Books Archives - Page 9 of 50 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

11/22/63

By Brookelorren on March 17, 2020March 17, 20205 Comments

I recently finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I don’t read a lot of King’s books, as horror isn’t really my jam, but I wanted to read this book, because it deals with JFK’s assassination and time travel. It was really good. I listened to it on audiobook, so I will make comments on the narration as well.

Jake Epping is a school teacher. Once he reads an essay by the school janitor, who was viciously attacked by his family in 1958. Shortly afterwards, a local diner owner, Al Templeton, lets him in on a secret: in the diner’s pantry, there’s a portal that will take him back to a particular day in the fall of 1958. Al gets him to agree to a mission: go back in time and prevent the assassination of JFK.

Jake takes on the altar ego of George Amberson and heads back in time to complete this mission. Along the way, he tries to help out the janitor. I’ll leave the details of what happens for you to read, but the past tries to prevent him, he falls in love, and it’s not a particularly easy task. I’ll also leave the details about what happens when he returns to the present for you to find out.

One of the things I love about this book is King’s descriptions of the past. It was such a different time back then, without fears of coronavirus or people fighting on social media about petty crap. Jake Epping discovers that even the food tastes better back then. Of course, not everything was great, and King does delve lightly into that too. It was a time when wife beatings were common and black people were sent to substandard bathrooms and treated like crap, but for a white guy like Jake Epping, it wouldn’t have been such a bad time to visit. After reading 11/22/63, part of me wants to read more books from this era.

11/22/63 isn’t a horror story, but there is some violence. There’s also a fair amount of foul language, which is normal for King’s works. One of the things I did find interesting was that it referred to evens that happened in It. Although I’ve never read the book or have seen the movie, I looked up the details and I thought that was pretty cool that he tied the two books together like that.

The ending was really sweet. It had me in happy tears. It’s not a happily ever after (I’m not sure this kind of book could be), but the characters get closure that I would hope them to have.

The Audiobook

I listened to 11/22/63 on audiobook, so I’ll make a few comments about that. The narrator was great, and kept the voices separate. Towards the end, the narrator brought in a character from the beginning of the book, and I immediately knew who the character was, just from the voice. There is some Russian in this book, and a character with a German accent, and I thought he did a good job pronouncing the Russian and the accent. I was able to understand the Russian before King translated it, which is a point in his favor.

Final Thoughts

If you like history or are interested in the JFK assassination, I recommend 11/22/63. It was like Back to the Future in book form, with higher stakes. The descriptions of “the land of ago” were compelling. The main character’s story was interesting, the characters he ran into along the way were well-fleshed out, and it kept me hooked the whole time. I’ve been recommending it to my friends ever since I started reading it.

Spring 2020 TBR

By Brookelorren on March 17, 2020March 16, 202022 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday! I hope everybody is staying safe with that nasty virus going around. Today we’re talking about our Spring TBRs. Too soon! I didn’t get the chance to finish a lot of my Winter TBR, so a lot of the books on my list this quarter will be books that were on my list last time. But not all! There are several new books coming out and those are taking up most of the space made available from the books I did read.

So how did I do on my Winter TBR?

The Kingdom of Back – Marie Lu: Read
A Treason of Thorns – Laura E. Weymouth: Read
Light From Distant Stars – Shawn Smucker: Read
Chain of Gold – Cassandra Clare: Read
Descendant of the Crane – Joan He: Unread
Keeper – Kim Chance: Unread
99 Percent Mine – Sally Thorne: Unread
Tell Me Everything – Sarah Enni: Unread
Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips: Read
Broken Throne – Victoria Aveyard: Read

Even though I didn’t get all of these books read, I still read enough that I’ll be able to read the spring books I’m getting, so there’s that.

I’ll start by going over the new books I’m adding to my TBR for this quarter.

I’m so excited for Between Burning Worlds, which is coming out on March 24th! Jessica Brody was supposed to be at The Tattered Cover on the 25th, but the bookstore has been temporarily closed for the coronavirus, so I’ll be reading this book at home and I’ll have to meet her some other time. I’m rereading Sky Without Stars, the first book in this duology, right now to get ready.

