FRIDAY STARS – Your Weekly Must Knows 04/15/16

On Fridays, we take a look at what has happened around here in the last week, what’s coming up that we are excited about and anything else that we may have to share!
♥ Enjoy!

Life:

I have officially joined the club of being a sports mom!  My oldest had his first game of t-ball this week, and………..I’m beyond clueless.  While my husband played baseball, and other sports, from the age of 5 until he graduated high school, I never played any organized sports.  At all.  I spent my summers camping and wakeboarding and my winters snowboarding.  So it feels like I’ve stepped into a whole new world.  Not only did I teach my son to run the wrong way for when we were practicing baseball in our backyard these last few months……I didn’t know 1st base was on the right and not the left lol.  But the whole scheduling dinner at weird hours is little funky to get use to too.  But in these last few weeks of practices and a game under our belt, I love how much fun my son is having!  And my husband too, since he gets to volunteer and be out there with the kids.  My heart always feels all warm and fuzzy when we are walking off the field, especially since they don’t keep scores and everyone gets a turn at the age of 5.  It has been a great experience so far, and now I feel ready to tackle all of the other sports he wants to try!  Am I alone in my cluelessness of organized sports?  Or did you play sports or have kids that play sports in school?

 

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Just Finished and Loved:

Glitterland (Glitterland #1) by Alexis Hall
5 Stars!  If I cannot, and will never really understand what depression is, not because of a lack of empathy, but because witnessing it doesn’t mean understanding it, even if you want to, rare are the times when I read a book that captures the core of it and manages to make me approach understanding. Glitterland is one of these books. That heartbreaking, beautiful book.  I will cherish it forever.
Anna’s Review
Once the golden boy of the English literary scene, now a clinically depressed writer of pulp crime fiction, Ash Winters has given up on love, hope, happiness, and — most of all — himself. He lives his life between the cycles of his illness, haunted by the ghosts of other people’s expectations.  Then a chance encounter at a stag party throws him into the arms of Essex boy Darian Taylor, an aspiring model who lives in a world of hair gel, fake tans, and fashion shows. By his own admission, Darian isn’t the crispest lettuce in the fridge, but he cooks a mean cottage pie and makes Ash laugh, reminding him of what it’s like to step beyond the boundaries of anxiety.  But Ash has been living in his own shadow for so long that he can’t see past the glitter to the light. Can a man who doesn’t trust himself ever trust in happiness? And how can a man who doesn’t believe in happiness ever fight for his own?

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Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo
5 Stars!  I am here to tell you that it is worth Every. Bit. Of the hype.
Chelsea’s Review
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price–and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone… A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

 

 

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4.5 Stars:

The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2) by Marie Lu → Anna’s Review

 

3 Stars:

Eversea (Eversea #1) by Natasha Boyd → Chelsea’s Review

 

2 Stars:
Emerge (Mer Chronicles #1) by Tobie Easton → Jen’s Review

 

We also had a Top Ten Tuesday post about Books Every YA Fantasy Lover Should Read. If you missed it, check it out here.

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Reading Next:

I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios – If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.  Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.

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The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater – Some race to win. Others race to survive.  It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.  Some riders live.
Others die.  At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.  Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition – the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.  As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.

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A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab -Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes—as such, he can choose where he lands.  There’s Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, ruled by a mad King George. Then there’s Red London, where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne—a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London…but no one speaks of that now.Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see—a dangerous hobby, and one that has set him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations, first robs him, then saves him from a dangerous enemy, and then forces him to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.  But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—and that is proving trickier than they hoped.

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Upcoming Releases:

There aren’t any books releasing in the next week that we are dying to read.  But we do have a huge list of books that we are counting down until they are released.  You can check them out here → Click Here

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Sales:

$0.99

Chelsea’s Review		5 Stars! Jen’s Review Chelsea’s Review
4 Stars! Laura’s Review

$1.99

New Sale   5 Stars! Jen’s Review Chelsea’s Review Anna’s Review	New Sale   4 Stars! Chelsea’s Review	5 Stars! Jen’s Review
4 Stars! Chelsea’s Review	4.5 Stars! Anna’s Review	5 Stars! Anna’s Review Jen’s Review Chelsea’s Review
4.5 Stars! Anna’s Review	4.5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review

$2.99

4.5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review	4.5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review

$3.49+

New Sale   4.5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review Anna’s Review	5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review
4.5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review	Chelsea’s Review	Chelsea’s Review
5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review	Anna’s Review	5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review
4.5 Stars! Chelsea’s Review

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Freebies:

New Sale	4 Stars! Anna’s Review

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