Cover Reveal: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Fans of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series know that Cyber Monday isn't just a big online shopping day after Thanksgiving. It's also an annual opportunity for Macmillan to announce some cool TLC-related news or do a big giveaway for some exclusive swag. ICYMI, this year's big news was that the main four titles in TLC are getting new covers! That's right, lunartics, Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter (not Fairest or Stars Above though) have brand new illustrated and colorful covers! Check them out!

But that's not all! Each book is ALSO getting a specially designed stepback, which is publisher speak for the page behind the cover. Literally just learned that last week. See the contrasting stripe of color on the right edge of each cover? That page will be a second gorgeously illustrated new piece of TLC art! You may have seen the setback reveals for Cinder and Scarlet earlier this week, and today, I have the pleasure of showing off the new stepback illustration for my girl Cress. Shout out to all my fellow Cresswell shippers out there! I hope you love this art as much as I do! And keep an eye out tomorrow for the Winter reveal!

Release Date: February 4, 2020

Publisher: Square Fish

Genre: young adult science fiction

Status: Book 3 of the Lunar Chronicles series
Links: Cress tour recap
Top Ten Tuesday: Swoony books
Stars Above review
Wires & Nerve review

Summary:

Prepare to see the New York Times­-bestselling series like you’ve never seen it before, now with new cover art!

The third book in the #1 New York Times- and USA Today-Bestselling Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer! The evil space queen gives an imprisoned hacker orders to track down our cyborg heroine and her team of reimagined fairytale characters. Can the Rapunzel-like hacker break free and help them instead?

Purchase Links:

   

How swoony are our lovestruck fangirl hacker girl and cocky pilot boy? I LOVE! If you love too, check out the preorder links above. OR you can catch Marissa on the Lunar Ever After Tour in March! Just an FYI, I will DEFINITELY be at the North Texas Teen Book Festival on March 7 so if you're coming to see Marissa (and 84 other authors) there, please say hi! I'll be the tall person with the microphone!

If you can't make it to one of these events in person, I know and love both Book People in Austin and Best of Books in Oklahoma, and you canorder signed copies of the new covers at either store and have them shipped to you. If you're coming to NTTBF, no need to preorder. You can purchase pre-signed copies in the book sales area even before the author signing at the end of the day!

About the Author:

Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Heartless and The Lunar Chronicles. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and twin daughters. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, any occasion that requires a costume), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was a child. She may or may not be a cyborg.

Author Links:

    

Review: Wires & Nerve by Marissa Meyer & Doug Holgate

Rating: 4 stars

Release Date: January 31, 2017

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: young adult science fiction graphic novel

Format/Source: hardcover, from the library

Status: Volume 1 of the Wires & Nerve series,
companion to The Lunar Chronicles series

Summary:

In her first graphic novel, bestselling author Marissa Meyer extends the world of the Lunar Chronicles with a brand-new,action-packed story about Iko, the android with a heart of (mechanized) gold.When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers' leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity. With appearances by Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Winter, and the rest of the Rampion crew, this is a must-have for fans of the bestselling series.

Review: Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

Rating: 5 stars

Pub Date: February 2, 2016

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: young adult science fiction

Format/Source: from the publisher

Status: short story collection for The Lunar Chronicles
(contains prequels for each book + an epilogue!)

Summary:

The enchantment continues....

The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?


With nine stories—five of which have never before been published—and an exclusive never-before-seen excerpt from Marissa Meyer’s upcoming novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles.

Top Ten Tuesday #49: Audiobooks

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Audiobooks

Today was a freebie topic for Top Ten Tuesday, and I wanted to do something unique, like all the amazing posts I've seen so I decided to focus on audiobooks, which I never liked until last year. I have been planning on a new blog feature called Audio Adventures that I haven't been able to get off the ground yet, but this is a preview of the books I'm planning on featuring when I finally start it up!

 

 

Those are the top audio adaptations I have listened to thus far, but I'm looking for more! Please share your picks for great audiobooks! Also, what did you feature for your freebie TTT? Share your topics, your picks, and your links in the comments!

Cress Tour Recap

When Macmillan announced Marissa Meyer's Cress tour, I was excited to see that she was visiting Texas, but disappointed that it seemed she was going to hit stops in Austin and Houston, but not Dallas. I made up my mind to go to the Austin stop. Then, when I was wandering around her website, I noticed she was indeed going to be stopping by Dallas, at a B&N in nearby Lewisville. I added that to the list, and since I'm good friends with many of the Austin folks, I decided to go to both!

This is a full recap of two events and honestly is pretty long so it's going under the cut.

Top Ten Tuesday #36: Swoony Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books That Make Me Swoon

I have a feeling this week's topic is a make-up for last week's topic and ALL THE FEELS it brought up. Thanks a lot, Jamie. :P

 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Although this list isn't ranked, I did put this book first because its swoons are real swoons. I always say I want my book boyfriends to be real, but the cool thing is that Levi from Fangirl really could be real, and I want one of my own. Watching Levi and Cath's relationship go from virtual strangers to friends to more-than-friends-but-not-quite-boyfriend-and-girlfriend to more is just beautiful. Plus, every word out of Levi's mouth makes me want to snuggle with him. Review here.

Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young. This is another lovely example of a good guy who could be real. I love Chris and Caroline together. Their journey in this book is not perfect by far, but it's so lovely. Review here.

Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi. This entire series is swoontastic. I mean, there's a freaking shower scene in Shatter Me. Geez, Tahereh. Also, I may not be Team Warner (I'm not. I'm really, really not), but good heavens, Chapter 62...yeah, wow. Just...wow. An author who can actually make me dig the guy I'm not rooting for in a love scene is bloody brilliant. Haven't read Ignite Me yet, but I have no doubt Tahereh brings the swoons. PS if you spoil me, I will murder you.

Newsoul trilogy by Jodi Meadows. This entire trilogy was one epic romance. Jodi wrote a really lovely post for Pub(lishing) Crawl last year about kissing scenes and how they must have a purpose and not be ever present. She's an expert on this subject because the kissing and the maybe-more-than-kissing in this series is so well done. It's sometimes subtle, sometimes overt. Sometimes hesitant and shy, sometiems confident and powerful. Sometimes naughty, sometimes innocent. Always, always very classy and written for maximum swoonage. I picked Infinite as the representative because it contains some of my favorite romantical scenes in the series. THE HAND SCENE, GUYS. Oh, gosh, I couldn't even with that scene. And nothing remotely naughty even happens in that scene; it's just awesome! Reviews here, here, and here (I haven't written Infinite's review yet).

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner. Oooh, I love a good love-hate-turned-to-love kind of relationship. Lilac and Tarver give me ALL THE FEELS for so many reasons, but their romance is so explosive, even in just a short amount of time. It's amazing how close two people can become when in life-threatening circumstances. Review here.

 

Pushing the Limits series by Katie McGarry. This is another series that is full of swoonage. The boys are absurdly (like, really, it's ridiculous) sexy, and the relationships are realistic and squishy-feeling inducing. I picked Dare You To to represent 1. because it is, in my opinion, the swooniest of the 3 (and a half), and 2. this cover itself is full of swoon. I showed my sister the cover and the copy cover (the image printed directly on the book), and we spent a goodly amount of time drooling over Ryan's biceps. Because GUH. Crash Into You review here.

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols. I swoon over many of Jenn's books. It was a tough call between Going Too Far and Forget You, but Johnafter barely edges out Doug. I just love how broken Meg and John are and the way, with each other's help, they piece themselves back together. It's truly beautiful.

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. Oooh, Leigh's boys always have me all hot and bothered. There's just so many of them! Sexy soldiers, sexy rock star pirates, sexy princes, and sexysexysexy bad guys. I honestly don't know who to swoon over so I swoon for them all. Shut up and take off your shirts, boys. Except you, Sturmhond. You can talk with your ridiculous swaggery words. I mean, really. I don't know how Alina can stand being around so many smexy men, but I don't envy her because their world is horrific. Oh, who am I kidding? I'd totally take the creepy nightmare monster thingies if it meant I got the guys. Review here.

Everneath trilogy by Brodi Ashton. Once again, I picked the book that made me swoon the most (and is my favorite of the three). Jack and Nikki's epic love is one of my favorite ships. I love Everbound in particular because it showcased the beginning of their relationship, before all the bad stuff, and that was adorable. That's not to say Everneath and Evertrue weren't also swoony. Jack ripping a safe out a wall made my knees week. Good times. Review here.

Cress by Marissa Meyer. I am shameless. I do love the entire series, and Scarlet & Wolf on the train in Scarlet is ohhhh so spectacular, but Cress makes this list for one reason: Captain. Carswell. Thorne. GUH. Be still my fangirly heart. Thorne steals the show, he really does. And while I'd love to say I love Cress and Thorne together (I actually really do), their chemistry is more cute than rip-their-clothes-off-hot. Thorne, though. Thorne is the kind of guy who, if he weren't fictional, would end up covered in women's undergarments on a regular basis. Some of them mine. #dontjudgeme

New Adult picks:

 

One & Only by Viv Daniels. This is an example of a new adult done right, and the reason is that Viv is actually Diana Peterfreund, who is super crazy talented. Although I don't want them to overrun the market, I do enjoy stories where the characters know each other, spend time apart, and then come back together. Tess and Dylan's romance is...troubled. Other than their insane chemistry, nothing comes easy for these two, and they make some pretty bad mistakes that normally would have me hating them. However, with these two, I knew it wasn't a mark of being bad people so I was rooting for them the whole time. Also, closet. Also, baklava. Also, countertop makeout. That is all. Review here.

Wait for You series by J. Lynn. I'm so glad I started reading JLA/J. Lynn novels. She has a way of getting under readers' skin. Her characters are all dynamic, and that makes for some truly incredible romance. Cam & Avery, Teresa & Jase... I love these stories. They're guilty pleasures without the guilt! Can't wait for her short set in this world coming out in 50 First Times and, of course, Stay With Me! Reviews here and here.

