2 year anniversary giveaway! [Closed]

Hey everyone! January 9th 2018 will be my Blog’s two year anniversary and I’m finally doing a giveaway! I know you’re squealing in excitement so read on for your chance to win books worth up to 20€. You have to follow this Blog to enter (new followers welcome).

Rules:

1. You’re only allowed to enter the giveaway if you’re of legal age (18 or 21 depending on where you live) or have the permission of your parents to enter this giveaway.
2. Furthermore, make sure that the Book Depository ships to you. You can check this here.
3. I will need to ask for your address to send you the book/s so please only enter if you’re okay with telling me your address. I won’t use it for anything else than sending you the book/s and will delete the info after you have received the book/s; it would be great if you could let me know once the book/s has/have arrived safely 😉
4. You can have any amount of books you can fit into the budget of 20€. One or four, it doesn’t matter. Just let me know which ones you’d like to receive after I contact you about your win!
5. The winner is picked randomly by Rafflecopter. Recourse to courts of law is prohibited.
6. “Please note you are responsible for any local taxes and shipping. Any applicable local sales tax, VAT and similar taxes will depend on the tax that applies to your delivery location and any changes will be displayed in the checkout. ” -Book Depository

Enter the giveaway below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting On Wednesday

HELLO. Why the all caps you’re wondering? Well,… I’m writing a WoW and it features this book:

Goodreads blurb:
Juliette Ferrars thought she’d won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander, and now has Warner by her side. But she’s still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch—and now she’s got the whole world in the palm of her hand. When tragedy hits, who will she become? Will she be able to control the power she wields and use it for good?

Restore Me is going to be released on March 6th 2018 and I am so excited we finally get to see what is going to happen after the end of the third book. I was heartbroken when the end was suddenly just 20 pages away and nothing felt like I could just go on about my life without knowing what happens afterwards? And now we get answers! Plus there is another two books planned after this one! How exciting is that?!

Are you guys looking forward to Restore Me as well or do you want to keep the Shatter Me series as a trilogy and accept the ending of Ignite Me as the final book? Let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!

Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen

While browsing through NetGalley yesterday evening (or should I say past midnight today? What has happened to my sleep schedule?!), I saw that Herding Cats was available as a Read Now and if you follow any of my social media (Twitter, Instagram) then you know I love Sarah Andersen’s comic strips and had to start reading it right away! They never fail to cheer me up. A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this to everyone who wants to read it!

Herding Cats will be published on March 27th 2018. 

Goodreads | Book Depository

“. . . author Sarah Andersen uses hilarious (and adorable) comics to illustrate the very specific growing pains that occur on your way to becoming a mature, put-together grownup. Andersen’s spot-on illustrations also show how to navigate this newfound adulthood once you arrive, since maturity is equally as hard to maintain as it is to find … ” –The Huffington Post Sarah valiantly struggles with waking up in the morning, being productive, and dealing with social situations. Sarah’s Scribbles is the comic strip that follows her life, finding humor in living as an adulting introvert that is at times weird, awkward, and embarrassing.

The first half of this squishy-adorable collection of comic strips is stuffed with funny, dog and cat loving, feminist, political, daily-life-struggles humor and I flew through the pages soaking up all the goodness. The second half is advice for upcoming and struggling artists plus more comics that are connected to the advice. Here are two excerpts of the first half:

 I’ve read some critique about the second half of this collection being “useless” for “regular readers” because it only applies to artists, but I believe it was a nice addition and considering that there’s still comics included in it so that the “regular” reader can skip through the text and simply enjoy the comics instead (which you can definitely enjoy without context of what and why they are included), makes it even better. And for everyone else, that same advice can be applied to your daily internet usage as well, therefore it’s still a nice little addition for all non-artists!

Conclusion: if you read and enjoyed even just one of Andersen’s comics, you won’t want to miss this book in your collection!

Rating: 4/5 stars.

Into The Mystic Review

Goodreads blurb:

Ten lesbian/bisexual paranormal short stories…

Green Love – Have you heard about the aspen clone in the heart of Blackwood forest? Some say it’s enchanted, while others…

Dead Letter – Signed, sealed, delivered…or was it?

Seaside Escape – Just because it’s been done for generations doesn’t mean it should be.

Dressed in Wolf Skin – She was never particularly fond of werewolves, but she hated skinwalkers.

