Pen and Parchment

Romance, Revolutionaries, and Rides in the Sky | Review: Enchantée

Hello friends! I’m super excited to be participating on the blog tour for Enchantée today, I just finished this book earlier last week and had such a blast reading it! I hope everyone’s been doing well, I know it’s been a hot second since my last post (what else is new), but I’m so happy to be popping back in to talk about this beauty.

Title: Enchanté e

Author: Gita Trelease

Series: Book 1 in a trilogy

Genre: YA fantasy, historical fantasy

Pub. Date: Feb. 5th, 2019

Synopsis: When smallpox kills her parents, seventeen-year-old Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic–la magie ordinaire–Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
With the dark magic she learned from her mother, Camille transforms herself into ‘the Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. Her resentment of the rich at odds with the allure of glamour and excess, Camille is astonished to find that her would-be suitor Lazare, a handsome young inventor whom she thought shared her dreams of liberty, is also living a double life.
As the Baroness de la Fontaine, Camille gambles at cards and flirts, desperate to maintain her place at court and keep herself and her sister off the streets. But la magie has its costs. When a scheming courtier blackmails her and Lazare’s affections shift, Camille loses control of her secrets. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose–love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, reality or la magie–before Paris burns.
Bestselling author of Caraval Stephanie Garber calls Enchantée “a lit firework crackling with treacherous magic, decadent romance, and disguises that take on lives of their own–deliciously addictive!” Gita Trelease’s lush, imaginative debut fantasy is perfect for anyone looking for immersive magic in the world of Sofia Copola’s Marie Antoinette.

Find a Copy: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | IndieBound

9 Book Series I Want to Finish in 2019

Hello fellow bookworms! This post is a bit late (like everything seems to be with me and my blog), I wanted to get it up in early January when everybody was still making New Years/2019-themed posts, but now it just gets to be special!

As I’m sure you can all sympathize, my TBR is actually an atrocity against humankind. I’ve noticed something in particular about my reading patterns over the last couple years though – I’m absolutely terrible at finishing series.

I used to be a really big fan of long series when I was a kid – all the Percy Jackson books, Magic Tree House, it didn’t matter what it was, I was never deterred by a long list of sequels. In fact, I preferred it. But once I started counting the books I read on Goodreads, getting into the book community, and receiving ARCs, I switched to a vast majority of standalones.

But one of my big goals for 2019 (that I’m already low-key failing at but it’s FINE) is to read and request less ARCs, so that I can finally turn my attention to the mountains of books – specifically sequels – I have on my shelves. Here’s a list of all the series I’d really like to finish (if all the books are out) or continue (up to the most recent release if not all the books are out yet) in 2019!

National Treasure Meets Six of Crows | Review: The Gilded Wolves

Title: The Gilded Wolves

Author: Roshani Chokshi

Genre: YA fantasy

Series: Book 1 in a trilogy

Pub. Date: Jan. 15th, 2019

Synopsis: Set in a darkly glamorous world, The Gilded Wolves is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous but thrilling adventure. Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much. Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

Hello my friends, today is a very special day on the blog (and in the YA community) because it’s the release day of The Gilded Wolves!! I think a lot of us spent the last half of 2018 highly anticipating this book, I know I certainly did. Today I’m finally bringing you my review as a part of Wednesday Book‘s wonderful blog tour and a super special surprise at the end!

2018 Wrap-Up and Reading Stats

I meant to get this post up before the new year started, but it’s been a very busy week for me so I hope you all will still enjoy reading this a few days late. Today, I’m bringing you all the charts, graphs, and mathy analysis fun about everything that I read in 2018! I apologize if some of the graphics are wonky, I used Excel and that program is hard lol.

But before I dive into that, I have an update if you read my most recent post about my end of the year TBR. And I have excellent news… *drumroll please*

I DID IT!!! I actually met my goal of 45 books! Granted, I did deviate from my TBR just a tiny bit, but I still read almost all the books I set out to read in that span of time. I believe I only swapped two out in favor of an audiobook and a graphic novel (which, I have discovered, are the most magical of books designed to make you feel like the fastest reader on the planet).

Anyways, onto the stats!

End of the Year TBR (Yes, I’m Really Trying to Meet that Reading Challenge)

Copy of YALLFest 2018 Wrap-Up

Hellooo friends! I’m getting tired of having to start every post with an apology and explanation for why I haven’t been posting, but we’ll just chalk it up to the fact that college – and 2018 as a whole – has been reeeal crappy to me. Hopefully in the new year, I can get all the technical issues worked out with this blog and post more frequently, because I really miss interacting with you all!

Today, I’m here to present to you the ultimate race against time. A mad dash against the laws of bookish physics. I, the biggest mess of a book blogger and bookstagrammer in history, am actually attempting to stick to a TBR to meet my Goodreads goal.

And, as of right now, I’m actually sticking to it.

I know, start knocking on all the wood in your house and perform your spiritualist rituals, because I feel like even writing that sentence out has jinxed me and will make it all go away. But my goal for the year was to read 45 books, and I’m currently on book number 37.

Soooo, it’s not impossible. I can feel it, just out of reach. I have to read 9 books in exactly 14 days, or two weeks. So here’s the list of books I have tentatively planned out to read! Just click on the covers to be taken to their Goodreads pages.

Continue reading “End of the Year TBR (Yes, I’m Really Trying to Meet that Reading Challenge)”

Chilly Mornings and Books Galore | YALLFest 2018 Wrap-Up

YALLFest 2018 Wrap-Up

Hi friends! I hope you’ve all been reading great books and enjoying the fall season, I know that Christmas lights and sleigh-bell songs can’t come soon enough for me. This past weekend I got a much-needed break from school during a short trip to Charleston for my third year in a row at the one-and-only YALLFest!

For once, I actually got some (decent) photos and have the opportunity to write about it, so I figured I’d share some of the highlights from my trip along with a few tips and tricks for those that are considering going next year or to another big book event!

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An Insta-Love Tragedy | Review: Empress of All Seasons (+ My Victorious Return to Blogging)

Title: Empress of All Seasons

Author: Emiko Jean

Genre: YA fantasy

Series: standalone

Pub. Date: Nov. 6, 2018

Synopsis: In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.
Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.
Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren’t hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.
Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.

Find a Copy: Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Amazon

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Review: Seven Days of You

Seven Days of You cover Title: Seven Days of You

Author: Cecilia Vinesse

Series: standalone

Genre: YA, contemporary, romance

Format: Print ARC; received in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: March 7th, 2017 by Little, Brown Books

Rating:

Synopsis: Sophia has seven days left in Tokyo before she moves back to the States. Seven days to say good-bye to the electric city, her wild best friend, and the boy she’s harbored a semi-secret crush on for years. Seven perfect days…until Jamie Foster-Collins moves back to Japan and ruins everything.

Jamie and Sophia have a history of heartbreak, and the last thing Sophia wants is for him to steal her leaving thunder with his stupid arriving thunder. Yet as the week counts down, the relationships she thought were stable begin to explode around her. And Jamie is the one who helps her pick up the pieces. Sophia is forced to admit she may have misjudged Jamie, but can their seven short days of Tokyo adventures end in anything but good-bye?

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