You know, this year has been soooooooo busy! I keep saying I'm going to slow down on signing up for tours, and then, I don't. That's still a goal that I have for this year! This June has been an exciting one. And July is going to be as well I think. But I'll talk more about that later. First off, let's talk about stats for June:
# of books read June/year so far: 15/104 - I've dropped my Goodreads goal for the year to 200, so I'm now 5 books ahead. Just didn't see how I was going to get to my 265 as the number I was behind kept going up.
# of reviews posted in June/year so far: 12/99 - and actually, I have 9 reviews overdue!
Challenge updates:
My goal for the year was 4, and I at least have one done, Book Blogger Woes. I still have some other ideas, just need time to do them!
My goal for the year is 6, and I am getting close, 5 done!
My goal was 12 books, in March I had 3, since then I've only read 2 more.
Felony Ever After: A Domino Anthology - 13 authors - 1 story Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1) by Zoraida Cordova - no review written yet
1. My first goal was to finish one of my works in progress, which I did finally finish my short story. Then, I let a friend read it. Well, she read just the introduction and kind of blasted it apart. So, I'm going to go back and rework it. Editing you know! Guess that is important! I did catch on to something that I do seem to always do with my beginnings, and I know that I need to make them more interesting, so I'm working on that. Of course I haven't had much writing time. And actually, for about a month after I got her comments on my story, I kind of was feeling like it was a waste of time. But since then, I've decided that I do still want to write. Still, not much time it seems!
2. My 2nd goal was to read books that have been suggested by friends. Sad to say, I've not made any progress with this at all.
3. Cutting back on blog tours. Well, I keep thinking I've done it, but yeah, still not doing that great. Lots to work on. One thing that I think might help me is that I've started adding dates on my calendar for when I need to do a review for my ARCs. So that might help since it will show less days open for tours.
Well, I signed up to do June, to comment 5+ times on my partner's blog. I failed this time. I think I only did 3 times. Not sure if my partner got over to mine more than 5 either, although we did communicate on Twitter as well a few times. Since I did so bad, I decided not to join up for July.
I had a total blast! Got to meet a lot of authors, got a lot of ARC unicorns and other cool books. Enjoyed good food in New Orleans, and really am so glad I got to go. I was bad about taking more books than I should have. Let's share some pictures below!
Books galore!
Authors everywhere!
Swag all around!
I borrowed the slide show idea to show all my pictures from another blog, It Starts at Midnight. You can go check out their ALA wrap-up post HERE.
Of course, what I got at ALA is not at all a complete listing of all the books I got this past month. But I don't have the time to go through all of that.
Coming up in July, I've got my trip to Book Bonanza, so stay tuned for pictures and posts about that. Instead of bringing a ton of books, though, I'm working on creating a photo book with Shutterfly, to get signed. I am still bringing a few books, but for the most part, just want pictures and my autograph book signed.
Of course after that it will be getting close to back to school time. My summer has been so busy working at my part time job at the bookstore to make money for my trips, I haven't been able to do as much writing or other things I'd have liked to do. We'll see how this month goes. I mean, it is just July 1st!
So, how was June for you? Are you ready for the 2nd half of the year?
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s
a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog,
showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is
coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. I haven't posted one of these since January! Between being booked almost solid with tours and my own reviews, I also spent a lot of Sundays working this past spring at my part time job. And while I could do these posts ahead and schedule them like I do most other posts, it just feels like I should actually write these on a Sunday. A lot of things have gone on since January, obviously, but even beyond that, this coming week is one I've been waiting for and excited about since probably about that same time!
I've been out of the classroom and in the library as a high school librarian for the past 5 years. Before I got the job, I was teaching in Missouri, and attended several Missouri Association of School Librarian conferences, that were really great. This year I'm going to attend the American Library Association Annual Convention, which is taking place in New Orleans! Now, I've wanted to go to ALA for a long time. I know that it's not just librarians who go, a lot of bloggers go as well. But now, well I'm going as a librarian and a blogger. I'm hoping to get a lot of good library resources, but have a feeling that all the author signings might draw me away from those actual sessions. We'll see how it goes. The reason I decided to go this year, is that it is taking place in New Orleans and I have a place to stay thanks to one of my friends from college. Plus, it's NOLA! If you haven't been, you totally should go at least once in your life. And not just for the drinking and partying. No, there is such great history and so many sights to see. The first time I went, I got to go on a swamp tour, a plantation tour, and also did the tour of the cemetery where Voodoo queen Marie Laveau is. While I know my days will be packed full with conference stuff, I look forward to peaceful evenings. Hopefully one night will be dinner with a former colleague. Another night hopefully dinner with my friend who is letting me stay in his place. The other nights I'll probably wander the town, or relax in my room, maybe get some writing done.
So, you should be prepared for maybe some impromptu posts from the convention. If you're not following me on Twitter or Instagram, or even Facebook, I'll probably share stuff there as well, so go follow me. Lisa Loves Literature on Facebook, buffywnabe on Twitter and Instagram.
Some other happenings on my blog. Well, first let's talk about my horrible progress on my Goodreads Reading Challenge. I already dropped it down 5 books, back to what last year's goal was. However, I'm still 16 books behind. Not sure exactly why I'm not doing as well as last year. But that's okay. I'm still reading a lot of good books I think!
Instead of just doing a specific to last week list of posts, instead I think I'll leave you some links to some of my reviews I've done since my last Sunday post that I think you should check out, if you haven't yet, or maybe just some other fun posts.
I'd do a Stacking the Shelves as part of this post, but that would be a ton of books as well. Here are a couple cool ARCs I did get lately:
And that doesn't include stuff I've bought for myself.
Anyway, I've got most of my posts scheduled to go up even while I'm out of town, so while I will be posting, just know I may not get back to replying to comments immediately. Although, honestly, I'm a bit behind lately because I'm no longer getting email notifications when I get new comments. Need to figure that out I guess.
Hope you had a great week, and that you have a good one coming up!
Okay, let's see what are the top 10 places I want to visit because I read about them in a book, and if I can remember exactly which books made me interested.
1. Ireland
Hmm, can't remember exactly which books, but I know there were some!
2. Forks, Washington
Because of Twilight, obviously. 3. Scotland
Many books, all of the On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young. The Harry Potter castle is actually in Scotland as well. 4. England
So many books take place in England. A lot of them by Amy Daws. Of course, the Harry Potter series. 5. New York City
Okay, this might be a little bit cheating, but NYC was always on my list, because of all kinds of books, like Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz to name one. And I did get to go there several years ago, and have now been 4 times. 6. New Orleans
Another one I've already gotten the chance to visit. And because of books like the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole or the Wicked saga by Jennifer Lynn Armentrout, I totally wanted to go. 7. Mexico
I've always been interested in old ruins from ancient civilizations, and after the book The Ruins by Scott Smith, Mexico became high on my list. I made that come true about 10 years or so ago, when I visited the ruins in Tulum. My first, and so far only, time out of the US. 8. Egypt
Egypt is one that is from many, many books, among other things. But a few that I can remember for sure are the Time Travelers series by Caroline B. Cooney, the Blossom Culp series by Richard Peck, as well as newer books like Reawakened by Colleen Houck. 9. Germany, Amsterdam
I have wanted to see the house, attic really, that Anne Frank and her family had to hide out in. I also feel like I want to visit a concentration camp, and pay my respects to those whose lives were lost in the holocaust. 10. Australia
I think the first time I really thought I wanted to go was after reading Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt. So, have you been to any of these places? Are you from one of them? What are some locations you want to visit after reading a book that took place in that setting?
