BEA 2016 Recap: Day 3 Friday!!

Hiya there peeps!

Back again with the final BEA recap post for Friday and my leaving on Saturday.

FRIDAY

Friday started as usual, waking up waaay too early (jet lag is getting old dammit) and it worked to my advantage this time since my plan was to go super early so I could line up at the ticked authors area to try and get tickets for the awesome Maggie Stiefvater! Nikki was 100% with me on that, so we headed early to the floor, leaving Katie & Angie to sleep in a lil after their late night.

After quite the wait, we got our tickets and joined the entry line where I once again chatted with my roomies, formed the plan, chatted with other bloggy friends and as soon as the doors opened we headed towards the Macmillan booth to ensure a ticket for Caraval's signing and as soon we got them, we headed to the line for Maggie's signing.

Meeting Maggie Stiefvater was one of my highlights of Friday itself and BEA, she's quite awesome and she was cackling with glee when I was telling her about my stress eating while reading The Raven King!

Once I got my signed hardcover of Raven King (damn, that means I need to collect all the US hardcovers now too, since I already have the UK paperbacks), I went to take a lil walk around here and there before heading for the line for Caraval!

Stephanie was absolutely lovely and she gave me a hug for my bloggy friend Kristen that couldn't attend BEA and for Roshani Chokshi! I got my ARC signed and I keep making all the grabby hands at it! Patience, I must learn patience! (and finish some eARCs I have started).

Then after that I had nothing till 1 PM for a drop of the Strange The Dreamer Sampler with swag, so decided to roam around.

And who did I meet while heading towards the Penguin booth to ask if Sabaa Tahir's signing would be ticketed? The ever so awesome and adorable Susan Dennard AND Amie Kaufman! Both recognized me and hugged me and we chatted a lil bit. I was so completely overwhelmed that I completely forgot to take pics with them both!! Photo proof or not, it's simply MADE MY DAY!!

I then returned to hang out with my bloggy friends while they waited for other books and it was the moment to TAKE ALL THE PICS!!

With Angie

With Sabrina

With Cassi, Nikki, Octavia & Michelle

With my dear Mel

Then my absentmindedness proved to be good for something because at what I thought was 20 to 1, I headed to the Hachette booth to see if they were forming a line for the drop and when I went to ask one of the ladies she handed me a ticket for the signing! My R2D2-with-no-numbers-watch had fooled me and it was quarter to 12! I got to be 4th in line, meet Laini Taylor and get my sampler & swag! Big thank you to the lady being me in line that was kind enough to take pics for me!

More roaming around happened, I went to check one of the  panels that were going on at the Downtown Stage and went to chat with Mel and she was chatting with David Arnold (author of Mosquitoland) that introduced himself and was super nice!

After that I went with Shelly to the hotel for a spell (it's so awesome to be able to just pop in and out like that) and then back to the floor, she went to Harlequin and I went to check the line for Sabaa Tahir that was already quite large! So I just sat there and prepared to wait for tickets first and then the actual signing!

I was lucky enough to have Cassi and Nikki dropping by to keep me company and saving my spot on the Gemina line that had already formed too! The wait was rather uneventful until I was getting quite close to the front of the line when I heard screaming coming from the other side of the Penguin booth, where the Gemina line had formed and I knew that Jay Kristoff had dropped by to visit!

So, once it was my turn, I met Sabaa, told her how much I had loved the first book, got my ARC of Torch Against The Night signed, Sabaa said she loved my leather cuff and I ran to the autographing area.

I had saved my First In Line Pass for the Kendare Blake signing of Three Dark Crowns, because I love her, she is awesome and I'm beyond excited for the book! I skipped the quite long line, hugged her, we made T-Rex arms, talked about the excitement for the book, got a pic taken and I smiled apologetically at the people waiting in line as I left.

And once again I power walked from the autographing area to the Penguin booth to the Gemina line and to meet Jay Kristoff! He's an awesome dude, gave me a hug and I told him I really had to get a photo with him because I had met Amie in the morning and had failed at that! He chatted with us people in the line, took pics and then made a video.

Yes, Jay Fucking Tall Kristoff!!

Then it was all a question of sitting there with roomies and bloggy friends to wait for 3 PM! While we waited my dear Britt said one of my most awesome things I've been told recently, she said "You make people happy, you make people smile" and she DID make me smile BIG! Miss you so much Britt!

