Armchair BEA Interview of Donna at Bites

Hey Everyone!  I hope that you are enjoying Armchair BEA!  I took the chance to interview a fellow blogger and learn a little bit about here.  So without wasting any more time let’s get to know Donna from Bites a little better!
 
 

Bites

 
 
 
How long have you been book blogging?
 
About two and a half years now.
 
 
Why did you start blogging?
 
I used to write reviews on my writing blog for the hell of it. Then I stumbled upon one of the publishers’ ARC programs and when I tried to sign up, I was denied because my blog wasn’t a pure review blog. So I farted around a little bit, came upon The Story Siren, among others, and got the inspiration to dive into the book blogging world. I transferred what reviews I already had, started posting and finding my footing in my own blogging world and the rest is history.
 
How did you pick your blog name?
 
In an early description of my review style I considered myself a Doberman Pinscher ripping into books. I chomped on books and spit out reviews. Bites was a natural formation from that whole mantra.
 
What is your favorite book from the last year and why?
 
That’s a hard one. Probably Draw the Dark by Ilsa J. Bick. Just her writing, what she wrote about, and how she pulled you right into the story and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t get enough of it. I promoted it every chance that I got and I turned quite a few people onto that title that probably wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise.
 
If you could meet any author who would it be and why?
 
Probably Cinda Williams Chima. I adore her worldbuilding in her Seven Realms novels and I’d just want to pick her brain about writing and whatnot.
 
If you had pick just 3 books to take with you to a deserted island what would they be?
 
Why We Suck by Denis Leary, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling and Song of the Vampire by Carmen Adams
 
Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you are from.
 
I’m 28 with a bachelor’s in English and a minor in creative writing. I currently underwrite insurance (it requires very little of my degree, to my chagrin) during the day and I try as I might to write at night. Like many of my fellow book bloggers, I’d like to be published some day. I’m the owner of a psychotic Miniature Pinscher named Malfoy (yes that Malfoy, do you know another?) and the keeper of a fine soldier boy. I’m currently looking to relocate from Connecticut to a place that doesn’t know the meaning of snow and where I won’t suffer a small death every spring. 
 
Thanks Donna for sharing a bit about yourself!  I can’t wait to check out all of these interviews!  I am sure most will be more fun than mine.

Armchair BEA: Best of 2011!

Sorry, my post is so late today everyone!  I had a very busy day and am just getting around to it.  So todays challenge was about the Best of 2011!  I have not read too many 2011 release books this year as sad as that is but here are some books I am looking forward too!
 
Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13)The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles)Divergent (Divergent Trilogy)DeliriumSkipping a Beat: A Novel
 
I have only read Delirium and Skipping A Beat but I really enjoyed them.
 
What about you?

Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes By Maureen Johnson

13 Little Blue Envelopes

Overview – 

13 Little Blue Envelopes

Product Details

  • Pub. Date: September 2006
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Format: Paperback , 317pp
  • Sales Rank: 19,252
  • Age Range: Young Adult

Synopsis

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket.
In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.
The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.
Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. But will she ever see him again?
Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it’s all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.
 

My Thoughts

 
Okay, so I need to get this out of my system before I start writing my review, I really liked this book!  Such a fun story and so very different from the other YA that I have read.
 
Ginny gets a little blue envelope that lays out some crazy rules, buy a plane ticket to Europe, take only 1 backpack, no additional money, and NO contact of any kind with those States side.  She is go to the Chinese restaurant below her aunt’s former apartment in NYC pick up a package and get on the plane.  As crazy as it is, she gets the package and gets on the plane after hours of restless travel she opens the package to find 12 little blue envelopes.  She opens #2 which gives her directions to her first challenge.  The oddest part of the this whole hunt is that her aunt has been dead for three months.  
 
Ginny is in for challenges she never thought she dreamed she would faced with.  She is alone in a foreign country following the envelope challenge of a dead women who left her when she really needed her.
 
My favorite part of this book it is that of a discovery of who Ginny really is and just how far outside her comfort zone she is willing to be pushed  She will meet quite a few interesting people and might just fall into a relationship.  She will lose everything before realizing that means she has won everything and more.  
 
This was a nice simple read good for even young YA reads and it a really clean well written book.  Self discovery is a strong message and done very well in 13 Little Blue Envelopes.  
 

My Rating

 
4 of 5 stars – I really liked this book and can’t wait to read the next.  I really want to know what happen with Ginny from here.
*I purchased this book and all opinions are my own.