Best Book Ever INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY EDITION!

Today's Best Book Ever is a little special!  If you are new around here- each week on BBE, we talk about what our favorite books are in a specific genre- vampires, faeries, dystopians, lots of topics!  If you haven't checked it out yet- click the BBE tab at the top and read through our past entries!

Today we are having a BBE mini-scavanger hunt!  What you have to do is read each paragraph below and then go to each magenta link.  Each link will take you to that BBE panelist's site- where you can enter special giveaways to celebrate!  Make sure you look out for a special BOLDED code word- write it down, you will need it!  After you have gone to all the sites- head back here and enter the code words into the raffle copter below- YOU MUST have all of them to enter my contest!(Please note that not all of the other giveaways are International- please make sure you read each set of rules before entering- mine however IS international:) )  What can you win? 

Pre-orders of:

 

(Or if you don't want these two AWESOME books- you can pick two of your own books over at The Book Depository (but keep it under 30 USD!).... Did I mention this is INTERNATIONAL???)

Ready to get started?  Then click on the first link to go to Keren's giveaway!

Keren @ Gothic Angel Book Reviews- Go check out Keren's giveaway and get her password HERE!

My love for Matilda starts at the cellular level. Matilda is a kindred spirit -- a girl who loves books. LOVES THEM. To a degree that makes others mock her and prevent her from reading. The Horror! The littler version of me totally related. Okay, so I was never locked in The Chokey, BUT my parents did regularly take away my book light, night light, and whatever flashlights I'd managed to scavenge so I could stay up way-too-late reading under the covers. They had stacks of books they confiscated when I was caught reading at the dinner table, church, in math class, while (supposedly) loading the dishwasher or cleaning my room. Books I launched elaborate plans to rescue from the tops of their dressers or the back of their bedroom closet (wishing I had Matilda's telekinetic powers to help me out). Matilda was my hero -- and if she refused to let her spirit be crushed by The Trunchbull, then I was hardly going to let a little thing like "Bedtime, Tiffany, and WE MEAN IT," stand between me and The End. 

Tiffany Schmidt, author of Send Me a Sign. Go check out Tiffany's giveaway and get her password HERE!

I had to think long and hard on which book I thought was so amazing that I would want everyone I know to read it. My list instantly filled with about 20 books, but I managed to narrow it down. I decided to choose a book that doesn’t get a lot of attention. I’m not a huge fan of mysteries, but there is one mystery book that I love. In fact, it is one of my 7^th grade book club reads every year. The plot has more twists than a pack of Twizzlers, which keeps the reader constantly guessing all the way to the shocker of an ending! The main character “Turtle” is fantastic. She’s funny, clever, and underappreciated. You can’t help but cheer for her success throughout the book. While I would classify this book as a middle grades read, I think anyone would appreciate it. 

Alanna at The Flashlight Reader.  Go check out Alanna's giveaway and get her password HERE!

One of my favoritest (I have an English degree, I say it's a word) YA novels ever is Pegasus by Robin McKinley. It's a book I sort of stumbled upon, mainly because I fell in love with the cover, and then the story sucked me in. It was an emotional read that took over my dreams at night and made me wish for a pegasus of my own. I mean seriously: Sylvi, the Princess, has her very own pegasus, Ebon. And she can ride him as he flies! AND she can talk to the pegasi! How cool is that? McKinley is well-known for her ability to create engrossing worlds and memorable characters, and this novel definitely has a special place in my heart. I'm counting down to the sequel, because I feel like half my heart was torn out when I read the last page -- fair warning: MAJOR cliff-hanger awaits the reader, but the journey makes up for the fall. 

Rebecca at A Word's Worth- Go check out Rebecca's giveaway and get her password HERE!

You’ve probably heard of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien or seen the animated film adapted as The Secret of NIMH. You may even have read his post-apocalyptic young adult novel, Z for Zachariah. But have you read O’Brien’s middle grade fantasy The Silver Crown? Maybe not, since it was out of print for quite some time; but a new edition was published in 2001, and it’s well worth grabbing a copy. I own three, including one from the UK — I wasn’t taking any chances on it going out of print again.

The Silver Crown was O’Brien’s first published book. It appeared in 1968, and I first read it twenty-one years later, when I was in the 6^th grade. It stuck with me for a long time; this book has probably informed my taste in fiction and tendencies in writing more than most others I’ve encountered. The story is about a ten-year-old girl named Ellen who wakes up on her birthday to discover a silver crown on her pillow. She slips out with it for an early morning walk, and when she returns she finds her house has burned down with her family inside. That’s pretty dark stuff for a children’s book, and it impressed me even then. Someone is following her, clearly after the crown, and she runs away to look for her aunt. Eventually she meets up with a boy named Otto and they have some trippy adventures as they delve deeper into the dangerous plot she’s mixed up in. Ellen learns that the situation — and the crown itself — are not at all what they seem. It all comes to a satisfactory end, though the U.S. edition features two final chapters: the original ending, which was published in the U.K., and a slightly expanded version that explains events even further.

I reread this book periodically and it still holds up very well for me as an adult, though nostalgia may be working some of its own insidious magic. It’s still refreshing to read a book with such a strong and sympathetic female protagonist, which is common to at least three of O’Brien’s books, that doesn’t talk down to its audience and isn’t afraid to get a little creepy. I’ve just been reminded that I haven’t yet read O’Brien’s fourth book, A Report from Group 17, since it remains out of print. I’ll track it down though, and perhaps it will make an appearance in a future Best Book Ever post.

E.C Myers, author of Fair Coin- Go check out E.C.'s giveaway and get the password HERE!

I have a hard time nailing down my favorite book. Part of the reason is because I have so many and it's hard to narrow it down and pick just one. Most of the time when people ask me what my favorite book is, I say Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card or The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald because they're both books that have been favorites for such a long time.

But in the past few weeks, I've been talking books that I love and elements of stories that I love and even writers that inspire me. And on book keeps coming up more than others.

Here's what I love about it. First, it's an amazing and page turning plot about a girl who was abandoned by her mother when she was eleven and is not struggling to just get more from her life. There are several mysteries that crop up in the book--to the point where I felt a little unsure of what was happening in the beginning, but I was well rewarded when everything tied together in the end. The characters are wonderful--they're full developed, well realized, and flawed in a way that makes them so real. I want these characters to be my friends. And as always, the writing is exceptionally beautiful, and there were a number of quotes that I read and thought "Yes, that is exactly how I've felt." And for those reasons, Jellicoe Road is my best book ever.

Elizabeth Norris, author of Unraveling- Go check out her giveaway and get her password HERE!

So are you ready to enter my big giveaway?  Do you have all the passwords?  Fill out the form below!