Yearly Archives:: 2013

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Fresh Batch (New Releases November 24th – 30th)

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FreshBatchBanner637Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

Crash into You
Katie McGarry
Series: Pushing the Limits #3
Publication date: November 26th 2013
by Harlequin Teen

Goodreads Purchase

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that’s who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers…and she’s just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can’t get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they’ll go to save each other.

Katie McGarry ‘s Website / Facebook / Twitter

Katie was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie is the author of the full-length Young Adult novels PUSHING THE LIMITS and DARE YOU TO, and the e-novella CROSSING THE LINE. Her debut novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS, is a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and an RT Book Reviews 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel.

Writing has given Katie an excuse to pursue her passions. Research for her books has provided her with the amazing opportunity to train with baseball players, ride along in a drag car at ninety-six miles per hour and experience boxing and mixed martial arts. The most memorable moments for Katie are when she speaks to groups of teenagers about her research, writing and the truth that no dream is out of reach. Katie would love to hear from her readers.

Contact her via her website, katielmcgarry.com, at Twitter @KatieMcGarry, or become a fan on Facebook and Goodreads.


Other releases this week:
* In no particular order *




Angel Fever (Angel #3) by L.A. Weatherly [Purchase]
Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1) by Aimee Carter [Purchase]
Hard As It Gets (Hard Ink #1) by Laura Kaye [Purchase]
No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (The Rules of Scoundrels #3) by Sarah MacLean [Purchase]


Pushed (Sense Thieves #2) by Corrine Jackson [Purchase]
Brooke (Under the Never Sky #2.5) by Veronica Rossi [Purchase]
Wild Justice (Nadia Stafford #3) by Kelley Armstrong [Purchase]
Addicted for Now (Addicted #2) by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie [Purchase]


City of Lost Dreams (City of Dark Magic #2) by Magnus Flyte [Purchase]
Searching for Someday (Searching For #1) by Jennifer Probst [Purchase]
Forever Us (Forever Trilogy #3) by Sandi Lynn [Purchase]
Remy (Real #3) by Katy Evans [Purchase]


True Story by Ni-Ni Simone [Purchase]
Night of Cake & Puppets (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2.5) by Laini Taylor [Purchase]
Wake to Darkness (Brown and De Luca #2) by Maggie Shayne [Purchase]


Anything on your wishlist?

 

You can support my blog by using this link (also found on sidebar) to shop at TBD

Find previous Fresh Batch posts here!

Review: Wait for You by J. Lynn

Review: Wait for You by J. Lynn

Posted by on 11/22/2013 • 20 Comments

I was a big fan of Obsidian when I read it way back, but this was my first foray into Armentrout’s more adult works as J.Lynn, and wowza! If you thought Obsidian was full of chemistry and sexual tension you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Before there can be great chemistry, we have to have great characters; J.Lynn delivers! When we meet Avery we know that something pretty terrible has happened. Among other signs, she’s cut herself off from her past, including her family, but we don’t know exactly what or what it all entails for a while. Albeit it’s not incredibly hard to guess most of it, it still makes her a bit of a mysterious tragedy which I always enjoy in character arcs. I immediately liked her, too. She’s…

Book Girls Don’t Cry: Does Size <i>Really</i> Matter?

Book Girls Don’t Cry: Does Size Really Matter?

Posted by on 11/21/2013 • 37 Comments

Book Girls Don’t Cry is a feature where we will discuss/vent/advise on a bookish topic. This feature is hosted by myself along with these pretty ladies:

 

Do  you like em big? Or not so big?

Sorry – this is not a post about male genitalia *crowd boos*. But now that I have your attention, what’s your opinion on the size of books? Do you like big books (and you can not lie)? Or do you prefer reading shorter ones? Has it changed since blogging?

Am I the only one who, before getting on Goodreads (or blogger) didn’t even know just HOW many great books were out there? So weird how much that changed! Before, the size of a book was not something I even considered. I would browse in…

Let’s Role-Play! A Guest Post by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Let’s Role-Play! A Guest Post by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Posted by on 11/20/2013 • 40 Comments

Have you read this book yet? If not you’re definitely missing out! You can find my full review here if you missed it but it’s a awesome read! I’m excited to have the wonderful ladies behind this great novel on the blog for a fun guest post on how they created these characters together! First, in case you live under a rock and missed what this book was all about:

Guest Post by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Let It Play Out: Role-playing scenes to establish characters

One of the challenges in any story is ensuring that every character her their own very definitive point of view. They need opinions, a backstory, goals and their own personal motivation to do whatever they’re going to do…

Review: Darkest Fear by Cate Tiernan

Review: Darkest Fear by Cate Tiernan

Posted by on 11/19/2013 • 23 Comments

From lack of excitement to a protagonist I despised to a very bizarre romantic arc, I was happy to be done with this one. To paint a quick picture: the only interesting part of this book is in the blurb.

Darkest Fear starts with an intriguing Jaguar Shape-shifting lore that, for the most part, is well crafted. The narrative when in Jaguar form is particularly clever. I was certain it was the promising start of an impressive series, especially when only a few chapters in, something monumental happens. Something ominous that proposes an epic mystery to come. However, once this scene passes we get a whole lot of mundane happenings, from Vivi finding a job, to her day to day life, to detailed scenes of her baking various things. How…

Review: How to Love by Katie Cotugno

Review: How to Love by Katie Cotugno

Posted by on 11/18/2013 • 25 Comments

Don’t let my 3 stars sway you against this one. How to Love is a pretty good book for many reasons. First it touches on a subject I personally have not often come across in books – teen pregnancy. I found this was handled realistically and fairly. I also really enjoyed the way it was told in past and present perspectives, allowing us to slowly unravel the messy, emotionally conflicting details of Reena’s relationship with the father of her child – Sawyer. We learn how it started, but most importantly how much it has changed. How much they both have changed. On that note, the reason I did not love this book despite finding it otherwise engaging: Sawyer LeGrande!

To be frank. Sawyer LeGrande is an ass. Since the story…

Stacking the Shelves (76)

Stacking the Shelves (76)

Posted by on 11/17/2013 • 30 Comments

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews featuring the books we got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week. How is everyone’s November so far? I’ve been keeping busy and warm! Who’s going to see Catching Fire this week? We’re going on Friday night and I’m so stoked! I’m also going to need to stay away from Twitter on Friday until the show so I don’t stumble upon many reviews/opinions on it. I want no swayed expectations! BE GOOD, MOVIE!! Ok so yeah, on to some books 🙂

THIS WEEK’S BOOK HAUL: (Click on covers and links below picture for Goodreads)

I received for review:

*Big thanks to Simon Pulse, HarperCollins, and Penguin Teen for…

Fresh Batch (New Releases November 17th – 23rd)

Fresh Batch (New Releases November 17th – 23rd)

Posted by on 11/16/2013 • 12 Comments

Fresh Batch, posted weekly, keeps you up to date on the hottest releases of the upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

World After Susan Ee Series: Penryn & the End of Days #2 Publication date: November 19th 2013by Skyscape

Goodreads Purchase

In this sequel to the bestselling fantasy thriller, Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what’s left of the modern world.

When a group of people capture Penryn’s sister Paige, thinking she’s a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige. Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels’ secret…