Showing posts with label Stephanie Garber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephanie Garber. Show all posts

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Book Review: Finale by Stephanie Garber

Release Date: May 7th, 2019
Read: May 24th-26, 2019
Publisher: Flatrion Books
Series: Caraval, #3
Format: ARC, 496 pages
Source: McNally Robinson Booksellers




Description from GoodReads:


A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Book Review: Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Release Day: May 29th, 2018
Read: August 5th-8th, 2018
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Series: Caraval, #2
Format: ARC, 451 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for a honest review




Description from GoodReads:


   A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.

   After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.

   The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.

   Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun. 

Friday, June 30, 2017

June Wrap Up 2017

   Like most of the months, June was all over the place for me. From graduations, to my sisters finally being done school for the summer, and to getting a new job! So it was busy and hectic as usual, and of course all the days blurred together. 
   Unfortunately for June, I wasn't able to get out of my book slump, which was my fault. I ended up picking two books that I just could not enjoy, resulting in me not wanting to pick anything else up after them. Hopefully the next thing I pick up ends up being really good and fixes my mistake for June.
   Some of you may follow me on Instagram, or maybe just noticed that I changed my Bio on most of my social media platforms, but for those of you who haven't noticed or heard, I got another job! Come the last week of June, I got a call for an interview to one of my favourite places, McNally Robinson. Also known as my local Indie bookstore, one which I occupy more frequently than not. Anyways, shortly after the interview they called me back and I was hired! I've already had my first shift, and I couldn't be happier working there. Having already known most of the people in the department that I'm in, from always stopping by, everything has been so easy to adjust too! You'll probably be hearing much more about the store in the next upcoming months!
  Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, June time brings graduations, and one that I went to this Spring was for my good friend Sabrina, who you all know from the book blog Beyond the Book Reviews. So if you guys have a spare moment, definitely head on over to her blog and congratulate her!

   That pretty much sums up my month, so now onto the monthly stats!


Books Read:

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau 
The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson

Book Haul:


Books Reviewed:


July Releases I'm Excited For:



   That's it for this month! Come back next month to see what shenanigans I partook in during the month of July!



Thursday, June 8, 2017

Book Review: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Release Date: January 31st, 2017
Read: November 16th-December 7th, 2016
Publisher: Flatrion Books
Series: Caraval, #1
Format: Signed ARC, 401 pages
Source: BEA 2016




Description from GoodReads:


   Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

   But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.


   Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.

Review:


   I'm so pleased that you could make it.
   Back at BEA 2016, Caraval was one of the most anticipated YA book drops. The only thing was, they never told anyone when the book was going to be dropped. So in a very Caraval fashion, they dropped it randomly and very mysteriously in bags that the publisher was handing out. The author also happened to be there signing books too. Although I hadn't really heard much about the book, I was willing to give it a try especially it was supposed to be a magical book that was supposed to be focused on the relationship between two sisters.

   It took me a long time to finish Caraval, something about the book never clicked with me, making me feel like I couldn't care less about the characters. My sisters and I have a very close relationship, and so I understood where our protagonist got her drive to partake in Caraval, to save her sister, but in the end I just could never connect with them. Everything about the characters just felt like I was experiencing them through a glass wall.

   Once thing that I could appreciate about Caraval, was the magic that went into the story. I loved that in a way it was a carnival, but at the same time it was something different. The roses, and the carousel were my favourite.

   Caraval didn't end up becoming a favourite of mine, but in the end I think I was still able to enjoy it to a point where I'd still go out of my way to pick up it's sequel when it releases. The sequel to Caraval is set to release in 2018.

Rating:



Favourite Quote:

"The past is only mostly set, and the future is harder to change than you would think."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:


Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure, Magic, Games, Mind Tricks



Saturday, December 31, 2016

December Wrap Up!

   Hello friends!
   I hope you guys had a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! I know it's been a really long time
since I've last talked to you guys, and I'm sorry for that. Like I said when I originally left on my hiatus, school was taking a lot of my time. Hopefully this second term will be different and I'll actually be motivated to blog during it.
   In this last couple of months, I haven't really done a whole lot besides go to school and work. But with the Christmas season I've done a lot of shopping. When I wasn't studying for my exams or writing papers, I was shopping. I did fantastic on the present front, if I don't say so myself. 
   Besides the Holidays, my friends and I went to a friends cabin out north of my city. A four hour drive, out to Lake Manitoba. No service, no running water, it was a heck of a time. I loved being able to relax and just hang out with our friends. 
   Anyways, like I originally said, that was my slow month. Hopefully the next few months will be better!

Books Read:



Book Haul:


January Books I'm Excited For:



   That was my month, I'll see you next month!

Sunday, May 29, 2016

BEA 2016: Day 2


   Day 2 of BEA ended up being waaaay more packed than the 1st day, but also less stressful if you can believe it. With having the the day before in mind, we were able to plan our day to our advantage.

   The day for me started out with me running to the Macmillan booth in hopes of getting a ticket to the Metaltown 9:30am signing, once we were let onto the floor, but unfortunately I got there right as they ran out of tickets. So onto the Audrey Coulthurst 10am signing I went, she was one of my most anticipated authors for BEA so I was very happy to have been lucky enough to be roughly 25th in line!

Amy Lukavics signing The Woman
in the Walls
Eleanor Herman and I
   From 11am-11:30am, I was in line for Amy Lukavics and Eleanor Herman. At these times, they both had separate signings. They were signing The Woman in the Walls and Empire of Dust. Both ladies were the sweetest, and both had the cutest style! With Amy wearing a spiderweb dress and Eleanor dressing fancy to match her books!


   When I was in line for Eleanor, I was actually able to meet Bayram from Never Ending Books! I had first met him line when I first became a blogger, and it was awesome to finally be able to meet him! I actually was able to hang out with him a lot through out BEA, after him I also started to meet so many other amazing bloggers that I am friends with online! Although I didn't recognize many faces at first, it was heart whelming to have had them recognize me and say hello! Even with me being in aw for most of the convention, the peak of the aw factor was definitely when I got to meet bloggers in person!
Becca from Pivot Book Totes
   Including Bayram, I was also able to meet Brittany from Brittany's Book Rambles, As some of you already know, I adore her. So it was a FABULOUS experience! Becca from Pivot Book Totes, Becca is another person that I met when I first started blogging, and I learned so much from her when I first started blogging. It was an honour to meet her! Nori from Read Write Love 28, known as the Blogger Mom, Nori is one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet, she's just as sweet in person as she is online! And that's just some of the fabulous people I got to meet! I can't even begin to list or remember them all!

   From there I was forced to join the two insanely long lines for the Macmillan 1pm ticket drop. Sounds weird right? That's because it was. There wasn't an official ticket line until 12:45, I got there at 12pm. With nothing organized, it was chaos. In the end there was a stampede, and MANY unhappy people. All to get a ticket for the Marissa Meyer signing of her latest novel, Heartless. This ticket drop was by far the worst experience of BEA, right next to the second ticket drop for Marissa but that's a story for Day 3. Please take a look at the video below, just to see how hectic the whole day got.


   But in the end I was able to get a ticket for Vassa in the Night, and so my day would go on nicely. I wouldn't let not getting a ticket ruin my day.


   Both my sisters are big book nerds, just like myself. So I promised that there would be a few books that I'd pick up for them. Both had very specific requests, the youngest with a super small list and the other with a huge one. All the books on their lists being super hard to get, or not at BEA at all. So to actually get one from that super small list, I had to go to a Ransom Riggs signing. Ransom was signing Tales of the Peculiar. So after the Eleanor signing, I was off to see if I could get a ticket to his signing.

   After rushing there, I was able to get my hands on a ticket, but not only was the line HUGE, the 'book' that Ransom was signing turned out to only be a sampler. So I was forced to wait in an half an hour signing for a sampler that wasn't even going to be for me. At least in the end my sister was satisfied.

   From there I ran to the Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe signing line where Stephanie (Doodle's Book Reviews) was holding a spot in line for me. Having not read All the Bright Places yet, I didn't really have much to say to Jennifer. But in all, she was such a sweetie anyway.

Jennifer Niven signing Holding Up the Universe
   From there I went straight to the Sarah Porter signing for Vassa in the Night. Where I once again ran into Bayram! So for the duration of the signing line, I was able to have someone that I knew to
Steph (Doodle's Book Reviews), Bayram (Never Ending
Books), and I. 
hang with. Which did't happen all that often, but you did make friends wherever you went.

   After that I had an hour to kill, so I used that time for food. Honestly, with everything going on you would always forget about basic things like food, water, and bathroom breaks. That was probably one of the biggest things about the convention that you really needed to worry about. Carrying snacks in your bag was a must throughout everything.


Adam Silvera
   From there I went to my last signing of the day, which was for Adam Silvera and History is All You Left Me. Where I could not give up the chance at messing with Adi Alsaid. Adi had some what threatened to not be friends with people who got to meet Adam, as well as if you read History is All You Left Me before him. And so, this is how the following photo came to be.
   I was also lucky enough to have met the OwlCrate ladies while waiting in line for Adam's signing. They were the sweetest! They even asked for my business/blogger card!


   While I was in line for Adam, the Empire of Storms cover was released. From what I heard there was an ENORMOUS crowd surrounding the Bloomsbury booth, and the crowd was just as excited as I was to see the cover. The cover did not disappoint as you all have probably seen. It was at a bit of a point where people were in line for selfies with the cover, I mean how could one resist a selfie?


   After that my day ended with me in the 5pm Epic Reads Drop line for Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. Steph and I had missed the drop the day before, so I wanted to be firstish in line to make sure that I got it. With Steph still in line somewhere else and me holding our spots roughly 40 minutes before the drop, I thought for sure that she would make it. But as I waited with a few other lovely ladies, someone who was originally in line with us, (we were still holding a spot for her.) very slowly approached us and whispered how Caraval, was being given out at the Macmillian booth in tote bags. Being one of the most anticipated books at BEA, and having not a lot of information on how to get it at the convention, it was in all of our best interests to run. That's exactly what we did, after throwing a quick text to Steph about the tote bags, I was off. Running in and out, I was super quick and was also able to get back my position in the Three Dark Crowns line. Something I did not know until I was back in line, was that Stephanie Garber was actually at the booth signing the ARCs that they handed out. With the Epic Reads drop line being closed off, Steph was not able to get back in line with me but she, as well as her mom were able to get their ARCs of Caraval signed. Her mom actually got hers signed to me because she knew I missed out on getting mine signed. So in the end we swapped and we were both happy!


   And finally my Book Haul from day 2!



   There you have it! Day 2 of BEA! Day 2 was probably my biggest hauls of all three days, and one of my most jam packed!

   If you haven't seen my other posts from BEA you can see those here:


   Until the next post!