April Wrap Up

Hey, loves! I know this is so late! I  have been slacking with reviewing and commenting, but hopefully I’ll get that caught up soon. In May I have a lot of blog posts already planned out and many are drafted so I have a really good feeling about this month.

So to get to the books that I read during the month of April. I read some fantasy books this month which I feel great about as it’s my favorite genre but I have been struggling to get into lately, I give many thanks to the lovely ladies who buddy read with me! I have some varied ratings with the books I read starting from 2 stars up to 4 stars. Okay let’s stop talking and get into what books I read in the month of April!

(Like always, you can click the links in each of the titles to read a more in-depth review of each book.)

Caraval by Stephanie Garber – ★★★★

This was a re-read, because I really wanted to get to Legendary before Finale was released. This time around I read this book via audiobook and it was just as amazing as the first time I read it. This book was just absolutely ENCHANTING! From the very first page up until the last, there was never a dull moment.I got to fall in love with the characters all over again. Stephanie Garber is an incredibly talented author, and a master at weaving beautiful lyrical words.

Legendary by Stephanie Garber – ★★★★★

It has taken me over a year to read Legendary, and I am so happy to have finally read the sequel to Caraval. This book is on my must reads of 2019 and I can now say that I love this book so much! I loved being back in this world, Caraval was such a magical story and Legendary was no different. The romance in this book, I was completely living for it! And that ending!?! The big reveal took me by surprise because it felt a little to obvious so I wasn’t expecting it. Needless to say I am beyond excited for Finale!!

Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kauffman – ★★

I want to start this review by saying that I was very fortunate to have been given a EARC, I swear that my neighbors could hear me cheering. With that said, this book disappointed me so much! I really wanted to love it and I really didn’t like it until the last 30% of the book. I loved Jay and Amie’s Illuminae Files and I do enjoy there writing. I just wasn’t connecting with the story.This book was a huge miss for me, I know there is a lot of high praise already. I know I’ll probably get some hate for this but no one is more disappointed with my feelings than I am.

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott – ★★.5

I originally rated this book a three but I took it down to two and a half stars. I only read this book because I want to see the movie. And I only want to see the movie because of Cole Sprouse. Anyway this book is about two teens living with cystic fibrosis, and there relationship. The story overall I enjoyed it, i found it entertaining but the writing was so cringe worthy. I love beautiful prose and this definitely want it.

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson – ★★★★

I really LOVED this book! The Storm Crow is filled with the potential to be a great, captivating series. It’s gripping within the first chapter, the characters are all amazing and the magic is uniquely written. With a large variety of majestic crows that can control the elements they provide everything needed for it’s country.  The crows gave me major  How to Train your Dragon vibes. Josephson has created such a rich and gorgeous world!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power – ★★★★

Wilder Girls has been everywhere lately, with its gorgeous cover to amazing synopsis. I have to say this cover is probably my favorite cover of the whole year.I’m going to need all the sapphic horror books from now on. The female-female relationship in this book was everything! I loved these girls so much and was horrified for what they were going through.Rory power’s writing is beautiful yet it does a fantastic job at making your skin crawl, with it’s deliberate descriptive details. Power’s does not hold back on the horror scenes, as a horror movie lover I found some of the horror to be tame but to others it can be quite triggering. That being said this was one of the most unique young adult novels I had the pleasure of reading.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing – ★★★★

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey – ★★★★

THIS WAS SO ADORABLE AND CUTE!!! I’ve seen a couple of my friends give it a low rating and I can see why some people wouldn’t enjoy it. That wasn’t the case for me. This book is basically a long homage to romantic comedies, which made me realize I have not watched a lot of the movies mentioned, and I quickly wrote them all down to add to my Netflix queue.This book is the perfect summer beach read!

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That’s all! I am so sorry this is going up so late! So those are the books I read this month let me know down in the comments what your favorite book was in April.

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Aurora Rising by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff

Many thanks to Random House Kids for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for my honest review!

I want to start this review by saying that I was very fortunate to have been given a EARC, I swear that my neighbors could hear me cheering. With that said, this book disappointed me so much! I really wanted to love it and I really didn’t like it until the last 30% of the book. I found it to be extremely boring. I loved Jay and Amie’s Illuminae Files and I do enjoy there writing. I just wasn’t connecting with the story.

They are not the heroes we deserve. They are just the ones we could find.