Unraveled – Summer can hack their magic, but she can’t hack her own heart.

The Holy Company – On an ancient holy path, they will come face to face with one of the local legends.

Vampire Hours – One’s a vampire. The other is human. One wants forever. The other wants everything to end.

To the Sea – Sometimes you just have to hold your breath and dive in.

Holy Water – She might be the most dangerous being in the world, but Clara is still in love with her.

Lighthouse Five – Is it possible for a mermaid and a human to build a relationship?

Note: This ARC has been provided by Laura Bailo, in exchange for an honest review.

A couple weeks ago I saw Laura Bailo’s tweet announcing e-ARCs for this anthology and after finding out that it was a collection of lesbian/bisexual paranormal short stories… I could not say no. And oh boy let me tell you guys this collection of stories is steamy! I was not prepared whatsoever.

I’m not going to give much away because I don’t want to spoil anything, so here are my thoughts on my favorites and my one DNF:

There was only one story that I absolutely couldn’t get into and ended up skipping – Vampire Hours by Jacqueline Rohrbach. This was mainly due to the repetitions of “bleep”s, “hiss” “groan” and “har har”s. I can’t deal with those words or noises for the life of me. The characters seemed flat and childish as well so I had no way of turning a blind eye on the language.

On to my favorites of this anthology!

My highlight was Dressed in Wolf Skin by Sita Bethel. A witch and a werewolf and they start off fighting each other? Both strong characters? I loved their dynamic. (4.5/5 stars)

Dead Letter by Valentine Wheeler: this story. I just ugh. It’s incredibly sweet. If you love literature (you obviously do, or you wouldn’t be reading books, let alone my review) and if you feel close to the idea of falling in love through words and presence, this is for you! (4/5 stars)

The Holy Company by Laura Bailo: this is a perfect Story for a lovely Halloween you guys! I read it at night and got spooooked. Especially the spanish aspect was amazing to me as I don’t get to read a lot of books set there. (4/5 stars)

Have you read this anthology or heard of it? Are you interested in reading it? Let me know!

Rating: 4/5 stars

Labyrinth Lost Review

Hi everyone,

It’s been quite a while since my last review, hasn’t it? Let me just step slowly back into it. How am I supposed to write reviews again? Oh right, this one is going to be a little different; I’ll give you bullet points to what I liked and didn’t like about LL, but just read on to see what I mean! I couldn’t decide which cover to include, so I went with these two, both absolutely unique and beautiful in their own way.

*ARC provided via NetGalley*

Goodreads blurb: I was chosen by the Deos. Even gods make mistakes.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust, but who may be Alex’s only chance at saving her family.

Why I was interested:

1. Witches. Or how they’re called in the book, Brujas. It was actually my first book about witches, very enjoyable to read.
2. Diverse characters and author! I’ve been trying to read more books from and about diverse characters/authors, so this was perfect.
3. The plot overall sounded amazing and everyone who read it until before I got around to it was excited and happy with it.

What I liked:

1. The characters!
2. The diversity!
3. LGBT being included!
4. The plot!
5. There were very few moments I felt like the story was rushed. I like taking my time with the characters instead of being thrown from one scene into the other.

What I didn’t like:

1. The fight scenes… weren’t built up enough. They seemed to be over too fast and easy. There was no real struggle. As if the enemy wasn’t strong enough.
2. (The fact that I don’t have any other thing to complain about. I really, really, really enjoyed this book.)

Recommended for:

1. Readers of The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa.
2. Any- and everyone who is interested in witches.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Songs: Future – Paramore

 

Life update: Where I’ve been

Hi everyone,

it’s been more than seven months since I uploaded a Blog post. I’m sorry for just disappearing without warning and not having read/commented any of your posts. My wifi at home was suddenly off, so I was left with only the internet connection on my phone. Anyway, now the wifi is (finally) fixed and I can’t wait to get back into blogging! There’s been so many songs that I listened to and wanted to talk about, even a few books; but couldn’t. Prepare yourselves for a load of posts in the next few days/weeks, because these posts have been piling up and I really need to get all these thoughts out into the world! Haha.

What have you guys been up to? I’ll go through as many of your posts as soon as I can. Feel free to link me to one of your favorite newly written (so, a post from Feb to now)
blog posts if you’d like and I’ll check it out!

