Pre-party giveaway: Find your theme fragrance

Tomorrow starts the big contest news, but today I had to share this fun opportunity! Below is the email I got from Theme Fragrance. Enter their contest. I think by "why summer" they mean something you love about summer? Not sure. But cool, right? Violet in Private Giveaway! Theme is in the party bag for the release of Melissa Walker's book Violet in Private! The giveaway is the dynamic duo of SARONG and FROLIC... shhhh...and don't tell anyone that you get a third fragrance by blending the two together! (and these are limited edition bottles made just for this book release party) ThemeFragranceViolet Promo how to enter... go to www.themefragrance.com and leave message in the guestbook about "why summer" leave your email so i can contact you. (your email address will not be published or given away...) giveaway ends August 16th. PS-It's Melissa again. Do you guys have signature scents? I used to love Sunflowers in high school... but right now I'm not sure what to wear. I tried Marc Jacobs' Daisy, too. Other suggestions? PPS-Last chance to enter Monday's contest (easy one!) and win Death By Bikini.

Saturday: Someone else's contest. Phew!

I heard this from the awesome Jennifer: YA Librarian.Tonight is the Lifetime premiere of True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, originally a book by Lola Douglas, who did a Cover Stories post with me last week! Here's the contest: readergirlz.com is giving away four signed copies of the book to the first four unique posts on the thread called True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet Giveaway! So drop by the forum and try to win. While you're there, say hi on the "August" posts to talk about themes relating to Violet in Private (like impossible skinniness in magazines and falling for a best friend)! And speaking of TV, I have a guest post on And Another Book Read where I talk about... TV. (BTW, I love Tasha's header with the polaroids! So cute!) PS-More blogs that welcomed me and Violet. I have to give link love! SF Weekly's Heartless Doll's VIP review Dear Author's Recommendations (including VIP) The Reading Zone's review of Violet on the Runway And Another Book Read's review of VIP Dear Author's review of VIP Ren's interview with me Happy Saturday.

Release Week Prize: Friday 5

In an ode to the fabulous Sarah Dessen's "Friday Five," here is your fifth prize (on a Friday!). It's actually a surprise prize for me, because last night at my reading, my new friend Jessica (who is at, like, every reading in NYC, which rules) gifted me a signed copy of The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci (Author), Jim Rugg (Illustrator). It's a graphic novel, and I read it in one go last night--L.O.V.E. It's art and angst and popularity and geekiness and the limits placed on self-expression. You need this book. And it can be yours! So, here are some other cool places where either Violet or I have shown up this week. Comment away and then come back and tell me to enter you for the number of comments you left (you don't have to visit these sites if you don't want to--though they are pretty great sites if you have time to click around--you can also just comment below, which is good for one entry). My Teen Fiction Cafe post about the release day dress! The Compulsive Reader's Book of the Month (drumroll... VIP!) Harmony Book Reviews' Violet by Design review YA New York's announcement for VIP Teen Book Review's Review of VIP A full series review by Lenore (cool idea!) Sick of me yet? Don't answer that! I'd also love to hear if you guys read graphic novels. I don't usually, for no real reason, but this one was so good, I am going to have to take another look at a bunch of them! If you do read them, which ones are especially awesome? Thanks, and Happy Friday! PS-Oh, and remember that you still have time to enter every contest from last week... just click below! Monday's winner will be announced, you know, on Monday. And so on... PPS-I forgot glitter letters yesterday, which was so lame of me! I don't use them often, but release week needs glitter. Sorry!

Release Week Prize #4: Screwball!

Today's prize, in honor of summer, is a signed copy of Screwball by Keri Mikulski. This book is super sporty, but it also has a great romance storyline, so even we non-athletes can have fun reading about main character Ashley's ups and downs. Now comes the how-to-win-it part. I had an awesome reading last night at Books of Wonder with LISA McMANN, LINDA GERBER, CLAIRE MYSKO, KATIE DAVIS, and JENNY DAVIDSON. It was a packed house, which is a great feeling for us authors (thanks to all who came!). They even put a big shelf of all of our books in the front! There's me with the Violet books at knee level. Anyway, since we can't all meet in person, for this contest your task is to visit me virtually. Lots of cool people have hosted me this week for release week, so here are a few links where you can go and leave love. Then come back here and tell me who you visited and how many comments you spread around. The more comments you leave, the more entries you get--do what you have time for and what's fun. Then tell me your final count here and I'll enter you that many times to win Keri's book! Where to find me (and/or stuff about the books--there are some contests in here too, including a full signed set of Violet books): Hope's Bookshelf. Four posts here! Contest, Interview, Review of VIP and Guest Blog about fashion secrets! Alexa Young gives love Read, Read, Read contest Megan's review of VIP Book Chic's contest (and review of Sarah Beth Durst's Into the Wild, which I really wanna read!) Beyond Books interview and review of VIP Uhh... maybe do this over a few days. Even I'm sick of me! (And I'm gonna give you a similar task tomorrow.) You've got a full week to enter, so feel free to stop back a few times. And if you don't like reviews, I've indicated which ones are reviews so you can steer clear. And don't forget to enter Monday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's contests. Each one runs for a full week.

Release week Win-It Wednesday!

Last week's prize was the gift bag from the Prospect Park Soiree that I went to in July... and I loved hearing about all your various summer parties. I think even talking about parties makes me happy. And the winner is... Melissa! Send me your address, M. This week, your prize is a signed copy of Justina Chen Headley's fantastic Girl Overboard, which pretty much has it all: family, snowboarding, community service, dim sum and friend-love (yes!). To win a copy of the book, you have a fun mission: Take this quiz by LaToya Evans ("What's your Spare Time Read?") and tell me what book you get... I thought I knew where I'd end up, but I got The Luxe (which I still haven't read--oops)! It must be that amazing ball gown that I dream of owning. And don't forget to enter Monday's and Tuesday's contests too. It's true that I'm giving you a lot of tasks here, but it's still summer, right? Get to it! PS-Come to Books of Wonder tonight if you're in the New York area! Six awesome authors (and me!).

VIP release day! Win Pretties and visit Readergirlz

It's day 2 of the release party, and the official in-store date for Violet in Private! You still have a week to enter yesterday's contest, and, actually, you still have a day to enter last week's Win-It-Wednesday contest too. Phew. So much to win I'm almost sweating. Anyway, today's prize is a signed copy of Scott Westerfeld's Pretties. I'm sure you guys know this series, but it's a fast-paced adventure in a future where, on your 16th birthday, you have an operation to make you "pretty." Follow Tally and her rebel friends as they fight to change their world. To win the book, show some love for readergirlz.com. I'm their author of the month, and there are discussion questions up on their boards (go there and weigh in on the "August" questions), visit the main site and tell your librarian about the downloadable poster and discussion questions, friend their myspace page and see their gorgeous background this month and listen to the songs I think of when I write the Violet books. So many options! Do what you have time for, then come back here and leave a comment saying what you noticed or weighed in on. I have so much love for the readergirlz, and I want everyone to join them--readerboyz too. Man, those z's crack me up. Here's the poster that you can download: Anyway, yay! Go get Violet in Private today! PS-Win a signed copy of Violet in Private here at Hope's Bookshelf. Good luck!

Violet in Private Release Week! Prize #1.

Okay, so every day this week I will be giving away a book that I've read and enjoyed. That's part 1 of the "release month" party that will happen on the blog. Each contest will run for one week, so comment all week to be entered and then I'll announce winners exactly a week later. First up is a signed copy of Linda Gerber's Death by Bikini, which has great action and more than a little romance (and holes in the cover! Woohoo!). When mysterious guests start arriving at the island resort where Aphra lives with her dad, she gets suspicious and wonders if the sketchy visitors have anything to do with her mom, who left their family a few years ago. And when a long-time guest ends up dead on the beach (strangled by bikini strings!), Aphra has some detective work to do--and fast. Doesn't it just scream summer fun? YES. So to win Death by Bikini, just comment below and tell me what your plans are for the (sniff) last month of summer! Oh, and visit Linda's blog, where she's giving away some awesome prizes this week. PS-Next week, I'll start giving away goodies from the Book Party Gift bag, which includes fun fashion and beauty treats--one each day, all month long! PPS-The grand prize will be a full trio of signed Violet books and a full book party gift bag from the Violet in Private party in NYC! How to win that? Official details up next week, but here's a hint: you have to make a tribute to Violet somehow. Ideas: make a flipbook on flip.com, create a poem, write a missing scene from Violet's life, post a virtual Violet collage, film a vlog or video trailer for the books. Just to give you a head start. End date will be 9/1.

