Waiting on Wednesday - Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt

Welcome to Waiting On Wednesday here at

 Winterhaven Books!

This is a feature created by Jill at Breaking The Spine where we share some books we are anxiously awaiting.

This week's pick...

Dream Things Trueby Marie Marquardt
Expected publication: September 1st 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin

A modern-day Romeo and Juliet story in which a wealthy Southern boy falls in love with an undocumented Mexican girl and together they face perils in their hostile Georgia town. Evan, a soccer star and the nephew of a conservative Southern Senator, has never wanted for much -- except a functional family. Alma has lived in Georgia since she was two-years-old, excels in school, and has a large, warm Mexican family. Never mind their differences, the two fall in love, and they fall hard. But when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) begins raids on their town, Alma knows that she needs to tell Evan her secret. There's too much at stake. But how to tell her country-club boyfriend that she’s an undocumented immigrant? That her whole family and most of her friends live in the country without permission. What follows is a beautiful, nuanced, well-paced exploration of the complications of immigration, young love, defying one’s family, and facing a tangled bureaucracy that threatens to completely upend two young lives.

I picked this one since I never could resist a good Romeo & Juliet story. My significant other is half Mexican. After getting to know how awesome and successful his family is I realized that due to their heritage, they had to work twice as hard as most to prove they could be neurosurgeons, school administrators, and publicists. It makes me so sad to see them discriminated (to see anyone discriminated for that matter) due to their last name. I've seen my husband, being a double minority go thru similar struggles and these types of stories touch a soft spot in my heart. The mexican culture is brilliant and if you haven't had a homemade tamale...well let me just tell you, you haven't really lived my friend. I am really hoping to nab this one at BEA!!!

Teaser Tuesday #83 Frostfire by Amanda Hocking

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays! Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! My Teaser Tuesday is for the following... 



Frostfire by Amanda Hocking
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: January 6, 2015
Blurb:
Bryn Aven is an outcast among the Kanin, the most powerful of the troll tribes.
Set apart by her heritage and her past, Bryn is a tracker who's determined to become a respected part of her world. She has just one goal: become a member of the elite King’s Guard to protect the royal family. She's not going to let anything stand in her way, not even a forbidden romance with her boss Ridley Dresden.
But all her plans for the future are put on hold when Konstantin– a fallen hero she once loved – begins kidnapping changelings. Bryn is sent in to help stop him, but will she lose her heart in the process? k

Teasers from book page: 138
"I'm not saying that people don't fall in love. People fall madly in love with each other all the time. But that right there"--Ridley gestured behind him, toward where King Evert and Queen Mina were seated--"that was all an act."

Teaser from book page: 139
Would you do that?" Ridley asked. "Would you marry someone you didn't love to advance your life or your career?"
"No, of course I wouldn't," I said.
"Would you even marry someone if you did love them?" he asked. I could feel his eyes on me, but I refused to look at him, preferring to finish my wine in big gulps.

*PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your ‘teasers’ in a comment here if you don’t have a blog Thanks! 

Review: Loop by Karen Akins

Loop by Karen Akins
Publisher-St. Martin's Griffin
Realeased- Oct 21st 2014
Pre-Order-Amazon / B & N

At a school where Quantum Paradox 101 is a required course and history field trips are literal, sixteen year-old time traveler Bree Bennis excels…at screwing up.After Bree botches a solo midterm to the 21st century by accidentally taking a boy hostage (a teensy snafu), she stands to lose her scholarship. But when Bree sneaks back to talk the kid into keeping his yap shut, she doesn’t go back far enough. The boy, Finn, now three years older and hot as a solar flare, is convinced he’s in love with Bree, or rather, a future version of her that doesn’t think he’s a complete pain in the arse. To make matters worse, she inadvertently transports him back to the 23rd century with her. Once home, Bree discovers that a recent rash of accidents at her school are anything but accidental. Someone is attacking time travelers. As Bree and her temporal tagalong uncover seemingly unconnected clues—a broken bracelet, a missing data file, the art heist of the millennium—that lead to the person responsible, she alone has the knowledge to piece the puzzle together. Knowledge only one other person has. Her future self.But when those closest to her become the next victims, Bree realizes the attacker is willing to do anything to stop her. In the past, present, or future.

My Thoughts:
To be perfectly honest, I almost gave up on this book within the first few chapters. For some reason I have the hardest time with time travel novels, I'm completely fascinated with them mind you, but the mind-spinning technology, time jumping from past, present and future and always feeling like I'm missing the bigger picture, makes me wonder if this particular genre is really for me. Loop was all of above, but still had me fascinatingly curious. So, I stuck it out. And you know what happened? It got interesting! So interesting that I couldn't put it down and before I knew it I was done and willing more pages to magically appear. Finally! I have a favourite time travel book and it's LOOP my friends! This is one helluva addicting ride.

There is so much I want to say about this riveting story and yet I don't think I can give it the justice it truly deserves. I can't believe this is Akins debut novel. The way she writes is absolutely outstanding. The time travel concept was so much more then just futuristic gadgets, lingo and terminology (which there was a lot of ) it was preciously detailed and mind-blowing to comprehend, but at the same time it was refreshing and blast to read. There were times I felt overwhelmed and even intimidated with just how big the story is since there was just so.much.happening. But it's such an unstoppable read that I needed the answers just as badly as the characters did. Which brings me to another factor. It's mysterious as hell. This is not one of those books that you can just skim through peeps, this is the kind of book that is so evasively written and enthusiastic with information overload without any real explanations as to the hows and whys, you literally are scrabbling for clues (past, present and future) to see if you can figure out the answers and who's behind everything. And once the revelation hit me, I was floored. It's thought provoking and frustrating and makes you crazy, but in the best way. I had so much fun trying to make rhyme or reason with any of it that I simple forgot to be unnerved. My experience was a dazed one, but in one of the most satisfying and entertaining ways possible.

With any kind of time travel novel, you have to take it with enough suspended belief for the book to seem somewhat plausible, but what I loved about this was, as the book started to unfold, it almost felt entirely possible. And that had a lot to do with all these amazingly well developed character who bring this outrageous story to life.

Bree Bennis is a feisty firecracker of a character, she always seems to be on a mission and not just the time travelling kind. I really loved her voice and what she was initially fighting for, but there are times where I waned to just shake her straight. For an intelligent time travel student who's a stickler for believing in protocol she doesn't seem to mind bending The Rules when it's on her own terms and she's not a very open minded creature when it comes to Finn's speculations. She constantly doubts and rejects anything he's suspicious of and I couldn't help hate how bitter and snappy she was with him. Now mind you, our girl is under a huge amount of stress and pressure and eventually she calms down long enough to finally see who's on her side, and who isn't. She's got great snark and I love that no matter what she did wrong, she faces the consequences and stops at nothing to fix it.

I absolutely adore Finn Masterson! This guy is so freaken adorable I just want to hug him to death. His comedic timing with futuristic things was absolutely hilarious. I loved his reactions and his go with the flow attitude, his confidence, his protective nature and how passionate he is about Bree. He's my new favourite guy! The romance in this is super freaken sweet. These two bicker and banter pretty much the entire length of the novel, but even their fighting has a playful energy that is irresistible. Still, I thought it was perfectly paced, not rushed but gradually bubbling till that inevitable moment. Definitely gush-worthy stuff that made my heart happy.  

There is a long list of secondary characters that I loved to pieces. They all brought in so much depth to this already complex story that I couldn't see any of this without them. But I will give a shout out to Mimi. She was so flippen cute!

Bottom line, I had such a blast reading this book. It's a futuristic time travel sci-fi adventure that will have your head spinning and heart pounding. It's sharp, smart and consuming from start to finish and it only left me begging for more. I can't wait to find out what happens next! Bring on TWIST!

Find the author:
Goodreads / Website                                  5 Snowflakes 

Review: Reckoning by Kerry Wilkinson

Reckoning by Kerry Wilkinson

Publisher-St. Martin's Griffin

Realeased- July 1st 2014

Purchase- Amazon / B & N

One girl. One chance. One destiny.In the village of Martindale, hundreds of miles north of the new English capital of Windsor, sixteen-year-old Silver Blackthorne takes the Reckoning. This coming-of- age test not only decides her place in society – Elite, Member, Inter or Trog – but also determines that Silver is to become an Offering for King Victor.But these are uncertain times and no one really knows what happens to the teenagers who disappear into Windsor Castle. Is being an Offering the privilege everyone assumes it to be, or do the walls of the castle have something to hide?Trapped in a maze of ancient corridors, Silver finds herself in a warped world of suspicion where it is difficult to know who to trust and who to fear. The one thing Silver does know is that she must find a way out . . . The heart-stopping first book in a new trilogy by UK author Kerry Wilkinson, Reckoning is the story of one girl's determination to escape the whims of a cruel king, and what she must do to survive against all odds.

My Thoughts:

Going into a story like this, it's bound to be compared to other books in this genre like, The Hunger Games and Divergent and I'd be lying if it didn't sometimes feel like those stories, and yet, Wilkinson still manages to make the Reckoning entirely his own.  

I'm not really sure what I can say here plot-wise without giving something away. I think readers will want to learn all about this twisted, brutal and even disturbing world that Wilkinson has created. The storyline itself is fairly simple. It's a sci-fi survival story, but the way its portrayed is more emotional and desperate then the action suspense you would usually find in this genre. Not to say that we didn't get some action, just not the kind I personally expected. I'm not usually the kind of reader who likes torturous-type reads and apart of me actually wanted to just stop reading, but before I knew it I became consumed and my heart ached for these Offerings, and I simple needed to know how everything plays out. For most readers the content is really nothing, but I'm a squeamish gal and while it wasn't overly graphic the writing still has a way of playing with my imagination, which can sometimes be worse.

Like the characters in the book, it was hard to form any real attachments  for most of them simply because of their situation, but the ones I did find a connection with, really pulled me throughout the entire story. 

Silver is a fierce character, smart, brave and caring. I liked her voice, her determination and her compassion. I wasn't sure what to think of Imrin at first, but it didn't take long to trust him. I liked how protective he was with Silver, even if no one really sees it except her. Imrin and Silver have an instant connection and despite the looming dangers of their friendship, it was the only warmth they and the readers have in such an ugly reality. There was never any real romance in this, which I was thankful for since something like love really has no room in this kind of story, but what we did get was really very touching.

There were a few other characters that I enjoyed as well, but Hart really made an impact in the short time we see him and I hope we'll get to see more of him in the next book.

All in all, I really ended up enjoying this book. Wilkinson is a great storyteller, his words are very vivid almost haunting and there were strong moments that really made me hate and love this book in the same breath. Reckoning can be quite unforgiving, but it's also quite powerful. The sci-fi or technical elements were cleverly delivered and played an intricate part to that gasping conclusion. I'm nervous and excited for the next instalment, but I simple can't wait to see where Wilkinson takes these characters next. A gripping read!

Find the author:

Goodreads / Website                               4 Snowflakes