Looking Forward: January

Sometimes it's really hard for me to keep track of what comes out what month, especially while juggling early reviews and publisher catalogues and all the other confusing bookish things bloggers deal with. It's just a LOT OF BOOKS ALL THE TIME. How do you ever keep them straight?! So on the last day of the month, I post a guide to what books I'm most looking forward to in the following month and that you should keep an eye on. So, since it's the last day in December (AND THE LAST. DAY. IN. 2014. TOMORROW IS THE FUTURE. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE), here are the January releases most tempting me:

Best of 2014: Contemporary Classics and Historical Highlights

It's the last of my Best of 2014 round ups! We're closing it out with my fave real world books of 2014, aka historicals and contemporaries, aka "things that could have happened but sadly did not but LET'S PRETEND OTHERWISE"!

Best of 2014: Paranormal Perfection and Sci Fi Superlatives

HOW ARE WE SO CLOSE TO 2015? Je refuse. Je demande a redo. Fetch me my Time Turner and TWIST. But then, there were a lot of great reads in 2014, and I would hate to go back in time and un-read them.

My favorite paranormal reads of 2014:

Book Haul, or the One with the Happy Haul-idays!

WOO pun titles ftw! Happy holidays, everybody! Happy winter, Christmas, Chanukah, Festivus, Chrismukkah, Kwanzaa, and any and all holidays or non-holidays you celebrate! Happy Saturday, aka the high holiest of days!

I originally filmed a vlog because this is a particularly EPIC haul that deserves documentation in video form, but my camera decided to be a major Grinch and film without sound (or maybe it was tired of hearing me shriek over the AWESOME BOOKS and just gave up living). So we're going with regular old pictures today for my first book haul in about a month.

Review: My True Love Gave to Me ed. Stephanie Perkins

Review: My True Love Gave to Me edited by Stephanie Perkins
Goodreads
Release date: October 14th, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Series: No
Source: Purchased
Length: 320 pages
Rating: While not all the stories in this holiday anthology are a hit, the ones that are REALLY ARE.



If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.


Midnights by Rainbow Rowell
SO FREAKING ADORABLE. This is about two best friends who met on New Year's Eve, but have never shared that fateful New Year's Kiss... even though Mags very much wants to. I don't know how Rainbow managed to pack so much shippery into so few pages, but... well, yes I do. She's Rainbow.

 The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link
I don't think this story did itself any favors by coming right after the effortlessly adorable Midnights, but sadly this story never really gelled for me. It has a lot of elements I like: magic and family curses and England gentry and great estates and parties, but it was a bit all over the place, and sometimes the writing struck me as odd. I think Kelly Link can write, but this one just didn't hit home for me.

Best of 2014: Fantasy Favorites Giveaway

The love fest for 2014 reads continues! I read SO MANY GREAT BOOKS this year. Fantasy is my favorite genre, so obviously I read lots and lots of fantasy, and I'm thriled to say that I loved lots and lots of those reads! So behold, a giveaway of my favorite fantasies of 2014. The winner will get their choice of ONE of the following fantasies. The winner must live in a country to which The Book Depository ships, which means yes, this is INTERNATIONAL with only a very few exceptions. YAY!

This list is not limited to books that 2014 and includes all books I read in 2014, including 2014 debuts, which means it has some overlap with my Debut Darlings giveaway (which is happened over here)!

My favorite fantasies of 2014:

Best of 2014: Debut Darlings Giveaway

One of my favorite benefits of being a book blogger--and therefore being pretty well tuned into what books are coming out when/why/how/who/huh--is getting to read and promote debut authors. Debuting is hard, y'all. A debut author (who shall remain nameless) once told me that debuting in YA felt a lot like showing up in a packed auditorium packed to the rafters with loud chattering people with microphones and megaphones or just really carrying voices and shouting "I AM HERE!!"

Well, the cool thing about being a blogger is that I get to hear them shouting, and then I read their awesome books and then I get to yell at other people to read their awesome books, and maybe I'll drown out a few megaphones, and I will stop now before this metaphor goes haywire, but you follow me. (I hope.)

Anyway. Enough rambling. You're probably not even reading this because you saw the word G!VEAWAY!!!!!!!!!1! in the title and scrolled straight down to the Rafflecopter, but in case you are reading this, I just want to say that I love reading debut authors. Love. There's always a certain wonderful freshness to this brand new voice in, yes, a crowded auditorium, but that auditorium wouldn't be the same without that new voice, would it? (Metaphor, I don't know how to quit you.)

So I'm doing a giveaway of my favorite debuts of 2014. I loved way more debuts than this, but I had to narrow it down. The winner will get their choice of TWO of the following debuts. The winner must live in a country to which The Book Depository ships, which means yes, this is INTERNATIONAL with only a very few exceptions. YAY!

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read In 2014

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I went a BIIIIT over ten. Very much over. I just like to spread the author love!

Ship Shape: Banter, Bicker, Bang

Last time on Ship Shape: Best Kiss Scenes and What Makes Them Great

I love, love, love when my ships fight.

When characters fight over fundamental character differences in philosophy or temperament, it is glorious. it is sexual tension. Romance in literature is, to me, a character finding another character the either balances or helps them overcome their fatal flaw. Their flaws and strengths complement each other like inverse puzzle pieces. It's negative space and positive space. Which means the two characters are going to be fundamentally different. Which means they're going to fight.

Review: Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas

Review: Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas
Goodreads
Release date: December 9th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: No
Source: e-ARC via Edelweiss
Length: 304 pages
Rating: Funny, bantery, Breakfast Club-y fluff



Top Five Things That Are Ruining Chloe’s Day:

5) Working the 6:30 a.m. shift at GoodFoods Market

4) Crashing a cart into a customer’s car right in front of her snarky coworker Sammi

3) Trying to rock the “drowned rat” look after being caught in a snowstorm

2) Making zero progress with her crush, Tyson (see #3)

1) Being accused—along with her fellow teenage employees—of stealing upwards of $10,000

Chloe would rather be anywhere than locked in work jail (aka the break room) with five of her coworkers . . . even if one of them is Tyson. But if they can band together to clear their names, what looks like a total disaster might just make Chloe’s list of Top Ten Best Moments.


Whenever you super love a debut, there's always that teeeny pessimistic voice in the back of your head that wonders if maybe this was a fluke. Afer adoring Liz Czukas' Ask Again Later positively to pieces, I was scared that her follow-up, Top Ten Clues You're Clueless, wouldn't wow me as much. But after two Czukas books, I can now declare that she is the kind of writer I know I can rely on to instantly up my mood. Her books are consistently voicey and bright. They have wonderful humor and zany escapades. They're those awesome feel-good teen movies where everything goes so hilariously wrong--and then it all goes so hilariously right.

Looking Forward: December

Sometimes it's really hard for me to keep track of what comes out what month, especially while juggling early reviews and publisher catalogues and all the other confusing bookish things bloggers deal with. It's just a LOT OF BOOKS ALL THE TIME. How do you ever keep them straight?! So on the last day of the month, I post a guide to what books I'm most looking forward to in the following month and that you should keep an eye on. So, since it's the last day in November oops, here are the December releases most tempting me: