Title: Suffer Love Author: Ashley Herring Blake Series: Standalone Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers Publication Date: May 3rd, 2016 Source: Received for review from publisher via Edelwiess Purchase:Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Hadley St. Clair's life changed the day she came home to a front door covered in slips of paper, each of them revealing the ugly truth about her father. Now as her family falls apart in the wake of his year-long affair, Hadley wants everyone-her dad most of all-to leave her alone.
Then she meets Sam Bennett, a cute new boy who inexplicably "feels like home" to Hadley. Hadley and Sam's connection is undeniable, but Sam has a secret about his family that could ruin everything.
Funny and passionate, Suffer Love is a story about first love, family dysfunction, and the fickle hand of fate.
It's always the cover that grabs me first, so it was no surprise that my finger clicked request with a mind of it's own. I mean, look at how cute that is!! Well, I can assure you that the book is just as cute.
First of all, it was a very quick read. I felt as if I picked it up and it was over already. I just couldn't put it down, and I lost track of time while reading it. I love getting lost in books like that. :) I'm sad when they are over though.
Hadley comes home one day to find her door covered with little papers, basically saying her father was having an affair. That's the gentle way of putting it. lol. The words were maybe a tad bit more harsh. Can you imagine? The poor girl, So life is a little tense and shitty for the girl. Love the name Hadley by the way.
Then enters Sam.. I loved Sam. He's new, and he has an instant connection with Hadley. Their romance is so stinking cute and I found myself smiling often through out. The problem they have is obvious right from the get go, because the story is told from both point of views.
Things get hairy, but you know what's going on because you know Sams secret, where as, Hadley does not. Yet.
I didn't find Suffer love to be an extremely emotional story. It has some deepness, don't get me wrong, but the comedy and the warm fuzzy romance make up for the seriousness. It was a great balance.
Overall, Suffer Love is a great little book! I recommend it to anyone who like contemporary. Especially ones that make you smile. I'll definitely be trying this Author out in the future. I believe I saw she has a book set to release in 2017, so I have a while to wait.
About the author:
Ashley Herring Blake is a poet, teacher, and YA novelist. Her debut novel, SUFFER
LOVE, follows two teens as they attempt to wade through an intense relationship complicated by their parents' infidelities. Ashley lives in Nashville, TN.
Title: Graceling Author: Kristin Cashore Narrator: David Baker, Chelsea Mixon, Zachary Exton Series: Graceling Realm, book #1 Publisher: Full Cast Audio Publication Date: June 24, 2009 Source: purchased Purchase:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
His eyes, Katsa had never seen such eyes. One was silver, and the other, gold. They glowed in his sun-darkened face, uneven, and strange. She was surprised that they hadn't shone in the darkness of their first meeting. They didn't seem human....
Then he raised his eyebrows a hair, and his mouth shifted into the hint of a smirk. He nodded at her, just barely, and it released her from her spell.
Cocky, she thought. Cocky and arrogant, this one, and that was all there was to make of him. Whatever game he was playing, if he expected her to join him he would be disappointed.
In a world where people born with an extreme skill—called a Grace—are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of the skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to execute his dirty work, punishing and torturing anyone who displeases him.
When she first meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po's friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away...a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
**This review is kinda spoilery, but I'm late to this party, so you've all probably read it, anyway...**
This audiobook was really pretty awesome. It was the first one I listened to where there was a different voice for each character. Really nice to hear the age appropriate voices for the characters as well as correct sexual orientation. Sometimes, I can overlook it, but there have been other audiobooks that just made me cringe the whole time when the woman tried to sound like a dude or vice versa.
Those who are gifted are called “Gracelings.” That’s pretty cool. Better than “Superman” or “The Hulk.” I like how Katsa and Po meet…..by fighting. Where I come from, people get divorced for that type of thing. But luckily, Katsa has no plans to marry, ever. Except she does fall in love with her Chris Brown and they later seemingly adopt Po’s relative, Princess Bitterblue. I mean, really, if this Leck guy was so big and bad, how did he manage to let his own daughter escape? I like how Leck is pretty much in the distance the whole book. Of course they’re talking about him, what to do when they are face to face with him, but it’s not just fighting the whole time. The whole story is leading up to the big fight, which actually turns out not to be much of a fight at all. Go, Katsa! One strike, heeeeeee’s out!
Thankfully, Katsa and Po are not all kissy kissy the whole time. Mr. Clumsy himself takes a pretty bad tumble and gets left in a cave to fend for himself. Love it! She had trouble leaving him, which kinda grossed me out, but he finally convinced her to go on without him.
Fighting. Gramps was kidnapped. Po and Katsa have to figure out who the captor is. Then they hunt the guy. Meet cute little girl. Kill bad guy. Live happily ever after. Yeah, I’ll take it. It was a pretty awesome book.
I'm not sure that the next book in this series will be my next read/listen, but I am looking forward to reading the others!
Title: Enchanted Author: Alethea Kontis Series: n/a Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publication Date: May 8, 2012 Source:Southern Book Bloggers ARC tour
It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.
When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.
The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?
I love a good fairy tale retelling as much as the next girl. I enjoy reading fairy tales to my four-year-old daughter, as well, and I’m already stock-piling a few YA/MG titles to read with her when she’s a little older. Enchanted will definitely be going on that pile, probably sooner than most. I say that because it felt like it was written with a younger (or a young-at-heart) audience in mind.
Enchanted was cute and fun and completely harmless. There might be a few moments that are a tad scary for little ones, but when my daughter is capable of reading this book, I assure you I would have no problem giving it to her to read on her own. The romance is sweet and adorable and prudent, but that kind of goes along with the territory. It was shocking in those times to see two young people holding hands, let alone making out. I’m glad this retelling did not stray from those ideals.
My only real issues with this novel were the initial pacing and the sheer number of characters. This was a rather short novel – at least, compared to most I read – at 305 pages and the first 80 pages or so were spent on back-story. Add to that the fact that I practically had to draw a family tree to keep all of the characters straight, and I was a little put out.
However, once I saw how all of the characters fit into the story, it made sense. This wasn’t simply ONE fairy-tale being retold, and so all of the many characters were indeed necessary. I loved seeing how so many of my favorite fairy tales from childhood were brought to new life and incorporated into Kontis’ retelling of The Frog Prince. It was a pleasant surprise revisiting some of my old favorites.
This was a light, fluffy read, and I’d recommend it to anyone who adores fairy tales, retellings, or enjoys returning to some old friends every now and again. I can’t wait till my daughter is old enough to experience this book for herself!
Rating: 1/2
Book-A-Likes:Entwined by Heather Dixon, Beastly by Alex Flinn
In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It's a weekly meme where we all get to brag about the books and swag we got in the mail, for review, won in contests, etc.
For Review:
Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols, ARC courtesy of the author Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready, thanks to Simon Schuster for the ARC Socialpunk by Monica Leonelle, egalley courtesy of the author Gilt by Katherine Longshore, via Netgalley Until I Die by Amy Plum, ARC courtesy of HarperCollins Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin -- YES, another copy thanks to HarperCollins :) The Fame Game by Lauren Conrad, also thanks to HarperCollins Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, via ARC tour, courtesy of the Southern Book Bloggers
Title: The Springsweet Author: Saundra Mitchell Series: 2nd book in The Vespertine series Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group Publication Date: April 17, 2012 Source: ARC
I hate staring at a blank piece of paper when I’m trying to write a review. Conversely, I love that I was so engrossed in the novel that I neglected to take a single note. Luckily, I’m caught up on reviews and not having to write this three weeks after I read it, so this should be relatively painless.
I loved Saundra Mitchell’s The Vespertine when I read it last year. I hadn’t read much in the way of historical fiction up to that point, but I was blown away with how easily the story pulled me in, and it turned me into a massive fan of the genre. The companion novel to The Vespertine was no different. You don’t have to have read the first novel in this series, but it will help explain some things that the author touched on in The Springsweet.
I didn’t fully appreciate Zora’s character in the first novel. She seemed pushy and flighty, and when things turned out badly for her, she withdrew into herself. That’s the Zora you first meet in The Springsweet. It’s been a year since her beloved Thomas was taken from her, and she’s still depressed and at a loss for what to do with herself. Her mother doesn’t know what to do with her sullen, yet impetuous daughter either. When things take a turn for the worse, Zora is shipped off to Oklahoma to help her young, recently-widowed aunt sustain her homestead.
Zora doesn’t believe she deserves happiness without Thomas. She doesn’t believe she will, nor should she ever, find love again. And so she is content with the manual labor necessary to maintain her aunt’s farmland, and for the most part, it keeps her from dwelling on the past much. But along the way, she unearths some things about herself. She is a springsweet, a water witch, a dowser. Zora can put this previously latent power to good use for other homesteaders and help support her aunt and cousin in the process. But as she learned from her cousin Amelia’s situation in the first book, powers of this nature can be taken for granted…and used against you.
Zora also discovers that she is still alive. That her heart can belong to another, even after the tragedy she has survived. She only has to let herself want it. But there are two boys vying for her heart, and though her aunt pushes her toward the better match, Zora is pulled much more strongly to the boy deemed the wrong choice in the eyes of her aunt.
The characters in The Springsweet are so well-written, so believable that I could envision them perfectly and could almost hear them speaking in a Southern drawl or in a genteel manner, depending on the speaker. Zora narrates the book, and she is from a respectable background, but she has a mouth on her, a tenacity that I found endearing. Her new locale only aids in the loss of her more refined manner. West Glory isn’t quite what she expected, but through the beautiful prose, I could picture it quite clearly. And it made me yearn to go back and read theLittle House series.
This isn’t a throw-you-for-a-loop kind of book, and I did find some situations a little predictable, but it wasn’t irritatingly so. As I was reading, it felt as if the book kept growing shorter. I wasn’t ready for it to end! And now that it has, I want the next book, especially after that ending. I expected it, but even so, I’m glad to have my suspicions confirmed and can’t wait to see how it plays out. From gorgeous gowns and balls to open prairie and yummy cowboys, this series just keeps getting better!
Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Title: The Springsweet Author: Saundra Mitchell Series: 2nd book in The Vespertine series Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publication Date: April 17, 2012 Source: ARC
I work with numbers by day, and I'm a mommy and avid reader by night. I'm a self-proclaimed Spreadsheet Queen, and I'll read anything you put in front of me. I seriously love all the books! And I adore audiobooks, too!
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Review: Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake
Author: Ashley Herring Blake
Series: Standalone
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2016
Source: Received for review from publisher via Edelwiess
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
First of all, it was a very quick read. I felt as if I picked it up and it was over already. I just couldn't put it down, and I lost track of time while reading it. I love getting lost in books like that. :) I'm sad when they are over though.
Hadley comes home one day to find her door covered with little papers, basically saying her father was having an affair. That's the gentle way of putting it. lol. The words were maybe a tad bit more harsh. Can you imagine? The poor girl, So life is a little tense and shitty for the girl. Love the name Hadley by the way.
Then enters Sam.. I loved Sam. He's new, and he has an instant connection with Hadley. Their romance is so stinking cute and I found myself smiling often through out. The problem they have is obvious right from the get go, because the story is told from both point of views.
Things get hairy, but you know what's going on because you know Sams secret, where as, Hadley does not. Yet.
I didn't find Suffer love to be an extremely emotional story. It has some deepness, don't get me wrong, but the comedy and the warm fuzzy romance make up for the seriousness. It was a great balance.
Overall, Suffer Love is a great little book! I recommend it to anyone who like contemporary. Especially ones that make you smile. I'll definitely be trying this Author out in the future. I believe I saw she has a book set to release in 2017, so I have a while to wait.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
{Audiobook} {Mendy} Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Author: Kristin Cashore
Narrator: David Baker, Chelsea Mixon, Zachary Exton
Series: Graceling Realm, book #1
Publisher: Full Cast Audio
Publication Date: June 24, 2009
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible
Then he raised his eyebrows a hair, and his mouth shifted into the hint of a smirk. He nodded at her, just barely, and it released her from her spell.
Cocky, she thought. Cocky and arrogant, this one, and that was all there was to make of him. Whatever game he was playing, if he expected her to join him he would be disappointed.
In a world where people born with an extreme skill—called a Grace—are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of the skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to execute his dirty work, punishing and torturing anyone who displeases him.
When she first meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po's friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away...a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
This audiobook was really pretty awesome. It was the first one I listened to where there was a different voice for each character. Really nice to hear the age appropriate voices for the characters as well as correct sexual orientation. Sometimes, I can overlook it, but there have been other audiobooks that just made me cringe the whole time when the woman tried to sound like a dude or vice versa.
Those who are gifted are called “Gracelings.” That’s pretty cool. Better than “Superman” or “The Hulk.” I like how Katsa and Po meet…..by fighting. Where I come from, people get divorced for that type of thing. But luckily, Katsa has no plans to marry, ever. Except she does fall in love with her Chris Brown and they later seemingly adopt Po’s relative, Princess Bitterblue. I mean, really, if this Leck guy was so big and bad, how did he manage to let his own daughter escape? I like how Leck is pretty much in the distance the whole book. Of course they’re talking about him, what to do when they are face to face with him, but it’s not just fighting the whole time. The whole story is leading up to the big fight, which actually turns out not to be much of a fight at all. Go, Katsa! One strike, heeeeeee’s out!
Thankfully, Katsa and Po are not all kissy kissy the whole time. Mr. Clumsy himself takes a pretty bad tumble and gets left in a cave to fend for himself. Love it! She had trouble leaving him, which kinda grossed me out, but he finally convinced her to go on without him.
Fighting. Gramps was kidnapped. Po and Katsa have to figure out who the captor is. Then they hunt the guy. Meet cute little girl. Kill bad guy. Live happily ever after. Yeah, I’ll take it. It was a pretty awesome book.
I'm not sure that the next book in this series will be my next read/listen, but I am looking forward to reading the others!
Rating:
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Review: Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
Author: Alethea Kontis
Series: n/a
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: May 8, 2012
Source: Southern Book Bloggers ARC tour
When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.
The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?
I love a good fairy tale retelling as much as the next girl. I enjoy reading fairy tales to my four-year-old daughter, as well, and I’m already stock-piling a few YA/MG titles to read with her when she’s a little older. Enchanted will definitely be going on that pile, probably sooner than most. I say that because it felt like it was written with a younger (or a young-at-heart) audience in mind.
Enchanted was cute and fun and completely harmless. There might be a few moments that are a tad scary for little ones, but when my daughter is capable of reading this book, I assure you I would have no problem giving it to her to read on her own. The romance is sweet and adorable and prudent, but that kind of goes along with the territory. It was shocking in those times to see two young people holding hands, let alone making out. I’m glad this retelling did not stray from those ideals.
My only real issues with this novel were the initial pacing and the sheer number of characters. This was a rather short novel – at least, compared to most I read – at 305 pages and the first 80 pages or so were spent on back-story. Add to that the fact that I practically had to draw a family tree to keep all of the characters straight, and I was a little put out.
However, once I saw how all of the characters fit into the story, it made sense. This wasn’t simply ONE fairy-tale being retold, and so all of the many characters were indeed necessary. I loved seeing how so many of my favorite fairy tales from childhood were brought to new life and incorporated into Kontis’ retelling of The Frog Prince. It was a pleasant surprise revisiting some of my old favorites.
This was a light, fluffy read, and I’d recommend it to anyone who adores fairy tales, retellings, or enjoys returning to some old friends every now and again. I can’t wait till my daughter is old enough to experience this book for herself!
Rating:
Book-A-Likes: Entwined by Heather Dixon, Beastly by Alex Flinn
Saturday, April 14, 2012
In My Mailbox #27
In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It's a weekly meme where we all get to brag about the books and swag we got in the mail, for review, won in contests, etc.
For Review:
Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols, ARC courtesy of the author
Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready, thanks to Simon Schuster for the ARC
Socialpunk by Monica Leonelle, egalley courtesy of the author
Gilt by Katherine Longshore, via Netgalley
Until I Die by Amy Plum, ARC courtesy of HarperCollins
Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin -- YES, another copy thanks to HarperCollins :)
The Fame Game by Lauren Conrad, also thanks to HarperCollins
Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, via ARC tour, courtesy of the Southern Book Bloggers
Prey, Shift & Alpha (books 4-6 in the Shifters series) by Rachel Vincent, audiobooks
Friday, April 13, 2012
Review: The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Series: 2nd book in The Vespertine series
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group
Publication Date: April 17, 2012
Source: ARC
I hate staring at a blank piece of paper when I’m trying to write a review. Conversely, I love that I was so engrossed in the novel that I neglected to take a single note. Luckily, I’m caught up on reviews and not having to write this three weeks after I read it, so this should be relatively painless.
I loved Saundra Mitchell’s The Vespertine when I read it last year. I hadn’t read much in the way of historical fiction up to that point, but I was blown away with how easily the story pulled me in, and it turned me into a massive fan of the genre. The companion novel to The Vespertine was no different. You don’t have to have read the first novel in this series, but it will help explain some things that the author touched on in The Springsweet.
I didn’t fully appreciate Zora’s character in the first novel. She seemed pushy and flighty, and when things turned out badly for her, she withdrew into herself. That’s the Zora you first meet in The Springsweet. It’s been a year since her beloved Thomas was taken from her, and she’s still depressed and at a loss for what to do with herself. Her mother doesn’t know what to do with her sullen, yet impetuous daughter either. When things take a turn for the worse, Zora is shipped off to Oklahoma to help her young, recently-widowed aunt sustain her homestead.
Zora doesn’t believe she deserves happiness without Thomas. She doesn’t believe she will, nor should she ever, find love again. And so she is content with the manual labor necessary to maintain her aunt’s farmland, and for the most part, it keeps her from dwelling on the past much. But along the way, she unearths some things about herself. She is a springsweet, a water witch, a dowser. Zora can put this previously latent power to good use for other homesteaders and help support her aunt and cousin in the process. But as she learned from her cousin Amelia’s situation in the first book, powers of this nature can be taken for granted…and used against you.
Zora also discovers that she is still alive. That her heart can belong to another, even after the tragedy she has survived. She only has to let herself want it. But there are two boys vying for her heart, and though her aunt pushes her toward the better match, Zora is pulled much more strongly to the boy deemed the wrong choice in the eyes of her aunt.
The characters in The Springsweet are so well-written, so believable that I could envision them perfectly and could almost hear them speaking in a Southern drawl or in a genteel manner, depending on the speaker. Zora narrates the book, and she is from a respectable background, but she has a mouth on her, a tenacity that I found endearing. Her new locale only aids in the loss of her more refined manner. West Glory isn’t quite what she expected, but through the beautiful prose, I could picture it quite clearly. And it made me yearn to go back and read the Little House series.
This isn’t a throw-you-for-a-loop kind of book, and I did find some situations a little predictable, but it wasn’t irritatingly so. As I was reading, it felt as if the book kept growing shorter. I wasn’t ready for it to end! And now that it has, I want the next book, especially after that ending. I expected it, but even so, I’m glad to have my suspicions confirmed and can’t wait to see how it plays out. From gorgeous gowns and balls to open prairie and yummy cowboys, this series just keeps getting better!
Rating:
Book-A-Likes: The Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Teaser Tuesday #1
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
This week's teaser comes from the following book:
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Series: 2nd book in The Vespertine series
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: April 17, 2012
Source: ARC
My teaser:
"Please know, Miss Stewart, I didn't follow you to the ball, I was there anyway. When I saw you come in, I thought, well, I had assumed --" p. 107
Hmmm...my daddy always told me never to assume anything. It'll get you into trouble every time. :)
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starryeyedjen
- I work with numbers by day, and I'm a mommy and avid reader by night. I'm a self-proclaimed Spreadsheet Queen, and I'll read anything you put in front of me. I seriously love all the books! And I adore audiobooks, too!
View my complete profile