Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone is enjoying time off from work, eating a Christmas meal, and/or spending time with family. Many families have traditions that they stick to every year, so I thought it would be fun to share two of my favorite holiday traditions.

#1 - Opening One Present On Christmas Eve

Growing up, both my husband and I were given the choice to open one present. The fun thing my parents liked to do was let us pick any present from under the tree we wanted to open. My husband's mom gave him two presents to choose from. What they both did though, was try to trick us with the way the wrapped each present. Each year they would get more creative, especially when we would try and shake them to figure out what was in them. It is a tradition that we still keep today.

#2 - Reading " 'Twas The Night Before Christmas" On Christmas Eve

Yes, even as an adult I read this story every Christmas Eve before we go to bed. I think it helps me go to sleep dreaming about Santa landing on our roof and jumping down our non-existing chimney to pepper our living room with amazing presents. 

What are some of you favorite holiday traditions? I really do hope that everyone is celebrating this holiday with family, friends, and pets too. Holidays have this amazing ability to bring together families that do not normally see each other and while our family may be overwhelming at times they are worth every minute we get to spend with them. 

Merry Christmas!

Michelle

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Loveswept - Holiday Hop! 12/12 - 1/8/2012

Happy Holidays To Everyone - 


Romance At Random is celebrating their Loveswept line with a random e-book Giveaway to 25 winners plus an opportunity to win one Grand Prize from www.romanceatrandom.com.


Enter here to be included in the FREE random e-book drawing (25 winners will pick up their FREE book from Net Galley) and then stop on by www.romanceatrandom.com and comment to enter the drawing to be the "ONE" Grand Prize winner, to win a selection of great books!


Good Luck & Happy Holidays to all!



INCREASE your chances to win by visiting all the participating 'Loveswept - Holiday Hop' sites (See Linky below)! Winners will be contacted after 1/10/12.




Happy Entering!


Michelle




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HONEYMOON

Hello Everyone! I am here to share some exciting news with you - I am going on my honeymoon! For those who do not know, I got married June 11th in North Carolina (where I am from originally). We made the decision to have a delayed honeymoon and boy am I glad we did because it took a lot of pressure off of having to plan a vacation on top of a wedding. Well, it only took five months to decide on a location and dates, but now we have them. What this means for the blog is that I will not be here from Dec. 28 - Jan. 10, 2012.

We will be spending our first New Year's Eve in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, followed by a few days in the Port Douglas and Palm Cove are of Queensland. I would love to give you more details, but we just booked all the flights and hotel locations. We will probably plan the activities as we go, but if you have been to these locations or are living there currently please give me ideas of what I must do and see.

Another thing I have seen other book bloggers do, which I thought would be fun to do, was to plan out my honeymoon reads. I have a few review books that are already on my list and now I need to add a few fun reads. So, I need your help by voting on what I should read.

THE CHOICES

Never Let Me Go by Kazua Ishiguro

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

So those are the choices and now it is up to you to help me pick. If you have one that you read on your honeymoon or one that you read on your beach vacation please feel free to suggest one that is not listed. 

Happy Reading!


Michelle

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Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Winners

Welcome to the Announcement of the Winners for the Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. I have heard a lot of good answers to the question: What are you wishing for most for Christmas?

MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS WISHES

"I'm wishing to get through the holidays with my sanity intact." - Leslie

"But what I really want is snow on Christmas. It makes it so much more fun when there is snow on Christmas morning." - Rae M.

"I am hoping for lots and lots of books!" - Tiffany

"I am wishing for a cool pair of boots and a ferret anatomy poster." - Ash L

THE WINNERS

Prize #1: Signed Copy of Must Love Lycans by Michele Bardsley along with Michele Bardsley swag.

WINNER - ELIS

Prize #2: Signed Copy of Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells and swag.

WINNER - KATIE W.

Prize #3: Poison Diaries Tote Bag, Pens, and your choice of a copy of The Poison Diaries or Poison Diaries: Nightshade.

WINNER - NICOLE S.

Prize #4: Mystery Prize Packet. It is a pretty awesome prize packet!

WINNER - ARIANNE C.

Congratulations to all the winners! I will email you shortly, please respond within 72 hours. Also, I would like to thank everyone who entered and a big thank you to those that decided to follow.

Happy Reading!

Michelle

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Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. This will be a short and sweet giveaway, only running from Dec. 2nd to Dec. 6th with winners announced on Dec. 7th. There is the chance for four winners, so enter now!

The idea of this "hop" is simple, a whole bunch of bloggers got together and decided to giveaway different things on their blogs, then they linked up together on one post. I have a few great things to giveaway thanks to Felicia - The Geeky Book Blogger and the lovely ladies with DFW Tea Readers. 

THE PRIZES

Prize #1: Signed Copy of Must Love Lycans by Michele Bardsley along with Michele Bardsley swag.

Prize #2: Signed Copy of Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells and swag.

Prize #3: Poison Diaries Tote Bag, Pens, and your choice of a copy of The Poison Diaries or Poison Diaries: Nightshade.

Prize #4: Mystery Prize Packet. It is a pretty awesome prize packet!

THE RULES

Simple as always:

1. Name you want announced when you win.
2. Your email address OR twitter handle. (So I can contact you when you win)
3. Answer to the following question: What are you wishing for most for Christmas?

Contest ends 12/6/2011. Winner announced 12/7/2011. US Only.

Happy Reading!

Michelle

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REVIEW: Double Clutch by Liz Reinhardt

What happens when you fall for the perfect guy...twice...in one day? Brenna Blixen spent her freshman year homeschooling in Denmark; now that she's back in the States, she's determined to make her sophomore year unforgettable. And by unforgettable, she imagined awesome classes, fun friendships, and maybe a little romance. What she got was a whole lot of romance, and all at once. (Taken from Goodreads)

Title: Double Clutch

Author: Liz Reinhardt (Check out her blog)
Publisher: CreateSpace 
Pages: 466

Teasers:

"She had a mom's neurosis about the internet, basically seeing it as a huge pool where pedophiles swam and lured unsuspecting children in their little floaties to the scary deep end." - pg. 104


"Every word he said, every action he made would be to trip me up, keep me on my toes. And I was positive he would get happiness from it, perverse or real." - pg. 135


"I don't know what made me angrier; his arrogance or the fact that I'd done exactly what he expected." - pg. 157

My Review: 

Double Clutch is the perfect title for a teen love triangle novel. Two guys in, but only one gets the girl. Reinhardt has this beautiful way of telling the story of Brenna Blixen, a girl who has the looks, the smarts, and the boys, but none of the "I've got it all" attitude. Brenna has this easy going way about her and a loving family so you are just waiting for the ball to drop, but Reinhardt does not take the easy way out. She shows you just what it would be like to have this close relationship with your parents and struggle with how to talk to them when you are trying to become an adult yourself. Just when you are in love with how she develops Brenna, then you are introduced to the boys of the story - Saxon McClean and Jake Kelly. Saxon is your typical intimidating guy who is good looking, has a nice car, a great athlete, and really smart, but that does not want others to know it. Jake on the other hand is this sweet gentleman, who works hard, is a little country and thinks he is stupid even though he really is not. It does not take you long to start forming your boy lines. Just so we are clear, I am totally on Team Saxon so if we could get a little more steamy Saxon action in the next book that would be great. He is pushy, but I feel like there is a refinement about him waiting to be discovered and I have always had a thing for tall, dark, and handsome. Jake on the other hand is more of a project and the project guy can be exhausting after a while. If you want to know who Brenna ends up with you will have to pick up Double Clutch for yourself. You will not be disappointed.  

Things I Loved:

Great first chapter! You know those moments when you just are on a conversation roll and you have no idea who is talking, whether it is you or your alter ego, well that is Double Clutch chapter one for me. I found myself relating to Brenna in so many ways. I have been to every variety of school: homeschool, public, private, technical and even online. A lot of what she experienced I have felt too, just in my own way. It is an amazing feeling when you connect with a character like that as a reader. Another thing I really enjoyed was that Reinhardt created characters that read. I think it is a great way to lead readers to other authors/books. I also loved how she captured the teen girl emotional roller coaster.   Obviously not every girl gets all high and low on you, but a lot do. Reinhardt's favorite candy is Raisinettes, which happens to be Brenna's favorite candy too. I thought it was a cool way of putting a bit of herself into the character. Finally, I loved that Brenna made an effort to reach out to those others would otherwise not notice (Devon). I think that is a powerful message to teens who would read this book.  

Warning: This is definitely an older YA read because there are some physical scenes that younger readers may not be ready for just yet.  

My Rating: 4 Stars

Keep your eye out for the next book in this series, Junk Miles, which is available now at Amazon.


Disclosure: Double Clutch was given to me by the author in exchange for my honest review.

GIVEAWAY

Just so you know there is still an opportunity to win a copy of this book. This giveaway is part of the Double Clutch Tour hosted by Missy's Reads & Reviews. I want to make it easier for people to enter, so if you have entered on the Interview Post you cannot enter here but comments are always welcomed. 

Rules are simple:

1. Name you want announced when you win.
2. Your email address or twitter handle. (So I can contact you when you win)
3. Answer to one of the following questions: Who inspired you to read? OR Which author made you love reading again?

Contest ends 12/11/2011. Winner announced 12/12/2011. International Giveaway.

Happy Reading!


Michelle

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