Book Review-The Tension of Opposites

09 Jun, 2010 by in ARC tour, the Tension of Opposites 1 comment

published May 25th 2010 by EgmontUSA
details Hardcover, 288 pages
isbn 1606840851
4 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads…”It’s been two years since Noelle disappeared. Two years since her bike was discovered, sprawled on a sidewalk. Two years of silence, of worry, of fear.

For those two long years, her best friend Tessa has waited, living her own life in a state of suspended animation. Because how can she allow herself to enjoy a normal high school life if Noelle can’t? How dare she have other friends, go to dances, date boys, without knowing what happened to the girl she thought she would share everything with?

And then one day, someone calls Noelle’s house. She’s alive.

A haunting psychological thriller taken straight from the headlines, The Tension of Opposites is a striking debut that explores the emotional aftermath of a kidnapping on the victim, and on the people she left behind.”

Tessa is an ordinary teenage in a small town who’s life is devastated when her best friend Noelle is kidnapped one day off of the streets. Her reaction is accurate and gripping as she struggles with PTSD, codependency and her life lines become blurred with the one friend she loves the most. How can she ever trust again?

As Noelle is found and introduced back into Tessa’s life, she is different…a ghost of the person she once was. She begins to deal with media scrutiny, experimentation with drugs to numb the pain, a dead end relationship all the while attending therapy. The social worker in me loved how accurate the trials Elle endures are. The feelings she shares and things she experiences are haunting. It’s a book with adult situations that happen to a teenager in captivity so be prepared for sexually graphic and mature content. Adults may be wise to process this with their teen or read it along with them. Also, teachers and therapists my want to note the story of Salt Lake teen Elizabeth Smart as an example in contrast of how kidnap victims may handle the dynamics of coming back into society and healing. All in all, this reminds me a lot of Halse Anderson’s books Speak and Wintergirls as it handles a real life situation. I do love how McBride adds hope and actual visible change into all of her characters. We actually see them shift as the story progresses. Four out of five stars to a deep and interesting read!

Email us if you are interested in reading and reviewing The Tension of Opposites as part of our ARC tour.

Yellow Vespa Photo Print

09 Jun, 2010 by in etsy, vespa, yellow 7 comments



Today’s giveaway goes along with the passion for photography in the book “The Tension of Opposites.” Browsing photographers on ETSY I came across this fun colorful shop named Snapco…”i like taking pictures. i enjoy the simple beauty of ordinary objects, and capturing an interesting perspective of things that are “lost in plain sight.”

Yellow Vespa photo size: 5 1/4 x 5 1/8″ with polaroidy film border, 4 5/8 x 4 3/8″ without.

details: this original photograph is printed on professional, archival photographic paper with a matte finish. it will be sent in a cellophane sleeve and rigid mailer, for safe travels.

To Enter To Win: a photo print
leave your name and email address below
+1 for visiting and hearting one of her etsy shops
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SnapCo
+1 for tweeting @FireIcePhotos
+5 for blogging or facebooking this contest
+2 for becoming a fan on Fire and Ice on Facebook
+10 for each dollar donated to our Chile relief fund (see right sidebar)

Good Luck!! Contest ends July 9, 2010 and is open internationally

Happy Release Day Raised By Wolves

08 Jun, 2010 by in raised by wolves Leave a comment

Happy Release day to Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Raised By Wolves! To celebrate we have two wolfy giveaways already under way on the right sidebar and an ARC tour which started last week.

Read a teaser from the book here: http://fireandicereads.com/2010/05/teaser-tuesday-raised-by-wolves.html and our review here: http://fireandicereads.com/2010/05/book-review-raised-by-wolves.html

Eamil us if you are interested in joining the ARC tour. And check out all of our wolfy items in the Etsy shops!!

Contest Winners

08 Jun, 2010 by in contest winners Leave a comment

Congrats to @DarkMotives who won the handstamped necklace http://fireandicereads.com/2010/05/stamped-necklace-giveaway-my-belle.html

Jessica Jones Brown who won a hardback copy of Cassandra Clare’s City of Glass

and @redabelle who won the Alice in Wonderland Teacup necklace http://fireandicereads.com/2010/05/todays-giveaway-goes-right-along-with.html

The following are unclaimed, so let me know… I will re-draw a winner in 48 hours 🙂

Sara at YA Vampire Books-handmade scarf by Chilean Boutique de Josefina http://fireandicereads.com/2010/04/la-boutique-de-josefina.html

Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass book: Anthy

Please email me your street address so we can send out your prize. And all contest winners, drop us a line when your prize gets there. With shipments coming and going from locations all over the world we want to make sure they arrive. Check out all of our international giveaways on the right sidebar! If blogger is stalled and won’t let you comment, email your entry to fireandice.heather@gmail.com.

