ramblings of the perpetual new girl

This book - END OF DAYS by Susan Ee - came today by way of a very kind publicist and my little fangirl heart burst with happiness until I realized that I cannot read it until next week! Company comes tomorrow evening and the house must be clean. There is baking to do and more Harry Potter celebratory decorations to go up! Yeah... that's how we do Sweet 16 in this house.  DETAILS: Title:  End of Days Publisher:  Skyscape Publishing date:  May 12, 2015 Author(s):  Susan Ee Series:  Penryn and the End of Days SYNOPSIS: End of Days  is the explosive conclusion to Susan Ee’s bestselling  Penryn & the End of Days  trilogy. After a daring escape from the angels, Penryn and Raffe are on the run. They’re both desperate to find a doctor who can reverse the twisted changes inflicted by the angels on Raffe and Penryn’s sister. As they set off in search of answers, a startling revelation about Raffe’s past unleashes dark forc...

Oh hey look at this... a top ten list featured on The Broke and The Bookish that won't leave me gutted if I accidentally leave someone off. Woohoo. Pretty excited about this grouping too because well... I was able to think of a lot right off the bat without a lot of overthinking. Okay... maybe a little overthinking because I only chose characters that I thought would be awesome in live theater but were not performers in their fictional universes. So without further ado... 1) Emily of New Moon ~ yeah... I know Anne of Green Gables probably should be on this list, but seriously, I have always adored Emily slightly more than Anne and if ever a fictional character was destined for the stage, it's her! 2) Daphne Bridgerton from the Duke and I ~ well... she does maintain a ruse very, very well and Simon totally buys it while falling in love with her but she's got that sparkle and mischief and penchant for pretend that would make her an amazing actress for the stage....

This book might be one of the most non-judgemental collection of stories I have ever read. So completely transitional and seamless from one story to the next, the ease of which the reader is given detailed glimpses into the interconnected lives of an entire school and the town allows you to sit back and relax while soaking in the fact that Jo Knowles has written multiple perspectives and narratives and each one told with such empathy that even as she gives the reader opportunity to judge, the words encourage you to see the potential for change in these characters rather than see them punished or get their comeuppance. TITLE:   Read Between the Lines AUTHOR(S):  Jo Knowles SERIES:  Standalone PUB INFO:   Candlewick (March 10, 2015) ACQUIRED HOW?  Publisher sent ARC for honest review BOOK RATING:  Lemon Tart  Read Between the Lines is not an easy book to read. Jo Knowles writes the good, the bad and the ugly of human nature. Nothing...

Go ahead, mock me. This book, A Gathering of Shadows doesn't even come out this year. Yes... it comes out in 2016 and not until the end of February - February 23, 2016 to be exact. So yeah, how's that for "waiting on"!!! But just know that the explorative look at a seedier, darker London is just too cool for me not to be ecstatic knowing there's more coming and that they've kept a cohesive design so that the covers look like collectibles rather than book dustjackets makes my obsessive hobbyist heart happy. DETAILS: Title:  A Gathering of Shadows Publisher:  Tor Books Publishing date:  February 23, 2016 Author(s):  V. E. Schwab Series:  A Darker Shade of Magic SYNOPSIS: Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and...

Hmm... I don't even know how this list could exist?! Who thinks this list is even possible? Right?! You all feel my pain, don't you? And I thought last week was rough with all the inspiring quotes that kept popping up while I tried to whittle those down to ten. So here we go... I'm breaking these authors up into sections again in hopes of allowing me to maybe get a grip on some of my favorites and sort them into lists of tens. There's no specific order to them within their lists. Thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for torturing us all with this list. YA Authors that will always... ALWAYS show up on my bookshelf: Tamora Pierce Garth Nix Marissa Meyer Holly Black J. K. Rowling Elizabeth George Speare Judy Blume Beverly Cleary Andrew Clements Avi Mystery/Historical Fiction Authors that I always read: Laurie R. King Charles Finch P. D. James Elizabeth George Carole Nelson Douglas Arthur Conan Doyle Jasper Fforde Baroness Emma Orczy Rafael Sa...

Oh wow, but you know I don't usually have this many BOUGHT books to show off, but our local Barnes & Noble is going out of business and so I felt obligated to use the additional 30% on top of my B&N Membership to buy a lot of copies of books that I had only borrowed from the library to read. Thanks to Tynga's Review for hosting Stacking the Shelves : BOUGHT: Sarah J. Maas ~ Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight and The Assassin's Blade (the novellas combined into one book). These books are so good and I want to own them all, just in paperback because when I know my daughter and I will be rereading a series over and over; it's best to go with paperback. The next book, The Winner's Curse makes the bought pile since I received The Winner's Crime as an ARC and chatted with the author during a Twitter Q&A. Marie Rutkoski definitely impressed me and also, I hate reading books out of order. It's kind of nice that the ARC is soft...

You know, it is really hard for me, now that I blog full time to get away with not reading the books in series before they are complete. I really hate waiting on things! Binge watching television on Netflix or Amazon Prime or On Demand ruined me and my patience for new books has always been tolerant at best. Waiting is not something I do best. So yeah, I tried to avoid it for awhile especially after spending years of my life waiting for the next Harry Potter novel. Have I told you I fail at waiting, yeah? Which explains I am in the middle of numerous series and have indeed read the books when they came out rather than waiting for the last book and reading them in one go of it. I feel like pulling my hair out for some of the books I am waiting on... this book was one. And now that I have read it, instead of appeasing my impatience, it only further heightened it because omigosh, it was a smashing good read and everything I could've wanted for the second book of the Half Bad Trilo...

Feels like forever ago when I heard that Leigh was going back to the same universe as the Grisha Trilogy. However, my desire to get this book into my hands as soon as humanly possible for me has not diminished. When the cover and excerpt were released, my little fangirl heart nearly burst with happiness. Thanks to Breaking the Spine as always for hosting. DETAILS: Title: Six of Crows Publisher:  Henry Holt & Company Publishing date:  September 29, 2015 Author(s): Leigh Bardugo Series:  The Dregs #1 Wow! September might be that month for me this year, because it looks like a lot of what I am most anticipating in bookdom releases that month. Sucks to be me, huh?! September is not even a few months out.  SYNOPSIS: Game of Thrones meets Ocean's Eleven in this brand-new book in the world of the Grisha by New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo. Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right ...

To truly pull out all the stops, because truthfully, there are too many quotes to choose from and I am already feeling overwhelmed, I am taking a page out of   "What Sarah Reads" and choosing to pair my quotes with how they made me feel. This way I can parse some of my favorites into this post quicker. When life seems more than I can handle...  “Just… isn’t giving up allowed sometimes? Isn’t it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?” “It sets a dangerous precedent.” “For avoiding pain?” “For avoiding life.” ~ Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. ” ~ J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone When people make no sense to me...  "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside his skin and walk around in it."  ~ Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird "Destroying things is much easier than making them." ~ S...

When women feel like they're fighting the good fight or rebelling against societal norms, it's rare that they can accurately describe when the anger ignited in them. Mostly, the rage just always has been there. As we mature as humans, females learn and digest the experiences around them, the images, the way people talk... even their own parents' perspectives that leads to this inequality of genders. You fight against yourself eventually, because misogyny becomes an internalized response despite your best efforts. You don't believe the lie but you are hurt, confused, abandoned and alone even within your family unit many times in the belief that girls are not less, or meant to be groomed for the marriage mart. In The Ruby Iyer Diaries , all of these feelings find voice, words to describe the change that overcomes us when we realize we're being shoved into a box and it is unfair. And you do not have to be a female to understand the feeling of helplessness and betra...