quinta-feira, 11 de fevereiro de 2016

Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk Book Trailer Release





Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk
Published on January 26, 2016 by Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House

A modern cupid story set in present-day Wisconsin combining the fantastical elements of Greek mythology with the contemporary drama of MTV's Teen Mom.

People don’t understand love. If they did, they’d get why dance prodigy Karma Clark just can’t say goodbye to her boyfriend, Danny. No matter what he says or does or how he hurts her, she can’t stay angry with him . . . and can’t stop loving him. But there’s a reason why Karma is helpless to break things off: she’s been shot with a love arrow.

Aaryn, son of Cupid, was supposed to shoot both Karma and Danny but found out too late that the other arrow in his pack was useless. And with that, Karma’s life changed forever. One pregnancy confirmed. One ballet scholarship lost. And dream after dream tossed to the wind. A clueless Karma doesn’t know that her toxic relationship is Aaryn’s fault . . . but he’s going to get a chance to make things right. He’s here to convince Danny to man up and be there for Karma. But what if this god from Mount Olympus finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dancer from Wisconsin who can never love him in return?

PRAISE
“This tale of Cupid meets teen mom is unique . . . for fans of fantasy fiction and mythology, such as Aimee Carter’s ‘The Goddess Test’ series or Rick Riordan.”—SLJ
“A sweet high-school twist on Greek mythology with added substance about teen parenting and breaking out of a bad relationship."—Booklist
"A great mythological take on love, heartache, and teen pregnancy."—VOYA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Gorzelanczyk is a former magazine editor and columnist who believes love is everything. She is a proud member of the SCBWI, The Sweet Sixteens and the Class of 2k16. She lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her husband and family.

Website |  Twitter |  Instagram | Facebook






GIVEAWAY



Must be 13+ To Enter | Ships in US only.
Please see terms and conditions for full contest rules. Some restrictions apply.

1 Winner will get an amazing Arrows Valentine includes:
- Signed hardcover of the book
- Stella & Dot arrow wishing bracelet
- "Adventure awaits. This Arrow bracelet is the perfect reminder to fulfill your dreams."
- The official Arrows makeup bag by Gracie Designs
- A Valentine from the author

a Rafflecopter giveaway

segunda-feira, 8 de fevereiro de 2016

Unhooked - Lisa Maxwell

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
Published on February 2, 2016 by Simon Pulse


For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.

But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.

The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.

With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself?
Unhooked is a adventure that features some of our favorite faces of Neverland, like Captain Hook and Peter Pan but everything is given a new look by twisting the childish fairy tale into something dark. Neverland in Unhooked isn't the land of never growing up, play every day and having fun like Disney presented us, this time around it looks much more like a land of nightmares with evil faires, a magical and manipulative Pan and a not trusty worthy Captain Hook (or is he the only one that can be trusted, who knows).


My favorite aspect of this story was the pace, it just never slowed down. Since the start, we are only a few chapters in and them boom we already go to Neverland, and after that is just one thing after another. We have a lot of things to explore on this island and so much secrets to undercover that there is just not a time to stop and breath, it truly is an adventure for the reader.

What I would have liked more is to the characters to be more developed, specially Gwen, she is overall a good main character that doesn't wait around for the answers to come to her, she isn't naive or too focused on the Captain's pretty features to forget about her mission but she isn't all that unique or memorable, this unfortunately happened with all of the characters on this one, while Pan and Hook are deliciously twisted and full of shades of gray still, their personalities never surpassed surfaced level.

There is a small romance on this one that was nice, since it goes from a hate to slowly start to trusting to partnership to love, I would have like more if I enjoy the characters involved on it more but it was a nice addition. It was entertaining for me because I kept picturing Hook as Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time and they are definitely similar on their personalities.


Overall this wasn't a favorite read and I would recommend it with some restrictions but it was still pretty enjoyable and always kept the adventure going. Probably a best read for fans of retellings, Peter Pan, Once Upon a Time and those who love a good adventure book. 

sábado, 6 de fevereiro de 2016

February TBR

Hey guys, today I'm here to show you my February TBR and also to update you on how well did I go with my January TBR. 

