OOH! OOH! Over here!

So we (Medeia and I) have decided to extend the fiercely fawesome first contest to December 25th. We received more entries than we thought we would, but we would like to give the newly holiday vacationed people a chance to get in their two cents. Spread the word, please? We'll toss in an extra entry if you update people on this contest and of course, it would be sooo appreciated.

In other news:

• I am addicted to Goodreads. Friend us!
• Has anyone heard of the new movie for The Little White Horse? Check out the trailer! What is this madness? It looks beautiful, but has pretty much completely changed from the book. And it's the director of Bridge to Terabithia! w000!

• I sold my soul to Jacob Black all over again. Forgive me, Medeia. *sob*


• Also there is a review under this post that I would love if you checked out!

Fiercely Fawesome First Contest

So to appease the gods of switching blogs *cough* again *cough* we have decided to hold a contest. Actually, it is for a second reason as well. AKA: The ONE YEAR anniversary of MAELSTROM!!! A full of year of having the best partner in bloggery and crime that the world has ever known. A full year of procrastinating with ARCs. A full year of dancing whenever we received a comment (oh yeah. It never gets old.)

Either way. Here are the rules of ze contest. Medeia and I have compiled personal mini lists of our top five books that have been reviewed here on Maelstrom or Charybdis since November 23rd of 2007. Not all are double 7s, but looking back we have seen what we truly enjoyed the most. Here's the deal.

1. Pick one book from Aella's list that you would potentially like to win.

1.5. Pick one book from Medeia's list that you would potentially like to win.

2. E-mail us at maelstrombooks (at) gmail (dot) com with your choices or comment with them.

3. Advertiseadvertiseadvertise. We would be greatly honored if you would tell the world about the anniversary contest. For every different place advertised on you will receive an extra tag in the magical fedora of contest-dom, and two tags if it is a legit blog post.

4. Link us proof in comments or in your e-mails. We love to hear about them either way.

5. Have everything in by December 20th, when we will leave it all to the magical fedora of choosing.

This an all or nothing style contest. IF you win we will supply:

• both books of your choice


• mix of music from our uber-fab Maelstrom meetings


• random bookmark I brought back from Ireland
• 
  
• UK copy of Artemis Fowl from a small, yet fawesome, shop in Killarney

Aella's List

1. Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill

2. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

3. Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan-Hyde

4. Suite Scarlett by Maureen J0hnson

5. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Medeia's List

1. Hero-Type by Barry Lyga

2. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

3. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

4. Airman by Eoin Colfer

5. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams-Chima


I think that pretty much covers it. Anyway, we hope that you will continue to read us, even though we have ever so inconveniently moved twice now. And with no further ado, welcome back to Maelstrom! 1 year in the posting!

A-contesting we will go,
Aella Siofra

*GASP* Plenty of Paper Hiatus Odyssey Continues...

Perhaps you have figured out a clue and discovered the magical link to lead you to the following Plenty of Paper review. Or perhaps you are unaware as to why the Whirlwinds appear to be stealing someone's review (Explained here). Either way, please enjoy. The girls of POP are fawesome and the Maelstrom is honored to be helping them out with this! What follows is an all Plenty of Paper, all awesome fiesta of reviewage for How to Be Bad:

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How To Be Bad

(e. lockhart, sarah mlynoski, lauren myracle)

Mels, Vicks, and Jesse don't really have much in common. Vicks is the rebel with the dyed-black hair, cursing complex, and boyfriend who has just gone off to college and apparently forgotton her (one text. Stay cool). Jesse is an uber-Christian whose mother has just been diagnosed with cancer: breast cancer, after winning a wet tee-shirt contest. Clearly, a punishment from God. Mel is the new rich girl from Canada who nobody really likes. The only things that these girls are sharing? A weekend, a car, a hotel room, Mel's mom's credit card, and the road trip of their lives.

They will visit landmarks (the world's tiniest police station). They will meet a boy (sexy Marco). They will engage in several illegal activities. They'll fight and bond and get attacked by an alligator and learn, each in their own ways, how to be bad. And at the end of it all, they just might be best friends.

This book is a really great read. I was curious about getting my hands on it becasue of the multiple authors: I'm a huge fan of E. Lockhart's, but I had mixed feelings about Sarah Mlynoski's Bras and Broomsticks and I despise chatspeak far too much to have enjoyed Lauren Myracle's TTYL series. The writing here was excellent, though. The voices were distinct, but they blended together nicely. The styles of the three authors meshed very well.

How To Be Bad is very much a character story, and it's an extremely good one. Jesse, Mel, and Vicks were all believable characters with distinct personalities. I loved how none of them were stereotypical, despite any implications given by their immediate labels. Jesse, for instance, is the Christian girl, but she's also the meanest and cattiest of the trio. One of my favorite things about the book was that each of the characters had tons of their own struggles and problems to worry about, but the story continued to center around the girls as a whole, and their journey together.

Also, it was completely hilarious. All three of the authors worked in plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, even within the most tense parts of the story. There was a lot of verbal comedy, but much of the humor was situational as well.

My only complaint about this book? The drawbacks of carrying around a novel entitled How To Be Bad. Why that gets seven questions per day and my "Free Alan Rickman" tee-shirt gets none is beyond me, but it did. Go figure.

Four cups and a half for How to Be Bad!

-Caroline

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Hey everyone (Aella again)! I have not received a hint from the fabulous crew, and I'm not sure if this is a glitch or no. Perhaps there will be something on their page? (*whispering* but don't take my word for it). Have a great rest of POP Hiatus!