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Book Summary
What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the blight that is destroying the race of warlocks. 

Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

Flo's Review
It is finally finished. All 900+ pages, 30+ plus hours. It's a 5 out of 5 star book, and I wasn't expecting anything less. I swear, no other book series takes me through the entire gamut of emotions that Shadowhunter novels do. It was long, but I intensely enjoyed every single minute of it.

James Marsters read the audiobook, and he did a PHENOMENAL job. His voice inflection is everything. I swear, listening to him read this heightened the experience for me so much. He slows down his reading to add dramatic emphasis, and lowers his voice to an almost-whisper in all the right places. I would get chills listening. 

I immediately loved The Dark Artifices with Lady Midnight. Cassie brought it from the very beginning of book one and never let up. I just love the way she does her characters. She describes them so well and so intimately -- their every little quirk and all their secrets. She introduces them to you entirely, and I felt like I came to know them like close friends. 

I will look forward to seeing these characters again. I'm definitely happy that we are so close to Red Scrolls of Magic. If you've read the other two books in their series, get a hold of this one, take a deep breath, and then go diving in head first. And if you haven't read any of The Dark Artifices? Get on that!

Book Summary
Gayle King shares her favorite inspiring letters from the popular CBS This Morning segment Note to Self, in which twenty-first century luminaries pen advice and encouragement to the young people they once were.

What do Congressman John Lewis, Dr. Ruth, Kesha, and Kermit the Frog wish they could tell their younger selves? What about a gay NFL player or the most successful female racecar driver? In Note to Self, CBS This Morning cohost Gayle King shares some of the most memorable letters from the broadcast’s popular segment of the same name. With essays from such varied figures as Oprah, Vice President Joe Biden, Chelsea Handler, and Maya Angelou—as well as poignant words from a Newtown father and a military widow—Note to Self is a lovely reflection on the joys and challenges of growing up and a perfect gift for any occasion.

Flo's Review
This audiobook right here was a conglomeration of so many of my favorite things about books and audiobooks. I love audiobooks. I love autobiographies read by the author. I love the whole 'letter to my younger self' trope. (I'm calling this a trope, because I've seen it done at least two other times that I can think of. What do you think? Do you consider it a trope?)

Anyway, this audiobook takes all of those things and ups the game by about 50. Because this is a combination of a whole bunch of amazing people reading their letters to their younger selves. I love that we get to hear them all. The letters were all fantastic. I was literally teary eyed listening to most of them. So many were sad but also hopeful. So many stories of overcoming. A lot of people with strong faith. These letters, all together, display what it mean to be human -- to doubt, to love, to challenge yourself, to overcome, to learn, to grow. 

The only bad thing about listening to the audiobook as opposed to reading it was that there were so many great quotes that I would have loved to flag, underline, highlight. 

At the end of the book, Gayle King encourages the reader to write her own letter to self. It's a great exercise. I did one for my review of Dear Teen Me and really enjoyed it.

All the hearts and stars for Note to Self!

Book Summary
Would you trade your soul mate for your soul?

A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.

Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?

Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.

When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.

Flo's Review
I always know what I'm going to get when I read a Cassandra Clare book. Beautiful, rich descriptions of the characters. So close and so well done that I feel like I'm in the room with them. Like I know them intimately. Moments that are captured so entirely, with all five senses, that I feel like I am living them and not just reading about them. And agony at the end.

Silly me, I was reading the last forty pages or so thinking, "This might end on an alright note. What can possibly happen in just a few pages that will be so devastating?" Silly me. I forgot I was reading a Cassandra Clare book! Needless to say, I finished it a couple of hours ago and my heart still hurts. 

There is no other writer like Cassandra Clare. She has an amazing ability to make me feel like I am in the story, like I know these characters as my close personal friends and not just people I am reading about. I feel everything they feel. Hurt and power and fear and love and anger and injustice and responsibility and love. 

Julian Blackthorn. Daaang. This man was on in this book! Mad respect for that boy! Lord of Shadows felt to me more like Julian's story than Emma's, and I was okay with that. I want him on my side of life. But maybe not as my parabatai? Because I'd probably fall in love with him, too, and that's definitely no good.

Kit Herondale. I also really enjoyed reading his perspective. He went from skeptic to believer, from outsider to insider, and I am so sure he has a big role to play as the story continues. I can't wait to see it. Cristina was also amazing -- knowledgeable and kind. And ooooh the villians! I found Zara Dearborn more infuriating than the sea demons! 

I listened to this one on audiobook. My audiobook CD limit is usually between 6 to 8 discs. More than than is too long. This one was 19. I had to know what happened by the end, so I read the physical book instead of listening to the last disc, but I listened straight through 18 CDs. And I loved every minute of it. I was driving around thinking to myself, "This is a 5 star book. I love this." James Marsters did an amazing job with his reading. It was like I could tell a bit of the character's personality through his voicing of them. This was especially true for Zara, Ty, and others. He read Cristina, Jaime and Diego really well, and then the next chapter he was killing it reading Annabel or Malcolm. There are so many different characters in this book and he somehow made them all sound completely individual.

