Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Cover Story


Some recent cover reveals!





by Tawni Waters
Simon Pulse, August 26th, 2014










Inland 
by Kat Rosenfield
Dutton Juvenile, June 12th, 2014










 by Nikki Kelly
Feiwel & Friends, October 7th, 2014









Of Monsters and Madness
by Jessica Verday
Egmont USA, September 9th, 2014










by Christine Happermann
Greenwillow Books, September 23rd 2014









Sanctum
by Madeleine Roux
Harper Collins, August 26thm 2014









by Jillian Cantor
Bloomsbury USA, May 13th, 2014










The Beautiful Ashes 
by Jeaniene Frost
Harlequin, August 26th, 2014
(This one is listed as both YA and NA at Goodreads, so I'm not sure which it is! Either way, it's a gorgeous cover! :D)








Seeing any new favorites here?  They are all pretty gorgeous, but my favorites are Inland, Sanctum, Poison Apples, and Of Monsters and Madness! And i just love the colors on The Beautiful Ashes!



Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.
Stray
by Elissa Sussman

hitting shelves October 7th from Greenwillow Books

description: 
Epic, rewarding, and provocative, this original fairy tale tells the story of Aislynn, a princess who misbehaves and must give up her royal trappings and enter a life of service as a fairy godmother. Stray will appeal to readers of Entwined, by Heather Dixon; to those who grew up watching the Disney princess movies; and to fans of the acclaimed musicals Into the Woods and Wicked.

Princess Aislynn’s magical ability is powerful and uncontrollable, and at her academy’s Introduction Ball—where she hopes to be introduced to her beloved and begin a life of happily ever after—Aislynn makes a horrible mistake instead. According to The Path, the strict patriarchal doctrine of the land, Aislynn must now be redirected—her loving heart is removed and put in a cabinet, her royal ball gown is replaced with a simple purple robe, and she is assigned to a Princess Linnea as her fairy godmother. A cross between The Handmaid’s Tale and Wicked, with a dash of Grimm and Disney thrown in, this original fairy tale is part coming-of-age story, part fairy tale, part adventure, part sweet romance. Will Aislynn remain true to her vows and her royal family and turn away from everything she longs for? Or will she stray from The Path and discover her own way? Includes a recipe for Fairy Godmother Bookbinder Bread.
My thoughts: Holy Gorgeous Covers!! Such an amazing piece of art---I'm seriously going to need a poster of this.  I really hope the book is as wonderful, and from that description and a comparison to the musicals Wicked and Into the Woods, this one is MADE FOR ME! :D

Monday, February 24, 2014

Becky's View: Cress by Marissa Meyer


Cress by Marissa Meyer
♦publisher: Feiwel & Friends
♦release date: February 4th, 2014
♦hardcover, 550 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Lunar Chronicles, book 3
  book 1: Cinder (review)
  book 2: Scarlet (review)
  book 4: Winter (coming Feb 2015)
♦source: from publisher for honest review
Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

Review:  For me, there is nothing out there that quite compares to this phenomenal series.  With this third installment, Cress, The Lunar Chronicles only strengthens its spot at the top of my list of favorites. I might even go so far as to say that with Cress, this series has outdone itself. While all three books have received 5 well-earned cupcakes from me, and while each one had me laughing and worried, excited, and hopeful, Cress is the first one to make me break down in actual tears.  Though I come close often, I don’t actually cry very easily at books…and for that I love this one all the more. 

It also speaks volumes for how much I love these characters.  The collective crew from the end of Scarlet is back and just as amusing as ever.  They discover that Cress, a girl who has helped Cinder from behind the scenes from the beginning, is actually a prisoner in a satellite and they go to rescue her.  The rescue goes awry and this leads to the entire cast being split up and thrown into their own adventures both on earth and on the moon.  Cress adds something sweet to the melting pot of characters; having been isolated her whole life, she has a certain innocence and awkwardness, but also having been a hacker, she definitely makes herself useful to Cinder’s cause.  She gets thrown together with Thorne, whom she’s been crushing on for years, following his escapades from afar and always thinking of him as a misunderstood bad boy. With Thorne’s cockiness and her bit of feistiness and naiveté, the two of their personalities play off of each other with a perfect blend of sweetness and hilarity. 


