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 Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer.
What I’m currently reading:
I’m currently reading What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter.
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading The Queen of Paris: A Novel of Coco Chanel by Pamela Binnings Ewen.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
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 Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer.
Goodreads Synopsis:
From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Saycomes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.
With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.
As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker. Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.
Exploring the expectations society places on women of every generation, Kelly Rimmer explores the profound struggles two women unwittingly share across the decades set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything they believed to be true.
Title: Nancy Drew: The Curse Author: Micol Ostow Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery Publisher: Simon Pulse Source: Purchased Format: Hardcover Release Date: March 31, 2020 Rating: ★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Based on the TV series Nancy Drew, the most-watched new show on the CW!
In this prequel novel,the beloved teen sleuth investigates a sinister, once-dormant curse that may be threatening her town once more. This is Nancy Drew for today, perfect for fans of Riverdale, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Stranger Things!
A curse is just a mystery dressed up in a sharp, stern warning.
And everyone knows that I lovea mystery.
Nancy Drew isn’t one for ghost stories. So when the annual Horseshoe Bay Naming Day celebration is threatened by eerie warnings of an old curse, Nancy is sure someone—someone human—is behind them. And no way is she letting this person stand in the way of her best friend, Daisy, finally getting her day in the spotlight as the lead in the much-anticipated Naming Day reenactment.
But as Nancy begins investigating, the so-called marks of the curse become bolder…and more sinister. A vandalized locker and ominous notes are one thing, but soon enough lives—including Nancy’s own—are at stake. Though the dreams and eerie visions plaguing Nancy are certainly just products of her own mind…right?
All old towns have their traditions and histories, but as Nancy will soon discover, they don’t always tell the whole story.
Review:
The town of Horseshoe Bay is having their annual Naming Day celebration, where they celebrate the creation of their town. Nancy and her friends are excited for it, especially since one of her friends is going to participate in the play because she is a descendant of one of the founders. However, someone starts to pull pranks, trying to get the celebration cancelled. The pranks escalate until students go missing. Nancy has to figure out what has happened to save her friends.
This was an interesting mystery with Nancy Drew. It takes place a couple of years before the show is set, so we see Nancy in high school when her mom was still alive. She was interested in investigating mysteries even back then.
The main problem with this book is that it had nothing to do with the show. This story was advertised as a prequel to the TV series, which is technically true since it happens before the show starts. However, the characters in this book don’t exist on the show. Nancy’s friends on the show briefly appeared in the book, while people who were her lifelong friends in the book haven’t even been mentioned on the TV show. There was even a part where Nancy said that the story of Lucy Sable wasn’t worth investigating, even though that was one of the main mysteries on the show. It was quite confusing, because I kept trying to connect this book to the show, though they seem like completely different stories.
If this book had been advertised as a new, original Nancy Drew book, it would have been so much better. It really doesn’t work as a prequel to the TV show.
What to read next:
The Day Before (Riverdale #1) by Micol Ostow
Have you read Nancy Drew: The Curse? What did you think of it?
Title: They Went Left Author: Monica Hesse Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: April 7, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else–her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja–they went left.
Zofia’s last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.
But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her–or help her rebuild her world.
Review:
When Zofia is released from a hospital, where she was recovering from her traumatic experience in a concentration camp, she returns to her home to look for her younger brother. However, she quickly discovers that her brother, Abek, is not at their home and has not returned since the war. She then goes on a journey across the country to follow hints of where her brother could have ended up.
This was a different kind of book about WWII because it takes place during the weeks following the war. Most books about that time period talk about events during the war, but they usually end when the war ends. This story shows the trauma that everyone felt following the war. Even though the war was over, people like Zofia couldn’t just return to their homes and their regular lives because there wasn’t anything left there for them.
This story was so suspenseful. There were ups and downs, when Zofia would find a clue to where her brother could be, and when she figured out that he wasn’t there. There were also gaps in Zofia’s memory, which made her unreliable at times. There were some parts of her past that she couldn’t remember, such as the last time she saw her brother. This appeared to be a form of PTSD where she had blocked out painful moments, like saying goodbye to her family. This increased the tension, because she couldn’t give a reliable account of her history.
This was an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Thank you Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Author Info:
Monica Hesse is the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in the Blue Coat, American Fire, and The War Outside, as well as a columnist at The Washington Post writing about gender and its impact on society. She lives outside Washington, D.C. with her husband and their dog
This is a weekly meme hosted by Laurie Reads and Niffler Reads. Every Friday, they post a list of bookish things based on the prompt they provided. The prompts for Feb to May can be found here.
This week’s prompt is Character Traits. Here’s my list:
Title: Rules for Being a Girl Author: Candace Bushnell and Katie Cotugno Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Publisher: Balzer + Bray Source: Publisher Format: Paperback Release Date: April 7, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
It starts before you can even remember: You learn the rules for being a girl. . . .
Marin has always been good at navigating these unspoken guidelines. A star student and editor of the school paper, she dreams of getting into Brown University. Marin’s future seems bright―and her young, charismatic English teacher, Mr. Beckett, is always quick to admire her writing and talk books with her.
But when “Bex” takes things too far and comes on to Marin, she’s shocked and horrified. Had she somehow led him on? Was it her fault?
When Marin works up the courage to tell the administration what happened, no one believes her. She’s forced to face Bex in class every day. Except now, he has an ax to grind.
But Marin isn’t about to back down. She uses the school newspaper to fight back and she starts a feminist book club at school. She finds allies in the most unexpected people, like “slutty” Gray Kendall, who she’d always dismissed as just another lacrosse bro. As things heat up at school and in her personal life, Marin must figure out how to take back the power and write her own rules.
Review:
Marin is a stellar student with a dream of attending Brown University next year. She has a crush on her young English teacher, who is also her advisor on the school newspaper. She becomes closer to the teacher, which leads to him taking things too far for a student-teacher relationship. However, when Marin complains about what was done, she is blamed for leading him on. She gets in trouble in many ways, changing the path towards her future.
This story was so realistic. I had a sick feeling in my stomach while reading it because I could relate to it. Unfortunately, this is an authentic depiction of what it’s like to be a girl. There are so many conflicting rules that girls need to follow: don’t wear too much makeup, but don’t be ugly; don’t eat too much, but don’t have an eating disorder; don’t be a push over, but don’t be too bossy. Boys don’t have the same kinds of rules that they have to follow.
The way that Marin stood up to a teacher reminded me of a situation that happened in my high school. There was a student who called out a teacher for behaving inappropriately, and that student ended up getting punished and blamed for speaking up. It wasn’t exactly the same situation in this book, but it had similar consequences. It’s a sad reality that this is the way these kinds of situations end up. Even though this story was really heartbreaking at times, when Marin was blamed for something that was done to her, it’s a story that needs to be told so that things can change.
I loved this powerful story.
Thank you HarperCollins Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin
Have you read Rules for Being a Girl? 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 Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
Goodreads Synopsis:
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu comes a historical YA fantasy about a musical prodigy and the dangerous lengths she’ll go to make history remember her—perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke and The Hazel Wood.
Two siblings. Two brilliant talents. But only one Mozart.
Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish—to be remembered forever. But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she’ll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform only until she reaches a marriageable age—her tyrannical father has made that much clear.
And as Nannerl’s hope grows dimmer with each passing year, the talents of her beloved younger brother, Wolfgang, only seem to shine brighter. His brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true—but his help may cost her everything.
In her first work of historical fiction, #1 New York Timesbestselling author Marie Lu spins a lush, lyrically-told story of music, magic, and the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
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