Amy's View: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
♦publisher: Tor Teen
♦release date: March 5th, 2013
♦hardcover, 367 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Arkwell Academy, book #1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

Review: A sweet whimsical ride of nightmare proportions. This book is a light hearted read that spins you on a magical chase.

Dusty is a nightmare. Literally! Born of half human and half nightmare, Dusty lives the life as an outcast. Not completely human and able to live among humans and not all demon, which isn’t the hierarchy of magic kind anyways. Dusty remains trapped in the in between of not quite fitting in.

Being new to the magical world and unaccepted by her peers, life at Arkwell Academy boarding school for magic kind, is worse than any nightmare. If not having a place to fit in at a boarding school is bad enough, dream feeding on humans is enough to completely mortify her.  Breaking and entering, wearing all black and sitting on a boy’s chest’s to invade his dreams, is killing her chance to ever fit in. Not to mention her lack of learning spells, causing mere accidents of singing hair and turning the most popular girl into a snake. 

Being a nightmare is all drawbacks. From needing to feed on dreams to survive to living in the shadows of her mother, the most notorious evil nightmare alive. Just when she thinks she might be figuring out how to be a nightmare everything goes terribly wrong. All Dusty had to do was climb in the window of handsome and totally sexy human boy, sit on his chest and invade his dreams. When that boy turns out to be Eli, a boy she knows, Dusty’s life takes a drastic turn for the worse. When he wakes up to find her sitting on his chest in the middle of the night, all she wants to do is die from embarrassment.  That however isn’t the most disturbing part. Eli was dreaming of a murder at Arkwell Academy, a place no human knows about.  Spinning Dusty’s world into a tailspin, as she is forced to team up with Eli as a dream-seer pair and use her dream invading skills to solve the murder.  

This books dabbles in all types of magical beings giving them new meaning and life, from fairies to sirens, to hags and demons. All set up in their own classes and social structures. While the story was fun and easy it was also heavy laden with many characters, leaving the plot to drag on at times.

If you loved the Harry Potters series this story weaves a tale that is similar to its likeness. A great stepping stone into the world of young adult books, appropriate for younger readers while being entertaining for older readers alike.

Find Mindee Arnett online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase The Nightmare Affair:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  Book Depository  •  Indiebound

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.

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer
by Katie Alender

hitting shelves October 1st, 2013 from Scholastic Press

description: Colette Iselin is excited to go to Paris on a class trip. She’ll get to soak up the beauty and culture, and maybe even learn something about her family’s French roots.

But a series of gruesome murders are taking place across the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours museums and palaces, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks suspiciously like Marie Antoinette.

Colette knows her popular, status-obsessed friends won’t believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they uncover a shocking secret involving a dark, hidden history. When Colette realizes she herself may hold the key to the mystery, her own life is suddenly in danger . . .

Acclaimed author Katie Alender brings heart-stopping suspense to this story of revenge, betrayal, intrigue — and one killer queen.

My thoughts:  The first time I heard about this one, my jaw dropped. Gorgeous Paris setting, hidden history, murder and...the ghost of one my favorite historical characters, all pissed off and killing people?? Excuse me if I sound morbid---but this sounds awesome.  Plus, it's Katie Alender. Loved the first two books in her Bad Girls Don't Die series  (haven't gotten around to reading the last, but I'm sure it's amazing. :D)

Blog Tour: Jane Nickerson - Top Ten Fairy Tale Retellings

Today I'm excited and honored to be part of the Strands of Bronze and Gold blog tour!

As you might know, Strands of Bronze and Gold is a retelling of the classic legend of Bluebeard.  Retellings are one of my favorite types of stories and I enjoyed this one immensely (my review will be up in  few days!).  When I asked Jane Nickerson what her Top Ten favorite fairy tale retellings were, this is what she had to say:

Top Ten Favorite/Most Influential Fairytale Retellings

 10. Enchantment—In which Orson Scott Card takes a story (“Sleeping Beauty”) and spins it out in ways I would never have considered myself. It intrigues me when authors do things I don’t think I could do.

9. Briar Rose—In which Jane Yolen takes “Sleeping Beauty” and places it in a whole new, unfairytale-like, horrible setting—the holocaust—to lend it a new meaning. I actually didn’t like this book, but giving a story a new moral is an interesting idea. 

8. The Once and Future King—In which T. H. White takes the legend of King Arthur and reinterprets the traditional characters, giving them more complex or even contradictory traits to those in the legend. He also pinpoints moments in real history, tying together fact and fiction. And it’s often very funny—or at least I thought so when I was a kid.

