Saturday, August 22, 2015

Cover Mini Challenge


Welcome to the Cover Mini Challenge for Utah Book Month!!
If you participate you'll get another entry in the Grand Prize!
Are you excited!?

I will show you a snippet of a Utah Book, and you will have to guess the title and author.
Easy right?

Good luck everyone!





Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Utah Bloggers


I have met so many wonderful bloggers since I started blogging! I actually started meeting authors and bloggers before I started blogging, but it escalated when I started.

I just want to give a shout out to ALL our AMAZING Utah Bloggers!
Thanks for making our community welcome and wonderful, and thanks for your friendship and support!

Here some pictures of bloggers, authors, and some of our fun times!






























We've had so many great times and book events here in Utah! I LOVE LOVE LOVE our blogger community!

Big shout out to some of my favorite Utah Blogs (a lot of them featured in pictures above):

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Fairy Tale Retellings


Ten Eleven Fairy Tale Retellings I've Read/Want to Read

Since this is Utah Book Month, I'll list a bunch of retellings written by our Utah Authors!

I've Read
179064 3697927
7199667 12873027
Cinder and Ella Atlantia
2626492 1210754
8428195


Want to Read
1606700818053786

Monday, August 3, 2015

Atlantia

21944884Goodreads Synopsis:    Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

My Thoughts:

-    I love Ally Condie! She is amazing! I liked her Matched Trilogy better, but this was still good.

-    Ally said this book was based on The Littler Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. I was excited about that, but the story was VERY loosely based on the fairy tale. I don't know if I would even call this an retelling. It was its own story and pretty original. 

-    The best part of this book is the world building! Wow! It was so visual and beautiful. I loved the gondolas, the silver trees, the whole atmosphere of Atlantia. It was great!

-    The characters were a little flat for me. I didn't really connect with any of them. I wasn't very sympathetic towards Rio's predicament until towards the end. I wish she had done some more growing as an individual. Her identity was centered on her family and others, and I wish she had become more independent. 

-    The story and the idea of Atlantia were fascinating to me, but the story as a whole was a little bland. Not a lot of exciting stuff happened. 

-    On the flip side, I appreciate the subtly of the story. Ally is a very poetic writer, and I loved when that came through. 

-    Despite the things that were flat, I still enjoyed the book. I recommend it to any Ally Condie fan. 


Saturday, August 1, 2015

Utah Book Month Kick Off!!


The time has finally arrived!!!
We are kicking off Utah Book Month!! Wahoo!!

It isn't too late to sign up!

We have A LOT of fun stuff planned throughout the month:

Read along
Mini Challenges
Weekly Topics
Mega Giveaway

AND

We will be chatting with all these lovely Utah Authors

Head over to the Utah Books Blog for all the details!!

Of course we will be reading lots of amazing Utah Books!
Here is my reading queue for the month:

17731926 20757532 23009011
22929540 20613581 16150914
18053984 16067008

Let it begin! Let it begin!!