Showing posts with label Leila Howland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leila Howland. Show all posts

Top Ten Tuesday #51: Best of 2014 Part 1

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books of 2014, Part 1
I've read some amazing books this year, but I've also had a hard time finding books that really appeal to me. Luckily, these books were the ones that got me out of any book funks. I limited my picks to books that I read for the first time, not any rereads or audiobooks (I have many AMAZING recs when it comes to audio, but I didn't want to feature books that I've read previously).





 


As you can probably tell, I've been having a very contemporary year. There's just something about realistic fiction and romance that has really entertained me and spoken to me for the past few months. What are your favorite picks for 2014 so far?

Blog Tour: Nantucket Red by Leila Howland

http://www.itchingforbooks.com/2014/03/blitz-sign-upnantucket-red-nantucket-2.html


Rating: 5 stars
Pub Date: May 13, 2014
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Genre: young adult contemporary romance
Format/Source: ARC, from the publisher
Status: Book 2 of the Nantucket Blue series

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour, which was organized & hosted by Shane of Itching for Books. The full tour schedule can be found HERE. Please go give my fellow tour hosts some love!


Summary:
Cricket Thompson's lifetime of overachieving has paid off: she's headed to Brown University in the fall, with a spot on the lacrosse team and a scholarship that covers almost everything. Who knew living in the dorm cost money? An Ivy League education seems to mean living at home for the next four years.

When Cricket is offered the chance to earn enough cash to afford a real college experience, she heads back to Nantucket for the summer. But the faraway island challenges Cricket in ways she hadn't anticipated. It's hard to focus on earning money for next year, when she finds her world opening up in entirely new ways-to art, to travel, and, most unexpectedly, to a future completely different from the one she has been working toward her whole life. A friendship blossoms with Ben, the gorgeous surfer and bartender who encourages Cricket to be free, even as she smarts at the pain of seeing Zack, her first love, falling for her worst enemy.

But one night, when Cricket finally lets herself break all her own rules, she realizes she may have ruined her carefully constructed future with one impulsive decision. Cricket must dig deep to fight for her future, discovering that success isn't just about reaching goals, but also about listening to what she's been trying to ignore-her own heart.

Top Ten Tuesday #39: Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books on my Spring TBR


 

 

 

  



Which new reads are you most looking forward to this spring? Share your picks and your TTT links in the comments!

Cover Love 7


There have been a bunch of cover reveals as of late so I thought I'd just round up a bunch and share them all for anyone who has missed them. This is a pretty gorgeous bunch. I know I'm excited about them. Enjoy!

I know I already shared this cover, but I love it so much that I wanted to share it again!

The Fine Art of Pretending
Fine Art of Pretending #1
Rachel Harris
Spencer Hill Contemporary
September 2014


Summary:
According to the guys at Fairfield Academy, there are two types of girls: the kind you hook up with, and the kind you're friends with. Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Reed is the second type. And she hates it. With just one year left to change her rank, she devises a plan to become the first type by homecoming, and she sets her sights on the perfect date—Justin Carter, Fairfield Academy’s biggest hottie and most notorious player.

With 57 days until the dance, Aly launches Operation Sex Appeal and sheds her tomboy image. The only thing left is for Justin actually to notice her. Enter best friend Brandon Taylor, the school’s second biggest hottie, and now Aly’s pretend boyfriend. With his help, elevating from “funny friend” to “tempting vixen” is only a matter of time.

But when everything goes according to plan, the inevitable “break up” leaves their friendship in shambles, and Aly and Brandon with feelings they can’t explain. And the fake couple discovers pretending can sometimes cost you the one thing you never expected to want.
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I'm not entirely sure when the cover for Nantucket Red was released, but I just saw it and wanted to share. Nantucket Blue was really good, and I have a feeling this one is going to just destroy me.

Nantucket Red
Nantucket Blue #2
Leila Howland
Disney-Hyperion
May 13, 2014


Summary:
Cricket Thompson's lifetime of overachieving has paid off: she's headed to Brown University in the fall, with a spot on the lacrosse team and a scholarship that covers almost everything. Who knew living in the dorm cost money? An Ivy League education seems to mean living at home for the next four years.

When Cricket is offered the chance to earn enough cash to afford a real college experience, she heads back to Nantucket for the summer. But the faraway island challenges Cricket in ways she hadn't anticipated. It's hard to focus on earning money for next year, when she finds her world opening up in entirely new ways-to art, to travel, and, most unexpectedly, to a future completely different from the one she has been working toward her whole life. A friendship blossoms with Ben, the gorgeous surfer and bartender who encourages Cricket to be free, even as she smarts at the pain of seeing Zack, her first love, falling for her worst enemy.

But one night, when Cricket finally lets herself break all her own rules, she realizes she may have ruined her carefully constructed future with one impulsive decision. Cricket must dig deep to fight for her future, discovering that success isn't just about reaching goals, but also about listening to what she's been trying to ignore-her own heart.
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I have never read one of Elizabeth Fama's books before, but this cover makes me want to pick this one up. I love it!


Plus One
Elizabeth Fama
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
April 8, 2014


Summary:
Divided by day and night and on the run from authorities, star-crossed young lovers unearth a sinister conspiracy in this compelling romantic thriller.

Seventeen-year-old Soleil Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller prohibited by law from going out during the day. When she fakes an injury in order to get access to and kidnap her newborn niece—a day dweller, or Ray—she sets in motion a fast-paced adventure that will bring her into conflict with the powerful lawmakers who order her world, and draw her together with the boy she was destined to fall in love with, but who is also a Ray.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide,
Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights, and a fast-paced romantic adventure story.
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I need this book so badly that it physically hurts, which is funny because I know as soon as I have it, I will emotionally hurt from all the feels Julie's going to drop on me.

