Title: Siege and Storm (Grisha #2)

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Date of Release: June 4^th, 2013

Number of Pages: 448

Source: Publisher

Summary from Goodreads:

Darkness never dies.

 

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

 

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her–or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Review: My mind is blown. Leigh Bardugo has yet again created a sparkling world of intrigue, with new twists and turns. This installment will leave you reeling! Don’t worry this is a spoiler free review.

PIRATES!! Or excuse me Privateers were a main focus of the beginning of the novel and carried throughout. I mean there was a MAJOR TWIST AND CHARACTER REVEAL; that I didn’t see coming at all. Like holy canoli! I liked that a whole new set of characters were unveiled and yet old ones were given new life.

The plot was new and fresh and Leigh Bardugo didn’t just throw something out there. She created something completely raw and new and her loyal readers will be left inspired and in a coma of beautiful words.

Alina fully grasps her title as Sun Summoner. She isn’t as indecisive as she was in book one. She’s coming to know herself and with that struggling with the person she has become. Her relationship with Mal is absolutely heartbreaking and warming at the same time. I’ve never seen a relationship grow like this one, it’s believable, raw and honest. The Darkling is still as appealing as ever and I can’t help but feel drawn to him. There is also a certain prince I feel drawn to now…..

There are stakes high at sea, a showdown on the fold take two, and flurry of parties and action packed sequences. Leigh Bardugo has outdone herself and her readers will weep as the body count rises……

Hey everyone!

I aced my finals and passed my classes above the needed grades for the nursing program! I think since I survived this semester I can survive anything!

Anyways, I moved out of the dorms  yesterday and am back home for the summer! I just started going through all the emails that went unchecked during the last couple weeks (ALL 400)!!  This blog got pushed to the side. It’s summer so I’ll get back in the groove of things again. I never actually fully updated this blog since I switched to wordpress. The links to reviews are all out of wack and I’ll being going through all 300 reviews and doing that in the next two weeks! I also have a job though, so we will see where that fits in.

I have big plans to also finish the latest novel I’ve been working on it’s a weird hybrid of high fantasy and urban fantasy as well as a little bit of a contemporary new adult I’ve been plotting out that might turn into a scifi! So that’s fun!

Happy reading and here’s a picture of how slap happy you get after studying for finals in the library for four hours…….

Today’s post is by Ali Berlinski! Her new novel A Beautiful Mess is one of the first ever written on a crowdfunding platform meaning the readers got to help decide the directions where it was taken.

“So what’s your book about?”

I am the first person to ever get published by crowdfunding. Yes and frankly, it’s a dream come true, but what you may not know is that this dream almost never happened.
Perhaps the biggest challenge I faced when campaigning was explaining my book. I know, I know, if I wrote it, then shouldn’t I know better than anyone what it’s about, especially if it’s about my life? Guilty.

But in my defense, my book is not your conventional memoir. And honestly if I could’ve explained my life in a single sentence, well I wouldn’t have written a book. This is what I told myself at first, a sort of personal get out of jail free card.

However, when I began to tell people I wrote a book, their immediate question was, “Oh what’s it about.” A completely normal question, however, I had no idea how to respond. “Um, well.. you see…” I stuttered, before listing off an incoherent laundry list of all the things my book talks about, which we both know is not the same thing. Afterwards, they offered the obliging, oh how nice. I smiled, but only to mask my mortification. Needless to say, I didn’t convince this person to read my book.

It was a hard lesson, but I quickly realized, no one was going to be interested in my book—regardless of how good it is—if I couldn’t tell him or her what it was about.
Imagine I told you my book was about a shy girl who gets caught in a love triangle, where she must choose between her best friend and the misunderstood, town bad-boy. Sounds cliché right? And yet the book I’m talking about is a bestseller and box office hit, that’s right TWILIGHT. Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the success of the book. Case in point. Give the wrong description, and people won’t be interested in reading.

