Winners!

The winner of Deception by Lee Nichols is...

Breanna Nicole!



The winner of a signed Nightshade and a signed Fairest of Them All is...

Dani S!


I'll try and mail these out as soon as I can. It may take awhile since I'm not currently home.

Congrats!

This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas

A CHILLING NOVEL ABOUT THE ISOLATION OF BEING STALKED AND THE ABUSE OF POWER.

Olivia Peters is over the moon when her literary idol, the celebrated novelist and muchadored local priest Mark D. Brendan, offers to become her personal writing mentor. But when Father Mark’s enthusiasm for Olivia’s prose develops into something more, Olivia’s emotions quickly shift from wonder to confusion to despair. Exactly what game is Father Mark playing, and how on earth can she get out of it?

This remarkable novel about overcoming the isolation that stems from victimization is powerful, luminous, and impossible to put down.

This was one intense book, the summary is a little deceiving because it doesn’t explain the book very well. In the beginning of the book, it took me awhile for me to realize that was going on. When I finally put two and two together, I was totally creeped out. The priest was gross and disgusting.
I know that this topic isn’t discussed often in books, and I’m happy that The Gorgeous Game shed light on the issue of stalking. The priest is convinced that him and this teen, the main character, are meant for each other. He followers her around and shows up when she is with her friends. He even goes as far as showing up at her house and eating dinner with her and her family.
Freitas did a wonderful job of capturing what was going on. I felt creeped out by the priest, just like the main character. The Gorgeous Game get’s into your head and stays there.


FTC- Received from publisher.

An End to a Lovely Two Week Celebration

Thanks to everyone who commented, read, wrote guests posts for Sarah and I, and wished us Happy Birthday! I appreciate it, and I'm sure Sarah does too. The contest winners will be announced on my blog at a later date.

On a slightly personal note, I am not currently where I usually am and won't be for a few more weeks. This makes it so I won't be online as much. It also makes it so there won't be as many posts on this blog as I'd hoped there would, this is do to lack of a lot of internet connection.
Hopefully, I will be back to posting reviews sometimes next week (I will hopefully have internet by then) because I have been reading and writing tons these past few days.

I don't think my posts will be drastically lacking, but if they are I wanted to let you all know that the blog is still here! It won't be stopping anytime soon, because I love reviewing too much.
If there ends up being no new posts for a few weeks, once I get back, there will most likely be a post every day for a few months.

Thanks again for everyone who participated in the Birthday palooza!


Best,
Zoe

A Guest Post by Kami Garcia

Kami is the co-author of Beautiful Creatures and yet to be released Beautiful Darkness.

I was lucky enough to met Zoe when she introduced Margie and I at a BEAUTIFUL CREATURES singing, at Copperfield's Bookstore. Zoe's speech was better than ours, and she made us sound a way more interesting than we really are. But Zoe is interesting and poised, intelligent and funny. I come from the generation of mix tapes, so here's my version of a mix tape for a very Beautiful Creature. Happy birthday, Zoe!

A Guest Post by Yan of Books By Their Cover

Best Birthday? How old were you?

It's rather hard to answer this question because my family isn't all that big on birthdays. We would have a cake and everything, but no huge party where every kid on the block would be invited. I guess we're a litle traditional with birthdays and instead celebrated everyone's "birthday" the same day--Chinese New Year. It's totally fun sharing your birthday with 8.8 billion other people ;)

You asked this on your blog once, so sorry for stealing, but... If you could be named after any snack, what would it be? *You can't choose Yan Yan*...

Dang it! *yan yan's need to get out of Borders and FYE so I can have a cool answer*. Hmm there's Airheads, not for me but for someone else heh. Oh Lifesavers--sounds epic. Now Or Later *snickers*. I think the most cutest name, and sensible at that, would be Dots.

Favorite musical?

What other musical but SPECTACULAR (laughing my tooshie off as I say this)

Favorite Glee boy?

"Other Asian Boy". But I like Jesse too! But why are all the good guys unattainable or gay :(

Favorite cheesy dance move *i.e. the cabbage patch, the sprinkler, etc.*?

Ever seen someone do the Mashed Potato? My US History teacher can do a wicked Mashed Potato. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df1oFAh3FmE&)

What made you want to start blogging?

I like books *cheesy grin*

Is there anything you would like to add?

Happy (belated) birthday sweetie! (I don't know why I just called you "sweetie" though it kind of rhymes with your name? Kinda?). Good luck in high school :D

A Video by Josh Berk

Josh Berk, author of The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin made me a B-Day video for the Birthday Palooza! Thanks Berk!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Today is a very important day in the blogosphere. It is Sarahbear's 19th birthday. Today on Zoe's Book Reviews we're gonna be kicking it inside-joke style. If any of you understand these, you get the Zoe stamp of approval. So, let's get on with it!

