Book Spotlight/ Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

Publication Date: October 6th, 2015

Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.

One day, he’s tracked down by a man he’s never met-a man his mother claimed was dangerous. The man tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god.

The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision.

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die . . .

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I was able to pick up an exclusive sneak peek sampler of this book at #BEA15 and I have to admit I have never read anything by Rick Riordan before this. After reading this one chapter sampler I really want to pick up this book to read and see what happens.

Its a brand new series for Rick and its based on Norse Mythology which is something else I have never read anything on.

Have you read any Rick Riordan books? Which should I read next?

Book Spotlight/ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Book Spotlight/ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s StoneHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Format: eARC
on October 6, 2015
Pages: 256

For the first time, J. K. Rowling's beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Kate Greenaway-award winning artist Jim Kay has created over 100 stunning illustrations, making this deluxe format a perfect gift as much for a child being introduced to the series, as for the dedicated fan.

Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.

I received this book for free from publisher/pr firm in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I was able to pick up a little sampler of this book at #BEA15.

I have yet to read the Harry Potter series (yes I know where have I been and why have I not read the books?) of books but I have to say after seeing this little sneak preview of the illustrated book I think I might just have to pick it up to read. Perhaps this is what I need to get me into the series.

The illustrations in this sampler were amazing and I can’t wait to see what the actually book will look like.

Are you a Harry Potter fan?

Book Spotlight/ St Martin’s First Spring-Summer 2015 Sampler

Book Spotlight/ St Martin’s First Spring-Summer 2015 SamplerSt Martin's Spring-Summer 2015 Sampler Format: eBook
on July 31st, 2015

I believe this is the second time St. Martin’s has put together a sampler of its debut titles for the spring and summer of 2015.

I love when publishers do this because it allows us the reader to get a snippet of what new and exciting books are coming out plus it gives you the chance to read a bit to peek your interest. For me this is a great way to discover a new author that I might normally pass up when your at the bookstore plus it allows me to perhaps dig into a book that I might not normally pick up otherwise.

This was the case with this sampler. I have discovered a few hidden gems that I think I would have missed out on otherwise. There is fifteen debut books talked about in this sampler.

Here is the books that were in the sampler:

  • Make Your Way HOme Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet
  • Murder at Barclay Meadow by Wendy Sand Eckel
  • Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
  • The Devils Making by Sean Haldane
  • The Evidence Room by Cameron Harvey
  • The Casualties by Nick Holdstock
  • The Secrets of Lake Road by Karen Katchur
  • Between The Tides by Susannah Marren
  • Fishbowl by Bradley Somer
  • Hangman’s Game by Bill Syken
  • Three Rivers by Tiffany Quay Tyson
  • The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan

Here is the books that peeked my interest and have been added to my wishlist of books to get.

I am actually excited because I got to pick this up at #BEA15.

“A masterful tale of social climbing and entrenched class distinctions, as seen through the eyes of an outsider who desperately wants in. Tense, hilarious, and bursting with gorgeous language. Stephanie Clifford is a 21st-century Edith Wharton.” -J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Engagements

It’s 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from the influence of her social-climbing mother, who propelled her through prep school and onto the Upper East Side. Evelyn has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, but when she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite, she’s forced to embrace them.

Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Despite herself, Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating, and starts trying to pass as old money herself. When her father, a crusading class-action lawyer, is indicted for bribery, Evelyn must contend with her own family’s downfall as she keeps up appearances in her new life, grasping with increasing desperation as the ground underneath her begins to give way.

Bracing, hilarious and often poignant, Stephanie Clifford’s debut offers a thoroughly modern take on classic American themes – money, ambition, family, friendship – and on the universal longing to fit in.

When Walter Stahl was five-years-old, his mother drove away in the family’s blue Volvo and never came back. Now seventeen, living in the dregs of Las Vegas, taking care of his ailing father and marking time in a dead-end job along the Strip, Walter’s life so far has been defined by her absence. He doesn’t remember what she looks like; he’s never so much as seen a photograph but, still, he looks for her among the groups of tourists he runs into every day, allowing himself the dim hope that she might still be out there, somewhere.

But when Walter meets Chrysto and Acacia, a brother and sister working as living statues at the Venetian Hotel, his world cracks wide open. With them he discovers a Las Vegas he never knew existed and, as feelings for Chrysto develop, a side of himself he never knew he had. At the same time, clues behind his mother’s disappearance finally start to reveal themselves, and Walter is confronted with not only the truth about himself, but also that of his family history.

Threading through this coming-of-age story are beautiful, heart-wrenching graphic illustration, which reveal the journey of Walter’s mother Emily: how she left everything to chase a vision of Liberace across the country; and how Walter’s father Owen went searching for her amongst the gondolas of the Venetian Hotel.

In James Sie’s debut novel, Still Life Las Vegas, the magical collides with the mundane; memory, sexual awakening and familial ties all lead to a place where everything is illuminated, and nothing is real.

Grace Wilde is running-from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, Katie M. Stout’s Hello, I Love You explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

“Dazzling…[a] quirky, raucous, and bewitching family saga.” –Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

Simon Watson, a young librarian, lives alone in a house that is slowly crumbling toward the Long Island Sound. His parents are long dead. His mother, a circus mermaid who made her living by holding her breath, drowned in the very water his house overlooks. His younger sister, Enola, ran off six years ago and now reads tarot cards for a traveling carnival.

One June day, an old book arrives on Simon’s doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. Fragile and water damaged, the book is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of “mermaids” in Simon’s family have drowned–always on July 24, which is only weeks away.

As his friend Alice looks on with alarm, Simon becomes increasingly worried about his sister. Could there be a curse on Simon’s family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save Enola?

In the tradition of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, The Book of Speculation–with two-color illustrations by the author–is Erika Swyler’s moving debut novel about the power of books, family, and magic.

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Most of these books are released and are available to purchase.

Its looking like this summer will be great for reading. Do any of these books interest you?

I am excited to pick up a few of these titles to read.

Book Spotlight/ Sneak Peeks

sneakpeeksHMH

THIS IS A SAMPLER containing 2-chapter excerpts from 6 books.

From the complex web of a twenty-year friendship, to the chillingly realistic look at the next world war, to the dark world of Fight Club meetsBridget Jones – this sneak peek sampler includes a bit of everything. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt brings you a compelling ebook sampler containing excerpts of new and diverse fiction.

Sneak Peaks includes a two-chapter excerpt from each of the following ebooks: How to Start a Fire, Dietland, Ghost Fleet, Maud’s Line, Girl Waits With Gun, and The Zig Zag Girl. Click the link at the end of each excerpt to buy the full ebook.

I love when publishers do this because it allows the reader to get a snippet of what new and exciting books are coming out plus it gives you the chance to read a bit to peek your interest. For me this is a great way to discover a new author(s) that I  might normally pass up when I am at the bookstore plus it allows me to perhaps dig into a book that I might not normally pick up otherwise.

I wish more publishers would follow this and put out these kinds of samplers. Do you like samplers?

This was the case with this sampler. I have discovered a few hidden gems that I think I would have missed out on otherwise. Here is the books that were in the sampler:

  1. How To Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz
  2. Ghost Fleet by P.W Singer & August Cole
  3. Maud’s Line by Margaret Verble
  4. Girls Wait With Gun by Amy Stewart
  5. The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths

I believe that most of these books are out now. 

I had so much fun reading this little snippets of the above books and a few of these titles have made it to my wishlist of books. I love how each book is different from the previous one. I think there is a book in this sampler for everyone who loves to read.

Book Spotlight/ CRAVE The Atria Indie Author Sampler

Book Spotlight/ CRAVE The Atria Indie Author SamplerCRAVE The Atria Indie Author Sampler Format: eBook
on April 28th, 2015

Description

Turn up the heat with this free e-sampler featuring seven irresistibly sexy and utterly enticing selections by some of the biggest names in contemporary romance and new adult fiction. Lose yourself in these stories and spread the love by sharing with your friends.Here’s a taste of:After the Rain by Renée Carlino
When You’re Back by Abbi Glines
Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle
Confess by Colleen Hoover
Amber to Ashes by Gail McHugh
Black Iris Leah Raeder
Chasing River by K.A. Tucker

Find out more about your favorite authors at
Facebook.com/AtriaIndieAuthors
Twitter.com/AtriaBooks

I am a huge fan of reading these samplers because its a great way to discover a new book or perhaps a book you heard about that you would like to read. I was recently on Netgally I spotted this sampler so I quickly went ahead and downloaded it. I am always on the hunt for a new book to read and these are perfect.

In this sampler there is seven samplers to read which makes this for a pretty quick read. The samplers that are:

aftertherainFrom the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a deeply emotional contemporary romance about the second chances waiting beyond the shattered dreams of youth.

When eighteen-year-old Avelina Belo meets a charismatic cowboy the summer before her senior year of high school, she doesn’t know that accepting his invitation to dinner will lead to a whirlwind marriage three months later and an exciting new life on a Montana ranch. She also doesn’t know that, in a few short years, fate will send everything crashing down around her.

A thousand miles away and fresh out of medical school, Nate Meyers is poised to become UCLA’s next superstar heart surgeon. His laser focus is the key to his success, but it’s also his greatest liability. When a routine surgery ends in disaster, derailing his career, he’s confronted with the hard truth: there’s no one waiting for him at home, no one to help him pick up the pieces.

Regrouping on his uncle’s Montana ranch, Nate meets Avelina, a beautiful but mysterious young woman who keeps to herself and barely speaks a word. As he discovers the details of her devastating past, Avelina teaches him more about matters of the heart than he ever knew before. But can they trust each other enough to put everything on the line?


This is book 12 in the series. From #1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines comes the next new adult novel in her beloved Rosemary Beach series, which continues the story of Mase and Reese from When I’m Gone.

She was where my home would always be. It was time I took the next step and proved to her I was all in. Forever.

A chance meeting in Rosemary Beach has turned into a fairy-tale romance as Reese prepares to move in with Mase on his family ranch in Texas. With the loving support of the Colts, and her recent discovery that she has family of her own, Reese can finally move on from the dark horrors of her past and into a bright future.

But Aida isn’t going to let that happen. The beautiful blonde has been raised to think of Mase as her cousin, but it’s clear to Reese that Aida doesn’t love Mase like a cousin should.

And then there’s Captain, the inescapable stranger who has connections in Dallas and Rosemary Beach—and who conveniently shows up wherever Reese happens to be. Hot, mysterious, and plain-speaking, Captain isn’t afraid to tell Reese what he thinks about Mase—and how he feels about her.

As the competition for Mase and Reese’s hearts heats up, Reese’s past begins to unravel, illuminating shocking truths that will forever change the lives of the happy couple—and set the final stories of Rosemary Beach in motion.

I think this is one book I really want to read since it takes place in Vancouver, Canada and she is a Canadian author.

A new adult novel that perfectly captures the existential angst of your early twenties with raw wit, fresh insight, and true feeling from a critically adored USA TODAY bestselling author.

Joshua Miles has spent his early twenties spinning his wheels. Working dead-end jobs and living at home has left him exhausted and uninspired, with little energy to pursue his passion for graphic art. Until he meets Gemma Henare, a vivacious out-of-towner from New Zealand. What begins as a one-night stand soon becomes a turning point for Josh. He can’t get Gemma out of his head, even after she has left for home, and finds himself throwing caution to the wind for the first time in his life.

It’s not long before Josh is headed to New Zealand with only a backpack, some cash, and Gemma’s name to go on. But when he finally tracks her down, he finds his adventure is only just beginning. Equally infatuated, Gemma leads him on a whirlwind tour across the beautiful country, opening Josh up to life, lust, love, and all the messy heartache in between. Because, when love drags you somewhere, it might never let go—even when you know you have to say goodbye.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a new novel about risking everything for love—and finding your heart somewhere between the truth and lies.

At age twenty-one, Auburn Reed has already lost everything important to her. In her fight to rebuild her shattered life, she has her goals in sight and there is 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 chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is keeping a major secret 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.

To save their relationship, all Owen needs to do is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Collide and Pulse comes a gritty new novel about a shattered young woman who unexpectedly falls for two best friends.

They were a storm I never saw coming, an unforeseen heartbreak on the edge of a dangerous cliff.

Amber Moretti’s life changes in the span of minutes. An orphaned outsider, she is desperate to start fresh the moment she walks onto campus. In the time it takes to cross the university’s dining hall, she meets two men who bring color, air, and light to her darkened world.

They became my addiction, each a needle to my next hit, my high.

Brock Cunningham’s appeal is dizzying, a potent force Amber can’t deny. A green-eyed smooth talker, he instantly attracts Amber. It doesn’t take long for him to consume her every thought, her every breath.

Ryder Ashcroft, a blue-eyed, tattooed, and pierced bad boy, turns Amber off immediately—that is, until he kisses her, stealing a piece of her heart, her soul.

They were as opposite as fire and ice, yet I ached for them equally.

Never knowing she could be broken down in so many unexpectedly beautiful yet petrifying ways, Amber finds herself falling for both men.

Immoral? Maybe. I say undeniable. Uncontained.

But one devastating event changes everything, shattering each of their lives…and Amber isn’t sure she can recover from it.
The next dark and sexy romantic suspense novel from the USA TODAY bestselling author ofUnteachable, which was praised for its “lush, haunting prose, deft storytelling, and scorching sensuality” (M. Pierce, bestselling author of the Night Owl trilogy), and called “one of the best forbidden romances” (Lauren Blakely, New York Times bestselling author).

“Love is not a thing that we create. It’s an undoing.”

It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn’t worth sticking around for.

If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.

She’s not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.

But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it’s time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.

Which was the plan all along.

Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.

She’s going to show them all.

Another book I am excited to read and she is a Canadian author to.

A suspense-driven New Adult romance novel from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water.

Luke Boone doesn’t know exactly what his uncle Rust is involved in but he wants in on it—the cars, the money, the women. And it looks like he’s finally getting his wish. When Rust hands him the managerial keys to the garage, they come with a second set—one that opens up the door to tons of cash and opportunity. Though it’s not exactly legal, Luke’s never been one to worry about that sort of thing. Especially when it puts him behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 and onto the radar of gorgeous socialite named Rain.

Clara Bertelli is at the top of her game—at only twenty-six years old, she’s one of the most successful undercover officers in the Washington, DC, major crime unit, and she’s just been handed a case that could catapult her career and expose one of the West coast’s most notorious car theft rings. But, in order to do it, she’ll need to go deep undercover as Rain Martines. Her target? The twenty-four-year-old nephew of a key player who appears ready to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.

As Clara drifts deeper into the luxurious lifestyle of Rain, and further into the arms of her very attractive and charming target, the lines between right and wrong start to blur, making her wonder if she’ll be able to leave it all behind. Or if she’ll even want to.

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I should let you know that all these books are available to purchase in your local bookstore.

All these books sound so good that I have added them all to my wishlist of books.

Does any of these books interest you? Have you read any of these books?

I know I will be on the look out for these books. I know Becoming Rain and Where Sea Meets Sky is definitely on my radar because I love books that are set in Canada and I love supporting Canadian authors.

These books are definitely my kind of books that I would read.

Thanks Atria for putting together this sampler of titles. I wish more publishers would do this kind of thing although that could be a bad thing for a complusive book buyer like myself.

Do you like samplers?