Mundie Moms

Monday, July 16, 2012

YA Crush Tourney: TMI/ID Characters Advance



This year's YA Crush Tourney is set to be an exciting one! As some of you may now, I have the privilege of being Will's advocate, along with TMI Source. You can see my post for Will's first round here. Since then, Will, Jem, Magnus and Alec have all been featured. Currently Alec is up for vote, Jem and Magnus, along with Will have all advanced to the next their rounds. I've included the links to their posts, as well as the schedule below.

Look for the banner above in the right hand side bar, so you can click on that and find all the tourney links and stay up to date with the tournament via this post here. 


1. Will – Infernal Devices - Katie @ Mundie Moms / Alyssa TMI Source
5. Jem – Infernal Devices - Pixie(Amber) and Stacey @ Pageturners
10. Simon – Mortal Instruments - Benji @ The Non Reluctant Reader
13. Magnus – Mortal Instruments/Infernal Devices -  Michelle @ Oh! For the Love of Books
15. Alec – Mortal Instruments -  Steph @ Steph Likes Books
Alright ShadowHunters, let's show our support and help our Shadowhunter boys WIN!!  You can also follow along on Twitter under the #YACrushTourney2


Schedule for Round 1

Friday, July 6th, 2012
Match 1:  Will (1) vs. Vincent (32) WINNER: Will
Match 2:  Zachary (16) vs. Alex (17)

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Match 5:  Four (4) vs. Tucker (29)
Match 6:  Magnus (13) vs. Tod (20) WINNER: Magnus

Friday, July 13th, 2012
Match 7:  Finnick (12) vs. Kaiden (21)
Match 8: Jem (5) vs. Gale (28) WINNER: Jem

Monday, July 16th, 2012
Match 9:  Adrian (2) vs. Cricket (31)
Match 10: Alec (15) vs. Noah (18) WINNER: Alec

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012
Match 11: Simon (10) vs. Etienne (23) WINNER: Simon
Match 12:  Patch (7) vs. Percy (26)

Round 2:  The Sweet Sixteen

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
Match 17: WILL vs. Zach (Team Kilt): WINNER: WILL

Friday, July 27th, 2012
Match 19: Four vs. Magnus: WINNER: Magnus
Match 20: Jem vs. Winner Match 6: WINNER: Jem

Monday, July 30th, 2012
Match 22:  Patch vs. Simon : WINNER: Patch
Match 21:  Alec vs. Winner Match 16: WINNER:  Adrian

Round 3:  The Elite Eight

Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

Match 25:  Will vs. Adam: WINNER: WILL 

The Final Four

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
Match 29:  Will vs. Jem

The Finale

Friday, August 10th, 2012
Match 31:  Winner Match 29 vs. Winner Match 30

Vote for ALEC & An Original COG Scene w/ Jace & Alec


Alec is up in today's YA Crush Tourney and in Cassie's fashion ( I love her fashion), she's treated fans to an extra of Alec. Today's post is an original scene from City of Glass with Jace and Alec, that was rewritten for the book. Here's what Cassie said, "Aw! Alec is up for the YA Crush Tourney. It would be nice to see a gay character advance into the later rounds!
So, as always, vote for Alec if you’re feelin’ it. You can vote here
Either way, in honor of his candidacy, I’m posting the scene from the original draft of City of Glass in which Jace kisses Alec to get him to come to his senses about Magnus. It wound up being rewritten as it was kind of silly, but I do enjoy Jace’s relentless practicality about everything and as always, Alec and Jace’s friendship."
“Drop it, Jace,” Alec said in a warning tone.
Jace was having none of being warned. “Magnus says it’s because you’re hung up on me. Is that true?”
There was a moment of utter silence. Then Alec gave a despairing howl of horror and put his hands up to cover his face. “I am going to kill Magnus. Kill him dead.”
“Don’t. He cares about you. He really does. I believe that,” Jace said, managing to sound only a little bit awkward. “Look. I don’t want to push you into anything, but do you maybe want to —”
“Call Magnus? Look, that’s a dead end, I know you’re trying to be helpful, but —”
“—kiss me?” Jace finished.
Alec looked as if he were about to fall off his chair. “WHAT? What? What?”
“One what would do.” Jace did his best to look as if this were the sort of suggestion one made all the time. “I think it might help.”
Alec looked at him with something like horror. “You don’t mean that.”
“Why wouldn’t I mean it?”
“Because you’re the straightest person I know. Possibly the straightest person in the world.”
“Exactly,” Jace said, and leaned forward, and kissed Alec on the mouth.
The kiss lasted approximately four seconds before Alec pulled forcefully away, throwing his hands up as if to ward Jace off from coming at him again. He looked as if he were about to throw up. “By the Angel,” he said. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Oh yeah?” Jace grinned, and almost meant it. “That bad?”
“Like kissing my brother,” said Alec, with a look of horror in his eyes.
“I thought you might feel that way.” Jace crossed his arms over his chest. “Also, I’m hoping we can just gloss over all the irony here in what you just said.”
“We can gloss over whatever you want to,” Alec said fervently. “Just don’t kiss me again.”

