Dream Things True Review

ISBN:9781250070456
September 1, 2015
Amazon Link

 Evan and Alma live in two completely different worlds; Evan the soccer star of Gilberton, Georgia lives in the rich part of town and drives fancy cars. While Alma, an illegal immigrant from Mexico works for her dad's lawn care business, lives with her very large smothering family, and is one of the smartest girl's you would ever meet. However, the two put their differences aside and have fallen completely in love with each other. But once ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, start doing raids on the couple's hometown Alma, her family, and most of her friends are eligible for deportation back to Mexico. Is Evan and Alma's love strong enough to endure what lies in their near future?
Dream Things True, by Marie Marquardt is a real page turner, you're always wondering what is going to happen next which makes the novel so hard to put down. The novel is told in second person with easy to love characters. I felt this novel was a true modernized version of the timeless Romeo and Juliet tale. However, the book would be more enjoyable if you had some background in the Spanish language. But if you don't that okay because there are translations further down in the text, thankfully I've taken Spanish before and even with my basic understanding I was able to comprehend a lot of the minor Spanish parts within the book. I didn't feel as if there was ever a dull moment in this book because around every corner there a twist in the plot, which always makes a story more interesting and keeps the plot moving along. At the final 336th page I wish it didn't have to end because it was such a great book, however great things must always come to an end. Therefore, I would love to read more of Marquardt's work in the future.

Published by EM

SBPT'15 Pamela and her favorite covers

Welcome to  the 2015 Summer Blogger Promo Tour hosted by the Book Bratz. This tour features bloggers every Sunday. Today's post is dedicated to Pamela @A Writer's Tale

My 10 Favorite Covers

Let me Love You!

Of Beast and Beauty, by Stacey Jay

Many times over I've burdened everyone willing to listen that I love Of Beast and Beauty, and one of the reasons, is also that cover! It shows the perfect mix betwee the fantasy from the fairy tale and the sci-fi part.

These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

The cover of this book made a lot of readers swoon when it first became available to the public. The dress, the space, the font... I, for one, loved the breath of fresh air that came with this cover. A break from the standard girl & boy pose.

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things, by Ann Aguirre

 

And here's another one with Sticky Notes! All the Bright Places depresses me, so let's just go with this one. The sticky notes trend is pretty, and specially because, at least in this one, they do mean something. They're in the story. So it's not just there because. Symbolism in covers? Yay!

A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas 

 

Another Beauty and the Beast retelling. *-* Badass cover heroine? Check. Cool font? Check. Eerie background? Check. What's not to love?  

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

 

 Blue. Everywhere. I like the covers of this series because of the predominant colors for each book. And the badassery. Let's not forget that.

Let's be Besties!

 

All these above, I love because of how representative the cover art is of the story itself. Vampires, lovely dresses, DRAGON SKIN, russian buildings, and Mardi Gras masks. (The Selection, I don't like your content, but you are gorgeous and that's something we've got to admit.)

Covers play a very important part on my decision to read a book or not. It makes me proud to show off my paperback or hardback with one of those awesome covers. I'd like to know how important it is for you guys for a book to be beautiful on the outside too, and if there have been times where a book with a boring cover has ever blown your mind :)

Mini Blog Tour: Liz Coley Tor Maddox Series

Liz Coley’s internationally best-selling psychological thriller Pretty Girl-13 has been published in 12 languages on 5 continents and has been recognized by the American Library Association on two select lists for 2014 including Best Fiction for Young Adults.

The new Tor Maddox series, including prequel short story Disarmed, and three novels Unleashed, Embedded, and Mistaken represents “the lighter side” of Liz.

Liz’s other publications include alternate history/time travel/romance Out of Xibalba. Her short fiction has appeared in Cosmos Magazine and numerous anthologies.

Liz lives in Ohio, where she is surrounded by a fantastic community of writers, beaten regularly by better tennis players, uplifted by her choir, supported by her husband, teased by her teen-aged daughter, cheered from afar by her two older sons, and adorned with hair by her cats Tiger, Pippin, and Merry.

  

INTRODUCING Tor Maddox, a heroine for our times “I know that one day, I’m going to have to live in the real world. I’d like it to be a decent one.” - Tor Book I Tor Maddox: Unleashed When sixteen-year old Torrance Olivia Maddox, self-confessed news junkie, figures out that the mysterious and deadly New Flu is being spread by dogs, she has one question—if the danger is that obvious to her, why hasn’t the government revealed the truth and taken action? Her search for the answer will take her farther than she ever imagined. But then again, she never imagined that man’s best friend could become public enemy number one, that men in black might show up in her cozy suburban neighborhood, that she’d spend her sixteenth birthday as a teenaged runaway, and that her effort to save one dog would become a mission to save them all. Book 2 Tor Maddox: Embedded Life has been way too quiet for Tor Maddox since her fifteen minutes of CNN fame. Then agent-in-training Rick Turner reappears with what sounds like a simple assignment—to embed herself as his eyes and ears in her own high school. When she agrees to keep tabs on high school state swim champ Hamilton Parker for the Feds, she is plunged into the deep end of a sinister plot. Knowing that freedom, justice, and lives are at stake again, Tor jumps in feet first, but has she gotten in over her head this time? When observe and report becomes kiss and tell, Tor’s first mission may blow up in her face. Book 3 Tor Maddox: Mistaken Grab a flotation device and welcome aboard for more shenanigans, villainy, and romance. Eight leotards and a ball gown—that’s what Tor Maddox packed for her summer ballet intensive in New York. Pity she never arrived. Kidnapped once by the good guys and once by the bad ones, Tor finds herself involved in a high seas adventure featuring princesses and pirates, a wedding ring, and the guy she thought she’d never be allowed to see again, junior man-in-black Rick Turner. Tor’s employee ID badge promises: “Your Fantasy Starts Here.” It couldn’t be more mistaken.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Twitter: @LizColeyBooks

Facebook: LizColeyBooks

Goodreads: Liz Coley

Instagram: @LizColeyBooks

Web Site: LizColey.com

OTHER LINKS

Amazon Author Page: Liz Coley

Unleashed (Amazon buy link - http://amzn.to/1Ipom9Z)

Embedded (Amazon buy link - http://amzn.to/1Ipoqqo)

Mistaken (Amazon buy link - http://amzn.to/1SOfvsT)

Liz has a giveaway for her books going through YABooksCentral

 http://www.yabookscentral.com/blog/exclusive-sneak-peek-at-the-tor-maddox-series-by-liz-coley-giveaway-us-only 

Scenes from a Life: The Fossil Site

When I was two and he was four, he threw rocks at me. Not very hard, and not very well. By the time I was seven, we were best buddies, in separate schools, but on weekends inseparable. At ten he moved far away, and we became loyal pen pals bordering on boyfriend-girlfriend at a very safe distance. And by thirteen, our starter romance had splintered (see SFAL: The Bet). The magical years I spent with Bruce were the seven to nine years for me (nine to eleven for him), and we were bound by boy things—cap guns, Creepy Crawlers baked in a Mattel Thingmaker, comic books, monster movies, and dinosaur dreams.

I imagine the girls of today (not to mention the parents) watching our past freedom through a timescope would shudder. They would see me walk alone, age seven, over a mile to my friend’s house and home again—alive and unkidnapped. They would see me and Bruce collecting the gunpowder out of a roll of caps and heating it with a magnifying glass until it exploded. They would see me climbing to the top of a thirty-foot tree without knee pads or helmet or safety line to read a Peanuts comic book. They would see us baking a liquid plastic goop in an electrically heated metal mold (without adult supervision) to make lizards, spiders, and skeletons—some deliciously and incredibly edible (and therefore eaten). They would see us head off, alone, armed only with toothbrushes, to a nearby park and head through the sagebrush down into a secluded canyon, along the dried streambed, through the licorice plantation (our name for the wild fennel), and up the face of the sheer sandstone cliff hiding ancient scallops—the Fossil Site.

While we perched and scraped carefully at the edges of shells to free them, we dreamed of finding a dinosaur femur. Then the whole skeleton. We imagined fame. And what we would call our find. Of course, the cliff face was from a long ago sea, so our odds of finding land-based dinos were rather long. Then we talked about the Saturday Morning Monster movies we loved—Them, Zontar Thing from Venus, and of course the Godzilla movies. And that led to a weird moment of truth as we recalled one particular movie scene—the reunion of Adult and Baby Godzilla, arms stick straight out and waving as they embraced with happy roars. Bruce and I were moved to recreate the scene, arms flapping and reaching for each other. Suddenly, from the canyon rim, we heard laughs. We’d been seen by some other kids. We both blushed bright red at the idea that they might think we were actually hugging each other.

For all our freedoms, the one we didn’t have was that of expressing affection openly. Girls couldn’t hug each other for reasons that were never mentioned aloud. Boys and girls couldn’t hug unless they were “going together.” And no one said, “I love you” unless a proposal of marriage was sure to follow. We had the freedom to play, wander, invent, discover, build, destroy, help ourselves, hurt ourselves, and throw ourselves into danger. We lacked the freedom to show and share what was in our hearts. It’s a new world, and we are fossils.

                                                   

SBPT'15 Underrated Books

Welcome to  the 2015 Summer Blogger Promo Tour hosted by the Book Bratz. This tour features bloggers every Sunday. Today's post is dedicated to Dana @Danasquare!

Underrated books that need more attention:

The Beast:

   

This self published debut steampunk fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast needs a lot more love. It is action packed with a great romance and an awesome cast of characters. It was a quick read and would be great for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Play On:

What I expected at first glance to be quick southern romance about baseball turned out to be a very emotional story about mental illness. It is a fantastic read that shows the impact of mental illness on an individual and their loved ones.

The Edge of Forever:

This scifi debut was completely inventive and unique. The world and concept was done so well. The switch between present and future as well as the switch of point of view was written very well. It also had a very interesting mused mystery aspect. I hope there is a sequel because there so much more I want to know.

Velvet:

This book just made me nostalgic for the time when Twilight was huge. It is a fun paranormal romance that doesn't take itself too seriously. The dialogue was hysterical and the romance was swoon worthy. I can't wait to see more world building in the sequel.

Shutter:

This book is Underworld (movie) meets Ghostbusters. It is a dark paranormal horror that packs in the action. There is a kickass leading female and great gang to help her discover the truth of her past as they try to save themselves and their city.

I honestly havent read any of these but I'm definitely adding them to my shelves now! Has anyone read these? What would you add to the list?

SBPT'15 YA Bookish Events

Welcome to  the 2015 Summer Blogger Promo Tour hosted by the Book Bratz. This tour features bloggers every Sunday. Today's post is dedicated to Dawn @ Bang Bang Books!

Bookish places Dawn would love to attend:

BEA



BEA is a fabulous place to meet and greet with your favorite authors, bloggers and publishing contacts. I definitely recommend every bookish person attend at least once in their life. Next year it will be closer to where Dawn lives, in Chicago!

NOVA:



North Virginia YA Teen Book Festival or NoVaTEEN is returning! One More Page Books is partnering with Arlington Public Libraries and Fairfax County Public Library, with co-sponsors Arlington County Schools, GMU's Fall for the Book, and Falls Church City Public Schools to bring a FREE festival packed with books, authors, and special events to Arlington, VA. More info including the line up from this past year can be found out here.

YallFest:



YallFest held in Charleston, South Carolina in November. Due to the huge success rate they created a YallWest event. The author lineup is pretty impressive!

Boston Teen YA Book Festival:



Being held this year on September 26th at Cambridge Public Library. Many recently published authors are featured! More info can be found here.


Have you been to any of these? Which one are you most excited for? Let us know!

Stacking the Shelves #20

My eighth Stacking the Shelves post. 

Hosted by Tynga's Review's.

Weekly Post July 1-current
*Met the author in person
@Have already read it

#Featured in Top Ten Tuesday

Books I checked out from the Library:

Books I received for Review:

Books I Traded for:

Books I Won:

Books I Bought:

Published by M