Weekly Book Roundup (Dec #1), Awards, & a Review Amendment

Finally! A week that didn't whiz by! This one sorta crawled for me...
Anywhoo, time to see what I got this week1!

Gifted:
Orchid is truly made of awesome. She won two copies of Medina Hill and gave me the second copy! I'm really looking forward to reading and reviewing this book because the story sounds interesting and the cover is so cool!

In the grimy London of 1935, eleven-year-old Dominic Walker has lost his voice. His mother is sick and his father’s unemployed. Rescue comes in the form of his Uncle Roo, who arrives to take him and his young sister, Marlo, to Cornwall. There, in a boarding house populated by eccentric residents, Marlo, who keeps a death grip on her copy of The New Art of Cooking, and Dominic, armed with Incredible Adventures for Boys: Colonel Lawrence and the Revolt in the Desert, find a way of life unlike any they have known. Dominic’s passion for Lawrence of Arabia is tested when he finds himself embroiled in a village uprising against a band of travelers who face expulsion. In defending the vulnerable, Dominic learns what it truly means to have a voice.

Library:
I haven't been to the library in awhile because I've been trying to read down my TBR pile, but I was having withdrawals, so this week I went. I feel like I was gone too long because they moved things around while I was away! I made for the YA section, but it wasn't where I left it! They moved it from the back corner to a bank of shelves right across from the desk; I think they had to put it in a more prominant place so they could keep an eye on them. They've had trouble with vandalism in the past and it's my thoery that someone was stealing books from the back corner.
Anyway! What I got! I got The Red Necklace by Sally Gardiner and The Devouring by Simon Holt.

An exciting, romantic novel set against the feverish backdrop of the French Revolution.

Clever and head-turningly attractive, fourteen-yearold Yann is an orphan who has been raised in Paris by Têtu, a dwarf with secrets he has yet to reveal to the gypsy boy. It's the winter of 1789, and the duo have been working for a vain magician named Topolain. On the night when Topolain's vanity brings his own death, Yann's life truly begins. That's the night he meets shy Sido, an heiress with an ice-cold father, a young girl who has only known loneliness until now. Though they have the shortest of conversations, an attachment is born that will influence both their paths.
And what paths those will be! Revolution is afoot in France, and Sido is being used as a pawn. Only Yann will dare to rescue her, and he'll be up against a fearful villain who goes by the name Count Kalliovski, but who has often been called the devil. It'll take all of Yann's newly discovered talent to unravel the mysteries of his past and Sido's and to fight the devilish count.

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"When dark creeps in and eats the light,

Bury your fears on Sorry Night.

For in the winter's blackest hours,

Comes the feasting of the Vours,

No one can see it, the life they stole,

Your body's here but not your soul..."

THE VOURS: Evil, demonic beings that inhabit human bodies on Sorry Night, the darkest hours of the winter solstice.
When Reggie reads about the Vours in a mysterious old journal, she assumes they are just the musings of an anonymous lunatic. But when her little brother, Henry, begins to act strangely, it's clear that these creatures exist beyond a madwoman's imagination, and Reggie finds out what happens when fears come to life.
To save the people she loves, Reggie must learn to survive in a world of nightmares. Can she devour her own fears before they devour her?
The Devouring is an engrossing tale of terror that will have you wondering: what if your worst fears became your living nightmare?

Awards:
It's been a week of tough guy awards! Stormi over at Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh My! has given me the Honest Scrap Award, which I've already passed out before, and Taschima of Bloody Bookaholic has deemed my blog to be kick "butt". Thanks, guys! These are two very cool awards!

The rules: Pass this award on to five blogs that you think kick it and say why. Sounds easy enough!
1. YA Vampire Books! Sara was kind and considerate enough to answer a question I had about the content of a book. Thanks, Sara! This is why you kick butt!

2. The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia! You always send your extra books my way, and thus you are kick butt!

3. La Femme Readers! Eleni promotes new authors, which is fairly kickin' by itself, but she's also one of the nicest bloggers there are!

4. Dahlia's Eclectic Mind! Dahlia is a snappy dresser. Just kidding! I mean, she is, but that's not why- Okay, let me start over! Dahlia is one of funniest people I know and the person that introduced me to blogging! You are kick butt, D! 

5. Bites! Donna had the most fun contest for Halloween in which the entrants were encouraged to be creative! We wrote stories, made art, and shared our scariest moments; it was a lot of fun and the stories were really good! For inspiring bloggers to embrace their creative side, Donna is kick butt!

There's a lot of other kick butt blogs and bloggers out there, but I'm a stickler for rules2, so five it is!

In Other News:

*The Save Amanda Feral Campaign is an effort to save an adult urban fantasy series featuring snarky zombies and such from getting the ax. The problem: this reportedly witty and snarktacular read was published as a trade paper back3, which has been the death of many a paranormal/fantasy series4. To combat this problem, author Mark Henry is having a contest to get the ARCs of his third Amanda Feral book into the trusty hands of reviewers like YOU5! It ends at midnight on December 14th, so go, go go!

 *YA Vampire Books is having a contest right now. You could win $16 to spend at The Book Depository! It's open to all countries that TBD ships to, which is a lot, and it raps up on December 31st.

*I've been thinking about my review of Snap a lot these last few days, and I think I sold it short. It still gets two zombies, but I missed its possitive qualities! This happens sometimes; I'll read a book and it will take me a few days for me to fully appreciate it. Usually this isn't a problem because typically I wait three days between reading and writing the review, this time, however, I was crunched for time and I thought the right of the book. Rating them is easy for me, I usually know by midway what I'm gonna give a book, it's the act of actually reviewing the book that gives me trouble sometimes. What I'm realizing of late is that it was actually a very nice book. It told the story of a girl who had her fair share of faults, but by the end of the story had grown through hardship into a mature(er) individual. Madison's struggle was something that we all, at some point or another, can relate to. The crux of the issue was that the paranormal aspect was wrapped up so neatly at the end that I was feeling short changed. Snow had it set up for some major drama at the end, but balked at the last moment and opted for a sugary, happy ending. And that's my review of the ARC of Snap  by Carol Snow!

* I just know I'm missing something, but I can't for the life of me think what, so I guess that's it!

Happy reading,

Zombie Girrrl

footnotes______________________________________________________

1  Kudos, as always, go to The Story Siren for starting and promoting the IMM meme!

2  Not really, but I am sorta lazy. ;)

3  As opposed to mass market paperbacks which retail for about 6 bucks, trade paperbacks go for about $13. You can see why this might be a problem, right?

4  Or so I hear.

5  You know, if you review adult lit. I'm not entered because it sounds too... mature for my taste.