Jill's Book Blog

Review: Cat’s Café: A Comics Collection

Title: Cat’s Café: A Comics Collection
Author: Matt Tarpley
Genre: Comics, Humour
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 26, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Serving up more than just coffee and tea, Cat’s Café provides its cast of adorable characters a gentle, supportive space and a hefty serving of the warm and floofies.
Welcome to Cat’s Café, a neighborhood coffee shop where all are welcome! Based on the popular webcomic, Cat’s Café introduces readers to the adorable denizens of this world. There’s Penguin, who has a bit of a coffee problem; Rabbit, whose anxiety sometimes overwhelms him; Axolotl, whose confidence inspires his friends; the always-supportive Cat, who provides hot drinks made with love and a supportive ear for anyone’s troubles; and many, many more. With a sensitive take on real issues and a gentle, positive outlook, Cat’s Café is about the power of acceptance, friendship, and love … and delicious cups of coffee.

Review:

This book has a series of comics, each about one page long, about a café run by a cat. All kinds of different animals go to the café, including a penguin, an elephant, and a snake. They each have their own problems and challenges in life, but they can all be themselves at the Cat Café.

There were some hilarious comics that really made me laugh. The penguin loved coffee. He asked for the biggest size, so that he could sit in it. Another funny comic was when an armadillo thought that a five out of five rating wasn’t right for the café. He thought it should be six or seven out of five, because it was so good.

Many of the comics were also about mental health and self esteem. The snake was quite lonely. One day, someone asked if the seat at his table was free, and he got excited because he though they would sit with him. When they took it away to their table, he was disappointed until they invited him to sit with them. These comics use real life examples to teach kids about mental health. The animals in the comics make them universal characters.

I really enjoyed this comic collection!

Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Top Ten Tuesday – Favourite Books of All Time

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 Reasons Why I Love (insert book title). I decided to make a list of my favourite books of all time. Here’s my list:

1. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

2. Shadowland (The Mediator #1) by Meg Cabot

3. Mole and Shrew All Year Through by Jackie French Koller

4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

7. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #1) by Louise Rennison

8. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

9. Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

10. Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

(All photos taken from Goodreads)

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

Happy Pub Day – May 19

Happy Pub day to all of these new books!

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab

Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe by Sarah Mlynowski

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

This Coven Won’t Break (These Witches Don’t Burn #2) by Isabel Sterling

What books are you most excited for this week?

Blog Tour Review: This is How I Lied

Title: This is How I Lied
Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Publisher: Park Row
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 12, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Gudenkauf proves herself the master of the smart, suspenseful small-town thriller that gets right under your skin.” —Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny
Everyone has a secret they’ll do anything to hide…
Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa—discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold.
For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. As Maggie investigates and reexamines the clues, secrets about what really happened begin to emerge. But someone in town knows more than they’re letting on, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried deep.

Review:

Twenty-five years ago, Eve Knox was found murdered in the caves near her house. She was just fifteen years old. Now, her former best friend, Maggie, is a detective who is assigned to reopen the cold case with new evidence. Eve’s abusive boyfriend was one of the main suspects, though there wasn’t any evidence that he killed her. Eve had a strange younger sister, Nola, who was fascinated by dead animals and their anatomy. Maggie has to investigate this murder, while also keeping her own secrets.

This story was told from three different points of view. Eve’s story was from the day she was killed. Maggie and Nola’s perspectives were in the present, as Maggie investigates the murder. My favourite parts were Maggie’s chapters because those were the ones that really moved the story forward. Eve’s chapters were a little slow because they followed her actions of her final day, and Nola’s were creepy because she was fascinated by dead things.

I loved the unique format of the story. At just over the halfway point of the book, the killer was revealed. Since it only about halfway through, I knew there must be more to the story. There was still loads of tension until the end, when the details of the murder were revealed.

I really enjoyed this thriller!

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

About the Author:

Heather Gudenkauf is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many books, including The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden. Heather graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education, has spent her career working with students of all ages. She lives in Iowa with her husband, three children, and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Lolo. In her free time, Heather enjoys spending time with her family, reading, hiking, and running.

Have you read This is How I Lied? What did you think of it?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? – May 18

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 This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf.

