Sophie Reads YA: November 2019

monthly summary

November Summary

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November

Stacking the Shelves: November 30th 2019

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Crown of Oblivion

Waiting on Wednesday: Crown of Oblivion by Julie Eshbaugh

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November

Stacking the Shelves: November 23rd 2019

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Deadly Little Scandals

Waiting On Wednesday: Deadly Little Scandals (Debutantes #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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November

Stacking the Shelves: November 16th 2019

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Bree Barton

Waiting on Wednesday: Tears of Frost (Heart of Thorns #2) by Bree Barton

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November

Stacking the Shelves: November 9th 2019

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2018 Debut Author Challenge

Review: Sky in the Deep (Sky and Sea #1) by Adrienne Young

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Sky in the Deep
Series: Sky and Sea #1
Author: Adrienne Young
Published April 24th 2018 by Wednesday Books

Goodreads Synopsis
Part Wonder Woman, part Vikings—and all heart.

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.
Goodreads

Review
I've always liked books that have historical elements to it, and when early reviews came in for this one, I thought it seemed up my street, and that I better check it out. When I first read the book, it had no UK publisher, and was billed as a standalone book, but since then, a sequel/companion book has been released, both in the UK as well.

In Sky in the Deep, our main character, Eelyn, is training to be a warrior in her clan, the Aska, against their enemies, the Riki people. Since the dawn of time, both tribes have been at odds with each other, and when the weather is right, the fighting season always plays out the same way - each tribe launches an attack against the other, there are losses, and then they mourn the dead, and regroup for winter. When she was 12, she witnessed one of her first battles, and even saw her brother, Iri, die. So, now at 17, seeing that long thought dead brother, on the side of the Riki, is a deep betrayal, and she can't let it lie. She's been captured by the Riki, and taken to be a slave for Fiske, her brother's new friend and fighting partner, when she starts to realise that perhaps both tribes should just regroup together, as they have more in common than not. It also helps that her growing feelings for Fiske make her want them to be friends, and focus on the common enemy, the Herja people, who have killed both Aska and Riki indiscriminately.

One thing I can plainly say is that this is not an easy going book. There are so many dark themes in the book, and violence plays a crucial role. It's brutal, the description of the death scenes, and all of the threats that get bandied about, but even so, it was an enjoyable read. I think this is partly down to the fact that the themes of friendship, sibling love, and romance are interwoven with the violent scenes, that it's not always so heavy. Because of how Eelyn had seen Iri being killed - or she thought she had - she really had to reconcile herself to the fact that he was still alive, and reconnect with him in that respect, and then deal with the hatred she felt towards the Riki, and Fiske in particular, for taking him from her. It's a complicated relationship, and it progresses naturally, rather that it being all sunshine and lightness that all bygones are forgotten.

Honestly, the same goes with Fiske too. He - to Eelyn - is the reason she's been injured, captured, lost her brother, and is enslaved. It's not as if she will immediately fall for him, or he for her, but when we understand his character more (everything is from Eelyn's PoV) and see him be redeemed in her eyes, we start to see him as someone suited to Eelyn, and honestly good for her. Even so, the chemistry was there from the get go, which may have led to so much of the hatred from the beginning, but also the whole fact that they were enemies was an issue too.

The plot, and especially the way the book concluded, was so good. There weren't any moments that felt unnecessary, even the times when we have descriptions of the camp or cooking, etc. Having the Herja be introduced as they were, and the way they were dealt with was the perfect conclusion to the book, and I would've been happy if it had stayed a standalone, but I guess when I pick up The Girl the Sea Gave Back, I'll see if I change my mind.

Dates Read:

May 23-25, 2018

Rating
4 Stars

By Any Means Necessary

Waiting on Wednesday: By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery

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ARC

Blog Tour & Review: The Love Playbook by Suze Winegardner

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The Love Playbook
Series: None
Author: Suze Winegardner
Published November 4th 2019 by Entangled: Crush

Goodreads Synopsis
When Avery Stone learns her dad will be fired if his high school team doesn’t make the playoffs, she has to get her head out of her day planner and do something—anything—to help him win. Even if it means secretly coaching the team’s newest player, who seems to have more game than skill.

Lucas Black just transferred to Hillside with a fake name and a big secret. The MVP of every team he’d played on since he was seven—not to mention the MVP of every post-game party—he can’t understand why since arriving at Hillside, he’s been unable to catch a single. Freaking. Ball.

Until…Avery. Amazing, kind, generous, and crazy-freaking-hot Avery.

As Lucas goes from zero back to hero and Avery struggles with just what Lucas means to her, she inadvertently sets them on a collision course with Lucas’s secret…a secret that could take down not only Lucas but her father too.

DISCLAIMER: This Entangled Teen Crush contains a football player hotter than the Texas sun, hotel cuddles, and a steamy makeout session in the rain.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

T

Dates Read:

August 15, 2019

Rating
4 Stars

About Suze Winegardner:
Suze Winegardner is an ex-pat Brit who quells her homesickness with Cadbury Flakes and Fray Bentos pies. She thinks her life is chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny. And if you get that reference, well, she already considers you kin.

She is represented by Laura Bradford, of the Laura Bradford Literary Agency,and writes for Entangled Publishing‘s Crush imprint.

She’s lived in London, Paris and New York, and has settled, for the time being, in Tokyo.

When not writing, Suze loves to travel with her military husband, and take long walks with their dogs.
LINKS: Twitter | Website | Goodreads

November

Stacking the Shelves: November 2nd 2019

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books on my radar

November books on my radar

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The Love Playbook
Series: None
Author: Suze Winegardner
November 4th 2019 by Entangled: Crush
When Avery Stone learns her dad will be fired if his high school team doesn’t make the playoffs, she has to get her head out of her day planner and do something—anything—to help him win. Even if it means secretly coaching the team’s newest player, who seems to have more game than skill.
Lucas Black just transferred to Hillside with a fake name and a big secret. The MVP of every team he’d played on since he was seven—not to mention the MVP of every post-game party—he can’t understand why since arriving at Hillside, he’s been unable to catch a single. Freaking. Ball.
Until…Avery. Amazing, kind, generous, and crazy-freaking-hot Avery.
As Lucas goes from zero back to hero and Avery struggles with just what Lucas means to her, she inadvertently sets them on a collision course with Lucas’s secret…a secret that could take down not only Lucas but her father too.
DISCLAIMER: This Entangled Teen Crush contains a football player hotter than the Texas sun, hotel cuddles, and a steamy makeout session in the rain.
Goodreads

Tears of Frost
Series: Heart of Thorns #2
Author: Bree Barton
November 5th 2019 by Katherine Tegen Books
The electric second book in the Heart of Thorns trilogy explores the effects of power in a dark magical kingdom—and the fierce courage it takes to claim your body as your own.
Mia Rose is back from the dead. Her memories are hazy, her body numb—but she won’t stop searching. Her only hope to save the boy she loves and the sister who destroyed her is to find the mother she can never forgive. Pilar is on a hunt of her own. Betrayed by her mother, and plagued by a painful secret, she’s determined to seek out the only person who can exact revenge. All goes according to plan… until she collides with Prince Quin, the boy whose sister she killed.
As Mia, Pilar, and Quin forge dangerous new alliances, they are bewitched by the snow kingdom’s promise of freedom and opportunity. But with the winter solstice drawing near, they must confront the truth beneath the glimmering ice, as lines between friend, foe, and lover vanish like snowflakes on a flame.
Goodreads

Sick Kids In Love
Series: None
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
November 5th 2019 by Entangled: Teen
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It's easier--
It's safer--
It's better--
--for the other person.
She's got issues. She's got secrets. She's got rheumatoid arthritis.
But then she meets another sick kid.
He's got a chronic illness Isabel's never heard of, something she can't even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who's a doctor.
He's gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her.
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It's complicated--
It's dangerous--
It's never felt better--
--to consider breaking that rule for him.
Goodreads

Deadly Little Scandals
Series: Debutantes #2
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
November 5th 2019 by Freeform

"Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League-by way of Skull and Bones?"
Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. Things are looking up... until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discover near the family's summer home--and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making.
No one is quite who they seem to be.

Goodreads

Permanent Record
Series: None
Author: Mary H.K. Choi
November 7th 2019 by Atom

After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is.
Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at Age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers asking for selfies on the street.
When Leanna and Pab randomly meet at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, they both know they can’t be together forever. So, they keep things on the down-low and off Instagram for as long as they can. But it takes about three seconds before the world finds out…

Goodreads

Emergency Contact
Series: None
Author: Mary H.K. Choi
November 7th 2019 by Atom

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.
For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.
Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.
When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Goodreads

Practically Ever After
Series: Ever After #3
Author: Isabel Bandeira
November 12th 2019 by Spencer Hill Press

Ever practical Grace Correa has planned the perfect life.
She has Leia, the perfect girlfriend, amazing friends, is part of Pine Central’s glitterati, and has been accepted into her first-choice university guaranteeing one of the best paying jobs in the country. To Grace, life is an equation where everything can be perfectly calculated to ensure maximum success and the perfect future.
The problem is that life has a funny way of getting in the way of plans.
With high school rushing to an end, Grace’s plans start falling apart. The “piece of cake” final design project is anything but easy, everyone seems to need everything from her, her schedule is a mess, and after a massive fight, all signs say that breaking up with Leia is the practical choice for both of them. Especially since long distance college relationships never seem to last. Except…Grace starts to wonder for the first time in her life if she messed up her calculations.
What can a practical person do when love is the least practical choice?

Goodreads

Crown of Oblivion
Series: None
Author: Julie Eshbaugh
November 12th 2019 by Harper Collins

Astrid is the surrogate for Princess Renya, which means she bears the physical punishment if Renya steps out of line. Astrid has no choice—she and her family are Outsiders, the lower class of people without magic and without citizenship.
But there is a way out of this life—competing in the deadly Race of Oblivion. To enter the race, an Outsider is administered the drug Oblivion, which wipes their memory clear of their past as they enter a new world with nothing to help them but a slip of paper bearing their name and the first clue. It’s not as simple as solving a puzzle, however—for a majority of the contestants, the race ends in death. But winning would mean not only freedom for Astrid, but citizenship and health care for her entire family. With a dying father to think of, Astrid is desperate to prevail.
From the beginning, the race is filled with twists and turns. One of them is Darius, a fellow racer Astrid meets but isn’t sure she can trust. Though they team up in the race, as Astrid’s memories begin to resurface, she remembers just who he was to her—a scorned foe who may want revenge. Astrid also starts to notice she has powers no Outsider should—which could help her win the race, but also make her a target if anyone finds out. With stakes that couldn’t be higher, Astrid must decide what is more important: risking her life to remember the mysteries of the past, or playing a cutthroat game in order to win her—and her family’s—freedom.

Goodreads

Realm of Ash
Series: The Books of Ambha #2
Author: Tasha Suri
November 14th 2019 by Orbit

The fate of an empire rests in the hands of a young woman with magical blood and nothing left to lose, and an outcast prince determined to save his family at any cost, in this "dark, melodious, and memorable" new fantasy (Library Journal, starred review) from the author of the award-winning Empire of Sand.
The Ambhan Empire is crumbling. A terrible war of succession hovers on the horizon. The only hope for peace lies in the mysterious realm of ash, where mortals can find what they seek in the echoes of their ancestors' dreams. But to walk there requires a steep price.
Arwa is determined to make the journey. Widowed by a brutal massacre, she's pledged service to the royal family and will see that pledge through to the end. She never expected to be joined by Zahir, the disgraced, illegitimate prince who has turned to forbidden magic in a desperate bid to save those he loves.
Together, they'll walk the bloody path of their shared past. And it will call into question everything they've ever believed...including whether the Empire is worth saving at all.

Goodreads

What has caught your eye for November? Have you read any of these? Let me know :)

November Summary

Stacking the Shelves: November 30th 2019

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, which showcases the books we've purchased, won, borrowed and received in the mail.

This week (November 24th-30th) I received:

Nothing this week.

What did you receive? Let me know.

Waiting on Wednesday: Crown of Oblivion by Julie Eshbaugh

Stacking the Shelves: November 23rd 2019

Waiting On Wednesday: Deadly Little Scandals (Debutantes #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Stacking the Shelves: November 16th 2019

Waiting on Wednesday: Tears of Frost (Heart of Thorns #2) by Bree Barton

Stacking the Shelves: November 9th 2019

Review: Sky in the Deep (Sky and Sea #1) by Adrienne Young

Waiting on Wednesday: By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery

Blog Tour & Review: The Love Playbook by Suze Winegardner

Stacking the Shelves: November 2nd 2019

November books on my radar

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Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, which showcases the books we've purchased, won, borrowed and received in the mail. This week (November 24th-30th) I received: Nothing this week. What did you receive? Let me know.

Contact Form

About Me

Search

Twitter

Bloglovin'

Reading Challenge

Review Scale

Blog Archive

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, which showcases the books we've purchased, won, borrowed and received in the mail.

This week (November 24th-30th) I received:

Nothing this week.

What did you receive? Let me know.