The following details may or may not be true... you decide

Sarahbear... How do I begin to explain Sarahbear?
Sarah is flawless
I heard her blog is insured for 10,000 dollars.
I heard she does book commercials... in Galifrey
Her favorite subject is Awesome
One time, she met David Tennant
And he told her she was pretty
One time...
She verbally punched me in the face...
It was AWESOME.


Now to some serious stuff....

I've known Sarah for about a year and a half, and a funny year and a half it has been. Last year, we hosted a joint birthday chatzy extravaganza. This year we have two weeks of guest posts and other things on our blogs. In this year and a half, her and I have developed the same obsessions such as-
Doctor Who
Buffy
Spring Awakening
Glee
Rent
Gaga
Mean Girls
A Very Potter Musical
Tumblr
and other such things.

She has put up with my constant fangirling of David Tennant, David Levithan, David Boreanaz, Mark Salling, and a few other people who won't be named.
She is my blogger BFF and I will hopefully be meeting her soon. It just goes to show that you can be great friends with people you meet online.


----end serious part----

SO. On to more non-fluffy subjects. I hope you have an amazing birthday Sarah! Make sure Kevin isn't mean... or else I will go to Washington and show him who's boss'. xD
Sing your heart out and PARTAY.

Pretty Little Liars aka New Obsession

When it aired, I was sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching the premiere of Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family. I loved the first episode. Keep in mind that at this time I had never even cracked open a copy of Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard.
After watching the second episode I wanted to read the books. So, last Saturday I decided to buy the first book. Of course, I thought it was just going to be ok, but nothing special.
Let's just say I read the first one that night and spent the following day tracking down the rest of the series.


I now own books 1 through 5. Last night I spent 10pm to 4am reading it and finished book 3. I now have 2 more of them to read before I must go out and buy the remaining 3 books.

This series is so addicting! Sure, the characters are sometimes annoying but besides that I really enjoy it.

You can look for reviews of the books in this series in the future.

A Guest Post by C.J. Omololu

Book Birthdays and Why You Should Celebrate Them

Unlike real birthdays, book birthdays are a rather recent invention. According to my esteemed agent, people used to think of book ‘months’ rather than an actual day that a book came out. I’m here to tell you that those days are gone. Accurate or not, book birthdays are usually generated by Amazon, when they put the release date on the book’s page along with a preorder button. That date is then set in stone in the mind of readers and authors alike as the day that the book will be born into the world. Don’t even get me started on those little counter widget things that start showing up on websites.

A book birthday is usually the result of years and years of working, worrying and waiting. Once a manuscript has been written, it is then revised, sent out on submission, rejected, purchased, revised two or three more times and then after six more months of printing and shipping arrives as a beautiful hardback or softcover bundle on their doorstep. The jury is out about whether a stork actually delivers them.

As an author holds their book for the first time, they often look around and realize that the world hasn’t stopped, there is no national holiday to mark this very special occasion. People go about their business, not realizing that the second or third most important day in the author’s life has arrived.

I urge all writers to make that day special. Have a launch party, go out to dinner, have that second serving of cake or make it a special spa day with your best friend. Do something, anything, to make that day stand out. Trust me, if you don’t, it can get ugly.

It might surprise you that many writers are rather shy. They’d rather do almost anything than put themselves out there for a pat on the back. Most of them don’t want to make a big deal about the day their book comes out – which is not to say that you shouldn’t make a big deal about that day. Small things like a big ‘hooray’ on the writer’s blog, Twitter or website like the Tenners go a long way to making that day special. In the age of Google Alerts, you can bet that the author will see any mention of their name and it will let them know that for just a few minutes, the people that matter most will share in that celebration.

Of course, balloons, flowers and expensively wrapped presents aren’t too bad either.

Sea Change Giveaway

2 winners will be able to win a paperback copy of Sea Change by Aimee Friedman.

Description of Sea Change-

Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science...and not so great with boys. After major drama with her (now ex) boyfriend, she's happy to be spending the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother's estate.

On the lush, beautiful island, Miranda finds new friends and a community with a mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can't make sense of. She also meets Leo, who challenges everything she thought she knew about boys, romance...and reality.

Is Leo hiding something? Or is he something that she never could have imagined?

For more information on the book or the author, you can visit these places-

http://www.aimeefriedmanbooks.com/

http://www.thisispoint.com/books/seachange.asp

A Guest Post by Andrea Cremer

A Very Buffy Birthday

I don’t understand those folks, and there are many of them, that shy away from birthday celebrations or even grumpily ignore the joys of marking a new year in their lives. I am a huge birthday enthusiast – mostly because for me a birthday means you have a blank check to be self-centered for an entire day. My husband disagrees with this notion, but seeing as how he’s from above “anti-birthday” camp, I contend that just because he doesn’t invoke birthday privileges doesn’t mean I shouldn’t. Also, I’m a Leo. ‘Nuff said.

