Jul 18
Before I Disappear by Danielle Stinson: Review, Giveaway, & Stinson’s Top Ten Addictions

Before I Disappear by Danielle Stinson: Review, Giveaway, & Stinson’s Top Ten Addictions

Author Top Ten Lists, Current Giveaways, Reviews 9 ★★★★★

You know how sometimes you start reading a book, and within just a few pages, you’re already saying, “I LOVE this!”? That was Before I Disappear for me. Right away, I could tell there was going to be something special in these pages—I was immediately wrapped up in the intrigue: What’s so odd about Charlie? What’s this music he’s hearing? Why have they had to move so much? What are they running from? What dangers are lurking in Fort Glory? Well, I’m happy to say that the book never let me down. I was riveted throughout. I don’t want to say too much about what happens because I think it will be more fun to discover on your own, but I will say that a whole lot of craziness ensues when Fort Glory disappears. But I also loved these characters. Both Ian and Rose are obviously broken in many ways,… Read more »

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Jul 17
Goodreads’ YA Books Lists: 2019 Edition. Let’s Discuss.

Goodreads’ YA Books Lists: 2019 Edition. Let’s Discuss.

Let's Discuss 13

For their celebration of YA Week, Goodreads once again created a few lists specific to YA. Last year I analyzed these lists and compared them to my own reading, and I thought that was a really interesting exercise. Thought I’d do the same again this year. CLICK ON THE CATEGORY HEADINGS TO SEE THE LISTS ON GOODREADS. 100 Top YA Books: This is an all-time list that Goodreads came up with using books that are most often on shelves and their ratings (it was updated for 2019). I’ve read 54. (Which happens to be the exact same number I’d read from last year’s list, though the books have changed slightly.) I have 17 of them on my Goodreads TBR (down from 19 last year). 11 of these I own but haven’t read yet (up from 10 last year). 17 books aren’t technically on my TBR, but I probably plan to… Read more »

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Jul 15
Bookish This or That Tags (x2!)

Bookish This or That Tags (x2!)

Let's Discuss, Tags 27

I first saw these two tags over at Angel’s Guilty Pleasures and thought they looked like fun. So why not combine them into one This or That Tag? I actually did ANOTHER This or That tag a couple of years ago, so feel free to check that one out too! The creator of the first one is Ayunda @ Tea and Paperbacks. This or That? Reading on the couch or on the bed? Both, but if I have to choose, I prefer bed. I even lay down in the middle of the day and read sometimes. Male main character or female main character? I tend to read more books with female MCs, so I guess I prefer them? Sweet snacks or salty snacks when reading? Sweet snacks always trump salty ones. Always. Trilogies or quartets? Trilogies. I mean, really, I think duologies are awesome. First-person POV or third-person POV? I… Read more »

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Jul 14
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/14/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/14/19

Sunday Post 27

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 seemed to fly by! I started binge-watching this ridiculous reality TV show called Married at First Sight, and I’ve watched way too much of it. I don’t even usually watch reality TV, but somehow this train wreck of an idea has captured my attention? I don’t get it—and yet I keep watching. LOL! My younger daughter had a swim meet Friday, yesterday and today, so that was fun. And my oldest got her wisdom teeth out yesterday. Not as fun. But still somewhat entertaining for the rest of us as we watched her lurch around the house and talk… Read more »

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Jul 11
Bite-Sized Reviews of After Zero, Breath of Flowers, George, & Carry On

Bite-Sized Reviews of After Zero, Breath of Flowers, George, & Carry On

Reviews 17 ★★★★

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two MG contemporaries, a YA fantasy, and a YA graphic novel. Three of the four were books that I specifically picked up in an effort to read more LGBTQ+ books for Pride Month. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I discovered this book from AJ’s review @ Read All the Things. You should definitely read her review for an #OwnVoices perspective on selective mutism.  I immediately felt for Elise because of her anxiety about saying the wrong thing to people. I could completely understand how she gradually went from trying to relate to the people around her to feeling safer saying nothing at all. Her situation at home was heartbreaking—her mother was so distant, and Elise had never really learned to relate to the outside world all that well since she’d been sheltered (and homeschooled). There’s… Read more »

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Jul 08
Storm Blown by Nick Courage: Review of an Epic Adventure!

Storm Blown by Nick Courage: Review of an Epic Adventure!

Reviews 12 ★★★★

A gripping, disaster-filled adventure of epic proportions, this MG book will certainly blow you away! What Fed My Addiction: Realistic storm experiences. In the author’s note, you find that Nick Courage grew up in New Orleans, so he grew up with tropical storms and hurricanes. That shows in the book. The storm itself is so vivid, it almost feels like a character. And the build from calm (where many characters assumed the storm wasn’t really even going to hit) to mega-hurricane was all laid out in such detail that it was easy to imagine being in the storm yourself. Speaking of that build… So. Much. Suspense. I flew through this book in practically one sitting (I did have to stop for dinner with the family). There is never a moment of dullness in this book: the tension builds and builds and builds until it hits a crazy crescendo at the… Read more »

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Jul 07
Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/7/19

Sunday Post: Book Pre-order Campaigns & Giveaways Galore – 7/7/19

Sunday Post 29

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): Hope those of you in the US had a wonderful 4th of July! We spent a low-key day at home. My husband smoked us some chicken and a brisket. Yum! We celebrated my oldest’s 17th birthday. Hard to believe!! We’ve also been hard at work designing our new deck and back yard. Some of you might remember that we removed our pool last fall; well, when we did that, we lost more than half our deck (plus, the part that remains is in shabby condition), and we now have a big, blank back yard. We’re planning on resurfacing the… Read more »

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Jul 04
Why Don’t Illustrators (and Cover Artists) Get More Attention? Let’s Discuss.

Why Don’t Illustrators (and Cover Artists) Get More Attention? Let’s Discuss.

Let's Discuss 48

Artist vector created by freepik – www.freepik.com Recently, I added a field to my review template, and I wondered why I’d waited so long. I use the UBB plugin from Nose Graze (that’s a referral link, by the way), and there’s a field right there for Illustrator. One I’d never added to my template. Why had I been ignoring it? I think it comes down to the fact that we rarely think about the illustrator unless the book is a picture book (which I don’t typically review on the blog), so I didn’t even really think about adding this to my review template. It wasn’t until I reviewed a middle grade book where I specifically commented on the adorable illustrations that I realized the issue. Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head: Wait, why haven’t I credited this person anywhere? The phenomenon was not entirely my fault—the book… Read more »

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Jul 01
June 2019 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

June 2019 Wrap-Up & Best of the Bunch

Best of the Bunch, Monthly Recap 42

My Goings On in June: I paused a lot of my regularly scheduled reading near the beginning of this month to read more LGBTQ+ books for Pride Month. Even though I didn’t get reviews up for most of them yet, I was pretty successful at that. I ended up reading 8 LGBTQ+ books in June (and 5 non). Considering I didn’t make the decision until June 6th and I’d already read three books at that point, I don’t think that’s too bad. I finished my first pass on that new editing project. I continued volunteering at Bernie’s Book Bank. I signed up for their 50-Hour Club, which basically means you pledge to volunteer at least 50 hours in a year. I’m really enjoying it, so I don’t think it will be an issue. Things I watched:  I continued watching Game of Thrones, I’m still on season 5. I’ve been watching… Read more »

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Jul 01
July Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

July Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway

Book Blog Discussion Challenge, Current Giveaways 6

Welcome to the July monthly link-up for the 2019 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight! Somehow the year is half over already and wow didn’t it just begin? Someone could write a discussion about the ridiculous passage of time… The winner of our May discussion challenge giveaway was Sam @ We Live and Breathe Books! Sam hasn’t chosen a book yet because Shannon says she completely forgot to choose or email a winner until right now. She promises she’ll DM her before the post goes live. (And this is why Shannon and I get along so very nicely—we’re both totally disorganized, but we somehow always still manage to pull it together to get things done. And when one of us messes up and does something late, there’s absolutely zero judgment because, well …) If you don’t know what… Read more »

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