"To find out what a story's really about,' the Librarian said,

'you don't ask the writer. You ask the reader."


- SNOW & ROSE by Emily Winfield Martin


Showing posts with label YA Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YA Fantasy. Show all posts

Friday, September 14, 2018

Blog Tour (Excerpt/Giveaway): KEEPER OF THE BEES by Meg Kassel (YA)


Black Bird of the Gallows #2
by Meg Kassel
Release date: September 4th, 2018
Published by Entangled Teen
Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal/Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, eBook


SUMMARY

*PLEASE NOTE: 
Keeper of the Bees is the second book in the companion series to BLACK BIRD OF THE GALLOWS. However, as per the publisher, you do not need to read BLACK BIRD OF THE GALLOWS before KEEPER OF THE BEES in order to enjoy them both.

"Beauty and the Beast like you've never imagined!"
- New York Times bestselling author Pintip Dunn

KEEPER OF THE BEES is a tale of two teens who are both beautiful and beastly, and whose pasts are entangled in surprising and heartbreaking ways.

Dresden is cursed.
His chest houses a hive of bees that he can't stop from stinging people with psychosis-inducing venom. His face is a shifting montage of all the people who have died because of those stings. And he has been this way for centuries - since he was eighteen and magic flowed through his homeland, corrupting its people. 

He follows harbingers of death, so at least his curse only affects those about to die anyway. But when he arrives in a Midwest town marked for death, he encounters Essie, a seventeen-year-old girl who suffers from debilitating delusions and hallucinations. His bees want to sting her on sight. But Essie doesn't see a monster when she looks at Dresden.

Essie is fascinated and delighted by his changing features. Risking his own life, he holds back his bees and spares her. What starts out as a simple act of mercy ends up unraveling Dresden's solitary life and Essie's tormented one.

Their impossible romance might even be powerful enough to unravel a centuries-old curse. 

ORDER LINKS can be found HERE!


EXCERPT from KEEPER OF THE BEES

     She closes her eyes. Her breath hitches. Then, she does the improbable and throws herself against me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

     I am paralyzed. Motionless, breathless in my first embrace in a millennium. To be touched... my eyes close as I tremble from head to toe. The pain is glorious, excruciating.

     "Thank you," she breathes against my chest. "You calm my mind. Why is that?"

     "I don't know." Speech takes an unbearable effort. I'm overwhelmed in every single possible way - destroyed on a level she can't begin to comprehend. My arms hover, uncertain how to return her embrace and unsure if I should. Unable to push her away. I feel as though I will shatter if I move, but my arms slowly close around her. One of my hands falls on her hair, where the elastic has loosened. The thin band slips from her hair and falls into my hand. My fingers close around it. 



READ the first book to the companion series NOW!!!

BLACK BIRD OF THE GALLOWS
by Meg Kassel
Release date: September 5th, 2017
Published by: Entangled Teen


SUMMARY to BLACK BIRD OF THE GALLOWS

A simple but forgotten truth:
Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there's more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can't imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece - and he's not human.

What's more, she knows something most don't.
That the secrets her town holds could kill them all.
But that's only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.


*GIVEAWAY*

a Rafflecopter giveaway
*Bumbles and Fairy-Tales is not responsible for any lost, damaged, unclaimed, etc. prizes.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Meg Kassel


Meg Kassel is an author of fantasy and speculative books for young adults. 

A graduate of Parson's School of Design, she’s been creating stories, whether with visuals or words, since childhood. 

Meg is a New Jersey native who lives in a log house in the Maine woods with her husband and daughter. 

As a fan of ’80s cartoons, Netflix series, and ancient mythology, she has always been fascinated and inspired by the fantastic, the creepy, and the futuristic. 

She is the 2016 RWA Golden Heart® winner in YA and a double 2018 RITA® finalist for her debut novel, Black Bird of the Gallows.

GOODREADS / WEBSITE / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK / AMAZON 

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Waiting On Wednesday: SHADOW OF THE FOX by Julie Kagawa (YA)


"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme that used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I've missed posting these on a weekly basis and have decided to start doing them again. 
Waiting On Wednesday is where I/we get to "spotlight" the books that we are most looking forward to reading soon! 



Today's pick is... 

by Julie Kagawa
Expected release date: October 2nd, 2018
Published by: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, eBook


SUMMARY

Once every thousand years...

Every millennium, one age ends and another age dawns...
and whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers holds the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for any one wish. The time is near... and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto. The holder of the first piece is a humble, unknown peasant girl with a dangerous secret.

Demons have burned the temple Yumeko was raised in to the ground, killing everyone within, including the master who trained her to both use and hide her kitsune shapeshifting powers. Yumeko escapes with the temple's greatest treasure - one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of a mysterious samurai, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Yumeko knows he seeks what she has... and is under orders to kill anything and anyone who stands between him and the scroll.

A wish will be granted and a new age will dawn.


MY THOUGHTS

I am SO happy that we are all getting another book/series from Julie Kagawa!!!
Although I have not been able to finish her TALON series yet (sorry! I plan to!), I have been a fan since the first book of the IRON FEY was released!

There are SO many good things that this summary has to offer! Some things that caught my eye are...
- "... ask for any one wish."
- "... unknown peasant girl with a dangerous secret."
- "Demons..."
- "... hide her kitsune shapeshifting powers."

I'm excited about this, are you???


What else are you dying to get your hands on soon???


Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Waiting On Wednesday: SEA WITCH by Sarah Henning (YA)


"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme that used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I've missed posting these on a weekly basis and have decided to start doing them again. 
Waiting On Wednesday is where I/we get to "spotlight" the books that we are most looking forward to reading soon! 

Today's pick is... 

by Sarah Henning
Expected release date: July 31st, 2018
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books (Harper Collins)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy - Fairytale Retelling
Format: Hardcover, eBook


SUMMARY

Everyone knows what happens in the end.
A mermaid, a prince, a true love's kiss.
But before that young siren's tale, there were three friends.
One feared, one royal, and one already dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch.

A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, thought the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn't so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes - and hearts - of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.

But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can't stay in Havenestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend's humanity, along with her prince's heart - harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain.

The rise of Hans Christian Andersen's iconic villainess is a heart-wrenching story of friendship, betrayal, and a girl pushed beyond her limits - to become a monster.


MY THOUGHTS

It's a sort of retelling of the Little Mermaid; more like a prequel - Ursula's story before she became an evil witch!!! You all must know by now that I will pretty much read anything fairytale and/or retelling of a fairytale, especially if it's about a villain!

Catchy key phrases from the summary are...
- "She can't stay... on two legs..."
- "... save her friend's humanity, along with her prince's heart..."
- "...harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love..."

Can't. Wait!!!


What are you excited about reading soon??? 

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Waiting On Wednesday: BROKEN THINGS by Lauren Oliver


"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme that used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Waiting On Wednesday is where I/we get to "spotlight" the books that we are most looking forward to reading soon! 


Today's pick is... 

by Lauren Oliver
Expected release date: October 2nd, 2018
Published by: Harper Collins
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Mystery/Thriller
Format: Hardcover, eBook


SUMMARY

It's been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend.
That driven by their obsessions with a novel called THE WAY INTO LOVELORN, the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

The only thing is: they didn't do it.

On the anniversary of Summer's death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago - no matter how monstrous. 


MY THOUGHTS

If you've been following me for a while, you know how much of a fan I am of Lauren Oliver's books and writing... I'll add a pic of my Lauren Oliver shelf down below for you to see the proof ;) 

I see that on Goodreads BROKEN THINGS has been labeled as a Young Adult book. However, I was under the impression that this was an Adult rating because, first, this takes place five years after their friend was killed, making me feel that these girls may be in the New Adult genre?... and, since it is being released directly under Harper Collins and not from one of their Young Adult imprints...??? 

Key phrases that has me super excited to read this as soon as it is released (unless, by some miracle, I can get/borrow an ARC copy, please!) 

- "Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend."
- "... the three girls imagined themselves into a magical world..."
- "The only thing is: they didn't do it."
- "... no matter how monstrous."

What do you think??? 

What are you anxious to get your hands on soon???


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Waiting On Wednesday: BLANCA & ROJA by Anna-Marie McLemore (YA)


"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme that used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I've missed posting these on a weekly basis and have decided to start doing them again. 
Waiting On Wednesday is where I/we get to "spotlight" the books that we are most looking forward to reading soon! 

Today's pick is... 

by Anna-Marie McLemore
Expected release date: October 9th, 2018
Published by: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Genre: Young Adult Fairytale Retellings/Magical Realism
Format: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook


SUMMARY

The biggest lie of all is the story you think you already know.

The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they're also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.

But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans' spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them.

Blanca & Roja is the captivating story of sisters, friendship, love, hatred, and the price we pay to protect our hearts.


MY THOUGHTS

First of all, it's another Anna-Marie McLemore book.
Do I really need to convince you as to why I need this book ASAP?!?!?

Okay then...

It's a SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED and SWAN LAKE retelling!!!

You all know how I feel about fairy tales, retellings, and magical realism!

Key phrases that are making me all jumpy and SO excited to read this:
- "... generations-old spell..."
- "... a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan."
- "... magic lacing the woods..."
- "... the price we pay to protect our hearts."

Just rip my heart out now and give me this book!!!


Is this book on your list too???
What are you currently waiting for???

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Waiting On Wednesday: GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE by Natasha Ngan (YA)


"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme that used to be hosted by Breaking the Spine. I'm sure that I am not alone in saying that we all miss her sharing her posts with us. If anyone knows what has happened to Jill and can confirm that she is okay, I'd greatly appreciate it!... Waiting On Wednesday is where we get to 'spotlight' the books that we are anxiously waiting to be released!!! The ones that we are dying to get our hands on and read into the wee hours of the night!!! And I am so happy to be able to start sharing my most anticipated reads again!


by Natasha Ngan
Expected release date: November 6th, 2018
Published by: Jimmy Patterson Books (Little Brown)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format: Hardback, eBook


SUMMARY

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king.
It's the highest honor they could hope for... and the most cruel.

But this year, there's a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she's made of fire.

In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it's Lei they're after - the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king's consort. But Lei isn't content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable - she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge. 

Trigger warning: violence and sexual abuse. 


MY THOUGHTS

If you didn't know, I am a huge fan of fantasy stories, my second go-to genre (my first preference being fairytales and magical realism)... 

Key phrases from the summary that caught my interest: 

- "...the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king's interest."
- "...she does the unthinkable - she falls in love."
- "justice and revenge."

(Please be aware of the trigger warning.) 


What are you excited to read soon?!?!

Monday, January 29, 2018

Cover Reveal: BRING ME THEIR HEARTS by Sara Wolf (YA)


I am SO overly excited to share the cover reveal to one of my most anticipated books for 2018!!! It is gorgeous! And I cannot wait to get my hands on it!!!


By Sara Wolf
Expected release date: June 5th, 2018
Published by: Entangled Teen
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, eBook


SUMMARY

In a new series Publishers Weekly has listed as “one of the most anticipated YA's of 2018”, we're excited to share the cover for Bring Me Their Hearts! NYT bestselling author Sara Wolf delivers a fast-paced, gritty fantasy sure to thrill fans of Holly Black, Sabba Tahir, and Sarah J. Maas.

Zera is a Heartless - the immortal, unaging soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly.

Until Nightsinger asks Zera for a prince’s heart in exchange for her own, with one addendum: if she’s discovered infiltrating the court, Nightsinger will destroy Zera’s heart rather than see her tortured by the witch-hating nobles.

Crown Prince Lucien d’Malvane hates the royal court as much as it loves him—every tutor too afraid to correct him and every girl jockeying for a place at his darkly handsome side. No one can challenge him—until the arrival of Lady Zera. She’s inelegant, smart-mouthed, carefree, and out for his blood. The prince’s honor has him quickly aiming for her throat.

So begins a game of cat and mouse between a girl with nothing to lose and a boy who has it all.

Winner takes the loser’s heart.

Literally.




Pre-order NOW!!!




ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Sara Wolf

Sara Wolf is a twenty-something author who adores baking, screaming at her cats, and screaming at herself while she types hilarious things. When she was a kid, she was too busy eating dirt to write her first terrible book. Twenty years later, she picked up a keyboard and started mashing her fists on it and created the monster known as the Lovely Vicious series. 

She lives in San Diego with two cats, a crippling-yet-refreshing sense of self-doubt, and not enough fruit tarts ever.

LINKS



Cover Reveal: TRUE STORM (True Born Trilogy #3) by L. E. Sterling (YA)


What a great way to start off a Monday! 
The cover reveal to the last book in the TRUE BORN TRILOGY is here!!!



FIRST!!! 
A quick recap of the first TWO books of the TRUE BORN TRILOGY...


by L. E. Sterling
Release date: May 3rd, 2016
Published by: Entangled Teen

 
SUMMARY
Welcome to Dominion City.

After the great Plague descended, the world population was decimated…and their genetics damaged beyond repair.

The Lasters wait hopelessly for their genes to self-destruct. The Splicers pay for expensive treatments that might prolong their life. The plague-resistant True Borns are as mysterious as they are feared…

And then there’s Lucy Fox and her identical twin sister, Margot. After endless tests, no one wants to reveal what they are.

When Margot disappears, a desperate Lucy has no choice but to put her faith in the True Borns, led by the charismatic Nolan Storm and the beautiful but deadly Jared Price. As Lucy and the True Borns set out to rescue her sister, they stumble upon a vast conspiracy stretching from Dominion’s street preachers to shady Russian tycoons. But why target the Fox sisters?