This is the love hate relationship I have with crowdfunding. Sometimes, it’s more about the presentation than the actual product. I knew I had a good book but I’m an author, not a marketing person. How am I supposed to know the right way to pitch my book?
Before my first book reading last June, I went to Union Square Park in NYC where I sheepishly went up to random strangers and attempted to explain my book. It was humiliating but a really good way to figure out what does and doesn’t work. New Yorkers are known for not giving a sh*t, so I knew that if I could manage to get them to listen for just a second, I had to be doing something right. I wish I could say the experience left me with a clear understanding of how to market my book, sadly, it would take a lot more trial and error before I really knew what the hell I was talking about.

Now, I can happily say, the question “What’s your book about” no longer leaves me paralyzed and quietly pee’ing myself. Quite the opposite. The question excites me, knowing that I have a concrete response. My book is about laughing at life’s hardships, things we all go through like losing a loved one, heartbreaks, cancer, family problems, and finding happiness. Simply, I help people say yes to their mess.

I’m not saying I convince 100 percent of the people I talk to into reading my book. Some just aren’t interested in that kind of stuff. However, at least now I’m not turning away people who would otherwise be interested.

So, who wants to laugh at me? Pre-order a beautiful mess at http://www.pubslush.com or check me out at http://www.aliberlinski.com

(FYI, for every book you purchase, Pubslush donates a book to charity, so grab a copy and rack up some good karma)

Imagine what your life would be like if you laughed through all the mayhem. Ali Berlinski is an expert on making complicated family relationships and messy situations comedic. A biracial child of divorce, Ali grew up between two coasts and two families. With a gay deaf brother, ex-nanny step mother, and celebrity ex, it’s no surprise that her personal life served as the fodder behind her first book, a beautiful mess.

Through personal anecdotes Ali explains how laughter helped her to embrace the lighter side of heartache, her stepmother’s cancer, and even depression. Her story reminds us that sometimes we all need a little help laughing at our problems. Ali Berlinski will help you say yes to your mess.

 

I know I have good reasons for taking Medical Micro Biology and Anatomy and Physiology at the same time. But on weekends like this I just question my sanity on this decision.

I mean I’ll get into my professional sequence faster, but it is beyond hard. I’ve been studying nonstop since friday. Well and working out. Insanity month two is so hard! If you have questionable coordination skills watch out!

At least I have friends who study just as much as me

My blog has slid out of my control a bit! I do have a post scheduled for sat and I am still working on Incurable Romantics Launch stuff.

Fall class scheduling is this week. Now to figure out what I need to take…..

No cool pics this week! I had the flu. It was not pretty.

My name twin Erica @Bookcellarx interviewed me on her blog as a part of her College blogger series! Check it out HERE! I guarantee there are things you don’t know about me that are revealed there lol!

Happy Reading!

GUYS!!! So my classes this semester are taking up every ounce of my time! But I made it through midterms with the grades I wanted! I just have to take one more test online and I’m free! I went into my email today and found 215 waiting for me! I almost died.

Anyways I’m on my way to North Carolina! I wanted to share a couple of my favorite memories from this semester!

Having a tow truck jump my car after digging the snow and ice away from it. Then having it die again and having to call the tow truck again and then having to drive all the way home to get a new battery! But my dad’s sweet and changed the battery in twenty minutes so I drove right back up to school!

Then after the last home hockey game Vicky and I were freezing! So we sprinted across campus to the dorms and ran up four flights of stairs! We’ve never been so motivated.

Having the main power line to the county fail and power not be on for nine hours. Dorm’s are spooky with no hall lights.

Working my butt off and having it all pay off in the end. I’ve never been studied so much in my life. You can find me in the library more than my dorm room!

Waking up to it being -16 out and walking to class. That’s one way to wake up.

I’ll be sure to get more posts scheduled and I’m also working on The Incurable Romantics blog launch! If you know a New Adult/Adult author that would like to be featured be sre to shoot me an email!

Have wonderful Spring Breaks!