Sunday Post #20 and Stacking the Shelves March 22nd, 2015

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 done a Sunday Post in a while, but I was pretty good this past week and so don't have a lot to share for Stacking the Shelves, so I thought I'd share some upcoming events, as well as celebrate the amount of reading I got done this past week during my spring break.


Last week on the blog:

• Review:  Cipher by Cindi Madsen
•  Book Blitz:  Numbers Game by Rebecca Rode
• Waiting on Wednesday:  Return to the Dark House (Dark House #2) by Laurie Faria Stolarz
•  Review:  The Cemetery Boys by Heather Brewer
•  Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hope  - Ends on Wednesday!!!
• Review:  The Revelation of Louisa May by Michaela MacColl
• Cover Characteristic:  Gardens

 Now that is three reviews for the week, but I actually finished 4 books, I'll just be reviewing the 4th one, We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach, tomorrow as part of a blog tour.  I only ended up doing the Cover Characteristic post because one of my goals for this year was to try to post every day on my blog.  And so I had to do something!  My other goal was to stay with at least 2 reviews a week, and I did that for sure with 3 this past week.

This week on the blog:

• A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal
• We All Looked Up Review and Official Book Playist
• Review:  Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
• Review:   Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little
• YA Spring Fling Giveaway Blitz??
• Maybe Cover Characteristic 

Getting ready for the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April, I'll be revealing the theme for my posts on Monday.  My review for We All Looked Up is also scheduled for Monday as I'm part of a tour and didn't really choose at the time.  I also have written on my calendar for the YA Spring Fling Giveaway Blitz and I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to be doing for that yet.  So that'll be a surprise for me too!  I finished Belzhar Saturday night, so it will need to be reviewed Tuesday probably.  And I just started Forbidden this morning, so it will be a review later this week.  The theme for the cover characteristic meme this week is hair, so I may or may not mess with it.  

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.   I was pretty good this week in that I only got one physical book, and only 3 e-galleys.

I found another magazine that I felt I had to have, even though I have yet to have time to pick up the two I got last week.

I found this on our bargain table last week, a hardcover for $5.98, cheaper than even buying the mass market paperback, especially with my 30% employee discount.

E-galleys:

  I was so excited when I finally got approved for Daughter of Deep Silence, I love Carrie Ryan's zombie series.  I also am looking forward to reading the sequel to Feuds, and the last one just looks and sounds really good.  With Torn, I got to thinking about all the times I didn't get ARCs of sequels or other books in series that I'd read the first book.  So I think I might go search through Edelweiss and maybe Netgalley for the sequels to see if I can still find them.  At least books that I read the first one in the past year.  

What did you add to your bookshelves this past week? 

Cover Characteristic - Gardens

The Cover Characteristic meme is hosted at  Sugar and Snark.  Here are the guidelines for how it works if you want to join in:


Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite covers with that characteristic. If you want to join in and share your 5 favorite covers with the weeks particular characteristic, then just make a post, grab the meme picture (or make your own) and leave your URL in Linky (so we can visit).
You don’t even need to participate, just stopping by and saying hi would be great! Don’t forget to stop by the other participants!  

I try to choose books I've read. This was another hard one.  Guess I don't read a lot of books about gardens.  :-)  Without further ado, here are five garden covers of books I've read in no particular order.

5.

4.

3.

 

2.

1.  

One is really a farm, and two are really more mazes, and then one is just a trellis with roses, but I figured the title made it count.  What books have you read that have good garden covers? 

Review: The Revelation of Louisa May by Michaela MacColl

First, thanks to Chronicle Books and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  Now, I have to admit that I've never read Little Women, or seen the movie, or read anything by Louisa May Alcott.  But, I'd never read Jane Eyre until I read the book The Eyre Affair.  While this was an okay story, not sure that it makes me need to read any of her books.  I was intrigued though, as I always am, by any book that takes a look at an author's life, especially fictional books because they can add in some fun details. 

This story is about Louisa May Alcott's life when she was about 15 and her mother had to go work in another city to bring the family money.  I guess I didn't realize that the author lived in a community with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  I really liked that bit of history that was woven into the story.  Louisa's family was also very much into the abolitionist movement,  to the point of being part of the Underground Railroad.  In the story, when Louisa's mother goes to the job she leaves Louisa in charge of the household, which includes not only doing the housework, cooking and cleaning for her father, but also watching her younger sister Beth, while her mother took the youngest, May, with her.  The household management included a "package", the runaway slave George, who showed up right as Louisa's mother, Marmee, was leaving. 

For Louisa's first time being in charge, things didn't go that smoothly, because at the same time she had a slave to protect, a slave catcher showed up in town looking for him.  And the slave catcher happened to know Henry, as well as another woman that wasn't trusted, Miss Whittaker.  One somewhat happy thing that seemed to occur was that Louisa's cousin Fred showed up.  While they used to be the best of friends, Fred had changed.  He'd grown up into a very handsome young man, and seemed to be interested in Louisa as more than a friend/cousin as well. 

When one of the players in the story turns up dead towards the end, the trials of the story soon turn into a murder mystery, one that Louisa feels she must solve, even if it means that someone she loves and respects, or feels sympathy for, is a murderer. 

I have to say the mystery was a good one, there was lots of story with actual factual bits sprinkled throughout as well.  While it gave me a bit of a history legend on some authors I didn't know that much about, as I said before, I will personally not be adding any of their books to my TBR at this time.  I think that the writing is probably done a lot like Alcott does in her books, at least it reminded me of how I think that the books were written, from what little I know of them. 

If you like the author Alcott's books, I'm guessing you'll enjoy this.  If you enjoy a good murder mystery, with some historical fiction thrown in, you'll also probably enjoy this.  I will definitely be adding it to my list of books to possibly order into the high school library where I work because of all the historical bits and the link to the authors' real lives.  I like that at the end there is even a few pages telling what everything was based on, and where truth and fiction intersected.

Spring Cleaning - Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop

This Hop features books that need a new home, and is hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer.  This year I'm giving you the choice of two of the following books.  Because I'm poor, I can only ship US.  Sorry.  Some of the books are ARCs, some are finished copies.

 Just fill out the Rafflecopter below, then hop along to the other stops on the Linky below the Rafflecopter.  Thanks for stopping by!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Cemetery Boys by Heather Brewer

First thanks to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I have to say that I am one of the biggest fans of Heather Brewer, and consider myself to belong to her minion horde.  I've met her several times, and plan to meet her again any time she is in my town or at some event where I'm at. She's such a great voice for young people, and her stories are all very good!  Okay, I'm  not very good at gushing I guess, that was kinda silly.  So here goes my review of this book!

A majority of the book does take place in a cemetery like the title would lead you to believe.  The main character is Stephen, and he has just had to move with his dad back to the small town where his dad grew up.  They are having to move in with a grandmother that he never knew.  And she seems really particular from how his dad tells them that they have to move in.  And once she shows up, Stephen sees that his dad wasn't kidding.  They've had to move because Stephen's mom kind of had a breakdown and had to go into a mental institution.  His dad has lost his job, and they can't afford his mom's medical bills anymore. 

Stephen's first introduction to the small town was a guy just standing outside his house staring up at the house.  But Stephen isn't the kind of guy to act scared, nope, he yells out the window that he's going down and immediately heads down to confront the guy.  The guy is gone by the time he gets down there, but has left a leather book, a journal on the sidewalk.  Stephen grabs it and goes chasing after the guy.  On the way he runs into a girl named Cara.  A girl he'd already seen at a diner in town when she'd had to convince her mother to leave after the mother had been yelling at people that they were going to burn!

Stephen is definitely attracted to Cara and she seems interested in him as well.  Then the guy who'd been standing outside his house shows up, and it is her brother, Devon.  Devon says he has something he wants to show Stephen, and from then on, kind of takes Stephen into his group of friends.  This group likes to go to the cemetery at night and drink. 

But the journal that Stephen found is Devon's, and it has all these drawings of huge wings, and something that everyone in the town calls "the Winged Ones".  The myths about these winged ones says that when they come and take a sacrifice, of a human, the town's bad times will be over.  Now Stephen must decide what is real, and what isn't. And if his new friends are crazy and murderous, or if he is just buying into the seemingly urban legends.

Several bits of this really gave me a feeling of the movie The Lost Boys, from the 80s with Kiefer Sutherland and the two Coreys, Haim and Feldman.  One of my favorite movies that I watched over and over, probably why I saw the parallels.  But the feeling was a good one, as I loved the movie, and I also like the way the new kid in town is initiated in this story.  There is a bit of a twist at the end, and I would say that it also isn't left with a clear yes or no answer about the Winged Ones.  And I like that.  As the author thanks Stephen King in her bit at the end of the book, this reminds me a great bit of his stories as well.  Often you're left wondering just what was real, and what wasn't.  I also wondered at first if the winged ones would be like those that supposedly just alert people to bad things happening, but no.  The ones in this story were ones that supposedly ate people. 

I highly recommend another great story from Auntie Heather!

Waiting on Wednesday: Return to the Dark House (Dark House #2) by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting. While I didn't LOVE the first book in this series, Welcome to The Dark House, it was a reminder enough of a horror movie, and left off at such a cliffhanger, that I do need to read on in the series.  I would love to see the first one made into a horror movie though, I'd definitely go see it.  Here is the blurb for the sequel from Goodreads:

Ivy Jensen survived the Dark House once, but can she make it out a second time?

Two months have passed since Ivy narrowly escaped the Nightmare Elf’s grip, but the memories of Parker, Natalie, Shayla, Frankie, and Garth continue to haunt her. Their killer is still out there—somewhere. The police trail has gone cold, though, and it’s up to Ivy to piece together the clues to find him.

When a cryptic video arrives in her inbox, Ivy soon finds herself back in the spotlight, this time on a twisted scavenger hunt through the dark, ancient halls of a long-forgotten Gothic school building. Ivy’s not alone, either. Taylor Monroe has returned to the scene. But can Taylor be trusted? Or is she another pawn in the Nightmare Elf’s deadly game?

Definitely sounds like another scary story.  So what about you, what are you eagerly anticipating this week? 

Book Blitz: Numbers Game by Rebecca Rode (Giveaway)

Book and Author Details:
Numbers Game by Rebecca Rode
Publication date: March 16th 2015
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult

Synopsis:
Treena can’t wait for Rating Day. Her high score will mean a life of luxury, showing the world that she’s a valuable member of society, not a pathetic waste of space. It won’t hurt her chances with her top-Rated boyfriend, either. But when the big day arrives, her true number shocks everyone.

To get her life—and boyfriend—back, she must go undercover and expose a military spy. Doesn’t sound too hard, except that someone seems to want her dead. And then there’s the mysterious soldier with a haunted past and beautiful brown eyes. Together, they discover a dark numbers conspiracy, one that shatters the nation’s future. They must band together if they are to survive the dangerous game of numbers—and the terrible war that rages within Treena’s heart.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24893016-numbers-game

Purchase:
--Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UKDWTPG?tag=smarturl-20

AUTHOR BIO:

REBECCA RODE is an award-winning author, journalist, and mother of four. She is the author of the YA dystopian novel, NUMBERS GAME, and the inspirational book, HOW TO HAVE PEACE WHEN YOU'RE FALLING TO PIECES. She also writes for Deseret News, KSL.com, FamilyShare, and Provo Daily Herald. However, her true love is writing for teenagers. She enjoys traveling, reading, and martial arts, and she has a ridiculous addiction  to chocolate-banana shakes. Visit her at www.AuthorRebeccaRode.com.

Author Links:
http://www.authorrebeccarode.com/
https://www.facebook.com/authorrebeccarode
https://twitter.com/RebeccaRode


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Q and A w/ Rebecca Rode

Q: Will you tell us about Numbers Game?

A: Absolutely! In the New Order Republic of America, 16-year-olds are given a Rating, a number that encompasses what they’re worth to society. It determines their career, living conditions, and potential partners. This is the story of Treena, who gets a different Rating than the one she earned. She decides to fight for what is rightfully hers, determined to get her boyfriend back in the process.

Meanwhile, she meets Vance, a mysterious prisoner-turned-soldier who has his own agenda. When someone tries to kill Treena—twice—they uncover a dark conspiracy that risks much more than Treena’s Rating.

