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.

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – November 3

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 If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich. The expected publication date is September 15, 2021.

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

Eighteen-year-olds Ruben Montez and Zach Knight are two members of the boy-band Saturday, one of the biggest acts in America. Along with their bandmates, Angel Phan and Jon Braxton, the four are teen heartbreakers in front of the cameras and best friends backstage. But privately, cracks are starting to form: their once-easy rapport is straining under the pressures of fame, and Ruben confides in Zach that he’s feeling smothered by management’s pressure to stay in the closet.

On a whirlwind tour through Europe, with both an unrelenting schedule and minimal supervision, Ruben and Zach come to rely on each other more and more, and their already close friendship evolves into a romance. But when they decide they’re ready to tell their fans and live freely, Zach and Ruben start to truly realize that they will never have the support of their management. How can they hold tight to each other when the whole world seems to want to come between them?

What books are you waiting on this week?

Happy Pub Day – November 2

Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!

Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim

Where Echoes Lie by Shannon Schuren

The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith

Gilded by Marissa Meyer

A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown

Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards

Traciel and Elinor by Garth Nix

Faith: Greater Heights by Julie Murphy

Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross

Going Viral: A Socially Distant Love Story by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

Tahira in Bloom by Farah Heron

A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley

Cupcake by Cookie O’Gorman

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough

What books are you most excited for this week?

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Would Hand to Someone Who Claims to Not Like 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 Books I Would Hand to Someone Who Claims to Not Like Reading. Here’s my list:

1. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

2. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

3. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

4. Dear Martin by Nic Stone

5. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

6. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

7. Take It Away, Tommy by Georgia Dunn

8. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

9. Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

10. Fangs by Sarah Andersen

(All book covers from Goodreads)

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

Review: Sawkill Girls

Title: Sawkill Girls
Author: Claire Legrand
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Library
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 2, 2018
Rating: ★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep. He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.

Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.

Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.

Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.

Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.

Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.

Review:

Zoey has lived in Sawkill with her father, the police chief, for a couple of years. Marion has just moved there, when she has an accident and falls off a horse. Val, a popular girl who Zoey has never trusted, helps Marion recover. Girls have disappeared from Sawkill for decades, without a trace. Zoey’s best friend disappeared after becoming friends with Val, so Zoey thinks that Val is involved in the disappearances. When more girls disappear, and Zoey starts finding strange things around her house, she decides that she must end this cycle of missing girls.

This story followed the points of view of Zoey, Val, and Marion. Zoey was fairly new to the town, only moving there a couple of years before. Marion was a newcomer to the town, but Val’s family had lived there for generations. The town itself was a character as well, with an extensive history.

The story started out as a horror/thriller, with girls going missing. The last half of the story turned more science fiction and fantasy. I didn’t like this twist in the story, because it didn’t seem realistic. At first, it was creepy because it seemed like something that could happen in a small town. I was disappointed in this second half and the ending of the story, because it wasn’t what I expected.

Unfortunately, Sawkill Girls didn’t live up to my expectations.

What to read next:

The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

Have you read Sawkill Girls? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – November 1

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 Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue.

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

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – October 31

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

I did 7 weekly blogging memes:

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed With… Sawkill Girls

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 Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand.

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

Goodreads Synopsis:

Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep. He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.

Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.

Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.

Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.

Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.

Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – Recommended Reads by Black Authors

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 Recommended Reads by Black Authors. Here’s my list:

1. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

2. Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon

3. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

4. Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

5. Pride by Ibi Zoboi

6. One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

(All book covers from Goodreads)

Did you make a Six for Sunday list?

Review: Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel

Title: Hocus Pocus and The All-New Sequel
Author: A.W. Jantha
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Freeform
Source: Library
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 10, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

Hocus Pocus is beloved by Halloween enthusiasts all over the world. Diving once more into the world of witches, this electrifying two-part young adult novel, released on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1993 film, marks a new era of Hocus Pocus. Fans will be spellbound by a fresh retelling of the original film, followed by the all-new sequel that continues the story with the next generation of Salem teens.

Shortly after moving from California to Salem, Massachusetts, Max Dennison finds himself in hot water when he accidentally releases a coven of witches, the Sanderson sisters, from the afterlife. Max, his sister, and his new friends (human and otherwise) must find a way to stop the witches from carrying out their evil plan and remaining on earth to torment Salem for all eternity.

Twenty-five years later, Max and Allison’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Poppy, finds herself face-to-face with the Sanderson sisters in all their sinister glory. When Halloween celebrations don’t quite go as planned, it’s a race against time as Poppy and her friends fight to save her family and all of Salem from the witches’ latest death-defying scheme.

Review:

In October 1993, Max Dennison’s family moved from California to Salem Massachusetts. That Halloween, Max, his sister Dani, and his crush Allison, released the Sanderson Sisters, a trio of witches. They have to figure out how to banish the sisters from Salem. In part 2, twenty-five years later, Max and Allison’s daughter Poppy also releases the witches. Poppy and her friends defy her parents’ warnings and have to figure out how to save their town from the Sanderson witches again.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Hocus Pocus movie when I was a kid, so I was going into this book without much knowledge of the story. What I really liked about this movie-to-book adaptation is that it read like a real novel. The thoughts of the characters were included, which wouldn’t have been in the movie. It felt like a complete novel.

The ending of both parts left room for the story to continue. When I finished Part 1, which was based on the movie, I found that it had an open ending, asking for a sequel. The ending of part 2 was such a cliffhanger. I really hope this story will be continued in another novel.

Hocus Pocus and the All New Sequel is a great Halloween read!

What to read next:

B*WITCH by Paige McKenzie and Nancy Ohlin

Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse

Have you read Hocus Pocus and The All New Sequel? What did you think of it?

Review: The Girls Are Never Gone

Title: The Girls Are Never Gone
Author: Sarah Glenn Marsh
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, LGBT
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 7, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

goodreads-badge-add-plus-71eae69ca0307d077df66a58ec068898

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Conjuring meets Sadie when seventeen-year-old podcaster Dare takes an internship in a haunted house and finds herself in a life-or-death struggle against an evil spirit.

Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts.

Privately, she’s a supernatural skeptic. But publicly, she’s keeping her doubts to herself—because she’s the voice of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, and she needs her ghost-loving listeners to tune in.

That’s what brings her to Arrington Estate. Thirty years ago, teenager Atheleen Bell drowned in Arrington’s lake, and legend says her spirit haunts the estate. Dare’s more interested in the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death—circumstances that she believes point to a living culprit, not the supernatural. Still, she’s vowed to keep an open mind as she investigates, even if she’s pretty sure what she’ll find.

But Arrington is full of surprises. Good ones like Quinn, the cute daughter of the house’s new owner. And baffling ones like the threatening messages left scrawled in paint on Quinn’s walls, the ghastly face that appears behind Dare’s own in the mirror, and the unnatural current that nearly drowns their friend Holly in the lake. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of Arrington, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

Review:

Dare doesn’t believe in ghosts, despite having a podcast called Attachments where she’s investigating the paranormal. She takes an internship at Arrington Estate, a house that is haunted by the ghost of Atheleen Bell. Dare suspects that the circumstances of Atheleen’s death aren’t supernatural, though that is the rumor. Dare becomes friends with Quinn, the daughter of the new owner of the house, and Holly, another intern. They’re all pulled into the mystery of the house, with ghost sightings and messages left on walls. Dare has to figure out the truth of what’s going on, before the ghost claims another victim.

Dare was a great detective for the story. She was drawn to this ghost story to investigate for her podcast. I liked that even though she was interested in this story, she was a skeptic. That made it even more convincing that something supernatural was happening when she started to suspect there was a real ghost. I would have loved to see more transcripts of her podcasts throughout the story to hear what she was reporting on.

I can’t comment much on the ending without giving anything away. I will say that it was surprising. The reveal was kind of complicated, involving many generations of residents of the estate. The ending was surprising and a little sad.

The Girls Are Never Gone is a great YA paranormal story.

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

What to read next:

Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

Horrid by Katrina Leno

Have you read The Girls Are Never Gone? What did you think of it?