Cover Reveal: GUARDIAN OF SECRETS (Library Jumpers #2) by Brenda Drake

I read the first book of the Library Jumpers series, Thief of Lies, back when it first released, and I absolutely LOVED it! I've been eagerly waiting for the sequel, Guardian of Secrets, ever since...and today I have the gorgeous cover to share with you all!

Let us know what you think of the cover for Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers, #2) by Brenda Drake which releases February 7, 2017!

This cover reveal is brought to you by Entangled TEEN & YA Interrobang!

Brenda Drake's thoughts on the cover:

I had an idea of what I wanted the cover of Guardian of Secrets to look like the entire time I was writing the story. I was delighted (I might have screamed) when the cover showed up in my email and it was EXACTLY what I’d imagined. I love that it’s blue since part of the setting of the book takes place in a cold climate. I’m thrilled the couple is on it, too. They resemble the characters I’ve created in my mind perfectly. The cover is so beautiful, and I’m beyond excited to share it with everyone!

 About Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers, #2):

Being a Sentinel isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens.

Sure, jumping through books into the world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it.

And if that isn’t enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be calling him “ex,” since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia.

Maybe. If she survives.

Want to read more? Pre-order your copy of Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers, #2) by Brenda Drake today!

Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

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 About the Author

Brenda Drake grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her eccentric, Irish grandmother’s animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. So it was only fitting that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical. When she’s not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).

Connect with Brenda: Twitter | Facebook | Website | Goodreads | Instagram

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I absolutely LOVE this cover! It matches PERFECTLY with the cover for Thief of Lies, and it's stunning on its own, too. It still has the library, and now it has both Gia and Arik on it, and I'm absolutely swooning!

What do you think of the cover of Guardian of Secrets?

Review: And I Darken (The Conquerer's Saga #1) by Kiersten White

Source: Received a copy through a coworker from OLA, and purchased a hardcover once the book released.
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: June 28, 2016
Number of Pages: 475 (Hardcover)


Description from Goodreads:

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

As soon as I heard about AND I DARKEN, I knew that I absolutely HAD to read it! The book sounded absolutely fantastic, and I was pretty sure that I wouldn't want to put it down...and as soon as I started it, I knew I was right!

I loved EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of this book, and I really loved Lada!! She was so fierce and strong, and I loved seeing her exert her control in a time when women didn't have much control at all! I definitely couldn't be as fierce as her, but I really admired her strength, and I sympathized with her when she was insecure about things. I especially loved seeing her relationships evolve and I enjoyed the dynamics that she had with the other characters, including Mehmed, Radu, and all of the Wallachian soldiers. I liked Radu too, but I really loved this book for Lada. :D

I'm not super familiar with Dracula's story, so I wasn't critical with how Lada's story fits in with the historical side while reading, but I still really liked how it was clear that Lada = Vlad...it was so neat!! After finishing AND I DARKEN, I did look into Vlad the Impaler a little bit though, and I thought it was super interesting to see the narrative of his history, and to see how Lada's story overlapped with Vlad's history. Vlad's history is pretty dark, and it doesn't have the happiest of endings, so I'll be very interested to see how Kiersten White continues to explore Lada's story! I'm crossing my fingers that it isn't quite as bleak...but even if it is, I know that she won't go down without one hell of a fight!

Overall, I absolutely LOVED AND I DARKEN! Lada is un-apologetically fierce, and I loved seeing such a strong female character who wasn't afraid to show just how dangerous and deadly she could be. I also loved seeing her take charge! I can't wait to read the next book, NOW I RISE, and I'd recommend AND I DARKEN to anyone who loves fierce heroines, especially if you have a soft spot for historical fiction! 

What do you think?

Does the idea of a female Vlad the Impaler intrigue you?

And if you've read AND I DARKEN already, what did you think?

Cover Catch-Up (33): Stunning Sequels!

In "Cover Catch-Up" I share some covers that have either been recently revealed, or that I've just found and really want to share. 

Today I have two covers for sequels that I think are absolutely fantastic, and I'm desperately and eagerly waiting for them both!

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The first cover that I have to share today is for A CONJURING OF LIGHT, the final book in V. E. Schwab's SHADES OF MAGIC trilogy!!!

A CONJURING OF LIGHT (Shades of Magic #3) by V. E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: February 21, 2017

Description:

The battle between four magical Londons comes to a head in this stunning finale to the New York Times bestselling Shades of Magic trilogy by rising star V. E. Schwab

London's fall and kingdoms rise while darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire—and the fraught balance of magic blossoms into dangerous territory while heroes and foes struggle alike. The direct sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, and the final book in the Shades of Magic epic fantasy series, A Conjuring of Light sees Schwab reach a thrilling culmination concerning the fate of beloved protagonists—and old enemies.

 

A GATHERING OF SHADOWS was pretty much my top read of 2016, so it should come as no shock that I'm eagerly awaiting A CONJURING OF LIGHT...and I think the cover is fantastic! The covers in this series are so well matched, and they show a really interesting progression as the story continues, too! I absolutely CANNOT wait to get this book in my hands, and I just know that this cover is going to be just as fabulous in person!

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The second cover that I have today is for the Canadian version of A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE, the sequel to Kelley Armstrong's CITY OF THE LOST!

A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE (Casey Duncan #2) by Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Release Date: February 7, 2017

Description:

People disappear to Rockton so no-one can find them. But the trouble is people also disappear from Rockton. New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author and master of thrills Kelley Armstrong returns to Rockton for more page-turning suspense, following her #1 national bestseller, City of the Lost.

It's winter in Rockton, a little town hidden deep in the wilds of the Yukon. The town exists for people who need to escape their pasts, though it's not clear if those in hiding are victims or perpetrators. Or, when the lines gets blurred, maybe both. Ask Casey. She's been used, betrayed, beaten. But she's also killed someone. She moved to Rockton to help her best friend, Diana. Ex-best friend. Diana lied to get Casey to come with her; she used her and she almost got her killed. But Casey decided to stay anyway, to work as a detective alongside her new boyfriend and the town's sheriff, Eric Dalton. Fresh off solving a series of grisly murders, Casey and Deputy Will Anders get stranded in a blizzard while they're tracking a runner from the town. Seeking shelter in a cave, they stumble across a woman who's been imprisoned in a deep well. Nicole Chavez--whom everybody thought had run away from town and died in the woods more than a year earlier--is alive. Barely. But she can't identify her captor: she's never seen his face.
Was she taken by one of the hostiles who inhabit the wilderness around the town? Or is Casey facing something even worse? In a town where everyone lies about their past and lives under assumed identities, it's very easy to hide your true nature...

CITY OF THE LOST was another one of my favourite reads in 2016, so I can't wait to dig into A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE! I'm extremely excited for more of Casey and Dalton, and I really, really love this cover! It matches so well with CITY OF THE LOST (cover to the right). I love how they both have the trees, and the animal silhouettes. I think they're so intriguing, and I just know that A DARKNESS ABSOLUTE will be just as gorgeous in person as CITY OF THE LOST is!

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What do you think?
Are you a fan of these two covers?
And who else is ridiculously excited for these books?

Review: Starflight (Starflight #1) by Melissa Landers

Source: Borrowed a copy from the library.
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: February 2, 2016
Number of Pages: 369 (Hardcover)


Description from Goodreads:

Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She's so desperate to reach the realm that she's willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.

When a twist of fate lands them instead on the Banshee, a vessel of dubious repute, Doran learns he's been framed on Earth for conspiracy. As he pursues a set of mysterious coordinates rumored to hold the key to clearing his name, he and Solara must get past their enmity to work together and evade those out for their arrest. Life on the Banshee may be tumultuous, but as Solara and Doran are forced to question everything they once believed about their world—and each other—the ship becomes home, and the eccentric crew family. But what Solara and Doran discover on the mysterious Planet X has the power to not only alter their lives, but the existence of everyone in the universe...

Ahhh!!! I've been considering rewatching FIREFLY lately and this made me want to do that even more!!! I remember when I first saw the cover and read the description for STARFLIGHT months ago that it sounded like it had a similar vibe to FIREFLY and it really did!! The story, the characters, it all was absolutely fantastic!!! I really, really loved this book, and I'm already eagerly looking forward to re-reading it in the future!

While it did have a similar feel to FIREFLY, the plot and story in STARFLIGHT was still completely different, but it did have that whole space cowboy/bandit type feel with a cast of crewmates that are more family than coworkers. I loved that it had that same type of dynamics, and I really loved the characters!!! Solara and Doran were amazing and I loved slowly getting to know the others!! I also absolutely loved the world-building and I'm always a fan of space as a backdrop to a high-stakes adventure!

If you like FIREFLY, or even just stories involving some badassery in space, I think you'll love STARFLIGHT, too. It also gets mega bonus points because I "ship" Solara and Doran so freaking much (pun totally intended :P)!

What do you think?
Have you read STARFLIGHT?
If you haven't, does it sound like something you'd like?

Review: Wrecked by Maria Padian

Source: Received an ARC through work. All opinions are my own.
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Number of Pages: 368 (Hardcover)


Description from Goodreads:

Everyone on campus has a different version of what happened that night.

Haley saw Jenny return from the party, shell-shocked.

Richard heard Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with.

When Jenny accuses Jordan of rape, Haley and Richard are pushed to opposite sides of the school’s investigation. Now conflicting versions of the story may make bringing the truth to light nearly impossible—especially when reputations, relationships, and whole futures are riding on the verdict.

I was seriously impressed with WRECKED. Campus rape is a huge topic in the news right now and I love that books like WRECKED are helping to bring even more awareness to it.

I loved that WRECKED handles the subject in a unique way. The main characters aren't the ones directly involved. Instead they're both linked to the two people that the rape case pertains to. Haley is roommates with Jenny who came home from a party one night and several days later she reported that she had been raped. Richard is housemates with Jordan, the one Jenny has accused of raping her. We don't get to see Jenny's and Jordan's direct perspectives, but instead get to see things from Haley's and Richard's POVs which helps highlight how difficult it can be to get to the truth. In between chapters, Maria Padian has added an omniscient perspective which shows us exactly what happened at the party without any bias, so in the end we know exactly what happened. This combination allows us to see so many different perspectives and also see how big of an issue consent is.

I also felt that their backgrounds made Haley and Richard great characters to tell this story through. Both Haley and Richard were pretty average students, and they were very realistic. Richard is a nice guy, a little bit immature, and raised with a typical white male attitude (i.e., entitled without realizing he's entitled at all), and Haley comes from a middle-class background where she was fairly protected and sheltered by her parents. Because of these backgrounds both Richard and Haley are pretty unaware of the nuances of consent, and neither of them have ever encountered rape before this, so their ignorance provides an ideal setting for these story. It allows the author to subtly educate the reader, and I found it extremely well done! It isn't the type of story where you deliberately feel like an author is trying to educate you while reading, but it does leave you with a much greater understanding of campus rape, how the truth can be easily distorted in rape cases, and how rape victims can be continuously victimized throughout the proceedings of cases such as the one detailed in WRECKED.

I'm trying super hard not to spoil the finer details of this story because I think going into WRECKED without knowing the unbiased truth makes it even more interesting. I will say that I loved this book though and I think it handled campus rape very well. It was both a wonderful story and extremely informative and even a bit educational about consent which I really appreciated. I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

What do you think?
Have you read WRECKED yet?
Do you want to read it?

Cover Catch-Up (32): Pretty Fantasy Covers, Oh My!

In "Cover Catch-Up" I share some covers that have either been recently revealed, or that I've just found and really wanted to share. 

It's been a while since I've posted a Cover Catch-Up, and I've been pretty absent from my blog lately, but I'm going to try to get back into posting regularly, so hopefully you'll be seeing more of these posts soon. :D

Today I've got two upcoming fantasy books that I'm seriously excited for, and the covers are gorgeous!