Veronica Roth is one of my favorite authors, and I’m looking forward to her adult debut, Chosen Ones, which comes out on April 7th! I pre-ordered this book back in August and can’t wait.

My friend Katerina King wrote a book, Malediction, and I haven’t had the chance to read it yet. I meant to read it in December, before I started reading books for my winter TBR, but I didn’t get around to it. I definitely want to read it, so I’m adding it to my spring TBR.

Another friend of mine, Celeste Harte, has also written a book, Conquest. I bought the electronic copy, then I won a paperback copy, but I plan on reading it over the next few months.

I wasn’t initially going to pre-order The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is a Hunger Games prequel, because it was too expensive. I’m not interested enough in this book to pay $25 for it, but the price has gone down, and I’ve pre-ordered it. This book is supposed to come out on May 19th.

Because I didn’t finish all the books on my winter TBR, there’s only one new TBR lottery book this quarter: 1453 by Roger Crowley. It’s a nonfiction book about the fall of Constantinople.

Descendant of the Crane was on my Winter 2019/20 TBR, and since I didn’t get to it then, I’m going to try to get to it now. Hopefully I’ll have more reading time in this quarter. Perhaps I will with this coronavirus thing going on?

Keeper was another TBR lottery winner from the previous quarter that I didn’t read. I have this one on Kindle (like Descendant of the Crane) so hopefully I’ll get to this one.

Sally Thorne is a new-to-me author still, but I got 99 Percent Mine for $1.99 when it was on sale on Amazon.com. It was also a TBR lottery winner from the winter that I didn’t read. So onto the spring it goes.

I didn’t get the chance to read Tell Me Everything, and I requested this book from my library last week. The book was on the shelf in the library, but not one of the branches I normally go to. Well, the library is closed now, so I guess I have to wait for it to reopen again? Either that or buy a copy. I have other books on my shelf to read, so unless the coronavirus keeps things closed for months, I’ll probably just wait.

So what books are on your TBR for the spring? Were you able to read all your Winter TBR books? Are you staying inside and reading books? Next week is a genre freebie and I haven’t decided what to do with that yet.

Authors I Follow on Social Media

By Brookelorren on March 10, 2020March 2, 202020 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books. It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is authors with a fun social media presence, but I’m not really sure how to gauge that, so we’re just going to talk about some of the authors I follow on social media.

Today’s links will point to their Twitter accounts.

Susan Dennard – Last year, she had a Choose Your Own Adventure story running, which was a lot of fun, if you were able to get in on that. She has a newsletter that gives writing advice. Normally, I don’t subscribe to newsletters because that’s more clutter for the inbox, but I follow her both on Twitter and her newsletter.

Danika Stone – Ms. Stone is a ray of sunshine! She’s almost always smiling in the photos she posts. Follow her if you need some brightess in your day.

Kim Chance – Ms. Chance hosts Chance2Connect on the second Tuesday of every month. If you’re a writer, you might want to join her and meet other authors. It’s a lot of fun.

Sandhya Menon – She is such a sweetheart! I’m on her street team and I’ve met her a couple of times, so I might be a little biased, but one of the reasons why I signed up for her street team was because she was so nice when I met her at last year’s Colorado Teen Literature Conference.

Laura E. Weymouth – Laura and I have been mutuals on Twitter since before I even knew she had a book coming out. I thought she was just a really cool person who wrote. Sometimes she posts about her chickens, or her kids, or things like that.

Kiersten White – If you ever get the chance to go to one of her book signings, you should. She’s really funny. I followed her for a year before I ever read one of her books. I’ve still only read two of them, even though I own six.

Marie Lu – Ms. Lu is much more active on Instagram right now, but she’s worth following. In addition to talking about books, sometimes she posts about politics. As her books tend to have political undertones, that’s probably not a surprise.

Sabaa Tahir – She’s been working on Sky Beyond the Storm (AKA Ember 4) for years now, and it’s been interesting to see her journey. She even did a few word sprints with us peons a couple years ago. She can be pretty funny too.