Q: Great. You probably get this question a lot, but the concept is so unique that I have to ask—where did you get the idea for Numbers Game?

A: I love this question! My husband sent me to the bank to finalize the loan on the truck he was buying. I looked at my credit score and thought how strange it was that one number was supposed to incorporate everything about me—my purchase history, how reliable I’d been, whether they could trust me to make payments, that sort of thing. And then I thought how strange it was, that we as citizens are so trusting of the accuracy of that little number, and how important it is in our lives. It spiraled from there—what is someone was manipulating the numbers? What if the number included appearance and intelligence rather than just financial history? It didn’t take long for the plot to unfold in my mind.

Q: What type of reader would like this book?

A: I tell people that it’s like a thriller version of The Scarlet Letter, but set in the future. With bombs. And kissing. Dystopian fans who like Divergent, Hunger Games, and Matched would love it.

Q: Who is your favorite character and why?

A: At first, Tali was my favorite. She knows exactly what she wants and doesn’t put up with anything. But now that the book is done, I think Vance has overtaken her as my favorite. The way he sees the world and struggles to survive while torn between two worlds really resonates with me.

Q: What was your favorite part of the writing process? What was the hardest?

A: I really enjoyed taking an idea and running with it. Once I had the world solidified in my head, it was fun to explore all the different aspects of it—political, social, financial, emotional, etc. I wrote myself into a dozen corners because I was just having too much fun.

The hardest part? Probably the time it took to finish it. When I began writing Numbers Game in 2012, I was also juggling a journalism career and three kids, and then my nonfiction book was accepted for publication, so that took all my remaining hours. When my fourth child was born, everything came to a screeching halt for a while. It wasn’t until Numbers Game won first place in a statewide writing contest in that I decided to buckle down and get serious with it.

Q: Why did you decide to make it a series instead of a stand-alone book?

A: You know how some authors say that their characters grab hold of the story and steer it in a different direction without their permission? That’s kind of what happened here. It just couldn’t end with this book. There was so much more that needed to be explored. Besides, Treena had a little more growing to do, and I think you’ll love the person that she becomes.

Q: Thanks for joining us. Where can we find out more?

A: Visit my website at www.AuthorRebeccaRode.com or sign up for my monthly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/bdwUKL. I give away free stuff sometimes, if you’re into that type of thing. But remember, Numbers Game is only discounted on Amazon for a few days, so you may want to snatch it up quick. 

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Review: Cipher by Cindi Madsen

Thanks to The Book Machine and the author for letting me read an e-copy of this title.  I am very glad that I got a copy of it.  The blurb sounded pretty interesting, and once I started reading it, I loved it! 

The title refers to a job that the main character finds out she has been selected to perform. The main character, Summer, can often tell how and when someone is going to die when she touches them.  Unfortunately she doesn't get a lot of warning. When she sees the vision, it means it is going to happen sometime within the day.  So she isn't given the vision to save them.  One day this really beautiful, but strange woman shows up in Summer's room and tells her that she is a Cipher, and that her job is to help people settle their affairs before they die.  This beautiful woman is an angel of death named Gabriella.  And she tells Summer that she's been assigned to help a girl at her school, a girl in the "reject" group, fix her relationship with her mother.  Summer isn't sure how to do this. First off, Summer's best friend is another cheerleader, and her boyfriend is the quarterback.  So the reject group isn't really on her list of friends.  When Summer first moved to this town though, her first friend was Troy, who seems to be friends with everyone in the school.  So she asks him to help her meet Ashlyn.  When she sits with the group at lunch, Ashlyn isn't very friendly.  She knows the type of girls that Summer hangs out with, and so doesn't trust her.

