BLOG TOUR: The Future King by James Riley *2023 update*

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE FUTURE KING by James Riley Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: THE FUTURE KING (The Revenge of Magic #3)

Author: James Riley

Pub. Date: March 3, 2020

Publisher: Aladdin

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, audiobook

Pages: 384

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

Fort’s continued adventures take more surprising twists and turns in this third novel in a thrilling series from the author of the New York Times bestselling Story Thieves!

Dealing with monster attacks and his missing father has been hard enough for Fort Fitzgerald in his first month at the Oppenheimer School. But there’s another school for magic, this one in the United Kingdom, that's about to create even bigger problems.

Six of the Carmarthen Academy students found themselves lost in time when they first started learning magic. Now they’ve returned, with news of a coming war that the students claim only they can stop.

But their new plan for the world might lead to an even worse future, one that Fort and his friends are destined to help bring about, no matter how much they might want to fight it.

Can Fort change the future that the Time students have already seen play out? Or is he destined to pay for his past mistakes for all of time?

Grab the first 2 books in the series!

THE REVENGE OF MAGIC

THE LAST DRAGON

Pre-Order Book 4 now!

THE TIMELESS ONE

About James:

James Riley is the New York Times bestelling author of the HALF UPON A TIME series, the STORY THIEVES series, and the REVENGE OF MAGIC series. Contrary to what previous biographies have stated, he is a) real and b) not the character Nobody from his STORY THIEVES books. Where would people even get that idea? (Spoiler: From him. He totally made it sound like he really was Nobody. He thought it’d be funny. We’re sorry.)

He was born in Connecticut, where he lived for only a short time before moving to … well, quite a few states. He currently lives in Northern Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., because that’s where his cats are. He has four of them. Other people think that’s a bit much.

James is currently working on getting REVENGE OF MAGIC books out every six months, so he might be a little busy. But feel free to e-mail him with questions at jamesrileythatwriterguy@gmail.com, or ask on his blog.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

Three lucky winners will receive a finished copy of THE FUTURE KING, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/2/2020	Turning the Pages	Review
3/3/2020	Lifestyle of Me	Review
3/4/2020	The Writerly Way	Review
3/5/2020	Locks, Hooks, and  Books	Review
3/6/2020	Wonder Struck	Review

Week Two:

3/9/2020	BookHounds YA	Review
3/10/2020	momfluenster	Review
3/11/2020	My Quirky Writing	Review
3/12/2020	Little Red Reads	Review
3/13/2020	Nay's Pink Bookshelf	Review

Book 1 review: I read this in August 2023, so very late. This book gives me Trials of Morrigan Crow and City Spies vibes. City Spies definitely came out after the first book, but they have similar characters with the teachers and students.

We follow a boy named Fort who is visiting Washington DC with his dad. They are at the Lincoln Memorial and Fort is being embarrassed because his dad has the most awful dad jokes and trying to get Fort a girlfriend. Next thing that happens is that the ground starts to vibrate and a giant monster claw comes popping out of the ground. Fort's dad is sadly the only casualty and Fort gets sent to live with his aunt. 

A guy comes by and introduces his self as Dr. Oppenheimer and he runs a special school for children who have magical abilities that were born on a certain day 12 years ago. The special day is known as discovery day because that is when these magic books were found along side dragon riders and dragon remains. 

BLOG TOUR: Ben Braver Series by Marcus Emerson

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the BEN BRAVER SERIES by Marcus Emerson Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: BEN BRAVER AND THE VORTEX OF DOOM (Ben Braver #3)

Author: Marcus Emerson

Pub. Date: March 3, 2020

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook

Pages: 384

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

An ordinary kid like Ben Braver is no match for a band of super villains, but he may be humanity's only hope in Marcus Emerson's Ben Braver and the Vortex of Doom.

The world will never be the same . . .

When the baddest of bad guys threatens the world with a giant black hole, Ben Braver is the only one who can stop it. Ready or not, he's about to learn what it really means to be a hero.

The Ben Braver series is “a crazy fun ride--action packed and loaded with laughs!” says Max Brallier, author of the New York Times–bestselling series The Last Kids on Earth.

Grab the first 2 books in the series!

THE SUPER LIFE OF BEN BRAVER

BEN BRAVER AND THE INCREDIBLE EXPLODING KID

About Marcus:

Marcus Emerson is the author of the hit Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja series and the Secret Agent 6th Grader series. His career started in 2nd grade when he discovered Garfield. He grew up playing Super Mario Bros. 4, watching Thundercats, and reading comics like X-Men, Superman, and Wildcats. He lives in Eldridge, Iowa with his wife and children.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

Three lucky winners will receive finished copies of The BEN BRAVER SERIES, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/2/2020	Lifestyle of Me	Review
3/2/2020	BookHounds YA	Excerpt/Spotlight
3/3/2020	Locks, Hooks, and  Books	Review
3/3/2020	Books,Dreams,Life	Excerpt/Spotlight
3/4/2020	Nay's Pink Bookshelf	Review
3/4/2020	Preciousbooksworld	Excerpt/Spotlight
3/5/2020	Savings in Seconds	Review
3/5/2020	Word Spelunking	Excerpt/Spotlight
3/6/2020	Not In Jersey	Review
3/6/2020	The Writerly Way	Review

Week Two:

3/9/2020	fictitious.fox	Review
3/9/2020	Twirling Book Princess	Excerpt/Spotlight
3/10/2020	Turning the Pages	Review
3/10/2020	Hurn Publications	Review
3/11/2020	She Just Loves Books	Review
3/11/2020	Little Red Reads	Review
3/12/2020	momfluenster	Review
3/12/2020	Wonder Struck	Review
3/13/2020	PopTheButterfly	Review
3/13/2020	Two Points of interest	Review

Review: City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare *SPOILERS*

After having this book on my TBR since I finished reading Clockwork Prince and then not getting to it for months, I am proud to say that I finished it in a week and I enjoyed most of it. It was still childish and immature but some of the characters are finally growing up. Clary was still an absolute nightmare and I thought my eyes were going to fall out of my head, I was rolling them so hard. Especially when she yelled at her mom that she was ruining her life by not letting her go look for Jace. LIKE FOR REAL!!! And also, the timeline from when all of this stated to the events in this book was 10 months. Clary met Jace 10 months ago and she head over heels puppy love in love with him.

I could have done without the Maia and Jordan relationship because it honestly did nothing for the story. Reading about the little rouge vampire Maureen and her killing Camille, my jaw freaking dropped. I wasn't as annoyed with Simon this time around because his character growth along with Isabelle. Magnus and Alec broke my freaking heart. I absolutely love Magnus and to see him hurt by Alec made me want to kick some ass.

Now I can finally read Clockwork Princess and get back to Jem Carstairs.

Review: Miracle In The Andes by Nando Parrado

My A-Z challenge for 2020 is still going well. I have finished my 3rd book. For the letter M, I chose Miracle In The Andes by Nando Parrado. It is about a Uruguay rugby team that had a plane crash in the Andes Mountains between the border of Argentina and Chile. This is the memoir of one of the survivors.

Sixteen boys survived out of 35-40 passengers. They were stranded on the glacier for 72 days and they had to endure harsh winds, snow, avalanches, altitude sickness, frost bite, dehydration, and starvation. They had chartered an Uruguayan air force plane to take them to Chile to have an exhibition rugby match against a Chile team.

In the first chapter, it was kind of boring to read because the author info dumps so much of his family history into this one chapter. He talks about how they are on the plane and it starts to go down and then he goes into his grandfather's and father's history and then start talking about how his mother immigrated from Europe with her family before the start of World War 2. I personally didn't care about the history of his family and it didn't make a difference to his story.

I thought I would have a problem with the cannibalism that they had to resort to in order to survive. They had to eat the bodies of their friends. I was horrified but that it is a crucial part of any survival, that if you have not available food source or animal life around, you may have to wait for a person to kick the bucket first.

Review: let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

This was the book pick for the Dragons and Tea book club over on GoodReads and this is the second book I am reading with that book club ever. I did not know how this read was going to go. I knew I would fly through it in a day or two but stuck with the reading schedule that the Mods came up with and it kept me engaged in this story. I connected with these characters and it may be on this year's favorites list but I did rate it a 4 out of 5 stars.

We follow a girl named Alice and she has just been dumped by her girlfriend for not wanting to have enough sex. Alice is asexual and she does not know how to live without being judged for it. She works in a library and one day she sees this guy and he his drop dead gorgeous on her cutie code. He breaks the cutie code and it turns out that he is a new employee and she has the job of "training".

This book is filled with amazing rep for asexuals. But there is also a lot of toxic relationships and bullying and sexual harassment and racism. I connected with this book because the male character Takumi had twin nieces in the NICU and he was also cheated on by his ex fiance. While reading about the cheating, Alice told Takumi that he fiance did that while not thinking about him or caring enough and that hit me so hard because I have been cheated on by my husband and it definitely brought up bad memories and anger, and resentment.

REVIEW: Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs by Russel Ginns

Back in March of last year, I read the first book in this series Samantha Spinner and the Super Secret Plans for a blog tour spot. I was also given the second book and I have finally gotten around to it and it was slightly better than the first. It was still coooky and whimsical. It had a bunch of non-sense that a kid would love but an adult would find annoying. Reading this as an adult, I was not immersed in the crazy transportation or the villian clowns who had smell issues. The only thing I did enjoy was the facts about some of the places and landmarks that the author included in the story. I did not know anything about the Mosque of D'jenne, and I thought the ostrich eggs on top of the towers were made up, but it is actually real.

I am reading this with my oldest daughter, Samantha and she is loving it. So it is definitely for kids in the age range recommended.

AUGUST 2019 OWLCRATE AND OWLCRATE JR

OWLCRATE: STORMS & SEAS

• House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig (signed, exclusive OwlCrate Edition)
• Whimsical Tea Light Candle Lantern (Team OwlCrate)
• Sea Witch-inspired Loose Leaf Tea (Riddle's Tea Shoppe)
• Daughter of the Pirate King-inspired Wooden Bookmark (Juniper and Ivy Designs)
• The Little Mermaid-inspired Bath Salts (The Soap Librarian)
• The Scorpio Races-inspired Pencil Case Tin (designed by Stella Bookish Art
• Exclusive OwlCrate "Lighthouse" Enamel Pin (designed by Laserbrain Patch Co)
• Exclusive House of Salt and Sorrows Author Letter and Bookmark. 

OWLCRATE JR: THIEVES IN THE NIGHT

• The Good Thieves signed first edition by Katherine Rundell
• Aladdin 5-Star Collectible Figurine (Funko)
• Robin Hood & Little John magnetic bookmark duo (Made by Crafted Van)
• Imagination kit, complete with blueprint notebook, felt bandit mask, and green glass gemstone
• Exclusive OwlCrate Jr "Emerald" Button (Designed by Melanie Demmer)
• Exclusive Author Letter and The Good Thieves bookmark
• OwlCrate Jr Magazine Issue #12 (Designed by Michelle Gray)
• September 'Legends Of The Deep' sneak peek postcard (Designed by VeepDoodles)