Cinder’s plight to stop Kai from marrying Levana has become about way more than her own feeling for him. The fate of the earth will rest in the hands of Cinder and her crew and they take it on valiantly as the plot intensifies and catapults us into the final chapter of the Lunar Chronicles. What’s most amazing about this book is that even at a hefty 550 pages, there is not one moment where the pacing lets up, not one page that feels like mid-series filler. That is definitely a rare thing. 


I can’t even begin to imagine how long the wait for Winter is going to feel! Torture!



Find Marissa Meyer online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Cress: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

I'm currently giving away two SIGNED ARCS of Cress!
Click here to go to my Marissa Meyer event recap post and enter!
 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {78}

For New Shelf Goodies, I'll be showing you what lovely books I acquired this week, whether from publishers, or the library, or from whatever half-crazed book-buying binge I happened to go on. :D (Inspired by Tynga's Stacking the Shelves) The Weekly Nutshell will be just that...my week here at Stories & Sweeties, in a nutshell. (inspired by Ginger @ GReads and her recaps at the end of the TGIF posts)

A lovely book week, small but sparkly!!
 I WoW'd this book awhile back, so I was very excited to get it. This is completely different from Revolution (the author's first book), but I hope it blows me away just as completely!
I'm such a sucker for fun packaging.  I was already super excited about this one, but actually squealed at the sight of it wrapped in a gingham box and ribbon with a special letter from The Revolutionary Order of the Wicked!
Boarding school setting, murder, and ghosts...just couldn't pass this one up when it was offered! 

Huge thanks to Disney, HarperTeen (via SF Book Review), and Soho Teen for these! 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Blog Tour: Fates by Lanie Bross Giveaway!


Today I'm excited to be participating in the blog tour for
Fates by Lanie Bross
One moment. One foolish desire. One mistake. And Corinthe lost everything.

She fell from her tranquil life in Pyralis Terra and found herself exiled to the human world. Her punishment? To make sure people's fates unfold according to plan. Now, years later, Corinthe has one last assignment: kill Lucas Kaller. His death will be her ticket home.

But for the first time, Corinthe feels a tingle of doubt. It begins as a lump in her throat, then grows toward her heart, and suddenly she feels like she is falling all over again--this time for a boy she knows she can never have. Because it is written: one of them must live, and one of them must die. In a universe where every moment, every second, every fate has already been decided, where does love fit in?

About the author:
LANIE BROSS was born in a small town in Maine, where she spent the next 18 years dreaming of bigger places. After exploring city life, she and her husband and two young sons ended up coming right back to the wilds of Maine, where they live just one house down from where she grew up. Fate, perhaps? She loves chasing around her rambunctious kids, playing tug-of-war with her 95-pound Lab, and writing for young adults. FATES is her first novel. For more information, visit her website www.leebross.com or follow her on Twitter (@LanieBross).

Giveaway! 
I have one beautiful finished copy of Fates to give away! 
•US addresses only please
•Must be 13 or older
•Ends March 5, 2014
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

The Fall 
by Bethany Griffin

hitting shelves October 7th, 2014 from Greenwillow Books

description:
Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher.


My thoughts:  Masque of Red Death was an instant favorite of mine---Bethany Griffin knows her way around a Poe retelling.  This looks awesome and so creepy, especially with that chilling cover.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Becky's View: Scintillate by Tracy Clark


Scintillate by Tracy Clark
♦publisher: Entangled Teen
♦release date: February 4th, 2014
♦paperback,304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Light Key Trilogy, book 1
♦source: from publisher via SF Book Review
A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.

Cora Sandoval’s mother disappeared when she was five and they were living in Ireland. Since then, her dad has been more than overprotective, and Cora is beginning to chafe under his confines. But even more troubling is the colorful light she suddenly sees around people. Everyone, that is, except herself—instead, she glows a brilliant, sparkling silver.

As she realizes the danger associated with these strange auras, Cora is inexplicably drawn to Finn, a gorgeous Irish exchange student who makes her feel safe. Their attraction is instant, magnetic, and primal—but her father disapproves, and Finn’s mother orders him home to Ireland upon hearing he’s fallen in love. After a fight with her father, Cora flees to Ireland, both to follow Finn and to look for her missing mother.

