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 Martian Ghost Centaur by Mat Heagerty, Steph Mided.
What I’m currently reading:
I’m currently reading Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare.
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
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 Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare.
Goodreads Synopsis:
A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.
Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.
As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?
Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.
Title: Cemetery Boys Author: Aiden Thomas Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ Publisher: Swoon Reads Source: Purchased Format: Ebook Release Date: September 1, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.
Review:
Yadriel’s brujx family has trouble accepting him as a transgender boy. He wants to prove to them that he can be a brujo, so he summons a ghost. The problem is that he can’t send the ghost on to the afterlife. The ghost turns out to be a bad boy from his school, Julian. Julian wants to make sure his friends are okay before going to the afterlife because he can’t remember the final moments of his life. Yadriel agrees to help Julian, but as they get closer, Yadriel gets more reluctant to send Julian’s spirit away.
I loved the way this story looked at gender through traditions and magic. Yadriel’s family was very traditional. They didn’t want to accept him as a brujo because he was born a girl. Some of his family members refused to use his correct pronouns or his preferred name. This was a little complicated, since the Spanish language uses only male or female genders. Similarly, their magic system only identifies someone as a brujo (a boy) or a bruja (a girl). That becomes a problem when someone identifies as male, but the family sees them as female. Yadriel had the support of a couple of family members who helped him find his true magic.
I was shocked at the ending. I didn’t see the final twists coming at all. During the last few chapters, I was getting worried that the story wouldn’t end the way I wanted it to. However, there were some surprises and I was pleased with the ending.
This is an amazing debut! I’m so glad I finally read it.
What to read next:
Infinity Son by Adam Silvera
Love and Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford
Have you read Cemetery Boys? What did you think of it?
Title: The Project Author: Courtney Summers Genre: Young Adult, Thriller Publisher: Wednesday Books Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: February 2, 2021 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying—and failing—to prove it.
When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its leader, Lev Warren and as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her—to the point she can no longer tell what’s real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn’t know if she can afford not to.
Review:
Lo Denham’s parents died in a car crash that left her with a large scar on her face. Her aunt took care of her after her older sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project. The Unity Project is a group known for their charity work and community outreach. Lo hasn’t spoken to her sister in six years, and she is sure that The Unity Project is a cult. When her boss’s friend claims that The Unity Project killed his son who jumped in front of a train in front of Lo, she knows she has to investigate The Project. Her research leads her right to the founder Lev Warren, who makes Lo question her own beliefs.
This story had dual narratives. Lo told her first person perspective, which alternated with a third person narrative about Bea and her years in the cult when she didn’t speak to her sister. The two sisters had been through a lot together, with losing their parents and Lo having a life altering injury from the car crash. However, Lev was able to convince Bea that the cult would be better for her than her sister.
Lev and The Unity Project were very convincing. There were accusations of abuse within the group, which prompted Lo to investigate The Project and find her sister. Lo was slowly drawn into the cult as well. The things they told her were quite convincing, but when you look at what they left out, they looked very suspicious. I could see the ending coming, but like other Courtney Summers’s books, it was heartbreaking.
This is a great, slow burn thriller.
Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams
The Grey Sisters by Jo Treggiari
Have you read The Project? What did you think of it?
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:
“I don’t care what any of the assholes I live with tell you. I don’t work at a bodega. It’s a health food store.”
Do you recognize these first lines?
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And the book is… Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi.
Goodreads synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, which Rainbow Rowell called “smart and funny,” comes an unforgettable new romance about how social media influences relationships every day.
On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.
Pop juggernaut Leanna Smart has enough social media followers to populate whole continents. The brand is unstoppable. She graduated from child stardom to become an international icon and her adult life is a queasy blur of private planes, step-and-repeats, aspirational hotel rooms, and strangers screaming for her just to notice them.
When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated.
Title: The Memory Thief (Thirteen Witches #1) Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy Publisher: Aladdin Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: March 2, 2021 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Perfect for fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, this fantastical and heartfelt first book in a new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson follows a girl who must defeat thirteen evil witches.
Twelve-year-old Rosie Singer’s mom is missing whatever it is that makes mothers love their daughters. All her life, Rosie has known this…and turned to stories for comfort. Then, on the night Rosie decides to throw her stories away forever, an invisible ally helps her discover the Witch Hunter’s Guide to the Universe, a book that claims that all of the evil in the world stems from thirteen witches who are unseen…but also unstoppable. One of these witches—the Memory Thief—holds an insidious power to steal our most precious treasures: our memories. And it is this witch who has cursed Rosie’s mother.
In her quest to save her mom—and with her wild, loyal friend “Germ” by her side—Rosie will find the layers hidden under the reality she only thought she knew: where ghosts linger as shades of the past, where clouds witness the world, and a ladder dangles from the moon leading to something bigger and more. Here, words are weapons against the darkness, and witch hunters are those brave enough to wield their imaginations in the face of the unthinkable.
At the core of this stunning novel—the first of the Thirteen Witches trilogy from critically acclaimed author Jodi Lynn Anderson—is a passionate argument that stories have the power to create meaningful change…and a reason to hope even when the world feels crushing.
Review:
Twelve-year-old Rosie Oakes has always made up stories to comfort herself. She lives with her mom, but her mom has never been like other moms. She can’t seem to hold on to any of her memories. One night, Rosie wakes up to find ghosts in her house. The ghosts show her a book that holds her mother’s secret history as a witch hunter. The witch called The Memory Thief cursed Rosie’s mother after Rosie was born. Rosie, along with her best friend Germ, have to hunt down the witch to get her mother’s memories back.
This was a fun paranormal story. My favourite books in middle school were about ghosts, so I loved this one. Rosie was a strong character who practically had to raise herself since her mother wasn’t present in her life. She was brave since she insisted in hunting down the witch who had cursed her mother. I love reading about brave, determined young girls like Rosie.
There were some subtle plot lines that were woven throughout the story. The prologue shows the night that Rosie was born, which ended up being important to the end of the story. There were also lots of references and similarities to Harry Potter, which I also love in a book. Despite the problems with the Harry Potter world, I find the references comforting and they connect me to the story.
This was a fun first book in the Thirteen Witches trilogy!
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan
The Wide Starlight by Nicole Lesperance
Have you read The Memory Thief? What did you think of it?
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 Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard. Harder when your whole life is on fire, though.
Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat.
People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it’s hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn’t help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter.
But there’s one person who’s always in Charlie’s corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing–he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS.
A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
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