Confessions of a YA Reader

Sorry for doing this, but I'm going to switch this blog over to wordpress and probably will not update this page.   I've been able to get followers over on that site a lot quicker. If you can, please go follow me there.  Once you are on the page, there should be a little pop up on the bottom of the screen to follow.  You don't have to be a google account holder for that site.  It just goes by e-mail. Thank you all so much! https://confessionsofayareader.wordpress.com/

The theme for July's OwlCrate box is Wanderlust.  I received my box today and wanted to share it with you. There is always a card inside that has the theme with picture on one side and a list of everything in the box on the other side.  I didn't take an individual picture of that. The box also comes with a card that gives a sneak peek of next month's box.  The first item in the box was an OwlCrate exclusive backpack inspired by The Lord of the Rings. The next item is an owl luggage tag created by Mudpuppy.  (This is also in the Owlcrate Jr box this month.) This month had an adorable Newt Scamander keychain by Funko.  This was especially cool for me since I recently found out that I'm a Hufflepuff.  I was really excited to find out that there was something inspired by A Darker Shade of Magic.  This is a pocket mirror designed by Miss Phi. One of my favorite items in the box is this gorgeous art print designed by Shaile...

Wow!  Just wow!  This book really lived up to the hype.  How is this a debut?  Not only is this probably the best YA book of the year, it's probably one of the best books of any genre.  An instant favorite for me.  I can't say enough about it. This book is intense.  I think it should be required reading in all high schools.  Yes, I know there is a lot of swearing.  But let's be honest.  Kids hear it in school every single day. They hear worse.  So please get past that.  As a parent, I would have let my daughter read this in school.  I would have encouraged it. The Hate U Give is about a sixteen year old girl named Starr.  I loved her so much.  Starr lives in The Gardens which is an inner city filled with gangs and shootings all the time. Her dad used to be in a gang and spent three years in jail while she was young.  He was one of the few that was able to get out and he wanted better for his kids. ...

I decided to try out Owl Crate Jr for a month and my box arrived today. I wanted to share everything with you.   This month's theme is Magical Creatures (which is what made me try it out).  Every box has a card with the theme and the back lists everything you get.  The first item is an iron on Creature Catcher badge. The next item is a 3D inflatable dragon that you get to color. Next item is Unicorn Poop! This Niffler sticker is adorable! My favorite item in the box is this owl bag tag.  I can't wait to use it! There is also this adorable unicorn pin. Now on to the book.  This months' selection is The Unicorn In The Barn by Jacqueline K. Ogburn.  The book is about a unicorn who is being taken care of by a vet.  The neighbor boy finds discovers and he helps out while working on keeping the secret.  The book came with a letter from the author, an exclusive art print from illustrater Rebecca Green, and a signed book pla...

Not all of these books came out in 2017, but I read them in the first 6+ months.  There are technically more than 10, but I'm counting series as one book for this one. 1.   This Savage Song & Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab I'm not even sure I can begin to describe how amazing these books are.  This was my first time reading Victoria Schwab and she's already become a favorite author and these are on my all time favorite books now. I'll try to briefly describe each book without spoilers.  These books follow Kate Harker and August Flynn in a city called Verity.  Verity is split with Kate's dad running the side where people pay for protection and August's dad runs the other side and a small army.  Kate is human, but August is a monster.  There are three types of monsters living in Verity (book two partially takes place in another city with other types of monsters).  August is a Sunai which is the rarest type.  They steal souls of si...

The Stolen Marriage is the third book I've read by Diane Chamberlain.  While historical fiction really isn't my favorite thing to read, I always find myself pulled into Ms. Chamberlain's storytelling.   It is very obvious that she does a lot of research to make the time period as accurate as she can.   This is the story of a young woman named Tess.  She is studying to be a nurse and is engaged to her boyfriend, Vincent, who is a doctor.  Vincent leaves Baltimore to help out with some polio cases in Chicago and is gone much longer than planned.  Tess is getting upset, but is doing her best to be supportive.  While Vincent is gone, Tess and her friend, Gina, visit Washington DC.  While on that visit, Tess has too much to drink and sleeps with a business man, Henry.  She is upset with herself, but was hoping to go back home and pretend it never happened.  But Tess finds out she is pregnant.   Tess decides to just leave Vi...

These are the books I'm most looking forward to reading that come out in July 2017.  They are in order by release date.  Words on Bathroom Walls by Julie Walton (July 4) Adam has just been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He sees and hears people who aren’t there: Rebecca, a beautiful girl who understands him; the Mob Boss, who harasses him; and Jason, the naked guy who’s unfailingly polite. It should be easy to separate the real from the not real, but Adam can't. Still, there’s hope. As Adam starts fresh at a new school, he begins a drug trial that helps him ignore his visions. Suddenly everything seems possible, even love. When he meets Maya, a fiercely intelligent girl, he desperately wants to be the great guy that she thinks he is. But then the miracle drug begins to fail, and Adam will do anything to keep Maya from discovering his secret. I See London, I See France by Sarah Mylnowski (July 11) Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spen...

I started this blog for quite a few different reasons, but I realize now that I'm hoping people will interact a little bit, too.   Please feel free to comment.  If you read the same book I reviewed, tell me your thoughts.  If there is topic you want me to discuss, please let me know. I will also be looking to add some guest reviews from time to time.  If you're a reviewer, let me know and I would love to share one of your reviews.  If you're an author, I would love a guest post or q&a post from you. I'm definitely open to ideas and suggestions on how to make this a great book blog. Hopefully my follower numbers will start to go up soon (please feel free to share my blog).   And thank you all for reading.  I hope to hear from all of you soon. 

I generally spend a lot of time on book websites and thought I would share some of them here with you.  If there is a cool one I've missed, please comment below. The one I spend the most time on is Goodreads.  I think it's probably the best site out there for finding books, tracking your reading, making goals, and writing reviews. They also have a ton of book giveaways every day.  This is the link to my profile. Definitely send me a friend request there if you have an account. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/23975663-kristi Netgalley is a site I joined a year and a half ago and have already received over 100 digital copies of books from them.  You do have to review books to get more approved.   https://www.netgalley.com/member/profile Edelweiss is one I just joined to request arcs from.  I haven't been approved yet and I believe most publishers want you to have an active blog.   https://www.edelweiss.plus/#dashboard Epic Reads always has ...

Stillhouse Lake is very different from Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series, but I liked it just as much.   I did figure out who the killer was early on, but there were some twists and it was an exciting read. Gina Royal came home with her kids one day to find a nightmare.  There was a dead body hanging up in her garage.  She is arrested and then found out that her husband, Mel, is a serial killer.  Gina is acquitted, but Mel is put on death row. Gina and her kids have to move and change identities often.  There are a lot of people who think she had to have known what her husband was and some think she helped him.  Every day she has to look online and print out the horrible things people say.  The internet trolls who are relentless. "It's free-floating, a toxic cloud of moral outrage and mob mentality, and it doesn't care who it hurts.  Only that it does."   Most will never do anything except hide behind a computer and say horrible t...