Books Archives - Page 11 of 50 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

By Brookelorren on January 21, 2020January 18, 202039 Comments

Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), where we talk about various book topics every week. Today we’re talking book hauls! I’ve been living my best book life now and have a couple really awesome books in my most recent books. For purposes of this post I’m not going to talk about books I’ve pre-ordered but haven’t received yet (or that are currently on their way in the mail). Let’s get started!

My most recent two acquisitions were Slayer and Chosen by Kiersten White. Back in October of 2018 we had a Top Ten Tuesday topic called “Authors I’d Love to Meet,” and one of the authors I listed was Kiersten White, even though I had never read any of her books before. She always seemed nice on Twitter. I’m happy to report that not only is she extremely nice, she’s also very funny! I got her to sign the two hardback books of hers I own. The others are all digital, which are hard to sign. One out of ten of those authors met, nine to go!

Another one of my recent additions is an ARC copy of The Kingdom of Back! I’ve had the chance to read it already and I had so much to say about this book, my review ended up being 911 words long. It’s definitely different than any of the other books she’s published that are up on Goodreads.

Romanov was on sale for $1.99 earlier this week, and of course, I had to pick it up. I had hoped to get an ARC for this one prior to publication, but was denied, so getting it on sale is the next best thing.

I’m guessing that some of the lists this week might have some serendipitous and strange books on it. Like this one: Legends and Myths from Wales. The book is free on Amazon. Anyway, the book I’m writing is slightly inspired by Wales, and I got this book for research.

I left Audible for a while because I had several books I hadn’t listened to yet and my credits were building up, so I got How to Write Best-Selling Fiction with one of my credits.

Another one of my Audible purchases was 11/22/63 by Stephen King. This book had seemed interesting. I’m somewhat picky at what books I listen to on audiobook. Some books are just easier to absorb through the printed/electronic page, and this one seems like its one that might work well on audio.

Eliza and Her Monsters was another Audible credit I needed to use up. I had been interested in this story for a while, but sometimes there’s not enough time to read all the stories you want. I did have time to listen to the audio version though.

The Summer of Impossibilities is a recent Netgalley acquisition. It’s hard to believe that it’s time to start thinking about summer books again! It is January, and I probably won’t read this for a couple more months, but summer books are on their way!

Finally, Song of the Abyss was on sale for $2.99! It’s one of Kindle’s monthly deals for January. I read Isle of Blood and Stone last year, so hopefully I’ll get around to reading this soon.

I’ve gotten all these books in the last two weeks. I’ve read two of these already and am working on reading a third (How to Write Best-Selling Fiction).

What were the last ten books you’ve obtained? I wonder if this week we’ll see a lot of random books. Next week, we’re talking about books on out TBR that we predict will be five-star reads. See you then!

Tweet Cute

By Brookelorren on January 14, 2020January 14, 2020Leave a Comment

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.

This Light Between Us

By Brookelorren on January 11, 2020January 11, 20202 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to read an Advanced Review Copy of This Light Between Us (thank you Netgalley and Tor Teen!). It’s an important story, historically, which mainly focuses on a Japanese teenager, Alex, whose pen pal is a French Jew. I enjoyed it a lot.

Alex and Charley become pen pals when they’re young. They keep writing to each other as they get older and World War II approaches. Not everything is rosy. Alex and his family are put into Japanese internment camps, while Charley’s letters become more sporadic and her situation becomes more dire as well.

These characters drew me in. Charley is a girl full of life and excitement; Alex is a quiet boy who likes drawing cartoons. I wanted to find out what happens to them. Do they ever get to meet? This book draws you in and makes you want to read more.

I liked the settings in this book as well. Alex grows up in Bainbridge Island, which I’ve been to more than once (although not in the 1940s). The book takes you to Japanese concentration camps and through war-torn Europe (which I’ve also been to, yet not during a war). I didn’t have trouble picturing any of these places. The book does include some French and German in the book, and a very small amount of Japanese. Since I speak German, passable French, and a tiny bit of Japanese, I didn’t have trouble understanding it. I imagine that most people would be able to deduce some of the meaning from the context.

The following paragraph contains a minor spoiler. Not everybody in this book lives happily ever after. If you’re looking for a story that leaves you with joy and happy tears, this isn’t the one. However, it does have a realistic ending.

If you’re looking for a book that takes you into the head of someone in World War II, I highly recommend This Light Between Us. Not enough time has been spent in most history classes talking about the Japanese internment camps in World War II, which is a shame. This book does exaggerate a few historical details, but it does include many that were true (I sometimes look these things up and I love history).

Another book similar to This Light Between Us, where a large part of the story takes place during World War II in an internment camp, is The Last Year of the War (I linked to the review). Although this book is classified YA, this is a book that would also hold interest for adults that don’t often read YA as well (the main character is around 19-20 at the end of the story).

Beat the Backlist 2020!

By Brookelorren on January 7, 2020January 7, 20204 Comments

So we’re a week into 2020 and I think I’ve settled on the challenges I want to do this year. Fortunately, most of them run simultaneously. Here are the reading challenges I’m joining in on:

Beat the Backlist by NovelKnight.

Goodreads challenge: 110 books.

#ArmedWithABingo on Twitter.

These challenges are available to anybody that wants to join.

If you decide to do any of these too, good luck!

Most Anticipated Books of Early 2020

By Brookelorren on January 7, 2020January 6, 202022 Comments

It’s Tuesday again, which means it’s time to fangirl about books (or fanboy, in some cases). Today on Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) we’re going to talk about our “Most Anticipated Books of the First Half of 2020”. A lot of times I have difficulty coming up with ten books that I’m looking forward to in the next six months, but I came up with 10 this year.

I’m so looking forward to Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Gold. I pre-ordered it in 2018, and finally… we’re less than 2 months away from its release date!

Then there’s The Kingdom of Back, another March 3rd release. I know there’s going to be some overlap on this list with Books I Hope to Haul in 2020, but there are just some books I can’t stop looking forward to.

Renée Ahdieh’s The Damned is supposed to come out on June 9th, which is the first half of the year. I liked The Beautiful and am looking forward to reading this one.

I thought about putting Four Dead Queens on my favorite books of 2019 list, but it was definitely good enough for me to read Astrid Scholte’s The Vanishing Deep, which comes out… March 3rd. I pre-ordered this book on audiobook, because I just don’t have enough time to read all these March 3rd releases.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky comes out on June 30th… which counts as the first half of this year. I have an ARC of this book, but I haven’t had the chance to read this one yet.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes covers the tenth Hunger Games. I’m looking forward to reading about the early days of this dystopian society.

Veronica Roth is one of my auto-buy authors, and I can’t wait to read about Chosen Ones, her adult debut.

I adored Sky Without Stars, and am so looking forward to the conclusion, Between Burning Worlds. This is another March release, but it’s not coming out until March 24th, so I have a little bit of breathing room between that and the deluge of March 3rd releases.

Spectacle was one of my favorite books from 2019 and although I have an ARC for the sequel, Sensational, I haven’t had the chance to read it yet. This one comes out in February!

Today, Tonight, Tomorrow by Rachael Lynn Solomon sounds so good. I always love enemies to lovers stories… and one set around graduation? Sounds good.

So those are some of my most anticipated books for the first half of 2020! Next week we’re going to talk about bookish discoveries I made in 2019. I’m not sure how I’m going to interpret that one yet, but we’ll see what we come up with! What books are you looking forward to this year? I’m sure my TBR is going to expand this week.

Father of Lions

By Brookelorren on January 5, 2020December 29, 20192 Comments

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 January 4, 20201 Comment

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.

January 2020 Kindle Deals

By Brookelorren on January 4, 2020January 4, 20202 Comments

A new month has arrived, which means its time for more Kindle Monthly Deals! Lately, the monthly deals haven’t seemed as useful to me. The format was messed up so some books that weren’t deals were listed, and I had a lot of them. This month, they seemed to have fixed the formatting in some categories, at least. So here are a few of the ones I’d like to highlight for this month:

There are two books to Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Dark Elements series on sale this month. Bitter Sweet Love, a prequel novella, can be had for $.99.

White Hot Kiss, the first book in The Dark Elements series, is on sale for $1.99.

These books have been on sale before, and will probably be on sale again. At these prices, if you like Ms. Armentrout’s books and you haven’t purchased them yet, they’re hard to pass up.

I’ve seen The Beantown Girls on several Top Ten Tuesday lists lately, and it looked interesting. This month it’s on sale for $1.99.

The entire Harbinger Series is on sale for $1.99 each. I’ve only read Storm Glass so far, but I really liked it. There are five books in this series, so you can pick up the entire set for $10. This series is on sale a lot, so if you don’t get it this month, it will still be around next month.

I’ve seen M.K. England’s The Disasters on sale before, but that could change any month, and it’s currently on sale for $1.99. If you’ve wanted to get it, you might want to.

Enchantée, my favorite book I read in 2018, is on sale for $2.99. I don’t have a finished copy (just an ARC), and if I wasn’t planning on getting this duology in hardback, I’d buy this book this month.

Isle of Blood and Stone is on sale this month for $2.99. Now I realize that I’ve never reviewed this book (I’ll have to get on it) but I liked it a lot.

A companion novel to Isle of Blood and Stone, Song of the Abyss, is also on sale for $2.99. I haven’t read this one yet so I had to pick it up.

There are 64 pages of Kindle Monthly deals this month, so obviously, this is just a fraction of what you’ll find on sale, but these are the ones that stood out to me.

Les Misérables

By Brookelorren on January 3, 2020January 2, 20202 Comments

The longest book I read in 2019 was Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo. I had meant to read it for years, but kept putting it off. It’s really long! If I read it in print form, it would have been 1463 pages! Fortunately, I listened to it on audiobook instead. Even still, the version I listened to was 60 hours and 26 minutes long. There are different translations; I bought this one.

If someone were to try to query this novel today, they’d have a hard time getting it through an agent, I think. The story is epic in scope, and while it spends a lot of time focused on Jean Valjean, it meanders and talks about many other characters that touched his life in one way or another, digresses into discussions about topics as varied as slang and nunneries around the time of the French Revolution, and is VERY long. Still, the writing is brilliant, the characters are vivid, and yes, he does make discussions of French slang interesting. I’m glad he didn’t have to query this book today, because the world is better for this masterpiece.

Les Misérables inspired some of my favorite books, including Legend and Sky Without Stars, which was one of the reasons I was so eager to read this book. Now that I’ve read Victor Hugo’s original, I can say that those books I love so much were loosely based on this book. They all have a guy trying to chase down a criminal, and seem to have a compassion for people desperate to eke out a living, and not a lot else. Still, all three are worth reading.

What I Liked About This Book

There are many things I liked about this book. For one, I loved the setting. Les Misérables is located in many places around France in the decades after the French Revolution, but Hugo brings them to life. I’ll never be able to travel to this time and place in history, but I feel like I visited virtually. Since Hugo lived during this time, I’m sure he’s fairly accurate on the details.

The characters are wonderful and varied. There’s a saintly bishop, a girl who, after making a small mistake in falling in love with the wrong person, is left with a child she cannot care for, and an unscrupulous innkeeper. Of course, there’s also Jean Valjean, a hardened convict turned saint, and his pursuer, Inspector Javert. Looking back from our time, we realize Monsieur Valjean shouldn’t have been sent to prison in the first place, but that was common back then. Then again, less than 100 years prior to this story, cat-burning was an acceptable form of entertainment too.

I also enjoyed the epic scope of this book, even though at times, I wasn’t sure where the book was going. The characters’ lives all intertwine in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. The love of one bishop touches the life of Jean Valjean, who touches other lives. Perhaps that’s a point of the book. Our lives touch others in many ways, for good and bad.

What I Didn’t Like About the Book

I don’t really have anything bad to say about this book, although I would have liked to know more about Thénardier’s sons and what ultimately happened to them. But that’s really a small criticism for a book this long.

About the Audiobook

I listened to this book on audiobook, which has its good and bad points. It made a book of this length easy to digest, especially when trying to read other books too. However, it made some of the French words difficult to listen to. I speak a bit of French, but not enough to hear all the French words and know how to spell them. Or sometimes keep them apart. I tend to find learning things by looking at the written word easier than processing things audibly. Your mileage on the audiobook/printed book may vary. The narrator, George Guidall, did an outstanding job pronouncing all the French words. There are other audiobook versions, but that’s the one I listened to.

Conclusion

If Les Misérables is one of those books you’ve been meaning to read for years, I say go for it. It can be difficult because of its length and age, but it’s worth the trouble. I don’t think it’s a book I’ll reread every year, but I’m glad I read it at least once. There are certainly other classics worth reading, but if you’ve been on the fence about this one, it’s worth the read.

Favorite Books from the 2010s

By Brookelorren on January 2, 2020January 2, 20202 Comments

At the beginning of the year, I always like to look back on the year before. What were my favorites? What happened? Back when I had my old blog, I’d cover the top news events of the previous year, or celebrities we lost, but now I mainly write about books. Since we’re now into a new decade, I guess I’ll take some time to reflect on my favorite books of the decade.

This was harder to do than my favorite books from the previous year. Especially when I decided to only list books that were published in the last decade, which excludes The Fourth Turning (published in 1997). But I came up with a list that, although I could probably quibble with some of the entries at the bottom of the list, reflects many of the books that I’ll look back on and remember fondly (or plan on another reread).

Unless otherwise specified, when I list the beginning book of a series, the entire series is included in that spot.

10. The Young Elites – Marie Lu. This was the hardest slot to pick, because there were several books that could have gone here. I especially liked the second and third books in this series. I’m looking forward to a reread this year.

9. The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey (first book only). I loved the first book so much, but the second and third books in this series were probably the most disappointing sequels of the decade. This book was my second favorite book of those I read in 2016.

8. Sky Without Stars – Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell. I read a lot more books in the final couple of years of the decade than I did in the first few years, although I’ve always been reading books. Sky Without Stars is probably the book I’m looking forward to rereading the most this year.

7. Enchantée – Gita Trelease. J’adore this book! It was my favorite book I read in 2018. Ms. Trelease has postponed the release of the sequel to this book, Liberté, until early 2021, which is disappointing, but I’ll probably end up rereading this book later this year.

6. The Cruel Prince – Holly Black. This is another series I’ll definitely have to reread at some point. Jude and Cardan are both terrible people, but they belong together. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait until this month to read its conclusion.

5. An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir. Like many people, I’m impatiently waiting the fourth book in this tetralogy. I know she’s working on this, but it doesn’t make waiting easier. I read the first three books in one week (and these are not small books). I’ll have to reread these before its conclusion comes out (hopefully 2021?).

4. The Twelfth Imam – Joel C. Rosenberg. This series came out when I wasn’t reading that many books per year (a couple a month instead of a couple a week). I loved the relationship between David and Marseilles. I’ll have to reread this series at some point, as it’s been a while since I read it.

3. The Infernal Devices – Cassandra Clare. I’m not sure which Shadowhunter series I liked the best, but The Mortal Instruments came out partially in the 2000s, and I ugly cried the most reading Clockwork Princess, so I had to pick this one.

2. Divergent – Veronica Roth (excluding “We Can Be Mended”). I love this series so much, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read it. But I have read the entire series in Spanish, the first book in German, and the first 50 pages or so in Russian. I’ve read it in English countless times. The only part I don’t love is anything after chapter 50 of Allegiant.

1. Legend – Marie Lu. Yes I love FourTris, but I love Day and June even more. I’m glad this series concluded last year with Rebel; it seems a fitting way to bookend the decade.

So those were my favorite books from the past decade. I’m looking forward to all the amazing books that the ’20s promise to bring!