Waiting on Wednesday (11): QUEEN OF SHADOWS

WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine! 

Title: Queen of Shadows 

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass #4

Thoughts: AHHHHH. This title was seriously JUST announced last week, and I couldn't be more excited. We still don't have a cover, but that's definitely something I'm looking forward to in the coming months. We DO, however, have a short synopsis, so click on the title link above if you want to read it, but BEWARE SPOILERS if you have NOT read the rest of the series, yet! This is my favorite fantasy series, and this installment is one of my most anticipated books of 2015, so definitely check out the series if you have not yet started it! 

Tell me: what are YOU waiting on this Wednesday? Let me know in the comments down below! 

Book Birthdays! -- January 27, 2015

*Note: when celebrating birthdays for books in a series other than Book 1, I will not list the summary, in the interest of avoiding spoilers. If you've read the first books in the series, or are just insanely curious, follow the book title link to the Goodreads page to read the summary there!

Standalones

Title: I Was Here 

Author: Gayle Forman

Summary: Cody and Meg were inseparable. 

Two peas in a pod. 

Until...they weren't anymore. 

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shock and devastated. She and Meg shared everything--so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg's college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there's a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg's heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can't open--until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend's death gets thrown into question.  

Title: Playlist for the Dead

Author: Michelle Falkoff

Summary: Here's what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam--listen and you'll understand. 

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it's only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend's story. And maybe have a chance to change his own. 

Series Prequels

Title: Fairest

Author: Marissa Meyer 

Series: Lunar Chronicles #0.1

Summary: Mirror, mirror on the wall, 

Who is the fairest of them all? 

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her "glamour" to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story--a story that has never been told...until now. 

Series Enders

Title: A Cold Legacy

Author: Megan Shepherd 

Series: The Madman's Daughter #3

Tell me: what new releases are YOU excited for this week? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments below! 

Waiting on Wednesday (10): AN EMBER IN THE ASHES

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!

Title: An Ember in the Ashes 

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Release date: April 28, 2015

Summary: Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest militry academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution. 

Elias is the academy's finest soldier--and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he's ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor. 

When Laia and Elias's paths cross at the academy, the find that their destinies are more intertwined that either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself. 

Thoughts: I've been seeing ARCs of this one going around on booktube a lot. I actually discovered this book because I started following Sabaa Tahir on Twitter. I think there was a giveaway involved, maybe? But this just sounds so intriguing, and it's been getting some great reviews. Even Tahereh Mafi just praised it on Twitter, so it's definitely something I'm interested in checking out! 

Tell me: what are YOU waiting on this Wednesday? Let me know in the comments down below! 

Broken Skies Blog Tour Relaunch!

BROKEN SKIES by Theresa Kay has been RELAUNCHED!

BROKEN SKIES is the first novel in a young adult science-fiction trilogy by Theresa Kay. Perfect for fans of Angelfall by Susan Ee and the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, it tells the story of seventeen-year-old Jasmine "Jax" Mitchell, an impulsive and traumatized girl whose fierce loyalty to her kidnapped twin brother drives her to rescue him at any cost, even if it means employing the help of a teenaged alien boy with questionable motives. 

Praise for BROKEN SKIES

"This book had me ALL OVER THE PLACE. Happy, sad, angry, tummy fluttery, giddy, outraged, betrayed...just...all over the place." -- Caylie M., Amazon Reviewer

"This is for those who enjoy exciting, intriguing YA level Sci-Fi and Dystopian with a sweet romance." -- Sophia Rose, Delighted Reader Blog

"The kind of novel that makes you anxiously excited about the series to come!" -- Jocey, Amazon Reviewer

"All I want to keep talking about is how awesome Broken Skies was, how much I loved it and that you must read it, so we can gush about it together!" -- Total Book Geek

Want to know about what happened when BROKEN SKIES got picked up by a publisher? Check out Theresa's reaction here! 

Follow the tour and you could win a Kindle Paperwhite with an exclusive BROKEN SKIES cover and a $50 Amazon gift card! Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway!

About BROKEN SKIES

In seventeen-year-old Jax Mitchell's world, humans are nearly extinct and alien settlers have arrived. 

Until recently, the E'rikon have remained segregated in their city and ignored the few humans who have tried to engage them...but now they have taken Jax's brother. To rescue him, she forms an uneasy alliance with a teenage E'rikon left stranded in the woods. She agrees to guide him to the city if he sneaks her past the human-proof barrier. Too bad it's not that simple. 

Jax, who cannot stand to be touched, finds that she's drawn to the alien boy with bright green hair and jewel-like scales down his back. And he's equally affected by her, the courageous redhead with haunted eyes. But she doesn't know the alien's true motives and he has no idea that she is much more than she seems. 

In this world, where alien and human are at odds, the connection forming between the two has consequences. What started off as a rescue mission sets a chain of events in motion which threatens not only the remaining humans and the growing alien society, but Earth itself. 

On sale in print: NOW

Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Also available NOW on your Kindle! 

Amazon

Add BROKEN SKIES to your TBR pile on Goodreads!

About Theresa Kay: The only person she knows who had a subscription to Writer's Digest at eleven and was always excited to write research papers. Theresa has been putting words to paper since a young age. Living in the mountains of central Virginia with her husband and two kids, she works as a paralegal by day, binges on Netflix at night, and finds bits of time in between reading almost everything she can get her hands on and laundry to craft stories that tend to feature broken characters in sci-fi or paranormal worlds, with a touch of romance thrown in for good measure. She's constantly lost in one fictional universe or another and is a self-proclaimed "fangirl" who loves being sucked into new books or TV shows. Theresa originally wanted to write horror novels as an ode to her childhood passion for Stephen King, but between her internal Muse's ramblings and the constant praise for her sci-fi pieces from her writer's group -- The Rebel Writers -- she knew she should stick with what was working. 

Website  | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

Subscribe to Theresa Kay's mailing list for exclusive content, ARCs, giveaways and more!

Thoughts: In exchange for being a part of this blog tour, I received this book for free from the Book Tour Provided eBook. Unfortunately, due to some complications in the blog schedule, I received this spot very last minute, so I have not read the book yet. BUT, Ben at BenjaminofTomes have been raving about this book, so color me intrigued! This has been pushed to the top of my TBR pile for February, so expect a review within the month!

Tell me: does BROKEN SKIES sound like it's right up your alley? Let me know in the comments below and if the answer is yes, be sure to pick up your own copy using the links above!

Book Birthdays! -- January 20, 2015

*Note: when celebrating birthdays for books in a series other than Book 1, I will not list the summary, in the interest of avoiding spoilers. If you've read the first books in the series, or are just insanely curious, follow the book title link to the Goodreads page to read the summary there! 

**When linking to purchase sites, the bolded link is the cheapest option. If two or more are bolded, they are both the same, cheapest price!

Series Starters

Title: All Fall Down

Author: Ally Carter

Series: Embassy Row #1

Summary: Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things. 

1. She is not crazy. 

2. Her mother was murdered. 

3. Someday she is going to find the killer and make him pay. 

As certain as Grace is about these facts, nobody else believes her--so there's no one she can completely trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands. 

Everybody wants Grace to put on a pretty dress and a pretty smile, blocking out all her unpretty thoughts. .But they can't control Grace--no more than Grace can control what she knows or what she needs to do. Her past has come back to hunt her...and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down. 

Buy here: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Million 

Sequels (Duologies)

Title: Polaris

Author: Mindee Arnett

Series: Avalon #2

Buy here: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Million

Title: Please Remain Calm 

Author: Courtney Summers

Series: This is Not a Test #2

*NOTE: This is ONLY available as an ebook!

Buy here: Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

Tell me: will YOU be buying any of these books on release day? What will YOU be buying this week? Let me know in the comments below!

Review: CRESS by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress

Author: Marissa Meyer

Series: Lunar Chronicles #3

Why I read it: Duh. 

Thoughts: This is the best book yet in the series. 

Once again, we get a new main character and perspective, based on another fairy tale with a sci-fi twist. Cress is the Lunar Chronicles counterpart to Rapunzel, and boy is she adorable. 

Cress is a sweet, shy girl who has lived on a satellite nearly all her life. Since both Cinder and Scarlet are more hard-headed and cynical about the world, it's refreshing to see the world from Cress's eyes, since she is rather naive about certain things in life. She also has a HUGE crush on Captain Thorne, which is just precious, especially considering what a sarcastic, yet lovable scallywag he is. 

We also meet Jacin Clay, one of the Lunar guards. I won't talk about him a lot, but I think it's safe to say we'll get to learn much more about him in the last book. 

Every interaction that Cress has with another character is golden, but especially her scenes with Thorne. It's adorable how much she adores him, and it's wonderful seeing their relationship progress. 

Again, I have to commend Meyer's skill at crafting believable relationships. There is no insta-love between Thorne and Cress (well, except on Cress's part), and the relationships from the first two books are still building and evolving. It's one reason that Winter, the fourth book, is my most anticipated book of 2015. Because I can't wait to see how all these relationships turn  out. 

Can I take a moment to praise the character naming skills of Meyer, as well? Cress, shortened for watercress, is a type of lettuce. As is Rapunzel. Meyer actually spoke about how she named Cress in a guest blog post, where she admitted that she initially called the character "Arugula" before realizing exactly how ridiculous that was. And Carswell Thorne? That name also has great connections to the original fairy tale. 

The original fairy tale is also masterfully weaved into the plot, and it's fun to pick out all of those parts and how they're reworked for the sci-fi setting. 

I have to admit: I cried while reading this book, which I did not expect. But if you get as attached to characters as I do, you may well cry over their plights, too. 

This may be Cress's book, but Cinder and Scarlet's stories certainly aren't over yet. They have a long way to go still, and I can't wait to find out how it all ends in Winter!

Rating: 5/5 stars 

Cinder review         and          Scarlet review

Tell me: have YOU read Cress yet? If so, what were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below! 

Review: SCARLET by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles #2

Why I read it: Obviously, because I loved the first book, Cinder, which you can read my review of by clicking here! I had planned on reading something else after Cinder, but I just couldn't wait to continue the series, so I immediately picked up Scarlet!

Thoughts: I adored this second installment in the series.

With all the events from the end of the first books, the overarching plot for the whole series really starts to rev into gear in Scarlet. Without going into too much detail (for fear of SPOILING you), I really enjoyed where the series is going. While Cinder was stuck within the Eastern Commonwealth, we get to see more of the world in Scarlet. 

We're introduced to a few new main characters, and all of them are wonderful. We have Scarlet, the Lunar Chronicles counterpart to Red Riding Hood, and this book's main character. Marissa Meyer has a knack for writing fantastic female protagonists, as both Cinder and Scarlet show. While Cinder is sweet and misunderstood and hesitant to draw attention to herself, Scarlet is bold and brave and often stubborn to a fault. Meyer's characters are always well-developed, with both strengths and flaws in everyone.

Our next new character is Wolf. And as I'm sure you already guessed, he is Scarlet's love interest. And he is my kind of man. He's the strong, silent type. A bad boy with a heart of gold. Oh yes, he is just delightful. And I will leave it at that.

And last, but CERTAINLY not least is the illustrious Captain Carswell Thorne, Cinder's newest companion. Carswell is handsome (and knows it), overly confident and extremely irreverent. He is certainly the comic relief in the story, as even in the face of danger, he most often still has a witty one-liner to deliver. I have to say that Thorne had to grow on me, but by the end of the book, he had me.

I appreciate the fact that even though this is Scarlet's story, we still get Cinder's perspective, and it doesn't feel contrived. It still feels like Cinder has a major story arc to live through, so she deserves some of the screen time. We also get some Prince Kai time, which I absolutely enjoyed. Though Prince Kai is now Emperor Kai, and trying to keep the Lunars at bay takes up much of his time, he still spares a thought for Cinder now and then. The tension between how they feel about each other, and their inability to admit it to even themselves is fabulous. Once again, I love Meyer's ability to let that romantic tension build and build, even when the two characters don't even interact.

Once I started this book, I didn't want to put it down again. I read it in just a few days, and IMMEDIATELY picked up Cress, which I will be reviewing next! If you haven't picked up this series yet, what are you waiting for?

Rating: 5/5 stars

Cinder review          and          Cress review

Tell me: if you have read Scarlet, what were YOUR thoughts on this second book? Let me know in the comments below!