Sunday, June 26, 2016

Where To Pre-Order Empire Of Storms by Sarah J Maas...

Helloooo everybody. So, recently I've been trolling the web looking for random stuff and I came across a bunch of places that are running preorder promotions for Empire of Storms. And I'm here to tell you all about them, because I don't want anybody to miss out on these chances. Also, there are so many places to order EoS from that it's helpful to have them all in one place. I hope this helps you in your decision on where to buy :)

First, I have three places (that I have found so far) where you can preorder Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas SIGNED
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For the UK and Europe, Waterstones has the white paperback editions for signing
This promotion is only available until the DAY OF PUBLICATION, aka September 6, 2016.
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For the US and others who want to order from there, Books of Wonder has the hardcover US editions for signing AND personalization.
This promotion is only available until AUGUST 15, 2016! No later than that or the books will come without personalization. 
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For US and international, Good Choice Reading is running a virtual signing. At this signing you can get ALL of the ToG books (in hardcover) and the ToG coloring book signed and personalized. You will have to pay full price and shipping for the books, but you can get the entire series signed/personalized if you so desire. 
Also, the EoS edition that is being signed is the Barnes & Noble edition, which you can check out below. 

The deadline for this is, as you can see above, AUGUST 29, 2016. Get your orders in before then folks! 
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Then I have two places where you can get exclusive content. The first is Barnes & Noble with an exclusive fan art poster and an exclusive short story.
This will be available following the release as well, meaning there is no deadline on when you have to order it buy.
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The second place is Target. Target always seems to have exclusive editions of EVERYTHING. This edition of EoS will have an exclusive full-color poster and a never-before-seen story.
This will also be available after the publication date, so there's no rush on buying this one either.
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Also, if you were unaware, Bloomsbury is running a preorder promotion as well. It's not for a signed copy or anything, BUT it is really cool. Check it out.
If you preorder Empire of Storms, you get the notebook pictured above. If you preorder the ToG coloring book, you get the colored pencils pictured above. 

You can preorder from ANYWHERE, in ANY format (that means physical ...or ebook copies), and it will work for this promotion. However, there are only some countries (listed below) that can receive this promotion.

USA, Canada, UK, ROI, AU, and NZ are the only countries where you can be sent the preorder gifts. The link to submit your information is here
More informations and FAQ are here
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Also, once Empire of Storms is released, I will be running a giveaway, so make sure to stay tuned for that! 

I'm also hosting a Throne of Glass series Read-A-Long. The link to the post is here, or can be found as the Featured Post on the top right of my blog. 
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Other preorder links (unsigned and unexclusive) for Empire of Storms:
iBooks
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Sarah's tumblr also has a page with links to signed editions here.
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I wasn't asked to promote any of this. I mean, I have very few people who follow this blog (if any) and very few YouTube subscribers, so no one would as me to do this as they don't know I exist. However, ToG is my favorite series and I am extremely excited about these promotions. I am preorder both signed editions as I have both edition sets and I have already turned in my preorder information for the goodies. I wouldn't want huge fans of Sarah and this series to miss out on these great opportunities simply because they didn't know about them. I also realize that there are a lot of editions to buy. There's three different editions in the US alone, which could cost a person quite a bit of money. I myself will be getting the exclusive editions and the signed editions, but only because I have an excellent well-paying job this summer. I hope this enlightened you or at least got you excited for the release (September 6, 2016). 

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Friday, June 24, 2016

Let's Talk: Of Poseidon

Title: Of Poseidon
Author: Anna Banks
Series: "Syrena Legacy" #1
Genre: YA Fantasy Romance
Page Length: 324 pages
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
Date Started: June 8, 2016
Date Finished: June 9, 2016
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

This book made me laugh so hard. Just in the first couple pages I was laughing. Emma's best friend, Chloe, was just hilarious. Then there was the fact that the mermaids--Syrena in this novel--didn't really know how to act in the human world. Trying to see them fit in and figure out the world was entertaining.

Emma was awesome. I really enjoyed her character and her arc. I loved seeing her backstory as well when it finally came into light. She went through so much in this novel and I am interested to see how different she is by the end of the trilogy.

I loved Galen, but he frustrated me at times. Maybe it was because he was a Syrena and thought more analytically than humans, but there were times when his choices annoyed the crap out of me. It was pretty funny to be honest, thought. In the second half of the book he really pulled together and I could see his struggles. His choices made me like him even more.

Rayna was awesome. She was a badass and in the beginning, I really was annoyed by her. She was rude to Emma, but then as the book progressed things got better and I enjoyed her character. She was one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, character. She had a tough go of it as well, and her strength was amazing to see.

I enjoyed this book and the mythology in it. It was interesting to see these two different worlds coming together. I am very excited to see how the next book progresses and I can't wait to read it, especially after this book's ending.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Let's Talk: Hell on Wheels

Title: Hell on Wheels
Author: Julie Ann Walker
Series: "Black Knights Inc." #1
Genre: Adult Romance-Thriller
Page Length: 349 pages
Publication Date: August 1, 2012
Date Started: June 5, 2016
Date Finished: June 7, 2016
Rating: 4/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

Holy shikes, this book was steamy. I really enjoyed this book, and it was very different from what I expected when I went in.

First off we have the two main characters, Ali and Nate. Ali is the younger sister of Nate's best friend, Grigg, who has just recently died. They've known each other for years, but never quite gotten along due to Nate's cold behavior. But when Grigg died, he left something behind and now Ali is the target of some unknown person. So, she does the only thing she can think of and takes shelter with Nate at his elite covert-ops headquarters, even if he doesn't necessarily want her there.

This whole book was frustrating and oh-so-good. Frustrating because I just wanted Ali and Nate to finally admit their feelings for each other and get together already. It was oh-so-good for a number of reasons. The characters were funny and each had a backstory. I loved Ozzie-he was so flipping hilarious.

There was action, too. It was well-planned most of the time and I liked where it fell in the timeline. And there were a lot of feels. I ugly cried in this book, and it was bad. Lots of tears, lots of snot, and I had to stop reading because I couldn't see the pages.

However, despite how good it was I had just a couple small quirks. First, it was a little slow at times. I get that we had to set a lot of things up, but it was still slow at certain small parts. I also felt like the ending was too easy. I feel for a book where so much was set up, the ending came quickly and easily.

Apart from those two things, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be continuing on with this series.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Let's Talk: The Winner's Curse

Title: The Winner's Curse
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: "The Winner's Trilogy" #1
Genre: YA High Fantasy
Page Length: 355 pages
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Date Started: June 4, 2016
Date Finished: June 4, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free review*

Wow, it seems like I read this book forever ago. I'm writing this review post-France, on the 24th, meaning it's been a while since I read this book. But maybe now I can review it with a clear mind.

I loved this book, as shown by my 5/5 star rating. I loved the characters and the twists and turns. It was not the book I expected, but it was so much better.

This book is high fantasy, but has no magic, which you don't see often in such a genre. Instead, it focuses more on political intrigue. Every little piece in this political game just blew my mind and I'm very excited to continue on with the series, hopefully very soon.

I loved Kestrel and Arin's characters. They were both interesting and had quite a bit of depth to them. Kestrel's character arc was amazing. Just looking at Point A and Point B and seeing the difference between the two was incredible. She was still the same Kestrel, but she was a little different--in a good way of course.

I really want to see more of their romance in the following books. I hope that everything can turn out all right for the entire kingdom and so on. I will definitely be expecting twists and turns in the second book, which I have already bought and plan on reading very soon.

All in all, despite how terrible this review was set up, this was an amazing book and I highly recommend it to fantasy lovers everywhere.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Let's Talk: The Problem With Forever

Title: The Problem With Forever
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: N/A
Genre: YA Contemporary
Page Length: 474 pages
Publication Date: May 17, 2016
Date Started: May 31, 2016
Date Finished: June 1, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free*

I really enjoyed this novel. It wasn't my favorite Jennifer L. Armentrout book, but I still really liked it. I first wanna talk about the characters. Jennifer has a way of creating multi-dimensional characters that seem to grab my attention whichever way I look. She peels back the layers and we see so many sides of all her characters that it's hard to choose who I like best.

MALLORY: Most of her life was spent in a foster home...and not a good one. It's easy to figure that out. Sometime in her life, about 4 years before the start of the book, she was taken out of it and adopted by a pair of doctors. They're so nice, and think of her as their actual daughter. Mallory herself is scarred and traumatized from her past, and doesn't have many friends. Her best friend is another girl who's homeschooled, but now that Mallory decided to go to public school for her senior year, they don't see each other as much. It was very interesting seeing Mallory's fears and tribulations as this book went on. I enjoyed seeing her overcome her inner struggles and fears about what's around her. I especially loved how she was understanding, and not at all dumb like some female protagonists in contemporaries are when it comes to fights and such. Overall, I thought she was a strong, complex, and interesting character to read from.

RIDER: I love Rider. He's epic, just saying. He's not my favorite Jennifer L. Armentrout guy, but he definitely ranks higher than a lot of other book boys. Rider lived in the same foster home as Mallory, and he protected her. He was her white knight when they were younger. He even has this nickname for her, "Mouse", that he still calls her. But anyway, he's been living in a new foster home since Mallory left the other one and he's got two foster brothers (who are amazing) named Jayden and Hector. They don't live in a particularly good part of the neighborhood, but they are good people. It was interesting to see Rider struggle with his current life and overcoming all these struggles when he looks like he has it all together.

JAYDEN: Oh man, I loved Jayden. He was the comic relief in a mostly-serious novel. He showed up at unexpected times and completely turned the mood around. I laughed out loud at Jayden. He was insane. Jayden is 15 years old, 2 years younger than everyone else, but he's 100% comfortable with those who are older than him. He does fall into some bad shit in the beginning of the novel, and a lot of the characters work to get him out (not telling you what happens though). He was amazing and I wish I could read more of him.

PAIGE: My feelings on Paige were very flip-floppy throughout the book. In the beginning, I saw her as a possibly threat to Mallory, and then she became a bitch, but in the end I feel like I understood her a lot better. I actually enjoyed Paige quite a bit. We do find out a lot about her home life and her own struggles, and I almost feel bad about Mallory and Rider getting together (Paige and Rider were together at the beginning). Almost, but not quite. I did quite like her.

ROSA & CARL: The two foster parents. Man, they were pretty great, but also annoyed me at times. I don't really need to say much other than there were times I loved both of them, and times I shook my head, and times I was pissed at them. There wasn't a whole lot to them that I want to talk about, but they really truly care for Mallory, and they do have a lot of feelings and empathy in them. Their daughter died when she was about to go into college, and now they have Mallory, so she feels like she comes second to their first daughter even though that was years ago. Things happen with them, and I did enjoy them.

I loved Mallory and Rider together. I felt like they could cling to each other in the eye of the hurricane. So many bad things have happened to both of them, but they both have each other. A lot of shit puts their relationship through the ringer, but I loved it all the same. I love how Mallory saw things in Rider that no one, not even himself, saw. And I love how Rider was able to back of being protective (for the most part) when Mallory told him to.

So many things happened in this book. There were plenty of highs and lows. I cried, pretty much for the entire last third of the novel. I had to take breaks because I couldn't read due to water in my eyes, or I didn't want tear drops on the pages. It was great.

There were plenty of laughs as well as tears. There were moments where I wanted to pull my hair out and moments where I just wanted to stand up and cheer and throw confetti everywhere. This was such a well done contemporary, and it's easily my favorite contemporary I've ever read (which I haven't read many). I believe Jennifer L. Armentrout did a stellar job with this novel and I highly recommend it for any contemporary or Armentrout fan.

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

Let's Talk: The Assassin's Blade

Title: The Assassin's Blade
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: "Throne of Glass" #0.5
Genre: YA High-Fantasy
Page Length: 435 pages
Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Date Started: May 27, 2016
Date Finished: May 31, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

*Semi-spoiler free*

I hate Arobynn Hamel. Before I read this novel, when we were just going off of Celaena's descriptions in the main books, I thought that maybe he wasn't a bad guy. My thoughts on him were "Oh, he's Celaena's father figure. He took her in, trained her. He's gotta be a great guy and obviously really cares about Celaena." Boy was I wrong! I wanted to slap him most of the novel. I'm not gonna say much else, but I hate him with a burning passion. He's my number one most hated antagonist out of anything I've ever read.

Anyway, now that that's out of me, I loved this book. I love all books written by Sarah J. Maas, so it should be no surprise that I loved this one. My reread wasn't as good as the first time I read I read it, most likely because I was forcing myself to finish it before a certain day, but I still really loved it.

In this book we meet Sam Cortland, who we know about from the main books, and I loved him to death. It was very interesting to see his and Celaena's relationship develop and grow. I loved every moment of him. 

I loved loved loved seeing Celaena's past. I really enjoyed The Assassin and the Desert because not only was she miles and miles from home, but she was also training with different people. And the training was not what she was used to, and she was not top of the class. It was awesome seeing her determination and willpower throughout the whole novella. I also loved seeing more of the world and the Silent Assassins. I hope that they appear in later novels. 

As this was a prequel, I know exactly what the ending would be for the most part. And I told myself not to get attached to certain characters, but ended up getting attached anyway. By the end of the book I was sobbing so much. I had to take a break when I first read this book before I moved on in the series because the pain was so raw. 

I highly recommend these prequel novellas. As for what order to read the novels in, it's up for discussion. I read ToG, CoM, novellas, HoF, and then QoS, which I believe is publishing order. You could read the novellas before ToG, or you could even read them after the last book. I recommend between Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire as the world gets a lot bigger in HoF and some of what happens in the novellas is referenced in QoS. 

All in all, I loved this book, just as I love all of Sarah J. Maas's novels. 

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren

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P.S. Join me for my Throne of Glass Read-A-Long for the release of Empire of Storms, starting this past May!

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Let's Talk: Every Pane of Glass

Title: Every Pane of Glass
Author: H.B. Stumbo
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Adult Romance Mystery(?) 
Page Length: ---
Publication Date: June 1, 2016
Date Started: May 15, 2016
Date Finished: May 17, 2016
Rating: 5/5 stars

Disclaimer: This arc was sent to me in advance for review.

--SPOILER FREE--

OH MY GOD! Holy crap! Guys...this book! Wow, it was a rollercoaster of emotions that I'm ready to share with you all. Usually I don't have spoiler-sections in my reviews, but I need to talk about my feels. There will be warning before those, don't worry. 

First of all, this is H.B. Stumbo's newest stand alone novel that is completely set aside from her H.A.S.H. trilogy. There is no correlation between the two, just putting that out there. New amazing characters, new setting, and new plot. 

We follow a girl named Val who moves back to her hometown, Devil Town, to sell her childhood home. There, she runs into someone from her past (named Jordan) and also meets a new man (named Anderson). Throughout the novel she starts to delve into her past as it weaves itself into her present life. 

It's great. I don't want to tell you more for even the slightest chance of spoiling something that you might think of as big. So if you have not read this book and don't want any semi-spoilery things about the book (not necessarily the plot) then stop reading here and come back afterwards :)

--SEMI-SPOILER FREE--

I loved loved loved how this book was written. We start off reading from a "Now" timeline, which is basically the current timeline of Val's life. It switches between that timeline and a "Before" timeline, which is the story of Val's past. I really really enjoyed that we got to see her past instead of just told about it. I always like to see rather than be told what happened. 

Aside from that, part of the writing was a lot of what Val was feeling. I, myself, enjoy getting into character's minds and such. I find it to be a little bit more enjoyable than two pages describing the bedroom that we only see once throughout the whole novel. I liked reading Val's thoughts and her struggles. It was awesome.

Then we have the boys, Anderson and Jordan. Anderson is her new beau but Jordan is someone from her past, kind of the catalyst that causes her to start revisiting her past. I was frustrated with both of them at different parts in the story, but I did really enjoy both of their characters. 

The ending surprised me to no end. And when I say the ending, I just mean everything at the end, not just the last chapter. Wow, I was left speechless and then I was yelling in the once-silence of my bedroom. It was fantastic. 

For those of you who have not read the book, don't continue on from here unless you're prepared to be spoiler. Leave with my warning of having a isolated space to finish the book so that you can deal with your feels properly.

--SPOILING AHEAD--

Wow. Just...wow. 

Okay, first of all, Jordan... 

So in the "Before" timeline, I started off liking him and then he grew into this dark bad boy who Val is in a pretty toxic relationship with. In the "Now" timeline, I kind of wanted to slap him, but at the same time I wanted him to do something to prove to Val that he was different. I wanted him to redeem himself. Needless to say, that didn't happen.

Anderson frustrated me occasionally, as I stated previously. I felt that at times, he was being very unfair towards Val. Oh lord it annoyed me when he would ignore her or make her feel bad for trying to figure out stuff with Jordan.

Val herself was a really interesting character to read. She was impulsive and stone-hearted. She wanted people to think she was cold and stay away. She wanted to stay in the background. It was rather cool to read her perspective. 

Let me just talk about the ending...

So a few chapters from the end we find out that Jordan is actually dead, and either Val is seeing a ghost or she is imagining him. We find out that he died on the night he and Val had a fight and she left town. It was a big shock for me. Can we just talk about how subtle the fact that he was a ghost was? Val casually mentions that he looks the exact same as he did when she left. Then nobody else has seen him with her, and he's constantly showing up everywhere and telling her things that he shouldn't be able to know. Just...wow. Round of applause to Hayley. 

Then an even bigger bombshell drops in the last chapter. Val is the one who killed him. BAM! I almost threw my phone across the room when I read that... Of course, her finally remembering that is when he shows up at a coffee shop a little while later and triggers that memory. She had been repressing it all these years, but she'd finally snapped under all of what was going wrong in their relationship and killed him. Like holy crap. 

But on the upside, Jordan is actually a ghost and not just a figment of her imagination...so she's not all crazy. 

I really really enjoyed this story. It was very unique and a rollercoaster of emotions. I definitely recommend this novel, just as I recommend all of H.B. Stumbo's works. For more information on her or her novels, check out my "Featured" tab for links to her site or works. 

FANTASTIC NOVEL. *clapping*

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Thanks for reading
xoxo
Lauren