Books I Recently Added to My TBR - Top Ten Tuesday #8

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is "Ten Books I've Recently Added To My TBR." I thought this week, I'd share the Goodreads synopses of the books since some of them don't have covers yet and it felt too bare to just have the titles of the books.

By Your Side by Kasie West -

About a girl who is accidentally locked in a library with the boy no one knows but everyone talks about, and must find a way to escape. Publication is slated for winter 2017. About a girl who is accidentally locked in a library with the boy no one knows but everyone talks about, and must find a way to escape. Publication is slated for winter 2017.

Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge - 

This new series, pitched as "Romeo and Juliet meets Sabriel," re-imagines Shakespeare's story of feuding families and doomed lovers in a city threatened by necromancers and protected by "the Juliet," a girl born in every generation with powerful magic.

The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins - 

Kill the beast. Win the girl.

A strange beast stirs fear in the kingdom of Lochlanach, terrorizing towns with its brutality and hunger. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.

Princess Aerity understands her duty to the kingdom though it pains her to imagine marrying a stranger. It would be foolish to set her sights on any particular man in the great hunt, but when a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention, there’s no denying the unspoken lure between them…or his mysterious resentment.

Paxton is not keen on marriage. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast and protecting his family—yet Princess Aerity continues to challenge his notions with her unpredictability and charm. But as past secrets collide with present desires, dire choices threaten everything Paxton holds dear.

Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ tale, “The Singing Bone,” New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins delivers a dark fantasy filled with rugged hunters, romantic tension, outlawed magic, and a princess willing to risk all to save her people.

The Reader by Traci Chee - 

A stunning debut set in a world where reading is forbidden, perfect for fans of Inkheart and Shadow and Bone

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.

With overlapping stories of swashbuckling pirates and merciless assassins, The Reader is a brilliantly told adventure from an extraordinary new talent.

The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine - 

Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by magical priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss -

Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature. A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

Timekeeper by Tara Sim -

Every city in the world is run by a clock tower. If one breaks, time stops. It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old Danny knows well; his father has been trapped in a town east of London for three years. Despite being a clock mechanic prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but time itself, Danny has been unable to free his father.

Danny’s assigned to a damaged clock tower in the small town of Enfield. The boy he mistakes for his apprentice is odd, but that’s to be expected when he’s the clock spirit who controls Enfield’s time. Although Danny and the spirit are drawn to each other’s loneliness, falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, no matter how cute his smiles are.

But when someone plants bombs in nearby towers, cities are in danger of becoming trapped in time—and Enfield is one of them.

Danny must discover who’s stopping time and prevent it from happening to Enfield, or else he’ll lose not only his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

The Bureau of Time by Brett Michael Orr -

You cannot change fate.

Cassandra Wright is a Timewalker – a teenager with a genetic mutation that allows her to manipulate the flow of time. But her inexplicable powers have made her a target for Adjusters – monstrous assassins from a parallel universe.

Saved from almost certain death, Cassie is pulled into a secret agency sworn to defend our timeline against these threats: the Bureau of Temporal Integrity, Monitoring, and Execution. Cassie’s life soon becomes entwined with Shaun Briars – a reckless Timewalker with an alluring smile and dark suspicions about the Bureau itself.

When Cassie and Shaun cross into the parallel universe, they discover a world in the grips of nuclear winter, with a new war threatening to spill over into our universe. With time running out, they must learn the true history of Timewalkers, confront the unforgivable crimes of their future selves, and defy their own fate to save two worlds.

Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes -

As Princess of Wonderland Palace and the future Queen of Hearts, Dinah’s days are an endless monotony of tea, tarts, and a stream of vicious humiliations at the hands of her father, the King of Hearts. The only highlight of her days is visiting Wardley, her childhood best friend, the future Knave of Hearts — and the love of her life.

When an enchanting stranger arrives at the Palace, Dinah watches as everything she’s ever wanted threatens to crumble. As her coronation date approaches, a series of suspicious and bloody events suggests that something sinister stirs in the whimsical halls of Wonderland. It’s up to Dinah to unravel the mysteries that lurk both inside and under the Palace before she loses her own head to a clever and faceless foe.

Part epic fantasy, part twisted fairy tale, this dazzling saga will have readers shivering as Dinahs furious nature sweeps Wonderland up in the maelstrom of her wrath.

