Waiting on Wednesday: The Cage & The Game of Love and Death

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's WoW selections are...








's Pick:

Title: The Cage
Author: Megan Shepherd
Series: The Cage # 1
Publisher: Balzer+Bray
Publication Date: May 26th, 2015

The Maze Runner meets Scott Westerfeld in this gripping new series about teens held captive in a human zoo by an otherworldly race. From Megan Shepherd, the acclaimed author of The Madman's Daughter trilogy.

When Cora Mason wakes in a desert, she doesn't know where she is or who put her there. As she explores, she finds an impossible mix of environments—tundra next to desert, farm next to jungle, and a strangely empty town cobbled together from different cultures—all watched over by eerie black windows. And she isn't alone.

Four other teenagers have also been taken: a beautiful model, a tattooed smuggler, a secretive genius, and an army brat who seems to know too much about Cora's past. None of them have a clue as to what happened, and all of them have secrets. As the unlikely group struggles for leadership, they slowly start to trust each other. But when their mysterious jailer—a handsome young guard called Cassian—appears, they realize that their captivity is more terrifying than they could ever imagine: Their captors aren't from Earth. And they have taken the five teenagers for an otherworldly zoo—where the exhibits are humans.

As a forbidden attraction develops between Cora and Cassian, she realizes that her best chance of escape might be in the arms of her own jailer—though that would mean leaving the others behind. Can Cora manage to save herself and her companions? And if so . . . what world lies beyond the walls of their cage?

Um... Human Zoo... Need I say more? That's cray cray and I'm all over it. Though I have to say the cover blows. I'm not a fan. It's just not eye catching. I almost didn't give it a second glance.






's Pick:



Title: The Game of Love and Death
Author: Martha Brockenbrough
Series: n/a
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Publication Date: April 28, 2015

Antony and Cleopatra. Helen of Troy and Paris. Romeo and Juliet. And now . . . Henry and Flora.

For centuries Love and Death have chosen their players. They have set the rules, rolled the dice, and kept close, ready to influence, angling for supremacy. And Death has always won. Always.

Could there ever be one time, one place, one pair whose love would truly tip the balance?

Meet Flora Saudade, an African-American girl who dreams of becoming the next Amelia Earhart by day and sings in the smoky jazz clubs of Seattle by night. Meet Henry Bishop, born a few blocks and a million worlds away, a white boy with his future assured — a wealthy adoptive family in the midst of the Great Depression, a college scholarship, and all the opportunities in the world seemingly available to him.

The players have been chosen. The dice have been rolled. But when human beings make moves of their own, what happens next is anyone’s guess.

Achingly romantic and brilliantly imagined, The Game of Love and Death is a love story you will never forget.

Sometimes, you just want a good love story. And this one sounds incredible, especially with Love and Death calling the shots. Also, I'm really digging the simple, illustrated cover. More of those, please.


What are you desperately waiting for this Wednesday? Let us know in the comments or share a link to your own WoW post!

Top Ten Tuesday: Goals and Resolutions for 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the awesome ladies at The Broke and the Bookish. Apparently, they are overly fond of list-making and love to share their bookish lists with the rest of us book nerds.  =) We're game.

This week's topic is the Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015 -- bookish, blogging or otherwise!

April's Goals & Resolutions:

Last year when I made goals for my own blog, I knew that I would never accomplish any. I was so ready to just throw in the towel but 2014 ended up being pretty awesome as far as blogging goes. I'm glad I was able to transfer my goals into helping Jen with hers. And now they are ours. <3 It's been a great year and I think 2015 will be as well.


Jen's Goals & Resolutions:

First up, here's how I did with last year's blogging goals:

I carried out the more important items from my list, I think. Sort of. I mean, April and I created the review archive...but it needs a lot of work. As in, all of our reviews still need to be added. Which is why this is still one of my goals for 2015. o_O I was better at being social earlier in the year, but then I got behind on reading, blogging, and all things real life, so my social presence has suffered a bit. Hoping that now that the holidays are pretty much behind us, I'll have more time to catch up with everyone. Also, I am a perpetual book-hoarder. I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop. But I can at least attempt it.

Oh, and for #3, I just ended up asking April to blog with me because it became apparent that my sister was never going to have time for blogging. Probably the best blogging decision I ever made. =)

And now, here are my goals for 2015:

As you'll see, some of my resolutions remain on this list from year to year because I still haven't gotten any better at them or I'm still that far from completing the goal. Here's hoping this year is stress- and drama-free and that we all accomplish whatever we set out to do this year! :D


What are you hoping to accomplish in 2015? Be sure to share a link to your TTT post so we can visit!

The Rhodes Family - A Sims Story

I love the Sims!

True Story. lol. This Gif I found pretty much sums up my obsession. I don't always play the sims to make videos. Sometimes I just like to play! To build a family, or house and just see where it goes from there. Over the Holiday I've been doing just that. My daughter picked out an expansion pack I didn't have yet, "pet's" and I decided I had to get some use out of it. :) 

So here is my latest family. 

Meet the Rhodes!

Ben and Stephanie Rhodes have been married for a while. They met in high school. They are established in their careers and have a beautiful house. I wish I could say I built it, but I just moved them in. 

They live in the town of Hidden Springs and just adopted their first pet! A kitty name Ryah. 

Stephanie finds much enjoyment from torturing the poor cat. lol. But Ryah doesn't seem to mind much. 

Winter is upon them. I figured since it's the Holiday Season, we would start out with that theme. 

Yay for Sim snow.. It's only a dusting at the moment, but according to the weather forecast, there will be moderate snow fall tomorrow. Snowmen in my future. 

That is not the only exciting thing going on with the Rhodes.. they are expecting a bundle of joy soon. 

Unsure of the gender, because Sims does not have ultrasound. Bummer. 

But they are excited, regardless! :) 

I've been dying to play a family through. I them to have at least 2 or 3 kids, and I want to play them through all the way into college.. "University Expansion Pack". I haven't had a chance to really play with that yet either. 

Stay tuned next week for their birth story. lol. 

Please forgive my nerdiness. :P

I need to figure out how to make these adorable Sims gifs. 

Stacking The Shelves # 48

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is a way to share with everyone all the goodies you've received through out the week. 

Just click the covers to be taken to their goodreads pages. 

Gifted!

This year Brian and I decided to take Aubrey out to the stores and pick stuff out for each other. We don't really "need" anything and we thought it would be a good way to show her the joy of giving is just as fun. It was a blast, and she was sooo excited to see us open our gifts Christmas morning. Here are two book related gifts she picked for me. She wanted to get me a movie.. and she knows I like movies that were books first, so Brian steered her towards TFIOS. I have not seen it yet, so I'm pretty exited. And City of Heavenly Fire, that's a funny one. You see, she wanted to get me a book, because I love books, so Brian took her to Books A Million, and he said she walked right up to the YA shelf and pointed to that one. She recognized those covers and just so happen to point at the only one I didn't have yet. <3 Smart kid. :) 

Ahhhhh!! We finally have a Keurig and it's amazing! My In-laws got it for me. I'm so tired after work these days I don't stay up to read much, I'm hoping this beast can help with that! 

For Review

(Thank you Harper!)

Here are a few books I grabbed for review. All four sound pretty good! 

Christmas is over. Boo! It always goes so fast. Most of our decorations have been taken down already, mainly because our tree was mammoth and I wanted my living room back. :) I hope you all had as wonderful a Holiday as we did. Now.. bring on the new year.. but first.. I'll share with you some pics from Christmas week! 

Snowflake's Last Antics

Santa Came!

Disney Infinity 2.0!!! We wrapped that up with the Characters for us, and it's one of her favorite gifts. Much of our free time will be playing it with her now. lol. :) 

Have a great week. 

The Weekend Update - 12.27.14

So, since my end-of-the-week post isn't just about what I got in my mailbox or on my Kindle each week -- though that is a big part of it, I won't lie -- I decided to change up the title and intro a bit.  I might tweak the format a bit over the next few weeks, but for the most part, it'll contain the same stuff: stuff I got, stuff I did, and stuff that's coming up on the blog.  Plus, I get to use the awesome GIF you see here and blow kisses to all the people who sent me lovely books and bookish things.  Oh, and I've started linking up to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews since I'm not using a specific meme title anymore.  April's also doing her own Stacking the Shelves posts on Sundays.  Stop by and say hi!  =)

I hope you all had a nice holiday! I know I did...so much so that I'm still recovering, lol. It was nice to spend time with family and friends, but I'm ready to buckle down and get some real reading done. :D

Anyway, here's what I scored this week:

For Review:

Thanks HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster!

I tried to contain myself when I logged into Edelweiss yesterday to download my requested copy of Oblivion and saw that Harper had uploaded a ton of new titles. I didn't do terribly bad, but five is still five more than I needed to add to my schedule, though one of those I've been especially looking forward to.

I am soooo excited to have been approved for Oblivion. I've purposely not started this series yet because I was waiting on this final book. And now I can read all three books back-to-back! Yay!

Gifted:

From the bestest coblogger and bestie EVAR, I got The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas and Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, plus some yummy goodies and awesome prezzies for the Katiebug. :) I've read both of these books, but I've wanted to add finished copies to my collection forever so I was beyond excited to get copies from April. Thanks so much, friend!

From my lovely sister, I received these amazing bookish gifts. I am such a fangirl for all things Maggie, but I just adore this quote so much. I can't wait to hang this print up! And, of course, no fangirl would be complete without her very own Harry Potter mug judging everyone who is not a fan. =)

Purchased:

As I mentioned last week, my Black Friday order from Book Outlet finally arrived. I went overboard, as usual, but I got all of those books for a steal. Some I've read, some I've wanted to, and some I just wanted a finished copy of. Because of this order, though, I really had to make myself stay off the site yesterday for their Boxing Day Sale, for which I had a coupon for 50% off everything. There is no such thing as too many books, but there does exist a lack of room for them. o_O


So, that's my haul. How about you? What did you get this week?

The Week in Review:

Reviews:

• We
• Took
• The
• Week
• Off
• :)

Current Giveaways:

Check back soon!

Promotional/Discussion Posts:  

• Best Books We Read This Year
• This Shattered World Exclusive Quote + Amazing Giveaway
• Books on Our Christmas Wishlists
• Best Book Covers of 2014
• Waiting on Wednesday: Fairest by Marissa Meyer
• Best Villains of 2014
• Our Book Boyfriends from 2014
• How We Fared With Our Christmas TBRs
• Books We're Anticipating in 2014

Jen's Currently Reading/Listening To:

Thanks to all of the holiday festivities, I haven't had much time to read, so I still have about 100 pages left of ACOTAR, not that I'm complaining. I never want this book to end. I'm sure I'll be experiencing a severe book hangover very soon, though. :(

I'm on a bit of a Sherlockian kick these days. Just finished up Every Word last week, and now I'm listening to Jackaby. Oh, and I've just discovered the squee-inducing show that is Sherlock, so I'll probably be camped out on the sofa for much of my holiday vacation streaming it on Netflix. =)

Upcoming Reviews:

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