5 Things You Didn't Know About The Ivy by Rina Onur & Lauren Kunze (Giveaway!)

The Ivy is the book about the crazy life of 4 freshmen students at Harvard University. It's highly addicting, and I would totally recommend it to anyone. A teacher? Read the Ivy. The bus man? Read The Ivy. The college freshman? READ THE IVY.

Anyways, in this post I have 5 never before seen bits about The Ivy (provided by Rina Onur and Lauren Kunze) that will leave you with your mouth hanging open, and your hand scratching your head. 

Hehe I think you've waited long enough, here are the Five Things You Didn’t Know About the First Draft of THE IVY:

1.      The Ivy was originally titled The Ivy Diaries.
   
   
2.       In the first several drafts, The Ivy opened with a lengthy prologue in which Evan Davies (Callie’s evil ex boyfriend from high school) breaks up with Callie at a party on the last day of summer. The party scene featured several characters (including Callie’s high school bff Jessica and Evan’s soccer sidekicks Ted and Jerry) that appear in the yearbook pages which eventually replaced the prologue.
   
   
3.       In the original first chapter, Callie’s Mom accompanies her to Cambridge on move-in day. The first paragraph (after Alexis’ chapter opener, which remained the same throughout) was:

"Callie stared out the window of their rented Zipcar, watching the Boston cityscape fly by. Her mother chatted amiably, failing to notice her daughter’s inattention. “Look, Callie! That’s the Charles River, separating Boston from Cambridge. It connects some of the most famous colleges in the country: Brandeis, Boston University, MIT and” – her mother paused momentarily, swelling with pride – “Harvard University. We’re almost there!”

     4.      The first draft of The Ivy had twenty-one, rather than seventeen, chapters. Deleted chapter titles include:

Chapter 2: Keep in Mind: The Walls are Thin

Chapter 3: The Activities Fair

Chapter 4: Empowering You: Practice Sex Safely

Chapter 5: Nights Out and the Morning After

Chapter 10: Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter 15: Tricks and Treats

     5.     The Ivy was first conceived as a story about four very different female roommates with no particular main character in mind. Callie only emerged as the clear protagonist during the writing process!

When I watch a movie I like going back after the movie has ended and watching the Special Features, and these bits seem like the Special Features of a book. I wish more authors did this! It's interesting to know how different the story could have been; how many different directions it could have taken.

For me, I am grateful that the winning title was The Ivy and not The Ivy Diaries, otherwise in my mind I would have connected The Ivy Diaries with The Vampire Diaries and The Poison Diaries. Now instead of that tragic relation occurring I can think of The Ivy and only think about that title in specific. I also like that Callie is the clear protagonist! But kind of wish they would have left all 21 chapters... More pages for me ;)

For more about The Ivy, visit www.ivybookseries.com, or http://harperteen.com/book/pre-order.aspx?isbn13=9780061960451 to purchase a copy today!

Also (if you have made it this far) I think you should have the opportunity to read The Ivy (it's that good) so here at Bloody Bookaholic I'm hosting a giveaway for a copy of The Ivy which was provided by the authors Rina Onur and Lauren Kunze (thanks girls!).

In order to get invited to the party all you have to do is:

1. Be a Bloody Follower
2. Love Books (duh)
3. Leave a comment with your name and email address, if you don't feel comfortable doing this then just email me your info at bloodybookaholic (at) hotmail (dot) com.
4. Leave a comment regarding anything about The Ivy, maybe why you want to read it, ot something about this post.

Good Luck!! The giveaway will be open till December 10. US only.

If you wish to have a few more points in your favor, then all you have to do is:

1. Enter my giveaway for a copy of The Agency by Y. S. Lee (+1)
2. Or let other people know bout either of those contests (+1 for each way)

Have fun ;)

New 2011 Sequels Covers!! Illusions; Nightspell; Secrets; Delcroix Academy: The Watchers; Eternal; Lover Unleashed

I have so many new covers! You can't miss this. Some of the ones I found: Wings #3, Mistwood #2, Immortal #3, and LOVER UNLEASHED US COVER!!!!!! I love J. R. Ward so, I needed the caps. 

Anyways, awesome covers, and if you click on the title of the book it will take you to its Goodreads page and thus you get more info.

