Random Things in Action

Top 10 of 2016: Best Couples of 2016

2016-12-28T22:44:00.003+08:00

Day 3: Best ________ of 2016 -- Reader's choice of top 10 best villains, contemporaries, dual POV’s, novellas, adult titles, NA titles, love triangles, couples, bad boys or debuts (Reminder: this list is made up of books I have READ this 2016). And just like last year, I chose best COUPLES of 2016.

**I was just complaining about the nonexistence of emojis in blogger but then I remembered...I can actually use emojis now. HOW CAN I FORGET?? 😭😭😂

Thanks to Rachel of Fiktshun, Jaime of Two Chicks on Books, Nancy of Tales of a Ravenous Reader and Bridget of Dark Faerie Tales for hosting this event.

10 Adriana and Keldrin

Demon Kingdom Fairy Tales by Kassandra Lynn

I read all three books this year. I really liked Adriana and Keldrin together.

9 Meda and her motorcycle
Crossed (Soul Eaters #3) by Eliza Crewe

Kidding! Kidding. I couldn't resist 😂😂

Okay, it's Meda and Armand. This book doesn't actually have a lot of romance -- Meda is too busy being a badass to spend that much time with matters of the heart. Still, MEDA. AND. ARMAND.

8 Adam and Jules
Foolproof Love (Foolproof Love #1) by Katee Robert

I have my review of this book and Adam and Jules chemistry HERE.

7 Aubrey and Sam

Wanderlost by Jen Malone

Summer romance in Europe *sigh*

REVIEW

6 Ben and Paige

Finding Perfect (Finding Perfect #1) by Kendra C. Highley

These two are so sweet. Finding Perfect is probably my most favorite contemporary read this 2016.

REVIEW

5 Parker and Ben

Blurred Lines (Love Unexpectedly #1) by Lauren Layne

From best friends to lovers. Have I mentioned how I love this type of romance in books especially when it's very well executed?

4 Jo and Eddie

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

A high society girl and a guy "on the other side of the tracks." Mm-hmm.

REVIEW

3 Emmy and Oliver

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

It's not just the romance between these two and, no, I don't really know how to explain it. Just that they're both wonderful together.

2 Arin and Kestrel
The Winner's Kiss (The Winner's Trilogy #3) by Marie Rutkoski

Arin and Kestrel's relationship in this conclusion is both heartbreaking and, like, OMG FINALLY 😂

1 Shahrzad and Khalid

The Rose and the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn #2) by Renee Ahdieh

*sigh* That's all I can do every time I am reminded of these two.

Honorable Mentions

Mya and Michael in Naughty Boss by Whitney G.

Mercedes and Zach in Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Jules and Grayson in Holding Court by K.C. Held

I wouldn't say they were the best COUPLE in the book. More like I ship them SO BAD.

Kat and Hale in The Grift of the Magi (Heist Society #3.5) by Ally Carter
Meg and Simon in Marked in Flesh (The Others #4) by Anne Bishop

These couples have been my favorites for years but I HAVE read more of them this 2016 and the ship is still going strong 💕

Top 10 of 2016: Best Book Covers of 2016

2016-12-27T19:58:00.000+08:00

Day 2 is Best Book Covers of 2016 featuring my top 10 list of favorite covers of books that were released this 2016. There are SO MANY new releases with gorgeous covers to choose from -- the kind that makes me want to buy a physical copy (in HARDCOVER!) just because of it. This is actually harder than choosing my top 10 favorite reads this year.

Thanks to Rachel of Fiktshun, Jaime of Two Chicks on Books, Nancy of Tales of a Ravenous Reader and Bridget of Dark Faerie Tales for hosting this event.

10 Bright Smoke, Cold Fire

by Rosamund Hodge

Published: September 27, 2016

9 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
by J.K. Rowling
Published: November 18, 2016

8 Passenger
(Passenger #1)
by Alexandra Bracken
Published: January 5, 2016

7 The Forbidden Wish
(The Forbidden Wish #1)
by Jessica Khoury
Published: February 23, 2016

6 Frost Like Night

(Snow Like Ashes #3)
by Sara Raasch
Published: September 20, 2016

5 Labyrinth Lost
(Brooklyn Brujas #1)
by Zoraida Córdova
Published: September 6, 2016

4 The Impostor Queen
(The Impostor Queen #1)
by Sarah Fine
Published: January 5, 2016

3 After the Woods
by Kim Savage
Published: February 23, 2016

2 Stalking Jack the Ripper
(Stalking Jack the Ripper #1)
by Kerri Maniscalco
Published: September 20, 2016

1 And I Darken
(The Conquerer's Saga #1)
by Kiersten White
Published: June 28, 2016

Honorable Mentions:

Top 10 of 2016: Best Books I’ve Read in 2016

2016-12-26T00:09:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you had a great one. It's that time of the year again! These last several days of 2016 will be full of yearly recaps and, of course, the Top 10 of 2016, which I now consider a tradition. Thanks to Rachel of Fiktshun, Jaime of Two Chicks on Books, Nancy of Tales of a Ravenous Reader and Bridget of Dark Faerie Tales for hosting this event.

First up is the Top 10 Best Books I've Read in 2016. This year is probably my lowest read count since 2010?? I usually read more than a hundred per year but I don't think I'd be able to read 80 by the time 2016 ends. Sad. At least it makes it easier to come up with this list. Only three 5-star reads this year! :(

10 The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

Published: September 20, 2016

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.

Hit me right in the feels, this book.

Amazon | Book Depository

9 Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway

Published: June 23, 2015

Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, reappears after being kidnapped by his father ten years ago. Emmy hopes to pick up their relationship right where it left off. Are they destined to be together? Or has fate irreparably driven them apart?

I read this book while doing my biggest project this year and it still captured my whole attention.

Amazon | Book Depository

8 The Rose & the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn #2)
by Renee Ahdieh
Published: April 26, 2016

The saga that began with The Wrath and the Dawn takes its final turn as Shahrzad risks everything to find her way back to her one true love again.

One of my favorite sequels AND series-ender this year.

Amazon | Book Depository

7 Crossed (Soul Eaters #3)
by Eliza Crewe
Published: August 13, 2015

War is here.

Full-scale war has erupted between the Crusaders and demons and even Chi has to admit isn’t going well. Like any sensible rat, Meda’s eager to abandon the sinking ship but, unfortunately, her friends aren't nearly as pragmatic. Instead, Meda’s forced to try to keep them all alive until the dust settles.

And then the Crusaders decide that Meda should go to Hell. Literally.

Can’t a monster ever catch a break?

Ooooh. I MISS MEDA SO MUCH! Another series I had to say goodbye to this year. This series is just wonderful.

Amazon | Review (Book 1)

6 Marked in Flesh (The Others #4)
by Anne Bishop
Published: March 8, 2016

For centuries, the Others and humans have lived side by side in uneasy peace. But when humankind oversteps its bounds, the Others will have to decide how much humanity they’re willing to tolerate—both within themselves and within their community...

I want the next book so bad is all I'm sayin'...

Amazon | Book Depository

5 These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Published: October 27, 2015

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.

The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and the truth is the dirtiest part of all.

Another Jennifer Donnelly favorite!

Amazon | Book Depository | Review

4 Blood Red Road (Dust Lands #1)
by Moira Young
Published: June 7, 2011

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.

I still can't believe I've left this book unread in my shelf for years! As soon as I started it, I was addicted.

Amazon | Book Depository

3 A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness, Jim Kay (Illustrator), Siobhan Dowd (Conception)
Published: September 27, 2011

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Let's just say I was a sobbing mess at the end of the book.

Amazon | Book Depository

2 In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
Published: April 2, 2013

Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?

Also a sobbing mess when I finished the book *shrugs* What can you do?

Amazon | Book Depository

1 A Torch Against the Night
(An Ember in the Ashes #2)
by Sabaa Tahir
Published: August 30, 2016

Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Best sequel I read this year!!!! Oh.my.gosh. Much, much better than An Ember in the Ashes.

Amazon | Book Depository | Review

That's it for today! What are best books you've read this 2016? Have you read any of these? Leave a link to your list if you have one!

December 2016 New Releases

2016-12-24T01:44:00.000+08:00

New Book Releases this December 2016

*cover image links to Goodreads*

The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland
by Rebekah Crane
Published: December 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual place—and she’s just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her head—and her home state—and attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens.

Zander does not fit in—or so she thinks. She has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. There’s her cabinmate Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic. Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute but confrontational boy who expects to be schizophrenic someday, odds being what they are. And Bek, a charmingly confounding pathological liar.

But amid group “share-apy” sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and as the Michigan summer heats up, the four teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to Grover’s earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy. But first she must come completely unraveled to have any hope of putting herself back together again.

The Heartbreaker Society: The Liar
(The Heartbreaker Society #1)
by Jessica Sorensen
Published: December 2, 2016
Amazon
_____________

One day ago my life was pretty perfect. But a lot can change in a day.

In one day, I went from being Ashlynn Wynterland, one of the most popular girls in school to being the girl who spends lunchtime hiding out in Mr. Chester’s classroom and watching Maxon Harter and his science obsessed friends mess around with experiments. All because Queeny Harlington thinks I made out with her crush.

Queeny Harlington is the queen of Fareland high. And up until a day ago, she was my best friend. Now she’s my worst enemy who’s threatening to tell the entire school all of my secrets.

Being the friendless, social outcast has its downsides. So, when Maxon Harter invites me to hang out with him and his mad scientist friends, I accept his offer, even though they all seem to despise me. Which is fine. Sort of…

The truth is I’ve always thought Maxon was cute in a weirdly unordinary way. And the more I get to know him, the more I find myself crushing on him badly. Which makes me wonder if I’ve always been a weirdly unordinary kind of girl, but was too afraid to admit it.

But when Queeny decides to tell everyone my darkest secret of all, I doubt Maxon and my new friends will accept me anymore. I need to stop her, and the only way to do that may be to figure out who made up the rumor that I kissed her crush.

Trophy Wife
by Noelle Adams
Published: December 6, 2016
Amazon
My Review
______________

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fooling Around comes a steamy novel about a pampered princess who’s starting over—and the hot guy next door who knows exactly how to melt that tiara right off.

Alison Davies used to just be a trophy wife. Now she’s just flat broke. Thanks to an ironclad prenup, she’s worse off than she was before the day she rushed down the aisle with a wealthy jerk eight years ago. After her steep fall from riches to rags, Alison refuses to shackle herself to any man who treats her like a possession—no matter how good he looks in a pair of well-worn jeans, or how his muscles ripple while he’s carrying her couch.

Underneath his rugged exterior, Rob West is a gentleman. So when he sees his beautiful new neighbor moving in, he’s going to help her out no matter how loudly she protests. In fact, Alison’s determination to go it alone just strengthens his resolve—and his desire to find out what makes her tick. But after one spur-of-the-moment tumble in the sheets, it’s clear that their connection goes way deeper. And that Rob won’t be happy until Alison surrenders to the passion they share.

Ever the Hunted
(Clash of Kingdoms #1)
by Erin Summerill
Published: December 27, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
________________

Seventeen year-old Britta Flannery is at ease only in the woods with her dagger and bow. She spends her days tracking criminals alongside her father, the legendary bounty hunter for the King of Malam—that is, until her father is murdered. Now outcast and alone and having no rights to her father’s land or inheritance, she seeks refuge where she feels most safe: the Ever Woods. When Britta is caught poaching by the royal guard, instead of facing the noose she is offered a deal: her freedom in exchange for her father’s killer.

However, it’s not so simple.

The alleged killer is none other than Cohen McKay, her father’s former apprentice. The only friend she’s ever known. The boy she once loved who broke her heart. She must go on a dangerous quest in a world of warring kingdoms, mad kings, and dark magic to find the real killer. But Britta wields more power than she knows. And soon she will learn what has always made her different will make her a daunting and dangerous force.

The Secret of a Heart Note
by Stacey Lee
Published: December 27, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

An evocative novel about a teen aroma expert who uses her extrasensitive sense of smell to mix perfumes that help others fall in love while protecting her own heart at all costs

Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, sixteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking—all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman’s son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn’t always a choice you can make.

At once hopeful, funny, and romantic, Stacey Lee’s The Secret of a Heart Note is a richly evocative coming-of-age story that gives a fresh perspective on falling in love and finding one’s place in the world.

SEQUELS:

Review: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

2016-12-15T02:33:00.000+08:00

The Sun Is Also a Star
by Nicola Yoon
Published: November 1, 2016

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

The reason why I’ve put off writing this review for a long time is: I am so conflicted. I don’t really know what I feel towards this book. The Sun Is Also a Star was one of my most anticipated read this 2016. The idea of love at first sight between a realist and a dreamer sounds very intriguing. It's basically like, "You can break everything down to chemicals but you can't explain a love like ours." That was my first thought when I heard what this book is about.

When I started The Sun Is Also a Star I was enjoying it but... when I put it down for the day I couldn’t make myself impulsively pick it up again. I started reading other books instead. More than a month later and I finally got myself to continue reading it. It was a pleasant reading experience in a way that it's easy to read, and you just keep reading it because you could fly through it in less that a day. I could’ve finished the whole book in one sitting.

I am not a fan of insta-love (not usually), nor am I a romantic, but I do believe in attraction at first sight and, yes, so maybe it’s possible to fall in love with a person in just one day - I just haven't proved it myself. My problem with this is… I didn’t feel the attraction, the chemistry, between Daniel and Natasha. I can be fine with insta-love in books. Isn't this why we love fiction? To make us readers believe for a moment that anything is possible? But I wan't convinced. Sometimes I found the writing a bit stilted. I think the factors for a great story were there but it just wasn't executed very well. I love the diversity, the glimpse of being an immigrant and the hardships that a person, a family, has to go through to fit into a community. The book is mainly told in Daniel and Natasha's perspective but there's also a lot of others mixed in. I liked the little facts that I learned in some chapters but I couldn't really see how it all makes up a whole - the connection not seamless. I feel bad but I wasn't emotionally attached to anything in here. Even Daniel and Natasha's character are bland :(

I think my sister really liked it, though. She was the one who did devour this book in one sitting. Despite my disappointment, I am still going to read Everything, Everything. It just sounds so intriguing for me not to pick it up (eventually). Who knows, I might end up enjoying it more than The Sun Is Also A Star.

*A copy of this book was sent by the publisher for review.

[BLOG TOUR] Review + Giveaway + Excerpt: Trophy Wife by Noelle Adams

2016-12-05T17:23:00.000+08:00

Welcome to my stop for this blog tour celebrating the release of Trophy Wife by Noelle Adams!

Trophy Wife
by Noelle Adams
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 6, 2016

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fooling Around comes a steamy novel about a pampered princess who’s starting over—and the hot guy next door who knows exactly how to melt that tiara right off.

Alison Davies used to just be a trophy wife. Now she’s just flat broke. Thanks to an ironclad prenup, she’s worse off than she was before the day she rushed down the aisle with a wealthy jerk eight years ago. After her steep fall from riches to rags, Alison refuses to shackle herself to any man who treats her like a possession—no matter how good he looks in a pair of well-worn jeans, or how his muscles ripple while he’s carrying her couch.

