Book Your Future Reads is a feature on Stories in Space where I put a spotlight on upcoming releases that deserve recognition, a spot on your to be read lists, and to be your next pre-order purchases. Through this feature I want highlight novels I am excited about and novels I think you should be excited about too. This week I’m putting a spotlight on two upcoming Christmas themed novels: One Way or Another by Kara McDowell and Christmas Wishes by Sue Moorcroft.
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Hi readers! Last Friday I published my review of Sounds Like Summer by Six de los Reyes where I talked about how much I love this book. The book came into my life at the perfect moment and really had everything I love about a great romance novel. That is how this book playlist came to be. I also like to call this playlist the Sounds Like Summer — Summer Storm setlist. It mixes all those great summer, beach, music, and a full moon by the ocean vibes. Lux and Micah spend the perfect weekend together at the Summer Storm music festival with lots of live acts playing outside by the beach and I tried to incorporate all of the vibes of that into the playlist.
Sounds Like Summer by Six de los Reyes
Publication Date: March 26, 2017.
Publisher: Independently published.
Genres: Romance, Mental Health, New Adult, and Contemporary Romance.
Recommendation: I highly recommend this book.
Purchase here: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice
Synopsis: It’s not just a weekend for Lux Castelo. She has a plan, of course.
Phase One: Escape to the beach for a music festival.
Phase Two: Deal with what she can’t control.
Phase Three: Return to reality whole and ready.
Nowhere in that plan is Micah Jacinto, self-proclaimed adventurer and the kind of boy with his head stuck in the clouds and the moon inked on his arm—everything her rational sense tells her to stay away from. And yet Lux finds herself welcoming the distraction. As they spend the entire weekend together, Micah leads her to rediscover the lost pieces of herself amidst the excitement and the confusion of a raving mosh pit.
But all weekends come to an end and Lux needs to return to the dreaded reality she’s running away from. Does being brave enough to leave summer behind mean being brave enough to ask Micah to stay?
Content warning: this book deals with depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm. Some of this will also be discussed in my review.
What makes Sounds Like Summer a must-read romance novel is the fact that it mixes the best parts of what makes a typical summer romance novel amazing with heavy hitting topics such as what it’s like to live with depression. This book is about Lux Castelo and Micah Jacinto and the weekend they spend at Summer Storm — a weekend-long festival filled with live music acts, parties, and time spent at the beach by the ocean. However, this book is about more than just the romance; this weekend is about Lux escaping her life for a weekend to process what she has been through because of her depression and to, for a moment, forget. After Lux and Micah spend this weekend together, they find out that what happens at a summer festival does not have to stay there and sometimes the smallest of coincidences can lead to the greatest of adventures, no matter how small and scary they might be.
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Hey aliens! I see you’ve found your way to this blog post dedicated to The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. This book truly blew me away with its magic and the feelings it gave me. If you haven’t seen it yet, I posted a review of this book last week where I go into detail of what it is about this book that makes it so special. Let’s just say it’s a lot. Because this book was so amazing and the fact that it’s actually being adapted into a movie, I decided to make an unofficial soundtrack for the book. Like the book, these songs are about the universe, destiny, and epic love. This story of two teens who spent one single day together in NYC, and how their day together changes not only their lives but the lives of those they encounter during that day, is one you do not want to miss.
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Publication Date: November 1, 2016.
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books.
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, and Romance.
Recommendation: I highly recommend this book.
Purchase here: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice
Synopsis: Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.
Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?
The Sun Is Also a Star is a book I have had on my to be read list for quite some time, and it did not disappoint when I finally read it. If you are in search of a young adult story that will pull you in, make you both laugh and cry, and at the same time be thought-provoking in the way it portrays what is meant to be and what choices shape our future, look no further. The Sun Is Also a Star has it all and is the perfect blend of sweet, sour, and bitter in the same way that reality and uncertainty is. The story’s two main characters are both of color — Natasha is Jamaican and Daniel is Korean-American — and the book itself shows the way immigration in the U.S. works.
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Hi, people out there in my book galaxy! How are you doing? I’m here with a new blog post for you all and it’s another Galactic Book Playlist. Fun, am I right? I’ve honestly made more playlists this summer than I ever have before and it’s just the most exciting and fun experience; creating these playlists is almost like reading these books again. These playlists give me a chance to both find new music and relive the feelings I had when I first read the books. It’s the best combination. Expect a lot more of these playlists to come in the future.
This playlist is for the book Songs To Make You Stay by Jay E. Tria. It’s the last book in the Playlist series and it’s the novel that finishes the story of Shinta and Jill. I have also made a book playlist for the second book in the series, Songs To Get Over You, and you should definitely check that one out as well, which you can do here.
