Two Year Blogoversary Celebration and Giveaway

 The Sarcastic Palmtree is turning 2!  We are entering our toddler years now and after reading our first post all over again, (it was terrible) we are even more grateful for our followers.  You have all stuck with us through 2 years of fun and we hope to have many more to come.  

Since our first review was for Despicable Me 2, we thought it would be great to review the new installment, Minions, that we just saw today.   

Sit back, relax, and make sure you enter the giveaway at the bottom of our post as fun prizes await!

Evolving from single-celled yellow organisms at the dawn of time, Minions live to serve, but find themselves working for a continual series of unsuccessful masters, from T. Rex to Napoleon. Without a master to grovel for, the Minions fall into a deep depression. But one minion, Kevin, has a plan; accompanied by his pals Stuart and Bob, Kevin sets forth to find a new evil boss for his brethren to follow. Their search leads them to Scarlet Overkill, the world's first-ever super-villainess.

Characters
 Obviously...Minions!  Specifically, however, Bob, Kevin, and Stuart.  These guys each have a separate personality that really shines throughout the movie, and it helps them achieve their ultimate goal of finding a new boss. Kevin, with his drive and ambition, lead the laid back Stuart and enthusiastic, captivating Bob on their adventure. Along the way, they run into a family of villains--that are entertaining, to say the least--who drive them to Villain-Con 1968.  Here is where we meet Scarlet Overkill. Voiced to perfection by Sandra Bullock, Scarlet is looking for new henchmen to help her achieve her evil agenda. All the characters we meet throughout the film have unique individuality that you can't help but enjoy.

The Best Gems

• Losing The Bosses
• Depressed Minions
• The Dating Game
• Leg Stretching
• King Bob
• Torture
• Snow Globe
• Freeze Ray

The Sum Up
In the movie we get a closer look at the history of the minions, where they came from and ultimately where they end up. With one mishap after another, Kevin, Stuart and Bob work their way into your heart and your funny bone in this delightful film for all ages. Illumination has a way of paying attention to detail that make all the difference in an animated film. Minions doesn't fall short in quality or style. If you are a fan of Minion antics, this movie is for you.

We are giving away to our wonderful readers a $10 iTunes gift card and a $10 Amazon gift card.

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Waiting On Wednesday ~ The Mistletoe Inn by Richard Paul Evans

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by 

Jill at Breaking the Spine 

that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating!

The second holiday love story in New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans's Mistletoe Collection.

At thirty-two Kimberly Rossetti, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements, a divorce and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Savannah, Georgia. Deep inside Kimberly knows she's at a junction in her life and it's time to either fulfill her dream or let it go. The other reason she decides to attend the conference is because famed romance writer, H.T. Cowell, once the best selling romance writer in America, and the author whose books instilled in her the desire to be a writer, will be speaking in public for the first time in more than a decade.

In one of her breakout sessions Kimberly meets another aspiring writer, and one of the few men at the conference, Zeke, an intelligent man with a wry wit who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. As Zeke helps her to discover why her books fail to live up to their potential she begins to wonder if he's really talking more about her life than her literature. But as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he's unwilling to talk about.

The theme of The Mistletoe Inn is that like literature, relationships must be lived with passion and vulnerability to succeed.

Release Date for The Mistletoe Inn is 

November 17, 2015

What books are you waiting on this week?  

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Last 10 Books That Came Into My Possession

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: 
Last 10 Books That Came Into My Possession










That's our list for this week!  What books are shiny and new on your shelf?

Corner of Ocean and Bay by Gina Azzi ~ Blitz

Corner of Ocean and Bay 
by Gina Azzi 
Publication date: June 15th 2015 
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Nessa Moore has sought reliable stability since her father’s death. Now, she’s over it. Tired of always being the mature adult, constantly worrying about her alcoholic mother, stressing about being able to afford college, she wants to have one normal, carefree, fun summer. And be more like her best friend Jacie.

Jacie Hayes is struggling to overcome the recent breakup with her first love. The one that ripped out her heart and left her devastated. Frustrated and bored with her own self pity, Jacie wants nothing more than to forget about Dylan, to go back to her old ways, her old self. To be the fun loving, live-in-the-moment girl who gossips about boys and sips mojitos.

Best friends since childhood, Nessa and Jacie have been through all their ups and downs together. No matter what. Now, the summer before their senior year of high school, they accept an invitation from Jacie’s aunt to join her in Lockwood Quay, New Jersey, a summer beach getaway.

Determined to make this their best, most memorable, summer yet, both girls push their own boundaries, accept new challenges, and find themselves keeping secrets from each other.
But sometimes, stepping out of your comfort zone has consequences.

And some secrets can’t be forgiven.

Or forgotten.

Goodreads     Amazon

Excerpt from Corner of Ocean and Bay

The unique scent of the ocean, a fusion of sea salt and secrets, blows into the open windows of Jacie’s Jeep Wrangler minutes after we pass the sign welcoming us to Lockwood Quay, New Jersey, population 2,700. The wind whips my hair around my face, tying it in knots, and I breathe in deep, holding the air in my lungs, committing its deliciousness to memory.

