This is a quick note to all our loyal readers, and to those authors, publishers and associated others that are waiting on me to review books. I’ve been experiencing some problems with my eyes lately, and I’m now on eye drops which blur my vision and make it difficult to read. I promise that as soon as my eyes are back in good working order, I’ll get cracking on your book reviews. Till then, we apologize for any inconvenience and frustrations we have caused.

Nikki

It seems that voting for the book club this month is quite close. We’ve got Looking for Alaska by John Green and Percy Jackson and the Olympian tied in at first place. Every time we think we’ve got a clear winner to call it done, the other comes up from behind and causes another tie. In second place at the moment, and losing only by one vote, is Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz. If you have voted, now would be the time to head on over to the forum and do so.

We’re going to need your help to get this done!

As the title of this post suggests, voting for the book club selection for the month of March is now open. We collected your suggestions and have compiled a poll over on the forum, so to make sure you get your choice heard, you need to head over and vote now.

The selections, as suggested by YOU are:

Looking for Alaska - John Green

Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler

Feed - M.T Anderson

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan

Ballads of Suburbia - Stephanie Kuehnert

Blue Bloods - Melissa De La Cruz

Girl in the Arena - Lisa Haines

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Goddess of the Night - Lynne Ewing

To vote, please head on over to the forum. Any votes left after this post will not be counted.

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that our Book of the Month for Febraury is Tangled by Carolyn Mackler:

Paradise wasn’t supposed to suck.

All the usual Book of the Month festivities are scheduled, except this month, instead of Carolyn writing a guest book review, she’s going to be writing a guest blog and engaging you guys in some discussion about a relevant topic of her choice.

Secondly, our Bookclub Read this month, as voted by YOU, is My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent:

She doesn’t see dead people, but…

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who’ll be next…

Discussions are open on the forum now. Feel free to join in, or even start your own discussion threads. Click here to participate.

Have a great Feburary!

Hi yaReaders,

Our first yaFlicks review was penned into our diaries to be posted this weekend just gone. This is just a quick note to say that we’re aware that we missed the posting date and that your video review should be coming your way in another day or so. We’re new to this whole film editing stuff and we’ve hit a few techical snags. We’re in the process of ironing out the kinks and the video review will be on your screens in no time at all.

It was originally decided that our yaFlicks reviews would appear on the last Saturday of every month. It has now been decided that, going forward, said reviews will appear on the last Sunday of every month.

Peace.

In 2009, over on the forum we presented our members with a challenge: to read 100 books you’ve never read before and watch 100 movies you’ve never watched before.

We presented this as a challenge, rather than a contest, to encourage our members to embrace storytelling of all kinds.

The staff at yaReads were so impressed with the effort that our members went to that we decided to award a couple of prizes. Here’s how we did it:

For each challenge (both the movie and the book challenge) we entered all the names of those members who actually reached 100. Then, we entered their names into a randomizer and pulled one name for each challenge.

We’re happy to announce that Kat was the winner of the prize for the movie challenge and Casey Jarryn was the winner of the prize for the book challenge.

Casey is the lucky recipient of a book pack and Kat is the lucky recipient of a DVD pack.

We’re starting the challenge again this year and members are already recording their reading and viewing feats over on the forum. If you’d like to participate, click here. You never know what might be in store for the winners of the 2010 challenges.

We’re thrilled to announce that our Book of the Month here at yaReads for January is none other than Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl’s new novel, Beautiful Creatures.

Keep your eyes peeled for our review, an awesome contest, an interview with the authors and a guest review by each of them too!

Hi yaReaders,

Yep, you heard right! For the month of December, we’re hosting another themed month on the main page here - Male Interest Reads! This theme was voted by you, our readers, after it was brought to our attention that a lot of the books we review here at yaReads tend to be skewed more towards a female readership. For the month of December (and hopefully from here on in) we’ll be doing our best to bring you reviews that cater for the male teen reader, as well as the female teen reader. Just look out for this banner:

We’ve got an awesome giveaway lined up, plus a whole stack of books to review that may interest male readers.

Please note that our Book of the Month is Betrayals by Lili St Crow, which is the second novel in the Strange Angels series. We realize that this isn’t specifically targeted at male readers, but the Book of the Month for December was organized before the theme was decided upon.