Book info: Title: Dead Girls Society Author: Michelle Krys Genre: YA suspense/mystery Published: November 8th, 2016 Source: ARC from Publisher My rating: 5 stars I got an email from the publisher asking if I'd like to participate in a tour for this book and another. The other one is a middle grades book, so isn't my normal read, but they did send me an ARC of it as well. This book sounded really good, and actually I was definitely pleased at just how good it turned out to be! The main character is a girl named Hope. Hope has cystic fibrosis, which means she spends a lot of her time out of school because of how easily something can keep her from being able to breathe, how easily she can get sick. When the story starts, she has gotten a text from some number that she doesn't know, and it is an invitation to participate in some kind of secret group. It will require her to sneak out of her house late at night, but after being stuck at home, and her best friend Ethan seems to be moving on with a girl at school, she decides it is worth it. When she gets to the meeting place, she sees 4 other girls, ones that she doesn't think she has anything in common with. There are instructions there for each of them, they must participate in dares. Whoever makes it till the very end will win a lot of money. If they fail a dare, they will be cut out of the competition. If they cheat, tell anyone about the activities, or even just quit, they are threatened with punishment. Each of the girls, other than Hope, seem to have something in their past that the person who is running this whole thing knows and is holding over them as blackmail. The dares are dangerous as you'd expect. A couple girls get really hurt, and there are several times that Hope almost doesn't make it. In fact the person behind it all decides that she's cheated, and her punishment is something that affects her whole family. Not only is she dealing with this society, but she's also worried about losing her friend Ethan to this other girl at school. But then a really popular, cute guy picks her for a project partner when she goes back to school, and he seems to really like her, and be interested in her. But Ethan tells Hope that he doesn't trust this guy. In the end it will boil down to who is really behind the dares, which of the girls in the group are up front about what they are hiding. Hope will have to find out if her friendship with Ethan can survive her wanting more, even if he seems to not see her that way. She also needs the money to help her family, and is unsure if this new guy is really what he seems to be. The book was a really good, quick read. I didn't make too many notes as I updated on Goodreads. Probably because it was so good I didn't want to stop to take the time to do that. I enjoyed the New Orleans setting since I was just down there the first weekend of October, and what was kind of funny was that I actually was reading another book at the same time that took place in the city. Anyway, I highly recommend this, and I will definitely be purchasing it for the school library where I work. I liked the characters a lot, you had the main character with a debilitating disease, you had gay characters, there was a suicide that was a big part of the story, and other many other types of characters. Below is the schedule for the blog tour if you'd like to check out some other posts on the book!
Title: Widower's Aura Author: A.J. Renee Genre: Contemporary Romance Published: August 18th, 2016 Source: E-book for review from author
First, thanks to the author, A.J. Renee for reaching out to me about this book. I accepted a copy for review, as the synopsis sounded like one of the types of books I've been reading lately as e-books. I really was not disappointed.
There are two main characters really, Sofia and Noah. Sofia has just moved away from the city of New Orleans to a smaller town nearby, St. Fleur. She was a juvenile probationary officer there, and she just got to the point where she needed to get away. And so she is opening a photography business in the small town. A couple years after she's been there, and has an established business, there is a new guy in town that attracts Sofia's attention from the first time she sees him.
Noah has just moved to town also, he recently lost his wife to a violent crime while he was away in the military. He is now with his daughter, and takes on different construction and other types of handy-man jobs. The first time he sees Sofia, he also is immediately affected by her.
The two of them are brought together when Noah's daughter Lexi is caught spray painting an orchid on the side of Sofia's building. Now Sofia has a bit of an odd ability, she can see the auras of the people around her, and she can tell from Lexi's aura that she didn't do it maliciously, that she needs some attention and maybe some guidance. And therefore Sofia offers to forgive Lexi's crime if Lexi comes and does volunteer work for her with her photography business. Sofia and Noah continue to be thrown together through dealing with Lexi, as well as the fact that Noah is the next door neighbor of Sofia's best friend Lindsey. The two will find many connections as they become more and more attracted to each other, and both will have to work through their own issues to become a real couple and give in to the love they seem to have for each other.
