Teaser Tuesday: The Agency series by Y.S. Lee

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play, and the rules are simple:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Geez, it feels like it's been FOREVER since I've done a Teaser Tuesday. Anyway, since my current read is on my Kindle and getting TTs from Kindle books is INCONVENIENT and I am LAZY and it is already LATE IN THE DAY, I'll just grab a teaser from each of the last two books I read--they're both from the Agency series by Y.S. Lee.

This series is awesome, you guys! Basically, it's about this girl in Victorian-era England who works for an Agency (shocker) made up of women who are spies.

Woman. Spies.

It's kind of like a Victorian-era Gallagher Girls deal. And very cool. I highly recommend them if you like mystery-spy books and/or historical fiction, and also a hot guy.

1.
     Ignoring his extended hand, she vaulted into the carriage unassisted. James sprang in after her. There was no need to thump the roof tonight; he was still closing the door as the carriage sprang into motion. He fell into his seat with an amused grunt. At least the girl wasn't dull. 

     -A Spy in the House (book 1), Page 124

2.
     It was a long way from telling the truth, but it might satisfy him for the moment, even if doing so made her feel wretched. Spying was all very well. She loved disguise and acting and all the covert skills in which she'd been trained. Yet she hated this sort of duplicity, lying to someone whom she-- 

     -The Body at the Tower (book 2), Page 153

What are you reading this week? Leave me your Teaser links!!

(:D)
~Mag

Review: The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

From the second I read the Assassin's Curse synopsis, I thought it sounded awesome. I was sad to find I didn't looove it as much as I'd hoped, but I did think it was worth a read!!

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clark
Releases October 2, 2012
Source of my copy: NetGalley

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. And when Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn’t really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together.

To break the curse, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks—all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic, and the growing romantic tension between them.

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Awesome things about Assassin's Curse:

Girl pirate? Check.

Kick-butt assassin? Check.

Mysterious curse that forces the assassin to protect the pirate girl he's supposed to be killing? Check. Check. Check.

All in all, it should have added up to an awesome, five-star story, but there were just some things that fell flat for me. I expected Ananna to be...I don't know...more...awesome? I couldn't find any way to connect to her character. I didn't feel as interested in her story or her mind as I could have been. There was also the problem of strange grammar and inner dialogue. Ananna being a pirate, she has some serious grammatical issues that, even though I understood were intentional, bugged me as I read.

Then there's Naji, the assassin. He wasn't as awesome as expected, either. He was supposed to be this amazingly deadly and skilled assassin, but, as I saw another reviewer mention (I'm sorry, I can't remember who), he seemed weak, and it seemed more like Ananna was protecting him than the other way around. He didn't do anything spectacular, or anything that made me particuarly enjoy his character. He was not what I was expecting, and another disappointment.

Then there was the romance--or the lack of it. I know every book doesn't need romance, or a lot of romance, but I was expecting more. I don't know if it was the synopsis or something else, but something made me expect Naji and Ananna's relationship to blossom more than it does. Besides a few hints and some events at the very end of the book, they barely even seem to scrape the stage of friendship.

That's not to say this book isn't worth reading, however. I was interested enough in the plot to continue reading, and I am curious to see what happens next to Ananna and Naji. That said, I really don't consider this book one of my favorites.

Assassin's Curse gets <*><*><*>

(:D)
~Mag

I'm alive! With Internet!!

Hey guys!! I know my presence around the net has been minimal lately, because, as I said before, I just moved and had NO INTERNET. This was very saddening for me, because it meant I couldn't post much or talk to you guys nearly as much as I like to. I was able to get to some wifi hotspots in town a couple times, but not enough to post regularly.

My intention for today was to go to one of those places and announce a mini-hiatus until I got internet back up, and only post sporadically until then. But the good news is, we found a fix for our internet problems, and I'm now back online!! Which means I should be able to pick back up on my posting! (I'm a bit behind on reviews, too, so if I can get past a slight case of writer's block and get those out, there should be a lot coming soon!)

