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Top Ten Underrated/Hidden Gem Books I’ve Read In The Past Year Or So
(Click on the book cover to be linked to its Goodreads page or my review)
Tag Archives: Kimberly Karalius
Blog Tour: Review of Love Charms and Other Catastrophes by Kimberly Karalius
Title: Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
By: Kimberly Karalius
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Synopsis:
Aspiring love charm maker Hijiri Kitamura was excited to come back to Grimbaud for her sophomore year-until she learns about the upcoming charm making competition. Grimbaud has just started to recover from the tyranny of Zita’s love fortunes and it would be too easy for the winning charm maker to take Zita’s place. The only solution is for Hijiri, with the support of her friends and fellow rebels, to win the contest herself.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, especially when Love itself has decided to meddle in Hijiri’s life. Concerned that it’s favorite charm maker has given up on finding a boyfriend of her own, Love takes matters into its own hands and delivers the perfect boyfriend to her in a giftwrapped box…literally.
Get ready to be charmed by this magical, quirky sequel to Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius.
PURCHASE: Amazon • Barnes & Noble • iTunes • Kobo
My Rants and Raves of Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
YAY, the Grimbaud life continues in Love Charms and Other Catastrophes! Once again, Kimberly Karalius, a word enchantress, has created another magical novel. This sequel is filled with love, longing, mystery, courage, magic, soothing tea, and chocolate drizzled waffles. With beautiful and comforting sentences like, “…September cooled the town. Leaves browned, cardigans came out of closets, and chocolatiers added ginger and cinnamon to warm the insides of their pralines,” how can you not fall in love with the world of Grimbaud all over again?
Karalius’s setting, characters, and love-story are sweet and addicting. I was ecstatic to find out that not only does this sequel bring back the characters that we love, like Fallon and Sebastian, but the whole book follows our favorite love charm-maker, Hijiri. If you’ve read Love Fortunes and Other Disasters, you will remember Hijiri as the smart, shy student with a true craft in making love-charms. Even though I adore Hijiri, I did find myself irritated with her every now and then. Throughout the novel, she often puts herself down, because she honestly believes that she is not capable to fall in love. But when Hijiri becomes a contestant in the town’s search for an eccentric and gifted new love charm-maker, her disheartening beliefs are challenged.
Hijiri is selfless, but she also has a very solitary demeanor. I like that Hijiri uses her innate gift to help other people’s love lives; however, when it comes to her own, she can be very aloof and very frustrating. Through her friends and Love’s gift, a charm-boy named Kentaro, I really appreciated how Karalius is able to develop and mold Hijiri into a strong heroine. More importantly, I love that Hijiri is surrounded by so much friendship and love, which helps her discouraging thoughts to recycle into an action of perseverance and a tenacity to stop underestimating herself.
Unlike the first novel, which I found to be fast-paced and quirky, Love Charms has more of a serious undertone. This book is not just about a town infatuated with love; it is a story focused on friendship and self-discovery. Even though Hijiri is very smart and studious, I sometimes found her actions and words very disheartening, especially when she was interacting with Kentaro, a sweet, allegiant, and trusting boy that knows a little something about second chances. The conflicts and challenges Hijiri endures in this book—a mysterious gift-wrapped boy, a love charm-making contest, and a rampant robot—are all great obstacles that test her beliefs. Karalius has definitely created another great novel that has perfectly woven fantasy and contemporary together. And this time around, she has gifted her readers with a story about courage, friendship, and discovering confidence in oneself.
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FAVORITE QUOTES
“Sometimes you know what you like. It’s called trusting your heart.”
“Love is magic, she thought, and nothing can change that.”
“Your heart needs bending and stretching to grow. Not that it wasn’t already a proper size before…Your heart is not ruined. It’s stronger than ever.”
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AUTHOR BIO
KIMBERLY KARALIUS holds an MFA in fiction from the University of South Florida, and has been sharing stories on Figment.com with a strong following of enthusiastic readers since the site’s conception. Although Kimberly lives in sunny Florida, she prefers to stay indoors and sometimes buys a scarf in the hopes of snow. She loves watching really old cartoons and silent films. Being in Florida certainly has one big perk: going to Disney World. Which she does. Frequently. Love Fortunes and Other Disasters is her debut novel.
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TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY (US/CAN)
♥♥♥ Win a Print Copy of Love Charms and Other Catastrophes ♥♥♥
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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THE BOOK TOUR
May 9th
–Bibliobibuli YA >> Review
–Book Sniffers Anonymous >> Excerpt
–the bookdragon >> Review
May 10th
–Book briefs >> Review
–A Book Addict’s Bookshelves >> Guest post
–A Dream Within A Dream >> Excerpt
–Bookish Escapes >> Review
–Whatever You Can Still Betray >> Guest post
May 11th
–Padme’s Library >> Interview
–The Book Sirens >> Playlist
–The Mind of a (Book) Dragon >> Review
–5 Girls Book Reviews >> Review
–BooksChatter >> Interview
May 12th
–Quartzfeather >> Review
–Twirling Book Princess >> Review
–Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books! >> Excerpt
–The Reading Nook Reviews >> Review
May 13th
–InkdIn >> Review
–Book Dust Magic >> Guest post
–The Plot Bunny >> Review
–Rants and Raves of a Bibliophile >> Review
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REVIEW: Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius
Title: Love Fortunes and Other Disasters
By: Kimberly Karalius
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Pages: 368 (Paperback)
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary, Magical Realism
Synopsis:
In the tradition of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, one girl chooses to change her fortune and her fate by falling in love.
Love is real in the town of Grimbaud, and Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school there for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love.
Fortunately, Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. Fallon is determined to take control of her own fate—even if it means working with a notorious heartbreaker like Sebastian.
Will Fallon and Sebastian be able to overthrow Zita’s tyranny and fall in love?
MY RANTS AND RAVES OF LOVE FORTUNES AND OTHER DISASTERS
INITIAL RAVES: Magic realism. Fate. Charms. A quirky heroine. A town infatuated with the fortunes of love. And a love to die for. So much goodness!!!
Love Fortunes and Other Disasters left me giddy and wanting more shenanigans in the town of Grimbaud. For a while, my thoughts of Kimberly Karalius’s novel could only be described in short phrases and words, and I still do not think I can do the book justice in sentence form, but I am going to try.
As a person seeking out contemporary reads but in love with fantasy/magic realism, Love Fortunes is the perfect book that interweaves both of these genres. Karalius somehow discovered an elaborate formula to perfectly combine elements of Pushing Daisies, The Night Circus, and Francesca Lia Block’s modern spin on mythical entities into one–and alas Love Fortunes and Other Disasters was constructed.
As a novel in the Swoon Reads publishing company, Love Fortunes and Other Disasters entwines different snapshots of swoon-worthy moments and memorable characters. The heroine, Fallon, is willing to fight against a love fortune that fate has given her, and change her destiny in the realm of love. As she commits to changing her own destiny, she also begins to help her friends and other people in town who are fated hopelessness and ill fortunes in their “love” lives, including the swoony, “I’m-too-good-to-fall-in-love” classmate, Sebastian.
If you are in the mood for a fun, fast-paced story about a quirky and determined female, Love Fortunes and Other Disasters is the book you are destined to read.
My Rating: 5 out 5 Stars
PURCHASE THIS BOOK FROM YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER/RETAILER
Amazon • Barnes and Noble • Book Depository
NOTE: This review was previously posted on my Goodreads account in April 11, 2015, and has been updated for my blog. I received an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) through the publisher in a Goodreads giveaway. All statements and honest opinions are mine.
Waiting On Wednesday: Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
WAITING ON WEDNESDAY:
Love Charms and Other Catastrophes
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that highlights pre-publication/upcoming releases that readers cannot wait to get their hands on. It is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my most anticipated read is…Love Charms and Other Catastrophes by Kimberly Karalius
A picture of the AMAZING cover and a brief summary provided by Goodreads are below:
Goodreads’ Summary:
Aspiring love charm maker Hijiri Kitamura was excited to come back to Grimbaud for her sophomore year-until she learns about the upcoming charm making competition. Grimbaud has just started to recover from the tyranny of Zita’s love fortunes and it would be too easy for the winning charm maker to take Zita’s place. The only solution is for Hijiri, with the support of her friends and fellow rebels, to win the contest herself.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, especially when Love itself has decided to meddle in Hijiri’s life. Concerned that it’s favorite charm maker has given up on finding a boyfriend of her own, Love takes matters into its own hands and delivers the perfect boyfriend to her in a giftwrapped box…literally.
Get ready to be charmed by this magical, quirky sequel to Love Fortunes and Other Disasters.
Waiting on Wednesday’s Top 5 Rants and Raves of why I need this book in my life…
- ♥ Kimberly Karalius‘s first novel, Love Fortunes and Other Disasters, was a well-crafted mixture of Young Adult contemporary, romance, and magic realism. After reading the synopsis, I have a strong feeling that Love Charms and Other Catastrophes is going to reflect this same powerful concoction. ♥
- ♥ The romance, the characters, their motivations, and the friendships established in LFaOD were so well contructed and executed, so I can’t wait to see what the author has in store for Hijiri Kitamura’s story and the little town of Grimbaud. ♥
- ♥ Speaking of Grimbaud…THE GRIMBAUD LIFE CONTINUES! After reading the first novel of this series, I fell deeply and madly in love with this cute, charming, and obsessed-with-love town. Even though Grimbaud is the setting of Karalius’s novels, it is definitely a character itself. Please, can I live there?! ♥
- ♥ Kimberly Karalius has created a fantastical world with smart and witty characters, and I look forward to once again experiencing character dialogue and banter that is quick, clever, and, most importantly, swoonworthy. ♥
- ♥ I have to comment on the cover. The color scheme is bright and phenomenal. But OH MY GRIMBAUD, I can not get over how cute and intricate the details are, and more importantly how accurately the people, potion bottles, etc. reflect the synopsis and setting. Well done, cover gods! ♥
Release Date: May 17, 2016 A.K.A. TOO FAR AWAY!
Check out my review on Goodreads of the first book, Love Fortunes and Other Disasters, by clicking here.
rants and raves of a bibliophile 