Book Spotlight: Visible (Ripple Series, Book 4) by Cidney Swanson

Salut, Beardies!

Although I’ve never been an athlete, I’m a lifelong lover of Olympic sports. Every Olympic year, I seem to fall in love with some new sport in which I’ll never be able to actually participate, and follow it with rapt attention…until I get distracted by a book. Such was the case a couple of weeks back, when a new email pinged into my inbox just as I was starting to decide that I should abandon all other pursuits and take up slopestyle snowboarding.

But who needs a snowboard when you have a book? The email that distracted me contained news of our pal Cidney Swanson’s return to the world of the Ripple Series, and that news drove the Olympic dreams right out of my head! No sooner was the book safely on my Kindle than snowboarding was forgotten—no doubt saving me much humiliation and a hundred broken bones, not to mention a fortune in hospital bills—and today’s Book Spotlight was born.

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Book Spotlight: Knights of Rilch (Serengard, Book 2) by Rachel O'Laughlin

Salut, Beardies!

Have you missed me? I can’t believe it’s been almost five months since I wrote my last Book Spotlight! The past months have included action, adventure, and enough high drama to fill a whole novel, but why would I bore you with the details when I have a fantastic book to tell you about?

This week, our friend Rachel O’Laughlin celebrates the publication of her second novel, Knights of Rilch, the follow up to last year’s Coldness of Marek, which we reviewed as part of a Fae Books blog tour. I’ve been waiting with bated breath for this book ever since I finished the first one, so I was stoked when Rachel asked me to be among the first reviewers for it!

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Book Spotlight: The Final Descent (The Monstrumologist, Book 4) by Rick Yancey

Hello again, Beardies!

Can anyone please tell me where the last seventeen months have gone? It’s hard to believe, but that’s how long it’s been since I presented our first-ever Book Spotlight on Rick Yancey’s Monstrumologist Series. At the time, I believed it to be a trilogy, and complete. I was saddened, as I always am at finishing a series I’ve loved, and (although my research at the time turned up nothing) I remember wondering if a fourth book could possibly be in the offing. As it turned out, I was right. Rick Yancey had, in fact, planned a four-book series, but just before the publication of The Isle of Blood, Simon and Schuster decided not to publish the fourth volume.

Simon and Schuster may have heard enough from Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop, but Mr. Yancey’s legions of fans had not. Outraged, the fans mounted a campaign to resurrect the series, reaching out to the publisher through letters, blogs, and social media. Shocked by the outpouring from the readers, Simon and Schuster reversed their decision, and Book Four, The Final Descent was finally released in September of this year. And so today, Book Spotlight comes full-circle. Before I start really waxing philosophical, though, let’s talk about The Final Descent!

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Book Spotlight: White Leaves (E.L.F., Book 1) by M. P. Ness

Salutations, Beardies!

It's an exciting day here at The Bearded Scribe! Today, we're honored to host author M.P. Ness and his debut novel, E.L.F. Volume 1: White Leaves. I ran across this title while I was visiting Joshua over Labor Day weekend. The Amazon preview got me hooked, so I jumped at the chance to participate in this blog tour. Not only did Mr. Ness give me the book for review; he was kind enough to let me interview him, as well. We have a lot to talk about today, so let's jump in, shall we?

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Book Spotlight: Far Far Away by Tom McNeal

Cheers, Beardies!

You wouldn’t know it from the temperature outside, but fall is definitely coming. Down in the wetland behind my house, the leaves are starting to change, and the new slate of library programs started this week. Fall has always been my favorite season, and for some reason, I always associate it with creepy fairy tales—the creepier, the better. Although not a fairy tale in the traditional sense, today’s book is definitely a fantastic, creepy read for the season.

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Book Spotlight: Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School, Book 1) by Gail Carriger

Salut, Beardies!

If you felt the earth shake this Labor Day weekend, it might have had something to do with the fact that your Bearded Scribe editors did something we haven’t done since our days together at Alma College—sat down and worked together in the same room. An epic reunion years in the making, it included scenic tours of beautiful Atlanta, writing, lots of coffee, and my very first taste of the awesomeness that is Dragon*Con. Seeing all the fantastic steampunk costumes at Dragon*Con put me in the mood to write about steampunk. Luckily, I recently finished a great steampunk read!

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Book Spotlight: Steel Lily (The Periodic Series, Book One) by Megan Curd

Cheers, Beardies!

