Month: April 2020

Review: Imagine Me (Shatter Me #6)

Title: Imagine Me (Shatter Me #6)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: March 31, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

The explosive finale to the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shatter Me series.

Juliette Ferrars.

Ella Sommers.

Which is the truth and which is the lie?

Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrong—between Ella and Juliette—blur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control.

The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But she may not get to choose what side she fights on.

Review:

Ella and her friends continue their battle against the Reestablishment in this story. It starts with an attack by her sister, Emmaline. I can’t give too much away without spoiling the story, but there were some epic battles throughout this book.

I’m so surprised at how my feelings towards characters have changed throughout the series. Ones who I loved at the beginning, I couldn’t stand at the end. At the same time, ones that I was suspicious of in the first book became my favourites by the end of the series. There was a lot of character development and change throughout the series.

I was satisfied with how the book ended, but I really want more information. There was a long epilogue that takes place after everything has happened, but it left me with a bunch of questions. There were some gaps in the time between the final battle and the epilogue, and I’d love to know what happened during that time. There was also one of the original characters who I think deserved more space to tell their story at the end of the book.

I really enjoyed this book and this series. I hope we can one day revisit these characters!

What to read next:

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Have you read Imagine Me? What did you think of it?

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Top 5 Saturday – Series to Read While in Quarantine

This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Books to Read While in Quarantine, so I decided to list my favourite series to binge read. Here’s my list:

1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

2. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

3. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

4. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

5. The Folk of the Air by Holly Black

(All book covers from Goodreads)

If you’d like to do this list too, consider yourself tagged!

Did you make a Top 5 Saturday list?

Review: In Five Years

Title: In Five Years
Author: Rebecca Serle
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canda
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 10, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.

Review:

Dannie has her life planned out for the next five years. Everything is going exactly as planned when she lands her dream job and gets engaged. However, she has a dream that she wakes up in a strange apartment with a strange man exactly five years later. She thinks it must be a dream, until she meets that man. She becomes conflicted between following her trajectory or continuing toward the life she saw in her future.

My feelings toward Dannie’s situation kept changing throughout the book. At first, I was sure that the future Dannie saw wouldn’t happen. She was meant to be with David and live in their dream apartment. However, something happens halfway through that changed my mind about the future. Suddenly, Dannie’s goals didn’t seem as certain as they did at the beginning.

I read a book last year, where the author spoke about the invisible staircase. We think that we can see the direction that our life is heading, but the future is actually an invisible staircase because we can’t see what will happen. When we go through hard times, we think it will stay that way forever, but we can’t predict what will happen in the future. We only realize this when we look back a few years and realize we have changed a lot in that time. I was reminded of this idea throughout this book. Dannie thinks she can see what she’s planned for the next five years, but then she sees that she will be in completely different circumstances in five years. It also brings up the question of fate, and whether we can change things that will happen or if they are planned out, even if we try to take a different route.

I loved this book and I highly recommend it!

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

What to read next:

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

Have you read In Five Years? What did you think of it?

Bookish Friday – Overhyped Books

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 Overhyped Books. Here’s my list:

Battle Angel Alita, Vol. 1 by Yukito Kishiro

Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica

The Reckoning of Noah Shaw (The Shaw Confessions #2) by Michelle Hodkin

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

(All book covers from Goodreads)

Did you make a list for Bookish Friday?

Review: Every Reason We Shouldn’t

Title: Every Reason We Shouldn’t
Author: Sara Fujimura
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Warning: Contains family expectations, delightful banter, great romantic tension, skating (all kinds!), Korean pastries, and all the feels.

Fifteen-year-old, biracial figure skater Olivia Kennedy’s Olympic dreams have ended. She’s bitter, but enjoying life as a regular teenager instead of an athlete… until Jonah Choi starts training at her family’s struggling rink. Jonah’s driven, talented, going for the Olympics in speed skating, completely annoying… and totally gorgeous. Between teasing Jonah, helping her best friend try out for roller derby, figuring out life as a normal teen and keeping the family business running, Olivia’s got her hands full. But will rivalry bring her closer to Jonah, or drive them apart?

Every Reason We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura is a charming multicultural romance perfect for the many fans of Jenny Han and Rainbow Rowell.

Review:

Olivia is the daughter of two former Olympic champions. She was a gold medal junior champion until her and her partner had one failed performance. Now she helps teach kids at her parents’ ice rink, because her mom has chronic pain from a skating injury. When a speed skater, Jonah, moves to Phoenix, he reignites her love of skating and her desire to go for the gold.

I don’t know much about skating, but I’ve always been fascinated by it. It was amazing to see how hard Olivia and Jonah had to train. Their goal was the Olympics, but few people actually make it there. Skating has the unique position in sports as also being artistic. I could relate to that creative side to the sport.

Olivia’s Japanese heritage played an important role in the story. Olivia and Jonah are both biracial. She has a few friends at school who are also Asian. There were lots of Japanese and Korean foods mentioned in the story, which made me so hungry.

I loved this new story!

Thank you Tor Teen for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

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

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Have you read Every Reason We Shouldn’t? What did you think of it?

TBR Thursday – April 2

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 House by the Sea by Santa Montefiore.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

An irresistibly compelling from the internationally bestselling author Ten-year-old Floriana is captivated by the beauty of the magnificent Tuscan villa that overlooks the sea just outside her small village. She likes to spy from the crumbling wall into the gardens, and imagine that one day she’ll escape her meagre existence and live there. One day, Dante, the son of the villa’s powerful industrialist owner, invites her inside. From that moment on Floriana knows that her destiny is there, with him. But as they grow up they cross an unseen line, jeopardising the very thing they hold most dear. Decades later and hundreds of miles away, a beautiful old country house hotel on England’s Devon coast has fallen on hard times. Its owner, Marina, advertises for an artist-in-residence to stay the summer and teach the guests how to paint. Rafael Santoro is charismatic and wise, and soon begins to pacify the discord in her family. However, Rafa is not who he seems. He has his own agenda. Whether to destroy, to seduce, or to heal, it is certain to affect them all. Spanning four decades and sweeping from the Italian countryside to the English coast, this new story by Santa Montefiore is a moving and mysterious tale of love, forgiveness and the past revealed.

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

Review: Star Pig

Title: Star Pig
Author: Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Gaston
Genre: Graphic Novel, Science Fiction
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 10, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Two Castaways. One Goal. Zero in common. Get lost in this inventive sci-fi graphic novel about an extraordinary friendship and an incredible journey home.

Like many late-21st-century teens, geeky 16-year-old Vess gets packed off to spend her summer at Space Camp–which is literally in space. Tragically, a shuttle accident sends her and the rest of the passengers careening toward a cold, frosty death among the stars. But when a gigantic, space-faring water bear miraculously rescues Vess and her beloved retro Discman, it’s the beginning of an extraordinary friendship, all set to the nostalgic tunes of Vess’s 1990s-heavy playlist.

Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times bestselling writer of Star Wars: Phasma, plus the The Secrets of Long Snoot, The Perfect Weapon, and Scorched; the Blud series, Servants of the Storm, the HIT series, Wake of Vultures and the Shadow series (as Lila Bowen). Her previous comics work includes Ladycastle, The X-Files: Case Files – Florida Man, Adventure Time, Rick and Morty: Pickle Rick, Star Wars Adventures, and Sparrohawk. 

Review:

Vess is traveling through space to a space camp when her ship crashes. She is saved by a space pig, or a tardigrade, who sucks her into his body. Then, they are captured by an alien who collects things from earth. They come into contact with some other space creatures through the rest of the comic.

I went through so many different emotions while reading this graphic novel. Some parts were funny, like when they referenced earth songs that the aliens liked. Other parts were really gross, such as how the different aliens looked and behaved.

I had to look up a tardigrade after I read this book, because there were some fun facts about them at the end. They are a real creature, though only about 1mm in length in real life, not giant sized like in the book. They really look like a space pig, so that’s an appropriate name for them!

This was a great space graphic novel.

Thank you IDW Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Sparrowhawk by Delilah S. Dawson, Matias Basla, Rebecca Nalty

Have you read Star Pig? What did you think of it?

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – April 1

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 Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye. The expected publication date is May 19, 2020.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

What If It’s Us meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a ’90s rom-com! 

Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new–the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he’s never really dated before.

Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.

Kai Sheridan didn’t expect Bryson to say yes. So when Bryson agrees to secretly go out with him, Kai is thrown for a loop. But as the days go by, he discovers there’s more to Bryson beneath the surface, and dating him begins to feel less like an act and more like the real thing. Kai knows how the story of a gay boy liking someone straight ends. With his heart on the line, he’s awkwardly trying to navigate senior year at school, at home, and in the closet, all while grappling with the fact that this “relationship” will last only five days. After all, Bryson Keller is popular, good-looking, and straight . . . right?

Kevin van Whye delivers an uplifting and poignant coming-out love story that will have readers rooting for these two teens to share their hearts with the world–and with each other.

What books are you waiting on this week?