Mundie Moms

Sunday, January 8, 2012

HALLOWED by Cynthia Hand Blog Tour


I am so excited about this week's upcoming blog tour for Cynthia Hand's sequel to Unearthly, HALLOWED! This is such an amazing read! Over the next two weeks you can find out more about Hallowed by following the US blog tour!

The Tour:

10th- Eve's Fan Garden, excerpt
11th- The Story Siren, interview & giveaway
12th- The Reading Teen, review
13th- I Read Banned Books, guest post & giveaway
14th- Books Complete Me, excerpt
15th- no post
16th- YA Bibliophile, review
17th- Mundie Moms, character interview & giveaway
18th- Novel Novice, guest post
19th- Anna Reads, interview & giveaway
20th- Fire & Ice, review
21st- Page Turners Blog, review & giveaway
22nd- no post
23rd- GReads, review
24th- Once Upon A Twilight, guest post
25th- Hypable- interview

* Giveaways include a swag prize pack along with either a Team Christian Ski cap or a Team Tucker cowboy hat. Each blog that's hosting a giveaway will have one of these hats to giveaway, along with the swag prize pack.


About the book:


For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning. -quoted fromGoodreads

Pre-Order/Purchase from: Harper Teen | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Follow Cynthia on her Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Watch the US trailer:


Watch the (UK) trailer:



Thank you to Amber from Page Turners for making the fabulous tour graphic!

Jace & Clary's First Kiss from Jace's Point of View


You know how we've all been *patiently* wanting to read Jace's POV from the Greenhouse scene aka Jace & Clary's 1st kiss? Well NOW WE CAN!!! Thank you to Cassie who posted it today:

Here's a snippet from the full post which you can read HERE:

She just looks at him, quietly. The training room it is, then.
“We should probably go downstairs,” he says again.
“All right.” He can’t tell what she’s thinking from her voice, either; his ability to read people seems to have deserted him and he doesn’t understand why. Moonlight spears down through the glass panes of the greenhouse as they make their way out, Clary slightly in front of him. Something moves ahead of them — a white spark of light — and suddenly she stops short and half-turns to him, already in the circle of his arm, and she is warm and soft and delicate and he is kissing her.
And he is astonished. He doesn’t work like this; his body doesn’t do things without his permission. It is his instrument as much as the piano, and he has always been in perfect command of it. But she tastes sweet, like apples and copper, and her body in his arms is trembling. She is so small; his arms go around her, to steady her, and he is lost. He understands now why kisses in movies are filmed the way they are, with the camera endlessly circling, circling: the ground is unsteady under his feet and he clings to her, small as she is, as if she could hold him up.
His palms smooth down her back. He can feel her breathing against him; a gasp in between kisses. Her thin fingers are in his hair, on the back of his neck, tangling gently, and he remembers the medianox flower and the first time he saw it and thought: here is something too beautiful to properly belong in this world.
The rush of wind is audible to him first, trained as he is to hear it. He draws back from Clary and sees Hugo, perched in the crook of a nearby dwarf cypress. His arms are still around Clary, her weight light against him. Her eyes are half-closed. “Don’t panic, but we’ve got an audience,” he whispers to her. “If Hugo’s here, Hodge won’t be far behind. We should go.”
Her green eyes flutter all the way open, and she looks amused. It pricks his ego slightly. After that kiss, shouldn’t she be fainting at his feet? But she’s grinning. She wants to know if Hodge is spying on them. He reassures her, but he feels her soft laughter travel through their joined hands — how did that happen? — as they make their way downstairs.
And he understands. He understands why people hold hands: he’d always thought it was about possessiveness, saying This is mine. But it’s about maintaining contact. It is about speaking without words. It is about I want you with me and don’t go.
He wants her in his bedroom. And not in that way — no girl has ever been in his bedroom that way. It is his private space, his sanctuary. But he wants Clary there. He wants her to see him, the reality of him, not the image he shows the world. He wants to lie down on the bed with her and have her curl into him. He wants to hold her as she breathes softly through the night; to see her as no one else sees her: vulnerable and asleep. To see her and to be seen.
So when they reach her door, and she thanks him for the birthday picnic, he still doesn’t let go of her hand. “Are you going to sleep?”
She tilts her head up and he can see that her mouth bears the imprint of his kisses: a flush of pink, like the carnations in the greenhouse, and it knots his stomach. By the Angel, he thinks, I am so…
“Aren’t you tired?” she asks, breaking into his thoughts.
There is a hollow in the pit of his stomach, a nervous edginess. He wants to pull her back to himself, to pour into her everything he is feeling: his admiration, his new-born knowledge, his devotion, his need. “I’ve never been more awake.”
She lifts her chin, a quick unconscious movement, and he leans down, cupping her face with her free hand. He doesn’t mean to kiss her here — too public, too easy to be interrupted — but he can’t stop touching his mouth to hers lightly. Her lips part under his and he leans into her and he can’t stop. I am so —
It was at precisely that moment that Simon threw open the bedroom door and stepped out into the hall. And Clary pulls away from him hastily, turning her head aside, and he feels it with the sharp pain of a bandage ripped off his skin.
I am so screwed.

This snippet from Jace was just the icing on the cake after Clary's Heroines Tournament win! Thank you to Cassie for this fabulous scene & thank you to all the fans who continue to support Cassie and her characters!

Book Review: Deadly Little Voices by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Published by: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: December 6, 2011
Source: Purchased

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - I liked it and will keep reading the series.


Synopsis: High school junior Camelia thought her powers of psychometry only gave her the ability to sense the future through touch. But now she’s started to hear voices. Mean voices. Berating her, telling her how ugly she is, and that she’d be better off dead. It’s a troubling development that has Camelia terrified for her mental stability, especially since her deranged aunt with a suicidal history has just moved into the family house. More torturing, ex-boyfriend Ben, who has similar psychometric abilities, has been spending more time with their classmate Alejandra.

With the line between right and wrong fraying, Camelia turns to pottery to get a grasp on her emotions. She begins sculpting a beautiful figure skater, only to receive frightening premonitions that someone’s in danger. But who is the victim? And how can Camelia help them when she is on the brink of losing her own sanity?

Camille and Ben.

Camille and Adam.

Camille and what?? Another-crazed stalker?

I have to admit that the familiar plot line is exactly what I love about the series. Without making this spoiler-ish, I will hint at the fact that this plot is very believable and yet it's about a familiar (for the series) predicament -- someone's stalking a student at Camille's high school. But this time, Camille's voices get louder and her premonitions become actual visions that rip her from reality and into a future scenario. Laurie's descriptions of these disturbing moments are so vivid that, at times, I actually shuddered a little. These parts of the plot also balance out other points where the plot becomes a little predictable.

As for Ben being in the picture, well, he is and he isn't. He has an excuse to be away for a few days just as the plot builds. No worries, however, because Adam, ever patient, is there to help. The big climactic scene is one that is filled with whoa, whoa, whoa and the plot twists just enough to make you want to keep reading. For Ben fans, like myself, there is also a sweet moment (unfortunately it's not one that Camille witnesses but it's one readers are allowed to see) and that moment is worth the read.

This series is one that I keep saying should be a TV series, and there, I've said it again. Someone please make it one, so I can tune in each week and get my fix of characters I've grown to like -- a lot.

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