Five Christmas Giveaways!

I had planned to do a 12 days of Christmas type giveaway but couldn't pull it together in time. But don't worry I'm not gonna leave you empty handed. Below are five giveaways with a total of 9 prizes up for grabs. Each has it's own Rafflecopter, you can enter to win just one or all five, whatever your little heart desires! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Grand Prize: A copy of the page-turning, suspense novel, What She Left Behind by Tracy Bilen.

1st Runner Up: Bookmark

2nd Runner Up: Bookmark

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One Prize: ARC of Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

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Grand Prize: Three cards of your choice, any faction.

1st Runner Up: One card of your choice, any faction.

2nd Runner Up: One card of your choice, any faction.

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One Prize: ARC of Broken by CJ Lyons

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One Prize: Signed copy of After Math & ARC of sequel, Redesigned by Denise Grover Swank 

(New Adult)

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Mini Reviews: After Math, Crash, & The Elite

Title: After Math (Off the Subject #1)

Author: Denise Grover Swank

# of Pages: 250

Publisher: Createspace

Publication Date: March 12th 2013

Source: BEA

Level: New Adult

Rating: 2 Hearts

My Verdict

I’m normally not a fan of the New Adult genre. I am one of those people who feels it is just an excuse to throw in some explicit content to what would normally be YA. As I read this book, I was beginning to think maybe I had misjudged the genre but than it took a turn for the predictable (a.k.a. explicit content.)

I loved the slow build of Scarlett and Tucker’s romance. It started out as a tutoring job, grew into a friendship, and then exploaded into a romance. I loved watching their relationship grow, the way they looked into one another's eyes and could see each others deepest secrets, the tutoring sessions, and gym workouts. Sadly, this all disappeared once they became a couple and the only thing they did was have sex.

Title: Crash (Visions #1)

Author: Lisa McMann

# of Pages: 233

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: January 8th 2013

Source: Library

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 3 Hearts

My Verdict

Interesting concept but slow paced, fairly predictable, with average characters. Your typical Romeo & Juliet style romance with Jules and Sawyer being forbidden to see each other because their families run waring restaurants. As for the visions, one day all of a sudden Jules sees a vision and it just keeps playing over and over on every billboard, TV screen, window. Not only was the cause of Jules visions never explained, but it also got extremely monotonous to have her describe the same vision over and over for 200 pages. While the second book is on my TBR, I'm in no rush to read it. 

Title: The Elite (The Selection #2)

Author: Kiera Cass

# of Pages: 323

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: April 23rd 2013

Source: Purchased

Level: Young Adult

Rating: 4 Hearts

My Verdict

Ugh, America Singer you may just be the death of me! Your inability to choose who it is your in love with makes me SO angry. I thought a decision would finally be made in this book but no, America continues to bounce between Aspen and Prince Maxon like a ping pong ball. At this point, I'm going to feel bad for whatever guy gets kicked to the curb because they've both been lead on for so long. The one good thing about this infuriating love triangle is that I do like both guys, which pretty much never happens, so either way I'm happy. 

Cass continues to do a great job of drawing the reader into the world she has created and leaving us emotionally invested. After all that's what it's all about right? Getting lost in another world, caring about the characters as if they are real, feeling all the different emotions when things go bad or things work out. Even though it drives me crazy most of the time,  I still love it. 

Hope you enjoyed these mini reviews! I'll probably  be doing a few more before the year ends to help me catch up.