Sarai Henderson's Blog, page 238

#BookReview - A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

Title: A Crown of WishesBy: Roshani ChokshiGenre: FantasyRelease Date: March 28th, 2017Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Summary from Goodreads: Gauri, the princess of Bharata, has been taken as a prisoner of war by her kingdom’s enemies. Faced with a future of exile and scorn, Gauri has nothing left to lose. Hope unexpectedly comes in the form of Vikram, the cunning prince of a neighboring land and her sworn enemy kingdom. Unsatisfied with becoming a mere puppet king, Vikram offers Gauri a chance to win back her kingdom in exchange for her battle prowess. Together, they’ll have to set aside their differences and team up to win the Tournament of Wishes—a competition held in a mythical city where the Lord of Wealth promises a wish to the victor.
Reaching the tournament is just the beginning. Once they arrive, danger takes on new shapes: poisonous courtesans and mischievous story birds, a feast of fears and twisted fairy revels.

Every which way they turn new trials will test their wit and strength. But what Gauri and Vikram will soon discover is that there’s nothing more dangerous than what they most desire.
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Review: A Crown of Wishes is a captivating sequel to The Star Touched Queen. It reminded me somewhat of Caravel that I also loved. I couldn’t put it down and read it cover to cover in 24 hours. The characters had an awesome connection and they were full of color and wonder. I loved the mythological creatures and the magic that flowed around them. Four stars for this magical read.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

#WeeklyMenu Week 189

Its been such a beautiful day. I can't wait for summer to get here so I can enjoy the sun. We spent the weekend cleaning out our cars from the nasty winter weather, removing all the gunk that's built up over the last few months. 
Enjoy this weeks menu!

Monday- Pork Chops and Rice
Tuesday- Guacamole Breakfast Sandwich
Wednesday- Chicken and Rice Casserole 
Thursday- Spaghetti
Friday- Mongolian Beef Ramen
Saturday- Tortellini Sausage Soup
Sunday
- Tuna Sandwiches

#BookReview - The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Title: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird LaneBy: Lisa SeeGenre: Historical FictionRelease Date: March 21st, 2017Publisher: Scribner
Summary from Goodreads: A thrilling new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been adopted by an American couple.
Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate—the first automobile any of them have seen—and a stranger arrives.

In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city.

After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins; and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations.

A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters. 

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Review: Lisa See has done it again! The whole time I was reading this book, I'm thinking to myself "Is this based on a real story or not." That's when you know its a good book, when you can't tell the real from the fake. There was so much depth to the characters and all the superstitions and traditions that the Akha carried. It must have took the author a lot of time in research. I was sucked into a world that felt old and far away, but was in fact set in the current world and was only a plane flight away. Loved this story!

#BookReview - The Castaways by Jessika Fleck

Title: The CastawaysBy: Jessika FleckGenre: Urban FantasyRelease Date: April 3rd, 2017Publisher: Entangled TEEN
Summary from Goodreads: Mean Girls meets Lord of the Flies in this YA contemporary fantasy.
The Castaway Carnival: fun, mysterious, dangerous.

Renowned for its infamous corn maze…and the kids who go missing in it.

When Olive runs into the maze, she wakes up on an isolated and undetectable island where a decades-long war between two factions of rival teens is in full swing.

Trapped, Olive must slowly attempt to win each of her new comrades’ hearts as Will—their mysterious, stoically quiet, and handsome leader—steals hers.

Olive is only sure about one thing: her troop consists of the good guys, and she’ll do whatever it takes to help them win the war and get back home. 
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Review: Wow! I can't even express how epic this book was. I couldn't put it down and read it from cover to cover in 24 hours. The Castaways pulls you in from the moment you open the cover when you realize that the main character, Olive is being bullied at school. Through the rest of the book, all I could think about was how Olive was going to get off the island alive and would William go with her. At the end, all I wanted to do was scream at William "Go with here!." But, alas, he couldn't. At the end, I just wanted to cry, but the author made everything better. I'm not going to give it away, but it has a happy ending. Five stars for Jessika Fleck!

