Precommendations: Volume 2, Issue 3

2/25/2018

Spring is in the air, my fellow readers! March is one of my favorite months of the year. The weather gets warmer than February, I spend more time outdoors than I did during basketball season, AND it’s my birthday month! (March 22nd, if any of you feel so inclined to send me books, hahaha) Besides being a good time of year, there are so many great book releases this month that I can’t wait to read.

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Restore Me, by: Tahereh Mafi

March 6th
Juliette Ferrars thought she'd won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander, and now has Warner by her side. But she's still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch—and now she's got the whole world in the palm of her hand. When tragedy hits, who will she become? Will she be able to control the power she wields and use it for good?

Even though I have only read the first two books in the Shatter Me series, I am still pumped to read this book. There has been a fog of hype surrounding this new addition to the trilogy. My original plan was to read Ignite Me before this one is released, but judging by my reading this month, I don’t think that Plan A will be a success. It’s a good thing that Plan B has been approved and is ready for initiation. (Because buying both Ignite Me and Restore Me for myself as an early birthday present is a top-notch backup plan.)

More Than We Can Tell, by: Brigid Kemmerer

March 6th
Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay...until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.
Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage. She can solve any problem with the right code, but when an online troll’s harassment escalates, she’s truly afraid.
When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in

ways they never expected. This must-read story will once again have readers falling for Brigid Kemmerer’s emotional storytelling.

After looking into this series, I have discovered that it is part of a companion series, with Letters to the Lost being the original book. I haven’t read the “first” one, but the results of my research show that they are two standalone books, and you can read them in either order. They both sound like unique reads and pique my interest. Hopefully, with the release of this new one, I can get the opportunity to squeeze the pair into my reading soon.

The Beauty That Remains, by: Ashley Woodfolk

March 6th
Autumn always knew exactly who she was—a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan always turned to writing love songs when his love life was a little less than perfect.
But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan can’t stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered.
Despite the odds, one band's music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind.

I feel like there isn’t a lot of music/band representation in YA books, and I am always excited to read one when they come out. (Or, there are lots, and I have just yet to discover them...either way I get excited.) This past summer I read This Song Will Save Your Life during the BookTubeAThon and loved it, and I feel like this book has some similar aspects. In this story, the band members have to cope with grief, which is something that all readers can relate to in their real lives. That extra layer of connection that readers can get in a story is something that I love in books, and I can’t wait to see how the bandmates’ story unfolds.

Obsidio, by: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

March 13th
Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion?
Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.
With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heros will fall, and hearts will be broken.

SPEAKING of early birthday presents, I have been waiting for this book for over a year now, and I am SO EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT. If you haven’t read the Illuminae books yet, I HIGHLY recommend them (they are even on my all-time favorites list, surprise). As soon as I saw that preorders for this book were available, I immediately lunged for my computer. The best part was that the authors had a contest a few months ago, which I had to enter (of course). If you preordered the book and sent your receipt to the authors, you got a chance to have your name featured in the novel on the list of casualties, because people are always dying in futuristic space shenanigans.

Here So Far Away, by: Hadley Dyer

March 20th
Feisty and fearless George Warren (given name: Frances, but no one calls her that) has never let life get too serious. Now that she’s about to be a senior, her plans include partying with her tight-knit group of friends and then getting the heck out of town after graduation.
But instead of owning her last year of high school, a fight with her best friend puts her on the outs of their social circle. If that weren’t bad enough, George’s family has been facing hard times since her father, a police sergeant, got injured and might not be able to return to work, which puts George’s college plans in jeopardy.
So when George meets Francis, an older guy who

shares her name and her affinity for sarcastic banter, she’s thrown. If she lets herself, she’ll fall recklessly, hopelessly in love. But because of Francis’s age, she tells no one—and ends up losing almost everything, including herself.

I hadn’t heard of this book before I started my monthly release research, and I am so glad I stumbled upon this book. It sounds like a great read, personally, since the time of the story is during George's senior year, and next school year will be my senior year of high school as well. (I’m all about that relatability factor, kids.) The description not only promises a romantic storyline but also lots of snarky banter and sarcastic dialogue, which I LOVE in books. My sense of humor is pretty cynical, so seeing that mirrored in books is almost always resulted in my laughing out loud.

Not If I Save You First, by: Ally Carter

March 27th
Maddie thought she and Logan would be friends forever. But when your dad is a Secret Service agent and your best friend is the president's son, sometimes life has other plans. Before she knows it, Maddie's dad is dragging her to a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.
No phone.
No Internet.
And not a single word from Logan.
Maddie tells herself it's okay. After all, she's the most popular girl for twenty miles in any direction. (She’s also the only girl for twenty miles in any direction.) She has wood to cut and weapons to bedazzle. Her life is full.

Until Logan shows up six years later . . .
And Maddie wants to kill him.
But before that can happen, an assailant appears out of nowhere, knocking Maddie off a cliff and dragging Logan to some unknown fate. Maddie knows she could turn back- and get help. But the weather is turning and the terrain will only get more treacherous, the animals more deadly.
Maddie still really wants to kill Logan.
But she has to save him first.

I don’t usually read many thriller books. It’s not that I don’t like them, but they just never seem to make their way onto my TBR pile. I wouldn’t say that this book appears like it’s precisely in the thriller genre, but it gives off those vibes. Every once in a while I like to mix up the types of books that I read, and I feel like this story would do just that. Maybe sometime soon I will get the chance to pick this one up.

Are you looking forward to any of these books in particular? Do you have any anticipated reads that should be on my radar? Let me know in the comments below!

Your spring baby,
Ashton

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.

— Hal Borland

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