2016 Debut Author Bash (Interview): Bridget Hodder, author of THE RAT PRINCE #giveaway @YaReads @BridgetsBooks @MacKidsBooks

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my third and final date of the fun 2016 Debut Author Bash! Today, I'll be featuring Bridget Hodder and her debut novel, The Rat Prince.



Title: The Rat Prince
Author: Bridget Hodder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)
Release Date: August 23, 2016
Cinderella thinks she must work alone to save her noble family from the ruin and disgrace her stepmother has brought to Lancastyr Manor. She has an ailing father, a sweet, innocent little stepsister and dependent servants to protect from the wicked Wilhemina–and no way to call attention to their plight unless she figures out how to attend the royal ball.

But Cinderella knows nothing of the ancient pact between the House of Lancastyr and the rats who live within the walls of her ancestral home.

Nor is she aware that the sleek black rat she thinks is her pet is actually the Rat Prince...

and she is not alone.

Author Interview

Kayla: What made you choose the Prince of the Rats as the hero in The Rat Prince?

Bridget Hodder: Because sometimes, being an outsider is an advantage--it allows you the freedom to think and act the way no one else dares. And no one's more of an outsider than an actual rat!

In my story, Cinderella has a real problem, and she's tried again and again to seek justice and aid through traditional channels. But it just isn't working. So the time has come to turn it all upside down. And Prince Char--The Rat Prince--is just the one to help her do it.

In Silicon Valley tech terms, the rat in this story is a "disruptive innovation". And by that I mean, once Prince Char shows up, the game changes forever in the Kingdom of Angland. (There's more to this metaphor, but you'll have to read the book to figure it out!) The Rat Prince's vision isn't bound by the ordinary human conventions; and once the fairy goddess makes him human for the night, Cinderella doesn't know where the evening will end up, but she knows things will never be the same!

Kayla: Who would you be in this fairy tale world that you've created?

Blog Tour (Excerpt): The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi #yalit #excerpt @GriffinTeen @NotRashKnee

Thank you so much for visiting by Bibliophilia, Please for my stop on The Star-Touched Queen blog tour - which is out as of Tuesday! Today, I'll be featuring an excerpt and my review!



Title: The Star-Touched Queen
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan)
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you're only seventeen?

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire...

But Akaran has its own secrets -- thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most. . .including herself.

From an incredibly fresh voice, Roshani Chokski’s The Star-Touched Queen is a beautifully written standalone novel that will enchant young adult and fantasy readers until the last page.


Excerpt

•» 2 «•

LESSONS IN SILENCE
The archives were cut like honeycombs and golden light clung to them, dousing every tome, painting, treatise and poem the soft gold of ghee freshly skimmed from boiling butter. I was only allowed to visit once a week—to meet with my weekly tutor before I inevitably scared him away. Every time I left the archival room, my arms brimmed with parchment paper. I loved the feeling of discovery, of not knowing how much I wanted something until I had discovered its absence.

The week before, I had lost myself in the folktales of Bharata. Stories of elephants who spun clouds, shaking tremors loose from ancient trunks gnarled with the rime of lost cyclones, whirlwinds and thunderstorms. Myths of frank-eyed naga women twisting serpentine, flashing smiles full of uncut gemstones. Legends of a world beneath, above, beside the one I knew—where trees bore edible gems and no one would think twice about a girl with dark skin and a darker horoscope. I wanted it to be real so badly that sometimes I thought I could see the Otherworld. Sometimes, if I closed my eyes and pressed my toes into the ground, I could al- most sense them sinking into the loam of some other land, a dream demesne where the sky cleaved in two and the earth was sutured with a magic that could heal hearts, mend bones, change lives.

Review: The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins #yalit #AroundTheWorldARCTours #BibPleaseReview

Title: The Great Hunt (The Great Hunt #1)
Author: Wendy Higgins
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Release Date: March 8, 2016
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Wendy Higgins, the author of the New York Times bestselling Sweet Evil series, reimagines a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale with The Great Hunt, a dramatic, romance-filled fantasy with rugged hunters, romantic tension, and a princess willing to risk all to save her kingdom.

When a monstrous beast attacks in Eurona, desperate measures must be taken. The king sends a proclamation to the best and bravest hunters: whoever kills the creature will win the hand of his daughter Princess Aerity as a reward. The princess recognizes her duty but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger—she was meant to marry for love—until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. And while there’s no denying the fiery chemistry between them, Princess Aerity feels that Paxton’s mysteriousness is foreboding, maybe even dangerous.

Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He is determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast—but the princess continues to surprise him, and the secrets he’s buried begin to surface against his wishes.

My Review

Here I come sighing and dragging my feet. I've been having some terrible reading luck here lately (I haven't even bothered reviewing some so far), and The Great Hunt was pretty meh for me, too.

I love fairy tale retellings or anything similar to a fairy tale, to be honest, so The Great Hunt should have worked for me. My heart and attention span was there for the taking. It started well enough. I liked the royal children, I liked the fact that everyone was ginger (I'm partial as I am one myself), and who doesn't like a smoldering, brooding hero? Then it's like nothing really happened.

Early Review: Kingdom of Ashes by Rhiannon Thomas #AroundTheWorldARCTours #BibPleaseReview

Title: Kingdom of Ashes (A Wicked Thing #2)
Author: Rhiannon Thomas
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Release Date: February 23, 2016
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
The kiss was just the beginning . . . The second book in Rhiannon Thomas’s epic retelling of Sleeping Beauty combines adventure, magic, and romance for a sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny.

Aurora was supposed to be her kingdom’s savior. But when she was forced to decide between being loyal to the crown and loyal to her country, she set events in motion that branded her a traitor.

Now, hunted by the king’s soldiers, Aurora’s only chance of freeing her kingdom from the king’s tyrannical rule is by learning to control her magic. But Aurora’s powers come at a price—one that forces her to leave the only home she’s ever known, one that demands she choose between the man she loves and the people she seeks to protect, and one that will cause her to unravel the mysteries surrounding the curse that was placed on her over a century before . . . and uncover the truth about her destiny.

My Review

As excited as I get about new series, I think I'm going to stop reading them.

Seriously.

I'm tempted.

Waiting on Wednesday (121): Kingdom of Ashes by Rhiannon Thomas #waitingonwednesday #wow

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Kingdom of Ashes (A Wicked Thing #2)
Author: Rhiannon Thomas
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Release Date: February 23, 2016
The kiss was just the beginning . . . The second book in Rhiannon Thomas’s epic retelling of Sleeping Beauty combines adventure, magic, and romance for a sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny.

Aurora was supposed to be her kingdom’s savior. But when she was forced to decide between being loyal to the crown and loyal to her country, she set events in motion that branded her a traitor.

Now, hunted by the king’s soldiers, Aurora’s only chance of freeing her kingdom from the king’s tyrannical rule is by learning to control her magic. But Aurora’s powers come at a price—one that forces her to leave the only home she’s ever known, one that demands she choose between the man she loves and the people she seeks to protect, and one that will cause her to unravel the mysteries surrounding the curse that was placed on her over a century before . . . and uncover the truth about her destiny.


I don't remember a lot about reading A Wicked Thing earlier this year, but I do recall enjoying the fresh take on Sleeping Beauty. I'm also interested in seeing how Aurora continues to deal with her situation.

What are you waiting on this week?

Audiobook Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente #giveaway

Title: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1)
Author: Catherynne M. Valente, Ana Juan (Illustrator)
Narrator: Catherynne M. Valente
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn't . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when author Catherynne M. Valente first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

My Review

I've been meaning to read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making for years, but I've kept putting it off. I have owned copies on and off over the years. I truly believe the time was right when I finally did read it because The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland was exactly what I needed. I am in no way exaggerating when I tell you that when it comes to adventures in a magical land, it's right up there with The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

Waiting on Wednesday (117): The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine #yalit #WoW

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire #1)
Author: C.J. Redwine
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
Release Date: February 23, 2016
Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.


It's a fairy tale retelling - what more could I ask for? Redwine has been on my TBR for ages, so this is as good of a place to start as any.

What are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday (116): Winter by Marissa Meyer

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series.


With the exception of Scarlet, the second book in the Lunar Chronicles, I have loved every book in the series. I know Fairest was supposed to hold me over until November, but each installation has been my birthday gift to myself. My birthday is NOT in November! Either way, it's less than four months until I get my grubby fingers on it, and I cannot wait.

What are you waiting on this week?

Early Review: Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas (ARC) #yalit #fantasy @epicreads

Title: Ash & Bramble
Author: Sarah Prineas
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
A prince.

A ball.

A glass slipper left behind at the stroke of midnight.

The tale is told and retold, twisted and tweaked, snipped and stretched, as it leads to happily ever after.

But it is not the true Story.

A dark fortress.

A past forgotten.

A life of servitude.

No one has ever broken free of the Godmother's terrible stone prison until a girl named Pin attempts a breathless, daring escape. But she discovers that what seems like freedom is a prison of another kind, one that entangles her in a story that leads to a prince, a kiss, and a clock striking midnight. To unravel herself from this new life, Pin must choose between a prince and another—the one who helped her before and who would give his life for her. Torn, the only thing for her to do is trade in the glass slipper for a sword and find her own destiny.

My Review

Ash & Bramble might just be the most surprising book that I've read in 2015. As many of you might have discerned, I very much judge books by their covers. I almost didn't read Ash & Bramble because there is just so much awful about it. I'm not a fan of white covers, and everything going on... Just. No.

I've found myself getting slightly weary of fairy tale retellings, but Ash & Bramble is done is such a way that it is satisfactory and leaves me not minding more if it comes along. All of the characters are likable, and the story is just different enough from others that I've read that I don't mind going on the journey with Pin and Shoe. The secondary characters are just as good, and there honestly wasn't much to not like about the book.

Spotlight (Guest Post): Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen @StMartinsPress #adultlit

Title: Alias Hook
Author: Lisa Jensen
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan)
Paperback Release Date: May 5, 2015
"Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It's my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy."

Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan's rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.

With Stella's knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook's last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale.

Praise for Alias Hook

“Living in Peter Pan’s Neverland would be wonderful, wouldn’t it? But what if you weren’t a 9-year-old boy? What if you were instead a 43-year-old well-educated gentleman who because of a witch’s curse was stuck in a realm where you were eternally fighting off armies of boys with no peer to talk to and with no hope of ever escaping? Such is the enticing set up of Lisa Jensen’s newly published novel Alias Hook, an imaginative what-if tale that fills in the colors of one of the most famous literary villains of the 20th century.” — Santa Cruz Sentinel

“Need a Captain Hook fix before ABC’s Once Upon a Time returns? This inventive tale details why Peter Pan’s nemesis was banished to Neverland, what really happened to his arm – and how love’s power can break any curse.” — Us Weekly

“…Alias Hook gives voice and credence to the character of Captain Hook. Jensen captures Hook’s enlightened albeit bitter speech and thought pattern in the most dastardly villainous and incredibly satisfying way. So good is the character’s voice, in fact, that it’s easy to root for the tragic character of James Hook and wish Peter Pan would just fly away.” — Deseret News

“Alias Hook breathes new life into the character of the misunderstood captain, giving him a past filled with humanity and heartache, love and loss. And he’s pretty darn sexy too—no wonder Jensen has a thing for pirates.” — Good Times Weekly

Guest Post

The Villain As Hero
Lisa Jensen
I always thought Captain Hook was a lot more fun than Peter Pan, who just seemed like a cocky little boy with an attitude. But when I went back and re-encountered Peter Pan as an adult, I started to realize how horrible it must be for Hook, a grown man, to be stuck forever in this world of perpetual childhood, run by 11-year-old boys. That would be my vision of Hell! So I began to ponder the plight of Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in pointless war games that never end.

