Mini Reviews: Ward Against Death, Everything Everything, A Boy Called Cin

Here's a collection of mini reviews I was supposed to write forever ago but just got around to recently (why am I like this). In the case for most of these, I read them a year or two ago so the details are a bit fuzzy, but I did make sure to comment on things that really stuck out to me in particular.

Book Tag: BTS

Hello everyone! As some of you might know, I'm a huge fan of kpop. So to celebrate the new album Love Yourself: Her by BTS, one of my favorite kpop groups, I've decided to do a BTS book tag! I've never done a book tag before, so this is especially exciting for me since it combines two of my favorite things! I'm actually surprised that there have been a couple different BTS book tags created, but the one I've chosen is from Rosek's blog on Amino. 

To be honest, I have a hard time picking my favorite anything, so most of these are just based off of books I've read recently!

Cover Reveal: The Rebels of Gold by Elise Kova

Author: Elise Kova
Series: The Loom Saga #3
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Release Date: December 5, 2017

Summary From Goodreads: 

A new rebellion rises from the still-smoldering remnants of the five guilds of Loom to stand against Dragon tyranny. Meanwhile, on Nova, those same Dragons fight amongst themselves, as age-old power struggles shift the political landscape in fateful and unexpected ways. Unlikely leaders vie for the opportunity to shape a new world order from the perfect clockwork designs of one temperamental engineer.

This is the final installment of USA Today bestselling author Elise Kova’s Loom Saga, THE REBELS OF GOLD will reveal the fate of Loom’s brilliantly contrasting world and its beloved inhabitants.

Release Day Blitz (Review & Excerpt): Living Out Loud by Christina Lee and Nyrae Dawn

Author: Christina Lee and Nyrae Dawn
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary, Romance, M/M
Release Date: September 7, 2017

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Summary From Goodreads: 

Ben Emerson has lived by his minister father’s rules most of his life. Born into an ultra-conservative church community, he’s finally brave enough to break free and move to San Francisco. Distancing himself certainly helps create a new mindset, but living as an openly gay man takes some getting used to. When he reaches out to Xavier, a childhood friend who lives in the city, Ben isn’t sure how he’ll respond given their thorny history. Ben hopes the familiar connection will help him right some wrongs as well as provide the solace he’s been craving.

Xavier Ramos is who he is, and he doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks. Whether it’s eyeliner, nail polish, tattoos or his love of hooking up, he uses his body as a form of self-expression but doesn’t let anyone get too close. When Ben reenters his life, Xavier helps him experience the city and feel comfortable in his own skin. Seeing the world through Ben’s eyes, he begins to wonder if he’s also not living as freely as he thought. 

When Xavier challenges Ben’s beliefs about sex, it becomes explosive—for both of them. Xavier breaks apart Ben’s sheltered world and shows him what it’s like to live out loud. The more time they spend together, the more Xavier begins to long for Ben in a different way—one that both surprises and scares him. But real life doesn’t fade into the background, so when Ben’s past comes knocking, old habits are hard to break. Testing the foundation of their deepening connection will take a trust that will either bind them…or tear them apart. 

Release Week Blitz (Excerpt & Giveaway): Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

Author: Meg Kassel
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Publisher: Entangled Teen

Summary From Goodreads: 

A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.

What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.

Review: Antisocial by Heidi Cullinan

Author: Heidi Cullinan
Genre: NA, Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 8, 2017
Source: Netgalley

Summary From Goodreads: 

A single stroke can change your world.

Xander Fairchild can’t stand people in general and frat boys in particular, so when he’s forced to spend his summer working on his senior project with Skylar Stone, a silver-tongued Delta Sig with a trust fund who wants to make Xander over into a shiny new image, Xander is determined to resist. He came to idyllic, Japanese culture-soaked Benten College to hide and make manga, not to be transformed into a corporate clone in the eleventh hour. 

Skylar’s life has been laid out for him since before he was born, but all it takes is one look at Xander’s artwork, and the veneer around him begins to crack. Xander himself does plenty of damage too. There’s something about the antisocial artist’s refusal to yield that forces Skylar to acknowledge how much his own orchestrated future is killing him slowly…as is the truth about his gray-spectrum sexuality, which he hasn’t dared to speak aloud, even to himself.

Through a summer of art and friendship, Xander and Skylar learn more about each other, themselves, and their feelings for one another. But as their senior year begins, they must decide if they will part ways and return to the dull futures they had planned, or if they will take a risk and leap into a brightly colored future—together.