Review: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: borrowed
First Publication Date: 1905
POV: 3rd person
Pacing: okay
Genres & Themes: Classic, Historical Fiction, Children, Friendship, Family, Love.

BLURB:

Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this resourceful girl’s fortunes change again is at the center of A Little Princess, one of the best-loved stories in all of children’s literature.

Book Tour (Promo Post): Holly Hearts Hollywood by Kenley Conrad

Holly Hearts Hollywood
by Kenley Conrad
Release Date: 09/23/14
Swoon Romance

Summary from Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Holly Hart wants to be a star. She moves to Los Angeles from the small town of Cedar Junction, only to hear she’s too fat and ugly to be a famous singer.

But when Shell Shocked Records looks past Holly’s plus-size and less-than-graceful-personality to offer her a recording contract, Holly cannot believe her good fortune. On closer inspection, however, the record execs want Holly to do all the singing, and a thinner and more beautiful girl, Lacey, would lip-sync and get all the credit. Holly goes for it because after all, she wanted to sing.

Contractually bound to secrecy, Holly is more than happy to sit backstage while Lacey shimmies in the limelight and basks in the fame. Before she knows it, Holly is friends with Serena, the pop-star daughter of a music-mogul, flirting with an intern, and developing a strange half-friendship with Lacey.

When Grayson Frost, the biggest country star in America, and coincidentally, a former school bully begins dating Lacey, Holly hopes that he won’t recognize or torment her.

Through a series of embarrassing and weird events, Holly gets to know Grayson and learns that he is much nicer and more mature than he was four years ago. Holly is horrified when she starts falling for him. When Grayson admits he fell for Lacey’s voice, what is a girl to do when she can’t legally tell the truth at the moment when the truth matters the most?

Review: Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: borrowed
Publication Date: September 9th, 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
POV: 1st (but mostly 3rd person)
Pacing: slow
Genres & Themes: YA, Contemporary, Friendship, Bullying, Mental Illness, Love, Death.

BLURB:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

Review: Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Received: NetGalley
Publication Date: February 5th 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pacing: fast
POV: 3rd person
Genres & Themes: YA-MG, Steampunk, Friendship.

BLURB:

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother’s existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea–and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right–but it’s a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine’s certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

Review: The Aftermath (Aftermath #1) by Jen Alexander

The Aftermath by Jen Alexander

My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Received: gifted
Publication Date: August 26th 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
POV: 1st person & female
Pacing: fast
Genres & Themes: YA, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Romance.

BLURB:

Sometimes, I dream that I’m someone else.

A girl with dark hair who doesn’t worry about hunger

or thirst or running from flesh-eaters.

In her world, those sorts of things don’t exist.

Since the spring of 2036, when the world changed forever, Claudia and a small clan of survivors have roamed the streets of a very altered Nashville: polluted and desolate, except for the ever-present threat of cannibal Hoarders. Together they must undergo punishing tests of endurance and psychological challenge sometimes with devastating consequences all just to live another day.

With food and water in dwindling supply, and with danger lurking around every corner, no one can be trusted. And as her world starts to make less and less sense, Claudia begins to realize something terrifying: she is just a pawn in some sort of game, and all of her actions are being controlled from afar by a mysterious gamer. So when she meets a maddening and fascinating outsider named Declan, who claims to be a game moderator, she must decide whether to join him in exchange for protection and access to the border.

If they play the game right, they are each other’s best hope for survival and a life beyond the only world Claudia’s ever known: the terrifying live-action game known as The Aftermath.

Review: Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson

Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Received: borrowed
Publication Date: September 2nd 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
POV: 1st person & female
Pacing: slow
Genres & Themes: YA, Contemporary, Mental Illness, Romance, Family, Friendship, Secrets.

BLURB:

A powerful story of a girl who is afraid to touch another person’s skin, until the boy auditioning for Hamlet opposite her Ophelia gives her a reason to overcome her fears.

Step on a crack, break your mother’s back. Touch another person’s skin, and Dad’s gone for good.

Caddie can’t stop thinking that if she keeps from touching another person’s skin, her parents might get back together… which is why she wears full-length gloves to school and covers every inch of her skin.

It seems harmless at first, but Caddie’s obsession soon threatens her ambitions as an actress. She desperately wants to play Ophelia in her school’s production of Hamlet. But that would mean touching Peter, who’s auditioning for the title role—and kissing him. Part of Caddie would love nothing more than to kiss Peter—but the other part isn’t sure she’s brave enough to let herself fall.

Perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson, this debut novel from Rachel M. Wilson is a moving story of a talented girl who’s fighting an increasingly severe anxiety disorder, and the friends and family who stand by her.

Blog Tour (Review + Giveaway): Part-time Princess (Ladies in Waiting #1) by Pamela DuMond

Book & Author details:

Part-time Princess  by Pamela DuMond
(Ladies in Waiting #1)

My Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publication date: Spring 2014
Genres: Comedy, New Adult, Romance

B & N | Amazon | Kobo

Synopsis:

Two Princes are in love with her. Too bad she’s an imposter…

Hold tight to your tiara, grab your scepter and be prepared for the New Adult hilarious, modern-day romantic-comedy ride of your life!

Rated PG-13 and mildly R for:

Sexual innuendo.
Hot Guys.
Hot Guys who are Princes.
Flirting.
Romance.
The occasional naughty word.
The occasional naughty royal fantasy.

Waiting on Wednesday (#5)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly post created by Breaking the Spine , that features our most anticipated book to be released.

Book Blitz (Excerpt + Giveaway): Orenda (Orenda #1) by Ruth Silver

Orenda (Orenda #1)

by Ruth Silver 

Release Date: 04/13/14

Patchwork Press

Summary from Goodreads:

 Join forces with a parallel universe. 

Dark forces, magical creatures, and the world Lil thought she knew collide when a dream transports her to the strange world of Orenda. Stunned and terrified, Lil comes face to face with her doppelganger, Willow, who possesses the ability to travel between the two worlds. Everything Lil knows logically says that Orenda can’t exist, but a small clue may be proof that it was more than an ordinary dream. With the threat of her sister in danger, Lil crosses dimensions but it may cost her even more than she bargained for. 

A sword wielding girl, the eternal suit, and a parallel universe come together in this action- packed Young Adult fantasy adventure that will keep readers of all ages turning the pages. Orenda is the first novel in the Orenda series.

Buy Links:

Amazon│Barnes & Noble

Review: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Recieved: bought
Publication Date: June 5th 2012
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
POV: 1st person & female
Pacing: inbetween fast and slow
Genres & Themes: YA, Fantasy, Romance, Magic, Adventure, Friendship.

BLURB:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.