In My Mailbox - XLVI

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The Borrowed

Nightschool: The Weirn Books vol. 1 by Svetlana Chmakova

The Bought

None

The Received

Moyasimon vol. 1 by Masayuki Ishikawa
Night Head Genesis vol. 1 by George Iida and You Higuri
Kitchen Princess: Search for the Angel Cake by Miyuki Kobayashi and Natsumi Ando
I Hate You More Than Anyone! vol. 1 by Banri Hidaka
The Recipe for Gertrude vol. 2, 4 by Nari Kusakawa
Go Go Heaven!! vol. 1-2 by Keiko Yamada
Variante vol. 1, 4 by Iqura Sugimoto
Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Eon Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

Homg, this is one of the best IMM weeks I had in quite awhile! I want to do a quick thank you to Cindy from Princess Bookie for hosting a great and huge giveaway! I received Give Up the Ghost from Megan because I won one of Cindy's contests. So thanks guys! And look forward to the reviews of the novels and mangas above folks!

Can someone let me know if I need to read Graceling by Kristin Cashore before going into Fire? In case I'll get lost if I jump right into Fire.

Also, I want to let you guys know there is a cool event you can join called the Holiday Swap! It's like Secret Santa! You guys should really check it out! Not only will you make someone else happy, byt you'll get your own little cool gift too! Click here or the image below to get more info! Who knows, I might be your Secret Santa. ;)

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

Title: Viola in Reel Life

Author: Adriana Trigiani
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 288
My Rating: 3/5

The idea of being at a boarding school away from home is different for many people. Viola, a young girl who is passionate about filming, doesn't want to be alone in a new environment when she has no choice but to go to an all-girls boarding school as her parents work abroad.

Rooming with three other girls, Viola eventually learns to adapt to her new life and begins to understand the meaning of friendship.

I think Viola's personality works as a ninth grader. Sometimes you can't help but think that she could be smarter than she already is. Then again, she is still new to the concept of being by herself and learning to live on her own. There were times where I found her to be a little spoiled and whiny, but she was okay for the most part; there could have been more to her as a character though. I do however like how dedicated she is with her favourite hobby, filming.

There was only this one part that bothered me the most in the story and it was Viola's relationship with Jared, a boy from an all-boys boarding school nearby. They met at a party for the first time when their schools came together. Then right after, they kissed within an hour or so and were "dating". Quick relationships like that bothers me a lot in any novel. Without proper interaction that would lead up to a relationship, I don't consider it much as a relationship. I do however think Viola learned a lesson near the end with the little "romance" of hers.

I was somewhat bored for the majority of the time during the novel. It had a difficult time grabbing my attention because I couldn't find myself looking forward to anything in it. This is where a plot in a realistic novel can get tricky. With no paranormal activity or some hero's quest, the author would have to find some sort of realistic problem that the audience would be interested in. This is where Viola in Reel Life lacked, therefore making it a less enjoyable read for me since everything was so bland.

Viola in Reel Life is not a bad read, easy to breeze by. It is a read for those who wants to follow the lives of the protagonist in a simple real life situation rather than have a thick, complicated plot. If you would like a little preview of the novel, click here.

Review ARC copy provided by HarperCollins.

Reiko the Zombie Shop by Rei Mikamoto

Title: Reiko the Zombie Shop
Mangaka: Rei Mikamoto
Age Group: Older Teens
Series is: Completed with 11 volumes
Volume(s) Reviewing: 1
My Rating: 4.5/5

You can't bring the dead back to life, unless you are Reiko. This young and beautiful high school student could easily have anyone who is deceased walking and talking again. Of course, only if you pay her well. But no worries, she'll charge depending on how much you make.

Popular with her services, Reiko encounters many dangerous cases. Known as Reiko the Zombie Shop, she'll always get the job done. Of course, it doesn't mean that the safety of her customers would be definite. After all, you are messing with the undead!

With my desperation for anything zombie-related, I scoured long and hard for any manga that contained some. Unfortunate, there isn't much. I lucked out though, discovering this title through Deb Aoki from the popular Manga About.com.

When I first saw the art, I was like "Hmm". Sometimes I found Reiko's head to be awkward compared to the rest of her body, but if you were to just see only her on the page, you wouldn't expect that there would be so much gore following after. While reading, the art sometimes went to the extreme, with guts everywhere. It wasn't creepy until I actually thought about the artwork and story once I was done reading.

A few of the situations that Reiko ended up in went by a little too quickly. What bothered me was the question on how did Reiko obtained the power to bring the dead back? Was it because she fiddled with dark magic? Through bloodline? The first volume never covered the background story of Reiko and I really wanted to learn more about her.

Despite all that, I enjoyed the manga. It gave great doses of creepiness, blood and zombies with interesting background stories to it. Reiko the Zombie Shop is a great read for horror fans but not to those who are not into mangas with quick, short stories.

Book Tour: Medina Hill by Trilby Kent + Author Interview + Contest

Welcome to Stop, Drop, and Read! from Carrie's YA Bookshelf! Please enjoy your stay at my stop for Trilby Kent's Medina Hill book tour!

