Review: Midnight Thief

Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
Grade: A-
Release date: July 8, 2014
This ARC was provided by Read Between the Lynes in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Growing up on Forge’s streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that’s not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs.

But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she’s not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he’s persistent—and darkly attractive—and Kyra can’t quite resist his pull.

Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with uncanny ease.

When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival—and vengeance—might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra’s past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: As more and more of my friends have received this book and reviewed it, my need for a copy grew.  I was so excited when Read Between the Lynes got an ARC.  It was a little slow to start, but this wasn't a book I considered putting down.  The cast of characters is strong, and I was even interested in the plight of minor characters.  Kyra is awesome, although I don't know if I got the strongest grasp for her personality, apart from her thieving ways.
The Demon Riders are epic, y'all.  I don't approve of all their doings, but they are super cool.  The big twist related to them comes about 72% of the way in, and I didn't see it coming, but it's such an awesome twist.  I know there's supposed to be a sequel, and I'm dying to know what happens because things are certainly not over with the Demon Riders.
I really liked the romance in Midnight Thief.  It's subtle and leaves you wanting much more.

The Verdict: Honestly, there's not much more I can say.  Most of my thoughts are related to the big twist, and I don't want to spoil that!  This is definitely a book you need to pick up, though, especially if you're a fan of Scarlet and Lady Thief, The Winner's Curse, and the Grisha trilogy.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Review: On the Fence

On the Fence by Kasie West
Grade: A+
Release date: July 1, 2014
This e-galley was provided by HarperTeen and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door…

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: This is a first.  I don't know how to review a book.  On the Fence is just so squee-worthy, adorable, and amazing that I just don't know what to say.  Kasie West has continued to impress me, and I have confidence anything else she writes won't let me down.  On the Fence is better than The Distance Between Us.  Caymen and Xander's banter is the best, but Charlie (short for Charlotte) and Braden are adorable and so sweet.  I love good guys in romances, and Braden is the best.  He's already Charlie's friend, and he looks out for her and really knows who she is.  Their fence chats are the best.  I love how Charlie discovered who she is - not a tomboy, but not super girly either.  She's probably always going to prefer jeans to skirts and dresses, but I didn't feel like she minded looking a bit girlier after she got her job at the boutique.  My only complaint is how long it took Braden and Charlie to get together because I was screaming at them to kiss throughout the whole book.
Another bonus is that Kasie's books are always very clean - both in language and romance.

The Verdict: LOVED IT. YOU MUST READ IT. THE END.
(But if you need more to convince you, On the Fence is great for fans of Jennifer E. Smith's books, Elizabeth Eulberg's books, and Going Vintage.)

Buy (AND YOU SHOULD): Barnes & Noble  Read Between the Lynes

Book Blogger Feature: Blue Sky Bookshelf

This month, I have a feature that will last until July.  I'll be featuring several different bloggers.  Last post, y'all got to know JB, Julianne, and Rachel of The Girls in Plaid Skirts a little bit better.  Now it's time for...

Blue Sky Bookshelf!

About Summer of Blue Sky Bookshelf

"Hi *waves* my name name is Summer, a college student and blogger. Handshakes make me uncomfortable, frogs make me scared, and peanut butter makes me happy. As for my blog, I created Blue Sky Bookshelf in October of 2012, after my sister peer pressured me to do so. Now, I can't imagine NOT doing it. It's centered around YA fiction and extremely welcoming to gifs. AND CAPS, if you couldn't tell, but I try to contain myself."

Emma: What would you say is your favorite part of the book blogging community?

Summer: The squealing camaraderie. I like to USE CAPS and indicate actions I'm doing like *wildly hand gesturing* so it's great to do that with people over similar interests. New ARCs, bookish boyfriends, nice authors, etc. Real-life friends just don't seem to get it. 

Emma: What's your favorite YA subgenre?

Summer: Oh man. Fantasy, maybe? It always seems to change. If you asked me in December, I might've said sci-fi. 

Emma: What's your favorite book within that genre?

Summer: THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING TOUGHER. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill or The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski.

Emma: What has been the best moment of your blogging career?

Summer: Don't make me choose this. Slightly shallow moment: getting whitelisted by Harper. Not-as-shallow: doing my first author interview (with Stacey Kade). 

Emma: Be shallow!  I'm dying to get white-listed by them (or any publisher, for that matter).

Emma: Share 3 random facts about you.

Summer: I don't like shaking hands. I hate wind-chimes. I can make a meal out of fruit and peanut butter.

Emma: What do you see as the next big trend in YA (like vampires, dystopian, mermaids, angels, etc.)?

Summer: Well, time traveling and overcoming the government (*nods head to The Hunger Games*) have been popular, but I think they've always been a trend. Maybe superheroes? 

Emma: What's the YA trope that irritates you the most and why?

Summer: So many, yet I tend to blank on these type of questions. The one I instantly thought of is the MC who demands to be liked. I get unlikable characters, but I hate it when MCs come off as unlikable, but the author is really pushing for them to be liked...if that makes sense (also, this is when the annoying entitlement from MCs come in as well).

Emma: Any upcoming books you're highly anticipating?

Summer: Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Please and thank you.

Emma: As long as you share!

Go follow Summer - both her blog and on Twitter!

And that concludes my month-long Book Blogger Feature!  I hope you enjoyed getting to know these lovely bloggers as much as I did.

Random Friday: Favorite Blogs

Want to participate in Random Fridays? Just do the following: 

• Include the above image in your post and link back to my post.
• Blog about this week's topic.
• Add the link to your Random Friday at the bottom of this post.

I've started following a lot of book blogs over the last year.  For this list, I tried to choose ones I haven't featured on my blog before.  I didn't want to showcase just the same ones over and over again!  I also like several more than these, and I hope anyone who doesn't see their blog on this list doesn't feel left out.  On a side note, I think this is a very apt post to have today since June is my Book Blogger Feature month.  Most of the interviews have already gone up, but there's still one more coming tomorrow!

1. Shae Has Left the Room

I've been following Shae since she was still Bookshelvers Anonymous.  She has insightful discussions, great reviews, and I participate in her weekly feature, Rewind & Review.

2. Writer of Wrongs

Gillian at Writer of Wrongs always has thought-provoking posts, and I love her gif-filled reviews and the ratings she gives books.

3. Searching the Clouds

Rose followed my blog first, I think, but when she started participating in Random Fridays, I knew I had to follow her.  She often reviews books I've read or am dying to read, so her reviews are some of my favorites.

4. Mary Had a Little Book Blog

Don't ask me how I first started following Mary.  I think another book blogger tweeted about one of her giveaways.  But now I love to read her posts.  She often has great giveaways and event recaps, and her weekly recaps are some of my favorite posts because she talks about what she's read in greater detail than I do.

5. Queen Ella Bee Reads

Gaby has great book reviews and she hosts one of my favorite features: World of Books.  I only wish more people requested to be featured on World of Books!  Plus, she just co-hosted one of my favorite book events this year: the YA Prom!

6. The (YA) Bookcase

This is the YA book review blog for a bookstore called The Bookcase.  I'm dying to go to the store the next time I'm in MN visiting family, but I also really enjoy their reviews, and their Stacking the Shelves posts make me very envious!

So which blogs (books, food, whatever) do you enjoy? (Besides mine, of course.  Just kidding!)

Cover Love #9

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room.

So last week was Cover Reveal Week, and there were tons of pretty covers unveiled! (And also some creepy and strange ones, too...) I haven't done Cover Love in ages, but I decided I needed to do it this time around.  There weren't as many covers revealed as I hoped there would be, but here are my favorites. (I won't be including synopses or why I love the covers, since this post is already going to be long!)

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

First World Problems by LeighAnn Kopans

Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne

Etherworld by Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga


An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Book Blogger Feature: The Girls in Plaid Skirts

This month, I have a feature that will last until July.  I'll be featuring several different bloggers.  Last post, y'all got to know Kayla of A Wonderland of Reading a little bit better.  Now it's time for...

About the Girls

"We are three best friends--JB, Julianne, and Rachel--on a mission to encourage and connect with readers (and non-readers) through our blog. We became The Girls in Plaid Skirts after a very exciting photo-bombing by our favorite author, Ally Carter, and have been blogging since March 2013. Sometimes we pretend we’re spies (even though we’re 22), and we frequently dress up as our favorite characters. The official snack of The Girls in Plaid Skirts is peanut butter. "

Emma: What would you say is your favorite part of the book blogging community?

Girls: Firstly, we love how it serves as an incredible way to make connections with other bibliophiles/nerds/bookies/fans that otherwise would have never been even slightly possible.  As bloggers, we also have opportunities that, just over a year ago, I would have thought "That's crazy, that isn't going to happen."  I mean our first interview is with a best-selling author of national acclaim (and superb fashion sense!), yeah, that would've never happened... Also, having a blog has also changed us as readers. 

