Month: September 2015

Most Adorkable Moment | First & Then Book Superlative Blog Tour (+ Giveaway)

Posted September 30, 2015 by Jana in Blog Tour, Giveaway, Guest Post / 6 Comments

firstthenblogtour

Welcome to my spot along the First & Then blog tour! And what a fun tour it is! Macmillan has put together a senior superlatives blog tour to celebrate high school and Emma Mills and her debut book, First & Then! Each stop along the tour has its own senior superlative (like the ones given out in the yearbook every year), and those bloggers get to share their favorite books that fit the theme of the superlative! Emma is appearing on many of the blogs to discuss her high school life and talk about her book. It has been a very fun tour so far!

So, my superlative is SO much fun! It’s “Most Adorkable Moment”. Instead of moments, I’m going to be talking about five of my very favorite adorkable boys in YA lit! Before I jump in, though, let’s define “adorkable”. Urban dictionary says it best:

AdorkableDefinition

This list was so much harder to compile than I thought it would be! I’ve got so many book boyfriends, and I tend to gravitate towards the adorkable ones. It can be so hard to explain why a boy is adorkable, though. You just have to read about him and see him in action to get the full picture. So basically… read all of the following books, but don’t steal my boyfriends!

AdorkableBoys

Dash from Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan– He’s a quirky bookish hipster nerd whose biggest wish in life is to own his own 22-volume Oxford English Dictionary.

Captain Carswell Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer – He’s full of so much snark and sarcasm. I just know his one-liners will be referenced forever. In Cress he becomes so tender and sweet and you can tell he’s embarrassed by it. So adorkable.

Rowan from Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard – He’s this reformed bad-boy with a travel bug who hops around from destination to destination teaching diving courses and backpacking to hole-in-the-wall hostels where everyone already knows him. He just sounds pretty darn amazing. He’s really mysterious and hardened, but a softy when his walls are torn down. And even better: he’s bookish.

Julien from Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney – He is such a sweet, caring guy who loves art. Literally. He spends all of his free time wandering the art museum, and ends up falling in love with a girl in a Renoir painting. They spend time floating on a boat in Van Gogh’s Starry Night, they dance in another, they watch Swan Lake performed by Degas’s dancers, they spend an afternoon on the bridge in Monet’s garden.

Jason from Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill – He calls Julia Book Licker! Come on! He is her polar opposite, her arch nemesis, and the thorn in her side. But he’s funny and suave and cute, and he’s getting her to do all these new things and experience London in a way that she never predicted. And he can be so sweet and concerned sometimes. And boy, does he pick on her! I loved watching him burrow his way into the little soft spot she formed for him. His dorkiest moment is when he gets drunk… hilarious.

Which of my choices do you agree with? Who am I missing?


Emma Mills’s Most Adorkable High School Moment

“Adorkable” is probably pretty subjective, but if I had to pick out one high school moment of mine that could likely be termed as such, it would likely be when my friends and I staged and filmed a recreation of the Battle of the Rohan in our high school cafeteria. It was a follow-up to the LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring that we re-created (scene by scene!) in junior high. We loved those films, and wanted to put our own spin on them!

I still have the footage. Needless to say, it doesn’t quite hold up, but it makes me chuckle nonetheless!


First & Then by Emma Mills
Published by Henry Holt and Company on October 13, 2015
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult
Amazon • Add to Goodreads

Devon Tennyson wouldn’t change a thing. She’s happy watching Friday night games from the bleachers, silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon’s cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent for football, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra, right where she doesn’t want them first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life.

Pride and Prejudice meets Friday Night Lights in this contemporary novel about falling in love with the unexpected boy, with a new brother, and with yourself.


Make sure you visit all the other blogs on this tour for more great book recommendations! I’ve had so much fun jumping around, and I hope you do too! And don’t forget to enter to win your own copy of First & Then! This giveaway is sponsored by Macmillan, so thanks to them!

FirstAndThenBlogTour

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The Detour by S.A. Bodeen | Blog Tour Mini Book Review

Posted September 28, 2015 by Jana in Blog Tour, Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 0 Comments

The Detour by S.A. Bodeen | Blog Tour Mini Book ReviewThe Detour by S.A. Bodeen
Published by Feiwel and Friends on October 6, 2015
Genres: Thriller
Pages: 224
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

On her way to a writer’s conference, a bestselling teenage author takes a detour that has been deliberately set up by her biggest fans—a mother and daughter who kidnap her.

Livvy Flynn is a big deal—she’s a New York Times-bestselling author whose YA fiction has sold all over the world. She’s rich, she’s famous, she’s gorgeous, and she’s full of herself.

When she’s invited to an A-list writer’s conference, she decides to accept so she can have some time to herself. She’s on a tight deadline for her next book, and she has no intention of socializing with the other industry people at the conference.

And then she hits the detour. Before she knows it, her brand new car is wrecked, she’s hurt, and she’s tied to a bed in a nondescript shack in the middle of nowhere. A woman and her apparently manic daughter have kidnapped her. And they have no intention of letting her go.

Welcome to my spot along the blog tour for The Detour by S. A. Bodeen! I really love thrillers and mysteries because they have the power to grab you immediately and not let go until the very end. When I’m in a reading slump, I pick up a thriller. That’s what I did in this case as well! It has been quite some time since I read a book that I was so excited about that I chose to read it instead of watching Netflix. lol. I’m in a major slump, and have been for the better part of the year. The Detour is a quick, fast-paced, tension-filled read that had me very curious and eager to answer my questions.

While the book was not scary, it was creepy and uncomfortable. The people who took Livvy are insane. I kept wondering what they were going to put her through next. And why did they kidnap her? I enjoyed the mostly believable plot, and I liked that Livvy is a teen author. I always love books that involve bookish characters. I just wish I liked her more. Livvy is stuck up and pretentious, not to mention downright rude, and I had a hard time hoping the best for her. I already mentioned I did not like the other characters, so… it’s hilarious that I enjoyed this book as much as I did! I cared more about the story than the characters, so my not liking them did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. The action is fast-paced and there were moments I was scared for Livvy. Luckily the book was a little shorter so I could power through and solve the mystery.

Overall, I enjoyed The Detour very much. It’s an entertaining, quick read that is perfect for getting you in the mood for Halloween… without keeping you up all night. Give it a shot if you’re looking for something to grab you immediately!


Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis-Graves | Book Review

Posted September 21, 2015 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 1 Comment

Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis-Graves | Book ReviewHeart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves
Series: Kate and Ian #1
Published by Self on August 25, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 277
Format: eARC
Source: Author
Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

When Kate Watts abandoned her law career to open a food pantry in Northeast Minneapolis, she never dreamed it would be this difficult. Facing the heartbreaking prospect of turning hungry people away, she is grateful for the anonymous donations that begin appearing at the end of each month. Determined to identify and thank her secret benefactor, she launches a plan and catches Ian —a charismatic hacker with a Robin Hood complex—in the act.

Ian intrigues Kate in a way no man ever has. But after learning he’s snooped around on her personal computer, she demands retribution. Impressed with her tolerance and captivated by her spirit, he complies and begins to slowly charm his way past her defenses. Time spent with Ian is never boring, and Kate soon finds herself falling for the mysterious hacker.

But Ian has enemies and they’re growing restless. In the hacking world, exploiting a target’s weakness is paramount, and no price is too high to stop an attack. And when Kate learns exactly how much Ian has paid, she’ll discover just how strong her love is for the man who has hacked his way into her heart.

There’s never been a question about my love for Tracey Garvis-Graves’s books. I will always read anything she writes because she grabs you immediately, immerses you in a story with wonderful characters, and leaves you wishing she would write you a book every week. Heart-Shaped Hack is another title I’m adding to my list of reasons to love Tracey. As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. Tracey likes to be unique. Every book she has ever written has never been written before. She keeps throwing in elements that make the story fresh, and I love that. Our main guy, Ian, is a computer hacker philanthropist. He’s basically Robin Hood. Can’t say I’ve ever read a book about a guy like him, and I’m pretty sure that if I did I would not like it as much.

2. Ian’s snark is probably my favorite thing about the entire book. He is blunt and cocky and has absolutely no filter. Everything in his life is gray. There’s no black or white, wrong or right. Everything is just Ian. He dissolves boundaries and can charm his way into anything. He finds Kate several times because he hacks into her credit card history to discover where she is. And then he goes there. And then he tells her how he found her. And he’s so charming and sexy that it doesn’t even matter that he’s spying on her! As much as he likes her, he turns their relationship into something SHE has to work for. Not only did he capture her heart against her will, he made her pursue him! This guy is something. And the master of the swoons.

3. Kate reminds me of myself. She’s following her dreams and living a relatively simple, quiet, almost cautious life. She cares a lot about helping others and making a difference in the world. I liked that Ian bugged the crap out of her in the beginning. She rolled her eyes at him and threw his cockiness back in his face countless numbers of times, and the banter that ensued had me giggling and turning the pages as quickly as I could.

4. Ian challenges Kate to break down walls and take risks, and Kate challenges Ian to be open and caring. These two are great together!

5. A hacker’s life is a dangerous life, and Ian’s attachments to Kate (and his desire to stay in one place for too long) bring with them a scary situation that nobody anticipated. I loved the mystery and the danger surrounding this part of the story, even though my heart is a little worse for wear as a result.

6. I feel like this book was really well researched! Garvis-Graves does a great job of portraying the life of a hacker.

7. The writing style is, as always with Tracey, amazing! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. She knows how to grab you immediately and never let go. And, even though I read an ARC, I did not find one typo or grammatical error. I noticed the same thing when I read her self-published On the Island back in the day. Tracey pays attention to every detail, and that’s why her stories are perfect. She’s just that good!

8. There were more sexytimes than I’m used to with her books, but I can kind of see why that was necessary for these particular characters. I wish there had been a little less, though, because I was blushing way too much!!

I can’t wait for the sequel, White-Hot Hack, which I know I’ll be bugging Tracey about over the next few months. I’m excited to see where Ian and Kate go from here! I still stand by my bold proclamation that I will read anything Tracey ever writes. Definitely give this book a shot if you like words.


Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan | Book Review

Posted September 2, 2015 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 7 Comments

Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan | Book ReviewDaughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
Published by Dutton Juvenile on May 25, 2015
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 375
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

I’m the daughter of murdered parents.
I’m the friend of a dead girl.
I’m the lover of my enemy.
And I will have my revenge.

In the wake of the devastating destruction of the luxury yacht Persephone, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace knows the terrifying truth, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge the murders of everyone she held dear. Even if it means taking down the boy she loves and possibly losing herself in the process.

Sharp and incisive, Daughter of Deep Silence by bestselling author Carrie Ryan is a deliciously smart revenge thriller that examines perceptions of identity, love, and the lengths to which one girl is willing to go when she thinks she has nothing to lose.

I’m on a major mystery/thriller kick right now, and I’m all about conspiracies! I’m not usually a fan of revenge, but this is revenge for a good reason so I LOVED it. Daughter of Deep Silence is filled with ominous, creepy, obsessive revenge. Basically, it was amazing. I’m doing a small review for this title because I don’t want to give anything away. The synopsis is very vague for a reason, and I intend to provide only my opinions. So don’t worry! Reading my review is totally safe, even if you’re the type who likes to discover books on your own, rather than read a review that basically tells you the entire plot. Seriously. I just read a bunch of reviews on Goodreads and they are just not safe!

We start out on the Persephone, a luxury yacht at sea. Everything is fine, and then disaster strikes. I was immediately engrossed in this story, and was completely on the edge of my seat. It starts out with a huge bang and gets more and more crazy and mysterious as the book continues and Frances’s life continues at home. Frances is a very hurt, very complex, very lost and rage-filled soul who has her heart set on finding answers. She will stop at nothing to find these answers, no matter the cost. And I’m not kidding. There were times I hated her and there were times I absolutely loved her. Her past is heartbreaking, her present is a lie, and her future could go in so many different directions depending on her actions now. There’s a bit of romance, but mostly the suspense is the frontrunner. My only qualm is that I wish there was more of a gradual build-up to the climax instead of the huge info dump and a quick ending I got. I’m the kind of person who likes to guess and form opinions, but I needed a few more clues than I was given.

All in all, I was extremely pleased with Daughter of Deep Silence. I loved every second, and was sad when it was over. Sure, it was a little unbelievable in places, but that’s why this is a novel instead of a memoir. This story would never happen in real life, but neither would Jurassic Park. I love the author’s writing style, and am seriously considering reading her backlist because I was completely entranced. Carrie Ryan is an amazing author! Definitely give this book a shot if you’re looking for a little suspense that won’t keep you up all night in sheer terror.