Play the Game by Charlene Allen (promo)

 

 

Play the Game by Charlene Allen

From debut author Charlene Allen comes a captivating YA contemporary mystery and coming-of-age story, celebrating the power of friendship, first love, and exploring the criminal justice system from the lens of restorative justice. Perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, and Maureen Johnson.

In the game of life, sometimes other people hold all the controls. Or so it seems to VZ. Four months have passed since his best friend Ed was killed by a white man in a Brooklyn parking lot.

When Singer, the man who killed Ed, is found dead in the same spot where Ed was murdered, all signs point to Jack, VZ’s other best friend, as the prime suspect.

VZ’s determined to complete the video game Ed never finished and figure out who actually killed Singer. With help from Diamond, the girl he’s crushing on at work, VZ falls into Ed’s quirky gameiverse. As the police close in on Jack, the game starts to uncover details that could lead to the truth about the murder.

Can VZ honor Ed and help Jack before it’s too late?

Expected publication January 31, 2023

The Cartographers by Amy Zhang (promo)

 

 

The Cartographers by Amy Zhang

Struggling to balance the expectations of her immigrant mother with her deep ambivalence about her own place in the world, seventeen-year-old Ocean Wu takes her savings and goes off the grid. A haunting and romantic novel about family, friendship, philosophy, and love.

Ocean Wu has always felt enormous pressure to succeed. After struggling with depression during her senior year in high school, Ocean moves to New York City, where she has been accepted at a prestigious university. But Ocean feels so emotionally raw and unmoored (and uncertain about what is real and what is not), that she decides to defer and live off her savings until she can get herself together. She also decides not to tell her mother (whom she loves very much but doesn’t want to disappoint) that she is deferring—at least until she absolutely must.

In New York, Ocean moves into an apartment with Georgie and Tashya, two strangers who soon become friends, and gets a job tutoring. She also meets a boy—Constantine Brave (a name that makes her laugh)—late one night on the subway. Constant is a fellow student and a graffiti artist, and Constant and Ocean soon start corresponding via Google Docs—they discuss physics, philosophy, art, literature, and love. But everything falls apart when Ocean goes home for Thanksgiving, Constant reveals his true character, Georgie and Tashya break up, and the police get involved.

Ocean, Constant, Georgie, and Tashya are all cartographers—mapping out their futures, their dreams, and their paths toward adulthood in this stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding the strength to control your own destiny.

Expected publication January 31, 2023

Goodreads Monday 1/30/23

 

 

Goodreads Monday was hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners.   It’s now hosted by Budget Tales Book Blog.  All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.

It’s getting hard to remember which ones I’ve done already, so I’m sorry if you see a book pop up on these more than once.  It will happen.  Probably a lot.

Review of Wait For Me by Sara Shepard (hardcover)

 

 

Wait For Me by Sara Shepard

 

Drowning in déjà vu . . .
 
Who is Casey Rhodes? Is she a no-nonsense realist or a hopeless romantic? A just-getting-by scholarship student or a sometimes-Cinderella dating the cool, cultured heir to a media empire and New York City’s most eligible? At seventeen years old and already in her sophomore year at NYU, Casey sheds disguises effortlessly. It’s how she navigates school and avoids the second-guessing that’s plagued her since she and her boyfriend Marcus got together. 
 
But then Casey starts hearing voices that terrify her so badly she flees to the remote beach town of Avon where she can sort through her thoughts and reset. But the voices only get more intense and are now accompanied by visions of places she’s never been and people she’s never met, like Jake who’s lived in Avon his whole life. There’s no way Casey could know him, yet she feels an immediate connection. And, crazier still: he feels it too. Together they search for answers, finding only questions—about their connection, Avon, Casey’s memories . . . And whose voice is she hearing inside her head?

Down The TBR Hole #275

 

Down The TBR Hole is a meme created by lost in a story that revolves around cleansing your TBR of all those books you’re never going to read and sort through it all to know what’s actually on there.

Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you’re scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. Well that’s going to change!

It works like this:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go

I am going to remove sequels for books when I haven’t read book one.  They may or may not get added back later.

Since I was to all the recent books, I decided to go back to the beginning of my TBR and  remove a lot of older books I kept the first time around.

Blog Tour for The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder (earc review)

 

 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Severed Thread by Leslie Vedder.  This tour is being hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours.

 

The Severed Thread (The Bone Spindle #2) by Leslie Vedder

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Romance

Publishing Date: February 7, 2023

Blog Tour for Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim (earc review)

 

 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim.  This tour is being hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours.

 

Spice Road (The Spice Road Trilogy #1) by Maiya Ibrahim

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Publishing Date: January 24, 2023

Blog Tour for Sun Keep Rising by Kristen R. Lee (promo)

 

 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Sun Keep Rising by Kristen R. Lee.  This tour is being hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours.

 

Sun Keep Rising by Kristen R. Lee

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Publishing Date: January 24, 2023

Blog Tour for This is Not My Home by Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh (promo)

 

 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for This is Not My Home by Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh.  This tour is being hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours.

 

This is Not My Home by Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh

Genre: Children’s Picture Book

Publishing Date: January 24, 2023

Can’t Wait Wednesday 1/25/23

 

 

Can’t Wait Wednesday/Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Wishful Endings and was previously hosted by Breaking the Spine.   It was created to show off a future release that you are excited for.