Last week on FYFA (and in my life):
Much better week this week (no robberies, so you know…). We got to hang out with family at my niece’s confirmation last Sunday and then we spent a fun day at Six Flags amusement park later in the week. Yesterday the kids had a swim meet.
And, best of all, we got our August vacation all booked! We’re super excited because we’re renting an RV and heading to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for about a week. We’ve always had a sort of pipe dream of actually living in an RV, so this is a chance for us to experience a tiny slice of that life. We’ll even be bringing our Japanese exchange student along (who’s coming at the end of July) because that was the only way we could schedule it. 🙂
Here’s what you may have missed on the blog last week:
- A Start of Two Series: Bite-Sized Reviews of (the Start of) The Ruined Series and The Gold Seer Trilogy
- Why Rating Middle Grade (and Sometimes YA) Is So Darn Hard for Me! Let’s Discuss
- Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee: Review, Giveaway & Dee’s Top Ten Addictions – Still time to enter to win a signed copy of the book!
- May 2017 Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up – Link up your May Wrap-Up posts here and watch for the giveaway coming on June 8th!
Next week on FYFA:
- Bite-Sized Reviews of The Names They Gave Us, The Crown’s Fate, Tell Me Three Things and We Were Liars
- Girl on the Verge by Pintip Dunn: Review & Giveaway
- May Wrap-Up
- June Discussion Challenge Link-Up and Giveaway
- Let’s Discuss: Something bookish! 🙂
Book Blogger Birthdays and Blogoversaries:
Lots of birthdays and blogoversaries this week! I hope you’ll go wish these bloggers well on their special days! Make sure you check out the calendar to see what you might have just missed or what’s coming up. (If you want to be added to the calendar, you can always fill out the birthday/blogoversary form.)
- May 30th – Lauren @ ShootingStarsMag‘s Birthday
- June – kimberlyfaye reads‘ Blogoversary
- June 2nd – (un)Conventional Bookviews‘ Blogoversary
NetGalley/Edelweiss:
When I saw One Dark Throne was available, I just about screamed in excitement. Now I just have to do a reread of TDC! Then I also noticed Before She Ignites. I am not too ashamed to admit that I pretty much fell in love with the cover—and then I saw that it was written by Jodi Meadows and I was sold. I am going to be part of the Roar blog tour! And I saw a few reviews of Eliza and Her Monsters this week and couldn’t resist. Sigh. I know.
Great Discussions/Goings On Around the Blogosphere:
- Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight tells us her Book Blogging Fears and shares Things that Have Made Her a Happier Blogger
- Kristen @ Metaphors & Moonlight shares Tips for Writing Book Reviews When You Don’t Have Much to Say and How She Uses Goodreads
- Heather @ Spirit Blog tells us What Happened with Her BEA Books One Year Later
- Tiffany @ The Bookish Thought shares 5 Perks of Reading
- Mikaela @ The Well-Thumbed Reader asks How Do You Deal With Book Blogger Envy?
- Sierra Elmore tells us 5 Ways to Make The Young Adult Book Community More Inclusive for Teenagers
Pre-Order Deals:
I’m now putting these in order of release date to make it easier on myself (and you, I think). Any new deals that I just added to the list this week will be denoted with a *** so you can easily find them!
- Pre-order DARK BREAKS THE DAWN by Sara B. Larson and get a signed bookmark (and you’ll be entered to win LOTS of other great prizes!!) (ends 5/29)
- Pre-order FOLLOW ME BACK by A.V. Geiger and receive a signed bookplate! You will also be entered to win a grand prize #EricThornObsessed backpack filled with fangirl themed goodies. (ends 6/5)
- Pre-order DIVIDING EDEN by Joelle Charbonneau and receive a signed postcard, a set of 4 stickers and a flashing LED ring. If you enter from a tour stop store, you’ll also be entered into a drawing to win 1 of 10 t-shirts. (ends 6/5)
- Pre-order ONCE AND FOR ALL by Sarah Dessen and receive a pocket planner and you’ll also be entered to win a trip for two to Emerald Isle, the beachside town that inspires the setting in Sarah’s books! (ends 6/6)
- Pre-order ROAR by Cora Carmack and receive a Skyfire pendant and Stormheart Chart in a cloth bag! (ends 6/12)
- ***Pre-order SAINTS AND MISFITS by S.K. Ali and receive a signed hijabulous bookmark & postcard with your name in Arabic. (INT) (ends 6/12)
- Pre-order SALVAGED by Jay Crownover and receive an advance excerpt of DIGNITY and a Saints of Denver Doodle download to print at home. (ends 6/19)
- Pre-order MIDNIGHT JEWEL by Richelle Mead and receive nail decals inspired by The Glittering Court and a chance to win a basket of Richelle Mead’s favorite things. (ends 6/26)
- Pre-order ENIGMA by Tonya Kuper receive an Enigma swag pack, including a signed book plate, plus the possibility of lots of other goodies as well! (ends 6/30)
- ***Pre-order SECRETS OF THE TULIP SISTERS by Susan Mallery and receive a free PDF of chapter 1 with notes from the author! (ends 7/10)
- Pre-order WASTE OF SPACE by Gina Damico and receive a bookmark, a magnet, and a 4″x6″ print of Damico’s original hand-drawn sketch of the spaceship’s schematics. (ends 7/11)
- Pre-order WARCROSS by Marie Lu and receive “Life After Legend” an exclusive short story set after the events of the Legend Series (ends 9/11)
Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:
(Besides the ones listed with this week’s posts)
- Giveaway of the Gorgeous Juniper Books Edition of The Hunger Games Trilogy – Still time to enter to win this amazing special edition set, which retails for $99!
- The Best Kind of Magic by Crystal Cestari: Review, Giveaway & Cestari’s Top Ten Addictions – Last chance to enter to win a copy of the book! (One giveaway per tour stop, so check them all out!)
- April Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway – Last chance to visit people’s wrap-up posts and enter to win the giveaway! (No need to link up to be eligible for the giveaway.)
- May Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway – Link up your discussions here and enter the giveaway!
Latest FYFA Giveaway Winners!!:
- Cilla over @ Paved with Books won the March Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway. She chose Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee!
Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:
- Head over to BookHounds for a chance to win a set of The 5th Wave Collection in paperback
- Head over to With Love for Books for a chance to win A Reader Lives A Thousand Lives Before He Dies quote by George R.R. Martin mug, pillow and tote bag set
- Head over to It Starts at Midnight for a chance to win a Paperback or Kindle copy of Riders (INT) and a Seeker bracelet
- You can win an ARC of The Last Magician
- Megan over @ Book Birds is celebrating her 1st blogoversary and she’s giving you a chance to win a book from TBD to celebrate! (INT)
- Head over to Lisa Loves Literature for a chance to enter FLYLeF’s 2nd anniversary giveaway. They’re giving away a one-month subscription box to Owl Crate or $35 Amazon gift card for an international winner! (INT)
- Lots of blogs participating in the Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop!
- It’s Kissin’ Blue Karen’s 3rd blogoversary and she’s celebrating with a $25 Gift Card Giveaway!
- Lots of blogs participating in the May New Release Giveaway Hop!
- Head over to Pink Polka Dot Books for a chance to win a Complete Set of Sarah Dessen’s Books in Paperback!
- XPresso Book Tours is giving away an Amazon Fire HD 8 and a $200 Amazon Gift Card!
- The Bookkeeper’s Secrets is doing a year-long giveaway!
Lots of good stuff! Have any giveaways or great discussions happening on your site right now? Feel free to share them in the comments!
Ah, thanks so much for linking back to my post about Book Blogger Envy! ❤ That means a lot to me!
You’re welcome! Thanks for writing a great discussion post! Hey, if you’re interested, feel free to join us for the Book Blog Discussion Challenge. I noticed that you have a lot of great discussions on your blog and linking up to the challenge is a fun way to help get the word out about them! (If you can’t tell, I get kind of excited about discussions.)
Ohh that’s so exciting! I told my husband that when we retire, we’ll buy one of those big ol’ RVs and travel Canada for the rest of our lives. Lol. I hope y’all will have fun. Oh, and robberies? OMG what have I missed?!
We would love to live in an RV when we retire. We seriously considered it a year or so ago—like spending a year traveling in an RV. My husband’s job was pretty flexible and we could have pulled it off. That wouldn’t work with his current job, though, so this is a little tiny compromise.
As for the other thing, we accidentally left our back door unlocked two weeks ago and someone came into our house at 2 AM and stole my purse and some cash. The scariest part was that my mom was right there in the room, and she pretended to be asleep. She was terrified!
I love camping! I’ve never done it in a RV, though. Your vacation sounds like it’ll be awesome. I’m envious.
I’m not much for tent camping because I can never manage to sleep, but I love campgrounds and an RV is perfect for us!
Hooray for vacation plans! We have some friends who are retired and travel around by RV *a lot.* I’ve never thought it would be for me (I’m not outdoorsy in the least and prefer a nice roomy hotel LOL) but they really love it. It’s always fun to have some travel to look forward to. Excited to see your review for The Crown’s Fate. I plan on reading it in June.
We love outdoorsy trips—hiking is a favorite vacation activity for us!
Yay for summer vacations! I’m sure your exchange student will love the experience too. 🙂
I think it will be perfect for the exchange student to get to see the Chicago area AND a little bit AND see some actual scenery in the US. 🙂
I’m glad you had a much better week. That’s fun you’ll be able to live in a RV for a week and see how that goes. I really want to visit Gatlinburg again – I haven’t been since a kid!
I’ve never been to Gatlinburg, so I’m excited to see it!
I’m so glad you had a better week. Thank you so much for including me in your giveaway list <3
Megan @ http://wanderingsofabookbird.blogspot.co.uk/
No problem. Hope it’s getting lots of traffic!
Are you going to go a post for Roar? I’m on the Street Team and the more bloggers to help out, the better! ?
I requested Before She Ignites and One Dark Throne! I’m so excited to read them!
I’m doing the blog tour for Roar, so I’ll definitely be doing a post!
Mine is scheduled for the 13th…but I have a bunch of small tasks to do and if I can get them done I win a pendant. There have been some really cool prizes from Cora! I’m glad you’re participating!!
I’m really excited to meet her in the flesh. She’ll be at BookCon so it’ll be nice to thank her. It’s my first street team and I loved it.
I’ll keep an eye out for your post!
Glad you’re enjoying the street team—they can be really fun when it’s an author you’re excited about!
It’s a whole new experience! I hope I get to do it again!
Oh my goodness, your Sunday posts are super great. I love how you list what is coming up on the blog. That is really neat and gives people a heads up on what is to come. I also like the pre order deals too. Wow. That’s wonderful! *Inspired to be more organized and creative with posts*
*Big hug*
Glad you love the Sunday Post! I’ve pretty much got the structure down, so it’s relatively easy to get it together nowadays. 🙂
Oh boy! You’ve been having fun and so much more to come. My mother and I plan to choose a long weekend, hit the road, and just stop each night when we feel tired. We want to stay in some quaint places and just enjoy unplugging.
Of course, I’ll be bring books. LOL
My Sunday Post
It’s fun to do a laid-back vacation where you can kind of play it by ear and do whatever you want. I love those!
OOh nice!! I enjoy a good road trip myself. The drive is never fun but being somewhere new always is! Never been to that part of TN myself. I think I’ve just been to Memphis when I was a kid because my sister was an Elvis fan back then and of course Nashville for some bookish happenings! LOL! The majority of my traveling is to see authors, but if I can swing it, I do like to get in some sightseeing! I’ve yet to get a vacation planned for myself and it’s driving me nuts! I need something to look forward to, to help get me day by day through work! But I got nothin! Although, I am honestly waiting on a few fall book happenings to see what the author lineup is, but I need more of an event or vacation to look forward to rather than details! 😛
Nice new reads too! Feeling anxious over One Dark Throne. I felt like I missed something when I read Three Dark Crowns because I only found it so-so. Weird, since I LOVE Kendare’s books! But I did read Roar earlier this month and really liked it! It took me by surprise because I wasn’t really expecting to like it all that much! Lol! Gotta love when that happens!
Hope you enjoy your new reads!
Here’s my STS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
Oh, sorry you didn’t love TDC—it’s definitely a favorite of mine, so I’m hoping that I love the next book just as much!
Your holiday plans sound really good! I had always hoped our family would get a caravan or something so we could just go travelling at our own pace, but we never got round to it. I don’t know if we’ll be going away this year. I hope so, I could do with a break!
We’re really looking forward to it because it’s such a unique vacation!
Yay for getting your vacation scheduled! Sounds like a great time!
We’re really excited for the trip! (though our plans for the RV actually fell through because they accidentally double-booked us, so now we’re working on getting another one.)
Glad to hear you had a better week and fun at Six Flags It’s definitely exciting to have a vacation booked! Hope you all, including your exchange student enjoy the RV experience. I added ELiza! Sounds SO GOOD! *Sigh*
I agree that Eliza sounds fantastic!
I’m so happy your week was so much better! And YAY for planning one of your dreams! You’re going to have so much fun! If you’re going to make a stop through Indy or Bloomington just holler. Chels and I can give recs for restaurants, if you want to eat out. And there is this really fun state park south of Bloomington that was where settlers first settled. They have the old buildings they use to live in and people act out making bread, sewing etc. There’s also hiking and you can take a little canoe ride into a cave. I’m spacing on the name since it’s been 10+ years ?, but if you are headed that way and interested I’ll search through my photos for the parks name. Here’s hoping the rest of your week goes great too!
Thanks for the advice! We don’t have the entire thing planned out yet, but if we’re heading that way I’ll definitely check in with you!