Sep 20
A Spoiler-Filled Discussion of One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

A Spoiler-Filled Discussion of One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Let's Discuss, Reviews 0

NOTE: In case you missed the title of this post, BE WARNED NOW THAT IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! If you want my non-spoilery thoughts on this book, check out my review instead! (It will most likely go up on Friday.) Or, if you’ve only read the first book, then feel free to check out my Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Three Dark Crowns! (And then immediately read One Dark Throne and come back here!) I’m going to go through some of the predictions that we all had after reading the first book and see how many of them were correct, and I’ll also add in some of my predictions about what will happen in books three and four! Jules My original theory: My theory was that Jules was going to turn out to be the true Naturalist queen. I based this on her strong naturalist powers and on the fact that she was a Beltane… Read more »

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Sep 19
Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday 13

It’s been a while since I’ve done a TTT post, so I thought I’d join in this week. Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is: The Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR These are all books that I have for review that I’m REALLY excited about reading! (Links go to Goodreads.) 1. The Knowing by Sharon Cameron The Forgetting is an All-Time favorite of mine, so I’m super excited about this companion! 2. Dare Mighty Things by Heather Kaczynski I was already really excited about this debut and then Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight told me she loved it. She’s my bookish twin, so I just know this book will be perfect for me. 3. Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me by Carrie DiRisio I’ve actually already started this one, so this is cheating a bit, but I’m LOVING it, just as I suspected. If you don’t follow @BroodingYAHero on Twitter,… Read more »

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Sep 17
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore- 9/17/17

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore- 9/17/17

Sunday Post 19

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): This week was back to being crazy busy because I added three new classes to my teaching schedule at our homeschool co-op. Our co-op has some 32-week classes and some 24-week classes, and three of the four classes I teach are 24-week. (I was already teaching One Year Adventure Novel, and now I added two acting classes and a middle grade language arts class). I’m teaching poetry in language arts to start off, which is lots of fun—maybe it will inspire me to do those poetry reviews I was talking about before. I also did some editing on the first… Read more »

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Sep 16
I Wrote in a Book and I Liked It. Gasp! Let’s Discuss.

I Wrote in a Book and I Liked It. Gasp! Let’s Discuss.

Let's Discuss 34

So, I just reread Three Dark Crowns in preparation for reading One Dark Throne (and I’m SO glad I did—I had no idea how much I’d forgotten!). And I underlined things. Yep, you read that right—I underlined things. Okay, you might not be all that surprised to hear that someone underlined passages in a book, but both my husband and my daughter saw me doing it and they were shocked. Possibly appalled (at least on my behalf). You see, I don’t write in books. I don’t crease their spines. I don’t dog-ear or let my books get wet near the pool. Books are treasured items that must be kept pristine. Perfect. So what made me change? (Well, at least take a little baby step toward change.) I think it started because I did a traveling ARC review for After the Woods way back in February of 2016 where we were… Read more »

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Sep 15
Bite-Sized Reviews of The Blood Will Dry, Hunted, Hostage, and Monstress

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Blood Will Dry, Hunted, Hostage, and Monstress

Reviews 9

I’ve got four (technically five) bite-sized reviews today, including two for graphic novels I’ve read recently.  I just now realized how bleak or horror-filled all of these titles sound, and I suppose that the books are a bit on the bleak side (though Hunted is more of just a regular fantasy—paired with the others, it sounds bleak indeed!). I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Kate L. Mary has once again managed to pull me into a unique post-apocalyptic world with her newest book. If you’ve been on my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably seen my reviews of her Broken World zombie series (a definite favorite of mine). This new book delves into a world of aliens instead of zombies, but it’s just as heart-stopping. At the beginning of the book, we meet Diana and see how she struggles to get… Read more »

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Sep 13
The Thing with Feathers by McCall Hoyle: A Black Sheep Review

The Thing with Feathers by McCall Hoyle: A Black Sheep Review

Reviews 11 ★★½

I have to start off by saying that I’m definitely the black sheep with this one. Lots of people loved it. And I can see why—we need stories about underrepresented illnesses like epilepsy. Unfortunately, there were a few issues that kept pulling my attention away from the main thread of the story, and those issues chipped away at my enjoyment of the book until I found that I really wasn’t enjoying it much at all anymore. What Fed My Addiction: The exploration of an illness that we don’t see often. I thought that Hoyle did a fantastic job of helping us to understand what it’s like to live with an illness like epilepsy. From that perspective, this book was great. Emilie’s embarrassment over the idea of being exposed in front of her classmates is very real. She is mortified at the idea of letting people see her at her most vulnerable… Read more »

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Sep 10
Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 9/10/17

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore – 9/10/17

Sunday Post 43

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): Today I’m headed to the 6th Annual Novel Cuisine Luncheon, which is organized by author Liza Wiemer, Heidi Zweifel of YA Bibliophile and Jaime & Erin Arkin of Fiction Fare. I went to this event last year and it was tons of fun. They make all sorts of dishes from different books—it’s quite a spread! Plus, we can bring books to donate and/or trade, which my husband loves because that means two giant piles of books make their way out of our bedroom. (And I bring back way less than I donate—I promise!) Here’s what you may have missed on the… Read more »

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Sep 09
August Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway (with a new, interactive Make Me Read It twist)

August Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway (with a new, interactive Make Me Read It twist)

Current Giveaways, Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 14

I created this giveaway as a scavenger hunt to encourage people to visit people’s wrap-ups. There are entries for commenting on the wrap-up posts in the link-up. The Link-Up Check out the August wrap-up posts in the linky below. These are the posts that can be used for the giveaway. Didn’t have a chance to link up your August wrap-up post? That’s okay—you can still link up until the giveaway is over! An InLinkz Link-up The giveaway is open to everyone! You don’t have to link up to the wrap-up round-up to be eligible. This month I’m doing something a little different. I’m attending an event called the Novel Cuisine Luncheon on Sunday and I’m going to be donating almost all of my giveaway/trade books at the event. So, my giveaway/trade list would be pretty empty and you wouldn’t have much to choose from. The Make Me Read It Giveaway SO, I came… Read more »

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Sep 08
A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland: Review, Giveaway and Sutherland’s Top Ten Addictions

A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland: Review, Giveaway and Sutherland’s Top Ten Addictions

Author Top Ten Lists, Coyer, Current Giveaways, Reviews 30 ★★★★½

This book starts out super fun and quirky, and to be honest, that’s all I was expecting out of it, but it turned into something more. In fact, there were parts of this book that were downright heartbreaking. By about halfway through, I realized that there was more than meets the eye with this little gem. It’s not just a book about facing a list of fears (often in humorous and quirky ways). No, this book is about the fears that we shove down so deep that we hide them even from ourselves. It’s about facing the fact that sometimes fear rules us because we let it. And that some fears are well-deserved, but that doesn’t mean we should let them keep us from truly living. So, I loved pretty much everything about this book, from the family relationships, to the friendships, to the romance, to the way it handled… Read more »

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Sep 07
If There’s No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout: When One Mistake Changes Everything

If There’s No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout: When One Mistake Changes Everything

Coyer, Reviews 9 ★★★★★

I’ve loved many of JLA’s paranormal books, but I never really delved into her contemporaries until last year—not because I didn’t think they’d be good, but just because they didn’t stand out to me and make a huge impression. That all changed with The Problem with Forever. That book not only caught my interest enough to force me to read it, it wrecked me in all the best ways—I LOVED it! So, when If There’s No Tomorrow came out I was eager for more! And this book did not disappoint—JLA delivered on all the feels and true-to-life pain that resonated with me, and I think will resonate with almost all YA readers. What Fed My Addiction: Peer pressure. How many times have you found yourself in a situation where you knew you should react in a certain way, but you didn’t want to rock the boat? Even as adults, I think we still find… Read more »

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