Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE

 

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.  It is a meme that I have  loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi.  I fell in love with the gorgeous cover for this book as soon as I saw it, but then I read the synopsis and became even more interested in reading it.  I’m intrigued by the idea of what happens to a magical land when the magic suddenly disappears and also by the idea that main character Zélie will work together with a rogue princess to get the magic back.  It just sounds so exciting and intense!

 

CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi

Publication Date:   March 6, 2018

 

From Goodreads:

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now, Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for the enemy.

 

I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Books On My Winter Reading List

top ten tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR List, which gives us all a chance to share what we’re planning to read for the next few months.   

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It’s always hard for me to put together a definitive list because I’m such a mood reader and what I’m keen on reading seems to change from minute to minute.  That said, here’s my tentative reading list for the upcoming winter months.  I may also try to squeeze in a few titles off my backlist that I kept neglecting like Dark Matter, Nevernight, and The Raven Boys, but the ARCs and recent releases below are high on my priority list.

 

TOP 10 BOOKS ON MY WINTER READING LIST

 

1. THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert

(Find out what it’s about…)

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2. NICE TRY, JANE SINNER by Lianne Oelke

(Find out what it’s about…)

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3.  THE WIFE BETWEEN US by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

(Find out what it’s about…)

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4. THE IMMORTALISTS by Chloe Benjamin

(Find out what it’s about…)

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5. SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE by McKelle George

(Find out what it’s about…)

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6. NEED TO KNOW by Karen Cleveland

(Find out what it’s about…)

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7. HONOR AMONG THIEVES by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre

(Find out what it’s about…)

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8. TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN by John Green

(Find out what it’s about…)

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9. THE HUSH by John Hart

(Find out what it’s about…)

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10. A QUIET KIND OF THUNDER by Sara Barnard


(Find out what it’s about…)

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Question:  What books are you planning to read this winter?  Are any of my titles on your list?

Weekly Recap #28: Week of 11/19-11/25

 

It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

So, I’m back from my trip to New York and have spent the bulk of this week playing catch up while also preparing to host this year’s Thanksgiving dinner.  The trip was fantastic! Since we go there so much and have done most of the traditional touristy activities, we decided to do a few different activities this time.  We toured the historic district of Harlem this time, which included seeing a lot of beautiful churches and brownstones, as well as the Apollo Theater, and learning a lot about the history of Harlem that I had never studied before.  Aside from touring Harlem, we also took in a comedy show in Chelsea at the Gotham Comedy Club.  It was hilarious and I’d highly recommend it no matter who the show headliner is.  The night we went, as funny as the headliner was, the two opening acts were even funnier. I don’t think I stopped laughing the entire time we were there!

None of the Broadway shows I was interested in seeing had discounted tickets available, so we opted for an off-Broadway play instead.  It was a dark comedy called ‘What We’re Up Against’ and starred Sklar Astin, Marg Helgenberger, and Damian Young and it focused on sexism in the workplace.  The play was fantastic and gave us a lot to think and talk about afterwards.  We also ate tons of New York Pizza and Cheesecake and had a great time just exploring the city in general.

One of my favorite places that we visited was The Strand bookstore.  Now, amazingly enough, I didn’t actually buy any books, but I did buy some fun bookish souvenirs from there, including these cool bookish tote bags.

  
 

I have to confess that I have done pretty much no reading this entire week either.  I started reading The Girl in the Tower on the train ride home last weekend and while I’m really enjoying it so far, just got too busy with Thanksgiving planning to even pick up the book again.  Then once Thanksgiving was over, I spent the rest of my long weekend binge-watching Marvel: Agents of Shield.  I watched almost 3 full seasons from Thursday afternoon to this morning!  I should be ashamed of myself, but I regret nothing, haha!

Hopefully I’ll get some books read this weekend or else The Bookish Libra may be a bit quiet next week!

Anyway, I think that’s it for me.  I hope everyone who was celebrating this week had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

    

UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

  
     
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

 
    

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Credit: inkygirl.com

Review: Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

Review:  Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha SilvaMr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel of Christmas Past by Samantha Silva
four-half-stars
Published by Flatiron Books on October 31st 2017
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 288
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

MY REVIEW:

Samantha Silva’s Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a charming, heartwarming tale that follows Charles Dickens at a difficult time in his life.  Dickens has been a hugely successful writer for years, with each book selling better than the last.  That is, until Martin Chuzzlewit, whose sales have unexpectedly flopped.  Three weeks before Christmas, Dickens’ publishers pay him a visit to tell him the bad news about his book sales and to issue him an ultimatum:  write a heartwarming, best-selling Christmas book in the next three weeks or else face financial ruin.

Needless to say, this does not put Dickens into the Christmas spirit, especially when on top of his bad news, he also has to contend with his family who is expecting the same lavish Christmas that they are used to.  Additionally, one of Dickens’ cousins is lurking about because he wants money for an investment, and Dickens’ deadbeat father is also milling around town racking up debts and expecting Charles to take care of them.

Dickens begins to feel backed into a corner and starts to lash out at those around him, eventually driving his wife and children away from their home.  At first, Dickens flat out refuses to write a novel on demand because it’s not his style, but ultimately realizes he has no choice and sits down to write.  There’s just one problem – he has no inspiration whatsoever and a huge case of writer’s block.  Growing increasingly frustrated, Dickens begins to wander aimlessly around the city of London and eventually finds himself on an Ebenezer Scrooge-like journey that ultimately becomes the inspiration for what ends up being his most beloved novel, A Christmas Carol.

There were so many things I loved about this book, but I think the Dickensian atmosphere was what I loved the most.  I truly felt like I had been transported back to Victorian London while I was reading.  Silva does a marvelous job of capturing all of the sights, sounds, and smells (both the good and the bad!) of the time period and the overall effect was just magical! It was instantly clear that Silva had done her homework, both with respect to Dickens himself and to the time period.

I also loved the way Silva brought Charles Dickens to life for her readers.  She portrays him as likable and charming, and yet so flawed and human at the same time.  His family means everything to him and he’s worried that he may not be able to take care of them because of his lagging book sales.   I really sympathized with what he was going through –everyone wanting something from him because of his success,  his wife telling him that he has changed and that she and the children are leaving until he gets himself sorted out, and then having to write a Christmas story on demand in order to keep from falling into financial ruin.  It’s a lot for anyone to have to deal with and Dickens also feels the tremendous pressure of up-and-coming writers such as Thackeray and begins to doubt that he can compete with them.  Dickens’ frustrations were palpable and so very understandable, as were his feelings of self-doubt.  The writer’s block that follows is something that all of us who write can relate to, and I thought it was brilliant that Silva uses all of these pressures she has piled onto Dickens’ shoulders to take him on a Scrooge-like journey of his own, which is what ultimately inspires his writing of A Christmas Carol.

I’m a huge fan of both Dickens and A Christmas Carol, so every time I was reading and happened across a shout out to either A Christmas Carol or one of Dickens’ other works, it made me smile.  I thought it was especially fun when he came across names he thought would make good character names and jotted them down, or on other occasions when he met someone he didn’t like and vowed to use them in his book to exact his revenge on them on paper.  I also chuckled to myself that Dickens would grumble “Humbug, bah!” when he was in a particularly foul humor and then ended up incorporating the now famous words into his tale, since he obviously modeled Ebenezer Scrooge after himself.  In this sense, I would think the book would be a lot of fun for Dickens fans.

Overall, this was such an enjoyable read for me, but I will mention that there were a few spots that were heavy in description, which slowed the pacing a bit.  Thankfully though, the lulls were brief and the action picked back up pretty quickly.

Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a charming, heartwarming tale that is perfect for fans of Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, or even just Christmas itself.  I personally think it would make a lovely Christmas gift for the Dickens fan in your life.

 

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

Shakespeare in Love meets A Christmas Carol in this transporting debut novel set during the whirlwind period in which Dickens wrote his beloved classic, as he embarks on a Scrooge-like journey of his own.

For Charles Dickens, each Christmas has been better than the last. His novels are literary blockbusters, and he is famous on the streets of London, where avid fans sneak up on him to snip off pieces of his hair. He and his wife have five happy children, a sixth on the way, and a home filled with every comfort they could imagine. But when Dickens’ newest book is a flop, the glorious life he has built for himself threatens to collapse around him. His publishers offer an ultimatum: either he writes a Christmas book in a month, or they will call in his debts, and he could lose everything. Grudgingly, he accepts, but with relatives hounding him for loans, his wife and children planning an excessively lavish holiday party, and jealous critics going in for the kill, he is hardly feeling the Christmas spirit.

Increasingly frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace and inspiration in London itself, his great palace of thinking. And on one of his long walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets a young woman in a purple cloak, who might be just the muse he needs. Eleanor Lovejoy and her young son, Timothy, propel Dickens on a Scrooge-like journey through his Christmases past and present—but with time running out, will he find the perfect new story to save him?

In prose laced with humor, sumptuous Victorian detail, and charming winks to A Christmas Carol, Samantha Silva breathes new life into an adored classic. Perfect for fans of Dickens, for readers of immersive historical fiction, and for anyone looking for a dose of Christmas cheer, Mr. Dickens and His Carol is destined to become a perennial holiday favorite.

 

four-half-stars

About Samantha Silva

Samantha Silva is an author and screenwriter based in Idaho. Mr. Dickens and His Carol is her debut novel. Over her career she’s sold film projects to Paramount, Universal, New Line Cinema and TNT. A film adaptation of her short story, The Big Burn, won the 1 Potato Short Screenplay Competition at the Sun Valley Film Festival in 2017. Silva will direct, her first time at the helm.

Silva graduated from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, where she studied in Bologna, Italy and Washington, D.C. She’s lived in London three times, briefly in Rome, is an avid Italophile, and a forever Dickens devotee.

Can’t Wait Wednesday – MY PLAIN JANE by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, & Brodi Ashton

 

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.  It is a meme that I have  loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is MY PLAIN JANE by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, & Brodi AshtonAs if it wasn’t obvious enough last week, I have Jane Eyre retellings on the brain lately.  And as much as I loved the whimsical first installment of The Lady Janies series by these three amazing authors, I can only imagine how great this next book is going to be.  My only problem – June is just too far away! *cries*

 

MY PLAIN JANE by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, & Brodi Ashton

Publication Date:  June 26, 2018

 

From Goodreads:

You may think you know the story. After a miserable childhood, penniless orphan Jane Eyre embarks on a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she meets one dark, brooding Mr. Rochester. Despite their significant age gap (!) and his uneven temper (!!), they fall in love—and, Reader, she marries him. (!!!)

Or does she?

Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Bronte, and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights.

 

I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top 10 Books I’m Thankful to Have Finally Read This Year

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Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I’m Thankful For (Happy Thanksgiving week in the USA!).  I tweaked this topic a bit since I couldn’t begin to name just ten books that I’m most thankful for.  Instead, I decided to go with the top ten books I’m thankful to have finally gotten off of my TBR.  I’ve always accumulated books faster than I can read them, but this seems to have gotten out of control since I started blogging.  Older books have been pushed aside in favor of newer releases, and I’ve also gotten so caught up in immediately buying books that were super-hyped but then setting them aside for months (*cough* more like years) in favor of other new releases.  This year I decided to actively start getting my backlist under control by participating in several challenges designed to do just that.  It’s nowhere near under control yet, but I am happy that I was able to knock off this list of books, each of which had been on my TBR for at least a year, and quite often, several years.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating this week!

 

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Top 10 Books I’m Thankful to Have Finally Read This Year

 

CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber

HEARTLESS by Marissa Meyer

A COURT OF MIST AND FURY  by Sarah J. Maas

A STORM OF SWORDS  by George R. R. Martin

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING  by Nicola Yoon

A MONSTER CALLS  by Patrick Ness

SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo

ILLUMINAE by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

WHEN WE COLLIDED by Emery Lord

PRACTICAL MAGIC  by Alice Hoffman

 

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Question:  What are some books that you are thankful to have finally gotten off of your TBR this year?

Weekly Recap #27: Week of 11/12-11/18

 

It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

So, I’m writing this post early since it will need to be published before I return from my trip to NYC.  Looking into my crystal ball, I’m going to say that I’m having a fabulous time on my trip and don’t want it to end.  It is supposed to rain almost the whole time I’m there but hopefully it will just be light showers.  If it’s too bad, I might be spending my trip visiting some of those museums uptown that I’ve always neglected in the past.

Aside from getting ready for my trip, my week was pretty quiet.  I did participate in the HoHoHo Readathon, which was fun and helped get me into the holiday spirit sooner than I would normally be.  I managed to read 3 out of the 4 books I had hoped to read but then got sidetracked with trip planning and didn’t get to the last book and also forgot about the chat until it had already finished, which was a bummer since I was looking forward to that.  I definitely hope to participate in it again next year!

My favorite read from the readathon was Mr. Dickens and His Carol.  I’ll be reviewing it this week and I think it’s a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction, Dickens, A Christmas Carol, or heck even just Christmas honestly.  It’s just such a charming read.

I’m hoping to get some reading done on the train so we’ll see how that plan goes.  Sometimes that works out for me, sometimes I just fall asleep, haha.

Anyway, I think that’s it for me.  Have a great week, everyone!

WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK

 

 

 

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK

 

    

UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

  
     
 

 STACKING THE SHELVES

 

    

TOTALLY RANDOM

 

Source: Pinterest

Book Review: The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

Book Review:  The Names They Gave Us by Emery LordThe Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
Also by this author: When We Collided, The Map from Here to There
four-half-stars
Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens on May 16th 2017
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 390
Source: Library
Amazon
Goodreads

MY REVIEW:

Emery Lord’s The Names They Gave Us is a book that I was actually a little apprehensive about reading even though I fell in love with her writing when I read When We Collided.  My hesitation this time around was because I had read that this book focuses a lot on religion and faith.  Since I don’t consider myself to be a particularly religious person, I was a little worried the subject matter might put me off.  Thankfully, my worries were unfounded.  Even though faith does play a prominent role in the story, Emery Lord handles it in a way that doesn’t come across as heavy-handed at all.  The Names They Gave Us is essentially a coming of age story and part of the main character’s coming of age journey is to actually question her own faith.

The Names They Gave Us follows Lucy Hansson, a high school student who is also the daughter of a preacher.  Because religion has just always been a part of Lucy’s life, she has always felt secure in her faith and has never questioned it.  That is, until her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.  That diagnosis sets off a chain reaction of events that strips all of the constants out of Lucy’s life.  Her longtime boyfriend Lucas, the boy she fully expects to marry someday, suddenly decides that the two of them should take a break and make sure they really love each other.  Not only that, but Lucy’s mom also decides that instead of Lucy being a counselor at their church camp like she has for every summer for as long as she can remember, she should take a job as a counselor at Daybreak, a local camp for troubled kids.

Lucy is crushed that Lucas would choose now of all times to break up with her and is also completely baffled as to why her mom would not want her to be with them at the church camp.  She is also starting to question her own faith:  After all of their prayers and the prayers of everyone in their congregation, how could her mom’s cancer have possibly come back?  Feeling like her whole world has been turned upside down, but ultimately knowing that she doesn’t want to do anything to upset her mother, Lucy reluctantly agrees to work at Daybreak for the summer.

When she first arrives at Daybreak, Lucy feels overwhelmed and wants nothing more than to be back at the church camp with her parents, but then she eventually starts to make friends – real friends that she actually has things in common with, friends who are also going through or have been through some bad times in their lives.  They provide a support system for Lucy that she has never had before, even with friends from school she thought she was close to – and suddenly things aren’t quite as bad as they first seemed.

Could this be why Lucy’s mom insisted that she go to Daybreak?  Is this Lucy’s mom’s way of making sure her little girl will be okay no matter what happens.  Or is there more to it than that?

 

I really liked Lucy and her family right away.  They’re just good people who fully embrace their faith but who also don’t try to force their beliefs on to others.  I was immediately devastated for them when it was revealed that Lucy’s mom’s cancer had come back.  The family was just getting back on its feet after her first battle with it, and now it sends them all reeling again.

