Q&A with Mindy McGinnis

Today I welcome Mindy McGinnis, author of the upcoming Not A Drop To Drink! 

I have been waiting for this book ever since that amazing blurb came out! Just wait until I get my hands on a copy. 

I will be UNSTOPPABLE!!

And for those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about... neither do I. It's getting closer to October I guess. I'm try to connect with my inner villain. Obviously not working. Let us move on before I humiliate myself any further.

Author Bio

Mindy McGinnis is an assistant YA librarian who lives in Ohio and cans her own food. She graduated from Otterbein University magna cum laude with a BA in English Literature and Religion. Mindy has a pond in her back yard but has never shot anyone, as her morals tend to cloud her vision.

Check out Mindy McGinni's upcoming release:

Title: Not A Drop To Drink

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Pub. Date: Sept. 24, 2013

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Check it out on: Amazon

Blurb:

Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water. 

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snow less winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

 

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

With evocative, spare language and incredible drama, danger, and romance, debut author Mindy McGinnis depicts one girl’s journey in a barren world not so different than our own. 

If you have been searching for the best of the best when it comes to tough watches for women see here.

Book Review: Reboot

Title: Reboot Author: Amy Tintera Hardcover: 365 pages Pub. Date: May 7, 2013 Publisher: HarperTeen Source: Bought Check it out on:  Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).
Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.
The perfect soldier is done taking orders.
Starting Lines:
They always screamed.
My assignment wailed as she slipped in the mud, whipping her head around to see if I was gaining on her.
I was.
My Reaction to those lines:

With extra butter.

My Thoughts: 

Okay, I actually finished reading Reboot a while ago, but I couldn't decide how to approach this book without making it sound terrible, because it wasn't horrible... it just wasn't amazing. And 'amazing' was what I was looking for. Reboot fell somewhere in-between 'Waste. Of. Time.' and 'I Must Read This Book Over and Over Again Until the Pages Fall out'. So in other words: 'Eh'.

Character-wise, Wren confused me. She was rebooted 178 minutes after she died, and that's as far as anyone has ever gone, so she was supposed to be this unfeeling, merciless soldier that everyone was afraid of. Everyone was definitely a little freaked out when she showed up, but she acted like any other Reboot. There wasn't anything special about her other than the way everyone acted around her. She was cool, but not as badass as the blurb made her out to be. I was hoping she would be cold-hearted and ruthless, but she was actually one of those tough girls with the hard outer shell, but inside she was full of lollipops and sunshine and girlish crushes.

Callum, on the other hand, was a weirdo. Sometimes I was glad when Wren beat the crap out of him because his naivety was so aggravating, and other times, I kind of wanted to hug him and apologize (those weren't many). He's a sweet. A little too sweet, and a couple pages into the book, Wren was already thinking about him nonstop. Sure, there were a lot of cute moments stolen between the two of them that I'm sure would have melted any normal girl's heart in an instant, but Wren isn't normal is she? She sounded like it though.

 

Most of my disappointment came from the fact that Reboot fell short of surprises. And I'm starting to find this in many of the new YA dystopia books. It's the same hackneyed concept rearranged and tweaked to follow a similar plot with similar characters, but from a different perspective. Thing is, sooner or later the entire thing is just going to grow old and wither away. Like Twilight and the take-over of sappy werewolf/vampire love stories *shudders*. And Reboot was basically the same thing. 

Wren (love the name) is the tough girl in the tough environment where the government is bad and takes advantage of her heightened powers. She meets the new, sweet guy and he changes the way she sees things. She falls in love with him, realizes what a horrible society she lives in and they both run away and find this mysterious haven where they lived happily ever after. *cue the fireworks* 

Yes, this Reboot stuff was definitely a nice addition (a little refreshing too), but the rest of the plot was lacking in suspense and, although there were tons of action, it didn't really lead anywhere because there weren't any unexpected turns. All I looked forward to is Wren and Callum's safe departure and safe arrival to the Reboot haven. Other than that...

The beginning was great though. I was totally immersed in the story because (like it or not) all this Reboot stuff had caught my attention. Plus, Amy Tintera's writing is amazing, so that was a huge bonus. But I feel like the story didn't make much of an impact, because by the time I was done with it, I had forgotten most of the beginning.

Overall, I didn't hate the book. It's one of those 'you read it once and once is enough' books, but it had the potential of becoming something unforgettable. Sadly, it didn't reach that mark. On a lighter note, Reboot had it's cute moments between relatively likable characters and the writing definitely drew me in. It lagged a couple of times, but there was plenty of action. I don't really know if I'll go onto the second one though. If I had to choose the next book in this series against any other one in my TBR pile, I'd go with the latter.

Do I recommend it?

If you don't have anything else to read and you like cute romances, then sure, but don't expect too much out of it.

Q&A with Julie Kagawa!

Meet Julie Kagawa (my all-time favorite author)-

Julie Kagawa, the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn’t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.

When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.

To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full time.

Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon.

Today, Julie and I will be discussing (more squealing on my part) about her new series,  Blood of Eden.

Here's some extra info on Julie Kagawa's AWESOME new series:

 

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Pub. Date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Check it out on: Amazon

Blurb:

To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.
Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for… again.
Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

Title: The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Pub. Date: May 3, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Check it out on: Amazon

Blurb:

In Allison Sekemoto's world, there is one rule left: Blood calls to blood 
She has done the unthinkable: died so that she might continue to live. Cast out of Eden and separated from the boy she dared to love, Allie will follow the call of blood to save her creator, Kanin, from the psychotic vampire Sarren. But when the trail leads to Allie's birthplace in New Covington, what Allie finds there will change the world forever-and possibly end human and vampire existence. 
There's a new plague on the rise, a strain of the Red Lung virus that wiped out most of humanity generations ago-and this strain is deadly to humans and vampires alike. The only hope for a cure lies in the secrets Kanin carries, if Allie can get to him in time. 
Allison thought that immortality was forever. But now, with eternity itself hanging in the balance, the lines between human and monster will blur even further, and Allie must face another choice she could never have imagined having to make.

 

So let's talk~

Have you ever read any of the Blood of Eden books? Did you love them? Hate them? Wanted to throw them against the wall and cry because you have to wait until 2014 for the next book and you just can't because the ending in The Eternity Cure was TORTURE?!