Book Nerds Across America

So, who here picked up All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace when it published on February 2nd? I was waiting for this one to come up so I could read it and All the Stars and Teeth back to back, so now that they are both here -- I am ready!

How it started: 

All the Stars and Teeth 

Book Summary

Set in a kingdom where danger lurks beneath the sea, mermaids seek vengeance with song, and magic is a choice.

She will reign.

As princess of the island kingdom Visidia, Amora Montara has spent her entire life training to be High Animancer — the master of souls. The rest of the realm can choose their magic, but for Amora, it’s never been a choice. To secure her place as heir to the throne, she must prove her mastery of the monarchy’s dangerous soul magic.

When her demonstration goes awry, Amora is forced to flee. She strikes a deal with Bastian, a mysterious pirate: he’ll help her prove she’s fit to rule, if she’ll help him reclaim his stolen magic.

But sailing the kingdom holds more wonder — and more peril — than Amora anticipated. A destructive new magic is on the rise, and if Amora is to conquer it, she’ll need to face legendary monsters, cross paths with vengeful mermaids, and deal with a stow-away she never expected… or risk the fate of Visidia and lose the crown forever.

I am the right choice. The only choice. And I will protect my kingdom.

How it's going:

All the Tides of Fate

I won't put the book summary here because I want to be sensitive to spoilers. But these covers are gorgeous and I cannot wait to dive into this duology!

Have you read them? Let me know your thoughts if so. If you haven't and you want to join me as I read them, then let me know! 🤗

For more information:

Visit Adalyn's website: https://adalyngraceauthor.com. 

Book Summary
10 00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she's just performed her hit song "Heartbeat" in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She's about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She's in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger.

11 00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She's very cute. He's maybe curious.

12:00 a.m.: Nothing will ever be the same.

Flo's Review
Short review. I almost decided not to do a review for this one, but then I remembered that I got this cute Lucky poster from the Fierce Reads tour, and it would be a waste not to use it. So here we are. 😂

This book was everything I'd hoped for. I admittedly don't know much about K-Pop, but I do know a lot about pop music and pop music fans. I loved reading everything about the concerts, the superfans...I've been there. 

Lucky was a delight. Maurene could have made her this total diva who becomes more down-to-earth and human as her day progresses away from the limelight, but she didn't go that stereotypical route. Instead, Lucky is joyful and silly and seems like just a fun person to hang out with. So as you're reading about their day, you can totally see why Jack is having fun spending time with her.

Book Summary
Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. 

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

Flo's Review
All the emotions! This book took me through them all -- fear, anticipation, sadness, pity, love, tension, and so much more. I didn't gather my thoughts together before I started typing, so this is just going to be a stream-of-consciousness type review: I apologize in advance.

First of all -- Steve West and Fiona Hardingham, the narrators of this audiobook, can do no wrong. Fiona is fantastic at conveying emotion in her voice. If Zafira felt fierce, Fiona sounded fierce. If Zafira felt hesitant, Fiona sounded hesitant. If Zafira felt proud, Fiona sounded proud. The same for Steve West. He always reads characters with such intense inner turmoil, and I never fail to feel the depth of the pain and conflict at the core of the character he is reading. Steve's Nasir is no different.

Since I just finished the book, I cannot stop thinking about the ending. (Why hello, book hangover. Long time no meet!) There were just so many reveals and connections! I think maybe some more eagle-eyed readers might have picked up on some of them, but I never catch these things. And I'm okay with that, because it means that my mind is always blown -- in a good way.

One of the best things about We Hunt the Flame is the complexity of the characters. There is no one that is the "good" one, or the "evil" one. (Well, I take that back -- there is a Big Bad. But besides that character.) All our main characters have inflicted pain and suffering, but also have endured pain and suffering. The further I read into the book, the more I learned about these characters. And yet, I feel that I am going to learn so much more about them in the next books.

Shoutout to my boy, Altair! I mean, yes, I'm living for the tension between Zafira and Nasir, but we could really all use an Altair in our lives. 

The setting of this book is truly magical. Hafsah gave us such rich descriptions of the the diverse land of Arawiya that I was able to feel completely immersed in it, even as I drove down the highway on the way to and from work.  I generally don't do well with long audiobooks, which for me is anything more than about 8 or 9 hours. But I never wearied of this one, which came in at almost 15 hours long. 

I am truly chomping at the bit for book #2! It is officially one of my most anticipated for when it comes out (please say no later than 2020!) I was intrigued by this story at first because it reminded me of Sabaa Tahir's Ember quartet, but then I was invested as it became its own unique, magical experience. 

Highly recommend! 

I'm spoiled and have been lucky enough to meet Tomi twice. This picture is from when she came to  my favorite local bookstore, Books & Books, earlier this year.

Book Summary
They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.

Flo's Review
I am about a thousand percent late to the party on reading this book. Especially since my journey with Children and Blood and Bone started way before it was even released. I was lucky enough to snag a sampler at Comic Con 2017. I was going to give it away to a blog reader, but then my Dad got ahold of it and I never saw it again.

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A post shared by Book Nerds (@booknerdsacrossamerica) on Feb 8, 2018 at 3:33pm PST

Then, the awesome ARC box became my very first unboxing video:

My very first unboxing video! (Be gentle!) I'm showing off #ChildrenofBloodandBone by @tomi_adeyemi. Thank you @FierceReads for the awesome box! ❤️❤️ I can't wait to read this one! pic.twitter.com/G7PNwjzxLv

— BookNerds Blog (@booknerdsblog) November 18, 2017

Anyway, all this has led us here. I read this book in a combination of book reading and audiobook listening, over a period of months during which I set it aside and then picked it up again. One of my strongest memories of listening to this audiobook will be of yelling at the characters when they did things I did not approve of. Like, all 3 of the main characters. I definitely yelled at all 3 of them at least once at some point.

Needless to say, I was invested in the story. I (luckily) hadn't been spoiled about the ending, so I really wanted to know how it would all end up and that kept me listening and turning the pages. I tend to struggle with long books and audiobooks, so even though I split this up into multiple periods of listening and reading, I was by the end ready for the end. I've seen and read many reviews of the book, so I won't rehash everything floating around. But everything this story represents, all the issues it brings up, all the power struggles and the representation, and at the very base a strong plot with action and romance -- it truly is legendary. This book deserves all the hype.

Here's Tomi reading from it:

Book Summary
From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? 

With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

Flo's Review
Why did I wait so long to read this?!?! I've had it sitting on my TBR pile for months now and felt like reading a light, fun, romantic YA this week. I asked hubby and Twitter which one I should go for and they both said The Way You Make Me Feel, so in I went.

So how did it make me feel? Warm. Fuzzy. Happy. Let's start with the cover love. Look at the pretty! It's such a great color combination -- fun, but not in-your-face intense. Happy and calming at the same time.

I adored I Believe in a Thing Called Love, and Goo's sophomore effort did not disappoint. It's been awhile since I've been able to add a new book boyfriend to my list, and Hamlet definitely makes it. Hamlet is everything! I love that he is all energy and optimism and random. More importantly, he is open where Clara is guarded. Their relationship works so well because he is just what she needs to bring her out. Any other type of personality would just bring up her sarcasm and dismissal, but Hamlet made her want to take a hard look at herself. But without forcing her. I cannot say enough about how great the two of them are.

Just like I Believe in a Thing Called Love, I was so delightful to read the relationship between Clara and her dad, Pai. It's the exact opposite of the whole "parents absent from the kid's lives" in YA thing, and it's realistic and refreshing. I also liked the friendship between Rose and Clara. They went from being enemies to BFFs super fast -- it might be a tad unrealistic, but I like them so much better as friends that I did not care. The awkwardness was so cute. 

Two things prevented me from giving this 5 out of 5 stars. First, Clara was kind of a jerk at the beginning. She was hard to swallow. I read several reviews where people DNF because they didn't like her and how she treated people, and I understand. Usually when I don't like the protagonist, I struggle with the book. I don't know what kept me engaged here. Maybe I subconsciously knew that she would get better? Maybe because everything else about the book -- the writing, especially -- was so good? Luckily, Clara got better really quickly.

Secondly, toward the end there is suddenly this whole, "I love LA! I have pride in my diverse city!" thing going on. Like, it's hit pretty hard. I guess there were subtle references to this idea throughout the book, but definitely not enough to make me think that this was an important part of the story. So when the last chapter kept going on and on about it, I felt it read a little random. Like an add-on. "Here's the story, and P.S. Gooooo Los Angeles!"

But everything else I adored. ADORED. I flew through this book in two evenings. When I finished it, I set it down and immediately exclaimed, "Adorable!" I had a big smile on my face, too. It made me so happy. So if you're up for a book that will be fun and easy to read and will make you happy, look no further than The Way You Make Me Feel.

"It's prom season! To celebrate this exciting time of year and also to spread the love for A PROM TO REMEMBER by Sandy Hall, Swoon Reads and Fierce Reads are joining forces to throw a YA Prom! 

This will be an online event where we'll be inviting anyone who'd like to participate to share a mood board (or photo collage) on Twitter highlighting their dream YA prom dates, outfit, ride, or whatever else they'd like to share. We'll be encouraging people to share these pics with the hashtag #YAPromToRemember on June 7th!"  --text from Swoon Reads and Fierce Reads

Prom! Oh, how fun! OF COURSE I am joining in! Let's see...what will I have for my prom...


I actually really like this dress that I've just worn for two weddings in a row now....shh... no one at #YAPromToRemember needs to know!

Mkt3000 dot com at en.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Learn more about A PROM TO REMEMBER after the page break.

Book Summary
Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to "talk." Things couldn’t get much worse, right?

But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying.


White Rabbit publishes in less than a week and I don't have my review up! Whaaa?! Okay, first of all, if you have Twitter and don't follow Caleb Roehrig, go do so now. I'll wait. (His Twitter handle is @mikalebroehrig). He's fun, insightful, and civic minded. He'll have you nodding in agreement, laughing along, shaking your fist...all the feels.

Speaking of feels, can I just give Rufus a hug?! I love him. He is honest with himself, and that is an admirable quality. Because that makes him raw and vulnerable at times. It's a hard place to be in, but I love that he is blatant in his thoughts about how he's feeling. I just adored the story between him and Sebastian, too. I won't say too much about it because I don't want to give away how it all ends up, but it was a journey between the two of them that had me continually holding my breath and wanting more.

Then, of course, there's the murder. I'll be honest with you: I had NO IDEA who the killer was until that person was revealed. The night was so carefully plotted that I found myself getting confused with the sequence of events as Rufus and Sebastian kept hearing different stories from different people. But I enjoyed it -- it was intricate yet simple at the same time. Well done!


White Rabbit comes out Tuesday, April 24th and I recommend picking it up!


See our review of Caleb Roehrig's first book, Last Seen Leaving: http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2016/07/review-last-seen-leaving-by-caleb.html.

My very first unboxing video! (Be gentle!) I'm showing off #ChildrenofBloodandBone by @tomi_adeyemi. Thank you @FierceReads for the awesome box! ❤️❤️ I can't wait to read this one! pic.twitter.com/G7PNwjzxLv

— BookNerds Blog (@booknerdsblog) November 18, 2017

Book Summary
She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .

Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.

Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

Flo's Review
I love me some Leigh Bardugo. Seriously. She is super sweet and smart and her books are amazing. I fell completely in love with the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and I have a Six of Crows poster just above my desk. So of course I was over the moon to hear that she was telling a Wonder Woman story.

And it was so good, guys! Everything that I love about Leigh's writing was in strong showing: the witty banter between characters, the rich world-building, the high stakes of saving the world, the romance. Leigh took a character that I was already familiar with and made me love her even more.

Even though Diana is a powerful Amazon, she was written in a way that made her relatable. I felt I could understand her frustrations in the beginning of the story and the desires that fueled her throughout. I really loved how she looked at the human race and saw the beauty in it.

At one point in the story Diana warily thinks to herself, "This is too easy..." and I was feeling the same doubt and apprehension. And then -- BAM! -- plot twist! I wasn't expecting it, of course (I never do), so I completely blown away.

But Diana wasn't the only wonderful woman character in this story. I would choose Alia and Nim to be my sisters in battle any day! They were fully human, compared to Diana and other characters, but their humanity was their strength. It was really very cool.

Wonder Woman: Warbringer had some jaw-dropping and fun-to-read scenes in New York City and Greece. I cannot rave about this book enough. Just do yourself a favor and pre-order it. Or go out on August 29th and pick up a copy.

Book Summary
There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.

Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.

What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

Flo's Review
The Love Interest pokes fun at YA (in a subtle, good-natured way), and it is super fun. The whole idea of a love triangle has pretty much been beaten to death. And in those you always have the safe, but beautiful, boy next door. This is the guys I usually go for, honestly. Simon in Shadowhunters. Jacob in Twilight. Et cetera, et cetera. Then the other boy is the new guy who comes out of nowhere, bringing an air of danger with him. But he's also beautifully broken. Jace and Edward, if we're continuing with my first examples. Both boys try to win the affections of the girl's heart -- and, of course, the girl is awesome and a force to be reckoned with all by herself.

So in this crazy world, there is a organization that cultivates Good Guys and Bad Guys (Nice and Bad) to battle for the affections of a girl's heart. This girl is one who will be important to society in some way, so the guy who wins will spend his life learning her secrets and sharing them with this evil organization. The evil organization then uses this information for its own gain.

And the other guy literally dies.

So there's that. 

I really like how this book very honestly explores the idea of identity and being what you are told you should be, versus who you really are. Caden doesn't think of himself as a true Nice. Dylan is not the classic Bad either. And they both struggle with that.

But then, it continues poking fun by exploring the idea of "what if the two guys fell for each other, instead of falling for the girl?" Brilliant. Brilliant premise. I was so excited to read this when I first heard about it, and I'm very happy to report that it lived up to my expectations. I spent an entire Saturday in Caden and Dylan's crazy competition and had a great time.

Cale Dietrich managed to throw in two plot twists that I wasn't expecting! I know for one, I literally put the book down and said aloud, "Plot twist!" Clever, because this just isn't a fluffy spoof story. It's a real, intense story with a well-thought out plotline and fully developed characters. There was only one aspect that seemed to be not thought out well enough to make full sense, but the rest of it did.

The Love Interest comes out May 16, 2017 and if you'd like to read a fresh spin on a familiar story, I recommend you pick it up.


Thank you to Macmillan for providing me with an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Summary
An obstinate girl who will not be married. 
A soldier desperate to prove himself. 
A kingdom on the brink of war.

With a sharp tongue and an unruly temper, Sage Fowler is not what they’d call a lady―which is perfectly fine with her. Deemed unfit for marriage, Sage is apprenticed to a matchmaker and tasked with wrangling other young ladies to be married off for political alliances. She spies on the girls―and on the soldiers escorting them.

As the girls' military escort senses a political uprising, Sage is recruited by a handsome soldier to infiltrate the enemy ranks. The more she discovers as a spy, the less certain she becomes about whom to trust―and Sage becomes caught in a dangerous balancing act that will determine the fate of her kingdom.

Flo's Favorite (Literary) Female Spies!
I was super excited to get my hands on this book as soon as I heard about it, because I really do enjoy a good girl spy story. "Like which ones, Flo?" you ask. Well, let me tell you!



1. Cammie, Bex, Liz, and Macy from the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter: Oh, I love these girls! This is a fabulous series that I completely binged and enjoyed every minute of it. These four girls go to the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, which is a fancy way to say 'spy school.' I really enjoyed how real to the teenage experience this story was. The girls were taking down bad guys and running for their lives at points, but they also had crushes on boys and the usual high school drama. I highly recommend this series.



2. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh: Throwback! My first experience with a female spy was Harriet. I may not remember all the details of the story, but I definitely remember reading it as a little girl and loving it. 



3. Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene. From Harriet to Nancy Drew! If Harriet was for the little girl me, Nancy was for the preteen. I had to include this stylish 80s cover, because these are what the versions I read looked like.



4. You Don't Know My Name by Kristen Orlando: I simply adored this book. Reagan is kickass as a spy, but also as a friend and a daughter. I really hope to see more of The Black Angel Chronicles.


5. And two more Worth Mentioning: I have also recently read a little bit of the Gail Carringer Finishing School series, and The Cruelty by Scott Bergstrom is about a female spy-in-training, if you will.


I think that's all for me! LitReactor has a good little list of YA books with kickass female spies. But who are some of your favorite literary lady spies? Let me know in the comments! 

Oh, and about that Secret Message.... :)

Welcome to 2017! We looking forward to lots of bookish fun here at Book Nerds Across America and can't wait for you to join in! Let's start the year with 3 books that will be published on Tuesday, January 3rd that we are looking forward to:

Book Summary
Long before she was the terror of Wonderland — the infamous Queen of Hearts — she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the yet-unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend and supply the Kingdom of Hearts with delectable pastries and confections. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next Queen.

At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the king's marriage proposal, she meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship.

Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

Countdown to Heartless
13 DAYS TILL HEARTLESS!
I am super excited to be part of the Countdown to Heartless blog tour! Check out our Twitter and Instagram page for today's fun challenge!

Flo's Review
Wow. I was late to get on board the Cinder series train, but I was definitely glad when I finally hopped on. Like many others, I was so incredibly impressed by Marissa's way to take elements of stories familiar to us and add them to a larger narrative all her own. So when I first heard about Heartless, I knew that I would love seeing Marissa's conception of Wonderland.

I was not wrong. This book pulled me in right away and did not let me go. It hurt so good, you know? It hurt to read because I ultimately knew how things were going to end up for Catherine, and that the ending was not going to be wanted. I grew to really enjoy the bubbly, creative, fun Catherine of this story and it was so hard knowing what she would turn into.  And Marissa did the turn really well. I was afraid at one point in the story that it would be a light switch -- she's nice and lovable and suddenly she's awful. But it's not at all. I was able to see how and why her heart was hardening, and with a very clever final twist, how she became truly heartless.

The characters that we know and love from Lewis Carroll's story are given such depth. I was especially impressed with the Mad Hatter. Wow. His character is so, so well done. His story is clever and emotional, and the last scene where we see him was so emotional. I enjoyed seeing Cheshire popping up to gossip and the awkward, bubbling King. I laughed to myself every time I read about the Hare, because his name is Haigha, pronounced "hare" and I think that's awesome.

Jest is going to get his own paragraph, because Jest. He's the king's joker, but he is actually very clever, whilst the King is a fool. He's dark and mysterious and totally hot. His relationship with Catherine was realistic, and did I mention he's hot?! I'll take this joker any day!!

Heartless comes out November 8th, and I really think you will enjoy it! Imaginative, clever, emotional, fun -- it is all of this and more.