Source: Publisher

Virginia Shreves: Now and Then

Posted September 12, 2018 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
Virginia Shreves: Now and Then

I always wanted to read THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER ROUND THINGS when I was younger, but was never sure what my mom would think if I tried to pick it out at the bookstore. I decided to give this “classic” a go when I saw the audiobook on Scribd. I later received the sequel, THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING (AND SO AM I) in the mail for review, so I decided to combine them here! I have a lot of feelings about this book. The first thing I feel like I need to mention is that obviously it was written in the early 2000s, so a lot of the words and references are outdated. I knew that going into it. The weird thing is that the sequel coming out isn’t like a “fifteen years later” kind of book. It takes place right after this ends. (More on that later.) Virginia was an extremely difficult narrator for me. She spent the vast majority of the book — I mean every single page — talking about her fatness and her (horrible) family reacting to her (horribly). I can feel for her on a lot of things, because I personally get it, but oh my god. It’s a very unhealthy and outdated (IMO) view of being a fat teen. She HAS to be sad and pathetic and unhappy with herself until she “gets healthier” in a very cliche way. I just don’t feel like there’s room for this portrayal of fat girls […]

Quick ARC Reviews: Unclaimed Baggage and The Dinner List

Posted September 3, 2018 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment
Quick ARC Reviews: Unclaimed Baggage and The Dinner List

This book was great! A quiet, heartwarming, and quirky story. I had high hopes for this one because I love when people meet in weird circumstances and come together to be friends/fall in love/etc. One flavor of this overall trope is when people meet at a job. Working at a grocery store throughout high school definitely brought me closer to the most random people from my high school that I otherwise wouldn’t have talked with as much… so you could say this “genre” has a special place in my heart. I loved the main characters so much and that only grew with every page. Grant, Doris, and Nell were fast friends and it felt so natural. Not gonna lie, they weren’t my favorite at the start of the book. They truly did grow on me with every chapter, as they also grew closer to each other and softened a little bit. The setting of the “lost luggage store” was amazing; I wish there was even more time at the Unclaimed Baggage. I loved how some of the luggage-related threads were woven together eventually. The author covered a lot of serious issues while keeping the book lighthearted overall. The southern setting definitely came into play a lot, with racism, religion, and more having a big effect on the story. Overall, I highly enjoyed this story and would definitely recommend it if you thought the premise sounded interesting. Learning what random shit people carry in their luggage was incredibly fun and the […]

ARC Reviews: Kiss Me in Paris and Sadie

Posted August 24, 2018 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment
ARC Reviews: Kiss Me in Paris and Sadie

I didn’t fully think about the fact that KISS ME IN PARIS was actually a holiday story when I started reading it, so it quickly became a “Christmas in July” kind of read. I usually don’t enjoy reading Christmassy books outside of November or December but I made an exception for the sake of my Goodreads challenge (and yes my Netgalley percentage, okay). I was dying to read something short, quick, and sweet, and I determined this would fit the bill. I loved the idea that the main character, Serena, would be retracing her parents’ steps when they first fell in love in Paris. The synopsis implied some good ol’ hate-to-love romance too, as the guy she has to stay with (Jean-Luc) isn’t overly happy about her arrival. The story happens over the course of one night, which I also love. Some of my issues were surrounding the romance. The first thing, kind of related to that, is that the book is very short – just barely over 200 pages. This almost puts it in novella territory and I tend to struggle with rushed romances. Another issue with the romance was that the couple spent quite a bit of time either focusing on an ex (Jean-Luc) or debating a new-ish flame from home (Serena). I understand creating some conflict for the sake of a story but I just didn’t get on board with actually shipping the couple as a result. There was too much time in their heads thinking about […]

ARC Review: The Good Luck Charm

Posted July 25, 2018 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments
ARC Review: The Good Luck Charm

