Cover Crazy #64

Hosted by The Book Worms

When I saw the covers for this series I had to do a cover crazy on my favourite three!

The Summer of no Regrets - Katherine Bond
I do like this cover but in some ways I think it's too much like a film cover. 

I love this cover because :
- I really like the pink title, it goes really well with the cover and the summer feeling.
- The colour of the sky is so pretty! I love it =)
-I pretty much like every cover which has the sea and beach in the background. 
-Love that it's the outline of the couple but you can't see their features. Such a cute picture!
- I like the tagline in the top left. 

Dislike :

- I dislike the quote from Deb, not the actual quote but I feel it makes the cover too busy and crowded. 

Being Friends with Boys - Terra Elan McVoy

Such a simple cover but I feel it fits in so well with the title and together they tell you enough about the 'theme' of the book. 

I love this cover because :

- Love the heart in the coffee/tea. It's actually really sweet and tells you without needing to use words that this book will have romance in.
- The title intrigues me as I want to know more about 'being friends with boys' 

Dislike :

- I don't like that the title doesn't have capital letters in it, I actually don't understand it at all. 
- I think the background colour would be nicer if it was more purple ;)

In My Mailbox #44

Moonglass|The Breakaway|Chain Reaction|The Hunt|Envy|Hitler's Angel

Deadly Hemlock|Insurgent|The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight

Hamster Lopedia|The Vampire Blog|The Vampire Hunters

Until I Die|The Vampire Fighters

Thank you
Harper Collins 

Michelle Davidson Argyle
Simon and Schuster
Chicken House
ATOM
Random House

The Time Will Come #64

-

The Time Will Come - 

Every Thursday l am going to list a book which l really want to read/keep meaning to get to. These are mostly books which have been on my shelf for awhile now but don't have to be, maybe you got it two weeks ago and really want to read it! 

~

Want to join in?

- Pick a book you have been meaning to read

- Do a post telling us about the book 

- Link the post up in the linky

- Visit the other blogs!

Sorry haven't had time to do one this week but wanted to see what you guys did for this week! =)

Guest Post : Writing YA By Michelle Harrison

Please welcome Michelle Harrsion to Books for Company!

Thanks for a great guest post Michelle, I am grateful you took some time to write for my blog =)


Writing YA – Michelle Harrison 

When I was in my late teens I had an argument with my mum about a boyfriend. In the interests of swine anonymity I’ll omit the gory details, but the gist of it was this: 

Mum: He’ll break your heart, trust me. I’ve seen his type before, but you won’t listen. You can’t put an old head on young shoulders.

Me: You’ve made your mistakes. Let me make mine.

Unsurprisingly, it was a mistake, but the point is that I made it because I got to make a choice. Being told someone is no good for you is not the same as finding it out for yourself. 

I’ve been trying to pinpoint what it is that compels me to write for and about young people and I think a large part of it is to do with discovery. It’s the age when we start to make decisions, make changes, take chances, take risks. Before we’ve had time to become set in our ways or allowed (or even encouraged) ourselves to grow hardened and cynical; when we’re most open to trying anything – or almost anything – at least once. When we begin to learn that with every action comes a consequence.

What happens to us as a result of these choices and subsequent discoveries starts to shape the person we become and how we see others. There will always be the one you fall for, despite being warned away from them. The friend who betrays your most trusted secret. The person you look up to the most, and then suddenly find isn’t as perfect as you thought they were. Making a mistake once is never a guarantee that you won’t make it again, or that it won’t hurt. However, everything we feel, we usually feel it most intensely when it’s for the first time. Everyone remembers their first love, first kiss, their first bitter taste of heartbreak.

We’re still getting to know ourselves, bit by bit. In a way, we’re like a first draft of a manuscript. Most of the ingredients are there and each chapter unfolds to a new revelation. Some parts we’ll want to change or erase, and others we’ll want to add to or improve on, but there’s no denying that the first draft has a freshness about it. It’s raw and open to possibilities. It’s all this, and how we each deal with situations that come our way, especially for the first time, that draws me to writing for young adults.

So far, all of my books have delved into the supernatural in some way. It was as a teenager that my fascination with the subject began, and I remember reading more than once that supernatural activity tends to be experienced most often by young people, especially adolescents. Is this because of the higher level of thrill seeking and risk-taking, such as the willingness to experiment with ouija boards and similar? Or is it just the case that young people are simply more receptive because they haven’t yet lost the capacity to believe?

My mum told me that you can’t put an old head on young shoulders, and she was right. But why would anyone want to?

Find Michelle

Amazon (UK/USA)

Book Depository

Goodreads

Website

Guest Post : Top Ten by Anna Stothard

Please welcome Anna Stothard to Books for Company!

Thank you Anna for a great guest post, you have included some great villains! 

Top Ten Villains and Anti-heroes

"The very grandest poetry is immoral, the grandest characters wicked," wrote the poet William Blake. From John Milton’s silver-tongued Satan in Paradise Lost to Roald Dahl’s Grand High Witch trapping children in paintings or turning them into rodents, it’s often the villains in literature who capture our imaginations with the tightest grip.

The protagonist of my second novel, The Pink Hotel, is by no means evil, but she’s no angel either. These are some of my favorite villains and antiheroes in literature:


1. The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis
This is the woman responsible for freezing Narnia in perpetual winter, but stopping Christmas from ever coming. Her cronies are ogres and spectres, giant bats, minotaurs and other beings who the author claims to be, “so horrible that if I told you, your parents probably wouldn't let you read this book.” She seduces poor besoted Edmund with Turkish Delight and, in sympathy, I have never eaten a single square of Turkish Delight in my life.

2. Pinkie Brown from Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene
“Heaven was a word: hell was something he could trust,” Greene writes of Pinkie, the sociopathic antihero of Brighton Rock. He has fair hair, scars on his neck, and “grey inhuman seventeen-year-old eyes”. I had nightmares for weeks after readingBrighton Rock, yet there’s something dreamily compelling about this neurotic young gangster.

3. Miss Havisham from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Miss Havisham was my go-to Halloween and fancy dress costume as a kid. I had a moth-eaten white dress, a pair of yellow plastic teeth, and fake-spider webs to go in my hair. In Great Expectations, Dickens describes how Miss Haversham stopped all the clocks in her house at the exact moment she learnt that her fiancé had betrayed her, then uses her beautiful daughter Estelle to exact revenge on the male race. The vengeful old woman repents late in the novel, but she’s still fantastically villainous.

4. Satan from Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Sensitive to beauty and goodness, fiercely ambitious and individualistic yet fatally flawed, Satan is such a spellbinding character that William Blake thought Milton was “of the Devil's party without knowing it”.

5. Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair by Thackerey
Becky is ruthless and dissembling, but boy is she charming. From the moment she flings a dictionary out of her carriage window and announces, “revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural. I’m no angel,” it’s difficult not to be besotted by Thackeray’s anti-heroine.

6. Grenouille from Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Perhaps one of the most uniquely evil and haunting villains in literature, Grenouille doesn’t kill for the thrill of it but to collect the scents belonging to his victims. After 272 pages with this olfactory evil-doer, you’ll find your senses torturously heightened.

7. Mrs Danvers from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Mrs Danvers is a master of psychological warfare, carefully breaking the sanity of du Maurier’s nervous and self-conscious heroine. Mrs Danvers is fiercely loyal to Rebecca, the former mistress of Manderley, and offers only false advice to the current Mrs de Winter. Danvers is so powerful that she almost succeeds in inciting the novel’s heroine to commit suicide. Scary stuff.

8. Iago from Othello by Shakespeare
Cynical and brutal, the key to Iago’s villainy is jealousy. He destroys because he can. “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;/It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock/The meat it feeds on.” But Iago is racked with jealousy first, before he spreads the disease that consumes Othello.

9. The Grand High Witch from The Witches by Roald Dahl
Possibly the most creatively sadistic villain in any children’s book, The Grand High Witch applauds the act of turning children into hot dogs so their parents will eat them. You don’t get much more evil than that.

10. Frederick Clegg from The Collector by John Fowles
Frederick Clegg collects butterflies, carefully pinning their wings into boxes. Then one day he decides to “collect” a woman, hoping that she will learn to love him. Though shards of sympathy are incited for this lonely, delusional man, he shifts from strange and cruel to just plane evil by the end of the novel.

Find Anna

Website

Goodreads

Twitter

Amazon (UK/USA)

Book Depository

Waiting on Wednesday #63

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Bittersweet - Sarah Ockler
Published : 3rd January 2012
Publisher : Simon Pulse
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Sarah Ockler. I read Fixing Delilah and wasn't very impressed. She is a very popular author and I just had much higher exceptions. I didn't give up though and finished the book, it was ok but since then I have been wanting to see if Twenty Boy Summer is any better, then I heard about this book and have been wanting to read it soon. I think it definitely has potential judging by the blurb but for me it will be how it's written and whether I connect with Hudson. 

-
The Blurb :
Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances... a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.
So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life... and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.
It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last..

Paperback or Hardback (#45)

     Unraveling - Elizabeth Norris

>> Hardback 

Paperback </3  >>

I don't really like the HB, it looks like a cover for a film or something instead of for a book. The PB is much better, I think the taglines really keep you wondering what the book is about and promote the book very well. I also just generally prefer the cover.

      Revived - Cat Patrick

<< Hardback <3

Paperback <3  >>-

I really like both of these covers! They both make be intrigued and they are both very unique. The HB is such a strange one I think you will either love it or hate it. The PB is so different from the HB but I love how it's mixed things up with the sky etc. 

          Insurgent - Veronica Roth

<< Hardback 

Paperback  <3 >>

The UK version doesn't go with the divergent cover - I hate that! That aside I do love the PB, first off it's purple(!!) and secondly I love the leaves, they are so pretty! Not too keen on the HB colours but love the symbol. 

Please note, some covers l feature are also in other formats. For example a HB cover is usually also in PB and a PB cover is also sometimes on a HB etc.

Also sometimes the PB may be a UK one and the HB may be USA.

It's just a way to compare covers.

</3 - Meh
<3 - Like

<33 Love

Cover Crazy #63

Hosted by The Book Worms

When I saw the covers for this series I had to do a cover crazy on my favourite three!

Tremble - Addison Moore (#2)
This is my favourite cover out of the three, the extra detail which has been added makes it so easy to love. 

I love this cover because :
- I just LOVE the air bubbles around the butterfly and the effect of the water across the top, it just gives it an extra wow factor.  
- I like the placement of the title and the authors name because they are visible but don't interfere with the picture. 
- I like the different shades of blue used on the butterfly, it's so pretty and the light blue makes it stand out. 

Dislike :

- I don't particularly dislike anything about this cover =)

Burn - Addison Moore (#3)
The picture and bright blue flames definitely make this cover stand out! 

I love this cover because :

- The bright blue flames, they drew my attention straight away!

- Well I am a fan of butterflies and this cover has one so it makes this cover even more likeable for me. 
- I like the bright blue contrasting with the black. 
- Love how it follows the theme of the other covers

Dislike :

- I am not so keen on how the writing appears, I feel it looks unprofessional. Even I could add  that font to this cover. It just hasn't been added carefully enough, the placement is bad too.  

Vex - Addison Moore (#5)
I love this cover so much more than Burn! 

I love this cover because :
- I love how the covers for this series are like a developing picture with the butterfly. 
- I think the placement of the title is definitely much better than most of the others. 
- Really like how the cover sticks to the blue and black colour theme, it definitely benefits the cover. 
- The butterfly is so simple with just one colour but at the same time really pretty! I love the detail added to it. 

Dislike :

- I still wish the authors name was in more interesting font and didn't look like it was just dumped there.

The Time Will Come #63

-

The Time Will Come - 

Every Thursday l am going to list a book which l really want to read/keep meaning to get to. These are mostly books which have been on my shelf for awhile now but don't have to be, maybe you got it two weeks ago and really want to read it! 

~

Want to join in?

- Pick a book you have been meaning to read

- Do a post telling us about the book 

- Link the post up in the linky

- Visit the other blogs!

Silence - Becca Fitzpatrick

I just adore the Hush Hush series, Becca is one of the authors which got me into paranormal books and since I have been a big fan of hers, I owe her a lot for getting me into paranormal!
When I finished Crescendo I was SO SO frustrated with how it ended, I was actually in a mood for days over it as I so wanted to know what would happen! Sadly since I have kind of .. forgotten what happened in Crescendo (like about the characters etc) I don't feel as excited any more. I think I have been putting this one off for a while as I want to read Crescendo first so I can properly enjoy Silence instead of spending half the time trying to remember what happened in the previous book. 

The Blurb

The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.

Waiting on Wednesday #62

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Something Like Normal - Trish Dollar
Published : 19th June 2012
Publisher : Bloomsbury USA
I really love the sound of this! I really like the sound of Travis being a solider and returning home after being away to find a lot has changed. I can image that's hard to deal with,especially when your family has fallen apart. I think it will be interesting to see how Travis deals with it all while at the same time dealing with what happened in Afghanistan. I hope Travis and Harper is a gradual thing and the story has a lot more to it than just a romance (which it sounds like it does, hence me wanting to read it! ;])

-
The Blurb :
When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

Paperback or Hardback (#44)

     Pure - Julianna Baggott

>> Hardback <3

Paperback  >>

These covers seem to represent totally different sort of books. I do prefer the HB, I love the blue butterfly and it's one of the covers which really mess with your mind. The PB is so dull! I do like the font of the title but it's actually quite hard to see the title!

   Starters - Lissaa Price

<< Hardback 

Paperback <3  >>-

Not a lot of difference, I know, but I want to show how much difference just one small thing can make! I so so prefer the PB. The title on the HB covers looks very computer graphics and really doesn't suit the cover. The title in the PB looks much 'neater' and suits the cover so much more. 

          The Other Life - Susanne Winnacker

<< Hardback 

Paperback  </3 >>

These covers also seem to represent totally different books. I would never pick up the HB, it looks like an old fashioned childrens book (sorry!). The PB is quite pretty, I like the red butterfly! 

Please note, some covers l feature are also in other formats. For example a HB cover is usually also in PB and a PB cover is also sometimes on a HB etc.

Also sometimes the PB may be a UK one and the HB may be USA.

It's just a way to compare covers.

</3 - Meh
<3 - Like

<33 Love

Giveaway - The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (USA)

Thank you SO much to Harlequin Teen for providing a copy for me to giveaway.

US Only

Sorry but Harlequin is sending this out!

~

Rules :

The winner will win a hardback copy of The Immortal Rules

Ends 27th April

Fill out Rafflecopter (Below)

Buy The Immortal Rules

Amazon (UK/USA)

Book Depository

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover Crazy #62

Hosted by The Book Worms

Entangled - Nikki Jefford
I just love this cover! Pretty much love everything about it, it stands out so much!

I love this cover because :

- I love all the white and sparkles. White is usually such a plain colour but this cover makes white look so pretty!

- I love snow therefore love this cover.
- I really like the font used for the title and the pattern around it. 
- Even though the girl is posing it isn't an annoying pose.
- I wonder what the rose is about? I think it looks really pretty and adds to the cover.

Dislike :

- Not that keen on the colour used for the title, it's too bold compared to the rest of the cover.

  Lonely Souls - Karice Bolton
There's something about this cover, it almost feels like a delicate sort of picture but also spooky.

I love this cover because :
- The girls pose is a strange one, how she isn't and almost won't look at the camera.
- LOVE the cobweb! I didn't see it to begin with. Definitely adds to the cover and is so unique.
- Really like the font of the title, definitely suits the cover =)
- Liking the contrast between the black picture and the white font 
- I love all the little added details like the butterfly and the red thing (Not sure what it is)

Dislike :

- Not too sure about the font used for the authors name and feel it would look better under the title?

The Time Will Come #62

-

The Time Will Come - 

Every Thursday l am going to list a book which l really want to read/keep meaning to get to. These are mostly books which have been on my shelf for awhile now but don't have to be, maybe you got it two weeks ago and really want to read it! 

~

Want to join in?

- Pick a book you have been meaning to read

- Do a post telling us about the book 

- Link the post up in the linky

- Visit the other blogs!

Wither - Lauren DeStefano

I have been hoping to read this one for ages, it's exactly the sort of book which I am enjoying lately, I love them! I think it sounds awesome and when I got Fever through the post it gave me another push to read it. Sadly tour books and borrowed books have to be read before though so Wither's time hasn't yet come!
I am quite worried that by the time I get to this one I'm not going to be as into dystopia as I am right now, I hope this isn't the case though and I doubt it. Everyone loves a bit of dystopia and for me it's something I can't get enough of because dystopia covers so many different topics and subject. 

The Blurb

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Waiting on Wednesdays (#61)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I know this one is out but it deserves a WoW post!

Double - Jenny Valentine
Published : 21st February 2012/ 5th August 2010
Publisher : Hyperion Books for Children/ Harper Collins
I know this is another one which is already out but I think it sounds awesome! I love the idea of someone having to go into a family and pretend to be a member of their family. When I visit my friends houses I always find it interesting how different every family is in every single way. I just hope this involves a strong character who I can connect with pretty much straight away. I can imagine this storyline going in lots of different directions and does explore the different things it says in the blurb ; betrayal, dark secrets and loss. 

-
The Blurb :
When the sixteen-year-old runaway Chap is mistaken for a missing boy named Cassiel, his life changes dramatically. Chap takes on Cassiel's identity, gaining the family and friends he's always dreamed of having. But becoming someone else isn't as easy as he hoped--and Chap isn't the only one hiding a secret. As he teeters on the brink of discovery and begins to unravel the mystery behind Cassiel's disappearance, Chap realizes that he's in much deeper danger than he could have imagined.
After all, you can't just steal a life and expect to get away with it.
Award-winning author Jenny Valentine delivers an explosive mystery where dark secrets, betrayal, and loss pave the way for one teen's chance at redemption.

Paperback or Hardback (#43)

    Prized - Caragh M.O'Brien

>> Hardback 

Paperback <3 >>

I really don't like the HB. I just don't understand it. I haven't read this series but from reading the blurb of the 1st in the series I don't see how the HB has anything to do with the story. The PB stands out a lot more with the bright colours and I love how it 'follows on' from the previous cover in the series. 

   Shine - Jeri Smith Ready

<< Hardback <3

Paperback  >>-

I definitely choose the hardback for this one. I don't like most covers which have faces in and I don't think the PB stands out enough. The HB is much more unique and I love how much information it provides you with without even needing to read the blurb.

        The Way We Fall - Megan Crewe

<< Hardback 

Paperback  </3 >>

These are both strange sort of covers and although I think the HB stands out with the bold title I don't think it keeps my attention enough to want to read the blurb. Whereas with the PB it probably wouldn't grab my attention but when it had it intrigues me. 

Please note, some covers l feature are also in other formats. For example a HB cover is usually also in PB and a PB cover is also sometimes on a HB etc.

Also sometimes the PB may be a UK one and the HB may be USA.

It's just a way to compare covers.

</3 - Meh
<3 - Like

<33 Love