Exhausted!

Yep, that pretty much sums up my week! Who would have thought that blogging could wear a person out so much??

Armchair BEA was amazing, and I'm super duper excited to go check out all of the new blogs I've found. I plan on visiting every blogger that's left me a comment, and with my giveaway having over 60 comments, that's going to take me a while!

I'd love to chat with you all about how this week went for you!!

1) How did you participate? Did you blog, or just read other blogs? Did you participate at all?

2) What did you like and/or not like about armchair BEA? Did you find any great, new blogs?

3) Did some of your posts get overlooked because of BEA? List them so that we can all go check them out! We don't want any lonely posts! 


Here are my answers:

Giveaway!

1) I participated by blogging and hosting my first giveaway (which is still going on)! I'm really excited to give a book or two to another book lover. I've won a few contests in the last few months, and it's so exciting! I hope to give that feeling to someone else. :) 

I also joined all of the book bloggers on twitter. I never thought I'd be one to love Twitter, but now I do. The Twitter party was insane, but fun!

2) I loved that it was an easy way to meet so many new bloggers all at once! I have found some blogs that I'm excited about. I have lots of them to catch up on, too.

What didn't I like? Well, it was far more overwhelming than I imagined, but that didn't make me like it any less! It was just a bit hard to keep up.

3) I only did one post that wasn't BEA centered. I didn't get any reading done while BEA was going on! *gasp!* I know, I know. Maybe next week well be an all-out read fest to get ready for The Dark Days of Supernatural.

I'd love if you guys checked out my review of Losing Beauty, by Johanna Garth. It was a great book and the talented Johanna is a debut author! Please stop by and leave a comment!

 Link whatever post you want to highlight that go overlooked lately, and I'll go visit yours, too. I'm sure there were so many things I missed because of the craziness that was this week.

Yay to an awesome week! :)

Review: Losing Beauty

Title: Losing Beauty (Persephone Campbell #1)
Author: Johanna Garth
Publisher: Fantasy Island Book Publishing
Goodreads | Amazon
I received a digital copy of this book from the author to review. This is my honest opinion.

Description (from Goodreads): 

Child abuse, cross-dressing, theft, adultery—people in Persey Campbell’s town have terrible secrets and she is the unfortunate repository for all of them. What she can’t figure out is why everyone is so desperate to tell her their worst secrets.

Daniel Hartnett is a lawyer who has it all. People think he’s lucky. What they don’t understand is Daniel has a crap-o-meter that lets him hear the meanings behind other people’s words. He used to think his crap-o-meter was a gift from God. It made him successful. It got him laid. Except now he’d like to meet someone and settle down and he can’t turn his crap-o-meter off. As long as it’s on, there are no surprises, no rush of anticipation and no falling in love.

When Daniel meets Persey he discovers she’s the first girl he’s ever met who is immune to his special talent. The only problem is someone else discovered Persey first and is hell-bent on claiming her as his own. Haden is the king of the Underworld with a plan to make Persey his immortal queen. What Haden doesn’t plan on is Persey’s unique ability to compel secrets and how far the people who love Persey will go to protect her from the inner darkness that threatens to destroy her soul.

Review:

What a unique story!

What would life be like if you knew everyone's deepest, darkest secret? What if no matter what you did, when you were alone with someone they were drawn to you and compelled to tell you the worst things about themselves?

That is Persey's reality. It was so awful to have to live that through her! It was like never being able to escape all the bad things in the world. In fact, the leader of The Underworld himself is attracted to her! It's no wonder she loves to escape her life by burying herself in books.

I thought that Losing Beauty was so well written! Johanna Garth is a truly talented writer. Every moment was filled with something that left me wanting to know more. The entire time, there was this mystery lingering in the back of my mind... why is Persey like this? What is it about her that people can not resist? What is really going on here?

I was not a fan of most of the people in Persey's life. I don't think that is a flaw in the book or the writing, but of Persey's ability itself. How can you get close to people when you aren't sure if they're attracted to the real you, or this thing that makes people want to be around you? Losing Beauty is part of a series, and there is one character in particular that I think I may grow to love. I hope so!

It seems like Johanna has foreshadowed that this will turn into something much bigger and crazier! I get the feeling we've only just scratched the surface. Oh, and random comment, but I love that she's named Persephone (Persey for short). I think that her name might be some sort of clue as to where we're headed. That's just pure speculation, though. :)

I'll definitely be reading the rest of the books in this series! The end of Losing Beauty was satisfying, while at the same time still left me wanting to know more. I have to know what happens next!

The second book is titled Losing Hope, and will be released around spring 2012. I can't wait!

You can find Johanna Garth on her blog:

Losing Sanity

First Day of Armchair Bea! Who Are You, and How Do You Armchair?

Yay for the first day of Armchair Bea! 

Welcome! 

What is Armchair Bea?

Armchair BEA is a way for those who can't fly out to Book Expo America to join in on the fun! 

Book Expo America (or BEA for short) is a huge expo for book professionals - and that includes book bloggers! You can visit the official BEA website here. 

For those who can't make it out to New York City, Armchair BEA is the virtual substitute. It's a blog where bloggers can chat, post topics, enter giveaways, and more! You can click on the picture above or click here to visit the blog.

The Topic for Today: Who are you, and how do you armchair?

Who Are You?

First off, I'm Jennifer! I'm mommy to Charlotte, a witty and wonderful three year old girl. I'm happily married - four years this July! I'm a pretty mellow and nice person. I'm a bit of a nerd, and I fully embrace it. Yay Nerdfighters (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you must click on this link)!

Our wedding day!

Charlotte and me at Disneyland

 I have two kitties, Isabelle and Daisy, and one dog, Ben.

Isabelle

Daisy

Ben

I love reading! I've always loved it. I used to read R.L. Stein's Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and every Sweet Valley book I could get my hands on. Now I like to read lots of stuff! I read mostly fiction. Reality is for my day to day life - Reading is my escape. :) I am loving all things paranormal and dystopian at the moment. I just discovered paranormal romance, and I'm hooked.

I also love photography! When my daughter was born, I had lots of time on my hands just sitting in one place (because she would NOT sleep anywhere but in my arms!). So, I got on the computer and learned all I could about photography. It's an expensive, but awesome hobby. Reading is much cheaper, so I usually collect books instead of lenses. :)

How do you Armchair?

I armchair in my living room on my desktop! There is no way I can afford to go to BEA this year, so I'll be joining you all at home. I'm a stay at home mom at the moment, so I can't justify flying across the country for my hobby. I'm trying to butter my DH up for next year! It's not likely, but it's worth a shot!

I think I'll steal my husband's laptop, grab a cup of delicious french press coffee, don my pink snuggie (I love my snuggie <3! It's the NAP material from Brookstone. Mmmmm.), and cuddle up in "the corner of death" on our couch. It's the best spot on our sectional; most of our friends and family fall asleep in that spot! Don't worry, I'm too excited about all of this to fall asleep. ;)

In My Mailbox (10)

In My Mailbox is a meme that is hosted by The Story Siren. It's a fun way to share what books we got for the week. They can be from publishers, the library, bought, or whatever.

Another great week in books for me! I think having a book blog kind of makes me want to buy more and more books. LOL! Hey, I try to buy them on sale or the cheap mass market ones, so there. :P

So here's the Vlog (or you can just scroll down and see the pictures instead). Sorry that the quality isn't the greatest. I'm having a hard time getting my good camera to do what I want it to do :

See one of my kitties down there? That's Isabelle. :)

For Review:

Wildefire | Karsten Knight

Goodreads | Amazon

Aaaaah!!! I can't even tell you how freakin excited I am for this one!! I got it on the Simon and Schuster Galley Grab (a program for reviewers for those of you don't know). I'd love a hard copy, but if the only way I'll get to read this is on my computer screen, I'll do it! I can't wait to dig into this! Yes!!

Cinder and Ella | Melissa Lemon

Goodreads 

This one sounds cute! I got it from NetGalley.

Losing Beauty | Johanna Garth

Goodreads | Amazon
I'm a follower of Johanna's blog, Losing Sanity. She asked me if I wanted to review her book, and I said as long as it doesn't ruin our blogger friendship! LOL.  Thanks Johanna! I'm almost done with it and I will have a review up sometime this week I think!

Bought:

Wicked Enchantment | Anya Bast

Goodreads | Amazon

I totally bought this one because I love the cover of the newest book (Dark Enchantment). I figured I should start at the beginning of the series. ;) (even if I don't really love this cover as much).

The Darkest Kiss | Gena Showalter

Goodreads | Amazon

Once I started book one, I knew that I HAD to pick up the second book in the series.I just posted the review yesterday.

Divergent | Veronica Roth

Goodreads | Amazon

I had a 40% off coupon for Borders, so I ran out and bought this one!! Yay!!! I can't wait to get it signed at the Dark Days of Supernatural Tour! 

Free:

 The Girl Who Loved Historical Romance | Multiple authors

Goodreads

My friend Tina saw this sitting out at Powells. It was free! It's a sampler of first chapters from some historical romance novels. It's even signed by Courtney Milan! Yay for free. :)