Jill's Book Blog

Jill’s Weekly Wrap-Up – April 29

Hello Everyone!

So after a year of blogging, I’m going to change things up slightly. I will not be posting a book review on Sundays. I will post my weekly wrap-up and the meme Sundays in Bed with… It has been a great year, but reading a book a day has been hectic. I will still be reviewing books Monday to Saturday because I like the challenge, but I will be slowing it down just a bit so I can sleep sometimes…

Here’s my weekly wrap up!

Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before ★★★★★
Vi ★★★★
You Think It, I’ll Say It ★★★★
The City on the Other Side ★★★★
Love Songs & Other Lies ★★★★
Alex and the Other ★★★★★
The Stone Heart (The Nameless City #2) ★★★★★

I did weekly 2 blogging memes:

I went to a book launch for Joanna Goodman’s awesome new book The Home For Unwanted Girls. I will be posting about that event tomorrow, as well as reviewing the book!

How was your week? What did you guys read?

Sundays in Bed with…

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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 have a cold, so all I want to do it read in bed. I’m curled up with The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Philomena meets Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceit—the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other.

In 1950s Quebec, French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility—much like Maggie Hughes’ parents. Maggie’s English-speaking father has ambitions for his daughter that don’t include marriage to the poor French boy on the next farm over. But Maggie’s heart is captured by Gabriel Phénix. When she becomes pregnant at fifteen, her parents force her to give baby Elodie up for adoption and get her life ‘back on track’.

Elodie is raised in Quebec’s impoverished orphanage system. It’s a precarious enough existence that takes a tragic turn when Elodie, along with thousands of other orphans in Quebec, is declared mentally ill as the result of a new law that provides more funding to psychiatric hospitals than to orphanages. Bright and determined, Elodie withstands abysmal treatment at the nuns’ hands, finally earning her freedom at seventeen, when she is thrust into an alien, often unnerving world.

Maggie, married to a businessman eager to start a family, cannot forget the daughter she was forced to abandon, and a chance reconnection with Gabriel spurs a wrenching choice. As time passes, the stories of Maggie and Elodie intertwine but never touch, until Maggie realizes she must take what she wants from life and go in search of her long-lost daughter, finally reclaiming the truth that has been denied them both.

What book are you in bed with today?

Review: The Stone Heart (The Nameless City #2)

Title: The Stone Heart (The Nameless City #2)
Author: Faith Erin Hicks
Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic Novel
Publisher: First Second
Source: Borrowed from a friend
Release Date: April 4, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Kaidu and Rat have only just recovered from the assassination attempt on the General of All Blades when more chaos breaks loose in the Nameless City: deep conflicts within the Dao nation are making it impossible to find a political solution for the disputed territory of the City itself.

To complicate things further, Kaidu is fairly certain he’s stumbled on a formula for the lost weapon of the mysterious founders of the City. . . . But sharing it with the Dao military would be a complete betrayal of his friendship with Rat. Can Kai find the right solution before the Dao find themselves at war?

Review:

I liked this book much more than the first one.

Since the characters were introduced in the first book, the action began right away. There were conspiracies and betrayals, which made the story very exciting.

We also learned more background information on many characters such as Rat. This explained how she came to be in the position she’s in.

There was a big cliffhanger at the end of the story, so I can’t wait to see what happens when the third installment comes out in the fall!

Review: Alex and The Other

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Title: Alex and The Other
Author: Philippa Dowding
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: Dundurn
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Beware the haunted bathroom mirror at school. Beware strangers in overcoats and dark glasses, whispering in the trees. But most of all, Beware The Other …
Alex is the loneliest boy at school. Not only are his parents away (again), but his beloved cat is missing. Plus, one morning his reflection in the haunted bathroom mirror at school starts talking to him. Then two mysterious strangers in overcoats and sunglasses appear, whispering the same message, over and over: Beware The Other …

But, worse than all that, is the girl with the braid. She looks just like Alex. She’s better than him at everything, and they even share the same name. Soon, she’s the only Alex anyone can see, at school, at work, even at home. In no time, it’s almost as though the real Alex never existed at all.

