Giveaway: Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott

... I don't know how it's possible but between work, events, and upcoming college stress, I'm even more busy during the summer. GAH. I was going to reserve Sundays during The Four Flavors of Summer event for IMMM/randomness/brain spew, but since I'll be helping out at a pharmaceutical conference all day today (aka 12 hours), I've just scheduled a giveaway. Hopefully no one's too disappointed... <3

What's up for grabs? An ARC of SHADOWS ON THE MOON by Zoe Marriott (UK version). You can find my review HERE. I didn't think it was breathtaking, but I really, really recommend reading it. Really.

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Summary: 

Suzunne is a shadow-weaver. She can create mantles of darkness and light, walk unseen in the middle of the day, change her face. She can be anyone she wants to be. Except herself.

Suzume died officially the day the Prince's men accused her father of treason. Now even she is no longer sure of her true identity.

Is she the girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother’s new husband, Lord Terayama? A lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama’s kitchens? Or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands?

Everyone knows Yue is destined to capture the heart of a prince. Only she knows that she is determined to use his power to destroy Terayama.

And nothing will stop her. Not even love.

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Rules:
• To enter, fill out the form below.
** You must be at least 13 years old to enter.
• Open internationally
• Contest ends Friday, July 8th at 11:59 EST
• For more information, please view my contest policy.



...

Couldn't resist a bit of randomness. I've been following the NBC show "The Voice" from the beginning and it's finally wrapping up with the FINAL FOUR. *cue spazzing* For me, The Voice > American Idol. Check it out.

Here are some of my favorite, recent performances (skip to 1:10 or so to hear the song portion): 

(I'm not such a fan of her (I think she lacks major stage presence and personal style... please don't bash me), but I love the song and her voice.)

(JUST. SO. AWESOME.)

(This one starts from 0:00. And sorry for the poor quality; I couldn't find a better one. ):)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! If you still want to tell me what you got for IMM this week, go ahead. I might not have time to comment, but I promise to check it out. :)

Winners Galore & New K-pop!

First off, there won't be a YA Chibi-fied this weekend, sorrrrry. I have a TON to do, but I'm in the home stretch! Only one more hectic week of SAT prep and final projects, and I'm a freeee woman. The taste of freedom makes me want to sing and stretch my words. :3

Anyways, on to the winners. A couple contests have quietly ended this past week, so with my google docs and trusty random.org, I tackled them. And the winners areeeee:

OYMG by Amy Fellner Dominy

Karen (#1 -- wow.)

TEMPEST RISING by Tracy Deebs

Carol M (#31)

892 Followers Contest

Sandy (#165)

CORSETS AND CLOCKWORK by Trisha Telep
Louis (#49)

Congrats, and I'll be emailing shortly! Thanks to everyone who entered, and for who entered that didn't win, feel free to check out some other giveaways for a chance to win one of two sets of Dead Rules buttons, a Twisted Tales set by Maureen McGowan, a signed copy of Nightspell (Mistwood #2) by Leah Cypess, or a copy of Mistwood.

I'm also doing the music portion of IMMM today, since I'm delaying it yet again. (Next weekend, I promise!) I'm kind of switching the usual art and IMMM days in that tomorrow I'll be posting a simple, cute Dinosaurland background that I'm doing right now for my math project. So if you're looking for something book-related... uh, I'll include something in there.

So today I'm going back to k-pop (yes, I'm a fan if you didn't know). Beast just released a new MV last week called "Fiction." It's pretty catchy and the little shuffle they do during the chorus is so cuttte/weird to imitate, haha. You can move the cursor to about 1:24 to find what I'm talking about. ;)

And the K-pop machine keeps churning out new artists. Amidst another actress-turned-singer, etc. debuting in the past and the coming week, I picked And You, a male duo that just released their first album yesterday. The below MV is for "Words On the Very Tip of My Tongue." I don't think it really stands out much from a sea of Korean ballads, but they do have very soothing, beautiful voices.

Not new, but one of my favorite artists: Kim Ah Joong. Her voice is STUNNING. The below video is a fan-made OST of one of Kim Ah Joong's songs in the Korean movie 200 Pound Beauty (which I've watched, but that's a post for another day), and it's called "Byul" or "Stars" in English. Shivers-all-over love.

Whew, sorry if that was K-pop overload. I only meant to post one or two and got carried away... haha. Well... if I'm at it, I might as well use a video to wrap up. A group called B1A4 debuted about a month ago and they've had a really positive response. B1A4 = one blood type B member and four type A's. They're OK (man, I'm witty), but I thought their music video was really cute and uplifting. So here's the start of a great weekend! OK, GO!

Waiting on Wednesday (3) & Debut Kpop

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

 
Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick
• Egmont // September 13, 2011

It could happen tomorrow. A cataclysmic event. An army of quasi-zombies. Can one teen really survive on her own?

An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. For those spared, it’s a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.... Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the Changed, Alex meets up with Tom—a young army veteran—and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse. This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to survive.

Though Ashes doesn't yet have a cover for me to squeal over and the premise fails to knock me over, I love the excerpt included in the catalog:

The air was a welter of odors: Ellie’s fear; her own peculiar perfume of sweat and anxiety; and that dead-meat stink that pillowed through the woods like ashy, gray smoke. 

Slowly, carefully, Alex dropped to her knees, the cold earth biting through her hiking pants. Ellie didn’t move a muscle. Wordlessly, Alex followed the girl’s horrified gaze—and then her blood turned to slush. No, she thought. 

No, please, God, I’m not seeing this.

And it's blurbed by Michael Grant and James Dashner! So it must be some kind of awesome.


Now, for an adult read:

 
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• Ballantine Books // August 23, 2011

The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. 

Now eighteen, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realize what's been missing in her own life, and as she starts to fall for him, she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, and decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. 

The Language of Flowers is a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about the meaning of flowers, the meaning of family, and the meaning of love.

I think the cover for this one is simple but beautiful and the premise matches that. The Language of Flowers sounds like a sweet and touching read, and love stemming (haha, pun) from flower meanings? Sign me up. ;)


On a final book-related note, YA characters sure have gorgeous eyes. Like die-hard gorgeous, vibrant, enviable eyes. These are the two paperback covers for Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus (releases May 4th) and Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin (releases September 20th). Based on aesthetics alone, I prefer the hardcover Shadow Hills cover and the paperback Extraordinary one, though I really don't feel that strongly for either one.... Regardless, I think I'm hypnotized by their eyes. *o*

Bonus for Kpop fans: New boy group Block B just debuted today with its single Do You Wanna B? and the MV to its title track, Don't Move! What do you think? The group is supposedly based off hip hop, which  isn't my favorite genre, but I do like the choruses to the two songs.

As for the MV, I can't stop looking at that guy with the floppy cowl. It just keeps -- flopping! Gah, lol. The shininess is also a little over the top. But I drool over the guy with wavy brown hair and the one with red -- redddd -- hair. Now, off to find out their names...