Jill's Book Blog

Review: I Hope You Stay

Title: I Hope You Stay
Author: Courtney Peppernell
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the spirit of her bestselling series, Pillow Thoughts, Courtney Peppernell returns with a new, empowering collection of poetry and prose. From heartbreak to dreaming of and finding a new love to healing the heart to ultimately finding peace, the themes in this book are universal but also uniquely individual to readers.
Just as moving and endearing as Peppernell’s previous books, I Hope You Stay is a reminder of the resilience and hope needed after heartache and pain. The book is divided into five sections, with poems ranging from free verse to short form. These words are a light in the deepest hours of the night: Hold on. The sun is coming.

Review:

I’m not a big fan of poetry, but I really enjoyed Courtney Peppernell’s Pillow Thoughts collection, so I wanted to read this book.

The collection is divided into 5 parts: You will ache, You will dream, You will love, You will heal, and You will rise. These covered many subjects, from falling in love to breaking up with someone. I especially liked the final section, You will rise, which was about feeling empowered.

There was one poem about how women should stick together and support each other, which really resonated with me. Sometimes we judge others, without thinking about how we can help them instead. The example she gave in the poem was whispering to a woman to tell her she has lipstick on her teeth. We should look out for each other, rather than trying to bring each other down.

This is another great poetry collection by Courtney Peppernell.

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

Top 5 Saturday – Trilogies

This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Trilogies. Here’s my list:

1. The Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Little Bardugo

2. Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab

3. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

4. Daughters of Smoke and Bone Trilogy by Laini Taylor

5. The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

(All book covers from Goodreads)

If you’d like to do this list too, consider yourself tagged!

Did you make a Top 5 Saturday list?

Review: Twisted Fairy Tales: Snow White and the Seven Robots

Title: Twisted Fairy Tales: Snow White and the Seven Robots
Author: Stewart Ross, Chris Jevons (illustrator)
Genre: Children’s, Picture Book
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 15, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When the wicked Star Queen shipwrecks her daughter, Snow White, on a remote forest planet, the plucky princess uses her engineering know-how to rebuild her ruined spacecraft into robot helpers! Can she and her mechanical friends find a way to defeat the Star Queen once and for all?

Review:

This is another great fairy tale with a twist.

This story takes place in space. Snow White has a talent for building robots. The evil queen sends her away, since she has been told by her “space book” screen that Snow White is the best. I liked these space and technology elements of the story.

There was a different twist to the story because the evil queen sends fruit robots to put Snow White to sleep, rather than giving her an apple. The fruit shoots a poison dart at her, and the only way to wake her is to remove it. This is another way a technological element replaced the magic of the original fairytale.

This was a great story!

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

Bookish Friday – Harry Potter Spells

This is a weekly meme hosted by Laurie Reads and Niffler Reads. Every Friday, they post a list of bookish things based on the prompt they provided. The prompts for Feb to May can be found here.

This week’s prompt is Harry Potter Spells. Here’s my list:

Alohamora
Flipendo
Expecto Patronum
Accio
Obliviate
Wingardium Leviosa

via GIPHY

Did you make a list for Bookish Friday?

Review: Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown

Title: Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown
Author: Anne Glenconner
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Publisher: Hachette Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 24, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

An extraordinary memoir of drama, tragedy, and royal secrets by Anne Glenconner–a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. As seen on Netflix’s The Crown. Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed “the greatest disappointment” and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive the vipers of court life with her sense of humor intact.
A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne’s life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret’s closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her “mad blood”; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.

Review:

This is a memoir written by one of Princess Margaret’s ladies in waiting.

Anne Glenconner has had a fascinating life. She talked a little about her relationship with Princess Margaret and the royal family, but I found her own biography so interesting. Some of the stories were funny, such as how when they were children, Anne and her sister planned how they would kill Hitler themselves if he invaded England. There were also tragedies, like the deaths of two of her children.

Anne was also connected with many famous people. Her husband developed the Caribbean island Mustique, which is still a popular destination for celebrities and royals.

The stories about Princess Margaret were great. Anne gave an inside look at who she was in private. There was a lot more to the book than just Princess Margaret’s life, but there were some interesting anecdotes about her.

This is a great book for readers who are interested in the royal family.

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

TBR Thursday – March 5

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 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters #1) by Talia Hibbert.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?
• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And… do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

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

Review: David Attenborough (Little People, Big Dreams)

Title: David Attenborough (Little People, Big Dreams)
Author: Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, Mikyo Noh (illustrator)
Genre: Children’s, Picture Book
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 4, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this book from the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of David Attenborough, the inspiring broadcaster and conservationist.
Little David grew up in Leicester on the campus of a university, where his father was a professor. As a child, he spent hours in the science library, collating his own specimens and creating a mini animal museum. When he was old enough to go to university, he studied science and zoology—but what he wanted most of all was to be close to the animals he was studying. So, he started working in television, visiting animals in their natural habitats, and telling the world the untold stories of these animals. This moving book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the broadcaster’s life.

Review:

Sir David Attenborough is passionate about nature. He has always loved learning about how the natural world works. He created many tv shows about animals and nature. He was also knighted by the Queen for his work on documentaries about planet Earth.

I didn’t know some of these facts about Sir David Attenborough before reading this book. For example, there are many species of plants and animals named after him, such as a frog named Pristimantis Attenboroughi. He is an inspiring man who has done a lot of work to preserve our natural planet.

This is a great story to teach children about the life of Sir David Attenborough.

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

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – March 4

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 To Have and to Hoax by Martha Waters. The expected publication date is April 7, 2020.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this fresh and hilarious historical rom-com, an estranged husband and wife in Regency England feign accidents and illness in an attempt to gain attention—and maybe just win each other back in the process.
Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since.
Their once-passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached politeness. But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side—only to discover him alive and well at a tavern, and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.
Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses—and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought. Will the two be able to overcome four years of hurt or will they continue to deny the spark between them?
With charm, wit, and heart in spades, To Have and to Hoax is a fresh and eminently entertaining romantic comedy—perfect for fans of Jasmine Guillory and Julia Quinn.

What books are you waiting on this week?

Review: Surprise Under the Stars (Creature Campers #2)

Title: Surprise Under the Stars (Creature Campers #2)
Author: Joe McGee, Bea Tormo (illustrator)
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: March 10, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Creature Campers are back for another adventure! To pass their map and compass skills test, they must find their way to a hidden spot in the forest, where a picnic feast awaits!
Follow Norm the Bigfoot and his friends as they brave a swampy lake, a scheming creature collector, and a starry night surprise to get to their deliciously sweet reward—and learn the true meaning of teamwork and trust.

Review:

I loved the first book in the Creature Campers series, so I was excited to read this one.

In this story, they have to do a classic camp activity, which is learn how to use a compass. They have to follow a trail to find a special pie. However, the activity is spoiled by the villain, Barnaby, who uses a magnet to attract them to him and disrupt their compass.

This was a funny story. The villain ended up messing up his own plot when he got trapped and the kids had to rescue him. It was a great ending to the story.

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

Top Ten Tuesday – Books With Single-Word Titles

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 Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf. Here’s my list: