Monday, June 29, 2015

Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of Tangled Webs by Lee Bros

Hello there guys!!

Continuing with my trying to get back into the rhythm of blogging after my hiatus, today I have a review of an ARC, trying to get back into my nearly 80% ratio that I had in NetGalley before May and when all the apartment and moving thing started!

So here we are, another Mark This Book Monday and another ARC review. Unfortunately this one was read after an amazing contemporary and it failed to get my attention or pull me from the book hangover from the previous book.


Tangled Webs (Tangled Webs, #1)Tangled Webs by Lee Bross

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This could be a case of bad timing, more of a it's not you, it's me kinda thing. I usually adore historical fiction but in this case I was not as captivated as I usually am.

There wasn't anything wrong with the world building or any historical innacuracies, but there was a certain vagueness to everything as far as the background and the setting. It was London, but other than some references to the foggy weather here and there... my impression is that we don't know nothing of the atmosphere, nothing much but a blurry background. The only setting that felt more real was when we went to the docks and Grae's ship. Only then I felt like it was a real place more than a setting in a play.

I wasn't very keen on the plot progression either mostly because some of the twists were really out of nowhere and very much on the "why now?". Instead of shocking me, they kinda disappointed me, to be entirely honest. And I wasn't keen at all on how Arista seemed to be so clueless when it came to plotting and saving herself when she has spent so many years being a courier and proveyor of secrets.

The romance felt a lil too much too fast, and although I understand that the 18th century was a different time and that things could certainly go fast... From attraction at a dance to declarations of love and more... it just felt all too sped up! Their connection was sweet and their relationship was full of support and positive interactions, Grae being able to let her be who she is. But the way they get there, so fast!

One of my favourite parts of the book was the friendship between Arista and Becky, and how they supported each other and how Arista worried about her friend and wanted to make sure what's right and to ensure he friend would be safe and protected.

I also liked how Arista felt protective about the family she finds herself living with, and how it made her want to find a way out of the web of lies she had been living in.

Arista/Lady A wasn't exactly what I was expecting from the book's summary. She had a very tough life and she wanted out and wanted more. She didn't want to continue with that life, but given how she behaved and acted throughout the book, it feels like she wasn't as good or as savvy at her job as you could have expected.

It was a fast read because it was easy to read but it wasn't captivating and by the end I was a lil annoyed at how things were progressing and the twists that happened. In the end, I cannot give this book more than 2.5 to 3 stars.





View all my reviews

Friday, June 26, 2015

Friday Reads: A Court of Thorns & Roses and The Girl At Midnight!!

Hello again guys!

For the first Friday Reads since quite a while I'm bringing not one but two reviews, because even if I haven't been blogging, I haven't entirely stop reading, not at all! Maybe not as much as I would have wished, but I do have a few reviews that I want to share with you guys!

And I'm finally adding some books to my 105 Challenge, because although both are fantasy books that released on 2015, I'm counting one towards my fantasy category and the other towards my 2015 release category, as well as counting The Girl At Midnight towards my 2015 Debut Author Challenge!







A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An absolutely fascinating book that made me want to keep reading! Sarah J Maas writing is as captivating as always, and I loved the way she mixed Fae and Beauty and Beast and made it her own story.

I loved the characters and I loved what a fantastic main character Feyre was! So human, so flawed and so strong! She's her family's provider and she resents them for it, but it's been what has defined her for so long, that she doesn't know how to do something else, how not to be the one having to take care of them every time.

At first seems like her sisters both seem to be a bit of a stereotype, the sweet and oblivious one and the mean and uncaring one. But as the story progress both the reader and Feyre discover that there's more to her sisters than we thought as first, particularly Nesta "the mean" one.

As far as the Fae... I felt like everything was woven so well and the world building of the different courts and their differences and the politics of the Fae and the lies and the curse and all the monsters in the many shapes that they're presented! Feyre is introduced to the Fae through a rather nice Court with fairly decent Fae, with snarky Lucian and strong and brooding Tamlin. But then she finds herself Under the Mountain, and oh boy... all hell breaks loose in there. Everything about Fae trickery and their crazy games and politcs come true here, with Rhys reminding me a lil of The Darkling, dangerous, alluring but ultimately not to be trusted.

Tamlin also has his own allure and oh boy... the chemistry is off the charts when it comes to our slightly beastly Fae! I must confess the bite scene made me fan myself! If you've read it, you probably agree with me, and if you haven't... you'll know what I mean when you do!

For some reason I just didn't feel like the transition from distrust and fear to companionship and then love was done smoothly enough, or I simply didn't connect too well with it, so that's my reason to not give this one a higher rating, somehow it rattled me, but once she was Under The Mountain, despite her bad choices, I felt like the connection was so strong and worth moving mountains, no pun intended!

Really looking forward to the next book, even if I fear what's to come next!! Very much deserved 4 stars to this one!




The Girl at Midnight (The Girl at Midnight, #1)The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This one had a certain feel of similarities with other books I've read and loved but they were combined in such a way that was its own and never felt like something I had read before, if that makes sense!

I loved Echo and I loved her thieving ways and how much she loved books and I adored how she always had the aproppriate word for everything! She can be a bit prickly and closed up on occasion but I loved how she defied authority and had a fierce loyalty to those she loves, the family she found and made for herself.

The fantasy world was built up in a wonderful way, very visual and very grounded in the real world at the same time! I loved how we kept travelling from one city to another, and how through the writing and descriptions we got to feel like we were there, each one of them with their own unique flavour and flare!

Both the Avicen and the Drakharis have their own cultural differences fleshed out although we lack in-depth history about them and their war, which I suspect we'll learn more about in the next books in the series, that I cannot wait to read about!

Great main and secondary characters, with wonderful friendships and complicated relationships, including diversity in more ways than one!

Echo and her best friend had a wonderful relationship and banter, and I love how even though some of the events shape them both in very different ways, they find a way to remain friends and get through things together, their friendship helping them throughout.

Casius and Dorian also have a friendship that span centuries, even if it's not entirely as equal as it is for Echo and Ivy, but it feels stronger once Dorian stops being in denial and opens up to what might be out there.

Jasper is an interesting character, a scoundrel and not to be trusted easily, with a flair for the dramatic and beauty, that ends up surprising even himself with his capacity for selflessness!

The plot moved rather fast, with plenty of tension even in the moments our characters are trying to regroup and heal, and I was quite surprised when the climax resolved in the way it did! Quite the game changer and now I'm not sure how it's gonna play in the sequel!

All in all, most well deserved 4 stars to this one! Can I get the next one now?



View all my reviews

Monday, June 22, 2015

Fall Out by Gwenda Bond: Mini-review and Giveaway!!!

Hello there guys!

The blog is still "mostly" on hiatus, but now that most of the cleaning at the apartment is sorted and I have a pair of weeks till the kitchen people come, I'm gonna try and see if I can post more than once a week!

And to celebrate that, what better that a good giveaway, right?? Right!

This is one of those, spread the good karma sort of giveaways. I had planned to order a signed copy of Fall Out by Gwenda Bond from Malaprops because I needed that book and I love Gwenda and I wanted it signed, international shipping be damned! BUT, then I learnt that Gwenda was gonna be doing a signing of Fall Out at BEA!! *happy dance*


My gloriously beautiful copy of Lois Lane: Fall Out


My gain is your gain too, since I got my wonderful signed copy at BEA, one of you can win a non-signed copy of Fall Out! It will be shipped directly from The Book Depository (YAY Free Shipping anywhere!).

Just in case you're wondering why would ought to want to read Fall Out, I'm adding here my mini-review for it and then you can enter the giveaway via that handy rafflecopter at the bottom of the post! ;)
 


Lois Lane: Fallout (Lois Lane, #1)Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


4.5 stars. I absolutely devoured it at the airport! With a wonderful voice for Lois Lane as a teen, but one that doesn't mind getting in trouble if it's because she's defending those without a voice or digging for the truth!

I loved her, her friendship with SmallvilleGuy, her beginnings at the Daily Scoop and simply everything from the high school set up, Lois family dynamics, and her need to accept herself as different and to realize that she'll find friends being herself.

The plot could feel a lil bit familiar if you're a big reader of comic books or avid watcher of Smallville the show, not necessarily because it's been done before, but because it's the sort of supernatural case you'd expect the guy from Smallville and Lois to be involved with!

I cannot wait to read more Lois Lane books Gwenda, please & thank you!!

View all my reviews



About the Author:

Gwenda Bond is the author of the young adult novels Lois Lane: Fallout and Girl on a Wire, among others. She has also written for Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications. She has an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, author Christopher Rowe, and their menagerie. Visit her online at www.gwendabond.com or @gwenda on twitter.







Giveaway

Open international as long as The Book Depository ships to you.
It will be purchased from TBD and shipped directly from the site.
I will be checking the entries, so no cheating!
Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Summer Queen by Amber Argyle Rockstar Tours Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway!!



Hello there guys!!

This week I'm breaking radio silence to take part in the Blog Tour for Summer Queen by Amber Argyle, organized by the ladies of RockStar Tours!

I'm going to share my review for this books and there will also be a giveaway at the end of the post, but before that, let's learn a bit more about the book and the author!


SUMMER QUEEN by Amber Argyle
Pub. Date: June 23, 2015
Publisher: Starling Publishing
Pages: 280
Formats: Paperback, eBook

Synopsis:

Nelay never wanted to be queen. Poised to become the most powerful priestess in Idara, Nelay doesn’t have time to become a pretty bauble for the king. She’s too busy saving her people from the invading army sweeping across her kingdom. But in defeat after defeat, Nelay begins to realize a bigger power is at play than that wielded by mere mortals. Only she can stand between the cinders of her once-great nation and the vengeance of a goddess.









About the author:
Amber Argyle is the number-one bestselling author of the Witch Song Series and the Fairy Queen Series. Her books have been nominated for and won awards in addition to being translated into French and Indonesian.
Amber graduated cum laude from Utah State University with a degree in English and physical education, a husband, and a two-year old. Since then, she and her husband have added two more children, which they are actively trying to transform from crazy small people into less crazy larger people.

To learn more about Amber, visit her blog at http://amberargyle.blogspot.com.es/



You can find Amber on TwitterFacebookGoodreads, and Pinterest.




Review

Last year I read and loved Winter Queen so I was pretty excited to read Summer Queen and I'm very happy to report that it didn't disappoint!

Nelay is a girl from the desert that could see the fairies and because of a bargain she made is taken to the temple to be trained as a priestess. She becomes a powerful priestess, a strong woman and one that doesn't want to get her choices taken from her. I loved her determination, her strenght, her loyalty to her friends and her family and even with her flaws I simply adored her!

When you love the main character in a book, you are enthralled by the world building and fascinated by the plot, how it moves, and waves and makes small references to what happened in Winter Queen and expanding the world and making it even more complex and not easy to predict at all!

The world building was fantastic and the writing so vivid and visual! I kept feeling like I was in the desert, suffering the heat during the day, shivering in the night while watching the stars in the sky... Tasting the food, fighting the battled, plotting and planning. It weaved perfectly from the desert with its tribes and their culture, to the culture of the cities and their complacency, the court and its luxury and intrigues.

The secondary characters were very well fleshed out, even if some might have seemed two dimensional at first, we discover that there's much more to them than we thought, even if we continue to dislike them on occasion. There are allies, friends and enemies and some of them I instantly liked and others that were like a cactus, prickly outside but squishy inside! (Best metaphor ever!).

I loved this book from start to finish and it felt like it was over too soon! The pacing was fantastic and so many things kept happening and I just didn't want it to end! I cannot wait for the next book! Very well deserved 4.5 stars!


Giveaway 

3 winners will receive the eBook bundle of The Faerie Queen Series. International 


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tour Schedule


Week 1

6/15/2015- Curling Up With A Good BookReview
6/16/2015- The Mad ReviewerReview
6/17/2015- Arkham ReviewsReview
6/18/2015- In Love With HandmadeReview
6/19/2015- In Libris VeritasReview

Week 2

6/22/2015- Mythical BooksReview
6/23/2015- Books Are MagicReview
6/24/2015- The Bibliophile ChroniclesReview
6/25/2015- My Bookish EmpireReview
6/26/2015- bookaholics anonymousReview

Saturday, June 13, 2015

BEA 2015 Recap - Day 3 Friday!!

Well, it feels nice blogging a bit more continously now, but I'm sadly too busy with the apartment preparations to even dare to hope to have time to have a minimum of two posts up per week, let alone a more regular posting schedule!

Still, here I am with the recap for BEA Day 3, Friday or the DAY-WHEN-ALL-THINGS-HAPPEN-AT-THE-SAME-TIME!!

Once again, I owe all my awesome bloggy & bookish friends for being kind enough to send me all the pics because my phone is a piece of sh*te! THANK YOU!


FRIDAY

Once again, we decided to get up early to be at the Javits when the lines are just beginning to form, which means that in the morning I wake up, get up and get ready, and wait for the rest of my roomies to get up while having my tea (which is a rather so-so kinda tea because there's no kettle and I made it every morning with the scalding water from the shower, so... well, yeah). Once again, breakfast from the deli (cream cheese icing bagels for the win, I miss having them for breakfast!).

This time our big group of ducklings was divided between Black Widow and Six of Crows, so our crew was split gone to line up at two different entries to the BEA floor. The Six of Crows line (closer to the authographing area) was Britt, Sarah, Cassie, Melissa, Cristina and myself. This line was a lil better organized, even if we were told to squish together several times, there were no other weird shenanigans!



Once we got in, the pre-line for Leigh Bardugo got started by the great staff at the authographing area, those ladies in the neon green tees knew what to do!

While waiting in line I was hoping to spot Kim and Layla from The Midnight Garden and author Jen Ellision, but no such luck, too many people all over the place, so that's the one big bummer from BEA, not being able to meet these wonderful ladies!

But I got to meet the very lovely and purple-haired and super awesome Melissa Grey that was nice enough to take pics with us and sign bookmarks!! *squeal*



The line for Six of Crows was rather insane, because loads of people used their "first in line" passes for it, so they realized they had miscounted the about of ARCs they had, and had to cut the line early. We were lucky enough to get ours signed and Leigh Bardugo was brilliant! She was super nice and lovely and took time to talk and sign even when she was being hurried! Also, some sort of magical powers because look at her hair being flawless even with the NYC humidity!!




And after Leigh Bardugo I was good till the Soundless signing, so I just roamed around a bit, hang out with my roomies, met with Jenny from Supernatural Snark again, had lunch with Britt, Sarah and the adorable Xander from Forever Bookish (he was doing BEA with his mum and both were beyond adorable!).

Right now, as I'm writing this recap, I'm wondering if I got just two book on Friday or if I got three as my brain seems to be telling me, but I cannot for the life of me remember what other could have been that third book? So yeah, let's just assume I just got Six of Crows and Soundless!

I used my "first in line" pass for Soundless but was a lil disappointed when we were told "no photos and no personalization" and that bummed out feeling along with the fact that we were saying bye to a lot of our bookish friends meant that I didn't have the energy to try and stay for the Rae Carson line (I already had the ARC but wanted to meet Rae) so we left soon after...



BEA was an amazing experince but it also left me so very tired!!
Some lessons learnt on how to make BEA better for myself: Plan differenly next year and make sure you arrive a few days before BEA so the bloody jet lag doesn't kill you as much! Add extra maybes to your schedule so if you get out of a line early you know what you might want to try for and not just wander aimlessly and end up missing things!

I'm really REALLY looking forward to attending BEA16 because I'm already planning and plotting with my bloggy/bookish friends and it's gonna be EPIC!!

