Book Review – Page 13

Book Review: “Truly Devious” By Maureen Johnson

This month I started a small Book Club with some of my closest friends on Bookstagram. Our first book was “Truly Devious”. I finished this book in two days! Our book club is supposed to only read one book throughout the course of the whole month but I couldn’t put this book down or slow down my reading at all to make it last the whole month.

“You have to take things as they are, not how you hear they’re supposed to be.”
Direct Quote

About The Book

Author: Maureen Johnson

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published Date: January 16th, 2018

Page Count: 416 pages

Main Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Contemporary

Average GoodReads Rating: 4.00

“Where her books were, she was. Get the books right and the rest will follow. Now she could address the rest of the room.”
Direct Quote

Synopsis

Stevie is a teenager obsessed with the Ellingham murders that took place in the 1930’s. She somehow got the chance to attend Ellingham Academy for her Junior year of high school and now she hopes she can crack the unsolved murder case. What she wasn’t expecting was for one of her own classmates to be murdered right under her nose. Will Stevie be able to solve the mysterious murders or will she herself be taken as a victim?

“Anything is better than doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Direct Quote

Rating

Review

I honestly can’t remember why I wanted to start reading this book or where I even heard about this series. What I do know is that I bought the three books in a box set and immediately fell in love with the covers.

This was such a good YA mystery! I haven’t read a lot of YA and I think I am slowly finding my YA grove. I really loved all of the characters, especially Stevie. Stevie reminds me a lot of myself, I too love true crime but I think she is a lot more brave than I am. I thought the friendships made in this book could have been a bit more defined but I think those will grow in the next few books.

I am happy I get to read this with my Book Club and I am so excited to talk to them about this book in more details. I found this book had a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and I think this will make for a really interesting discussion. I will be honest there were parts that frustrated me or even just didn’t fully make sense, but like I said, I think it will all come together in the rest of the series.

“There is something about early mornings that changes your perceptions subtly. The light is new; no one has put on the defences of the day. All is reset and not quite real yet.”
Direct Quote

QOTD: Have you read this series? What were your thoughts? If not what is your favorite YA mystery?

Book Review: “Loveless” By Alice Oseman

June has been seriously flying by! We are just over halfway through June and I have now finished two physical books and two audio books! That’s really not terrible but I don’t see myself finishing any more books for this month if I am going to be completely honest with you. As I have stated in a few of my latest posts we are moving and we are down to exactly one week till the moving truck arrives, eekk, so much stress!

“I’ve learnt some Things. Like the way friendship can be just as intense, beautiful and endless as romance. Like the way there’s love everywhere around me – there’s love for my friends, there’s love for my paintings, there’s love for myself.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Alice Oseman

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published Date: July 9th, 2020

Page Count: 433 Pages

Main Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, LGBTQ

GoodReads Rating: 4.31

“She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

Georgia is about to head off to University never having the chance to have a relationship let alone her first kiss. She felt like she was falling behind in the romance category but she believed that was all about to change when University started. This was her time to find the love of her life.

Arriving at University she finds out that she has a roommate who seems to have relationships all figured out. This gave Georgia hope, thinking she could learn a thing or two about relationships and sex. However, this just caused her more confusion than anything. Why is romance so easy for everyone but her?

Throughout the course of University Georgia has a chance to find her true self but this will turn out not to be an easy task. Will Georgia be able to find love?

“You know why people pair up into couples? Because being a human is fucking terrifying. But it’s a hell of a lot easier if you’re not doing it by yourself.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

“People are really out there just … thinking about having sex all the time and they can’t even help it?’ I spluttered. ‘People have dreams about it because they want it that much? How the – I’m losing it. I thought all the movies were exaggerating, but you’re all really out there just craving genitals and embarrassment. This has to be some kind of huge joke.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Review

When I first ordered this book I had just finished reading the “Heartstopper” Books and honestly I assumed this would be a graphic novel as well. To my surprise I opened the book up and it was a full novel! It is really hard to compare Alice’s writing in the novel and in the graphic novel. They both have such a different impact. In the graphic novels you can see the emotion but in this book you really felt the emotion, which I really enjoyed! I am very happy this was a 400 paged book, I felt like the topic of Aero Ace really needed a full story and explanation because it isn’t something many people know about or can really understand.

I have a lot to say about this book but I do feel like I am still trying to fully process everything that I read. Asexuality is a very broad spectrum with many sub sexualities and I am very thankful of the way this book was written. Alice really explained Aero Ace in a way that you can understand their feelings and emotions even if you aren’t feeling the same way. I just can’t tell you enough how well this book was written. I think that anyone who thinks they might fit into the Aero Ace sexuality or even those who want to learn a bit more about it, this is a great book to start with.

I will always be recommending this book and I know I will be rereading this one. I am also dying to order the rest of Alice Oseman’s books, She has quickly became an auto buy author for me.

“The aromantic and asexual spectrums weren’t just straight lines. They were radar charts with at least a dozen different axes.”
Direct Quote From The Book

QOTD: Have you read any of Alice Oseman’s Books?

Book Review: “Read Between the Lines” By Rachel Lacey

For the month of June I am reading all LGBTQ+ books. I read LGBTQ+ all throughout the year but I thought for Pride I would really focus on these topics and books I have been dying to read or have been on my shelf for awhile. This book was one my boyfriend gave me for Christmas and I thought the synopsis sounded so cute and so I finally dove in!

“I’d date Ms. Maybe to find out if she could be Ms. Right, but not if I already know she’s wrong for me.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Rachel Lacey

Publisher: Montlake

Published Date: December 1st, 2021

Page Count: 331 Pages

Main Genres: Romance, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

GoodReads Rating: 3.79

“So, more often than not, she curled up with a book and read about fictional characters falling in love instead of putting herself out there.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

Rosie’s whole life has been centered around books. She grew up in her moms bookstore surrounded by all the stories she loves. When her mom passes away Rosie takes over the shop which has so many wonderful memories of her childhood and special moments with her mom. All that Rosie is missing is her own romance story, But she thinks she has found that too when she strikes up a conversation with her favorite author Brie on Twitter.

Everything feels like the stars have aligned until the day Rosie gets a letter telling her that the Bookstores lease will not be renewed and that she has till December to find a new home for her beloved store. Rosie pushes love to the back burner in hopes to save her store but why can’t she have it all?

“And right now, you’re having too much fun flirting with her on Twitter,” Lia teased. “It’s chatting, not flirting,”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

Review

Possible Spoilers Ahead

I honestly had very high hopes for this book because any book about a book store just sounds so cute! Like this book could have been a booklovers dream but it failed to keep me entertained.

Rosie and Jane (AKA Brie) were not compatible at all! Mostly because Janes family business are the ones who are tearing down the bookstore. This causes so much animosity between the two characters that I just didn’t want to root for them to be together. I get the bookstore is special to Rosie but seriously grow up and realize that Jane had no choice in the matter. Also there was one scene where Rosie invites Jane to coffee they have a great five sentence conversation and Rosie who literally invited Jane out stood up and said “Sorry I can’t do this” and left… Like WTF?

Also, don’t even get me started on the pacing of this book. There were things that needed a lot more detail and things that could have used less detail. There were scenes, especially the sex scenes, that were like two sentences and they were already at completion, no that’s not how this works. Then right after the sex scenes there wasn’t much connection between them like we were already moving onto the next day.

Their relationship just felt forced and they really had no time together that was written well enough to make you care about their relationship. All you know about their relationship is that Rosie was always in love with Brie’s writing but hates Jane because of her job. You can’t hate and love someone, one side will always win. And again, all their conversations come back to Janes family business destroying the building, like we get it, can we get some other dialog?

I would have loved this book if Rosie was in love with Brie and they started an online relationship but secretly Brie is Jane, a book lover who comes into the bookstore once or twice a week and they each have secret crushes in real life and in the online world. That would have been amazing! But the whole plot line of destroying the bookstore just built too much animosity that made their relationship unbelievable.

Overall, Rosie’s character was annoying and Janes character had no back bone and both characters combined fell flat. I would love more about Lia and her back story, she was by far the best character who actually did most of the work at the bookstore and to try and save the store. Like Rosie this is your family business and you hardly can even show up to work because you are too busy Hating and loving Jane at the same time to even try and save your store. I just don’t think this is a book you need to read and you should probably skip over this one as a whole.

QOTD: What books plot drives you crazy?

Book Review: “The Change” By Kirstin Miller

So far this month I have finished seven books, three of which have been audio books and one was a poetry book. I haven’t done any official reviews for these yet but I think I might throw them all into one blog post later and do some mini reviews for them. It’s not that I don’t think they could all have a post dedicated to them but I just feel my audio book reviews tend to be less detailed than my physical book reviews for some reason.

“The Change” was a book I picked up from my Book of the Month subscription box this month and I was very excited to dive into it! To be honest I don’t read too many books that are over 400 pages, this is mostly just how the cards fall, I don’t have too many books on my shelf that are longer or if they are sitting on my shelf their size just feels intimidating! They take longer to read, obviously, and I tend to have a short attention span but I heard even though this book is long the story itself moves pretty fast which made it easier to dive into.

