Top Ten Tuesday: Gateway Authors & Books

As always, TTT is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Hello all. The lovely Sarah is currently on vacation, so it's just me this week. This week's topic is top ten gateway authors and/or books. I'm choosing authors and books that are some of my personal favorites or some that got me in to genres I hadn't really read before.

My "Gateway" Authors & Their Books:

Rainbow Rowell & contemporary books. I'm a big fantasy & sci-fi fan, but I can credit the divine Ms. Rowell with getting me to love contemporary. I read her first three books over the course of one week last fall. And just yesterday, I started rereading my favorite (Attachments) to get me out of the book slump I'm currently in. So far, so good!

JRR Tolkien & The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. The whole high fantasy thing? Completely owed to Tolkien and Middle Earth. I own all the books. And the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies. When The Hobbit is released as a set, I'm sure I'll own them as well.

Because why wouldn't I show you a picture of Legolas?

Marissa Meyer & The Lunar Chronicles. So. Here's the thing. I put off reading this book when I first heard about it, because cyborgs. For some reason that just really deterred me from reading it. I'm happy to say I got over my weird cyborg aversion and am absolutely in love with these books.

AC Gaughen & Scarlet. I had never really entered the world of adaptations, or knew that it was a thing, really, until I picked up this book last fall. And boy, did I fall hard for adaptations. I'm constantly on the lookout for them now. And these books? They are absolutely wonderful. And devastating. And so gloriously written you will be begging for more when you finish Lady Thief. This is what an adaption should be.

And because I can't leave out the books that were some of my son's favorites (so basically, a "gateway" author for babies and toddlers)...

Sandra Boynton. Our personal favorites were always Moo, Baa, La La La and Barnyard Dance. Her board books are one of my absolute favorite things to give as baby shower gifts to friends and family. Added bonus she has a few books as iPad apps! My kid still loves them to this day.
 
Who are your gateway authors? Or what are your gateway books?

March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition THE WINNER

Well, today is the last day of March. And the last day of this year's March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition. Thank you all so much for joining us over the course of the month to vote for your favorite book boyfriends! You guys made this such a success, and it more than exceeded our expectations. I thought we may end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 500-1000 entries for the contest. We ended up with close to 4000! 

While we already have a few ideas for next year, we'd absolutely LOVE to have your input. I've included a questionnaire below, so if you have some time please take a moment and fill it out. Thanks!

And now that I've rambled on long enough, let's check out the final bracket, and the winner...

 Here's how the final voting broke down:

 Congrats Outlander fans! You guys showed up by the hundreds to vote for Jamie! While it is a large margin, this is actually the closest anyone came to Jamie all month. Previously he'd been winning with 96% to 99% of the vote. So way to go Moth Minions! You did your guy proud!

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Winners have been contacted and have 48 hours to respond. If there is no response, we'll be choosing another winner, so make sure and check your spam folders just in case!

You guys are AMAZING! Thank you for all your votes, comments, tweets, follows, everything. Much love.

Lindsay & Sarah

The Broke Book Girls

March Madness: Book Boyfriend Edition THE FINALS!

Welcome to the FINAL round of March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition!

It's been an AMAZING month you guys. I am completely and utterly blown away by the response we've gotten over the course of the tournament. It beyond exceeded our expectations. I thought we might get 500 entries into the giveaway, and we're over 3000 now. We could not have done it with out each and every one of you. We truly thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this such a success.

We're already looking forward to next year, and have a couple of ideas on how to make it better and even more fun. We'd LOVE to have some input from you guys too. If you have any suggestions on what we could do to improve upon the event for next year, please let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you guys, and are totally open to suggestions.

Are you ready to see who made it to the finals? I can't wait to see who comes out on top to be the overall winner of our first annual March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition!

The winner of both the bracket and the contest will be announced on Monday, March 31st at 10 am (central time).

VOTING WILL CLOSE AT 10 PM CENTRAL TIME ON SUNDAY, MARCH 30TH.

Who Do You Want To Win?
	Jamie Fraser (Outlander)
	Morpheus (Splintered)
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Liebster Award!

