Review: Immaculate

Immaculate by Katelyn Detweiler
Grade: C
Release date: May 26, 2015
This ARC was provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Mina is seventeen. A virgin. And pregnant.
Mina is top of her class, girlfriend to the most ambitious guy in school, able to reason and study her way through anything. But when she suddenly finds herself pregnant—despite having never had sex—her orderly world collapses. Almost nobody believes Mina’s claims of virginity. Her father assumes that her boyfriend is responsible; her boyfriend believes she must have cheated on him. As news of Mina’s story spreads, there are those who brand her a liar. There are those who brand her a heretic. And there are those who believe that miracles are possible—and that Mina’s unborn child could be the greatest miracle of all.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: I really struggled to rate Immaculate. On the one hand, it was an intriguing, thought-provoking read. On the other, there were a lot of rough moments and things I didn't agree with. In some ways, the story felt very simple and in others, it seemed very much like a YA read. I think the dialogue and actions at times seemed awkward. Towards the end of the book, Mina wants the true story to be told, so Jesse films a documentary of sorts and that just felt off to me. Jesse himself wasn't a bad character, but his interactions with Mina didn't fit quite right in several instances.
I loved how the family dynamics played out and the discussions of trust and believing your daughter/sister/friend/classmate. This book was highly unrealistic (it was more magical realism than contemporary), but it was quite thought-provoking. As a Christian, would I believe that a girl claiming to be a virgin could have a baby? However, overall, I'm not sure Christianity got the right image. Most of the religious people were crazy, screaming, protesters. Others seemed too nonchalant about their faith. 
Mina has the baby at the end, and I know this is me being nitpicky, but the baby's name seemed a bit...cliche and a little too close to Mina's own name. 
Language was foul on several instances. There was making out and talks of sleeping together or having sex.

The Verdict: I don't know. I finished Immaculate feeling rather unsatisfied. So I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: No.

Random Friday: End of a School Year

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 actually had my last class on May 1, and my last final May 7. But I know several of you probably don't finish school for another week or so. So that's why this topic is happening today.

On May 7, I finished my first year at college. I have 35 credits under my belt, which is pretty exciting to me. I also made the Dean's List both semesters.

I don't want to complain. I want this post to be a reflection of my first year at Asbury. But I'm going to be very open with y'all because there have been loads of ups and downs that I haven't been able to properly vocalize yet.
Orientation week was a blast. I spent most of the mornings not feeling well (stress and nerves) but I honestly have the best TAG group, y'all. I continued to have dinner with one of my leaders into this semester (weekly TAG dinners were a thing for most of the group last semester), and I'm still friends with several of the people in the group. I kind of have to be if I'm writing a book with characters inspired by them.

(Group picture from #classy, stolen from Shannon's Instagram. I'm pretty sure I was mid-blink.)

My roommate and I had a very rough start to our relationship after we were officially in the same room. There have been bumps in the road since then, and we've known since November that we wouldn't room together again after our freshman year. But she was there for me during a lot of my worst moments, and for that, I'm eternally grateful. Because of me, she's come to like Taylor Swift just a little bit more (she's going with me to see Taylor in Lexington in October), and because of her, I now have some of the best inside jokes. And I'm working on doing "the eyebrow thing."

(On our way to Target and Joseph-Beth the day 1989 came out!)

It's been hard, being 439 miles from home. I didn't get to go home or see any family or friends until Thanksgiving. That was really hard when all of my friends either went home or had family/friends come visit before then. I almost thought I wasn't going home at Easter (which I was going to be okay with until I found out all of my friends were going to visit one girl's grandparents); then, thankfully, I learned a girl from my hometown was making the 9-hour drive and was willing to take me with her. I spent a lot of time in the car that weekend, but I got to see my mom and my dog. I especially miss my puppy. He's always been my buddy, and he's getting old, so I worry about him. He started going blind after I came back to school for second semester, and he has diabetes.

