Blog Tour & Giveaway: What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

Title: What I Like About You
Author: Marisa Kanter
Publication date: April 7, 2020
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can…but in the real world, its more complicated. In this debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Morgan Matson, Marisa Kanter hilariously and poignantly explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.

Is it still a love triangle if there are only two people in it?

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.

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♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ book highlight ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Marisa Kanter’s What I Like About You is the perfect contemporary novel to vicariously experience through this current quarantine. As a dedicated YA reader, the main character is a teen book blogger who pairs her reviews with cupcakes. She fangirls about YA books, fellow bloggers, authors, and even BookCon.

The novel is a whirlwind of emotions that focuses on friendships, grief, family, love, and finding a path in life that suits yourself, your personality, and your mental health. Kanter’s novel provides an exceptionally believable outlet for teens trying to find their voice through a world bombarded by dreams, future jobs, college options, alternative career paths, and the positive and negativity that comes from social media outlets. Halle’s story is constant page-turner, and although the miscommunication or the lack of communication throughout the pages causes chaos in her life, the learning steps she takes along with her family and friends will make your heart ache in the best possible way.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ giveaway ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

You guys, I am so excited to team up with Simon & Schuster, and host a giveaway for What I Like About You. In order to win a hardcopy of What I Like About You , just click on the picture below and follow the instructions on the Tweet. 

Please note, one winner will receive a finished copy of What I Like About You courtesy of Simon & Schuster. The contest is U.S. only and ends on April 28, 2020. Good luck!

 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ about the author ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Marisa Kanter has worked in publicity for major publishers and covered YA books for MTV. Currently, she works in sales, on the distribution side of the publishing industry. She can often be found searching for the best iced chai in NYC, or reading on the 3 train. What I Like About You is her first novel. Follow her at marisakanter.com

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ tour schedule ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Week 1
3/30/2020	Novel Novice	BookHighlight W/ Giveaway
3/31/2020	Book Bratz	Review
4/1/2020	The Novel Knight	Author Guest Post
4/2/2020	Book Princess Reviews	Review
4/3/2020	eleven thirteen pm	Author Q&A
Week 2
4/6/2020	Vicky Who Reads	Creative Post
4/7/2020	Pub Day (Marisa)	Creative Post
4/8/2020	Kayla Reads and Reviews	Author Q&A
4/9/2020	The Heart of a Book Blogger	Author Q&A
4/10/2020	Mary Had a Little Book Blog	Review
Week 3
4/13/2020	Jen Ryland Reviews	Review
4/14/2020	Love in Panels	BookHighlight W/ Giveaway
4/15/2020	Forever and Everly	Review
4/16/2020	I’m All Booked Up	Review
4/17/2020	Awkwordly Emma	Author Q&A
Week 4
4/20/2020	Rants & Raves of a Bibliophile	BookHighlight W/ Giveaway
4/21/2020	Read By Tiffany	Author Q&A
4/22/2020	A Court of Coffee and Books	Review
4/23/2020	From the Library of Alexis	Review
4/24/2020	Bookishly Jules	BookHighlight W/ Giveaway
Week 5
4/27/2020	Lost in a Book	Review
4/28/2020	Pages and Pugs	Review
4/29/2020	Skye’s Scribblings	Review
4/30/2020	Kait Plus Books	BookHighlight W/ Giveaway
5/1/2020	We Live and Breathe Books	Review

 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Blogger Note: A huge thank to Simon Teen for inviting me on this blog tour and providing me a free copy of What I Like About You to read and review.  All fangirling, statements, and opinions in this review are my own.

GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP & Giveaway: Scarlet and Wolf from the Lunar Chronicles

Hey, fellow Lunartics and Marissa Meyer fans, it’s Day 5 in celebrating the new paperback edition of SCARLET and today I am sharing reasons why Scarlet and Wolf are my favorite couple in the series.

Also, don’t forget to enter the TWO amazing giveaways hosted by the publisher, which are listed at the end of this post.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Scarlet and Wolf: I (space)ship it!

♥ Their love story is a spin on of my favorite fairy tales, “Little Red Riding Hood”
♥ Enemies to lovers (*swoons*)
♥ Their heated banter and slow burn relationship
♥ They both feel the need to defend and protect each other from others
♥ While Wolf is mysterious and so brooding, Scarlet is fierce and fiesty. The development between these characters throughout the novel is so angsty and perfect.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

★ ★ ★

GIVEAWAYS

★ ★ ★

Lunar Ever After Team Scarlet Sweepstakes

Click photo to be linked to giveaway!

Mega Lunar Ever After Sweepstakes

Click photo to be linked to giveaway!

Quote Time & Giveaway: My Favorite Quote in Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Hey, fellow Lunartics and Marissa Meyer fans, it’s Day 2 in celebrating the new paperback edition of SCARLET! Today I am sharing my favorite quote from Scarlet. And remember to enter the TWO amazing giveaways listed at the end of this post.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

As a spin on the “Little Red Riding Hood” fairy tale, Scarlet has always been my favorite book out of the series. Along with the enemies to lovers trope, I love all the angst and banter between Scarlet and Wolf; it’s so heart-wrenching and beautifully molded. There are so many great scenes and quotes between these two characters, so it was definitely hard to narrow it down to one.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

★ ★ ★

GIVEAWAYS

★ ★ ★

Lunar Ever After Team Scarlet Sweepstakes

Click photo to be linked to giveaway!

Mega Lunar Ever After Sweepstakes

Click photo to be linked to giveaway!

Cover Love: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Hey, fellow Lunartics and Marissa Meyer fans. Fierce Reads just released the new paperback edition of SCARLET! And all week, I will be celebrating the new cover with fellow #TeamScarlet fans. Please feel free to join in the fun with daily prompts, and don’t forget to enter TWO amazing giveaways (see details below).

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Check out the new cover and stunning setback art.
The beautiful artwork is by Tomer Hanuka. 

I am a huge Scarlet and Wolf fan, and I am so happy that my OTP is portrayed on the new cover in all their swoony and kickass glory.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

★ ★ ★

GIVEAWAYS

★ ★ ★

Lunar Ever After Team Scarlet Sweepstakes

Click photo to be linked to giveaway!

Mega Lunar Ever After Sweepstakes

Click photo to be linked to giveaway!

 

 

Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway Lucky Caller by Emma Mills

I am thrilled to be hosting a stop on the LUCKY CALLER by Emma Mills Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours! Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

Title: LUCKY CALLER

Author: Emma Mills

Pub. Date: January 14, 2020

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 336

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

With the warmth, wit, intimate friendships, and heart-melting romance she brings to all her books, Emma Mills crafts a story about believing in yourself, owning your mistakes, and trusting in human connection in Lucky Caller.

When Nina decides to take a radio broadcasting class her senior year, she expects it to be a walk in the park. Instead, it’s a complete disaster.

The members of Nina’s haphazardly formed radio team have approximately nothing in common. And to maximize the awkwardness her group includes Jamie, a childhood friend she’d hoped to basically avoid for the rest of her life.

The show is a mess, internet rumors threaten to bring the wrath of two fandoms down on their heads, and to top it all off Nina’s family is on the brink of some major upheaval.

Everything feels like it’s spiraling out of control―but maybe control is overrated?

PRAISE FOR LUCKY CALLER

A well-crafted, bittersweet comedy of errors filled with realistically flawed
characters and taut, witty dialogue. – Publishers Weekly Starred Review

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Give me an Emma Mills book and I will devour it within hours. And guess what, Lucky Caller was no exception. Although the novel started off slow, the steady pace allowed the weaving of Nina’s old memories with her current situation as a senior unfold into the happily ever after ending I was hoping for.

Nina is awkward, but her dry, sarcastic sense of humor was the perfect ingredient to add to her radio broadcasting group. While being grouped with fellow flawed and truly relatable students, Nina and her radio group of misfits provide endless scenes of laughter, bickering, and great 90s-themed music. Nina at times seemed stagnant, but with the push of her radio peers, sisters, her mom, and future stepdad, Nina opens up and provides the reader a realistic outlook of teenage life, mixed-family dynamics, and the rekindling of old friendships.

Lucky Caller is more than a contemporary novel; it’s a pages upon pages of pragmatic circumstances littered with familial problems, adolescent issues, bumbling acts of kindness, and high tension of breaking promises and unfortunately making common mistakes. This book ticked all my boxes: a quiet, sweet, and easy to talk to cinnamon roll of a boy; swoons galore; original characters; and a strong sisterly bond. Emma Mills has a knack of crafting the perfect books that effortlessly mingle witty characters into chaotic situations, and Lucky Caller doesn’t lose that representation of flawed characters trying to make sense of the messy world that surrounds them.

About Emma:

 

Emma Mills is the author of First & Then, This Adventure Ends, Foolish Hearts, Famous in a Small Town, and Lucky Caller. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and has recently completed a PhD in cell biology.

Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Goodreads

 

 

 

 

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will win a finished copy of LUCKY CALLER, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/6/2020	Mary Had a Little Book Blog	Review
1/6/2020	onemused	Review
1/7/2020	Do You Dog-ear?	Review
1/7/2020	BookHounds YA	Interview
1/8/2020	Kait Plus Books	Review
1/8/2020	Nerdophiless	Review
1/9/2020	Not In Jersey	Review
1/9/2020	She Just Loves Books	Review
1/10/2020	Lifestyle of Me	Review
1/10/2020	Eli to the nth	Review

Week Two:

1/13/2020	Smada’s Book Smack	Review
1/13/2020	Wonder Struck	Review
1/14/2020	Fictitiouswonderland	Review
1/14/2020	A Dream Within A Dream	Guest Post
1/15/2020	The Heart of a Book Blogger	Review
1/15/2020	Fire and Ice	Review
1/16/2020	DJREADSBOOKS	Review
1/16/2020	A Bookish Dream	Review
1/17/2020	Rants and Raves of a Bibliophile	Review
1/17/2020	Two Chicks on Books	Interview

 

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre by Glynnis Fawkes

Title: CHARLOTTE BRONTE BEFORE JANE EYRE
Author: Glynnis Fawkes
Pub. Date: September 24, 2019
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Pages: 112
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Amazon Paperback, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

 SYNOPSIS:

Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!–I have as much soul as you,–and full as much heart!

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a beloved classic, celebrated today by readers of all ages and revered as a masterwork of literary prowess. But what of the famous writer herself?

Originally published under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, Jane Eyre was born out of a magnificent, vivid imagination, a deep cultivation of skill, and immense personal hardship and tragedy. Charlotte, like her sisters Emily and Anne, was passionate about her work. She sought to cast an empathetic lens on characters often ignored by popular literature of the time, questioning societal assumptions with a sharp intellect and changing forever the landscape of western literature.

With an introduction by Alison Bechdel, Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre presents a stunning examination of a woman who battled against the odds to make her voice heard.

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Ahhh, this graphic novel was a breath of fresh air. As one of my beloved authors, I really enjoy learning new information about Charlotte Brontë, so Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre was the perfect graphic novel for me to pick up. Moreover, Jane Eyre is my all-time favorite book, so I was excited to read a new medium source that explores Charlotte Brontë life and her journey to writing it. 

Filled with black and white pages muted with grayish blue water-colored tones, Fawkes explores the hardships of the Brontë family, including illnesses, deaths, poverty, and Charlotte’s very fierce determination to become a respected author. Not only is Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre set up as a bildungsroman like Charlotte’s treasured Jane Eyre, but this graphic novel also provides vivid detailed life events, which beautifully parallel Charlotte’s own life and experiences with scenes and themes of her own novels. 

Additionally, in Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre, Fawkes dedicates a few pages to “Panel Discussions,” which provide more in-depth conversations regarding historical and factual background of Charlotte’s life. I loved these little snippets and the new information it added to my Brontë knowledge. Overall, if you are fan of the Brontës and Jane Eyre, I highly recommend that you add Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre to your to-read collection soon. 

3 winners will receive finished copies of CHARLOTTE BRONTE BEFORE JANE EYRE,
US Only.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

About the author:

I’m an cartoonist and illustrator living in Burlington, VT.

My most recent book is Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre, Center for Cartoon Studies Presents series, will be published in September 2019 by Disney/Hyperion. Also in September, Secret Acres will publish Persephone’s Garden, a collection of autobiographical comics that have appeared in the New Yorker and other places.

I began working on excavations as illustrator in 1998 and have worked on sites in Greece, Crete, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon.  I continue to work in Greece every year.   My illustrations have been published in several books and many articles.  

Many of my personal comics reflect a career in archaeology and family life.  Greek Diary is about working on a dig and traveling with children.  My drawings about my children were published regularly on Muthamagazine.com  and were nominated for an Ignatz Award at the Small Press Expo in 2016.

Another project, Alle Ego, is about my first trip to Greece and how it launched my work in the direction of archaeology.  A draft of this book won the MoCCA Arts Festival Award in NY in 2016.  I drew most of it during a residency at La Maison des Auteurs in Angouleme, and I plan to return to work on this book in the future.

I’m currently working on a middle grade adventure set after the eruption of Thera in Late Bronze Age Greece.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest |  Tumblr | Goodreads

 

Week One:
9/2/2019- Odd and Bookish– Excerpt
9/3/2019- Country Road Reviews– Excerpt
9/4/2019- dwantstoread– Review
9/5/2019- A Dream Within A Dream– Excerpt
9/6/2019- Lifestyle Of Me– Review

Week Two:
9/9/2019- Christen Krumm, Writer, Reader, Serious Coffee Drinker– Review
9/10/2019- Careful of Books– Review
9/11/2019- Character Madness and Musings– Excerpt
9/12/2019- Fictitiouswonderland– Review
9/13/2019- Fyrekatz Blog– Review

Week Three:
9/16/2019- Little Red Reads– Excerpt
9/17/2019- Book-Keeping– Review
9/18/2019- Life of a Simple Reader– Excerpt
9/19/2019- Kati’s Bookaholic Rambling Reviews– Excerpt
9/20/2019- Inspired by Savannah– Review

Week Four:
9/23/2019- History from a Woman’s Perspective– Review
9/24/2019- Wishful Endings– Excerpt
9/25/2019- Just Another Reader– Review
9/26/2019- Jade Writes Books– Review
9/27/2019- Rants and Raves of a Bibliophile– Review

Week Five:
9/30/2019- two points of interest– Review

 

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Review & Favorite Quotes of Have a Little Faith in Me

Title: Have a Little Faith In Me
Authors: Sonia Hartl
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance, Religion, Realistic Fiction

Synopsis:

“Saved!” meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy that takes a meaningful look at consent and what it means to give it.

When CeCe’s born-again ex-boyfriend dumps her after they have sex, she follows him to Jesus camp in order to win him back. Problem: She knows nothing about Jesus. But her best friend Paul does. He accompanies CeCe to camp, and the plan—God’s or CeCe’s—goes immediately awry when her ex shows up with a new girlfriend, a True Believer at that.

Scrambling to save face, CeCe ropes Paul into faking a relationship. But as deceptions stack up, she questions whether her ex is really the nice guy he seemed. And what about her strange new feelings for Paul—is this love, lust, or an illusion born of heartbreak? To figure it out, she’ll have to confront the reasons she chased her ex to camp in the first place, including the truth about the night she lost her virginity

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If you are in the mood to read a novel filled with girls supporting girls AND sex-positive messages, look no further, Have a Little Faith In Me is the book for you. Set out to win her ex-boyfriend back, CeCe decides to mend their relationship by attending a Christian-based camp with him. Unbeknownst to her, her camp experience becomes more about self-acceptance, finding friendships in the unlikely places, and learning about healthy relationships. 

If you are a fan of very sarcastic and very direct characters, then CeCe will definitely win you over. Her personality comes off very honest, straightforward, and she has no filter. Although she is very opinionated and portrays some naive behavior, I liked that her story and personality evolve throughout the book, allowing CeCe to grow and understand the people and the world around her.

Overall, Have a Little Faith In Me is a page-turner filled with empowering messages of consent and sex-positivity. This book is funny, feminist, and contains one of my favorite young adult themes that we don’t see too often: females supporting females. 

Win a finished copy of HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN ME by Sonia Hartl (US Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sonia Hartl is a YA author who calls Michigan home, even though she’s lived in several different states. Her debut novel, HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN ME is forthcoming from Page Street Publishing. When she’s not writing or reading, she’s enjoying pub trivia, marathoning Disney movies, or taking a walk outside in the fall. She’s a member of SCBWI and the communications director for Pitch Wars. She has been published in The Writers Post Journal and Boston Literary Magazine. She lives in Grand Rapids with her husband and two daughters.

TOUR SCHEDULE

Note: Thank you to the The Fantastic Flying Book Club for having me on this blog tour. And a huge thank you to Page Street Publishing for providing me an ARC to read and review for free in exchange of an honest review. All statements and opinions are my own. Please note that all quoted material is not final and may change in the final publication of the book.

