New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {101}

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)

Here's what I got this week:

The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner

 I haven't heard much about this series, but it looks exciting!

Winterspell by Claire Legrand (!!!!!)

Yeeeeeeeee!  I traded a book for this, but I think I might have traded my left hand if asked. LOL

The Weekly Nutshell: 
{Tuesday}  Waiting on Wednesday:The Sin Eater's Daughter
{Wednesday} Astray Blog Tour Giveaway!
{Friday} Review : Jackaby by William Ritter

Last week I read Jackaby. Basically because I was at a point where if I didn't drop everything and read something I was REALLY WANTING to read I was going to hit a major  slump.  Always an important point to be able to recognize as a reviewer, people! :)  LOVED it!! Such a fun read and completely deserving of the elevator pitch 'Doctor Who meets Sherlock".  But check out my review for further fangirling :).  I also finished Stray this week, which was really good, and am half-way through The Fall, which has me completely mesmerized with it's bizarre creepiness and compelled me to pick up it's inspiration book,  Poe's Fall of the House of Usher so I can compare the two stories.  Other than that it's been a pretty quiet life this week!  Hope everyone is ready for September because it's shaping up to be an amazing book month!!

Jackaby by William Ritter {review}

Jackaby
by William Ritter
♦publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
♦release date: September 16, 2014
♦hardcover, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone*
♦source: ALA

“Miss Rook, I am not an occultist,” Jackaby said. “I have a gift that allows me to see truth where others see the illusion--and there are many illusions. All the world’s a stage, as they say, and I seem to have the only seat in the house with a view behind the curtain.”

Newly arrived in New Fiddleham, New England, 1892, and in need of a job, Abigail Rook meets R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with a keen eye for the extraordinary--including the ability to see supernatural beings. Abigail has a gift for noticing ordinary but important details, which makes her perfect for the position of Jackaby’s assistant. On her first day, Abigail finds herself in the midst of a thrilling case: A serial killer is on the loose. The police are convinced it’s an ordinary villain, but Jackaby is certain it’s a nonhuman creature, whose existence the police--with the exception of a handsome young detective named Charlie Cane--deny.

Doctor Who meets Sherlock in William Ritter’s debut novel, which features a detective of the paranormal as seen through the eyes of his adventurous and intelligent assistant in a tale brimming with cheeky humor and a dose of the macabre.

Review:  With its promise of appeal to fans of Sherlock and Doctor Who, Jackaby was solidly one of my most anticipated reads of this year. This comparison gave it some high expectations from me, and thankfully, this debut was everything I’d hope---even more amusing than I expected.  For a tale set in Victorian times, I was surprised to find myself giggling and sometimes even laughing out loud at the antics of Mr. Jackaby and the quick wit of his new assistant, Abigail Rook.

The story is told in the perspective of Abigail, a young woman who has broken away from her family to find adventure. After a failed attempt at what she thought was her dream job, she lands in New Fiddleham searching for work. She comes across an ad for an assistant, preferably with a strong stomach, and this leads her to the door of the odd and outcasted Mr. R. F. Jackaby.  Not only a clever detective, he is also a seer, able to see and sense things that most people don’t even believe exist.  Of course this eccentricity earns him a suspicious eye from everyone in town and a cold shoulder  from the chief of police, even though in some cases he  has no choice to hear Jackaby out. But I loved his intense pride in what he is, his complete disregard for what anyone else thought, and his high respect and endless knowledge of the all the mysterious creatures and species ---incidentally some of my favorite things about The Doctor and Sherlock, so the comparison is well deserved. 

I do hope this will be the start of a series of adventures, because this one was pure fun and danger and excitement.  Abigail and Jackaby have a great and humorous rapport between them (and completely non-romantic, I might add!), as she gets swept along in his madcap manner of solving supernatural crimes but also holds her own in being clever and observant in ways that he tends to miss. I’d love to delve deeper into these characters and some of the side characters as well, especially Jenny, the ghostly previous owner of Jackaby’s house that quickly formed a bond with Abigail---as I felt that this was a sort of quick and dirty intro to all the of them with the focus more on the mystery itself. Still, I loved this book and highly recommend! 

Find William Ritter online:  Website  •  Twitter 

Purchase Jackaby:  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

*I did speak to the publisher at ALA about whether this was the start of a series.  While Jackaby does stand alone, more adventures are definitely in the works!

