Mundie Moms

Friday, July 29, 2011

Blog Tour: Epic Fail Guest Post & Giveaway

We're the next stop in The Teen Scene's Epic Fail Blog Tour. We're excited to have a guest post from author Claire LaZebnik. First here's a little bit about Epic Fail & you can also read our review here.

Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?

At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point:

As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.

As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.

When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.

Guest post on what kind of things we’d find if you were to have a garage sale of items from your teenage years. You can assign values to them as well. Minimum of 7 items. Max of 15.

1) A pair of granny-style wire rim glasses, with very thick Coke-bottle lenses. As thick as that pair might have been, my eyes got even worse over time and my future glasses even thicker. Thank god for contacts or I would simply have stopped leaving the house before I even got to high school. $1.00

2) A cute brown teddy bear, well-worn, missing its nose, mouth, and a lot of its stuffing and wearing a home-sewn dress. Should probably have been sold or given away years earlier but I just couldn’t do it. $200.00 (I don’t really want to sell her—yes, her, Susie-Bear—not even now.)

3) A round brush and an enormous and heavy blowdryer (they were all enormous and heavy back then). Laboriously used for carefully curling hair under on the sides and the back and for feathering it in the front. An impossible hairstyle to nail, but we all tried back then. $2.00

4) A box of books, including (among many others) Charlotte Bronte’s JANE EYRE, Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Baroness Orczy’s THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, Margaret Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE WIND, and Elizabeth George Speare’s THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND, all very well worn. 10 cents each, the entire box for $1.00. Did I mention how well worn these books are? Pages are falling out. They’ve been read and reread way too often--some might say obsessively.

5) Another box filled with vinyl record albums, including many musical scores (e.g. THE FANTASTICKS, MAN OF LA MANCHA, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) and some pop/rock music (e.g. The Beatles; Carole King; Dan Fogelberg; Stevie Wonder). Most have scratches. 50 cents each, the entire box for $5.00.

6) A collection of antique inkwells and pens, plus a half-empty bottle of ink. (I desperately wanted to live in England in the 19th century. Although, given my eyesight--see item #1, above--I would probably have been considered blind back then and kept in the attic). Some of these are moderately valuable: priced as marked.

7) A linoleum cutting set, with linoleum blocks, cutting tools, roller, and ink. An art form I had a brief flirtation with back in my teens. My mother was generous and eager for me to find some hobby, so she got me all the equipment I needed. The only thing I lacked was some artistic talent. The entire set: $10.00.

8) A sofa bed upholstered in off-white tweed. Worn-out, since I slept in it every night for all of high school, having replaced my twin bed with it in an attempt to transform my boring little girl bedroom into a grown-up “library.” Pretentious, moi? Only $50 but you have to find a way to transport it.

9) A Smith-Corona electric typewriter with self-correcting pop-in ribbon cartridges (one in black ink; one white-out). Once the darling of my eye; now made obsolete by the proliferation of home computers. $15. Treat it well. I loved it once.
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Thank you to the Teen Scene for providing the guest post, and questions and to Claire for the fun answers. Be sure to follow the rest of the Epic Fail Blog Tour.

As part of the blog tour we're giving away 1 copy of Epic Fail and one stress ball. To ENTER:
- Please fill out the form below
- US residents only
- You must be 13 yrs & older to enter
- 1 entry per person/ per email
* This giveaway will end on August 5th, 2011


Book Review: Always A Witch

Written by: Carolyn MacCullough
Publisher: Clarion Books
Published Date: August 1, 2011
Source: netgalley
5 out of 5 stars - This book is a must have. Don't wait, go pick up the series now!

Synopsis: The adventures of Tam and Gabriel continue with more time travel, Talents, spy work, and of course, the evil Knights.

Since the gripping conclusion of Once A Witch, Tamsin Greene has been haunted by her grandmother's prophecy that she will soon be forced to make a crucial decision—one so terrible that it could harm her family forever. When she discovers that her enemy, Alistair Knight, went back in time to Victorian-era New York in order to destroy her family, Tamsin is forced to follow him into the past. Stranded all alone in the nineteenth century, Tamsin soon finds herself disguised as a lady's maid in the terrifying mansion of the evil Knight family, avoiding the watchful eye of the vicious matron, La Spider, and fending off the advances of Liam Knight. As time runs out, both families square off in a thrilling display of magic. And to her horror, Tamsin finally understands the nature of her fateful choice.

Well established weaknesses for me include: time travel, magic, stubborn girls and boys who always, but always do the right thing. Need I go on to add that yes, Carolyn, hit them all.

Let me start by saying that I completely admire Carolyn's ability to plot a two story arc and then gracefully execute it until the very last page when that one thing mentioned in the first book (that was oh so important) comes back full circle. Yes, I'm trying hard to keep this spoiler-free so forgive a true, fan-girly moment here. But this is not just a well written story with characters I want to spend time with in real life (remember the fan-girl warning) but it packs an unexpected action plot line and draws in characters from the first book with new ones from the second in such an elegant way that I couldn’t help finishing the book in a day. I think the only word I had left when I closed the cover was “whoa”. I was in shock at how Carolyn brought all these wonderful, detailed elements from Once A Witch around to the sequel and quietly led me down the path of her plot until piece by piece every single thing made sense to Tamsin and well, to me.

