Waiting on Wednesday (2/25/15): Confess by Colleen Hoover

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Confess by Colleen Hoover 

Expected publication date: March 10, 2015 

From Goodreads: 

Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there’s no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.
For once, Auburn takes a risk and puts her heart in control, only to discover Owen is keeping major secrets from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.
The last thing Owen wants is to lose Auburn, but he can’t seem to convince her that truth is sometimes as subjective as art. All he would have to do to save their relationship is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin… 

We (especially me) really love Colleen Hoover up in here, so this choice shouldn't be a surprise. BONUS: there's full-color art in the books. Ugh, I'm so excited.

*quiet screaming*

- Rachel

Series Review: Throne of Glass

So two or three months ago, Rachel and I were talking, and I was telling her how I need to read more fantasy since most of the time in my own writing, I write fantasy. She remembered this series she started so many years ago on FictionPress that is now known as Throne of Glass. I was immediately intrigued by the summary, and little did I know this would quickly become probably one of my top five series (and have two of my favorite characters).

I’ll admit that initially reading Throne of Glass that I found it interesting but I wasn’t too sure I was loving it. I was definitely intrigued by the plot and Celaena was proving to be the start of an interesting character (although her arrogance got my nerves a little bit at first) and Chaol Westfall, ugh, do not talk to me about him. I just love him so much, okay.

After reading Throne of Glass, it was all downhill from there. I eagerly devoured Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire, and this series has left me remembering why I like finding series that are already complete because I’M GOING TO DIE WAITING FOR QUEEN OF SHADOWS. The Assassin’s Blade, which contains the five accompanying novellas to the series, provide such an interesting look into what brought Celaena to the point where she was in Throne of Glass.

All of the characters are proving to be so complex, the plot is rich, and it’s written so beautifully. I highly recommend this series to anyone into fantasy or searching for a wonderfully written female protagonist. The first book may be a little hard to get through, but I really, really do think you’ll get hooked in Crown of Midnight.

- Yajaira

Waiting on Wednesday (2/18/15): A Court of Thorns and Roses

Breaking the Spine is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Expected publication date: May 5, 2015

From Goodreads:

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

I've been devouring all of Sarah's Throne of Glass series lately and when I heard she was releasing a new series, I thought I'd give it a read to expand my fantasy boundaries (and have something to kill the time until the next Throne of Glass book comes out).

~Yajaira

Thoughts on The Selection

Spoiler warning! If you’re reading The Selection or plan on reading it and don’t want spoilers, please proceed with caution. I’ll try to avoid them or be vague, but there will more than likely be spoilers.

So The Selection. I have very mixed feelings about this series. I won’t go saying this series is like, the best series ever, but I did like it enough to want to purchase the next book as soon as I could. It’s a decent, easy read for someone looking to fill in the gap between series. The romance was good (albeit a tad predictable but that’s a lot of YAs these days) and the plot was intriguing, but I felt like Kiera Cass really missed the mark with the last book.

The Selection is another dystopic fiction where there’s a heroine who dares to challange the tyrannical government. And if it followed the same formula as the other dystopian trilogies, The Selection would’ve been the set up, The Elite the build up, and The One the climax. The first two books followed that formula, which left me relatively excited to read The One. I finally got to The One, and it kept me interested throughout even though I could already tell you the ultimate outcome from the very beginning.

But then I got the ending and it was so anticlimactic.

There was all this buildup and it just fell flat on its face. The final “battle”, if you want to call it that, was such a let down. Reading it, I was like, “Is this it? This is really how this is going to end?” And lo and behold, it ended that suddenly. All that buildup especially with America and Georgia and the other rebels seemed like a waste. I really felt like that could’ve been explored more. The book probably could’ve benefited from at least 100 more pages to allow for more development and not just “BANG BANG king and queen are dead, Maxon does end up with America, the end”.  It really disappointed me because I liked this book enough to get invested in it, and I’ve never really been let down by book like that until this one.

So yeah, The One was a huge letdown for me and I hope Cass’s new series (assuming there’s more than one to it) starting with The Heir is handled better than The Selection was.

What’d you guys think of the ending? Let me know in the comments!

~Yajaira

Meet OwlCrate + another thing

Hey, guys! We’re back from the dead! For now. Until life gets us yet again and drags us away from our blog for the upteenth time.

Photo borrowed from OwlCrate's Twitter account. @owlcrate #owlcrate

We’ve come back to tell you guys about this awesome thing known as OwlCrate. If you’re a YA lover like Rachel and I, then this is the perfect thing for you. Each month, a box will be sent out including a brand new YA (hardcover! Be still, our hearts!) release, 3-5 book themed goodies (jewelry, totes, treats, etc.), exclusive items from publishers and authors, and a note telling you about the novel and the items included. The box is $29.99 plus shipping; both Rachel and I ended up paying $36.98 after shipping and we live on opposite sides of the US. The boxes ship out on the 20th of each month with the first box being shipped out on March 20th. Each box also has a theme to it (March’s theme is fantasy!)

Rachel and I both ordered it, and we will be sure to let you guys know what we think of the contents (and we’ll probably make an unboxing post!) If you’re interested, check out their site and sign up!

Another subscription worth mentioning is Colleen Hoover’s brand new service, Bookworm Box. Her service will be sending out 2 signed romance novels each month, but there’s been no mention of additional goodies. There’s no set price yet, although she did mention they’re looking at $29.99 as well. Bonus: all profit will be donated to charity. Good intentions aside, Rachel and I are both on the fence about it and are waiting for the first batch to roll out and be reviewed before we subscribe to the service.

Let us know in the comments below if you’ve signed up for either (or any other!) subscriptions! We can’t wait to get our boxes and let you guys know what we think of it!

Yajaira & Rachel
(The exclamations mean we're very! excited! ermagerd, BOOKS!!!!)