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 Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers.
Goodreads Synopsis:
When “Perfect” Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter’s High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher’s pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?
Parker doesn’t want to talk about it. She’d just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her conselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there’s a nice guy falling in love with her and he’s making her feel things again when she’d really rather not be feeling anything at all.
Nobody would have guessed she’d turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.
Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Title: Invisible Girl Author: Lisa Jewell Genre: Thriller Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook, Paperback Release Date: October 13, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
The author of the “rich, dark, and intricately twisted” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) The Family Upstairs returns with another taut and white-knuckled thriller following a group of people whose lives shockingly intersect when a young woman disappears.
Owen Pick’s life is falling apart.
In his thirties, a virgin, and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a geography teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel—involuntary celibate—forums, where he meets the charismatic, mysterious, and sinister Bryn.
Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He’s a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night.
Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine’s night, Saffyre Maddox disappears—and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick.
Review:
Owen Pick is a thirty-year-old man who lives with his aunt and has never had a romantic relationship. One day, he was accused of sexual assaulting and behaving inappropriately with some of his students, but he denies it and he left his job. Owen lives across the street from Cate and Roan Fours and their two teenage children. Roan is a child psychologist. On Valentine’s Day, Saffyre Maddox, one of Roan’s patients, goes missing. She was last seen alive by Owen outside of Roan and Cate’s home, making him their prime suspect. All signs point to Owen having something to do with Saffyre’s disappearance, but is he guilty?
Lisa Jewell’s books have a unique thriller layout. The main crime or incident of the thriller doesn’t happen until a few chapters into the story. The first part introduces the characters living their day to day lives. Most thrillers begin with the crime or inciting incident hooking the reader into the story. Though the main incident doesn’t happen for a few chapters, the characters all seem guilty and suspicious of something. They each seem to be hiding a dark secret. With this layout, the reader can get to know the characters before the main incident happens.
I was surprised at the ending. I was sure that all signed pointed to one character, but I didn’t guess correctly. It was a complicated ending, involving a few different parts. When I read a thriller, I prefer a clear, final ending, so this ending didn’t satisfy me.
Though I didn’t really like the ending, I enjoyed reading this twisty thriller.
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Have you read Invisible Girl? What did you think of it?
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 Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao. The expected publication date is November 10, 2020.
Goodreads Synopsis:
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.
Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.
Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.
When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.
But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?
Title: Last Pick: Rise Up (Last Pick #3) Author: Jason Walz Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic Novel, Science Fiction Publisher: First Second Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: October 6, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Earth’s last hope are also the last picked, in this thrilling conclusion of Jason Walz’s dystopian graphic trilogy.
Wyatt is now the reluctant leader of the “last picked”—the disabled, the elderly, and those deemed too young to be useful for hard labor by their alien captors. But how can he and his ragtag allies take down an entire alien federation?
Meanwhile, Wyatt’s twin sister Sam and her girlfriend Mia are creating chaos all over the galaxy in an attempt to rescue Sam’s parents. But even if the family is reunited, can they stay alive long enough to see the end of the alien regime?
Review:
A few years ago, aliens arrived on Earth and took every able-bodied person between the ages of 16 and 65. In the previous book, Wyatt’s twin sister Sam was taken after they turned 16. Wyatt, who is on the autism spectrum, teamed up with the disabled, the elderly, and the young people who were left behind in order to go and rescue their loved ones who were taken from Earth. Meanwhile, there is a virus that is infecting the aliens and making them sick. Wyatt has to travel to another planet to rescue his sister and his parents.
This is a great conclusion to this series. Disability is an important theme to this series. People with disabilities were left behind on Earth, rather than being taken by the aliens to do work for them. The aliens misjudged the people with disabilities, as well as the young and older people, to be weaker than everyone else. Instead, these people used their unique skills to rise up and fight against the aliens.
The graphics were a little confusing during the fight scenes in this story. It may have just been in my advanced copy, but there were a lot of the same colours, such as greens and pinks, which made it difficult to differentiate between aliens and their spaceships. This slowed down my reading and made it a little confusing at times.
I highly recommend this middle grade graphic novel series.
Thank you First Second for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Title: The Code for Love and Heartbreak Author: Jillian Cantor Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance Publisher: Inkyard Press Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: October 6, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
From bestselling author Jillian Cantor comes a smart, edgy update of Jane Austen’s beloved classic Emma.
Emma Woodhouse is a genius at math, but clueless about people. After all, people are unreliable. They let you down—just like Emma’s sister, Izzy, did this year, when she moved to California for college. But numbers…those you can count on. (No pun intended.)
Emma’s senior year is going to be all about numbers, and seeing how far they can take her. When she and George, her Coding Club co-president, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born—a matchmaking app that goes far beyond swiping, using algorithms to calculate compatibility. George disapproves of Emma’s idea, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.
Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other and her own feelings defy any algorithm? Emma thought math could solve everything. But there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.
Review:
Emma Woodhouse loves numbers and coding. She is co-president of the coding club at school with George Knightley. Emma comes up with the idea to create a dating app for their competition project. Though George doesn’t agree with that idea, they create the app and start matching up students in their school with their ideal partner using a special algorithm. Most of the matches seem to work out at first, until they discover some problems with the algorithm. Despite the successful matches, Emma is reluctant to make a match for herself, because her love code may not give her the result she wants.
Emma is one of my favourite classic books, so I was so excited to read this adaptation. This story works perfectly as a modern adaptation. The original Emma liked to match her friends and acquaintances in her town with who she thought would be a good romantic match for them. In this story, Emma is also a matchmaker, but using a modern matchmaking app, rather than just doing it herself. Both of the Emma characters are clueless to her own love interest who is right in front of her the whole time.
I loved the coding theme to this book. I don’t know much about coding, and I find it fascinating to read about. Emma embraces her nerdy side by working hard in her school work and activities, such as coding club and playing the piano. She was a hardworking and intelligent character, even if she didn’t always catch on to the social cues around her.
This is a great Emma retelling!
Thank you Inkyard Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin
About the author:
Jillian Cantor is the author of award-winning and bestselling novels for adults and teens, including In Another Time, The Hours Count, Margot, and The Lost Letter, which was a USA Today bestseller. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Cantor lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.
Have you read The Code for Love and Heartbreak? What did you think of it?
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 The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor.
What I’m currently reading:
I’m currently reading Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell.
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe.
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 The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor.
Goodreads Synopsis:
From bestselling author Jillian Cantor comes a smart, edgy update of Jane Austen’s beloved classic Emma.
Emma Woodhouse is a genius at math, but clueless about people. After all, people are unreliable. They let you down—just like Emma’s sister, Izzy, did this year, when she moved to California for college. But numbers…those you can count on. (No pun intended.)
Emma’s senior year is going to be all about numbers, and seeing how far they can take her. When she and George, her Coding Club co-president, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born—a matchmaking app that goes far beyond swiping, using algorithms to calculate compatibility. George disapproves of Emma’s idea, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.
Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other and her own feelings defy any algorithm? Emma thought math could solve everything. But there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.
Jill's Book Blog 