Mundie Moms

Monday, October 11, 2010

Book Review- Beautiful Darkness

By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Published by Little Brown
To Be Released On October 12th, 2010- TOMORROW
Source- Author/Publisher
5 Stars- I Highly Recommend This Book!

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems. (quoted from Goodreads)

I absolutely loved returning to Gatlin County in Beautiful Darkness. The cover sets the perfect tone for what is revealed within it's pages. It's beautiful, haunting, twisty and I found myself a lot more emotionally invested in this wondeful sequel.

Kami & Margie have this unique talent for making me feel like I'm apart of Ethan and Lena's world. Whether that be searching the Castor tunnels, in the caves and the forest that are apart of Gatlin county, the Caster world in which Ethan is introduced to, the Gatlin Library or at their homes. No matter where the setting took me too, I felt I was there. The descriptions are so rich in detail and so vivid, that I'm completely swept up into the pages of Beautiful Darkness, more so than I was with Beautiful Creatures.

Can Ethan get any more perfect? I know, it's wrong of me to use the word perfect right?! Ethan's love for Lena spans their families interwoven history, and is Lena's life line. Like many sequels, this one is a character journey for Lena. She has a choice to make and though she had me so emotional ticked off at her for part of the book, I understood her dilemma and admired Ethan's, "I'll go to the ends of the earth for you" determination. Ethan will not lose the girl he loves, no matter what the cost. In learning more about the Caster world and what Ethan and Lena are really up against, I was able to understand Lena more and really grasp the risk Ethan takes in trying to help her.

The characters- I really enjoyed getting to know Liv, who has a talent that I will not giveaway, but that's just say her character surprised me. I mean that in a good way. I adored Link even more so in Beautiful Darkness. He's such a great best friend to Ethan! I loved his character in Beautiful Creatures, but I find him even more humorous in Beautiful Darkness. He's humor always came at just the right moments. I was fascinated by Ethan's Great Aunts in Beautiful Creatures, but now I completely adore their characters! Amma is the same old lovable, stubborn character she was before. Just wait till you met the new bad boy! I won't say anything else.... there's more to him than we get to read about in Beautiful Darkness.

Beautiful Darkness is truly a well written sequel. There's nothing I would change about it. I loved it, as I was so emotionally charged while reading it. There's mystery, love, suspense, and more in Beautiful Darkness. Now that my questions I had at the end of Beautiful Creatures are answered, I'm eagerly awaiting the next book for my latest questions to be answered. If you need a fascinating story to get lost in, go PICK UP Beautiful Darkness tomorrow!


Kami and Margie are kicking off their Beautiful Darkness tour this week! We are co-hosting their TX stops! Be sure to find out all the details here http://tinyurl.com/23xk2wm

Be sure to visit Caster Girls to see the teaser trailers and find out more about Beautiful Darkness http://www.casterchronicles.com/enterthedarkness/

The trailer was created by Vania Stoyanova of VLC Photo

Mundie Moms Interview with Vordak the Incomprehensible

Have you ever wondered how you could grow up and rule the world? Today we have the magnificent, fearless, most evil ruler the world has ever known, Vordak (author of Vordak The Incomprehensible, How To Grow Up and Rule The World). MUAHAHHAHAHA! I'm sure he's going to tell us what a horrible introduction that was and make us go back and read chapter 1 from his book, "Bringing Out The Evil."

If you're like us and have loads of free time (I wish), then you sit around wondering how you can Rule The "grown up" World. We had questions and Vordak had our answers.....

As Mundie Moms, we have found Vordak's guide very useful in my every day life and we think MMs need to enlist Vordak for some help with mom duties. Love the Instruments of Evil chapter and in particular the part about Death Traps: Has Vordak faced a Death Trap that he couldn't get out of??

Here’s the thing – superheroes don’t use Diabolically Clever Yet Extremely Slow-Acting Death Traps. Supervillains do. Those leotard-laden lackwits choose instead to bore us into submission with cranium-clobbering clichés like “In the name of justice!” and “Crime does not pay!” and “Nice helmet!” I mean, how much of that claptrap can a self-respecting Supervillain reasonably be expected to take? There have been times I’ve longed for the relative peace and quiet of a well-oiled Death Trap.


For us moms, a recommendation of 10,000+ minions seems reasonable. Mundie Moms love a good party. Normally, we would turn to Magnus for our birthday planning needs but will Vordak share with us his plans to dominate the kid's birthday planning circuit?

I actually did dabble in that for a brief period, but most parents were surprisingly put off by my selection of custom birthday piñatas:

And the number one question on MMs minds is: How would Vordak handle a double-parked vehicle in a School's Pull Through Lane??

Why, I would make sure it was washed and waxed, had a full tank of gas and all maintenance was up to date and properly administered……….BECAUSE IT WOULD BE MY VEHICLE!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Thank you Vordak for sharing your evil wisdom with us today! We might be calling you to assist in an upcoming birthday party for one of our kids. *evil laugh*

If you want to learn how you can grow up and rule the world, then be be sure to visit Vordak's site here http://www.vordak.com/ and pick up his book, Vordak the Incomprehensible, How To Grow Up and Rule the World, in stores now.

Don't miss our 5 star review for Vordak the Incomprehensible, How To Grow Up and Rule the World, found on Mundie Kids here http://tinyurl.com/25p4xdo

Mundie Moms City of Fallen Angels Cover Contest

We are thrilled to announce that we are hosting a fan made City of Fallen Angels Cover Contest. I am very excited, as Cassandra Clare will be helping us judge this contest!


The Contest:
* The contest will run for 1 month. Participants have from today through November 5th, 2010 to submit their fan made covers.
* All submissions need to be made to mundiemomstmicontest @gmail.com (Mundie Moms TMI Contest) all run together. I left a space between our name and the @gmail on here.
* This is a fan made cover contest, no copy right infringement work will be accepted.
* In your submission, please include your name.
* Please do not email Cassandra or us asking us what the COFA's cover looks like, as we do not. Cassandra Clare will be revealing her cover for COFA in December.

Judging:
* We will pick our 5 covers, and then post them on our blog during the week of November of 8th-12th for our followers to pick their favorite.
* The 1st winner will be selected by us (The Mundie Moms Admin Team & Cassandra Clare) and the 2nd winner will be selected from our followers.
* We will announce the winners, and post their covers on November 15th.
* Winners will receive prizes- the 1st winner will receive the complete TMI series for their iPod/MP3 player, and the 2nd place winner will receive the complete TMI audiobook series.

If you have any questions, please email us at @ mundiemomstmicontest@ gmail.com

**This is open internationally. Please read our giveaway policy for over seas shipping found here http://tinyurl.com/28mobe3

Good luck and we can't wait to see what your covers!!

Mundane Monday #54

Happy Mundane Monday!! I don't know about you, but today my feet are dragging.... here's to a great Monday!

(Image found on google. If this is your image, please let us know so we can give proper credit).

"Were you asleep?" he asked. There was no contrition in his voice, only curiosity.

"No." Clary stepped out into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind here. "Why would you think that?"

He eyed her baby blue cotton tank top and sleep shorts set. "No reason."

"I was in bed most of the day," she said, which was technicially true. Seeing him, her jitter level had shot up about a thousand percent, but she saw no reason to share that information. "What about you? Aren't you exhausted?"

He shook his head. "Just like the postal service, the demon hunters never sleep. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these-"

"You'd be in major trouble if gloom of night did stay you." She pointed out.
He grinned. Unlike his hair, his teeth weren't perfect. An upper incisor was slightly, endearingly chipped.

She gripped her elbows. It was chilly in the hallway and she could feel goose bumps starting up her arms. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Here as in your bedroom, or 'here' as in the great spiritual question of our purpose on this planet? If you're asking whether it's all just a cosmic coincidence or there's a greater meta-ethnical purpose to life, well, that's the puzzler for the ages. I mean, simple ontological reductionism is clearly a fallacious argument, but-"

"I'm going back to bed." Clary reached for the doorknob. He slid nimbly between her and the door.
"I'm here," he said, "because Hodge reminded me it was your birthday."

Clary exhaled in exasperation. "Not until tomorrow."

"There's no reason not to start celebrating now."

-City of Bones, pages 306-307

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