"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine where we highlight some of the upcoming books we can't wait to read!
Title: By the Book Author: Jasmine Guillory Publisher: Hyperion Avenue Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Summary: Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to finally get the promotion she deserves. All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be? But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn't there before.
As someone who is a huge fan of Jasmine Guillory's books, I was really excited when I found out about this one! Not only that, but finding out that it's set in a publishing house just made it even more exciting for me, because I love books that are set in the field that I'm in. Jasmine Guillory's love stories never disappoint, and I'm eager to get my hands on a copy of this one, hopefully soon!
What are you waiting on this week? Leave your links so I can stop back!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which we create bookish lists about everything from our favorite characters to love triangles and everything in between!
This Week's Theme: Books I Would Hand to Someone Who Claims to Not Like Reading
This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about the ten books I would hand someone who claims to not like reading. I love this idea, because there are so many incredible books that I've read that I think would grab people and really hook them and show them all of the amazing things that reading has to offer. So without further ado, in no particular order, here are ten books that I would hand to someone who claims to not like reading, hoping to change their mind. These books all gripped me and made me laugh/cry/gasp/swoon in the best of ways, and I know that someone who is apprehensive about reading would pick one of these up and get hooked:
So those are ten books that I would hand to someone who claims to not like reading! Have any of these books changed your perspective on reading? Do you have other suggestions that you would include? Comment down below and let me know!
It's time for our October 2021 blogging recap! It's hard to believe that we're already coming up on the ending few months of 2021, but it definitely happened! So without further ado, let's take a peek into all of the things we accomplished on the blog this month:
In October...
....We reviewed tons of great books!
Check out our review archive to see what reviews we added this month!
....We interviewed some 2021 debut authors! This month, we interviewed Kalena Miller!
....We rounded up some of our favorite spooky reads!
You can read all about our favorite spooky picks here.
....We created an exclusive pencil set with Longhand Pencils!
This was easily one of the best promotional things we've ever done, and it was so much fun. If you want to see our exclusive set, enter to win a set for yourself, or learn more about Longhand Pencils, you can check out that post here! The giveaway runs until 11/4, so don't forget to enter!
....We had another installment of The College Diaries!
Jessica talked all about starting her thesis classes in her MFA program, which you can read all about here.
What was your favorite thing that we did on the blog this month? What are your recommendations for future posts/reviews? Comment down below and let us know! :-)
Now it's time for November, which means tons of delicious Thanksgiving treats!
One of our favorite holidays is finally here! Happy Halloween, everyone!
Of course, the best way to celebrate is with a themed bookish roundup, which is one of our favorite things to do. First, a bit of a disclaimer -- Jessica is a total chicken and doesn't read that many "scary" books, but the occasional mystery or thriller! So there are definitely some extra-scary picks out there that may have not made it onto the list. But without further ado, here's our spooky books roundup!
So those were some spooky books that we rounded up to celebrate Halloween! Have you read any of them before? What did you think? And which extra-scary ones are we missing that you think should've been included? Comment down below and let us know!
If you need us, we'll be eating our weight in Halloween candy and fearfully prepping ourselves for NaNoWriMo tomorrow!
Blue L.E. DeLano Publication date: October 26th 2021 Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
When Blue Mancini’s mother picked her name, it ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A year ago, Blue’s brother, Jack, was involved in a car accident that killed the father of her classmate, Maya Rodriguez. Luckily for Jack, he got out of a manslaughter charge and into a plea bargain thanks to the top-notch lawyer hired by Blue’s wealthy parents.
The fallout is now affecting Blue as Maya returns to school determined to carve out a pound of flesh from the only member of the Mancini family she can reach. On top of that, Blue has a demanding mother, a father who’s never around, a drama-addicted best friend, and a secretive new guy who’s determined to make Blue his own personal cheer-up project. It’s a perfect storm of misery.
When Maya’s social media taunts and in-person digs finally push Blue to retaliate, they find themselves in afterschool detention and forced into a project meant to foster cooperation and civility. As the layers of their tangled drama unravel, Blue learns more about Maya’s life—and her own sense of privilege—when secrets are revealed that cast a new perspective on everything in Blue’s world.