Exciting things are happening here in Metro Detroit! I have the day off and there’s a new, independent coffee shop down the street from me. Those two things, plus fantastic fall-like weather, combined with the fact that we’re hosting Megan Curd and her fabulous novel, Steel Lily, today, mean that your Assistant Editor is happy as a clam. I could rhapsodize about the leather recliner, soft jazz, fireplace, and house special Mayan Mocha…but why would I do that when I have a truly fantastic book to tell you all about?

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Book Spotlight: The Coldness of Marek (Serengard: Book One) by Rachel O'Laughlin

Salut, Beardies!

A few weeks ago, we received an invitation from our friends at Fae Books to be part of a blog tour for a debut author, Rachel O’Laughlin. Rachel is currently touring the blogosphere with her novel, and she was kind enough to drop by The Bearded Scribe. Not only did Rachel grace us with an interview and giveaway for the tour, but she also gave me an advance copy of the book for review! I really enjoyed reading it and can’t wait to tell you about it, so let’s get to it!

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Book Spotlight: Mars Burning (Saving Mars, Book 4) by Cidney Swanson

Cheers, Beardies!

First of all, a happy first anniversary to the Mars Rover Curiosity, and the happiest of Publication Days to Cidney Swanson! Mars Burning, Book Four of the Saving Mars Series, is live on Amazon today, and will arrive at your favorite bookseller soon! I was lucky enough to get an ARC from Cidney  though, so I don’t have to wait to bring you this Spotlight!

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Book Spotlight: Losing Mars (Saving Mars, Book 3) by Cidney Swanson

Salut, Beardies!

There are two great pieces of news in Metro Detroit today—one, by the time you read this, the library’s 2013 Summer Reading Program will be history and my life will be back to what passes for normal. I love Summer Reading, but I look forward to the end of it the way schoolchildren anticipate summer vacation! The other great piece of news is that our dear friend, Cidney Swanson, has written a new book! Mars Burning, Book Four of the Saving Mars Series, will be published on August 5. To celebrate, we’ll be Spotlighting that book on the day it releases. First, though, here’s a long overdue Spotlight on Book 3, Losing Mars.

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Book Spotlght: Defying Mars by Cidney Swanson (Saving Mars Series, Book 2)

Greetings and salutations, Beardies!

Last summer, I had the honor of being a first reader of our friend Cidney Swanson’s Saving Mars. It was one of my favorite books of the year, and the reviewers over at Kirkus agreed with me, naming it one of the best books of 2012. In early December, Cidney asked me to be a first reader again, this time for the second book in the series, Defying Mars. I immediately said, "Yes!" Though I loved the book, I wanted to wait until I had time to do it justice before featuring it in a Book Spotlight, and that, unfortunately, took months. This post has been a long time coming, so let’s get to it!

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Book Spotlight: Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, Book 1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Good evening, Beardies!

As a librarian, I know there’s a hard and fast honor code when it comes to movie adaptations of books: Read it before you see it. Tonight’s Spotlight book, Beautiful Creatures, came out in the heyday of young adult paranormal romance. At the time, I was heartily sick of paranormal love stories and let this book pass me by without even a second thought. When the movie came out though, I became honor-bound to read it—especially when my friends gave me a copy for my birthday and made me promise to read it so we could go see the movie together.

Book Spotlight: Freakling by Lana Krumwiede

Well met and welcome back, Beardies!

I must begin this post with an apology for our absence of late.  Joshua is still steadily chipping away at his rewrites; his story gets stronger every day, but as we all know, writing is a process.  For my part, I've been busily planning programs and slinging books for my faithful minions at the library, and I recently took a little working vacation.  Vacation wouldn't be vacation without souvenirs for friends, though, so please consider this Book Spotlight (and several more to come) your treats from my trip.  :)  Back at the beginning of November, I attended the Young Adult Library Services Association's YA Literature Symposium in beautiful St. Louis, Missouri.  It was a wonderful weekend filled with new friends, awesome food, much learning about my profession and my writing craft, and best of all, tons of free books and authors to sign them!

Book Spotlight: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein Series by Kenneth Oppel

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Good Evening, Beardies,

Call me indecisive if you will, but making “Best of the Best” lists is my own personal brand of librarian kryptonite. I just can’t decide! Usually, the best book I’ve read this year is the one I’m reading right now. So, instead of making my own list, most of the time I read the books that are on everyone else’s lists. This Dark Endeavor, the first book of Kenneth Oppel’s The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein Series, was on a 2011 list from one of my librarian idols, Lynn Rutan. Along with colleague Cindy Dobrez, Lynn writes a blog called Bookends that I follow religiously. She called This Dark Endeavor “a steampunky Frankenstein retelling,” and from that description alone, I was hooked. Everything Lynn promised, the book delivered, and when the second book came out in August, the series skyrocketed to the top of my “Books to Spotlight” pile.

Book Spotlight: The Alchemyst (Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Book 1) by Michael Scott

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Good Evening, Beardies,

Back in May, we did an Author Spotlight and giveaway with Michael Scott, author of the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Series. The contest, and his subsequent interview, were very successful, so it didn't take us long to decide to do a collaborative series of Book Spotlights featuring each of the Flamel books. Unfortunately, finding time to collaboratively write the posts took much longer, but we finally did, and we couldn't be more excited to bring you the first in this series of Book Spotlights.

Book Spotlight: Bitterblue (The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy, Book 3) by Kristin Cashore

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Welcome back, Beardies!

Thank you for sticking with me through a week of posts about the Seven Kingdoms Trilogy!  I hope you have enjoyed the posts as much as I enjoyed reading the books—and then dissecting them from a writer's standpoint!

Today we reach the end of Seven Kingdoms—the final installment, Bitterblue.  Bitterblue is the sequel to Graceling, set eight years after the conclusion of that book and forty-eight years after the end of Fire.

Book Spotlight: Fire (The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy, Book 2) by Kristin Cashore

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Welcome back, Beardies!

Thanks for joining me for the second installment in my series of posts on Kristin Cashore’s Seven Kingdoms Trilogy. Today, we’re discussing Fire, the second book in the trilogy. First published in 2009, Fire is a prequel set forty years before the events of Graceling, in a neighboring kingdom called the Dells. Fire has only one character in common with Graceling, but as unorthodox as this may seem, it is a stroke of genius for the trilogy as a whole.

Book Spotlight: Graceling (The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy, Book 1) by Kristin Cashore

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Welcome back, Beardies!

Back at the beginning of May, Joshua asked me for a list of titles I’d like to feature for Book Spotlight. Bitterblue, the final installment in Kristin Cashore’s Seven Kingdoms Trilogy, had just come out, and the trilogy as a whole topped the list. I even owned all the books and had already read the first two. Because of all the reading I have to do for my job, though, often the books that I own fall to the bottom of the pile because I have all the time in the world, rather than the three weeks allowed by a library checkout, to read them. Thus, months passed, and a Spotlight on Seven Kingdoms never came. Then, one night, I asked Joshua for my weekly assignment, and he specifically asked me to read Bitterblue. Turns out, in his words, he’d “been waiting for that Spotlight with white knuckles.” Well, what could I do but oblige him?

Originally, I set out to do just one post on The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy, but quickly realized that the trilogy simply had too many strong points and too much depth for one post to do it justice. So, at Joshua’s encouragement, I have decided to cover this trilogy in three separate posts. The first installment of the trilogy, Graceling, hit shelves in 2008 with immediate success, bagging tons of literary hardware. It was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association; was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award for best young adult debut novel that year; and also snagged the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature.

Book Spotlight: Saving Mars by Cidney Swanson

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Salutations, Beardies!

Last weekend, I was in a state of bliss, enjoying a rare, quiet evening visiting my parents, watching the Olympics and looking forward to an uneventful week to come. My tranquility was shattered, however, by the arrival of the following text from Joshua.

Joshua: Would you like an assignment? Just forwarded you an email I received from Cidney with a proposal…

Book Spotlight: The Curse Workers Trilogy by Holly Black

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Hello Beardies,

Welcome back to Book Spotlight! It’s been far too long since I wrote one of these posts, but I’m glad to be back at it.

Tonight’s Book Spotlight is a trilogy that had me captivated from its first installment in 2010. Part fantasy, part crime thriller, with a strong shot of humor and a tie to a French fairy tale, this trilogy made me a believer in urban fantasy. Shortly after reading the first book, I spent an inordinate amount of time in a signing line to meet Holly Black at the ALA conference, and my autographed copy of White Cat is still among my treasured possessions. When the final book came out this spring, I couldn’t wait to tell you about this trilogy.