Today is a most #DireDay thanks to Harper Collins Children’s Books. Yesterday I received three boxes of Lemon Snicket’s THE BAD BEGINNING which was terribly unfortunate for me. But today things are much, much worse.

Because, today, I will be sending this most unpleasant of books out into the world. And I will be spreading my misfortune to YOU.

If Friday the 13th wasn’t enough of a reason to stay indoors and hide yourself away, perhaps knowing that Lemony Snicket and his most wretched book THE BAD BEGINNING will be hitting the streets and taking over a city near you will suffice. And if not? Well, you have been warned. A copy of this most unfortunate book might find its way to you.

But even if you thought you were safe by staying indoors, away from these pitiful books being dropped, you were mistaken. Because there is no escaping this bothersome book.

See? I told you it was a most #DireDay!

While the largest group of these terrible books will be spreading their misery throughout my city, I can’t help but want to share the misery with those across the country and around the world.

And so I will be giving away 30 copies of this most unfortunate book here on the blog – up to 10 of which I will be willing to share internationally. Yes, how unfortunate a day it will be for you!

So if you would like to win a copy of this terrible book, THE BAD BEGINNING, enter for your chance in the form below. And hopefully you, too, will get to experience this #DireDay for yourself.

For Some More Unpleasantness

If you have not yet had the misfortune of meeting Lemony Snicket or learning about this first book in his A SERIES OF MOST UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, you can find more unpleasantness…

On FACEBOOK

On his WEBSITE

On GOODREADS.

And to find other ways to win one of these extremely unpleasant books, be sure to look for the #DireDay tweets on TWITTER. Because as this is such a #DireDay you might just be unlucky enough to win.

A Most Bothersome Book

A Most Unfortunate Giveaway

UPDATE: The giveaway should have said THIRTY WINNERS not ONE WINNER! My apologies! 

There is no requirement to like or follow. But to help spread the misery, there is an extra entry opportunity if you tweet!

If you are viewing this post via email you may have to click the link to enter the giveaway on the blog if the Rafflectoper form doesn’t work.

Enter at your own risk below…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Well it’s the final month of the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge! I can’t believe it’s almost over. Although, the fact that it will be over is a good thing. Because it means that in less than two weeks after the challenge ends, Before I Wake will be available – a book I’ve been waiting a long time for.

And I’m hoping the If I Die spoiler chat will help bridge that gap. Especially since I won’t be able to wait until closer to month’s end to re-read If I Die. Not after the tormenting, twisty heartbreak that was My Soul to Steal.

Another reason I can’t wait for the challenge to end is that the amazing author, Rachel Vincent, mentioned having a BIW chat at some point after its release. I’m hoping that will be on June 27th, but I don’t think it will be quite that soon. Anyway….

Even if you just found out about the challenge now, you can still join in. Yep, the only time it will be too late is at midnight on June 15th.

All you have to do to be considered a participant in this challenge is sign up in the SIGN UP post and read and review or share your thoughts on any one of the full-length books in this series. If you’re just signing up now, thoughts or reviews must be dated during this month’s challenge dates of May 15th through June 14th.

If you want to announce your participation by creating a post, you can add your link HERE for a chance to win a giftcard at the end of the challenge.

But if you’ve already signed up, then you’re all set to START OR CONTINUE READING… or RE-READING! But whatever you do, don’t forget to stop back and leave your link. Because this month’s prizes are awesome!

And, for each book you read and post you create, you’ll get at least one entry into the end of challenge giveaway for the pre-order copies of Before I Wake.

If you’ve missed the chance to include your reviews for any of the previous books in the series - My Soul to Take, My Soul to Save, My Soul to Keep or My Soul to Steal - in the Month One, Month Two, Month Three or Month Four linky lists, not to worry. You can enter them this month.

But it will be the last chance to post those thoughts and reviews. Because once this month’s linky list closes, the challenge will officially be over. As long as your reviews are posted from January 15 through June 14, 2012 you can link them up in this last month’s linky.

Unclaimed Prizes

There are still a few unclaimed prizes for the Month One through Month Three giveaways. But since I’d posted the winners on the SSRC blog versus here, I thought I would give one final chance to those winners by announcing them in this post.

If all prizes from the first three months of the giveaway are NOT claimed by June 1st, they will be added to this month’s giveaway. Month Four prize winners will have until June 15th to claim their prizes or new winners will be chosen.

***

Month Five

May 15 – June 14, 2012

***

The goal for this fifth month of the challenge will be to read If I Die.

If you missed last month’s deadline, don’t give up! Whether this is a first read or a re-read, If I Die is the pivotal book in the series and one you may just not want to miss. Especially since the action hits you right from the start. A shocking blow will leave you reeling very shortly thereafter. That roller coaster that author Rachel Vincent likes to put you on is the longest, craziest ride ever. The ups. The downs. The loop-de-loops. Insane. Absolutely insane.

But that’s just my opinion.

Oh, and it won’t let you loose until that last page. So, be prepared.

***

Whether this is your first month participating, you’ve been here from the start or you joined somewhere along the way, as long as you sign up and post at least one review or thoughts post you’ll be eligible for the end-of-challenge giveaway for a pre-order for Before I Wake.

As promised there will be at least ten pre-order copies up for grabs. The actual number will be determined after the challenge ends and depends solely on just how many people who signed up have posted at least one review for one of the five full-length books in the series.

There will be a separate wrap-up post after the challenge, in which the winners for the pre-order copies of Before I Wake will be announced.

And just a reminder: If you are a winner who is located internationally and Before I Wake or any of the other “book of your choice” books are not available to ship from The Book Depository to your country, I will send the book by postal mail.

What do you need to do this month?

1. Start reading or keep reading!

If you already started the challenge, then all you need to do is keep reading. If you just joined in, or you are behind, not to worry. You can read and post your reviews for My Soul to Take, My Soul to Save, My Soul to Keep and/or My Soul to Steal this month.

And you have all month to read and review this fifth book in the series to get that extra entry into the end-of-challenge giveaway.

2. Post your review or thoughts!

Whether you’ve decided to post a review, or just create a post with your thoughts about the book, you have until June 14th to do so to be entered into this month’s giveaways and to earn an entry into the end-of-challenge Before I Wake giveaway.

But note, for the four special giveaway prizes, you will have had to post at least TWO reviews of the full-length books during the challenge to be eligible. And yes, those two reviews can be posted this month!

3. Leave your link!

Be sure to come back here and leave a link to your post – wherever that may be – Blog, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr, etc. If you don’t leave the link, you won’t be entered into the giveaway. LINK MUST BE LEFT IN THE LINKY LIST NOT THE COMMENTS.

If you don’t have anywhere to post your thoughts or review, please leave a comment with a way to get in touch and if your review (or thoughts) are positive, I’ll post them as a guest post on my blog, Soul Screamers Reading Challenge.

Reviews or thoughts posts must be from January 15 through June 14, 2012 ONLY.

What are this month’s incentives?

***

In case you wanted to know….

Extra Credit Reads

You can still post your reviews for any of the extra credit reads this month. Each extra credit read will give you an additional entry into the Before I Wake giveaway at the end of the challenge AND will give you an extra entry into this month’s giveaway.

What if I don’t finish the book this month?

That’s okay. The challenge will be over, but If I Die is awesome. So no matter when you finish reading it, it will be a WIN.

What if I’ve signed up, but never read any books during the months of this challenge?

That’s OKAY. We all have things in life that sometimes take priority. You won’t be eligible for any of the giveaways without at least one review or thoughts post, but no one will judge you for signing up and not doing anything beyond that!

The fact that you want to read the author’s amazing books is awesome! And whether you read them now, or in the future, you’ll be discovering a series that I think it is pretty amazing.

What if I’ve already reviewed the book?

If this is a re-read for you, you can simply create a post about this book talking about what you found different the second (or third, or fourth or…) time around. If you are a blogger, you can always link to your original review in that discussion post so that people can check out what you thought on first read.

BUT, you cannot simply repost your original review to be eligible for the giveaway. AND you cannot leave a link to an old post. All posts must be created during the challenge.

The first book I plan on reading for the challenge isn’t If I Die, is that okay?

Absolutely! If you are starting this month’s challenge by reading any book other than If I Die, you can still post your reviews for that book – or any of the other Soul Screamers books – during this month’s challenge. It will give you an entry – or more depending upon how many reviews you post – into this month’s giveaway and will count as an entry toward the end-of-challenge Before I Wake pre-order giveaway.

But, you only get an extra entry for posting your review for If I Die during this month of the challenge.