The book started out a little weak, but because I could see the possibility I kept on reading, and it was totally worth it. By the end of the book I was having a lot of trouble putting it down because I needed to know how things were going to turn out. While I feel that the aura business at times was a little bit extra that didn't necessarily need to be part of the story, some of it did work out to add interesting details to certain situations. The sexy scenes were pretty good, and I loved all the best friend characters. In fact, the little excerpt at the end of this book for the next one featuring Lindsey only served to make me very impatient for that book to come out, which isn't until 2017.
I definitely will be recommending this as a quick, fun read, with suspense, romance, and definitely steamy scenes in parts. I also enjoyed the New Orleans setting, as I am getting ready to visit the city myself in about a month for the second time.
Oh yeah, and if this sounds good, there is a giveaway going on to win an Amazon gift card and you could buy your own copy of it! Go check out my post with the giveaway on it HERE.
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting. The cover for this was just revealed on Monday, and I knew immediately I had to go ahead and use it for this week's WOW post! Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
Torn between duty and survival, nothing can be the same.
Everything Ivy Morgan thought she knew has been turned on its head. After being betrayed and then nearly killed by the Prince of the Fae, she’s left bruised and devastated—and with an earth-shattering secret that she must keep at all costs. And if the Order finds out her secret, they’ll kill her.
Then there’s Ren Owens, the sexy, tattooed Elite member of the Order who has been sharing Ivy’s bed and claiming her heart. Their chemistry is smoking hot, but Ivy knows that Ren has always valued his duty to the Order above all else—he could never touch her if he knew the truth. That is, if he let her live at all. Yet how can she live with herself if she lies to him?
But as the Fae Prince begins to close in on Ivy, intent on permanently opening the gates to the Otherworld, Ivy is running out of options. If she doesn’t figure out who she can trust—and fast—it’s not only her heart that will be torn apart, but civilization itself.
I really liked the first one, especially now that I've been to New Orleans I'm excited to read on! Have you read this series? Are you a fan of JLA like I am? What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?
Published: November 17th, 2015 Published by: Skyscape Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy
Seven girls tied by time.
Five powers that bind.
One curse to lock the horror away.
One attic to keep the monsters at bay.
**
After the storm of the century rips apart New Orleans, sixteen-year-old Adele Le Moyne wants nothing more than her now silent city to return to normal. But with home resembling a war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normalneeds a new definition.
As the city murder rate soars, Adele finds herself tangled in a web of magic that weaves back to her own ancestors. Caught in a hurricane of myths and monsters, who can she trust when everyone has a secret and keeping them can mean life or death? Unless . . . you’re immortal.
Alys Arden was raised by the street performers, tea leaf-readers, and glittering drag queens of the New Orleans, French Quarter. She cut her teeth on the streets of New York and has worked all around the world since. She either talks too much or not at all. She obsessively documents things. Her hair ranges from eggplant to cotton-candy-colored.
One dreary day in London, while dreaming of running away with the circus, she started writing The Casquette Girls. Her debut novel garnered over one million reads online before being acquired by Skyscape in a two book deal. Rep’d by ICM.
The day had finally come.
Elation coursed through my head, my chest, my stomach—until the tips of my fingers tingled, as if the sensation were trying to escape the confines of my nervous system.
My father and I were finally on our way home.
Trying not to let the anticipation drive me crazy, I leaned back in the passenger seat and took deep breaths, inhaling the scents of worn black leather and bubble gum. The combination reminded me of sitting in the front seat as a child. I’d always been up for a ride in my father’s prized possession because I knew there’d be a sugary pink stick waiting for me in the glove box.
The city wasn’t exactly encouraging people to come home yet, but my father had always been a bit of a rebel. This fact, topped with endless nights of me begging and pleading, had finally made those four little words slip out of his mouth: “Okay, let’s go home.”
As soon as he caved, I fled the Parisian boarding school where my French mother had dumped me while my father and I were “displaced.” She didn’t tell me good-bye, and I never looked back.
