REVIEW: THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS BY MARIEKE NIJKAMP.

Title: This is Where it Ends
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Series: Standalone
Edition: Paperback
Publication: January 5, 2016 by Sourcebooks
Source: ARC provided by the publisher
Pages: 285
Genre: Realistic Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary

Synopsis:

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE:

Amazon 🔼 Barnes and Noble 🔼 Book Depository

When I learned that this book is about a school shooting, I know it is going to be a tough read (emotionally). I've wanted a galley of this one for ages but just can't get a finished copy come release date. When Sourcebooks sent me a galley, I immediately tore through its pages. And it blew my mind away and in one way or another, marked my soul.

I don't even know how to review this because I feel like this is such a critical topic to touch base with but I loved everything. The author was able to expound the connection of each POV and I am truly heartbroken by Tyler. Not only with the lives he took (OMG) but how broken he absolutely was. This has been said over and over everywhere, mental illness should not be taken lightly. This story didn't only show us in words how this kind of tragedy is terribly real but also demonstrates how lives can be taken that easily. I could say so much about how the government should do this and that, but it won't just make the cut at this point. The school shootings I've seen on the news these past couple of years just blasted every bit of my heart to pieces, there are just no words to describe the horror, pain and every terrible things these crimes inflicted to everyone's lives. To the heroes, thank you for your courage and selflessness.

LGBT was represented in this novel unbiased and the normal day-to-day rivalry relationship of siblings. There are characters here that I fell deeply in love with along the way that I kept holding the book tighter and tighter as if it would save them. It was just so SO painful to see a lot of characters go and watch their loved ones break apart.

This is Where it Ends is a novel that is irrevocably haunting. This novel, if anything, is composed of hope and bravery that in our darkest moments, only the truest kind of love can shine the brightest.

Thank you so much Sourcebooks for sending in the ARC!

"We're more than our mistakes. We're more than what people expect of us."

"You can't always keep your loved ones with you. You can't always settle your life in one place. The world was made to change. But as long as you cherish the memories and make new ones along on the way, no matter where you are, you'll always be at home."

"Dad always told me there are more stories in the universe than stars in the sky. And in every story, there's the light of hope. That's why the seniors sent lanterns up to the sky-to make sure the darkness is never absolute."

"Together we could be so strong, but the gun has made us individuals."

BLOG TOUR REVIEW (18): TELL ME THREE THINGS BY JULIE BUXBAUM.

The Global Blog Tour for Julie BuxBaum's TELL ME THREE THINGS is hosted by the publisher: Penguin Random House International.

Title: Tell Me Three Things
Author: Julie BuxBaum
Series: Standalone
Edition: Paperback
Publication: April 5, 2016 by Delacorte Press
Source: ARC provided by the publisher
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

What if the person you need the most is someone you’ve never met?
Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE:

ISBN: 9780399552939

Amazon 🔼 Barnes and Noble 🔼 Book Depository 🔼 Fullybooked 🔼 National Bookstore

I just finished reading Tell Me Three Things last night and I was so happy about so many things. This book made me laugh, nervous, anxious and emotional. Buxbaum wrote a book that tackles important stuff such as loss, abandonment, adjustment, peer pressure, bullying, slut shaming and grief among others. It was not just a mere book about high school romance but it showcases how people handle things differently. I'm so happy I get to go back and reminisce my high school life from Jessie's perspective and OMG, THE FEELS ARE TOO MUCH I CAN'T HANDLE ANYTHING ANYMORE.

I kid you not, this book you wouldn't be able to predict. When I was almost done with the book, I was still unable to guess who is who. Like who is SN. My god. Who the hell is this swoony, adorable SN? I know that there are just a lot of hints thrown in there, but I just can't wrap my mind around it because it was just too good to be true. But by the time I learned about who SN was, I almost died because the feels exploded I couldn't stop shrieking! It was what I hoped for and more. Also, the title and the cover were both significant to the story and everything about these two things are CUTENESS OVERLOAD.

The way Buxbaum wrote Jessie's love for her mother and her issues with her dad just brought tears to my eyes. I mean, it just hit home. It made me want to hug my parents and become the best daughter for them. I also appreciated how Buxbaum made Jessie's character SO freaking relatable because come on, a little rebellion is a part of our teen years. It happens in real life and everything about this book is raw -- in a sense that it made you wonder if you are reading or if you are watching someone else's life unfold in front of you because this happens. I like that about my contemporary, how strong my bond to it and how much I could relate to the entirety of its story. That for me makes a book an absolutely good book.

Tell me Three Things is such a thrilling contemporary novel. It is full of real life experiences, heart-wrenching lessons and knee-buckling romance! This book is really a feel-good, swoon-worthy novel everyone should devour!

Thank you very much Penguin Random House International inviting me to be a part of this Global Blog Tour and for sending in the ARC!

"Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they're only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost."

"Not knowing the right thing to is not an excuse for not doing anything."

"There is nothing lonelier than a hand on a glass. Maybe because it's so rarely reciprocated."

"Some things are harder to say than others, no matter how much truer."

Check out the Global Blog Tour stops below:

Marjolein in Books 🔼 April 5

The Nocturnal Library 🔼 April 6

Desires and Mishaps 🔼 April 7

Oops, I Read a Book Again! 🔼 April 8

Beatrice Learns to Read 🔼 April 9

The Lifelong Bookworm 🔼 April 10

Musings of the Bookaholic Fairies 🔼 April 11

Home of a Book Lover 🔼 April 12

Jasmine Pearl Reads 🔼 April 13

Bibliophile Soprano 🔼 April 14

When Books Defy Gravity 🔼 April 15

Amaterasu Reads 🔼 April 16

Defiantly Deviant 🔼 April 17

Stay Bookish 🔼 April 18

The Soul Sisters 🔼 April 19

Tine's Reviews 🔼 April 20

Book Blogging with Ricah 🔼 April 21

MY STOP 🔼 April 22

Mr. Book Wonder 🔼 April 23

Celestial Pages 🔼 April 24

Bookwormaniac 🔼 April 25

STACKING THE SHELVES (74): THE GALLEYS EDITION.

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews that showcases newly acquired books or goodies we bought, received or borrowed during the week.

I acquired several ARCs these past several weeks and I couldn't be any happier because I got most of what I am most looking forward to! I also bought some faux-flowers last night for my IG posts. This photo is currently my wallpaper and I can't stop staring at it! This is probably my new favorite bookish photo! I loveeeeee it!

FOR REVIEW:
🔼 The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi *eARC
🔼 Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands #1) by Alwyn Hamilton (4-star review)
🔼 This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
🔼 Everyone We've Been by Sarah Everett
🔼 My Unscripted Life by Lauren Morrill

GIFTED:
🔼 The Mirror King (The Orphan Queen #2) by Jodi Meadows
🔼 Queen of Hearts (Queen of Hearts Saga #1) by Colleen Oakes
🔼 Sinner (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #4) by Maggie Stiefvater

Thank you forever to: Polaris, Kai of Amaterasu Reads, Penguin Random House International, Sourcebooks Fire, HarperCollins International and St. Martin's Press!

APRIL 2016 RELEASE PICKS.

There are four titles I am so excited to get my copies of this month. I know people are extremely stoked about The Raven King and The Rose and the Dagger but I stopped reading Stiefvater's after Dream Thieves, plus I haven't read the latter's first book so they are not listed in this post. I got advance copies of these except for When We Collided. I am 100 pages in on The Mirror King and hopefully I could finish it this weekend! I love The Orphan Queen so much so I cannot wait to dive back in to this universe.

🔼 The Art of Not Breathing (26th) 🔼

🔼 When We Collided (5th) 🔼

🔼 The Star-Touched Queen (26th) 🔼

🔼 The Mirror King (5th) 🔼

WHAT TITLE/S ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT?
Also, have you noticed how glorious these covers are?