Jules: I'm not just reading cover to cover for funzies; I have become more sensitive to the various aspects of the craft and construction of the story. We've become analytic readers, of sorts. We are reading for ourselves as well as our readers.   

Emma: What's your favorite YA subgenre?

Girls: This is a kind of hard one... Even though there are three of us, we have very similar tastes in books, and most of those books have similar themes or settings. (We like historical romance.) But because of question #3, we had a hard time actually defining the books we loved by a specific genre.  (Spy fiction has a special place in our hearts.)  So, we created a mash-up-genre: RomAction

Emma: What's your favorite book within that genre?

Girls: Our roots are in I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You, from the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter, about a top-secret girls-only school for spies. Action. Friendship. Spies. Romance. Schemes. hehe!

Of course we have loved many books since then, especially The Selection series by Kiera Cass, the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, and Pivot Point by Kasie West.

Emma: Signature question time: What's your favorite fairytale?

(without a breath of hesitation)

JB: Beauty and the Beast

Rae: Cinderella (Followed by Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Three Billy Goats Gruff :) )

(Mine took a little more thought; I actually dug way back into the dark recesses of my memory for an old classic.)

Julianne: The Brave Tin Soilder    [http://hca.gilead.org.il/tin_sold.html]

Emma: What has been the best moment of your blogging career?

Girls: Although it's tempting to say "That one time we got photobombed by Ally Carter!", we weren't actually bloggers yet, so it doesn't really count. Since we've been blogging, we have to say our first interview with Marissa Meyer.  That was pretty marvelous.  Not only was it great to meet her in person but I think it gave us a huge boost in morale, like "Hey, that was awesome, let's keep being awesome!"    

Emma: What do you see as the next big trend in YA (like vampires, dystopian, mermaids, angels, etc.)?

Girls: Hmmmm... the elusive NBT... Well we've been seeing a few more spy books hit the shelves (much to our delight), as well as a rise in books that feature technology.  These days, what was once "futuristic" is more reality.  Also, while they've been around a while, dragons seem to be gaining momentum.

Emma: What's the YA trope that irritates you the most and why?

Girls: Oh, this is an easy one...  Dystopians and retellings, especially dystopian retellings... 

JB: And TRILOGIES!!!! omgoodness!  give me a full series, dualogies, stand-alones, give me liberty, give me death!!  ... but that's a post for another day.. :)   

Also, flimsy, pointless secondary characters and mean girls!  And, although they are a bit of a guilty pleasure, we've had enough love triangles for a while. 

Rae: Basically, these are all over done. Once something is done for a while, it feels unoriginal, like the author is trying to make publishers happy or make money. I like it when authors write something from the heart, not just to jump on a bandwagon 

Emma: Any upcoming books you're highly anticipating?

Girls: Well of course!  Jennifer Lynn Barnes has Killer Instincts, Book 2 in her series The Naturals coming out Nov. 4 (spy action! woohoo!). Marissa Meyer is working on Heartless, to come out after Winter, Book 4 of The Lunar Chronicles, both of which we are really looking forward to but must test the strength of our patience.  Ally Carter will be launching a new series, Embassy Row, next year but the first book is yet to be titled. Also, debut author Ella Martin will be releasing Will The Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up early July and, well, we're always down for some Prince Charming action!  

Emma: Ahhhhhh, I'm looking forward to most of those!

Emma, thank you so much for having us, it has been a delight! Can't wait to see responses from other bloggers!

Emma: You're very welcome!  Thanks for letting me feature y'all!  Don't forget to check out The Girls in Plaid Skirts at their blog here and follow them on Twitter!

Top Ten Tuesday: A Cover Element I Like/Dislike

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

I know for this post we're supposed to talk about 10 different cover elements we like or dislike, but I decided to talk about just one and show ten examples that include ones I like, ones I dislike, and ones I'm neutral on. 

This cover element?  A girl in a pretty dress.  It's frankly overdone, but it looks nice on some covers and horrible and out of place on others.

The Covers I Like

1. Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund

I love how the dress and the water blend together.  The pose sets this cover apart from other "girl in a pretty dress" covers.

2. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Let's be honest: the element that makes this cover so amazing is the crossbow.  Otherwise, this cover would be pretty typical.

3. My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten

I guess this cover doesn't fit as well because it isn't a long flowing gown, but it's still a girl in a dress, so I'm including it.  I like it, though, because it really fits what the novel is about.

The Covers I'm Neutral About

  

4. The Selection trilogy by Kiera Cass

I think the backgrounds set these books apart, and the dresses are pretty, but the only cover I truly love is The One.

5. Cinderella's Dress by Shonna Slayton

I'm excited about this book, I truly am, but I feel it's cover is oh-so-typical.  I'm not sure I'd pick it up if I didn't know what it was about.

6. Deception's Princess by Esther M. Friesner

The falcon makes this cover pretty cool, and the colors are lovely, but it's nothing out of the ordinary and I feel like they were trying to hard to make the girl look like Merida.

7. A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller

The colors for A Mad, Wicked Folly's cover are stunning, but it's honestly nothing special.

The Covers I Dislike

8. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Thank goodness they changed Shatter Me's cover.  Honestly, the hardcover is nothing special.  The theme they changed it to for the rest of the series is much more eye-catching (pun unintentional) and different.

9. The Jewel by Amy Ewing

My main dislike for this cover stems from its similarities to The Selection - the font, the mirrors, the girl in a fancy dress.  Especially since it's from the same publisher, you think they'd create something more unique.

10. Entwined by Heather Dixon

To me, this is seriously one of those typical "girl in a pretty dress" covers.  I like the border, but it's not enough to save this cover.

Review: The Things You Kiss Goodbye

The Things You Kiss Goodbye by Leslie Connor
Grade: B-
Release date: June 24, 2014
This ARC was provided by Read Between the Lynes in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Bettina Vasilis can hardly believe it when basketball star Brady Cullen asks her out, and she just about faints when her strict father actually approves of him.

But when school starts up again, Brady changes. What happened to the sweet boy she fell in love with? Then she meets a smoldering guy in his twenties, and this “cowboy” is everything Brady is not—gentle, caring, and interested in getting to know the real Bettina.

Bettina knows that breaking up with Brady would mean giving up her freedom—and that it would be inappropriate for anything to happen between her and Cowboy. Still, she can’t help that she longs for the scent of his auto shop whenever she’s anywhere else.

When tragedy strikes, Bettina must tell her family the truth—and kiss goodbye the things she thought she knew about herself and the men in her life.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: At the risk of spoiling something big, I'm going to make a comparison.  This book ripped out my unsuspecting heart and crushed it, The Fault in Our Stars-style.  I knew there would be tragedy (it says so right in the synopsis), but I wasn't expecting what actually happened.  I had a major book hangover, thanks to that ending.  Overall, The Things You Kiss Goodbye came alive for me.  I could picture so many of the details from early on, even though the writing isn't full of vivid imagery.  I could practically see and feel Bettina's thick braid, and almost every scene played like a movie in my head.  I felt for Bettina as Brady turned abusive.  I wished she'd noticed the signs and left him much sooner, but I know it can be hard to escape an abusive relationship. (I will give a trigger warning: Brady doesn't beat her, but he jokingly hurts her by knocking her books out of her hands and slamming her locker door and therefore almost crushing her hands on several occasions - and those are just things I remember off the top of my head.)  Bettina's family is great.  Her father may be strict, but he does love his daughter.  He's very traditional, and I could see where he was coming from on most of his rules.  There's a Greek phrase that is repeated throughout the book that translates to "Kiss it goodbye."  I love how this factored into the ending; it was one of my favorite parts.  Also, I enjoyed Bettina's interest in art.  I do wish she would've had more friends like Amy, however.
Also, romantic content wasn't great at times.  Nothing was too explicit, but there was a lot referenced and implied.  Language was also pretty unclean at times.  If both of those hadn't been so bad, I could've easily given The Things You Kiss Goodbye an A-. 

The Verdict: Definitely a thought-provoking book.  This isn't a light summer read, though, which is what I was sort of expecting when I started reading it.  Depending on your opinions on the objectionable content, it's definitely worth a try.  I suggest this book for readers of This Song Will Save Your Life, Fangirl, and Time Between Us.

Buy - Barnes and Noble  Read Between the Lynes

Rewind & Review #16

Hosted by Shae Has Left the Room.

So first off, Awkwordly Emma won the YA Web Award for Established YA Reviews.  Thanks so much to those who nominated me and all who voted!
Second bit of news: I've started adding links for you to buy the books I've reviewed.  I won't be including Amazon (because of the big to-do with Hachette, but if that's your only book-buying option, I won't be mad at you), but I've included Barnes & Noble and my local indie, Read Between the Lynes.  I've confirmed with the owner of the store that you can order online through RBTL and they'll ship your books to you! So please support my local indie, because they're awesome.
And don't forget to check out my second book haul video down at the bottom of this post!

Books I Received

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay
Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes
The Swap by Megan Shull
Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
(Thank you to Read Between the Lynes for the above ARCs!)
The Young World by Chris Weitz (via NetGalley and Little, Brown for Young Readers)
Nil by Lynne Matson (gifted by @SaraMStuart)
Wanted: Dead or In Love by Kym Brunner (a finished copy from Merit Press)

Books I Bought

My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten
The Falconer by Elizabeth May
Forever With You by Robin Jones Gunn

Books I Won

In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis (Thank you to The YA Bookcase!)

Books I Read

The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes (reread)
Falling into Place by Amy Zhang
Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly (reread)
Blonde Ops by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman (4 stars)
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (5 stars)
My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten (4 stars)
Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan (3 stars)
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (reread)
Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone (reread)
The Young World by Chris Weitz (DNF)
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (4 stars)
Forever With You by Robin Jones Gunn (4 stars)
Where She Went by Gayle Forman (2.5 stars)
The Swap by Megan Shull (DNF)

Currently Reading
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone
The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Answers for Guess the Book
1. The Selection by Kiera Cass
2. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
3. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
4. This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
5. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
6. Divergent by Veronica Roth
7. Just One Day by Gayle Forman
8. Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg
9. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
10. The Rules by Stacey Kade
11. Dangerous by Shannon Hale
12. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Blog Posts You Might've Missed

   (From 6/9-6/14)

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I've Read in 2014
• Book Blogger Feature: The Library Canary
• Guess the Book
• Random Friday: Summery Book Covers
• Book Blogger Feature: Adventures in Reading

   (From 6/15-6/21)

• Mini Reviews: Open Road Summer and To All the Boys I've Loved Before
• Review: Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau (4 stars)
• Review: The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson (2 stars)
• Top Ten Tuesday: Summer TBR List
• Book Blogger Feature: A Wonderland of Reading
• Random Friday: Favorite Musical

Upcoming Blog Posts in the Next Few Weeks (subject to change)

• Review: The Things You Kiss Goodbye by Leslie Connor
• TTT: A Cover Element I Like/Dislike
• BBF: The Girls in Plaid Skirts
• Cover Love (All my faves from Cover Reveal Week!)
• Random Friday: Favorite Blogs
• BBF: Blue Sky Bookshelf
• Review: On the Fence by Kasie West
• Review: Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
• TTT: Favorite Classics
• Interview with a Surprise Author
• Random Friday: Favorite Moments in History

Random Friday: A Favorite Musical

Want to participate in Random Fridays? Just do the following: 

• Include the above image in your post and link back to my post.
• Blog about this week's topic.
• Add the link to your Random Friday at the bottom of this post.

So I have something special for y'all. :) Warning: fangirling and excessive use of gifs below.

Hi, my name is Jordan, and my dear friend Emma has asked me to talk about one of my favorite shows on the entire planet: Cinderella.

(And no, not the Disney version, although that version is spectacular.)

Really quick personal story: I get super attached to things way too easily, yet I hate getting attached to things. So when my best friend told me she'd recently discovered a new favorite musical, and that I needed to check out the Cinderella soundtrack, I wanted nothing to do with it. But somehow, at two in the morning, I found myself on YouTube, looking at the Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella Tony Performance from 2013. {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcP1cV3nBZI} And they started singing, as most people in musicals do. But then Cinderella's rags literally were transformed into a beautiful ball gown right before my eyes. 

 And I had to pause and rewind because I was just like-- what?! This is a stage show!!?! How did they do that??!

The Tony Performance was like the gateway drug ***sidenote: DRUGS ARE BAD I JUST CAN'T FIND ANOTHER EXPRESSION TO USE TO SUM UP HOW THE TONY PERFORMANCE AFFECTED ME, HUGS NOT DRUGS PLEASE*** into the world of Cinderella. 

So, if you don't know about the show (which is highly unlikely because I'm 99.9% sure that everyone in this galaxy has heard the story of Cinderella), I'll sum it up for you. 

Back in the 1950's, television adaptations of musicals were all the rage. That's how the Cinderella musical got it's start. It originally aired on CBS and starred Julie Andrews as Ella. 

56 years later, Cinderella was brought to Broadway.

