SINCERELY, CEE | A letter from yours truly to The Wolf Wilder » The Novel Hermit

SINCERELY, CEE | A letter from yours truly to The Wolf Wilder

June 11, 2015 Comments : 2

**Dear Katherine Rundell and The Wolf Wilder,**

I smell found family with wolves! And that’s everything I never knew I wanted!

[quote cite=”Goodreads” url=”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24885821-the-wolf-wilder”]A girl and the wolves who love her embark on a rescue mission through Russian wilderness in this lyrical tale from the author of the acclaimed Rooftoppers and Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms.

Feo’s life is extraordinary. Her mother trains domesticated wolves to be able to fend for themselves in the snowy wilderness of Russia, and Feo is following in her footsteps to become a wolf wilder. She loves taking care of the wolves, especially the three who stay at the house because they refuse to leave Feo, even though they’ve already been wilded. But not everyone is enamored with the wolves, or with the fact that Feo and her mother are turning them wild. And when her mother is taken captive, Feo must travel through the cold, harsh woods to save her—and learn from her wolves how to survive.[/quote]

Lists

BLOG TOUR + ESSENTIAL READING | Books the Characters in Brutal Youth Would Love + Why!

June 9, 2015 Comments : 3

Three freshmen must join forces to survive at a troubled, working-class Catholic high school with a student body full of bullies and zealots, and a faculty that’s even worse in Anthony Breznican’s Brutal Youth.

With a plunging reputation and enrollment rate, Saint Michael’s has become a crumbling dumping ground for expelled delinquents and a haven for the stridently religious when incoming freshman Peter Davidek signs up. On his first day, tensions are clearly on the rise as a picked-upon upperclassmen finally snaps, unleashing a violent attack on both the students who tormented him for so long, and the corrupt, petty faculty that let it happen. But within this desperate place, Peter befriends fellow freshmen Noah Stein, a volatile classmate whose face bears the scars of a hard-fighting past, and the beautiful but lonely Lorelei Paskal —so eager to become popular, she makes only enemies.

To even stand a chance at surviving their freshmen year, the trio must join forces as they navigate a bullying culture dominated by administrators like the once popular Ms. Bromine, their embittered guidance counselor, and Father Mercedes, the parish priest who plans to scapegoat the students as he makes off with church finances. A coming-of-age tale reversed, Brutal Youth follows these students as they discover that instead of growing older and wiser, going bad may be the only way to survive.

Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · Books-A-Million · Indigo · iTunes · Google Play · Kobo

I have a special Essential Reading post, courtesy of the Brutal Youth blog tour, and I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Anthony Breznican to my blog! I love reading about the books that Anthony picked for five of his characters and reading how those books inspire those characters like Noah writing a paper on Mr. T or Hannah tattooing a certain quote on her arm.

For those who do not know what Essential Reading is, it is a feature on my blog where I ask authors to share five to seven books (children’s, YA, general fiction, romances, nonfiction, and all) that they or their characters love, or has impacted their lives or their characters’s lives.

Let’s see what Anthony picked, shall we?

**BOOKS THE CHARACTERS IN BRUTAL YOUTH WOULD LOVE (AND WHY!)**

by Anthony Breznican

I love this question! It’s one I would never have thought of on my own, but it gave me a chance to revisit the kids from Brutal Youth and imagine which books might strike a nerve with them.

Since the story is set in 1991 and 1992, I restricted myself to books that would actually have been available to them at the time, although there are many more recent ones these characters would love.

I should start by setting up the story: Brutal Youth is about a group of newcomers at a corrupt, crumbling private school outside Pittsburgh, where hazing is sanctioned as an hallowed tradition, and people will do anything to avoid the grim fate that awaits anyone at the bottom of the food chain.

Reviews

REVIEW | Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican

June 8, 2015 Comments : 2

Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican
June 2, 2015
St. Martin’s Press
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
* Book courtesy of St. Martin’s Press

Three freshmen must join forces to survive at a troubled, working-class Catholic high school with a student body full of bullies and zealots, and a faculty that’s even worse in Anthony Breznican’s Brutal Youth.

