Book Review : Dumplin' by Julie Murphy @andimjulie

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Balzer + Bray; Reprint edition (March 14, 2017)

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . .  until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.  

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does.

Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

Book Review : Nyxia by Scott Reintgen @Scott_Thought #MAYTHE4THBEWITHYOU

• Series: The Nyxia Triad
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers (September 12, 2017)

What would you be willing to risk for a lifetime of fortune? 

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

FIRST LOOK & GIVEAWAY: BENEATH BY MAUREEN A. MILLER @barclay_pr @maureenamiller

Get Your First Look at BENEATH by Maureen A. Miller!

Here’s your FIRST LOOK at USA Today’s bestselling author Maureen A. Miller’s 
upcoming young adult novel, BENEATH! Join us as we get our first peek at this dark YA 
adventure with a touch of romance. where an accident in the Atlantic Ocean brings a fate,
 no one could imagine. 
 Check out the excerpt and enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card!

Title:  Beneath

Author: Maureen A. Miller

Release Date: March 26, 2018

Publisher: Self-published

Genres: YA

Page Count: 340

Format: Print and digital

Synopsis:

An overnight fishing trip on the Atlantic Ocean…

It was Stella Gullaksen’s final break before starting her freshman year at college. Joining her best friend,
 Jill, and Jill's family aboard the STARKISSED, Stella wakes to a violent storm that capsizes the boat over a 
hundred miles off the New Jersey shore.

As the waves haul her under Stella knows that she is going to die. Instead, an unusual current drags her 
deep into the underwater canyons of the Atlantic Ocean. Powerless against the raging waters, she is 
suddenly sucked into a ventilated cave. One by one, Jill and her family also emerge in the sunken cavern.

With only a faulty diving flashlight to keep oblivion at bay Stella and her best friend's brother, Colin, 
search the cave in hope of finding a way back to the surface. What they discover, however, is that they
 are not alone. There are other survivors in this subterranean grotto–survivors spanning decades of 
maritime disasters.

Will this discovery prove salvation, or have they all been condemned to the same fate?
 A grim finale at the bottom of the sea?

On an alliance forged by friendship and attraction, Stella and Colin battle to escape the danger 
that lies beneath.

Add to your Goodreads shelf now!

Goodreads → http://bit.ly/2nJv350

Pre-Order Now: Amazon | B&N |  iTunes | Kobo

Amazon → http://amzn.to/2GOsLKy

B&N → http://bit.ly/2E5nO2B

iTunes → https://apple.co/2EG6IHK

Kobo → http://bit.ly/2BrKQ0Q 

#arcAugust BOOK REVIEW : 7 WAYS WE LIE BY RILEY REDGATE (@abramsbooks)

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (March 8, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1419719440
ISBN-13: 978-1419719448 

Final book for ArcAugust!

I'd throw up a blurb about this from amazon or such but THEY DAMN NEAR SPOIL EVERYTHING so basically 7 sins and growing up and these characters clash. BADLY.
-------
Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—from Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage, to "SPOILER", the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.

When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the seven unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

REVIEW BELOW

RELEASE BLITZ : ZERO REPEAT FOREVER BY GABRIELLE PRENDERGAST (@gabriellesarap @rockstarbktours)

I am so excited that ZERO REPEAT FOREVER by Gabrielle Prendergast is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by Author Gabrielle Prendergast, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a signed hardcover of the book courtesy of Gabrielle and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

Title: ZERO REPEAT FOREVER

Author: Gabrielle Prendergast

Pub. Date: August 29, 2017

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Pages: 496

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Amazon, B&N, Audible, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads

He has no voice, or name, only a rank, Eighth. He doesn’t know the details of the mission, only the directives that hum in his mind.

Dart the humans. Leave them where they fall.

His job is to protect his Offside. Let her do the shooting.

Until a human kills her…

Sixteen year-old Raven is at summer camp when the terrifying armored Nahx invade, annihilating entire cities, taking control of the Earth. Isolated in the wilderness, Raven and her friends have only a fragment of instruction from the human resistance.

Shelter in place.

Which seems like good advice at first. Stay put. Await rescue. Raven doesn’t like feeling helpless but what choice does she have?

Then a Nahx kills her boyfriend.

Thrown together in a violent, unfamiliar world, Eighth and Raven should feel only hate and fear. But when Raven is injured, and Eighth deserts his unit, their survival comes to depend on trusting each other… 

Book Trailer:

Link: https://youtu.be/cjgfYAe9HDI 

About Gabrielle

Gabrielle is a writer, teacher and designer living in Vancouver, Canada.  You can read about her books here. She is represented by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.

In 2014 she was the Writer in Residence at Vancouver Public Library. In 2015 she was nominated for the BC Book Prizes and chosen to tour the province to promote BC Books. In 2017 Gabrielle took part in the TD Canada Children’s Book Week Tour. She has also been nominated for the White Pine Awardand the CLA Award.

Gabrielle won the Westchester Award for Audacious. Audacious was included in CBC’s list of 100 YA Books That Make You Proud to be Canadian. A poem from Capricious was chosen for the 2014 Poetry in Transit Program. Pandas on the East Side was chosen as an Ontario Library Association Best Bet for Junior Fiction in 2016. It was also nominated/shortlisted for the Chocolate Lily Award, The Red Cedar Award, the Diamond Willow Award and the Myrca Award.

Website |  Twitter | Facebook | Intstagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

(1) winner will receive a signed finished copy of ZERO REPEAT FOREVER, US Only & Canada.

(3) winners will receive signed postcards and bookmarks ZERO REPEAT FOREVER, US Only & Canada.

Ends on September 19th at Midnight EST!

Rafflecopter Link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2622/?

REVIEW : Dramatically Ever After by Isabel Bandeira

Series: Ever After (Book 2)
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press (June 20, 2017) 

Senior year is not shaping up to be the picture perfect movie Em Katsaros had imagined. Her super hot leading man is five thousand miles away. Her dad just got laid off. And Em can kiss her first-pick university goodbye if she doesn't snag a scholarship.

To turn this Shakespearean tragedy into the Academy Award-winning dream Em has written for herself, she enters a speech competition and manages to cinch a spot in the US Youth Change Council national round. She gets to spend a week in Boston and her prayers might be answered if she can kick butt and win one of the national scholarships.

Everything seems to be going by the script until she finds out Kris Lambert―senior class president, stuck-up jerk, and her nemesis―is going, too. Cue the dramatic music. In Boston, Kris is different. Nice. Cute, even. But she knows his game way too well―be nice to your opponents and then throw them under the bus on your way to victory. Instead of becoming his next victim, Em decides to turn the tables by putting her acting and flirting skills to work. Unfortunately, as they get close to the final competition and judging, reality and acting start to blur.

Can Em use the drama from the stage to get the future she's been dreaming of?

Review Below 

BOOK TRAILER : Trust by Kylie Scott

I will be posting my review for Kylie Scott's debut YA novel on July 18th. However, let me just say, do NOT miss this book.

REVIEW: Gilded Cage by Vic James

RELEASED ON : FEBRUARY 14, 2017

NOT ALL ARE FREE.
NOT ALL ARE EQUAL.
NOT ALL WILL BE SAVED.

Our world belongs to the Equals—aristocrats with magical gifts—and all commoners must serve them for ten years.

But behind the gates of England’s grandest estate lies a power that could break the world. A girl thirsts for love and knowledge.

Abi is a servant to England’s most powerful family, but her spirit is free. So when she falls for one of their noble-born sons, Abi faces a terrible choice. Uncovering the family’s secrets might win her liberty—but will her heart pay the price? A boy dreams of revolution.

