Saturday Spotlight!

Well, here it is! My FIRST Saturday Spotlight since I've been back! I'm going to try to introduce you to as many new blogs and bloggers as I can! I've had a great response to The Saturday Spotlight but a slow response time in getting the questions back to me.  I will keep the feature every week that I can because I think it's important to find new blogs to read weekly and new friends to meet!  If you're interested in being spotlighted here, don't hesitate to hit the "contact me" button and I'll be sure to get right back to you!

I hope you enjoy this week's Spotlight Blog and Blogger! You certainly won't find this sweet little flower hanging around the garden...

What's Your Name? My name is top-secret classified information, but you can call me Orchid.

Alias? Orchid Forsythia

Your Blog Name? The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Why did You Choose that Specific Name? I chose The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia, because I thought it sounded really cool and original, plus it kind of gives my blog an air of mystery.

Where can we find you on the net? (A.K.A. Your Blog URL) - http://hauntedorchid.blogspot.com/

*Go Ahead and Look I'll Wait ...*

Can you give us a quick bio about yourself?   About me, hmm, I love to read and can practically always be found with my nose in a book. And if I'm not reading I am working on my blog.

Why did you start your blog? I wanted to share my personal thoughts on the books that I read. I’ve also found that it’s a great way to find neww books and authors that I might never have bothered looking into reading.

What is your favorite genre and/or genres? My favorite genres are YA, fantasy, mystery sci-fi, horror, and supernatural. I also have a soft spot for mangas.

Who is your favorite author? My all-time favorite author would have to be Agatha Christie, she
completely rocks. Her mysteries are some of the best I have ever read

What's your favorite book of all time? I guess I would have to say that "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie is my favorite book, but there’re a ton of books that are tied for second.

Has there ever been a book you've "faked" reading? No. If I didn’t like it enough to finish, I’m going to be truthful and say that I didn’t finish it.

What are you currently reading? Will there be a review/reviews in the works? I am currently reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. Yes, there will be a review sometime in the future for it. I am also currently
working on a review for Seeker by William Nicholson; hopefully I’ll have it up by the end of the week.

Please Name & Describe Your Blog Features:  I participate in quite a few memes,  like, Teaser Tuesday, where you post a short teaser from your current read; In My Mailbox, where you post about books and book swag that you have received, bought, or borrowed; Wish List Wednesday where you tell about a book that you are looking forward to buying. I have also begun accepting affiliates, and still have a few open slots. While I really enjoy doing memes, my favorite feature on my blog is reviews. I love reviewing books and introducing other people to new books and authors.

Describe your review system: My review system is probably one of the least complicated ones. 1 pineapple, means it was a complete waste of my time; 2 pineapples, means I just didn’t enjoy it; 3 pineapples, means it was good, but not necessarily something I’d re-read; 4 pineapples means that I really liked it; 5 pineapples means that I loved it and would recommend it to everyone.

How is your blog unique from other blogs? I think what makes my blog unique is that I review more obscure books and tend to read to the beat of my own drum.

How do you market your blog Orchid? By commenting on other blogs, and participating in challenges and guesting at other blogs.

Can you give us 3 tips about content? Tip number one: try not to include spoilers in your reviews, it tends to turn people off from reading a book where they already know the big twist. Tip number two: to keep in mind that authors are real people to, so try to keep the snarkiness to a minimum. Tip number three: Make sure you have the correct info about a book (i.e. author’s name, title, pub date…).

How about tips on Blog promotion? Two good ways to promote our blog would have to be, commenting on and following other blogs. Because you’ve got to get your blog out into the blogosphere if you want to get noticed.
Thank Youfor having me at Park-Avenue Princess. It has been a blast!

You're more than Welcome Orchid! I hope you'll continue to stop back and you know you're always welcome here! By the way, the J*Flops Giveaway and The Space Between Trees (autographed copy) Giveaway are both still open! Plus, I have some more to put up this week along with some great authors stopping by Park-Avenue Princess! Don't forget that it's almost time for me to list the Brand New Nook Giveaway, we're very close to the 1,000 Followers Celebration! 

Again, if  YOU Would Like to be a Part of The SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT just drop me a note or if you're comfortable with putting it in the comments section you can do that and I will get back to you immediately! There's a lot that we can do with the Saturday Spotlight! It's a great way to meet new people, find new blogs to read and help each other bring in new followers! I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!


KISSES and TOODLES!






Thanks,

Orchid

http://hauntedorchid.blogspot.com

Guest Katie Williams & Giveaway!

The Space Between Trees
Author: Katie Williams
Publisher: Chronicle Books

Hello Everyone!

Today I have the honor of having Author, Katie Williams here at Park Avenue Princess as part of the official blog tour for her debut book, "The Space Between Trees"! You can find my review here. I don't want to take too much time with the introduction (we all know how I love to talk), so I'm going to lend my throne, tiara, and whatever else Katie needs here in the castle to make her feel at home. I'm now going to let Katie speak to you about her phenomenal new book.  Please make her feel welcome!

A Very Bad Princess


Once upon a time there was a plain peasant girl—scuffs on her shoes, dirt under her fingernails—who was invited to sit on the princess’s throne for an entire day. That’s me, Katie Williams, scepter in hand, feeling atypically regal since our highness has invited me here to tell you about my debut novel, The Space Between Trees.

The Space Between Trees doesn’t have any princesses in it, no castles or charging steeds, nary a fairy godmother to be seen. But, like many good fairytales, it features a girl who has been overlooked.

Sixteen-year-old Evie somehow missed out on making friends, real friends anyway. She doesn’t have a boyfriend either, although she’s convinced the girls at school that she’s involved in a flourishing romance with college dropout Jonah Luks. Still, try as she might, she remains lonely, quirky, and anonymous. But all that changes when Evie spies the police pulling a murdered schoolmate’s body from the woods behind her paper route, and suddenly she’s at the center of the story everyone wants to hear. Eager for attention, Evie exaggerates her connection the dead girl, thereby drawing herself into a wrongheaded murder “investigation” that questions truth and fiction, innocence and guilt.

Perched here on my borrowed throne, I can’t help but think about princesses, and how being a princess is not about the sparkling tiaras and drool-worthy gowns (well, maybe it’s a little bit about the gowns), but is really about being kind and virtuous. After all, Cinderella was a princess on the inside way before she got the fairy-godmother makeover. By such standards, my protagonist Evie is very unprincesslike. She lies; she manipulates; she connives. And her machinations lead to serious trouble and permanent loss.

Does Evie sound like a horrible person to you? She makes some huge mistakes; it’s true. So how could I write a character who behaves so very badly? Well, I liked Evie because, despite her flaws, she was interested in the world around her and, also, she was daring. She’d do things I never would, even if some of those things were the wrong things. Furthermore, I understood Evie. Her bad behavior came from the same desires that make the princess character such an appealing fantasy: She wanted to feel special, pretty, and most of all, loved. And once I understood Evie better, I felt I could write more of her story to see where her lies led, to discover if she would eventually accept her rags and discover the secret that all true princesses know: She is special because she is herself.

You can read more about The Space Between Trees, including the first chapter, on my website, http://www.katiewilliamsbooks.com/.

Thank you SO much Katie for being here at the castle today! As a special surprise, Katie is offering one of my *Very Lucky* Loyal & Royal Readers a chance to WIN their very own AUTOGRAPHED Hardcover Copy of "The Space Between Trees"!

THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES GIVEAWAY!!

This book is going to be signed and sent from Chronicle Books

So, I ask that you have a US or Canadian Address that the

book can be sent to! It's open to anyone that FOLLOWS

with either a US or Canadian Address in which to receive the book.

Most important you must follow through Google Friend Connect!

Don't know how? Go here to get instructions!

First I'd like you to head on over to Katie Williams' web site and tell me one thing you've learned about Katie or her book or you may think of a question you'd like to ask Katie! You MUST do this step to QUALIFY! If you choose the question option, you get +25 per question you ask with a limit of TWO QUESTIONS per person. leaving you with a total of +50 for asking Katie TWO QUESTIONS that have to do with today's post, her writing, her debut novel, something VALID please!

Also to qualify, I ask that you please leave your name/nickname
in each post you leave. Something that separates you from everyone else
so that it will be clear if you are chosen as the winner. You must also leave
me with your emailing address so that you can be contacted (even if it is in your profile).

This contest is open to ANYONE that Follows with GFC - Anywhere In the WORLD!
*But, you MUST have either a U.S. or CANADIAN ADDRESS to
accept the book for you. Overseas shipping is not available for this contest!

*This Contest ends 8/13/10*

Entries

+5  If you Subscribe by Mail
+5 If you Subscribe via Google Reader

+5 If you TWEET About This Giveaway (Leave Link)

+10 If you Rate Me On Blogged (see link at bottom of blog)

+10 If you add me to your blog roll (and link it back to my blog)

+10 If you Blog about the Contest in your Sidebar (Link back)

+15 If you blog about this Giveaway in it's own post (Link back)

+20 If you Follow @APrkAvePrincess on Twitter (Leave @name)

+25 If you Put My Button On Your Blog and Link Back

So, spread the word about Park-Avenue Princess!

It's only a *Click* to Follow and We're NOT that far away!!

I've got a NOOK here with someone's name on it and

it could be yours! All I need to start the giveaway

is 1,000 GFC Followers. I also have some

Amazing Prizes coming up that

you don't want to miss!

+50 for each and every NEW follower you bring me

(They just have to mention it in their post! You will BOTH Get the Points!)

YES EVERY PERSON YOU SEND!

(All of these will be verified before they count towards your entries!!)

Separate your entries one per post! (either each or just +5 for example)

Or you will only have One Entry Regardless of What You Do!

AS ALWAYS, GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!

KISSES and TOODLES!!

The Space Between by Katie Williams

The Space Between Trees
Author: Katie Williams
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Published: June 23, 2010
Pages: 280
Price (Hardcover) : $17.99
ISBN: (Hardcover) : 978-0-8118-7175-4
Reading Level: Young Adult

Synopsis:

Not your everyday coming-of-age novel…

This story was supposed to be about Evie—how she hasn't made a friend in years, how she tends to stretch the truth (especially about her so-called relationship with college drop-out Jonah Luks), and how she finally comes into her own once she learns to just be herself—but it isn't. Because when her classmate Elizabeth "Zabet" McCabe's murdered body is found in the woods, everything changes…and Evie's life is never the same again.

My Thoughts:

First of all just let me admit that I loved this book when I saw the cover! Yes, it was Cover Love! I had HIGH Hopes for this book! Also, there's nothing better than a thriller that keeps me up all hours of the night.  So, I put this book on a pedestal before I even opened it.  Sometimes I do that and it's a bad thing, because I've built it up so much in my mind and then I read it and I say "That was good, but..." Not in this case!

"THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES" was a beautifully written story about a girl who has no friends and is just forced to grow up so faced. I was amazed at how daring Evie could be at times and how fragile at others.  It's true that Evie didn't fit in, and I'll explain that a little bit below, but how many teenagers do.  This book will be a helpful to so many teens that feel like they're left out or they don't have a boyfriend but want one.  How about everyone else has done that.  I remember Evie saying something like "I've done nothing" when being questioned over and over as to what she's done, and how dangerous she is. 

No matter where Evie goes, she just doesn't seem to fit in.  At school she sits with a bunch of girls she's nicknamed "The Whisperers" just because they didn't protest and she doesn't have any real friends.  So, she makes up stories and lies to keep them entertained and at least talking to her.  Sadly enough Evie does the same at home.  Evie's parents have been divorced since she was a little girl and she only has two real memories of her father.  What really bothers Evie is that her mother was this super-popular teenage girl with like a million friends and sees no reason that Evie shouldn't be doing the same things she did. She's always asking her about friends, so Evie lies to her mother as well and makes up stories about "The Whisperers" just to make her mother happy.   The only friend Evie ever had was a girl named Elizabeth MaCabe but that was long before now, that was in grammar school and it was only because Elizabeth's mother used to watch Evie for a little while.  Once that stopped and they got older, Zabet got with the wrong crowd, and began to hang out with a new best friend Hadley Smith.  She was known as the tough girl in school.  Zabet's Hello's went to mere eye contact down to nothing at all. 

There is something Evie looks forward to, and that's every Sunday when she's delivering her papers.  She gets to see Jonah.  Jonah's a college boy that she has a serious crush on, of course this is a one way street. He sees her as his sometimes friend and they talk briefly.  His job is to collect all the dead animals that are in the woods close to the homes in the upscale neighborhood where Evie also delivers her papers. One day it all changes when she sees Jonah come out of the woods and go into an old woman's house. Suddenly, the police are everywhere and Evie is too scared to move from the spot she's crouched in.  Many things race through her head, she wonders what could've happened and suddenly inches away she's passed by a body bag.  Evie watches as they load the body onto the truck and even as she hears Jonah call her name for the first time, all she can do at that point is run. Later she finds out from her mother that Zabet has been murdered.

I could go on and on about how she gets together with Mr. MaCabe, Zabet's father or how about how she finally finds a best friend and you won't believe who it is. All these things happen because of her lies that keep getting bigger and bigger.  But, Evie is a lovable character and she can tell the truth and most of all, she knows who she is.  Hadly is obsessed with finding Zabet's killer and so, together they make a list and do some private investigating of their own.  Who killed Zabet? It's a long list of suspects and yes, it is tied up at the end.

Katie Williams did an AMAZING job with "THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES"! The depth of Evie's character alone and the storyline had me up two nights in a row until the wee hours of the morning.  But it's not just Evie's character that will get you, it's just about all of them.  Even the background characters had enough depth for me to connect with them and to HAVE to know what was going to happen next.  I hope that there is more coming for Katie Williams, she's a brilliant storyteller!  "THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES" is not to be missed!

About The Author:

Katie Williams is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Texas at Austin and has published numerous short stories for adults. She lives in San Francisco, where she currently teaches writing at the Academy of Art. This is her first young adult novel.

Read the First Chapter Here!


If you'd like a chance to WIN an AUTOGRAPHED copy of "THE SPACE BETWEEN TREES" then wait right here, as part of the Official Blog Tour, today is my stop and Katie Williams has prepared a Guest Post just for Park-Avenue Princess! At the end, I'll tell you how ONE of my VERY Lucky Royal Readers Will Win a copy to treasure for their very own!

KISSES and TOODLES!!