For the first time ever, I'm pleased to say I followed my TBR YAY for victory, commitment, planning, there was times that I didn't know if I wanted to follow it or if I would made it but I kept trying and it worked, it was great to not have the anxiety of choosing a new book every time I finish a book and since this was something that was really bothering me I'll keep doing TBR's as long as it helps me.

On my January I read a total of 6 books and only one of those weren't on my TBR. I started with Seraphina and tried to read Shadow Scale right away for my series challenge but it didn't worked out for me, the second book of this series is so slow and I expected war and dragons but what I got was travelling around and doing nothing. The others are Lady Renegades, Scan, First & Then (check out the giveaway I'm doing for this one), Symptoms of Being Human (review here) and Unhooked. Honestly my reading month wasn't the best in terms of books, there wasn't any OMG NEW FAVORITE and there was one super disappointment for me, I was for a lot of the time feeling really slumpish, there was some days that I didn't read at all and I know there is a lot of people who do that but is not something natural for me, I usually ALWAYS read before bed, like ALWAYS since I can remember but there was days that I just didn't felt like picking up a book at all, oh well, on to the next TBR.


Physical TBR




This month I'll try to read the Red Queen series, I mean the books that are already out of this series, I'll be getting Glass Sword when it's released and them I plan on binge reading them all, I honestly don't know if this counts for the series challenge I'm doing but oh well, whatever is what I fell interested on reading right now. 

Digital TBR



This month has stored some exciting new reads on the releases front! First I want to go with The Girl From Everywhere which I've been hearing nothing but praise since early reviews started to pop up, I want to try The Shadow Queen too, despite never having read anything by Redwine I'm excited it sounds so good and early reviews have been more positive than negative, Kingdom of Ashes is the follow up for A Wicked Thing which I read on 2014 and enjoyed, I just hope this one has more of a plot, them finally Thanks For The Trouble is also on my list, this sounds like such a great quirky contemporary read, I love contemporary and the synopses/cover of this one left me pumped to reading it. 

That is it for my February TBR, I hope this month is better in terms of reading mood for me and see you on March with my next TBR. 

quinta-feira, 4 de fevereiro de 2016

Symptoms of Being Human - Jeff Garvin

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
Published on February 2, 2016 by Balzer + Bray
[This book was given to me by the Publisher, this in no way affected my opinion.]


The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?

Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is . . . Riley isn’t exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection in uber-conservative Orange County, the pressure—media and otherwise—is building up in Riley’s so-called “normal” life.

On the advice of a therapist, Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell the truth of what it’s REALLY like to be a gender-fluid teenager. But just as Riley’s starting to settle in at school—even developing feelings for a mysterious outcast—the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter discovers Riley’s real identity, threatening exposure. Riley must make a choice: walk away from what the blog has created—a lifeline, new friends, a cause to believe in—or stand up, come out, and risk everything.
After about three days without picking up any book I threw my January TBR out of the widow and picked up this tittle on an impulse and boy am I glad I did that. This book captivated me since the first chapter and I ended up reading it on two sittings, it's a necessary story to be out there and I'm so glad more books are focusing not only on the gender/sexual normative ways, this being on the YA section is definitely a victory to society because teens need to be aware of the world surrounding them and fiction always has its way of touching us more than an informative piece.

The thing that I most enjoyed about this story is that while it shows the bad things that can happen to someone that doesn't fit on the "normal" box of our society, it is still not a "issue" book, it manages to have a light tone, at least for the most part of it, and to show how there is a way to be accepted and have a supportive network of friends, family and therapy. I can't stress how important it's to have stories like this out there, because this set an example to other teenagers, parents, educators that may find themselves in situations like this and don't know how to react to it, well now I can just shove this book on their hands and tell them to read it.

