Month: June 2018

YA Books Featuring Grandparents

Posted June 27, 2018 in Book Recommendations & Lists, Features / 14 Comments

It seems like years ago there were hardly any YA books that featured parents, let along grandparents. Remember the good old days of Gossip Girl and paranormal romance where the protagonists just ran wild/amok with supernatural creatures and their parents were none the wiser (if they were given any page time at all)? I feel like in the past 5 years we’ve seen so much more representation of parents and family systems in YA which is fantastic, but I feel like it’s still somewhat rare to find a YA book that prominently features grandparents. As someone who’s grandparents played a […]

Spring 2018 YA Contemporary Mini Review Roundup: Royals, Puddin’, and Leah on the Offbeat

Posted June 25, 2018 in Reviews / 10 Comments

Somehow Royals flew under my radar until right before it’s release date, and I was shocked. How could I, who credits The Princess Diaries series as being the reason for my love of YA, not be in the loop about a book about modern day royalty, which is one of my FAVORITE fiction tropes EVER?! So when I came home from YALLWEST I immediately put this on hold at my library and flew through it in just 2-3 sittings. While this was certainly NOT my first contemporary royalty story, it was my first Rachel Hawkins book, and I have to […]

Top Ten A Song of Ice and Fire Characters Who Were Cut From the Game of Thrones Show

Posted June 20, 2018 in Features / 2 Comments

I’ve got another confession to make. I’m your fool. Nah, just kidding fam. My confession is this: I love A Song of Ice and Fire. Notice how I call it A Song of Ice and Fire. Because that’s what the book series is called. Game of Thrones, in the eyes of myself and many other fans, is a completely different animal. A completely different story with a skin of our favorite story. Don’t mistake me; Game of Thrones has some great moments. But we’re all book people here. The books are always better. The plot, at this point, has almost […]

Blog Tour | Dive Smack by Demetra Brodsky

Posted June 19, 2018 in Blog Tours, Reviews / 4 Comments

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks If the cover of Dive Smack doesn’t pull you in, the synopsis is sure too: fire, family secrets, hidden memories and a possibly unreliable narrator are just some of the core elements that make up Dive Smack, a new thriller right in time for the summer reading season. I had the privilege of joining the blog tour for this buzzy YA thriller that runs in a similar vein to the Mara Dyer series where nothing is as it seems and the lines between psychology […]

The Way You Make Me Feel | Review

Posted June 18, 2018 in Reviews / 5 Comments

The way this book made me feel was definitely hungry! I am 100% here for all foodie related books so I was stoked when I heard that this story focused on a Korean Brazilian food truck in my beloved Southern California. The Way You Make Me Feel did not disappoint in the food descriptions or in its portrayal of a summer in LA (Maurene Goo truly captures the essence of the beautiful smog filled summer skies). However, the wonderful setting and delicious descriptions were offset by a protagonist who made me facepalm more often than not. They Way You Make […]

Stay Sweet | Keep Ice Cream On Hand At All Times When Reading

Posted June 14, 2018 in Reviews / 8 Comments

*Thanks so much to the publisher for providing a giveaway copy at YALLWEST!* So Stay Sweet and I have been on a bit of a journey. I came across it at the end of 2017 when I was doing a post on the top 2018 books I was excited for, and EVERYTHING about it called to me. Ice Cream? Check. Female run business? Check. Absolutely adorable cover? Check. I then started seeing some bloggers receiving promotional packages with the book and they were utterly amazing and adorable, and I was basically the heart eyes emoji every time I came across […]

Scythe by Neal Shusterman | Is This Even Dystopian?

Posted June 11, 2018 in Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 6 Comments

Hello again dear readers. Another one I was excited for. Is this a common theme? It’s almost as if I only read books I like… Lucky me, eh Cristina? Any who this one was a real hum-dinger. A real page turner at a scant 435ish pages, I blistered through this one shortly after I bought it. Now after having read this and Thunderhead, I am looking back even more positively on this one. This one is worth your time if you want something that breathes fresh life into a horse that (let’s all be honest) has been beaten and re-beaten […]

May 2018 Month in Review

Posted June 7, 2018 in Features, Month In Review / 12 Comments

Hello! I am back with a monthly recap for the first time since February and I’m so excited to share with you that I read TEN books in the month of May. I think this must be a personal record for me for most books read in a month, or close to it at least! Personally, this month was super busy and exciting, starting with YALLWEST the first weekend, followed by out of town visitors, my little brother’s college graduation, and ending with the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Perhaps the BEST part of the month was finally trying Salt & […]

Blog Tour | Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Posted June 6, 2018 in Blog Tours, Reviews / 10 Comments

I could not have been more thrilled to have been selected to participate in the Save the Date Tour, especially as this date holds special meaning to me- today is exactly one year from my wedding date! Thank you so much to Fantastic Flying Book Club for this opportunity! Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks For me, books about weddings are right up there with books about royalty or food- they’re indulgent, fun, and never get old no matter how many times I read about them. After recently reading and […]

The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J Maas | A Long Overdue Review

Posted June 4, 2018 in Reviews / 7 Comments

Back in April when the title of the final Throne of Glass book was released (hey there, Kingdom of Ash!) I decided I better kick myself into gear and finally get around to reading the books in the series I had been avoiding- The Assassin’s Blade (because I’m not a huge novellas person) and Tower of Dawn (because I am definitely not a Chaol person). I thought I’d be bored reading the novellas because I had already read through Empire of Storms, but I found myself pleasantly surprised, as I really enjoyed reading more about Celaena’s life before the series […]