Ontario Teen Book Fest 2015 Authors Revealed!

December 19, 2014Leave a comment

My favorite event is JUST around the corner and I am bursting with excitement to finally release the list of authors that will attending.

The Ontario Teen Book Fest will be taking place Saturday, viagra March 21st from 9:30 am to 5 pm at Colony High School. More details of events, information pills and all of that will come in February as I host the Ontario TBF blog tour! Yay!

Check out their official website here.

For now, viagra its time to announce all the AMAZING authors that will be in attendance this year. Brace yourselves!

Make sure to click their names to head to their website, to find out more about the authors and their books!

Jessica Brody

Anna Carey

Cecil Castellucci

Debra Driza

Katie Finn (Morgan Matson)

Maurene Goo

Claudia Gray

Aaron Hartzler

Jessica Khoury

Melissa Landers

Shannon Messenger

Lauren Miller

Elizabeth Ross

Sherri Smith

Mary Elizabeth Summer

Kasie West

Also included in this WONDERFUL list of attending authors are the three moderator/authors that will be in attendance as well:

Gretchen McNeil

Catherine Linka

Brad Gottfred

* * * * *

I’m SO excited about this year’s list of authors and I canNOT wait for this event. I hope you all can join me in March! Stay tuned for more as the blog tour, and giveaways and all sorts of fun stuff comes in the future!

Tuesday Top Ten-Best Books I’ve Read So Far This Year

June 10, 2014Leave a comment

Today I have stolen my topic idea from The Broke and Bookish blog, sales which hosts the Top Ten Tuesday meme. I usually get ideas from them, tadalafil but I call mine something different…honestly because I didn’t know theirs existed when I started mine haha. And I do more than books, physician so there is that.

Today’s topic though…its June, near half way June, so we are basically at the halfway mark for the year of 2014. So what a perfect time to talk about the best books that I have read so far this year.

Let’s get to it.

And yes, I did a top 15…don’t attack me haha. It was SO hard to narrow it down!

Remember, clicking the title will take you to the book’s GoodReads page and clicking the author name will take you to their webpage!

15. Rebel by Amy Tintera

Amy’s conclusion to her novel, Reboot, was incredible. I was so excited that I managed to get my hands on an e-galley of it, and I whipped through it so fast. Reboot is a major influence for The Awakened. Though they’re totally different spectrums of sci-fi, I love her writing, her style and the fact that she accomplished it in two books. I LOVED this book and my friend Mina just got me a signed copy so yay!

14. All Lined Up by Cora Carmack

I was massively impressed by this release of Cora Carmack. I think she’s a great writer but her stories honestly haven’t caught me quite yet but this one totally did. Football, hot boys and romance? You have me totally sold on that one. I can’t wait to read more in the Rusk University series.

13. Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins

This book kept popping up on my radar and the cover was so pretty that I am so glad I finally buckled down and bought this and read it. Harper is such a fun main character, all sass and attitude and hilarity, with these new, almost superhero like powers, and its just a great book. I loved every single bit of this novel.

12. Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I honestly don’t think that there has been a book yet that I’ve been disappointed in when it comes to Jennifer L. Armentrout. This book was so different from others that I’ve read from her in the past but it was just so good. It was scary! Every time the main character saw something in the mirror or got a note tucked into her backpack or something like that, I was just so scared. Such a great book.

11. Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn

Katie Finn is awesome, basically because its a lighter version of Morgan Matson, who I love…and its the same person. LOL. But I absolutely loved seeing a lighter, summer-y version of Morgan as Katie Finn and this book was SO much fun, and so delicious and…it just literally made me so excited for summer. Its the perfect summer read.

10. A Girl Called Fearless by Catherine Linka

What a beautiful, beautiful debut novel. I love it for so many reasons. Catherine Linka is SUCH a doll, and I love that its set in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I love the main character, and I love the bad guys for being so creepy and scary. I love what she brings up in this novel. I love that it reminds you that girls have to fight for their rights, every day, in every single country. Its just SUCH a great book.

9. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

Look, yes, I was massively disappointed in the end of this book. I honestly thought it was way too incredibly safe and that Cassie could have made much bigger sacrifices than she did. That being said…I still liked the book a lot. I wasn’t a fan of the “second” trilogy of TMI to be honest, but this book really brought it to a close and I was pleased with many parts of it. So it definitely makes the list.

8. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

YES! This book is so absolutely beautiful. Thank you Stephen Chbosky and Emma Watson for talking this book up, because then I got my hands on it and loved it. And I’ve met Ava several times, and become friends with her and she’s just the sweetest. This book is beautiful and wonderfully written and just heartbreaking. I absolutely love this book. Its a MUST read. And its going to be a movie, penned by Ava herself!

7. Cress by Marissa Meyer

The Lunar Chronicles blows my mind and they honestly get better with every single book. I LOVED CRESS. I feel bad because it took me so long to read it but I was in a massive slump back then and it was awful. But when I got caught up in this book, I couldn’t put it down and I just love it so much. I even wear a “Thorne is my captain” pin on my apron at work every single day. Such a great book and leaves me panting for Winter!

6. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Jenny Han is awesome. And yes, it took me reading this book to figure that out, but that’s okay. This is the book that made me a fan of Jenny Han. It was fun, and written so well, and I love the main character, and I love all the boys that make an appearance in this novel and I’m so excited for the sequel because this book was just so good. Jenny Han has contemporary YA romance in the palm of her hand, and she does it so well.

5. The One by Kiera Cass

Oh, Kiera Cass. Only you can take something like this and make it so wonderful. She creates basically a story that puts The Hunger Games with the Bachelor, and a bunch of girls fighting over the hand of one prince, and a love triangle (a big one), and just makes it work. It sounds like something I would never read in a million years but this is SUCH a great trilogy and The One is an amazing ending to it. I am so glad I got to meet her and tell her how this blew my mind.

4. Unforgotten by Jessica Brody

I was SO excited to finally get my hands on the sequel to Unremembered because I had questions that needed to be answered and then…and then! Jessica goes and leaves it on the biggest cliffhanger since Unremembered (haha), and leaves me literally dying for Unchanged. I can’t handle it. But being back with Sera and Zen, and in so many different time periods, and the action and the tension and the kissing…all of it was just so great and I am not kidding when I say I literally can’t wait to get my hands on Unchanged :)

3. Fire and Flood by Victoria Scott

Okay, talk about a book that literally came out of left field, and just knocked me down. I watched a live cast of Jessica Brody and Victoria Scott, and I thought Victoria was super cool so I had to get my hands on her book, and I did. I read it in literally about 2 hours. I LOVED it. I seriously…oh, god, don’t get me started. I just loved the whole thing of it. It has this epic survival story going on, and a race full of action and tension, and a hot guy (because we need hot guys and kissing, duh!) and the Pandoras. I won’t reveal what those are but the Pandoras are the coolest things in the entire world. I’m just saying.

2. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Great summer book. Great book about friendship and breaking out of your shell and going out of the norm and falling in love and making new friends. Just such an amazing, great book. It reminds me that Morgan Matson has yet to disappoint me, and that she remains one of my favorite authors, period. She is just SO great, and I loved this book. I felt so close to the main character, and she felt so familiar. I could re-read this book again and again and again.

1. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

I have never read a book like this in my life before GJ and I doubt I’ll ever read a book like this again. Its literally a book about everything, and it made me laugh and it made me shake my head and raise my eyebrows and so many other things. This book is absolutely incredible because it takes so many bits and pieces and manages to fit them together in such a crazy good book. Every time I see it, I just shake my head and smile because I’m just reminded of how much it blew my mind, and just…its amazing. Its the weirdest book I’ve ever read but its so good. You need to read this book. You just have to.

* * * * * * *

Well, there you have it, folks. The top 15 books I’ve read so far this year. What are some of the best books you’ve read this year? Share in the comments!

Weekly Fangirl Round Up!

June 7, 2014Leave a comment

A new trailer and poster has been revealed for Love, stomach Rosie, medicine starring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin.

Naomi Watts joins the cast of Insurgent, page as Four’s mother.

Cassandra Clare announces that there will be Simon Lewis short stories in the near future.

A new full-length, extended trailer for The Giver has been released!

The leader of Candor has been cast, welcome Daniel Day Kim to the Divergent family!

The new trailer for Gayle Forman’s If I Stay movie adaptation is released, and includes scenes from the prologue.

Watch the first trailer for the movie adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ The Best of Me.

Michael Gambon, aka Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter movies 3-8, has been cast in a role in JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy! Find out the rest of the casting here!

Check out the first two chapters of Robert Galbraith’s (aka JK Rowling) second novel, The Silkworm, and make sure to preorder it through your indie bookstore!

Will the Song of Ice and Fire series by one book longer than anticipated? George RR Martin’s editor suggests this might be so!

Star Wars Episode 7 adds two fantastic ladies to the cast: Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)! Fun fact: Gwendoline was recently cast as Commander Lyme in Mockingjay!

Want to learn Dothraki? Well, with this new companion software, you can!

Set photos have been leaked from the upcoming Star Wars movie, and it looks like we’ll see a bit of the Millennium Falcon!

JJ Abrams has an interesting response for the leaked Star Wars Episode 7 photos.

Both John Green and Nat Wolff talk about the upcoming adaptation of another of John’s books, Paper Towns.

George RR Martin wants to put you in A Game of Thrones…and kill you. Find out how it could be you!

Rumors are abound that Benedict Cumberbatch could be starring in a Dr. Strange movie!

Ant-man gets a new director in the form of Peyton Reed!

Teen Wolf fans: the official trailer is finally here!

The cover for Abbi Glines’ new novel has been revealed! Check it out!

The Fault in Our Stars opens up to a huge box office weekend, aims to beat out Shailene’s other blockbuster hit this year, Divergent.

The DUFF has officially begun filming, check out all the photos we’ve seen so far!

A trailer for Maggie Stiefvater’s Sinner has been released!

Sherlock Season 3 has hit Netflix (along with Orange is the New Black) and it includes bonus features!

Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend Book Challenge

Fictional Crush of the Week: Clary Fray from The Mortal Instruments Series

Five Reasons to Read Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn

Favorite and Least Favorite Moments of City of Heavenly Fire (Spoilers)

May Book Wrap Up

California June Book Events!

Vlog: Monday Missions 8

Vlog: HUGE May Book Haul

Tuesday Top Ten: Most Anticipated Summer Book Releases

“Yes, Adults Should Be Embarrassed to Read Young Adult Books”: A Response

* * * * * * *

Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend Book Challenge!

May 30, 2014April 10, 20201 Comment

For those of you who may not know, about it I was lucky enough this year to become part of the Fierce Reads Street Team. I was SO incredibly excited about this because I adore Fierce Reads and all the amazing authors that are a part of it. I was even more excited when I was asked to help promote Katie Finn (aka Morgan Matson) and her new contemporary YA novel, Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend.

I was sent a challenge to complete for this book, so I definitely want to do it. Check out the synopsis for the book first:

Summer, boys, and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long?

When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma’s plan is working (she’s finding it hard to resist Josh), but she’s finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is?

Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.

You can check out my spoiler free review here!

Now on to the challenge!

Gemma or Hallie?

As much I love both of these characters, and the sort of balancing each other out they do and the antics they get into it, I have to say Gemma. I don’t know if its because we’re in Gemma’s head, but I just adore her. I love that she’s stumbling along, trying to do the right things but not always accomplishing that. I love that she knows she makes mistakes and that she tries to fix them, but sometimes, she also messes that up. She’s a very real character and I adore her.

Favorite Character?

Oh that’s so hard! I loved so many of the characters in this book. AGH. How dare you make me pick! This is too hard. Sigh. I think I’d have to choose…Sophie. Sophie doesn’t have a ton of “screen” time because she’s back home while Gemma is in the Hamptons with her father, but when she is, she’s fantastic. She’s the kind of best friend that we would wish to have. She’s fun, and she’s ready to step into her best friend duties at any moment. When Gemma is like “I’m you and you’re me”, she just goes with it. She questions it, like a real best friend, but she gives in and helps in every where she can, and she’s just awesome. She’s so much fun. I love Sophie!

Gemma Fancast:

“We still had brown hair and freckles, but Sophie tended to cover hers with make-up, and her hair was cut in a stylish, choppy bob while mine was kind of long and shapeless.”

The first person I thought of was Sarah Hyland because, yes, she’s absolutely pretty but she’s also fun, and sort of fun looking. You look at Sarah and you think, she’s going to be so much fun to hang out with. She would be a really great fit for Gemma. The only thing she doesn’t have is the height for Gemma but she has a good look and I think she’d capture her personality so well that it wouldn’t matter :)

Favorite Quote:

This just makes me laugh, just thinking about it. It just hints at the absolutely fun hijinks that this book is.

I also like a quote from the beginning of the novel:

“I could never remember the details of the documentaries Teddy wanted to watch. All I knew was that they were never the ones I wanted to see, which were mostly about penguins.”

And I swear, it has NOTHING to do with my obsession of penguins ;)

Hallie Fancast:

“She had the same eyes, green and almond-shaped. Her hair was a slightly darker shade of the bright blond I remembered, but it was still long and curly, and it flowed over her shoulders and down her back.”

I’m not going to lie, I literally googled young blonde actresses because I didn’t quite know who to pick and Maika Monroe popped up. She has this fun, beautiful look to her and she’s how I’d imagine that Hallie looked. I think Hallie has this beauty and confidence about her, something that both intimates and attracts Gemma to her, and you can see that in just this picture alone.

Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend Theme Songs

Here are some songs that I enjoyed listening to during the summer, and they are the ones that immediately came to my mind when reading it. I don’t know that they have anything directly to do with Broken Hearts, but they’re very summer songs, and they are what I thought of. These are two songs that I listened to when I was about Gemma’s age!

Boys of Summer – The Ataris

Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue

Josh Fancast

“He had light brown hair, cut short, and eyes that looked greenish, but that might have just been because he was wearing a pale green T-shirt. He had dark eyelashes and eyebrows and though it was hard to tell because I was sitting, but it looked like he was a few inches taller than me, which meant he was pretty tall.”

Lucas Till. I think he’s absolutely adorable, you can believe him as the brother of Maika and he would make a really great Josh. He looks like a boy who belongs on the beaches of the Hamptons. Plus I just have a massive crush on him, and its my fancast, so a girl can dream! Haha!

* * * * * * *

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Broken Hearts and that you’ll make sure to check it out and grab yourself a copy! Katie Finn is constantly on the road, promoting her books, as either Katie or Morgan, so definitely look out for her, and this awesome book.

And watch out tomorrow for my Top Ten Reasons to Read Broken Hearts!

Weekly Fangirl Round-Up!

May 30, 2014May 29, 20141 Comment

Doctor Who, look Series 8 has a premiere date AND a teasing teasing teasing teaser trailer!

The first chapter of Marie Lu’s new book, The Young Elites, has been revealed!

Debut novel, Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira, has been optioned for film!

Stephanie Leigh Schlund, Cashmere in Catching Fire, confirmed that she joined the cast of Insurgent, as a yet to be revealed member of Amity.

Alfonso Cuaron has been confirmed as NOT directing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

More promotional images for The Maze Runner have been shared!

Mockingjay Filming continues in Berlin, check out some photos!

Two More People have Been Cast for Insurgent!

More Dragons are coming our way! Netflix confirms a How to Train your Dragon spin-off TV series!

Watch the new trailer for Daniel Radcliffe’s rom com, What If!

Pixar’s 2015 film “Inside Out” has an official synopsis.

Some news of True Detective, season 2, has been revealed: it will have THREE main characters.

Emma Watson, queen bee, and our Hermione Granger, has graduated from Brown University!

One Direction fan fiction “After” has officially gotten a publishing deal.

Robbie Amell, my future boyfriend, has been cast in a role in the movie adaptation of The DUFF.

Secrets about the could-have-been season 2 of Starcrossed were revealed.

Happy 2nd Blog Birthday What A Nerd Girl Says and HUGE HUGE Giveaway! (One more week to enter!)

Monday Missions Vlog

City of Heavenly Fire Vlog Review (Spoilers!)

Book Review: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (No Spoilers!)

Book Review: All Lined Up by Cora Carmack

Ontario Teen Book Fest Recap!

Why The Mortal Instruments is Important to Me!

Book Review: Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend by Katie Finn

Book Review: Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend

May 29, 20144 Comments

This review is based an advanced reader’s copy given to me by Macteen Books as part of the Fierce Reads Street Team in exchange for an honest review and promotion. This in no way had any influence on my review.

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Summer, here boys, price and friendships gone sour. This new series has everything that perfect beach reads are made of!

Gemma just got dumped and is devastated. She finds herself back in the Hamptons for the summer—which puts her at risk of bumping into Hallie, site her former best friend that she wronged five years earlier. Do people hold grudges that long?

When a small case of mistaken identity causes everyone, including Hallie and her dreamy brother Josh, to think she’s someone else, Gemma decides to go along with it.

Gemma’s plan is working (she’s finding it hard to resist Josh), but she’s finding herself in embarrassing situations (how could a bathing suit fall apart like that!?). Is it coincidence or is someone trying to expose her true identity? And how will Josh react if he finds out who she is?

Katie Finn hits all the right notes in this perfect beginning to a new summer series: A Broken Hearts & Revenge novel.

My Review:

I had no idea Katie Finn was Morgan Matson when I first got this book. I was SO excited, and am still VERY excited to be a part of the Fierce Reads Tour. Fierce Reads has a ton of amazing authors like Jessica Brody and Leigh Bardugo and Ava Dellaira and all kinds of authors. Being a part of their team has been awesome so far, and I was glad to be a part of it. When I became part of Katie Finn’s team, I was like, okay, I don’t know her, but that’s okay because I’m always up for learning about new authors.

I felt sort of silly when I went to go download my review copy and realized that she was Morgan Matson, one of my favorite authors ever. I urged my computer to download faster, and then cuddled up with my Nook to read this book.

I read it in about 2 hours. I sped through it so fast, because it was so much fun! It was really awesome to see a different writing side to Morgan. As Morgan, she writes sort of serious, dramatic YA, and as Katie Finn, it was a lot of fun, laughs, sort of unbelievable hijinks and I really truly enjoyed it. Whenever summer hits, I’m always looking for some good contemporary books to read, something involving road trips or trips to the beach and Broken Hearts is absolutely perfect in that.

Gemma is a real relatable character. She makes a mistake when she is younger, and she’s constantly feeling guilty about it. When she arrives to spend the summer with her father, and runs into the best friend she had so many years ago, the one she wronged, she genuinely wants to make things better. Of course, she goes about the wrong way, but she really is a genuine person and I think she’s hurt by her ex-boyfriend and just kind of making the mistakes that people make sometimes when they don’t quite know what to do with themselves. Plus, she makes some silly mistakes along the way too, and it makes me laugh. She gets herself into some of the craziest situations and I found myself laughing out loud at many of the parts.

I also love Josh. Josh is the brother of the girl Hallie that Gemma had wronged so many years before, and she has a vague memory of him, but when she returns, of course he’s totally cute and totally sweet, and crush-worthy. I totally developed a crush on him. Despite the train wreck of silliness that Gemma can sometimes be, he obviously cares a lot about her, and they are very cute together. Its a fun, summer romance and I love being along for that ride.

Getting down to it, without spoiling the book…its just fun. Its a really fun book. This is a perfect summer time read because its got the pool parties and the ice cream and the summer dates and all of that, the summer fun and, of course, the summer drama. I wanted to be a part of that world, and it reminded me of the summers I used to have before having jobs and responsibilities. It was juicy and racy and just straight up fun. I found myself laughing over and over and over again.

I will say this too, I wasn’t aware that it was a trilogy at first, because normally with contemporary, there is very little times, a sequel. So when the book ended, I was like “WHAT!” I never knew a contemporary book could leave me with such a delicious and infuriating cliffhanger. I wanted to throw the book across the room because I HAD to know what happened next. I turned the page and saw that there would be more books and felt a slight sense of relief that I would eventually find out what happened next, but I’m not a patient girl and I’m already ready for it!

All in all, fun book, full of everything you’d want in a perfect summer book…or even a book that you’re reading in winter, while dreaming of summer. It has the friendship and romance and pool parties and delicious treats and the rule breaking and all of that. Its a feel good, fun book and its one that I so HIGHLY recommend.

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars