The Best Books Ever

Having just read a book all about dragons, and of course thinking about the return of Game of Thrones to television for its third season, I've got dragons on the mind!  So this week, naturally, I asked our contributors to share their favorite books with dragons.  Check out our selections and let us know what you think in the comments. Easy! My favorite dragon book ever is The Dragon & The George by Gordon R. Dickson. Not familiar with this title? Actually, if you're from my age bracket you probably are... you just don't know it. The 1982 animated film The Flight of Dragons uses this novel as the inspiration for the plot, but the character design from the film borrows heavily from the Peter Dickinson speculative natural history book titled... The Flight of Dragons . To muddy the waters a bit more - in the film version, Sir Peter IS Peter Dickinson, attempting to finish his manuscript of... The Flight of Dragons . Yeah. It's complicated. Mindy McGinnis - Not a

Welcome to Short and Sweet's stop on the Open Heart Review Tour!  Today I am sharing my thoughts about Open Heart and sharing the trailer with you!                                                                                                                                                          Simmi Shergill's life is a mess. Her powers of psychic feeling are on the fritz, and Grandon Township's sudden population boom has brought quite a few unsavory characters to town. She also looks like an over-blown balloon in her size 14 pants, but not even starving herself seems to be helping. At least she has Alex, the boyfriend who loves her so much he'd do anything for her. Last summer, he even risked his life to protect her from the mysterious boy everyone was convinced wanted to kill her. Just one problem: she's not so sure she feels the same way. Is Alex really the man of her dreams? Why can't she stop fixating on her would-be killer

Thanks to author Julianna Scott for inviting Short & Sweet Reviews to be a part of her blog tour for her new book, The Holders!  Keep reading to check out our review, and make sure you enter Julianna's contest to win a copy of the book and some amazing swag!  The Holders By  Julianna Scott Published on March 5, 2013 Published by: Strange Chemistry Source: Netgalley 17-year-old Becca spent her whole life protecting her brother from, well, everything. The abandonment of their father, the so called 'experts' who insist that voices in his head are unnatural and must be dealt with, and the constant threat of being taken away to some hospital and studied like an animal. When two representatives appear claiming to have the answers to Ryland's perceived problem, Becca doesn't buy it for one second. That is until they seem to know things about Ryland and about Becca and Ryland's family, that forces Becca to concede that there may be more to these p

A Shade of Vampire By Bella Forrest Published December 2012 GoodReads Summary: On the evening of Sofia Claremont's seventeenth birthday, she is sucked into a nightmare from which she cannot wake. A quiet evening walk along a beach brings her face to face with a dangerous pale creature that craves much more than her blood. She is kidnapped to an island where the sun is eternally forbidden to shine. An island uncharted by any map and ruled by the most powerful vampire coven on the planet. She wakes here as a slave, a captive in chains. Sofia's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn when she is the one selected out of hundreds of girls to join the harem of Derek Novak, the dark royal Prince. Despite his addiction to power and obsessive thirst for her blood, Sofia soon realizes that the safest place on the island is within his quarters, and she must do all within her power to win him over if she is to survive even one more night. Will she succeed? ...or i

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent By  Marie Brennan Published on February 5, 2013 Published by: Tor Source: Netgalley You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart—no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon’s presence, even for the briefest of moments—even at the risk of one’s life—is a delight that, once experienced, can never be forgotten. . . . All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day. Here at last, in her own

There are some books that take places in worlds so messed up that you'd never want to be a part of it.  Like, I love The Hunger Games  but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't ever want to live there, unless I could go there now as an adult and somehow skip all of the horrible aspects of the universe.  So I wanted to know everyone's thoughts on books they'd like to live in .  Check out our selections and let us know what you think in the comments. When I began to think of which book or series, I would love to live in. The first place to pop up in my head was the Never Never in Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series . The way Julie wrote that series was so magical. Everything about the Never Never was so vivid and detailed. That is the place I would choose to jump into the pages and check out. Yara @  Once Upon a Twilight You might think I'm crazy, but I'd actually like to try living in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE . Life just seems so much simpler, and there was

There has been a ton of talk since Christmas about New Adult fiction.  I keep seeing the term pop up on blog tour announcements, in Publisher's Weekly and other blogs.  I had the opportunity to ask a representative from Harper Collins (Amanda Bergeron) a few questions about the New Adult Genre: What makes a book "New Adult"? New Adult generally means books about characters in their late teens early 20s that tap into the drama and intensity of emotion that comes along with that time of life.  All the rules go out the window, which makes it an irresistible genre to read and work with. Why was the NA genre created? I’m not sure that it was created so much as it was identified. Over the last year, particularly online, we’ve seen readers gravitating toward books with younger, but not adolescent, characters in dramatic and romantic storylines. These authors are writing the stories they want to read and--if the astounding numbers are any indication—that reader

Unremembered By  Jessica Brody Published on March 5, 2013 Published by: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux Source: ARC from publisher The only thing worse than forgetting her past... is remembering it. When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe. Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world. Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, [she] struggles to piece together her forgotten pas

Dualed By  Elsie Chapman Published on February 26, 2013 Published by Random House Books for Young Readers Source: Netgalley The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life. Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her. Dualed presents a pretty creepy alternate future, one which the characters

Coranne's DNF Books: I am not sure if I am getting pickier, or if I seem to be on a bad run with books, but I seem to be having more and more DNF (Did Not Finish) books.  I have never been the kind of person to force myself to read a book the whole way through if I am not loving it.  (Unless it is from an author I usually love.)  So here are a collection of DNF books that I have had since January 2013 with a short explanation about why I didn't finish them. I don't entirely call them reviews, and I don't typically rate or review books on Goodreads unless I have read 75% of the book, but here you go: Received from the publisher through Net Galley Splintered was supposed to be the best book of 2013 for me.  It was supposed to be an awesome book.  I LOVE Alice in Wonderland.  Alice in Wonderland with romance?  YES PLEASE!  I would watch the Tim Burton Alice movie on loop in hopes that the romance between the Hatter and Alice would be realized.  (On a side note, t

Thanks to Tor, we're pleased to present an excerpt and some fantastic illustrations (drawn by Todd Lockwood) from the new book A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady  Trent.   Keep scrolling for TWO chances to win a finished copy of the book! A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent By  Marie Brennan Published on February 5, 2013 Published by: Tor Source: Netgalley You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart—no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon’s presence, even for the briefest of moments—even at the risk of one’s life—is a delight that, once experienced, can never be forgotten. . . . All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into th