How are this month’s giveaway prizes going to be decided?

The giveaway winners’ names will be drawn on June 17th. The end-of-challenge Before I Wake giveaway winners will be announced in a separate post on June 19th.

For this month’s ALL PARTICIPANTS giveaway prizes, Random will be drawing numbers based on the linky number associated with your post.

For this month’s SPECIALTY giveaway prizes, participants names will be drawn using Random’s list generator by name.

Each giveaway will be drawn separately.

If you’ve won and you do not wish to receive that prize, the next number on the list that Random drew will be the winner.

And guess what….

So….

Leave your links below for posts created from May 15 through June 14, 2012. This month the linky list will close ON June 14th to avoid confusion. So be sure to get your posts in on time to count for this final month’s giveaway and for those extra entries.

***

Let’s see those posts!

Month four of the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge has officially begun! Which means that there’s only one month after this one remaining in the challenge and just over a month until the release of Before I Wake!

And yes, you can still sign up. It’s not too late! Even if you only decide to read one Soul Screamers book for the challenge you are eligible to participate. All you have to do is click the link to the sign up post in the button above to get started.

And if you want to create a participation post, you can add your link HERE for a chance to win a giftcard at the end of the challenge.

If you’ve already signed up, then you’re all set to START OR CONTINUE READING… or RE-READING! But don’t forget to come back during the month to leave your links for any books read and reviewed or posted about during this month of the challenge.

Even if you’ve been participating in the monthly challenges, don’t forget to sign up in the linky on the sign up post to be entered for the end of the challenge giveaway.

If you’ve missed the chance to include your reviews for My Soul to Take, My Soul to Save or My Soul to Keep in the Month One, Month Two or Month Three linky lists, not to worry. You can enter them this month or next month. As long as your reviews are posted from January 15 through June 14, 2012 you can link them up in any month’s linky during the challenge.

Month One and Month Two Winners

There are still a few unclaimed prizes for the winners of the Month One and Month Two challenges. I am extending the offer for one more month for a last chance for the prizes to be claimed or they will be added into final month’s giveaway. If you haven’t checked to see if you had won, CLICK HERE for Month One winners. CLICK HERE for Month Two winners.

***

Month Four

April 15 – May 14, 2012

***

The goal for this fourth month of the challenge will be to read My Soul to Steal.

If you didn’t make the month three deadline, there’s no reason to give up! If you’re doing a re-read, you can always skip a book and join in with this month’s read. Or if it is a first read, then just grab the next book and start reading. You do not have to catch up on all the books to be a challenge winner!

Just remember, if you continue on with the challenge you will have more chances to win some of the signed books or the pre-order for Before I Wake at the end of the challenge. And next month’s giveaway is going to be the biggie!

And if you are a winner who is located internationally and Before I Wake or any of the other “book of your choice” books are not available to ship from The Book Depository to your country, I will send the book by postal mail.

What do you need to do this month?

1. Start reading or keep reading!

If you already started the challenge, then all you need to do is keep reading. Even if you read ahead in the previous months, hopefully you held off posting your reviews so you could post them this month for an extra entry into the Before I Wake giveaway at the end of the challenge.

If you just joined in, or you are behind, not to worry. You can read and post your reviews for My Soul to Take, My Soul to Save and/or My Soul to Keep this month or at any month during the challenge.

And if it is a re-read for you and you want to skip last month’s read and start with either of the novellas – My Soul to Lose or Reaper - or with this month’s read - My Soul to Steal - then that’s okay too!

You have all month to read and review this fourth book in the series to get that extra entry into the end-of-challenge giveaway.

2. Post your review or thoughts!

Whether you’ve decided to post a review, or just create a post with your thoughts about the book, you have until May 14th to do so to be entered into any of this month’s giveaways and to earn an entry into the end-of-challenge Before I Wake giveaway.

3. Leave your link!

Be sure to come back here and leave a link to your post – wherever that may be – Blog, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr, etc. If you don’t leave the link, you won’t be entered into the giveaway. LINK MUST BE LEFT IN THE LINKY LIST NOT THE COMMENTS.

If you don’t have anywhere to post your thoughts or review, please leave a comment with a way to get in touch and if your review (or thoughts) are positive, I’ll post them as a guest post on my blog, Soul Screamers Reading Challenge.

Reviews or thoughts posts must be from January 15 through May 14, 2012 ONLY.