Friday, June 12, 2015

BEA 2015 Recap: Thursday - Day 2!!

Hello again guys!

I'm still damned busy but I want to try and work on the recaps for all 3 days of BEA for this week, so here I am again!

Today it's all about BEA Day 2 - Thursday!

Once again, thank you everyone for allowing me to steal your pics for this recap!!


THURSDAY

Me and the roomies had agreed on waking up super early to be at the queue so we'd get a good spot to try and make it to the Passenger signing! My #1 priority was the Firewalker signing by Josephine Angelini, but my roomies were so excited about Passenger and so sure of our BEA game, that they convinced me to go with them to the Passenger signing and then run to the Firewalker line at the authographing area (which was much better organized than the entering BEA line by faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!).

Waking up early for me was a piece of cake, because JET LAG! but everyone else had a bit of a harder time, we then went to grab our breakfast at a deli (YAY for cream cheese bagels!), took an Uber and parked ourselves in the line for BEA around 6:45, mission acomplished!

We were joined by the rest of our crew aka the ducklings, Octavia (Mama Duck!), Nikki, Christina, Cassi, Melissa, Cristina (and her brother) and Dan! Having breakfast, chatting, plotting, sharing info, dancing to Christina's music... the works!

Meeting people at the line is fantastic because it's when you have the most time to chat! But BEA staff are a real disaster when it come to organizing lines, like bringing a part of the line from behind to the front to make rows of four, like WHAT IN THE BLOODY F!?!

Before being allowed to get in at 9 am we were repeatedly admonished "DO NOT RUN!", they must have been scared of having a repeat of the Truthwitch avalanche! ;) As such, I didn't run, just walked briskly and made it at a very decent spot for the Passenger line with Britt and Sarah. We chatted with Jamie, I met the lovely Gillian from Writer of Wrongs (I couldn't believe she knew who I am!) and had a barrels of laughs with the very unique Marlon from We Live & Breathe Books.

Meeting Alexandra Bracken was simply amazing! She's freaking adorable and so wonderful to chat with! She was telling me all about how she wants to come to Spain on vacation!! Resisting reading Passenger early will be VERY hard!!




And in case you were wondering, that's my TARDIS cardigan and my custom made Piwicakes tote that Becca painted for me! I got a lot of people complimenting my tote, my R2D2 bag and my TARDIS cardigan! Clearly bookish peeps are my people! ;)

Right after getting my book signed I parted ways with my roomies to head to the authographing area while they went to another drop. The line for Josephine Angelini was not too bad and my roomies soon joined me! Josie was adorable and her publicist commented that I was the person coming from father away they'd had!



Proof that my roomies are the bestest, Becca grabbed me an ARC of A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano because she knew I wanted it!

Then I decided I wanted to stay around the authographing area because I wanted to meet & hopefully get a pic with Wendy Higgins and Sara Raasch! I planned to wait till their lines were over to approach them, and while I was around the Wendy Higgins line I met Jenny from Supernatural Snark!!

Jenny and I have been commenting and chatting in each other blog comments for a long time and I was super excited to meet her at BEA! We spent the time at Wendy's line chatting and she's as adorable in person as in her blog and Twitter!

Wendy was also an absolute sweetheart and I was beyond happy to get to meet her!! My phone failed but Wendy took a pic of us with her phone and I'm still overwhelmingly happy that she has that photo as her Twitter avatar!! *hyperventilates*


I also got to meet and say hello to Sara that was lovely, but no photo because my phone sucks...

And then joined the line for Heather Demetrios that was lovely as well! I got a super cute hamsa charm along with a lovely postcard and my signed copy of Blood Passage! Now I can read book 1 and survive the awful cliffhanger I read about! If Heather Demetrios made me love her contemporary books, I cannot wait to read her fantasy series!

I spent some more time hanging around with Jenny and her absolutely adorable mum, then joined the roomies for a lil while, but then they went for the Libba Bray signing and I had nothing in my schedule till the Fall Out by Gwenda Bond signing, that was my other priority for the day!

I decided to go to the Disney booth and get in line to get the Magnus Chase sampler and the shield! for Sarah, I got there super early, joined the by then tiny line thanks to Melissa (thanks girl!) and spent the time chatting with Jon and Nori and also met the lovely Hazel from Stay Bookish! She made feel a lil bad for my poor camera at the hotel room, since she had her DSLR with her like a total pro!




And not only did we get the shield and the sampler (that I gave to Sarah) but we also got a totally tasty cupcake that I obviously ate as a reward! ;)



Still munching on my cupcake I dropped by the Capstone booth and saw that the line for Gwenda Bond was already forming, so I stayed there!

Gwenda recognized me by my Twitter handle and promised that she would write a sequel for The Woken Gods one day just for me (which probably means, so I can stop bugging her about it!). She was awesome all around and rocked her leather skirt as Lois herself would have! ;)

After that I joined my roomies and soon after that we headed back to our hotel room, so Becca could get ready for the Mcmillan party! While she was there mingling and having a blast, Britt, Sarah and I stayed in our room, had some nice NYC pizza and tried to recover! I decided to stay up till Becca returned and soon after she returned, I crashed the first one, once again!


My loot for Day 2! I did pretty well on restraining myself so these fit very well on my tote! One advantage of limiting yourself because of flight restrictions is that you don't need to take a rolling suitcase to the Javits, because books must fit in your tote!

More to come in the final day of BEA, stay tuned!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

BEA 2015 Recap: Tuesday & Wednesday!!

Hello everyone!!

I know I'm being really sparse as of late, and I miss blogging and interacting with you guys more, but this whole apartment thing and now that I'm back to work... I am having a very hard time to find the time and motivation to blog, so until I'm finally settled for good in the apartment, I will continue to blog sporadically only.

Today I'm FINALLY going to start by BEA recap! The first post is gonna be about pre-BEA and the first half-day of BEA AKA Tuesday & Wednesday!

First things first, none of these pictures are mine. I took my camera with me, but didn't take it with me anywhere, I needed the extra space and was a bit overwhelmed for it. I got them all from my lovely roommates and fellow wonderful bloggy friends! So THANK YOU Britt, Sarah, Cassie, Melissa and everyone else that sent me pics!!


TUESDAY

I arrived at JFK airport on Tuesday and my preparation for BEA started before even leaving the airport, because we were in line for immigration processing for at least one hour!! I started getting nervous because I had landed at 2'30 pm, I kept hearing calls over the P.E. that our luggage was being take off the belt because too many suitcases, and I wanted to arrive to the hotel, get freshened up and then got to the Jenny Han book launch, and it was nearly 4 pm already!!

Then of course was the traffic from JFK to the city, but luckily I was the second person to be dropped by the shuttle, so it wasn't too bad!

First highlight of the trip? Meeting my roomies!! Becca from Pivot Book Reviews & Reading Teen, Britt from Please Feed The Bookworm & Winterhaven Books and Sarah from Words With Sarah!!

After all the squealing and jumping and OMG-ing, Britt gave me her ARC of Mechanica because she's a sweetheart and she knew I really wanted to read it and also a book from Alyssa from The Eater of Books! Alyssa sent me a lot of ARCs and some awesome swag and before stepping out of the hotel room I had my first haul of books!! Overwhelmed already here!! THANK YOU!!!








Then we changed, don our bows and left to attend the Jenny Han book launch in Brooklyn! We were sad because Becca was going to attend the Teen Author Carnival at the Jefferson Market Library and not coming with us...


The Jenny Han launch was very stylish, with a candy bar with macarons, cupcakes, cookies and even champagne! We meet even more awesome bloggers there because Octavia, Nikki and Christina also arrived there! I was so happy to finally get to meet & tackle hug Octavia and Nikki! Also met Sajda, Melissa, Cristina and Jamie! It was so exciting! Jenny read from the book, took questions and then started signing!

There was a nail artist and a make up artist and also a nice photocall made to look like Lara Jean's bedroom, and even the cover mode was there to pose with people! We totally too advantage of that, and I got to keep the original polaroid, because these ladies are too kind!






Then with our signed books we took the tube back to our respective hotels to try and get some rest to be ready to day 1 at BEA!


WEDNESDAY

The start of Wednesday can be summed up as: "YAY jet lag!". I woke up at 3 am, then tried to go back to sleep and then dozed off a bit here and there and finally gave up around 5 am and got up and got ready and made myself a cuppa tea while I waiting for my roomies to get up. I must confess the jet lag was a bit advantage for me, because I am NOT a morning person, so making me wake up at 4'30 am would mean risking a limb being bitten off...

After the whole morning process happened, we got to the Javits, my roomies with their rolling suitcase and me with just my Pivot Book Tote and my R2D2 messenger bag!

We went to Blogger Con to get our badges and then decided to roam around to get the layout of the place and then decide what panels to attend.


The most awesome stairs ever!! The Illuminae stairs!!



But then we saw that the line for BEA was already forming and we panicked about the Truthwitch tickets, so we decided to forego BloggerCon and stay in line!


Being in line, soon we were joined by Octavia, Nikki and Christina once again! Also joined us Melissa and Cassie!








 From before 9 am till 1 pm we stayed in line, sat around, chatted, had some Starbucks overpriced lunch boxes, saw Susan Dennard pass (I waved at her and she waved baaack!). Sarah and Christina were my dance-in-line buddies because while waiting it's more fun to dance than just stand up! We plotted and planned our route to the Macmillan booth, saw what drops were announced on the BEA PW magazine and checked out schedules. We also met Katie from Katie's Book Blog, Nori from ReadWriteLove28, Jon from Bookish Antics and the lovely Dana from Danasquare! I probably met more people that I can't place right now, but probably will once I sort all the cards I got!

The way the BEA staff organize the lines isn't exactly the best but oh well... once 1 pm arrived we had our plan ready and we planned to follow Octavia, the yellow bullet! We ran and there was a veritable avalanche that shocked people on the booths! But YAY I managed to get my golden ticket!!



 Right after grabbing my golden ticket, I went to the Penguin Random House (I agree with Nikki, it should be Random Penguin!) to grab my copy of Illuminae (another one of my must-haves!), and then started going here and there for ARC drops! Octavia managed to start the line for the drop of Tonight the Streets Are Ours and a pair of them more! I grabbed quite a few books that I didn't have in my list of "must-haves" but I also got a few ARCs in drops that freed my Friday schedule a bit! I grabbed a pair of books I didn't want for my roomies, because that's how it goes, the buddy system is the way to go! While waiting and "not-forming-a-line" for an ARC drop to happen I met Rashika from The Social Potato and Giselle from Xpresso Reads so YAY for meeting bloggy friends!



During our roaming around and line starting we met Daniel from The Couch Potatoes Digest and he joined our ducklings team! ;)

Then it was time for the Truthwitch signing and meeting Susan was simply amazing! She's just the sweetest and most adorable person ever! She was so excited and seeing her so happy and overwhelmed by the response was a reward for us too!




After the signing with Susan we just grabbed a few more books and then were ready to leave and go back to our hotel! We were supposed to go to Shake Shack with Octavia, Nikki and Christina, but were all wiped and my jet lag kicked again so I was the first in bed again!

More tomorrow for BEA day 2!!

Friday, June 5, 2015

The Broken Hearts Society of Suite 17C by LeighAnn Kopans Blog Tour!!


Hey there everyone!

Even though if my blog is still mostly on hiatus (I will be trying to write some BEA posts over the weekend) due to the process of cleaning, painting and moving (and furniture assembling, packing and unpacking...), I will continue to take part on the blog tours I had agreed to take part on!

So today I have my review for the Blog Tour for The Broken Hearts Society of Suite 17C by LeighAnn Kopans, organized by the ladies of YA Reads Blog Tours!!

