Book ♥ Soulmates: June 2011

Random Acts of Kindness: July Sign-up!

{Please click on the RAK button above to be re-directed to our Book Soulmates Store on Amazon. You can find all your favorite titles there and add them to your shopping cart.}

Summer is just flying by and RAK is stronger than ever!
We finally surpassed our goal with 315 sign-ups in one month.
How crazy cool is that?! Do you guys know how Ahhhh-mazing you are?

RULES RE-CAP:

Show off your participation by grabbing our RAK button :)

Create a wish list (on Amazon, Goodreads, or your blog etc) and post it in the Google Doc located in each R.A.K post for the month.

If you choose to do a R.A.K for someone, check out their wish list and contact that blogger for their address.

At the end of the month, SHOW US YOUR R.A.K! Make a post saying 'Thank You' to whoever granted one of your wishes and share it with us :)

OPEN TO EVERYONE!

Let's keep our International bloggers in mind and in our hearts.

Remember, there's always the Book Depository and they offer FREE shipping!

Easy breezy!!

LINKS YOU WILL NEED:
Sign up for July {HERE}
See who else is participating in July {HERE}

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact via the following:
Vanessa at twerd413[at]gmail[dot]com or @booksoulmates
Isalys at booksoulmates[at]gmail[dot]com or @isabooksoulmates
(Twitter is the fastest method though.)

**IMPORTANT NOTES**

When talking about RAK on Twitter, please use the hastag (#RAK). It makes it much easier to keep track of the conversations, answer questions and/or tweet back! =)
When submitting your wish list, please make sure that it is set to PUBLIC viewing. Some people have run into trouble with wish lists that were set to private. We want to be sure that no one is left out of getting great RAKs.
Some of you seem to have gotten frustrated because you can't get your links to appear active. This is a very easy fix :) Just make sure that when you enter your link, do NOT hit the Enter key. Instead, hit the TAB key which will send you to the next field on the form. Additional spaces entered after the link will leave the link inactive. However, if this does happen to you...no worries, we'll fix it for you :)

Random Acts of Kindness: June Closing!

{Please click on the RAK button above to be re-directed to our Book Soulmates Store on Amazon. You can find all your favorite titles there and add them to your shopping cart.}

It is time to bid farewell to June and get the July RAK party started!
Before we move on, though, we want to take a moment to acknowledge the fabulous books we've received.

Isalys Received:

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep from Aislynn at Knit, Purl, Stitch...Read & Cook

Rogue by Rachel Vincent from Rachel at Fiktshun

Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill from Cherie at Mystrez's Crazy Maze

I was also able to send three RAKs this month to:
Missy at Two Reader Reviews
Rachel at Fiktshun
Ashley the The Bookish Brunette

** Thank you ladies!! You all rock my socks ♥ For serious!**
♥Isalys

Vanessa Received:

Entwined by Heather Dixon from Cherie at Mystrez's Crazy Maze
Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

** Big hug and thanks for my fantabulous new books! **
♥ Vanessa

Thank you ALL for the thinking of us!
We couldn't ask for better bloggy friends :)

HUGS,

PS: Don't forget to leave the links to your RAK-June Closing! posts so we can stop by and check out your loot!!

Clue 4 for Scavenger Hunt with CheezyFeet Books

Good morning world!
Happy Hump Day :)

The über adorable Bella from Cheezyfeet Books is celebrating her first blogversary on July 1st *woot woot*, so she decided that to celebrate this momentous occasion she would host a scavenger hunt with a very cool prize at the end to be given to one lucky bookworm.
Bella is going to give away a highly anticipated summer release, but it is up to YOU guys to figure out which book it'll be.

Scavenger Hunt Recap:
The Hunt will be spread across five different blogs beginning and ending with Bella's blog. There will be a total seven clues that you must use to discover the identity of the mystery book. The blogs participating are below - in no particular order, so make sure you check each one all this week!

Bella @ Cheezyfeet Books (It’s her blogoversary!)
Katie @ Mon Palais
Iffath @ Love Reading X
Cicely @ Cicely Loves Books
Daph @ Lvng Books
Isalys @ Book Soulmates

Here's clue #4 for today:

The following authors all provided review quotes inside the cover jacket:

Becca Fitzpatrick, Lisa McMann, Carrie Ryan, and Aprilynne Pike

And as a bonus, here's one of the quotes:

"A fast, flirty roller coaster of a ride. This story was everything I hoped for—sassy, light-hearted and downright scary. Oh, bleep! I’m in love!”

If you think you've figured out the book title, then you can fill out this form to submit your entry. However, I'd advise that you wait until Friday, when all the clues have been put up as you only get one guess!

Open internationally as long as the Book Depository can ship to your country.

Thanks to Bella for letting us join in on the fun and good luck to everyone participating!!

Author Event: Lauren Kate (Passion Tour)

Last week, I got together with most (sans Vanessa *boo*) of my favorite MIA book crew to attend the Passion Release Tour with Lauren Kate, author of Fallen, Torment and Passion at the Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL.
Lauren really was as cute as she could be! She was soft-spoken but genuinely witty and sweet...oh, and was rockin' the most fabulous red shoes! Shoe Sista Power!

