All posts tagged book reviews

The Ribbon Duet

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The Boy and his Ribbon cover

The Boy & His Ribbon has been on my radar for a couple years. I finally drew its name in the TBR lottery, and–this duology may just be one of the best books I’ll read in 2021. It’s still early in the year, but this book had all. The. Feels.

The blurb doesn’t give away much; however, I think that to get an idea of what you’re getting yourself into with this book, you’ll want to at least know what happens by the second or third chapter. From the blurb, I imagined The Boy & His Ribbon was a story about a boy who had been sold, and he fell in love with his owner’s daughter while he was still “their property.” Nope.

The Girl & Her Ren

This story begins with the boy running away from the people that bought him. With the monsters’ baby daughter in his backpack, stowing away. Ren is ten years old, and he not only has to worry about surviving after escaping, but he also has to worry about taking care of an infant. He can’t take her back because they’ll kill him, he’s too kind to leave her to the wolves, and he’s too distrustful of people to leave her to Social Services.

And they fall in love. Not immediately, but as they grow up. Perhaps you’re thinking this is really weird–I mean, do you fall in love with someone who you grew up with that is almost like a cross between your dad and your sibling, even though you’re not technically related? This is addressed in the books. The Boy & His Ribbon is mostly about the first 18 or so years of their life together, watching this relationship evolve. The Girl & Her Ren is about the next 20ish years of their life.

A Tragedy

This duology is not a happy story; it is a tragedy. While A Boy & His Ribbon isn’t a tragedy, The Girl & Her Ren is, and you’re not going to want to read one without reading the other. This is why I’m reviewing them together. You don’t want to start reading the first book without being prepared for having your heart ripped out in the second. I don’t want to say too much about what exactly happens here (although I do plan on writing a second, spoilery post on my thoughts later), but I was weeping for almost the entire second half of the second book. But there were some beautiful parts to this love story as well.

This book is true-to-life, and sometimes life is heartbreaking. But even when life is heartbreaking, there are plenty of good times too. That is probably what makes this book so good and so painful in the end. It doesn’t paint life with a rosy brush and try to pretend everything is always wonderful.

Kind of Funny… An Anachronism

This book was published in 2018, but it runs into the future, ending in 2032. Of course, the characters go through 2020. Of course, there are no mentions of the pandemic. It could take you out of the story if you think too much about it, but if you see this as an alternate universe where the pandemic never happened, then the references to 2020 and no masks or lockdowns is a little comical.

Not A YA Book

Don’t look at the description and think this is a YA book. It is definitely not. Yes, the story starts out with a ten-year-old boy and a baby, but they grow up. Even in the first book. I wouldn’t recommend this to my fourteen-year-old.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for an adult book that will break your heart, you may wish to give The Ribbon Duet a try. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was sooo good. I think it was highly underrated. At the same time, the blurb really didn’t give enough information to give me a good idea of what it was about.

Make Up Break Up

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Make Up Break Up

I’m so excited because Make Up Break Up comes out this week! In case you didn’t know, Sandhya Menon has a pen name in order to write adult books: Lily Menon! Her first full-length adult romance Make Up Break Up, comes out on Tuesday. She also wrote the novella “Booked for Christmas” which was excellent. And there’s more to come!

Make Up Break Up is about two tech entrepreneurs: Annika, who created a computer program called Make Up, which has a premise of getting people back together, and Hudson, who created a program called Break Up, which helps people break up.

Obviously, they have two different philosophies on life. Their two businesses aren’t exactly compatible. As the story progresses, they will end up bumping into each other at work.

The only problem is–Hudson is hot. And Annika thinks he’s a complete jerk. Why does she have such a negative reaction to him? As you read the book, you’ll find out that they have met before.

I enjoyed how Ms. Menon slowly reveals the details of their story. I don’t want to give out too many details, but we eventually find out why they have such an animosity towards each other. I was so surprised at the final revelation. And of course, since this is a romance, there’s a happily ever after.

I did find Annika to be a little immature at the beginning of the story, considering she’s an adult, but some people are like that. Especially when they become emotional about something.

If you’re looking for a cute romance and the tech industry is your thing, I definitely recommend Make Up Break Up. It’s definitely an adult book, so I don’t recommend this to younger Sandhya Menon fans, but if you’ve loved her YA books and would like something a little steamier, you may enjoy this book.

A Sky Beyond the Storm

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The long wait for Sabaa Tahir’s A Sky Beyond the Storm has ended! If you enjoyed the other books in her An Ember in the Ashes series, then you don’t want to miss this finale. This is definitely one of my favorite books this year. Expect to see it on my top 10 list coming January 1st.

Because this review is of the fourth book in a tetralogy, it may contain spoilers from previous books.

