Book Blogger Confessions-June 3rd 2013

Book Blogger Confessions (hosted by For What It’s Worth) is a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers “confess” and vent about blogging/bookish topics. Feel free to share, vent and offer solutions.

Just keep it respectful – no bashing authors or other bloggers!

Question: 

Do participating in book tours/cover reveals and author guests post drive traffic to your blog? What type of problems have you encountered when hosting them? (please keep it civil – no names or calling specific people out) As a blog follower, are you ever turned off by these kinds of posts? How much publicity is too much?

Answer:

I honestly don’t see much of a jump in traffic on my blog at all, usually I have less than I would compared to a review, unless there’s a giveaway involved. It really depends on the type of post and if it’s something interesting too though, like a cover reveal for a book that everyone has heard about.

I haven’t really had any issues hosting them, everyone who’s been in charge (author/publisher a blogger) have been pretty professional in getting me the information in time. I have had to cancel some review tours before, but that’s because I didn’t have enough time or didn’t like the book.

I think that if a lot of bloggers are posting the exact same thing I won’t always check out their blogs since I have the same thing, which is probably why I’m slowing down on doing those kinds of posts on here. It just gets too much to have them up all the time, but I’m always willing to do a more personal post for an author that asks!

I know a while back there was one piece of publicity for a certain book that was way over the top and I totally ignored it, so there is definitely such a thing as too much publicity turning people away too. There is a certain piece that people have on their blogs (the one with the wind) that has sounds on it and I had to shut the blog down quickly. If I don’t like blogs with music that you can’t turn off, I’m not going to like ads that do the same thing!

Showcase Sunday (34)

This is hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea and is meant to help us show off what books we receive during the week, no matter how we got them (library, review, bought).

Library:

• Towering by Alex Flinn- I’ve been waiting to read this, so excited to read her version of Rapunzel! 
• Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike- This sounded cute so I wanted to give it a try.

What did you get this week?

I am away this weekend but will comment on your posts Monday!  Leave a link so I can visit your post, or comment below with what you got!

Review: What the Spell? by Brittany Geragotelis

Title: What the Spell? (Life’s a Witch #1)

Author: Brittany Geragotelis

Release Date/Publisher:  January 29th 2013 by Simon and Schuster

Finished: May 1st 2012

Pages: 328-Hardcover-owned

Series:

1. What the Spell
2. Life’s a Witch
3. The Witch is Back

Synopsis:

A teenage witch juggles popularity and romance while keeping her powers a secret in this spellbinding debut.Almost-sixteen-year-old Brooklyn feels invisible, but she desperately wants to be pretty, to be popular, to be adored by a cute guy. Luckily for her, she’s a witch about to come of age—so she’s only a few spells away from making it all happen.

On her milestone birthday, Brooklyn’s conservative parents finally unbind her powers, which include the ability to magically match couples with a love spell. Brooklyn uses her special skills to get a makeover, new friends, and the attention of her crush, Asher. But the popular clique Brooklyn wants to infiltrate puts her in the same precarious position as her Salem ancestors: If she’s found out, she could be vilified—and lose Asher in the process. Can she make the most of her magic, or will she be luckless and loveless? Be careful what you witch for!

What I thought:

I had received the second book of this series as an ARC, so I decided to get my own copy of the first book and see what it was all about. When I read it involved witches, I got really excited since I love witchy books!

This book however fell short of what I would have liked. This book revolves around Brooklyn, a nobody at high school who has no friends and is positive she’s invisible. When her powers get unlocked, she goes for a total magical makeover right away, and then starts her journey of becoming one of the popular kids “The Elite”.

Now if you’re looking for something that has some high school drama and popular kids being evil, then you will like this book somewhat. I honestly was hoping for a lot more of the actual magic to happen during this. There were little spells and quick mentions of other witches and history of covens and such, but that was such a tiny part of this book and disappointing.

I probably would have liked the book a lot more if Brooklyn hadn’t fallen to the temptation of popularity so fast and actually listened to those that actually cared for her, and their warnings. She was also very selfish during the book, which was annoying. I can understand though the want to be popular, but with the stuff they pull I thought she could have said no earlier and done the right thing instead of waiting.

I didn’t enjoy this book very much, I wanted more actual witch stuff and not the same old high school drama crap.

Review: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Title: Just Listen

Author: Sarah Dessen

Release Date/Publisher: February 28th 2008 by Penguin Group (USA) (first published April 6th 2006)

Finished: April 25th 2013

Pages: 400-eBook-Library

Synopsis:

Last year, Annabel was “the girl who has everything”—at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf’s Department Store.This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to
truth-telling. With Owen’s help,maybe Annabel can face what happened
the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

What I thought:

I have to say that the cover for this is just so pretty, and I really wish that my digital copy from the library had it even if it wasn’t in colour but instead I just got text. At least I can admire it here!

This book was probably one of my favourite ones by Sarah so far. I usually don’t go for the books that involve music, but I can say I really enjoyed this one. As for the music, if you enjoy books that have that theme, definitely check this book out! I loved how the author used  it to bring people together and helped them to heal and move on.

Both main characters were likeable and I loved it when they got to know each other, although the circumstances of how they met were kind of sad at first. Annabel was friends with the popular girl, but something happened and they broke apart (I’m glad they stopped being friends since Sophie was a b*itch meanie, but what happened to start it was not something I’d wish on anyone). Usually in books where the popular girl falls from her popularity, I find that she tends to be kind of snobby, but Annabel was different. She was a model of course and had trouble with any kind of confrontation, but she seemed more human and a character I could like, and as if she just kind of hung around the popular people because of Sophie.

Owen had a few of his own issues with his anger, and used music not only to help that but he really did start to inspire Annabel the closer they got together. I loved how she slowly changed and felt complete and more in thouch with herself. Her family (especially sisters) also had some bad trauma, but through their own means they change too, which was so touching. And their romance was so cute too!

I honestly didn’t know how much I was going to like this book, but I highly recommend it for people who like young adult romance with a touch of music!

 

Book Blogger Confessions-May 20th 2013

Book Blogger Confessions (hosted by For What It’s Worth) is a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers “confess” and vent about blogging/bookish topics. Feel free to share, vent and offer solutions.

Just keep it respectful – no bashing authors or other bloggers!

Question: 

Have you added or considered adding additional reviewers to your blog? Why or why not? If you have, please share how you found the right match when bringing new people to your established blog. Did you encounter any problems?

Answer:

I’ve thought about it, but I really feel like my blog is something personal, and I’ve put so much hard work into it that I’m not really wanting to share. This blog is like my baby! That’s not to say that if I ever convince my fiance to write a quick review that I won’t post it on here, but that’s different, same as guest posts.

I don’t think this will change at any time in the future. I’ve realized that even if my life gets really busy, I can just slow down my posting or switch things up and people will understand, so I don’t need another person to keep up the pace with me. Other blogs that do share their blog with many people, that’s awesome! There are lots of blogs that have many people that I love to read, but it’s just not something that I can do right now.

How about you, do you have/want associate reviewers?