July 2020 – Page 4 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Dewdrop

Title: Dewdrop
Author: Katie O’Neill
Genre: Children’s, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Oni Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The tale of an axolotl who cheers on his underwater friends as they each bring their talents to the pond’s sports fair!
Dewdrop is an easygoing, gentle axolotl who enjoys naps, worm pie, and cheerleading. When the yearly sports fair nears, he and his friends—Mia the weightlifting turtle, Newman the musical newt, and three minnows who love to cook—get ready to showcase their skills to the whole pond! However, as the day of the fair gets closer, Dewdrop’s friends can’t help putting pressure on themselves to be the best. It’s up to Dewdrop to remind them how to be mindful, go at their own pace, and find joy in their own achievements.

Review:

Dewdrop is an axolotl who is attending the pond’s fair with his friends. Dewdrop will be the cheerleader, while his friends do other activities, such as songwriting, weight lifting, and cooking. When Dewdrop’s friends get discouraged while they struggle with their activities, he is there to cheer them on.

This was a cute story about doing your best. When Dewdrop’s friend struggled with their activities, he pointed out that they were doing the best they could do. Even though the turtle couldn’t lift the heaviest weight, he could still lift more than he could before. When the fish felt like their food wouldn’t appeal to everyone, they realized that they wouldn’t be able to please everyone, but some would like it. The newt couldn’t find inspiration for a song, so Dewdrop told him that he finds inspiration by relaxing and taking the pressure off. Dewdrop had great solutions for all of his friends.

I wish the story talked more about the kinds of animals in the story. Dewdrop was an axolotl, which I had never heard of before. I had to google axolotl while reading. The illustrations look exactly like the fish. Sometimes children’s books have some information about the animals featured at the end of the book. That wasn’t in my copy, and I’m not sure if it was in the final book, but that would have been helpful to read.

This is a cute children’s book!

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

Top 5 Saturday – Books I Own But Haven’t Read

This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Books I Own. I own so many books, so I decided to do Books I Own But Haven’t Read. Here’s my list:

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

3. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

4. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

5. Frankly in Love by David Yoon

(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: The Black Flamingo

Title: The Black Flamingo
Author: Dean Atta
Genre: Young Adult, LGBT, Contemporary
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 26, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

I masquerade in makeup and feathers and I am applauded.
A boy comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen – then at university he finds his wings as a drag artist, The Black Flamingo. A bold story about the power of embracing your uniqueness. Sometimes, we need to take charge, to stand up wearing pink feathers – to show ourselves to the world in bold colour.

Review:

Michael has always had a hard time fitting in. He doesn’t act like the other boys, who play with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and like to fight. He would rather play with Barbies and sing. He also doesn’t fit in at home, where he lives with his white mother, rather than his black father. When Michael begins university, he finds his identity as the drag queen The Black Flamingo.

This story is written in verse. This was such a great format to tell the story, since it takes place throughout Michael’s life from when he was a child to when he was a young adult. The verse format gives snapshots of important moments that affected his life. It also conveys more emotions in the short lyrical lines than it would have in prose.

There were many parts of the story that were so well written that I had to pause and read them over. Two scenes stood out to me and really made me think. When Michael was a child, he wanted a Barbie for his birthday, but he was given a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle because it is considered a “boy” toy. When his sister was a child, she was allowed to play with his ninja turtles and Barbies, and wasn’t criticized for playing with a “boy” toy the way he was when he wanted to play with a “girl” toy. Another part that stood out was when the characters were talking about what things they look for in a partner. When they talked about preferring people of certain races, a character brought up how racist that was. Race shouldn’t be a factor in finding a partner, but I have heard people say that before. I hadn’t thought of the racist implications of that, and the way it was explained in this story made so much sense.

I loved this book! I highly recommend it!

The Friday 56 – The Girl from Widow Hills

This is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice.

The Rules are:

Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
Post it. And share your link.
It’s that simple.

I chose The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda.

Here is my line from page 56 in my copy:

“If you didn’t want someone to pry into your past, you had to keep out of theirs.”

Did you make a post for the Friday 56?

Review: Her Royal Highness (Royals #2)

Title: Her Royal Highness (Royals #2)
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBT
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 7, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Millie Quint is devastated when she discovers that her sort-of-best friend/sort-of-girlfriend has been kissing someone else. And because Millie cannot stand the thought of confronting her ex every day, she decides to apply for scholarships to boarding schools . . . the farther from Houston the better.
Millie can’t believe her luck when she’s accepted into one of the world’s most exclusive schools, located in the rolling highlands of Scotland. Everything about Scotland is different: the country is misty and green; the school is gorgeous, and the students think Americans are cute.
The only problem: Mille’s roommate Flora is a total princess.
She’s also an actual princess. Of Scotland.
At first, the girls can barely stand each other–Flora is both high-class and high-key–but before Millie knows it, she has another sort-of-best-friend/sort-of-girlfriend. Even though Princess Flora could be a new chapter in her love life, Millie knows the chances of happily ever afters are slim . . . after all, real life isn’t a fairy tale . . . or is it?

Review:

American Millie Quint was accepted into an elite Scottish boarding school, which is accepting female students for the first time, but she’s torn about whether she should attend. When she catches her girlfriend kissing someone else, she decides to escape from her broken heart and move to Scotland. Millie gets off to a bad start with her roommate, Flora, which is even more complicated when she discovers that Flora is actually Princess Flora of the Scottish Royal family. Flora and Millie don’t get along, until they realize they have feelings for each other.

When I first read the description for this book, I thought it was a completely different story from Royals, the first book in the series. At first, I was disappointed because I thought it wouldn’t have any of the same characters. Though the main characters are different from the ones in Royals, they are related. Flora is the younger sister of Prince Alex, whose engagement is in the story of Royals. I was glad to see some of the same characters I loved in Royals.

I loved the queer representation in this story. Millie is bi, and she owns her identity in Scotland. Though she doesn’t talk about it much in her home in Texas, her friends and family know she is bisexual. Flora is a queer member of the royal family, which isn’t often portrayed in stories or real life. It’s great to see characters like this who can love and be accepted for who they are.

I love these stories. They have actually inspired my current writing project about fictional Royals. I hope there will be more books in this series in the future.

Other books in the series:

Royals

Have you read Her Royal Highness? What did you think of it?

TBR Thursday – July 16

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 Felix Ever After by Karen Callender.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

From Stonewall and Lambda Award–winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.
Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.
When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle….
But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve.

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

Blog Tour Review: Mayhem

Title: Mayhem
Author: Estelle Laure
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 14, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A YA feminist mash up inspired by The Lost Boys and The Craft.
It’s 1987 and unfortunately it’s not all Madonna and cherry lip balm. Mayhem Brayburn has always known there was something off about her and her mother, Roxy. Maybe it has to do with Roxy’s constant physical pain, or maybe with Mayhem’s own irresistible pull to water. Either way, she knows they aren’t like everyone else. But when May’s stepfather finally goes too far, Roxy and Mayhem flee to Santa Maria, California, the coastal beach town that holds the answers to all of Mayhem’s questions about who her mother is, her estranged family, and the mysteries of her own self. There she meets the kids who live with her aunt, and it opens the door to the magic that runs through the female lineage in her family, the very magic Mayhem is next in line to inherit and which will change her life for good. But when she gets wrapped up in the search for the man who has been kidnapping girls from the beach, her life takes another dangerous turn and she is forced to face the price of vigilante justice and to ask herself whether revenge is worth the cost.
From the acclaimed author of This Raging Light and But Then I Came Back, Estelle Laure offers a riveting and complex story with magical elements about a family of women contending with what appears to be an irreversible destiny, taking control and saying when enough is enough.

Review:

In 1987, Mayhem and her mother, Roxy, move back to Roxy’s hometown of Santa Maria. They are escaping Roxy’s abusive husband. Roxy has kept Mayhem away from her family for most of her life. She left her family after Mayhem’s father died tragically. Mayhem learns their family secrets while investigating a string of kidnappings.

There was a layer of magic to this story. Mayhem’s family, the Brayburns, have a mystical history involving the water in a special cave. The magical elements weren’t the main part of the story, but they enhanced the way that the kidnappings were investigated, and they gave the Brayburns a long family history.

There were some tough issues in this book. Mayhem and her mom were abused by her stepfather, causing them to return to Roxy’s family home. There was also a suicide and drug abuse. The addition of magic made these serious problems a little less catastrophic because it wasn’t happening in our reality.

This is a great story!

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

About the author:

Estelle Laure, the author of This Raging Light and But Then I Came Back believes in love, magic, and the power of facing hard truths. She has a BA in Theatre Arts and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and she lives in Taos, New Mexico, with her family. Her work is translated widely around the world.

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

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – July 15

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 Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale. The expected publication date is August 25, 2020.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From bestselling author Shannon Hale comes Kind of a Big Deal: a hilarious, deliciously readable YA novel that will suck you in—literally.
There’s nothing worse than peaking in high school. Nobody knows that better than Josie Pie.
She was kind of a big deal—she dropped out of high school to be a star! But the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And Josie fell. Hard. Ouch. Broadway dream: dead.
Meanwhile, her life keeps imploding. Best friend: distant. Boyfriend: busy. Mom: not playing with a full deck? Desperate to escape, Josie gets into reading.
Literally. She reads a book and suddenly she’s inside it. And with each book, she’s a different character: a post-apocalyptic heroine, the lead in a YA rom-com, a 17th century wench in a corset.
It’s alarming. But also . . . kind of amazing?
It’s the perfect way to live out her fantasies. Book after book, Josie the failed star finds a new way to shine. But the longer she stays in a story, the harder it becomes to escape.
Will Josie find a story so good that she just stays forever?

What books are you waiting on this week?

Blog Tour Review: The Woman Before Wallis

Title: The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal
Author: Bryn Turnbull
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: MIRA
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 21, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

This novel is the fictionalised story of the American divorcée who captured Prince Edward’s heart before he abdicated his throne for Wallis Simpson.
In the summer of 1926, when Thelma Morgan marries Viscount Duke Furness after a whirlwind romance, she’s immersed in a gilded world of extraordinary wealth and privilege. For Thelma, the daughter of an American diplomat, her new life as a member of the British aristocracy is like a fairy tale—even more so when her husband introduces her to Edward, Prince of Wales.
In a twist of fate, her marriage to Duke leads her to fall headlong into a love affair with Edward. But happiness is fleeting, and their love is threatened when Thelma’s sister, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, becomes embroiled in a scandal with far-reaching implications. As Thelma sails to New York to support Gloria, she leaves Edward in the hands of her trusted friend Wallis, never imagining the consequences that will follow.

Review:

In 1926, American divorcée, Thelma Morgan, married Lord Furness in England. Throughout their marriage, Thelma split her time between her husband and her sister Gloria Vanderbilt, who has her own struggles with the death of her husband and her custody battle over her daughter. After Lord Furness begins having an affair, Thelma sets her sights on another man, the Prince of Wales. When Thelma has to travel to help her sister, she leaves her friend Wallis Simpson to look after the Prince, which leads to a romance she never expected.

I love stories about British royalty. This one was about two infamous families in both America and England: the Vanderbilts and the Windsors. The Vanderbilts fought to have custody of Gloria’s daughter, Little Gloria. Gloria’s mother also fought alongside the Vanderbilts to get her granddaughter away from her own daughter. Meanwhile, Thelma had an affair with Prince Edward. Ironically, the title mentions Wallis by name, yet she doesn’t come into the story until halfway through. Since she is named in the title, it’s assumed that the reader will know that Wallis Simpson eventually marries Prince Edward, leading him to abdicate the throne. Though I knew who the Vanderbilts were, I wasn’t familiar with the custody case of Little Gloria, so I learned a lot in this story.

Motherhood was a major theme of the story. Gloria Vanderbilt’s custody case was one of the main plots. Gloria wasn’t considered a suitable mother because of her wild lifestyle. At the same time, her own mother fought against Gloria by trying to get custody of Little Gloria. Thelma had a child, but she spent significant time away from him to stay in London and stay with the Prince. Even though Gloria fought for her daughter and loved her, she faced the threat of losing custody, whereas Thelma and Gloria’s own mother were not judged as harshly or forced to face the same consequences.

This was a fabulous debut novel!

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

About the author:

Bryn Turnbull is a writer of historical fiction with a penchant for fountain pens and antique furniture. Equipped with a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews, a Master of Professional Communication from Ryerson University, and a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding the stories of women found within the cracks of the historical record. When she’s not writing, Bryn can be found exploring new coffee shops, spending time with her family in cottage country, or traveling. She lives in Toronto, and can generally be found with a book in hand.

Have you read The Woman Before Wallis? What did you think of it?

Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Make Me Smile

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 Books That Make Me Smile. Here’s my list: