Waiting on Heartless

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Heartless

By: Marissa Meyer

Expected Publication: November 8th 2016 by Feiwel and Friends

416 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Long before she was the terror of Wonderland — the infamous Queen of Hearts — she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the yet-unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend and supply the Kingdom of Hearts with delectable pastries and confections. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next Queen.

At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the king's marriage proposal, she meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship.

Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

I still need to read Winter, but I've loved Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series. So reading her next book is a given. What are you waiting on this week? Let me know!

Top Ten Music Themed Books

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Music Themed Books.

Ok so I really wanted to do a cooler topic like Top Ten Songs That Should Be Books or something like that, but I'm lazy these days and topics like that take a bit more thought.

1. Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover - probably THE best music themed book ever.
2. Lick (Stage Dive, # 1) by Kylie Scott - a series about a band.
3. Jesse's Girl (Hundred Oaks, # 6) by Miranda Kenneally - both main characters are musicians.
4. Mayhem (Mayhem, # 1) by Jamie Shaw - another series about a band.
5. Jet (Marked Men, # 2) by Jay Crownover - Jet is in a band plus a music producer.
6. Sinner (Wolves of Mercy Falls, # 4) by Maggie Stiefvater - Cole is also in a band.
7. V is for Virgin (V is for Virgin, # 1) by Kelly Oram - Kyle is amusician.
8. If I Stay (If I Stay, # 1) by Gayle Forman - both Mia and Adam are musicians.
9. The Sea of Tranqulity by Katja Millay - if I remember correctly Nastya played piano.
10. Slammed (Slammed, # 1) by Colleen Hoover - music of the Avett Brothers is included.

What are your top ten music themed books? Let me know!

The Heart of Betrayal - Review

The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles, # 2)

By: Mary E Pearson

Published: July 7th 2015 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

496 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Source: Borrowed from my sister-in-law

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape . . . and even less of being together.

Desperate to save her life, Lia’s erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komisar that she has a magical gift, and the Komisar's interest in Lia is greater than either Kaden or Lia foresaw.

Meanwhile, the foundations of Lia's deeply-held beliefs are crumbling beneath her. Nothing is straightforward: there's Rafe, who lied to her, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom she always believed to be barbarians but whom she now realizes are people who have been terribly brutalized by the kingdoms of Dalbreck and Morrighan. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her very sense of self, Lia will have to make powerful choices that affect her country, her people . . . and her own destiny.

I remember Holly saying that The Heart of Betrayal had a slow beginning. I've said it before, but this year (written in 2015) has been a struggle for me reading wise. And so picking up something that is even associated with the word "slow" has been scary for me. However, I loved The Kiss of Deception. Of course, I'd get around to The Heart of Betrayal eventually. And I didn't find it slow at all. That's even with having to put it down for long stretches at a time.

The Kiss of Deception ended with Lia and Rafe both making it to Venda as prisoners. The problem is, Venda doesn't take prisoners. Both are subject to death at any moment, but luckily enough, both are able to convince the Komizar that they can be of use to him and his agenda of gaining more and more power.

While The Kiss of Deception definitely had an edge of a love triangle, The Heart of Betrayal has a much more determined feel for where Lia's feelings lie. As the description shows: things are quite complicated. Turns out Rafe isn't who Lia thought he was. He lied to her. But I was annoyed at how indignant she was about this considering that she lied to him just as much. Kaden is an assassin sent to kill her. Granted, he's chosen not to do so, but instead has turned her over to the Komizar as prisoner. Of course, she still has a deep connection to both men, and deception and betrayal are just beginning.

Lia's always believed Venda to be a land of savage people, but what she learns while being a prisoner among them is that there are always the good and the bad with every nation of people. Some deserve the name savage. Others not only embraced her but offered her assistance at risk of their own lives.

I will say that The Heart of Betrayal had a different feel to me than The Kiss of Deception. I mean not an entirely different feel, but definitely different. Of course, The Heart of Betrayal doesn't have the reader as in the dark as The Kiss of Deception, but there were still plenty of twists to keep me on my toes. There were a couple of places where I could see Lia going in both directions offered to her so I really wasn't sure what path she would end up taking. I guess The Heart of Betrayal felt a little more political to me. The politics of the nations certainly came into play but wasn't fully the entire focus of the book either.

As with The Kiss of Deception, I really enjoyed Mary E Pearson's writing style. My favorite quotes:

-"Trust me, Princess," he whispered. "There's always more to take."

-Now I understood why Sven preferred soldiering to love. It was easier to understand and far less likely to get you killed.

-"A charitable act is no reason to sell your soul to someone."

-"I don't play games, Kaden. I wage wars. Don't make me wage one on you."

-"Let me make this perfectly clear to you. Though some might seek to make it seem otherwise, I am not a bride to be bartered away to another kingdom, nor a prize of war, nor a mouthpiece for your Komizar. I am not a chip in a card game to be mindlessly thrown into the center of the pot, nor one to be kept in the tight fist of a greedy opponent. I am a player seated at the table alongside everyone else, and from this day forward, I will play my own hand as I see fit."

I very much enjoyed The Heart of Betrayal. I was worried in a few places that things wouldn't go the way that I wanted, but I was satisfied with how everything went down. And I'm definitely curious to see how things will wrap up with The Beauty of Darkness. The Heart of Betrayal gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read The Heart of Betrayal? What did you think? Let me know!

Sunday Post - 183

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

Happy Valentine's Day to all! This week was kind of a roller coaster. We had the electrician come by on Monday to look at rewiring our house. Husband took the day off, and it actually felt nice enough outside to go for a walk. Although it was a bit windy, Baby Girl really seemed to enjoy it. The electrician was back on Wednesday and Thursday to actually work. They decided we didn't need an entire rewire, but we did need all new plugs and light switches. And come to find out a plug in every single room of the house had burned out...like potential fire. God really took care of us on that one. But because of nursing and nap schedules, I didn't think it was the best idea for Baby Girl and I to be home while all of that was going on so we went to my mom and dad's house to hang out for those two days. But that meant relatively late nights those days. Plus she was NOT sleeping the best at night or during naps this week. Friday it was nice to be home but we still had furniture pulled away from the walls where they had been working and I wanted to clean behind the furniture since it's so rarely pulled out like that. No new books again this week.

THIS PAST WEEK:

Monday: Review of Faking Normal by Courtney C Stevens (5 Stars)
Tuesday: Top Ten Valentine's Day Books
Wednesday: Waiting on PS I Like You by Kasie West
Thursday: Review of Beautiful Me: Believing God's Truth About You by Stasi Eldredge (4.5 Stars)

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles, # 2) by Mary E Pearson
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday
Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday

Don’t forget to sign up for the 2016 Series Enders Reading Challenge! You have until December 15, 2016 to sign up. Each month there will be a giveaway for those participating with an end of the year giveaway too! Click on the picture below or the link above to find out more!

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!

Beautiful Me: Believing God's Truth About You - Review

Beautiful Me: Believing God's Truth About You

By: Stasi Eldredge

Published: January 1st 2016 by David C. Cook

240 pages

Genre: Nonfiction, Spiritual, Religious, Inspirational

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--In this ninety-day devotional, Stasi Eldredge takes excerpts from her book Free to Be Me and pairs them with prayers, Scripture, and positive declarations. Day by day, she turns you back to the truth that God sees you as beautiful beyond measure—and he delights in dreaming big dreams for your life!

I cannot say enough good things about Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge. That book blew me away. So when I saw this devotional available for review on NetGalley, I had to snatch it up. It took me longer than it should have to start reading it because I was reading a different devotional at the time. That being said, daily devotionals aren't my favorite types of books. I mean I read them and enjoy them, but I'd really rather dive into a book and read large sections at a time and take breaks when I feel like it rather than read one small section or chapter per day. And so yeah, that's what I did with Beautiful Me too. I'd read like 20 or so devotionals at one time and then take a break from the book for a week or two.