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The first cover I have to share today is for TRAVELER by L.E. DeLano!

TRAVELER (Traveler #1) by L.E. DeLano
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Release Date: February 7, 2017

Description:
Jessa has spent her life dreaming of other worlds and writing down stories more interesting than her own, until the day her favorite character, Finn, suddenly shows up and invites her out for coffee. After the requisite nervous breakdown, Jessa learns that she and Finn are Travelers, born with the ability to slide through reflections and dreams into alternate realities. But it’s not all steampunk pirates and fantasy lifestyles…Jessa is dying over and over again, in every reality, and Finn is determined that this time, he’s going to stop it… this Jessa is going to live.

 

Whew! This description gets my heart pumping, and this cover looks soooo pretty! I love the blue, and the labyrinthine spiral with the pirate ship! I lso love books about time travel and travelling through parallel universes, so this one sounds right up my alley!!

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My second cover that I'm sharing today is for WINTERSONG by S. Jae-Jones!

WINTERSONG by S. Jae-Jones
Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Release Date: February 7, 2017

Description:
Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

Goblins!!! Gah, I've had a soft spot for stories involving goblins ever since I read Kiersten Hamilton's Goblin Wars Trilogy (here's my review for the first book, Tyger Tyger), which I absolutely LOVED! I also loved Danielle L. Jensen's Malediction Trilogy, and I really enjoyed Labyrinth when I finally saw it so WINTERSONG sounds absolutely AMAZING to me, and this cover is is so pretty!!! It's so symbolic, and I bet it'll be even more gorgeous in person on the finished cover!

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What do you think of these covers?
Do you like them, too?

Review: ALL THE FEELS by Danika Stone

Source: Received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Release Date: June 7, 2016
Number of Pages: 336 (Paperback)


Description from Goodreads:

College freshman Liv is more than just a fangirl: The Starveil movies are her life… So, when her favorite character, Captain Matt Spartan, is killed off at the end of the last movie, Liv Just. Can’t. Deal.

Tired of sitting in her room sobbing, Liv decides to launch an online campaign to bring her beloved hero back to life. With the help of her best friend, Xander, actor and steampunk cosplayer extraordinaire, she creates #SpartanSurvived, a campaign to ignite the fandom. But as her online life succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, Liv is forced to balance that with the pressures of school, her mother’s disapproval, and her (mostly nonexistent and entirely traumatic) romantic life. A trip to DragonCon with Xander might be exactly what she needs to figure out what she really wants.

REVIEW

As soon as I heard about this book, I knew it was perfect for me, and I was so right! ALL THE FEELS totally gave me "all the feels" (seriously, it has the most fitting title EVER!)! I loved absolutely every single second, and even though the Starveil fandom isn't real, I still felt like I was part of it, and I loved that!  

If you're a big fan or fangirl over anything, I think you'll relate to ALL THE FEELS. You might not be able to relate to how involved Liv is in the fandom, but if you're a big fan of everything, you'll definitely understand how much Starveil means to her. It made me think back to how obsessed I was with a few of my favourite fandoms, and luckily my favourites have always seemed to survive, but I could totally relate to how passionate Liv felt about Spartan dying, and I loved that she did something about it!

Now onto Liv herself! I absolutely LOVED her! I could relate to her late night fandom binges, and her reluctance to let the fandom go. I also loved her friendship with Xander, and I thought that Xander himself was fantastic! He was such a wonderful and unique character, and I loved how supportive he was to Liv. I loved their friendship, but I really, really loved seeing how their friendship progressed throughout the story, and I shipped them so, so so much! 

Overall, I thought that ALL THE FEELS was fantastic! It was fun, hilarious, and as a self-professed fangirl, it was extremely easy for me to relate to! Just thinking about this book has me grinning like a fool, and if you like romantic comedies with some fandom nerdiness thrown in then I think this is the perfect book for you, too!

What do you think?
Does ALL THE FEELS sound like something you'd like to read?