SIGNED swag giveaway! Open Int :)

Hey guys, I know I promised this giveaway about a week ago but life go in the way... okay, Assassin's Creed got in the way, too. I bought an Xbox with my sister last week and we've never owned one (or a playstation, or a game boy, or any gaming device) before. So I've been busy climbing roofs and throwing knives at people :P

I love those leaps of faith from spires. Picture found here.

Ahem. Anyway, why this giveaway? First off, because I haven't done one independently of any hop or promo in quite a while. Secondly, thanks to you guys the blog just passed 68,000 pageviews! That might seem ridiculous to some of the bigger bloggers but it means a lot to me, so thank you! :) The amount of followers, commenters, and regular pageviews is something I had never anticipated a year ago! I hope I can keep posting things that will have you coming back! Sorry there haven't been many reviews, I'll try to post at least one next week! I'm also planning on a post with tips for new bloggers, though I feel a bit strange acting like I'm some sort of 'expert' in a position to dole out advice.

Thirdly, I recently looked over the amount of swag I accumulated in the past 2 years or so and realized that I don't really need all of this stuff. Of some signed bookmarks I got about half a dozen, so I might as well give a couple of them away ;)

The deets

• There are 3 swagpacks, 2 of them containing signed things, 1 unsigned but with more items to make it fairer
• One entry per person/household, but you may enter all 3 rafflecopter forms. You can only win once though.
• Open internationally, items to be shipped by me. I'm not responsible for stuff that is lost in the mail.
• All entries will be verified before I pick a winner. You cheat - you're DELETED.
• Winner has 48 hours to respond to my email, after that I will pick someone else.
• I reserve the right to make small changes to the rules/rafflecopter form and/or end the giveaway early.

Here are the pictures of what you can win, you'll find the rafflecopter forms below them at he bottom. Good luck!

Swag pack 1

- signed bookmark for Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards

-signed bookmark for Black City by Elizabeth Richards

-iPhone 4/4S skin for Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake (unsigned)

Swag pack 2

- signed bookmark for Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards

-signed bookmark for Black City by Elizabeth Richards

-signed bookmark for The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

-bookmark for Adaptation by Malinda Lo (unsigned)

Swag pack 3

All of this is unsigned!!

-Dark Companion by Marta Acosta bookmark

-Dark Companion by Marta Acosta iPhone 4/4s skin

-Fierce Reads bookmark

-The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton pin/button (safety pin on the back)

-Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare cover postcard

If there is any problem with the entry forms or if you have a question, let me know on twitter! @Butterfly_Ghost

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stacking the Shelves: Faking Awakenings at the Hotel Dumort

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


This week was ebooks only for me, which is good because I have too many print books as it is...

Bought

The Rise of the Hotel Dumort, by Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson
The Truth about Faking, by Leigh T. Moore
The Selection, by Kiera Cass

The Selection is a book I've been looking at and debating whether or not to buy for about two years, so when the ebook was on sale I decided that's a sign. As for the Hotel Dumort, I really enjoy the Bane Chronicles books and I think they're getting better with each installment! Number 3 and 4 were my faves so far (Herondales, duh), let's see how I like the 5th one.

Freebie

The Awakening, by Christy Dorrity

This one was free on amazon on Friday, if you're lucky it still is.

That's it from me. I haven't had much time to read this week, and I think that's only going to get worse in the next few months. I have a lot of work in front of me with my master thesis (which I'm planning to write in half of the usually alotted time) and finsihing up my courses. But the master thesis means I'll get to read fantastic literature/sci-fi of the 1880s/90s as well as steampunk of the 1980s and today, because I'm doing kind of a comparison. So maybe you'll get reviews of books you don't usually see around, and that could be interesting ;)

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of them? Also, link me up to your latest haul :)

Stacking the Shelves: Talented Queens and Heirs Next Door

I had a great week this time around! I've been waiting for my copy of Lola to arrive for weeks, same with Oath Bound :)

Bought

Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins
Oath Bound, by Rachel Vincent
Under the Dome, by Stephen King

I'm watching the UdD series at the moment and really enjoying it! But only from reading the first 20 or so pages of the book I've already realized that they changed a lot of things... I'll see which version I like better when I really dive into the book.
I ordered Lola from ebay because I really wanted the paperback with the old cover, and when I realized it wasn't happening I went to see where I could get the old hardback for cheap :P It shipped all the way from New Mexico to Switzerland... and it was still cheaper.

ebooks

The Runaway Queen, by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson
Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale, by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan
The Midnight Heir, by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan


Talented, by Sophie Davies
Crewel, by Gennifer Albin

As you can see, I went on a Bane Chronicles reading spree...I've already read the three episodes and liked them better than the first one! Herondales <3 *ahem*

Anyway, what did you get in the past week?

Stacking the Shelves: Reaping the Runaway Spider Queen

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)

This week was pretty good! I unexpectedly won a book, and in case you hadn't noticed, I now have a shiny new banner, blog button (right sidebar) and new social media icons :) I'll also have a giveaway post up later today or tomorrow ;)

On to the books, though!

Won

Reaping Me Softly, by Kate Evangelista

Bought

The Runaway Queen, by Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson
Spider Wars, by Angela Carlie

Freebie

Catalyst, by Jennifer Snyder

Catalyst was free on Amazon yesterday, I don't know if it still is but I suppose so. Check first, though.

That's it :) Only ebooks this week... I'm still waiting for a hardcover and a paperback to arrive *sigh*
Have you read any of the books I got? Do I need to give one priority? And what did you add to your shelves this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: books I would like to see made into a movie

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.

This week's topic is the top ten books we would like to see made into a movie... in a world where movie studios don't butcher our precious books.


Honestly? I'm not even so crazy about books I like being made into movies. Not because of casting choices and the like but because when I read, that already is like a movie in my head. I also never imagine characters modeled on certain actors - they look a certain way in my head, but it's not like any real people I know.
That being said, here are ten books/series I would like to see made into a movie or TV series, in no particular order.

Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone
There actually is talk of a movie! But anyway, it'll probably be years until it comes out. The world building here is just so amazing - I would love to see Karou's Prague and the exotic places she goes to, as well as Eretz of course! The special effects/make-up would have to be out of this world amazing to pull it off though.

Kendare Blake - Anna Dressed in Blood
This would actually be cool as a series! It would mean more time to develop characters, plus new episodes could be written, for instance about some of the ghosts Cas hunted before he met Anna. It would be awesomely creepy!

Cassandra Clare - The Infernal Devices
I know it's been optioned with the same studio that made City of Bones, but again, it'll take forever until there's a movie - if there is. I would love to see it though! I'm a sucker for Victorian London :)

Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus
Okay, this is pretty much impossible to make into a movie, partly due to the narrative style and how much it relies on language as a medium, but wouldn't it be epic? It would be like 12 hours but whatever - while I was reading, I so wished I could see the circus for real and walk among the tents!

Holly Black - The Curse Workers trilogy
I know I feature this series all the time in my top ten lists! But it just somehow has a cinematic quality to it. It would have to be sharp, with quick cuts, an a lot of light and shadows - sort of in the style of old film noir movies!

Stephen King - The Dark Tower series
Definitely would have to be a series, this is a couple thousand pages too long for movies. But god it would be soooo amazing! But Stephen King would have to have a lot of say on the set or it wouldn't work. Or maybe the scope is too big and the series is better off staying a book? Hm...

Kim Harrison: The Hollows series
Too epic for a movie - this would have a to be a series! I'd love to see Jenks, Rachel, and Ivy on the screen! And Kisten *gets all nostalgic* I don't think it'll happen though. I remember Kim Harrison saying a few years back that so far she always declined offers from producers and the like.

Lia Habel - Dearly, Departed
Steampunk costumes, airships, and zombie battles! I would love to see this amazing mixture of Victorian and digital age! It's somehow like being in the future and in the past at the same time. And it would be great visually!

Melissa Marr - Wicked Lovely series
There's also been talk of a movie or TV series but I have no idea where that's at. It's one of my top favorite fairie series though so I'd love to see it on the screen! The characters are some of my top favorites :)

Anonymous - The Book with No Name (the Bourbon Kid series)
This simply because it would be batshit crazy. Quentin Tarantino would have to direct it. It would be funny and gruesome at the same time.

I'm not sure that those are the top most amazing-est picks I could have made. In fact, I bet that I'll check out other blogs and think 'damn, how could I forget?!' - so link me up, and let me know what you think of my picks :)

Stacking the Shelves: Confessions of Legendary Likenesses and fiery Graves in Peru

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


I got a bit more books this week :) Maybe it's because I was feeling bad so I bought myself something pretty. I don't know. This apartment-hunting stuff really grates on me :(
Anyway, here's what I got this week.


From NetGalley:

Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend, by Louise Rozett
A Fatal Likeness, by Lynn Shepherd

I really enjoyed Confessions of an Angry Girl (my review) and with the way it ended I just HAD to have the sequel! Thank you, Harlequin UK :)
A Fatal Likeness caught my eye on Netgalley, I hadn't heard of it before. But the time period and the involvement of Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley intrigued me. It's also been a while since I've read a literary novel that isn't 100+ years old.

