Showing posts with label arc august. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arc august. Show all posts

9 Sept 2019

#Review: SCREEN QUEENS by Lori Goldstein

09 September 0 Comments

SCREEN QUEENS

Author: Lori Goldstein
Series: N/A
Source: ARC via Publisher; Purchased from Audible
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: June 11, 2019
Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:


Summary:
The Bold Type meets The Social Network when three girls vying for prestigious summer internships through a startup incubator program uncover the truth about what it means to succeed in the male-dominated world of tech.

This summer Silicon Valley is a girls' club.

Three thousand applicants. An acceptance rate of two percent. A dream internship for the winning team. ValleyStart is the most prestigious high school tech incubator competition in the country. Lucy Katz, Maddie Li, and Delia Meyer have secured their spots. And they've come to win.

Meet the Screen Queens.

Lucy Katz was born and raised in Palo Alto, so tech, well, it runs in her blood. A social butterfly and CEO in-the-making, Lucy is ready to win and party.

East Coast designer, Maddie Li left her home and small business behind for a summer at ValleyStart. Maddie thinks she's only there to bolster her graphic design portfolio, not to make friends.

Delia Meyer taught herself how to code on a hand-me-down computer in her tiny Midwestern town. Now, it's time for the big leagues--ValleyStart--but super shy Delia isn't sure if she can hack it (pun intended).

When the competition kicks off, Lucy, Maddie, and Delia realize just how challenging the next five weeks will be. As if there wasn't enough pressure already, the girls learn that they would be the only all-female team to win ever. Add in one first love, a two-faced mentor, and an ex-boyfriend turned nemesis and things get...complicated.

Filled with humor, heart, and a whole lot of girl power, Screen Queens is perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, Jenny Han, and The Bold Type
Purchase:
Amazon | Chapters | TBD
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.

I thought this one was a bit too long, even though it had a lot of very valuable conversations. I would have liked a bit more from it - or a condensed version - because at almost 400 pages, it was too much. I found myself feeling like this one was dragging at 40% and that's not how this type of book should be.

SCREEN QUEENS does a good job of showing the hardships of being a woman in STEM while empowering women to stand up for themselves and for what they believe in. It does have a fairly predictable plot, but the conversations in here are so well done that I am more than okay with not being overly shocked but what was to come.

I thought the characters were all well developed and felt really different from one another, which was good considering we had all their perspectives in this one. I thought as an audiobook, it was very well done and I enjoyed my listen to it. It made the read feel faster than when I was trying to get through my (massive) ARC.

I would have liked this to be about 150 pages shorter. I thought that while the conversations were all important, and I liked seeing how the competition unfolded, there just was too much of everything. I thought that some of it could have been condensed and brought into shorter chapters that still would have provided the same amount of development.

But! If you're looking for a good STEM book that has some cute romance, great conversations, and a fun story, this is the book for you!

Have you read this one? What was your favourite part?

31 Aug 2019

Stacking the Shelves (25): August 31, 2019

31 August 2 Comments
Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks!
Well it is the end of August and I did NOT complete all my #ARCAugust goals *whimpers* but I'm currently in Algonquin Provincial Park so I'm not too mad about it. You can see a post this week upcoming about audiobooks that are good for road trips!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway on my review of I EAT MEN LIKE AIR by Alice Berman, which is a sweet Glossier prize pack! I absolutely adored this one - and it is a podcast theme a la Sadie - so pre-order the audiobook!

Soon soon soon will be my recap of the #FrenzyPresents event from August so you can pick up some of these wonderful books! Then in a few weeks I'll be back in Toronto for the Indigo YA Fall Preview!

How has everyone's 2019 been going so far?

12 Aug 2019

ARC #Review: WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE by Tehlor Kay Mejia

12 August 1 Comments

WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE

Author: Tehlor Kay Mejia
Series: We Set The Dark On Fire #1
Source: eARC via Publisher
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: February 26, 2019
Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:


Summary:
At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husband’s household or raise his children, but both are promised a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class. Daniela Vargas is the school’s top student, but her bright future depends upon no one discovering her darkest secret—that her pedigree is a lie. Her parents sacrificed everything to obtain forged identification papers so Dani could rise above her station. Now that her marriage to an important politico’s son is fast approaching, she must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society, where famine and poverty rule supreme.