Familiar characters such as Cheshire, the White Rabbit, and the Mad Hatter make their appearance, enchanting readers with this new, dark take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here by Anna Breslaw -

Meet Scarlett Epstein, BNF (Big Name Fan) in her online community of fanfiction writers, world-class nobody at Melville High. Her best (read: only) IRL friends are Avery, a painfully shy and annoyingly attractive bookworm, and Ruth, her pot-smoking, possibly insane seventy-three-year-old neighbor.

When Scarlett’s beloved TV show is canceled and her longtime crush, Gideon, is sucked out of her orbit and into the dark and distant world of Populars, Scarlett turns to the fanfic message boards for comfort. This time, though, her subjects aren’t the swoon-worthy stars of her fave series—they’re the real-life kids from her high school. Scarlett never considers what might happen if they were to find out what she truly thinks about them...until a dramatic series of events exposes a very different reality than Scarlett's stories, forever transforming her approach to relationships—both online and off.

PassTruth Launch Party Recap

Hey guys! On Monday, I was lucky enough to attend the PassTruth Launch Party at Books of Wonder in New York City. If you guys know anything about me, I am a HUGE fan of Susan Dennard, so naturally I begged my parents to let me attend her Q&A/signing with Alex Bracken and Erin Bowman. I apologize in advance if this post gets super ramble-y but I met a ton of bloggers/twitter-ers/BookTubers I knew from online so I'm probably going to ramble about that for a while. I'll write about the actual event event stuff in purple in case you want to skip over my ramblings about all the people I met.

It was merely an hour's train ride to get to the city, but since I had school earlier that day, I caught a 4:15 train and got into the city at 5:20ish. By the time I grabbed a bite to eat and got to Books of Wonder, it was 5:45 and it was PACKED.

Let me backtrack a bit to right before I entered Books of Wonder though because SARAH J. MAAS WAS LITERALLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME BEFORE I WALKED IN AND I SQUEALED IN FRONT OF MY DAD AND HE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON BUT LUCKILY IT WAS DARK AND SARAH DIDN'T SEE/HEAR ME FLAILING BUT OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG YOU GUYS. *takes deep breath*

Once I was inside, I finally had a minute to set down my giant bag of seven books from home and picked up the copy of Truthwitch I ordered for my dear friend. Apparently everyone came way in advance though, because I received my ticket for the signing and I found out I was 89th in line.

I then rushed over to the Q&A area right before the Q&A started to meet up with my twitter/blog friend Mariam (from Flying Through Fiction), and ended up meeting her co-blogger Ashley, as well as Raisa (from Wonderland Novels) and Brittany (from Book Rambles).

The Q&A started, with Erin Bowman as moderator. The questions started off mostly with book/writing-related questions, such as inspiration and research, and later questions from the crowd were thrown in (BB8 or R2D2? Which Hogwarts Houses would your characters be sorted into? If your character could choose any companion to help them from another story/movie/etc. who would it be?) The Q&A lasted about 45 minutes before they started setting up for the signing. The event cleared out significantly after the questions were over, but there were still at least one hundred people waiting to meet Susan, Alex, and Erin. Around 7ish, the signing began, starting with the first 20 people.

I proceeded to hang out with Mariam, Raisa, Ashley and Brittany for a while before spotting Danielle from Simply Thoughtful Books (on BookTube). I had spotted her as well as some other BookTubers, bloggers, and people I recognized from BookCon and Twitter during the Q&A, and knew I had to say hello. She was surprised that I recognized her, but she was just as sweet in person as she is in her videos.

I returned to my blog friends for a while before Mariam introduced me to some people on our PassTruth NYC group chat on Twitter: Kelly and Heather, mainly, and then sort of Melissa and Jana (I apologize for not actually properly introducing myself!) I ran into Danielle again and asked for a picture with her since she's one of my favorite BookTubers and afterwards we proceeded to talk about BookTube, Something Strange and Deadly, Illuminae, and various other things. Anyway, I highly highly recommend you check her videos out since she's so genuinely nice and funny and is such a sweet person.

Most of my friends/acquaintances/I-don't-know-what-to-call-them-because-I-knew-them-online-for-several-months-but-not-in-person-until-this-event got their books signed way before me because they all somehow managed to get one of the first fifty tickets, but I was never alone without anyone to talk to.

And then basically every one of them left since they had places to be. I totally understand since they all have pretty long commutes back home, but it was uncomfortable for a while since I was starting to get really tired (it had been a long day) and I was pretty drained from talking to so many people. I'M AN INTROVERT, I'M SORRY.

Eventually, around 9ish, they finally called the numbers in the 80s. I COULD FINALLY JOIN THE LINE! After a few more minutes, I finally met Susan (my favorite author ever) and kind of internally flailed the whole time. I dropped my five books off at the table for her to sign, and gave her my Truthwitch fan art (if you missed it, I shared it in this post). I was so nervous the whole time, but she is honestly one of the sweetest people I've ever met and I'm so grateful that she didn't act like I was a total spaz (even though I definitely was one).

I then got to meet Erin Bowman, and she was also super sweet! I felt a bit awkward because I hadn't read Vengeance Road (or the Taken trilogy) yet, but she was really friendly and I really hope I get to meet her again one day (after I've read her books!) Unfortunately Alex had a huge line so I couldn't meet her (since I had to head home because it was a weeknight and I had school the next day), but overall the experience was amazing (and also exhausting). It was so worth it because I finally got to meet my favorite author (yay!) and got to meet some of my amazing online friends in person.

Blog Tour - Every Big & Little Wish (Guest Post + Giveaway!)

Every Big & Little Wish by E.C. Moore
Publisher: Booktrope Publishing
Publication date: October 20th 2015
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

About Every Big and Little Wish:

E.C. Moore’s young adult novel, Every Big and Little Wish, opens in late spring 1970. Sixteen-year-old Jacy Wilbert’s Mom got promoted, so her parents sold their Victorian home in California and moved to a townhouse in Oregon.

Torn away from the only home she’s ever known, forced to leave her beloved German shepherd behind, Jacy feels misplaced. Exacerbating an already terrible situation, her dad runs off with the bombshell real estate agent who sold them their townhouse. And, just when it seems things can’t get any worse, her mom loses the stupid job they left California for in the first place and begins to drown her sorrows with pink wine, night after night. Jacy’s caught in the middle, struggling to maintain a relationship with her AWOL dad while tolerating his annoying, much-younger girlfriend.

Missing old friends back in California, and feeling like an outsider, Jacy needs to build a new social life in a new school. Not the sort of girl to wait around for what she wants to come her way, she sets her sights on Neil Wilder, the best-looking boy around.

Everything changes when Jacy Wilbert knocks on the wrong door.

Goodreads | Amazon

~ GUEST POST ~

How I Came to Write Every Big & Little Wish

Every Big & Little Wish is dark and suspenseful but not without lighter moments and heart. I chose 1970 as the setting. I believe this iconic period helps to set the narrative apart. This coming of age novel is a fictional attempt to explore what if felt like to be stalked and kidnapped from my own unique perspective. Although Jacy Wilbert goes through much of what I did, my protagonist is not like me in any way shape or form, and I chose to depict her a few years younger than I was when I got abducted. But her German Shepherd Thor is a genuine portrayal of the guard dog my dad bought to protect me, right down to his name, unusual coloring, and astounding bravery.

I usually begin a book with a seed of an idea. For instance, on a walk one day, I noticed a rundown house with Christmas lights still up in late spring, a dried up wreath hanging on the entry door, and a yard full of potholes. An attractive high school girl walked by just then. If such a girl liked and wanted to meet a boy who lived in such a house, would she be brave enough to knock on his door? What sort of girl could ignore such a ramshackle exterior? How could she be so bold? My protagonist, Jacy Wilbert, was born. I always knew I would write a book loosely based on my stalking and eventual kidnapping, so I began to incorporate that scenario into the outline.

For some reason, parents are often portrayed as peripheral, two-dimensional characters in novels. I wanted Jacy’s parents to be genuinely human and flawed. I didn’t conceal or suppress their bad conduct or erratic behavior patterns. I attempted to illustrate Jacy’s response to her parent’s actions with the choices she makes in return.

The attraction Jacy feels for Neil Wilder, the best-looking boy around, is all consuming and leads her to knock on the wrong door. How could she know it was the wrong door? Contact with the Wilder family leads to obsession and danger.

~

About the Author:

When Elizabeth’s not writing feverishly, you will find her out walking or sightseeing. She’s crazy about coffee, books, cooking, good wine, cairn terriers, miniature ponies, historical houses, tapas, and witty people.

She resides in a fifties bungalow in Southern California, with her creative-director, hubba-hubba husband, a yappy blonde dog, and one feisty Chihuahua.

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