Top Ten Tuesday: My Auto-Buy Authors!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! 

I feel like this is very similar to the favorite authors post for me -- so there may not be any suprises here! I included newer authors who have "hooked" me recently as well to mix it up. 

1. Sarah Dessen - We all know why. She is amazing and is essentially the standard by which I judge everything by. 

2. Sara Raasch - FANTASY! I loved Snow Like Ashes, and Ice Like Fire is looking good. Raasch impressed me so much with her debut that I'm pretty sure I will be buying her stuff for awhile. 

3. John Green- I have odd emotions about John Green. I love his internet personality and Nerdfighteria, but everyone loves his books to an insane degree. I'm not one of those people... but I do auto buy him for sure. 

4. Rachel Hartman - This is another fantasy that blew my mind! So wonderful to see so many authors getting it right. This is another that I am eagerly awaiting everything they ever write ever. 

5. Jennifer Echols - I LOVE her contemporaries and have been buying them all since Going Too Far came out. 

6. Kody Keplinger - I was obsessed with The Duff when if first came out. I got my hands on an ARC and I told everyone I knew about it for months. She has been on my watch list ever since. 

And... 

7. J.K. Rowling - Her writing is still as close to perfect as I have witnessed. It has been 10+ years since I first read Harry Potter and still if I start it I can't stop. I will buy everything she writes always and forever. 

Stacking the Shelves!

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews! 

This week I got quite the mixture! Proof that I love Kid Lit and adult stuff at the same time. 

For Review: 

A stunning debut novel of historical fiction set in the forgotten world of New York City's Jewish orphanages
In 1919, four-year-old Rachel Rabinowitz is placed in the Hebrew Infant Home where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research on the children. Dr. Solomon subjects Rachel to an experimental course of X-ray treatments that establish the doctor's reputation while risking the little girl's health. Now it's 1954, and Rachel is a nurse in the hospice wing of the Old Hebrews Home when elderly Dr. Solomon becomes her patient. Realizing the power she holds over the helpless doctor, Rachel embarks on a dangerous experiment of her own design. Before the night shift ends, Rachel will be forced to choose between forgiveness and revenge.
Inspired by true events, Orphan #8 is a powerful novel about the human capacity to harm—and to love.

Bought: 

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.
Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.
Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

What stacked your shelves this week? 

Follow Friday!

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Prajunkee and Alison Can Read! 

This week's question: 
If you could have unlimited food what would it be? 
The Answer: 
Definitely pasta, because I like to make bad decisions. Seriously though, you can put anything with pasta and I would be game.  

Let me know if you're hopping by! 

(especially if you follow :])

Blogger Recognition Award!

I was nominated by Bogdana the Booknerd for the Blogger Recognition Award!

Rules:
v  Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you.

v  Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog. List who you've nominated in the post. 
o   Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above).

1. v  Comment on each blog and let them know you've nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.
2. 
   
3. v  Provide a link to the original post on Edge of NightEdge of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

My Story: 

            I started this blog back in 2009 which just seems crazy now. I wasn't familiar with the blogosphere, but I had no friends who loved the books I loved... so I started talking about books I loved online. Little did I know that people actually DID THIS. People were into talking about books and I was not alone. Since then blogging has been a wonderful escape from the bookless world and people (ha!) around me. Blogging has been with me through high school, college, jobs... it is the constant. Which is nice. Books are my Life, and I'm just trying to talk about that. 

      I was shocked when publishing houses cared what I had to say, and it is forever one of my favorite things. I feel so lucky everyday to wake up to emails about books, and be able to talk about books as much as I want. 

My Advice: 

          Through the years I have seen some pretty big bloggers go, so my advice would be to not worry about how others see your blog. 

           I know that sounds cliche, but seriously, this is YOUR blog with YOUR thoughts so make them your own. Who cares if so and so got that book you were dreaming of. I know blogger jealousy, I have felt blogger jealousy, but don't let it make you into something you're not.

           I accepted a long time ago that I can't post daily. It doesn't work with my life style and it stresses me out to think about it in a negative light. I CAN however post four or five times a week, this keeps me from stressing. Don't be afraid to write about things that aren't books. Talk about nails if you want, or travel, or that horrible day you had last week. Don't limit yourself to fit into a box that isn't real. 

           Accept that you may be a tiny voice in a sea of loud yells. Don't worry though - someone WILL hear you. 

Six years and I am still a tiny voice, but I'm cool with it. 

I nominate...

Everyone. 

Seriously. All of you deserve recognition, so wear your badge proudly and use your tiny voice for good. 

Waiting on Wednesday!

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine! 

This book sounds so good! It is weird in a funky way - but it involves football and alternate realities so I am so in! 

Release Date: January 26, 2016

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves. 
Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start…until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.
That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.
Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

 What are you  guys waiting for this week? 

Letters to Zell by Camille Griep [Book Review]

Title: Letters to Zell
Author: Camille Griep
Publisher: 47 North
Source: Publisher for honest review.

Everything is going according to story for CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty)—until the day that Zell (Rapunzel) decides to leave Grimmland and pursue her life. Now, Zell’s best friends are left to wonder whether their own passions are worth risking their predetermined “happily ever afters,” regardless of the consequences. CeCi wonders whether she should become a professional chef, sharp-tongued and quick-witted Bianca wants to escape an engagement to her platonic friend, and Rory will do anything to make her boorish husband love her. But as Bianca’s wedding approaches, can they escape their fates—and is there enough wine in all of the Realm to help them?
In this hilarious modern interpretation of the fairy-tale stories we all know and love, Letters to Zell explores what happens when women abandon the stories they didn’t write for themselves and go completely off script to follow their dreams.

We all love fairy tale retellings, and this book is a very different take on the classic stories we have been told and it puts a different twist on all of the loved characters. It is told through a different lens as it is written in a series of letters to Zell (Rapunzel) from her closest friends.

Initially this form of story telling was hard to follow for me. I don't often read books told in letter form, so I wasn't used to the style and it made things confusing for me. This feeling passed the farther into the book I went and eventually I didn't notice the story style and became used to it.

The characters were very different than the perfect creatures we are shown in the stories we know. I expect this from retellings, but the unhappiness that was felt by each "princess" was somewhat surprising but it definitely wasn't unwelcome. I enjoyed seeing this potential other side that felt like a "behind the scenes look."

I really liked the idea of their "pages" that they have to finish. These story characters essentially must complete their pages before they are allowed to live their own life -- and even then they are stuck with the life their pages gave them. Their pages reflect the stories we know, but they aren't always life choices the characters are happy with.

We have princesses who are living double lives, and who are unsatisfied living in their storybook -- which is a story I can get behind!

CeCe (Cinderella) was struggling to decide what she truly wants to do with her life, Aurora (Rory) is desperate to please her husband who she really doesn't like too much, and Bianca (Snow White) misses her father and is marrying a guy because it fits into her "pages." The drama was out there, the characters at times confusing, but ultimately this story was good for those interested in fairy tale retellings mixed with The Real World.

They are able to travel to our world which was an added aspect I enjoyed, and though the princesses struggle with who they are and want to be, it was an interesting story filled with bumps and turns!

Overall: If you're a fan of fairy-tale retellings you should check this one out! It is a very original and interesting take on modern day princesses struggling to complete their pages and live their life at the same time.

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews! 

For Review: 

Bounce by Noelle August 

Sit! Stay! Speak: A Novel by Annie England Noblin

I LOVE the Boomerang series by Noelle August, so receiving BOUNCE was a very happy moment! 

I hadn't heard of Sit! Stay! Speak! until I received it, though now I know I have to read it soon. I have a pup of my own who has his own issues... so this book will come close to home. 

Meet Bishop! 

Those who follow me on Instagram have probably seen him a few times. This dog has taught me more about myself than any other. He suffers from fear induced anxiety and it has been a struggle since he was a wee one.  Something as simple as taking a walk leaves him shaking with fear... but he is the sweetest though!

For dog lovers (and cat lovers!) like me, Sit! Stay! Speak! might should be on your watch list! 

Bought: 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

I did it! Now I have to read it and join you all in the fandom. Watching all of you rave became just too much to take! 

Also, did you guys notice the girl on the cover? Because I did not. 

What stacked your shelves this week?