Hi readers and welcome to my blog post for the Star-Touched Stories blog tour. Here you can expect a thorough review of the book, purchase links, early praise, and more. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Star-Touched Stories by Roshani Chokshi
Publication Date: August 7, 2018.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press.
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, and Short Stories.
Rating: 
Purchase here: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice
Synopsis: Three lush and adventurous stories in the Star-Touched world.
Death and Night
He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a chance meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. But danger crouches in their paths, and the choices they make will set them on a journey that will span lifetimes.
Poison and Gold
Now that her wish for a choice has come true, Aasha struggles to control her powers. But when an opportunity to help Queen Gauri and King Vikram’s new reign presents itself, she is thrown into the path of the fearsome yet enchanting Spy Mistress. To help her friends, Aasha will have to battle her insecurities and perhaps, along the way, find love.
Rose and Sword
There is a tale whispered in the dark of the Empire of Bharat-Jain. A tale of a bride who loses her bridegroom on the eve of her wedding. But is it a tale or a truth?
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for my ARC of Star-Touched Stories. I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review; this does not affect my opinion. Any quotes mentioned below are taken from the ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
Star-Touched Stories is an anthology filled with three stories from the world established in The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi. The three stories are beautifully written and I was blown away by their excellence, their originality, and the way they made me feel. This book was so much better, so much more than I ever could have imagined. I have decided to review the three novellas separately for you to truly see what makes them magical.
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Hi galaxy travelers and readers! I hope all is well with you. Here in Sweden, there is still a raging heatwave (like in most of Europe at the moment) and I’m just trying to survive it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the summer and I love the heat but this is really not good for the environment. We at least need a little rain, nature is dying. However, despite all of that, I managed to write up this blog post for you all. This book playlist for A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi was truly difficult to make, I wanted it to be just perfect. I really love this book and Gauri and Vikram which is why I want this playlist to really represent their relationship and the journey they go in A Crown of Wishes. I redid the playlist at least twice but the end results made all the hard work worth it. This is a playlist I’m really proud of. If you haven’t read the amazing books in The Star-Touched Queen series, I really recommend you do so. Roshani Chokshi’s words are magical and her world even more so. You can add the series to your TBR on Goodreads and purchase specifically A Crown of Wishes on Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, The Ripped Bodice, and Adlibris.
Hi there people in the galaxy! I’m back with another blog post and it’s another book playlist – this time one inspired by the #romanceclass novel Songs To Get Over You by Jay E. Tria. This book is about Miki and Ana. Miki is in a band called Trainman and is in love with his best friend Jill, who is the singer in the band and together with someone else. The book is about unrequited love, moving on and finding love elsewhere. It is the second book in the Playlist series, though I would argue you could read it as a standalone (but the first book is amazing, and Jill is the protagonist in that one so definitely read it first).
This playlist is dedicated to love that can be messy, unrequited, and hopeful. It is about the fact that love can be a powerful and strange thing and that the sadness of one love can lead to the happiness and future of another. I made the playlist to celebrate this book’s beautiful universe metaphors, the different kinds of unrequited love shown, and the feeling of firsts in new love when you finally manage to move on. If you haven’t read this series yet, I hope you will. You can buy the first book, Songs of Our Breakup, on Amazon and add it on Goodreads. The second book, Songs to Get Over You – the one about Miki and Ana – is also on Goodreads and can be bought on Amazon.
Hi, galaxy travelers and book readers! I’m back with another blog post and this one is all about diverse books in need of some love from you guys. It is said to be something magical about the number 50, at least in regards to the number of book reviews a novel needs to have on Amazon in order to unlock certain marketing privileges. Because of this, I decided to mention 15 books with less than 50 reviews on Amazon that you should totally buy, read, and support by leaving a review. If you have followed my blog for a while you might recognize this concept and ask, haven’t I seen a post similar to this one before and the truth is that, yes, you have. In August 2017, I did post a blog post called Twelve Diverse Books Flying Under The Radar and the purpose of that post was the same as this one — to recommend books in need of love and book reviews because they have less than 50 reviews on Amazon. To make things easier I have made a key that you can follow when you go through the list,
★ is seen with books that have less than 100 ratings on Goodreads,
✿ is shown next to books with queer authors, and
✱ is the symbol that is shown next to the books written by authors of color.
Disclaimer: I have not read all of these books so be aware that there might be incorrect information, and that’s on me. I have taken the information on here from synopses and reviews I researched for this post.
Now go forth and support these amazing books and authors. The books are sorted in alphabetical order after their title and they truly deserve your support. I hope you’ll find your next read in one of these fifteen books. Don’t forget to write a review when you’re done, just a sentence is enough!
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