— blog event, calendar girls —

Calendar Girls (#1 / January 2016): Best Debut Novel of 2016

January 4, 2017

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Welcome to my very first Calendar Girls post! I am very excited to start this year off with a brand new blog event which I am co-hosting with my friend Melanie! For those of you who have not heard of Calendar Girls (#CalendarGirlsBooks on Twitter) yet, Calendar Girls is a brand new monthly blog event inspired by Neil Sedaka’s 1961 song Calendar Girl. Just like in the song, we decided to use a specific them for each month and choose a book based on these themes! The event is meant to incite discussions with other bloggers about books we’ve read and loved, is meant to help bloggers meet other bloggers, and also for bloggers and readers to find out about blogs which they normally may not have come across!

If this sounds like your cup of tea, please check out Melanie’s or my launch post for more info, and sign up if you are still interested after reading everything. We’d love to have you!

And now…without further ado, here is my choice for January’s theme…

Best Debut Novel of 2016!

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Iron Cast by Destiny Soria! I really thought I’d read quite a few debut novels in 2016, but after looking through my “read” list, it turns out that I’d only actually read TWO. Woops. But even if I had read more debut novels, I would have likely chosen this book because I did really enjoy it. For those of you who have not yet encountered this book, here is the synopsis:

In 1919, Ada Navarra—the intrepid daughter of immigrants—and Corinne Wells—a spunky, devil-may-care heiress—make an unlikely pair. But at the Cast Iron nightclub in Boston, anything and everything is possible. At night, on stage together, the two best friends, whose “afflicted” blood gives them the ability to create illusions through art, weave magic under the employ of Johnny Dervish, the club’s owner and a notorious gangster. By day, Ada and Corinne use these same skills to con the city’s elite in an attempt to keep the club afloat.

When a “job” goes awry and Ada is imprisoned, she realizes they’re on the precipice of danger. Only Corinne—her partner in crime—can break her out of Haversham Asylum. But once Ada is out, they face betrayal at every turn.

It was a very creative, and fairly diverse book, with some very imaginative elements. There were a few aspects of the book which I wanted more of, but I did keep in mind that this is the author’s debut novel, and that there is definitely room for improvement in future books. I am very curious as to what Soria will write next, and I will definitely be reading whatever it is!

For more of my thoughts on Iron Cast, you can read my full review here!

Other Participants:

Melanie — Arena by Holly Jennings

Mandy @ Book Princess Reviews — The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

The Reality Bug Book Blog — Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerhill

Lauren @ Two Birds, One Blog — The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

Matxi @ Matxi Reads Boks — Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

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Note: We will be accepting posts throughout January! So don’t worry if you were unable to get your post in yesterday! New participants can also still join!

February Theme:

❤ Best Romance in YA ❤

Note: What we mean by this theme is the best YA romance of all time, in your opinion! This should be fun 😉

ezgif-com-d9737d416eTHANK YOU FOR READING MY VERY FIRST CALENDAR GIRLS POST! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? ALSO, AS THIS IS THE FIRST POST IN A VERY NEW EVENT, WE WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE ANY FEEDBACK OR ADVICE YOU MIGHT HAVE! EITHER MESSAGE ME PRIVATELY OR LEAVE YOUR OPINION IN THE COMMENTS BELOW! IF YOU ARE A CALENDAR GIRLS PARTICIPANT (AND EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT), YOU ARE WELCOME TO COMMENT ON ANYTHING REGARDING MY POST, OR THIS MESSAGE, BELOW! I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING ALL OF YOUR THOUGHTS!

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0 thoughts on “Calendar Girls (#1 / January 2016): Best Debut Novel of 2016”

  1. Hahaha! We both picked books the other one hasn’t read. :p So much for discussing. Hopefully the others have picked books we can talk about. ^.^

    P.s. You forgot to put February’s theme in your post, Flavia.

    1. Lol, we can still discuss! Plus, based on our tastes, it might be likely that we pick books only one of us has read more often than not 😛

      And woops! I knew there was something missing! I was doing way too many things at once that day @_@

  2. When I was looking for a Debut novel, too, for this post, I totally thought that I had far more than what I actually read as well! I guess I assumed first authors for me were just debuts XD I have yet to read this book, but it does sound quite interesting! I’m going to have to go check out your review and maybe add it to my TBR! 🙂

    1. Haha right? I think the same mental process happens with me. New to me, new to the world 😛 hahaha

      I hope that you enjoy it if you do end up reading it!! Thanks so much for joining Calendar Girls!! <3

  3. Wow…I still love that cover every time I see it!
    I got lucky and Kobo had it on sale for $3.99 (not Amazon for some reaosn!) so I nabbed it! I have so many good books now, I could stop and read forever!

    1. Ahhh that’s lucky! I hope you enjoy reading all of your new books and that you take breaks to come hang out with me online once in a while 😛 hehehe

  6. Yesss, that’s one of the things I love about it! Also I love that time setting around 1920 *starry eyes*

    Thanks so much for reading and commenting! 😀

  8. This sounds fantastic! I absolutely love literature that takes place during that time, very Great Gatsby <3 I'll have to check it out.
    I really enjoy the idea of this event! Being able to connect with other bloggers and discover new books to read is going to be so much fun! I'm really trying to expand my reading horizons this year too, so I am thrilled to already see books already that I haven't read! Talk about an ever-growing TBR list 😀
    I wasn't exactly sure how to format my post, or if I should do any linkbacks to other participants etc. even after seeing the launch/example that you guys did so I just hoped for the best with this first one. Now that I've seen yours and Melanie's I feel much more confident about working on next month's post!

    1. We’re so glad to have you join us! And the reasons you mentioned are definitely part of why we put this event together!

      Also don’t worry about the layout! We want people to keep an individual feel to their posts rather than use a template anyway 🙂 we just wanted you guys to see sort of what we’re looking for, discussion-wise!

    1. Ahhh yeah, like I said in my post, I only read 2….so not much to choose from! Haha. I look forward to seeing which book you’ll pick for February! 😀

  12. The Iron Cast looks good! I’ll add it to my TBR. I’d love to be signed up for February and on (because I really didn’t read enough 2016 debuts)! Thanks for making this blog event. It’s such a good idea!

    1. Yay! So glad you’ll be reading it 😀 and that’s totally fine! I didn’t really realize how narrow the category was until I sat down and looked through my own options for it, haha. And you’re very welcome! I’m glad you think so! 😀

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