Showing posts with label LBGQTIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LBGQTIA. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2017

Blog Tour: The You I've Never Known by Ellen Hopkins


Title: The You I've Never Known
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: January 24, 2017
Source: Publisher


To start us on, I figured I should be very honest with you.  I pretty much begged Hannah at Irish Banana Book Tours to put me onto this blog tour.  I knew I wanted to read the book, I knew I had an ARC already, and I knew that I would continue to put off reading if I wasn't on the blog tour.  I do that.  I put off books I really want to read almost indefinitely at times.  If I read them then they can be over and I don't want them to be over.  This is a really bad habit to have, I know...

Well, Hannah apparently found it in her heart to add me to this blog tour and I am so thankful that she did!

The You I've Never Known is probably my favorite Ellen Hopkins book that I have read so far.  I really think that she knocked this one out of the park.

The You I've Never Known is mostly told from Ariel's perspective.  She is a 17 year old girl who has lived pretty much her entire life moving from one place to another with her dad.  At times he would find a lady friend to live with for a short amount of time and other times they would just live out of the car.  Ariel's mother abandoned her and her father to be with her girl friend and gave up on them, so she has been out of Ariel's life for a very very long time.

At the point in her life that this story occurs though, Ariel and her father have finally put down some temporary roots in California.  Ariel is finally at a place in her life where she can let herself start to have friends and to find who she really is.

And that brings us to one of the big questions that Ariel looks to solve during the course of this story.  Who she is, especially when it comes to her sexual identity.  Is she into men?  Is she into women?  Is she into both?  Can she be bisexual?  Is that even a possibility?

And The You I've Never Known follows along with Ariel while she ponders these questions and works to discover herself and the answers to these questions....and more.  So much more.

Along with having Ariel's story, we also get a few "journal entries" from a girl named Maya.  Maya is trying to navigate life and get away from her abusive mother.

Oh my goodness guys.  My mind is still reeling from reading this.  I cannot stop thinking about it.  There is just so much in this book!  Discovering oneself, sexual identity, abuse, and more.  It is a really hard hitting read.  I had to put the book down on more than one occasion because there were points that were tough for me to get through and I had to take the extra time to digest what I had just read.  However, I could never put it down for very long because I just had to know what was going to happen next!

I will say that while I felt very invested in Ariel, that I didn't find myself drawn too much to the other characters.  The only exception of this was Maya.  It is probably because most of this story is about Ariel and told by Ariel.  So it is like you are in her mind.  It doesn't allow us to really get to know other characters all that deeply, but it does really let us get to know Ariel.  And I really liked getting to know Ariel.

I guess it doesn't really need to be said since this is an Ellen Hopkins book, but just in case you are new to her books... like the rest of her books there are some definite trigger warnings.  Domestic abuse and child abuse are two very strong topics for this book...and alcohol consumption.  Also, Ariel's father is very anti LGBTQIA and feel that should be noted.  It is part of Ariel's story though, but I just wanted readers to be aware of it.

Like I said in the beginning of my review, I really enjoyed The You I've Never Known.  It found myself very pulled in and rooting for Ariel to find her true self.  I am glad I read it and didn't put it off!
My Rating
5 Stars


This review is based on an ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone.

Giveaway!



Follow the Tour!

Week 1:

Week 2:
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Blog Tour: Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig




Title: Last Seen Leaving
Author: Caleb Roehrig
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: October 4, 2016
Source: Publisher/Irish Banana Blog Tours

It is going to be hard to tell you about Last Seen Leaving.  I just don't really have the words that are going to do this book justice.  It is a story I really enjoyed reading and found myself totally lost in, but it left me some what speechless at the same time.

Last Seen Leaving is about Flynn.  His girlfriend, January, has disappeared - seemingly into thin air and he is set on solving the mystery of what happened to her.

But really, that story line is kind of second to what Last Seen Leaving is truly about.

Really, Last Seen Leaving is about a boy, Flynn, who is trying to come to terms with himself and who he really is.  It is a story about self discovery with a mystery plot line to help that discovery along.

It is quite beautiful.

I will admit that I thought that there were parts in the first half of the book that were a little awkward and didn't flow too well, but there was world building to be had and a character we had to get to know so we could understand his dilemma.  

And I think Caleb Roehrig did a pretty good job bringing a confused teenager to life in Last Seen Leaving.  I had absolutely no problems believing in the existence of Flynn.  And there were quite a few jokes that Caleb stuck into his book that worked.  They had me laughing out loud (thankfully no one was around me when I read these) and they helped in building a teen aged character.

As for January.  I really really didn't like her in the beginning of the story.  But promise me this as you read through the story - keep an open mind about her.  Your opinion, like mine, just might change.

Also, the mystery.  Man, this book was a lot darker than I thought it was going to be.  There are some tough topics contained within...and with that being said TRIGGER WARNING.  Some of it is a little predictable and other bits of it are not, but the whole thing was masterfully crafted.

I think it is rather obvious that I loved Last Seen Leaving.  I cannot wait to get to read more of Caleb Roehrig's work.  This was such a wonderfully crafted debut novel.  

My Rating

This review is based on an ARC provided by the publisher through Irish Banana Blog Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Tour

Week 1:

Week 2:
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Blog Tour: Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski




Title: Away We Go
Author: Emil Ostrovski
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Source: Irish Banana Blog Tours

This book...this book...

Oh this review...

It is going to be hard to write this one.  I know it is.  I finished reading this book at least a month ago.  And ever since then, I have been thinking about how I need to write this review and knowing when this review needs to go up on my blog.

The problem though is, I don't really know how to explain this book and my thoughts about it.  The reason being is that my feelings on this one are pretty mixed.

On one hand, there were parts of it that blew my mind, but there were equal amount of parts (or so it felt) that I was like..."what?"

Away We Go takes place in a world where a lot of the children get sick with what is known as the Peter Pan Virus (PPV).  The problem with PPV is that usually before any given individual turns 18, the virus kills them.

The governments answer to this virus is to stick all the sick kids into schools/institutions, essentially a quarantine.  Adults can't get sick, so they are around, but not really.  The sick kids are very limited in their contact world.  They have an internet place that they can go, but it is only this one site that they can go to.  The information on the site, the books, the movies, the music, the games, all of it are put there by the government.  They can't chat with others from the "outside" world.  Even the news they are allowed access to is filtered.

So of course, this leads all of those kids in these institutions wondering if what they have been told is real causing them to come up with wild conspiracy theories and guesses.

Great premise for a book if you ask me.  And at times, I really found myself pulled in and very intrigued with what was going on.  There were things written inside Away We Go that totally blew my mind and made me take a moment to go "woah!" before moving on.

Then there were other times where I found myself willing to put the book down.  And there were times where I found myself wondering "what did I just read..."

I also found myself having a hard time reading some of what the characters were saying.  There were a couple of characters, thankfully side ones that didn't say very much, that had a tendency to use specific words over and over in their speech.  For example, one of the very first characters you meet in this story has a tendency to say "son" after almost everything he says.  IT DROVE ME NUTS.  I know it was just a side character, and of that I am very thankful, but there were other ways besides doing that to create a personality in the character.

I would also like to note, for those who watch out for these kind of things in books for themselves, or for others, there is swearing and sex.  This book is marketed young adult, but I would suggest it for the more mature portion of this group.

It was definitely an interesting reading experience.  I am glad I read it though.  The mind blowing moments within made it worth it.

This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher through Irish Banana Blog Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.

My Rating
3 Stars

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the rest of the tour!

Week 1:
Week 2:
4/15: The Story Sanctuary - Q&A
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

We Are The Ants - Shaun David Huthinson


Title: We Are The Ants
Author: Shaun David Hutchinson
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: January 19, 2016
Source: Irish Banana Blog Tours

Guys.  This book.  OMG this book.

See the beautiful cover?  Despite how beautiful this cover is, it does not do this book justice.  I don't think any cover really truly could.

THIS BOOK IS JUST THAT GOOD.

A few weeks ago I was a part of the blog tour for We Are The Ants through Irish Banana Blot Tours.  I made a pocket letter themed off this wonderful, amazing, brilliant book.  If you missed it you can find that post HERE.

If you haven't figure it out yet, I absolutely loved this book.  I have been raving about it since I read it.  I have been telling everyone that I know that they need to read it.  Now I am here telling you.

This book.  It is hard to put words to it.  It is beautiful.  It is heart wrenching.  It is mind blowing.

So what is this book about?  It is about Henry.  Henry gets abducted by aliens.  The aliens have told him he has until January 29, 2016 to choose if he wants to push the button.  If he pushes the button, he will save the world.  If he doesn't, the world will come to an end.

At a point before the story begins, Henry's boyfriend committed suicide.  He left no note, nothing.  Now Henry is in a secret relationship with his arch nemesis.  People ridicule him.  Call him Space Boy and his home life is far from perfect.

So much happens in this book.  There are certain parts of it I would love to tell you about, but can't.   Once you do read the book though, please feel free to contact me so we can discuss the brilliance of We Are The Ants.

