Doodle Days 1.28.10

What day is it today? End of January? This can really only mean one thing. My senioritis levels are at an all time high at the moment.

I always carry a sketchbook around with me in case inspiration hits, but for the last couple of weeks the pages have been slowly filling up with notes about Gregorian chants and monophonic musical textures. But I found myself doodling scenes from Bree Despain's The Dark Divine a few days ago, which led to this slew of sketches based on novels I had recently read.

I always like seeing fanart of books I read, making my own never feels right, but as I sat and sketched these...well it made me happy to create a physical being for the images in my mind. It's one thing to draw something everyone can recognize such as an anime character or a movie star. But drawing from text without illustrations is just so much better, nobody can criticize you because "it doesn't look like them!" You really have to love the creative license.

Anyway, today what I'm showing you guys are the images that come to mind when I read certain books. And it's actually things that I can't put into the words of a simple book review. These are drawings inspired by The Dark Divine, Shiver, Sea Change, and Eyes Like Stars. You can click on the image to see it in better detail, but I ask you to please be cool about it. Don't steal.

Along with this however I leave my piece to say goodnight to one of the greatest minds in literature, J.D. Salinger, who passed away yesterday January 27th. This is a four page comic based on a scene from his masterpiece The Catcher in the Rye which I dedicate to his memory and his legacy.

"That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the Catcher in the Rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

Lorena

Crazy Beautiful- REVIEW

Lorena's Review of Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

How many re-tellings of Beauty and the Beast are on your shelf? Go on, go count them, I can wait.
I can tell you how many I have.

Five.

Five different books, by five different authors to tell me in five different ways how a girl and a beast fall in love. So when I picked up Crazy Beautiful it wasn't because I wanted someone else to tell me how a girl was trapped in a castle by a tormented monster. I already have enough copies of that. But to see how a real life Beauty and a real life Beast can co-exist and fall in love without the need of a wicked witch's spell to bring them together, but their own desires.


Synopsis:
"In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her. But to Lucius, they mean everything.

They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering.

Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does. "


Review:
If this book was meant to have been a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, it failed.
But if it was meant for more than that, then I shall give it the praise it so much deserves.

What Crazy Beautiful does is more than just retell the story of the girl and the monster. It tells the story of two lovestruck teenagers. A boy tormented and exiled for the monster he's become, and the girl he can never touch.
What Lauren carries through this book isn't the formula to recreate the fairytale, but the raw emotions that run deep in the story that makes Beauty and the Beast what it is today.

I know what the flap of the book says, I'm just telling you it's a load of bull. This story is too powerful to be marked as just another retelling of an old tale. There's no magic, no enchantment, only the magic of what Lucius and Aurora make out of life, and how they choose to live it. They aren't bogged down to the lifespan of a single red rose, but by their own decisions, their own mistakes.

Crazy Beautiful is really an easy book to read. It's dark, sure, and might even make you question your own actions. But I'd easily recommend it to anyone, with only 208 pages, there's no reason not to read it. Again I'll warn you. Don't dive into this book hoping to see a boy who's own vanity has transformed him into a monster. There are plenty of other books I could recommend for that, but this just isn't it. This is only if you want to enter the mind of a boy who's monstrosity has been created by the society around him, and the one girl that can help him.

Richelle Mead Q&A!

Here's a Q&A with bestselling author of the Vampire Academy Series, Richelle Mead.


1. What's the most random question you can think of? Answer it.

How do you make meat loaf?
Um, there's meat in it.

2. If 'they' decided to make a movie of your life, which actor would you want to play you?

Well there's no one that looks like me...maybe Nicole Kidman back in the day.

3. If someone suddenly threw a wad of twenty thousand dollars at you, how would you respond?

Well I'd ask if it was theirs...but I guess I'd put it to my retirement fund. After I buy some really expensive shoes.

4. When writing some authors plan every detail and others just dive into the book, so are you an outliner or a diver (or a mix)?

Outliner, totally.

5. Who pwns everything?

Me, I mean, I'm the creator.

6. Can you do the Time Warp again?

Yes, well I could in high school.

Purple New Years Giveaway!- WINNERS

Now that the time for entries has finished, out of a random drawing of winners. The five entrants who will be receiving books are:

• Book Addict Girl- Wanderlust
• Crazy for Words- Bleeding Violet
• Tiger- Wish
• Lindsay- The Ever Breath
• Missy- The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all of you who entered.

-The YAthenaeum Team

Purple New Years Giveaway!- UPDATE

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
As a last minute update we're adding one more book to the giveaway.

An Advanced Readers Copy of:

• Wanderlust: A Beautiful Americans Novel by Lucy Silag

So instead of 4, we will be drawing 5 winners! If you've already entered this contest, Wanderlust will be added as your fifth choice, but new entrants are welcome to place it wherever they want.

For original contest rules please go to the original post: HERE

-The YAthenaeum Team

Richelle Mead Tomorrow!

Thanks to you, Miami beat eight other cities to win this stop on Richelle's tour. So, we know you have all been excited as we have been to have her come.

She'll finally be here tomorrow, Sunday, January 17 at 7pm at the Coral Gables Congregational Church.

Coral Gables Congregational Church

3010 De Soto Blvd.

Coral Gables, FL 33134
(across from the Biltmore Hotel)

The tour brings the Vampire Academy: Signature Edition which includes a sneak peek of the first chapter of Vampire Academy 5: Spirit Bound to be released in May.

"St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where royal Moroi vampires are educated in the ways of magic alongside half-human/half-vampire teens, called dhampirs, who train to protect them from Strigoi, a race of evil immortal vampires. Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from the Strigoi; the fiercest vampires—the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger...and the Strigoi are always close by."

Hope to see you all there!!!

-The YAthenaeum Team

Radiant Shadows- REVIEW

Lorena's Review of Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr

I sometimes feel awkward writing reviews so far away from a book's publication date, but I couldn't help myself, I need to tell you about this book. Wow, I haven't been this excited since Ink Exchange was released. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wicked Lovely series, odd numbered books are part of the canon series, while even numbered ones are stand-alone novels in the same universe. Radiant Shadows is the fourth book in Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series.

Forget the troubles of the Summer Court and let yourself be lured to the shadows of the Dark Court. War is on the doorstep of the fairy courts, and their fates might rest in the hands of a Hound and an Assassin.


Synopsis:
"Hunger for nourishment.
Hunger for touch.
Hunger to belong.
Half-human and half-faery, Ani is driven by her hungers.
Those same appetites also attract powerful enemies and uncertain allies, including Devlin. He was created as an assassin and is brother to the faeries’ coolly logical High Queen and to her chaotic twin, the embodiment of War. Devlin wants to keep Ani safe from his sisters, knowing that if he fails, he will be the instrument of Ani’s death. Ani isn’t one to be guarded while others fight battles for her, though. She has the courage to protect herself and the ability to alter Devlin’s plans—and his life. The two are drawn together, each with reason to fear the other and to fear for one another. But as they grow closer, a larger threat imperils the whole of Faerie. Will saving the faery realm mean losing each other?"


Review:
One of the biggest things I noticed about Radiant Shadows, if not the first, was that it was lighter than Ink Exchange. You wouldn't think anything surrounding the Dark Court could be taken in such a manner. But as I closed the cover of the book, I found myself feeling...well...happy. This isn't a feeling I normally associate with the Wicked Lovely stand-alones, but it just felt so right. There's such a feeling of triumph and completion to be had when this book is finished, it's just blissful. I couldn't think of a better novel to start the year off with.

I'll take this time to admit it, I'm a sucker for the antihero, and who could be a better candidate for such a character than a man who is the pure embodiment of logic and war. Devlin is such a well crafted character, that throughout the entire novel I wanted nothing more than to understand his point of view. A need to follow his court, his queen, while at the same time controlling his desires and his heart. Following him was an intense ride to say the least.

There is a point I'd like to make out before I go on a rant about how everyone should read Radiant Shadows. While it can be read as a stand-alone, I would strongly recommend reading the first three books (Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, and Fragile Eternity) before picking it up. There are many parts of the story that, while irrelevant to the plot, would just make a lot more sense with the knowledge of the previous novels.

Now to the wicked ones and the lovelies, to the fans of fantasy, to those hopeless romantics, and anyone who is willing. I say to you, read this book. Melissa's intricate fusion of strong characters and amazing storytelling will transport you to a place that's not too far from home, and still feel out of this world.

Radiant Shadows will be available wherever books are sold April 20th, 2010



You can read Lorena's review of Fragile Eternity over on this post.