The Queen of Nothing - Review

 

By: Holly Black

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Publication Date: November 19, 2019, by Little, Brown

Rate: ♥♥♥

Goodreads│Amazon

Book Summary:

He will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan’s betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict’s bloody politics.

And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity…

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, comes the highly anticipated and jaw-dropping finale to The Folk of the Air trilogy.

My Thoughts:

First, off I picked this as an add-on book for my Book of the Month box, so I had no idea it was book three of a series. I totally picked it for the cover and description. I think I would have liked it more if I had read the first two books before reading this one. 

Jude is a mortal girl married to the fairy king who was exiled from the fairy realm. She has to go back to the fairy realm and pretend to be her sister to tell a lie. Her sister is her twin and is unable to lie in the fairy realm. Jude runs into some trouble in the fairy realm and has to figure out how to get back home all while trying not to let the king know her true feelings.

I enjoyed the story but felt kind of lost though out, that's my fault for not starting with book one. I could go back and read the first two books but this book didn't draw me in enough to want to bother.

Aria's Travelling Book Shop - Review

 

By: Rebecca Rasin

Genre: Romance, Fiction

Publication Date: April 8, 2020, by HQ Digital

Rate: ♥♥♥♥♥

Source: NetGalley

Goodreads│Amazon

Book Summary:

This summer will change everything!

Aria Summers knows what she wants.

Life on the road with best friend Rosie and her beloved camper-van-cum-book-shop, and definitely, definitely, no romance.

But when Aria finds herself falling – after one too many glasses of wine, from a karaoke stage – into the arms of Jonathan, a part of her comes back to life for the first time in years.

Since her beloved husband died Aria has sworn off love unless it’s the kind you can find in the pages of a book. One love of her life is quite enough.

And so Aria tries to forget Jonathan and sets off for a summer to remember in France. But could this trip change Aria’s life forever…?

My Thoughts:

I have to confess the title drew me in. Anything about a book shop must be read. The cute picture on the cover helped also. 

It's a lovely story about overcoming grief and learning to love again. I was drawn in from the first page. It made me laugh and cry. 

I loved Aria's van life lifestyle. Getting to travel around and meet new people and do new things seems very exciting. 

I highly recommend it. I definitely wanted to devour it and stay up all night.

Get a Life Chloe Brown - Review

 

By: Talia Hibbert

Genre: Romance, Fiction

Publication Date: November 5, 2019, by Avon

Rate: ♥♥♥♥

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Book Summary:

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed learning about Chloe's life struggles with her chronic illness. Just the everyday things that someone with a chronic illness might go through. It was a real eye-opener.  

I also enjoyed the real struggles that Red went through with a previous relationship. I think we all have problems in our lives that we have to work through and learn from. 

I loved the real-life fights and insecurities that both Chloe and Red had during the course of the story. It was a well-thought-out story and I loved it.

Frankie and Amelia - Review

By: Cammie McGovern

Genre: Children, Fantasy, Fiction

Publication Date: October 26, 2021, by HarperCollins

Rate: ♥♥♥♥

Source: NetGalley

Goodreads│Amazon

Book Summary:

After being separated from his family, Franklin becomes an independent cat, until he meets a goofy dog named Chester. Chester is a service dog to his person, a boy named Gus, and Chester knows just the girl to be Franklin’s person—Gus’s classmate Amelia.

Amelia loves cats but has a harder time with people. Franklin understands her, though, and sees how much they have in common. When Amelia gets into some trouble at school, Franklin wants to help the girl who’s done so much to help him. He’s not sure how, yet, but he’s determined to try.

This sweet and moving novel demonstrates how powerful the bond between pets and people can be, while thoughtfully depicting a neurodivergent tween’s experience.

My Thoughts:

This is a super cute story about a cat who loses his family but wanders into a new one. I enjoyed the story and the characters but felt like it could have had more to the ending. It felt like I was reading along and then it was finished. It felt like there was more to tell. But I still enjoyed it and would recommend it.  There is also I first book I was unaware of called Chester and Gus. I'll definitely be picking this up to read about their story. I gave it 4 hearts because it just didn't rate staying up all night to read it.

Amari and the Night Brothers - Review

 

By: B.B. Alston

Genre: Children, Fantasy, Fiction

Publication Date: January 19, 2021, by Balzer + Bray

Rate: ♥♥♥♥♥

Goodreads│Amazon

Book Summary:

Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal?

Then Amari discovers a ticking briefcase in her brother’s old closet. A briefcase meant for her eyes only. There was far more to Quinton, it seems than she ever knew. He’s left her a nomination for a summer tryout at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Amari is certain the answer to finding out what happened to him lies somewhere inside if only she can get her head around the idea of mermaids, dwarves, yetis, and magicians all being real things, something she has to instantly confront when she is given a weredragon as a roommate.

Amari must compete against some of the nation’s wealthiest kids—who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives and are able to easily answer questions like which two Great Beasts reside in the Atlantic Ocean and how old is Merlin? Just getting around the Bureau is a lesson alone for Amari with signs like ‘Department of Hidden Places this way, or is it?’ If that all wasn’t enough, every Bureau trainee has a talent enhanced to supernatural levels to help them do their jobs – but Amari is given an illegal ability. As if she needed something else to make her stand out.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.

My Thoughts:

Amari and the Night Brother's is full of fun discoveries and adventure. It's about learning to be who you are and not let others bring you down. It was a wonderful book I enjoyed every minute. I can't wait for book two coming out on February 1,2022.

Stolen - Review

By: Tess Stimson

Genre: Thriller

Publication Date: August 5, 2021, by Avon

Rate: ♥♥♥♥♥

SOURCE: NetGalley

Goodreads│Amazon

Book Summary:

You thought she was safe. You were wrong…

Alex knows her daughter would never wander off in a strange place. So when her three-year-old vanishes from an idyllic beach wedding, Alex immediately believes the worst.

The hunt for Lottie quickly becomes a worldwide search, but it’s not long before suspicion falls on her mother. Why wasn’t she watching Lottie? 

Alex knows she’s not perfect, but she loves her child. And with all eyes on her, Alex fears they’ll never uncover the truth unless she takes matters into her own hands.

Who took Lottie Martini? And will she ever come home?

My Thoughts:

This book drew me in from the very beginning. 

Every mother's fear, you turn your back for a minute and your child is missing. Poor Alex is a working mother with a willful child. Is she not allowed to have a life of her own just because she's a mother? She's at a wedding surrounded by friends with security bracelets required to go in and out of the gate. She asks friends to keep an eye on her child while she sneaks off to have a little fling. It is a wedding. Is she not allowed to have any fun? Evidently not since her child goes missing. What happened to Lottie? Who took her? How did she go missing from a security-enforced party? Will she ever be found? 

I never did guess who took Lottie. Stolen is a great book I loved it! If I didn't need sleep I definitely would have stayed up all night reading it.

Tales of Darkness and Sin - Review

 By: Multiple Authors

Genre: Romance  

Publication Date: February 15, 2021

Rate: ♥♥

Goodreads

Book Summary:

From 16 bestselling authors comes seven never-before-released dark and forbidden co-written short stories with HEAs and sneak peeks of upcoming releases.

My Thoughts:

Lots of short erotica stories to choose from. I enjoyed a few of them but most were just ok. I would sit down to read and would lose interest before I even finished one story. Then a few were just the start of a book you had to go buy to finish reading. Not a fan.