TBR Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, where you post a title from your shelf or e-reader and find out what others think about it.
My pick this week is Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.
I just found this book on my to-read list on Goodreads (which is more than 900 books long… I have to clean that up!!). I loved her series The Raven Cycle but I haven’t heard as much about this series.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Hello Readers! Welcome to the Release Week Blitz for
Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel
presented by Entangled Teen!
Grab your copy today!
Congratulations Meg!
A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.
Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.
What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.
Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Amazon | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | B&N | iBooks | Kobo
His soft voice clashes with the intensity of his gaze. “You’re adorable when you’re trying to be mad at me. You needn’t work so hard at it, though. We aren’t meant to be adversaries.”
“I, um…” My thoughts disband, leaving nothing for communication purposes. I’m adorable? Adorable has many definitions. I think my dog is adorable, for example. “That…wasn’t what I was going to ask you.”
He inclines his head. “Okay, then. Ask.”
But that “adorable” echoes through me, clinking around like a penny down a well. “What are we meant to be, then?”
His lips curls up at the corners. “That wasn’t your question, either.”
Meg Kassel is an author of paranormal and speculative books for young adults. A New Jersey native, Meg graduated from Parson’s School of Design and worked as a graphic designer before becoming a writer. She now lives in Maine with her husband and daughter and is busy at work on her next novel. She is the 2016 RWA Golden Heart© winner in YA.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
Title: Demi-Gods
Author: Eliza Robertson
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
Source: Goodreads Giveaway, NetGalley
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: ★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
It is 1950, and nine-year-old Willa’s sheltered childhood is about to come to an end when her two new stepbrothers arrive at her family’s summer home in British Columbia. As Willa’s older sister pairs off with the older of these boys, Willa finds herself alone in the off-kilter company of the younger, Patrick. When, one afternoon, Patrick lures Willa into a dilapidated rowboat, Willa embarks upon an increasingly damaging relationship with Patrick, one that will forever reconfigure her understanding of herself and her place in a menacing, male-dominated world.
Demi-Gods traces the tumultuous years of Willa’s coming-of-age, as she is drawn further into Patrick’s wicked games. Though they see each other only a handful of times, each of their encounters is increasingly charged with sexuality and degradation. When Willa finally realizes the danger of her relationship with Patrick, she desperately tries to reverse their dynamic, with devastating results.
Daring, singular, and provocative, Demi-Gods explores a girl’s attempt to make a life of her own choosing in a world where woman’s independence is suspect, a world that threatens to claim a woman’s body as a mere object for men’s pleasure. A sensitive, playful, and entirely original evocation of the dualities within ourselves and our history, Eliza Robertson’s debut novel announces the arrival of one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary literature.
Review:
This book wasn’t what I expected. The cover is so cute and uplifting, but I don’t think it matched the story.
It was written in a literary style. There weren’t quotation marks around the speaking parts. This always slows down my reading. It did emphasize that the story is being told by Willa, but I find that style frustrating.
I was confused at the beginning because the characters aren’t introduced very well. It took a few chapters before I figured out what everyone’s relationships were to each other.
Some parts of the story made me uncomfortable too. There were some semi-incestuous relationships which were awkward.
Willa reminded me of Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. She even had a special hole in a tree that she visited. However, Willa grew up much faster in this story than Scout.
Overall, I was disappointed in this story. It just isn’t my type of story.
This is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. In this post we highlight a book that’s highly anticipated.
The book that I’m waiting on this Wednesday is Warcross.
I keep hearing about this book! So many book bloggers have been reviewing it over the past month and it sounds so good. I can’t wait till it comes out on September 12 so I can get a copy!
What books are you waiting on this week? Have you read Warcross yet?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is Books I Struggled With.
I had to read many of these books for school, from elementary school (Holes) to high school (Heart of Darkness). I have gone back and reread some books I didn’t like in school, and now I love them. But I really struggled with most of these books, so I don’t think I will revisit them anytime soon. Here’s my list:
Heart of Darkness
The Giver
The Outsiders
Murder on The Orient Express
The Kite Runner
Wicked
Holes
Life of Pi
Longbourn
Happy People Read and Drink Coffee
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
(All images taken from Goodreads)
Title: Just Off the Path
Author: Weston Sullivan
Genre: Folklore, Fairytales
Hansel never asked to be a hero. He never wanted to fall in love with Rapunzel, Queen of the East. He didn’t ask to be raised by Gothel the Wretch, and he certainly never wanted to be credited for her arrest. But more than any of that, Hansel never wanted to lie: but he did. He lied about everything. He thought that he was done with it all when he and his sister Gretel retreated into the woods to reclaim their land, but he should have known better.
Years later, Rapunzel’s guards knock at his door, and they say the words he hoped that he would never hear: Gothel has escaped. As he and Gretel take refuge inside Rapunzel’s castle in the eastern capitol of Hildebrand, Hansel is thrust back into everything he never wanted in the first place: his lies, his legend, and his lust. In the wake of it all, he knows that Gothel has escaped to finish what she started. She is out to make sure that the Sleeping Beauty never wakes, and that Grimm suffocates under her blanket of thorn and vine. In order to find Gothel and save the kingdom, Hansel and Gretel must look for fact in a land of fairy-tale by following a trail of grisly murders, a girl in a red cape, and a powerful little man who can’t stand the sound of his own name.
As they search for answers, Hansel finds that he isn’t the only liar in Grimm, and that there may be a traitor among them of royal proportion.
After graduating with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida in 2017, Weston Sullivan moved to New York City to live and write in the heart of the industry. In late 2016, he began working as an intern in the submissions department of BookFish Books. His short story, “On the Hillside” won the Anspaugh Award for Fiction in February of 2017, and his novel, JUST OFF THE PATH, is due for release in early September.
He likes to believe that he is in charge of his own destiny, but at the end of the day, he knows that he was born to serve his two beloved cats.
Hello Readers! Welcome to the Release Day Celebration for
Cinderella, Necromancer by F.M. Boughan
presented by Month9Books!
Find out more info about this new release below,
and be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!
Happy Book Birthday, F.M. Boughan!
Darkness can only be controlled by those with the darkest of hearts.
Ellison lost her mother at an early age. Now, sixteen, her father has found love again. He’s happy and doesn’t quite notice that Ellison does not get along with his new wife or her vicious daughters.
When Ellison discovers a necromantic tome while traveling the secret passages of her father’s mansion, she wonders if it could be the key to her eventual freedom.
Until then, she must master her dark new power, even as her stepmother makes her a servant in her own home. And when her younger brother falls incurably ill, Ellison will do anything to ease his pain, including falling prey to her stepmother’s and stepsisters’ every whim and fancy.
Stumbling into a chance meeting with Prince William during a secret visit to her mother’s grave feels like a trick of fate when her stepmother refuses to allow Ellison to attend a palace festival where she might see him once more.
But what if Ellison could see the kind and handsome prince again? What if she could attend the festival? What if she could have everything she’s ever wanted and deserved by conjuring spirits to take revenge on her cruel stepmother? And what if she actually liked watching her stepmother suffer?
As Ellison’s power grows, she loses control over the evil spirits meant to do her bidding. And as they begin to exert their own power over Ellison, it becomes harder to tell whether it is she or her stepmother who is the true monster.
CINDERELLA NECROMANCER is CINDER meets ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD and was inspired by a real medieval grimoire of necromancy from 15th-century Germany
Cinderella, Necromancer by F.M. Boughan
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Publisher: Month9Books
Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks
F.M. Boughan is a bibliophile, a writer, and an unabashed parrot enthusiast. She can often be found writing in local coffee shops, namely because it’s hard to concentrate with a cat lying on the keyboard and a small, colorful parrot screaming into her ear. Her work is somewhat dark, somewhat violent, somewhat hopeful, and always contains a hint of magic.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
Title: Body Parts
Author: Jessica Kapp
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Diversion Publishing
Source: Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours
Release Date: August 15, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis:
People would kill for her body.
Raised in an elite foster center off the California coast, sixteen-year-old Tabitha’s been sculpted into a world-class athlete. Her trainers have told her she’ll need to be in top physical condition to be matched with a loving family, even though personal health has taken a backseat outside the training facility. While Tabitha swims laps and shaves seconds off her mile time, hoping to find a permanent home, the rest of the community takes pills produced by pharmaceutical giant PharmPerfect to erase their wrinkles, grow hair, and develop superhuman strength.
When Tabitha’s finally paired, instead of being taken to meet her new parents, she wakes up immobile on a hospital bed. Moments before she’s sliced open, a group of renegade teenagers rescues her, and she learns the real reason for her perfect health: PharmPerfect is using her foster program as a replacement factory for their pill-addicted clients’ failing organs. And her friends from the center, the only family she’s ever known, are next in line to be harvested.
Determined to save them, Tabitha joins forces with her rescuers, led by moody and mysterious Gavin Stiles. As they race to infiltrate the hospital and uncover the rest of PharmPerfect’s secrets, though, Tabitha finds herself with more questions than answers. Will trusting the enigmatic group of rebels lead her back to the slaughterhouse?
Excerpt:
The exit door buzzes. My breath catches when I notice it’s not a trainer—it’s Ms. Preen. And, she’s holding a red file, which can only mean one thing.
One of us is getting out.
Her heels make quick, light clicks as she crosses the floor past the weight equipment and yoga mats. She crinkles her nose as she moves through the thick cloud of sweat. By the time she reaches us, Meghan’s out of the pool. We stand, two-dozen bodies huddled together, anxious to hear the news. I scan my friends’ faces, wondering whose turn it is to go. Parker wraps his free arm around me. I imagine this is how a gymnast feels after a routine, waiting for her scores. Did I perform well enough? Could I have done more?
Will I win the ultimate prize: a family?
Ms. Preen presses through to the pool area, but stands far from our group, as if she thinks we’ll throw her in.
It’s crossed our minds before.
The light shines off her blonde bob, and her face is flawless. Freeze-dried, we like to say.
“Where is she?” Ms. Preen looks at our group as if she can’t tell us apart, which is probably true. Even though she pops in at least once a month to check on our vitals, she isn’t interested in getting to know us. She’s the one in charge of pairing us with families, but all she knows is what we’re good at. Meghan is the fast one; Paige climbs like she’s part monkey; Parker’s built like a brick house; and me, I have the lungs.
“The redhead, where is she?”
All eyes turn to me.
“We have names, you know,” Paige says, her voice curt. “Hers is Tabitha. T-A-B…”
Ms. Preen pulls a piece of paper out of the file, holding it up toward the row of skylights to read it. “Yes. She’s the one.”
Parker tightens his hold on me and I clasp my hands together to stop them from shaking. Ms. Preen doesn’t need to know I’m nervous. I’m supposed to be elated, ready to go. Maybe I’ve been fooling myself.
I wiggle out of Parker’s grip to step forward. “That’s me.”
Ms. Preen shoves the paper back into the file. “Get dressed. I’m taking you for your final screening. If you pass, you’ll be out tomorrow.” Her voice is hard and she turns to walk away.
I glance back at the group, at the faces I’ve known since childhood. They’re excited for me, but I can see the disappointment in their eyes. I know the look, because up until today I’ve watched friends leave, waiting for my turn.
Now that it is, I can’t move.
Review:
This is a fascinating story. I can imagine this happening in real life: people being raised in secret to harvest their organs to benefit those who have used artificial means to destroy their health. It’s a disturbing reality but possible nonetheless.
I was immediately sympathetic with Tabitha. She’s a strong girl, but she had been deceived her whole life so she was at a disadvantage in life. She made some mistakes by trusting the wrong people, but that can be understood since her life has been a lie.
This book was very exciting. I can’t tell you how many times my heart was pounding and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I couldn’t put it down, and I ended up reading it in one evening.
I highly recommend this book if you enjoy YA dystopia stories.
About the Author:
Jessica Kapp enjoys writing Young Adult Contemporary and Speculative Fiction. Story ideas often strike at inopportune times, and she’s been known to text herself reminders from under the covers.
She lives on a small farm in Washington with far too many goats and an occasional cow.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Giveaway:
Book Tour Organized by: Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours
Thank you to Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours for letting me participate in this blog tour.
Title: Cinderella Necromancer
Author: F.M. Boughan
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Month9Books
Source: Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis:
Darkness can only be controlled by those with the darkest of hearts.
Ellison lost her mother at an early age. Now, sixteen, her father has found love again. He’s happy and doesn’t quite notice that Ellison does not get along with his new wife or her vicious daughters.
When Ellison discovers a necromantic tome while traveling the secret passages of her father’s mansion, she wonders if it could be the key to her eventual freedom.
Until then, she must master her dark new power, even as her stepmother makes her a servant in her own home. And when her younger brother falls incurably ill, Ellison will do anything to ease his pain, including falling prey to her stepmother’s and stepsisters’ every whim and fancy.
Stumbling into a chance meeting with Prince William during a secret visit to her mother’s grave feels like a trick of fate when her stepmother refuses to allow Ellison to attend a palace festival where she might see him once more.
But what if Ellison could see the kind and handsome prince again? What if she could attend the festival? What if she could have everything she’s ever wanted and deserved by conjuring spirits to take revenge on her cruel stepmother? And what if she actually liked watching her stepmother suffer?
As Ellison’s power grows, she loses control over the evil spirits meant to do her bidding. And as they begin to exert their own power over Ellison, it becomes harder to tell whether it is she or her stepmother who is the true monster.
CINDERELLA NECROMANCER is CINDER meets ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD and was inspired by a real medieval grimoire of necromancy from 15th-century Germany.
Review:
I love fairy tale retellings. The Cinderella tale has been told so many times so it’s hard to find a unique perspective but I loved this one. It’s very original.
Ella narrates the story. She speaks in an old fashioned style, so it seems like the story really is happening centuries ago.
I liked the addition of Ella’s brother. I haven’t read a version where she has siblings. This demonstrates her protective side, and gave her a reason to stay home from the ball.
I also really liked that Ella uses spells to solve her problems, rather than having a fairy godmother do everything for her. She brings about her own destiny, making her a stronger character than she is typically portrayed. She also has to deal with the consequences of her spells on her own.
This story is so much more than the original love story. There is love, but not the kind that is expected in a Cinderella story. It is a great adaptation of Cinderella that I highly recommend.
About the Author:
F.M. Boughan is a bibliophile, a writer, and an unabashed parrot enthusiast. She can often be found writing in local coffee shops, namely because it’s hard to concentrate with a cat lying on the keyboard and a small, colorful parrot screaming into her ear. Her work is somewhat dark, somewhat violent, somewhat hopeful, and always contains a hint of magic.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Giveaway:
One (1) winner will receive an Echo Dot
Code:
Blog Tour Organized by: Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours
Thank you to Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours for letting me participate in this blog tour.
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
What I just finished:
Yesterday I finished Cinderella Necromancer for this week’s blog tour with Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours.
What I’m currently reading:
Today I am reading Demi-Gods. I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway and I was approved for it on NetGalley. I love the cover, and I’m super excited to be reading it.
I’m also reading A Darker Shade of Magic for the readalong with Flavia the Bibliophile. The link to readalong info is here.
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading Girls Made of Snow and Glass. I love retellings so I’m so excited for this book.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!
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