Mundie Moms

Friday, October 14, 2011

Snippet of a Lost Scene in Clockwork Angel


William Herondale and Jem Carstairs by blindbandit5

Just in time for our Clockwork Angel Read-a-Long, Cassie tweeted a portion of a lost scene from Clockwork Angel:

   Set between the prologue and chapter one of Clockwork Angel.
   Jem unhitched his arms from his cane and sighed. “You know I believe we are reborn,” he said quietly. “I think if two souls are meant to be together, they will remain together on the Wheel and be together again in the life after this one.”
   “Is that an official teaching or something you invented yourself?” Will asked.
    Jem laughed. “Does it matter?”
   Will looked at him curiously. “Do you think we will be together again?” At the change in Jem’s expression, he added, “I mean, is there a chance for me? To have another life after this, a better one?”
I hear you guys, sighing along with me. Will. Jem. Jem. Will. Parabatai. How many days until Clockwork Prince's release? *glances up at ticker*

Book Review: Shut Out


Published by: Poppy/Little Brown
Released on: September 5th, 2011
Source: ARC/Book from publisher to review
3 stars- It's A Good Read
Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.

Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: she and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

Inspired by Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, critically acclaimed author of The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) Kody Keplinger adds her own trademark humor in this fresh take on modern teenage romance, rivalry and sexuality
.
-quoted from Goodreads

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. I wasn't a fan of The Duff, at all. I don't enjoy reading books that are full of sex, but I was really curious to see what Kody had done with her sophomore book, and I'm glad I did. I was really intrigued by Shut Out's premise and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that while Shut Out deals with the topic of sex, it's surprisingly a book with no sex scenes in it. What Kody does with Shut Out is send a powerful message to her readers about sex and the empowerment girls have by staying in control of who they are.

Shut Out doesn't hold back on it's "say how it is" conversations with relationships, friendships, sex, standing firm and being proud of who you are, choices, letting your guard down, double standards and sex education/advice. I liked this story covers a lot of realistic situations and I enjoyed the enduring friendships the girls have, and how open they were able to eventually be with each other. I really appreciated the fact that they were able to be so blunt in their conversations together about sex, double standards, wanting advice about sex and the pros and cons of teens having sex. What I admired the most with this book was the empowerment girls feel when they're in control of themselves, and they don't need to be having sex to have that control.

Kody tackled some tough issues that teens deal with and I loved that she created characters who through out the course of this book started to become honest with each other and themselves. I was shocked to learn that many of the girls in the story were indeed virgins. It made me want to yell FINALLY, there's a book with a main character and other supporting characters who don't feel the need to go all the way. Don't get me wrong, there's scenes of heavy petting and and fooling around, but I admired that some of these girls don't take it all the way even though in the beginning they act like they do.

Another thing I liked about this book was Lissa. Her voice was enduring, feisty and she kept me reading the book. She's a character who grows a lot through out the story. She learns to let go a little bit and not be so uptight about things she can't control, and at the same time she learns to be honest with herself. I totally admired her strength after a horrid event happens at her prom and I loved how her friends rallied around her after that. And Cash... I adored his character! He made the book for me and I loved how prescient and patient he was. His respect towards Lissa spoke volumes to me. My biggest compliant with the story was how often the f-bomb is dropped. I felt it was totally unnecessary to be used as much as it did and for me, it didn't fit the character who uses it so often. I liked the way Kody tackles real teen issues with regards to sex, friendships and not being embarrassed to admit you're a virgin. There's language in the book, a lot of talk about sex, and some mild sensual scenes, making this a book I'd recommend to mature YA readers.

Infernal Devices: A New Manga Series


Announced at New York's ComicCon today Yen Press announced that they will be releasing Infernal Devices trilogy as a manga series. We are so excited because the artists assigned to the series, HyeKyung Baek, is the same artist who did the Gossip Girl manga books.

Cassie released the full statement on her tumblr page. But here's her quote from it:

Cassandra Clare said of the deal: “As a long-time fan of manga, I’m so excited to be working on this adaptation with Yen Press. Manga has influenced a great deal of the way I envision narrative, and the chance to see my work rendered in the form is something I couldn’t pass up. I look forward to seeing HyeKyung Baek’s evocative art bring The Infernal Devices’ world of gaslit romance to life.”

How fun will it be to see our favorites, Tessa, Will and Jem in manga form?

Clockwork Angel Read Along Day 3: Chapter 2 Hell is Cold


Welcome! It's day 3 of our Clockwork Angel Read Along! Please be sure to visit our link here for our schedule, guidelines and to fill out the form to be entered to win some fabulous prizes.

Today's discussion is about the chapter 2. Will and Tessa meet, and Will confirms our suspicions that the dead girl he and Jem found in the beginning of the story ties back to the Dark Sisters. We also see that the Dark Sisters have been up to some rather disturbing things, via the room Tessa and Will enter.


