TBR Thursday – January 28

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 City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents CITY OF THE PLAGUE GOD, an adventure based on ancient Mesopotamian mythology written by Sarwat Chadda, author of the Ash Mistry series. Characters from the Epic of Gilgamesh populate this high-stakes contemporary adventure in which all of Manhattan is threatened by the ancient god of plagues.

Thirteen-year-old Sik wants a simple life going to school and helping at his parents’ deli in the evenings. But all that is blown to smithereens when Nergal comes looking for him, thinking that Sik holds the secret to eternal life.Turns out Sik is immortal but doesn’t know it, and that’s about to get him and the entire city into deep, deep trouble. 

Sik’s not in this alone. He’s got Belet, the adopted daughter of Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, on his side, and a former hero named Gilgamesh, who has taken up gardening in Central Park. Now all they have to do is retrieve the Flower of Immortality to save Manhattan from being wiped out by disease. To succeed, they’ll have to conquer sly demons, treacherous gods, and their own darkest nightmares.

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

Review: Maya’s Big Scene

Title: Maya’s Big Scene
Author: Isabelle Arsenault
Genre: Children’s, Picture book
Publisher: Tundra Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Maya’s imagination sets the stage for her friends to act out her feminist play. Can she make room in her queendom for the will of the people? A funny picture book about leadership and fair play for fans of King Baby and Olivia.

Maya is a bossy, burgeoning playwright and loves to have the kids in her Mile End neighborhood bring her scenes to life. Her latest work, about a feminist revolution, is almost ready for public performance. But as her actors begin to express their costume preferences, Maya quickly learns that their visions may not match hers . . . and as both Director and Queen, Maya demands obedience and loyalty in her queendom of equality! But she soon realizes — with the help of her friends and subjects — that absolute bossiness corrupts absolutely!

Review:

Maya has invited her friends to put on a feminist play with her. She will run a queendom and they will all be equal. However, once they begin to get costumes and figure out their parts, the other kids realize there isn’t really equality for all in this play that features a queendom ruled by one person.

This story starts out with a great premise of the children creating a world with equality. They want everyone in the play to be equals. The problem with this comes up pretty quickly when Maya bosses them around. The other kids realize it isn’t an equal society if one person is in charge. This teaches them firsthand what an equal society would look like.

I loved the illustrations in this book. Most of them were black and white, with some of the costumes and props in colour. This highlighted the purples, reds, and pinks that Maya wanted them to wear in her queendom. I also liked that the children were playing in Maya’s backyard, but her neighbours’ yards were visible in the images too. This makes it more realistic, since there would be more houses beside her house in real life. It shows that there is life beyond the pages in the book.

This is a cute picture book!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Colette’s Lost Pet by Isabelle Arsenault

Albert’s Quiet Quest by Isabelle Arsenault

Other books in the series:

  • Colette’s Lost Pet
  • Albert’s Quiet Quest

Have you read Maya’s Big Scene? What did you think of it?

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – January 27

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 A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth. The expected publication date is February 23, 2021.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

The Cruel Prince meets City of Bones in this thrilling urban fantasy set in the magical underworld of Toronto that follows a queer cast of characters racing to stop a serial killer whose crimes could expose the hidden world of faeries to humans.

Choose your player.

The “ironborn” half-fae outcast of her royal fae family.
A tempestuous Fury, exiled to earth from the Immortal Realm and hellbent on revenge.
A dutiful fae prince, determined to earn his place on the throne.
The prince’s brooding guardian, burdened with a terrible secret.

For centuries, the Eight Courts of Folk have lived among us, concealed by magic and bound by law to do no harm to humans. This arrangement has long kept peace in the Courts—until a series of gruesome and ritualistic murders rocks the city of Toronto and threatens to expose faeries to the human world.

Four queer teens, each who hold a key piece of the truth behind these murders, must form a tenuous alliance in their effort to track down the mysterious killer behind these crimes. If they fail, they risk the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. If that’s not bad enough, there’s a war brewing between the Mortal and Immortal Realms, and one of these teens is destined to tip the scales. The only question is: which way?

Wish them luck. They’re going to need it.

What books are you waiting on this week?

Review: The Meet-Cute Project

Title: The Meet-Cute Project
Author: Rhiannon Richardson
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: January 12, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets Save the Date in this sweet and hijinks-filled rom-com about a teen girl who will do whatever it takes to find a date for her sister’s wedding.

Mia’s friends love rom-coms. Mia hates them. They’re silly, contrived, and not at all realistic. Besides, there are more important things to worry about—like how to handle living with her bridezilla sister, Sam, who’s never appreciated Mia, and surviving junior year juggling every school club offered and acing all of her classes.

So when Mia is tasked with finding a date to her sister’s wedding, her options are practically nonexistent.

Mia’s friends, however, have an idea. It’s a little crazy, a little out there, and a lot inspired by the movies they love that Mia begrudgingly watches too.

Mia just needs a meet-cute.

Review:

Mia needs to find a date to her sister’s wedding so that she isn’t paired with her future brother-in-law’s younger brother for the wedding party. Mia already has a lot to deal with, including math team, swim team, AP classes, and volunteering at the community garden, so she doesn’t have time to look for her own date. Her friends decide to each try to create a meet-cute moment for Mia, so she can “spontaneously” meet the perfect guy for her. It seems like a simple solution, until something goes wrong with each meeting, making Mia wonder if she will ever get her meet-cute moment.

This was a light, fun romance. Mia had to deal with typical high school things, like homework and teams, but she also had to deal with her bridezilla sister who insisted that Mia find a date for her wedding. I don’t really think it was that necessary for Mia to have a date to the wedding when she didn’t already have a partner, but it made for some funny moments.

I liked that though Mia is Black, it wasn’t the entire part of her personality or the story. It is definitely important to have stories about race, but it doesn’t have to be the main focus of every story. Mia didn’t have to deal with racism or racial issues. She was just a teenage girl who was trying to find a date.

This was a fun young adult romance!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

Save the Date by Morgan Matson

10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston

Have you read The Meet-Cute Project? What did you think of it?

Top Ten Tuesday – New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2020

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 New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2020. Here’s my list:

1. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

2. Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon

3. The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

4. Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

5. There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

6. The Shadows by Alex North

7. The Lost Queen by Signe Pike

8. Intercepted by Alexa Martin

9. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

10. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

(All book covers from Goodreads)

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

Happy Pub Day – January 26

Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Shadow City by Francesca Flores

The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe

If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier

Gutter Child by Jael Richardson

We Could be Heroes by Mike Chen

The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George

Written in Starlight by Isabel Ibañez

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

Rebel Girls Lead by Rebel Girls

A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer

Don’t Tell a Soul by Kirsten Miller

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon

Unchosen by Katharyn Blair

What books are you most excited for this week?

Blog Blitz Review: If I Disappear

Title: If I Disappear
Author: Eliza Jane Brazier
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 26, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

When her favorite true crime podcast host goes missing, an adrift young woman plunges headfirst into the wild backcountry of Northern California and her own dangerous obsession.

Sera loves true crime podcasts. They make her feel empowered in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She’s sure they are preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it’s time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts.

Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel’s small hometown to begin her search. She’s convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won’t be the last…

Rachel did try to warn her.

Review:

Sera is obsessed with a true crime podcast. When the host of the podcast, Rachel, goes missing, Sera goes to the ranch where Rachel lives to find her. Once she arrives at the ranch, she discovers that nothing is what she imagined. The town is deserted and everyone she meets tries to get her to leave. Sera has to use the clues from Rachel’s podcast to find out what happened to her.

This story is written in a second-person point of view. Sera is the narrator, and she’s speaking directly to Rachel, who she refers to as “you.” This made it very creepy, because she was speaking to the reader as if you are the one who went missing.

There were many chilling scenes in this story. Some were quite graphic. There were a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming. I found the ending complicated and confusing to follow which unfortunately made it less suspenseful at the end.

I did enjoy the journey of Sera’s search for Rachel, but I wish it had a more impactful ending.

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

What to read next:

Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Have you read If I Disappear? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – January 25

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 If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading The Meet-Cute Project by Rhiannon Richardson.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George.

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

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – January 24

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… If I Disappear

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 If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

When her favorite true crime podcast host goes missing, an adrift young woman plunges headfirst into the wild backcountry of Northern California and her own dangerous obsession.

Sera loves true crime podcasts. They make her feel empowered in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She’s sure they are preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it’s time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts.

Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel’s small hometown to begin her search. She’s convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won’t be the last…

Rachel did try to warn her.

What book are you in bed with today?