Mundie Moms

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

White Cat by Holly Black *ARC* Winner.....

Thank you to everyone who entered our giveaway! We had a huge response. Random.org picked #40- Lisa Desrochers! Congratulations!!!

We have more amazing giveaways coming your way soon!!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for giving us an ARC to giveaway.

Happy Release Day To:



Holly Black, Jeri Smith-Ready, Aprilynne Pike and Rick Riordan!

Be sure to go out and grab these must have books!

Book Review- Scones and Sensibility

By Lindsey Eland
Published by EgmontUSA
Released December 22, 2009
Source: EgmontUSA
3.5 Stars- It was a good read.

Twelve year old Polly Madassa is convinced she was born for a more romantic age.

A time when Elizabeth Bennett walked along the stone halls of Pemberley, arm in arm with her one true love, Mr Darcy.

A time when Anne Shirley gazed out at the wild seas off Prince Edward Island with her bosom friend Diane, beside her.

A time when distinguished gentleman called upon a lady of quality, and true love was born in the locked eyes of two young lovers.

But alas.... Polly was born in twenty-first century New Jersey.

This, however, does not hinder our young heroine from finding romance wherever she can conjure it up. So while Polly is burdened with the summer job of delivering baked goods from her parents' bakery to the people in her small beach town (how delightfully quaint!), she finds a way to force...um... encourage romance to blossom. Indeed, Polly is determined to bring lovers, young and old, together whether they want to be or not. (taken from book's cover)

Polly is quite the romantic 12 year old day dreamer. She wants to bring to life the characters and their love stories from her favorite classic novels, and enforce it upon those around her. Not realizing the harm this will cause them, Polly takes it upon herself to bring love to those she feels needs it. While she has the best intentions, she will soon learn that real life love isn't always like the love that's in the best novels.

Polly is definitely born a 21st century Elizabeth Bennett, who even goes so far to talk and dress like her. I think her Jane Austen talk suits her, and will be one Austen fans will adore. Polly is wrapped up in the romanticism period, and so devoted to helping people fall in love with whom she feels is their perfect match. She will soon learn, that she can't force people to fall in love. Through the course of her good hearted actions, she will learn of her consequences.

There were times I felt frustrated with Polly's character, as she never listened to what her best friend was saying to her, and she wouldn't listen to her parents or sister, when they kept telling her to let people be. At times her continuous Jane Austen talk would become a little over enduring, as Polly would slip into more modern day dialect, to which she would quickly correct. I liked her 16 yr old sister, "Clemmy", who kept trying to keep Polly in check. My heart broke for Polly when all she wanted was to be close with her older sister again.

I absolutely loved the setting in which Polly lives. She lives along the New Jersey shore, and during the summer rides her bike along her quaint little town, delivery scones and other pastries from her parent's bakery. It is during her summer job that she gets the idea to bring love to those she feels are lonely or are in need of a better companion.

I liked that while Polly's intentions weren't meant to hurt anyone, she learns that she hurt people close to her and caused some relationships to end. Upon realizing her mistakes, she owns up to them and takes responsibility and works to make amends with those she's hurt. Through the course of her actions, she learns that love written with in the pages of classic novels, is not the same as real life love.

I think Scones and Sensibility will appeal not only to Austen fans, but to those who have yet to read her works. It's fun, heart warming story that adults, teens and preteens will enjoy.

Twitter Tuesday - Christine Johnson

There are so many good books coming out this month, so today, I wanted to focus on one of our Mundie Moms Books of the Month , Claire de Lune (be sure to check our Forum for the rest).

Here's the synopsis from Simon & Schuster:

Torn between two destinies…

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and her crush keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she’s the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: She’s a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she finds her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart. Burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, she will be forced to make a choice that will change her life forever. . . .


Christine not only writes beautifully about upcoming storms, as she did in the tweet above, but she also gave us some insight on her characters in her Q&A here. Her werewolf mythology is so well researched that I'm looking forward to reading it to see how she used it. Aren't you? "...forced to make a choice that will change her life forever..." I was hooked on that phrase alone.

Claire de Lune is released on May 18th and we will be chatting with Christine on that day at 9PM EST. Please join us and let's talk wolves!

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