Print:

Legend, by Marie Lu

People have been raving about it for ages and I always thought it sounded interesting. I was at the bookstore and it was fairly cheap for a book around here (13 bucks for a paperback is a bargain), so I got it :)


Ebooks:

Destiny's Fire, by Trisha Wolfe
What Really Happened in Peru, by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan
Magic Graves, by Jeaniene Frost & Ilona Andrews

I've had Destiny's Fire on my wishlist for a while. I don't remember why I got it just now, maybe it was a bit cheaper than usual or otherwise highlighted somewhere. Anyhow, I'm curious about it!
And I just had to have Magnus Bane's adventure ;) I also can't wait to see what a collabo of Sarah and Cassie reads like!
As for Magic Graves, I didn't know it existed until a couple days ago. I was reading book 6 in Jeaniene's Night Huntress series and checking for the next release dates when I saw that she's written a couple novellas I don't have in any of my anthologies yet. This is also a chance for me to finally check out Ilona Andrews :)

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of these and can urge me to move them up in my pile? Also, please leave a link to you own haul :)
While you're here: I have 2 giveaways going on at the moment, one for Flight, a YA sci-fi with harpies, and one for Marking Time, a YA time travel/paranormal/urban fantasy which I loved and also marks my first author interview! Both of them are open internationally.

Stacking the Shelves: in which I show my face with the Princess

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)

Well, this week was both slow and at the same time awesome for me! Because of this:

Please excuse my unkemptness! I spent Good Friday in my PJs, aka ratty band shirt and oversized hoodie, haha ^^' But I FINALLY got my copy of Clockwork Princess on Thursday afternoon! Not that I preordered it months ago but amazong was being an ass or anything -__-'' And now that I finished Cat Winters' wonderful In the Shadow of Blackbirds, I can read it :D I'm a little scared though... it's going to break my heart either way :/

The only other book I got is Hamlet, and I actually bought it last week but forgot to put it into my haul. I need it for one of my classes, and it will be my first time reading it. Which is sort of embarrassing considering that I'm a postgrad student of English Literature. But I actively avoided the play this far - Shakespeare's tragedies are too good; they tear me up inside. Just think of Othello and Macbeth! That's why I read more of his comedies. Anyway, I got myself the Arden edition because I like their notes and introductions.

goodreads

I know what the play is about of course but I'm fuzzy on the details so I'm actually looking forward to reading it now! I'll get to it some time next week.

I haven't been very active post wise and the main reason for that is that I was sick from Monday afternoon to Friday morning. I found it hard to focus with the fever I had and couldn't stare at a screen or book too long because my eyes started to hurt.

But I posted a new review Friday night. It's for Florence by Ciye Cho, a mermaid book that I enjoyed a lot.

So... thoughts on my haul? My silly face? The books (no spoilers please)? Also, happy Easter to all!! May the chocolate bunnies be with you ^^ And please share links to you own haul!

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated 2013 Releases

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week, they post a new topic that the participants make a top ten list for.

Posting this somewhat belatedly... I have a lot of real life things going on that are very sad and rob me of a lot of my energy. Sorry if I'm not as active as usual.


This week's topic: Top Ten most anticipated books of 2013


No particular order

Have some cover-pretty!

1. Phoenix, by Elizabeth Richards
   I just finished Black City last Friday and I'm in love with the world and characters Elizabeth Richards created! I need to know how Ash and Natalie's story continues!
2. With All My Soul, by Rachel Vincent
   Over the course of this year I have completely and irrevocably fallen in love with the Soul Screamer series. I'm so invested in these characters it's not even funny. I just need to know who makes it and what happens and how everything is resolved, even though sometimes I'll be doing the reader equivalent of watching a movie through my fingers as I cover my eyes because I can't quite bear to look but can't look away.
3. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, by Holly Black
   I recently re-read the short story of the same name, published in a short story collection called The Poison Eaters. A really unique take on vampires, can't wait for the full-fledged novel!
4. Dance of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin
   I want to go back to the world of this story, no matter how much hurt and heartbreak I might be in for.
5. The Indigo Spell, by Richelle Mead
   I seem to list a lot of series-finals in this post... oh well. I just need more Sidney & Adrian.
6. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by April Genevieve Tucholke
   I've never read anything by her but the book just sounds amazing!
7. Sweet Peril, by Wendy Higgins
    I've been pining for this since the moment I finished Sweet Evil.
8. Splintered, by A.G. Howard
   I love Alice in Wonderland retellings and many bloggers I trust have given it amazing reviews, so I'm super curious about it! From the description it sounds awesome.
9. There's not been a title announcement yet, but I really want the sequel to Melissa Marr's Carnival of Souls! Not sure it'll come out 2013 'already' though...
10. Clockwork Princess, by Cassandra Clare
    I love The Infernal Devices, probably more so than The Mortal Instruments. I just want to know what happened already, and how the two series relate! I just hope the best for Will.

Much has been left out of this list. I'm also pining for Angel Fever by L.A. Weatherly, Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan, the last Nevermore installment by Kelly Creagh, a new Urban Magic book by Kate Griffin. As well as lots of others I've marked as to read that aren't out yet. But I think my top ten does cover the most important ones... probably. ^^'

What's on your top ten? Are some of my books on your list as well?