Books Archives - Page 15 of 50 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Naughts & Crosses

By Brookelorren on November 14, 2019November 10, 2019Leave a Comment

What would life be like if hardcore racism still ran amok, except darker-skinned people had all the power and white people didn’t? This is the story of Naughts & Crosses.

Callum is a naught, or a white person in this world. His best friend in the whole wide world is Sephy, who is a cross. Callum’s mother used to work for Sephy’s family and they grew up together. When they were young, they didn’t think anything of it. As they grew older, they had to sneak off to be together.

Things start to get real when Callum and a few other naughts are allowed into Sephy’s school. It was really just a political move; the crosses don’t really want them there. Callum believes that he needs to pretend that he’s not Sephy’s friend when they’re at school, yet Sephy doesn’t understand why. This causes a lot of problems, because nobody thinks naughts and crosses should be friends.

At the same time, a group of naught terrorists is trying to fight for equality using violence. Tragically, they are pulled apart over time, even though in their hearts, they still love each other. I won’t tell you how their story ends, but this is not the book to read if you’re looking for a traditional happily ever after.

This is one of those books that is designed to make you think. A lot of the events in this book must have been inspired by history, such as the integration of schools in the United States, where the national guard had to be called in to ensure the black kids got to school safely. The Liberation Militia, the terrorist group of naughts in this story, could have been inspired by the more violently minded wing of the civil rights movement. There were little details, such as band-aids coming in colors for light-skinned people, that were also brought up in this book. My son experienced this the other day; some of his Halloween makeup was unusable because it was made for white people.

I enjoyed the book and the pages practically flew by. Will I read the next four books in the series? Maybe. The main characters in the next stories are different and so it’s not my top priority though.

While I don’t know about the rest of the series, I recommend Naughts & Crosses. Don’t read this book if you’re in the mood for a happily ever after, but if you’re in the mood for a tragedy that makes you think, this might be just the book for you.

Bookmarks!

By Brookelorren on November 12, 2019November 10, 201926 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books! This week’s topic is “Favorite Bookmarks” but since I really don’t have ten of those to talk about, I’m going to talk about bookmarks in general. What I use, which ones I want, etc.

Magnetic bookmarks are sometimesthe cutest! I got some for Christmas last year. Here’s June from Legend, who currently resides in my Spanish copy of The Midnight Star. I try to keep the bookmarks with their author, at least.

Of course, if I have June, I also have to have Day. He currently lives in my hardback copy of Prodigy.

Then I have these adorable Shadowhunter bookmarks. They’re usually my go-to bookmarks when I’m reading a physical book (since Day and June are otherwise occupied). They came in a set of seven, but a few of them are hanging out in books somewhere and I don’t know where I left them. One of the good things I like about these magnetic bookmarks is that I don’t lose them. I’ve learned to put them in the front of the book while I’m reading them. Unfortunately, if I forget to take them out of a book when I’m done reading it, I end up losing track of them. But they’re somewhere.

Here’s another one of my Shadowhunter bookmarks, currently hanging out in Clockwork Angel.

I have this set of four Bible magnetic bookmarks. One of them is appropriately… in my Bible. The other one is hanging out in my Calendar for Writers.

I was given this bookmark several years ago. I lost it for a while, but I recently found this again. So there’s hope for my missing Shadowhunters, who are currently hiding.

I don’t use my magnetic bookmarks when reading magazines. I’d probably end up losing them easily that way. For those, I like to use National Geographic inserts. They’re fairly large, and fit into magazines fairly well. I keep a couple of them on hand most of the time. They work better than scraps of paper or the smaller magazine inserts, and I don’t have to worry about whether they get lost.

I don’t have these bookmarks, but they’re on my Christmas list. These are of Cyra and Akos from Carve the Mark. You can get them on Etsy.

These Cruel Prince bookmarks are adorable as well. I don’t have them and didn’t ask for them for Christmas, but they are cute.

There used to be these adorable Four and Tris bookmarks on Etsy, but they’re no longer available :-(. I did find these cute Van Gogh painting magnetic bookmarks on Amazon though.

As you can see, I really like magnetic bookmarks. Before I found them, I just used random scraps of paper, because I could never keep track of them.

What are your favorite bookmarks? Do you use magnetic bookmarks like I do? Do you know of some really cute book characters on magnetic bookmarks? I’d love to have more of my favorite characters on bookmarks. Looking forward to your responses!

Next week’s topic is “Changes in My Reading Life.” See you then!

Safe Harbour

By Brookelorren on November 11, 2019November 10, 2019Leave a Comment

One of the best things about being a book blogger is that I occasionally get to read a hidden gem like Safe Harbour by Christina Kilbourne. I haven’t seen a lot of marketing for this book, which is sad, because I really liked it. A big thank you to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for the Advanced Reading Copy!

Harbour Mandrayke is on an adventure. For most of her life, she’s been living on a boat with her father near Florida, and now she’s been sent to Toronto, with her dog Tuff, to wait for him. She’s living in a tent, for now, waiting for his arrival. She has plenty of food, if you like tuna and crackers, but he’s late. He was supposed to arrive a couple of weeks ago.

She befriends a homeless girl named Lise, who suspects that things aren’t exactly as Harbour claims they are. As the weeks continue to pass with no sign of Dad, Lise helps Harbour navigate through a world that’s continuing to get colder. As a reader, I’m increasingly wondering what happened. Did something happen to Harbour’s dad? Did he just send his daughter to Toronto to get rid of her?

All of these questions do get answered by the end of the book, which I won’t give away the ending to. Not everything ends up happy for Harbour, but it does have a satisfactory, hopeful ending.

Good Things About Safe Harbour

I have a lot of good things to say about this book. First, I liked the characters. They were believable and likeable. Harbour was intelligent but a little naïve. Lise was caring, as was the librarian.

I also loved the setting of this story. Safe Harbour takes place in Toronto, which fills in the box for Canada in my Read Around the World Challenge. As the book progressed, I could just imagine the Canadian summer change to winter, with the leaves falling and snow eventually blanketing the ground. It made me thankful for this warm house, especially as Harbour toughed it out in a tent.

The book also brings up the subject of homelessness. Why don’t people go to shelters? Can homeless people use libraries? I had to google that last one. Hopefully most of the book’s readers will never have had to worry about sleeping out in the snow in a tent (unless they want to), and reading will be their only experience with this subject.

There were some unexpected twists in this book. There were a couple points where I was like “wait, what?” but by the end of the book everything made sense.

Any Downsides?

There isn’t really anything I can find I didn’t like about this book. I was invested enough in Harbour’s life to want to keep reading, and ended up reading this book in two days.

Conclusion

I’m sad that some books don’t get the marketing they deserve. That’s the case with Safe Harbour. It’s a great book I think a lot of people would like. It comes out on December 10th, but you can pre-order it now.

ABC Book Challenge – S

By Brookelorren on November 10, 2019November 7, 2019Leave a Comment

Hello, and welcome to this week’s ABC Book Challenge! In July, I started going over My Books in Goodreads, and I’ve been highlighting the books I really liked or found interesting. This week is the letter S, and there are a ton of them! I first found this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I believe it was started by The Thrifty Bibliophile.

For almost a year, I’d go visit people’s blogs on Top Ten Tuesday and say “I really need to read a book by Maggie Stiefvater.” I finally read The Raven Boys a couple months ago. Now I should read The Scorpio Races. Maybe I’ll wait until next November though, because the first line is “𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙉𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤, 𝙩𝙤𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙚.”

The Grishaverse books were another series I said I needed to read for forever. I had read a short story by Leigh Bardugo though, so I couldn’t say I had never written any of her stories before. This series was amazing.

I loved Sky Without Stars and have already pre-ordered the sequel, Between Burning Worlds. It’s a story set on another planet in a culture that seems to resemble Paris. J’adored this book!

Skyhunter doesn’t come out until October 6, 2020, but I’ve already pre-ordered my Kindle copy. It isn’t the book I ordered the farthest in advance, Chain of Gold gets that honor (I pre-ordered that book with last year’s Christmas money).

Spectacle was a book that kept me turning the (virtual) pages. It didn’t get a lot of marketing, which was a shame, because it was really good.

I love history, and I’ve heard that SPQR is a good history book. I’ll have to read it someday. Maybe it will win the TBR lottery for this winter.

Strange the Dreamer is a beautiful book with a… strange name. I didn’t know what “beautiful prose” was until I read this book. If you haven’t read it yet, you should.

I almost bought Summer Days and Summer Nights over the summer, until I realized I wouldn’t have time to read it. I originally borrowed it from the library. While it’s not really the time of year to read it now, I would like to read it again.

