Jenny Plague-Bringer Cover Reveal+Giveaway

Jenny Plague-Bringer is the fourth book in The Paranormals series by J.L. Bryan. And I have to say, it is one awesome series. Not only J.L. Bryan writes without any inhibitions, his realistic characters are hard not to connect with. The Paranormal series also have some very beautiful covers and this one is no different. Have a look and be ready to awed:

Gorgeous, right? It was made by Claudia@PhatPuppy Art

Jenny Plague-Bringer (The Paranormals #4) by J.L. Bryan
Expected Pub: 10/23/2012

Jenny has enjoyed a year of quiet seclusion, but her peace is about to be shattered by two new paranormals who are searching for her. Their intentions are unknown. The timing couldn’t be worse, because Jenny can’t use her pox without risking the life of the baby growing inside her…

Also, Jenny Pox is FREE!
FREE on: Amazon | Apple | Smashwords | Sony | $2.99 on Nook


You can read my review for Jenny Pox HERE.

Where to stalk J.L. Bryan: Website | BlogTwitter | Facebook | Goodreads

About J.L. Bryan:

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on English Renaissance and Romantic literature. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, dogs Violet and Tiger Lily, and cats Shadow and Sue. Amazon US Author Profile • Amazon UK Author Profile





GIVEAWAY
Now, to the giveaway, J.L. Bryan is giving away the autographed copies of the first three books (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare and Alexander Death) in the Paranormal series. The giveaway is open to entries from the US, Canada, and the UK only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Obsidian Book Trailer

If there is one alien that can reduce to a drooling, stuttering fan-girling idiot, it is Daemon Black. Sexy, charming and drop-dead gorgeous, Daemon is made to steal hearts. And the hot Pepe Toth did a perfect job of playing Daemon in trailer. I love the chemistry between him and Sztella (of course, they are engaged, duh) which did total justice to Daemon and Katy's chemistry.

So anyway, here is the trailer. Though I would have liked if it had been longer and had more focus on the story.



Holy hot chemistry, Batman! Left you breathless, huh?

Check out my review of Obsidian: HERE

Waiting on Wednesday (#2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.

This week's selection is Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini which releases on October 30, 2012 by Simon Pulse.

Goodreads Description: Life altering mistakes are meant to alter lives…

When Elliot dies for the third time, she knows this is her last shot. There are no fourth-timers in this afterlife, so one more chance is all she has to get things right. But before she can move on to her next life, Elliot will be forced to face her past and delve into the painful memories she’d rather keep buried. Memories of people she’s hurt, people she’s betrayed… and people she’s killed. 


As she pieces together the mistakes of her past, Elliot must earn the forgiveness of her best friend and reveal the truth about herself to the two boys she loves…even if it means losing them both forever.

~

First of all, what a gorgeous and lovely cover! I've been crushing over it ever since I saw it.  The colors are so beautiful and every single thing on the cover complements other things so well. 

As for the story, I'm a total sucker for paranormal stories dealing with death and redemption. Touching the Surface is one of my most anticipated reads of 2012 and I'm pretty sure it'll stand upto my expectations.

So what book are you 'waiting on' this week?

Manga Crush (#1)

Manga Crush is brand new meme hosted by Nobonita @ Daydreaming Bookworm. It is a weekly meme hosted here,where you rant about the manga character on whom you have developed a crush.

This week I'm crushing on (like every other day) Usui Takumi from Kaichou wa Maid-sama!. As Ayuzawa Misaki calls him - "A mysterious perverted alien, from Planet Pheromones".

About the manga (Don't tell her but I stole the info from Nobonita's post. If you do, I'll know and then it'd be all katanas and bloodshed):

Title: Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
Year of release: 2005
Status: Ongoing
Author: Fujiwara Hiro
Artist: Fujiwara Hiro
Genre: Comedy, Drama,Romance,Shoujo
Blurb: Seika High School, once an all-boys school notorious for its wild students and for generally being a terrifying place for girls, has recently become a co-ed school. With the female population still a minority and living in fear of the over-the-top antics of the males, Misaki Ayuzawa takes it into her own hands to reform the school and allow the girls to feel safe in the rough environment. Training, studying, and even becoming the first female student council president of the school, Misaki has gained a reputation among the male students body as an uptight, boy-hating dictator and as a shining hope for the teachers and fellow female students. However, despite her tough-as-nails appearance, she secretly works part-time at a maid café in order to support her family. Unfortunately, her hard-earned reputation is threatened when the popular, attractive, and somewhat impassive Takumi Usui takes an interest in her after discovering her in a maid uniform after school.

