Books Archives - Page 5 of 50 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Book Covers I Love

By Brookelorren on September 15, 2020September 15, 202016 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, which means I’m stressed out because I start teaching classes via Zoom today! So I’m a little late, but I didn’t want to neglect Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re talking about book covers. I don’t always pay too much attention to book covers. A few stand out to me, and a few turn me off to the book completely. But today we’re going to talk about book covers I love.

I actually didn’t care for the title Wicked Fox, but I absolutely adored the cover! It was the primary reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place. I just love the expression on the girl’s face!

It is really hard to see the detail in this little image, but Of Curses and Kisses is so cute in real life! Jaya’s itty-bitty toenails are painted!

I’m a sucker for bling. I love the cover to Four Dead Queens because it is so sparkly! I originally got this book on the Kindle, but when Astrid Scholte came to Colorado in March, I bought a copy of the book so I can have it signed. Now I can admire it too!

Rebel is another cover that I love with a lot of bling to it. The title is in shiny silver and all the colorful dust is on the sparkly side too.

Chain of Gold isn’t as sparkly as the last two books, but it has such wonderful detail! I love those autumn leaves and Cordelia’s hair. I’m not as blown away by the Chain of Iron cover, but I’m dying to get my hands on that book because I know the story inside is going to be amazing.

The covers to the Flame in the Mist books were a little controversial (maybe because they changed them halfway through the duology?), but I prefer the newer covers to the older one.

Today Tonight Tomorrow is such a sweet book! And I just love the cover too. It so perfectly portrays the theme of the book. I love how they get closer together and they’ve got their cap and gowns on at the end.

I love the cover to A Spectacle of Souls. It has this creepy, magical vibe to it, which goes perfectly with what the book is about: a book about a creepy circus.

Start Here has such a fun summer vibe to its cover. It makes me sad that it’s already mid-September and summer is slipping away like water through my fingers.

Sky Without Stars is another book with a beautiful, shiny cover. This is a cover that is also difficult to see on the computer screen because it has so much detail to it. You really have to see it in person.

So there you go! Ten covers that I really love. Since today was a cover freebie topic, I’m sure there will be lots of different posts today. What did you write about? With my online classes starting today, I hope I’ll be able to visit a decent amount of pages today.

Next week is one of my favorite topics of the season: our seasonal TBRs. I didn’t do wonderfully with sticking to my TBR this summer, although I did read the Twilight books (which weren’t on my TBR). See you then!

New Skyhunter Trailer!

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

Hello! I’m so excited to be part of Marie Lu’s Skyhunter Street Team! I’ve been waiting for this book for two years now–I remember sitting in the break room at Walmart, where I used to work, reading about the new book series (and at the time, the plan to release Rebel). I was so psyched I was telling all my customers about it for the rest of the night. Well… the trailer is here, and I get to bring it to you!

I hope you get the chance to read it. It comes out on September 29th, which means it’s almost here. Haha, I’ve declared it a school holiday (even though I have to teach two classes on that day).

Books for My Younger Self

By Brookelorren on September 8, 2020September 2, 202014 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, so it’s time again for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re going to talk about “Books for My Younger Self.” What were books you would have liked to have seen when you were much younger? I don’t really think about this one a lot, so this one might be a challenge. But I’m going to try anyway.

My boy loves Lauren Magaziner. She’s his favorite author; in fact, he likes Marie Lu books too, and calls her “the Lauren Magaziner of YA.” I think I would have loved her Case Closed books. We just convinced our library to buy Case Closed 3: Haunting at the Hotel, so I’m sure he’s going to be happy to read that.

P Is for Pterodactyl is a picture book, but I find it amusing even now. I probably would have liked it when I was younger also.

My daughter was a huge Percy Jackson reader when she was younger. I think she read all of this first series. I have never read them, however. I think I would have liked them though, because I like mythology and enjoyed reading myths in middle school.

Spirit Animals is another series I haven’t read, but my boy likes a lot. Okay, I did read the last book in the series because Marie Lu wrote it, but I haven’t read any of the other books. I’ve thought about reading the whole series, but there’s a lot of other books that take priority.

I worked at a day care for a couple years when my daughter was little, and I thought Click, Clack, Moo was a cute book. I’m sure that I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had been closer to 4 years old.

