Thoughts on “Clean” Young Adult Literature

Posted March 20, 2019 in Discussions / 2 Comments

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve seen quite a bit of talk online about “clean” YA, and keeping YA safe for teens. Now, I know YA is primarily FOR teens but more adults are buying it and therefore the content is being skewed a bit more mature to cater to the adult readers (which is a whole different discussion) but I often take issue with what constitutes YA as “clean.” There seems to be an overwhelming aversion to any sort of physical intimacy or cursing but an alarmingly high tolerance for violence. I happened across a website […]

Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young | ARC Review

Posted March 18, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 1 Comment

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I’ve only read one book by Suzanne Young and it wasn’t my favorite, and I somehow completely missed the hype train for her successful The Program series. Couples with the fact that I’m not a huge dystopian fan, I didn’t think much of Girls with Sharp Sticks when I first came across it on Goodreads. However, I started seeing more and more of my trusted blogger and reviewer friends post about how intensely good the story was and […]

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley | Blog Tour + ARC Review

Posted March 11, 2019 in Blog Tours, Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

I’m so excited today to be partnering with the Fantastic Flying Book Club for the An Affair of Poisons Blog Tour! This book has been on my radar for a while as I really enjoy historical fiction and am loving this trend of more and more YA reads being set in France! Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo French historical fantasy seems to be a new trend happening this year in YA and I am ALL about it. France has so much rich history (both great and terrible), so much grandeur surrounding it that […]

Monthly TBR Plan: March 2019

Posted March 6, 2019 in Features, TBR / 5 Comments

I’ve made a lot of reading resolutions, and one of them is to be better about cultivating a monthly TBR. I know so many bloggers do beginning of the month TBR posts and I always LOVE reading them, so I’ve decided to post my own as well! I will include my physical, e-book, and ARC TBRs as well as a status update of where I am prior to starting my upcoming month’s TBR. Reading Progress Prior To This Month: 12/70 Books Read Despite February being a crazy short month (who knew 2-3 days made such a difference??) I’m glad I […]

The Wicked King by Holly Black (Folk of the Air #2) | Review

Posted March 4, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

*Warning: This review will contain spoilers for The Cruel Prince* While I enjoyed The Cruel Prince, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t really get the HYPE surrounding it- it was good but it was also full of excessively cruel bullying, confusing court politics (at least for me) and non-romances that didn’t do anything for me. But oh, how I stand corrected. Once I got into The Wicked King it was compulsively readable, and it finally CLICKED for me why this series is so successful. Also, infinite bonus points to Holly Black for managing to write a super […]

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum | Review

Posted February 25, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 1 Comment

The Wicker King had been lingering on my TBR for a while, and when it was announced as the first read in the Dragons & Tea Book Club, it shot to the top of my TBR so I could participate. When I received my paperback copy in the mail, I actually initially though it was damaged as the pages slowly fade into the black the further along the novel progresses, which seemed an ominous sign for what I was getting into while reading. As expected from both the description on the book design, The Wicker King is a tale of […]

A Psalm for Lost Girls by Katie Bayerl | Review

Posted February 18, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

If you follow my reviews at all, you know I’m fascinated by YA books that incorporate the theme of religion into them. As a Religious Studies major in college (think of it as “comparative world religion” rather than theology) I was fascinated by studying different customs, rituals, rites of passage, etc. So when I read the synopsis for A Psalm for Lost Girls I was hooked. Focusing on the events AFTER the death of the protagonists sister (Tess) who was thought to be a miracle worker, it follows a town’s trek to have the sister canonized as a Catholic saint […]

Top 10 Releases on My Radar for 2019 | A Final List!

Posted February 15, 2019 in Book Recommendations & Lists, Features / 2 Comments

Earlier this year I rounded up some of my most anticipated contemporary and historical fiction releases for 2019, and while I am still SO EXCITED for those books, I realized I never did a final top ten list across all genres! I really enjoyed looking back on my 2018 top ten most anticipated releases and seeing how they panned out for me, so I decided better late than never to round up my top ten anticipated releases of 2019, right? The Everlasting Rose | I screamed about The Belles being my favorite, favorite fantasy novel of 2018 (and definitely in […]

ALA Midwinter 2019 Event Recap | Seattle Stole My Heart

Posted February 13, 2019 in Features, Travel / 1 Comment

After 4 long years, I finally made it back to ALA! I had the chance to attend when I was still a baby blogger who had only been blogging for around one year, and I was so excited to have ALA return to the West Coast and attend as a seasoned blogger with 5 years under my belt! After a totally action packed January, Max and I hopped on a plane to Seattle to spend our last weekend of the month in the Pacific Northwest. We’d both been to Seattle before (as we both have family in Washington) but it […]

Love á la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm | Review

Posted February 11, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

One of my favorite things to do after a long day at work is to unwind with a cooking show. Can I cook or bake? Barely, if you count boiling pasta or making a salad. Yet anything food related on tv- Master Chef, Chopped, Holiday Baking Championship, Chef’s Table, etc.- and I am here for it. Cooking shows are the number one thing taking up room on my DVR, so when I found out about Love á la Mode I was PUMPED. A YA series set in Paris with the backdrop of an intensive cooking school? 100% right up my […]