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When We Were Vikings

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
When We Were Vikings cover

I recently read When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald. A big thanks to Netgalley and Gallery/Scout Press for offering me an Advanced Review Copy! I really enjoyed it, although it was different than anything I’ve ever read before.

Zelda is fascinated by Vikings. Her favorite book is Kepple’s Guide to the Vikings. Early on in the book, she discovers that archaeologists discovered that one of the viking warriors which were once thought to be a male was actually female, and she finds this very inspiring. Zelda lives with her older brother and thrives on rules and routine. She also happens to have fetal alcohol syndrome.

Throughout the book, we watch, through Zelda’s eyes, as she gains independence and even bravely faces danger.

What I Liked

When We Were Vikings has such a unique voice! I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book from the point of view of someone with an intellectual disability. I did read the Forrest Gump duology, but I think that might be in third person, and that was years ago. Zelda sees the world in a much different way than I do, but she has a fairly good memory, is brave, and is trying to become a better person.

Her brother, Gert, is in a difficult spot, and part of me feels sympathy for him, but part of me doesn’t. He’s faced with the difficult situation of taking care of his sister and dealing with unsavory family members. Gert makes a few bad choices that end up affecting Zelda.

One of the topics that Zelda is interested in is sex. She just turned twenty-one and thinks that she and her boyfriend Marxy might want to try it. It’s a fairly big topic in this book. It’s probably an important topic to include because people some people probably have incorrect ideas about how intellectually disabled people feel on this topic. There is a trigger warning in this book as there is an attempted sexual assault.

Is This Book Controversial?

Although I liked this book, it could potentially be a controversial book. Lately, a lot of people have criticized some authors for writing books with main characters that are unlike them. I personally think we should write the characters in our heart, and if we are writing about someone in another culture, we need to do our best to represent the character well.

I doubt Andrew David MacDonald was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Nevertheless, I think he did a good job in portraying Zelda in a realistic and compassionate way. I only know a few intellectually disabled people, but I would hope they’d like the book. I haven’t heard anybody say this book has inaccuracies, which I have with American Dirt.

Conclusion

When We Were Vikings is the story of an intellectually disabled girl trying to gain her independence, and I recommend it if you’re looking for that kind of story. It does have a happy ending, for the most part, and I am hopeful for this character’s future. It was interesting to step into her head for a while.

Don’t Read the Comments

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments
Don't Read the Comments cover

I have had the hardest time staying on top of my reading schedule lately! Netgalley was kind enough to allow me to read an ARC for Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith, and I finished it two days after it came out! Maybe that’s normal for some people, but I try to review the books by their release date (I have a couple other books to read ASAP too). Anyway, I have to thank them and Inkyard Press for the opportunity to read this book, which I really enjoyed.

Divya is a famous streamer in the Reclaim the Sun fandom. The game sounds really awesome–you drive a spaceship through the galaxy and try to claim one of trillions of planets. It seems like Minecraft in space, except it’s an MMORPG. It helps pay the bills–ever since her parents divorced, finances have been difficult. Divya earns enough money to help pay for rent, food, and her mom’s last semester in college. Things are going okay–until some trolls, who don’t like her as a female gamer, decide to troll her in real life.

Aaron loves playing Reclaim the Sun as well. His parents aren’t hard up for money, but mom wants him to be a doctor. Aaron wants to write for video games instead. He has a job for ManaPunk, an indie gamemaker, only Jason, the head of the company, hasn’t paid him for a lot of the work he’s done.

Video games with villains and trolls? What more could you want? My guess is that, if you loved the Warcross duology, you’ll love this book too. They have a lot of similarities.

Themes

This book had me at video games. Reclaim the Sun as a video game is well fleshed out and is something I think would be cool to play. So many people love to watch video games stream as well. Mr. Smith also included references to Ultima Online–I loved that game. I had a character named Lorren, who was a mage, and I cosplayed her when I went to the UO World’s Faire one year. Fun times. This book was a lot of fun too. They even went to a video game convention in the book.

On a more serious note, this book also tackles the issue of gender harassment in gaming. It’s never been an issue for me, but I understand that it is an issue that some elite gamers face. Page 84 of the January 2018 issue of Wired talks about women in professional eSports like Overwatch and the ladies at the top do face harassment. Divya’s case is probably more extreme, but people do dox one another and it can have some serious consequences. There’s also the problem of “swatting” in the gaming community, which has resulted in people’s deaths.

Another issue Don’t Read the Comments tackles is companies that don’t want to pay for art. There was a recent case, in fact, where Aaron Carter stole art from Jonas Jödicke–Carter told Jödicke that he should feel complimented that his art was stolen. Umm, no. I hope Jödicke sues the pants off him. Anyway, it’s an issue Aaron has to deal with, and deals with magnificently in this book.

Should You Read This Book?

While you probably shouldn’t read the comments if you write a book and people are reviewing your book, you should read Don’t Read the Comments. You should especially read this book if you enjoy gaming or books with gaming like Ready Player One or the Warcross duology. I admit, I haven’t read Ready Player One, but I did see the movie. This is a great book. I haven’t even had time here to talk much about the great characters or setting, but it’s got that going for it as well. I highly recommend this book.

Disappearing Earth

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Disappearing Earth cover

I recently read Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. It was on my TBR lottery because I was interested in reading a book that took place in Russia. The book has won a few awards, but the story itself didn’t really excite me. There were some parts of this story I loved though.

Disappearing Earth fills the slot for contemporary Russia in my Read Around the World Challenge. So far I’ve read contemporary books from 5 countries, so I have a long way to go still.

This is the story of two little girls that disappear on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. It gets into the heads of several different but connected people living in the area. All were affected by this tragedy. The book covers the community for the year after these children go missing.

What I Liked

What I liked about this book primarily had to do with its unique Russian setting. The Kamchatka Peninsula, in case you don’t know, is located on the Eastern coast of Russia, about as far away from Moscow and Saint Petersberg as you can get. While those two cities are quite European, Russia is a huge country and most of its landmass is located in Asia. It also has a very large native population, which reminds me a lot of the Native American population in the United States. Disappearing Earth immerses the reader into this little corner of the world which I haven’t seen too many books about.

The book also briefly touches prejudices that people throughout the world have about “the other.” When the girls go missing, some of whom we’d view as the “typical European Russian” type blame the natives, or people who immigrated to the peninsula after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was interesting to see how people in multiple cultures tend to have the same problems in this way.

What I Didn’t Care For

I didn’t care for the way this story was told. Each chapter is viewed through the eyes of a different narrator. As a result, I never had the chance to become attached to any one person. Their lives pretty much sucked too, and most of them weren’t likeable. Most of them were breaking up with their boyfriends or husbands, cheating on their boyfriends, or making their children stay away from “bad influences” that might have only one parent around most of the time. The one sympathetic character was the little girl whose best friend wasn’t allowed to speak to her anymore. I might have felt a little sympathy for the lady that lost her dog, but then she acted like a total witch, breaking any care I had for her. After reading this book, I’m certainly not going to rush out to find a Kamchatkan pen pal.

In many of these chapters, the characters had something they were dealing with, like a potential tumor or the missing dog or the loss of their friend, and I might want to find out what happened to them. However, each character only has one chapter from their point of view, so you never get to find out what happened to them. Another character might mention them in passing, but we never find out how their situations resolved.

Conclusion

I liked the ending. We do get to find out in the end what happened to the girls (yay!). The setting was great. However, the story itself: the characters, the situations that happened to them, etc., really didn’t draw me in. If you’re reading the book for the unique Kamchatka setting, then you might like it. I find it sad that I couldn’t really click with the characters and their situations.

Tweet Cute

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
Tweet Cute cover

When I first saw Tweet Cute up at Netgalley, I knew I had to read it. Fortunately, thanks to them and St. Martin’s Press, I was given an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved it! It’s described as the story of two people who fall in love while sparring on Twitter with witty remarks, but there’s a lot more to this story.

The characters Pepper and Jack are great together. They’re also nicely fleshed out. Pepper is trying to get good grades, which she might take a little too seriously, while Jack is an identical twin who feels like he’s in his brother’s shadow. Their worries are typical of teenagers. I never had to worry about participating in my parent’s business like these two do, but I’m sure that could add a lot of stress to an already stressful senior year.

The enemies-to-lovers romance is well-done, and I can definitely see these two getting together. The story takes place over most of a year, and I love how their Twitter war is first personal, then becomes a game, then goes a little too far.

Although Tweet Cute seems like an adorable story about high school seniors falling in love (and there’s plenty of that deliciousness going on), there’s a lot more depth to this story than the description lets on. It’s a story about family, including parents and siblings that can make life difficult at times, the good and bad things about social media, and misunderstandings with classmates. I didn’t expect this when I started reading it.

If you love food, Tweet Cute is full of gorgeous desserts and yummy deli meals. You might just get hungry reading it. In addition to Pepper and Jack’s parents owning restaurants, Pepper and her sister love to bake. This is one of those books that, if you love to cook, you might just try making some of these recipes yourself.

I personally am not a foodie, but I do like computers and tweet a lot. I was particularly drawn to the computer and technology aspects of this book. Jack is an app developer, and there’s a lot of communication via social media.

There are plenty of reasons to read Tweet Cute. Read it to drool over the gorgeous recipes. The love story between Pepper and Jack is cute. The Twitter conversations and snark is fun. Should I go on? I thought this story was fun. It had a depth to it I wasn’t expecting. It comes out on January 21st, but you can pre-order it now.

Father of Lions

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Father of Lions cover

I recently read Father of Lions, which is about how one man saved some of the animals from the Mosul Zoo. Thank you Bookish First for an Advanced Reader Copy! I was able to get 15 free books from them in 2019; if you’d like to get free books too, you can sign up too, and if you use referral code 56cf541090ca608b4 you can help me get free books too! Anyway, this book takes place in Iraq, which helps me cover that country for my Read Around the World Challenge.

In the last few years, you may have heard the story about how ISIS took over much of the Middle East (and has been ousted from most of the area now). I never really thought about what it would have been like to live through it. This story allows you to feel what it would have been like to live in that area when religious extremists take over.

It primarily follows Abu Laith, an animal lover known as “the father of lions” who looks a little like a lion himself. Most of his zoological education came from The National Geographic Channel. That doesn’t stop him from buying a lion cub and becoming a self-proclaimed zookeeper. The actual owner of the Mosul zoo lives far away and is mostly concerned about the money the zoo brings in. I like this character and his concern for animals.

The world turns upside down when ISIS takes over the city. The residents welcome them at first. ISIS is friendly and takes away the roadblocks. Unfortunately, they don’t stay friendly. They start imposing their version of Sharia law, which is quite restrictive. Food and other resources become scarce. While they have trouble eating, the animals start to starve too.

Abu Laith does the best he can to take care of these animals, even though he’s not trained to care for them. He eventually gets help from outside of the country to save what animals he can. Corruption within the country makes even that difficult. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens.

I liked this book for several reasons. Father of Lions has a unique setting and describes the living experience of living there well. I also like how this was based on a true story. People who are interested in contemporary history, the Middle East, or in animals would love this story. It’s not a YA book, but it’s a book that would interest people of all ages. I definitely recommend it. You can pre-order this book now, even though its release date is January 14th.

Every Other Weekend

By Brookelorren on 1 Comment
Every Other Weekend cover

Teens have a lot of problems to deal with. Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson deals with topics that far too many of them face. I recently had the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review (thank you Netgalley and Harlequin TEEN/Inkyard Press for the opportunity!). I enjoyed this book, which deals with a lot of these topics.

Adam’s parents are separated. He insists that they’re not getting a divorce. Jolene’s parents are divorced. One weekend, they find themselves moving into the same apartment building. Their parents have the same custody arrangement: every other weekend. Over the course of the year, they develop a friendship (which slowly grows into more), learn about life, and deal with problems that many teens face.

Good Things

If you were to break down this book into topics teens face, you’d run into quite a few. Some of the topics covered in this book include parental divorce, forgiveness, and dealing with adults that try to take advantage of their perceived authority. This book also covers being honest with yourself. But this book isn’t preachy.

The characters are great. The male MC, Adam, has anger issues with his parents. The female MC, Jolene, comes with a whole family full of baggage. They work well together, and their fears about the future are valid. I especially wanted to hug Jolene sometimes. She’s so excited about film, yet who knows whether she’ll be able to get into the film program she wants to get into? Her parents are trash.

Adam’s story unfolds slowly, leaving us to wonder for most of the book what happened to cause his parents to separate. I won’t spoil anything here, but I will say I had an aunt and uncle who went through something similar, and it really can be difficult on the family.

I also enjoyed the voices of the characters. We get to read this story from both Adam’s and Jolene’s points of view. I did sometimes get them mixed up? But it wasn’t too big of a deal.

Trigger Warnings

There is an attempted sexual assault in Every Other Weekend, which could be a trigger for some people. You can probably figure out what’s going to happen from a mile away, and it is stopped before it goes too far. However, if that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to skip the chapter it occurs in (which you can probably guess?).

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a feel-good book with teens dealing with separated parents, I highly recommend Every Other Weekend. There were points in this book where I didn’t want to put it down, and I wanted to read just one more chapter. It has great characters, deals with important topics, and is written in a style that made me not want to put it down. The book also has a satisfying and realistic ending. I’d also like to read other books by this author someday.

Every Other Weekend comes out on January 7th.

Echoes Between Us

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Echoes Between Us cover

I recently read Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry. Thank you Bookish First for the Advanced Reader Copy (I love you Bookish First!). If you’d like the opportunity to get free books from them in 2020, you can use referral code 56cf541090ca608b4 and get your own books too (and help me too). I enjoyed this book and am passing on my copy to my niece.

Veronica is a girl who has a secret. She has a brain tumor… and sees ghosts. Some people think she’s weird, but she pretty much likes to do her own thing. The upcoming school year promises to be lonely for her, as her friends are either going off to college or attending high school part-time. It’s going to be a challenge to find someone to do the senior English paper with.

Sawyer is a swimmer; at first glance, you’d think he had everything. He has a secret too: his mom drinks a little too much on the weekends, and he has to care for his younger sister Lucy a lot. When he moves into Veronica’s first floor (which is said to be haunted), their paths cross. Over times, they discover they have feelings for each other.

There are a lot of things I like about this book. The first thing that stuck out to me about this book was the author’s voice. It had a quality that made me want to read more and laugh out loud at times. The other things I liked about this story was the characters and what they go through. The characters were likeable and sympathetic.

Another thing I liked about this book is the situations the characters had to deal with. Veronica believes she’s dying of a brain tumor. Sawyer has an addiction to jumping off cliffs into water; he also has to deal with his mother’s alcoholism. Fortunately, I’ve never had to deal with either of these situations, but these are serious problems that some people have to deal with. The ghosts add interest to the story.

Although this book isn’t heavy on setting (except for a few haunted places) the rest of the story makes up for it. I enjoyed it a lot and highly recommend it if you’re looking for a contemporary YA book. There were places in this book where I didn’t want to put it down. Echoes Between Us doesn’t come out until January 14, 2020, but you can pre-order it now.

The Christmas Pact

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Christmas is merely days away, and if you’re looking for something cheery to listen to over the holiday season, you might be interested in listening to one of December’s free Audible Original selections, The Christmas Pact. It’s a cute story about two people who have similar names: Riley Kennedy and Kennedy Riley. They work for the same company, although in different locations. Sometimes their email gets misdirected. Kennedy seems like a jerk: he often reads her email and forwards it with unsolicited advice. Although Riley tries to avoid Kennedy at the company Christmas party, their paths cross.

After Riley mentions that she’s going home for the holidays, Kennedy has an idea. What if Kennedy pretends to be her boyfriend? Riley felt like her mom was disappointed in her because she was single. In return, Riley could accompany him to his brother’s wedding.

And so, the fake dating scheme has begun. As their plan commences, they begin to enjoy each other’s company. They both have pasts that complicate their ability to have relationships with other people. By the time they return to work, they’ve fallen for each other. Neither of them decides to pursue the relationship though. Is that the end for the two? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

The Christmas Pact is only 2 hours and 54 minutes long, so it’s an easy book to get into and finish before Christmas. If you sign up for an Audible membership, it’s free, otherwise you can buy it without a membership. It will be available on Audible Escape in January (after the holidays).

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
Blue Lily Lily Blue cover

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in the fantastic Raven Cycle. I could just save you the time and tell you to read the entire series, but then this review would be really short, right?

Instead, I’m first going to warn you that this post contains spoilers for The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves. If you haven’t read them yet, then don’t read on unless you want spoilers.

Okay, so now that I’ve got all the people who don’t mind spoilers, let’s move on. Blue’s mother is missing! This series is getting a little dangerous. So now the search is getting a little more desperate. In addition to looking for the Welsh king, they now have to find Blue’s mom. Fortunately, they’re probably both located in a magical cave.

In this book, we get to meet Gansey’s older friend Malory, along with a few other characters. Like the rest of the books in this series, the characters are great. I absolutely love how Stiefvater deals with the friend dynamics in this story. Blue and Adam were once an item, but over time, she and Gansey start having feelings for each other. That whole transition phase takes a bit of an adjustment, but I think in real life you’d see that too. We have another couple with a developing relationship in this book, but I’m not giving away spoilers… and this series is a very slow burn in the romance department. But if you’re Blue, do you blame her? If she kisses her true love, he’s going to die!

They’re getting closer to graduation, and some of them have to start worrying about their futures. Blue and Adam have to start worrying, in particular. Blue realizes that her family just doesn’t have the finances for her to go to any school that she’s interested in, and Adam has to worry about finances now. That’s going to cause problems. Adam’s father is a jerk too… more problems.

And then we have another villain, of course.

I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but I will say that, even though I borrowed most of the books from this series from the library, I bought The Raven King. I think it was because the library didn’t have it immediately available and I didn’t want to wait. And you’re going to want to finish this series too, because the book ends in a semi-significant cliffhanger. Blue Lily, Lily Blue does wrap up a lot of its issues, but more are coming. You’ll want to have the next book available if at all possible. At any rate, this is a great series and I wanted to continue reading straight through this one.

I have reviewed the earlier books in this series:

The Dream Thieves

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
The Dream Thieves cover

2019 has been a pretty good reading year. One of the books I got to read this year was The Dream Thieves, the second book in The Raven Cycle. This book centers around Ronan. Before we continue, this book contains spoilers for The Raven Boys (link is to that review). So don’t read on if you haven’t read the first book and don’t want spoilers for it.

Okay, so now that we only have people that have read book 1 or are okay with spoilers, let’s continue. The Dream Thieves focuses on Ronan, whom we discovered can take things out of dreams. Being a dreamer can be dangerous, we find out in this book. A treacherous man is searching for him. Although they’re sometimes wild and uncontrollable, Ronan learns how to better harness his dream power in this book.

In addition to Ronan’s dreams, The Dream Thieves further unfolds the drama surrounding Blue and the true love she’ll kill when she kisses him. From the first book, we know who is destined to be Blue’s true love, although she’s with Adam. She won’t kiss him because she doesn’t want to kill him, but she doesn’t want to tell him about her curse either. There is a little bit of kissing in this book (not Blue and Adam though). Nobody dies from kissing yet. You’ll have to read on in this series.

Aaaah! How will this end? Fortunately, since the entire series is out, you don’t have to wait to find out. I loved this book and this series. These characters are great. The book is humorous. I wrote down more than two pages of quotes and reactions from this book in my book journal, including passages like:

Matthew Lynch was a golden, indiscriminate pit into which the world threw food.

The Dream Thieves, p. 170

This book makes you want to keep reading more. Will Blue realize who her true love is? How will that work out? Will Ronan be safe? And they’re still looking for the Welsh king… will Gansey find him and get his wish?

Oh, and you’ll be glad you don’t have to wait another year to read the next book. You might want to be prepared to read that right after this one.

If you liked The Raven Boys, then I highly recommend you continue on with The Dream Thieves. Especially if you like Ronan (but who doesn’t like them all?). It has magic, romantic drama, family drama, killers with a soft side to them, rich private school drama, and more.

My review of the first book in the series, The Raven Boys, is available here.