Year: 2019

Review: The Avant-Guards, Vol. 1

Title: The Avant-Guards, Vol. 1
Author: Carly Usdin, Noah Hayes
Genre: Young Adult, Graphic Novel, LGBT
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

When Charlie transfers to the Georgia O’Keeffe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics, she struggles to find her feet, but winds up exactly where she belongs…in the school’s (terrible) basketball team.

As a transfer student to the Georgia O’Keeffe College for Arts and Subtle Dramatics, former sports star Charlie is struggling to find her classes, her dorm, and her place amongst a student body full of artists who seem to know exactly where they’re going. When the school’s barely-a-basketball-team unexpectedly attempts to recruit her, Charlie’s adamant that she’s left that life behind…until she’s won over by the charming team captain, Liv, and the ragtag crew she’s managed to assemble. And while Charlie may have left cut-throat competition in in the dust, sinking these hoops may be exactly what she needs to see the person she truly wants to be.

From Carly Usdin (Heavy Vinyl) and artist Noah Hayes (Wet Hot American Summer, Goldie Vance) comes an ensemble comedy series that understands that it’s the person you are off the court that matters most.

Review:

This is the perfect graphic novel for September. Charlie transfers to a new school, so we get to learn about the school through her new perspective. She was recruited to join the basketball team, where she found the perfect team.

I loved the variety of characters. Each one comes from a different background, yet they were all brought together by basketball. It was great to see how they found common ground in this sport.

I really enjoyed this book. I’m excited to see what happens next.

Thank you BOOM! Box for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Heavy Vinyl, Vol. 1 by Carly Usdin, Nina Vakueva

Giant Days, Vol. 1 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Whitney Cogar

Have you read The Avant-Guards, Vol. 1? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – September 2

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:

This weekend I finished Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading American Royals by Katharine McGee.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennett.

What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – September 1

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

I did 9 weekly blogging memes:

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed With… Permanent Record

The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.

This Sunday I’m reading Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, which Rainbow Rowell called “smart and funny,” comes an unforgettable new romance about how social media influences relationships every day.

On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.

Pop juggernaut Leanna Smart has enough social media followers to populate whole continents. The brand is unstoppable. She graduated from child stardom to become an international icon and her adult life is a queasy blur of private planes, step-and-repeats, aspirational hotel rooms, and strangers screaming for her just to notice them.

When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated. 

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – Books I Think Should be Studied in School

This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.

This week’s prompt is Books You Think Should be Studied in School. Here’s my list:

1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

2. Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

3. A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena

4. The Agony of Bun O’Keefe by Heather Smith

5. The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

6. Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Did you write a #SixforSunday post? What was your list of Books You Think Should be Studied in School?

Review: One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2)

Title: One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2)
Author: Kendare Blake
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: September 17, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

The battle for the Crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail?

With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.

In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.

Review:

I flew through this book, just like I did the first one, Three Dark Crowns. Even though it’s been a year since I read the first one, I was immediately back in that world when I started reading it.

There are many different narrative perspectives, but they don’t get confused. Each chapter switches to a different setting and focus character. I love that you get to see what the supporting characters are doing behind the scenes, not just the three main queens. The people around the queens are pulling strings and creating a lot of drama that surrounds them.

There were some unexpected deaths at the end of this book! I was quite shocked by them. Blake is definitely not afraid to kill her characters. I’m curious to see what the aftermath will be like in the next book.

I loved this book and I can’t wait to read Two Dark Reigns next!

What to read next:

Two Dark Reigns (Three Dark Crowns #3) by Kendare Blake

Have you read One Dark Throne? What did you think of it?

Stacking the Shelves – August 31

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 Graydon House Books:

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

I was approved for 5 books on NetGalley from St. Martin’s Press:

The Girl the Sea Gave Back (Sky in the Deep #2) by Adrienne Young

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales

Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz

The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves #2) by Roshani Chokshi

Ruthless Gods (Something Dark and Holy #2) by Emily A. Duncan

I was approved for a book on NetGalley from Simon and Schuster Canada:

Songs from the Deep by Kelly Powell

Thank you Graydon House Books, St. Martin’s Press, and Simon and Schuster Canada for these books!

What books did you get this week?

Review: Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Title: Dear Haiti, Love Alaine
Author: Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Co-written by sisters Maika and Maritza Moulite, and told in epistolary style through letters, articles, emails, and diary entries, this exceptional debut novel captures a sparkling new voice and irrepressible heroine in a celebration of storytelling sure to thrill fans of Nicola Yoon, Ibi Zoboi and Jenna Evans Welch!

When a school presentation goes very wrong, Alaine Beauparlant finds herself suspended, shipped off to Haiti and writing the report of a lifetime…

You might ask the obvious question: What do I, a seventeen-year-old Haitian American from Miami with way too little life experience, have to say about anything?

Actually, a lot.

Thanks to “the incident” (don’t ask), I’m spending the next two months doing what my school is calling a “spring volunteer immersion project.” It’s definitely no vacation. I’m toiling away under the ever-watchful eyes of Tati Estelle at her new nonprofit. And my lean-in queen of a mother is even here to make sure I do things right. Or she might just be lying low to dodge the media sharks after a much more public incident of her own…and to hide a rather devastating secret.

All things considered, there are some pretty nice perks…like flirting with Tati’s distractingly cute intern, getting actual face time with my mom and experiencing Haiti for the first time. I’m even exploring my family’s history—which happens to be loaded with betrayals, superstitions and possibly even a family curse.

You know, typical drama. But it’s nothing I can’t handle.

Review:

This story had it all! It had romance, mystery, drama, and a little bit of magic. Each of these parts worked seamlessly together.

I fell in love with Alaine immediately. She was hilarious and confident. I loved that she would go to extremes to get her point across, even when it backfired on her. I got so comfortable with her character that I was as shocked as her when she received some devastating news at about a quarter of the way through the book. I had a hard time putting this book down because I needed to know how it ended!

Another thing I loved about this story is that it was told using various different forms of writing. There were letters, texts, emails, and diary entries. I love stories that are told through many forms like this because it gives different perspectives of events.

This was a fabulous book! I can’t wait to read what the Moulite sisters write next!

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

What to read next:

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Have you read Dear Haiti, Love Alaine? What did you think of it?

First Lines Friday – August 30

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:

“She’s standing in the kitchen, looking out the large back windows. She turns toward me – there’s a swing of thick, brown hair – and I see the confusion and then the sudden fear in her wide brown eyes.”

Do you recognize these first lines?

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And the book is… Someone We Know by Shari Lapena.

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Goodreads synopsis:

Maybe you don’t know your neighbors as well as you thought you did . . . 

“This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out.” 

In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses–and into the owners’ computers as well–learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.

Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they’re telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets? 

In this neighborhood, it’s not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .

You never really know what people are capable of.

Have you read Someone We Know? What did you think of it?

Review: The Turn of the Key

Title: The Turn of the Key
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback, Ebook
Release Date: August 27, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Review:

I loved this thriller!

I read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James a few times in university, and I loved it. I was excited to see what would happen in this adaptation.

This story was very fast paced. I read it in one day because I couldn’t put it down. It was quite creepy too. One new element in this adaptation was that the home was a “smart” home. Everything was connected by an app, including the water in the shower and the locks on the front door. These things were convenient, until they malfunctioned. The home was originally a Victorian house, but was renovated to have this modern technology. I love how this can be compared to the original book, Turn of the Screw, which was a Victorian novella, but has been adapted into this modern story.

One thing that I can’t really talk about is the ending. It gave more closure than the original story, but it felt a little rushed, especially in the last couple of pages. I’m curious to hear what other readers thought of this ending.

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

What to read next:

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Have you read The Turn of the Key? What did you think of it?