OfficiallyM.R.S.

Annie Dillard Love

2010-09-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

I've recently been branching out in my reading habits as of late. This means that I've been reading books outside of the YA genre, which is a GOOD thing. A really good thing, actually. Having a broad spectrum of genres and authors that you read is going to make you a better, more informed writer, and reader for that matter.

One of my favorites lately has been Annie Dillard. Honestly, I think she is simply fantastic. She writes a lot of memoir based pieces. Memoirs are what I enjoy writing the most, and so I am very interested in both the genre and in what she has to say. Her imagery is beautiful and her purpose is clear, poignant and thought-provoking. If you're looking for a good short story to pick up and read in just five or so minutes, I would definitely recommend Transfiguration, also known as the moth essay, a truly beautiful piece of hers that talks about writing by way of a very cool and captivating metaphor.

Promises, Promises

2010-09-20T17:45:00.001-07:00

I have learned something recently about myself. About this blog.

I keep making promises I cannot keep. Not that I don't love blogging, love reading and love writing. I just love the idea of me getting into college more. I've read a ton of ARCs lately, some that I loved, some that I loved less. For example, I absolutely loved Cassandra Clare's new book that I read in July. I only have two critisms: 1) the characters seemed a little too much like their ancenstors, Clary and Jace, among others. 2) The back cover wasn't exactly a correct description of the book. Less love triangle, less love in general, actually. The plot moved the book, not necesarily the relationships, like in Cassandra's other books.

I adored Holly Black's WHITE CAT. I read it in a day, locked in my room over spring break.

I couldn't get through THE MARK. I just couldn't help but feel like I'd read it before. A few times, actually.

And that's just naming a few of the many oboks that I read and loved over the summmer.

So here's what I have to say about my promises: there are none. My post will be sporatic. I'm just trying to get through my junior year. But I've also decided that this blog is not something I want to give up. I love the YA community, and I love the stories that I read.

In other news:

I'm starting a lit club at my school. It'll consist of writing, a little bit of reading, editing and submission to publications. It will mainly be short stories. Do you guys have any ideas about formats, great creative writing or fun editing activities? I want to hear!

More to come,

Mary

It has been far too long

2010-06-08T20:06:00.001-07:00

I feel so incredibly guilty for not posting in such a long time, but unfortunately, my schoolwork comes first. However, I have been reading and I have a ton to review on. So.. how would you all feel about a video blog sometime this week on all the books I have missed? Yes? No?
As a side note:
I am participating in Relay For Life this coming Friday. Relay for Life, for those of you who don't know, is the signature fundraiser of the National Cancer Society. NCS is a fantastic cause and I am so excited to be participating in such a meaningful and powerful event. Cancer has affected so many different people in my life, and in many others' lifes as well so this is a very special thing for me to be doing. So far, I have raised $190 and am still recieving donations. If you would like to sponsor me, comment with your email address and I can send you the email required to donate. Even just five dollars makes a difference.

I'll be signing on again soon. :)
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

HELP!!!

2010-03-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

So guys, I know I haven't posted in a while, I've been reading, just the writing part hasn't exactly gotten done. (Soon! I promise!) But I need all of your help! I am leaving for Mexico in the morning and I have a huge stack of books and not enough room in my bag (or time to read all of them in a week). SO... of the list below, which books should I bring?!!?! SOS!!!
The Timekeeper's Moon by Joni Sensel (Bloomsbury, March 2010)
Girlfriend Material by Melisa Kantor (Disney Hyperion, May 2009)
The Mark by Jen Nadol (February, 2010)
White Cat by Holly Black (May, 2010)
The Naughty List by Suzanne Young (February, 2010)
Morpheus Road: The Light by D.J. MacHale (April, 2010)
Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson (May, 2010)
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Please comment!!!
Thanks,
OfficiallyMRS

Valentine's Day Contest

2010-02-03T17:06:00.001-08:00

If you were to look up Valentine's Day on Wikipedia, this is what you would find.
Saint Valentine's Day (commonly simply Valentine's Day) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, hen the tradition of courtly love flourished.

ModernValentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass produced greeting cards, and Valentine's Day has become the second-largest greeting card-sending holiday in the United States, behind only Christmas.

Interesting, right? And I mean, what an awesome day! When you get to celebrate everyone and everything you love! With all of this hate and sadness in the world, how fabulous is it that we get to say, "you know what, despite it all, I love you"? It should be something that happens everyday, but somehow it seems limited to February 14th.

So to celebrate this day of giving what we love to those people who mean most to us, whether they be a boyfriend, hubby, child, cousin, best friend, frien-enemy or some random person you meet on the street, my friend Venessa from Simon and Schuster and I are hosting a contest!!! In place of a box of chocolates or a card, we've decided to give what we love the most (books, that is. What else?!) to you!

The books that you can win are...

STUPID CUPID by Rhonda Stapleton

WHAT WOULD EMMA DO by Eileen Cook

PERFECT YOU by Elizabeth Scott

KISSED BY AN ANGEL by Elizabeth Chandler

PERFECT SHOT by Debbie Rigaud

All of these books are ones that I either LOVED or heard great things about!!!

How to enter:

Simply comment on this post with your email address and one person, thing, book, activity, animal, ect. that you love by February 21st (one week after Valentine's Day). The first winner will be able to choose out of the five, then the second winner out of the four that are left, ect. until they are gone!!! This contest is open to those living in the United States only!

Don't forget to SPREAD THE LOVE by chatting about this post on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, ect.!!!

Happy Valentine's Day,

OfficiallyMRS

And the winner is....

2010-01-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

And the winner of the signed copy of Melissa De La Cruz's BLUE BLOODS book is

Leigh!!!

Congratulations!! I've sent you an email!
Thanks to everyone who entered!!!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves ARC Review

2010-01-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

So you guys remember how I am freaking obsessed with ARC copies? How I like knowing stuff before everyone else? You want to know what is better than an ARC copy?
An ARC with a story behind it.
While sending out emails to different publishers and authors about ARCs, I came upon Dia's book and immediately sent out an email to her.... requesting someone else's book. I was so embarrassed and immediately sent her an email explaining my add and complete lack of organization. Sorry about that Dia!!!

When I did get her book, I opened the envelope and stared at the sexy, beautiful and extremely purple cover.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, 1/5/10, Simon and Schuster

Love can be a dangerous thing. Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head
plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet
stuffed with frilly violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the
weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas, in search of a new
home. But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a
place for herself, she discovers the dark secrets that would terrify any normal
soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an
even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one
is safe.

From page one, I was fascinated by the beautiful and unique writing style, the strong sense of character, both from the main character, Hanna and her mother Rosalee. Add to it Hanna's hallucinations, a product of her maniac depression, and the strange town of Portero, Texas, and I could not put the book down.
People say that the difference between writing fantasy and writing real-life fiction can be defined by two questions. When an author chooses to write fantasy, the question the characters are trying to answer is what am I?
When writing fiction, they ask who am I?

"'I'm Finnish. And American. And white and black. And neither thing
excludes the other, regardless of what you've been taught to believe
(100).'"

While reading Dia's book, I found that both of these questions played a significant role as Hanna tries to cope with her mental instability, finding a place within this strange town, race, and unresolved family problems while also learning about the monsters that reside in Portero and how to become one of the Porterenes who have learned to live with and destroy them.

"'Because I'm biracial. People look at me and can't figure me out, so they
ask, 'What are you?' Like I', a whole other species. But you... are you
another species (97)?'"

Another thing I absolutely loved about BLEEDING VIOLET is that Hanna is a very strong character, and although she does have a tendency to vomit when under stress, she doesn't underestimate herself. As she says herself, she doesn't need a boy to take care of her, a fact which I don't think many teenage girls grasp. That being said, she does make mistakes, like any teenager. She isn't perfect by any definition, but she knows who she is and learns to deal with the consequences of her actions.
The subtle and gentle blend of the two questions is what makes BLEEDING VIOLET a unique and incredibly beautiful masterpiece. Although the book was a little gory for my taste, it had a perfect blend of romance, self-discovery, fantasy, and southern atmosphere, making it a book that is not to be missed. I loved it.
BLEEDING VIOLET is on sale January 5th, 2010. You can learn more about Dia Reeves by going to her website or following her on twitter.
Thank you Dia for the great read (and being cool with the whole I-emailed-you-about-someone-else's-book thing).
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Magic Under Glass by Jackie Dolamore

2009-12-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

"Still, if I had a purpose, surely it must be to save Erris, and even Hollin himself. I had come to Lorinar to seek my fortune, but in four years, I had found nothing like fortune. I might as well have stayed in Tiansher if my life was to be an endless round of seedy halls and pennies for pay, watching the songs of my country lose their potency as they toughed indifferent ears. This was my chance to be something more, my chance to act."
-MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore
Bloomsbury, December 22nd, 2009
Nimira is a music-hall girl sed to dancing for pennies. So when wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing accompaniment to a mysterious piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it will be the start of a better life. In Parry's world, long-burried secrets are about to stir. Unsettling rumors begin to swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. When Nimira discovers that the spirit of a dashing fairy gentleman is trapped within the automaton, she is determined to break the curse. But even as the two fall into a love that seems hopeless, breaking the curse becomes a perilous race against time. Because it's not just the future of these star-crossed lovers that's at stake, but the fate of the entire magical world.

After being intrigued by the cover art, I contacted Bloomsbury books, who graciously sent me a review copy of MAGIC UNDER GLASS. When I recieved the book and read the back cover (above), I immediately put down whatever I was reading, pushed my homework aside and started in on this story.
However, when I continued to read, I found myself slightly disapointed. I am not going to say that I didn't enjoy this book. That would be a lie. I very much enjoyed it. The fact of the matter is that I found that I was not able to relate to anything going on in the main character, Nimira's, life, something that I find very important when writing fantasy.
The writing itself of the story added to this idea as well. Although extraordinarily beautiful and classic, the writing felt so remote to the world today that the characters and story felt even more distant.
That is not to say that I didn't love the writing style. Even though I felt it did make the story more remote, the words themselves added depth and detail to the story, making the fictional world in which the story took place to become unique, full and complete. The writing style also drove the story along. Sometimes, I felt as if the writing was a plot point in itself, something I have never before seen. Props to Jaclyn on making the book so beautiful in this regard.
The story itself was intriguing and unique. First off, the love interest, Erris, isn't even human. And when I say he isn't human, I don't mean he is a vampire or a werewolf or some other creature that children run from screaming. I mean he isn't alive. He is an object called an automaton, or a clockwork man. You know those little wind-up toys that you get as a kid that make wierd noises and jump around on the table? Yeah, Nimira falls in love with one of those, except there is someone trapped inside of it, who communicates with Nimira through a piano.
Another layer to the plot is the goings on in the house itself. Between Hollin, the master of the house, the crazy lady who roams the halls and the dynamic casts of maids, you are never bored even though 75 percent of the story takes place in the same Beauty and the Beast like castle. Not to mention the characters who don't live in the Hollin mainsion, such as the antagonist, the sorcerer Smollings.
The book itself was a quick read with a plot that wasn't at all repetitive or overdone in YA. A breath of fresh air, if you will. I was intrigued until the very end, and, although I am not compelled to read it over and over again, it was still a book worth reading.

Thank you Jaclyn for sharing your story with me and the rest of the world. Also, thank you Bloomsbury for sending me this ARC!

If you all haven't entered the contest to win a signed copy of Melissa De La Cruz's BLUE BLOODS, please do so! The link is posted in the contest box above this post. Also, I hope all of you guys have a safe and happy holiday!!!

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Randomness (featuring a scene from my NaNo project!!!)

2009-12-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in almost two weeks and I would completely understand if you guys hated me at this point. I hope you don't, but you know, it would be understandable.

So as a "thank-you-guys-for-continuing-to-read-I-love-you-all-so-much," I am posting a scene from my NaNo book. That would be the reason why I was gone, by the way! I was writing!

And reading! I have received more Advanced Reader's Copies than I can handle, so as I make my way through a ridiculous amount of Tenners books, I give you this. All you need to know is that Kenza is a witch/princess who's run away from home and she is kind of horrible with 'chore' magic- ie. cleaning your room with magic, ect. Segori is her best friend and they are about to go to a party together. Felix is Segori's brother.

I hope you guys like it!!! I am going to try to do a super special VLOG post soon with all of the ARCs/books I haven't reviewed yet, just to spice it up a bit. What do ya'll think?

Also, if you haven't entered my contest to win a signed copy of Melissa De La Cruz's BLUE BLOODS, you should. Those books are awesome.

Okay, scene time!!! Hope you all like it!

Kenza stood in her kitchen, panicking as she sloshed around in the rapidly growing pool of water at her feet. The dog stood in her kitchen sink, covered in bubbles and shaking with cold, its hair hanging like a mop over its eyes. It was pretty pathetic looking, Kenza thought, as she picked up the whimpering creature and wrapped him in her arms, trying as much as possible to dry him with her already sopping wet sweatshirt.
"It's okay! Shhh... see? You're fine? You're fine? See? You're all clean now?" Kenza was just wishing she could say the same about her completely flooded kitchen when the phone rang. Skidding across the slippery floor, dog in hand, Kenza caught it (as well as her balance) on the third ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey, hun, where are you?"
"At my house," Kenza said in a slow voice as if talking to a dumb child. Where else would she be? Segori had just called her on her home phone, home being the operative word in the sentence.
"Oh, yeah, right. Dumb blonde moment," well, it would have been, Kenza thought, if Segori didn’t have pitch black hair.
"Anyways, what's up?" "Um.. that's what I was calling to ask you, hun. It's sevenish. Where are you, babe? I thought we were going to pick out something for you to wear?" Her voice adopted a shrill, annoying, whinny tone with her last words, like a baby crying for candy.
"I don't think that it's gonna work out," Kenza said with hesitation, holding the wet dog close to her and staring around at her kitchen. It look like a tsunami had just flooded it and a steady stream of water was still running uncontrollably from her tap.
"Why not?"
"Because my kitchen is a wreck."
"Well, can we fix it later? You worry waayy too much, Kenz."
"Uh, actually, no, I don't think I can. You see, it is currently in the process of.. um.. flooding. I can't stop this cleaning spell that I learned in home ed and I don't--" Kenza was starting to panic, her voice rising higher with the water levels in her kitchen.
"Okay, hun, listen to me. I am sending Felix over right now. He is super good at stuff like this. He'll fix it and then we can go out on the town, kay?
"Yeah," Kenza said, still in too much shock from her dog wash gone wrong to say much more.
Okay, well then, I'll see you in an hour or so." The phone went dead. Dropping it back onto the receiver, Kenza slid to the floor against the wall, careful not to squish the puppy she had clutched to her chest, to wait for help to arrive, giving up all attempts to salvage the situation on her own. Every spell she had tried only seemed to make things worse. She was better off just sitting there, thinking about the aneurism her landlord was going to have if Felix didn't get there soon. Kenza was a strong girl, but from how her current situation was looking, she was a damsel in distress when it came to home-ed magic.
It seemed like forever and a day before Felix got to her house to save her from herself. When the doorbell rang, Kenza pushed herself clumsily off the floor, almost falling on the slippery surface and cautiously made it towards the door.
“Holy…” Felix said with a laugh of astonishment as Kenza opened the door. He immediately rushed over to the tap, his balance and coordination clearly much superior to Kenza’s, allowing him to walk with a fair amount of ease over the slick floors. Sparks began to fly from his hands, sending what looked like multi-colored glitter around the room, curling around the faucet and every other orifice from which water was pouring out of. With a loud click! the sound of rushing of water stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Felix stared at the tap, as if making a peace agreement with it, and then, once it looked as if all was calm, he turned to her and leaned back on his hands against the countertop.
“How in the hell did you do that?” he said. Kenza shook with cold, holding her dog that was also shaking, more out of fear than anything else.
“I—I have absolutely no idea,” she laughed breathily, sitting back down on the floor with exhaustion. Pushing off from the counter, Felix surprised Kenza yet again by coming to sit next to her. “I tried to do a cleaning spell to give the rat a bath and—“
“Wait,” Felix interrupted, turning to her and giving her that look again, the one where he raised on eyebrow and smiled at her like she was an idiot. “Why were you giving a rat a bath?”
“Oh, well, he isn’t actually a rat,” she said, untucking the shaking creature from her sweatshirt and offering him to Felix. “He’s a dog. Charlie and I found him when we were walking home from blahdy blahdy blah blah café. He kind of forced him upon me.”
“Oh, the horror,” Felix said, his voice anything but horrified, disentangling the puppy from Kenza’s hands and holding it to his chest, scratching him affectionately behind his ears. “A killer puppy.”
“Well, he did do quite a lot of damage here…” Kenza said, her voice drifting off, indicating the glistening wet countertops and large amounts of water that covered almost every surface in her kitchen, including but not limited to her ceiling.
“Well, technically, Kenz, you did the damage,” he said, still holding the shaking dog close to him. It surprised Kenza that he used the nickname that Segori and Charlie often called her. She liked it more than she should.
“Technically. It was still the rats fault.”
“I don’t get why you call him the rat. He’s pretty cute, actually. Look at that tiny face. I am assuming he doesn’t have a name?” Name? Kenza was suppose to name the thing? She was happy with just calling it the rat forever. It wasn’t like she was actually going to keep him. “I was just going to stick with rat.” “That’s not a very nice name.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly planning on keeping him.”
“Why not?” “Um.. I am not really a dog person, you know?” The dog chose that exact moment to jump from Felix’s arms, shake out as much of the water as he could from his soaking fur and ran around in a circle before running over to Kenza and curling into her lap, falling asleep after only a few seconds. If Kenza didn’t know any better, she would have thought the little thing had known just what she was saying. She also would have thought that the dog knew exactly what he needed to do to wrap Kenza around his little finger.
“Well, you seem like a dog person to me,” Felix said, laughing, petting the sleeping dog gently on the top of his round head. She had to admit, he was pretty cute. The dog, that is. Not Felix.
“Okay, enough puppy love. We need to get this cleaned up before your sister calls screaming at me for not getting over to your house for a makeover soon enough.”
“No, you’re right. We wouldn’t want to release her wrath,” Felix said, smiling, launching himself from the floor in one graceful movement before offering his hand out to Kenza.
“Thanks,” she muttered, as she took his hand and pulled her up from the wet ground, leaving the dog to his rest on the floor. Dropping his hand, Kenza lifted her palms and focused on both maintaining her appearance spell and drawing the cleaning spell to the front of her mind. Water rose from the ground in spirals, and just when she thought it was working, exploded into the even farther depths of her house. Whatever parts of her and her house that were not wet before, certainly were now. Laughing, she turned to Felix. He was completely soaked, his blonde hair falling over the front of his face, but somehow, he was laughing too.
“Holy… That was impressively horrible,” he chuckled, pushing his wet hair from his eyes.
“I seem to be getting a reputation for that lately,” Kenza said, embarrassed. She wasn’t exactly keen on making a fool of herself in front of Felix, but at this point Kenza had just given up. Embarassment seemed to follow her wherever she went now that she had left the palace. “It’s kind of embarrassing.” “Don’t worry about it. Screw ups are part of being a teenager,” he laughed and raised his palms, and as before, all of the water that had covered the liquid covered surfaces withdrew from wherever they lay and hung in the air. Felix snapped and the water disappeared with it.
“Then how come you never do?” Kenza blurted out before she could stop herself. He turned to her and looked straight into her eyes, making her heart jump. His expression, although quizzical, still retained its amused demeanor.
“If you think I never screw up, then you don’t know me at all,” he smiled at her, but his voice as dead serious.
“Uh… sorry. That was a really awkward thing of me to say. It just kind of came out. I’ve just never seen you make an idiot of yourself before, is all,” she said, desperately trying to backpedal through this conversation, making things even more awkward than before.
“I can tell you one thing though, you will see me screw up if I don’t get you over to our place before my sister goes insane.” Kenza murmured her assent, and, wrapping the dog in the blanket from her bed and setting him their to sleep, she headed out the door with Felix, locking the deadbolt behind her.

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

NaNo is over...

2009-12-01T15:48:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
As you may have noticed, November is over. And, by looking at the widget above, you may have noticed that I didn't finish my novel in the month of November. After starting out with so much enthusiasm for my project, my attitude that writing 1667 words a day wouldn't be that hard, I didn't reach my goal.
Last night as I was going to bed knowing that I would wake up in the morning and my word count would be set, I was thinking about my month. About whether or not I had failed. I kept asking myself the same question. Are you disappointed in yourself?
My answer every time was, No.
I may not have made it to fifty thousand words but in the month of November, I accomplished so much more. I visited a foreign country, got awesome grades, made a friendship that I hope will last a lifetime, figured out how to do my hair so it doesn't look like a bomb went off in the morning, got along with someone who I never thought I could ever get along with and had an amazing Thanksgiving with my family. I grew as a person this November. And, even though I didn't finish, I grew as a writer. I found out what I was capable of.
I realized that I can do anything I want to if I set my mind to it.
And I am proud of every single one of my 37,451 words. I fell in love with my characters and found out how hard and rewarding writing is. How incredibly personal it is. How much of yourself you give away when you write and when you read, how much you find out about the person who put the pen to paper. It made reading a personal thing for me. I found out more about myself and how I've changed throughout my life in this one month that I think I have in my entire life.
So am I disappointed that I didn't finish my NaNoWriMo?
Absolutely not.
I know that I will finish my novel. I also know that the most likely situation is that no one but myself and a few friends will end up reading it.
I know it was worth writing it anyways.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

I Am The Other Side Of The Quarter, My Friend

2009-11-18T20:25:00.001-08:00

For English this year, we've had to do a lot of writing of short stories. I thought I might share one with you. I may not have the right perspective for this story because I am still in high school, but whatever. I like it. Also, the formatting may not have kept as well as I would have liked when I copied it from my word doc. into blogger, so sorry if you get confused by lack of italics, ect.
I am slightly hesitant about doing this, but what the helk. Maybe someone will end up liking it.
All writing in this post is mine and by me saying this, you cannot say that it is your own.

I Am the Other Side of That Quarter, My Friend

By Mary (OfficiallyMRS)

You will always remember your first boyfriend. Well, at least, a girl will. She may not remember his name and his looks will probably become distorted with time. He could become outrageously beautiful with the years (or hideous, depending on the type, length, consequences, etcetera of said relationship with former significant other). They will become so different from the reality of your present and past situations that when you meet them again after those many, many years of silence, at your twentieth reunion, let’s say, you won’t recognize him.
I didn’t.
“Lizzie!” he called over the dull roar of the now legally intoxicated people around me. Some of them were clearly trying to relive the glory years, when you felt invincible and cocky enough to down those three tequila shots and not feel like you got hit by a 16-wheeler the next morning. I turned to look at him. Anxious, I indulged in my nervous habit, digging out the nonexistent dirt from underneath my thumbnail, the one measly that the time elapsed between 1986 had not erased. It had however, erased my unyielding metabolism, ability to stay awake until four A.M., and acne (the final of which I had no problem at all parting with).
I stared at him, the boy who, at the time, I had though had single handedly ruined my high school experience. He stood there, dressed to the nines, still handsome but in a very different way than he had been in those four years that I had known him and the few months where I had known him entirely too well. Much more debonair.
I would not have recognized him if it weren’t for his voice. The blonde curls that I remembered to have been scattered in overwhelming amounts all over his head had thinned, fading into a clean but graying buzz cut. I wondered when he had cut it.
Through the packed and numerous bodies that pressed around us, a familiar looking girl pressed her tiny frame into the gaps, wedging a path towards us. Before I could respond to the boy I knew so well and the man I didn’t know at all, she was standing next to us, balancing and bouncing in a seemingly random rhythm, as if she were a five year old enrolled in her first ballet class. The way she hung her arm possessively, albeit drunkenly, around his neck, you could tell that they were together.
A warning to the general public. Unlike those boys who you will always remember but probably won’t recognize a decade or two from now, you will remember those girls. They could have been your best friends.
Or, like Sarah, they could have been a backstabbing, boyfriend-stealing little bitch.
Either way, you will remember them more than you will remember anything else about high school. They are the ones who make it all interesting.
They are also the ones who make it a living hell, but as teenagers, we look over that. Not that we really have a choice in the matter, but we do.
And with the two people whom I had tried to forget in the twenty so years that had passed standing in front of me, I relieved that day, in that place, with the hundred of people whom I had once known pressed into this tiny shoebox of a room around me.

January 1985
I sat there, in the booth that was secluded in the corner, probably used for people going on dates most of the time, flicking bottle caps with my index and forefinger so that they spun in circles so fast you couldn’t seem them at all. I was alone and perfectly content. I mean, sure, I would have loved it if my friends could have, you know, invited me to do something on a Saturday night, but friends these days were few and far between. Oh the terrors of high school.
Apparently, the freaking social stratosphere had rules. If you want to climb it, you date someone who is one or two levels above you. It was rare for anyone to jump way out of their league, but it has been know to happen on several occasions throughout history.
On the other side of that quarter was the fact that if you were dumped by said significant other, you plummeted like a fallen angel and unless you found some generous soul to risk being dragged down with you to reach out their hand and catch your fall, you were pretty much screwed.
Three guesses what had happened to me.
And for a while I just thought that it would take time for someone to catch me. But no. Apparently the drop is a steep one. If no one catches you within the first few seconds of descent you are not going to make it. You become a terminal case.
Huh. I wonder why no one picked me out of the rubbish pile. I was a decent person, wasn’t I? I thought as I silenced the bottle cap on the table and got out of the seat to go to the bathroom. I wandered around the large restaurant looking for it, too shy to ask anyone where it is, choosing to look like a fool instead.
“It’s over to your right, down that sketchy little corridor. Don’t go towards the light.” A familiar voice echoed from the booth two rows up from where I was standing trying to subtly find where the restroom was but apparently failing epically. Or maybe it was because he knew me entirely too well.
“Crrappp,” I whispered to myself under my breath. Seriously? Seriously? For the love of all that is holy, how could this possibly be happening to me? I turned, trying to sneak back to my table to pretend like I didn’t just hear him. But who was I kidding? No flipping way would I get it out of it that easy. The freaking universe was against me.
“Lizzie!!” he called over to me, and a few people turned to him to give him reproachful looks because, honestly, he was being really loud and obnoxious about the whole thing.
“Shoot me.” I said to myself, as I forced a smile onto my face and turned around to stare at the guy who had shoved me off of the social latter and let me fall into the fiery pits below without a second glance. Who I hadn’t even had time to get over yet.
And to make things that much more fun for me, my former best friend was sitting on the other side of the booth from him, heavily made up, her make up alone just asking for it, with an expression of horror and guilt on her face. Sarah gave me this look like, “Lizzie, please forgive me!! I love you!!”
And I stared back with defiance and stood my ground and help my stupid, idiotic smile in place for Chris’ sake and she knew me well enough to know that this meant I wouldn’t forgive her. Why should I? Not only had she abandoned me in my time of need but also she hadn’t done a freaking thing to try and help me out. And now that I think of it, Chris had probably been two-timing me with the little rat for a while now. She could just have fun with my cast off boyfriends and do whatever the hell she pleased. Not that I cared.
Okay, I cared. What girl wouldn’t?
And technically, I was his cast off. Not the other way around.
Technically. I would have dumped him anyways.
Probably.
Completely desperate to get myself out of there, I whipped my phone out of my pocket, even though it didn’t ring and had a pretend conversation with my mother, incorporating overdramatic facial expressions that clearly indicated that there had been some sort of family emergency, like my uncle Bobby was dying, and I had to go right that second or I wouldn’t get to say goodbye to Bobby before he kicked the bucket. Not hanging up on my imaginary-mother, I plucked a few bucks out of my jean pocket and placed it on the table, picked up a fry from my completely untouched plate and ran out the door. When in doubt, avoid conflict. That had always been my rule to live by, especially in high school.
After I was far enough away from the restaurant for there to be no chance whatsoever that they would see me, I tucked the phone away without another word to my imaginary friends.
A few minutes later, as I was shoving my boots off at my front door, my phone did ring, this time with a real text from a real person. Someone who I wasn’t exactly keen on talking to.
Three guesses who.
FROM: Chris
Wat happened back there? Is everything ok?
FROM: Lizzie
My Uncle Bobby had a heart attack. I have to go see him in the hospital.
FROM: Chris
Is he going 2 b ok?
FROM: Lizzie
Mayb
Uncle Bobby would be fine, considering he wasn’t real.
FROM: Chris
Come over l8tr if u need 2 talk.

Talking. Right. Perfect. I would be sure to do that. NOT. Idiot, I thought. Did he really think I was that stupid???
I didn’t respond, just like I wouldn’t respond to Sarah’s texts of apology later or anything that anyone said at school about how much they loved me and the break up was horrible and OMG?! Is your uncle Bobby okay?
I would get over it. I would get over him. Over Sarah. Over the social stratosphere. Eventually.
Maybe.

Looking back on it, I don’t know if I ever got over the boy who was standing in front of me. Can a girl really get over her first boyfriend? Like her first best friend, he will always be around in the corners of her mind, even if a few layers of dust and cobwebs cover him up, like a lost and forgotten childhood toy.
“I go by Elizabeth now,” I said, forcing a smile at Chris and Sarah.
“You will always be my Lizzie,” he said, doing that little half-grin that he always did, usually when he wanted something.
“No!” Sarah said with a drunken giggle. “She’s mmmmmyyyyy Lizzie!!!”
A lot of things had changed since high school. And a lot of things hadn’t. I had grown up, got a job, continued to act like a bitch sometimes, learned how to balance a check book, learned how to balance a love life, reserved to continue to act like a seventeen year old on very special occasions, learned to say no, learned when to say yes, and probably most significant, got a freaking backbone. If everything in that room was uncertain, every horrible and wonderful experience I had had in high school hanging in the hot and overused air between these people whom I had shared them with, one thing was not.
“I am not your, either of yours’, Lizzie,” I replied with a cool and calm intensity. By the look on their faces, I would say they got the message.
And instead of pretending like my Aunt Jenny was dying, I simply dialed a cab and had them come pick me up from this hellhole. I would get over my high school years, over Sarah and over Chris and everything that had happened between us.
Eventually. Maybe.

Win a signed copy of Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

2009-11-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

You can read my interview and review of her newest book, THE VAN ALEN LEGACY, with Melissa here.

I posted this contest on the Halloween post, but because I don't think a lot of people saw it, just putting this as its own post. All entries, no matter what post you commented on, will be counted!!!

I have decided to post another contest. This time, it is for a signed copy of Melissa's book, BLUE BLOODS, the first in the series!
To enter, please comment with your email address and answer the question, what were you for halloween?
You will recieve 1 extra entry for:
1) Tweeting this contest (please leave a link to said tweet.)
2) Adding me to your blog roll (please leave a link to your blog.)
3) You will recieve 1 extra entries for blogging about this contest (please leave a link to the post.)
You will recieve 10 extra entries for becoming a follower of this blog.
The deadline for this contest will be two months from today, on January 4th, giving everyone a pleasant amount of time to forget about the contest and then be pleasantly surprised if you win! And it will be a fun way to kick off the new year, don't you think?

Halloween Post

2009-10-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what creatures the fantasy authors who are the experts on all things magical choose to dress up as for Halloween? I do. I just wonder in general what authors are dressing up as for Halloween, whether they write fantasy or not.
So I did what anyone would do. I emailed every single author (within reason. There are a LOT of them) I could track down and asked the following questions:

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Some optional questions were:
1) What is your favorite kind of candy?
2) Which do you prefer: tricks or treats?
3) Do you have any funny Halloween stories you would like to share?

I recieved way more emails from people who wanted to participate than I ever dreamed I could, mainly because the wonderful Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society, posted my request on the Tenners' (authors whose books are to be released in 2010) site.
Here is what they said:

Aprilynne Pike, author of WINGS said:
“Um . . . a faerie??? *ducks and hides*”
Don’t worry Aprilynne. We love fairies too!!!

Melissa Walker, author of VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY, VIOLET BY DESIGN, VIOLET IN PRIVATE and LOVESTRUCK SUMMER said:
"I'm not sure what I'll be this year, but my last costume was Distraught Prom Queen (people thought I was Courtney Love--haha! I take that as a compliment)."

Anastasia Hopcus,

author of SHAWDOW HILLS (July 2010 Egmont USA) said: “I am going to be zombie Little Red Riding Hood. My favorite Halloween candy is Candy Corn, but my favorite regular candy would have to be Sour Patch Kids. I much prefer treats, as I am not someone who likes being tricked; I hate April Fools day. The only funny Halloween story I can recall is one year when I was in middle school a young couple in our neighborhood ran out of candy so they handed out chocolate covered espresso beans. After going to their house my friends and I were extra hyper.”

Mindi Scott, author of FREFALL (October 2010 Simon Pulse) said:
“I'm going to be Barbie for Halloween. Zombie Barbie, actually, because my husband and I are going to a cartoon zombie party thing. (He's going to be Zombie Ken.)"

Hiedi Kling, author of SEA (June 10, 2010) said that she is going to be a Mummy Queen!!

Kay Cassidy, author of THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY said:
"I'm not actually dressing up this year, but I'm very excited because I finally found a cute Halloween sweatshirt to wear every year. So I'll be hanging out with our neighbors, taking pictures and passing out candy (but sneaking some Twizzlers for myself and hoping no one notices). ;-) I used to love going trick or treating with my brother and my cousin and running as fast as we could from house to house. We would take pillowcases as our Halloween bags and, when they got too full to carry, we'd run back to our house and dump them before heading out to fill up again. My favorite part though? After trick or treating when we'd all sort our Halloween stash into piles (ENORMOUS piles) and spend hours trading each other for our favorites. I was a serious negotiator for Kit Kats, let me tell you. :-)"

Bree Despain, author of THE DARK DIVINE (debuting 12/22/09 from Egmont USA) said:

(ABOVE: Bree Despain with her son. Seriously, how cute is this photo!? I love it so much!)
"I'm being a Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are. My 3 year old is being Max. My fave Halloween candy is 100 Grand. I prefer treats, especially of a chocolate nature. The only Halloween story I can think of is that we ALWAYS dress up for Halloween, and our neighbors and friends start asking us weeks in advance what we are planning on being. Also, my husband usually makes our costumes. He knows how to sew!"

Elizabeth Scott, author of SOMETHING MAYBE , LOVE YOU HATE YOU MISS YOU, and soon to be released THE UNWRITTEN RULE (Simon Pulse, April 2010) said:
"I'm actually going out to dinner at a restaurant where you're expected to dress up, so instead of my usual jeans and t-shirt, I'll be in a dress. (Scary!!!) I may even wear heels....Favorite kind of candy: Hey, if it's free, you can't really go wrong with that. Although, thanks to my awesome blog readers, I do know that candy corn is most definitely not a favorite for many people..Which do you prefer: Trick or Treat? Treat! Preferably loads of them."

Victoria Schwab, author of NEAR WITCH (Disney Hyperion 2011) said:
“I am going as a cupcake. My favorite candy is snickers, and I like to give tricks, but receive treats! In past years I have been a ninja, a musketeer, a dark angel, and Batman.”

Lindsay Eland, author of SCONES AND SENSIBILITY (December 22, 2009) said:

“Why, Jane Austen, of course! Complete with white gloves, and elegant bonnet! I am a snickers fan, all the way! I prefer treats… unless of course I am the one doing a trick on someone, then it is kind of fun! I love to scare people but I don’t like to be scared. In Junior High, me and my best friend thought it would be fun to toilet paper a friends house...never thought that the eight rolls we tried to take from my house past my mom and out the front door. We didn’t think it would ever lead to suspicion. That was the last of my not-so extensive toilet papering experience.”

Wendy Toliver, author of THE SECRET LIFE OF A TEENAGED SIREN said: “This year I'm going as a vampire because my husband wanted to go as a werewolf. My favorite candy is definitely chocolate and I'm guilty of stealing the Almond Joys and Butterfingers out of the trick-or-treat stash. I definitely prefer treats to tricks.”

And as segway into my Halloween Contest, Melissa De La Cruz, author of the bestselling BLUE BLOODS series answered a few questions in during her interview in early October.

When asked what her favorite Halloween of all time was, she said: “I use to dress up every year as a socialite. One year I dressed up as Jackie Kenedy. I wanted to go as Jackie Kenedy after the assassination and everyone was like you can’t do that! You can’t make fun of that! It’s sacred American history. So I just went as Jackie Kenedy and that was really fun.

When asked what she is going as this year, she said: “We are going as star wars family. My husband is Darth Vader and I am going to be Princess Leia. We are deffinately dorking out. And the kid is going as Yoda but she says that she wants to go as Ariel. We keep trying to convince her that Yoda is a princess and we keep calling him Princess Yoda.”

And in a (belated) celebration of Halloween, I have decided to post another contest. This time, it is for a signed copy of Melissa's book, BLUE BLOODS, the first in the series!

To enter, please comment with your email address and answer the question, what were you for halloween?

You will recieve 1 extra entry for:

1) Tweeting this contest (please leave a link to said tweet.)

2) Adding me to your blog roll (please leave a link to your blog.)

3) You will recieve 1 extra entries for blogging about this contest (please leave a link to the post.)

You will recieve 10 extra entries for becoming a follower of this blog.

The deadline for this contest will be two months from today, on January 4th, giving everyone a pleasant amount of time to forget about the contest and then be pleasantly surprised if you win! And it will be a fun way to kick off the new year, don't you think?

If I forgot to include you or a picture of you in this post and you wanted to be included, please email me at officiallymrs(at)gmail(dot)com and I will add you in!!! If I did forget you, it wasn't personal, I just had a TON of emails for this and lacked the proper organization required (I fail at organization).

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

NaNoWriMo

2009-10-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

So as many of you may know due to the shiny badge of the left hand side of your screen (go look! Do it now!!), I am an official NaNoWriMo participant. Many people do not know what this is, including most of my teachers, my parents, even some avid readers and YA Lit bloggers I have run across. So let me explain:

The Short Version: National Novel Writing Month is a suicidal mission where people from all over the world attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel (defined as a lengthy work of fiction) in the month of November.

If you want to read the long version, click here.

Tonight at midnight I will be embarking on a journey that poses threats of carpal tunnel, lack of sleep, and rodents of unusual size. Actually, I don't know how the R.O.U.S.s fit into this, but it seemed appropriate.*

I am writing a novel called IN THE LAND OF THE BUTTERFLIES (ILB), but I am keeping that as a working title. I have also considered THE SPELLING GAMES, but I chose ILB because it doesn't remind me of The Hunger Games by Susan Collins, of which this book has absolutely no likeness to. What do you guys think?

This is the basic pitch, although new elements are always being added: theatre, parties, characters, ect. It is the wonderful part of writing- you can play God.

As the oldest daughter of the king and queen of the light court and rulers of Devas, Isabella and Kiran De Rege, Melkenza De Rege is expected to be the pinnacle of perfection. And now the perfect daughter must marry to save the crown and stop the dark court from taking power.But Kenza is fed up with everyone expecting her to be something she's not, and she abandons her family, her sister, Odessa, and friends as well as the only life she has ever known, and flees to the biggest city in Devas: Toria.

There, Kenza meets Segori and Felix, two siblings living with their aunt Liesel. She begins to love Segori as a sister and Felix as… well something more... And she lives a completely different life, spunky attitude and love for rebellion included. She feels like she can finally be herself - or herself except that part of her that's a princess expected to one day take over the magical kingdom of Devas. But between school, freedom, friends, Kenza faces a deadly struggle. She must find out what the dark court is planning before her sister will be forced to meet the same fate Kenza has run from- to marry someone she does not love.

Soon, things start to get weird in Devas. Odessa is having terrifying nightmares, Segori is disappearing at regular intervals, and people all over the country are vanishing without a trace. And when Kenza's secret is revealed, she must deal with the consequences and dangers of two lives and find her way home to save herself, her family, and her country.
Full of awkward teenage moments, wit, sarcasm, and a deeply sinister plot, IN THE LAND OF THE BUTTERFLIES is a story of magic that follows Kenza and those around her in her struggle to save her kingdom and find balance between being the princess she is expected to be and a girl true to herself and her heart.

Am I nervous to start my first novel? Absolutely. I have no idea what the helk I am doing!!! But I know I love to write, I love to read and I have a fun story to work with that I am crazy excited to start writing.

Plus, I have a lot of friends to cheer me on!! My friend Meg is also doing NaNo with me!!! And I have met some really cool people online who are going to bug me to finish this novel while I bug them to finish theirs.

The challenges that this month will bring: keeping up with school and getting my word count to 50,000 even though I will be in England for a week (so excited!). November is going to be my month of insanity, adventure and possible caffeine addiction.

(shown above is my friend Victoria, whose book, NEAR WITCH, comes out in 2011 from Disney Hyperion!!! So excited!!! She is a fellow NaNo participant, cupcake lover, twitter fiend and my official cheerleader for the month of November. You can read my interview with her here.)

What does this mean for the blog? It probably means that I am going to neglect you. I barely have had any time to read and post reviews with school alone. My writing time means that the little reading time I had left is going out the window. Not to worry though. This problem struck me the moment that I signed up for NaNo. Therefore, I have lined up some really cool people to do guest posts on this blog during the month of November. Writer-y people I mean. Like the cupcake (my friend Victoria) pictured above. And the awesome Melissa Walker. Excited? So am I. If you are a writer or

NaNo-er interested in doing a guest post in November, shoot me an email at officiallymrs(at)gmail(dot)com!

I am going to try to get a widget up with my word count on it for you guys to follow my progress and may even post an excerpt or two every now and again!!! If I can't get a widget up, you can follow my progress here. And of course, I will still be on Twitter, so you can follow me there too!!! If you are a NaNo-er, please buddy me!! My screenname is OfficiallyMRS!
More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

*R.O.U.S. refers to The Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it, go do it, NOW, as I am pretty sure there are going to be some more references to it in the near future. *cough- Victoria*

Little Black Lies (ARC)

2009-10-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

While I was sick with the plague-- bronchitis-- I didn't really have much to do besides homework and reading, so I got quite a bit done. The reason why I haven't posted about the wonderful books I have read is that I have been waaay too busy catching up with the full week of school that I missed.

The first book that I read was Little Black Lies by Tish Cohen.

The book is about Sara Black, also known as Sara "the black" by her cynically minded teacher (every schools' got one), a girl with a past full of cleaning supplies and little black lies.

Sara has grown up with a father whose life is controlled by his erratic Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a condition where you feel the need to perfect things and keep things clean. As a result, her father's chosen profession is custodian, more commonly known as a janitor.

Now that her mother has run off with her old teacher to France, Sara and her father move to a new town and a new school. Specifically, Anton High School, a school for geniuses.

Sara feels ashamed about her past and her family. So she does what a lot of teens do on a regular basis- she lies. Instead of coming from Lundun she is now from London England. Instead of having a father who fixes schools, she has a father who fixes brains. But what harm can a few little lies do when your social well-being is at stake?

What I like about this book is that even though you may be able to tell what is going to happen, it is not about the final result, it is about getting from A to B and the lessons that we learn in between. The writing in this story is also phenomenal and downright beautiful. While talking to Tish on facebook, she told me that she likes to "break certain rules" when it comes to writing, something I have been trying to do personally with every piece I create. The writing style has a greater likeness to The Book Thief by Markus Zusak than I did to most of the writing styles I have found in YA literature. The combination of the graceful writing with the painstakingly difficult and heartbreaking story makes this a book that you do not want to ignore.

As a personal side note, I give props to Tish for portraying Sara's father's OCD with compassion and sensitivity. As someone who has a disabled immediate family member, I love it when I find books that make people realize that just because someone is different does not mean they aren't people with feelings and lives and families.

To learn more about Tish and her books, you can visit her website.

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Heist Society Cover!!!

2009-10-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

You guys remember when I wrote a review for the Advanced Reader's Copy of The Heist Society by Ally Carter? Remember how much I LOVED IT? Well Ally has released her official cover for the book, published by Disney Hyperion. Get excited.

Congrats Ally!! It is beautiful!! I cannot wait for the rest of the world to be able to read it!!!

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

Interview with Melissa De La Cruz

2009-10-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to go to a signing with Melissa De La Cruz!! Walking in, I was suprised to find so few people there. It was really nice though. I sat around and chatted with all of the other Blue Bloods fans, some in costume, some that had travelled from a high school in Indiana, some just random people who were as excited to meet Melissa as I was. And then Melissa showed up with her gorgeous shoes that were deffinately not made for walking and we all got to chat about her books. After a very fun night of talking with Melissa, we all got our books signed and everyone else went on their merry way. I, however, stayed behind and was able to have a fabulous interview with Melissa!!

Before you start reading this, you may want to read my review of the Blue Bloods books and the ten things that I loved about Melissa's newest book, The Van Alen Legacy. Also, if you have not read VAL, this interview does contain spoilers!!!

I may or may not put up the audio of our interview because it was taken on a very ancient tape recorder. It also has many funny sounds of Melissa and I chewing our sushi on it, so we shall see. This is just the transcript!

Which one of your characters do you relate to the most?

I like all of them because they are all apart of my personality. Schuyler deffinately has a lot of my alienation and feeling of isolation when I was that age. Just the whole scene with her going to one of the dances with Oliver and everyone is holding a long stemmed rose, and she has a corsage. And I always felt like I went to this school with all of these social events but I would be so out of it! I would be wearing the wrong thing. When I went to prom I though everyone is going to wear a big satin ballgown so I wore a big satin ball gown but I went to this big private school and everyone thought that prom was this ridiculous notion. And I went to prom all the cool girls were wearing sweaters and skirts!! And you know, once again, fail! So I definitely wanted to write a character with that kind of experience. I think a lot of people feel like that. My school definitely had a lot of cliques and it was an all girls school with only 39 girls in my class. Half of them So they were all good friends and they all came from families that had know each other forever and it just seemed like they were apart of this club I was just not apart of. I thought that Schuyler could be that character who went to think cozy school. It is suppose to be a great experience going to these schools but when your not apart of this club it is very difficult.

Mimi is the one I enjoy the most because she is so fun and bitchy. I have always loved those kinds of characters. She is probably most like me when I was in college. People use to call me The Queen, which was the queen bee. So, I always though that was funny! People said I was always so bossy and that I always told people what to do and I was like Oh, No! So there is a lot of me that is always Mimi. And I sympathize with her because Schuyler is the rebel that is going to shake up all the blue bloods and Mimi is kind of the one who is trying to keep them together.

Bliss has grown on me. She is the hardest because she has the hardest story line to deal with, being the devils child and all. Bliss is getting her own series, with the werewolves, so that will be fun.

What is up next for Schuyler and the gang?

Schuyler and Jack are kind of together but there are new obstacles in what they find. Are they finding safety and shelter or did they just walk into some kind of dangerous situation at the end of the book. Mimi is trying to keep it together. Oliver is still around so they all kinda have to work together and there will be new characters and new dangers. And then we are going to find out about Allegra and what Allegra was like as a teen. A lot of the story takes place in the 1590s so part of it is more of a historical Renaissance novel which I am scared to write.

If you could pick one character from the Blue Bloods series to be real, who would it be?

Just one!?! They are all so great! That’s really hard. I think Schuyler because it would be really cool to hang out with her. Go to a goth club and stuff!

If you could be one character from Blue Bloods, who would it be?

I don’t want to be any of them because all of their lives are so difficult and fraught with danger. And drama. I would rather be a cool socialite who didn’t know what was happening. I don’t want to save the world.

The vampires in your book have a completely different spin! How did you come up with the idea for the books? Why did you choose to have them be wealthy NY socialites?

I wanted to combine things that I knew first hand. I covered that kind of world when I worked as a reporter. I did an article on private jets and I was asking things like “how do you use your private jet” and "what do you put on your private jet?" I was fascinated by that kind of world. It is all material and I wanted to use it. I know that some authors draw their ideas from other stories.

Were there any particular books that the Blue Bloods series was either based on or influenced by?

The Harry Potter Series. I think of the Blue Bloods books as Harry Potter mixed with Sex and the City. The Harry Potter books brought back the pleasure of reading. And New York was such a big influence. So a sexier, hotter Harry Potter.

In VAL, Schuyler and the gang travel all around the world. How many of these countries/cities have you been to?

I've been to all of them, actually! I have a friend in Buenos Aires and we went to Rio for the weekend. And I went to Venice. And Paris is just awesome. I don't get to go there often enough. Its fun because when I do my books I want to talk about the places I have have been and also give myself an excuse to go to those places. I want to go to shanghai and put that in one of the books. I want to do a city in Asia.

One of my favorite parts about VAL and the Blue Bloods books it the fact that you fit your stories into history, particularly American history, and Biblical stories. How did you come up with this idea?

One of my most vivid memories is my high school history teacher, who was great. World History and Roman history was one of her specialties and she really brought that world to life. As an immigrant, you don’t take American History for granted too much. And I always loved the stories from Christian mythology. The angels and stuff. Romance is a huge part of the Blue Bloods books and therefore it is littered with steamy and/or spicy guys. If you could pick one guy in the book for yourself, who would it be? Its funny because Oliver and Jack are both similar to my husband. I kind of split his personality in two. And that’s why I can’t chose! But they are both their own person. Oliver is a little bit based on my best friend from college. And jack is based on the hot unattainable guy that you always wanted.

Then we whipped out the sushi. Yum.

Another thing I really enjoyed, about VAL especially, is that even though these characters have lived before, there is still a level of teen angst. How do you find this balance?

I wanted them to be modern teenagers with all the relateable problems and the stuff that I went through but I also wanted to give them this layer of having lived for centuries and knowing more than there is. It’s like when you say someone is an “old soul,” they have more maturity. I just thought it would be cool, while they are growing into adolescence they also have this other thing, changing from human to vampire with all of the memories. It was fun because it gave them more depth and with Mimi you think she is just some stupid socialite but they it turns out that she is a *butt* kicking warrior.

I usually wouldn't sensor out swearing, but knowing that there are some elementary school kids who have been reading this blog...

How do you get the ideas for your characters? Are any of them based off of people you know?

Some of them are. Bliss is somewhat based off of one of my guy friends from Texas, I turned him into a girl. He has a big personality and all of these fun stories about him growing up in Huston and driving his dad’s Cadillac. I am fascinated by all of these people who were popular in high school because I wasn’t and so I wanted to find out what that was like. My sister was a cheerleader. It sounded like a cool life. As a writer I think that you are fascinated by people and their stories. All of the characters come from me. Oliver and Jack, as I said before, my husband and my friends from college.

And then we had a random tangent about goth clubs. It was entertaining.

And my dad showed up. It was mortifying.

How did your first book get published? What are some things that surprised you about the publishing and editing process?

My first book was published when I was 27, the Cat’s Meow. I had been trying to be published for six years. I was writing a column called the Cat’s Meow about socialites. When I turned in my first draft they said that it had no plot. I had to rewrite it. I quit my job and worked on it for three months and pulled it together. In the beginning I was very naive about sales. I just thought that if you had written a good book it deserved to be published. But the longer I am in the industry, I realized that you have to write stuff people want to read!

What is your full name?

Melissa Anne De La Cruz

Where did you grow up?

Manila until I was thirteen and then we moved to San Fransisco and I went to Columbia for college. I lived in NYC for 15 years. And then we moved back to LA. I think of myself as a New Yorker.

Do you have any siblings?

Yup, I have two siblings.

What are some of your favorite books/ authors of the moment?

I didn’t read a lot of YA. I just started reading it again and I just read King Dork and Sara Zarr. I have to read books that are very different than mine so that they take me to a different place. I read a lot of Julian Fellows. Anything Lionel Shriver or Kate Christianson.

What was your favorite and least favorite part about being a teenager?

My favorite part was not having to worry about bills. Having all this time for my art. I just remember having no responsibilities and having all this time. My least favorite part was not having a whole lot of confidence. I think you kind of grow into yourself. Some people are very confident but a lot of us are figuring out who we are and if we like who we are. I love being thirty. I think 13 going on 30 had it right on.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I like LA. We live between LA and NYC. So we really like where we are.

What is your favorite color?

Fuchsia! I have always like Fuchsia since I was teen. I like the way it is spelled. I like the F. I like the hot pink. I use to have a lot of Fuchsia outfits. Kinda frightening…

If you were trapped on an island and you could only bring one person and three items with you what would they be?

I would like to bring my Husband and my daughter. I cant bring one without the other. 1) A lot books. So maybe a kindle. 2) Something to eat. Asian food. It would have to be sushi or Ramen noodles. 3) A toy for Maddy, my three year-old.

Edward of Jacob? Edward. Gale or Peeta? I can’t decide!! I would say Peeta but then I feel bad for Gale! I guess when it comes down to it, Peeta.

What is your favorite movie/tv show/ music of the moment?

I watched Mulan Rouge five times in the theatre. I love Battle star Galactica. I love the 80s music. The Adventureland soundtrack is pretty much my ipod. I really like dance music. Techno and remixes.

And probably my favorite question of the evening:

If the world were being invade by aliens and you just one five million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with it?

Melissa: Oh, so we are going to die?

Mary: It’s a distinct possibility at this point.

Melissa: How long do we have?
Mary: Um.. Let’s say a week.

Melissa (in a very cheerful voice considering we are talking about our own impending doom): Oh, Okay. Well I would probably go on a big shopping trip in Paris. A lot of couture. Go to all of the wonderful restaurants. Stay at the Ritz. One million a day! Throw a lot of parties.

Thank you so much for doing this interview with me, Melissa!! I had such a fun time with you! You can learn more about Melissa and her books by looking at her website, following her on twitter, or reading my review of The Van Alen Legacy and the Blue Bloods books.

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

Cohen, Contest and Codine

2009-10-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hello Readers, it's me. OfficiallyMRS. Are you there?
I feel bad. Why do I feel bad, you may ask?
A) Upper Respitory infection
B) I haven't blogged in a while.
And it isn't like I don't have the excuse of "I haven't read anything because I have been too busy!" I have been sick. And in California while my parents stayed behind in Chi town and let me roam free... (kind of). But it's not like I didn't have the four hour plane ride to LA to allow for a full time block of uninterrupted reading. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead, I watched Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and continually assured the people around me that, "no, I do not have H1N1. I have checked with my doctors." with the sympathetic glances I sent them. Not that the lady wearing the paper mask that I doubt really does anything didn't glare at me anyways.
But my life has been incredibly exciting lately! And I have author-y and writing-y goodness to share!
1) My interview with Melissa De La Cruz went incredibly well. We ate sushi and talked about the horridness/wonderfullness of private school. Well, and her books. That was an important topic too. And you know you did a good job when, at the end of the interview, the author says that she hopes her daughter will be as articulate and mature as I am when she is my age. And that I look like I must be in college or in my twenties or thirties. Big compliment for me. Thank you, Melissa. I am sure your daughter will be an adorable Princess Yoda for Halloween! I will be posting the interview as soon as I have time to go through the audio and type up our conversation.

2) I am almost finished with my ARC of LITTLE BLACK LIES by Tish Cohen, which was released today. It's a great book and it is well written and thought provoking, something that is becoming increasingly harder to find in the YA section. Much love to Suzie for sharing her ARC wealth and sending me this one.

3) I just got my ARC of BLEEDING VIOLET by Dia Reeves which is beautiful and long and amazing looking so I will be starting that soon. Possibly on the way to London? I think maybe yes.

4) Codine. I love you. You make me stop coughing and induce chemical sleep. The. End. Did I write a bestseller? I think it deserves a nobel. (Feel free to coment on the Obama Nobel. I have mixed feelings about it considering the nominations closed very early in Obama's presidency. I mean, I am sure he will do Nobel Prize worthy things, I just don't exactly feel that he has done them yet.)

5) Contest: As soon as I can get the interview with Melissa up, I am going to open up a contest to give away a signed copy of BLUE BLOODS, the first book in the series, which, I must say, is my favorite. VAL put up a good fight, but there is something so creepy and wonderful about not knowing what is going on in the first book of any series. If you want an extra entry though, become a follower and tell me that you became a follower or are already a follower by commenting on this post.

If you have won a contest but haven't recieved it from me yet, do not worry. I am awaiting the date when my father's company (which handles all of my shipping and recieving needs) has an outgoing UPS shipment. I am not really sure on the details or why in the world this is so, but I should be able to send you your prize sometime this week.

I hope this post was sensible, considering I am only half awake because of the codine. Anyways, it should have at least made it somewhat humerous.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Van Alen Legacy (ARC)

2009-10-03T15:22:00.001-07:00

*This review may contain spoilers from the first three Blue Bloods books, but not the Van Alen Legacy*

Another bit from the Box-O'-Gold that was sent to me by Molly Thomas of Disney Hyperion: Melissa De La Cruz's, THE VAN ALEN LEGACY, which will be released this Tuesday, hot off of the press. Thank you Molly!!! I am a huge Blue Bloods Fan!!
Melissa De La Cruz has crafted an edgy series where fiction becomes fact and the facts terrify you. In these fabulous fantasy novels, you are welcomed into the lives of the social elite where the beautiful are successful and the successful are vampires. Enter Schuyler Van Alen, the stunning and timid girl who's about to find out who exactly she is and where she came from. Having grown up with her Grandmother, Cordelia Van Alen, with her father dead and her mother stuck in a coma, Schuyler enters the age of her vampire transformation and will have to reexamine her entire childhood now that so many things can be explained by the Blue Blood Society she was born into. But she doesn't have much time to adjust to this new knowledge before she is thrown into a deadly battle with the Croatan, or the vampires that drink the blood other vampires. Love, mystery, friendship, history and just general teenage angst are all apart of what makes these stories thrilling.

Melissa weaves a very complicated web of relationships and vampire-lore, so if you have not read the first three books, there is absolutely no way you are going to be able to understand what the helk is going on in THE VAN ALEN LEGACY. Therefore, instead of trying to explain the first three books, I am going to do 10 things I love about the Blue Bloods Series, especially THE VAN ALEN LEGACY.

The history involved. Melissa takes facts from American history, such as the lost colony of Roanoke, and fits her story around it, making it seem incredibly realistic. Roanoke was completely forsaken, with only a sign that said Croatan as explanation. Hence, the antagonist group is called the Croatan and becomes the explaination for the desolate colony. In fact, it was so realistic that after I finished the first book, I locked myself in my room and watched Glee because I was too scared to go get another book from my shelf. Also, it helps you in history class (or at least it helped me).

The characters have past lives. The thing I like most about this aspect of the book is that even though the characters pull interesting pieces of their past lives into the story, the books still maintain a level of teenaged angst. Just because they have lived some of these problems before doesn't make them any less probematic.

Dynamic antagonists. The way this book is written allows for you to see inside of most of the main character's (Jack, Schuyler, Mimi, and Bliss) minds whether they are considered the "good guy" (Schuyler), the "bad guy" (Mimi) or "the guy where you just aren't sure whether he is good or bad or not (Bliss.. kinda)." Mimi wasn't exactly the nicest person but you can't help but agree with her on some levels. You feel her pain and that allows for dynamic antagonists. She was not the nicest person but sometimes you just can't help but root for her (especially with a specific love interest of hers....). This style of narration also allowed you to know things that other characters didn't.

Jack Force. Do I need to say more? Also, Oliver Hazard-Perry. You can be on Team Jack, like I am, and still love Oliver. He is a great friend to Schuyler.

Bliss. I just can't help but love her!! She's a nice person that gets stuck with some serious problems, especially in The Van Alen Legacy. I really felt sorry for her in this fourth book and it almost broke my heart when she made that choice (You must read the book to find out what I am talking about!). Also, Dylan. Even though he may be gone, I still felt he was apart of The Van Alen Legacy as he is still in Bliss's thoughts and heart throughout her portion of the narration. I loved Dylan and wish that he wasn't just in VAL when Bliss thought about him!!

A new take on the love triangle. I get so sick of reading about love triangles all of the time. But in The Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler isn't constantly complaining about her choices and hurting everyone in the process, like another very well known vampire novel I have read. Yeah, she whines a little, (it is teen aged angst! She is suppose to!) but once she makes her decision, she is committed to keeping it, no matter how much pain she might be in. But as she learns, sometimes it isn't her choice to make... (No I will not explain cryptic message. You must read THE VAN ALEN LEGACY).

A new take on vampires. I didn't feel like I was reading the same old, same old about Vampires in the Blue Bloods books. Even though these books do have the "good vampires" and "bad vampires" thing going on, it is a completely different idea than a lot of vampire books I have read. Reincarnation and being apart of the world of the social elite are two defining characteristics of vampires in these books. Melissa also plans to do a spin off series about werewolves, the foundation for which is layed in the last few pages of VAL.

Traveling. These books take you all over the world instead of keeping you stuck in NYC. In fact, the majority of The Van Alen Legacy does not take place in New York.

Just being in the lives of the social elite. I may live near a city, but my life is no where near as glamorous as the people in these books. One of my favorite parts of the series was the fact that Bliss and Schuyler are both hired to be models. It was just another layer to the book, but I found it an incredibly fun one. Like the classes at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books, it wasn't that the modeling was significant to the plot, it was just fun being submerged into that lifestyle, if only for a chapter or two.

Romance. When you love someone in this book, often times it is against the rules. It's not just your happiness you are giving up if you one person over another. You can get in a huge amount of trouble if you break a bond.

Here is a synopsis from the back of THE VAN ALEN LEGACY:

With the stunning revelation surrounding Bliss’s true identity comes the growing threat of the sinister Silver Bloods. Once left to live the glamorous life in New York City, the Blue Bloods now find themselves in an epic battle for survival. Not to worry; love is still in the air for the young vampires of the Upper East Side. Or is it? Schuyler has made her choice. She has forsaken Jack for Oliver, choosing human over vampire. But old loves die hard...And even cold hearted Mimi seems to suffer from the ties that bind.
Young vampires unite in this highly anticipated fourth installment of the New York Times best-selling series.
Also, you can click here to view the trailer for THE VAN ALEN LEGACY! Be careful though! If you haven't finished the first three books, it will give stuff away!!

******Thursday of this week, I will be heading to Skokie to go to Melissa's signing! Also, I will be having an in person interview with her!! If you have any questions for her, please comment bellow or email me at officiallymrs (at) gmail (dot) com! I am super excited to meet you, Melissa!!!******

To learn more about Melissa and her books, you can go to her official website or follow her on twitter.

Interview with Rachel Hawkins and Review of Her Book HEX HALL

2009-10-02T16:54:00.001-07:00

In late August, I was sent a package by one of my friends Molly Thomas at Disney Hyperion (Hi Molly! *waves* Thank you for this! I love you!!). In it, was gold. I mean, not literally gold. Books. Lots and lots of books. Included in this amazing pile-o'-books was the Advance Reader's Copy of HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins.
First of all, I love ARCs. Not only do I like knowing things before other people do (hehe), I also love feeling like in some way, I am apart of the process. ARCs are the things that first made me realize that I wanted to become apart of the writing and publishing world. I'm not kidding. This site was STARTED so that I could receive the ARC of E. Lockhart's TREASURE MAP OF BOYS (There you are folks, my secret confession. I would feel bad about it, but I kind of fell in love with blogging).

Below is a picture of me with my ARC co

py of HEX HALL. I personally cannot wait to see the real cover art!

I pulled out HEX HALL and read the back cover and wanted to start reading the book immediately. Here is a synopsis from the back of the book. (How amazing are my segways?)
"Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father- an elusive European warlock- only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tag along ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her."

Unfortunately, society created this little annoyance called school and therefore I couldn't get through it as fast as I wanted to (even though I did have permission from the author herself to read in school). But then along came a golden Saturday where all I had to do was read. I sat down and finished HEX HALL in one hour, then ran up to twitter and have been gabbing Rachel's ear off about how amazing the book is. It has spawned an obsession in me equal to if not greater than those I hold for the Twilight, Harry Potter and Mortal Instruments Series.

But let's talk about the actual book instead of my obsession with it, shall we? Rachel has created one of the funniest books I have ever read while still maintaining a mature enough writing style that I feel like it is appropriate for me to be reading it. This is something I have found less and less common in the YA section of my local bookstore. Fans of The Mortal Instruments and Sarah Mylnowski's Bras and Boomsticks series will love this book. Full of suspense while still maintaining a level of teen aged angst, this book grabbed me and hasn't really let go of me yet.
The characters are some of the most realistic ones I have ever met. I feel like they really are my friends. I know them as well as I know most of the girls I sit with at my lunch table, if not better than those girls. I ask Rachel to send them my regards on Twitter (am I going crazy? It is possible. I am talking to fictional characters...). This is an incredible feat that requires superb dialogue, something that definitely is apart of HEX HALL, considering the book is narrated in first person by Sophie, the main character. Speaking of Sophie, she is one of the relateable characters I have ever met. While reading the book, I really "became her." I mean yes, she is a different person than I am. But I could just see myself saying the kinds of things she says, because I love sarcasm, and doing the kinds of things she does, like being completely awkward and getting away with it (most of the time) and just being a strong person. She made me feel like I could do anything I wanted to and let me tell you, that is an awesome feeling. She is very much a real, average girl living in a crazy, magical world. Sophie lands herself at a boarding school for wierdos and feels like she is "a freak among freaks." While learning about this magical world that she has been thrown into, she also learns about the father she has never met, and things about herself that were kept from her since birth.
She has a crush and an enemy who are in a relationship together (Why does this ALWAYS happen in real life? I don't understand it, but it sucks. A. Lot.), she has homework (this is one of the first books where the author actually took into account the fact that fictional characters cannot possibly have all of these adventures if they don't finish their homework!! Props to Rachel, the former teacher who knows that school isn't as easy many books of the age make it look.) and she has quirky friends (i.e. Jenna. Jenna, I love you. Don't let the world getcha down. See, I am talking to the people inside the book. HELP!).
Just a side note, one thing I really enjoyed about reading this book was that one of the "mean girls" of the book grew in complexity as the book goes on. You know when you meet someone and you really just can't help but hating them and then you realize that you actually can't help but like some of the things about them? Yeah, that's Elodie. Multi-layered antagonists are something I am starting to see more of in YA literature and it gives a book an extraordinary amount of depth.
And then there is Archer (*swoon*). The guy who annoys the h*ll out of you but you love them anyways and you don't exactly know why. He is cute (edit: hot) and sarcastic (*sigh*). You love him one minute and hate him the next. He is charming and cocky but he still cares, even when he doesn't show it. I am officially in love with Archer (*Archer- will you marry me?*).
In addition to my obnoxiously long review of this book (people, it is just THAT good. I. do. not. lie.), Rachel agreed to do an obnoxiously long author interview with me!!

RACHEL HAWKINS AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Speed Round Biography:

What is your full name? Rachel Moore Hawkins

Where did you grow up? Dothan, Alabama

How old are you? 29

Where did you go to school? Houston Academy in Dothan for HS, Auburn University in Auburn, AL for college.

Do you have any siblings? Nope! I'm an only, so it's all about ME ME ME! Just kidding. Kind of.

Legitimate questions about her book, HEX HALL, and being a writer:

Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? What made you first start writing? I always loved making up stories as a kid; my first was a truly epic Barbie "play" involving divorce, kidnapped kids, and hallucinogenic drugs. I was about 5. No lie. I think a lot of writers are just "hardwired" that way. Our brains naturally make up stories.

What is your favorite part about being a writer? So many parts! My husband says that I get to live in two worlds, and that's probably the best part.

What advice can you give to young adults who want to write proffesionally when they are older? Read, read, read. And write, obviously, but reading is a HUGE part of developing your style as a writer. You'll figure out what you like, what you don't like, what kind of stories resonate with you. And do your research RE: the publishing biz. You can save yourself a lot of time by diving into things prepared!

How did you go about getting your book published? The traditional way. Wrote it, started querying agents, and was lucky enough to find one in about two weeks! (This is what I mean about being prepared!) I always like to stress that I knew NO ONE in publishing. I was a teacher in a tiny town in AL, writing the book at a folding table in my bedroom.

How did you come up with the idea for HEX HALL? I'd read Anne Rice's THE WITCHING HOUR, and I really dug the creepy, Southern Gothic vibe of that. Also, I was teaching 12^th grade English, so I was around a lot of teenagers and reading a lot of YA. All of those things, plus my love for a good old fashioned creepy boarding school story, contributed to making HEX HALL!

How did you come up with the characters for HEX HALL? Are any based off of people you know? No character has a direct correlation to anyone I know, but I think pieces and parts of my friends (and some people I DON'T feel so friendly about, haha!) made their way into HEX HALL. Some characters, like my main character, Sophie, came to me immediately and pretty fully-formed. Others, like Sophie's roommate Jenna, and her crush, Archer, only showed up after I'd written the first half.

Is there going to be a sequel to HEX HALL? If so, what and when should we look forward to seeing in it? There will be! Disney-Hyperion bought 3 HEX HALL books, so Sophie still has 2 more adventures to go! I see the books as one big story told over 3 books, so Book 2 will see Sophie dealing with a lot of the stuff that happens in HEX HALL, as well as some new threats.

Who is your favorite character in HH? My favorite character in HH is definitely Archer, the warlock Sophie crushes on. And it's not just because he's a hot guy, although that helps. ;-) he didn't exist in the 1^st draft, and when I came up with him, the whole book really came to life.

Who was your favorite character to write in HEX HALL? I love writing Elodie, Sophie's nemesis at HEX HALL. She's so different from me, so it was a good time getting into her head. Plus I enjoyed giving her a little more depth and substance than your regular mean girl!

If you could choose one character from HH to be real, who would it be? Cal, the "groundskeeper" at Hecate Hall. He has some pretty awesome powers that I think would come in handy!

If you could be one character in HH, who would it be? Sophie, of course! She's the star after all! (See above RE: only child.)

While reading your book, I could really relate to your character, Sophie. Sometimes she feels like she is an outsider, even among outsiders, she feels weird around the guy she likes (who doesn't), she is sarcastic and witty and as much as she might not want to, she cares what others think about her. Which of the characters in HEX HALL do you most relate to? First off, I LOVE that you could relate to Sophie! That was my goal in writing her, that she's a regular girl in a crazy, crazy world. So I think she's the one I most relate to, too. I'm not nearly as bold as she is- I never talked back to a teacher in my life!- but I was voted "Wittiest" in my Senior Who's Who. ;-)

What are you most excited to tell us about your book/writing/reading? I am excited about all of it, haha! Mostly I just can't wait for other people to meet Sophie and Co. Whenever people ask me what I want readers to get out of my book, I always say I want them to A) have fun, B)not regret wasting time/money on me! and C)wish they had more time in that world. That's the dream, right there!

What are some things you were surprised about during the publishing/editing process? That it is soooo slooow! Seriously, patience is a virtue if you want to be a writer! I sold in April 2008, and HEX HALL hits the shelves in March 2010. As for editing, I was surprised at how much FUN it was! I know that makes me sound ever-so-dorky, but I have a genius editor in Jen Besser, and all of her suggestions were made of win and covered in awesome-sauce. It was a ball to get back in there and feel like the book was such a collaborative effort.

There are many different kinds of Prodigium at Hex Hall: Witches, shape shifters, werewolves, vampires, faeries and more. If you could be any of those, which one would you be and why? Witch! Vampires have all those pesky restrictions, faeries are a little on the formal side, and weres/shifters? Yuck! All the hair! Or hairballs!

If you could cast any spell, what would it be for? I'm a Mama, so I would probably cast some sort of protective bubble around my kid so that he'd never get hurt. (Again, with the dorky! Sigh…)

Where did you get the background for your Prodigium and magical world? Did you make it up or were there fairy tales, books or folklore that you took from? Oh, wow, so many sources. Some of it was from Ye Olde Wikipedia, some from books (I've always collected books on unsolved mysteries/supernatural stuff), and a lot of it I just made up!

I know that some authors draw their ideas from other stories, such as Stephenie Meyer's New Moon, which was influenced by Romeo and Juliet. Were there any particular books that HH was either based on or influenced by? I don't think so. I mean, it's definitely in the tradition of spooking boarding school books, but I can't pinpoint one specific thing.

What are some of the books that have most influenced you as a writer/person? What were your favorite books growing up? What are some of your favorite books currently? Any favorite authors? I can't even start to list them all! There was the standard Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley High. The Little House books were big, too, and a lot of Anne Rice/Lois Duncan. In fact, Lois Duncan is probably my primo influence. She should get more love, darn it! A GIFT OF MAGIC? STRANGER WITH MY FACE? LOCKED IN TIME? Classics!

Sophie magics up an incredible dress for the Halloween Ball. If you were going to the same ball, what would you have worn? Ooh, I would have to steal Sophie's dress, haha! It's insane and over-the-top, and that is SO my thing, too!

What should readers look forward to from HEX HALL? The funny! Seriously, if there's one thing I want people to know about HEX HALL, it's that it's funny! Okay, so there are scary things. And yes, some death. And angst and chaos. But there are laughs amidst all that, I swear! ;-)

Are there any character quarks you would like to share? For me or the characters? Ha!
Random personal questions:

What is your favorite movie? Favorite TV show of the moment? I'm weirdly obsessed with the TV version of 10 Things I Hate About You right now (Y HELLO THAR, PATRICK VERONA!) As for movies, there are lots, but the one that is in pretty regular rotation is Marie Antoinette.

What was you favorite/ least favorite part of high school/being a teenager? My favorite part was the anticipation. Life IS more exciting when you're a teenager. There's all this endless potential, not just for what you'll do with your future, but what could happen on any given night, haha! That zing when a boy you like shows up at a party, or the fun of driving around w/your friends, singing at the top of your lungs? That was awesome. But the flip side of that is all the uncertainty that comes along with the potential.

Favorite song/artist of the moment? Okay, looking at my iTunes, these 3 songs have been played an embarrassing amount of times: 1) "Luv" by Travis, 2) "Stay" by Safetysuit, and 3) "Bust Your Windows" from Glee.

Favorite color? Green

Have any pets? Nope! Had a cat, Nadia, from the time I was 13-26. When she died, it was just too hard to think about getting a new one. I may be a one-cat woman.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? London. I visited that city in 2001, and fell in love. Looooove. But only if I had enough money. London is quite pricey!

If you were trapped on a desert island and you could only bring 3 items and 1 person with you, what/who would they be? 1) A book, probably Diana Gabaldon's OUTLANDER, 2) some sun block (fair-skinned redhead) 3)my Velveteen rabbit, the imaginatively named "Velvy." (Shut up, I was 6.) As for a person, my husband. He's a hiker/kayaker/geologist/solider/Superman-type, and he would have us a raft made out of coconuts in no time!

If the world was being invaded by aliens and you just won five million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with it? Paaaartyyyyy! Seriously, I'd have the most fun feast/blow-out ever. I mean, why not?

I joke that Rachel could probably have written another novel in the time it took her to answer all of these questions. So thank you Rachel for providing epic answers to my epically long interview!! I really appreciate it as you have become one of my favorite authors! And thank you for writing this book! In case you haven't noticed, I loved it. I wouldn't be surprised if you end up having a cult following for this book. Thanks for letting me be one of the first screaming fan-girls.

You can find out more about Rachel on her blog or by following her on twitter.

100/10 stars. I'm serious. It's that good.

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

P.S. There will be three books in Rachel's series as Disney Hyperion bought a 3 book deal!!

Stacey Voss, Author of THUNDER AND BLOOD, Virtual Tour Stop!!

2009-09-30T17:12:00.001-07:00

OfficiallyMRS is hosting the first stop the virtual tour for Stacey Voss's Thunder and Blood!!

I have read a lot of vampire books. More than my fair share and certainly more than I ever intended to read. So many vampire books that when my father and I were talking about one of my favorite fictional characters at lunch, he asked in his sarcastic tone, "Well, Mary, is he a vampire?"

("no, dad, he's a faerie. Don't you listen?" I replied)

But this one sticks out from the rest. Thunder and Blood is a thrilling story about what happens when you drift through the fog,turn to the person (or dog) closest to you and say "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas (or in this case, Thunder Bay, anymore)." But instead of a beautiful place with a Yellow Brick road, you enter a world of creatures you thought were meerly myths. Stacey Voss has created a brilliant story that will undoubtedly keep you on the edge of your seat.

When Sarah Ingram and her sister Christine left Thunder Bay on a chilly November afternoon, they thought that they were going on a weekend getaway, leaving their problems behind. What they didn't realize was that they would end up in a world that was, in many ways, very different from their own, but at the same time eerily familiar. Separated almost at once, the two women found themselves struggling to come to terms with the reality of their situation. How did this world become so different from the one they knew? What secrets were their new 'friends' hiding from them? Was it possible that there could be more to the vampire stories from their own world than simple myth?

With a well thought out story, well developed characters, and a writing style that kept me interested, Stacey Voss has gone above and beyond the call of duty for a first time author. Why this book was never picked up by a major publishing company, I will never know. I hope to be seeing much, much more from her. 11 out of 10 stars.
As apart of her Virtual Tour stop, Stacey agreed to do a mini-interview with me by choosing her five favorite quesitons from my previous interview with Victoria Schwab!

Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer?
I wrote my very first short story when I was five years old. I kept at it all through elementary and high school. I never imagined I'd be able to write a whole novel. Novels are HARD! I would always get stuck in that dreaded editing loop, where you get to a certain point and can't get any further because you just can't resist going back through what you've written already. Nanowrimo helped me to get past that because the whole goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days without editing at all. I managed it despite being on my honeymoon for two of the weeks.

What is your favourite part about being a writer?
I love watching my characters develop. The coolest thing is when they do something completely unexpected and I just sit back after writing it out and wonder "where did THAT come from?" Thunder and Blood developed like that. Lord Radek's late night discussion with Christine was like that. Whenever I'd get stuck I'd go sit somewhere quiet (usually in the bath) and just picture myself in a conversation with my characters. I'd really try to get into their heads and figure out what they, as a real person, would do in that situation. I know it sounds crazy, but I never claimed to be completely sane. :P

What advice can you give to young adults who want to write professionally when they are older?
Write as much as you can, and get involved in any writing activities offered by your school or community. Most importantly, constantly strive to improve and learn to take constructive criticism and learn from it. My writing is like my baby, and my first reaction when someone doesn't like something is to get upset. You need to learn to step back, breath, and look objectively at your own work from the other person's point of view. You may decide to take their advice (or not) but at the very least it gives you a glimpse into the mind of a different type of reader.

How did you get the idea for your book?
I first got the idea when I was a teenager, driving through the countryside just outside of my city. I was just cruising around, probably thinking about boys, when this incredibly thick fog just seemed to come out of nowhere. It was exactly like I described it in my book – that's where I got the image of the fog sliding over the windshield like a silk sheet. It was terrifying at the time, but when I finally emerged from the fog unscathed, I thought, "Wow, what a cool idea for a book!"
It took me several years before I actually used the idea and the first time I attempted to write Thunder and Blood (which was called something completely different at the time) I stopped very early on. It was put away again for about 8 years before I actually wrote it during the 2007 Nanowrimo.

How do you come up with your characters? Do you base them off of people you know?
Well, Sarah was developed when I first attempted to write the story. She was based off of where I was at, emotionally and physically, when I was about 24. People always ask me if Sarah is me, and I try to explain that she is who I was back then. I'm a very different person now, having remarried and lived in Europe for three years.
Adelaide is the only other character based off of someone I know, and that's only physically. My best friend is a beautiful red-head and I wanted to include someone like that in the book.
Other than those two, all of my characters are completely fictional.

One response that I found intriguing was the fact that Stacey wrote this book during NaNoWriMo, something that I just registered for today. Maybe someday you all will be reading my NaNoWriMo work as well and hopefully liking it as much as I liked Stacey's!

To find out more about Stacey and her book, Thunder and Blood, you can visit her author site, follow her on twitter, join her Facebook fan page or group, find her on Myspace, look her up on Shelfari, Goodreads, and Gather. You can also view her book trailers (Video 1 and Video 2) on Youtube. To purchase Thunder and Blood you can either click on the cover image of her book above or go to Cafe Press, although she does email free PDFs of Thunder and Blood by request on her site!
In honour of her Virtual Book Tour, Stacey going to let me offer my readers 25% off the normal book price (10.99 US) using the discount code 3Z8WYLY2 on the printer’s storefront. That code will be active until November 30th. So go buy your book!! Trust me when I tell you, you won't regret it!!
Thank you Stacey for letting me host this virtual tour!! It was a pleasure and I hope that you will include me in future tours!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Stacey Voss Virtual Tour

2009-09-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Stacey Voss, the author of Thunder and Blood, will be starting her virtual tour this thursday (October 1st), with OfficiallyMRS as her first stop. As a part of the tour, Stacey will be on OfficiallyMRS from 8am-4pm EST answering the questions posted by readers on the site. I just thought I would let you know so that you can start to think up some questions for her!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Update

2009-09-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

Guys!

I just got an interview with Melissa De La Cruz about the Van Alen Legacy!! Squeel!

Just thought I'd let you know!

OfficiallyMRS

Where Are YOU From?

2009-09-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,
I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I am really busy READING and keeping up with my homework, but here is a list of great things to come on OfficiallyMRS.
I am going to be announcing the winner of the book contest tomorrow! You only have a few more hours to sign up!
I am in the process of writing a review for "Hex Hall" (ARC) and interviewing the author, the wonderful Rachel Hawkins.
I am participating in the virtual tour of Stacy Voss, author of Thunder and Blood on October 1st.
I am going to several book signings for sure the one for Melissa De La Cruz (and a few maybes if I can convince my parents: Cassandra Clare, Holly Black.)
I am about to do an author interview and review with Courtney Summers, author of Cracked Up to Be.
I am about to do a review of my advanced copy of The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz.

I have a question for all of you guys: I have been noticing I am getting a lot of international hits. If you are reading this, can you comment on what country you are from? This is just a curiosity thing to see where my readers are all reading from!! Thanks!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Melissa De La Cruz Book Tour

2009-09-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

On October 8th, I will be taking another adventure, this time to the Barnes and Nobles in Skokie to meet Melissa De La Cruz. I am a huge fan of her books (btw, in case you didnt get the memo- I have in my possesion the ARC of Van Alen Legacy. I am working on it!!). Not only am I freaking excited to meet her but I am also very anxious about the following instructions:

Come dressed in your Blue Bloods finest and celebrate with me at a Van Alen Legacy vampire Ball! Reading, signing and beauty give-aways!

