#ya books
“Grayson Hawthorne was arrogant enough to consider himself bulletproof— and honorable enough to see a promise through to its end.”
Grayson Davenport Hawthorne: White Collar
Promo for my series
Helpless: Retaliation: Stoddard, Cheyenne R: 9781638370543: Amazon.com: Books
Book two of Helpless is finally here! Grab your copy today and be sure to leave a review!
SAMAEL
When it comes to rank, Samael’s place was higher than the Hayyoth and Seraphim. He is a fear striking angel with twelve wings. Samael is known as the venom of God. Hardly an angel he is, however. He is described as an accuser, seducer, and destroyer. He takes the soul from man. He resides in the seventh Heaven and is the commander of two million angels. He is the chief of Satans. He became the consort of Lilith, and with her had a host of demon children. (The most notable being Asmodeus.) Samael is NOT Lucifer. Samael was the very first Archangel created by God to execute his will at any cost. Due to the primal nature of his being, Samael is described as being both good and evil. However, the descriptions about Samael’s acts clearly bear the testimony of his truly evil nature. He has a whole different idea for humanity than God. He intends to be the new God some day. He aims to overthrow Heaven and toss it into the corrupted claws of Aeshma. He aims to destroy faith and hopes in the hearts of his Father’s dear humans. He will corrupt and control. He’s evil, spiteful, treacherous, and charming.
Origin: Christianity. Samael is 2,000 years old.
“Lucifer? Darling, I am so much worse. I am the very venom of God. I inject cancer and plague the world with pain. I am there when tragedy strikes humanity down. I am there when an old fool takes his last breath. I am a weapon of both Heaven and Hell. You pray to him? Who do you think sent me? Who do you think ordered your death? He’s not listening to you. He’s too busy promoting free will while having me execute those who go against Him or speak ill of His name. I am the closest you will ever get to God, so worship me instead.” -Samael.
Read more about Samael in my upcoming book: Retaliation. Expected early April, 2021.
AESHMA
He is chaos. The demon of wrath, rage, fury, and desire. Aeshma is one of the fiercest, most feared demons in Hell. His story originates in Zoroastrianism; an ancient Persian religion founded in the seventh century. Aeshma is the being responsible for horrendous acts of malice and aggression. He is the king of war and genocide. He lives to see the world bleed. In Hell, he is an exceptional warrior. A military commander of an army made up of 770,000 demons. His influence over rage, violence, and war is just the tip of the iceberg. He lures lost humans into disobedience, defiance, drunkenness, desire, and paranoia. His epithet is, “Of The Bloody Mace.” Aeshma can distract any person and lead them away from their faith and good doing. He sends people into a spiral of poor decisions and violence. He’s powerful and spiteful. He is the complete opposite of religious devotion and discipline. He makes a mockery of any faith and finds joy in bringing people to their lowest points.
Origin: Persian/Iranian. Aeshma is 1,400 years old.
“You actually think your existence is that significant? The world would be exactly the same, with or without you. You’re not important.” -Aeshma.
Read more about Aeshma in Book two: Retaliation. Expected early April, 2021
Books read in March 2022
BUSTER UNDERCOVER by Caleb Zane Huett
TIGER VS. NIGHTMARE by Emily Tetri
THE MUSHROOM AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS by Oliver Burkeman
CAMP by Kayla Miller
FIBBED by Elizabeth Agyemang
SLIP by Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Pandya
WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A LIST OF FURTHER POSSIBILITIES by Chen Chen
THE LESBIANA’S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL by Sonora Reyes
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Hey everyone! Little Thieves is officially out on the shelves today, so I thought I’d make a post of places you can grab a copy!
You can also order from my local indie, which would be swell!!
Bookshop dot org is a great alternative to Amazon that helps support independent bookstores as well!
Little Thieves SHOULD be in stock at your local Barnes & Noble, and you can check here! Ordering from B&N is also great because they’re Amazon’s main competitor, and if they go out of business… well, it won’t be good.
And finally, yes! You can get Little Thieves on Amazon. Boosting the Amazon rank is also pretty helpful!!
If you can’t afford the book right now, no worries—requesting through your local library is also great! Books that are in high demand may get additional copies purchased for the collection. Adding on Goodreads and boosting on social media is also much appreciated, since word-of-mouth is way more effective than me just saying “buy my book, there’s a horrible girl!”
(But also: please buy my book. There is a very horrible girl.)
Not to spam folks, but boosting this again for anyone who missed it and/or needed a reminder! If you didn’t know, for the overwhelming majority of authors, the first week of sales is their best shot at hitting the NYT bestseller list. Since Little Thieves came out this Tuesday the 19th, ordering or buying in-store by Tuesday the 26th will count!
I have not hit the list before, but I sure would like to—hitting the list actually increases sales even further, for one. But beyond just feeding me and my cats, publishers tend to decide whether to keep publishing authors based on their sales. (Which, considering how little control authors have over the marketing for their book…. is….. challenging.)
I’d say Little Thieves has a decent shot at hitting the list next week, but it’s up against a lot of really great books, at a time when supply chain issues are flipping tables all over the place. So: I will take all the help I can get! ✨
Oh, and PS: if we do hit the list, I will share a dramatic reading of either a minute of my bad teen fanfiction, or one of the many short stories I wrote in grade school. This is the best offer I can make.
One more boost for anyone who may have missed this earlier! And to clarify: all sales are GREAT, but right now, the only NYT list Little Thieves is eligible for is the YA Hardcover list, so if you’re trying to help me out in that area, a hardcover is the way to go!
Final boost! I won’t be bugging y’all after this, haha, but if you’ve been meaning to pick up a hardcover copy, there are about 24 hours left until the cutoff for it to count towards bestseller lists. In-store purchases count! Placing an order online counts! And just sharing this around ye olde tumblr graveyard helps too!!
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Winter is coming—and I don’t mean in a terrifying Game of Thronesway, but in a grab-your-hot-chocolate-and-let’s-cozy-up-in-front-of-the-fire-and-get-to-reading kind of way. Because I don’t know about you, but winter is one of my favorite seasons for reading. I don’t know if it’s the shorter days or the fact that cold weather makes me even more of a blanket-burrito hermit than usual, but either way, there’s nothing better on a cold winter’s day than a good book. And there are so many great books coming out in the next few months: http://bit.ly/2QFmp4M
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March Wrap Up
I’ve been letting this blog fall to the wayside and that makes me really sad. I’m going to try to make a bigger effort to get my reviews back on track. Until then, my March Wrap Up!
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The End of Year Survey
The End of Year Survey
I’m going to try my hardest to not repeat any books for all 36 questions. I read 176 books, you would think I could find a different answer for each question…
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Current Mood:
Thinking about the ending of Clockwork Princess
Does anyone else ever just go—Rowan Whitethorn—in the middle of a thought? Cause that happens to me at least 5 times a day
This was a stupidly busy week with school, but I still managed to finish a few books. I finished Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel and an ARC of The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, but I haven’t had time to write reviews for those.
Title:Across the Universe
Author:Beth Revis
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review:
I had typed out a long review about how much I hated Amy, but Goodreads thought it would be cool to crash instead of uploading my review.
Basically, I really wanted to like this book. It started off well enough–the Cryogenic freezing scene was really cool! But then Amy woke up and everything started to suck. She is one of the worst characters ever, and I honestly can’t think of another character I have disliked as much as her. I found myself rolling my eyes every time I was reminded of her existence.
Elder wasn’t much better than Amy, but I still think the book would have been significantly better if it had been written entirely from his perspective.
I’m going to read the next one solely because I want to know if they make it off the ship.
Title:The Prince and the Dressmaker
Author/Illustrator:Jen Wang
Format: Print
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
This is a super cute fairy tale about a prince and his friend/dressmaker who makes him amazingly fabulous dresses. The prince knows he sometimes likes to wear dresses, but he is also really afraid what his parents would do/think if they found out, so he hides it. He does his best to be Prince Sebastian during day and then transforms into Paris’s hottest fashion icon at night. I loved watching Sebastian work through the questions regarding his identity and I loved the friendship between him and Francis. Also, the artwork is beautiful! I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick read with a happy ending.
Title:A Million Suns
Author:Beth Revis
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ★★★☆☆(2.5 stars which, let’s be honest, is generous)
Review:
There are spoilers for Across the Universebelow.
This book was just as disappointing as the first.
100% how I feel right now:
Just replace movie with book and paid money with wasted my life.
I really don’t have much to say other than I still hate Amy. I honestly cannot believe she had such a fit about Orion being unfrozen, but she actually felt guilty that Luthe was murdered. This was someone who tried to rape her, definitely raped someone else, and likely raped and murdered a third person. She felt she had a tough decision to make when she found him dead; open the airlock and move the frex on or waste more of her life trying to figure out his murdered him. But when it came or Orion, she was determined that he didn’t deserve to be unfrozen without a second thought.
Did I mention I just really hated her?
I also just realized there was ANOTHER book in this series.
Scythereview: kinda spoilery
★★★★★
Scythe is one of the best scifi books I’ve read in a long time. It makes readers think about so many things—death, technology, knowledge—in ways that most of us probably avoid. It was interesting to read about a world most people would consider to be a utopia, no conflict, no sickness, no natural death…one that could so easily be turned upside down—not just by the scythes, but by anyone who decided they wanted to know more. All of mankind’s knowledge is at their fingertips, it isn’t too much of a stretch to think that one day someone will become curious and go looking through the Thunderhead, and then find weaknesses that will bring the Thunderhead and society as they know it crashing down around them. Also, the Scythdom, Scythe Goddard has already proven that there is discontent and a desire for greater power, though most of his immediate followers have been killed in the first book, there are always more looking to grasp on to whatever tendrils of power they can find. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series, but most of all I’m very excited to see if chaos and destruction will reign in the end.
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★★★★★
The Middle Passage: White Ships | Black Cargo is unlike any picture book I’ve ever encountered. There are stories that tell the horrors of slavery after they had reached their destination, but I can’t think of any others that tell the story of the journey. There are a few pages of commentary from the author, and an introduction—but the story itself is told solely with illustrations, and honestly, I can’t see that words would have added anything to the story. Each illustration conveys the horror, pain, and struggle that African men and women experienced during the Middle Passage. This book is one that can be used alongside various history lessons to help gain a deeper understanding of what this experience was actually like. It can also be used to help readers think critically about certain aspects of history they were taught that sugar coated or glossed over the horrors of the slave trade.
★★★★
Skim was a compelling coming of age graphic novel that showcases what it is like to be a teenage girl. It highlights tough issues that many teenagers face on a regular basis: body image, depression, suicide, first love, sexuality, and outgrowing your friends. This is a realistic graphic novel that many teens will be able to relate to, and it can serve as a source of reassurance that they are not alone in feeling like they don’t fit in. It could also help in advanced emotional intelligence in teens by helping them recognize their own emotions in the face of issues they are dealing with. Also, because teens are likely experiencing many of the things Kim is, they can also see their emotions reflected in other people, helping them become (more) empathetic.
