Waiting on Wednesday – Week 107

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It’s to spotlight on upcoming books I’m DYING to get my hands on!

I’m so sorry for being so AWOL at the moment... school’s going to finish up soon and then it’s exams, so there’s a lot of last minute topics and homework and it’s just getting a little bit out of control. That will mainly be the reason why I won’t be posting all too often, but hopefully I find sometime here and there when I can post.

This week’s WoW is:

Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis

Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back-but that's assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane's arrival was far from accidental, and she's pulled into the heart of a war she's risked everything to avoid.

In her enthralling debut, R.C. Lewis weaves the tale of a princess on the run from painful secrets . . . and a poisonous queen. With the galaxy's future-and her own-in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.

October 14, 2014 ● Goodreads

I’m always down for a fairytale retelling! I still need to finish the Cinder series, but this one sounds like another amazing take on a popular story. Can’t wait for this one!

What are you waiting on?

Liv, Forever Blog Tour: Dream Cast by Amy Talkington

AMY TALKINGTON

Amy Talkington is an award-winning screenwriter and director living in Los Angeles. Before all that she wrote about music for magazines like Spin, Ray Gun, Interview, and Seventeen (mostly just as a way to get to hang out with rock stars). As a teenager in Dallas, Texas, Amy painted lots of angsty self-portraits, listened to The Velvet Underground and was difficult enough that her parents finally let her go to boarding school on the East Coast. Liv, Forever is her first novel.

Website ● Tumblr ● Twitter  ● Goodreads

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

LIV – ELLE FANNING

Liv really doesn’t know know what to make of Wickham Hall so she spends most of her time holed up in the painting studio working. But, her sharp wit and artistic passion gain her the attention of Malcolm Astor. Liv is not one to put her emotions out there but, just when she’s starting to open up to Malcolm, she is murdered. Liv is a fighter, and she works together with Malcolm and campus oddball Gabe to solve her murder, uncovering a dark conspiracy at  Wickham Hall. Elle Fanning is a perfect Liv. She has an artistic spirit and an undeniable strength. And her timeless look will help make Liv an indelible heroine.

Okay, so she may not be a brunette, but hey, that’s what hair dye is for.

This is a girl who will fight to solve a mystery.

She might be fearful but she will not run away.

If you want to know all the latest on Liv, Forever follow me on Twitter @amytalkington and Tumblr http://amytalkington.tumblr.com/

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Thank you so much to Amy for stopping by! Really excited to see Elle Fanning in Maleficent, so I’m sure she’s an amazing choice for Liv! I’m really excited to get into the book, and so here’s a little more about it:

Goodreads

When Liv Bloom lands an art scholarship at Wickham Hall, it’s her ticket out of the foster system. Liv isn’t sure what to make of the school’s weird traditions and rituals, but she couldn’t be happier—especially when Malcolm Astor, fellow artist and scion of one of the school’s original families, starts falling for her. Fellow scholarship kid Gabe Nichols warns her not to get involved with a “Wicky,” but things are finally going Liv’s way, and all she wants to do is enjoy it.

But Liv’s bliss is cut short when she is viciously murdered. In death, she discovers that she’s the latest victim of a dark conspiracy that spans 150 years and many, many lives. Gabe, cursed with the ability to see their ghosts, turns out to be Liv’s only link to the world of the living.

Liv must rely on Gabe’s help to prove to Malcolm that she’s still present… lingering with the other spirits. Together, Liv, Gabe, and Malcolm fight to expose the terrible truth that haunts the halls of Wickham before more lives are lost.

▪ ▪ ▪ Thank you so much to Meredith Barnes for having me on the blog tour! ▪ ▪ ▪

Side Effects May Vary Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Release Date: March 18, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Rated: YA 14+
Format: eGalley
Source: Edelweiss
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository ● Barnes & Noble ● iTunes ● Kindle
Goodreads ● Website

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you? 

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most? 

Julie Murphy’s SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY is a fearless and moving tour de force about love, life, and facing your own mortality.

After catching a glimpse of the really interesting and cute cover, I knew I had to get my hands on Side Effects May Vary. The premise sounded original, and sure enough I wasn't disappointed. I've heard many things about this novel, good and bad, and I'm glad that didn't affect my judgement on this book. While I did love the story and most of the characters, as well as the structure, there were just some things about this novel that I couldn't get into or enjoy. I will say though– Julie Murphy can WRITE, and beautifully at that.
I was super excited when I got the chance to be apart of this blog tour. I realised that after reading The Fault in Our Stars, I actually didn't know that much about cancer. Sad isn't it? Unfortunately, it's so widespread now days, but I barely know anything about it. I thought that this could possibly help with that, and I thought that the portrayal of Alice's struggle through cancer and her fight to live life to the fullest was so realistically depicted, and as a person who really doesn't know much about cancer, it really illuminated the different consequences it can have on a person.

Alice pushed me to the end of my tolerance for characters. I'm going to be honest: I've never been more frustrated or appalled by a character. I mean, she literally made me clench my jaw. There's annoying and then there's I-want-to-run-you-over-with-a-truck. Guess which one she was? I hated how her character constantly used Harvey over and over again, and she was clearly just looking for revenge. I was a little let down, because I thought that she would grow and understand her mistakes and so on, but nope. Her character is so static throughout the book, that it nearly pushed me over the edge.
Thank goodness for other characters though! Even though I thought his mooning over Alice was a little too much, I really loved Harvey's character. I wish that Dennis and Deborah's characters were more developed because I enjoyed their presence in the book so much. It was also interesting how the parents play into the story and how their actions and backstories, etc. all mingle with Alice's and Harvey's.

I liked the fragmented structure of the story, how it not only switched perspectives but also time periods, oscillating from "Then" and "Now". It lead to some confusion on my part, because I wasn't very good with keeping track of what was going on or when during the chronological sequence of events that certain scenes were taking place, but it was really unique to see the cause and effect of past actions into the present. It's certainly something that isn't very common in YA, and I thought it was very original on Murphy's part to include this.

Overall, while some parts nagged at me throughout the book, Side Effects May Vary has a gripping plot that teens and adults alike will find captivating from start to finish. Murphy's debut explores the emotional rollercoaster that is the teen years, filled with pain, love and heartbreak, and coming to terms with oneself. 

If you like this, try...

• Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison ● Goodreads
• The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han ● Goodreads
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews ● Goodreads

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 

JULIE MURPHY

Julie lives in North Texas with her husband who loves her, her dog who adores her, and her cat who tolerates her. When she's not writing or trying to catch stray cats, she works at an academic library. Side Effects May Vary is Julie's debut novel. 

Website ● Goodreads ● Twitter ● Pinterest ● Instagram ● YouTube ● Tumblr

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 

It's time for a giveaway!

Enter to win...

(1) Finished Copy of SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY by Julie Murphy!

US ONLY

Enter in the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ 

Click below to see the rest of the stops on the blog tour!

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Thanks so much to FFBC Tours for having me along!