I discovered this book trailer thanks to @DallyAlex on Twitter (thank you!) and I have to say it’s probably the best book trailer I’ve seen so far.
It’s a trailer for the upcoming book Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw.
Enjoy!
This was going to be a book video trailer but on my fruitless search for a book trailer I came across Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins and I couldn’t resist.
The Blurb
“In the wake of a love spell gone horribly wrong, Sophie Mercer, a sixteen-year-old witch, is shipped off to Hecate Hall, a boarding school for witches, shapeshifters and faeries. The traumas of mortal high school are nothing compared to the goings on at “Freak High.” It’s bad enough that she has to deal with a trio of mean girls led by the glamorous Elodie, but it’s even worse when she begins to fall for Elodie’s gorgeous boyfriend, Archer Cross, and frankly terrifying that the trio are an extremely powerful coven of dark witches. But when Sophie begins to learn the disturbing truth about her father, she is forced to face demons both metaphorical and real, and come to terms with her own growing power as a witch.”
Source: Amazon
You can read an extract of the book by filling in a short form on the UK publishers website at www.simonandschuster.co.uk/giveaways/hex-hall-chapter-giveaway.
Hex Hall will be published by Simon & Schuster Children’s on the 1st April 2010 and I for one can’t wait.
If you’re interested in writing and are between the ages of 5 and 25 you might like to enter the Wicked Young Writers’ Award 2010.
The award has been setup to “recognise excellence in writing, encourage creativity and help develop writing talent in young people” and there are some fantastic prizes on offer made even more brilliant if you want to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre (my favourite musical!).
The top 20 prizes available will be awarded at a special prize ceremony this autumn and include:
For full details and information about how you can enter visit the Wicked Young Writers’ website which has tips from author, Michael Morpurgo, videos and more.
Good Luck if you enter!
If your enjoying the demon / vampire romance novels that seem to be everywhere at the moment then look out for Dark Touch: Shadows by Amy Meredith.
The Blurb
“Fifteen-year-old Eve Evergold is cute, sassy and enjoying a busy social life. What she doesn’t know yet is that someone close to her is an evil demon that only she has the supernatural power to defeat. She needs to work out who it is – and fast! Because although there’s something very attractive about the dark side…dating a demon? Pure hell!”
Source: Amazon
Dark Touch: Shadows is released in the UK on the 1st April 2010 published by Red Fox.
I am a regular reader of Nicola Morgan’s Help! I Need A Publisher blog and it was on her blog that I spotted a bright orange banner / button calling for nominations for the Author Blog awards 2010. After a little bit of digging (otherwise known as clicking the link) I found out a little bit more.
Basically the aim of the awards is to promote the best of these author blogs written by published and unpublished writers and industry proffessionals.
The awards are being run by Completely Novel. Here is their description:
“The Author Blog Awards is brought to you by CompletelyNovel and aims to honour the best blogs by both published and unpublished writers. They will recognise the writers who use their blogs to connect with readers in the most imaginative, engaging and inspiring ways. At the same time we hope to attract new audiences to these blogs and help readers find out more about the authors they love…and new authors too.”
You can find out which blogs have already been nominated here.
You can place your nominations here and you could win something from a fab range of prizes including eReaders, lovely new books, free eBooks, and book tokens.
Nominations close on the 2nd April 2010.
Author: Nicola Morgan
Publisher: Walker Books (1st June 2009)
Pages: 280
ISBN: 978-1-4063-1503-5
Cat McPherson is being watched as she trains, as she uses Phiz, as she competes in competitions, almost everywhere really but by who and why? Could it be her ex-boyfriend, a retired scientist who recently visited her school, a young schizophrenic, a rival coach looking to poach Cat who is a budding athlete or perhaps someone else entirely?
Throughout the story you’re introduced to more possibilities with each chapter switching point of view so we get to feel how each of the main suspects and Cat feels which will make you think it has to be… only to realise in the next chapter actually it could be…. Each suspect has genuine reasons as to why they might be watching Cat.
The feeling of danger builds up slowly right from the very first inkling that Cat is being watched through each chapter as the danger becomes much more real making the book very hard to put down until you get to the end.
It is a brilliantly written psychological thriller which will appeal to both boys and girls regardless of if you love insects or, er not!
Earlier this week I posted a review of books 1 and 2 of the Vampire Diaries (it could be called Volume 1) and so I thought it would search YouTube to see if there were any book trailers for the series and guess what? There was, although it’s quite short.
Like one YouTube commenter said I Like The Before Bella bit – shame the covers are the US ones though!
Author: L J Smith
Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books (6th August 2009)
Pages: 389
ISBN: 978-0-340-99914-1
I’ll start this review with an admission I came to know of the Vampire Diaries only recently after I saw an advert for the ITV2 series of the same name which is now showing (and is a very good show if you’re interested). It’s essentially a volume of 2 stories (Book 1: The Awakening & Book 2: The Struggle) which to be understood must be read in order.
The story centre’s around a popular blonde haired high school girl named Elena Gilbert who on seeing Stefan Salvitore falls almost instantly in love and she has to have him. So much so that she demotes Matt from her boyfriend to ‘just friends’ status. Stefan however holds a very big secret one which could threaten Elena and all her friends if it gets out and change her life forever. As if this wasn’t enough Stefan has a brother, Damon and inadvertedly Elena finds herself drawn to him as well.
Initially when I started reading the book I was finding other things distracting and was starting to worry that the book wasn’t going to be as good as I’d hoped it would be. In the first of the two books their are a lot of flashbacks going back to Stefan’s earlier life which although I see as essential to further parts of the book I can’t help but find them a little bit distracting and that maybe they could have been handled better by dialogue.
However when I took myself away from the TV and other distractions I found the characters to be engaging and I felt the dangers as if they were real. Pace changed from coasting along seperated by bits where you feel your heart racing along with the characters and I genuinly cared for what might happen to Elena by the end (reading the last 5 chapters in one go).
One thing I would recommend if you are thinking about buying this book is to not read it whilst you are watching the series (like I did) as it became certainly in the beginning anyway (not so much towards the end) as I personally kept getting the story lines mixed up.
If you’re coming to the book from the series be warned that some of the character traits have been changed, hair and eye colour are obvious examples but sometimes things in the book don’t ring true with the series so try and forget the series and I think you’ll enjoy it way more.
Ever heard of be careful what you wish for? The blurb of Swapped By A Kiss sums it up perfectly.
The Blurb
“Rachel hates her life and everyone in it – she even has suspicions that her on/off boyfriend David might not be entirely trustworthy. However, when David invites her to a music festival in England featuring their friend’s band, she jumps at the chance for an overseas adventure. Hoping to surprise David, Rachel arrives at the festival early, where she runs into a nasty surprise of her own – she sees David kissing their friend Jo. Distraught, Rachel runs off, wishing she could leave her life behind…the next thing she knows, she’s back with David. But not as herself…She’s now in Jo’s body! Can she keep the swap a secret from David until she can work out exactly what’s going on and get her revenge? Over the course of a very weird weekend, Rachel puts herself in someone else’s shoes and finds that her own maybe weren’t as uncomfortable as she’d always thought. But can she ever be herself again?”
Source: Amazon
You can find out more information about Swapped By A Kiss from Luisa Plaja’s dedicated page on her website and you can read a short extract on her dedicated Facebook page.
Swapped By A Kiss is released on the 29th April 2010 by Corgi Books At Random House Children’s Books.
Welcome to Books 4 Teens, a blog about, well books for teens. It contains a mixture of news reviews and interviews run be me, Jesse, a 26 year old YA book adorer.