Regardless of how I read books like this, Beautiful Me is an outstanding devotional. I do recommend that you read Stasi's other work--specifically Captivating--before digging into a book like this one. It's not necessary, but she goes so much deeper into some of the same topics within Captivating than she does in the devotional style that she uses in Beautiful Me. Either way, I just kept thinking about the many other women in my life that I know and love that I just know could benefit from this book--even my 12 year old niece. Any woman that might be struggling with confidence issues when it comes to her beauty and self-worth...well that woman could benefit from this book (which is just about everyone, right?).

As I did with Captivating, I found myself highlighting up a storm in Beautiful Me. I wish I could share with you every single section that I highlighted, but that would be too much (what's below is probably too much) and at that point you would really just be better off reading the book yourself. Still, here are my favorite quotes:

-You actually can't be anyone else--that's why it's so exhausting and unsatisfying to pretend. God made you you on purpose.

-Jesus came for your heart. To ransom, rescue, and restore the true you. He hasn't been moving heaven and earth through all eternity so that you would behave yourself. Fit into the crowd. Mind your manners. No. He wants to woo and win your heart for himself so that you will love him with it and live your life from it.

-When we have a change of heart on the inside, it manifests itself on the outside, not the other way around.

-Though my past has shaped me, I am not my past. Though my failures and the failure of others have had an effect on who I am, they do not define me. Jesus has won my victory!

-Our worth is not based on what we do, which life path we choose, or what we believe. Our worth is inherent in the fact that we are image-bearers of the living God.

-Nothing--nothing--undoes the harmful effects of suffering as our choice to worship Jesus in the midst of it. That doesn't mean we must give thanks to God for every wicked, evil, hard, painful, excruciating, grief-filled thing that happens in our lives. That would be calling evil good. No, my sister, what the Scripture says is to give thanks to God in every situation, not for every situation.

-We can choose to let suffering soften us or harden us. We can choose whether we will allow it to make us more compassionate or let our hearts become jealous of others. We can choose whether we will love Jesus in it or resent him for it. Only one set of choices will make us more beautiful.

-The battle is waged and won in our thought life: in your mind and in your heart.

-In our inner worlds, we feel alone. And being alone is the first thing that God named as "not good" (Genesis 2:18).

-You don't want to give to young men the power to tell you who you are--how valuable, how lovely, or how wanted. They don't have the right to validate you as a woman.

-You are made in God's image, right? Down to your feminine core, you express something about the heart of God to the world. And what does every woman's heart long for? To be loved. To be chose. To be a priority to someone. Think of how deeply this runs in you. Now you know something central about the heart of God. He wants that too.

-The world does not need yet another young woman who despises the lovely creation that she is. God does not long for another girl who rejects herself and, by extension, him. The world needs a woman who is thankful for how God has made her, trusts that he is transforming her, and actually enjoys who she is. It's a good thing to like who you are. God likes you! We get to like ourselves too! When you like yourself, you are free to enjoy others, and in your presence people experience an invitation to become and enjoy who they truly are as well.

-In Christ, I am no longer unclean. I have been cleansed. I am no longer a sinner. I am a saint. I am no longer unwanted. I am sought after. I am no longer ugly. I am beautiful. I am no longer guilty. I am blameless. I am no longer under condemnation. I am innocent. I am no longer in bondage. I am free. I am no longer alone. I am loved.

-Sin, failure, or your past does not define you. You are forever and only defined by the finished work of Jesus Christ. You are a daughter. A bride. And you are beautiful.

Beautiful Me was a highly enjoyable and even beautiful at times--go figure. I think that this devotional can be beneficial to all kinds of women with a myriad of different struggles. And even all different ages, from the pre-teens who understand feeling like they don't fit in to the elderly who may have a lifetime of hurts and scars that need to be redeemed. I'd easily give Beautiful Me 4.5 Stars. Have you read Beautiful Me? What did you think? Let me know!

*Side Note: I don't like the fact that Stasi Eldredge chose to use paraphrase translations on occasion for the Scripture used. Paraphrase translations can sometimes significantly alter the meaning of a particular passage. And as always, anytime I review a Spiritual book I have to recommend that you always go to the Bible to compare any of the author's thoughts against what the Bible actually says.