Tag Archives: Bloomsbury

A Court of Frost and Starlight

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“I have to create, or it was all for nothing. I have to create, or I will crumple up with despair and never leave my bed. I have to create because I have no other way of voicing this.” Her hand rested on her heart, and my eyes burned. “It is hard,” the weaver said, her stare never leaving mine, “and it hurts, but if I were to stop, if I were to let this loom or the spindle go silent …” She broke my gaze at last to look to her tapestry. “Then there would be no Hope shining in the Void.”

Title: A Court of Frost and Starlight

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: ACOTAR #3.1-ish

Publication: May 1st 2018 by Bloomsbury YA

Pages: 229

Summary from Goodreads:

Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated–scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

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What Goes Up

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Title: What Goes Up

Author: Katie Kennedy

Series: Standalone

Publication: July 18th 2017 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Pages: 336

Source: Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

Rosa and Eddie are among hundreds of teens applying to NASA’s mysterious Multi-World Agency. After rounds of crazy-competitive testing they are appointed to Team 3, along with an alternate, just in case Eddie screws up (as everyone expects he will). What they don’t expect is that aliens will arrive from another dimension, and look just like us. And no one could even imagine that Team 3 would be the only hope of saving our world from their Earth-destroying plans. The teens steal the spacecraft (it would be great if they knew how to fly it) and head to Earth2, where the aliens’ world and people are just like ours. With a few notable exceptions. 

There, the teens will find more than their alternate selves: they’ll face existential questions and high-stakes adventure, with comedy that’s out of this world.

Thoughts and Feelings:

I’m sad to say that I have some very mixed feelings about this book. I read Kennedy’s debut book when it came out, and I enjoyed it – and I hoped that the enjoyment would carry itself over into this new adventure. All the aspects that I loved about Kennedy’s writing – the humor, the honesty, and the pacing – were there in What Goes Up. However, What Goes Up was lacking in the character department, as well as in the overall plot – I’ll get into that in a bit. Long story short: while I found What Goes Up to be entertaining, it wasn’t necessarily good.

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Song of the Current

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“You respect people who take care of other people. People who are bold. And brave. I couldn’t figure it out at first. Why you thought more of common wherrymen than you did of me. You respect people because of the things they do. You were different from everyone I’d ever met. You knew what I did not – that it’s the things we do that make us who we are.”

Title: Song of the Current

Author: Sarah Tolcser

Series: Song of the Current # 1

Publication:  June 6th 2017 by Bloomsbury Childrens Books

Pages:373

Source: Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

Caroline Oresteia is destined for the river. For generations, her family has been called by the river god, who has guided their wherries on countless voyages throughout the Riverlands. At seventeen, Caro has spent years listening to the water, ready to meet her fate. But the river god hasn’t spoken her name yet—and if he hasn’t by now, there’s a chance he never will.

Caro decides to take her future into her own hands when her father is arrested for refusing to transport a mysterious crate. By agreeing to deliver it in exchange for his release, Caro finds herself caught in a web of politics and lies, with dangerous pirates after the cargo—an arrogant courier with a secret—and without the river god to help her. With so much at stake, Caro must choose between the life she always wanted and the one she never could have imagined for herself.

Thoughts:

I had no idea what to expect when walking into this book. I knew almost nothing about it – only that it sounded interesting and I had the time to spare. Song of the Current was much more than I expected it to be. It was fun, entertaining, and an anxiety inducing cat/mouse adventure. However, Song of the Current suffered from a lack of world building and an abundance of infodumping. Overall, it could have been better, but it also good have been a lot worse. I still found myself smiling, laughing, and thoroughly enjoying this thrill ride of a book.

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Breaking

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Title: Burning

Author: Danielle Rollins

Series: Burning companion novel

Publication:  June 6th 2017 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Pages: 352

Source: Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

Prep school gets a twist of supernatural suspense in this commercial YA thriller.

Charlotte has always been content in the shadow of her two best friends at the prestigious Underhill Preparatory Institute. Ariel is daring and mysterious. Devon is beautiful and brilliant. Although Charlotte never lived up to the standards of the school—or her demanding mother—her two best friends became the family she never had. When Ariel and Devon suddenly commit suicide within a month of each other, Charlotte refuses to accept it as a coincidence. But as the clues point to a dangerous secret about Underhill Prep, Charlotte is suddenly in over her head. There’s a reason the students of Underhill are so exceptional, and the people responsible are willing to kill to protect the truth…

Thoughts:

I don’t know what compelled me to request this book. I hated the first book, which isn’t a good start. I think it was the cover, or the synopsis, or maybe I just decided to give the companion novel the benefit of the doubt. Breaking, however, did not land high enough on my scale to either make me enjoy the book or save it from its predecessor’s fate. I didn’t like Breaking. I thought it was glamorizing suicide. I thought it was over-dramatic. But, most of all, I thought it lacked the umph necessary to pull itself from the muck.

This was basically my face when reading — enough said.

A Court of Wings and Ruin (AKA: A Court of Pain and Feels)

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“Remember that you are a wolf. And you cannot be caged.”

Title: A Court of Wings and Ruin

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: ACOTAR #3

Publication: May 2nd 2017 by Bloomsbury Childrens Books

Pages: 699

Source: Purchased

Summary from Goodreads:

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit-and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords-and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.

All the Feels:

It’s taken me almost a full month and two full rereads of A Court of Wings and Ruin before I could even fathom the idea of sitting down to write this. It’s always hard saying goodbye to a book series that you love, even though this one isn’t really goodbye to Prythian but only goodbye to Feyre and Rhys. This series, from ACOTAR and ACOMAF, has created a whole new feeling of home. The series has pulled me up, made me smile, made me rage. The ACOTAR series has been there through the ups and downs, through my younger brother’s football games when I was stuck for hours, and even through finals week. I was terrified to start reading A Court of Wings and Ruin. I had it preordered, and I was laying in bed May 1, just waiting. It was like Christmas morning when midnight hit – it took all my self restraint to save it for the morning. Reading it on my Kindle that Tuesday was like walking through the doors of a dream reality. I couldn’t believe it was real.

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