Top Ten Tuesday (77)- My Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

August 9: Top Ten Tuesday REWIND-- go back and do a topic you missed over the years or recently or a topic you really want to revisit.

I chose a topic from April 2011, Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign. These are all books I've read, loved, and hated the covers or books that I've read that had an amazing original cover that the publisher decided to redesign and was an awful redesign.

I'll add book covers so click on the cover to be taken to their Goodreads links. Also if the cover is a redesign I'll post both the original cover and the bad redesign. You'll notice that all the redesigns I hate are Penguin or Simon & Schuster redesigns. I have no idea why they feel the need to redesign perfectly good book covers.

1. I just recently read this one and I really enjoyed the story! I can't stand this cover though.

2. Loved this story but man do I hate this cover something fierce!

3. Ok here's one that's gone through a cover change. There was nothing wrong with the first and it's by far my favorite.

Original Cover

New Cover

4. Another Andrea Cremer book. Such a good book and such an ugly cover.

5.  Another redesign I hated. But I am obsessed with this series!

Original Cover

 New Cover

Original Cover

New Cover

6. Another bad redesign. I loved this book too!

Original Cover

New Cover

7. And one last Andrea Cremer one which had a horrid redesign. Book 2 was redesigned as well but I didn't like that original cover.

 Original Cover

New Cover

8. And I think these are the worst offenders when I comes to redesigns! I feel really bad for the author too! Talk about a bad knock off of the Throne of Glass Covers!

 Original Cover

New Cover

  Original Cover

New Cover

  Original Cover

New Cover

9. I love this series but this redesign really made me upset. The original covers were so pretty! 

Original Cover

 New Cover

Original Cover

 New Cover

10. And last but not least! I lost count how many redesigns this series went through and I still think the original cover for book 1 was the best!

Original Cover

New Cover 1

 New Cover 2

 Original Cover

 New Cover 1

 New Cover 2

So what about you? What are some covers you wish you could redesign? And check back next week for my Top Ten Books With X Setting (top ten books set near the beach, top ten book set in boarding school, top ten books set in England, etc)! 

Hugs,

Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (65)- Ten Books I Picked Up On A Whim

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

May 17: Ten Books I Picked Up On A Whim 

A lot of these books are going to be from before I started blogging or when I first started. I haven't picked up a book on a whim in quite a while lol!

1. WICKED GAME by Jeri Smith-Ready. I found this at a used bookstore many years ago and loved the synopsis. It was a good thing too because I fell in love with this series!

2. THE PRINCESS IN THE OPAL MASK by Jenny Lundquist. I hadn't heard much about this one and I'm really glad I decided to read this awesome high fantasy!

3. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice. I was 15 and at a friends house who had this on their books shelf. I grabbed it and didn't put it down until I was finished.

4. THE CADET OF TILDOR by Alex Lidell. Another high fantasy that there was zero buzz for but there should have been! This book was fantastic!

5. POISON PRINCESS by Kresley Cole. When I got this ARC there was no buzz for it. I got it really early. And I'll admit I hated the first 13 chapters but ended up loving the book and am obsessed with this series!

6. THE GATHERING STORM by Robin Bridges. This was purely an impulse by I love fantasy and books about Imperial Russia so I knew I had to have this and I loved it!

7. ANATHEMA by K.A. Tucker. I had never heard of this book but I loved the cover and the description. I ended up loving it!

8. WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr. This was another cover love buy and I loved the series.

9. DARK LOVER by J.R. Ward. I was an a huge paranormal romance phase when I grabbed this and it did not disappoint.

10. THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. Yes lol all you want but I had never heard of this series when I got the first book! I hadn't been reading YA for long and had been reading all paranormal. I grabbed this at Borders (sobs I miss Borders) wanting to try something different. And thank goodness I did.

So what about you? What are some of your go to websites? And check back next week for my Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed!

Hugs,

Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (38)- My Top Ten Auto-buy Authors.

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

August 18: Top Ten Of Your Auto-buy Authors.



Most of these are going to be the same as lat week my auto buy authors tend to be the ones I've read the most books by.

1. Maria V. Snyder. I buy everything from her!

2. Melissa Marr. I love Melissa and will buy all of her books even if I don't read them all lol.

3. Julie Kagawa. Julie's been an auto buy ever since I fell for Prince Ash. I've loved every book she's written

4. Jeri Smith-Ready. I buy all of her books YA and Adult. 

5. Claudia Gray. I own every book she's ever written and I will buy anything she writes in the future.

6. Richelle Mead. I have buy all of her books except for her adult ones.

7. Lesley Livingston. I adore everything she writes!

8. Rae Carson. As long as she keeps writing amazing fantasy books I will buy the shit out of them.

9. Morgan Rhodes/Michelle Rowen. I have loved all of her books!

10. Sarah J. Maas. Same as Rae. As long as she keeps writing amazing fantasy books I will buy the shit out of them.

So what about you? Who are your auto buy authors? And come back next week for my Top Ten Books That Would Be On Your Syllabus If You Taught X 101 (I think I'll be doing YA Fantasy 101)!