The Liebster Award is rewarded to up and coming blogs that currently have less than 200 followers. The German word, Liebster is translated in English to: Sweetest, Kindest, Dearest, Etc. Thank you so much to Cassi over at My Thoughts... Literally for nominating me! I'm so excited!

 THE RULES: 
- List 11 facts about yourself.
- Answer 11 questions chosen by the person who nominated you.
- Ask 11 new questions to 11 new bloggers. They must have less than 200 Bloglovin' followers. (You cannot renominate the blog that nominated you.)
- Go to their blog and inform them.

My Facts:

Questions from Cassi:

 1.) If you were down to your last $3 what would you spend it on? (You have to spend it!)
I'd love to say a kindle daily deal, but chances are it'd be something for my kid, like a Hot Wheels car.

2.) Do you prefer to read the book or watch the movie first? 
Book! Although I've now made a rule for myself to NOT reread the book before I go see the movie. It always sets me up for disappointment.

3.) When it comes to trilogies what book do you usually like the best? Which one do you usually like the least?
 I usually like the first book the best and the third book the least. But I'm so happy that there've been some truly great series-enders lately.

4.) What book did you absolutely hate and why?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was one of the books from my book club and I HATE that book. It was so not my thing. The ending was horrid.
 
5.) If you met a book genie who offered you three book wishes, what would they be?
1. The Library from Beauty and the Beast
2. An unlimited Amazon gift card to buy ALL THE BOOKS
3. A free pass to BEA every year (accommodations included)

6.) What book have you never read and are so ashamed about it that you have considered lying about having read it?
I've never read anything by John Green. I actually listed it on a TTT recently. I'm not totally ashamed by it, but yeah, he's so crazy popular and I just haven't read one of his books.

7.) If you were trapped on a deserted island what fictional character would you call to help rescue you and why?
HECTOR. Because he's HECTOR.

8.) If you were trapped on a desserted island, what dessert would your island be made out of?
Ooh a dessert. I like desserts. I would like an island made out of cupcakes. All different varieties.

9.) What is the best place you have ever been on vacation?
The Caribbean. Nice beaches, lovely weather, not a care in the world.

10.) If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
I actually love where I live, but I'd love to live in Scotland if I have to choose somewhere new.

11.) Coffee or tea? How do you take it?
Neither. I mostly drink water, with an occasional Barq's Root Beer.

Questions for my nominees:

1. What TV show could you watch over and over and over again?
2. What reality show would you most like to be on?
3. Favorite book to movie adaptation?
4. How long have you been blogging?
5. Beverage of choice?
6. Favorite book boyfriend?
7. Favorite genre to read? And book in that genre?
8. What is your go-to book when you need a pick me up?
9. Who are your auto-buy authors?
10. How do you like to read? ebook? Paperback? Hardback? Other?
11. What book do you recommend the most?

My Nominations:

Emily at Oh Magic Hour
Danie at The Book Brunette 

Becca at Pivot Book Reviews

Ashley at OK Let's Read

Rebecca at The Library Canary

Kayla at The Bibliophilic Nerds

Andi at Andi's ABCs

(I know I was supposed to do 11. But I could only come up with 7. Oops.)

Top Ten Tuesday: Our Bookish Bucket Lists

As always TTT is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish

Oh bucket lists. Something that seems easy on the surface until you actually sit down to write a post about it. And then... not so much. Blank mind. No words. Yeah. Good times. It's a good thing there's two of us to split this post up!

One last reminder on our March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition! The Final Four is happening NOW. And the Finals will start on Thursday with the winner being announced on Monday. Go vote for your favorite to move on to the final!

I'm struggling with coming up with an entire list this week. Sure I love lists, but a bucket list is not really my thing. I was able to come up with 5. It's weeks like this I'm very thankful to split these lists with Sarah! ;)

1. BEA. I would LOVE to go to BEA someday. It's just not in the cards right now. I would love to connect and meet some other bloggers in person. And meet authors. And publicists. And publishers. I'd love to be a part of it all. It's just not in the cards this year. :(

2. Author signings. I live in a small-ish town. The closest city where author events are generally held is Dallas, and it's 6 hours away. I do have one author who lives in my hometown (AG Howard), so I'll definitely be attending her signing when book 3 of the Splintered series is released. So yeah, I'd love to be able to meet more authors, but there'd be lots of travel and extra expense involved. Boo.