ASTRAY Blog Tour Giveaway!

Today I'm participating in the blog tour for ASTRAY by Amy Christine Parker, sequel to Gated.  Thanks for the lovely folks at Random House, I'm giving away one finished copy of ASTRAY!

Lyla is caught between two worlds. The isolated Community that she grew up in and the outside world that she’s navigating for the very first time. The outsiders call the Community a cult, but Pioneer miraculously survived a shooting that should have killed him. Are the faithful members right to stay true to his message? Is this just a test of faith? One thing is for sure: the Community will do anything to bring Lyla back to the fold. Trapped in a spider’s web of deception, will Lyla detect the sticky threads tightening around her before it’s too late? She’ll have to unravel the mystery of what Pioneer and the Community are truly up to if she wants to survive.

Suspenseful and chilling, Astray is Amy Christine Parker’s nerve-fraying sequel to Gated. This fast-paced psychological thriller is masterfully plotted and sure to leave goose bumps. Perfect for fans of creepy YA thrillers and contemporary fiction alike.

AMY CHRISTINE PARKER writes full-time from her home near Tampa, Florida, where she lives with her husband, their two daughters, and one ridiculously fat cat. Visit her at amychristineparker.com and follow her on Twitter @amychristinepar.

Enter to win a copy below!

• US mailing addresses only

•Must be 13 or older

• Ends 9/12/14

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out the rest of the tour stops!

Itching for Books                            8/26   

Me, My Shelf and I                         8/26   

A Dream Within a Dream             8/27   

Candace's Book Blog                     8/28   

Stories & Sweeties                          8/29   

 The Hiding Spot                              8/29     

The Children’s Book Review       8/31   

Evie Bookish                                   9/2    

Christy's Book Addiction              9/3    

Live to Read                                      9/4    

Confessions of a Readaholic         9/5    

Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club 9/8    

Bundle of Books                               9/15   

Happy Indulgence Books              9/25   

 

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 Sin Eater's Daughter
by Melinda Salisbury

hitting shelves February 24th, 2015
from Scholastic Press

description:
16-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she's engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn't a member of the court. She's the executioner.

As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she's taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he's able to look past Twylla's executioner robes and see the girl, not the goddess. Yet a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla's problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies-a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

My thoughts:  That coverrrrrr. I admit it, I wanted to read this before I got a good look at the synopsis. Because it's gorgeous. Love all the blues and greens and striking red. And then it caught me with its dark fairy-tale-sounding solitary world of a girl with a touch of death. Yes, this sounds like my kind of thing.

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {100}

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)

Here's my week in books:

For review:

Positive by Paige Rawl

Snow Like Ashes by Sarah Raasch

The Fall by Bethany Griffin

Stray by Elissa Sussman (reading now and loving!)

The Beautiful Ashes by Jeanine Frost

A few of these are duplicates for me, but excited for them all the same!

Many thanks to Harper and Harlequin for these!

The Weekly Nutshell: 
{Tuesday}  Waiting on Wednesday: The Bargaining
{Wednesday} Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop!
{Friday} Review + Giveaway: Chasers of The Light

Another fun week of books. Guys, check out the poetry book I reviewed yesterday if you missed it. I'm giving a pre-order copy away, not only because I loved it, but because the author is donating part of the proceeds from all preorders to To Write Love on her Arms charity. Also check out my Clear Your Shelf giveaway---two stacks of books will be finding new homes! 
I finished Jackaby this week and it was such a fun read. Reading Stray now and loving it so far. Next up is The Fall---I can't wait for the creepiness! Also, for all you Whovians out there: YAY! Doctor 12 is finally here!!

Hope everyone had a great week!

Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson {review + giveaway}

Chasers of the Light
Poems from the typewriter series
by Tyler Knott Gregson
♦publisher: Perigree Trade
♦release date: September 2nd 2014
♦hardcover, 144 pages
♦intended audience: all lovers of poetry!
♦source: from publisher for honest review

The epic made simple. The miracle in the mundane.

One day, while browsing an antique store in Helena, Montana, photographer Tyler Knott Gregson stumbled upon a vintage Remington typewriter for sale. Standing up and using a page from a broken book he was buying for $2, he typed a poem without thinking, without planning, and without the ability to revise anything.

He fell in love.

Three years and almost one thousand poems later, Tyler is now known as the creator of the Typewriter Series: a striking collection of poems typed onto found scraps of paper or created via blackout method. Chasers of the Light features some of his most insightful and beautifully worded pieces of work—poems that illuminate grand gestures and small glimpses, poems that celebrate the beauty of a life spent chasing the light.

Review: Tyler Knott Gregson has made a name for his poetry through his daily Instagram  and Tumblr posts.  In this charming collection, he gives readers a taste of his creative poetic talents.  The poems themselves range from sweet to doting, frustrated to simple quirky observations.  What sets them apart and makes this book a joy to read and just peruse through is the presentation.  Quick poetic musings are typed onto scraps of paper or receipts, as if he was suddenly struck by the words and just had to get the words down on any little paper that would slip into his typewriter.  A few of my favorites were created by taking book pages, blacking out the text and just leaving those few words that string together to make a poem. The easiest way to show you how special this work is to show you a few of my favorite pages:

 

  Beautifully done and a fresh and creative voice in poetry.

Find more work from Tyler Knott Gregson at his Instagram. 

Purchase Chasers of the Light:  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

All pre-orders placed before September 2 will come with a signed bookplate by the author, and the author will donate a share of the pre-order proceeds to To Write Love on Her Arms charity (link).  So I've decide to giveaway a pre-ordered copy to one lucky winner! Enter below!
•Open internationally
•Must be 13 older, or have parent permission
•Ends 8/30/14

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop!!

Hi all! Well, I don't participate in many of these, but this one I love to do because it gives me a chance to find new homes for a few books that have just been sitting on my shelves, and get the word out to a ton of readers! :D  This giveaway hop is hosted by I am a reader, not a writer and Bookhounds!

So here we go!! I'm giving away two separate stacks of books!!

One is contemp/thriller, the other is paranormal/fantasy.

Here are the stacks:

 Just a quick note:  You can ENTER both contests, but you can't WIN both contests. I want to spread the love around alittle. ;)
Now enter away! :D

•US mailing addresses only please

•Must be 13 or older, or have parent permission

• Contests ends 8/27/14, 11:59 pm

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don't forget to visit the other sites participating in the Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop!

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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 Bargaining

by Carly Anne West

hitting shelves February 17th, 2015 

from Simon Pulse

description:
The fact that neither of her parents wants to deal with her is nothing new to Penny. She’s used to being discussed like a problem, a problem her mother has finally passed on to her father. What she hasn’t gotten used to is her stepmother…especially when she finds out that she’ll have to spend the summer with April in the remote woods of Washington to restore a broken-down old house.

Set deep in a dense forest, the old Carver House is filled with abandoned antique furniture, rich architectural details, and its own chilling past. The only respite Penny can find away from April’s renovations is in Miller, the young guy who runs the local general store. He’s her only chance at a normal, and enjoyable, summer.

But Miller has his own connection to the Carver House, and it’s one that goes beyond the mysterious tapping Penny hears at her window, the handprints she finds smudging the glass panes, and the visions of children who beckon Penny to follow them into the dark woods. Miller’s past just might threaten to become the terror of Penny’s future….

My thoughts:  Love stories surrounding old spooky houses and dark forests. This definitely sounds like a spine-chilling read!

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {99}

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)

New shelf goodies this week:

For review:
Chasers of the Light by Tyler Knott Gregson
Love the inside of this one already, with poems written on bits of scrap paper and receipts, and I'm just a sucker for typewriter font. :) 
Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee
One of my most anticipated reads, but thanks to some mixed trusted-blogger reviews, I'll be going into this one with realistic expectations! 
The Alliance by Shannon Stoker
I don't know much about this series---anyone recommend?

Many thanks to Penguin, Skyscape, and William Morrow for these! 

The Weekly Nutshell: 
{Tuesday} A loving farewell to Robin Williams
{Thursday} Guest review: Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff
{Friday} Cover Story

Well it was quite a week, people. I'm still a bit in shock over the world's loss of Robin Williams.  My son has been on a streak of watching the Night at the Museum movies for about 3 weeks now, and I still can't help get a little teary when I hear his voice. On a happier note, we took my daughter to the Paul McCartney concert this week, and although we didn't get to go in (the pricey ticket was just not going to happen!) we did tailgate in the Candlestick parking lot and listen to the whole thing! As huge Beatles fans, it was amazing just to know we were hearing those iconic songs performed live by the man himself! :) 
This week I'm reading Jackaby and I can barely put it down! I'm also reading The Archived at work (also really good) and reading select stories from The Cabinet of Curiosities. 

