Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created and hosted by The Bionic Book Worm.
Today’s topic: Top 5 Winter Reads
Feel free to click on the photograph to be linked to my review or the book’s Goodreads page.
Tag Archives: Meagan Spooner
Waiting on Wednesday: Sherwood by Meagan Spooner
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that highlights pre-publication/upcoming releases that readers cannot wait to get their hands on. It is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
Title: Sherwood
Author: Meagan Spooner
Publication date: March 19, 2019
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Synopsis
Robin of Locksley is dead.
When news comes that he’s fallen in battle at the King’s side in the Holy Land, Maid Marian doesn’t know how she’ll go on. Betrothed to Robin, she was free to be herself, to flout the stifling rules of traditional society and share an equal voice with her beloved when it came to caring for the people of her land.
Now Marian is alone, with no voice of her own. The people of Locksley, persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, are doomed to live in poverty or else face death by hanging. The dreadful Guy of Gisborne, the Sherriff’s right hand, wishes to step into Robin’s shoes as Lord of Locksley, and Marian’s fiancé. Society demands that she accept her fate, and watch helplessly as her people starve.
When Marian dons Robin’s green cloak, and takes up his sword and bow, she never intended that anyone should mistake her for Robin, returned from the Holy Land as a vigilante. She never intended that the masked, cloaked figure she created should stand as a beacon of hope and justice to peasant and noble alike. She never intended to become a legend.
But all of Nottingham is crying out for a savior. So Marian must choose to make her own fate and become her own hero…
Robin Hood.
AHHHH…I NEED THIS BOOK SO BAD. I love Robin Hood and Robin Hood retellings. Plus, Hunted by Meagan Spooner was one of my favorite books of 2017. COME ON BOOKISH GODS, BLESS ME WITH THIS BOOK ASAP!
Top 5 Tuesday: Books You Read as an ARC
Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created and hosted by The Bionic Book Worm.
Today’s topic: Top 5 Books You Read as an ARC
Click on my photographs to be linked to my review or the book’s Goodreads page.
This was one of the first ARCs I ever owned. I won it from a Twitter giveaway hosted by Fierce Reads. I love this trilogy and I am hoping to reread it again before the end of the year.
A Million Junes was my favorite book of 2017 and I haven’t stopped raving about it since.
I adored this retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I’m so excited for Meagan Spooner’s Robin Hood retelling called Sherwood. Is it 2019, yet?
If there is one contemporary writer I highly recommend to readers it’s Emma Mills. Her books are always so swoony and realistic. Definitely give Foolish Hearts a read–the Froot Loops will make sense after you read the book, lol.
I was so lucky to receive a manuscript ARC of Legendary from Flatiron Books. I love the world of Caraval, and this book did not disappoint.
What are some of your favorite books you read as an ARC?
Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books of 2017 (so far)
HOSTED by The Broke and the Bookish
This week’s topic is…
Top Ten Favorite Books of 2017 (so far)
(CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER TO BE LINKED TO ITS GOODREADS’ PAGE or MY REVIEW)
What are some of your favorite books of 2017? Which books of 2017 would you highly recommend that I read?
Waiting On Wednesday: UNEARTHED by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that highlights pre-publication/upcoming releases that readers cannot wait to get their hands on. It is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
Title: UNEARTHED
Author: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Publication date: January 9, 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Synopsis
When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying’s advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.
For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study… as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don’t loot everything first. Mia and Jules’ different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.
In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race’s secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race…
Character-Inspired Tea Pairings: Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Title: Hunted
Author: Meagan Spooner
Publication date: March 14, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Format: Physical ARC
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.
So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.
Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository
I wrote my review on Hunted last week (check it out HERE), and was deeply inspired to write another post, pairing characters with tea blends. In Hunted, tea plays a small role as the remedy for comfort, because it warms the soul, calms the nerves, and steadies the mind. Below I have picked my three favorite characters in Hunted and paired them with what I think are the perfect tea flavors based on their personalities and traits. Enjoy!
RUBY SPICE CIDER TEA BLEND: Yeva is one of my favorite heroines in YA literature, because like this spice cider tea, Yeva’s personality is vibrant. She is a fighter and a survivor. I love how badass, daring, and determined is she throughout Hunted. And in comparison to this noted tea, Yeva is sweet and fierce.
