Winner of Vampire Academy + Waiting on Wednesday: Keys to the Repository

Thank you to all entrants to submitted to my 100 Followers Giveaway. The entrants for this round of giveaways about doubled the entries for my previous giveaways combined, lol. I... did not quite realize how popular Vampire Academy was? *amused*

Also according to my comments a majority prefer series to standalones, lol. Fascinating.

Anyhow, the winner of the giveaway is~

Misha Mathew

I have sent you an email, please reply within 48 hours or I'll have to pick a new winner.

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Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository by Melissa de la Cruz

The school year at Duchesne is always packed with drama, mystery, murder, and midterms for Schuyler Van Alen and her friends (and enemies). But what about that glorious patch of time from June to August? In this collection of short stories, New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz reveals how the stunningly gorgeous, ridiculously wealthy, and completely undead members of the Blue Bloods spend their summer holidays. Hamptons, anyone?

My thoughts: omfg you guys have no idea how excited I am about this. Basically my favouritest YA Vampire Romance guilty pleasure evaaaaaaar. Her world is sprawling and epic and all things wondrous, and I wolf down each new Blue Bloods title with glee. IS IT JULY YET?! (Also, to all those who are clamouring about how fallen angels are the next big thing, well, guess what? In Blue Bloods - VAMPIRES = FALLEN ANGELS. LAWL.)

Any new YA Vampire titles you're excited about? Or just upcoming books in general? I'm all ears. =D

100 Followers Contest for Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy Giveaway! + Your Thoughts on Series/Trilogies/Standalones

I haz 100 followers! Triple digits!! I'm a bit awed and super happy that people out there like this book blog enough to follow it. I was thinking what paperback book I'd be willing to giveaway, and you know, with the talk of Richelle Mead's Spirit Bound floating around everywhere, I was like, hey, I own a used copy of the first book, maybe people would like it??

I think Vampire Academy is a most excellent book. I just read it recently as I heard so much about it and thought I'd dish out a couple dollars for a copy as I found it lying in a used bookstore. I did enjoy it, but I think hearing too much about a book can kind of skew your perception? Because like, I was led on to believe that Dmitri was going to be the hottest thing that came around the block since Casanova, but I was honestly skeeved out by Dmitri/Rose in general. Now, before Team Dmitri goes off and kills me, I'm sure that he has excellent traits! Just that whenever I see these mentor/mentee relationships they kind of make me shrivel up and die inside. It's one of my squicks, and I can't get over this bias of mine. But I think Rose is a cool narrator, and I'm totally in love with the strong friendship between her and Lissa, and I so dig Christian/Lissa like hotcakes. If the spin-off series was from their point of view I'd probably be all over it. Mmmmmm Christian.

But the whole Dmitri thing isn't the reason why I'm willing to let go of my copy of Vampire Academy. As much as I enjoyed the book (no, really, I was dying for a vampire novel with girl BFF stuff and no boyfriend stealing backstabbing crap but a REAL friendship and oh how this novel delivered. ♥), the idea of following a series is making me die a little inside. It's going to be six books! SIX! With a possibility of a spinoff! I'm a fan of standalones, and tolerate trilogies only because of its profusion in the YA market. I almost sighed with relief when I got to the end of the book and found myself satisfied and not in the least bit curious about following the rest of the series. I mean, I do enjoy a select few long series, but as much as I love them, sometimes they leave me feeling so drained. Does anyone else get this feeling? What is your preference/thoughts on series/trilogies/standalones? Feel free to discuss this with me in the comments. Or, you know, talk to me about Christian FOREVAR the Vampire Academy series. Do refrain from spoilers though. While I don't personally mind being spoiled, having no intention of keeping up with the series, I don't want to risk spoiling others who may wander into the comments section here. Or talk to me about your favourite vampire book! (Everyone into YA has a favourite vampire book! Everyone!) Talk to me about anything! I'm all ears. 8D

ANYHOW, to the part people actually care about: Want to win a copy of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy? Please fill out the form:



Yes it's open internationally. Go wild, folks~ *waves* Ends June 22th, 11:59 PM ESt

Sing Boys, Sing! The Chinese Version + Crossing Book Giveaway

(FYI details on giveaway at bottom of post)

I decided the way to celebrate the new release of Andrew Xia Fukuda’s novel Crossing was by showcasing some super talented Chinese male singers. As I’ve mentioned in my review, our narrator is depicted to have some amazing pipes (i.e. his singing will knock you dead) and I figured it’d be a good excuse opportunity to showcase some wonderfully talented male Chinese singers on my blog.

Note: The singers I will showcase are mostly based in Taiwan, because TW-music predominates not only all the Chinese songs I listen to, but just, make up a large majority of the music I listen to in general. I heart the Taiwan music scene. (They gave me F.I.R,! ♥ So if you think I'm biased towards Mandopop/rock... YOU'D BE RIGHT. *shot*

I’ll start off with songs sung in English, as I believe those who visit this blog predominantly speak English.

First up, recent Youtube sensation Lin Yu Chun, who can sing like Whitney. Rock on!



Sam Tsui - who sings the most awesome medleys and if he doesn’t win the Glee audtions, THERE IS NO GOD. *



(Unfortunately this is all the English ones I know. Now, onto MANDOPOP~)

Winner for My 50 Followers Giveaway Contest!!

Disclosure: I drew out the number based on Random.Org. =D

And the winner issssssss

Esme.

*throws confetti*

I have sent you an email. Please respond within 48 hours. If I don't get a response I'll have to choose another winner.

ANYHOW, some interesting stats and, of course, the answers to Recognize Your Chinese Actresses? under cut.

Chinese Gals Front and Centre - My First 50+ Followers Giveaway! (Exclusively Chloe OR Mountain Girl River Girl)

... I have no excuse for not posting up this giveaway sooner. I mean, I had the giveaway spreadsheet more or less done, and I picked out all the photos, I was just too damn lazy. BUT NO MORE. Without further ado, I'd like to present my First Giveaway in honour of having reached 50+ followers!!! *throws confetti everywhere*

As the title of my giveaway suggests, this is all about the Chinese Gals, FRONT AND CENTRE. In other words, the books I'm giving away both have very awesome Chinese girls as our beloved protagonists. The two books areeeeee *drumrolls*


1. Exclusively Chloe by J. A. Yang OR 2. Mountain Girl River Girl by Ting-xing Ye

Note: Both are lightly used. As I had MGRG longer, it does have two coffee spots on the sides of the book, but it didn't ruin the pages or anything. (I totally swore off coffee now so this won't happen with my other books. Really! I've been going strong for 2 months!!) No stains on EC though.

That's right, I'm only going to be giving away ONE of these books. Unless, of course, I get 100+ followers, then the prizes mayyyyyyy possibly be both. Possibly. *winks*

Also, *deep breath* This contest is opened INTERNATIONALLY!! (watches my wallet cry softly) And um, contest deadline is momentarily up till March 4th 11:59 PM EST, but I will probably extend it. Once I figure out how to change the date on the Google Doc form, anyhow. (Help? Please? *_*)

What must you have in order to participate?

1) Be a follower. I know, this sucks, but this is really a follower's giveaway at heart, Old followers shall be rewarded, et all.

2) Leave your google friend connect name and a email so that I can contact you

3) THAT'S IT.

Of course, there are the usual ways to get extra entries. tweeting, sidebar, blog post, add up entries... BUT I thought to add to my fun, I'm also going to have another way for y'all to get extra entries called Recognize Your Chinese Actresses?. Basically, Look at the 5 photos of chinese actresses before you. If you know any or all of them, name the # of the photo, then name of actress (+1)(+2) and/or a show/movie she was casted in (+1)(+2). Soooo, you can get up to twoFOUR points for each actress and if you know ALL FIVE, You can get up to TWENTY. yes, TWENTY points. =D I wish y'all the best of luck. ETA: I'M A DUMBASS AND CAN'T DO MATH. It's edited now, but basically you get two points for actress name and ANOTHER two points for actress movie/tv show. So it's FOUR points in total and THUS does actually add up to twenty. Sorry for the confusion. T______T

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CONTEST NOW CLOSED

And that's it! If, however, you for some strange reason need convincing that either Exclusively Chloe or Mountain Girl River Girl is worth the read, click the cut link and I'll tell you why these books rock.

Mai Idea for Future Book Giveaway Contest, along with Poll

So, I mentioned previously about a book giveaway contest idea I had, and now I'm finally gonna talk about it!

A while back, Sarah Rees Brennan made a post about book covers wherein she made up a Summary of Lies (with an inkling of the truth sprinkled in) for the books she wished to discuss. I loved these lying summaries and I thought it'd be a lot of fun to use this idea for a giveaway! Basically the idea is that I host a contest for a book, write up a lying summary, and the winner is chosen based on who can tell me which part of the summary is true, either by whoever answers first or I do a draw of all the ones who got the right answer.

Let's use one of Brennan's lying summaries as an example:

What do you do when your girlfriend Katherine leaves you? Well, you could go on a heartwarming road trip with your best friend and learn a little about love and life, OR you could clone Katherine a thousand times, in order to make a clone army and TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Nothing says 'I'm over you, baby' like being God King of the Universe.

This one is fairly obvious on which part of the summary was true (HINT HINT answer is in bold), but I thought it was the simplest example to use in order to illustrate how this contest is going to work. So, assuming I use this summary above, all you have to do to be eligible to win is quote the true statement, leave your comment with the answer and your email (they will all be screened so no one should see the answer) and then I draw lots on the people who got the answer right and the winner gets a prize!

HOWEVER, one problem: I'm having a hard time deciding what prizes to give out. Also, I don't know what kind of books y'all would be interested in me doing lying summaries of. So, I'd be really grateful if you'd fill out these polls. ALSO, if you want advanced dibs on this contest I'll be hosting in the future, leave a comment after filling out the polls with your username and a link to this page and I'll give you an extra point on the first contest I host. =D Point form version below, to make this easy on the eyes~

Advanced Dibs on the First Future Book Giveaway Contest
+1 pt - link (leave a comment on this post with the linked URL)
+1 pt each - leave the name of the person who referred you to the contest and BOTH the referrer and the referred get a point each