REVIEW: If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

Title: If You Come Softly

Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books

Release Date: September 28, 1998

Acquired: Purchased for my collection

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

A lyrical story of star-crossed love perfect for readers of The Hate U Give, by National Ambassador for Children's Literature Jacqueline Woodson—now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, and including a new preface by the author

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he's in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he's going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don't exactly fit in there. So it's a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock, and after that they know they fit together—even though she's Jewish and he's black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that's not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way.

REVIEW: Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

Title: Cinderella is Dead

Author: Kalynn Bayron
Genre: YA Fairytale Retelling/Continuation
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA

Release Date: July 7, 2020

Acquired: Earc approved via Netgalley

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.

Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew...

This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.

BLOG TOUR: Kingdom Above the Cloud by Maggie Platt (SPOTLIGHT)

Title: Kingdom Above the Cloud

Author: Maggie Platt
Genre: Young Adult - Christian Fantasy
Publisher: Ambassador International

Release Date: April 17, 2020

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Google/Book Depository

What if the nine Fruit of the Spirit and the Seven Deadly Sins were locked in a battle for control?

Abandoned as infants, Tovi and her twin brother were raised by an eclectic tribe of warm, kind people in a treehouse village in the va lley. After her brother’s sudden disappearance Tovi questions her life and her faith in an invisible King. Ignoring her best friend Silas’ advice, she decides to search for her brother in the kingdom on top of the mountain.

Above the cloud, the Council of Masters receives their orders. Tovi and her brother are the objectives. King Damien has a plan and Tovi is the key. The Council of Masters want her, but will she remain unscathed?

Amidst the glamour of the kingdom above the cloud Tovi is torn between her own dark desires and unanswered questions. It starts with a snake and a crown. When the ring is complete, will her life be over?

BLOG TOUR: They Went Left by Monica Hesse

Title: They Went Left

Author: Monica Hesse
Genre: Young Adult - Historical Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: April 7, 2020

Acquired: Sent by publisher via Netgalley

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else--her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja--they went left.

Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.

But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her--or help her rebuild her world.

REVIEW: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Title: Sorcery of Thorns

Author: Margaret Rogerson
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderberry

Release Date: June 4, 2019

Acquired: Purchased for my collection

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.  

February 2020: Wrap-Up

-FEBRUARY WRAP UP: (8) BOOKS-

I swear to God, I blinked, and February was over. Did anyone else feel like this? The days felt like they slipped right through my fingers, and because of this, reading time felt scarce, precious, extremely important. 

I managed to squeeze 8 books into this month, and among those, I read a total of (4) that came close to seriously blowing me away:

REVIEW: Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis

Title: Be Not Far From Me

Author: Mindy McGinnis
Genre: Young Adult - Contemporary
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books

Release Date: March 3, 2020

Acquired: E-galley approved via Edelweiss

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

Hatchet meets Wild in this harrowing survival story from Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis.

The world is not tame.

Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the realization that she's alone - and far off trail. Lost in undisturbed forest and with nothing but the clothes on her back, Ashley must figure out how to survive despite the red streak of infection creeping up her leg.

REVIEW: A Curse So Dark & Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

Title: A Curse So Dark and Lonely

Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Retelling
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Release Date: January 29, 2019

Acquired: Purchased for my collection

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

Fall in love, break the curse.

Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she's pulled into a magical world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. A prince? A curse? A monster? As she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

REVIEW: Lucky Caller by Emma Mills

Title: Lucky Caller

Author: Emma Mills
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Release Date: January 14, 2020

Acquired: Edelweiss Approved

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

With the warmth, wit, intimate friendships, and heart-melting romance she brings to all her books, Emma Mills crafts a story about believing in yourself, owning your mistakes, and trusting in human connection in Lucky Caller.

When Nina decides to take a radio broadcasting class her senior year, she expects it to be a walk in the park. Instead, it’s a complete disaster.

The members of Nina's haphazardly formed radio team have approximately nothing in common. And to maximize the awkwardness her group includes Jamie, a childhood friend she'd hoped to basically avoid for the rest of her life.

The show is a mess, internet rumors threaten to bring the wrath of two fandoms down on their heads, and to top it all off Nina's family is on the brink of some major upheaval.

Everything feels like it's spiraling out of control―but maybe control is overrated?

Highly Anticipated Books for 2020: My Ambitious Year

So, let's start this post with the most obvious fact: I have WAY more than 20 books I'm anticipating this year (as do you, amiright!?). But alas, I'm choosing to go the super cool girl route and narrow it down to a mere 20 (for 2020..duh). So I went ahead and choose 10 adult and 10 YA titles. Here are the contenders (in no particular order):

(NOTE: as always, clicking on covers will lead you to that books Goodreads page!)

January 2019 Reading (Challenges & TBR)

JANUARY READING

In order to keep myself on track, I'll be making a monthly post detailing my TBR pile for the month. This will include the books I've chosen for my reading challenges, approved eARCs/review copies, and book club picks.

The reading challenge books I chose will be set in motion by the Pick-A-Theme Reading Challenge by She's Got Books on Her Mind. The theme I pick for each month will need to be present in all of the books for that particular month.

THEME THIS MONTH: COLD

(books will contain a cold-hearted individual as one of the main or secondary characters, will be a non-fiction book detailing cold-hearted acts/people/topics, or be set in a cold climate/have a cold atmosphere)

43 Highly Anticipated Books of 2019 (Goodreads)

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!

Last year felt like it would never end, and that was made worse by the fact that I had my worst reading year to date. Life most certainly threw me some lemons (amongst other things), and reading, unfortunately, took a backseat to all of that madness. Like most of my fellow obsessive book readers, reading plays the role of an escape, a balm to the trials of life—it can feel like the one thing they can always turn to for some happiness and positivity. At least that's what it's always felt like to me, and I hate that I forgot that during my worst and lowest times. But anyway...

I'm BACK! And I'm ready to delve back into the flurry and deliriously satisfying world of reading and reviewing. Of researching new finds, and clearing TBRs of already owned books. Of finishing reading challenges and cheering on my fellow readers on their own journeys! I can't believe I let myself stray so far away from something that made me so content *sigh.

To kick off my 2019 posts, I thought I'd list the books I already own and plan to read off of Goodreads' recent post of 43 Highly Anticipated Books of 2019. I also listed the one that I'M most looking forward to from each category.

REVIEW: A Great & Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1)

Author: Libba Bray
Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Release Date: December 9/2003

Acquired: Purchased Used

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

REVIEW: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent (#1)

Author: Veronica Roth
Genre: YA Dystopian Fiction
Publisher: Harper Collins

Release Date: October 3/2011

Acquired: Purchased

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is-she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves...or it might destroy her.

REVIEW: Close to the Heel by Norah McClintock

Title: Close to the Heel

Author: Norah McClintock
Genre: YA Adventure Fiction
Publisher: Orca Books

Release Date: January 1/2012

Acquired: Won through LibraryThing

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

No one is more surprised than Rennie to hear that his late grandfather, whom he hardly knew, has left a mission for him to fulfill. Rennie is to fly to Iceland and deliver a message from beyond the grave, but when he gets there, nothing is simple or straightforward. For one thing, Brynja, the teenage daughter of the family he's staying with, is downright hostile. Her father Einar, who is to be Rennie's guide in Iceland, is preoccupied with looking after his elderly father-in-law, an old friend of Rennie's grandfather. Bored and a little bit annoyed, Rennie explores the town and becomes aware that the family is dealing with more than their grief over Brynja's mother's death the year before. Before he realizes what is happening, his curiosity puts Rennie in grave danger, with no one to trust and no one to save him except himself.

REVIEW: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Title: Lock & Key

Author: Sarah Dessen
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Speak (Penguin Imprint)

Release Date: April 22/2008

Acquired: Library Borrow

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

What happens when your past is not just past, but wiped clean entirely? How do you figure out where you’re going when you can’t even claim where you’ve been? These were the questions that inspired Lock and Key. It’s the story of a girl named Ruby who is abandoned by her mother and determined to make it on her own, even—and especially—when she is sent to live with her long-lost sister in a whole new world of privilege, family, and relationships. As Ruby learns, there’s a big difference between being given help and being able to accept it. And sometimes, it takes reaching out to someone else to save yourself.

REVIEW: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Title: This is Not a Test (#1)

Author: Courtney Summers
Genre: YA Post-Apocalyptic
Publisher: St. Martins Griffin

Release Date: June 19/2012

Acquired: Purchased

Goodreads: ADD

Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?