Feature & Follow Friday #9

Happy Friday, fellow book lovers! Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The goal of Feature & Follow is to meet new bloggers, make friends, and gain readers. This Week's Question:  What is the biggest city you live near?  Show us a postcard picture. Population: 431,746 Not much to see here. Just a couple tall buildings. That one in the front is the DPAC - the Durham Performing Art's Center - where all the "big" shows like The Lion King, Dirty Dancing, and A Christmas Carol live.  ...

Book Blitz and Giveaway: Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Title: Let's Get Lost Author: Adi Alsaid Release Date: July 29, 2014 Publisher: Harlequin Teen Pages: 352 Add to Goodreads  Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost.Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings...until his...

"Waiting on" Wednesday #8: Gates of Thread and Stone

Happy Wednesday, fellow book lovers! This week's "can't wait to read" is: 

Gates of Thread and Stone
by Lori M. Lee

Publication Date: August 5, 2014

Blurb: 

In the Labyrinth, we had a saying: keep silent, keep still, keep safe.

In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her “brother” has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn’t know where her ability comes from—or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai’s only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper’s son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her.

Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.

This book sounds really intriguing and (dare I say it?) there doesn't seem to be a love triangle here - or even a real romantic relationship for that matter. I'm so used to YA with fifteen guys fighting over one girl that a YA fantasy with the focus totally on the heroine could be a breath of fresh air. 

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"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Top Ten Tuesday #4: Authors I Stock Up On

Today's Topic:   Ten Authors I Own The Most Books From This is actually a difficult topic because most of my books have been in storage for a year and the rest have been in boxes for two weeks. Anyone else have an "out of sight, out of mind" problem? I'm going to try really hard to remember whose books I own the most of. Here goes! Catherine Coulter (25) When considering whose books I own the most of, Catherine Coulter wins by a landslide. I've been reading her period romance books since high school and she's honestly one of the few romance authors I can tolerate. The books that I own are the Medieval Song series...

Book Tour Review: Birth of an Assassin by Rik Stone

Title: Birth of an Assassin Author: Rik Stone Publication Date: July 16, 2013Publisher: Silver Publishing Pages: 430 Add to Goodreads I received this book from the author  in exchange for an honest review.  Set against the backdrop of Soviet, post-war Russia, Birth of an Assassin follows the transformation of Jez Kornfeld from wide-eyed recruit to avenging outlaw. Amidst a murky underworld of flesh-trafficking, prostitution and institutionalized corruption, the elite Jewish soldier is thrown into a world where nothing is what it seems, nobody can be trusted, and everything can be violently torn from him. Given the order...

Feature & Follow Friday #8

Happy Friday, fellow book lovers! Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The goal of Feature & Follow is to meet new bloggers, make friends, and gain readers. This Week's Question:  What is your favorite TV series that you  can watch over and over again on Netflix? Well, I have a lot of "favorite" shows, but there are only a couple I've watched multiple times. Since I can't decide between them, I'm going to list all three in no particular order. I started watching Supernatural in 2009 while deployed to Afghanistan after a local Afghan man recommended it to me at a...

Before I Blogged Review: Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Title: Dolores Claiborne Author: Stephen King Publication Date: December 1, 1993 Publisher: Signet Books Pages: 384 Add to Goodreads Suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, Dolores Claiborne tells police the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband, Joe St. George, thirty years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and of her loyalty to an employer who has become emotionally demanding in recent years.  Dolores Claiborne definitely was not a typical Stephen King book. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I picked it up...

"Waiting on" Wednesday #7: Winterspell

Happy Wednesday, fellow book lovers! This week's "can't wait to read" is: 

Winterspell
by Claire Legrand

Publication Date: September 30, 2014

Blurb: 

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor's ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother's murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted--by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they're to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets--and a need she can't define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won't leave Cane unscathed--if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

Since the Splintered series, I've been totally into retellings. I've read The Nutcracker (pop-up book) and I've seen various cartoons. I remember having mixed feelings about it, but this book looks like it is going to be awesome! I may wait and read it around Christmas, but either way I'm going to be giving this one a try. 

I'm also hosting a book blitz and giveaway today! 

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"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Book Blitz! Author Guest Post & Giveaway: Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Title: Let's Get Lost Author: Adi Alsaid Release Date: July 29, 2014 Publisher: Harlequin Teen Pages: 352 Add to Goodreads  Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings...until his own life goes off-script....

Top Ten Tuesday #3: Deserted Island

Today's Topic:  Top Ten Characters I Would Want  With Me On A Deserted Island So as it turns out, I would not want anyone on my island who wasn't useful. Every character I chose has badass character traits. We'd make an awesome colony (though I might be pretty useless, comparatively speaking). Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish -  a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers. Each week they post a new Top Ten list and everyone is welcome to join. Click here to get involved! ...

Book Review: Cats, Scarves, and Liars by Kathryn White

Title: Cats, Scarves, and Liars Author: Kathryn White Publication Date: April 21, 2014 Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing  Pages: 181 Add to Goodreads I received this book from the author  in exchange for an honest review.  Meet Peppa Grove. Peppa is just your average Australian young woman, really. 23 years old, widowed and owner of a cat who can speak perfect English. (But no one will believe her about the cat.) Why is she being stalked by one of the customers from her job at the City South Post Office? What secrets does the mysterious Ivory Black know about Peppa and her past? What does he know about the strange...