Wolves & Roses

Hey guys!

Little bit of an unusual post from me today! I want to tell you guys about an awesome new book that's releasing this month and you might not have heard of! 

Wolves & Roses is the new young adult shifter fairy tale from best-selling author Christina Bauer! I read and loved her Angelbound series, it was so different, fun and original and I'm expecting much the same from this new book when it releases on the 31st of October! 

What's it about?! I hear you all cry, well.... 

Seventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem. She’s descended from one of the three magical races—shifters, fairies, or witches. That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template. In Bryar’s case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty.

“Should” being the key word.

Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close. She doesn’t like birds or woodland creatures. She can’t sing. And she certainly can’t stand Prince Philpot, the so-called “His Highness of Hedge Funds” that her aunties want her to marry. Even worse, Bryar’s having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt. What’s up with that? 

All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her. And she might be able to do just that--if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell that’s ruined her life goes buh-bye.

But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy who’s literally from her dreams. Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O. If Bryar can’t figure out who—or what—she really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives… as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself.

How freaking awesome does it sound?! The Booklist has said it "Blends magical fantasy, swooning romance, and a bucketful of teenage ssass" and the School Library Journal reckons it's a "fun romp for Twilight fans". Now I don't like Twilight, so that does nothing for me buuuutt after reading Bauer's other books...I can believe the Booklist's take on her new read! I'm also kind assuming the Twilight reference is because werewolves! 

In honour of the release of the book, there's a bookstore tour where you can get your copy of Wolves & Roses signed by Christina, meet the characters from the novel, and take home a swag bag full of goodies....including a themed t-shirt! Everyone loves swag so I'm sure you'll all be jumping at the chance, but how cool does "meet the characters" sound?! Either way you don't want to miss the Wolves & Roses launch tour am I right!? 

Make sure you RSVP today and arrive early to the event (links below), as there's only a limited amount of swag bags given out on a first come first served basis to those who buy a new copy of Wolves & Roses! I'm actually devastated I can't go because it sounds like it's going to be a blast! 

BOSTON, MA AREA

Barnes & Noble, Prudential Center, Boston MA
Wednesday, November 1st, 5:00 PM EST
REGISTER NOW

Barnes & Noble, Framingham, MA
Thursday, November 2nd, 7:00 PM EST
REGISTER NOW

NEW YORK CITY, NY

Bluestockings, Manhattan
Friday, November 3rd, 7:00 PM EST
REGISTER NOW

SAN FRANCISCO, CA AREA

Barnes & Noble, Corte Madera, CA
Saturday, November 4th, 12:00 NOON PST
REGISTER NOW

COMING SOON: San Jose, CA

CHICAGO, IL AREA

Barnes & Noble, Oakbrook IL
Wednesday, November 7th, 7:00 PM
REGISTER NOW

The Book Cellar, Chicago, IL
Wednesday, November 8th, 7:00 PM CST
REGISTER NOW

Scala

Scala
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: ARC Courtesy of NetGalley

Myla Lewis is back and this time she's transformed in to the Great Scala, which means she's the only one who can move souls about from Purgatory to Heaven or Hell. Except Lucifer's Orb, an artifact, is messing with her ability, and forcing her to send souls bound for Heaven, to Hell instead. Sending the souls bound to Heaven, innocent souls, to Hell is not Mylas style. She's gone on strike until the Orb is dealt with. Except, there's so many souls, with nowhere to go, the Soul Storage buildings in Purgatory are becoming time bombs. Eventually the containment fields will burst, releasing very, let's just say 'upset' ghosts. Myla needs to find the Orb and destroy it so she can send the souls on their way but she's running out of time.

Cue Mylas old enemy Lady Adair popping back up causing a ruckus. A ruckus that involves taking away everything from Myla, everything she holds dear, including super cute Prince Lincoln, her Angelbound love. Not cool.

I loved Angelbound, it was so incredibly unique from everything else, and as everyone knows I love books that have something unique. It's not that I'm getting bored with all the books that are pretty similar to others in the genre, it's that they're usually so predictable and you feel quite jaded guessing every twist and turn.
I was so stoked that Scala continued on all the uniqueness of the first book and I loved it just as much.

Myla is one of my favourite leading ladies, I want to be her, seriously she's so badass. Myla has a mouth. She can snark to rival me, which is quite a feat. You can take lessons from Myla about how to get yourself out of situations your mouth gets you in with minimum damage. I love that. Myla is a character I can still relate to in the second book, and still root for her and support her the whole way through the book. It's so easy to read her narrative, she's got such a spark that draws you to her. Now the first book is so incredibly unique because there is no insta love between Myla and Lincoln, and I loved seeing them together again, I felt very satisfied with the way their relationship was going and the path it was taking.

Adair is that character that, in the first book, was a mild irritant. She irritated you, you wanted her to piss off, she never would, but she proved how ridiculous and silly she is and Myla won out. When she comes back in this book, well, the author has written her so well that I felt an outright hatred for her, not the "oh you love to hate her" hate, but the "I really would love to punch you in the face with a brick" hate. Be prepared.

The plot, for me, was great, mostly. The plot was intriguing, with the Orb and the threat and the whole trying to work out the bigger picture and such. I just felt annoyed more than once because Adair was the one being the baddie, and she came across as annoyingly spiteful, as well as inspiring as I said before, lots of hatred. I'm not down with the whole "trying to steal my man back and ruin your life even though you're the better candidate for the job", I don't enjoy reading those types of plots, which was disappointing for me.

Having said that, the flow was fantastic again, as was the prose, not to mention how the different parts of the plot eventually fit together and where written.

This book is a lot shorter than the first book, which is really a shame because I felt like some things where rushed a bit and not as fleshed out as they could be, we didn't get to spend much time in the world. I think because of the lack of length to the book, some really great opportunities where missed.

As soon as you had settled back in to the world and got engrossed in the book, it ended. Scala unfortunately did get taken down with a minor case of second book syndrome, which is such a shame because I was so excited for this.

While Scala falls to second book syndrome, which is disappointing, along with it's shortness, to fans who where super excited for this book, it was still an enjoyable read with a familiar world, and characters you love and come to love more. The plot, while personally to me being over shadowed by Adair and everything, was still written very well, although opportunities had been missed. There where plenty of twists and turns for you to guess at, but eventually be proved wrong. Don't get me wrong, while there where a couple of minor bad things, the book still sucked me in from the beginning and still made me laugh, which are two important things for a book!

I'm excited for the next book, and hoping it'll be longer, and succeed the second book!