Mundie Moms

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Book Review: REACHED by Ally Condie

It's REACHED day today, and the end of Penguin Teen's Silk & Paper Campaign. It's been such a blast being apart of this. I'm beyond thrilled to share my review for this fabulous series finale! Though I'm sad that this trilogy is over, I couldn't be happier with the outcome of this book, and all that takes place. 


Published by: Dutton / Penguin Teen
Released on: November 13th, 2012 TODAY
Series: Matched Trilogy book #3
Source: arc from publisher to review
4.5 Stars: I Really Enjoyed It!
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

After leaving Society and desperately searching for the Rising—and each other—Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again: Cassia has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again.

In this gripping conclusion to the #1 New York Times-bestselling Matched Trilogy, Cassia will reconcile the difficulties of challenging a life too confining, seeking a freedom she never dreamed possible, and honoring a love she cannot live without -quoted from GoodReads

They say all good things come to end, and like many last books in a series, REACHED was both one I couldn't wait to read and one I didn't want to read, because then the series would never end for me. Ally Condie has created quite an unusual dystopian series and one I've really enjoyed. Unlike ones with  a lot of action, mild violence, and this one is more laid back series. I love how each of the dystopian series I love are so different. That's not to say this series society isn't on the brink of collapse, or that this series doesn't have it's moments of intensity, betrayals, and mystery, because it has all of these. One of the things I loved about REACHED is the way all the questions I have had through out the series were answered. 

Xander and Cassia. Ky and Cassia. Who's a girl to choose. I think fans of both guys will happy to know how things end. No, she doesn't choose both of them. I went back and forth this entire series on who I liked more, and I've been waiting patiently to find out who Cassie picks, if indeed she picks anyone at all. I will say, I LOVED the ending all three of them got. It wasn't just fitting, but perfect for each character. For the first time ever we got ALL 3 of their points of views and I loved it! It was so fitting for this story. It was easy to know who was talking when, and each character's point of view added so much depth to this engaging storyline. I liked feeling like I got to know each character on a different level, because of this. They've all grown a lot, and I found it fascinating to see how each character handles their new surroundings and circumstances. Things happen in REACHED that paved the way for some expected choices that each character made. I felt like got to see what motivated their decisions, vs being told. 

There are moments of heartbreak, ones that were hopeful, and others that made me sigh with relief, because I felt like things were going to be okay/work out in their own way for Xander, Ky and Cassia, given all they do deal with. I thought Ally Condie did a fabulous job with wrapping up her series. She kept REACHED entertaining, surprised me more than once with the way things panned out, and shocked me with a few of her unexpected answers. Wow, I was totally off base with many of my predictions in this book. I love surprises like this. I had not anticipated some of the things that took place in this book to happen, like at all. It was fabulous to be thrown off of what I had thought would happen in this book. Over all I think Matched series fans are going to be pleased with the way this series ends, well at least the fans who love one of the series's main love interests. ;)



REACHED was named to Amazon's Best Teen Books of 2012

Read a 3 chapter excerpt here

Don't miss today's REACHED events on Facebook

Don't miss your chance to Ally on TOUR!

Tuesday, November 13
SALT LAKE CITY
7 pm - Launch event at Rowland Hall St. Mark’s Auditorium
843 South Lincoln Street

Salt Lake City, Utah 84102

NOTE: This event will include an opportunity to get your photo taken in a life-sized cover image of REACHED

Wednesday, November 14
CHICAGO
7 pm - Anderson’s Bookshop 
123 West Jefferson
Naperville, IL 60540

Friday, November 16
OMAHA
6 pm - The Bookworm
8702 Pacific Street
Omaha, Nebraska  68114

Tuesday, November 27
HOUSTON
7 pm - Blue Willow Bookshop
14532 Memorial Drive
Houston, TX 77079 

Wednesday, November 28
MIAMI
7 pm - Books & Books 
265 Aragon Ave
Coral Gables FL 33134

Thursday, November 29
WASHINGTON, DC
5 pm - Event at Bethesda Library 
7400 Arlington Rd.
Bethesda, MD 20814

