Blog Tour - ARC Review: Play On by Michelle Smith! (+Giveaway)

Title: Play On
Author: Michelle Smith
Release Date: April 21, 2015
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Pages: 258 pages
Dates read: March 28th-29th, 2015

Goodreads synopsis:
In the small town of Lewis Creek, baseball is everything. Especially for all-star pitcher Austin Braxton, who has a one-way ticket out of town with his scholarship to a top university. All that stands between him and a new start is one final season. But when Austin starts flunking Chemistry, his picture-perfect future is in jeopardy. A failing grade means zero playing time, and zero playing time means no scholarship.

Enter Marisa Marlowe, the new girl in town who gets a job at his momma's flower shop. Not only is Marisa some home-schooled super-genius; she's also a baseball fanatic and more than willing to help Austin study. As the two grow closer, there's something about Marisa that makes Austin want more than just baseball and out of Lewis Creek -- he wants a future with her. But Marisa has a past that still haunts her, one that she ran all the way to South Carolina to escape.

As Austin starts to peel back the layers of Marisa’s pain, it forces him to look beyond the façade of himself and everyone he thought he knew in his town. What he sees instead is that in a small town like Lewis Creek, maybe baseball isn’t everything—maybe it is just the thing that ties them all together.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Book Review - Empire of Night by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Empire of Night
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Age of Legends, book 2
Publisher: DoubleDay Canada
Pages: 432 pages
Dates read: April 4th to 8th, 2015

Goodreads synopsis:

Sisters Moria and Ashyn are the Keeper and Seeker of Edgewood. Or at least, they were.

Their village is gone. Their friends have betrayed them. And now, the emperor has sent them on a mission to rescue the children of Edgewood—accompanied by Prince Tyrus and a small band of imperial warriors. But the journey proves more perilous than they could have imagined. With treachery and unrest mounting in the empire, Moria and Ashyn will have to draw on all their influence and power to overcome deadly enemies—not all of them human—and even avert an all-out war

Rating: 4/5 stars

Book Review - Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Sea of Shadows
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Age of Legends, book 1
Publisher: DoubleDay Canada
Pages: 406 pages
Dates read: March 30th to April 4th, 2015

Goodreads synopsis:
In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.
Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters’ journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they’ve ever known.
Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court—one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

 Rating: 4/5 stars

Top Ten Tuesday #11 - Top Ten Characters You'd Like To Check In With

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we can post our top ten bookish things of the week. This week's theme is "Top Ten Characters You'd Like To Check in With."

So basically, this is one of the coolest themes ever and I'm so excited. The following list is characters from books that I'd like to see where their life is after the story's finished. It's hard to narrow down the list but here's to trying!

Waiting on Wednesday #9 - The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. This is where we get to spotlight books that we are anxiously waiting to be released. The ones that we are dying to get our hands on and read into the wee hours of the night (and quite possibly make our shelves beautiful too!)

This week I'm waiting on....

Book Review - Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

Title: Written in the Stars
Author: Aisha Saeed
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Pages: 304 pages
Dates read: March 27-28th, 2015

Goodreads synopsis:

This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny?

Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Top Ten Tuesday #10 - Ten Books You Recently Added To Your To-Be-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where we can post our top ten bookish things of the week. This week's theme is "Ten Books You Recently Added to Your To-Be-Read List"

I'm gonna have to limit this to only released/books I've already bought because or else this would be a lot more than just ten :D