International Author's Day -Extravaganza of SIX giveaways!

 

Giveaway Hop hosted by Book Reviews.  

So, to best understand my giveaway, you first get a little history lesson on my "Quest to Read" as I like to call it.  Please enjoy my Tale as I have many reward opportunities available after. 

It all started back in first grade.  Just after the holidays my family moved my halfway across country.. New School in the middle of the year.  Yuck!  Well I get to school and within a week my parents are called in...Apparently I was WAY behind the reading level of my fellow classmates.  Well, my previous school focused more on basic word recognition (Such as our name, our parents names, etc) but did not actually get to reading and phonics yet.  I was given what no child wanted to get.  Exra homework!  Thats right, I had to get me reading up to speed and FAST!  So every night without fail my parents read to me, with me and made me read to them until I could easily read by myself comfortably.  Now, at the time, I HATED the extra work.  I wanted to go play outside with the other kids, not be stuck sounding out icky words at the kitchen table!  

Second grade rolls around.  Not only am I caught up, but ahead of my classmates!  Guess all that summer reading paid off!  With this came a special privilege... Full access to the school library.  Normally we were stick picking and choosing from a very limited selection of books.  But since I was ahead, I could now read any book I wanted so long as I felt it was not too hard.  This opened up so much for me!  I loved the options to choose the types of stories and genres I might enjoy best.  

Third Grade was another turning point-I made a best friend named April.  Now April was younger than I was.  She had actually skipped a grade!  And she comes in and bumps me from my #1 spot....   Now we were friends so I didn't hold that against her, but I am very competitive and the idea of anyone being a better reader than me bothered me to no end.  So I pushed myself to read tougher and tougher books.  This continued over the next several years.  I read some amazing books during Third-Sixth grade.  Including The Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles of Prydain, Nancy Drew, Animorphs, Sweet Valley,   and many others.  Mainly fantasy and mystery were what I loved.

Seventh Grade- April was gone from my life (I still miss her and wish we had not lost contact) as her family moved away the year before.  However this year was a pivotal turning point in my reading.  That year I had the BEST English teacher EVER.  Ms. Schweinfurth.  She saw my love for the written world.  I guess staying after class reading or walking down the hall with a book in my face kind of gave things away... I do not remember when things heated up that year.  I think it must have been Christopher Pike.  I remember telling her I liked Fantasy but I also liked a good thrill.  That year, she introduced me to two amazing authors (well, their books at least.  Sadly I have yet to meet either one).  Anne Rice and Dean Koontz.  They gave me a love for the detailed world, the horror genre, and the psychological thrillers.  

A confession interruption:   At the time, I never fully realized what Ms. Schweinfurth did for me.  I just took it for granted.  I was in no rush either.  I htough I had time.  But when I left middle school, that year the district created a new rule that past studenst could not be on school premises for ANY reason without a parent.  Well, my parents would never take me back to my middle school.  So I never got the chance to thank you.  So even though I doubt she will ever see this- THANK YOU MS. SCHWEINFURTH, WHEREEVER YOU ARE!  YOU WERE AN INSPIRATION TO ME!

That summer, I also started reading John Grisham, John Saul and Stephen King.   From that year forward for many to come, I never (with 1 exception) voluntarily picked up another teen book again.  I was all into Adult books now.  Ones that can mess with you mind especially!  The other thing I came to love in middle School were Star Wars books!  I read 1 by Kevin J Anderson in sixth grade and within a year read his whole mini series, Timothy Zahn's trilogy and a few others.  To this day my Star Wars novels are a prized collection of mine.

The exception:  at the end of my Ninth grade, someone was talking to me about Harry Potter.  Now I knew nothing about this Harry Potter thing yet but he was reading The Prisoner of Azkaban.  I dind't know the title then but I remember him describing the Dementors.  Well, it sounded so interesting I just had to break my rule and give it a try...  I fell in love with the series starting that summer.  My parent bought me book 1 for me to read while visiting family.  By the time I got off the plane, I had finished and was begging my grandmother to take me to a bookstore for the next book!

Years pass, every time a new Harry Potter book came out I read it.  But otherwise, no teen books for me.  Adult or nothing!  I must be a "mature" reader (or so I thought at the time).  When I was 20 I made another exception.  Manga.....  I had enjoyed anime for years but I friend gave me a graphic novel saying I had to read it...One was not enough! Soon, I was addicted.  They were super fast to read and so much fun!

More years pass.  A couple friends hand me some books to read, literally begging me to read them.  One was Eragon, one Twilight.  These books started to draw me back into The Young Adult realm.  I was now mostly over my craze of having to read Adult only books.  Yet still embarressed about the idea of reading a book High Schoolers would read.  I mean, I am in my mid-twenties!  Why would I be reading Y.A?!  Or so I thought. 

And so the battle began.  And ended upon my intoduction to a new genre.  I was given a copy of The Hunger Games... Oh, dystopian fiction, how I fell in love with you!  And so I broke all my old rules and gave YA a real shot.  And never looked back!

Now I will read books for all ages.  Who cares how old I am?!  I read what I like.  One month may be lots of YA, the next adult horror and the next graphic novels.  And anything and everything in between.  The only rule I have now is to enjoy whatever it is I am reading and to try to share that love and passion with others!

And so as my story comes to a close (at least for the time being) I have several giveaways to share with you.   Basing these on my past interests that I bolded for you, I now have prizes to offer! 

Prizes are international as long as the book depository ships to you or I can get you an ebook copy of the book you want.  Prizes must qualify for the cost limits set for each prize.  

 Rules for the giveaways:

As always-Be Honest.  Entries will be verified-false entries will result in complete disqualification and I do check.  I am in between jobs so time is not an issue.  I cannot stand cheating!

Any comments or likes must be made on date of entry (previous actions do not count).  No unliking something to re-like it later!!  I keep very detailed spreadsheets of previous giveaway entries so I do know who has done what for the most part.  

Also be sure to include your rafflecopter name or email when you comment if it is different from your comment name.  So I know who you are.

Likes and comments:  If you enter for liking a review on goodreads, amazon, etc or enter for commenting on another post 1 like per day, 1 comment etc works for all 6 entries.  So if you go on Goodreads and like a review I wrote, enter that 1 review for all giveaways for that day.  Just be sure to like a different one the next day you enter.  Same with comments, etc. So, ultimately the giveaway entries can be used for all 6 of these on most entries! :)
 

The chosen winners will have 48 hours to respond once I have emailed them to claim winnings.

Please note: Their are SIX giveaways below plus a link list of other participating blogs!

HAVE FUN!! And be sure to check out my other giveaways 
(see upper right column for full listing)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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a Rafflecopter giveaway