But Summer gets to know the "reject" group, who prefer to be called the misfits, and really gets to like them.  A lot more than the girls on the dance team with her and her former best friend Kendall.  And her boyfriend Cody is the kind of jerk guy that a lot of girls know.  He says he loves her, but pressures her to have sex, and even gives Summer an ultimatum. So now she has no boyfriend, and must try to help this girl she is just now getting to know repair a relationship with her mother.  A mother who you can tell cares about Ashlyn, she just shows it more by telling her to exercise and lose weight.  Never really giving any compliments to her other than for her grades and when she eats what she considers a healthy meal.  And Troy is confusing, she thinks she's interested, but can't tell if he is interested in her.  And the more she gets to know Ashlyn, the more she likes her, and knowing that she is going to die, well that sucks.  Summer's last real best friend, her mother, died, and she doesn't want to lose her new one. 

While there is a lot going on in this story, and some of it may be kind of familiar, I think the idea behind it was pretty original.  And can I tell you how much I loved Ashlyn and Summer as friends?  I want to be friends with those two!  The silly sense of humor, all of it.  I have to say that I have no idea how in the world Summer stayed friends with Kendall, the popular cheerleader girl.  She had NO sense of humor!  At all!  I could not be around someone like that for very long.  I could be friends with them, but in no way best friends.  The boy that is the good one, Troy, well he was written very well.  The back and forth, does he or doesn't he bit worked well, in that it wasn't done in such an unbelievable way like is often done in these kinds of stories.  And when I finished and found out there was going to be a sequel?  I'm very glad about that, because I love the characters! 

Go out and get ahold of this book as soon as you can, it was a great read!  Here is a link to Amazon where it is only 99 cents!

Stacking the Shelves - March 15th, 2015

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  First I want to share some magazines I bought.  I was very sad when Leonard Nimoy passed away recently.  He had always reminded me of my grandfather.  Unfortunately there aren't any biographies that are available easily these days, at least not through the bookstore where I work.  But there were a few special edition magazines that came out this past week, so I picked up the two that I found while working Thursday night.

Physical Books Purchased:

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I love all things dachshund, and I actually already have a book about Picasso and his dachshund named Lump. But when I saw this one, I of course had to order it into the bookstore where I work and buy it right away. The 2nd one, well, have to get ready for the sequel to Dorothy Must Die!!

Won:

  I won this book from Once Upon a Twilight blog for their commenter giveaway.  Since I have just this one left in the series to read, I'm so glad to own it now!  And hey, this just shows it pays to comment on other blogs!

Stripped cover books:

I think I've mentioned how one of the "perks" of working at a bookstore is that paperbacks are often sent back to the publisher, but sometimes they only ask for the cover back, and then the store will throw away the rest of the book.  I know, I know, it is really horrible to see. But the booksellers can take a few of them now and then, and this one sounds good as I've become such a huge fan of fairy tale retellings.

Netgalley:

The first one is a prequel/novella to a book I've been looking forward to for a while. The 2nd one I'm hoping to be part of a book tour for, and again, another fairy tale retelling.

Free e-book:

From Amazon.  I picked their picture to show because I don't like the one that is on Goodreads.

March New Release Giveaway Hop

I'm so excited to participate in this Hop which is hosted by Librarian Lavender and It Starts at Midnight!  This is my first time, and I decided to do this when I won a book from someone in this hop in February.  This is open to anyone that the Book Depository ships to.  You can check HERE if you don't know for that.  There are a bunch of books shown in the banner above that are for this month.  But I'm going to make this simple.  You can pick whatever book you want that I can get from The Book Depository for up to $17.  Just fill out the Rafflecopter below, then be sure to go to all the links on the Linky at the bottom of this post and enter for more chances to win a March New Release.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Working it Out by Rachael Anderson

Thanks to Kathy at I Am a Reader for allowing me to read a copy of this and be part of a review group for this title. 

Working it Out is a very quick, cute romance.  It was a fun read, with interesting, but somewhat predictable characters.  The story itself wasn't really that different from what you'd expect in a romance. But that's okay as it was still a good, quick, clean read.

There are basically four main characters:  Lanna and her friend Seth, Grace and her brother Alec.  So we get two romances out of the story.  Lanna works for an after school program for children that runs off of donations.  She is getting ready to have a bachelor auction to raise money.  She wants her friend Seth to be one of the bachelors.  Seth has done pretty well for himself in his work, and he has money that he wants to use to help.  But Seth's preferred method of helping a charity is to give money.  He's willing to donate $20,000, but he doesn't want to have to do anything, like be auctioned off.  Lanna refuses to just take money from him, she feels wrong about it.  Grace is a physical therapist who has a brother who became a paraplegic after an accident when they were in high school.  She ends up at the auction to help out her coworker who needs her to bid on him because his girlfriend won't be there and he doesn't want anyone weird to end up "winning" him at the auction.  Seth tries to get around Lanna's forbidding him of just giving money by showing up at the auction at the last minute and bidding his $20,000 on the last bachelor, which just happens to be Grace's friend.  When Grace is very angry at him for ruining the plan, he tries to make up for it, jokingly, by kissing her.  She leaves extremely perturbed.  But as far as she knows, she'll never have to see this infuriating man again.

Wrong.  Seth, once again due to his being well off, injures himself in a heli-skiing accident, and his doctor sends him to the best physical therapist in town, Grace.  Once there he decides that he is intrigued by her, and sets out to win her over.  But Grace is dealing with the guilt of what happened to her brother Alec, and wants more than anything to bring him out of the shell he has built around himself.  Seth is able to help with that, and not just to win her over, Seth really is a good guy.

If you're looking for a cute, clean romance, this is a book for you. As I mentioned it is pretty predictable, I could see where it all was going pretty quickly.  But it was a quick read, and definitely a bit of no heavy thinking required read.

Review: The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie

I have to thank Weinstein Books and Perseus Books for sending me an ARC of this title.  I didn't know anything about the YouTube Channel before I found out about this book.  I've always enjoyed a good ghost story, and when I was younger, I used to go to the library and check out all the "true haunting" books.  About 10 years ago I even went to a couple "real" haunted houses with my younger cousin and aunt and my mom.  One was a Bed and Breakfast, called the Mason House Inn that is located in Bentonsport, Iowa, where we went and had a paranormal expert named Christopher Moon give us lessons on how to try to catch evidence of ghosts, and even shared his own findings.  And we went up to a cemetery at night, and it was pretty spooky.  So anyway, when I heard about this book I was instantly interested based on the description.

The main character is Sunshine Griffith.  She and her mother have just moved from Texas to a small town in Washington state, and into what Sunshine calls a "creepy" house.  And she likes the word creepy.  She uses it to describe just about everything, the house, the street that really only seems to contain their house, and what is going on in the house.  Right away she gets a weird feeling in the house, and starts hearing sounds.  Footsteps on the 2nd floor, even though she figures out that the way it is carpeted up there, she shouldn't be able to hear any footsteps even if there was someone up there.  She also hears whispering, most of the time so quiet she can't tell what it is saying, but sometimes she can.  And a little girl's laugh too.  And anyone who watches scary movies knows just how creepy that sound can be.  Next things start being in different places than where she left them.  And then, one night she and her mom are both home and hear what sounds like a little girl yelling for help, and splashing noises.  They run upstairs to where the bathroom door has slammed shut, and water seems to be coming out as it seems the tub is overflowing.  But when the open the door, there isn't anyone in there.  The water is pretty gross though, as if the pipes were dirty, and it leaves a slimy coating on everything that touches it.  After they get it all cleaned up, it's as if her mom has lost all memory of what happened, as if it got scrubbed away as they cleaned.  And now that Sunshine should actually have her mom on her side, her mom acts almost angry when Sunshine brings it up.  Her mom begins to change as well, growing more distant.

Yes, she started a new school.  And she does make a friend pretty quickly.  You see Sunshine was really into photography at her old school, she even has a really fancy camera, and likes to develop the film herself.  When she signs up for the art class at her school, it is almost as if it was an afterthought.  All the students do all day is get stuff from a craft supply closet and make sculptures out of pipe cleaners and other similar things. The teacher is really weird and creepy.  Sunshine is fortunate enough that a nice boy sits across from her the first day.  Nolan talks to her and really becomes a good friend. When she finds out that his grandfather really used to be into paranormal things and that Nolan respected and paid a lot of attention to what his grandfather did, she feels able to share what is going on in her house.  And together, they start to investigate these strange events.  Together they will learn why Sunshine is seeing these things but now her mom isn't. 

There is also someone that is an unknown narrator who chimes in every once in awhile.  And this person knows exactly what Sunshine is dealing with.  But they don't come forward and reveal themselves until the very end. 

A great story.  The haunting is very well set up in the story, and I like the whole background story that we learn bit by bit throughout the book.  I'm guessing there will be a sequel, or a series you might say as the ending of the story leaves us.  I enjoyed it so much I had to go start looking through the YouTube channel:  The Haunting of Sunshine Girl Network.  I got through a few very short, like 1-2 minute videos tonight, and subscribed as well.  I'll be going back as I have time to watch on.  There are quite a few similar things in the video to the book so far, but it is different enough to be its own thing. 

Cover Reveal: First 4 Titles in Entangled’s New Teen Imprint: Entangled Crush (Giveaway)

Aimee and the Heartthrob by Ophelia London – Releasing 4/14/15
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/edit/24763293-aimee-and-the-heartthrob

He never noticed her before, but now she's all he can see…

 Miles Carlisle is every teen girl’s fantasy. His rugged good looks and exotic British accent have helped catapult his boy band, Seconds to Juliet, to super-stardom. But after two disastrous and very public breakups, Miles isn’t interested in dating just any girl; he wants The One. And the only girl he’s interested in is not only his best friend’s little sister―and off-limits―but won’t even give him the time of day…

As a kid, Aimee Bingham‫ had a huge thing for Miles…until he made fun of her for always tagging along. Now that she’s outgrown both him and her pigtails, the prospect of spending two weeks on tour with the childhood crush who broke her heart isn’t exactly enticing. Except now Miles seems interested. Very interested. And no matter how hard Aimee tries to resist him, her crush is  definitely making a comeback

 But everyone knows that falling for a heartthrob is a backstage pass to heartbreak…

Center Ice by Cate Cameron - Releasing 5/19/15
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23459509-center-ice

The hometown hockey hero won't know what hit him…

Karen Webber is in small-town hell. After her mother's death, she moved to Corrigan Falls to live with strangers—her dad and his perfect, shiny new family—and there doesn't seem to be room for a city girl with a chip on her shoulder. The only person who makes her feel like a real human being is Tyler MacDonald.

But Karen isn’t interested in starting something with a player. And that’s all she keeps hearing about Tyler.

Corrigan Falls is a hockey town, and Tyler's the star player. But the viselike pressure from his father and his agent are sending him dangerously close to the edge. All people see is hockey—except Karen. Now they've managed to find something in each other that they both desperately need. And for the first time, Tyler is playing for keeps…

Mia and the Bad Boy by Lisa Burstein - Releasing 5/19/15
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25071782-mia-and-the-bad-boy

This good girl’s about to meet her match…

Ryder Brooks is living the dream—he’s famous, loved by millions of girls, and miserable. All he really wants is to write his own music, not Seconds to Juliet’s sugary sweet pop. In order to do that, though, the “bad boy” of the band will have to play by the rules. And that includes behaving with his new—and super cute—über-good-girl tutor.

Mia Reyes is in fangirl heaven. Tutoring her favorite member of her favorite band? It’s a dream come true…until it turns into a complete nightmare. Ryder is nothing like she thought. He’s crude, arrogant, and pretty much a total jerk. And the worst part? She’s roped into pretending to be his girlfriend so that no one finds out he’s being tutored. Fake kisses, plenty of PDA, and even sharing his hotel room…

But sometimes even the baddest of bad boys needs a little redemption.

The Truth About Jack by Jody Gehrman - Releasing 4/14/15
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18806046-the-truth-about-jack?ac=1

Can the write guy be the right guy?

Dakota McCloud has just been accepted into a prestigious art school. Soon she'll leave behind the artists' colony where she grew up―hippie dad, tofu since birth, yurt―and join her boyfriend and best friend on the East Coast. It was the plan…until Dakota finds out her boyfriend and best friend hooked up behind her back.

Hurt and viciously betrayed, Dakota pours out her heart on a piece of paper, places it in a bottle, and hurls it into the ocean. But it doesn't quite go where she expects…

Jack Sauvage finds the bottle washed up on the shore and responds to Dakota's letter. Except what if his straight-laced life doesn’t jive with the free-spirited girl he’s only seen from afar? As Jack creates a persona he believes she’ll love, they slowly fall for each other with each new letter. Now Jack is trying to find a way to make this delicate, on-paper romance happen in real life…without revealing his deception.


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Waiting on Wednesday: The Clouded Sky (Earth and Sky #2) by Megan Crewe

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.   I've chosen another sequel this week.  It's a sequel to a time travel book that I enjoyed last year, Earth and Sky.  Another pretty cover for this one as well!  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

When seventeen-year-old Skylar escapes the time-bending Enforcers who secretly control Earth, her troubles have just begun. She and her friend Win take refuge on Win’s home space station with his fellow rebels, but the fate of Skylar’s planet still spins out of her control.

To avoid detection, Skylar poses as the Earthling “pet” of Win’s rival, an arrogant boy named Jule. Homesick and faced with a cool reception from the other rebels, she throws herself into the group’s mission: assembling a weapon to disable Earth’s restrictive time field. Gradually, Skylar’s skill for detail gains respect—even from Jule, who is more vulnerable than he lets on.

Yet challenges spring from every side. Not only must Sky navigate the muddy waters of romance, but suspicions of betrayal grow among the rebels as their work narrowly misses sabotage.

In the latest in Megan Crewe’s Earth & Sky series, can Skylar expose the traitor before time runs out and Earth is destroyed?

I really enjoyed the way the time travel was done, and the aliens being part of it in the first book.  Can't wait to read on in the series.  So what are you eagerly awaiting this week? 

Review: Tether (Many-Worlds Trilogy #2) by Anna Jarzab

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Delacorte Press for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I read and enjoyed the first book, Tandem, also as an e-galley, and so was excited when I found this available on Edelweiss last year.  It has been awhile since I read the first one though, so it did take a minute to remember all that had happened.  But I feel like the book kind of caught you back up in small ways, without having to go into a total info overload.  Once again, if you haven't read the first one, there will of course be some spoilers for that one, although I'll try not to give anything major away in my review for this one.

At the end of the first one, Sasha had been able to return to her world along with Grant.  However Grant's analog, Thomas, was captured and is still a prisoner.  He will be rescued though, and returned to the army, and his father, the General.  We also meet a new character in this book.  Her name is Selene, and she is another analog to Sasha and the Princess Juliana, from yet another world.  And Juliana is still being held by the Libertas as well.  Selene's world has had an eye on the other worlds, and she has finally decrypted the prophecies that will help her people save their world.  Only it will require her and her other two analogs to work together to do it. So she goes to Aurora to find them both.  Grant doesn't want to go back, which makes sense since he had been kept a prisoner only so that Thomas could go to Earth and bring Sasha back to fill in for the missing Juliana.  But Juliana loves Thomas, and wants to go back.  And so she finds someone who can help her, and she goes back.  Once she's back she is now once again in the center of all the big drama.  Selene has also arrived before her, and has refused to tell the General who she is and where she is from. And the General refuses to believe that her world, Taiga, doesn't want to come and invade Aurora.  Selene also has a connection to Sasha, and Juliana. They call it a tether.  By using this tether they are able to find out where Juliana is and try to rescue her.  When the rescue doesn't go quite as planned, and the king, who was poisoned in the last book, passes away, it is even more important for them to find Juliana, not just to save Selene's world, but also to save Aurora from the Libertas, and their ruthless leader.  We find out in this one that their leader, the Shepherd, has his own connection to the royals and has his own reasons for bringing down the King. 

While some of the story may be resolved at the end, there is still more that must be done.  Some people will not make it, some will betray the trust of their friends, and more problems will arise.  New love will be found for Juliana, and Sasha and Thomas will have to fight to keep their love alive and possible.

This was a very quick read.  While I did really enjoy the character and world building of the last book I read, I also enjoy a good read like this one, that gets down to the nitty-gritty action throughout the book, and the down time is only as needed and is only as would probably be realistic.  If you enjoy a good alternate dimension story, this is definitely one to pick up.  After you get the first one that is.  And now, I must wait as patiently as possible for the 3rd book!