Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Update (Hurricane)

Due to hurricane preparations (and then possibly hurricane happenings/aftermath) Book Sp(l)ot
Reviews will be on a mini hiatus-ish.  

I hope that it will just be a few days and then everything will be back up and on schedule.

Stay safe everyone - and be careful!

(Remember, you can donate $10 to the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts by texting REDCROSS to 90999.)

Waiting On Wednesday [@tricialevensell @FierceReads @FeiwelFriends]

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine

My pick for this week:



DAUGHTER OF THE SIREN QUEEN by Tricia Levenseller

The capable, confident, and occasionally ruthless heroine of Daughter of the Pirate King is back in this action-packed sequel that promises rousing high seas adventures and the perfect dash of magic.

Alosa's mission is finally complete. Not only has she recovered all three pieces of the map to a legendary hidden treasure, but the pirates who originally took her captive are now prisoners on her ship. Still unfairly attractive and unexpectedly loyal, first mate Riden is a constant distraction, but now he's under her orders. And she takes great comfort in knowing that the villainous Vordan will soon be facing her father's justice.

When Vordan exposes a secret her father has kept for years, Alosa and her crew find themselves in a deadly race with the feared Pirate King. Despite the danger, Alosa knows they will recover the treasure first . . . after all, she is the daughter of the Siren Queen.

In Daughter of the Siren Queen, Tricia Levenseller brings together the perfect mix of thrilling action, tense battle scenes, and a heart-pounding romance.


published February 27th by Feiwel & Friends

add to your Goodreads shelf // pre-order from Book Depo // or Amazon


Why?


I loved, loved, loved Tricia Levenseller's Daughter of the Pirate King (my review) and am absolutely thrilled that we are getting more of Alosa's story!

The ending of the first book, both where the action itself ended and what we knew by the end of the characters, their relationships and their past (including Alosa's parents) really has me curious about what the second book has in store for us.





That's my pick for this week, what's yours? Tell me in the comments and/or link me to your own post!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Hard to Get Into Books


This week's Ten:
10 Books I Struggled to Get Into
(Some/Most of Which I Ended Up Loving)


It's Always the Husband by Michelle Campbell
review + book info


The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon
Goodreads

Sanctuary Bay by Laura J Burns & Melinda Metz

Gathering Deep by Lisa Maxwell

City of Fae (#1) by Pippa DaCosta

Undertow (#1) by Michael Buckley

The Last Boy & Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian

Alive by Chandler Baker

Joyride by Anna Banks


I only wanted to include books I had finished on this list so the tenth spot is for one of a few books I am stil reading right now!



Please leave a comment and let me know what books took you a while to get into but were worth it (or not) in the end!

Friday, September 1, 2017

Click'd ~ Tamara Ireland Stone (earc) review [@tamaraistone @DisneyHyperion]

Click'd
Disney Hyperion
September 07, 2017
208 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

Allie Navarro can't wait to show her best friends the app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. CLICK'D pairs users based on common interests and sends them on a fun (and occasionally rule-breaking) scavenger hunt to find each other. And it's a hit. By the second day of school, everyone is talking about CLICK'D.

Watching her app go viral is amazing. Leaderboards are filling up! Everyone's making new friends. And with all the data Allie is collecting, she has an even better shot at beating her archenemy, Nathan, at the upcoming youth coding competition. But when Allie discovers a glitch that threatens to expose everyone's secrets, she has to figure out how to make things right, even if that means sharing the computer lab with Nathan. Can Allie fix her app, stop it from doing any more damage, and win back the friends it hurt-all before she steps on stage to present CLICK'D to the judges?

New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone combines friendship, coding, and lots of popcorn in her fun and empowering middle-grade debut.

Click'd was such a fun but also heartfelt middle-grade novel. There is a great portrayal of Allie, a girl who loves her friends and their soccer tournaments but is willing to leave a summer of that behind to attend her 'computer camp.'  CodeGirls is even more than she had hoped it would be and she comes away from it not only with new friends, but also a great game: CLICK'D.

I loved that Allie loved coding and wasn't afraid to express that fact. It was something she enjoyed and, even if her school friends didn't understand it, she wasn't going to dial back her enthusiasm or pretend. For a seventh grader, really embracing something different that you like could be heard but she really was herself.

Allie's reaction to finding the glitch in CLICK'D was realistic but also made for a good story. The choices she made were understandable and, as a reader, you can agree with her or not, but see why doe did it.

I appreciated that Click'd was not full of quick fixes or instantly corrected wrongs. Both with relationships and when it came to the coding, solutions had to be figured out, tested and attempted. Sometimes they were the right and things were fixed. Sometimes it was more complicated. They was that the error in the coding might bring about a problem between people was smart and well done. All of the coding, the talk around the glitch, and how things work, etc was done well and used enough terms but without being overwhelming or losing readers who don't know code.

Click'd is a great middle grade debut from Tamara Ireland Stone with a great depiction of a girl who unabashedly loves coding - and is good at it. The author does a great job having the characters and their relationships and growth happen around and because of CLICK'D and its coding.










digital review copy received, from NetGalley, via publisher

Book Trailer Friday [@harperchildrens @isabelgreenberg @sethasfishman]

So, sure I'm nowhere near the target age of A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars by Seth Fishman and illustrated by Isabel Greenbery but I still love books that show us (and the littlest kids) just how large, how infinite the universe is. It may be impossible to really grasp the idea of a hundred billion trillion stars but isn't that why it's so amazing?




“This picture book is one in a gazillion.”—Jane O’Connor, the New York Times–bestselling author of the Fancy Nancy series

Did you know that the earth is covered in three trillion trees? And that seven billion people weigh about the same as ten quadrillion ants? Our world is full of constantly changing numbers, from a hundred billion trillion stars in space to thirty-seven billion rabbits on Earth. Can you imagine that many of anything?

The playful illustrations from New York Times–bestselling artist Isabel Greenberg and the friendly, straightforward voice of author Seth Fishman illuminate some of the biggest numbers in the universe—a hundred billion trillion stars—and the smallest—one unique and special YOU. Here is a book for story time, for science time, for math time, for bedtime, and all the times in between.

Perfect for curious children, classrooms eager for STEM content, and readers who have devoured Ada Twist, Scientist and How Much Is a Million?



September 12, 2017 // Greenwillow Books // 40 pages // Goodreads // Book Depository  // Amazon

Book Trailer Friday [@RandomHouse @TransworldBooks]

Beth Dorey-Stein's From the Corner of the Oval  - a tale of being the White House stenographer during the Obama administration will be ...