On her graduation night, Dani seems to be in the clear, despite the surprises that unfold. But nothing prepares her for all the difficult choices she must make, especially when she is asked to spy for a resistance group desperately fighting to bring equality to Medio. Will Dani cling to the privilege her parents fought to win for her, or to give up everything she’s strived for in pursuit of a free Medio—and a chance at a forbidden love?
Purchase:
Amazon | Chapters | TBD


Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.

This was a really interesting story but it didn't quite meet my expectations. I think mostly because of the writing style (which didn't quite jive with me) plus the feeling that it felt like THE SELECTION (which I hated) meets 2016 Political Climate which worked in some ways and didn't in others.


Most of my issue was with the writing style. I just couldn't connect to it or the characters - I don't know what it was about it, quite, just that I know if I hadn't been listening to it, I probably would have DNFed it. It was really slow to start and the way the characters are introduced into the story was off to me for some reason. But the whole concept was also kinda meh to begin with. It isn't until we get into the actual thick of things that I started to enjoy it.

I will say that even though it is addressed on page, I dislike some of the f/f romance aspect because of the bully to lover aspect. I don't really enjoy enemies to lovers to begin with, but I prefer it in a more "Romeo and Juliet" way (i.e. families hate each other and the kids kinda go along with it until they meet, etc.) rather than "you were literally terrible to me and now we're together" because it screams red flags to me. There are also a lot of layers to this romance anyway so it just didn't sit completely right with me.

The idea though is well thought out. I liked the real life parallels and how current politics are tied into this one. It really spoke to me and I liked seeing how the main character slowly became more entrenched in the world of politics. I like seeing characters learn and grow into doing what is right.

I liked a lot of the story and plotline well enough (and the audiobook narrator was really good!), but I thought something was missing from this. Will I check out the next book? Probably. Will I do it immediately upon release? Probably not.

15 Jul 2019

#Discussion: ARC August 2019 Sign-Up + TBR!

15 July 5 Comments

ARC August 2019 Sign-Up + TBR

I am always behind on ARCs because that's my life so I love when ARC August rolls around! I hope to be able to finish 20 books during the month but I'm also just hoping to finish one at the same time. One of my 2019 Reading Goals was to read my NetGalley ARCs so I should probably get to those at some point!

I am putting below the options that I am going to choose from and I will say this is in no way an exhaustive list. Click on the picture to go to Goodreads and add it to your TBR!

ARC August is hosted by the amazing bloggers over at Read.Sleep.Repeat.

Are you going to participate in ARC August?

23 Jul 2018

#ARCAugust 2018 Reading List!

23 July 3 Comments
It's my favourite time of year:

ARC AUGUST! 

I am so grateful to the women at Read.Sleep.Repeat. for hosting this amazing event every year because it helps me with keeping up to date on backlist and frontlist ARCs that I've been sent that I haven't gotten a chance to read yet!
Here's all the books I can choose from to read! If you see one that you have, message me or leave a comment and we can buddy read it together!

As part of ARC August, there is a readathon from August 4-5, which kicks off the long weekend here in Canada so I am very excited to take part in that! I'll hopefully knock off half my list from that weekend. 


I have a list of ARCs from 2017 that I never got to in a series of blog posts that I potentially could read as well:

5 Jul 2016

#ARCAugust TBR!

05 July 5 Comments
http://www.readsleeprepeat.org/2016-arc-august/
The girls of Read.Sleep.Repeat are hosting the fourth annual ARC August! The rules are simple. Any ARC, old or new, physical or ebook, tour or publisher provided. As long as it is an ARC it counts towards this challenge. You can be as optimistic about your goal (20 ARCs in August? SURE!) or laid back (eh..3) as you want! This challenge is solely for YOUR benefit. It’s your chance to clear your shelves and get those Netgalley ratios up!
Whoops I got behind on my ARC reading again (surprise, surprise) and some of these books don't come out until September so I am READY for #ARCAugust! I have 19 books I want to read during August for this challenge and I will be trying to read some other novels in between as well. I'll be updated weekly with my progress and what I have left to read! If I get more ARCs between now and August (and even during August), I will be adding those to hte list too! But these are priority!

Here is my list:

Are you participating in ARC August? Reading any of these books?

