Alone Together Blog Tour

Hi everyone! I’m kickstarting this month with a blog tour  of ‘Alone Together’ by Sarah J. Donovan organised by YA Bound Book Tours. This is a really interesting story that I can’t wait to get my hands on!

Official Goodreads Summary:

Sadie Carter’s life is a mess, as wavy and tangled as her unruly hair. At 15, she is barely surviving the chaos of her large Catholic family. When one sister becomes pregnant and another is thrown out, her unemployed dad hides his depression, and her mom hides a secret. Sadie, the peacekeeper and rule-follower, has had enough. The empty refrigerator, years of hand-me-downs, and all the secrets have to stop. She longs for something more and plans her escape.

However, getting arrested was not her plan. Falling in love was not her plan. With the help of three mysterious strangers—a cop, a teacher, and a cute boy—maybe Sadie will find the strength to defy the rules and do the unexpected.

Told in verse, Sarah J. Donovan’s debut Alone Together has secrets, romance, struggle, sin, and redemption, all before Sadie blows out her 16 candles. It’s a courageously honest look at growing up in a big family.

It’s a story told in verse! Have you ever heard about such a thing? Well at least I haven’t! If the summary alone wasn’t enough to convince you I have a juicy excerpt that will have you falling over your feet to get to this book!

EXCERPT

SILENCE IN NUMBERS

No one is home.

No one.

#1 left at 18 to raise her own family—

done being a second mother to the brood.

#2 left at 18 to train for triathlons—

practically ran to Arizona the day he graduated.

#3 was kicked out at 18—

an unforgivable sin, but we don’t talk about her.

I don’t know them all that well.

They never come home.

#4 and #5 left to go to college—

have jobs on campus in the cafeteria,

wish I could see those boys washing dishes.

#6 left at 18 for restaurant management training—

didn’t have the smarts for college,

wish I could see her running a crew.

I don’t know them all that well.

They never come home.

#7 runs a drive-thru

passing the time with college classes

until her boyfriend proposes.

#8 bakes croissants

saving every bit of dough

until she can plan her escape.

#10 runs with a gang

taking #11 to babysitting gigs

until she sneaks out to party.

I don’t know them all that well.

I was busy shoplifting.

 

 

You can buy this amazing book on Amazon or from Barnes & Noble

Not to mention that you can win a class set of Alone Together for your local high school here!

Be sure to check out the posts by other bloggers participating in this event who have lovely reviews and even more interesting excerpts planned out for you! Go follow the tour down below 🙂

 

 

Blog Tour Schedule – 

May 1^st

Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’  Spotlight

Zili in the Sky   Spotlight

The Avid Reader   Author Interview

The Readdicts    http://thereaddicts.blogspot.in/    Promo Post

What Is That Book About   Spotlight

May 2^nd

Paulette’s Papers   http://paulettespapers.com/     Promo Post

Chapters through life     https://chaptersthroughlife.blogspot.co.uk/      Review

This and That Book Blog     http://thisandthatbookblog.blogspot.com Promo Post

The Cover Contessa     http://www.thecovercontessa.com       Promo Post

Loves Great Reads   https://lovesgreatreadsblog.wordpress.com/    Promo Post

May 3^rd

Not Just Fiction https://itsnotjustfiction.wordpress.com     Promo Post

A New Look On Books   http://anewlookonbooks.com Promo Post

Dizneeee’s World of Books   http://dizneeeesworldofbooks.blogspot.com    Review

Books Direct       http://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com     Promo Post
Bri’s Book Nook    https://brisbooknook.wordpress.com/     Review

May 4^th

Belle’s Book Blog    https://www.bellesbookblog.net   Review

Andi’s Young Adult Books     http://andisyoungadult.blogspot.com   Review

Candrel’s Crafts, Cooks, and Characters http://candrelsccc.craftylife.net   Promo Post

Hardcover Feedback    http://hardcoverfeedback.blogspot.com   Review

May 7^th

Daily Waffle    http://dailywaffle.co.uk    Promo Post

MervReads    http://mervreads.wordpress.com   Promo Post

forthenovellovers     https://forthenovellovers.wordpress.com/   Review

Infinite House of Books    http://www.shannon-muir.com     Promo Post

The Weekend Bucketlist: Review + GIVEAWAY

I’ve always been highly irked by the fact that most if not all YA books are centralized on the theme of romance. Friendships always get sidelined when a love interest appears which is really frustrating and unfair!

This is why as soon as I read the blurb for ‘The Weekend Bucketlist’ I knew this was one book that I simply had to get my hands on! And wow, this book did not disappoint at all.

The Weekend Bucketlist is all about the bond of friendship and how friendship is much stronger than love. I received and e-ARC of this book as a part of a blog tour organised by YA Bound Book Tours for which I’m eternally thankful!

 

Official Goodreads Summary:

High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line—they’ve never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List.

There’s a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another—feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?

 

This book was absolutely amazing and heartwarming and I give it 4/5 stars.

 

REVIEW

 

This book screams friendship.

Cady and Cooper have been best friends since as long as they both can remember so they’re as good as brother or sister…okay not really. They fall for each other or maybe that’s just what they think? Either way their journey is full of fights, adorable moments, arguments and daredevil plans so you simply can’t stop reading. It may seem like a cliche friendship in the beginning but trust me when I say that it’s one of a kind. And when Eli joins the two of them we get a rocking trio that nobody can ever forget.

They’re all such sweeties I want to cry.

 

Cooper and Eli are such cute little boys that I want to wrap them up in a blanket and keep them safely with me. The author can have them back when she stops treating them badly. Seriously, they get hit the worst, especially Eli, a homeless kid with a golden heart which ends up getting crushed multiple times. I’m not saying that I didn’t like Cady, I loved her. She’s a feisty and bossy girl who’s scared on the inside but hides away under her badass demeanor. Aren’t those kinds of characters the best?

Each member of this beautiful trio had their own complicated past and stories that were beautifully spun around The Weekend Bucketlist. I’m being honest when I say that the reason that I even gave this book a second glance was thanks to that word ‘Bucketlist’

BECAUSE I LOVE LISTS

It’s just a great way to organise stuff and whenever lists are involved in YA novels it’s bound to be a fun journey!

 

Plus, it had great LGBT representation! Eli is bisexual and even though Cooper used to identify as gay later on in the book he discovered that he was bisexual as well. And everybody knows I’m a sucker for good LGBT teen books 😛

I loved the plot as a whole, especially when we reached the second half of the book because that was where they finished off the list. I remember thinking, what next? Does the fun end here? Will it go downhill now? What else is left to talk about?

But it only got better.

The pace was very comfortable and every event was written down beautifully without any information dumps or lengthy descriptions. Not to mention, it’s very quotable. I’ve taken so many screenshots, my gallery is flooding! In short, this book is everything that you need.

So next time instead of picking up another cheesy romance novel, pick this book up.

It will be a wonderful change.

 

And it’s giveaway time! You can win a $15 Amazon gift card by simply entering in this giveaway here.

Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity!

 

 

 

Question time! Do you like reading books about friendship? Which was the last book you read that had accurate portrayal of friends and didn’t lean too much on the romance? And lastly, have you added The Weekend Bucketlist to your TBR list yet? What are you waiting for, get going! See you next time 🙂

 

 

Secondhand Origin Stories: Excerpt

Today on the blog we have ‘Secondhand Origin Stories’ by Lee Blauersouth as part of a blog tour organised by Shealea. You can go check out here beautiful site here!

Secondhand Origin Stories stars POC superheroes with amazing powers and LGBT representation, you definitely can’t go wrong with this book!

 

Official Goodreads Summary:

Opal has been planning to go to Chicago and join the Midwest’s superhero team, the Sentinels, since she was a little kid. That dream took on a more urgent tone when her superpowered dad was unjustly arrested for protecting a neighbor from an abusive situation. Now, she wants to be a superhero not only to protect people, but to get a platform to tell the world about the injustices of the Altered Persons Bureau, the government agency for everything relating to superpowers.

But just after Opal’s high school graduation, a supervillain with a jet and unclear motives attacks the downtown home of the Sentinels, and when Opal arrives, she finds a family on the brink of breaking apart. She meets a boy who’s been developing secret (and illegal) brain-altering nanites right under the Sentinel’s noses, another teenage superhero-hopeful who looks suspiciously like a long-dead supervillain, and the completely un-superpowered daughter of the Sentinels’ leader. Can four teens on the fringes of the superhero world handle the corruption, danger, and family secrets they’ve unearthed? 

 

Bookish Academy Awards Tag

A long time ago back when J.K Rowling had started writing Harry Potter, Sahi @My World of Books had tagged me for the Bookish Academy Awards Tag and look who’s finally getting to it!

This tag was originally created by Bookadoodles so go check out her video for more information! The basic rundown is that there are various categories like in the Oscar awards only that the awards will be given away to books and bookish characters! Exciting, right?

But also insanely frustrating….

This tag drove me nuts because it’s so difficult to chose between books! You always forget about some book or the other and feel guilty about leaving them out. So I tried to include only those books which I’ve read in the past year. Tried.

The Voting Game: Blog Tour + Giveaway

Today is the official launch of the blog tour for ‘The Voting Game’ by Peter Gulgowski and I’m thrilled to be hosting this wonderful book on my blog!

The Voting Game has cute gay boys, excellent sibling rep, friends thicker than blood and an enthralling plot- you can’t ask for more!

 

Title: The Voting Game

Author: Peter Gulgowski

Publisher: Self-published

Publication date: 06 March 2018

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian

 

In the year 2084, Every Interaction Counts. 

Darrius Young’s sixteenth birthday brings a harsh reality: It’s time to join the Voting Game. Playing is mandatory, and each day may be his last.

In this bleak future’s society, citizens rate their interactions with one another. Highest scorers are members of an elite upper-class. An average score means you can keep playing.

Fall below average? You are taken and killed by the government entity known only as The Bureau. 

Darrius has prepared his whole life for this challenge, knowing the reality he will soon face — especially after the death of his mother to the game.

But despite preparation, he’s losing — and not just the Game. Suddenly the people he loves are getting brutally downvoted and taken by the Bureau. It’s soon clear there’s a target on his back, drawn there by the Bureau itself, and Darrius has no idea why.

In a frantic race against time in a society that’s already sentenced him to death, can Darrius save himself and those around him before it’s too late?

Good Books: Savor or Gobble Them?

And I’m back to host another discussion on a topic I’ve recently been thinking a lot about.

So you’ve bought a book that you know is going to totally sweep you off your feet or maybe you just started it and absolutely know that this is going to destroy you(in good ways)

Now the question is do you take your sweet time and let every pore of your body absorb its contents or do you eagerly take it all in without even glancing at the clock?

Meaning do you savor the good books or gobble them down?

March Monthly Wrap-up

It’s true when they say time flies because this month absolutely breezed by and before I knew it April has dawned. It’s time to wrap up with March and recap all that happened as well as let you know what all I’ve planned for April. I’ll also be giving you my life update and there’s a short surprise in the end, so stay tuned!

I read quite a few good books this month and while some stole my heart others left me rather disappointed. But we’re not here to talk about negative things! My top three books of this month were-

5/5

I simply cannot stop gushing over this adorable book! You can read my review on it here.

 

4/5

This was another beautiful book following a teenage Indian-Muslim’s life and touching upon deep topics like Islamophobia

 

4/5

I finished this one only a couple of days ago and it simply left me reeling. Don’t hesitate to pick up this book at all!

 

Besides reading, I also ended up reformatting my blog’s outlook and making a Bookstagram account, that I’m currently struggling to keep up with. Instagram is a wonderful platform but as a person with zero photography skills it’s a constant struggle to maintain it. So please tell me how you feel about my blog’s new look and go check out my Bookstagram account here!

I had just wrapped up with my final exams in the first week of March so the rest of the weeks were a bliss as I allowed myself to curl up in a corner with my huge pile of books, but unfortunately it didn’t last long when I got some heartbreaking news. Love, Simon- the movie adaptation of my favorite book, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda- won’t be released in India until 1 JUNE.

ARE YOU KIDDING?!

 

In the meantime I signed up for what seems like a million book tours and review arcs and even got accepted for some so you’re in for loads of reviews the coming month! Not to mention that for the first time an author contacted me through my blog for a book review, something that I felt super proud of! The last two months have been slow and frustrating in terms of stats but now it finally feels like my blog is picking up some speed.

