All the Books.

"After being forced to make a deal with the devil, Sasha is accepted into the School of Special Technologies. The Curriculum is brutal, the teachers abrasive and demanding and discipline is deadly. Unfortunately, the characters were flat and the plot completely disintegrated after Part 1." ⭐⭐ Pros: The repercussions for students missing classes/exams are extreme and frightening but it keeps you reading/Some of Sasha's transformations were interesting, at first.   Cons: The characters were kind of flat and one dimensional. The Special Technologies that they're studying made absolutely no sense and as the book went on it just became more and more obscure and I found myself annoyed by it all.   Full Review: Alexandra (Sasha) Samokhina is on Summer Holiday with her mother when she keeps seeing a man in dark glasses. At first, it feels like he's haunting her but every time Sasha wishes it was a dream, he just keeps appearing. Finally, he approaches her and tells her t...

"The premise had promise but it was obvious very quickly that this plot was going to be paper thin. With a painfully oblivious FMC, the "suspense" is honestly laughable but McFadden did something right because I was curious. I had to see what happened but it just let me shaking my head."  ⭐️ Pros: It was a quick, easy read.  Cons: Painfully predictable at the beginning and then hilariously ridiculous at the end. Full Review Brooke Sullivan just started her new job as an NP at the Raker State Penitentiary. If she wasn't already nervous about starting a new job, well, this one comes with an extra helping of awkward. The father of her child, the first boy she ever loved, her high-school sweetheart, just happens to be an inmate at the prison. And Brooke was the one who put him there.  He's Shane Nelson. Former star Quarterback and the boy of Brooke's dreams. At least that's what she thought on that fateful night, eleven years ago. when they confessed the...

"The beginning had real potential. It offered a bit of history of how the Hunger Games evolved and a glimpse into the mind of Coriolanus Snow who was a conflicted and sympathetic character. It all went downhill once the Games began and, honestly, I felt like it never quite recovered. Not my favorite of the series."   ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pros:  There were some interesting moments, brief glimpses into Snows past, especially during the war/At first, his concern for Lucy Gray was legitimate.  Cons: Snow's wavering loyalties got tiresome at the end/I started losing connection with the characters oncee the Games started.   Full Review:  The city of Panem is still being re-built after the war with the Rebels ended but there are some things that still remain. Such as class at the Academy. It's a big day today. It's Reaping Day on the tenth Hunger Games and it's the first time that Students of the Academy will be Mentors to the Tributes.  Coriolanus is nervous, since ...

"Pan's sardonic wit brings real humor to her retelling of the year she threw herself out of her comfort zone by forcing herself to be extroverted. By embracing the fear and fully committing to her project, she does things she never would have imagined and her overall message of courage and hope are fun and inspiring. A fun and funny read that anyone could enjoy." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: From the very first page I could tell Pan was going to be hilarious and she didn't disappoint/She's funny but she gets at the deeper/darker parts of life, depression, feeling stuck and her idea, though radical was an interesting one.  Cons: Once I got about 3/4 of the way through the book, it started to get repetitive, which is a trend in "self-help" books, at least for me.  Full Review:  Jessica is what has apparently been dubbed a "Shintrovert" or a shy introvert.  When she decides to move across the Pond to London and marry her boyfriend Sam, she falls into a depressio...

“The gut-wrenching and sometimes soul-crushing conclusion to an incredible, fast paced, action packed, no holds barred and no feelings spared series. Collins has made her mark and will be a name well remembered in Dystopian Fiction.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: All the characters attempts to help Peeta were genuine and kind/The ending though crushing was acceptably bittersweet.  Cons: Katniss’ blatantly disobeying every single order she's given and refusing to cooperate gets tiresome/Again, the Katniss/Peeta/Gale love triangle goes on and on/Finnick 🤯, I will never be okay with that.  Full Review;  ***Disclaimer - If you have not read  The Hunger Games  or Catching Fire  by Suzanne Collins, please do so and then feel free to read this post at your leisure. That way, you'll know what I'm talking about 🙌.*** After the explosive cliffhanger of Catching Fire, Katniss finds herself safe and healing in the previously thought destroyed, District 13. The underground rebel...

“Though the Katiniss/Gale/Peeta love triangle made me want to scream, the story itself was fast paced, action packed and exciting. Collins is great at laying on the pressure and keeping those pages turning.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros: Collins is fantastic at pacing and pressure/Finnick Odair is right up on top when it comes to favorite characters.  Cons: I abhor love triangles! Peeta/Gale/Katniss’ indecision about who to love but I have to remind myself they are only teenagers after all, everything IS the end of the world 🙌💯🙄 Full Review  ***Disclaimer - If you have not read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, please do so and then feel free to read this post at your leisure. That way, you'll know what I'm talking about 🙌.*** Katniss and Peeta are safely back in District 12. They've tried, with varying degrees of success to adapt to life after the Games. It's not easy though. Plagued by nightmares of what they were forced to do in the Arena to survive, they now understand why Hay...

“In punishment for rebelling, the Districts of Panem are forced to send two Tributes to the Capitol every year, to fight in the Hunger Games. Katniss has managed to avoid being chosen for 4 years but now, the odds are not in her favor and her life, along with everyone elses, will be changed forever. An incredible, intricate, dark and deeply moving read."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  An absolutely terrifying premise but Collins has built her world well. It is true Dystopian fiction/Peeta, I have always loved Peeta as a character because he is a genuinely good person, Rue as well.   Cons: Oh the convoluted and confused fumblings of awkward, teenage hormones/The Gale/Peeta/Katniss love triangle, I abhor love triangles.  Full Review: Katniss lives with her sister Prim and her mother on the Seam. It's the border of Ditsrict 12, the last District in the grand nation of Panem. District 12's chief export and payment to the Capitol is coal. So it's a dark and dreary place to live....

“An interesting premise with some fun parts but I almost DNFed it because I didn't feel connected to the FMC and this novel seemed to have a hard time deciding whether it was humor or mystery."  ⭐⭐ Pros: It was an interesting premise/Gore is a saucy man and he and the FMC have a fun repartee Cons: The FMC had no name so, I felt disconnected from her/The FMC seemed to go from being catatonically depressed, to terrifyingly bewildered, back to depressed but even then her emotions felt forced and fake/It was hard to keep all of the "Expats" straight since they referred to each other by name while also sometimes referring to each other by the years they were taken from/This tried to be a thriller but Bradley's sardonic writing style just didn't work for me.  Full Review: FMC lands a job as a “Bridge” at The Ministry of Time. They've managed to extricate a handful of people from the past. She’s to help Commander Graham Gore, who was taken from a failed Arctic ...

"As heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, this story was an intimate and genuine look at life, love and the bonds we form with family, found family and friends. And how sometimes, even when we want to, there are just some secrets we can't share. Vuong is a beautiful storyteller and I'll be picking up more of their books very soon."  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pros:  There was the sense that Grazina and Hai really cared for one another/How Hai helped Grazina through the rough nights was touching but at the same time, unnerving/Hai's relationships with the others who work at Home Market are all touching in their own ways.  Cons:   I think I wanted more history behind his childhood, what may have happened that led him to start using pills to escape reality though, sometimes there is no reason, unfortunately/Though Hai was a complex character, there were times where I wanted to shake him for his lies and deceit.  Full Review In the backwoods of Connecticut, Hai, a twenty-something year o...

"This was a true Rabbit hole of a book, filled with pop culture references, theories about parallel universes and many other mind bending twists. The beginning had real potential and there were definitely parts where, like Alice, I found myself murmuring, "Curiouser and curiouser." By the end though, I'd lost interest as the narrative/characters became repetitive and overdone." ⭐⭐ Pros: Miles has a quick, sardonic wit that was fun to read/K is relatable in his anxieties and eccentricities.  Cons: I started losing interest when the multiverse got involved and there were magic lines you could use to travel through time/It all became rather repetitive by the end/K never stopped asking the most asinine questions again and again.  Full Review: There's a secret game that exists in the world. It's shrouded in mystery, darkness and danger and only those who are intimately familiar with the dark web and conspiracy theories seem to know anything about it.  It...

“Another scenic and beautiful photographic road trip through places time forgot. Desoriser brings history when she can and her own insight and musings allow the reader to wonder as well. What caused these once thriving places to be abandoned? We'll never know but Desrosier gives us small glimpses of the lives that were lived in these places and some of the stories that hide behind their crumbling walls."  ⭐⭐⭐ Pros : Beautiful photography, some gorgeous architecture and interesting histories/As with all the places in these books, the reader is left to wonder why these houses were abandoned when someone obviously loved them once.  Cons: It's sad to see so many buildings left to ruin, shows how quickly things can change/There was an understandable melancholy air to some of the places pictured.   Full Review: Ranging from the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the Green Mountains of Vermont, we're taken on another photographic road trip through places time forgot. Desor...

"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...