HCC Frenzy Presents Fall 2019 Recap!

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

It has been quite a while since I have written a blog post! To be completely transparent, I always find it quite hard to find time to read and write frequent blog posts in the summer, as I work from 9am-6pm practically everyday. Therefore, I find myself with little to know time to do much of anything. I decided to take a small break from blogging and reading this month, which I think was a very smart decision.

To kick-start the continuation of my reading for the year, I attended HarperCollins Canadas’ semi-annual Frenzy Presents event, in which team at HCC Frenzy (the teen division of Harper Collins in Canada) showcases their new Fall and Winter releases to Canadian bloggers! This is my third time ever going to a Frenzy Presents event, and you can read my recap of the first and second ones here. This time around, I loved getting to meet new bloggers and learning about many new YA books that are coming out within the next few months!

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When I first walked into the event room, I noticed these ginormous boards where you could answer some interactive questions! Most had to do with picking your most anticipated book of the season, or choosing your favourite new cover of the season!

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After interacting with the boards, I walked around and said hello to a few fellow bloggers! I also ate a few snacks, which I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of!

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At around 3pm, I sat down in my seat for the event! The HCC Frenzy crew sat on the stools shown in this picture, and talked about all of their most anticipated upcoming releases! Here are a few that sounded really cool to me:

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After hearing about all of the new and exciting fall/winter releases, Jasmin Kaur, author of WHEN YOU ASK ME WHERE I’M GOING came out to speak to us about her story and heritage. Jasmin wrote a book written in both prose and verse, and it will be coming out in October. Fortunately, we got to hear Jasmin read some of the poems from her book aloud, and it was actually her first time ever reading/performing her words in public! After she was finished, we received an ARC of her book and got it signed and personalized! I am currently reading this book and am enjoying it so far!

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And that was the Fall 2019 Frenzy Presents event! Now, it’s time to show you what came in my swag bag…

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The bag itself was donated by Epic Reads, and was gorgeous! I love the design and vibrant colours!

 

Inside, it came with quite a few bookmarks and little pins!

 

It also came with a mini notebook and sketchbook, some DavidsTea samples, and a headband with lines from PRIDE & PREJUDICE!

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The first book I received in my swag bag was BREAK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY by Brian Francis! Most of the HCC Frenzy team shared that this was their favourite book out of all the ones that they were featuring, so I hope it lives up to the hype! This book is essentially about a girl who’s mother has committed suicide, so she goes back to live with her estranged father and soon finds out that he is a drag queen! Talk about an interesting premise!

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The next book I received in my swag bag was ANGEL MAGE by Garth Nix. I am not a fantasy reader, so I think I will pass this on to someone who will love it!

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The last book I received was THE HOW AND THE WHY by Cynthia Hand! This book is one of my most anticipated books of the Fall, and I cannot wait to read it! I read Cynthia Hands’ previous book THE AFTERLIFE OF HOLLY CHASE last December, and it ended up being my second favourite book of 2018! To say that I am excited to read this one is an understatement!

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Those are all of the goodies I received at the Fall 2019 Frenzy Presents event! I had such a fantastic time, and thanks again to HCC Frenzy for inviting me!

Good Night Book Owls!

In My Mailbox #12: Most Anticipated Fall ARCs!

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

Yesterday afternoon, I came home to two ginormous book mail packages from Penguin Teen Canada and HBG Canada! I shared the outside of the packages on Instagram, but decided to share the contents on here with all of you! I also decided to include a package that I received from Simon and Schuster Canada within this post as well! This post features a lot of my most anticipated books of Fall 2019!

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The first book I received from Penguin Teen Canada is AMERICAN ROYALS by Katharine McGee. I requested this book ages ago, and was SO excited to see it in my ARC package! I don’t know much about this book, other than it has to do with a first time Queen. I was inspired to request this book after reading and loving Red, White, and Royal Blue, and I hope to love it just as much!

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The second book I received was FULL DISCLOSURE by Camryn Garrett. I was speaking to somebody that was either a beta reader/first-draft editor of this book (I can’t remember), and she spoke so highly of this novel that I couldn’t help but request this one since it seemed so intriguing to me. This book comes out in September, so look out for my review around then!

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The third book I received was THE STARS AND THE BLACKNESS BETWEEN THEM by Junauda Petrus. This novel is written in dual POV from two very different black girls that see the world similarly. I am really looking forward to reading this unique novel!

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The fourth book I received was THE PROM by Saundra Mitchell. This book is based on the Broadway play Prom, which a lot of book-tubers had the opportunity to see after Book Expo this year! I have not seen the play, but am aware of the general story line, and am really interested to see other people’s reviews of this book who have also seen the show on broadway!

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The fifth and final book I received from Penguin Teen Canada was THE BABYSITTERS COVEN by Kate Williams. Can we first admire how stunning this cover is?! I don’t remember much about this book, other than the fact that it is in the Penguin Ten must reads for the Fall!

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Those are all of the books I received from Penguin Teen Canada! I am SOOOO excited to read all of them! If you’re interested in any of them, keep your eye out for my reviews coming throughout the next few months!

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The first book I received from HBG Canada is GIRLS OF STORM AND SHADOW by Natasha Ngan. I read and loved GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE, the first novel in this series, late last year and am really excited to read this second instalment!

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The second book I received from HBG Canada was HOME WORK by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton. HBG Canada supplies me with my yearly fix of Non-Fiction books throughout the year, and since I am a big fan of Julie Andrews, I was so excited to see this one on the blogger newsletter!

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The third book I received is THE QUEENS OF ANIMATION by Nathalia Holt. As some of you may know, I am a ginormous Disney fan, and couldn’t resist requesting this ARC, featuring the untold story of women who transformed Disney animation!

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And the last book I received in this package is my most anticipated book of 2019, which is  A TALE OF MAGIC… by Chris Colfer. If you have been following my blog for a very long time, you will know that Chris Colfer’s THE LAND OF STORIES series is my all time favourite series, and I am so excited for the first instalment in this spinoff series!

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Those are all of the books I received from HBG Canada!

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The first book I received from Simon and Schuster Canada was THE VERY, VERY FAR NORTH by Dan Bar-el. This book was blurbed as a spinoff on Winnie The Pooh, and since I love Winnie, I decided to pick this one up and give it a try!

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The second book I received was CHARLIE THORNE AND THE LAST EQUATION by Stuart Gibbs. This one sounds super, super interesting, and I am really looking forward to reading this action-packed YA novel!

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The last book I received was SLAY by Brittney Morris. I have heard a lot of hype surrounding this book during/after BookExpo/BookCon, and hope that it lives up to all of my expectations. I typically enjoy novels surrounding AI or virtual reality or gaming, so I am really looking forward to reading this one!

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Those are all of the books I received from Simon and Schuster Canada!

And those are ALL of the books I received in this twelfth addition of In My Mailbox! To read all of my previous ones, click here. Thanks to Penguin Teen Canada, HBG Canada, and Simon and Schuster Canada for all of these exciting ARCs!

Good Night Book Owls!

Alyssa’s Reviews – The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney (ARC)

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

JP Delaney is a super popular adult author, known for her mystery thriller novels. I had never read one of his novels before, but I requested an ARC of this one as it sounded right up my alley! Although, the synopsis does not do this book justice, and doesn’t really talk about any of the main points!

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(No fancy picture for this one today – I’m lending my ARC out to my Aunt!)

Synopsis:

The perfect life. The perfect love. The perfect lie. From the bestselling author of The Girl Before comes a gripping new psychological thriller. . . .
Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.
She is a miracle of science.
But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives–and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?
Beware the man who calls you . . .

This was one wild thriller!

Upon first impression/chapter, I found the writing a bit difficult to read. I don’t think I have ever read a novel written in second person, so I needed some time to get used to it. After that, I really enjoyed the writing. Every few chapters, there is a little flashback about how the relationship between Tim and Abbie began, and I really enjoyed this parts a lot. The writing takes an interesting turn at the end of the novel (no spoilers here!) which I LOVED! It is one of my favourite “random” plot twists of the year!

To be completely honest with you, I didn’t love any of the characters, but I don’t think you are really supposed to anyways! I couldn’t connect to any of them, but I was still very interested and intrigued by their story. Plus, the character development in this one is great!

The AI plot line  in this story is one of my favourite concepts ever. I am a big techie, and am always interested in reading/learning about the technology of tomorrow. Initially, I had no idea that the main character in this story was a robot, and I really really enjoyed reading about it.

The ending of this crazy story is super surprising and in no way expected. At the beginning of the end, I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening. But it turned out to be a crazy twist and really interesting way to end the story.

This is truly the definition of an unputdownable novel, and I highly encourage all of you to pick this one up! Overall, I rated this book 4.5/5 stars! Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC!

Good Night Book Owls!

August 2019 TBR

Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

I apologize for posting this months’ TBR so late, I haven’t had any time to write blog posts lately! This month, I will be participating in #ARCAugust hosted by @shellyzev on bookstagram (a fellow canadian blogger/bookstagrammer!). Basically, the main and only goal is to read and review as many fall ARCs as possible! I have a ton of ARCs to review for September, so I am obviously jumping in on this readathon!

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The first book I plan to read this month is SWIPE RIGHT FOR MURDER by Derek Milman. I am SO excited to read this new YA thriller! I have read quite a few YA thrillers this year, but have had a lot of mixed reviews for them. I have seen many fabulous reviews for this book in particular, so I am really looking forward to reading it! Thanks to HBG Canada for this ARC!

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The second book I plan to read is HIM by Clare Empson. This is an adult thriller that has been out in the UK since 2018, but will be released in Canada in just a few weeks! I haven’t heard much about this one, but the blurb is incredibly intriguing! Thanks to HBG Canada for this beautiful ARC!

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I then plan on reading LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng. I have had this book on my past three (?) TBRs, so I really really hope to get to it this month!

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The fourth book I hope to read is ANYA AND THE DRAGON by Sofiya Pasternack. I have had my eye on this book ever since Fernanda from Raincoast Books talked about it at the most recent TeensRead Feed event. I am SO happy to have an ARC in my possession, and definitely plan to read it this month! Thanks to Raincoast Canada for this ARC!

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Since I have several intense thrillers on this TBR, I have decided to include a cute contemporary ARC set to release in September – A MATCH MADE IN MEHENDI by Nandini Bajpai! I haven’t heard any hype about this one (yet!), but am really looking forward to reading this! Thanks to HBG Canada for the ARC!

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The next book I plan to read is FRANKLY IN LOVE by David Yoon. This is part of Penguin Teen’s must read books for the upcoming season, which makes me even more excited to read it! David Yoon is married to Nicola Yoon, an extremely popular YA author. It’s so cool how they are both becoming well-known authors in the world of YA! Thanks to Penguin Teen Canada for the ARC!

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The last book I hope to read this month is THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix E. Harrow. This book has been gaining a lot of popularity recently, as the cover is beautiful and it’s being compared to Seanan McGuire’s fantasy series! I received an exclusive ARC from HBG Canada – thanks to them for sending it to me!

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Those are all of the books – mostly ARCs – that I plan to read this month! What are you planning to read in August?

Good Night Book Owls!