At the beginning of this book, it seems like almost all is lost. Cities have been decimated, plus the Nightbringer received all the pieces of the star. Keris Veturius has outplayed the Blood Shrike at almost every turn. Laia found and then lost her mother again. And Elias has taken on the role of the Soul Catcher and seems to have discarded his humanity. Is all lost?

Laia is convinced she needs to take down the Nightbringer. The Blood Shrike feels she needs to protect her nephew, the new Emperor, at all costs. Much of this book covers their journeys. Since this is a book, it’s going to get worse before anything gets better. We also see the Soul Catcher and The Nightbringer as they go through their journeys. And one chapter from Keris’s point of view.

This book was so good. It wraps up the past with a beautiful red bow. All the prophecies we’ve seen will make sense. I did cry–for maybe the last 50 pages? But in the end, I was satisfying. It brought joy instead of the desire to throw my book across the room or write fix-it fanfiction. Yes, Ms. Tahir has taken us on a long journey and destroyed our favorite characters–but there is a Sky Beyond the Storm.

A Sky Beyond the Storm is full of lifelike characters. The villains aren’t just cookie-cutter evil people who give monologues–they have a past, hurts, and people that loved them. There are so many memorable quotes in here, I’m looking for the next Top Ten Tuesday where the topic is book quotes. I started writing in my book journal again, where I write down quotes, and I’m so glad I did this for this book.

This was one of the highlights in my reading year. In a year where I’ve been struggling to complete my Goodreads Reading Challenge, I finished this 500-page book in three days. If you’ve read the first three books in this series and loved them, I recommend finishing the series. If you haven’t started, now’s a good time to start.

If you’re interested in my other reviews in this series, they are here:

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

VE Schwab is one of those authors whom I own several books from, but I haven’t read many (before Addie LaRue, I had only read This Savage Song). The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is one of those books that you hear about long before you get the chance to read it. Ms. Schwab has been talking about this book on social media for a long time. It came out this week, and I highly recommend it.

What’s the Book About?

Addie was born in 1691 in the small village of Villon, France. She reminds me a lot of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, except instead of being a reader, she’s an artist. She wants more from life than that of a simple life being a wife and mother, never leaving her village, and dying without ever seeing or doing much else. The only trouble is, everyone expects her to carry out this role. This is how she finds herself in a wedding dress, being practically forced to marry someone she’s not in love with.

This is when she makes her “deal with the devil.” She asks to be free. Although she prayed and prayed and prayed to all the gods she can think of, the only one that answers is a god that answers after dark. She had been warned not to pray to them, but she’s out of options. He agrees to her deal, and she unwittingly agrees to a deal where she never dies or ages, but nobody ever remembers her.

Until one day–someone does remember her.

My Thoughts

This book is great. The story masterfully weaves the two timelines together: one that takes place in 2014, when she meets the man that remembers her, and the other starting in 1714, when she makes the deal with the devil. We learn about how she made the deal, how she survived, how she felt. Some things are hinted at, but we don’t learn the details of until well into the book. I didn’t find one timeline any more compelling than the other. They were both great.

As someone who enjoys history, I found it very interesting to see Addie live through three hundred years of it. Don’t worry, although the book is 448 pages, you don’t have to watch Addie live through all 300 years of her history; it only touches on the highlights. She lives through the French Revolution, World War II, and attends a speakeasy during the Roaring 20s. It’s not a history book, but you get to see a scene or two during these time periods, which I found interesting.

Addie as a person is great. She’s strong-willed like Belle, and I found her to be a likeable character. The man she meets in 2014 is also likeable, but does have some character development that he needs to work on. We do get to see that in the book, however.

This book made me cry because I missed my grandma, and call my mom. It must be difficult to live for so long and lose the people that are closest to you. In Addie’s case, since nobody could remember her, it was difficult to become close to anyone after she made her deal.

There’s a twist at the end which I’m not going to spoil. I don’t think it’s meant to be shocking–you see hints of what the twist is as the story progresses. As I read the very last section, I thought it was amazingly clever how the story was pieced together.

“Happiness is brief, and history is lasting, and in the end,” he says, “everyone wants to be remembered.”

The Invisible life of Addie LaRue (ARC), loc. 5257

Conclusion

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was a great book, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up on my list of best books from 2020. Not only was it a very clever book, it kept me wanting to read more. Even though my reading has been way down this year, I’m super happy that I read this book. This is one of Ms. Schwab’s adult books, so I wouldn’t recommend it to her middle grade readers or her younger young adult readers, but if you’re 16 and up and looking for a story about time and what it’s like to go through a long life where nobody remembers you, I definitely recommend it.

The Opposite of Always

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Opposite of Always cover

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!

The Damned

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The Damned cover

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.

Today Tonight Tomorrow

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Today Tonight Tomorrow cover

There are some books that, just hearing the title, brings a smile to your face. Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon is like that. I had the opportunity to receive an advanced reader copy (thank you Netgalley and Simon Pulse!) and this is a book that will probably get a reread from me sometime in the future.

Rowan Roth is an overachieving graduating senior at a Seattle high school. She always tries to be the best at everything. There’s only one thing that keeps her from being the best: Neil McNair.

They fight about being the best at everything. It’s the last day of school, and there’s only one more day to try to best Neil. Question 1: which one of them is going to be valedictorian? Question 2: will one of them win Howl, the senior year scavenger hunt, which comes with a pretty sweet prize?

Well, that I won’t give you the answer to. But I will tell you that circumstances force them to work together, and that over the course of the competition, they end up falling in love.

There are so many things I loved about this book! Before coronavirus closed down the gym, it was my hot tub book. I’d go to the gym, get a good workout in, and then reward myself by sitting in the hot tub with my waterproof Kindle, reading this book. I was happy to sit there and prune up because this book was so good. When the gym closed down, it was one of the things I was sad about. I had to find a new routine to finish this book.

For one, I loved Rowan and Neil’s competition. You know how in a book two characters say they hate each other, but as the book progresses, you realize that their professed hatred actually masks caring for each other? That’s what goes on in this book. It cumulates in a scene at the top of a Ferris wheel that put me in tears.

Another thing I loved about this book is that it focused on regrets. On wasted time. Haven’t we all been in a situation where we wished we had done something differently? Rowan realizes that maybe she should have spent a little more time living throughout high school rather than fighting with Rowan to be the best.

Since this is a romance, it does end with a happily ever after (or at least a happy for now). And of course, you can see on the cover that they eventually will get together. This is a wonderful journey with funny moments, touching moments, and moments that will leave you in tears. It has an overall happy vibe that–in this world currently overrun with social distancing and viruses–may be just the thing you need in this world. I highly recommend it.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky

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10 Things I Hate About Pinky cover

Sandhya Menon’s books are always so amazing! Her most recent book (out last Tuesday) was 10 Things I Hate About Pinky. It’s the third book in the Dimpleverse, and if you haven’t read the others, you should! This latest book stands on its own, but! If you read them in order, you’ll be familiar with some of the characters and situations and it will be a little bit cooler.

I haven’t written a lot of reviews lately (I’d love to fix that at some point) but today’s review is going to be a little different than normal. I’m writing a list:

10 Things I Love about 10 Things I Hate About Pinky

1. Pinky. Pinky is such a great character! We meet her first in There’s Something About Sweetie, but we get to know her a lot better in this book. She’s such a sweet, caring person. I love how we get to see this side of her in this book.

2. Samir. Samir, who begins a fake-dating relationship with Pinky, is almost her opposite. While Pinky is a free-spirit, Samid has a planner and his life revolves around it. Over the course of 10 Things I Hate About Pinky, he learns that some things just can’t be planned. Including how he ended up fake-dating Pinky in the first place. It happens towards the beginning of the book, but I’ll leave that up to you to discover.

3. Family relationships. We mostly get to see the relationship between Pinky and her mother, but there are other relationships here. Her mother starts out as very antagonistic towards Pinky, but they work things out. Samir and his mother have some things to work out too. We don’t see much of her here, but their relationship does evolve.

4. Friendships. The main friendship here is between Pinky and Dolly, whom we haven’t met before. We hear a little from Ashish as well. Summer friendships are great!

5. Saving the World! Okay, Pinky and Samir don’t exactly save the world, but they do try to save their little part of the world, which is under threat. While I won’t say whether they succeed or not, they get involved in a little protesting.

6. Animals! Pinky rescues a wild animal early on in the book. Also, there’s a butterfly habitat that Pinky and Samir visit. Both animals play roles in the book.

7. Laugh out Loud. One of the things I love about Sandhya Menon’s books is that they are funny. There were several places where I couldn’t help but to laugh out loud.

8. The Cover. This is such a beautiful cover! I think it personifies Pinky perfectly. It would have been cooler, maybe, if there was a butterfly on the cover, but it matches the rest of the Pinky set, and it’s so happy.

9. Uh Oh. The Big Misunderstanding. Of course, not everything in this book could be as happy as the cover, could it? There are several misunderstandings that are cleared up, including a huge one that almost tears Pinky and Samir apart.

10. The Happily Ever After. You couldn’t call this book a romance without it.

So, was there anything I hated about 10 Things I Hate About Pinky? Absolutely not! I loved this book. It just came out last Tuesday, and I encourage you to go pick it up. If you like fake-dating and enemies to lovers, then you’ll probably like this too.

Tell Me Everything

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Tell Me Everything cover

Hello! I’ve been horrible at writing reviews lately, but I need to turn Tell Me Everything, by Sarah Enni, back into the library and I haven’t reviewed it yet! I liked this story and the pages flew by. I think the description doesn’t really do it justice.

Ivy and Harold are best friends. Ivy is shy and retreats into her art and photography; Harold is a high-achieving academic who wants to be involved in almost every club in school.

Things change when Harold goes to summer camp. He comes back stressed about getting into a selective college; Ivy spent the summer taking pictures and following the new anonymous art app, VEIL. VEIL allows people in your local area to post art anonymously, which gives people more freedom to be themselves. Once school returns, Ivy starts figuring out who some of these VEIL posters are, and starts to give gifts to them anonymously.

The Issues

I didn’t expect Tell Me Everything to be a book that explored important issues. Nothing in the description indicates that. But then, someone posts an anti-homosexual rant on VEIL. The site goes from being a fun place for teens to express themselves to one that has gathered the attention of unhappy parents. The book explores the issues of anonymity, free speech, and how sometimes anonymity causes people to behave in ways they wouldn’t do if they had to have their name attache to it–and not always in a good way.

When Ivy starts figuring out who these people are and starts giving them gifts, I start to see how this might not end well. Because not everybody wants other people to find out their secrets. And even if you do figure out someone’s secret, sometimes it’s better that they don’t know you know. I don’t want to give the ending away, but Ivy ends up learning that her good intentions don’t always work out so well.

Plot Twist!

Tell Me Everything has an interesting plot twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. In a good way though. I thought the end was going to go one way, but it went in a different direction. It was a believable end though, so I wasn’t left disappointed or confused. I was very happy with the end.

Conclusion

I liked Tell Me Everything, and was glad I ended up reading it. It’s a book that I didn’t really hear much about when it came out (I heard about it through someone’s book recommendation) but I hope more people hear about it. The voice is great, the issues it discusses are relevant to what teens (and adults) are going through today, and it’s got a storyline that makes you want to keep reading. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you give it a chance.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

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Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cover

When I first heard they were doing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a Hunger Games prequel, last year, I was only mildly interested. Sure, I went to see all the movies, and it was one of the book series I’ve read in both Spanish and English, but it’s been at least 5 years since I’ve read it. Do I want to go back to the world? It turns out, the book was pretty good and now I want to reread The Hunger Games at some point.

The book centers on Coriolanus Snow, which, if you’ve read The Hunger Games, is an antagonist from the series. How is this book going to work out, making him likable? We’re all the heroes of our own stories, I guess. It turns out, I was pleasantly surprised.

What I Liked

What I liked most about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was how it gives so much backstory into the original The Hunger Games trilogy. When we’re first dumped into the 74th annual Hunger Games, the capital has everything down already. They’re exciting (if not gruesome) to watch, there’s stakes for all the districts involved, and sometimes people actually volunteer for these things. The victors are rewarded! The 10th Hunger Games–not so much. They’re still figuring these things out. We get to see how these things are put into motion.

Then there’s “The Hanging Tree.” People have been talking about the origins to this song for years, wondering where it came from. It’s stuck with me for years, and I remember the tune still. We get to find out the story behind this song. I love it when book series tie into each other across a character’s universe (maybe that’s why I like shadowhunters books so much). There is so much here that brings Panem to life. It’s great.

Then there’s the story itself. Coriolanus is a sympathetic character–for most of the book. This is not the capital we’re used to, full of wealthy, privileged, and clueless citizens. While it is true they’re better off than everybody in the districts, Panem is only 10 years away from a devastating war. I have a German textbook written in the late 1970s, and from the impression I get from that book, they were still recovering from World War II (the infrastructure was so bad that telephone calls were a luxury). I found myself rooting for him throughout the book. He’s a mentor for the 10th Hunger Games, and gets assigned to the girl from District 12.

He’s thrown a lot of challenges and he has to overcome them. At the same time, despite his challenges, you see the ambition that eventually turns him into President Snow. His mentee is a great character as well, and you want to root for her too.

What I Liked Less

While I can’t say there was anything I disliked about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, there was a part that surprised me. After the Hunger Games end, there’s still a third of the book left. What? Initially, it felt like the story should have ended there. However, the last third of the book shows us how Coriolanus Snow turns from a sympathetic character to being set on the path that leads him to becoming the villainous President Snow 64 years later. It also contains the origin to the song “The Hanging Tree,” which I really enjoyed.

Conclusion

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an enjoyable story that gives us a lot of background into The Hunger Games. I want to go on and reread the original series now. There were times I didn’t want to put it down. I definitely recommend it if you liked the original series.