A Sunday Retrospective (16)

A Sunday Retrospective is inspired by In My Mailbox at The Story Siren and TGIF at GReads!, where I share the books that I've acquired during the week, last week's posts and interesting links.

Whenever Sunday rolls around, I always get caught up in two different feelings - happiness (because I get to spend time with some of the most awesome people in the world at Hillsong NYC) and melancholy (because it means that my weekend is drawing to a close and I'll have to head back to the office the next day). I'm generally a positive person though, and so, let me chase the blues (what little exists) away by sharing all of the awesome that I've discovered in the book blogging world this week.

IN MY MAILBOX

from Big Honcho Media (Thank you!)

A Corner of White (The Colors of Madeleine #1) by Jaclyn Moriarty

from the library
Something Borrowed & Something Blue by Emily Giffin
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (e-book)

ON THE BLOG

Reviews

I wasn't reeled in by the story of Hooked, even though it had a really promising main character. Thankfully, I did find myself charmed by A Night Like This, which reminded me how much I love historical romances. Plus, I enjoyed reading about time travel with a mythological twist in Timespell and found myself absolutely immersed in the fantastic world of Shadow and Bone!

Other Fun Stuff

I had the pleasure of hosting author Diana Paz for An Author a (Mon)day this week, and have decided we would totally get along based on our mutual love of history. I also did a little post about my recent mini-vacation to the Philippines (and there are photos!).

AROUND THE COMMUNITY

• To kick off this week's links, it is no surprise that I'm featuring a post I loved from Jamie!
• Gaby shares about her adventure in Paris!
• Jodi Meadows shared her thoughts on endings. (Thanks Pub(lishing) Crawl!)
• Estelle celebrated her second wedding anniversary on the blog with this cool post!
• Apart from the fact that I am excited about a TON of series on her list, Elena has some pretty graphics in her Top Ten Tuesday!
• I'm pretty excited to read more from Victoria Schwab. Here's some info about her book Vicious!
• The Before & After series on Perpetual Page-turner continues with this week's installment!
• I really enjoyed reading Rachel's post reminding herself (and us) why she blogs. It's just too true.
• There is certainly hope for indie bookstores and Steph explains why.
• Ginger takes a look at mother-daughter relationships in YA in honor of her mom.
• I like dresses and books, and I'm sure you do too. Story Crush killed it with this post.
• Joss Whedon + Shakespeare? Check out the trailer for Much Ado About Nothing.
• Sarah J. Maas is my "spirit author", and this interview proves it. (Thanks Faye!)
• In what is probably my favorite BIG SECRET REVEAL ever, YA authors Sarah J. Maas, Susan Dennard, Kat Zhang & Erin Bowman unveiled the Young Authors Give Back tour last Friday! But there's more on that below!
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The YOUNG AUTHORS GIVE BACK Tour

Photo Credit: The Young Authors Give Back Tour

In what is probably my favorite BIG SECRET REVEAL ever, YA authors Sarah J. Maas, Susan Dennard, Kat Zhang & Erin Bowman unveiled the Young Authors Give Back tour last Friday! They'll be visiting 7 cities (as of this moment anyway), doing signings and (even more exciting) workshops for aspiring young writers. You can find out more on the fresh new site, and feel free to follow the tour on Twitter!

COMPANION NOVELS CHALLENGE

This month, I've been reading Something Borrowed and Something Blue by Emily Giffin for the challenge. While I have read the series before, it's one that I like to revisit, mostly because I find the stories pretty darn addictive. I'm nearly done with Something Borrowed and should be moving on to Something Blue right after. Is anyone else reading (or re-reading) this series along with me?

Don't forget that next month, we'll be reading Perfect Chemistry, Rules of Attraction and Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles! Vi will be hosting for the next two months (April & May), so we'll all congregate on her blog this time. I'm looking forward to starting this series because I've never read it, but have heard good things about it.

(For more info about this challenge and our planned schedule, please feel free to check out this post.)

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE READ-ALONG

I just started reading A Game of Thrones this week, and I must say that I'm definitely starting to see why this series has garnered multiple fans. Initially, I was worried that I'd have a difficult time easing my way into the book. But apparently, that's not a problem as it's easy to read and very easy to get caught up in the story! I had a very hard time stopping to stay on schedule at Chapter 10, and I'm eagerly anticipating Sunday, so I can read the next few chapters. How's everyone else doing?

(For more info about this read-along and the schedule, please feel free to check out this post.)