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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