Follow My Blog Friday #176

If you are new to the FF fun, Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop that expands your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers. Feature & Follow Friday is now hosted by TWO hosts, myself of course and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

Now to make this FF interesting we do a FEATURE blogger. If you are interested in becoming a Feature click on the drop down link above FEATURES and Features and Follow Friday and get on the waiting list!  It is also required, that if you participate you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and the two Feature blogs.

This Meme is hosted by Rachel from Parajunkee's View and Alison from Alison Can Read on Fridays.

To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

1.  (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee and Alison Can Read}

2.  (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers

3.  Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.

4.  Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.

5.  If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed

6.  Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”

7.  If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love and the followers.

8.  If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Our Feature is Magic Of Words

When did you start blogging?

Hi everyone! I’m Amie from Magic Of Words I started book blogging back in April 2012 but it was set private until April 2013. I was shy and didn’t have much time to participate in the book blogging community so I kept the blog personal.

What is your favorite part of book blogging?

My favorite part of book blogging would probably being a part of this wonderful community. I love getting to meet/connect with my favorite authors, to make new friends who share the same interests as me and to talk to publishers.

What type of books do you mainly blog about?

I read and review mostly YA books and occasionally some Middle Grade/New Adult books.

What is your favorite book(s)?

Ooh this is a hard one since there are so many. I think I’d have to go with my current favs which are These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner, Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller and Just One Day by Gayle Forman.

What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

First of all, it gave me the courage to interact with my favorite authors (when they tweet me, I swear I thought my heart just stopped). Second I’m super thrilled every time I see someone actually read my post and comment on it. Third when people ask me for book recommendation, I don’t know but I feel really happy about that.

  

Question of the Week: Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! What books did Santa stuff your stocking with this holiday season? Do a holiday book haul for us! If you don’t celebrate just show off your books that you got this week. Pictures!!!

I didn't receive any books for Christmas but here is my stash that I got last week:

The Midwife's Tale: A Mystery Paperback

In the tradition of Arianna Franklin and C. J. Sansom comes Samuel Thomas’s remarkable debut, The Midwife’s Tale.

It is 1644, and Parliament’s armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels’ hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget’s friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer.

Bridget joins forces with Martha Hawkins, a servant who’s far more skilled with a knife than any respectable woman ought to be. To save Esther from the stake, they must dodge rebel artillery, confront a murderous figure from Martha’s past, and capture a brutal killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. The investigation takes Bridget and Martha from the homes of the city’s most powerful families to the alleyways of its poorest neighborhoods. As they delve into the life of Esther’s murdered husband, they discover that his ostentatious Puritanism hid a deeply sinister secret life, and that far too often tyranny and treason go hand in hand.

Manga:

Strobe Edge, Vol. 7 Paperback

A heartwarming story about first love that’s one of the most hotly anticipated new shojo series among U.S. fans.

What is love, anyway? Ninako Kinoshita’s friends tell her it’s one thing, but Ninako wonders what this mysterious feeling really is. When she meets Ren Ichinose, the handsome, enigmatic guy that all the girls worship, her life takes an unexpected turn. With just a few words and a smile, he changes her world.

Ninako is thrilled that she’s in the same class as Ren for the new school year, but is their closeness due to the fact that he only sees her as a friend? Meanwhile, Ninako’s friend Sayuri faces an old flame’s ardor.  Will her past love stay in the past?

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for teen audiences.

Sweet Rein, Vol. 1 Paperback

A magical romance from the creator of Land of the Blindfolded

Sad at the thought of spending Christmas alone, Kurumi Sagara goes out for a walk. While she’s crossing the street, a boy bumps into her, and a rein suddenly appears that binds them together. The overjoyed boy tells her she’s his master and that she’s a Santa Claus. Kurumi dismisses him as a crazy person, but then he transforms into a reindeer?!

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for teen audiences.

Midnight Secretary, Vol. 2 Paperback

Mad Men meets Vampire Diaries

Kaya Satozuka prides herself on being an excellent secretary and a consummate professional, so she doesn’t even bat an eye when she’s reassigned to the office of her company’s difficult director, Kyohei Touma. He’s as prickly — and hot — as rumors paint him, but Kaya is unfazed until she discovers that he’s a vampire!!

Kaya thinks she’s come to terms with being a vampire’s secretary, until she overhears Kyohei call her “just food.” She’s shocked at how betrayed she feels, and the emotional blow causes her to make a mistake. To keep her work from suffering any more, Kyohei’s older brother arranges a long-term transfer for Kaya. Will working at another company let time heal her wounds? Or will her feelings for Kyohei continue to burn in her heart no matter where she is?

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for mature audiences.

07-GHOST, Vol. 7 Paperback

One evil god, two rival empires, three unlikely bishops and seven brave ghosts make for one fantastic adventure!

The paths of one evil god, two rival empires, three unlikely bishops and seven brave ghosts converge in the destiny of Teito Klein, a boy who vows to master a powerful artifact known as the Eye of Mikael in order to lay bare the secrets of the world’s — and his own — murky past.

Teito and company evade Ayanami’s agents by jumping on a slave ship headed to Teito’s homeland, the ruined Raggs Kingdom. While overcome by bitter memories of his past as a combat slave, Teito will have to face his fiercest foe yet — his pet dragon’s mother, come to reclaim her son!

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for teen audiences.

Yaoi:

Blue Morning, Vol. 3 Paperback

Downton Abbey meets Emma in this tale of tumultuous love between a butler and his young charge.

Clinging to his fierce, unwavering love for Katsuragi, Akihito moves ever closer to an engagement to the daughter of Duke Sajo. Firmly focused on his future, Akihito asks his friend Ishizaki’s father to be his go-between in the marriage talks, but Ishizaki insists that in exchange he wants Tomoyuki Katsuragi! Around the same time, former houseboy Amamiya discovers mysterious documents relating to Katsuragi’s lineage.

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for mature audiences.

Spiritual Police, Vol. 1 Paperback

The latest series from the creator of Embracing Love.

On the recommendation of one of his senior detectives, Nagatsuma, a member of a special criminal investigative unit, starts receiving therapeutic bodywork from blind masseur Aoi, a man with both skilled hands and gorgeous looks. Nagatsuma quickly becomes addicted to the relief that Aoi brings him and begins looking forward to the time they spend together. But Aoi's got a secret he can't ever let Nagatsuma find out.  A tale of passion and obsession from the creator of Embracing Love!

Reads R to L (Japanese Style) for mature audiences.