Mundie Moms

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Congratulations to Cassie!

























Today Simon & Schuster announced that both City of Glass and Clockwork Angel have received awards/nominations!

City of Glass has received a new award/normination for IRA Young Adult's Choice

Clockwork Angel is a finalist for the RITA Award (scroll towards the bottom for the YA finalists) and North Carolina Young Adult Book's Nominee

Congratulations Cassie on these well deserved nominations & awards!!
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Be sure to stay up with the latest news by following Cassie on her site, the TMI series site & on Twitter.

To stay up with the latest news from Cassie & other YA authors from S&S, sign up for Simon & Schuster's newsletter and join Pulse It

Giveaway Winners!!

From our Dark Days of Supernatural Tour event, 2 lucky winners are each receiving signed book plates, along with some fun swag. The winners for this giveaway are:

#47- Elysia Nail
#150- Brittney Arens

Congratulations! Both winners have been notified via email. We still have a lot of great giveaways going on. Be sure to check our right hand side bar to find out what we're giving away.

Book Review: Crossroads

By Mary Ting
Published by *review edition self published
Released on April 6th, 2011
Source- book from author to review
4 stars- It's A Great Debut

On the same night of her friend’s tragic death, Claudia Emerson encounters another world, Crossroads, through her dream. There, she learns about a mix breed of angels and humans, who possess supernatural powers. Among those with these powers, lies evil, known as the fallen. Mystified by her ability to enter this place called Crossroads, certain that the fallen will be after her, she is assigned a guardian angel named Michael. Aden, the fallen leader, is convinced that Claudia holds the key to help destroy Crossroads. Her dream becomes a nightmare as more secrets are revealed, about who she really is, and the true identities of the people she loves most.

Crossroads is an exciting debut book with a rich paranormal mythology, unique angel-lore, forbidden romance, action, suspense and plot twists. With her detailed writing and a plot that flow wells, Mary created a a world I enjoyed visiting, and a story that was hard to put down.

I liked the way Mary developed her characters and created their character chemistry. I enjoyed getting to know Claudia, the story's protagonist and Michael, her love interest. Claudia is a laid back, down to earth, likable character. When she first meets Michael it wasn't hard to not like him, but there was obviously a good reason why he treated her so coldly. Over the course of a series of events Michael quickly becomes another fictional character readers will enjoy getting to know. He's romantic, sexy, at times a little funny, and is very protective of the love of his existence, and for a good reason too.

Along with Michael and Claudia is a cast of fabulous characters I also enjoyed getting to know. Though some of their roles are minor, they all played a role in bringing Crossroads to life. Two of my favorite supporting characters are Michael's friends Davin and Claudia's Grandmother, Gamma. Michael and Devin have a great, strong, close friendship, where Claudia and Gamma's relationship is one that tugged at my heart strings. For anyone who's ever had a close relationship with their Grandmother will really enjoy the relationship between the two, and the inspiration behind Mary writing this story. The character that surprised me the most is Austin. I already have my suspicions about him, and I am really anxious to find out how big of a role he'll be playing in Gamma's life as the series progresses.

There are a lot of elements I enjoyed about the story. The setting is very vivid, the lore with angels, demons, guardian angels, and Mary's unique angel mythology was very refreshing. I liked the way she wrote and created her good vs battle and the role Claudia plays in it. There's some great character twists within the story that I didn't even see coming. With everything I liked about the book, there were some very minor things that bothered me with the writing. Like how many times Claudia mentions how hot Michael is, or how forgetful Claudia is after each time she experiences some bigger events in the story. As the story went on I felt these things were a little bit redundant, but they didn't take away from me enjoying the book and I think these are things that will be polished up a bit before Crossroads is released next month by a publishing house.

Crossroads is an enticing read with it's beautifully descriptive world, and in-depth characters. It's story of self discovery, love, loss, and friendship. If you're a fan of angel-lore, romance and paranormal reads I'd recommend picking it up. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

Thoughtful Thursday- Childhood Caner
















Today's Thoughtful Thursday is near and dear to my heart, because it's a personal post. A close friend of mine is dealing with something many of us parent's fear and it's something that many kids are diagnosed with every year, and that's childhood cancer.

This cute little girl you see in the picture is my friend's daughter, her name is Jaylie and she's 5 years old. She's always been a healthy, bubbly little girl, but that changed this past Easter when she awoke having troubles seeing the Easter Eggs she was trying to find. Thinking it was nothing more than a trip to the doctor to get her eyes checked, two days later turned out to be a horrifying nightmere and fight for Jaylie's life as she was having brain surgery at Dell Children's Medical center to remove a cancerous tumor in her brain. It's been amazing seeing how strong Jaylie's parents are, whom are both close friends of my husband and I. Having two younger kids at home I can't imagine how my friend Kajsa does it all. Like her daughter Jaylie, she is full of strength, hope and has an amazing sense of peace about her.

Jaylie is now enduring rounds of aggressive radiation and chemo. She's lost all of her hair and despite all the painful things this sweet little girl has to endure, she's still smiling. A huge group of friends of family have gathered around them and to help cover their medical expenses we're hosting a HUGE community wide 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run on August 13th, 2011 at the local Williamson County Park. This is a family orientated event and we even have country singer and aunt to Jaylie, Kori Jean Olson along with American Idol contestant Haeley Vaughan singing at the event.

You can find out more about Team Jaylie by visiting the official website teamjaylie.org, visiting us on Facebook and you can read about her story on her blog.

Here's some information about the event:


If you're in the local Austin area, please come out and support this amazing cause. In support of finding a cure, we've added the ribbon for Childhood Cancer Awareness and a link to their site where you can donate and find out more about this, on our blog. I know a lot of people both in my own circle of friends and in the blogging world who've dwelt with having their loved ones who are also dealing with being diagnosed with brain cancer. Like Jaylie, they are all in my thoughts and prayers.

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