Source: Blog Tour

Feb 09

Between Before and After by Maureen Doyle McQuerry: Review, Giveaway & McQuerry’s Top Ten Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 23 ★★★½

Between Before and After is a touching story of believing in the miracles of everyday life and forgiving yourself for the mistakes of your past. The story alternates between 1955 and 1918 to the early 20’s. When Molly discovers that her mother has a secret in her past that might ruin their family’s happiness, she’s determined to find out what it is. In the meantime, her uncle is being investigated by the church because he performed a miracle, and the turmoil and disbelief that this sparks turns their life even more upside down. The book follows Molly in her quest to learn the truth and flashes back to Molly’s mother’s life as a struggling orphan after the Spanish flu of 1918. I’ll confess that I’d unraveled the mystery of her mother’s past pretty much right from the start, but I still enjoyed reading Molly’s discoveries and finding out how it… Read more »

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Jan 29

One-Third Nerd by Gennifer Choldenko: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 16 ★★★½

One-Third Nerd is a heartwarming middle grade story about a typically atypical family just trying to get by. I say typically atypical because, let’s face it, in today’s world very few families fit the standard nuclear family mold. Liam’s parents are divorced and they struggle financially. His youngest sister has Down’s Syndrome and his other little sis is brilliant (but maybe a bit of a handful). I think that Chodenko captured the family dynamic well. None of them are perfect, but they love each other and they’re doing their best. Liam is sometimes self-conscious about his apartment and his brainy sister’s antics (she’s 100% nerd—perfect for her, but not great as far as Liam’s concerned). He’s especially concerned about how he looks to the new kid, Moses, who he thinks has it all together (especially since Moses is a superstar at tennis, Liam’s sport). To top everything off, the family… Read more »

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Jan 27

Only a Breath Apart by Katie McGarry: Review & $50 Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 12 ★★★★½

Oh, how I love Katie McGarry. In anyone else’s hands, I think this book would have been overdramatic and overwrought—a teenage boy with a tragic past who has always loved the girl next door, who’s dealing with abuse in her family. There’s a lot of angst here. But McGarry draws me in to her characters and makes me relate to them in such intimate ways. She makes sure that the pain in these two lives feels real, and doesn’t just feel like drama. Anyway, on to my more specific review… What Fed My Addiction: Abuse depicted realistically. The relationship between Scarlett and her father is complicated. While Scarlett hates her father’s actions and she fears him, she also has good memories of him, and those sometimes cloud her thinking. Plus, everyone else in her family seems to forgive him, so she wonders why she can’t seem to do the same—and if… Read more »

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Dec 14

Navigating the Stars by Maria V. Snyder: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 18 ★★★★½

KINDLE VERSION Navigating the Stars is about Terra Cotta Warriors in space. Sound weird? It is a little, but it’s also really enjoyable. What Fed My Addiction: Sci-fi that’s in-depth without being confusing. There’s a decent amount of science in this fiction, but I never felt overwhelmed or bombarded with facts. There are some basic things about the world that you have to understand—for instance, the fact that space travel essentially causes time travel and the fact that they’re universe is run by something called Q-Net, which Lyra hacks into in a very specific way called worming—but I don’t feel like you have to understand the details of how it all works in order to enjoy and appreciate the way it works. I never felt lost. The mystery of the Warriors. Usually the mystery aspect of a book like this is my least favorite part, but in this case, I was intrigued and wanted… Read more »

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Nov 19

The Camelot Code: The Once and Future Geek by Mari Mancusi – Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 6 ★★★★

This series is a fun middle grade romp through Camelot! What Fed My Addiction: King Arthur! I love all things Camelot, so the concept of this book had me hooked right from the start. Kids can get a little lesson on these epic characters in a fun format! (This makes me want to reread A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.) The story gives us a lot of the original Arthurian legends and then puts them in a spin cycle. Video games. Sophie and Stu love RPG-style video games, and I could see how this one would be lots of fun. They also sounded like realistic kids—I’ve had some of these same arguments with my teenagers over the value of video games vs. “real life” and their arguments mirror Sophie and Stu’s pretty nicely. (I was glad that there was a balance between the idea that video games can be a worthwhile… Read more »

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Nov 16

Amber & Dusk by Lyra Selene: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 6 ★★★★

There was a lot to love about this unique fantasy. I found myself engrossed in its world of perpetual daylight! What Fed My Addiction: Lyrical writing. This is a lush fantasy, filled with lavish sights and spectacular magic, and Selene’s writing style works perfectly for this genre. (In her Goodreads review of her own book, she says she writes what she loves to read: “Prose that tastes like sugared secrets.” That should give you a good idea of what to expect.) I love this type of writing. The worldbuilding. Selene did a fantastic job with the worldbuilding in this book. We are introduced to a unique new world with a lot of complex elements, but it never feels too overwhelming. I felt like I could picture most of the world in beautiful detail, and I loved the magical system. The book features a unique mythology that Selene created just for this world… Read more »

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Oct 10

Star-Crossed by Pintip Dunn: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 10 ★★★★

This book has such a unique concept. In a futuristic sci-fi world where food is scarce, scientists have come up with an interesting solution: a genetic modification that will allow a person to process food more efficiently, and then the nutrients that the person extracts can be used to create a nutrition pill that will feed the masses. My favorite aspect about this book is the moral quandaries that are created by the scarcity of food. Everyone in this society has to make sacrifices: Some people sacrifice years of their life, others must give up the pleasures of eating real food, and a few give up life while still in their prime in order to sustain the life of the king. The people and the government have to make tough choices—in some ways it reminded me of (a slightly less brutal) The 100 in that way. There are no easy answers,… Read more »

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Sep 28

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

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction 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 04

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake: Release Day Review & Giveaway!

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 32 ★★★★½

I have not been this obsessed with a series ever. I’ve certainly never prepared to read a new book in a series so thoroughly: I first reread “The Young Queens” And then read “The Oracle Queen” (I posted a Spoiler-Filled Discussion of both novellas just yesterday.) Then I read recaps of both Three Dark Crowns and One Dark Throne (Click the link if you need a reminder and want to read the recaps on Recaptains) And then reread my Spoiler-Filled Discussions of TDC and ODT as well. For me, that’s a lot of prep work! But it’s all worth it because the mysteries in this series keep getting twistier and twistier, and I love every minute of the sleuthing!! You can watch for a Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Two Dark Reigns to come next week (to give more people a chance to read it first), but for now, check out my completely… Read more »

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Aug 06

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 38 ★★★★½

This book was surprisingly refreshing! For some reason, I wasn’t expecting to love it quite as much as I did. I went in with certain expectations—even just from the title—and found that most of them were surpassed or turned upside down. I ended up flipping the pages furiously because I just didn’t want to put the book down! What Fed My Addiction: Sisterly affections. The sisters’ relationship was complicated. In fact, I spent much of my reading time debating over which of them was “Grace” and which was “Fury.” I thought I knew at the beginning, but then things got turned upside down rather quickly. (In the end, I decided that Grace and Fury might both refer to both sisters after all.) I loved the fact that these were sisters who loved each other with a fierce, protective sort of love. But that didn’t mean that they didn’t have issues. You were… Read more »

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