Listmania Monday: Epic Endpapers

In my time as an active participant of bookstagram, I've discovered it's helpful to know what some particularly pretty books and their respective design features are. Whether I want to feature a certain fictional world for #MapMonday or a rainbow or ombre stack or a set of sprayed pages, I first need to know what books will fit my idea. So in addition to curating lists of books that fit a certain genre or trope, I'm also working on lists of books with particularly eye-catching designs. After all, sometimes it's fun to judge a book by the cover! Or in this case, internal design. I already posted my list of book maps, and today, I'm taking a page out of Epic Reads' book to share a list of stunning endpapers! Scroll down to see a handful of gorgeous endpapers I photographed in my own books!

Note 1: Unless specified, the default is the "regular" US edition.
Note 2: This is a list of pretty endpapers that does not include books with maps as the endpapers. All maps are found in the map list.

Note 3: If all books in a series have special endpapers, I've listed the series as a whole. If there are individual standouts, I've listed them individually. For example, only a couple of the Throne of Glass and ACOTAR books have special editions with fanart on the endpapers so I've only listed those books, not the whole series.

9 Days & 9 Nights - Katie Cotugno

99 Days - Katie Cotugno

Absent - Katie Williams
Almost Midnight (UK) - Rainbow Rowell

And the Ocean Was Our Sky - Patrick Ness

The Archived series - Victoria Schwab

Be True to Me - Adele Griffin
Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld
Beware That Girl - Teresa Toten

Bitterblue - Kristin Cashore
Blessed - Tonya Hurley

Blood of Eden trilogy - Julie Kagawa

The Call - Peadar O'Guilin
Colin Fischer - Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz
Come Sundown - Nora Roberts

A Court of Frost & Starlight (special edition) - Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings & Ruin (special edition) - Sarah J. Maas

A Darker Shade of Magic (special edition) - V.E. Schwab
Daughter of Deep Silence - Carrie Ryan
Draw the Line - Laurent Linn
The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding - Alexandra Bracken

Eleanor & Park (special edition) - Rainbow Rowell

Empire of Storms (special edition) - Sarah J. Maas

Everless (UK edition) - Sara Holland

Fairest - Marissa Meyer

Falling Kingdoms - Morgan Rhodes

Fangirl (special editions) - Rainbow Rowell

Fireworks - Katie Cotugno

Geekerella - Ashley Poston

Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Goliath - Scott Westerfeld
The Grace Year - Kim Liggett

Harry Potter series (illustrated) - J.K. Rowling

The Hate You Give (special edition) - Angie Thomas

The Hazel Wood (US & UK editions) - Melissa Albert

The Heir (special edition) - Kiera Cass
Hunter - Mercedes Lackey

I Am America (And So Can You!) - Stephen Colbert

Illuminae - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Inhuman - Kat Falls

Julia Vanishes - Catherine Egan
Juliet Takes a Breath - Gabby Rivera

Kids of Appetite - David Arnold
Kill the Boy Band - Goldy Moldavsky

Lady Helen series - Allison Goodman
Last Christmas - Kate Brian

The Loose Ends List - Carrie Firestone

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness
The Monstrumologist series - Rick Yancey

Monstrous Beauty - Elizabeth Fama

Mosquitoland - David Arnold

Nantucket Blue - Leila Howland

Nevernight Chronicles (special edition in US, hc in UK) - Jay Kristoff

Night of Cake & Puppets - Laini Taylor

Nightfall (special edition) - Shannon Messenger

No Good Deed - Goldy Moldovsky

Passionaries - Tonya Hurley
Perfect Ruin - Lauren DeStefano

Queen of the Tearling - Erika Johansen

Railhead - Philip Reeve

Red Queen series - Victoria Aveyard

The Ring and the Crown - Melissa de la Cruz

Scorched - Mari Mancusi

The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater

Scrappy Little Nobody - Anna Kendrick

The Shadowhunters Codex - Cassandra Clare
The Shrunken Head - Lauren Oliver

The Spider Ring - Andrew Harwell
Swim That Rock - John Rocco & Jay Primiano

Tales of the Peculiar - Ransom Riggs

Talon series - Julie Kagawa

They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera

The Thousandth Floor series - Katharine McGee

To Kill a Kingdom - Alexandra Christo
Top Ten - Katie Cotugno

Tower of Dawn (special edition) - Sarah J. Maas
Toxic Heart - Theo Lawrence

Two Summers - Aimee Friedman

We Are Okay - Nina Lacour
We Were Liars (deluxe edition) - E. Lockhart
The White Rabbit Chronicles series - Gena Showalter

Why We Broke Up

Winter (special edition) - Marissa Meyer

The Wrath & the Dawn duology - Renee Ahdieh

Zombies vs Unicorns - Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier

Gallery

The Unbound (The Archived #2) - Victoria Schwab

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (front)

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (back)

 Blood of Eden trilogy - Julie Kagawa

 Illuminae & Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

(still bitter Obsidio didn't get pretty papers -_-)

 Wrath & the Dawn duology - Rene Ahdieh

Talon & Rogue - Julie Kagawa

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell (front)

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell (back)

Almost Midnight - Rainbow Rowell

Perfect Ruin - Lauren DeStefano

What are your favorite endpapers? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments!

Blog Tour: LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff

I'm so excited to be kicking off the tour for Jay Kristoff's newest YA series LIFEL1K3! I LOVED this new sci-fi story, and I'm really glad to tell you why. Keep scrolling to check out my review and a giveaway for cooies of the book!

Rating: 5 stars

Release Date: May 29, 2018

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Genre: young adult science fiction

Format/Source: ARC, TLA conference

Status: Book 1 of the LIFEL1K3 series
Links: Illuminae review, Gemina review, Illuminae audio review, Illuminae paperback blog tour, Obsidio review

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher at a work conference and volunteered to be part of the tour, which was organized & hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. This does not affect the content of my review. The full tour schedule can be found HERE. Please go give my fellow tour hosts some love!

Summary:

On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

Listmania: Hockey books

In honor of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite types of book: the hockey book. While I do love the Nashville Predators (#StandWithUs #Smashville) and like the Dallas Stars and find Sidney Crosby to be ridiculously attractive, I'm not a diehard hockey fan. I obsess over football in real life, but hockey? Not so much. I cheer for my teams and enjoy games in person, but I don't actively seek out hockey information. In fiction, it's a whole other story. I LIVE for hockey stories, ESPECIALLY hockey romance. I'm not sure why this is. Possibly it's because I'm such a casual fan that I don't actively search for inconsistencies and factual errors the way I do when I read a football book (hoo boy, football books are awesome, but they drive me crazy). Possibly it's just because fictional hockey players are hot af. We'll never know. But here's a list of some of my favorites!

New Adult

The Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy is hands-down my favorite hockey series. Elle Kennedy sucked me in with The Deal (check out my review!), and I've been hooked on her books ever since. This series follows a group of four hotshot hockey star roommates and their lady loves. The Deal has one of the best scenes I've ever read in my entire life (it's at 90% if you're reading the ebook), and all four books are simply stunning. Elle is currently writing a spinoff series featuring the next generation of guys to inherit the house. Briar Hockey starts with The Chase, which features a teammate of the original guys and one of the guys' little sister. Bring on the trope-y goodness! It's going to release later this summer. Word of advice: don't listen to the audiobooks of The Deal or The Mistake, but the other two are great!

The Ivy Years series by Sarina Bowen is another favorite. I LOVE bingeing this series all in a row. I've done it like three times now. Again, we have a college hockey team, and each book features either one of the guys on the team or someone connected to it. Books 1 and 2 also feature female hockey players, although the heroine in book 1, The Year We Fell Down (it's free on amazon!!!), is recovering from a life-changing injury that has permanently disabled her. Book 3 is an m/m story about two guys on the Harkness team who loved each other in high school but were torn apart by a tragedy. Book 4 is about the hockey team's manager, and book 5 is one of the teammates' younger brother, who is the DJ for home games. Sarina is currently releasing a serial called Studly Period, which about another Harkness hockey teammate you'll meet in the series, and I adore it. There's only a one more chapter (releasing tomorrow) until it's fully released so now's a great time to sign up (and it'll disappear in a few weeks so you definitely want to jump in now)! Studly Period has finished its initial run, but if you missed it, you can sign up to get installments daily!

Him is a duology cowritten by Elle and Sarina about two former friends and hockey camp roommates who fell apart in high school but have reunited after their college graduation for one last summer, this time coaching at the camp where they met. Two years ago at BEA, I was hanging out with Katie (formerly of the Polished Page Turners), and apparently I mentioned Him like four times in an hour. Whoops! This series has one of THE best executions of the friends-to-more trope I've ever read. Wes & Jamie are the most precious little pairs in the universe. They must be protected!

Adult

Speaking of Sarina and Elle, they have another cowritten series called the WAGs (it stands for Wives and Girlfriends). It's a spinoff from Him and Us about Wes's teammates in Toronto and features some adorable pups in addition to hot hockey guys. Currently there's just two books, but both Sarina and Elle have said that there's hope for more books in the future so my fingers are crossed!

Speaking of spinoffs written by Sarina, the Brooklyn Bruisers series spins off The Ivy Years with one of Harkness guys/big brother of book 5's hero finally getting a shot at love and the NHL (pun intended). This series follows three of the Bruisers as the newly reformed franchise make a run for the cup AND fall for some of the fantastic women working for the team. Book 4 focuses on the team's adorkable billionaire owner, who has always been a fan favorite. 

I'm also a huge fan of Sawyer Bennett's Cold Fury Hockey series. If you love huge romance series that stick with people in one place or one family, this one's for you. CFH features the players of the Carolina Cold Fury hockey team, and book 11 is about to release in a couple weeks! I've actually only read the first four (several times each), but one day soon I'm looking forward to bingeing the rest.

If you prefer your romance ridiculous (and your humor on the crude side with a healthy dose of slapstick), Helena Hunting's Pucked series is the one for you. I buddy read Pucked with Andi of Andi's ABCs a couple years ago, and it... was really something. High lit this series is not, but it's funny, and it's fun. Pucked Up, book 2, is my favorite.

Young Adult

Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill is one I'll alllllways put on my lists of favorite sports books. It's got kind of a Prince & the Pauper switcheroo deal going on, but it's two girls with the same name rather than the same face. This book made me obsess over poutine, which I have since tried, and I can attest: poutine is delicious. Way to go, Canada! You can check out my full 5 star review here. 

Sarah Ockler's Bittersweet combines a fun sportsy story with CUPCAKES so honestly, could it be any better? (yes, cupcakes. The cookies on the cover are inaccurate, but each chapter is paired with a yummy cupcake description) Also, this book has the best trope ever: the one where the mc and the li have to hole up somewhere overnight to survive a storm. TBH, it's just as delicious as the cupcakes.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity years ago to be on the tour for Beth Pond's Podium Finish. It's similar to Being Sloane Jacobs in that it contains storylines about both a hockey player and figure skater, but it's very, very different, with much more of a focus on the sports rather than the romance (but there's also romance). You can read my full review here.

Coming in as a NON romance hockey book, Jerkbait by Mie Siegert is a story about two brothers and their relationship with hockey, one another, and their parents. I haven't read this one yet, but it's high on my TBR!

List of hockey books/series:
(keep in mind like 99% are straight up romance)

Aces Hockey series - Kelly Jamieson

Assassins series - Toni Aleo

Bayard Hockey series - Kelly Jamieson
Beauty and the Beefcake - Pippa Grant

Being Sloane Jacobs - Lauren Morrill

Bellevue Bullies series - Toni Aleo

Bittersweet - Sarah Ockler (YA)
Blades Hockey series - Maria Luis

Breakaway (Pro-U #1) - Ali Parker

Briar Hockey series - Elle Kennedy

Brooklyn Bruisers - Sarina Bowen

Cayuga Cougars series - V.L. Locey
Check, Please! - Ngozi Ukazu (YA graphic novel)

Chicago on Ice series - Aven Ellis
Chicago Rebels series - Avery Flynn

Chinooks Hockey Team series - Rachel Gibson
Cold Day in the Sun - Sara Biren

Cold Fury Hockey series - Sawyer Bennett
Cold Hard Truth - Anne Greenwood Brown (YA)
Cranberry Inn series - Beth Ehemann

Dallas Demons series - Aven Ellis

Dartmouth Cobras series - Bianca Sommerland
Dating by Numbers series (particularly One Baby Daddy) - Meghan Quinn

Fire on Ice series - Brenda Rothert
For Crosby (For You #3) - J. Nathan

Harrisburg Railers series - R.J. Scott & V.L. Locey
Hat Trick series - Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn
Hellions Angels series - Lia Riley

Him duology - Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy
Hooked - Brenda Rothert
Hot off the Ice - A.E. Wasp

In the Zone series - Kate Willoughby

The Ivy Years - Sarina Bowen

Jerkbait - Mia Siegert (YA)

Men with Wood series - C.M. Seabrook

Misadventures of a Rookie (Misadventures #11) - Toni Aleo

New York Blades series - Deirdre Martin

Off Campus series - Elle Kennedy
On the Line series - Brenda Rothert
Open Ice - Pat Hughes

