Friday 27 May 2016

ARC REVIEW: THE HIDDEN TWIN by Adi Rule

THE HIDDEN TWIN

Summary:
For eighteen years a girl with no name, a Redwing, has been hidden away in a small attic room within a city of hissing pipes and curving temples perched on the side of the great volcano, Mol, while her sister, Jey-identical except for her eyes-has lived her life in public as an only child. Their father had hoped the hidden girl would one day grow up to be a normal human girl and not the wicked creature mythology has promised, so he secretly spared her life as an infant.

But when she switches places with her sister, striking up a flirtation with the son of the Empress while working in the royal gardens and gets attacks by two suspicious priests on her journey home, she is forced to call forth fire to protect herself, unleashing her previously dormant powers and letting her secret out. She soon catches the attention of a cult with a thousand year old grudge as well as a group of underground rebels, both seeking her for their own gain. But when her sister goes missing and the Redwing uncovers a great plot to awaken Mol and bring fiery destruction upon them all, she is forced to embrace her powers.

In Adi Rule's new novel, The Hidden Twin, the girl with no name, must choose a name and a path for herself, drawing a line between myth and history to prove herself more than a monster if she is to save both her sister and her home.

Title: THE HIDDEN TWIN
Author: Adi Rule
Source: eARC via the Publisher
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: March 22, 2016
Rating: 2.5 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This one started off really confusing but ended up being pretty good. I think the mythology was good here but left some to be desired. I think we learned too little at the beginning that didn't really make sense and then once we actually saw it play out I understood it. The issue I had is that it felt like the author tried to make it sound much more poetic than it had to be and it ended up being more confusing than interesting. I spent a good chunk of the book being confused tbh.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Waiting on Wednesday: IVORY AND BONE by Julie Eshbaugh

This week I'm waiting on a book that I first heard about during the FAC16 chat back in July 2015! It's been almost a YEAR and I am still waiting on this book! Time sure flies when you're having fun! I really enjoyed this one and loved the way it was written. I really connected with the story! 

So now I'm waiting for you guys to be able to read...
IVORY AND BONE by Julie Eshbaugh
Title: IVORY AND BONE
Author: Julie Eshbaugh

Monday 23 May 2016

ARC REVIEW: THE SERPENT KING by Jeff Zentner

THE SERPENT KING

Summary:
Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy.

Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.

Title: THE SERPENT KING
Author: Jeff Zentner
Source: ARC via Stefani & also I bought it from TBD
Publisher: Crown BFYR
Publication Date: March 8, 2016
Rating: 5 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I have been sitting on writing up this bit of a review for three days because I don't think I can adequately put into words how amazing THE SERPENT KING is. I am an avid reader of contemporary novels, but if you only read one more contemporary novel in your entire life, make sure it is THE SERPENT KING. I just. The writing, the characters, the feeling of moving on, it is all so beautifully done and written that I just cannot handle how amazing this is.

Wednesday 18 May 2016

8 Most Anticipated June 2016 Releases!

WE WERE NEVER HERE
Author: Jennifer Gilmore
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 14, 2016

Summary:
In this exquisitely written, emotionally charged young adult debut, Jennifer Gilmore explores the bond that is formed between a hospitalized girl and the secretly troubled boy she falls in love with.

Did you know your entire life can change in an instant?

For sixteen-year-old Lizzie Stoller that moment is when she collapses, out of the blue. The next thing she knows she’s in a hospital with an illness she’s never heard of.

But that isn’t the only life-changing moment for Lizzie. The other is when Connor and his dog, Verlaine, walk into her hospital room. Lizzie has never connected with anyone the way she does with the handsome, teenage volunteer. However, the more time she spends with him, and the deeper in love she falls, the more she realizes that Connor has secrets and a deep pain of his own . . . and that while being with him has the power to make Lizzie forget about her illness, being with her might tear Connor apart.
 