I’ve been burnt out on YA contemporary for a while now; all of my reads this year have kind of suffered as a result. However, when most of my TBR falls in that category, I end up continuing to read them. Every once in a while I try to mix in an adult or new adult title to keep things interesting. THE GOOD LUCK CHARM did the trick for me! The story follows Lilah and Ethan, who were once best friends turned high school sweethearts. When he went off to college and was inevitably going to be drafted to the NHL, he ended the relationship with Lilah (we learn why during the story). She had since gotten married and divorced, never really giving her heart away. He never bothered with serious relationships when moving to new cities. Ethan returns home to Minnesota because he was traded to their local NHL team, and immediately discovers his father suffering from a stroke. Lilah, a nurse at the hospital and still close family friend to Ethan’s parents, is there to help. They are immediately pulled together again. One of my biggest pet peeves in romance novels is when the main issue is a result of miscommunication or general lack of communication. If the climax or driving issue in the book could be fixed with one conversation, the whole book suffers. I like the “inevitable breakup” part of the story to have higher stakes. However, that doesn’t mean I love a lot of drama […]

ARC Reviews: My Plain Jane and To Catch a Killer

Posted June 25, 2018 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments
ARC Reviews: My Plain Jane and To Catch a Killer

After absolutely loving MY LADY JANE (despite not knowing much about the actual history/true story inolved), I was incredibly excited and optimistic about MY PLAIN JANE. Like the first book, I’m actually not well-versed in Jane Eyre, the heroine for this retelling. I’ve never read the book and actually, in hindsight, it would have been nice to read that beforehand (considering it’s on my “classics I might want to read soon” list). I can’t speak to how it compares to the original source. I can’t lie – this book was a bit disappointing compared to MLJ. I know it had big shoes to fill since I loved it so much, but I found myself slogging through it sometimes (mostly in the first half). I had to start and stop this one quite a few times for other reading commitments, but when I did have time to read it, I was never really compelled to pick it up. It wasn’t as funny for engaging as MY LADY JANE was. I started to get into it a little more in the second half of the book but this definitely felt too long. I never read JANE EYRE so I have no idea how it compares but I have to say I’m a little more interested in reading it now. Jane, Charlotte, and Alexander were interesting main characters and I liked being inside each of their heads. Despite all of those complaints, MPJ got more interesting as it went on and I really enjoyed the […]

ARC Reviews: From Twinkle with Love, Dating Disasters of Emma Nash, and The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls

Posted June 4, 2018 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments
ARC Reviews: From Twinkle with Love, Dating Disasters of Emma Nash, and The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls

Can you tell that my plan to get ahead on May ARCs didn’t exactly work? I did read all of these books IN May, but didn’t give myself enough calendar space to share my reviews in a timely manner. Two of these published last month and one of them publishes tomorrow! This was adorable! I loved DIMPLE and was extremely excited to read Menon’s sophomore novel as a result. Her formula of geeky smart girls plus cinnamon roll boys is a winning combination for me so far. I noticed some mixed early reviews so I was a bit nervous that Twinkle, as a character, would be frustrating for me to read. I like YA books where the characters are flawed and kind of learn / grow up throughout the novel, but I’m always hoping that it stays relatable. I can see why it’s polarizing because Twinkle definitely makes some rough and immature decisions throughout the book. She’s used to being a wallflower and is feeling hurt that her best friend, Maddie, has moved into the ~popular girls~ group at their school, leaving Twinkle for just some scraps of her time. She has an overwhelming crush on Neil while balancing a friendship with his twin, Sahil. The two of them are working on a gender-swapped Dracula film together and very obviously falling for each other. Add in a mysterious secret admirer named “N” via email, and Twinkle is quite confused. There are so many moments in this book where I questioned Dimple but […]

Blog Tour | Review: Herons Landing

Posted May 29, 2018 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments
Blog Tour | Review: Herons Landing

Review As you know, companion series involving cozy towns always make it onto my TBR. I love meeting everyone in the town, exploring the local small business, and picturing the scenery. HERONS LANDING was already ticking off a lot of those boxes. In this series, you can also add in a Romeo and Juliet-style “warring families” kind of feud that runs deep throughout the town. The Harpers and the Mannions have been at odds for years and now many of the family members are starting to comingle. There’s a lot of history to unpack and many characters are introduced in this first story, which makes me feel like this will be a nice ongoing thread throughout each upcoming book. This story stars Brianna Mannion, a hospitality specialist returning home to revamp an old building into a B&B, and Seth Harper, operator of the town’s best construction company. Brianna always had a crush on Seth when they were kids, until her new best friend Zoe moved into town and swept him up. After Zoe’s tragic death in the line of duty, Seth has been simply going through the motions until Bri comes back into town with her project. There’s a loooot of tropes here and they’re all ones I love! The warring families, “second chance” unrequited love, childhood best friends, and (one I haven’t dealt with before) the best friend’s widower. Bri and Seth had a pretty open and easy relationship develop throughout the story (until the inevitable moment where things […]

Caraval Reread + Legendary ARC Review

Posted May 17, 2018 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments
Caraval Reread + Legendary ARC Review

Caraval Reread Thoughts I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts on CARAVAL because I decided to reread the book first. The audiobook was a solid choice, narration-wise, so I highly recommend that if you’re thinking of a reread! First Read: July 4 – 5, 2016 As you can tell, I read this book incredibly early. I got the bound manuscript from ALA Midwinter that year and binge-read it by the pool on the 4th of July later that year. I knew the wait was going to be miserable for the second book because its release would be in late May 2018. Can you imagine? That would have been 694 days – a year and almost 11 months! So, I knew I was going to have to reread before LEGENDARY came out. Overall though, my first read of CARAVAL back in the day was fantastic. I loved the world-building and magic, but the main character bugged me sometimes. That was really my only small complaint. Second Read: February 23 – 28, 2018 I bought the audiobook for cheap during the holiday sale on Amazon, so I knew I’d like to try that format for it. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to read audiobooks in Maine (no commute or getting-ready time) so I also alternated the ebook copy in when I was too addicted to wait for audio time. The good thing about having a terrible bookish memory is that it felt like I was reading the book […]

Blog Tour | Cover Colors: Love & Luck

Posted May 10, 2018 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 2 Comments
Blog Tour | Cover Colors: Love & Luck

More purchase links: Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks  I’m excited to be another stop on the blog tour for LOVE & LUCK! Any book involving international travel makes it high on my TBR because I love learning about other countries. I haven’t been outside of the US yet (anywhere!!) so these books give me ideas about where I may want to take my first trip someday. This story is about Addie, a girl who travels to Ireland with her family for her aunt’s destination wedding. The book opens with her and her brother falling down a hill and getting muddy while in their wedding party attire. It’s definitely not a good look. For me, the most fun aspect of the story was the guidebook, Ireland for the Heartbroken, that is featured throughout. Addie finds it in the library before the trip and uses it to guide her travels around the country. I really had a wonderful reading experience with this one. I love road trip books and I don’t know if I’ve read one set internationally before! The family feels were super strong and the main character was a lot better than her best friend was in the previous book. There was a little bit of every emotion throughout the story and I really love the journey that they all went on. I genuinely cried AND laughed out loud. There were so many moments that could have been corny but somehow they just worked in the story felt deeper as a […]

ARC Reviews: 9 Days and 9 Nights, Love Songs and Other Lies, and August and Everything After

Posted May 9, 2018 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments
ARC Reviews: 9 Days and 9 Nights, Love Songs and Other Lies, and August and Everything After

^ can we just talk about how many times the word “and” appears up there?? You know those books you finish and you wish you could have a sequel, but you also really don’t want one because you feel like it’ll get ruined? Well when that sequel ends up happening and the original story DOESN’T get ruined, it’s one of the best feelings as a reader. I’m here to confirm that totally happened for me with 9 DAYS AND 9 NIGHTS. Katie Cotugno writes the messiest characters and situations that have me on the edge of my seat, anxious the whole time, and completely enthralled too. I read 99 DAYS in one sitting, way past my bedtime, and I did the same thing here (luckily a little earlier in the night though). Preamble aside… that was so fucking good. I loved it. Almost maybe more than the first one, or at least very close? Everything in Molly’s head felt so real, as it did before, and I loved every conversation that happened. It was just so authentic. In a lot of books, if the main character has a boyfriend but is considering someone else, there’s usually something super wrong with that guy. It’s obvious from the get-go that he’s not right for her and the breakup is logical and tidy. Ian was a really great guy in this story. He was funny, thoughtful, and fairly perfect most of the time. Then of course… there’s Gabe. The guy she can’t help […]