Book Of The Month YA for only $5!!

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Happy Reading

Jackie

August Wrap-Up

August went down hill a little bit. I had so much going on in my personal life, that I didn’t get a whole lot read. At least not my normal amount. I still read 14 books, which I am happy with.

Total Books: 14Ratings
Total Pages Read: 41384 Five Stars
Physical Books: 64 Four Stars
Arcs or Giveaways: 66 Three Stars
Kindle: 40 One or Two Stars
Sci-Fi: 1Romance: 3
Short Story: 1Contemporary: 3
Fantasy: 4Historical Fiction: 1
Horror: 1
Middle Grade:New Adult: 1
Young Adult: 3Adult: 10

THE BOOKS

The 5 Stars

  1. Birthday by Meredith Russo
  2. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu (Publish October 15th 2019)
  3. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton [Review]
  4. Waking Gods (Themis Files, #2) by Sylvain Nuevel

The 4 Stars

  1. Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
  2. Vampires Like It Hot (Argeneau, #28) by Lynsay Sands
  3. The Rithmatist (The Rithmatist, #1) by Brandon Sanderson
  4. Sirius by Jonathan Crown

The 3 Stars

  1. Light From Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker [Review]
  2. Broken Play (Sugar Land Saints, #2) by Baylin Crow
  3. Facing West (Forever Wilde, #1) by Lucy Lennox
  4. Hot Ride by Lucy Lennox
  5. Up for the Challenge by Riley Hart & Devon McCormack
  6. Hark! The Herald Angel Screams Edited by Christopher Golden

Review: Light From Distant Stars by Shawn Smucker

When Cohen Marah steps over the body of his dead father on a cold spring morning, he steps into a labyrinth of memory. In the week that follows, he must confront his traumatic past, a violent present, and the most frightening question of all-did he kill his father?

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Bookish First

REVIEW

This book wasn’t quite what I had expected. That doesn’t diminish the enjoyment at all however. I love a good character study, and that is exactly what this was.

You follow Cohen through the accident that leaves his father on death’s door. As Cohen moves through his emotions of his father’s pending death, the confusion and heart break of his parents destroyed marriage and the little part he played in it, and the devastation of having essentially been abandoned by both parents, you see the growth of Cohen and the acceptance of his past. It was beautiful.

There is a very heavy influence of religion in this story, and despite not having a religious background, this book was still enjoyable for me.

This was a really good book. I definitely recommend if you are into Christian fiction, or if you like really good character studies.

Thank you to Bookishfirst and the publishers for providing me this book in exchange for an honest review

Review: Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

One pet crow fights to save humanity from an apocalypse in this uniquely hilarious debut from a genre-bending literary author.

S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (those idiots), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®.

Then Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, and S.T. starts to feel like something isn’t quite right. His most tried-and-true remedies–from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim’s loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis–fail to cure Big Jim’s debilitating malady. S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he discovers that the neighbors are devouring each other and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle. Humanity’s extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow whose knowledge of the world around him comes from his TV-watching education.

Hollow Kingdom is a humorous, big-hearted, and boundlessly beautiful romp through the apocalypse and the world that comes after, where even a cowardly crow can become a hero.

|| Goodreads || Netgalley || Grand Central || Amazon || B&N ||

My Review

Oh my goodness! What a book! The best speculative fiction I have possible read…ever.

It’s the apocalypse, told from the POV of a domesticated crow named ST. You read that right, our protagonist is a crow who gets his knowledge and understanding of the world from cable TV. You can imagine how colorful ST is! I have read someone describe this book as The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead, and I couldn’t agree more.

After deciding that his human is completely un-savable he heads out with the bloodhound Dennis to try and figurer out what the heck happened. On there adventures, they meet up with all kinds of different animals, communicating through the Aura, think the animal kingdom equivalent of texting. As they make their way around Seattle.

This books was so unique and absolutely unforgettable. There is a period of adjusting as you begin to suspend your disbelief. ST is so human like that in the beginning I was thrown out of the story any time it mentions that he is a crow. Once I got used to it, it was definitely easy to follow along, and I was once again immersed.

I highly recommend this book. A stellar and unique foray into the apocalypse from a perspective we have never had before. 5 Stars!

**Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are entirely my own.**

Kira Jane Buxton

Kira Jane Buxton’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds, and a husband.

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July Wrap-Up

July is almost over, in fact in 10 hours August will officially begin. I had a very productive July in terms of reading. There was two Readathons, The 24in48 and The Reading Rush, culminating in a whopping 30 books read. That’s pretty amazing. So let’s take a look at the stats:

Totals Books: 30Ratings
Total Pages Read: 848311 5 Stars
10 books were from a Giveaway or Netgalley11 4 Stars
6 were from my physical TBR7 3 Stars
29 were from kindle unlimited1 2 Stars
Sci-Fi: 5Romance: 11
Short Story: 1Mystery/Thriller: 4
Fantasy: 4Horror: 2
Graphic Novel: 1Contemporary: 1
Middle Grade: 1Young Adult: 2
New Adult: 0Adult: 27

Needless to say, I feel into a Kindle Unlimited black hole of adult romances. It was just one of those months. I had a pretty good mix of 5 and 4 star books, I really can’t complain about my reading this month.

The Books

The 5 Stars

  1. #Royal ( Fever Fals, #4) by Devon McCormack
  2. Whiskey Throttle (Fever Falls, #3) by Riley Hart
  3. #Burn (Fever Falls, #2) by Devon McCormack
  4. Fired Up (Fever Falls, #1) by Riley Hart
  5. Fix Her Up (Hot & Hammered #1) by Tessa Bailey
  6. Infinite Noise (The Bright Sessions, #1) by Lauren Shippen My Review
  7. Bitch Planet Vol. 1
  8. Recursion by Blake Crouch My Review
  9. Dark Witch (The Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy, #1) by Nora Roberts
  10. Curious Minds (Knight and Moon, #1) by Janet Evanovich and Pheof Sutton
  11. The Lost Property Office (Section 13, #1) by James R. Hannibal

The 4 Stars

  1. You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
  2. Curious (The Finn Factor, #1) by R.G. Alexander
  3. The Escape Room by Megan Goldin My Review
  4. Blindsided (Fake Boyfriend. #4) by Eden Finley
  5. The Backup Boyfriend (The Boyfriend Chronicles, #1) by River Jaymes
  6. Good Boy (WAGS, #1) by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
  7. The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
  8. Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians, #3) by Ruby Dixon
  9. Dead Girl in 2A by Carter Wilson My Review
  10. In the River by Jeremy Robert Johnson

The 3 Stars

  1. Faking It (Metropolis, #1) by Riley Hart and Devon McCormack
  2. FU: Fixer Upper by Devon McCormack
  3. American Homemaker by John Kaine My Review
  4. Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1) by Patricia Briggs
  5. Barbarian Mine (Ice Planet Barbarians, #4) by Ruby Dixon
  6. Ice Planet Barbarians (Ice Planet Barbarians, #1) by Ruby Dixon
  7. Blinsided by Kate Waterson My Review
  8. Stoker’s Wilde by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi

The 2 Stars

  1. Barbarian Alien (Ice Planet Barbarians, #2) by Ruby Dixon.

Review: The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are ruthlessly ambitious high-flyers working in the lucrative world of Wall Street finance where deception and intimidation thrive. Getting rich is all that matters, and they’ll do anything to reach the top.When they are ordered to participate in a corporate team-building exercise that requires them to escape from a locked elevator, dark secrets of their team begin to be laid bare.

The biggest mystery to solve in this lethal game: What happened to Sara Hall? Once a young shining star—”now gone but not forgotten”.

This is no longer a game.
They’re fighting for their lives.

My Thoughts

|| Goodreads || Netgalley || Amazon || B&N||

This was a great book. I fully enjoyed myself. It had one of my top tropes in a mystery/thriller, a game.

I loved the plot of this book. The idea of a thriller set mostly around an escape room is amazing. I really wish that there was more of a game element than there actually was considering that is what drew me to this book. In the end though, the story still kept me hooked despite what little ‘clues’ to escape the elevator was actually given.

Nothing really shocked me, I could see what was happening for the most part straight away, but honestly that’s okay for me. I don’t mind if there are no shocking twists as long as the story is compelling. Which it was.

Man, I seriously hope the Wall Street isn’t really anything like this, but I am a little worried is just a bit. It is a side of humanity that I just wish I could forget.

The reason for the 4 and not 5 star rating is mainly that the writing style for me left it just a little lacking. It felt more like facts of an event being thrown at me instead of allowing me to be fully immersed. There were times when the time line felt off, but I couldn’t pin point exactly why which threw me a few times.

I will definitely be picking up another book from this author!

**I received this novel from Netgalley and St. Matins Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: American Homemaker by John Kaine

Kim Loomis is a social media star, homemaker and mortician. With her husband Norman, they’ve been bringing in a dark harvest. But death is an infrequent visitor to a small town, and when they struggle to meet demand, Kim decides there is a profitable alternative. Except Norman doesn’t want any part of his wife’s horrific plans. He wants to leave Kim, but no one leaves America’s homemaker.

It was plain sailing for assassin Melody Morgan until she executes a drug cartel’s bagman. Hunted by highly efficient killers, Melody is forced to accept a job from Kim. But not everything is as it seems. Kim is hiding something, a secret so terrifying there may be no way out for anyone.

My Thoughts

Goodreads||BookishFirst|| Amazon||

I received this novel for free from BookishFirst and the author in exchange for an honest review.

The first half of this book was really good. It was thrilling, and gruesome, pretty wild from the very beginning. I don’t recommend if you are even a little squeamish! The characters are unlikable, but in a way that makes them intriguing. The narration was a bit stilted, but I think that is beacause you get so many POVs. The plot was great, up until about halfway through.

By the middle of the book I was so frustrated. I felt like I was reading two different books that only vaguely had anything in common. It began to feel a bit convoluted.

3 Stars. I’d still check out more from this author.

Review: Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen

Lauren Shippen’s The Infinite Noise is a stunning, original debut novel based on her wildly popular and award-winning podcast The Bright Sessions.

Caleb Michaels is a sixteen-year-old champion running back. Other than that his life is pretty normal. But when Caleb starts experiencing mood swings that are out of the ordinary for even a teenager, his life moves beyond “typical.”

Caleb is an Atypical, an individual with enhanced abilities. Which sounds pretty cool except Caleb’s ability is extreme empathy—he feels the emotions of everyone around him. Being an empath in high school would be hard enough, but Caleb’s life becomes even more complicated when he keeps getting pulled into the emotional orbit of one of his classmates, Adam. Adam’s feelings are big and all-consuming, but they fit together with Caleb’s feelings in a way that he can’t quite understand.

Caleb’s therapist, Dr. Bright, encourages Caleb to explore this connection by befriending Adam. As he and Adam grow closer, Caleb learns more about his ability, himself, his therapist—who seems to know a lot more than she lets on—and just how dangerous being an Atypical can be.

“What if the X-Men, instead of becoming superheroes, decided to spend some time in therapy?”

My Thoughts

Goodreads || BookishFirst || Amazon || B&N

Infinite noise is a beautiful coming of age story with a little bit of magical realism to it. I had never even heard of the podcast that this is based off of, but now I feel like I definitely missed out. I am so glad they decided to write this book.

I am going to talk about the story first. The plot is very minimal. An X-Men style setting without the cool school for mutants. Mutants in this sense are called A-typicals. Individuals that can do things normal people can’t, such as reading minds, controlling emotions, or being one hell of an empath. The story follows two boys; one who has just been diagnosed as an a-typical of the extreme empathic variety, and an out gay teen with some extreme depression. The story builds mostly around these two boys discovering a friendship and then something more. There is a little about a government agency experimenting on A-typicals, and possible danger for Caleb, the a-typical boy, but this plot side is very minimal and barely even addresses it. 80% of the story being about Adam and Caleb and their growing relationship.

Which brings me to Adam and Caleb. My absolute favorite part of this book! I loved them so much. Adam who is diagnosed with a sever depressive disorder just hit all of my tender feelings. I wanted desperately to wrap him up in my adoration and sooth him. Caleb, took me a little longer to get attached to. In fact I still think my love for Caleb stems from his love for Adam. Still I couldn’t love these two anymore than I do. I adored seeing them get close and weather everything thrown at them.

I am absolutely thrilled to have been given the opportunity to review an advanced copy. I loved this book, I can’t wait to get my hands on book 2!!!

Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher for providing this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Blindsided

Blindsided by Kate Watterson

A young woman encounters the killer she accused years earlier—and finds herself drawn back into a vortex of evil she thought she’d left far behind her.

I received this book for free from Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for a review. This review is in my own words and completely honest.

My Thoughts

This is my first Kate Watterson book, and I fairly enjoyed it. The plot was solid. I was definitely digging that. Dr. Cadence Lawrence has just run into the man she accused of murder back in High School. He may or may not now be stalking her so she high tails it out of Indianapolis for a while and then, ends up stuck in a snow storm with Mick. Her now knight in shining flannel.

While I was all for the plot, I didn’t feel much for the characters. They felt very one dimensional. The dialogues started out pretty strong, but as the book continued it got weedy and unrealistic. I think on their own each character was strong, but once brought together it kind of fell apart a little.

I think with a little character developing, a bit of polish on the interactions between the characters and this could definitely be a 4 star contender.

I will say though that I completely thought this was a thriller, but it was definitely more of a romantic suspense I think. If you don’t like that genre definitely don’t go into it thinking it is straight up thriller.

Happy Reading!

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Review: Recursion by Blake Crouch

Memory makes reality.

That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it. But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

My Thoughts

Well another complete mindfu**ery from the absolutely brilliant Blake Crouch.

I can’t even begin to succinctly tell you how good this book was. There are so many chances of spoilers that I’m scared to really even say anything. I want everyone to feel what I felt during this reading journey! I highly suggest going in blind.

However, I am going to attempt to review this book.

You follow a dual timeline throughout a portion of this book, actually you fall many timelines. Time gets a little muddied. The main characters being Barry who seems to just kind of fall headfirst into the insanity, and Helena who is ultimately the very catalyst for everything that happens.

I loved both characters, but honestly its the story that really kept me pulled in. There is so much happening and so much riding on certain aspects of the stories that you are on the edge of your seat pretty much from the very beginning.

The plot is so exhilarating, and frightening, and it’s not a Crouch novel without a little existential crisis going on.

All I can say for certain is 5 stars with a standing ovation. Get this book in your hands!

Happy Reading!