ARC Review: THE MAGNOLIA SWORD: A BALLAD OF MULAN by Sherry Thomas

THE MAGNOLIA SWORD: A BALLAD OF MULAN 
by Sherry Thomas
Date Published: September 10, 2019; Tu Books

From Goodreads:

CHINA, 484 A.D. 

A Warrior in Disguise 

All her life, Mulan has trained for one purpose: to win the duel that every generation in her family must fight. If she prevails, she can reunite a pair of priceless heirloom swords separated decades earlier, and avenge her father, who was paralyzed in his own duel. 

Then a messenger from the Emperor arrives, demanding that all families send one soldier to fight the Rouran invaders in the north. Mulan's father cannot go. Her brother is just a child. So she ties up her hair, takes up her sword, and joins the army as a man. 

A War for a Dynasty 

Thanks to her martial arts skills, Mulan is chosen for an elite team under the command of the princeling--the royal duke's son, who is also the handsomest man she's ever seen. But the princeling has secrets of his own, which explode into Mulan's life and shake up everything she knows. As they cross the Great Wall to face the enemy beyond, Mulan and the princeling must find a way to unwind their past, unmask a traitor, and uncover the plans for the Rouran invasion . . . before it's too late.

Blog Tour, Review and Giveaway: THROW LIKE A GIRL by Sarah Henning

THROW LIKE A GIRL
by Sarah Henning
Date Published: January 7, 2020; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance

About the book:

Friday Night Lights meets Morgan Matson's The Unexpected Everything in this contemporary debut where swoonworthy romance meets underdog sports story. 

When softball star Liv Rodinsky throws one ill-advised punch during the most important game of the year, she loses her scholarship to her fancy private school, her boyfriend, and her teammates all in one fell swoop. With no other options, Liv is forced to transfer to the nearest public school, Northland, where she'll have to convince their coach she deserves a spot on the softball team, all while facing both her ex and the teammates of the girl she punched... Every. Single. Day. 

Enter Grey, the injured star quarterback with amazing hair and a foolproof plan: if Liv joins the football team as his temporary replacement, he'll make sure she gets a spot on the softball team in the Spring. But it will take more than the perfect spiral for Liv to find acceptance in Northland's halls, and behind that charming smile, Grey may not be so perfect after all. 

Blog Tour and Giveaway: LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI (Loveboat, Taipei #1) by Abigail Hing Wen

LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI (Loveboat, Taipei #1)
by Abigail Hing Wen 
Release Date: January 7, 2020; HarperCollins
YA, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Travel, Asian Literature

About the book:

For fans of Crazy Rich Asians or Jane Austen Comedy of Manners, with a hint of La La Land.

When eighteen-year-old Ever Wong’s parents send her from Ohio to Taiwan to study Mandarin for the summer, she finds herself thrust among the very over-achieving kids her parents have always wanted her to be, including Rick Woo, the Yale-bound prodigy profiled in the Chinese newspapers since they were nine—and her parents’ yardstick for her never-measuring-up life. 

Unbeknownst to her parents, however, the program is actually an infamous teen meet-market nicknamed Loveboat, where the kids are more into clubbing than calligraphy and drinking snake-blood sake than touring sacred shrines.