Winner!

It's time to announce the winner for my giveaway of any book from The Book Depository worth up to $15 CAD! There were a total of 57 old followers who entered. Thanks for the well wishes everyone! And the winner, according to random.org, is:

Lulu (The Bookworm is Here!)!

Congrats Lulu!! Please email me with your address and choice of book (either an old release or preorder) within the next 48 hours at ayleejaine(at)gmail(dot)com.

In My Mailbox (12)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren (and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie) to showcase any books that I have received for review, bought, borrowed, or won to read.

It's been a month and a half since I've done an In My Mailbox so let's get right to it:

For Review from Simon & Schuster Canada

Clockwork Prince ARC (The Infernal Devices #2) by Cassandra Clare

I almost brought the house down with my screaming when I got this in the mail. SO EXCITED. I hope I can get to it soon! Huge thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada!!

Belated Birthday Gifts

Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver

The Isle of Blood (The Monstrumologist #3) by Rick Yancey

Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking #3) by Patrick Ness

My birthday was over two months ago (it's the day after Harry and Jo's) but these were preorders that I had to wait to get. I read and loved Delirium at the beginning of this year from Netgalley; I needed my own copy. I'm reading The Isle of Blood now and loving it! This series is sooo good; I can't say enough good things. I have yet to read the Chaos Walking trilogy but now that I own all three, I hope to get to read them back-to-back.

Bought on Sale / from Goodwill

The Bartaemius Trilogy Boxset by Jonathan Stroud

Uglies (Uglies #1) and Pretties (Uglies #2) by Scott Westerfeld

Shadowland (The Mediator #1) and Reunion (The Mediator #3) by Meg Cabot

I got The Bartaemius Trilogy Boxset from the Sales rack at Chapters for crazy cheap. I've heard good things so I'm looking forward to reading it! And I picked up some used copies of Uglies, Pretties, Shadowland, and Reunion from Goodwill (also cheap, natch). Yes, I know I'm missing the second book in The Mediator series but unfortunately, they only had books 1 and 3.

I decided that it's okay to break my book buying ban to purchase these super cheap books. I mean, I figure it's my decision so it's okay to make up rules as I go along, right?

Won/Freebie

Rot & Ruin (Benny Imura #1) by Jonathan Maberry (Won from A Tapestry of Words)

Bright Young Things (Bright Young Things #1) by Anna Godberson (Free ebook from Amazon)

Thank you so much to Danya from A Tapestry of Words for sending me Rot & Ruin! I received the second book in the trilogy, Dust & Decay, for review so I look forward to starting the trilogy soon as I've heard amazing things!

Canadian Thanksgiving Giveaway

So Canadian Thanksgiving is this Monday, October 10 and it got me thinking how grateful I am for everyone's support over these months that I've been blogging. I wish I could adequately state how much it really means to me, but I really don't think I could ever come close to truly expressing it. Sometimes it's just easier with gifts.

This giveaway will be for old followers only (people who were followers prior to the announcement of this giveaway). One old follower will win...

Any Book (Old or Preorder) worth up to $15 CAD at The Book Depository!

Rules
1. To enter, leave a comment
2. You must be an Old GFC Follower to enter. Alternately, if you don't follow me through Google Friend Connect but are an Old RSS Follower, then that's cool too - just let me know in your comment.
3. Open Internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to you
4. Ends October 10 at 11:59 PM EST
5. Entrants must be at least 13 years old
6. The winner will be announced on the blog and will have 48 hours to send me an email with their address.

Good luck and thank you!

Review: Waterfall (River of Time #1) by Lisa T. Bergren

Publisher: David C. Cook

Published: February 1, 2011

Pages: 352

Source: Free ebook from Amazon

Rating: 4 Stars - I Loved It!

American teenager Gabi Betarrini accidently finds herself in Fourteenth-Century Italy . . . Knights. Swords. Horses. Armor. And Italian hotties. Most American teens want an Italian vacation, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives there with their archaeologist parents. Stuck on yet another hot, dusty dig, they are bored out of their minds... until they place their hands atop handprints in an ancient tomb and find themselves catapulted into the Fourteenth Century and in the middle of a fierce battle between knights bent on killing one another.

In short: Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren is entertainment at its best - complete with non-stop action and swoon-worthy boys.

I participated in a month long Read-Along for Waterfall in which I got to share in my reading experience of Waterfall with a whole bunch of lovely book bloggers. It was excellent fun but also terribly hard to stay within the allotted chapters for each week. Why? Because Waterfall is just so darn fast paced and exciting; I was never even remotely bored at any point. Lisa T. Bergren keeps the action coming page after page. Waterfall is entertainment at its best.

And how could you not be entertained by the events that take place in Waterfall? Getting mistaken for a lady in a past time period, meeting some swoon-worthy and gallant boys men and falling in love with one of them, getting to impart your modern knowledge and save a life, getting to wear pretty dresses and go to balls, taking part in the action even though you're a lady - this is all stuff of escapist fantasies. It was like Lisa T. Bergren knew exactly what her audience was looking for in a dream book and then delivered exactly that and more.

Gabi makes for a feisty and determined heroine, though I did find that she was a little too good to be true as a character. It seems awfully convenient to me that she would be fluent in Italian, basic in Latin and French, have experience in riding bareback, have a knowledge of various herbs and remedies, and be an experienced fencer (and somehow have this experience translate into wielding an extremely heavy broadsword). I guess I just would've liked to have seen Gabi struggle a bit more with her new and strange surroundings - not that I hate her or anything. I just think that would be more realistic.

I also think the pacing was a bit too fast at times (because I'm weird like that); I would've liked to have read a bit more detail about the plan that was put into place to save Gabi's sister, for instance, because I found it a bit hard to follow. But besides these minor quibbles, I had tons of fun reading Waterfall and I can't imagine a person not enjoying themselves while reading it either. I can't wait to check out the sequels, Cascade and Torrent, which also came out this year!

Other Reviews:
Logan E. Turner
Poetry to Prose
Small Review

Author Links:
Website
Twitter
Goodreads

*Read as part of the 2011 Debut Author Challenge
*Read as part of the YA Series Challenge

Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of my Dark Mirror and Choker giveaway! There were a total of 113 people who entered and 263 entries. And the winner, according to random.org, is:

Missie @ The Unread Reader!

Okay, I swear I didn't rig this. I don't know whether to congratulate you or to apologize, Missie. This is totes karma for the time you tried to force a book you disliked onto me. If you are still interested in taking these books off my hands, then shoot me an email with your address at ayleejaine(at)gmail(dot)com. I wholeheartedly hope you enjoy these books more than I did.