What are this month’s incentives?

***

In case you wanted to know….

Extra Credit Reads

You can post your reviews for any of the extra credit reads at any time during the challenge. Each extra credit read will give you an additional entry into the Before I Wake giveaway at the end of the challenge AND will give you an extra entry into that month’s giveaway.

SO, if you want extra chances to win a specific prize, be sure to hold off on posting your reviews for the extra credit reads until the month of that giveaway prize!

What if I don’t finish the book this month?

That’s OKAY. You can post your review or thoughts next month. And you can leave more than one link during each month of the challenge.

What if I’ve signed up, but never read any books during the months of this challenge?

That’s OKAY. We all have things in life that sometimes take priority. You won’t be eligible for any of the giveaways without at least one review or thoughts post, but no one will judge you for signing up and not doing anything beyond that!

The fact that you want to read the author’s amazing books is awesome! And whether you read them now, or in the future, you’ll be discovering a series that I think it is pretty amazing.

What if I’ve already reviewed the book?

If this is a re-read for you, you can simply create a post about this book talking about what you found different the second (or third, or fourth or…) time around. If you are a blogger, you can always link to your original review in that discussion post so that people can check out what you thought on first read.

BUT, you cannot simply repost your original review to be eligible for the giveaway. AND you cannot leave a link to an old post. All posts must be created during the challenge.

The first book I plan on reading for the challenge isn’t My Soul to Steal, is that okay?

Absolutely! If you are starting this month’s challenge by reading any book other than My Soul to Steal, you can still post your reviews for that book – or any of the other Soul Screamers books – during this month’s challenge. It will give you an entry – or more depending upon how many reviews you post – into this month’s giveaway and will count as an entry toward the end-of-challenge Before I Wake pre-order giveaway.

But, you only get an extra entry for posting your review for My Soul to Steal during this month of the challenge.

How are this month’s giveaway prizes going to be decided?

The giveaway winners’ names will be drawn on May 18th.

For this month’s giveaway prizes, Random will be drawing numbers based on the linky number associated with your post.

Each giveaway will be drawn separately.

If you’ve won and you do not wish to receive that prize, the next number on the list that Random drew will be the winner.

And guess what….

So….

Leave your links below for posts created from April 15 through May 14, 2012. This month the linky list will close ON May 14th to avoid confusion. So be sure to get your posts in on time to count for this month’s giveaway and for those extra entries.

***

Let’s see those posts!

I am so super thrilled to be a part of the Spellcaster Music Blog Tour! Having a music tour for this book is such a unique and fun idea. I loved checking out all the other stops on the tour to see just what songs were chosen and to learn a little more about some of the awesome characters in Spellcaster. And I can’t believe that I’m the last stop and that the tour ends today!

But, before I go any further, I just have to thank Cara Lynn Shultz, Harlequin TEEN and Kismet Book Touring for allowing me to be a part of this amazing tour.

This series is utterly enchanting and I absolutely adore Emma and Brendan. So, when I found out that Emma Connor would be stopping by the blog and picking out a song for Brendan I was crazy happy.

And after I found out what song Emma first had in mind for Brendan, I couldn’t stop grinning. But in the end I definitely think she picked the perfect song. She would know. They are…. Nope. You’ll get no spoilers from me. Read Spellbound and Spellcaster - or take a peek at either book’s description – if you want to know more.

Anyway….

Before we get to Emma’s song pick and the giveaway, here’s just a little bit…

About the Book

About the Author

And now for why you’re really here….

I am so unbelievably excited to welcome Emma Connor to the blog. She is this awesome heroine who you just want as your BFF. And it doesn’t hurt that she has this amazingly swoon-worthy boy Brendan for a boyfriend.

So, without further ado, I’d like to turn things over to Emma….

Hey, thanks for having me! So, I get to pick a song for Brendan, right? This should be really easy for me to do, considering that we’re constantly emailing songs back and forth. But it’s going to be SO hard, because Brendan’s such a music ninja. Seriously, he knows everything there is to know. I’ll ask him, “Oh, have you heard of this band?” and he’s all, “Yeah, I saw them two years ago. They played in the back of a bodega” or someplace even more obscure, because of course he saw them before anyone else.

So, I gotta be honest, I’m really tempted to pick something funny, like “Moves Like Jagger.” And he would probably cut his ears off if I picked something too poppy, like Justin Bieber. Brendan gets extremely judgey about pop music, in case you didn’t know.

Here’s my other dilemma. I know, it sounds like I’ve had a million dilemmas. Picking a college won’t be as hard as picking this song, I swear. Anyway, I have a ton of songs that remind me of Brendan. When I first met him I listened to a lot of old Blink-182 and Something Corporate. But I don’t want to pick one of those songs, because he knows about them already.

So I’m going with a new song. It’s by We Are the In Crowd, “Kiss Me Again.” It’s just an awesome song, with the singer of one of my favorite bands (All Time Low). Technically this song is supposed to take place at the start of a relationship, but I have to be honest, I still get butterflies when I’m with Brendan. Serious butterflies. Karate butterflies. They’re doing scissor kicks in my stomach. And I like that you get both the guy and the girl’s perspectives in this song. So here’s the song, I hope you like it.

Thank you so much for sharing your song choice for Brendan, Emma. It was absolutely perfect! While it sounds like it was a pretty tough decision to make, I think he’ll love it.

And it’s so awesome that Brendan still gives you butterflies. Who says they have to stop just because you’ve been together for a awhile? I sure don’t!

Anyway, thanks so much again. You are always welcome to stop back!

Emma is awesome, right!? I totally wish I could have asked her just a few questions about spell casting and Brendan.

Anyway….

As this is the final stop on the Spellcaster Music Blog Tour, not only can you enter to win a copy of Spellcaster, but you can enter the iPod Giveaway!!!

While a few of the daily giveaways for a copy of Spellcaster have ended, there are a few that are still going on. So be sure to visit the other tour stops for a chance to win!

To enter for a chance to win the GRAND PRIZE giveaway of an iPod nano skinned in the Spellcaster cover art and for another chance to win a copy of Spellcaster, guess who would most likely be found at an A.F.I. concert! Then, enter your answer in the Rafflecopter Widget below.

(HINT: The correct answer can be found at one of the Tour Stops.)

Winners for the iPod nano Giveaway are drawn from all entries who named the right character. The winner for the Spellcaster copy will be drawn from all entries! 

This giveaway is open to US/Canada ONLY.

For the full contest rules, CLICK HERE.

Tour Stops

If you’d like more information about the tour or the guest posts, head over to Kismet Book Touring’s Spellcaster tour page.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY BELOW….

Kindle Fire Giveaway

Win a Kindle Fire + a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card!

25 AWESOME book blogs have joined together to bring you one great giveaway!

I am super stoked to be a part of this amazing giveaway opportunity along with twenty-four other fabulous bloggers whose sites you should totally check out.

I can attest to the fact that the Kindle Fire is amazing. As someone who owns quite a few eReaders, I love the fact that the Fire allows you not only to read and make notes on your eBooks, but is great for videos, checking out the web and Twitter. And, if you’ve turned it off and haven’t used it for a few weeks or a month, the battery is still charged and ready to go.

Of course the Kindle Fire is not the most inexpensive of eReaders – because it’s not just an eReader. Though it is so worth the cost. So, when Kathy of I Am A Reader, Not A Writer asked if I’d like to take part in the giveaway I jumped at the chance. I would love for someone to win a Kindle Fire.

But that’s not all that’s up for grabs. The twenty-five book blogs involved each chipped in toward the purchase of not only the Kindle Fire, but a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card that can be used to purchase eBooks or even a Kindle cover or other media or apps. But if it’s books that you are looking for, that $50 can go a long way to buying those favorite titles.

The giveaway is open from April 6th to April 22nd! And there will be one winner for this brand new Kindle Fire plus $50 Amazon.com Gift Card.

Here are the lovely blogs this giveaway is brought to you by…

I Am A Reader, Not A Writer
Ereading on the Cheap
Good Choice Reading
Once Upon a Twilight
Bookish Babe
Hippies Beauty & Books
Colorimetry
Bookhounds/Bookhounds YA
Reading Lark
Stuck in Books
Reading Teen
Bookworm Lisa
Fire & Ice
Uniquely Moi Books
Lady Readerstuff
EvesFanGarden
Rex Robot
Books That Tug the Heart
Cuzinlogic
Fiktshun (me)
The Mod Podge Bookshelf
Truly Bookish
The Book Pixie
Better Read Than Dead
Refracted Light