Cover Reveal: Love, Hate & Us by S.P. West

Author: SP West
Title: Love, Hate, & Us.
Release Date: TBA
Designer: Kirsty-Ann Still
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33392445-love-hate-us
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorspwest/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorSPWest

SYNOPSIS:

Brody and Brooke, sitting in a tree.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G…

We grew up thinking that our future was set in stone.

We were wrong.

Turns out there is a thin line between love and hate.

Then there is us.

Brooke never imagined a life away from Emmerton. She never pictured a life without her childhood sweetheart, Brody. But when Brody does the unthinkable, Brooke’s world is turned upside down. Unable to watch as Brody moves on with his life, she decides to start afresh.

Unfortunately, leaving her past behind is not as easy as she thought, especially when her past wants her back.

Cover Reveal: Cassandra Clare's 'City of Bones 10th Anniversary Edition'

Entertainment Weekly just revealed the beautiful new cover for the tenth anniversary edition of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones! Words cannot fully express how dear this series is to me. I can hardly believe it was ten years ago that I stepped into the Shadow World! Here's what they have to say about this new edition.

EW can reveal both the 10th anniversary cover (a cloth-over-board jacket with text and art stamped in foil) as well as a portrait of Jace Wayland — one of six full-color character portraits that will appear in the new book. The book also features chapter header illustrations, black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout the book, and The Clave’s Confidential Files on our favorite characters, written by Clare herself.

Looking good Jace.😉

From Entertainment Weekly: "Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones — the first installment in her riveting Mortal Instruments series — turns 10 this year. To commemorate this milestone, City of Bones is getting a stunning new anniversary edition, packed with brand new content. EW can reveal both the 10th anniversary cover (a cloth-over-board jacket with text and art stamped in foil) as well as one of the six full-color character portraits that will appear in the new book. The book also features chapter header illustrations, black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout the book, and The Clave’s Confidential Files on our favorite characters, written by Clare herself. (top sekrit info on the characters, including birthdays, scars and major weaknesses ;) Check out the cover and the back, printed with the iconic ALL THE STORIES ARE TRUE. The 10th anniversary edition of City of Bones will be out Nov. 7, 2017, but is available for pre-order now." Entertainment Weekly's story is up along with a portrait of Jace: Link in bio.

A post shared by Cassie Clare (@cassieclare1) on Jun 27, 2017 at 12:31pm PDT

City of Bones: 10th Anniversary Edition will be published on November 7th and is now available for preorder on Amazon!

I'M BACK!

Dear readers,

I know it has been a long time since I've posted on here, but I'm pleased to announce that this site will be active once more. I have a lot of things in the works and can't wait to get started. I hope you like the new look!

STAY TUNED!💗

My 2014 RT Booklover's Convention Experience!

  

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending Teen Day at the RT Booklover's Convention in New Orleans, which took place in my home state of Louisiana. RT is a week long book convention that Booklover's all over travel to each year to meet their favorite authors, attend panels, get free books, and much more. One of my good friends and bloggers, Christina Marie, traveled from Kansas City for the convention. When she arrived we headed straight to New Orleans and I spent that Friday showing her some of the best places in town. The highlight of that first day was meeting the author Sarah Rees Brennan in front of Café Du Monde. Afterwards, we drove back to Baton Rouge and after filming a vlog, we went straight to bed. On Saturday we woke up really early in the morning and drove back to New Orleans for the convention. We met so many amazing authors, got a ton of free books, and attended the awesome Teen Day Party that night. My biggest highlight of RT was meeting and getting to know one of my favorite authors Melissa Marr, and fangirling about Teen Wolf with author Sarah Rees Brennan. Sarah teased us big time about City of Heavenly Fire, Cassandra Clare's last book in The Mortal Instruments Series, along with asking for suggestions on actors to read future audiobooks. After a wonderful day we headed back to Baton Rouge again and filmed a recap vlog about the whole convention. It was such a great weekend and I am so happy Christina was able to come to my neck of the woods to attend it with me. Below, you all can see some of our photos from our time in NOLA and my photos with the different authors I met at the RT Booklover's Convention.

   
NOLA DAY!

RT BOOKLOVER'S CONVENTION!

Me with P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, Authors of the House of Night Series.

Me with Gayle Forman, Author of If I Stay.

Me with Kelley Armstrong, Author of the Otherworld Series and Co-Author of The Blackwell Pages Series.

Me with Leigh Bardugo, Author of the Grisha Trilogy.

Me with Melissa Marr, Author of the Wicked Lovely Series and Co-Author of The Blackwell Pages Series.

Me with the lovely as always, Mari Mancusi, Author of the Blood Coven Series.

Me with Tamora Pierce, Author of The Song of the Lioness Series and much more.

Me with Charlaine Harris, Author of the Sookie Stackhouse Series.

Me with Jeaniene Frost, Author of the Night Huntress Series and Night Prince Series.

Me with Chloe Neill, Author of the Chicagoland Vampires Series.

Me with Sarah Rees Brennan, Author of the Lynburn Legacy Trilogy and Co-Author of The Bane Chronicles.

Me with Claudia Gray, Author of the Evernight Series.

Me with Tera Lynn Childs, Author of the Forgive My Fins Series.

Me with Michelle Rowan, Author of the Nightwatchers Series and the Immortality Bites Series.

Me with Beth Revis, Author of the Across the Universe Trilogy.

Me with Diana Peterfreund, Author of the Killer Unicorns Series and For Darkness Shows the Stars.

Me with Larissa Ione, Author of The Demonica/Lords of Deliverance Series.

Me with Sophie Jordan, Author of the Firelight Trilogy.

Me with Veronica Rossi, Author of the Under the Never Sky Trilogy.

Me with Jennifer L. Armentrout, Author of the Lux Series and the Covenant Series.

Me with Kresley Cole, Author of The Immortals After Dark Series.

I attended the author Gayle Forman's panel, where she discussed her book If I Stay being adapted to film. They showed us the movie trailer and Liana Liberato aka Kim Schein from the film made a special appearance!

The panel was moderated by the author Melissa Marr.

 

 

Me with authors Melissa Marr and Gayle Forman, after Gayle's panel.

Me with Aprilynne Pike, Author of the Wings Series and the Earthbound Series.

Me with April Genevieve Tucholke, Author of the Between Series.

Me with Stacey Kade, Author of the Project Paper Doll Series.

Shadowhunters unite! Me with my girls Ursula and Christina Marie.

Me and one of my good TwiFriends Jiff! The last time I saw her was back in Los Angeles at Tent City 2012 for the The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 World Movie Premiere, so it was wonderful seeing her.

Me and Christina at the Teen Day Party during the RT Booklover's Convention.

Photobooth fun with Christina Marie and author Sarah Rees Brennan.

Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

WHERE TO BUY: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Books-A-Million

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS: Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan.... But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she's really good at it. She and her twin, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fanfiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend; a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world; a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words...and she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

MY REVIEW: This was such a FUN read! And a fast one at that! By far my favorite Rainbow Rowell book! Cath is definitely me in college. I wrote fanfiction, I was socially awkward, I was (and still am) weird around boys. It was fun to read about the experience from an outside perspective! I really enjoyed how passionate she was about fanfiction and Simon Snow. She didn't let anyone try to talk her out of what she was passionate about, not even her professor. She was witty, funny, and all around fun to learn and read about.

Reagan, Cath's roommate, was a huge star of this book. She was SO funny and sarcastic. Her dry humor and her interactions with Cath made the book for me a lot of the times. She was so brash in her approach to life, but it was so endearing to me.

Wren, Cath's twin sister, took a long while for me to warm up to. I did not like this girl for a majority of the book. Mainly because of how she treated Cath, but then it turned into because she was stupid. The way that she was living her life made me cringe. As I was reading about Wren, I thought that her lifestyle was going to get her into trouble sooner or later. She had no buffer and was constantly taking jabs at Cath for various things. While I understand the need for independence, especially as freshmen in college -- Cath was her twin sister and she shouldn't have been treating her like some stranger. It wasn't cool.

Levi, oh my sweet adorable Levi, what on earth to say about this guy? Other than he was absolute flawed perfection on paper. Levi was so fun! He was energetic, friendly, supportive, vulnerable, honest -- everything you could want in a first boyfriend. Sure, he made his fair mistakes but overall, he was a really great character. Developed well and fun to follow. I really loved his interactions with Cath. He really was enamored with her. And it was fun to witness her become just as enamored and not know how to handle it.

Rowell did a fantastic job on painting an accurate picture of the fangirl transition -- from high school to college -- where people most likely wouldn't understand why fanfiction, midnight book releases, etc. are so important. Witnessing Cath come into herself was one of the most rewarding things about this book. She grows so much throughout the book, but by the end of the story, you really sit back and think of how far she has come. WIth the help of Reagan, Levi, Wren and even her professor. There's a character, Nick, that teaches the not-so-fun college lesson to Cath. And I was so proud of her for how she handles him at the end. She's just a different, though the same, girl at the end of this book.

I loved it. Fantastically written, fun, friendly, adorable -- all of the words!  

MY RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review: Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

WHERE TO BUY:

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Book Depository

SYNOPSIS:

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin’s hormones are totally oblivious; they don’t care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He’s stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it’s up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

MY REVIEW: 

Seriously… WTF was this book?

I bounced between a 4-star and a 5-star rating for about 12 hours. Mainly because this book was a lot to process, but not in a bad way. Andrew Smith is crazy. This book is crazy. The plot is crazy. The characters were extremely hormonal (they’re teenagers – boys, at that!). I cannot begin to count how many times Smith used the word ‘horny’ while we were in Austin’s, the main character, head!

Anyway, this story follows the life of Austin Szerba and his confusion over his sexual orientation. That, to me, was the primary focus. He was in love with his girlfriend (since the 7th grade), Shann and also with his best friend, Robby. Through his trying to figure out his preferences, he and Robby accidentally unleashed a plague upon the small town of Ealing, IA. People become infected/infested with parasitic “stuffs” and mutant grasshoppers hatch from within their bodies. Gross, I know!

This is definitely a weird adventure. And I don’t use that term lightly. While the grasshopper part was interesting enough, I found myself more interested in Austin and his relationship struggles. He is a comical, though horny boy who likes to feel good and he always has sex on the brain. I laughed out loud at times, especially when he was telling stories about getting in trouble for reading specific books or when he and Robby were “experimenting”. It felt awkward because it was, but it was also one of my favorite moments in the book.

The characters DID fall a bit flat for me at time, while I really enjoyed Robby, I didn’t come to learn too much about him. Shann — I really knew nothing about her personally. Austin was the only one that I can say that I kind of knew the most, but that’s because we were in his head the entire time.

This time around, I feel that Smith focused on the weird, complex plot of mutant grasshoppers and Austin’s sexual orientation experimenting. Not a bad thing, but I do kind of feel like something was sacrified for the sake of the weird plot.

With that being said, I enjoyed the book. I like how weird it was, I like Austin’s confusion over Shann & Robby. While this book is primarily about a boy’s adolescence and self-discovery, Smith threw in some Storm Trooper crap to make it more interesting. And it was absolutely more interesting. I 100% like “Winger” a lot better, but this one was not a bad read at all!

MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stars!