Abi’s brother, Luke, is enslaved in a brutal factory town. Far from his family and cruelly oppressed, he makes friends whose ideals could cost him everything. Now Luke has discovered there may be a power even greater than magic: revolution. And an aristocrat will remake the world with his dark gifts.

He is a shadow in the glittering world of the Equals, with mysterious powers no one else understands. But will he liberate—or destroy?

REVIEW : Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira

RELEASED ON : JANUARY 12, 2016

In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martins’ life would be a book. Preferably one filled with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn’t even qualify for a quiet contemporary. 
Everything changes when Phoebe learns that Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her. So, Phoebe turns to the heroines in her favorite books for inspiration, but becoming as awesome as her book characters isn’t as easy as it sounds. When another girl nets Dev for herself right out from under Phoebe’s nose, she’s crushed. 
And, to up the suckage, she gets assigned as his co-counselor at a sixth grade camp and has to spend an entire week tied to the hip with the one guy on the planet she wanted to avoid. Can she make it through the potential danger of romantic bonfires and nature walks, or will her counseling career end in emotional disaster? Can she ever go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?

 

REVIEW : Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (DNF)

Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time-the kind Mercedes never had herself.
Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy - so far. Her mother isn't home nearly enough to know about Mercedes' extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won't even say the word "sex" until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn't bank on Angela's boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn - or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.
When Mercedes' perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her own reputation -and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn's Firsts is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.

RELEASE DATE : JANUARY 5, 2016

Let me start by saying that this DNF isn't for the writing. I actually think it was well done. It was just a little TOO well done for me. (cont)

REVIEW : Black Widow Forever Red by Margaret Stohl

Enter the world of the Avengers' iconic master spy

Natasha Romanoff is one of the world's most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow's infamous academy for operatives.

Ava Orlova is just trying to fit in as an average Brooklyn teenager, but her life has been anything but average.The daughter of a missing Russian quantum physicist, Ava was once subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments-until she was rescued by Black Widow and placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection. Ava has always longed to reconnect with her mysterious savior, but Black Widow isn't really the big sister type.

Until now.

When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumors of smuggled Red Room tech light up the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned-and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava must unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava's dreams. . . .

RELEASED ON OCTOBER 13, 2015

MOVIE REVIEW : Insurgent

IN THEATERS : March 20, 2015

This past Monday, I was able to get into a special screening of Insurgent in IMAX 3D. Insurgent is the second book in the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. I was super excited and took my cousin along since we saw Divergent together too. I loved the book and I thought the film adaptation for Divergent was a good sign that Insurgent would be solid. Yeah. Not really the case here.

Special Screening

Yupppppp. Had to stay quiet but review will go up tomorrow.

REVIEW : The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6) by Richelle Mead

RELEASE DATE : FEBRUARY 10, 2015

 The epic conclusion to Richelle Mead's New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series is finally here...

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

After their secret romance is exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead’s New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series. When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world.

So we have come to the end of the Bloodlines series. Sads. I must say this was a really fun ride.

For those that don't know, the Bloodlines series is a spinoff from Richelle's very popular Vampire Academy books. Series follows the always handsome Moroi prince, Adrian Ivashkov, and his lady love, Sydney Sage.

This might be my longest review yet.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FROM HERE OUT!

REVIEW : I Was Here by Gayle Forman

RELEASE DATE : January 27, 2015
  

Cody and Meg were inseparable... Until they weren’t. 

When her best friend, Meg, drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked 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, and some secrets of his own. 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.

 *possible spoilers*

Whenever I pick up a book by Gayle Forman, I have already purchased the box of tissues that I will undoubtedly need for the read. She is a guaranteed tearjerker for me. I Was Here, is no exception to this rule. This book hit me harder than I expected. Cody learns of Meg's death in a rather impersonal way imo, leaving Cody and Meg's family in serious shock.

Why didn't they see this coming? Who's fault is it really? How did we fail her?