I landed in Miami late last night, and we were on the road by six this morning. I didn’t want to give my father the chance to renege.
Ten hours later, we were still purring down the interstate in his 1981 BMW.
But I didn’t mind the long drive. In my sixteen years, I’d never been away from my father for that long. I’d never been away from New Orleans for that long either. It felt like years since the mandatory evacuation, but in reality it had only been two months—two months, two days, and nine hours since the Storm had touched ground.
The Storm was the largest hurricane in US history. Scientists were still debating whether it should even be considered a hurricane because it had smashed all previous classification parameters. They didn’t even name it. Everyone simply referred to it as “the Storm.” Economists were predicting it would end up being the greatest natural disaster in the Western world, and there were even rumors flying around that the federal government was considering constituting the area uninhabitable and not rebuilding the city. That idea was incomprehensible to me.
The media was all over the place about the devastation. We’d heard such conflicting stories there was really no telling what would be awaiting us (or not awaiting us) upon our arrival. Had our home been damaged, flooded, ransacked, robbed—or any combination of those things? Was it now just rotting away? I fiddled with the sun-shaped charm hanging from the silver necklace that nearly reached my waist, wrapping and unwrapping the thin chain around my fingers.
My phone buzzed.
Brooke 3:42 p.m. Are you close? Text me as
soon as you get home. I want to know everything, ASAP! xoxo.
I quickly pecked,
Adele3:43 p.m. I will! How’s La-La land? <3 nbsp="" p="">
I didn’t exactly have a laundry list of close friends, but Brooke Jones and I had been attached at the hip since the second grade. The Joneses had been stuck in Los Angeles since the evacuation, and Brooke was freaking out on a daily basis because her parents were adjusting to the West Coast lifestyle at an alarming rate. Even the thought that her parents might permanently relocate to California made me cringe.
“Waffle House?” my father asked as we sped past the Florida state line into Alabama. He proceeded down the exit ramp before I could respond.
A bell dinged when I opened the door of the infamous southern chain, causing all of the employees to shout a welcome without looking up from what they were doing. My father headed to the bathroom, and I jumped into a booth, grabbing a napkin to wipe pancake-syrup residue off the table.
“I’ll be with ya in a second, darlin’,” a waitress yelled from across the narrow, shoe box–shaped diner.
Johnny Cash blared on the jukebox, the air reeked of grease, and the fluorescent bulb in the overhead light gave everything a sickly tint. I couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking about the stark contrast of this scene to my life just two nights ago: sitting in a café on the Champs-Élysées, eating a crêpe suzettes with my mother. Well, I’d been eating a crêpe. She’d never allow herself to eat something as appalling as sugar.
Midchuckle, I caught the gaze of a guy sitting solo in a booth across the aisle, who was slowly stirring a cup of coffee. Our eyes locked. My cheeks started to burn. I grabbed a menu so I could pretend to focus on something and let my long waves of espresso-colored hair fall in front of my face, trying to recall the last time I’d taken a shower. Ugh. I’d been in transit for more than twenty-four hours at this point.
I lifted my eyes to find him still looking intensely at me.
He was probably a few years older than me . . . and far too sophisticated to be sitting in this particular establishment among the tall hairdos and flip-flops. His black leather jacket was not the biker kind you might find in any diner in the Deep South—it was softer looking, trendier, possibly custom-made. The jacket, along with his dark, slicked hair, made him appear part James Dean, part Italian Vogue. For a split second I forgot where I was, as if stuck in some kind of Paris–Alabama time-continuum hiccup.
When I realized I was staring at him again, I became instantly flustered. His eyes didn’t move, but the corners of his mouth slowly spread upward into an innocent smile. Or maybe it was deceptively innocent? Just as my heart began to speed up at the prospect of finding out, my fork slid across the table, flew halfway across the room, and clanked against his ceramic mug.
“Sorry!” I covered my face, mortified, and considered crawling underneath the table. I’d been so caught up in the moment I hadn’t even noticed myself flick it.
“Don’t worry, honey, I’ll bring ya a new one,” the waitress yelled.
As if I was worried about the fork. I’d nearly taken out the eye of the hottest guy within a fifty-mile radius. My heart pounded melodramatically.
When I finally mustered the courage to raise my head to catch another glimpse of him, all I saw was his mug on top of a ten-dollar bill. Realizing I’d been hiding my gaze from no one, I became even more embarrassed.
Of course he ran. I am obviously hazardous.
“You okay?” my father asked as he slid into the orange leather booth.
“Yep, the jet lag must have just kicked in,” I blurted out, “but I’m super excited for cheesy eggs.”
“I thought you hated American cheese?” he asked suspiciously. “You always called it plastic.”
“Yeah, well, I guess something becomes more desirable when you can’t have it.” There were certainly no American-cheese-like products in France.
We ordered and then sat in silence while we waited for our food. My father turned his head to stare out the window. I knew he was too nervous to ask me about Paris, and I was not going to readily volunteer up any information. It was weird to spend your entire life with someone, be suddenly separated for two months, and then reunite. It felt strange that it felt strange being together.
Luckily the food came quickly, and soon he was polishing off a stack of waffles, while I forced myself to choke down eggs smothered in plastic cheese.
“How about I drive for a while?” I asked as we headed back to the car.
“How about I drive and you study?”
“Why should I study? Technically, I’m not even enrolled in a school right now.”
“You are enrolled in a school right now, Adele . . .”
I unintentionally slammed the passenger door after getting in.
“You are technically still enrolled in Notre-Dame International.” He pulled out of the deserted parking lot and in his best I-am-serious voice added, “And if we get to New Orleans and find out you can’t get into a local school, you’re going to be on the first plane back to Paris. Back to school. That was the deal.”
“I am not going back to Paris.” I didn’t care what I had previously agreed to. “Je déteste Notre-Dame International! Je déteste Paris!” I said in my most dramatic French accent, but I stopped myself before I said something about detesting my mother. Those were words he certainly would’ve understood. But he had only himself to blame for my speaking French; he was the one who’d forced me to take private lessons since I was five—a year after my mother had skipped town—as if my ability to speak her native language might bring her back.
“I can’t believe you shipped me off there in the first place. I belong here, not with rich kids in boarding school. Not with her.”
My eyes began to well up. I knew my reaction would upset him, but even the thought of having to go back to Paris made me want to jump out of the moving car and run away.
He didn’t know what to do or say next, and soon the old Bimmer filled up with awkward tension. The slightest sign of teen-girl tears made Macalister Le Moyne uncomfortable. My father always tried his best to be paternal, but it never really seemed natural for him, not even after all this time of it being just the two of us.
He patted my hand. “Don’t get upset. You know school comes
first.”
I’d never once heard him say anything bad about my mother, but I could tell he felt relieved that I’d fight to stay in New Orleans with him instead of returning to her in Paris. He was simultaneously terrified and proud that I’d inherited his rebellious streak rather than her need for refinement.
Ever since I could remember, my father lived with a perpetually tired look. He’d inherited the ever-popular bar Le Chat Noir from my grandfather around the same time my mother left us, making him an artist-turned-business-owner and single parent all at once. Since then, he kept mostly nocturnal hours, waking midday to give himself enough time to work on sculptures and furniture in his metal shop before going back to the bar. Now he was unshaven and a bit shaggier than usual, appearing to have aged a few years in the last couple of months, just like all the other displaced citizens of New Orleans.
The Storm had been peculiar, not just because of the suddenness with which it had grown but because its target had been so unexpected. The day before it hit, the Storm was a routine Category 2 hurricane—not something to shrug off but something people knew how to handle— predicted to make landfall somewhere around Galveston, Texas. Eighteen hours prior to hitting land, the hurricane unpredictably changed course and headed straight for New Orleans.
Trying to clear the city with such short notice caused total mayhem. We ended up evacuating to Miami with a few of Dad’s bartenders, never dreaming we’d be gone for more than a few days. But before the Storm left the Gulf of Mexico, it tipped the Saffir-Simpson scale, and once it hit land, like most folks upon arrival in New Orleans, it didn’t want to leave. We watched in horror as it hovered.
And hovered.
And hovered.
All we could do was stare at the TV and wait for our unwelcome houseguest to take a hint.
That was before the levees broke and turned the city into a fishbowl.
When reality kicked in and we were suddenly unable to return home for an undetermined period, my father decided I would be better off in Paris with my mother than in Miami with a bunch of vagabonds looking for bar work. I wasn’t sure if he really believed that or if he’d just cracked under post-Storm pressure; either way, he shipped me off to France as soon as he managed to get in touch with her. As far as I knew, that was the first time they’d had contact in the twelve years she’d been gone.
I refused to let the tears fall as I looked out the car window.
I’m not going back to live with her. I won’t let it happen. New Orleans is my home.
Even thinking about going back to Paris made me immediately selfconscious. Up until eight weeks ago, I’d always thought of myself as just a normal teenager—not the head-cheerleader type but not the type to be shoved into lockers either. I did pretty well in school but was certainly not in the running for valedictorian. Besides rebellion, I’d also inherited my father’s artistic tendencies, but (to my curatorial mother’s high-art dismay) I channeled them mostly through designing clothes. Despite all of this, I’d hardly tipped average by Parisian standards. During the last two months, I couldn’t have felt more plain, more uncultured, or more passé. My Parisian classmates were like ballerinas in six-inch heels, born to analyze haute couture and recite Baudelaire, making my skinny jeans and DIY dresses seem childish and unsophisticated.
I sighed and attempted to push the French memories out of my consciousness: the sparkling Eiffel Tower, the macarons from Ladurée, and most of all Émile.
My stomach twisted.
I definitely didn’t want to think about Émile. Not the way his slight smile always made me wonder what he was thinking. Not his Vespa or ’iz stupid, sexy accent.
Pathetic, Adele. You didn’t mean anything to him. He’s just your mother’s assistant.
The car went over a bump, and I realized trying not to think about Émile was actually making me think about Émile. Ugh.
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s
a chance to share news ~ A post to recap the past week on your blog,
showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is
coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. I didn't do one of these last weekend, so I'm going to include the last two weeks. Last two weeks on the blog:
I got two reviews a week. Last weekend I was in New Orleans, which was so much fun! I can't wait till I can find time to go back. I've been getting started on my Blog Ahead Challenge, trying to get on top of things for NaNoWriMo last week. I've also been working on trying to find all the numbers for the YA Scavenger Hunt. So many awesome authors on the tour this year! This week on the blog:
Blog Tour and review of Future Perfect by Jen Larsen
Cover Characteristic
Books to Movies Giveaway Hop
Reviews: The Anatomy of Curiosity by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff
Possible reviews: Rapture by Lauren Kate, The Detour by S.A. Bodeen, A Madness So Discreet by Mindy Mcginnis
Not sure if I'll get my audio book of Rapture done this week. Also not sure which of the two last egalleys I've listed I'll actually read. Also working on writing to get ready for NaNoWriMo next month.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.
It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected. It's a pretty big pile of physical books this week! Here they are:
Mad Madame LaLaurie by Victoria Cosner Love and Lorelei Shannon - Bought this in New Orleans, I didn't realize Kathy Bates' character on the American Horror Story: Coven was based on a real person
Brave New Love: 15 Dystopian Tales of Desire - Got at The Dollar Tree store for $1
Bits and Pieces by Jonathan Maberry - Had to buy this one, it has a dedication to me because I won a contest on Facebook to name one of the stories, Tooth and Nail
Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout - I ended up buying this one instead of Onyx when I saw it at the bookstore Saturday night