Happy reading!

For the month of December, we’ll be featuring Lili St Crow’s second novel in her Strange Angels series, Betrayals.

Keep your eyes peeled for:

- Our review of Betrayals

- An interview with Lili

- An awesome giveaway

- A guest review by Lili herself.

Have you read it? We’d love to hear from you … are you Team Graves, or Team Christophe?

Hi yaReaders,

With December just around the corner we need to get the planning stages for the Reading Party we proposed last week. This is where you, our members and readers come in.

For those that missed the last one, or weren’t with us then, here’s how it works:

Your Intention

The last party was held on the forum, and all interested participants were required to register their name to participate in an allocated thread. The same will be required of you this time around, too. However, at the moment (because we’re still a ways off), we just want you to register your intention to participate. If, two weeks out from the party date we don’t have enough members planning to join in, then we’ll call it off. It takes a lot of man power to put something like this together, and we need your support to make it worth while.

The Party Details

- This time, the party will run for 48 hours straight. Essentially, it’s a reading marathon party, but we’re going to make it worth your while by running fun party activities on the forum. These will include:

• Trivia
• Games
• Competitions
• Prizes for reading categories

The finer details of these things will be finalized and posted for your information just prior to the party date. Of course, as this is your party, your suggestions will definitely be taken on board.

The Date

Just like last time, we’ll leave the exact date up to you guys, and we’ll put it to a vote. At the moment, however, we’re proposing some time during December. Popular opinion seems to favor late December, just after Christmas and between New Year, however that will be determined by you at a later date.

So if this all sounds like something you’d be interested in, please click here and register your intention to participate on the forum.

We’ll keep you posted on all updates.

There has been a little bit of chit chat over on the yaReads forum about another reading party (of sorts) here at yaReads in late December.Did you participate in the last one? Did you want to, but missed out? Then we’d love to hear from you.

Would you be interested in participating in another marathon party filled with reading challenges, fun trivia and games that test your knowledge of YA lit and popular culture? Then leave your name at the bottom of this thread along with any suggestions that you think might improve the party this time around. Was anything not included in the last one that you wished was?

If we get a good enough response, we’ll give you guys the chance to vote on the best dates and times possible to ensure the majority of you can participate.

After doing a bit of asking around, the staff here at yaReads have decided that in the month of December, we’ll be running a themed month featuring YA titles that may specifically interest male readers. We’ll still be featuring all the regular content that we normally run, but just like we did for Queer Month a few months back, every second review published on the main page will feature a title that may interest a male reader. We had a few different theme ideas in mind, but it seems that this is the one that you guys wanted most.

So, if you have any titles that you think we should feature, or you want your book featured during December, make sure you get in contact with us and let us know.

In the meantime, keep reading.

yaReaders, it’s time to meet your new reviewer. Katie McDonald is currently settling in here at yaReads and warming up her reviewer’s seat within the Australian division of the site. Some of you may already know Katie from the forum, but for those of you who don’t post over there, we decided to do a quick introductory Q&A with Katie for your reading pleasure.

Tell us a little about yourself

I’m Kaite, and for anyone who is a part of or lurks through the forms, you can find me on there as KatieQ. I live in sunny Queensland, Australia, and even though we are so close to the beach, it’s not my favourite place to be! I love the snow, winter being my favourite season, and along with this, love rainy and stormy weather. I’m currently a university student, studying to become a Drama and English senior high-school teacher. A few years left, but it’s going well. With that, I’m a trained actor and musician, being involved in anything arts-like that I can get my hands on.

I’ve got a couple, and it’s more favourite series then books. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare and Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. All these books I can pick up and read again and again, without getting bored. The writing and characters are amazing, which is something I look for when reading a book. There are so many others out there, that it would take an age for me to list them all.

Again, a tie between a few. Rose and Dimitri from Vampire Academy, Jace and Clary from The Mortal Instruments. Also Valek and Yelena from The Study Series by Maria V. Snyder also deserve a mention. Rose and Dimitri - they are just amazing. Something has to go right for them in the future, or I will find you Richelle… (Just kidding!) Jace and Clary - Jace is just one of those guys you fall in love with. He is amazing, and completly deserves Clary.

Fantasy, urban fantasy, science-fiction and paranormal are probably my favourite. It’s the alternate universe that has completly different rules to ours that I find fascinating. Along with that, the fact that it is completly possible for magical and fantasical events to occur. It’s something that I find appealing, and who hasn’t wanted to be able to cast a spell?

Music is a massive part of my life. I’m a trained vocal singer, trained violinist and self-taught piano and guitar, so it makes up a lot of what I do. Musical soundtracks, from movies, musicals or instrumental scores are amazing. I listen to a lot of different music, alternate, pop, rock, practically anything expect hip-hop. Regina Spektor, Karen Jacobsen and Taylor Swift are some of my favourite artists, just to name a few.

Anyone from the forum would know that one of my biggest obsessions is Ben Barnes. So nearly any movie with him in it, I would probably like. Prince Caspian, Easy Viture and Dorian Gray for instance, are some of my favourite Ben movies. Apart from that, The Lord of the Rings would be at the top of my list. The best adaption from a book that I have seen yet. Other notable higlights are Harry Potter, Hairspray and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Watch our for Katie’s reviews coming your way real soon!

For the last few months, we’ve had a position for an Australian based reviewer advertised here on the main page. After searching high and low, the yaReads team is happy to announce that we’ve found our special someone. We’d like to extend a very warm welcome to Katie McDonald to our reviewing team. She’s from sunny Queensland and has been an essential part of our community on the forum right from the beginning. So congratulations Katie and we’re all very excited to be working with you.

Stay tuned for more information about Katie coming your way soon.

On that note, the yaReads team would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone that applied. Choosing the right applicant wasn’t easy and we hope that you all keep writing!

Hi yaReaders,

I just wanted to let you know that our chosen Book of the Month here at yaReads in September is Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

For those that haven’t heard of this one yet, here’s a synopsis:

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf–her wolf–is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human–or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Stay tuned for a review, guest review and an interview with the lovely Maggie. All coming your way this month!

Hi yaReaders,

I just wanted to take this moment to let you know that the position for our newly opened position of Australian Reviewer is still open. We’ve had some queries and applications but we’re leaving the position open for a few more weeks yet. If you’re interested in joining the reviewing team AND you live in Australia, then shoot us an email at yareaders(at)gmail(dot)com asking for a position description.

I’ll post all updates here.

Hi yaReaders,

I’m happy to announce that our Bookclub Read for September, as voted by you, is Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. For those who are unfamiliar with this book, here’s a quick synopsis:

It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

If you’d like to read our review of Along for the Ride, click here.

If you’d like to join our discussion of Along for the Ride, click here.

Some of you might be aware that both Ivy and I are on the move. In just a few days Ivy is packing up her whole life and heading to Canada permanently. In a few months, I’ll be doing something similar, except my destination is the USA. Some of you might not be very interested to learn this, but after what I’m about to say, I think that some of you might be.

After much discussion, Ivy and I have decided that its time to recruit another reviewer to take on the responsibilities of an ‘Australian Correspondent’. This does not mean that I’ll be hanging up my reviewer’s hat, not by a long shot. It just means that I’m not ready to let go of our Australian ties just yet and I know that I won’t be able to maintain them by myself from the States. The successful applicant will be working alongside me when it comes to producing book reviews for publication on the main page of the website.

So, if you’re a keen reader of YA fiction, you write well, you live in Australia, and you’re interested in joining the yaReads team, then we need to hear from you.

For more information about the position and how to apply please email Nikki and Ivy at yareaders(at)gmail(dot)com. Make sure to label your email ‘Australian Reviewer Position’ in the subject line of your email.

We look forward to hearing from you all!

For those of you that might be wondering why the competition winners were drawn and dated as July 30, when the competition was supposed to be open until July 31, let me explain…

I live in Australia and today it IS July 31. Normally, I wait another day and draw the contests then so the rest of the world has caught up, but I’m going out of town tomorrow and won’t be able to do that this time. Technically, I didn’t break any rules but I do apologize to anyone who was intending to add their name to the list today.

Again, congratulations to all winners!

According to a randomizer, the winner of the House of Night contest is… Dianna! Congratulations Dianna, and a very big thank you to Little, Brown for providing the awesome prize!