Waiting on Wednesday (139)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Charlie, Presumed Dead
Author: Anne Heltzel
Hitting the Shelves: June 02, 2015

In Paris, family and friends gather to mourn the tragic passing of Charlie Price—young, handsome, charming, a world-traveler—who is presumed dead after an explosion. Authorities find only a bloodied jacket, ID’d as Charlie’s. At the funeral, two teens who are perfect strangers, Lena Whitney and Aubrey Boroughs, make another shocking discovery: they have both been dating Charlie, both think Charlie loved them and them alone, and there is a lot they didn’t know about their boyfriend. Over the next week, a mind-bending trip unfolds: first in London—then in Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok, the girls go in search of Charlie. Is he still alive? What did their love for him even mean? The truth is out there, but soon it becomes clear that the girls are harboring secrets of their own.

No one knows whom to trust in this thrilling tale of suspense and deception.

Why I want this: First of all, that cover is awesome and second of all, that synopsis just left me wanting to know what happened to this Charlie character and who is he really? I just want to know all the answers! I'm also a little hesitant. In 2011, I read Heltzel's first book Circle 9 and it was absolutly terrible! One of the worst books I read that year. But then again that was three years ago and hopefully her writing and storytelling has improved by leaps and bounds. Here's to hoping! 

Top Ten Tuesday: 2015 Debut Novels

 

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme of lists hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

I haven't really been keeping my ear to the wall when it comes to debut novels for 2015. I'm usually all about the new releases, whether they're debuts or not, so I really had to do a lot of research to come up with a good variety of debut novels. In the end, I didn't even come up with ten but I think this list is sufficient. 

1. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

2. The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

3. Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott

4. In a World Just Right by Jen Brooks

5. The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

6. The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

7. The Girl on the Tran by Paula Hawkins

8. The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer

Bout of Books 12 Sign Up Post

 

It's finally here! The first Bout of Books read-a-thon for 2015! Love these read-a-thons! These are the times that I like to challenge myself because it only lasts one week!

 

For Bout of Book 12 I'm trying to read two book and two graphic novels.

 

 

 

 

It's Bone Season that I'm worried it going to take the longest. If I finish these with time to read more, then I'm just going to read whatever I feel like. Or maybe Saga, Vol. 4. For this round of Bout of Book I'm participating the way it's intended. I'm going to try my best to participate in all the daily challenges and do wrap-ups every couple days or so. Wish me luck! 



Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Title: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Author: Leslye Walton
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: March 25, 2014
Source: Own
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.

That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.

First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

My Thoughts: 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is a beautifully written book that captures the reader from the very first page. This book is so underrated on the blog scene and I would really like more people to know about it and to read it! Even though I just finished it at the beginning of this year, I already know it's one of my top books of 2015!

By the title of this book, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, you would think that it is mostly about Ava. Even though that's true in a sense and the book is narrated by Ava, the story takes the reader back all the way to Ava's great grandmother and sort of explains why the family is a little bit strange. I love that the story follows Ava's maternal line all the way back to France and tells how strange each and every one of her family members were. 

The story is beautiful and rich and jammed packed into just three hundred pages. I would imagine that for a book like this every single word is carefully picked. Each sentence creates an image for the reader and every paragraph seems necessary for the story to be complete. Every character is given somewhat of a back story to the point that there are literally no flat characters in this book. Everyone has their own unique story. 

I can't believe The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows is Leslye Walton's debut novel! I really hope she keeps writing and that she continues to dazzle readers with magical realism. She is an absolutely beautiful writer and I will definitely continue to read her work!

What Does the Bookworm Say? Reading Goals and Challenges

I've been thinking a lot about reading challenges and what I have challenged myself with in the past couple of years.  The Goodreads reading challenge is one that I've always used and set myself with an overall goal of books read throughout the year.  In the past, I've had a year where I completely exceed my reading challenge and another year where I completely fell short.  2014 I just barely made 100 books (total books read: 101). Because I challenged myself to read 100 books in 2014, my choice of which book to read next was often determined by that challenge and how fast I could read it. That means I put that really chunky book I've had my eye on aside; I didn't start reading Outlander when I became absolutely obsessed with the show. I haven't read Amy Poehler's Yes Please yet because it will probably take me more than a few days to get through and in 2014 I didn't want to spend that much time on one book.

Not this year Goodreads challenge. I'm going to go where the wind takes me this year and read what I feel like reading. I don't want to see that number constantly breathing down my neck every time I log in. I don't want to know if I'm behind on my reading. And you know what? There should be no behind or ahead in reading. Reading is reading and this year I want to go on some epic reading adventures. I'm going to read that chunky book even if it takes me a month.

With that being said, a found a really great challenge in 2014 that I'm going to participate in again. It's called the Full House Reading Challenge and it's hosted by The Book Date. It's a really great challenge because you can end up reading a variety of books. Books I would have never read, I read because of this challenge.

It's kind of like a bingo card and she switches it up every year. It really mixes up my reading and it's a nice relief when I get bogged down with all the YA that I read. Even though this is the only reading challenge I will be participating in this year, I still love to participate in read-a-thons. In fact, 'Bout of Books 12 starts on Monday and goes through Jan. 11.

2015 is going to be a good year for me! I'm going to read what I only really want to read and I'm not going to fall into the pit of overhyped books. I'm excited to see how 2015 unfolds and what the year will bring.

Are you participating in any reading challenges this year? Let me know in the comments!

What Can You Expect from Books Unbound in 2015?

It's a new year and I have some big plans for this blog in 2015!

First things first: I'm getting married this year! Do you know what that means? Lots of wedding pictures coming to the blog but that's not until the end of this year so we still have a little while.

Because I'm getting married this year, I'm also trying to downsize my book collection. I literally have so many books that I have but will probably never read, books that I've read and didn't like and books that I read but don't like enough to read again.  These are the books that I will be giving away every week over the course of 2015! So that means a giveaway literally every week!!

 



The very first giveaway Friday will go up on Friday January 9th! So one week from today I will have a giveaway posted!

Next order of business is Outlander! You guys, I LOVE Outlander! I have been so obsessed with it recently that I knew I had to do something on my blog that has to do with Outlander! If you guys haven't watched this show on Starz yet then you NEED to! It premiered on Starz on August 9 and has done very well! They've only released 8 episodes so far and will be returning for the second half of season 1 in April! I have already watched those 8 episodes twice!

 



So, in honor of Outlander being such a success on TV, a couple of blogger friends and I will be doing some sort of read along for the first book in the series, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon! If anyone else is interested and wants to participate, just let me know! Since February is a short month, I'm hoping to do the read along sometime in March. Needless to say, there will be a lot of Outlander talk on the blog this year!

What Does the Bookworm Say will also be continuing in 2015! It's one of my favorite features and I love discussing bookish topics! If you're not familiar with it, What Does the Bookworm Say is a feature that we post every other week where we each discuss the topic for that week.

There's another feature I could POSSIBLY be participating in with another blogger but everything hasn't been worked out yet. But as soon as I know, you will know!

As far as the types of books I'll be reading this year, I'll still be reading mostly YA but I'm also trying to read more adult fiction and non-fiction! I also need to get on those book to movie adaptations and actually make time to read the book then make more time to watch the movie. I really need to watch Gone Girl and Horns, both of which I read in 2014.

I only have two big author events on my calendar so far which are Y'all West which is April 11-12 in Santa Monica and ALA which is June 25-30 in San Francisco! With all my wedding stuff going on this year I don't know how many smaller author signings I'll be able to attend. Here's to another great year of blogging and reading and awesome books!

The 10 Best Books I Read in 2014

The end of the year is here and I read a lot of good books over the course of 2014. Even though I'm so excited for all the great books that are being released in 2015, I thought I would take the time and highlight the ten books that I think were especially great!

So there you have it, the ten best books that I read this year! I also wanted to give a few honorable mentions: The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider, Blackmoore by Julianna Donaldson and Horns by Joe Hill. Here's to looking forward to another great year of awesome book and Happy New Year!