All the Books.

"An intricate story of two women whose lives, loves and lies all coalsece into one of the most satisfying and shocking plot twists I've come across in awhile. O'Farrel's style is quick and immersive and once the story grabs you, you don't want to let go. This was a great read and I'm eager to see what else O'Farrell has to offer." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros : O’Farrell has a very immersive style, you’re dropped right into the scene/That plot twist with the Pollack painting was 󠅓fantastic.  Cons : Since you’re seeing things as they happen, sometimes it’s hard to find a good stopping point or you’re afraid you’ll forget what's going on/Innes could be a bit cocky and infuriating at times.  Full Review: This book follows two storylines. The past where Lexi, a young girl who decides to move to London and start living her life and Elina, who's just recently had an emergency C-section and is having a hard time adapting to life with a newborn.  At first things are a ...

"A shadowy, Sherlockian, "searching the foggy British Moors at night" YA mystery. It was an interesting mix between ghost story and fairy tale and Schwab's effortless way with words made for a pretty entertaining read."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐  Pros: Had a darker more ethereal air, not unlike Verity/Schwab's grasp of Magical Realism is 💯/You have to love the old sister witches who live on the edge of the Moor. They're always the real heroes of the story😂🙌.  Cons: Lexi's attitude of "I’m the only one who can do it" and then solves the mystery with the awkward clumnsiness of adolescent love got kind of old/People fall in love so quickly in stories, they know each other for like, a day and 🙌true love.  Full Review:  One night while lighting the candles, preparing to read her sister to sleep, Lexie looks out the window and onto the Moor. What she thinks is a shadow at first, is actually a boy, not much older than she but there's something about him. Hi...

"This book and its beautiful message truly is a wonder. Palacio pulls at all of your heartstrings but you're smiling admist the tears. It's one of those books that will stay with you long after you've finished it."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  Happy tears, sad tears, there were many moments in this book that had me choking up/Auggie was a funny kid and sharp as a tack.  Cons: It felt like everyone was always yelling at each other, even when they were just talking, it just seemed odd.  Full Review:  Born with an extremely rare genetic condition, August (Auggie) Pullman looks very different from everyone else. He's had about 30 surgeries on his face and he's only 10 years old. His parents are always telling him how strong and brave he is and he's willing to believe them. That is, until they drop a bombshell and he's really not sure if he can handle it.  They think it's a good idea for him to start going to public school this year.   Unbeknownst to him, he'...

“With her focus now on New Hampshire, Desrosiers takes us down different roads in this book. Photographs and histories of places with sadly, darker pasts are told in delightfully frightening detail and the photographs just make all of it so much more real. A quick, fun and intriguing read."   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: Desrosiers takes us deeper into the histories of the places she chose to showcase in this book and some of the stories are truly haunting.  Cons: Some of the stories, such as Doc Benton weren't accompanied with many photos but these are photographs of abandoned places falling into ruin, so safety was the main reason I'm sure.  Full Review:  In this addition of Desrosiers photographic journey around abandoned places in New England, she focuses on the state of New Hampshire. Unlike  Abandoned Vermont: Down Forgotten Backroads (America Through Time), this book dives deeper into the histories of the places she's visited and some of them are truly unsettli...

"A trip down roads that time forgot. Desrosier is a thoughtful and insightful guide as she takes us through these abandoned places hidden in the beauty of Vermont. Her photographs are stunning and her memories and thoughts let the reader connect in an easy and familiar way. A quick but fun and intriguing read."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros:   Stunning photography showing the beauty of Vermont amidst its many crumbling and abandoned farms/houses/Desrosier shares moments of her own past, allowing the reader the chance to connect/The last photograph and Desorsier's message was beautiful.   Cons:  I found it sad, how many places were left to ruin but at the same time Desrosier lets you see the beauty in the sadness, in the stories that are left behind on these forgotten backroads.  Full Review:  Desorsier explains how she's always had a love for abandonment. She's always found beauty in the places time forgot. Growing up in a home with abandoned cabins on the property, she...

"With the title of this book I thought we'd be following Darrow in his final quest for peace. Instead we watch as Lysander plots and schemes and Darrow does everything he can to stop him. It's basically a 700+ page book of a Clash of the Titans. Friendship, loyalty, family, love, life, death, Brown covers it all in this book and then some. Though parts were heavily weighed down by military strategics, I'm still enamored enough to see what Red God has in store." *** Pros: Lyria/Cassius friendship/Sevro/Darrow's brotherhood/Diomedes at the end and his way of trying to find peace.  Cons: Darrow/Lysander's epic speeches/gift for monologuing got really old after 2 + pages/There were a lot of plots within plots and I was very confused at parts as to the true idenitity of some characters. It was all rather overwhelming. There were simply far too many cooks in the kitchen.  Full Review:  ***Disclaimer - If you have not read  Red Rising/Golden Son/Morning Star/Ir...

"McFadden's gift with pacing mixed with her dark but relatbale humor and a plot easy enough to follow but complicated enough to keep you guessing, well, she had me from the start. This was a fun, page-turner that had me eager to sit down and read."   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: Enzo, duh, man was the real hero/McFadden's writing style is easy and smooth, very readable/The twists were fun and twisted indeed/The idea of a series makes me hesitate but at the same time I am curious, so we shall see.  Cons: Honestly, I think McFadden tied up every loophole so I appreciated the well thought out plot but at the same time, it was silly how every man that existed was utterly gorgeous 🤣.  Full Review:  Wilhelmina "Millie" Calloway is desperate. She's been evicted from her apartment, fired from her job and has been living out of her car and eating nothing but sandwiches for a month. So, when she manages to land a job as a house-keeper/maid for a well-to-do family in Long Island,...

“The Apprentice must become the Magician in order to rescue her kidnapped mentor. It had a Mary Poppins meets Nancy Drew feel but it was entertaining in a slightly absurd and hysterical way.” ⭐⭐ Pros: Ceony and Thane have an easy relationship/The idea of a magical school just existing was done well. It seemed that magic was common knowledge but at the same time, it had its secrets.  Cons: There’s always a Syndicate 🙄 but without bad guys there’d be no conflict/Also, the fact that Ceony had only been a student of Thane's for a month before Lira's attack and all of a sudden she's the desperate heroine off to save her true love. It all seemed rather sudden. Like, Ceony, you've known him for a month, relax.  Full Review: Ceony is fated to become the next apprentice to one of the very few Paper Magicians in London. She'd always had dreams of being a Smelter, a manipulator of metal, able to shape weapons. Instead, she's been assigned to be the Apprentice to one of th...

"Healers, Druids, Bishops, Teenagers who understand Quantum Mechanics/Time Lapses, Tesseracts. Let it all stew with angsty guilt-ridden YA romance and you have the conclusion to one of the most unique series I’ve ever read.” ⭐ Pros : I did like imagining the woods and surorundings, it had a very New England but eerie, misty Stonehenge vibe//There was a Dog/The connection with the land and the “Presence” was marginally interesting.  Cons: Goodness me, did L’Engle love her Apochrypha/Scripture, it was appreciated in an academic sense but as a storytelling device, it fell flat for me//I felt distant from Polly, the protagonist from the start, she was just kind of there at her grandparents with no explanation. It felt like a failed reboot/This book could've easily ended 100 pages earlier.  Full Review:   Polly, Meg's daughter, is living with her grandparents, the Murray's. She's been sent there since the local educaiton system was lacking and she's inherited her m...

"This book lived up to its name. It was truly dark with kidnappings, murder, desperate horrific death marches across the wastes of Mercury and truly unnatural alliances and though it was entertaining, there was a lot going on. There were some serious bombshells dropped at the end, so I'm hopeful that the next book has momentum but for my tired old brain's sake, I'm hoping that Brown takes it a little easy with the Dramatis Personae to remember." ⭐⭐⭐ Pros: Sevro and Victra/Ephraim and Volga/Atlantia is truly terrifying and I'm both frightened and interested to see what she'll get up to in the next book.  Cons: Too many people, Legionnaires, Praetors, Olympic Knights, I couldn't keep what was what straight/There were so many characters that when people died, I couldn't really remember who they were, so, I just wasn't all that affected by their death//Lysander, Mustang and Paxs' super brain powers got old fast. Full Review: ***Disclaimer - If ...

" The fourth installment in Pierce Brown's epic Space opera skips ahead 10 years. The war for the Solar Republic rages on and all Darrow wants is peace. He doesn't care about the politics. He just wants to rest and be with his family. But he's never given the chance as in typical Pierce Brown fashion, one catastrophic thing leads to another and then there's subterfuge, kidnappings, assassination attempts, everything and the kitchen sink. On re-read this was a great way to start off a new series." ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros : Darrow's guilt/You want him to find peace but Brown makes it seem impossible, that's part of the pull, of course, the tragic hero.  Cons: Lots of people, sometimes tough to know if I should make a note to remember them/I wanted to see more of the brotherhood of the first book.  Full Review: ***Disclaimer - If you have not read Red Rising/Golden Son or Morning Star  by Pierce Brown, please do so and then feel free to read this post at your leisure....

" The third installment in Pierce Brown's epic Space opera skips ahead by just a year. After the jaw-dropping gut punch of an ending that was Golden Son, Morning Star  gives the reader a friendly hand up but throws them right back into the fray. There's deception, dishonor, bravery, love, drama and, of course, gut-wrenching deaths. Brown brings the first installment to a satisfactory end but of course, leaves room for more👍." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: I absolutely adore Sevro/Ragnar 💖/This trilogy was wrapped up in a nice tidy and yet open-ended bow thus allowing room for more 🙌 Cons:  Again with the large number of characters and having to try and prioritize whom to remember, got tricky keeping them all organized.  Full Review:  ***Disclaimer - If you have not read Golden Son  by Pierce Brown, please do so and then feel free to read this post at your leisure. That way, you'll know what I'm talking about 🙌.*** With the throat-punch that was the ending of Golden Son , th...

"A beautifully illustrated and also fun and informative look behind the scenes of Lee's artistic process while he helped bring Middle-earth to life. Covering Peter Jackson's films and an illustrated edition of Tolkiens' novels, every single page in this book was stunning."  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pros: The artwork, obviously/Lee’s narrative is educational and fun/The memories he shares show just how much work everyone put into these monumental films. Cons: Non-Fiction can get a little dry at times but honestly, Lees' writing flowed pretty well overall/There were parts of the books that he mentioned that I wasn't familiar with so I had trouble picturing them but that just gives me more reason to go back and read the series again 🙌.  Full Review:  The look into the mind of an artist was a very unique and fun way to explore Middle-earth. Lee explained his process. How instead of lists, he sketches out little thumbnails of what he'll draw first. And thus began our ...

"T "The second installment in Pierce Brown's epic Space opera skips ahead a few years and shows Darrow's continuing integration into Gold society. There's agendas upon plots upon schemes as well as love, loss, betrayal and death. Pierce Brown doesn't miss a beat and that ending is truly insane."  Pros:  Fast paced and action packed, it still had the same heart shattering plot/characters as the first/That ending, like, whoa... Cons:  Sometimes there were a few too many characters, hard to keep everyone and all their dealings straight.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Full Review:  ***Disclaimer - If you have not read Red Rising  by Pierce Brown, please do so and then feel free to read this post at your leisure. That way, you'll know what I'm talking about 🙌.*** Darrow broke all the rules at the end of Red Rising  by storming Olympus. After crushing the Institute and swearing himself to House Augustus, Darrow spent a year on the Augustus estate. Things were good, peaceful bu...

"Red Rising by Pierce Brown is an epic and gritty space opera that follows Darrow and his attempt to make the last words of his wife, "break the chains", a reality. He will be the hammer that shatters their golden shackles. The first test is surviving the Institute, a school where the best and brightest of the Aureate, the Golds children go to prove their merit. And Darrow knows he must win but nothing prepares him for the trials he'll face, the choices he'll make or the friendships he'll form. This is my third read and the series just keeps getting better."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Pros - A cast of truly likable characters and all for different reasons/Sevro, the quiet, keenly observant, loner/Roque, the gentle poet/Cassius, arrogant but charming/Darrow's guilt at their friendship is truly heartbreaking at times/The idea of colors was an interesting catch, Reds, Pinks, Blues, Greens and the most powerful Golds.  Cons - The 12 Houses of the Roman Pantheon in the Inst...

"It's so easy to jump into Tolkien's Middle-Earth and accompany Bilbo on his epic quest. The tried and true "Hero's Journey" structure shows the Hobbit going from a quiet and polite Gentleman to a quick-witted and salty little Burglar. A good re-read and re-introduction to Tolkien's sometimes hefty descriptions."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: Tolkien does have an undeniable wit to his writing/Gandalf is one salty B****.  Cons: The 13 Dwarves and trying to keep them all straight/Though it helped created depth to Middle-Earth, the whole, Thor, of Thrain of Thror King Under the Mountain, title dropping got really, really old.  Full Review: Bilbo Baggins, a comfortably wealthy and polite Hobbit is enjoying his morning pipe when an old man in a gray cloak, holding a walking stick stops at his door, quite unexpectedly. Bilbo wishes him a good morning, as is courteous and the old man proceeds to ask him all sorts of questions, as to why this morning should be good. The conve...

"Reminiscent of Go Ask Alice, we see Charlie's life through the form of letters written to an anonymous friend. And akin to Go Ask Alice  it had a curb-ball in there that completely blindsided me. I can see why it's a modern classic because there were some truly quotable moments but overall I was generally underwhelmed."  ⭐⭐ Pros:  Chbosky's truth about how we all have an ending, it's up to us whether it's good or bad, definitely stuck.  Cons:  Charlie’s awkwardness is painful/It took awhile for me to get used to the flow of seeing Charlie's life through the letters/Charlie came off as flat and emotionless though all he seemed to do was cry/That plot twist 3/4s of the way through the book hit me completely by surprise.   Full Review:  Charlie is quiet and observant. The book is told in the form of letters to an anonymous person that Charlie was told was "nice and would listen." And he goes on to start the story of his life, when he was in Mid...

"Though the idea seemed ridiculous, once I got into the plot, I was impressed with Grahame-Smith's blending of fiction and non-fiction and his unique take on the tried-and-true subject of Vampires."   ⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  Grahame-Smith tackled the topic of Vampires and their history in an original and subtle way.  Cons:  The ending, to me, had a giant loophole that they didn't close. Perhaps you're just supposed to accept it and enjoy it, which I did but at the same time, it left me wondering.  Full Review: Smith is simply going through the motions. He works in his Father in Laws store and plays around with the idea of one day actually finishing that novel but, for the most part, he's just getting through the days. His days are filled with clientele coming in to comment on how quaint and cute the small-town country store is but there's one customer, a regular, that's always stood out to Grahame-Smith.  He's quiet, buys the same things and pays in cash and Sm...

"Murderbot, a Security Unit assigned to a survey team on an unnamed planet just wants to watch his programs and be left alone. But when things start to go weird and people start dying around him, well, he has to do the job he's been contracted to do. It's never that simple though and he's begrudgingly dragged into a life or death struggle. It had potential but unfortunately in the end it fell a little flat."  ⭐⭐ Pros : I liked and related to how Murderbot just wanted to sit and watch his "programs" all day but work kept getting in the way.  Cons : Everything was very surface level, even Murderbots own feelings, it all felt rather shallow/The motive didn't feel strong enough. I feel like since it was a novella there wasn't enough time for real character growth.  Full Review :  Murderbot is an organic/mechanical Security Unit (SecUnit) assigned to a team of surveyors on an unnamed planet in the middle of God knows where. SecUnit doesn't know an...

"Yochanan Rivlin is the "Rabbit" Angstrom of Near Eastern Studies at Haifa University. A passionate but flawed man, unable to let go of things. Especially why his sons marriage dissolved after only a year, with no explanation. He goes off in search of answers and stumbles into one misadventure after another. Yehoshu caught me with Ofer and Galya's story but the subplot of Samaer's term paper and Rivlin's job as a professor was boring enough to almost DNF this one a couple of times."  ⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  Honestly, I was as curious to find out why Ofer's wedding ended as Rivlin was. Yehoshua managed to hook me with the letter from Ofer to Galya, just as I was thinking of DNFing it cause it might be boring, he threw that at me and it worked/Hagit was a good but never heeded voice of reason.  Cons:  Rivlin is a very selfish man, very similar to "Rabbit" Harry Angstrom from the series by John Updike/He's a bit of a blithering idiot who gets what he d...

"It had a very, "10 Things I Hate About You" feel and parts of it were fun but honestly, Liz was one of the most painfully clueless MCs I've come across in a long time. Like, come on girl, wake up. This one was a struggle but I needed to see how it ended 🙄." ⭐⭐ Pros:  Liz and Wes' banter was, of course, witty and charming.  Cons:  I felt like I didn't know Liz as a character. Her childhood felt glossed over and hence her infatuation with Michael Young just seemed to come out of the blue/Liz is probably one of the most infuriatingly clueless characters I have ever come across.  Full Review Elizabeth (Liz) Buxbaum is hitting the most memorable, movie moment time of a young girls' life. High School Graduation! Her Senior year is winding down and it's almost time for prom, so naturally Liz's head is full of day dreams of the most romantic prom-posal ever, offered by none other than Michael Young.  He's recently moved back to town and Liz jus...

"Dennys and Sandy, the twins are whisked away to the Andte-diluvian days where they get to be part of history, or at least, Biblical history. It was almost like a prequel to Noah and the Ark with the occasional Unicorn, of course. L'Engle does like her Unicorns."  2 Stars Pros:  Dennys and Sandy, the twins, finally get their own adventure./It was an interesting look into the Apochrypha. I would've thought L'Engle would have shied away from such controversial subject matter. Angels having pre-martial relations with human women, goodness me.  Cons:  Mr. Murry's magical tesser-acting computer certainly took things literally but, I guess it's the whole, "be careful what you wish for" message/ Though Dennys and Sandy were the protagonists, I didn't feel like we really, actually got to know them.  Full Review Sandy (Alexander) and Dennys are finishing up Hockey practice and go home to make themselves some nice hot chocolate, since its mid-winter in...

“The apocalypse is looming when a random South American Dictator threatens Nuclear War. Of course, Charles Wallace is the only one who can stop it!  It's all tied into the descendants of Meg's mother in law, Mrs. O'Keefe, Calvin's mother.  With the help of a Unicorn named Gudior, Charles Wallace is off to save the day. This was another head scratcher and I'm not holding out much hope that the series will start making sense." 2 Stars Pros Time travel, to me, is far less surreal than whatever was going on in #2. So this was an easier read. Cons: Megs constant questioning starts right on page 1, at least she’s consistent/I do love how Mr. Murry is on speed dial with the President/The various timelines got very confusing and all the Brans/Maddocs/Maddox/Gwens/Gwyns and the multiple Zillah and Zillies were extremely frustrating. I had no idea who I was reading about at the end.  Full Review:  Years have passed and all the Murry children have grown. Dennys and San...

"It had such potential but then the indignant Boston Brahim enter the scene and we're thrown into a world of literature, proofs and translations with the occasional homicide thrown in to keep up the intrigue. I kept reading cause I was curious but this was an almost DNF on multiple occasions simply for the fact that it just went on and on. Honestly, it was hard to keep track and to care about the characters in the end." ⭐ Pros: It was definitely an interesting and unique premise/The mulatto police officer, Nicholas Rey, he was kind, intelligent, an easily likable character and I wanted to learn more about him but Pearl was too focused on the bitter arguments against literature at the time instead of building character.  Cons: All the indignant old men and “Good God” exclamations. It was all a bit pretentious./This book made me feel like Niles and Frasier Crane were solving a mystery./Parts of this book literally put me to sleep.  Full Review Set shortly after the Civil ...

"Part Fantasy/Part Coming of age story, this was an interesting one from Ness. It had his dark, gritty realism but at the same time, the storyline with the Indie kids ended up just being overdone and confusing."  2 Stars Pros:  Ness touched upon some serious issues with his characters, mental health/anxiety/OCD/Eating Disorders but he handled it all in a realistic way. He didn't sugarcoat anything, which was tough at times but I think it added to the story.  Cons:  The fantasy story of the Indie kids being told in summary at the beginning of each chapter was unique but also, just kind of felt rushed and trite.  Full Summary: Mike is just weeks away from graduating high school and having his whole life change. His sister Mel, his best friend Jared, the love of his life but he's never told her, Henna, everyone is preparing to up and going their separate ways. And there's that whole thing with the Indie kids always causing some sort of magical mishap. It'll be a ...

"The dark but necessary conclusion to Yancey's series. It brings everything to a close but the cost is always high. Yancey handles it all in gently heart breaking way. Post-apocalyptic YA Sci-Fi at its best."    Pros:  Yancey does wrap it up well with a pretty good bow, one of the times a rare ray of light shines through this overall very dark series.  Cons:  Not a con per se but reading this series through now as an adult, it is dark. Like, sure, the protagonists are mostly teenagers but, it can get heavy at times, so tread lightly/Though there were some truly deep parts, the ending did go on for a bit.   Full Review: This is one of those times where I feel obligated to say that if you haven't read the first two books in the series, then stop here. Go back and get a copy of The 5th Wave and then please, proceed...  ***SPOILER ALERT*** It's been 6 weeks since Cassie and company escaped Urbana, Ringer was captured, tormented and freed and the Alie...

"A direct continuation of The 5th Wave  and Yancey goes even deeper, never pulling any punches and leaving the reader feeling shocked and horrified but at the same time, like the characters, somehow, still hopeful. I'm excited to see how the Series ends in The Last Star. " 5 Stars Pros:  Basically picking up right where The 5th Wave  left off, we follow Ben/Cassie in their attempts to lay low and survive after the cataclysmic events of the first books ending/The scene between Poundcake and Grace was absolute perfection.  Cons:  Some of the scene with Ringer were very surreal and a little hard to follow, a little repetitive but it didn't take away from the book too much, sometimes it went on for a little too long though.  Full Review: Cassie has found her little brother Sam, along with Ben (Zombie) who is Sam's commanding officer and the rest of Ben's unit. Once they realized what was happening, they went rogue and they know it's only a matter of time befor...

"A dark, gritty, unflinching look at how the world descends into chaos when Aliens finally invade. Yancey pulls no punches and there were times that this book was so intense that I had to remind myself that it was fiction. It was a tough read but a powerful one, one that has stayed with me for a long time." 5 Stars Pros:  Though she has her moments of naivete, for the most part, Cassie is a relatable, strong protagonist and her loyalty and love are endless, the same with Ben Parish/Ringer is a mystery that I hope will be solved.  Cons:  This book is extremely dark and violent at times, so brace yourself. It's not a con precisely but it gets deep and depressing at times.  Full Review: It's finally happened.  Aliens have invaded the Earth.  But it wasn't with ray guns, or Death Stars or blowing up the White House, "Independence Day" style. Instead, the mother ship slips into our orbit, hovering above the Earth like a green, lidless eye and for ten days, no...