“One day, your life will grow quiet, and that’s when you’ll be able to hear them again. Like my auntie used to say, the gift arrives after the curse ends.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publisher: William Morrow & Company

Published Date: May 3rd, 2022

Page Count: 480 pages

Main Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Thriller

GoodReads Rating: 4.33

“Yes, you’re afraid of me because I’m better than you are. And if you give one talented woman the power she deserves, another will follow. Then another. And together they’ll show that their way is better. Then your whole fake f*cking world will come tumbling down.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

Nessa has always known she had a special gift to hear the dead but when she got married and had kids her power seemed to go dormant due to the craziness of every day life. But with her husband dead and her two kids off at college she finds her life finally slowing down and one day she wakes up to the sound of a dead girl calling for her help.

Something inside of her tells her that she won’t be able to help this girl on her own and so her intuition brings her to find two other women with special gifts as well. Jo, a retired business woman who now owns a local women only gym who is filled with heat and rage. Then there is Harriet, the local “Witch” who knows the secrets of the wildlife and plants around her. Together these three women will bring justice to the girl calling to Nessa.

“Witch is the label society slaps on women it can’t understand or control.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

“Every recipe is a spell and all cooks are witches”
Direct Quote From The Book

Review

This book got four stars for one reason really. First I would recommend this book to all my friends as it was really well written and had a very interesting storyline. But if I liked it so much why not give it five stars? Well, yes, I did enjoy this book a lot but there were so many characters that a lot of the time I had to stop reading just to remember who that person was at the beginning of the book when they were first introduced. In fact, in the last 100 pages we still had new characters being introduced and it got exhausting at times. Now, these new characters were important to the story so I can mostly forgive this situation. Other than that I really didn’t have too many hang ups with this book.

The three main characters were all bad ass! They each had very unique gifts and overall I really enjoyed learning their back stories. I think Nessa was my favorite character just because I really felt her emotions and could tell how drained she would get having to witness the dead girls. Jo’s character was really powerful, she had my favorite back story and I really loved her relationship with her daughter. That brings us to Harriet, probably my least favorite character of the three. I didn’t care for her back story as much as the other two and I found her just kind of annoying. I felt her character was mostly there to just foreshadow events. However, her powers were extremely cool but also just felt unbelievable at times.

This book moved pretty quickly and had a lot of really great twists and turns around every corner. I liked how empowering it was for women of all ages and I think the author couldn’t have written a more powerful story. I highly recommend it to all my fellow friends and followers,

Trigger Warnings

Rape, Sexual Assault, Murder, Kidnapping and sexual Harassment

QOTD: If you could have a superpower what would it be?

Book Review: “Book Lovers” By Emily Henry

Emily Henry is probably my second favorite author after Casey McQuiston and it just so happened that they each released their third books on the exact same day, May 3rd. Like most books I read, I don’t really read the back of the books, I typically go in blind only knowing the main genres and of course I did that with this book. I knew this would be a romance book just like her other two books before this, I also heard it was the enemies to lovers trope about thirty minutes before I started. In the past I haven’t loved that trope so I was interested to see how I would rate this one.

“You’re in books. Of course you don’t have a life. None of us do. There’s always something too good to read.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley

Published Date: May 3rd, 2022

Page Count: 384 Pages

Main Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

GoodReads Rating: 4.55

“That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them and you’re a heartless bitch.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

Nora’s whole life has been centered around books and her little sister Libby. They basically grew up in a book store so it was no surprise to anyone that she became an agent for authors, helping them get the best editorial and publishing deals. But unlike most book characters she’s not that happy go lucky girl who gets the dream guy. Instead, all her relationships fall apart because she is too focused on taking care of Libby and making a career for herself to really focus on her personal life.

Libby is a lot different than Nora. She has always been a romantic and she thinks her sister needs to experience that small town romance all romance book characters get to have. So her and Nora pack up for a month long trip to Sunshine Falls, the small town featured in one of Nora’s clients books. With a bucket list of book tropes to complete will Sunshine Falls finally help Nora find her true self?

“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

“She wonders whether what comes next could ever live up to the expectations. She doesn’t know. You never can. She turns the page anyway.”
Direct Quote From the Book

Review

I mentioned above that I heard this would be an enemies to lovers type book and to be honest I was a little worried to actually start it for that reason. However, I felt like the characters had some slight animosity towards each other and just a small misunderstanding of each others feelings. Over all I really loved Nora and Charlies relationship. They had really cute banter and I felt like they were the most perfect couple! Their relationship didn’t feel forced which is something I find happens in a lot of romance books but Emily Henry really just nailed this couple and wrote them in a way that you could literally feel their connection while reading.

I gave this five stars but to be honest I was on the edge of giving it four stars and the reason why is because I didn’t love the disconnect between Nora and Libby. Their relationship honestly felt exhausting. I couldn’t really love Libby’s character because every time she came into the scene it felt like she was finding an excuse to leave. Their background story is heart breaking which really helped build their characters but I guess I wished they had more scenes together even though this is a romance book and should be mostly focused on the love interest but this was so much more than just a romance read. Their was a lot of family aspects in this book so I just felt like I needed more of the sisters and Libby’s husband and kids.

The ending of this book, OMG! I cried so hard at the end of this book and I felt like all loose ends came together by the last chapter. I think I need a second book because I need to know how their lives all turn out!

Over all This was a really great book that any book lover will enjoy! If you are on the edge to read this just pick it up and read it! I know you won’t be disappointed!

“The last-page ache. The deep breath in after you’ve set the book aside.”
Direct Quote From The Book

QOTD: Do you wish you could have a small town romance?

Book Review: “I Kissed Shara Wheeler” By Casey McQuiston

Casey McQuiston is my all time favorite author! They wrote “Red, White and Royal Blue” Which I read pretty early on in my reading journey and probably the first romance read I had ever picked up and immediately I was hooked on their writing! When “One Last Stop” came out last year I knew I had to buy it and of course I fell in love all over again with their writing and their characters. “One Last Stop” Is still one of my all time favorite books to this day. I pre ordered “I Kissed Shara Wheeler” Back in early February and I have been not so patiently waiting to get my hands on my copy! Well I got it on Monday and read the book in about two and a half days! Lets see how this book held up.

“Shame is a way of life here. It’s stocked in the vending machines, stuck like gum under the desks. Spoken in morning devotionals. She knows now that there’s a bit of it in her. It was an easy choice not to go back in the closet when she got here, but if she’d grown up here, she might never have come out at all. She might be a completely different person.”
Direct quote from the book

About The Book

Author: Case McQuiston

Publisher: ST. Martin’s Press

Published date: May 3rd, 2022

Page Count: 320 pages

Main Genres: Romance, LGBT, Young Adult

GoodReads Rating: 4.24

“While she does like boys, she generally finds the traits of a compelling villain—arrogance, malice, an angsty backstory—tedious in a man. Like, what do hot guys with long dark hair even have to be that upset about? Get a clarifying shampoo and suck it up, Kylo Ren. So your rich parents sent you to magic camp and you didn’t make any friends. Big deal.”
Direct quote from the book

Synopsis

Chloe has one thing on her mind: being Valedictorian. She is so close she could taste it! All that’s standing in her way is her rival Shara Wheeler. Shara is the most popular girl in school, not to mention the principals daughter, but Chloe lives and breathes beating Shara in all that they do. But when Shara kisses Chloe out of the blue and then vanishes, Chloe’s main goal is to find Shara so she can beat her to Valedictorian fair and square.

Chloe quickly realizes that she’s not the only one Shara kissed and ditched. There’s Smith, High school quarterback and Shara’s long term boyfriend. Then there’s Rory, the class bad boy and Shara’s next door neighbor. Together, they must work to solve cryptic clues left in some very creative places in order to find Shara and get some answers.

Along the way, new friendships are made, and old friendships are put to the ultimate test.

Rating

“She feels like the spine of a book about to crack and spill out all the love story guts.”
Direct quote from the book

Review

Possibility for light spoilers nothing you couldn’t guess by the back of the book though. Read Cautiously.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Hmm What’s with all the Taco Bell?” Well let me tell you, this book is full of a lot of Taco Bell! It only felt right to ask my local Taco Bell for as many sauce packets as I could get and I believe they gave me like 70 packets! I am not someone who eats at Taco Bell and I don’t think that before today I have ever even had one of their tacos but now I can say I have, all because of this book!

Ok, but really, lets get on to the stuff I know you all came here for. The book review!

Like I said at the beginning of this blog post, I have read all of Casey McQuiston’s books at this point and I waited with much anticipation for this one to be released however, this one is my lowest ranked book of theirs. I really loved their writing as usual but for me it really came down to the characters. So the reason this book is getting four stars rather than five is because by page 200 I was still not in love with Chloe and Shara. I was however invested in all the sub characters and their story lines. I could really use a book about Rory and Smith or even Georgia and how their lives are after high school. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I just had a hard time really falling in love with Chloe and Shara both as individuals and them as a couple. I am not really an enemies to lovers trope person so that might be why.

What I really loved was the mystery behind every clue Shara left behind. It was a really fun and unique story line. Also every book Casey McQuiston writes is extremely LGBTQ friendly and this book especially felt like a great book for teens who felt like they were unable to come out in high school now or even 30 years after graduating. This book will be one that touches many people for the rest of their lives.

Even though the main characters weren’t for me, this was still a really cute read that I would highly recommend to everyone!

QOTD: What is your favorite fast food Mexican chain?