A Weird Paradox: Library Books Scare Me

Item: The Kiss of Deception
Rating: 5
Author: Jana

Posted July 18, 2014 by Jana in About Me, Discussion / 20 Comments

Ok, this is going to sound really weird, considering I’m going to school to become a librarian… but library books scare me. A lot. I can’t really help it! Each time I go into the library and rummage through books, I leave feeling this strong urge to wash my hands. I have always hated the idea of taking a library book to bed with me because of all the germs! I’ve told you before how I can’t read when I’m sick, but I know so many of you who get your best reading done when you’re cooped up in bed for a week! What if you’re reading a library book while you’re sick, sneeze or cough on it, return it, I check it out, I scratch my eyelid while reading, and BAM!!! I’ve got a nasty cold. It’s a scary, scary thing to think about! What about those people who read on the toilet? *shudders* Or what if someone’s cat coughed up a hairball on the shiny plastic cover and the cat’s owner cleaned the book off with a tissue and returned it? I’m seriously grossing myself out here.

I guess this comes from my plain old fear of germs. I do have OCD, and have struggled with a fear of germs since I was 14. I used to wash my hands until they cracked and bled in 40-50 places (I’ve counted). I remember in my high school PE class I had to wear gloves during volleyball because my hands were so dry and cracked that I did not want to bleed on the ball. I’m much better now (it happens when you decide holding hands with and kissing boys is just too much fun) and do not wash my hands all the time or irrationally freak out when someone is sick. I’m just sensible and wash my hands at the normal times as dictated by social convention. Even though I have “cured” myself of this irrational fear, though, I do struggle with resisting the urge to slip back into my old ways.

Anywho, you’ll be very proud to know that I checked out my very first library book for pleasure reading (not research books or books for school) last month and even read it in bed! And I did not get sick and/or die! So I’m making progress. :)

How do you feel about library books? Have you ever worried about their cleanliness, or is that just something you’re not concerned with?

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson | Book Review + Giveaway

Posted July 15, 2014 by Jana in Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway, Young Adult Fiction / 28 Comments

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
Series: The Remnant Chronicles #1
Also in this series: The Heart of Betrayal, The Beauty of Darkness
Published by Henry Holt and Co. on July 15, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 496
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
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In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assasin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

People. I do not know what to do! I have no idea how to review this book, because I really, really loved it. There were a few slow moments, but I became so enthralled and excited about it as the story went on. By the end, I was just dying to get my hands on the second book! As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. This book grabbed me from the first sentence, which does not happen. Ever. “Today was the day a thousand dreams would die, and a single dream would be born.” How great is that? Don’t you want to read more?

2. The Kiss of Deception has a really complex plot that I totally was not expecting. It was a pleasant surprise, because this book is LONG and we need that complexity to keep us going.

3. I think my absolute favorite part of the story is Pearson’s ability to weave things together in a way that keeps you guessing and/or questioning everything you think you know. When two men show up in Lia’s new hometown, she has no idea that one of the men is the prince she was supposed to marry and the other one is the assassin who was sent by her father to kill her. And the best part? The reader is not entirely sure which man is which either! And as Lia begins to feel things for one of the men, the reader agonizes over whether she fell for the prince or the assassin. It does not get better than this.

4. I love it when an author can blow my mind. She DID. I mean, I might have screamed.

5. Lia is a wonderfully spunky character. I love that she fled an arranged marriage, and I love that she cared more about finding the right man and falling in love than marrying the wrong one for wealth, recognition, and prosperity. She knew betraying her father would have extreme consequences, but she did it anyway. She’s also amazing at standing up for herself. I wish I could tell people off like she can!

6. The assassin and the prince, even though we do not always know which is which, have very unique and separate personalities. I found this to be incredibly important because these men HAD to not blend in to one person, or Pearson’s story would not have worked. Pearson did a wonderful job painting a mysterious pair of characters.

7. There’s a hint of a love triangle, but mainly because you don’t know which man is which. Again, this was done so well! I loved the mystery of trying to figure out which man she fell for!

8. In addition to the main story of Lia’s fleeing her kingdom, two men vying for her attention, and tons of deception… there’s side stories of Lia figuring herself out, kingdom politics, treks across barren lands, gypsies, adventure, and supporting characters you’ll fall for. AND it all takes place in a world you can’t wait to learn more about. It’s the total package.

9. I love the writing. It’s beautiful and funny and I loved immersing myself in it.

You know an author has done a wonderful job with their book when it takes me over FOUR MONTHS to write a review. I was so spellbound and captivated by The Kiss of Deception that I was seriously rendered speechless. I’ve already decided that I need to go read Pearson’s Jenna Fox trilogy, not to mention I’ll be moving mountains and slaying dragons to get my hands on The Heart of Betrayal, which comes out next year!

Thanks to Macmillan for providing a giveaway for the readers of That Artsy Reader Girl! Make sure you enter for the chance to win a hardback copy of The Kiss of Deception. This giveaway is open to residents of the USA and Canada.

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Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare | Mini Book Review

Posted July 9, 2014 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 12 Comments

Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
Series: Castles Ever After #1
Also in this series: Say Yes to the Marquess, When a Scot Ties the Knot
Published by Avon on January 28, 2014
Genres: Historical Romance, Romance
Pages: 370
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
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As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.

And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.

Ugly duckling turned swan?
Abducted by handsome highwayman?
Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?

No, no, and… Heh.

Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?

This one.

This book is a very sweet, funny romance filled with sharp wit and awkward moments. I loved our bookish heroine, Izzy, who has lived her entire life in the shadow of her late father’s famous stories. As soon as she and the duke met, I knew I would be in for a very fun ride. These two have the best banter, and really know how to push one another’s buttons. Izzy inherits the duke’s castle, and he is NOT happy about it. But she is determined to stay in her new home and add a feminine touch to it before kicking him out. I love it! I really loved her spunk and her desire to stand up for herself. She’s not the typical historical romance heroine who lays down and takes it. She pushes right back. She’s such a good sport dealing with the extremely devoted fans of her father’s stories, who are a very eccentric and borderline insane. But I loved that too.

The duke is a really great hero because, even though he’s blind, he still acts as cocky and entitled as if he weren’t. It was pretty hilarious and interesting at the same time. I loved seeing him fall for Izzy’s personality and her inner beauty, rather than lusting after her looks. This is also a very uncommon thing in historical romances, and I found it to be a very exciting story element. He’s very romantic and thoughtful, and I could not help but smile at his bluntness. He loves trying to make Izzy blush. It worked on me!

Overall, Romancing the Duke was a sweet love story with a memorable couple. I’m excited to see where Tessa Dare takes this series next!

Books Happened in Vegas. And They Didn’t Stay There! (ALA Recap)

Posted July 7, 2014 by Jana in Event Recap / 7 Comments

Phew! Guys, I just got back from a Las Vegas that was hot as Hades (our car’s thermometer read 120 degrees at one point, but it was usually around 108-111). I kid you not. This past Monday I was sitting in my room at the Bellagio watching The Bachelorette with my mom and my sister when, lo and behold, an extreme heat advisory scrolls across the bottom of the TV. Holy heat! I totally ditched my palazzo pants and bought some shorts at the outlets. Anyway. I was in Vegas for ALA Annual, which is the annual conference of the American Library Association. You may remember last time I went in June of 2012. It’s always a fun time, and this year I was an actual librarian in training (my grad school even gave me a grant to pay for my entrance fee!) so I felt even more at home! Ok, so enough babbling. Let me tell you about my trip!

The exhibit hall opened on Friday evening, so my mom and sister and I all left home Friday morning and drove the 6ish hours to Vegas. We stayed in the Best Western closeish to the convention center because we knew that staying in a casino would mean getting up even earlier and having to deal with a lot of people and traffic. No, no. So we stayed at the Best Western.

Hehe. Doesn’t it look so Vegasy? Anyway, we checked in and it was off to the Las Vegas Convention Center for the opening of the exhibit hall, aka the mad dash to all the books because no librarians are in meetings. Checking in at the registration counters was insane! I hear they checked in 30,000 people that night, and I believe it. I stood in the longest line for the longest time. Last time I get there about an hour late due to an accident on the freeway and walked right up to the person to get my badge. I was so not expecting a 45-minute line. Word of advice: get there really early!

There were seriously millions (read thousands) of people there. I did see Ksenia again, though, which was so much fun! This first evening of the exhibits is always buzzing with excitement, and I had a lot of fun getting back into the swing of things. It takes a certain kind of mindset to conquer a book conference, so you need a little time to acclimate and get in the groove. OH. And I met Laini Taylor and got the final book in her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series!

Day one was a success! Look at my amazing haul!

Books Pictured:

Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Audiobook)
Kiss of Broken Glass by Madeleine Kuderick
The Young World by Chris Weitz
Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick (so excited about this one!)
Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (signed!) (I bought this one)
Oh Yeah, Audrey! by Tucker Shaw
The Alliance by Shannon Stoker
Ballroom by Alice Simpson
Storm Siren by Mary Weber (signed!) – This author is so sweet and nice!
Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes
Even in Paradise by Chelsea Philpot
Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch (Entangled was giving away hardbacks for the signing! I was beyond excited, and delighted to meet Kate, a fellow Utahn!)

Two and a half hours later the conference closed, and I was exhausted. I’ve been having a hard time getting over a nasty lung virus thing that had me on steroids and antibiotics and in bed for 10 days. I had no idea how I would make it for 8 hours the following two days! But when books are involved, I’ll do a LOT. lol. After the conference my mom, sister, and I ate at Fuddrucker’s. Best. Burgers. Ever. We had a super comfortable room once we learned that setting the air conditioner below 70 degrees freezes the air conditioner. Like, literally freezes. So it quit working in the middle of our first night and it was seriously barely worth showering because I was a hot mess as soon as I was done doing my hair and makeup Saturday morning. See the AC? It’s COVERED in ice. It took the maintenance guy hours to thaw it out. Haha. Whoops!

I woke up bright and early the next morning to head back to the convention center. Like I said, I was worn out so I got there an hour after the hall opened. It was much emptier than the night before since so many of the librarians were in meetings and lectures. I met Kevin Henkes, children’s book author of the Penny books, Lilly books, and my favorite, Chrysanthemum. I read a lot of books by him for my children’s lit class this last semester, so it was fun to meet him and have him sign Lilly’s Big Day. Other highlights of the day include meeting Victoria Schwab (and getting a free copy of The Unbound from Disney Hyperion, which she signed!), meeting the cutest little dog named Lola who had a book series written about her, eating lunch at Olive Garden with my mom and sister, and standing in a HUGE line for Markus Zusak. Random House was SO nice to give us beautiful free hardbacks of The Book Thief, which he personalized. I’ve been terrified of this book, but after hearing people rave about and get emotional about this book in line, I know I must read it. Markus is SO nice! He was nearing the end of his signing time and there were still 50 or so people in line. He stayed and signed every single person’s book. I also got the highly coveted Little Elliot and Throne of Glass tote bags. SO exciting!

(Kevin Henkes, Lola the Dog, Victoria Schwab, and Markus Zusak)

And then it was time to back to the hotel again! I swear, the Las Vegas Convention Center needs to figure out a better way to air condition that place. It was SO hot. If the huge casinos can freeze you out, the LVCC should be able to as well! Take a look at my day 2 haul. :) I was VERY excited about so many of these books! It was such a great day. :)

Books Pictured:

Lilly’s Big Day by Kevin Henkes (signed!) (I bought this one)
Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan
The Jewel by Amy Ewing
Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios
The Unbound by Victoria Schwab (signed!)
A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
An Italian Wife by Ann Hood (signed!)
Greenglass House by Kate Milford
Atlantia by Ally Condie (I AM SO EXCITED!!!)
The Captive by Grace Burrowes
The Fairytale Matchmaker by E.D. Baker
Scintillate by Tracy Clark (signed!)
Lux Beginnings (Lux 1 & 2 bind-up) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (it is SO sparkly)
Conversion by Katherine Howe
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (signed!)
Don’t Try to Find Me by Holly Brown
The Opal Crown by Jenny Lundquist
The Fire Artist by Daisy Whitney
Catnapped!: A Dead-End Job Mystery by Elaine Viets
The Prince of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson (signed!)
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (AHHHHHH! YES!!!!)
The Paris Winter by Imogen Robertson

Phew! What a day! The next day, Sunday, was my last day at ALA. I just was not in the mood to go hang out at the exhibit hall on the last day because people start getting grabby and pushy when publishers decide to give away their display copies and everything they have left. It’s a short, crazy day and we were moved to the Bellagio that day to spend a couple days relaxing before heading home. Sunday, though, was SO fun! It was the crazy of all crazy signing days. I spent almost every second in a signing line, and still did not get to every one I wanted! I did see Marc Brown (He wrote the Arthur books!!!! I loved those as a child.) Caragh O’Brien, Josephine Angelini, Melissa Landers, Maggie Stiefvater, Marie Lu, and Mary E. Pearson. I think I did a really good job! Haha. I missed Ally Condie, which was sad. She lives around here, though, so I’ll catch her at another time! I met some fun new friends, Andi and Michelle (teachers from Las Vegas)… and I hung out with Ashley of Ashley Loves Books for a little while. And then there were two other fun girls, and I can’t remember their names for the life of me! I’m sorry! I spent $13 on a gross sandwich, chips, and a bottle of water… and I sat on the floor to eat it because there were no free tables. But that’s ok! I did not go to ALA to eat!

The highlight of my day was when I walked up to Mary Pearson and she saw my badge, squealed, “Jana!!”, and jumped up to hug me! Everyone around kind of wondered who I was. Haha. We’d never met before, but I’m on her blog tour so she was happy to see me! I kind of felt like a celebrity, considering she was so excited to see me and I LOVED her book, Kiss of Deception SO MUCH. So yeah. :) Anyway, check out my third and final haul!

Books Pictured:

Tiny Rabbit’s Big Wish by Margarita Engle (signed!) (I bought this one)
In New York by Marc Brown (signed!)
The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien (signed!)
Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini (signed!)
On the Edge by Allison Van Diepen
Invaded by Melissa Landers (signed!)
Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis (signed!)
Winterkill by Kate A. Boorman
Sway by Kat Spears
This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (YAY!!!)
Like No Other by Una LaMarche
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater (signed!) (YEEEEEESSSSSSS!)
The Young Elites by Marie Lu (signed!) (YAYYY!)
Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers (YES)
On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers
The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson (signed!) (I bought this one)

All in all, it was a wonderful conference! I met some very fun people including publishers, authors, bloggers, and librarians. I walked with heavy bags of books until my ankles swelled all the way up to my knees (yes, I could make lasting fingerprints in my legs. Creepy.), conquered the extreme heat advisory, and got my hands on some books I have been dying to read! After the conference, my mom, sister, and I moved to the Bellagio where we had a lakefront room and watched the fountains all night. We swam, ate, and relaxed before driving home. It was such a fun girls weekend!

So, have you ever been to a book conference like ALA? Tell me about it! Were you at ALA this year and I missed you? DRAT! And finally, which of these books are you excited to read?

Las Vegas Bound!

Posted June 27, 2014 by Jana in About Me / 1 Comment

And so I’m off this morning with my mom and my little sister for a girls road trip to Las Vegas! I’m going to be at ALA Friday evening (tonight), Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and would LOVE to see you! Tweet me @SweetestJana, and we will figure out where to meet/see each other. I’ll be tweeting about the conference, plus I’ll be updating via Instagram so follow along and see what I’m up to if you won’t be there (seriously, I want you there, though). Be sure to say hi if you see me first!

Things on the blog will be quiet. This summer has not been what I was hoping for… I got extremely sick, and the blog has been SOO quiet! Hope that changes soon. :) At least I’m finally well enough to think I will survive ALA. :) I’m super excited!