A few days ago a shared the first part of an excerpt from Christopher Paolini’s upcoming novel, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. You can see that first piece here. Today, I’m here with the full excerpt for you!! I hope you enjoy it – it definitely made me super excited for the novel!! I mean, more than I already was haha.

I’m sure many of you have heard about the new upcoming book by Christopher Paolini (of Eragon fame). If you haven’t, it’s called To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and it sounds amazing!!! Here is the synopsis so you can get a little idea about the book:

Kira Navárez dreamed of finding life on new worlds.
Now she has awakened a nightmare.
While exploring a distant planet, she discovers an alien relic that thrusts her into an epic journey of transformation and discovery.
Her odyssey will carry her to the far reaches of the galaxy.
Earth and her colonies are on the brink of annihilation.
One woman.
The will to survive.
The hope of humanity.
This epic novel follows Kira Navárez, who, during a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, finds an alien relic that thrusts her into the wonders and the nightmares of first contact. Epic space battles for the fate of humanity take her to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and, in the process, transform not only her ― but the entire course of history.

Moxie meets A Knight’s Tale as Kit Sweetly slays sexism, bad bosses, and bad luck to become a knight at a medieval-themed restaurant.

Working as a wench—i.e. waitress—at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college.
Company policy allows only guys to be knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets into internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. But the Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight. As other wenches join her quest, a protest forms. In a joust before Castle executives, they’ll prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval—if they don’t get fired first.

I feel like I haven’t read a young adult contemporary in so long?? But I’m so glad to come back to the genre with this book, because it was so much fun to read! Though it’s a contemporary, it reminded me a lot of the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. You know it’s gonna be good when a book reminds you of a favorite!

There are a lot of different aspects to this book. There is obviously the main plot line, that Kit would like to be a knight at the medieval restaurant where she works. Another somewhat side plot line is the fact that Kit and her brother need to work because their family is very poor. So there is a very real and raw discussion about what it’s like to live in those circumstances. There’s also all kinds of relationships! Family, sibling, friends, and romantic interests. It’s really nice to see a book that’s not just focused on the romantic relationship.

Hello friends! I hope you are all staying healthy and indoors – and relatively sane (as sane as we can be). I don’t know about you, but my reading has drastically slowed down because of everything happening. In March I only read 3 books, and April hasn’t been much better. I’ve been focusing on doing things that make me happy! And obviously reading makes me happy, but I’m finding it hard to concentrate and read sometimes.

As I said I’ve been trying to do things that make me happy – and by that I really mean reading or watching or playing things that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Like, all the cute feels. So I’m here to recommend a variety of things that make me feel that way, in case you also need recs for things like that!

The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities — augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive.
Enter Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief. He’s been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he’s stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated.

First things first (I’m the realest). Sorry, whenever I say that phrase, that lyric from Fancy always pops into my head. Anyway!! My point was I first wanted to focus on the premise – a heist? An AI? Yes. Two of my favorite things. I went into this book being pretty sure I would love it. Sadly I didn’t quite LOVE it, but I still did enjoy it a lot.