Eventually 3 PM hit and I GOT MY HANDS ON THE BOOK I WAS NOT LEAVING THE COUNTRY WITHOUT!

After that most of my roomies were going back to the hotel but I wanted to go the panel with Susan Dennard, Kristen Simmons and Sarah Porter, moderated by Katie of MundieMoms. So I headed there and had an absolute blast! If I was excited about Vassa and Metaltown before, after the panel even more! And of course I'm bloody well dying for Windwitch!

After that back to the hotel to be absolutely lazy for a while and wait till it was time to go for the Blogger Dinner that Octavia and Whitley had organized!

The dinner was a lot of fun, spent time with my roomies (Octavia made me cry!!), chatting with Ironteeth Becca, drinking my beer and Angie's because for some reason she didn't want it. Then spent some time also chatting with Rashika, Mishma and Nori until I left with Cassi, because we both were pretty tired and needed to crash.

I'm not sure if it was a combination of me feeling a bit old lady-ish and the jet lag, but I never had the energy to try and make it to the later night fun!

And that was Friday!

 DAY 3 Haul

SATURDAY

Saturday I tried to sleep in and managed to sleep till 7 am and then gave up, so I got up to get ready to leave, even if I had already packed almost everything on Friday itself. 17 books, two samplers, swag and 3 more books and a yoga mat (that was NOT a BEA thing, it was a gift from my friends in Wisconsin!!).

 

Since Shelly and I had shuttles around the same time we went down together after saying goodbye to my most of my roomies (those that were awake at least), and once again Octavia almost made my cry my eyes out, dammit!

The trip to the airport was uneventful, I was lucky and the security line wasn't long and to kill time waiting, I started reading GEMINA!

It's the perfect read to wait because you get so immersed that time flies and you don't even notice! It's a brilliant read that caused me to cuss out loud during a flight startling both the flight attendant and my row mates and also caused a need for booze and extra chocolate... Page 505, you have been warned!!

Got home on Sunday, unpacked all my goodies and after having lunch with my parents I went to bed around 5 pm and woke up around 10 am the next day! ;)

Vacation over, pile of books that keep calling my name and missing my roomies so much!! I'm even more saddened because I'll be missing BEA 2017 since I'll be attending ApollyCon instead (and visiting Wizarding World & NASA since it's in Orlando).

BEA 2016 Recap: Day 2 Thursday!!

Hello there!

Continuing with the BEA recap, we're up to Thursday and the first full day at BEA, that was quite full from the very beginning for me, even if I had sacrificed a few signings to attend since I had got the ARCs on the day before!

I woke up ungodly early (again), tried to go back to sleep (again), for the most part failed (again) and ended up waking up to do some yoga! I made myself some tea on the coffee maker (thank goodness for hotel rooms with coffee makers, even if they lack kettles, at least it means there's no need of a do-over of last year's "shower tea") and waiting for the rest of the roomies to wake and get ready!

We went pretty early to the floor (7 am) and we started really appreciating the awesomeness that being in a hotel directly connected to the convention center is! We were really close to the front of the line, and the wise people at McCormick brought out the ropes to make the line orderly and nice! Something that never occured to the people at the Javits last year...

While we were waiting I met more of my bloggy friends and met Hafsah & Asma again and they had these super cute notebooks they were giving out if you had the word code they tweeted! I got me one and even if yellow is not my fave colour, the notebook is so perfect for me! (and any other bookworms that love tea!).

A bit more plotting and pondering happened while we waited and then at 9 as soon as the doors opened, we headed straight to the Macmillan booth to get the tickets for their morning signing(s).

There was a bit of a rush, but I refused on principle to run (after last year's RUN FOR TRUTHWITCH!!) but I managed to get my ticket for Metaltown and promptly joined the signing line. I was super lucky to meet Lori M Lee on said line and we spent the waiting time chatting!

While waiting in line I met again the lovely Patricia & Anasheh from FFBC Tours, both Patri and me are some of the rare Spanish bloggers and we've been chatting for a long time but we hadn't met yet till BEA, how crazy is that! Patri totally made my day when she handed me her Leigh Bardugo ticket because she had other signings she wanted to attend and didn't want the ticket to go to waste. Thank you so much Patri, I hope some serious good karma will go your way!

