Book Review – Page 17

Book Review: “In a Holidaze” By Christina Lauren

This is a Christmas book that I started before Thanksgiving and finished on Thanksgiving day which honestly felt really strange. I was very excited to dive into this book and I just didn’t even think about what season I was in which normally wouldn’t bother me but for some reason not having snow on the ground and thinking about turkey really threw me for a loop.

This book is set in Utah which is my home state which made this book kind of a fun read! I was just worried that the Author would skip over some details that might have bothered me, but to be honest I don’t know much about Park City Utah to do any fact checks.

“You can’t erase mistakes. You just have to figure out how to fix them.”
Direct Quote from book. Page 268.

About The Book

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: Gallery Books

Date Published: October 6th, 2020

Total Pages: 307 Pages

Main Genres: Romance, Holiday, Fiction

GoodReads Rating: 3.76

Synopsis

Two families get together ever year for Christmas at a house in Park City Utah. The kids all grew up being very close with one another and Maelyn has had a huge crush on their friends oldest son Andrew but wait, there’s a love triangle including the other brother Theo. Theo and Maelyn have a little too much eggnog on Christmas eve and after one very awkward make out session all seems lost for Maelyn. Theo treats her as if she doesn’t exist, Andrew saw it all go down, and worst of all they have to sell the house! Many years of Christmas memories are about to be washed away and the final year would be left in ruins. But one wish and an accident can change the course of nature.

Rating

“My biggest fear in the car before the accident was the prospect of things changing. But isn’t that what I wanted when I threw that wish out to the universe? For everything to change?”
Direct quote from book. Page 122.

Review

I don’t do half star ratings so this was pretty hard to decide between three stars or four stars. I did a lot of deep thought before posting this review to finally come up with which way I wanted to lean. I finally landed on four stars based on a few facts. Why don’t we dive in?

I feel like I have read so many fake dating romances lately that this Groundhogs day type book was quite refreshing. Even though Maci did have to repeat a few days a couple of times it didn’t get repetitive. The author wrote this in a way that Maci did something completely different on each restart so it felt like a new storyline.

Another plus was that it was based in Utah and I liked the familiarity of that. I may not be up in Park City very often because lets be frank, it is a complete tourist trap, but honestly it is also super expensive and bougie. I live about 45 minutes away and that’s good enough for me. However it is really cool to see places you are familiar with being referenced in books.

I really liked Maelyn and Andrew being together for the most part. Maelyn has always liked Andrew and honestly it reminded me of all my childhood crushes. I love getting a nostalgic feel when I read. However, I do believe it is also the reason its not a five star rating though. They have known each other their whole lives so they have “cute” (Honestly gross) nicknames for each other and it felt really childish and awkward reading. Also the steamy scenes were worded really weirdly and I just felt awkward reading them. I have said it once and I will say it again, I think it is impossible for an author to write a steamy scene without using awkward phrasing. I need these steamy scenes to start coming together and leaving me speechless rather than wanting to close the book and move on from the moment.

Maybe I have just read way too many romance reads recently that I am becoming too picky about the stories I am reading. I am not sure to be honest. I had high hopes for this book and for the most part it was really good! I loved the whole story of her trying to find what makes her happy and trying to save the house, but the romance of the book was kind of meh to me.

Over All

If I did half ratings I would be giving this three and a half stars but because I don’t I weighed out my options and decided it deserved the full four stars. I think this was a cute and cozy holiday read and I would recommend this to someone who is looking for a Christmas read this year.

QOTD: Have you read a book that was based in the area you are from?

Book Review: “Branded” By Neva Bell

I found this book actually through an add on Facebook surprisingly enough. When I went to buy it on my paper white it ended up being part of Kindle Unlimited which completely sold me! I actually finished this book a week ago but I haven’t had much free time to write recently due to my new job but I promise I am still here! Why don’t we dive into this book.

About The Book

Author: Neva Bell

Date Published: October 31, 2019

Publisher: Self Published (I believe)

Page Count: 287 pages

Genre: Fiction

GoodReads Rating: 4.53

“Ellie believed every being, witch or not, deserved a happy and peaceful existence.”
Direct Quote

Synopsis

Chloe and Chelsea are twin sisters ready to leave for college, but not just any old college, Livingston is a college for witches! In order to go to this witch school you have to be branded first with either a white dove or a black hawk to decide what you will study.

When Chloe gets a brand that no one was expecting her and Chelsea’s life changes drastically! This brand becomes a dangerous mark and both of the girls lives are at risk. Werewolves are the witches biggest threat and when a surprise attack goes in the werewolves favor Chloe is forced into a dangerous path of revenge.

“It is a big deal! I act tough, but I’m still a woman. I still want the guy I like to like me back. No one wants to hear it’s nothing more than a scheme.”
Direct Quote

Rating

Review

This book had a really cute, and what I felt unique, story line. I was hooked from the very beginning of this book! I thought the twins relationship was really close and special and I really feel like Neva wrote their characters well. I loved the Idea that there were two different brands they could receive and it was fun trying to guess which twin would get what brand.

You might be asking, If I was hooked from the beginning and felt like the characters were written well, then why did I give the book only three stars? Well let me tell you! This all happened really fast in the book and about 40% into the book everything I loved was stripped away from me and I was very upset! The story line completely changed after the werewolf attack and I just felt like it happened too soon. Also the ending of the book, Without giving spoilers, was way too easy and I was left wishing not necessarily for a different ending but maybe a more thought out ending. However there is a second book and maybe by reading that book it will all come together cohesively but to be honest the ending of this book didn’t make me want to read a second one.

This could be a quick read for anyone who needs to knock another book off their list but if you want something that had you hooked for the whole book you can skip this one.

QOTD: What is a book that started off with a lot of promise but left you feeling disappointed in the end?

Book Review: “The Love Hypothesis” By Ali Hazelwood

I feel like I am a tad bit late to the game on this one. Where this book was only released back at the beginning of September maybe I am not that late to the gate but I feel like everyone devoured this book in one sitting as soon as it came out. I would say this is probably the most popular book I am seeing on my Bookstagram and Booktok feeds, no joke! With over 90,000 ratings, 16,000 reviews and a 4.47 overall rating on Goodreads, so I would consider this a very hyped up book with those details.

“Listen, I’m clearly bad at real dating. Maybe fake dating will be different. Maybe I’ve found my niche.”
Direct quote from book, page 64.

About The Book

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Date Published: September 14, 2021

Publisher: Berkley Books

Page Count: 352

Genre: Romance

Goodreads Rating: 4.47

Synopsis

Olive is a Ph.D student who has never really been a romantic person. However, in order to keep her friend happy she finds herself kissing a random stranger in the middle of the night.

This random stranger ends up being the schools most hated professor, Adam Carlson, and Olive immediately feels like her world is about to fall apart. The biggest surprise is when Adam agrees to keep the kiss a secret, but even more surprising was the fact he was willing to keep up this charade and fake date Olive to help benefit the both of them. Olive, to help her friend find love, and Adam, to convince the school to release his research funds. After all, it is a win win situation with a deadline. What could possibly go wrong?

“And then I’ll come find you, and I’ll take care of you.”
Direct Quote from book. Page 327.

Rating

Review

This book was vastly recommended by I believe everyone on my bookstagram, am I the last person to read this? I know I’m not but it sure felt that way.

I normally don’t like books that seem to be super popular, they always feel over hyped and I end up being disappointed in the book. Not with this one! This book truly lived up to its hype in my opinion. I think I am willing to say this is my second favorite romance read this year following “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston, I honestly don’t think anything will beat that book for first place in quite sometime.

(Possible Spoiler) If I had to come up with something I was a little put off on, it would have to be the steamy scenes, please don’t come after me! This whole book had so much sexual tension that by the time it all came together I was left feeling a little awkward and granted upset by the event that immediately followed. The words used to describe the scene were a little off putting such as, “He made a guttural noise.” It could just be me but that is not a sexy sentence.

This book was very well written and really had me on an emotional roller coaster! There were quite a few moments where I was ready to chuck the book at a wall because I know the full story and how each character is feeling but Olive just doesn’t understand Adams feelings and I was screaming at them to “Just get a room already!” Also there were times where I really felt sorry or upset for the character due to the way they were treated. Ali really has a way with writing to bring all the emotions out of the pages.

I highly recommend this book! I can now see why so many people have already read it more than once, maybe this will be the first book I ever read twice.

“You can fall in love: Someone will catch you.”
Direct quote from book. Page 342

QOTD: Have you ever fake dated someone? With all these fake dating books I have been reading lately I feel like this is more common of a thing than it probably really is.

