Year: 2019

Nov 17
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 11/17/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 11/17/19

Sunday Post 41

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): I’m back from Cancun! We had a fabulous time. My favorite part was definitely the animals—the resort had a beach and pools, but it also had a lot of jungle areas where you could walk the paths and see wildlife. I was in love with the monkeys, coati, capybara and a tiny baby deer that came right up to us and let us pet it while it used us as a salt lick (we were salty from the ocean still). My heart pretty much melted right there and dripped down onto the jungle floor. And right next to our… Read more »

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Nov 14
Fun With Spam #9

Fun With Spam #9

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It’s time for a new installment of Fun with SPAM, where we peek into the abyss of the Spam folder to find a few gems and imagine … what if I were really going to reply to these random crazy comments?  Take a look at what I might say: Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read? Wow, you really tell it like it is, don’t you? You do make a very good point, though: I’m obviously throwing away my intelligence with the plethora of videos I post here on FYFA. I mean, there was that book trailer I posted that one time a year or so ago,… Read more »

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Nov 12
The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta: A Dual Review with Danielle Hammelef

The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta: A Dual Review with Danielle Hammelef

Dual Reviews, Reviews 7 ★★★★

(No actual dueling—or even arm-twisting—was involved. Don’t worry, this is a dual review, not a duel review. Sorry if you’re disappointed.) Danielle Hammelef was the latest winner of my Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up “Make Me Read It” giveaway, and she chose to make me read The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta. I’d bought this book at a Scholastic Book Fair awhile back because it looked like such a fun MG fantasy. I’m so glad she made me read it! Read on to see what we thought of the book… An imaginative middle grade fantasy that weaves Bengali folklore into the life of an everyday sixth grader!  What Fed Our Addiction: NICOLE SAYS: The Bengali folklore! If you’ve been around my blog for long, you know that I’m a fan of books that focus on cultures that haven’t been in the mainstream a whole lot. This book definitely fits the bill. I hadn’t heard… Read more »

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Nov 10
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 11/10/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 11/10/19

Sunday Post 15

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): I’m in Cancun right now, celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary!! (Which was technically in June, but who wants to go to Cancun when it’s already hot outside where you live?) Hopefully I’m having a fabulous time. Since I’m writing this post ahead of time, I have no idea.  🙂 Here’s what you may have missed on the blog since my last Sunday Post: The Edge of the Word by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison: Review, Giveaway & the Authors’ Top Ten Addictions – Last chance to enter the giveaway! Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel: Review & Giveaway Bite-Sized Reviews of… Read more »

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Nov 08
Bite-Sized Reviews of Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament, Becoming RBG, Friend or Fiction, and Catwad

Bite-Sized Reviews of Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament, Becoming RBG, Friend or Fiction, and Catwad

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  I’ve got five reviews for you today: a MG sci-fi, a MG contemporary fantasy, and three MG graphic novels. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book is absolutely perfect for fans of The Amazing Race!! Of course, you don’t have to be familiar with the show to enjoy the book, but if you are, you’ll get that extra layer of enjoyment. I actually hadn’t read the blurb before reading the book, so I hadn’t expected the comparison—but I immediately found myself thinking, “This is a middle grade Amazing Race with a teleportation twist!” Everything I used to love about that show is in here: the interesting puzzles (which readers can try to solve right along with the characters), the travel to new sites, the race to the finish line, and even the backstabbing competitors. 🙂 (I actually didn’t realize that the show is… Read more »

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Nov 07
Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel: Review & Giveaway

Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel: Review & Giveaway

Current Giveaways, Reviews 11 ★★★★

This heart-thumping thriller will keep you guessing! Who is behind Lia’s father’s death—and will she be the next victim? I hadn’t heard of the flash mob violence in Chicago, even though I live in the suburbs (now that I’ve looked it up, I know it’s scary stuff!), but I was incredibly intrigued at the idea of a book based on the concept. The idea of teenagers organizing violent mobs via social media is pretty scary. And then Gabriel took the concept and made it even scarier: What if the attacks were targeted, a cover-up for some larger scheme, and the victims were actually dying? The result is a YA thriller with incredibly high stakes. Lia hasn’t given up on finding the “Swarm” who killed her father, but when she tries to capture another attack on video, she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous game—one she doesn’t know the… Read more »

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Nov 05
The Edge of the Word by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison: Review, Giveaway & the Authors’ Top Ten Addictions

The Edge of the Word by Drew Callander and Alana Harrison: Review, Giveaway & the Authors’ Top Ten Addictions

Author Top Ten Lists, Current Giveaways, Reviews 9 ★★★★

I dare say that this second book in the series is even more interactive than the first! The book puts you right in the action, since you’re the main character (much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book) as you go on a quest to save Astorya by hiding the Original original in a place no one will ever look for it—on the Other Side (basically the underneath side of the world). This book includes even more fun Mad Libs style fill-in-the blanks and gives you more chances to actually draw your creations (for instance, you design a monster disguise that you wear in order to fool the monsters on the Other Side). And it also includes puzzles that you have to solve in order to complete your quest. This book is full of surprises (especially since you get to make up some of it yourself), and the quest ends in… Read more »

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Nov 03
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 11/3/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 11/3/19

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): Lots of activities for the kids right now. Danielle is finishing up her swim season and then she’ll be moving on to gymnastics. Noah just competed in his final soccer tournament for the “unified” team (where kids with special needs play with a few kids without special needs on the team), but he’s still playing floor hockey and they’re moving on to basketball as well (the Special Olympics is great because they get to play so many different things—it’s 7 different sports throughout the school year!). Meanwhile, I’ve still been driving Jade to her classes at the local community college…. Read more »

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Nov 02
October 2019 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

October 2019 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Best of the Bunch, Monthly Recap 18

My Goings On in October: My daughter is recovering from her accident. If you’ve been following my Sunday Posts, you’ve already heard all about this, so I won’t go into details here (I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me talk about it). Lots of this month was spent at doctors’ offices and hospitals and surgery centers, but we’re (hopefully) done with all that now, and she’s just got a healing broken ankle and some occasional nausea to deal with. My youngest turned 15! (Yep, I’m old.) Not much else. Honestly, the health stuff took up most of my month. The rest is a blur. What I watched: We’ve been watching the new (and final 🙁 ) season of The Good Place. Loving it!! I’m a bit behind, but I’m also watching the current season of So You Think You Can Dance. At the beginning of the month, I watched Netflix’s Tall… Read more »

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Nov 01
November 2019 Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

November 2019 Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

Book Blog Discussion Challenge, Current Giveaways 0

Welcome to the November monthly link-up for the 2019 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight! As the year winds down, November gives us a chance to think about things we’re thankful for. I know I am thankful that you all choose to discuss bookish stuff with us! The winner of our August discussion challenge giveaway was Emily the Book Nerd! Emily hasn’t chosen a book yet because Shannon forgot to pick a winner (trust me, it could just have easily been me). Rest assured that Emily has since been emailed and will choose a lovely book, I am sure! If you don’t know what this challenge is all about or haven’t signed up yet (but want to), head on over to the challenge sign-up page to learn more! Even if you’d rather not join, we hope you’ll… Read more »

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