Saturday, February 22, 2020

Book Haul: Is The Hype Real?


Welcome to Stacking the Shelves and Mailbox Monday, where I get to show off the books I’ve gotten recently. I’m always skeptical of hyped books because they rarely live up to my expectations, but sometimes I get curious. Are they as good as everybody claims? I’m going to read these books and find out if the hype is real.

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



Is The Hype Real?







The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater




It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

Some riders live.
Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition—the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
















Dry by Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman



The drought—or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it—has been going on for a while now. Everyone’s lives have become an endless list of don’ts: don’t water the lawn, don’t fill up your pool, don’t take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa’s quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don’t return and her life—and the life of her brother—is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she’s going to survive.




















The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman (The Devouring Gray #1)



Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbors treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.

When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?
















The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #1)



Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
















The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz



Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it’s senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?

















Have you read any of these? Was the hype real?






14 comments:

  1. Ooh I want to read the Devouring gray!!

    Did you update your blog look? I like how it looks!

    Happy Saturday :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved The Raven Boys, but never made it past book 2. I've tried to read The Scorpio Races a few times and just cannot get into it. Hope you love them all, though! Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've read The Raven Boys, and The Devouring Gray. I enjoyed both of them immensely. I have would love to read The Scorpio Races as Maggie Stiefvater says that is her favorite of the books she has written.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have actually only read The Raven Boys, and I really enjoyed the series. I have heard great things about most of these though. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. For Dry I think it was! The others I LIKED, but didn't love? Though I think there's some kind of disconnect between me and Maggie which is clearly just a "me" issue!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The hype is real on Dry - I really enjoyed that one!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Some hyped books do make me curious, but I feel like so many of the mare fantasy and I don't get interested in most of those. Out of these, I've read the Raven Cycle series and I did love those.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
  8. I enjoyed The Raven Boys and I'm pretty sure I have The Scorpio Races which I'll have to hunt down on my back up disk.
    I would like to read Dry.
    Have a good weekend and week. Happy Reading!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wanted to read The Devouring Gray but reviews on it have been a bit mixed so now I'm not sure.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Reading the synopsis of Dry made me thirsty and reach for my water glass haha. I enjoyed The Raven Boys and The Devouring Gray! I haven't had a chance to pick up or know about the others on this list. I hope you enjoy them when you get to them!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm a huge Maggie Stiefvater fan, so I'm excited to see what you think of The Scorpio Races and The Raven Boys. I started The Devouring Gray on three separate occasions but couldn't get past the first few chapters, unfortunately.

    Also, I love the new look of your site!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I enjoyed The Raven Boys and that series. The others are less familiar to me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I hope you enjoy them and the hype is real. I tend to stay away from hyped books mainly because I've heard so much about them I don't have the urge to read them anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  14. SO HAPPY to see the raven boys on this list. You probably know how much I love that series by now, and the hype is definitely real for that one. My sister recently got me the scorpio races for my birthday and I cannot wait to read it too! And I really need to read Dry, another one sitting on my kindle.

    ReplyDelete