Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This was a book club choice for this month, and I've never read it before. I will say, going into this review, (as I do frequently) that romance is not my genre... Lina thought she knew her mother. It had always been the two of them, and her mother was a force of nature. Then came the diagnosis, and the details of the man that her mother said was Lina's father. After her mother's passing, Lina agreed to go and stay with her father in Italy, where he lived. Upon arriving, she finds that he lived in a WWII memorial graveyard, and she met Ren, the most gorgeous boy she'd ever seen. Then comes the journal. It's from her mother, and the first words say, "I made the wrong choice." Can Lina uncover the truth about her mother's time in Italy and her own self? Overall, this book was cute, but predictable. I had most of it figured out before I was very far into the book, and it felt almost like a formulaic YA romance (the first boy is always the  boy, no matter...

I went to an author event hosted in my town where Pearson was promoting this book. I bought it and started reading it, and it's take me quite a while to get through it. Bristol Keats has grown up on the run. Running from what? Her parents have never said, and yet they move frequently, live roughly, and drift from one small town to another. Until Bowskeep. And then, after her mother disappears, and her father dies, Bristol and her sisters are alone, poor, and unsure what to do next. Until Bristol is approached by someone who says they can make a deal with her. She meets the Fae king, Tyghan, and is whisked off on an adventure to save her father and find the truth. In all, this book had some issues... It wasn't terrible, the romance was OK, but some of the tropes were difficult to stomach. In all, though, I did finish it, which is more than I can say for some other novels that fit this genre. Let's start with characters. Bristol was likeable enough. She was fiercely independe...

 Continuing the Inheritance Games  series, I was really excited going into this book. I've enjoyed all of the characters and the story, the riddles and puzzles, so I was so eager to continue in this series. The Final Gambit  raises the stakes of the series immensely. Toby has been kidnapped, and Avery must find him before it is too late. Each clue seems like a dead end, and when Toby's daughter shows up at the House, the stakes rise even further. Will they be able to find out who is behind it before it's too late? This book was intense from start to finish. Barnes made the stakes high with the abduction of Toby, and that intensity carries throughout the novel. I loved the added character development in this book, especially in Avery and Jameson. I also liked that as part of that development, we started to move past the love triangle that The Hawthorne Legacy  set up. It was good to see Grayson finally letting someone in, and watching his character fail in The Final G...

 Several students recommended this book, which was really popular a few years ago. I finally bought it and read it. Kya Clark has been abandoned her whole life. First, by her mother, who walked out on the family, then each sibling drifted off into the marsh and never came back. Kya was left with her abusive father until he, too, never returned. Kya took attachment wherever she could get it, first from Tate, who taught her to read and write, and then from Chase, the star football player from town. When Chase is found dead, it is Kya, the Marsh Girl, who is their primary suspect. Is Kya responsible for Chase's death, and can she hide in the marsh that only she knows? All around, this book is sad. Kya's story is heartbreaking as she is abandoned over and over again throughout the story. I truly felt for her as the story unfolded. Kya's character is a little flat; I feel like she remains the aloof Marsh Girl throughout the story, and she doesn't get past that personality tr...

 This book had so much hype on Bookstagram and the cover is beautiful. I picked it up hoping for a good fantasy read. Fourth Wing  by Rebecca Yarros follows Violet Sorrengail, daughter of the tough commanding general as she enters Basageth to become a dragon rider. Frail and easily injured, Violet must fight for her position in the college each and every day: outwitting the other recruits and surviving her squad leader, the son of the dangerous rebels. Can Violet make it to be paired with a dragon? I honestly got into this book looking for a good fantasy story. I was sorely disappointed. For all of its hype on Instagram, I found this book poorly written. Yarros used the f-word at every opportunity, even when it wasn't appropriate or necessary. This felt lazy to me and unimaginative. I didn't love the story either. It was a bit predictable and the main character bothered me. She acted like a teenager but was supposed to be 21. In fact, when characters started sleeping together,...

 This is one of Brandon Sanderson's "secret projects" that he wrote during the lockdowns in 2020. I've been really excited to read it! Tress of the Emerald Sea  is the story of Tress who lives on a planet made up of tiny islands and seas made from falling spores from the 12 moons. Tress lives on the Rock, a small island where they have to force people to stay. Tress loves her island, her cups (which she collects), and the duke's son: Charlie. Once the duke finds out about their relationship, he marches Charlie from the Rock and takes him to find a wife. Charlie swears to Tress that he'll resist, and sends a cup and letter at each stop. Then suddenly, the packages stop. It's announced that the duke is returning with his son and new daughter in law. When the ship arrives, the heartbroken Tress realizes that the duke's son is not Charlie. Indeed, the crew of the ship confirms that Charlie was sent to the evil Sorceress in the Midnight Sea and replaced wit...

 Continuing my reading of Mistborn , I picked this up to refresh on the magic systems and get ready to read the fourth Wax and Wayne book. I found when I read Wax and Wayne the first time in Alloy of Law , I didn't remember enough about the magic system that I felt the book was a complete betrayal of what Mistborn was. Once I went back and reread the original trilogy, and then into Alloy of Law , I felt significantly better. So, it's better for me to review all of the books before starting into the newest Wax and Wayne. The Well of Ascension  picks up some months after the fall of the Lord Ruler by Vin's hands. Elend is king, and Vin is their Mistborn assassin. The members of Kelsier's crew have assumed noble positions in the new government, now much more democratic than before. However, not everything is perfect in Elend's utopia: there are still rumors about the Lord Ruler's atium - a treasure that Elend and Vin have been unsuccessful in finding. With two armi...

 I picked this book up on Audible because it was one that I'd heard a lot about. I've had a couple of students read it over the years, and it sounded really interesting. Nora Seed wanted to die. Her life was utterly hopeless: her brother hated her, she had no friends, she lost her job, her cat died, she'd turned down every opportunity that had ever come her way. After attempting suicide, Nora finds herself in a giant library, accompanied by her grade school librarian Mrs. Elm. Mrs. Elm explains to Nora that the books in this library contain every possible life she could ever have possibly lived in, and invites her to undo all of her regrets. Once she found the one that she was most content in, Mrs. Elm explained, she would simply stay there forever. Can Nora overcome her desire to die and find the perfect life? I loved the overall message of this book: that the life you have is a life worth living. This is what Nora finds after all of the lives she chooses to experience. Th...

 This book is a kind of sequel to The Paper Magician series, taking place after the events of The Master Magician . My mom really enjoyed this series (and I did too, overall), and the book, so I bought it on Audible and listened to it. Alvie Brechenmacher travels from the United States to London to study polymaking - the art of using plastic in spells, under the legendary Marion Praff. Unnaturally gifted, Alvie progresses quickly. Praff requires her to volunteer, and she spends those hours in a hospital. There, Alvie meets Ethel Cooper, a young woman who lost part of her arm in a horrible accident. Alvie befriends Ethel and is determined to help her out. She and Praff come up with the idea to create a prosthetic arm using their powers. Can they finish the prototype before the grand Convention? And can they protect their research from someone determined to steal it? Overall, I did love this series. I found it rather cozy, and I loved the way it was written. This book, however, felt ...

 This was our book club choice for 3rd term. Once I was into it, it was really a pretty quick read. Matt does not have an eating disorder, or at least that's what he tries to convince himself of. Not eating simply gives him super powers - the ability to smell other people, to detect how they feel, and to see into their secret pasts. His original intent: discover who chased his sister away and to make them suffer. However, the more Matt digs into the art of starving and his bloody mission, he realizes that his perception is skewed, and not everything is what he thought. Overall, this was not my favorite book. There were some things that I did like: the author is brutally honest about depression, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders and how it might look in teens. Matt is also a humorous character, which might be his only saving grace. Some of the writing is quite pretty at points, and I loved some of the descriptions from the author. I did not like Matt's overall character, h...

