Archives for July 2016

Summer of Sailor Scouts • Sailor Moon Swag (Then & Now)

July 20, 2016 Comments : 3

Summer of Sailor Scouts

Welcome to the Summer of Sailor Scouts! (Aka July!)

Earlier this year, Alexa of Alexa Loves Books, Cristina of Girl in the Pages, Kristin of Super Space Chick, Sierra of SDavReads, and I all discovered that we shared a mutual love and appreciation for Sailor Moon! After exchanging plenty of flailing tweets and constantly bringing up our love for this magical girl story, we felt it was only right to celebrate it, and that’s what’s happening this July! Every week will feature a brand new blog post per day from each of us, and we’re excited to be sharing the Sailor Moon love with all our readers!

In this week of Summer of Sailor Scouts, we are talking about Sailor Moon swag we own or wish we own! For me, I want to share with you the preciousness I used to own when I was younger and what I own now!

Reviews

REVIEW • From London to Mars! (Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine)

July 19, 2016 Comments : 2

Arabella of Mars1

Ever since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, they proved that space travel was both possible and profitable.

Now, one century later, a plantation in the flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby. A tomboy who shares her father’s deft hand with complex automatons. Being raised on the Martian frontier by her Martian nanny, Arabella is more a wild child than a proper young lady. Something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.

Arabella soon finds herself trying to navigate an alien world until a dramatic change in her family’s circumstances forces her to defy all conventions in order to return to Mars in order to save both her brother and the plantation. To do this, Arabella must pass as a boy on the Diana, a ship serving the Mars Trading Company with a mysterious Indian captain who is intrigued by her knack with automatons. Arabella must weather the naval war between Britain and France, learning how to sail, and a mutinous crew if she hopes to save her brother from certain death.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Tor Books for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “Arabella eased her bedroom door open and crept into the dark hallway.”

Mars is home for Arabella Ashby. Not this London, England her mother has forced her to move to. She could be roaming the Mars frontier or fiddling with automatons at her family’s plantation, instead she’s learning to be a proper young lady in London at her mother’s urgings and suffocating under all the expectations and rules.

With threats to her brother’s life and plantation on Mars, Arabella runs off to save her brother. On her way to Mars, she disguises herself as a boy to get back; she joins the Diana, a ship from the Mars Trading Company, and learns how to work on a ship and navigate; she encounters dangers like French privateers and mutiny that she never flinches at. Arabella’s on a journey of a lifetime to Mars.

Letters

SINCERELY, CEE | A letter from yours truly to Melina Marchetta & Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil

July 15, 2016 Comments : 3

**Dear Melina Marchetta & Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil,**

WE HAVE WAITED ALL OUR LIVES FOR A NEW MELINA MARCHETTA BOOK!

[quote cite=”Goodreads” url=”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23566896-tell-the-truth-shame-the-devil”]Bashir “Bish” Ortley is a London desk cop. Almost over it. Still not dealing with the death of his son years ago, as well as the break-up of his marriage.

Across the channel, a summer bus tour, carrying a group of English teenagers is subject to a deadly bomb attack, killing four of the passengers and injuring a handful of others. Bish’s daughter is one of those on board.

The suspect is 17 year old Violette LeBrac whose grandfather was responsible for a bombing that claimed the lives of dozens of people fourteen years ago; and whose mother, Noor, has been serving a life sentence for the part she was supposed to have played in the attack.

As Bish is dragged into the search for the missing Violette, he finds himself reluctantly working with Noor LeBrac and her younger brother, Jimmy Sarraf.

And the more he delves into the lives of the family he helped put away, the more Bish realizes that they may have got it wrong all those years ago, and that truth wears many colours. Especially when it comes to the teenagers on board the recent bus bombing. Including his daughter.

Tell the truth. Shame the devil. Bish can’t get Violette LeBrac’s words out of his head. But what he may get is some sort of peace with his own past as the worlds of those involved in two bombings, years apart, collide into the journey of his life.[/quote]

Events

Summer of Sailor Scouts • Favorite Villain!

July 13, 2016 Comments : 5

Summer of Sailor Scouts

Welcome to the Summer of Sailor Scouts! (Aka July!)

In this week of Summer of Sailor Scouts, we are talking about our favorites! While most of the other ladies are talking about a bunch of favorites, I decided to talk about one of my favorite and most fabulous villains—Ayakashi Sisters.

Events

BLOG TOUR (+ GIVEAWAY) • Q&A with Betts Greene (Book Designer of Learning to Swear in America)

July 12, 2016 Comment : 1

[note note_color=”#31338d” text_color=”#ffffff”]Brimming with humor and one-of-a-kind characters, this end-of-the world novel will grab hold of Andrew Smith and Rainbow Rowell fans.

An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Yuri, a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been called to NASA as they calculate a plan to avoid disaster. He knows how to stop the asteroid: his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel prize–if there’s ever another Nobel prize awarded. But Yuri’s 17, and having a hard time making older, stodgy physicists listen to him. Then he meets Dovie, who lives like a normal teenager, oblivious to the impending doom. Being with her, on the adventures she plans when he’s not at NASA, Yuri catches a glimpse of what it means to save the world and save a life worth living.

Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe, and have your mind burst open with questions of the universe.

Goodreads · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · IndieBound· Indigo · Library[/note]

I am absolutely honored to be part of the Learning to Swear in America blog tour!

Today, I have the great pleasure of having the book designer of this wonderful book on my blog. Meet Betts Greene!

Reviews

(ARC) REVIEW • BR1019 Asteroid Incoming! (Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy)

July 10, 2016 Comment : 1

Learning to Swear in America

An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Maybe not kill-all-the-dinosaurs bad, but at least kill-everyone-in-California-and-wipe-out-Japan-with-a-tsunami bad. Yuri, a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been recruited to aid NASA as they calculate a plan to avoid disaster.

The good news is Yuri knows how to stop the asteroid–his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel prize if there’s ever another Nobel prize awarded. But the trouble is, even though NASA asked for his help, no one there will listen to him. He’s seventeen, and they’ve been studying physics longer than he’s been alive.

Then he meets (pretty, wild, unpredictable) Dovie, who lives like a normal teenager, oblivious to the impending doom. Being with her, on the adventures she plans when he’s not at NASA, Yuri catches a glimpse of what it means to save the world and live a life worth saving.

Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe, and have your mind burst open with the questions of the universe.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Bloomsbury for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “Because there’s no air in space, the asteroid hurtled toward Earth in absolute silence.”

An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth! California will be decimated! How do you prevent that from happening?

NASA calls all great minds to the United States for help, and one of those great minds is a seventeen-year-old Russian physicist prodigy. With only a few weeks, Yuri along with his American colleagues at NASA have to figure out a way to prevent the asteroid from hitting and causing destruction. Yuri has to deal with the stress of older physicists who don’t listen to his suggestions and people who watch him and keep track of everything. He manages to deal with that when he meets Dovie Collum, a normal teenager, and her family, where they introduce him to a life that’s so far from the one he knows.

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