Then it was time to get Metaltown signed and to meet the lovely Kristen Simmons! I loved chatting with her and I'm really excited to read the book while listening to the soundtrack of Les Mis!!

Right after the signing I said bye to Lori and run to the forming line for Of Fire And Stars! Since I was very close to the start of the line of Metaltown, I was also very close to the front of the line for Of Fire And Stars and even a lot of people used their Front of the Line Pass for it (I really don't blame them, this a book we're all super excited for) which slowed the line quite a bit for us going regular, and the line ended up being cut because there weren't enough books. I was lucky enough to get my copy and to meet the so very lovely Audrey Coulthurst!

After getting the book signed and the lovely extra swag, I quickly headed to the signing line for Leigh Bardugo that was quiiiite loooong but luckily there were no issues since they had as many samplers as they had tickets! Meeting Leigh again was fantastic and the Macmillan people with her were lovely chatting with you and making sure they got pics if you wanted them! I'm probably not gonna read the sampler (TEASE!) but I so wanted to meet Leigh again!

After the Leigh signing I had nothing else until 1 pm when the drop for the afternoon Macmillan tickets would happen. And since I had nothing else in my list... I roamed around for a bit, spent time chatting with friends on other lines like the lovely Jenny from Supernatural Snark and her mum!

Then the wait for 1 PM started and there were some false starts at forming a line one both sides of the Macmillan booth, but they didn't allow any of them to become official and kept saying that they expected an orderly line to form at 1 PM, which anyone seeing the massive amount of people around the booth knew it was a clear impossibility... and it happened, what I call a MOB, and has been known as the Macmillan Stampede of 2016.

I was again refusing to run or push people on principle but I was moved along by the mass of people and ended up quite behind on the massive line, despite having been waiting for nearly an hour. Fortunately I managed to get the tickets for Marissa Meyer and Sarah Porter, so I have to thank my good karma for that!

After that rather messy ticket handing, the Macmillan people learnt fast and started organizing lines for all signings very early and very well, so big props there! I joined the line for Vassa in the Night and had my protein bars lunch while chatting with my roomies and other fellow bloggers that had survived the stampede.

Not only I got to meet Sarah Porter who is adorable and get my signed ARC but I also got to meet the awesome Ksenia Winnicki! Too bad we didn't take a pic together this time!

Once I got my Vassa I went onto joining the line for Marissa Meyer and Heartless and while waiting in line, my dear Britt came with a copy of Stalking Jack The Ripper and she told me that the lovely Kerri Maniscalco was signing them at the Hachette booth and there I run! I was so excited that I completely forgot to grab my phone so I could take a pic with her! She's so adorableee and lovely! I got my ARC signed and I'm still trying to restrain myself to read it right away!

Then I got my absolutely gorgeous edition of the Heartless ARC in a really fancy box and met the lovely Marissa Meyer again! No photo this time.

Then I went around a few booths, bumped into bloggers and roomies, grabbed a brownie at Harper and ended up returning there to wait with Jenny's mum for the 4 PM drop for Female of the Species, and after that... back to the hotel room!

My Day 2 haul!

 A bunch of my roomies were going to publisher parties but those of us uninvited stayed in one room, ordered food and ended up enjoying a lovely Hamilton singalong! There's video proof of that since Michelle seemed to be rather amused by our singing!

Most of my roomies were off to publisher parties, Nikki was the one that returned early and we ended up chatting books for a long while and she totally convince me that I needed to get Audible and listen to The Scorpio Races (and I'm doing just that next month!). ;)

BEA 2016 Recap: Day 1 Tuesday & Wednesday!

Hello there guys!!

Finally, my recap of my BEA 2016 trip is here!! It's been a few days in the making but BEA brain is a thing and if we add my vacation time, the blogging slump and coming back from vacation to real life and work... Well, it was bound to take a while!

Last year I did 3 recaps, one per day and this year it'll be the same format again! After trying to do all three days in one post and looking at the lenght of it and my overly verbose self... three posts it is!

All three of them filled to the brim with photos and my overly enthusiastic rambling about my amazing room mates, all the awesome peeps that I met, the brilliant authors I was lucky enough to meet and of course LE BOOKS!

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY

On Tuesday I left Wisconsin where I had been staying with friends of mine to ride a bus to Chicago. Once I arrived at the hotel I met most of my bloggy friends and room mates doing the check-in already, which meant loads of squealing and hugging and happy noises to the surprise and moderate amusement of the Hyatt staff.

I've said it before and I will say it time and again, the best thing about BEA is always the people! I adore all my roomies and without them BEA wouldn't be a a tenth of how awesome it is! If you are planning to do BEA, make sure you do it with friends! I adore my BEA Duck Squad and I cannot wait till I can meet them all again!!

We're missing Michelle here!

So thank you so very much Angie, Becca, Britt, Cassi, Christina, Katie, Michelle, Nikki, Octavia, Rachael and Shelly!!

After getting settled in the rooms and a few lil hiccups, we all went on a walk to go shopping at Target. Yes, I'm always willing to go along for all that but I had no idea why we were going there, but people needed to buy some snacks and water... and we ended up filling our cart with that AND loads of booze... Adulting hard right there! Given that I had already packed snacks in advance, I settled for some water, boring one that I am.

I found this stand for sangría and that price hilarious!

After that we were all extremely hungry and wanted to go to Lou Malnati's for Chicago's famous Deep Dish pizza! We split in two groups, the ones that were so hungry (and a bit tired) that wanted to go now and the others that wanted to wait for a while. My jet lagged arse was hungry and tired so off we went! The wait at Lou Malnati's was looooong but holy smokes, the pizza was worth it!

 Om nom nom nom!!

Then back to the hotel room where we left Katie locked out of the room without realizing it... the stupid bolt fell a lil to the side and the door couldn't be open! Thank goodness for all of us rooming in the same floor!

Wednesday started with me waking up at ungodly hours (yaaaay jet lag!), trying to get some more sleep, failing, getting up and doing some yoga and then going for a Blogger breakfast at Yolk organized by the lovely Wendy from Book Scents where I had Potato Pancakes that were super yummy but couldn't eat them all (Americans, you have huge portions!!). From there we went to get our badges and then sat on the line to wait for the floor to open. The waiting time is always good to plan and see what drops might be and study the map to see where all the booths you want to visit are in relation to each other and , since I had no signings on my schedule for Wed.

As it happened there was a drop for Double Down by Gwenda Bond as soon as the doors opened so I went straight there! Then roaming around the booths to get their schedules and I ended up grabbing a few books that freed my Thursday schedule! I was quite lucky to get The Forgetting because right before the drop I had asked about it at the booth and they had no idea if there was gonna be a drop (WTF?!), also cheated a lil bit at the "roll the dice" game at Hachette because I really just wanted Blood For Blood, got my so very awaited A Shadow Bright and Burning (Penguin drop!) and asked about Ghostly Echoes at the booth and was so very lucky to be handed one copy! Harper's drop for Aerie was a bit of a mess, but no harm done (and they learnt from the experience!).

Also it was great that I met so many of my bloggy friends like Jenny, Mel, Hafsah & Asma, and many more!

Day 1 haul!!

 After all the excitement of the first day that wasn't as laid back as I was expecting but that was oh so very productive we all went for dinner at Shake Shack and oh boy CHEESE FRIES!! I understand why all my friends were so keen on it! Also, foreigner speaking here, those buzzers they give you so you can pick up your order when it's ready? Such a good idea!

Then after the food it was another trip to another Target, but on our way there we stopped at a souvenir store so I could get some shopping done and then we took an Uber back to the hotel and soon to bed for me because I was pretty much beaten and jet lag is a bitch!

Mark These Books Monday: Truthwitch & The Impostor Queen!!!

Hello there guys!!

Happy New Year 2016!! 

I had plans to have blogged a bit more last week and all, but given how busy with apartment things my days off work were... blogging had to take the back seat! And on the 1st, when I finally had some time off... I just spent the day reading, and I really needed that!

So, now back to business!! I'm starting this year's first Mark This (These) Book(s) Monday with two reviews for two ARCs of books that publish tomorrow and that you REALLY NEED AND WANT to read!!

One of them was my first read of the year and also counts towards my Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge, so I'm starting strong on my challenges this year! ;)

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I just... have no words!! What an amazing book!! How do I deal with a book hangover as epic as this one will be? HOW?!?

