The Whimsical Mama

<3 Such is the life of a stay at home mommy and Army wife (:

Top Ten Tuesday #94: Top Ten Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads July 5, 2016

b301e-toptentuesday

Each week, the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish think up a fun theme for the week and participating bloggers around the net join in. The theme for this week is:

Top Ten Top Ten Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads

This isn’t a pure list as I skipped books from the same series.

23265671

  1. The Prophecy by Erin Rhew (all the books in this trilogy are under a dollar on Amazon!) My reviews for The Prophecy, The Outlanders, and The Fulfillment.

173977601

2. Waterfell by Amalie Howard (This duology is a great quick beachy read!) My reviews for Waterfell and Oceanborn.

1387357

3. Napoleon & Josephine The Sword and The Hummingbird by Gerald & Loretta Hausman. I read this back in high school and fell in love with it!

17558080

4. Burning Kingdoms by Lauren DeStefano. The other series I started with book one, but it has over 2k views. Books two and three don’t. This series is fantastic!

780918

5. Rite of Conquest by Judith Tarr. I stumbled across this at our used bookstore in high school. I absolutely loved it! I should do a reread soon!

18113283

6. In Defense of the Queen by Michelle Diener. While this is the third book, it can easily be read as a standalone. My review of In Defense of the Queen.

22909758

7. The Hidden Prince by Jodi Meadows. Plus the other Black Knife novellas! I would suggest reading The Orphan Queen first though. SPOILERS and all that. (;

5280062

8. Artemis Fowl The Arctic Incident: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer. My love for Artemis Fowl goes deep and I finally read the graphic novels last summer.

7968653

9. Wolf Pact by Melissa de la Cruz. Companion to the Blue Bloods series. My review for Blue Bloods

15714722

10. A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris. I adore Rachel and her books. The My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century series is so cute and a quick read. My reviews for My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century, A Tale of Two Centuries, and My Not So Super Sweet Life.

 

What are some of your under 2k rating reads?

 

Top Ten Tuesday #92: Favourite 2016 Releases June 21, 2016

Filed under: Books,Top Ten Tuesday — Maura @ 12:01 am
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

b301e-toptentuesday

Each week, the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish think up a fun theme for the week and participating bloggers around the net join in. The theme for this week is:

Top Ten (More like six so far) Favourite 2016 Releases

23308084

  1. The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh. Sequel to The Wrath and the Dawn.

25203675

2. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi. Standalone fantasy!

20443235

3. The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski. Finale of The Winner’s Curse trilogy.

25663637

4. When We Collided by Emery Lord. Contemporary standalone.

22909838

5. The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows. Finale of The Orphan Queen duology.

25558608

6. A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir. Finale of An Ember in the Ashes duology. Currently reading or recently finished.

I haven’t read them yet, but I know I will enjoy these 2016 releases!

17927395

7. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. Sequel to A Court of Thorns and Roses.

22840421

8. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows. I’m SO excited about this one! I know it’s gonna be great!

16131489

9. The Last Star by Rick Yancey. The final book in The 5th Wave trilogy. I adored The 5th Wave, and I can’t wait to read the other two books! I think this will be what I take to the beach this year!

A Gathering of Shadows Final

10. A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab. Sequel to A Darker Shade of Magic. I’ve heard through the grapevine that this ends on an EPIC cliffhanger, so I’m currently waiting until A Conjuring of Light comes out to read books two and three at the same time! I HATE cliffhangers!

What have been your favourite 2016 reads so far this year? What are you looking forward to for the rest of the year?

 

Character Reveal: Wilhelmina Korte from The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows March 2, 2015

OQ-tour2

Today, I am SO excited to be a part of the Character Reveal part of The Orphan Queen blog tour! I absolutely love Jodi and her books! As much as I loved her Newsoul trilogy, I love The Orphan Queen THAT MUCH MORE!

Now, before I introduce you to my girl, Wil, I want to show you the beautiful cover (I mean really, I want to frame it for my office when I remodel this spring!) and the summary!

18081228(Gorgeous, right?!) The Orphan Queen

Pub date: 10 March 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books, HarperTeen
Genre:Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Status: Book one of The Orphan Queen duology

 

FIND IT: GOODREADS || AMAZON || BARNES & NOBLE || INDIEBOUND || BOOK DEPOSITORY

Summary:

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others,

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

 

oq-wil-fact1

I am here to introduce to you the incredible Wilhelmina “Wil” Korte! Here’s the full fact that I’m sharing with you today:

Almost ten years ago, Wilhelmina and the Ospreys were kidnapped to the kingdom that conquered their homeland. They stayed in an orphanage for a year until they orchestrated a breakout, then took over an old, abandoned castle in the mountains. Wil and the other older Ospreys raised the younger ones, hiring tutors to further their education and combat training. 

Now, I’ve already had the chance to jump into this strange new world Jodi has created, but just for fun, I’m going to play along that I haven’t!

I can’t even imagine being kidnapped from my homeland to the kingdom that conquered mine. I could draw parallels with a certain group kidnapping Americans, but I’m not getting into that. Not drawing the focus away from Wil & the Ospreys!

Why were the Ospreys kidnapped in the first place? With magic being such an important part of Wil’s world, it leads to a lot of strain between nations. I think that magic plays a big part in the Ospreys being kidnapped. (Obviously, I’m not going to TELL you why, just some thoughts I had before I read.)

How do they get the nickname Ospreys? Again, this is a big spoiler, but I find the backstory fascinating! There isn’t a detail too small for Jodi to flesh out and leave to chance.

I think it speaks volumes of the character of Wil and the other Ospreys to take the younger kids under their wings and make sure they get a full education. (Plus some combat training, cause you know a battle is going to go down!) When I was Wil’s age, I  was concerned with MY education. I wasn’t concerned with anyone else. The older Ospreys are basically parents to the younger kids. That’s A LOT of pressure on this group as it is.

What kind of education do you think these orphans are getting? One thing Wil learns is calligraphy! I think it’s amazing that to fully understand Wil, Jodi learned calligraphy herself. Check out her Instagram (unicornwarlord) to see just how talented she is! She was doing an awesome pre-order gift, but I’m not sure if you can still get that or not. Either way, you should pre-order and then ask if Jodi is still doing the calligraphy cards!

If you could pick one combat skill to learn with the Ospreys, what would you want to learn? I definitely would want to learn some hand to hand fighting and maybe even some dagger skills.

This is just a small glimpse into Wil and not even really scratching the surface on the Ospreys. For more character reveal information, make sure you check out the character tour leading up to release day week! The stops are as follows:

3/2 – The Whimsical Mama

3/3 – Aphonic Book Reviews

3/4 – Adventures in Reading

3/5 – Step Into Fiction

3/6 – Read Write Love 28

3/9 – Just a Broke Bookworm

3/10 – Love is Not a Triangle

3/11 – Jenuine Cupcakes

3/12 – The YA Book Traveler

3/13 – Katie’s Book Blog

Keep an eye out for my review on release day too! Now the mastermind behind Wil & The Orphan Queen! Jodi Meadows herself!

11Meadows-0051-240x300

Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. She is the author of the INCARNATE Trilogy and the forthcoming ORPHAN QUEEN Duology (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen).

*A Kippy is a cat.

FIND JODI AT: WEBSITE || TWITTER || GOODREADS || TUMBLR || FACEBOOK

 

*CoverReveal* The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows! June 16, 2014

Today, Jodi revealed the cover to her newest novel, The Orphan Queen. I was SO excited to see it that I HAD to put up a post about it! You all know how much I love Jodi and the Incarnate trilogy. I CANNOT wait to get my hands on The Orphan Queen. I need it now and I need it quite badly! (: Here it is!

 

Isn’t it GORGEOUS?! AH! I’m so excited and jittery. I showed it to Punk (who adores Miss Jodi) and he said, “WHOA!” I’ve read bits and pieces of the Incarnate trilogy and a large chunk of Phoenix Overture to him. He loves his Ana and grudgingly thinks Sam is cool.

Click on the cover to head over to Jodi’s page to see the summary and see some questions answered about the series! Closer to release date, keep an eye out for a giveaway! (: What do you think of the cover? (:Â