Title: Medina Hill
Author: Trilby Kent
Age Group: Tweens
# of Pages: 172
My Rating: 4/5

Set in a time period during the Great Depression in London, Dominic Walker is a young boy who can not speak. He can to his family, but whenever he is in contact with anyone else, he is unable to produce sound.

Life at home is dreary with his mother weakening with illness and his father without work. And with war on top of it all, no wonder the boy has nothing to say.

When his Uncle Roo unexpectedly came by, Dominic and his younger sister Marlo was taken to spend the summer with him at a boarding house. There, the two siblings encounter unusual but loving people. Dominic befriends a one-legged Gypsy girl but the people in the village discriminate against her people. With the power of friendship and a novel of Incredible Adventures for Boys: Colonel Lawrence and the Revolt in the Desert in hand, the boy who lost his voice learns about true heroism.

I generally don't pick up novels that are for middle school children but the synopsis sounded interesting that I decided to go for it.

The characters were defined and had a pleasantness about them when you read them. I thought Dominic was a strong boy but did not realize it until the end. He was attached to the book that his Uncle Roo had bought him and looked up to his personal hero, Colonel Lawrence. Like most kids, he dreamed about grand things. I found him to be a charming protagonist and his friendship with tomboy Sancha was sweet.

I really love Kent's writing within this novel because it is descriptive without using big words. But in my opinion, I think the novel will have a hard time garnering the attention of middle schoolers. Although aimed at tweens, Medina Hill would be better appreciated by someone older because of the theme and language. The story line isn't fast moving nor exciting to those with a younger mindset so it would be more difficult for a child of ten years to sit through rather than one who is sixteen years old. But of course, I am sure there would be a adolescent out there who would like this novel.

Medina Hill is definitely a great debut by Trilby Kent, although it will appeal to someone more mature rather than the targeted audience.

~~~

Now that you know a bit about Medina Hill, why not get to know the author some more? I have interviewed Trilby with some questions below! Scroll down some more for a chance to win a copy of Medina Hill also!

First, what inspired you to write Medina Hill?

A trip to Cornwall provided the crucial ‘spark’, although I’d been interested in writing a book about Lawrence of Arabia for quite some time before that.

What do you find is the easiest part in writing? And the hardest?

Starting is easy; ending is much harder.

Are you currently working on any new novels? If so, can you please give a quick summary about them?

I’ve recently completed a second children’s novel set during the Anglo-Boer War. The main character is a twelve year-old girl who embarks on a grueling trek with her mother and brothers across the battled-scarred Transvaal. A friendship with a Canadian soldier, the loss of an African friend and the tragic consequences of the British concentration camp system all play their part in her coming of age.

I also have a novel for adults doing the submission rounds at the moment. Ranging between Flanders and Ceylon in the late 1930s, it tells the story of a correspondence that grows out of a case of mistaken identity between a young Englishwoman and a 13 year-old Flemish boy. I’m quite proud of it and am hopeful that it will find a home soon.

The latest project is a novel I’m writing as part of my PhD. Most of the action takes place in an experimental boarding school in 1950s Guernsey, although I’m playing with the possibility of a time-slip into sixteenth-century southern Africa…

Did you always wanted to be an author? If not, what led you to become one today?

I’ve always loved writing, but until relatively recently I didn’t really believe that I’d be able to make a full-time career out of it. For me, the turning point came when I decided to quit the 9 to 5 and start working as a freelance journalist. Around the same time, my partner was offered a job in Brussels, so I was able to start with a fresh slate in a new city. I was very lucky: within a few weeks I’d landed a gig as a regular contributor to the Continent’s largest English-language newsmagazine, writing book, film and exhibition reviews and the odd feature article. The combination of flexible working hours and a stimulating day job made it possible for me to spend several days a week developing my writing. That was four years ago now, and I haven’t looked back since!

Like Dominic, do you have your own hero that you look up to now or when you were younger?

What a great question. The South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist Donald Woods was probably my first proper hero. I saw Cry Freedom when I was in middle school, and it blew my mind.

If you could jump into any book, which book would it be?

Atonement (those gorgeous first few pages, anyway - before things start to go hideously wrong). Or Other Voices, Other Rooms, because I’m a sucker for Southern Gothic. Mint juleps and pecan pie all round!

If you could travel back to any era or year, which era or year would it be?

The 1930s, without a doubt. I find the interwar years absolutely fascinating – it’s easy to forget, what with all the razzmatazz of the Roaring Twenties, that people were still coming to terms with the Great War years later. The 1930s was a decade of massive social change, considerable hardship, and a lot of pent-up energy resulting from the dawning realisation that another global conflict was just around the corner. For a writer, it’s a period bursting with creative potential.

Lastly, please give us an interesting fact about yourself that many do not know of!

Backpacking in India, a friend and I found ourselves on a train travelling in completely the wrong direction: we were supposed to be going to Jaipur, and instead found ourselves heading for Bihar, which at that point was in the grip of an outbreak of deadly riots. A fellow passenger told us about another train that would soon be passing ours, travelling in the opposite direction, which always slowed down in order to let both trains navigate a narrow bend. When it appeared, we took our chances, jumping from our train and racing to catch the other before it picked up speed again. This all happened at 3 o’clock in the morning, in the pitch dark, somewhere in the Uttar Pradesh countryside. A couple of men who saw us trailing their carriage flung a door open and hauled us on board just in time. It was terrifying and exhilarating. Suffice to say, I didn’t tell my parents about the escapade until I was safely home in England!

~~~

Now that you have read the review and know more about Trilby, it is time to get onto the contest! Yes, you can win 1 of 5 copies of Medina Hill!

To get entries:
+1: Comment with your email address
+1: Become a new follower
+2: Already is a follower
+1: For every place you link this contest to

Open worldwide and closing date on November 20, 2009. I am the last stop for today but be sure to continue the tour tomorrow at Write for a Reader!

Trailer Tuesday: Explorer X - Alpha by LM. Preston

Title: Explorer X - Alpha

Author: LM. Preston

Description: For most kids, a trip to space camp is a trip of a lifetime, for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. Lucky for him, he was engineered to survive, thrive, and dominate. Without realizing he is being trained to conquer worlds, and manipulated under the guise of a camp, he unfolds the plot too late for a change of fate.

I'm going to review this one in a couple of months. Look forward to it!

Author Interview: Kathleen Bolton/Cassidy Calloway

If you have read my review for Confessions of a First Daughter, you would know that I highly adore it! So I hunted down the author but to find out that Cassidy Calloway is her pen name! Her real name is Kathleen Bolton and she agreed on a quick and fun interview with me!

She does not have a site but she does co-write with others on a site called Writer Unboxed if you want to check her out!

First, what inspired you to write Confessions of a First Daughter?

Mine was an unusual journey. I'd been invited to submit a writing sample for this project by a publisher looking to pair a writer with a high-concept storyline which was pitched as "The West Wing meets Princess Diaries". I knew the second I read the storyline that the book would be so much fun to write. First Daughter Morgan Abbott is a lovable character who gets into trouble. She's hates how being a quasi-celebrity interferes with trying to have a normal life. Added to the mix that her mother is the president of the United States, which provided plenty of mother/daughter angst, boyfriend troubles, then you've got a fast-paced read. Above all, the book was meant to be funny and entertaining. Plus I'm a political junkie, so the whole project was right up my alley. I let the jokes fly, and I was able to dial into exactly what the publisher was looking for, luckily!

What do you find is the easiest part in writing? And the hardest?

The easiest part about writing is when you've just finished writing a really good scene that you know clicked with all the elements: pacing, dialogue, freshness. Those moments are awesome. The hardest part about writing is having confidence in yourself that what you are writing will eventually lead to a publishable book. No one writes without a ton of revision, that's just the way it is. But if there's nothing to revise, you're dead in the water.

Are you currently working on any new novels? If so, can you please give a quick summary about them?

I've delivered book 2 in the First Daughter series, which is called SECRETS OF A FIRST DAUGHTER and will be released in 2010. It's the further adventures of Morgan Abbott, her hunky Secret Service boyfriend Max, and more conflict with the bratty Brittany Whittaker. This time the fun takes place in London, which was really cool for me because London is one of my favorite cities.

Did you always wanted to be an author? If not, what led you to become one today?

I vividly remember the moment I decided I wanted to be a writer. I was around 9 years old and had just finished reading a Little House on the Prairie book. My mom had come into my room to tuck me in, and I sat up in bed and informed her that I wanted to be a writer. I've been pursuing it on and off ever since.

If you could jump into any book, which book would it be?

Lord of the Rings, post Sauron. Middle Earth is so cool. I'd want to help rebuild Gondor.

If you could travel back to any era or year, which era or year would it be?

I'm pretty happy with today. I like having cures for diseases and the Internet.

Lastly, please give us an interesting fact about yourself that many do not know of!

I am a huge fan of Project Runway and other elimination reality shows. I can waste a ridiculous amount of time on them.

In My Mailbox - XLV

To do your own In My Mailbox, please check out how to at The Story Siren!

The Borrowed

None

The Bought

None

The Received

Drawing Manga Animals, Chibis, and Other Adorable Creatures by J.C. Amberlyn
The Manga Artist's Workbook by Christopher Hart
Fairy Cube vol. 2 by Kaori Yuki
Kitty and the House of Horrors by Carrie Vaughn
Sumomomo Momomo vol. 1 by Shinobu Ohtaka
Cat Paradise vol. 1 by Yuji Iwahara
Jack Frost vol. 1 by JinHo Ko
Nabari No Ou vol. 1 by Yuhki Kamatani
Ichiroh! vol. 1 by Mikage

I have received quite a bit of manga this week! I want to thank TD from Tiamat's Manga Reviews for hosting a great Yen Press contest! Lol, because of you, I finally have Yen Press titles in my manga collection! And thank you Az from Bookmooch for Fairy Cube! I luckily already have the first in the series and needed to continue it!

I was notified through my email from Laura of Tattooed Books that she presented me the One Lovely Blog Award! Thanks Laura!