The Best Books Ever

Follow the rest of the tour  HERE Stones and Finger Bones (The Black Towers #1) By  Jessica Minyard Published on February 10, 2015 Fantasy, Young Adult Aurelia Barone, Jewel of Starry Stone, harbors no illusions about the purpose of her life as heir to the throne. But after two failed betrothals, she starts to feel like nothing more than a pawn being moved aimlessly about a game board. Until the night she loses everything. Kidnapped by a wise-cracking mercenary with more than one identity, Aurelia embarks on a mission across land and sea to avenge her father’s death. But an evil is rising from the ashes of memory. Insidious magic is stirring. The dregs of a once-powerful nation are thirsty for blood and revenge. They seek to harness Aurelia. To tempt her. To manipulate her. And if necessary, to destroy her. Add to Goodreads   Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  iTunes  |  Kobo My Thoughts   I ...

Matched By  Ally Condie Published November 2010 Published by Dutton Books for Young Readers Source: Purchased Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow. Matched and its companion books know what they are and come right out and say it at the beginning. ...

Follow the rest of the tour  HERE The Perilous Journey of the Not-S0-Innocuous Girl By  Leigh Statham Published on March 17,2015 Published by Month9Books, LLC   Lady Marguerite lives a life most 17th century French girls can only dream of: Money, designer dresses, suitors and a secure future. Except, she suspects her heart may be falling for her best friend Claude, a common smithie in the family’s steam forge. When Claude leaves for New France in search of a better life, Marguerite decides to follow him and test her suspicions of love. Only the trip proves to be more harrowing than she anticipated. Love, adventure and restitution await her, if she can survive the voyage. Add to Goodreads Chapters Indigo  |  Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  |  TBD My Thoughts   This review is going to be a short and sweet one, for one reason and one reason alone. I ADORED this story, and these ch...

Today we're celebrating the release of STIFLED, book two in the SUMMONED series by USA Today Bestselling author, Rainy Kaye. A dark twist on genie folklore, SUMMONED follows a reluctant criminal as he unravels the mystery of the paranormal bond controlling him. In STIFLED, Dimitri trails an elusive jinn and finds himself in the middle of a community keeping dark secrets. The SUMMONED series is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.  Scroll down to pick up your copy of STIFLED, get SUMMONED for free for a limited time, and enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card.     Dimitri would like nothing more than to live a low-key life in Naples, Italy. His girlfriend, Syd, has other plans. After three months of researching, she is positive she has found a jinn on a killing spree in San Diego, California. Since Syd gave Dimitri the one thing he thought was out of reach, he feels obligated to use his ill-gained talents for her cause. A few hours back in the...

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea By  April Genevieve Tucholke Published August 2013 Published by Dial Source: Purchased You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand… Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it. So, more often than not, I while away my non-class time at school flopped on the green room couch ...

Life by Committee By  Corey Ann Haydu Published May 2014 Published by Katherine Tegen Books Source: Purchased Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat. Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend. Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe. Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and ...

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from the founder of Gone Reading asking if I'd like to review some products from their site like Coranne did last summer. And like Coranne, I asked Brad to surprise me. Not only did he surprise me, but somehow he managed to time things out perfectly with shipping and putting together a box of random stuff so that it arrived on my birthday. I'm sure it was a coincidence, but I'm just going to pretend it was intentional because it wouldn't surprise me if Brad's the kind of guy who plans out mail for his friends and family like that. I don't know him beyond that, but surprise book stuff on my birthday is definitely one of the ways to my heart. There was a definite theme to the things in the box and that was that they were all better enjoyed with people. So, I strapped on my social boots, called up some friends and we had a night of it. It didn't go entirely as expected. Lit Wit is a game that seems fun on the ou...

I'm so excited to take part in the cover reveal for SIGNS OF LIFE (Rough Romance #2, sequel to MELT )! Check out the cover below, enter the giveaway, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments. SIGNS OF LIFE (Rough Romance #2)  by Selene Castrovilla Last Syllable Books Release Date: November 10, 2015 No good deed goes unpunished… The tables are turned with a vengeance in this tour de force sequel to MELT . Now it’s Dorothy who is fragmented and lost, while Joey keeps the promise he made her to better himself – even though she’s gone. Joey tells his story “now ”—nearly a year after the shocking conclusion of MELT . Dorothy tells what happened “then”— in the moments and hours after the Glock dropped. This time the stakes are even higher, as Joey forces himself to move forward while Dorothy is frozen in place. But when he learns of a devastating decision, Joey races to find her before it’s too late. Truth, consequence, repercussion and modern medicine co...

