Tag Archives: book reviewer

Top 5 Most Anticipated Releases of Fall 2017

Posted in Miscellaneous by

anticipatedreleasesoffall2017

Hey Everyone!

It’s been WAY too long since I’ve seen you guys! I apologize for my unplanned hiatus. I’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch with depression and have found it hard to motivate myself to do much of anything. On top of that, my grandmother, whom I was extremely close to, just passed away. But I really want to push myself to get back into blogging regularly. Reading and writing have always been very helpful for me when I’m feeling down.

Anyway, I’m going to try easing myself back into blogging (be patient with me!), and I figured I would start off with my most anticipated releases for my favorite season, Fall! Thank you all so much for sticking by me even with the lack of posting. I truly appreciate every single one of you! 🙂 ❤

Invictus by Ryan Graudin (September 26th, 2017)

invictus

Time flies when you’re plundering history.
Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far’s birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he’s ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past.
But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far’s very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems. 
In this heart-stopping adventure, Ryan Graudin has created a fast-paced world that defies time and space.

The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano (October 24th, 2017)

theglassspare

A banished princess.
A deadly curse.
A kingdom at war.
Wil Heidle, the only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance.
Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure.
But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with her power.
With a world on the brink of war and a power of ultimate destruction, can Wil find a way to help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, or will she betray her past and her family forever?

Renegades by Marissa Meyer (November 7th, 2017)

renegades

From #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer, comes a high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal.
Secret Identities.
Extraordinary Powers.
She wants vengeance. He wants justice.
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone…except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada (November 7th, 2017)

thismortalcoil

In this gripping debut novel, seventeen-year-old Cat must use her gene-hacking skills to decode her late father’s message concealing a vaccine to a horrifying plague.
Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.
That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.
When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.
Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?

Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi (November 14th, 2017)

whichwood

A new adventure about a girl who is fated to wash the bodies of the dead in this companion to Furthermore.
Our story begins on a frosty night…
Laylee can barely remember the happier times before her beloved mother died. Before her father, driven by grief, lost his wits (and his way). Before she was left as the sole remaining mordeshoor in the village of Whichwood, destined to spend her days washing the bodies of the dead and preparing their souls for the afterlife. It’s become easy to forget and easier still to ignore the way her hands are stiffening and turning silver, just like her hair, and her own ever-increasing loneliness and fear.
But soon, a pair of familiar strangers appears, and Laylee’s world is turned upside down as she rediscovers color, magic, and the healing power of friendship.

What books are you guys looking forward to this Fall? Let me know in the comments!

signaturetardis1

logo2

Review: Pretend We Are Lovely by Noley Reid

Posted in Book Reviews by

pretendwearelovelyPretend We Are Lovely by Noley Reid

My Rating: 4/5 TARDISes

Series: Standalone

Date Published: July 18th, 2017

Publisher: Tin House Books

Pages: 284 pages

Source: Publisher

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis: Consuming and big-hearted, Noley Reid’s Pretend We Are Lovely details a summer in the life of the Sobel family in 1980s Blacksburg, Virginia, seven years after the tragic and suspicious death of a son and sibling.

Francie Sobel dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her allotted grams of carrots and iceberg lettuce. Semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and secret doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation by meals eaten or skipped. But at summer’s end, secrets both old and new come to the surface and Francie disappears, leaving the family teetering on the brink.?

Without their mother’s regimental love, and witnessing their father flounder in his new position of authority, the girls must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.

____________________________________________________________

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

This is a spoiler-free review.

Pretend We Are Lovely is one of those novels that really makes you think—both during and after—but where the real impact of the plot and themes within it hits you a little while after you have turned the final page. After you’ve let it simmer in your mind for some time. This is a story that revolves around hunger and nourishment of both the body and soul. And behind the façade of food and hunger, starving and eating, the true needs of this family shine through the cracks. It is a perfect warm, summer day read, whose pages will fly by quickly, but will simultaneously strike the reader with the surprising depth and heaviness of the subject matter.

This story follows a few months in the lives of the four members of the Sobel family. Mother Francie is struggling to deal with a great loss as well as the mental and emotional scars that come with it. Thirteen-year-old Vivvy and ten-year-old Enid are dealing with their own coming of age and new place in the world, all while attempting to cope with their struggling family life and their mother’s overbearing rules, primarily about food. Father Tate is trying his best to hold his family—and all of their lives—together as Franice begins to spiral out of control, further cracking the household’s foundation.

I’ll admit when I first started, I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to end up enjoying this novel. It took me a little while to really get into it, but as soon as I did, I was fully captivated. This story is full of broken and lost, but deeply and utterly beautiful souls. They are surprisingly loveable and incredibly easy to connect with. Each one has their own distinctive voice and personality, and I found that they were very realistically portrayed. Reid demonstrated remarkable insight and skill in her creation of this fractured family.

The element of food and hunger becomes very prominent as we begin to get to know each of the characters and the dynamic of the household. They all harbor a hunger for something more on an emotional level that masks itself in a battle with their eating or dieting behaviors. And these battles manifest uniquely in each person. Vivvy and Enid each look to a different parent for cues on how to treat food. Enid follows her father’s habits of carefree eating while Vivvy mimics her mother’s struggle with food and obsessive dieting.

The relationships and constant instability of the foundation of this family was incredibly poignant. We watch Enid and Vivvy coming of age and learning to deal with many of the harsh realities of life. Francie and Tate are drifting further and further away from one another, and Tate is struggling to hold the family together as best he can for the sake of his daughters. Vivvy’s and Enid’s relationship with each other was my particular favorite to watch as it changes with the highs and lows of growing up. Tate’s love for his daughters was another one of my favorite aspects of this novel.

The writing style used in this novel might not be a hit with everyone. The perspective alternates frequently between each of the four members of the Sobel family, so the reader gets an intimate look at everyone’s perspective on the events of the plot. I found it quite interesting to see the shift in the behaviors and outlooks of the all of the characters, but it can be a bit confusing at times. There is quite a bit of jumping about, and this can make the plot a little tricky to follow. However, once I started to get used to it and became more aware of each character’s personality, it flowed a lot smoother.

The other aspect of the writing to note is the almost stream of consciousness-like style that Reid uses. For me personally, it really worked well and I enjoyed the tone that it set. It truly feels as if we as readers are intimately following the lives of a realistic family, and that brings so much depth into the novel and the messages it sends. However, I realize that, though it adds a great deal to the realism of the plot and characters, it can be somewhat of a difficult writing style to follow—so there are definite pros and cons to it for the reader.

It reads just the way a person’s train of thought would go, but that can also make things feel a bit disjointed. On top of that, the constant shift in perspective takes a little while to get fully immersed in, especially prior to really knowing the family. As a whole though, I ended up loving the format in which Reid wrote this novel. There were a lot more pros that out-weighed many of the minor cons in the style, and she completely sucked me in.

Overall, this was the big-hearted and consuming read it promised to be. Reid beautifully set the painful, destructive, yet loving atmosphere of a family in turmoil. I felt like I really connected with everyone, and found that I truly cared about each and every one of them. I experienced the hurt they both felt and inflicted, but also the small moments of caring, love and hope. Every emotion was tangible and I was completely wrapped up in their lives. The bittersweet final few chapters particularly stood out from the rest, and they are the ones that held onto me the longest.

4.0 TARDISes

logo2

Review: If I Run by Terri Blackstock

Posted in Book Reviews by

ifirunIf I Run by Terri Blackstock

My Rating: 4.5/5 TARDISes

Series: If I Run #1

Date Published: February 16th, 2016

Publisher: Zondervan

Pages: 305 pages

Source: Publisher

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis: Casey knows the truth. But it won’t set her free.

Casey Cox’s DNA is all over the crime scene. There’s no use talking to police; they have failed her abysmally before. She has to flee before she’s arrested . . . or worse. The truth doesn’t matter anymore. 

But what is the truth? That’s the question haunting Dylan Roberts, the war-weary veteran hired to find Casey. PTSD has marked him damaged goods, but bringing Casey back can redeem him. Though the crime scene seems to tell the whole story, details of the murder aren’t adding up. Casey Cox doesn’t fit the profile of a killer. But are Dylan’s skewed perceptions keeping him from being objective? If she isn’t guilty, why did she run?

Unraveling her past and the evidence that condemns her will take more time than he has, but as Dylan’s damaged soul intersects with hers, he is faced with two choices. The girl who occupies his every thought is a psychopathic killer . . . or a selfless hero. And the truth could be the most deadly weapon yet.

____________________________________________________________

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

This is a spoiler-free review.

First of all, I have to start off this review by saying that this book was responsible for pulling me out of the biggest reading slump I have ever experienced. This novel promised a fast-paced dose of mystery and suspense, and Terri Blackstock definitely delivered just that and so much more. It is a deceptively light read that ends up rooting itself in important and thought-provoking topics—very relevant in society today—packing more of a punch both emotionally and intellectually.

From the very start, the reader is thrown right into the middle of the action, and is fluidly swept up into this story of suspicious murders, dubious police work, and a heart-pounding, multi-state chase. With vividly portrayed characters and using two strong narrative voices to unfold this saga, it is a novel that pulls the reader in and hangs on through the bittersweet, cliffhanger ending.

In this novel, we follow Casey Cox and Dylan Roberts in a dual narrative as the mystery unravels and the chase gradually weaves their individual storylines together. Casey unexpectedly walks into—and becomes a part of—a crime scene when her best friend is murdered. With traces of her found all over this scene, she is immediately pegged as the sole person of interest in the murder. Having experienced previous unfair treatment at the hands of law enforcement officials, Casey realizes that her best chance at unveiling the truth, and even at staying alive, lies in her ability to escape—take herself completely off-the-grid.

Dylan Roberts has just returned home, tired and broken from his time serving in the army. Suffering from PTSD, he is finding it incredibly difficult to settle back into this style life that he has been so disconnected from. On top of his inner demons, he struggles against unfair treatment as he tries to find work again—many companies refusing to hire someone in an unreliable and fragile mental state.

Dylan seemingly gets a break when he is employed by the family of the murder victim to track down Casey and take her into custody; something that should be fairly straight-forward for him given his level of experience. However, he ends up facing off with an exceedingly clever girl who always seems to be a few steps ahead of him no matter what he does. And if that weren’t enough, when the information that he has been supplied begins to not add up with what he uncovers on his own, and the people he trusts start to look more like the villain they portray Casey to be.

This is a very character-driven novel, and Blackstock does a wonderful job of making each and every character an important element to the plot. Even those with smaller roles to play are distinctive and memorable, adding a strong foundation of realism to the narrative as a whole. Some secondary characters end up contributing a great deal to the overall plot, as well as creating some intriguing subplots—mysteries within a mystery.

Casey has definitely earned a place on the list of my all-time favorite female leads. She is resilient, intelligent, and brave from the very start, but she also displays weakness and fear, making her a highly relatable character. It would be hard not to fall in love with her, and cheer her on as she tackles obstacle after obstacle, and proves time and time again that she is an utterly selfless individual. She evolves a lot throughout a short period of time, and gains a great deal of personal strength and faith in multiple aspects of her life.

Dylan is another exceedingly intelligent and strong character. He has been through war in Afghanistan and is now fighting a war of his own—the inner turmoil that has been created from the horrors he has witnessed. Nevertheless, he pushes through, and devotes himself to the job he has been given, remaining independent and focused on what he takes away from his investigations, not just what one party would happily force him to believe. Casey and Dylan are very similar. Both broken, but not beyond repair. Both dealing with their own hardships, but never forgetting to remain true to themselves and do what they believe is right.

As far as the actual text itself, I found the writing to be very solid. I really enjoyed Blackstock’s style—it flowed very well throughout, even with the changing perspectives. Having more than one narrator and managing to give them each a distinct narrative voice can be very difficult, and Blackstock completely nailed it with her portrayal of Casey and Dylan. Both characters had clearly unique voices and personalities, and there was never a feeling of choppiness as the perspectives changed.

I found this to be such an engrossing read I could hardly put it down, and I did in fact end up reading it in one day. The end to every chapter is written in a way that isn’t necessarily a major cliffhanger, but leaves you craving more all the same. This is an adult novel, but the writing does tend to feel a bit more like a young adult novel. However, in my personal opinion, that does not detract from the story at all. In fact, it makes it accessible to a wider audience.

This is a novel that I would highly recommend, particularly to people who enjoy an exciting mystery and skilled characterization. I absolutely tore through this book, dying to know what would happen next and what the fate of these characters—both lovable and not so lovable—would be. I was completely sucked in from the first few pages.

The plot never slows down, with Blackstock masterfully creating some amount of suspense at the end of each chapter. It is an addictive read that is also quite intellectually stimulating and very full of substance. Teeming with love, loss, pain and ultimately hope, this is a novel that shows the unbelievable strength, courage, and faith that a person can have in the face of adversity.

4.5 TARDISes

logo2