I haven’t read The Bridge yet (although I’d like to). This is one of those books that would be good for someone going through a dark time. It tells the story of two people who intend on jumping off the George Washington bridge. What happens if either one of them jumps, what happens if they both jump, what happens if neither jump. Assuming that the world doesn’t become a better place when they both jump (that would be pretty toxic), I’m guessing that this book will be a great read.

I can’t think of any other books that I would send to my younger self (as soon as I see all the other posts I’ll probably come up with more), however, if we’re going to actually send books back in time to our younger selves, I’d send back The Complete Book of the Olympics (2012 Edition). I’d take my butt down to Vegas and make some money. Olympics betting was made illegal in 2001, even in Vegas, but I’d have a small window to make some money.

And while we’re at it, I’ll make a killing off the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

That’s all I have for today! This week was harder than I thought it would be. What did you come up with? Hopefully you had some better ideas than I did.

Next week is a freebie week having something to do with book covers. I don’t know what I’m going to write about yet, but I’m sure I can come up with 10 next time. See you then!

The Opposite of Always

By Brookelorren on September 2, 2020September 1, 20204 Comments

Oh why can’t there be a book like Love and Basketball? A story which doesn’t revolve around black people’s pain and people live fairly normal lives? This is a question I’ve asked myself so many times. Not that there isn’t a place for those books too, but my biracial kids living in the suburbs really can’t relate. The Opposite of Always does have that vibe though (as does Conquest, which I read and have yet to review). I can’t tell you whether it has a happy ending or not (the ending actually surprised me) but it was a great book.

Jack King has a thing for one of his two best friends, Jillian. Until he meets Kate at a party. Which is a good thing, because Jillian is in love with his other best friend, Franny. Kate and Jake hit it off right away, but Kate is secretive. She gets sick and ends up dying (we later find out what it is; it just happens to be something my husband has, but I’ll refrain from saying what she has here). When Kate dies, Jack gets sucked back in time to the moment he met her, sitting on the stairs at a party.

It takes Jack several attempts to try to help Kate. Each time, he messes something up, but each time it’s in a different way. Each time, Kate ends up dying. Often, he messes something else up in his life. Eventually, Jack begins to wonder whether they belong together or not. I won’t tell you the ending, but he goes back one final time… and the story reaches a satisfying conclusion.

My Thoughts

I love Jack’s voice in this story. He seemed like a real person, and his friendship dilemmas seemed realistic as well. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Kate-Jack ship at first (I thought perhaps he should be with Jillian) but they kind of grew on me. The whole repeating time thing was great too. It’s not a unique concept, but The Opposite of Always brings a nice twist to the trope.

Conclusion

Do I recommend The Opposite of Always? Absolutely! I’m sure I’ll recommend it to my boy, although probably when he’s older: the relationship between Kate and Jack is pretty prominent, and Kate has the same thing my husband has. Although I don’t think it would scare my son (my dh is only mildly affected whereas Kate is in the hospital frequently), it might be something for him to read later (he’s 13). But if you’re looking for a story featuring time travel and black people living happy lives finding love and getting ready for college, this might be a book to add to your TBR.

P.S.: I just noticed that the Kindle version of this book is free to read for Amazon Prime members. I paid $1.99 for it (also not a bad price) but free is great too!

August 2020 Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on September 1, 2020September 1, 20208 Comments

Hello! It’s September already, which means it’s time to go over what I did in August.

Books Read:

I only read eight books last month. To be fair though, I went camping for a week, and I didn’t get very much read over that time period.

The Crow Rider – Kalyn Josephson
The Damned – Renée Ahdieh
A Spectacle of Souls – Jessica Julien
The Bride Test – Helen Hoang
Conquest – Celeste Harte
Summer Days and Summer Nights – Various (reread)
An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir (reread)
Listen to Your Heart – Kasie West

Writing:

Writing has been going okay. I should be ready to query The Brightness of Shadow soon. I’m getting ready for NaNoWriMo 2020, which is only 2 months away now.

Life:

Life is a mixed bag. My dh is still looking for work. He paid for a resumée service to hopefully help him have a better chance at getting work. So far, we’ve spent about $1500 in an attempt to find a job. Hopefully we’ll find something soon. Last time he was out of work he couldn’t find anything for 10 months, and that was during a good economy. So far, only about 2 people have called back in 4 1/2 months.

But… one advantage to not having a job is you can leave whenever. We went camping with my parents at Staircase campground in the Olympic National Park. We figured it might be the last time we can all go, since my daughter is 18 and who knows whether she’ll want to go with us again. We had a good time and did a lot of hiking. They closed the park last week, so we barely made it before they shut down.