LAPSANG SOUCHONG TEA: The tea blend of Lapsang Souchong tastes rich and earthly, with a strange aroma that is wild like Beast. Just as Beast has two competing personalities (the wolf and man), this tea blend has the dual taste of sweet and smokey. Beast’s mannerisms often hint to a helpful and playful personality, but like a majority of black teas, he is also strong and bold.
NIRVANA GREEN TEA: Yeva (“Beauty”) is a hunter, and like any hunter, she has her most loyal friend and canine companion, Doe-Eyes. Doe-Eyes is always happy to see Yeva, and with every tail-wag, she brings content to Yeva’s life. In comparison to the Nirvana Green tea blend, Doe-Eyes is also sweet, fun, and energetic.
I cannot wait for everyone to read Hunted. Once you have read it, please feel free to stop by and comment what tea flavors you would match to your favorite characters. I would love to see what you come up with and maybe even try out some new tea blends.
If It’s Not a Rant, It’s a Rave: Review of Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Title: Hunted
Author: Meagan Spooner
Publication date: March 14, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Format: Physical ARC
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.
So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.
Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | The Book Depository
Hunted is the fairy tale that I want to read to my future children. It is the retelling that I want every girl to read, and realize, “when the world pushes me down, I can lift myself up.” The author, Meagan Spooner, has molded a beloved classic story, “Beauty and the Beast,” and has shaped it into a book where Beauty (Yeva), a beloved sister and a devoted daughter, sets out into a wilderness where only beasts are guaranteed to survive. And as the heroine of the tale, Beauty is a fighter: a fierce, fearless, and determined woman with a good heart and a quick reflex to persevere.
One of my favorite aspects of Hunted is the pacing. The story does not move too quickly, with one action domino-ing into a quick reaction. But the story also does not linger with the slow steady steps to a happily ever after ending. Instead, Spooner’s “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, purposely chimes like a steady hand playing Claude Debussy’s “Clair De Lune.” Spooner’s words hit all the high and low notes at the precise duration and location. The book reads like a sheet of music with a steady and heart-lifting tone.
I also enjoyed how Hunted bridges the reader between reality and the enchanted unknown. As snow hides and blankets the pawed-footprints of a predator, the wind whispers the sad melodies of cursed beasts and creatures who yearn to be saved even if the risk of death lingers in between the whirlwind of snowflakes. Spooner creates a fantastical world that is both pleasing and awe-inspiring to the senses. The world of Hunted smells of musky fur, tastes of crisp air, and crunches with the sound of dried pine needles, all while the sharp bitter frost aches your bones. And although the Beast’s forest is wild and his castle is crumbling, I loved that it is Beauty’s presence that tames his surroundings into a eyeopening world of loyalty, understanding, and compassion.
This novel will make you believe that magic and fairy stories are real. Hunted is assorted with a dynamic cast of characters; characters who are vulnerable, feral, bewitched, haunted, or even tricksters. The world-building is lush and the characters are so sharp and primitive. I loved every aspect of Hunted, and I cannot wait for readers and dreamers to experience it.
NOTE: I was not provided a copy of this book by the author or the publisher in an exchange for a review. I received this physical ARC copy through a blogger exchange. I reviewed it at my own discretion. All statements and opinions in this review are mine.
W…W…W…Wednesday: 3/8/2017
W…W…W…Wednesday
W…W…W…Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words and includes Three Ws:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
(Click on the book cover to be linked to its Goodreads page)
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
Wow, the words and poetic form of this book are beautiful and heartbreaking. I already know that this book is going to be emotionally hard for me to review, but I look forward to letting my heart spill.
WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
Loved this book. Full review and blog post will be up on Friday.
If you love fandoms, you will love this book. My blog post for the Queens of Geek tour will be up next week!
I love this series. And Starfall did not disappoint. This book reads like a sci-fi TV episode, and I was on the edge of my seat for the entire journey. Full review post to come.
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?
AHHH…I cannot wait to jump into this series and world again.
W…W…W…Wednesday: 03/01/2017
W…W…W…Wednesday
W…W…W…Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words and includes Three Ws:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
(Click on the book cover to be linked to its Goodreads page)
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
You guys, I have been savoring this book for three days, and I don’t want it to end. It’s so good.
WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
I’m hoping to have a book review up by Friday or Monday. This book unexpectedly won me over, even though it was slow-moving.
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?
I’m part of a blog tour for this book. I cannot wait to read it. This cover is so simple and beautiful!
W…W…W…Wednesday: 02/22/2017
W…W…W…Wednesday
W…W…W…Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words and includes Three Ws:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?
rants and raves of a bibliophile 