Hugs,

Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (37)- Top Ten Authors I've Read The Most Books From

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

August 11: Top Ten Authors I've Read The Most Books From.



Just going through my goodreads read list I'm surprised at a few of these. I will put links to their goodreads pages.

1. Maria V. Snyder. I've read everything she's written including her short stories on her website and the ones in anthologies!

2. Nora Roberts. Yup believe it or not I used to be a huge fan of hers before I started reading YA lol.

3. Anne Rice. I have read everything of hers except for her 3 newest books because well she went crazy and her books got worse.

4. Jeri Smith-Ready. I love all of her books YA and Adult. 

5. Claudia Gray. She's an auto-buy author for me.

6. Richelle Mead. I have read all of her books except for her adult ones.

7. Cate Tiernan. She is a beautiful writer and wrote my all time favorite witch series!

8. Cassandra Clare. Although I'm not a big fan of her's anymore (I'm over the whole Shadowhunter world) I've read a ton of her books.

9. L.J. Smith. I've read all of her books.

10. Jennifer L. Armentrout. Even though I don't read her NA or Contemp books I have read all her other books.

So what about you? Who are the authors you've read the most of? And come back next week for my Top Ten Of Your Auto-buy Authors!

Hugs,

Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (25)- My Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

April 21: Top Ten ALL TIME Favorite Authors

Ah there's so many but here's a few

1. Maria V. Snyder (She wrote my #1 all time favorite High Fantasy series!)
2. Jane Austen (Love all of her books! Especially Persuasion)
3. Richelle Mead (She wrote Adrian Ivaskov one of my all time favorite book boyfriends!)
4. Jeri Smith-Ready (She's one of the only authors who I love both her adult and YA books!)
5. Sarah J Maas (She may be a newer author but I've loved every book she's written!)
6. Mary Stewart (Her Arthurian Legend Books changed my life)
7. Ursula K. Le Guin (My first Fantasy author!)
8. Anne Rice (She may have gone off the deep end lately but I love her older books!)
9. L.J. Smith (She was my first YA author and she'll always hold a special place in my heart)
10. J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter... need I say more?)

So this is my list. What about you? Who are your favorite authors?

And come back next week for my Top Ten Books Which Feature Characters Who _____ (are musically inclined, have lost someone, have depression, who grow up poor, etc.) I may not do this one still thinking on it.

Hugs,
Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (24)- Top Ten Characters I'd Like To Check In With

Hi thanks for stopping by!!! And welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

April 7: Top Ten Characters I'd Like To Check In With

Ah there's so many but here's a few

1. Juliette and Warner from Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series.
2. June and Day from Marie Lu's Legend series.
3. Aria, Perry, and Roar from Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky series.
4. Avry and Kerrick from Maria V. Snyder's Healer Series
5. Shane and Ciara and the rest of the WVMP DJ's from Jeri Smith Ready's WVMP Series
6. Elisa and Hector from Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns series.
7. Aura and Zach from Jeri Smith Ready's Shade series.
8. Janelle, Barclay, and Ben from Elizabeth Norris's Unraveling series.
9. Sophie and Archer from Rachel Hawkins Hex Hall series.
10. Kaylee and Tod from Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series.

So this is my list. What about you? What characters would you like to check in on?

And come back next week for my  Top Ten Inspiring Quotes from Books (anything that inspires you, challenges you, makes you think, encourages you, etc.) I may not do this one still thinking on it.

Hugs,
Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (15)-Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't/Want To Read From My Favorite Genres

Hi and welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

February 3: Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't/Want To Read From My Favorite Genres!

I pretty much try to read everything on my favorite genres but some time things slip through the cracks so here's my list in no particular order!

1. The ABHORSEN Series by Garth Nix.

2. The MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES Series by Rachel Caine.

3. MODERN FAERIE TALES by Holly Black.

4. THE LOOKING GLASS WARS by Frank Beddor.

5.  The ASPECT OF THE CROW Series by Jeri Smith-Ready.

6. THE FAERIE PATH Series by Allan Frewen Jones.

7. The LUMATERE CHRONICLES by Melina Marchetta.

8. The DEMON TRAPPERS Series by Jana Oliver.

9. The WINTERCRAFT Series by Jenna Burtenshaw.

10. The DUST LANDS Trilogy by Moira Young.

So this is my list. What about you? What books haven't you read that you want to?

And come back next week for Top Ten Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes To Romances In Books! I'm not sure what I'll do but it should be fun!