Starring as the leading lady and her prince were actual princess and prince…

Laura Osnes: 

and Santino Fontana:

whose not only have this beautiful, magical on stage chemistry

but have this beautiful an magical off stage friendship as well.

I mean look how precious they are.

And Laura ran a vlog for Broadway.com called the Princess Diary vlog, where a lot of really precious moments were caught on film.

Like the time she bought him a fish as an opening night gift.

And he wrote her a really sweet note on the back of a Cinderella puzzle.

And also they have these amazing twitter wars. 

And they're just amazing.

The show is amazing. (It's touring soon I can't wait.)

The music is amazing. (Lyrics like "In the arms of my love I'm flying, over mountain and meadow and glen, and I like it so well that for all I can tell I may never come down again" just ~~swoooooon~).

The costumes are amazing. (I think the costumes won some sort of really important award I can't remember oops)

The actors are ~~amazing~~ (obviously).

The entire show just makes me so happy I asldkghas;dgk

So, do what I did, go watch the Tony Performance, discover the Princess Diary back stage vlogs, listen to the soundtrack a thousand times, creep on all the interviews, and cry because Laura and Santino have both moved on to other projects and the role of Cinderella is currently being played by Carly Rae Jepsen.

Thank you, Jordan!  What a great post. :) Okay, so are there any musicals or plays you love?

Book Blogger Feature: A Wonderland of Reading

This month, I have a feature that will last until July.  I'll be featuring several different bloggers.  Last post, y'all got to know Alexia of Adventures in Reading a little bit better.  Now it's time for...

A Wonderland of Reading!


About Kayla of A Wonderland of Reading
"Hi! I'm Kayla from A Wonderland of Reading book blog! I've been blogging about 11 months now and am loving it. I started blogging on a whim and I can honestly say it's one of the best decisions of my life! I've met so many awesome people, talk to so many authors, learn about so many new books I never would've known about or even picked up before, and I get to talk about books and how great they are all the time. What's not to love? Now if only I could include my love (cough cough obsession) with Pokemon into it and my life would be complete..."

Emma: What would you say is your favorite part of the blogging community?

Kayla: I would say the bloggers. Being able to talk with all these people who share my love for books. You get where I'm coming from. I'm used to having people give me strange looks when I got into book discussions, so meeting all these bloggers is a whole new, amazing thing for me.

Emma: What's your favorite YA subgenre?

Kayla: Uuuuggghhh that's such a hard question! I don't know. I read anything from dystopian to paranormal to contemporary. Can I say dstyoparatemporary?

Emma: What's your favorite book within that genre?

Kayla: Ugh, again hard question! My all time favorite books would be Faking Normal by Courtney Stevens and Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, which I suppose fit under my made up genre so.. ;D

Emma: Signature question time: What's your favorite fairytale?

Kayla: Alice in Wonderland without a doubt.

Emma: What has been the best moment of your blogging career?

Kayla: This isn't exactly one particular moment, but when I get to talk and work with authors. I look up to them and consider many of them my heroes, so the fact I'm able to do things with them in whatever way is mind boggling but also just fills me with such joy.

Emma: What do you see as the next big trend in YA (like vampires, dystopian, mermaids, angels, etc.)?

Kayla: Love triangles. Some can be good, some can be bad, some can be down right awful but they are freaking everywhere now! I don't see them going away any time soon.

Emma: What's the YA trope that irritates you the most and why?

Kayla: That YA is the "lesser" genre. That so many people consider YA to be lacking and if a YA book is good, they think "Well it's not THAT YA so it's fine." No. YA is YA and that's that. It's no different from NA or MG or Adult. They ONLY difference is the age of the characters in the story. Don't degrade amazing books because you don't want to admit that books made for teens with teens in the story can be good.

Emma: Any upcoming books you're highly anticipating?

Kayla: Tons! There are three series enders I'm dying for. Strange & Ever After by Susan Dennard, Wings by Elizabeth Richard, and Deliverance by C.J. Redwine. I'm also really looking forward to sequels to books like Remember Me by Romily Bernard and Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake. I also really can't wait for Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch, Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay, and BREAKING THE RULES BY KATIE MCGARRY (yes that one totally need caps).

Thanks for stopping by, Kayla!  It was great to have you on the blog and learn more about you.  You can check out A Wonderland of Reading here, plus follow both Kayla and her co-blogger, Stacie, on Twitter. And psst! They're celebrating their blogoversary right now, along with Pandora's Books! Go congratulate them!