Jodie Lynn Zdrock – Ms. Zdrock is always so nice. Sometimes she posts about her cats, or her running, or her books. You can’t help but to root for people that are nice like her.

V.E. Schwab – I started following her over a year before I read a book from her (I still have only read This Savage Song). She always seems so friendly.

So there you have it. Ten authors I follow on Twitter. I follow a lot more than that, but these are some whose social media presence stands out to me.

Next week, we’re posting our Spring 2020 TBRs! That’s when you can find out what a slacker I’ve been for the last few months. Who did you post about today?

Sparrow

By Brookelorren on March 9, 2020March 8, 2020Leave a Comment

I recently had the opportunity to read Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson. Thank you to Bookish First and Tor Teen for providing me with an advanced reader copy! If you are interested in joining Bookish First, would you please use referral code 56cf541090ca608b4? Then we can both earn points for free books!

“Sparrow” is a ballerina, preparing to star in Swan Lake as the main character. The book starts towards the end of her junior year in high school and follows the characters through the end of high school. When one of the cutest guys in school, Tristan King, almost hits her with a car, he asks her out. She can’t believe her luck. They start going out, but unfortunately, it turns out to be an abusive relationship.

Lucas is Sparrow’s friend and dance partner. He knows that Tristan is trouble, and although he tries to warn her away from him, he feels responsible for what happens to her. He has to learn that you can’t fix everybody else’s problems.

Sparrow is told from two points of view: Sparrow’s and Lucas’s. There is a lot that isn’t revealed until the end of the book, which is why the synopsis is a little vague, and why I can’t reveal a lot about what happens. As the book unfolds, a few things happen that don’t seem to make sense until you read farther into the book.

While this is a book that deals with abuse (which could be a trigger for some people), this is also a book about healing from abuse, as well as the trauma of a person’s past. Sparrow dealing with her past is a huge part of the last part of this book.

One of the things that I liked about this book was its peek into the world of ballet. I’ve never taken a ballet class, but it was fun to see into the world of dance practices and rehearsals. I also thought the friendships in this book were well-done.

The ending of the book is satisfying and makes sense, although it probably wouldn’t be the ending I’d hope for.

Overall, I would recommend Sparrow if you enjoy ballet (or want to read about it) and are interested in a book about abuse or healing from abuse. It’s not my favorite book from this year so far, but I liked it enough. It doesn’t go on sale until March 17th, but you can pre-order it now.

Books with One Word Titles

By Brookelorren on March 3, 2020March 5, 202020 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books! Top Ten Tuesday has a new topic every Tuesday, and is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today we’re going to talk about books with one word titles. There were a lot of ways I could go about this, but I decided to use titles from “My Books” on Goodreads, oldest ones first (to bring a little variety into the picture), arranged by date added. I’m also not going to include the articles the, a, or an. Let’s get started!

I went through four pages of books on Goodreads before I came across The Century. Here’s where I realized that it’s not going to be very easy to come up with 10 books that only have one word titles (especially if I don’t include books that start with articles). This book is over 20 years old now, but I still might reread it someday. It is a book that gives a broad overview of the history of the 20th century, using the words of people that lived through it. It also has tons of pictures.

I read Rora last year and… it was just okay. I liked reading about the Waldensians, who were considered heretics by the Catholic church, but the story didn’t grab me. Which is sad because this is an unknown but interesting part of history.

I didn’t use Goodreads much until recently, which is why we’re already up to Divergent, which I had never heard of before the movie came out. There are three other books in this series with one word titles (Insurgent, Allegiant, and Four) and we’ll just skip over them for variety’s sake.

I added a lot of books with one word titles in 2014 because there are three of them on this one page alone. Both Legend and Divergent are some of my favorite books. Like the book before, Legend‘s sequels are also one word titles (Prodigy, Champion, and Rebel) so I won’t mention them here.

Another book I added in 2014 was Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games series. All of the other books in this series have more than one word in the title.

Ōkami is a short story that is part of the Flame in the Mist series. Another short story in the series, Yumi, is also one word.

Warcross is another book that only has one word (as does Wildcard, the second book in the series). It’s a story about a girl who hacks her way into a video game and was my favorite book from 2017.

Marissa Meyer’s Heartless is really good Alice in Wonderland fanfiction. I haven’t had the opportunity to read The Lunar Chronicles yet (also using one word titles) but I did like this one.

Stephen King’s The Stand is another book with one word (and an article) in the title. It’s also the longest book on my list today.

Last but not least, Caraval is a trilogy whose books all have one word in the title (the others are Legendary and Finale). If you like magical books with a circus-like atmosphere, you might like this series.

That wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I only went through nine pages on my Goodreads books to come up with these. Evidently most of the books I read have multiple words in the title, but there are some with only one word. What books did you come up with?

Next week we’re going to talk about authors with a fun social media presence. I’m not sure about that, I might just talk about authors who I like following on Twitter. Close enough.

March 2020 Kindle Book Deals

By Brookelorren on March 2, 2020March 2, 2020Leave a Comment

It’s a new month, which means new Kindle book deals! I always like to take advantage of these deals. Here are some that I find most interesting.

I’ve seen Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You a lot recently on various book blogs. It’s about a mom who doesn’t want her daughter to repeat the mistakes she made. It’s only $1.99 this month, so if you’ve seen it and think it sounds interesting (this happens to me all the time when I’m reading blogs) then now would be a good time to get this.

I read Never Stop Walking by Christina Rickardsson a couple years ago and thought it was pretty good. My review can be found here. It’s only $.99 this month.

A Touch of Gold is a story of Midas. It’ll be on sale for $1.99 this month.

Those are the deals that stood out to me this month.

Limited Time Deals

I’m not sure how long this deal will last, but Marie Lu’s three main series, Legend, The Young Elites, and Warcross, are all on sale. They’re all $1.99 today on Kindle.

I don’t know how long this sale will last, but I wouldn’t wait too long.

Sensational

By Brookelorren on March 2, 2020March 1, 20202 Comments

I recently finished reading Sensational by Jodie Lynn Zdrock. Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy! This is the sequel to Spectacle, which came out last year (you can read my review here). This review assumes you’ve already read the first book, so if you don’t want spoilers or me to throw out confusing terms, then read the first book first.

It’s now 1889, and the World’s Fair has come to Paris. Nathalie is working at Le Petit Journal as well as the public morgue, where the police get her input as an Insightful. She has a boyfriend, Jules, who is also an insightful. As the World’s Fair gets into full swing, another round of murders begins. Nathalie wants to help put a stop to it.

What I Liked

Sensational brings you into the World’s Faire, which is pretty cool. It’s fun to be transported into a time when people weren’t necessarily familiar with many of the countries of the world, like we are today. In Nathalie’s world, the Eiffel Tower is new, and of course, there are also no phones or electrical technology.

Nathalie has great relationships with her friends and family. She lost her best friend towards the end of Spectacle, although we are two years into the future with this book, and the pain has ebbed a bit. She is faced with new pain regarding her family and friends, but Sensational isn’t a rehash of Spectacle.

The story itself has a satisfying ending.

What I Liked Less

Sensational didn’t seem to have quite the same magic that Spectacle did. There weren’t any thrilling chases through the catacombs, Nathalie’s Insightful powers were old hat, and the public morgue wasn’t a shock to me as a reader. I still liked the story, but not to the same degree that I did the first book in the duology.

Conclusion

If you’ve read Spectacle and really enjoyed it, then I do recommend you go ahead and read Sensational, especially if you’re curious about what happens to Nathalie. I liked it, even though I wasn’t as enamored with it as I was the first book. If you thought Spectacle was only so-so, then I wouldn’t move it to the top of your TBR list.

February 2020 Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on February 29, 2020February 29, 202010 Comments

Hello! February is almost over, so it means it’s time for a monthly wrap-up! We have an extra day this month because it’s a leap year. If you’re reading this on the 29th, today is the ONLY day in four years you can order Brigadoon Breakfast tea at Adagio. I love Adagio teas and have waited almost 4 years to try it. I ordered 18 ounces of it, LOL. I don’t get any referral bonuses off that link, but I thought you might want to know about it if you like tea and want a once in four year opportunity. Anyway, let’s get started!

Books Read:

The last few months have been abysmal in getting books read. It’s so bad, I’m not even close to finishing my Winter TBR. I’m still on track for my Goodreads challenge, but I only read seven books last month.

Lord of Shadows – Cassandra Clare (reread)
Killing the SS – Bill O’Reilly
Belle Révolte – Linsey Miller
Queen of Air and Darkness – Cassandra Clare (reread)
Chain of Gold – Cassandra Clare
Broken Throne – Victoria Aveyard
Sensational – Jodie Lynn Zdrock

But I suppose there’s more to a reading life than numbers. Queen of Air and Darkness is 880 pages long. The first time I read it, I read that, Lord of Shadows, Lady Midnight, and Clockwork Princess is 8 or 9 days and it was exhausting. I took a lot more time reading them this time around.

Blog Stats:

Blog users have fallen but I haven’t been posting as much, so that’s not much of a surprise. Hopefully I’ll get more into the blogging and reading groove soon.
Twitter has been up though, to 2172. Not sure where that is coming from.

Writing:

I finished my fourth draft of The Brightness of Shadow. I entered into Author Mentor Match, but I know I won’t get picked, even though they won’t announce the mentees until March 3rd. That’s okay.
I had two of my short stories chosen for publication! Twist in Time Magazine is doing an anthology called Thank You For Your Service, and my personal essay, “September 11th” was chosen for publication. It’ll be published on November 11th this year. I also was picked for the 42 Word Story Anthology. They’re picking a lot of authors for that one.

Life:

My boy has been grounded from his phone and computer for most of the month, and he’s used it to read a lot. He read the entire Young Elites trilogy, which is good, because I’m taking him to see Marie Lu, Astrid Scholte, and Melissa de la Cruz on the 5th. He’s read 10 of Marie Lu’s books now, plus her short story in Slasher Girls & Monster Boys. He wanted a book recommendation yesterday and I suggested Four Dead Queens.
Sandhya Menon’s book launch for Of Curses and Kisses went great! The evening was spectacular, until I was almost home. I almost died. It started snowing, my windshield wipers stopped working, I couldn’t see, and then when I tried to get off the freeway, my car spun around on the freeway twice. I was so scared, and I was praying hard in the car. I hope to turn that event into a short story which I hope to submit to Chicken Soup for the Soul. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, and the weather is supposed to be nice for the Penguin Teen Tour next week.

So that was my month! I really hope to step up my reading next month because there are so many books I want to read and they’re just not getting read! I hope you had an excellent February and have a wonderful March! And that we finally see a curtailment of this snow.

Chain of Gold

By Brookelorren on February 27, 2020February 27, 2020Leave a Comment

One of my most anticipated books for the past year has been Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Gold. Funny, I was so concerned about reading all the March 3 releases and I end up getting two of them as ARCs. Once again, thank you to Bookish First and Margaret K. McElderry Books for providing me with an advanced reader copy! If you’d like to join Bookish First, you can use my referral code: 56cf541090ca608b4. We both get points if you use it!

When we first start Chain of Gold, two people are moving to London: Cordelia Carstairs, who has few London friends because her family has been living abroad for years, and Grace Blackthorn, whom James Herondale loves. Or thinks he loves. The city has seen very few demon attacks recently, but things are about to heat up in the supernatural realm.

If you’ve read “The Midnight Heir”, then you know that Grace’s adoptive mother, Tatiana Blackthorn, doesn’t approve of James. She hates the Herondales because of what happened to her parents in The Infernal Devices. Going into this story, I had seen the Shadowhunter found family tree, but if you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the end for you. But Tatiana’s disapproval of Herondales and Lightwoods does propel some of the storyline.

Cordelia’s dad is in trouble. After an expedition went wrong, he was put under house arrest in Idris. Cordelia wants him to be found innocent, so she feels she needs to make influential friends. The friends she makes just happen to be the children of the characters from The Infernal Devices. While she is getting adjusted in the new city, all hell breaks loose. In some ways, literally. Cordelia and her new friends have to save the Shadowhunters from this new threat.

What I Liked

Chain of Gold is another outstanding Shadowhunters novel. I loved the characters, especially James and Cordelia. Cordelia’s future parabatai and James’s sister Lucie is a budding novelist and is a sweetheart. Then there’s Matthew, who drinks a little too much and has a troubled past. If you read “Cast Long Shadows” from Ghosts of the Shadow Market then you’ll know what happened. Anna, Christopher, and Thomas are also main characters that Cordelia spends time with that all have their own personalities.

The setting of Chain of Gold is different from that of The Infernal Devices. The book is set in 1903 (with some flashbacks to previous times) and Ms. Clare did a great job making it feel like a different time than that of her previous series. Technology has advanced as well as the clothing and slang the characters use. Tessa and Will, who are now in charge of the London Institute, have updated the Institute, so the decor is correct for 1903. If you read The Dark Artifices, then you’ll probably guess they were the last people to remodel the place. Clare is a master of worldbuilding and it is one of the things I love about her books.

If you’ve seen the Shadowhunters’ found family tree, then you might wonder as you start reading the book “how does X end up with Y?” I’m trying to avoid spoilers here. You find out why these two people end up together at the end of the book, and it makes a lot of sense.

Anything I Didn’t Like?

I have to wait until March 21, 2021 to read Chain of Iron. I want to find out what happens next! It doesn’t end on a huge cliffhanger like Lord of Shadows does, but I still want more.

Conclusion

Chain of Gold is another excellent book in the Shadowhunters universe. I loved the characters and the setting, and I highly recommend it. If you’ve never read any Shadowhunter books before, you can still read this one, but the other books are worthwhile. You might like the books better if you read The Infernal Devices along with some of the companion short stories that go along with this book. However, if you want to dive into this book without reading the others, you can, but you’ll probably want to go back and read the others while waiting for Chain of Iron next year.

I pre-ordered this book with my Christmas money in 2018 and it was worth the year+ wait.

Belle Révolte

By Brookelorren on February 26, 2020February 26, 2020Leave a Comment

I recently finished reading Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller. Thank you so much Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an advanced reader copy! This book released February 4th. I feel a little bad that I’m behind on my ARCs, but I suppose that happens sometimes.

Emilie de Marais is a noble whose mother wants her to be a lady, learning how to divine and use the “midnight arts.” It’s an acceptable vocation for someone of her status and gender. She has other dreams, wanting to do the “noonday arts” and heal people, which can be a little gruesome and is considered to be unladylike. She sees her chance to change her fate when she runs across a peasant girl that looks a little like her.

The peasant girl, Annette, really wants to learn to be a diviner. Emilie asks if she’d like to swap. Annette takes her place at the fancy school Emilie is supposed to attend, while Emilie takes her chance at going to the university down the street. The arrangement makes both of them happy.

Society, however, is on the verge of revolution. The king is not a good man and is trying to quash the unrest. In their world, magic takes a toll on a person’s body. Using too much magic leads to an early death. Many nobles employ “hacks” to take the physical punishment for them. When Emilie discovers one of the physicians leaving one of their hacks on the verge of death, she decides to take action.

What I Liked

Belle Révolte had compelling characters and an interesting storyline. I felt empathy for Emilie. Although I’ve never been prevented from doing something I wanted to because of my gender, I did major in computer science and spend some time in the military. Also, who doesn’t love a good story where heroines take on a corrupt society to make the world a little more equal for everyone?

I didn’t have trouble picturing the setting.

What I Liked Less

The story seemed to be slightly lacking in it’s execution. There were points in the story where I had difficulty picturing what was going on. There were a few places that I thought needed a little more editing. Because the premise behind the book was good and I liked the characters, I was able to overlook this, but I definitely felt the story could have used some improvement in this area.

Overall

Overall, I enjoyed Belle Révolte and was glad I read it. The book has ace representation which can be rare. The characters and overall story were great. It’s not award-winning fiction, and if fantasy isn’t your genre or you don’t find the premise appealing, I won’t try to convince you to read it on the beautiful prose alone, but if you enjoy fantasy stories where the girls aren’t afraid to defy gender stereotypes and end up taking on a corrupt kingdom, I recommend it.