My stomach tightens so hard I feel like I’m going to puke. I glance at my phone again, and the texts from last night are still there.
Maya’s back at school
my mom saw her mom at Target
Maya is back
did u see her pic on IG
Did you hear about Maya?
I shove the phone back down in the pocket of my coat and I blow on my fingers to get them warm. I should have remembered my gloves but the whole morning is a blur and I had to get out of my house and now I’m sitting in my car in the cold and I can’t bring myself to turn the key in the ignition.
The phone comes out again. I have got to get a grip on myself. I know better, but I open up Instagram and find her picture. She looks good. Well, better than the last time I saw her, which wasn’t a great time for her. Or me.
Last night, I stayed up trying not to obsess about this and nursing a throbbing hand—which makes me tired and wishing more than anything I could go back to bed and forget the rest of this semester. I’m going to be late for school if I don’t get it together. The phone drops from my hand when a fist slams repeatedly into my window, scaring the hell out of me.
“Jules!” I shriek. “What the—”
“Got tired of waiting,” she says, opening the door and sliding into the passenger seat. “You better get moving or we’ve got another unexcused tardy.”
I suppose it’s a good thing she lives four houses down, but right now I wish she lived in a neighboring town and took the bus.
“Let’s go.” I stuff my phone down into my coat pocket, trying to ignore the way it’s vibrating again. Jules’s eyes drop down, having heard it.
“So is everybody all up in your business?”
“Oh God,” I moan. “All day yesterday and still going this morning. This is such a non-event. It really is.”
“Did you see her pic?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think that was meant for me.”
Jules raises her brows. “You don’t?”
“Nah,” I say with what I hope is a careless shrug.
“Back at Audubon and nobody’s gonna keep me down,” Jules reads aloud while looking at her phone. Obviously, she had the picture open. Maya, in her bedroom, wearing a blue hoodie and smiling, both thumbs up. Her hair is longer now and she looks really pretty.
“I think she means more like, the world in general isn’t going to keep her down,” I tell her.
“I guess,” Jules agrees, only she doesn’t sound like she agrees even a little bit. “Lauren says Maya’s got Poly Sci third block with Jones.”
“Well then,” I force a smile as I start the car. “I guess we’ll find out if my theory is right.”
“She better not think she can start something.”
“Jules.” I give her a look. “Drop it, okay? I mean, she and I barely know each other.”
“I don’t think that’s true anymore.”
“No, it’s still true.” I reverse out of the driveway so fast, Jules rocks sideways in her seat.
“Whoa! Don’t go psycho on me! I’m just sayin’!”
“And I’m just saying; drop it. I’ve got enough of a feeding frenzy going on around me without you hopping on the boat, too.”
“You really don’t think that pic was meant for you?”
I stomp the brake just as we’re moving forward, and Jules rocks in the seat again.
“You honestly think I’m trying to keep Maya down? Like I don’t want her to succeed? In spite of—in spite of everything?”
Jules holds up her hands, finally realizing, I guess, that my nerves are a jangling, dangling mess.
“I’m not busting on you. I’m on your side, remember?”
“There aren’t any sides here,” I remind her with a sigh. “Not for Maya, or for me. Neither one of us had a thing to do with it.”
“Yeah, but dude—your brother killed her Dad.”
I put the car in gear and drive.
Author Bio:
L.E. DeLano comes equipped with a “useless” Theatre degree that has opened doors for her in numerous ways. Though mostly raised in New Mexico, she now lives in Pennsylvania with two adventurous kids and two ridiculous cats. When she’s not writing (which is almost never), she’s binge-watching Netflix and planning road trips.
Her debut novel, TRAVELER was selected as a Keystone To Reading Secondary Book Award finalist for school year 2018-19 by the Keystone State Reading Association (KSRA) and also voted one of The 20 Most Beautiful Books in the World for 2017 by MTV UK.
We'd like to thank the lovely team over at Xpresso for having us be a part of this book blitz! If BLUE sounds like the type of book you'd be interested in, don't forget to add it to your TBR! And don't forget to enter the giveaway above for a fun prize, too!
