Launch month is drawing to a close, but there’s still a few days left to get a freebie – check out our posts 01.05.10 and 07.05.10 if you want to know more. Our review panel will shortly be forming, and we already have The Mile Long Bookshelf’s Amber on board, who has sent us this review:
Swapped By A Kiss – Luisa Plaja
I wish I wasn’t myself anymore. I wish I was her.I wish I was Jo. Rachel hates her life. When her on/off boyfriend David goes to a music festival she decides to surprise him – but she gets a shock of her own. Not only does she find David kissing someone else, but it’s their friend Jo! Super-lovely, super-loved, all-round-perfect Jo. Rachel runs away, wishing she could leave her life behind – and she suddenly finds herself in Jo’s body! Can she keep this swap a secret? Can she unravel what’s really going on? Can she get to grips with Jo’s out-of-control curly hair? And if she discovers that being in someone else’s shoes isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, can she ever be herself again? I was very excited when – after reading Split By a Kiss – I was told that there would be another book in the series – Swapped By a Kiss! And I was right to be excited, because I think that this is Luisa’s best book yet.
The cover is brilliant. The cover actually pretty much sums up the story which I think is good, and as I said in one of my past reviews – you can’t go wrong with a purple, shiny cover! I also like the way that all Luisa’s book covers are similar; you can always tell it’s one of her books without having to look for her name on it. The illustrator is Louise Wilkinson, and I have to say – she has done a very good job!
My favourite character was Rachel. I felt that in the last book I didn’t get to know enough about her, but in this book I found out so much more. I’d always wondered what Rachel’s secret was in Split By a Kiss, and she finally told everyone in this novel. I won’t tell you what the secret is though, no way! That would be telling. All I’m saying is…it’s very surprising and you definitely won’t be expecting it at all!
The ending was really good too, I liked the Alternative Ending written by David – it was funny! I was so sad when the book ended, though. I’m desperately hoping there will be another book in the series!
I loved this novel, it’s amazingly fanbrillitastic! My rating for this book? 5/5 – definitely!
Luisa Plaja has written two other novels as well. ‘Extreme Kissing’ which is a book about two best friends who go Extreme Travelling together in London, but with an unexpected secret twist. It can be read alone and isn’t part of a series. ‘Split By a Kiss’ is the first book in the Kiss series, and I think you should read that before reading ‘Swapped By A Kiss.’ Luckily Luisa is writing another book at the moment, which isn’t part of a series. I can’t wait for it to come out!
Thanks, Amber! Remember, you can win this book as part of our freebie month, too.
The Moonstone Legacy’s blog tour has now begun. As we mentioned, it will be coming to Bookbabblers 16th June, where we’ll feature our review and put your questions to the authors. Want to get a question asked? Just post it in our ‘over to you’ forum section or on our Facebook discussion wall and we’ll get it over to them. Perhaps visit the other stops on the tour, get a feel for what they’re doing and what the book’s about, and questions are bound to pop into your heads! The tour is as follows:
And finally, with June just around the corner, thought we’d give you a heads up on what we’ll be reading for the month. It’ll be Michael Morpurgo’s ‘The Butterfly Lion’, Eva Ibbotson’s ‘The Dragonfly Pool’ and ‘The Star Shack’ by Lila Castle. We’ll bring you more information on all three in our next post, and we’ve added them to our shop now.
Thought it would be a good idea to update everyone on what’s happening with our group, just over halfway through launch month, so to borrow Mcfly’s words – it’s all about you! If this is your first visit to the site, join in and you could be getting your hands on some free books – check out our posts on 01.05.10 and 07.05.10 now. Draw for prizes will be at the end of May, and it’s UK only.
We started the month with 8 members, 3 Facebook fans and a handful of Twitter followers. To date, we have 85 members, 180 Facebook fans and 217 people following us on Twitter – not bad!! Thank you for joining in with us nice and early, and of course we have lots of freebies available to reward you!
A few of you have had your say in our polls, and it looks like each of our May Book of the Month titles are being read out there, with Fallen being the most popular. We’ve read them all now and enjoyed each of them. When you’ve finished yours, do go to the forum and share your opinions. We’ll be letting you know what June’s picks will be soon, so look out for them to make sure you can get hold of a copy ready to join in.
Speaking of the forum, there’s some interesting threads starting up. Moggs wants to know if anyone can top the wonderful Roald Dahl, Greeny’s looking for a Sarah Dessen recommendation, bookgirl wants to know which books can get people hooked on reading and Cosette has started a fab idea of ‘story writer’ where you each add to a story together. She’s started it about a girl named Lola-Rose, in an orphanage with a mysterious silver locket…so go add your bit.
We’re now planning to start up our very own review panel, and have had several entries sent in for this so far. We plan to pick a few people at the start of June, so if you want in, don’t delay in contacting us! Find out more about it by going to our reviews page now, where we’ve included Josef’s and Amber’s reviews already. We’ve been in touch with several publishers and have been added to lots of review panels, so more reviews should be coming your way soon. In the meantime, if you’ve just read a book, why not send us your review of it and share your thoughts with us all?
We’ve expanded our shop range, too. Every book that’s included on the site is available there, along with the entire children’s and YA book range at Amazon, and we’ve also added other things we like – bags, journals, stickers, book ends, key rings and other bits and bobs. Take a peek – there may be something you fancy!
Oh, and we’ve also been enjoying your doodles! There tends to be a new one every few days, and we like to see your creativity, so if you’ve not had a go yet, try it – it’s fun!
What’s next? We have a couple of author Q&A’s on their way, a guest blog spot from Dino FC’s Terry Triceratops, authors of The Moonstone Legacy are swinging by mid June, book reviews and our picks of new titles. Along with bringing you all of this, we plan to continue spreading the word about us, contacting publishers, authors, schools and libraries, so if you can do your bit and tell a few friends, suggest our page on Facebook or retweet us that’d be great. Do also contact us with anything you’d like to see on the site, books you want us reading or to let us know that you’d like to put some of your questions to an author. Always good to hear from you.
How’s everyone doing? Enjoying your book of the month reads? We’ve finished them all now, and lovedthem! Want to get our hands on the next Bathsheba book, read another Anthony Horowitz and can’t wait for Fallen’s sequel, Torment. Our group is growing, so hope you’re all enjoying it. If this is your first visit to the site, don’t miss out on our launch offers - check out our posts dated 01.05.10 and 07.05.10 for details on our freebies!
We’re pleased to be telling you about a new book, due out at the end of this month. The Moonstone Legacy, by Diana de Gunzburg and Tony Wild, is the first in a trilogy, and the first YA novel to be published by Pushkin Press.
A bit about it:
In a sacred cave high in the mountains of northern India, a white-haired hermit sits cross-legged, and signs his final testament: “George Abercrombie, 1874…”
In present-day England, fourteen year old Lizzy Abercrombie’s mother dies in a tragic accident on the full moon. But was it really an accident? Lizzy discovers that her death may be linked to a mysterious family curse. Determined to find the truth, her quest takes her from a splendid Anglo-Indian mansion on the Yorkshire moors to India, where she uncovers her ancestor’s terrible past and a stolen inheritance. But her discoveries put her in mortal danger from a ruthless enemy.
Find out more about the book by clicking here to go to the website, where you’ll be able to get a taste for it by reading the first four chapters and find out a bit more about the authors. We’ll be posting our own review of it here soon.
Has the taster left you wanting more? Well, you lucky people, we’ve managed to get our hands on a copy for you – we’re spoiling you! How do you get it? Just leave a comment here (go to the little blue speech bubble in the top right corner of this post), FB ‘like’ this post or retweet it – simple as that! It could be you, and it’s just a click of a button..(UK only)
And there’s more. The authors of The Moonstone Legacy will be dropping by at Bookbabblers on 16th June as part of their blog spot tour – full tour details will follow shortly. Wanting to give them a warm Bookbabblers welcome, we thought what could be better than getting you all involved in their visit? We’ve added a topic on our FaceBook discussion board for you to post all comments and questions for them and we’ve added a new area in our forum titled ‘over to you’ for you to put your comments/questions. When they stop by, they’ll be able to give us some answers!!