According to Goodreads, the third book in The Dark Artifices doesn't come out until 2019. Maybe by then I will have recovered from the ending of this one. That also gives you plenty of time to read Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows -- which is no small feat with Lord of Shadows weighing in at 701 pages. But I'm almost sad that I'm done listening to it. I'm not sure I'm ready to leave the Blackthorns yet.

I thought it couldn't get better than The Mortal Instruments. Then there were The Infernal Devices. (Jem! Amirite?!) And now there are The Dark Artifices! So so good. 


Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster for sending me an audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review.

Book Summary
A dazzling debut novel—at once a charming romance and a moving coming-of-age story—about what happens when a fourteen-year old boy pretends to seduce a girl to steal a copy of Playboy but then discovers she is his computer-loving soulmate.

Billy Marvin’s first love was a computer. Then he met Mary Zelinsky.

Do you remember your first love?

The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine…The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune. For three teenage boys—Billy, Alf, and Clark—who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it.

The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—they’ll swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary’s affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends.

At its heart, The Impossible Fortress is a tender exploration of young love, true friends, and the confusing realities of male adolescence—with a dash of old school computer programming.

Bonus content: Play the "The Impossible Fortress" video game at http://www.jasonrekulak.com/game/

Flo's Review
This absolutely had a Ready Player One feel to it. Which is great, because RPO is a great book. I was asked as I was reading this one if it's a YA (young adult) book. It's not. The main characters are teenagers, but I think that the teenagers today would not get the fun in about half the book. Because the fun was all in the throwback. One reviewer called The Impossible Fortress "a love letter to the 1980s" and I think that is a great description. All kinds of great pop culture and political references had me saying to myself, "Oh yeah! I remember that!" (And now that I have dated myself, let's move on with the review.)

The fun in it also comes from the fact that the boys are putting together this whole elaborate scheme to get a magazine. I really enjoyed the main trio for a few reasons. First -- they are all boys. So many books have done the "two boys and one girl" thing, and so many more books have done the four girls, so it was nice to have a unique set of protagonists. Rekulak also did a great job of establishing the deep bond between the boys. 

It was also great to see Billy start falling for Mary because of her brains and her personality. He was in awe of the fact that she was a better programmer than he was, and he wanted to spend more time with her. From there, he started noticing things he liked about her -- the way her hair smelled, etc. He didn't reject her because she was fat, so good job Billy! 

I was talking with one of the Simon publicists at the recent American Library Association Meeting and telling her about how I was currently reading the book. While I explained to her how it is a cute but predictable story she said, "There's actually a twist in there that I wasn't expecting." True story! Not a huge deal, but just a little reminder that things aren't always as they seem and you never know what another person is going through.

The Impossible Fortress had a happy and realistic ending. It does well as a standalone, because I feel that I left all the characters in a good place. This book comes out February 7th and if you are a child of the 80s,  a video game aficionado, or just looking for a cute, awkward love story, I'd recommend you pick it up. I'm going to go play the game now (what a cool perk! Props!!)

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

Oh, I love book conferences! I was able to attend the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in 2015 for the first time, and I had to go back to this year. Definitely one of the hardest parts about book conferences is shipping your books back to you and then having to wait for them to arrive! The 5 boxes (in my defense, some of the boxes are small -- lol!) I sent myself are set to arrive Tuesday. I've been stalking the tracking in hopes that they get here early and magically show up today, but I don't think so,

However, I still need to do my review and I need to do it today, so I will improvise! I'll talk about a couple of random things that are here and there in the next two posts, and I hope you enjoy having this look at it.

Swag is a fun bonus for upcoming releases. I have soo much swag, and I always like seeing the creative things that people will come up with to promote books. So I wanted to share with you some of my favorite swag that I got at the conference:
Starting at the top -- a duffel bag! I'm used to getting totes, which are nice, but I didn't have a useful duffel bag until now. Thank you, Simon!

Bottom row, from left to right -- These "Read" prints are actually really beautiful and are on nice quality card stock. We were commenting how they are perfect for framing. I might just do that. The 5 Hour Energy just made me laugh! Apparently they understand how intense conferencing is! Both of those are also from Simon and Schuster.

The Passenger notebook is a nice notebook, perfect size for sticking in my purse and carrying around. Also, I really enjoyed the book, which I had an opportunity to read a few weeks ago. The pamphlet next to it is a Magnus Chase guide to Boston. I haven't read this book yet, but I am looking forward to doing so! Apparently it takes place in Boston, so Disney put together a guide about all the places you can visit that are featured in the book. Props to Disney for both the little journal and the Boston guide.

Next to it are Boxcar magnet bookmarks. As in, the Boxcar Children! Throwback to my childhood! I can't remember where I picked them up, but I am pretty excited about them. Finally, AW Teen had these cute starfish bookmarks (pictured above the Boxcar Children). I love it! I am definitely using it with my next read.

In the next post, you'll see some books :)