New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {139}

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 candy:

From Trade:

The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee

I've always wanted to read this one! So glad to finally have a copy! 

From publisher:

Cut Both Ways by Carrie Mesrobian

Truest by Jackie Lea Sommers

The Infinite in Between by Carolyn Mackler

Silver Eve by Sandra Waugh

Purchased: 

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys 

This story collection features some of my favorite authors so I was so excited that Powell's in Oregon was offering signed copies! I WISH I could have gone to this signing, such an incredible trio--Cat Winters, April Tucholke, and McCormick Templeman!! I'm hoping to someday fill out that blank front page with even more of these author's signatures! Wouldn't that be incredible to have a copy signed by all 14 of these amazing authors?! :D

Many thanks to Harper Collins and Random House for the review books, and to Anna for trading with me! :D


The Weekly Nutshell  
{Sunday} Sweetness on Sunday: Bailey's Ice Cream with Nutella Swirl
{Tuesday} Waiting on...Gateway to Fourline by Pam Brondos
{Friday} Review: The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender
{Saturday} Review: The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

 Caught up with a few reviews this week! :D Loved both of these. This week I read The Uninvited. So so great. Cat Winters does in again! Right now I'm reading A Curious Tale of the In-Between, and so far I'm really enjoying Lauren DeStefano's first go at MG! Next up is either Ash & Bramble for a blog tour stop here in September, or Drift & Dagger, both of which I'm very excited for!

That's it for me this week! Happy reading, everyone!
 

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle {review}

The Accident Season 
by Moira Fowley-Doyle
♦publisher: Kathy Dawson Books
♦release date: August 18th, 2015
♦hardcover, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand alone
♦from publisher for honest review

Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably accident-prone. Some years it’s bad, like the season when her father died, and some years it’s just a lot of cuts and scrapes. They know what they need to do—stock up on bandages and painkillers, cover sharp table edges with padding, banish knives to locked drawers, switch off electrical items. They buckle up, they batten down.

But this accident season—when Cara; her ex-stepbrother, Sam; and her best friend, Bea, are seventeen—none of that will make a difference.

Because Cara is starting to ask questions. And the answers were never meant to be found.

A haunting, untethered, addictive read that perfectly captures that time in our lives when our hearts crack open and the raw secrets of our true selves burst forth—whether we are ready or not.

Review: I have a pretty good inkling that this book will not be for everyone.  It's a strange premise. It's a bizarre atmosphere that runs through it, it's a completely mixed bag of characters...and for me, it was absolutely perfect.

I heard this one compared to Alice Hoffman's work and I whole-heartedly agree. Her earlier stuff. The stuff that was family-centric and just had an all-around eerie vibe to it.  The Accident Season makes you go through most of the story, not even trying to explain itself; the accidents just happen here and there but what's really going on here is a family trying to work themselves out, and a girl trying to solve all of it's mysteries.   I loved all the different relationships---between Cara and Sam, and Cara and Bea, and Bea and Alice. And the mystery of who Elsie is and how exactly she could be entwined in Cara's life. You just get the feeling that everyone is trying to figure out what is suppose to be normal, and what feels normal.

So much incredibly ethereal and dreamy imagery.  Little strips of paper, full of secrets, dangling above the students heads as they walk the high school halls. A tree full of dreamcatchers. A glassy-eyed doll lying in the jaws of an animal trap. Cara seeing the eerie reflection of the group's other selves in a passing train. The writing just felt magical and intense, dizzying at times and sometimes very sad. There are two heart-pounding romances, both of which the characters will have to work through their own doubts and hesitations to get to.  There are secrets that blow everything wide open and haunting truths that none of them will be able to hide again.

Very rarely do I reread any book, but when I finished this one, and even now as I'm writing this review, I just want to flip it open and experience it again. A beautiful debut---this author is definitely one I'll be watching out for in the future.

Find Moira Fowley-Doyle online:  Twitter  •  Tumblr

Purchase the book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •   Amazon

The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender {review}

The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall 
by Katie Alender
♦publisher: Scholastic Point
♦release date: August 25th, 2015
♦hardcover, 336 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

In this asylum, your mind plays tricks on you all the time…

Delia’s new house isn’t just a house. Long ago, it was the Piven Institute for the Care and Correction of Troubled Females—an insane asylum nicknamed “Hysteria Hall.” However, many of the inmates were not insane, just defiant and strong willed. Kind of like Delia herself.

But the house still wants to keep “troubled” girls locked away. So, in the most horrifying way, Delia gets trapped.

And that’s when she learns that the house is also haunted.

Ghost girls wander the halls in their old-fashioned nightgowns. A handsome ghost boy named Theo roams the grounds. Delia finds that all the spirits are unsettled and full of dark secrets. The house, as well, harbors shocking truths within its walls—truths that only Delia can uncover, and that may set her free.

But she’ll need to act quickly, before the house’s power overtakes everything she loves.

From master of suspense Katie Alender comes a riveting tale of twisted memories and betrayals, and the meaning of madness. 

Review: Once again, Katie Alender gives her readers a perfect blend of great characters, horrific  moments, and emotional impact. I know I've said this before, but she is one of those authors that I can always pick up and know I'm going to get a spine-chilling great story. 

The story starts off with Delia's family moving into the "house" that her aunt left her. Upon arriving they find a daunting old mansion that they discover was once an asylum---one where many women were wrongful held and where several people died. I love the way the beginning is written. They are short chapters inserted called "Observations after the fact" so you know some huge twist is coming, but when it does it's still left me shocked and heart-wrenched. 

Delia's character grows so much throughout this story, from headstrong and a bit angsty to courageous and smart, a caring sister and good friend who only wants to see the people she cares about safe. The other characters were all well written, and I loved the different personalities from different eras all thrown together in this terrifying situation. Most seemed content to accept their captive eternity, but Delia sparks them to action.  I do wish there had been more of Theo, that he'd had a bit more involvement in the story and maybe a bit more romantic buildup, but the story was still great without it. 

It's definitely a creepy story, perfect for those moments when you just want to be spooked!  But it's also a great emotional story about family and sisterhood, friendship and finding strength, forgiveness and letting go. If you can't get to it any sooner, I highly recommend this one for a perfect Halloween read!

Find Katie Alender online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Instagram

Purchase the book:  BookDepository  •  Indiebound   •   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.

Gateway to Fourline

by Pam Brondos

hitting shelves December 1st,  2015

from Skyscape

Years before, a gateway opened between their world and ours. Sending one young woman through may be the key to survival for the kingdom of Fourline.

Strapped for cash, college student Natalie Barns agrees to take a job at a costume shop. Sure, Estos—her classmate who works in the shop—is a little odd, but Nat needs the money for her tuition.

Then she stumbles through the mysterious door behind the shop—and her entire universe transforms.

Discovering there’s far more to Estos than she ever imagined, Nat gets swept up in an adventure to save his homeland, an incredible world filled with decaying magic, deadly creatures, and a noble resistance of exiled warriors battling dark forces. As she struggles with her role in an epic conflict and wrestles with her growing affection for a young rebel, Soris, Nat quickly learns that nothing may go as planned…and her biggest challenge may be surviving long enough to make it home.

My thoughts: This sounds like such a fun fantasy!! I hadn't heard of this one until just today, and the protaganist is college age, which I guess makes this NA, not YA?  Regardless, this looks wildly entertaining and I'll definitely be checking this out!

Sweetness on Sunday: Bailey's Ice Cream with Nutella Swirl

So as I mentioned last week, I got a new ice cream maker and I've been having so much fun with it.  One thing that always kept me from getting an ice cream maker was that most require rock salt and ice, but since we don't have an ice maker, that wasn't a simple thing. Well, a coworker of mine told me about the Donvier ice cream maker. This brand has been around forever so I have no idea how I'd never heard of this, but it requires no ice, no salt--you just freeze the inner bowl and away you go, making ice cream like crazy! :D Here's the one I purchased, if you want to check it out.  It's SUPER easy to use. You throw the ice cream mixture in the maker, turn the churn handle a few times every 3-4 minutes, for 20 minutes, and voila! Perfect homemade ice cream, a.k.a. HEAVEN. The recipe below, however, can be used with any ice cream maker that you happen to have.