There isn't anything I didn't like about this book.  The pacing was fantastic.  I loved the characters.  I felt very connected to Henry.

We Are The Ants contains a story that is going to stick with you for a long time after you finish.  Please read it.  And please come find me when you are done so we can talk about it.

My Rating
5 Stars!



This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Blog Tour: We Are The Ants by Sean David Hutchinson - A Pocket Letter




Title: We Are The Ants
Author: Shaun David Hutchinson
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: January 19, 2016
Source: Irish Banana Blog Tours

I have another pocket letter to share with all of you!  This time it is themed off of the book We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson.  If you don't know what a pocket letter is, it is a super fun and crafty way to send snail mail.  Not only is it fun for the receiver to get, but it is super fun to make!




Here is my pocket letter in all of its glory.  I tried to use the cover of the book as inspiration for the colors.  I like it :)


This pocket.  This pocket represents our main character Henry.  Henry identifies as a gay male.  Now, you are probably thinking that this makes sense for the rainbow, but are asking me "why the rain cloud?"  The reason is complex and I can't give you the full explanation without giving you spoilers, but let us just say that things are not always happy for Henry.


The next pocket is the almost required washi tape sample pocket.  I tried to pick the colors of washi based on the cover.  The top two I think match up pretty well.


This pocket is the date that it is all supposed to go down, if it goes down at all.  It is by this date that Henry has to choose whether or not he is going to push the button.  Dang aliens.


So this pocket is the title of the book.  Pretty self explanatory I guess.  I don't know if there is much else that I can say about it.  Except read the book.  OMG READ THE BOOK!


We have to have a pocket representing the aliens.  They are the creatures that are abducting Henry and have been for years.  They don't look like this.  I believe they are supposed to look more like slugs, but I couldn't find any slug stickers, so we get these guys.  I like them though.  I think they are cute.


This pocket represents the biggest question that Henry faces throughout the entire book.  Should he push the button and save the world?  What would you tell Henry?  Should he push the button?  Why?


Shaun David Hutchinson has a very long name, so here are his initials.  And an elephant.  Why an elephant?  Because I could!


This pocket sums up my thoughts on the book.  I FREAKING LOVED IT!  You need to read it!  Stick it onto the top of your TBR right away.  No, screw your TBR.  Go get it and start reading it immediately.  Then once you have read it, come find me and talk to me about it.  Seriously.


Giveaway

First, I am going to give you the chance to win this pocket letter made by me.  I will put stickers and what not into it.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to US only. Must be 13+.  Reading is Better With Cupcakes is not responsible for any lost, damaged, or stolen items.


Second, you can enter to win a finished copy!!!  
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Check Out Other Tour Stops

Week 1:

Week 2:

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Friday, November 6, 2015

What We Left Behind by Robin Talley Blog Tour!


Title: What We Left Behind
Author: Robin Talley
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: October 27, 2015
Source: The Irish Banana Tours

Diversity in books.  This is something I never really thought about until I became a book blogger.  I just read whatever looked pretty.  Then I read my first LBGQTIA not very long ago (review for it is HERE).  However, it didn't really click with me that it was my first.

I have never tried to not read books that are classified as LBGQTIA in genre, I just some how have never really read them.  It was all purely accidental.

Thankfully, I was able to participate in this blog tour hosted by The Irish Banana for What We Left Behind by Robin Talley.  I am going to be perfectly honest here.  I had no idea what this book was about when I signed up for the tour.  I signed up because the cover is pretty (just look at it!).

I am glad that this cover pulled me in.  I am glad that I got to read this book.  It has helped to broaden my reading horizons and for that I am extremely thankful.

What We Left Behind is a book about love, friendship, and most importantly self discovery.  Our main characters are Toni and Gretchen.  They are two humans in love ready to go off to college.  They are supposed to be going to different colleges but in the same city, Boston.  However, the day before they are both supposed to leave Gretchen drops a big bomb on Toni.  Gretchen tells Toni that she will not be following "their" plan and that she will actually be going to NYU instead.  They decide to not break up and deal with a long distance relationship.  They have been together for 2 years and they love each other more than anything.  Now they have to discover who they are as individuals and not as a couple.


This next bit may be a bit spoilerish - but I really need to express my thoughts on this - so just warning you.  It really probably isn't, but just in case.

This book has made me think a lot and it has taught me a lot.  Before reading this one, I never once really gave a though to the use of gender pronouns.  I knew that I would always use whatever gender pronoun someone asked me to use for them, out of respect, but I never thought much further beyond that.  I never thought or realized how hard it can be for someone to decide what gender pronoun is the best for them to use for themselves.

This goes the same for what sexuality category you fall under.  I never gave much thought on how hard it can be for someone to come up.  I just never realized.

And that is just it, until I read this book - I JUST NEVER REALIZED.  So thank you, Robin Talley, for writing about it.

By the way, I don't think a reader can avoid thinking and contemplating these very thoughts when they read this book.  These two parts are very much a large part of this story.

Ok - the spoilerish part is over.

I could get into the characters and my thoughts on them, but that would give away some key parts of the story.  I will say this though.  I liked one of the main characters more than the other.  I also liked quite a few of the side characters - especially the ones that would speak their minds and tell the main characters whats what - because I couldn't yell at them or tell them myself.  

Overall, I felt that the story was a good one, but it was pretty heavy certain topics - gender pronoun use, gender identity, and chest binding to name a couple.  There were also some words that I had to go look up to ensure I was understanding what they meant correctly.  Not that that is a bad thing, but I would have liked some of them to have been explained a little bit better.

But all that being said, I find myself having a some what better understanding of all of these topics now.  I think this is one that people should read to help them find a stronger understanding and/or to see that there are others out there with the same questions that they have.  The lessons really make it worth the read.

My Rating
3.5 stars

This review is based on an ARC provided by The Irish Banana Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Check out the rest of the tour!!
Week 1:

Week 2:

Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Mad About the Hatter - Dakota Chase


Title: Mad About the Hatter
Author: Dakota Chase
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Publication Date: August 20, 2015
Source: Netgalley

If you have been wanting to go on a trip to Wonderland, but wanted a new story to take you there, Mad About the Hatter by Dakota Chase is the one you want.  It stays very true to the original Wonderland that we all know and love.  You will not be disappointed.  However, this story is not about Alice.  This story is about the Mad Hatter and Boy Alice, better known as Henry.

Mad About the Hatter happens a good 14 years after Alice's last visit to Wonderland.  Henry is 17 years old.  Alice is in her young 20's, married, and has twins.

The story starts out with the Red Queen summoning the Mad Hatter from his dungeon cell.  Apparently a boy has appeared in Caterpillar's lair and has been asking for him.  While the Red Queen would rather chop of the Mad Hatters head right then and there, she wants answers from this Boy Alice that has appeared in her kingdom.  She would also like to chop off his head too.  After she gets answers of course. 

The Red Queen sends the Mad Hatter off to find Boy Alice and return him to her.  If he does, she will pardon the Mad Hatter and not cut of his head.  Obviously, the Hatter wants to keep his head, so he agrees to fetch the Boy Alice.

The Mad Hatter eventually finds Boy Alice and learns that he is the younger brother of Alice.  He also learns that Boy Alice's true name is Henry and that Henry was sent against his will to Wonderland by Alice.  

All Henry wants to do is find his way home again and the Mad Hatter agrees to help and tells him that the Red Queen can help him get there...maybe.  Thus their adventure together begins.

Mad About the Hatter is very light and fluffy.  It never gets too serious, though sometimes I do wish it would have gone a bit deeper.  I wanted more from the relationship between the Mad Hatter and Henry.  I would have liked a bit more angst and tension.  There really wasn't much at all.  Their relationship came too easy.

The way the world is written is wonderful.  It is very easy to imagine Wonderland as they venture through it.  They travel through quite a few different lands to get to their destinations, each very worthy of Wonderland.  Dakota Chase does an excellent job describing them.  You can tell that she is a fan of the original Alice in Wonderland and did her best to stay true to the world as it was originally written.

There are also a ton of familiar faces!  I loved being able to visit with these long lost friends.  The Caterpillar was still there smoking his hookah.  The White Rabbit was still late and very jittery.  The Red Queen was still very into chopping off the heads.  She was probably even more into chopping off heads in this one than she was when we first met her!  Just like the world, the characters that we see were kept true to how they were originally written.

For those of you wondering if this would be something appropriate for younger teens to read, the answer is yes.  The romance is really light.  There are only a handful of kisses and a lot of hand holding.  Nothing is overly steamy.  Also, violence is pretty much nonexistent.  It is a very tame book when it comes to topics such as those.  As far as language goes, the B word is used a couple of times, but mostly to refer to female dogs.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one.  Yes, there wasn't much angst and there wasn't very much conflict, but it was such an enjoyable read it was very easy to overlook those flaws.  This is a very fun retelling of Alice in Wonderland that you do not want to miss!

Also, on a completely random side note - I listened to the Almost Alice album while I was reading this book and I felt that they really went well together.  If you haven't heard the the album check it out here.


My Rating
4.5 out of 5 stars



This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)