The Life of an Author by Jackie Buckle!

A few weeks ago, Curious Fox sent me a copy of the book Half my Facebook Friends are Ferrets for review so I got into touch with the author to see if she would be interested in collaborating and she said yes! As Facebook Ferrets is written in diary entries, I asked her to write a morning in the life of an author and here is what she wrote, enjoy.

Saturday 11th January 9.30am- Coffee Shop
Today I am being a proper author! I have come into town early so I can nab a quiet table in my local coffee shop. I have a medium latte and a wedge of millionaire’s shortbread to keep me going. I am feeling guilty about the shortbread as I only had breakfast about half an hour ago. I’ll have to make it last.
I open up my laptop, begin to type and realise that the table I’ve chosen is a bit rickety. I debate moving to another but the other tables aren’t in as good a place. Besides, I bet J.K. Rowling didn’t let rickety tables put her off when she was writing the first ever Harry Potter in her local cafe. When you are totally focussed, rickety tables do not matter. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and focus, zen-like, on my writing.

9.40am
I eat the last bit of shortbread. How can anyone concentrate with a piece of chocolate, caramel shortbread next to them? It’s not possible. Anyway, now I can knuckle down to my writing.

9.50am
I’m having a bit of trouble thinking of things to write. No problem, I’m sure something will come to me. I mustn’t panic...

9.52am 
I start to panic! The problem is I only have this morning off so I have to make the most of this time. I must think of something to write quick or I’ll have wasted the whole morning!

10.00am
I buy another coffee. Coffee helps me think.

10.10am
The coffee shop is getting busy now. There are lots of people with toddlers and babies. There is a large group of women who have very loud voices and even louder laughs. “Hey, this is a cafe not a nightclub!” I feel like saying but instead I show my disapproval by looking slightly annoyed in their direction. They are too busy screaming with laughter to notice.
One of the toddlers has a tantrum. “If you don’t stop yelling, we’re leaving!” yells his mum.
“I want sugar,” says the toddler. “NOW!”
“Don’t YELL at me!” yells his mum.
Hmm...

10.30am
The coffee shop is heaving now and people are staring at me as I am taking up a table and my latte mug is clearly empty. I smile my best smile at everyone and go buy another.

11.00am
I’m feeling a bit weird and on edge - possibly due to the three coffees I’ve drunk. Also, the fact that I CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING TO WRITE! isn’t helping.

11.15am
I pack up my laptop and leave the cafe. In the last one and three quarter hours I have written just one word and that was “Aaaargh!”
Feeling fed up, I start walking through the Park to my home. I think about the group of noisy women. I guess they must have been celebrating something. I wonder what it was? And that mum with her toddler - why was he so upset? Was he a sugar addict? (If so, I can sympathise!) and why was his mum so quick to lose her temper? Maybe she’d had some bad news and was coming out for a coffee to cheer herself up.
Hmm, lots of thoughts are rushing through my head.
I find a slightly damp bench in the park, open up my laptop and start typing away like crazy!

Wasn't this great? Thank you to Jackie for writing this for me, go give here some love on the links below! 

Read Josh’s blog - http://facebookferrets.wordpress.com/
Follow Jackie on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Jackie_Buckle
Find the book on Goodreads - 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20418379-half-my-facebook-friends-are-ferrets
Buy the book on Amazon - 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Half-Facebook-Friends-Are-Ferrets/dp/1782020748
Read the reviews - 
http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/9487/Half-My-Facebook-Friends-are-Ferrets-by-J.-A.-Buckle.html

Fandom Fashion! #1

I used to adore the website Polyvore, spending lots of time on there making sets of all the amazing fashion items I only dreamt of owning. However, recently I've been neglecting my account so I though 'Why not put books and fashion, two things I love greatly, together?'

And that is how how Fandom Fashion was born!

The idea is to basically recreate the outfit worn by one of your favourite characters, whether that be on a book cover, TV programme, anything goes!

What better way to kick this series off than with one of my favourite books, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I adore this book, and so wanted to express that through this post. I'm also thinking of doing mini-reviews of books I read a while back so let me know if you'd be interested in them!

Cath's cover outfit is so cute! It's pretty and girly but also the shoes are a little edgier, saying 'Hey, sometimes I like to listen to Kanye West and dance around my room'. You know what I mean?

It's been such fun to put together this interpretation and I encourage you to do the same! Also, if you can think of any other great characters then please let me know who's look I should recreate next!

Book Cover Reveal!

Holly Hearts Hollywood

by Kenley R. Doonan

Release Date: Spring 2014

Summary from Goodreads:

Sixteen-year-old Holly Hart wants to be a star. She moves to Los Angeles from the small town of Cedar Junction, only to hear she’s too fat and ugly to be a famous singer.

But when Shell Shocked Records looks past Holly’s plus-size and less-than-graceful-personality to offer her a recording contract,Holly cannot believe her good fortune. On closer inspection, however, the the record execs want Holly to do all the singing, and a thinner and more beautiful girl, Lacey, would lip-sync and get all the credit. Holly goes for it because after all, she wanted to sing.

Contractually bound to secrecy, Holly is more than happy to sit backstage while Lacey shimmies in the limelight and basks in the fame. Before she knows it, Holly is friends with Serena, the pop-star daughter of a music-mogul, flirting with an intern, and developing a strange half-friendship with the seemingly bipolar Lacey.

When Grayson Frost, the biggest country star in America, and coincidentally, a former school bully begins dating Lacey, Holly hopes t he won’t recognize or torment her.

Through a series of embarrassing and weird events, Holly gets to know Grayson and learns that he is much nicer and more mature than he was four years ago. Holly is horrified when she starts falling for him. When Grayson admits he fell for Lacey's voice, what is a girl to do when she can’t legally tell the truth at the moment when the truth matters the most?

About the Author:
From nine to five I am a home insurance agent. At all other hours of the day I am a young adult author, singer, dancer, cat lady, fangirl, wife, bookworm, and internet enthusiast. My favorite pastimes include crying over really good books, riding with my husband on our motorcycle, and binge-watching seasons of television shows. When I’m not working or writing I like to perform in local community musical theatre productions.

Author Links:

   

Cover Reveal Organized by:

WANTED!

Recently, I've been struggling to post anything that is actually any good. I don't remember the last time I did a review because I've been so busy with school work and general life that I just never read any more! And this brings me the point of this post:

CO-BLOGGER WANTED!!!

I really love this blog and the community built around it but I cannot do this alone so I have decided to throw in the towel and search for some help! By bringing in another person, I know that I can have more posts up, better quality writing that is not rushed and a support there when it is needed.

Of course, I would do a whole re-design of the blog, Georgia Reviews doesn't really work for two people. Also, I would like an equal here. You would have freedom to post as you wish but I would prefer to proof read anything and I think it would be good if you read my work before it was posted as well. Of course you do not get free rein over what decisions are made but, as long as we discussed things first, I am willing to let you have lots of say in things!

I do have a few criteria I wish for you to fit. Here's a list below:

• Be young! Not too young but not too old either if you know what I mean? I'm 15 so someone around my age would be lovely, I'd like to have things in common and be able to get along well with you! (Does that sound like something from a dating website? Sorry about that.)
• Have a little experience writing reviews! Whether it be for a blog, magazine or just on Goodreads, I'd like to see some of your work please.
• Love Young Adult books! My entire blog is YA related so this one is very important. The occasional New Adult or Adult review wouldn't kill anyone but predominately for youngsters like me.
• Be reliable! I need to know I can trust you to share the work load with me, writing reviews and posting other features too such as book hauls and discussions.
• Communicate well! It is important that you are able to respond to emails the same day and will always get in touch with me before making decisions.
• Be committed! It would be great if we could both post at least two posts a week, to keep the blog busy and you must also be dedicated to reading too.
• Be honest! When writing posts, you honesty is greatly appreciated, especially when writing reviews for books sent for review from authors or publishers.
• Know your way around Blogger! It would be great if you could actually use this website seen as though this is where I write from. A little knowledge or design would be fab as well, hopefull I should be getting Fireworks soon to work on graphics but if you can do that stuff too, that would be great!