This is probably the most ridiculous and girly thing I will ever say.
Ever.
What should I wear?
Any advice giver will win my undying gratitude and affection.
Make me look like a vampire.
Go.

Interview with Victoria Schwab

2009-09-13T15:42:00.001-07:00

And now for my first ever author interview... drum roll please....

Victoria Schwab is YA lit author who is represented by Amy Tipton at FinePrint Literary Management. Disney Hyperion just bought her novel, The Near Witch, the first of hers ever to be published!! She was nice enough to do this author interview with me!! So here goes...

What is your full name?

Victoria Elizabeth Schwab

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Sacramento, CA and my family moved to Nashville when I was three, then back to San Jose, CA, and finally back to Nashville. So I basically split my childhood between the two.

How old are you?

Where did you go to school?

After attending an all girls' southern prep school (don't laugh!) I just graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, with a degree in book design.

Do you have siblings?

I am an only child! But I try to be as much work as two or three children, to make the family feel bigger.

Now for some legitimate questions about her book and the writing industry:

Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer?

I always wanted to work with words. I grew up on Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss, and then Blake, and when I was young I practically thought in rhyme. I didn't try my hand at fiction until I got to college, and I didn't try writing a book until my junior year. I tried every other genre first (poetry, screenwriting, short fiction) because I was determined I would be terrible at full-length fiction.

What is your favorite part about being a writer?

Aside from the incredible energy and enthusiasm of the writing community, particularly YA, I just love the way words sound. I love putting them together and listening to the way they work and flow. I love telling stories, and I love the WAYS you can tell them.

What advice can you give to young adults who want to write professionally when they are older?

I can't stress the importance of exposure. Expose your eyes and your minds to everything you can. Read books, of course, but also look around, and just generally be a sponge. Everything you encounter has a story, or can have one. I've been most inspired by the things I stumble on, from my morning walks to foreign cities to forgotten corners.

How in the world did you get published at 22!? How did you find time to write in college? Not even Meg Cabot got published until her thirties!!

The to-be-published at 22, NOT EASY. I didn't start writing full-length fiction until college, though (I wrote poetry in high school, much of it remarkably bad :p but it gave me a feel for words and the way they flow together that I try to capitalize on in fiction). In college, I took a few fiction courses, and between my Soph and Junior year I wrote a book! And I was happy, but it wasn't very good, and I put it away, and focused on school. The next summer, an agent named Nathan Bransford hosted a dialogue contest, so I pulled the book back out, and entered, and got third!
The prize was a query critique, but he loved the query and the story (I was 20 at this point) and he wanted to read the partial, then the full. During this time I polished up the book I'd shelved, and queried other agents, and thirteen days later I signed with Amy Tipton at FP, who I ADORE. But this book DIDN'T sell. It went on sub for months and months, and in February of this year, I started NEAR WITCH, to keep my sanity. And then in the summer, NW went out on sub! Right after my 22nd Bday. And then a couple weeks ago, it sold!

Well, by the time THE NEAR WITCH comes out, I'll be 23! Time flies.
I'll just add that I made time. If I had tried to find time, I never would have been able to. But it's almost always there, if you make it work. I set aside an hour here or there, and when I couldn't write, I thought about it. I joke that I did most of my plot work staring at the stripe on the swimming pool floor. If you can make space in your head to think about your stories, you can carve out time to write them down. That said, I didn't do much sleeping.

What are some of the books that have most influenced you as a writer and/or a person? What were your favorite books growing up? What are some of your favorite books currently? Any favorite authors?

Shel Silverstein influenced the way I saw the world, and still see it. As did fairy tales (I love fairy tales and folklore). The Giver, The Princess Bride, and the Secret Garden were some of my favorite stories (secret gardens seems to come up a lot in my writing, actually). I spent my teens with Harry Potter, so that definitely influenced me, too.

How did you get the ideas for your books? How do you come up with your characters? Do you base them off of people you know?

It's always a bit different, and I don't recommend my approach, but I always start with an image, or a line. I love words, and I love the way they sound, so I'll get a sentence sometimes that I love, and then unfold the story around it.
With my first book, the one that hasn't sold (my editor might decide she wants it), it is called THE SHADOW MILE. And it all started with an image of a door standing in an empty lot, without a room behind, just standing there, half-rotted. I walked past the door a few times on my daily walks in real life, and always wondered what it might have led to, once.
With THE NEAR WITCH, however, it was a line. The very first line of the book. "The wind on the moors is a tricky thing." I wrote that line, and had no idea what it meant. I went back to it six months later, and felt like the story was there, sitting and waiting for me.
It always starts its own way. You just have to keep your eyes open, and ask questions :)

My main characters are never people I know, though I do tend to base secondary characters on people I've met, teachers I've had, relatives...My main characters do, however, tend to embody something I don't, some trait I wish I possessed.

Tell us about Near Witch!! What should we look forward to seeing in this book? Will there be a sequel?

The Near Witch is fairy-tale like story set in northern England. Here's the shorter pitch:

There’s an old ghost story in the town of Near. It tells of a witch that lived
on the edge of the village, and gobbled up all the darkness, and sang the hills to sleep, and loved the children almost as much as the garden she kept beside her house.
Sixteen-year-old Lexi Harris, the daughter of a tracker, has heard
the stories her entire life, first from her father, and then from old Magda and Marta, who might be witches themselves. Everyone loves to tell the story, but everyone knows a different ending. Some say that the Near Witch blew away on a gust of wind. Others tell of darker things. Of murders and curses and buried bones.
To Lexi, they’ve always been stories, nothing more. But when a strange
and silent boy walks into the village of Near, and then the wind begins to lure children from their beds at night, she starts to wonder if there’s any truth in them. Could the Near Witch be more than a ghost story?

There is romance! And mystery. And suspense. There's also a different take on the meaning of "witch." In my book, it's not someone with a crooked nose who leans over a cauldron. It's something else. It has to do with the way we interact with the world. It's about the balance between man and nature, and those who are more earth and stone than flesh and blood. As far as sequels/prequels/companions, nothing official :)

Who is your favorite character in Near Witch?

I love all my characters :)

If you could pick one character in Near Witch to be real, who would you choose?

I would love it if the stranger, whose name is Cole, could be real. I have a crush on him :) I have a soft spot for wild + mystery + brooding.

If you could be one character in your book, who would it be?
If I could BE a character it would be my narrator, Lexi. I adore writing her, and she's a really strong, independent girl. I admire her.

What are you most excited to tell us about your book?

I just can't wait to share The Near Witch with you guys. I hope you fall for the characters and their world the way I did writing it. And I hope that, while you're somewhere between the two covers, your own world falls away. That's all I could ever want.

What are some things you were surprised about during the publishing/editing process?

It's a lot of work! And it's not all writing. AND even though it seems like it takes forever for a book to come out, there is a lot that has to happen, and the deadlines are pretty fast!

These are some goofy personal questions:

What is your favorite movie? Favorite TV show of the moment?

Movies: This changes ALL the time, so it's hard, but as far as shows: I am in love with Dexter, and True Blood, and So You Think You Can Dance. It's an eclectic mix :p

What was you favorite/ least favorite part of high school/being a teenager?

Well, I went to an all-girls southern prep school, and my favorite part was not having to think about what to wear (uniforms). My least favorite part was that I was one of the ONLY girls that wasn't a native Nashvillian, or a Debutante, so I often felt excluded.

Favorite song/artist of the moment?

My current obsessions: Blue Foundation, Tegan and Sara, A Fine Frenzy, Coldplay, Mirah, and Ludo.

Favorite color?

Slate blue.

Have any pets?

Haha, YES. I've always had animals growing up, and right now there are five. Three dogs: a golden retriever named Sammie, a terrier named Mitzi, and my 16-month-old puppy (a mutt including but not limited to golden, collie, and German Shepherd) Kuma. Two cats: Loki, and Oliver.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

England. No question. My mom's British, and I've always felt more at home on English soil.

If you were trapped on a desert island and you could only bring 3 items and 1 person with you, what/who would they be?

I'd bring The Princess Bride, a hunting knife, sunscreen (I am of the paler variety), and Bear Grylls, from the show Man vs. Wild. He seems like he knows what he's doing.

If the world was being invaded by aliens and you just won five million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with it?

I'd buy books! One, because I never have money to buy as many books as I'd like, and two, because maybe I could use them to barter with the aliens. I might also buy a place in England. And another cat.

Personally, I am really excited about this book! It sounds like it has all of the makings of what will be a fantastic story: suspense, romance, putting a new spin on what we think fairy tales and folklore are and that one creepy character that makes you wonder what the helk is going? on while still being drawn to them. My one disappointment: this book doesn't come out until 2011 :(. Still, I'm glad that I have something great to look forward too! Thank you Victoria for doing this interview with me!! I had a blast and you couldn't have been nicer! Keep me updated :P!! You can find out more about Victoria by reading her blog!!

Rest in Peace, Dr. Skalinder.

2009-09-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

An unrelated note: one of my favorite teachers died today. He went by Dr. Skal and he was a great man with a big heart and a love for learning, the sciences, his family and his students. We all loved him and I was extremely fortunate to get to know him. He died too young. When we all remember our losses tommorow as it is the 9/11 aniversary, please keep him in mind.
Dr. Skal- you will be missed.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Some Exciting YA News

2009-09-10T18:09:00.001-07:00

Some very quick YA lit news...

Disney Hyperion is going to be publishing a new series by Maureen Johnson. Yea!! Click here to read the press release!
The first episode of The Vampire Diaries based off of the popular YA series by just had its first episode! All of you Twilight fans, get excited. From what I've seen, they are very similar. The Edward equivalent even kind of looks like Emmett....
I just posted the countdown for the New Moon movie. Get excited.

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

Heist Society (ARC)

2009-09-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted out of the life you were given? Wanted to distance yourself from the the family, or occupation, you were born into? That's exactly how Kat feels about her family and their chosen occupation, being some of the greatest and most notorious art thieves in the world (or art distributors as Kat likes to put it). In order to leave her con artist life, Katarina Bishop plans a con of her own, wiggling her way into one of the most prestigious boarding schools on the planet, Colgan.

That is where Hale comes in. The super-spicy, super-rich, mysterious and mischievous thief who has been Kat's friend since Kat broke into his house to steal his Monet (unsuccessfully, I might add). Hale gets Kat kicked out of Colgan with a little stunt involving the Principal's car and a fountain as he has recently discovered that Kat's dad has been falsely accused of stealing the paintings of a rather dangerous man, Arturo Taccone. With a deadline of 2 weeks set by Taccone, Kat leaves with Hale and a few members of her family to accomplish an impossible task, find and steal back Taconne's paintings before Kat's dad gets hurt. Friendship, romance, betrayal, threats, and danger are always present as Kat and her friends set off on a whirlwind adventure around Europe.
Here is a synopsis from the book jacket...

When Katarina Bishops was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre... to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Australia... to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own - scamming herself into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected. Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help. For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history- and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

From the bestselling author of I'd Tell you I Love You but Then I'd Have to Kill, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, and most recently Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover, Ally Carter, comes a thrilling story about art and the people who steal it.

Told from a 3rd person narration (verses the first person narration in the Gallagher Girl series), the plot and characters in Heist Society are ones that could undoubtedly be found in the same world that Ally created in the Gallagher Girl series. I wouldn't be surprised if one day Cammie and Zach were tracking down Kat and Hale. Both Kat and Cammie have training, language skills, and stealth that the average teenager does not have.

I loved this book as much, if not more than Ally's other books. I thought that the style of writing was much more mature so that teens my age felt comfortable reading it. I found that the characters were strong and realistic and that the plot was well thought out so that pieces of the story that you wouldn't think were important at the time are crucial to the resolution. In fact, I may have to read it again just so that I can pick up on all of the clues found in the beginning pages of the book. This book was really addicting and absorbing, so make sure that you have a long chunk of time where you can just sit down and read because you are not going to want to set this story down. If you liked the Gallagher Girl books, you will love Heist Society as well!

Thank you Ally for the AMAZING read!! I can't wait to see the official cover art! Also, thank you Molly over at Disney Hyperion for sending me this Advance Reader's Copy! It has been on my "I cannot wait until that book comes out, mark it on my calendar, countdown the days" book list since I first heard that Ally had another series coming out when I went to her book signing in Naperville.

Heist Society comes out February 2010. To learn more about Ally Carter and her books you can go to her author website, read her blog, or you can follow her on twitter!
More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

On My To Be Read List

2009-09-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

School has started, much to my disappointment, and therefore the reviews are going to be slowing down a bit. But that doesn't mean they aren't going to happen. To give you all an idea of what's coming up and what books I am really excited to read are, I have decided to post my now explosive TBR pile. Here goes:
I just finished:
Heist Society by Ally Carter (ARC- release date February 2010) *starts jumping up and down*
I am about to start:
1) The Van Alen Legacy: A Blue Bloods Novel by Melissa De La Cruz (ARC- publishing date October 6, 2009)
2) Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (ARC- release date March 2010)
These all will be read, though not necessarily in this order:
3) Secrets of Truth and Beauty by Frazer
4) Girlfriend Material (recently release ARC copy) by Kantor
5) Cracked Up to Be by Summers
6) Keeping Corner by Sheth
7) Karma for Beginners by Blank
8) Alphas (recently release ARC copy) by Lisi Harrison
9) Skeleton Creek by Carman
10) Psych Major Syndrome by Thompson
11) Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison
12) Fairest of All by Valentino
It's a pretty big list. Thanks so much to Molly at Disney Hyperion and Suzie at Fineprint Literary Agency for sending me all of these books!! I really appreciate it! I am so excited!!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

How to Spot an Author in a Crowd

2009-09-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

There are things that you notice when you've grown up around the arts. Or at least things you notice when you pay attention. String players lead with their heads, allowing their intellectual abilities to guide them forward both physically and mentally. Piano players lead with their hands. Dancers lead with their torsos. And the sign of a good actor is the seemingly deliberate and fluid actions that they make with a looseness and relaxed manner that suggests they could slip into any role of which they have been assigned, forming it and making it their own in a way only one who is stealing anothers identity can do, something I have tried and failed to master. Maybe that's why I've failed. Maybe I try to hard.
But as writer, we do the same thing. We steal the fictional identities of the people whose lives we control, molding it like a piece of clay until it's exactly how we like it. We lead with our hearts, working to rip the bits and pieces of our recollections and observations, bleeding it onto the pages that others, if we are lucky, will read. So where you might be able to spot a woodwind player in a city or an actor in a crowd, how do you spot an author?
The answer: They will always have a book with them.

Winner of The Book Playlist!!

2009-09-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I put up a contest to win a book play list by me and the winner was decided today. So I would like to congratulate elaing8 for winning this contest! If you could either post your email address or shoot me an email at officiallymrs@gmail.com so that you can pick a book off of my blog for me to make a mix for, that would be great! If you do not respond in the next week, I will choose someone else to recieve the book playlist!
I will also post the mix here to OfficiallyMRS when I am done with it, but the physical CD will be sent to elaing8!! Thank you to all of my followers for joining OfficiallyMRS. I really appreciate it!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Catching Fire

2009-08-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

I am going to start this off by saying I have not finished the book. My mental sanity depends on me not finishing it in one weekend. When you get the book tomorrow, you will understand (especially when you get to page 173).
This is what I can tell you:

Everything that I have said so far is true. I did hit a weak point in the book. I do believe that this plot might be stretched a bit too thin.
I am still terrified.
The Quater Quell is coming up, which adds to my terror, as well as the terror and excitement of the book and it's characters.
There are major reoccurring themes from The Hunger Games.
Things are changing in Panem.
Things are changing for Peeta and Katniss.
Things are changing for Katniss and Gale.
Part 1 of the book really is not that great, especially the beginning of it. It doesn't really get exciting until page 173!
I think that in some parts of the book, Katniss is a whiny, selfish brat. Although I am pretty sure everyone would be in her situation, there are some really stupid relationship things where she is just being selfish and hurtful. In other words, not really the best role model for a healthy relationship.
This book can be read by someone who has never read The Hunger Games, although you won't enjoy it as much because some very important details will go right over your head.
I liked The Hunger Games better.

This series in general largely resembles the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, which was written to illustrate the pointless violence in our world. If you want a taste for what The Hunger Games series is about, I would suggest reading it (you can read it by clicking on the link above). I would NOT recommend this book for kids under the age of thirteen. I am truly terrified and disturbed by this series and I am starting my sophomore year of high school tomorrow.

Because I am not exactly giving you guys the best review of this book (as I haven't finished it yet), here is a link to the Entertainment Weekly review of Catching Fire. Some of it I agree with and some of it I do not, as you will see from reading my former blog entries about Catching Fire.

This is the part I most agree with: this being a teen novel — she also has boyfriend problems. For PR purposes, Katniss pretends to be in love with her sweet-natured Games teammate Peeta Mellark, but she secretly pines for brooding Gale, a childhood friend. Except — why? There's little distinction between the two thinly imagined guys, other than the fact that Peeta has a dopier name. Collins conjures none of the erotic energy that makes Twilight, for instance, so creepily alluring.

The book goes on sale tomorrow though, so you don't exactly have to wait long, but here is another mini excerpt!! All of the material below is the work of Suzanne Collins and should be checked against the final printing of Catching Fire as my copy is an ARC copy which has mistakes in it!

Page 118: "Life in District 12 isn't really so different from life in the arena. At some point, you have to spot running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it."

I hope you all enjoy Catching Fire!

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

Catching Fire (Again...)

2009-08-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

So maybe I spoke too soon. About it not being a prolonged plot. Or maybe I've just hit a really weak point in the book. But as of now, Catching Fire isn't that entertaining. It's creepy. Really, really creepy, but you can't have a book based only on creepiness.
I am getting really ticked off with Katniss and her relationship drama. As she said herself, she is being selfish. And if there is one thing that really bugs me about TeenLit it's the damsels in distress, oh save me!, let's run away from our problems, I am such a brat but I am not going to change who I am, whining stuff. It's the one issue I had with Twilight.
And it's one of the major issues I am now dealing with with Catching Fire.
I am not saying it's a bad book. It's just.... not as good as The Hunger Games.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Catching Fire (So Far...)

2009-08-30T12:32:00.001-07:00

This is just an idea of what the book is like so far. I plan to do a full review sometime tomorrow or maybe later today.
After an unwelcome visit and threat from President Snow, Peeta and Katniss have left on tour. There relationship is changing (how, I refuse to tell you! You have to read the book) whether they want it to or not. In many ways, the Hunger Games have left the arena and are now roaming with Katniss and Peeta through the districts: Haymitch is still their mentor and all of their lives are still at stake, along with those they love and care about. So far, this book is really creepy and foreboding, keeping the tension and thrilling themes that were scattered throughout The Hunger Games. I was truly afraid that this book would just draw out The Hunger Games with an unnecessary plot, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
Personally, I am terrified.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Catching Fire (Excerpt)

2009-08-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

Because I have been crazy busy with getting ready for school to start, I thought that you guys might want a Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins excerpt to tie you over until I can finish the book and do my review. So this is from Chapter Three and pretty much tells what the plot of the book is (from what I have read so far.):

"A visit from President Snow. Districts on the verge of uprisings. A direct death threat to Gale, with others to follow. Everyone I loved doomed. And who knows who else will pay for my actions? Unless I turn things around on this tour. Quiet the discontent and put the president's mind at rest. And how? By proving to the country beyond any shadow of a doubt that I love Peeta Mellark."

I am loving this book and cannot wait to finish it so I can review it for you guys!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Contest: Win a Book Playlist

2009-08-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

So I come back from outdoor ed, open up my blog and find that my blog now had double the followers, along with hits from all over the county and all over the WORLD.
Then I open up my twitter for OfficiallyMRS. It too has a significant amount of people following me now that weren't following me before.
In celebration of this, I want to do something special for all of my followers.
As music is a huge part of my life, this is what is going to happen. I am going to pick a random person that is following me and send them a playlist that I make for any book that has been reviewed on OfficiallyMRS. They get to pick the book and the CD with my mix on it will be sent to them! A creative give away, if I do say so myself. I will pick the random follower this Tuesday (September 1st)!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Catching Fire

2009-08-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

So guys, guess what??
I just recieved an ARC copy of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins!! Do you know how excited I am!! I am going to read as fast as I possibly can so I can get a review to you all by the release date! I would expect it probably sunday, maybe saturday!!!
I want to thank Suzie at FinePrint Literary Management for lending me her copy of Catching Fire along with several other books!!! Thank you so much!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Contest: Win a copy of Girl Goddess #9

2009-08-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

I have decided that it is time to hold a contest of OfficiallyMRS.
The prize.... what else, a BOOK! As this is my first contest I am only going to be giving away one book, my copy of Girl Goddess #9, a collection of 9 short stories about girls by Francesca Lia Block published by HarperCollins Publishers.
Here is a synopsis from the jacket of the book:

Welcome to GIRL GODDESS #9, a collection of nine stories about girls by the author of WEETZIE BAT. Here in these pages are girl goddesses of every age and shape and size, wearing combat boots and spiky hair or dressed all in white. One girl has two moms, another has no mother at all but a strange blue-skinned elf that lives in her closet. One is a rock-star groupie, another loves dancing and reading poetry and having picnics in the backyard when the moon is full. Best best girlfriends, lovers gay and straight. Baby goddesses, singing goddesses, dancing goddesses, writing goddesses- all discovering that the world is not a simple place and that there is more than one way to live.

I loved this book and found it a fun read, perfect to get your mind off of your own life and onto someone else's, or in this case a few different peoples'. Just to sit back and enjoy the last bits of nice weather before winter hits.

So here are the groundrules for the contest:

1) You will recieve one entry to the contest if you comment on this blog entry saying that you want to be entered in the contest with your email address.

2) You will recieve three extra entries if you are a follower or become a follower of OfficiallyMRS
3) You will recieve one extra entry if you follow OfficiallyMRS on twitter. You must leave your twitter username with your comment saying that you are now a follower.

3) You will recieve four extra entries if you post an entry about this contest or about OfficiallyMRS to your blog. You must post a link to said entry with your comment.

4) You will recieve one extra entry if you tweet about this contest with a link to OfficiallyMRS. Please make sure that you make this an @ mention otherwise I will not be able to count it as an entry.
Open to residence of the continental US only!
The contest closes on September 21st at midnight central time.

Have fun and good luck!

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

Going Bovine

2009-08-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is a link to the trailer about Libba Bray's (author of A Great and Terrible Beauty Series) new book, Going Bovine. I almost died I was laughing so hard! I cannot wait to read this book. Good for you Libba! Way to go!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Book Thief

2009-08-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

So because I had to write a letter to my teacher about The Book Thief for my summer reading assignment, I decided that it was close enough to a blog entry that I could just post it here too. I edited it so it's a lot less mind numbing and boring.

When I first picked up The Book Thief by Markus Zusack, I was excited. Yes, I know that is usually not the response you get to a summer reading book, but even just within the first few pages, I knew this book was going to be different than any I had ever read. I loved this book because it was probably one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read, and not just in the “what is the answer to life” way, but in the way it was written. Although there were some pieces that I undeniably disliked, the book as a whole was one of the most powerful books I have ever read.
The stories within the stories fascinated me. They exemplified the changes that occurred during Nazi Germany as well as helped me relate the varied stories to my own life. For example, the story of Rudy as he painted himself black and ran the 100-meter so that he could resemble Jessi Owens. The negative and fearful reactions that were provoked from this incident from his father enlightened me to how lucky I really am. Although I may be sheltered in some extent, the racial and religious acceptance that is found in our society today, although there are exceptions, is something I can now value after reading The Book Thief.
Although I did value the stories within the stories, I found some of them unnecessarily prolonging and irrelevant. I realize that the experience that I had with The Book Thief would not have been the same is Zusak had not included these stories, but some of the insight that I received into Liesel’s life made the book so that it was long and tedious rather than enthralling as it was in most other parts of the book. As a consequence into these random yet heart filled and insightful stories, I did not really begin to appreciate the book until about 200 pages into it. As a general rule of thumb, if a book does not grab my attention by page 100, I put it down. Although I am grateful that I did not do so with this book, I wish that Markus Zusack had not danced along the edges of the conflict rather than just entering it within the first pieces of the book. If it had not been for Zusacks’ incredible gift for arranging words on a page in the unique way that he does, I severely doubt that The Book Thief would have become the phenomenon that it is, if in fact, it had even been published.
Along that note, probably the thing I most got out of The Book Thief was the writing and narration style that Markus Zusack gave Death (the narrator). This entire book is poetic with lines that allow you to fully immerse yourself in Nazi Germany. The entirety in which I was absorbed was so strong that reading this book was like watching a film in my head. Everything from tone of voice to broken silences (“The silence snapped like a rubber band”) to the use of describing words and objects that would normally be irrelevant to the situation (such as on “small chips of rain.”) make this book unique and enthralling.
A piece that I loved about getting to know Liesel was her love for books. This common thread allowed me to connect with the book and think about what reading and books mean to me. I realize how lucky I am to be receiving and education as well as having an unlimited and easy access to books.
*runs up and hugs the closest librarian she can find*
To read more about Markus Zusak and The Book Thief click here!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Mortal Instruments News

2009-08-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

EDITS HAVE BEEN MADE
HEY GUYS! GUESS WHAT?! GUESS WHAT?! CAN YOU TELL THAT I AM JUMPING UP AND DOWN WHILE TYPING THIS! IT'S HARD TO DO BUT WELL WORTH IT!
YOU WANNA KNOW WHY?
DO YA?
DO YA?
DO YA?!
TWO pieces of news.
TWO.
NOT ONE.
BUT TWO
REALLY. COOL. PIECES. OF. NEWS.
ABOUT PRETTY MUCH MY FAVORITE SERIES OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!

*takes long deep, calming breath and begins to type about news rather than her excitement about the news.*

There is going to be ANOTHER Mortal Instruments Book.
let me clarify (can I say claryfy in this situation though? hahaha)
1)This does NOT include the prequels to the series, the Infernal Devices Trilogy
2) Edit: this IS the book that will follow Simon's story, but Clary and Jace will be apart of it
3)This book is called City of Fallen Angels and it will be released March of 2011.
Yes. I know. It's pretty cool.
But now for the OTHER piece of news....
The Mortal Instruments Series is going to be a trilogy of movies. Pretty cool right?
Yeah.
EXCITEMENT!
Edit: There is more!! TMI series is going to be made into a graphic novel
Here is the link to the official press release
If you want to know more about the news that was released today at The Mortal Instruments party, follow MundieSource.Net on Twitter! or follow Cassandra Clare on Twitter or follow OfficiallyMRS (me) on Twitter or go to Cassandra Clare's official website!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS
P.S. Here are two amazing videos I found on Youtube that I love about the Mortal Instruments. Soo funny!
The Lightwood Llama Song
The Jace Song<<

Um... WOW.

2009-08-21T21:10:00.001-07:00
So I just open up my twitter account and look at my @messages.
I have two.
From Ally Carter.
As in author of Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover, Cross my Heart and Hope to Spy, and I'd Tell You I love You but Then I'd have to Kill You
"Well, that's pretty cool." I think to myself. It's awesome to get recognized by one of your favorite authors. It's just a cool feeling. Even if it is only on twitter.
And then I go to her website and poke around looking for dirt on her new book The Hiest Society.
I open up her blog.
And there is a blog entry.
WITH AN ENTRY LINKING TO MY BLOG ON TEENREADS.COM.
*heart leaps* *gasp* *Starts jumping up and down screaming* (overexageration,I might add.)
So it's pretty cool. Just thought I would let you all know.
Here is a link to Ally's blog where my blog entry was linked from.
Here is a link to the teenreads.com blog which I wrote and you can find it here on OfficiallyMRS (it is a little bit longer on this site though. We had to cut it down a bit).
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Truth or Fail

2009-08-21T16:21:00.000-07:00
This is kind of amazing. And it has John Green in it. Which makes it more amazing. Because he writes AMAZING BOOKS!
(can you guess what I am going to say next???? yeah. AMAZING! I am nothing if not consistant)
Click here to play TRUTH OR FAIL: the John Green Book's
Youtubes only game show!!

More Wings News

2009-08-21T11:05:00.000-07:00
Okay, so after looking at Suzie's comment on the last blog entry, I decided to do some research.
It's true.
Miley strikes again.
This is from Aprilynne Pike's website.

"Miley Cyrus, Disney, Temple Hill, and Wings
By Kenneth Pike - Posted on 14 July 2009
In the summer of 2007, my wife wrote a book. It was a good book! I enjoyed it. I had a notion that it would get published. I even made some predictions to that effect.
Apparently I was thinking too small. Remind me never to underestimate my wife.
The film rights to Wings have been optioned by Disney (yeah, that Disney). Attached to produce are none other than Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment. Attached to star? The inimitable Miley Cyrus, with Tish Cyrus attached as an executive producer.
So now you know.
The fine print, of course, is that Hollywood is a complicated place to be. Disney may decide, for whatever reason, to never exercise the option. Scripts change. Casting choices change. This is only the first step down the road to a movie--a road that could be long, short, or somewhere in-between.
But, hey, what a step, right? d^_^b
If you haven't already, please stop by Aprilynne's blog and congratulate her. And if you happen to be someone from HarperTeen, Writers House, UTA, Disney, Temple Hill, or anyone else who has been involved in the tremendous process of making Wings what it has become, you deserve a round of applause. Well done.
And the rest of you, who have enjoyed Aprilynne's book by the thousands: thank you. I apologize for posting so often on her behalf, but Aprilynne is hard at work making the rest of the series something really special for you to enjoy.
Please feel free to insert a witty valediction here. d^_^b"

I personally am not sure how I feel about this. I would love to have a Wings the movie.
I would be thrilled for Aprilynne and her hard work and I would go see it and force my friends to go see it even if they don't want to.
And I have nothing against Miley. She is very talented.
But I am not at all sure how I feel about the combination of the two.
At. All.
What do you guys think?
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Wings News!

2009-08-20T18:31:00.000-07:00
The second book in Aprillynne Pike's Wings series will be coming out an entire month earlier than expected!! yeah!! The official release date is now May 4th (v.s. June 8th)!!! Excitement!!

Evermore

2009-08-20T18:27:00.000-07:00
So I just read the first 2 chapters of Evermore by Alissa Noel and *gasp* I am loving it. I have the same feeling that I got when I read Twilight and City of Bones. I cannot wait to finish it!

Julie and Julia

2009-08-20T12:00:00.000-07:00
So I just got home from seeing Julie and Julia.
It was a great movie. But it also got me thinking: I have no real connection to this blog. I have no deadlines, and just writing about book after book is not going to do me or you any favors. Be honest, you are not going to read every book that I post about. You have lives and interests and hobbies. And if you take some of my suggestions, then great! That makes me really excited! Email me and tell me about it.
But what if this blog wasn't just about other people's stories? What if it was about my own?
So I propose this.
I will write one page a day for 365 days. Of what, I have no idea. I could do a short story over a course of a few days or a short novel over the course of a month or two. They won't be great. They will be rough and will have to be hacked out and edited over and over again. But that's what writing is. And of course I will still talk about books, and my life. But it's time for me to start writing my own stories.
What do you guys think? Please let me know by emailing me at officiallymrs@gmail.com or commenting on this blog.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Weddings... and an "Extra Special Blog Entry"

2009-08-19T22:10:00.000-07:00
So, by this time, I would totally understand if you all hated me.
My formal apology:
I am so sorry for the ridiculous amount of time since my last blog entry.
My excuse:
I was at my cousins wedding.
Let's talk weddings. I love them. They are amazing. The reasoning behind this has nothing to do with the look on the grooms face when they walk into the reception (27 Dresses) or having been apart/seen a wedding when I was younger which then made me into a wedding freak (Bride Wars) or the maid of honor being a man (Maid of Honor) or having a dog be the ring bearer (Although I am positive I have seen this in a movie, possibly Legally Blonde 2?, this actually did happen at my cousins wedding. Her dog was the ring bearer. How AMAZING is that?) It's because weddings are often romance novels brought to life. We read about people falling for each other all the time, see it on the movie screens, see the pictures in the magazines, but how often to we really see the head over heels, I am mad about you, true loves kiss, follow you anywhere kind of love? Two places.
1) While watching an old couple walk through the park hand in hand knowing that they are just as happy if not happier than they were the day that they said "I do"
2) At weddings.
Well anyways. Congrats Pete and Sarah. I love you guys!!

So I feel like I owe you guys an extra special blog entry because I absolutely failed at updating recently. So you guys get to choose on what you want me to review. Here are your choices:
1) Wicked, Lovely Series by Melissa Marr
2) The Book Thief by Markus Zusack
3) Movies that I have seen this summer (just to shake it up a bit.)
4) The Princess Diaries Series by Meg Cabot (And I am talking the ENTIRE series. I have read all of them)
5) Audiobooks (just in general. Ones that I've like, disliked, benefits, downsides, ect.)
The first comment posted to the site will be the deciding comment!! Go!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

New Look, Same Blog

2009-08-08T22:02:00.000-07:00
I hope you all like the new look for OfficiallyMRS? I thought it was time for a change. I like the new template because twilight is my favorite time of day, the time when I most like to read, when the entire world calms down and goes silent and just takes a breathe. One of the most special things I believe I will ever do in my lifetime was sitting with a group of my friends in silence as twilight fell. It's peaceful.
I like it and I hope you all do too.
I swear, I am reading, it's just taking a while to get the reviews up!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Airhead Series

2009-08-06T17:01:00.000-07:00
People say "don't judge a book by it's cover."
I say, don't judge Airhead by Meg Cabot by its title.
I am not going to say this book is well written. I'm not going to say it's mature. I'm not going to say it is one of the best books I have ever read. I am not going to say it was really appropriate for my age. Because it wasn't. It was goofy, and silly, and fun and entertaining. I wouldn't join a fan club for it, or fall in love with one of the male characters, no team Christopher or team Gabrielle or team Jason. I won't read it over and over again, in fact, I probably won't even read it a second time. But if you are looking for something where you don't really have to work to understand the story or the language, a book that can make you laugh and allow you to get swept away in the story, the Airhead series are the books for you. Sure you get strange looks when people ask you what you are reading (especially if you are blonde like I am), but they are quick, easy reads that are perfect for people from age 11-13. If you are older than that, then there are books that would better suit your age group that you will like more (go look at the archives! They are on the left!! Do it!! Now!).
Click here for a synopsis of Airhead (the first book in the series). (My computer hates me right now otherwise I would just have the synopsis posted here. Sorry!)
Click here for a synopsis of Being Nikki (the second book in the series).
Runaway (the third book in the series) is due to be out May of 2010.
For more information on Meg Cabot and the Airhead series along with her impressive library of her other books, go to http://www.megcabot.com/
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS
P.S. In honor of my friends Joely and Sophie, I am going to track down a copy of Guitar Girl and blog about it!! Love you guys!

The Last Day of Camp

2009-08-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

Today is a very sad day for me (and a very happy day for anyone who has been frustrated with my lack of legit blog entries this past month) because today is the last day of camp. The fact that I will no longer be surrounded by incredibly energetic teenagers will allow me to blog more, although I will miss all of them more than I can say. I have made so many incredible friends here! I Love you guys!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Update: you guys want to see what I did at camp during my free time!?

Yup... I read!!! Reading puddle with Jesse and my Nappy Buddy Liza! Miss you guys!!

Passing Love Notes

2009-07-31T12:03:00.000-07:00
As you will see (look over to the left!! Do it now!), I have a list of blogs that I personally like to read. A lot of them belong to published authors, but the one that I have recently added, called Passing Love Notes, is an advice blog written by a teacher, parent, and unpublished author by the name of Mechelle Fogelsong whom tries to give teens the straight and honest truth. Her blog gives good advice on everything from "how to tell your friend their outfit is bad" to "how do I deal with divorced parents who don't want to share me?" to "I like a guy who's way out of my league, what do I do?!" Things like that. She also has a synopsis of both of her unpublished books if you would like to see what kinds of books she writes. Click here if you would like to read Mechelle's blog.

Twilight... The Graphic Novel

2009-07-29T12:41:00.000-07:00
Um.. Surprise!! There is going to be a Twilight Graphic Novel.
Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about this.
On one hand, it makes my life.
On another, when will the mania end?
To read more about it click here.
Comment to cast your vote on whether or not you think the Twilight Graphic Novel is a good idea or a fail.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Treasure Map of Boys (Advance Reader's Review)

2009-07-24T10:05:00.000-07:00
Okay you guys!!
I have officially read and received the Advance Reader's Copy of "The Treasure Map of Boys," the third book in the Ruby Oliver Series by E. Lockhart. In a word, it was amazing. In more than one word it was funny and witty with realistic characters that are actually smart and they can think for themselves, rather than sit around and mope about how sucky their lives are. The people you meet in this book are people whom you could meet in your own high school. Emily Lockhart just gets the teenage mind and the reasoning for why we make the decisions that we do. This book takes the humor and easy language of books like Sarah Mlynowski's "Bras and Broomsticks"as well as Maureen Johnson's "Suite Scarlett" and combines it with the fun and drama of books like "The Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot. This book in particular had reminiscence of some of Sarah Dessen's books in the plot line, although the writing could not be more different than that of Sarah's.
It has been incredibly fun for me to read the ARC of this book because it still has a bunch of typos. If you ever get the chance to get an ARC copy of any book, do it! It's a blast!
Here is a synopsis from the back of the book:
"Ruby is back at Tate Prep and it's her thirty- seventh week in the of noyboyfriend. Her panic attacks are bad, her love life is even worse and what's more:
Noel is writing her notes,
Jackson is giving her frogs,
Gideon is helping her cook
and Finn is making her brownies
Rumors are flying, and Ruby's already sucky reputation is heading downhill
Not only that, she's also:
running a bake sale,
learning the secrets of heavy metal therapy,
encountering some seriously smelly feet,
defending the rights of pygmy goat,
and bodyguarding Noel from unwanted advances.
In this companion novel to The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book, Ruby struggles to secure some sort of mental health, to understand what constitutes a real friendship, and- if such a thing exists- to find true love."
With the characters we loved (and hated) from both The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book comes a fun story that deals with boys and keeping our sanity through the drama and stress of high school. Even if you haven't read any of the other Ruby Oliver books, you can still understand this book fully. The Treasure Map of Boys is a book that is perfect for the beach or a beautiful summer day.
It will be released on July 28th, 2009 as a 256 paged hardcover book. Thank you so much to Random House Publishing and Emily Lockhart for sending me this advance reader's copy.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

TeenReads.com Guest Blog Now Live!

2009-07-21T15:21:00.000-07:00
Hey guys,
As previously mentioned, I was chosen to be a guest blogger on teenreads.com, one of the largest teen lit sites in the country. I just recently recieved an email that my article about meeting Ally Carter (which you can find on OfficiallyMRS as well) is now live on the teenreads.com blog. Click here to read the article and to check out more on teenreads.com. Thank you for all of your support!!
Also, as promised I will be reviewing my ARC copy of The Treasure Map of Boys by E. Lockhart. The reason it has taken so long is because the book has been sent to three different locations before it was actually sent to me, due to the fact that I am at camp. I promise you that there will be a review as soon as I am able to lay my hands on my Advanced Reader's Copy, but I apoligize if that is on the actual release date, which is this Saturday the 25.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Some very exciting news...

2009-07-18T05:17:00.000-07:00
I recently got a very exciting email that informed me of the fact that I have been chosen to be a guest blogger on http://www.teenreads.com , one of the biggest teen aged literature communities in the country. The article that will be posted is the one about me meeting Ally Carter, although. it will have some edits to it due to length and content. I will make sure to post the link when it runs live.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2009-07-18T05:09:00.000-07:00
When this book was recommended to me as the book "that will change the way I look at the world," I thought it would be a complete exaggeration. But after I read it, my view of the world had changed. This modern day Catcher and the Rye is written with a lazy writing stile that gives way to incredible insights and epiphanies makes you think a little bit differently about your situation. I would not however recommended this book to people under the age of fourteen. Where Holden does not go into detail on his endeavours in Catcher and The Rye, Charlie does not spare the gory details. It also is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Regardless, this is a fantastic book. It even caused me to go through it with a highlighter- something I have never before done with a non-school related book.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

What I'm Currently Reading...

2009-07-11T10:15:00.001-07:00
Because I am at camp and I will most likely not have time to write reviews for a while, this is my list of what I'm reading, just in case you are completely desperate for books.
Airhead- Meg Cabot
Being Nikki- Meg Cabot
The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
The Perks of Being a Wallflower- (don't know the author name off of the top of my head, sorry!)
Ink Exchange (sequel to Wicked Lovely)- Melissa Marr
Stay With Me- (I forget)
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Radio Silence

2009-07-10T13:46:00.000-07:00
Hey guys, sorry I've been radio silent (or blog silent, however you want to put it) but I am currently at camp where there is very little Internet access and even smaller amounts of time to write about books, much less read them. So until I get back in August, the reviews are going to be few and far between. I promise you though that when I receive and finish my ADVANCED READERS COPY!! of E. Lockhart's new book, "The Treasure Map of Boys" I will blog about it!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Mortal Instruments Series

2009-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00
If you are going through "Twilight" withdrawal, then you are going to LOVE these books. Because there is life after "Twilight" people. I promise!! I had trouble grappling with this concept too, until I picked up the "Mortal Instruments" books by Cassandra Clare. And let's be honest- these books are pretty basic to the YA genre at this point, but I did not even know they existed until I read about them on Stephenie Meyer's blog. If I didn't know about these books, maybe you don't either. Sometimes, I even think they are better than "Twilight" (gasp!). But Cassandra creates a world that is a broad and as deep as that of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books while also preserving the aspects which teen agers love about the "Twilight" Saga (handsome men, romance, adventure, ect.) Their are characters that you can both relate to and ogle at and a wierd love triange that will both drive you insane and get you completely hooked on the series. The stories are fantastic. My favorite of the books is probably the second one, "City of Ashes." but they are all incredible.

If there is anything you get out of this blog, ANYTHING, I hope it is that you go pick up these books and read them. You can learn more about Cassandra Clare and the Mortal Instruments series by going to her personal page or by following her on Twitter or friending her on Facebook. If you have read the "Mortal Instruments" series, may I recommend the fantastic "Wicked Lovely" series by Mellissa Marr, which I will be sure to blog about it soon!
More to come, OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: The Final Four

2009-07-03T09:29:00.001-07:00

Because Sarah has more than 7 books, I have decided to put the four that I neither loved, nor hated in together as the final day, with only a synopsis and book cover for each one, because I would pretty much be saying the same thing over and over again. I neither loved them or hated them.
So here we go,
"Just Listen:" Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything"—at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store.This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

This Lullaby: When it comes to relationships, Remy doesn't mess around. After all, she's learned all there is to know from her mother, who's currently working on husband number five. But there's something about Dexter that seems to defy all of Remy's rules. He certainly doesn't seem like Mr. Right. For some reason, however, Remy just can't seem to shake him. Could it be that Remy's starting to understand what those love songs are all about?

Dreamland: Rogerson Biscoe, with his green eyes and dark curly hair, is absolutely seductive. Before long, sixteen-year-old Caitlin finds herself under his spell. And when he starts to abuse her, she finds she's in too deep to get herself out.

And for How to Deal...
This is an article from Sarah's website about THE MOVIE (which is a cross between That Summer and How to Deal) Back in February of 1998, when my first two books, Someone Like You and That Summer, were optioned for a movie, a friend of mine who is a writer and has experience in such things said to me, "I think that is so exciting. It’s wonderful and you should be proud. But I want to tell you, I’ve had over ten options and none of of them have ever panned out. Just so you know.
This was good advice, and I heard it again and again. Because of this, I came to think of the possibility of the movie ever getting made as being kind of like winning the lottery: about as great, and about as likely.
Well. Years passed. Scripts were written. (Not by me: which is good, because I have no idea how to write a script.) I built a house, got married, wrote three more books. All the while the Movie Thing was in the background, and I thought of it when I wasn’t daydreaming about shoes or Stila lipsticks, or whenever I was at the movies myself, which was a fair amount because I love movies, even bad ones. Every year the option would come up to be renewed, and every year I would brace myself for it not to be.
Then, in February of 2002, I came home from walking my dog to find a message from my agent. Optimist that I am, I assumed this was to tell me that option, up at the end of the month, was going to be dropped. I dragged myself to to the phone, braced for bad news, and instead was greeted with mild hysteria on the other end of the line, shrieking and squealing. Had I gotten their email? (No.) Was I sitting down? (Yes.) Then they finally told me what all the fuss was about: the movie was going to be made. Mandy Moore was starring. It was all in that day’s Variety, which they were faxing me right that second.
By mid-March everything was official, and shooting began in June. After four years almost to the day, things were moving really fast. Words fail me when I try to describe what all this is like: the closest I can come is an out of body experience of some sort. While I am here in North Carolina trying to write, cleaning out my refrigerator, and going to the grocery store, there is a huge group of people up in Canada hard at work bring characters I created to the screen. I mean, that’s just insane. If I thought about it too much I think my head would explode.
Those of you who have seen books you love be made into movies know that something is always different, that the transfer from the page to the screen means things get left out or lost. Since Someone Like You has a fierce, extremely loyal following (the rest of the books have support too, but for some reason SLY is bigger, I’m not sure why) I’m sure there will be some grumbling about things that were omitted or changed. I felt that way too, at first. But I’ve come to realize that the books will stay just as they are, exactly as I want them to be, no matter how else they are presented. Sure, I was sad to see some characters get cut, but I’m leaving this one to the professionals. I’ll just stick to writing novels, thanks.
The script for the movie---which was called Someone Like You, until Ashley Judd had a movie by the same name---takes Halley and Scarlett and Macon’s story from SLY and gives Halley Haven’s family from That Summer. Which means that Ashley from That Summer is Halley’s sister, and Halley’s mom is actually Haven’s mom. Confused yet? It actually works really well on the page. Trust me.
How To Deal was released in July 2003, and it's now available on DVD and shows pretty regularly on Lifetime (and, if I am to be totally honest, I always stop and watch it, at least for a minute or two). Getting to see my books go from the page to the screen was an incredibly fun ride, and I can only hope I get to do it again someday. Fingers crossed!

So that concludes Sarah Dessen week!! I hope you all enjoyed it!
To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ , friend her on facebook, follow her on twitter or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: "That Summer"

2009-07-02T09:11:00.000-07:00
So although I do love Sarah's books, this one is by far my least favorite of all of them. I do not like writing negative reviews, because hey, I mean these people have put in years of their lives to creating these books so that we can read them!! But as a personal preference, I really did not like "That Summer." It is also the first of Sarah's books that was published, and I have found that her stories get better with each book, making this one almost her ground zero. I read "That Summer" as a summer reading project, so that could be the reason I didn't like it as well. But as the first Sarah Dessen book I read, I did not pick up her books until about two years later, (clearly a big mistake) when I found "The Truth About Forever."
Here is a synopsis so you can chose for yourself (no spoilers):
For fifteen-year-old Haven, life is changing too quickly. She's nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried, and her sister, the always perfect Ashley, is planning a wedding of her own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then an old boyfriend of Ashley's reenters the picture, and through him, Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the future.
If you are a big fan of Sarah's and want to decide whether you like the book for yourself, I encourage you to do so, but if you have never read and Sarah Dessen books, this is not the book to start off with.

To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ , friend her on facebook, follow her on twitter or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: "Someone Like You"

2009-07-01T12:00:00.000-07:00
"Someone Like You," like many of Sarah's other books, deals with some heavy issues, this time pier pressure and teen pregnancy as well as loss, but still remains positive with its strong, fun cast of characters and the relationships formed between them. I loved the relationship that Scarlett has with Halley, and vice versa. I also liked the girl-guy relationship in this book because it allows it to stand out from the other Sarah Dessen books I've read.
One thing I didn't like about the book was the fact that I don't think it really stressed how difficult being a teen mom is or being a pregnant teen is. Besides that fact, this is pretty much the Sarah Dessen version of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," with a little less drama.

Speaking of, have we all seen the first few episodes of the new season?
gasp! shock! DRAMA!!
I can't believe Grace did that!! And what happened to her Dad! And can Grace seriously think that she is a fault for what happened! That's taking it too far! And Amy's mom!! OH MI GAWD!! It was kind of over dramatic, but that's why we love it right?
And what about "Make it or Break it?"
Do we love it or do we love it?? I mean, I love it. Watching people do flips in the air, something I could never accomplish (I'm a klutz), is pretty cool.
Anyways, back to "Someone Like You"
Here is a synopsis of the book (no spoilers!):
Halley and Scarlett have been best friends for years, sharing secrets, clothes, and crushes. People know Scarlett as the popular, flamboyant one; Halley's just her quiet sidekick. Then, at the beginning of their junior year, the balance shifts. First, Scarlett's boyfriend Michael is killed in a freak accident; soon afterward, she learns that she is carrying his baby. For the first time, Scarlett really needs Halley. Their friendship may bend under the weight, but it'll never break--because a true friendship is a promise you keep forever. Sarah Dessen's poignant, funny voice has earned her raves and legions of teenaged fans.
Just so you know, Halley's name is pronounced like the girl in the parent trap, the one who lives in California. It's pronounced like Hallie, not Hailey. I didn't get that until about half way through the book, so I thought I would give you a heads up!!
To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ , friend her on facebook, follow her on twitter or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: "Lock and Key"

2009-07-01T00:00:00.000-07:00
"Lock and Key" is the second most recent of Sarah's books, and my second favorite (only to "The Truth About Forever"). Although it deals with some very heavy issues, it is a story of growth, hard work and friendship while also portraying a realistic image of high school. The one part I did not like about the book was how private schools were portrayed. I go to a private school and not everyone at private schools are stuck up brats. Just so you know.

Here is a synopsis of the book (no spoilers!):

What happens when your past is not just past, but wiped clean entirely? How do you figure out where you're going when you can't even claim where you've been? These were the questions that inspired Lock and Key. It's the story of a girl named Ruby who is abandoned by her mother and determined to make it on her own, even---and especially---when she is sent to live with her long-lost sister in a whole new world of privilege, family, and relationships. As Ruby learns, there's a big difference between being given help and being able to accept it. And sometimes, it takes reaching out to someone else to save yourself.
A fun think about this book is that it gave way to a new jewelry fashion: key necklaces!! I even have one of my own.
Sarah wears hers a lot too! And Tiffany's just came out with a new line of key necklaces, which, although most likely accidental, is pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Anyways, if you haven't read this book, go pick it up at your local bookstore (and if you have a local independent bookstore that you can buy it from, they really appreciate it!) or library because it really is fantastic!

To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: "Keeping the Moon"

2009-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00
I really enjoyed reading "Keeping the Moon" because it doesn't follow the pattern of a lot of Sarah's books: Girl has problems, Girl meets boy, Boy Helps Girl get over problem and they live happily ever after. I mean, those stories of Sarah's are really incredible, I love them, but the fun part about this book is that it isn't the guy who really helps her get over her low self esteem (the main conflict in the book), her friends do. And, I mean, let's be honest, this is probably gonna be what most of us go through. We aren't all going to find these gorgeous, wonderful, sensitive, guys, the perfect guys for us at ages 15-19!! But we will always have our friends.

Here is a summary (no spoilers!):

Colie expects the worst when she's sent to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt Mira while her mother, queen of the television infomercial, tours Europe. Always an outcast -- first for being fat and then for being "easy" -- Colie has no friends at home and doesn't expect to find any in Colby, North Carolina. But then she lands a job at the Last Chance Cafe and meets fellow waitresses Morgan and Isabel, best friends with a loving yet volatile relationship. Wacky yet wise, Morgan and Isabel help Colie see herself in a new way and realize the potential that has been there all along.

Also, I love the character of Mira. She is just so quirky! I also love Isabel, because even though she hated high school and didn't have an ideal school experience, she still has confidence. All in all, this is a wonderful, charming story.

To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

Breaking News!!!

2009-06-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

Breaking news!! For all of you who have read and loved Maureen Johnson's "13 Little Blue Envelopes....."
Mauren is writing officially a sequel to
"13 Little Blue Envelopes!!"
*starts squeeling like a fangirl*
I'll post more info as soon as I recieve it!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: "The Truth About Forever"

2009-06-29T00:00:00.000-07:00
"The Truth About Forever" is probably my favorite of all of Sarah Dessen's books. Here is a synopsis from Sarah Dessen's website (no spoilers):

Macy's summer stretches before her, carefully planned and outlined. She will spend her days sitting at the library information desk. She will spend her evenings studying for the SATs. Spare time will be used to help her obsessive mother prepare for the big opening of the townhouse section of her luxury development. But Macy's plans don't anticipate a surprising and chaotic job with Wish Catering, a motley crew of new friends, or ... Wes. Tattooed, artistic, anything-but-expected Wes. He doesn't fit Macy's life at all--so why does she feel so comfortable with him? So ... happy? What is it about him that makes her let down her guard and finally talk about how much she misses her father, who died before her eyes the year before? Sarah Dessen delivers a page-turning novel that carries readers on a roller coaster of denial, grief, comfort, and love as we watch a broken but resilient girl pick up the pieces of her life and fit them back together.

This book is one that cannot be ingored. Although slightly corny and most deffinately "chick lit" this book is well written, thought full and allows for readers to get a glimpse of what is going on in the male mind, or at least in Wes's. I found it beyond fascinating to get to know a character the way Macy gets to know Wes, through a game. A game that has become popular among my friends during sleepovers because of this book.

This story also takes place in Lakeview, a community that Sarah often writes about, allowing you to meet characters and go to places that you have already visited in Sarah's other books.

To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Regina Spektor

2009-06-28T15:34:00.000-07:00
So, I know that Regina Spektor's new album "Far" has been out for a few days now, but I was just listening to "Laughing With" and it is a seriously powerful song. You can listen to it by watching the video by clicking here and if you haven't listened to the entire Regina Spektor album yet, go do so by clicking on the album below. Immediately. Because your missing out!!!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Sarah Dessen Week: "Along for the Ride"

2009-06-28T11:23:00.000-07:00
Of all that I have read from the young adult genre, Sarah Dessen's books have been by far some of the best books I have ever read. You can't go wrong with Sarah Dessen. Ever. She is one of the most foolproof authors I have ever read because her writing is beautiful and she creates strong characters with her their own individual voices.

So that's why this week is going to be Sarah Dessen week on OfficiallyMRS.

I am doing this in honor of Sarah's newest book, "Along for the Ride," which if I do say so myself, is one of her best.

This is what Sarah says on her website about the book:

"Along for the Ride"
In Sarah's Words
A lot of people were surprised when it was announced that I’d have a
new book coming out in Summer 2009, only a year after my last novel, Lock and Key. I can relate. It was kind of a shock to me, as well.
I wrote Lock and Key while I was pregnant, and edited it in the last few months before my daughter was born. Writing and editing is never that easy for me, and when you factor in the hormones and all the other fun stuff that comes along with carrying a baby, it was quite a wild ride. Suffice to say, I was more than ready to take a big, long break from writing to focus on being a mom. Or so I thought.

About three months after she was born, though, this idea started to
come to me, bubbling up in my sleep-deprived mind. I was up at all hours, feeding the baby, trying to sleep or trying to stay awake, and it got me thinking about the night, and how it can seem so long or so short, depending on what you have waiting for you in the morning. I’d look out my window at three or four a.m.—times I was never coherent before motherhood—see a light on in the distance, and wonder who else was up, and why. There was a whole other world at night, one I’d been completely unaware of, and it made me start thinking about the people who chose to live in it, and how they found themselves there. That’s where Auden’s story began.

Some books are incredibly hard to write. Most are, actually. But this one, for me, was a little escape once in a while, and I was more grateful for it than I expected. I wrote Along for the Ride in my daughter’s room, while she slept downstairs, and in the guestroom, while she babbled to the babysitter. I stole half hours here, afternoons there, taking what I could get and using it to get more, and then more, on the page. And when I got stuck, I’d often look out the window and see one of my husband’s friends go zooming by on a bike, taking flight on one of the dirt jumps in my backyard. It was a crazy and chaotic way to write a book, and not at all the kind of structured, methodical approach I’d always used before. And you know what? Somehow, it just worked.So I might be surprised to find myself here, with a new novel, so soon after the last one. But more than anything, I am grateful. This is the story I was clearly ready to tell. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

I personally adored this book. The characters in it were interesting and fun, people whom I could relate to, point to in my everyday life and say "that's Maggie" or "that's Auden." "That's Eli" "That's Adam."

That's just the joy of reading Sarah Dessen's books. You meet people whom you "know" or can sympathize with and get to see how they deal with their issues, either ones that you've never faced or you handled in a different way. The concepts of friendship, hard work and so forth are all things that teenagers go through in their everyday lives.

As a kid who never really did learn to ride a bike (or at least not well) and grew up at adult cocktail parties (I am the youngest of my first cousins by about ten years), this book especially struck a chord with me. The story focuses on the fact that Auden, the narrator, never really did have a childhood, with kickball and food fights, friends, boyfriends, drama, ect. She just had books, and her schoolwork, as both of her parents are college professors. Auden goes to live with her father (her parents are divorced) and his new wife and baby in Colby, South Carolina (a town that many of Sarah Dessen's books take place in, allowing you to meet characters from her other books, such as "Keeping the Moon"). Auden meets Eli, a fellow amnesiac, and together they go night by night to give Auden a second chance at the childhood she never had. Here is the short synopsis of the book from Borders (no spoilers):

Following her parents' bitter divorce, Auden has the chance to spend the summer with her dad and his new family in a charming beach town. There she meets Eli, and together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree life she's been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a
friend.
This is a wonderful book and one of my favorites (third on the list, if we are being exact) of Sarah's. It is currently Number 1 on the NY Times Bestseller List!! Congrats Sarah on such a wonderful book!
To learn more about Sarah and her books go to http://www.sarahdessen.com/ , http://www.sarah-land.com/ or keep coming back to OfficiallyMRS every day this week to read more reviews of Sarah's books.
More (Sarah Dessen) to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Summer Reading

2009-06-27T21:58:00.000-07:00
Sometimes, I really resent it when teachers are right. I mean, sure, they are suppose to be, because they are our “role models” and the wise ones and all that. But when they are right that we might actually enjoy our summer reading, it makes me both resentful and really happy that I have found a good book.
This has happened to me on several occasions. The first was when my teacher gave us a list of over one hundred books and told us to pick one for summer reading. I chose “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd.
And honestly, it was one of the best books I have ever read.
It’s not made for teens by any measure but the amount that I was able to connect to the character and really learn about the time period and the circumstances of the rural south was enlightening for me. It was especially interesting for me to read because my mother is from Louisiana, so whenever I get a chance to read a book about what my family has gone through in the past, it is always interesting. I encourage all of you to read books that could have been applicable to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so forth but are not necessarily applicable to you. You will be surprised at both how much has changed and how much has remained the same.
This story is about a teen aged girl named Lily living in the south with only an abusive father as a parent and her housekeeper, Rosalie. Lilly is also living with the guilt about how her mother died. In these circumstances, Lilly goes on a journey to find out about her past and her mother. Along the way she meets three very special ladies who help her find who she really is and what happened to her mother in years past. People say that finishing a good book is like loosing a good friend. I found a friend in Lilly and the “Secret Life of Bees” and have no doubt that you will too. After I finished this book, I passed it onto both my mom and my dad who both thoroughly enjoyed it.
This is the summary from Sue Monk Kidd's website (there are no spoilers)!

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father,
Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred
memory--the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her
only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce,
black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother."
When Rosaleen
insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring
them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a
town called Tiburon, South Carolina--a name she found on the back of a picture
amid the few possessions left by her mother.
There they are taken in by an
eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily
thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world
of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of
strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in
a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most.
The
Secret Life of Bees has a rare wisdom about life--about mothers and daughters
and the women in our lives who become our true mothers. A remarkable story about
the divine power of women and the transforming power of love, this is a stunning
debut whose rich, assured, irresistible voice gathers us up and doesn't let go,
not for a moment. It is the kind of novel that women share with each other and
that mothers will hand down to their daughters for years to come.

It has become a feature film with Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifa within the past year. I think that the book to movie transition for this story was absolutely fantastic. The only significant piece of the book that was left out of the movie was the part about their religion. Even though it was most definitely not my favorite part of the book, I thought that this part gave the story much more depth and meaning for Lilly and really defined the lives of the sisters in the book. Whether you decide to read the book or go rent the movie, the story of Lilly and “The Secret Life of Bees” is fantastic and should not be ignored.
This summer, I have been assigned to read "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I have not started it yet, but from what I hear from my friends, it is a great book. One of my best friends(shout out to Kat) said that it is one of her favorite books. All that I know about the book so far is that it is about the Holocaust and is narrated by death (which sounds not only creepy but interesting). I will be sure to post a review about it with more details when I read it.
Here is a really cool article I found from the New York Times website about the book. Click here if you want to read it!
More to come,

Officially MRS

Happy (Belated) Father's Day

2009-06-22T18:43:00.001-07:00
Because I was too busy hanging out with my father yesterday, my father's day post is a bit late. so here goes.
To all of those fathers out there one of the best youtube videos I have ever found....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwNW_vk1pWk
And an especially happy father's day to my dad, who received that very video from me in an email and sent it to more than twenty people in turn.
This video is made by Hank Green (brother of author John Green... see the post on "Looking for Alaska" below)
Happy belated fathers day guys!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

The Disney freak in me...

2009-06-17T18:39:00.000-07:00
So, today I was doing a little bit of author stalki-- I mean author research when I stumbled across the blog of Sarah Cross. This author is one of the many on my extensive summer reading list. I found her by stalk-- i mean researching more about Wings by Aprilynne Pike (see my review of Wings below. Its a great book!!).

Anyways, the point is that I stumbled upon this video on Sarah's blog entry and I thought you guys might like to see it.

aparently it is by an artist called Pogo and it is "an electronic piece of which 90% is composed using sounds recorded from the Disney film 'Alice In Wonderland'."

Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwR6w2TgxY&feature=player_embedded
Also, it has recently come to my attention that you can read an online copy (or the first 81 pages)of Maureen Johnson's "13 Little Blue Envelopes"
Cover of 13 Little Blue Envelopes

by going to this site. Maureen actually posted the link herself to twitter, so by all means, click away (without the fear of legal procecution).

If you are interested in stalk-- *cough, cough*-- I mean researching more authors on twitter, here is a pretty cool article of some authors on twitter.

Related articles by Zemanta
Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter (mashable.com)

Interlochen

2009-06-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

The summer is here and all of my artistic friends are headed off to northern michigan to attened one of the most wonderful and prestigious art camps in the country. AKA Interlochen Arts Camp.
I only wish I could be going back with you this summer, guys. Just writing about it makes me want to cry.

So as you all enter that packing frenzy, I'm sounding the call to dear old Interlochen, land of the stately pine. If only I would be meeting my old friends and greeting the new ones that I would inevitably meet.
But as I wont be going back this summer, a shout out to all of you guys who are.
Thank you a million times over, to Dude, Jimbob, Maestro and Evie for giving me the confidence to follow my dreams and be the best I can be, while not necessarily being the best. You always had confidence in me even and most especially when I wasn't so confident in myself.

Maggie, Jessi, Sophie, Lena, Paula, Cabin niners and the house on fire creative writing class (you know who you are), have a wonderful time and don't forget me while you are molded into some of the most talented musicians and artists in the country.
It's time for me to have a new adventure.
And to all of you who, like me, wont be going back, I want to hear about your new adventures too.

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Author Focus: Ally Carter!

2009-06-15T20:07:00.000-07:00
Let's talk authors.

In particular, let's talk Ally Carter!!

Ally Carter is the New York Times bestselling author of the Gallagher Girls series: "I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You," "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy" and her most recent book "Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover." All of these books are great and I strongly recommend them.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Ally Carter at a signing in Anderson's Bookstore in Naperville, where Ally had a tour stop for her new book "Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover.

Cover via Amazon

" (I just realized while reading the book today that "cover" not only means her appearance but the false identities that spies assume.) In total, I traveled three hundred miles and about six hours in one day to go see Ally. Although this is a bit dramatic, author signings are a lot of fun and this one was definately worth it!

Ally really gets that teenagers are smart. Her stories, not only her books but her personal stories on how the books came to be, are incredible. Although there is much, much more to her story, Ally told us about how we should always have someone in our lives who gives us the honest answer, even and most especially when that answer is not the one we want to hear, as this is what Ally's publisher did for her. For me, those people are my friends, Em, Kat and Ryan as well as many others. Thank you guys! If you want to here more about Ally's story to becoming a NYT bestselling author as well as a video of a book signing very similar to the one I attended, click here.

There were a lot of different questions answered by Ally during the Q&A section of the signing. I was lucky enough to get called on, so I asked "If the two boys (Zack and Josh) were real, which one would you choose for yourself?" This got quite a big laugh, followed by an unexpected answer.
"Joe Soloman. He's my man." As well as something along the lines of "He is a hottie."

This made me smile and laugh, along with all of the other girls at the signing. Ally then went on to talk about a character in her book that is coming out in February about teen age thieves. I believe his name was Hale, and even though we have not met him yet, I have been assured that he is a babe and we will love him, so that is something to look forward to for all of you Ally Carter fans out there.

The photo above is of me and Ally after she signed my books. Ally is really, really nice and the way she talks about being a young adult writer gives you no doubt that she really loves her job. She says that the three things that writers do for a living is:
Image by Jess ::as cute as ever:: via Flickr

1) Work in their pajamas

2) Lie

3) Screw with people's lives (in this case, her characters)

Here is the synopsis from Ally's website (and I believe that it is on the back of the book as well...)
When Cammie “The Chameleon” Morgan visits her roommate Macey in Boston, she thinks she’s in for an exciting end to her summer break. After all, she’s there to watch Macey’s father accept the nomination for vice president of the United States. But when you go to the world’s best school (for spies), “exciting” and “deadly” are never far apart. Cammie and Macey soon find themselves trapped in a kidnappers’ plot, with only their espionage skills to save them.
As her junior year begins, Cammie can’t shake the memory of what happened in Boston, and even the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women doesn’t feel like the safe haven it once did. Shocking secrets and old flames seem to lurk around every one of the mansion’s corners as Cammie and her friends struggle to answer the questions Who is after Macey? And how can the Gallagher Girls keep her safe?
Soon Cammie is joining Bex and Liz as Macey’s private security team on the campaign trail. The girls must use their spy training at every turn as the stakes are raised, and Cammie gets closer and closer to the shocking truth…

Ally was the first author I have ever met personally, although I know many, many through twitter and facebook (oh the wonders of technology). You can find Ally on twitter and myspace as well her personal page.

If you have not read the Gallagher Girls series, I would highly recommend it! These stories are well written, well thought out, and really great, fun reads!!!
If you have never been to a "meet the author" or book signing, keep your eyes open as it is a great opportunity to really connect with authors and the books that they write. Check author websites and call your local bookstores to see if any authors are headed your way.
Thank you so much to Anderson's bookshop for hosting the event! We had an amazing time. Also, thank you Ally! You are so talented and an all around really nice, fun person. It was awesome meeting you!

More to come,

OfficiallyMRS

P.S. Here is a cool video I found with Ally Carter talking about the series. It is very sleek and "spylike" and I enjoyed watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pFLtBSrRak

"Welcome to Packer's Country- How May I Help You?"

2009-06-14T09:15:00.000-07:00
As a rule, I do not enjoy road trips. The long, cramped hours in the car make me claustrophobic, not to mention bored out of my mind. But this four-hour journey to the place in northern Wisconsin where I have spent ever summer of my childhood does not bother me anymore. Sometimes I even have fun while singing the lyrics to Elvis Presley’s “Burning Love” with my mom in the car.
My family and I rose before the sun did, with the car entirely packed and all of the three dogs (and the cat the size of the dogs) in tow. Pal, the oldest of the animals, a beautiful and blind English cocker spaniel who has a salt and pepper combination sprinkling his soft fur and a majestic way of walking that leaves no doubt in your mind that he was born to show, was sprawled across my lap in the already overcrowded car. His company, how ever uncomfortable it may be, is welcome always, as he is one of the most loving and friendly creatures I have ever had the pleasure to know.
The incessant impatience of the drivers in the suburbs of Chicago soon turned into the lazy drivers of farm trucks and lawnmowers as the paved parks turned into farm fields with ancient silos that were more often the subject of a paintbrush than that of actual use. The land was green this year, greener that I am use to, with different hues of lush moss and leaves stretching until your eyes meet the sparkling blues and grays of Lake Michigan.
I doubt that you could call this place anything but charming (and on certain weekends, it becomes a charming little tourist trap as well). The entire neighborhood falls under the category of “historical site” with the houses clearly belonging to another era and time entirely. I have even found an one hundred year old medicine bottle in a tree stump. We have the whole package. The views that still to this day take my breath away, the fish boils, the bratfests (both of which are remainders of the heavy Swedish heritage and influence of the town) and the one hundred year old ice cream parlor with the red booths, the tiny juke box at every corner and the black and white check tile that decorate the floor (pretty much the original Johnny Rockets). Our local movie theatre is one of the last drive-in theatres left in the country, with the only normal theatre a forty-five minute drive out of town. We always see the movies about two weeks after their release date because the drive in can only play two movies a night. The nearest target is an hour away and we only really have one or two gas stations.
Sailing is our family’s common sport, something that I have enjoyed since I was the age of eight or nine. Most of my cousins are at least sailing instructors, if not sailing protégées, a title that at the moment, I neither want to assume nor feel that I ever could assume. The yatch club shouldn’t really be called a yatch club. A title such as community center would be much more relevant to what it is. I know everyone there, and the kids that I have grown up with here are my only social circle. Sometimes it gets lonely, but I would not want it any other way.
So this is what my summers are made up of: swimming and sailing and beautiful views and family. Tons and tons of family. These are the people who I wouldn’t trade the world for. My family up here is made up of both my mother’s and my father’s sides of the family. It’s how they met, up here where their two families had been friends for generations. Being the youngest on both sides of the family, I have grown up at adult cocktail parties. We are all very close, especially among the cousins. I think that this summer it is expected of me that I become the designated driver (although I insisted it does actually work like that).
There are so many things that I could tell you about this place. The green boat with the red sails that goes out every single day, no matter the weather conditions. The way my dogs howl whenever a siren goes by. The countless picnics I have taken to near by islands on our small motorboat where I have pounded up and down in the front like a jackhammer with the waves. The millions of sailboat races where tears have been shed over lost hats or other items that can now be found at the bottom of the lake, or the other ones where I have come home with a trophy of some sort. The way the water laps away at the shore, and the way you can almost hear the water echo within the lake itself, making being by this water one of the most unique things you have everyone. The times when I go and sit in my tree house and look at the stars, or view the old barn that is covered in the huge scrawl of colorful names that belong to those who have been there. I could tell you more about the watchtower up on the bluff where you can see all the way to Green Bay, Wisconsin if you go on a clear day. I could tell you the Native American legends about the cliffs in the bluff across the bay. The green house that I live in which once belonged to my great grandma, my grandma, my mom, and hopefully me one day too. The bats that fly around our house at night or the wildflower patch up in my grandmother’s house. But no matter how I describe it, this place has an indescribable beauty that you have to experience to understand. It’s magic.

This place where I have spent my childhood summers is also the place where I first learned to love to read. It took me many summers, but as I said, it can be incredibly lonely up here too, so eventually, you learn to pick up a book. So about four or five years ago, I picked up a story called “Hope Was Here.” I don’t know what was about that book that made me pick it up. I didn’t identify with the character, she was years and years older than me, and I had no way to understand those kinds of circumstances, but this book opened up my eyes to what it means to read a really, really good book. People say that a good story happens when you take ordinary people and twist their lives to such an extent that they become truly interesting. In many ways, I agree, and this book falls under that category to unequivocally, but also, there is no doubt that this story could and probably does happen in people’s everyday life. This book is also the first book that I ever re-read. I have read it every summer since I first picked it up. So if you are looking for a shorter, really astounding, heartfelt and emotionally powerful book to read this summer pick up “Hope Was Here” by Joan Bauer, a Newberry Honor Book.

Love is Hell

2009-06-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Next up on the list is "Love is Hell." I picked this one up of the library bookshelf because it is a collection of short stories by a bunch of YA authors. Reading short stories is one of the best ways I have found to find awesome authors that you may have either read before or never actually heard of. Either way, its a great way to branch out of your comfort zone of authors, especially if you have some familiar faces in the mix of stories. "Love is Hell" is written by Melissa Marr ("Wicked Lovely"), Scott Westerfeld ("Specials"), Justine Larbalenstier ("Magic or Madness), Gabrielle Zevin ("Elsewhere") and Laurie Faria Stolarz ("Blue is for Nightmare"). The stories in it are fantastic. They aren't too racy but they set characters in unique circumstances, whether it be our world far in the future or in the past or anywhere else in between, and create realistic people whom we can all relate to. A portion of the books proceeds go to College Summit, which is pretty cool and generous if I do say so myself.
The next short story book I am going to read is a new one called "Vacations from Hell "which is written entirely by authors who I read and loved, such as Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Mylnowski and Claudia Gray.
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Wings

2009-06-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

One of the newer things in bookstores these days is "Wings" by Aprilynne Pike. This story is intriguing and wonderful as it fully immerses you into a world of faeries, in which faeries are so much different than any folklore I have ever heard or read about. It was a quick read and the writing was not too challenging but really a fantastic story. I finished it in about three hours because I was so into it. It is going to be one of four books in a series and was Pike's debut novel. It is really a wonderful, original story that is up and coming and fresh and just plain fantastic. Also, for all you twihards out there, this book was given a wonderful review by Stephenie Meyer!

Aprilynne Pike's best-selling debut, Wings, is the first of four books about a seemingly ordinary girl named Laurel who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon. When Laurel is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a human and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to each world. In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Click here to buy it from an independent bookstore near you!!

You can learn more about Aprilynne Pike and "Wings" by visiting her website, friending her on facebook or by following her on twitter!

More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

Looking for Alaska

2009-06-11T00:01:00.000-07:00
I have currently finished reading John Green's "Looking for Alaska." (dont worry, Miles, the main character, isn't actually looking for Alaska the state, she is a person. He isn't map-inept.) It has most definitely become one of my favorite books. I like to think of it as a modern day version of "Catcher in the Rye" which writing that far surpasses that of the latter while also creating a realistic world with funny, humorous and relatable characters. Five stars. It was amazing! If you are ever in doubt on what to read, I will be posting the OfficiallyMRS list of fail proof authors one of these days, and John Green will definitely be on it!

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words--and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
To learn more about John Green and his books, go to http://sparksflyup.com/ , friend him on facebook or follow himn twitter!
More to come,
OfficiallyMRS

What Makes You Sing

2009-06-10T22:06:00.000-07:00
The summer has started and my freshman year is over (thank the lord almighty). Done with. No more! If anyone ever tells you that your high school years are the best years of your life, they either recently got hit on the head with a cinder block or are just really creepy. Either way, it is not true and you should start running the other way. Seriously run... fast.
All I have really done in the first week of my summer vacation is eat, read and sing. I went to a graduation party, I went to an actual graduation. But since I know my summer and my life for that matter is going to be filled with books, I thought I might share some with you!! I will be posting one or two "book reviews" or suggestions a day, along with my own personal tidbits and so forth.

The first book I read this summer is called "Suite Scarlett" by Maureen Johnson. Its a story about a girl who gets a hotel room for her fifteenth birthday. All though that might sound really, really cool, it actually kinda sucks because she doesn't get to live in the room, she gets to take care of it. You can pretty much gather all of that from the back synopsis. What that page doesn't give on is how involved this character, Scarlett, comes to the acting world in NYC. If you are an aspiring actor or actress, like I am, read it! Its a fun, charming, witty story by an incredible author about what it means to be a teen, a friend, a girlfriend, a sister, part of a family and part of one of the most glamorous worlds in NY (or so I think- its really hard work, but man, what a cool job would it be to sing all day long). Also, it is a series, so for all of you who really like getting into the world of a character and then actually staying there this is a great read for you.

My summer has consisted of way more than just books though. As you will learn about me, music is also a huge part of my life. A few days ago, I preformed at the graduating high school seniors graduation. During the ceremony, our musical director got up and gave one of the most beautiful speeches that I have ever heard. After an incredibly difficult year for him personally, he talked about "what makes you sing." In other words, what makes you you, what makes us all unique from one another, what makes us all get up in the morning, our motivations, the things that define our lives, the things we truly love and those things that we are truly talented at. Our passions. He described what it felt like for him to sing and how much a part of his life the arts were and how singing had become his passion in life, what made him him. Those passions that we find as we get older will always have a special meaning in our lives. So just as our director wished that we would find our passions or "what makes us sing" I wish the very same to you. Find what makes you sing, and love it, breathe it, live it.
More to come,

OfficiallyM.R.S.

The Basics of the YA Genre

2009-06-10T20:40:00.000-07:00
Writing this blog makes me feel like some sort of columnist in a paper or something, but instead of talking a lot about the world’s breaking news all the time, I get to talk about some of my own and the world of writers as well. It’s a really cool, empowering feeling to write like this. I love it!
Anyways, shall we move onto the actual subject of the blog?
I feel like even though I have written a few book reviews at this point, I need to hit the extreme basics to really call myself a YA blogger. So even though this blog is probably going to be extremely boring for those of you who actually participate in society, here we go.Shall we talk Twilight?
Hello, my name is (insert name here) and I am a Twilight addict.
It has come time when I, along with most of the world's teenage female population, need a Twilighters anonymous. So just in case you fell down and smacked your little head on the pavement, there are these books that are apart of what is called the Twilight Saga (which, at this point, should probably just be declared an empire and get over it). They are wonderful, amazing, bible sized books that most of the teen world is obsessed with. Instead of being a completely unoriginal person and devoting an entire blog to the awes of the twilight saga, I am just going to say this. Read the books and decide for yourself. The writing is not the best but the world that Stephenie Meyer creates is incredibly creative. Although I do think that the books should come with a warning label- may cause sever obsession/addiction as well as the common side effect of falling in love with a fictional character. (Whether that fictional character be Jacob, Edward or any of the other characters. I for one am proudly team Edward.) My Dad refers to Stephenie as "the cult leader." My mother is actually taking the time to read the books. I for one think that Stephenie is an incredibly talented author. If she wasn't, half the teenage population would not be in love with either Jacob Black or Edward Cullen, just saying. My favorite of the books is Twilight, the first book in the series, but read them and decide for yourselves. It can't hurt.

If you are just dead set against reading the books, I think that the movie was pretty good. It did not have nearly the power as the books had and the special effects really weren't that great but for the most part it stayed true to the story line of the books. There are just little moments missing here and there that really made the books what they are. I think that Catherine Hardwick, the director did an amazing job and the soundtrack is awesome. Here is a song that was made for the movie, Paramore's "Decode."

And if you want to find out more about the books or just stalk Stephenie Meyer go to http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

Now onto square two. Let’s talk Potter. Harry Potter.
I’m pretty sure that at this point everyone knows the basics, if not the extreme details, of Harry Potter, but in case you are living under a rock, Harry Potter is a book about wizards and the magical world that was created by J.K. Rowling. There is a major theme of genocide against a race called muggle-borns. Your going to have to read the books or come out from underneath that rock you’re living under to find out what I’m talking about for the rest of the section of this blog because I personally feel like an idiot for stating the obvious about this book.
Have we all seen the clip for the 6th movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which is coming out July 15th? Let’s make sure.
If you want to see the rest of the trailers, click on the picture below.

If you haven’t read the books, then give them a try. They aren’t very hard books to get through because they are very addictive and fun, relatively easy reads. Some people don’t like the Harry Potter series because they feel repetitive. I, however, feel that each book is very unique to the others. I read them out of order because I started reading the books on a dare, and although it was somewhat difficult to follow, I realized that each book in this series is unique unto itself in many aspects. They are fantastic books and at this point, I think they are a must read. If you decide not to read the books, then do go see the movies. They are really good movies, even if they don’t exactly match up with the books themselves. They are not very consistent with the details through the different movies because no two movies have been led by the same director. An example of this is how the dementors are different in the third and fifth movies, but there are many, many more examples. All of the actors in the movie are very talented, popular actors in Britain. It is really worth going to go see the movies just for the special effects. If you can, go see the movie in Imax. It is a really incredible experience!!!!

Even though I know there are many other books such as the Dark Materials series, the Eragon books, and the Mortal Instruments series that are pretty basic to the YA section of the library, I feel like these two are the ones that have created the biggest empire at this point and need to be recognized at this time. I will be sure to blog about the other series as well when I get the chance.

Book Review Policy

2009-06-01T14:10:00.000-07:00
Due to the amount of requests for ARC copy reviews I have been recieving, I thought it was about time to change my review policy.

For the most part, if you are a publisher wanting to send me a review copy, I would be absolutely thrilled to read it and would love it if you would send me an email (OfficiallyMRS@gmail.com) so that I can give you my shipping address.

But I do have some things that you need to know if you are going to send me a book:

1) If the book is in the Young Adult genre, I would love to review it. I enjoy fantasy as well as realistic fiction, but usually as long as it is young adult, I will accept it without question. If you would like to set up an author interview as well, I love doing those too.

2) I usually do not accept books for adults. Sometimes I will depending on if I am interested in the story, but please keep in mind that this is a young adult literature blog. There is no harm in sending me an email at OfficiallyMRS@gmail.com if you are interested in sending me an adult book.

3) I will try to post about every book that I recieve, because that is why you are sending me a review copy. I reserve the right to post about whatever book you send me in a negative fashion. I will always give books an honest review, whether I like it or not.

4) I reserve the right to post about this book whenever I get the time to do so. It is not possible for me to read all of the advanced copies I get before the release date. I will do my best to get it done before then (because I like knowing things before other people) but please do not expect me to read a review copy that I recieve a week before the release date by the time it hits the shelves. I am in high school and my time is limited.

Thank you,
OfficiallyMRS