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Saturday, February 11, 2017

Fresh Batch (February 12th-18th)

Posted by • 3 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:

The Valiant
Lesley Livingston
Series: The Valiant #1
Publication date: February 14th 2017
by Razorbill

Goodreads Purchase

Lost to history, the story of the female gladiator has never been told. Until now.

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king and the younger sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha. When Fallon was just a child, Sorcha was killed while defending their home from the armies of Julius Caesar.

On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is excited to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in her father’s war band. She never gets the chance.

Fallon is captured by ruthless brigands who sell her to an elite training school for female gladiators owned by none other than Julius Caesar himself. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon s family might be her only hope of survival.
Now, Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries, deadly fights in and out of the arena, and perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier and her sworn enemy.

A richly imagined fantasy for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Cinda Williams Chima, “The Valiant” recounts Fallon s gripping journey from fierce Celtic princess to legendary gladiator and darling of the Roman empire.”

Other releases this week:
* In no particular order *


– The Young Wives Club by Julie Pennell [Purchase]
– Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts #1) by Vic James [Purchase]
– The Wish Granter (Ravenspire #2) by C.J. Redwine [Purchase]
– American Street by Ibi Zoboi [Purchase]


– Love Story (Love Unexpectedly #3) by Lauren Layne [Purchase]
– Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me by Bill Hayes [Purchase]
– Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey [Purchase]
– Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders [Purchase]


– #famous by Jilly Gagnon [Purchase]
– The Release (The Prey #3) by Tom Isbell [Purchase]
– Island of Exiles (The Ryogan Chronicles #1) by Erica Cameron [Purchase]
– We Are Okay by Nina LaCour [Purchase]


– Quiz Queens by K.L. Denman [Purchase]
– Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson [Purchase]
– Dare You (Nikki Kill #2) by Jennifer Brown [Purchase]
– Cashmere (Velvet Trilogy #2) by Temple West [Purchase]


– Recruits by Thomas Locke [Purchase]
– Ones and Zeroes (Mirador #2) by Dan Wells [Purchase]
– Revenge of the Evil Librarian (Evil Librarian #2) by Michelle Knudsen [Purchase]
– A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White [Purchase]


– Station Fosaan (Torch World series #1) by Dee Garretson [Purchase]


What’s catching your eye this week?

Find previous Fresh Batch posts here!

 

The Last Harvest by Kim Liggett

Posted by on 02/10/2017 • 1 Comment

I have no idea how I am supposed to feel about this book. I love how the author builds tension throughout the book and I love the general creepiness of it but I struggled with a lot of other aspects of the book. The characters, the romance, and even some of the horror elements of the book.

I think my biggest qualm in terms of the actual horror parts of the book is how much they are based on Christian myth. This is obviously a very personal qualm and not all readers will have that same experience but as someone who exists outside of that narrative, it can be a little unsettling to have all this info forced down ones throat. It isn’t even just the satanic elements but rather the…

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Just Another Teen Novel (IN A GOOD WAY!!): The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera

Posted by on 02/09/2017 • 2 Comments

2k17, the year where my eyes tear up because of everything. Currently tearing up because I wish I was a teen and I wish I could have had all these wonderful #ownvoices books in my life as a teen. I am not Latinx but goddamnit, it is so so SO good to read so many #ownvoices novels with non-white main characters. It is so good to see a POC main character and its so incredibly good to see a POC character in familiar tropes. Don’t ever let anyone tell you tropes are bad. TROPES ARE AMAZING (if done right) and people who think books need to not be trope-y are just reading books where tropes aren’t done well.

The Education of Margot Sanchez has been described as being ‘Pretty In…

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10 Books About Immigrant/1st Gen Experiences

Posted by on 02/08/2017 • 8 Comments

TBH, I don’t even know how to start this post off. I wish the world was a better place and I wish everyone could just agree that we all deserve to be treated as humans and equals instead of shitting on the existence of entire groups of people. I am trying to use this space to promote books that we should all be reading right now and to get people to support more diverse (& #ownvoices) content. So here is a list of 10 Books about Immigrant/1st Gen Experiences.

1. Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

MC is a first gen Pakistani-American and the book is #ownvoices. Also deals with arranged marriage and has a jaw-dropping gorgeous cover.

2. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

I think people who…

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Fresh Batch (February 5th-11th)

Fresh Batch (February 5th-11th)

Posted by on 02/04/2017 • 3 Comments

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

Flavor of the week:

To Catch a Killer Sheryl Scarborough Publication date: February 7th 2017by Tor Teen

Goodreads Purchase

Erin Blake has one of those names. A name that, like Natalee Holloway or Elizabeth Smart, is inextricably linked to a grisly crime. As a toddler, Erin survived for three days alongside the corpse of her murdered mother, and the case—which remains unsolved—fascinated a nation. Her father’s identity unknown, Erin was taken in by her mother’s best friend and has become a relatively normal teen in spite of the looming questions about her past.

Fourteen years later, Erin is once again at the center of a brutal…

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Playlist for The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman + Giveaway

Posted by on 02/02/2017 • 6 Comments

Hello and welcome to Xpresso Reads’ tour stop for The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman AKA the book I created my goodreads OTP OF PAIN shelf for. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Days Club last year but fell head over heels for The Dark Days Pact. In this book, Goodman really upped the stakes and basically put me through hell :’) It was great. Basically, you need this series on your TBR and to help you do that, I put together a playlist that ~I~ think describes the book/series.

THE PLAYLIST

Feat angsty music + some songs that might not be the best fit BUT SINCE I AM MAKING THE PLAYLIST, you’re stuck with them 😉 Also making playlists is H.A.R.D. If you click on the little thing on…

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A Book With the Potential to Completely Fuck You Over: Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Posted by on 02/01/2017 • 11 Comments

Holy shit. THIS BOOK GUYS. Allegedly was one of my most anticipated books, but my co-worker who read it before I had a lot of FEELS (not good or bad, just FEELS), so I was a little nervous when I dove in. I had no idea the book would grip me and NOT LET ME GO. I read the 373 page book in a little over 2.5 hours. I GOBBLED IT, all while growing more and more anxious as I could feel something B.I.G. coming.

This book treads all the fine lines ever. There is no easy black and white in this book and it goes to lengths to make sure YOU KNOW THAT TOO. Justice, family, life cannot be put into little boxes and Jackson really explores what is right…

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Intro to The Infinite Variants of YA + List of Diverse Fic Books that Came Out in Jan 2017

Posted by on 01/30/2017 • 5 Comments

These past couple of months have been stressful and heartbreaking. My friend Nick (Nick & Nereyda’s Infinite Booklist) have been working on a project for a while as a way of combatting the awfulness of the world through books. I know it won’t make a major difference but what we want to do through this project is boost diverse books and diverse voices. We want to promote not just upcoming diverse books, but also backlist diverse books (because they shouldn’t be forgotten about once they are out.) Our goal is that over the course of the year, we get you guys excited about the many diverse books coming out, the ones that are already out and help support the wonderful authors writing these books. We plan on spotlighting diverse authors once a…

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