Mundie Moms

Monday, July 2, 2018

Pre-Order Your Waterstones Special Edition QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS by Cassandra Clare / #QOAAD #Shadowhunters


Check it out Shadowhunters! This stunning limited edition cover of QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS is now available for pre-order from Waterstones! These are my favorite editions. They are stunning in person. I've purchased the last two, and I'll be pre-ordering this one. Please note, if you're not in the UK/Ireland, there is international shipping costs. I totally think it's worth it. 

Details about this edition per Cassie's post here.

Waterstone’s special hardback edition for UK/Ireland readers! (And anyone who wants to order internationally!) “The exclusive Waterstones hardback will have a stunning graphite and red foil cover featuring a striking, repeating pattern of the “Grace” rune which has been chosen especially by the author for this edition. 

A limited print run for fans is available to pre-order now from Waterstones on a first-come-first-serve basis. Pre-order linkhttp://bit.ly/QOAADWtstones 

The hardback will contain bonus extra material which will also be available throughout the entire first print run in the trade paperback edition - a new short story, and black and white interior illustrations. Exclusive to the Waterstones hardback edition will be a sneak peek snippet from The Red Scrolls of Magic, the first book in the sequel series The Eldest Curses publishing April 2019. The hardback will also feature a beautiful impression of Cassandra Clare’s signature in a Shadowhunters motif.” It’s so pretty! I’m glad to see those who have the first two can complete their sets!

You can always check what the regular first editions in the US/UK/Aus/NZ/Ireland are here.

. @CassieClare Shares #ChainofGold & #QOAAD Snippets #Shadowhunters / Mundane Monday


Happy Mundane Monday! Cassie spoiled fans this weekend by sharing two snippets. One from Chain of Gold, and the other from Queen of Air and Darkness. Check out both of the snippets below. 

Anna’s deep-blue eyes narrowed as she studied him. James was sitting on the edge of his chair, hands clasped together and leaning forward in Anna’s direction. These cousins looked more like brother and sister than James and Lucie, or Anna and Christopher. James’s face was chiseled and serious, while Anna’s features were sharp and roguish, but they shared the same coloring of crow-black hair and snow-white skin. More than that, both had an air of cleverness that seemed thrown up as a defense against sensitivity, sharp minds that shut away hearts too easily broken. Seeing the similarity made Cordelia wonder what had happened to Anna, and fear what might happen to James.
Anna flicked an eyebrow upward, a scratch of ink dashed across a page. “Ah yes, about that. Let me be perfectly clear what you are asking: you want me to seduce a pretty warlock in order to procure you an [item redacted for spoilers!]?”
Anna surveyed the room, and when she was answered with cautious nods she threw her hands into the air.
“You are off your heads, every one of you.”
“Can you not do it?” Thomas asked apprehensively.
Anna toyed with her watch chain so the chain caught the light and glittered. “Oh, I daresay I could.”
There was a collective moan lamenting Thomas’s stupidity in asking such a question. Lucie told Thomas he was a dolt. Thomas begged Anna’s pardon.
“Not at all, Thomas, I know you’re an innocent soul. That said,” Anna drawled, “I take many issues with your request. For a start, it is against my strict policy to seduce anybody twice.”
“Every outlaw must have a code,” James said.

AND this snippet featuring Mark & Kieran from Queen of Air And Darkness:

“We might as well talk, Mark,” Kieran said. A bright moon had risen; it illuminated the dark ocean, turned it to a sheet of black and silver glass, the colors of Kieran’s eyes. The night desert was alive with the sound of cicadas. Kieran was walking beside Mark with his hands looped behind him, deceptively human-looking in jeans and t-shirt. He had drawn the line at donning any gear. “It does us no good to ignore each other.”
“I have missed you,” Mark said. There seemed no point in not being honest. “Nor did I intend to ignore you, or to hurt you. I apologize.”
Kieran looked up, a surprised flash under dark lashes. “There is no need to apologize.” He hesitated. “I have had, as you say here in the mortal world, a lot on my mind.”
Mark hid a smile in the dusk. It was irritatingly cute when Kieran used modern phrases.

LOVE, HATE AND OTHER FILTERS by Samira Ahmed / Book Review #LoveHateandOtherFilters



By: Samira Ahmed
Published by: Soho Teen
Released on: January 16, 2018
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository
Add it to Goodreads 
Rating: 4 stars
Source: Borrowed from library

A searing #OwnVoices coming-of-age debut in which an Indian-American Muslim teen confronts Islamophobia and a reality she can neither explain nor escape--perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, and Adam Silvera.

American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe (just maybe) pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school, a boy who’s finally falling into her orbit at school.


There’s also the real world, beyond Maya’s control. In the aftermath of a horrific crime perpetrated hundreds of miles away, her life is turned upside down. The community she’s known since birth becomes unrecognizable; neighbors and classmates alike are consumed with fear, bigotry, and hatred. Ultimately, Maya must find the strength within to determine where she truly belongs.



As an immigrant kid, I had my fair share of being embarrassed by my old world parents, so I went into reading Love, Hate and Other Filters, expecting a certain type of story, but what I got was much more. I loved meeting Maya, the budding filmmaker, who's afraid to tell her parents of her dreams. I totally related to her, because in my culture being a doctor, engineer or maybe lawyer would've been acceptable. Liberal Arts majors were not. I so got Maya.

I even got the love triangle set-up. A nice Muslim boy that her parents approve of versus the American boy she finds interesting. But the part of the story that caught my attention (and upped the stakes) was how a Muslim family can survive prejudice when they share a last name with a suspect who commits a terror attack.

Special mention goes to how Samira wrote Maya's parents. Maybe it's because I'm a parent that I related to them. Maybe it's because they shared some of the same fears and dreams as my own immigrant parents did. I just loved how they were present in the story.

It's a much more serious story than Gloia Chao's American Panda or Sandhya Menon's When Dimple Met Rishi, but if you want to get a glimpse of what it's like to walk in Maya's shoes, balanced carefully between her ethnic parents' expecations and her own wishes to fit in, pick up Love, Hate and Other Filters. I promise that you will be immediately interested in both the characters and the plot.

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