Mundie Moms

Sunday, December 11, 2011

#BIR2011- The Girl of Fire & Thorns by Rae Carson

We're kicking off our BIR2011 feature with Rae Caron's The Girl of Fire & Thorns. I totally love this book and I'm thrilled to have Rae on the blog with today!

Published by: Harper Teen
Released on: September 20th, 2011

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he’s not the only one who needs her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do- quoted from Goodreads


I LOVED The Girl of Fire Thorns. What inspired your beautiful setting?

Thank you! I knew I wanted to write a desert-based fantasy, because deserts are RAD. And I was learning to speak Spanish at the time. Combining those two influences led me to historic Spanish Morocco, where the Sahara brushed shoulders with Spain. This created a rich and gorgeous texture of language, culture, and architecture. Exploring it for inspiration felt like treasure-hunting.

Which of your characters is most like you and which one surprised you the most in terms of how much they grew over the course of writing the book?

I’m a bossy, know-it-all, big sister just like Alodia. She was the easiest character for me to write. The one who surprised me the most was Cosmé. I knew I wanted a frenemy for Elisa, but Cosmé kept poking her head into my manuscript and telling me how things were gonna be. She’s pushy like that.

What is something you admire about Elisa?

I love how clever she is and how easily she thinks on her feet. I wish I were half so clever!

Did you have a favorite author growing up? If so, who was it and did they inspire you to become an author?

I loved Scott O’Dell when I was a child. Island of the Blue Dolphins and Sing Down the Moon were particular favorites. Something about children making adult decisions and taking responsibility for their own survival really sang to me. I bet a therapist could have a heyday with that.

Are you able to tell us a little bit about what we can except in The Crown of Embers?

Here’s a little description, exclusive for Mundie Moms!

Hero, foreigner, queen. At the age of 17, Elisa is all three. And all three draw enemies.
Faced with assassins, court politics, and the threat of civil war, Elisa despairs of being the ruler her people need, for she is too young, she thinks. Too inexperienced. Her only hope is the Godstone. She has no choice but to master its power once and for all.
Accompanied by a one-eyed warrior, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa takes a leap of faith and crosses an ocean in search of the ultimate source of the Godstone’s power.
But her faith has always had a price, and doing the right thing might mean giving up the power she desperately needs. And it might mean giving up the man she desperately loves.

Thank you Rae for being with us today & for sharing that awesome teaser with us!

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Be sure to visit Rae on her blog| twitter| facebook


You can read my 5 star review HERE

You can follow our entire BIR feature here.

Thank you to Harper Teen, we're giving away 1 copy of The Girl of Fire & Thorns! To enter, please fill out the form below:

* open to US residents only (no PO Boxes)
* you must be 13 yrs & older to enter (or have your parent/guardian's permission to enter if younger)
* 1 entry per person
* this giveaway ends on 12/17/11

IMM #101- The Bumming VLOG Edition

It's that time of week again to talk about the goodies we all receive in our mailboxes. I swear this week flew by way too fast. In My My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren and is a post were bloggers post about the goodies they've received in their mailbox this past week for review, were gifted, purchased, borrowed etc. Here's what arrived this week:


*** I totally forgot to mention that Sarah Ockler's The Language of Impossible Dreams has a brand NEW cover and title- Bittersweet!! I love the new look and the new title of the book

For Review:

* The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer Smith, published by Poppy/Little Brown, to be released on

* Above World by Jenn Reese, published by Candlewick Press, to be released on 2/14/11

* Bittersweet aka The Language of Impossible Dreams by Sarah Ockler, published by Simon Pulse, to be released on 8/7/12, The ARC cover is NOT the final cover

* Lightbringer by K.D. McEntire, published by Prometheus Books, released on 11/15/11

* Planesrunner by Ian McDonald, published by Prometheus Books, released on 12/6/11

* Ruthless by Sara Shepard, published by Harper Teen, released on


GIFTED:

* a ton of signed swag from Judith Graves, from a variety of authors
* signed book marks & book plates from Angela Corbett


BOUGHT:

I may have bought one too many copies of Clockwork Prince (snickers). This week I purchased 2 from Walmart & 2 from Barnes & Noble, but two of the copies are going to giveaway winners.



THANK YOU to Simon Pulse, Poppy/Little Brown, Candlewick Press, Harper Teen, Prometheus Books, Angela Corbett and Judith Graves for this weeks awesome goodies! What goodies did you receive?

GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!

I am totally late on posting our recent giveaway winners. CONGRATULATIONS to the following winners:


1st place winner (audiobook & both SIGND head shots: #252- Jasmine K
audiobook winner #145- Tammy W
audiobook winner #51- Ruya T

#470- Laurie M

* Heather- two emails have already been sent, please reply by tonight to claim your swag or a new winner will be chosen


All winners have been notified by email. As always, winners have 48 hrs to reply to the original email sent out, or a new winner will be chosen. Be sure to check out our other giveaways currently going on & this week we'll have a giveaway a day with our BIR feature.

#BIR2011 Upcoming Feature


We along with 11 other blogs have once again gotten together to show case our favorite books from 2011. This weekly event will take place on 12 blogs, ours, the Best I've Read Blog and these fabulous blogs:

Each site will feature one book each day over the course of the next 7 days along with interviews, guest posts and giveaways. The giveaways featured on Mundie Moms will all end at the end of the week. We also all collectively voted on our favorites to be featured on the Best I've Read Blog. Below I've included our upcoming schedule, as well as the schedule for the BIR blog.

Here's what we'll be featuring this week on Mundie Moms:

Sunday, December 11th: THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson
Monday, December 12th: HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire
Tuesday, December 13th: LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins
Wednesday, December 14th: SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi
Thursday, December 15th: DIE FOR ME by Amy Plum
Friday, December 16th: THE RIVER OF TIME SERIES by Lisa T. Bergren
Saturday, December 17th: UNCOMMON CRIMINALS by Ally Carter

Some of our other favorites will also be featured on the Best I've Read blog, which are (I've included the dates they'll be featured on that blog):

* Monday: Divergent by Veronica Roth
* Tuesday: The Iron Queen/The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa
* Wednesday: Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer
* Thursday: Vanish by Sophie Jordan
* Friday: Hereafter by Tara Hudson
* Saturday: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

You can see the other blogger's favorite reads & their schedules here and see the complete list of books being spotlighted on the BIR blog here.

** We didn't include CP as this wasn't released yet when the submissions were due, and we didn't want to include a book that wasn't out yet. Don't worry, both Cassie and her books are being featured in our 2011 Mundie Moms Favorites feature which kicks off later this week. She is after all our favorite author and her books are our #1 all time favorite books of 2011.

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