 

Illusions (Wings #3) by Aprilynne Pike

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published May 8th 2011 by HarperCollins Canada / Other

Nightspell (Mistwood #2) by Leah Cypess

Published May 31st 2011 by HarperCollins Canada / Other

 

Eternity (Fallen Angel #2) by Heather Terrell

Paperback, 256 pages

Published July 1st 2011 by HarperTeen

Always a Witch (Witch #2) by Carolyn MacCullough

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published August 1st 2011

 

Secrets (The Ivy #2) by Lauren Kunze & Rina Onur 

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published June 1st 2011 by Greenwillow Books

Sweetly (Sisters Red #2) by Jackson Pearce

Published June 7th 2011 by Little, Brown

 

The Watchers (Delcroix Academy #2) by Inara Scott

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published August 2nd 2011 by Hyperion

Eternal (Immortal, #3) by Gillian Shields

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published August 1st 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books

 

Lover Unleashed (Black Dagger Brotherhood #9) by J.R. Ward

Hardcover, 528 pages

Published March 29th 2011 by NAL Hardcover

I can't wait for a couple of these books. Love the new cover for The Watchers!!! It's kind of a combination between the covers of Vampire Academy and City of Bones, don't you think? Also, love the Lover Unleashed cover! It's so freaking cool! And since the book is about Payne, it's very appropriate that  the main focus is on the woman. Also like the Secrets cover, the book after The Ivy (which was one of my favorite books of 2010). 

The Mermaid Craze!

Are Vampires a thing of the past? 

I thought Angels were going to be the new "thing", but are they?

Do you think Mermaids are taking over?

 Paperback, 288 pages

Published March 3rd 2011 by Crown Publishing Group

The story of two very different women, one mortal, one mermaid, and the clash between worlds best kept apart... 


It is a cold day at the end of the world when a young woman, a princess in hiding, looks out across a Northern sea and sees something she could not have seen. It looks...it can't be. It looks like a mermaid's tail. And, as she looks more closely, she sees that the mermaid is dragging a drowning sailor in her arms. Because, only hours before, another princess, the daughter of the sea queen, has decided to risk everything and take a look at the world above the sea: the world of mortals. And there she finds a storm, a shipwreck, a sailor, and sets in train events which will change both women's worlds for ever. 

Published June 7th 2011 by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her sister as a siren, the highest calling a mermaid can have. But when her sister runs away to the mainland, reportedly to elope with a human, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. 

Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily through the streets of New Sweeling. There, she will come upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood - Alandare, a boy, now a man, who belongs to a winged race of people. Together, Esmerine and Alandare put aside their differences to find her sister, and in the process discover a love that cannot be bound by land, sea, or air. 

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published July 4th 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's

What happens to the girls nobody sees—the ones who are ignored, mistreated, hidden away? The girls nobody hears when they cry for help?

Fourteen-year-old Luce is one of those lost girls. After her father vanishes in a storm at sea, she is stuck in a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village with her alcoholic uncle. When her uncle crosses an unspeakable line, Luce reaches the depths of despair. Abandoned on the cliffs near her home, she expects to die when she tumbles to the icy, churning waves below. Instead, she undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. 

A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. The mermaids are beautiful, free, and ageless, and Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: they feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. 

Luce’s own talent at singing captures the attention of the tribe’s queen, the fierce and elegant Catarina, and Luce soon finds herself pressured to join in committing mass murder. Luce’s struggle to retain her inner humanity puts her at odds with her friends; even worse, Catarina seems to regard Luce as a potential rival. But the appearance of a devious new mermaid brings a real threat to Catarina’s leadership and endangers the very existence of the tribe. Can Luce find the courage to challenge the newcomer, even at the risk of becoming rejected and alone once again? 

Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive. 

Published June 28th 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books

On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mer girl, true, but signing the renunciation paperwork will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being human thing once and for all. 


Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer-bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassinia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassinia and stuck in terraped form, when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody? 


The seafoam on the surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up. Tellin asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her dreams?


I love, love, love , looooveee the Mermaid cover, and the Lost Voices cover, and the Between the Sea and Sky cover... The Fins are Forever cover is nice and cute. I like the font of Mermaid, Lost Voices and Between the Sea and Sky, and I love how simple yet beautiful the covers are. It suits the mermaid theme. And I like the colors of Fins are Forever, to me it looks sorta punk-ish.


I can't wait for these kick ass mermaid novels to come out; I never thought I would say that. I mean, mermaid? Normally not my thing, but these authors make them sound like I should have been reading stories about them all along. Vampires? Werewolves? Angels? Demons? Oh no, It's Mermaid time ;)