There she meets another silver-haloed person and discovers the meaning of her newfound powers and their role in a conspiracy spanning centuries—one that could change mankind forever…and end her life.

Scintillate is the first book in this lush and exciting new trilogy, full of romance, adventure and metaphysical mystery.


Review: While Scintillate could have easily been just another YA book about a girl who sees auras, author Tracy Clark takes a common metaphysical idea and gives it a fantastic new life and depth.  The story she’s crafted surrounds not just her main character, Cora, and the people around her, but encompasses the whole of humanity, cleverly making the human dynamic more similar to a natural “food chain”.  In the world of Scintillate, auras are like a physical life force, that can be given or taken.  Unfortunately, there are people who, much like “energy vampires”,will suck the aura right out of another, feeding off of them, even killing them completely. 

There were lots of great characters.  Cora is smart, sheltered by her over-protective father, a bit angsty but not at all whiney, but prone to making some very passionate but poor choices that definitely kept her very real.  The dialogue was sharp and quick, but often walked a fine line bordering on being a little over the top and corny, even for a bit o’ flowery Irish metaphor.  This made some of Cora’s heavier romantic moments with main love interest, Finn, an Irish exchange student, sometimes swoony, but sometimes melodramatic.
(My one gripe: seems like almost every Irish boy in YA is named Finn. Surely that's not the only boy name with Irish origins??)  I really enjoyed some of the side characters, especially Cora’s best friends, Mari and Dun.  They provided a few moments of great emotional support, clear thinking, and comic relief with all the serious things Cora goes through.  I also loved the ups and downs with Cora’s father and the mystery surrounding her mother.  And of course, it’s aways fun when you have a few interesting characters that aren’t cleary good or clearly bad. 

It’s a very high energy plot, with directions and suspicions changing very quickly. While a few key plot twists were not completely unpredictable, it was great fun watching all the mysteries unfold.  Scintillate was a fast and fun read that had me hooked from beginning to end.  I definitely intend to stick with this series!


Find Tracy Clark online: Website  •  Twitter   •  Facebook

Purchae Scintillate: Amazon  •  BookDepository 

Monday, February 17, 2014

Marissa Meyer Event Recap & Signed Cress ARC Giveaway x 2!


A few weeks ago, we drove an hour through pouring-down rain into the bay area to see Marissa Meyer, the author of my favorite series, The Lunar Chronicles.  As much as I hate driving in the rain and traffic, hearing this incredible author talk about her books and writing was 100% worth it.

We walked into the children’s section of  Book Passage, a sweet little book shop in Corte Madera, and found plenty of shelves stacked high with the gorgeous new copies of Cress, as well as Scarlet and Cinder for those who needed to catch up.  In the signing room, there was a table of fun bookmarks, buttons and purple hair combs with the Cress title on them, so clever to go with the Rapunzel theme of the book! 

Marissa Meyer was introduced and first and foremost, she apologized for bringing the rain with her from Seattle, where she had just flown in from.  She delighted the crowd with many fun stories about growing up in a family of nerds (driving the point home by mentioning she had an uncle who remodeled his attic to look like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise—I wish she’d had pictures of that!) and shared a really awesome picture of herself as a child dressed up as a cling-on at the opening night of one of the Star Trek movies.  Some of her early writing was fan-fiction based on her love of Sailor Moon, and was ecstatic that so many in the audience were familiar with the show!  So the world of Sci-fi and fantasy definitely runs in this author’s blood. 

She share that early versions of the Lunar Chronicle stories were written during NaNoWriMo, an event that she is a huge fan of and definitely encourages every aspiring writer to try.  A really early version of Cinder was written as an entry to a Seattle-based contest where the person who wrote the most words in a single month would win a walk-on role on a Star Trek episode. Sadly she missed the prize by 1000 words, but found out later that they never filmed the episode anyhow!  AND she ended up with a book that would later get her her first publisher deal---a perfect consolation!

