June 2019 – Page 3 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Once Upon a Frog (Whatever After #8)

Title: Once Upon a Frog (Whatever After #8)
Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Borrowed from a friend
Format: Paperback
Release Date: April 25, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

My brother, Jonah, and I just want to TALK to the magic mirror — we’re not planning on traveling into any fairytales today. Promise.
Except we do wind up going through the mirror, this time into the story of The Frog Prince. The princess, who’s supposed to transform the cute little frog back into a handsome prince, turns out to be super rude. Jonah and I decide we don’t want — or need — her help. We can take matters into our own hands and turn the frog into a prince ourselves! Can’t we?
Now we just have to:
– Climb out of a smelly well
– Canoe over a waterfall
– Sneak into a palace
– Kiss a frog (ack)!
And there’s no time to waste — let’s hop to it!

Review:

This story is a little different from the others in the series. In each book, Abby and Jonah travel to a fairy tale. They end up messing up the ending in some way, such as preventing Sleeping Beauty from falling asleep. However, in this one, they intentionally try to change the ending.

In the original story of the frog prince, the princess is so mean that she throws the frog against a wall which makes him turn back into a prince. Abby didn’t want this frog prince to have the same fate, so she stops the princess from rescuing him, and instead tries to change him back into a human. This doesn’t end as she planned, when it turns out that the prince is actually evil!

Abby was able to apply what she learned about the mean prince in the fairy tale to her real bully at school. This shows that kids can learn things from fairy tales, even if they aren’t set in real life.

I love this series! I can’t wait to read the next one which is based on Aladdin!

Stacking the Shelves – June 22

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!

I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Penguin Random House Canada:

Sharon, Lois and Bram’s Skinnamarink by Sharon Hampson, Lois Lillienstein, Bram Morrison, Qin Leung

I was approved for a book on NetGalley from St. Martin’s Press:

The Orchid Throne by Jeffe Kennedy

I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Canelo:

The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen by Ada Bright and Cass Grafton

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada, St. Martin’s Press, and Canelo for these books!

What books did you get this week?

Review: The Becoming of Noah Shaw (The Shaw Confessions #1)

Title: The Becoming of Noah Shaw (The Shaw Confessions #1)
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Source: Library
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 7, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the first book of the Shaw Confessions, the companion series to the New York Times bestselling Mara Dyer novels, old skeletons are laid bare and new promises prove deadly. This is what happens after happily ever after.
Everyone thinks seventeen-year-old Noah Shaw has the world on a string.
They’re wrong.
Mara Dyer is the only one he trusts with his secrets and his future.
He shouldn’t.
And both are scared that uncovering the truth about themselves will force them apart.
They’re right.

Review:

I’m so glad this series is continuing with Noah Shaw’s story. The Mara Dyer trilogy was only the beginning. Their story progresses a lot in this book.

Though Noah was one of the main characters in the Mara Dyer trilogy, he still remained a mystery. That series was narrated by Mara, so we only got to see her perspective. This book was narrated by Noah, so we got an inside look at what it’s like to be Noah. He is very distinct and different from Mara. Mara becomes the mysterious figure in this book.

I’ve flown through each of these books. I can read them in just a couple of hours. I can’t say too much without giving away the ending, but it was a fast-paced story! Also, there is a page with trigger warnings at the beginning. However, if you’re familiar with this series, you know that just about anything bad that can happen to a person happens in these books, including torture and suicide. The page turns into a bit of a joke, because if you can’t read about these subjects, this series is definitely not for you.

I loved the cliffhanger ending! I can’t wait to see what happens next!

First Lines Friday – June 21

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:

“Of all my many murders, committed for love and for better reasons, the first was the most important. Already this project proves more difficult than I had ever imagined. Autobiographies depend upon truth; but I have been lying for such a very long, lonesome time.”

Do you recognize these first lines?

…

And the book is… Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye.

Goodreads synopsis:

“Reader, I murdered him.”
A sensitive orphan, Jane Steele suffers first at the hands of her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, then at a grim school where she fights for her very life until escaping to London, leaving the corpses of her tormentors behind her. After years of hiding from the law while penning macabre “last confessions” of the recently hanged, Jane thrills at discovering an advertisement. Her aunt has died and her childhood home has a new master: Mr. Charles Thornfield, who seeks a governess.
Burning to know whether she is in fact the rightful heir, Jane takes the position incognito and learns that Highgate House is full of marvelously strange new residents—the fascinating but caustic Mr. Thornfield, an army doctor returned from the Sikh Wars, and the gracious Sikh butler Mr. Sardar Singh, whose history with Mr. Thornfield appears far deeper and darker than they pretend. As Jane catches ominous glimpses of the pair’s violent history and falls in love with the gruffly tragic Mr. Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: Can she possess him—body, soul, and secrets—without revealing her own murderous past?

Have you read Jane Steele? What did you think of it?

Review: Call It What You Want

Title: Call It What You Want
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 25, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When his dad is caught embezzling funds from half the town, Rob goes from popular lacrosse player to social pariah. Even worse, his father’s failed suicide attempt leaves Rob and his mother responsible for his care.
Everyone thinks of Maegan as a typical overachiever, but she has a secret of her own after the pressure got to her last year. And when her sister comes home from college pregnant, keeping it from her parents might be more than she can handle.
When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a calculus project, they’re both reluctant to let anyone through the walls they’ve built. But when Maegan learns of Rob’s plan to fix the damage caused by his father, it could ruin more than their fragile new friendship…
This captivating, heartfelt novel asks the question: Is it okay to do something wrong for the right reasons?

Review:

In this story, Maegan and Rob are suddenly outcasts at school. Maegan was caught cheating on the SATs, even though she was a straight-A student. Then, her “perfect” sister came back from college, pregnant with her professor’s baby. Rob’s father was caught embezzling money from his financial company, and everyone thinks that Rob knew what was happening. They are brought together in their calculus class, where they form an unlikely friendship.

Morality was a big theme in this book. The main characters and their peers have to ask if Maegan and Rob deserve to be punished for what they did, or what their family members did. Maegan cheated on her test, but it affected everyone else in the testing room whose papers had to be scrapped. Rob’s father stole money from many of his classmate’s families, so they take it out on Rob by ignoring him. They both end up suffering for these actions, until they can open people’s eyes up to the truth.

This book was very touching. Both Maegan and Rob had to look after their family members. Maegan helps her sister deal with her unplanned pregnancy. She ends up stepping up to look after her. Rob’s father attempted suicide, but now he can’t do anything on his own. Rob and his mother have to look after him, including feeding and bathing him. It was heartbreaking to read about his father, and the way that the people he hurt the most had to look after him. This made me sympathetic to Maegan and Rob, even though they had both made mistakes.

This is a great story!

Thank you Bloomsbury YA for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

We Are the Perfect Girl by Ariel Kaplan

Have you read Call It What You Want? What did you think of it?

TBR Thursday – June 20

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 Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the author of the unforgettable New York Timesbestseller We Were Liars comes a masterful new psychological suspense novel–the story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review: A Midsummer Night #nofilter

Title: A Midsummer Night #nofilter
Author: Brett Wright, William Shakespeare
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: January 5, 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the greatest stories ever told . . . in texts?!
Imagine: What if the fairies and star-crossed lovers of the forest had smartphones? A classic is reborn in this fun and funny adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays!
Four lovers who can’t decide who they have a crush on.
One mischievous fairy with a love potion.
Total chaos in the fairy world, the human world, and everywhere in between!
and h8. The classics just got a whole lot more interesting. 😉
tl;dr A Shakespeare play told through its characters texting with emojis, posting photos, checking in at locations, and updating their relationship statuses. The perfect gift for hip theater lovers and teens.
A glossary and cast of characters are included for those who need it. For example: tl;dr means too long; didn’t read.

Review:

I love this series of Shakespeare plays told through texts.

It can be difficult to read Shakespeare. I was introduced to his plays in elementary school, so I’ve always loved them. However, I find that modern adaptations can be a great tool to help kids decipher classics. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream is a complicated story, with lovers getting mixed up by magic. This book is a fun way of telling the story through texts and social media.

I even learned new things while reading this story. There is a glossary of emojis and abbreviations at the back of the book. I had to look up a couple of the abbreviations while reading, because I had no idea what they meant. Still, this was a fun and hilarious book!

I highly recommend this book to fans of Shakespeare, and to people who struggle to understand his plays.

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – June 19

This is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. In this post we highlight a book that’s highly anticipated.

The book that I’m waiting on this Wednesday is My Ideal Boyfriend is a Croissant by Laura Dockrill. The release date is July 16, 2019.

Goodreads Synopsis:

This honest, laugh-out-loud novel brimming with body positivity, bite-sized nuggets of feminism, and commentary on eating will have readers rooting for sixteen-year-old BB as she navigates her world while maintaining her plucky zest for life even in the most trying of times.

It’s a food diary. I have to tell the truth. That’s the point.

Sixteen-year-old Bluebelle, also known as BB or Big Bones, lives her life unapologetically. She loves life! She loves food!

When BB has a worse-than-usual asthma attack, her mom insists she go to the doctor. There, she is told that she is overweight (no surprise) and prediabetic (big surprise) and must lose weight, move more, and keep a food diary. To get out of this immediate health crisis, she agrees to make an effort.

Then a tragedy occurs in the family, and things get seriously complicated. Suddenly, losing weight and moving more are the least of her worries. As for the food diary, though, BB doesn’t just document what she’s eating, she documents what she’s feeling–and she has a lot to say!

A CLIP Carnegie Medal Children’s Book Award Nominee

What books are you waiting on this week?

Review: The Last House Guest

Title: The Last Guest House
Author: Megan Miranda
Genre: Thriller, Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: June 18, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Littleport, Maine is like two separate towns: a vacation paradise for wealthy holidaymakers and a simple harbour community for the residents who serve them. Friendships between locals and visitors are unheard of – but that’s just what happened with Avery Greer and Sadie Loman.
Each summer for a decade the girls are inseparable – until Sadie is found dead. When the police rule the death a suicide, Avery can’t help but feel there are those in the community, including a local detective and Sadie’s brother Parker, who blame her. Someone knows more than they’re saying, and Avery is intent on clearing her name before the facts get twisted against her.

Review:

This is a great new thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat until the end.

I was so excited to read this book because I love Megan Miranda’s thrillers.
Like in All the Missing Girls, this story flashes back to revisit a mysterious death of a young girl in town. Sadie’s death was ruled a suicide, but her friend Avery never felt comfortable with that conclusion. While searching for answers about Sadie’s death, Avery learned more about herself and her family.

I couldn’t figure out the solution until the end. I love it when a book surprises me, and this one definitely did. There isn’t really enough evidence given until the end to figure it out, because the reader discovers the clues along with Avery. I loved the way that the new clues she found pointed at Avery as being Sadie’s murderer. It really kept up the suspense! Though she would be an unlikely suspect, since she’s the narrator, I couldn’t rule her out with all the evidence pointing to her.

I loved this thriller!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Top Ten Tuesday – Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2019

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2019. Here’s my list: