Facelift

Allow me to state the obvious and say...I got a new blog layout. This is the first time in three (!!!) years that I've changed the blog in such a drastic way, though I've been wanting to do it for a very long time.

But, what I suppose really matters is what YOU think of it. Do you like it? Is there anything that really bugs you, or looks funky? Please let me know!

ETA: I was a little surprised by your comments, but I really appreciate everyone's honesty. I'm not loving this one as well, but I was tired of the dots. Please keep the comments coming! I'm looking into getting something a little more personalized done (cost is a big issue), so if you have any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them!

Valentine With Bite Tour!

Carrie Jones, author of Need and Captivate, and Alyxandra Harvey, author of Hearts at Stake, will be touring together in person and virtually this month! You can click here to check out their tour schedule, and then check back on Valentine's Day for an interview with both about romance and writing!

New Location, Same Blog!

Hey everyone...so you may or may not have noticed, but The Compulsive Reader has gone "official" and is now www.thecompulsivereader.com! Woohoo! It's something I've been wanting to do for a while, partly because so many people forgot about the blogspot part of the address, partly because it's such a mouthful without it, and partly because I wanted to snag it before anyone else did.

So anyway, if you still use the old URL, no worries, it should redirect you to the right spot, same with any URL on any specific site you may have. Even though the official URL has changed, and I'd prefer that people be familiar with that one, the old one still works!

I am really excited to have gotten an official domain name, and thanks so much to everyone for your support!

Happy Reading,

TCR

I'm Off!

Hello all,

Just a quick note to say I'm going to be out until next Sunday! I'll be in New York with my family, visiting colleges and sightseeing and being Obnxious Tourists (sorry to all you NYCers!) and the whole nine yards. I will be without internet access, unfortunately (trying not to freak out about this), but I will take lots and lots of pictures and read lots and lots of books and tell everyone how it goes!

I've also scheduled a few posts for the upcoming week, so don't stop coming by!

Have a great week!

TCR

Need Some Help

Hey everyone,

I need some help. I am looking to talk with teen guys, ages 15-19, who are fans of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, and who live in Michigan. This is pretty specific, I know. If you fit the bill, or know someone who does, would you mind shooting me an email? I have a pretty cool opportunity I'd like to share. My email address is thecompulsivereader@gmail.com.

Thanks a bunch!

TCR

Trailer Update

If you've been following my tweets on Twitter, you'll know that today I did a very stupid thing and accidentally DELETED all of my YouTube videos! All of my trailers and my vlog are gone, but hopefully they will be back up and running by Thursday (thank goodness for back-up files!). I apologize if this is an inconvienance for anyone, and I'll be sure to let you know when they're back, and give you all new links.

Thanks,

TCR

Winners of February's Contests

Hi everyone,

I'm so sorry for being so behind schedule. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that my good friend has been in the hospital this past week, and I've hardly had any free time. Hence this tardy announcement of all of the winners of February's contests.

Winner of the February Book of the Month Contest (a copy of The A List: Hollywood Royalty, In Too Deep, and Pants on Fire) is Teresa Warner!

Winner of February's B2B contest, a copy of Zoe Marriott's The Swan Kingdom, is Hillary Krajewski! (If you entered this contest, but didn't win, don't worry! You'll still be entered to win March's book!)

Winners of the copy of The Siege of Macindaw are Levi Vermeer, Staci Taylor, Kymberly Pelky, Kay Gehring, and Thea Groger!

And the winner of Zoe Marriott's inspirational playlist contest is Chantele! (Send me your address, Chantele!)

Thanks to everyone for participating, and be sure to check out the new Willow giveaway, the Mary Hogan giveaway, and keep your eyes peeled for the new B2B contest and the Book of the Month Contest!

Winners of January's Contests

First off, thanks to everyone who entered! I appreciate it!

The winners of the Behold the Eye contest are violetcrush and Nicola! Send me your addresses, and thanks for entering!

The winner of January's B2B contest is Chelsie Lacny! Congrats, Chelsie! Stealing Heaven will be on its way soon.

Thanks everyone, and check back soon for another B2B contest, and more, coming soon!

Rumors Winner

The winner of the copy of Rumors is Cassandra! Congrats! Just send me your address!

Also, I just wanted to apologize for being rather sporadic of late when it comes to posting. I'm a student, and my course load this semester is VERY heavy, which leaves me little time for anything besides studying in the evening, hence the weekend updates. While I don't anticipate it lightening up any time soon, I promise you that I will keep updating and reading and offering cool contests and Book of the Month features to the best of my ability. Thanks to everyone for your understanding!

Whew...

After a hectic, crazy, fun, and completely wonderful two months, my fellow Cybils panelists and I have finally narrowed down 100+ nominations for the Cybils Awards in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category (for both MG and YA!) down to 11 books to pass off to the judges. It's been a lot of hard work, but also a lot of fun, and I loved every minute of it.

And now you readers can expect more diverse reviews other than the same old fantasy and science fiction books all the time.

Anyways, I'm excited to see what the judges will decide! I imagine that the finalists should be announced over at the Cybils site within the next few days.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!

Sooooo Sooooory

My computer got hacked. And then it died. And then it got revived. And this whole process took two weeks.

And now I'm back! (Along with a dozen apologies, a contest winner announcement, another contest, and hopefully later, another review!)

First off, I hope everyone had a happy Christmas/Kwanza/Hannukah/holiday break! As for myself, after yesterday, I'm pretty sure if I never ate again until March, I would live. So much food...

Anyways, contest winner! Thanks to everyone who checked out the videos about Francey by Martin Dubow! You can see my review of the book here, and the videos here! The videos are especially intriguing and will really spark your interest.

Congratulations to Mrs. Shealy--you've won the copy of Francey. Just email me your snail mail address at thecompulsivereader@gmail.com and I'll get it right out to you!

And, continuing with the Fun Friday tradition, I've got another book for you all to win! The fifth book in the Morganville Vampires series, Lord of Misrule, is coming out January 6th, and you could be the proud owner of a copy of it before it even comes out! Just comment below to be entered to win, and I'll pick a winner on Monday. Extra entries will be given to people who tell others about this contest--just be sure to tell me where you heard about this contest in your comment!

Good luck, and have a happy Friday!

TCR

Sasha Watson is Awesome

Sasha Watson, author of Vidalia in Paris, is pretty awesome. Here's a video in which she talks about why she writes YA, reads aloud a chapter from Vidalia in Paris, and answers a few questions. Enjoy!

P.S. Did I mention that Sasha also interviewed me? There's even a semi good picture of me in front of my book shelves...

Winner!

Congrats to Breanna for winning the copy of Revealers! Check your email!

And to everyone else, check back Friday for another contest!

Twilight Confessionals

I've been pretty objective as far as Twilight is concerned, but since I've got about 25 emails in my inbox wanting to know about my opinion on Twilight, both the books and movie, so here goes it. Where I stand on TWILIGHT:

I read Twilight in 2005.

I instantly loved it.

My copy (hardcover!) fell apart in 2006 from changing hands so much.

I am not overly fond of New Moon.

Nor Eclipse.

I jumped up and down once (okay, twice) when I heard that the Twilight movie was a go.

I was not shocked when Twilight became semi uncool to people.

I eagerly anticipated Breaking Dawn.

I got a teensy bit sick of Twilight talk.

I bought Breaking Dawn the first day it came out.

I did not go to a party, however.

I read BD in two days.

I did not think it was THAT BAD.

But, the pregnancy thing was tres odd.

Also, Jacob POV? Annoying, funny, perfect.

Also, cleolinda's spoof? Fantastic!

I went to see Twilight Friday night.

I thought that the sparkle was cheesy.

I thought some romantic parts did not translate well on screen.

I laughed a little (okay, a LOT) when Edward sucked the venom out of Bella's hand.

I was one of those obnoxious teenagers in the front row.

I liked the Twilight movie.

I like The Host better than the Twilight sequels.

I like Stephenie Meyer.

SO THERE.

And the Belated Winner Is...

Sorry for the delay, but the winner of the Halloween Spooktacular contest is Yan L.! Congrats, and your prize will be in the mail shortly!

I'm Baaaack...

Hi there everyone,

Sorry for the long absence...the stomach flu was busy kicking my butt, and I was not in the blogging mood. I was, however, in the reading mood, so expect some reviews up real quick, especially since one of the big perks of being a panelist for the Cybils (review copies!) has started to show up, and I've got more than enough to read.

Hope you're having a great Monday, and check back soon for loads of reviews!

Cheers,

TCR

Winners!

I nearly forgot to announce the winners of the Author Spotlight Contest! Thanks so much to all who entered!

The grand prize winner of a copy The Juliet Club, The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney, and a Juliet Club tank, is Catalina A.!

The three second prize winners, who will each receive a Juliet Club tank, are Chelsie L., Lisette C., and Yan L.!

Congratulations, everyone!

So Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want...

Besides wanting me to shut up, that is.

No my darling book buddies, I will not quote old pop songs at you. It's been a little while since I've gotten nice and up and close and personal with ya'll, so here's a confession I have to make: I have a tendency to get rather caught up in rankings and ratings. It's a very bad habit, I know. I'm trying to break it, I PROMISE. But in the meantime, Amazon.com has become my enabler, what with their reviewer rankings. And recently, my nifty little helpful percentage dropped a percent (Oh, I know what you're thinking, "Oooh, big deal! Not."), and it got me thinking about what readers really want in reviews.

I might have mentioned this before, but I really don't like reading reviews. It's true (although that's NOT the reson I'm behind on my GoogleReader posts, I SWEAR). I'm such a hypocrite, I know. I even hate reading the little reviews under the product descriptions on Amazon (don't read the one for Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier! Blatant spoiler alert!). So, I guess I am kinda shooting in the dark when it comes to writing reviews, even though I've been doing it on the public blog for almost a year. (Whoa, a year? Wow. It just hit me. Like a heavy hard drive.)

So what do you want to know? As most of you know, I'm pretty formal (no personal pronouns, no crazed fangirl moments, etc.) to avoid sounding like another teen ranting and raving. Do you like the product summaries? Wanna know if the characters were believable? Is the plot unique? What's one thing (or you can tell me about more than one thing) that you want to know about a book when you read a review? Or do want me to not change? I'm here to serve you.

Also! I may or may not have totally lost my cool and flipped out about a certain series by PC and Kristen Cast back in July... Anyways, as most of you should know, seeing as it's currently number two on this month's poll, UNTAMED, the fourth book in the series comes out in less than a week! If any of you are like me, you are dying of anticipation. But I have something that will help! Click here. You are welcome. Also, isn't it pretty? And it's very complex! Complex enough to sustain us til HUNTED, which comes out in March!

I think that's it...except, I am sorry about the sloooow updates. That would be due to the malignant Calcu-Beast. You guys don't realize how lucky you are that you have me to keep it at bay with my handy-dandy graphing calculator and nifty purple pencil. I'm just saying...

Winners and Articles and Twitter, Oh My!

Hey there,

Thanks for entering the Author Spotlight, everyone! The vlog from Anita Liberty is coming soon!

The winners are: Katlin S., Anita Y., Brett R., Jennifer R., and Pamela W.! Your book will be going into the mail this week! And for everyone who didn't win, don't worry! I still have five more copies that I'll be giving away over the course of the next weeks!

In other news, here's an interesting article about one librarian does about bridging the gap between children's books and YA.

Have I mentioned that I now Twitter? I don't think so. Well, I've been doing it for about a month now, and it is pretty addicting and fun. You can follow me at twitter.com/compelledtoread (thecompulsivereader was too long. *sigh*).

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend!

~TCR

Have I Mentioned...

...that I have a personal blog? It's located here, and it's all about non-bookish life stuff, and writing. I've posted a few pieces there for some feedback, but haven't gotten any yet. If you are so inclined, feel free to check it out.