Hugs,
Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (14)- Ten Books I'd Love to Read With My Book Club/If I Had A Book Club

Hi and welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! 

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

January 27: Ten Books I'd Love to Read With My Book Club/If I Had A Book Club!

I don't have a book club but if I did I would add these to our reading list for sure!

1. The STUDY & GLASS Books by Maria V. Snyder. It's my favorite High Fantasy seirs of all time so of course I would add this!

2. The WICKED LOVELY Series by Melissa Marr. Marr's take on Fae is still my favorite to this day!

3. The VAMPIRE ACADEMY and BLOODLINES Books by Richelle Mead. Two words. Adrian Ivashkov. Everyone needs to fall in love with him!

4. THE HUNGER GAMES Series by Suzanne Colins. I may have hated the ending to the third book but this series always makes for some interesting conversation.

5. The WVMP Series by Jeri Smith-Ready. This series is one of my favorite adult PNR's and I love how she ties music into it!

6. PERSUASION by Jane Austen and FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS by Diana Peretfreund. I loved Austen's and Peterfreund's books! I would love to read Persuasion and then Darkness and compare the two!

7. The FIRE AND THORNS Series by Rae Carson. My second favorite high fantasy of all time!

8. The HIS FAIR ASSASSIN Series by Robin LaFevers. My friends and I still talk about this series. We absolutely love it!

9. The CAHIL WITCH CHRONICLES by Jessica Spotswood. I love this historical paranormal and it has a lot of good issues to talk about.

10. The ACROSS THE UNIVERSE Series by Beth Revis. Probably one of my favorite sci-fi's of all time even though the last book did piss me off a bit. This one would be another great one to discuss!

So this is my list. What about you? What books would you have your book club read?

And come back next week for Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't/Want To Read From X Genre! I'm not sure what I'll do but it should be fun!

Hugs,
Jaime

Top Ten Tuesday (4)- Top Ten Books I Want To Reread (or if you don't reread...would reread in an ideal world)

Hi and welcome to my Top 10 Tuesday post! Looks like I'll be sticking with this one for a while since I enjoy this meme!

Thanks to the lovely ladies at The Broke And The Bookish for creating this weekly meme!

Here's this week's topic.

November 4: Top Ten Books I Want To Reread (or if you don't reread...would reread in an ideal world)

This one is tough there are so many books I'd love to re-read! Most of these are complete series btw.

1. THE STUDY and THE GLASS Books by Maria V. Snyder. These are the only books I do re-read at least once a year. These are my all time favorite high fantasy books and I'm so excited that the Study series is continuing!

2. THE WVMP SERIES by Jeri Smith-Ready. One of the 2 adult series on my list! I freaking love these books and the characters Shane is on my all time favorite book boyfriend list!

3.THE WICKED LOVELY SERIES by Melissa Marr. My all time favorite Fae series and my favorite out of all of Marr's books.

4. THE VAMPIRE ACADEMY series by Richelle Mead. I love all of Richelle's books I'd love to re-read these one day soon.

5. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES by L.J. Smith. Only the first 4 all the others are crap. I read these in the 90's and they're still on my re-read list to this day!

6. THE SWEEP SERIES by Cate Tiernan. This is my favorite YA witch series of all time if you haven't read it I highly suggest doing so :)

7. A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU by Claudia Gray. Yeah I know this book just came out today but I read it months ago and I would love to re-read it like a million times!

8. THE FIRE AND THORNS series be Rae Carson. My heart misses Hector soooo badly I really think I may re-read this one soon!

9. THE DARKYN SERIES by Lynn Viehl. The second adult series on my list. I absolutely loved this one even more than The Black Dagger Brotherhood. Lynn's vampires are just so sexy!!!

10. THE HOST by Stephanie Meyer. I really did love this book even if it was a slow read at first. I'm hoping Stephanie gets off her rear and finishes the series someday.


So this is my list. What about you? What would you re-read if you had the time?

And come back next week for Top Ten Characters You Wish Would Get Their OWN Book (minor or just maybe a semi main character you wish a book was from their POV)

Hugs,
Jaime

Blog Tour- GRIM Anthology and a Giveaway!

I am so excited to take part in the blog tour for the GRIM Anthology! I love fairy tale retellings and the 3 stories that I am covering today are all really good! I have 3 mini reviews for you and also I'm going to talk about how they comepare to the originals! Make sure to enter the giveaway below for a Harlequin Teen Prize Pack that includes GRIM and other great Harlequin Teen Books!
Haven't heard of GRIM? Check it out!

