Snowflakes and Spider Silk

So much book/blogger/reader/author stuff happens on twitter, and I felt like I was missing out on a lot. So I finally made myself a twitter account :) So here's the link: https://twitter.com/spidersilksnow and my twitter handle is @spidersilksnow. So follow me, and let me know what your twitter handles are so I can follow you back! I've already started following some of you fellow bloggers :) And if anyone has tips on how to get started with twitter, they would be much appreciated as well!

Title:  The Waking Engine Author:  David Edison Genre: Fantasy, adult fiction, science fiction, steampunk My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Welcome to the City Unspoken, where Gods and Mortals come to die . Contrary to popular wisdom, death is not the end, nor is it a passage to some transcendent afterlife. Those who die merely awake as themselves on one of a million worlds, where they are fated to live until they die again, and wake up somewhere new. All are born only once, but die many times . . . until they come at last to the City Unspoken, where the gateway to True Death can be found. Wayfarers and pilgrims are drawn to the City, which is home to murderous aristocrats, disguised gods and goddesses, a sadistic faerie princess, immortal prostitutes and queens, a captive angel, gangs of feral Death Boys and Charnel Girls . . . and one very confused New Yorker. Late of Manhattan, Cooper finds himself in a City that is not what it once was. The gateway to True

Title:  Aerenden: The Child Returns Author:  Kristen Taber Genre: Fantasy, young adult My Rating:  3.5 of 5 stars Goodreads summary: Seventeen-year-old Meaghan has no idea her perfect life has been a lie — until she witnesses her parents’ brutal murders at the hands of red-eyed creatures. After nearly sharing their fate, she escapes with her best friend, Nick, who tells her the creatures are called Mardróch. They come from another world, and so does she. Now that the Mardróch have found her, she must return to her homeland of Ærenden or face death. Left with little choice, she follows Nick into a strange world both similar to Earth and drastically different. Vines have the ability to attack. Monkeys freeze their victims with a glare. Men create bombs from thin air. Even Meaghan’s newly discovered empath power turns into a danger she cannot control. But control becomes the least of her worries once the Mardróch begin targeting her. When Nick confesses he knows the reason they

Today is the release day for Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg's The Chase ! I will have my review for this book posted in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime check out the book trailer and giveaway ! RELEASE DAY SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY:  THE   CHASE  by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg IT’S ALL ABOUT  THE   CHASE ! THE   CHASE  by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg Bantam – Random House On sale:  February 25, 2014 978-0-345-54308-0 THE   CHASE  at your favorite retailers Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg,  New York Times  bestselling authors of  The  Heist , return in this action-packed, exciting adventure featuring master con artist Nicolas Fox and die-hard FBI agent Kate O’Hare. And this time around, things go from hot to nuclear when government secrets are on  the  line. Internationally renowned thief and con artist Nicolas Fox is famous for running elaborate and daring scams. His greatest con of all: convincing  the  FBI to team him up

Today is Fire Country's book birthday. You can find my review of it here , and look below to find out how to get your own free copy! The series is a lot of fun to read, and the author is really cool too - I hope you all take this chance to start reading a really good series! Today, Fire Country by David Estes turns one year old. In the first year since Fire Country was born, so much has happened. David signed with an agent, sold more than 10,000 books, wrote five more books and published a further three). He knew he just had to celebrate and he'd love for you to be a part of it! David owes so much of his support to the blogger community, and he wants everyone to have the chance to be a part of the Fire Country Birthday Bash. Everyone goes home a winner, simply follow the prompts below and swipe your eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords. Read and leave a review on Amazon if you enjoyed it. Feel free to share the code with your friends, family, neighbour

Title:  The Cuckoo's Calling Author:  Robert Galbraith  (pseudonym of J.K. Rowling) Genre: Mystery, adult fiction My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, an

This is a meme hosted by  Rinn Reads  where anyone can join in and talk about anything Fantasy! This week I thought I'd talk about dragons . I've read a lot of books that involve dragons, and it's always cool to see how they are portrayed. Here's the rundown on different types of dragons and where to find them!  Saphira The Inheritance series - this world is really similar to that of Lord of the Rings (and a lot of other high fantasy) since it involves dwarves, elves, and an evil mysterious king. But what makes this world awesome is how important dragons are. The dragons have a pact with the humans and elves to form a partnership known as the Riders. The dragons choose someone to bond with, and spend the rest of their lives together. I loved how dragons were portrayed as both magical and mysterious yet playful at the same time. Saphira managed to turn things into diamond without even trying, and yet she acts like a little kid in a candy shop on other occa

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme:  Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Blogger/Reader This has been one of my favorite blog posts to put together - can I just say that Pinterest is amazing? I hope you enjoy this! 1. Books help me escape the real world when it gets too boring, dull, stressful, or upsetting. Sometimes I just want to forget about that midterm or get over my rainy day, and reading about the adventures of people in other places, times, and worlds just helps me take my mind off of everything! 2. Characters sometimes make better friends than people 3. Understanding literary comics like this one: 4. Knowing what happens next because you've read the books and the TV show/movies haven't caught up 5. This definitely applies to fellow book bloggers and people I know personally :) 6. This is the only kind of hangover I'm ever going to have :) 7. I've learned a lot - about life in gener

Hello lovely blog readers! I'm a Do-It-Yourself kind of person, and even when I've finished something, sometimes I just keep having this nagging voice in my mind that tells me that something isn't quite right. I redesigned my blog a couple of months ago, and I was pretty happy with it at the time. I had never done anything involving Photoshop or CSS before, and somehow I managed to figure how to redesign my blog with a lot of helpful tutorials and websites. Still, looking at some other blogs that had been redesigned, mine didn't look as clean or as professional. At the time, I was just tired of redoing it, so I just left it as is. But today I figured it was time to try again. I'm much happier with this blog now, but we'll see how long this layout lasts! Here are screenshots documenting the transformation. What do you think? Before: Current:

Title:  Pivot Point Author:  Kasie West Genre: Young adult, science fiction My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Knowing the outcome doesn’t always make a choice easier . . . Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,” or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not. In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being p