2017 – Page 17 – Jill's Book Blog

Blog Tour: The Divine Heart

Crooked Cat new Divine Heart Bookcover

Title: The Divine Heart
Author: Danielle R. Mani
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Crooked Cat Books
Source: YA Bound Book Tours
Release Date: September 27, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Elle Collins spent most her life waiting for someone else to die…

When a heart donor is found, Elle awakes from surgery gifted with more than just a new heart—clairaudient messages and spiritual apparitions haunt her until she is convinced that she must be insane. Either that, or her donor is sending a message.

Desperate for answers the medical community can’t provide, Elle’s divination leads her to the family of her donor—a young girl named, Cas. With the help of her best friend, Rob—the guy who’s a testament that her new heart is capable of love, Elle must make sense of the clues Cas is sending. As pieces of Cas’s life and death emerge, Elle will discover that she and Cas share more than just a heart.

Add to Goodreads

Buy on Amazon!

Review:

This is a gripping novel.

It is emotional at the beginning when Elle is sick. But after she gets her heart transplant the story takes an eerie turn, which was amazing.

The story of Elle’s new powers is woven together perfectly with the ordinary problems that most teenagers face, such as first love. This makes the story relateable, even though there are paranormal aspects.

The twists were so thrilling, I couldn’t put the book down. I ended up becoming suspicious of everyone, though there weren’t as many “bad guys” as I suspected. The conclusions were somewhat logical, but I enjoyed the mystery of it all.

This is a great debut novel. I look forward to seeing what Danielle R. Mani comes out with next.

About the Author:

Danielle R. Mani is a fan of the paranormal in both print and film. In her first book, The Divine One, Ms. Mani combines supernatural fiction with the everyday dramas of young adulthood. Her newest YA paranormal novel, The Divine Heart, is scheduled to be released later this year. Ms. Mani holds a Bachelor of Arts in education and a Master of Science in communications. She is currently a doctoral student studying parapsychology. She resides in Westchester, New York, with her husband, four children, two dogs, and two rescue cats.

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Tour Organized by: YA Bound Book Tours

YA Bound Tour Button

Thank you to YA Bound Book Tours for letting me participate in this blog tour.

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? #6

It's Monday! What Are You Reading

This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!

What I just finished:

Yesterday I finished The Divine Heart for my stop in the blog tour with YA Bound Book Tours. This is a really great book.

What I’m currently reading:

I just started The Upside of Unrequited. I’m so excited to finally read this one!

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading So Near The Horizon for a blog tour with YA Bound Book Tours.

What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!

Review: 101 Video Games to Play Before You Grow Up

Title: 101 Video Games to Play Before You Grow Up
Author: Ben Bertoli
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: October 1, 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Have you got game? 101 Video Games to Play Before You Grow Up is the unofficial, definitive guide for the best video games ever made!

Each page in this interactive handbook offers behind-the-scenes tidbits and trivia about the games that belong on your bucket list, along with parental rating guidelines, series background information, and storyline previews. Gamers can record their personal ratings of each series as they play their way through the list, making notes and critiquing the best and worst parts of each game.

All different types of video games are featured, including adventure, puzzle, platform, racing, and role-playing games. Both gaming newbies and more experienced players can learn tips and tricks about the best games out there, and discover new genres of games to explore next.

No matter what gaming system you have, this handy guide will help parents and kids alike choose the next best game to play.

Review:

This is a great book for kids who love video games.

There are so many games listed! Each game listing is very detailed. It made me want to play all of the games I haven’t played before.

What I like is that there is a space at the bottom of the page for kids to fill in their rating of the game and their thoughts on it. This gets kids to think critically about the games their playing. I used to learn so much from video games when I was a kid. They can be a great teaching tool.

There are fun facts about the creation of the game for each listing which are interesting to read.

I loved reminiscing about these games while reading this book. So many of these games filled my childhood, and are still relevant today, such as Mario and Sonic. I think you would even enjoy these games if you are already grown up!

Weekly Wrap Up #6

Here’s my weekly wrap up!

I read 6 books this week, and reviewed all of them:

My favourites were A Darker Shade of Magic and They Both Die at the End.

I also did a weekly book meme everyday:

What did you read this week? Have you read any of these books?

Review: The Trick

Title: The Trick
Author: Emanuel Bergmann
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
Source: Goodreads Giveaway
Release Date: September 19, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sweeping between Prague during World War II and modern day Los Angeles, this deeply moving debut follows a young Jewish man in 1934 who falls in love and joins the circus as the country descends into war. Decades later, a young boy seeks out the now cynical, elderly magician in the hopes that his spells might keep his family together.

Prague, 1934: The fifteen-year-old rabbi s son Moshe Goldenhirsch marvels at the legendary circus magician known as the Half-Moon Man. Unexpectedly, he falls madly in love with the magician’s delightful assistant, spurring him to run away from home to join the circus, which is slowly making its way to Germany as war looms on the horizon. Soon, he becomes a world-renowned magician known as the Great Zabbatini, even sought after by Adolf Hitler. But when Moshe is discovered to be a Jew, only his special talent can save him from perishing in a concentration camp.

Los Angeles, 2007: Ten-year-old Max Cohn is convinced that magic can bring his estranged parents back together before they divorce. So one night he climbs out of his bedroom window in search of the Great Zabbatini, certain this powerful magician has the power to reunite his family.

Review:

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It isn’t something that I would typically read but I loved it.

This story was so easy to read. It had good pacing throughout. The chapters alternated between Moshe in the 1930s onward, and Max in 2007. By the end of each chapter, I wanted more, so I had to keep reading.

There were many surprising twists through the story, in both time periods. They were both dramatic and funny.

I loved the way that the two stories came together at the end. They are connected in a beautiful way. I won’t give it away, you’ll have to read it for yourself!

I recommend this story if you’re looking for a heartwarming read!

Stacking The Shelves #5

STSsmall

This is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

On Sunday I went to Word On The Street, a book festival in Toronto.

It was blazing hot! And it’s all outdoors. Even though it was on the lake, there wasn’t any relief.

So of course, I splurged a little on books… okay I splurged a lot. Here’s what I bought:

From HarperCollins I bought:

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
Our Dark Night by Victoria Schwab
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard
One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake
Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
Hunger by Roxanne Gay

From Simon and Schuster I bought:

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schemer

So after that I had to stop. Those books were heavy enough to carry back to the car.

I had a pretty good book week. Now I really have to take a break from buying books (but we’ll see if that happens!)

What books did you buy this week? Have you read any of these ones?

Review: DC Super Hero Girls, Volume 4: Past Times at Super Hero High

Title: DC Super Hero Girls: Past Times at Super Hero High
Author: Shea Fontana
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: DC Entertainment
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Welcome back to DC Super Hero High!
In the newest original graphic novel from the DC Super Hero Girls line, catch up with the students of Super Hero High School as they find out that fun, friendship and hard work are all parts of growing up! DC SUPER HERO GIRLS VOL. 4 continues to develop the relationships forged in DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: FINALS CRISIS and HITS AND MYTHS. Written by Shea Fontana, this story is perfect for girls 6-12.

Review:

This is the first DC Super Hero Girls comic I’ve read. It was super cute!

I loved how all the super heroes are kids in this series! Young readers can fall in love with these classic super heroes. It’s especially important that it focuses on the female super heroes, such as Wonder Woman and Batgirl, since most super hero entertainment is aimed towards a male audience.

These stories also translate the characters into appropriate storylines for kids. I love Harley Quinn but her graphic novels are definitely not appropriate for children. However, the same characters are in this graphic novel without losing any of their personality. For example, Harley is able to charm dogs and she calls the baby dinosaur her “puddin’.”

I really liked this graphic novel and would definitely recommend it for middle grade readers.

First Lines Friday #5

This is a weekly meme hosted by Wandering Words, where you give the first few lines of a book to hook your readers before introducing the book.

Here are my first lines:

“Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.
Her family traded in predictions. These predictions tended, however, to run toward the nonspecific. Things like: Something terrible will happen to you today. It might involve the number six. Or: Money is coming. Open your hand for it. Or: You have a big decision and it will not make itself.”

Do you recognize these first lines?

…

And the book is… The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

Here’s the Goodreads synopsis:

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I love this series! Have you read it?

Review: They Both Die at the End

Title: They Both Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure and to live a lifetime in a single day.

Review:

There has been a lot of hype about this book, and it didn’t disappoint me.

The characters are instantly loveable. They have both suffered a lot, with the loss of their families. Even when Rufus makes mistakes, I was still rooting for him.

The idea of finding out the day you die is a fascinating subject. It’s hard to decide if you would want to know. It’s intriguing to learn about your future, but it’s scary to know when you’ll die. Even the people in this story who tried to fight it, still ended up dying. You can’t change your fate.

At the same time, I have to wonder if Death-Cast has a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since people know they will die that day, they don’t stop it when they sense it coming. This happens with Rufus’s family who don’t even try to escape the car crash that eventually kills them.

There were some other minor characters whose Death-Cast-related stories were also told. At first, I didn’t like how these distract from the main plot. But these glimpses into other lives demonstrate how our lives are so interconnected.

Even though the ending is given away in the title, I still kept hoping throughout the story that they would beat the odds. This is a very emotional story and I shed a few tears but I loved it.

TBR Thursday #5

TBR Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, where you post a title from your shelf or e-reader and find out what others think about it.

My pick this week is The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid.