LGBT Monday: Blueberry Boys

Author: Vanessa North

Series: standalone

Released: November 28th 2015

Publisher: Riptide

Length: 188 pages

Source: bought

Buy: Amazon

Connor Graham is a city boy—a celebrated fashion photographer in New York. When his uncle’s death drags him back to the family blueberry farm, all he wants to do is sell it as quickly as he can. Until he meets his uncle’s tenant farmer.

Jed Jones, shy and stammering, devout and dedicated, has always yearned for land of his own and a man to share it with. Kept in the closet by his church, family, and disastrous first love, he longs to be accepted for who he is. But now, with his farm and his future in Connor’s careless hands, he stands to lose even the little he has.

Neither man expects the connection between them. Jed sees Connor—appreciates his art and passion like no one else in this godforsaken town ever has. Connor hears Jed—looks past his stutter to listen to the man inside. The time they share is idyllic, but with the farm sale pending, even their sanctuary is a source of tension. As work, family, and their town’s old-fashioned attitudes pull them apart, they must find a way to reconcile commitments to their careers and to each other. 

Vanessa North’s books are always such quite wonders, studies of melancholy with superb characterization. The honesty of her prose makes her books a rare find, and her rich style consistently leaves me in awe. Her two-book Lake Lovelace series is one of my genre favorites, and Blueberry Boys easily joined that list.

On the surface, this seems like a fairly simple story about two men with deep hurts and a whole lot of love. But once Vanessa North starts exploring those hurts, all kinds of things come to light and the story proves to be anything but simple or superficial. She explores these characters deeply and efficiently, giving us a complete picture and two characters we never want to leave.

Short and (Bitter)Sweet: Chantress Alchemy & The Beautiful Ashes

Author: Amy Butler Greenfield
Series: Chantress, #2
Published: May 6th 2014
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Lenght: 352 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

Lucy races against time and magic in this sequel to the “richly and thoughtfully written” (Publishers Weekly) Chantress.

Lucy is the last Chantress, the only remaining girl who can sing magic into the world. Since she defeated the evil Lord Scargrave, England has changed—and not for the better. With crops failing and the people rebelling, Lucy is called urgently back to King Henry’s court. His Inner Council is convinced that making gold through alchemy will save England. But a critical element to the alchemical process has been stolen. Lucy is tasked with finding it with her magic… or else. And until she succeeds, the castle is on lockdown.

Court too has changed. Scargrave's brutal Chantress-hunter has become King Henry's closest advisor. Lucy’s beloved Nat has fallen out of favor and is shunned by his colleagues; their romance means trouble for both of them. Worst of all, something goes wrong with Lucy’s magic. The palace is a labyrinth, and there’s a monster at its heart — a monster who may have the power to defeat Lucy once and for all. 

Amy Butler Greenfield returns to the beguiling world of Chantress for a suspenseful tale of courtly intrigue, music, and magic in Chantress Alchemy.

Chantress Alchemy, the sequel to Amy Butler Greenfield’s YA historical fantasy debut, is one of my hotly anticipated releases in 2014. Everything I loved about Chantress - the gorgeous setting, fabulous characters and Butler Greenfield’s elegant writing – is present in this sequel as well. Not only is Chantress Alchemy as good as its predecessor, I dare say it’s a much better book in some regards.

Review: If I Should Die (Revenants, #3)

Author: Amy Plum
Series: Revenants, #3
Release date: May 1st 2013
Publisher: Atom
Paperback, 408 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

An enthralling and unique paranormal romance, Amy Plum's DIE FOR ME series introduces a new version of the undead with revenants, beings who are fated to sacrifice themselves over and over again to save others' lives.

I will not lose another person I love. I will not let history repeat itself.

Vincent waited lifetimes to find me, but in an instant our future together was shattered. He was betrayed by someone we both called a friend, and I lost him. Now our enemy is determined to rule over France s immortals, and willing to wage a war to get what they want.

It shouldn t be possible, none of it should be, but this is my reality. I know Vincent is somewhere out there, I know he s not completely gone, and I will do anything to save him.

After what we ve already fought to achieve, a life without Vincent is unimaginable. He once swore to avoid dying - to go against his nature and forsake sacrificing himself for others - so that we could be together. How can I not risk everything to bring my love back to me?

As someone who’s been a pretty big fan of this series from the day Die for Me came out, I had very mixed feelings about this final installment. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about Kate and Vincent’s fate, and even after a whole year of living with that awful cliffhanger in mind, a part of me was reluctant to have it resolved and let them go – not because I doubted their happily ever after, but because they are so very dear to me.

Although things turned out exactly as I thought they would in the end, there were a few surprises along the way. The story took some pretty unexpected twists and turns and several secondary characters like Kate’s Papy Mercier were given a more important role in the central part of the story. The middle is almost always my least favorite part of a story, but Plum used her excellent sense of pacing and a very interesting ancient ritual to make this middle part riveting.

My only disappointment was the entire situation with Jules. When the intensity of his feelings was brought to light in Die for Her, a Harper Impulse novella, I assumed it would somehow become essential to the story. I can’t say I was looking forward to it since the whole thing promised a world of angst, but I didn’t want it to be neatly swept under the rug either, which is exactly what happened in the end. I dislike storylines that lead absolutely nowhere, and I felt that this one accomplished nothing at all.

Aside from that little setback, If I Should Die gave me everything I’d hoped for. The focus wasn’t on Kate and Vincent alone, but on all the revenants, and as Amy carefully announced on her Facebook page, not everyone got their happily ever after. Some stories ended gloriously, and some brought me to tears.

The final battle of good and evil went down in a very Harry Potter-like fashion, with the Champion (who shall not be named) and the leader of the numa (who shall not be named) fighting surrounded by both their armies. After all the troubles the numa have caused, seeing the bardia united in their effort to conquer evil brought tears to my eyes. It was a very intense scene with a lot of things happening at once – I was shocked when I realized it all happened in no more than 15 pages.

There aren’t many trilogies of the paranormal romance-ish variety I really enjoy, but my whole heart was invested in this one from start to finish, and a huge part of me hates that it’s over, but I am happy with how it all turned out.

Review: Sister Assassin (Mind Games, #1)

Author: Kiersten White
Series: Mind Games, #1
Release: February 19th 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Paperback, 304 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository


The first thing you need to know about Sister Assassin (or Mind Games, title of the US edition) is that it’s absolutely thrilling. Ferguson, my Kindle, was temporarily unavailable so I was forced to read it on my iPhone and my eyes nearly fell out, but I couldn't stop. Not for a second. I wouldn't have stopped to save my life.

Sister Assassin is a story about two sisters, Fia and Annie, and the narrative is divided between their two points of view. It also jumps back and forth in time, and these flashbacks (both Annie’s and Sofia’s) allow us to fill in the crucial backstory. The sisters live in a boarding school for talented girls. Annie is blind, but she is also a Seer, able to predict the future to a certain extent. However, the real asset is Fia, for whose talent there isn’t even a proper name. Her instinct, the tiny voice that tells right from wrong, never fails her. She always knows the best course of action, even when she doesn’t understand the reason.

Her ability doesn’t really help her defend herself from the school and its owner, Mr. Keane, when he starts holding Annie hostage in order to force Fia to do his bidding. She’s a girl who can do anything – predict stocks, steal anything they need, kill and get away with it. She always knows which road to take if she needs to get away.

In the process of training her, they completely broke her. Fia is a disorganized mess of violent thoughts and White’s writing reflected this perfectly. I honestly didn’t think that she, as a writer, was capable of such a thing. It reminded me just a bit of Tahereh Mafi, and you all know how I feel about her. In Annie’s chapters, the writing was more balanced, but Fia’s was full of jumbled, disjointed sentences and repetitiveness. It was the perfect way to keep the damage that was done to her constantly present in the reader’s mind.

In this room I have picked which gun was unloaded out of ten options. And then they pulled the trigger on me. I have picked stocks that went on to skyrocket. I have picked which pencil I would shove into Ms. Robertson’s ear until she kicked me out for thinking about it.

Ms. Robertson, you see, is Mr. Keane’s secretary and a (mind) Reader. The school also has Seers, and Feelers (empaths). Under their watchful eye, it’s almost impossible to plan a successful escape, but Fia is better trained than any of them and she has her own ability to help her.

The romance was completely unconventional, and all the more exciting because of it. Sofia had no idea whom she could trust, and neither did I. I liked James a lot, but his every action was morally dubious, and it was precisely that that made him perfect for Fia in a sad, twisted way. Theirs is a romance I resisted for as long as I could because I felt that a part of it is rotten at its core, but in the end I had no choice but to accept it and want it for both of them.

Make sure to have a free afternoon when you decide to read this book. You will not be able to put it down, that much I can promise you, it will consume your every thought. Sister Assassin doesn’t end with a cliffhanger, but things are far from resolved. The ending IS an ending, but it is also a promise of a great second installment. I’m in. How about you?

In My Mailbox #9

Hello, honorary librarians!


In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Kristy at The Story Siren. Here's what my poor mailman had to carry around this week:

Blood of the Demon by Diana Rowland
Hounded by Kevin Hearne
First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
Second GRave on the Left by Darynda Jones
Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
These are all book I either owned in e-format, or already owned but gave away. In any case, I loved them all so much that I just had to order physical copies/replace them. Now I can look at them on my shelf and reread them a trillion times if I want to. (I also hug them occasionally, psssst.)


I also bought: 

Don't you just love the new paperback edition of Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys? That is one of the most amazing books I've ever read, so powerful and touching, and although it has many covers, this one is my favorite. I preordered Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz the second I finished reading the arc. I know I'll want to reread it many times in the future. I'm also incredibly excited about The Book of Blood and Shadow. This is one of those times when I simply had to have the paperback because the cover is so much prettier. I'll be reading/reviewing it sometime next week.

Here's some of what I received for review: 

A Brighter Fear by Kerry Drewery
Immortal City by Scott Speer
Struck by Jennifer Bosworth (I accidentally received an extra copy of Struck so I'll probably give it away sometime next week.)





Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard
Echoes of the Past by Tim Marquitz
Clarity by Kim Harrington

Thank you to HarperCollins UK, Scholastic UK, Macmillan, HarperTeen and Tim Marquitz.

I apologize for the messy formatting. Blogger has a mind of its own today.

What did you get this week?

In My Mailbox #8

Hello guys, this is the eighth week The Nocturnal Library participates in this great meme "In My Mailbox" hosted by Kristy at The Story Siren, where we share with other bloggers the books we got during the week, hoping to give you some ideas on what to read next.

Let's see what Maja got this week in her mailbox:

It’s been two weeks since our last IMM post and in that time, I’ve received quite a few books, as usual. I’ll only mention the ones I’m most excited about, otherwise you’d all have to spend the rest of the day reading this post. Author Tim Marquitz, whose books I love more than I could ever put into words, was kind enough to send me Corrupts Absolutely, an anthology in which, apparently, twenty authors offered their visions of what it might be like to be superhuman in today’s world. To say that I’m excited about reading it would be a serious understatement.

Partials by Dan Wells turned out to be more fun than I expected and I ended up reading the entire thing in less than a day. 
Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire is the best new urban fantasy I’ve read in a long while. My copy of Froi of the Exiles finally arrived - I preordered it even before I received the ARC on Netgalley. 
I bought a hardcover copy of Chime because the price was significantly lowered at The Book Depository, and last but not least, Mr. Ferguson Kindle finally got his Gelaskins. You can see the results HERE and HERE.


As for me, I got some really great books this week. My awesome co-blogger and bestest friend Maja sent me ANOTHER book for my birthday (you might remember she sent The King of Attolia a couple of weeks ago). This time, she couldn't restrain herself and sent me a copy of a book she definitely loves and worships The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Now I really don't have any more excuses not to read it (not that I didn't want to in the first place) and I actually already started it.
The second book I got is Illuminate by Aimee Agresti, courtesy of the lovely girls at The Readventurer.

The last book I got is The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland, courtesy of Netgalley, which has a very enticing cover and title but that unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations (you can read my sad review here).

That's all for this week folks but before we say goodbye we just wanted to let you know that this week we're VERY excited to participate with a guest post in the Marchetta Madness meme hosted by Chachic's Book Nook where some of us will be talking about all the reasons why we simply love Melina Marchetta and her fabulous books!

Have a great week everybody!

In My Mailbox #7

And we're come to out seventh In My Mailbox, a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, where we show other lovely bloggers or whoever is interested which books we got during the past week. It's a lovely feature even though I have to confess that the effect is devastating. I'm not sure how many books I have added to my Mountain To Be Read because of these posts...

But let's see what Maja got this week:

I’m so excited about the books I got this week, guys! I bought a few from The Book Depository, just like every week, I received some for review via Netgalley and I even turned my library upside down this Wednesday. As a result, I have far too many books to share here with you, so I’ll just pick the ones I’m most excited about.

That Born Wicked cover has been driving me crazy since I first saw it. The reviews I’ve read have been all over the place, but I just had to own it. It’s very pretty and I can be very shallow, I’m afraid. On the other hand, most of the reviews of Article 5 have been positive. I’m a little tired of dystopias altogether, but I still want to give this one a chance. I got Stephen King’s new book from my library (luckily, it’s brand new), and I can’t wait to read it, even though it has 740 pages. I refuse to be intimidated, lol. 
I got Struck by Jennifer Bosworth via Netgalley and I’m very surprised by how much I’m enjoying it. I also got The Raft by S.A. Bodeen and Before You Go by James Preller. And that would be all for this week, my lovelies.


As for yours truly, my week has been less fruitful, but equally awesome.
Maja has sent me a hardback copy of The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner as a birthday present (did ya know? I've just turned 20! *I wish*) which I am very excited to read since she swears it's the best book of the series.
Aside from that, which is already an awesome birthday present in itself, I got myself a US edition of Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. I have to thank Catie at The Readventurer for that because she definitely piqued my interest with her comparative post of the two editions of this book. 
Finally, I got Grave Mercy by R.L. Lafevers from NetGalley. I have to confess I was very excited to read this book but now that I've started it.... umm, I'm not so excited anymore. I'm only around the 20% mark though and I certainly hope it will get better.

I also got a very nice postcard from Philippines, courtesy of our friend Chachic at The Book Nook and a skin for my Kindle by Gelaskins!
Like it?

That's all for this week folks, I wish you a great, happy reading week!

In My Mailbox #6

No, we didn't abandon you, we just skipped a week. We've been busy, sick, busy being sick and busy taking care of others being sick. Basically, we can't wait for spring to finally come knocking on our doors and take away all bacteria... wait, I heard a thump, did Maja just faint?
So here we come again with our weekly meme, In My Mailbox, hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

But let's see what Maja got in her IMM this week - her words are reported because she's currently still unconscious due to mentioning of bacteria:


I came down with a flu this week (I know, TMI, right?) so I had even more time to read than usual. Luckily, my mailman was kind enough to leave many treasures in my mailbox. 
For review, I got The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor from the lovely people at Hodder Children’s Books. I already finished that one and liked it a lot. It was about teleportation of all things, something I really hand’t expected. Come back for review in a day or two. 
I also got Unravelling by Elizabeth Norris from HarperCollins UK. I have yet to read that one, but I’m incredibly excited about it. 
And because the powerful triangle Melina Marchetta - Megan Whalen Turner - my friend Chachic said so, I got The Returning by Christine Hinwood.

I bought I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan and I hope to read it soon, although I’m not sure when I’ll find the time for it. I’ve been wanting to read it for what seems like a trillion years. 
I also bought myself a copy of Split by Swati Avasthi. We talked about that book a lot here at The Library, so there’s no need to add anything just now. 
And last but certainly not least, I finally got a copy of (don’t laugh) Mash by Richard Hooker. That happens to be the funniest book I’ve ever read. I love it. I also have a crush on Hawkeye Pierce.

As for me my week is, yet again, all about contemporary YA. After the last Sarah Ockler's book, Bittersweet that I read and reviewed last week, I decided to get her other books: Fixing Delilah and Twenty Boy Summer.
I also got - and am currently reading - The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen. So far it's going pretty well.

Also, I'd like to congratulate Flannery from The Readventurer and Kimberly Lim for winning our Split's giveaway. They both chose a hardback version (the one with the red cover) of Split and I hope they will enjoy it as much as I did!


That's all for this week my friends, if life doesn't get in the way I'll be sure to see you next Sunday!