Howdy folks, and happy Sunday!

As the first part of our official Steampunk Week comes to a close, we return to our regularly scheduled programming…but fret not! If you want more dirigible-inspired goodness, we’ve got our second installment of Steampunk Week coming at you next month…

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes:

Well, not much today other than – we got a makeover!!!!! Which you’ve probably noticed. If you look above, we’ve installed a brand spankin’ new navigation bar, for your reading pleasure. One of the most frequent comments we got from you good folks in our recent customer satisfaction survey was the need for easier navigation of the site. And we’ve listened! Want to read all about Ana and Thea? Want to search for a specific review? Want to shoot us an email, or peruse our review policy? All is listed and linked above.

We’ve also widened our post area and lightened the background for our sidebars to help readers with different browsers access our material more easily.

We hope you like the changes! And, as always, please let us know if you’re having any technical issues with the site – we’ll try our best to iron things out.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Ana reviews coming of age YA novel, The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott.

On Tuesday, Thea reviews another of her most highly anticipated books of 2010 with the newest installment in Kim Harrison’s ongoing sweet-ass Urban Fantasy series, The Hollows: Black Magic Sanction.

Wednesday, Thea *FINALLY* gets to read and review The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan – sequel to the Stoker-nominated sensational debut novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth (one of Thea’s Top 10 Books of 2009) by Carrie Ryan! Later in the day, we’ll have Carrie over for a Top 10 List, and to answer five questions about the themes in her harrowing YA novels.

On Thursday, Ana reviews one of her most highly anticipated novels of the year with Maureen Johnson’s Scarlett Fever, sequel to Suite Scarlett.

And finally, we close out the week with a joint review of Seanan McGuire’s second October Daye novel, A Local Habitation!

It’s another busy week, and we hope you enjoy…

And just because this is fun:

Hello everybody, hope you are all having a good Sunday!

We start this mini-stash with some news:

Change of Address

Two of our favorite bloggers have moved to new and shinning adobes:

Racy Romance Reviews is no longer. Jessica has not only moved her blog but also renamed and revamped it (or sort of). Read React Review is the new name and she plans on reviewing not only Romance but other genres as well and keep on writing all of those awesome philosophy of fiction posts. Like this one.

Kenda of Lurv A La Mode is the other one and we luuuurves the new design – very cool. Be sure to check it – the content remains the same awesomeness as always: reviews of romance, fantasy and scifi.

Make sure to update your blogrolls and feed readers!

In other news

Meanwhile, the second part of Jackie Kessler’s “Carpe Noctem” – Tales of the Vampire, part of the Buffy Comics is up and you can preview it here.

Also, the *official* countdown timer for the third and final installment in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy has been released! Check it out:

So. Very. Pretty.

Finally, you may or may not have heard the fabulous news that Carrie Ryan’s paperback release of The Forest of Hands and Teeth debuted at #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List!

We are so thrilled for Carrie – and if y’all haven’t read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, NOW is the time to go forth and buy a copy. Speaking of…you may have seen the shiny new countdown widget in our sidebar. We cannot WAIT for the release of The Dead-Tossed Waves next week – and what’s this? Thea just received her ARC in the mail this afternoon!

Giveaway winners

We also have a few giveaway winners to announce.

The winner of one copy of Something About You by Julie James is:

Shel! (comment#42)

The two winners of the Stacia Kane giveaway taking home the complete set of the Megan Chase books are:

Mel Butcherl! (comment#3)

Sharon K (comment#70)

And the 20 winners of the Kresley Cole giveaway are:

brina g (comment#58)

Anna Shah Hoque (comment#1)

elaing8 (comment#64)

chelleyreads (comment#41)

maered (comment#10)

Amanda Isabel (comment#24)

Ava (comment#76)

Maria (comment#22)

Tracey D (comment#52)

iokijo (comment#74)

Dawn (comment#69)

Rebecca (comment#47)

Virginia C (comment#11)

KayAnna Kirby (comment#6)

GSM (comment#34)

Jennifer K (comment#3)

Laura Hadland (comment#15)

Maija A. (comment#59)

Bianca F (comment#14)

Stacy (comment#45)

You all know the drill. Email us (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we will get your winnings out to you as soon as possible. Thanks again to everyone that entered, and congratulations to all of the winners!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s it from us today. Well, sort of.

We will be back later with our calendar for the Steampunk Week and launch the event in all its glory! We are excited. Yes, we are!!

Another Sunday, another stash!

After taking a week off of reviewing to read (OMG!), recuperate our sanity, and fortify ourselves for the weeks ahead, we are back, with a vengeance! First, a few tidbits of news.

Giveaway Winners:

We had quite a few giveaways this week – we’re shameless like that. And now we have a few winners to announce!

The winners of the Jeri Smith-Ready Giveaway, taking home a copy of Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone, are:

The winner of Shade Fright by Sean Cummings is:

And, the winners of Dark Life by Kat Falls are:

Congratulations to all the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT the book smugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we will get your goodies out to you as soon as possible. Thanks again to all that entered!

And don’t forget, our giveaway of Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten is still open!

Patricia Briggs’ Silver Borne Book Tour:

When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she’d previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn’t take enough of Mercy’s attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side-leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declare Sam’s life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn’t careful, she might not have many more to live…

ZOMG! We’ve only got a month to wait until the official release of the fifth Mercy Thompson book, Silver Borne! To promote her newest title, the awesome, esteemed Patricia Briggs will be traveling the west coast on a book tour where she will sign books and answer reader questions. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the tour cities, we HIGHLY recommend making your way out to a signing. Patty Briggs rules.

Silver Borne officially hits shelves on March 30, 2010. You can read the first chapter of the book online HERE.

Steampunk Week Teaser:

A bit of a teaser now. We Smugglers have planned our next big event – in two week’s time, we shall host the first of our two-part Steampunk Week! Details will follow soon, but for now we give you our official posters for the event (courtesy once again by the fantastic, amazing, incredible KMont of Lurv ala Mode)!

We’ll have guests, posts about the steampunk subgenre, and, of course, steampunk reviews galore.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Thea reviews YA speculative fiction title NUM8ERS by Rachel Ward. We’ll also have a grand prize giveaway opportunity for the book’s release, so stay tuned for a chance to win.

Tuesday, Ana reviews Something About You, the newest book-crack title from Julie James! We’ll also have a copy of Something About You up for grabs.

Wednesday, we have Urban Fantasy/Paranormal author Stacia Kane over for another Interactive Q&A and giveaway opportunity to celebrate the shiny new release of her latest Megan Chase novel, Demon Possessed! Also, Thea reviews Incarceron by Catherine Fisher – a YA dystopian novel that blew her away.

On Thursday, Ana reviews the brilliant, poignant YA novel The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Later, Thea reviews Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde – one of her hands down favorite reads of 2010.

On Friday, we have a joint review of new title Spider’s Bite, as author Jennifer Estep changes gears from lighthearted paranormal romance to gritty urban fantasy.

Finally, on Saturday, we are having a crazy wicked cool giveaway, courtesy of Simon & Schuster to celebrate the release of Kresley Cole’s newest novel in her Immortals After Dark series, Pleasure of a Dark Prince.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole enraptures again with this seductive tale of a fierce werewolf prince who will stop at nothing to protect the lovely archer he covets from afar.

A DANGEROUS BEAUTY…

Lucia the Huntress: as mysterious as she is exquisite, she harbors secrets that threaten to destroy her — and those she loves.

AN UNCONTROLLABLE NEED…

Garreth MacRieve, Prince of the Lykae: the brutal Highland warrior who burns to finally claim this maddeningly sensual creature as his own.

THAT LEAD TO A PLEASURE SO WICKED….

From the shadows, Garreth has long watched over Lucia. Now, the only way to keep the proud huntress safe from harm is to convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do this, Garreth will ruthlessly exploit Lucia’s greatest weakness — her wanton desire for him.

We will be giving away 20 COPIES of Pleasure of a Dark Prince!

It’s another crazy week…

Well, hello there! We hope everybody is having a great Sunday! At our end, we are still trying to understand the latest episode of Lost (theories abound, none of them seem to make much sense) but alas, there is nothing new about it.

Before we bore you to death, let’s do what we came here to do.

Soul Screamers Giveaway Winners

Winner #1 – one copy of My Soul to Take and one copy of My Soul to Save

wildchild (comment #6)

Winners #2 and #3 – a copy of My Soul to Save each:

Lori (comment #75)

Natasha A(comment #34)

In For a Penny Giveaway Winner

The winner of a signed copy is:

Lustyreader(comment #5)

Congratulations to the winners! You know the drill. Send an email to contact AT the book smugglers DOT com with your snail mail address, and we will get your winnings out to you as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Around the Interwebs and Other News:

The 2009 Cybils (Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literacy Awards) Winners have been announced last week. Amongst the winners, a favorite like Fire by Kristin Cashore who won best Fantasy and Science Fiction (YA) and one that has been on our radar for a long time: Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers (winner of best YA Fiction).

The 2009 Nebula Awards Final Ballot has been announced!

Loads of cool nominees for best novel including The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi, The City & The City by China Miéville and Finch by Jeff VanderMeer which are books we both are dying to read. We are also stocked to see Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, Ash by Malinda Lo and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld nominated Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. We loved those books!

Have you registered for the Book Blogger Convention yet? No? Need more incentive?

Well, look no further: the organisers have announced this week that the keynote speaker shall be no other than Maureen Johnson the fabulous writer behind books like Suite Scarlett and 13 Little Blue Envelopes .

Needless to say, Ana nearly collapsed when she heard the news. You can also check the list of attendees here – a pretty cool line up of bloggers and industry professionals!

Meanwhile over at A Dribble of Ink, Aidan interviewed NK Jemisin the writer of the AWESOME The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms .

He was king enough to invite us to contribute with a couple of questions and the result, a great interview (if we may say so ourselves) followed by interesting comments can be found here.

This Week On The Book Smugglers:

Ok. So. DON’T PANIC. But we are taking a bit of a break from reviewing this week. But WAIT. DON’T do something drastic. We have organised a cool week full of guest authors and giveaways and our very first Cover Matters post to keep you busy. The reason for a break? We are charging our batteries in preparation for March (or March Madness, how we are fondly referring to it) .

On Monday, we are pleased to have Jeri Smith-Ready guest blogging with us. She will be here the whole day answering your questions and you will have a chance to win a copy of her books!

On Tuesday, we will have a special giveaway in celebration of the paperback release of Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

On Wednesday, we open the floor to guest author Sean Cummings who will be talking about his Inspirations and Influences for writing Shade Fright , a UF which debuts next month. You will also have a chance to win a copy of his book. His post will be followed by our guest dare of the month: Jeff from Alert Nerd reads the Historical Romance The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran.

On Thursday, Harry, the mind behind Temple Library Reviews and our honorary third Smuggler, does his “A Dude Reads PNR” column, with his review of The Battle Sylph by L. J. McDonald.

On Friday, it is time for the first issue of our Cover Matters feature. (The poster by the way, is another creation of the ever fabulous Kenda from Lurv a La Mode. Boy, can that woman do beautiful stuff. We are forever in awe. Thank you dude!)

and then finally, on Saturday another super cool giveaway: we have three ARCs of the highly anticipated YA novel Dark Life by Kat Falls to giveaway.

And that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoy the week – we will be around!

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers

Heidi-ho! It’s another Sunday, and another stash. We hope everyone’s having an awesome Valentine’s Day, whether you’re out doing romantic crap, enjoying your time with friends, or happily on your own!

(We are loving these dorky Valentine’s Day Cards – and so want to share you with you, dear readers.) Now, down to business!

Lisa McMann’s Gone Winners:

We have TEN lucky winners to announce! Drumroll please…

Flash Giveaway: The Valentine’s Day Edition Winners:

And the winners are:

Congratulations to the winners! You know the drill. Send an email to contact AT the book smugglers DOT com with your snail mail address, and we will get your winnings out to you as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Around the Interwebs and Other News:

This week, we were interviewed over by author Sam Sykes, debut novelist of the forthcoming Tome of the Undergates. He asked us about book standards, covers, and – most interestingly – about what women expect out of their reading. You can check out our answers over HERE.

Jessica, the ridiculously intelligent and eloquent woman behind Racy Romance Reviews has a great article up right now: “Feminist Critique of Romance: Ur Doin It Wrong.” Jessica takes a look at Rochelle Hurst’s “THE BARRISTER’S BEDMATE: Harlequin Mills & Boon and the Bridget Jones Debate” (Australian Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 62, December 2009) and has some very interesting findings. In addition to misattributed and out-of-context quotes, Ms. Hurst’s fundamental analysis, argument and logic are shockingly flawed. Make sure to check it out, if you haven’t already.

Also, it’s been all over the place, but we have to reiterate because we are just that. damn. excited. The title and cover of the third and final volume of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series has been officially revealed! Feast your eyes on this gorgeous beauty:

According to Scholastic’s On our Minds blog and an interview with Scholastic’s VP Editorial Director, David Levithan, we can expect the following of Mockingjay:

I am not, under any circumstances, allowed to divulge the contents of the third Hunger Games book. Nada. Nothing. Not a peep. I can, however, share with you five things that will not be appearing in the new book:

- Panem is not shaken up when District 9 is nominated for a best picture Oscar.

- At no point does President Snow utter the line, “This is Snowmageddon, baby.”

- Despite internet rumors to the contrary, it is not revealed that Cinna has been secretly designing outfits for a Capitol operative known as “Lady GaGa.”

- All rumors of a crossover appearance by Geronimo Stilton are false.

- In a tough editorial call, we decided not to have Katniss win the Hunger Games…only to be interrupted by Kanye West.

Ok, so that’s not very helpful. But holy crap, it’s the third book in the series! Mockingjay comes out on August 24th – guess we’ll just have to wait until then.

Also:

That is all.

Finally, in TVlandia news, we Smugglers have an announcement to make. Ahem. Episode 2 of the Sixth and Final Season of LOST – “What Kate Does” – totally, unconscionably SUCKED. Who cares about Kate any more? She’s gorgeous and we love Evangeline Lilly, but good god is Kate the most ridiculously stupid character ever. Also, no more mystical Japanese dude. Please. Only fifteen episodes to go (if you count the two-part finale is as two separate episodes). Let’s get back on the ball, writers. Please.

(Next week, “The Substitute” is a Locke-centric epi. We are pleased. Bring it!)

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Thea kicks off the week with a review of Jen Nadol’s debut young adult speculative fiction novel, The Mark. Later in the day we interview Jen Nadol about her new book, her influences, and her favorite authors and titles.

Tuesday, it’s time for another Alert Nerd Mega-Crossover-Linkup-Bonanza! We posted about it briefly before, but Tuesday is the official day for our very own “True Geek Confessions,” in which we reveal our deepest, darkest, geekiest secrets. Everyone can participate – all you need do is post your own Geek Confessional on Tuesday, and add your link to the Alert Nerd list. You can read all about the official event HERE. Later in the day, Thea reviews Rachel Caine’s newest, the second book in her Outcast Season spinoff series (in the Weather Warden universe) Unknown.

Wednesday is another huge day – it’s our official stop on the Harper Teen 28 Days of Winter Escapes Blog Tour & Book-a-Day Giveaway! We will have a joint review of Delia Ephron’s The Girl With the Mermaid Hair, and also an exclusive Q&A with the author. Make sure to stop by the official Winter Escapes website on Wednesday too, for a chance to win The Girl With the Mermaid Hair and an iTouch.

Thursday, Ana gives her review of Blood of the Demon, Diana Rowland’s highly anticipated sequel to last year’s Urban Fantasy novel Mark of the Demon.

Finally, on Friday we close out the week with Ana’s review of historical romance novel In For A Penny by Rose Lerner. Plus, we’ll have Rose over later in the day to talk about her Inspirations & Influences!

It’s another suicidal hectic week here – we hope you enjoy it!

Hola compadres!

Another Sunday, another stash, another installment with some fabulous news to share!

Book Blog Covention

A couple of Sundays ago we reported that the first ever con for book bloggers, The Book Blogger Convention, will happen in New York on the 28th of May one day after the Book Expo America (May 25-27) and that Thea was going to attend both whilst Ana was going to stay home dying of envy.

Well folks, some things have changed and we have some further news to report! First of all, the BBC has affiliated with BEA and if you register for the former you are automatically registered to the latter. How great is that?

Second, there are going to be several interesting panels during the con like Professionalism/Ethics, Marketing, Author/Blogger Relationships, Building Community, Writing/Building Content, and Thea has been invited to be a panelist for the Marketing segment!

Finally, because she must be there to see this in person, Ana decided to throw caution to the wind and will be joining the hordes attenting both events! This will be grand, the second time ever the Smugglers get to meet in person. Needless to say, we are Super Excited.

So come on, join us! Registration for the con is still open and available for a discounted rate of $90 (until February 14). This includes your pass to BEA, so it’s quite a deal!

In Other News:

Locus Magazine in its February 2010 issue, published The 2009 Recommended Reading List with inputs from many professionals of Fantasy and Scifi genres. Amongst the listed, some of our own favorites such as the ubiquitous Ark by Stephen Baxter (which seems to be making most ‘top of’ lists); Drood by Dan Simmons, Liar by Justine Larbalestier and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. And of course, many, many others that we really want to read (what else is new?).

On that same vein (hee),The 2009 Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot has been released. The Stoker Awards are held each year by the Horror Writers Association in celebration of the best of the genre has to offer. And we are stocked to see Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Kaaron Warren’s Slights making the list! The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Slights were two of Thea’s Top 10 reads from 2009. You can read her review for The Forest of Hands and Teeth HERE, and the review for Slights HERE. Also, you can check out our interview with Carrie Ryan, her Smugglivus Guest Post, as well as Kaaron Warren’s guest post about her favorite horror reads of 2009. Congratulations, Carrie and Kaaron!

As you might be aware, the last season of Lost premiered last week with an episode that was mind-blowing and which already sent us into full Theorising Mode. We probably exchanged a hundred emails after we watched the episode discussing the implications of everything that happened to the future of the show. If you are rolling your eyes right now, well, it seems you are not alone. We were shocked, we say SHOCKED, to find out last week, that we, as Lost fans, are officially considered….annoying, Oh, the HORROR, by the non-fans of the show. This, according to this video from The Onion. (Seriously now, THIS VIDEO IS AWESOME. We lurves it. Thanks to Willaful for the heads up).

Current Giveaways:

Don’t forget that our Soul Screamers giveaway is still going! You have until February 15th to enter for a chance to win either both and (first winner) or (two additional winners). You can enter it here.

This Week on The Book Smugglers

We kick start the week with a Lisa McMann special. Thea reviews Fade and Gone books 2 and 3 in the Wake Trilogy and we will have a massive giveaway to celebrate the release of Gone.

On Tuesday, it’s another very special day here at the Book Smugglers. Thea reviews A Dark Matter by Peter Straub, one of the masters of Horror and one of her favourite authors since she was a child. And we are supremely proud to announce that her review will be followed by an interview with the author!

On Wednesday, Ana reviews A Tale of Two Demon Slayers by Angie Fox, third in her Demon Slayer UF series.

Thursday sees Ana reviewing Lex Trent Versus The Gods the first YA offering by writer Alex Bell. The review will be followed by an interview with the author.

Finally on Friday, Thea reviews the Fantasy novel Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder.

And that’s it from us today.

Enjoy your Sunday!

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers

Welcome to another Sunday edition of our Smugglers’ Stash & News.

We shall start with some excellent news:

The Mysterious Benedict Society covers to be “Adjusted”:

The School Library Journal reported on the 26th that Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will be adjusting the covers of The Mysterious Benedict Society following complaints that the character Sticky Washington, which is described as having brown skin appear as white in the covers:

“We are adjusting the covers of all three titles immediately as they reprint in order to offer a more faithful rendering as soon as possible,” Melanie Chang, Little, Brown’s executive director of publicity and communications, told School Library Journal.

We couldn’t be more delighted with the news and as we said last week, proud to be a part of this awesome, vocal, dedicated group. However, let’s not forget that this has been going on for a long time and as awesomely urged by The Rejectionist in their post last week: No Retreat, Baby, No Surrender!

In Other News:

From the series: Things That Mystify and Baffle Us.

The Guardian reported that

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for “oral sex”.

Yeah, you heard us right. The Webster Dictionary was pulled from shelves because a parent thought it was not age appropriate for her child. The Dictionary. What comes next? A ban on the alphabet?

Because who knows what those perverted little minds can spell? We are seriously considering creating a special tag for archiving surreal news such as these, like “Aliens” or “Snow in Rio de Janeiro”. Perhaps “X-files”. Anyways, the ban was (somewhat) overruled and the parents can now opt out whether their child can or can not have access to the Dictionary.

In other more, uplifting news:

The Nebula Awards are the annual awards by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to celebrate excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing. The 2009 Awards will be held May 14-16 at Cape Canaveral, Florida and nominations will start soon and be open till February 15th. Tor.com has a list of interesting titles for consideration.

In similar news, The British Science Fiction Association Award shortlist has been announced this week. We are ecstatic to see in the Best Novel category Ark by Stephen Baxter which was one of Thea’s top 10 books of 2009. Also, included are The City and the City by China Mieville and Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin, both books in our TBR piles – we must really get to read them soon!

The “Don’t Let Your Dream Fade” Contest:

Lisa McMann, author of the Wake trilogy and Simon & Schuster are running a really cool contest. Offering $1000 to a teen to further his or her dreams, whether it be for college, something arty, or even just not having to work a second job to have more time to focus on high school: they’ve asked teens to do a video blog (2 min or less) comparing their dreams to Janie’s, the main character in the Wake trilogy. You can read more about the contest here or check an example of one of vlogs already created for the competition on youtube.

A Teaser:

And finally, coming from Harper Teen this February:

28 Days of Winter Escapes

28 Fabulous Books. 28 Fabulous Authors. 28 Fabulous Blogs.

For 28 days this February, Harper Teen is offering up a book-a-day giveaway on its Winter Escapes website. For every day of the event, a different book will be featured and up for grabs on the official site – but also, the author of that particular book will be at a different partner blog to talk about their book. We are thrilled to announce that we Smugglers are part of the event, and will be having author Delia Ephron here on February 17th to talk about her featured book, The Girl With the Mermaid Hair.

It all starts tomorrow, with The Amanda Project: Book 1: Invisible I. Make sure to stop by the Winter Escapes website for a chance to win autographed copies of the books, and also be entered for a chance to win an iTouch.

Giveaway Winners:

We had two giveaways that ended yesterday!

Molly Harper Giveaway:

The two winners of an autographed set (each) of all three Jane Jameson books by Molly Harper are:

Wish Giveaway:

The winner of an autographed copy of Wish by Alexandra Bullen is:

Congratulations! You know the drill. Please send your snail mail address to contact (at) thebooksmugglers (dot) com and we will get the books to you ASAP.

This Week On The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Thea finally gets a chance to read and review, post apocalyptic novel Veracity by Laura Bynum, a book she has been eyeing for some time.

On Tuesday, Ana reviews highly anticipated Fantasy novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin.

Wednesday sees Thea reviewing the sci-fi thriller Impact by Douglas Preston.

And then on Thursday Ana finally resumes her Historical Romance reading with a review of The Bride and The Buccaneer by Darlene Marshall.

Finally on Friday, we post a joint review of a book we both have been wanting to read for a long time and which comes highly recommend from several sources. The YA/Fantasy novel, Blackbringer by Laini Taylor.*

And that’s it from us today.

Have a nice Sunday, folks!

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers

* EDITED above from Silksinger. We are reviewing the FIRST book in the series, titled Blackbringer.

Welcome to another Sunday edition of our Smugglers’ Stash & News.

First up, we’ve got some fan-freakin-tastic news.

Bloomsbury Retracts Cover:

On Thursday afternoon, Bloomsbury officially announced that they will no longer be printing the offending cover of Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore.

Bloomsbury is ceasing to supply copies of the US edition of Magic Under Glass. The jacket design has caused offense and we apologize for our mistake. Copies of the book with a new jacket design will be available shortly.

As with Liar, Bloomsbury is retracting the cover and will issue a new one.

Author Jaclyn Dolamore has posted on her blog that the new cover is underway, and it will be featuring a model of color:

You may have seen my vision of Nimira in my book trailer. I hadn’t shared this image with Bloomsbury at the time the cover was originally conceived (the trailer wasn’t created until November, after the book was done) but we’ll now be looking at models who look more closely like her, which I’m very excited about!

To everyone that posted about Bloomsbury’s racist cover practices, to everyone that tweeted about it, to everyone that called or wrote the publisher demanding change, thank you. You have all done it. As a community, we were able to make our voices heard, and together we were able to cause change. We are so incredibly happy and proud to be a part of this awesome, vocal, dedicated group.

But, as Ari of Reading In Color and the folks over at Bookshelves of Doom remind us, this one cover at Bloomsbury is not an isolated incident. Whitewashing of book covers is a practice that pervades the publishing industry. With that in mind, and because this is something important to us, we’ve decided to add a new feature to The Book Smugglers called “Cover Matters.” Starting on Monday, we plan to post at about cover issues at least once a month. We hope to be able to even have guests over for interview – bloggers, authors, maybe even a publisher (hey, it’s worth a try) – to go with the posts.

In Other News:

Lots of news today! First, if you haven’t heard, there is going to be an honest to goodness Book Blogger Convention this year! This will be a one day event, uniting book bloggers from around the world in New York City. The con will take place on Friday, May 28, 2010 at the NYC Seminar and Conference Center in New York City – which is pretty cool for folks that might be in town anyways for Book Expo America (May 25-27). Some of the topics to be covered include: Professionalism/Ethics, Marketing, Author/Blogger Relationships, Building Community, Writing/Building Content. While Ana won’t be able to make it, Thea has already registered for BEA and plans on making it to BBC as well! So, any other book blogger types that are in the area or planning on flying out, let us know! Bonus, the good folks running the convention have an awesome giveaway right now – book bloggers can enter for a chance to have their registration fee waived! Only one will win, but it’s worth entering, especially if you’re watching your budget. Registration for the con is currently open and available for a discounted rate of $90 (until February 14). So, hop to!

In other slightly belated news, the ALA has announced literary award winners for 2010 last week! Here are the big winners:

John Newbery Medal (for most outstanding contribution to children’s literature): When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Newberry Honor Books: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

Randolph Caldecott Medal (for most distinguished American picture book for children):
The Lion & the Mouse illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney.
Caldecott Honor Books: All the World illustrated by Marla Frazee, written by Liz Garton Scanlon; Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman

Michael L. Printz Award (for excellence in literature written for young adults):
Going Bovine written by Libba Bray
Printz Honor Books: Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey, Punkzilla by Adam Rapp, and Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973 by John Barnes

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award (recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults): Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.
King Author Honor Book: Mare’s War by tanita s. davis

We are thrilled to see that the Printz went to Libba Bray’s AWESOME Going Bovine, which we reviewed last year. Also, Thea’s ecstatic that Rick Yancey’s truly excellent novel The Monstrumologist was honored as well.

Also, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2010 Top 10 List of Best Books for Young Adults. And the titles are:

Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (Reviewed HERE and HERE)
The Orange Houses by Paul Griffin
The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli
Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker

We’re thrilled to see Sarah Rees Brennan, Catherine Jinks and Laini Taylor honored on the list – and we’ve got a few books that we desperately need to read nowNowNOW.

This next item on the list is just really freaking awesome. Neil Gaiman (aka Ana and Thea’s writing GOD) has teamed up with comic book artist Jim Lee, letterer Todd Klein (who did the lettering for Neil Gaiman’s epic Sandman series) and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and have put together a limited print run of an illustrated poem, “100 Words.” (Click to enlarge)

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? You can purchase a copy online via Neverwear.

Finally, one last bit of news. Last week, Thea finally got off her slacker-butt, and set up a Facebook Fan Page for The Book Smugglers. You can find us by clicking the handy button above (which is also in our left hand sidebar). Our posts automatically update there, and we’ll also pop in to make other bookish announcements. The reason for the page? Well, we received a few comments in our recent survey asking us to syndicate our feed over at Facebook, and…voila! Hope you all enjoy it.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Alexandra Bullen, debut author of young adult fantasy novel Wish stops by on her blog tour, talking about what inspires her and you will have a chance to win a copy of her copy. Later, we will have our very first post in our new feature “Cover Matters,” in which we will take a look at whitewashing on the covers of books.

Tuesday, Thea reviews one of her most highly anticipated books of the new year, Robert Jackson Bennett’s apocalyptic-style/historical fiction/horror novel, Mr. Shivers. Also, Harry of Temple Library Reviews will be here, giving us a guest review of Circle of Fire by Keri Arthur (the first book in the Damask Circle Trilogy)

On Wednesday, we give you a double shot of Carrie Jones! First, we give a joint review of Need, and then later in the day Thea reviews the second book in the young adult fantasy series, Captivate.

On Thursday, Ana reviews Dia Reeves’ dark young adult debut novel Bleeding Violet. Her post will be followed by our first Guest Dare of 2010: Renee of Renee’s Book Addiction caves to the pressure (ours and her husband’s) and reads the first book in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring.

Finally, on Friday we close out the week with a joint review of – squeee! – Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh.

Phew. It’s a big week. Again. I’ll leave you with this awesome picture that I think encapsulates Ana and myself at times perfectly. Until next week…

Hi folks, and welcome to another Sunday roundup on The Book Smugglers!

First, we’ve got a few announcements…

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Last Sunday we set up a reader opinion survey about how we could make The Book Smugglers even better for you good folks in 2010. You’ve spoken, and we’re listening! Based on your responses, we’re implementing a few changes around these parts. We’re definitely going to try to deliver more reviews – especially reviews of fantasy, YA, romance, and SF. We’re going to keep it up with more giveaways – and we’ll try to make them accessible to those outside the US and UK when possible. We’ve also resolved to deliver more joint reviews – in fact, we’re setting a tentative goal of at least three per month (we’re aiming for one joint review per week).

We’ve also made some technical changes to the site. Because we know internet connections vary, and load time on our site can take a while, we’ve cut down on the clutter and have cleaned house. You may have noticed that our blogroll has vanished – but fret not! It’s not really gone. Because we read a LOT of truly exceptional book blogs, author blogs, and publisher websites, and because we don’t want to be forced to pick and choose whom to display on our blogroll, we have simply decided to move the whole thing to a separate page. In the upper-right corner of our right sidebar, you can find the link to our blogroll. We’ve also tried to cut down on the image/plugin clutter on our main page, so hopefully this will help folks with slower internet connections access our site. We think we’ve figured out the no load image problem in our feed (which seemed to affect about a quarter of the people who responded to the technical questions part of the survey) – so hopefully there are no further feed malfunctions. **NOTE: If your feed images still aren’t loading, please let us know in the comments.**

FINALLY, we got a few comments about accessibility and the limited search capability on our site. To solve that issue, we’ve implemented a fancy advanced search plugin, which you can access again in the top right corner of our right sidebar. The advanced search allows you to search the site by Book Title, Book Author, Post Author, Category, Tag, and/or keywords.

We have further plans to streamline the site and improve accessibility, but this is what we’ve got so far, and we hope it helps!

Other News

Last week we hosted a stop on author Elizabeth Eulberg’s Blog Tour for the release of her novel The Lonely Hearts Club. AND, for those interested, the blog tour closes this week with a shnazzy giveaway opportunity! Here’s the info:

Join The Lonely Hearts Club author Elizabeth Eulberg and Amy of MyFriendAmy for a Twitter party Wednesday, January 20, between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. EST!

• Be sure to follow Elizabeth @ElizEulberg and Amy @MyFriendAmy before the party!
• Join the fun! No one expects you or your tweets to be perfect; we’re just happy you made it to the party!
• Anyone who tweets during this hour using #LonelyHeartsClub is entered to win a limited edition Lonely Hearts Club t-shirt!
• Watch for questions from @MyFriendAmy and win awesome prizes including an iPod shuffle, $50 iTunes gift card or $25 VISA gift card!
• To join the party, you can use our official party tweetgrid or just search #LonelyHeartsClub on Twitter.
• Ask Elizabeth questions or chat with other partygoers about how excited you are to read LHC—just use the tag #LonelyHeartsClub in all of your party tweets! (This is added automatically in TweetGrid.)
• Please don’t post any spoilers and don’t forget to pay attention to the time zones, the party starts at 8:30pm EST.

In other interwebs news, the fabulous folks at Alert Nerd are hosting yet another awesomefantasticsuperfabulous Mega-blog Crossover Event!

Last year, it was “What’s Your Scott & Jean?” Day. This year, it’s all about True Geek Confessions. Here’s the event info:

True Geek Confessions

The Date: February 17

The Background: Unpopular opinions: we all have them. Sometimes you stand alone in loving a super niche-y run of a popular comic book series (like Sarah and her Tefe Holland thing). Sometimes you’re the only person on the entire planet to ’ship a certain ’ship. Sometimes you simply Do Not Get a movie the rest of your geeky brethren is falling all over themselves about. And because a lot of fandom is about sharing loves and hates and communing with your fellow geeks, this can feel awfully lonely. But perhaps if we confess our most unpopular opinions for all the internet to see…well, we’ll feel just a little bit better.

