Tour +#Giveaway: Spelled by Betsy Schow

Spelled
by Betsy Schow
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: June 2nd 2015
Rate: 4 Stars

Synopsis:

Fairy Tale Survival Rule #32: If you find yourself at the mercy of a wicked witch, sing a romantic ballad and wait for your Prince Charming to save the day.

Yeah, no thanks. Dorthea is completely princed out. Sure being the crown princess of Emerald has its perks—like Glenda Original ball gowns and Hans Christian Louboutin heels. But a forced marriage to the brooding prince Kato is so not what Dorthea had in mind for her enchanted future.

Talk about unhappily ever after. 

Trying to fix her prince problem by wishing on a (cursed) star royally backfires, leaving the kingdom in chaos and her parents stuck in some place called "Kansas." Now it's up to Dorthea and her pixed off prince to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz and undo the curse...before it releases the wickedest witch of all and spells The End for the world of Story.

  How fun! That was my first thought going into this book, and it definitely stayed with me as I read Spelled! I'm not very big on fairy tales. (Shocker, I know!) BUT. I love retellings and other incorporation of them into stories. And Spelled definitely hit it out of the park with that. I was instantly hooked and drawn into the world of Dorthea!

  I love how Schow used her imagination to reassign things we're familiar with to align with her fairy tale. It added another element to this book that was just fun. The clothes designers were one of my favorites! 

  Dorthea was a great character. She was realistic. You won't find a Mary Sue in Spelled! I loved her spunk. By the time I finished Spelled, I felt like I had a friend in her! Her character progression was fantastic to watch unfold. The slow burn with Kato was also brilliant! Thank you for no insta-love! Just a swoony boy and a girl you can't help but love. More please!

  Even though Dorthea is realistic, she can be hard to handle. But I appreciate that. I appreciate her flaws. All in all, I really enjoyed Spelled! Fairy tale lovers will immensely enjoy this one!

Camilla Belle as Dorthea

Alex Pettyfer as Kato

Follow the Spelled by Betsy Schow Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

BETSY SCHOW is the TODAY Show featured author of the non-fiction book, Finished Being Fat; however she’s been mixing up real life and fantasy for as long as she can remember. If someone were to ask about her rundown truck, she’s 100% positive that mechanical gremlins muck up her engine. And the only reason her house is dirty is because the dust bunnies have gone on strike. She lives in Utah with her own knight in geeky armor and their two princesses (that can totally shapeshift into little beasts). When not writing, she acts as the Tournament Director for Odyssey of the Mind and helps teach kids creative thinking (or how to turn their toasters into robots).

Her debut novel, Spelled, comes out June 2015 from Sourcebooks. She is represented by Michelle Witte, Mansion Street Literary Agency.

INTERNATIONAL

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday: Implanted by @hletto2

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

It spotlights upcoming releases that we're excited about!

Implanted by Heather Letto

June 2015

After a narrow escape from the city of Impervious, Fran’s heart aches for the ones she left behind. Will her brother ever connect the dots? And, what about Pete? Could he, along with the remaining Rebels, have survived the Council’s violent oppression?

As Fran ponders the fate of her friends, an even more disturbing revelation drops into her world—the knowledge that she, along with anyone who had lived underground remains implanted with the sinister presence of the Council. A fate rendering her powerless to save.

Yet one with pure blood, untouched by the Council’s defiling, lives among them. Could he be the new lifeline of hope? Is salvation of the city worth risking the life of this one-and-only?

Why I can't wait for Implanted:

My favorite YA dystopian is getting a sequel?! Yes, please! I am SO excited for this book. I know it's going to be just as amazing as Impervious. I cannot wait to be back with Fran!

[Add Implanted to Goodreads]

What are you waiting on?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

It spotlights upcoming releases that we're excited about!

The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick

August 18th, 2015

Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To:
- find the liquor cabinet blindfolded
- need a liver transplant
- drive his car into a house

Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To:
- well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.

For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.

Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.

And Alice is caught in the middle.

Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this return to the world of My Life Next Door is a story about failing first, trying again, and having to decide whether to risk it all once more.

Why I can't wait for The Boy Most Likely To:

This is one of my most anticipated reads of 2015. The first book in this series, My Life Next Door, was one of my favorite last year. Tim and Alice were two of my favorites in that book, so I'm really excited to catch up with them again!

[Add The Boy Most Likely To to Goodreads]

What are you waiting on?

When Writing a Review Seems Impossible

  Hey, y'all. Today I want to talk reviews. But this isn't your run of the mill post with helpful tips and comparing styles. This is for those reviews that just do not want to be written. You know the ones I'm talking about. You avoid the review by writing ten other blog posts. You get around to reorganizing your closet. You remember that your bookshelves need dusting and straightening. You will do anything to avoid writing that review. There are tons of different reasons that reviews can be difficult, but I want to talk about two that pop up for me the most.

credit

Books that defy being reviewed. I recently finished Little Peach by Peggy Kern. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to write a review for it. It affected me so deeply that I had a compelling need to just pour my heart out. But rather quickly I realized that Little Peach just isn't a book I can review. It is above being reviewed. (In my eyes, at least!) There have been several books like this for me. The only book like this that I attempted at reviewing was The Fault in Our Stars. But it was less review, more me opening up a part of my heart and listing for TFiOS affected me. It's cathartic, but scary. And I just don't want to go there again.

credit

Books that are just meh. This type of book is the one I struggle with most because I encounter far more of them. It's easy to write a review whenever you have strong feelings about a book, whether it's love or hate. But what about whenever you're feeling just meh about a book? What do you write? "I finished this book. It was okay. Not too memorable. Meh." Usually I find something about the book to focus on and drum up a review by going down the list of plot, characters, relationships, pace, and setting. But it's hard. Some books really are just meh.

What about you guys?

Do you struggle with reviews?
Have any tips for those of us struggling with certain reviews?

Review: The Improbably Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher

The Improbably Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance, Geeky

[Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound]

It all begins when Ana Watson's little brother, Clayton,
secretly ditches the quiz bowl semifinals to go to the
Washingcon sci-fi convention on what should have been a normal, résumé-building school trip.

If slacker Zak Duquette hadn't talked up the geek fan fest so much, maybe Clayton wouldn't have broken nearly every school rule or jeopardized Ana’s last shot at freedom from her uptight parents.

Now, teaming up with Duquette is the only way for Ana to chase down Clayton in the sea of orcs, zombies, bikini-clad princesses, Trekkies, and Smurfs. After all, one does not simply walk into Washingcon.

But in spite of Zak's devil-may-care attitude, he has his own reasons for being as lost as Ana-and Ana may have more in common with him than she thinks. Ana and Zak certainly don’t expect the long crazy night, which begins as a nerdfighter manhunt, to transform into so much more…

  Read that synopsis. Doesn't that scream geeky goodness and cutesey romance? Well, that's exactly the opposite of The Improbably Theory of Ana and Zak. I have SO much to say about this book.

credit

  My biggest issue with this book was Ana. At first, I felt a bit of sympathy for her because her parents seemed so overbearing and demanding. That's gonna put anyone on edge, you know? But the way that Ana handled that stress straight up pissed me off. She let it turn herself into a monster who judged and belittled every. single. female in this book. It was tiring. Ana was supposed to be intelligent, but all I got from her was insecure and bitter. I'll let Ana speak for herself.

Ana meets a bald, female friend of Zak's. Here are a few of the gems relating to that.
"Cue ball snaps to attention."
"Baldy wasn't bad-looking, and yet she was all awitter over Zak."
"What the hell was up with this place? First Baldy, now this."

  Mind you that Ana never once considered that perhaps there was a medical reason why the girl was bald. Nope, she went straight to harsh and just pure mean judgement. But it doesn't stop there. Zak, the other main character, wasn't safe from her. Throughout the entire book, she put him down and discounted his feelings because he enjoyed the geekier side of life. At one point she wonders why such a geek like Zak can be liked by his fellow geeks.

credit

  I know I'm all over the place, but I have to return to the issue of Ana judging and criticizing other women. I marked nearly every time she did it on my Kindle. I could post pages and pages of her horrible attitude. In one part the only description she uses for another girl is "fatso". There's one girl that she meets that she doesn't say anything about her looks (!), but in the next sentence she's pissed because the girl's laugh is irritating. I just can't you guys. There is NO REASON to judge other women like that. It's unfair, ugly, and unneeded. She's the epitome of an insecure person who has to bring everyone around her down for some sense of comfort in her own mediocrity. GO AWAY, ANA. No one likes you.

credit

  Okay, enough ranting about Ana. Let's get to the rest of the book. The story could have been great. The premise of two teenagers running amok throughout a convention could have really shined. But towards the end, things spiral out of control. It goes from humorous, geeky fun to some weird and unbelievable wanna be thriller. The amount of Star Trek and LotR references couldn't save this book from itself.

credit

  This is seriously my least favorite read of 2015. I don't even know a single person I'd recommend this book to. It was such a let down. I enjoy all manners of geekery. But I just don't enjoy women being criticized and judged endlessly. No thank you. Never again.

credit

**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review with no compensation.

Tour + #Giveaway: City Love by @susanecolasanti @epicreads

City Love by Susane Colasanti

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: April 21st 2015

Synopsis:

Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are living together in New York City the summer before their freshman year of college begins. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives.

Sadie is a native New Yorker. She is hopeful, romantic, and an eternal optimist who is ready to find her soul mate. Then she meets her dream boy: cute, funny, and quirky in all the right ways. The chemistry between them is unreal. Could he be the one?

Darcy is a free spirit from SoCal with rebellious tendencies and unlimited financial resources. Moving to New York City is just another adventure for her. Darcy wants this summer to be all about boy adventures—nothing serious. But how much fun is too much?

Rosanna leaves Chicago for NYC so she can put her past behind her and reinvent herself. The only thing standing in her way is the grand total of seventy-three cents she has saved. Then she meets a guy who wants to show her the glamorous side of New York—a side that she would never get to experience on her own. If Rosanna doesn't resist, she may find herself in city love.

Told from alternating points of view, City Love captures the moments in each girl's life when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying all at once . . . in a way it will never be again.

Follow the City Love by Susane Colasanti Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Susane Colasanti is the bestselling author of When It Happens, Take Me There, Waiting for You, Something Like Fate, So Much Closer, Keep Holding On, All I Need, and Now and Forever. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from New York University. Before becoming a full-time author in 2007, Susane was a high school science teacher for ten years. She lives in New York City.

The first book of Susane's City Love trilogy will be released on April 21, 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway