Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book.

Review: A Rogue of One’s Own

Title: A Rogue of One’s Own (A League of Extraordinary Women #2)
Author: Evie Dunmore
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 1, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

A lady must have money and an army of her own if she is to win a revolution – but first, she must pit her wits against the wiles of an irresistible rogue bent on wrecking her plans…and her heart.

Lady Lucie is fuming. She and her band of Oxford suffragists have finally scraped together enough capital to control one of London’s major publishing houses, with one purpose: to use it in a coup against Parliament. But who could have predicted that the one person standing between her and success is her old nemesis, Lord Ballentine? Or that he would be willing to hand over the reins for an outrageous price—a night in her bed.

Lucie tempts Tristan like no other woman, burning him up with her fierceness and determination every time they clash. But as their battle of wills and words fans the flames of long-smouldering devotion, the silver-tongued seducer runs the risk of becoming caught in his own snare.

As Lucie tries to out-manoeuvre Tristan in the boardroom and the bedchamber, she soon discovers there’s truth in what the poets say: all is fair in love and war…

Review:

Lady Lucie is a suffragette in Victorian Oxford. Along with her group of friends, they purchase shares in a publishing house. However, after the purchase, she discovers that she shares ownership with Tristan, aka Lord Ballantine, her childhood friend with a rakish reputation. Lucie plans to use the publishing house to promote her cause, but she doesn’t have a controlling share of the company. Tristan says he sell her some of his shares, in exchange for a night with her. That goes against everything Lucie stands for, but Tristan becomes very hard to resist.

Lucie and Tristan had a long past since their families were friends since they were children. Despite this connection, they didn’t get along. Tristan had a reputation of being with a different woman every night, which is the opposite of what Lucie stood for. Since they had such strong feelings against each other, it became clear that they would eventually get together. This was a great enemies to lovers story.

Lucie was such a strong woman with clear goals of getting women’s rights. She was adamant that she wanted to be a single woman. I was concerned that she would give up this part of her personality to be with Tristan, because they would have to get together to fulfill the ending of this romance. I won’t give away the ending, but I was pleased with how this worked out in the end.

I loved this steamy Victorian romance!

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

What to read next:

The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah M. Eden

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

Other books in the series:

Have you read A Rogue of One’s Own? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – April 19

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 A Rogue of One’s Own (A League of Extraordinary Women #2) by Evie Dunmore.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading Sugar and Spite by Gail D. Villanueva.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers #1) by Brigid Kemmerer.

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

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – April 18

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… A Rogue of One’s Own

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 A Rogue of One’s Own (A League of Extraordinary Women #2) by Evie Dunmore.

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

A lady must have money and an army of her own if she is to win a revolution – but first, she must pit her wits against the wiles of an irresistible rogue bent on wrecking her plans…and her heart.

Lady Lucie is fuming. She and her band of Oxford suffragists have finally scraped together enough capital to control one of London’s major publishing houses, with one purpose: to use it in a coup against Parliament. But who could have predicted that the one person standing between her and success is her old nemesis, Lord Ballentine? Or that he would be willing to hand over the reins for an outrageous price—a night in her bed.

Lucie tempts Tristan like no other woman, burning him up with her fierceness and determination every time they clash. But as their battle of wills and words fans the flames of long-smouldering devotion, the silver-tongued seducer runs the risk of becoming caught in his own snare.

As Lucie tries to out-manoeuvre Tristan in the boardroom and the bedchamber, she soon discovers there’s truth in what the poets say: all is fair in love and war…

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – Books Set on Islands

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 Fictional Islands You’d Like to Visit, but I didn’t want to visit most of the ones I could think of, so here’s a list of Books Set on Islands. Here’s my list:

1. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

3. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

4. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

5. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

6. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells

(All book covers from Goodreads)

Did you make a Six for Sunday list?

Review: The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Title: The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before—and will stop at nothing to get it—in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here opens when Ambrosia Wellington receives an invitation to her ten-year college reunion. Only, slipped in with all the expected information about lodging and the weekend’s schedule is an anonymous letter that says: “It’s time to talk about what we did.” Instantly, Ambrosia realizes that the secrets of her past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d thought. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did—and who she did it with. Larger-than-life Sloane Sullivan (“Sully”), who could make anyone do anything. The game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl, Amb’s angelic roommate, who paid the price.

Amb had thought that she and Sully had gotten away with what they did their first semester at Wesleyan. But as Amb receives increasingly menacing messages during the reunion, it becomes clear that she’s being circled by someone who wants more than just the truth. Amb discovers that her own memories don’t tell the whole story, and that her actions and friendship with Sully had even more disturbing consequences than she ever imagined.

Told in alternating timelines between the reunion and Ambrosia’s turbulent first months of college, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a gripping rollercoaster ride of a novel that examines the dark complexities of female friendship and the brutal lengths girls can go to take what they think they are owed.

Review:

Ambrosia Wellington gets an invitation to her ten year college reunion, but she isn’t planning on going until she gets a threatening note that says, “It’s time to talk about what we did.” When Ambrosia was at college, she was roommates with Flora Banning, a sweet and innocent girl with a boyfriend at another college. Ambrosia was interested in getting a more exciting college experience so she became friends with Sloan “Sully” Sullivan, the party girl. Sully liked to play games with girls and boys, and always have a good time. While Ambrosia is at the reunion, she continues to get threatening messages. She has to come to terms with what she did in school, and realize that maybe her memories aren’t as reliable as she thought.

This story was so intense. Throughout the first half of the story, I was certain that I had figured out the ending. However, there was a twist halfway through that showed me that I was completely wrong. The final chapters were so suspenseful that I was holding my breath. This was definitely a wild story.

This story had a very dark tone. There is some potentially triggering content, such as bullying, suicide, overdose, rape, and cheating. This content was quite intense at times and difficult to read. It was discomforting to read, but these are things that do happen on college campuses. These topics made for an uncomfortable read at times, but the story was so intricately plotted, that I had to give it five full stars.

This was a dark and intense thriller.

What to read next:

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Good Girls lie by J.T. Ellison

Have you read The Girls Are All So Nice Here? What did you think of it?

Top 5 Saturday – Longest Books On My TBR

This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Longest Books, so these are the Longest Books On My TBR. Here’s my list:

1. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (803 pages)

2. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout (634 pages)

3. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas (757 pages)

4. Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (592 pages)

5. Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin (719 pages)

(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: Hana Khan Carries On

Title: Hana Khan Carries On
Author: Uzma Jalaluddin
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada, Berkley Romance
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 13, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the author of Ayesha at Last comes a sparkling new rom-com for fans of “You’ve Got Mail,” set in two competing halal restaurants

Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners. But soon she’ll need all the support she can get: a new competing restaurant, a more upscale halal place, is about to open in the Golden Crescent, threatening Three Sisters.

When her mysterious aunt and her teenage cousin arrive from India for a surprise visit, they draw Hana into a long-buried family secret. A hate-motivated attack on their neighbourhood complicates the situation further, as does Hana’s growing attraction for Aydin, the young owner of the rival restaurant—who might not be a complete stranger after all.

As life on the Golden Crescent unravels, Hana must learn to use her voice, draw on the strength of her community and decide what her future should be.

Review:

Hana Khan works at her mother’s restaurant, Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, in Toronto. She also has an unpaid internship at a Toronto radio station. But what she wants to do is tell her story on the radio. She hosts an anonymous podcast, where she has made a friend out of one of her listeners. Her mother’s restaurant is failing. With her pregnant sister no longer able to work there and a competing restaurant opening on the same street, Hana has to figure out how to save their restaurant. On top of that Hana has to deal with racist attacks and potentially falling for the owner of the rival restaurant. Hana has to learn to use her voice and follow her dreams.

This was a fabulous story set in my hometown, Toronto. Hana was part of a tight knit community in the east end of the city. All of the businesses had a strong relationship with each other, and they felt threatened when the rival restaurant was opening. There were some shocking twists at the end of the story that I didn’t expect. Hana’s family had some secrets that were hinted at throughout the story, but one secret that was revealed close to the end really surprised me. I love it when a story has a shocking reveal that I didn’t predict.

This story addressed anti-Islamic racism. There were multiple attacks, one personally against Hana and another on her community. Hana also had to deal with discrimination at her internship. These racist moments were so upsetting to read because they are things that happen in real life. This is a reality for many people in their daily lives, even in a diverse city like Toronto. I hope that one day stories that have racist events like this will be part of the past and no longer be relevant.

I really enjoyed this story!

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

What to read next:

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

Have you read Hana Khan Carries On? What did you think of it?

First Lines Friday – April 16

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:

“Once upon a time, Chloe Brown died. Nearly.”

Do you recognize these first lines?

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

And the book is… Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert.

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898-2.png

Goodreads synopsis:

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And… do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

Check out my review of Get a Life, Chloe Brown here.

Have you read Get a Life, Chloe Brown? What did you think of it?

Review: Victories Greater Than Death (Unstoppable #1)

Title: Victories Greater Than Death (Unstoppable #1)
Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, LGBT
Publisher: Tor Teen
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: April 13, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

Outsmart Your Enemies. Outrun the Galaxy.

Tina never worries about being ‘ordinary’—she doesn’t have to, since she’s known practically forever that she’s not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter. She’s also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day soon, it’s going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible. Tina’s legacy, after all, is intergalactic—she is the hidden clone of a famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil.

But when the beacon activates, it turns out that Tina’s destiny isn’t quite what she expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed. Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachel, and she is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she’ll have to save herself.

Buckle up your seatbelt for this thrilling sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders.

Review:

Tina Mains isn’t an ordinary girl. She was raised by her mother on Earth, but she was actually sent to her mother as an alien clone. Tina was given human DNA so she could blend in on Earth. Now, teenage Tina is being called up to space to fulfill her destiny and return to the role as Captain Thaoh, the person she was cloned from. However, the procedure to return Thaoh’s memories to Tina doesn’t go as planned, so she can’t take on the role of captain. She ends up bringing her best friend Rachael up to space with her, where they join the space crew on an adventure to save all the worlds in space.

This was a gender diverse story. Many of the characters in space were from different species, but they all introduced themselves with their name and then their preferred pronouns. I loved seeing this unity between the worlds, where they had the same form of introduction, even though each of the residents of the different worlds had different appearances and languages. I found this introduction funny at times when an enemy would introduce themself. They would take the time to say their name and pronoun before announcing that they were going to attack. This created a delay in the attack, which could have been avoided without introducing themselves, but it shows how important gender diversity is to their world.

This story was also really funny. The beginning seemed like a comedy of errors when everything went wrong. When Tina was supposed to become the captain she was cloned from, the procedure went wrong so she remained the human Tina. This ruined all of their work of making sure Tina was raised to replace Captain Thaoh. This was followed by another funny scene where they tried to recruit intelligent humans to join the crew. The way they found humans that were smart enough to join them was through a puzzle app. However, the humans they found may have been good at a game on their phone, but they weren’t necessarily the smartest people on Earth. These are just a few of the funny parts of this book.

This was a fun science fiction story with a humorous twist. I can’t wait to read the next book!

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

What to read next:

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Have you read Victories Greater Than Death? What did you think of it?