I started to work more on Zazzle again. It’s been a while since I put a lot of effort into it, and it’s been bringing in a trickle of money even after years of not working on it. Here are some of the recent products I’ve made. If you have any requests for any of my designs on a Zazzle product it’s not on, or if you would like me to create any swag to promote one of your books (if you’re an indie author) let me know. Meanwhile, if you click on the below link and buy anything off the Zazzle site (doesn’t even have to be one of my designs) I’d get a commission.

Bears

by Brookelorren

Our air conditioning went out, right before our area had record-high temperatures. That was fun. I slept on the couch, would open all the windows when the temperature outside was lower than the temperature inside, and then closed all the windows once the temperature outside was higher than the temperature inside. Fortunately, we were able to have someone come look at it after a week, and it was only a blown capacitor. I’m glad we didn’t have to replace the entire thing, or that wouldn’t get done this year. Although the temperatures have started to cool down, so it wouldn’t matter as much now. We probably won’t be in the 90s again for the rest of the year.

I’m still going swimming at the gym a lot. I have a pre-paid membership for the next couple months; once that expires, I won’t be able to continue unless we have some income coming in.

So that was August. Did you have a good month?

Books with a Food Theme

By Brookelorren on September 1, 2020August 31, 202019 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), where we talk books! Today’s topic is supposed to be “Books that Make Me Hungry,” but I have a confession: I am not a foodie. I see food as a vehicle to give you energy and (hopefully, if you make the right choices) keep you healthy. I believe in the Weston A. Price philosophy of nutrition, and “let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.” My husband is the foodie; he’s always watching cooking shows and planning what he’s going to make on the weekends. Anyway, today’s books are themed on food. There’s a couple from the days I studied functional nutrition and was a regular listener to Sean Croxton’s old Underground Wellness podcast, along with a few newer books with food as the theme. Let’s get started!

I so wish that Sean Croxton was still doing his podcast! I’m happy that he’s doing well for himself, but I learned so much from his podcast and from the books he recommended. One of the books I got was Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. I’m not sure if I made many of the recipes in this book (other than the kombucha) but it does have a lot of useful information in it.

Deep Nutrition is another book I read back in the day (there is a newer edition that I’m linking to; the cover is from the edition I read). This isn’t a cookbook, but it does tell about how eating real food can make a difference in both your health and the health of your children.

In a way, it kind of bothers me when people talk about people doing “research” on Google and therefore insist that unless they have a nutrition degree they have no idea what they’re talking about. The author of this book is a doctor, and back in the day, I read a lot of books like this.

And now for something completely different (and, unlike the above two books, will probably be on several lists this week). Tweet Cute is an adorable story about two people whose parents own restaurants. And the girl in the story likes to make desserts. So unlike me (but a lot like my boy; he likes to cook). It might seem like this book is all about Twitter, but there’s a lot of food in this book.

Perhaps a book about a famine is the opposite of a book that makes you hungry, but since I’m doing a post about books with a food theme, and Red Famine is all about how Stalin took away food from people so they starved, this one counts. Makes me thankful I have food in my pantry, despite our family being on unemployment at the moment.

So, The Best Laid Plans isn’t a food-heavy book, but there’s a slice of pizza on the cover (and pizza does play a part in the book) so I’m including it here. Plus, they do go to Costco and buy a bunch of food for a party here.

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy is not going to make you hungry (in fact, quite the opposite). The food at the Shadowhunter Academy makes me look like a halfway competent chef (which I am not). But since the terrible food is mentioned many times in this book, I’m including it here. This is what you get when a non-foodie writes a food-related blog post.

There’s pumpkins on the cover of the graphic novel Pumpkinheads, there’s literally pumpkin in the title of the book, and they eat a lot in this book. So I’m going to say this counts.

Dimple is drinking coffee on the cover of When Dimple Met Rishi, and they do go to a restaurant in this book. That’s close enough for this blog.

There’s an apple on the cover of Twilight. And there are several scenes in the school cafeteria or in a restaurant. Plus Bella cooks (better than me).

Here’s another book from when I was learning a lot about functional nutrition. Beautiful Babies is a book on nutrition to help boost your fertility. Sadly, it didn’t work for me (I have secondary infertility), but it does have good information on nutrition in general.

So there are 10 books with a food-like theme to them (although I admit some of them are a stretch). What did you pick? Next week we’re going to talk about books for our younger self. There could be a whole bunch of books here.

Questions for Authors

By Brookelorren on August 25, 2020August 25, 202022 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re going to talk about questions we’d ask different authors. I’m going to include a few that I actually have asked various authors. We live in amazing times (forget Coronavirus in that equation). Authors are more accessible than ever before. Some of them go on book tours (virtually this year), others do Ask Me Anythings on Reddit or are active on Twitter. It turns out that a lot of authors are very nice and are approachable. Here we go!

The actual questions (and answers) have been paraphrased because I’m going off my memory.

Questions I’ve asked:

Marie Lu

Q: Does the Thief Who Stole the Stars actually exist, or do you only have the quotes from the book?
A: Only the quotes from the book exist (she doesn’t get that into worldbuilding).

I’ve thought about making the Pseudonym T. Chirsley on AO3 and writing it, but so far I’ve been too busy.

Q (this was actually asked by my boy): How do you come up with such amazing first lines for your books?
A: I think about them a lot.

Sandhya/Lily Menon

Q: Are you good with computers (because both Dimple and her characters from Makeup Breakup are into computers).
A: No.

Kiersten White

Q: How many drafts do you write?
A: It varies.

Fun fact: Sometimes people misspell her name when she goes on tour. One bookstore misspelled her name as “Pearston.” There’s a Pearston in my book, named after her. When I got the chance to tell her about the character, she thought it was funny, but was disappointed that Pearston was a guard and not a villain.

Questions I’d Ask:

J. R. R. Tolkien: I heard that the lamppost in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia book was there because you told him once that lampposts don’t belong in fantasy. Are there any other fun Easter eggs in either of your books because of your rivalry?

Cassandra Clare: (First, background info: she wrote a story when she was a teenager called The Beautiful Cassandra that was about 1000 pages long. She read some of it during YALLWEST’s Juvenalia) Were the passages from Lucy’s book, The Beautiful Cordelia, adapted from or inspired by The Beautiful Cassandra? Also, did the beautiful Cassandra ever get her needlepoint back (it had been taken by a rogue in the part of the story Ms. Clare read to us).

Any Author:

How many rejections did you get before getting a “yes” from your agent?

How many novels have you written that are in a drawer?

What is your top piece of advice for authors trying to get published?

Who is your favorite author?

So those are ten questions I either have asked or would ask? What did you come up with today? Next week we’re supposed to talk about books that make us hungry, but I’m not very much of a foodie, so I’ll probably put a twist on that.

Books that Should Be Adapted into Netflix Shows/Movies

By Brookelorren on August 18, 2020August 17, 202029 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, which means it’s time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re going to talk about books that should be made into Netflix movies or TV shows. I don’t watch a lot of TV (I started watching The Americans about 4 years ago and I’m still at the beginning of season 2) but I would see my favorite books as movies. Some of them, at least. Our family has this thing called “family fun night” where one of us picks two choices and everybody else votes on what to do; we rotate between who gets to pick. So even if I wouldn’t rush out to see all of these in the theaters (when we can), they would make good family fun night choices.

Of course I had to pick Legend as one of my choices. I don’t have plans to reread it this year, but it’s probably my favorite book series. Two different companies have already held the option to make this movie (I currently don’t know what the status of the latest option is) but I still want it. The whole series. And while Netflix is at it, maybe they can make Warcross and The Young Elites. They’re all in the same Luniverse, after all (Ms. Lu once said in an AMA that she imagined The Young Elites took place inside the Warcross video game). Take my money, I’d watch these as soon as they came out.

I know there’s already been a Dragonlance movie, but it wasn’t that good. I had been so looking forward to it–my kids are named Laurana and Tanis, after all–but was so disappointed when I saw it. We need a really good live action version of this. Or perhaps a TV series. There’s like 100 books in this universe, so the TV show could go on for years.

Maybe I’m a little biased, because I just finished reading A Spectacle of Souls and Jessica Julien is one of my #AuthorConfession friends on Twitter. But I really liked this book and I think it would make a fun movie. And who wouldn’t want to see their friends succeed?

I just finished reading The Bride Test today, and I think the whole The Kiss Quotient series should be made into Netflix movies. Even The Heart Principal, which I haven’t read and doesn’t come out until 2021. I just want these as movies.

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour would make a great summer road trip movie. It’s got crazy destinations, new friends, a tragic backstory, and a budding romance.

Today Tonight Tomorrow would be such a fun movie! A scavenger hunt through Seattle on the last day of school, enemies-to-lovers, this movie would be a lot of fun.

Tweet Cute would be another cute movie. The children of two rival restaurants battle each other over Twitter and end up falling in love IRL. Why are movie studios making all these remakes again? There are so many new books out there that would make amazing movies.

It seems like there’s a theme for me tonight: high school seniors falling in love. The Best Laid Plans, about two best friends falling in love instead of enemies, but it’s a really sweet book that would make a really sweet movie.

I’m rereading the An Ember in the Ashes books in preparation for A Sky Beyond the Storm coming out in December, and I’d love to see these on my TV. I think there’s too much packed into these books to make proper movies, but the tetralogy would make a good TV series.

Yes, I know Gita Trelease renamed Enchantée to All That Glitters, but it will always be Enchantée to me, I think. I love this book and think this would make an excellent movie.

So there you have it. 10 books that I think would make great Netflix movies or TV shows. What did you pick this week?

Next week we’re going to talk about “Questions I would ask my favorite authors.” I may tweak it a little bit, but it will involve authors, questions, and maybe some of their advice.

The Damned

By Brookelorren on August 15, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a Comment

I recently read Renée Ahdieh’s The Damned on audiobook. I always try to have one audiobook going, and when I saw this was available at my library, I was surprised.

The Damned is the second book in The Beautiful duology. This review contains spoilers, but you can read my review of The Beautiful instead, if you haven’t read the first book.

Celine has no memories of Sébastien Saint Germain, but she feels like something is wrong. Everyone tells her that Michael saved her from a brutal attack, and he’s been spending a lot of time with her. He’s interested in more than friendship with Celine, but she doesn’t really feel a passion for him. Should she settle?

Meanwhile, Sébastien is learning how to be a vampire, and we learn more secrets about him and the fey creatures he hangs around.

With the way The Beautiful ended, of course Celine and Sébastien meet up again. There are surprises in store for them, however. I was surprised at some of the things that were revealed in this book. I certainly did not expect this series to take the turn that it did. But I enjoyed it nevertheless.

While I enjoyed most of this book, I thought it ended quite abruptly. There were things revealed in this book that I thought should have been explored more thoroughly. I don’t think a third book is planned for this series, but it really should have one.

Update: It IS getting a third book so the ending is fine.

Conclusion

The Damned was a good continuation of The Beautiful duology; however, there were several twists that were introduced in this book that should have had further exploration. (Edit: It IS getting a third book!) I think this series should have been a trilogy. Otherwise, I did enjoy reading this book.

The Crow Rider

By Brookelorren on August 13, 2020August 13, 2020Leave a Comment

I recently read The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the Advanced Reader Copy, sorry I’m late with this because–pandemic). It is the second book in The Storm Crow duology; as a result, there are spoilers. If you haven’t read the first book, you can read my review of The Storm Crow instead. This book wraps up the duology nicely.

Thia has left Illucia; the queen is dead-set on waging a war against her people and she needs allies. Meanwhile, she is also conflicted in her feelings about Ericen. Can he be trusted? Does she care about him?

The Crow Rider does an outstanding job of covering the emotions one might go through in a traumatic situation (or even a ::cough cough:: pandemic). Thia went through a deep depression in the last book; now, she’s dealing with feelings of inadequacy in the face of insurmountable odds. She’s not the only person in this book to deal with trauma. Even Res, the crow, goes through a period of difficulty. The villain’s past, and how she became the horrible person she turned out to be, is explained here (but not in an infodumpy type of way).

Another thing I loved about this book were the battle scenes. They were well-done and I could imagine them in my head. There were no guarantees either. In a couple places, I thought that perhaps all was lost.

The Crow Rider answers questions and adds new magical depth to the world. Where did the crow magic come from in the first place? Why can only certain people hatch eggs? If you’ve been wondering this and other questions, they’re answered here.

The only downside to this book that I can think of is that it has a huge cast. If you haven’t started the series yet, I would recommend you read The Storm Crow and The Crow Rider in a short time span. There were some characters I had forgotten about that get re-introduced later in the book and it was a little confusing. Ms. Josephson does do a good job at explaining who they are, but still–the cast seemed a little large.

Conclusion

If you liked The Storm Crow, I recommend you finish reading the duology with this great book. I don’t recommend The Crow Rider if you haven’t read the first book; a lot of things in this book are dependent on events from the first book. It captures emotion well, has a realistic teen protagonist, and wraps up everything nicely.