#BookReview: Legendary (Caraval, #2) by @SGarberGirl @Flatironbooks #Legendary #NetGalley

About the Book:

Stephanie Garber’s limitless imagination takes flight once more in the colorful, mesmerizing, and immersive sequel to the bestselling breakout debut Caraval

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.

#BookReview: My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley

About the Book:

The time for Stephen McCauley's breakout audiobook has come and My Ex-Life is it in a major way. A delicious audiobook for fans of Tom Perrotta, Maria Semple, and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney about how sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.

David Hedges is having an unusual mid-life crisis. His boyfriend Soren has left him for an older man, albeit a successful surgeon. His job – helping the spoiled children of San Francisco’s elite get into college – is exasperating. As his life reaches new lows, his weight has reached new highs. The only good thing he has is his under market value apartment that has a view that is so stunning he is the envy of all of San Francisco. But when the landlord finally decides to sell – to Soren and the surgeon courtesy of his supposed realtor friend -- David hits rock bottom.

Across the country, Julie Fiske isn’t having much of a better time herself. Carol, the woman (younger, of course) that Harry, her second husband, left her for, is downright likable – more likeable than Harry was. The bills that she files by throwing into the back seat of her car keep piling up -- so much so that she has turned her rambling home into an illegal B&B in the tourist, seaside town where she lives. Her sullen teen daughter adamantly refused to apply to college (As David says, “I’m always drawn to sadness in teenagers, which I take to be a sign of intelligence. What teenager with half a brain looking at the condition of the planet they would inherit wouldn’t be sad?”) And Julie can’t seem to quite smoking weed (why should she? it’s the one good thing she has). 

Harry lays down an ultimatum – if Mandy doesn’t start applying to college, she’s going to come live with him and Carol. And then Mandy surprises Harry, and stuns Julie, by saying she’s been working with David Hedges, Mom’s first husband from long ago. It’s a lie, but a good one, and, Julie thinks, not a bad idea. So when Julie out of the blue calls David up and asks if he’ll help Mandy, he says of course. And when Mandy tells David he should come visit them and stay in one of their B&B rooms, he surprises everyone, including himself, by accepting.

Soon David and Julie are living together and in many ways pick up exactly where they left off. But while the chemistry between them is still there, and they can finish each other’s sentences, there’s one conversation they never finished that is unavoidable.

#BookReview: The Hazel Wood by @mimi_albert ‏ #Netgalley

Reviewed By: Lauren

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Number of Pages: 368
Recommended Age Group: Young Adult 

Fiction Genre: Fairy Tales

How I Acquired this book: Netgalley 

Time it took to read: 4H 34M

Overall rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads | Amazon

About the Book:
Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Caraval (Untitled #1) by @SGarberGirl #BookReview

This title will be released on January 31, 2017.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval―Stephanie Garber’s sweeping tale of two sisters who escape their ruthless father when they enter the dangerous intrigue of a legendary game.

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 #Giveaway of Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty #Thanks @Flatironbooks via #BEA16

    Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong?

Sam and Clementine have a wonderful, albeit, busy life: they have two little girls, Sam has just started a new dream job, and Clementine, a cellist, is busy preparing for the audition of a lifetime. If there’s anything they can count on, it’s each other.

Clementine and Erika are each other’s oldest friends. A single look between them can convey an entire conversation. But theirs is a complicated relationship, so when Erika mentions a last minute invitation to a barbecue with her neighbors, Tiffany and Vid, Clementine and Sam don’t hesitate. Having Tiffany and Vid’s larger than life personalities there will be a welcome respite.

Two months later, it won’t stop raining, and Clementine and Sam can’t stop asking themselves the question: What if we hadn’t gone?

In Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don’t say can be more powerful than what we do, and how sometimes it is the most innocent of moments that can do the greatest harm.