My mom sent me a pic of my puppy, who I'll see tomorrow, to cheer me up. I've missed my cuddle buddy. <3 pic.twitter.com/kyKVFYOgFv
— Emma (@AwkwordlyEmma) November 22, 2014

I love getting pics of my fluffball from my mom. pic.twitter.com/AlaZG175U9
— Emma (@AwkwordlyEmma) February 21, 2015

Freshly-groomed puppy with his summer cut on my lap. pic.twitter.com/I64uMOQW9N
— Emma (@AwkwordlyEmma) April 4, 2015

There's some stuff that I haven't been allowed to be too open about. I touched on it briefly in this post in March. There's this girl in my life here at Asbury; I'll call her E. At first, I thought she and I were going to be really good friends. E was one of the few non-equine major students in my friend circle and, while I like horses, I can only hear so much horse-talk before I get bored. But then, in mid-September, I discovered that my whole friend group had been lying and keeping some major secrets from me. I felt excluded and hurt and angry. I've worked things out with all of them about that, but with E, it took a bit longer because it was mainly her I had the problem with and she wasn't trying to make amends properly.
We finally worked things out, although our friendship was more tentative. But as the fall progressed, I found she'd make snide comments to me, or snap at me for the tiniest things, or she just had a bad attitude in general.
Then, right before finals, we had a conversation over text. I won't go into the details of it, but basically, E wouldn't leave me alone and she wouldn't accept my answers or believe me, and it shook me up pretty badly. I found out later on that it had apparently been her roommate texting me, but E condoned it because she knew her roommate had her phone and was texting me. Because it was right before finals week, I couldn't do anything more than let my RA know. She wanted to talk to the ARD or RD, as well, but there wasn't time for that. So I had to sit and wait and feel uneasy for all of Christmas break.
And then, on New Year's Day, around 10 pm, I got a text from E. She accused me of prank-calling her and threatened to take the number that had called her to the police because prank-calling is apparently a felony in Kentucky. I was very shaken up by that accusation. So I texted a couple of my best friends at home, as well as my roommate. They all advised me to ignore her since E and I already weren't on good terms. Well, she texted me the day after and said she was taking my silence as a sign of my guilt. (I mean, for all she knew, I could've been on vacation without cell service, or hadn't gotten the first text, or something like that.) So I finally texted her back, told her it wasn't me, and that I didn't appreciate the threats. Her response was very condescending.
As soon as I got back to Asbury after break, I went to my RA and filled her in on these latest developments. She involved the RD immediately, who promised we'd have a meeting with E and her roommate and get this worked out. It took a few weeks for that meeting to happen, since the RD didn't prioritize it. And the meeting didn't go at all how I wanted it to. I was made to feel ridiculous, for how I felt about the texting harassment and for feeling increasingly uncomfortable around E whenever I was with our friend group. It is not fun to have your feelings invalidated. 
My RD believes we left that meeting with everything resolved. I don't agree. E and I have barely talked since then (not that I wanted us to be best buddies, but I wanted us to both feel comfortable around each other). 
That's all why I'm switching dorms in the fall. I'll live in the other girls' dorm, which is further from everything. BUT I'll be able to cook and bake more, I'll have a slightly bigger room, and I will no longer be under the jurisdiction of an RD who made me feel like crap for being stressed out and upset with another girl. I'm looking forward to having a new roommate (a freshman or transfer), and starting classes in my minor and taking more in my major, and working more hours at my job as the front desk worker at the athletic center (so yay for more money!). I'm also hoping to be the assistant director for Sophomore Musical.
I'm anticipating what God has in store for me for my freshman year, and I hope y'all will keep me in your prayers and thoughts. :)

This has turned out to be a very long post. So, if you've stuck with reading it, props to you. 

Review: Hello, I Love You

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout
Grade: B+
Release date: June 9, 2015
This e-galley was provided by St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can't stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can't deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol. 

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she'll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: I'm always scared to read my most anticipated reads. I worry they won't live up to my expectations, that I've set the bar too high, that they won't find places on my favorites shelf. In the case of Hello, I Love You, the latter is definitely untrue. The first two, however...there's a little truth to them with this book.
Hello, I Love You features some great diversity. All of the characters except for Grace and her family are South Korean, or Chinese, or East Asian. Grace learns a lot about Korea and its food and culture and by default, readers learn too. I thought it was interesting to see that Grace did believe a few stereotypes or wasn't always open to trying new things. It was realistic, and while it was perhaps a bit off-putting to some, I found it refreshing. Jason's band is less KPOP-y than I think everyone was expecting, which I think is both good and bad. I would've liked more references and exploration of KPOP artists and music (whether real or fictional) and K-dramas.
The pacing of Hello, I Love You was great. Katie skipped the unimportant stuff, but the book didn't feel too choppy. In the romance department, it worked well, too. Enough time had passed that it was realistic when Grace and Jason started to like each other. They were a bit too hot and cold for me to be shipping them to the ends of the earth, but once Grace had worked out her problems, I was okay with the relationship. I would've liked more of a friendship with Sophie, and I wish Grace could've made friends with some of the other girls. 
I don't really remember much, if any, foul language. Romance was pretty clean, mostly kissing and cuddling. 

The Verdict: Really cute and fun, and I loved getting a look at South Korea! More boarding school books, please!

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Yes!

Sixteen More 2016 Reads

I'm so excited to share sixteen additional 2016 releases I'm anticipating! If this is your first time visiting my blog, last year, I had a three-part series about Fifteen 2015 Reads and each post featured...fifteen YA titles releasing in 2015. I knew I'd have to continue it, so back in February, the first Sixteen 2016 Reads post went live. 
This time, I tried to divide it by genre, but that was a bit tricky since many of the books don't have a genre on Goodreads yet and some of their blurbs may be a bit vague. So for this Sixteen 2016 Reads post, I'm going to do short little pitches (basically just the Goodreads blurbs, but still).



Diplomatic Immunity by Brodi Ashton
A standalone novel about a recent scholarship recipient who sets out to expose debauchery at her exclusive private school in Washington, D.C., only to find herself falling in love with the baddest boy of all.

Breaker by Kat Ellis
An executed serial killer's son enrolls in a new school and finds himself drawn to a girl in his class - only to discover she is the daughter of his father's last victim.

Into The Dim by Janet Taylor
Being “the home-schooled girl” in a small town, Hope Walton’s crippling phobias and photographic memory don’t endear her to her dad's perfectly blond, very Southern family. When her mother is killed in a natural disaster thousands of miles from home, Hope’s secluded world implodes. After being shipped off to an aunt she's never met, Hope learns there's more to her mother's "death" than she ever dreamed. At her aunt's manor, high in the Scottish Highlands, Hope begins to unravel the shocking truth about her family. Her mom isn't just a brilliant academic. She’s a member of a secret society of time travelers, and is currently trapped in the twelfth century in the age of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. To stage a rescue, the sheltered teen must join the Indiana Jones-wannabe team of time-jumpers, before her mother is lost for good. In a brutal, medieval world, Hope will discover more family secrets, and a mysterious boy who could be vital to setting her mother free…or the very key to Hope’s undoing.

Nemesis by Anna Banks
"...a YA fantasy by Anna Banks...In the story, a princess who possesses the power to create energy escapes her father, who wishes to weaponize it, only to be captured by another kingdom where she discovers that her powers could be used to fight a terrible plague."

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman
Inspired by the tale of Blackbeard, it's the story of a forbidden romance between a servant girl desperate for freedom and the master's son who dreams of a life at sea. But they are caught up in something bigger than their circumstances: a love that changes the course of history.

Saving Hamlet by Molly Booth
"...a debut YA novel by Molly Booth, featuring a 15-year-old stage manager running her high school's production of Hamlet, who falls through the stage trapdoor and lands in the basement of the Globe Theatre in 1601, during Shakespeare's original debut of the play."

Up To This Pointe by Jennifer Longo
In the novel, a girl who is the descendent of an explorer who died in a race to the South Pole knows that big dreams come with big risks. When her dream of becoming a star ballerina dies, she's willing to go to the ends of the earth (literally to the South Pole) to chart a new path. 

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Set in a mystical desert nation called Mirahin, Rebel of the Sands follows a gun-slinging girl desperate to escape her past, and a handsome foreigner who harbors dangerous secrets.

The Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves
The romantic fantasy adventure set during the political unrest of 19th-century Europe follows a 16-year-old British socialite exiled to Hungary and swept up in a revolution to overturn world order.

The Gilded Cage by Melissa Albert
An American farm girl discovers that she's an English heiress . . . but claiming her fortune leads to danger and intrigue. 

Ruined by Amy Tintera
RUINED follows a princess out for revenge as she infiltrates the ruling kingdom's royal family by pretending to be the prince's fiancee.

My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows
"a comic, romantic and fantastical retelling of the story of the Lady Jane Grey, told in the vein of The Princess Bride."

Stolen Crowns #1 by Jessica Day George
"...in which the princesses of fairytales – grown up and living their Happily Ever After – disappear one day, leaving their daughters and sons to save them all."

Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky
Follows a group of girls who, “accidentally kidnap their least-favorite member of their most favorite boy band” and then have to deal with the aftermath when he winds up dead.

The Land of Ten Thousand Madonnas by Kate Hattemer
Three teen cousins embark on a backpacking trip to Europe at the mysterious behest of their fourth cousin, who recently passed away.

Escaping Perfect by Emma Harrison
In the story, a girl fakes her own death to escape from her high-pressure political family and moves to Tennessee where she starts a new life. 

So did you find some new books for your TBR? Did you have some of these on your TBR already? And stayed tuned for the next Sixteen 2016 Reads post! It's coming sooner than you think, and it features a very special topic.

Review: Scarlett Undercover

Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham
Grade: C+
Release date: May 19, 2015
This e-galley was provided by Little, Brown for Young Readers via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Meet Scarlett, a smart, sarcastic fifteen-year-old, ready to take on crime in her hometown. When Scarlett agrees to investigate a local boy's suicide, she figures she's in for an easy case and a quick buck. But it doesn't take long for suicide to start looking a lot like murder.
As Scarlett finds herself deep in a world of cults, curses, and the seemingly supernatural, she discovers that her own family secrets may have more to do with the situation than she thinks...and that cracking the case could lead to solving her father's murder.
Jennifer Latham delivers a compelling story and a character to remember in this one-of-a-kind debut novel.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: There's just something about teen private-eyes that I love. But when there's little plausible back story as to how he (or she) became one, then the story starts to lose some of its glow.
Scarlett is 15, and she's already graduated from high school. Her older sister, Reem, a medical student doing her residency, wants her to go to college. Scarlett instead wants to stay and keep helping kids and solving mysteries and hopefully find out who murdered their father. Overall, Scarlett Undercover was very fast-paced and kept me hooked, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. I was expecting more mysteries before we were thrown into the A-plot. Everything was connected and I couldn't quite buy that. I also couldn't buy that a fifteen year old would be given such freedom, even if her sister is busy and her parents are dead (and it was awfully convenient that both parents had bit the dust). And then, the book took a paranormal turn that I wasn't expecting (I think I missed that part of the synopsis). There was talk of jinn, and guardian angels, and some old myth concerning King Solomon. I wasn't a fan of any of that stuff. I was totally fine with the fact that Scarlett and many of the characters were Muslim (nothing about it was pushy, it was just matter-of-fact and the religion only played a small part into the book) but I don't do paranormal, controlling animals, etc. It was all just a bit too weird for me. The plot twist towards the end felt overdone especially when the revealed villain called someone a "fool." 
Some foul language - several pretty much f-words with weird spellings. Romance was pretty clean. I don't think violence was too bad.

The Verdict: Sadly, not as great as I hoped.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: I don't think I loved it quite enough.

It's Not a Man

It's not a bird.

It's not a plane.

It's not a MAN.

I'm kind of obsessed with superheroes these days (and yes, I blame the book I'm writing). But I'm especially into well-written, well-rounded superheroines. Because as much as I love princesses, I also love young girls being told they can save the world.

This past week, the first trailer for CBS's new show, Supergirl, was released.

It immediately got a lot of backlash because it seems too much like a "rom-com" or like the SNL parody of a Black Widow movie. I know next to nothing about the comics, so I'm going to trust a lot of YouTube commenters, and Twitter commentators, and Tumblr bloggers who said this: Supergirl is supposed to be more optimistic, more cheerful, and lighter.

And truth be told, it's refreshing. Don't get me wrong - I love The Avengers, but sometimes, especially these days, superhero stuff is very gritty and dark. I'll take sunshine and a girl with powers who accepts them and doesn't bemoan her talents. Plus, I think there's going to be a strong sister focus, and her female boss seems to be pretty strong and empowering, and the rumored/likely love interest is black. 

I am so excited for this show, more than you guys could ever know. So I'm just going to share some gifs of my favorite moments from that trailer (in case you don't have time to watch it since it's like 6 minutes long).

(Classic.)

(Look at that little sunshiney smile. Optimistic superheroes are the bomb.)

(You go, Kara.)

(I know people are picking on the costume, but I love it. Feminine, but appropriately covered [so many female superhero costumes show an unnecessary amount of skin, particularly for someone who's fighting crime] and fairly safe too. Apart from the cape. I love capes, but Edna Mode pointed out the hazards of them.)

(Look at her go!)

I couldn't pick just one gif from this set, so I'm going to link to where I reblogged it on my Tumblr. All the points to Cat Grant.

http://awkwordlyemma.tumblr.com/post/118975878058

And give Supergirl a chance. I agree that a little more racial diversity is important, but that trailer was literally only the pilot (and maybe the second) episode. They still have to film most of the episodes. Plus, we're already seeing what looks like a strong female role model. And isn't that what young girls today need?

Review: Lion Heart

Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen
Grade: A-
Release date: May 19th, 2015
This ARC was provided by Bloomsbury USA Childrens in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Scarlet has captured the hearts of readers as well as the heart of Robin Hood, and after ceaseless obstacles and countless threats, readers will finally find out the fate of the Lady Thief.

Imprisoned by Prince John for months, Scarlet finds herself a long way from Nottinghamshire. After a daring escape from the Prince's clutches, she learns that King Richard’s life is in jeopardy, and Eleanor of Aquitaine demands a service Scarlet can’t refuse: spy for her and help bring Richard home safe. But fate—and her heart—won’t allow her to stay away from Nottinghamshire for long, and together, Scarlet and Rob must stop Prince John from going through with his dark plans for England. They can not rest until he’s stopped, but will their love be enough to save them once and for all?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: It took me forever to crack open my ARC of Lion Heart. I definitely wasn't ready for the trilogy to end, and I was scared of what A.C. Gaughen would have in store, after the pain that Lady Thief caused. And speaking of the second book in the trilogy, I found it to be stronger than Lion Heart. But this final book is still good and it wrapped up all the plots nicely. Scarlet is a character with depth and a fully-formed personality. She's extremely loyal and protective and clever. Queen Eleanor is still awesome. I love how bratty John is. My one character complaint is that King Richard never actually makes an on-page appearance and I desperately wanted to see him interact with Scarlet. There's a part on about page 77 of my ARC that was great character interaction. Scarlet is surrounded by strong women and they're all tending to each other and I loved it. Scarlet and Rob still have emotional wounds (and some physical) and none of these were shoved under the rug. I appreciate it when characters realistically suffer from things they've experienced. (Side note: that's why I like Mockingjay so much.) The plot is well-formed and revolves mainly around "defeating" Prince John and keeping the ransom money for King Richard safe. I liked how everything played out.
Romance is fairly clean. (There is talk of sleeping together, but the couple in question is married.) Violence and language aren't too bad.

The Verdict: If you haven't read this trilogy, get on that right now.

"I will sacrifice anything to protect these people from your pain," I told him, fierce and loud. "But if you swing that whip, it's not for the people. It's so you can hurt me. I am not where you get to vent your childish anger. I am not weak, and I am not broken, and I will not be hurt by you."

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: I hope so!

Review: Hold Me Like a Breath

Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
Grade: B+
Release date: May 19, 2015
This ARC was provided by Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Penelope Landlow has grown up with the knowledge that almost anything can be bought or sold—including body parts. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime families that control the black market for organ transplants.

Penelope’s surrounded by all the suffocating privilege and protection her family can provide, but they can't protect her from the autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise so easily.

And in her family's line of work no one can be safe forever.

All Penelope has ever wanted is freedom and independence. But when she’s caught in the crossfire as rival families scramble for prominence, she learns that her wishes come with casualties, that betrayal hurts worse than bruises, that love is a risk worth taking . . . and maybe she’s not as fragile as everyone thinks.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings. And as much as I love the popular ones (and the Disney versions), I have to say the slightly more obscure ones do a great job at catching my interest. The Princess and the Pea is such a fun story, and I couldn't wait to see what Schmidt would do with it in Hold Me Like a Breath. To make my reading even more fun, I'd just seen my university's sophomore class's production of Once Upon a Mattress. I'm not sure Hold Me Like a Breath was quite what I wanted, however. Penny was much too trusting of certain people that she barely knew and she doesn't take good care of herself after she's out on her own. She wanted to prove to her parents that she could survive outside the estate, and she definitely didn't tend to her medical needs well enough. Char was a character I didn't like, unfortunately. He was too suspicious and I had his secrets pegged from the get-go (or, well, I had a pretty good guess). Character-wise, I wanted more of Penny's brother but for...reasons...we obviously couldn't. And I'm sad to say I don't ship the canon ship. (I shipped a sort-of canon ship until certain things happened.)
Plot-wise, it was pretty focused but it didn't go where I wanted or expected it to.
I enjoyed Schmidt's writing style, and I loved any reference to Once Upon a Mattress or Enchanted or allusion to the original fairytale. I didn't really guess the plot twist until it was looking me right in the face, which is good.
I don't remember much inappropriate content. Violence and some medical stuff (for those who are squeamish) was probably the worst of it.

The Verdict: I'm giving Hold Me Like a Breath 4 stars. Still deciding if I'd reread it a lot, but it wasn't too bad. Since this is a series, I'm hoping Schmidt will work out some of the issues and here's hoping book 2 is even stronger!

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: I'd like to.

Your Majesty

So I kind of have this thing for randomly Googling the royal families of the world. I usually end up just reading their Wikipedia pages, but it's fun and probably really weird. Don't get me wrong - I like the democratic republic form of government in America and I don't want a monarchy. But I'm a dreamer at heart who loves the Princess Diaries movies and William and Catherine's love story and the like.

Yes that's the crown from the cover of The Heir.

I always want to read more YA books that feature royalty. Those books are often fantasy, which I enjoy, but...I'd like to see more historical fiction and especially contemporary (even if the royal families are completely made up in the contemporary novels). The glitz and glamour is fun, but I also like when books show the more political side of things. 

There are currently six female heirs to thrones in Europe (seven if you count Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden's daughter, Princess Estelle). There were seven (eight) until December of 2014 when Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco's twins were born, and they had a son.

Some of the crown princesses are very young. Belgium's heir apparent is only thirteen (almost the perfect age for a YA novel), the Princess of Orange is eleven, Norway's second-in-line is eleven, and Spain's crown princess is nine. 

As for the princes, there are many who are the eldest child or their countries still have male primogeniture laws (that means any male children have more right to the throne than older sisters). The United Kingdom will have at least three kings after Queen Elizabeth dies or abdicates (unless something should happen to Prince George, which I hope not). Denmark's heir is male, and his oldest child is a son. Liechtenstein's heir is male, as is his oldest child (who was born in 1995 and is still single, for anyone my age hoping to marry into a royal family...). Additionally, Luxembourg's heir to the dukedom is male. But he and his wife have no children yet.

So here's hoping some really good YA books about royalty and royal families will be written soon! There have been a few recently, I'm fairly certain, but I didn't like the main one that comes to mind.

One final note: I searched my Goodreads shelve for all books containing the words 'heir,' 'queen,' 'princess,' king,' and 'prince,' just for fun. Here are the results.

HEIR - 2

KING - 3

QUEEN - 12

PRINCE - 5

PRINCESS - 13

I'm pretty sure most of those books were fantasy, but it was still fun to see how much YA writers like royalty.

Top Ten Tuesday: Author Bucket List

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Yeah, I keep a bucket list of all the authors I want to meet. And as of today, I've met eight of them with the most recent being Jasmine Warga. But, at the moment, there's still 16 more I want to meet and I'm sure that list will grow as I continue to read good books. So, in no particular order...

1. Sara Raasch (author of Snow Like Ashes)

Ever since I started obsessing over getting an ARC of Snow Like Ashes (it didn't happen), and interviewed Sara, and then read Snow Like Ashes, I've been dreaming of meeting her. She was about three hours from my university on tour last fall, but it was a little too far to go. Here's hoping I'll be able to meet her soon.

2. Heather Vogel Frederick (author of The Mother-Daughter Book Club series and Absolutely Truly)

One of my favorite tweenhood and teenhood authors. I definitely need to meet her!

3. Emery Lord (author of Open Road Summer and The Start of Me and You)

Ok, so I technically met her for like a minute or two at the author event I went to back in March. But it wasn't official or formal and I need to get my copies of her books signed.

4. Shannon Hale (author of The Books of Bayern and the Princess Academy series)

Shannon's had an impact on my writing, and I really want to thank her in person for that.

When I really like an author's books, I want to meet them and thank them for writing, as well as get books signed by them. That's why I've listed the following authors.

5. Anne Blankman (author of the Prisoner of Night and Fog duology)

6. Morgan Matson (author of Second Chance Summer and Since You've Been Gone)

7. Marie Lu (author of Legend and The Young Elites)

8. Jennifer Lynn Barnes (author of The Naturals)

9. Robin LaFevers (author of the His Fair Assassin trilogy)

10. Rachel M. Wilson (author of Don't Touch)

11. Emily Lloyd-Jones (author of Illusive)

12. Sarah J. Maas (author of the Throne of Glass series)

13. Kasie West (author of the Pivot Point duology and 3 great contemporary romances)

14. A.C. Gaughen (author of the Scarlet trilogy)

15. Stephanie Perkins (author of the Anna and the French Kiss companion novel trilogy)

16. Jenny Han (author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before)