Mundie Moms

Friday, February 11, 2011

It's The Last Day of The Iron Queen Court Blog Tour

Today is the last day to enter The Iron Queen Blog Tour giveaway! You know you want to enter, unless you're one of the brave few who would said NO to Machina. Really, look at him. Who would really want to say no to him... (I know you think he's hot, not hot like Prince Ash hot, but hot in a oh he's bad, but in a good way hot).

You can enter our giveaway and read our Guest Post from Glitch here
and don't forget to visit the other members of the Iron Court Bookalicious & Galleysmith. Today is the finally stop in The Iron Queen Court Blog Tour, which ends with a stop on The Bookish Type.
Thank you to Harlequin Teen and Big Hancho media for putting this together and allowing us to be apart of a fantastic tour!

Blog Tour/ Book Review- Drought


By Pam Bachorz
Published by Egmont USA
Released on January 25th, 2011
Source- The Teen Scene Book Tours & Egmont USA
2.5 stars- It was Ok. I wanted to like it more than I did.

Ruby Prosser dreams of escaping the Congregation and the early-nineteenth century lifestyle that’s been practiced since the community was first enslaved.

She plots to escape the vicious Darwin West, his cruel Overseers, and the daily struggle to gather the life-prolonging Water that keeps the Congregants alive and gives Darwin his wealth and power. But if Ruby leaves, the Congregation will die without the secret ingredient that makes the Water special: her blood.

So she stays.

But when Ruby meets Ford, the new Overseer who seems barely older than herself, her desire for freedom is too strong. He’s sympathetic, irresistible, forbidden—and her only access to the modern world. Escape with Ford would be so simple, but can Ruby risk the terrible price, dooming the only world she’s ever known?(quoted from Goodreads).

I'll admit that I was really drawn to Drought because of it's captivating cover, the setting and by the author. Pam's writing is one that makes you think, and believe me, I thought a lot while reading Drought. This book really threw me for a surprise, but not in the way I was expecting. From the moment the story starts I felt like I was thrown into the middle of the woods where the story is set, in complete isolation. Like Ruby, I have no idea what year it is or what's going on with the outside world.

Pam paints a very vivid picture of what it must be like to be in a cult, and I liked the history that is explained in the story as to why there is a group of people isolated from civilization for over 200 years. The society Ruby lives in are enslaved in the woods and they harvest water every day, but like the books title, there's a drought and not much left to find. Ruby's people have spent years being brainwashed to believe that Otto, their missing beloved leader & Ruby's father will come back and save them. I felt like yelling at them to wake up and unite together, to stop letting someone think for them, let alone someone who's not even around, and come together to over take their abusive leader, Darwin and break free of the prison they've allowed themselves to be in for hundreds of years. I had a hard time with the beatings that take place in the story, thought I get that there needed to be a character like the evil, violent Darwin West, who feels that his slaves need to be submissive and not ask questions. Part of me was confused that for a people that have been around so long I would have expected them to learn how to stand up for themselves and unite, even though part of me sympathized with the fact that they've been living in fear so long that they didn't know how to or couldn't find the inner strength to do so.

There were times I found myself frustrated with the book as I felt there wasn't a lot of world or character building for me to really relate to the story. I started out irked that Ruby would stand aside and allow her mother to get beat the way she did and never speak up, though many times she wanted to. As the story continued, I became more frustrated she wouldn't stand up to her mother. For someone being 200 years old, I would have expected her to have more of a back bone. I think the reason I'm most frustrated is because I have a hard time relating to characters who don't stand up and voice their opinions or stand up for themselves or those they love. Then towards the end of the book, I realized it took Ford entering Ruby's life for her to understand she had a choice, and he was the only one who could help her find her voice.

I think Pam made her point with Drought and that was to make the reader think. Believe me, I thought a lot about it while reading it. Pam had a way of getting me emotionally invested with her story, as at times I was frustrated, disappointed, confused and then in the end I wanted to know what Ruby would do. I wanted to be able to be there and cheer Ruby on when she finally found her voice, stood up for herself and finds her way to freedom, and I'll admit it Ruby really surprised me. Drought's ending isn't a happily ever after, but one that gives the reader a small glimmer of hope for Ruby and her future. Though I wanted to like the book more than I did, I would recommend this to those who like Dystopian books with a twist. I would also recommend this to older teens, as there is violence in the way of beatings through out the story.

Illusions by Aprilynne Pike, Cookie


It's no secret that we LOVE cookies...not the kind you eat (though they can sometimes taste really good), but the kind that an author shares with her fans. Yesterday Aprilynne Pike gave us a fantastic cookie for her upcoming release, Illusions, which will be out on May 3rd from Harper Teen.

“Do we get to play twenty questions now?” Chelsea asked.

All eyes turned to her.

“Not you,” Chelsea said, then pointed at Tamani. “Him.”

Tamani stared at her for a long, silent moment. “I’m afraid I don’t know that game.”

“Oh it’s easy,” Chelsea said, “You play it with Laurel all the time, but she never asks you fun questions. Although she did tell me about a bunch of Shakespearean plays being faerie legends. I’ve been waiting for ages to ask you the really good stuff!”

“Um, okay,” Tamani said, not sure what Chelsea considered ‘good stuff.’

“So is it only Shakespeare, or are there more stories that exist in both cultures?”

“Oh!” Tamani said with a laugh. He sank into an armchair close to Chelsea. “There are lots. In Avalon, we love stories. The Summer fae dedicate their lives to telling stories, through dance or music or painting. But humans are endlessly inventive, always coming up with new ways to make the story interesting by telling it wrong. Nonetheless, a lot of your stories have faerie roots.”

Chelsea was undeterred. “Cinderella.”

“No,” said Tamani. “I mean, faeries don’t even wear shoes most of the time. And finding someone based solely on shoe size? That doesn’t make sense for humans or faeries.”

“What about the faerie godmother?” Chelsea asked.

“Unnecessary. We can make pumpkins grow that big without magic. And even a Winter faerie couldn’t turn a mouse into a horse.”

“Beauty and the Beast.”

“Story of a faerie who fell in love with a troll. Scares the wits out of most seedlings. The troll never turns out to be a handsome prince, though.”

“Rapunzel.”

“Growth tonic gone terribly wrong.”

Chelsea squealed. “Thumbelina.”

“That’s just basic anatomy misinterpreted. We are born from flowers, but we’re never that small. Mischievous Sparklers were known to have encouraged tiny-faerie misconceptions, though.”

“Tell me one that would surprise me.”

Tamani thought for a moment. “Do you know the Pied Piper of Hameln?”

Chelsea looked blank for a minute. “You mean Hamelin?”

“That sounds right. That one’s not a story, it’s true,” Tamani said, very seriously. “And it has scarcely been distorted at all. The Piper was a very powerful Spring faerie. Most of us can only Entice one or two animals at a time, but the Piper could Entice a whole city. He was eventually executed for that stunt.”

“What did he do with the children?” Chelsea asked.

“It’s kind of a long story. Ultimately, though, he marched them off a cliff. Killed them all.”

Chelsea and Laurel were both silent, staring at Tamani in horror.

“Perhaps not our happiest story,” Tamani said awkwardly.

I'm #Team Tamani and I'm really looking forward to what happens next for him and Laurel! Be sure to go to Aprilynne's site here http://tinyurl.com/64veacb to read more.

Congratulations to Aprilynne, as her Wings series has been voted the next Twilight! You can more about the voting that already took place here http://tinyurl.com/4zsww33

Cover Reveal- The Faerie Ring

Yesterday Kiki Hamilton revealed her cover for her debut book, The Faerie Ring!

London, December 1871
Orphaned and picking pockets in London’s Charing Cross station to support not only herself, but her ‘family’ of orphans, sixteen year-old Tiki steals the Queen’s ring and thinks she’s solved their problems. That is, until Rieker, a pickpocket from the North End, suspects her in the theft and tells her that the ring is really a reservoir that holds a truce between the British and Faerie courts.

When he warns her that the fey will do anything, including murder, to recover the ring, Tiki is unsure whether to believe him or not. To complicate matters, Rieker seems to know something about the unusual birthmark on Tiki’s wrist. But when Tiki and her family are threatened the game changes.

In a dazzling debut that takes you from the gritty slums of Victorian London to the glittering ballrooms of the Royal Palace to the menacing Otherworld, you won’t want to miss this thrilling tale of mystery, adventure and romance.
The cover is a perfect fit for the story. The Faerie Ring is one of my highly anticipated releases for this year. I had the honor of reading a bound manuscript of it a few months and I HIGHLY recommend pre-ordering this book, which releases this October by Tor Teen! I'm really looking forward to reading the finished copy. You can find my blurb for it, along with what a handful of other bloggers have said about on Kiki's site here http://kikihamilton.blogspot.com/

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