One Year Blogiversary!

Wow, it has been a couple really busy weeks.  So busy, in fact, that my one year blogiversary passed without me even realizing it!  

I can't believe it's already been a year since I started Wonderland's Reader.  It feels like just a couple weeks ago I was posting my first review and freaking out over my first follower.  When I first started this, I really had thought it would be a little thing I just did every once and a while when I read a book I had a lot of thoughts on.  Never did I think it would transform into such a big, special part of my life.  I really have no idea what I did before my blog.  How did I keep all of these book feels in?!  

A huge part of me enjoying this so much has been the community.  Each and everyone of you have played a part in making me fall in love with blogging and I cannot thank you enough for that.  I always have so much fun talking to you guys and reading your comments.  You're always so nice and sweet and, for that reason, I'd like to give a little back to you!

So, I'm going to be hosting a giveaway!  Yay!  Here's what you have a chance of winning.

Hardcover copy of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, hardcover copy of Wildefire by Karsten Knight, hardcover of Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr, hardcover of Black City by Elizabeth Richards, paperback of Paper Towns by John Green, paperback of Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, and a paperback of The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter. 

The winner will also be given a $15 dollar giftcard to Barnes & Noble! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms:

1.  Must be following this blog.

2.  U.S. only :( 

3.  Only one winner will be chosen!  

4.  Giveaway will run for two weeks!

The winner will be contacted by email and I will also announce the winner on here and on my facebook and twitter pages!  

Thanks for being so awesome guys!

  

Giveaway Winner Announced!

Yay!  My first ever giveaway has come to a close!  Thank you to everyone who participated and followed me on here and on twitter!  I appreciated it so much!  

So, without further ado, I'd like to announce the winner!  

*drum roll please*  

And the winner is . . . 

Erika A.!!  

An email has been sent to you!  Please reply back within the next 48 hours to claim your prize!  

Again, thank you to everyone who entered!  You make me so happy!  

New Blog Design!

Ahhh!!

So, in case you guys haven't noticed, my blog looks so much better different!  Well, thanks to the awesome Katie from KD designs and Sophistikatied Reviews, I have a shiny new blog design that I absolutely love!  We've been working on it together for quite some time and today I got the email saying its been installed!

I just wanted to write this post to thank Katie for being so awesome!  It had been my first time doing something like this and I hadn't really had much of a vision for how I wanted everything to look.  I just had a few ideas that didn't really piece together but Katie seemed to know exactly what I wanted.  She was so patient and nice and I really appreciate everything she's done for me!  So thanks Katie!

What do you guys think of the design?  Leave a comment below!

Review: Awaken

Title:  Awaken
Series:  Empyreal #1
Author:  Christal M. Mosley
Publisher:  Wheelman Press
Pages:  234
Format:  eBook

A copy was provided by the author, Christal M. Mosley. 

Summary:  AWAKEN to a NEW WORLD What if your entire life had been nothing more than a few broken images? What if every time you closed your eyes, another memory was lost? ... Then ... What if one day, those memories began to resurface...? Coralie Collier has never questioned the elements in her life ... Until now. Strange dreams and unexplained encounters begin to unravel the world around her. As images begin to rise to the surface, missing pieces to her life begin to fall into place. Could there be more to Coralie's existence than what appears? Will Coralie be able to unlock the secrets to her past? And what lies within the truth? A new life ... A new world ... ... Awaken ...

My Review:  Though the synopsis wasn't all that original, I found myself intrigued when I began this book.

I was immediately drawn to the main character, Coralie.  I love it when I am able to so easily connect with the MCs in books and Coralie was very easy to relate to.  She was really lost throughout a lot of the book but even then she found the strength to fight back and question what was going on.  

I didn't particularly like all the switching POVs though, especially to the people who hadn't really been a huge part of the book, like Court's sister.  I did, however, like when we got to peek into the minds of Cal and Court.  It gave a little insight as to what exactly was going on with Coralie. 

Cal, Coralie's father, was a bit of a mystery to me. At first he was so fun and easy going to Coralie but he progressively became more and more threatening in my opinion, especially to other people. I was getting quite mad at him. I couldn't believe how completely stupid he was being. I was getting really frustrated the longer he kept Coralie in the dark. From the first attack I knew that it would be better for Coralie to know about what was going on.
I also didn't like Court much, but that was mostly because we didn't know much about him.  I didn't really feel like Coralie and Court knew anything about each other before they were suddenly together.  Their relationship just felt a little unnatural to me.  

I really loved finding out the back story to what Coralie exactly is.  It was interesting finding out where she came from and what all the secrets were.  I was actually really surprised when we found out what happened when Coralie was a baby.  I really hadn't seen that coming! 

In all, this story had a relateable main character and an interesting ending.  My only problems had been with some of the other characters and the time it took to get answers as to who and what Coralie was.  

Four Cards

The Booker Award

Hey everyone! 

So, guess what!  Yup, that's right; I was tagged for the Booker Award by the lovely Amy Zhang!  Check out her blog here.  Seriously, she's one talented chick!  I have no doubt I'm going to walk into a book store someday and purchase her novel! 

Anyway, the Booker Award is an award passed to different book bloggers here on the interweb.  Here are some of the rules:

1. This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay).
2. Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read (more than five is okay).
3. You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore

Sounds fun, right?  But rather than do my top five favorite books, I'm going to do my top seven favorite series!  Well, let's get this started!

My Top Seven Favorite Series (in no particular order):

1. The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa.  These books are so great.  They kept me completely enraptured throughout the entire series.  It has everything I look for in a book: romance, action, a good writing style, an exciting plot, and interesting characters.  I'm so excited that the series is going to be continued through the point of view of Meghan's little brother, Ethan. 
2. The Gone Series by Michael Grant.  Again, these books are absolutely amazing.  They are a bit different though and really stand out in the YA genre, to me at least.  I have never read anything like them and that makes them all the more exciting.  The last book is coming out next year.  I'm sad to see the series end. 
3. The Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon.  I adore everything about this series.  Seriously, these books are just flipping fanastic.  Go read them.  Immediately. 
4. The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan.  If you haven't heard of these books or read them, you really need to!  They are so fun and action packed!  And, again, a really unique idea in the YA genre! 
5. The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare.  Action, adventure, mystery, and a super hot, sarcastic demon hunter?  What more do you need?
6. The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  This series was a real surprise for me.  I hadn't heard much about it when I started reading the first book but it quickly became one of my all time favorites (obviously).  I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading it!
7. The Sweet Trilogy by Wendy Higgins.  I'd been so looking forward to getting my hands on the first book of this series.  I was a little afraid that I was hyping it up too much in my mind and that, once I sat down to read it, it would disappoint me.  But I shouldn't have doubted its awesomeness.  This series is awesome, amazing, wonderful.  Go buy it! 

Five Book Blogs I love:

1. Shortie Says
2. Tater's Tall Tails
3. Shattered Memories
4. Johanna: A Damsel in Book-Stress
5. Olivia's Opinions

So, go check out all those amazing blogs!