Can the real Alex outsmart his evil twin and get his life back before she replaces him for good? And more importantly, who is the real Alex, anyway?

Review:

I loved this story!

It’s a very short middle grade book. I read it in about an hour. It is part of a series of weird stories, but I believe they can each be read on their own. I haven’t read the previous books, and I wasn’t missing anything.

This story was really creepy. Pigs can be strange creatures, and after reading this book, I’ll never look at them the same way! (You never know if an alien has taken over the pig’s body!) It really was a spooky, weird story, but it was very entertaining because I didn’t know what was going to happen.

Alex learns a lot throughout the story. People who he thought were bad at first sight ended up helping him, and the ones he thought would help ended up trying to harm him. He also learned that it’s okay to ask for help. Sometimes you can’t do everything on your own, and it’s good to ask for help. These are both important lessons for kids to learn too.

I loved this story! It is great for young readers and adults!

Review: Love Songs & Other Lies

Title: Love Songs & Other Lies
Author: Jessica Pennington
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Tor Books
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

It’s summer romance and second chances, the songs that stay in your head, and the boy you’ll never forget.

Two years after rock-song-worthy heartbreak, Virginia Miller is looking forward to a fun, carefree summer. Her friends just landed a spot on a battling bands reality show, and Vee is joining them for her dream internship on tour. Three months with future rockstars seems like an epic summer plan. Until she learns she’ll also be sharing the bus with Cam. Her first love, and her first heartbreak. Now Vee has more than just cameras to dodge, and Cam’s determination to win her forgiveness is causing TMZ-worthy problems for both of them. With cameras rolling, she’ll have to decide if her favorite breakup anthem deserves a new ending. And if she’s brave enough to expose her own secrets to keep Cam’s under wraps.

Review:

I really enjoyed this YA story.

I liked the concept of Virginia traveling around on the tour bus with her friends. This kind of band tour is completely new to me, so I liked learning about it, especially the behind-the-scenes aspects of a reality show. It’s unfortunate for Vee that the bus was completely full of guys. And it’s also unfortunate that her best friend lied to her to get her there.

I liked Virginia too, and it’s too bad that her friends were jerks. I didn’t like Logan. He had an awkward place in the story as Vee’s friend/sometimes fake boyfriend. At first I didn’t like Cam, but he grew on me. Even though he made bad decisions, I don’t think he was a bad guy.

I recommend this story for anyone looking for a light YA romantic read.

Waiting on Wednesday – April 25

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 Brightsiders by Jen Wilde.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A teen rockstar has to navigate family, love, coming out, and life in the spotlight after being labeled the latest celebrity trainwreck in Jen Wilde’s quirky and utterly relatable novel.

As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck.

Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.

Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?

What books are you waiting on this week?

Review: The City on the Other Side

Title: The City on the Other Side
Author: Mairghread Scott
Genre: Middle Grade, Graphic Novel
Publisher: First Second
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When a wealthy and sheltered young girl stumbles into a pitched war between two fairy kingdoms, the fate of San Francisco itself hangs in the balance!

The first decade of the twentieth century is coming to a close, and San Francisco is still recovering from the great earthquake of 1906. Isabel watched the destruction safely from her window, sheltered within her high-society world.

Isabel isn’t the kind of girl who goes on adventures. But that all changes when she stumbles through the invisible barrier that separates the human world from the fairy world. She quickly finds herself caught up in an age-old war and fighting on the side of the Seelie—the good fairies.

Review:

I really enjoyed this middle grade fantasy graphic novel!

Isabel crossed the barrier between the human world and the fairy world. There are two types of fairies, the Seelies and the Unseelies. It was hard to distinguish between the Seelie and Unseelie because each fairy was a different creature and they didn’t have any defining characteristics.

Isabel was a great character. She gained a lot of strength while in the fairy world. She had to problem solve to find the princess. She was also a very dedicated girl, since she didn’t give up on her quest to find the princess, though she didn’t know anything about that world.

I loved that there was an explanation of the creation of the story at the end. It explained the setting of San Francisco and the earthquake that happened in 1906. It also explained that many different fairies were inspired by mythological creatures. This was so helpful, because I was wondering why they all had such unusual appearances.

This is a great graphic novel for middle grade readers!

Review: You Think It, I’ll Say It

Title: You Think It, I’ll Say It
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Genre: Fiction, Short Stories
Publisher: Random House
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

‘Most people I know who have read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld would read anything else the woman wrote, me included’ The Times

In ‘The World Has Many Butterflies’, a married woman flirts with a man she meets at parties by playing You think it, I’ll say it, putting into words the bitchy things she guesses he’s thinking about their fellow guests. But she is in for a shock when, in time, she finds out what was really in his mind. ‘The Nominee’ sees Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, confessing her surprising true feelings about a woman journalist she has sparred with over the years. In ‘Gender Studies’, a visiting academic sleeps with her taxi driver, for what turns out to be all the wrong reasons.

The theme that unites these stories in this dazzling first collection by Curtis Sittenfeld is how even the cleverest people tend to misread others, and how much we all deceive ourselves. Sharp and tender, funny and wise, this collection shows Sittenfeld’s knack for creating real, believable characters that spring off the page, while also skewering contemporary mores with brilliant dry wit.

Review:

I loved Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Elgible! It is one of my favourite Pride and Prejudice adaptations. So I was excited to read her new collection of short stories.

I really enjoyed these stories. The stories all give the same message at the end: people are often misjudged, either by ourselves or others. This was more obvious in some of the stories than others. This message became clear in the second story entitled “The World Has Many Butterflies.” In that story a man and woman play a game which they call “I’ll Think It, You Say It,” where the woman judges people nearby, presumably saying what the man thinks about them. After that story, I understood the point of the collection.

Some of the stories were so detailed and hooked me right away, so I was left wanting more. I loved “Plausible Deniability.” It had a great twist that I didn’t see coming. “A Regular Couple” was also good, and kept me holding my breath to see how it would end. These stories could be expanded into great novels.

I liked this collection! It is clever and entertaining.

Top Ten Tuesday – Frequently Used Words In Thriller Titles

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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 Frequently Used Words In Thriller Titles. Here’s my list:

1. Girl

2. Gone

3. Dark

4. Woman

5. Lying

6. Secret

7. Mother

8. Sister

9. Dead Girls

10. Perfect

(all images taken from Goodreads)

Review: Vi

Title: Vi
Author: Kim Thúy
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: April 10, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The perfect complement to the exquisitely wrought novels Ruand Man , Canada Reads-winner Kim Thuy returns with Vi , once more exploring the lives, loves and struggles of Vietnamese refugees as they reinvent themselves in new lands.

The youngest of four children and the only girl, Vi was given a name that meant “precious, tiny one,” destined to be cosseted and protected, the family’s little treasure.
Daughter of an enterprising mother and a wealthy and spoiled father who never had to grow up, the Vietnam war tears their family asunder. While Vi and many of her family members escape, her father stays behind, and her family must fend for themselves in Canada.
While her mother and brothers put down roots, life has different plans for Vi. As a young woman, she finds the world opening up to her. Taken under the wing of Ha, a worldly family friend and diplomat lover, Vi tests personal boundaries and crosses international ones, letting the winds of life buffet her. From Saigon to Montreal, from Suzhou to Boston to the fall of the Berlin Wall, she is witness to the immensity of the world, the intricate fabric of humanity, the complexity of love, the infinite possibilities before her. Ever the quiet observer, somehow she must find a way to finally take her place in the world.

Review:

I’ve never read a Kim Thuy book before, but she’s won many awards. Her books are translated from French into English and Vietnamese. This makes it a unique experience since it is not in the original language. The language was still poetic and beautiful, so I don’t think anything was lost in the translation.

The story moved quickly. Everything in it was so new to me because I don’t know much about Vietnamese culture. There were small stories that weren’t about Vi’s family, but that framed the atmosphere in Vietnam at the time. One example was a story about a young couple who had a Romeo and Juliet style romance. At times the story was confusing because it jumped from one time and place to another, but the overall story was enjoyable.

The format of the story was confusing to me. I was reading an e-ARC, so it may have been a problem with my file, so I didn’t include this in my rating. I’m curious to see a hard copy of the book to see how it looks on paper.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it!