Aw, Jace! I can't stop laughing at this scene, partly because I can picture it clearly in my head, and the other part because I can hear Alec's horror and shock in my mind so clearly. Plus, only Jace could get away with doing something like that and not think twice about it. 

Book Review: Fall from Grace by Charles Benoit


By: Charles Benoit
Published by: Harper Teen
Released on: May 8th, 2012
Source: ARC from publisher to review
3.5 stars: It's A Good Read
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Grace always has a plan. There’s her plan to get famous, her plan to get rich, and—above all—her plan to have fun. 


Sawyer has plenty of plans too. Plans made for him by his mother, his father, his girlfriend. Maybe they aren’t his plans, but they are plans.

When Sawyer meets Grace, he wonders if he should come up with a few plans himself. Plans about what he actually wants to be, plans to speak his own mind for a change, plans to maybe help Grace with a little art theft. 

Wait a minute—plans to what? -quoted from Goodreads

Funny thing about this book. When I first picked it up a couple months ago I put it back down, because I just couldn't get into it. Now that I've gotten into a bit of a contemp kick I picked it back up again and surprisingly ended up enjoying it. For me this was a book that had a bit of a rough start, but it's one that progresses beautifully not just with the story line, but with the characters as well as it goes on. For me, this a book that just gets its. It's a story about teens who are on the verge of graduating from high school, who are about to embark on their own journeys away from home for the first time and really finding themselves in the real world. It's also about something more.... This is a book that tells the story of two teens, one who just wants attention, and will do something drastic to get it. The just wants his freedom to decide what he does with his own life and not have his parent's controlling every single aspect of it. 

Sawyer, one of our main characters hails from a great family home life, has a hot popular girl friend, a fabulous job, and controlling parent's who are set on their son going to the same prestigious college they went to. The thing about Sawyer is he's tired of all that. He's done being the guy who idles by in life, and does what everyone excepts of him. He wants control and when the mysterious girl Grace enters his life, he gets a little bit more than he bargained for. Grace and Sawyer for me are two characters I could relate to on same level. I got how they were feeling and their need to want something more from their lives.

Grace is a character who grabs life by the horns and just does it. She doesn't care what other people think. She tasks risks, she plans and she's a girl that doesn't always care/thinks about the consequences of her actions, which ends up hurting a few people in the end. She's also someone who teaches Swayer to think outside the box. With Zoe, the hot girl friend of Swayer's on the other hand left a lot to be desired. At first I felt her character was flat and lacked personality, but as the story went on, I got why Charles wrote her the way he did, which was a direct reflection into Swayer's life at the time and getting to see how he viewed their relationship and everything in his life at the that time. 

Above all, the thing I enjoyed most about this book was the friendship that Swayer and Grace had. It was not a romantic relationship, which was a huge breath of fresh air for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my romantic relationships, but not every book needs to have a love interest. I adored the friendship part of this book. From their late night "outings", outrageous conversations and everything in between, Grace and Swayer have something that's both strong and unique, and different. It's like one big secret we got to get a little glimpse into. Charles Benoit has created a story that will make you think a little differently, open your eyes up a little more, and for those of us who already did our time in high school, it will make us look back on those years and relate to the way these characters are feeling. 

If you're looking for a good contemp with a bit of mystery, friendship, romance and a heist involved, I'd recommend picking this one up.

Mundane Monday #145

Happy Monday!

I couldn't find an image that matches today's post, so I settled with the fabulous image of Will & Jem 

"Did you just kiss me?" Will inquired.
Magnus made a split-second decision. "No."
"I thought-"
"on occasion the aftereffects of the painkilling spells can result in hallucinations of the most bizarre sort."
"Oh," Will said. "How peculiar." - Clockwork Prince, page 319, Will and Magnus

Labels