book review: wildcard by marie lu

Wildcard by Marie Lu
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 352 pp.
Published September 18, 2018

DISCLAIMER: I received a free physical ARC of this title from the publisher for review consideration. This did not inform or influence my opinion in any way.

Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo's new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she's always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.

Determined to put a stop to Hideo's grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone's put a bounty on Emika's head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn't all that he seems--and his protection comes at a price.

Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?

This review contains mild spoilers for Warcross.

what i'm reading: autumn 2018

It's that time again! Autumn is jam-packed with exciting new releases. Some are perfectly suited to the season, encouraging you to pull on a cozy sweater and fill a mug with your favorite toasty drink; some continue or conclude exciting series; and some are highly anticipated debuts from a diverse group of authors. As the nights turn nippy, I'm thrilled to have these particular titles to curl under the covers with!

book review: sadie by courtney summers

Sadie by Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books, 320 pp.
Published September 4, 2018

DISCLAIMER: I received a free physical ARC of this title from the publisher for review consideration. This did not inform or influence my opinion in any way.

A missing girl on a journey of revenge and a Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

sunday post #34

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer. It's a chance to recap posts from the past week and tease upcoming content, as well as share new books, reading challenge progress, and anything else you've come across in the last seven days.

Y'all. This week...has been insane. I went from interviewing for a new job on Monday to actually starting it Wednesday—and hadn't even heard about the opportunity until a couple days before the interview! In the blink of an eye I've gone from being able to structure my time and work however I want to clocking in at a small office about half an hour away from home. The (enormous) positive to all of this is that I'm getting the opportunity to learn so many new things in a field that felt impossible to break into.

Where the struggle comes in is trying to rapidly adjust to having a supervisor and learning his style of management, along with the deceptively simple question of figuring out just how my weekdays will be structured now. So much change in so little time has provided the perfect ground for some added anxiety and stress, which makes me doubly grateful for the long weekend and an opportunity to pause, breathe, and remind myself that these situations become what you make of them. If I continue focusing on the stress, I only make it harder to take advantage of what's in front of me.

This also means I've fallen behind on basic blogging things like returning comments and visiting all of y'all's lovely new posts! I appreciate your support so much and I'm hoping to catch up with everyone later this week ♥

book review: not even bones by rebecca schaeffer

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer
HMH Books for Young Readers, 368 pp.
Published September 4, 2018

Nita doesn’t murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet—her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they’ve been “acquired.” Until her mom brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out; dissecting a scared teenage boy is a step too far. But when she decides to save her mother’s victim, she ends up sold in his place—because Nita herself isn’t exactly “human.” She has the ability to alter her biology, a talent that is priceless on the black market. Now on the other side of the bars, if she wants to escape, Nita must ask herself if she’s willing to become the worst kind of monster.

blog tour: the sacrifice box + q&a with martin stewart

The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart
Viking Books for Young Readers, 368 pp.
Published August 28, 2018

A horror story about friendship, growing up, and finding a place in the world: Gremlins meets The Breakfast Club by way of Stephen King and Stranger Things.

1982, the summer before seventh grade. Five kids with nothing in common--Sep, Arkle, Hadley, Lamb, and Mack--become instant friends. On the last day of summer, they find a stone box buried in the forest, and each places an object inside to seal their friendship. And they make rules:

Never come to the box alone. 
Never open it after dark. 
Never take back your sacrifice.

1986, the summer before eleventh grade. The five haven't spoken since that day in 1982. Sep has gone through the past four years alone and plans to escape to boarding school. But strange things are happening--mirrors are breaking unexpectedly, electricity is flickering in and out, and people are coming down with inexplicable physical ailments.

Someone has broken the rules. And it seems the five committed more than objects to the box's ancient stone--they gave it their deepest secrets and darkest fears, and now these are being returned in a flood of shambling corpses, murderous toys, and undead pets. The gang must reunite in an attempt to discover the secrets of the sacrifice box--and Sep might be the only one who can stem its tide of evil before it's too late.