There’s one person, however, who despite wanting to be feted on her special day is constantly denied the joy of birthdaydom: our dear girl, Buffy. She can’t seem to gain a year without some kind of crisis. Whether it be turning her soul mate into a soulless monster or getting jilted out of an Ice Capades date with her dad.

Her luck runs so far south on the day of her birth, it even prompts Spike to ask, “Have you ever thought about not celebrating your birthday?”

Poor Buffy – you may be the Chosen One, but you can’t choose a safe way to trumpet your own naissance, which hardly seems fair.

Therefore I could grant you one of my birthday wishes it would go like this:

I wish Buffy a birthday where she doesn’t get severed arms or rocket launchers for presents

or a stolen leather jacket from her klepto kid sis.

Where she gets true love without a price

and her mentor isn’t morphed into monster.

I hope she can party down

Instead of being trapped in her own house.

That’s my Buffy birthday wish. Because while there are many times in life where I’ve thought – it would be so cool to be Buffy! I’d never, never want to be Buffy on her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Zoe!!! May your day be Buffy-Birthday-Mishap free :)

A Guest Post by Courtney A. Moulton

When we’re little, birthdays are awesome, but the older we get (usually once we reach the last awesome birthday that allows us to get into bars legally) the more we’d like to forget our birthdays and even come to dread them. Some of the traditions remain the same, but with small differences. For example, sometimes we still have slumber parties, but these days it’s mostly people who are too drunk to drive home passing out around the house. Sleeping bags aren’t even required. The floor does just fine for most and if you wake up cold, there’s always a rug within reach to wrap yourself up in.

As a child, there’s a kind of magic to your birthday that’s a lot like the epic exhilaration in waiting for Christmas morning or Halloween. You just have to know what your parents got you for presents. Was it a new bike? A Barbie house? Maybe a red Barbie Mustang complete with a legit cell phone? Maybe a villain from Street Sharks, if your parents were cool like that. Nothing even compares to that feeling. We all saw the video of Nintendo 64 Kid. That is exactly what I’m talking about. You know your present was a good one if your reaction causes your parents to consider hospitalizing you.

And it’s not just the presents that make your birthday rock. When your best friends are over and you play Hide and Seek (best when played in a pitch black basement); Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board (like this ever worked, but you did it every year anyway); prank calling cute boys from your class and asking who they liked; contests to see who could stuff the most hunks of Double Bubble gum into their mouths as physically possible without choking to death; and of course, Truth or Dare. One of my favorite and most memorable birthdays from my childhood was my seventh birthday. My mom got me a 101 Dalmatians cake and my three best friends came over for a slumber party and games. I got a Puppy Surprise and a bunch of Breyer horses (I’ve always been just a little horse-obsessed) and probably Barbie stuff too. I’m twenty-three now and I still remember parts of this particular party.

As disappointing as birthdays are these days (since, let’s face it, we’re just getting older now) I can still look back to how awesome they were when I was little kid and never believed I’d ever survive to be considered a grown up someday. All the old photos my mom took certainly help keep the memories fresh, but at least I can thank her for never filming my reaction and sticking it on Youtube ten years later. Of course, people who know me best still call me My Little Pony Girl - with or without twelve million views on the internet.

Palooza Music Day 6

Today's song has also been chosen by Devyn Burton.... It is Can't Stand It by Nevershoutnever!

A Gues Post by Adele of Persnickety Snark

While I would love to tell you about the fantastic birthdays I have had, I can’t. You see, birthdays in my family are pretty low key and always have been. I also seem to have horrific luck when they come around. Some might attribute that to the date that it falls on – the 13^th. I don’t. I just think it’s a life habit that won’t break.

When I was five I had the most beautiful Raggedy Anne birthday cake you have ever seen. I can’t remember getting a piece.

When I was seven, I got in a fight with a girl (who I hadn’t even wanted to invite) when she refused to play ‘pass the parcel’ correctly at MY party. When I called her out on being a low down, dirty sneak (not the words I used), my mum propelled me to the kitchen for a lesson on manners.

When I was 12, I had a sleepover when we attended the local production of Oklahoma. And when I mean local, I mean the community production where Laurie was six months pregnant. One of my friends refused to come because she didn’t like musicals.

A few months before my 13^th birthday (which fell on Friday the 13^th), my parents split up. My mother was kinda depressed and had very little money. My entire birthday involved finding a bag from the local sports store on the dining room table with a rugby jumper in it for me. The receipt was still in the bag. No card. I sucked it up with audible sadness.

I had to play basketball that night so there was no special dinner or whatnot as all three kids in my family had match after match after match. I was grizzling about not having a cake. I look back now and realise it wasn’t about the cake, it was that I didn’t feel special on the day. I had turned thirteen, I was officially a teenager, and it didn’t seem to matter. My mum bought a Twix bar at the kiosk and tossed it to me saying something along the lines of ‘here’s your cake’.

This might make my mother sound callous. She wasn’t . She was tired, broke, depressed and stressed beyond belief. All things that I can see now. But it still hurts looking back on that day. And yet it has been turned on its head. Every birthday the ‘Twix incident’ is brought up in my family. Mostly as evidence of my tendency to be a drama queen as I haven’t let anyone forgot how wronged I was in that year. Yes, I am a drama queen but that didn’t mean that my hurt was nothing. It was my duty to remind them every year!

This year I spent my birthday alone in Japan. My sister sent flowers. My mother and brother sent a card and a gift and spent hours with me on Skype. My dad sent an email where he mostly talked about himself and how old I was which reflected on his age...ugh. Anyway what I am trying to say is that birthdays are so rarely perfect. You have to find the moment that makes it special, that makes you remembered, that makes an impact. This year it was the enormous amount of facebook wall posts I received, the vlogs that came in from across the world and the piece cake that a colleague managed to track down here (not at ALL common here). A lovely friend named Alea managed to secretly make my day rock with those vlogs, it didn’t cost her anything and it made my heart swell and made me feel inordinately special.

My thirteenth birthday was by far the worst birthday I have ever had. It still hurts. But when my mum spoke to me this year on my birthday she apologised “I meant to send a Twix in the mail....” she said with an apologetic look on her face. It’s funny now and it makes me feel special. It’s “my” thing. It’s my family’s “thing” for me. Good can come from bad, even on the worst birthday of all.

Palooza Music Day 5

Today's song has been chosen by the one and only Devyn Burton. Here we go!


Adam Lambert's Four Your Entertainment

A Guest Post by Heidi R. Kling

So I have a love-hate relationship with birthday parties, specifically surprise parties. On one hand I hopelessly love birthday attention, I get all campy am pleased as spiked punch to smile for many-a-picture, basically it's a Tiny Cooperesque nightmare for all involved. But on the other hand, I worry about surprise parties because I consider myself very sleuthy and figure I will figure out about said surprise party because of said sleuthing abilities and then be terribly disappointed that I'm not surprised when everyone yells surprise.

I know. It's all very ridiculous.

But it's the truth, and well, it is what it is.

So on my 15th birthday I was all about The Beastie Boys and I got the cassette tape for my birthday. Ohh yeah, booooy and I was totally convinced no one was going to do anything for me---friend wise anyway. If memory serves, my parents presented the obligatory pizza and movie option where we all gathered and unenthusiastically blew those kazoos and yippee. So then I wandered up into our loft we had above our three car garage. The building itself was massive. Bigger than any home I've lived in since I've left home--it was unfinished and was basically a spot where we could hang our River Phoenix posters and journal write and light candles and cry about boys. Basically, it was awesome.

So mopily, I headed up there thinking no one cared about my birthday pout, pout, pity party, and I heard a rustling behind our lifesize Indiana Jones cardboard thing we got from Video-to-Go. Then I saw a shoe. A white Ked to be exact. Huh?

I tiptoed up the wooden, non-finished stairs and called, "Hullo?" Sort of Pooh Bear style without the honey pot. No answer. But then another rustling, more rat-like this time. Could be one of our feral cats? But the shoe.

Feral cats don't wear white Keds? Do they?

Still I pondered.

Then I saw a lock of white-blonde hair. Stick straight.

No.

Must be an illusion.

Why would a blonde girl wearing Keds be up in my party attic on my birthday when I'm expected-not-expected a surprise party?

So I went into the big house and didn't say anything.

I didn't say anything when I saw running giggling shadows cut across the pine needles. I didn't say anything when I heard cars pull up and stop down the road and let people out or when I saw liquid gold lights shine off the forest trees.

I'm sure you've guessed where this is going...

The little mice in the garage loft turned out to be twenty of my freshman homies and we ended up dancing and playing and cake fighting until long into the night. Well, until about 9:00 p.m. at any rate. ;-)

And when I went up the stairs led by my parents and sisters and they all jumped out yelling SURPRISE?

I really was. ;-)

Palooza Music Day 4

Sorry I skipped Day 3! Though today is my actual birthday, my party was last night and I didn't have time to post a new music. Today I have....


We Are Young by Mika (from the movie Kick Ass)




California Dorks by Skyway Flyer (A Parody of California Gurls by Katy Perry)