Sundays with Sam - The Sunday Post

Sundays with Sam is a combination of Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

My Week in Review

I am writing this post from North Carolina, and very happy to be spending time with my lovely daughter. She has been showing me all the work she has been producing here at the Institute (sounds a little dystopian, eh?), and it's quite impressive. Funny airline security story. Being from the tristate area, we take our bagels seriously. I was tasked to bring some with me for this visit, but since I was only coming for the weekend, I have to squeeze them in my carry on. Sure enough, I was pulled from the TSA line, and the bagels were tested for gunpowder residue. I asked, and they advised that I should NOT individually wrap each bagel, but rather, leave them loose in the bag. That's your travel tip for today.

And I have a fun reading story too. One of the women I work, who's mother is a librarian, was looking through some books and recognized When Dimple Met Rishi as one I gushed over, so she read it, and she loved it, and she told her mother to read it. When we were talking about it, we both looked sort of like this:

This never happens to me IRL, so I was really excited.

Some things that delighted me on the internet this week:
The cover reveal for Sandhya Menon's next book!!! You can read the first chapter here.

The cover for From Twinkle, With Love is heeeeeere!! EW revealed it exclusively! If you want to read the first chapter, visit the link in my bio!! * * * * #fromtwinklewithlove #ftwl #bookstagram #bookaddict #bookaholic #writersofinstagram #authorsofinstagram

A post shared by Sandhya Menon (@sandhyamenonbooks) on Oct 12, 2017 at 10:02am PDT

The Simon movie is getting closer, and this is one I really want to see, because that book was near perfection.

According to @epicreads, #LoveSimon will "knock your socks off and exceed your wildest YA adaptation dreams" (!!!) https://t.co/Fn1ljDVIgW pic.twitter.com/FsDx0cZpce

— Frenzy (@HCCFrenzy) October 12, 2017

And we had the cover reveal for the last book in the Ruined series, and I am dying to see how it all ends.

Here it is! The cover of ALLIED, the final book in the Ruined trilogy. Out May 1, 2018! pic.twitter.com/EDmdephDPn

— Amy Tintera (@amytintera) October 12, 2017

On the Blog:

• Monday: Giveaway - A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck (still open)
• Tuesday: Tell Me Something Tuesday - Vampire or Werewolf?
• Wednesday: Can't-Wait Wednesday - Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
• Thursday: In a Nutshell Reviews - Ringer, Kids Like Us, A Beautiful, Messy Life
• Friday: Discussion - I Goodreads, do you Goodreads?

STACKING THE SHELVES

The trend for me is, when it rains, it pours. A bunch of approvals I had given up on came through, and I was really excited about them, but I think my Can't-Wait Wednesday has some sort of magic mojo, because I post it, and BOOM! Approval.

Bought/Free

• The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
• Played by Jen Fredricks
• The Text Dare by Amy Sparling

ARCs

• Freefall Summer by Tracy Barrett
• The Midnights by Sarah Nicole Smetana
• The Tiny Perfect World by Lauren Gibaldi
• Winter folk by Janel Kolby
• Together at Midnight by Jennifer Castle
• Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
• The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis
• When My Heart Joins the Thousand by A.J. Steiger
• Where I Live by Brenda Rufener
• Love and Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen
• I Hate Everyone But You by Gabby Dunn and Allison Raskin
• The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
• The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane
• The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller
• Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills
• How You Ruined My Life by Jeff Strand

What I Read Last Week

I read a lot of romance last week, but I did get a few different types of books in there too, so I am proud of myself. My best read was Warcross. The hype is real.

• The Butterfly Project by Emma Scott (audio): I loved the MCs in this book. They were so wounded, and I was glad they were able to find some solace in each other. There were some really lovely developments that I didn't expect, and Scott knows how to give me an epilogue I will love. ★★★★
• Kids Like Us by Hilary Reyl: A beautiful coming of age story through the eyes of an neurodiverse teen. I learned so much from this book, but also felt a whole lot of feels. ★★★★
• The Hanging Girl by Eileen Cook: My mood with the general social climate is not great, so the politicizing in the book rubbed me the wrong way, but it was a good mystery-thriller, and although I saw one of the twists coming, it still was a good reveal. However, I did think the ending was weak. ★★★
• Warcross by Marie Lu: The story, the characters, the world -- I loved it all! ★★★★★
• All He Wants for Christmas by Jill Shalvis: A short and sweet romance, where a big hearted hero is able to win the reluctant heroine. ★★★ 1/2
• Holiday Wishes by Jill Shalvis: I loved Sean's story. It was my favorite kind - second chance romance, and I have always known there was more to Sean than met the eye. This one left me really happy. ★★★★
• Seeing Double by Tamra Baumann: A second chance romance with a murder plot and a paranormal twist. Sometimes I felt like Baumann was trying to get too much into this story, but when she focused on Michael and Dani, I forgot all those feelings, because I loved the couple so much. ★★★ 1/2

What I Am Currently Reading

I started Everything Must Go this morning, and so far, I am enjoying it. It is told through blog posts, diary entries, and letters, which is a format I enjoy, plus, the whole alternative school setting is quite amusing. The Final Score is the 12th (!!) book in this series, and I love that Burton is still able to find some connections. This one is special, in that the hero was a teen in the first book, and now he is taking over his father quarterback position in the NFL. Also, this is another merging of some Play-by-Play families, which I always enjoy.

• Everything Must Go by Jenny Davis
• The Final Score by Jaci Burton (audio)

What I Plan to Read

• My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill
• The Book of Lies by Teri Terry
• The Memory of Trees by Kali Wallace
• The House of 758 by Katheryn Berla

How was your week?

Let us know in the comments!