We were able to ship two boxes of relief to Chile earthquake victims this week…YAY!!! Our goal is to ship out all of the ones we have waiting to go and we have had a request from cities Chiguayante and Talcahuano where people are STILL living in tents since the destruction left them homeless in March. It is winter over there so let’s get them some help. Donate via Paypal heatoddgardner@yahoo.com or purchase from our ETSY stores, HeatherZahnGardner and LittleRedReads where 50% of the proceeds go to Chile. Lots of new items are being added for SEA, 13 to Life and Raised by Wolves which releases today…Every dollar counts and thanks so much!

Mom’s Monday-Shannon Hale Series

07 Jun, 2010 by in river secrets, Shannon Hale 36 comments


Today’s Mom’s Monday book choice is a series by Utah author Shannon Hale. I first picked up The Goose Girl about a year ago at our local library and haven’t put down her writing ever since. The Books Of Bayern take us through the journey of peasant to princess and into the forest where the commoners of the kingdom live. They are full of fairy tale themes and laughs a plenty. Shannon Hale has a gift for spinning stories and has become one of my very favorite authors.

” Shannon’s mother says she was a storyteller from birth, jabbering endlessly in nonsensical baby-talk. Once she could speak, she made up stories and bribed younger siblings to perform them in mini-plays until, thankfully, an elementary school teacher introduced her to the wonder of written fiction. At age 10, she began to write books, mostly fantasy stories where she was the heroine.

She continued to write secretly for years while pursuing acting in television, stage, and improv comedy. After detours studying in Mexico, the UK, and a year and a half as a volunteer missionary in Paraguay, Shannon earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Utah. She was finally forced out of the writers’ closet when she received her Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Montana.

The goose girl, her critically acclaimed first book, is an ALA Teens’ Top Ten and Josette Frank Award winner. enna burning, river secrets, and forest born continue the Books of Bayern series. princess academy is a Newbery Honor winner and a New York Times best seller. book of a thousand days received a Cybils award and is featured on several best of the year lists. austenland, a romantic comedy, was her first book for adults, followed by the actor and the housewife. She and her husband Dean co-wrote the graphic novels Rapunzel’s revenge, which was selected by Today’s Al Roker for Al’s Book Club for Kids, and cal
Calamity jack. ” Shannon makes her home near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, with her super-human husband, their young son and daughter, and their pet, a small plastic pig. -Taken from Shannon’s Website

To start off your reading we are giving away book number three in the Books of Bayern…
River Secrets


Razo–short, funny and not a great soldier–is sure it’s out of pity that his captain asks him to join an elite mission–escorting the ambassador into Tira, Bayern’s great enemy.

But when the Bayern arrive in the strange southern country, it’s Razo who discovers the first dead body. He’s the only Bayern able to befriend both the high and low born, people who can provide information about the ever-increasing murders. And he’s the one who must embrace his own talents in order to get the Bayern soldiers home again, alive.

Newbery–Honor winner Shannon Hale returns the reader to the intrigue and magic of Bayern, introduced in her critically acclaimed novels, The Goose Girl and Enna Burning. In River Secrets, readers revisit a world where even those with no special magical skills find in themselves something they never imagined.

To Enter to Win
River Secrets: leave your name and email address below

Contest ends July 7, 2010 and is open internationally

Book Review-Siren by Tricia Rayburn

05 Jun, 2010 by in ARC tour, siren, tricia rayburn 6 comments


published July 13th 2010 by EgmontUSA
details Hardcover, 352 pages
isbn 606840746

Synopsis from Goodreads…”Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of everything—the dark, heights, the ocean—but her fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to coach her through every challenge. That is, until Justine goes cliff-diving one night near the family’s vacation house in Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day.

Though her parents hope that they’ll be able to find closure back in Boston, Vanessa can’t help feeling that her sister’s death wasn’t an accident. After discovering that Justine was keeping a lot of secrets, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor, hoping that Justine’s boyfriend might know more. But Caleb has been missing since Justine’s death.

Soon, it’s not just Vanessa who’s afraid. All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes host to a string of fatal, water-related accidents in which all the victims are found, horrifically, grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa turns to Caleb’s brother, Simon, for help, and begins to find herself drawn to him. As the pair try to understand the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance—and will change her life forever.

A seductive paranormal romance full of unexpected twists, Siren is certain to make a big summer splash.”

What a great way to start off my summer reading! Tricia Rayburn sets up the perfect setting in a quaint little fishing and tourist town in Maine with guava smoothies, sun and surf. From the very first chapter you’ll be pulled in to the romance and intrigue as well as the mystery of what is really going on in Winter Falls. Vanessa and her sister Justine spend their summers vacationing there with childhood friends and locals, Simon and Caleb. Who are definitely an attraction if you ask me…but this summer things are different. Justine and Caleb seem closer than ever, risks are being taken. When Justine dies cliff jumping her sister Vanessa is determined to find out the real story.
Justine will be forced to face so many of her deep seated fears as she spends time alone without her family to track down the source of the mayhem in her peaceful resort. She finds out who she is, and who her sister really was…which is as no one suspects. The characters in Siren are mesmerizing and magical. There are so many layers to each one they feel real. Myth meets reality and you will be entranced by this modern day fairy tale thriller with a pinch of romance. There are so many twists and turns in the plot you will never be bored! 4.5 stars to Siren, well done!

Email us to join the ARC tour which kicks off today at
fireandice.heather@gmail.com

Spicy Siren Perfume Giveaway

05 Jun, 2010 by in etsy, spicy siren 27 comments


To sop off our SIREN giveaway week we have the smell that will entice thanks to Etsy Seller LemonLollipop! Spicy Siren Perfume!…Welcome to my Lemon Lollipop Shop!

Here you will find several of my handmade brands such as:
weeLUXURIES
Four Seasons Fragrance
Seattle Scents

I make scented goodies for home, body & bath!

Please join my mailing list at my website at Lemon Lollipop!

FREE perfume vial & gourmet lemon lollipop with every purchase!

Visit my other shops:
SparklePuss.etsy.com
SeattleScents.etsy.com
(lots of NEW fragrances for 2010!)
weeLUXURIES.etsy.com (now 20 scents available in No-Ick Heel Sticks™!)
FourSeasonsFragrance.etsy.com
BalmMom.etsy.com (launched Dec 2009)

FREE gourmet lemon lollipop with every purchase!

I blog here: http://www.lemonlollipopllc.blogspot.com/
Join my mailing list at Lemon-Lollipop.com!

To Enter to Win a roll-on Spicy Siren:
leave your name and email address below
+1 for visiting and hearting one of her etsy shops
+1 for joining her mailing list
+1 for visiting her blog
+1 for tweeting @FireIcePhotos
+5 for blogging or facebooking this contest
+2 for becoming a fan on Fire and Ice on Facebook
+10 for each dollar donated to our Chile relief fund (see right sidebar)
Good Luck!! Contest ends July 5, 2010 and is open internationally

Mermaid Postcards by Sandra Vargas

04 Jun, 2010 by in mermaids, siren 24 comments

Today’s SIREN giveaway is a six pack of dreamy mermaid postcards donated by SandraGrafik

♥ ♥ ♥ W E L C O M E ♥ T O ♥ M Y ♥ S H O P ♥ ♥ ♥
Sandra Vargas is the person behind the nickname Sandygrafik, a Peruvian born graphic designer and illustrator currently living in Denver, CO. She’s passionate about digital illustration using different textures and patterns that makes her art so unique, though she also loves experimenting with traditional media as inks and watercolors. Sandra enjoys recreating female beauties from classic fairytales and giving birth to new fantasy creatures, crossing an imaginary gate to a whimsical dimension.

To Enter to Win: leave your name and email address below

Additional entries: +1 visit and heart her etsy shop:
sandragrafik.etsy.com

+2 become a fan of her and us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sandygrafik
+1 visit and comment on her blog:
sandygrafik.blogspot.com
+1 visit her other shops featuring original illustrations printed on T-shirts, calendars and hundreds of cute accessories:
www.redbubble.com/people/sandygrafik
www.zazzle.com/sandygrafik
+1 for each retweet @FireIcePhotos on twitter

+5 for posting this giveaway or our button on your blog

♥ Thanks for watching! ♥

Contest ends July 4, 2010 and is open internationally

Contest Winners

04 Jun, 2010 by in matryoska doll, zan gah 2 comments

Congrats to Kelsey at Door To Wonderland who won the Zan-Gah author signed books http://fireandicereads.com/2010/05/moms-monday-zan-gah.html

and Rica Eat World at the Smarty Owl who won the Matrysohka doll from Etsy seller cronopia6 http://fireandicereads.com/2010/05/cronopia6-matryoshka-doll-giveaway.html

Send us your snail mail address and we will mail you out your prizes. We had a winner post about receiving her handmade scarf from Chilean Etsy seller Memegalarce as part of the earthquake relief efforts. Thanks to andiazarte for featuring her winnings and the giveaway donor on her blog. Too COOL! Every little effort like this supports Chile. http://anadiazarte.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-am-lucky-winner-of-beautiful-cowl.html

Waiting on Wednesday- Sweetly By Jackson Pearce

02 Jun, 2010 by in sisters red, sweetly 1 comment

Our Waiting on Wednesday is Sweetly by Jackson Pearce. I read her first in the Series “Sisters Red” back in January as part of the Mundie Moms ARC tour and loved it! Then last night while chatting with the author, I hear she is re-working the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel! I am SO excited! One of my favorite fairy tales re-told by an amazing author. As described on Jackson’s website… “SWEETLY is a modernization of Hansel and Gretel and a companion book to SISTERS RED and FATHOMLESS”

Can’t wait for the release in 2011. In the mean time, and while we are still waiting for the release of Sisters Red #1 to stores, enjoy her teaser trailer.