Blog Tour: Review & Favorite Quotes of All the Bad Apples

Title: All the Bad Apples
Authors: Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: August 27, 2019
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Mystery

Synopsis:

The day after the funeral all our mourning clothes hung out on the line like sleeping bats. ‘This will be really embarrassing,’ I kept saying to my family, ‘when she shows up at the door in a week or two.’

When Deena’s wild and mysterious sister Mandy disappears – presumed dead – her family are heartbroken. But Mandy has always been troubled. It’s just another bad thing to happen to Deena’s family. Only Deena refuses to believe it’s true.

And then the letters start arriving. Letters from Mandy, claiming that their family’s blighted history is not just bad luck or bad decisions – but a curse, handed down through the generations. Mandy has gone in search of the curse’s roots, and now Deena must find her. What they find will heal their family’s rotten past – or rip it apart forever.

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Once again, Moïra Fowley-Doyle has created a beautiful atmospheric story filled with magic, mystery, and familial curses. All the Bad Apples includes twists and turns that are traced through letters, which provide details of the main character’s family history. A history sprinkled with cursed family members, also known as the bad apples. The letters include clues on how to break the curse placed on the family’s bad apples, but more importantly, the letters bring Deena one step closer to finding her missing, or thought-to-be dead sister, Mandy.

As an own voices novel, Moïra Fowley-Doyle fills the pages of All the Bad Apples with fictional but realistic accounts of unwed mothers, rape survivors, incest, abortions, racism, and the stigma encompassed in Ireland’s history and present day state. Deena’s story and the narratives of her ancestors are a bitter bite into reality; their stories and hardships reflect the oppression of women, orphaned children, and queer men that does not seem to go away over time.

As a contemporary novel embraced in history and elements of magical realism, Moïra Fowley-Doyle creates a jolting story—multiple accounts at that—filled with queer diversity, heartache, rage, feminism, and in the end, hope. Hope for change and a hope for equality across spectrums of sexuality, gender, and racism. All the Bad Apples will make your teeth clinch, your heart ache, and your eyes tear up—but overall it will leave a lasting impression that history is complicated. History is always changing but unfortunately forever repeating itself—a habit rooted in silencing those who do not conform or fit “traditional” standards.

Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes you have to feel the past to believe it.”

“Some loves ignite like forest fires, burn down entire towns before anybody’s noticed. . . Some loves smolder like a turf fire, are slow to start but will then burn bright and steady through entire winters.”

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

“A good cup of tea is a witch’s brew,” the old women said together with wicked grins. “Heals all ills.”

“This is what a curse does: It takes a truth and twists it. It punishes those who don’t conform. It sets the parameters of conformity so narrow that few can actually stick to them.”

“You tell the story,” said Mandy slowly. “You tell your story and the story of your family. You speak your truth. You shatter the stigma. You hold your head up to the world and speak so that everyone else who was ever like you can recognize themselves. Can see that they aren’t alone. Can see how the past will only keep repeating itself as long as we’re kept powerless by our silence.”

Moïra Fowley-Doyle is half-French, half-Irish and made of equal parts feminism, whimsy and Doc Martens. She lives in Dublin where she writes magic realism, reads tarot cards and raises witch babies.

Moïra’s first novel, The Accident Season, was shortlisted for the 2015 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize & the North East Teen Book Awards, nominated for the Carnegie Medal & won the inaugural School Library Association of Ireland Great Reads Award. It received two starred reviews & sold in ten territories. Her second novel, Spellbook of the Lost and Found, was published in summer 2017, received a starred review from School Library Journal and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards.

 

TOUR SCHEDULE

Note: Thank you to the The Fantastic Flying Book Club for having me on this blog tour. And a huge thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me an e-ARC to read and review for free in exchange of an honest review. All statements and opinions are my own. Please note that all quoted material is not final and may change in the final publication of the book.

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Review & Favorite Quotes of Hello Girls

 

Title: Hello Girls
Authors: Brittany Cavallaro & Emily Henry
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: August 6th 2019
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happened the night they met outside the police station—both deciding whether to turn their families in.

Winona has been starving for life in the seemingly perfect home that she shares with her seemingly perfect father, celebrity weatherman Stormy Olsen. No one knows that he locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them.

Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there’s more out there for her than disappearing waitress tips and generations of barely getting by.

One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they can’t wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can’t hurt.

---

“Am I hallucinating?” Lucille asked. “Are we even on earth or, like, on Tatooine? Is this . . . suburban Tatooine?”
“No,” Winona said in a hushed voice. “It’s a truck stop.”—Hello Girls

WHOA! You guys, Hello Girls threw me through so many loops and unexpected turns. I cannot even count how many times my eyes went wide, my mouth awed, and I kept thinking, “this is so dark.” The two main characters, Lucille and Winona, are total opposites to any outsider, but their friendship is the only thing that is firm and good in their lives. Both characters have faced some traumatic abuse from the men in their families, which, at one point, becomes too much and they both plan an escape from their cruel worlds.

“You absolutely amaze me, Winona Olsen,” Lucille said. “You terrify me, but you amaze me too.”—Hello Girls

As a heavily action-packed story, these fierce girls literally and figuratively drive on unknown roads to escape their pasts; they naively create plans that often end in disappointment, but damn, they never stop trying. The pages of Hello Girls are salted with dark humor which provides the most refreshing opportunity for the characters to be themselves. Their road trip doesn’t hold the best laid out plans, but I love how their minds are constantly in sync and in survival mode.

“Why did people lie? With their words, with their voices, with their bodies, with their beautiful houses and beautiful clothes and sometimes even their faces? Why couldn’t everyone just be what they were?”—Hello Girls

In the end, Hello Girls is a testament to survival, self-acceptance, and the incredible strength found in female friendships. Lucille and Winona are trailblazers writing their own stories, finding their own freedom, and hopefully just a smidge of a happy ending.

“How do I make myself cry?”
“I don’t know!” Lucille said. “How does Jennifer Lawrence do it?”
“Probably just thinks about Hollywood pay discrepancies?” Winona said.—Hello Girls

WIN a 1 of 5 copies of Hello Girls (USA only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Brittany Cavallaro is a poet, fiction writer, and old school Sherlockian. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte Holmes novels from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, including A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE, THE LAST OF AUGUST, and THE CASE FOR JAMIE. She’s also the author of the poetry collection GIRL-KING (University of Akron) and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She earned her BA in literature from Middlebury College and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Michigan with her husband, cat, dog, and collection of deerstalker caps.

 

Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World and A Million Junes. She is a full-time writer, proofreader, and donut connoisseur. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrite.

TOUR SCHEDULE

Note: Thank you to the The Fantastic Flying Book Club for having me on this blog tour. And a huge thank you to Harper Teen for providing me an e-ARC to read and review for free in exchange for an honest review. All statements and opinions are my own. Please note that all quoted material is not final and may change in the final publication of the book.

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Review & Favorite Quotes of Romanov

Title: Romanov
Author:  Nadine Brandes
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: May 7, 2019
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retelling

Synopsis:

The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.

Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.

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I have always been fascinated by the history of the Romanov family, and through the narrative of many historical truths with a dash of magic, Nadine Brandes takes her readers on a new journey that explores Anastasia and her family’s lives. From the first page, the main character, Nastya, provides such a captivating voice and point of view that leaves the reader craving more about this mischievous spell caster and her daring trial to survive and save her family.

Romanov hits a lot of the high points of the Romanov history, but this fictional mouthpiece also provides a unique perspective into one of the most sincerest families. While the Romanovs are imprisoned and hidden from society, this tight-knit group longs for justice, peace, and the chance to truly live again. They are often thrown into such uncomfortable situations but their tenacity, along with Nastya’s fierce but playful attitude, create perfect moments of relief. Every page had me emotional invested and yearning to see hope for Nastya and her family.

Overall, Romanov is a very captivating story that portrays strengths in themes of forgiveness and love. I really enjoyed the steady pacing of the book, which allowed the book to smoothly flow and unfold. Plus, adding in a dash of magic and young love to a historically well-known story had me ingrained from beginning to end.

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Nadine once spent four days as a sea cook in the name of book research. She’s the author of FAWKES and of the award-winning The Out of Time Series. Her inner fangirl perks up at the mention of soul-talk, Quidditch, bookstagram, and Oreos. When she’s not busy writing novels about bold living, she’s adventuring through Middle Earth or taste-testing a new chai. Nadine and her Auror husband are building a Tiny House on wheels. Current mission: paint the world in shalom.

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Note: Thank you to the The Fantastic Flying Book Club for having me on this blog tour. And a huge thank you to Thomas Nelson for providing me an e-ARC to read and review for free in exchange for an honest review. All statements and opinions are my own. Please note that all quoted material are not final and may change in the final publication of the book.