We’re enjoying our launch month so far – hope you are, too? (If this is your first visit, make sure you look at our last couple of posts with details of lots of freebies to celebrate our launch!) Our Facebook fans are steadily growing, but of course we want more! Hope you’ve suggested us to your friends? We’re also notching up a good number of Twitter followers and member numbers on the site are nearing 50. There’s been a fair few posts now in the forum (remember any posts in the forum/comments on the blog will get you more entries into the freebie draws!) and it looks like some interesting threads are starting up, so go babble and have your say now. We’re also happy to be recruiting our very own Bookbabblers review panel – to find out more go to our review page now.
Are any of you out there budding writers? Fancy giving it a whirl? Well, we have just the competition for you then. Usborne have a Young Writers Award that may be right up your street. Five stories have already been started by authors and your task is to complete them – easy, right? Surely a Bookbabbler will be winning 2010′s award?! Check it out now and hope you have fun.
New releases we’re liking the look of:
Why?
Happy Holiday, Hammy the Wonder Hamster – Poppy Harris – a hamster at the seaside, what’s not to love?!
The Ogre of Oglefort – Eva Ibbotson – can we go wrong with Eva Ibbotson??!
Della Says OMG – Keris Stainton – a missing diary – a worst fear! and a new author for us to get into.
Restoring Harmony – Joelle Anthony – an original adventure story, receiving good reviews as a debut novel.
Wintercraft – Jenna Burtenshaw – we’re in the mood for a dark fantasy book, and the cover draws us in…
How are you all getting on with your book of the month reads? We’ve enjoyed ‘Chips, Beans and Limousines’ and ‘Granny’ and are just getting into ‘Fallen’. Can’t really say too much about them here, as don’t want to spoil them for anyone in the middle of them!! Go to the forum when you’ve finished to share your thoughts, but if you go before, beware spoilers!!
Coming up, we have a couple of author Q&A’s arranged for the next few weeks, so members can expect an email from us soon with more details and offering you the chance to put your questions to the authors. If you’re not yet a member and like the sound of this, join now!
Thank you, thank you and thank you. We told a few people about us last Saturday afternoon, and we’ve already smashed all targets we’d set ourselves for followers – sky’s the limit now, so let’s go for 1000 by month end!! There’s a fair few of you joining, adding us on Facebook and following us on Twitter, but we’re not getting enough reviews and forum posts from you, so come on, make it your own!
Hopefully you’ll all have seen last week’s post with lots of books and author Q&A’s on offer (if you haven’t, check it out now – dated 1.05.2010). Well, as our popularity is growing, thanks to you, we figured you deserved a couple more treats…
5 signed copies of Broken – Daniel Clay
A bit about it, from Amazon – Until that fateful afternoon, Skunk Cunningham had been a normal little girl, playing on the curb in front of her house. Rick Buck ley had been a normal geeky teenager, hosing off his brand-new car. Bob Oswald had been a normal sociopathic single father of five slutty daughters, charging furiously down the side walk. Then Bob was beating Rick to a bloody pulp, right there in the Buckleys’ driveway, and life on Drummond Square was never the same again.
Inspired by Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird, Clay’s brilliantly observed and darkly funny novel follows the sudden unraveling of a sub urban community after a single act of thoughtless cruelty.
We’ll be hearing more from Daniel in the next few weeks, and are already looking forward to his second novel, Swap, out early next year.
We didn’t want to ignore the little ones either. We’ve teamed up with Poppy’s Books to bring you an exclusive competition. All you have to do is share with us your favourite picture book of all time and you could get your hands on a bundle of picture books, worth just over £30. Click here to be taken to the competition and see the prize!
Simple as always to get free stuff – register on the site to be a member and you’re entered into the draw. Add a genuine comment to the forum or send us in a review that we feature and you’ll get more entries – and it’s limitless. Contribute more, the more chances you’ll get to win. This isn’t just for launch month either. We regularly plan to bring you free books and chances to do author Q&A’s, so members be ready! We already have 2 authors lined up ready for a Q&A in June, and we plan to be part of a new book blog tour starting later this month that we’ll want your involvement in, so do join in and babble to ensure you get a chance to ask some questions.
How’s everyone getting on with their ‘book of the month’ choice? We’ve read Chips, Beans and Limousines and are on to Granny now. Speaking of Chips, Beans and Limousines, we hear that the author, Leila Rasheed (check out our Q&A post with her last month) will be appearing at the Book Bash in Birmingham 30th-31st May. Anthony Horowitz, author of Granny and the Alex Rider books, will be making an appearance, too, on Wednesday 2nd June. The Young Readers festival runs across several venues in Birmingham from 22nd May-5th June, with loads of great events. To find out more click here.
Oh, and don’t miss out on being one of our first ‘bookbabbler’ reviewers – check the reviews page and our Facebook page for more info now.
OK, it’s the post we’re very excited about sharing with you! The time has come to get the word out that we’re here. We have ‘subscribe to our blog’ options, a Facebook page, we’re on Twitter, and this month we have plans to tell the world about Bookbabblers, so this is where the fun begins.
To celebrate our launch and to thank you for joining in nice and early, we have lots of freebies for you! We have:
5 signed copies of Jane Airhead – Kay Woodward
A bit about it – ‘What’s not to love about Jane Eyre? Gothic and passionate, it features the ultimate male hero – Mr Rochester. And that gives Charlotte a top idea: she’ll look for a new Mr Rochester for her lovely mum. So when Charlotte finds the ideal man, she can’t believe her luck. He’s dark, brooding and mysterious. He’s PERFECT. But the real-life romantic hero also turns out to be sarcastic and rude. Does Charlotte really want her mum marrying him? Perhaps it would have been better if Mr Rochester had stayed between the covers of Charlotte’s favourite novel…?’
5 copies of Castle of Shadows – Ellen Renner
A bit about it – ‘”No clue about why the Queen vanished had ever been found. Until now…”
The day Charlie discovers a scrap of paper that could solve the dark mystery of her mother’s disappearance, her world changes. Forever.
Charlie and her friend, Toby, must race against time on a dangerous mission to uncover the sinister truth. But in this shadowy world of secrets and lies, there is more to fear than they can possibly imagine…’
2 Sets of Split by a Kiss & Swapped by a Kiss – Luisa Plaja
Split by a Kiss
It’s the story of a British girl who goes to live in the USA for a year and faces some big challenges and choices, mostly to do with snogging a certain ultra-hot boy. After the kiss, she splits into two girls and goes down two paths at the same time. On one path she is in with the coolest of the cool, and on the other she… isn’t.
Does either route lead to happiness? And how will she ever be herself again?
Swapped By a Kiss
When Rachel’s on/off boyfriend goes to a music festival in England, she jumps on a plane to surprise him. But when she gets there, she sees him kissing someone else – their friend Jo. Super-lovely, super-loved, all-round-perfect Jo. Rachel runs away, wishing she could leave her life behind – and she suddenly finds herself in Jo’s body! Can she keep this swap a secret? Can she unravel what’s really going on? Can she get to grips with Jo’s out-of-control curly hair? And if she discovers that being in someone else’s shoes isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, can she ever be herself again?
As well as a chance to win these books, we’ve also arranged for three lucky members to put their questions to Kay, Ellen and Luisa. We’ll then post the Q&A in our blogs for you all to read. So this is a chance for budding writers or just those who love reading to get some answers! Thanks, Kay, Luisa and Ellen! In the meantime, for more information, visit www.ellenrenner.com, www.luisaplaja.com and www.kaywoodward.co.uk
And there’s more!!
Just out, we have 1 signed set of Keith Brumpton’s Dino FC titles – ‘Terror on the Training Ground’ and ‘The Missing Fans’, and an unsigned set, too!
Terror on the Training Ground - Dino FC- the craziest team in the Jurassic world! It’s crunch time for Dino FC. Their results have been rubbish this season, and relegation is staring them in the face like a big hungry tyrannosaurus. So their chairman decides to bring in a tough new trainer to lick the team into shape. Can they beat the flab and avoid the drop? Life as a Dino FC player is about to get a whole lot tougher…
The Missing Fans - Dino FC’s manager, Terry Triceratops, wants to buy a sizzling young striker to help catapult the team to the top of the Dinosaur Premier League. But they’ve been doing so badly that their fans have deserted them and the club’s strapped for cash. Terry’s got great plans to attract new supporters… if only the rest of the players could remember his instructions!
You can follow Dino FC Manager, Terry Triceratops, on twitter now to see what the team are getting up to.
5 copies of The Dresskeeper – Mary Naylus
A bit about it, from the author’s blog – When teenager Picky Robinson dons an old frock found in an ancient chest in her Gran’s attic, she embarks on a time-travelling journey of a lifetime, which takes her to 17th century London where she confronts the devilish plans of a ruthless murderer.
Visit Mary Naylus’ blog to find out more and get an insight into her new book coming soon, The Plaguemaker.
3 sets of The Littlest Detective in London and The Littlest Detective in Paris – Suzy Brownlee
The Littlest Detective in London - The Littlest Detective in London follows Clementine Cordelia Bird’s mission to locate her missing mother. At the same time, a wealthy crime princess from fictitious Slakistan – the evil, designer-clad teenager Natasha Commonov – attempts to free her father from prison. Somehow, the two become inextricably linked – Natasha knows something about Clemmy’s mother but refuses to say. And Clemmy manages, often accidentally, to thwart Natasha’s nasty plans. Other characters include the food-loving retired spy, Mrs Mackleberry, a paper-folding Japanese policeman, Origami Pete, and a rather unfortunate creature called Ratcat.
The Littlest Detective in Paris - (not even out until the end of May!) The second in the “Littlest Detective” series, this new title finds Clemmy, Mrs Mac and the evil Natasha Commonov back together, this time in Paris. As Clemmy continues the search for her missing mother with the help of Freddy La Fromage, Natasha plots to break her father out of a Paris jail, Mrs Mac overindulges in pastries once again, and Hench is outsmarted by practically everyone in Paris. Meanwhile, Origami Pete is running out of time in London, for back in Tokyo, the most annoying person on the planet, Eunice Yuko, is ready to marry him, and Knock The Henchman, Hench’s brother, accidentally frightens one of the retired spies to death. Or does he?
Whew! – Enough freebies for you?? How do you get your hands on these goodies? We want to make it as easy as possible to thank you for joining in, so it’s as simple as this:
For every person that registers on the site and joins us (it’s totally free!) they will get an entry into the draw. We then want to thank people for their contributions in getting this group going, so if you submit a review to us that we feature, you get another entry (this is limitless – 5 good reviews to us, 5 more entries for you). For every genuine forum post you get another entry – again limitless, but the posts must be relevant and not pointless or spam, otherwise they won’t count. So what we’re saying is the more you put into the group, the more we want to thank you, so the more chances you have of winning stuff!! Why are you still reading this?? Get registering, posting in the forum and emailing your reviews!!!
The draw for all prizes will take place at the end of May, and we’ll then email winners (UK based only!). You’ll be notified that you’re a winner and we’ll ask you what prize you want, and this will be a first come, first served basis – we’re hoping you don’t all want the very same prize!! If you’re under 16, just tell us that when we email and we’ll just need your parents/guardians email address to confirm your prize and where to send it to. We’ll let everyone know the winners on this blog as soon as they’ve been drawn, and following shortly after that you’ll get to see the Q&A’s with Kay, Ellen and Luisa.
Do keep checking back, as we plan to have a few more offers coming your way this month…
May is all about us growing and starting to babble together. Now, we set ourselves a target just last week of doubling our Twitter followers to 40 by the end of May – we’re very excited to say we’ve already done it!! So our new targets? We still want to double it, so 80 twitter followers by the end of May it is! We’d also love to get a few of you ‘liking’ our FB page and we’d love to have 30 Bookbabblers by the end of the month, with a few of you enjoying our ‘book of the month’ reads with us and chatting away in the forum. It’s all very ambitious we know, but we’ve always been the sunny optimist types so come with us and help us achieve it – join, tell your friends and babble!!!
Swapped By A Kiss – Luisa Plaja
oonstone Legacy’s blog tour has now begun. As we mentioned, it will be coming to Bookbabblers 16th June, where we’ll feature our review and put your questions to the authors. Want to get a question asked? Just post it in our ‘over to you’ forum section or on our Facebook discussion wall and we’ll get it over to them. Perhaps visit the other stops on the tour, get a feel for what they’re doing and what the book’s about, and questions are bound to pop into your heads! The tour is as follows:
