FRIDAY STARS – Your Weekly Must Knows 06/03/16

Just Finished and Loved:

The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2) by Patrick Ness → Anna’s Review

5 Stars! Because this book?! It actually made me think more than most of those I’ve read for years. And I read a lot. The Ask and the Answer gives rise to ethical reflection and disturbs us.

The 2nd book in the trilogy! In the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is. Includes “The New World,” a short story by Patrick Ness.

✩✮✩✮✩

The Last Star (The 5th Wave #3) by Rick Yancey → Chelsea’s Review

5 Stars! This. Book. Was. Everything. It was rain clouds and sunshine and laughter and friendship and sacrifice and loyalty. It was every moment. It was every thought. It was your waking breath and your final memory before sleep. It was your dreams and your consciousness and it was….everything.

The final book! In the first book, The 5th Wave, After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.  Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother–or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

✩✮✩✮✩

✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Reading Next:

From This Day Forward (The Wedding Belles #0.5) by Lauren Layne
Up-and-coming wedding photographer Leah McHale’s career is on the rise–thanks in no small part to the Wedding Belles, the elite New York wedding planning agency that always throws top-tier business Leah’s way. So when one of the Belles asks Leah to fill in at the former First Daughter’s wedding, Leah is overjoyed to say yes–until she finds out who she’ll be working with.  Jason Rhodes is the one man who was able to capture Leah’s heart and, once he had it, promptly stepped all over it and left her broken. Now he’s working side-by-side with her at the biggest wedding of the season and Leah is determined to give him the cold shoulder. Despite his persistence, she is not going to fall for his charming, impish ways again. Not even if he still has that killer, irresistible smile…

✩✮✩✮✩

The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass
The woods were insane in the dark, terrifying and magical at the same time. But best of all were the stars, which trumpeted their light into the misty dark. Castella Cresswell and her five siblings—Hannan, Casper, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem— know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father. Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice. Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.

✩✮✩✮✩

Vicious (Vicious #1) by V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates―brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.  Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find―aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge―but who will be left alive at the end?

✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Upcoming Releases:

From This Day Forward (The Wedding Belles #0.5) by Lauren Layne (Releases 06/06) – Up-and-coming wedding photographer Leah McHale’s career is on the rise–thanks in no small part to the Wedding Belles, the elite New York wedding planning agency that always throws top-tier business Leah’s way. So when one of the Belles asks Leah to fill in at the former First Daughter’s wedding, Leah is overjoyed to say yes–until she finds out who she’ll be working with.  Jason Rhodes is the one man who was able to capture Leah’s heart and, once he had it, promptly stepped all over it and left her broken. Now he’s working side-by-side with her at the biggest wedding of the season and Leah is determined to give him the cold shoulder. Despite his persistence, she is not going to fall for his charming, impish ways again. Not even if he still has that killer, irresistible smile…

✩✮✩✮✩

The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass (Releases 06/07) – The woods were insane in the dark, terrifying and magical at the same time. But best of all were the stars, which trumpeted their light into the misty dark. Castella Cresswell and her five siblings—Hannan, Casper, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem— know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father. Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice. Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.

✩✮✩✮✩

Ivory and Bone (Ivory and Bone #1) by Julie Eshbaugh (Releases 06/07) – Hunting, gathering, and keeping his family safe—that’s the life seventeen-year-old Kol knows. Then bold, enigmatic Mya arrives from the south with her family, and Kol is captivated. He wants her to like and trust him, but any hopes of impressing her are ruined when he makes a careless—and nearly grave—mistake. However, there’s something more to Mya’s cool disdain…a history wrought with loss that comes to light when another clan arrives. With them is Lo, an enemy from Mya’s past who Mya swears has ulterior motives.  As Kol gets to know Lo, tensions between Mya and Lo escalate until violence erupts. Faced with shattering losses, Kol is forced to question every person he’s trusted. One thing is for sure: this was a war that Mya or Lo—Kol doesn’t know which—had been planning all along.  With riveting action and illustrative prose that leaps from the page, newcomer Julie Eshbaugh will have readers mesmerized. 

✩✮✩✮✩

Check out our list of upcoming releases that we can’t wait for → HERE

✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Sales:

$0.99

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

$1.99

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

$2.99

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

$3.49+

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

Freebies:

4 Stars! Anna’s Review