Book Nerds Across America

Book Summary
The Handmaid’s Tale meets Blood Red Road in Glass Arrow, the story of Aya, who lives with a small group of women on the run from the men who hunt them, men who want to auction off breeding rights to the highest bidder.
In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning. 

Flo's Review
Let's do this review a little differently, okay?! Here are the top three things I liked about The Glass Arrow--

In third place, for the bronze... Kiran was full of surprises -- good ones: At least three times while reading this, Kiran did something that surprised me. But good surprises, so it was all good. It makes for an interesting read when you think you have someone figured out and then something drops and you realize that you do NOT. 

In second place, for the silver... the title: We discover why this book is named The Glass Arrow about 2/3 of the way into the story. I love the story behind it and how it relates to Aya.

And for the gold, the number number one thing I like most about the The Glass Arrow...

{Drumroll please...}

Book Summary
The only thing worse than being a witch is living with one.
Camellia’s adopted mother wants Cam to grow up to be just like her. Problem is, Mom’s a seriously wicked witch.
Cam’s used to stopping the witch’s crazy schemes for world domination. But when the witch summons a demon, he gets loose—and into Devon, the cute new boy at school.
Now Cam’s suddenly got bigger problems than passing Algebra. Her friends are getting zombiefied. Their dragon is tired of hiding in the RV garage. For being a shy boy-band boy, Devon is sure kissing a bunch of girls. And a phoenix hidden in the school is going to explode on the night of the Halloween Dance.
To stop the demon before he destroys Devon’s soul, Cam might have to try a spell of her own. But if she’s willing to work spells like the witch...will that mean she’s wicked too?

Flo's Review
First things first: how great is this cover?? I love it so much, I went for my own attempt at a recreation:

I had a broom, but it wouldn't stay up. #WitchProblems

Now that I'm all lightheaded from being upside down for so long, let me tell you about this book! I went into Seriously Wicked knowing nothing about the book's plot. (I like to read books that way when I can.) But because of that, it took me a while to get into. Because, for one (1) thing, Cam's voice is quite ... maybe snarky is the word? I didn't really mesh well with her tone and style at first. But as I read on, I discovered that (2) the entire story felt almost like a ... maybe parody is the word?

In that context, Cam's voice started to fit better for how she was telling this story. This book felt like it was meant to just be fun! For example, the witch spells are seriously crazy, like insane math word problems. Also, Cam is trying to decide whether she is falling for a boy or for the demon who is possessing him? And does the demon like her back? Or the boy? It is definitely a tongue-in-cheek story, and should be read as such. I love that it takes a subject that historically has a patina of darkness around it, and just makes it silly.

But interspersed in the fun are some real struggles. Both Cam and Devon spend a large part of the book struggling to come to terms with their true selves and what they can do; though, for different reasons. And this book reminds us that things -- and people for that matter -- aren't always as they appear.

At just over 200 pages, this is a fast read and will be perfect for the lazy, hazy days of summer. It comes out in May, so grab yourself the witches brew of your choice and get reading. Though I don't recommend doing it upside down on the bed.

Thanks so much to the kind folks at Tor Teen for the Advance Reading Copy of this book.

Book Summary
The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Rosie Project, starring the same extraordinary couple now living in New York and unexpectedly expecting their first child. Get ready to fall in love all over again.
Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they're about to face a new challenge because surprise! Rosie is pregnant. 
Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he's left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie. 
As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia to reconcile, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business, and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him the most. 

Flo's Review
I absolutely loved The Rosie Project. It was so adorable. But it felt complete to me. I was happy with the place where I left Don and Rosie and did not necessarily feel like their story warranted a continuation. But in this second book, we pick up right where the first one left off. I really enjoyed seeing Don change and adapt to his new world in New York with Rosie. He has several friends and there is no shortage of activities for him.

But I didn't like Rosie in this book. I know she's pregnant and going through a lot, but I felt she basically shut Don out without giving him an explanation. I mean, we all know that if Don knew exactly what the problem was, he would have found a way to resolve it -- because that's how Don rolls. But instead she just lied to him and yelled at him for being himself and didn't tell him anything. So the majority of this book is Don trying to solve what he thinks is the problem. I also was not a fan of the Lydia story line. I didn't like Lydia and couldn't Don's decided course of action have serious ramifications?

We did learn something about Gene that completely changes your view on his character. I like the arc his story took, and even the conclusion. I also enjoyed the addition of George and his story. And I'm on the fence with how I feel about the whole Lesbian Mother's Project, but admittedly these scenes had me chuckling quite a bit.

I'm not sure if the story continues, but I wouldn't mind if it did. It would be fun to see Don's solutions to common parenting problems and how exactly a child is going to fit into their lives.

Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for providing me a copy for review.

Book Summary
Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.

There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth...

The Giveaway!
The second book in the Midnight Crossroad series -- Day Shift -- comes out at the beginning of March. And you wanna be ready for it, right?! I thought so. So, to help get you ready, we're giving away a copy of Midnight Crossroad. Enter via the Rafflecoper; U.S. only. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Summary
"I thrust my hand toward the sky as my voice begs the Elemental inside me to waken and rise. But it's no use. The curse I've spent my entire life abhorring—the thing I trained so hard to control—no longer exists."
Nym has saved Faelen only to discover that Draewulf stole everything she valued. Now he’s destroyed her Elemental storm-summoning ability as well.
When Nym sneaks off with a host of delegates to Bron, Lord Myles offers her the chance for a new kind of power and the whispered hope that it may do more than simply defeat the monster she loathes. But the secrets the Bron people have kept concealed, along with the horrors Draewulf has developed, may require more than simply harnessing a darker ability.
They may require who she is.
Set against the stark metallic backdrop of the Bron kingdom, Nym is faced with the chance to change the future.
Or was that Draewulf’s plan for her all along?

Flo's Review
I'm pretty sure Mary Weber just likes to toy with my emotions. I always come out of her books with the all these FEELS. And also, she is the sweetest person on Twitter ever because she's very nice to me as I flail in my feels to a million tweets directed at her as soon as I put down the book.

Siren's Fury picks up right where Storm Siren left off -- so you're immediately wrapped back up into the emotion you felt at the end of the last book. From there it hits the ground running, because Nym has a BIG problem that she is trying to fix so of course she is going to go barreling into trying to fix it. The book is aptly titled, as a lot of what Nym feels in this part of the story is fury, anger, rage. The whole idea of not letting your emotions control you is taken to a whole different level when you have supernatural powers. There were times when she was so blinded by it that I was screaming at the book, "Nym!! NO!!" But then I always got to cheer when she came back to herself.

Nym has changed from the first book because now she has not just had owners and masters; she has had friends and she still does. This changes her motivations for action in a good way. There seemed to maybe be a few too many moments of, "He got away again?!?!" to the point where it was a little frustrating. Myles is a perfect shady character because I just feel creepy and slimy every time I read about it. And I really liked Rasha's unfailing support of Nym.

While not as much of a cliffhanger as the ending of Storm Siren, Mary did still leave us with some quite intense loose ends. However, while at the end of the first book it was like, "Everything hurts and how is she going to make this good again???" I left this book more optimistically -- I believe she can make it good again and I'm looking forward to seeing how she is going to do it.

Siren's Fury comes out in June 2015 and I encourage you to pick it up immediately if you've read Storm Siren. And if you haven't read Storm Siren yet, you've got some time to do so :)