I've Published a Book!

HEY HEY HEEEY

Remember that time where I was all like "I'm getting published" and y'all were all like "that's so awesome" and then I was like "YES THANK YOU MWAHAHAHA."

Well. It is here. IT IS HERE.

All the proceeds from the book are being donated to The Children's Heart Foundation.

Book Look: Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett

BLOOD AND SALT by nobentspines featuring Nine West

Goodreads // Review

Romeo and Juliet meets Children of the Corn in this one-of-a-kind romantic horror.

“When you fall in love, you will carve out your heart and throw it into the deepest ocean. You will be all in—blood and salt.”

These are the last words Ash Larkin hears before her mother returns to the spiritual commune she escaped long ago. But when Ash follows her to Quivira, Kansas, something sinister and ancient waits among the rustling cornstalks of this village lost to time.

Ash is plagued by memories of her ancestor, Katia, which harken back to the town’s history of unrequited love and murder, alchemy and immortality. Charming traditions soon give way to a string of gruesome deaths, and Ash feels drawn to Dane, a forbidden boy with secrets of his own.

As the community prepares for a ceremony five hundred years in the making, Ash must fight not only to save her mother, but herself—and discover the truth about Quivira before it’s too late. Before she’s all in—blood and salt.

My Brief Reactions Following the End of Books: New Adult

Welcome one, welcome all! I adore new adult books. I mean, look at my Twitter rants and my Goodreads reading challenge. It's covered it the titles. Below are a few of my most recently read as well as my reaction when I reached the final chapter. 

I'll be doing a young adult edition too- so stay tuned! 

The Air He Breathes by Brittany C. Cherry // Holy hell. Wasn’t expecting that turn events. AAAHHHH. Also, The Feels- and yes I did mean to capitalize the ‘T’ and the ‘F.’

HIM by Sabrina Bowen // I MUST GO TO EVERY HOCKEY GAME EVER. WHO WANTS TO GO WITH ME?

With a Twist by StaciHart // Y’all need to get your shit together. I mean, y’all are adorable, but come ooooon.

Freefall by TessOliver // That was hella more dramatic than it needed to be. And darling, I feel horrible for you. And I wish you had punched that creep in the face at the beginning. But I really do get why you didn’t.

With This Heart by R.S. Grey // Hmph. Hmmmmmph. I. I. I expected more.

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What are some of your reactions to the end of novels? Awe and shock? A total did-not-expect-that? Or was it more of a let down? 

Have you read any of the books I've listed above? (COUGH COUGH I TOTALLY THINK YOU NEED TO READ HIM COUGH COUGH)

*original photo from lifeofpix

Holiday Gift Guide for the Bookish and the Non-Bookish

CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIIIIIIIRRRREEEEE. . . .

Hey, y'all! How are you?

I'm just going to give you my top my gifts to give book-lovers, the non-bookish, and those who like things that smell nice.

O N E ) Get yourself something nice! Evie Seo, one amazing blogger has recently started making gorgeous prints and putting them on everything. I can't pick one, so I'm resorting to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Like I always do when I can't make a decision. Find there here //

T W O ) Book boxes are all the rage. SO MANY BLOGGERS have done posts for reviewing them. Sadly, I have yet to acquire one, but they're darling. 

OwlCrate // Uppercase 

Do you have any subscription boxes that you just adore? Here are some for the non-bookish variety. 

ConsciousBox // LoveWithFood // CookieBox

T H R E E ) Black Iris by Leah Raeder + Part Wolf Tank 

“My little wolf.” She traced my jaw, the ridge of my knuckles. “All teeth and claws. Cunning, and fierce, and insatiable.” - Black Iris

These two are meant for the other. 

F O U R ) Gifts that give back are the best. I'm including two links to two lists that have TOOOOONS of things that you can buy that help someone somewhere to have a happier, more productive life. 

Isn't that just lovely?

List One // List Two 

Awesome! So there's my list of stuff for the gift giver inside of you. Of course you could always just make food. Like truffles. Or chocolate covered potato chips. 

Just throwing those out there. 

Book Look: Rules for 50/50 Chances

RULES FOR 50/50 CHANCES by nobentspines featuring red pumps

Goodreads // Amazon // Review 

A heartrending but ultimately uplifting debut novel about learning to accept life's uncertainties; a perfect fit for the current trend in contemporary realistic novels that confront issues about life, death, and love.

Seventeen-year-old Rose Levenson has a decision to make: Does she want to know how she’s going to die? Because when Rose turns eighteen, she can take the test that will tell her if she carries the genetic mutation for Huntington’s disease, the degenerative condition that is slowly killing her mother. With a fifty-fifty shot at inheriting her family’s genetic curse, Rose is skeptical about pursuing anything that presumes she’ll live to be a healthy adult—including going to ballet school and the possibility of falling in love. But when she meets a boy from a similarly flawed genetic pool, and gets an audition for a dance scholarship in California, Rose begins to question her carefully-laid rules. 

Five Things I Loved About NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
Goodreads // Amazon
ARC via Andye @ ReadingTeen.Net
Pub Date: December 2015

The Rules: 

Don't deceive me. Ever. Especially using my blindness. Especially in public.

Don't help me unless I ask. Otherwise you're just getting in my way or bothering me.

Don't be weird. Seriously, other than having my eyes closed all the time, I'm just like you only smarter. 

Parker Grant doesn't need 20/20 vision to see right through you. That's why she created the Rules: Don't treat her any differently just because she's blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart.

When Scott suddenly reappears in her life after being gone for years, Parker knows there's only one way to react-shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough on her mind already, like trying out for the track team (that's right, her eyes don't work but her legs still do), doling out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn't cried since her dad's death three months ago. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened--both with Scott, and her dad--the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem. Maybe, just maybe, some Rules are meant to be broken.

1. Never have I ever read a book that has a character with such genuine character growth. I’ve never realized that all the other growths are, in fact, Sort Of Growths. Growing hidden behind love. NOT IF I SEE YOU FIRST is compelling. Parker Grant has Rules. These are a huge part of what makes her who she is. Especially Rule Infinity. This book shows her growth though, over, and around her own rules. All while figuring out her place in the world and what it means to trust.

2. THAT COVER IS JUST YES. The whole design is just yes. I mean there is brail design all over this thing. And the colors are sooooooo pretty. Love. Love. Love.

3. FRIENDSHIP. The don’t abandon, can’t be without, you are my Actual Soul Mate, forgiving friendship. I can’t even. This is what ever person wants in a friendship. There is not Parker with out Sarah. There’s Molly. There’s Faith. Hell- there’s even D.B. who’s name is actually Kent. There’s Scott. These characters are dynamic and real and they have flaws. But they don’t wear their flaws like there’s something wrong with being imperfect, but instead they allow themselves to be friends with others because of their flaws. Because what is one person’s weakness is the other’s strength. One is the eyes. The other is the ears. Sarah and Parker.

4. I thought I would have issues with the romance but I SO DIDN’T. I mean, they were together in eighth grade. However, Parker knew the apparent strangeness was of finding The One that young. But, hell, I don’t know why I wasn’t annoyed by it. But I wasn’t. I loved it. I loved that they were just stupid kids, dumb and in love, making stupid kid mistakes over stupid ideals. I loved that they weren’t perfect. And that the whole issue-TRUST- wasn’t placed on a single person. The romance was something I wasn’t expecting to love. And it came slowly. It built until I couldn’t help loving it something fierce.

5. So unique. I love this book, if you can’t tell. It deals with so many issues with out being all like shove-all-problems-into-YA. Suicide, death, failing friendship, distrust, blindness, insecurity, fear, not dealing with your emotions in a healthy way, abandonment, divorce. Lindstrom deals with everything. He leaves nothing out. I’m in complete awe.

Okay so the moral of this story is read this story.

3 Reason to Cringe at ROOMMATES by Erin Leigh

Roommates by Erin Leigh
October 2015
Kindle Edition
Goodreads // Amazon 

Life is full of expectations. 
For Brady Coldwell it’s always been about the game.
Hockey is and always will be, his life.
His family sacrificed everything to get him here and he won’t let them down.
He knows what’s expected of him.

Natalie Banks is no different. 
She too knows what it means to have everyone sacrifice for you.
She knows about the debt that’s left owing in the end and the price you pay for making up your own mind.
But when an innocent mistake lands them as roommates, neither of them is prepared for the feelings they have or the consequences of their actions.
How do you negotiate matters of the heart?
How do you say no when it simply feels so right?

THREE REASON WHY THIS BOOK MADE ME DNF

Reason Number One: Gender Role Serotypes. *gags* Oh this book was stuffed with them. Super manly-he man with cave man qualities and must (excuse the medical terminology) copulate with anything that breathes. Usually this wouldn’t bother me so much. But it went hand in hand with the female gender role: super flimsy main girl who gasps when he says a curse word- “He says it like you might say bless you. It’s nothing to him, certainly not a demeaning word for ladies.” Pardon me while I flip a few tables and proceed to use a sailor’s hand book on how to communicate while at sea.

Reason Number Two: Slut Shaming. I was- what? Ten percent into the book and there’s some slut shaming. FROM THE DUDE AND THE CHICK. Oh, may the lord have mercy on your soul. Who granted them the authority to decide what someone wants to do, when they want to do it, and how they feel like doing it? Hmm? I can’t. I’m sorry. I really, really can’t. You want to have sex? Go have sex! You shouldn’t be put down for it, and you certainly shouldn’t be put at the mercy of another person’s opinion on how often you want to do it. *shakes head in a very disappointed manner* *flips a few more tables*

                          

Reason Number Three: The feeling of forced affection and the leading of it to really ignorant decision. It all started with the possibility of peeing in the shower. (and the lack of) Promptly followed by the assertion of being a pervert, irrational sobbing, the making of cookies, and (finally) a blossoming friendship. Do I have to say more?

BONUS: The assuming of virginity because the girl is ‘uptight’ when really it’s just a new situation with a new person who she expected to be a girl after being ambushed by her ‘best friend’ and therefore MORE IGNORANCE.

*angry growl*

So, lovelies. That’s my rant for the day. Maybe you’ll like this one, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll be enchanted with the asshole behind the curtain; I certainly didn’t make it to the part where the curtain is peeled away. And frankly, I don’t want to. I can’t really give this one a rating.

What is the most recent book you’ve DNF’d?

*original photo from LifeofPix