~

*USUI TAKUMI* Sexiest Anime Man of 2010

Usui Takumi is an extremely popular and ladies' man at his school, Seika High. Usui has no interest in girls, until Misaki Ayuzawa catches his eyes. Strong, independent, bold, unmovable and a man-hater, Misaki turns down his advances at every turn possible. But Usui knows her secret and sometimes, maybe the helper needs saving herself.

Note: It's always like that - hot guy saving the feminist girl - but this manga people keep it original. I'll give you gist of the basic plot since I feel like it - Misaki strong, Misaki in trouble, Insert Takumi, Misaki mentally thankful, Takumi going into pervert mode, Takumi saves the day with Misaki, Takumi hurt, Misaki reconsidering Takumi, end of episode. Though, I  am not complaining. 

"Please don't be bothered by it, I'm just another stalker." 

-Usui Takumi 

Brutally honest and openly pervert-ish, Takumi won my heart with his very first run-in with Misaki. 

((Since Usui's blinding glory is stopping my brain - and heart - I'll let Usui's words and sexy pictures do most of the work. I'll throw in some tid-bits about him.))

"I was lonely since you didn't pay attention to me." 
-Usui Takumi


Takumi can be quite lonely since he doesn't have friends. Though Takumi has loads of followers in his fellow classmates, none of them treats him like a friend should. 

"That's exactly the way it should be. Doing only unexpected things, otherwise, i'll lose my reputation as a perverted outer-space human."
-Usui Takumi


Usui teases, irritates and provokes Misaki at every opportunity. And boy does he make me swoon when he tries to make Misaki blush.

"If you lay your hands on her again... I'll tear your throat out."

-Usui Takumi

Usui has a mysterious past, something about a missing mother and very rich father.





"Nurse me in your maid uniform."

-Usui Takumi

Usui is an expert at many things, but most of all at making hearts race and girls all around sigh and swoon.


"If you were to drown... I won't let anyone else give you mouth-to-mouth respiration." 

-Usui Takumi

     

     

     

Glitch (Glitch #1) by Heather Anastasiu

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

STORY/PLOT

In Zoel's underground world, the Community, everybody is Linked, making them devoid of emotions and personal thoughts, making them creatures of order and peace.

V-chip Linked people (Non-Glitchers)

But Zoe's different, she has started Glitching, making her capable to feel and think. And if anybody learns about her 'anomaly', she'd be re-fitted with a new V-chip, taking her freedom all over again. But there is a bigger secret that Zoe is trying to hide, her glitching has given her 'Jean Grey' kind telekinetic powers.

She thought she was alone, until she found a friend in both fellow Glichers: Max and Adrien. But this is just the beginning. Both Adrien and Max know some dirty secrets of the Uppers that might trigger the whole 'world-changing' switch on everyone. Now she they have to find a way to reach above-ground before they're caught.
(Man, I'm so bad at blurbs, but this book isn't that good either)

~

WARNING: Contains mild spoilers! Though I might do you a favor by saving you from 370 pages of torment, dystopian style.

The start of the book had been very promising and interesting but 50 pages into the book and it had turned a bit boring and child-like. Adrien is basically some love-struck kid, who seems more V-chip controlled than Zoe. And of course, the only shining part of his personality - the only thing that we deduce from Zoe's deduction of him - is his shining 'beautiful aquiline eyes'. I mean author is so constantly obsessing over it, it feels like Zoel is crushing over his eyes rather than Adrien himself. Got beautiful eyes? I LOVE YOU. Ugh.

Max had seemed just the dream guy in the first place, but like every other character he decided to go and blow every single bit of my expectations up.

 

My Expectations

You know, since it seems all he is concerned for is getting laid, typical jock mentality fast-fowarded into a dystopian society. But he's still better than the lovey-dovey Adrien. Even with his "Can I see your genitalia?" comment. Oh, yes, you read right. He did say that. As if that perverted comment wasn't enough to make me cringe, the following image \/ \/ \/ popped into my dirty mind of its own account.

Ugh... *shudders*

I don't think I recovered after that. This book just went downhill from there. Oh, because Adrien had decided to butt his lovey-dovey aqua-marine ass back more frequently.

And did I mention the scary Chancellor, who intimidated and indirectly threatened Zoe was actually - shocker - the bad person.

 At least the train scene was good. If only the author could have killed off Zoel just after she saved the young girl at the market, Max after his delighting entry (the only delighting thing about him in the whole book) and Adrien anytime before he lost his heart - *cough* balls *cough* to a girl he didn't knew much about.

What.Is.Bloody.Happening.

Though character development was mostly nil, the plot itself was alright, a bit irritating and at times unclear. This story had the potential to be so much more. The characters too, but the author made them so unrealistic. Adrien was too good and too soft, especially when the author wanted him to have a hard past, which didn't make sense in my opinion. How could he have been alone when there were people out in Rez? So you can say, Rez and above-ground were concepts quite unclear to me.

 

Me, halfway through the book

The author kept mentioning uneeded usless things to fill up the spaces between the main scenes. And most of the main scenes didn't even seem that significant. This story drastically failed to pull me in. It felt like some teenager wrote this, hell I have even read teenagers write better. Take it from me, the Wattpad junkie, that I have read better.

The author has such an interesting blog and website, the cover is abso-freaking-lutely gorgeous, the idea really cool (I just can't get over how badly the author went Friday the 13th on this) but the story just couldn't interest me.

There were times I was absolutely intrigued, but these moments went just as they came. 

Just like this cat

I wouldn't have been hard on this story, if I hadn't been anticipating this book for months all the while holding high expectations. Glitch had been such a wonderful idea and Heather Anastasiu just effing bazooka-ed it.

There was one person who I actually appreciated and that was Adrien's mother. She just won my heart with this line - Your teenage hormones and overactive imagination have made you obsessed [with Zoe].

I approve of this woman

MEET THE MAIN CHARACTERS (OR THROTTLE-MEs) OF GLITCH 


Warning: I just couldn't get Adrien's 'shunting', 'cracking' and 'godlam'd' curses off my frigging mind, so the further post will subject you some weird-ass curses mentioned again and again like some nursery rhyme sung by people hooked on crack set on repeat.

MAXIMIN (THE RESIDENT PERVERT)

 

Max on any normal day with Zoe

The only character I believed had the potential to be so much more was Max. But the author was so busy antagonizing him as selfish, not right for and obsessed with Zoe  his personality came across as one-faceted. Max could have had so many layers and a different depth to his kinda deranged mind, enough to make one confused whether to like him or not. Which then would have made sense when Zoe thought of him as her best friend.

If I ever unfortunately cross paths with Max:

Oh, Maximin, you shunting godlam'd bastard, you broke my heart. You were the only one I dared have expectations for and you shuntin' broke it with your irritating, animalistic act. Your characterization was just painful. You were pretty sweet when you had no emotions or at least acting like it.

Max, can't get the girl? Get someone else godlam'd pregnant! That'll surely have your woman running at you like some guy who has just dumped half-a-bottle of Axe on himself. Shunting genius! No, it was sarcasm, you jerk!

Pikachu Zoe and the sweet little part-smurf part penguin pokemon Max

Also, Zoe doesn't want you, SO WHAT?! That doesn't mean you would shrug off the responsibility of a teenager you got pregnant, give up your chance to ever get to above ground and get cracking mind-controlled by a glitching maniac all over again, even after she got you badly beaten and forced you to hit your head with your own bloody fist.

Note: I don't get why anybody would let Max go back, knowing he could be easily manipulated by the Chancellor again, risking the information about Rez's secret escape routes, the manual overdrives that still worked and the new extent of Zoe's powers.

ZOE (THE MARY SUE OF DYSTOPIAN WORLD)

Though a huge part of this book was about Zoe coming to terms with her overwhelming emotions, sadly I couldn't feel those emotions. Which made Zoe a difficult character to connect with. Most of the time Zoe was alone, confused and in danger to be caught, yet I couldn't feel the fear, helplessness, struggle for control and loneliness that Zoe was supposedly feeling. I also couldn't feel the chemistry between Zoe and Adrien, and Zoe's love for her brother Markan. It felt like Zoe was tied by a feeling of responsibilty to her younger brother instead of her love for him.

If I ever bummed into Zoel (the following occurs after a cracking awesome kick, ninja-style from my part) : 


Zoe, show some feelings darling. 

You know where this is going

Exactly ;)

I know it's not been long since you'd been glitching but doesn't that mean you should be assaulted by emotions after shunting emotions? The only time you felt real was when you realised you had led to your own older brother's deactivation. And really, after getting all your precious emotions to yourself, all you can mostly see in Adrien is his godlam'd blue-green eyes? Plus, you irritate the hell out of me. But, don't worry, not as much as the boys. Still most of the time I ran through your babble on Adrien only lodging "aquiline blah blah blah intense green blah blah blah aquamarine blah blah blah most of all his eyes drew me in blah blah blah his eyes." Oh, shut up. Is there nothing more to a guy than his eyes?

