Review: Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Title: Tell Me Three Things

Author: Julie Buxbaum

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: April 5, 2016

Pages/Format: 328, eBook
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Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

Julie Buxbaum mixes comedy and tragedy, love and loss, pain and elation, in her debut YA novel filled with characters who will come to feel like friends.

Book in One Word: Cute!

Waiting on Wednesday (182)

is a weekly feature hosted by Breaking the Spine that 

showcases upcoming releases people are very much anticipating.

Do you ever read a book's synopsis and just think, yes? Like, the book totally and completely calls to you? That's me and this book. I'm here for the title, cover, and premise, and something about it sounds right up my alley. My want for this is on a fully-definitive list of best dreams of books I'd like to read.

Top Ten Tuesday (182)

is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Tuesday's theme is...

Blog Tour: Hearts & Other Body Parts by Ira Bloom

Hello, readers and other bookish fiends! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Ira Bloom's Hearts & Other Body Parts! Be prepared for a fun, monstrous novel filled with witches, a boy akin to Frankenstein's monster, hexes, and a talking cat. If you'll take a moment and stop ogling at the cover (don't worry, I myself have drooled over it), I'll tell you all about the book and its creator. And stick around for the end, too--you'll have a chance to win your very own copy!

The Weekly Forecast (31)

Welcome to a weekly feature of sorts here on Beauty and the Bookshelf: The Weekly Forecast! I've been reworking the blog a bit, trying to post more and be consistent, but also to post more than reviews and the same two memes every week (assuming I even post anything during a week). Then I thought of The Weekly Forecast, a way to recap what I did on the blog the week before, and then to forecast what will be on the blog the coming week. The latter could be helpful because it keeps me in check, kind of: if I tell you I'm going to post a review this week then now I basically have to post a review this week. But first: let me tell you what happened on the blog last week.

Let's not talk about how blogging was this past week at all.

Review: Cashmere by Temple West

Title: Cashmere

Author: Temple West

Publisher: In Media Res Publications

Publishing Date: February 14, 2017

Pages/Format: 460, eARC
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This high-stakes sequel to Velvet proves that when you’re the only human caught in a paranormal war, high school can get a little tricky. With Adrian’s brother trapped in hell, the Praetorian Guard has made Stony Creek their base-of-operations, but Caitlin has a bad feeling they’re more interested in her than in finding Lucian. Caught in a sea of conspiracies and lies, Caitlin and Adrian perform a risky magical procedure in an attempt to protect Caitlin from compulsion.

Relieved that her nightmares have ended, Caitlin is disturbed to find that something even stranger has taken their place. 

Determined to get on with her life, even amid a crazy paranormal manhunt, she applies for a competitive summer fashion internship in New York. Searching desperately for answers about what Caitlin might be, how Adrian’s father is involved, and where Lucian has been kidnapped to, Caitlin and Adrian must rely on each other to survive. But when the truth finally comes to light, the consequences are unimaginable.

And the question still haunts them both: even if they survive, how will they deal with the fact that Adrian is immortal and Caitlin is not? 

Book in One Word: ENJOYABLE

The Weekly Forecast (30)

Welcome to a weekly feature of sorts here on Beauty and the Bookshelf: The Weekly Forecast! I've been reworking the blog a bit, trying to post more and be consistent, but also to post more than reviews and the same two memes every week (assuming I even post anything during a week). Then I thought of The Weekly Forecast, a way to recap what I did on the blog the week before, and then to forecast what will be on the blog the coming week. The latter could be helpful because it keeps me in check, kind of: if I tell you I'm going to post a review this week then now I basically have to post a review this week. But first: let me tell you what happened on the blog last week.

Whoops, the Weekly Forecast is up on Monday this week!

Review: Hunted by Meagan Spooner

Title: Hunted

Author: Meagan Spooner

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publishing Date: March 14, 2017

Pages/Format: 384, eARC
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Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them. 

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. 

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Book in One Word: Worked

Your Beautiful and Beastly YA Reading List

Loving something tends to mean loving a lot of stuff like or having to do with that thing. For example, I love cheese. So I love cheese in various forms, like liquid, as a powdered flavor on chips, and squirted from a can. The same goes for Beauty and the Beast. I love love love Beauty and the Beast, so when I see something related to it there's a good chance I might very much like to get my hands on it. Hence a ridiculously comprehensive list of Beauty and the Beast retellings to read.

Like I said, this list is very comprehensive. In fact, because I'm such a fantastic person who waited too long to start putting this list together and who didn't realize how freaking time consuming putting it together would be, the list has been vastly shortened--to just YAish retellings. (For now!) I Google Beauty and the Beast retellings, looked up lists on Goodreads, and found what I put here. Some books are very obviously Beauty and the Beast retellings, some...maybe not. But for the most part, if I found the book on a list of Beauty and the Beast-esque books, then it's also on this one. And of course this isn't all of them, because oh my gosh, there are so many I don't even know how to find them all. Happy reading, folks!

A Very Enchanted Giveaway

Hello, enchanted readers! In case you've been living under a rock or in a cursed castle and were very unaware, this week is a very big week in the world of movies and books and fairy tales and Disney: the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast hits theaters this Friday, March 17! And if you know me--and happen to have noticed this blog's name--then you'll know that I'm a very big fan of Beauty and the Beast and that I am VERY EXCITED.

In preparation for this beautiful and beastly occasion, Disney Press sent me some treats--and they have some for you, too. (Thanks, Disney!) Disney Press recently published Lost in a Book and Belle's Library, two very tale as old time-esque books. (Full disclaimer: Disney sent me copies of these and let me tell you, they are utterly worthy of heart eyes and drool.) And they have two copies for you, two--AND EIGHTEEN OTHER BOOKS. (Screaming may commence now.) Won't you be our guest and put these books to your test?

Blog Tour: A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold

Hello, my fellow bookish creatures! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Elana K. Arnold's A Boy Called Bat! Having nothing to do with vampires and barely anything to do with bats (both animal and baseball), A Boy Called Bat is a sweet yet moving read about a young boy on the autism spectrum and the baby skunk staying at his house. For my stop I'll be reviewing the book and part of the book will get MadLibbed by the author. Stick around for the end, too--you'll have a chance at winning your very own copy of A Boy Called Bat, and trust me: you'd be batty not to want it.

The Weekly Forecast (29)

Welcome to a weekly feature of sorts here on Beauty and the Bookshelf: The Weekly Forecast! I've been reworking the blog a bit, trying to post more and be consistent, but also to post more than reviews and the same two memes every week (assuming I even post anything during a week). Then I thought of The Weekly Forecast, a way to recap what I did on the blog the week before, and then to forecast what will be on the blog the coming week. The latter could be helpful because it keeps me in check, kind of: if I tell you I'm going to post a review this week then now I basically have to post a review this week. But first: let me tell you what happened on the blog last week.

I'm going to stop making excuses for not being on top of blogging because, as some poster in some school I went to eons ago said, "Don't make excuses, make improvements." And I plan to make improvements this week and not miss a damn day of posting because IT'S A THEMED WEEK. And I AM HERE FOR IT.

Review: The Shadows We Know by Heart by Jennifer Park

Title: The Shadows We Know by Heart

Author: Jennifer Park

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publishing Date: March 14, 2017

Pages/Format: 304, ARC
Add on Goodreads!

In this haunting and luminescent debut novel, a girl’s complicated family life starts to unravel after she finds herself falling for a mysterious boy who lives in the forest behind her house.

Leah Roberts’s life hasn’t been the same since her brother died ten years ago. Her mother won’t stop drinking, her father can’t let go of his bitter anger, and Leah herself has a secret she’s told no one: Sasquatches are real, and she’s been watching a trio of them in the woods behind her house for years.

Everything changes when Leah discovers that among the sasquatches lives a teenager. This alluring, enigmatic boy has no memory of his past and can barely speak, but Leah can’t shake his magnetic pull. Gradually, Leah’s life entwines with his, providing her the escape from reality she never knew she needed.

But when Leah’s two worlds suddenly collide in a deadly showdown, she uncovers a shocking truth as big and extraordinary as the legends themselves, one that could change her life forever. 

Book in One Word: HEART

January + February Rewind

TWO MONTHS IN ONE. It's like an extra special, super duper cool deal! And it's also because computer issues and laziness have caused me to fall behind (hence why I posted practically nothing in February) and I never got my January recap up. But HEY. Better late than never, right?

The Weekly Forecast (28)

Welcome to a weekly feature of sorts here on Beauty and the Bookshelf: The Weekly Forecast! I've been reworking the blog a bit, trying to post more and be consistent, but also to post more than reviews and the same two memes every week (assuming I even post anything during a week). Then I thought of The Weekly Forecast, a way to recap what I did on the blog the week before, and then to forecast what will be on the blog the coming week. The latter could be helpful because it keeps me in check, kind of: if I tell you I'm going to post a review this week then now I basically have to post a review this week. But first: let me tell you what happened on the blog last week.

I've been a VERY VERY BAD blogger lately but that's mostly because my laptop (or laptop charger; culprit to be determined) has been VERY VERY BAD lately. I'm having issues getting it to turn on and I'm not sure what the issue is, and, well, I can't really blog when my laptop won't turn on, and I haven't been able to get it to a computer shop/person yet. So blogging has been very difficult, but I have shit to get done, folks. Therefore, this week's posts are very tentative. Just because I managed to get my computer on now doesn't mean I'll get it to turn on tomorrow. This week's for catching up (hopefully all the catching up will actually get done), then I think the next few weeks will be themed. And I am EXCITED. Let's just hope my damn (I mean, darling) laptop cooperates.