7. Beast—In which Donna Jo Napoli tells the backstory of “Beauty and the Beast” from the eyes of the beast. Set in ancient Persia, this retelling reminds me that by altering the setting and the point of view, a whole new story can be created.

6. Ella Enchanted—In which Gail Carson Levine retells “Cinderella” with a twist (Ella is given the curse of “obedience”), and this makes her even more rebellious and saucy than she would have been anyway. There’ve been so many retellings of this story, but this one adds so many fun new details and Ella is a great character, demonstrating how a change in the protagonist’s personality can often totally change the story. 

5. Entwined—In which Heather Dixon takes “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” and fleshes out all twelve of their characters—which is a formidable task. Mainly this has always been one of my favorite fairytales and I’m hoping to do a retelling of it myself someday. And I love the cover.

4. Zel—In which Donna Jo Napoli turns the villainous witch of “Rapunzel” into a loving (albeit obsessed) mother. The writing and imagery is beautiful.

3. Goose Girl—In which Shannon Hale takes the less-well-known story of “The Goose Girl” and conjures up a very interesting fantasy world—one which she continues to use for the books that come after, which are not retellings. This reminded me that an author can spin off their retelling into other original stories.

2. The Glass Slipper—In which Eleanor Farjeon retells “Cinderella” in a manner that is magical and humorous. There’s a lot of nostalgia in my love for this book, since it’s the first retelling I ever read, and I enjoyed it as a kid. Eleanor Farjeon is considered old-fashioned nowadays, but I happen to love things old-fashioned, and I consider her writing to be totally charming.

1. Beauty—In which Robin McKinley fleshes out “Beauty and the Beast.” My all-time favorite retelling because the Beast is so very delightful and there’s something incredibly romantic about a girl falling in love with a monster, in spite of his monstrousness. By the way, I didn’t like Rose Daughter nearly so well, in which McKinley rewrites the same story from her older perspective.

Thank you so much, Becky, for including me in your blog!

 About the author:
 For many years Jane Nickerson and her family lived in a big old house in Aberdeen, Mississippi, where she was also the children’s librarian. She has always loved the South, “the olden days,” gothic tales, houses, kids, writing, and interesting villains. She and her husband now make their home in Ontario, Canada.



For the tour, 7 finished copies of Strands of Bronze and Gold are being given away! Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  
Be sure to visit all the stops on the blog tour!

3rd Top Ten Fashions @ The Mod Podge Bookshelf

4th Guest Blog @ The Midnight Garden

5th Top Ten @ Stories & Sweeties

6th Guest Blog @ ReadingTeen

7th Interview @ Kelsey Sutton

8th Top Ten @ Chapter By Chapter
9th Interview @ Icey Books

Becky's View: Spellcaster by Claudia Gray

Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
♦publisher: Harper Teen
♦release date: March 5th, 2013
♦hardcover, 370 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Spellcaster, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

When Nadia’s family moves to Captive’s Sound, she instantly realizes there’s more to it than meets the eye. Descended from witches, Nadia senses a dark and powerful magic at work in her new town. Mateo has lived in Captive’s Sound his entire life, trying to dodge the local legend that his family is cursed - and that curse will cause him to believe he’s seeing the future … until it drives him mad. When the strange dreams Mateo has been having of rescuing a beautiful girl—Nadia—from a car accident come true, he knows he’s doomed.

Despite the forces pulling them apart, Nadia and Mateo must work together to break the chains of his family’s terrible curse, and to prevent a disaster that threatens the lives of everyone around them.

Review:  The magic of witches, a cursed town, a mysterious boy who seems to be able to tell the future, and the author of one of my favorite reads last year…this book had all the makings of a perfect read for me.  Sadly, I found this one awkwardly told and hard to get into.  The plot was good, as were many of the subplots taking place within the lives of the three main characters.  What really got in the way of me completely loving this one was the alternating third-person points of view.  While I often don’t mind this style of storytelling, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a story that switched quite so often, as in several times in one chapter, and between 4 or 5 characters.  I found the constant POV change to be highly distracting as it took a few lines to realize whose perspective it was and made the flow of the story very choppy.   

There were several things I did like about the story. Gray’s take on magical spells was very unique and heartfelt.  Nadia literally had to call upon memories and her emotions to create the power of the spells.  I loved the character Mateo.  He's troubled by his strange new ability and not fully ready to just jump in and believe anything he's told.  He's loyal to a fault (albeit to the wrong people sometimes!) and had what I thought was a very natural reaction when his eyes are finally open to the truth.  I love that he defies the set laws of witchcraft and that there was, in the end, a very good explanation to that.  I loved Verlaine.  Her story has more coming, I'm sure, and when this series continues, I may return to it just to find out more about Verlaine's backstory---while we do learn a good deal about her, there is a lot about her and her parents that seems like it's yet to come.  And Nadia, she was a good character as well.  She is very self-reliant and strong for her little brother, even while stuggling so hard emotionally over her mother's abandoning of them.  I definitely feel there is more to that story, too, and I'm hoping she has the chance to confront her Mom in book 2.  She is left with a very incomplete training of witchcraft, and while it throws her confidence off a few times, she barrels through and finds a way to grow on her own.  The villain of the story was truly wicked, and it made the story more complex to see the villain's thoughts and merciless planning as well. 

The ending built up nicely and was exciting, but I felt like when we get to the climax it felt a bit rushed and easy.  I think that is one of the dangers of stories about magic and spells,(and this is a very slight spoiler, so I'm whiting it out, highlight between the astericks to read)...*if the heroine can simple cast a spell and the danger is over, if takes a bit of the breathless excitement out of the moment*.  Still, the end is not a true ending, it was just one baddie's plan foiled, and there is definitely more to come, so I guess it wasn't that easy, but it left me a little unsatified so far.  So, not a complete disappointment for me, although I did almost DNF this one a few times within the first 100 pages because of the frustrating quick-fire POV issues I mentioned, I stuck it out and was eventually drawn in and rewarded with a good story and some memorable characters. 

Give this one a try if you're looking for a unique take on magic and curses and interesting characters!

Find Claudia Gray online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Spellcaster:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

   

New Shelf Goodies, The Weekly Nutshell & Blogoversary Winners announced!!

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 Alea @ Pop Culture Junkie's This Week in Books & 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) Note: This is not a meme, but I'll be hopping around to any other book haul-sharing posts I come across!

Just one for me again this week! 

 For review: 

Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones

I was super excited for this one after seeing the author describe it as "teen sleuth with a hint of a ghost story and more than a smidgen of kissing".  Yes, please!!

Many thanks to Hachette UK for this one! 

 The Weekly Nutshell:

{Sunday} Sweetness on Sunday: Banana Butterscotch Cupcakes

{Tuesday}Waiting on Wednesday: These Broken Stars

{Thursday} Becky's view: Whispers in Autumn by Trish Leigh

{Friday}  What's New March YA Releases & Giveaway

AND NOW to announce the lucky winners of

my 3-year blogoversary giveaway!!

 

 Winner of Born of Illusions:

Aletha A.

Winner of Stack #1:

Marie 

  

Winner of Stack #2: 

Stephanie W.

Winner of Stack #3:

  Michelle M.

I'll be emailing all winners tonight!

Thanks so much to everyone for all the sweet anniversary wishes and for participating in the giveaway!  Huge congrats to the winners!

 

"What's New": March YA Releases & Giveaway!

March! Already!!  The weather is every so slowly warming up outside and its time to plant some trees and flowers. :)  I don't know why I say that---I am a terrible gardener, but I definitely give it the college try every year.  I'm much better at Winter activities (which basically consist of sitting on the couch reading my books with a mug of hot chocolate! :D). 

So if you're new to Stories & Sweeties, here's a little run-down of this feature: at the start of each month, I do a little thing called the "What's New List & Giveaway" where you'll find a full list of the new releases in YA for the month, and entry to the giveaway. At the end of each month, one lucky winner will get to choose any new release as their prize!

First things first! The winner of February's giveaway was: Cheyenne! Congratulations! :D

March 2013 Releases:
Just like previous months, I've put a little l♥ve by those books that I am really anticipating---whether I can't wait to read them or I just can't wait to have my own finished copy!

