Archives for December 2015

Who Turns Three Today? The Novel Hermit!

December 19, 2015 Comments : 40

tnh three-tastic blogoversary

December 19th, 2012 is when I started this blog. It’s now 2015. It’s been three years.

Three. Years.

Wow.

I started blogging three years ago, and it amazes me how far I’ve come from that person who wanted an outlet to talk about books but was essentially winging it—flying by the seat of her pants—for the first three-four months to, well, this present day Cee who’s worked hard and made a lot of wonderful friends; got out of her shell and went to book events; gained publishing contacts; and learned so much about the book world. It’s been truly rewarding to look back at where I was and where I am right now because that’s all the hard work I’ve done!

Reviews

(ARC) REVIEW | Not Worth The Rage (This Raging Light by Estelle Laure)

December 16, 2015 Comments : 5

This Raging Light

Can the best thing happen at the worst time?

Her dad went crazy. Her mom left town. She has bills to pay and a little sister to look after. Now is not the time for level-headed seventeen-year-old Lucille to fall in love. But love—messy, inconvenient love—is what she’s about to experience when she falls for Digby Jones, her best friend’s brother. With blazing longing that builds to a fever pitch, Estelle Laure’s soulful debut will keep readers hooked and hoping until the very last page.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from HMH Books for Young Readers for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “Mom was supposed to come home yesterday after her two-week vacation.”

This Raging Light had promise—an emotional tale about two sisters dealing with abandonment—but somewhere along the way, I failed to connect with the writing and the characters. It initially pulled me in because of the pretty bright colors on the cover and the promise of sisters. For a book that’s about parental abandonment and seems like it’ll have the emotion kick, it was just a disappointing debut that was filled with “pretty” writing and not enough originality or heart.

Design

Twelve Days of Christmas (Not Really) | My True Love Gave To Me

December 14, 2015 Comments : 7

It is the most wonderful time for the year~!

In honor of the holiday season, I made a wallpaper of My True Love Gave To Me! I thought it would be quite fun to use the cover illustration, the chapter headings, and the Twelve Days of Christmas song to spotlight this very cute book. (I know that everybody doesn’t celebrate Christmas, and I wanted to be inclusive of all holidays around this season, but I really wanted to use the song. :P)

Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin for sending me a copy of the book. I’ve been meaning to get this last year. :)

Shall we take a look at the wallpaper? Sing along to the Twelve Days of Christmas song but with the things below instead. ;) (It probably won’t be rhythmically in sync, but hey, it’s a holiday experiment!)

MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME WALLPAPER

[lightbox type=”image” src=”http://www.thenovelhermit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/my-true-love-gave-to-me-1280%C3%97800.png”] my true love gave to me

[/lightbox]

Design

2015 YA Book Cover Choice Awards! · What Covers Came Out As The Victors?

December 11, 2015 Comments : 15

2015yacoverchoiceawards

[quote]The YA Book Cover Choice Awards (aka YABCCAwards) aim to honor all the wonderful (and not-so wonderful) book covers that were published in the past year. It will be nominated and voted by readers (à la Goodreads Choice Awards and the *Book Shimmy* Awards) for the best cover design in each categories.[/quote]

Over 250 people voted, and you guys, I’m very emotional about it because it has really grown from last year. (Triple the amount of people last year!) I owe each and every one of you a huge thank you and hugs with lots of confetti, dancing, and delicious sweets! <3

A month ago, the 2015 YA Book Cover Choice Awards kicked off with lots of cheers and support. I was hoping people will get pumped up because book covers maketh a book (sometimes), and you guys did not fail to express your excitement. You really showed the love and appreciation for book covers in this Cover Awards, and I am so grateful for the enthusiasm. I cannot stress enough how much it means to me to see all the votes, the sharing, and the excitement. It keeps me excited to do more of this! (Not that I was gonna stop. ;D) There’s so much we can do.

I won’t talk your ear off because we have covers to award!

Let’s see who came out as victor for each category! Expect delight, disappointment, and all the emotions with seeing your favorites win or lose.

What You Need To Know

When you click on the category links below, it’ll take you directly to the category.
Click on the covers to see the pie chart that will pop out (with the # of votes and percentage).
If you have questions or need clarifications, feel free to ask them and I will answer. :)

Lists

TOP TEN TUESDAY | Authors I Read For the First Time in 2015

December 8, 2015 Comments : 20

[quote]Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we list our top tens![/quote]

This week’s topic is “top ten authors I read for the first time in 2015.” I tweaked the topic a little, so we can get straight to the point! These are all authors I’ve heard about, but I never read their books until this year, and oh boy! So much wonderful books! Although most of these authors haven’t skyrocketed to my favorites list (except Catherynne M. Valente and Kelly Sue DeConnick), these authors made me excited to read all their published books. (That’s what matters.) It’s almost embarrassing that I haven’t read some of these well-known authors, but better late than never, right? (I excluded 2015 debuts because of course they were new to me.)

Well, shall we see who’s on my list?

CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE

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Archives for December 2015

Dear Santa,