Atlantia By  Ally Condie Published October 2014 Published by Dutton Source: Purchased Can you hear Atlantia breathing? For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose. Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths. I believe my first words describing this book to someone were "UNDERWATER DYSTOPIA OMFG!!!" Which basic...

The Forest of Hands and Teeth By  Carrie Ryan Published July 2009 Published by Gollancz Source: Purchased In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? Alright, so I'm breaking from my 'must review whole series at once...

The Bargaining By  Carly Anne West Published on February 17, 2015 Published by Simon Pulse Source: Edelweiss The fact that neither of her parents wants to deal with her is nothing new to Penny. She’s used to being discussed like a problem, a problem her mother has finally passed on to her father. What she hasn’t gotten used to is her stepmother…especially when she finds out that she’ll have to spend the summer with April in the remote woods of Washington to restore a broken-down old house. Set deep in a dense forest, the old Carver House is filled with abandoned antique furniture, rich architectural details, and its own chilling past. The only respite Penny can find away from April’s renovations is in Miller, the young guy who runs the local general store. He’s her only chance at a normal, and enjoyable, summer. But Miller has his own connection to the Carver House, and it’s one that goes beyond the mysterious tapping Penny hears at her window, the handprints she finds sm...

Material Girls By  Elaine Dimopoulos Published 05 May 2015 Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers Source: Netgalley In Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde’s world, teens are the gatekeepers of culture. A top fashion label employs sixteen-year-old Marla to dictate hot new clothing trends, while Ivy, a teen pop star, popularizes the garments that Marla approves. Both girls are pawns in a calculated but seductive system of corporate control, and both begin to question their world’s aggressive levels of consumption. Will their new “eco-chic” trend subversively resist and overturn the industry that controls every part of their lives? Smart, provocative, and entertaining, this thrilling page-turner for teens questions the cult like mentality of fame and fashion. Are you in or are you out? In a time where it seems like most of the dystopias published are trilogies, it's strangely refreshing to have one self-contained book. Don't get me wrong, I like a goo...

Call Me Tree By Maya Christina Gonzalez Published on November 1, 2014 Published by Children's Book Press Source: Library In this spare, lyrically written story, we join a child on a journey of self-discovery. Finding a way to grow from the inside out, just like a tree, the child develops as an individual comfortable in the natural world and in relationships with others. The child begins "Within/ The deep dark earth," like a seed, ready to grow and then dream and reach out to the world. Soon the child discovers birds and the sky and other children: Trees and trees/ Just like me! Each is different too. The child embraces them all because All trees have roots/ All trees belong. Maya Christina Gonzalez once again combines her talents as an artist and a storyteller to craft a gentle, empowering story about belonging, connecting with nature, and becoming your fullest self. Young readers will be inspired to dream and reach, reach and dream . . . and to be as free and u...

Check out the rest of the hosts  HERE Fire in Frost By  Alicia Rades Published 2015 Published by PaperPlane Publishing Crystal Frost has spent her whole life believing she's ordinary, and her mother has long held the secret of her heritage. When Crystal begins seeing the ghost of a dead classmate, her life spirals out of control. She’s faced with the threat that everyone will find out she’s a freak, as if the struggle to figure out her new-found abilities wasn’t enough pressure. Crystal has to find some way to save the people who have come to her for help all while trying to keep her abilities a secret. Will she be able to fulfill these overwhelming demands while solving the mystery that is the ghost of Olivia Owen? Add to Goodreads Amazon My Thoughts    Alright, right off the bat I am going to be honest about something. I had a hard time at the beginning of Fire in Frost. I honestly considered DNF'ing the book, but there was...

Seeker By  Arwen Elys Dayton Published on February 10th 2015 Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers Source: Netgalley Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’. Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her. Seeker combines the occasional bit of mild racism with bland, cliched writing that forces itself to be witty and is not at all well served by the shifting of narrative voices. The book has an interesting premise and a lot of potential it simply didn't begin live up to in the first few chapters. I wish I could give this book more than a few lines as to why I didn't finish it, but frankly "mild ...