Brittersweet's blog. I think these "bent" rules should be fine within the spirit of the LIEBSTER AWARD. I also challenge the book blogging community to to come together and make this award nomination as welcome as it once was. If anyone has any awardee suggestions, please leave them in the comments and I will add them to the list. ~ La La

Thank-you Brittersweet from PLEASE FEED the BOOKWORM for nominating me for a LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD!!

"The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. So, what is a Liebster?  The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Isn't that sweet? Blogging is about building a community and it's a great way to connect with other bloggers and help spread the word about newer bloggers/blogs." ~ We Loved Here BLOG.

I am literally a REDHEADED STEPCHILD.

~*° TWO °*~

I loathe the color PINK.

I have a 22 year old son.

~F0u®~

I once held hands with MR. ROGERS.

I have never eaten GUACAMOLE.

»---> 6 <---«

I believe in GHOSTS.

My favorite holiday is HALLOWEEN.

E¡G#T

I have a TATTOO

I am a PESCETARIAN.

I HATE MYLAR BALLOONS.

ELEVEN

This is my current young man crush.

MILES MCMILLAN

Oh my... 

~*°BRITTER'S QUESTIONS°*~

ONE: What is your favorite genre?

Believe it or not, Science Fiction.

It all started with A Wrinkle in Time in fourth grade.

TWO:

What type of mythical or iMaGiNaRy pet would you like?

TRIBBLES

«3»

Zombie apocalypse weapon of choice?

KATANA

BEVERAGE? 

FiVE

How many BoOks do you own?

Well, my Goodreads "own my own shelves" says 151, but I probably have about 50 more at my mother's house (not counting my childrens books). My GR Kindle books say 40, but those are only the ones I have read. I would say there are about 200 on my Kindle.

Nickname...

La~la~la~la~lalala~Linda.

The very first band I worked for used to torture me in the step-van we traveled in by singing that song over and over again. The La La part stuck.

What book world would you like to live in?

The POTTERVERSE of course, but one without Voldie and the Deatheaters, and maybe in Salem or Sleepy Hollow.

EIGHT

FAVORITE BOOK CHARACTER?

*twirls*

HOW MANY BOOKS DO YOU READ IN A MONTH?

4 to 8

What BoOk changed your life?

It was the first book I read all by myself and it started my life long love of reading.  

~*°ELEVEN°*~

Poe once said because, "...neither can ride a bicycle." I don't know, but this is funny...

*********************

MY QUESTIONS

1. What was the first book you read by yourself?

2. If you changed your first name what would you change it to?

3. Which book character would be your ideal child?

4. What is your favorite breakfast?

5. Dragons or unicorns?

6. Favorite flower?

7. What is your favorite foreign accent?

8. Favorite literary siblings and why?

9. Which is scarier, monsters under the bed or hiding in the cellar?

10. What is your favorite word?

11.What is your favorite season of the year and why?

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

MY NOMINATIONS

1. Samena: http://justalittlebookaddict.blogspot.co.uk/ 

2. Andrew: http://endlesslyreading.wordpress.com/

3. Ginger: http://gingerreader22.blogspot.com/

4. Safie: http://safiemakenfinlay.com/

5. http://dystopian-books.blogspot.com/

Again, if you give it the old college try and you don't find eleven nominees (and someone told me it was originally only nine, hmmm...), but you answer the 22 questions, and promise to add more bloggers as soon as you find them, add your LIEBSTER AWARD button anyway.

Here is the link to GINGER'S 22 answers:  

http://gingerreader22.blogspot.com/2014/06/liebster-blog-award.html?showComment=1403144925453#c3921942112058337229&m=1

TELL ME TUESDAY #TWO

NUMBER DEUX

NOW & NEXT

I WON THE ENSNARED COVER REVEAL EPIC GIVEAWAY GRAND PRIZE!!!!

Yes YES yes, I won an ARC of this pretty baby, right here...

I don't know if it was my reward for putting the odds in my favor by getting in the maximum number of entries, going back and tweeting and sharing everyday, or if it was just plain old luck (there were somewhere around 16,000 entries in total). Whichever it was, I have a tiny ball of light in my heart knowing it is on the way to me in the fall, full of all its twisted Wonderland goodness and AnyElsewhere terrors. 

A tiny ball of light...

When I look at the cover I am like...

But I am most excited about what is on the INSIDE.

And I know I will be devouring all of its dark fairytale deliciousness.

Now that I have secured my Ensnared ARC I won't have to tape a list of bail bondsmen's phone numbers to the back of my bed's headboard. Phew, no felonies need be committed.

*he he*

So now I will be concentrating on securing an ARC for my fellow Skullblogger, and partner in crime,  Brittersweet at Please Feed the Bookworm. I will share my good fortune with her if need be, but we don't quite trust the delivery and postal services, so this would be a last resort. I hope our team work pays off.

Also, not being able to read and discuss the book with her at the same time would be awful...

So if you see me tweeting and sharing more Rafflecopter entries for Ensnared ARCs, please know I am not being greedy, I am looking out for my best blogging buddy, Britter.

I know if we work together we can do this.

ENSNARED will complete A.G. Howard's SPLINTERED trilogy, set in Wonderland.

~*°SPLINTERED *  UNHINGED * ENSNARED°*~