Month: November 2017

Title: All The Crooked Saints
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Purchased
Release Date: October 10, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Here is a thing everyone wants: a miracle.
Here is a thing everyone fears: what it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

Review:

This book was amazing! It definitely lived up to my expectations.

I love Maggie’s style of writing. It’s so unique and mysterious. It has a fairytale quality to it, which makes you want to believe all the magical things that happen to the characters. The third person omniscient narrator also adds to this fairytale feeling, since the narrator knows everything about all of the characters.

The magical elements of the story make the plot unpredictable. It was exciting to see what would happen next.

What is so funny about Maggie’s books is that it’s hard to describe what they are about. This synopsis gives just a glimpse of what happens. There are so many strange things that happen, that it’s hard to describe much without giving away too much. But I highly recommend this book for fans of paranormal fiction!

I met Maggie earlier this week and she’s so awesome! I’ll write a post about that event later in the week.

Title: Wolves and Roses
Author: Christina Bauer
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Monster House Books
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Release Date: October 31, 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

“If Janet Evanovich teamed with a young adult, fairy-tale author like Marissa Meyer (the Lunar Chronicles) or Alex Flinn (Beastly), the result might be something like Christina Bauer’s Wolves and Roses.” –Blue Ink Review

Seventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem. She’s descended from one of the three magical races–shifters, fairies, or witches. That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template. In Bryar’s case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty.

“Should” being the key word.

Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close. She doesn’t like birds or woodland creatures. She can’t sing. And she certainly can’t stand Prince Philpot, the so-called “His Highness of Hedge Funds” that her aunties want her to marry. Even worse, Bryar’s having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt. What’s up with that?

All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her. And she might be able to do just that–if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell that’s ruined her life goes buh-bye.

But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy who’s literally from her dreams. Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O. If Bryar can’t figure out who–or what–she really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives… as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself.

Review:

I enjoyed this story. It has so many of the fairytale elements that I love, mixed in with the modern world.

There were many twists that kept me guessing. Not everything (or everyone) was what it seemed. I was constantly being surprised by this story.

I wish the setting played a bigger role in the story. It was set in New York, so it could have been more present in the story. Sometimes they went out to the Adirondacks, which was a nice detail. But I would have liked to see the setting described more.

At times, the narration was cheesy and sarcastic. Both Bryar and Knox were alternating narrators, so it was told through their voices. Even so, the writing could have been improved without some of the sarcasm.

This is a good book for fans of fairytale adaptations!

About the Author:

Stalk Christina on Social Media – She Loves It!
Blog: http://monsterhousebooks.com/blog/category/christina
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorBauer/
Twitter: @CB_Bauer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christina_cb_bauer/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-bauer-481b12139/
Web site: http://monsterhousebooks.com/authors/cbauer

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Schedule:

October 30th
–Mythical Books >> Review
–Kindle and Me >> Review
–What’s Beyond Forks? >> Review
–My Crea Bookish Kingdom >> Review

October 31st
–Angel’s Guilty Pleasures >> Guest post
–Novels & Necklaces >> Review
–Spinatale Reviews >> Excerpt

November 1st
–Arkham Reviews >> Review
–The Genre Minx Book Reviews >> Review
–Star-Crossed Book Blog >> Review
–Book Sniffers Anonymous >> Excerpt

November 2nd
–Bibliobibuli YA >> Interview
–CBY Book Club >> Excerpt
–Pervy Ladies Books >> Review
–Lovely Paranormal Books >> Review

November 3rd
–Whatever You Can Still Betray >> Guest post
–Book Addict >> Review
–Smada’s Book Smack >> Review
–Utopia State of Mind >> Review

—

November 6th
–Girls With Books >> Excerpt
–The Critic Uncritical Bookworm >> Review

November 7th
–Thoughts in Progress >> Guest post
–Happymomblogger >> Review
–Firstbooklove >> Excerpt

November 8th
–Butterfly-o-Meter Books >> Interview
–Jill Jemmett >> Review
–Desert Rose Reviews >> Review

November 9th
–A Bibliotaph’s Reviews >> Excerpt
–The Rest Is Still Unwritten >> Review
–Lisa Loves Literature >> Interview

November 10th
–The Avid Reader >> Review
–CLOUD 9 BOOKS >> Review
–The Rest Is Still Unwritten >> Excerpt
–BrizzleLass Books >> Guest post

Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for letting me participate in this blog tour.

Title: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2)
Author: Rick Riordan
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Source: Purchased
Release Date: April 1, 2006
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan’s amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a “half blood” whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan’s series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment.
In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book’s drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.

Review:

I liked this book, though not as much as the first one. Percy was on his own in much of this adventure. I missed the way he interacted with his friends.

However, I love Homer’s Odyssey, so I loved the similarities between that and this book. Percy goes on his own Odyssey to find the Golden Fleece. The Odyssey is a huge part of Greek mythology, so I was glad to see it represented so faithfully in this book.

We also learn more about their camp and the people who run it. Percy’s story is further developed in this story.

I enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series!

My review for The Lightning Thief can be found here.