Monday, February 15, 2010

The Prizes!

Thanks to everyone for entering my contest to celebrate a week of slovenly behavior! I actually got quite  a bit done, and that, with my remaining vacation, means that I hope to finish a project I'm working on early. Which is awesome.

Before I announce the winners (soon!) I thought I'd announce the prizes. In addition to a new books and ARCs, I also threw in a few only-read-once-and-gently-worn books to up the prize selection and ante. I take really good care of my books and doubt you'll be able to tell the diff.

OK: the prizes...
(all book descriptions courtesy of IndieBound)

Beautiful Creatures (hardbound)
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.

Gods of Manhattan (hardcover)

Look. What do you see? Sidewalks, skyscrapers, pigeons? But there's more. More that only twelve-year-old Rory Hennessey can see. More that only Rory can reveal to others.

So, look again. What do you see? Layered on our own New York is a spirit city inhabited by warrior cockroaches, malevolent subway trains, kung fu rodents, hungry gargoyles, and children made entirely of papier-mache. Built by history and legend, it's ruled by the Gods of Manhattan, lions of New York like Peter Stuyvesant and Babe Ruth.

Now everyone is racing to find Rory--the boy who can see. The boy who can change the destiny of New York.

 I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (paperback)
Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school-that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class.  The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses but it's really a school for spies.    Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.  Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real "pavement artist"-but can she maneuver a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?

Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she's on her most dangerous mission-falling in love.

 Riding the Universe (ARC)
ChloÉ Rodriguez values three things above all else—her family; her best friend, Rock; and Lolita, her Harley-Davidson 1200 Sportster. With a black body, blue airbrushed flames, and perfect sloping ape hangers, Lolita is ChloÉ's last connection to her beloved uncle, Seth, who left her the bike when he died last summer. So when a failing chemistry grade threatens to separate ChloÉ from her motorcycle, she vows not to let that happen . . . no matter what.
Enter Gordon. Ridiculously organized, Übersmart, and hot in a casual, doesn't-know-it kind of way, ChloÉ's peer tutor may have a thing or two to teach her besides chemistry. But she has to stop falling for Gordon . . . and get Rock to act mature whenever he's around . . . and pass chemistry so she doesn't lose Lolita forever. Just when ChloÉ thinks she's got it all figured out, a bump in the road comes out of nowhere and sends her skidding.

 Vamped (paperback)
(This description is from Amazon; IndieBound didn't have one)
When Gina makes out with newly hot Bobby after prom, she gets more than she bargained for. Later, her boyfriend Chaz crashes his car and Gina finds out the hard way why the teen death rate is up in her Ohio town. She wakes up and claws her way out of the grave, adjusting quickly to the fact that she is now undead. Bobby meets her at the cemetery and they end up back at her house before sunrise. They are then captured and taken to a secret hideout where they meet Mellisande, a rogue vampire who seeks to build her own army and to fulfill a prophecy. She has turned a group of teens into vampires, but Bobby has special powers, including telekinesis, that the other vamps do not possess. Chaz and Gina's friend Marcy are among the new vamps who are training in combat skills to take on the vampire council, and Gina must step up to save her friends.

 Undiscovered Gyrl (ARC)
Only on the internet can you have so many friends and be so lonely.
Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.

Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie's fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.

Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, Undiscovered Gyrl is an extraordinarily accomplished novel of identity, voyeurism, and deceit.

 The Treasure Map of Boys (ARC)
Ruby is back at Tate Prep, and it’s her thirty-seventh week in the state of Noboyfriend. Her panic attacks are bad, her love life is even worse, and what’s more:

Noel is writing her notes, Jackson is giving her frogs, Gideon is helping her cook, and Finn is making her brownies. Rumors are flying, and Ruby’s already-sucky reputation is heading downhill.

Not only that, she’s also: running a bake sale, learning the secrets of heavymetal therapy, encountering some seriously smelly feet, defending the rights of pygmy goats, and bodyguarding Noel from unwanted advances.

In this companion novel to The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book, Ruby struggles to secure some sort of mental health, to understand what constitutes a real friendship, and to find true love—if such a thing exists.

The Mercy of Thin Air (hardcover)
In 1920s New Orleans, Raziela Nolan's magnificent love affair is interrupted by her untimely and tragic death. Immediately after, she chooses to stay "between" -- a realm that exists after life and before whatever lies beyond it. From this remarkable vantage point, Razi narrates the story of her lost love as well as of the relationship of Amy and Scott, a young couple whose house she haunts seventy years later. It is their own troubled story that finally compels Razi to slowly unravel the mystery of what happened to her first and only passion, Andrew, and to confront a long-hidden secret.
"The Mercy of Thin Air" entwines two heartbreaking and redemptive love stories that echo across three generations and culminates in a finish that will leave readers breathless. It is a poignant and brilliant first novel that beautifully captures the nature of love and shows how it transcends all barriers -- even death.

 The Octopus Effect (ARC)
Ever since Simon Bloom defeated deadly Sirabetta, heas been having fun with the laws of physics. Until Sirabetta sets out for revenge. Now Simon must follow her to the Order of Biologyas realm. Simon will get some wild abilities from the "Book of Biology," but that might not be enough against Sirabetta. With the universe at stake, Simon struggles to master the Octopus Effect in this action-packed sequel to "Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper."






 The Man Who Loved Clowns (paperback)
Now available in paperback--this moving, award-winning story is based on the author's own experiences of growing up with her beloved uncle Punky, who had Down's syndrome.

3 comments:

lotusgirl said...

I'm reading Beautiful Creatures now and enjoying it very much.

Unknown said...

Oh, I'm so glad you like it! The cover is lovely--I can't keep my hands off it.

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Beautiful prizes....

Love the new look of your blog, by the way. Very nice!