Monthly Archives:: February 2016

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Fresh Batch (Feb 28th – Mar 5th)

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

Flavor of the week:

A Study in Charlotte
Brittany Cavallaro
Series: Charlotte Holmes #1
Publication date: March 1st 2016
by Katherine Tegen Books

Goodreads Purchase

The last thing sixteen-year-old Jamie Watson–writer and great-great-grandson of the John Watson–wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s enigmatic, fiercely independent great-great-granddaughter, who’s inherited not just his genius but also his vices, volatile temperament, and expertly hidden vulnerability. Charlotte has been the object of his fascination for as long as he can remember–but from the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else.

Then a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Holmes stories, and Jamie and Charlotte become the prime suspects. Convinced they’re being framed, they must race against the police to conduct their own investigation. As danger mounts, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe and the only people they can trust are each other.

Equal parts tender, thrilling, and hilarious, A Study in Charlotte is the first in a trilogy brimming with wit and edge-of-the-seat suspense.


Other releases this week:
* In no particular order *




Seven Black Diamonds (Untitled #1) by Melissa Marr [Purchase]
You Were Here by Cori McCarthy [Purchase]
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz [Purchase]
Midnight Marked (Chicagoland Vampires #12) by Chloe Neill [Purchase]


Into the Dim (Into The Dim #1) by Janet B. Taylor [Purchase]
In Real Life by Jessica Love [Purchase]
Midnight Lily by Mia Sheridan [Purchase]
The Girl Who Fell by Shannon M. Parker [Purchase]


The Last Days of Magic by Mark Tompkins [Purchase]
The Last Girl (The Dominion Trilogy #1) by Joe Hart [Purchase]
Siren’s Song (The Storm Siren Trilogy #3) by Mary Weber [Purchase]
Blood Passage (Dark Caravan Cycle #2) by Heather Demetrios [Purchase]


The Leaving Season by Cat Jordan [Purchase]
The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks [Purchase]
The Awakening of Sunshine Girl (The Haunting of Sunshine Girl #2) by Paige McKenzie [Purchase]
A Daring Sacrifice (An Uncertain Choice #2) by Jody Hedlund [Purchase]


The Land of Forgotten Girls by Erin Entrada Kelly [Purchase]
Chaos Choreography (InCryptid #5) by Seanan McGuire [Purchase]
Sinner’s Creed (Sinner’s Creed MC #1) by Kim Jones [Purchase]
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home (Fairyland #5) by Catherynne M. Valente [Purchase]


Nowhere Girl: A Novel by Susan Strecker [Purchase]
The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever by Jeff Strand [Purchase]
The Crown and the Arrow (The Wrath and the Dawn 0.5) by Renee Ahdieh [Purchase]
Tru and Nelle by G. Neri [Purchase]


Dear Emma by Katie Heaney [Purchase]
Charmed (Fairy Tale Reform School #2) by Jen Calonita [Purchase]
Burning Glass (Burning Glass #1) by Kathryn Purdie [Purchase]
Beyond the Red by Ava Jae [Purchase]


The Black Knife (The Orphan Queen 0.4) by Jodi Meadows [Purchase]
Unleash the Storm (Steel & Stone #5) by Annette Marie [Purchase]
Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor [Purchase]
Beautiful Boss (Beautiful Bastard #4.5) by Christina Lauren [Purchase]


Character, Driven by David Lubar [Purchase]
Holding Court by K.C. Held [Purchase]
Guile by Constance Cooper [Purchase]
Under Threat by Robin Stevenson [Purchase]


Pearl by Deirdre Riordan Hall [Purchase]
Snow Job by Charles Benoit [Purchase]
The Glass Castle by Trisha Priebe & Jerry B. Jenkins [Purchase]
Love, Lexi: Letters to God by Sherry Kyle [Purchase]


Did I Mention I Need You? (The DIMILY Trilogy #2) by Estelle Maskame [Purchase]
Midnight Bites: Stories of the Morganville Vampires (The Morganville Vampires) by Rachel Caine [Purchase]
Terminal (Virals #5) by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs [Purchase]
My Senior Year of Awesome by Jennifer DiGiovanni [Purchase]


Talon (Uncompromising #1) by Sybil Bartel [Purchase]


What are you excited for this week?

 

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Find previous Fresh Batch posts here!

