Monthly Recap: March

I've been doing this bloggy thing for three and a half years, and yet I've never done a monthly recap feature. Why? I have no idea. So we're going to start doing one! Yay! Let's see what sort of nonsense I was up to in the month of March (or at least, what nonsense I REMEMBER being up to, since omg the beginning of the month was so long ago what even happened all the way back then)

What I've Been Reading: The Winner's Curse and Neverseen

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
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Series: #1 in the Winners Trilogy
Release date: March 4th, 2014
Publisher: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (Macmillan)
Length: 304 pages
Source: finished copy from publisher



This was a reread, since I got The Winner's Kiss from Macmillan and OOPS, it's been THREE YEARS since I read The Winner's Curse. I read it as a bound manuscript in JUNE of 2013, and while I actually remembered the plot very well, I was hoping that reading it again--and reading the finished, polished, perfectest version--would give me more of the feeeeelings.

My original review

Giveaway: A Paperback of A Court of Thorns and Roses + Goodies!

Thanks to the fine folks at Bloomsbury and the splendiferous Alexa from Alexa Loves Books, aka the Manon or the Maas Thirteen, I have a fun giveaway with which to spoil my blog readers rotten! The paperback of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is coming out--just before the epic release of A Court of Mist and Fury--so to CELEBRATE, Bloomsbury is giving out a copy! Plus a TATTOO and a BOOKMARK that are no doubt beautiful and fancy and Fae-esque, because that is how we roll here in Maas-land.

US only. Sorry! Publisher rules.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett
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Series: No
Release date: November 3rd, 2015
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Length: 304 pages
Source: gift
Rating: HEART EYES, and not anatomical ones

Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.

Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?
I'm trying to be coherent here, but i'm struggling. I loved this book bunches. Cutey cuteness all over the place, ship a dee doo dah, ship a dee day. This book is sort of instalove done right, in that I totally believe these crazy kids are in love despite how quickly it happens. THEY'RE SO CUTE I MELT. Such adorable banter and chemistry and SQUEEE. In addition to be a highly successful romance, TASoaH is also a sensitive portrayal of complicated families and mental illness. I loved how no character is ever demonized, not even the parents, who all try their best but are flawed and fully realized and aww feels.

Bookish Elements That Make My Heart Go BOOM

I looooooooove pretty books. LOVE. Even beyond the actually quality of the cover design, though, is the PHYSICALITY of a book. The extra bits and bobs of a book. The things that take it from pretty to...well, book porn. So these are a few of my favorite book porn elements.

Are You a Visual Reader?

Confession: I'm a HUGELY visual reader. I'm a visual person in general, really. I'm a visual learner, I memorize by reading or seeing or looking at neat graphics, and I'm good at picturing abstract concepts in my head. Like, I'm good at remembering historical dates because I see them in a sort of timeline (do not ask me to explain it). I used to double check my arithmetic by "drawing" it out because numbers good, pictures bad. Visualosity is my jam.

Look, I'm basically psychic. NBD. Totes casj.

Review: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
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Series: Yes, #1 in the Rebel of the Sands series
Release date: March 8th, 2016
Publisher: Viking (Penguin)
Length: 320 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating: Awesome, action-packed high fantasy



Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female.

Amani Al’Hiza is all three. She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead.

Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew.

Rebel of the Sands reveals what happens when a dream deferred explodes—in the fires of rebellion, of romantic passion, and the all-consuming inferno of a girl finally, at long last, embracing her power.


Ooo, that was awesome. Super action-packed, fun times galore, tremendous world-building. I loved the mash-up of Wild West with Arabian Nights, with djinn and rocs and mythical beings alongside guns and trains and saloons. It worked so brilliantly, and I cannot wait to see more of this world. This is definitely the sort of series where I can see that HUGE THINGS are looming in the sequels (how many books are in this series, anyway?), and I can't wait.

Ten Characters I Love but No One Else Does/Everyone Loves but I Don't Get

lolol I love that this week's topic it is just ASKING for trouble (ALSO I know the "but no one else does" isn't accurate, obviously there are others alive who agree with me because I am Right In All Things but it makes a punchier catchline so please don't yell at me about it)

This was really hard, as I tend to be very boringly in line with the greater bookish opinions, but somehow I managed to dredge up an indecent number of characters this week

Fun-Size Reviews

Fun-size reviews! For when you want a little bite of a book, and your trust YA blogger is feeling far too lazy to say much more about them!

I have been buuuuuuusyyyyy lately, so while I've definitely been back in the reading swing (thanks to the magic of romance novels) after a TERRIBLE reading February, my brain is still all limp and tired and sleepy and doesn't want to write reviews. It just wants to Netflix. And read more Tessa Dare. SO. TEENY TINY FUN-SIZE REVIEWS, like it's Halloween and you came to my door and I plopped a few teeny tiny reviews in your plastic jack 'o lantern bucket. (American traditions are really weird.)

When a Scot Ties the Knot (or When a Grump Beats Her Slump)

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Series: Yes, #3 in the companion series Castles Ever After
Release date: August 25th, 2015
Publisher: Avon
Length: 376
Source: gift

GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS.

This is going to be part review, part fangirling, and part me battering on about how my evil slump is FINALLY, FINALLY BROKEN! And it's all thanks to Tessa Dare and the wide world of historical romance.