3. Other Expos other than BEA. There's always other book expos/events going on, and I'd love to attend some of them. But again. TRAVEL. Hoping there will be one in Dallas sometime soon. That would actually be doable.

4. Read 200 books in a year. I've already read 40 this year, which puts me on pace for about 160. Surely I could squeeze 40 more books in sometime, even though my Goodreads goal is 104. I'll pretty much surpass that before Summer is over I'm sure.

5. Have a whole room in my house dedicated to books. Whenever I move again, I'm hoping to be able to have an entire room just for my books. Since the library from Beauty and the Beast would never really be a feasible option, it'll be the best I can do. I just hope my husband agrees.

This was a tough one for me. I'm glad I have Lindsay to share these more difficult Top Ten's with me! Here are my 5.

1. Read at least 52 books this year. I know, it's such a measly number. Before baby I probably could have pull off 52 books in 3 months. So I'm settling for one book a week. I think it's good start at getting back to my old reading self. 

2. Attend author signings. I would love to attend author signings and meet the brains behind the stories that I love. I actually live in a city where this is all possible. In fact, I was supposed to meet Diana Gabaldon (author of The Outlander series) however, I couldn't fine a sitter for my son. *sigh* The things we sacrifice for our children. 

3. BookExpo America. It's like Mecca for book nerds ... or the book version of Comic-Con. I'm determined to make this happen next year for both Lindsay and I. It's  going to happen, people! 

4. Have my own library. Before we moved I had the beginnings of my own library ... My own very small library. My husband wasn't thrilled about it and since we've been in our new house in our new city my books have yet to be unpacked. I know! I'm so ashamed. But this is the year that I'm going to buy a nice big wall unit and turn our office into my very own little piece of book heaven. 

5. Write. Yes. I love writing. I have a wild imagination and a bit of a twisted sense of humor. I have so many stories and ideas floating around. I'm desperate to write them all down and have my own novel or short stories or even children's book. Just don't ask me what I would write about. I don't even know that yet. Ha!

What's on your Bookish Bucket List?

March Madness: Book Boyfriend Edition The Final Four

Welcome to our bookish version of March Madness!

In case this is your first time visiting us for our book boyfriend tournament, you can read the details here. 

I can't believe we're almost to the end! I've been totally and utterly blown away by the response to our book boyfriend bracket. I never could have imagined the turnout we've had in voting for the guys and entries into the giveaway. So thanks!

The Elite 8 went pretty much how I thought it would, with one MAJOR exception. Morpheus from Splintered by AG Howard managed to take down Four from Divergent by Veronica Roth! AND on opening weekend of the movie being released. I was pretty shocked you guys. Four had almost a 100 vote lead after the first 2 days, and then the Moth Minions came in and voted up their guy all the way to victory. Let's see how he fares the next round.

Are you ready to see who made the Final Four? Vote for your favorite to move on to the FINALS and enter the giveaway when you're finished!

Voting for this round will close at approx. 10 pm Central on March 26. Thanks for voting!

Who's Your Pick?
	Morpheus (Splintered)
	Josh (Sea of Tranquility)
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Who's Your Pick?
	Jamie Fraser (Outlander)
	Thorne (The Lunar Chronicles)
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**Giveaway rules are located on the bracket home page**

Stacking the Shelves / Book Haul (3/16-3/21)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. STS is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

While you're here don't forget to stop by our March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition & enter our giveaway! Only 8 guys remain!

This was a much slower week for me, as I only added 4 books to my TBR. On the plus side, some of them I am super excited about and can't wait to read!

For Review:
 
 Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (from Netgalley)
I was ecstatic when I saw I got approved for this one. you guys.
I've heard wonderful things about it and I can't wait to dive in to it!

 

The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon (from Netgalley)

Gifted/Received:

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

Panic by Lauren Oliver

Both received from The Book Addict's Guide ARC tours! Thanks Brittany!!

 

This week I only bought three books. They were all on sale so I couldn't pass them up. Here are the books I've added to my TBR list. 

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

(I'm actually planning on getting to this one fairly quickly. The author is going to be at a teen book fair in my area that I'm hoping to attend.)

(Note: Lindsay reviewed this one last month!) 

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buehrlen

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

(Not gonna lie... I bought this because the cover is awesome.)

Thanks for stopping by! What's on your shelves?

March Madness: Book Boyfriend Edition Elite 8 (2)

Welcome to our bookish version of March Madness! 
We're so glad you're here! 

In case this is your first time visiting us for our book boyfriend tournament, you can read the details here. And in case you missed the Elite 8 post on the Classic/Adult Fiction & YA Contemporary/Historical guys, you can find it here. I can't believe we're almost to the end of our book boyfriend bracket. By this time next week, we'll have the finalists announced and voting will begin for the winner. Where did the month of March go?

None of the matches for this group were close last round. Each guy won by getting around 70% (or more) of the votes... but I have a feeling that will change for this round.

Ready to see the last four guys in the Elite 8? Check out the bracket below, vote & then don't forget to enter the giveaway!

 Thanks for voting!

Who's Your YA Dystopian/Sci-Fi/Fantasy #1 Pick?
	Morpheus (Splintered)
	Four (Divergent)
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Who's Your YA Dystopian/Sci-Fi/Fantasy #2 Pick?
	Peeta (The Hunger Games)
	Thorne (The Lunar Chronicles)
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*The giveaway rules are on the welcome page for the bracket*

Cookie Covers: Divergent Edition

I wasn't originally planning on doing a whole post on this (and this really isn't going to be a full post), but I couldn't wait to show you guys the Divergent cookies I made for the movie premiere this weekend!

 I'd previously made each of the faction symbols, so I did those once again on mini-cookies, but this time I decided to once again challenge myself and recreate the book cover as a cookie. Here's what I came up with!

Also, I hosted a flash giveaway on twitter the past two days, and Daphne from Gone Pecan won these cookies plus a personalized Amity one (her faction of choice).

Thanks for stopping by! And let me know of any books you think would translate well into cookie form!

March Madness: Book Boyfriend Edition Elite 8 (1)

Welcome to our bookish version of March Madness! 
We're so glad you're here! 

In case this is your first time visiting us for our book boyfriend tournament, you can read the details here. And you can find the Elite 8 post for the YA Dystopian/Sci-Fi/Fantasy guys here. I can't believe we're almost to the end of our book boyfriend bracket. By this time next week, we'll have the finalists announced and voting will begin for the winner. Where did the month of March go?

The closest vote for this group was Mr. Darcy versus Aragorn. Darcy received 158 votes to Aragorn's 147. And once again, Jamie Fraser dominated earning 96% of the votes against Rhett Butler.
 
Ready to see the first four guys in the Elite 8? Check out the bracket below, vote & then don't forget to enter the giveaway!

 Thanks for voting!

Who's Your YA Contemporary Pick?
	Josh (Sea of Tranquility)
	Augustus Waters (TFiOS)
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Who's Your Classic/Adult Fiction Pick?
	Mr. Darcy (Pride & Prejudice)
	Jamie Fraser (Outlander)
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**Rules for entry are on the tournament bracket home page**

Review: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Book: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Series: No

Released: March 11, 2014

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 336 (ebook)

Stars: 1.5 stars

Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

*I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an open and honest review*

From Goodreads:

 Contemporary teen fiction with romance, secrets, scandals, and ESP from the author of Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have).
We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.

So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

Snore. I was so bored with this book. Especially the beginning. It was just so vague. It kept alluding to SOMETHING that happened, but it seemed like it took forever to get there. Not that I'm opposed to mystery and intrigue, but it felt like every other page ended with a sentence that was basically saying "I'll tell you more later, I can't be bothered to tell you anything now."

There are some girls. And some guys. They have some names. Like Mackenize and Tess and a boy named Cooper. They live in New York and are quasi-rich. That's about all I remember. There were a lot of characters discussed and named. Honestly they pretty much all ran together.

So the high school students are all in the same homeroom. They develop the power to read minds. From a FLU SHOT. Then one of the girls (Mackenzie maybe?) freaks out because now her boyfriend (Cooper) will find out she cheated on him last summer. And that's pretty much the main part of the story. There may have been a few other minor things that happened, but yeah, that's about it.

So here's the deal. I know I should review the book how it was written, not review it over what I wanted to or thought should happen. But then the review would pretty much be blank, because NOTHING happened. There were a couple of minor conflicts, but nothing really worth noting. The worst thing that happened really didn't end up being that big of an issue. I feel like it was such a missed opportunity to really explore what people hide. Maybe something worse than a girl cheated on her boyfriend. Something like one of the girls had an eating disorder that no one knew about. Or one of the guys had been abused and had never told anyone. A REAL secret. But it was all so fluffy and had very little substance. Granted this is the first book I've read of Mlynowski's so maybe she tends to keeps things lighter? I don't know.

Also causing a problem was there were so many people. Maybe had the story focused on two or maybe even three, it would have had more of an impact. But as it was, they all kinda mixed together and I didn't really connect with any one particular character.

I probably would not rec this to anyone. In case you haven't figured that out by the rest of the review.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books on My Spring TBR List

As always, TTT is hosted by The Broke & The Bookish

Have I ever mentioned how much I like making lists? Even more so when I get to check something off of said list? It's the best. Back in December I did the TTT for the books on my Winter TBR. And I read every single one of them. Hopefully I'll keep the streak going for my Spring TBR list. I'm going to classify "Spring" as mid-March through mid-June.

ICYMI we're right in the middle of our March Madness Book Boyfriend Edition! You can go vote for your favorite Classics/Adult Fiction & YA Historical/Contemporary guys here. And check out both groups of YA Dystopian/Sci-Fi/Fantasy guys here.

To make this slightly more manageable, I'm breaking this in to two groups, one for new releases, and one for books I already own.

New Releases:

 

 Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy (March 18)

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (April 1)

The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz (April 1)

Summer on the Short Bus by Bethany Crandell (April 1)

What I Thought was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick (April 15)

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (April 15)

Prisoner of Night & Fog by Anne Blankman (April 22)

The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegel (April 29)

The One by Kiera Cass (May 6)

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel (May 13)

Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon (June 10)

Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo (June 17)

Already on my bookshelf or kindle, staring at me, begging to be read:

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Something Real by Heather Demitrios

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buehrlen

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

So that was really like 18 books. And I was way to lazy to make graphics for the books I already own. :)

What's on your Spring TBR?

March Madness: Book Boyfriend Edition Sweet 16 (2)

Welcome to our bookish version of March Madness! 
We're so glad you're here! 

In case this is your first time visiting us for our book boyfriend tournament, you can read the details here.   Don't forget to go check out the other 2 groups in the Sweet 16 (Classics & Adult Fiction and YA Contemporary/Historical) here.

Now that we're getting closer to the end, we're going to be combining some of the voting groups. For the second group of Sweet 16ers, we're combining both of the YA Dystopian/Sci-Fi/Fantasy groups. These guys are definitely some of my favorites!

The last round of voting definitely had some surprises for me. Overall #1 seed Hector was taken down by Mopheus. And my beloved Chaol was defeated by Perry by TWO votes. TWO you guys. Poor Chaol. I'm chalking this up to you guys not having read about these swoony guards just yet (and if you haven't, you need to get on that. Soon.).

Ready to see the next round of match-ups? Check 'em out, then vote & don't forget to enter the giveaway!

 Thanks for voting!

Who Do You Choose?
	Morpheus (Splintered)
	Ian (The Host)
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Who Do You Choose?
	Four (Divergent)
	Sturmhond (The Grisha Trilogy)
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Who Do You Choose?
	Perry (Under the Never Sky)
	Peeta (The Hunger Games)
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Who Do You Choose?
	Day (The Legend Trilogy)
	Throne (The Lunar Chronicles)
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**Rules for the giveaway are on the bracket welcome page**