Friday, November 30
RALEIGH, NC
7 pm – Quail Ridge Bookstore
3522 Wade Ave
Raleigh NC 26707

Entertainment Weekly: Shelf Life's Interview with Cassie



We here at Mundie Moms adore Entertainment Weekly and especially their Shelf Life features. They just posted their interview with Cassie and oh boy does it contain some great answers. Here are two of them:

EW: What can you tell me about City of Heavenly Fire, the sixth and final book in The Mortal Instruments?
Cassie: I actually was writing it while I was on the set of City of Bones. I guess I could tell you that it’s a really epic conclusion for the story of Jace and Clary and their friends. We face in Sebastian an almost unbeatable enemy, and one who knows all of their weak spots. The Shadowhunters are going to lose a lot before they can win this one. So expect a very hard-fought battle and a lot of epic romance. [City of Heavenly Fire is scheduled for 2014.]

EW: What about Clockwork Princess, the last installment of The Infernal Devices series?
Cassie: Clockwork Princess comes out March 19. It was really fun to write because it takes place all over England and Wales. I went to England and Wales and mapped out the routes the characters would take. Part of the reason I wanted to write The Infernal Devices is to have this huge love of the gothic romances of the Victorian era. I wanted to end it on that note. So there are mistaken identities. There is a headlong race on horseback across the countryside in the dead of night to rescue someone. And Tessa, of course, is torn between the two boys she loves.

And now, once again, why isn't it March 19th already? Read the full interview here.

Bad Hair Day Blog Tour: Must Have Items for a Bad Hair Day (guest post)

Welcome to Day 2 of the Bad Hair Day Blog Tour. Today I'm thrilled to have author Carrie Harris on the blog talking about the Must Have Items for having a Bad Hair Day. 


Must Have Items for a Bad Hair Day

Let’s be honest—we’ve all had them. The hair does not always cooperate. Mine tends to do this weird thing where it sticks out on the right but not on the left, so it looks like I’ve developed one horn on the side of my head. I’ve tried to persuade the horn to migrate to my forehead so I could run up to people and shout, “Look at me! I’m a SPARKLY UNICORN!” and then fling a handful of glitter in their faces, but it won’t do that. Upon further reflection, I’m thinking this is probably a good thing for my criminal record. Although the more I think about THAT, I’d kinda like to see the judge’s face when the Sparkle Flinging Unicorn Bandit came into their courtroom to be sentenced.

ANYWAY. I’ve learned a few things about having a bad hair day, and when I say this I’m not making a sneaky werewolf joke like my book title. I’m talking real, honest-to-goodness, hair-horn-on-the-side-of-your-head bad hair day. And I’m going to share my hard earned wisdom with you. Because I’m nice. And because it makes me feel smart. And BECAUSE I SAID SO.

Er…sorry. Mom moment.

So here are my secrets for making the most of a bad hair day. They pretty much boil down to one essential goal—DISTRACTION. First, wear a zombie unicorn dress. If you’re a guy, you might be tempted to skip this one, but it would probably work even better for you than it does for me. People are so busy trying to figure out what the bleep I’ve got on my body that they don’t realize I’ve accidentally styled my locks with an egg beater and a crème brulee torch. (Mental note—don’t do hair in the kitchen.) Pick something deliberately and entirely crazy. If you only go semi-crazy, people will take one look at your clothes and another at your head and decide you’re a vagrant, and that’s not much of an improvement status-wise.

In short, FULL ON CRAZY is what you’re going for. Hey, it works for Lady Gaga.

Some people will tell you to jam a hat on your head in the event of bad hair, but if you’re not the kind of person who normally wears hats, you’re completely drawing attention to your head! Why would you want to do that?!? It seems to me that you’d want to draw attention AWAY from your head. Maybe on top of the zombie unicorn dress, you could wear a sandwich board. Or randomly scream, “OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THAT!” and point at something. Again, it’s all about the distraction techniques.

Which brings me to another point—your actions can be just as distracting as your clothing. If you don’t want to be forever known as Crazeballs McWonkyhair, you can try things like paging yourself on the overhead speaker. Which I have done, and I still get the giggles every time I think about it. Or start quacking in the middle of random conversations. Yes, you’ll be known as That Weird Duck Girl, but at least you’ll be memorable.

Your last option in the event of a bad hair day is to embrace the suck and take it to the next level. If it’s sticking out in all directions, why not turn it into modern art? I have a stuffed raven at my house expressly for this purpose. I can perch it on my head and pretend that my hair looks like a bird’s nest on purpose. However, this only works if you can keep a straight face better than I can. Because it doesn’t make the best impression when you walk up to someone with a fake bird on your head and then spray spittle all over their face laughing at their expression.

I know these things. Benefit from my mistakes. Someone has to.

What are your bad hair day tips? I need more of them. Poe is tired of working overtime. That would be the raven. I name all my things after horror stuff. My van is called Helsing. I also tend to free associate at the end of blog posts. Which would be now.




By: Carrie Harris
Published by: Delacorte Press
To Be Released on: November 13th, 2012
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Senior year is positively hair-raising.

Kate Grable is geeked out to shadow the county medical examiner as part of her school’s pre-med program. Except when he’s arrested for murder, she’s left with the bodies. And when Kate’s brother Jonah stumbles upon a dead gamer girl, she realizes that the zombie epidemic she cured last fall was only the beginning of the weirdness taking over her town. Someone’s murdering kids—something really hairy. And strong. Possibly with claws.

Is it werewolf awesomeness like Jonah and his dorktastic friends think? Kate’s supposed to be a butt-kicking zombie killing genius...but if she can’t figure out who’s behind the freakish attacks, the victims—or what’s left of them—are going to keep piling up.

It’s scary. It’s twisted. It’s sick. It’s high school -quoted from Goodreads


Follow Carrie on her: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook 

The Giveaway:

To enter to win a SIGNED copy of Bad Hair Day and a download of Bad Yeti, follow the blog tour & fill out the form below. 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover Reveal / Giveaway: How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler

I'm excited to be teaming up with author Janet Gurtler to reveal the cover to her upcoming release, How I Lost You. This book will be hitting shelves May 1st, 2013! Check out this cover:


What do you guys think? I really like covers like this. I like not knowing what characters look like, but I still feel with a cover like this you get an idea of how they might look. I feel this cover compliments the rest of Janet's book covers beautifully. 

About the Book:

Grace and Kya always do everything together, and nothing can get in the way of their friendship.  They have a pact: Sisters Before Misters.  Buds Before Studs.

Only Grace knows what Kya's been through, or how much she needs someone to stick by her. No Matter What. Besides, Kya keeps life exciting-pulling Grace into things she'd never dare do on her own.  But inch by inch, daring is starting to turn dangerous.  And Grace will have to decide how far she can go to save her friendship with Kya...before she ends up losing everything else.

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

About the Author:



Follow Janet via her: Website | Blog | on Facebook | on Twitter


The Giveaway:

To celebrate today's cover reveal, author Janet Gurtler is giving away 1 ARC (when they become available) to one lucky reader!! To enter to win, please fill out the form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Twitter Tuesday - Amazon's Best Teen Novel 2012


Barry Goldblatt (of BG Literary) tweeted this last night, so I clicked over to see what books were included on the list.


  1. Reached by Ally Condie 
  2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
  3. Son by Lois Lowry
  4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (MMs Review)
  5. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (MMs Review)
  6. Kill Order by James Dashner
  7. Dodger by Terry Pratchett
  8. Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater 
  9. Every Day by David Levithan
  10. The Diviners by Libba Bray 
  11. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
  12. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (MMs Review)
  13. Cinder by Marissa Meyer 
  14. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (MMs Review)
  15. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (MMs Review)
  16. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein
  17. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
  18. Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers (MMs Review)
  19. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
  20. For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
I know I've added a few books to my TBR. What about you, Mundie Moms? Do you think the list is complete? Which books would you add?

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