The Map Shop

  Special thanks to NetGalley for a copy. I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. For more information, see the bottom of this post. Aurora Rising is the first book in a new series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Both authors wrote the Illuminae Files trilogy. Kristoff also wrote the Lifel1k3 series as well as the Nevernight Chronicles and the Lotus War series. Kaufman has written the Starbound sieries, the Unearthed series, and the Elementals series. Aurora Rising is published by Knopf Books for Young Adults and was made available on May 7th. This is a young adult science fiction adventure. First off, I need book 2 right now. Second, this is a Guardians of the Galaxy kind of story. Told in multiple perspectives, top student, Tyler Jones, is out flying in the Fold before graduation and picking members for his flight team when he discovers a damaged ship with one survivor. When Aurora awakens, it's revealed she's been in cryosleep for over two hundred year...

  Special thanks to NetGalley for a copy. I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. For more information, see the bottom of this post. The Voice in My Head by Dana L. Davis is published by Inkyard and will be available for purchase on May 28th. Davis is the author of Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now. The Voice in My Head is a young adult, contemporary novel about family and illness. Trigger warnings for depression/anxiety, suicide, terminal illness, dysfunctional families. Oh my goodness. I cried so many times while reading this book. Indigo Phillips attempts suicide the night before her terminally ill twin sister, Violet, is supposed to die via doctor assisted death. When the voice, claiming to be God, speaks to her, Indigo decides not to kill herself and instead has to convince her sister and their entire family to go to the Wave which is a rock formation in the painted desert in order for her sister to live. What follows is a dysfunctional family's struggle to understand e...

  Special thanks to NetGalley for a copy. I am an affiliate with Z publishing house. See the end of this post for more information. Again, but Better is the debut novel of Christine Riccio, Published by Wednesday Books and available on shelves on May 7th. Riccio is known as polandbananasBOOKS on youtube. She is a well-known booktuber and a member of the BOOKSPLOSION crew. This is her first published book. Again, but Better is a New Adult/YA contemporary romance. This book follows Shane, a twenty-year-old premed student who has decided she is doing college wrong so she will go study abroad in London for a semester. One problem is she is going to study writing, not premed. Problem number two is her overbearing and controlling parents don't know. Trying to break out of her antisocial habits, she goes out of her way to interact with her flatmates and then develops a crush on one of the boys, Pilot. They flirt back and forth throughout the semester, go on trips across Eur...

  Special thanks to NetGalley for a copy. I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. See the link at the end of this post for more details. The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston is the second book in the Once Upon a Con series, though this can also be considered a stand-alone. Poston also wrote Geekerella. It was published by Quirk Books in the beginning of April. This is a YA contemporary romance retelling of the Prince and the Pauper tale with LGBTQ+ characters. The Princess and the Fangirl takes place at a con where Jessica Stone, actress playing a princess in a rebooted sci-fi series is just trying to survive the interviews and panels at the con as she is trolled online for her character in the series while also trying to get out of playing the character in a sequel. At the same time, Imogen Lovelace, a fangirl who grew up in cons, is trying to convince the production company to revive Stone's character so she can have a better story arc. The two girls me...

 Special thanks to NetGalley for a copy. I am an affiliate with Z Publishing House. See the bottom of this post for more information. Wicked Saints is the first in the Something Dark and Holy series by Emily Duncan. She has her worked published in Crows on Heartstrings: An Anthology of Doomed Love Stories but Wicked Saints is her first novel. Published by Wednesday Books, it was released on April 2nd. Wicked Saints follows Nadya, a girl who can speak to the gods and use their power, as she teams up with two refugees and a boy who everyone calls a monster in order to end a three centuries-long holy war by assassinating the enemy king. Meanwhile, the High Prince Serefine is called home from the war to choose a wife and possibly die. This book is marketed as an instant New York Times bestseller, and is often described as a Six of Crows type story. This book . . . frustrated me. I liked most of the characters, the concept was good, and the idea of the blood magic an...