Have a good day,
Yasaman (Btw you can also call me Jasmine if you want, it’s the english translation 😉 )

Valentine’s Day Moodboard

Hopefully everyone had an amazing day yesterday; single, taken or married. I just wanted to drop by and post a moodboard of flowers and some other valentine’s related things.

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And thank you for 100 (now 103) follows!

A song to get you through

Hi guys!

It’s been two weeks since my last post and I thought after all the news that keep hitting people in the face every day, I’d share a song that deals with exactly these issues and the thoughts you might have.

My life has become more turbulent again and I didn’t feel like Blogging, therefore I’m likely going to keep writing short posts like this one in between to have at least a little bit of content.

This isn’t a review, simply a recommendation. I hope you like this track. Let me know what you think of it!

Waiting On Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine. It spotlights highly anticipated, upcoming releases.

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Expected publication: May 2nd 2017

Goodreads blurb: Cata Cordova suffers from such debilitating insomnia that she agreed to take part in an experimental new procedure. She thought things couldn’t get any worse…but she was terribly wrong.

Soon after the experiment begins, there’s a malfunction with the lab equipment, and Cata and six other teen patients are plunged into a shared dreamworld with no memory of how they got there. Even worse, they come to the chilling realization that they are trapped in a place where their worst nightmares have come to life. Hunted by creatures from their darkest imaginations and tormented by secrets they’d rather keep buried, Cata and the others will be forced to band together to face their biggest fears. And if they can’t find a way to defeat their dreams, they will never wake up.

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A lab, insomnia and nighmares instead of peaceful sleep? Sign me up!

Link me to your WoW if you’d like and have a great day!

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PS: does anybody know where Jill went? There hasn’t been a new post up since August…

 

One Year Anniversary and Announcement / January 9th 2017

Hi! Yes, you read that right, it’s been one year since I’ve started this Blog. Exciting and also weird, because it sure didn’t feel like a full 12 months. At all.

Here’s how it all started, this was my first post on this Blog. Click on the link if you’re interested in looking back at it.

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Here’s some statistics of 2016:

The most popular post of 2016 was the single review of Knock Me Off My Feet by Dan Talevski. Read it here, if you haven’t already.

Moving on to the announcement! I currently can’t afford the giveaway I want to do, which consists of a combination of things… so I thought it would be a good idea to share what has been in the works for some weeks now (months, actually) – you can request a customized playlist! You’ll get between 8 to 15 tracks per playlist. Read more about how to request one here. (The page is still in the works, but will be finished by Wednesday, so don’t forget to check back!)

A few ideas for specific playlists you can request:

• workout
• wedding
• inspirational
• based on emotion (sad, angry, happy, in love, … you get the idea)
• car drives
• discover new genres
• anything you come up with

If you need the playlist until a certain date, tell me in the subject so I can get back to you and let you know if I can fit your request in my schedule. Always consider that I’ll need at least a week to put one playlist together. If I only have one week, there won’t be as many songs, so it’s best to request two weeks in advance. (I might change the amount of time I need to create a playlist along the way, depending on my schedule apart from the blog, so always check this link, since I’ll update the page, not this post) If you want more than one playlist, you’ll logically have to wait longer. I’m asking you to not request more than one (absolute max. is two) playlists at once and only once every month, so that I can provide as many of you with a list as I can. Requesting playlists is, of course, free! I’m not doing this as a professional, therefore please bear with me.

Send your requests to this email: followingmuses@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: You’re only getting the playlist, not the songs, so I recommend you use a streaming service, YouTube or SoundCloud. Personally, I’ve been using Deezer (the free plan, it’s with ads, read here why I – currently – don’t pay for a streaming service. I’ll probably write a new post as to why I’m considering to start using the paid Deezer Plan – which I used for 3 months as they offered it for 99 Cents. Let me know if you’re interested in reading that.)

Last year I focused on 70% (?) books and 30% (? I didn’t calculate this, just guessing here) music, this year I want to spread my content more evenly on books, music, tv series/movies and articles and discussions. Hopefully you’ll enjoy most of what’s coming!

There will also be a new meme that I’m working on, hopefully I’ll introduce you all to it in spring, once I got the hang of my schedule with the playlist making, blogging in general and life.

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I hope all of you had a great day! Here’s to another year of Following Muses.

Note: it was one minute before January 10th when this went up, in Germany anyway.