Friday, August 31, 2012

Best Review for a Contemporary Book Nominees!

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED CONGRATS TO HAPPY OWL BOOKS' THIS IS NOT A TEST FOR WINNING! :) 

Here's how it's going to run down: there will be a poll at the bottom of this post and you simply just vote for your favorite blog out of all of these arguments! :) Each day, there will be THREE voting rounds posted, so you'll have to scroll down and see all the posts for yourself. Each voting round lasts for exactly a week and once every voting round it done, winners will be announced, and prizes (if you would like to donate contact us. Please remember that if we don't get enough prizes we won't be giving ANY out at all) shipped out—that is, if the winner wants a prize.

For the Best Review for a Contemporary Book category, we asked for each reviewer's favorite portion of their review. If they didn't submit anything, we just have their link listed.

Books are Magic: Hushed

Growing Up YA: Where Things Come Back
"...there is something uniquely charming and entertaining about Whaley's prose. He manages to weave two very delicate tales with masterful fluidity, so that when everything finally comes together it unleashes a thought-provoking conclusion. By the end, I was overcome with emotion. I didn't know if I should slam the book across the room or find John Corey Whaley and hug him.

At this point, I would go with the latter.

Despite my oh-so-huggy feelings, I'll admit that Whaley managed to break my heart and mend it, all in the span of some 200-odd pages! The novel's lessons really resonated with me and I couldn't get enough. I was a mess by the end of it, but I set the book down with a renewed sense of hope. Life is all about second chances and I finally got mine..."

BlookGirl: If I Stay

"Mia Hall had it all. A supportive, loving family, loyal best friend, gorgeous boyfriend who was crazy about her, and a promising future as a supremely talented cellist. In one moment, on a snowy day in Oregon, all of that is stripped away in the swerve of tires, the crunch of metal, and the deafening silence of the aftermath."

In Between: Forbidden

A Work of Fiction: Clean

The Overstuffed Bookcase: The Fault in Our Stars
"Some people just know how to play the piano. Some can come up with fantastically epic stories about a boy wizard. And some can just write one sentence that makes you chuckle, then get teary eyed, then just sit back and stare as your mouth falls open at the beauty of the arrangement of the words. I'm not saying he doesn't work hard at it - I'm just saying the man has a gift."

"This book was different than John's other books, but it still very much had his stamp on it. By that I mean that if I had opened it up and read it and not known who the author was, I would have been able to recognize John's eloquent writing and wonderful humor within the first couple of paragraphs."

My Secret Romance: Seven Sexy Sins

The characters have such depth, you feel like they could be friends of yours. The food exploration leaves me unable to ever look at a candy bar the same way, that’s all I’m sayin’ about that! The final pages are so achingly satisfying, you could almost cry…when you’re done laughing!

Buffy’s Ramblings: Love Kinection
She’s managed to pack all kinds of nerd candy in there with a flavor for every geek. The romance side is sweet, but incredibly sexy too. Their chemistry is so strong, and the connection they develop so authentic, I found myself feeling like I was in the story with them. Compelling characters, witty banter, and sizzling sexual tension make Love Kinection a smash hit for anyone’s hopeless romantic inner geek.

Buffy’s Ramblings: Deceptive Attraction
You never guess just how it’ll work out until it’s happening, so it keeps you guessing. Of course, the flip side to that is that you worry yourself over it so much you end up so emotionally invested you’re crying right along with the characters! There’s a lot of family dynamics in this story, and it’s so great to see everyone so accepting and loving. A story of such sweet exploration as well as a shameless sense of self, Deceptive Attraction takes the stakes higher than ever making the connection and deep affection between the three lovers all the more gratifying.

The Teen Book Guru: When You Were Mine
"Romeo and Juliet is often misinterpreted as the world's best, or most well-known love story, and it is, to some extent, but first and foremost, it's a tragedy. Serle reminds us of that in this mesmerizing adaptation of William Shakespeare's."

"After reading When You Were Mine I just sat on my bed and stared out my window, not really seeing anything. Serle made me relive all of the beautiful moments of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, also adding in some amazing moments herself, that actually made me understand and appreciate the sadness, beauty, and love of an already amazing story more than I did before."

"Before reading this I (mistakenly) thought that Serle was just 'rewriting' Shakespeare's story completely, but that's SO not the case. What she actually does is breathe life into the magnificent story, and she makes it young again, so that us, the readers, can relive the beauty, magic, love and heartbreak of this time-old classic."

Comment Love:
"LOL Riya! When you start to swear like a sailor, that's when you know a villain is really well done ;) I don't think I'm going to like Juliet very much either, but oh my gosh am I ever positive that I'm going to love this BOOK! I've wanted to read this book ever since I heard it told Rosaline's side of the tragedy -- because we studied that in English class this semester -- but now it's just like... BAM, I need to have this book! It sounds like a wonderful and sweet and beautifully original take on R&J. And that quote = <3

Amazing review, Riya-sweetie! I can't wait to get my hands on this!! :)"
-Mimi Valentine

Captivated Reading: XOXOXO

The Midnight Garden: Between Shades of Grey

Kindle and Me: Confessionally Yours

Brooke Reports: Who I Kissed

The Reviews News: Keep Holding On
 
The picture you see above is a rainbow-spewing fish. It's a blurry picture, as I took it with my webcam up close, and it's not colored. I assure you, though--it is indeed a rainbow-spewing fish.
[…] Life's weird. Life's stupid and gorgeous and obnoxious and endowing. Keep Holding On will guide you through the storms and find the rainbow. Maybe you'll even see a fish on your way there. A rainbow-spewing one, at that.

Making the Grade Reviews: Life on the Edge

Ana’s Attic: The Unidentifined Redhead
"Holy Sweet Nuts! I absolutely LOVED The Unidentified Redhead by Alice Clayton!!!! Are you PMS-ing? In a bad mood? Just read a depressing book? Do you need to feel good, laugh, smile, and just plain enjoy a book without angst? This is the book for you. This is definitely in my best books of the year list, and Alice Clayton is one of my new favorite authors.

This is a 5++++++++ star read for me with a 4.5 on the heat meter. I found myself smiling through the whole book, laughing out loud (complete with snorts) several times, AND I jumped my husband. What more can you ask for in a book?"".........speaking of coming, while the book was funny, the sex was HOT!"

"The friendships, jokes and dialogue were witty, fun and real. I so want to be friends with all these people, they are my type. They use expressions like “That’s what she said” (so do I, all the time) plus Jack writes things like “poo” on the steamy shower glass–gotta love that stuff. RUN–don’t walk to download this book, and save it for when you need a happy pick me up."

Happy Owl Books: This is Not a Test

Saz101: Anna and the French Kiss

FicBookReviews: The Future of Us

GraveTells: Fever
“Fever’s characters are complex and compelling, complicated and endearing, unique and memorable.
The storyline is a mystery that unravels thread by interesting thread, and leaves the reader craving
the next book in the series just to spend more time with the characters. This is the first book in
a unique series about a group of firefighters whose lives were all supernaturally changed by a
brutal warehouse explosion. I love that it’s such a fresh new perspective for a series, and if the
level of skill Ms. Swan shows in Fever for weaving a story with compelling, touchingly flawed
characters is any indication about what’s in store, I can’t wait to read the rest! Fever is a must-read!”
My Secret Romance: Avoiding Commitment
"My heart was shattered and ripped to pieces while my stomach was doing back flips. This book played a number on my heart and I relished in every bit of it. I loved how it hurt!" This one was chosen many times.

"Their love is toxic…the kind that feels so good and you know you should stay away from because it’s nearly killing you, but can't."

"The air between Jack and Lexi is so dense that it's close to the point where they are suffocating in each others presence. They want each other with a force that makes it difficult to breathe."

"This is the kind of book I look high and low for and can hardly find."

"I want a book where it's going to take me on a wild ride emotionally and mentally making me feel and understand what the characters are going through. And this book did that and so much more."


After voting, please scroll down to see the next categories!
Note: we were recently told that "The Undefined Redhead" is actually called "The Unidentified Redhead"

1 comment:

  1. Kriss from the Cabin Goddess is amazing :). She is one of my favorite bloggers...Congrats on the event.

    ReplyDelete