Waiting on Wednesday (105): A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: A Thousand Nights
Author: E.K. Johnston
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (Hachette)
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.


The cover is sooooo pretty! Plus, I love a good retelling so I can't want to get my hands on this.

What are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday (97): Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Spinning Starlight
Author: R.C. Lewis
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.

Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.

Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?

Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.


I LOVED Stitching Snow, and Essie is one my favorite heroines. She was just so awesome and capably bad-ass. I couldn't articulate all the feels into words, but you can read Kayla's review here. I can't wait to see what Lewis writes next in this universe!

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Title: Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles #0.1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillian)
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Mirror, mirror, on the wall.
Who is the Fairest of them all?

Pure evil has a name, hides behind a mask of deceit, and uses her "glamour" to gain power. But who is Queen Levana? Long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress in The Lunar Chronicles, Levana lived a very different story—a story that has never been told...until now.

New York Times–bestselling author Marissa Meyer reveals the story behind her fascinating villain in Fairest, an unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes a special full-color image of Levana’s castle and an excerpt from Winter, the exciting conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles.

My Review

Previously reviewed:
Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)
Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)
Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)

Thank you so much, Marissa Meyer. You have left me with a dilemma. Before reading Fairest, I was content to have Cinder and the gang defeat Levana and go on about their business. Now, I want more for our evil Lunar queen when it comes to the final showdown in Winter.

Review: A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas

Title: A Wicked Thing (A Wicked Thing #1)
Author: Rhiannon Thomas
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Release Date: February 24, 2015
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
A spinning wheel.
A prick of a finger.
A Terrible curse.

One hundred years after falling asleep, Princess Aurora wakes up to the kiss of a handsome prince and a broken kingdom that has been dreaming of her return. All the books say that she should be living happily ever after. But as Aurora understands all too well, the truth is nothing like the fairy tale.

Her family is long dead. Her "true love" is a kind stranger. And her whole life has been planned out by political foes while she slept. Everyone expects Aurora to marry her betrothed and restore magic and peace to the kingdom before revolution tears it apart. But after a lifetime spent locked in a tower for her own safety, Aurora longs for the freedom to make her own choices. When she meets a handsome rebel, she is tempted to abandon everything for a different kind of life.

As Aurora struggles to make sense of her new world, she begins to fear that the curse has left its mark on her, a fiery and dangerous thing that might be as wicked as the witch who once ensnared her. With her wedding day drawing near, Aurora must make the ultimate decision on how to save her kingdom: marry the prince or run.

A Wicked Thing is a surprising, spellbinding reimagining of what happens after happily ever after.

My Review

Rhiannon Thomas' A Wicked Thing is the biggest surprise for me so far in 2015. The story follows Aurora, the sleeping beauty, one hundred years after she fell asleep. It was handled in a way that surprised me (see, I said it again) because I was expecting a sappy romance or something with a lot of self-hatred because of the alleged wickedness. Then again, it may because I've read a really wonderful Sleeping Beauty retelling, and I was afraid that it would never compare. (It was different enough that it did.)

Waiting on Wednesday (89): Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Monstrous
Author: MarcyKate Connolly
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Release Date: February 10, 2015
The city of Bryre suffers under the magic of an evil wizard. Because of his curse, girls sicken and disappear without a trace, and Bryre’s inhabitants live in fear. No one is allowed outside after dark.

Yet night is the only time that Kymera can enter this dangerous city, for she must not be seen by humans. Her father says they would not understand her wings, the bolts in her neck, or her spiky tail—they would kill her. They would not understand that she was created for a purpose: to rescue the girls of Bryre.

Despite her caution, a boy named Ren sees Kym and begins to leave a perfect red rose for her every evening. As they become friends, Kym learns that Ren knows about the missing girls, the wizard, and the evil magic that haunts Bryre.