What are you reading this week? 

Cover Story

Some gorgeous late-2014 and 2015 covers have been revealed recently! Check them out:

Dreamfire

by Kit Alloway

 St. Martins Griffin, February 24, 2015

Earth & Sky
by Megan Crewe
Skyscape, October 28, 2014

The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek

by Seth Rudetsky

Random House, June 23, 2015

Stone in the Sky
by Cecil Castellucci
Roaring Brook Press, February 24, 2015

Time's Edge

by Rysa Walker

Skyscape, October 21, 2014

The Way We Bared Our Souls
by Willa Strayhorn
Razorbill, January 22, 2015

Willowgrove

by Kathleen Peacock

Katherine Tegen Books, January 6, 2015

Pretty much all of these would catch my eye on a bookshelf. What do you think? Do these covers make you want to read any of these?

Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff {guest review}

Fiendish 
by Brenna Yovanoff
♦publisher: Razorbill
♦release date: August 14th, 2014
♦hardcover, 352 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦source: from publisher for honest review
♦guest reviewer: Amy

Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten.

Now she’s out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.

When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher sets her free. Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged.

Review: For ten years, Clementine lay buried in the cellar, eyes sewn shut, ensnarled in willow roots.  Bound by a magic so strong, no one even remembers her existence. Until one day a boy hears the faint magical pull of her breathing, unearthing not only a lost and forgotten girl but quite possibly the magical curse that may be responsible for trapping Clementine. 

Waking to a world that is scared of the craft that dwells in Wixby Hollow, Clementine rediscovers a world where magical beasts, hell hounds and fiends dwell. A coalition of townspeople are waiting to once again burn the magic from the Hollow to purify those who possess the craft, saving themselves from the plague that they call The Reckoning. This leaves Clementine to not only try to discover who trapped her in the cellar, but where she fits in a town where politics and truth are buried deeper than the cellar she has emerged from. 

Brenna Yovanoff, once again captures her readers with a gothic tale of horror and mystique. Painting a story that is both horrific as well as alluring, she combines old magic with witchcraft, unraveling a town that is built upon fear itself. Taking that which is seen as unnatural and wrong, it fits together to make a beautiful and enchanting story.

Find Brenna Yovanoff online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Buy Fiendish:  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

So many wonderful memories...

For all the laughs and tears, for lending your voice to so many beloved and unforgettable characters that both me and my children have grown up on, for life lessons from Captain, my Captain and Teddy Roosevelt, for learning how to fly, for silliness and playfulness at every age, and for the most perfect Popeye ever. We'll never forget you...

Rest in peace, Robin Williams.
(July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014)

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {98}

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)

Just one new shelf goodie for me this week!

 Boneseeker by Brynn Chapman

A Victorian supernatural mystery involving the daughter of Sherlock Holmes and the son of John Watson---this was a must-have for me!

The Weekly Nutshell: 
{Tuesday} Waiting on Wednesday: When My Heart Was Wicked
{Thursday} Old Books, New Looks 
{Friday} Review of Unwept by Tracy & Laura Hickman

So that's my week! I finished up Unwept and was initially impressed, and then underwelmed by this bizarre little story.  I'm reading Fiendish now, another bizarre one, but Brenna Yovanoff's writing always seems to draw me in. Really enjoying it at about 50% through. Other than that, my family's been reveling in the last few days of summer vacation, sneaking off to the beach at every chance and spending our evenings lying in the hammock under our twinkle lights and making smores. :)

Have a great week, everyone! ;D

Unwept by Tracy & Laura Hickman {review}

Unwept
by Tracy & Laura Hickman
♦publisher: Tor
♦release date: July 1st, 2014
♦hardcover, 272 pages
♦intended audience: Adult
♦series: The Nightbirds, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Gamin, Maine, is a remote seaside town where everyone seems to know Ellis Harkington better than she knows herself—but she doesn’t remember any of them.

Unknown events have robbed Ellis of her memory. Concerned individuals, who purport to be her friends and loved ones, insist that she simply needs to recuperate, that her memories may return in time, but refuse to divulge what has brought her to this state. For her own sake, so they say.

Ellis finds herself adrift in a town of ominous mysteries, cryptic hints, and disturbingly familiar strangers. The Nightbirds, a clique of fashionable young men and women, claim her as one of their own, but who among them can she truly trust? And what of the phantom suitor who visits her in her dreams? Is he a memory, a figment of her imagination, or a living nightmare beyond rational explanation?

Only her lost past hold the answers she seeks—if she can uncover its secrets before she fall prey to an unearthly killer.

Review: Unwept, for me, was an odd one. I found myself quickly and completely drawn in to the dark mystery of how Ellis lost her memory, the creepy town where everyone is just a little shady, the eerie atmosphere, and finally the touch of fantasy as her nightmares start seeping into her real life. But somewhere along the way, it lost me. And as the ending crept closer, even knowing that this was a planned series and that a conclusion would not be reached (thank you for the warning, Rachel!) I still felt unsatisfied and that the idea behind the story was a bit confusing and muddy. 

As each characters introduced themselves, I was immediately curious about how they fit into Ellis's story. However, I found as the story went along, the extent of each one's cryptic behavior made it really hard to feel invested in any of them. Jenny, Ellis's cousin, was especially annoying to me, constantly childish and pouty. We're sort of left in the dark about what is really going on for a bit too long, which would have been okay if we had interesting players to cling to, but without that connection, I just found it slowed the pacing. Still, several of them take a slow-building turn toward the sinister, which turns the whole thing very dark and macabre. As Ellis starts to have strange nightmares and visions,  and everyone seems to be telling her a different story, her confusion and distrust and certainty that everything is just competely wrong in Gamin becomes palpable. 

Just the sheer need to find out what this crazy town was all about, to be let in on the big dark secret, kept me reading this one until the end. I can't say whether I will give book 2 a chance to clear up some things that I was left confused about (for instance: chapter 1???) or to find out what will happen next to Ellis, Merrick, and the bizarre moth-man. But Unwept was a interesting, eerie reading experience---just one that didn't completely work for me.

Find Tracy & Laura  Hickman online:  Website  •  Twitter 

Purchase Unwept:  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Old Books, New Looks {11}

Time again for another round of Old Books, New Looks, where I feature the covers of books that have already been released and their redesigned paperback counterpart! :) Sometimes I like the new better, sometimes I like the old. Here's a few that I've come across lately:

The OLDIES  vs.  The NEWBIES 

I loved the impact of the original. The new one looks like they were trying to make it look like an adult book. Pretty and simple though, I guess.

 I like them both, actually. I didn't read this so I don't know which fits better, but the original is definitely more unique.

Don't understand this change at all! I loved the original cover!

 Ugh. What an awful change. The guy looks so cheesy!

 And here, dear friends, is an example of the changes I dislike the most---when they change the cover AND the title. I actually really love both these covers, but why the title change? Are they trying to trick people into buying it twice? Did they just decide that this one worked better? Inquiring minds want to know! And heads up, someone has the new one mistakenly marked at Lucid #2 at Goodreads, but it's actually the same book.

So weigh in! What do you think of these makeovers?

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.

When My Heart was Wicked

by Tricia Stirling

hitting shelves February 24th, 2015 

from Scholastic Press

description: 

"I used to be one of those girls. The kind who loved to deliver bad news. When I colored my hair, I imagined it seeping into my scalp, black dye pooling into my veins.

But that was the old Lacy. Now, when I cast spells, they are always for good."

16-year-old Lacy believes that magic and science can work side by side. She's a botanist who knows how to harness the healing power of plants. So when her father dies, Lacy tries to stay with her step-mother in Chico, where her magic is good and healing. She fears the darkness that her real mother, Cheyenne, brings out, stripping away everything that is light and kind.

Yet Cheyenne never stays away for long. Beautiful, bewitching, unstable Cheyenne who will stop at nothing, not even black magic, to keep control of her daughter's heart. She forces Lacy to accompany her to Sacramento, and before long, the "old" Lacy starts to resurface.

But when Lacy survives a traumatic encounter, she finds herself faced with a choice. Will she use her powers to exact revenge and spiral into the darkness forever? Or will she find the strength to embrace the light?

My thoughts: Gorgeous, gorgeous cover. And I love that its about a girl fighting to use her natural magic for good when her own mother is fighting to drag her into the dark.