Underneath his rugged exterior, Rob West is a gentleman. So when he sees his beautiful new neighbor moving in, he’s going to help her out no matter how loudly she protests. In fact, Alison’s determination to go it alone just strengthens his resolve—and his desire to find out what makes her tick. But after one spur-of-the-moment tumble in the sheets, it’s clear that their connection goes way deeper. And that Rob won’t be happy until Alison surrenders to the passion they share.

Find out more at: Amazon / B&N / iBooks / Kobo

Well, I can’t say I have read many books with characters like Alison and Rob, and I liked it. Alison got married when she was 18 to a rich old man but not happy with her current lifestyle, she divorced her husband and moved to a small town determined to start working on her own dreams. Rob is divorced after two failed marriages and swore to himself not to make a fool of himself by choosing another mistake. Alison wants to learn how to stand on her own, and Rob refuses to open up and just wants to be needed. Perfect two, right? No.

From the moment I started this book I just couldn’t help but like Alison very much. I think she’s sweet and smart and hardworking. I just loved how she navigated this new path that she took. She’s really amusing sometimes and I just smile reading her parts. Rob’s a sweet guy, too. It’s understandable how he can be closed off about his feelings and vulnerability at times. He doesn’t want to fall prey to another woman who would end up playing him. Obviously, the casual relationship between these two would inevitably lead to something more but one of the things that I appreciated in this book was how both issues were kind of examined piece by piece until it was resolved. I liked how each of them realized their own faults and doing something about it. I also admired how they – Alison especially – value the opinion of their friends and family, take it into consideration, and actually admitting that, yes, you had a part in whatever happened to put that bump into your relationship. There were times when I thought the book was going a bit… meeeh but it hardly matters to what I feel for this book in general.

Overall, Trophy Wife was such a pleasant read. I’m glad I got to know these characters and that the brief time I spent with them they were able to lift my mood up. Treat yourself to this one.

*An ARC was sent by the publisher for review.

Giveaway:

1 grand prize winners will receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

5 runner-ups will receive an eBook of choice from Noelle’s backlist!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt from Trophy Wife:

She was leaning over into the trunk to gather up as many bags as she could carry when a voice behind her surprised her. “You need some help?”

She straightened up with a jerk, turning to see a man beside her wearing faded jeans and a white T-shirt. He looked to be in his thirties. He needed to shave and his brown hair was too long, and he had the rough look of a man who worked with his hands. He’d startled her so much she just stared at him.

“What?”

“Do you need some help?” he asked again, gesturing toward her trunk. “Carrying all that in?”

She frowned. Who the hell was this guy? And did she really look so helpless that she couldn’t unload her own trunk by herself. “Oh. No. I’ll be okay. Thank you.” Several bags were already hooked over her arms, so she gave him an absent smile and turned to walk up the steps to the front door.

She had some trouble getting her key into the door with the bags on her hand, but she’d almost gotten the door unlocked when she suddenly felt someone behind her, swinging open the storm door that had been propped against her back.

She gave a little squeal of surprise as she turned to see the man she’d thought she’d dismissed. He had twice as many bags hooked over his arms as she was able to carry.

“I’m Rob West,” he said with a slight mountain drawl in his deep voice. “I’m your neighbor across the street.”

She felt flustered now and annoyed that a strange man was walking into her house as if she’d invited him. “Okay, but I said I could get the bags by myself.”

“I was already over here. Why shouldn’t I help?”

Because she’d said she didn’t need his help. Any basically civil person would have respected her wishes. She really hoped everyone wasn’t as rude and pushy as this man was.

“Where’s all your furniture?” Rob asked, looking around the empty house after he’d dumped his load of bags on her kitchen counter.

“It’s in the basement. I just got here today.”

He focused his gaze on her, looking her up and down. His eyes were actually quite nice—a really deep, melting brown. “Are you Chris and Sharon’s girl?”

She was startled by the question, but then realized that, if he lived across the street, he’d probably known her parents. “Yes.”

“I thought you lived in the city.” He glanced down at her left hand, and she realized he was looking for a wedding ring.

She’d taken off her rings six months ago. “I’m moving here now.”

He nodded slowly, as if trying to piece together her situation, something he had no business knowing.

“Well, welcome to town. I’ll get the rest of your stuff.”

“I don’t need any—” she began.

He just ignored her, striding back outside as if she hadn’t spoken. Arthur had done that all the time—completely disregard what she was trying to say. She hated it.

Rob might be a small-town, blue-collared guy, but he obviously wasn’t all that different from Arthur at heart.

He came back into the house a minute later with another huge load of bags. She couldn’t help but notice he had really good shoulders, and his biceps were very impressive, clearly visible beneath his shirt sleeves as he held the bags. He set them on the opposite counter and then turned to look at her. “That’s it from the car. Do you want me to haul some stuff up from the basement for you? You at least need a chair or two and a bed.”

“I’m fine,” she said, managing to smile although she really wanted to scowl at him. “Thank you.”
He frowned. “You can’t get it all up yourself. Do you have some guys who are coming to help?”
Now she frowned too. “I said I was fine. Thank you.”

“What are you all snippy about?” he asked, looking at her curiously.

She gave a gasp of indignation at his clueless rudeness. “I’m snippy,” she bit out, “because I’ve said several times that I’m fine, and yet you refuse to listen to me.”

His expression relaxed into almost a smile, as if he’d finally figured out her mood. “Oh, I get it. I’m not some creepy asshole, so no need to worry about that. I live across the street. I knew your folks. I just figured you could use some help, especially since you’re all dressed up and everything.”

She looked down at herself in surprise. “I’m not dressed up!” She wore a sleeveless pale blue top, black capris, and sandals. The sandals had heels on them, but almost all of her shoes had heels. In terms of her wardrobe, the clothes were very casual.

He chuckled—a surprisingly pleasant sound. “Okay. If you say so.”

Allison heard a familiar sound just then—that damned toilet was running again, after she’d spent five minutes jiggling the handle before she left.

Rob must have heard the sound and seen her expression. “Sounds like it just needs a new flapper. I can look at it for you.” He actually turned around and took a step toward the bathroom.

“That’s okay,” Allison said quickly, relieved when he stopped at her words. “I’m sure I can take care of it.”

He turned to face her again, not looking like he believed her, but fortunately he didn’t argue. “There’s a hardware store in town—just a block down from Dora’s. You can get a new flapper, and they can talk you through replacing the old one.”

There was he was, assuming she’d need help again, based on nothing but her appearance. He could have no idea whether she was capable of fixing a toilet, and he shouldn’t make assumptions.

She didn’t like this guy at all. She really wanted him to leave.

She took a deep breath, making sure her voice was polite as she said, “I appreciate your help, and it was nice to meet you.”

“You really don’t mean that, do you?” he drawled, an irresistible half-smile on his face.

She narrowed her eyes. “I’d like to unpack my bags now.”

“Got it,” he said, still smiling as if privately amused. “I’ll see you around.”

Finally, he turned to leave. Allison was very glad to see him go, and it wasn’t because her eyes drifted down to his very nice ass as he walked away.

About Noelle Adams:

Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she reads any book she can get her hands on and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.

If you'd like to contact Noelle, please contact her at noelle.s.adams@gmail.com. Or connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

November 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

2016-12-03T03:38:00.000+08:00

Is anyone else freaking out that it's ALREADY DECEMBER? Seriously, as much as I am excited about a few things that will come this 2017, right now I really need the remaining days of 2016 to be calm and SLOW THE HECK DOWN. Oh-my-gosh. Is it obvious that I am freaking out? Because I am. Why? I have one word: DEADLINES.

On a positive note, despite the busy month (which is nothing new) I think I did pretty well on reading and blogging. At least not as bad as the previous months. And I didn't spend much on books even with all those sales this November! I ALSO did not watch any of the films that came out this month no matter how much I wanted to. The restraint, you guys.

November 2016 Reads:

Favorite November read: The Grift of the Magi by Ally Carter!

November Blog Posts:

October 2016 New Releases
October 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

November TBR
November 2016 New Releases

Review: The Bad Boy Bargain by Kendra C. Highley

[FIRST LOOK EVENT] Excerpt + Giveaway: Trophy Wife by Noelle Adams

[BLOG TOUR Spotlight] Review + Excerpt + Giveaway: The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangement by Jane Peden

That's it for November. Have a great month!

PS I'm sorry if some of my pages are not updated regularly. I will make time for them but right now... *sigh* life. Soon, I hope.

[BLOG TOUR Spotlight] Review + Excerpt + Giveaway: The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangement by Jane Peden

2016-11-28T06:00:00.000+08:00

Jane Peden returns with an all new Miami Lawyers novel releasing November 29, 2016. Maria is raising her 13-year old brother Joey alone, and it’s clear he’s headed for trouble. But what happens when the only man who can save Joey is the same man Maria holds responsible for destroying her family? Find out in this steamy must read Fall title which fans of Jackie Braun's Revenge Best Served Hot will love.

The Millionaire’s Convenient Arrangement
by Jane Peden
Publisher: Mr. Media
Release Date: November 29, 2016
Series: Miami Lawyers #2
Genre: Contemporary Series Romance
ISBN: 978-1-53762-788-5

Her worst enemy is the one man she can’t resist.

Maria Martinez thought it was a dream come true when Ritchie Perez—a sweet and sexy guy she met volunteering at a soup kitchen—took her delinquent little brother Joey under his wing. But her dream becomes a nightmare when she discovers Ritchie is the same man who put her twin brother Tito in prison for 10 years. Now Joey’s in trouble, and Ritchie’s been appointed his temporary guardian. He’ll be moving into Ritchie’s luxurious waterfront Miami home—unless he’d prefer a juvenile detention facility.

And if Maria wants to be with him, she’ll be moving in too.

Now a hugely successful attorney in private practice, Ritchie made his reputation as a tough prosecutor who didn’t make deals with drug dealers and gang members. But that history comes back to haunt him when the woman he’s falling for believes he’s responsible for convicting an innocent man, and destroying her family. Ritchie wants to stop Joey from making the same mistakes his brother did. And he wants Maria in his bed. But as desire heats their blood, will the past reach out and destroy their future?

Available at: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

I have mixed feelings towards this book. I was pretty excited to read it because the premise interested me. In fact, I started reading it as soon as I got my copy. The book started out quite well. I liked Ritchie, and I liked that Maria seemed to be immune to his charms. I admired her focus in doing her best to take care of his younger brother. I was really enjoying it up until the point when Maria started getting on my nerves.

Maria and Ritchie have barely started out a relationship when she found out that it was Ritchie who put his twin brother, Tito, to prison for 10 years. Ever since she became the sole guardian of her younger brother, Joey, she did her best to steer him away from the same road that led Tito behind bars. It’s hard to raise a kid as a single parent and when Joey had gotten into trouble it was Ritchie who came to their rescue. It was this conflict that actually drew my interest for this book. I get why Maria insists on being independent, her need to do things on her own, and hating Ritchie for what he did to her twin brother. But she is so stubborn to the point of unreasonable. She’s so jaded when it comes to some things like her twin brother’s situation. She keeps blaming Ritchie and points all the blame to him but never to Tito. She also refuses even the tiniest help from others especially Ritchie even though it’s clear how badly she needs it. I just don’t get her sometimes and it became really frustrating.

Despite that, I really did enjoy the book overall. I liked how it was wrapped up. They both admitted their faults and worked through things between them in order to meet halfway. That said, I am now really intrigued about the first book in this series, The Millionaire's Unexpected Proposal. It’s a second chance romance and I am a sucker for them.

*A copy was received from the publisher for review.

Giveaway:

Jane Peden is offering some wonderful prize to two (2) lucky winners during our virtual tour event. One (1) lucky winner will win Beach Tote Bag Prize Pack filled with a drink tumbler, note book with pen, sun glasses, salt water taffy, towel, and shells! And a second winner will receive a Kindle Fire! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt:

They were sitting at an outside café on the waterfront. Joey seemed to have rebounded quickly and managed to eat two burgers and a massive quantity of cheese fries. As soon as he finished, Maria had given him some money to go down the street and get ice cream so she could talk things over with Ritchie.

The second he was gone, she started, apparently realizing she needed to shift tactics and take a softer approach. Ritchie wondered how long it would take until that temper of hers took over again.

“Listen, I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate what you did for Joey – for both of us – this afternoon. But I can tell how much this has shaken Joey up. He’s not going to be a problem from here on.” She took a measured breath and continued.

“So, as much as I appreciate your offer to have Joey move in with you for six months, it’s really not necessary. We couldn’t disrupt your life that way.”

She smiled at him, and he knew it must have cost her. Humble was not her style.

“It doesn’t work that way, Maria,” he said, and watched the smile fade from her pretty face.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said.

“I mean, when you ask me to drop everything and run over to the courthouse and get Joey out of trouble, I’m happy to do that. And I was happy to take on responsibility for watching over him because that was what it took to keep the Judge from removing him and conducting a home study and dumping that kid into a system that’s going to hurt him more than it would ever help him. But when I make a commitment to help, I’m all in. Don’t expect me to put a temporary fix on this legal problem then step back and just wait for you to call me when the next crisis happens.”

He leaned forward. “Because the way things are headed, there will be a next crisis. And it won’t be as easy to make a deal with the prosecutor and the court next time.”

“I think you’re overstating it. This was a wake-up call for Joey. He’ll stay out of trouble from now on,” she said.

“Why not make it easier for him to do that? I like you, Maria. And I like Joey. He’s a good kid, and I want to help. But I don’t have time to run back and forth between your apartment and his school checking up on him.”

“I’m not asking you to do that.”

“That apartment isn’t big enough, and you know it. That’s why the best solution is for him to move into my house, where he has his own room. I can make sure he’s home when he’s supposed to be, he’s in the right school, and he’s doing the right kind of activities. You know he’s interested in sports. I can get him in some great programs after school and on weekends. No more hanging out with his friends from the old neighborhood, and no more sitting around an empty apartment thinking up ways to get in trouble while you’re at work.”

“So you’ll help him but only if it’s your way.” Her jaw was set stubbornly, and she narrowed her eyes, still holding onto her temper but clearly by a thin thread.

“That’s right. If you want me to help him, you have to give me a chance to do it my way.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then you might as well make a reservation for him to move into a cell with your brother Tito.”

Her face paled. “You knew,” she said, her voice a whisper. “You spent time with us, with Joey, you took me out on a date, you knew I was attracted to you. You kissed me,” she said, and a bit of the color came back into her face. “You must have realized that if I knew who you were, I’d hate you.”

Copyright © 2016 by Jane Peden

About Jane Peden:

Jane Peden is a Florida trial attorney who writes sexy contemporary category romances set in the exciting South Florida city of Miami, where millionaire lawyers live extravagant lifestyles and find love when they least expect it. When Jane isn’t in court, you can find her at the beach with her laptop, dreaming up stories about successful, confident men who know what they want and how to get it, and smart, sexy women who demand love on their own terms. Jane’s books promise sizzling chemistry in the face of insurmountable obstacles. And just when things couldn’t get any worse, an emotional payoff that makes it all worthwhile.

Jane grew up in the mountains of western Pennsylvania, but decided early on that the only thing better than escaping the cold for a two-week vacation at the beach was to live there all year around, so she traded her snow boots for a jet ski and has never looked back. Jane lives on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida with her husband, two kids, two dogs, and a fish.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

November 2016 New Releases

2016-11-26T02:29:00.000+08:00

New Book Releases this November 2016

*cover image links to Goodreads*

Faithful
by Alice Hoffman
Published: November 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate.

Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt.

What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night.

Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap.

The Diabolic
by S.J. Kincaid
Published: November 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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A Diabolic is ruthless. A Diabolic is powerful. A Diabolic has a single task: Kill in order to protect the person you’ve been created for.

Nemesis is a Diabolic, a humanoid teenager created to protect a galactic senator’s daughter, Sidonia. The two have grown up side by side, but are in no way sisters. Nemesis is expected to give her life for Sidonia, and she would do so gladly. She would also take as many lives as necessary to keep Sidonia safe.

When the power-mad Emperor learns Sidonia’s father is participating in a rebellion, he summons Sidonia to the Galactic court. She is to serve as a hostage. Now, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia. She must become her. Nemesis travels to the court disguised as Sidonia—a killing machine masquerading in a world of corrupt politicians and two-faced senators’ children. It’s a nest of vipers with threats on every side, but Nemesis must keep her true abilities a secret or risk everything.

As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns there is something more to her than just deadly force. She finds a humanity truer than what she encounters from most humans. Amidst all the danger, action, and intrigue, her humanity just might be the thing that saves her life—and the empire.

The Amateurs
(The Amateurs #1)
by Sara Shepard
Published: November 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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I need some answers about my sister. Help…

Five years ago, high school senior Helena Kelly disappeared from her backyard in Dexby, Connecticut, never to be heard from again. Her family was left without any answers—without any idea who killed Helena, or why.

So when eighteen-year-old Seneca Frazier sees a desperate post on the Case Not Closed message board, she knows it’s time to change that. Helena’s high-profile disappearance is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It’s the reason she’s a member of the site in the first place.

Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, she agrees to spend spring break in Connecticut working on the case with Maddy Wright, her best friend from Case Not Closed. However, the moment she steps off the train, things start to go wrong. Maddy’s nothing like she expected, and Helena’s sister, Aerin, doesn’t seem to want any help after all. Plus, Seneca has a secret of her own, one that could derail the investigation if she’s not careful.

Alongside Brett, another super-user from the site, they slowly begin to unravel the secrets Helena kept in the weeks before her disappearance. But the killer is watching…and determined to make sure the case stays cold.

The Romantics
by Leah Konen
Published: November 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Perfect for fans of Lauren Myracle and Rainbow Rowell, The Romantics will charm readers of all ages.

Gael Brennan is about to have his heart broken when his first big relationship crumbles on the heels of his parents’ painful separation. Love intervenes with the intention of setting things right—but she doesn’t anticipate the intrusion of her dreaded nemesis: the Rebound. Love’s plans for Gael are sidetracked by Cara, Gael’s hot-sauce-wielding “dream girl.” The more Love meddles, the further Gael drifts from the one girl who can help him mend his heart. Soon Love starts breaking all her own rules—and in order to set Gael’s fate back on course, she has to make some tough decisions about what it means to truly care.

The Sun Is Also a Star
by Nicola Yoon
Published: November 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

You in Five Acts
by Una LaMarche
Published: November 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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It’s always been you—you know that, right?

Five friends at a prestigious New York City performing arts school connect over one dream: stardom. For Joy, Diego, Liv, Ethan and Dave, that dream falters under the pressure of second semester, senior year. Ambitions shift and change, new emotions rush to the surface, and a sense of urgency pulses among them: Their time together is running out.

Diego hopes to get out of the friend zone. Liv wants to escape, losing herself in fantasies of the new guy. Ethan conspires to turn his muse into his girlfriend. Dave pines for the drama queen. And if Joy doesn’t open her eyes, she could lose the love that’s been in front of her all along.

Timekeeper
(Timekeeper #1)
by Tara Sim
Published: November 8, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Two o’clock was missing.

In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors.

And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems. Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve.

But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

All in Pieces
by Suzanne Young
Published: November 8, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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“Anger-management issues.”

That’s how they classified Savannah Sutton after she stuck a pencil in her ex-boyfriend’s hand because he mocked her little brother, Evan, for being disabled. That’s why they sent her to Brooks Academy—an alternative high school that’s used as a temporary detention center.

The days at Brooks are miserable, but at home, life is far more bleak. Savvy’s struggling to take care of her brother since her mom left years ago, and her alcoholic dad can’t be bothered. Life with Evan is a constant challenge, but he’s also the most important person in the world to Savvy.

Then there’s Cameron, a new student at Brooks with issues of his own, a guy from a perfect family that Savvy thought only existed on TV. Cameron seems determined to break through every one of the walls Savvy’s built around herself—except if she lets herself trust him, it could make everything she’s worked so hard for fall apart in an instant.

And with her aunt seeking custody of her brother and her ex-boyfriend seeking revenge, Savvy’s fighting to hold all the pieces together. But she’s not sure how much tighter she can be pulled before she breaks completely.

Dead Girls Society
by Michelle Krys
Published: November 8, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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You are cordially invited to participate in a game of thrills and dares. Tell no one, and come alone. If you dare.

Hope is sick of everyone treating her like she’s breakable. Sure, she has cystic fibrosis (basically really bad lungs), but she’s tired of being babied by her mom and her overprotective best friend, Ethan, not to mention worrying about paying for her expensive medication and how she’s going to afford college. And she’s bored with life in her run-down New Orleans suburb.

When an invitation arrives from a mysterious group that calls itself the Society, Hope jumps at the chance for some excitement. This could be her ticket out. All she has to do is complete a few dares and she might win some real money.

But the Society isn’t all it seems . . . and soon Hope finds that playing the game isn’t a choice—it’s a requirement.

Heartless
by Marissa Meyer
Published: November 8, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland and a favorite of the unmarried King, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, she wants to open a shop and create delectable pastries. But for her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for a woman who could be a queen.

At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the King’s marriage proposal, she meets handsome and mysterious Jest. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into a secret courtship.

Cath is determined to choose her own destiny. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

The Bad Boy Bargain
by Kendra C. Highley
Published: November 14, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Baseball player Kyle Sawyer has many labels: bad boy, delinquent, ladies’ man, fearless outfielder… Only one of them is actually true. But then sweet ballet dancer Faith Gladwell asks him to help wreck her reputation, and everything goes sideways.

Faith knows a thing or two about love, and what she had with her cheating jerk of an ex wasn’t it. When he starts spreading rumors about her being an Ice Queen, Faith decides it’s time to let a little bad into her life.

Lucky for her, Kyle Sawyer—dark, dangerous, totally swoonworthy Kyle Sawyer—is landscaping her backyard over Spring Break. Shirtless. And if she can convince him to play along, “dating” Kyle will silence the rumors.

But Faith’s plan threatens to expose Sawyer’s biggest secret of all…and that’s a risk he’s not willing to take.

Disclaimer: This book contains drop-the-book-and-fan-yourself kisses...and touches. Fall in love with a bad boy at your own risk.

Flashfall
(Flashfall #1)
by Jenny Moyer
Published: November 15, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Orion is a Subpar, expected to mine the tunnels of Outpost Five, near the deadly flash curtain. For generations, her people have chased cirium—the only element that can shield humanity from the curtain’s radioactive particles. She and her caving partner, Dram work the most treacherous tunnel, fighting past flash bats and tunnel gulls, in hopes of mining enough cirium to earn their way into the protected city.

But when newcomers arrive at Outpost Five, Orion uncovers disturbing revelations that make her question everything she thought she knew about life on both sides of the cirium shield. As conditions at the outpost grow increasingly dangerous, it’s up to Orion to forge a way past the flashfall, beyond all boundaries, beyond the world as she knows it.

This Is Our Story
by Ashley Elston
Published: November 15, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Five went in. Four came out.

No one knows what happened that morning at River Point. Five boys went hunting. Four came back. The boys won’t say who fired the shot that killed their friend; the evidence shows it could have been any one of them.

Kate Marino’s senior year internship at the district attorney’s office isn’t exactly glamorous—more like an excuse to leave school early that looks good on college applications. Then the DA hands her boss, Mr. Stone, the biggest case her small town of Belle Terre has ever seen. The River Point Boys are all anyone can talk about. Despite their damning toxicology reports the morning of the accident, the DA wants the boys’ case swept under the rug. He owes his political office to their powerful families.

Kate won’t let that happen. Digging up secrets without revealing her own is a dangerous line to walk; Kate has her own reasons for seeking justice for Grant. As investigates with Stone, the aging prosecutor relying on Kate to see and hear what he cannot, she realizes that nothing about the case—or the boys—is what it seems. Grant wasn’t who she thought he was, and neither is Stone’s prime suspect. As Kate gets dangerously close to the truth, it becomes clear that the early morning accident might not have been an accident at all—and if Kate doesn’t uncover the true killer, more than one life could be on the line…including her own.

Fate of Flames
(Effigies #1)
by Sarah Raughley
Published: November 22, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Four girls with the power to control the elements and save the world from a terrible evil must come together in the first epic novel in a brand-new series.

When Phantoms—massive beasts made from nightmares and darkness—suddenly appeared and began terrorizing the world, four girls, the Effigies, each gained a unique power to control one of the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Since then, four girls across the world have continually fought against the Phantoms, fulfilling their cosmic duty. And when one Effigy dies, another girl gains her power as a replacement.

But now, with technologies in place to protect the world’s major cities from Phantom attacks, the Effigies have stopped defending humanity and, instead, have become international celebrities, with their heroic feats ranked, televised, and talked about in online fandoms.

Until the day that New York City’s protection against the Phantoms fails, a man seems to be able to control them by sheer force of will, and Maia, a high school student, unexpectedly becomes the Fire Effigy.

Now Maia has been thrown into battle with three girls who want nothing to do with one another. But with the first human villain that the girls have ever faced, and an army of Phantoms preparing for attack, there isn’t much time for the Effigies to learn how to work together.

Can the girls take control of their destinies before the world is destroyed forever?

Of Fire and Stars
by Audrey Coulthurst
Published: November 22, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile lands. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a kingdom where magic is forbidden.

Now, Denna must learn the ways of her new home while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses before her coronation—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine (called Mare), sister of her betrothed.

When a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling, Mare and Denna reluctantly join forces to search for the culprit. As the two work together, each discovers there’s more to the other than she thought. Mare is surprised by Denna’s intelligence and bravery, while Denna is drawn to Mare’s independent streak. Soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more.

But with dangerous conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, acting on their feelings could be deadly. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.

Scythe
(Arc of a Scythe #1)
by Neal Shusterman
Published: November 22, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional reapers (“scythes”). Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe’s apprentices, and—despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation—they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do.

Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives.

Shadow Fall
(Shadow Fall #1)
by Audrey Grey
Published: November 22, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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The asteroid hurtling toward the earth will kill billions.

The Emperor and his Gold Court will be safe in their space station, watching from the stars. The Silvers will be protected underground. But the Bronzes must fight it out at the Shadow Trials for the few remaining spots left on the space station.

When an enigmatic benefactor hands Maia Graystone a spot in the Trials, she won’t just get a chance at salvation for her and her baby brother, Max: She gets to confront the mother who abandoned her in prison, the mad Emperor who murdered her father, and the Gold prince who once loved her. But it’s the dark bastard prince she’s partnered with that will make her question everything, including her own heart. With the asteroid racing closer every day, Maia must trust someone to survive.

The question is who?

Sequels:

[FIRST LOOK EVENT] Excerpt + Giveaway: Trophy Wife by Noelle Adams

2016-11-17T12:00:00.000+08:00

Celebrate the release of Trophy Wife by Noelle Adams with an exclusive First Look!

Trophy Wife

by Noelle Adams

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: December 6, 2016

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fooling Around comes a steamy novel about a pampered princess who’s starting over—and the hot guy next door who knows exactly how to melt that tiara right off.

Alison Davies used to just be a trophy wife. Now she’s just flat broke. Thanks to an ironclad prenup, she’s worse off than she was before the day she rushed down the aisle with a wealthy jerk eight years ago. After her steep fall from riches to rags, Alison refuses to shackle herself to any man who treats her like a possession—no matter how good he looks in a pair of well-worn jeans, or how his muscles ripple while he’s carrying her couch.

Underneath his rugged exterior, Rob West is a gentleman. So when he sees his beautiful new neighbor moving in, he’s going to help her out no matter how loudly she protests. In fact, Alison’s determination to go it alone just strengthens his resolve—and his desire to find out what makes her tick. But after one spur-of-the-moment tumble in the sheets, it’s clear that their connection goes way deeper. And that Rob won’t be happy until Alison surrenders to the passion they share.

Find out more at: Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

Excerpt from Trophy Wife:

“But you seem so strong and…and in control.”

Rob relaxed, feeling a lot better at her words. “Uh, thanks, but I haven’t always felt this way.”

“What did you do to feel in control again?” She seemed to really want to know, really want him to help her.

There was nothing he could tell her but the truth. “You just make a decision to stay the person you’ve always been, the person you really are.”

She dropped her eyes and let out a long breath. “I’m not sure I even know how to do that.” She sounded defeated.

He couldn’t stand for her to feel that way—not when she was obviously so brave and so resilient. He reached out to tilt her face up so she was meeting his eyes again. “Yes, you do. Look at what you’ve already done—in just one week. I don’t think you have any idea how much you can do.”

Her face melted. It was the only way to describe it. She looked grateful and warm and tender, and Rob couldn't resist it.

He leaned forward, tilting his head down until he could meet her lips with his.

He wasn’t sure how she would respond, so he was prepared to pull back immediately. But she gave a little hitch of breath and one of her hands moved up to his shoulder. His body starting to throb with excitement, he deepened the kiss, leaning into it, letting his tongue tease the line of her lips.

She was soft and warm and responsive, and her mouth parted for his as she adjusted to get closer to him. Her other hand moved to tangle in his hair.

Both of them were dirty and sweaty, but it just didn’t matter. Rob was completely into the kiss, lost in the feeling and sensations and the hot sweetness she was so eagerly offering him.

It went on long enough for his body to respond, and the pulsing of his groin was a painful sort of pleasure. She was making little whimpering noises and fisting her hand in his hair, and he suddenly realized he’d better pull back or he was going to take her right there on the dirt of her backyard.

With effort, he released her and leaned back, willing his arousal to back down a little. Allison was coming off of a difficult divorce. She wasn’t likely to want to jump into bed with a guy she’d known for just a week.

Allison’s cheeks were deeply flushed, and she was panting as she stared at him.

They just looked at each other for a long time, during which Rob continued to fight a battle with his body not to pull her back into his arms.

“I…” Allison began at last. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I know.” His voice sounded too thick, so he cleared his throat. “I…” He wasn’t going to apologize. He wasn’t the least bit sorry. He had no idea what else to say, though.

Allison evidently did know. She rubbed her face and took a few deep breaths. “It was…it was a good kiss, but I’m not…I’m not looking for a relationship.”

The excitement in his chest dropped in an instant with a painful thud.

Giveaway:

1 grand prize winners will receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

5 runner-ups will receive an eBook of choice from Noelle’s backlist!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Noelle Adams:

Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she reads any book she can get her hands on and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.

If you'd like to contact Noelle, please contact her at noelle.s.adams@gmail.com. Or connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Review: The Bad Boy Bargain by Kendra C. Highley

2016-11-11T04:34:00.000+08:00

The Bad Boy Bargain
by Kendra C. Highley
Published: November 14, 2016

Baseball player Kyle Sawyer has many labels: bad boy, delinquent, ladies’ man, fearless outfielder… Only one of them is actually true. But then sweet ballet dancer Faith Gladwell asks him to help wreck her reputation, and everything goes sideways.

Faith knows a thing or two about love, and what she had with her cheating jerk of an ex wasn’t it. When he starts spreading rumors about her being an Ice Queen, Faith decides it’s time to let a little bad into her life.

Lucky for her, Kyle Sawyer—dark, dangerous, totally swoonworthy Kyle Sawyer—is landscaping her backyard over Spring Break. Shirtless. And if she can convince him to play along, “dating” Kyle will silence the rumors.

But Faith’s plan threatens to expose Sawyer’s biggest secret of all…and that’s a risk he’s not willing to take.

I’ve read many YA contemporaries but I admit that I don’t like a lot of them. Contemporaries are not my most favorite genre. A few months back, I read Kendra Highley’s book, Finding Perfect – a YA contemporary that I really, really liked, so of course I was going to read her new book, The Bad Boy Bargain. I have a soft spot for “bad boys” in books, if you don’t know, and Kyle Sawyer is… kind of one.

Kyle Sawyer is the type of guy you don’t often see in YA. He hides behind the bad boy persona to deal with the bullies but in a way that doesn’t also turn him into one. People assume things with the way he keeps to himself, the way he carries himself, the rumors, and the lies, but it’s all just talk. What I see is this really admirable guy who just wants to be himself and survive the day without the bullies who make fun and hurt him for either his shortcomings or his accomplishments. It was meeting Faith that made him braver to deal with his fear and admit to himself that it’s perfectly okay to be yourself. This right here is what sets this book apart from those contemporaries that I usually think are the same ol’ same ol’. Despite the cliché circumstances and a few cheesy moments, I like that the story revolves around something that’s actually meaningful and relatable to teens, and was properly resolved. I also liked the involvement of the parentals. Most parents in books are almost always MIA, neglectful, couldn’t care less, or shown in a bad light. Those really bother me sometimes because while I know that parents like these exist, it also does not mean that all parents are like that. Kyle’s dad isn’t around most of the time because of work but he isn’t bad. He also has his granddad – his VERY cool granddad – who really cares and obviously loves him. Faith’s parents are also protective as expected but humble and laid-back. I admire Kyle’s hardworking character. It’s very motivating, to be honest. His dyslexia may mean that he doesn’t do well in school but he makes sure to ask his granddad for help in doing his homework, and he does very well in other fields. He’s a nice, talented, and resourceful kid, and I’m pretty sure I love him. Ooh, I also enjoyed the ballet parts.

My sister really enjoyed this book, too – I can attest to that. That’s right; she’s read it, too. In fact, she read it faster than I did. She wouldn’t let go of my phone so she can read the book in my Kindle app. She was giggling like crazy. She said that it was really fun and like watching a rom-com. Well, I have to agree. The Bad Boy Bargain is a super fun read I would recommend to anyone who would listen. Look this one up if you’re looking for something to devour in one sitting.

*An advanced reading copy of the book was sent by the publisher for review.

November TBR

2016-11-07T03:33:00.002+08:00

We only have less than two months left before 2016 ends and I am still far from reaching my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal. At this point it is safe to say that I am going to fail it. For the first time in 5 years I am going to fail my Goodreads Reading Challenge!!! *insert sad faced emoji* This sucks.

Even so, I am not losing hope. I may not be able to read 100 books this year but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop reading (never gonna happen). I am still trying my best to beat this annoying reading slump that's taken hold of me since May (seriously, longest reading slump EVER). It wasn't really that I am not in the mood to read AT ALL. It's just that I can't seem to finish the books I am reading. I have started SO many books this year that I wasn't able to finish for some reason. Not officially a DNF (did-not-finish) that I don't plan to finish ever, more like a I-lost-interest-so-maybe-next-time. So this month's goal is to finally pick up and FINISH all those books that I have left... well, unfinished.

November TBR

So far I have only finished The Bad Boy Bargain by Kendra C. Highley. The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangement by Jane Peden is next. I really, really hope I get to finish them all this November. I am more than halfway through most of them so it won't take much time at all and I probably will be able to sneak in some books to read that are not in this list :P

What are you reading this November?

Have a great month! ;)

October 2016 New Releases

2016-11-05T15:22:00.000+08:00

New Book Releases this October 2016

*cover image links to Goodreads*

Bedmates
(American Royalty #1)
by Nichole Chase
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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From the bestselling author of Suddenly Royal comes the first in a sparkling new series about America’s favorite royal—the First Daughter.

Everyone makes mistakes, especially in college. But when you’re the daughter of the President of the United States, any little slip up is a huge embarrassment. Maddie McGuire’s latest error in judgment lands her in police custody, giving the press a field day. Agreeing to do community service as penance and to restore her tattered reputation, Maddie never dreams incredibly good looking but extremely annoying vice president’s son, Jake Simmon, will be along for the ride.

Recently returning from Afghanistan with a life-altering injury, Jake is wrestling with his own demons. He doesn’t have the time or patience to deal with the likes of Maddie. They’re like oil and water and every time they’re together, it’s combustible. But there’s a thin line between love and hate, and it’s not long before their fiery arguments give way to infinitely sexier encounters.

When Jake receives devastating news about the last remaining member of his unit, the darkness he’s resisted for so long begins to overwhelm him. Scared to let anyone close, he pushes Maddie away. But she isn’t about to give up on Jake that easily. Maddie’s fallen for him, and she’ll do anything to keep him from the edge as they both discover that love is a battlefield and there are some fights you just can’t lose.

Holding Up the Universe
by Jennifer Niven
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for EVERY POSSIBILITY LIFE HAS TO OFFER. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything.

Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can’t recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He’s the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything in new and bad-ass ways, but he can’t understand what’s going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don’t get too close to anyone.

Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. . . . Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.

Jennifer Niven delivers another poignant, exhilarating love story about finding that person who sees you for who you are—and seeing them right back.

Nemesis
(Nemesis #1)
by Anna Banks
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Princess Sepora of Serubel is the last Forger in all the five kingdoms. The spectorium she creates provides energy for all, but now her father has found a way to weaponize it, and his intentions to incite war force her to flee his grasp. She escapes across enemy lines into the kingdom of Theoria, but her plans to hide are thwarted when she is captured and placed in the young king’s servitude.

Tarik has just taken over rulership of Theoria, and must now face a new plague sweeping through his kingdom and killing his citizens. The last thing he needs is a troublesome servant vying for his attention. But Mistress Sepora will not be ignored. When the two finally meet face-to-face, they form an unlikely bond that complicates life in ways neither of them could have imagined.

Sepora's gift may be able to save Tarik’s kingdom. But should she risk exposing herself and her growing feelings for her nemesis?

Our Chemical Hearts
by Krystal Sutherland
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.

Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland's brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.

Replica
(Replica #1)
by Lauren Oliver
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Two girls, two stories, one epic novel.

From Lauren Oliver, New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy, comes an epic, masterful novel that explores issues of individuality, identity, and humanity. Replica is a “flip book" that contains two narratives in one, and it is the first in a duology. Turn the book one way and read Lyra's story; turn the book over and upside down and read Gemma's story. The stories can be read separately, one after the other, or in alternating chapters. The two distinct parts of this astonishing novel combine to produce an unforgettable journey. Even the innovative book jacket mirrors and extends the reading experience.

Lyra's story begins in the Haven Institute, a building tucked away on a private island off the coast of Florida that from a distance looks serene and even beautiful. But up close the locked doors, military guards, and biohazard suits tell a different story. In truth, Haven is a clandestine research facility where thousands of replicas, or human models, are born, raised, and observed. When a surprise attack is launched on Haven, two of its young experimental subjects—Lyra, or 24, and the boy known only as 72—manage to escape.

Gemma has been in and out of hospitals for as long as she can remember. A lonely teen, her life is circumscribed by home, school, and her best friend, April. But after she is nearly abducted by a stranger claiming to know her, Gemma starts to investigate her family's past and discovers her father's mysterious connection to the secretive Haven research facility. Hungry for answers, she travels to Florida, only to stumble upon two replicas and a completely new set of questions.

While the stories of Lyra and Gemma mirror each other, each contains breathtaking revelations critically important to the other story. Replica is an ambitious, thought-provoking masterwork.

Something in Between
by Melissa de la Cruz
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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It feels like there’s no ground beneath me, like everything I’ve ever done has been a lie. Like I’m breaking apart, shattering. Who am I? Where do I belong?

Jasmine de los Santos has always done what’s expected of her. Pretty and popular, she’s studied hard, made her Filipino immigrant parents proud and is ready to reap the rewards in the form of a full college scholarship.

And then everything shatters. A national scholar award invitation compels her parents to reveal the truth: their visas expired years ago. Her entire family is illegal. That means no scholarships, maybe no college at all and the very real threat of deportation.

For the first time, Jasmine rebels, trying all those teen things she never had time for in the past. Even as she’s trying to make sense of her new world, it’s turned upside down by Royce Blakely, the charming son of a high-ranking congressman. Jasmine no longer has any idea where—or if—she fits into the American Dream. All she knows is that she’s not giving up. Because when the rules you lived by no longer apply, the only thing to do is make up your own.

Spare and Found Parts
by Sarah Maria Griffin
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Nell Crane has always been an outsider. In a city devastated by an epidemic, where survivors are all missing parts—an arm, a leg, an eye—her father is the famed scientist who created the biomechanical limbs everyone now uses. But Nell is the only one whose mechanical piece is on the inside: her heart. Since the childhood operation, she has ticked. Like a clock, like a bomb. As her community rebuilds, everyone is expected to contribute to the society’s good . . . but how can Nell live up to her father’s revolutionary idea when she has none of her own?

Then she finds a mannequin hand while salvaging on the beach—the first boy’s hand she’s ever held—and inspiration strikes. Can Nell build her own companion in a world that fears advanced technology? The deeper she sinks into this plan, the more she learns about her city—and her father, who is hiding secret experiments of his own.

The Lovely Reckless
by Kami Garcia
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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I’ve become an expert at avoiding things that could hurt me—which means I will figure out how to stay away from Marco Leone.

Seventeen-year-old Frankie Devereux would do anything to forget the past. Haunted by the memory of her boyfriend’s death, she lives her life by one dangerous rule: Nothing matters. At least, that’s what Frankie tells herself after a reckless mistake forces her to leave her privileged life in the Heights to move in with her dad—an undercover cop. She transfers to a public high school in the Downs, where fistfights don’t faze anyone and illegal street racing is more popular than football.

Marco Leone is the fastest street racer in the Downs. Tough, sexy, and hypnotic, he makes it impossible for Frankie to ignore him—and how he makes her feel. But the risks Marco takes for his family could have devastating consequences for them both. When Frankie discovers his secret, she has to make a choice. Will she let the pain of the past determine her future? Or will she risk what little she has left to follow her heart?

When the Moon Was Ours
by Anna-Marie McLemore
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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When the Moon Was Ours follows two characters through a story that has multicultural elements and magical realism, but also has central LGBT themes—a transgender boy, the best friend he’s falling in love with, and both of them deciding how they want to define themselves.

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town.

But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Yesternight
by Cat Winters
Published: October 4, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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From the author of The Uninvited comes a haunting historical novel with a compelling mystery at its core. A young child psychologist steps off a train, her destination a foggy seaside town. There, she begins a journey causing her to question everything she believes about life, death, memories, and reincarnation.

In 1925, Alice Lind steps off a train in the rain-soaked coastal hamlet of Gordon Bay, Oregon. There, she expects to do nothing more difficult than administer IQ tests to a group of rural schoolchildren. A trained psychologist, Alice believes mysteries of the mind can be unlocked scientifically, but now her views are about to be challenged by one curious child.

Seven-year-old Janie O’Daire is a mathematical genius, which is surprising. But what is disturbing are the stories she tells: that her name was once Violet, she grew up in Kansas decades earlier, and she drowned at age nineteen. Alice delves into these stories, at first believing they’re no more than the product of the girl’s vast imagination. But, slowly, Alice comes to the realization that Janie might indeed be telling a strange truth.

Alice knows the investigation may endanger her already shaky professional reputation, and as a woman in a field dominated by men she has no room for mistakes. But she is unprepared for the ways it will illuminate terrifying mysteries within her own past, and in the process, irrevocably change her life.

Beast
by Brie Spangler
Published: October 11, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Tall, meaty, muscle-bound, and hairier than most throw rugs, Dylan doesn’t look like your average fifteen-year-old, so, naturally, high school has not been kind to him. To make matters worse, on the day his school bans hats (his preferred camouflage), Dylan goes up on his roof only to fall and wake up in the hospital with a broken leg—and a mandate to attend group therapy for self-harmers.

Dylan vows to say nothing and zones out at therapy—until he meets Jamie. She’s funny, smart, and so stunning, even his womanizing best friend, JP, would be jealous. She’s also the first person to ever call Dylan out on his self-pitying and superficiality. As Jamie’s humanity and wisdom begin to rub off on Dylan, they become more than just friends. But there is something Dylan doesn’t know about Jamie, something she shared with the group the day he wasn’t listening. Something that shouldn’t change a thing. She is who she’s always been—an amazing photographer and devoted friend, who also happens to be transgender. But will Dylan see it that way?

Bound by Blood and Sand
(Untitled Series #1)
by Becky Allen
Published: October 11, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Jae is a slave in a dying desert world.

Once verdant with water from a magical Well, the land is drying up, and no one remembers the magic needed to keep the water flowing. If a new source isn’t found soon, the people will perish. Jae doesn’t mind, in a way. By law, she is bound by a curse to obey every order given her, no matter how vile. At least in death, she’ll be free.

Lord Elan’s family rules the fading realm. He comes to the estate where Jae works, searching for the hidden magic needed to replenish the Well, but it’s Jae who finds it, and she who must wield it. Desperate to save his realm, Elan begs her to use it to locate the Well.

But why would a slave—abused, beaten, and treated as less than human—want to save the system that shackles her? Jae would rather see the world burn.

Though revenge clouds her vision, she agrees to help if the kingdom’s slaves are freed. Then Elan’s father arrives. The ruler’s cruelty knows no limits. He is determined that the class system will not change—and that Jae will remain a slave forever.

My Unscripted Life
by Lauren Morrill
Published: October 11, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Sometimes love stories go off script.

Another sultry Georgia summer is about to get a lot hotter. Dee Wilkie is still licking her wounds after getting rejected by the precollege fine arts program of her dreams. But if she'd gone away, she wouldn't have been around to say yes to an unbelievable opportunity: working on the set of a movie filming in her small Southern town that just happens to be starring Milo Ritter, the famous pop star Dee (along with the rest of the world) has had a crush since eighth grade.

It's not like Dee will be sharing any screen time with Milo—she's just a lowly PA. And Milo is so disappointingly rude that Dee is eager to stay far away from him. Except after a few chance meetings, she begins to wonder if just maybe there's a reason for his offensive attitude, and if there's more to Milo than his good looks and above-it-all Hollywood pedigree. Can a relationship with a guy like Milo ever work out for a girl like Dee? Never say never. . .

Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil
by Melina Marchetta
Published: October 11, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Bashir “Bish” Ortley is a London desk cop. Almost over it. Still not dealing with the death of his son years ago, as well as the break-up of his marriage.

Across the channel, a summer bus tour, carrying a group of English teenagers is subject to a deadly bomb attack, killing four of the passengers and injuring a handful of others. Bish’s daughter is one of those on board.

The suspect is 17 year old Violette LeBrac whose grandfather was responsible for a bombing that claimed the lives of dozens of people fourteen years ago; and whose mother, Noor, has been serving a life sentence for the part she was supposed to have played in the attack.

As Bish is dragged into the search for the missing Violette, he finds himself reluctantly working with Noor LeBrac and her younger brother, Jimmy Sarraf.

And the more he delves into the lives of the family he helped put away, the more Bish realizes that they may have got it wrong all those years ago, and that truth wears many colours. Especially when it comes to the teenagers on board the recent bus bombing. Including his daughter.

Tell the truth. Shame the devil. Bish can’t get Violette LeBrac’s words out of his head. But what he may get is some sort of peace with his own past as the worlds of those involved in two bombings, years apart, collide into the journey of his life.

What Light
by Jay Asher
Published: October 11, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other.

Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.

By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb's past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and, maybe, redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions, and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

What Light is a love story that's moving and life-affirming and completely unforgettable.

A Study in Scarlet Women
(Lady Sherlock #1)
by Sherry Thomas
Published: October 18, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down…

With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.

When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.

Royally Screwed
(Royally #1)
by Emma Chase
Published: October 18, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, Crowned Prince of Wessco, aka His Royal Hotness, is wickedly charming, devastatingly handsome, and unabashedly arrogant; hard not to be when people are constantly bowing down to you.

Then, one snowy night in Manhattan, the prince meets a dark haired beauty who doesn't bow down. Instead, she throws a pie in his face.

Nicholas wants to find out if she tastes as good as her pie, and this heir apparent is used to getting what he wants.

Dating a prince isn't what waitress Olivia Hammond ever imagined it would be.

There's a disapproving queen, a wildly inappropriate spare heir, relentless paparazzi, and brutal public scrutiny. While they've traded in horse drawn carriages for Rolls Royces, and haven't chopped anyone's head off lately, the royals are far from accepting of this commoner.

But to Olivia, Nicholas is worth it.

Nicholas grew up with the whole world watching, and now Marriage Watch is in full force. In the end, Nicholas has to decide who he is and, more importantly, who he wants to be: a King... or the man who gets to love Olivia forever.

Blood Red Snow White
by Marcus Sedgwick
Published: October 25, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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There never was a story that was happy through and through.

When writer Arthur Ransome leaves his home in England and moves to Russia to work as a journalist, it is with little idea of the violent revolution about to erupt. Unwittingly, he finds himself at its center, tapped by the British to report back on the Bolsheviks even as he becomes dangerously romantically entangled with revolutionary leader Trotsky’s personal secretary. Both sides seek to use Arthur for their own purposes…and, as he struggles to find autonomy, both sides grow to suspect him of being a double agent. Arthur wants only to elope far from the conflict with his beloved. But when he attempts to extract himself and Evgenia from the complicated politics and politicians that he fears will lead them both to their deaths, the decisions he faces are the most dangerous and difficult of his life.

Sequels

October 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

2016-11-03T02:09:00.000+08:00

These past weeks have been busier than usual. I've been out of town a lot and didn't really get a chance to spend valuable time with my laptop. I missed quite a few blog posts I've been meaning to do and for that I am sorry. I will do my best to catch up as soon as I can especially in reviews! Megosh. Adulting is exhausting *LOL*

Anyway, it's already November and what-the-heck I am still in a reading slump. I can't believe I've been in a reading slump for more than half of 2016! It's very frustrating.

October Reads

I was only able to read four books this October. I actually started reading more than that but I didn't get to finish them because, as I have said, buuuuusssy :(

Best read of the month was And I Darken by Kiersten White!

October 2016 Blog Posts:

September 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

October 2016 TBR

Review: And I Darken by Kiersten White

[RELEASE EVENT] Review + Excerpt + Giveaway: A Fool For You by Katee Robert

COVER RE-REVEAL + Giveaway: Cinder and Ella by Kelly Oram + More Exciting News!

Review: And I Darken by Kiersten White

2016-10-19T02:16:00.000+08:00

And I Darken
(Conqueror's Saga, #1)
by Kiersten White
Published: July 7, 2016

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.

Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.

Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.

The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she'll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive.

I've read most of Kiersten White's books and really liked, if not loved, them. That alone is enough to make me read any of her future books. When I learned that her latest release, And I Darken, is about a female Vlad the Impaler... there was no way I wasn't picking it up.

Practically everyone who have read it says this book is brutal, and epic, and bloody. Well, they're right. But I went into this book expecting certain things that I did not find. First, And I Darken is purely historical fiction with no paranormal aspects in it whatsoever. I was also expecting a lot of fight scenes in a VERY graphic sense, which this book is generally not so much. Despite that, I still think this is Kiersten White's best book (that I have read) so far.

It follows the story not only of Lada but also her younger brother, Radu, from their birth until they met their friend Mehmed and things got bloodier. Lada since childhood was fierce, cold, and cruel. She learned early on to be calculating and guarded while his brother was her complete opposite. Where Lada is vicious, Radu is sweet and charming -- always left behind, unnoticed. These two could never be more different but the way their characters were told, including Mehmed, are just too precious my heart can't take it. Seriously, for all their faults, imperfections, and weaknesses... I loved them.

And I Darken is heavy on politics and there is also plenty of religion involved, told in an impartial way that made me appreciate this book more. I can't remember much about the historical events surrounding the real Vlad the Impaler so I can't compare but basing on the author's note at the end of the book, she'd taken liberties breathing a new life into the story and fashion it in a way that, for me, has worked. This book is very well-written and is such a compelling read. My emotions were a mess in the end. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

*A copy of this book was sent by SocialBookCo for review.

>> Compare prices using SocialBookCo and get this book at the lowest price you can find! <<

October 2016 TBR

2016-10-10T01:54:00.000+08:00

Another month, another attempt at a TBR. Eternally hoping I follow through THIS TIME.

Without further ado, here are the books I plan to read this month:

I started these books last month but I wasn't able to finish them in time for my September wrap-up so it's automatically included in this month's TBR.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (the film) came out in cinemas not a while ago but I'm not watching it because I haven't read the book yet. Will remedy that this October. And to go with the unintentional dark and creepy-feeling theme, I also included Blackbird by Anna Carey and Si Janus Sílang at ang Tiyanak ng Tábon by Edgar Calabia Samar.

I'm also going to read And I Darken by Kiersten White this month. My copy arrived in the mail just a couple of days ago and I can't wait to start it!

And of course, a reading month wouldn't be complete without sneaking in a few books you didn't really plan on reading but end up choosing it over your TBR anyways.

Happy October! :)

[RELEASE EVENT] Review + Excerpt + Giveaway: A Fool For You by Katee Robert

2016-10-03T01:50:00.000+08:00

He never thought he’d get a second chance. A Fool For You is the third and final novel in the Foolproof Love series from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Katee Robert and Entangled Publishing. Check out the rest of the books in the series: Foolproof Love and Fool Me Once.

A Fool For You
by Katee Robert
Series: Foolproof Love #3
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 3, 2016
Publisher: Entangled Brazen

It’s been thirteen years since Hope Moore left Devil’s Falls, land of sexy cowboys and bad memories. Back for the weekend, she has no intention of seeing the man she never got over…or the two of them getting down and dirty. It’s just a belated goodbye, right? No harm, no foul.

Until six weeks later, when her pregnancy test comes back positive…

Daniel Rodriguez hasn’t forgiven himself for how things went down with Hope all those years ago. He knows she’s better off without him, but when she shows up on his doorstep, panicking because she’s pregnant with his baby, he can’t help seeing it as a chance to make up for the past.
Too bad Hope has no intention of going along with his plans.

Get More information at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes

When I read the first book in this series, Foolproof Love, I was immediately curious about the stories of these individuals who were broken by an accident that changed their lives. We met Adam in the first book, Quinn in the second book, and Daniel and Hope in this series finale. They were best friends who did everything together but grew apart when tragedy struck and challenged their friendship. They found different ways to cope with the loss and grief but eventually learned to face it in this series.

Ever since the end of the second book, Fool Me Once, I was highly anticipating the next one. Daniel and Hope’s story was probably my most-awaited in this series. I was ecstatic to finally know their whole story -- I love books with second chance romance! Unlike Adam and Quinn, Daniel and Hope had more than friendship, there's romantic history between them. And when they’d gone their separate ways, not only did they lose their friends, they also lost one another and the future that they’ve always dreamed of together.

I understand the reservations each of the main characters have with each other in this book. Hope has worked through her issues but going back to Devil's Falls after thirteen years, seeing Daniel again, and memories come rushing back. I really admire the strength of this girl but sometimes it's hard to like her especially when she's being stubborn. I don't know what to say about Daniel since I think his character is mainly the one being developed here. I was kind of disappointed with how their story was told and how it progressed. Things happened really fast and it wasn't what I have in mind when it comes to rekindling a love story. The book was so rushed that I didn't get the chance to experience the emotions burn and REALLY feel it.

I like the series all in all but I gotta say it's the first one, Foolproof Love, that I liked the most. They're all very fast and steamy reads that's perfect to immerse yourself in in one sitting.

*An advanced reading copy was provided by the publisher for this review.

Excerpt:

He turned to find Hope standing behind him. Again. “You sure move quiet when you want to.” Especially for a woman with a bum leg. Not that he could say as much without sounding like a jackass.

“You mean since I had my knee replaced.” Of course she knew what he meant anyway. Apparently damn near reading his mind was one annoying habit she hadn’t outgrown.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.” She leveraged herself down next to him, the move not quiet as smooth as it’d been when she was eighteen.
Daniel almost cursed. He had to stop doing that. Comparing her now to how she was then wasn’t fair to either of them. It was another lifetime completely, and thinking about it was just fucking depressing. “Hope—”

“Are you seeing anyone?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

He was so surprised by the question that he answered honestly, “Why the fuck would I bother?”

“Oh, I don’t know, because you don’t want to be a creepy old man who lives in the middle of nowhere and has to run off silly high school kids with his shotgun because they tell ghost stories about him?”

He looked at her, half sure that she was the one who’d lost her damn mind. “That’s not a thing.”

“It is most definitely a thing.” She leaned back on her hands and stared at the sky. The most move arched her back and pressed her breasts against the fancy tank top she wore. It was made of some kind of drapey fabric that looked soft and shiny, and it highlighted the fact that he seriously doubted she was wearing a bra. “You’re too young to just give up.”

“It’s not about giving up.” Though he didn’t expect Hope to understand that. He’d checked up on her a few times since the accident, and every single time he was amazed at the things she’d accomplished. Life had kicked her in the teeth and she’d come back swinging. She’d taken two years off and then attended the University of Texas and graduated with honors. She ran her own successful consulting business to work with companies that wanted to set up scholarships and nonprofits.

She shifted to look at him. “It looks like giving up from where I’m sitting.”

Giveaway:

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About Katee Robert

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. She found romance novels at age twelve and it changed her life. When not writing sexy contemporary and speculative fiction romance novels, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her wee ones, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

Connect with Katee at: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Instagram | Tumblr | Youtube

COVER RE-REVEAL + Giveaway: Cinder and Ella by Kelly Oram + More Exciting News!!

2016-10-02T12:00:00.000+08:00

Exactly two years ago, a little book titled Cinder & Ella made its way onto Amazon. And then it exploded, making it's way to # 1 on Amazon in all of its categories and even hitting the top 20 on all of Amazon. (Way to go Cinder & Ella!)

**It's a really great book and you all should go read it if you haven't yet :)

And nearly every day of the two years since its release, author Kelly Oram has received requests for an epilogue or a short story or something--anything--that would give readers more of their beloved Brian (aka Cinder) & Ella.

It may have taken 2 years, but Kelly has finally decided to grant all of those requests, which means:

Cinder & Ella is getting a SEQUEL!!

That's right people, there's a whole second book coming! But that's not all. Not only has the book been announced, it's less than 5 months away, and today we're revealing the cover and blurb!

Along with this cover reveal the first book, Cinder & Ella, is also getting a new look. They've redesigned the cover to match the sequel.

THIS:

IS NOW THIS:

**Isn't it adorable? I love this new cover so so much.

Title: Cinder & Ella

Author: Kelly Oram

Publisher: Bluefields

Pages: 312

Buy Links: AMAZON & KINDLE UNLIMITED

Written by the inestimable Kelly Oram, Cinder & Ella is a contemporary Cinderella re-telling set in present day Hollywood.

4.8 out of 5 stars with over 1,500 reviews on Amazon!

Summary:

What would you do if your anonymous Internet best friend turned out to be Hollywood’s hottest celebrity?

Cinder458: Your blogaversary is coming up, right?
EllaTheRealHero: Do all those Hollywood friends of yours know you use words like blogaversary?
Cinder458: Of course not. I need your address. Got you a blogaversary present.

Cinder got me a gift?
My heart flipped.
Not that I was in love with my Internet best friend or anything. That would be utterly ridiculous. The boy was cocky and stubborn and argued with everything I said just to be infuriating. He also had lots of money, dated models—which meant he had to be hot—and was a closet book nerd.
Funny, rich, hot, confident, book lover. Definitely not my type. Nope. Not at all.

It’s been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she’s been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father’s home and her awful new stepfamily, she must convince her doctors that she’s capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she’s not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who’s ever meant anything to her—her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder.

***

Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There’s major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won’t make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he’s left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian’s bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn’t thrilled with the arrangement—or his fake fiancée—but decides he’ll suffer through it if it means he’ll get an Oscar nomination. Then a surprise email from an old Internet friend changes everything.

With a heartwarming online celebrity romance reminiscent of Jennifer E. Smith’s This Is What Happy Looks Like, bestselling young adult author Kelly Oram has struck gold with her new adult contemporary retelling of the timeless fairytale classic Cinderella.

"A story that has it all: tears, laughs, sparks and a drop-dead swoonworthy hero. Give it a while and DreamWorks will pick up this story for a movie adaption, no doubt." Anna Katmore, Author of Play With Me & Neverland

"Both funny and heart-wrenching, Cinder and Ella will give you all the feels. It’s the best twist on the Cinderella tale I have come across. I am not just a fan of Kelly Oram. I am an addict." Cassie Mae, author of Switched & How To Hook A Bookworm

"Cinder & Ella is a beautiful modern-day fairytale with a great cast of characters that made me laugh and swoon. It had me staying up late at night to read just one more chapter, and at the end, I was left with a big grin on my face." Cindi Madsen, USA Today Bestselling Author of Falling For Her Fiancé & Cinderella Screwed Me Over

If this hasn't convinced you to check this book out, you can preview the prologue and first chapter by reading along with Kelly Oram.

And now for the moment you're all really waiting for...

Are you ready...?

Okay...here it is!!!

Title: Happily Ever After

Series: Cinder & Ella #2

Author: Kelly Oram

Publisher: Bluefields

Release Date: February 14, 2017

Buy Links: Signup to Kelly Oram's NEWSLETTER to be notified upon release.

Summary:

The end of one story is often the beginning of another. Hollywood heartthrob Brian Oliver and his Cinderella princess Ellamara Rodriguez have finally found love outside the digital world. But leaving their anonymity behind creates a whole new set of obstacles for the nation's new favorite sweethearts. With the stress of Brian's fame and the pressures of a new relationship weighing down on them, the It Couple quickly begins to wonder if they can hold on to their newfound joy, or if maybe happily ever after is only a fairy tale.

