Top Ten Tuesday: 2015 Most Anticipated Books

Posted by The YA Book Traveler , Tuesday, December 30, 2014 9:02 AM

2015 is going to be an AMAZING year for books! I have some serious envy for all those peeps out there are cool enough to get ARCs to them all. Here is my list of my most anticipated books for 2015! My choices are all pretty obvious but I'm excited! What are yours?
1.  A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - Obviously this is on my top ten. I'm a huge fan of the Throne of Glass series and all the talk on Twitter has made me super anxious to read it!  I have some serious envy to all those who have ARCs. This book is about where the fey world and the humans have been separated for 500 years by a wall. Previously humans had been the fey's slaves. I don't know too much beyond this because I like being surprised.
2. The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows - Jodi is probably one of my favorite authors on Twitter. She literally will respond to EVERY tweet, which is very cool. I read the sampler that was available the EW and it was soooo good!
3. The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon - OMG, I have been waiting FOREVER for this book. I read The Bone Season last fall right after it released and LOVED it, so much! The release date for the Mime Order originally was for this fall but got pushed back.  The agony has been real. I love this world and the characters.
4. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. To be honest, I have no idea what this book is about, BUT I've heard amazing buzz surrounding it. It's also a fantasy, which is my FAVORITE genre.
5. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - This book had me at it's cover. Come on, look at it!
6. The Heir by Kiera Cass - YES! And they're back! I was thrilled to hear that Kiera Cass was given the opportunity to write 2 more Selection series novels. This book sounds awesome! Plus, look at that cover!
7. Untitled (Snow Like Ashes #2) by Sara Raasch - Snow Like Ashes was by far one of my favorite books this year. So I seriously can't wait for book 2.
8. Winter by Marissa Meyer - I really like the Lunar Chronicle series and am anticipating Winter. I also LOVE that Winter is black. I want more diversity in books, so thank you Marissa!
9.  Untitled (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas - Yep, I can't wait to continue this amazing journey! Heir of Fire was a bit long for me and a bit slow, BUT the ending was amazing so I am looking forward to the next book!
10. Untitled (Falling Kingdoms #4) by Morgan Rhodes - This series is seriously kick-ass! I haven't read Gathering Darkness yet but it releases next Tuesday! Woot! This series is so epic. Read it if you haven't!
I seriously want all these books now!!!!

My Top 3 Must-Read "Still-Being-Written" Series

Posted by The YA Book Traveler , Wednesday, December 17, 2014 9:03 AM

Obviously there are those series that we all LOVE! But they are over and no more books will be written (cries). But I wanted to list my 3 favorite "still-being-written" series that I wish EVERYONE was reading so we could flail and fan together. 1. Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes (Books 1-3 are out, Books 4-6 still coming) Ah...Falling Kingdoms.  I was introduced to this series by the Epic Reads 25 YA books to try if you loved Game of Thrones. I LOVE fantasy so this was for me! Falling Kingdoms was on this list and so I requested it from the library. HOLY COW this series is epic! I really don't know quite how popular it is, but I wish EVERYONE would read it. It's full of great characters that are unique and have their own voices. It has fun magical elements and shocking moments. I love being surprised! If you haven't started reading it, read it! It'll be a 6 book series. 2. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (Book 1 out, Book 2 releases January 27th, Books 3-7 still to come) I've only read The Bone Season but I LOVED it! It's a dystopian London but with fantasy type elements mixed in (clairvoyance). I loved the world building in this book and all the new words and vocabulary. Vocabulary you say? Yes, it was fun learning all about this society. I'll be rereading it VERY soon since The Mime Order releases at the end of January. It's been over a year since I've read it but it's still one of my absolute favorite books! Swoon Warden! 3. Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. (Books 1-3 out, Books 3-6 still to come) Oh Throne of Glass, how I love thee.  This is a series that I just kept seeing everywhere even though it seems to have mixed opinions. But since I don't usually judge by what people say I figured I'd give it a shot. WOWZA! This series is great! Celeana is such a well written character, as are all the characters! Heir of Fire (book 3) really started making this series into a huge epic adventure and I look forward to the rest of the series. Honorable Mention: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Now listen...I have NOT read this book. However, I am a HUGE fan of Sarah J. Maas and all the hype and love for ACOTAR online pretty much tells me I'll love it too.  But since I haven't read it, I can't really say 100%. What are series that are still in the works that you LOVE and wish everyone read?

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch Review

Posted by The YA Book Traveler , Saturday, December 6, 2014 9:02 AM

First off, if you haven't read Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch you should. It's epic and very charming.  It made the list of top favorite books this year, hands down! I won an ebook copy of Snow Like Ashes by Royal Social Media. Follow them on twitter @RylSocialMedia Summary: This book is about a world called Primoria. (The book has a map, whoop!) It is made up mostly of two sets of kingdoms. The seasons and rhythm kingdoms. Winter has been completely wiped out by the kingdom of Spring and either the people of Winter were killed or enslaved. There was a group of refugees who had escaped one of these is Meira, our protagonist. She was only an infant when she was taken from Winter and has lived her whole life on the run.  The book is about the struggle to win back their kingdom from the evil of Spring and its ruler. My Feelings: I LOVED this book. It was great world building, heart wrenching and charming. The romance is great, I always love me some romance. The enslavement of the Winter people brings in such a unique feeling for this book compared to other fantasies I've read. Side Note: Another aspect I loved about SLA was that it was pretty clean. Other than violence there was no language or sex. This is great to me because I love recommending books and I always want to be careful with books I rec. Especially since some of them are for teens. I would feel comfortable letting my 11 year old son read this. I do plan to buy the hardcover copy of this book since I only have it on Kindle. For my most favorite books I always prefer to have a hard copy of the actual book. Plus I want to support Sara Raasch! She's so sweet and will respond to every Twitter tweet. Have you read SLA? What did you think? Buy: Barnes & Noble Here