----

Many months and two re-reads later I don't feel much better prepared to review Truthwitch, but given how the release day is almost here, I feel like I need to finally should try! Give that I've already told you I've re-read the book twice already and I'm planning another re-read once I get my preordered final copy... that should be proof that this book is worth reading. In short, the hype for Truthwitch? Very well deserved!

It is high fantasy at its core, with a magical system and political wars between Empires and different nations and a legend that has been mostly forgotten but seems to be relevant once again. The world building is fantastic, woven quite seamlessly into the story, narrative and plot. We get glimpses here and there at the Witchlands, but there's so much more to explore and discover in depth! We got enough to immerse ourselves in the story, but we can also look forward to new world to explore and discover in the sequel(s).

First books in epic fantasy series can sometimes be slow or lack action because of the need for world building, but this is not the case. Truthwitch was nonstop action pretty much from the beginning to the end! We are given very few respites from it, and very much needed ones because you cannot stop turning the pages to know what's to come next! And on those less frantic moments, there's information to absorb and ponder on before you're back to biting your nails & the nonstop action!

I loved the characters to bits too, Safi and Iseult are best friends, Threadsisters, their friendship is pivotal to everything that happens in the book. They're always there for each other, no matter what messes they might get into, no matter whose fault the mess is, they're always there for each other, fighting together no matter what. Safi and Iseult are very different from each other, both complex and flawed characters, full of doubts and questions, but always growing and ready to support each other. I really loved them and their strong relationship!

I don't want to give many details about the rest of the characters to allow the pleasure of discovering them yourselves, but let's just say that all of them are well crafted and have much more hidden than you'd expect at first for sure. Bad guys aren't black & white for the most part, there are plenty of grey characters, not entirely good, not entirely bad. And most of them have hidden depths that we're just starting to discover!

There's romance in this book and for me being a romancephobe, I was extremely surprised how much I shipped these ships! Yes, plural! I was shipping a ship that's barely a hint in this one, but it's already OTP for me! Susan does a fantastic job on building tension and chemistry without hindering the story or having it take over the plot!

So yes, Truthwitch gets very much deserved 5 stars from me, and I've been dying for the sequel (to come in 2017!!!) since June 2015, so... yeah.



The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sarah Fine is seriously carving herself a spot in my auto-buy list of authors. The Impostor Queen is my first YA by here and I just cannot wait till I can continue devouring all the rest of her books!

When I got approved on Edelweiss for this one, I was beyond happy! And after finishing the book, I am even more grateful that I was given the chance to read it early!

The Impostor Queen is a fantastic epic fantasy book, full of magic and brilliant characters and a plot that manages to surprise you at every turn, no matter how much you think you might know what's to come.

Elli is our main character and she's been raised as the future queen (or Valtia) of the Kupari, bu things don't really go as expected when it's her time to inherit the magic and take the throne, so she ends up on the run, taken in by outlaws. Elli discovers that many things she had been taught had been either incomplete truths or outright lies, and she discovers that despite her lack of magic, she is not useless. I loved Elli's journey from coddled but controlled heir to proud and hard-working girl. I also loved that she is bisexual and it's shown as something that's accepted by those around her and not something that makes her a freak (although she had some worries at first).

The plot build up was fantastic, because we keep on hoping Elli will be okay, she'll get her magic or some answers at least, and following her very hard path is very rewarding! The plot and the world building go hand in hand, the twists keeping us on our toes whenever we feel like we're getting comfortable and the new information changing our perspective more than once!

The rest of the characters are also quite intriguing and usually more than what we see at first. Elli finds herself struggling about who to trust and how to earn people's trust, and some characters do manage to surprise us more than once with their motivations and/or actions, but Sarah does a great job to make us care for a lot of them quite deeply!

The ending of the book is a resolution of the first conflict but with more definitely to come, so thankfully without a cliffhanger, but it also leaves us wanting more, with quite a few questions that I'm sure will be answered in the final book in this duology!

Fascinating, immersive and with fantastic world building, with well crafted characters that feel real & with a plot that unfolds unhurried but relentlessly, The Impostor Queen is a must read for any fantasy lover! Well deserved 4.5 stars for this one!


View all my reviews

ARC August: Final week recap!!

