Book Review: Popular (Gareth Russell)

'AND HOW ARE WE?'

'BETTER.'

'THAN?'

'EVERYONE.'

MEREDITH HARPER is rich, popular, manipulative and almost unnaturally beautiful. At the age of sixteen, she's already a social legend.

IMOGEN DAWSON, beautiful and sexy-chic, she's Meredith's best friend and a total bombshell. And doesn't she just know it. Then there's . . .

KERRY DAVISON, daddy's little princess with a passion for pink and a penchant for Fabulous Induced Breakdowns. Now meet

CAMERON MATTHEWS, six-feet tall, blue-eyed and the most popular guy in school.

Together they're unfathomably gorgeous and like, totally beau. But under the glamorous surface of parties and spa-days is a wealth of comforting lies and convenient silences, bitching, break-ups and scandal. Let the games begin . . .

Popular by Gareth Russell was a very fun read. It was hilarious and exciting, which you could probably guess by the blurb, and it is such a girly-girl book, as you can totally tell by by the cover! It really was funny and full of typical high school socialites. It's like gossip girl and mean girls and ... you know, those girls!

The characters were funny and beautiful popular high school socialites. The life the characters live is an almost perfect one, although behind those parties and glamour were a pile of lies and scandals. This book is mostly based on high school life. They all have their own personalities and they are very (as you may have already known) rich, rich, rich. Made me envy them, but made me see how easily money can get into someone's head also.

I liked the plot and it showed high school life. It sounded like a typical high school I expect, too. Parties, secrets, break-ups. As it turns out, the life of the unmistakably gorgeous socialites aren't perfect at all. It's always good to appreciate the little things in life!

What I didn't really like was how some characters were without common sense sometimes. It happens in real life I know, but I felt like the book exaggerated and it became annoying. Maybe it's just the socialites in the characters that make them annoying, but I wish I liked them better.

I would recommend this book to readers who like the drama and flair of high school life and Gossip Girl. Popular is the perfect read for those of you wanting to read a very fun and glamorous book.

Three Stars.

* Thanks to Razorbill for my review copy!

QoTD Winners, Part deux!

All righty - part deux of the QoTD Winners will receive author copies of Queen of the Dead, courtesy of Stacey Kade! Here are the lucky winners!

Šárka O.

For the Special Giveaway Post we have two, whose answers to the question "If you were Will, what would you give Alona Dare for her birthday?", were chosen by Stacey herself!

•  Hannah S.

I would let her pick out my outfit for the day. Not only would that make her content for a little while but I won't have to hear about my clothes for the rest of the day.

• Kaitlyn K. 

If I were Will, I would try to find something from Alona's life that had meaning to her. Something that still has meaning to her even though she died. Whether it is a picture, a stuffed animal, or something else from her childhood, I would find it. Maybe it would bring a bit of innocence back into her life!

Congratulations! E-mail will be on your way soon.

Hot off the Press: Haunting Violet Competition!

Wonderful news, Alyx Harvey fans! Emma at Bloomsbury shared this news this morning, 

The wonderful Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey is out today! To celebrate we are offering one lucky winner the opportunity to win an incredible iPad 2, along with a signed copy and goody bag for 10 runners up. Head to the Facebook page to find out how to enter:

My Love Lies Bleeding Facebook Page

Good luck!

Forgive My Fins Blog Tour: The Mermaids + Giveaway!

Terra Lynn Child's Forgive My Fins is one enchanting book - I fell in love with its mermaid mythology right off the bat and so, given the opportunity to ask TLC to guest post for the Forgive My Fins UK Blog Tour, I jumped at the chance! Want to read more of the Thalassinia? Check it out below:

I don’t remember exactly when my obsession with mermaids began. Maybe when I wasalittlegirl playing with Sea Wees (bath tub mermaid dolls with floating sponge lily pads) or when Ifirst saw the movie Splash. But I’ve been in love with mermaids for as long as I can remember and, yes, dreamed of becomingone. When I got the idea for Forgive My Fins I was excited to finally create my own mermaid world.

In bringing half-mermaid princess Lily to life on the page I had to develop two parts of her life. First, I thought about the underwater world. What would a mermaid kingdom look like? Where would it be located? What would everyday mermaid life entail? Second, I imagined being a mermaid living on land. What would be different? What would be the same? How would she be affected, physically and mentally, by being out of the water? These were the questions I had to answer as I wrote the book.

My first priority in building the underwater kingdom was to make it as believable as possible. A mermaid kingdom is a completely fantastical world, but I wanted mine to conceivably exist in our world. The buildings in Thalassinia are covered in anemones, seaweed, and starfish, disguising their underlying structures. They are built from coral and natural-looking rock formations. The kingdom looks like something you might actually see if you were snorkeling in the Bahamas.

Once I had the overall world designed, I layered in small details of everyday mer life. I thought about things we take for granted as normal in our world—mattresses, cars, refrigerators—and tried to imagine how those things would be different in the sea. Their beds are shaped like shells, they get around on seahorses and water-powered wavemakers, and their food stays cold enough in the chilly ocean water. Everything is slightly different because of the wet and cold and floating in the sea.

For a mermaid living on land, our ordinary human things would be very out of the ordinary. I had to imagine myself as someone from an underwater world, and was suddenly living on land. In Thalassinia sea slang is common, but on land it’s weird to call someone a son of a swordfish. There are no beverages in the ocean because they’re surrounded by water already. On land, a mermaid dries out and has to take saltwater baths to stay hydrated. Lily has to make lots of little adjustments to life above the water.

It was an amazing challenge to try to create a realistic mer world, one the reader could easily imagine actually existing beneath the Atlantic, and then to write a character who grew up in that world and is living in ours. As a writer, it’s my job to make the world of my story as real as possible, and hopefully these details of mer and mer-on-land life help make Forgive My Fins more believable.

Needless to say, I was swept away by Thalassinia and its lovely, mer

people, including Quince, of course!

Want more? Forgive My Fins was published 1st July 2011 in the UK by Templar Publishing. In the unlikely event of you not having your copy in your hands just yet, here's a little extract to tempt you!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops and enter the giveaway below to win a fabulous new copy of Forgive My Fins! Do read the rules below - and good luck!

GIVEWAY

• UK only.
• You do NOT have to be a follower to enter - everyone is welcome!
• Deadline for entries will be on 11th July 2011, 12MN BST.
• Winners will be drawn through random.org.
• Winners will be contacted via e-mail.
• Any details will be deleted after use and will never be passed on to any third party, save Templar Publishing.
• Fill out the form below!