Building the Book Pile #185

Welcome to Building the Book Pile!  A Weekly meme inspired by Stacking the Shelves

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! 

Woo! It has been a long two weeks - I missed a Book Pile post last week so I will make up for it today with ALL the links :) 

Last week my family was in town for my birthday, it was so much fun but by the time everyone left last Sunday I was pooped - My hubby and I showered and put on PJs at 2pm and napped/ watched TV to re-coop from the madness. 

We did have a blast though, we showed them around Vermont and had a big party on Saturday afternoon, I LOVED it. 

Then this week I am back to work, so I took Monday to catch up on most of the piles on my desk, and Tuesday I helped out at an event we run so I was out of the office again... Wednesday - today I have just been keeping up with work, trying to clean my house (still) and desperately trying to do some post creation for Blog Ahead Mini

How have you been forth past 2 weeks? I hope everyone is well. Also take a look at all the giveaways I have going on :) Yay free stuff :) 

  
 I  hope that all of YOU had a wonderful week!

  Giveaways on Cover2CoverBlog!

  

Coming up on the Blog... 

Recent Reads: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Adult)
Blog Tour & Review: I Wanna Be a Great Big Dinosaur by Heath McKenzie
Armchair BEA Posts Including...
~Introductions 
~Comics and Beyond Blog
~Giveaway Day! 

 

      

  Books Received this Week 

     
 

Ballet Cat: The Totally Secret Secret by Bob Shea - Audiobook from Librarything Early Reviewers and Recorded Books

The Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto - Won from Rock Star Book Tours Blog Tour

Have you missed anything lately?

Week of April 25-29th 

Early Reader Review: I Hate Fairyland: Madly Ever After (Volume 1) by Skottie Young (GN) - 5 stars
Recent Reads: The Glass Arrow by Kristin Simmons (YA) - DNF
Waiting on Wednesday: Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch (YA)
Monthly Re-Cap: April 2016
 IT'S MY BIRTHDAY Giveaway!

Week of May 2-6th
May 2016 TBR Pile
Blog Blast: Excerpt and Giveaway: The Lost Twin by Sophie Cleverly (MG)
Recent Reads: The Ches Queen Enigma (Stoker and Holmes #3) by Colleen Gleason (YA) - 4 stars 
Blog Ahead Mini - Progress
 




Comment and leave me a link to your Round-up/ STS/ Weekly...anything, post and I will happily stop by and say hello!

 Happy Reading!

Mini Blog Ahead Progess

The Goal: Increase your number of "Scheduled Posts" by 15 posts.

(ex. If you start with 0 scheduled you end with 15 scheduled. If you start with 15 scheduled you end with 30 scheduled)

The Dates:  May 1-15

 My goal is 15 or more posts :)

 

 Here is what is scheduled so far:

1. Building the Book Pile #185 (will go up 5/8)
2. Spotlight: The Lost Twin (already went live too though)
3. Waiting on Wednesday
4. Waiting on Wednesday
5. Waiting on Wednesday 
6. Armchair BEA Giveaway Day post
7. Mini Review: Ballet Cat (will go live 5/10)
8. Mini Review: Harley Quinn #26
9. Mini Review: Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys #1
10. Review: Curious Incident (went live 5/9)
11. Mini Review: Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad #1
12.  Armchair BEA Intro post (will go up 5/11)
13. Armchair BEA Beyond the Blog post (up 5/13) 
14.  Building the Book Pile #186 (will go up 5/15)
15.  June TBR Pile
16. 
    

Recent Reads: The Chess Queen Enigma by Colleen Gleason

Source: Librarything Early Readers Program and Chronicle Books in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

The Chess Queen Enigma by Colleen Gleason
Series: Stoker and Holmes #3
Publisher:  Chronicle Books
Publication Date:  October 6, 2015

 

Format:  Hardback
Rating:
 


 


Goodreads Synopsis: 

And then she mouthed a word at me—an unmistakable word that told me everything I needed to know. “Checkmate.”

Evaline Stoker & Mina Holmes have reluctantly agreed to act as social chaperones and undercover bodyguards for Princess Lurelia of Betrovia, who has arrived in London to deliver a letter that details the secret location of an ancient chess queen that’s been missing for centuries. But when the letter—which will heal a centuries-old rift between England and the Betrovians—is stolen out from under Evaline and Mina’s watchful eyes, the two girls are forced into a high-stakes race to ensure they find the chess queen before anyone else does…including their foe, the Ankh. For the chess queen is not only a historic symbol of a woman’s political power, but it has literal power as well—the queen will unlock the chessboard, revealing both treasures and ancient secrets the Ankh would kill to possess. It will take Mina’s smarts and Evaline’s strength to beat the thief and untangle this mystery before it is too late.

Review: 
ARG! This books was so frustrating, but in a good way. Stoker and Holmes have been after the Anka since book one in this series and in this installment she makes another appearance and the suspense was killing me! After the ending of book 2 I wanted to jump into book 3 immediately but had a few other things to read, so when I was able to pick this one up I thought I would devour it. I have to say that these books have a lot of build up - if you are familiar with classic Holmes and mysteries they tend to drag a bit, then BOOM - all the answers appear almost immediately and this is the case with this series but there are also a few minor surprises throughout as well.

Stoker and Holmes are both getting used to working together and you can tell as the point of view alternates that they both still have peeve with the other but are learning to adapt their styles to work well together. I really like their growing friendship. 

I also really liked this story, the girls are tasked with keeping a princess safe but all the while trying to find the location of a long lost chess queen piece. It was highly entertaining and as the series progresses I like that the girls are developing relationships with other players in their mysterious locale.

Overall I really enjoyed the book, I plan to keep reading this series as it progresses and so I guess that is a win.   


 

Blog Blast: Excerpt and Giveaway! The Lost Twin by Sophie Cleverly

The Lost Twin by Sophie Cleverly
Series: Scarlet and Ivy #1
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Publication Date:  May 3, 2016
ISBN 9781492633396 

Cover2CoverBlog Review Coming Soon... 

 

Barnes & Noble / Apple

BAM  /IndieBound

 

Synopsis: 

Ivy, I pray that it’s you reading this. And if you are, well, I suppose you’re the new me…

When shy Ivy’s troublemaking twin Scarlet vanishes from Rookwood boarding school, Ivy is invited to “take her place.”  But when Ivy arrives, she discovers the school’s true intention; she has to pretend to be Scarlet. She must think like Scarlet, act like Scarlet, become Scarlet.  What on earth happened to the real Scarlet, and why is the school trying to keep it a secret?

Luckily for Ivy, Scarlet isn’t about to disappear without a fight. She’s left pieces of her journal carefully hidden all over the school for Ivy to find. Ivy’s going to figure out what happened to Scarlet. She’s got to.

But the staff of Rookwood is always watching, and they’ll do anything to keep their secrets buried…

The car slid through a pair of enormous gates. Beside them were pillars topped with stone rooks in flight, their wings spread wide and claws grasping at the air.

A long drive snaked its way up to the school, through a cloak of trees and past what looked like a lake shimmering in the distance. We came to a halt, and I heard the driver’s feet hit the gravel as he climbed out.

“Watch your step, Miss,” he said, pulling open the door. I smiled up at him as best I could as I clambered out with my bag.

Rookwood School loomed over me, huge and imposing. The bright-green trees that lined the drive looked lost in the gloom of the school. The walls were stone—the highest parts blackened by years of chimney smoke. Dark pillars stretched toward the sky in front of me, and crenellations framed the vast slate roof.

It looked like a castle. Or a prison.

It took all my strength not to turn and run back down the length of the drive. Of course, even if I had, I would surely be caught and punished.

Rooks flew past overhead, their loud caws mixing with the distant shrieks of girls playing hockey.

“Don’t just stand there gaping, girl.” Miss Fox was looking at me like I was an unexpected slug on the sole of her shoe. “Follow me, unless you think you have something better to do.”

“Yes, Miss… No, Miss.”

She turned round, muttering something that I couldn’t hear.

I followed her up the front steps, her sharp shoes clacking and pockets jangling. The front doors were huge and despite being ancient, they swung open without even the smallest creak when she pushed through them. Inside there was a double-height room with a gallery running all the way around. It smelled strongly of floor polish.

In the middle sat an oak desk and a somewhat lost-looking secretary. She was shuffling papers in what I thought was an attempt to look busier than she actually was.

Miss Fox approached the desk and leaned on it with both hands.

“Good afternoon, madam,” the secretary said quietly as Miss Fox’s shadow fell across her.

“Some would say so,” replied Miss Fox, glowering. “I have a child here. Scarlet Gray.” I started to correct her, but she waved an uncaring hand in my face and carried on speaking. “She will begin attending classes tomorrow. Sign her in on the register, please.”

Miss Fox must have been the only person who could pronounce the word “please” like it actually meant “right now.”

“D-do you want me to escort her to her room, ma’am?” asked the secretary.

Miss Fox blinked. “No, I am going to take her to my office to…fill her in. Get her signed up.”

She strode away toward the corridor, and I hurried after her. I risked a backward glance at the secretary, who stared at me with wide eyes.

We went past rows of doors, each with a little window revealing the class studying inside. The girls were sat in rows, silent and serious. I was used to a quiet school, but in here, there was an air of…wrongness.

May 2016 TBR Pile

So in 2015 I wanted to hold myself more accountable for my ridiculous TBR pile and I started doing a Monthly TBR post .... only it didn't last very long, I think I only posted for the first 2 months of the year :/

Now that we are in 2016, I really want to try again, so here is my Monthly TBR...

 
This month is the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge so many of the books I read this month will be ARCs/ Review copies that I have sitting around that need to be read :) Below are the ones that I want to get to first but I hope to add a bunch more as the month goes on. The Curious... is my book club book so I have to read that too :)