Source: Fantastic Flying Book Club

Blog Tour: The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly

Posted May 10, 2020 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Review This book was so dang cute! I sometimes use the word “predictable” as a compliment, and that’s the case here. I WANTED this book to be a badass girl trying to take down gender norms and rules at the medieval-themed restaurant, and also have solid elements of friendship and maybe romance. This book met all of my expectations and was exactly like I predicted it would be, and that made me so happy! I also really appreciated how diverse in representation this was, really across the board. Kit herself came from a very poor family and it was ingrained in a lot of the things she did or the decisions she made. I really enjoyed the strong relationships between her and her family too. Kit’s mom and brother were very present and always working together to make sure they could pay the bills and get food on the table. They were a team and she had a nice, open relationship with both of them, even when she struggled to tell the truth to her friends. She had a diverse group of friends/wenches (lol) at the restaurant also trying to become knights. Kit really struggled throughout the story in trying to figure out how to break it to everyone that they likely wouldn’t actually be able to make a tournament happen. This felt real to me because she was so determined to make it happen and didn’t want to let anyone down, but she knew she eventually would have to. […]

Blog Tour Review & Cover Colors: Last Girl Lied To

Posted April 10, 2019 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Review I was a huuuuge fan of Flynn’s debut novel, FIRSTS, so I was super eager to find out what she’d be writing next. She started with a contemporary and then, for her sophomore novel, moved into mystery. I could totally see her knocking this kind of book out of the park, along with a new-ish pen name to match the new genre. Needless to say, I signed up for this blog tour so quickly! This book was incredibly addicting. There’s something about her writing that makes you want to keep reading until the book is over; I remember the same feeling with FIRSTS and reading it in 1-2 sittings. It also helped that the chapters were often really short and easy to breeze through, eager to see what would happen next. Fiona recounts the night Trixie supposedly walked into the ocean and various points of their friendship, while living her life in present day, trying to figure out what happened that night. I liked that the book was mostly about Fiona’s relationship with herself (and her body image issues), trying to remember who she was before and during her friendship with Trixie, in order to figure out who she actually is without any friends influencing her too much. There was a common pattern where she’d mold herself into whatever her friends needed her to be, which caused her to lose sight of things she loved (like fashion and making clothes). As I said, she’s also trying to figure out what […]

Blog Tour Review: That’s Not What I Heard

Posted January 28, 2019 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Review Stephanie Kate Strohm is one of those authors where I continued to add EVERY one of her releases to my TBR… and just let them sit there?? I’m not sure why because they ALL sounded like Lauren books. I finally read LOVE A LA MODE after requesting it from Netgalley and fell in absolute love with it. Her writing was wonderful and I knew I’d have to finally work my way through her backlist. THEN, I saw tour sign-ups for this new release and couldn’t resist. Phew, now that you’re up to speed… I have to admit that books where ONE misunderstanding is the entire plot (the kind where the MCs just need to have one single conversation to clear up the whole premise of the book) do not work for me usually. I tend to get frustrated because the whole thing can unravel if they just SPOKE to each other about the issue. HOWEVER, with this story, the experience was quite different for me. There were so many points of view, including everyone from teachers to students to the principal, which really made it awesome. I actually preferred all of those points of view over reading from Teddy and Kim’s perspectives. That was when I would be reminded that the two just needed to talk to each other to make everything better. The other people were more interesting as rumors were spread and the breakup somehow affected the entire school (including the faculty). My two favorite points of view […]

Blog Tour | The Year of Living Awkwardly: Sophomore Year

Posted July 6, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 1 Comment

I was extremely excited to see the opportunity to join the blog tour for this one, since I SPED THROUGH and LOVED the first book so much. I really put myself in Chloe’s shoes as a freshman in high school. I even said in my review that I wished the author would write a book for each school year! Needless to say, I hopped on this quickly. Chloe had some immaturity and normal-ish “high school related” flaws to work through in the first book. I rooted for her so much in both stories because I could really see her growing and changing. She constantly recognized how privileged she was and how she was often complaining about silly (in the grand scheme of things) issues, but they were still HER issues to work through. I absolutely LOVE her voice and her authenticity. I don’t think I’ve ever read a YA book that feels more real. The diary format helps but the overall voice in the story is so natural. I remember feeling so many of the same emotions throughout my early high school years. She goes through illogical and logical reactions to what’s happening around her, and has her mature and immature moments. Like the first book, I placed myself right in her shoes and remembered what I felt like during those years. I LOVED the ending so incredibly much, but I need more. PLEASE let there be a junior year book next. Please. Keep em coming for the next two years […]

Blog Tour: Your Destination is on the Left

Posted June 22, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 1 Comment

Review After traveling with her family in a caravan of RVs since seventh grade, Dessa is ready to figure out the next steps in her own life. The caravan makes decisions as a group by voting, instead of allowing individual voices to be heard. This works for a while, for most situations (like when and where to go next), but can be harder when someone wants to break free and carve their own path. Dessa is a great artist that, for some reason, didn’t get into any art schools. She’s surprised by her acceptance into an internship with a great artist in Santa Fe, NM, so the caravan heads there. I loved getting to know her grandmother and the artist, Fiona – they were two of my favorite characters. Many of the side characters, like her family and Cyrus, were hard for me. I understood that they needed and wanted to keep everyone together as a group, but it often felt like people were forced into things. Dessa knew what was right for her and no one wanted to let her do it. I appreciated that she fought for her independence and tried to make everyone understand that SHE deserved to make her own decisions. She’s old enough to decide what to do next. Cyrus was an okay love interest sometimes but I wasn’t really sold on the ship… which is weird, because friends-to-more is my jam usually! The two of them have been traveling together since they started and it seemed […]

Blog Tour: Finding Felicity

Posted March 19, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 8 Comments

I knew exactly what I wanted to do for a post when I saw this blog tour announced by the Fantastic Flying Book Club. Felicity is a show I’ve always wanted to watch. I was constantly watching Friends with my mom (when I was way too young to watch it), but I never saw Felicity because she didn’t watch it. I was only 7 years old when the show started so the college-aged main character fascinated me, but was out of my reach at the time. I loved the concept of Finding Felicity when I saw the book’s synopsis a long time ago, and vowed to watch the show before reading the book. As you might have guessed, my role in this fun blog tour is to watch Felicity for the first time and share my feelings before reading the book. I’m going to include a little late 90s outfit Polyvore collage with Cover Colors as well, because I can’t resist. A first time Felicity watcher binges the show The tour was announced at the beginning of March, so I knew I had a few weeks to get going on the show. I decided to keep my live-blogging to just the first episode because it would get out of hand for all the episodes (I learned this very quickly). I embarked on the binge the first weekend of the month when my boyfriend was working (and sleeping, due to his work schedule). Here are my thoughts on season one, starting with a live blog […]

Blog Tour Review: The Unlikelies

Posted June 2, 2017 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

This book was not what I expected – in the best way possible! I was picturing a group of teens trying to be superheroes and fight crime. While there were some elements like that, this story was more about “do-gooding” and trying to improve the troubles in their Hamptons towns. They left care packages for people, wrote positive comments and compliments on blogs and slam pages, and helped the community in other ways too. The whole premise gave me a bunch of warm fuzzies. I hope there are really great teenagers like them out there. There were definitely some unrealistic elements to the plot, but I think that made it even more fun. I loved that each character had quirky traits and diverse backgrounds. Jean-Pierre was a Haitian immigrant who was awesome at art. Gordie was the class valedictorian and helped people with developmental issues. Val was Hispanic and had a major school supply drive to assist the less fortunate members of her community. Alice was majorly into dogs and had a best friend with a heroin addiction (which was definitely central to the plot of the novel). And finally, the main character and narrator, Sadie – she was recognized for helping a baby escape her abusive, drunk father that kidnapped her. She had a lot of issues she was suppressing and I don’t think all of them got completely resolved. I didn’t expect them to by the end of the book, but I can tell that the therapy angle […]

Blog Tour | Review: A Study in Charlotte

Posted February 25, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’m always interested in retellings – even the non-fairytale ones. Those are more common, for sure, but some of the historical retellings are more unique. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about historical figures, so I’m usually entering them blindly… but still end up enjoying them! I’m not overly familiar with Sherlock Holmes stories, so this was another where I luckily didn’t have a lot of historical expectations. It’s nice because I go into it with a wide-open attitude, instead of preparing to make comparisons to the real text. In this story, Sherlock and Holmes were real people that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about. The main characters are Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes, the descendants of the famous detective duo. One of the cooler parts of the book for me is the fact that it takes place in my state – Connecticut! I don’t see a lot of books happening here, so that was almost reason enough to add it to my TBR. It’s funny because the Holmes/Watson relationship ended up being my favorite part of the book! I loved the dynamic between the two of them. I hope it lines up well with the original stories, but from someone who doesn’t know – it was awesome. From what I do understand, they both had similar personality traits to their ancestors. It was cool to see how they come together at the beginning of the book, and how their relationship grows. Great chemistry! The dynamic was definitely different because […]

Blog Tour Review: Never Always Sometimes

Posted July 30, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I love books about bucket lists and road trips and other FUN teenagery things (that I never did as an actual teenager). I had a good feeling about this book and its premise, and I was pretty hooked by the first few pages. Here are a few reasons you should pick up this book: Friendship & Banter David and Julia had some amazing chemistry. Dave, who was in love with Julia for YEARS, is obviously harboring some romantic feelings for her (no spoilers on whether or not that pans out!)… but they have such great banter and overall friendship chemistry! The inside jokes about Mr. Marroney (throughout the whole beginning of the book) seriously made me laugh out loud. I knew I would like the two of them right off the bat. The Never List Like I said, I’ll probably read any book about a bucket list. This one, oddly enough, is kind of the opposite of a bucket list! They make a list of things they’ll never do in high school – all of the cliches that high school can be to other people. They decide, with a few months left in senior year, that they’re going to make up for lost time and just DO them all. I absolutely adored the premise. Very reminiscent of Since You’ve Been Gone, which I also loved. Relatability I loved that Julia and David have different family backgrounds and situations. I feel like this allows for really anyone to relate to them in […]

Blog Tour Review: Kissing in America

Posted May 22, 2015 / Book Reviews / 7 Comments

I really, really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down. I love when a book can completely set the scene and give me plenty of things to relate to. I’ve been liking the format of “five reasons to read” for reviews sometimes, so without further ado… Five Reasons to Read Kissing in America 1. The Road Trip This is definitely the kind of book that gets me in the mood to travel. I love the idea of taking a cross-country road trip and am absolutely determined to do it someday. I have to say, I wouldn’t enjoy the exact same trip that these girls had, but it definitely gave me some inspiration! The story centers around Eva and her best friend Annie traveling to California. They’re headed to a TV competition for Annie to win scholarship money, but Eva organizes the trip with the purpose of visiting Will, a boy she’s been falling for. I loved reading about the two of them traveling the country, stopping and meeting some interesting characters, and exploring a lot of feelings. I love when books motivate me to get up and DO SOMETHING. 2. The Friendship Annie and Eva had a really strong relationship. I loved that they were both incredibly smart and talked about way more complex things than people their age. Eva made some mistakes, especially at the end, but Annie was always there to listen and help her. I can’t imagine Eva being an easy person to be friends with, but […]