 The Forever Song
Blood of Eden #3
Julie Kagawa
Harlequin Teen
April 15, 2014


Summary:
VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS

Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster?

With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.

MONSTER

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.

In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.
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Of Scars and Stardust
Andrea Hannah
Flux
October 8, 2014


Summary:
After her little sister mysteriously vanishes, seventeen-year-old Claire Graham has a choice to make: stay snug in her little corner of Manhattan with her dropout boyfriend, or go back to Ohio to face the hometown tragedy she's been dying to leave behind.

But the memories of that night still haunt her in the city, and as hard as she tries to forget what her psychiatrist calls her "delusions," Claire can't seem to escape the wolf's eyes or the blood-speckled snow. Delusion or reality, Claire knows she has to hold true to the most important promise she's ever made: to keep Ella safe. She must return to her sleepy hometown in order to find Ella and keep her hallucinations at bay before they strike again. But time is quickly running out, and as Ella's trail grows fainter, the wolves are becoming startlingly real.

Now Claire must deal with her attraction to Grant, the soft-spoken boy from her past that may hold the secret to solving her sister's disappearance, while following the clues that Ella left for only her to find. Through a series of cryptic diary entries, Claire must unlock the keys to Ella's past—and her own—in order to stop another tragedy in the making, while realizing that not all things that are lost are meant to be found.

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100 Sideways Miles
Andrew Smith
Simon & Schuster
September 2014


Summary:
Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.

Then Julia moves away, and Finn is heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.

Top Ten Tuesday #2: Summer TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top of my summer TBR list

1. Awaken by Meg Cabot. MC has been one of my favorite authors since forever. I kind of gave up on the Princess Diaries when I got a little too old for them, but I've never outgrown my love of all things Cabot. The Abandon trilogy is no different. Not my favorite, but still exciting enough for me to be freaking out over book #3. ESPECIALLY after hearing some crazypants spoilers. After my required reading for a few upcoming blog tours, Awaken is #1 TBR.
Release date: July 2nd



2. Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols. Jennifer is another absolute favorite of mine. After meeting her at TLA, I'm just beside myself with fangirly joy. Some of it may have splashed all over Jen, for which I'm deeply ashamed and yet...not. Anyway, DLS is set in Nashville, which is hometown #2 for me, so I can't wait to visit in Jen's latest surely awesome romantic drama. Blog tour on July 8th and maybe, just maybe, you'll find a giveaway sometime around then too...Stay tuned!
Release date: July 16th




3. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano & Paolo Lamanna. If you pay attention to my Weekly and/or Monthly Wrap-Up posts, you may have noticed a ridiculous amount of graphic novel adataptions in my read and tbr lists. I'm really drawn to them right now. The art in the Artemis Fowl gns isn't my absolute favorite, but the cartoony drawings do fit better with the story than the realistic or manga-ish art I usually prefer. The Eternity Code is my favorite out of the AF series so I'm pretty stoked about seeing this adaptation in particular. Team Butler!
Release date: July 9th

4. The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa. Keeping with the eternal theme, I've been looking forward to this since The Immortal Rules. It must be tough to do a vampire novel on the downward spiral of the vampire wave, and tough to do a dystopian novel in the crest of the dystopian wave, but Kagawa has made a real winner with the Blood of Eden series. I like it so much better than The Iron Fey, even (blasphemy to Kagawa's fans, I know). Took my library a while to get this in, which is why I haven't read it yet. This one and Til the World Ends are tbr-asap, but I'm afraid I might not get to it before I have to take it back to the library. :(



5. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. Really liked Cinder and people say Scarlet's even better so bring it on! This whole slightly steampunk/futuristic/fairy tale twist thing Marissa's got going on is fantastic. You wouldn't think all these genres would fit, but they do fit oh so well. Probably will be read toward the latter half of summer, or a couple days before I have to return it to the library, whichever comes first.





6. Hourglass by Myra McEntire. I need to read this AND Timepiece quickly because I've heard such lovely things about them so I'd like to be able to get to them before/around Infinityglass's release. 







7. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Talk about talked about. I hear Leigh Bardugo's name and The Grisha all over EVERYTHING. I snagged a copy of Siege and Storm at TLA so I really need to be a good reader/blogger/person and read the series already.






8. Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike. Another author whose reputation precedes her, but I haven't yet read any of her novels. So many friends, bloggers, and blogger friends swear by Aprilynne Pike's novels that I need to jump on this one quickly as well!






9. Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland. This title was raved about and nabbed very quickly at TLA. Color me convinced. I listen to recommendations, especially when they come as in-force as the books on this list. Nantucket is no exception.







10. Defy the Dark edited by Saundra Mitchell. The other non-novel format you can find most often on my read/tbr lists is the anthology. I lovelovelove anthologies right now. I think it's freaking fantastic that my favorite authors are writing more stories more often. Especially Beth Revis, who keeps popping out Across the Universe novellas like they're freaking candy. Well, I WANT CANDY HAPPYTHANKYOUMORE PLEASE. Ahem. Anywho, can't wait for this one. Hopefully my library will order it in a timely fashion.
Release date: TODAY!


Bonus book: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. My brother is a DIE-HARD Sanderson fan so I grabbed this for him at TLA. He hasn't had much time to read it, but my brother-in-law (just like my brother in all ways) flew through it and pronounced it the Best Thing Ever. Another end-of-the-summer read, but I still want to get to it before fall.
Release date: September 24th