What's New: April 2017 YA Release List & Giveaway!

Wow, why do these months keep going by so fast!? It honestly feels like the year just started and here we are already in April. The weather is turning warmer day by day, I'm getting the itch to garden even though I seriously suck at it LOL, and everyone's allergies are going nuts!  My days have been racing by due to lots of changes at work and a fun project that I've been working on at home that combines many of my favorite hobbies in one little creation---I'm having so much fun. Fill your life with hobbies, people. There is so much joy in just surrounding yourself with things you love. ♥

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 international 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 March's giveaway is Evie!  Congrats!    

April 2017 Releases:

 I've put a little l♥ve by those books that I'm really excited for!

{1}

All the Forever Things by Jolene Perry

The Breaking Light by Heather Hansen

Pointe, Claw by Amber J. Keyser

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold

{4}

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett ♥

Blacklist by Alyson Noel

But Then I Came Back by Estelle Laure

Definition of Indefinable Things by Whitney Taylor

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray ♥

The End of Our Story by Meg Haston

The Football Girl by Thatcher Heldring

Geekerella by Ashley Poston ♥

Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr

Get it Together, Delilah by Erin Gough

The Inconceivable Life of Quinn by Marianna Baer ♥

The Last Thing You Said by Sara Biren

Keeping the Beat by Jeff Norton

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer ♥

Mars One by Jonathan Maberry

Other Breakable Things by Kelley York & Rowan Altwood

Perfect by Cecelia Ahern

Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott

Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl

The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie ♥

Shadowcaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Speak of Me As I Am by Sonia Belasco

Stranger Things Have Happened by Jeff Strand

Toward a Secret Sky by Heather Maclean

True North by L.E. Sterling

Zenn Diagram by Wendy Brant ♥

{6}

Black Knight by Andy Briggs

{11}

Alex and Eliza: A Love Story by Melissa de la Cruz

Beck by Mal Peet

Blacksouls by Nicole Castroman ♥

Cheesus Was Here by J.C. Davis

Dreaming the Bear by Mimi Thebo

Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey ♥

Fireworks by Katie Cotugno

The Freemason's Daughter by Shelley Sackier

Given to the Sea by Mindy McGinnis ♥

Literally by Lucy Keating ♥

Run the Risk by Allison van Diepen

Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer ♥

The Takedown by Corrie Wang

Unearthly Things by Michelle Gagnon ♥

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

{17}

Serenade by Heather McKenzie

{18}

The Adjustment by Susanne Young

Bang by Barry Lyga

Beneath the Shine by Sarah Fine

The Edge of the Abyss by Emily Skrutskie

Grendel's Guide to Love and War by A.E. Kaplan

Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinski

Missing by Kelley Armstrong

Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman ♥

{25}

180 Seconds by Jessica Park

Between Two Skies by Joanne O'Sullivan

The Black Tempest by Ryan Dalton

Blood Road by Amanda McCrina

Lady of Sherwood by Molly Bilinski

Legion by Julie Kagawa

Looking for Group by Rory Harrison

Lucky Girl by Amanda Maciel

Maud by Melanie Fishbane

Nantucket Summer by Leila Howard

North of Happy by Adi Alsaid

Once Upon a Time: Regina Rising by Wendy Toliver

Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick

Sunkissed by Jenny McLachlan

The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares

The Wonder of Us by Kim Culbertson

(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 April 2017 release of their choice! *see note below
• Contest ends April 30th, 2017 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 or Fishpond.com up to $20 value.
•Extra entries can be earned by commenting on any March or April reviews, and can be done once per review. Come back throughout April whenever you comment on my reviews and get your extra points!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Poison's Kiss by Breeana Shields {guest review}

Poison's Kiss
by Breeana Shields
♦publisher: Random House BYR
♦release date: January 10th, 2017
♦hardcover, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Poison's Kiss, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review
♦reviewed by: Amy

Marinda has kissed dozens of boys. They all die afterward. It's a miserable life, but being a visha kanya, a poison maiden, is what she was created to do. Marinda serves the Raja by dispatching his enemies with only her lips as a weapon.

Until now, the men she was ordered to kiss have been strangers, enemies of the kingdom. Then she receives orders to kiss Deven, a boy she knows too well to be convinced he needs to die. She begins to question who she s really working for. And that is a thread that, once pulled, will unravel more than she can afford to lose.

Review: Marinda is a lethal weapon and one kiss from her, is the last kiss you will ever have.

For Marinda, kissing and killing is the only life she has ever known. From childhood she was raised at the hand of cruel caretakers with ulterior motives; who trained and poisoned her until her kiss was poisonous enough to make her a visha kanya. Bound to serve the Raja, she must kill anyone who betrays the kingdom with her venomous kiss. To them she is merely a creation to do their bidding, leaving scars not even her sari can hide. 

Lucky for Marinda, every man she’s killed has been a stranger, until she meets Deven; the charming, attentive boy at bookstore. And for the first time, Marinda can dream about love’s first kiss, if only it wasn’t deadly. Now, Miranda is left with a choice; follow through with her appointed duty, or risk betraying her kingdom to save the one she loves. 

Caught between love, war, duty and family, Marinda is suddenly left questioning the one reason she was put on earth. Pondering if her caretakers are really who they claim to be, leaving her with the ultimate question of staying loyal to those who may be traitors, or watch it all fall for love.

Breena Shields captures the allure of Indian folklore in her thrilling debut, Poison’s Kiss. With treachery and love mixed in with surprising twists and turns, this book has everything you need for a riveting page-turner. Filled with exciting adventure, readers could be left with the desire for more detail to carry out the richness of the scenes, the settings, and the characters. Yet, the great fantasy elements and story building carries readers quickly through to the end.

With intense scenes and impressive writing, Breena Shield’s truly unique storyline gives this book strength and presence, while weaving in conflicts between right and wrong with deception and truth. Smooth as a serpent’s tongue, this remarkable tale will catch you unaware while leaving you anxiously waiting for the next book in the series. 

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Breeana graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in English. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves traveling, eating good food–especially if it’s pasta or chocolate–and spending time with her husband, her three children and an extremely spoiled miniature poodle.

Twitter • Website • Facebook 

Purchase the book:  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.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing
by E.K. Johnston

hitting shelves October 3rd, 2017

from Dutton Books for Young Readers

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire never fell and the United States never rose, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendant of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history two centuries earlier. The imperial practice of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage like her mother before her, but before she does her duty, she'll have one summer incognito in a far corner of empire. In Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire's greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir apparent to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an unusual bond and maybe a one in a million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process —just like the first Queen Victoria. 

My thoughts:  This sounds so perfect..so full of friendships and rebellion and Victorian charm ♥. I can't wait to fall into this world.  I am also in love with this cover. It makes me wish they would print it as a Victorian-style leatherbound book with the pretty foil accents and gold foil page edges. Pretty please??   

What book are you eagerly anticipating this week?

The Beast Is An Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale {review}

The Beast Is An Animal 
by Peternelle van Arsdale
♦publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
♦release date: February 28th, 2017
♦hardcover, 352 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Alys was seven the first time she saw the soul eaters. Twin sisters, they radiated an energy that excited Alys. Through them she felt the wildness of the forest, and The Beast within it. Too late, she learned of their power to destroy.

By the time she is fifteen, Alys knows too much about both the lure and the danger of the soul eaters. She lives in a world of adults who are terrified of their power, and who cower behind high walls and grim rules. Fear of the soul eaters—and of The Beast—rules their lives. Even more, they fear the ways in which The Beast may lurk among them—and within a girl like Alys.

For Alys has a connection to the soul eaters, and The Beast. And she hides a truth about herself that she can reveal to no one, for fear she will be called a witch. As the threat posed by the soul eaters grows, Alys must undertake a journey through the wild danger of the fforest. But the greatest danger is not outside her. Alys’s secret about who—and what—she is terrifies her most of all. And in order to save her world, she must also risk losing herself.

Review: I'm not even sure how to begin to explain this incredibly bizarre book. In a quiet moment at work, I pulled up the Amazon preview of The Beast is an Animal, and from page one I was completely drawn in. I went straight home and grabbed it off my shelf and read for hours. The writing was spine-tingling and eerily atmospheric. I zoomed through the first 2/3s, but in that last third, the pacing slows a bit as it creeps towards an increasingly bizarre ending.

From beginning to end, this feels like a dark and twisted fairy tale. It begins telling how the soul eaters came to be and how they came to attack the village where Alys lived. Alys is 7 when we meet her and from the beginning, we see she has a strange and special connection with both the soul eaters and the beast. As she grows, it starts to upset and consumer her more and more, but she also comes to understand it more. There's a huge cast of interesting characters that come in and out of Alys's life, but my favorites were Paul and Mother and Father (her adopted parents. There's a tiny bit of love story, which was sweet and downplayed, and its her love for Cian and the other important people in her life that saves Alys from completely losing herself.

It's hard to pinpoint what it all meant, or how it will be interpreted by different readers. It won't be for everyone, this much I know. I found myself completely intrigued, even when the pacing slowed a bit and it went from weird to weirder (even for my tastes lol)--Alys's journey was just one I found fascinating. As best as I can say, The Beast is an Animal is about good and evil and how claiming to be good and righteous doesn't always make it so---and inversely, how believing something is bad also doesn't make it so. It's how pain can drive anyone to lose themselves if they're not careful. It's about the good and bad in everything and the need for balance...and for love.  I think. ;)  This was definitely a unique one that I'm sure will leave readers with that "what just happened??" feeling---but definitely worth venturing into to see if you find it as alluring and bizarrely beautiful as I did.   

•ABOUT THE AUTHOR•

Peternelle van Arsdale is a book editor who never thought she'd write a book. She lives in New York City, where she is at work on her second novel. 

WEBSITE   •   TWITTER   •   INSTAGRAM

Purchase the book:   

Indiebound   •   BookDepository   •   Amazon