First World Problems by LeighAnn Kopans Cover Reveal!!

Hello guys!

Today I have a cover to share with you all, for a book that I've been quite excited for since I heard that the author was writing it! I've loved all the books that LeighAnn Kopans has written and I've read, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love this one too! She even managed to make fall head over heels with a contemporary retelling of Mansfield Park, so I'm pretty sure this will be a New Adult I'm gonna love!

First of all, before I share the awesome cover designed by the extremely talented writer and graphic designer Hafsah Laziaf from Icey Designs , let me tell you a bit more about First World Problems!


First World Problems by LeighAnn Kopans

Expected Publication September 2nd 2014

Contemporary Upper YA/Lower NA

 "Sofia's had a really rough year - busted for cheating at prep school, dumped - dumped! - for the first time ever, and her new non-profit working stepmother is turning out to be an uppity bitch.

She deserves to treat herself. But when she throws herself a birthday party with 20 of her closest friends in Paris and (accidentally!) maxes out her dad's credit card in the process, he’s had enough of her attitude. As punishment, he switches her planned gap year touring Europe to one doing community service work with the evil stepmother’s relief organization in Guyana.

The rural village of Dabu needs help in every area from education to getting safe drinking water. But Sofia’s more concerned about her roommate Callum, the gardening expert, who calls Sofia "Princess" and scoffs at her distaste for sweaty, muddy, iguana-eating, outhouse-using life in Guyana.

Eventually, life on the equator, her work in the village, and especially Callum - with his brooding eyes and bewitching New Zealand accent - start to grow on Sofia. Life is rough in Guyana, but it’s roughest on the girls, whose families are too poor to send only the most promising boys in school. They’re trapped in a cycle that will keep them from ever making a better life for themselves, or for the village. Worse, Callum doesn’t seem to think any of the changes Sofia envisions are actually necessary.

Determined to change the girls’ futures, she comes up with a strategy to help them and, ultimately, the village. But what starts out as a plan to convince Callum and her father that she’s fallen in love with Guyana, turns into the realization that maybe she’s falling for Callum, too. And that by changing these girls’ lives, she might also be changing her own."


Ready to see the cover in all its glory?!?

Isn't it adorable and perfect for the story?? I love how well it compliments and sort of matches the cover for Solving for Ex, while both being different and distinct enough. Both are standalones but companion novels and the cover reflects that perfectly!

 About the author:

Raised on comic books and classic novels, Leigh Ann developed an early love of science fiction and literature. As an adult, she rediscovered her love for not only reading, but also writing the types of fiction that enchanted her as a teen. Her debut novel, ONE, is about a girl with only half a superpower, the boy who makes her fly, and her struggle to make herself whole.

Leigh Ann, her husband, and four children live in Columbus, Ohio. When she’s not immersed in the world of fiction, you can find her obsessing over the latest superhero movie or using her kids as an excuse to go out for ice cream (again.)

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Blog  

Showcase Sunday #37!!

Showcase Sunday is a weekly feature hosted by Vicky of Books, Biscuits, and Tea where all book lovers can share with others what bookish goodness we got this week, be it purchased (physical or eBook), won, gifted or for review!

Sooooo, this week hasn't been exactly the best on terms of how I've been doing emotionally but it seems like Karma or the Universe decided to be kind to be and many many books have been dumped on me!! YAY FOR BOOKS! Two big orders from Book Outlet arrived this week (shipping is faster than I expected!!) and then I discovered this very morning that I have been approved for 5 books on Edelweiss by Harper Collins!! THEY NO LONGER HATE ME!! I really have to thank Alyssa from The Eater of Books for her advice on how to improve my profile and presence on EW to improve my chances of approval! I also got approved for a book I really wanted on NetGalley and got some awesome preorders and shopping spree on my Kindle app... books as retail therapy for the win!

Purchased (via Book Outlet)

As always, Dylan and Mini-maug are as excited as I am when I open a box full of books, and in this case, I got TWO!! A lil boo-boo was made when I ordered Thornhill before Hemlock, but that's been solved since Hemlock is also on its way to me now! And Asunder is also awaiting Incarnate on the mail. I loved Jodi's trilogy so much I need it in hardcover!

 Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Asunder by Jodi Meadows

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Thornhill by Kathleen Peacock

Chantress by Amy Butler Greenfield

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff

Purchased (via Kindle app)

Fire by Kristin Cashore

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

(Don't You) Forget About Me by Kate Karyus Quinn

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Poison Dance by Livia Blackburne

For Review (via Edelweiss)

I got approved for 5 titles that I was dying for on Edelweiss by Harper Collins so a big thank you to them! My reading schedule be damned, tonight I'll read Deliverance!