 I've been working my way through this audiobook for months. With my busy schedule, the birth of my son, and my struggle through my AP curricular books, I haven't had much time to read. That being said, I've started driving significantly more, and am now putting on audiobooks in the car again. I apologize for any misspelling of character/location names - I listened to the audio and don't have a paper copy. A Torch Against the Night  picks up immediately after An Ember in the Ashes  concludes. Laia and Elias are desperately trying to get to Kauf prison to rescue Laia's brother. Helene is just as desperate to track Elias down - not because she wants to kill him, but because she knows what will happen to her family if she doesn't. Elias is badly poisoned from the encounter with his mother, Karis Veturia, better known as the Commandant. Elias's brush with death has left him hanging between worlds: the living, and the Waiting Place, where spirits go before passin...

I read this novel for Battle of the Books, but I also wanted to read it. I keep trying Sepetys novels, thinking I'm really going to like them, and then finding myself disappointed. This novel was an exception. This is probably the best Sepetys novel I've read so far. I Must Betray You is the story of Romania behind the Iron Curtain. Christian Florescu is seventeen. His grandfather, an intellectual, questions the current regime, and Christian finds himself agreeing. Romanians are struggling; waiting in long lines hoping for food, spies everywhere, never knowing who's an informer and who isn't. Amidst these tensions, Christian is confronted by an agent of the secret police and blackmailed into informing on Dan Van Dorn, the son of the American Ambassador. Stuck between his beliefs and his fear, Christian does as he's told, hoping that he can dupe the agent. I loved this book, more than any other Sepetys novel I've read. While Sepetys excels at many things in her w...

I was finally able to finish a book! Things with the baby got crazy and I wasn't able to finish this before he came, but I've finally settled in and have gotten back to reading. It will take me a little while to finish another book. Next on my list is Ruta Septys' new book I Will Betray You . The House in the Cerulean Sea  by T.J. Klune felt distinctly Harry Potter -esque. Linus Baker is a case worker for DICOMY - the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He visits orphanages and seeks to help the kids he observes with the utmost objectivity, never getting attached nor revisiting the cases to see what ultimately happens to the children. He leads a dull and dreary existence with his small house, his monogrammed pajamas, obnoxious neighbor, and unusual cat, Calliope. That all changes when he is summoned by Extremely Upper Management and sent on a secret assignment to the most unusual orphanage Linus has ever seen. There, he meets the most unusual children, and possibly the m...

 This was another book club choice, and as I'd read An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir already, I was eager to dive into this one. I'd heard it's drastically different than An Ember in the Ashes  and isn't even in the same genre, so I was curious to read it. All My Rage  by Sabaa Tahir follows the story of Salahudin Malik. Salahudin grew up in Juniper, California with his mother who is almost his whole world, and his father who cannot even stop drinking enough to ensure that his mother gets to dialysis. The Maliks are Pakistani, and own the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel in Juniper. The novel also follows Noor Riaz, also Pakistani, who lives with her uncle and works in his liquor store. Chachu saved Noor from the wreckage of her earthquake-destroyed village when she was six and brought her to the United States. He gave up everything to take her in, and put his entire life on pause to raise her, a fact that he is not afraid to remind Noor about. Noor and Salahudin have bee...

 I read this for a co-worker who chooses his own book list for Battle of the Books and uses it in his classroom each year. I'd already read and loved the first one, and he brought this to me one morning (ironically while I was desperately trying to finish Skyward  again so I could read Cytonic ) and asked me to read it and write questions for the book. I finished it in one day, and that should also tell you a lot about how I felt about this book. The Hawthorne Legacy  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes picks up with Avery Grambs' story almost immediately after the conclusion of The Inheritance Games . Avery is trying to find Toby Hawthorne, the son of the billionaire that left her his entire fortune. Along with the help of the Hawthorne grandsons, she must unravel the mystery of who she really is, how she's related to this family, and where Toby might have gone. I loved this book. Just like The Inheritance Games , there is a twist around every corner. Barnes is a master of giving yo...

 This was a pick for our team book club. I started reading it, but wasn't even close to finishing it in October when we were supposed to talk about it. I did finally finish it months later, and am finally writing my review. Cemetery Boys  by Aidan Thomas follows the story of Yadriel, a brujo tasked with protecting their cemetery and helping spirits cross over. The one issue, Yadriel wasn't always a boy, but as a trans boy, he is struggling to find acceptance and his place in his community. He completed the ceremony to become a brujo on his own and without anyone else knowing except his cousin, Maritza. Another of his cousins, Miguel, is killed somewhere - all of their community feel it - and Yadriel is desperate to help. Instead, he finds the ghost of a boy he knows from school, Julian, and feeling that this is finally his chance to be accepted into his community, decides to help him cross over. I did really enjoy this book. The start was a little slow and a little confusing i...

 This was yet another book club read. This is not usually my first choice in books to pick up. The Husband's Secret  is a gripping tale of lies and intrigue. Cecilia is an extremely successful woman. She has the absolute perfect life: three girls who light her life, an adoring if forgetful husband, she's amazing at selling Tupperware, and she even is the PTA president at her school. Tess thought she was happily married to Will, before Will tells her that he's in love with her cousin and basically best friend Felicity. Tess uproots her son and moves back to Sydney to live with her mother at the revelation. Rachel works at the same school Cecilia's girls (and now Tess's son) go to: St. Angela's. Rachel is the secretary and basically keeps the place afloat. Rachel's daughter was murdered twenty years ago, and she has no idea who did it, but she certainly suspects Connor Whitby the school's P.E. teacher. These women's lives are intricately linked by one ...

 This was another book we read for our book club. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller follows the independent and murderess Alessandra. Alessandra has been overlooked her entire life, including by her first love, Hector. But, Alessandra has a plan to change everything: convince the Shadow King to fall in love with her, then kill him and take his throne. As she moves to the palace and gets knee-deep in the intrigue, things change. Will Alessandra go through with her cunning plan, or will she give in to her heart and marry the most powerful man in the world? Truthfully, I desperately wanted to like this book, but I just... didn't. It was shockingly sappy and incredibly predictable. I had Alessandra pegged from the very start. She wasn't going to kill the Shadow King, and she was certainly going to fall in love with him. While the journey to get there wasn't as obvious, I knew the outcome from the very start. Murdering Hector and the subsequent discovery of his body c...

Charlie Holmberg came to a young writer's conference that I attended with a group of students. She did a presentation on magic systems that I highly enjoyed. I've been eager to read this book for quite some time. Ceony Twill wanted to be a smelter, but instead, they asked her to be a folder. As she neared the completion of her magical education, the direction of her life was changed forever. Her new mentor, Emery Thane, teaches her the basics of paper folding before the deranged Excisioner, Lira, shows up and literally steals his heart. Can Ceony save him? I had a really hard time rating this book. Part of me found this book absolutely delightful. I loved the magic system. Holmberg is very careful in the way she uses magic - one of the rules she follows that many authors skip is that the magic used has to be within the bounds of what the reader already knows. This makes it more believable, and readers can logically follow the jumps the character takes to solve problems. This is...

I was scrolling through the month's selection of Audible Originals and this was one that came up. From the summary, it sounded interesting, though I thought it would have more of a fantastical spin.  Disclaimer for this post: Romance is not  my usual genre, and it's not one that I usually like either. That's probably why I rated this so low. At any rate, The Mountain and the Sea  is about a widowed artist, Esther who lives in Jamaica. She has a house on a small island off the coast, as well as an art studio. She tends to head there during hurricanes and other tropical storms. On her way to the island, she comes across a naked man lying on the side of the road. He has no memory of who he is, what happened to him, or even where he is, and how he got there. Esther takes him to her island home to wait out the coming storm. In the time after the storm passes, they fall in love, the first love Esther really feels she's ever had. Will this love story last? Will Monty remember ...