[Summer Blogger Promo Tour] Wrap Up!

Hi everyone!

It's the last day of the Summer Blogger Promo Tour and I'm kind of sad to be finished with it since it means that it's the end of summer and I don't get to promote any more awesome people!

Here are all the guests on my blog during the Summer Blogger Promo Tour!

• Melissa of The Reader and the Chef talks about her favourite mythology inspired novels! 
• Anna of Unquenchable Reads talks her favourite fantasy and paranormal books! 
• Amber and Jessica of The Book Bratz do a This or That interview! 
• Sydney from Sydsaurus does a Rainbow interview!  
• Mariah from A Reader's Treasure talks about characters that would be her travel companions!
• Talina of Sassy and Dangerous answers my interview questions! 
• Jillian of Jillian's Books talks about some books that take place in the Philippines! 
• Stefani of Caught Read Handed pairs books up with flavours of coffee!

I had a lot of fun doing this promo tour! It was great to meet this group awesome bloggers and become friends with them! 

Here are some of the highlights of my summer, probably not in order. 

I got a job doing retail selling merchandise for the Pan Am Games! It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of cool people at this job. It was pretty chill as well!

I tried Chipotle for the first time and it was pretty delicious. I am pretty partial to the chicken. Yum

I paid a visit to the fantastic Pompeii exhibit at the ROM. It was great to see and all the artifacts and in such amazing condition. It's incredible to see the pieces and know that they're thousands of years old.

I went to a local food festival with some of my friends. It was great fun despite how incredibly, debilitatingly hot it was with all the grills and people. This is a Peking Duck poutine and it was pretty good.

I paid a visit to Disney World and other parts of Florida. Look forward to my #RiGoesOutside post on my little vacation to Orlando!

And that's basically my entire summer, except for the countless movies I've watched and my new, questionable relationship with Netflix.

Thank you so much to Amber and Jessica for putting together this awesome tour. I'm looking forward to joining again next year!

Happy Reading! 

[Review] The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

ABOUT

Title: The Wrath and the Dawn

Author: Renée Ahdieh

Series: The Wrath and the Dawn #1 

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers 

Release Date: May 12th 2015 

Goodreads Page

Synopsis:

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

[Waiting on Wednesday] The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

ABOUT

Title: The Dead House 

Author: Dawn Kurtagich

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: September 15th 2015 

Goodreads Page

Synopsis:

Debut author Dawn Kurtagich is dead on in this terrifying psychological thriller!

Over two decades have passed since the fire at Elmbridge High, an inferno that took the lives of three teenagers. Not much was known about the events leading up to the tragedy - only that one student, Carly Johnson, vanished without a trace...

...until a diary is found hidden in the ruins.

But the diary, badly scorched, does not belong to Carly Johnson. It belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, a girl who shouldn't exist Who was Kaitlyn? Why did she come out only at night? What is her connection to Carly?

The case has been reopened. Police records are being reexamined: psychiatric reports, video footage, text messages, e-mails. And the diary.

The diary that paints a much more sinister version of events than was ever made publicly known.

Though I don't like watching horror movies, I somehow have a weird fascination with horror novels. This book sounds fantastically creepy and really quite scary. I've been hearing nothing but great things about this book. This book would be a great halloween read and I'm kind of looking forward to being freaked out by this novel!

Happy Reading!

[Summer Blogger Promo Tour] Stefani of Caught Read Handed.

Hello y'all!

Today I have Stefani from Caught Read Handed on the blog to match up her favourite coffee drinks with books!

Hi, everyone! My name is Stefani, and I’m the blogger over at Caught Read Handed. Like Ri, I am a big coffee drinker, so when she asked me to match up some of my favorite books with coffee flavors, I thought it was a really fun idea! Here are the coffee flavors Ri gave me and the books I matched them up with:

French Vanilla: French vanilla coffee tends to be quite sweet to me, in a good way. I immediately thought of Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins when I saw this coffee flavor. I adore this book and the love interest in it: Cricket Bell. He’s my absolute favorite book boyfriend. :)

Hazelnut: I’m allergic to hazelnut / I also don’t really like it anyway, so I’m going to go with historical fiction here. I can’t think of a specific book. I’m just going to go with the genre as a whole. I tend to avoid most historical fiction (unless there’s a cool twist like the addition of technology or magic).

Mocha: I only like mochas every once in a while. They are so thick and sweet that I can only really drink them sometimes. I don’t know if this is a perfect match up, but I’m going to go with adult books here. I only read those maybe once a month. The most recent adult read that I loved was The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. That book was absolutely insane and also really, really good.

Pumpkin Spice: Worst. Coffee. Flavor. EVER. Gross. I DO NOT like pumpkin flavored anything. I avoid it at all costs. A genre that I have tried and tried and never liked is science fiction that includes nanotechnology. I don’t know if this is an actual genre, but there are a lot of books like this. I’ve tried several and just never got into them. Most recent DNF in this genre is The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner (who I absolutely love and was therefore really disappointed).

Caramel: Yummmmmm. I could drink caramel macchiatos every day. Absolutely delicious and wonderful. I’m thinking of The Raven Cycle books by Maggie Stiefvater for this one. I LOVE this series and recommend it to every single person I can. I even chose the first book for my first teen book club at the library.

This was a lot of fun! Thanks for having me, Ri!

Thank you so much to Stefani for being on my blog!

Happy Reading! 

[Summer Blogger Promo Tour] Jillian of Jillian's Books!

Hello everybody! Today I have the lovely Jillian from Jillian's Books on my blog today to talk about some books set in the Philippines!



Hi everyone! My name is Jillian, and I blog over at Jillian’s Books, a mostly YA/MG book review blog. Thank you so much, Ri, for letting me blog here!

As a reader, I enjoy reading books that are set in different places. Most YA books I read are always set in different parts of the US, which makes me think a lot – what about other places? Why does it always to be set in the SAME PLACE all the time? Very few books are set in various places, such as Daughter of Smoke and Bone, in which the story occurs in Prague, Czech Republic. But those are the only few ones!

I want to spotlight some books set from where I am because I like things different. Here are some of the few books set in the Philippines:

Noli Me Tangere (“Touch Me Not”) by Jose Rizal – This book is originally written in Spanish, but is actually written by a Filipino. Truthfully, I really liked this book even if it’s very complicated! No, it’s not a YA book, but is actually a book mostly studied in school because it is a complex “manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism.”

-o-

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, "The Noli," as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province.

The Last Time I Saw Mother by Arlene J. Chai – One of those heartbreaking books about a relationship between a mother and daughter set during the Japanese colonialism in the PH. This book truly showcases not only historical aspects, but also the love of a mother for her daughter. Such a sad book! :(

-o-

Caridad's mother never writes. So when a letter arrives for her in Sydney from Manila, Caridad doesn't even recognize her mother's handwriting. There is more distance than just miles between the two women. And that is why Caridad is called home. Her mother needs to talk. And to reveal a secret that has been weighing heavily on her for years.

As Caridad hears at last the unspoken stories, and the never forgotten tragedy of the war years, she will learn a startling truth that will change her life forever. For Caridad is not who she thinks she is. . . .

Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto – Not actually completely sure this is set in PH, since this is the only book here that I haven’t read yet (I’ll get to it soooon!), but it IS written by a Filipino writer. Before Ever After is a chicklist/realistic fictional book about a girl named Shelley, whose husband, Max, died not too long ago, one day meets a man named Paolo, an Italian man, who shows her photos of a bearded man. Paolo claims that the bearded man is his grandfather; however, he never seems to age. Shelley finds out that it is her Max. Her Max. Thinking he must have actually been alive after all, Paolo and Shelley both seek to find out the mystery behind Max’s “death.”

-o-

Three years after her husband Max's death, Shelley feels no more adjusted to being a widow than she did that first terrible day. That is, until the doorbell rings. Standing on her front step is a young man who looks so much like Max; same smile, same eyes, same age, same adorable bump in his nose; he could be Max's long-lost relation. He introduces himself as Paolo, an Italian editor of American coffee table books, and shows Shelley some childhood photos. Paolo tells her that the man in the photos, the bearded man who Paolo says is his grandfather though he never seems to age, is Max. Her Max. And he is alive and well.

As outrageous as Paolo's claims seem; how could her husband be alive? And if he is, why hasn't he looked her up? Shelley desperately wants to know the truth. She and Paolo jet across the globe to track Max down; if it is really Max and along the way, Shelley recounts the European package tour where they had met. As she relives Max's stories of bloody Parisian barricades, medieval Austrian kitchens, and buried Roman boathouses, Shelley begins to piece together the story of who her husband was and what these new revelations mean for her "happily ever after." And as she and Paolo get closer to the truth, Shelley discovers that not all stories end where they are supposed to.

Those are the few that I have for now! I absolutely loved some of the books here, even if I have yet to read Before Ever After. Thanks again Ri!

Thanks to Jillian for creating this wonderful and informative post about books set in the Philippines!

Happy Reading! 

[Review] An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

ABOUT

Title: An Ember in the Ashes 

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Series: An Ember in the Ashes #1 

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: April 28th 2015 

Goodreads Page

Synopsis: 

Laia is a slave.

Elias is a soldier.

Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

[Summer Blogger Promo Tour] Talina of Sassy and Dangerous!

Helloooooo my lovelies!!

Today I'm so excited to have Talina of Sassy and Dangerous on my blog today for an interview!



Hello! My name is Talina and I am a book blogger over at Sassy & Dangerous! I am so very excited to be participating in the Summer Blog Tour Promo and so happy that I am being hosted on Ri’s blog today!


What was the inspiration for naming your blog?

Talina: I wanted my blog to have a unique name that would suit my personality. While trying to brainstorm a name for myself, I came up with the title Sassy & Dangerous Reviews, but I felt that it was too long, so I took out the review part and thought that Sassy & Dangerous described me perfectly. Except the dangerous part, I swear I am not dangerous! ;)

What are your favourite genres to read?

Talina: My favorite genre's to read are definitely YA/NA romance and paranormal! Or even those to put together! I always love myself some good paranormal romance!

What are you currently reading?

Talina: I am currently reading Boomerang, the first book in the Boomerang series by Noelle August. This book is a New Adult contemporary novel and I am really excited to see how it all turns out!

Name your favourite book boyfriend. (Or if you can't pick one, pick three)

Talina: Thank god you gave me the option of three because I don't think I'll be able to pick just one. My top three favorite book boyfriends are, Reice from the Last Oracle series by Emily Wibberley, Adrian de la Mara from Velvet by Temple West, and Prince Aldrik from Air Awakens by Elise Kova. Delicious, swoon worthy and hot!

What is a fun fact about yourself?

Talina: I love to bake! I have always loved being in the kitchen ever since I was a little girl and now I pretty much live in the kitchen! My favorite things to bake are definitely cookies and cupcakes. Delicious!

When you're not reading/blogging/at school/working? What do you like to do?

Talina: As I said above, I love to bake! But I also love to write my own stories/poems or take book pictures for my bookish based Instagram account!

What is the one place you'd like to go most in the world?

Talina: Definitely somewhere in Europe! At the moment, I'm really wanting to go to London for college and I might end up going there. I am still trying to figure out my future, but if all goes well, London is the place I would love to visit the most!

Coffee or tea?

Talina: It actually depends! I don't like normal coffee, but I love some iced coffee with whipped cream on top. But if I can't have the coffee, I really love some apple and cinnamon tea. :)

Chocolate or vanilla?

Talina: Chocolate all the way, baby!

Early bird or night owl?

Talina: Definitely a night owl! :)

Thank you so much for having me, Ri!

ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Ever since she was a little girl, Talina has always had a fascination with books. By the time she turned fourteen, she created her book blog Sassy & Dangerous and has now been blogging for over a year now. When she isn't fangirling about books and Dwayne Johnson, she can be found baking up a storm in the kitchen, on Netflix or writing up ideas for another one of her stories!

| Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads |

Happy Reading! 

[Review] Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca

ABOUT

Title: Last Year's Mistake

Author: Gina Ciocca 

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: June 9th 2015 

Goodreads Page

Source: e-ARC via Edelweiss
Synopsis:

Before:

Kelsey and David became best friends the summer before freshman year and were inseparable ever after. Until the night a misunderstanding turned Kelsey into the school joke, and everything around her crumbled—including her friendship with David. So when Kelsey's parents decided to move away, she couldn't wait to start over and leave the past behind. Except, David wasn't ready to let her go...

After:

Now it's senior year and Kelsey has a new group of friends, genuine popularity, and a hot boyfriend. Her life is perfect. That is, until David's family moves to town and he shakes up everything. Soon old feelings bubble to the surface and threaten to destroy Kelsey's second chance at happiness. The more time she spends with David, the more she realizes she never truly let him go. And maybe she never wants to.

Told in alternating sections, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE is a charming and romantic debut about loving, leaving, and letting go.

The Reading Habits Tag

So I was tagged by the lovely Wesaun over at Oreos & Books to do this tag! Thank you so much for tagging me! :)

Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

I don't. I usually read wherever, whether it be in my bed, on my couch or at my desk.

Bookmark or random piece of paper?

I prefer bookmarks, but if I don't have one on hand, EVERYTHING becomes a bookmark: reciepts, candy/gum wrappers, etc. When I was little, I used to dog ear the pages. However, I don't dog ear pages anymore. My poor books.

Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/a certain amount of pages?

I can stop reading whenever most of the time, but if I'm really into it I can't stop. I'll just read until I get to the end.

Do you eat or drink while you read?

Yes. omg. I like to drink a lot of stuff when I'm reading. I eat sometimes, but not often, because I don't want to get the pages dirty.

Multitasking TV or music?

Either or, I'm good with, but sometimes when I'm having trouble getting into the book, I don't put anything on because I'll just end up watching the show or listening to the music instead of reading.

One book at a time or several at once?

Several at once. I don't really have trouble keeping storylines separate when I'm reading. It's only afterwards, when I don't have the story fresh in my mind that the stories get jumbled together.

Reading at home or everywhere?

Everywhere. You never know when you have the chance to read, so I always keep a book on me just in case.

Reading out loud or silently?

Reading silently. I can't stand it when people read out loud in a public place.

Do you read ahead or skip pages?

I don't know if you can call this "reading ahead" or "skipping pages", but I do tend to skim sometimes in books and it lets me read pretty quick.

Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?

I'm mostly for keeping it like new, but if they're really stiff books that don't open, I like to break the spine, just so I can read it properly.

Do you write in your books?

I prefer not to write in books, but if I'm feeling up for it, I'll at most highlight inside my book.



Thank you once again to Wesaun for tagging me!

I'm not tagging anyone in particular, but if you want to do it, feel free and you can say that I tagged you. ;)

Happy Reading!

[Summer Blogger Promo Tour] Mariah of A Reader's Treasure!

Helloooo!

Today on the blog, I'm hosting Mariah from A Reader's Treasure! I'm excited about her blog post and so I'll just let her get right into it. ;)

Hi I’m Mariah from A Reader’s Adventure and I’m so excited to be here on Ri’s blog to talk about who I would bring with me if I was going on an adventure. So without further ado…

There are so many characters that I would want to come with me traveling but here are some of my standouts.



Sturmhond/Nikolai from Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. This guy is hilarious. He is also a captain of a ship so if we needed to get somewhere through water and ice he would know what to do. Also, traveling can be stressful and he would add some comic relief.

Katsa from Graceling. I would not bring Katsa because she is a great conversationalist or because I am under any impression that having her around would be fun. She is kind of gruff and standoffish to those she doesn’t know very well. But I would bring her along because she could help us survive anything that we came across.




Alanna from the Song of the Lioness Series. Girl is a knight with magical powers and a dry sense of humor. She would be a great companion to Sturmhond and would also know a lot about how to survive and thrive. Also MAGIC.


So those are only three characters I would bring with me if I was traveling but I would love to have a whole group of characters traveling the world with me. Thanks to Ri for letting me stop by!

Thank you so much to Mariah for stopping by my blog and sharing with us her potential travel literary companions!

Happy Reading!