Title: GRIM

Author: Multiple

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 480

Pub. Date: February 25, 2014

Goodreads|Amazon | Barnes & Nobles | Indiebound | Book Depository

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today:

Kimberly Derting | Sonia Gensler | Tessa Gratton | Claudia Gray | Rachel Hawkins | Amanda Hocking | Ellen Hopkins| Shaun David Hutchinson  | Julie Kagawa | Malinda Lo | Myra McEntire |Saundra Mitchell | Jackson Pearce | Sarah Rees Brennan | Jon Skovron | Jeri Smith-Ready

Edited by Christine Johnson

Short Stories

1.       The Key by Rachel Hawkins

2.     Figment by Jeri-Smith Ready

3.     The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo

4.    The Raven Princess by Jon Skovron

5.     Thinner Than Water by Saundra Mitchell

6.    Before The Rose Bloomed: A Retelling of the Snow Queen by Ellen Hopkins

7.     Beast / Beast by Tessa Gratton

8.    The Brothers Piggett by Julia Kagawa

9.     UnTethered by Sonia Gensler

10. Better by Shaun David Hutchinson

11.    Light It Up by Kimberly Derting

12.  Sharper Than A Serpent's Tongue by Christine Johnson

13.  A Real Boy by Claudia Gray

14. Skin Trade by Myra McEntire

15.  Beauty and the Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan

16. The Pink: A Grimm Story by Amanda Hocking

17.  Sell it Out by Jackson Pearce

Now on to the reviews I'll talk about which retellings they are in my comparison after the reviews!

THE KEY was what I expected from Rachel Hawkins. A good story although I had a hard time pinning down the retelling I knew what it was supposed to be but it was so short it was hard to nail it down. I always like her writing. The only complaint I have is that it was way too short I wanted more. Rating: Liked!

You put something of Jeri Smith-Ready's in my hands and I will DEVOUR it! Just as I did with FIGMENT. This is another that I had a hard time figuring out the retelling but whatever I didn't really care what it was because it was AWESOME!!!! I adored Eli and "Fig" and it totally made me cry. Rating: OBSESSED!!!!!!

THE TWELFTH GIRL....Now this one I knew right away what it was and I loved the modern update Malinda did! It reminded me of the original with a really nice twist. I loved the darkness she brought into this tale and I really wanted to read more. If Malinda wrote a whole story about this I would snatch it up right away! This is the first book by Malinda I've read and she's an amazing writer I plan on picking up all of her books now! Rating: LOVED


Ok so let me tell you a little secret. I love Fairy Tales! Yeah the ones adapted for Disney are cool but I love the originals much more! I loved the darkness and the fear they instilled in children because they weren't the happily ever after tales that as a child we all wanted to be true. The originals were told to scare kids but they were rooted in real life. Children disappeared, men married women to turn around and kill them, and sometimes people just had awesome luck to only have it fail after a year or so. That's what I love about these they're not sugar coated HEA's. The authors in this antho especially Hawkins and Lo brought the darkness and embraced it. 

Hawkins story THE KEY was roughly based off of Bluebeard and it was really good! I wanted to have more of Skye though; his motives were unclear and I didn't understand how or why he was the way he was. I did want more though the ending was very open ended. 

Lo's THE TWELFTH GIRL was The Twelve Dancing Princesses with a modern update that I loved! She went way darker than the original and I loved the twist I also wanted more of this! And I loved that the "castle" was a dorm in an upscale prep school!

Jeri Smith-Ready's was the hardest to nail down but I mean it had a cat wearing boots so maybe a take on Puss in Boots? But he/it was also someone who inspired people so I came to think of him/it as a muse. So maybe Puss in Boots with a bit of the 9 sisters mixed in. Regardless I freaking loved it!!

Giveaway Details:

Contest Info:  

Each tour stop is offering up a copy of GRIM, and one winner will receive a fantastic Grand Prize Package including the following Harlequin Teen titles: 2 copies of GRIM, a copy of WHITE HOT KISS by Jennifer Armentrout, THE SECRET DIAMOND SISTERS by Michelle Madow, THE QUEEN’S CHOICE by Cayla Kluver and an ARC of  LET’S GET LOST by Adi Alsaid.

Please enter via the Rafflecopter form. Giveaway is open to US/Canada and ends March 7th.

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Tour Schedule

Week One:

Monday, February 17th - Harlequin Paranormal Blog

Tuesday, February 18th - Stories 1, 2 and 3 - Two Chicks on Books

Wednesday, February 19th - Stories 4, 5 and 6 - Book and A Latte

Friday, February 21st - Stories 7, 8 and 9 - Fiction Freak

Week Two:

Monday, February 24th - Stories 10, 11 and 12 - Mundie Moms

Wednesday, February 26th -  Stories 13, 14 and 15 - Bumbles and Fairytales

Friday, February 28th -  Stories 16 and 17 - Fiktshun

For more info about the guest posts you can direct your readers to the Tour Page

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Ooh there's a trailer now check it out!!!