3 Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

This blog has been around (though not always used) for the past 3 years this month! I'm shocked I haven't gotten bored with it and deleted it by now but I guess it means that my love of books continues.

In honor of this blog's existence and the changes that have been made over that time (a new look, a couple of domain name changes, the addition of book reviews from my cousin, etc.) I'm going to be giving away a book!

I would like to be able to give more away, but I'm paying for this myself so I have to be reasonable. The good part about this giveaway is that you get to choose which book you would like to receive if you win (from the books I have reviewed on this site)!

To enter:
1. Look through the reviews I've posted since I started the blog and pick your top 3 books (I'll pick from one of those).
2. Comment on this post with those 3 choices. Leave your email so I can contact you if you win.
3. Spread the word! If you post about the giveaway on your twitter with the hashtag #lolaloopgiveaway and tweet me (@Lolaloop) you'll get an extra entry (remember to also leave your twitter handle in your comment).
4. Like my Facebook page! Liking the page gets you another entry! That's 3 ways you can enter!

The winner will be chosen randomly on May 24th, 2013 (the blog's 3rd birthday). The winner will be contacted via email. *Open to US, Canada and any US military base (it counts as US because you're awesome) and maybe another country if you tell me where you're from and ask nicely!

P.S. If you haven't read them yet, The Hobbit, The Fault in Our Stars and The Shining are among some of my favorite books!

Thanks for reading!

Updated: This giveaway has ended. To see who won go here!

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Descripton

Percy Jackson's seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get... well, ugly. And the unnexpected arrival of his friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed.

In this fresh, funny, and wildly popular follow-up to The Lightning Thief, Percy and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their camp. But first, Percy will discover a stunning new secret about his family--one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or simly a cruel joke.

Percy has made it a full year in a school without being kicked out, when on his last day a group of Cannibal giants ruin everything. Annabeth shows up to save the day and to take him back to camp. Only to find out that the entire camp is in danger! Percy and his friends must partake in a quest to save the camp through the Sea of Monsters.

The Sea of Monsters is book two in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians. It is a great follow up to book one. There are many twists, turns, and new greek monsters and gods that are brought into this book to keep you interested. I will say that this book definitely had my attention the entire time. A great book for all age groups.

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway

 Published April 23rd 2013 by Dutton Adult

Description

In Bee Ridgway’s wonderfully imaginative debut novel, a man and a woman travel through time in a quest to bring down a secret society that controls the past and, thus, the future.

“You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life's advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.

In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.

I was sent an advance copy to review and I'm so glad I got to read it! I am a fan of time travel concepts and this book had a really interesting take on the idea. Time is like a river... it flows in one direction. Except it isn't. That's just what the Guild tells people that jump forward in time. The truth behind it is much more complicated.

Nick and Julia's relationship feels more real to me than the obsessive loves I've read in other books (like in A Discovery of Witches, for example). Julia is able to discover what she can do on her own. I was happy to read something with such a strong female character. No, she isn't perfect and made choices that kept her from finding things out earlier, but it was all her. She is independent and strong and pretty awesome for a woman from 1815... no shrinking violets here.

There were pieces of poetry scattered throughout the novel and I was able to pick out a couple of my favorites, though they weren't directly mentioned. It was like an Easter egg placed just for me to find. The main thing that I had a hard time with (and it was only minor) was that the Guild would just give people that much money every year to do whatever they wanted. Certain people would be able to be used by them but it seems a little extravagant.

I hope there will be at least another book coming, because there was so much of the story left to tell! I am going to be suggesting this to family and friends!

Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Description:

Here is Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel—a tale of grief and lost love's enduring bonds, of haunting secrets of the past, and of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire.

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs, Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra, away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie and Kyra's struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What are the forces that have been unleashed here—and what do they want of Mike Noonan?

 I am a fan of Stephen King, books or movies I love his work. I read Bag of Bones because I watched the movie on Netflix and decided that, even though I liked the movie, the book HAD to be better. It's a bit creepy but nothing really scary.

Mike's love for his wife is evident and his inability to write without her was a little sad. The weird thing about it is, it isn't just writer's block, it's more of a severe phobia. Just attempting to write has him breaking out into panic attacks. But, somehow after some trying, he is able to start writing again at Sara Laughs.

Part of the plot that I never really got was why Max Devore (the villan/Kyra's grandfather) wanted Kyra and all of the rigamarole behind it. It's kind of a weak plot, but the little girl was cute and I liked Mattie. Not the best King book ever, but I read it while I was on vacation and it was a good read for a long car ride.

Looking for Alaska by John Green Book Giveaway!

I was chosen as a giver for World Book Night this year (squee!) and am giving away copies of Looking for Alaska by John Green. I fell in love with John Green books after reading The Fault in Our Stars (I know, I'm late to the party).

 

Description

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

I love the characters so much and it is a great read!

If you would like to win a copy, comment with your email address. If you want to avoid the spam bots you can post your email like this: name (at) website (dot) com.

Sharing on twitter with the hashtag #lolaloopgiveaway gets you a second entry if you leave your twitter handle in your comment! The winner will be chosen randomly on April 30th, 2013. The winner will be contacted via email on May 1st. *Open to US only... sorry Canada (and everyone else)! If you're on a US military base it counts as US because you're awesome! Yay!

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