Just a YA book reader sharing her thoughts with the world

This is my first ever blog tour and I am so, so excited. I can’t imagine a better book to start off with honestly. Thank you to FFBC and the publishers for this opportunity.

Click the banner to see the rest of the blog tour schedule. I am so glad to be doing this with some of my favorite blogging friends.

Today Melly had us writing letters to our babies…

Cassandra McMurtrey has the best parents a girl could ask for. They’ve given Cass a life she wouldn’t trade for the world. She has everything she needs—except maybe the one thing she wants. Like, to know who she is. Where she came from. Questions her adoptive parents can’t answer, no matter how much they love her.

But eighteen years ago, someone wrote Cass a series of letters. And they may just hold the answers Cass has been searching for.

Alternating between Cass’s search for answers and letters from the pregnant teen who gave her up for adoption, this voice-driven narrative is the perfect read for fans of Nina LaCour and Jandy Nelson.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Cynthia Hand is the New York Times bestselling author of several books for teens,including the UNEARTHLY trilogy, THE LAST TIME WE SAY GOODBYE,MY LADY JANE and MY PLAIN JANE (with fellow authors Brodi Ashton andJodi Meadows), THE AFTERLIFE OF HOLLY CHASE, and the upcoming novels. THE HOW AND THE WHY and MY CALAMITY JANE (also with Ashton and Meadows). Before turning to writing for young adults, she studied literary fiction and earned both an M.F.A. and a Ph.D. in fiction writing. She currently resides in Boise, Idaho, with her husband, two cats, one crazy dog, two kids, and mountain of books.

Publisher: HarperTeen

Genre/s: YA, Contemporary

Number of Pages: 464

Where can you get it?

Amazon

Books A Million

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Apple Books

Kobo

Google Books

Release Date: November 5th 2019

I am so glad that I read this book. I really enjoyed it, I sat down and read it all within a few hours (only stopping to go eat dinner). I have had a really crappy month with getting through books but I had no issues with this one at all. I loved the way the book flowed from S to Cass through real time and the letters.

I can only imagine that if I was in S’s shoes, I would have done the same thing. Personally, my parents got pregnant at young age and even though sometimes, our relationships can be rocky, I can’t imagine growing up in a different family. But also I am now five years older than my mom was when she had me and I can’t imagine becoming a mother and having someone who completely depends on me. But I also can’t imagine being a part of the baby’s life and not being their mother.

I also loved that this book showed multiple sides of adoption. You had Cass who was born in the States and who was adopted in the States and could visit where her biological parents had been. She was also adopted as a baby before any of her memories could form. But you also have Nyla who was born in Liberia and was adopted at age three, after losing her family in a civil war. She knows she had a life, a culture and even a different language but now she can’t remember any of it. This book also talks about opened and closed adoptions and some of the differences.

Another thing that really drew me into this book was the overall friendship of Cass and Nyla. The deepness of their friendship is rooted in their shared experience of being adopted and being able to have someone to talk to about it but there were so many other things that made me fall in love with their friendship. I think it might be because Nyla reminds me of my best friend/sister who is also Mormon (therefore doesn’t swear or drink caffeine), loves musical theater (thank you again Amanda for bringing me Wicked) and she ALSO went to school in Idaho (I know Nyla doesn’t but it was a similarity). I love that the Nyla and Cass are similar but still have their own personalities. They blend into each other’s families and even when they fight and say horrible things, they give second chances and understand when to push the other.

I really don’t have anything bad to say about this book. It ends openly so we can imagine what happens next which I’m not a huge fan of in general but not everything can have a perfect little bow to tie it up with so I won’t knock it for that.

So for the blog tour, I was assigned to pick out my favorite quotes. Some of them might not make sense out of context but during reading they stuck out to me.

Again, I really loved this book and I am so grateful to have received an ARC and be a part of this blog tour!!!

Happy Halloween y’all! Welcome to the review of the only spooky book I read this October.

Author: Dahlia Adler (editor)

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Published on: September 10th 2019

Number of Pages: 252 (without original tales) 470 (with original tales)

Bought, Borrowed or ARC: Borrowed from my public library (but intend to buy my own copy)

Where can you get it?

Again, I make no money off of these links. These are simply for your convenience. These prices are accurate as of October 21st 2019.

Amazon: $14.45

Book Depository: $15.02

Barnes and Noble: $15.19

Books-A-Million: $15.95

Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.

Contributors include Kendare Blake (reimagining “Metzengerstein”), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morge”), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).

I really only picked up His Hideous Heart because I know my fiancee, Alice, loves Edgar Allen Poe. I requested it sometime in September and got it about a week before this post was written. For a brand new book, I say that’s pretty good, especially since it had to come from a neighboring county.

I will be the first to admit that I am not very familiar with Poe’s work, though I should be because I was born in Baltimore and Alice loves his work. We’ve talked a few times about visiting his house in Baltimore but just haven’t. Maybe in 2020. But let’s focus on the book huh?

I’ve only ever read The Raven and AnnaBel Lee and that was because they were required in school. I struggle a lot with “older” writings because of the wording so to have the tales told in a way I can easily understand was great. I love that they chose 13 tales because it makes it a little extra spooky. My two favorite tales were Night-Tide, which is based on Annabel Lee, and Lygia, which is based on Ligeia. They both feature WLW relationships which was a total and welcome surprise and I would buy this book for those two stories alone.

This month was a mess and I feel like both this post and my blog in general really show that. I am so sorry you guys. I really hope November is better.

This month I read 12 books and DNF’d one!

• Conceal, Don’t Feel

• Her Royal Highness

• If Only I Could Tell You

• Hamilton and Peggy

• A Curse So Dark and Lonely

• House of Salt and Sorrows

• His Hideous Heart

• Season of the Witch

• All The Bad Apples

• Once and For All

• Blanca and Roja

• Across a Broken Shore (ARC)

DNF’D

• Meant to Be Yours

There isn’t a whole lot to say here. I didn’t do very many blog or reading related things this month. No readathons or special orders. While I did keep up with my posting schedules, I constantly felt behind on blogging and reading all month. I spent most of the month trying to prep my blog for my trip so that nothing changes for y’all.

However one big thing that happened this month is that we reached over 200 followers on the blog! Thank you all so much for following me and being interested in what I have to share. I am so lucky.

I had stopped posting on instagram because I couldn’t keep up. On October 21st, I took my instagram down entirely. I was too worried about posting and interacting and having great pictures and it just became too much for me to balance right now.

Personal wise this month was a pretty bad month honestly. My stress is so high as we get closer and closer to my wedding. We have finally started packing so I am feeling a little better about that. I can’t wait to leave and finally be married to my love in just eight days!!!

Tv Shows and Movies

• We are still watching Golden Girls
• We have restarted Cutthroat Kitchen on Hulu
• I am very slowly still watching NCIS

5 Cute Non-Book Gift Ideas for Your Bookworm Friend (aka Yourself) By Yna @ Yna The Mood Reader

Discussion: Why You Should Get Rid Of Your Books By Laura @ TheBookCorps

Beyond the Blurb | Reading Diverse Books Is More Intimidating than I Thought They’d Be By Siobhan @ Siobhansnovelties

My Truth About ARCS By Jess @ Fictionnochaser

Major Things You Forgot (or didn’t know!) From Harry Potter By Xandra @ Starry Sky Books

I hope you all had a great month and I can’t wait to see where November takes us together.

This coming month I am doing a lot of traveling as I am getting married out of state and going on my honeymoon. So this list is a little shorter than normal. Some of these I am taking with me on my trip and the rest I will try to get to after I come back. I really don’t want to stress myself with reading or blogging this month so we will see how everything goes.

Even though I was so, so excited for this book, I didn’t get to it last month so here it is again. This month for sure.

I wavered back and forth on this one because it was pretty pricy but I finally broke down and bought this one after staring at it for what felt like forever.

I didn’t think i was going to read this because it doesn’t sound like my kind of book but I’ve heard really good things and decided to give it a chance.

Again, I’ve heard a few things about this book and was unsure. I ended up finding it on sale so I picked it up.

I’ve really been into fantasy and fairytale type books for the last few months so I decided to check out The Beast Is an Animal. Not my favorite title but the blurb sounded good.

I have wanted to read this for ages and I am so excited that I am finally bringing it to the top of my list and reading it! I’ve heard it’s sad and beautiful and wonderful.

I bought this in August intending to read it and somehow, it got away from me. I try pretty hard to read the books I buy or receive within a month so I feel pretty bad that it has sat.

