June 2020 – Page 4 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Spy x Family, Vol. 1

Title: Spy x Family, Vol. 1
Author: Tatsuya Endo
Genre: Manga
Publisher: VIZ Media
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 2, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

An action-packed comedy about a fake family that includes a spy, an assassin and a telepath!
Master spy Twilight is the best at what he does when it comes to going undercover on dangerous missions in the name of a better world. But when he receives the ultimate impossible assignment—get married and have a kid—he may finally be in over his head! Not one to depend on others, Twilight has his work cut out for him procuring both a wife and a child for his mission to infiltrate an elite private school. What he doesn’t know is that the wife he’s chosen is an assassin and the child he’s adopted is a telepath!

Review:

Twilight is a master spy. His latest mission involves infiltrating an elite private school. However, he will need a family to do that. He knows the school will want him to have a wife, and a child to send to the school, but he is single. Twilight adopts a child from an orphanage. He doesn’t know her secret, that she’s a telepath. The woman he finds to act as his wife, Yor, is a secret assassin. Twilight has to train his new wife and child to get used to their new life, while they both have their own secret identities.

This was an intriguing plot. Twilight had an important mission, but he had to make some major changes to his life to complete it. It was kind of absurd that he needed a wife to be able to send his child to the school. It was even more suspenseful since the wife and child were hiding their secret identities from him as well.

There were some sexist parts of the story, which I didn’t like, but they were so extreme that they weren’t realistic. The idea that a man would need to have a wife to enroll his child in a school is crazy. Yor’s friends teased her for not having a boyfriend before she met Twilight. There were also some inappropriate questions that were asked during their private school interview about the mother and father’s roles in the household. I didn’t like these sexist parts of the story, but I don’t think they were meant to be offensive to the reader.

I’m curious to see what happens in the next book!

Thank you VIZ Media for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – June 17

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 Loathe at First Sight by Suzanne Park. The expected publication date is August 4, 2020.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898.png

Goodreads Synopsis:

Melody Joo is thrilled to land her dream job as a video game producer, but her new position comes with its share of challenges. Namely, an insufferable CEO and a team that consists of mostly male co-workers who make the term “misogyny” pale in comparison to their obnoxious comments. Then there’s the infuriating—yet distractingly handsome—MBA intern Nolan MacKenzie, a.k.a. “the guy who got hired because his uncle is the boss”.
Just when Melody thinks she’s made the worst career move of her life, her luck changes on a dime. While joking with a friend, she creates a mobile game that has male strippers fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Suddenly, Melody’s “joke” is her studio’s most high-profile project—and Melody’s running the show.
When Nolan is appointed a key member of her team, Melody’s sure he’ll be useless. But as they grow closer, she sees he’s smart and sexy, which makes Melody want to forget he’s her intern. As their attraction deepens, she knows it’s time to pump the brakes even with her Korean parents breathing down her neck to hurry up and find a man. But she’s here to work—and nothing more. All she has to do is resist the wild thoughts coursing through her mind whenever Nolan is near. Easy . . . or so she thinks.
With her pet project about to launch, Melody suddenly faces a slew of complications, including a social media trolling scandal that could end her career. She suspects one of her co-workers is behind the sabotage and is determined to find out who betrayed her. Could the man she’s falling hard for help her play the game to win—in work and love?

What books are you waiting on this week?

Review: Legend (Legend #1)

Title: Legend (Legend #1)
Author: Marie Lu
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Publisher: Speak
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: November 29, 2011
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Review:

June is a prodigy, who got the only perfect score on the trial that everyone has to take as a child in the Republic which used to be known as the United States. Her older brother is a high ranking commander. When he is killed suddenly after a robbery, the criminal mastermind, Day, is the lead suspect. June is enlisted to find Day and bring him in. However, they learn that they have a lot in common. They work together to uncover the secrets that the authorities are hiding.

In this futuristic world, a plague keeps infecting the residents. It was eerily like the pandemic we are experiencing today, though there was more to it than a spontaneous illness. There were so many twists, which made this a quick read.

The story alternates between June’s and Day’s perspectives. The two alternating chapters were also printed in different fonts and colours, which made it easy to differentiate between them. I haven’t seen many books formatted in that way, and I really liked how unique it was.

I’m so glad I finally read this book. It was on my wishlist for a long time, and it was just as good as I expected.

Other Books in the Series:

Prodigy
Champion
Rebel

Have you read Legend? What did you think of it?

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I’m No Longer Interested in Reading

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 Top Ten Tuesday Turns 10! I chose a past topic that I didn’t do before, which is Books I’m No Longer Interested in Reading. Here’s my list:

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

2. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

3. This Boy by Lauren Myracle

4. The Fever Code by James Dashner

5. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

6. The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin

7. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

8. The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

9. Waves by Ingrid Chabbert

10. Cursed by Thomas Wheeler, Frank Miller

(All photos taken from Goodreads)

What’s your list of books on your Top Ten Tuesday?

Happy Pub Day – June 16

Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!

You Say It First by Katie Cotugno

Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht

Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay

Betty and Veronica: The Leading Ladies of Riverdale by Tim Hanley

The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae

The Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwell

What books are you most excited for this week?

Review: You Say It First

Title: You Say It First
Author: Katie Cotugno
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 16, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: her boyfriend Mason is sweet and supportive, she and her best friend Emily plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she even finds time to clock shifts phonebanking at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio, who gets under her skin from the moment he picks up the phone.
Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job—unsure what his future holds, or if he even cares. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.
But things don’t end there.…
That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more. Across state lines and phone lines, Meg and Colby form a once-in-a-lifetime connection. But in the end, are they just too different to make it work?
You Say It First is a propulsive, layered novel about how sometimes the person who has the least in common with us can be the one who changes us most.

Review:

Meg has her life planned out. She has a great boyfriend and she’s ready to go to Cornell with her best friend. She works at a voter registration call centre. Everything changes after her boyfriend breaks up with her. She calls a man at work to help him register to vote, but she learns from his son, Colby, that he died from suicide months before. Meg does something she’s never done before, which is give Colby her personal phone number. Meg and Colby end up making an unlikely connection that changes the paths that their lives are on.

Meg made some bad decisions in this book, but they ended up working out for her. She struck up a relationship with a stranger who she had only spoken to on the phone. She also drove many hours to meet him, without telling anyone. Meg acknowledges that it was dangerous, but she did it anyways. It should have been more clear that she was putting herself in danger by doing this, even though it worked out for her.

Both Meg and Colby had difficult things that they had to face. Colby was still dealing with the death of his father. He found out some things about his father, which changed the way he saw him. Meg lived with her mother, and her father had a new girlfriend. She also had to take care of someone with an alcohol addiction. Suicide and alcoholism were both difficult topics in this story, but I think they were handled well.

I enjoyed this story.

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

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – June 15

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 You Say It First by Katie Cotugno.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith.

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

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – June 14

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

Stranger in the Lake ★★★★
Twisted Fairy Tales: The Three Little Narwhals ★★★★★
Followers ★★★★★
Half Life ★★★★
The Gryphon’s Lair (Royal Guide to Monster Slaying #2) ★★★★
How to Hack a Heartbreak ★★★★★

I did 9 weekly blogging memes:

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed With… You Say It First

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 You Say It First by Katie Cotugno.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Meg has her entire life set up perfectly: her boyfriend Mason is sweet and supportive, she and her best friend Emily plan to head to Cornell together in the fall, and she even finds time to clock shifts phonebanking at a voter registration call center in her Philadelphia suburb. But everything changes when one of those calls connects her to a stranger from small-town Ohio, who gets under her skin from the moment he picks up the phone.
Colby is stuck in a rut, reeling from a family tragedy and working a dead-end job—unsure what his future holds, or if he even cares. The last thing he has time for is some privileged rich girl preaching the sanctity of the political process. So he says the worst thing he can think of and hangs up.
But things don’t end there.…
That night on the phone winds up being the first in a series of candid, sometimes heated, always surprising conversations that lead to a long-distance friendship and then—slowly—to something more. Across state lines and phone lines, Meg and Colby form a once-in-a-lifetime connection. But in the end, are they just too different to make it work?
You Say It First is a propulsive, layered novel about how sometimes the person who has the least in common with us can be the one who changes us most.

What book are you in bed with today?