Posts By: Giselle

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Fresh Batch (September 13th – 19th)

Posted by 8 Comments

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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:

Dumplin’
Julie Murphy
Publication date: September 15th 2015
by Balzer + Bray

Goodreads Purchase

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine— Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.


Other releases this week:
* In no particular order *




Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas [Purchase]
The Marvels by Brian Selznick [Purchase]
The Fiery Trial (Tales from Shadowhunter Academy #8) by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan [Purchase]
Lock & Mori (Lock & Mori #1) by Heather W. Petty [Purchase]


Mirrored by Alex Flinn [Purchase]
The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore [Purchase]
Drowning to Breathe (Bleeding Stars #2) by A.L. Jackson [Purchase]
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff [Purchase]


One by Sarah Crossan [Purchase]
The Shepherd’s Crown (Discworld #41) by Terry Pratchett [Purchase]
Movie Game by Michael Ebner [Purchase]
Sweet Madness by Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie [Purchase]


The Scam (Fox and O’Hare #4) by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg [Purchase]
The Affiliate (Ascension #1) by K.A. Linde [Purchase]
The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich [Purchase]
The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen by Katherine Howe [Purchase]


The Hollow Boy (Lockwood & Co. #3) by Jonathan Stroud [Purchase]
Screwed by Kendall Ryan [Purchase]
Devoted in Death (In Death #41) by J.D. Robb [Purchase]
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson [Purchase]


The Drowning (Fjällbacka #6) by Camilla Läckberg [Purchase]
Dirty Promises (Dirty Angels #3) by Karina Halle
Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales [Purchase]
Pushing the Limits by Brooke Cumberland [Purchase]


Fractured Suns (Broken Skies #2) by Theresa Kay
Dark Wild Night (Wild Seasons #3) by Christina Lauren [Purchase]
Michael Vey 5: Storm of Lightning by Richard Paul Evans [Purchase]
Queen of Always (Stolen Empire #3) by Sherry D. Ficklin [Purchase]


Maid of Wonder (Maids of Honor #3) by Jennifer McGowan [Purchase]
Untamed City (Untamed City 0.5, 1) by Melissa Marr [Purchase]
Breakaway by Kat Spears [Purchase]
Watch Your Back by Tracy Bilen [Purchase]


Temporary High (Running On Empty #2) by Colette Ballard [Purchase]
Imposter by Antony John [Purchase]


Anything catching your eye this week?

 

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Find previous Fresh Batch posts here!

Review: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Review: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Posted by on 09/09/2015 • 5 Comments

“HEY, PARDNER. You don’t happen to have a dip there, wouldcha? Yer gonna be in fer a wild, wild ride, Western style.”

Did I say that right? Did I sound like a kick-ass cowboy, about to tell a story around a campfire? Yes? …No? Ah, well.

2015 is definitely the year where Western YA is taking the world by storm. I’ve already read 2 set in this era – one during the Californian Gold Rush (Walk on Earth a Stranger) and finally, this one, set a little bit after all the gold hooligans have come and gone. And to think there’s another one set with a Chinese heroine (Under the Never Sky), which I hear is pretty good, diverse, and character-driven (you bet I’ll be reading that one as soon…

Fresh Batch (Sept 6th – 12th)

Fresh Batch (Sept 6th – 12th)

Posted by on 09/05/2015 • 2 Comments

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

Flavor of the week:

Fans of the Impossible Life Kate Scelsa Publication date: September 8th 2015by Balzer + Bray

Goodreads Purchase

A captivating and profound debut novel about complicated love and the friendships that have the power to transform you forever, perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Mira is starting over at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to pretend that she could act like a functioning human this time, not a girl who can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

Jeremy is the painfully…

Fresh Batch (Aug 30th – Sept 5th)

Fresh Batch (Aug 30th – Sept 5th)

Posted by on 08/29/2015 • 8 Comments

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

Flavor of the week:

Queen of Shadows Sarah J. Maas Series: Throne of Glass #4 Publication date: September 1st 2015by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Goodreads Purchase

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s…

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Posted by on 08/26/2015 • 10 Comments

Long story short: this book got me out of a dreadful book slump.

One of a bookworm’s worst nightmares? That feeling when you just can’t get into any book. I’ve started feeling this way recently, having started at least five novels in the last five days and not finishing a single one. I just couldn’t feel anything towards them. Is it me or is it the book? Either way, I was a wreck with the guilt, considering the backlog of books, ARCs and otherwise, that have been on my shelves for months.

Leave it to Rae Carson’s fantastic storytelling skills and genuine characters to pull me out of that abyss. ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!

This book gave me newfound life. The Gold Rush era + an uncanny ability to feel…

Review: Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith

Review: Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith

Posted by on 08/22/2015 • 8 Comments

I think I read this book in a span of two days. TWO DAYS! In a book nerd’s dictionary, that’s pretty much a synonym for “SO KICK-ASS I FLEW THROUGH THE PAGES”, and no, it’s not just because of the cover, which I agree is absolutely mesmerizing. To be honest, this is my first book by this author (I had wanted to read SEKRET before, but I haven’t gotten the chance to buy it yet… a travesty, I know, don’t remind me), so I didn’t know what quite to expect. Would it be purple-prose-y? Would it be underwhelming? Would it have a main character who would make me want to put them into sandwiches so I can eat them to oblivion? Okay, that probably didn’t make sense. I’m so not funny.

The opposite actually happened.

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Posted by on 08/19/2015 • 9 Comments

I am honestly quite conflicted with this book.

While I appreciated this was a retelling of an under-the-radar fairy tale (come on, we have had enough of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid retellings!), this book left me feeling a little underwhelmed. I kind of expected a lot because even though I had some problems with Stitching Snow, the author does know how to write a story. With a cover like that, with a premise like that (oh-em-gee, eight older brothers?! Sign me up, s’il te plaît!), surely after a year, and with a writer like R.C. Lewis, surely this book will knock other retellings out of the water?! Unfortunately, instead of feeling enamored with it, I just feel a bit… deflated.

Meet Liddi Jantzen, the heiress to a large techy company that…

Review: The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Review: The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Posted by on 08/14/2015 • 7 Comments

The tragedy of The Storyspinner was that it was not told well.

Once you see your fellow bloggers praising this book left and right, it’s only natural to have had high expectations. The cover looked stunning, the title was very catchy, and its potential of becoming a blockbluster floated above it in big, bold letters. I mean, seriously, look at that beauty! Look at the premise! Drama and danger! A romance blossoming in the most unexpected of places! A game for the throne! Magical warriors racing for the missing heir (who could it be?! Oh my gosh!!! THE SUSPENSE!!!!!)!

First, let’s get some things out of the way:

1. The cover is misleading. The girl doesn’t even do archery. She wields a dagger, but the last time I checked, blade =/=…