I know that is a long list but after reading this,  if you are still interested, email me at georgialberry@outlook.com for more information. Please include your name, age, previous experiences and anything else you may think relevant in this email, thank you!

Also, until I find somebody, I will be searching for guest posts (specifically reviews but anything else would be greatly appreciated too). If you would like to help me out, please also contact me on the email address above.

Sorry this post has been really long and boring but I hope you consider and thank you for reading, goodbye.

New Books! #3

Since I started blogging, I seem to be acquiring quite a few more books! Here's the latest lot.

I recently discovered that another Georgia at Books and Writers Jnr. also calls her hauls by this name so sorry for the coincidence.

Also, please understand that I am not bragging about these, hauls are my personal favourites to read and I am very grateful for each of these!

Light by Michael Grant (Hardback)

This was my bargain find. I don't really like hardbacks but I already own each book in this series besides this one! Plus, it only cost 75p which meant I could not leave it in the shop.

Half My Facebook Friends are Ferrets by J. A. Buckle (Paperback)

This was sent to be by the lovely publishers Curious Fox so a big thank you to them!

Secrets & Sapphires by Leila Rasheed (Proof)

I won this in a blog giveaway from Hot Key Books so thanks to them!

  

Red by Alison Cherry (Paperback)

I won another giveaway recently which was a lovely suprise because I am usually so unlucky. This one was from Quercus on twitter so thanks to them!

How to Love by Katie Cotugno (Paperback)

Not only did Quercus send me my prize, the lovely lady who emailed me said she would pop another book in the parcel. How insane is that? Even better, it happened to be a book I wanted to read so thank you!

 

Book Cover Reveal!

Mean Boys

by Barbie Hall

Release Date: 05/2014

Summary from Goodreads:

“So...you're forcing me to be your slave?” I inhaled deeply even though my body had calmed. “Is that what you're telling me?”

A reformed bully. Two damaged boys. Bound by blackmail.

The only thing Bianca Wilbur wanted was to forget her past and sail through her first and only year at the prestigious Battle St. John Preparatory, by making new friends and maintaining perfect grades. That is until one scandalous raunchy night of Truth or Dare with two of the school's most infamous bad boys, the peculiar Judas and the reckless Zeus, aka The St. John Gods, leads to the unthinkable.

She's intrigued by one and despises the other.

As Bianca is forcibly dragged into their troubled world secrets spill and dirty lies come out.

What happens when the bully becomes the prey?

*Mature YA/New Adult. Excessive swearing, sensitive subject matter, and sexual situations.*

About the Author:

Barbie Hall is a typical girl in her early twenties except she has a deep passion for writing. Particularly young adult! Barbie got her first taste of writing in the sixth grade and has never stopped ever since. She's into Japanese pop culture: including manga, fashion, and dramas. She's also addicted to Youtube (with a Youtube channel of her own), make up, and blogging.

Author Links:   

Book Blitz!

Full Steam Ahead by Valerie Chase

Release Date: 01/14/14

Summary from Goodreads:

Seven days aboard a luxury cruise. The perfect getaway from it all. At least, that’s what Georgia Cantwell was hoping for.

Georgia wishes she could run away from the nightmare that has consumed her life, but she can’t. With her inbox filling with menacing emails, all she can do is try to get through her sorority’s winter break cruise without anyone realizing how wrecked she is. So she really doesn’t need Jace McLaren seeing through her tacked-on smile when no one else seems to notice.

Growing up with a father in jail, Jace knows from experience that if you’re going through hell, there’s no way out but through. He has always steered away from girls like Georgia with her ice-queen attitude, but she’s in real trouble, and despite himself he pushes past her walls.