Bailey's Ice Cream with Nutella Swirl

recipe adapted from UrbanBakes.com

Ingredients:
•5 egg yolks
•1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk (most will tell you to use whole milk, but I used 2% and it came out perfect!)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
•1/2 Nutella hazelnut spread

Lightly beat eggs yolks and then stir together eggs, sugar, milk, cream, Bailey's, and vanilla is a medium saucepan. Heat mixture over medium heat, stirring often to keep the milk from scorching. When it just starts to boil, remove from heat.

Pour mixture into a shallow pan.  Allow to cool about 10 minutes, until there is no steam coming off of it.  Mixture will have thickened quite a bit already. Cover with plastic wrap, settling the wrap right onto the surface of the mixture to keep a film from forming.  Freeze this for 1 to 2 hours (can be frozen overnight).

Pour mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions for your ice cream maker.  In the last few minutes of churning, when ice cream is almost done, drizzle in nutella a few spoonfuls at a time. Churn the ice cream a bit between each addition. This will evenly swirl the nutella into the ice cream.

Ice creams with liquor in them generally take a few hours after churning to freeze completely. Or you can serve this right away as soft serve. ;) Also, I wouldn't suggest adding more Bailey's than this recipe calls for--liquor doesn't freeze so if you add too much you'll end up with cold soup! :D

This is such a delectable combination---the two flavors compliment each other really nicely. I hope you try this and enjoy!

Until next time...

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {138}

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)

newbies to the shelf this week:

 From trades:
The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
This looked very Downton-esque, so of course I'm excited to read it!
Drift & Dagger by Kendal Kulper
Lovely signed copy! Can't wait to read this one. 
The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna
So glad to finally have a finished copy of this. Wish this author would write another book! Loved this story so much.   
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands 
Mysteries, apothecaries, and 1665 London--hubs and I will likely both enjoy this one! 

A huge thanks to those who traded with me this week! 

The Weekly Nutshell  
{Tuesday} Top Ten Tuesday: My auto-buy authors
{Wednesday} Waiting on: Wink Poppy Midnight & Dark Days Club

So I didn't get around to writing the two reviews I meant to write this week, for Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall & The Accident Season, both of which I really enjoyed.  Well, Accident Season, I really loved, but more on that in my review lol. 
Not much else going on this past week. Which is kind of nice. Getting back into the swing of school schedule and having the nice quiet house to myself during the day.  :) More ice cream making adventures--this week it was Chocolate Cherry Amaretto. And come back later today for a Sweetness post featuring Bailey's Ice Cream with Nutella Swirl.  LOL, is it funny that I don't drink at all, but I love throwing in liquor into desserts? :D

Anyhow, have a great week, everyone! 

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.

Today I've got a Penguin two-fer! I just couldn't decide between them.  

Wink Poppy Midnight

by April Genevieve Tucholke

hitting shelves March 22nd,  2016 

from Dial Books

The intrigue of The Virgin Suicides and the "supernatural or not" question of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer coalesce in this young adult mystery, where nothing is quite as it seems, no one is quite who you think, and everything can change on a dime.

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.

For fans of Holly Black, We Were Liars, and The Raven Boys, this mysterious tale full of intrigue, dread, beauty, and a whiff of something strange will leave you utterly entranced.

My thoughts: Okay, so, aside from the Virgin Suicides comparison (we'll just ignore that, not a fan), this book looks absolutely amazing. Plus its April Tucholke and her writing is the most gorgeous, perfectly haunting thing ever. And this cover!! Will there be posters? Please let there be posters. 

The Dark Days Club

by Alison Goodman

hitting shelves January 26th,  2016 

from Viking Books for Young Readers

New York Times bestseller Alison Goodman’s eagerly awaited new project: a Regency adventure starring a stylish and intrepid demon-hunter!

London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

My thoughts: I've heard awesome things about this author's work. Plus the moment a synopsis mentions a "stylish and intrepid demon hunter"  and the "shadows of Regency London", you've pretty much got my attention! Also, I was so glad to see this cover for the US release---no offense to anyone, but the other cover shown on goodreads is a bit of a pink nightmare! 

What are you excited for this week?