Lastly, before open up the floor for questions, she treated the audience to a little storytelling! We got to pick which story out of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, or Snow White (which the final book, Winter, will be based on) and she told us the original fairy tale version, in all its grim and dark detail.  We chose Rapunzel, to Marissa’s relief---she mentioned that Red Riding Hood is the most gruesome and there were some small children in the audience that night! 

She then graciously answered tons of questions, and even more graciously signed tons and tons of books, all the while chatting away with her excited fans.  It was a great night!

Oh, and most exciting for me, she confirmed for me that there is definitely some Han Solo inspiration in Captain Thorne.  I suspected as much! ♥♥♥


*GIVEAWAY!*
I had 2 ARC copies of Cress, but of course I bought a gorgeous finished copy at the signing for my own collection, so I'll pass those two ARCs on to two lucky winners! 
Enter below!
•Must be 13 or older, or have parent permission
•US mailing addresses only please
•Ends March 5th, 2014 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, February 15, 2014

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {77}

For New Shelf Goodies, I'll be showing you what lovely books I acquired this week, whether from publishers, or the library, or from whatever half-crazed book-buying binge I happened to go on. :D (Inspired by Tynga's Stacking the Shelves) The Weekly Nutshell will be just that...my week here at Stories & Sweeties, in a nutshell. (inspired by Ginger @ GReads and her recaps at the end of the TGIF posts)

Very excited for every single book that came through my mailbox this week!  Three sequels and some of my fave authors:
 For review: 
Can't wait for more of my favorite "cookie-baking sidekick"!
Love this author--can't wait to see her take on alien abduction! 
Book 1 was brilliant and creepy. This one has a lot to live up to!
Art of Wishing had a great ending, so I can't wait to see what happens next.
I've never been disappointed with this author. This is her first non-supernatural story, but it still looks pretty dark and creepy!

Huge thanks to Disney, HarperTeen (via SF Book Review), and Penguin for these!

The Weekly Nutshell: 
{Tuesday} Review: A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey
{Wednesday} Waiting on Wednesday: The Dark World
{Thursday} Cover reveal: Feral by Holly Schindler


 Happy reading, everyone! 

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Cover reveal: Feral by Holly Schindler

Today I'm helping to reveal the haunting new cover for 
Holly Schindler's Feral 
Take a look: 

 It’s too late for you. You’re dead.

   Those words float through Claire Cain’s head as she lies broken and barely alive after a brutal beating. And the words continue to haunt her months later, in the relentless, terrifying nightmares that plague her sleep. So when her father is offered a teaching sabbatical in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out of Chicago, away from the things that remind her of what she went through, will offer a way to start anew.

   But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire quickly realizes something is wrong—the town is brimming with hidden dangers and overrun by feral cats. And her fears are confirmed when a popular high school girl, Serena Sims, is suddenly found dead in the icy woods behind the school. While everyone is quick to say Serena died in an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it—for she was the one who found Serena, battered and most certainly dead, surrounded by the town’s feral cats.
   Now Claire vows to learn the truth about what happened, but the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to discovering a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley. . . .

   With an eerie setting and heart-stopping twists and turns, Holly Schindler weaves a gripping story that will make you question everything you think you know.

Coming August 2014 from Harper Collins!
Very excited for this one! I know Holly writes with amazing atmosphere and emotion from her first book A Blue So Dark, so I'll definitely be putting this one on my must-read list!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

The Dark World 
by Cara Lynn Shultz

hitting shelves May 27th, 2014 from Harlequin Teen

description:
Paige Kelly is used to weird--in fact, she probably corners the market on weird, considering that her best friend, Dottie, has been dead since the 1950s. But when a fire demon attacks Paige in detention, she has to admit that things have gotten out of her league. Luckily, the cute new boy in school, Logan Bradley, is a practiced demon slayer-and he isn't fazed by Paige's propensity to chat with the dead. Suddenly, Paige is smack in the middle of a centuries-old battle between warlocks and demons, learning to fight with a magic sword so that she can defend herself. And if she makes one wrong move, she'll be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that's overrun by demons-and she might never make it home.

My thoughts: This one seems to have all the elements that draw me in, a girl who talks to the dead, demons, warlocks, a centuries-old battle, and dark alternate world. Very cool. I'm kind of torn of the cover---sometimes I look at it and like it; sometimes it looks like a girl with a city welded to the back of her head.  LOL Don't mind me.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Becky's View: A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey


A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey
♦publisher: Walker Children's
♦release date: January 7th, 2014
♦hardcover, 496 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Lovegrove Legacy, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review
In 1814, three cousins—Gretchen, Emma, and Penelope—discover their family lineage of witchcraft when a binding spell is broken, allowing their individual magical powers to manifest. Now, beyond the manicured gardens and ballrooms of Regency London, an alluring underworld available only to those with power is revealed to the cousins. By claiming their power, the three cousins have accidentally opened the gates to the underworld.

Now ghouls, hellhounds—and most terrifying of all, the spirits of dark witches known as the Greymalkin Sisters—are hunting and killing young debutante witches for their powers. And, somehow, Emma is connected to the murders…because she keeps finding the bodies.

Can the cousins seal the gates before another witch is killed…or even worse, before their new gifts are stripped away?


Review: A Breath of Frost is a fun addition to the YA world of witchy stories.  Alyxandra Harvey has a great way with characters, making the reader not fall instantly in love with them, but letting her characters earn their own fans (or enemies, as the case may be!) as the story unfolds.  I did find the beginning to be a bit rocky, with so much thrown at you at once, different things happening without much explanation, many different characters being introduced right away---it was a bit hard to follow and it was a while before I really felt gripped into the story. It did eventually do just that and I found a compelling world of witches and magic and legacy.

The story had many great elements. Three cousins with an endearingly close relationship discover they are witches---and not just any witches, they are Lovegroves, a witching family with a notorious reputation.  They find themselves thrown into a finishing school for witches and also in the thick of several mysterious murders. All three are so distinct in their personalities, but each respects the other so much. The story is mostly told from Emma's perspective as she finds her way in this strange new world of magic. She faces off against the school snob and the boy who kissed her and didn't come calling after. Most importantly, she tries to find out what happened to her mother and how it all ties in to the recent ghostly occurances.  Oh, and she gets horns. That would no doubt put a damper on any girl's ability to fit in to the proper manners of the 1800s.  But she definitely proves herself a fighter in the face of all that.

At first, I was not a fan of the romance between Emma and Cormac because he just seemed too cold at first, almost to the point of being mean. But he grew on me and slowly proved himself to be trustworthy and honorable and even charming at times.  Their sparring at the beginning makes for a fun gradual build-up toward the flirtations and romance.  And there is so much else going on in this story, the romance is good, but it's really just one small side plot. 

There are some definite creepy moments, not suprising in a story full of ghosts and ghouls, fairies and shapeshifters, and the merciless Greymalkin sisters. The writing, while sometimes a bit choppy, was atmospheric and descriptive, and the flow of the story was full of twists.  While the ending didn't really take me by surprise, I didn't think it was completely predictable either.  I will say that the reveal of the traitor in the end felt like kind of a "typical" choice.  Still, I really enjoyed this story full of mystery, a huge cast of great characters and a wonderfully crafted magical world. 
Find Alyxandra Harvey online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase A Breath of Frost:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Sunday, February 9, 2014

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {76}

For New Shelf Goodies, I'll be showing you what lovely books I acquired this week, whether from publishers, or the library, or from whatever half-crazed book-buying binge I happened to go on. :D (Inspired by Tynga's Stacking the Shelves) The Weekly Nutshell will be just that...my week here at Stories & Sweeties, in a nutshell. (inspired by Ginger @ GReads and her recaps at the end of the TGIF posts)

Got a few goodies this week!
Bought: 
Went to Marissa's signing and it was amazing! She is so fun to hear speak and meet in person!

For Review:
So incredibly excited for this one!!
These all came in a lovely box of Random House goodness! A couple of these are doubles for me, so I'll be passing them on, but I'm happy to have a finished copy of The Glass Casket and Pieces of Me looks really good---hadn't heard much about it before this!