As much as Georgia tries to ignore it, Jace won’t let her pretend with him. But she can’t risk telling him the truth. Her past would ruin his trust, her family, her future—everything.

But out on the open ocean, there’s nowhere to hide. And when Georgia’s secrets come tumbling out, it might take more than Jace to save her.

About the Author:

I'm Valerie but please feel free to call me Val. I live in the Washington, DC area; and I write New Adult romance. I'm hoping to publish my first novel (set on a cruise ship!) in late 2013.

As for my writing, I love sexy banter and guys whose hearts are in the right place, even if their heads sometimes aren't. I love discovering strong, awesome characters, putting them in entertaining situations, and watching them argue their way to love.

Author Links:

    

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Blitz Organized by:

Book Cover Reveal!

Synchrony (Destiny #2) by Cindy Ray Hale

Release Date: 2014

Summary from Goodreads:

When her parents discover she’s been sneaking out with Isaac Robinson the forbidden Baptist boy, Mormon girl Destiny Clark decides it’s time to keep their relationship quiet. As their relationship moves to shakier ground, Destiny discovers that Isaac has a terrible secret, and she is left completely shattered.

The moment Destiny feels all hope is lost, Preston Nelson, her longtime church friend and Isaac's bitter rival, arrives like a beacon of light. It isn't long before two separate disasters strike for Preston and Destiny's best friend, Hannah. As Destiny helps them through their issues, she discovers that sometimes the best way to forget about your own problems is to help a friend in need.

Just as her heart begins to mend and her friendship with Preston begins to heat up, Isaac walks back into her life, threatening to rekindle the feelings she’d hoped to bury forever. Will Destiny and Preston find the synchrony they so desperately need, or will she find a way to forgive Isaac and return to his outstretched arms?

Link to Book One:

About the Author:

Cindy Ray Hale lives in Tennessee with her husband and four children. In addition to being a writer, she's an avid reader and a social media junkie. At the age of 17, she wrote a short story, "Instant Harmony" which later appeared in the April 2000 issue of "New Era," the official magazine for the youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Destiny is her first book and will be available for purchase November 5, 2013.

Author Links:   

The Giveaway Link:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Books! #2

Over the past few weeks, I've added quite a few new treats to my bookshelf, so many that I've ran out of room on my bookshelf! As I did before, I thought I'd share these with you guys! Book hauls are my favourite posts to read so I know others must love them too. All the covers used are the ones I own. I am not bragging about this, I am grateful for each and every one of these.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Paperback)

A horrific family tragedy sends Jacob 16 to a remote island off Wales, to the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, where he finds unusual old photographs. The children, one his grandfather, were more than peculiar, perhaps dangerous, quarantined for good reason - and maybe still alive.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (Paperback)

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

The Book Thief by Markus Zuask (Paperback)

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbours during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. 

  

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (Paperback)

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Paperback)

Ten-year-old August Pullman wants to be ordinary. He does ordinary things. He eats ice-cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside.

But Auggie is far from ordinary. Born with a terrible facial abnormality, he has been home-schooled by his parents his entire life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, Auggie's parents are sending him to a real school. Can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

Narrated by Auggie and the people around him whose lives he touches, Wonder is a frank, funny, astonishingly moving debut to be read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman (Paperback)

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

  

Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle (Paperback)

An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barrister.

The Universe Versus Alex Wood by Gavin Extence (Ebook)

A tale of an unexpected friendship, an unlikely hero and an improbable journey, Alex's story treads the fine line between light and dark, laughter and tears. And it might just strike you as one of the funniest, most heartbreaking novels you've ever read. Alex Woods knows that he hasn't had the most conventional start in life. He knows that growing up with a clairvoyant single mother won't endear him to the local bullies. He also knows that even the most improbable events can happen - he's got the scars to prove it. What he doesn't know yet is that when he meets ill-tempered, reclusive widower Mr Peterson, he'll make an unlikely friend. Someone who tells him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make the best possible choices. So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing.

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson(Ebook)

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.