1 Sept 2015

Updates: August 2015 Wrap-Up!

01 September 0 Comments
It is September 1st, which means it is time for another Books and Ladders monthly wrap-up! Some exciting things happened this month for me, including becoming Nicola's co-blogger on Queen of the Bookshelves! We are having lots of fun blogging together there and I hope you guys like the change in pace that you're getting. This post is going to look a little different than the last monthly wrap-ups I did because I didn't read as much this month as I have in the past. I also thought it would serve a bit as an actual update post rather than just a giving you all my reviews in one spot (I have a search bar!)

Let me know if there is anything that you want to see more of/less of and I can do my best to accommodate! 
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I still have my birthday giveaways going on until September 16th, so make sure you get your entries in to win some fabulous books and prizes from yours truly. If you don't want to click there, you can click on each of the following to go directly to the tweet to RT it!
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Giveaway #1: Up to $15 from TBD to spend on ANY BOOK YOU WANT. You can enter this so long as TBD delivers to you and your doorstep.
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Giveaway #2: A copy of the complete Trylle series by Amanda Hocking, a signed copy of Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi, and signed Air Awakens and The Black Mage bookmarks. 
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Giveaway #3: A preorder of ANY of the #FAC16 books from TBD. You can enter this so long as TBD delivers to you and your doorstep.
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Giveaway #4: Canadians only for this one because gotta rep the homeland. A $10 Giftcard to BookOutlet along with a "$5 off your next purchase" coupon!
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I also posted a September preview to show you what is to come next month and I am working hard to make sure you guys have lots of fun posts to read.
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Don't forget that Nicola is hosting #FACSaturday which is a spin-off of #FAC16 highlighting one book a week until January! This past week was THE CROWN'S GAME by Evelyn Skye and next week is OF FIRE AND STARS by Audrey Coulthurst. If you have any questions about these, direct them my way since Nicola is on vacay until Friday! We had a lot of fun last time and hope more people come and join us this time around.
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I participated in ARCAugust hosted by Read. Sleep. Repeat. and got a whopping 10 ARCs crossed off my list. I also read a lot of other books this month and published reviews for the majority of them. Although some of them will be posted either this week or at a later date!
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But the biggest part of August for me was the release of AIR AWAKENS by Elise Kova and the cover reveal for FIRE FALLING! I have chatted and recommended Air Awakens over and over, but I finally got to share my love for this amazing book with everyone else. And the cover for Fire Falling is pure gold. The details and the colours are just on point.

Also if you need support after reading Air Awakens, come join our support group on Goodreads!



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This month I read:
Inherit The Stars by Tessa Elwood
 Review up on QotB closer to release date!
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Chimera by Vaun Murphrey
Review up on QotB
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Dark Hollow by Tara Winters
(I can't believe I forgot to post this review...)
Into A Million Pieces by Angela V. Cook
Review up on B&L
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The Soul Thief by Majanka Verstraete 
Review up on B&L
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A Sky Unbroken by Megan Crewe
Review up on QotB
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The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie LeMore
Review up on QotB
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Clockwork Menagerie by Karen Kincy
Release Day Post on B&L
Review Blog Tour on B&L on September 3rd!
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My Secret to Tell by Natalie D. Richards
Review up on QotB
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Falling for Shakespeare by Erin Butler
Blog Tour on B&L on September 8th!
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Frostfire by Amanda Hocking
Review up on B&L
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Under the Dome by Stephen King
Review up on B&L on September 4th!
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Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Review up on B&L on September 2nd!

31 Aug 2015

ARC August: Week #4 Update

31 August 1 Comments
ARC August is hosted by Read. Sleep. Repeat. and runs all August! Here is my weekly update. I read two ARCs and added a lot more to my list, but considering it was my last week of exams, I am pretty proud that I even finished one!

ARCs I Read This Week:
Clockwork Menagerie (Shadows of Asphodel #2.5) by Karen Kincy. This one won't be up and reviewed until September 3rd as part of the blog tour for it!
Mini Review: SO GOOD. If you have read the first two and loved Konstantin, then this is one for you.
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Falling For Shakespeare by Erin Butler. This one won't be up and reviewed until September 8th as part of the blog tour for it!
Mini Review: I really enjoyed this but did have some issues with it.