Hey there guys!

I've just returned from a weekend at the cottage so it's time to get on with my final ARC August recap!

How did I do this week? Well, not too impressively, I must confess... I only read one ARC and as it was, I just needed to finish it because I had started it last weekend.

But by finishing the ARC of Tonight The Streets Are Ours I did manage to achieve one of my main ARC August goals, that was reading all the Sept releases ARCs that I got at BEA! Hooray!

As far as to get to 80% ratio on Netgalley, I did achieve it! YAY! But it bloody well only lasted for a day or two because since I have ZERO self control, I requested a bunch of book, were approved for a few and not I'm back at 77%! Bad Pili, BAD!

All in all, I'd say this edition of ARC August was a success and I want to thank Octavia and Shelly for once again organizing and hosting it! You ladies rock!!

ARC August: Third Week Recap!

Hey guys!

This post should have been done yesterday, since it's the recap for last week and all that, but since I was unplugged at the cottage, it'll have to be done a day later!

Clearly I do much better with my reading when I don't get distracter with Twitter and logging my reading progress on GR, so whenever I need to kick the TBR pile real good, I need to pack my books and head off for the cottage!

I finished Into The Fire before going to the cottage and I hope to review it soon! While at the cottage I read A Curious Tale of the In Between, Firewalker, Walk on Earth a Stranger and started Tonight The Streets Are Ours! (I also finished one book and read another two, but they are finished copies and therefore don't count towards this challenge).

Now... now I need to get my arse in gear and WRITE ALL THE REVIEWS!!

How did you guys do??

ARC August: Second Week Recap!

Hey guys! Welcome to my recap of the second week of ARC August!

This week I haven't done as well as I would have wanted, but being the mood reader than I am, I got through two re-reads and read a newly released book and started another... and so I only finished two ARCs, one physical : The Copper Gauntlet, the review will be up tomorrow and an eARC: The Bollywood Bride, review HERE.

I gave up on Legacy of Kings so I've DNFed that one, and will write a short DNF review after its release. Now I've started two ARCs and I hope to finish them early next week: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano and Into The Fire by Manda Scott!

Into The Fire is one of my backlogged ARCs and I cannot believe I had forgotten about it because it's an adult historical fiction mixed with actual events novels by an author I love and I'm completely immersed in the book now!

Let's hope my mood reading is better and I can get through more ARCs since I'll be spending a few days at the cottage!

How did you guys do this week?

ARC August: First week recap!

Once again I joined ARC August hosted by the lovely ladies of Read Sleep Repeat and this is my first recap post to keep myself accountable!

Between work and my apartment stuff related, I'm not reading as much as I hoped, but on this first week I've focused on reading eARCs, to try and get on with the ever ellusive 80% on NetGalley! I'm happy to report that right now I am at 79%! NEARLY THERE!!

I finished two eARCs this week, Fated by Sarah Fine that I reviewed HERE and Beastly Bones by William Ritter, which will be reviewed next week on the blog.

I've also got two other eARCs started, Riot of Storm & Smoke by Jennifer Ellision that I hope to finish today itself (and hopefully have up for review on Monday) and Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman that I hope to return to at some point and not just give up on... I'm currently at 43% but not too invested, too many POVs seem to be a problem for me...

For week 2 I plan to focus on physical ARCs, and since I'll be gone to my parents cottage for a few days next week, no distractions will mean loads of reading time, or so I hope!

I'll be back next Sunday for another recap!

Tell Me Tuesdays #28!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome ladies of Please Feed The Bookworm and La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

After quite a while since my latest Tell Me Tuesdays post, I'm back again on the saddle, trying (and failing) to get back into a more regular blogging schedule!

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

 The Veil by Chloe Neill

Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil's Isle.

Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.

Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.

But when the Veil threatens to shatter completely, Claire and Liam must work together to stop it, or else New Orleans will burn…

 Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

 In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass--and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.





Back after a while and with 2 ARCs, one physical gifted by my friend Britt from Please Feed the Bookworm, another an eARC from NG and re-reading my gorgeous hardcover of Throne of Glass for the #ReadThroneofGlass re-read in preparation for the release of Queen of Shadows on Sept 1st!! I hoping to finish the two ARCs this week, so I can have their reviews up on the before their release date of August 4th!

 So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!