Aurora Rising Follows the story of six legion cadets who make up the squad 312, they are chosen to work together during the draft,which Tyler missed. He was to busy saving a girl from a ship he found floating in the fold. He is one of the top students but he is landed with the misfits of the academy who make up his squad..

Tyler: The Alpha, Squad Leader,Scarlet’s brother and captain “hotness”. The amount of times his dimples or attractiveness was mentioned was absurd.

Aurora: An Asian human girl,who was Cryogenically frozen for the last 200 years and was supposed to wake up on Octavia III. She has some wicked powers but she also has no idea how to control them.

Scarlet: The Face, the diplomat and Tyler’s twin sister.She is described as having fiery red hair and is just as attractive as her brother.

Cat: The Ace, the pilot, has been friends with Tyler and Scarlet since kindergarten. She is a strong woman and takes shit from no one. She is covered in tattoos with a Mohawk and not so secretly in love with Tyler.

Kal: The Tank, Syldrathi, he has darker skin and silver braided hair. The Syldrathi are in the midst of a civil war and also have a war history with the Terran people. This boy is full of rage, but oh can he throw down. He was hands down my favourite character.

Finian: The Gearhead, Tech Division. He is Betraskan, his skin is white.He’s bisexual and has a disability for muscle weakness, nerve damage, impaired mobility. He has to wear a exoskeleton suit to help him with his movements. His character also made this book tolerable, he’s sassy and says inappropriate things at the worst times.

Zila: The Brains, Science Division. She is described as having dark brown skin with curly black hair. She loves to wear hoop earrings and can be a little trigger happy.

The six of us? Against the whole galaxy?

The book is divided up into three different parts, I really struggled with part 1 it was incredibly boring and slow moving.Part 2 took place on the world ship, where the squad was a part of a very drawn out heist. We got a little bit of backstory to some characters,but I still wasn’t vibing with the story. It wasn’t until part three where I found myself actually invested in the plot. It was short lived though because then the book needed, just when things were getting good.

I had a really hard time picking up the book to actually read it. The action scenes were well written but because I didn’t care about the characters I was invested in there well being. Well, I did like Kal and Fin, they were the only characters with some personality.

This book was a huge miss for me, I know there is a lot of high praise already. I know I’ll probably get some hate for this but no one is more disappointed with my feelings than I am. I think this book would have been hugely improved by not having seven different POV, if they stuck with just Tyler and Aurora I think it would have been less confusing. I struggled with remembering who was talking in each chapter.

I ended up giving Aurora Rising 2.5 Stars.

Buddy Read with Amy!

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The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read to many Christina Lauren books, but these ladies sure can write a good romance. This was such a cute Rom-Com, it will make the perfect summer read. I finished it in two sitting, the pages just flew by.  This book was such a fun ride and has me aching to pick up more books from Christina Lauren.

That’s the point of luck; it happens when and where it happens.

The Unhoneymooners follows Olive Torres as she goes on her twin sister Ami’s honeymoon. During the wedding reception everyone comes down with a bad case of food poisoning, except for Olive and Ethan, Ami’s new husbands brother.Olive and Ethan have hated each other from the moment they met three years ago, now on there siblings honeymoon in Maui they must pretend to be newlyweds. They get into some pretty sticky situations, and soon the fake marriage alerts them to the fake that they have a lot of chemistry. That they may have been wrong in hating each other.

“When I signed up for this honeymoon, I had no idea it would involve so much nudity.”

This book has one a my favorite tropes , Hate to Love  and this book fueled my love for that trope.  Also includes fake dating/fake marriage and a slow burn romance .I was laughing out loud and swooning over Ethan. I was obsessed with there banter, Olive is so sassy and Ethan’s attitude was just to much, I loved them. I really love that Olive is a strong curvy woman who stands up for herself and takes no shit from Ethan. Throughout the story she starts to discover who she really is, and what is important to her. Ethan comes across as a huge jerk at first but honestly that’s what made me love him. As the book progresses we find he is actually really sweet and hilarious.

I had a few issues with the story but those are more personal opinions than the book being bad. I really didn’t like Dane, Olive’s sisters husband, he was honestly the worst! Ethan coming to his defense, I understand where he was coming from but it infuriated me that he was standing up for such a shitty person.

If you’re a fan of rom-coms, and want a funny, cute book, I highly recommend picking this one up. I just loved this so so so so much! Christina Lauren is one  quickly becoming of my favorite authors.

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Get To Know Me Tag

Hello! Since I’ve gained so many awesome new followers in the past two months, which I am so blessed you all subscribed to my blog! I thought I would do this tag as a way to introduce myself.

1. What do you study/what is your job?

First of all I’m a mom to two beautiful kids, my son is 12 and my daughter just turned 15 months old. You can read her most recent update here. Aside from mommying, I work full time as a personal support worker in a mental health special care home. I’m not currently studying but I am halfway through the LPN program, I’m not sure if I’m going to return or not at the moment.

2. What is your favorite social media channel?

Currently it’s Instagram, I’m a visual person. So I love seeing everyone’s photos and there creativity. I’ve been busy trying grow my presence over the past two months and I’m really loving it.

3. If you had another channel, what would it be about?

I would really like to make booktube videos but my anxiety gets the better of me. But I’m hopeful that one of these days to dive into youtube. I’d like to creat book content ,as well as mommy lifestyle content.

4. Do you play an instruments?

No, but I would love to learn guitar.

5. What hobbies do you have other than reading?

I don’t have to much time for much else between the kids, work and reading. But I don’t binge a lot of tv, and I’m trying to get more into photography.

6. Favorite TV Shows?

Here is where I could go on forever but I’ll try and narrow it down a little. My all time favourite tv show will always be Gilmore Girls. I love this show and its characters so freaking much. Another fave is Game of Thrones, who else is excited for the final season?! Hmm let me see I also love The Office, Jane the Virgin, This is Us,Queer Eye and How to get away with murder. There’s more of course but I’ll stop here.

7. What got you into reading?

I have always been a huge reader, I didn’t have many friends growing up. Books ended up being my best friend and shaped who I am today. My dad would take me to the library during the summer and I’d spend hours browsing the shelves.

From goosebumps to the babysitters club. In middle school I became obsessed with Stephen King I couldn’t get enough. Then I discovered Harry Potter and it changed my life! I didn’t read as much in high school then I had Noah. Around the time Noah was 2 I started reading Twilight and it re ignited my love for reading and I never stoped.

8.What are your favorite and least favorite genres?

My heart will always belong to Fantasy. I love huge lush worlds full of magic. Also contemporary is becoming what I teach for the most. My least favourite would have to be historical, steampunk and westerns.

9.What books define your childhood?

I discussed some in an earlier question, but some others include Heartland, The Saddle Club, Shivers and Nancy Drew.

10.Tell us an interesting fact about you!

With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

I received a copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and purchase something I’ve talked about or recommended, I’ll receive a very small percentage of the sale. ]

“Sometimes focusing on what you can control is the only way to lessen the pang in your chest when you think about the things you can’t.”

The first time I saw the cover of this book I fell in love, it is so gorgeous!! This book means so much to me! This story was very empowering. Emoni was such a strong character and full of passion. Also the amount of representation in the book was excellent. Emoni is part Puerto-Rican and Black and a  teenage mother, there is also a lesbian side character.

Emoni is told that she has a magic touch when it comes to cooking. She takes a recipe and makes her her own by adding spices she believes will enhance the flavors. I felt such a deep connection to Emoni, she is a badass single teen mom, with a beautiful little girl. Many of you probably don’t know that I had my son Noah when I was 17.  I understand her struggles, she wants to provide for her daughter. To make the right decisions so that there future will be secure. I have never felt such a connection with a character before, I cried so many tears throughout this book.

When Emoni discovers she has a chance to take a culinary cooking class as an elective in school. She cannot decide if it’s the right choice to take the class,they will also be going on a trip to Spain at the end of the semester. She already has to keep up with school work, and she works part time to help cover the cost of the baby, plus actually taking care of the baby. Emoni has a lot on her plate. She dreams of becoming a chef and someday working in a restaurant. This book could have been full of stereotypes about teen mother’s, but it wasn’t. It was a beautiful story, about a girl despite her circumstances goes after her dream. Oh my Goodness, I’m crying again just typing this review.

” I want to be able to take care of my own and the only thing I would want to study is culinary arts, but why try to learn that in a school when I could learn it in a real restaurant where I’m making money instead of spending it?”” 

The side character’s were also an amazing addition to the story, Emoni’s best friend is her rock. She has been there for her all through her pregnancy and remained after the baby was born. She is also a lesbian and has the cutest relationship!

The chapters are also really short which I loved. The start of new sections also has little recopies which I thought was a nice touch.It was next to impossible to put down With the Heat on High.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this book.

 Pre-Order With the Fire on High
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March Book Haul

Hello bookworms! Can you believe Match is done in a few days. I’ve acquired quite a few books this month. I usually don’t buy to many but so many came out in March and April is another big book month. Also I want to say a huge thank you to all the publishers on Netgalley and Edelweiss. Okay enough talking, here are the books I’ve added to my collection this month!

Physical Books

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Mermaids Voice Returns in this One- Amanda LoveLace

Daisy Jones and the Six- Taylor Jenkins Reid

Five Feet Apart – Rachael Lippicott

Now you see her – Heidi Perks,  A Paperback copy was sent to me by the publisher as part of the Twitter party for the paperback release!

E-Books Bought

Shadow Me- Tahareh Mafi

Six of Crows -Leigh Bardugo

NetGalley/ Edelweiss

The Fever King by Victoria Lee

Aurora Rising by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

Meet Cute- Helena Hunting

Fix Her Up – Tessa Bailey

Waiting For Tom Hanks – Kerry Winfrey

When We Left Cuba – Chanel Cleeton

My Lovely Wife – Samantha Downing

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That’s all for now, Let’s me know if you got any of these books, maybe we can buddy read!!

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Sorcery Of Thorns by Magaret Rogerson

ARC received by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Sorcery of Thorns has been at the top of my list when it comes to 2019 releases. Enchanted of Ravens was one of my favorite books of  .To say I loved this book would not even begin to describe how I felt about it!

Elisabeth, works as an apprentice in a magical library full of magical books with souls, who whisper and interact with the characters. When the books get damaged they turn into huge rampaging monsters. Elisabeth’s interactions with the grimoires gave me all the feels! Elisabeth inst like all the other apprentices, she grew up in the library having been abandoned on its steps as a baby, the other apprentices only start to study at the library at the age of thirteen.  Despite growing up in the library some of the wardens look down on her.

When a dangerous grimoire is released Elisabeth is is thrown into the middle of the situation and soon find herself with charges against her. She is taken away from the library by the Magister,a sorcerer she had briefly met in the past. He is to bring her to the capital to be judged for her crimes.

Elisabeth: I loved her so much! Honestly one of my new favorite characters!! She is full of sass, always getting herself into trouble. She was a badass, and didn’t take crap from anyone and stood up for those she cared about. She also has a soft spot when it comes to the grimoires, I love how she interacts with them.

Nathaniel: I fell in love with immediately. He is such a soft boy! He is also Bi. He openly says that he enjoys the company of men and women. He is portrayed as the villain but he is so much more than a sorcerer.

Silas: OHMYGOD I loved him so much!! He is a demon that turns into a big white fluffy cat. He is bound to Nathaniel but there relationship goes way beyond master and servant. He genuinely cares for Nathaniel, though he tries to hide it. I love that he is supposed to be this evil powerful demon, but he cooks and makes sure there all dressed nicely.

Another thing that I really liked was the romance. It was a slow burn romance, which is one of my favorite tropes. There relationship is everything, its so sweet. You can feel the tension are there interacts become more frequent.

The ending was absolutely amazing It had me on the edge of my seat, and I honestly wanted to jump up and down! I will 100% be pre-ordering the hardback.Sorcery Of Thorns will be released on June 4 2019, and i strongly urge you all to pick it up!

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Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

I was provided an ARC by Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

Trigger Warnings:  The book starts with this warning: “This book contains realistic depictions of opioid use. Recovered and recovering addicts should proceed with caution.”.  This book gets extremely detailed, and is pretty graphic.

Heroine follows the story of  Mickey Catalan, a high school senior and well-known catcher for her school’s softball team. Mickey and her best friend Carolina, are is a tragic car accident. Mickey’s injuries are severe, she needed surgery to have pins pit into her leg, followed by physical therapy. She is prescribed Oxycodone as a pain killer, shes used the drug to numb her life as well as the pain.

Mickey is worried that she will not be ready to attend the starting season of softball, so she pushes herself during physio. But to make it through these appointments she takes extra pills to dull the pain. She  soon runs out of pills. At her next Doctor’s appointment she is nervous asking for a refill,  as she expected the Doctor tells her that she should have more pills left. Another patient overhears there conversation, once out in the parking lot,the older woman approaches Mickey, giving her her phone number.

She meets a new group of people through Edith, the woman from the parking lot. These people soon become her friends. Mickey feels closer to this group of people, as she believes they understand her better and her need of the Oxy. Soon after  her Oxy connection runs dry and she turns to Heroin.

This is a very dark and graphic story about a teen who fights against her addiction. At first she is unwilling to admit to herself that she has a problem, even to her new friends who are also drug users she denies being an addict. Watching Mickey fall deeper and deeper was such an emotional experience I really felt for her. I liked how the book tells the story of how something as simple as taking a medication that is prescribed to you can lead to addiction. People don’t often think that that could be the start of an addiction. This book was definitely intense at times, and there are some really graphic scenes.

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February Monthly Wrap Up

Hello bookworms! February just flew by, it was a pretty busy month for me. First off it was my birthday and my Mom threw me a party at her home with all my family. It was really nice being with everyone! I’ve been trying to clean and purge the apartment, I’d really like that to be finished by summer. I tried to participate in ContemporaryAThon but I got into a slump right in the middle of the week, but I did manage to read 3 books.

Books Read

My Favourite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren

“Sometimes, the thing we want is right in front of us, and we’re the last ones to see it.” 

I am such a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, so when I heard that the writer duo Christina Lauren was putting out this story about best friends turned friends with benefits, I was dying to get my hands on this book.Luckily, I was right, because I was obsessed with this read and could not put it down. Honestly can’t get enough of Christina Lauren’s writing. Their books bring me so much joy!

Born,Darkly by Trisha Wolfe

“A smart man once told me the wait for something to happen can drive a sane man mad. And this place is full of madness.” 

Holy Crap !! What did I just read? This book was one wild ride with no stops until the end. I’m sitting here trying to make sense of what I just read and how to feel about it. This book was like nothing I’ve ever read before, if I had to compare it to something it would be Saw meets Harley Quinn. Starting this I really had no idea what I was getting myself into,only that is was about a romance with a serial killer. That’s all I needed to know! Trisha Wolfe is a new to me author, that I am pleased to say she didn’t disappoint.

A Girl Like Her by Tailia Hibbert

Read as part of the Dragons and Tea Book Club. I’ve read one other Tailia Hibbert book and halfway through this one I added almost all of her other books to my TBR. I love her writing and her characters; this book was everything! I loved it so much, Tailia is a gem and everyone should be reading her books. This book was absolute perfection! I loved that Ruth has autism and that this is #ownvoices.

Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill

“Everything has a use. Sometimes beautiful things are made through necessity.”

Aquicorn Cove follows a young girl named Lana, she along with her father come to visit her Auntie Mae. There was recently a really bad storm on her little island.As Lana explores the beach, she discovers a small injured aquicorn. With the help of her aunt, they care for the small creature.Katie O’Neil had the most breathtakingly adorable illustrations!  The Aquicorns are the perfect mixture of unicorn and seahorse.

The Simple Wild by KA Tucker

“Just don’t make the same mistake I did and fall in love with one of those pilots.”

This book brought on so many tears, happy tears and sad tears. And, this book is just so breathtakingly beautiful. This book turned out to be so much more than my initial expectations. I just loved this. The setting was absolutely perfect and so very atmospheric. I loved the romance and the family dynamic. I LOVED this with all of my heart & soul! It is deferentially one of my new favorite romances and I recommend it to everyone!

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis

Heroine follows the story of  Mickey Catalan, a high school senior and well-known catcher for her school’s softball team. Mickey and her best friend Carolina, are is a tragic car accident. Mickey’s injuries are severe, she needed surgery to have pins pit into her leg, followed by physical therapy. She is prescribed Oxycodone as a pain killer, shes used the drug to numb her life as well as the pain. This is a very dark and graphic story about a teen who fights against her addiction.

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February Book Haul

I’m still waiting for a couple of these to come in the mail, since I ordered them from Book Depository. I’m so excited for all of these books!

Physical Books

On The Come Up- Angie Thomas
Auquicorn Cove- Katie O’Neill
Heart Stopper- Alice Oseman
Senlin Ascends- Josiah Bancroft
Kings of the Wyld- Nicholas Eames

Netgalley/ Edelweiss ARCs

KingsBane- Claire Legrande
The Storm Crow- Kalyn Josephson
There’s something about Sweetie- Sandhya Menon
Sorcery of Thorns- Magaret Rogerson
Love from A to Z – SK Ali
The Unhonneymooners- Christina Lauren
Kings of Fools- Amanda Foody

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