Something Strange and Deadly ARC Winner plus more review stuff

The contest for the ARC of SOMETHING STRANG AND DEADLY is over- thanks to all who participated! A winner will be announced in the next week.

BLOOD KEEPER review will FOR SURE be up tomorrow and a review of BLOODLINES is also coming. Let me warn you, the BLOODLINES and GOLDEN LILY (book 2 of Bloodlines) is going to be a fairly unpleasant review. I haven't had a series disappoint me this much in ages and I HATE when that happens...

Okay, off to bed now
xxx

Blood Keeper review coming shortly!

I'm hoping to get my BLOOD KEEPER review up later tonight.... In the meantime, make sure you checkout the new giveaway! I have a copy of BLOODLINES by Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy) that I'm giving out!

GIVEAWAY: "Bloodlines" by Richelle Mead

The Vampire Academy series is one of my favorite paranormal series ever. While I'm not normally a fan of spin offs (I usually like the original main characters better and want to hear more about THEM) Richelle Mead does such an amazing job building her vampire world that of course I had to read BLOODLINES. The sequel to Bloodlines, THE GOLDEN LILY just came out this June, so once you finish reading Bloodlines, you luckily have a second book to start, because, let's face it, everyone hates waiting for books to come out...

Anyway, down to the business portion:

I will be giving away one copy of BLOODLINES. 

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1. Follow @SliceOffShelf on Twitter (click here) (If you are already following, don't worry about this one)
2. RT this tweet here. Additionally, you can tweet about the giveaway once per day for extra entries, just make sure you tag @SliceOffShelf!

The contest ends 7/29/12 at 11:59pm PST

Comic Con Adventures

I went to Comic Con for the first time ever this past weekend, and it was a blast! The Big Bang Theory cast was like 20 feet away from me at one point, so I basically died. I also got to check out a lot of cool panels. One was Paranormal Love Potion, which included Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss), Andrea Cremer (Nightshade), Tessa Gratton (Blood Magic), Aprilynne Pike (Wings), Kelley Armstrong (Thirteen), Sylvia Day (Crossfire), Marjorie Liu (Dirk and Steele) and Shawntelle Madison (Coveted). It was a reader's heaven pretty much.

Here's a (somewhat bad) photo of the panel. It was hard getting all of them to fit in the frame!

(L to R: Stephanie Perkins, Andrea Cremer, Marjorie Liu, Sylvia Day, Tessa Gratton, Shawntelle Madison, Aprilynne Pike, Kelley Armstrong)

I was also able to pick up an ARC of Tessa Gratton's new book THE BLOOD KEEPER. It's actually a companion novel to her previous book, Blood Magic. I finished reading Blood Keeper on the flight back and it was really good. Like REALLY good. Expect a review to come in the next day and another GIVEAWAY. 

Kelley Armstrong was also allowing people to purchase her new book Thirteen, which won't be released for another week!

All in all, it was pretty exciting stuff! Comments are welcome below!

GIVEAWAY: ARC of Something Strange and Deadly

It's my first giveaway ever, yayy!!! *pops party poppers*. For those interested (and you SHOULD be interested; to see why, check out my review of Something Strange and Deadly here), I am giving away.....

one ARC of SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY

I'm hoping the widget for Rafflecopter works, but if it's not working, here's what you need to do:

1. Follow Slice Off The Shelf on Twitter @SliceOffShelf (mandatory)
2. Follow this blog! (optional, but will give you extra entries)
3. Retweet the Giveaway tweet which can be found here (optional, but will give you extra entries)
4. Leave a blog post comment below about which book releases you are most looking forward to! (not Something Strange and Deadly though because OF COURSE you're looking forward to that...) (optional, but will give you extra entries)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

REVIEW: "Something Strange and Deadly" hits mark

SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY by Susan Dennard
Release Date: 7/24/12

This book is...

For fans of "The Infernal Devices" (without all the insane love triangle stuff)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

On the List of "2012 Awesome Debuts"

Synopsis:
"Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to anyone with a pulse. As if things couldn't get any worse, the Dead are rising in Philadelphia! Eleanor knows her brother is somehow involved, and she enlists the Spirit-Hunters to help find him. But her growing attraction to Daniel, one of the Spirit Hunters, threatens to derail her efforts. With her reputation on the line and her reputation hanging in the balance, can Eleanor find her brother and manage to stay alive?" 

Review
Susan Dennard's debut certainly packs a punch! The whole idea of zombies, corsets and all other things Victorian was a very entertaining combination that I actually found easy to get into.

Eleanor is also a very likable character. She's very adamant and independent -- Dennard definitely has the "writing a strong female lead" down to a pat. I'll admit that, in some instances, Eleanor's independence did annoy me because I felt she was so fiercely independent that she didn't see the consequences of her actions, but in the end it lent itself to her development as a character.

In terms of the love interest, Daniel, the dashing inventor is very swoon-worthy. He also seemed like a very realistic character; in other words he wasn't the ideal romanticized version of a man, which was nice.  Probably the best part of the story is a moment at the end when Eleanor has a conversation with Daniel; some very unexpected words are exchanged that I liked a LOT.

In all, there was plenty of action, fighting and intensity that made the book a quick read. I was also a fan of all the other Spirit Hunters, who I look forward to reading more about. I can't wait for book two!

**********
To win an ARC of SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY check out the Contest and Giveaways Page! 

Comment below!

What I Do

Hi everyone!

So first and foremost, I'd like to give you a sense of what this blog is. Basically, I review books.... Well, yeah that's it....

I'm fortunate enough to receive some ARC's from publishers and libraries, and I figure what better way to make use of them than to review! Most of my reviews will be spoiler free, especially if the book has not been released yet, but IF there ever are any spoilers, it will be noted at the top of the post.

In the next weeks, expect reviews of the following:

SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY- Susan Dennard (7/24/12)

THE BLOOD KEEPER- Tessa Gratton- (8/28/12)

MY HEART BE DAMNED- Chanelle Gray (9/12)

Also, expect an ARC giveaway of SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY in the next couple of days! See giveaway page for more info.

Follow the blog on Twitter for the most up to date info!

xxx