Adult picks:

 

Playing Dirty by Jennifer Echols. For years, I was all about Jenn's ya comedies and then dramas so it was really cool last year to see her break into the adult world. Star Crossed was good, but oh, Playing Dirty is soooooo very delicious and swoony and yes, a little dirty. In the best way, of course. Sarah and Quentin have ah-mazing chemistry, and it leads to some steamy scenes!

Taste the Heat by Rachel Harris. I know a lot of people prefer Seven Day Fiancé because Cane is a sexpot, but I actually prefer Jason and Colby in Taste the Heat. It's a more natural feeling relationship. There are so many warm fuzzies in addition to toe-curling sexy times. Plus, like One & Only, it features characters who are meeting again after a long time apart. I like watching the evolution of relationships, not just the instant attraction featured so heavily in fiction of any genre these days.

Let's be real. I could go on all day about swoony books and boys, but I suppose I'd better cap it there. What (or who) are your picks for today? Share those links!

Giveaway: Cress by Marissa Meyer (UPDATED)

I just found out this week that I WILL get to see Marissa Meyer on her massive upcoming Cress tour, and that's good news for you! I will give one winner a signed and personalized copy of Cress! If entries pass 2000, I'll add a copy of either Cinder or Scarlet, and if they pass 3000, I'll toss in the other!

Update: You guys have earned either a copy of Cinder or Scarlet (winner's choice)! Less than 1000 entries and you'll get ALL THREE BOOKS! So spread the word!

This giveaway is open to US & Canada. Please follow giveaway policies as stated in the Site Policies tab at the top of the screen. All entries will be verified. Giveaway runs 12 AM January 19 until 12 AM February 11. Like with my Evertrue/Infinite giveaway, the mandatory entry is the name I'll write on the post-it. If you want it to go to Sarah, type Sarah. If you want it to go to Sarah Beth Johnson, type Sarah Beth Johnson. Be specific and please check your spelling very carefully before you submit. At the end of the giveaway, I'll contact the winner via email. If the other books have been added, I'll verify which name you want all of the books personalized to. I'll allow different names for different books, but I won't ship to separate addresses. Good luck!

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Top Ten Tuesday #30: Best of 2013 part 2

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Books of 2013

Well, it would be way, way too hard to pick the top 10 overall in 2013 so instead, I'm just going to do a sequel post to the TTT I did earlier this year, which you can read here.

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Let's just get this one out of the way now. I actually did write and read fanfic in college so I absolutely understand and relate to Cath.

2. United We Spy by Ally Carter. I thought this was a really fitting ending to the legacy of the Gallagher Girls, an ending this wonderful series deserved.

3. Scarlet & Cress by Marissa Meyer. I enjoyed Cinder, but adding the new characters and complicating the conflict really added depth to this wonderful series. Is it time for Winter yet?!

4. Shadow & Bone and Siege & Storm by Leigh Bardugo. This series is incredible. I mean the Grisha Trilogy is simply the textbook definition of epic fantasy. Great character development (including bad boys, good guys, roguish pirates, badA girls, AND delicious flirty princes), fast-paced action, swoony romance, unique mythology, and amazing writing.

5. Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young. Not only does this series have one of my favorite new romances, but it also introduced me to the intriguing concept of the sliding doors device, in which there are two alternate stories being told simultaneously.

6. Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano. This is one of those novels with a really cool retro-future, and it combines that feel with a murder mystery, set against a backdrop of the sky. There's so much going on in this novel, and somehow, Lauren keeps it all straight. Not only is the story interesting, but the characters are well-developed and relatable. I am already wishing for Burning Kingdoms!

7. Pawn by Aimée Carter. Such a cool novel filled with tons of intrigue. I'm very excited by this new series!

8. One & Only by Viv Daniels. This is a superbly written new adult romance. If all romances were written like this, the genre would not receive as much criticism as it does. Well done, Viv!

9. Taste the Heat by Rachel Harris. Super adorable and fun adult romance.

10. Playing Dirty by Jennifer Echols. Jenn is one of my top-five all-time favorite authors. Her 2013 ya Dirty Little Secret only misses this list because Playing Dirty is on here instead. This is an adult romance that is slightly steamier than Taste the Heat above, and it was just an absolute joy to read.

Bonus: top 2014 ARCs I've already read

I already mentioned Cress above, but I didn't want to leave out these other wonderful 2014 reads.

Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this way back in September. It's another hit for Jenn. Biggest Flirts is the perfect mix of fun shenanigans, top-notch chemistry between the main characters, and relatable life drama. I loved it!

Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill. This is absolutely The Parent Trap mixed with every ice skating movie Disney and ABC Family has ever made, and I love it. It's cheesy and silly and fun and flirty. Loved it!

The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes. I love these ya novels full of hijinks and high school intrigue. It never turns out well for the characters (or at least as they intend their schemes to turn out), but it's SO entertaining to witness!

Infinite by Jodi Meadows. This is one of the most wonderful and complete series enders I've ever read. Full review coming soon, and I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. This is just a really emotional ride, and it's one that is not to be missed!