Category: Book Reviews

ARC Review: One True Loves

Posted June 22, 2016 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

Woooof, where do I begin with this one? Because it’s Taylor Jenkins Reid, I already had sky-high expectations. I’ve read all of her books now except one and they’ve all blown me away. This is the lowest rating and its 4.5 stars! That being said, it wasn’t my favorite by her, but was still utterly fantastic. Loved it I love the fact that TJR’s books always focus more on character development and emotions than plot. Obviously a lot of things happen to move the story along, but there’s so much emphasis on the character working through her feelings that it takes center stage. This makes her books incredibly quoteable and rereadable. Just fantastic. I really felt the struggle that Emma had to deal with. I mean, what could you possibly do in that situation? You think your husband is dead, you finally move on and get engaged, then the husband returns!? It’s unthinkable. I love how Jenkins Reid gives a thorough backstory on the characters and their relationships before diving in. Like in AFTER I DO, she goes through the whole relationship first to see how it breaks down. You get to know the characters and can really see all sides of the dilemma. The same thing happens here in ONE TRUE LOVES. You learn about Emma and Jesse and Sam, so you really understand why she has a hard time deciding what to do. I was really nervous about the ending of this one. I had a feeling it […]

ARC Review: Winning + Mean Girls Book Tag

Posted June 20, 2016 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

When I read this book a few months ago, it reminded me SO much of the movie Mean Girls. Honestly, I think the actions of the characters in this book might even be worse than the people in the movie. Because of this, I decided to do something a little different and combined my review with the Mean Girls Book Tag! I saw this one and saved it from Alexa’s blog back in 2015 and have been waiting for the right time to debut it on the blog. (Header graphic credit to her as well!) It was originally created by BookTuber and book blogger Sarah-Jane (check out her her booktube channel and book blog). First, the review! I started this book with really complicated feelings about the main character and her incredibly bitchy behavior. She was the EPITOME of a mean girl. I genuinely couldn’t imagine how this would be okay behavior for actual young adults to read about. I mean, I’m in my mid-twenties so I know how to act and not be a horrible person. But younger people could still be impacted by this! I was nervous, honestly. However… I took another look at the synopsis and realized that this book has no issues with making it very obvious that this is about a mean girl. The more I read, the more clear it became – this doesn’t glorify the mean girl trope (that being a terrible person gets you ahead in life). It exposes it and makes it very obvious that you shouldn’t behave this […]

ARC Reviews: The Marked Girl and The Vanishing Throne

Posted June 17, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I really liked this a lot! It took me a little while to get engaged with this for some reason; I think the beginning threw me off. After the first few chapters, I started getting really into it and was super curious about where it was heading. The synopsis says that Liv is in some way connected to the people who come in from the other realm, so I was wondering nonstop how all that was going to connect at some point. The basic idea behind the book is that a girl, Liv, finds these three people (Cedric, Kat, and Merek) who end up explaining that they came in from another land (Caelum) through a portal. I haven’t read a lot of books like this, but it reminded me immediately of a cross between Thor and The 20th Kingdom (I’ll admit I’ve only seen one episode, but the premise at least seems similar!). I became hooked soonafter. I’m a bad judge of what a GOOD fantasy story is because I read so few of them. To me, this book was really unique and super interesting. As I said, I’ve never read a book involving realms and portals; I’d only seen it on the shows/movies. So yeah, I thought this book was unique and engaging for sure. Not sure how experienced fantasy readers will feel! There were lots of twists and turns that I honestly didn’t see coming, which was refreshing. Lately I’ve been on a kick where I’m too good at predicting what’s going to […]

Blog Tour | Review: Mystic Summer

Posted June 15, 2016 / Book Reviews / 11 Comments

It is my absolute favorite thing to read books that take place in towns or cities I’ve been to before. What’s even better? When it’s a location I know very well and is in my home state! I adore Mystic and haven’t been there in way too long. This book absolutely inspired me to get in the car some weekend soon and take a trip down there. It’s only an hour-ish from where I live and is full of fun things to do. So, needless to say, the setting for this book was pretty wonderful. The author did a fantastic job of setting the scene for people who may have never been there. I’m positive that all readers want to visit Mystic after reading this. Aside from the setting, this book was incredibly enjoyable. Maggie, the main character, starts spending time in her hometown of Mystic when her summer vacation starts. She was a teacher in a Boston prep school but finds out that she may lose her job due to budget cuts. She’s in the midst of helping her best friend plan a wedding, figuring out where she’ll live when her friend moves out, and determining some next steps with her actor boyfriend. When she comes home, she discovers her ex-boyfriend from high school has also returned to Mystic…with a lot going on that she didn’t expect. The two spend time together and you can imagine the rest! I enjoyed Maggie’s personality a lot and loved being inside her head. […]

Blog Tour | Review: Run

Posted June 14, 2016 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

MORE LINKS: Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository I am super impressed by this book, friends! I have been known to be a bigggg Kody Keplinger fangirl so I was absolutely excited to be a part of this blog tour. She just writes the best stories: usually a nice mix of fluffy and serious, with great strong leads and friendships. This book definitely had all of those things, but it struck me as very different from her other books right off the bat. I wasn’t sure at first, honestly, if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I love her backlist titles so much – would a “different” book by her work for me? The answer is definitely. Let’s chat about how great this book is. Her other books may have slightly higher ratings than this one but that’s completely my personal preference. This book is probably her best book – the most well-written, at the very least. She’s grown quite a bit as a writer and I love that she told this story. It’s about two friends, Agnes and Bo, who essentially run away from home. Bo has a messed up family life and Agnes is blind; the two make an unlikely pair but their friendship has grown to be something strong. Bo doesn’t treat Agnes like she’s fragile because she’s blind, but still helps her when she needs it. They just had such a sweet, caring friendship! There wasn’t much romance at all and I generally […]

Book and Movie Review: Me Before You

Posted June 13, 2016 / Book Reviews, Book to Movie Reviews / 7 Comments

On the book So, I’m surprised to say I had kind of mixed feelings upon finishing this book. I fully expected to bawl my eyes out. Honestly on any other day I might have, but I had an extremely emotional day for some other reasons and maybe by brain was too tired to cry more. In any case, big surprise. My Goodreads review sums up everything perfectly to get things started: It’s been an extremely emotional day for me in general and tears have come easily for other reasons… So I have to say I’m utterly baffled by the fact that this book didn’t make me cry. At all. I loved the slow burn, banter-filled story because that is my JAM. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the characters, but am kind of underwhelmed by the ending? I think that, as usual, because it’s an all-time favorite of some people, I just held it to too high of a standard. I am suuuuuper ready for the movie this weekend! Soooo kinda mixed feelings although not really because I liked it a lot?? I’m going to break it down in a few different ways so fully explain my feelings. I liked the vast majority of things about this book, but there are some that left a bit to be desired for me. Characters and romance I LOVED both Will and Lou. Their story was amazingly slow-burn and full of banter. The whole hate (at least on one side) to love trope is […]

ARC Review: Out on Good Behavior

Posted June 10, 2016 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I am too sad that this series is over. New Adult can be truly hit or miss for me. I find that I’m not a fan of a lot of drama and angst between the couples. I’m prettttty much here for the college-aged-setting and sexytimes. I really love Dahlia’s books in general, but she pretty much slays at NA. She has a great mix of the hot stuff, the relationship development, and most importantly – FRIENDSHIP. The saddest thing about this series is that I don’t have the ability to hang out with Lizzie, Cait, and Frankie anymore. I love them so much. Between the dirty jokes and the fact that they’re always there for each other, they are legit #squadgoals. I’m going to miss them. The previous two books had a lot of family feels and issues brought in, but this one had almost zero. It’s really not a big deal and I didn’t notice that much when I was reading… but it’s odd in hindsight. Samara had the issue of her parents and telling them she’s gay but that wasn’t at the forefront. We heard a little about Frankie’s parents but no interaction with them at all. The relationship between Sam and Frankie was really sweet. Frankie is known in the previous two books for doing whatever she wants with whoever she wants, so it was clear she’d need some character development for her to be monogamous. She didn’t change herself for a girl though – she made […]

Blog Tour | ARC Review: My Lady Jane

Posted June 8, 2016 / Book Reviews / 13 Comments

I was so thrilled when Alexa invited me along for the MY LADY JANE blog tour! I absolutely adored this book and truthfully haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it so many months ago. (Get a taste of this novel by reading the prologue!) More places to find it: HarperCollins / Book Depository / iBooks / Indiebound / Chapters Indigo This book was absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever read, and it’s placed firmly on my favorites shelf. There were seriously SO many fantastic elements to this story – I’m going to have a hard time sharing just how fun and special this book is. Let me break it down as best as I can: Those narrators! I just have to mention the three amazing women who wrote this book together. They often had little asides where they would address the reader directly, and it was always so funny. It never took you fully out of the story – it really just added to its charm in ways I can’t explain. It was also super cohesive; it never felt like three different people wrote the book. Their voices and writing styles blended together perfectly and seamlessly. Pop culture references in historical fiction?? Yep. It was awesome. They made little remarks here and there alluding to things happening today (like a Red Wedding, referring to main characters as the Royal We, and quotes from Monty Python and The Princess Bride). Those examples don’t even scratch the surface; I would have to reread this book multiple times to pick up on everything, […]

ARC Review: True Letters from a Fictional Life

Posted June 1, 2016 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

This one got me going in ways I didn’t expect. I don’t read a lot of coming out stories (and admittedly, unfortunately, few QUILTBAG stories in general). I loved Simon and hated Cut Both Ways. This book had whispers of both books, but luckily landed more towards the LOVED end of that particular scale. Right off the bat, I loved the characters. James and his best friends Hawken and Derek had such great personalities. They were all funny too. At times, laugh-out-loud funny. I particularly thought that Hawken was such an excellent, supportive friend. He did nothing but try to help James and understand his perspective… even at times where most friends would have been nervous or scared away. Derek had his own way of being supportive, but he was great too. I loved the various get-togethers they had and just observing them as a group of friends. While I did enjoy all of the parties and gatherings, some of them felt a bit unnecessary. There were lots of different events that didn’t necessarily advance the plot or character development. I did like that it felt like this book was a “slice of life” instead of only focusing on the coming out piece. We learned about his whole life and those more random events just fleshed it out, I guess. Some of the other important characters were the members of James’s family. I don’t want to spoil their ~feelings~ and reactions to the “coming out” part of the story, but I will say […]

ARC Review: The Leaving

Posted May 30, 2016 / Book Reviews / 8 Comments

Wooof I haven’t been THAT addicted to a book in a long time! I sat down at 10:30 PM on a Friday night to start this book and finished it three hours later without stopping. I’m not a huge mystery/thriller reader but some of them just speak to me. This was definitely one of them. Six kids went missing eleven years ago, and then five of them randomly return. None of them remember what happened. MEEP. I didn’t have any theories while reading (for the most part) so that made it even more fun. I had no idea what was going on. This was the epitome of a page-turner. I sat and literally could not stop reading. I tried to stop when I got tired and ended up reading through bleary eyes for an extra two hours. I loved the style of the story; the chapters were super short and alternated between three characters. Avery is Max’s younger sister (the only person who didn’t return), and Lucas and Scarlett were two that returned. Lucas and Scarlett had some cool effects with the writing style. Hers were kind of written like poetry, with different symbols and text effects. Lucas had some parts (memories) that popped onto the page in black boxes. It’s hard to explain, but it was cool. It added to the effect of the memory loss story. The characters were interesting because they don’t know who they are or what they’re like. They don’t remember anything about their lives, […]