In terms of other non-bookish stuff I finally decided to pick up my rusty guitar and go for some classes which are turning great, apart for the fact that my fingers might get mutilated in the process! And that also means I have less and less time on my hands and thanks to the amount of sleep I’m getting it won’t be long before I turn into a zombie…

 

But, I have a lot to look forward for next month! Since April is my birthday month I finally got my sister to order me a book box from Booklings Crate which includes a copy of Children of Blood and Bone which I’ve been DYING to get my hands on!

Also, birthdays means tons of books!

I’m really looking forward to some of the book releases of April!

AND SOMEHOW THEY ALL COME OUT ON APRIL 24

Wow, these books are really plotting my death!

So click on their pictures and go add them on your Goodreads list if you haven’t because I’m not going to die alone.

There’s a lot of good stuff coming up on my blog this April including a discussion on whether we should savor the good books or just gobble them up and a super exciting guest post about the myths of the blogging community. I can’t wait to see all your reactions!

And now we finally come to the surprise!

Dun dun dun….

If you follow me on twitter and/or instagram(which you totally should) then you might remember that I had recently posted a poll regarding the inclusion of some of my writings in my posts. I was swarmed by a huge positive response from everyone that left me giddy with happiness. So… I’m quite nervous about this but I’m going to include one of my poems in this post. This is slightly different from the stuff I usually write but constructive criticism is highly appreciated and welcome!

 

 

An Abundance of Canvas

~inspired by fat shaming & eating disorders~

 

Fingers brush across the smooth,

Soft and silky canvas pale,

In abundance, over time accrue,

Wide eyes and fixated stares entail.

 

Sharp, protruding nails grip,

Pulling and squeezing the drooping mass,

Staining it with pink chagrin,

Poking into the mounds to harass.

 

Standing in front of the glass,

Her eyes pour over every inch in disdain.

Hanging pouches like repulsive carcass,

Shaping her body, marking its reign.

 

Her hands clutch at it in despair,

Too much skin, present everywhere,

Peeking and bulging through all she wears,

Centre of all, mockery and shame to bear.

 

Inhale, it’s gone, the fantasies persist,

Exhale, the ugly reality returns.

No denying the labels that exist,

She lets the unshed tears in her throat burn.

 

The metallic point runs its course,

Her canvas blossoms bright red.

It immerse the tears, a masterpiece emerges,

Spread over every inch, the canvas never ends.

And as the color flows through every pore,

She finally accepts her fate to dissipate.

 

 

I’m really questioning the choice of merging my light and fun filled blog with this dark poem so this might get deleted? I don’t really know.

And I’m actually participating in NaPoWriMo- National Poetry Month which begins next month, you can find more information on my Instagram stories and Twitter feed. Go check their official site out here!

 

With that we come to the end of this post! Let me know how your reading progress was this month and which all books you’re looking forward to this April? And what are your thoughts on the poem? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Blogs Based Solely on Book Reviews

For some reason nobody has been talking about this very crucial topic in the bookish community, so guess who took the charge?

That’s right, me! Today we’re going to talk about book reviews, you know those long-ass strings of words that us bookworms pour their heart and soul into?

Reading a book is easy but reviewing it is not.

Not only does composing a good book review take long hours but sometimes you accidentally ruin the book for yourself bh over analyzing every single word. Which is why I respect all the book bloggers out there internally screaming as they churn out reviews day after day, you guys deserve a medal. But at the same time, I get really annoyed by blogs that are solely based on book reviews and have no other content whatsoever.

I’m glad you asked why…

The ‘Me in Book Character’ Tag

And today in the life of Charvi we’re going to watch the main protagonist, aka me, bang her head against the wall while trying to recollect all the bookish characters she has ever read about.

That alone wouldn’t have been a problem but she has to know which characters she actually relates to the most and hello whoever thought this is an easy job is clearly insane. Not to mention she needs to chose just 5 of them.

Serious contemplations of burying herself under her pile of books had been made.

If none of that is making any sense let me just say that I’ve been tagged for the ‘Me in Character’ Tag wherein I have to list 5 characters I relate to the most and why.