Cover Madness Giveaway: Round Three!

These things just keep coming hey? Once again Giselle and I noticed that there are some great covers floating around and wanted to bring them all together in the newest Cover Madness Giveaway.  There will be two lucky winners from each blog who will win a pre-order of one of the books listed below. There are quite a few sequels here so the winner will also have the option of picking the first book in any of the series if they so wish.  If you want to check any of these titles out on Goodreads just click the cover. 

Behold the pretties!!

If the title chosen happens to become unavailable at The Book Depository, the winner will have to choose another.

Grab the button!

<a href="http://www.alluringreads.com/2013/04/cover-madness-giveaway-round-three.html " target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0w15HH0Qn_tdbb0_aniZHAUNcabnfuCMcH-d2kf0BwDVkPY9ol9kfGsY4Ut5HBULKfN7PcRy2dLt-wqXstr3856GPlahiyLmzRQcq5e-ZXO21kEvB6-bDx6Qq674fLcwnsbMT6QqGECc/s1600/CoverMadness3GButton.png" alt="Alluring Reads" border="0" /></a>

Head on over to Xpresso Reads for another chance to win!
Click here for her post

Open internationally as long as TBD ships to you

A total of 4 winners will receive the book of their choice from the list above

There will be 2 winners here on Alluring Reads & 2 winners on Xpresso Reads

Last day to enter is May 17, 2013

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How To Save A Life Review

TITLE How To Save A Life
AUTHOR Sara Zarr
PUBLICATION October 18th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
READ March 24 to 26, 2013
SOURCE Gifted from Giselle of Xpresso Reads

Jill MacSweeney just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she’s been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends—everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she’s somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it’s like to grow up unwanted—to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she’s sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It’s harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy—or as difficult—as it seems.

How To Save a Life was a book that I picked up on a Saturday afternoon and after reading a single chapter I knew it was a book that I was going to love. Just the honesty in every word and the astounding development of the characters alone is so great but when you throw in the dynamic relationships and all the emotions throughout, you have a truly touching novel. Jill became someone that I saw myself in at every turn, I felt her anger and sadness and loss. Mandy became someone that I want to wrap my arms around and comfort because she touched me so much. There is no shortage of emotions in this novel and it’s one that will stick with readers for a long time to come.

The development that went into every character in How To Save a Life is no small feat. Each and every character came off the page and as I read I felt like I came to know these people. Jill, Robin and Mandy of course are the most developed and what is so great is that they are all completely different. I felt through their dialogue and their actions in every scene that they stood out from one another and watching them come together was something special. Not only did these three ladies stick out to me, but I also felt as if I came to know Dylan and Ravi just as well. Dylan was struggling in this rut that he and Jill had found themselves stuck in in their relationship. Since Jill’s father passed away they had this destructive pattern and they were just going back and forth, never truly moving forward, always taking two steps back. He was trying to break down the walls of Jill’s grief and get her to open up, but she was struggling opening up to him. In Ravi she found someone new, someone who didn’t know how she acted once her father passed away, someone who wasn’t constantly trying to get her to talk about her feelings. I guess this was a love triangle but it was in no way annoying or cliche. I saw both guys for who they were and came to care about each one.

While Jill is fighting through her own demons, Mandy is running away from hers. I felt so bad for this girl. She moves in with Robin & Jill very quickly in the novel but we are fed tidbits of her home life here and there and I could completely understand her need to flee. Her mom’s only concern was finding a man, she was one of these women who doesn’t know who she is without a man by her side, I found that incredibly sad. Her words of wisdom that she passed on to Mandy just feed this lifestyle and I wanted to shake Mandy and tell her that everything her mother told her was crap. She was so hungry for love and thought that the only place she could find that was in the arms of a man. Readers get to watch Mandy’s eyes open, get to watch her learn what it means to be a strong, independent woman and the shift is truly awe inspiring.

The characters and relationships in this novel have so many layers that get peeled back as the story goes on so it feels like you go on a journey with them. There is a huge part of me that feels like this novel could have just gone on forever relaying the story of these people’s lives and I just would have kept on reading. I find often that I check the page number to see where I stand in a novel and I can say that not once in this story did I find myself glancing at the bottom corner of the page. These are people that everyone should have the pleasure to meet so I definitely think that you should pick up this novel.

The Kings of Charleston Review

TITLEThe Kings of Charleston (The Kings of Charleston #1)
AUTHOR Kat H. Clayton
PUBLICATION July 10th 2012 by Kat H Clayton
READ March 16, 2013
SOURCE From the author for review

Casper Whitley is forced to move to Charleston, South Carolina where she’ll be the new kid her senior year of high school. Casper’s upset about the move until she meets the Roman family’s gorgeous son, Cal, but there’s a problem. A mystery surrounds him which can be summed up in one word…Kythera. Never heard of it? Neither has Casper until she finds the word tattooed on cars, paintings and all her new friends.

After Casper’s life is threatened, someone is forced to tell the truth about her parents, the Romans and Kythera’s motives for her being in Charleston. Once the truth is revealed, she must decide whether to protect her family and Kythera’s secrets or walk away from everything she has ever known.

I have to be honest and say that what sold me on THE KINGS OF CHARLESTON was the cover. I liked how, for a YA novel, it exuded a bit of sexiness that you don't normally see. It's pretty simple and yeah, it just worked for me. What didn't work was what was inside. A long drawn out story about a high society of complete riff raff that I cared nothing about.

My hatred for this novel has to be started with the MC Casper (I know right? We have the friendly freakin' ghost here.) This girl was such a paradox of herself. Her inner dialogue spoke of a girl who had her head on her shoulders and knew that she needed to put herself first and not fall all over some guy that she doesn't even know. But then she meets Cal. To be honest, I didn't even really find him all that charming, he was a bit too forceful and creepy for my taste. But all along Casper knows that Cal is hiding something HUGE from her and yet she still falls head over heels for the guy and starts dropping love bombs after a week or so. Not only does she know the entire time that Cal is blatantly lying to her (or withholding may be a better word) but she also almost gets murdered and then agrees to lie to the police for this guy! I'm sorry, she had been on the hunt the entire novel to find out the secret behind these Kythera people and then almost gets murdered because of the group and then lies to the police for them! Hell to the no! Give your head a shake girl.

Another huge turn off for me with this novel was Casper's parents. They were high society Richie Rich people and through the entire novel they are putting their need for money and a lavish lifestyle in front of their child's well-being. They make her move across the country the summer before she starts her senior year, which isn't the end of the world or anything but what comes next is. After Casper is almost murdered in a heist against the Kythera they decide to stay in Charleston and make her join the Kythera because otherwise they will be poor! They make her join this group who brands the members and has murderers after them! Loving parents if I've ever seen them!

There were also quite a few technical parts of the story that irritated me as well. In the ePub that I read rather than italicizing words that were supposed to be emphasized by the speaker they were underlined and that felt really juvenile to me (entirely personal preference, I know.) Also the pacing was just all over the place. At one point, I kid you not, I took a nap. When Callie goes to take a bath we get every minute detail from her taking off her clothes, turning on the water, feeling the water to get it to the right temperature, turning the water off, getting in the tub, soaking, getting out of the tub, almost slipping, wishing she had cushy blue bath mats... you get the picture. There were some adrenaline infused moments but they came much too late in the story to really grab me, I had already pretty much checked out.

I had so many problems with this story that the reading experience was far from enjoyable. The thing that kept me going for most of it was finding out who these Kythera people were and then by the time I got to find out I was so far gone that I didn't really care anymore. I think they might have been rich snobs? Who can get anyone they want? And they have lots of money. Yeah, money. I can't recommend this one to anyone, which makes me sad because I wanted this to be a mob type story that stood out in YA. It failed at that. Badly.

This Is What Happy Looks Like Review

TITLE This Is What Happy Looks Like
AUTHOR Jennifer E. Smith
PUBLICATION April 2nd 2013 by Poppy
READ March 12 to 13, 2013
SOURCE From Hachette Canada for review

If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

If I could put off writing this review forever, I would. This is What Happy Looks Like and I had a very strange relationship and one that I just can’t find the words for. In the beginning this was such a sweet story and I loved how these two people were brought together by a fluke & an intense online correspondence ensued. I read the first 30% of the novel with a happy grin splayed across my face and was heartwarmed by the story, but somewhere along the way I just stopped caring that much. The story remained really good (the writing and use of perspective is unparalleled - more on that later) and yet I didn’t find myself caring about some of the plot as much as I should have.

The first thing that I want to talk about is the writing and use of the third person perspective here. I oftentimes find myself getting frustrated with this perspective and unable to connect to the characters. I find it hard to get a feel for who they are when we are simply this all seeing person and not inside them dealing with their emotions. That was not the case here at all. There was actually a point about 20% in where I sat back and thought “holy crap this is third person!” I was blown away by how I was connecting with the characters and feeling everything that they went through. I also loved the writing in general, the use of flashbacks didn’t feel too heavily relied on and were always welcome additions to the story. It’s written in a very pretty, yet relatable way, Smith achieves a great balance here.

The characters were also well developed and each flawed in their own way. Ellie was an intelligent girl who had grown up with a family secret that she kept from everyone. In keeping the secret from her best friend, Quinn she realized that it’s kind of easy to keep things to yourself and kept her email relationship a secret as well. There was a lot of conflict between Ellie and Quinn in this novel because of that and I felt like I never really got a grip on their relationship, it didn’t feel as strong as it was supposed to be because they were not talking for 85% of the book. Quinn had seemed like a sassy girl who really cared about Ellie’s well being but I wish we got more of that in the book, instead of simply being told that’s how she is.

The romance is very sweet and I liked Graham a lot. I think a lot of the story was Ellie and him having to come to grips with the turmoil in their own life in order to finally work on things with each other. I liked the moments when they were together, Graham was incredibly sweet to Ellie and really struggled with her finding out who exactly he was. I also liked the star side of Grahams story. The paparazzi are always on his tail and it’s pretty intense how in his face they are. I think his story is a relevant one of how someone thrust into stardom might feel. He was really displaced in this new life, and was trying hard to have his parents realize that he was still the same boy he always was.

Having liked the characters and the writing so much you are probably left wondering what went wrong? Well I’m not exactly sure, somewhere along the way, I think probably when Ellie set out to find her father the story just lost me. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, maybe it just felt a little too long and dragged out to me. I wanted more of the romance between Graham and Ellie that had me smiling in the beginning, but the book kept stepping away from that. I had come into the book wanting a sweet romance and I feel like for much of the story I was robbed of that to deal with their family issues.

My issue with the book is entirely personal and I am sure that a lot of people will disagree with me but it’s just how I felt about it. The story is full of charm, fantastic writing and really good characters but everything just felt a little too easy for me. I am a huge fan of Jennifer E. Smith’s writing and can’t wait to read The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, but this story just went off in too many directions for me and because of that the romance fell flat towards the end.

Book Girls Don't Cry - Judging A Book By Its Cover

Hello lovelies!

This week us Book Girls have decided to talk about covers and how they affect our outlook on a book. I think it's pretty much known by all of my readers that I am a big cover whore, the cover is the first thing readers see of a book so there is a lot of weight behind it.  I'll admit that I have written books off as ones that I will never read strictly based on the cover, it may be incredibly shallow but that's just the way I am.  I think that publishers definitely realize just how important a cover is and I think that is shown in the amount of cover changes that have been going around lately. So first here are some covers that I think are absolutely gorgeous:


These are four gorgeous covers, they all stand out in their own way.  I love the vibrant colors of Crewel and in person it is so shiny and beautiful.  I have actually heard from a few sources that a lot of people don't realize at first that there is a face on it which surprises me, but that shows that it's a cover you can look at again and again and notice new things about.  Ten Tiny Breaths was one that I thought was stunning from the moment that I saw the cover reveal.  I am so sad that when it got picked up by Atria books they changed the cover, I think this is a rare instance where the indie cover far surpasses the pubbed on.  MILA 2.0 is so gorgeous and I think that is one that pretty much everyone loves so I don't think I even need to extrapolate on that one.  Finally, when it comes to Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea I love how it shows how stunning text can be.  I am actually a pretty big fan of covers that feature the title of the book predominantly but this one has the great backdrop to go with it so it's awesome!


White is the new red! I remember when I used to go to the book store and peruse the books (and for me perusing the books at the bookstore means standing back and looking down the shelves in rows until a cover pops out at me) the ones that I always gravitated towards, that sucked me in were ones that had some red that would just POP! out at me. Now that seems to be everywhere which is sad because it isn't as eye catching or unique anymore.  But what really stands out to me now are all these fantastic white covers.  In the dark and dreary world of YA bookshelves, black and red definitely dominate so when you come across one that is mostly white it definitely catches your eye.  I love how Room also has the pop of colors on it and I think that cover does such a great job of showcasing what is in the book.  A lot can be said with a simple white slate and some font.


This wouldn't be a post about covers if I didn't talk about some bad ones. So after a quick Goodreads search I bring you these. That first one, I just can't even... Who thought that was a good idea?  At first glance I thought that I liked the cover for In The Woods and was going to include with in the white covers section but the more I looked at it the more it bothered my eyes.  There's just too much going on and it's a show of how a title featuring a font can go wrong.  I remember really loving Speak when I read it but what is happening on that cover? I am not a fan of sparse trees growing on faces. Finally, I don't even want to know what that is on the cover of Solid, it looks like it should be brown... but is purple..ewww

So these are just some examples of what I think makes a good cover (and some laughable ones that are huge no no's) but I want to know what you think makes a good cover? What makes you pick up a book at the book store? Will a cover ever prevent you from reading a book? Let me know!