She started off the evening with a reading from Passion which sounds to be one of the most intensely romantic and moving books of the series.

She then had a Q&A session with us. She was probably one of the most patient authors we've met and answered a whole lotta questions :)

She briefly touched upon the release and grand finale of The Fallen series with the final installment, "Rapture" to be released in 2012.

She really was incredibly patient with her signing. After such a crazy travel schedule and an event that started at 8 pm, by the time my crew made it to the front of the line it was past 10 pm and she was still going strong! We even got some nice nail polish as swag :) Woot!

Last but never least, the MIA Book Crew
(Left to right) Cynthia, Flo from Book Nerds Across America, Me, Jen from Not Now...I'm Reading, *Lauren*, Ash from Smash Attack Reads!, Nely from All About {n}, Yami, and Yani from Secret Life of an Avid Reader.
*phew*
I lurveeeee these ladies and can't wait for our next event in July!

US vs. UK (Round 12)

Last week, we had the pleasure of reading, reviewing, interviewing and giving away a copy of MERCY by Rebecca Lim.

So this week, we decided to have the various versions of MERCY go head-to-head in the next edition of US vs. UK. This one is a little special though because we're including the Australian (Rebecca's homeland) and German covers as well.

We're going international baby!!

US (left) / Australian (right)

German (left) / Unknown (right)

Looking at all these covers, I am the most drawn to the Austrialian edition. I'm not entirely sure what she's wearing and I know it doesn't quite fit with the story but honestly, that was the last thing I noticed. What draws my eye most are the blue, turquoise (cool) colors and the font used for the title.

On the flip side side, the US cover is much darker which is more suited to the story. However, next to the AU version it seems a bit lack-luster to me.

The German version while not bad in it's simplicity and colors is simply TOO understated and doesn't say much.

The last version, I couldn't figure out where it's from. If someone knows, please feel free to let me know and I'll update this post. The dress pictured does have a distinct "feathery" feel to it which also applies to the story line, but the lighting, the pose and the colors give the illusion that she's underwater and why would an angel be under water?

So those are my two cents! Which of these are your favorite(s)? I'm sticking with AU and US.

Here are a few more of her covers for this series (which are not yet available in the US.)

Exile (Mercy #2)

Muse (Mercy #3)

♥ Isalys ♥

Winner of Mercy by Rebecca Lim

The winner of MERCY (Mercy #1) by Rebecca Lim is:

Harpreet from Spark of Interest-Books for Teens

Thank you to all the awesome bloggers & readers who entered and a big thank you to AuthorsOnTheWeb for letting us review this title, interview the author and host this giveaway =)

Note:

Winners were chosen using random.org.
If you are still interested in more giveaways, check out our giveaways page {here}!

Review: Wild Desire by Lori Brighton

Title: Wild Desire
Author: Lori Brighton
Publish Date: March 1, 2011 by zebra
Pages: 308, e-book
Reviewed by: ISALYS
Reason for reading: Reviewed for The Season for Romance

Bea had spent far too much of her life secluded in a castle in Scotland with her cantankerous, old grandmother. She craved some sort of adventure that would take her far away from this place. Her cousin Leo and his new wife offered to take her with them to India. This would be the perfect opportunity to spread her wings. They would be staying with Ella’s cousin who is an American, but how bad could he really be?

Colin knew to expect his cousin, her husband and her husband’s cousin for a “visit” but he wasn’t expecting them to arrive early. He stumbles, deep into his cups, into his room late one evening to discover that a naked woman has made herself at home in his room. Colin, meet Bea!

Leo and Ella didn’t go to India just to visit Colin. They went to help in the search for some very important, mythical statues that would provide the answers they seek. The adventure begins immediately when Colin’s home is invaded by mysterious men who want him dead. They are forced to flee through the dangerous streets of India. The hunt for the statues is now more important than ever.

Colin, like his cousin, has an ability that although very useful is often exploited by those around him. Bea is the prim, proper, innocent English woman who doesn’t believe in magic and is unprepared for such a grand adventure. That soon changes when they are separated from their cousins and their lives are in peril. Despite the animosity between them, Colin and Bea had to learn to trust each other. That trust is what eventually lead to an intense love affair. This being my first book in this series, it took me some time to figure out that there are supernatural elements to Colin and Bea’s story, like there were in Leo and Ella’s.

I enjoyed getting to know Colin and Bea’s characters. I especially admired Bea’s growth over the course of the story. She was introduced as the nearly perfect English miss, but by the end of the story she was quite the adventurer gallivanting across India and fighting evil villains. Colin was a bag of mixed emotions. He was rude and short-tempered, but was actually very kind-hearted and somewhat insecure. He was frustrating because he was so closed-off and resisted his growing feelings for Bea. Luckily, he more than made up for his evident disinterest with a sweet and surprising ending.

My favorite element about this story was not just the budding romance, but the adventures and situations that Colin and Bea would find themselves in. From being chased down back alleys to hiding in an ancient sarcophagus or being saved from plummeting to their death over a cliff, there was no shortage of suspense and action.

Lori Brighton’s Wild Desire is an 18th century, supernatural and romantic version of Indiana Jones and it was all the more fun for it. I really enjoyed it and look forward to backtracking and reading Leo and Ella’s story too.