1,000 Twitter Follower Giveaway – Enter to Win a Book of Your Choice (Up to $20 Value) – Open Intl.
/37 Comments/by Suzanne
I’m so thrilled to announce that I have finally reached the 1,000 follower mark on twitter. Yay! I love to celebrate blogging milestones, so I’m hosting a bookish giveaway as a way to say thanks to everyone who follows and reads my blog. You’re the best!
At first I was going to come up with a specific list of books for you to choose from, but there’s so many amazing books out there right now that I couldn’t choose just a few and didn’t want to limit your choices either. So, instead, I’m just setting a $20 value on my giveaway and letting the winner select a book of their choice (up to that $20 value) from The Book Depository. The giveaway is also open internationally as long as TBD ships to you, so be sure to check their list before entering: (Countries The Book Depository Ships To)
The giveaway runs from now until October 30, so be sure to get your entries in by then. I’ll be contacting the winner via DM. Thanks again for all of your support!
Chapter by Chapter Blog Tour – 27 HOURS Book Review & Giveaway
/8 Comments/by SuzanneSeries: The Nightshade Saga #1
Published by Entangled: Teen on October 3rd 2017
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction
Pages: 404
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Today is my stop on the Chapter by Chapter Blog Tour for Tristina Wright’s exciting new novel, 27 Hours. Please check out my review and then be sure to scroll down and enter the giveaway for a 27 Hours Prize Pack. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the other stops on the 27 Hours Blog Tour!
MY REVIEW:
Tristina Wright’s YA science fiction debut, 27 Hours, is a diverse and imaginative, action-packed story that follows four teenagers who are trying to save life as they know it from certain destruction.
The story is set on a distant moon named Sahara, where nights last 27 hours and where three groups of individuals are not-so-peacefully coexisting. First, we have the humans from Earth who, over the course of the past 150 or so years, have traveled to and colonized Sahara. Second, we have the Chimera (or Gargoyles, as the humans refer to them). The Chimera are actually a species indigenous to Sahara, so the human colonists have encroached on their land by settling there. Not only have the colonists taken their land, but they have also deemed the Chimera dangerous monsters and have done everything in their power to eradicate as many as possible and force those that remain underground. Needless to say, tensions between these two groups run high and they battle often.
Lastly, we have another group of humans, the forest rebels, who believe that peaceful coexistence between humans and Chimera is entirely possible. Because they disagree with the colonists’ beliefs about the Chimera, this group chose to abandon the colonies and live on their own in the forest. The colonists consider the forest rebels to be traitors.
While relationships between these groups has never been good, things come to a head when a group of Chimera launch a lethal assault on HUB2, one of the major hubs where the colonists live, leaving behind only one survivor, Rumor Mora. Rumor, who has been fed stories about how monstrous the Chimera are and been trained to fight them all his life, flees to the nearby colony of Epsilon to warn them in case the Chimera expand their attacks out to other colonies.
While at Epsilon, reeling from what has happened, Rumor becomes acquainted with a diverse group of teenagers and together they learn there is more to this Chimera attack than what they have originally been led to believe. Realizing that someone is keeping secrets that could be getting people killed, they decide to strike out on their own to uncover the truth, and in doing so, to hopefully put a stop to the conflict once and for all.
Will they be successful or are they doomed to suffer the same fate as the first hub that was destroyed by the Chimera?
If you think 27 Hours sounds like an intense, action-packed story, you’d be right. I love a story that has lots of great action scenes and this one truly delivers in the action department. It quite literally starts off with a bang when the Chimera attack HUB2, and there is rarely a lull in the action from that moment on.
Wright skillfully weaves plenty of tension and suspense into the story by making it a race against the clock. The humans can only stop the Chimera while they are above ground, and the Chimera only come above ground at night. Once they go back underground, no one knows where the Chimera will next surface so Rumor and his friends must uncover the truth and stop the attacks before the night is over. Since a night on Sahara lasts for 27 hours, that’s their timeline and the clock is already ticking when the novel begins.
In addition to the action and the suspense, I also loved the diversity that is present in this cast of characters. It’s truly the most diverse cast I’ve ever come across. There’s Rumor, who is biracial as well as bisexual; Nyx, who is deaf, pansexual, and Latina; Dahlia, who is black, trans, and bisexual; Jude, who is gay; Braeden, who is asexual; and Yi-Min, who is gender neutral and prefers to go by “they” pronouns.
What was especially fantastic about all of this representation was that it was the norm rather than the exception in the colonies. Instead, being straight and white was the exception. This futuristic society has reached a point where racism and homophobia seem to have disappeared and everyone is accepted for who they are without question. As I was reading, I just really liked Wright’s vision for our society and hope that we’ll continue to strive to get there sooner than 150-200 years from now.
I also liked that 27 Hours explored some big themes as well: prejudice (against other species, in this case), loss and grieving, friendship, love, and, finally, humans vs. monsters and the question of which one of them really is monstrous.
I’m not going to call them dislikes, but I did have a few areas that caused some issues for me while I was reading. I wish these had been clearer or more fleshed out. If they had, this would have definitely been a solid 4 star read for me.
Lack of connection with the main characters. 27 Hours is presented from the perspective of four of the teens who are working together: Rumor, Nyx, Braeden, and Jude. I sympathized with each of these characters because of all they were going through – the confusion, the loss of loved ones, the fight for survival, etc. but I can’t say that I felt like I really connected with any of them. I’m hopeful that will change in future books in the series.
Missing points of view. While I liked seeing the story told from the perspective of each of these teens, I would have also liked getting some chapters from the point of view of one of the Chimera. I just think it would have taken the story to the next level to give them a voice, instead of just hearing their story relayed through Jude, the forest rebel teen.
I also would have liked the worldbuilding to be a little clearer up front. I think by the end of the book I had a clear picture of what life on Sahara was like, but it really did take most of the story for me to put all of the pieces together into a cohesive picture that made sense to me.
Lastly, and if you read my reviews, you probably know what I’m going to talk about next: yep, the romance. Okay, to be fair, I actually liked the pairings that Wright was trying to put forth in this story. Nyx and Dahlia were cute together, as were Rumor and Jude. My issue was the trying to squeeze all of these budding romances into this 27-hour window when they’re supposed to be trying to save human kind. How is there time for the grabbing of butts and the random “I’ll show you something hard” jokes? On more than one occasion, I found myself yelling at them: “Come on, kids! Save the world first, unleash your hormones second!”
While 27 Hours was not a perfect read for me, it was definitely a thrilling one. I loved how unique the story was, as well as the energy of the book, the nonstop action, and the important themes that Wright tackled. I also enjoyed watching these teens come into their own and am ready to get to know them even better in the next book in the series, especially after the ominous cliffhanger ending that Wright leaves her readers with!
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Rumor Mora fears two things: hellhounds too strong for him to kill, and failure. Jude Welton has two dreams: for humans to stop killing monsters, and for his strange abilities to vanish.
But in no reality should a boy raised to love monsters fall for a boy raised to kill them.
Nyx Llorca keeps two secrets: the moon speaks to her, and she’s in love with Dahlia, her best friend. Braeden Tennant wants two things: to get out from his mother’s shadow, and to unlearn Epsilon’s darkest secret.
They’ll both have to commit treason to find the truth.
During one twenty-seven-hour night, if they can’t stop the war between the colonies and the monsters from becoming a war of extinction, the things they wish for will never come true, and the things they fear will be all that’s left.
27 Hours is a sweeping, thrilling story featuring a stellar cast of queer teenagers battling to save their homes and possibly every human on Sahara as the clock ticks down to zero.
Purchase Links:
Amazon | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Entangled
Giveaway Details:
A 27 Hours Prize Pack, including:
* A 27 Hours Candle
* A set of 27 Hours Character Cards
* AND a copy of an October release *
*Open internationally wherever The Book Depository ships
About Tristina Wright
Tristina Wright is a blue-haired bisexual with anxiety and opinions. She’s also possibly a mermaid, but no one can get confirmation. She fell in love with science fiction and fantasy at a young age and frequently got caught writing in class instead of paying attention. She enjoys worlds with monsters and kissing and monsters kissing. She married a nerd who can build computers and make the sun shine with his smile. Most days, she can be found drinking coffee from her favorite chipped mug and making up more stories for her wombfruit, who keep life exciting and unpredictable.
Can’t Wait Wednesday – Spotlight on The Hazel Wood
/34 Comments/by Suzanne
“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 THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert. I just think everything about this book sounds so brilliant, like nothing I’ve ever read before and all of the advance praise I’ve seen for it (see below!) have me thinking it will be a real contender for my 2018 favorites reads list!
THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert
Publication Date: January 30, 2018
From Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”
Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.
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“Simultaneously wondrous and horrific, dreamlike and bloody, lyrical and creepy, exquisitely haunting and casually, brutally cruel. Not everybody lives, and certainly not ‘happily ever after’―but within all the grisly darkness, Alice’s fierce integrity and hard-won self-knowledge shine unquenched.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“An empowering read that will be especially popular with fans of fairy-tale retellings.” ―SLJ, starred review
“The Hazel Wood is thoroughly, creepily captivating, with surprises I never saw coming! Such a refreshing and beautifully written inversion of the classic fairy tale-inspired story.”
―Kristin Cashore, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm series and Jane, Unlimited
“This book will be your next literary obsession. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure―it’s not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave. The Hazel Wood is pure imagination candy.” ―Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval
“Dark, spellbinding, and magical. One of the most original books I’ve read in years―The Hazel Wood is destined to be a classic.” ―Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of The Lovely Reckless
“Reader, I warn you: this book beckoned me in with delicate claws then sank its teeth into my heart. I fear a part of me will never escape The Hazel Wood.” ―Heidi Heilig, author of The Girl from Everywhere and The Ship Beyond Time
“Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood is an elegant dark fairy tale, full of the power of story. It’s creepy and gorgeous, and I loved every word.” ―Kat Howard, author of Roses and Rot
“Elegant, ethereal, and beautifully brutal, The Hazel Wood is a fairy tale worth falling for. This is a dream of a book I cannot recommend highly enough. It’s like falling into a nautilus shell: every time you think you’ve found the end, another chamber opens. Absolutely breathtaking.” ―Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart a Doorway
“WOW. The Hazel Wood is absolutely mesmerizing, magical, and inventive. Hats off to Melissa Albert!” ―Karen McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying
“Dark, haunting, and absolutely mesmerizing: The Hazel Wood grabbed me with its mysterious, upside-down fairy tales, full of thorns and sharp twists. In no time at all, I became obsessed with this book, willing to follow it anywhere―even deep into the Hinterland.” ―Jodi Meadows, New York Times bestselling coauthor of My Lady Jane and author of Before She Ignites
“The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. I had every light burning and the covers pulled tight around me as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it’s one of the very best books I’ve read in years.” ―Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places
“A winding, creepy, insidiously delicious novel. Utterly spectacular. I read it in one sitting!” ―Melinda Salisbury, author of The Sin-Eater’s Daughter
“Full of dark, twisty corners and eerie beauty, The Hazel Wood is like nothing else I’ve read before.” ―Evelyn Skye, New York Times bestselling author of The Crown’s Game
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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. 🙂