'25 Days of giveaways' Day 20

How would you like to win these fabulous goodies from Cynthia Letich Smith?
Included is:
-plush bat toy
-chubby bat stickers
-author-autographed postcard for Tantalize: Kieren's Story (featuring not-yet-public cover art for the graphic novel, illustrated by Ming Doyle)
-Sanguini's button
-Sanguini's magnetic menu wipe board

Pretty cool hey! Unfortunately this ones only open to US residents due to shipping costs, sorry to none US residents.
To enter just fill in this little form. You must of course be a blog follower to enter!
It's open for the next 24 hours.

Wednesdays worldly covers - week 11

This pretty cover is the Polish edition of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I'm not sure why there's an umbrella on it but I think the red really stands out against the rest of the white cover.

And if your unfamiliar with this great series, here's the UK cover.

Which do you prefer??

Book blogger hop #5

The book blogger hop is hosted by Crazy for books, head on over there to find out how to hop to.

This weeks question is:

"If you could physically put yourself into a book or series…which one would it be and why?"

Well, I'm not saying this because I'm currently reading it for the second time lol But I'd love to be dropped into Sitia, from Maria V. Snyders Study and Glass series'. It's just such a magical place, and I imagine the Keep to be particularly breath taking!

If your stopping by from the hop leave a link to your answer and I'll have a look

Also, I follow back : )

The fire inside Review

The fire inside by Raymond Rose

What's it about?

The Fire Inside: Jack’s life isn’t the most exciting but it’s a life. One that he’s created over the past ten years to suit him. That is, until Bruce, Jack’s best friend comes to town. Bruce, a Federal Agent, is on an uber-secret mission to save the city. Instead, he’s murdered. Suddenly, Jack has no choice but to become what he was before: a crime-fighter.

Ten years ago, Jack and Bruce were Teen Protectors, costumed crime-fighters under the tutelage of their mentors, The Protectors. One night, a horrible battle erupted between superheroes and villains that left half of the city ruined and thousands dead. The government banned all superpowers and Jack, presumed dead, remained that way.

However, now, Bruce is dead and Jack sets out to solve his best friend’s murder. With the help of new allies (including a man who can turn invisible and a woman who can become pure information), villains old and new (including his ex-girlfriend) bent to stop him, Jack will walk a world he left – a world more complicated and dangerous than he ever knew – and find some answers.


My review:
4/5
To say this book is a thriller or fantasy would be misleading, it has elements of thriller and fantasy, along with sci-fi, mystery, action and even comic book (without the pictures lol)
I admit I was a bit wary starting this book because there were elements to it that just aren't my 'thing.' But I'm glad I read it anyway! It took me a while to get into, it was past halfway before I found myself not wanting to put it down to go to bed at a reasonable time! And I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery as I read.
The book is packed full of action and was rich with lots of details of both the scenery and background info every time we met someone new.
However there are a lot of characters to meet in the book and I found myself getting a bit confused at times, so I was pretty proud of myself when I guessed the bad guy before he was revealed lol
Out of all the characters I felt myself caring about Jack, or Sparks, the most. The title 'The fire inside' is really apt for him and I felt him go through a journey throughout the book and he steps up when he has to. I just loved the final scene where we see, not just a team but a family come together.
I'm not sure if there will be a follow up to this, but I'd happily read one if there were because I enjoyed it a lot.
For more info on this and Raymond's other books you can use either of these links: http://christopherwilliamsbooks.com/blog/2010/10/12/the-fire-inside/
http://raymondmrose.tumblr.com/TheFireInside

Thankful Thursday #4

I know i haven't done a Thankful Thursday post in a couple of weeks, but better late than never lol

Discworld
This week I am thankful for all 38 books in Sir Terry Pratchetts discworld series!
I started reading the books when I was pretty young, like 12 or 13 when my Dad passed me one of his. I, of course, was to young to get the wit and sarcasm and the parodies of our world, but I still enjoyed the stories and worked through his collection... Then I kinda forgot about them for a while.
It was a few years later when I was starting to build up my own book collection that I began to buy my own copies and read the ones I'd missed then reread the ones I hadn't, I was able to enjoy them in a new way now that I got the more 'adult' jokes.
Ever since I've bought every book on it's release day and read it straight away, I've read the books from the younger readers series to and even reread some of the ones I've already read twice and I expect I'll read them many times more. A few christmases ago my husband even bought me a leather bound set of some of the series that aren't for reading lol and I also I have the DVDs of the sky 1 adaptions of 'The colour of magic,' 'Hogfather,' and 'Going postal.' I've got my fingers crossed that they'll adapt my favourite one 'Moving pictures' next!
So I will always be thankful to Sir Terry Pratchett and The Discworld he has created, a world I love getting lost in!

If you've read the series, which is your favourite?
And which books are you Thankful for? If your a fellow blogger, take the picture and write your own post, I'd love to see it!

Afterlife review

Afterlife by Claudia Gray

What's it about?

When Bianca chooses death over becoming a vampire, she doesn't realise that another life lies in store! Bianca and Lucas have always believed they could endure anything to be together. When a twist of fate not only transforms Bianca into a wraith but also turns Lucas into a vampire -- the very creature he spent his life hunting -- they are left reeling. Haunted by his powerful need to kill, Lucas can turn to only one place for help! Evernight Academy. But with the vampire leader of Evernight waging war on the wraiths, Bianca's former home has become the most dangerous place she could be, despite the new powers her ghostly transformation has given her. A battle between wraiths and vampires looms, and Bianca and Lucas face a terrifying new reality. Is their love strong enough to survive after life?


My review:
3/5
For the final book in the series I have to say I expected more but I found afterlife to be pretty slow paced whilst our gang uncover the mysteries that have been unravelling during the series. But, that being said, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book, it just wasn't what I expected. I found some problems were solved to easily and the ending wasn't what I was thinking of at all. There were parts I did like though, I loved the new friendship between Vic and Ranulf which had me laughing out loud at times and Ranulf getting used to the modern world and Vic's 'lingo' is also pretty amusing, one phrase still sticks with me after finishing the book,

"This is indeed the way in which I roll."

I also found Lucas' struggles with becoming a vampire very interesting, I was glad he didn't just 'take to it' like some other books anxiety thought it was great how Balthazar is there for him and they become friends.
The final 'battle' scene was short and the end sad, I almost cried but never lol
So, all in all, a good book but not quite up to the standards I'd expect for the final book in a series, that's why it got 3 instead of 4/5.



Wednesdays worldly covers - week 10

I thought this Italian cover was pretty awesome! It's for Creature della notte. Il diario degli angeli, which translates to Creatures of the night. Diary of the Angel. You, however, might know it better as Strange Angels by Lili St Crow, which usually looks like this:

Which do you prefer?

WANTED - Guest bloggers

In 6 weeks I'm going to be going on Maternity leave! I haven't decided on how long for, probably a week or two, depending on how everything goes! I do plan to write some posts ahead of time and schedule them to post whilst I'm gone but it would be great to have some guest posts to help fill in the gaps to. I'm looking for anyone that's interested in guest posting whether they have a blog or not. You can write about anything you like as long as it's book related, or you can do one of our themed 'How I became a Bookaholic' posts or one of the regular posts I do like Thankful Thursday, worldly covers or whatever! If your interested then email me at bookaholics@live.co.uk with what you'd like to post. All posts must be finalised within a month in order for me to get them up and scheduled to post automatically whilst I'm away.
Thanks : )

And the winners are...

And the winner of the Chick-lit book bundle from Day 8 is Clarissa Pereira! The two runners up who get bookmarks are minhchieu tran and Michelle Smith

Please email your FULL mailing addresses right away to Bookaholics@live.co.uk

The Day 9 giveaway has already started over on the Facebook page.

'25 Days of giveaways' Day 8

Today I'm giving away this Chick-lit book bundle.

Marrying for money by Chris Manby, Where have all the boys gone by Jenny Colgan and Further under the duvet by Marian Keyes.

Two runners up will recieve a signed Cheyenne McCray bookmark and an Afterlight by Elle Jasper bookmark.

And all you have to do to enter is be a follower of the blog on either google or networked blogs (or both!) and fill in this tiny form!

Is open internationally until 7pm GMT tomorrow (20th March)