Have you heard the news?

There have been quite a few announcements in the last couple of weeks so I thought I would sum them all up for you.

The cover for the final book in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy has been revealed. Isn't it stunning?! Dreams of Gods and Monsters will be released April 2014. You can also read a "brief tantalizing excerpt" here. 

  

Maggie Stiefvater has shared the news that she has written a companion novel to Shiver. The standalone story, titled Sinner, will feature Cole and Isabel in Los Angeles and will be released July 2014. You can read more about it here.

The co-authors of the Caster Chronicles series have announced they are writing a new series featuring the characters Link and Ridley who readers first met in Beautiful Creatures. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl will first release an e-novella, Dangerous Dream, on December 17th 2013, and then  follow it with the first novel, Dangerous Creatures, on May 6th 2014. Read more about it here.

 

And unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that Jamie Blackley has been cast as Adam alongside Chloe Moretz's Mia in the adaptation of Gayle Forman's best-selling novel, If I Stay.

 

J.K. Rowling is writing a script for a Harry Potter spin-off focused around the fictional author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film will feature Newt Scamander in New York and will be set about 70 years before Harry Potter. Read more about it here.

 

Filming of City of Ashes, the follow up to the film adaptation of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones, has been delayed with no set date as to when it will start and the possibility of it being cancelled all together. Find out why, here. 

John Green with Ansel Elgort (Augustus), 

Nat Wolff (Issac) and Shailene Woodley (Hazel).

(Source)

And finally, if you are a fan of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (and if you're not, why not?!) then you will surely be interested in following all the news from the film set. John Green has been visiting regularly and keeping us up to date with what is going and sharing plenty of happy snaps from the set. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

So, what are your thoughts on all these bits of gossip? Are you excited for Sinner and Dangerous Dream or are you sick of spin-off/companion novels?  Should the filming go ahead for City of Ashes or did you dislike what they did with City of Bones? Are you happy with the casting of Jamie Blackley as Adam or was there someone else you thought would be perfect? Post in the comments below :) 

Happy Saturday to all xx

Maggie Stiefvater Giveaway Winners

The winners of my Signed Maggie Stiefvater Goodies Giveaway are:

1st Prize - a signed paperback copy of Shiver
Nic from Irresistible Reads

2 x Runners-up - each will get a Forever badge and a signed bookmark
Tina from Book Couture
and
Kalasyn

Congratulations!
You have all been sent an email requesting your postal address.

Thanks to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for more giveaways soon.

Maggie Stiefvater Giveaway!

As you may have read a week or so ago, I was fortunate enough to go and see the fabulous Maggie Stiefvater speak. I got my books signed and a photo with Maggie. I know a lot of people weren't able to attend the event so I got some extra stuff signed and am now giving it away!

1st Prize - a signed paperback copy of Shiver
2 x Runners-up - each will get a Forever badge and a signed bookmark

You must be a follower via Google Friend Connect to enter.
Sorry but this is only open to Australian residents.
Entries close 30th September 2011.

To enter, please leave a comment below saying which author you would love to meet if they were to come to Australia (this is not a trick question and does not have to be Maggie!).
Please also leave your name and email address.

Maggie Stiefvater Event in Perth!

On Thursday night I was very lucky to listen to the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater speak here in Perth at the A.H. Bracks Library in Melville. The library organised a great set up with food, drinks and freebies and even though Maggie got stuck in the terrible rush-hour traffic, we had the squealing excitement of teenage girls to keep us entertained while we waited.

Despite the traffic and inconvenient rain, Maggie arrived bouncy and excited to be there. She was funny and animated as she talked about wolves, plant people, Eric Bana, evil faeries, Cole St. Clair and bathtubs. She talked about growing up writing books about dogs driving race cars and a story from the perspective of a flag. We heard stories about her tour through Eastern Europe with a Hungarian wolf man and traditional Bulgarian bagpipes as well as how authors should never make April Fools' jokes about their books!

If you missed the talk, never fear! Marissa over at Novels on the Run recorded the whole thing and will be posting it in parts over the next week.

Thankyou to Maggie for being such a happy and entertaining speaker and to Get Reading who brought her over to Perth. Stay tuned for signed Maggie stuff coming up in a give-away later this week!

Winners, Blog News, Publishing Announcements and Author Events

I would like to share with everyone my new feature here at The Tales Compendium. I was thinking how awesome it would be to be able to look up what state in Australia you are in and be able to see what author events are happening in your area. So, low and behold, I have created one myself!

What's On Where

I am very excited because I have also just found out that Maggie Stiefvater will be making a fleeting visit to Perth on her Australian tour, not just over east! Did anyone else in Perth know about this?! You can find the details at What's On Where.

Also to share with you are the winners of my Winter 'Spring Cleaning' Giveaway.

1st - Tara from Agrippina Legit
2nd - Karen Hounsham
3rd - Evk
4th - Cheyenne from The Hollow Cupboards

Congratulations to all the winners and thankyou for getting back to me so promptly! Your books are on the way.

And finally, Pan Macmillan has recently announced the launch of Momentum, their new digital-only imprint which will go live in February 2012.

Momentum will publish an exciting and vibrant list of new works from established and emerging authors, as well as partnering with agents and individual copyright holders to digitally republish titles that are currently unavailable in print. Publishing ebooks and utilising print‐on‐demand (POD) technology, Momentum aims to make new and old books more accessible than ever before.

- Momentum Press Release

Bits and Pieces (2)

Amy Plum's debut book Die For Me has officially been released in Australia. Here is a little clip of Amy trying Vegemite for the first time and thanking Aussie bloggers (including yours truly :D)

The winner of the signed copy of Bite Club is...
*Arielle*
Congratulations Arielle, I have contacted you by email and thankyou to everyone who entered.
So I'm a little bit late with posting this but here is the magical book trailer for Forever, the third and final book in Maggie Steifvater's The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. The trailer features a track written by UK band Jonas & Plunkett, "Summer Girl" - with lyrics from Shiver.
Also, Cassandra Clare, author of the best-selling Mortal Instruments series is due to arrive in Australia this week for ten days. If you live in Sydney or Melbourne there are a number of different events where you can meet her. Click here for details.



And finally, head over to my Coming Soon page were new books by David Levithan, Andrea Cremer and Jay Asher have been added.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Linger
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls (Shiver) Book 2
Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Release Date: July 2010

My Rating: 4/5

Now that Grace and Sam have found each other, they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing a future that is less and less certain.

Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of anger and hurt. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being human.

For Grace, Sam and Cole, life is a constant struggle between two forces, wolf and human, with love baring its two sides as well. It is harrowing and euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?

I was extremely lucky to get an advanced copy of Linger and I was so excited as Shiver was one of my favourite books of 2009. Just as good as Shiver, I feel it paves the way for what is sure to be an amazing book 3 which I believe will be called Forever.

Just like in Shiver, we get to hear the story from the perspectives of Sam and Grace and I can't think of any fictional characters or couple that I like more than sensitive Sam with a love of reading and indie music, and strong, independent Grace. What I like about Linger is that we also get to read the story from the point of view of two other characters as well, new wolf Cole and troubled Isabel, which I feel gives the story more depth.

While I don't want to spoil what happens in Linger, I will say that I was not surprised by the path the book took, nor was I surprised by the ending. That said, it did not take away my love for the book or my excitement as I went from chapter to chapter. I have quite simply fallen for the characters in this world Maggie Stiefvater has created. And my favourite line from the book?

'I never knew there were so many different ways to say goodbye'

Fans of Shiver will not be disappointed! My only criticism is that it was too short and I now have a very long wait for book 3!