The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore + Giveaway

The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore
Published by Thomas Dunne on September 15, 2015
Genres: [Young Adult] Fantasy, Magical Realism
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover, ARC
Source: Publisher

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Rerated: 3.5 Stars
4 Stars, Completed September 29, 2015

– read the bold text to avoid minor SPOILERS  –

This is the third book I’ve read in the past month that has utilized dual perspectives, incorporated multilingual dialogue, and featured the Romeo and Juliet trope. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the others, I have to say, this is my favorite one by far.

Through generations of competition, the Palomas and Corbeaus have dealt with a strong feud and rivalry. Both families are traveling performers in competing shows. The Palomas swim in mermaid exhibitions and the Corbeaus, former tight-rope walkers, perform in tall trees. Lace Paloma has grown up knowing that the Corbeaus are pure magia negra, black magic, and that just by touching them it could be death. She’s learned to stay away, until a chemical rain pours down on the town of Almendro, and the one that saves her life happens to be Cluck, a Corbeau. His touch immerses her into a life of falling feathers. Now that their lives are closely intertwined, there’s no turning back.

Juniors by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Juniors by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on September 22, 2015
Genres: [Young Adult] Contemporary
Pages: 313
Format: Paperback, ARC
Source: Publisher

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3 Stars, Completed September 23, 2015

– SPOILER free –

In Juniors, Lea Lane goes through a number of changes her junior year of high school. She transfers to Punahou School, the largest independent academy in the United States and considered one of the most prestigious, and moves into a nice house owned by the prominent West family in upscale Kahala. After the move, Lea finds herself missing her rundown apartment in Oahu and her best friend, Danny, who is also part-Hawaiin like herself and seems to understand her the most. But then she befriends Whitney West and develops a secretive relationship with the unattainable Will West. Lea is just beginning to find herself accustomed to the attention with being connected to the West family. However, some foreseen drama sprouts, and Lea has to ask herself what she really wants out of life, whether to live on the safe side of the shore or to take risks and just ride the waves.

Exploring My Bookshelves: July + August + September

Hi everyone! So it’s been months since I’ve done an Exploring My Bookshelves post because Victoria, the original creator of the meme at Addlepates and Book Nerds, took a small hiatus while she was overseas. So during her time away, I also took a break from these posts. However, Shannon at For the Love of Words was continuing the meme with her own topics. Now both bloggers co-host this meme, which is really exciting! Anyway, it’s time for me to catch up!

For those of you that aren’t familiar to this feature, Exploring My Bookshelves is a weekly bookish meme for bloggers that want to share what are on their shelves. Here on Xingsings, I’ve adapted it as a monthly meme, in which I post my post on the last Friday of the month instead of weekly. And since I have quite a lot of topics to share this time, I’ve decided to change up the format so that this doesn’t become such a long post. All answers are in bold and all links redirect to Goodreads. Some books I mention aren’t photographed, either because I don’t own the book or I think you’ve already seen it multiple times on my blog already.

And I just wanted to say a quick thank you because I reached a new follower milestone the other day. My birthday and blogoversary is around the corner, so I may do a small giveaway to celebrate this milestone then. But anyway, thank you guys for the continual support and kind words. This journey has been so fun; you all are the best!

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So part of the rules of the meme is to include a photo of your current shelf. So here is my reading nook that I’m sure most have you all have already seen sometime or another. But something is different… yes! I tried to create a rainbow shelf. I did this in the beginning of August and was going to share it when I did a Summer Says post but that never got published… so yeah. Anyway, I kind of like it. At first, I had some serious second thoughts when all my series and authors got separated but it’s all good for now. I’m definitely not changing this set up for a long time, since this took me a couple of hours. I kid you not when I say I was sore the next day. LOL.

My #shelfie. LOL, I can’t believe I just typed that. XD If you want to enlarge the photo just click.

The Disney Book Tag

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve done a tag, hasn’t it? I think I will start scheduling some award/tag posts in the future. Today (this is scheduled as well actually) I’m back with The Disney Book Tag. Thank you Tiffani at The Book Venom and Joey at Thoughts and Afterthoughts for tagging me! I’m a big fan of Disney so I’m really excited for this one!

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1. The Little Mermaid—A character who is out their element, a “fish out of water.”
There were so many characters I could have chosen for this (pretty much all the protagonists from the Students Across the Seven Seas series…), but I decided to go with Grace Wilde from Hello, I Love You because she was one of the first that popped into my mind. If you’ve read my review for this, you’d know I wasn’t exactly pleased with the story mainly because of Grace’s ironically ungraceful, “fish out of water” experience in Korea.

Breakaway by Kat Spears

Breakaway by Kat Spears
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin on September 15, 2015
Genres: [Young Adult] Contemporary
Pages: 290
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

Rerated: 3 Stars
4 Stars, Completed September 13, 2015

– SPOILER free –

This book was raw, harsh, and honest.

Breakaway is a story about four teenage boys anticipating the best senior year together. However, this expectation falls short as their relationship becomes more strained. As the school year begins, Jordie is more preoccupied with his new girlfriend and strives to fit in with the privileged, wealthy crowd that he himself was bred into. Mario starts to chill with the addicts on campus and resolves to drugs. Chick having only felt anchored to this world because of his close friends starts to break. And Jaz, after his sister’s death, deals with grief, poverty, and a loneliness he never thought he’d have to face. Then Jaz meets Raine who understands and respects his limits and knows the exact moment to stop questioning him about his sister and his family, yet still is able to see him for who he really is.

Book Haul: July + August + September 2015

Do you guys remember my previous Book Haul? The extremely long one? Well I didn’t want you guys to suffer through that again, so instead of making a 2015 Part 2 post comprising of six months, I’m going to split these remaining months of 2015 in two. So yup, here is 2015 Part 2 out of 3, which shares my purchases from the months of July through September!

I know it’s not the end of September yet but I honestly don’t plan to buy any more books for the rest of the month for obvious reasons. Well except for one-I preordered my copy of Six of Crows months ago. (I’m seriously so excited for that one, omg.)

And I was feeling ambitious and had this super cool idea that I’d do image mapping for this post since I have considerably less books than my last (lieslieslies), so if you click on the book in the photo you should be directed to its Goodreads details. It took me a while to do this, but I hope you guys find it helpful. Enjoy!

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JULY was a pretty successful month in regards to purchasing books to complete the collection of series. I now have the entire Burn for Burn, Under the Never Sky, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogies. The Moon and More is actually one I won in a giveaway. I’m still surprised by that actually because I never win giveaways. Anyway, now I’ve completed my Sarah Dessen collection, so hurrah for that.

Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt + Giveaway

Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin on September 1, 2015
Genres: [Young Adult] Contemporary
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

Rerated: 3 Stars
3.5 Stars, Completed September 8, 2015

– minor SPOILERS ahead –

Dream Things True is a modern Romeo and Juliet-esque story about a wealthy, privileged southern boy falling in love with an undocumented Mexican girl. Evan seems to live the perfect golden boy life as a soccer star and nephew of a widely-supported, conservative senator. When Evan meets Alma he begins to question the family figures he’s admired growing up and he becomes caught up in complicated issues he’s never considered before.  ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) tightens security on the borders and raids the counties of Gilberton, Georgia for undocumented individuals, making things much more difficult for Alma and her family. As Evan and Alma, get to know each other, Alma struggles with composing the right words to reveal her true identity to Evan. With facing the complications of immigration and tangled bureaucracies, will Evan and Alma be able to overcome these obstacles?

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Published by Delacorte Press on September 1, 2015
Genres: [Young Adult] Contemporary
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

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4 Stars, Completed August 31*, 2015

*at midnight; technically on September 1

– if you have not read the book avoid SPOILERS by only reading the bold text –

Ahh, this was everything I expected it to be and more.

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but you know it as “bubble baby disease.” Basically, I’m allergic to the world. Anything can trigger a bout of sickness. … And so I stay on SCID row. I don’t leave my house, have never left my house.

Everything, Everything is a story about Madeline, a girl who has SCID, meaning if she ever was to step outside her house the unfiltered air, someone’s perfume, something normally edible for most people but she ingests could trigger symptomatic attacks that could potentially kill her. Basically she’s hypersensitive to all things that surround her and because of this disorder she’s never had contact with the outside world or other people aside from her mother and personal nurse, Carla. So for the past seventeen years, everything in her life has been a constant. Completely the same. Up until the day a family moves in next door and she meets Olly. Olly is everything she’s never felt before: healthy, reckless, alive. After their email and instant messaging correspondence, they build a strong friendship and Madeline begins to want more. She doesn’t want to just breath, she wants to be alive.