Cover Stories: Undone by Brooke Taylor

Today's Cover Story is from Brooke Taylor, whose debut novel, Undone, just came out and is getting awesome buzz.Here's Brooke's story: "I had a cover idea after the book was finished. I love covers that are shiny block with like one object in the middle--like the Twilight books, or Looking For Alaska. And I thought it would be fun for mine to have a Post-it note dangling on mine--Dean Koontz's The Good Guy actually was very close to what I had in my head. In retrospect, I'm glad they didn't go with that--it is kind of boring. "My publisher didn't ask me for ideas, but I did ask them about it. They let me provide input--but thank goodness they didn't take it very seriously, because I love what they did and would've never suggested a model. It is too hard to get it right, but they did--the model they picked is so close to perfect it is scary. "When I saw the cover, my very first thought was--Oh, it's a person! See, I was sure they were going to love my Post-it idea, so to see Serena staring back at me was a little weird. It took all of 1 second for me to go--Love IT! "At first I didn't like the font--I don't even remember why. I think I was stuck on having more of a tattoo influence. But within a day I realized the font had this undone quality to it that made it the only choice. I doubt they would've changed it anyway. I'm sure they included my suggestions in the conversations, but I don't think mine carried any more weight than any other suggestion, and that's probably how it should be. "In terms of changes, we fixed up the color of her eye and darkened her lips. Small changes but they really make a huge impact. "In the end, I love my cover! It's perfect on so many levels." Thanks, Brooke! I have this book in my pile and it will certainly make it to Win-it Wednesday sometime this year. But you should read some of those above-linked reviews and pick it up now if it sounds like your thing! PS-Later today: The Violet in Private Release week party starts!

Special Sunday Edition: Cover Stories, True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet

Lara M. Zeises is a fellow member of the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit, and she also has a ton of news, plus a good cover story to share!First, she writes under her own name, and also as Lola Douglas. Lola has written two books, True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet and More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet. And here's some big news: The Lifetime adaptation of True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet premieres August 9th, at 9 p.m. And it stars Jojo (whom I met when I edited Seventeen Prom) and Shenae Grimes, a Degrassi vet who's now a cast member of the upcoming 90210 2.0, as I like to call it. How cool is that? Anyway, here's Lara "Lola Douglas" Zeises's cover story for True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet: "The first draft of the cover for True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet (left) was a bit of a disappointment to me. I loved the idea of a tabloid cover, but the image of the actress they used looked nothing how I pictured my protagonist. And that alone ruined it for me. I told my editor that I wasn't happy with how Morgan was portrayed, but the truth is, most covers use stock photography, and it wasn't easy for them to find an image like that to begin with. So my words had no impact. "The publisher ended up changing the entire cover concept after reading the full draft of the manuscript. My editor at the time, Kristin Pettit, said they were surprised by how warm and funny the book turned out to be. They felt like that initial cover was too harsh in light of that, and that's how we ended up with the second draft - and the one that made it to hardcover (below). "I liked the design of that cover but was never crazy about the muted colors. So when the publisher decided to keep that design but shift the colors for the paperback version, and I saw it morph into the sparkly hot pink and black cover it is today (below), I was thrilled. It had the right vibe and the right impact. "I've always loved the cover for More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, which had that same bright, sparkly look and feel (left)." Great story, Lara, and so fun to see the early drafts and different hardcover/paperback versions! Lara will be blogging LIVE during the premiere of the Lifetime movie on 8/9 at 9 p.m. She promises to reveal stories and secrets and reactions while she's watching. Super fun. PS-Tomorrow, the Cover Story behind Brooke Taylor's Undone!

Saturday in bed with books

That's where I am--over at inbedwithbooks, blogging about fashion (just like Maryrose Wood and Jennifer Banash did earlier this week!). Check us all out. And, comment to win our books!Here's what I'm blogging about. Intrigued? You should be. Thanks for having me, Liviania! Oh, and here's her review of Violet in Private. Phew, she liked it! (Extra entries if you comment there too.) PS-Happy to be alongside Breaking Dawn on BuzzSugar's Must Haves for August! Who went to a BD party? I want to hear about it!