The Pilot & the Puck-Up - Pippa Grant

Pilots Hockey series - Sophia Henry
Play by Play series - Jaci Burton
•Taking a Shot (#3)
•Melting the Ice (#7)
•Holiday on Ice (#8.5)
•Shot on Gold (#14)

Podium Finish - Beth Pond (YA)
Point Shot series - V.L. Locey
Portland Storm series - Catherine Gayle

Pucked series - Helena Hunting

Razors Ice series - Rachelle Vaughn

Rinkside in the Rockies series - Aven Ellis
Rough Riders Hockey series - Skye Jordan
Royally Pucked - Pippa Grant

Score (Men of Hidden Creek #5) - A.E. Wasp
Scoring Chances series - Avon Gale

Seattle Sharks - Samantha Whiskey
Something So series - Natasha Madison
Stick Side series - Amy Aislin

To Love a Wildcat series - V.L. Locey

Until It Fades - K.A. Tucker

WAGs series - Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

Pekka Rinne is the GOAT
(although his performance Saturday was... not great.
Here's hoping for a better one tonight!)

Mary's Minute: Why I don't write negative reviews

Thanks for joining me for another Mary's Minute! Today's topic is one that I wrestle with constantly. We're talking 1 star reviews. 

Bloggers get access to a fair amount of free books and work with publishers and authors to promote those books. So what happens when you don't like the book? Do you review or do you not review? THAT is the question. Personally, I refuse to post a 1 or 2 star review on my blog. Plenty of bloggers do, and that's cool; no judgment from me. I'm just going to give you my personal reasoning for not enjoying writing them.

A preemptive note:

This post is regarding negative reviews of books that I don't like/just don't work for me. I am NOT talking about reviews that point out harmful representation of marginalized characters and communities such as that famous review of a book that rhymes with Flack Snitch.  

Why I don't post negative reviews:

I refuse to post negative reviews (I consider 1 and 2 stars to be negative with 1 meaning I hated/really disliked the book, and 2 meaning it was meh) here on Mary Had a Little Book Blog not because I'm afraid of angering an author or a publisher. Instead, it's more that I don't think of myself as being in the business of telling people what not to read. I've always been the girl who people ask what to read. Not just my family and friends, although they do ask my opinion frequently, but also random people in bookstores. I guess it's an air I give off that says, "I know books." I absolutely never grab a book and say, "Ugh. This one is TERRIBLE and I hated it." That's so stupid and utterly pointless. I'd much rather grab a book that I loved and say, "This is wonderful! You should read it."

I once read that there are something like 100,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild, which is basically Hollywood's union. Of that 100K, only 2,000 members make their living acting on screen. The remaining 98% must supplement their acting income with jobs like waiting tables or modeling or whatever. I presume being an author is kind of like that. There are a handful of  NYT best-selling authors who get 7 figure book deals and sometimes 7 figure movie deals to go with. You know who those authors are; I don't have to tell you. But so many others don't have that. They not only have to fight for sales but they often have to fight just for marketing and publicity from their own publisher. It's very dog-eat-dog so many authors also have to have another source of income. This might be a spouse who works, but there are many writers who balance their writing with a full-time job.

Ain't nobody got time for that:

I can post only so many reviews on my blog a year. Last year, it was about 30. I don't want to waste precious review posts on talking about how much I dislike a book. Same goes for Amazon. I would hate if someone was on Amazon, about to buy a book, when they see my 1 star review blasting that author and that book for how awful it was. I don't want to ever be in a position where I am taking sales away from someone. While I may not like a book, that's not to say that someone else won't like it. My favorite comments are those that come from my blog readers saying that my review helped them decide TO read a book. If I ever received a comment saying, "Thanks for sharing. I will never pick that book up," I think I might actually die. 

I know there's this whole thing where it's fun to laugh at absurd 1 star reviews. I'll admit, I've read some good ones, such as this gif-tastic review of Fifty Shades of Grey (fun fact: it's Goodreads's most popular review). Romance reviews in particular are rib-tickling. But these in-jest reviews really depend on the writing ability of the person writing them. There is a line between making fun and being cruel, and I think a lot of people don't know exactly where that line is. Sometimes, I make mistakes when I don't recognize that line either. So, to make sure I never make that mistake when it comes to blogging, I choose to stay as far away from it as possible. YMMV.

Now, this is just on my blog and on retailer websites. Goodreads is its own beast entirely and is subject for another post on another day, but for the record, I actually am okay posting my negative reviews there. Yes, even with the negative review controversy that pops up on GR every now and then. But again, that's for another time.

I want to know what you think. Is my review policy insane? What are your feelings about negative reviews?