Waiting on Wednesday: Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan

Free from bonds, but not each other.  It’s time to choose sides… On the surface, Sorry-in-the-Vale is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. In the old days, the Lynburn family ruled with fear, terrifying the people into submission in order to kill for blood and power. Now the Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love anyone she chooses. But who should that be? (GoodReads).

The second book in the Lynburn Legacy series cannot get here fast enough! I am soooooooo looking forward to August and getting back into this world. Unspoken was my favorite read of the spring. Kami and Jared are great characters and I am rooting for them.

See my review of Unspoken here. )And then go and get it from the library. And be sad that the new cover is not as fun as this cover. Then return to being excited about the series)

 Thanks to Jill at Breaking the Spine for hosting WoW, a weekly meme that showcases upcoming publications we are looking forward to. What made your WoW this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Our Summer Must-Reads

Aloha book blog people! Today's Top Ten Tuesday is dedicated to the books we three are planning on reading this summer. Most of them are not new, but that doesn't mean we aren't jazzed about them!

Grad Student:
At the top of my TBR list this summer is Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Moving from NYC to Newport, RI for the summer, I must read this Gatsby-era book which is set in both places! While it Lasts by Abbie Glines. I have not read a contemporary romance with cowboys, but I WILL SOON.  I am also hoping I can bank on Marchetta for some excellent swoon and a beautiful story in The Piper's Son. Last but not least I want to read Amy and Roger's Epic Detour. I cannot get enough contemporary YA right now. Bring it on, beach reads!

Goosie Mama:

I am going to finish up the Sookie Stackhouse series for sure. Maybe do some throwback to Goosebumps? i want to see if the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter are as nail bite-worthy as I remember them being to 10 year old me!

Crazy Camper: Blue Hearts of Mars by Nicole Grotepas. True love separated due to the fact that...one is an android! They also live on the planet Mars.

What books are you determined to read this summer? Let us know! As always, a big thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting our fav book blog meme. Cheers!

Review: The Battle for Arcanon Major The Lost Dacom Files #1 by Alexandra May

I was lucky to get my hands on The Battle for Arcanon Major, The Lost Dacom Files #1, by Alexandra May, which is a sequel of sorts to Elemental.

“As daughter of our ruler I grew up in the crossfire of an ongoing war... All I’d ever wanted to be was a great warrior and ultimately lead my people into victorious battles."

With only a small army at her command Halika Dacome, a skilled warrior and daughter of the Elemental King, is ready to lead one final battle to save her planet. A battle against the savage, bloodthirsty Primords who want to extinguish the diminished race of Elementals once and for all.

But before battle commences her father is given an ultimatum from the enemy leader, Arfron Uhnok. If the king agrees, Halika Dacome must marry Arfron Uhnok to prevent further bloodshed. If the king disagrees they, as a race, will all perish.

Horrified by her fathers decision Halika Dacome leads her army onward regardless of the consequences. Because her heart belongs to another. A love that blossomed many years ago. A love that her father has forbidden.

Halika faces her toughest battle yet and learns that not all battles are those fought with a sword...
The Battle for Arcanon Major is an epic love story set against the backdrop of war and is the first Prequel to Elemental: The First (GoodReads).

Now things are making some more sense....

Originality: 9- This new world we are in is complex, with multiple races, planets, and wars.

Absurdity: 5- some wild plot twists and sabotage happen, but really all things considered  this is not the absurd parts.  Its like GoT meets teenage sci-fi here.

Level of Paranormal Romance: 8- This book is part war part love story, with maybe more of an emphasis on love?  While I love some good romance, I was pretty into what was going to happen in the battle and kept thinking to myself, more war not love!

Harry Potterness: 7- I liked this book actually much more then Elemental, which I found confusing and one giant cliff hanger, thank GOODNESS for explanations and resolutions.  I almost think reading this one first might help understand the plot!

Overall, I am glad that NetGalley let me get my hands on this- now we are waiting on the sequel not only to Elemental, but also to this book!  Two intersecting plots, two storylines, and twice as many books.  Something to look forward to!

Friday Library Updates: School's Out: 5 Great Summer Reads for Teens by NPR

 NPR is presenting the 5 best teen summer reads... of course we are interested and pleased to see some are already on our list!  

          

Check them out:

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - remember, John Green loved it!  I can only guess we will too

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey- now this is what I am talking about!

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson- Grad Student thinks this looks great.

Pulsing with the beat of futuristic Brazil, burning with the passions of its characters, and overflowing with ideas, this fiery novel will leave you eager for more from Alaya Dawn Johnson.

Drama by Raina Telgemeier- ok this may be for middle schoolers/drama kids, since this this not me... I am not sold NPR

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence- verrrrryyyy interesting review on NPR as well as GoodReads, where this caught my attention:

Someone who teaches him that that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count.  So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the front seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing ...

Review: Stay Awhile by Alysia Gray Painter

“Stay Awhile” follows Fair, Gomery and Monty Overbove, and Fair’s best pal Sutton Von Hunt as they attempt to find out where the cousins’ mothers might be and why buildings seem to be moving under their own power. 

Several weird discoveries are made during the quartet’s mountain road trip, leading the young hotelier to land on a major decision, and announcement, about the motel’s pool and the futures of her two nice neighbors. 

How she arrives at her life-changer of a decision, and the journeys she and her friends embark on, are in the light-hearted mix. As is Gomery Overbove, who is about a billion times more important in the heiress’s mind than 24,500 gallons of chlorinated water and some old diving board.(GoodReads).

It took me a while to get back into this story, but eventually when our wacky group got moving again, I enjoyed this read. Hold on to your socks, kids, this is a wild ride.

Level of Originality: 10. Rooms and buildings move around, not to mention the whole "someday science" of metaphysics and the World's Basement! i can't say more than that, but WHOA this book exists in a crazy/fun/imaginative world where literally anything is possible, and trust me, you have never seen it before.
Level of Absurdity: 10. Everyone is totally zanny. Fair still wears a snood, the Overbove boys have magical space-travel bumper stickers, and 
Level of Paranormal Romance: 6. I luuuuuvvvvv the buildup between Gomery and Fair. This book is bittersweet though, so the score is not as high as the swoon-inducing book 2 Redwoodian. But I do enjoy that these two know they are moving in on something epic, and they are taking their sweet time, giving the reader just enough jaw-unhinging statements of what WILL go down when they finally get together. It involves a meetup under the diving board in the motel pool in the dark of night. YUM.
Level of Harry Potterness: 7. Magical realism! The talky-talk here is not as accessible as your general fiction, but once you get into the language of the story, there is a lot of fun to be had.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received a review copy from Alysia Gray Painter. Happy reading followed. (We do not accept or receive compensation for reviews at YAF and WS.)

Waiting on Wednesday: Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn

The spine-tingling horror of Stephen King meets an eerie mystery worthy of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series in Kate Karyus Quinn's haunting debut.

On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished.

A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past (GoodReads).

It is Wednesday, which means its time to showcase upcoming books we cannot wait to read. WoW is hosted by Breaking the Spine and we are sending, per usual, a big thanks Jill's way for organizing it!.  This WoW is due out TODAY. Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn is going to be right up Goosie Mama's alley- she loves horror.

Top Ten Tuesday: Beach Reads!

Our beach of choice in Newport via

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is dedicated to Beach Reads. I define beach reads as 1. set in the south 2. have people falling in love and/or 3. at a beach town. I cannot wait to get my tanning on and get involved with more beach reads this summer!

• hello, Sookie! The Southern Vampire Series are total fluff and fit these categories.
• Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker. Boat trips and cute ginger-haired boys who mend broken hearts are perfect for the beach.
• Sarah Dessen's books. So far I have inhaled Along for the Ride and Keeping the Moon and love her beach town setting of Colby

    

Crazy Camper says:

"I would say anything without paranormal, just teen romance is a good beach read. Actually, as long as there is romance, it qualifies! NOT BEACH READS = anything that qualifies and a penguin classic (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre) these require too much thought."

• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Southern and romance.
• Not just Sookie, but any Charlaine Harris book (we have read the Harper Connelly series and Sweet and Deadly and liked them both, although Tolliver is smokin' and makes the last Harper Connelly book Grave Secret extra worthy of beach reading).

Goosie Mama says:

"Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green. AWESOME beach book (doesn't the cover just look like a fab beach read? Yes sir, may I have another!), beach town setting, crazy thriller plot - there is even (minor) surfing involved!"

As always a big cheers of our whiskey sours to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting TTT, our fav weekly book blog meme! What makes your list? We want to know so we can stock our e-readers for this coming summer! If you want to know more about these reads, see our reviews of Deadlocked and Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen and Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker. 

Review: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect. (GoodReads).

 Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen is my first Dessen novel! I had a hard time with the first half of the book, however, since Auden's parents are SO FREAKING TERRIBLE--selfish, pompous, self-involved--that I could hardly read the passages featuring them. Luckily the summer town, boardwalk, beach, and boys helped and I ended up enjoying this book.

Level of Originality:2/10.  it's hard to give this grade to contemporary books. They are supposed to feel like real life, right? On the other handI read this book and then immediately read Keeping the Moon. SO the two is for the fact that I have been to Colby before, but the 10 is for the fact that I lovvvvvee that Dessen returns to this little beach town. I feel like I am on my way to being a local, and it is so satisfying to have characters orbit that I am familiar with from other reads.
Level of Absurdity: 6. Even with the worst parents ever, are teenage insomniacs REALLY allowed to stay out all night? 
Romance: OK so the thing with these books is there is just not enough romance for me. Sure Eli is swoon worthy, and there is something lovely going on between these two, but we have no build up details. Give me more electric touches and breathy lean-ins!
Level of Harry Potterness: 4. This PG read feels a BIT after-school-special-y, but I still liked it.

BONUS POINT ALERT: These characters are at least on their way to college- huzzah for adult sleep overs and beers in books!

Review: Maximum Ride- The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

Last night in a quasi heat-induced coma in front of the air conditioning, I finished the last 100 pages of Maximum Ride- The Angel Experiment by James Patterson.  

Six unforgettable kids—with no families, no homes—are running for their lives. Max Ride and her best friends have the ability to fly. And that's just the beginning of their amazing powers. But they don't know where they come from, who's hunting them, why they are different from all other humans... and if they're meant to save mankind—or destroy it.

Guys, this book was a bit crazy. I don't know if it was me or the heat but man, back and forth back and forth, bombs! Makeover! Bad guys! More bad guys! MORE BAD GUYS! We are flying! Ass Kicking! We are hungry!  Voices!  More ass kicking!  I actually think that is a pretty accurate summary.

Originality: 9.  This book is crazy of its own accord Somewhere between the Animorphs show of our youth, the Hunger Games, and Jason Bourne.

Absurdity: 10. For real, this book is absurd, like sometimes I had to re-read a sentence to be really be sure that the crazy I thought was happening actually was.  And to be clear, I am pretty sure unidentified flying objects are quickly put on lock down through our major cities...even if they are mutant teenagers looking for a snack.

Paranormal Romance: 0.  This is not about romance but ass kicking, mutant, teenagers trying to hold it together.

Level of Harry Potter-ness: 5.  Maybe another case of "too old"?  Ex. 1: one of the main characters names is "Gazzy", short for Gasman, because he farts a lot.  I am not making this up.  Ug.  I really liked Witch and Wizard by James Patterson, and it seems like millions of people have read the Maximum Ride series, so I will probably give the next one a try,but perhaps its the 14 year olds of the world that are the real readership.  Max was a pretty redeeming character and I am intrigued by what is really going on!

Waiting on Wednesday: Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever.

Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new (GoodReads).

More Anna and St. Clair and Cricket and Lola can only be a good thing! Since I am devouring Stephanie Perkins books and loving every swoony second, I am totally excited for  Isla and the Happily Ever After BUT I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR. Boooo.