And since I don't anticipate any more issues (fingers crossed) hopefully that means there'll be less of these boring posts telling you what's wrong with my internet and explaining why I'm NOT EVER AROUND and more fun bookish news, reviews, and discussions.

Thanks for sticking around you guys!! Looking forward to hanging with you again :)

(:D)
~Mag

Just a head's up...

...that my family is in the midst of moving. Because of this (and a few other things going on in my life), my blogging time is minimal, especially when I'm tired at the end of the day and the temptation of tumblr and twitter and other people's blogs take over my attention. So I'm not on here as much as I'd like.

Anyway, I'm still around, as you know, just not as much. I'm working on fixing this, though, and once we get settled in the new house (and get internet set up, of course!) I should be on more :)

And until then, I'll probably be more active on tumblr and twitter, so feel free to talk to me there, or shoot me a message on Goodreads! I'd love to hear from you!

Oh, and don't forget to vote Zachary in the YA Crush Tourney tomorrow! He sooo deserves it! Go #TeamKilt!!!


(:D)
~Mag

Archer in the Crush Tourney--recap and Hex Hall winner

So, you all know about the YA Sisterhood's Crush Tournament, and if you've been hanging around this blog lately you know I was lucky enough to be the advocate of Archer Cross from Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. Unfortunately, Archer didn't win his match, but I'm so proud of all of Team Archer!!

Archer was the underdog from the beginning--he went up against Dimitri from the Vampire Academy series, and we all know how fantastic he is, and how big his fanbase is. But Team Archer didn't back down--we got plenty of votes!

Archer reaching 1000 votes--but we weren't done then!

I'm not sure exactly how  many votes Archer had in the end (if anyone knows or has a close guess, let me know!) but I know it was an impressive amount!! But the thing I found most impressive was how steady Team Archer held. Dimitri picked up the lead fast, but he didn't keep smashing us down. For the majority of the day Archer held steady at 28% of the votes, never dropping below that. And then, right in the last few hours, we bumped him up to 30%. And I think that's awesome.

So, I'd like to say thank you to each and every one of you who voted and spread the word about Archer. You all were awesome, tweeting and getting your family and friends to vote. I'd love to mention each and every one of you personally, but there's just so many of you!

That said, @tnmedicgirl, @heyitswinnie,_@jill_kaplan, @YA_Books4Girls, you guys were especially awesome with the tweeting!! You guys rock!! Thanks also to @jsmithready, @keeley_logan and @NonReluctant for the shoutouts :D

And of course, a thank-you has to go out to Rachel Hawkins, because without her, there wouldn't be an Archer, and to the YA Sisterhood, because without them there wouldn't be a Tourney! Also, congratulations to Dimitri, Stacey, his advocate, and Richelle Mead, his author :)

And now, as promised, it's time to pick the winner for a Kindle copy of Hex Hall! Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I'd love to give each of you a copy, but unfortunately, I cannot :)

And the winner is...

Jen K!

I've sent the winner an email, so please respond within 48 hours, or I'll have to pick another winner.

Thanks again, everyone, for helping Archer and making Week of Archer and our part of the Tournament so much fun!!

(:D)

~Mag

Week of Archer: BONUS ROUND

Here's a Week of Archer bonus! An awesome Archer fanart from Anonymous Reader!

Week of Archer is technically over, but if you want to continue submitting, I'll add them to the post here! Send your submissions to mag.geekchic@yahoo.com. Don't forget that doing so will earn you bonus entries to win Hex Hall.

Also, don't forget to VOTE ARCHER!!!

(:D)

~Mag

Vote For Archer-YA Crush Tourney

So, I'm SURE by now you guys know ALL ABOUT the fact that ARCHER CROSS is in the YA SISTERHOOD'S CRUSH TOURNEY and I am his ADVOCATE and I am SUPER EXCITED about this!

Anyway, Archer's match is now LIVE on the YA Sisterhood's blog, so I'm able to go ahead and post everything I said over there, here. So you can read it here or there, but you can only VOTE there!!

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Hey there! I'm Mag from Geek Chic, and I'm super duper excited to get to tell you all about the AMAZING Archer Cross! He lives inside an awesome series called Hex Hall, by Rachel Hawkins. What makes him so awesome, you ask?