Lucy was so easy to root for her not just because she was likable, but also because her emotions and fears, and those questions that just kept running through her mind felt so real.  Emery Lord does a very nice job of getting inside the mind of someone who is having a crisis of faith and possibly facing the loss of a loved one.  It was often heart-wrenching to read, but the portrayal felt very authentic.

I also loved that Lucy keeps an open mind about going to Daybreak and that her character undergoes tremendous growth during her stay there.  The counselors and the children who come there are a diverse group and, as such, Lucy meets a lot of people there who are very different from her and from anyone else she has ever known.  She doesn’t shy away from them or judge them at all though.  She meets a lesbian and a transgender counselor, for example, and she’s very open to asking any questions she has about their experiences.  She just genuinely wants to know everything about them and does so without trying to push any of her own beliefs on to them.

The beautiful friendships Lucy makes with her fellow counselors at Daybreak are one of my absolute favorite parts of The Names They Gave Us.  Each counselor has their own issues to deal with, whether it’s severe anxiety, abuse, or something else, but they come to camp and set aside those issues and try to help other kids who may be going through similar hard times.  Because the kids they counsel are often having such a rough go of things, they are not allowed to show any signs of their own issues while around them.  The counselors therefore lean on each other for support behind closed doors and, over their many years of working together, have become a very tight-knit group of friends.  And even though Lucy is the new girl and they know nothing about her, they still welcome her in with open arms.  Once she gets to know them and sees how much they truly are there for each other, Lucy slowly starts to realize that she doesn’t have to carry her burdens alone, that her friends will be there to support her.

This theme of the importance of friendship was what resonated with me most, as did the idea that it’s perfectly okay to question your own faith and beliefs from time to time.  It’s all just a normal part of that journey to find yourself and figure out your place in the world.

 

The only real issue I had with The Names They Gave Us is with the way Emery Lord left one important aspect of the story unresolved.  I don’t want to give away the ending so I’m going to be a little vague here.  I know this is Lucy’s story and that I should be satisfied knowing that she’ll be okay no matter what happens, but I still wanted to know how everything was going to turn out for her family.  I guess maybe I got a little too invested in the Hansson family but the characters were just so beautifully drawn that I couldn’t help but fall in love with them all.

 

With its focus on heavy topics such as cancer and religion, The Names They gave Us is not what I would consider to be a light contemporary read.  It is a beautiful read though and one I would highly recommend if you’re into books that focus on love, friendship, family, and faith.

 

 

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

When it all falls apart, who can you believe in?

Everything is going right for Lucy Hansson, until her mom’s cancer reappears. Just like that, Lucy breaks with all the constants in her life: her do-good boyfriend, her steady faith, even her longtime summer church camp job.

Instead, Lucy lands at a camp for kids who have been through tough times. As a counselor, Lucy is in over her head and longs to be with her parents across the lake. But that’s before she gets to know her coworkers, who are as loving and unafraid as she so desperately wants to be.

It’s not just new friends that Lucy discovers at camp—more than one old secret is revealed along the way. In fact, maybe there’s much more to her family and her faith than Lucy ever realized.

four-half-stars

About Emery Lord

Hi! I’m Emery. I’m the author of four novels about teenage girls:  OPEN ROAD SUMMER, THE START OF ME & YOU, WHEN WE COLLIDED, and THE NAMES THEY GAVE US.  I was born near a harbor on the East coast and raised near a beach, an ocean, a great lake, and the Ohio River. I’m a longtime Cincinnatian, where we love good beer, good music, and our public library.   I’m married to a scientist who shuts down every wedding dance floor, and we are owned by two rescue dogs.  I believe in the magic of storytelling, Ferris wheels, and you.” – Emery Load, in her own words

Can’t Wait Wednesday – BRIGHTLY BURNING by Alexa Donne

 

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.  It is a meme that I have  loved participating in for over a year now, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll just be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

* * * * *

My selection for this week is BRIGHTLY BURNING by Alexa Donne.  Okay, this synopsis had me at “Jane Eyre in Space.”  I mean, seriously…Jane Eyre in space?! How amazing does that sound?  As if you couldn’t guess by this point, Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorite books and since I also love sci-fi, this book practically sounds like it was written with me in mind.  I also love that it’s advertised for as being perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer and Kiera Cass.  So yeah, is it May 1st yet?

 

BRIGHTLY BURNING by Alexa Donne

Publication Date:  May 1, 2018

 

From Amazon:

A romantic, cinematic, richly-imagined retelling of the classic Jane Eyre set in space, about seventeen-year-old Stella Ainsley, a mechanic who takes a governess job on board the private ship, the Rochester and falls in love with the ship’s mysterious and troubled captain. For Marissa Meyer and Kiera Cass fans.  

Seventeen-year-old Stella Ainsley wants just one thing: to go somewhere–anywhere–else. Her home is a floundering spaceship that offers few prospects, having been orbiting an ice-encased Earth for two hundred years. When a private ship hires her as a governess, Stella jumps at the chance. The captain of the Rochester, nineteen-year-old Hugo Fairfax, is notorious throughout the fleet for being a moody recluse and a drunk. But with Stella he’s kind.

But the Rochester harbors secrets: Stella is certain someone is trying to kill Hugo, and the more she discovers, the more questions she has about his role in a conspiracy threatening the fleet.

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Top 10 Books (and Series) I Hope My Child Will Read Someday

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Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I Want My Future Children to Read (Or nieces and nephews, Godchildren, etc.).  Since I already have a child and actively aspire to have him be as big of a bookworm as I am, I’ve had a wishlist of books and series for a while now that I’ve been hoping my son will eventually read.  What’s cool is that we’ve already made a little bit of progress on this list and so far he has loved everything we’ve read.  I’m hoping that as he grows older, he will continue to trust my taste in books and so will read the rest of these two.

 

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Top 10 Books (and Series) I Hope My Child Will Read Someday

 

  • HARRY POTTER SERIES by J.K. Rowling   I’m thrilled to say that my son and I have already read this entire series together.  He loved every minute of it, especially the Weasley twins.  I’m hoping this will be a favorite that he revisits from time to time.
  • CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY by Roald Dahl  Is there anything better to make a child fall in love with reading than the whimsical books of Roald Dahl?  My son and I have read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together and he loved it so much that we moved on to Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Matilda, and The B.F.G.
  • THE GIVING TREE by Shel Silverstein  I can’t take credit for getting my son to read this beautiful story since he read it at school, but I’ll give his teacher props for making one of my wishlist reads a reality.  My son loved this one too and has since started reading Where the Sidewalk Ends.
  • PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS by Rick Riordan  This is a series that we’ve started but haven’t gotten very far into yet.  You’ll find that many of the books and series on my wishlist are fantasy.  Since I was a child, fantasy books have always fascinated me so I’m hoping they’ll have the same effect on my child.  I also think they’re great for really making a child use their imagination to envision the world building that takes place.  And in the case of the Percy Jackson series, it also provides an entertaining introduction to Greek Mythology, which is a nice bonus.
  • THE LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding   He’s nowhere near old enough for this book yet, but I remember being equal parts fascinated and horrified by this book when I read it in high school and it has still stuck with me after all these years.  It’s a book that makes you think and I definitely want my son reading books that will engage his mind and keep him thinking about life.
  • TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee This will be another book for when he is older, but I really hope I can get my son to read this one.  One because it’s my all-time favorite book, and two because it tackles important social issues that are still relevant today.  If I can only get him to read one classic, this is the one I’d choose.
  • 1984 by George Orwell If I could get my son to read 2 classics, this is the second one I’d choose.  It’s another one of those creepy reads that makes you think and it manages to still be relevant today.  I’d also want him to read it, if for no other reason, than so he understands what someone means if they say Big Brother is watching.
  • THE HOBBIT & THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY by J.R.R. Tolkien We’re still a few years away from this one too, I think, although my son has checked The Hobbit out of the library before.  It ended up being a little over his head, but he is definitely interested in revisiting it someday and I will most certainly encourage him to do so since it’s one of the greatest fantasy series of all time.
  • THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton  Again, for when my son is older, but this is a book from my childhood that has continued to captivate young readers to this day.  I’m hoping my child will not grow up to be a reluctant reader, but if he does, I still think this is a book that would appeal to him.

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Question:  What are some books or series you hope your child will read some day?