Feature & Follow Friday (23)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
Activity! Hopefully warm weather for most of us is here soon . . . so tell us about your favorite outdoor reading spot. Or take a picture.

This is Ally's backyard patio, and our favorite outdoor reading spot. Lee is very fortunate that her cousin lives within walking distance and gets to hang out at Ally's house all the time, including by the pool, because all Lee has behind her house is a giant hill that slopes downward.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (22)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
Write a letter to your favorite character. Rant, rave or gush . . . just pretend like they are real and you just want to let them know a "few things." - Activity courtesy of author, Kelly Walker

We're both huge, huge fans of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and thought it would be fun to write to two of our favorite characters from the books, Brienne of Tarth and Ser Jaime Lannister. We ship those two like mad and figured that maybe some persuasion in letter form would work in getting them together.

Ally's Letter:

Dear Ser Jaime Lannister, AKA Kingslayer,

Before I start this mission, I would like to let you know, Jaime (I can call you Jaime, right?), that my love for you is undying and absolute. I have overlooked your flaws (pushing Bran out the window, Cersei, kingslaying, etc.) and want you to know that I am always here for you.

Now my main purpose in writing to you is supposedly to get you to open your damn beautiful eyes and see Brienne and how perfect you two are for each other!! So get yourself together and make your move! She's one of a kind, way better than Cersei (though I'm not saying anything about me ;D), a completely bad-arse knight, honorable, and is just plain and simple perfect for you. Man, I know she loves you, too. As a matter of fact, Lee is talking to her right now about you! I know you love her, too! I mean, you went back for her. Would you just pull yourself together and tell her how you feel? We know how she is, and she's not going to make the first move. Hey, maybe you two lovebirds can adopt Pod! Well anyway, I think I've made my case.

Sincerely,

Ally

Lee's Letter:

Dear Brienne,

First, I'd like to tell you that you're one of my favorite kick-ass heroines. I admire you for pursuing your dream of being a knight in a society that looks down on women picking up a sword. Continue showing those narrow-minded twits in Westeros how ridiculous their thinking is.

Now for the real reason that I'm writing. You and Jaime Lannister need to realize that you belong together. I used to despise the guy to no end, but he's really turned his life around. He's found a sense of honor, something that I never pictured happening. Ever. And it's all because of you. Sure, you guys got off to a rocky start, what with that little sword fight and all, but he went back to Harrenhal for you and rescued you from that bear. If that doesn't scream true love, I don't know what does.

Please consider making my shipping dreams come true by giving the Kingslayer a chance. I truly hope to see this happen in the next book, whenever it's finally released. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Lee

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (21)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
What is the last book that kept you up late into the night just to finish it?

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. It's one of the best vampire/dystopian books I've read in a while. I'd keep telling myself that I'd only read one more chapter before quitting for the night, but I couldn't put it down. It was definitely worth staying up into the wee hours of the morning to read.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let me know so that I can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (20)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
If you could choose one supernatural being/creature to really exist what would it be and why? ex. fae { submitted by @SeeingNight }

We've actually had this discussion a few times, and in the end the choices usually come down to wizards/witches (because then Hogwarts would be real and we could go) and the Shadowhunters from Cassandra Clare's books (because demon hunting sounds so cool; if given the choice, we'd prefer to run with the Victorian era group—hello Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs!)

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (19)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
What is the last book that made you cry? Tell us about the scene . . .

I'm fielding this week's question solo because 1) it's Ally's birthday today and I can't possibly ask her to do work on it, and 2) I don't remember her ever crying over a book. Books don't often make me cry, either, but one of the biggest exceptions ever was If I Stay by Gayle Forman. That book made me want to sob from the beginning to the end. There are a lot of highly emotional scenes, but the one that really sticks with me is the scene in the hospital where the main character, Mia, who is unconscious after a car accident, is being asked by her boyfriend, Adam, to wake up and stay with him and her family and friends. Absolutely. Gut. Wrenching.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let me know so that I can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (18)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
Do you mind books with similar ideas to other books? Similar concepts, backgrounds, retellings or pulled-to-publish fanfic?

Not really, just as long as there's some kind of fresh twist to the concept, like with Marissa Meyer's cyborg Cinderella in Cinder or Bethany Griffin's steampunk take on Edgar Allan Poe's short story in Masque of the Red Death. We never would have read as many vampire books as we have if they'd all been just another rehash of Twilight. Coming up with an entirely new, never-before-seen idea for a book has to be really difficult, so when it comes to retellings or books with jacket blurbs that say, "If you liked Book X, you're sure to love Book Y," what we look for is how the author has put his or her own stamp on a particular premise.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (17)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
What book do you think would make a great Halloween movie? Please explain in graphic detail of goriness . . .

Just based on the title alone, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake would make a perfect Halloween movie. It's definitely scary and probably not the type of book you want to read in the middle of the night with only a minimal amount of lights on. Emma Silver's Blackbrooke, with its grotesque, human-hunting Crits that come out at night to hunt their prey, would also make an excellent horror film.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (16)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
What do you hope to accomplish with your blog? Is it to one day become an author yourself, just for fun, maybe get some online attention, or maybe something very different?

Blogging is something that we do for fun. We didn't really have anyone besides ourselves to discuss books with. Some of our family members were rather tired of hearing our nonstop book chatter, so we thought that we'd start a book blog to meet others who are as obsessed with reading as we are and who don't mind talking about books all the time. The blog has given us the perfect outlet to share our love of books, and even though running it is a job in itself at times, we're extremely glad that we decided to start it.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (15)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
What hyped up book was worth all of the fuss?

We both put off reading Vampire Academy for the longest time because we figured that it was just another vampire book, and we'd read our fair share of those already. The cover didn't do much to convince us to read it, either. Finally we decided to give it a shot, and man, did we kick ourselves for not reading it a lot sooner. It quickly became one of our favorite series.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (14)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: What hyped up book do you think was not worth all the talk?

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater kind of fell flat for me. The writing and world-building were both outstanding; I just couldn't get into the book. I kept waiting for the action to pick up, but the book maintained a very slow pace throughout (at least for me it did).

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (13)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Q: What are you reading right now? How do you like it?

Ally's been super busy with school and band practice lately, so I don't think that she's reading anything at the moment that isn't school-related. My current read is Looking for Alaska by John Green. It's the first time I'm reading one of his novels, and although I can see why so many people love his books (he is an amazing writer), I'm not sure how I like the actual story and some of the characters so far.

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (12)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Best cover? What is the best cover of a book that you've read and loved?

It was just too hard to choose between these two, so here they both are:

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (11)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Worst cover? What is the worst cover of a book that you've read and loved?

It's not the worst cover ever, but it really doesn't do justice to how amazing the book (and the series) is. And if that's supposed to be Adrian on the cover with Sydney, why is only half of his face showing? Seriously? You do not put half of Adrian Ivashkov's face on a book cover!

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (10)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: What would you do over if you were to start your blog again from scratch?

We've been blogging for about four months now, and for the most part, we're happy with how things have turned out so far. One thing that we definitely should have done from the beginning was get on Twitter. We knew that blogging was going to be a lot of fun and a lot of work, but there are still times when we underestimate how time-consuming it can be, so our time management skills could use some polish as well.

Is there anything that you would have done differently with your blog?

If you're a new follower, be sure to let us know so that we can follow you back. Thanks for stopping by!

Feature & Follow Friday (9)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Do your reading habits change based on your mood? Do you read a certain genre if you are feeling depressed or happy?

Our moods typically don't affect what we decide to read. Sometimes we do feel the need to take a break from a certain genre, and we'll try something different for a change. When we can't figure out what we'd like to read next, we'll usually pick up an old favorite, like Harry Potter, and read that.

Feature & Follow Friday (8)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Summer Reading. What was your favorite book that you were REQUIRED to read when you were in school?

Ally: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. It was very interesting to a 7th grader. I liked all of the action in it.

Lee: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I had to read the abridged version for 12th grade, and I loved its theme of redemption. I love the musical adaptation, too, and I can't wait for the movie version of it in December.

Feature & Follow Friday (7)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Christmas in July! Someone gives you a gift card for two books (whatever that costs). What two books will you buy?

We decided to share our virtual gift card and each pick a book:

Ally would buy: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout because everyone seems to be reading it lately, and I feel like I should read it, too. Plus, I love the cover!

Lee would buy: Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta because I love her books, and this is the only one that I don't own yet.

Feature & Follow Friday (6)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Birthday Wishes -- Blow out the candles and imagine what character could pop out of your cake . . . who is it and what book are they from?

Ally: I recently had a dream in which Adrian Ivashkov from Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series gave me a birthday card, so he's my choice.

Lee: I totally wish that Will Herondale from Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices series had jumped out of my birthday cake earlier this month. There's always next year . . . .

Which character did you choose? Leave your link in the comments, and we'll stop by!

Feature & Follow Friday (5)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is: Happy Father's Day! Who is your favorite dad character in a book and why?

We decided to go with these two fictional dads:

Ned Stark from the A Song of Ice and Fire series: He's one of the most dedicated fathers we can think of. We especially loved how he encouraged his daughter, Arya, when she wanted to learn how to use a sword by finding a teacher to give her lessons.

Abe Mazur from the Vampire Academy series: Sure, he's a bit of an unconventional dad, but he'll always be there when times are tough. Plus, he's got a killer sense of style!

Who is your favorite fictional father? Leave your link, and we'll check it out!

Feature & Follow Friday (4)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and
Alison Can Read. It's a great way to meet other book bloggers!

This week's question is:
Activity! Dreamcast your current read.

The book that both of us read most recently was:

Jamie Campbell Bower is set to play Jace in the movie adaptation of The Mortal Instruments that's in the works, but his turn as Caius in the Twilight movies makes us think that he'd make a better Sebastian. Instead, our choice for Jace would be Lucas Till, who played Alex Summers/Havok in X-Men: First Class. In fact, we were watching this movie the other night and kind of simultaneously looked at each other and said, "He should be playing Jace!" For Clary, we'd go with Bonnie Wright. She certainly has the perfect hair color for the role.

Who made the cast of your current read? Let us know by leaving your link!