As they say in Dominion, it’s in the blood.

* * * * * 

by L. E. Sterling 
Release date: April 4th, 2017
Published by: Entangled Teen


SUMMARY 

It’s not you…it’s your DNA.

Abandoned by her family in Plague-ridden Dominion City, eighteen-year-old Lucy Fox has no choice but to rely upon the kindness of the True Borns, a renegade group of genetically enhanced humans, to save her twin sister, Margot.

But Nolan Storm, their mysterious leader, has his own agenda. When Storm backtracks on his promise to rescue Margot, Lucy takes her fate into her own hands and sets off for Russia with her True Born bodyguard and maybe-something-more, the lethal yet beautiful Jared Price. In Russia, there’s been whispered rumors of Plague Cure.

While Lucy fights her magnetic attraction to Jared, anxious that his loyalty to Storm will hurt her chances of finding her sister, they quickly discover that not all is as it appears…and discovering the secrets contained in the Fox sisters’ blood before they wind up dead is just the beginning.

As they say in Dominion, sometimes it’s not you…it’s your DNA.

* * * * * 

by L. E. Sterling
Expected release date: May 1st, 2018
Published by: Entangled Teen
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, eBook


SUMMARY

If you can't beat them change them... 


PRE-ORDER your copy NOW!!!




ABOUT THE AUTHOR - L. E. Sterling


L.E. Sterling had an early obsession with sci-fi, fantasy and romance to which she remained faithful even through an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in English Literature - where she completed a thesis on magical representation. 

She is the author of two previous novels, the cult hit YA novel The Originals (under pen name L.E. Vollick), dubbed “the Catcher in the Rye of a new generation” by one reviewer, and the urban fantasy Pluto’s Gate. 

Originally hailing from Parry Sound, Ontario, L.E. spent most of her summers roaming across Canada in a van with her father, a hippie musician, her brothers and an occasional stray mutt - inspiring her writing career. 

She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

LINKS



Thursday, October 26, 2017

Blog Tour (My Top 10 Favorite Heroes): RENEGADES by Marissa Meyer (YA)


Renegades #1
by Marissa Meyer
Release date: November 7th, 2017
Published by: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Format read: ARC from the publisher.


SUMMARY

Secret identities. Extraordinary powers.
She wants vengeance.
He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies - humans with extraordinary abilities - who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone... 
except for the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice - and in Nova. But Nova's allegiances is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

MY TOP TEN FAVORITE SUPERHEROES

1. WONDER WOMAN - “Please take my hand. I give it to you as a gesture of friendship and love, and of faith freely given. I give you my hand and welcome you into my dream.”

2. HULK - "Hulk, SMASH!" 

3. SPIDER-MAN - "Whatever life holds for me, I will never forget these words: With great power comes great responsibility. This is my gift. This is my curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-Man."

4. SUPERMAN - "You're much stronger than you think you are. Trust me." 

5. HARLEY QUINN - "I've made so many mistakes there's no one left who believes in me." 

6. MS. MARVEL - "Good is not a thing you are, it's a thing you do."

7. BLACK WIDOW - "I do not belong. I am exceptional. I am the exception." 

I was trying to keep my list fun and light-hearted, but... 

8. MY MOM - Because she is the most loving, strongest and stubborn woman I know <3

9. ACTIVE MILITARY, VETERANS, AND THEIR FAMILIES - I have a strong respect for these people who have sacrificed so much and more to protect us and stand up for what they believe in. A job that I can never endure. 

10. FIRST RESPONDERS - I have a HUGE admiration for all of those that sacrifice their lives on a daily basis! The fire and police departments, all in the emergency response teams, doctors and nurses, etc. It takes a very strong person to witness and do what they have done, and continue to do on a daily basis. Something that I don't think I could ever have the courage, nor stomach, to do. I am so grateful for those who can! 


*Please note: An advanced reader copy was sent to me from the publisher for an honest review for this blog tour. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not swayed by anyone/anything.
Please feel free to leave a comment or email me with any questions and/or inquiries. 
Thank you.





Are you an ANARCHIST??? OR Are you a RENEGADE???
Take the QUIZ and find out now!!!


And, in case you were wondering... 
I'm with the ANARCHISTS!!!



Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today!!!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Marissa Meyer
  

Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles series, as well as the graphic novel Wires and Nerve: Vol. 1, and The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book.

Her first standalone novel, Heartless, was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. 

She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their two daughters.  

 
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