Lisa’s Looking Forward To #80 – September 29th, 2020

Posted September 23, 2020 by Lisa Mandina in LLFT / 18 Comments

Once again I’ll be joining up with the Can’t Wait Wednesday posts hosted by Wishful Endings.  This is a five week month, and unusually there are quite a few this last week of the month.

From my ARC list for September 29th, 2020:

This is an ARC I have, one of my next few reads, so be looking for my review next week!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A Korean American teen is thrust into the competitive, technicolor world of K-pop, from Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of Girls Generation.

What would you give for a chance to live your dreams?

For seventeen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Six years ago, she was recruited by DB Entertainment—one of Seoul’s largest K-pop labels, known for churning out some of the world’s most popular stars. The rules are simple: Train 24/7. Be perfect. Don’t date. Easy right?

Not so much. As the dark scandals of an industry bent on controlling and commodifying beautiful girls begin to bubble up, Rachel wonders if she’s strong enough to be a winner, or if she’ll end up crushed… Especially when she begins to develop feelings for K-pop star and DB golden boy Jason Lee. It’s not just that he’s charming, sexy, and ridiculously talented. He’s also the first person who really understands how badly she wants her star to rise. 

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

While I didn’t get to read the book, I loved the movie for Five Feet Apart, and so this book by the same authors sounds just as good! I think I’ve seen some good reviews as well. And again, beautiful cover!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.

Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.

As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.

And he’s right.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

This is a Wattpad book, so I really do enjoy supporting those authors. And I know it is one that my students will really probably want to read as well.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

It only takes one moment to change your life forever

After her mother’s deportation last year, all Soledad “Sol” Gutierrez wants is for her life to go back to normal. Everything’s changed―new apartment, new school, new family dynamic―and Sol desperately wants to fit in. When she joins her community college’s history club, it comes with an odd initiation process: break into Westray’s oldest house and steal . . . a fork?

There’s just one problem: while the owners of the house aren’t home, their grandson Ethan is, and when he catches Sol with her hand in the kitchen drawer, she barely escapes with the fork intact. This one chance encounter irrevocably alters her life, and Sol soon learns that sometimes fitting in isn’t as important as being yourself―even if that’s the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

I really love the sound of this one. I know I saw someone post about reading this just recently, but don’t know if I’ve seen any reviews yet.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A gripping YA novel about two strangers struggling to survive a massive California earthquake
 
When a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits California, Ruby is trapped in a laundromat with Charlie, a boy she had her first conversation with only moments before. She can’t see anything beyond the rubble that she’s trapped beneath, but she’s sure someone will come save them soon. As the hours and days tick by, Ruby and Charlie struggle to stay hopeful—and stay alive. Ruby has only Charlie’s voice and her memories to find the hope to keep holding on. Will the two make it out alive? And if they do, what will they have lost to the earthquake? Riveting, tense, and emotionally complex, Aftershocks weaves together the terror and hope of a catastrophic event while showing the ways that disasters can change and unite us.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

So this one is compared to some awesome books in the blurb, but I haven’t really seen it around much, so will have to wait and check out some reviews.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

A deadly competition for the throne will determine more than just the fate of the empire in this riveting duology opener, perfect for fans of The Hunger GamesAurora Rising, and Three Dark Crowns.

Alyssa Farshot has spent her whole life trying to outrun her family legacy. Her mother sacrificed everything to bring peace to the quadrant, and her uncle has successfully ruled as emperor for decades. But the last thing Alyssa wants is to follow in their footsteps as the next in line for the throne. Why would she choose to be trapped in a palace when she could be having wild adventures exploring a thousand-and-one planets in her own ship?

But when Alyssa’s uncle becomes gravely ill, his dying wish surprises the entire galaxy. Instead of naming her as his successor, he calls for a crownchase, the first in seven centuries. Representatives from each of the empire’s prime families—including Alyssa—are thrown into a race to find the royal seal, which has been hidden somewhere in the empire. The first to find the seal wins the throne.

Alyssa’s experience as an explorer makes her the favorite to win the crown she never wanted. And though she doesn’t want to be empress, her duty to her uncle compels her to participate in this one last epic adventure. But when the chase turns deadly, it’s clear that more than just the fate of the empire is at stake. Alyssa is on her most important quest yet—and only time will tell if she’ll survive it.

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

So I love this author, but even though I was able to get the ARC of the first book in this series, The Evil Queen, through books for trade on Twitter, I haven’t read it yet. I was going to try to read it and then get the e-galley from Edelweiss before this came out, but I just couldn’t fit it in. So this will be on my list. I love retellings/reimaginings like this!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Dare to enter the Forest of Good and Evil, where strength is weakness and weakness is strength. Don’t miss book two of New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter’s magical, romantic and fascinating fairy-tale series, in which the fairy tales we know and love are prophecies of the future…

Pitied.

Sickly.

Unfit to rule.

Princess Ashleigh Charmaine is known as the Glass Princess, fragile enough to shatter with a whisper of wind. Born with a weak heart, she dreams of being treated like anyone else. Unlike her headstrong sisters, she received no magical ability at birth and lives every day expecting to die. Until an oracle announces that Ashleigh is fated to play the part of Cinderella, wed a handsome royal and save the Kingdom of Sevon from the evil king and queen who once ruled the land.

As war rages, Ashleigh begins to doubt her role in the fairy-tale prophecy. Animals despise her, she can’t carry a merry tune and she has zero social graces. Worse, the king she’s supposed to enchant is the newly crowned sovereign of the winged warriors known as the Avian…and he despises her, too.

When Ashleigh develops a terrifying magical ability to commune with dragons and create fire from air—a power she cannot control—she must work with King Saxon to save their kingdoms and their lives. By the stroke of midnight, she must warm his icy heart…or forever break her own. Will Ashleigh ever become the queen she’s prophesied to be…or will she lose everything she’s come to love?

Sound good? Add to Goodreads HERE.

Final Thoughts:

So I thought I had 9 to share this week, which would have been one more than last week. But a few were either published early or postponed, so I only have 6, which is closer to what the end of the month usually looks like. 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!

Also, while you’re here, make sure to go enter my monthly giveaway HERE.

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18 responses to “Lisa’s Looking Forward To #80 – September 29th, 2020

    • Lisa Mandina

      I didn’t read the last one, but the movie totally made me cry, so I’m sure the book would have been even more of a tear jerker!

  1. I have not read any of these, but several of them interest me. I haven’t dived too much into the k-pop world, but Shine makes me want to. After Shocks had me at earthquake. Living in California, I can’t help myself. LOL The Glass Queen is another on your list that I hope to read someday. I hope you enjoy all of these when you read them!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I’m not a K-Pop person really, but I think with all my students being such big fans, I want to read it so I can tell them about it when I get it for our library. Thanks for stopping by!

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