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!

Lost will be back this Tuesday with a two-hour premiere starting its sixth and final season. There will be another 16 episodes and then ALL WILL BE OVER.

Excuse us while we have a moment.

Ok, we are back. After 5 seasons of mind blowing happenings, twists and turns, ghosts, psychics, physics, pseudo-physics, religious overtures, polar bears and boars and horses, time travel, deaths, births, The (ZOMBIE) Love Quadrangle of Doom (that nearly drove us insane), numbers, coincidences, fate, mumble jumble, whispers, hatches, Others, other others, villains, double crossings, WTfuckery and whatnots, we repeat: All Will Be Over.

Needless to say, we, as die-hard fans of the show since its inception, have high expectations for this last season. And there are a few things that we would like to see happening in our little screen in order to make us happy:

1) A Grand Unified Theory of Everything.

Physics geeks FTW! Darlton (that’s the ’ship name for writer/creators Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse) have promised us a Lost GUT since the beginning, and we are going to be so incredibly pissed if it turns out to be any of the following: Snowglobe, Purgatory, Paradise Lost, All just a dream or whatever.

We’ll be even MORE PISSED if there is no Grand Unified Theory of Everything answer for everything that has happened so far.

We will be so mad if they give us nothing, or if they cop out with a Twilight Zone ending. If the writers simply say any of the following:

1. LOST island is just a weird island that moves around the south pacific because of electromagnetism
2. Jacob, Ghosts of People That Have Died, Smokey, et. al. are mere figments of the imagination brought on by electromagnetism
3. The whispers are completely forgotten (or are simply The Others)…or are sounds created by electromagnetism
4. Richard Alpert is just a lucky dude that has had a long life because he is on the island and can jump around because of…electromagnetism
5. The island heals people because….electromagnetism
6. Desmond can flash through time because….electromagnetism

TELL US WHAT THE POINT IS. No more pseudo “well, duh, it’s electromagnetism” crap! Is Lost Island an alien experiment that spawned all life and religion on earth? Is it Hell? You promised us a Grand Unified Theory DAMMIT, and you WILL DELIVER.

(Just so you know there are a grand total of 325 unanswered questions so far. You can read them all here)

That is really what we would like to see. Above all else. A measure of reasoning and sanity behind it all: the clear and unmistakable proof that there was a plan behind everything that we saw in this show. That we were not just jerked around for the sake of WTF!OMG!POLARBEAR moments. If we get ANSWERS, even if we don’t necessarily LIKE them, we will be happy campers indeed (ok maybe not happy campers per se, but you get our drift).

The rest will be icing on the cake, like:

2) A Measure of Happiness

These people have been through a lot. We mean, a lot. Yes, some of them do have reproachable pasts. Some of them did Really Bad Things. But the majority of the characters deserve at least, some measure of happiness. We are talking about Hurley, for example. If that dude, doesn’t get a happy ending, somehow, somewhere, we will be devastated.

Or Sun and Jin. Claire and Aaron. Locke. And Desmond. Speaking of which:

3 ) DESMOND

We would really like to know if Desmond is really as special as we think he is. All signs, in our opinion point to “Yes”. We have geeked out on a Grand Desmond Theory for years, ever since he first showed up in season 2. In season 5 he took a back seat (he hardly even showed up) that made us seriously doubt ourselves. And that cannot be. We are hoping he will come back with a bang in this last season and prove us right. Or the universe will collapse.

4) The End of the Quadrangle of DOOM once and for all.

The Love Quadrangle of Doom gave us stupid scenes like the one above. But we saw the end of it, when Sawyer found happiness with Juliet. They were cute together. They were in love. BUT at the end of season 5, Juliet fell to her death. That, coupled to the possible reset, prompted by the Hydrogen Bomb blowout may point out to a reset of the Quadrangle as well. We hope this is not the truth. (Although, deep in her heart of hearts, Ana still sort of hopes of a Sawyer-Kate ultimate hook-up) (And so does Thea. Even though she knows it’s not gonna happen).

5) Sawyer

He better have an heroic ending. No other character has had such an awesome arc as Sawyer. He went from a sleazy womaniser, self-absorbed con-man to a mature, responsible, leader that people could look up to. We would prefer he made it alive and well, but if he dies he better die a heroic death. No backtracking, please. We are just saying.

And one last thing: He Walks Amongst Us But Is Not One Of Us

(If you are sick and tired of us bitching and moaning about Jack, avert your eyes now!)

The ONE thing we are not prepared to see is for Jack to be the beginning and end of everything. If the Grand Unified Theory of Everything is …. Jack…..

…because he is the Incarnated Something from Somewhere (as his godforsaken tattoos from that scary Thai chick with the alien chest might signify) we actually think our collective brains will literally explode and our faith on TV shows will forever be tarnished by this blackness of profound lack of creativity. This can not happen. We don’t think we can ever recover after that.

And that is it! What about you, fellow Lost geeks? What do YOU want from the Final Season?

2009 is over, 2010 has begun, and Smugglivus is nearly complete! Which means that we must also undergo another very important ritual…

The Airing of Grievances
(in which we air out any dirty laundry from 2009)

In ascending order, these are the things that really pissed us off this year.

5. The Birth of “SyFy”

There’s no excuse for the name change. Really. It’s just embarrassing.

4. FlashForward (and other really disappointing TV shows)

We don’t know what’s more insulting – the fact that a turd like FlashForward is expected to take over for LOST after its final season, or the fact that ABC and The Powers That Be think that we LOST fans are so blind and pathetic that we’ll settle for their blatant pandering (ex.1: OMG a KANGAROO! It’s JUST like a WTF!POLARBEAR!) (ex.2: The casting of (dead) former Losties, like Penny and Charlie. Maybe even Libby and Eko will show up at some point.) Add to that how ridiculously cheesy and overly-dramatic the whole thing is, and, well, we LOST fans are so not impressed. This is NOT a worthy successor. Simply throwing together a shitty ensemble cast show with integration of “flashes” does NOT a good show make – especially if you couple that with bad acting and yawn-inducing/eyeroll-worthy plot.

And it’s not just FlashForward we’re looking at – there’s also disappointments from formerly good shows *coughSUPERNATURALcough* *coughHEROEScough*. There are also the really, really bad new shows – the continued celebration of idiot, vapid, privileged, asshole pseudo-celebrities on shows like I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (or anything on E!, MTV or VH1 for that matter); the trend of not being able to think of anything new so rebooting shows from the ’90s (Melrose Place, 90210)…the list goes on.

3. Poor Marketing Choices

This is one thing we feel we complained a lot this past year. We had two really bad experiences with books being marketed one way, which in turn created reader’s expectations, only to find something else entirely when we started reading. Example number 1, was Night’s Rose by Evangeline Evans which was marketed as “Historical Urban Fantasy” (and what the hell is that anyway?) and was supposed to be a retelling of Sleeping Beauty but turned out to be Erotic Romance with the heroine running around with “cream” pouring down her legs. We have nothing against Erotica or Erotic Romance but it just isn’t our cup of tea and to find it when we were not expecting it (nothing in the cover, the blurb or the marketing material suggests it) put us off reading the book.

Example number 2 was Soulless by Gail Carriger, a book both of us had been anxiously expecting. The marketing material and the spine clearly estates the book is Horror/Fantasy with Steampunk but really , the story was a Paranormal Romance with very little Steampunk elements. Our impression is that these choices are attempts to ride a “wave” but the mismarketing ends up backfiring because it simply doesn’t hit the right public.

And speaking of Poor Marketing Choices, what is up with the amount of the Sameness in Romance covers and Titles. The sheer amount of books with “duke”, and “wicked” in their titles last year was mind-blowing, or more like, mind-numbing. It just makes all books look the same, sound the same, when in fact they are not.

And then we have to mention YA and the current tendency of comparing all books to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. We received quite a few ARCs and promotional materials last year, describing a book like “The New Book for Twilight Fans,” or “The Next Twilight,” or “Like Twilight, Only Better.” To be honest, this is a sure way to make us NOT want to read the book. We actually both enjoyed Twilight when we first read it, but that train needs to leave the station now.

And speaking of Twilight…..

2. The (Twilight) Curse of Stupid Heroines (especially in YA books)

We get that a large part of the appeal of Twilight is that Bella is such a bland, undefined character – allowing for readers (and moviegoers) the power of self-insertion. There’s nothing about Bella that stands out or makes her much of a heroine, or a character for that matter – she’s thoroughly ordinary, with no defining passions or hobbies, beyond of course omg loving Edward (for obvious reasons). She’s an “every-girl.” Actually, that’s a misnomer. She’s actually a “no-girl.” She doesn’t exist on her own – she only lives and is willed into reality by Edward’s love for her.

Sarah Rees Brennan wrote a blog post about this in 2009, about the “blank page heroine.” Justine Larbalestier also wrote her own post about the archetype she calls “The Girlfriend.” (Please note in both cases, no names are named for examples of these types of heroines – any opinions concerning heroines expressed here are ours and ours alone as Book Smugglers)

And this is something that drives us positively batty. This is a rant we know you’ve heard from us throughout the year (and over the two years since we’ve started this blog) – but this model of heroine, the Bella no-girl, is not only insulting and sends out something of a damaging message (Hey, I’ll give up EVERYTHING about myself – family, friends, my very soul – because that’s what I have to do to be with Edward. He doesn’t have to do anything. But it’s ok. Because that is what love and life is all about! I will be with Edward FOREVER! SPARKLE!!). But even more disturbing than this is how WIDELY ACCEPTED the Bella no-girl heroine has become. She’s all over the place. Most noticeably she’s in YA fiction (take, for example, Grace from Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver – a character that exists to be protected by her werewolf boyfriend) [**AN ASIDE: Also, creating one or two "character quirks" for these heroines does NOT a fleshed out character make. Bella being clumsy or Grace liking to cook is great. But the half-hearted creation of a single throwaway hobby does not constitute character definition or development. Sorry.]. But this type of character also rears her nondescript vanilla personality in other genres too – romance, fantasy, horror, heck, even in movies.

And frankly, we’re sick of it. We want characters, we want heroines, we want people with texture and color and dimension.

1. Jack. Jate. The Jacksus.

Ok, while we love LOST, we do take issue with certain aspects of the show (especially recently). The nuke (presumably) going off and “resetting” the timeline feels like a copout, and the actual motivation for setting the bomb off is the MOST IDIOTIC MOTIVATION WE HAVE EVER SEEN IN OUR LIVES.

What was the reason the writers decided would make it OK to nuke the island, kill everyone and “reboot” the storyline (possibly)? What seasoned reasoning would make this all work? Would it be the logical reasoning – taking into account all the people who died on/because of the island (Boone, Shannon, Libby, Ana Lucia, Michael, Eko, Charlie, probably Claire, Naomi, Big Red, Danielle, Alex, Karl, almost Sayid, innumerable redshirts and Others and OTHER Others, so far as we know Locke…)?

No. NO. Of course not. NO, rather, the plot and character motivation that the writers come up with is….

Seriously. SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! Are you freaking kidding us!?!?!?!?!

Doc “I-wanna-fix-you-and-cry-and-count-to-five-because-my-daddy-drank-a-lot” wants to blow up the island with a freaking hydrogen bomb…

BECAUSE THEN HE MIGHT ‘WIN’ KATE BACK????

Never mind the fact that this is IMPOSSIBLE even if the nuke plan works in the first place since she’s heading straight to prison, seeing as she’s a fugitive and all? Never mind the fact that he already “had” Kate and blew it with his usual twitchy, yell-y, cry-y, baby behavior?

Seriously. Stupidest character motivation EVER.

And that’s it! Our 2009 grievances are aired, and our 2010 slates are clean. Are there any gripes y’all have had for the past year that you want to get off your chest?

And don’t forget, later today, we Air our Grievances with Supernatural….quite possibly the show that took the WORST turn in the history of TV, totally jumping the shark.

Hello there! This is our recap/review (or rant as the case may be) of the season finale of Lost. We kick-off with a Flash-recap (25 caps or less!) of the 2-part finale followed by a discussion between us where we go mental with all the WTF?! and HOLY CRAPs and with our theories for next season. Enjoy!

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Another day, another stash, another really damn important Laker game we MUST WIN OR DIE.

*Thea’s in a very vulnerable place today (especially when 30 mins before the game, ESPN.com takes it on themselves to post stuff like THIS) so don’t mind her*

Covers, Excerpts and Release Dates:

Richelle Mead’s next installment in her Georgina Kincaid series Succubus Heat officially comes out in stores on May 26th…but word on the street is, some bookstores are putting out copies early. I’ll be scourging my local chains and hunting for a copy today. You can read the first chapter of Succubus Heat HERE.

On another note, I am so very envious of folks in Germany who get these covers:

How gorgeous is that? Speaking of covers, check out the cover and blurb for Blood Promise, the next book in Richelle’s Vampire Academy series. **NOTE: HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST THREE BOOKS, IF YOU HAVEN’T YET READ THEM!**

From the Back Cover:

DIMITRI’S HEART HAS GONE DARK

Now Rose must journey to the ends of the earth to find–and kill–her one true love…

Or has the time come to join him?

My heart shattered. My world shattered. You will lose what you value most… It wasn’t my life…it wasn’t even Dimitri’s life.

What you value most.

It was his soul.

Official Blurb:

BOUND BY LOVE, BUT SWORN TO KILL…

The rest of the world had considered Dimitri dead. And to a certain extent, he was. But I hadn’t been able to forget a conversation he and I had once had. We’d both agreed that we’d rather be dead—truly dead—than walk the world as Strigoi. It was time to honor our words.

Guardian Rose Hathaway’s life will never be the same.

The recent attack on St. Vladimir’s Academy devastated the entire Moroi world. Many are dead. And, for the few victims carried off by Strigoi, their fates are even worse. A rare tattoo now adorns Rose’s neck, a mark that says she’s killed far too many Strigoi to count. But only one victim matters . . . Dimitri Belikov. Rose must now choose one of two very different paths: honoring her life’s vow to protect Lissa—her best friend and the last surviving Dragomir princess—or, dropping out of the Academy to strike out on her own and hunt down the man she loves. She’ll have to go to the ends of the earth to find Dimitri and keep the promise he begged her to make. But the question is, when the time comes, will he want to be saved?

Now, with everything at stake—and worlds away from St. Vladimir’s and her unguarded, vulnerable, and newly rebellious best friend—can Rose find the strength to destroy Dimitri? Or, will she sacrifice herself for a chance at eternal love?

I’m literally drooling with anticipation. Blood Promise is out this August.

In other book news, Kim Harrison’s Young Adult debut novel, Once Dead, Twice Shy also is being released on May 26th!

My name is Madison Avery, and I’m here to tell you that there’s more out there than you can see, hear, or touch. Because I’m there. Seeing it. Touching it. Living it.

Madison’s prom was killer—literally. For some reason she’s been targeted by a dark reaper—yeah, that kind of reaper—intent on getting rid of her, body and soul. But before the reaper could finish the job, Madison was able to snag his strange, glowing amulet and get away.

Now she’s stuck on Earth—dead but not gone. Somehow the amulet gives her the illusion of a body, allowing her to toe the line between life and death. She still doesn’t know why the dark reaper is after her, but she’s not about to just sit around and let fate take its course.

With a little ingenuity, some light-bending, and the help of a light reaper (one of the good guys! Maybe . . . ), her cute crush, and oh yeah, her guardian angel, Madison’s ready to take control of her own destiny once and for all, before it takes control of her.

Well, if she believed in that stuff.

AND the lovely folks at Harper Teen have posted the first TWO chapters of the book online! Check it out:

I cannot wait.

This Week On The Book Smugglers:

On Monday, Ana will review the much discussed A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore.

Tuesday, Thea totally switches gears and reviews Don’t Look Twice by Andrew Gross! Gross is James Patterson’s co-author and bestselling writer of thriller/suspense novels. As a genre that neither Thea nor Ana are versed in, Don’t Look Twice is definitely outside of the comfort zone. We’ll also be giving away a copy of the book, so stay tuned!

On Wednesday, we’ll have a joint review of The Black Act by editor and writer Louise Bohmer. The Black Act is a dark fantasy/horror novel from Lachesis Publishing.

Thursday, Ana reviews Compromised by Kate Noble, and on Friday we’ll have an interview with the lovely Ms. Noble!

And also this week, we will give our thoughts on the season finale of LOST (OMGWTFJACOB!!!!!!), and make predictions for the show’s sixth and final season. Plus, you can probably expect some gushing over The Office finale, and a creative post in honor of Terminator: Salvation.

Also, if you haven’t heard the news, Ana and I are famous! We’re being interviewed by Harry over at Temple Library Reviews, and because you know how much Ana and I like to talk, our full interview will be released in installments. Part I is up now, but check back in this week for the rest of our chat with Harry!

Until next week, we leave you with this.

Recap of Lost, Season 5, Episode 15, Follow the Leader.

I start the episode wondering WHO the leader the title refers to: is it Jack, Locke, Sawyer? All of the above?

The episode starts right after the previous one ended – with Faraday’s death, but from Jack and Kate’s point of view. Just before Faraday’s death though, they discuss whether he is crazy or not. Kate says yes. Jack says no : “What if this is why we’re here? What if this is our one chance to put things back the way they’re supposed to be?” Jack is sounding more and more like one John Locke. Anyways, Faraday is a goner and they flee. Or try to because….

they are stopped by Widmore, who starts kicking Jack’s butt and I love it. Already I like this episode.

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Recap of Season 5, Episode 14 titled The Variable.

This is the 100th episode of Lost and it is a Faraday-centric. It is quite aptly titled to reflect his relationship with Desmond – who had an episode titled The Constant (one of my top 2 favorites).

Now, what does the variable mean?

Desmond is being taken to the hospital after being shot by Ben. Penny is desperate and waiting when…

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Recap of Lost, Episode 12, season 5 – Dead is Dead

it is time to embark on a Ben-centric episode! Woohoo!

Episode opens with a VERY charming, good looking man on a horse getting to the Other’s camp. The bloke has a british acccent so I know it’s Charles Widmore. Who would have thought he would look THIS good on his 30s (40s?). He is not happy that Richard took “one of them” to the temple. I suppose he means Benny. Richard plays his usual trumps: It is what Jacob wanted. and you know that the island chooses who the island chooses…so…there.

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Recap of Lost Season 5 Episode 11 titled Whatever Happened, Happened.

This is a Kate-centric and you know what this means: lots of good scenes with Sawyer and the potential to make one go NUTS wondering “WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO HER CHARACTER?” . Also, her episodes also come loaded with scenes with Jack which means this is a great opportunity for you to play The Jackface Game – every time there is a Jackface cap you drink. I can guarantee you will be drunk by the time you finish reading this recap.

So, where were we? Oh, yes Sayid shot young Ben, ran into the jungle and Jin was out cold. Jin comes to (phew) and sees Benny and runs to him. Benny says: “Please … help…” and I am like awwww. HELP HIM JIN.

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Fasten your seat belts cause it’s a Sayid episode: violence and hotness ahead.

Lost recap: Season 5 Episode 10 – He’s our you

The episode opens and I am surprised cause this is a honest-to-god proper Flashback! A man in Iraq tells his son that he needs!to!be! a! man! which seems can only happen by killing a defenseless chicken.  The boy is not very happy about it…then another boy comes (his younger brother?) and it’s Sayid!

Who takes over the duty and kills the chicken with his own bare hands – by snapping its neck! Jaysus…..Sayid was bad-ass even then. But it makes me wonder about his other flashbacks – you know, the ones that show how reluctant he was about torturing and killing people. …hummm

Back to the future (errr past?) Sayid is a prisoner in DharmaVille…
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