Lights Out in Lincolnwood was one of the more original stories I read this year, and maybe not even just this year. I’m not quite sure I’ve read anything like it before! And I’m very glad I chanced upon this book, because not only was it snarky and kind of funny, but it was also serious in the way of,…
Continue Reading→Category: Fiction
Books Like The Startup Wife Are Why I Read, And Here’s Why You Should Pick It Up Too The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam, ★★★★★ 5 stars
The Startup Wife was an amazing book, and I find myself still thinking about it long after I’ve finished it. It was just one of those books where you start reading it, and you know it’s going to be an instant hit with you. I can only compare The Startup Wife with books like Daisy Jones and The Six, Oona Out…
Continue Reading→A Middle Grade Fantasy About Magical Forest Adventures The Mostly Invisible Boy (Casey Grimes #1) by A.J. Vanderhorst
I really had fun with the Mostly Invisible Boy by A.J. Vanderhorst! The best thing about this book is that it’s going to be a series, so I won’t have to part with the characters. I’m definitely looking forward to more adventures to be had with Casey and Gloria, the brother and sister who find a whole world out there,…
Continue Reading→Tense Story Of Teens Who Grow Up As Hostages Of Their Family Histories What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson - Blog Tour
Today I’m participating in a blog tour for What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson (thank you for the review copy, TheWriteReads Tours!) This was a tense read! What Beauty There Is gave me the vibes from The Boy Who Steals Houses, only it was darker – so much darker. Actually, I didn’t expect this book to be so dark…
Continue Reading→A Magical Story Of Love And Letting Go That I Gobbled Up In One Sitting Ghostlove by Dennis Mahoney, ★★★★★ 5 stars
Last night I read a truly unforgettable book. It’s one of those books I’m sure I’ll remember forever, and it’s one of those that feel like they were secretly written for you. The experience was just uncanny, and it left me with so many thoughts and feelings, and now I’m struggling to put them in words. Ghostlove by Dennis Mahoney…
Continue Reading→Mini-review for Maud & Addie by Maureen Buchanan Jones One of my recent 5-star slump beaters - definitely worth a read!
Last weekend, I mentioned that I recently read two books that got me out of the massive reading slump I’ve had for weeks.. Maybe months? Well, Maud & Addie was one of these books, and it’s unforgettable. It’s just one of those stories that when you delve into it, you’re quite likely to just spend the whole night reading, nevermind…
Continue Reading→Mini-review for A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus One of the 5-stars that helped me break my reading slump
So this weekend, I finally read a couple middle grade books that broke my huge reading slump. I was incredibly lucky, cause two out of three were 5 stars – and A Place to Hang the Moon was one of them. The book immediately drew me in – it had a pleasant tone and felt natural, and I could instantly feel…
Continue Reading→A Story About Growing Up With Doomsday In Your Back Yard Prepped by Bethany Mangle
You guys (and gals, and enbies), this book was so good!!! I don’t even know where to start. When I accepted the review copy, something made me think the book would be much more lighthearted than it was. I didn’t expect Prepped to be so serious and kind of heart-breaking. I thought it would be an adventure, but it’s so…
Continue Reading→A New, Unexpected But Very Heart-Warming Story From Catherine Ryan Hyde My Name is Anton: A Novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Writing yet another review for a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde makes me feel dejavu. Every couple of months a new book of hers comes out, I instantly grab it despite any other review commitments, and I never regret it. So far, all her books have just been so good that I can’t resist reading them as soon as possible.…
Continue Reading→Disinherited, Cut Off… Reinvited? A Story About A Summer When Past Secrets Come Back The Cousins by Karen M. McManus
Today I’m happy to be part of The WriteReads blog tour for The Cousins by Karen McManus! I don’t often read thrillers, but when I do, I make a point to choose good ones. The Cousins was a good twisty mystery of sins done in the past and family grudges still running strong – it wasn’t one of those stories…
