Why I Dislike Novellas

Novellas can be a useful thing in storytelling: you can see a scene from another perspective, you can get a bit more information about a character, maybe an additional story set in the same world but wasn’t important enough to include in the main text. But I really dislike them. Like to the point I barely read them unless I am thoroughly invested in the story or if they are on audible and I can listen to them in one drive to and from work (which is about an hour and a half).

I feel like novellas cheapen the original story. Don’t get me wrong, I understand some things need to be cut because books can’t be 20000 pages long, but for me, if it is important enough to have it’s OWN separate story, it should be included in the original novel somewhere along the line. 

Waiting on Wednesday: LOSING IT by Emma Rathbone

Welcome to Waiting on Wednesday as hosted by Breaking the Spine. Each week we will be highlighting an upcoming novel that we are excited about. We will include links to add it to your Goodreads “To Be Read” shelf and where to pre-order it! Today’s featured book is…LOSING IT by Emma Rathbone!

LOSING IT

Author: Emma Rathbone
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Date: July 19, 2016

Summary:
A poignant, hilarious novel about a woman who still has her virginity at the age of twenty-six, and the summer she's determined to lose it—and find herself.

Julia Greenfield has a problem: she's twenty-six years old and she's still a virgin. Sex ought to be easy. People have it all the time! But, without meaning to, she made it through college and into adulthood with her virginity intact. Something's got to change. 

To re-route herself from her stalled life, Julia travels to spend the summer with her mysterious aunt Vivienne in North Carolina. It's not long, however, before she unearths a confounding secret—her 58 year old aunt is a virgin too. In the unrelenting heat of the southern summer, Julia becomes fixated on puzzling out what could have lead to Viv's appalling condition, all while trying to avoid the same fate.

Filled with offbeat characters and subtle, wry humor, Losing It is about the primal fear that you just. might. never. meet. anyone. It's about desiring something with the kind of obsessive fervor that almost guarantees you won't get it. It's about the blurry lines between sex and love, and trying to figure out which one you're going for. And it's about the decisions—and non-decisions—we make that can end up shaping a life.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Why I'm Waiting On It

I want to venture into Adult Fiction more, so what could be better than a contemporary novel about losing your virginity at 26? I am hoping that this is a mix of The Mindy Project and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with good humour but a feminist look at what it means to make decisions. I am really looking forward to this one and have already requested that my library gets it in!

Waiting on Wednesday: FLYING by Carrie Jones

Welcome to Waiting on Wednesday as hosted by Breaking the Spine. Each week we will be highlighting an upcoming novel that we are excited about. We will include links to add it to your Goodreads “To Be Read” shelf and where to pre-order it! Today’s featured book is…FLYING by Carrie Jones!

FLYING

Author: Carrie Jones
Series: Unknown #1
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication Date: July 19, 2016

Summary:
New York Times bestselling author Carrie Jones introduces sassy alien-hunting cheerleader Mana in Flying, the launch of a sparkling new YA SF series.

People have always treated seventeen-year-old Mana as someone in need of protection. She's used to being coddled, being an only child, but it's hard to imagine anything could ever happen in her small-town, normal life. As her mother's babying gets more stifling than ever, she's looking forward to cheering at the big game and getting out of the house for a while.

But that night, Mana's life goes haywire.

First, the hot guy she's been crushing on at school randomly flips out and starts spitting acid during the game. Then they get into a knockdown, drag-out fight in the locker room, during which Mana finds herself leaping around like a kangaroo on steroids. As a flyer on the cheerleading squad, she's always been a good jumper, but this is a bit much. By the time she gets home and finds her house trashed and an alien in the garage, Mana starts to wonder if her mother had her reasons for being overprotective.

It turns out, Mana's frumpy, timid mom is actually an alien hunter, and now she's missing--taking a piece of technology with her that everyone wants their hands on, both human and alien. Now her supposed partner, a guy that Mana has never met or heard of (and who seems way too young and way too arrogant to be hunting aliens), has shown up, ordering Mana to come with him. Now, on her own for the first time, Mana will have to find a way to save her mother--and maybe the world--and hope she's up to the challenge.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Why I'm Waiting On It

Aliens and cheerleaders? Count me IN. I am so excited to see the two overlap and I think this is going to be one of my new favourites. I can feel it in my bones. Also, how do I become an alien hunter?? Aliens are my life man. 

ARC #Review: THE FANGIRL LIFE by Kathleen Smith

THE FANGIRL LIFE

Summary:
You'd probably know a "fangirl" when you see one, but the majority stay relatively closeted due to the stigma of being obsessed with fictional characters. However, these obsessions are sometimes the fangirl's solutions for managing stress, anxiety, and even low self-esteem. Fangirling is often branded as behavior young women should outgrow and replace with more adult concerns. Written by a proud fangirl, The Fangirl Life is a witty testament to the belief that honoring your imagination can be congruous with good mental health, and it's a guide to teach fangirls how to put their passion to use in their own lives.

The Fangirl Life encourages you to use an obsession not as a distraction from the anxieties of life, but rather as a test lab for your own life story: 

How can a character girl crush be useful instead of a waste of time?  
How can writing fan fiction be a launching point for greater endeavors?
How do you avoid the myths that fictional romance perpetuates? 

By showing you how to translate obsession into personal accomplishment while affirming the quirky, endearing qualities of your fangirl nature, The Fangirl Life will help you become your own ultimate fangirl.

Title: THE FANGIRL LIFE

Author: Kathleen Smith

Source: ARC via the Publisher

Publisher: TarcherPerigee

Publication Date: July 5, 2016

Rating: 5 stars

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

This is a non-fiction, self-help book about how to channel your inner BAMF Fangirl into a BAMF Fanwoman that can rock the world. I so so so wish I had read this while I was in university because it would have been so helpful. Instead, I had to do some trial and error to figure out how to use my skillz to advance myself in the Real World. I would recommend this for any teenage fangirl who is FREAKING OUT about college apps, life decisions, and how to balance real life and fangirl-ing. I would also recommend it to people like me who have some idea what they want to do but want their interests and their goals to overlap so we can get paid to do things we actually enjoy doing.

2017 Releases on my Radar NOW!

With only six months left until 2017, I have a few books that I am already looking forward to releasing next year! I have a list of 2017 YA/MG Debuts on Goodreads, but here are some releases I really want to read once they release...

DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING

Author: Tricia Levenseller
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: February 21, 2017
Summary:
If you want something done right . . .
When the ruthless pirate king learns of a legendary treasure map hidden on an enemy ship, his daughter, Alosa, knows there's only one pirate for the job—herself. Leaving behind her beloved ship and crew, Alosa deliberately facilitates her own kidnapping to ensure her passage on the ship, confident in her ability to overcome any obstacle. After all, who's going to suspect a seventeen-year-old girl locked in a cell? Then she meets the (surprisingly perceptive and unfairly attractive) first mate, Riden, who is charged with finding out all her secrets. Now it's down to a battle of wits and will . . . . Can Alosa find the map and escape before Riden figures out her plan?

Debut author Tricia Levenseller blends action, adventure, romance, and a little bit of magic into a thrilling YA pirate tale.

Waiting on Wednesday: THIS SAVAGE SONG by Victoria Schwab

Welcome to Waiting on Wednesday as hosted by Breaking the Spine. Each week we will be highlighting an upcoming novel that we are excited about. We will include links to add it to your Goodreads “To Be Read” shelf and where to pre-order it! Today’s featured book is…THIS SAVAGE SONG by Victoria Schwab!

THIS SAVAGE SONG

Author: Victoria Schwab
Series: Monsters of Verity #1
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: July 5, 2016

Summary:
There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from acclaimed author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books, THIS SAVAGE SONG is a must-have for fans of Holly Black, Maggie Stiefvater, and Laini Taylor.


Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives. In THIS SAVAGE SONG, Victoria Schwab creates a gritty, seething metropolis, one worthy of being compared to Gotham and to the four versions of London in her critically acclaimed fantasy for adults, A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC. Her heroes will face monsters intent on destroying them from every side—including the monsters within.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Why I'm Waiting On It

My favourite author is coming out with another book that will start a new series. And I am hyperventilating already. I have this one pre-ordered from Books of Wonder so I could get it signed and personalized and also get temporary tattoos. I am so in love with anything and everything that Victoria Schwab writes that I have a personal investment in her life. I can't wait to read this one and see what new methods of heart break she has created for me.

ARC #Review: THE CITY'S SON by Tom Pollock

THE CITY'S SON

Summary:
Running from her traitorous best friend and her estranged father, graffiti artist Beth Bradley is looking for sanctuary. What she finds is Urchin, the ragged and cocky crown prince of London’s mystical underworld. Urchin opens Beth’s eyes to the city she’s never truly seen-where vast spiders crawl telephone wires seeking voices to steal, railwraiths escape their tethers, and statues conceal an ancient priesthood robed in bronze.

But it all teeters on the brink of destruction. Amid rumors that Urchin’s goddess mother will soon return from her 15-year exile, Reach, a malign god of urban decay, wants the young prince dead. Helping Urchin raise an alleyway army to reclaim his skyscraper throne, Beth soon forgets her old life. But when her best friend is captured, Beth must choose between this wondrous existence and the life she left behind.

Title: THE CITY'S SON

Author: Tom Pollock

Series: The Skyscraper Throne #1

Source: eARC via the Publisher

Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books

Publication Date: April 5, 2016

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

"War's coming, Filius. The King of The Cranes and the Lady of the Streets will not share the city"

I was a bit skeptical when I first started this one because not only did it switch perspectives, but it also switched how these perspectives were told, and it was also about electric creature things that I'm still not sure what to call. But I am really glad I picked this one up because it was actually really good and a lot of fun for me to read.