Switchback sounds like an interesting story about two teens that get lost in the Canadian wilderness. I’m starting to put together my Winter 2019/20 TBR lottery. All the books on today’s list I haven’t read are on that list. Maybe I’ll get to read one of them this winter.

Those are just some of the books that are on My Books on Goodreads that start with the letter S. See you next week!

End of Year Book Tag

By Brookelorren on November 9, 2019November 10, 2019Leave a Comment

The end of the year is coming (actually, the end of the decade) and it’s time for the End of Year Book Tag! Sadly, I don’t know who started this and I forgot where I found it (I googled to find the questions). I thought this would be fun to do. This is one you could do any year!

1. Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

I actually have 6 books that are unfinished. I will probably finish Les Misérables before the year is over (I have 16 hours of listening time left on the audiobook). Another book that I have yet to finish is The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire… but Kindle says I have 92 hours and 52 minutes left to finish that book, so maybe I’ll finish it in 2020. I usually have one novel that I’m reading, but I’ll probably finish at least 10 more of those before the decade is over.

2. Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?

Not really. I do read through the Bible once a year, but I typically start it on January 1st and finish it December 31st. There are a few Christmas books I read, but not necessarily every year.

3. Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?

I pre-ordered The Queen of Nothing immediately after I finished reading The Wicked King. That isn’t the pre-order I’ve had sitting in my Amazon account the longest though. I pre-ordered Chain of Gold with my Christmas money last year. And I’ve also pre-ordered a Kindle copy of Skyhunter, which comes out October 6, 2020; that’s the most far in the future I currently have pre-ordered.

I like to get my pre-orders taken care of well in advance. Since I pay for my books with gift cards, I don’t have to worry about having to come up with a lot of money all at once when there’s a lot of new releases coming out that I have to have.

4. What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

There’s still a lot of books I plan on reading before the end of the year, including Call Down The Hawk, which arrived on Tuesday, and The Queen of Nothing. I haven’t made up my winter 2019/2020 TBR yet, but I do plan on reading Malediction, which my friend Katerina King wrote. But at this point, I’ll probably read at least 12 more books before the end of the year (I usually read at least 2 books a week).

5. Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favorite book of the year?

Maybe? I don’t think so, but last year, the Enchantée ARC came out of the blue towards the end of the year and became my favorite book. The Queen of Nothing has a chance, but probably not. There are a couple books I have yet to read that might make the Top 10 books I read this year though.

6. Have you already started making reading plans for 2020?

I already have 5 ARCs that I’ll read in 2020. Between now and March 3, I’m rereading The Infernal Devices, Ghosts of the Shadow Market, and The Dark Artifices. I would like to reread Rebel, The Young Elites Trilogy, and The Divergent Series next year as well. Then of course I already have five books pre-ordered for next year, and there’ll be a ton of new books coming out to read (and backlist books too!).

So that’s the End of Year book tag! Feel free to do this yourself if you want. If you do end up doing the tag, please tag me so I can see what you came up with!

Dive Smack

By Brookelorren on November 7, 2019November 6, 2019Leave a Comment

Have you ever had one of those books that you think “I really need to read that book.”? For me, Dive Smack was one of those books. It sounded pretty exciting, although it ended up being a different kind of book than I expected. Not in a bad way though.

Theo Mackey has had it kind of rough. His mom died in a fire that he thinks he set; his dad died shortly afterwards. Now he lives with his grandfather, who seems a little crotchety and doesn’t want him hanging out with his uncle (it’s not his biological uncle, but he feels like his uncle).

The only thing he really has going for him is his diving. Even that starts going haywire when he starts getting distracted by a family history project he has to do for school. Soon, he discovers that what he thought was true… really isn’t. What he uncovers will upend his life forever.

What I Liked

This book ended up having quite a lot of thrills and mystery to it. Not everything is as it seems. Even though it was not what I was expecting when I started reading this book, I liked this aspect a lot.

I also liked the characters. Although I don’t read a lot of books with male protagonists, Theo seems like I’d imagine a guy would be like. He’s (understandably) upset over the death of his parents. And he has a thing for a girl. I think the characters in this book were well done. Theo also has rivalries with some of the other boys on his team, which is probably normal? I don’t know; I’ve never been a guy.

Other Things?

I can’t really say I disliked any aspect of Dive Smack, although maybe the pacing could have been a little different at the beginning.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in diving, swimming, thrillers, and arson (reading about it, not doing it or being the victim of it) then you might like Dive Smack. It wasn’t my favorite book of the year, but I liked it well enough to give it four stars on Goodreads. Both the Kindle and hardback prices are pretty good, or it might be available at your library. I found the Kindle edition on sale for $1.99, so I got pretty lucky there.

Books That Give Off Autumn Vibes

By Brookelorren on November 5, 2019November 4, 201922 Comments

Once again it’s Tuesday! Since it’s NaNoWriMo time, it’s a pretty busy Tuesday too. My post is due ASAP, and I’ve written like 10 words today! That’s okay because I am a couple days ahead. Anyway, today’s topic is Books That Give Off Autumn Vibes, and we’ll see if I can get this one out at a decent hour.

I know I’ve mentioned Pumpkinheads a few times in the last couple of weeks, but this is a lovely fall book. It takes place in a pumpkin patch! What could be more fall-like than that?

Books that take place during the school year often remind me about fall. Dive Smack is about a guy on the school diving team. It took me a year to get around to reading it because the premise gave me such fall vibes that I wanted to wait until the fall to read this one.

Fangirl is another book that makes me think about fall, even though it takes place over the course of an entire school year. Maybe it’s because it happens at college, or the book makes me think of Cath, starting her first semester at college, eating energy bars because she’s too anxious to ask about how to get to the cafeteria.

The Grisha Verse books seem to make me think about fall too. Fall in Colorado Springs is kind of a strange thing though: one day it can be 80° outside and the next day there’s a blizzard.

Even though I first read City of Bones in the middle of the summer, the whole Mortal Instruments series seems to have a fall vibe to it. Not only does most of the series take place in the fall, it also has werewolves and vampires. Those creatures seem to scream “fall” to me.

For today’s post, I’ve been going through some of the books I’ve read, especially over the past year. Sky Without Stars seems to jump out at me as having an autumn vibe. It’s dark and cloudy, raining all the time… I don’t know if you can say fall any better (especially if you live in Washington State or places where it’s pretty gloomy this time of year).

The Thousandth Floor is another book that takes place at the beginning of the school year and makes me think of fall thoughts. Plus it takes place in New York City, which kind of makes me think of fall anyway.

Legend is one of those books that takes place mostly in the fall, even though it’s hot. I also read it for the first time in the fall, which maybe is why it makes me think of that season.

I’m not sure what time of year Echoes takes place in, but the two main characters go to school together. The time they’re chased through Berlin kind of makes me think of fall too.

Once I got to this last slot on today’s Top Ten Tuesday, I came up with lots of books that could fit here. Ever the Hunted seems to have an autumn feel to it with me. As with a lot of the books on today’s list, I’m not sure why? Maybe it’s the whole hunting thing.

So that’s today’s Top Ten Tuesday. Next week is favorite bookmarks? I suppose I have some ideas for that. It’ll still be NaNoWriMo though, so I’ll be busy as anything. Until next week (or perhaps before), I’ll see ya!

Color Outside the Lines

By Brookelorren on November 4, 2019November 4, 2019Leave a Comment

Color Outside the Lines was one of the books that I was really excited about at the beginning of this year. My family is an interracial family, and I was looking forward to reading about couples who don’t look like each other. I did enjoy several of the stories; however, it didn’t quite live up to the hype that I initially gave it. Like all anthologies, I enjoyed some stories more than others. Thank you to Edelweiss and Soho Teen for providing me with an advanced reader copy!

The Good

Color Outside the Lines had a lot of variety to the stories. They weren’t all contemporary. Some were contemporary, while others were historical or even science fiction. There were different cultures involved, including made up cultures and there was one story about an adoptive family. Each couple had different challenges.

What I Might Have Liked Better

I like to read love stories with happy endings. I can’t really think of any truly happy endings in this book. At best, there are several that are open-ended and hopeful. There are a few that are heartbreaking though.

In many of the stories, there is a disconnect because of the cultures. You get the feeling that maybe it won’t work out because of the cultural difference. It kinda left me sad because I know that interracial couples today can work out just fine and nobody really cares. If this book had been written twenty-five years ago, I might have agreed with the way these stories are presented, but unless teens are more racist than adults (which I doubt) I think this book places a little more disconnect into intercultural love than actually happens these days? Or maybe I’ve just lived in a little Pollyanna bubble for half my life and everybody else experiences difficulties that I have not.

Overall

Overall, I did enjoy the stories in Color Outside the Lines, although it didn’t quite live up to the hype I placed upon it in my head. The picture of intercultural relationships it seemed to radiate: one where intercultural relationships are hopeful at best and sometimes heartbreaking, and where misunderstandings abound, has not been the situation that I’ve seen. Oddly enough, one of the most hopeful stories, “Something Gay and Magical” was written by Adam Silvara, who wrote They Both Die at the End. Who would see that coming? Although I liked many of the stories, they didn’t really leave me with the same sense of joy that other books like Summer Days and Summer Nights have. It is worth borrowing from the library though.

ABC Book Challenge – R

By Brookelorren on November 3, 2019November 2, 2019Leave a Comment

It’s already November, and NaNoWriMo has begun! Today’s letter for the ABC Book Challenge is R. I’ve always associated the letter R with the tail end of the alphabet and November with the end of the year… it’s hard to believe we’re almost in the 3rd decade of the 21st century! Anyway, in this challenge, I go through My Books on Goodreads and come up with some of the best or most interesting books starting with that letter. I first found this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I think it was started by The Thrifty Bibliophile. Here we go!

It’s kind of fitting that The Raven Boys showed up on this week’s list, because Call Down The Hawk, which takes place in the Raven Boys universe, is coming out on Tuesday! I pre-ordered the book, and I’d like to read it shortly after it comes out, but with NaNoWriMo in full swing, I don’t know how much reading I’ll get done (ARCs take priority).

You might think that I would have highlighted the Rebel book by Marie Lu this week, but since it’s the fourth book in the series, it was covered by the Legend umbrella. At any rate, there were two really good books called Rebel that came out this year, and if you’re interested in a post-Civil War romance, you should check this one out.

I’ve wanted to read Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine for a couple years now. When I first heard about it, there was a waiting list at the library, and now there’s not, so maybe I should just go ahead and borrow it. But since it’s NaNoWriMo, it’ll have to wait a bit longer. This year, I’ve pretty much read books by all of the authors that I’ve often said “I need to read a book by ____”, so maybe it’s time to start reading those books that have been on my TBR for a while too.

The Red Queen series was huge over the past few years, and there was a long wait at the library for each of the books. I haven’t read Broken Throne yet, but perhaps I will at some point in the future.

I’m surprised that I only listed four books this week. I’ll probably make up for it next week with the letter S. There are pages of S books on My Books on Goodreads. It’s going to be hard to narrow them down to a manageable number. But that’s for another week. See you then!

Every Stolen Breath

By Brookelorren on November 2, 2019November 2, 2019Leave a Comment

Wasn’t there a time several years ago where people were organizing mobs on Twitter to attack people? Or maybe that was just me. In Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel, that exact thing is happening, except in this book, the mobs are getting together for murder.

As soon as I read the description for this book, I knew I wanted to read it. Thank you Netgalley and Blink for allowing me to have early access to this title!

A “death mob” killed Lia’s dad several years ago. Now, she knows that they’re going to attack again. She doesn’t want to let them get away with it. She’s found out where the next attack will be, and she’s ready for them. With her cell phone handy and ready to record, she’s going to catch the perpetrators on camera and make sure the police can arrest them.

Only, it doesn’t work out as well as she’d hoped. Somehow, they figure out what she’s doing, and she has to flee to save her life. She loses all her evidence. Does she let that stop her? No. Lia is a strong character with her mind on a mission. She’s determined to bring her dad’s killer’s to justice, even if it puts herself into danger.

This was a great book. What isn’t scarier than people organizing themselves into mobs on Twitter to go out and attack people? Every Stolen Breath is a lot more complicated than that; the group is organized and its fingers reach farther than Lia originally expected. I enjoyed being Lia’s journey as she (sometimes foolhardily) tries to solve this crime spree.

Lia is a great character with a believable life. She is more reckless than I would have been, but unlike in some books where the main character goes out on her own to solve a crime, at least Lia makes an attempt to be careful. She has great friends, and even meets someone along her journey. There’s a little bit of a romantic subplot in this story.

The Chicago setting is great (I’ve only visited it once in person once and then virtually through books like Divergent). I could imagine being at the different places the author describes.

Every Stolen Breath is suspenseful and makes you want to read more. It was an exciting book that I read in less than two days. If you’re looking for a suspenseful book that reads like it could actually happen, I highly recommend it. The book will be released on November 5th, but you can pre-order it now.