Jill's Book Blog

First Lines Friday – January 4

This is a weekly meme hosted by Wandering Words, where you give the first few lines of a book to hook your readers before introducing the book.

Here are my first lines:

“The sky was perfectly blue. Not a single cloud marred its surface. I lay on my back on the seat of my WaveRunner, my feet up on the handlebars. I let me hand drift down to the water and skim along the surface.”

Do you recognize these first lines?

…

And the book is… Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West.

Goodreads synopsis:

Talking to other people isn’t Kate Bailey’s favorite activity. She’d much rather be out on the lake, soaking up the solitude and sunshine. So when her best friend, Alana, convinces Kate to join their high school’s podcast, Kate is not expecting to be chosen as the host. Now she’ll have to answer calls and give advice on the air? Impossible.

But to Kate’s surprise, she turns out to be pretty good at the hosting gig. Then the podcast gets in a call from an anonymous guy, asking for advice about his unnamed crush. Kate is pretty sure that the caller is gorgeous Diego Martinez, and even surer that the girl in question is Alana. Kate is excited for her friend … until Kate herself starts to develop feelings for Diego. Suddenly, Kate finds that while doling out wisdom to others may be easy, asking for help is tougher than it looks, and following your own advice is even harder.

Kasie West’s adorable story of secrets, love, and friendship is sure to win over hearts everywhere.

Have you read Listen to Your Heart? What did you think of it?

Review: The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party (The Princess in Black #2)

Title: The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party
Author: Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and LeUyen Pham
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Candlewick
Source: Library
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 13, 2015
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Inconvenient monster alarms, a sparkly array of princess guests, and spot-on slapstick pacing make for a party readers will celebrate.

Today is Princess Magnolia’s birthday party, and she wants everything to be perfect. But just as her guests are arriving . . . Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! Princess Magnolia runs to the broom closet, ditches her frilly clothes, and becomes the Princess in Black! She rushes to the goat pasture, defeats the monster, and returns to the castle before her guests discover her secret. But every time Princess Magnolia is about to open her presents, the monster alarm rings again. And every time she rushes back—an inside-out dress here, a missing shoe there—it gets harder to keep the other princesses from being suspicious. Don’t those monsters understand that now is not a good time for an attack?

Review:

I love the Princess in Black series! These stories are a lot of fun.

The Princess has to hide her secret identity as a crime fighting princess from all of her princess friends. When her monster alarm rings, she must find an excuse to duck away and fight the monster.

The monsters were so funny. They only go after the goats in a neighbouring field. The Princess is able to go and fight them, but she comes back to her party more and more disheveled each time, drawing suspicion from some of the princesses. However, she always gets the job done.

This is a cute story for young kids. I think adults would enjoy it too, because I kept smiling while I read it.

Book Blogging Goals for 2019

I had an awesome blogging year in 2018, with reaching 1000 followers, being added to the blogging databases for some major publishers, and attending BookCon and other book events such as launch parties, book signings, and fall previews.

I don’t usually make resolutions, but I want to make some blogging goals for 2019. They will keep me accountable and make me work harder, since I will be constantly working towards my goals. Here are my goals:

Have a NetGalley rating of 80% (my current rating is 68%)
Post at least one Blogging meme a day and six reviews a week
I will be adding Six for Sundays and Top 5 Wednesday to my weekly blog roster
Clear my inbox at least once a week (and reply to comments much faster)
Write 1,000 words a day for my creative work

My last goal isn’t about my blog, but it is a writing goal that I want to work on. I want to get my first book published and I’m almost finished my first draft, so I need to work hard to get to the end.

Hopefully with these goals I will have another great blogging year.

Have you made any blogging goals or resolutions for 2019?

TBR Thursday – January 3

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 Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Welcome to the City of Sin, where casino families reign, gangs infest the streets…and secrets hide in every shadow.

Enne Salta was raised as a proper young lady, and no lady would willingly visit New Reynes, the so-called City of Sin. But when her mother goes missing, Enne must leave her finishing school—and her reputation—behind to follow her mother’s trail to the city where no one survives uncorrupted.

Frightened and alone, Enne has only one lead: the name Levi Glaisyer. Unfortunately, Levi is not the gentleman she expected—he’s a street lord and a con man. Levi is also only one payment away from cleaning up a rapidly unraveling investment scam, so he doesn’t have time to investigate a woman leading a dangerous double life. Enne’s offer of compensation, however, could be the solution to all his problems.

Their search for clues leads them through glamorous casinos, illicit cabarets and into the clutches of a ruthless Mafia donna. As Enne unearths an impossible secret about her past, Levi’s enemies catch up to them, ensnaring him in a vicious execution game where the players always lose. To save him, Enne will need to surrender herself to the city…

And she’ll need to play.

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

Review: If the Magic Fits (100 Dresses #1)

Title: If the Magic Fits (100 Dresses #1)
Author: Susan Maupin Schmid
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Source: Borrowed from a friend
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 25, 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Inside an enchanted castle, there’s a closet—a closet with one hundred dresses that nobody ever wears. Dresses like those need a good trying-on, and Darling Dimple is just the girl to do it. When she tries on Dress Number Eleven, something unbelievable happens. She transforms into the castle’s Head Scrubber! It turns out that each dress can disguise her as someone else. And Darling is about to have an adventure that calls for a disguise or two…or a hundred.

Review:

I loved this unique fairytale!

In this story, Darling Dimple is an orphan who works as a servant in Princess Mariposa’s castle. Darling loses her job as a scrubber and has to work as a presser. There she discovers a closet full of magical dresses. She has to use the dresses to unlock the magic of the castle and ultimately save the Princess and her kingdom.

Darling Dimple started out as a shy girl, but her confidence grew when she wore the different magical dresses. Each dress turned her into a different person in the castle, from the head of the staff to aristocratic ladies. This was a great way of showing the parts of the story for both the castle staff and the royals.

I love reading retellings of fairytales and original ones. This one was so much fun. There was some foreshadowing at the end, which I think points to the next book in the series being about Darling Dimple’s biological parents.

‘Waiting on’ Wednesday – January 2

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 The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe. The release date is January 22, 2019.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas. Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs.

Yet, against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris. Be it loner Liam, who makes it his mission to befriend Norris, or Madison the beta cheerleader, who is so nice that it has to be a trap. Not to mention Aarti the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who might, in fact, be a real love interest in the making. He even starts playing actual hockey with these Texans.

But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. As he tries to pick up the pieces, he realizes it might be time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life—along with the people who have found their way into his heart.

What books are you waiting on this week?

Review: Seven Days

Title: Seven Days
Author: Patrick Senécal (translated by Howard Scott and Phyllis Aronoff)
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 1, 2019
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

For fans of Stephen King’s Misery and Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman comes an engrossing thriller about a monster who becomes a victim and a victim who becomes a monster. From Patrick Senécal, the Quebec author who has sold over a million books worldwide.

One sunny fall day, Dr. Bruno Hamel’s life changes forever.

His beloved seven-year-old daughter, Jasmine, is the victim of a tragic crime. Grief-stricken, Hamel sets in play a meticulous plan. He will kidnap the man responsible for his daughter’s death and make him pay horribly for what he has done. He manages to ambush a police transport and disappear with his target.

But Hamel hasn’t accounted for Hervé Mercure, a detective with a troubled past who becomes certain he can track down Hamel by studying clues in his past—and in the increasingly unsettling phone calls Hamel makes to his partner, Sylvie.

Both riveting and provocative, this daring thriller is an enthralling meditation on what it means to be human—and to battle the monster within and without.

Review:

I have to start this review with some trigger warnings. This book includes the rape and murder of a young girl and graphic torture of a man. There was one point that I almost had to put down the book because the scenes were bothering me, but I skipped a few pages and kept reading.

This story was fascinating because it explored the morality behind killing. Bruno’s daughter was murdered, so he tortured her murderer with the intent to kill him. Is an eye for an eye applicable? Does it justify one death over another? Which one is the worse monster? The one who killed first, or the one who tortured a man for a week? These are difficult questions to think about.

I was expecting a twist to happen at the end. There was a slight surprise, but more the most part it ended the way I expected. Other than some graphic scenes, this was a great crime thriller.

Top Ten Tuesday – Best Books I Read in 2018 That Were Published Before 2018

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 the Best Books I Read in 2018. I made a best of 2018 list yesterday, which divides the books into 3 categories (Adult, Middle Grade, and Young Adult). That post can be found here. This list will be for the best books I read in 2018, but were not published in 2018. Here’s my list:

1. Gimme a Call by Sarah Mlynowski

2. One of Us Is Lying by Karen. M. McManus

3. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

4. Three Dark Crowns by Kendra’s Blake

5. Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo

6. This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

7. Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

8. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and

9. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1) by Michelle Hodkin

10. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

(All photos taken from Goodreads)

Review: Princess in the Spotlight (The Princess Diaries #2)

Title: Princess in the Spotlight (The Princess Diaries #2)
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Library
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 26, 2001
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

She’s just a New York City girl living with her artist mom…
News Flash: Dad is prince of Genovia. (So that’s why a limo meets her at the airport!)

Downer: Dad can’t have any more kids. (So no heir to the throne.)

Shock of the Century: Like it or not, Mia Thermopolis is prime princess material.

Mia must take princess lessons from her dreaded grandmére, the dowager princess of Genovia, who thinks Mia has a thing or two to learn before she steps up to the throne.

Well, her father can lecture her until he’s royal-blue in the face about her princessly duty–no way is she moving to Genovia and leaving Manhattan behind. But what’s a girl to do when her name is Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo?

Review:

There are a lot of changes in Mia’s life in this book. Her mother is pregnant and is planning on marrying her algebra teacher, Mr. Gianini. Her mother plans to have a small wedding at the city hall, but her paternal grandmother takes over the wedding and plans a big event at the Plaza. It was fun to see how everyone reacted to this big wedding (both in anger and excitement), which most people dream of but cannot afford to have.

Mia also has a secret admirer in this book. She hopes it is her crush, but she only finds out who it is at the end of the book.

This book takes place over a very short period of time. It only spans about a week and a half. It is fast paced because the chapters were short and quick to read.

I love rereading this series. Some references are a bit dated, but it is still a great series for young adult readers today.

Best Books of 2018

These are my best books of 2018. These books were published in Canada in 2018. There were so many great books published this year! I divided the books into 3 lists of ten books: Adult, Middle Grade, and Young Adult. It was so hard to choose ten books for each list because there were so many great books! These lists are in no particular order. Here are my lists: