Mundie Moms

Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day


In honor of Memorial Day, we will be taking a moment to stop and think about those who have given their lives for our freedoms. Our prayers, our thoughts and our gratitude are with those who continue to protect our freedoms and serve our country. Thank you!

Book Review-Nightspell & Author Interview with Leah Cypess


Published by Harper Collins
To Be Released on May 31st, 2011 TOMORROW
Source- Book from publisher for review
4 stars- I really enjoyed it

Here be ghosts, the maps said, and that was all.

In this haunted kingdom, ghosts linger—not just in the deepest forests or the darkest caverns, but alongside the living, as part of a twisted palace court that revels all night and sleeps through the daylight hours.

Darri's sister was trapped in this place of fear and shadows as a child. And now Darri has a chance to save her sister . . . if she agrees to a betrothal with the prince of the dead. But nothing is simple in this eerie kingdom—not her sister, who has changed beyond recognition; not her plan, which will be thrown off track almost at once; and not the undead prince, who seems more alive than anyone else.

In a court seething with the desire for vengeance, Darri holds the key to the balance between life and death. Can her warrior heart withstand the most wrenching choice of all? (quoted from Goodreads).


Nightspell is an alluring spellbinding fantasy with a fantastic twist. The story's strong characters, and unique world, Ghostland, make Nightspell the perfect companion novel to Leah Cypess's debut novel, Mistwood.
The story centers on Darri who's traveling with her brother, Prince Varis, to rescue their youngest sister Callie. Callie was taken a few years ago and brought to the dreaded Ghostland. In this land where the living and the dead live side by side, nothing is what it seems, even for Callie. Darri, the story's main character and Callie are both strong characters, and I was really surprised at how much I ended up liking Darri. By the end of the story I completely understood her motives for her actions through out the book. The character who surprised me the most was Clarisse, who is also in Mistwood.

I am a sucker for strong, independent, well written characters, which Nightspell has a lot of. I loved the action, the subtle romance, the tension and character chemistry that happens between both the living and the dead. The deception between the characters was brilliant. It kept me glued to the pages, because I had to know what happened next. Leah Cypress really delivers a one of the kind fantasy story filled with in-depth plot twists. I really enjoyed the mythology that centers on Ghostland, as it explains why ghosts and the living are allowed to live side by side, and it's this part of the story that I was the most fascinated with.

Leah Cypess is an engaging fantasy story teller, and has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I loved her debut book Mistwood and really enjoyed reading Nightspell. I want to point out that Nightspell is not a sequel, but a companion book in the series, which can also be read as a stand alone. If you love reading fantasy I highly recommend picking up both books!

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We're the next stop in the Nightspell blog tour, hosted by The Teen Scene. Today we're excited to share with you our recent interview we had with Leah.

We loved Mistwood and we're really looking forward to Nightspell. Are you able to tell us a little bit about the story?
It’s about a new character, Darri, who grew up on the other side of the mountains that border Samorna. She’s a member of a tribe of plainspeople and is being sent to a kingdom called Ghostland to marry their prince. Four years
ago, her sister was sent to Ghostland for the same reason, and Darri is determined to rescue her. But her sister is not eager to be saved…and Darri is going to have to come to terms with how her sister has changed, and to reexamine beliefs she has never before questioned.

What is something you most admire about Isabel (from Mistwood)?
I love how she always keeps her cool in every situation, even when internally she’s in turmoil.

Have you found it easier to write a sequel or is it a little more intimidating?
It was a lot harder. First of all, the timeline was much tighter; I had years to get Mistwood into exactly the form I wanted it to be before I submitted it. Even though I wrote the first draft of Nightspell before I had a publishing deal, I had to revise much faster. Also, it can be difficult to switch back and forth mentally from promoting one book to writing another. (Technically, Nightspell is a companion novel to Mistwood, rather than a sequel.)

Which character have you enjoyed getting to know the most?
I really feel like I got to know Darri over the course of writing and revising Nightspell, discovering things about her that I hadn’t fully realized (even though I had written them!) That was a great experience for me. A lot of writing is about getting to know your subconscious better. ;)

What is a recent released you've read, that you'd recommend to our followers?
I recently read Entwined by Heather Dixon, a retelling of the fairy tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I definitely recommend that one!

Thank you Leah for joining us today! Be sure to visit Leah on her site here and to find out more about Mistwood and Nightspell, but sure to visit the Harper Teen site here.

Mundane Monday #86

Happy Mundane Monday!! Today's quote is from Clockwork Angel. If you've not read Clockwork Angel I would like to warn you this may be a bit of spoiler.....

(image found here)

"Tess," he said, his voice thick and soft with desire, and she leaned toward him, swaying like a tree whose branches were weighted by snow. Her whole body aches; she ached, as if there were a terrible hollow emptiness inside her. She was more conscious of Will than she had ever been of anything or anyone else in her life, of the faint shine of blue beneath his half-closed lids, of the shadow of light stubble across his jaw where he hadn't shaved, of faint white scars that dotted the skin of his shoulders and throat-and more than anything else of his mouth, the crescent shape of it, the slight dent in the center of his bottom lip. When he leaned toward her and brushed his lips across hers, she reached for him as if she would otherwise drown."

- Clockwork Angel, pages 290-291

Blog Tour: Shadow Dancer

By Courtney Rene
Published by Rogue Phoenix Press
Released on September 14th, 2010
Blog Tour: The Teen Scene, Character Tweets

Sunny has a gift that she has no idea how to use, until she meets Leif, a boy from the kingdom of Acadia, on the other side of the shadows.

Leif teaches Sunny about Shadow Walkers and how to use her new found gifts. As they grow closer and their gifts grow stronger, a threat arrives. The Shadow Guard has been sent to bring Sunny back to Acadia, to determine if she is a threat to the king as the rightful ruler of Acadia.

As Leif and Sunny prepare to defend themselves, Sunny finds that Leif has also been sent to bring Sunny back to the kingdom but for very different reasons. As a battle for possession of Sunny wages, she is struggling to come to turns with her feelings of inadequacy regarding controlling her gifts as well as the hurt regarding the lies and deceit of everyone around her (quoted from Goodreads).

Sunny: Home from school. BTW…Shadows are cool…pun intended.

Lief: Meeting at the Hill. 7:00 p.m.

Sunny: Oh joy. Like my muscles aren’t tired enough. Wait. @Leif, can’t make it at 7:00. Can do 7:30.

Leif: @Sunny, fine. 7:30 then. Don’t be late.

Sunny: I’m never late.

Gavin: Who are you trying to fool? You are always late.

Leigha: @Gavin LOL

Sunny: Not sure why I like some people….at all.

Leif: Because some people are hot.

Austin: Like me.

Gavin: Not hardly @Austin.

Sunny: Oh my.


~*~

Leif: Had a good time last night at the bar.

Gavin: What bar? You went to a bar and didn’t take us?

Austin: Hey, you went to a bar?

Sunny: Me to. It was really…lovely. We should do that again sometimes.

Sunny: Soon.

Leif: @Austin and @Gavin we didn’t go to drink. It was a training exercise.

Gavin: Yeah, sure. A training exercise...

Austin: What type of training?

Sunny: Ummm….just standard training.

Sunny: Really.

Austin: You do know where you go for lying right?

Sunny: @Austin…ignoring you….

Sunny: @Leif. You stopping over later?

Leif: I’ll be there after a while. Leave the window open?

Sunny: K


Gavin: Standard training…not hardly.



~*~


Sunny: It’s really dark. Suddenly I don’t like the dark.


Leif: You are fine. It’s all in your head.


Sunny: No it’s not.


Leif: Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon.


Gavin: Why are you worried?


Sunny: Not really worried. Just feels like there are things out there that I can’t see.


Leif: Nothing is out there.


Gavin: Seriously? This is supposed to be our fearless leader?


Leif: @Gavin, enough.


Sunny: @Gavin. Shut up! You aren’t the one having to deal with all this crap. You aren’t the one that anyone is after. You aren’t the one being stalked in the shadows and hunted. T


Sunny: hat would be me. You just don’t understand.


Leif: This is not helpful.


Gavin: We are all being stalked in one-way or another. You need to get over it and deal with it.


Sunny: @Gavin. I don’t really like you.


Gavin: Okay.




Be sure to go here to find out the next stop in the tour.

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