Continue Reading→A Story Of The Most Unusual Friendship And Lots Of Adventuring Harpyness is Only Skin Deep and Finding Your Harpy Place by D.H. Willison
Well, this was one hell of a story! Today I’m going to tell you about two books in a series called The Tales of Arvia, and it’s just about the most unusual set of books I’ve ever read. Harpyness is Only Skin Deep and Finding Your Harpy Place should really work for someone who’s into fantasy and RPGs – it’s…
Continue Reading→A Tale Of Bravery In A Seemingly Impossible Battle Skyhunter (Skyhunter #1) by Marie Lu
I couldn’t be more surprised about falling head over heels for Skyhunter – me, who is always cautious of YA – but I did. It’s really good! I was initially suspicious – I started it through an excerpt on NetGalley – and rated it 3 stars cause it failed to draw me in. But I still grabbed the audiobook review…
Continue Reading→Book Club Questions for Anxious People by Fredrik Backman + Review & Discussion This Story Was Everything – Basically My Winner Of 2020, ★★★★★ 5 stars
You can now download printable book club questions for Anxious People by Fredrik Backman in this review! Scroll further for a PDF book club questions list + notes, as well as everything else you need to prepare for your book club discussion of Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I am also including my full review of Anxious People to help facilitate…
Continue Reading→A Book About Finding Yourself And Belonging – And So Many Other Themes The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya
I feel like if I wanted to give The Royal Abduls a proper review, I’d have to write a whole other book about it – I just can’t see how I would put it all into a single-post review. This story was great, and it’s just so full of everything – it covers a large variety of topics, but the…
Continue Reading→A Truly Otherworldly Story Of Secrets, Growing Up And The Magic Of Woods Otherwood by Pete Hautman
Otherwood was a brilliant story, and I loved it – but I also sort of don’t know what to make of it? It’s one of those stories that you understand more subconsciously rather than in a straight-forward manner. When I got the review copy, I expected it to be a fantasy woodsy tale, but it’s nothing like that – it…
Continue Reading→Imagine Stepping From The 19th Century Straight Into The 21st The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
When I saw the blurb of The Lost Shtetl, I was immediately drawn in. It sounded like an absurdly ridiculous, yet mesmerizing concept – a Jewish town in the Polish woods so remote it gets overlooked for more than a hundred years, so much so that it is even missed by the Holocaust. The people living there go around their…
Continue Reading→Practical Magic Concludes, Or Rather Begins, With An Amazing Prequel Magic Lessons (Practical Magic #0) by Alice Hoffman
Being kind of a fan of Alice Hoffman’s, I loved Magic Lessons from the very start! I didn’t even doubt I would. I have loved the entire Practical Magic series, as spaced out over the decades as it was, but I think I loved Magic Lessons by far the most. I got immediately attached to the main character, Maria, and…
Continue Reading→A Quick Scifi Noir That Packs A Punch And Makes You Laugh Red Dust by Yoss
For the past week or two, I have been hearing about this new novel by a scifi author Yoss that’s gaining traction, and I mean I’ve been hearing about it EVERYWHERE. It’s been appearing on all sorts of articles and what not, and at that point, my conscience about having downloaded one from Edelweiss for free several months ago broke…
Continue Reading→One Hell Of A Ride, Riddle And Love Triangle In This YA Novel The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Inheritance Games is so good I just don’t know where to begin! I started reading it on a rainy day during my vacation, and it’s a good thing the weather was crap too, because otherwise I would have lost a particularly good day of being out, unable to unglue myself from the book and look at any of my…
Continue Reading→A Cozy Wind In The Willows Type Of Read! Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen
Skunk and Badger was such a delightful read – right from the very first pages. If you were at all a fan of the The Wind in the Willows, you will love Skunk and Badger. It is definitely different, but there is something in the vibe, something I can’t pinpoint – that they have in common (apart from the obvious…
Continue Reading→