Bookish Finds is a feature here at That Artsy Reader Girl, where I highlight awesome bookish things I come across during my exciting life.
Prepare yourselves for the coolest 47 seconds of the day, I kid you not. And while we’re thinking, what a cool bookstore this is!
So, what did you think? Have you ever played with your books? I kind of want to try this, although I know it would not be even half as cool.
I get to help reveal the cover for North Pole Reform School by Jaimie Admans! I love Christmas books, so I was excited to hear about this one. Here’s a little info on the book before I show you the cute cover. :)
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Title: North Pole Reform School
Author: Jaimie Admans
Author Links: Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter
Publication Date: November 6, 2013
Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Comedy
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Synopsis: Mistletoe Bell hates Christmas. So would you if you had a name like hers. Her Christmas-mad parents make the festive season last all year, and with another Christmas looming, Mis doesn’t think she can take any more. After her carelessness causes an accident at school, it seems like things can’t get any worse.
Then she wakes up to find The Ghost of Christmases Ruined in her bedroom.
She is taken to the North Pole, to a reform school run by elves determined to make her love Christmas. Stuck in a misfit group of fellow Christmas-haters with a motley crew of the weird and even weirder, watched over by elves day and night, she doesn’t expect to meet cute and funny Luke, who is hiding a vulnerable side beneath his sarcastic exterior. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.
But all is not as it should be at the North Pole. A certain Mr Claus is making the elves’ lives a misery, and pretty soon Mistletoe and Luke are doing more than just learning to like Christmas.
A YA romantic comedy in which Santa is the bad guy, teaching reindeer to fly is on the curriculum, and zombies have a fondness for Christmas music.
And here’s the cover!
It sounds like a really cute book, and what a fun cover! What do you think of it?
Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what it is. She’s only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she’s just learned that her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all along.
I loved this conclusion to the Ruby Red trilogy! I’m not used to books getting better and better as a series continues. Usually the first book is the best, the second book is pointless, and the third book is a major letdown. Not so with Emerald Green! I grew to love the trilogy more and more as the series continued, and now I am so sad to be finished with it! I’m doing a mini review of this book, just because most of what I loved about it I already mentioned in my reviews of Ruby Red and Sapphire Blue.
I read this trilogy almost back to back, but I still appreciated the recaps we were given on what had happened up to this point. The time traveling is a little confusing, but readers are kept on track with these subtle reminders. The writing is so pretty, and full of funny conversations and elaborate descriptions. I always love seeing where Gwen and Gideon will go, what they will wear, and what they will do. In this book, Gwen and Gideon get to go to a ball and they also go on some secret missions for answers. I loved it!
Gwen is still spunky and is not going to let anyone keep her in the dark. Rather than sitting down and being content with only being able to see a small piece of the large picture she’s a part of, she goes off in her own world and in past worlds to find answers to all these different mysteries. Her grandfather plays a huge role in this book, and I loved that she was able to have a strong relationship with him in some capacity. Lesley, Gwen’s friend, plays a larger role this time around as well, and I really like her. She’s the researcher, and I loved hearing about the information she dug out of the Internet. Raphael, Gideon’s brother, is a fun new addition to the group, and I liked his snarkiness. Charlotte bugged me more than ever, and Xemerius was even more endearing and funny.
All our questions get answered in Emerald Green. What’s up with Lucy and Paul? What happens when the circle is closed? Who is Count St. Germain? What’s in store for Gwen and Gideon? We learn a LOT. Gwen learns about her past and her future, which was so exciting. We learn all about the count and the Guardians. We get to fill in various time travel holes, and piece together different things that have happened across the rest of the trilogy. It was all very satisfying.
I kept this vague and short, just because I know not many people have even read the first book. My point with this review is to get you all excited about the trilogy. If you enjoy time travel, a little humor, adventure, great characters, and history then you will definitely enjoy all three books! And if you quit with Ruby Red because it was not for you, give Sapphire Blue a chance! You’ll love it. :)
Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier Gwen’s life has been a rollercoaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of their blood (gross!), she’s been trying to figure out what all the mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean.
At least Gwen has plenty of help. Her best friend Lesley follows every lead diligently on the Internet. James the ghost teaches Gwen how to fit in at an eighteenth century party. And Xemerius, the gargoyle demon who has been following Gwen since he caught her kissing Gideon in a church, offers advice on everything. Oh, yes. And of course there is Gideon, the Diamond. One minute he’s very warm indeed; the next he’s freezing cold. Gwen’s not sure what’s going on there, but she’s pretty much destined to find out.
I’m so proud of Sapphire Blue for not suffering the second book syndrome! I actually liked this book much more than Ruby Red. It was full of twists and turns and witty banter between characters. There was quite a bit more time traveling, and now that Gwen is getting used to it, the visits to the past have a purpose. I was always excited to see what year she traveled back to, and what she was going to do. She has started to really question this time travel business, and so she’s breaking some rules to do some investigating in the past. She gets into trouble, and meets some new people.
Gwen and Gideon do a lot of traveling together also, and I love their conversations while they sit in a locked room doing homework while they wait to travel back to the present. They also get to go to a soiree in this book, and I loved the descriptions of the gorgeous costumes that they get to wear, and the pretty candlelit rooms. Gwen gets a little drunk on a “secret” punch, and makes a fool out of herself. I loved it!
At the end of Ruby Red, we met a small little gargoyle demon named Xemerius who is very excited that someone can finally see and hear him after so many years of being invisible. I really did not like his constant presence at the beginning of Sapphire Blue. I was annoyed with his interruptions. I grew to really love this little guy, though! He is quite funny, and adds a lot to the story. I looked forward to having him show up.
We learn a lot more about time travel, and what role different characters play in it. We learn more about the past, and why certain things have happened the way they have. Finally, we also get to form a lot of new questions that I’m hoping will be answered in Emerald Green, which I really can’t wait to start! Definitely read Sapphire Blue, even if you were not the biggest fan of Ruby Red. It’s exciting, a little romantic, and full of rich historical elements that will have you dreaming of elaborate balls and poofy dresses.
Famous Last Words by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski Sixteen-year-old Samantha D’Angelo has death on the brain. Her summer internship at the local newspaper has her writing obituaries instead of soaking up the sun at the beach. Between Shelby, Sam’s boy-crazy best friend; her boss Harry, a true-blue newspaper man; and AJ, her fellow “intern scum” (aka the cute drummer for a band called Love Gas), Sam has her hands full. But once she figures out what—or who—is the best part of her summer, will she mess it all up?
As Sam learns her way around both the news room and the real world, she starts to make some momentous realizations about politics, ethics, her family, romance, and most important—herself.
Famous Last Words is a cute, light, contemporary read that made me smile. I loved the idea of a newsroom setting, which reminded me of the Mary Tyler Moore show on TV, and I was very excited to read about a quirky teenager who writes obituaries. What a unique idea, huh? While I did enjoy it, there was nothing extremely special or memorable about it.
Sam is a pretty funny girl. She’s an aspiring journalist who lands a job at the town newspaper writing obituaries. I had fun learning right along with her, how life in a newsroom is and what it’s like to be a journalist. It was also fun hearing about the stories of the people she got to write obituaries for. Probably my favorite thing about Sam is that she would write obituaries for people who annoyed the crap out of her, and for herself when she did something stupid or embarrassing. Of course, she would delete them, but her venting was endearing and it made her unique. She’s also clueless when it comes to guys, which I could not help but adore about her. As she wrote about dead people, she figured out how she wanted to live. I liked watching her transition from a silly little girl to a somewhat less silly girl. Haha.
I really liked the guy Sam works with, A.J. He’s nerdy and quirky just like she is, and they’re pretty great friends. He looks out for her, gives her rides, and helps her with her feature obit stories when she needs it. His snarkiness and desire to protect her from the jerk of the office, Tony, was really cute and I ended up liking him a lot. I would have liked to learn more about A.J., as he was my favorite character in the book. Sam’s boss, Harry, reminded me so much of Lou Grant (from Mary Tyler Moore) that I had to laugh about it. And the fact that the copy editor called Sam Moronica was perfect.
All in all, Famous Last Words was a fun little read. I enjoyed it while I read it, but am already forgetting some of the details. Definitely read it if you’re an aspiring journalist and want to see what the newsroom is all about.