I ride shotgun, sitting next to Jacie, as she reaches over and turns up the volume to Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long.”  We sing the chorus in unison, Jacie’s fingers tapping the beat on the steering wheel, as we near Aunt Beatrice’s beach house.  Jacie throws her arms up, dancing to the music, shaking her head as her long, straight blonde hair snakes down her back. I immediately reach over and grab the steering wheel. We swerve slightly and the man in an oncoming car blares his horn, giving us the stink eye as he passes. Jacie giggles and waves to him. I join in her laughter as I try to squeeze the panic from my chest, reminding myself that this is my shot at a normal, carefree summer, my chance to have some Jacie kind of fun.

When we round the next corner Aunt Beatrice’s house unfolds before me. The house is sprawling, ranch style, transporting me back to my childhood when my father would rent a beach house for the summer. He always loved the Jersey shore.

Aunt Beatrice’s house is a pale gray, almost blue, with large bay windows and a wraparound porch. In one corner, a swing sways slightly in the breeze and white wicker chairs beckon. The path up to the house and the wide driveway are dotted with pale pink brick pavers; the front lawn isn’t a lawn at all but a stretch of various sized stones, broken seashells, and sandy pebbles; the flowers are in full bloom. Beautiful flowers are everywhere: hanging from the window boxes, falling to the porch in various shades of pink, purple, yellow, blue.

“Let the summer shenanigans commence,” Jacie says, shoving the gear stick into park and opening the Jeep door. She stretches her arms overhead and her T-shirt rides up, revealing a glimpse of the ink she had tattooed on her lower abdomen the night before she turned seventeen, precisely nine days ago. Her cousins even gifted her a fake ID.

“I seriously can’t believe we are going to live here!” I push my sunglasses up on top of my head, sweeping my side bangs off my forehead.


“I know, right. It’s going to be such an awesome summer!” 

About the Author

Gina Azzi spent all of her childhood summers at the beach in New Jersey - it was magical! Gina is a passionate reader, frequent globetrotter, and coffee enthusiast. She currently resides in Dubai with her husband, Tony. 

Gina loves meeting new people and would love to hear from you! 

Get in touch Gina

Email     Twitter     Website     Facebook

We have 2 Giveaways with this blitz!  Make sure to enter both of them below!

 

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Waiting On Wednesday ~ A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by 

Jill at Breaking the Spine 

that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating!

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

Release date for A Thousand Nights is

October 6, 2015

What books are you waiting on this week?

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Hyped Books I've Never Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: 
Top Ten Hyped Books I've Never Read

Hyped books give me fear.  I so frequently don't LOVE them like everyone else so I find myself just pushing them off even though I really would like to give most of them a chance.  I do have a copy of most of these, but for some reason or another they just haven't been read yet.





















That's it for us this week.  What books are on your list? 

Pixelated by L.S. Murphy ~ Blitz

Pixelated
by L.S. Murphy 
Release Date: 06/30/15
Bloomsbury Spark

Senior Year. 

Middle of nowhere. 

What's the new girl to do?

For Piper Marks, the answer is simple. She’s determined to have her photography rock the cover of National Geographic someday, and moving to Clarkton, Iowa for her last year of high school is not going to stop her. Even if her usual subjects have changed from bright lights and skyscrapers to fields, cows…and more fields. 

But when photographer at the local paper quits in a huff, she steps into his spot. Her new job keeps Piper busy capturing tackles, and zooming in on first downs and end zone dances, not to mention putting her directly in the path of varsity football star Les Williams IV. Her new friends warn her off, but she can’t resist the pull she feels toward this mysterious country boy. But this small town is keeping a secret, and it’s one that could destroy any chance they have to be together. 

It’s up to Piper to decide what to do with the distorted truth. Can she risk exposing her heart? It might be worth it, 'cause Les is about to change her world from black and white to fully saturated color. 

AMAZON│BARNES & NOBLE│KOBO

Praise for Pixelated:
"In Pixelated, L.S. Murphy weaves a complex web of secrets and lies with a ‘will they or won’t they’ romance that kept me turning pages and holding my breath!" ~ Julie Reece, author of The Artisans and Crux

"Beautifully written, with a full spectrum of emotion and complex characters, Pixelated will tug at all your heartstrings. I easily lost myself in the world L.S. Murphy created and couldn't stop reading because I needed to see how the story ended." ~ Kelly Oram, author of Cinder & Ella

"L.S. Murphy brings something for every reader with Pixelated: romance, secrets, mystery, and a main character torn between two choices. Murphy's writing is sharp and steeped in emotions, deftly hooking her readers from the first sentence to the last." ~ Sarah Bromley, author of A Murder Of Magpies 

About the Author

L.S. Murphy obsesses about St. Louis Cardinals baseball, fangirls over her favorite authors, and watches every episode of Doctor Who like it's the first time. When she's not doing those time-consuming things, the former farm-girl turned city slicker turned suburbanite writes sweet romances for teens and adults.

Author Links:

   

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