Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves allows us to share the books we have added to our collections - physical, virtual, borrowed, bought or received

This is an older title that I took out from the library.  I thought I needed to give the fantasy and supernatural part of my brain a bit of a rest and go for something suspenseful.  Horror might be next on my list...

- Christinabean

TGIF

Welcome to TGIF!

We used to do a meme on Fridays called Follow Fridays led by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read but that has changed in 2016.  So now I am initiating a new meme for us called TGIF to tell you about book-related or interesting things that we have come across over the week.

If you have something to add or want to start your own TGIF follow, please include us and link back in your intro.  Feel free to leave your posts in the comments so we too can check out the booky things you have found throughout the week!

HARRY POTTER IS COMING!!



I am SO EXCITED about this!

So another Harry Potter title is coming out and will be released July 31/16.  If you are Canadian and pre-ordering on the Indigo site, you can get a bonus of 1000 plum points if you order before May 31st!

Here's the summary -

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places. 

Waiting on Wednesday - Into the Dim

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine,  that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating or books that are in our TBR pile.  This week’s “can’t-wait-to-read” selection is

Summary (by Goodreads)

When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.      Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail,Into the Dim is an Outlander for teens. 

What I like best about this title is that it is an Outlander for teens.  I would love to check it out when it arrives next week in stores.  :)

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves allows us to share the books we have added to our collections - physical, virtual, borrowed, bought or received

I feel like I have been waiting for FOREVER for this title...so long in fact that I have forgotten most of Book #1 and I may consider re-reading it IF I can't remember everything. Don't you hate it when that happens??!!

 - Christinabean

The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong

Published: Oct 2015

Pages: 340

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Copy Provided by: Bought

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Riley Vasquez is haunted by the brutal murder of the couple she was babysitting for.

Max Cross is suffering under the shadow of a life-altering diagnosis he doesn’t dare reveal.

The last thing either of them wants is to spend a weekend away at a therapy camp alongside five other teens with “issues.” But that’s exactly where they are when three masked men burst in to take the group hostage.

The building has no windows. The exits are sealed shut. Their phones are gone. And their captors are on a killing spree.

Riley and Max know that if they can’t get out, they’ll be next—but they’re about to discover that even escape doesn’t equal freedom. 

Review:

I am a big fan of Kelley Armstrong. I try to attend her author visits whenever I see that she is coming to town and have followed her for many years now. She is incredibly talented and I love how she varies her writing style. I was so excited to see The Masked Truth come out. I had not heard about this title prior to browsing the shelves at Chapters one day.  As soon as I got home, I looked it up on Kindle and tried out the first few chapters. She had me hooked! Riley's hostage crisis started a huge adrenaline rush for me.  It was like reading Carrie Ryan's Daughter of Deep Silence.  So I proceeded to buy and download this title.

Unfortunately, after about 30% of the way through I lost interest. I hate losing interest in a book.  Especially by an author I admire so much.   The therapy session characters were hard to keep track of. I didn't feel like any of them were particularly memorable and the hostage events, though violent and meant to be suspenseful, felt repetitive and confusing.  I found myself putting the novel down several times and starting something new.  I finally picked it up again this week to finish it off.  At about 80% of the way through, the plot thickened and things became more interesting.  The end of the story was good.  It was unexpected so if you like surprise endings, this would be a good book for you. However, I did find the middle of the novel hard to follow and lacked the depth that I normally see from Ms. Armstrong's titles.

Waiting on Wednesday- Reign of Shadows

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine,  that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating or books that are in our TBR pile.  This week’s “can’t-wait-to-read” selection is

Summary (by Goodreads)

Seventeen years ago, an eclipse cloaked the kingdom of Relhok in perpetual darkness. In the chaos, an evil chancellor murdered the king and queen and seized their throne. Luna, Relhok’s lost princess, has been hiding in a tower ever since. Luna’s survival depends on the world believing she is dead.

But that doesn’t stop Luna from wanting more. When she meets Fowler, a mysterious archer braving the woods outside her tower, Luna is drawn to him despite the risk. When the tower is attacked, Luna and Fowler escape together. But this world of darkness is more treacherous than Luna ever realized.

With every threat stacked against them, Luna and Fowler find solace in each other. But with secrets still unspoken between them, falling in love might be their most dangerous journey yet.

With lush writing and a star–crossed romance, Reign of Shadowsis Sophie Jordan at her best. 

I really enjoyed the Firelight series by Sophie Jordan. I know that she is also a romance novelist as well as writing books in the YA genre (I don't know how she keeps it all straight).  This one is on my radar this year as I LOVE her writing style.  Plus it is a kick ass cover.  ;)

On another note, I just wanted to apologize for being MIA lately. Both Curlypow and I are going through some major life changes and so our focus has been elsewhere.  We are still keeping the blog active but not posting every day.  There will be a few changes but please stay tuned and be patient.  Our love for books and reviewing is still there but unfortunately, other life priorities have been taking over.  

- Christinabean

Waiting on Wednesday - Glass Sword

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine,  that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating or books that are in our TBR pile.  This week’s “can’t-wait-to-read” selection is

Summary: Goodreads

The thrilling second book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen trilogy follows Mare Barrow on her mission to defeat the traitorous Maven.

Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.

The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.

But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.

Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness of her own heart. 

I loved Book #1. It was a great debut by a new author and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us with Book #2!!

- Christinabean

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves allows us to share the books we have added to our collections - physical, virtual, borrowed, bought or received

This week I got: 

Summary (By Goodreads)

Tell the Wind & Fire is about a young girl called Lucie who lives in a New York very different from the New York we know: the city is torn between two very different kinds of magic, and Lucie’s own family was torn apart years ago by that conflict. Lucie wears magic rings and carries a burden of guilt she can’t share with anyone.

The light in her life is her sweetheart boyfriend Ethan, but it turns out Ethan has a secret too: a soulless doppelganger created by dark magic, who has to conceal the face identical to Ethan’s with a hood fastened by a collar nobody but a Light magician with magical rings can take off… and who introduces himself to both of them by, for reasons nobody can understand, saving Ethan’s life… 

The last time I read Sarah Rees Brennan, she was talking about demons in The Demon's Lexicon series.  I love her writing style and while her last trilogy, The Lynburn Legacy, is on my TBR list, I still haven't read it. However, Tell the Wind and Fire is available on NetGalley and I would really like to review it before the official release in April.  If you haven't already tried reading this author, you should give her a shot.  Fans of Holly Black will appreciate her writing topics.

- Christinabean