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.

Backward Glass 

by David Lomax 

hitting shelves from Flux in October 2013

description:
Crack your head, knock you dead, then Prince Harming's hunger's fed.

It's 1977, and Kenny Maxwell is dreading the move away from his friends. But then, behind the walls of his family's new falling-apart Victorian home, he finds something incredible--a mummified baby and a note: "Help me make it not happen, Kenny. Help me stop him."

Shortly afterwards, a beautiful girl named Luka shows up. She introduces Kenny to the backward glass, a mirror that allows them to travel through time. Meeting other "mirror kids" in the past and future is exciting, but there's also danger. The urban legend of Prince Harming, who kidnaps and kills children, is true--and he's hunting them. When Kenny gets stranded in the past, he must find the courage to answer a call for help, change the fate of a baby--and confront his own destiny.

My thoughts: This sounds creepy and amazing!! A time travel mirror, a creeper who uses it for dark deeds, and the hero who will stop him (fingers crossed!)  I am definitely looking forward to reading Backward Glass!

Book Trailers: The 5th Wave, The Taken, Siege & Storm, and Pitch Green

New trailers out there!
This first one FREAKS me out... but definitely makes me want to read it!

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey


Taken by Erin Bowman


Siege & Storm by Leigh Bardugo


This last one is from a small publisher that I've just recently come across.  Jolly Fish Press has some pretty cool books hitting shelves and this one, Pitch Green, looks incredibly creepy!! Definitely right up my alley!

Pitch Green by The Brothers Washburn

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {42}

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)

Ok, so I know I'm really late with this post!! *Sigh*  It's been a busy weekend, I guess!
Here's what I acquired this week:

For Review: 

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Dead River by Cyn Balog

Revenge of a Not-So-Pretty Girl by Carolita Blythe

manicpixiedreamgirl by Tom Leveen

Spirit's Chosen by Esther Freisner

Mojo by Tim Tharp

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

Got an interesting mix this week! ;)

 The Weekly Nutshell:

{Monday} What's New: April YA Releases & Giveaway

{Tuesday} Waiting on Wednesday: A Spark Unseen

{Wednesday} Becky's View: This is What Happy Looks Like

{Thursday} Amy's View: Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

{Friday} Becky'sView: In the Shadow of Blackbirds

 

Not sure what this week of blogging holds! We're doing some home renovations here and I haven't felt much like reading when there are walls to be painted and counters to be ripped out! LOL  Have a great week everyone! 

Becky's View: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In the Shadow of Blackbirds
by Cat Winters
♦publisher: Amulet books
♦release date: April 2nd, 2013
♦hardcover, 400 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: ALA midwinter

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?

Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.

Review:  In the mood for a good creepy tale? Something gut-wrenchingly gritty? A historically accurate mystery? Then In the Shadow of Blackbirds is what you want. Cat Winters haunting writing plunges you right into the midst of 1918 San Diego, CA, where young men are being shipped off to fight in World War I, the Spanish flu is taking the lives of millions, and people are clinging to the memories of their loved ones through the new fad of spiritualism and spirit photography.  It is a terrifying snapshot from our history and it sets the stage for this spine-tingling, ghostly mystery.

Our heroine is 16-year-old Mary Shelley Black, whose father has just been arrested for being a traitor. She travels to San Diego to stay with her Aunt Eva, in hopes that the warm sunny weather will lessen her risks of getting the flu.  Unfortunately, its just as rampant there, everyone wearing gauze masks, coming up with all manner of home remedies to fight off sickness, and living in absolute fear of each other.

I liked Mary immediately, she was smart and inquisitive, loved to take things apart and figure out how they work. It’s that gift of tinkering with things that brought her and Stephen together when they were just little kids. Their love story is one of my favorite kinds---love that grows over years and years of the characters’ lives, with so many shared memories of a childhood together. When Stephen doesn’t come back from the battlefield and Mary has her own brush with death, she begins seeing strange things and is suddenly able to taste the emotions of others. Stephen’s spirit comes to her again and again, sometime violently, to seek her help in finding peace with how he died.  The story takes some incredible turns and becomes a psychological and bloody mystery. 

The amount of research put in by the author to make this horrifying era come to life just blows my mind. Plus the imagination to create such a horror story full of creepy birds, eerie ghosts, the feeling of being surrounded by death,…and love. The story is accompanied by real photos from the era, and while they aren’t directly woven into the story the way we saw photos used in Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, it still added a great flair to the story to see real shots of real people living through the events of 1918. I especially loved the inclusion of a few historical details at the end of the book that really connected this story with reality.  It’s an incredible debut and I’m at the edge of my seat to see what Cat Winters will bring us next. 

Find Cat Winters online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase the book: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Amy's View: Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt
♦publisher: Bloomsbury
♦release date: March 26, 2013
♦hardcover, 320 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: ALA midwinter

When Mallory’s boyfriend, Jeremy, cheats on her with an online girlfriend, Mallory decides the best way to de-Jeremy her life is to de-modernize things too. Inspired by a list of goals her grandmother made in1962, Mallory swears off technology and returns to a simpler time (when boyfriends couldn’t cheat with computer avatars). The List:
1. Run for pep club secretary
2. Host a fancy dinner party/soiree
3. Sew a dress for Homecoming
 4. Find a steady
5. Do something dangerous
But simple proves to be crazy-complicated, and the details of the past begin to change Mallory’s present. Add in a too-busy grandmother, a sassy sister, and the cute pep-club president–who just happens to be her ex’s cousin–and soon Mallory begins to wonder if going vintage is going too far.

Review:  “Adolescence is the same tragedy being performed again and again. The only things that change are the stage props.” Page 284

List maker Mallory, swears off all things electronic after she finds her boyfriend cheating on her with an internet girlfriend; no cell phone, no computer, no internet and definitely no friendspace. Longing for a simpler time, she decides on living life as if it’s 1962.  

Finding her grandmother’s old journal, filled with lists, Mallory sets out to complete the one dated- Junior Year 1962. Seeming like the perfect answer to her cyber problems, she quickly takes on the challenge of “Going Vintage”. Following her grandmother’s uncompleted list of “Junior Year Back to School Resolutions”-1) Run for prep club secretary. 2) Host a dinner party 3) Sew a homecoming dress 4) Find a steady 5) Do something dangerous. 

Mallory sets out to be truly authentic, in her seer-sucker dress and broach circa 1960’s, to the rotary phone in her room, Mallory dedicates her life totally vintage.  Discovering that she may, once again, be confident enough to conquer the vicious rumors of her breakup. However, living vintage is not as easy as just checking off each task, tasks that aren’t so 2013.  

With the new list, and new simpler lifestyle, problems still arise.  Internet school projects, minus the internet, means hours after school at the library looking through old books. Along with the truly archaic resolutions of starting a pep club, hosting a soiree with an all 1960’s menu and all without modern conveniences. Not to mention, trying to find a steady, when the last thing she wants to think about is boys.  

With the help from her sister Mallory, the epitome of sisterly love, they do their best. They stay true to the rules and conquer not only the list, but gain knowledge, friendship and a little more self confidence along the way. Causing Mallory to discover more truth than she set out looking for and closer relationships than she started with.

While this book has its many promises, it fell short of the vintage flair I was hoping for. Although the storyline was truly original and sweet, I hoped for a little more authenticity. Still fun, contemporary and entertaining, this book highlights the wonderful and amazing attributes of sisterly bonds.  Totally authentic at times, from the menu choices for the dinner party, to the clothing that Mallory chooses to wear and draw inspiration from.  A book blended with great ingredients of humor, family bonding and discovering the real meaning behind completing a goal.

Find Lindsey Leavitt online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Going Vintage: Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Becky's View: This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

This is What Happy Looks Like
by Jennifer E. Smith
♦publisher: Little Brown BYR
♦release date: April 2nd, 2013
♦hardcover, 416 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds.

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

Review:  Jennifer E. Smith knows how to bring on the charm.  From being stuck on a plane next to a cute british guy to most girls’ secret fantasy of dating her favorite movie star, her stories strike a chord with many a girls’ dream-come-true scenarios. Her stories are certainly nothing ground breaking, but just perfect light reading that puts a smile on your face when you need a breaking from ghosts and vampires and post-apocalyptic worlds.

She also write characters that are easy to become invested in.  The story of Ellie and Graham caught my heart right away. It starts with an email gone astray---an email about taking a pig on his daily walks, no less.  When Ellie gets this mysterious email, she can’t resist responding and they start emailing back and forth, getting to know each other and forming a really great friendship without ever really know the details of each others lives. Graham does, however, know where Ellie lives and where she works, so he arranges for his next movie to be filmed in her town so that he can meet her face to face. 

There are some great funny little mishaps along the way and some really great touching moments. The greatest part of their story, I thought, was that even though he was this mega star, he was not the biggest secret in Ellie’s life.  I loved that she was so conflicted about dating him, not just falling at his feet because he was famous. The fact that he was famous was actually what gave her pause—because of the crazy paparazzi and because of how it would affect the lives of the people around her, especially her mother.

Watching them try to make it all work out, seeing these two good people grow closer, go through some pretty rough times together, and make the most of their time together despite some pretty unusual circumstances and so many things working against them was the charm of this story. This would make a great beach read, so I recommend picking it up soon!

 

Find Jennifer E. Smith online:  Website  •  Twitter

Purchase the book:   Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  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.

A Spark Unseen
by Sharon Cameron

hitting shelves October 1st, 2013 from Scholastic Press

description:
The thrilling sequel to Sharon Cameron's blockbuster gothic steampunk romance, THE DARK UNWINDING, will captivate readers anew with mystery and intrigue aplenty.

When Katharine Tulman wakes in the middle of the night and accidentally foils a kidnapping attempt on her uncle, she realizes Stranwyne Keep is no longer safe for Uncle Tully and his genius inventions. She flees to Paris, where she hopes to remain undetected and also find the mysterious and handsome Lane, who is suspected to be dead.

But the search for Lane is not easy, and Katharine soon finds herself embroiled in a labyrinth of political intrigue. And with unexpected enemies and allies at every turn, Katharine will have to figure out whom she can trust--if anyone--to protect her uncle from danger once and for all.

Filled with deadly twists, whispering romance, and heart-stopping suspense, this sequel to THE DARK UNWINDING whisks readers off on another thrilling adventure.

My thoughts: The cover hasn't quite grown on me yet---possibly because I loved the cover of book one so much and it was a lot to live up to! She just looks a little too modern to be Katharine.  BUT I am VERY excited about this sequel!! I loved The Dark Unwinding (review here) and can't wait to dive into an adventure with these characters again!