What I’m currently reading:

I’m currently reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

What I’m reading next:

Next I will be reading The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor.

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

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – May 17

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

Dark Shores (Dark Shores #1) ★★★★
Say Yes Summer ★★★★
Not Your Idol, Vol. 1 ★★★★★
Breath Like Water ★★★★
The Kingdom of Back ★★★★★
Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe ★★★★

I did 9 weekly blogging memes:

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed With… This is How I Lied

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 This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Gudenkauf proves herself the master of the smart, suspenseful small-town thriller that gets right under your skin.” —Gilly Macmillan, New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny
Everyone has a secret they’ll do anything to hide…
Twenty-five years ago, the body of sixteen-year-old Eve Knox was found in the caves near her home in small-town Grotto, Iowa—discovered by her best friend, Maggie, and her sister, Nola. There were a handful of suspects, including her boyfriend, Nick, but without sufficient evidence the case ultimately went cold.
For decades Maggie was haunted by Eve’s death and that horrible night. Now a detective in Grotto, and seven months pregnant, she is thrust back into the past when a new piece of evidence surfaces and the case is reopened. As Maggie investigates and reexamines the clues, secrets about what really happened begin to emerge. But someone in town knows more than they’re letting on, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried deep.

What book are you in bed with today?

Six for Sunday – Series You Can’t Wait to Read

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 Series You Can’t Wait to Read. Here’s my list:

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses series

2. The Mortal Instruments series

3. An Ember in the Ashes series

4. Empirium series

5. Cursebreakers series

6. The Aurora Cycle series

(All book cover images from Goodreads)

Did you make a Six for Sunday list?

Review: Just a Boy and a Girl in a Canoe (I See London, I See France #2)

Title: Just a Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe
Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 19, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sam’s summer isn’t off to a great start. Her boyfriend, Eli, ditched her for a European backpacking trip, and now she’s a counselor at Camp Blue Springs: the summer camp her eleven-year-old self swore never to return to. Sam expects the next seven weeks to be a total disaster.
That is, until she meets Gavin, the camp’s sailing instructor, who turns her expectations upside down. Gavin may have gotten the job just for his abs. Or that smile. Or the way he fills Sam’s free time with thrilling encounters—swimming under a cascade of stars, whispering secrets over s’mores, embarking on one (very precarious) canoe ride after dark.
It’s absurd. After all, Sam loves Eli. But one totally absurd, completely off-the-wall summer may be just what Sam needs. And maybe, just maybe, it will teach her something about what she really wants.

Review:

Samantha and Eli are spending their summer apart, after their freshman year at NYU. He is going backpacking through Europe with his cousin and she is going to work as a counselor at a summer camp that she went to as a kid. They can’t communicate very much because she doesn’t have good cell reception at the camp. Right away, Sam notices a boy from the camp who was there when she went before. Gavin is now the hot sailing instructor. As the summer goes on, Sam starts to wonder if it would really be that bad if she should have a summer fling with Gavin, since Eli is probably having his own fun with girls in Europe.

This book is a sequel to I See London, I See France. It isn’t about the same characters, but some minor characters make an appearance. That book was about girls who backpacked across Europe. They met Eli and Gavin’s girlfriend, Kat. I wasn’t sure how much these books would be connected because it’s been a couple of years since I read I See London, I See France. They could each be read as stand-alone novels. However, since they are connected and happening simultaneously, they may contain spoilers for either book.

This book was actually pretty funny. Sam’s campers in her bunk were young kids, around 7 or 8 years old. They said some funny things when they had no filter. I think this is a great book for right now, since many summer camps will be cancelled. This story can fill that gap in the summer, so we can still read about summer camps. Though there were kids in this book, the audience should be in their late teens, not children. It’s an older young adult, or new adult, book.

I saw some negative reviews for this book for the theme of cheating in the book. What Sam does when she wants a fling with Gavin is wrong, and she acknowledges it. She had a boyfriend, so she shouldn’t have been interested in another boy. At the same time, she’s a teenager, and everyone makes mistakes. It would be unrealistic to say this would never happen. I don’t think this book is condoning that kind of behavior because it is a fiction story, not a how-to book.

I really enjoyed this summer camp story!

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