* I absolutely loved Will's introduction into the story! His sarcasm during this chapter is fabulous. My first thought was "I can see where Jace gets his sarcasm from". What was your impression of Will?

* We learn via the Dark Sisters that the Magister is the reason why Tessa exists. What are your thoughts now on the Magister and what do you think Tessa is? Do you think she's more than human? She doesn't seem to know anything about the downworlder world, but she does have a unique ability.

* Do you think we've seen the last of the Dark Sisters? Do you think they'll play a bigger role as the series progresses?

Giveaway Winners!

CONGRATULATIONS to the following Winners:

#189- Erin B
#218- Jordan E

#31- Zoe L
#8- Mandy R

#18- Zeinab
#27- Angie
#41- Jamellamedrano
#11- Debbie
#33- Angie

#116- Ana P
#58- Gabbi C

#47- Rose C


CONGRATULATIONS to all of our winners! Winners have been notified via email and have 24 hrs to reply to those emails or a new winner will be chosen. Don't forget to check out the rest of our current giveaways, which are listed in our right hand side bar.

Author Interview & Giveaway for Danielle Weiler's Friendship on Fire

Today we welcome debut author Danielle Weiler to the blog. Her debut book, Friendship on Fire was released earlier this year. Here's a little bit about the book and you read my review here


The first few days of year 12 are disastrous for school captain Daisy Brooks.

But Daisy’s life takes a sudden turn when she is dared by Skye, the leader of the Blonde Brigade, to meet the mysterious, drop-dead gorgeous stranger, Nate, from rival school Addison Grammar. Daisy’s instant attraction to him disrupts her world. But what about her best friend Roman? How will he respond to this intruder?

Daisy is a vulnerable, yet fiery girl going through the chaotic phase between teenage and adulthood. She is about to discover the complexities of relationships, the etiquette of friendship and, most of all, her development as a woman.Is it too late for Daisy to realise that the choices she makes shapes who she is and who she will become?


Congratulations on your debut Friendship on Fire, which was released earlier this year. What can you tell our readers about your book?
Friendship on Fire is about a girl called Daisy who is going through her last year of school. It's set in the amazing Australia (but I'm biased). It details all the highlights and issues of teenage hood, including meeting the hottest guy in the world, Nate. Daisy shows us what it means to find yourself, to keep your head high through the good times and the bad, to make better choices. Without giving too much away, Daisy has to learn to cope with the errors of the people around her, and hold onto the good ones who make her smile. I could talk about Daisy's journey forever, but I can't. So there's betrayal, love, teenage drinking, mistakes to be made, friendships to be changed, and fun.

In what ways are you and your main character Daisy alike?
I suppose we've all dated a bad-boy like Nate. He is a mixture of all the guys I've ever dated - good and bad. I have a strong sense of justice like Daisy but she gets to say what she thinks more than me! Having her as a character makes it fun because I couldn't say the things she does and I get to play it all out on paper. I have 5 older brothers therefore it was easy to write about Daisy's 3. My parents are very supportive and fun. I am a 'nice' girl too so finding Daisy's voice was easy. I LOVE the beach. Everyone has had friends who've let them down and those feelings were easy to draw on. Other than that, she's a person of her own.

What's something you've learned about yourself during your time writing Friendship on Fire?
That I can write. I can be disciplined and finish something worth finishing. That I can flesh out characters and issues and they might just work. That the teenager inside me is still there, it's just been a while.

What influences you as an author?
Memories. Reading, although I hadn't read anything YA for years before opening my laptop to write Friendship on Fire. Sometimes just reading gives me the urge to start a new story, but I need inspiration to start writing. I'm not one of those authors who writes all the time just to practice writing. That would do my head in, and I have a day job anyway. At the moment, I'm editing, not writing. The discipline doesn't work for me if there's nothing at the end of it.

Have you read any YA books lately that you'd recommend we pick up?
I've just ordered Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar online so I'm excited to start that. Awesome books I've read this year are Stolen, by Lucy Christopher, Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James, Girl, Aloud by Emily Gale and various others. I LOVE Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell. I'm reading The Land of Painted Caves at the moment by Jean Auel - half way through - but it's not YA. I'm also waiting to get my signed copy of Fury from Shirley Marr!!!

Thank you so much for visiting with us today!
Thanks for having me! :)



You can follow Danielle on her website, facebook
You can purchase the book from Amazon | The Book Depository
You can also find the book on Goodreads


Thank you to Danielle, we also have a copy of her book, Friendship on Fire to giveaway. This is open internationally. To enter, please fill out the form below.

- 1 entry per person
- you must be 13 yrs & older to enter
- this giveaway will end on October 29th, 2011

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