And what he knows will change Kym’s life.


This sounds like it was written just for me! Curses and beastly girls! I just love a good Beauty and the Beast retelling, especially one mixed with Frankenstein and has the girl as the beast.

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Title: Beastkeeper
Author: Cat Hellisen
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan)
Release Date: February 3, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
Sarah has always been on the move. Her mother hates the cold, so every few months her parents pack their bags and drag her off after the sun. She’s grown up lonely and longing for magic. She doesn’t know that it’s magic her parents are running from.

When Sarah’s mother walks out on their family, all the strange old magic they have tried to hide from comes rising into their mundane world. Her father begins to change into something wild and beastly, but before his transformation is complete, he takes Sarah to her grandparents—people she has never met, didn’t even know were still alive.

Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family bloodlines, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.

My Review

I wanted to read Beastkeeper because it seemed like Beauty and the Beast except the girl is the beast. I loved the cover, too, and it makes a lot more sense now that I've read the book.

It seemed more like a middle grade novel than an older YA novel, not in the way it was written, but because the thoughts and actions of the main character were that of someone who wasn't yet a teenager. The writing, however, was beautiful and more mature than middle grade fiction.

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Spoilers)

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
#1 New York Times Bestseller in hardcover.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.

You can read Kayla's review of the book HERE.

My Review (Spoilers Below)

An unnamed narrator visits his childhood home and is flooded with magical memories his adult mind can no longer rationalize. Like Mary Poppins or Nanny McPhee, the Hempstock women take the narrator under their wing and open his mind to mysterious possibilities. Mrs. Hempstock reads minds. Old Mrs. Hempstock vanquishes evil forces. Eleven-year-old Lettie Hempstock believes the pond in her farm’s backyard is an ocean.

Waiting on Wednesday (83): Sword by Amy Bai

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Sword
Author: Amy Bai
Publisher: Candlemark and Gleam
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Sword shall guide the hands of men . . .

For over a thousand years the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated from the world, safe from the wars of its neighbors, slowly forgetting the wild and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery rhymes.

For over a thousand years, some of Lardan's fractious provinces have been biding their time.

Kyali Corwynall is the daughter of the Lord General, a child of one of the royal Houses, and the court's only sword-wielding girl. She has known for all of her sixteen years what the future holds for her--politics and duty, the management of a House, and protecting her best friend, the princess and presumed heir to the throne. But one day an old nursery rhyme begins to come true, an ancient magic wakes, and the future changes for everyone. In the space of a single night her entire life unravels into violence and chaos. Now Kyali must find a way to master the magic her people have left behind, or watch her world--and her closest friends--fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.


The synopsis had me at nursery rhyme, magic and only sword-wielding girl. Next year is looking to be a good one for fantasy!

What are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday (78): A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Release Date: May 5, 2015
When 19-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it ... or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.


I loved Maas' Throne of Glass, but this year's release of Heir of Fire blew all of my expectations out of the water. She was already one of my auto-buy authors, so I honestly didn't even read the synopsis after I saw the cover release and decided this must be this week's Waiting on Wednesday. Then, I found out that it's a Beauty and the Beast retelling (which is my absolute favorite), so I am counting the days until I can get this beauty into my hands.

What are you waiting on this week?

Books That Need MORE Attention Giveaway Hop (US)

Welcome to my stop on the Books That Need MORE Attention Giveaway Hop hosted by the wonderful Valerie at Stuck in Books. This time I'm featuring a book that I feel should get some more hype leading up to its release.

In my recent stop on the Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop, Stitching Snow did not get a third of the attention that the other two books received. That totally should not be the case because it was a fantastic book that you should be excited about reading, especially if you like books similar to Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. (No, it's not a knock-off.)

You can find my review of Stitching Snow HERE.

What You Can Win



Title: Stitching Snow
Author: R.C. Lewis
Publisher: Hyperion (Disney)
Release Date: October 14, 2014
Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.


Giveaway