Fiction – World of Bai

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: “The Hate U Give” By Angie Thomas

This book has been listed as a banned book based on vulgar language and police brutality. It was banned in schools and when it did come back kids were required to have a permission slip signed by their parents in order to check it out from the school libraries.

I had recently joined a banned book club where we read a banned book every month and this book was picked for April and I was really excited to see why parents and school leaders were so against this book. Continue reading to see my thoughts.

“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
Direct quote from the book

About The Book

Author: Angie Thomas

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Published Date: February 28th, 2017

Page Count: 454 Pages

Main Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary

GoodReads Rating: 4.50

“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”
Direct quote from book

Synopsis

Starr is a sixteen year old girl that lives in a poor neighborhood but attends school in the suburbs. Living two separate lives proves to be a big challenge but only gets worse when she witnesses her childhood friend get shot and killed by a police officer. Being the only witness to the murder, it quickly becomes Starr’s word against the officer’s.

The officer thought Kahlil had a gun: he didn’t. People believe Kahlil is a drug dealer: he had nothing on him. The officer thought Starr was a threat and kept his gun on her: she was compliant.

It is up to Starr to break the misconceptions and bring justice to her friend.

“People like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.”
Direct quote from the book

Rating

“Don’t let them put words in your mouth. God gave you a brain. You don’t need theirs.”
Direct quote from the book

Review

I knew this book was going to deep dive into the Black Lives Matter movement and I knew it was going to be an emotional and tough read; I wasn’t wrong.

My heart broke every other chapter in this book and I quickly fell in love with Starr’s brave character. I have no clue how she was strong enough to stand up for not only herself, but her friend who could no longer speak for himself. I am not sure I personally could have recovered from something this traumatic and gone on to find the same courage Starr did. I will forever remember this book and the strength real people find when coming face to face with these tragic and horrific events.

I truly believe that this is a book everyone needs to read at some point in their life. I personally can’t see why it was a banned book, but because it was banned it brought awareness to Starr’s story; a story that needs to be heard! This book really brings awareness to an issue that sadly is far too common these days and one that more people need to be educated on. It will break your heart but I promise that you won’t regret the time spent reading this amazing story.

“Your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be the roses that grow in the concrete.”
Direct quote from the book

QOTD: What is one of your most recommended book?

Book Review: “Lucky” By Merissa Stapley

I went to Target on Sunday just to grab some essential household items and of course I stopped in the book section because they have an amazing selection. Well, you guessed it, I found a book that’s cover was too beautiful to pass up and walked out with more than what I came for. How can you say no to a cover that looks like this? Did I even bother to read the back of the book? The answer is no you can’t pass up a beautiful book cover and no of course I didn’t read the back of the book!

“The world’s like that. What matters in one moment, it doesn’t matter the next. Things that fall apart eventually come back together again. Everything passes. You can be sure of that.”
Direct Quote From The Book

About The Book

Author: Marissa Stapley

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published Date: December 7th, 2021

Page Count: 232 Pages

Main Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Thriller

GoodReads Rating: 3.70

“No problem. People deserve second chances. And third chances. All people do is make mistakes. If we never forgave, we’d all be alone.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Synopsis

Lucky has lived a life on the run. Having a con-artist as a father, Lucky never got to experience an ordinary life, just one of crime and fake Identities. All Lucky ever wanted was a shot at some normalcy: a house, a stable job, some kids and a dog. She thought she would finally get this life when she and her boyfriend decide to settle down in Idaho. But when one last con goes horribly wrong, Lucky is found all alone and forced to stay hidden from the cops with a multi-million winning lottery ticket tucked away in her wallet. Her whole life could change, but is it worth cashing in the lottery ticket just to get caught by the cops? Or should she continue to stay on the run?

“The world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Rating

“The lottery is the greatest con of all time, kiddo. Proves our government is just like us, tricking people into thinking any dream can come true.”
Direct Quote From The Book

Review

This cover… Just wow!

I new the moment I saw this book, sitting on the shelf at Target, that it was going to be coming home with me. Little did I know that it would quickly rise to one of my top ten all time favorite books!

I had no clue what I was getting into when I sat down to read this one but man oh man am I so happy that I didn’t waste anytime to dive into it! I was first pulled in by the cover but quickly fell in love with Lucky and her hunger to get a grasp onto a normal life.

I will be honest, In the beginning I had an idea of where this book would end up going but this book had me guessing on ever page! This made it so hard to put down the book, I needed to know what was going to happen to Lucky and if in the end she would end up being ok!

This book swaps perspective from present day to back when she was growing up and in the end the two timelines catch up and have you basically in tears from the life this girl has had to live through. Living on the run your whole life and making no meaningful connections with anyone has to be miserable! Also the fact that you never truly had a secure home to live in, wow this girl is one tough cookie!

I highly recommend this book to everyone! You don’t have to just by it for the pretty cover, I promise you this book will leave a mark in your sole and you will fall in love with it just as I have.

QOTD: What would you do with a winning lottery ticket?

Book Review: ” The Existence of Amy” By Lana Grace Riva

I received this book directly from the author in exchange for an honest book review. When I was asked to read this book I immediately went and read other reviews to get a better idea of what I would be getting into and ultimately those reviews made me say yes to reading this book for the author! This shows the power of book reviews! Please make sure you are leaving book reviews on every place possible to help get word out for these authors. They deserve our support for their hard work.

About The Book

Author: Lana Grace Riva

Publisher: Self Published

Published Date: August 2nd, 2019

Page Count: 247 Pages

Main Genres: Mental Health, Fiction, Contemporary

GoodReads Rating: 3.91

Synopsis

Amy lives no ordinary life but this isn’t by choice. She is burdened with a really bad case of OCD and Depression that makes every day tasks nearly impossible. Amy has been missing out on many social situations because her disabilities hold her back. This causes stress between her relationships and it only gets worse because she doesn’t think her friends will understand where she is coming from or why she is always flaking out on plans. But when the opportunity to travel to Australia for work arises she takes ahold of her life and makes the trip. Can this trip help break some barriers or will they only make situations worse?

Rating

Review

I really appreciate the topics that this book discussed. OCD and Depression were mentioned in such a raw emotional way that really grabbed my attention.

I haven’t read a book that focused on OCD before and it was really interesting to learn a bit more about how the people suffering with OCD feel.

I thought the writing really put you in the shoes of the main character and I felt what she was feeling at certain times. Towards the ending I was almost in tears because of the journey Amy went through over the course of the book.

I am very happy I got the chance to read this book. It was extremally eye opening and also set outside of America and I don’t have the chance to read very many books like this. The reason why I didn’t give this book full marks is because like with most self published books their were some grammar errors but to be honest it wasn’t all that noticeable and I also think some of it could just because I am used to American English and not proper English. Over all I highly recommend this book and I hope you will all add it to your TBR lists!

Get your copy today! This is on sale, for free, on Kindle Unlimited at the time of this post or for about 12$ for a paperback copy.

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QOTD: Recommend me a book that talks about a disability. I would love to learn more about the struggles people face.