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.

Glitter

by Aprilynne Pike

hitting shelves October 25, 2016

from Random House BYR

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike comes a truly original new novel—Breaking Bad meets Marie Antoinette in a near-future world where the residents of Versailles live like it’s the eighteenth century and an almost-queen turns to drug dealing to save her own life. 

Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.
When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play . . . blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny. Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates.
Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.
But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take.

My thoughts:  Holy WOW look at that cover. L♥VE. Plus this story sounds so crazy bizarre. Breaking Bad meets a modernized Marie Antoinette's court---that just sounds wildly entertaining. 

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {160}

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)

My lovely bookish goodies this week:

For review:
The Peculiar Haunting of Thelma Bee
This looks so fun! Creepy MG with great illustrations (always a sucker for illustrations lol) and a pretty irresistable comparison to Stars Hollow, Ghostbusters, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer! :D
And I Darken by Kiersten White
Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun
These two are both duplicates for me, but I'm super excited for both just the same!!
The Land of 10,000 Madonnas by Kate Hattemer
European road trip story of 5 teens memorializing their friend. I'm pretty excited for this one. 
Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy
I don't usually go for the "astroid coming at earth" scenario, but this sounds witty and fun (how can it not be with this funny title and cover!), told from a teen physicist prodigy whose trying to save the world. 
Chasing Stars by Helen Dounglas
I hadn't heard of this until it showed up today! Time travel romance for fans of Claudia Gray, Amie Kaufman, & Meagan Spooner---heyyyy, that's me! :D

From Trade/Gifted
The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele
Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke
The first is from a fantastic trade. You all know how much I love WPM, so I used a recent gift card to purchase a gorgeous pettable finished copy. Both from the lovely Britt. Love you, lady!!

Many thanks to Mighty Media, Random House & Harlequin Teen for the review books!


The Weekly Nutshell
{Tuesday} Wink Poppy Midnight Book Birthday Giveaway!
{Wednesday} Waiting on Wednesday: Kingdom of Ash and Briars

So I feel a bit bad about the lack of review this week. Life is just not letting my brain settle enough to sit down and write the 3 or 4 reviews that I need to! :( I'm still sick and I would do anything to just. stop. coughing.  Plus some house stuff, a bathroom reno, kidlet home for spring break, Easter baking...you know. The usual suspects that make getting to this blog just a bit challenging!  
So since my last Nutshell post two weeks ago, I've set aside Firstlife. Ugh, my second DNF this month.  More on that later.  I started Behind the Canvas, which is a fun MG so far about an entire world hidden behind paintings, and I'm reading Broken Crowns, which finishes out (I think?) the Internment Chronicles . Really enjoyed this series.

So what are you reading this week? What's the last book you DNFed (if you do that--I know some will stick it out to the very end no matter what lol)?

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.

Kingdom of Ash and Briars

by Hannah West

hitting shelves September 1st, 2016

from Holiday House

Bristal, a sixteen-year-old kitchen maid, lands in a fairy tale gone wrong when she discovers she has elicromancer magic in her blood. Elicromancers are an ancient breed of immortal people, but only two remain in Nissera after a bloody civil war. Bristal joins the ranks of Brack and Tamarice without knowing that one of them has a dark secret . . . Tamarice is plotting a quest to overthrow the realm’s nobility and take charge herself. Together, Bristal and Brack must guard the three kingdoms of Nissera against Tamarice’s black elicromancy. There are cursed princesses to protect, royal alliances to forge and fierce monsters to battle—all with the hope of preserving peace.

Building on homages to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Austen’s Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Hannah West makes a spectacular and wholly original debut.

My thoughts:  There really are TOO many gorgeous covers this year. I love illustrated covers, especially for fantasy stories. This one is just wonderful. And that last paragraph there, with the list of inspirations for this story--makes me absolutely weak in the knees. GIMME. 

What are you waiting on this week?

Speaking of Wink Poppy Midnight...

So if you read my previous post, you'll know how much I adored this lovely, bizarre, extraordinary book. If not, see my review here. Well, today, Wink Poppy Midnight hits the shelves! Happy Book Birthday, WPM!! :D

 LOL :D  

And at this lovely news, I feel compelled to get this into my blog reader's hands! :D 

So here comes a giveaway! 

Open internationally, one finished copy of gorgeousness :)

Enter away! :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke {review}

Wink Poppy Midnight
by April Genevieve Tucholke
♦publisher: Dial Books
♦release date: March 22nd, 2016
♦hardcover, 352 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦sounce: from publisher for honest review

Every story needs a hero.
Every story needs a villain.
Every story needs a secret.

Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.

What really happened?
Someone knows.
Someone is lying.

Review: I make it no secret---I like my stories bizarre and a little bit twisted. Stories that lead you off one way and then explode your mind with things you might never have seen coming, and in completely off-the-wall ways. I like them haunting, enchanting, mind-boggling. Stories like Never Let Me Go, The Accident Season, The Walls Around Us,...undeniable weird and eerie, but completely awesome.  Yes, what I'm saying here, is that Wink Poppy Midnight falls right in line with these wonderful examples of books that are just my taste. Weird, wild, heart-crushing. Absolutely loved every page.

The dynamic of these three characters feels like an enigma, you get an inkling from the get-go (and the synopsis lends to this as well) that you're going to get more from these characters than they initially seem. Midnight seems lonely and a bit tortured, longing to get away from his unhealthy "thing" with Poppy and gets swept along in Wink's whimsical fairy tale view of everything. Poppy seems to lay everything out so straight that there could be no denying her brand of evil. And Wink keeps you guessing if she's just spacey or incredibly naive or just above it all--or maybe something else.

There are times when the writing is literally like reading poetry, with a very defined repetition and rhythm that really hammers the thoughts, feelings, or vivid imagery that each character is trying to convey home.  I loved the use of alternating POV and the short chapters, each one like little intense bursts of voice and thought. Sigh---just writing this review makes me want to read it again right this second. I know this brand of weird won't be everyone's cup of tea, especially with a somewhat not-exactly-cut-and-dry ending.  But this was definitely my kind of book.

*ABOUT THE AUTHOR*

April Genevieve Tucholke is the author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and its sequel, Between the Spark and the Burn. She loves classic horror movies and coffee. She has lived in many places, including Scotland, and currently resides in Oregon with her husband.

Add Wink Poppy Midnight to Goodreads

Pre-order: Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon

Waiting on...

"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.

Labyrinth Lost
by Zoraida Cordova

hitting shelves September 6th, 2016

from Sourcebooks Fire

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…

Beautiful Creatures meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone with an infusion of Latin American tradition in this highly original fantasy adventure.

My thoughts:  First off, Cover=GORGEOUSNESS. That, plus witches, untrustworthy boys, a missing family, and strange lands, all with an infusion of Latin American tradition??  Yeah, I'll definitely be reading this.

What are you waiting on this week?

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {159}

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)

What the mailman brought this week:

For review:
Sisters of Salt & Iron by Kady Cross
This one wasn't really on radar until it showed up at more door---it looks so good! Twins that are tethered spirits on either side of "the veil"!
The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige
Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige
I'm behind on this series, only having read the first, but I'm glad I have to second and third now. I loved Dorothy Must Die!
The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi (with pretty tattoos!)
If you saw my haul last week, you know this is a second copy for me, but I love having the pretty swag! Haven't decided if I'll be trading or holding a giveaway for this duplicate!

I also got some pretty Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies bookmarks from the fabulous Lindsay Ribar!! I have the book already and I can't wait to read it!

Thanks so much to Harlequin Teen, HarperTeen, St. Martin's Press, and Lindsay Ribar for making my mail awesome!

The Weekly Nutshell:

{Tuesday} Blog Tour Interview with Jeff Zentner

{Wednesday} Waiting on Wednesday: Scythe by Neal Shusterman
{Thursday} Blog Tour Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

This week has been sucksville---I have such a terrible cold!! :(  I've been couch-ridden since Tuesday. UGH. But luckily I've got some good books to keep me company.  :) And tea and puppy snuggles, and my lovely mama even sent over her wonderful healing chicken soup. ♥
Reading has kind of been all over the place, I ended up setting aside A Study in Charlotte. I can't tell you how excited I was for that one, and while it started off good, I just lost interest after a while into it. I read Pull by Anne Riley and really enjoyed that one--review to come soon!  I just started Firstlife today and I'm about 70 pages in---so far, so good! I'm also planning to start the finale in Lauren DeStefano's Internment Chronicles, Broken Crowns. Very excited about that as I loved both previous books, and pretty much everything I've read by DeStefano! :D

So that's all for me this week! What's everyone reading???