And don’t worry, Mundie Moms, one of my favorite fictional boys ever, Gabriel, is still there. In fact here he is from page 12 when he and Tamsin are tempted to taste some of the sweets her mother is preparing for Rowena’s wedding:
“Mhmm,” I say, licking the icing from the corner of my mouth. “It’s good. Even if it’s probably poisonous. Go on, I dare you.”
            Gabriel narrows his eyes a me, then takes the remainder of the cake from my fingers and eats it in one gulp.
            “Some of it,” my mother answers, inspecting a fork. “And stop hanging on the door,” she admonishes absentmindedly. “It’ll break again and I’m tired of having Chester fix the refrigerator. The last time he fixed it, it sang ‘I’m a Little Teapot’ every time opened it. It drove me insane.”
            Gabriel inhales on a laugh, then begins choking on cake crumbs. Alarmed, my mother whirls aroud. “Which one did you eat?” she cries.
            “The chocolate flower one,” I say, “Will he live?” I help myself to another cake, this one covered in sugar violets. “Is this one okay?” I ask, and then pop it into my mouth.
            My mother closes her eyes briefly, “Yes.”
            “Yes I’ll live or yes the second cake that she just ate is okay? It’s kind of important that you be specific here,” Gabriel says.
This quote also illustrates how much of this book is about family – past and present. They are all around Tamsin. They are part of who she was and is and well, they’re definitely her mystery to solve. I can’t emphasize how much I love them and their fierce loyalty to one another. It reminds me of my own family and I swear we have an Uncle Chester, too.

If you haven’t picked up this series, don’t wait, you’ve got to meet Tamsin, Gabriel, Rowena and yes, even the Knights. A huge thank you to Carolyn for making this Mundie Mom stay up way past her bedtime. It was worth every hour of lost sleep.

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files, Six's Legacy & The Power of Six

From Harper Teen, we wanted to share the exciting news about I Am Number Four, The Lost Files, Six's Legacy ebook and the upcoming release of The Power of Six:


In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorians; nine who scattered on Earth and went into hiding; nine who live among us and look like ordinary teenagers, but who have extraordinary skills. The Mogadorians found and killed Numbers One, Two, and Three. Then they found Number Six. They followed her, they hunted her down—and they caught her.

Taking place before the adventures of the New York Times bestseller I AM NUMBER FOUR, I AM NUMBER FOUR: The Lost Files: Six’s Story is the riveting story of Six’s harrowing capture and eventual escape from the Mogadorians. Perfectly timed to get fans excited for THE POWER OF SIX and custom-made for the those who loved the I AM NUMBER FOUR ebook, I AM NUMBER FOUR: The Lost Files: Six’s Story is a novella-length digital original available exclusively as an ebook.

THE POWER OF SIX, the sequel to the #1 New York Times best selling book, I AM NUMBER FOUR, will be available everywhere on August 23rd. Following a massive battle at the end of I AM NUMBER FOUR that proved the Mogadorians have found him at last, John joined forces with Number Six. Now the fate of Lorien—and Earth— rests in the hands of these two teens.

To get a taste of what's to come, check out the novella-length digital original I AM NUMBER FOUR: The Lost Files: Six’s Story, available NOW exclusively as an ebook. Taking place before the adventures of I AM NUMBER FOUR, the novella is the riveting story of Six’s harrowing capture and eventual escape from the Mogadorians.

Here's a sneak a peek at Six’s story with this exciting excerpt and get ready for the upcoming release of THE POWER OF SIX.


In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorians, who scattered on Earth and went into hiding, who look like ordinary teenagers, but who have extraordinary skills. The Mogadorians killed Number One, Number Two, and Number Three. They tried to kill Number Four, John Smith ...and failed.

Following a massive battle at the end of I AM NUMBER FOUR that proved that the Mogadorians have found him at last, John joined forces with Number Six. Now the fate of Lorien—and Earth— rests in the hands of these two teens.

Already John and Six have inspired a fellow Lorien—Marina, Number Seven—who has been hiding in Spain. She’s been following the news of what’s happening in the US, and she’s certain it’s the sign she’s been waiting for.

THE POWER OF SIX, by Pittacus Lore, is the second installment in the thrilling, action-packed Lorien Legacies series that launched with the #1 New York Times bestseller I AM NUMBER FOUR, and the heart-pounding suspense has never been higher. Now John Smith is joining forces with some of his lost companions as they battle against the alien force bent on eliminating them.

Want more Lorien Legacy excitement before the highly anticipated release of THE POWER OF SIX? Check out the first entry from Sarah's journal and see what she thought of John the first time she met him.

For more insight into Sarah's mind, sign up for Pittacus Lore's AuthorTracker and get entries from her journal sent to you each week leading up to the release of THE POWER OF SIX on August 23rd.

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