Here's the fun swag they gave out at Marissa Meyer's signing. I love my "Thorne is my Captain" pin!! And the purple comb to go with the Rapunzel theme is perfect! 
 I'll be talking more about the event later this week, and giving away two signed ARCs of Cress, so watch out for that! 

The Weekly Nutshell: 
{Monday} Becky's View: Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton
{Tuesday}Waiting on Wednesday
{Wednesday}Stories & Sweeties Turns 4!
{Thursday} Blog Tour: The Glass Casket Review + Giveaway

It's finally raining here (thanks for sending it, Juju! LOL), and today is finally a day I get to enjoy it, no work, nowhere to go, just reading on the couch right next to my big window so I can look out at the rain. Love that.  This call for hot chocolate. 
Happy reading, all!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Blog Tour: The Glass Casket Review + Giveaway


Today I'm happy to be participating in the blog tour for  
The Glass Casket!

Death hasn't visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders' bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal.

Rowan's village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan's door once again.

Only this time, its appetite is insatiable.
♦Publisher: Delacorte Press
♦Release date: February 11th, 2014
♦Hardcover, 352 pages
♦Intended audience: Young adult
♦Stand-alone

Review: With a haunting atmosphere, gorgeous prose, and unforgettable conflicted characters, The Glass Casket will charm and terrify any lover of fairy tales, old or new.  I initially went in expecting a retelling of Snow White, but found a story that is wholly its own unique creation:  a dark village in the mountains, a people with varied beliefs and ways, murderous creatures looming in the forest unlike anything I could have imagined. 

The story constantly keeps you guessing, with the finger of suspicion pointing at many different characters as the story gracefully unfolds.  There is a subtle love story, a few of them actually, but nothing that bogs down the main storyline.  The story is told in third person persective, perfect for a village full of interesting characters, but Rowen stands out as our main heroine.  She is clever and fearless, but will have to fight with her own heart when her best friend Tom wants an introduction to her pretty and mysterious cousin, Fiona.  Tom’s brother, Jude, seems to always know how to rile her, but they’ll have to find a way to come together to help Tom when he starts disappearing into the woods each night and more and more of the villagers start turning up dead.
 
There is madness, elemental witches, long-buried secrets, and the walking dead.  The Glass Casket sparkles with magic and wonder while still delivering a gut-churning dose of horror and gore.   With all manner of vivid imagery, from mountains and thick forest, the silvery lake full of mythical flesh-eating nixies, the shadows lurking in the washroom, and the body lying with its throat torn out---the author's carefully chosen words play it all out on the page in a way that pulls the reader in and holds them captive in this eerie, dangerous world.  

Find McCormick Templeman online:  Website  •  Twitter

Purchase The Glass Casket:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

or WIN A COPY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
 Be sure to catch the rest of the tour stops! 
The Glass Casket Blog Tour

January 31st Bookish

February 1st Katie’s Book Blog

February 3rd I’d so Rather be Reading

February 4th Forever YA

February 5th Wastepaper Prose

February 6th Stories & Sweeties

February 7th Peace Love Books

February 8th The Hiding Spot

February 10th Children’s Book Review

February 11th The Midnight Garden  

February 13th Dear Teen Me

February 17th The Midnight Garden

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Stories & Sweeties Turns 4!

Just a few weeks ago, this little blog of mine hit it's four-year blogoversary! It's hard to believe I've been doing this that long, it's gone by in such a flash! I still love it as much as ever, still love the YA genre and the wonderful endless mix of unforgettable characters and adventures it puts forth.  Still love spreading the word about these awesome books, love working with the amazing publishers, authors, and bloggers I've come to know over these four years---I especially love going to events and conferences and actually get to meet some of these awesome people in person! It's been a great four years and I hope to keep Stories & Sweeties running strong for many, many more!

So, as a way to thank my visitors and followers and commenters, I'm having a giveaway! :D

Below, are my 5 favorite books of each of the four years that Stories & Sweeties has been around.  There will be TWO winners, and each one can pick any title listed!
 Here we go:

2010:

2011:

2012:


2013:


Open Internationally! 
•Must be 13 or older, or have parent permission
•Contest ends 2/25/13 at 11:59 pm

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Huge thanks again to everyone whose been on this blogging journey with me these past four years! :D