Birthright by Jessica Ruddick #BlogTour @jessicamruddick

Birthright
by Jessica Ruddick
Genre: YA Supernatural
Release Date: March 20th 2017

Summary from Goodreads:

How do you live with yourself when you decide who dies?

Ava Parks would have killed for an iPod for her sixteenth birthday. Anything would have been better than coming into her birthright of being a seeker for the Grim Reaper, an arrangement made by her fallen angel ancestor in exchange for his re-admittance to heaven. And she isn’t just any seeker—she finds souls that have the potential for becoming angels and sentences them to death. A year and two souls into her role as a seeker with her conscience overflowing with guilt, Ava comes up with a plan to thwart the system. When it goes awry, she is forced to submit the name of a classmate, Cole Fowler, an ornery, rough around the edges guy who always seems to come to her rescue, whether she likes it or not. Her feelings for Cole prompt her to intervene, and she saves him from death, upsetting the Grim Reaper’s agenda.

While Ava schemes to find a way to save Cole, she learns he has some secrets of his own. She lets him believe he is protecting her, and not the other way around, until a final showdown with the Grim Reaper forces Ava to make choices Cole may never forgive.

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About the Author
Jessica Ruddick is a 2014 Golden Heart finalist for her new adult novel, Letting Go, which was inspired by her own college experiences. She lives in Virginia and is married to her college sweetheart—their first date was a fraternity toga party (and nothing inspires love like a toga, right?). When she doesn’t have her nose in a book or her hands on a keyboard, she can be found wrangling her two rambunctious sons, taming two rowdy but lovable rescue dogs, and battling the herd of dust bunnies that has taken up residence in her home. To learn more about Jessica, please visit her website at www.jessicaruddick.com.

Author Links:
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook



Blog Tour Organized by:
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Bellamy and the Brute by Alicia Michaels #BlogTour @fantasybyalicia @Xpressoreads

Bellamy and The Brute
Alicia Michaels
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: March 13th 2017
Genres: Fairy Tales, Retelling, Young Adult

A fresh twist on a classic story, Bellamy and the Brute proves true love really is blind.
When Bellamy McGuire is offered a summer job babysitting for the wealthy Baldwin family, she’s reluctant to accept. After all, everyone in town knows about the mysterious happenings at the mansion on the hill—including the sudden disappearance of the Baldwin’s eldest son, Tate. The former football star and golden boy of Wellhollow Springs became a hermit at the age of sixteen, and no one has seen or heard from him since. Rumors abound as to why, with whisperings about a strange illness—one that causes deformity and turned him into a real-life monster. Bellamy wants to dismiss these rumors as gossip, but when she’s told that if she takes the job, she must promise to never, ever visit the third floor of the mansion, she begins to wonder if there really is some dark truth hidden there.
Tate’s condition may not be the only secret being kept at Baldwin House. There are gaps in the family’s financial history that don’t add up, and surprising connections with unscrupulous characters. At night there are strange noises, unexplained cold drafts, and the electricity cuts out. And then there are the rose petals on the staircase. The rose petals that no one but Bellamy seems to be able to see. The rose petals that form a trail leading right up to the 3 rd floor, past the portrait of a handsome young man, and down a dark hallway where she promised she would never, ever go…
As Bellamy works to unravel the mysteries of Baldwin House and uncover the truth about Tate, she realizes that she is in way over her head… in more ways than one. Can her bravery and determination help to right the wrongs of the past and free the young man whose story has captured her heart?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo—

Author Bio:
Ever since she first read books like Chronicles of Narnia or Goosebumps, Alicia has been a lover of mind-bending fiction. Wherever imagination takes her, she is more than happy to call that place her home. With several Fantasy and Science Fiction titles under her belt, Alicia strives to write multicultural characters and stories that touch the heart. V-Card, the first book of the Sharing Spaces series, was her first Contemporary Romance.
The mother of three and wife to a soldier, she loves chocolate, coffee, and of course good books. When not writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, shopping for shoes and fabulous jewelry, or spending time with her loving family.
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#BookReview - Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop

Title: Etched in BoneBy: Anne BishopGenre: Paranormal FantasyRelease Date: March 7th, 2017Publisher: Roc
Summary from Goodreads: New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop returns to her world of the Others, as humans struggle to survive in the shadow of shapeshifters and vampires far more powerful than themselves…
After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders—a primitive and lethal form of the Others—the few cities left under human control are far-flung. And the people within them now know to fear the no-man’s-land beyond their borders—and the darkness…

As some communities struggle to rebuild, Lakeside Courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, though Simon Wolfgard, its wolf shifter leader, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn must work with the human pack to maintain the fragile peace. But all their efforts are threatened when Lieutenant Montgomery’s shady brother arrives, looking for a free ride and easy pickings.

With the humans on guard against one of their own, tensions rise, drawing the attention of the Elders, who are curious about the effect such an insignificant predator can have on a pack. But Meg knows the dangers, for she has seen in the cards how it will all end—with her standing beside a grave 
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Review: Not all books are my style and this book proves it. The writing was good. The characters were great, but I just couldn't get into it. I gave it a good 30% before shelving it.
I went back onto Goodreads and read some of the other reviews, wondering if I was just crazy and I noticed that people either loved it or didn't. I guess I'm not the only one. I'm not going to give this book a rating since I wasn't able to finish it.

#BookReview - Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Mozes Kor

Title: Surviving the Angel of DeathBy: Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany BuccieriGenre: Historical / Non-FictionRelease Date: October 14th, 2009Publisher: Tanglewood
Summary from Goodreads: Eva Mozes Kor was 10 years old when she arrived in Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele's twins were granted the privileges of keeping their own clothes and hair, but they were also subjected to sadistic medical experiments and forced to fight daily for their own survival, as most of the twins died as a result of the experiements or from the disease and hunger pervasive in the camp. In a narrative told with emotion and restraint, readers will learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil. The book also includes an epilogue on Eva's recovery from this experience and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Through her museum and her lectures, she has dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and working toward goals of forgiveness, peace, and the elimination of hatred and prejudice in the world.
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Review: What an incredible story. Its hard to imagine someone going through something like the holocaust and surviving, let alone having a sibling survive along side of them. I'm glad the author didn't go into too much detail about some of the terrible things that happened, but she still gave me enough detail to give me an insight into life as a Jew during WW2.I'm glad I was able to read this truly inspiring story.

#WeeklyMenu Week 188

Apparently, I have a comic book loving man child. Love my husband!
Writing news: Chugging along on my new manuscript. Up to chapter six. That's approximately 12k words. 
Turned in my book cover sheet for Seeker and now I'm just waiting for the contract. So many exciting things going on right now.
Enjoy this weeks menu! 
Monday- Portobello Swill Chicken
Tuesday- Ground Beef Tacos
Wednesday- Beef Marsala
Thursday- Pork Chops and Rice
Friday- Chicken and Rice Casserole 
Saturday- Guacamole Breakfast Sandwich
Sunday- Tuna Sandwiches

#BookReview - Garden of Thorns by Amber Mitchell

Title: Garden of ThornsBy: Amber MitchellGenre: Fantasy Release Date: March 6th, 2017Publisher: Entangled Teen
Summary from Goodreads: After seven grueling years of captivity in the Garden—a burlesque troupe of slave girls—sixteen-year-old Rose finds an opportunity to escape during a performance for the emperor. But the hostage she randomly chose from the crowd to aid her isn’t one of the emperor’s men—not anymore. He’s the former heir to the throne, who is now leading a rebellion against it.
Rayce is a wanted man and dangerously charismatic, the worst person for Rose to get involved with, no matter what his smile promises. But he assumes Rose’s attempt to take him hostage is part of a plot to crush the rebellion, so he takes her as his hostage. Now Rose must prove where her loyalties lie, and she offers Rayce a deal—if he helps her rescue the other girls, she’ll tell him all the Garden’s secrets.

Except the one secret she’s kept for seven years that she’ll take to her grave if she must.

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Review: Epic! I loved everything about this book. The story was unique and the characters had so much color and depth. The love story was touching, but not overwhelming like so many are. There was mystery in Rose's background, and it kept me wondering what her big secret was. I kept scream, "Tell him. You need to tell him." When she finally did, I was able to exhale a sigh of relief. Five stars for Garden of Thorns! Can't wait to read more from Amber Mitchell.

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