ARC REVIEW: “The Worst Best Man” by Mia Sosa

Title: The Worst Best Man Author: Holly Black Publisher: Avon Source: HBG Canada Publication Date: February 4th, 2020 Format: ARC Page Count: 368 (paperback edition)

Plot Summary: A wedding planner left at the altar? Yeah, the irony isn’t lost on Carolina Santos, either. But despite that embarrassing blip from her past, Lina’s offered an opportunity that could change her life. There’s just one hitch… she has to collaborate with the best (make that worst) man from her own failed nuptials.

Marketing expert Max Hartley is determined to make his mark with a coveted hotel client looking to expand its brand. Then he learns he’ll be working with his brother’s whip-smart, stunning—absolutely off-limits—ex-fiancée. And she loathes him.

If they can nail their presentation without killing each other, they’ll both come out ahead. Except Max has been public enemy number one ever since he encouraged his brother to jilt the bride, and Lina’s ready to dish out a little payback of her own.

Soon Lina and Max discover animosity may not be the only emotion creating sparks between them. Still, this star-crossed couple can never be more than temporary playmates because Lina isn’t interested in falling in love and Max refuses to play runner-up to his brother ever again…

The Worst Best Man on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from HarperCollins Canada in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: “The Queen of Nothing” by Holly Black

Title: The Queen of Nothing Series: The Folk of the Air, #3 Author: Holly Black Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Source: HBG Canada Publication Date: November 19th, 2019 Format: Hardcover Page Count: 308

Plot Summary: After being pronounced Queen of Faerie and then abruptly exiled by the Wicked King Cardan, Jude finds herself unmoored, the queen of nothing. She spends her time with Vivi and Oak, watches her fair share of reality television, and does the odd job or two, including trying to convince a cannibalistic faerie from hunting her own in the mortal world.

When her twin sister Taryn shows up asking of a favor, Jude jumps at the chance to return to the Faerie world, even if it means facing Cardan, who she loves despite his betrayal.

When a dark curse is unveiled, Jude must become the first mortal Queen of Faerie and uncover how to break the curse, or risk upsetting the balance of the whole Faerie world.

The Queen of Nothing on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received a finished copy from Hachette Book Group Canada in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “Winterwood” by Shea Ernshaw

Title: Winterwood Author: Shea Ernshaw Publisher: Simon Pulse Source: Simon and Schuster Canada Publication Date: November 5th, 2019 Format: ARC Page Count: 336 (hardcover edition)

Plot Summary: Be careful of the dark, dark wood…

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman — the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago — and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.

Winterwood on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: “Capturing the Devil” by Kerri Maniscalco

Title: Capturing the Devil Author: Kerri Maniscalco Publisher: Jimmy Patterson Source: HBG Canada Publication Date: September 10th, 2019 Format: Hardcover Page Count: 453

Plot Summary: In the shocking finale to the bestselling series that began with Stalking Jack the Ripper, Audrey Rose and Thomas are on the hunt for the depraved, elusive killer known as the White City Devil. A deadly game of cat-and-mouse has them fighting to stay one step ahead of the brilliant serial killer - or see their fateful romance cut short by unspeakable tragedy.

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell have landed in America, a bold, brash land unlike the genteel streets of London they knew. But like London, the city of Chicago hides its dark secrets well. When the two attend the spectacular World's Fair, they find the once-in-a-lifetime event tainted with reports of missing people and unsolved murders.

Determined to help, Audrey Rose and Thomas begin their investigations, only to find themselves facing a serial killer unlike any they've heard of before. Identifying him is one thing, but capturing him---and getting dangerously lost in the infamous Murder Hotel he constructed as a terrifying torture device - is another.

Will Audrey Rose and Thomas see their last mystery to the end---together and in love - or will their fortunes finally run out when their most depraved adversary makes one final, devastating kill?

Capturing the Devil on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received a finished copy from Hachette Book Group Canada in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “The Grace Year” by Kim Liggitt

Title: The Grace Year Author: Kim Liggitt Publisher: Wednesday Books Source: Raincoast Books Publication Date: October 8th, 2019 Format: ARC Page Count: 416 (hardcover edition)

Plot Summary: No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

The Grace Year on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Ninth House Series: Alex Stern, #1 Author: Leigh Bardugo Publisher: Flatiron Books Source: Raincoast Books Publication Date: October 8th, 2019 Format: ARC Page Count: 480 (hardcover edition) Plot Summary: Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

Ninth House on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warning: this book contains graphic violence and sexual assault. For a more specific list of triggers (contains spoilers) click here.

REVIEW: “Pumpkinheads” by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks

Title: Pumpkinheads Author: Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks Publisher: First Second Source: Raincoast Books Publication Date: August 27th, 2019 Format: Paperback Page Count: 224

Plot Summary: Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends.

Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1.

But this Halloween is different—Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye.

Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if—instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut—they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . .

What if their last shift was an adventure?.

Pumpkinheads on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received a finished copy from Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “The Girl the Sea Gave Back” by Adrienne Young

Title: The Girl the Sea Gave Back Series: Sky In the Deep, #2 Author: Adrienne Young Publisher: Wednesday Books Source: Raincoast Books Publication Date: September 3rd, 2019 Format: ARC Page Count: 336 (paperback edition) Plot Summary: For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again — a home.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “Twice In a Blue Moon” by Christina Lauren

Title: Twice In a Blue Moon Author: Christina Lauren Publisher: Gallery Books Source: Netgalley Publication Date: October 22nd, 2019 Format: eARC Page Count: 368 (paperback edition) Plot Summary: Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.

During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.

Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

Twice In a Blue Moon on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston

Title: Red, White & Royal Blue Author: Casey McQuiston Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Source: Netgalley Publication Date: May 14th, 2019 Format: eARC Page Count: 423 (paperback edition) Plot Summary: What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through?

Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic

Red, White & Royal Blue on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “Say You Still Love Me” by K.A. Tucker

Title: Say You Still Love Me Author: K.A. Tucker Publisher: Atria Books Source: Simon and Schuster Canada Publication Date: August 6th, 2019 Format: ARC Page Count: 373 (paperback edition)

Plot Summary: Life is a mixed bag for Piper Calloway.

On the one hand, she’s a twenty-nine-year-old VP at her dad’s multibillion-dollar real estate development firm, and living the high single life with her two best friends in a swanky downtown penthouse. On the other hand, she’s considered a pair of sexy legs in a male-dominated world and constantly has to prove her worth. Plus, she’s stuck seeing her narcissistic ex-fiancé—a fellow VP—on the other side of her glass office wall every day.

Things get exponentially more complicated for Piper when she runs into Kyle Miller—the handsome new security guard at Calloway Group Industries, and coincidentally the first love of her life.

The guy she hasn’t seen or heard from since they were summer camp counsellors together. The guy from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who apparently doesn’t even remember her name.

Piper may be a high-powered businesswoman now, but she soon realizes that her schoolgirl crush is not only alive but stronger than ever, and crippling her concentration. What’s more, despite Kyle’s distant attitude, she’s convinced their reunion isn’t at all coincidental, and that his feelings for her still run deep. And she’s determined to make him admit to them, no matter the consequences.

Say You Still Love Me on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

ARC REVIEW: “Queen of Ruin” by Tracy Banghart

Title: Queen of Ruin Series: Grace and Fury, #2 Author: Tracy Banghart Publisher: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers Source: Publisher Publication Date: July 2nd, 2019 Format: ARC Page Count: 336 (hardcover edition) Plot Summary: Banished by Asa at the end of Grace and Fury, Nomi and Malachi find themselves powerless and headed towards their all-but-certain deaths. Now that Asa sits on the throne, he will stop at nothing to make sure Malachi never sets foot in the palace again. Their only hope is to find Nomi's sister, Serina, on the prison island of Mount Ruin. But when Nomi and Malachi arrive, it is not the island of conquered, broken women that they expected. It is an island in the grip of revolution, and Serina--polite, submissive Serina--is its leader.

Betrayal, grief, and violence have changed both sisters, and the women of Mount Ruin have their sights set on revenge beyond the confines of their island prison. They plan to sweep across the entire kingdom, issuing in a new age of freedom for all. But first they'll have to get rid of Asa, and only Nomi knows how.

Separated once again, this time by choice, Nomi and Serina must forge their own paths as they aim to tear down the world they know, and build something better in its place

The stakes are higher and the battles bolder in Tracy Banghart's unputdownable sequel to Grace and Fury.

Queen of Ruin on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

I received an ARC from HBG Canada in exchange for an honest review.

BLOG TOUR | Review: “The Storm Crow” by Kalyn Josephson

Title: The Storm Crow Author: Kalyn Josephson Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Source: Raincoast Books Publication Date: July 9th, 2019 Format: ARC Page count: 352 (hardcover edition) Plot summary: In the tropical kingdom of Rhodaire, magical, elemental Crows are part of every aspect of life...until the Illucian empire invades, destroying everything.

That terrible night has thrown Princess Anthia into a deep depression. Her sister Caliza is busy running the kingdom after their mother's death, but all Thia can do is think of all she has lost.

But when Caliza is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the crown prince of Illucia, Thia is finally spurred into action. And after stumbling upon a hidden Crow egg in the rubble of a rookery, she and her sister devise a dangerous plan to hatch the egg in secret and get back what was taken from them.

The Storm Crow on Goodreads | Chapters Indigo | Amazon CA

The Storm Crow is a captivating book about magic, family, and fighting for your people.

I received an ARC from Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger Warning: this book contains self-mutilation