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum {blog tour review}

Tell Me Three Things
by Julie Buxbaum
♦publisher: Delacorte Press
♦release date: April 9th, 2016
♦hardcover, 336 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦standalone
♦source: ARC from publisher for honest review

What if the person you need the most is someone you’ve never met?  
Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

Review: "I don't read much contemp". Somehow I hear myself say this often---and then books like Tell Me Three Things come along and prove that this is getting further and further from the truth for me.  I adored this book, it charmed the pants off me. The characters were fun, the situation was emotional, the stereotypes of the LA private school were at once hilarious and from tales I've heard first hand from my L.A.-raised niece and nephew, not too far exaggerated. But best of all, this was a story of a girl in a pretty crappy situation finding comfort in a mysterious stranger who has reached out to her. It's so very "You've Got Mail" brought into the now. 

Jessie's dad has sprung a new stepfamily and a move to L.A. on her just a few years after her mom passed away from cancer.  Needless to say, it's an adjustment. And I'd say, she does pretty well with it, all things considered. All things being: her dad seems to have forgotten she exists, her stepbrother is totally embarrassed by them at the beginning, the kids at her new school seems completely alien to her. 

Then she gets a mystery email from what appears to be a good samaritan looking to help her figure things out.  I loved watching the progression of their friendship, despite the fact that he was a total mystery. It's also a bit of an emotional roller coaster as Jessie deals with her best friend, Scarlet, growing distant, her dad's new marriage, a mean girl at school who seems to have set her sights on Jessie, and multiple guys who have interest in "the new girl" (this is actually my one gripe---I dislike it when the main character seems to catch every guy's eye), all while still missing her mom so much. I felt so much for her character, there were times when I was so angry for her (ugh, clueless teacher), times when I nearly cheered (the big reveal!), and so many times that her snark and wit had me laughing out loud..  As you see Jessie gain a bit of footing and confidence, you of course are also constantly guessing who SN will turn out to be.  The mystery of it (and the hope!) just made for a fun read.

Here's a few favorite quotes (from the ARC):

Scar's favorite word is "undeniable" actually, which tells you everything you need to know about her. My favorite word , on the other hand, is "waffle". Both a delicious breakfast food and a verb.

He's not real, of course,. We're all better versions of ourselves when we get that extra time to craft the perfect message. 

Read this one! You won't be disappointed!

*ABOUT THE AUTHOR*

Julie Buxbaum is the author of the critically acclaimed The Opposite of Love and After You, and her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Tell Me Three Things is her first young adult novel. Her writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times. She is a former lawyer and graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two young children, and an immortal goldfish. Visit Julie online at www.juliebuxbaum.com and follow @juliebux on Twitter.

Add Tell Me Three Things to Goodreads

Or Pre-order: Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon

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.

Scythe
by Neal Shusterman

hitting shelves November 29th, 2016

from Simon & Schuster

Two teens are forced to murder—maybe each other—in the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of theNew York Times bestselling Unwind dystology.

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional reapers (“scythes”). Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe’s apprentices, and—despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation—they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do.

Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives.

My thoughts:  Oooh, I do love a good reaper story :)  I've shamefully never read anything by Neal Shusterman before! But I don't plan to pass this one up. Also---love this cover. Amazing. 

What are you waiting on this week?

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner {Blog Tour Interview}

Very honored today to be part of The Serpent King blog tour, and to have the amazing Jeff Zentner answering a few burning questions for me! Happy Book Birthday, Serpent King!!

*ABOUT THE BOOK*

The Serpent King
by Jeff Zentner
♦publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
♦release date: March 8th, 2016
♦hardcover, 384 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone

Dillard Early, Jr., Travis Bohannon and Lydia Blankenship are three friends from different walks of life who have one thing in common: none of them seem to fit the mold in rural Tennessee's Forrestville High. Dill has always been branded as an outsider due to his family heritage as snake handlers and poison drinkers, an essential part of their Pentecostal faith. But after his father is sent to prison for sexual abuse of a young parishioner, Dill and his mother become real pariahs. His only two friends are Travis, a gentle giant who works at his family's lumberyard and is obsessed with a Game of Thrones-like fantasy series (much to his alcoholic father's chagrin); and Lydia, who runs a popular fashion blog that's part Tavi Gevinson and part Angela Chase, and is actively plotting her escape from Redneckville, Tennessee.
As the three friends begin their senior year, it becomes clear that they won't all be getting to start a promising new life after graduation. How they deal with their diverging paths could cause the end of their friendship. Until a shattering act of random violence forces Dill to wrestle with his dark legacy and find a way into the light of a future worth living.

“Characters, incidents, dialogue, the poverty of the rural South, enduring friendship, a desperate clinging to strange faiths, fear of the unknown, and an awareness of the courage it takes to survive, let alone thrive, are among this fine novel's strengths. Zentner writes with understanding and grace—a new voice to savor."  ---Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

*Q & A TIME!*

Q: When did you first discover you wanted to be a writer? And what was the very first story you ever wrote about?

A: I started writing in fifth grade. I wrote humorous stories in the Captain Underpants vein about a dysfunctional family. I got a lot of laughs from my teacher and class but I never imagined that writing was something I could actually do. I saw friends who wanted to become writers start chasing their dreams and I didn’t think I had what they had. So I pursued music for a long time. By my mid-thirties, though, I had both failed at music enough and developed the patience and work ethic needed to become a writer that I decided to give it a shot. And now here we are.

Q: Have you peeked at any early reviews and tweets about  the The Serpent King?  How does it feel to be affecting readers so strongly?

A:I have. It feels absolutely amazing. It boggles my mind to think about characters I birthed in my mind now living and having lives in the minds of other people. I absolutely love that. 

Q: Where is your favorite writing spot? Coffee shop?  Kitchen table? In the park surrounded by people?

A: I actually do most of my writing on the bus to and from work. I wrote about sixty percent of The Serpent King and about seventy percent of my second book on my iPhone on the bus. I just open a Google doc and start hammering away with my right thumb. I still write on the bus but I’ve upgraded to a tablet with a keyboard and I think my phone days are done.

Q: What were you like as a teen? Do any of the characters in The Serpent King reflect people from your own teen years?

A: I was super broody and able to feel lonely in a room full of people. I was depressed a lot. I dressed like Daniel Desario from Freaks and Geeks and Bender from The Breakfast Club, but I got straight A’s. I didn’t have tons of close friends. All of the characters from The Serpent King have a piece of me. Dill has my general worldview and love for music and poetry. Lydia has my sense of humor and sarcastic edge. And Travis has my nerdiness and imagination. 

Q:What is the best writing advice you've ever been given? Or the best advice you could give to teens who want to become writers?

A:Read as many great books as you possibly can. You have to be a great reader to be a great writer. And read widely. If you want to write YA, you must read a ton of all sorts of YA, but don’t forsake the adult lit. There’s some marvelous stuff there. Read everything.     

Thanks so much, Jeff, for all the brilliant answers!

*       *       *       *       *       *   

     ABOUT THE AUTHOR

credit: J. Rodriguez

Jeff Zentner lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually becoming a songwriter. He's released five albums and appeared on recordings with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Thurston Moore, Debbie Harry, Mark Lanegan, and Lydia Lunch, among others.

Now he writes novels for young adults. He became interested in writing for young adults after volunteering at the Tennessee Teen Rock Camp and Southern Girls Rock Camp. As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

He speaks fluent Portuguese, having lived in the Amazon region of Brazil for two years.

Find Jeff Online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook |  Instagram    

Add The Serpent King on Goodreads

Purchase The Serpent King:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon

Don't forget to visit the rest of the tour for more fun info on Jeff & The Serpent King!

Monday, February 22: Jenuine Cupcakes, Kickoff Blog Tour Post

Tuesday, February 23: Book Hounds, Review

Wednesday, February 24: Mundie Moms, Review

Thursday, February 25: Curling Up With a Good Book, Review

Friday, February 26: To Read or Not to Read, Annotate a Scene Guest Post

Monday, February 29: Bookish Lifestyle, Review

Tuesday, March 1: The Book Swarm, Review

Wednesday, March 2: Katie’s Book Blog, Playlist Post

Thursday, March 3: Paperback Princess, Guest Post: Writing a Character with a Parent in Prison

Friday, March 4: Who R U, Behind the Scenes Book Secret Guest Post

Monday, March 7: Icey Books, Review

Tuesday, March 8: Stories & Sweeties, Author Interview

Wednesday, March 9: LovingDemBooks, Review

Thursday, March 10: Swoony Boys Podcast, Review

Friday, March 11: Good Books And Good Wine, Review

Monday, March 14: Winter Haven Books, Review

Tuesday, March 15: Me, My Shelf and I, Review

Wednesday, March 16: Novel Novice, Review

Thursday, March 17: Lili’s Reflections, Review

Friday, March 18: A Reader of Fictions, Author “Don’t Miss” in Nashville Guest Post