Book Review “The Shining” By Stephen King

It is basically the end of October and I am finally posting a book review for this month. This will be my first and probably only book review coming this month unfortunately. This month was so busy that I had no time to read at all! In fact I actually only read half this book before I had to buy the audio book so I could get this finished. I am just happy I finally found some time to sit down and do the thing I love, which is writing this blog!

About The Book

Author: Stephen King

Publish Date: January 28th, 1977

Publisher: Anchor Books (Random House Division)

Page Count: 659 pages

Genre: Horror

Goodreads Rating: 4.24

“It seemed that he might be able to find peace here. At last. If they would only let him.”
Page 398

Synopsis

A new job for Jack Torrence leads the family of three to a picturesque hotel high up in the Colorado Mountains. As the family arrives, the hotel is slowly emptying of guests and workers due to the closing of the hotel for the snowy season. Jack and his family will be left alone for several months in the empty hotel. This can give Jack much needed time to work on his play and make plans for his family’s future, but as the days pass the seclusion sets in and things aren’t what they might seem. How can something that seems like an amazing working vacation turn so wrong? What power do our minds really have?

“Now you’ll find out who is the boss around here. You’ll see. It’s not you they want. It’s me. Me. Me!”
Page 629

Rating

Review

This is my second Stephen King book, the first one being “Pet Semetary”, and I have given them both three stars. I Had heard mixed reviews about this book, like you do with every other book, and this just didn’t fully live up to my standards. This had a very slow build so it took me forever to read because I didn’t have a desire to pick the book up. Like I said at the top of this blog, I had to buy the audio to finish this book.

Speaking of the audio book, the audio was done very well! I really enjoyed listening to this book and I felt it was even spookier listening to it.

The story building was really good just kind of long and boring at times. This was a very long book and it doesn’t start to pick up till about 300 pages in which is what lost me. However, this book is the scariest book I have read/listened too and I can appreciate that.

I have seen the movie and I did really enjoy it but to be honest I was so confused while watching it. The book and the movie have a lot of differences so I don’t know that it is very fair to compare the two but reading the book helped me make sense of what was actually happening in the movie which is very nice!

Do I recommend this book? Honestly, no, you can skip this one and be ok. Like I said it is very long and can get boring more often than not. If you are someone who likes very long detailed books then sure, why not? Personally I don’t think you are missing too much, but hey, Now I can say I have read the book!

The art work shown in the above picture was created by a local Utah artist whom me and Noah loved seeing at our art show and farmers market this summer! Follow her here at her Instagram.

Book Review ” The Intellect” By Lily Kathleen

I am so excited to share this review with you! I received this book directly from the author to read and review it for her and I fell in love! I am now one of her biggest supporters and I honestly believe everyone should give this book a chance, especially if you love romance with a bit of a mystery. That is enough banter, lets dive in!

About The Book

Author: Lily Kathleen

Publish Date: June 16th, 2021

Publisher: Self Published

Page Count: 343

Main Genres: Romance and Mystery

GoodReads Rating: 4.78

But this wasn’t an ending, this was a beginning of a happier life. I felt like I had something to hold onto. Something that would actually let me be free to be who I was and not pretend to be someone I wasn’t.
Direct quote from book

Synopsis

Jessica is a fifteen year old girl who has overbearing parents who make her and her siblings move at least once a year for some unknown reason. When Jessica’s parents make her move from Ney York all the way to a small town in South Dakota they make sure Jessica has no contact with her previous friends, including her boyfriend Jake. This doesn’t make any sense to her and feels as if it isn’t fair, why would her parents not let her keep in contact with old friends, isn’t moving hard enough?

Fast forward to the first day of school. While waiting for the bus stop she meets Aaron, a complete loner who no one seems to care of his existence. The more they talk the faster they become friends and the faster they both learn that they have a lot more in common than they originally thought with some pretty dark secrets following them around.

All Jessica wanted in life is to go to school, make some normal friendships and to stay in one place for longer than a year for once in her life! Will her parents finally start to loosen the reins? Will she find out what secrets her parents are withholding from her?

Rating

Review

This book was the perfect mixture of Romance and mystery tied together. When you think of a YA romance book you want this cute high school relationship that doesn’t feel like an adult love story. This book gave me the nostalgia of high school romance, the way you feel when you have a crush and when you try to hide the way you feel to protect your heart from being hurt. This book had all the feels of high school love rushing back to me.

The characters are so adorable and absolutely relatable! Jessica being this curious, smart bookworm and Aaron being a miss understood loner, I promise you will find something to relate to while you read this book.

I am giving this book a four star rating for a few reasons. I loved this book and I will be recommending it to everyone there were just a few things that I have to bring up that can be fixed really easily! First I would like you to keep in mind this is beautifully written by a 17 year old, and was self published! OK so there are a few distracting grammar and spelling errors but not too many that it would pull you out of the book. Some sentences felt a tad redundant like over using certain words a lot or even the same sentence just re worded a bit. These are things that can be easily forgiven though because of how good the actual story is.

Over all I loved this book and I am so happy I got the chance to read and give my honest review for all of you. This book has such an amazing story with an even better plot twist at the end. The last Hundred pages will have you entranced and you won’t be able to put the book down!

Every time I see you rush down the street to the bus stop my heart starts to beat faster. It’s like even if I can’t see you I can feel you coming.
Direct quote from book

About The Author

Lily Kathleen is a 17 year old high school senior who lives on a farm. Her farm has roughly four hundred goats, how cute! She has a love for music such as; Playing guitar, piano and singing! Her passion for romance started when she was only twelve years old which helped her to start writing her own stories to share with everyone.

(This info came from her website)

If you would like to buy a copy of her book down below will be some links that you can follow to make a purchase or even to just follow Lily on her socials.

Kindle Version

Signed Copy Use code “Theintellect10”

Paperback Copy

Book Review “The House in the Cerulean Sea” By TJ Klune

I finished this book a little over a week ago and honestly I have tried typing this review a million times but life has been super busy this past week and extremely stressful! I started a new job and though training has been going very well that doesn’t mean starting a new job and making new friends is easy. Also I found a 3 week old kitten in the dumpster at the new job and me and my boyfriend decided to take him in and adopt him! This has been challenging because I have to feed him every few hours, help him use the bathroom, teach him to play, help him regulate his own body heat and so much more! I am currently typing this while holding a squirming kitten, wish me luck!

“Whenever I want you,” he sang quietly. “All I have to do is dream.”
Direct quote from book.

About The Book

Publication Date: March 17th, 2020 2020

Author: TJ Klune

Publisher: Tor

Page Count: 396

Main Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Fantasy

GoodReads Rating: 4.49

“The things we fear the most are often the things we should fear the least. It’s irrational, but it’s what makes us human. And if we’re able to conquer those fears, then there is nothing we’re not capable of.”
Direct Quote from book.

Synopsis

Linus Baker lives a very boring and structured life always following the rules, working for the Department In Charge Of Magical Youth. His job is to make sure the magical kids living in orphanages are being taken care of or if the children need to be moved. His office space seems fairly hostel with a boss who doesn’t care about her employees, hardly any room to move between your desk, and no personal belongings are allowed! His mouse pad is a picture of an ocean saying “don’t you wish you were here?”

His structured lifestyle gets a wrench tossed in it when he is summoned to go to Marayas Island, a place Linus has never heard of. Everyone who is on the island has been filed away into a classified folder.

Who exactly is on this island? Why is their existence classified? Will Linus learn to break the rules?

This book is filled with magic, friendships and finding yourself.

Hate is loud, but I think you’ll learn it’s because it’s only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard. You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you’re not alone, you will overcome.”
Direct quote from book.

Rating

A home isn’t always the house we live in. It’s also the people we choose to surround ourselves with. You may not live on the island, but you can’t tell me it’s not your home. Your bubble, Mr. Baker. It’s been popped. Why would you allow it to grow around you again?
Direct quote from book.

Review

This book was very well written and I learned to fall in love with each character individually. My personal favorite character was Sal, he had such a rough past that made him super shy but protective and I feel as if his character progressed the most throughout the entire book.

I feel as if this book started off super slow! It took till about 60% of the way through the book for me to really get into it. With such great reviews from everyone I assumed I would fall in love with the book immediately and I didn’t, but this is ok! Story building takes some time and with this book it paid off. By the 60% mark in the book I started to connect all the characters and I ended up just loving the whole story.

The reason why I am giving it four stars is due to how long it took me to get into the book. The ending of this story was really heart warming and extremely cute! I would love a second book!