Month: September 2018

Sep 30
Sunday Post: Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 9/30/18

Sunday Post: Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 9/30/18

Sunday Post 36

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): My middle daughter headed to her first homecoming dance last night (with a group of friends—I haven’t had to deal with dating yet. 🙂 ) It was fun to go buy her a dress (especially since we got the perfect one on clearance for a ridiculous price) and to help her get ready. Plus, yesterday was my mom’s 70th birthday and she retired on Friday! Several of you fellow bloggers know my mom, so you know how awesome she is (it’s okay if you like her more than me—I get it 🙂 ). Now that she’s retired, she’ll have… Read more »

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Sep 30
September Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up & Make Me Read It Giveaway

September Wrap-Up Round-Up Link-Up & Make Me Read It Giveaway

Giveaways (Ended), Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 6

It’s time for the September Wrap-Up Round-Up! The August giveaway ends today, so head over there for your last chance to enter! This is the link-up AND giveaway for our September wrap-up posts. If you don’t already know about the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, read the information below: Every month, at the end of the month, I’ll put up a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month-end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way. The round-up will include a giveaway that encourages people to visit YOUR month end wrap-ups, giving entries for commenting and/or sharing.   Anyone can participate in the giveaway—you won’t have to actually link up in order to participate. If you don’t already post a monthly wrap-up and want some… Read more »

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Sep 28
A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna: Review & Giveaway

A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna: Review & Giveaway

Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 10 ★★★★★

This is the type of book that leaves you thinking, “What did I just read?” immediately followed by, “When can I have more?” There were so many surprises to the story, and I found myself completely engrossed. What Fed My Addiction: Shattered all my expectations. When I started reading this, I thought I knew generally where it was going to go—the storyline seemed familiar. (And not because it’s based on the Mahabharata.) A girl lies to everyone and pretends to ally with one side of a war so that she can actually spy and get information to help the other side. I mean, she’d obviously fall for the “bad guy” and he’d find out her secrets and everything would fall apart. Except, that’s not how it all worked out—at least not exactly. And of course, I can’t tell you what did happen, but I will say that Mandanna made her characters smarter… Read more »

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Sep 27
Bite-Sized Reviews of Shadow of the Fox, The Talon Series, Misfits, and Drama

Bite-Sized Reviews of Shadow of the Fox, The Talon Series, Misfits, and Drama

Reviews 20 ★★★★

I’ve got four reviews for you today: two YA fantasies, a MG fantasy, and a YA/MG graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Steeped in Japanese folklore, Shadow of the Fox is sure to please anyone who’s a fan of anime or manga or any reader who loves fantastical stories based on traditional lore. The book is dual-narrated: First we have Yumeko, who is half kitsune and is constantly trying to balance her human and yokai sides. Her yokai brethren encourage her to shed her humanity, something she is loathe to do, but she also fears how humans will react if they know about her kitsune heritage. Then there’s the mysterious samurai, Tatsumi. His powerful sword that is infused with an angry and bloodthirsty demon killer who constantly threatens to overcome Tatsumi and turn him into a senseless killing machine. When these… Read more »

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Sep 25
Top Ten Favorite Authors I Need to Read More!

Top Ten Favorite Authors I Need to Read More!

Top Ten Tuesday 50

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I loved doing TTT last week, and this week’s topic was just as fun so I thought I’d jump in again! Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is: Books By My Favorite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read Honestly, there are TONS of books by Shusterman, that I haven’t read because he is such a prolific author (He has 35 books listed on his website!!). But these are just the books, I haven’t read yet that I actually own and I should have read by now. (Actually, now that I think about it, I should have added The Schwa Was Here to these as well.) Books I have read by Shusterman: The Unwind Series – 4 books and a novella (My all-time favorite series!!) except UnBound, for some reason—it’s a collection of short stories in the Unwind world. Scythe Challenger Deep The Skinjacker Trilogy Even though… Read more »

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Sep 23
Sunday Post: Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 9/23/18

Sunday Post: Pre-order Incentives & Giveaways Galore – 9/23/18

Sunday Post 72

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): We’ve spent this weekend doing a little demolition. We’re taking out the pool that’s been in our backyard since we moved in 13 years ago and most of the deck (except for a bit of the framing) along with it. As of me writing this, we now step out our back door to a half-torn out deck that leads to a giant hole in the ground (and a whole lot of debris). Sounds fun, right? Actually, the process hasn’t been all that bad. And I trust my husband to make us a spiffy new deck.  🙂  (We’re hiring landscapers… Read more »

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Sep 21
The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes: Hispanic and Disability Rep + Mythology Not Many of Us Know About

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes: Hispanic and Disability Rep + Mythology Not Many of Us Know About

Middle Grade, Reviews 20 ★★★★

There’s a whole lot to love about this little gem of a book. It’s an action-packed introduction to a little-known mythological system that features a hispanic, disabled MC. This sounds like a lot of rep and you might be wondering if the inclusion of the disability might seem like too much, but it’s all woven together seamlessly and given its due weight. What Fed My Addiction: Maya mythology. I knew absolutely nothing about Maya mythology going into this, and the book made me want to delve into it and learn more. I hope it encourages many kids to do the same! Of course, we only get a taste of the mythology in this book, but we’re introduced to some of the major gods and we learn about several of the myths associated with them. And, of course, it’s all done in a really fun and engaging way as we’re led on Zane’s… Read more »

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Sep 18
Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Top Ten Tuesday 58

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s been a while since I’ve participated in TTT, so I thought I’d jump in this week. Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is: Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR For this, I’m using books that are releasing this fall, even though I’ll probably be reading some backlist books as well. (I’m listing this in order of release date.) 1. Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes This one releases today! I loved the first book from this imprint, so I’m ready to jump into this one!!! 2. Wildcard by Marie Lu I finally read (technically, listened to) a Marie Lu book!! And I really liked it! So, since I recently read Warcross, it makes sense that I should jump into Wildcard very soon. (This one came out today, too.) 3. Dry by Neal Shusterman Do you see Neal Shusterman’s name on the book? That is all the explanation you… Read more »

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Sep 16
Sunday Post: Pre-order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 9/16/18

Sunday Post: Pre-order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 9/16/18

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 was busy because my husband was in Ireland for work, and I had kid appointments on Thursday and Friday. But I still feel like I got a lot done Monday through Wednesday. Now I just need to keep up that momentum. Here’s what you may have missed on the blog since my last Sunday Post: A Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Two Dark Reigns Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu: A Classroom Reading Review Book Blogger Birthdays and Blogoversaries: Here are the birthdays and blogoversaries for this week! I hope you’ll go wish these bloggers well on their special days! Make sure you check… Read more »

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Sep 14
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu: A Classroom Reading Review

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu: A Classroom Reading Review

Reviews 10 ★★★★½

I read this book with my homeschool language arts class (last spring—for some reason it’s taken me this long to post this—I have no idea why), and the class really enjoyed it! We started out by reading “The Snow Queen,” which the book is based on. It was fun to see the parallels between the two stories and to see where Ursu strayed from the original. The book is split into two parts—the first part takes place almost entirely in the real world (with a few small fantastical elements thrown in), and the second part takes place in a fantasy world as Hazel goes off to try and rescue Jack from the white witch. The two parts of the book are completely different, and I was slightly surprised how long it took to get to the fantasy portion of the book. The book focuses on Hazel’s sense of not belonging, both because… Read more »

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