Title: Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) Author: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers Source: Purchased Format: Hardcover Release Date: March 13, 2018 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they’ll find seven months after the invasion?
Meanwhile, Kady’s cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza’s ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha’s past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.
With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.
Review:
This was an amazing conclusion to the Illuminae Files series.
I was hooked right from the start. Even though these books have hundreds of pages, they are so fast paced that I flew through them.
This story introduced some new characters on the planet Keranza IV. The characters from the first two books were still there, on their ship, the Mao. It was great to see everyone come together in this book.
I loved the ending. It was unexpected. I was disappointed at first, when there were some casualties in the final war, but I ended up loving the ending.
This is a fabulous series! I highly recommend it!
What to read next:
Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
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 Kensington Books:
Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again by Andrea Barber
I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Blackstone Publishing:
The Seventh Sun by Lani Forbes
I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Hachette Books:
Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner
I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Amulet Books:
Mermaid School by Lucy Courtenay, Sheena Dempsey
I was approved for a book on NetGalley from HQ Digital:
One Week ‘Til Christmas by Belinda Missen
I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Inkyard Press:
We Didn’t Ask for This by Adi Alsaid
I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Penguin Random House Canada:
Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn
Thank you Kensington Books, Blackstone Publishing, Hachette Books, Amulet Books, HQ Digital, Inkyard Press, and Penguin Random House Canada for this book!
Title: Mary Shelley (Little People, Big Dreams) Author: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara Genre: Children’s, Nonfiction Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: October 1, 2019 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
New in the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the incredible life of Mary Shelley, the English novelist and creator of Frankenstein.
When Mary Shelley was a little girl, she used to write stories beneath the trees in her garden. As an adult, Mary was inspired by this same imagination to create a ghost story, which became the famous novel: Frankenstein. This gripping book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the novelist’s life.
Review:
I love the books in the Little People, Big Dreams series! The books teach kids about important historical figures.
Last year was the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. There were many retellings and biographies of her that were published last year to celebrate.
Shelley was an intelligent and innovative woman. She used the knowledge of new inventions of the 1800s to write one of the most famous horror stories of all time. It is amazing that she wrote it when she was a young woman. She wrote it for a competition between friends to write a scary story. She was very successful with that project.
This is a great book to teach kids about Mary Shelley.
Thank you Frances Lincoln Children’s Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Agatha Christie (Little People, Big Dreams) by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Jane Austen (Little People, Big Dreams) by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Have you read Mary Shelley? What did you think of it?
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:
“It would be inaccurate to say that my childhood was normal before they came. It was far from normal, but it felt normal because it was all I’d known. It’s only now, with decades of hindsight, that I can see how odd it was.”
Do you recognize these first lines?
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And the book is… The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell.
Goodreads synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone and Watching You comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.
Be careful who you let in.
Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.
Have you read The Family Upstairs? What did you think of it?
Title: Reveal Me (Shatter Me #5.5) Author: Tahereh Mafi Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Publisher: HarperCollins Source: Purchased Format: Paperback Release Date: October 8, 2019 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
This fourth companion novella to Tahereh Mafi’s New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series is narrated by fan favorite character Kenji Kishimoto!
The explosive revelations in Defy Me have left readers reeling and desperate for answers. This fourth and final novella in the series will bring readers back to the world of the Shatter Me before the final novel installment hits shelves in winter 2020.
And don’t miss Find Me, the gorgeous paperback bind-up that brings together Shadow Me and Reveal Me in print for the first time!
Review:
This book has my favourite cover of all the Shatter Me books. I’ve loved all the covers, but this one is my favourite.
Each of the novels ends with a huge cliffhanger. The novellas fill in some of the time in between, from the perspective of a different character. This one is told by Kenji, like the previous novella. He is one of my favourite characters.
The plot of this novella went up and down constantly. There was lots of tension between Kenji and Nazeera. They were friends one minute and enemies the next. It got a little frustrating after a while, because they kept going back and forth. This novella was disappointing because it didn’t move the plot forward very much.
I’m so excited to read the next novel in the Shatter Me series next year! This novella is a good interlude to read before the next book is published.
What to read next:
Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1) by Michelle Hodkin
Have you read Reveal Me? What did you think of it?
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 Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want–but what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Title: Heart of the Moors: An Original Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Novel Author: Holly Black Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy Publisher: Disney Press Source: Purchased Format: Hardcover Release Date: October 8, 2019 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
From New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes a captivating original novel set between Disney’s Maleficent and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which newly-queened Aurora struggles to be the best leader to both the humans and Fair Folk under her reign; her beau, Prince Phillip, longs to get to know Aurora and her kingdom better; and Maleficent has trouble letting go of the past.
Review:
This is a great middle grade faerie story from Holly Black.
I loved that this story stayed true to the story of Maleficent, but it was in Holly Black’s style. Holly does a great job of writing about the different types of faeries in a descriptive way. I could imagine the beautiful settings because of how thoroughly and concisely they were described.
I also enjoyed the plot of the novel. It was a complete plot, while not straying too far from the movie plots. This story is a side plot, which can accompany the movies, but does not replace them.
I really enjoyed this novel!
What to read next:
Mirror, Mirror by Jen Calonita
Have you read Heart of the Moors? What did you think of it?
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 Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey. The expected publication date is November 26, 2019.
Goodreads Synopsis:
A moment on the platform changes two lives forever. But nothing is as it seems…
‘Take my baby.’
In a split second, Morgan’s life changes forever. A stranger hands her a baby, then jumps in front of a train.
Morgan has never seen the woman before and she can’t understand what would cause a person to give away her child and take her own life.
When the police question Morgan, she discovers none of the witnesses can corroborate her version of events. And when they learn Morgan longs for a baby of her own, she becomes a suspect.
To prove her innocence, Morgan frantically tries to retrace the last days of the woman’s life. She begins to understand that Nicole Markham believed she and her baby were in danger. Now Morgan might be in danger, too.
Was Nicole a new mother struggling with paranoia?
Or was something much darker going on?
Pulse-pounding, heartrending, shocking, thrilling. This is one book you won’t be able to stop thinking about.
Title: Well Met (Well Met #1) Author: Jen DeLuca Genre: Fiction, Romance Publisher: Berkley Source: Publisher Format: Paperback Release Date: September 3, 2019 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
All’s faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author, Jen DeLuca.
Emily knew there would be strings attached when she relocated to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister recover from an accident, but who could anticipate getting roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece? Or that the irritating and inscrutable schoolteacher in charge of the volunteers would be so annoying that she finds it impossible to stop thinking about him?
The faire is Simon’s family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn’t have time for Emily’s lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she’s in her revealing wench’s costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they’re portraying?
This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can’t seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon, or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek.
Review:
This was a super fun romantic comedy!
The Renaissance Faire was a great setting for this novel. It was an isolated event in the town where the characters performed for the whole summer. It was as if the characters travelled back in time to the 1600s, while staying in modern times. It made for some fun situations, such as a spontaneous handfasting ceremony and jousting tournaments.
I loved all the literary references in this book. Emily and Simon discussed Shakespeare a lot, including the theory that multiple different people actually wrote his plays, rather than one person. This was relevant to the plot, since the Renaissance Faire was set during Shakespeare’s lifetime.
I really enjoyed this story! I’m excited to see what happens in the sequel next year.
Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
The Wedding Date (The Wedding Date #1) by Jasmine Guillory
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