Mundie Moms

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

It's HERE! The Fault in Our Stars Movie Trailer!


It's here! Check out The Fault In Our Stars movie trailer that EW revealed just a short time ago (here).



Okay, now I want to go see this movie.... What do you guys think? Like the trailer?
The movie is set to hit theaters on June 6th.

Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine - Exciting News

Rachel Caine fans, check out out the exciting news about her upcoming release, PRINCE OF SHADOWS below!

PRINCE OF SHADOWS

Out February 4th!

In the Houses of Montague and Capulet, there is only one goal: power. The boys are born to fight and die for honor and—if they survive—marry for influence and money, not love. The girls are assets, to be spent wisely. Their wishes are of no import. Their fates are written on the day they are born.

Benvolio Montague, cousin to Romeo, knows all this. He expects to die for his cousin, for his house, but a spark of rebellion still lives inside him. At night, he is the Prince of Shadows, the greatest thief in Verona—and he risks all as he steals from House Capulet. In doing so, he sets eyes on convent-bound Rosaline, and a terrible curse begins that will claim the lives of many in Verona…

…And will rewrite all their fates, forever.


And make sure to check out the PRINCE OF SHADOWS OFFICIAL TRAILER!

COMING TO YOU!

In celebration of PRINCE OF SHADOWS,  Rachel is taking to the road, hopefully to a bookstore near you. Please join her if you can to celebrate this romantic, vibrant adventure set in Shakespeare's Verona, featuring Benvolio, Romeo's cousin and close friend.

Tour stops:Feb. 3
BookTalk Nation, online event with Melissa Marr -  (sign up here)

Feb. 4
Barnes & Noble SMU, Dallas, Texas

Feb. 5
The Book Spot, Round Rock, Texas
Feb. 6
Books-A-Million, Exton, Pennsylvania

Feb. 7 
Anderson's Bookshop, Chicago, Illinois 

Feb. 8 
Books & Co, Dayton, Ohio 

Feb. 9 
Hasting's, Tullahoma, Tennessee 

Feb. 10
Books & Books, Coral Gables, Florida 

Feb. 11
Larry J. Ringer Memorial Library, College Station, Texas

Feb. 15
Adventures In Fiction, Dallas, TX - all day, followed by the not-to-be-missed PRINCE OF SHADOWS MASKED BALL!

From Kirkus Reviews (starred review):"Should a successful author of vampire novels (Black Dawn, 2012, etc.) attempt to write an alternative Shakespeare? Thankfully this one did, as the results are delicious. Choosing Romeo and Juliet as her base, Caine expands the story from the viewpoint of Benvolio, Romeo’s Montague cousin. While Shakespeare’s plot clearly anchors Caine’s, the novel focuses on providing context for the well-known story rather than embellishing it ..." read more

US/Canada order from:Barnes & Noble | Booksamillion | Amazon.com |Indiebound | Hastings 

UK order from:Waterstones | Foyles | WH Smith

Australia/New Zealand order from:Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | Kinokuniya
Mighty Ape | Fishpond

Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg, Waiting on Wednesday #202


By: Elizabeth Eulberg
Published by: Point (Scholastic)
To Be Released on: 2.25.14
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Add it to Goodreads

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?


Here on Mundie Moms we are huge fans of Elizabeth's. Her books were some of the first contemporaries I read and fell in love with. I can not wait for her upcoming release, Better Off Friends. This sounds like it has all the makings of another fabulous Elizabeth Eulberg book.

What book are you waiting to get your hands on?

Flirting with the Monster: A Review of Ellen Hopkins' CRANK play + Giveaway of SMOKE

Post-show Q & A. Back row: "Flirting with the Monster" cast. Front row: two addiction specialists,  Ellen Hopkins and director, Holly Natwora 

It's a rare thing when my husband comes home and is excited about a YA book I love. I know, Mundie Moms, miracles do come true! One day last week, he came home all excited about a play called "Flirting with the Monster" and he wanted to see it because it was an incredibly honest depiction of teenage addiction. Little did he know that I already planned to take him to this play. You see I've been watching Ellen Hopkins' tweets about adapting her New York Times best-selling book, CRANK, into a play, and I knew that it was debuting in our biggest, little city in the world, Reno, this January/February.

We went to the play this weekend, and we both kept over-using the word "powerful" to describe it. As parents to a freshman in high school, we both felt that it's a must-see for all 15-year-old or older kids and their parents. I know that we are not alone in thinking about our children's safety, especially since the world has changed so much since we were in high school (when incidentally drugs were already readily available). I promise you that this play will open your eyes even more on this subject and it will definitely make you think.

There were two haunting lines that struck through both of our hearts: "Doesn't everyone party?" and "Everyone tells me to slow down, but no one tells me how." Those words resonated with us, and they still haunt us. 

I want to give huge props to Ellen for adapting her novel into a stage play, and the director, Holly Natwora,  for choosing an incredibly gifted cast as well as staging an adaptation that kept the momentum going seamlessly. The actor who plays Kristina, Hannah Davis, is an incredible artist. She delivers us Kristina in her innocent, sweet, coy, desperate, pleading, heartbreaking moments. And she is so talented that she pulls the audience through the full spectrum of those emotions.

I cannot praise this adaptation enough. If you can make it to Reno this weekend, you can still catch it. Here's the direct link to dates, times and ticket information. If you can't make it, don't worry. I asked Ellen and she said there will be a few more performances this summer, and this time they will be in Carson City, NV. These performances will be fund-raisers for Ellen's non-profit organization,Ventana Sierra (webpage twitter | Facebook), which provides youth, who have aged out of the foster care system, with safe housing, food, medical care and further education. Ellen also let me know that these performances will be filmed, edited and then available for download. So eventually everyone will be able to view this, yes, powerful play. 

In the mean time and to tie you over until the download is available, I managed to snag two copies of Ellen's latest book, SMOKE (Burned #2). And guess what? She signed them for you! So enter away, Mundie Moms (the giveaway is open to international entries)! 

Here's the synopsis of SMOKE (buy at amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound):
Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated. Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life, but is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

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