Book Review: What Light

Title: What Light

Author: Jay Asher

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: October 18, 2016

From Jay Asher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why, comes a romance that will break your heart, but soon have you believing again. . . .

Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other.

Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.

By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb's past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and, maybe, redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions, and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

What Light is a love story that's moving and life-affirming and completely unforgettable.

The Black Friday Book Tag

Black Friday. Most people familiar with this day know that it’s full of sales, but it’s also full of long lines, huge crowds, and a lot of chaos. You either love it or hate it, but most Americans would agree that the infamous day after Thanksgiving marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. 

So what do bookworms do on Black Friday? My friend Erica from Novel Ink and I thought about it, and we decided to take on the crazy day with a brand new book tag for you! Take a peek into the life of bookworms and what Black Friday means to them and get a little bit more excited for the upcoming holidays!

Cover Reveal: All the Stars Left Behind

Hey, everyone!

Most of you know that I don't do cover reveals too often anymore, but I've got one for you today! 

When I saw the description of this book, it seemed like one that I would want to read, so naturally, I thought it would be fun to partake in the cover reveal. So what's the book? It's called All the Stars Left Behind by Ashley Graham. It's about an intergalactic war, so of course, I'm game!

If you're curious, and you should be, go ahead and see what's under the jump!

I Hope You Forgive Me

Hey, everyone! I've got a really special post lined up for you today, especially for those of you who wish you could turn back the hands of time and go back to your teenage years.

Today, YA author Liza M. Weimer is launching a new initiative called I Hope You Forgive Me. This revolutionary new website calls on teens and adults to anonymously share moments from their teenage years when they could have asked for forgiveness but didn't...

During your teen years…

Who hasn’t done something stupid? Thoughtless? Rude? Cruel? Mean?

Who hasn’t made mistakes? Done things they regret?

Who hasn’t been afraid to ask forgiveness, but instead chose silence?

Who hasn’t wished they had said, “I’m sorry,” but now it’s too late?

It’s not.

I HOPE YOU FORGIVE ME is the opportunity to share your burden. To admit what you’ve done. Anonymously. So that teens can learn from your experience.

Let’s make a difference. Together.

ARC Review: Love and First Sight

Title: Love and First Sight

Author: Josh Sundquist

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: January 3, 2017

Source: The NOVL for Review Consideration

In his debut novel, YouTube personality and author of We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sundquist explores the nature of love, trust, and romantic attraction.

On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right?

As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a charming, quiet girl named Cecily. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn't meet traditional definitions of beauty--in fact, everything he'd heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?

Told with humor and breathtaking poignancy, Love and First Sight is a story about how we related to each other and the world around us.

Reading Challenge Update: October

At the end of 2015, I decided that I was going to challenge myself to read more books, but not just more books in general... I wanted to challenge myself to read more books outside of my comfort zone and outside of the genres that I normally read. To do this, I decided to join a few different reading challenges, hosted by many different bloggers in the book community. To keep track of the reading challenges, I came up with a way to keep track of the books I was reading for the challenges, and it is the very generically named Reading Challenge Update.

Blog Tour: Zebulon Finch, Volume II + GIVEAWAY

Title: The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume II (Empire Decayed)

Author: Daniel Kraus

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 25, 2016

A murdered teen is resurrected to walk the earth for more than a century in the second and final book in the sweeping epic that Entertainment Weekly called “utterly riveting.”

Zebulon Finch has faced more violence, lust, and heartbreak than any other seventeen-year-old in history. But nothing can prepare him for what is coming next.

Half a century has passed since Zebulon Finch was gunned down and then inexplicably resurrected to experience a second life. Picking up his tale where he left off, Zebulon heads to Nazi Germany on a top-secret mission. From there he escapes to the shiny new world of the suburbs—a tidy neighborhood hiding dark secrets. He will exchange the pains of this world for what he believes will be peace among the stars. He will march for social change all the way to Woodstock, go raving mad in the desert, and finally exit from humanity the only way he knows how. We first met Zebulon sealed in a tomb beneath the World Trade Center—might he yet crawl from the rubble to discover a different America?

Enthralling and gut-wrenching, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume Two: Empire Decayed is the conclusion to the epic saga of one young man’s journey down the long road to redemption.