 

Review: After the Woods by Kim Savage

Posted by on 02/26/2016 • 2 Comments

My feelings about After the Woods are complex. I think it is a great novel on the whole but there are also bits about it that bothered me. Either way, if you are looking for a psychological thriller with a potentially unreliable narrator, After the Woods is for you.

The reason why I am not completely ready to say I loved this book though is that I am not satisfied (I’ll never be satisfied.)  There are so many questions left unanswered by the end of the novel. It feels unfinished, like there is more of the story to be had. Not necessarily in terms of plot but in terms of character development and understanding the motives. Also what actually happened in the woods.

Don’t get me wrong, I love books…

Fresh Batch (February 21st – 27th)

Fresh Batch (February 21st – 27th)

Posted by on 02/20/2016 • 4 Comments

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

Flavor of the week:

The Forbidden Wish Jessica Khoury Publication date: February 23rd 2016by Razorbill

Goodreads Purchase

She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world…

When Aladdin discovers Zahra’s jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn’t seen in hundreds of years — a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra’s very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes.

But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be…

Religion in Books and Why I Am Not Always Okay With It

Posted by on 02/17/2016 • 18 Comments

Religion in books makes me uncomfortable. There, I said it. It’s not because I have anything against religion, it’s just that in a lot of my experiences, books that are based on some sort of religious myth tend to draw heavily from Christian mythology and that’s really where I start feeling uncomfortable. It’s not that these myths cannot be done well but in a lot of my experiences what ends up happening is that all other religions become excluded from this world found on one kind of myth and as a reader who isn’t Christian or really aware of many of these myths, I am excluded from the novel.

I realize this isn’t unintentionally done but this brings us back to the issue of diversity in literature. BECAUSE DIVERSITY. Religious…

Fresh Batch (February 14th – 20th)

Fresh Batch (February 14th – 20th)

Posted by on 02/13/2016 • 2 Comments

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

Flavor of the week:

The Girl from Everywhere Heidi Heilig Series: The Girl from Everywhere #1 Publication date: February 16th 2016by Greenwillow Books

Goodreads Purchase

It was the kind of August day that hinted at monsoons, and the year was 1774, though not for very much longer.

Sixteen-year-old Nix Song is a time-traveller. She, her father and their crew of time refugees travel the world aboard The Temptation, a glorious pirate ship stuffed with treasures both typical and mythical. Old maps allow Nix and her father to navigate not just to distant lands, but distant times – although a map will only take you somewhere once….

On Blog Tours

Posted by on 02/12/2016 • 14 Comments

There has been a lot of discussion in the community about blog tours and I am here today to add my two cents to the conversation.

So. Blog tours. I really like them, but I understand what people mean when they say blog tours are filler posts. The thing is though, it really isn’t as simple as that (or at least in my opinion.) I think blog tours can also be really creative especially when hosts are allowed to have a bigger part in their posts.

Also, a lot of my blog tour posts tend to be review posts (especially in my experience) so in that way, they really aren’t that much different from regular blog posts and are just a way of getting a large amount of reviews for…

Review: Titans by Victoria Scott

Posted by on 02/11/2016 • 10 Comments

You know when you start reading a book and you are just pulled into it and want to devour it? Yeah, this was one of those. I loved just about everything about it. The underlying story is sad and bleak, but the main part of it is thrilling and full of adventure. This book is fast paced and keeps your heart racing along with the characters. And the best part is, there’s not really romance in it. There’s no need for it and it would have taken away from the story and I am glad that the author didn’t feel the need to throw it in there. The characters are fabulous and I really enjoyed getting to know them. The Titans were so interesting and I couldn’t help but want…

Fresh Batch (February 7th – 13th)

Fresh Batch (February 7th – 13th)

Posted by on 02/06/2016 • 4 Comments

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

Flavor of the week:

Blackhearts Nicole Castroman Publication date: February 9th 2016by Simon Pulse

Goodreads Purchase

Blackbeard the pirate was known for striking fear in the hearts of the bravest of sailors. But once he was just a young man who dreamed of leaving his rigid life behind to chase adventure in faraway lands. Nothing could stop him—until he met the one girl who would change everything.

Edward “Teach” Drummond, son of one of Bristol’s richest merchants, has just returned from a year-long journey on the high seas to find his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high…