With a plunging reputation and enrollment rate, Saint Michael’s has become a crumbling dumping ground for expelled delinquents and a haven for the stridently religious when incoming freshman Peter Davidek signs up. On his first day, tensions are clearly on the rise as a picked-upon upperclassmen finally snaps, unleashing a violent attack on both the students who tormented him for so long, and the corrupt, petty faculty that let it happen. But within this desperate place, Peter befriends fellow freshmen Noah Stein, a volatile classmate whose face bears the scars of a hard-fighting past, and the beautiful but lonely Lorelei Paskal —so eager to become popular, she makes only enemies.

To even stand a chance at surviving their freshmen year, the trio must join forces as they navigate a bullying culture dominated by administrators like the once popular Ms. Bromine, their embittered guidance counselor, and Father Mercedes, the parish priest who plans to scapegoat the students as he makes off with church finances. A coming-of-age tale reversed, Brutal Youth follows these students as they discover that instead of growing older and wiser, going bad may be the only way to survive.

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “The kid had taken a lot of punishment over the years, so he had much to give back.”

Brutal Youth promises you exactly what the title says—a brutal youth. From the aggressive bullying of the freshmen by the upperclassmen to the lack of concern from the teachers, it’s everything you don’t want to experience in a high school. For these kids, it’s become a norm—surviving this bullying culture that can make any kid and adult a monster.

Holy Mother Cover

HOLY, MOTHER COVER | Trend: Neon Lights!

June 7, 2015 Comments : 10

holymothercover

Inspired by What She Reads, Pure Imagination Blog, and Stacked.

I admit I’m a book cover snob. Who isn’t though?

Book covers are the first thing that attracts readers to a book. A good cover can draw someone is, just as a bad cover can easily draw someone away. It can essentially make or break a book. Holy, Mother Cover! is where I showcase the book covers that stand out (or make me cringe) and discuss cover changes.

(A big special thanks to Georgie at What She Reads for bestowing me this fabulous name and to Charlotte at The Simple Tales for creating the beautiful feature banner you see before you.)

Neon lights! Big city! That’s what I wanna see! (I may or may not have “That’s the Life For Me” from James and the Giant Peach stuck in my head.)

Neon lights is the next trend I wanted to showcase. Like the post-it theme, I couldn’t find a lot of book covers with neon lights on it. I figured it would be fairly easy to find because designers can do excellent typography awesomeness with neon lights. Unfortunately, I only found four (which is better than none)! And those four are definitely fabulous ones.

TREND: Neon Lights

Discussion

DISCUSSION | I Love You So Much That I Can’t Write A Review

June 4, 2015 Comments : 17

discussionbanner

I’ve been noticing a trend lately in the books I reviewed—or at least, the books I haven’t reviewed at all even though I’ve been meaning to. I’ve noticed that those books are the ones that I loving so frickin’ much that they make my heart want to burst into confetti and dancing unicorns. (Obviously, not very healthy.)

After I read Jen @ Pop Goes the Reader’s top ten list of books she adored but never wrote a review, it made me think of the books on my own list and why I haven’t written a review for any of them. The books on my list that I could remember off the top of my head are:

Reviews

REVIEW | Things I Would Say to Grace Wilde in Hello, I Love You

June 2, 2015 Comments : 7

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout
June 9, 2015
St. Martin’s Griffin
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
* E-ARC courtesy of Netgalley + St. Martin’s Press

A teen escapes to a boarding school abroad and falls for a Korean pop star in this fun and fresh romantic novel in the vein of Anna and the French Kiss.

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

myreview

First sentence: “Big Brother, I want you to know something: It wasn’t your fault, not any of it. “

Ever wonder what happens when you decide to run off to go to boarding school in South Korea? Yes? (If you’re thinking, “why would she go to boarding school there?” me too, folks. Me too.)

Hello, I Love You is about what happens when an American teenager, Grace Wilde, runs off to South Korea to escape the pressure of being part of a well-known family in the music industry and the tragedy that had befell on her family. She attempts to adjust to her new life at a boarding school in Korea, and along the way, she encounters her roommate’s twin brother, Jason, who’s an arrogant but insecure Korean pop star and who she constantly clashes with. And of course, love blossoms in the air, and soon the issues of their past come to the surface, forcing them to face it head on.

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