Saturday, May 11, 2019

Book Haul: Smells Like Teen Spirit




Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off all the books I’ve gotten recently. It's been so long since I posted a book haul! Here are five books about teen characters that I acquired in the past few months.

*This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.



Smells Like Teen Spirit Book Haul





The Foxhole Court (All For The Game #1) by Nora Sakavic




Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He's short, he's fast, he's got a ton of potential—and he's the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.

Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn't need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.

But Neil's not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil's new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can't walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he's finally found someone and something worth fighting for.












All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely




Rashad is absent again today.

That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all . . .

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again . . . and again . . . stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.

And that’s how it started.

And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul. He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.











Days Of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2) by Laini Taylor




Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?










Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie Thrash




Maggie Thrash has spent basically every summer of her fifteen-year-old life at the one-hundred-year-old Camp Bellflower for Girls, set deep in the heart of Appalachia. She’s from Atlanta, she’s never kissed a guy, she’s into Backstreet Boys in a really deep way, and her long summer days are full of a pleasant, peaceful nothing . . . until one confounding moment. A split-second of innocent physical contact pulls Maggie into a gut-twisting love for an older, wiser, and most surprising of all (at least to Maggie), female counselor named Erin. But Camp Bellflower is an impossible place for a girl to fall in love with another girl, and Maggie’s savant-like proficiency at the camp’s rifle range is the only thing keeping her heart from exploding. When it seems as if Erin maybe feels the same way about Maggie, it’s too much for both Maggie and Camp Bellflower to handle, let alone to understand.










When The Sky Fell On Splendor by Emily Henry




Almost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren’t a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That’s the case for seventeen-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.

In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It’s silly, it’s fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.

Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn’t fiction–it’s a bright light, something massive hurdling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate . . . everything changes.














Have you read any of these? What did you think?





23 comments:

  1. I haven't read any of these books, sorry! I'm not much for YA these days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fun haul! Foxhole Court wasn't my jam but I'm excited for the Emily Henry book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I enjoyed Honor Girl, but it wasn't my favorite. I keep meaning to pick up When the Sky with its heavy Stranger Things vibes. Happy reading!
    Natflix&Books

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've seen The Foxhole Court getting an under the radar buzz over the last year or so. I'm curious to see what you will think of it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. When the Sky Fell On Splendor- I keep forgetting that one, but I do want to get it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really want to read When the Sky Fell on Splendor! It's on my summer reading list. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I haven't read any of these books but All American Boys seems interesting! Let me know what you think of it!

    ReplyDelete
  8. All American Boys is on my TBR. Both authors have wowed me with solo books. I can only imagine the impact this book will have.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! Lots of great books you have here, especially Days of Blood and Starlight! Hope you enjoy all your books!

    Here’s my Stacking the Shelves!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog

    ReplyDelete
  10. I haven't read any of these, but When The Sky Fell on Splendor sounds pretty awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I haven’t heard of any of these... :(

    ReplyDelete
  12. Cait has been talking about The Foxhole Court for a while! I'm kind of curious about that one too :) and All American Boys was recommended to me a while ago too. Nice haul!

    ReplyDelete
  13. All these look fabulous. I have been meaning to read Laini Taylor but just haven't gptten to her. I look forward to hearing how you like your new finds.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Everyone I know who read The Foxhole Court hated it with a passion, so I will be curious what you think about it. 👍✨

    ReplyDelete
  15. I can't wait to get my hands on When the Sky Fell in Splendor. Happy readings! ;)

    Tânia @MyLovelySecret

    ReplyDelete
  16. Seeing Days of Blood and Starlight in your haul reminds me that I really need to read it! It's been on my shelf for ages, so long that I probably need to just reread Daughter of Smoke and Bone first at this point, lol. Hope you enjoy reading all of these!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I just love The Daughter of Smoke & Bone series by Laini Taylor. Have fun reading it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I have When the Sky Fell on Splendor on my TBR.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Great haul! I want to read the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Foxhole Court has a terrible cover. It looks like it was photocopied at Kinko's. The book sounds good though. I really like All American Boys--right up there with How It Went Down in terms of great handling of the issue of racism and violence. Honor Girl was okay for me, and I've been curious about When the Sky Fell on Splendor, which I'm pretty sure I learned about from your blog. All in all, a good haul!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Great haul!! I have When the Sky Fell on Splendor too!

    ~ Kendra @ Kendra Loves Books

    ReplyDelete
  22. I haven't read any of these yet but I did get THE FOXHOLE COURT (ALL FOR THE GAME #1) BY NORA SAKAVIC because of it being free on kindle for a little while :P So I snatched it up to see what all the hype is about.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I really love the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy! It's so magical and the world building is lovely, even if the romance wasn't really my cup of tea. I own All American Boys, and after Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down - which is a masterpiece, honestly - I'm sure I'll love it.

    Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical

    ReplyDelete