Preorder:
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WHAT HAPPENS NOW
Author: Jennifer Castle
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 7, 2016

Summary:
"I know what it is to want something so badly, you feel like your cells aren’t properly bonded together without it.
I also know what it’s like to get that something.
And honestly, I’m still not sure which is worse..."

Ari Logan is battling to win her war against depression and the dark night she hurt herself on purpose. It’s not easy: her best friend is drifting away, her mom’s emotionally checked out, and she spends her days playing caregiver to her handful of a half-sister, Danielle. But it’s summer, and anything is possible...

That’s when Camden Armstrong steps onto the beach of Ari’s local swimming lake.

At first, Ari quietly longs for Camden from afar, seeing in him everything she wants to be. When the two discover a true connection the following summer, Ari lets herself fall not just for the quirky and self-assured Camden but also his friends, tumbling into their world of independence, adventure, and shared sci-fi fandom. As Ari’s romantic dreams come true, she must unlock the mysteries of the very real and troubled boy behind her infatuation, while also struggling with her own demons, obligations, and loyalties.

Preorder:
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AUTOFOCUS
Author: Lauren Gibaldi
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 14, 2016

Summary:
Family.

It’s always been a loaded word for Maude. And when she is given a senior photography assignment—to create a portfolio that shows the meaning of family—she doesn’t quite know where to begin. But she knows one thing: without the story of her birth mother, who died when Maude was born, her project will be incomplete.

So Maude decides to visit her best friend, Treena, at college in Tallahassee, Florida, where Maude’s birth mother once lived. But when Maude arrives, she quickly discovers that Treena has changed. With a new boyfriend and a packed social calendar, Treena doesn’t seem to have time for Maude—or helping Maude in her search.

Enter Bennett, a cute guy who lives in Treena’s dorm. He understands Maude’s need to find her mother. And as Bennett helps Maude in her search, she starts to find that her mother’s past doesn’t have to define her own future.

Lauren Gibaldi has crafted a beautiful and timely coming-of-age story that poses the question: Is who we are determined at birth, or can we change as we grow?

Preorder:
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CHANGE PLACES WITH ME
Author: Lois Metzger
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: June 14, 2016

Summary
From Lois Metzger, acclaimed author of A Trick of the Light, comes a work of speculative fiction set in the near future about a teen girl who finds a new, mysterious perspective on her life.

Rose has changed. She still lives in the same neighborhood with her stepmother and goes to the same high school with the same group of kids, but when she woke up today, something was just a little different than it was before. The dogs who live upstairs are no longer a terror. Her hair and her clothes all feel brand-new. She wants to throw a party—this from a girl who hardly ever spoke to her classmates before. There is no more sadness in her life; she is bursting with happiness.

But something still feels wrong to Rose. Because, until very recently, Rose was an entirely different person—a person who is still there inside her, just beneath the thinnest layer of skin.

A bold and original work of speculative fiction set in a familiar future, Lois Metzger’s latest novel is a profoundly authentic and heartbreaking tale of the things we keep locked away inside us, even from ourselves.

Preorder:
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HOW TO DISAPPEAR
Author: Ann Redisch Stampler

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: June 14, 2016

Summary:
This electric cross-country thriller follows the game of cat and mouse between a girl on the run from a murder she witnessed—or committed?—and the boy who’s sent to kill her.

Nicolette Holland is the girl everyone likes. Up for adventure. Loyal to a fault. And she’s pretty sure she can get away with anything...until a young woman is brutally murdered in the woods near Nicolette’s house. Which is why she has to disappear.

Jack Manx has always been the stand-up guy with the killer last name. But straight A’s and athletic trophies can’t make people forget that his father was a hit man and his brother is doing time for armed assault. Just when Jack is about to graduate from his Las Vegas high school and head east for college, his brother pulls him into the family business with inescapable instructions: find this ruthless Nicolette Holland and get rid of her. Or else Jack and everyone he loves will pay the price.

As Nicolette and Jack race to outsmart each other, tensions—and attractions—run high. Told in alternating voices, this tightly plotted mystery and tense love story challenges our assumptions about right and wrong, guilt and innocence, truth and lies.

Preorder:
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THE BOMBS THAT BROUGHT US TOGETHER
Author: Brian Conaghan
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children
Publication Date: June 7, 2016

Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken. Then the bombs come, and the soldiers from Old Country, and Little Town changes for ever.

Sometimes, to keep the people you love safe, you have to do bad things. As Little Town's rules crumble, Charlie is sucked into a dangerous game. There's a gun, and a bad man, and his closest friend, and his dearest enemy.

Charlie Law wants to keep everyone happy, even if it kills him. And maybe it will... But he's got to kill someone else first.

Preorder:
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AMERICAN GIRLS
Author: Alison Umminger
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: June 7, 2016

Summary:
She was looking for a place to land.

Anna is a fifteen-year-old girl slouching toward adulthood, and she's had it with her life at home. So Anna "borrows" her stepmom's credit card an runs away to Los Angeles, where her half-sister takes her in. But LA isn't quite the glamorous escape Anna had imagined.

As Anna spends her days on TV and movie sets, she engrosses herself in a project researching the murderous Manson girls—and although the violence in her own life isn't the kind that leaves physical scars, she begins to notice the parallels between herself and the lost girls of LA, and of America, past and present.

In Anna's singular voice, we glimpse not only a picture of life on the B-list in LA, but also a clear-eyed reflection on being young, vulnerable, lost, and female in America—in short, on the B-list of life. Alison Umminger writes about girls, sex, violence, and which people society deems worthy of caring about, which ones it doesn't, in a way not often seen in YA fiction.

Preorder:
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BEFORE WE GO EXTINCT
Author: Karen Rivers
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR
Publication Date: June 28, 2016

Summary:
Grief can sometimes feel like being caught in the jaws of a great white shark.

J.C., who goes by the nickname Sharky, has been having a hard time ever since his best friend died in front of him in a what might or might not have been an accident. Shell-shocked, Sharky spends countless hours holed up in his room, obsessively watching documentaries about sharks and climate change—and texting his dead friend.

At her wits end, Sharky’s mom sends him to visit his father on an abandoned island in Canada, where his dad is the caretaker. Over the course of an unforgettable summer, Sharky gets to know his dad . . . and he meets a girl who teaches him how to shows him how to live—and love—again.

Preorder:

What are your most anticipated releases of June 2016? Which of these are you going to add to that list?

Tuesday 17 May 2016

ARC #Review: THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU by Lily Anderson

THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU

Summary:
Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.

Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books--well, maybe not comic books--but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.

The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on--and they might not pick the same side.

Title: THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU
Author: Lily Anderson
Source: eARC via the Publisher
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: May 17, 2016
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute and fun retelling of Much Ado About Nothing which if you haven't read it (or watched an adaptation), you really should. This is most definitely my favourite Shakespearian comedy and I would recommend this retelling to everyone. Anderson writes a cute narrative that will have you laughing and swooning at the same time.

Thursday 12 May 2016

ARC #Review: DON'T GET CAUGHT by Kurt Dinan

DON'T GET CAUGHT

Summary:
10:00 tonight at the water tower. Tell no one. -Chaos Club

When Max receives a mysterious invite from the untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, he has to ask: why him? After all, he's Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life. He's Just Max. And his favorite heist movies have taught him this situation calls for Rule #4: Be suspicious. But it's also his one shot to leave Just Max in the dust...

Yeah, not so much. Max and four fellow students-who also received invites-are standing on the newly defaced water tower when campus security "catches" them. Definitely a setup. And this time, Max has had enough. It's time for Rule #7: Always get payback.

Let the prank war begin. 
Title: DON'T GET CAUGHT
Author: Kurt Dinan
Source: eARC via the Publisher
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: April 1, 2016
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

That was a fun read but a tad bit predictable tbh. I had one of the character's ending pegged immediately, like 10-15% in, and little things along the way just confirmed my suspicions. There were some things that looking back made sense, like who was running the club, but I took a bit of issue with someone that was in the club because it felt to me like it came out of nowhere. 

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Waiting on Wednesday: MY LADY JANE by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

I have a love-hate relationship with historical fiction. I talked about it in this post but I am really excited for this one! I think it'll have the right amount of history and sass that will keep me wanting more. And the authors are all to die for. This week's book is...
MY LADY JANE by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
Title: MY LADY JANE
Authors: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

Friday 6 May 2016

ARC REVIEW: SUMMER OF SUPERNOVAS by Darcy Woods

SUMMER OF SUPERNOVAS

Summary:
As the daughter of an expert astrologer, Wilamena Carlisle knows that the truth lies within the stars. So when she discovers a rare planetary alignment, she is forced to tackle her worst astrological fear – The Fifth House of Relationships and Love. But Wil must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her mother’s legacy, when she falls for a sensitive guitar player hailing from the wrong side of the chart.

Debut author Darcy Woods explores love in all its complexities and how to best honor the loved ones who have passed before us, in a novel packed with both humor and heart.

Title: SUMMER OF SUPERNOVAS
Author: Darcy Woods
Source: Won an ARC in a Giveaway!
Publisher: Crown BFYR
Publication Date: May 10, 2016
Rating: 4.5 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I won a free copy of this book in a giveaway! Thanks to Darcy Woods for my copy and the personalization.

This book was one of the cutest contemporary novels I have read in a long time. I loved the introspection of how people can hold so tightly onto something that they forget to live for themselves. I also loved that while this was about romance, when it came down to it, it was about Wil's love for her friends and family as well. 


Wednesday 4 May 2016

Waiting on Wednesday: THE UNDERDOGS by Sara Hammel

This week's WoW book is a mystery that promises a fun twist that we don't see coming. I love mystery books because they usually have such good rereadability where you catch different things the next time you read it that lead you to understanding the whole "whodunnit!?" Say hello to...
THE UNDERDOGS by Sara Hammel
Title: THE UNDERDOGS
Author: Sara Hammel

Monday 2 May 2016

ARC REVIEW: ALICE AND THE FLY by James Rice

ALICE AND THE FLY

Summary:
Greg is cripplingly shy, afraid of spiders, and obsessed with Breakfast at Tiffany's. He's not exactly the most popular kid at his high school. In fact, he pretty much goes out of his way to avoid talking to anybody he doesn't have to. And it doesn't help that he has a severe lisp.

But Greg's English teacher, Miss Hayes, can see that there's something different about him. He's insightful and sensitive beyond his years, and maybe--just maybe--he'll use these strengths to break out of his shell someday. Miss Hayes urges Greg to keep a journal. "This isn't an assignment," she tells him, "just write down your thoughts."

Greg begins to write about everything from his mother's ill-conceived interior decorating ideas to his job at the local butcher's shop. When Greg begins to take an interest in a girl at his school named Alice, he realizes that he will have to face his most paralyzing anxieties if he wants to befriend Alice and help her escape from her violent family life.

Title: ALICE AND THE FLY
Author: James Rice
Source: eARC via the Publisher
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Rating: 4/5 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
"It's amazing how much damage we did just by leaving, just by not being there."
I really enjoyed this one. I liked that we got to see schizophrenia in this manner because it felt so real. I also really liked the inclusion of the police transcripts in between. I thought they added clarity to the narrative. I liked that we got it from Greg's point of view rather than from the outside. I think it would have been difficult to connect with Greg if we hadn't been so deep inside his head. The hardest part for me to get through were the "Date Unknown" sections because of the way they were written. I mean, it was necessary for the book and to understand Greg's mind, but those bits took me double the amount of time to read.