Blog Tour + Interview: Ironspark by C.M. McGuire

 Hi and welcome to my post for the Ironspark Blog Tour! I'm so excited to be able to share an interview with the author with you all today, as well as a link to listen to the first chapter of the book. And don't miss the other tour stops for more fun content, just follow this link. Without further ado, let's get to the fun stuff!

Queer Recommendations from Queer Readers #2

Hi everyone! Today, I'm back with another Queer Recommendations from Queer Readers post! Queer Recommendations from Queer Readers is a new feature on my blog where I share different book recommendations with LGBTQIA+ representation from readers who identify as LGBTQIA+. I started the feature in the hopes of diversifying my blog a little, and what better way than to get you recommendations from queer readers?

Queer Recommendations from Queer Readers #1

Hi everyone! Today, I am starting a new feature on my blog called Queer Recommendations from Queer Readers! As the title suggests, the feature will consist of a series of posts with recommendations featuring LGBTQIA+ representation, recommended by readers who identify as LGBTQIA+. I'm starting this feature because I want to diversify my blog, get you some great LGBTQIA+ book recommendations, and who better to recommend those books than LGBTQIA+ readers? 

A-spec August

Hi guys! Yesterday was August 1st, which means A-spec August, hosted by Imi and Ellie from Beyond a Bookshelf, has officially started. I will be participating, and reading as many a-spec books as I can find, and I hope you guys will join me. 

Book Blitz: Defy the Eye

A thrilling new sci-fi romance filled with early Norsemen, ancient folklore, on the edge of your seat adventure, and newfound love sure to win your heart is OUT TODAY! Grab your copy of  Layla Lochran's DEFY THE EYE on Amazon!  

Blog Tour + Review: The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

The Falling in Love Montage
by Ciara Smyth
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQIA
My rating: 4 hearts
Publication date: June 9, 2020
Publisher: HarperTeen

Synopsis:

Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.

But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.

Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.

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Diverse and relatable - Little Black Bird ARC Review

Little Black Bird 

by Anna Kirchner

My rating: 5 hearts

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Publication date: June 20, 2020

Publisher: Gurt Dog Press

Synopsis:

Magic is dying out, but it will not disappear without a fight.

Wiktoria is a seventeen year old with a secret: she has psychic powers. Her uncontrollable telekinesis hurts her and others, setting fires and throwing objects in the air, no matter how hard she tries to hold it back. All she wants to have is a peaceful, average life, but it’s difficult when you’ve been cursed to destroy the magical world.

Her carefully maintained facade of normality starts to unravel when she’s hunted down by local sorcerers and their Guardian, and accused of unleashing banished demons back into the human realm. When a murder shakes up the magical community, everyone agrees that the only way to save the world is to kill Wiktoria.

Her only ally is a boy who can read her mind, shares her dreams and makes her question her sexuality. Together, they face mythical creatures and uncover ancient legends, and they soon realize that there is no such thing as simply good or evil. Whether they break the curse or allow it to fulfil its destiny, the magical world will be forever changed.

Little Black Bird is a tale of trust, friendship and family, and what it means to discover one’s true path.

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Why We Need to Read Diversely

Hi everyone! Today, I'm going to get a bit more personal than I'm usually confortable with, but this is a post I felt needed to be written, so I'm going to push myself this time. I have always been an advocate of diverse books, and I try to read books with characters of color, of different sexualities, with mental health issues, and so on. When I find books with representation, I promote them, probably even more than those who don't have representation. But it wasn't until very recently that I truly understood why diversity in litterature is so important.

Blog Tour + Review: The Redpoint Crux by Morgan Shamy

The Redpoint Crux
by Morgan Shamy
My rating: 3.5 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery
Publication date: June 9, 2020
Publisher: The Parliament House

Synopsis:

Fans of The Phantom of the Opera and Black Swan will enjoy this thrilling debut.

When Megan Van Helsburg gets kicked off the U.S.A. Climbing Team, she has no choice but to return home and leave her climbing career behind. With no coach, no money, and no prospects, she joins the corps de ballet determined to improve her strength and agility. But the ballet theater is in dire straits. Not only do a series of murders break loose, but the ballerinas are becoming deathly thin and brain-dead. As Megan investigates, she meets Bellamy, a tortured young man who lives beneath the depths of the theater. Megan falls hard and fast for Bellamy, who becomes her mentor, but something is off about him.

It isn't until the company announces they're doing Giselle for the fall performance that Megan realizes the parallels between the ghost story and the lives around her. Megan must find a way to not only save her climbing career, but balance her feelings for Bellamy, and stop the murders and dying girls before she, too, is numbered among the dead.

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Blog Tour + Review: Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari

Super Adjacent

by Crystal Cestari

My rating: 4 hearts

Genre: Young Adult, Superheroes, Romance

Publication date: March 17, 2020

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Synopsis:

Claire has always wanted to work with superheroes, from collecting Warrior Nation cards as a kid to drafting "What to Say to a Hero" speeches in her diary. Now that she's landed a coveted internship with the Chicago branch of Warrior Nation, Claire is ready to prove she belongs, super or not. But complicating plans is the newest WarNat hero, Girl Power (aka Joy), who happens to be egotistical and self-important . . . and pretty adorable.

Bridgette, meanwhile, wants out of WarNat. After years of dating the famous Vaporizer (aka Matt), she's sick of playing second, or third, or five-hundredth fiddle to all the people-in-peril in the city of Chicago. Of course, once Bridgette meets Claire-who's clearly in need of a mentor and wingman-giving up WarNat becomes slightly more complicated. It becomes a lot more complicated when Joy, Matt, and the rest of the heroes go missing, leaving only Claire and Bridgette to save the day.

In this fresh and funny take on the world of supers, author Crystal Cestari spotlights what it's like to be the seemingly non-super half of a dynamic duo with banter-filled romance and bold rescues perfect for readers seeking a great escape.

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Surprise release! From Blood and Ash ARC Review

From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash #1)
Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 4.5 hearts
Genre: Upper Young Adult, High Fantasy, Romance
Publication date: March 31, 2020
Publisher: Blue Box Press

Synopsis:

Captivating and action-packed, From Blood and Ash is a sexy, addictive, and unexpected fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Laura Thalassa.

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

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Blog Tour + Review: The Edge of Anything by Nora Shalaway Carpenter

The Edge of Anything
by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
My rating: 4 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publication date: March 24, 2020
Publisher: Running Kids Press

Synopsis:

Len is a loner teen photographer haunted by a past that’s stagnated her work and left her terrified she’s losing her mind. Sage is a high school volleyball star desperate to find a way around her sudden medical disqualification. Both girls need college scholarships. After a chance encounter, the two develop an unlikely friendship that enables them to begin facing their inner demons.

But both Len and Sage are keeping secrets that, left hidden, could cost them everything, maybe even their lives.

Set in the North Carolina mountains, this dynamic #ownvoices novel explores grief, mental health, and the transformative power of friendship.

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Emotional and important - Am I Normal Yet? Review

Am I Normal Yet? (The Spinster Club #1)
by Holly Bourne
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
My rating: 4 hearts
Publication date: August 1, 2015
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd.

Synopsis:

All Evie wants is to be normal. She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list…

But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad. And if Evie can’t even tell her new friends Amber and Lottie the truth about herself, how will she cope when she falls in love?

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Backlist Shelf Control: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Backlist Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by The Reading Faery which is dedicated to sharing backlist books that have been on your TBR for too long. Every Friday, you talk about a backlist book (any book published the previous year or earlier) that you're excited to read and why you want to read it. If you participate, don't forget to comment on my post and share your links so I can check out your posts!

Announcement! New Co-Blogger!

Hi guys! I have some very exciting news to share today! The Reading Faery is getting a new blogger - Anna of @rattletheshelves. I have been following her on Instagram for years, and she has the most beautiful outdoors photos and she gives the best book recommendations, especially diverse books. We've also become friends over Instagram. I'm very excited to have Anna join me here at The Reading Faery, so let's give her a warm welcome!

About Anna

My superpower is that the more I read, the more my tbr grows. I read instead of doing things I probably should be doing and scroll down Instagram instead of reading. I'm passionate about a lot of things for about fifteen minutes and then I forget all about them. I genre-jump a bit but I focus mostly on YA.

My links:
Instagram
Goodreads
Twitter

Diverse fantasy - Belle Révolte ARC Review

Belle Révolte

by Linsey Miller

My rating: 4.5 hearts

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication date: February 4, 2020

Synopsis:

Emilie des Marais is more at home holding scalpels than embroidery needles and is desperate to escape her noble roots to serve her country as a physician. But society dictates a noble lady cannot perform such gruesome work.

Annette Boucher, overlooked and overworked by her family, wants more from life than her humble beginnings and is desperate to be trained in magic. So when a strange noble girl offers Annette the chance of a lifetime, she accepts.

Emilie and Annette swap lives—Annette attends finishing school as a noble lady to be trained in the ways of divination, while Emilie enrolls to be a physician’s assistant, using her natural magical talent to save lives.

But when their nation instigates a frivolous war, Emilie and Annette must work together to help the rebellion end a war that is based on lies.

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WWW Wednesdays #1

Hi guys! I've decided to try a new weekly meme, WWW Wednesdays, hosted by Taking on a World of Words. For this meme, you answer three questions starting with W (hence the name). The questions are: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you'll read next?

Blog Tour + Review: Beyond the Shadowed Earth by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Beyond the Shadowed Earth (Beneath the Haunting Sea #2)
by Joanna Ruth Meyer
My rating: 3 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pub. date: January 14, 2020
Publisher: Page Street

Synopsis:

It has always been Eda’s dream to become empress, no matter the cost. Haunted by her ambition and selfishness, she’s convinced that the only way to achieve her goal is to barter with the gods. But all requests come with a price and Eda bargains away the soul of her best friend in exchange for the crown.

Years later, her hold on the empire begins to crumble and her best friend unexpectedly grows sick and dies. Gnawed by guilt and betrayal, Eda embarks on a harrowing journey to confront the very god who gave her the kingdom in the first place. However, she soon discovers that he’s trapped at the center of an otherworldly labyrinth and that her bargain with him is more complex than she ever could have imagined.

Set in the same universe as Joanna’s debut, Beneath the Haunting Sea, Beyond the Shadowed Earth combines her incredible world building and lush prose with a new, villainous lead.

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