One Year Blogoversary Bash!

How the hell has it been one year already?  This year has just flown by and I can't believe how much fun it has been and how many amazing people I have met! When I started Alluring Reads I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.  I had explored book blogs a bit, but I had no idea how huge the book blogging community really is.  There are so many fantastic blogs out there and getting to know everyone and getting to call some of you guys friends has been so great.  I'm not going anything too huge to celebrate but I wanted to do up a post with some milestones and thank you's and of course a fabulous giveaway!

So first here are some exciting milestones that I reached this year that I am pretty damn proud of: I have somehow managed to get over 1730 people to follow my blog who seem to care what I have to say about stuff.  This is so flattering and I never thought in a million years that the blog would grow this fast. I have racked up over 122,000 page views on 359 posts (195 of those being reviews.) On those posts there have been 5,270 comments and I have appreciated each and everyone.  It means so much that people take the time to leave their thoughts here on the blog and always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

I know that a lot of people seem to show a now and then of their blog when they celebrate their one year but I have no screenshots of my blog from when it first started out.  Let's just say that it had nothing on how beautiful my new Xpresso Design is.  This is actually the 4th look that this blog has had and this one will be staying for a very long while.  I didn't really know what I was doing in the beginning so as I kept finding out how to add new elements to the blog I kept changing it and never really felt like it was ME.  I got to work pretty closely with Giselle on this des... ugh who am I kidding. No I didn't. I picked this shadow girl and told her to do what she wanted and she blew my freaking mind with what she came up with!

It's important to me to take the time in this post to recognize all of the ladies I have come to be closer than I could have ever imagined with in this past year.  I don't want anyone to feel left out, so just know that if you have ever commented on my blog or chatted with me on twitter, I appreciate you taking the time to do so. My blog would be nothing without each and every person who has ever stopped by and even just read a single post.  I can't tell you how thankful I am for all of you.  This part of the post is for the people that I have come to talk to on a daily basis and who have helped me out immensely in the last year.  So here goes the flattery...

Umm.. Christina and Blythe where the hell are your buttons?!?!

You ladies seriously rock! I wasn't an online person at all before starting my blog so I didn't know how close you can become with people that you have never even met but I feel like I know you ladies personally and I appreciate all of your help along the way.  Giselle, my blog would have imploded in on itself so many times now if I didn't have you and I freaking love how sassy you are.  My day would get pretty boring without our ridiculously long chats  and I appreciate (more than you will probably ever know) everything you have done to help me along the way. Thanks Bitch!  Amy & Katie you guys are way too sweet for words.  I always look forward to your thoughtful/funny comments and I know that you guys are always there to listen when I am having a bad day and need to rant.  Kara, you are my muscle! I always know that when something in this bloggy world is getting to me I can turn to you and you know how to handle it. Most recently I was seriously at my wits end (think about it, and you'll know what I mean) and you talked me off the cliff, girl.  I appreciate you being there so much.  Now onto Christina and Blythe, seriously ladies, you didn't have buttons back when Giselle did her blogoversary post in September and you STILL don't. Jump on it! But anyway, I love how even when we disagree (which happens quite a bit) we have the best chats about why we feel the way we do.  I feel like I don't have to hold back with you ladies (which is great because I seriously have no filter between my brain and my mouth.) Some of my chats with these ladies are epic and I'm really sad that I won't be meeting them this year at BEA but you guys have to video chat me at one point! I want in on the fun too!

Book blogging has become a huge part of my life and I didn't even realize how important to me it had become until a conversation I had recently with my sister.  I was talking about how sometimes I think it would be nice to go back to work to have a bit of a break from the kids and she said "You have a full time job! You work on your blog more than I work at my job!" And you know what, it's true! Between reading, networking and doing up posts and such book blogging it really is a lifestyle.  But you know what the best thing is? It doesn't feel like work.  I put all these hours into this baby and it's become just that, my third baby! I really love that I have a place to let my voice be heard and I love all the joy it has brought into my life.

Giveaway

What would a celebration be without a giveaway, right?  So I have decided to up the amount of my normal giveaway and multiply it by 4!

There will be 4 winners of this giveaway and each will win up to $20 from The Book Depository.

The average hardcover from TBD is around $15 and a paperback is under $10 so winners will have a choice of getting 1 HC or 2 PB's.

Giveaway is open internationally as long as TBD ships to you (Click here to check if they do)

Don't forget to add the beautiful button (designed by Giselle) to your sidebar for extra entries!

Last day to enter is April 3, 2013

Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter

Grab the button!

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Everbound Review

TITLE Everbound (Everneath #2)
AUTHOR Brodi Ashton
PUBLICATION January 22nd 2013 by Balzer + Bray
READ January 23 to 24, 2013
SOURCE Purchased

Nikki Beckett could only watch as her boyfriend, Jack, sacrificed himself to save her, taking her place in the Tunnels of the Everneath for eternity — a debt that should’ve been hers. She’s living a borrowed life, and she doesn’t know what to do with the guilt. And every night Jack appears in her dreams, lost and confused and wasting away.

Desperate for answers, Nikki turns to Cole, the immortal bad boy who wants to make her his queen — and the one person least likely to help. But his heart has been touched by everything about Nikki, and he agrees to assist her in the only way he can: by taking her to the Everneath himself.

Nikki and Cole descend into the Everneath, only to discover that their journey will be more difficult than they’d anticipated — and more deadly. But Nikki vows to stop at nothing to save Jack — even if it means making an incredible sacrifice of her own.

In this enthralling sequel to Everneath, Brodi Ashton tests the bonds of destiny and explores the lengths we’ll go to for the ones we love.

Can I get a hell yes for this year continuing to be the year of awesome sequels? *waits for it* Ok, thank you. So you can tell where this review is going. I have not run into one sophomore slump yet this year and I hope to goodness that it stays that way. Everbound was Everneath on crack, which means that the angst was amped up and the action was coming at me in droves. I enjoyed this follow-up so much, maybe even more than its predecessor.

I have admit that I remembered barely anything of Everneath when I went into reading this novel. Thankfully Ashton does a wonderful job of recapping all of the important bits without it feeling like a giant info dump right off the bat. Nicki is dealing with the loss of Jack and she feels responsible for him being in the Everneath. I think Nicki could probably be taken as pretty whiney in this installment but after all that she went through and her sudden loss of Jack I think it was warranted. I loved how she wasn’t just wallowing in it, she was being proactive and trying to find anyway that she could save him. Once Cole comes back into her life, she sees an opportunity to go down (up?) and save Jack and from there the story moved at a break neck pace.

I mentioned that I don’t really remember too much from Everneath, one thing I definitely don’t remember is it being as funny as I found Everbound. The way that Cole and Nikki pick at each other had me laughing in more than one instant and it made reading this novel that much more fun. I am a sucker for a bad boy and a huge Cole fan. This one made me even more so because we see a completely new side of him and I think Nikki may be softening him up a bit. It was frustrating that Nikki seemed completely oblivious to how much Cole loves her, there were so many times that I just wanted her to grab him and smooch his lips off.

One thing that we get a lot more of here is the world of the Everneath. It was exhilarating reading Cole, Nikki & Max go through whatever the Everneath threw at them and I loved getting to know more about it. Through that we also got a lot more mythology weaved into the tale which worked seamlessly. It really felt like the action didn’t really let up in the last half and right when the story was wrapping up Ashton threw a twist at me that I had NO IDEA WAS COMING. I didn’t even suspect it, it didn’t cross my mind and I almost threw my book when I realized it was ending on that note.

Leaving off at a definite high point and leaving me with a plethora of questions, Everbound is an awesome sequel that I won’t soon forget. I think this is one people will be talking about for a long time to come.

Book Girls Don't Cry - Hype!

Hello lovelies!

This week our topic was a suggestion from the lovely Sirtsu from Little Pieces of Imagination.  She wrote "I'd love to know if you follow the hype or what you think about it in general, if you think it's good or bad or if it can sometimes ruin a book etc." We thought that was a great idea because there are so many books coming out that have so much hype surrounding them.  I myself have been bitten by the hype bug on more than one occasion. So, watch on to see some examples of hype doing me wrong and even one where it did my right:

Oh yeah, I totally found out how to film on my iPad and have it take up the whole screen!

*happy dances*

Have you ever been bitten by the hype bug? How do you go about avoiding it? Or does it not bother you at all? Let me know!

Have a topic suggestion for the Book Girls? Be sure to pop over to the Book Girls Don't Cry tab up on the nav bar and fill out the Suggestion Form!

Stacking the Shelves (41)

Hey everyone!

So I have been having major sync issues with my vlogs lately and have decided that until Apple comes out with a fix I am going to be filming the videos on my iPad. Less of a headache this way and I don't want to smash my computer.  Because I am filming the videos on my iPad I won't be able to show you my ebooks so I'll be putting the covers below and linking them to Goodreads.  This is why the video looks a little different this week! I'm thinking that maybe the reason it's so skinny and tall is because I recorded the video with my iPad standing up vertically, next time I will try it horizontally and see if it will fill up the screen. But anywho, I didn't want to let the sync issues make me stop vlogging because I love doing it, so bear with me please!

Books mentioned (click title for Goodreads):

Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Touched (Sense Thieves #1) by Corrine Jackson

Crash (Visions #1) by Lisa McMann

The Princesses of Iowa by M. Molly Backes

Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough

Touch of Death (Touch of Death #1) by Kelly Hashway

Unearthly (Unearthly #1) by Cynthia Hand

The Madman's Daughter (The Madman's Daughter #1) by Megan Shepherd

Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu

Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu

Bloggers mentioned:

Giselle of Xpresso Reads

Ebooks I received this week (click cover for Goodreads):

Huge thank you to Giselle and Entangled publishing this week!

So what goodies did you add to your shelf this week?

Link me up!

Hysteria Review

TITLE Hysteria
AUTHOR Megan Miranda
PUBLICATION February 5th 2013 by Walker Childrens
READ January 17 to 20, 2013
SOURCE From Netgalley for review

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.

Hysteria was a novel that caught my eye the moment I saw the cover reveal. I loved the font treatment, the popping use of the color red and the eerie feel that it conveys so well. Once I started reading the novel I was quick to realize that the eerie feel was going to be a running theme between the cover and the text which was so great. But as the story wore on my failure to connect with the characters on a deep level kept it from reaching amazing status and left it as simply an enjoyable read.

The short, fragmented thoughts Miranda uses to convey emotions is definitely effective. It’s not flowery, it’s simple and to the point which is something that I always find myself appreciating. While the clipped style can be a bit disjointing at first, I always find myself sucked in and a fan of the style once I get going. It’s a bit reminiscent of how I felt from Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz, or Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann. There’s a lot of mystery to this novel and we are spoon fed little details slowly, very slowly. We know that Mallory has killed her boyfriend Brian in her house and that it was deemed self defense in her own home but we don’t know exactly what led up to the murder. The way we got little glimpses of what happened that day and the days before was awesome! I really liked when I saw we were getting a flashback and I think Miranda used them very well in this case.

As for the characters, I really wish that I had connected with them a bit more. I was definitely intrigued by Mallory. Her psychosis is up for question here and it had me second guessing everything that happened around her wondering if it was simply her hysteria manifesting itself. But I failed to really feel for her. I felt like we didn’t get to know enough about her outside of what she was experiencing after the murder. I would have liked to have gotten a better glimpse at how the event had changed her so that I could feel how jarring it was for her personality. The one thing we do get to know about her from before the event doesn’t exactly make her out to be a good person, but I would have liked more of that, good decisions or bad. I have to say that my favorite character was her best friend, Colleen. She was incredibly supportive and understanding of what Mallory goes through.

The mystery is what really sucks you into Hysteria. Not only do we slowly unveil what happened to lead Mallory to where her life is today but we also travel with her to a boarding school where the students all seem to have their own agenda and Mallory learns that she can’t ever really escape her past. This was definitely a book that I had a lot of fun reading & that I thought about a lot when I put it down but I would have liked a little more substance to the characters. If you’re looking for a good mystery to pass your time, this could be the one for you!