Contest Monday - June 29, 2009 - Ghostgirl Series by Tonya Hurley

Welcome to this week's Contest Monday! Yes, I know it's Wednesday but it's the official release date of

ghostgirl: Homecoming by Tonya Hurley

In celebration the publisher, Little, Brown, is giving away TWO copies of ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming!

So, two people get to take home the complete, lovely set! These books have great formatting! Both books are shaped like coffins and have two color covers with a plastic overlay. They also both have silver foil on the page edges. ghostgirl is black with pink and has black vines and pink flowers on the inside pages while ghostgirl: homecoming is purple and lavender with black vines and purple flowers on the inside pages! Very awesome design.

So, do you want a set? Open to US Residents only!

+1 - tell me about a great book you've read so far this year
+1 - become a follower and mention it in a second comment with your email addy
+2 - you are already a follower so just mention it in a second comment with your email addy.

That's it, that's all it takes. Just remember, I need your email address! This contest will close Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:59 pm. Winners will be announced Friday, July 10 here on The Friday Five. Check back to see if it's you!

Have a great week!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading - 6/29

It's Monday, What Are You Reading is the place I try to decide how I'm going to spend my week and is hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog. Lately, I haven't been meeting my goals. So during What Are You Reading 6/22, I decided to stop looking at the number of books I read and focus instead on how many pages I've read. Let's see how I did:

Finished
Reality Check by Peter Abrahams (330) - read it in two sittings!
Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog (248) - loved this one!
The Vanishing Sculptor by Donita K. Paul (180/390) - I reviewed The Vanishing Sculptor and have a copy to giveaway.
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand (111/359)- blog tour July 9th and Contest Monday July 13th.
ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley (328) - Contest Monday giveaway - tomorrow!
Game On! Diet Challenge by Krista Vernoff and AZ Ferguson - I reviewed Game On! and talked about how I'm going to try and incorporate this with some other bloggers.

How did I do? I read 1,295 pgs and 3 of 4 books I wanted to finish plus 2 other books! I'm predicting a comeback!

Abandoned
Being Nikki by Meg Cabot - I just didn't want to put any more time into reading this. I feel so much better!

Started
Emma by Jane Austen (12/438)
The Heights by Brian James (17/246)
The Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiana (26/269)
Wings by Aprilynne Pike (43/290)

Upcoming
This week I want to start my Shakespearean Summer Challenge, Everything Jane Austen Challenge, and read some of my library books. I have 32 books checked out!!!!!! Luckily, I only work 2 days this week (yeah!) although I do have homework (boo!). Ok, here's what I'm thinking:

Emma by Jane Austen (426/438) - love Austen!
The Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiana (243/269)- Library book (lb)
Wings by Aprilynne Pike (247/290)- lb
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (100) - lb and I can finally read
Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (134) -lb and Are You My Newbery?
The Great Call of China by Cynthea Liu (246) -lb and homework
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (287) - No Fear Shakespeare version with complete text and side by side translation!

Ok, that's 1,683 pgs - 667 more than last week. I should be able to do it though! Right?

What Are You Reading?

Review - ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming by Tonya Hurley

Readin'
ghostgirl
Tonya Hurley
Little, Brown
328 p.
3 hrs.

ghostgirl: Homecoming
Tonya Hurley
Little, Brown
284 p.
2hr. 15 min.

Writin'
In ghostgirl we met Charlotte and she'd totally transformed her life. New hair, new makeup, new clothes, new attitude...she was going to conquer senior year! And Damen. Damen is the most popular guy in the school and Charlotte has a huge crush on him. She's assigned to be his lab partner but then things go wrong. Dead wrong.

In ghostgirl: homecoming we are re-introduced to Scarlet, Charlotte's possession buddy. Scarlet's sister, Petula, gets a staph infection and is in the hospital. She's in a coma and they are not sure she'll get better. Scarlet decides to find Charlotte so that she can help her save Petula.

'Rithmetic
ghostgirl starts out strong: great premise, funny writing but then it kinda dwindles. Each part of the story is interesting: changing your life for someone else, dead education to help you cross over, trying to possess someone to get what you want, and a haunted house halloween party. Would probably have been better as four separate books. Also, Hurley seems to be cutting down a variety of people but I hope it's just some sort of tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. My main problem with ghostgirl is I didn't really feel a connection with any of the characters.

ghostgirl: homecoming featured much tighter writing. As with ghostgirl, there's more than one story line but Hurley is able to keep you focused on the main one. We get a better picture of Scarlet and understand that her trying to save Petula is motivated by her insecurity in her new relationship. This was a much better and faster read.

I give both books 1 copy. I'll get 1 copy of ghostgirl: homecoming and we already have ghostgirl.

Want to win a copy of ghostgirl and ghostgirl: homecoming? Check out Contest Monday!

In My Mailbox - June 1

This week's book's I've received, aka In My Mailbox, is brought to you courtesy of The Story Siren - check out her new blog design. Somehow this moved to Sunday night without me noticing...will take care of next week. Let's get right to books I bought, begged for, and books I'll tour.

Bought: I know I promised not buy so many books, but sometimes it's the only way to get what you want!

Looking for Alibrandri by Melina Marchetta
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger



Hero Type by Barry Lyga
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer
Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison




Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler - Lots of fun activities coming up with this title. Today was the official release day and I'll be posting about a Twitter Party and other activities later today - stay tuned! It will be a blast! We'll be featuring activities throughout the month of June to celebrate!

Begged For:

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari
Knowing I couldn't go to BEA I was afraid I wouldn't get this book - but Little, Brown tweeted about it and sent it to me! It releases September 1st and I am psyched to read it. It has a different phobia listed before each chapter. Great formatting. It's also a middle-grades novel which I'm looking to add to our collection.

The Actor and The Housewife by Shannon Hale
I received this one from Bloomsbury. I've already read it and it was fantastic. Sometimes I laughed out-loud, in public places! I cried quite a few times. Shannon's writing made me feel like I was the housewife going through this. Look for my review later this week.


Blog Tours:

The Vanishing Sculptor by Danita K. Paul
The Vanishing Sculptor releases June 2, 2009. I'll be touring June 22 - June 26, please stop by to hear more about this new fantasy for middle grades. I'll be giving away two copies of this book!


Ghostgirl:Homecoming by Tanya Hurley
Ghostgirl: homecoming releases July 1, 2009 and I get to interview Tonya Hurley!! I have two copies of ghostgirl and two copies of ghostgirl:homecoming to give away! Love the coffin books!


Well, those are the books in my mailbox. I'm thinking of doing all blog tour books separately...I'm going to have to get my calendar together so I keep track of everything! Some fun reading coming up as soon as I'm completely done with work!

What's in your mailbox?