Empire of Shadows by Miriam Forster

Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

Deliverance by C.J. Redwine

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless by Liz Czukas

In A Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

For Review (via NetGalley)

I also got approved for a quite awaited book on NetGalley so thank you HMH!

Still Point by Katie Kacvinsky

Signed Swag!

I also got some absolutely amazing signed swag in the mail from M. G. Buehrlen! I adored her book The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare (so much I made some Ink & Batter cupcakes inspired on it) and I loved getting this super geeky swag, with a bookplate that is now making my copy a signed one and a super sweet note! Thank you so MUCH, Mandy!!

 And that's all for the amazing massive haul for this week! Whew!

What all did you guys get this week?

 

Saturday Pages: The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings!!

Hello guys! Today I'm gonna be taking some time to bake and prepare some new Ink & Batter entries but I'm gonna leave you with a new Saturday Pages entry!

I'm trying to find a balance between reading review books, books that are newly released and books I've had in the TBR pile for a while and this one is a new relase that has been in Kindle only since this Tuesday! It is part of two of my challenges: the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 and the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Murder Complex was one debut that I was quite highly in my list for this year, since I'm a huge lover of everything dystopia. And although it wasn't absolutely mindblowing, it wasn't a disappointment by any means.

There are quite a few unexpected twists and revelations to this one, and I'm gonna do my best to keep this review spoiler free, even if I'll have to be a bit vague here and there.

The Murder Complex is told in dual POV and we follow Meadow and Zephyr on their different paths until they cross and then we experience the events from both their sides. Their voices were quite distinct when we were following them separatedly but once they got together they started sounding a bit too similar on occasion, except towards the end when the voices became more distinctive again.

My favourite part of the book has to be the world building. I loved how real and gritty and chilling the world inside the perimeter felt. At first we don't really know much about how such a society came to be but as we get more answers it becomes more bleak and more scary. This is a world were humanity is not very humane and survival by any means necessary is not the norm but encouraged.

Meadow has been taught to fight and to be strong and kill whenever necessary by her father, to be able to find a job and help feed her family in the very harsh society that they live on. Zephyr is one of the Wards, orphans that do the hard tasks of corpse dispossing and cleaning afterwards, but there's more to him, a darker side that he sort of knows about but can't control.

Then comes everything that I really cannot talk about cause all the spoilers start appearing. But we find out that some characters are more central to the plot and the world building that we thought. And the society and crimes we saw depiced so routinely were more cruel and orgnized than we thought at first.

There's a bit of romance in the book, but given all the mind control and conditioning going on in the society we encounter, it's quite hard to describe as insta-love. We're not really sure about what's real and what's been implanted in the end, and if you add all the stress and all the high stakes and the fights and the adrenaline, is not to hard to see how emotions are running high and how confusing things are for Meadow and Zephyr.

The ending is quite a cliffhanger and I'm quite excited to see where the author will solve it and where she'll take the story next, cause we've give a few glimpses that are very enticing! All in all, a very interesting debut with a greatly constructed world. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for the world building.



View all my reviews

Friday Reads: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare!!!

Happy Friday everyone! Today's book for the Friday Reads entry is one of those highly awaited books and the final book of a series (I'm reading quite a few series enders this year I feel...) and I'm very happy to report it was NOT a disappointment and actually could be said the book that makes the series worth it!

It is part of my 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program books and I thought I was doing quite well with the challenge, but I've realized I'm like 4 books behind now! Need to catch up soon!

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


City of Heavenly Fire is one of those books that simply make a whole series. I had quite liked the first three books, but then City of Fallen Angels and to some degree City of Lost Souls left me feeling a bit so-so. Jace was getting a bit too closed off and whiney and the relationship with Clary was getting a bit odd...

I will try to keep my review completely spoiler free for the book, but I don't think I'll be able to keep it spoiler free for the rest of the series.

But, when I started City of Heavenly Fire I knew that I was not going to be let down with this one at all, even if when I started reading first we got to read about Emma Carstairs but soon enough we see how important hers and Julian's POV will be for the book, and what a great introduction to the next series!

One of my favourite things of this book was how finally all the interactions were based more in communication and being truthful to each other than on missunderstandings. There are secrets and people that you cannot trust and alliances that you wouldn't expect, but not all that much of the "I'll be brooding here and even if it'd be cause for later trouble, I won't tell you about it" that irritated me a bit on previous books.

There are quite a few different POVs in the book and all of them are very much important to offer a complete view of the story. It's not just about Clary and Jace, but also about the rest of the Shadowhunters and the werewolves and the vampires... There's plenty of action, heartfelt moments, plot progression, laughs, quirky moments and moments that made me cry. I also loved how some of the storyline is relevant to The Infernal Devices trilogy, so ties to the prequel as well as the sequel series!

It's hard to talk much about this book without giving anything away unwittingly so I'll be keeping this review short. The ending was great, with some historical references that very wisely will make us think of what's to come, but for now we got a quite satisfactory ending, with plenty of sadness, happiness and a certain bittersweet feel to it! The comic at the end of the book? Amazing and made me cry so VERY MUCH!! *sigh*

Very well deserved 5 stars for this one, and Cassandra Clare has managed to snare me again and I'll be looking forward to read Emma's & Julian's story in Lady Midnight next!



View all my reviews

Ink & Batter #6: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski!!

Happy Thursday everyone! Welcome to a new edition of Ink & Batter!

This week's cupcakes are inspired by one amazing book with one hell of a beautiful cover, and as much as I've tried, I don't think I've done justice to the absolute beauty that is The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski!

As Becca had already done a version of this stunning cover for her Cover Puppies, she's doing a different cover this week, but do check Gentry being as gorgeous as Krestel HERE! Puppies in dresses for the win!

Since I was already making red velvet mini-cupcakes to test the recipe for my friend's wedding, I thought they'd be perfect for the colour scheme of the book and chose brown lines to match the cover since the base is brown flooring. And I did my best to give the impression of the dress with the coloured icing!

I had quite a few ideas for decorations to make for these (like the piano, the daggers and the Bite & Sting tiles) but I asked Marie on Twitter and she asked her followers in turn, so some of these are also their suggestions, like the boat! I also tried hand modeling a krestel, but making birds of prey is out of my abilities!

The daggers & tiles, along with the piano and notes are for Krestel; the scroll horseshoe & hammer are for Arin's stint as slave blacksmith; the boat, anchor and rope for Krestel's escape; the wine cup and tie are for the party that started it all; and the sword and money bag for both the money that bought Arin and the one that saved Kestrel and swords that started the rebellion.

I hope you'll love these cupcakes, guys! I tweeted a sneak peek of them a while back and Marie said she loved them, so I'm beyond happy!

Next week I'll be back with more book inspired cupcakes, so stay tuned for even more Ink & Batter, guys!

Waiting On Wednesday #46!!

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted at Breaking The Spine  that spotlights those can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-them books that we are eagerly awaiting!

What book am I is-it-already-here kind of waiting for this week? Where Silence Gathers by Kelsey Sutton!!

Goodreads Summary:

"In this companion novel to the critically acclaimed Some Quiet Place, Alex must choose between Revenge and Forgiveness.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandra Tate sits outside Nate Foster's house, clutching a gun. After serving ten years for the drunk driving accident that killed Alex's family, Nate has been released from prison. Every night, Alex waits out of sight, building up the courage to exact her own justice. There's just one problem: Forgiveness.

Alex has been able to see personified Emotions for as long as she can remember, and Revenge is her best friend. But when Forgiveness suddenly appears, he offers Alex a choice—getting even or moving on. It's impossible to decide when Revenge whispers in one ear . . . and Forgiveness whispers in the other."



Why am I eagerly awaiting Where Silence Gathers? Well, the first book in the series was one of my favourite debuts of the year, very different and one of the first ARCs I also got approved for via NetGalley. After the poetic creepiness of embodied emotions, I cannot wait to see what this sequel/companion novel has in store for us!

What are you all (im)patiently awaiting this week?

Xpresso Book Tour Blog Tour for Threats of Sky & Sea by Jennifer Ellision!!

Hey there everyone! Today I'm taking part in the Blog Tour for Threats of Sky And Sea by Jennifer Ellision, organized by Xpresso Book Tours!

I will be sharing my review & a Blog Tour wide giveaway, so click HERE for the full tour schedule! But before that, let's get you some more information about the book & author, shall we?

Threats of Sky and Sea by Jennifer Ellision
(Threats of Sky and Sea #1)
Publication date: May 20th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:
Sixteen year-old Breena Perdit has spent her life as a barmaid, innocent to her father’s past and happily free from the Elemental gifts that would condemn her to a life in the Egrian King’s army. Until the day that three Elemental soldiers recognize her father as a traitor to the throne and Bree’s father is thrown in jail—along with the secrets from his last mission as the King’s assassin. Secrets that could help the King win a war. Secrets he refuses to share.

Desperate to escape before the King’s capricious whims prove her and her father’s downfall, Bree bargains with him: information for their lives. It’s a good trade. And she has faith she’ll get them both out of the King’s grasp with time.

But that was before the discovery that she’s the weapon the King’s been waiting for in his war.

Now, time is running out. To save her father’s life and understand her own, Bree must unravel the knot of her father’s past before the King takes his life– and uses her to bring a nation to its knees.

 Amazon Kindle | Paperback | Barnes & Noble Nook | Smashwords

About the author:

Jennifer Ellision spent a great deal of her childhood staying up past her bedtime with a book and a flashlight. When she couldn’t find the stories she wanted to read, she started writing them. She loves words, has a soft spot for fanfiction, and is a master of the fangirl flail. She lives in South Florida with her family, where she lives in fear of temperatures below 60 Fahrenheit.

Threats of Sky and Sea, a young adult fantasy, is her first novel.

You can find Jennifer online at www.jenniferellision.com, or on twitter @JenEllision.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter 

 My Review

I have been quite in the mood for fantasy books and this book was the perfect fantasy read to my mood!

I got my ARC from Xpresso Book Tours so thanks a lot Giselle for letting me be part of this tour! I will try my best to keep my review spoiler free, but I might find myself babbling a bit too enthusiastically and end up letting something slip, but I promise no big reveals will slip my lips!

The book starts with Bree in the forest, trying to gather some wood to take back to the inn runs with her father. She finds herself following some screams in case someone needs help but stumbles into something bigger that she could even imagine. Soon her life changes completely and she discovers that her father had kept her in the dark of way too many things and that neither her father or herself are who she had believed they were. Her world changes so suddenly and in such an abrupt and dangerous way that I'm surprised how well she handled things, even if she had her moments here and there!

The world building was quite fantastic! We start small, with this small inn near a river and a small village nearby. With Bree and her Da, that make a fantastic team at staying afloat even in difficult times, and you can see the genuine love between them and how much Bree likes her life. Then little by little we get a bit more information about what's beyond the inn, and then we go on discovering more of the bigger picture and the world as Bree experience and fumble through it. There's a fantastic mix of magic with the Elementals (that made me think a bit of Avatar and the element benders) and the medieval feel of a court full of political intrigue and an overly powerful and ambitious king.

The characters were quite interesting, and I absolutely adore Bree! She's headstrong but kind and with a resilience that I wish I could have if I'd find myself in a situation like hers. She gets the life she had taken from her, mistreated & taken as prisoner, discovers that her father has lied to her... then gets chucked into court (that is like a nest of vipers) and is expected to change who she's always been and be grateful for it. She is spied on, experimented on, threatened by the king and mostly ignored by her own father (even if it was a wise choice due to the spies all over the place)...

Bree's Da was quite a mystery and by the end of book we're still left with quite a few questions about him, that I hope we'll get answered in upcoming books, because we can see he was quite a complex character with a dark past full of hard choices but a real love for Bree. The king was a rather typical villain to hate, but I think there's also more to him than just the ambition and power-crazy tyrant we see. And talking about evil characters I can't not mention Lady Kat, the king's Elemental assassin and right hand, she is one very hateful character that deals with threat and knowledge as well as fear.

Aleta the royal princess was quite an interesting character too, so prickly and distant at first but a character full of layers and that becomes a true friend and ally to Bree. I think these two can make a fantastic team together. Then we have Prince Caden, the heir of the kingdom that finds himself in a most difficult position between family loyalty and what his moral compass tells him to do. An interesting character that has great banter with Bree and makes for an interesting love interesting, even if the romance is very very subtle and develops very nicely and slowly.

I was a big fan of the romance in this book because even if you could suspect where it was going, it was never thrown in your face and you can see a fondness growing and turning into something more, it never takes over the plot, or the characters brains. Even if the hormones might get the best of the love interest in one certain occasion, desperation and all that!

As far as the plot goes this is the first novel of a trilogy (hopefully a longer series) but it's not just world building and barely any plot movement. Here we get a pair of big reveals and although I suspected both beforehand, they were not obvious or dull, and we still don't really get the full picture. The ending is not exactly a cliffhanger but there's a lot to happen and loads of unanswered questions! I'm really looking forward to the next book and give this one 4 to 4.5 stars!

Giveaway

Open to US/Canada only

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Nerd Blast: Hexed by Michelle Krys!!

Welcome to this Nerd Blast organized by Book Nerd Tours for Hexed by Michelle Krys!
Today is Hexed's release day and I'm so excited to be part of this Nerd Blast!

Hexed

(The Witch Hunter #1)
Author: Michelle Krys
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 384Release Date: June 10th, 2014

About the book:

If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.

AMAZON | B&N | INDIEBOUND | GOODREADS

About Michelle Krys

 Hi there! I'm the author of the YA novel HEXED, slated for publication with Delacorte Press/Random House Children's Books Spring 2014. I'm repped by Adriann Ranta of Wolf Literary Services. Visit me at michellekrys.com or follow @MichelleKrys on Twitter.

Giveaway!!

One Winner will get a signed hardcover of HEXED (US Only)
4 Winners will get a Hexed bookmark and Signed custom Hexed Bookplat (Intl)

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Enter the giveaway here:  http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e849f7878/