Winner!!

Finally got around to counting up all the entries and the winner of The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor is:

NORA

CONGRATS Nora, please send me an email with your mailing address by April 11, 2009. Or else I will have to pick another winner.



I want to thank C, from HarperCollins for making this contest possible by providing the book and Jillian Cantor for doing the lovely blog about her sister. It was fun reading about everyone's experiences with their siblings.

And I want to thank all the people who entered!! I will be holding another contest next month or so, so all the extra entries from this contest will be counted towards the future contest. So don't worry all your hard work with the extra entries for this contest will not be forgotten. =)

The Sepetmeber Sisters Contest Extended

Hey guys!

The winner for The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor contest will be posted sometime this weekend. So anyone who wants to enter still can.

I have been really busy seen I've participating in my school's drama production (I'm a techie), so I haven't had the chance to count up all the entries! Sorry about that! I promise it will be done this weekend, so keep your eyes out for the winner.


Thanks for your patience.

=)

PS. I'll be trying to post more!

ETA: CONTEST EXTENDED again! Sorry guys, I want to make sure I give everyone the right amount of entries. So sorry, hey it my first time hosting a contest. ;)

CONTEST: Win The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor

As you guys most probably know, I read and loved The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor.

And so now it's YOUR chance to win it, read it and love it. ;)

(image from Jillian's blog)

Here's how:
Leave comment below with your name and e-mail address

Extra entries:

+1 for adding me to your blogroll
+2 for commenting on guest blog about your own personal experience with siblings, cousins, friends (can be short;)
+2 for linking to the contest, and letting me know (send me the link, please)
+3 for/already following Jillian Cantor's blog
+3 for/already following my blog


Contest ends on Friday, March 13.

Good Luck!

In the mean time you can click on the image to Browse Inside the book!

My Sister (Real & Fictional) by Jillian Cantor

My novel, The September Sisters, is about what happens to 13-year-old Abby after her younger sister disappears. There’s a lot in the book about the two sisters, and people have been asking me how much of it is based on my own experience, growing up with a younger sister.

No, my sister didn’t disappear! But some of the details of the sister relationship in the book are similar to my own experience. My sister and I used to fight a lot when we were kids. She’s three years younger than me, but ever since I can remember she’s also been a lot taller and stronger than me, so usually I was the one losing in physical fights. (I was always better at winning the verbal ones, though. Go figure!) There’s a scene in the first chapter of The September Sisters when Becky (the younger sister) pushes Abby out of an inner tube that they both wanted and then holds her head under water. This was a common occurrence for me and my sister. (And I was always the one getting pushed out of the inner tube or whatever it was we were fighting over on that particular day!)

Another similarity: In The September Sisters, Abby and Becky are 2 years and 1 day apart – both born in September. Well, in real life, my sister and I are 3 years and 1 day apart (although we were both born in June). My birthday is first, so when we were younger, my sister would spend the entire day of my birthday talking about how many hours it was until her birthday (the next day) – just like Becky does in the book. It was so annoying. I used to hate this!!

In The September Sisters, Abby’s mother is always telling the girls that when they grow up they’ll appreciate having a sister, and when I was growing up, my grandmother always used to say this to me and my sister. (We totally didn’t believe her!)

But, she turned out to be right. Unlike Abby and Becky, my sister and I grew up completely uneventfully in the suburbs with two normal parents. Then, when I was a senior in college and she was a freshman, we were away from home, at college, together. And for some reason, I’m not even sure why, we started hanging out. We would study together and go out to lunch, and within a year we went from mortal enemies to best friends.

Now we live 3000 miles away from each other, but we still talk on the phone all the time, and we always try to spend our birthdays together. It’s funny how the thing I hated most about having a sister when I was growing up, is the thing I love most now. It’s so fun to have someone, a friend, to celebrate my birthday with every year. (Although, my sister still jokingly holds her birthday countdown on my birthday every year!)

If you want to read more about Abby and Becky, The September Sisters will be out on February 24, 2009 and is available for pre-order on Amazon now!

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As someone who has a younger sister, I can so relate to this blog. Thanks for Jillian for doing an amazing guest blog! =)

The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor

Abigail Reed and Becky are exactly two years and a day apart, and are often referred as the September Sisters by their mother. However, despite their close proximity of age they constantly squabble with one another and compete for their parents’ attention. But after the sudden disappearance of Becky, Abby’s whole life changes. Her mom grows more and more distant and her dad become overbearing and obsessed with the investigation. Abby in officially, no longer an ignorant child anymore, as she desperately trying to keep her family together.


Abby, has no one to confide until, Tommy moves in next door and she finds her self expressing her all emotions, pain, guilt and resentment towards Becky and her disappearance to him. And along the way Abigail falls in love with him even when everything is in her world is less than perfect.


Jillian Cantor’s debut novel, was unforgettable with the perfect mixture of realism, great character development, and plot. She did a clever job at crafting the opening scene, because I was hooked from the very first page. The moment I started reading it, I seriously could not put it down until I learned more about the disappearance of Becky.


On top of the great overall plot (which initially drew me in), the main character, Abby was extremely well developed, and strong heroine, even given her tragic situation. One of the things that I thought was especially, memorable was how contrasting emotions Abby endured throughout the book. In one point of the book she was frustrated and even jealous of how much her sister got attention even after she disappeared.


Her relationship with Tommy was a perfect depiction of first love and it’s exploring nature. It was interesting to see how their relationship developed because when they first initially met they were hesitant to become friends but as they were forced to talk during lunch when it was Tommy's first day.


I absolutely loved it. Definitely recommended, worth adding to your wish list on Amazon.

WANT TO READ THE BOOK BEFORE RELEASE DATE (February 24, 2009)?

Enter the contest here, to win a ARC of The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor.



(Review can also be found at TRT.)