I would have liked a bit more of feels and a little bit less of the informative because I'm a very character driven reader, but I think that this is more of a personal thing since a lot of the informative stuff will be necessary to people that have never read on the topic of gender fluid. Sometimes things also go a little bit more on the cheesy side than I like on my stories, but again that is a personal peeve and not something that I think will bother most readers.

Overall this was a great book, I'm always in for books that represent diversity but this one got super bonus point for having a set of characters so amazing, I loved the friendships, the family presence and even the minor romance, how the fact that there is a psychiatrist that is actually very present on the story and the show that therapy is medication is something necessary at times, and the hopeful tone that this ones gives. Super recommended to everyone, especially for lovers of coming of age stories, teenagers and people that work with teens.

terça-feira, 2 de fevereiro de 2016

Remembrance - Meg Cabot

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Remembrance by Meg Cabot
Series: The Mediator #7
Published on February 2, 2016 by William Morrow
[This book was given to me by the Publisher, this in no way affected my opinion.]
In REMEMBRANCE, the seventh installment of the Mediator series, all Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she stumbles across an ancient murder, old ghosts—and ex-boyfriends—aren’t all that come back to haunt her.

REMEMBRANCE will be the first ever adult installment of the Mediator, published by William Morrow, the adult division of HarperCollins, the company that brought you the YA books in the series.

Remembrance was lots of fun for one side but on other points it kind of just reminded me of the weak spots of this series. I think I'll be better doing a list about this one:

  • The mystery was pretty good on this one, it wasn't easy to guess how everything would fit together at first but the more the story progressed more you could see pieces fitting together and things getting pretty real, like dangerous real as it usually does with Susannah.
  • But it did took a while for the mystery to take the front seat of this story and until there it was kind of hard to stick for more than a chapter or two, since my interested kept wavering.
  • Also the resolution of this mystery is pretty unbelievable, like I said above things get pretty dangerous at one point and in real life there would be an investigation and probably some digital prints of Susannah would be all over evidence so I think is very unlikely things got resolved so neatly as it was on the book.
  • But if this was included on the story it probably would be like 600 pages long and yeah, I can see why it wasn't for fiction purposes. 
  • Other thing in the mystery that left me unsettled was the way Susannah dealt with a girl, Becca, that was cutting herself. It's pretty obvious since scene one that this girl is passing through some hard shit, but Susannah is completely clueless on how to deal with her, she was harsh and covered it up from any figure of authority what was happening with Becca and didn't even forwarded  her to a counselor, sure she suggest the idea for Becca's father at one scene on the end but she never clarifies why she thinks Becca needs help. I was chocked and angry with this, mental health isn't a side problem that can be dealt so easily as this made it look, a teenager cutting herself is room for hospitalization or at least a serious therapy treatment - with or without ghosts.
  • So yeah, Susannah really disappointed me on this book, I was expecting you know an adult but she still has the same voice, the same impulsiveness that put her on so much trouble while a teenager, she kept hiding things from Jesse and trying to deal all on her own even thought it was clearly not the best idea I just, I expected more.
  • Jesse too continues to be kind of the same, he still has some 19 century costumes and ideals which obvs comes in the way between him and Susannah, I also was hoping he changed a little bit more because I'm so not into this whole male alfa thing - even thought his is pretty down played close to others on characters on literature. 
  • What was up with that whole mean girls show Kelly and Debbie are still putting on, like for real, you're like 25 years-old grow up. 
  • Honestly the ones that more grew where Susannah's step brothers. 
  • And how cute where the triplets right.
  • I could have done this book without Paul, I honestly don't know why he was here except to cause the main couple some troubles, but like seriously each page this guy was I wanted to kick his ass so badly, he DEFINITELY didn't grew one little bit since high school, actually I would say he regressed even more on his terrible sexist ways. 
Overall thinking about this one it seems to have more negative than positive feels but that isn't true, this was a fun read and I'm glad Cabot is revisiting her series, I definitely wouldn't complain if this Mediator revival would last and bring us more books about this gang but I could have done with a bit more changes from these characters. This is a book that fans of the series can't pass out.