Mundie Moms

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

City of Bones Movie Makes CNN's Biggest Buzziest Movies of 2013 List!



Congrats to Cassandra Clare & The Mortal Instruments Movie for having The Mortal Instruments City of Bones listed as one of CNN's Biggest Buzziest Movies of 2013! Along with TMI:City of Bones our friends Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures is also listed!!!

Here's what they said:

With no more "Harry Potter" or "Twilight," movie studios have been scrambling to create new teen-oriented franchises, and only "The Hunger Games" has caught fire so far. The second installment of the series, due November 22, just wrapped shooting in Hawaii (the new Game, featuring survivors of Games past, has a water-and-jungle theme). Fans are eager to see Katniss' wedding dress, the clock-structure of the arena and the confrontation with President Snow. (Not to mention some extra kissing this time around!)

But hot on the heels of "Catching Fire" are some worthy contenders, including boy-centric "Ender's Game" (out November 1), "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" (out August 23), and the first of the Caster Chronicles books to be adapted, "Beautiful Creatures" (out February 13).

The latter two are good-versus-evil supernatural stories: "Mortal Instruments" is about half-angel demon hunters, or Shadowhunters, and "Beautiful Creatures" is about light and dark witches, or casters, who discover what they are during a ceremony at age 16. "We've really loved everything we've seen so far in the film," said "Beautiful Creatures" co-author Kami Garcia. Audiences will likely love Emmy Rossum's take on the lollipop-wielding Ridley, who casts her siren spell with each lick.

Check out the movie buzz here.

DOOMED Blog Tour: Excerpt / Giveaway


I'm excited to be kicking off a week long tour for Tracey Deeb's upcoming YA dystopian, DOOMED (which releases next Tuesday 1/8/13). This week long tour will feature excerpts from the book along with a giveaway! 


The Tour:

Welcome to the Doomed Scavenger Hunt!   Over the next eight days, Tracy Deebs and Mundie Moms are sending you on a scavenger hunt through eight different blogs.  In Doomed, the three main characters embark on a scavenger hunt that winds itself through a video game and the real world in order to stop a countdown to nuclear annihilation.  Our scavenger hunt is nowhere near as complicated-- or as scary-- as what Pandora and her friends have to go on.  Instead, all you have to do is visit the eight sites, read the excerpts and find the hidden number in each of the entries.  At the end of the eight days, add up all eight of the numbers and include them in the rafflecopter entry spot for the Scavenger Hunt to earn 10 extra entry points for $75 gift card to your choice of Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Apple.  There are also prizes to be won at every stop, so make sure to get your entries in and be sure to comment on each of the blogs to be entered to win.  Happy hunting!!!!!

GO HERE to check out the tour schedule

About the book:





Beat the game. Save the world.

Pandora’s just your average teen, glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends, until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father, her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.



Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Add it to your Goodreads list

The Excerpt:


The second I pull into the parking lot at Walgreens, I’m ripping into Emily’s present.  I grin when I see what she got me, and can’t stop the little bobble of excitement that works its way through me.  A first run copy of Stone Temple Pilots’s CD Core, autographed by the entire band.  Could she have picked a more perfect gift?
I grab my phone, text her a thank you.  It takes a minute or so to go through, which is odd, but when she texts me right back, I forget all about it.  I smile when I see her message: I knew u couldn’t wt.  It’s a sickness, Pandora.  Srsly.  Get help now.  LOL.
I run into Walgreens and pay for the photos I’d ordered this morning, then take them out and look at them right there in the store.  There are only twelve, but in that moment they feel more precious to me than anything else I own—even my new STP CD.
I drive home slowly, thinking about the pictures.  Thinking about my dad and the website he set up for me.  Anxious to check it again, I head up to my room as soon as I get home.  I didn’t get a chance to read all of my dad’s messages this morning and I want to see what the others say. Except, when I type in the address of the blog, nothing comes up.  I try again-- still nothing-- and then finally go searching for the email my dad sent me.  I must be remembering the address wrong.
But the email is gone, too.  Which isn’t possible.  I mean, I was in a hurry this morning, but I would know if I’d deleted it, wouldn’t I?  Still, I check the trash folder, just in case.  Nothing’s there.  Then I check spam, but the only things there are ads for cheap prescription medicine and cheaper mortgages.  
I’m totally bummed now, and if I didn’t have the twelve pictures I might have thought I imagined the whole thing.  But I do have them, thank God, so I know I’m not crazy.  It happened.  
I just don’t know what happened afterwards.  Was I really in such a big hurry that I trashed the only email I’ve ever gotten from my dad?  What a moron.
Frustrated and pissed off at myself, I insert the Core CD into my laptop and lie across the bed.  My stomach growls and I think about going back down to the kitchen and grabbing something to eat, but I’m too annoyed.  Instead, I stare at the ceiling, studying the hundreds of CD covers I have tacked up there and contemplating my father’s letters to me while Wicked Garden plays in the background.
If I hadn’t been stupid enough to erase the email, and if the website hadn’t disappeared off the face of the earth, would I have written back to him?  And if I did, what would I say?
The thing is, I don’t know the answer to either of those questions.  His letters were nice and so are the pictures.  But they’re not much to hang a relationship on, especially since I haven’t seen him in ten years.  
Eventually my hunger gets the best of me, so I grab my laptop and cruise down to the kitchen.  On the way, I flick on the television and start streaming the first season of Supernatural from Netflix right where I left off—at Episode Four, Phantom Traveler.  Then I head to the pantry and pour myself a bowl of cereal.  Crunch Berries, of course.  Between mouthfuls, I open my laptop and boot it up.
I play around for a while—Facebook stuff, checking out the Cliff notes for Othello, looking for a new pair of boots as my old ones are pretty much trashed. By then it’s after five-thirty and my mom still hasn’t called.  I check my phone to see if I missed a text from her—sometimes reception can be spotty in the house—but there’s still nothing.
I start my calculus homework, but it’s not due until Friday so eventually I give up on it.  Being productive is highly overrated.  Besides, I so shouldn’t have to do advanced math on my birthday.   
Finally, I do what I’ve wanted to do for the last forty-five minutes.  I log onto Pandora’s Box.  Usually I play it on my iPad, but I’m too lazy to go up to my room and get it right now.  Besides, my laptop works fine with it, even if the colors aren’t quite as cool.  
I’m kind of excited about playing again—when I left off yesterday, I had just hit level twenty-seven.  I want to get through it quickly, and find the alternate reality gate that will transport me to the next level, because Jules says twenty-eight is the best so far.
Except instead of dropping me off in the middle of the barren wasteland that was once New York City, a new message flashes across the screen.  
Happy Seventeenth Birthday, Pandora.  
What the—
I stare at the screen, confused.  How is it possible that the game knows my birthday—and my name?  My username is totally unconnected to my real name.  And yet, there it is, staring at me in a very distinct yellow font.  My name.
I think back to when I first jumped on the Pandora’s Box bandwagon, months ago.  I’d resisted for a long time—because of the name thing—but when I finally gave in I remember having to register, just like with any MMO.  Had they asked for my birthdate?  I vaguely remember that they did and it calms me down a little.  Still, I make a mental note to ask Jules if she got the same greeting four weeks ago on her birthday.  The last thing I need is some weird pervert guy hacking my account …
I click to get to the new screen and the birthday message slowly fades, only to be replaced by the words:
YOU’VE REACHED THE POINT OF NO RETURN
WELCOME TO THE REAL PANDORA’S BOX
Underneath is a giant, flashing number 10 in bright red, just to make sure you don’t miss it.  I try to click on it but nothing happens.  Try to click on the message, but no luck
there, either.  Then the letters dissolve only to re-form with a new message:
Total Annihilation in: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
The one is huge, takes over the entire screen for a brief second before morphing into a graphic of the earth.  Seconds later, the world blows up, little pieces streaming across the screen like fireworks.  Then everything fades to black.  Nothing.
I click on the screen, hit return, escape, all those things they teach you to do when your computer does something weird.  But nothing happens and I have to admit, I’m a little freaked out.  It’s stupid, I know.  Pandora’s Box is just a game.  And yet … and yet, I can’t help viewing this new, bizarre message as some kind of threat.
A weird feeling hits me and I reach for my cell phone, dial Jules.  Wait impatiently, but it never starts to ring.  I pull it away from my ear, check the reception.  No bars.  Of course not.  Why is it so difficult to get decent coverage out here?  I live near the lake, not in the middle of the wilds of frickin’ Africa.  
Tossing my cell down on the table, I cross the kitchen.  Reach for the cordless phone I almost never use anymore and dial Jules’s number. 261-3782.  
Nothing happens.
What. The. Hell?
I hang up and try again. 2.6.1.3.7.8.2.  Put the phone to my ear and wait impatiently.  Still nothing.  I click the off button again, then hit talk.  Hold the stupid thing to my ear.  There’s no dial tone.  Nothing.  Just the strange, eerie silence of a dead line.

Today's # is: 4



Tracy Deebs collects books, English degrees and lipsticks and has been known to forget where—and sometimes who—she is when immersed in a great novel. At six she wrote her first short story—something with a rainbow and a prince—and at seven she forayed into the wonderful world of girls lit with her first Judy Blume novel. From the first page of that first book, she knew she’d found her life-long love. Now a writing instructor at her local community college, Tracy writes YA novels that run the gamut from dark mermaids and witches to kissing clubs and techno-Armageddon stories… and she still has a soft spot for Judy Blume.

The Giveaway:

Thank you to Tracy we have an awesome prize to enter to win! Want to win a $75 gift card to Barnes & Noble or Amazon or Apple? Than fill out the form below. The winner will be contacted and at that time will get to choose which gift card they'd like. That's not all, there will be giveaways on each of the stops as well!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AudioBook Teaser: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

One of my goals this year is to review more audiobooks. I've realized I'm seriously missing out on listening to some awesome books, and not only that, I can easily listen to them while I'm working out, driving, cleaning the house etc. I feel like this almost as bad as not reading e-books (gasp). I know, I'm old fashion and love sitting down with a physical book in my hand, but that too is another goal of mine this year.... to read more ebooks. 


Recently I reviewed Marissa Meyer's Cinder on the blog and I'll be posting my review of Scarlet soon. This a book that both Sophie and I enjoyed, and one we'd recommend picking up. If you've not yet picked up a Marissa Meyer book you're missing out! Today I've got a lovely treat from MacMillan Audio to share with you guys. A clip of the Cinder audiobook. If you're like me, after you listen to this you're going to wonder why in the world you've not yet picked up this audiobook yet. Listen HERE, and tell me what you think. Is this an audiobook you've already listened to or one you'd pick up? This is an audiobook I'll be adding to my list to listen to this year.

About the Book:


Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. - quoted from Goodreads


You can currently purchase the Cinder audiobook via Audible | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Waiting on Wednesday #167: Asunder by Jodi Meadows


By: Jodi Meadows
Published by: Harper Teen (Katherine Tegen Books)
To Be Released on: January 29th, 2013
Series: Newsoul #2
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

 DARKSOULS
Ana has always been the only one. Asunder. Apart. But after Templedark, when many residents of Heart were lost forever, some hold Ana responsible for the darksouls–and the newsouls who may be born in their place.

SHADOWS
Many are afraid of Ana’s presence, a constant reminder of unstoppable changes and the unknown. When sylph begin behaving differently toward her and people turn violent, Ana must learn to stand up not only for herself but for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

LOVE
Ana was told that nosouls can’t love. But newsouls? More than anything, she wants to live and love as an equal among the citizens of Heart, but even when Sam professes his deepest feelings, it seems impossible to overcome a lifetime of rejection.

In this second book in the Incarnate trilogy, Ana discovers the truth about reincarnation and will have to find a way to embrace love and make her young life meaningful. Once again, Jodi Meadows explores the extraordinary beauty and shadowed depths of the soul in a story equal parts epic romance and captivating fantasy -quoted from GoodReads

I can not wait for this book to be out later this month! I really enjoyed Incarnate and I am eager to jump right back into this world. Jodi created such a mesmerizing world, and introduced me to some fascinated characters in her debut. Okay, I also want to read more about Ana and Sam!! Love their complicated relationship. What book are you looking forward to being released?

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