The Shippy Awards: THE WINNERS

Ladies and gentleman, the victors of the first annual SHIPPER GAMES!

A huuuuge number of people voted for their favorite OTPs to triumph, which totally blows my mind. Thanks for loving fictional love as much as I do, and for getting way too emotionally invested in whether or not made up people make out! I love you guys. Keep being awesome. To see the other, bested nominees in each category, see this post!

The victors get THIS (TOTALLY REAL) TROPHY to display with everlasting, hard-earned pride until the end of their days:

And now onto the mighty winners! Drum roll, pleeeeeeeease...

The Shippy Awards: Finalist Voting Rounds!

IT'S HERE! Over the last two weeks, tons of you nominated your favorite OTPs (and NOTPs) for the Shippy Awards, the ultimate battle for ship dominance! Now the nominees who garnered the most votes have gone onto this, the voting round, and now YOU can vote to choose which ships will reign supreme! (To learn more about each category, read this post!)

Only books published in the 2015 calendar year were eligible. Voting will remain open for ONE WEEK, meaning I'll be closing the polls at midnight PST on Sunday, December 20th! The winners will be announced shortly after.

And now... vote away!

All the 2015 Books I Forgot to Review: Fantasy Pt. 1

Oh, 2015. Where did you go? Why are you leaving me so soon? Was I not good enough for you?

Ahem. It's December, which means it's time to look back on all the things I did not do this year, of which there are myriad, and quite a lot of it involves reviewing the books that the gods have been kind enough to bestow on me, because I am entirely not worthy. Allons-y.

Introducing: The Shippy Awards!

WOOO! So it's no small secret that I love ships. I go bananas for them. 90% of my favorite books have ships in them #bookmath. It's not that I don't like or want books without them; it's just that the books that have them make me so deliciously happy. They're my jam. And bread is always better with jam, ya feel?

Anyway, another thing I love is end of year superlatives. Also awards and awards shows. Also WINNERS and LOSERS and DEATH AT THE CORNUCOPIA and so I decided to throw all those things in a blender and come up with THE SHIPPY AWARDS. Like a year ago, I thought of this mad idea and brainstormed it with Meg and Christina, but nothing came of it because I am incurably lazy. Well...apparently not incurably, because here I am, finally doing it. There are a lot of bloggy awards for best books, or best cover design, and those are all legit, but here on my nonsense blog, we're doing ships. Because ships are life.

SO YES. Here, if you want, you can vote on your favorite ships of 2015, and the winning ships will get crowns and capes and romantic honeymoons to private islands off the coast of Brazil where they can snorkel and sparkle and procreate if they want, idk, to each their shippy own.

Only books published within the 2015 calendar year count. Also, you're allowed to nominate as many ships as you life, but you're only allowed to nominate each one once PER CATEGORY. It makes it a lot harder for me to tally up the results. Edit: just realized I have no way of tracking this, so honor code, please? Don't spam my form with nonstop voting for one ship por favor!

The top three to five ish (#bookmath) ships in each category will then move onto the VOTING ROUND two weeks from now, aka the round of bloodshed, where good ships die and the strongest ships rise triumphant. The winning ships will earn one of THESE:

A SHIPPY! Why yes, that is a drawing of a trophy that does not exist. IT IS THE MOST COVETED MADE UP TROPHY IN THE UNIVERSE. All the ships are ready to do battle over it.

Without further ado, the categories:

Looking Forward: December

December is my favorite month of the year. I'm a total Who of Whoville. I'm all about cookies and hot chocolate and peppermint and carols and cheer, and crafts and baking and shopping and holiday movies. I'm Buddy the Elf's long-lost elf sister. I'm Tiny Timette. I'm Claymation.

Monica: You didn't buy presents yet? Tomorrow's Christmas Eve! What are you gonna do?
Chandler: Don't you have to be Claymation to say that?

So while December may be a slow month for new releases, to me, it's still the most wonderful time of the year.

Top Ten Fictional Families I'd Like to Celebrate Thanksgiving With

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Walkin' into Thanksgiving like



AMERICAN THANKSGIVING, my second most favoritest holiday, and that is 1000% because of all the pie. This is the high holiday of gluttons, and I am nothing if not a glutton. Nothing makes me feel more patriotic than when I'm stuffing my face and my brain cells turn off and I stop thinking like a real American and essentially transform into Joey Tribbiani

sounds reasonable

So, prepare for the unapologetic onslaught of Friends gifs, because it's THANKSGIVING

Review: Soundless by Richelle Mead

Soundless by Richelle Mead
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: No
Release date: November 10th, 2015
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Length: 272 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating: :(

From Richelle Mead, the #1 internationally bestselling author of Vampire Academy and Bloodlines, comes a breathtaking new fantasy steeped in Chinese folklore.

For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village, where rocky terrain and frequent avalanches prevent residents from self-sustaining. Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom.

When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry. Fei’s home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation.

But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon.

Richelle Mead takes readers on a triumphant journey from the peak of Fei’s jagged mountain village to the valley of Beiugo, where a startling truth and an unlikely romance will change her life forever...

I wanted to love this, but I just can't. I hate that I don't; I love Richelle Mead's books A LOT. I binge read the entire Vampire Academy series in about a week and then threw myself headlong into Bloodlines, wherein resides one of my all time OTPs (SYDRIANNN). Mead's strength has always been, far and away, characters. The people that populate her VA universe are so vivid and alive that I'd follow them anywhere in through crapfests like The Ruby Circle I mean what

So that's why I'm so confused and sad about what happened with Soundless.

so, so sad

Blog Tour: Every Word by Ellie Marney

Yay! I'm so excited to be part of the blog tour for Every Word by Ellie Marney, which is the second book in one of my favorite series of all time. it starts with Every Breath, and if you want to read my mostly incoherent and very exuberant review of that masterpiece, head over here. If you want to see some images that remind me of the mood, feel, look, and story of the first two books in the trilogy, scroll down to the goods.

#TheShelfieHop, or a Vlog Tour of my Bookshelves

Yay! Today's the The Shelfie Hop! Kristen at My Friends Are Fiction and Crystal at Bookiemoji got the great idea to do a blogosphere-wide hop where we all show off our beeyooteeful bookshelves on the same day. One of my main life projects over the last year or so has been to get my shelves in TIP TOP SHAPE, and I just very recently put the finishing touches on, so this hop couldn't have fallen at a better time. I'm so happy to FINALLY give that shelf tour I've been meaning to give for ages, ever since I dismantled my Stacks o'Doom and finally got myself some real like grown up shelves

(For newcomers, I used to store all my books in huuuuge stacks against the wall four feet high because I didn't have any shelves. Yes, it was a huge pain. No, I do not miss them.)

Without further ado: MY SHELFIE TOUR!



My fancy video camera was out of battery, and I was lazy, so I used the slightly less fancy camera. Also my filming technique leaves something to be desired. BUT LOOK AT THE PRETTY BOOKS AND LISTEN TO THE UPBEAT MUSIC YAY

And now, some close up pictures to further show off the preciouses!

Audiobook Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

Winter by Marissa Meyer
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #4 in The Lunar Chronicles
Release date: November 10th, 2015
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)
Length: 832 pages or 23 hours, 30 minutes
Source: audiobook ARC (ALC?) from the publisher
Rating: WINTER IS HERE

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

The book:

AHHHHHHHH WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!

This was basically my thought process for the first, like, six hours of the audiobook, which I listened to in one obsessive binge one afternoon.

BECAUSE OH. MY GOD. There’s really nothing I can say to sell you on this series; if you’ve read Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, then you’re already frothing at the mouth for Winter. It’s like me trying to explain why Christmas/Hanukkah/your birthday/WHENEVER IT IS YOU GET PRESENTS is worth anticipating. You’re already anticipating it. You already know the deal. You already want the precious. IT IS THE LONG AWAITED WINTER, AND WE ARE TIRED OF BEING SWEET SUMMER CHILDREN, AND WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL OF OUR PRECIOUS SPACE BABIES. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE WE CHECKED IN ON OUR PRECIOUS SPACE BABIES, WHOM WE LEFT IN SUCH DIRE SPACE STRAITS.

Literary PSA: Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

Long ago I decided to start a NEW THING: Literary Public Service Announcements. Essentially, I'm going to pimp a book that I read before I started blogging, but that I want to foist upon the world due to its high levels of sheer awesomeness for the good of the public and all that jazz. Instead of me just telling people over and over that they should read something "JUST BECAUSE!!!1!", I've decided to actually explain in a more eloquent fashion just why my favorite books are my favorites.

Last time on Literary Public Service Announcements: Tamora Pierce

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

I first read this book a bajillion--okay, fifteen, but that's basically a bajilliaon--years ago and remembered nothing about it, which makes sense, since I was, like, nine. I don't think it was the right book for me then, either, since at age nine I don't think i was quite ready for all the dry Regency goodness this book has to offer.

But I've been in a terrible reading slump recent, which has not been helped by NaNoWriMo, let me tell you, and nothing was grabbing me. Nothing. So I decided... you know, maybe I should look at the 2983473 books I own that I haven't read. Maybe I should turn to the backlist books for guidance, and read something entirely no-pressure, with  no deadlines or release dates. No nothing. Something romantic, and fun, and full of all the tropes and treasures I love best.

And lo, I spotted Sorcery & Cecelia, which I have owned since the tender age of, like, nine.

Top Ten Debut Authors Who Have Me Looking Forward to Their Sophomore Novel

GIVE ME THA NEXT ONE PLS NAOW PLS. I chose only debut authors whose second books have not released yet and whose sophomore outings I'm looking forward to with bated breath. Someone give me a time machine, a DeLorean, ANYTHING.

Looking Forward: November

HAPPY NOVEMBER! I love November. I always feel more productive in November, be it the cool(ish, here in Los Angeles) weather coupled with big hot cups of coffee, or the arrival of NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing month, which I partake in every year. Though ever November, I feel that panic that OMG THE YEAR IS ALMOST OVER HOW WHAT SO MUCH TO DO I'VE DONE SO LITTLE OH GOD I NEED A PAPER BAG TO BREATHE INTO

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 now NOVEMBER, here are the October releases most tempting me.

A Handful of DNFs: Or, I'm in a MAJOR Reading Rut

Gahhh, I'm in a slump! The dreaded slump. Nothing is grabbing me, nothing is working, I want to read but I don't want to read, I think I'll just watch six hours of Merlin instead and maybe a donut or seventeen, woe is me, alas and alack.

While I most definitely am in a slump (and hope to blog a bit tomorrow about how I think I've managed to break it), I hope the following DNFs were not merely a product of my current cantankerosity. Or maybe I could totally love them on another, less Merlin-y day, and they are tragic casualties of my readerly malaise. Take these DNF reviews with a grain of salt (or seventeen).

Top Ten 2015 Character Costumes

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This TTT topic was a Halloween freebie, so I decided to revisit the Halloween topic I did last year: literary character costumes! I chose to focus on characters from 2015 releases, and it was super tough to narrow down my faves (for example, I really wanted to do a Shahrzad from The Wrath and the Dawn costume, but couldn't figure out how to do that not in a culture appropriation-y way, alas) (Here's last year's list, featuring Cath, Lola, Alina, Blue, Celaena, Kami Glass, Cinder, Alanna, Annabeth, and Elizabeth Bennet costumes)

Review: First & Then by Emma Mills

First & Then by Emma Mills
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: No
Release date: October 13th, 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt (Macmillan)
Length: 272 pages
Source: ARC/Purchased
Rating: squee

Devon Tennyson wouldn't change a thing. She's happy watching Friday night games from the bleachers, silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon's cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent for football, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra, right where she doesn't want them first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life.

Pride and Prejudice meets Friday Night Lights in this contemporary novel about falling in love with the unexpected boy, with a new brother, and with yourself.


Oo, I needed this book. I've was in a bit of a reading slump, the kind where I'm reading six or so books at once and none of them are really grabbing me. I took First & Then and a few other books to my favorite local cafe, planning to grab some caffeine and maybe see if I'd get hooked by any of my reading options. Reader, by the time I let that cafe, two hours later, I'd had three cups of coffee and had finished all of First & Then.

Top Fifteen Wishes I'd Ask the Book Genie to Grant Me

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

It's been so long since I did a TTT but I really liked this week's topic and I HAVE SOME DEMANDS OF THE UNIVERSE THAT MUST BE ANSWERED

well there goes that

Second Time's a Charm

Sometimes I love an author's second book so much more than their first that it's like two different people wrote them. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the second book the author's written, but it's the second of theirs I've read, and for some mystical magical reason, it hits me in a way the author's other book didn't. I don't know what alchemy and dark magic goes into the subjective business of having a book grab you vs. not, but it's also why I'm always loathe to give up on authors, even if I read a book from them and am like "nahhh." Because you never know if that second book of theirs will be the one that gets you. You never know if that first one was a fluke.

Everybody listen to the wise murder princess

Recently, I've been having a lot of "Second Time's a Charm" experiences, most notably with Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman, a book I totally loved. (Giffily enthusiastic review here.) Taken, Bowman's first book, just wasn't for me. Vengeance Road almost felt like it was written explicitly for me, with its tough, half-Mexican heroine with a heart full of murder, grit, and vengeance, its cute cowboy brothers, its sucker punch plot twists, and its Western setting. I'm really glad I read VR and can wholeheartedly and unequivocally recommend it.

Two rootin' tootin' pistols up

 Then there's Vampire Academy, a series opener I liked but didn't, you know, wet my pants over or anything. I finished it, and a year went by and then I was like, huh, these VA series paperbacks have been redesigned nicely and are a good price. Let's check them out. So I read Frostbite, book two in the series...and fell straight down the rabbit hole. I read the entire series in five or so straight days of madness. And then I launched myself straight into Bloodlines, and now Richelle Mead is an auto-buy author.

This is why I try so hard to separate books from their authors, and why I really like a whole bunch of authors whose books I didn't particularly love. I still love my neighborhood cafe and their excellent sandwiches even though I never order their brownies because they suck, but damn, those sandwiches, man. They are some great sandwiches. (Yay for metaphors that slightly a little bit almost work woo!)

THIS IS WHY WE'RE NOT THE VOLTURI JANE

Other "Second Chance Authors" who turned out to be very successful for me:

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter, a DNF for me, and Pawn, which I super enjoyed

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios, which was meh for me, and I'll Meet You There, WHICH IS SHEER HEARTBREAKING PERFECTION GO READ IT NOW

don't eat me

Have you ever had that "Second Chance Author" experience? Which books were they?

The Throne of Glass Book Tag

I was tagged by Alexa of Alexa Loves Books to take part in this Throne of Glass themed tag, who started it along with Hannah of So Obsessed With. If you decide to partake in the tag yourself, make sure to link back to them!

Lysandra | A book with a cover change you loved | Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I totally love these gorgeous eye covers with their foil jackets, even if I have no idea how they connect to the plot. Who cares? LOOK AT THE SHINY. Honorable mentions: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (and the rest of the series), Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi because OY that original cover and OOO to the replacement

Abraxos | A book that's better on the inside than it looks on the outside | Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger

NGL, I really hate that cover. I think the dude is totally cute and the people actually remember their characters, but I just find that a not appealing cover at all, which is unfair because the book is a delight. Honorable mention: The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (I don't know why I'm not drawn to this cover because I LURVE THE BOOK).

Erilea | A series with great world-building | Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Omg I don't even know where to start with this? I went with Uprooted because I really wanted to shout about it somewhere in this post and it totally fits here. It's a lush Polish-inspired fairy tale with a fully-realized system of magic, culture, and, well, a super creepy murder forest.  Honorable mentions to The Heart of Betrayal because I REALLY thinker it upped the level of that series LIKE WHOA, A Darker Shade of Magic because HOLY SHIT, and Six of Crows because it is actual p e r f e c t i o n

Review: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano

A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #1 in the Pram series
Release date: September 1st, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 240 pages
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: Magical, creepy, and lovely



Pram Bellamy is special--she can talk to ghosts. She doesn't have too many friends amongst the living, but that's all right. She has her books, she has her aunts, and she has her best friend, the ghostly Felix.

Then Pram meets Clarence, a boy from school who has also lost a parent and is looking for answers. Together they arrive at the door of the mysterious Lady Savant, who promises to help. But this spiritualist knows the true nature of Pram's power, and what she has planned is more terrifying than any ghost.

Ooh, I quite enjoyed reading this book. It's precisely the sort of middle grade I was utterly obsessed with when I was middle grader myself: creepy and mystical and morbid and precious, all at once. (Plus there's a little baby MG ship, GO SHIP GO SAIL SHIP SAIL. Middle grade ships just GET to me, I don't know why. Maybe because they're so precious and pure). Perhaps the characters are a touch bland, but it suited the atmosphere and style of this book, which was lovely. Slightly macabre, slightly wondrous, all delightful.

A Review in Found Documents: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #1 in the Illuminae_01 Files
Release date: October 20th, 2015
Publisher: Knops (Random House)
Length: 608 pages
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: This book is pure evil and you should not look it directly in the eyes

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

SO.  Illuminae is a tremendously atypical read told in a hugely unique format, so I'm going to review this book atypically. It's a visual book structured as a collection of found documents: transcripts, IM chats, hacked intelligence, memos, diaries, etc, detailing the fallout after a remote mining planet is bombed to high heaven and the survivors are forced to evacuate onto three vessels, which are now being chased by the big baddies who bombed them. It's about Kady and Ezra, two teens from that bombed planet who just so happened to break up the morning off their planet's devastation, which leaves them with only a sliiiiiight amount of baggage.

And then. Shit. Starts. To. Get. Crazy.

Honestly, I don't want to tell you anything that happens in this book. Namely that there's SPACE WARCRAFT, AI, romance, pure horror, twists, sucker punches, humor, and heartbreak, and that i ACTUALLY LOST MY DAMN MIND READING THIS BOOK. As you will see momentarily. Because I'm going to review Illuminae in the best way I know how: through images of found documents (aka my liveblogging to Meg of Cuddlebuggery while I was reading Illuminae. Take pity on both her and me.) Spoilers redacted. Obscenities that reveal the true salty sailor raised by salty-mouthed wolves of the sea that I am are NOT redacted.

Twilight? Twhy-not: A Twilight Anniversary Post

I know we could talk about the issues in Twilight until the sparkly vampire cows come home--feminist issues, literary issues, why-did-Stephenie-Meyer-ruin-Jacob-Black issues, etc--and trust me, I have done that. I actually quite enjoy doing that, and why? Because I love Twilight. I did, and I do. And I like to analyze and reevaluate things that I love and that have infeted a part of my soul (for better or for worse, if you want to say. I mean, if I could manage to cut out all the Twilight trivia in my brain I could probably fit a whole new language in there or something).  I like looking at why I love a thing and if I should and then realizing I don't care because I do anyway. And most of all, I love Twilight now because of how much I loved it then, when I discovered this series in 2008, when I was a junior in high school. Aka, Bella Swan's age when she walked into that FATEFUL Biology class.

Oh, Twilight, I just can't quit you. And I never will, because if it weren't for Twilight, well, there would be no YA blogger Gillian. There would probably be no YA obsession.

Review-A-Palooza: Contemporaries

Good Bellamy in heaven, am I behind on reviews. I guess this is what happens when you travel for a month? And have a life? By which I mean, er, watch a lot of Netflix? I mean PARTY. I meant party.

So here are a bunch of books I read in the last two months (possibly more, let's not dwell on things like WHEN and WHERE and JUST HOW LAZY GILLIAN IS, okay) and what I thought of them.

Looking Forward: October

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 now OCTOBER!!!, here are the October releases most tempting me.

Book of the month:

Review: Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall

Review: Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: No
Release date: October 20th, 2015
Publisher: SwoonReads (Macmillan)
Length: 288 pages
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: Signs Point to No

The author of A Little Something Different brings you the most adorkable romance ever.

Jane, a superstitious fangirl, takes an anonymous babysitting job to avoid an unpaid internship with her college-obsessed mom. The only problem? She’s babysitting the siblings of her childhood friend and new crush, Teo.

Teo doesn’t dislike Jane, but his best friend Ravi hates her, and is determined to keep them apart. So Teo’s pretty sure his plans for a peaceful summer are shot. His only hope is that his intermittent search for his birth father will finally pan out and he’ll find a new, less awkward home. Meanwhile, at Jane’s house, her sister Margo wants to come out as bisexual, but she’s terrified of how her parents will react.

In a summer filled with secrets and questions, even Jane’s Magic 8 ball can’t give them clear answers, but Signs Point to Yes.

I quite enjoyed Hall's A Little Something Different, despite an instance of very problematic girl-hating. But what made ALSD an enjoyable read to me was that it had a lot of personality and humor. It's hard to pull off ~15 or so first person POVs, and she managed to make them all mostly distinct and amusing. So it's really baffling to me that Signs Point to Yes ended up being so utterly devoid of...well, anything, really. Which sounds like an awful thing to say, but really, SPtY was pointless, bland, unswoony, and dull. The signs didn't point to anything.

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: Yes, #1 in The Gold Seer Trilogy
Release date: September 22nd, 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow (HarperCollins)
Length: 432 pages
Source: ARC from BEA/e-ARC via Edelweiss
Rating: Endless gold nuggets

Lee Westfall has a secret. She can sense the presence of gold in the world around her. Veins deep beneath the earth, pebbles in the river, nuggets dug up from the forest floor. The buzz of gold means warmth and life and home—until everything is ripped away by a man who wants to control her. Left with nothing, Lee disguises herself as a boy and takes to the trail across the country. Gold was discovered in California, and where else could such a magical girl find herself, find safety?

Walk on Earth a Stranger, the first book in this new trilogy, introduces—as only Rae Carson can—a strong heroine, a perilous road, a fantastical twist, and a slow-burning romance. Includes a map and author’s note on historical research.

As always with Rae Carson the writing was EXEMPLARY. it absolutely sucked me in from the first moment. this was an accidental read for me, where I opened up the e-galley while lying in bed because I was just CURIOUS and then all of a sudden boom it was viciously late and there was no turning back. While I definitely found the pacing to be on the slower side, it's still an epic and gorgeously rendered book that gave me all the emotionals.

Review: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

Review: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: No
Release date: September 15th, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
Length: 384 pages
Source: ARC from BEA/e-ARC via Edelweiss
Rating: A thousand red lollipops

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine— Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

Today is Dumplin's book birthday, and I couldn't be happier about it. I read this book in one day, in mostly one sitting, while on vacation in Belgium with a lot of people I love. So yeah, I could have been hanging out with my friends and talking to them...or i could have been hanging out with Willowdean and talking to her. I chose Willowdean. No regrets.

(Sorry, guys.)