Writer of Wrongs

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Three on a Theme: Nerd Boys

Hi, welcome to my new once-in-a-blue-moon feature, Three on a Theme, wherein I'll highlight three books that have something in common and that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Today's post is about one of my favorite things: NERD BOYS.

YA doesn't have enough adorably nerdy boys, i you ask me. Sure, i love bad boys, and flirts, and warrior princes just as much as the next YA reader, but deep down, I think my soul mate is a nerd boy. And here are three of my faves.

Review: Rebel Mechanics by Shanna Swendson

Review: Rebel Mechanics by Shanna Swendson
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: #1 in the Rebel Mechanics series
Release date: July 14th, 2015
Publisher: Farrar, Strouss, and Giroux (Macmillan)
Length: 320 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating: Squeeeeee

A sixteen-year-old governess becomes a spy in this alternative U.S. history where the British control with magic and the colonists rebel by inventing.

It’s 1888, and sixteen-year-old Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy leading family—but she quickly learns that the family has big secrets. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. The family Verity works for is magister—but it seems like the children's young guardian uncle is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family’s life. She soon realizes she’s uniquely positioned to advance the cause—but to do so, she’ll have to reveal her own dangerous secret.

I adored reading that! My god, was that some delightful fun. Adorable boy, fun rebel shenanigans, a feisty yet practical heroine, plays on a bunch of tropes, and alternate history to boot.. If you love stories about governesses, nobility, magic, New York City, steampunk gadgets, or--must be said again--completely adorable boys, read Rebel Mechanics, because reading it was pure pleasure. It's short and zippy and not too deep, but sometimes that's perfect. I'm so full of SQUEE. (And I toooootally ship the ship, yessiree.)

Literary PSA: So You Want to Read Tamora Pierce

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: The Mediator series by Meg Cabot

I was inspired to toss this post together because Angie started reading The Song of the Lioness quartet after many years of me bellowing about Tamora Pierce and TO MY UTTER GLEE she got completely into it and yelled at me about her feelings and asked which Tamora Pierce series she should read next.

I have very definitely opinions about the order in which Tamora Pierce series should be read.
I do want to preface this with the disclaimer that I am not the great authority in all things, no matter how much I wish that were true. This is not like Buzzfeed; there will be no tossing around of the word "definitive", because this is a categorically not definitive post. It's just a Gillian's opinion post, which you can take with either a grain or a mountain of salt.

Looking Forward: July

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 JULY OH MY GOD, here are the July releases most tempting me.

Review + Giveaway: Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler

Review: Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: #2 in the Daylight Falls duology
Release date: June 30th, 2015
Publisher: Spencer Hill
Length: 321 pages
Source: won ARC and finished copy from BEA15
Rating: HOTCHACHA

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents' wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls...opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he's trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he's in the spotlight—on everyone's terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents' disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she's painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van's life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she'll have to choose between the one thing she's always loved...and the person she never imagined she could.

Double disclosure: Firstly, I haven't read the first book slash companion book in the Daylight Falls duology, Behind the Scenes. Secondly, I've had diner margaritas with Dahlia and we talk on twitter on the reg, usually about dirty things or macarons or...wait, I think that might be the bulk of what Dahlia talks about, actually. Wether or not you think this has altered my opinion, well, i don't know, because I loved this book with all the dirty macarons on top.

NSFW

Review: Valiant by Sarah McGuire

Review: Valiant by Sarah McGuire
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: I wish
Release date: April 28th, 2015
Publisher: Egmont
Length: 364 pages
Source: ARC/purchased finished copy
Rating: That was SOOO CUUUUUUTE. Lovely fairy tale retelling!

Saville despises the bolts of velvet and silk that her father loves- he's always prized them more than he's ever loved her. Yet when he's struck ill, she'll do anything to survive, even donning boys' clothes and begging a commission to sew for the king.

Piecing together a fine coat is far simpler than unknotting court gossip about an army of giants led by a man who cannot be defeated. And they're marching toward Reggen to seize the throne. But Saville knows giants are just stories, and no man is immortal.

Then she meets them, two scouts as tall as trees. She tricks them into leaving, but tales of the daring tailor's triumph quickly spin into impossible feats of giant-slaying. And mere stories won't deter the Duke and his larger-than-life army.

Now only a courageous and clever tailor girl can see beyond the rumors to save the kingdom again.

I think what I love best about Valiant--you know, besides the incredibly resilient main characters, the PRECIOUS ship, and the rollicking plot--is how classic it feels. This book doesn't feel anything like the majority of the fantasy YA I read nowadays. It feels like a moreold-shool fairy tale retelling like Ella Enchanted or Shannon Hale (very accurate, blurby people, very accurate indeed). So what you get is an entirely charming twist on a not-often-retold tale, The Valiant Little Tailor, with a lady saving the day instead.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.

Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: No, ALAS
Release date: May 19th, 2015
Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)
Length: 438 pages
Source: purchased with zero regret
Rating: PER. FECTION.

Naomi Novik, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Dear world,

I'm obsessed with Uprooted. Consider this my declaration of love. I'm standing atop the school coffee cart, I'm singing and dancing with the school band across the bleachers, I'm just a girl, standing in front of a book, asking it to love her.