Lisa’s Looking Forward To #65 – June 16th, 2020

Posted June 10, 2020 by Lisa Mandina in LLFT / 22 Comments

Once again I’ll be joining up with the Can’t Wait Wednesday posts hosted by Wishful Endings.  With five weeks in June, or at least five Tuesdays, publishing day, it seems they’ve spread out the books for the last three weeks a little more evenly than the first two weeks of the month.

From my ARC list for June 16th, 2020:

Besides the adorable cover, it sounds like such a cute story. Exactly what I’m reading and enjoying a lot of right now.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: her boyfriend Mason is sweet and supportive, she and her best friend Emily plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she even finds time to clock shifts phonebanking at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio, who gets under her skin from the moment he picks up the phone.

Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job—unsure what his future holds, or if he even cares. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.

But things don’t end there.…

That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more. Across state lines and phone lines, Meg and Colby form a once-in-a-lifetime connection. But in the end, are they just too different to make it work?

You Say It First is a propulsive, layered novel about how sometimes the person who has the least in common with us can be the one who changes us most. 

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

Once again, look at that cover! It is to die for! Another really good sounding fantasy, although my brain doesn’t do well with those right now. Maybe soon I’ll be back to reading them.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Holly Black, this enthralling fantasy adventure follows a teenage girl chosen to be the human sacrifice in a deadly game between three heirs who will do anything for the crown.

Zahru has long dreamed of leaving the kingdom of Orkena and having the kinds of adventures she’s only ever heard about in stories. But as a lowly Whisperer, her power to commune with animals means that her place is serving in the royal stables until the day her magic runs dry.

All that changes when the ailing ruler invokes the Crossing: a death-defying race across the desert, in which the first of his heirs to finish—and take the life of a human sacrifice at the journey’s end—will ascend to the throne and be granted unparalleled abilities.

With all of the kingdom abuzz, Zahru leaps at the chance to change her fate if just for a night by sneaking into the palace for a taste of the revelry. But the minor indiscretion turns into a deadly mistake when she gets caught up in a feud between the heirs and is forced to become the Crossing’s human sacrifice. Zahru is left with only one hope for survival: somehow figuring out how to overcome the most dangerous people in the world.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

If you’ve followed me for long, you know I love when the setting of a book is the circus, so this one intrigued me right away. And that cover! Wow!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A queer retelling of “Snow White and Rose Red” in which teenage twins battle evil religious extremists to save their loves and their circus family.

Twins Rosie and Ivory have grown up at their ringmaster mother’s knee, and after years on the road, they’re returning to Port End, the closest place to home they know. Yet something has changed in the bustling city: fundamentalist flyers paper the walls and preachers fill the squares, warning of shadows falling over the land. The circus prepares a triumphant homecoming show, full of lights and spectacle that could chase away even the darkest shadow. But during Rosie’s tightrope act, disaster strikes.

In this lush, sensuous novel interwoven with themes of social justice and found family, it’s up to Ivory and her magician love—with the help of a dancing bear—to track down an evil priest and save their circus family before it’s too late.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

So, even though I’m personally not into K-Pop, I totally get the appeal, I mean I was, still am, a huge fan of New Kids on the Block. So I get it. And this book just sounds like fun.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The world of K-Pop has never met a star like this. Debut author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun, thoughtful rom-com celebrating confidence and body positivity—perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Julie Murphy.

Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.

She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else.

When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho.

But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

Now this says it came out last summer as an ebook, but just now as a paperback? Not sure. But another awesome cover, and sounds like it could be a good read, kind of similar to today’s world.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The Sleeping Syndrome has returned after a six-month hiatus. This time, it’s popped up in New York, and it’s wiped out an entire homeless shelter. The same night of the outbreak — thousands of miles away — Harper, a seventeen-year-old girl, finds herself face-to-face with a glowing figure in the desert outskirts of her neighborhood.

As the world goes on high-alert from the Syndrome, Harper is kidnapped and taken to the Base of Ki, a massive dome with a sheening white city and fantastic technology … built by beings from another solar system.

There, she must form cross-species alliances to save her friends, family, and the human race before she loses all chance of returning to Earth.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

Final Thoughts:

So I had 5 to share this week, one more was on my list, but changed to August. Are any of these on your TBR, or have you already read them? If so, which do you recommend? Leave me a link to your post in your comment and I’ll be sure to return the visit!

And while you’re here, if you have time, stop by my May Wrap-Up post and enter my giveaway for either a book from my giveaway stack if you’re in the US, or a book from The Book Depository for my international followers.

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22 responses to “Lisa’s Looking Forward To #65 – June 16th, 2020

  1. I read You Say It First last week. It’s a bit angsty, but I loved the idea behind it. That sometimes people with different ideologies can benefit from one another.

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’m only keeping up probably if I have the ARC or when I do these posts on any changes in dates. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. More for my wish list, I see. 🙂 I really like the sound of You Say It First. I’m also really interested in Kinder Poison and The Circus Rose. I hope you have a great rest of the week, Lisa.

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