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 Forgotten Kingdom (The Lost Queen #1) by Signe Pike.
Goodreads Synopsis:
The story continues in The Forgotten Kingdom, the second book in the astonishing Lost Queen trilogy, already hailed as “Outlander meets Camelot” (Kirsty Logan) and “The Mists of Avalon for a new generation” (Linnea Hartsuyker).
AD 573. Imprisoned in her chamber, Languoreth awaits news in torment. Her husband and son have ridden off to wage war against her brother, Lailoken. She doesn’t yet know that her young daughter, Angharad, who was training with Lailoken to become a Wisdom Keeper, has been lost in the chaos. As one of the bloodiest battles of early medieval Scottish history scatters its survivors to the wind, Lailoken and his men must flee to exile in the mountains of the Lowlands, while nine-year-old Angharad must summon all Lailoken has taught her and follow her own destiny through the mysterious, mystical land of the Picts.
In the aftermath of the battle, old political alliances unravel, opening the way for the ambitious adherents of the new religion: Christianity. Lailoken is half-mad with battle sickness, and Languoreth must hide her allegiance to the Old Way to survive her marriage to the next Christian king of Strathclyde. Worst yet, the new King of the Angles is bent on expanding his kingdom at any cost. Now the exiled Lailoken, with the help of a young warrior named Artur, may be the only man who can bring the Christians and the pagans together to defeat the encroaching Angles. But to do so, he must claim the role that will forever transform him. He must become the man known to history as “Myrddin.”
Bitter rivalries are ignited, lost loves are found, new loves are born, and old enemies come face-to-face with their reckoning in this compellingly fresh look at one of the most enduring legends of all time.
Title: Faith: Taking Flight (Faith Herbert Origin Story #1) Author: Julie Murphy Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBT Publisher: Balzer + Bray Source: Library Format: Ebook Release Date: July 7, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
From Julie Murphy, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin’, comes the first in a two-book origin story of Faith, a groundbreaking, plus-sized superhero from the Valiant Entertainment comics.
Faith Herbert is a pretty regular teen. When she’s not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, she’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove.
So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. Of course, there’s also that small matter of recently discovering she can fly….
When the fictional world of The Grove crashes into Faith’s reality as the show relocates to her town, she can’t believe it when TV heroine Dakota Ash takes a romantic interest in her.
But her fandom-fueled daydreams aren’t enough to distract Faith from the fact that first animals, then people, have begun to vanish from the town. Only Faith seems able to connect the dots to a new designer drug infiltrating her high school.
But when her investigation puts the people she loves in danger, she will have to confront her hidden past and use her newfound gifts—risking everything to save her friends and beloved town.
Review:
Faith Herbert is an orphaned teenager who lives with her grandmother and works at an animal shelter. She also has a superpower: she can fly. One day, the cast of Faith’s favourite TV show, The Grove, moves to her hometown in Minnesota to film their series. Faith meets her dream crush and star of the show, Dakota Ash, and they instantly connect. At the animal shelter, dogs start going missing and coming in with mysterious illnesses. Then, people start to disappear too. At the same time, there is a new drug that is being distributed among students at schools. Faith is the only one who sees the connections between all of these events in her town, so it’s up to her to save everyone.
Faith is a wonderful, honest superhero. She doesn’t have the stereotypical look of a superhero, which is usually slim and muscular. Faith proudly displays her fat body. She is also discovering her romantic preferences. Faith doesn’t know if she likes boys or girls, but her friends are eager to support her no matter what.
The prologue for this book was very exciting and engaging. In the prologue, Faith was sent to a special camp where she could figure out if she had superpowers. However, after the prologue, the story didn’t mention her superpowers or what happened at the camp for a few chapters. I wanted to know more about what happened there. There seemed to be a lot of mystery surrounding it, since she went right back to her normal life after. I wish the superhero action had continued from the prologue into the beginning of the story.
This was a fun, modern superhero story!
What to read next:
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
In the Role of Brie Hutchens by Nicole Melleby
Have you read Faith: Taking Flight? What did you think of it?
Title: Don’t Look for Me Author: Wendy Walker Genre: Thriller Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: September 15, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life.
She doesn’t want to be found.
Or at least, that’s the story.
The car abandoned miles from home.
The note found at a nearby hotel.
The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together.
They called it a “walk away.”
It happens all the time.
Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over.
But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?
Review:
Molly Clarke was driving home from her son’s football game when she’s caught in a storm. She’s upset because her son ignored her despite driving four hours to see him play. Her husband no longer speaks to her and her daughter says she hates her. That’s all stemming from when Molly hit and killed their nine-year-old daughter five years ago. When a truck stops on the side of the road to rescue Molly from her broken down car, she jumps in. She wasn’t heard from again, until a note was found saying that she was leaving her family. Two weeks later, her daughter receives a tip about her mother’s disappearance that sends her back to the small town where her mother was last seen.
This was such a fast paced thriller. There were constant twists and cliffhangers at the ends of the chapters that made it difficult to put the book down. The chapters became shorter as the pacing of the story sped up at the end of the story, which made it easier to fly through it.
I was quite surprised at the ending. I thought I had it all figured out, but I was wrong. The clues were clever in the way that they could refer to different characters, so I didn’t guess correctly. Even when I realized the truth right before it was revealed, it was still such a shock.
This was a great, fast paced thriller.
Thank you St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda
Have you read Don’t Look for Me? What did you think of it?
Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
Post it. And share your link.
It’s that simple.
I chose Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen.
Here is my line from page 56 in my copy:
“‘Second one in three months.’ She shook her head. ‘Boys this age, they can be brutal. But they’re not all bad. At least that’s what I keep telling her.'”
Title: Barry Squires, Full Tilt Author: Heather Smith Genre: Young Adult Publisher: Penguin Teen Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: September 22, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Barry Squires, Full Tilt takes readers on a romp through the streets of St. John’s and into the Squires household, a place where tragedy strikes but love prevails. Derry Girls meets Billy Elliot with an East coast twist.
It’s 1995. When the Full Tilt Dancers give an inspiring performance at the opening of the new bingo hall, twelve-year-old Finbar (Barry) Squires wants desperately to join the troupe. Led by Father O’Flaherty, the Full Tilt Irish Step Dancers are the most sought-after act in St. John’s, Newfoundland (closely followed by popular bagpiper, Alfie Bragg and his Agony Bag). Having watched Riverdance twice, Barry figures he’ll nail the audition. And good thing too — it’d be nice to be known for something other than the port wine stain on his cheek. With questionable talent and an unpredictable temper, Barry’s journey to stardom is jeopardized by his parents’ refusal to take his dreams seriously. Thankfully, Barry has the support of a lively cast of characters: his ever-present grandmother, Nanny Squires; his adorable baby brother, Gord; an old British rocker named Uneven Steven; a group of geriatrics from the One Step Closer to God nursing home; and Saibal, a friend with whom Barry gets up to no good.
Told with humor and a healthy dose of irreverence, Barry Squires, Full Tilt takes readers on a rowdy romp through the streets of St. John’s and into the Squires household, a place where tragedy strikes, but love prevails.
Review:
Barry Squires wants to find something to define his life, other than the birthmark on his face. He decides he wants to join the Full Tilt Dancers, a river dance team in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Barry gains the support of his friends and family on his quest to become a Full Tilt dancer, until tragedy strikes his family, changing their dynamic.
I loved the Newfoundland experience in this book. I went to Newfoundland for the first time last year, and this story reminded me so much of that trip. There were hilarious sayings throughout the story, such as what Barry says to his homeless friend about his principal one day: “‘She had a face on her like a smacked arse,’ I said. ‘That woman is as crooked as sin.’” The older characters often referred to younger ones as “my love” or “my duck” as terms of endearment. This Newfoundland dialogue was authentic.
The characters also had a friendly, familiar quality. Barry’s family was full of quirky people, such as his dad who was a clockmaker, yet didn’t want any clocks in the house because he had to listen to them tick all day at work. Barry would get words mixed up all the time. One day he said “‘It’s a proven fact that people who run late are optometrists – and being full of optometry is a great personality trait.’” His teacher figured out he actually meant “optimist” not “optometrist.” These quirks and funny stories made the characters so realistic.
This story took a tragic turn about three quarters of the way through that I was not expecting. I had grown to love these characters, and I felt like I knew them, so it made the tragedy much more upsetting. I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t give away what happened to the family. However, Barry’s close knit family was able to stick together, despite their tragedy.
This is a great Newfoundland story!
Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
The Agony of Bun O’Keefe by Heather Smith
Chicken Girl by Heather Smith
Have you read Barry Squires, Full Tilt? 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 The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family, and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.
The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?
Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.
Have you read this book? What did you think of it?
Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) Author: Sarah J. Maas Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Publisher: Bloomsbury Source: Purchased Format: Hardcover Release Date: May 5, 2015 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
Review:
Feyre hunts for animals to feed her father and two sisters. When she comes across a wolf one day, she pauses as she wonders if he could be a faerie in disguise. She decides to kill him so that he doesn’t attack her prey. However, a faerie shows up to their home soon after she killed the wolf and tells them that he was a fae in disguise. The faerie, named Tamlin, brings Feyre to his kingdom as her punishment for killing one of his kind. The faerie world is dangerous for a human, but at the same time, Feyre holds the key to saving Tamlin and his kingdom.
This book was definitely worth the hype. I tried to read it during a buddy read a few years ago, but I found it difficult to get into at the beginning. I think the beginning was slow because the characters all seemed very angry and weren’t getting what they wanted. Feyre had to hunt to feed her ungrateful family, and she made the mistake of killing a faerie. Tamlin wasn’t happy to lose his fellow fae and have to punish Feyre for it. Neither of them were happy for a long time, which was discouraging to read. However, the story picked up about a quarter of the way through and was exciting until the end.
One thing that surprised me about this book was how graphic some scenes were. There were some quite violent scenes. There were also descriptive sex scenes. The characters were in their late teens and early twenties so that’s probably why there were more mature themes. The story is classified as young adult but I would suggest it for an older young adult audience.
I’m so glad I finally read this book. I’m excited to read the next one.
What to read next:
A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas
The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) by Holly Black
Other books in the series:
A Court of Mist and Fury
A Court of Wings and Ruin
A Court of Frost and Starlight
Have you read A Court of Thorns and Roses? What did you think of it?
Jill's Book Blog 