Feature & Follow Friday #4 - Reading Habits

Feature and Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read where bloggers gain followers and make new connections.  I prefer followers through Google Friend Connect (GFC) and
Bloglovin’, but I'll take what I can get; hit me with your best shot.

Question of the Week: How have your reading habits changed in the past few years? Did you get interested in a new genre? Do you read more? Less? Why do you think your habits changed, if they did.

I've always been an avid reader.  Ever since my mother first gave me those V.C. Andrews books in second grade (and Stephen King in third -- she had taste, that woman), I was hooked.  Completely, irrevocably addicted to books.  I'm the type of person that would much rather be alone, immersed in a great novel than with pretty much anyone else... except my husband, of course, but he doesn't really count.

My tastes have changed, very recently, in fact; I used to be utterly turned off by young adult novels.  Now, I'm hooked.  I've read so many great young adult novels in the last two months alone, and I have you guys to thank for it, since many of you that I follow happen to read YA books.  So... thanks!

Since acquiring an e-reader and using it almost exclusively, I do think that I read more in recent years than I did in the past.  It's just so much more convenient -- and so much cheaper.  

Thanks in advance for stopping by -- I will return your comment and/or follow; I absolutely love reading new blogs and interacting with fellow book nerds!

Happy Friday!

Pssst... while you're here, enter my giveaway for a hardcover copy of The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski! 

Want to join this blog hop or enter my giveaway?

Feature & Follow Friday #3 - Favorite Outdoor Reading Spot

Feature and Follow is a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read where bloggers gain followers and make new connections.  I prefer followers through Google Friend Connect (GFC) and Bloglovin’, but I'll take what I can get; hit me with your best shot.

Question of the Week: Spring is in the air! Show off your favorite outdoors reading spot. If you don’t go outside...well where else do you read that isn’t inside your house? We want pics!

From my honeymoon in Virginia Beach, 2013

My favorite reading spot is the beach.  The wind in my hair, the smell of salt in the air, sand between my toes.  Reading a great book as the sun goes down, while the tide rolls in.  There is nothing more beautiful, and more peaceful, in all the world to me. 

I work from home currently, and therefore spend the majority of my reading time in the house.  

Pssst... while you're here, enter my giveaway for a hardcover copy of The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski! 

What's your favorite outdoor reading spot?  Read more to join the blog hop or enter my giveaway!

Top Ten Tuesday #2 (& Giveaway!)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the amazing girls over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is to list my top 10 favorite fantasy novels.  I originally wasn't going to participate in this meme, because for all intents and purposes, I am somewhat new to the genre; I haven't read many fantasy novels.  Fantasy is way outside my comfort zone.  However, I've been on a fantasy kick, and I really want some new ideas and/or recommendations.  

My all-time favorite... Of course, I have to pay homage to what I consider an absolute staple in the fantasy genre (but what do I know?), Harry Potter.  This book and series may very well be the first fantasy novels I ever read, and I won't lie; I went into the series grudgingly.  I wanted to find out what all the hype was about.  Boy did I ever.  I even have a Harry Potter quote tattoo now.  And yes, I get teased about it regularly.

Other favorites include:  Eragon by Christopher Paolini, as well as the rest of The Inheritance Cycle, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, (the first in the series -- I didn't care for the second novel as much, and haven't read any others), The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and two I just read this month, The Deep End of the Sea by Heather Lyons, and The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. 

Speaking of the Winner's Curse, I am currently holding a giveaway on my blog for a brand new hardcover copy.  Applicants may enter once per day.  Since I will be paying postage, this giveaway is unfortunately open only to US residents.

I chose this title for March's giveaway, because I absolutely loved it.  Read my review!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway reminder!

Just a reminder, I have two giveaways ending in a little less than 12 hours for two ebooks -- The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd and Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle.  Both giveaways are hosted by Rafflecopter, so if you already have an account with them and already follow me, entering is just a few simple clicks away!  Free books, guys!

Enter to Win Now!

Review/Giveaway: Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle

After devouring this novel, I decided I would be doing a grave injustice to humanity if I did not immediately make an impromptu giveaway for it.  Enter my giveaway for a chance to win a retail ebook copy in the format of your choice (mobi/epub).

I just found out about this book yesterday, and I seriously felt like a seven year old kid on Christmas morning.  A horror romance based on the Donner party?  Is the author my soul mate?  Did I perhaps write this whilst I was sleeping?  I am obsessed with cannibalism in survival situations (I know, it's a weirdly specific niche to be obsessed with), but I love reading about the Donner party and the Andes plane crash survivors.

So this is what you need to know about the Donner party, if you don't already:

From History.com: In the spring of 1846, a group of nearly 90 emigrants left Springfield, Illinois, and headed west. Led by brothers Jacob and George Donner, the group attempted to take a new and supposedly shorter route to California. They soon encountered rough terrain and numerous delays, and they eventually became trapped by heavy snowfall high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Purportedly reduced to cannibalism to survive through the winter, only half of the original group reached California the following year. Their story quickly spread, and before long the term “Donner Party” became synonymous with one of humanity’s most ingrained taboos.

This is what you need to know about Donners of the Dead:  It's the authors take on the Donner party, but guess what?  They're zombies.  Really detailed, creepy, disgusting and foul zombies.  Really good zombies.

I honestly didn't even care about the romance aspect, and before I started reading, I thought I was going to hate it.  I couldn't imagine how romance and horror could be thrown together without one or both of them being cheesy.  I needn't have worried; Karina Halle pulls off this novel with aplomb.  The heroine is likeable, the hero is a big stud, and the zombies are truly terrifying.  And it works... it just works.

Donners of the Dead is a story about a young half-breed Indian girl that gets hired to help track members of a search party that disappeared when trying to locate the original Donner party.  After accepting a staggering sum of money for the job, Eve sets off with her chaperone, friend, and the group of men that hired her into the mountains. Eve finds herself drawn (adversely at first) to Jake, a cowboy helping with the mission.  They soon find themselves fighting for their lives, while still managing to discover a blossoming love in the face of tragedy and horror.

One qualm?  It was a bit short at 203 pages, but it didn't feel rushed, surprisingly.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Want to try a Karina Halle book for free?  Check out the first in her Experiment in Terror series, Darkhouse, on Amazon.com!

Giveaway #1 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Enter now to win a copy of Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings in .MOBI format (will come with instructions on how to easily convert to .EPUB or other formats for your convenience.)

Since I am just getting started with Bibliobrat.com and want to increase traffic to my blog, the rules are simple:  just follow my blog with Bloglovin' and/or Google Friend Connect. Enter up to 20 times, quickly and easily!  Giveaway hosted by Rafflecopter.  Winners will be randomly chosen.

Raffle ends on March 9th at 12:00am EST.

Questions/comments/suggestions?  I'd love to hear from you!