Stacking the Shelves (256)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme created by Tynga’s Reviews and hosted by Reading Reality.
It’s all about sharing the books we’ve picked up for the week, whether they are bought, borrowed, gifted, galleys, physical or virtual.
Share your shelves and remember to visit Reading Reality to find more great books!


Purchased

Dokkaebi: Vicious Spirits (Gumiho, #2)

Dokkaebi: Vicious Spirits (Gumiho #2) by Kat Cho

Eighteen-year-old Lee Somin’s heart is breaking. Her friends are grieving: Jihoon the loss of his beloved grandmother, and Miyoung the loss of her mother and her fox bead–her immortal gumiho bead. Somin, who is no stranger to loss, wants to help them pick up the pieces and move on with their lives, but neither seems to want her help. As Jihoon and Miyoung become more distant, Somin finds unexpected comfort in Junu, everyone’s not-so-favourite dokkaebi.

Somin thought she knew who Junu was–an arrogant, self-serving con man–but the more she gets to know him, the more she finds Junu is sensitive, kindhearted, and giving, Most startling of all, he could also be exactly what she needs. For his past, Somin takes Junu’s breath away. He wonders is she could ever love him and if he could deserve it. But before Somin and Junu can discover what’s truly between them, the group of friends discovers the supernatural world isn’t quite done with them.

Somin is seeing ghosts on the streets of Seoul, and Junu is visited by a reaper from his past. Turns out, Miyoung’s lost fox bead has caused a tear in between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The only way to repair the rift is find Miyoung’s bead for Miyoung to pay with her life.

This cover is just so cool, and I have the first book (but i haven’t read it yet), so why not just pick up the second while I’m at it?


Shine

Shine by Jessica Jung

Crazy Rich Asians meets Gossip Girl by way of Jenny Han in this knock-out debut about a Korean American teen who is thrust into the competitive, technicolor world of K-pop, from Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of one of the most influential K-pop girl groups of all time, Girls Generation.

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

For seventeen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Or at least that’s been the answer for the past six years, ever since she was recruited by DB Entertainment—one of Seoul’s largest K-pop labels, known for churning out the industry’s most popular stars.

The rules are simple: Train 24/7. Be perfect. Don’t date. So while Rachel and her fellow trainees face grueling practices, punishing expectations, and ruthless competition, they know it’s worth it for the chance to debut in DB’s newest girl group.

And when the opportunity to sing with K-pop star and DB golden boy Jason Lee arises, Rachel knows this is her chance to get noticed. To finally debut. The only problem? Jason is charming, sexy, and ridiculously talented—he’s exactly the kind of distraction Rachel can’t afford to have. And exactly the kind she can’t stay away from.

Get ready as Jessica Jung, K-pop legend and former lead singer of Korea’s most famous girl group, Girls Generation, takes us inside the twisted, technicolor world of K-pop. Where following your dreams might just mean living through a nightmare. Where the stakes are high, but for one girl, the cost of success might be even higher.

It’s time for the world to see: this is what it takes to SHINE.

I have been wanting to read another performance book for a while now, and I love the fact this one is written by and based on a K-Pop star.


The Dead Queens Club

The Dead Queen’s Club by Hannah Capin

Mean Girls meets The Tudors in Hannah Capin’s The Dead Queens Club, a clever contemporary YA retelling of Henry VIII and his wives (or, in this case, his high school girlfriends). Told from the perspective of Annie Marck (“Cleves”), a 17-year-old aspiring journalist from Cleveland who meets Henry at summer camp, The Dead Queens Club is a fun, snarky read that provides great historical detail in an accessible way for teens while giving the infamous tale of Henry VIII its own unique spin.

What do a future ambassador, an overly ambitious Francophile, a hospital-volunteering Girl Scout, the new girl from Cleveland, the junior cheer captain, and the vice president of the debate club have in common? It sounds like the ridiculously long lead-up to an astoundingly absurd punchline, right? Except it’s not. Well, unless my life is the joke, which is kind of starting to look like a possibility given how beyond soap opera it’s been since I moved to Lancaster. But anyway, here’s your answer: we’ve all had the questionable privilege of going out with Lancaster High School’s de facto king. Otherwise known as my best friend. Otherwise known as the reason I’ve already helped steal a car, a jet ski, and one hundred spray-painted water bottles when it’s not even Christmas break yet. Otherwise known as Henry. Jersey number 8.

Meet Cleves. Girlfriend number four and the narrator of The Dead Queens Club, a young adult retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives. Cleves is the only girlfriend to come out of her relationship with Henry unscathed—but most breakups are messy, right? And sometimes tragic accidents happen…twice…

A Henry the VIII’s wives retelling set in high school! This just sounds like so much fun.


The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones). With the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), he belongs to an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelled surnames, a reading-room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own: to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, a right-handed bookseller named Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find their quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.

Wait, didn’t you get an ARC of this that you didn’t read?

Yep. The review was due around the time I got really sick and nearly died, so I figured not reading a review book was the least of my worries. But I always planned on getting a physical copy, anyway, because Garth Nix is one of my favourite authors.


What books did you get this week? Have you read any of these and what did you think? Share the love in the comments below!

Nemo
Nemo

About Nemo

A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.

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