{1}
Being David Henry by Cal Armistead
The Look by Sophia Bennett
Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg
Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson ♥

{5}
Bruised by Sarah Skilton
Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein
Death, Doom, & Detention by Darynda Jones
Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos
Earth Girl by Janet Edwards ♥
Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington
Flowers in the Sky by Lynn Joseph
The Holders by Julianna Scott ♥
Infatuate by Aimee Agresti
Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey ♥
Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger ♥
The Murmurings by Carly Anne West ♥
My Parent has Cancer and it really sucks by Marc Silver & Maya Silver
Nightmare Affair by Mindi Arnett ♥
Operation Oleander by Valerie O. Patterson
Permanent Record by Leslie Stella
Requiem by Lauren Oliver ♥
Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell
Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally
Thirst #5: The Sacred Veil by Christopher Pike
A Touch Menacing by Leah Clifford
Unremembered by Jessica Brody ♥
When We Wake by Karen Healey
When We Wuz Famous by Greg Takoudes

{7}
Crap Kindom by D.C. Pierson

{8}
The Culling by Steven dos Santos
Senshi by Cole Gibsen

{12}
Code by Kathy Reichs & Brendan Reichs
Deep Betrayal by Anne Greenwood Brown
Escape Theory by Margaux Froley
Fat Angie by E.E. Charlton-Trujillo
Heart of Glass by Sasha Gould
Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza ♥
Panic by Sharon Draper
Poison by Bridget Zinn ♥
Promises to Keep by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Scowler by Daniel Kraus
Sidekick: Misadventures of the New Scarlet Knight by Pab Sungenis
Starstruck by Rachel Shukert
Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson ♥
Surfacing by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Trinkets by Kristen Smith

{19}
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clark ♥
Everafter by Elizabeth Chandler
Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson
Marco Impossible by Hannah Moskowitz
My Summer of Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald
Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley ♥

{21}
17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma
The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar ♥
OCD, The Dude, and Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn
Tiger by William Richter

{26}
Avenger by Heather Burch
Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden
Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt ♥
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Imposter by Jill Hathaway
Period 8 by Chris Crutcher
Shadow on the Sun by David Macinnis Gill
A Touch of Scarlet by Eve Marie Mont ♥
Wasteland by Susan Kim
With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
 
(All links go to Goodreads)
Please feel free to email me if you notice any YA titles missing! :)

Giveaway Details:
One winner will win a YA March release of their choice! *see note below
• Contest ends March 31th, 2013 at 11:59 PM
• Must be 13 or older.
• Open internationally. *International winners will be required to choose a book that is available through BookDepository.com.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Becky's View: Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh

Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh
♦publisher: CreateSpace
♦release date: July 24th, 2012
♦paperback, 388 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Last Year, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots.

Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone.

Then she meets Lucas, everything changes.

Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race.

It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what.

And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

Review:
Whispers in Autumn is the start of a great series, definitely one that I plan to continue.  It takes place in a world that has been taken over by a mysterious alien race and humans have been drained of some of their most basic emotions to keep them compliant. In this world, there is one girl who, not only is unaffected by the alien's emotion control, but for reasons yet unknown to her, she jumps seasons and places and it's completely beyond her control.  She goes to bed and it's winter in one town, and wakes to find herself in spring in another town.  She never knows how long she will stay or what triggers the traveling, but it's all she knows and she has learned to pick up where she left off.  But this time it's autumn in Conneticut, and things are starting to change.  She has always known there were others like her, thanks to an enigmatic note hidden in a pendant she has always had that tells her she is a Dissident.  For the first time in her sixteen years, she thinks she might have actually found someone like her.  

The story is told in a voice that has a kind of starkness and fear running that gives us a perfect feel for Althea, a character that has lived with a huge secret all her life among a society where her emotions could easily betray her and put her in mortal danger.  You can feel the constant worry and urgency in her voice as she tries to stay under the radar at school and at home. On top of everything else, she has a strange power over heat and fire when her emotions get out of her control...just another thing she has to hide away.  When she meets Lucas, he seems so much like her, like he is struggling to hide emotions and stay inconspicuous.  And when she finally touches him, she discovers he is cold---so cold he can turn water to ice. She is sure she's found someone like her.  Finally together, not only can they be themselves, but also try to find out who they are, why they travel, a find out exactly what it is the alien Others want from both them and the human race. 

It's an exciting and intense dystopian story that really stood out to me at a time when dystopians are flooding the YA market.  I loved the sincerity of the characters despite being in such extraordinary and dangerous circumstances. I found the plot compelling and intricate and unexpected.  I always tend to be drawn to stories that make me look at basic human nature as something to be thankful for---being able to cry and laugh and even feel loss and pain. This one did a little of that, too. The ending is gutsy and exciting, as danger creeps in all around them and some interesting things get revealed. It definitely leave you craving more!

A truly fantastic story...I can't wait to see what happens next in this series! 

 Find Trisha Leigh online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Whispers in Autumn:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  Indiebound  •  Book Depository

Check out the rest of the series: