Waiting on Wednesday | The Wolf Wilder | Katherine Rundell

Waiting on Wednesday

The Wolf Wilder • Katherine Rundell

Book cover The Wolf Wilder Katherine Rundell

A girl and the wolves who love her embark on a rescue mission through Russian wilderness in this lyrical tale from the author of the acclaimed Rooftoppers and Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms.

Feo’s life is extraordinary. Her mother trains domesticated wolves to be able to fend for themselves in the snowy wilderness of Russia, and Feo is following in her footsteps to become a wolf wilder. She loves taking care of the wolves, especially the three who stay at the house because they refuse to leave Feo, even though they’ve already been wilded. But not everyone is enamored with the wolves, or with the fact that Feo and her mother are turning them wild. And when her mother is taken captive, Feo must travel through the cold, harsh woods to save her—and learn from her wolves how to survive.

From the author of Rooftoppers, which Booklist called “a glorious adventure,” and Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, which VOYA called “a treasure of a book,” comes an enchanting novel about love and resilience.

So guys. All the things about this book. Russian wilderness. Wolves. Woods. A girl with wolves as pets. I can’t lie, I’m a little nervous about the possibility of crying while reading THE WOLF WILDER. What if one of Feo’s pet wolves dies? Or what is she has to shoo him away like Arya did with Nymeria? WAAHHHH! But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m definitely going to read this book. I don’t know how I couldn’t. The bond that Feo seems to have and nurture with her wolves is, like, giving me chest pains from how touching it sounds. CANNOT WAIT.

THE WOLF WILDER comes out on August 25, 2015 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

The Wolf Wilder Katherine Rundell

Summerfall Teaser

Summerfall (Winterspell # 0.5) • Claire Legrand

Guys, as you might know, I’m incredibly excited about Claire Legrand’s WINTERSPELL, which is coming out on September 30. Nutcracker retelling? STAHP IT. Since we still have some time before WINTERSPELL comes out, though, we get to whet our appetites on a prequel novella, SUMMERFALL. YAY! And because Claire Legrand is awesome, she’s sharing some teasers with us today, the novella’s release day, as well as a chance to win some super fun stuff! So without further ado, here’s some details on SUMMERFALL, as well as your teaser!

Book cover Summerfall Claire Legrand

Rinka is a faery, passionate and powerful, determined to maintain the tenuous peace between faeries and humans.

Alban Somerhart is a human, a reluctant king trapped in an arranged marriage, desperate to prevent war.

Their love could save the kingdom of Cane . . . or shatter it forever.

In this captivating novella, prequel to the upcoming Winterspell, Claire Legrand weaves a story of magic, political intrigue, and forbidden love that sets the stage for the rise of a wicked queen and the journey of a human girl named Clara . . .

Sounds SO GREAT, right?! To keep you all in the know, here’s the cover and synopsis for WINTERSPELL, too!

Book cover Winterspell Claire Legrand

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly nothuman. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The NutcrackerWinterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

And now…THE TEASER!

Summerfall teaserOOOOH!!! Color me intrigued!

You guys don’t want to miss out on ANY news about Claire’s books, and you certainly don’t want to miss out on SUMMERFALL and WINTERSPELL! Linkage!

CLAIRE’S SOCIAL MEDIA
BUY LINKS

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for some WINTERSPELL swag!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Waiting on Wednesday (57) | Winterspell

Waiting on Wednesday

Winterspell • Claire Legrand

Book cover Winterspell Claire Legrand

 

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

So, shall I list all of the reasons I can’t wait for WINTERSPELL by Claire Legrand? Ok.

  1. Turn-of-the-century New York City
  2. Christmas
  3. “Beings distinctly not human.”
  4. Faery queens
  5. DROSSELMEYER
  6. NUTCRACKER RETELLING

Friends, a retelling of The Nutcracker just gets me so excited. I love The Nutcracker. When I was younger, my family would go the McCarter Theater in Princeton to see it at Christmas time, and since my dad has a soft spot for classical music, there were many holidays when we listened to Tchaikovsky during dinner. Also, there was the movie with Macauley Culkin, obvs. Claire Legrand is an author that I’ve just recently discovered, and I’m totally confident that her retelling will be fantastic. It sounds dark and magical, and THOSE are two things that are perfect together.

UPDATE: I completely forgot to address the fact that the girl on the cover is pretty much K. Stew. She generally bugs the crap out of me, but I’ll allow it. I do like this cover.

WINTERSPELL comes out September 30, 2014 from Simon & Schuster BFYR

Winterspell Claire Legrand

Book Review | Since You’ve Been Gone | Morgan Matson

Book Review | Since You’ve Been Gone | Morgan MatsonSince You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Published by Simon & Schuster on May 6, 2014
Genres: Contemporary YA, Friendship
Pages: 449
Format: Hardcover
Also by this author: Second Chance Summer
Source: Bought it
AmazonBarnes & NobleGoodreads
five-stars

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn’t go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn’t do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Ok, easy enough.Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

[Read more…]

On the Same Page | The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls | Claire Legrand

on the same pageThe Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls • Claire Legrand

In celebration of our everlasting love of middle grade, as well as the Kids Author Carnival we’ll all be volunteering at this Book Expo weekend, our May book was one I’ve been looking forward to for a while: THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS by Claire Legrand. I’m always up for some MG goodness, especially when it involves one of my very favorite things to read about: friendship. Particularly between a boy and a girl. My OTP of this would obviously be Harry and Hermione (forget that nonsense that JK was spouting a while ago). I always love reading about this, and it always makes me so happy when the friendship is unencumbered by romance, and I thought that Victoria and Lawrence from THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS wound up having a pretty strong friendship, even if it didn’t seem to start out that way.

[Read more…]

Book Review | Golden | Jessi Kirby

Book cover for Golden by Jessi KirbyTitle: Golden
Author: Jessi Kirby (web | twitter)
Genre: Contemporary YA
Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
Release date: May 14, 2013
Source: Own it

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap—one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery—she decides to take a chance.

Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury.

Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.

[Read more…]

Audiobook Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Book cover for Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare Audiobook

Title: Clockwork Angel
Author: Cassandra Clare (web | twitter)
Narrator: Jennifer Ehle
Series: Infernal Devices #1
Amazon | Goodreads | Audible
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (print), Simon & Schuster Audio (audio)
Release date: August 31, 2010
Challenge: Audiobook Challenge, TBR Challenge
Source: Bought it

Summary: Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

[Read more…]

Book Review: Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

Book cover for Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

Title: Lovely, Dark and Deep

Author: Amy McNamara

Genre: Contemporary YA

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release date: October 16, 2012

Amazon | Goodreads

Challenge: 2013 TBR Challenge

Summary: Since the night of the crash, Wren Wells has been running away. Though she lived through the accident that killed her boyfriend Patrick, the girl she used to be didn’t survive. Instead of heading off to college as planned, Wren retreats to her father’s studio in the far-north woods of Maine. Somewhere she can be alone.

Then she meets Cal Owen. Dealing with his own troubles, Cal’s hiding out too. When the chemistry between them threatens to pull Wren from her hard-won isolation, Wren has to choose: risk opening her broken heart to the world again, or join the ghosts who haunt her.

[Read more…]

Book Review | Second Chance Summer | Morgan Matson

Book Review | Second Chance Summer | Morgan MatsonSecond Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Published by Simon & Schuster on May 8, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Death/Dying/Grief
Pages: 468
Format: Hardcover
Also by this author: Since You've Been Gone
Source: Bought it
AmazonBarnes & NobleGoodreads
five-stars

Taylor’s family might not be the closest-knit – everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled – but for the most part, they get along fine. Then they get news that changes everything: Her father has pancreatic cancer, and it’s stage four – meaning that there is basically nothing to be done. Her parents decide that the family will spend his last months together at their old summerhouse in the Pocono Mountains.

Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former summer best friend is suddenly around, as is her first boyfriend. . . and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.

As the summer progresses, the Edwards become more of a family, and closer than they’ve ever been before. But all of them very aware that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance – with family, with friends, and with love.

[Read more…]

Book Review: In Honor by Jessi Kirby

Book cover for In Honor by Jessi KirbyTitle: In Honor

Author: Jessi Kirby

Genre: Contemporary YA, Road Trip!

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR

Release date: May 8, 2012

Challenge: Completely Contemporary Challenge

Source: Bought it

Summary: Hours after her brother’s military funeral, Honor opens the last letter Finn ever sent. In her grief, she interprets his note as a final request and spontaneously decides to go to California to fulfill it.

Honor gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn’s best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn’t seen Rusty in ages, but it’s obvious he is as arrogant and stubborn as ever—not to mention drop-dead gorgeous. Despite Honor’s better judgment, the two set off together on a voyage from Texas to California. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn’s memory—but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

[Read more…]