***Sign up for Kelly's newsletter to be notified when Happily Ever After releases!***

Enter this Rafflecopter to win a signed copy of Cinder & Ella WITH THE NEW COVER.

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Author Info & Links:

Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen—a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which her family and friends still tease her. She's obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and likes to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, four children, and her cat, Mr. Darcy.

Don't miss the latest news from Kelly Oram! Sign up for her newsletter to receive e-mail notifications for all of her new releases, events, sales, & giveaways. This is a monthly newsletter often with exclusive giveaways and freebies from some of her favorite authors.

Connect with Kelly:

Website * Newsletter * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads * Google+ * Reader Squad/Street Team * GR fan group

September 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

2016-10-01T03:44:00.000+08:00

Let's keep this short and sweet because it's actually already almost 5 in the morning as I am making this post. Well, anyway, there goes another month. It's already October! I like October. Hopefully this means I will have an even better month. September was a good one if I do say so myself :)

I read a total of 6 books not counting the two I started but wasn't able to finish before the month ended. And I only spent $4! See? I can so stick to a book buying ban.

September Reads:

It's a mix of both really great and not so great reads. A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir is definitely the favorite.

September 2016 Blog Posts:

August 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

September 2016 TBR

September 2016 New Releases

Review: A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

COVER REVEALED: Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Have a great October everyone! :)

September 2016 New Releases

2016-09-24T23:04:00.000+08:00

New Book Releases this September 2016

*cover image links to Goodreads*

The Graces
(The Graces #1)
by Laure Eve
Published: September 1, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

Everyone said the Graces were witches.

They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair.

They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different.

All I had to do was show them that person was me.

Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

This beautifully-written thriller will grip you from its very first page.

And the Trees Crept In
by Dawn Kurtagich
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

A stunning, terrifying novel about a house the color of blood and the two sisters who are trapped there, by The Dead House author Dawn Kurtagich

When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt's home, it's immediately clear that the "blood manor" is cursed. The creaking of the house and the stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too--the questions that Silla can't ignore: Who is the beautiful boy that's appeared from the woods? Who is the man that her little sister sees, but no one else? And why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer?

Filled with just as many twists and turns as The Dead House, and with achingly beautiful, chilling language that delivers haunting scenes, AND THE TREES CREPT IN is the perfect follow-up novel for master horror writer Dawn Kurtagich.

As I Descended
by Robin Talley
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_______________

Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them.

Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school.

But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.

From acclaimed author Robin Talley comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair.

Diplomatic Immunity
by Brodi Ashton
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_______________

Aspiring reporter Piper Baird decides to write a scathing exposé on the overprivileged students at an elite Washington, DC, school, only for her life to change when she begins to fall for the story's main subject, in this new realistic contemporary romance from Brodi Ashton, the author of the Everneath trilogy.

Raucous parties, privileged attitudes, underage drinking, and diplomatic immunity...it’s all part of student life on Embassy Row.

Piper Baird has always dreamed of becoming a journalist. So when she scores a scholarship to exclusive Chiswick Academy in Washington, DC, she knows it’s her big opportunity. Chiswick offers the country’s most competitive prize for teen journalists—the Bennington scholarship—and winning will ensure her acceptance to one of the best schools in the country.

Piper isn’t at Chiswick for two days before she witnesses the intense competition in the journalism program—and the extreme privilege of the young and wealthy elite who attend her school. And Piper knows access to these untouchable students just might give her the edge she’ll need to blow the lid off life at the school in a scathing and unforgettable exposé worthy of the Bennington.

The key to the whole story lies with Rafael Amador, the son of the Spanish ambassador—and the boy at the center of the most explosive secrets and scandals on Embassy Row. Rafael is big trouble—and when he drops into her bedroom window one night, asking for help, it’s Piper’s chance to get the full scoop. But as they spend time together, Piper discovers that despite his dark streak, Rafael is smart, kind, funny, and gorgeous—and she might have real feelings for him. How can she break the story of a lifetime if it could destroy the boy she just might love?

Labyrinth Lost
(Brooklyn Brujas #1)
by Zoraida Córdova
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…

Beautiful Creatures meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone with an infusion of Latin American tradition in this highly original fantasy adventure.

Leave Me
by Gayle Forman
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
______________

International bestselling author Gayle Forman's trademark humor and insight abound in this masterful adult debut, showing us that sometimes you have to leave home in order to find it again.

For every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, for every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention--meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who's so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn't even realize she's had a heart attack.

Afterward, surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: She packs a bag and leaves. But, as is so often the case, once we get to where we're going, we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is finally able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from those she loves and from herself.

With big-hearted characters who stumble and trip, grow and forgive, Leave Me is about facing our fears. Gayle Forman, a dazzling observer of human nature, has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head-on.

Ninth City Burning
by J. Patrick Black
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_______________

Centuries of war with aliens threaten the future of human civilization on earth in this gripping, epic science fiction debut...

We never saw them coming.

Entire cities disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but dust and rubble. When an alien race came to make Earth theirs, they brought with them a weapon we had no way to fight, a universe-altering force known as thelemity. It seemed nothing could stop it—until we discovered we could wield the power too.

Five hundred years later, the Earth is locked in a grinding war of attrition. The talented few capable of bending thelemity to their will are trained in elite military academies, destined for the front lines. Those who refused to support the war have been exiled to the wilds of a ruined Earth.

But the enemy's tactics are changing, and Earth's defenders are about to discover this centuries-old war has only just begun. As a terrible new onslaught looms, heroes will rise from unlikely quarters, and fight back.

The Ballroom
by Anna Hope
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_______________

Where love is your only escape ....

1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors,
where men and women are kept apart
by high walls and barred windows,
there is a ballroom vast and beautiful.
For one bright evening every week
they come together
and dance.
When John and Ella meet
It is a dance that will change
two lives forever.

Set over the heatwave summer of 1911, the end of the Edwardian era, THE BALLROOM is a tale of unlikely love and dangerous obsession, of madness and sanity, and of who gets to decide which is which.

The Replacement Crush
by Lisa Brown Roberts
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
______________

True love can’t be strategized.

After book blogger Vivian Galdi’s longtime crush pretends their secret summer kissing sessions never happened, Vivian creates a list of safe crushes, determined to protect her heart.

But nerd-hot Dallas, the sweet new guy in town, sends the mission and Vivian’s zing meter into chaos. While designing software for the bookstore where Vivian works, Dallas wages a counter-mission.

Operation Replacement Crush is in full effect. And Dallas is determined to take her heart off the shelf.

We Eat Our Own
by Kea Wilson
Published: September 6, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
______________

An ambitious debut novel by an original young writer, We Eat Our Own blurs the lines between life and art with the story of a film director’s unthinkable experiment in the Amazon.

When a nameless, struggling actor in 1970s New York gets the call that an enigmatic director wants him for an art film set in the Amazon, he doesn’t hesitate: he flies to South America, no questions asked. He quickly realizes he’s made a mistake. He’s replacing another actor who quit after seeing the script—a script the director now claims doesn’t exist. The movie is over budget. The production team seems headed for a breakdown. The air is so wet that the celluloid film disintegrates.

But what the actor doesn’t realize is that the greatest threat might be the town itself, and the mysterious shadow economy that powers this remote jungle outpost. Entrepreneurial Americans, international drug traffickers, and M-19 guerillas are all fighting for South America’s future—and the groups aren’t as distinct as you might think. The actor thought this would be a role that would change his life. Now he’s worried if he’ll survive it.

Inspired by a true story from the annals of 1970s Italian horror film, and told in dazzlingly precise prose, We Eat Our Own is a resounding literary debut, a thrilling journey behind the scenes of a shocking film and a thoughtful commentary on violence and its repercussions.

A Mortal Song
by Megan Crewe
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_______________

Sora's life was full of magic--until she discovered it was all a lie.

Heir to Mt. Fuji's spirit kingdom, Sora yearns to finally take on the sacred kami duties. But just as she confronts her parents to make a plea, a ghostly army invades the mountain. Barely escaping with her life, Sora follows her mother's last instructions to a heart-wrenching discovery: she is a human changeling, raised as a decoy while her parents' true daughter remained safe but unaware in modern-day Tokyo. Her powers were only borrowed, never her own. Now, with the world's natural cycles falling into chaos and the ghosts plotting an even more deadly assault, it falls on her to train the unprepared kami princess.

As Sora struggles with her emerging human weaknesses and the draw of an unanticipated ally with secrets of his own, she vows to keep fighting for her loved ones and the world they once protected. But for one mortal girl to make a difference in this desperate war between the spirits, she may have to give up the only home she's ever known.

Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_______________

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.

Going Geek
by Charlotte Huang
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

A girl forced out of her comfort zone finds that being true to herself is the best way to live her life, in this second novel from the author of For the Record.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Skylar Hoffman’s senior year at her preppy East Coast boarding school should have been perfect:
amazing boyfriend
the coolest friends
the most desirable dorm
But it’s far from it. To her dismay, Skylar’s not going to rule senior year because she’s stuck in Abbot House, a tiny dorm known for, well, nothing. Living with a group of strangers everyone thinks is lame is bad enough. Worse is that Skylar wasn’t exactly truthful about how she spent summer break in Los Angeles—and her little white lie is causing her once rock-solid romance to crumble fast. And when it turns out that Skylar’s best friend is the one responsible for having her booted from Lincoln? It’s an all-out war.

Stepping out of her comfort zone never felt so scary—or necessary. But everything is different now. Including, maybe, Skylar herself . . .

I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl
by Gretchen McNeil
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

Beatrice Maria Estrella Giovannini has life all figured out. She's starting senior year at the top of her class, she’s a shoo-in for a scholarship to M.I.T., and she’s got a new boyfriend she’s crazy about. The only problem: All through high school Bea and her best friends Spencer and Gabe have been the targets of horrific bullying.

So Bea uses her math skills to come up with The Formula, a 100% mathematically-guaranteed path to social happiness in high school. Now Gabe is on his way to becoming Student Body President, and Spencer is finally getting his art noticed. But when her boyfriend dumps her for Toile, the quirky new girl at school, Bea realizes it's time to use The Formula for herself. She'll be reinvented as the eccentric and lovable Trixie—a quintessential manic pixie dream girl—in order to win her boyfriend back and beat new-girl Toile at her own game.

Unfortunately, being a manic pixie dream girl isn't all it's cracked up to be, and “Trixie” is causing unexpected consequences for her friends. As The Formula begins to break down, can Bea find a way to reclaim her true identity, and fix everything she's messed up? Or will the casualties of her manic pixie experiment go far deeper than she could possibly imagine?

Just Friends
(Friends #1)
by Monica Murphy
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
_____________

It’s the end of summer. Just before I start senior year with my two best friends in the whole world. Dustin and Emily are everything to me. We’ve been inseparable since middle school, and when we’re together, nothing can go wrong.

But things aren’t always what they seem. Em’s turned into a drunken mess who parties too much. Dustin and I have hooked up a few times—and now he’s ready to take our relationship to the next level. Yet I’m not sure I want things to change. I’m scared if I take it any further with Dustin, our friendship will be ruined forever. Then there’s Ryan. The new guy. He’s hot. He flirts way too much. And Em has totally set her sights on him.

So when my best friend betrays me in the worst possible way, guess who’s there to help me pick up the pieces of my broken heart? Ryan. But he’s so confusing. Annoying. Sweet. Sexy. I want to trust him, yet he makes it so hard. What I really want is for everything to go back to the way it was before.

Before I found out that best friends make the worst kind of enemies.

Roman Crazy
(The Broads Abroad #1)
by Alice Clayton, Nina Bocci
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
______________

Avery Bardot steps off the plane in Rome, looking for a fresh start. She’s left behind a soon-to-be ex-husband in Boston and plans to spend the summer with her best friend Daisy, licking her wounds—and perhaps a gelato or two. But when her American-expat friend throws her a welcome party on her first night, Avery’s thrown for a loop when she sees a man she never thought she’d see again: Italian architect Marcello Bianchi.

Marcello was the man—the one who got away. And now her past is colliding with her present, a present where she should be mourning the loss of her marriage and—hey, that fettuccine is delicious! And so is Marcello…

Slipping easily into the good life of summertime in Rome, Avery spends her days exploring a city that makes art historians swoon, and her nights swooning over her unexpected what was old is new again romance. It’s heady, it’s fevered, it’s wanton, and it’s crazy. But could this really be her new life? Or is it just a temporary reprieve before returning to the land of twin-set cardigans and crustless sandwiches?

A celebration of great friendship, passionate romance, and wonderful food, Roman Crazy is a lighthearted story of second chances and living life to the fullest.

The Forgetting
by Sharon Cameron
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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What isn't written, isn't remembered. Even your crimes.

Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person's memories – of parents, children, love, life, and self – are lost. Unless they have been written.

In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.

But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence – before the people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.

The Last True Love Story
by Brendan Kiely
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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The point of living is learning how to love.

That’s what Gpa says. To Hendrix and Corrina, both seventeen but otherwise alike only in their loneliness, that sounds like another line from a pop song that tries to promise kids that life doesn’t actually suck. Okay, so: love. Sure.

The thing about Corrina—her adoptive parents are suffocating, trying to mold her into someone acceptable, predictable, like them. She’s a musician, itching for any chance to escape, become the person she really wants to be. Whoever that is.

And Hendrix, he’s cool. Kind of a poet. But also kind of lost. His dad is dead and his mom is married to her job. Gpa is his only real family, but he’s fading fast from Alzheimer’s. Looking for any way to help the man who raised him, Hendrix has made Gpa an impossible promise—that he’ll get him back east to the hill where he first kissed his wife, before his illness wipes away all memory of her.

One hot July night, Hendrix and Corrina decide to risk everything. They steal a car, spring Gpa from his assisted living facility, stuff Old Humper the dog into the back seat, and take off on a cross-country odyssey from LA to NY. With their parents, Gpa’s doctors, and the police all hot on their heels, Hendrix and Corrina set off to discover for themselves if what Gpa says is true—that the only stories that last are love stories.

The Reader
(Sea of Ink and Gold #1)
by Traci Chee
Published: September 13, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Once there was, and one day there will be. This is the beginning of every story.

Sefia lives her life on the run. After her father is viciously murdered, she flees to the forest with her aunt Nin, the only person left she can trust. They survive in the wilderness together, hunting and stealing what they need, forever looking over their shoulders for new threats. But when Nin is kidnapped, Sefia is suddenly on her own, with no way to know who’s taken Nin or where she is. Her only clue is a strange rectangular object that once belonged to her father left behind, something she comes to realize is a book.

Though reading is unheard of in Sefia’s world, she slowly learnes, unearthing the book’s closely guarded secrets, which may be the key to Nin’s disappearance and discovering what really happened the day her father was killed. With no time to lose, and the unexpected help of swashbuckling pirates and an enigmatic stranger, Sefia sets out on a dangerous journey to rescue her aunt, using the book as her guide. In the end, she discovers what the book had been trying to tell her all along: Nothing is as it seems, and the end of her story is only the beginning.

Kingdom of Ash and Briars
by Hannah West
Published: September 15, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Bristal, an orphaned kitchen maid, lands in a gritty fairy tale gone wrong when she discovers she is an elicromancer with a knack for shape-shifting. An ancient breed of immortal magic beings, elicromancers have been winnowed down to merely two - now three - after centuries of bloody conflict in the realm. Their gifts are fraught with responsibility, and sixteen-year-old Bristal is torn between two paths. Should she vow to seek the good of the world, to protect and serve mortals? Or should she follow the strength of her power, even if it leads to unknown terrors? She draws on her ability to disguise herself as a man to infiltrate a prince's band of soldiers, and masquerades as a fairy godmother to shield a cursed princess, but time is running out. As an army of dark creatures grows closer, Bristal faces a supernatural war. To save the kingdoms, Bristal must find the courage to show her true form.

Building on homages to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Austen’s Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Hannah West makes a spectacular debut.

A Shadow Bright and Burning
(Kingdom on Fire #1)
by Jessica Cluess
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Henrietta can burst into flames.

Forced to reveal her power to save a friend, she’s shocked when instead of being executed, she’s named the first female sorcerer in hundreds of years and invited to train as one of Her Majesty’s royal sorcerers.

Thrust into the glamour of Victorian London, Henrietta is declared the prophesied one, the girl who will defeat the Ancients, bloodthirsty demons terrorizing humanity. She also meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, handsome young men eager to test her power and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her.

But Henrietta is not the chosen one.

As she plays a dangerous game of deception, she discovers that the sorcerers have their own secrets to protect. With battle looming, how much will she risk to save the city—and the one she loves?

Kids of Appetite
by David Arnold
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Victor Benucci and Madeline Falco have a story to tell.
It begins with the death of Vic’s father.
It ends with the murder of Mad’s uncle.
The Hackensack Police Department would very much like to hear it.
But in order to tell their story, Vic and Mad must focus on all the chapters in between.

This is a story about:

1. A coded mission to scatter ashes across New Jersey.
2. The momentous nature of the Palisades in winter.
3. One dormant submarine.
4. Two songs about flowers.
5. Being cool in the traditional sense.
6. Sunsets & ice cream & orchards & graveyards.
7. Simultaneous extreme opposites.
8. A narrow escape from a war-torn country.
9. A story collector.
10. How to listen to someone who does not talk.
11. Falling in love with a painting.
12. Falling in love with a song.
13. Falling in love.

Metaltown
by Kristen Simmons
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Metaltown, where factories rule, food is scarce, and hope is in short supply.

The rules of Metaltown are simple: Work hard, keep your head down, and watch your back. You look out for number one, and no one knows that better than Ty. She’s been surviving on the factory line as long as she can remember. But now Ty has Colin. She’s no longer alone; it’s the two of them against the world. That’s something even a town this brutal can’t take away from her. Until it does.

Lena’s future depends on her family’s factory, a beast that demands a ruthless master, and Lena is prepared to be as ruthless as it takes if it means finally proving herself to her father. But when a chance encounter with Colin, a dreamer despite his circumstances, exposes Lena to the consequences of her actions, she’ll risk everything to do what’s right.

In Lena, Ty sees an heiress with a chip on her shoulder. Colin sees something more. In a world of disease and war, tragedy and betrayal, allies and enemies, all three of them must learn that challenging what they thought was true can change all the rules.

An enthralling story of friendship and rebellion, Metaltown will have you believing in the power of hope.

Ripple
by Heather Smith Meloche
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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When their too-adult lives lead them down self-destructive paths, these broken teens find a way to heal in this YA novel perfect for fans of Ellen Hopkins.

With her impossible-to-please grandmother on her back about college and her disapproving step-dad watching her every move, Tessa would do anything to escape the pressure-cooker she calls home. So she finds a shot of much-needed power and confidence by hooking up with boys, even though it means cheating on her boyfriend. But when she's finally caught red-handed, she’ll do anything she can to cover up what she's done.

Jack is a prankster who bucks the system every chance he gets—each transgression getting riskier and riskier. He loves the thrill, and each adventure allows a little release because his smug smile and suave demeanor in the face of authority doesn’t make life at home with his mom any less tough. He tries to take care of her, but the truth is he's powerless in the face of her fragile mental health. So he copes in his own way, by defacing public property and pulling elaborate pranks, though he knows in the end this’ll only screw up his life even more.

As they both try not to let their self-destructive patterns get the best of them, Tessa and Jack gravitate toward one another, discovering the best parts of themselves in the process. An honest portrayal of the urges that drive us and finding the strength to overcome them.

Stalking Jack the Ripper
(Stalking Jack the Ripper #1)
by Kerri Maniscalco
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

Stealing Snow
(Stealing Snow #1)
by Danielle Paige
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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First kisses sometimes wake slumbering princesses, undo spells, and spark happily ever afters.

Mine broke Bale.

Seventeen-year-old Snow has spent her life locked in Whittaker Psychiatric—but she isn’t crazy. And that’s not the worst of it. Her very first kiss proves anything but innocent…when Bale, her only love, turns violent.

Despite Snow knowing that Bale would never truly hurt her, he is taken away—dashing her last hope for any sort of future in the mental ward she calls home. With nowhere else to turn, Snow finds herself drawn to a strange new orderly who whispers secrets in the night about a mysterious past and a kingdom that’s hers for the taking—if only she can find her way past the iron gates to the Tree that has been haunting her dreams.

Beyond the Tree lies Algid, a land far away from the real world, frozen by a ruthless king. And there too await the River Witch, a village boy named Kai, the charming thief Jagger, and a prophecy that Snow will save them all.

The Female of the Species
by Mindy McGinnis
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.

While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways.

But Jack Fisher sees her. He’s the guy all other guys want to be: the star athlete gunning for valedictorian with the prom queen on his arm. Guilt over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered hasn’t let him forget Alex over the years, and now her green eyes amid a constellation of freckles have his attention. He doesn’t want to only see Alex Craft; he wants to know her.

So does Peekay, the preacher’s kid, a girl whose identity is entangled with her dad’s job, though that does not stop her from knowing the taste of beer or missing the touch of her ex-boyfriend. When Peekay and Alex start working together at the animal shelter, a friendship forms and Alex’s protective nature extends to more than just the dogs and cats they care for.

Circumstances bring Alex, Jack, and Peekay together as their senior year unfolds. While partying one night, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting the teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever.

The Odds of Lightning
by Jocelyn Davies
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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A bolt of lightning inspires an incredible journey in this charming, magical realism adventure that takes four teens on an all-night journey through the streets of New York City.

Extraordinary things happen when we least expect them.

Tiny, Lu, Will and Nathaniel used to be best friends. Then life-defining events the summer before high school tore them apart. Now, three years later, they hardly talk anymore. Nathaniel has become obsessed with winning the prestigious science scholarship that his genius older brother once won. Will has risen from anonymity to popular soccer star. Lu grew into a brash, impetuous actress. And shy, poetic Tiny has slowly been fading away.

But fate weaves their lives together again the night before the SATs, during a wild thunderstorm that threatens to shut down New York City. And lightning strikes.

Before they know what's hit them, the four teens embark on an epic all-night adventure to follow their dreams, fall in and out of love, reconcile the past, and overcome the fears that have been driving them since that one lost summer. And by the time the sun rises, odds are they’ll discover that there’s a fine line between science and magic, and that the mysteries of love and friendship can’t be explained.

The Queen of Blood
(The Queens of Renthia #1)
by Sarah Beth Durst
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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An idealistic young student and a banished warrior become allies in a battle to save their realm in this first book of a mesmerizing epic fantasy series, filled with political intrigue, violent magic, malevolent spirits, and thrilling adventure

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .

But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.

With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . . before it’s bathed in blood.

The Wonder
by Emma Donoghue
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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In Emma Donoghue's latest masterpiece, an English nurse brought to a small Irish village to observe what appears to be a miracle-a girl said to have survived without food for months-soon finds herself fighting to save the child's life.

Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl.

Written with all the propulsive tension that made Room a huge bestseller, THE WONDER works beautifully on many levels--a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a powerful psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.

Three Dark Crowns
(Three Dark Crowns #1)
by Kendare Blake
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown.

If only it was that simple. Katharine is unable to tolerate the weakest poison, and Arsinoe, no matter how hard she tries, can’t make even a weed grow. The two queens have been shamefully faking their powers, taking care to keep each other, the island, and their powerful sister Mirabella none the wiser. But with alliances being formed, betrayals taking shape, and ruthless revenge haunting the queens’ every move, one thing is certain: the last queen standing might not be the strongest…but she may be the darkest.

Vassa in the Night
by Sarah Porter
Published: September 20, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood.

In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling out again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission.

But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair. . . .

Inspired by the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful and Sarah Porter’s years of experience teaching creative writing to New York City students.

Bright Smoke, Cold Fire
(Untitled #1)
by Rosamund Hodge
Published: September 27, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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When the mysterious fog of the Ruining crept over the world, the living died and the dead rose. Only the walled city of Viyara was left untouched.

The heirs of the city’s most powerful—and warring—families, Mahyanai Romeo and Juliet Catresou share a love deeper than duty, honor, even life itself. But the magic laid on Juliet at birth compels her to punish the enemies of her clan—and Romeo has just killed her cousin Tybalt. Which means he must die.

Paris Catresou has always wanted to serve his family by guarding Juliet. But when his ward tries to escape her fate, magic goes terribly wrong—killing her and leaving Paris bound to Romeo. If he wants to discover the truth of what happened, Paris must delve deep into the city, ally with his worst enemy . . . and perhaps turn against his own clan.

Mahyanai Runajo just wants to protect her city—but she’s the only one who believes it’s in peril. In her desperate hunt for information, she accidentally pulls Juliet from the mouth of death—and finds herself bound to the bitter, angry girl. Runajo quickly discovers Juliet might be the one person who can help her recover the secret to saving Viyara.

Both pairs will find friendship where they least expect it. Both will find that Viyara holds more secrets and dangers than anyone ever expected. And outside the walls, death is waiting. . .

Chasing Truth
(Eleanor Ames #1)
by Julie Cross
Published: September 27, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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At Holden Prep, the rich and powerful rule the school—and they’ll do just about anything to keep their dirty little secrets hidden.

When former con artist Eleanor Ames’s homecoming date commits suicide, she’s positive there’s something more going on. The more questions she asks, though, the more she crosses paths with Miles Beckett. He’s sexy, mysterious, arrogant…and he’s asking all the same questions.

Eleanor might not trust him—she doesn’t even like him—but they can’t keep their hands off of each other. Fighting the infuriating attraction is almost as hard as ignoring the fact that Miles isn’t telling her the truth…and that there’s a good chance he thinks she’s the killer.

The Women in the Walls
by Amy Lukavics
Published: September 27, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.

When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations.

Sequels:

COVER REVEALED: Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

2016-09-22T03:27:00.001+08:00

I just saw something that made me smile and feel really giddy. The third, and most probably final, book to Jenny Han's contemporary series To All The Boys I've Loved Before now has a cover. Let me put the covers of books 1 and 2 first, coz they're awesome and I love them.

If you haven't read this series yet, where the heck have you been? I am OBSESSED with this series if you don't know. They're not 5-star reads for me but I AM STILL OBSESSED. Especially with Peter K. Ever since I finished P.S. I Still Love You last year, I didn't give up hope that someday, somehow there will be a third book. As far as we all knew, that was the end. Jenny Han said it was a duology. BUT IT WASN'T ENOUGH. And then a few months ago, she announced that THERE WILL BE A THIRD BOOK. I fainted. Just kidding. But I was ecstatic. It's going to be a long wait but at least we know for SURE that Always and Forever, Lara Jean is freaking happening.

Feast your eyes.

The cover was officially revealed on Entertainment Weekly. The book comes out in April 4, 2017. Read the full post HERE.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean
(To All the Boys I've Loved Before #3)
by Jenny Han

Synopsis:

Lara Jean’s letter-writing days aren’t over in this surprise follow-up to the New York Times bestselling To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You.

Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for. She is head over heels in love with her boyfriend, Peter; her dad’s finally getting remarried to their next door neighbor, Ms. Rothschild; and Margot’s coming home for the summer just in time for the wedding.

But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy helping plan her father’s wedding, she can’t ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. She watched her sister Margot go through these growing pains. Now Lara Jean’s the one who’ll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.

When your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?

What do you think of the cover? Are you also excited?

Review: A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

2016-09-17T12:00:00.000+08:00

A Torch Against the Night
(An Ember in the Ashes #2)
by Sabaa Tahir

Amazon | National Book Store

Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.

“When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible, to fight it: your spirit. Your heart.”

I read An Ember in the Ashes earlier this year, really enjoyed it, and looked forward to the sequel just like everyone who have read it and experienced that ending that was most definitely not the end of Laia and Elias’ story.

A Torch Against the Night started right where An Ember in the Ashes left us hanging. It was action from beginning to end. For a huge book, I could’ve easily flown through it and devour the whole thing in one sitting. Alas, work is a demanding monster. But every time I pick it back up it’s so easy to get back into the world and connect with the characters and I was just compelled to turn one page after another until my reading time ran out. There are so many conflicts, political intrigue, and the EMOTIONS ARE OVERFLOWING. It’s a bloody, bloody book.

“So much death,” I say. “It’s everywhere. What’s the point then of living? Will I ever escape it?”

While the plot and the world isn’t that different from other fantasy books I have read, there is so much depth when it comes to each character. The addition of Helene’s perspective is probably the best thing to happen in this book. She was the girl I wanted to hate in An Ember in the Ashes but just couldn’t. And now I love her so much. She’s badass but the poor girl has to be the most conflicted character here.

“Loyal to the end. Loyal to whom? My family? The Empire? My own heart?”

The book took some very surprising turns which I wouldn’t have seen coming if I wasn’t spoiled. But even so I couldn’t get my emotions on hold. A Torch Against the Night is definitely a heart-pounding read, one that made me dread but at the same time anticipate the things that are going to happen with each turn of the page. I can’t wait for more.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway on Goodreads! You can win one of TEN copies. Enter HERE.

*Thank you Penguin Random House for sending me an ARC of this book for review.

September 2016 TBR

2016-09-08T04:44:00.001+08:00

So I haven't been reading that much lately. Well, actually, I read A LOT. I just can't seem to finish an entire book. It's very frustrating.

ANYWAY.

I am hoping September will be different and so I'm making a short TBR list for this month -- I haven't done this in a while -- with every intention of reading, like, more than half of it (sorry, I STILL can't fully stick to a TBR).

So far this month I have already read two books which already sounds better than last month's pace:

And for the next three weeks...

For-Review TBR

I've started Places No One Knows but I stopped around page 80 in favor of A Torch Against the Night which I plan on starting right after I publish this post and hopefully will be done, along with my review, by this weekend. It's a pretty huge book.

It's Been Gathering Dust On My Shelf For Years TBR

(self-explanatory LOL)

Let's not get ahead of ourselves and keep it small...

And here's me fervently praying: please, please, PLEASE! No more reading slump. I am begging anyone who will listen to me. No more.

August 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

2016-09-05T03:29:00.000+08:00

*sigh*

OMG LIFE.

Same as it was a few months ago.

But it's fine. I'm starting to accept that adulting is really effing exhausting. What can I do except learn to adjust.

Let's move on to my recap.

Books I read this August:

For reals. I was only able to read two. TWO! WHAT. IN. THE-- I can't remember ever reading this... little before. It's so sad. At least they were both very great books. I gave In the Shadow of Blackbirds 5 stars because it's amazing obviously, and Blurred Lines I gave 4 stars.

I'm thinking about cutting back my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal from 130 to 100. It's still going to be a challenge for me to reach even with 30 books less than my original goal. At the rate life is going for me right now, and with less than four months left this year, I seriously doubt I would even reach 70. So far I'm finishing my 57th read but... we'll see.

August Blog Posts:

July 2016 Reads + Monthly Recap

August 2016 New Releases

COVER REVEAL: The Goal by Elle Kennedy

Review: Finding Perfect by Kendra C. Highley

[RELEASE DAY CELEBRATION] Giveaway: Polaris by Beth Rowland

[RELEASE EVENT] Spotlight + Excerpt + Giveaway + Review: Fool Me Once by Katee Robert

August 2016 New Releases

2016-08-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

New Book Releases this August 2016

*cover image links to Goodreads*

A Promise of Fire
(Kingmaker Chronicles #1)
by Amanda Bouchet
Published: August 2, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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Catalia "Cat" Fisa is a powerful clairvoyant known as the Kingmaker. This smart-mouthed soothsayer has no interest in her powers and would much rather fly under the radar, far from the clutches of her homicidal mother. But when an ambitious warlord captures her, she may not have a choice…

Griffin is intent on bringing peace to his newly conquered realm in the magic-deprived south. When he discovers Cat is the Kingmaker, he abducts her. But Cat will do everything in her power to avoid her dangerous destiny and battle her captor at every turn. Although up for the battle, Griffin would prefer for Cat to help his people willingly, and he's ready to do whatever it takes to coax her…even if that means falling in love with her.

A Week of Mondays
by Jessica Brody
Published: August 2, 2016
The Book Depository
Amazon
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When I made the wish, I just wanted a do-over. Another chance to make things right. I never, in a million years, thought it might actually come true...

Sixteen-year-old Ellison Sparks is having a serious case of the Mondays. She gets a ticket for running a red light, she manages to take the world’s worst school picture, she bombs softball try-outs and her class election speech (note to self: never trust a cheerleader when she swears there are no nuts in her bake-sale banana bread), and to top it all off, Tristan, her gorgeous rocker boyfriend suddenly dumps her. For no good reason!

As far as Mondays go, it doesn’t get much worse than this. And Ellie is positive that if she could just do it all over again, she would get it right. So when she wakes up the next morning to find she’s reliving the exact same day, she knows what she has to do: stop her boyfriend from breaking up with her. But it seems no matter how many do-overs she gets or how hard Ellie tries to repair her relationship, Tristan always seems bent set on ending it. Will Ellie ever figure out how to fix this broken day? Or will she be stuck in this nightmare of a Monday forever?

From the author 52 Reasons to Hate My Father and The Unremembered trilogy comes a hilarious and heartwarming story about second (and third and fourth and fifth) chances. Because sometimes it takes a whole week of Mondays to figure out what you really want.

Enter Title Here
by Rahul Kanakia
Published: August 2, 2016
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I’m your protagonist—Reshma Kapoor—and if you have the free time to read this book, then you’re probably nothing like me.

Reshma is a college counselor’s dream. She’s the top-ranked senior at her ultra-competitive Silicon Valley high school, with a spotless academic record and a long roster of extracurriculars. But there are plenty of perfect students in the country, and if Reshma wants to get into Stanford, and into med school after that, she needs the hook to beat them all.

What's a habitual over-achiever to do? Land herself a literary agent, of course. Which is exactly what Reshma does after agent Linda Montrose spots an article she wrote for Huffington Post. Linda wants to represent Reshma, and, with her new agent's help scoring a book deal, Reshma knows she’ll finally have the key to Stanford.

But she’s convinced no one would want to read a novel about a study machine like her. To make herself a more relatable protagonist, she must start doing all the regular American girl stuff she normally ignores. For starters, she has to make a friend, then get a boyfriend. And she's already planned the perfect ending: after struggling for three hundred pages with her own perfectionism, Reshma will learn that meaningful relationships can be more important than success—a character arc librarians and critics alike will enjoy.

Of course, even with a mastermind like Reshma in charge, things can’t always go as planned. And when the valedictorian spot begins to slip from her grasp, she’ll have to decide just how far she’ll go for that satisfying ending. (Note: It’s pretty far.)

The Assassin Game
by Kirsty McKay
Published: August 2, 2016
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Who will be left after lights out?

At Cate's isolated boarding school, Killer is more than a game- it's an elite secret society. Members must avoid being "Killed" during a series of thrilling pranks, and only the Game Master knows who the "Killer" is. When Cate's finally invited to join the Assassins' Guild, she know it's her ticket to finally feeling like she belongs.

But when the game becomes all too real, the school threatens to shut it down. Cate will do anything to keep playing and save the Guild. But can she find the real assassin before she's the next target?

The Gilded Cage
by Lucinda Gray
Published: August 2, 2016
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After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident.

A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too?

The Smaller Evil
by Stephanie Kuehn
Published: August 2, 2016
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Sometimes the greater good requires the smaller evil.

17-year-old Arman Dukoff is struggling with severe anxiety and a history of self-loathing when he arrives at an expensive self-help retreat in the remote hills of Big Sur. He’s taken a huge risk—and two-thousand dollars from his meth-head stepfather—for a chance to "evolve," as Beau, the retreat leader, says.

Beau is complicated. A father figure? A cult leader? A con man? Arman's not sure, but more than anyone he's ever met, Beau makes Arman feel something other than what he usually feels—worthless.

The retreat compound is secluded in coastal California mountains among towering redwoods, and when the iron gates close behind him, Arman believes for a moment that he can get better. But the program is a blur of jargon, bizarre rituals, and incomprehensible encounters with a beautiful girl. Arman is certain he's failing everything. But Beau disagrees; he thinks Arman has a bright future—though he never says at what.

And then, in an instant Arman can't believe or totally recall, Beau is gone. Suicide? Or murder? Arman was the only witness and now the compound is getting tense. And maybe dangerous.

As the mysteries and paradoxes multiply and the hints become accusations, Arman must rely on the person he's always trusted the least: himself.

The Telling
by Alexandra Sirowy
Published: August 2, 2016
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Lana used to know what was real.

That was before when her life was small and quiet.
Her golden step-brother, Ben, was alive, she could only dream about bonfiring with the populars, their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell the truth from lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.

Then came after.

After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, and living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten: Love, blood, and murder.

Wax
by Gina Damico
Published: August 2, 2016
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Amazon
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Paraffin, Vermont, is known the world over as home to the Grosholtz Candle Factory. But behind the sunny retail space bursting with overwhelming scents and homemade fudge, seventeen-year-old Poppy Palladino discovers something dark and unsettling: a back room filled with dozens of startlingly life-like wax sculptures, crafted by one very strange old lady. Poppy hightails it home, only to be shocked when one of the figures—a teenage boy who doesn’t seem to know what he is—jumps naked and screaming out of the trunk of her car. She tries to return him to the candle factory, but before she can, a fire destroys the mysterious workshop—and the old woman is nowhere to be seen.

With the help of the wax boy, who answers to the name Dud, Poppy resolves to find out who was behind the fire. But in the course of her investigation, she discovers that things in Paraffin aren’t always as they seem, that the Grosholtz Candle Factory isn’t as pure as its reputation—and that some of the townspeople she’s known her entire life may not be as human as they once were. In fact, they’re starting to look a little . . . waxy. Can Poppy and Dud extinguish the evil that's taking hold of their town before it’s too late?

You Before Anyone Else
by Julie Cross, Mark Perini
Published: August 2, 2016
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Amazon
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Model Finley needs someone to help her shed her "good girl" persona, so she'll try Eddie on for size.

New York City model Finley is fed up with hearing the same feedback at castings: she needs to take some serious action to wipe the "good girl" stamp from her resume if she wants to launch to stardom.

Enter Eddie Wells. He's shallow, predictable…and just as lost as Finley feels. Deep down, Finley is drawn to Eddie's bravado, his intensity. Except Eddie is hiding something. A big something. And when it surfaces, both loving and leaving Finley will become so much harder.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
by Bryn Greenwood
Published: August 9, 2016
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As the daughter of a meth dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. Struggling to raise her little brother, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible "adult" around. She finds peace in the starry Midwestern night sky above the fields behind her house. One night everything changes when she witnesses one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold, wreck his motorcycle. What follows is a powerful and shocking love story between two unlikely people that asks tough questions, reminding us of all the ugly and wonderful things that life has to offer.

Nevernight
(The Nevernight Chronicle #1)
by Jay Kristoff
Published: August 9, 2016
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Amazon
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In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill
Published: August 9, 2016
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Amazon
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Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey.

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule--but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her--even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.

The acclaimed author of The Witch’s Boy has created another epic coming-of-age fairy tale destined to become a modern classic.

The Architect of Song
(Haunted Hearts Legacy #1)
by A.G. Howard
Published: August 15, 2016
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Amazon
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A lady imprisoned by deafness, an architect imprisoned by his past, and a ghost imprisoned within the petals of a flower - intertwine in this love story that transcends life and death.

For most of her life, nineteen-year-old Juliet Emerline has subsisted – isolated by deafness – making hats in the solitude of her home. Now, she’s at risk to lose her sanctuary to Lord Nicolas Thornton, a twenty-seven-year-old mysterious and eccentric architect with designs on her humble estate. When she secretly witnesses him raging beside a grave, Juliet investigates, finding the name “Hawk” on the headstone and an unusual flower at the base. The moment Juliet touches the petals, a young English nobleman appears in ghostly form, singing a song only her deaf ears can hear. The ghost remembers nothing of his identity or death, other than the one name that haunts his afterlife: Thornton.

To avenge her ghostly companion and save her estate, Juliet pushes aside her fear of society and travels to Lord Thornton’s secluded holiday resort, posing as a hat maker in one of his boutiques. There, she finds herself questioning who to trust: the architect of flesh and bones who can relate to her through romantic gestures, heartfelt notes, and sensual touches … or the specter who serenades her with beautiful songs and ardent words, touching her mind and soul like no other man ever can. As sinister truths behind Lord Thornton’s interest in her estate and his tie to Hawk come to light, Juliet is lured into a web of secrets. But it’s too late for escape, and the tragic love taking seed in her heart will alter her silent world forever.

Ghost Talkers
by Mary Robinette Kowal
Published: August 16, 2016
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Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Harford, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force.

Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the Corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence.

Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels. While Ben is away at the front, Ginger discovers the presence of a traitor. Without the presence of her fiance to validate her findings, the top brass thinks she's just imagining things. Even worse, it is clear that the Spirit Corps is now being directly targeted by the German war effort. Left to her own devices, Ginger has to find out how the Germans are targeting the Spirit Corps and stop them. This is a difficult and dangerous task for a woman of that era, but this time both the spirit and the flesh are willing…

Vicarious
(Vicarious #1)
by Paula Stokes
Published: August 16, 2016
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Amazon
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Winter Kim and her sister, Rose, have always been inseparable. Together, the two of them survived growing up in a Korean orphanage and being trafficked into the United States.

Now they work as digital stunt girls for Rose’s ex-boyfriend, Gideon, engaging in dangerous and enticing activities while recording their neural impulses for his Vicarious Sensory Experiences, or ViSEs. Whether it’s bungee jumping, shark diving, or grinding up against celebrities at the city’s hottest dance clubs, Gideon can make it happen for you, for a price.

When Rose disappears and a ViSE recording of her murder is delivered to Gideon, Winter won’t rest until she finds her sister’s killer. But when the clues she uncovers conflict with the neural recordings her sister made, Winter isn’t sure what to believe. To find out what happened to Rose, she’ll have to untangle what’s real from what only seems real, risking her life in the process.

Unscripted Joss Byrd
by Lygia Day Peñaflor
Published: August 23, 2016
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Hollywood critics agree. Joss Byrd is "fiercely emotional," a young actress with "complete conviction," and a "powerhouse."

Joss Byrd is America's most celebrated young actress, but on the set of her latest project, a gritty indie film called The Locals, Joss's life is far from glamorous. While struggling with her mother's expectations, a crush on her movie brother, and a secret that could end her career, Joss must pull off a performance worthy of a star. When her renowned, charismatic director demands more than she is ready to deliver, Joss must go off-script to stay true to herself.

Furthermore
by Tahereh Mafi
Published: August 30, 2016
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The bestselling author of the Shatter Me series takes readers beyond the limits of their imagination in this captivating new middle grade adventure where color is currency, adventure is inevitable, and friendship is found in the most unexpected places.

There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn't miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it's been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she's about to embark on one to find the other.

But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she'll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is a boy named Oliver whose own magical ability is based in lies and deceit--and with a liar by her side in a land where nothing is as it seems, it will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself--and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit
by Jaye Robin Brown
Published: August 30, 2016
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Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees.

Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn’t possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad. Even if she’s starting to fall for the girl. Even if there’s a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. Right?

Tell Me Something Real
by Calla Devlin
Published: August 30, 2016
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Amazon
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Three sisters struggle with the bonds that hold their family together as they face a darkness settling over their lives in this masterfully written debut novel.

There are three beautiful blond Babcock sisters: gorgeous and foul-mouthed Adrienne, observant and shy Vanessa, and the youngest and best-loved, Marie. Their mother is ill with leukemia and the girls spend a lot of time with her at a Mexican clinic across the border from their San Diego home so she can receive alternative treatments.

Vanessa is the middle child, a talented pianist who is trying to hold her family together despite the painful loss that they all know is inevitable. As she and her sisters navigate first loves and college dreams, they are completely unaware that an illness far more insidious than cancer poisons their home. Their world is about to shatter under the weight of an incomprehensible betrayal…

The Scourge
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Published: August 30, 2016
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Amazon
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As a lethal plague sweeps through the land, Ani Mells is shocked when she is unexpectedly captured by the governor's wardens and forced to submit to a test for the deadly Scourge. She is even more surprised when the test results come back positive, and she is sent to Attic Island, a former prison turned refuge -- and quarantine colony -- for the ill. The Scourge's victims, Ani now among them, can only expect to live out short, painful lives there. However, Ani quickly discovers that she doesn't know the whole truth about the Scourge or the Colony. She's been caught in a devious plot, and, with the help of her best friend, Weevil, Ani means to uncover just what is actually going on.

But will she and Weevil survive long enough to do so?

The Thousandth Floor
(The Thousandth Floor #1)
by Katharine McGee
Published: August 30, 2016
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Amazon
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New York City as you’ve never seen it before. A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future, where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

Welcome to Manhattan, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. But people never change: everyone here wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

Leda Cole’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

Eris Dodd-Radson’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

Rylin Myers’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will her new life cost Rylin her old one?

Watt Bakradi is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy by an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is Avery Fuller, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Debut author Katharine McGee has created a breathtakingly original series filled with high-tech luxury and futuristic glamour, where the impossible feels just within reach. But in this world, the higher you go, the farther there is to fall…

Words in Deep Blue
by Cath Crowley
Published: August 30, 2016
The Book Depository
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This is a love story.
It's the story of Howling Books, where readers write letters to strangers, to lovers, to poets.
It's the story of Henry Jones and Rachel Sweetie. They were best friends once, before Rachel moved to the sea.
Now, she's back, working at the bookstore, grieving for her brother Cal and looking for the future in the books people love, and the words they leave behind.

Sequels: