Review: Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall

Review: Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall
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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
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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
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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.)

Queen of Shadows Blog Tour + Art + Giveaway

I was thrilled last year when Alexa, Jaz, Judith, Katie and Rachel asked me to be one of the Maas Thirteen and join in the blog tour for Heir of Fire. I made some character collages that I'm pretty proud of, and it even lead to the COOLEST THING I'VE EVER DONE. I'm totally stoked that they asked me to be on it again for Queen of Shadows, because I could shout about this series until the wyverns come home. Or something.

I love visual stuff, which is why I went with the collages last year, but this year I decided to make my own stuff, because that's my favorite way to express my love for something! Below you'll find new pictures that you can turn into wallpapers (I give you permission to crop and resize and do whatever you need to do to make a background, since hell if I know how to do that) and that I've put up on my Society6 to be turned into fancy mugs and totes and shirts and all sorts of miraculous things. It's a party, and it's all inspired by the glorious, life-ruining, brilliant Queen of Shadows.

Review: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

Review: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
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Series: No
Release date: September 1st, 2015
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Length: 336 pages
Source: ARC from BEA/e-ARC via Edelweiss
Rating: yeeeeehawwwwww (that's a good thing)

When Kate Thompson’s father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, the eighteen-year-old disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers and justice. What she finds are devious strangers, dust storms, and a pair of brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, she gets closer to the truth about herself and must decide if there's room for love in a heart so full of hate.

In the spirit of True Grit, the cutthroat days of the Wild West come to life for a new generation.

This book combines many things that I love: WESTERNS YEE HAW, girls disguised as boys, GIRLS SEEKING VENGEANCE, girls being ruthless killers yessir, girls doing things, hot cowboys, BRUTAL TWISTS, and voice. So voice. Basically, Vengeance Road is darn tootin' good readin', and you you should get on that road and follow it through all the bloodshed and bad-assery.