Adrien and Zoel's love story

Zoe, don't be a hard-ass! Everything isn't about you and Adrien. Which is highly irritating since most of the time all you babbled about was saving everyone. Bullshit! When Max tried to escape with you, you put him in danger and got yourself caught over some gooey feeling in your stomach for a guy who betrayed you. You just started feeling and understanding emotions and suddenly you're in love! You can't even godlam'd describe it, you didn't even knew what sorry meant. Max gave you such a strong proof and still you tried to deny the truth and even thought to find him before your embarrassing, infamous capture. You just infuriate me, you shallow piece of rusted V-chip! 

ADRIEN (THE LOVE-STRUCK ASS-ACHE WHO USES 'ANOMALOUS' CURSE WORDS)

Adrien around Zoe

Adrien, you godlam'd son of a shunt. If Max is an animal, you are just a shallow, migraine of a human. You simply have no depth to inrigue me. And I believe it's the book's mistake that you couldn't show us the needed life. But then, who told you to fall in love with a godlam'd girl you only know for few shunting hours? I know there was a shortage of teenage girls in Rez, that doesn't mean you have to go all Edward Cullen on the first girl who shows some interest in you. Especially since, he's a leech and you don't even shuntin' sparkle (which is creepy). So seriously man, grow some godlam'd balls.

"You made me realize I'd taken for granted how beautiful life can be." Adrien to Zoe, a few hours after they met for the first time (most of during which Zoe was screaming, hyper-ventilating and passed out).

Adrien, I don't know what all you've suffered and all that pain you've felt and all the people you've watched fall apart. But it's not my shunting fault that you forgot to mention it! And how do you fall in love with a girl you barely know, and who has some very strong feelings for a guy who is obsessed with her! (Ok, here I go again, but seriously, this is like the Twilight of dystopians, and Twilight doesn't hold any fond memory for me, oh except me throwing the book at my bro.)

PROFANITY WORD COUNT (I dedicate the following observation to Adrien, his curse-words helped me make this review PG13) 

No, it's not, hot Supernatural guy.

I counted how many times Adrien unnecessarily used profanities (Just the same three ones repeated over and over like a dam of worse-ever curses broke and the took Adrien in a flood until I wanted to strangle him with a piece of wire whenever he used them).

Shunting/Shuntin'/Shunt/Shunted/Shunter - 26

Godlam'd - 13

Cracking/Crackin' - 25 (Only when being used as profanity.)

Liebster Blog Award

Oooh o.O I've been awarded the Liebster Blog Award! I would like to thank Nobonita at Daydreaming Bookworm for this honor.

Now, if your scratching your head and thinking, "what in the world is that?", The Liebster Blog Award is an award given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is actually a German word which means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome. Well, doesn't that make you all mushy?

So people, here are the rules (for once I decided that I might follow them this time) :

1. Each person must post 11 facts about themselves

2. Answer 11 questions the tagger has given you and give 11 questions for the people you've tagged. (My dirty mind is on it)

3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Tell them you've tagged them. (Cause seriously they won't have a dream or receive a letter by an owl telling them that they've been awarded by the awesomeness that is yours truly)

5. Remember, no tag backs. (It's said to be a cause of animosity between many bloggers. Just kidding ... or maybe not)


11 facts about me (read them at your own risk, you've been warned) :

1. I was born on 1 Nov, and I'm quite proud of such an awesome date because of all those 1s.

2. I am the biggest procrastinator you'll ever have the chance to know! And same goes for clumsiness! If you ever in wildest dreams catch me in heels, I am very much sprawled on the floor or down in a gutter because I can't walk straight for the love of god.

3. I want to get a tattoo of three ravens like Tris does in Divergent.

4. I have two hyper-active sister-torturing sadists of an illiterate monkeys for my younger bros. I have been repeatedly praised for the height of my tolerance concerning these lil' monsters.

5. When I get older (like getting my first strands of the doomed white hair. Yup, when I'm rocking my 60s), I wish to open a publishing company that supports teen writers from all over the world.

6. I love to read (Duh!) and write. Maybe I'll try to get published myself one day.

7. I want to study child psychology, mainly focusing on teen bullying and depression (maybe because I want to do some counselling and spread awareness about this). Also, I want to study Greek mythology and Latin.

8. I love music. Especially alternative rock and, barely, sometimes alternative pop like Digital Daggers. I have real weak concentration and music helps me to build it.

9. I L.O.V.E. Goodreads and Wattpad.

10. I don't freaking believe in love at first sight. I believe love is about growing up, knowing each other, building down other's defenses and over-coming problems together. So yeah, no vote for fast love for me. (Boy, do I get sentimental at these things.)

11. I want to dye my hair deep blue or purple or burgundy some day.


Answers to those questions Nobonita asked while playing the 11 questions rule with me (You can say, she bribed me with this award to get some personal information out of me. Understandable, since I'm a super secret ninja spy being tracked down by 11 countries. No really, so let's keep the further info hush hush) :


1 How long have you been blogging?
- I've had a blog from around December last year. But the huge lazy ass that I am, I officially started blogging in March this year, during my after-exam holidays.

2 Are you on goodreads?
- Yes, by the name of Priya, which is freakishly weird since Priya is a pretty common name in my country.

3 Do you do weekly memes on your blog?
- Yes, two actually. One is Still on my Mind hosted by Hayley @ Ya-Holic. The other one I just started participating this week called Waiting on Wednesday, it's pretty popular (It's like mentioned in Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout) and is hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine

4 Which book are you currently reading?
- I'm reading Glitch by Heather Anastasiu and Incarnate by Jodi Meadows. Hopefully, I'll be starting with If I Stay by Gayle Forman soon.

5 How many books do you have on your wishlist?
- More than you can count, baby. Well, it's actually 392 as of right now.

6 What is your favourite subject?
- Psychology, Greek mythology and ancient languages.

7 Where do you live?
- New Delhi, India

8 Did you ever visit my blog before I tagged you?
- Yup, I did.

9 What kind of books do you usually read?
- Though I mostly read paranormal romance. Right now I m experimenting with dystopian and contemporary. But it's mostly YA.

10 What is your all-time favourite author?
- A really very difficult choice. Right now, it's a tie between Rachel Vincent, Kelly Creagh, my new favorite Lucy Christopher and Mal Peet (man, I've held onto this author for years with just a single book)

11 Do you currently have any ARC with you?If you do,which book is it?
- Yes, I have ARCs of Glimpse by Claire Merle and Glitch with me.


Now, here are those scape-goats that I've tagged:

1. http://choudharyshweta.blogspot.in/

2. http://bookwormreviews9.blogspot.in/

3. http://turningpagesbook.blogspot.in/

4. http://iamabookloverforever.blogspot.in/

5. http://www.bookville1.blogspot.in/

6. http://jacitamati.blogspot.in/

7. http://scienceandtruthtriumph.blogspot.in/


Since I only tagged 7 blogs out of the needed 11 (Wow, socially awkward in blogosphere or what? Now, I feel embarrassed. Good thing I'm basically shameless on Internet (; ) I'll only ask 7 questions as well.
Now, my 7 prying questions for all you unluckily tagged:


1. How long have you been blogging?

2. What's your most anticipated read of 2012?

3. What are you reading right now?

4. If you could meet any author, which one would it be?

5. Which book or book series would you like to be turned into a movie?

6. From where do you mostly buy your books?

7. Harry Potter vs Twilight vs The Hunger Games?

Waiting on Wednesday (#1)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.

At last I join the party!
This week's selection is Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6) by Rachel Vincent. It will be published on June 26th, 2012 by Harlequin Teen. 

Goodreads Description:  I died on a Thursday—killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul.

The good news? He didn’t get it.

The bad news? Turns out not even death will get you out of high school…

Covering up her own murder was one thing, but faking life is much
harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks spent
“recovering,” she’s back in school, fighting to stay visible to the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time alone with her new reaper boyfriend.

But to earn her keep in the human world, Kaylee must reclaim
stolen souls, and when her first assignment brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed. Her immortal status won’t keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn’t just gambling with her own life….

~

Soul Screamer series is one of my favorite series. Dark, original, dramatic and highly intriguing with realistic and strong characters, it won my heart from its first prequel novella itself.

As if that wasn't enough, Tod, who is one of my top 5 crushes of all time, has at last won the lady he has been pining for quite some time and I am excited to see how it plays out now that no threat of death hangs over Kaylee.

Things I can't wait to read about:

1. How Tod and Kaylee's relationship evolves over this book.
2. How Kaylee settles into her newly immortal status.
3. Tod and Nash.
4. Kaylee and Nash.
5. Kaylee and Sabine.
6. Alec.
7. Avari.
8. Aiden and Harmony.

So what book are you 'waiting on' this week?