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.

Discussion: Re-Covered

This Week’s Topic:

RE-COVERED

I was thinking about the discussion we had last week, about illustrated romance covers, and I mentioned that the illustrated cover is not just an ill of romance books. No, my friends. It is simply a cover trend right now.

Isn't It Romantic?

Can't Wait Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I am combining CWW with Books From the Backlog hosted by Carole at Carole's Random Life in Books. This will allow me to feature some newly "rediscovered" books, which I plan on reading, alongside a new release.

This week I can't wait for:

Top Ten Tuesday: Oh, Mother!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is...

Oh, Mother!

So, this is not really the topic, and I actually think this week's topic is great. However, I am not one to keep track of books with great opening lines. Those of you who do such things are rock stars.

#AmReading YA: Backlog Edition

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.

Discussion: Cover Drama?

This Week’s Topic:

COVER DRAMA?

In a Nutshell Reviews: YA Edition

In a Nutshell Reviews are my version of mini-reviews, because sometimes, you just want the highlights.

Can't Wait Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I am combining CWW with Books From the Backlog hosted by Carole at Carole's Random Life in Books. This will allow me to feature some newly "rediscovered" books, which I plan on reading, alongside a new release.

This week I can't wait for:

Top Ten Tuesday: Highly Rated

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is...

Highly Rated!

Once again, I am going off topic. This is something I have been seeing around the blogosphere, and I have been wanting to do for quite a while.

I went to my YA read-shelf, and looked at books with the highest average ratings (for books with over 500 reviews). I was curious as to how my rating compared to the average, and this is what I found.

Isn't It Romantic?

I don't normally look for a theme, when I do this feature, other than romance. However, both these books put such a strong emphasis on friendship, and I loved it.

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.

Discussions: The Thing About Endings

This Week’s Topic:

THE THING ABOUT ENDINGS

#AmReading YA

Can't Wait Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I am combining CWW with Books From the Backlog hosted by Carole at Carole's Random Life in Books. This will allow me to feature some newly "rediscovered" books, which I plan on reading, alongside a new release.

This week I can't wait for:

Top Ten Tuesday: Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is...

Celebrating Asian Pacific American 
Heritage Month!

Actually, the TTT topic was last ten books I abandoned, but I never really feel like doing the negative leaning topics. I want to use my time and space to celebrate the books that made me happy and brought me joy. Therefore, I decided to spotlight some books I absolutely loved, which feature a character of Asian Pacific heritage and/or written by an author of Asian Pacific American heritage. All of these books rated between 4.5 - 5 stars for me, are mostly my more recent reads, and included the links to the reviews.

#AmReading YA: The Sequel Edition

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.

Discussion: How Long is This?

This Week’s Topic:

HOW LONG IS THIS?

Blog Tour: The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly - Jamie Pacton

The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly
Jamie Pacton
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Kit Sweetly slays sexism, bad bosses, and bad luck to become a knight at a medieval-themed restaurant.

Working as a wench―i.e. waitress―at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college.

Company policy allows only guys to be knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But the Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight. As other wenches join her quest, a protest forms. In a joust before Castle executives, they’ll prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval―if they don’t get fired first.

Can't Wait Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I am combining CWW with Books From the Backlog hosted by Carole at Carole's Random Life in Books. This will allow me to feature some newly "rediscovered" books, which I plan on reading, alongside a new release.

This week I can't wait for:

Top Ten Tuesday: Waiting and Winning!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is...

Waiting and Winning!

Here I am, going off topic again, but I just wasn't feeling this week's topic. Instead, I decided to take a look back at some of my Can't Wait Wednesday (Waiting on Wednesday) picks. This is a meme I adore. It's me making predictions about which books I believe will be winners for me. I also like to think of it as my wish to the universe, that I get my hands on this book, read it, and love it. As I was going back through my CWW picks, I realized I have read most of them, and you know what? Many have rated between 4.5 and 5 stars. It's a testament to how good I am at picking out books for myself.

Without further ado, here are ten of my past CWW picks, which have all been stupendous reads for me. I have read all these in the past year, and provided links to my reviews (if you're interested).

Blog Tour: War and Speech - Don Zolidis

War and Speech
Don Zolidis
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Little Brown
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Not everyone can be a winner...

Sydney Williams knows this better than anyone. After her white-collar- criminal dad is sent to prison, Sydney fails almost all of her classes and moves into a dingy apartment with her mom, who can barely support them with her minimum-wage job at the mall.

A new school promises a fresh start. Except Eaganville isn’t exactly like other high schools. It's ruled with an iron fist by a speech team that embodies the most extreme winner-takes-all philosophy.

Sydney is befriended by a group of fellow misfits, each of whom has been personally victimized by the speech team. It turns out Sydney is the perfect plant to take down the speech team from within.

With the help of her co-conspirators, Sydney throws herself into making Nationals in speech, where she will be poised to topple the corrupt regime. But what happens when Sydney realizes she actually has a shot at . . . winning? Sydney lost everything because of her dad’s obsession with being on top. Winning at speech might just be her ticket out of a life of loserdom. Can she really walk away from that?

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.

Blog Tour: What I Like About You - Marisa Kantor

What I Like About You
Marisa Kanter
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can... but in the real world, it's more complicated. In this debut novel Marisa Kanter explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.