Here’s what you do: On February 17, write up a blog post with your own True Geek Confession. Send your link to sarah AT alertnerd DOT com. We will add you to our master list blog post and you can link back to said post. It will be exciting and wonderful and will hopefully not provoke too many “die in a fire” type arguments.

We are so freakin’ excited! Both Ana and I are ready to bare all – what about you? Last year’s Scott & Jean event was so much fun, we cannot wait to participate again! If you’re interested, make sure to check out the Alert Nerd site, and sign up!

This Week on The Book Smugglers

Down to business! On Monday, Ana reviews awesomely nerdy, post-modern YA novel An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

Tuesday, Thea (finally, for real this time) reviews Kelly Meding’s debut Urban Fantasy novel, Three Days to Dead. HINT: It’s a pretty damn good UF debut.

On Wednesday, Ana takes on Graphic Novel Irredeemable by Mark Waid, with artwork by Peter Krause and published by Boom! Studios.

And then on Thursday and Friday, we have an awesome spotlight with Paranormal Chick-lit/Urban Fantasy novelist Molly Harper. On Thursday, we review her Jane Jameson/”Nice Girls Don’t…” series – Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs, Nice Girls Don’t Date Dead Men, and Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever. On Friday, Molly Harper stops with a guest post about her Inspirations & Influences, AND she also sticks around to answer YOUR burning questions. And bonus – we’re also giving away TWO complete sets of the books! All you have to do to enter is make sure to stop by and ask Molly a question.

Phew. It’s another busy week! Until tomorrow then, we remain…

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers

Happy Sunday, everyone! If you’ll kindly step away from the football…

With the official end to Smugglivus, we’re back to our regular ol’ Smugglers’ Stash & News posts. But first, a few announcements.

Adrian Phoenix Giveaway Winners:

In all the excitement and chutzpah of Smugglivus, we forgot to announce the two lucky winners of our interactive Q&A with Adrian Phoenix! So, without further ado, here we go. The lucky winners of a complete, autographed set of The Maker’s Song books are…

Congratulations to the winners! You know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone that entered the competition – your questions for Adrian were fantastic. And if you didn’t win this time around, you’ll have another chance at an interactive author Q&A with a great full set of books as a prize – so stay tuned!

News from the Interwebs:

You might have heard of the release of upcoming SF novel The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman – a book that has garnered a lot of buzz online, and is being pushed by publisher Penguin as one of their biggest fiction launches of the decade. To celebrate the publication of the book, Don’t Panic (a super cool, FREE, arts/culture/design publication based in the UK) has launched a visual design competition. The winning artist will have their artwork printed on a Don’t Panic poster, and the chance to have their artwork included in The Left Hand of God’s paperback release!

The guidelines are as follows:

What we are looking for is an artistic representation of the lead character Thomas Cale, who you can get to know through a selection of excerpts on our site. We want entrants to use any printable media they choose to create an interpretation of the young Cale using the text provided.

The top ten entries submitted will be put into the winner’s shortlist to be judged by Penguin with the top three entries given the chance to win some fantastic prizes, including £350 (or approximately $560 US) worth of Penguin books and signed copies of The Left Hand of God, as well as of course the opportunity to have their design printed. Also, every shortlisted entrant will receive a copy of the book.

You can check out the full details of the competition online HERE – if you’re artistically inclined, this sounds like a fabulous opportunity to get some real exposure.

This Week on The Book Smugglers:

Smugglivus may be over, but we’ve still got a whole lot going on this week! On Monday, we kick off the week by hosting a stop on Elizabeth Eulberg’s The Lonely Hearts Club blog tour. Elizabeth will be stopping by to tell us a bit about her book, dating, and life before jetting off to the next stop on the tour. On Tuesday, Ana reviews The Lonely Hearts Club for extra measure.

Wednesday, we have dark fantasy/paranormal author Jackie Kessler over for an interview to celebrate some huge news. See, in addition to being a bestselling author of paranormal and superhero-inspired books, she’s also just become a comic book author – FOR BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. That’s right. The talented Ms. Kessler has just joined the Buffyverse (and, by proxy, the Whedonverse) with the online publication of “Carpe Noctem” – her contribution to Dark Horse Comics’ “The Tales of the Vampires” story collection, which ties in to the Buffy Season 8 comics.

With the publication of a sneak peek of the first part of the comic last friday (which you can view for free on the MTV Splash Page), we are thrilled to have Jackie over to talk about writing comics, Joss Whedon, and all things Buffy with us.

On Thursday, it’s back to the daily grind as Thea gives a doubleshot of a newfound favorite author Stephen Baxter with reviews for Titan and Moonseed (books 2&3 in the NASA series).

Finally, on Friday we close out the week with a classic science fiction novel, as Thea reviews The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin in honor of the book’s 40th anniversary.

Phew. That’s it for now! Until tomorrow, we remain…