This tour is all about the reviews, so if you feel like you need to check more opinions than mine about it, feel free to check out the full tour schedule HERE!



The Broken Hearts’ Society of Suite 17C by LeighAnn Kopans
Genre: Upper YA/lower NA contemporary romance
318 Pages

Friends don’t let friends make the same horrible relationship mistakes twice.

Rion, Amy, and Arielle, the three occupants of first-year dorm Harrison Tower’s Suite 17C have never met before the first day of school, but they soon discover they have one thing in common – being on the wrong end of an epically awful breakup.

Heartbreak sucks, especially when the girls should have seen the trouble coming from a mile away. But there’s no better time than the beginning of college to take charge of your own love life, and nobody better than a roommate to keep you accountable. Over ice cream and pizza their first week, the girls vow never again to date anyone like the assholes who ripped their hearts out and smeared them across the quad.

And that's how the Broken Hearts’ Society of Suite 17C is born.

Now, if only Crash, the tattooed, pierced, and probably stoned guy who works at Rion’s newest job, wasn’t so damn sexy and sweet...

If only Matt, the thoughtful and driven pastor’s kid, would quit being so okay with just being Amy’s friend…

If only Lauren, the innocent small-town girl with her own set of issues, would stop finishing Arielle’s sentences and invading her dreams…

it would be a lot easier for the girls to keep their promises to the Society and to themselves.

If only.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22709909-the-broken-hearts-society-of-suite-17c





  About the Author:

Raised on comic books and classic novels, LeighAnn developed an early love of science fiction and great literature. As an adult, she rediscovered her love for not only reading, but also writing the types of fiction that enchanted her as a teen. Her novels are packed full of flights of fancy, first loves, unexpected friendships, and all the other things that make self-discovery stories so fun to tell.

LeighAnn, her husband, and four children live in Columbus, Ohio. When she’s not immersed in the world of fiction, you can find her with her nose buried in her Kindle, obsessing over the latest superhero movie, or using her kids as an excuse to go out for ice cream (again).






Review


I was sure I was gonna like this one because I love LeighAnn's writing and storytelling, but I was a bit unsure because NA contemporary is not my go-to genre. But I shouldn't really have doubted that I would less than love this book!

Amy, Arielle and Rion easily crawled into my heart and their heartbreaks felt like mine, as did their struggles and triumphs. I cheered for them, felt like shaking them at times, and loved seeing them step out of their comfort zones and grow so much! Their relationships weren't easy because real things never are, even when they should be, we tend to complicate them.

Amy, Arielle and Rion and three very different girls that find themselves living together and supporting each other on their very first day as roommates after some tough break ups. These three girls have very different pasts, very different objectives and are very different from one another, but they make the choice to support one another and seeing them become friends and grow together and separate as their own person was a joy to read!

Amy was raised in a very strict and deeply religious family and environment, but when all her future plans crumble, she has a crisis of faith and needs to find a way to be herself, do what she wants to do, not what others expect of her and find a relationship with God that is right for her. Being an atheist I was so very happy that Amy's story never felt preachy even if I was very angry on her behalf about the way her family acted and reacted.

Arielle has a wonderful family life with a mum that is supportive and that loves her very much, but she comes to college because of her girlfriend and once the break up happens, she's very much drifting, not being sure of what she wants. She's not much of a fighter and she learns how to go for what she wants and not just let others choose for her.

Rion is the one with the toughest past, the most prickly of the lot and the one that needs to learn how to trust again and how to let others help her. She's been burned before and quite badly, so she does the mistake of letting appearances shape her opinion of someone when she's the first that suffered that before.

There is growth for all three of the girls, as individuals, as part of their own families, as friends and also growth and development in the relationships they form. They need to learn to trust themselves and others, to not judge someone by the mistakes of others and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Full of diversity, sex positive and with amazing supportive friendship tying our main characters together, this is one book I can highly recommend!

If you love NA contemporary, you'll adore this book. If you don't, give this book a try, it might change your opinion! Well deserved 5 stars to this one!