Friday, September 24, 2010

Beautiful Darkness Signed ARC Giveaway

Next Friday is YAedge's 2nd birthday. I knew I wanted to do something special for our readers, but wasn't quite sure what. Then, in July I was able to pick up an extra copy of Beautiful Darkness, the sequel to an amazing book by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, Beautiful Creatures. Luckily, I had my husband in line at Comic Con when they were signing and giving them away, so he grabbed it for one lucky winner on our blog!


At first, I wasn't sure what would be the special occasion. It's not every day we give away a signed copy of an ARC before the release of the book! Then I remembered, October 1st is YAedge's 2 year birthday! There is no better way to celebrate such a huge date then to say thank you to one of our readers. I wish I could give each of you a book, but unfortunately, that is impossible.



Starting today, leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. The contest will close at noon PT on Thursday, September 30th so that I can choose the winner on our blog birthday, October 1st. The contest is open to all residents in North America (US, Canada, Mexico). Sorry to International readers, but I just don't have the cash to ship overseas at this time. I will be shipping the book to the winner that following Tuesday so that it will arrive before the book is in stores.

If you haven't read Beautiful Creatures yet, now is the perfect time. It was just released in paperback! Here is the description from bn.com:

There were no surprises in GatlinCounty.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.

At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.


And of course, the desciption for Beautiful Darkness from amazon.com (which officially releases October 12):

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.


Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.


If you visit the official Beautiful Darkness webpage, you can read the first 200 pages of Beautiful Creatures and the prologue to Beautiful Darkness right now for free!

Good luck everyone!

Monday, September 20, 2010

More Classics to Dig Into

I loved Tami's post challenging herself to read some of the classics. I've always enjoyed classical lit and have read my share, although I likely missed half of the "heavy" themes...lol... Still, I soak up the language, the stories and the characters.



My favs (I'm not sure if they're technically classics, but I consider them to be so):



Wuthering Heights

Jane Erye

The Odyssey

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

A Christmas Carol

Persuasion

The Scarlett Letter

The Portrait of a Lady

Crime and Punishment



And because I write pararnormal fiction, I'm drawn to classics with a sci-fi / fantasy bent. Some are a bit more modern examples:



Frankenstein

Dracula

The Island of Dr. Moreau

Gulliver's Travels

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

A Clockwork Orange

The Chrysalids, Chocky, and The Day of the Triffides - John Wyndham ROCKS!

A Wizard of Earthsea

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Tell-Tale Heart and other Poe stories

Around the World in 80 Days

The Birds



Between Tami's list and mine, we have a few bleedovers, however, I'm keen to dig into the titles we've listed and either revisit or discover new favourites. Tami - I recommend we both start with Frankenstein. ;)