I did a post on books about Hamilton earlier this month and I had tried to binge read as many of them as I could before it went up but this one didn’t make it. Hopefully I will have better luck with it this coming month.

And that’s everything! I really want to have some down time this month so I am capping this at 8 books. Almost half of what I tried and failed to read in October.

Happy Tuesday y’all!! I’ve taken a little break from TTT just because I felt I couldn’t meet the prompt. But this week I’m back because it’s a Halloween freebie and I could basically do whatever I wanted.

I chose to do my Top Ten favorite candies/treats I liked getting while trick or treating.

Just as a reminder, here is how Top Ten Tuesday works!

Jana assigns each Tuesday a topic and then we all post our top ten list that fits that topic. Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

You’ll find the schedule of upcoming TTT topics here you can plan ahead.If you don’t have a blog, post your picks in the comment section below! Have tons of fun talking books and getting to know your fellow bloggers!

I think I have pretty good candy tastes but what do y’all think? Do you like any of these? What is your favorite candy??

Author: Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books

Published on: August 27th 2019

Number of Pages: 320

Bought, Borrowed or ARC: Borrowed from my public library

Where can you get it?

Again I do not make any money off of these links. These are just to make it easier for y’all.

Book Depository: $9.20

Books-A-Million:

Amazon: $13.49

Barnes and Noble: $14.39

The day after the funeral all our mourning clothes hung out on the line like sleeping bats. ‘This will be really embarrassing,’ I kept saying to my family, ‘when she shows up at the door in a week or two.’

When Deena’s wild and mysterious sister Mandy disappears – presumed dead – her family are heartbroken. But Mandy has always been troubled. It’s just another bad thing to happen to Deena’s family. Only Deena refuses to believe it’s true.

And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family’s blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions – but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse’s roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family’s rotten past – or rip it apart forever.

At the time of me writing this, it has actually been about a week or two since I read the book so I am kind of sparse on details. I remember really liking it and I read through it pretty quickly. I really like the supporting characters more than the main ones but sometimes that happens and that’s okay.

I did really like the story and how it focused a lot on things that families might decide make you the “bad apple” or “odd one out” like pregnancy out of wedlock and being part of the LGBT community. I also liked the magical realism that this book had. I didn’t think that was something I would like and while it does sometimes make books harder to read, it really brings something extra as well.

Before I start, thank you to Elysa @ Elysa Reads It All for tagging me in this. I really appreciate it!!

THE RULES:

• Please link back to Bionic Book Worm, the creator of this tag!
• Use the graphics – if you want 
• Have fun!

I’m sure if I looked, I could find books similar to this one but With The Fire on High just felt so…. special and different when I read it.

I was literally screaming in a group chat with my friends when I finished this book.

I read this recently as well but the whole time I was swooning. I want to buy a copy of my own to read around Christmas!!

I love the Rizzoli and Isles books. Not as much as the show but they are still a good series.

I really, really want to read this book and I might just bump it to the top of my list here shortly.

I’m not sure who has done this tag and who hasn’t so if I tag you and you have, I’m sorry!! Also y’all please leave a comment below if I can tag you in posts like this!

Adele

Leelynn

Kitty

E.

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

How does it work?

• Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

Thank you so much Amelia for tagging me. I am so lucky to be a part of this community.

What was the book that made you fall in love with reading?

Honestly? I have no idea. I’ve been reading as long as I can remember but one book I loved when I was young was, Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret.

If you had to choose a non-natural color for your hair, what would it be?

Probably a deep navy or a reddish color. I really like funky colored hair on others but it’s not really for me.

What is your favorite holiday?

In theory, my favorite holiday is Christmas because I love the lights and the snow and the gifts and the food but the time around Christmas is actually very hard for me so I find it hard to stay happy.

Do you have any special books in your collection (ex: signed books, special editions, etc)?

Not right now! But I want to take a few Disney books to Disney and get them signed by the characters.

If you could get away with one crime, what would it be?

I don’t think there is any crime I would feel comfortable doing.

What is a scent that always brings back a good memory?

I love the smell of sunscreen. While there isn’t just one memory, it brings back memories of summers with my best friends.

What is your favorite format to read books in (e-book, audio, hardcover, paperback)?

I used to say paperback but now other than audiobooks, I read whatever I can. But I do prefer physical copies whether hardback or paperback.

What makes you laugh until you cry?

The last thing to do this was my friend from work.

If you were a cartoon character, what would your signature outfit be?

Jeans and Disney T shirt or my work uniform which is jeans and a work T shirt. If I could pick, it might be a dress because I love dresses but I’m normally in denim and a T shirt.

Who is a person you admire and why?

My aunt. She is always willing to hear me out and try to help. She is also honest with me when I need advice.

What’s the weirdest fun fact that you know?

With a total of only 18 whole lines, Princess Aurora is the Disney Princess with the least amount of dialogue.

I tag…..

Leelynn

Kitty

Adele

Mari

Nen and Jen

Ember

Amanda

Cierra

LaRonda

Elysa

Dini

My questions for y’all if you want to participate are:

1. What is one book you would make everyone read if you could, that is NOT a classic?
2. What is your favorite season and why?
3. Where do you prefer to buy your books from?
4. Do you lend people your books?
5. Do you have a favorite Disney movie and if so, what is it?
6. What is a scent that always brings back a good memory?
7. If you had to run a blog about something that wasn’t books, what would it be?
8. What is one fact about you that people don’t normally know?
9. If you could meet one author, who would you meet?
10. Who is a person you admire and why?
11. Where is one last in the world you hope to visit?

Borrowed, Bought or ARC: This was an ARC granted to me through NetGalley and the publishers. I am very thankful for this opportunity. All thoughts published below are my honest and true opinion.

Where did I get it?: As stated above, I got this from NetGalley.

Publisher:  West 44 Books

Genres: Poetry, Teen & YA

Number of Pages: 200

Release Date: August 1st 2019

June is fat. June also has an eating disorder, but no one sees. When she doesn’t eat, her friends and family think they see a fat girl on a diet, not someone starving herself. When June’s secret is found out by Toby, the new boy next door, she is panicked. Then she learns he also has a secret. Everyone has their own little lies.

I was excited to read this book but for me, it being in verse form really took a lot away from the story. I felt like a lot things were glossed over (IE her mom, the relationship with Toby, Recovery). This would have been a great story if it was longer or not in verse form. I’m not even sure what Toby’s lie was? It just really fell flat for me.

WARNING THIS POST WILL INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT

Hey Y’all! I’m not even sure how to start this off but recently I read The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti.

The whole time I read it, I had such an issue with the main character, Hawthorn, that I couldn’t really focus on the rest of the book. Hawthorn was selfish, rude, insanely bitter and dismissive everyone else’s feelings. I wanted to reach through the book and shake Hawthorn and scream that even if someone’s life seems perfect, that doesn’t mean they deserve to have something bad happen to them nor does it protect them from bad things happening.

When they first find out that Lizzie is missing, Rush, Hawthron’s brother is really broken up about it and Hawthorn basically makes fun of Lizzie to his face only be snapped at by her mother needing to be more compassionate. Basically if Lizzie, for a single second through the rest of the book, had listened to her mother here, everything would have been different. Haw becomes obsessed with Lizzie, going to Lizzie’s job and taking over the empty position left by Lizzie and even getting into a relationship of sorts with Lizzie’s boyfriend and telling him how she thinks Lizzie ran off because she became a werewolf. At this point in the book, Lizzie is almost certainly considered dead by most and it just made me so mad that Haw was being so disrespectful! Especially since when they do find out what happened to Lizzie, Haw breaks down and cries as if she ever really cared. I had no sympathy for her and couldn’t understand how she had gotten from making fun of people and telling them they shouldn’t be upset to crying about Lizzie.

By the end of my read, I was furious and I didn’t know how I was ever going to write any sort of review for this book when all I wanted to do was beat the crap out of Haw. It really got me thinking, does disliking the main character of a book because of their actions make a book bad?

Haw isn’t exactly made out to be a villain or a bad person in the typical sense but she ruined this book for me. I honestly don’t remember too much about my read other than I kept thinking about ridiculously insane and again, disrespectful Haw was the whole time. I ended up giving the book one star on Goodreads and I fully plan to do something with it so it is no longer in my possession.

I think the main character/s can definitely make or break a book for me and if I have a huge issue with them (unless they are supposed to be a villain type) it will affect my rating of the book.

So what do you think? Do the characters and how they act affect your thoughts and rating on a book? Let me know!