Let's take a look!!

Personality:

Archer Cross is that guy you hate and love at the same time. He's arrogant, sarcastic, obnoxious...and irresistible. He always has a smart remark or witty comeback ready, which can be both hilarious and infuriating. He's the kind of guy that leaves you sputtering in his wake, struggling to come up with something clever to say back.

"You know," someone said off to my left, "I usually find a blocking spell to be a lot more effective than yelling 'Bad dog,' but maybe that's just me."

But Archer has a sweet side, as well, especially when it comes to Sophie, who seems to be one of the only things he cares about.

     "I've spent basically my whole life pretending to be someone I'm not, faking some feelings, hiding others." Reaching down, he clasped my hand and lifted it so that our joined hands were trapped between our chests. "This thing with us is the only real thing I've had in a long time. You're the only real thing. And I'm done pretending I don't want you."

--- 

     And when he'd pulled me closer and murmured, "Mercer, I love--" I had covered his mouth with my hand.
     "Don't say that. Not now. Say it sometime when there is absolutely no chance of death on the horizon, okay?"
     He mumbled something beneath my palm, and I rolled my eyes as I pulled it away from his mouth. He dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose. "All I was going to say was that I love this tent you made for me. But I guess I can tell you again later. When you get back."

Looks:

Archer is tall and lean, with curly dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He's the guy every girl's got a crush on, and it's easy to see why.

(picture created by Mimi)

Still not sure?

     "What, you don't do tall, dark, and handsome?" -Sophie Mercer

Talents:

Archer's a warlock, which means he has some pretty cool magical powers.

     Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of blue light on my left. Suddenly, the werewolf seemed to smack into an invisible wall just inches in front of me. Giving a pitiful bark, he slumped to the ground.

He can also kick butt in hand-to-hand combat, and he's got some skills with a sword! How awesome is that??

     Then viselike fingers clenched my throat, the stake was wrenched from my hand, and a sharp stabbing pain shot up my right thigh as I landed on the ground with a thump that knocked the breath out of me.
    And if that wasn't bad enough, once I landed, something hard and heavy--his knee, I thought--hit me right in the sternum. You know, just in case there was one last breath left in my lungs. The point of the stake scraped the sensitive skin just under my chin. I looked up, wheezing, into Archer's face.

--- 

     There was a burst of movement out of the corner of my eye, and suddenly, he wasn't beside me anymore, but in the thick of them, sword flashing. He caught one of the ghouls under the chin with the point of his blade, but there was no blood. The thing stopped moving, but it didn't fall. Instead, it swept a hand at Archer like he was an annoying mosquito. But Archer ducked and swung again, piercing the side of the second ghoul.

But I think the skill you're probably most interested in would be...kissing. And trust me, Archer has got some skills there!

     For a few charged seconds we froze, glaring at each other, breathing hard. I saw his eyes darken just a little, like Jenna's had the day she'd seen my blood. But this was a different kind of hunger; one I felt too.
     I didn't let myself think. I just leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.
     He took a split second to respond, but then he made a sound almost like a growl from low in his throat, and his arms were suddenly around me, holding me so tightly I could hardly breathe. Not like I cared. All I cared about was Archer, his mouth on mine, and his body pressed against me.

Special Attributes/Best Qualities:

As I said, he's a warlock, he's sarcastic, and he's super hot...But what are Archer's best qualities, really? Well, if you've read Hex Hall, you know that Archer was hiding a PRETTY BIG and PRETTY BAD secret. But I think something that shows what a truly good guy Archer is is how much he cares about Sophie, and how much he risks and sacrifices for her. His feelings for Sophie, and the ways he shows them-- I'd say that's one of Archer's best qualities.
Anything else?

Summing up Archer in minimal words: Snarky. Hot. Sweet-when you dig deep enough. Smart. Hilarious. Awesome.
CRUSH-WORTHY.


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So you guys should go vote for Archer! You know...if you want! (But I'll love ya forever if you do! And you can get entries to win Hex Hall.)