Tag: Book Review

ARC Book Review: You Have a Match by Emma Lord

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult contemporary
Length: 320 pages
Author: Emma Lord
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: January 5th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the beloved author of Tweet Cute comes Emma Lord’s You Have a Match, a YA novel of family, friendship, romance and sisterhood…

When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.

But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.

When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents—especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.

The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.

But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own!

ADORED THIS.

You Have a Match is the parent trap, found family, summer camp mash-up I didn’t know I needed. I loved this so much. Emma Lord is cementing herself as an auto-buy author for me. After loving Tweet Cute, I’m so happy I got a chance to read her next book!

I absolutely loved all of these characters. There were weaknesses and strengths. So much growth, and seizing opportunities and finding your future path. It was such a perfect young adult book. Watching Abby cope with learning about her new sister felt raw and real. Abby and Savannah conquered a lot because they realized they truly wanted to be in each other’s lives. Trapping their parents together was such a gem and seeing how the adults worked out their prior conflicts enhanced everything. I honestly couldn’t peg down the full story until it was revealed and I love that it remained a well-timed mystery.

The side story romance between Leo and Abby was PRECIOUS. Such a sweet friends to lovers that definitely had me shipping them from the beginning. I love where it fit in because it never over shadowed the main plot. It clearly was meant to be on the side and it appropriately remained there.

There was just so many little things that added together to make this story what it was. I felt like I learned more about myself just from reading it. Wanting a place to belong, understanding that our parents aren’t perfect, finding that sister you didn’t know you had, and falling in love. Incredibly heart-warming and intensely charming, You Had a Match needs to be on your TBR ASAP.

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult contemporary
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses / make-outs

Instagram || Goodreads

Book Review: The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5) by Diana Gabaldon

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Historical fiction romance
Length: 979 pages
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Publisher: Delta
Release Date: November 6th, 2001
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon mesmerized readers with her award-winning Outlander novels, four dazzling tales featuring eighteenth-century Scotsman James Fraser and his twentieth-century time-traveling wife, Claire Randall. Now, in this eagerly awaited fifth volume, Diana Gabaldon continues their extraordinary saga, a masterpiece of pure storytelling that is her most astonishing Outlander novel yet….

The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser’s wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy—a time-traveler’ s certain knowledge. Claire’s unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead—or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

A MIDDLE BOOK.

First and foremost, I love this series. This book? A bit slow compared to the previous four.

I felt like it took until 600 pages before I was really wrapped up into it. While that’s clearly a long time to wait, It’s still just a book I can listen to and really get into. I like listening to the narrator. I love hearing the story and even when things aren’t as eventful, I enjoy being in the mundane-ness because I love Claire, Jamie, Roger and Bri.

There was a lot of random (to me) love scenes. I don’t inherently have a problem with them, I just personally like them to fit into the story rather than feel like they’re put their for page time. These felt more page time which is what took so long before the drama really started going down.

I liked what The Fiery Cross set up. Getting closer to the Revolutionary War is only going to increase many story lines and plots. There’s plenty of loose ends running around that I’m excited to get to the next book. Especially because one of my FAVORITE characters is back!!

For 1,000 pages I know I should [could?] have a lot more to say, but this series thrives off of keeping things as spoiler-free as possible. Since this is book 5 of 8 (or maybe more now!) I want to keep it brief.

Overall audience notes:

  • Historical fiction / romance
  • Language: some strong throughout
  • Romance: open and closed door scenes throughout
  • Violence: battles, physical, guns, hangings, animal attacks, snake bites, murder

Instagram || Goodreads

Book Review: Heart Bones by Colleen Hoover

GoodeyReads1 Comment

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: New Adult Contemporary romance
Length: 251 pages
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Hoover Ink, Inc.
Release Date: August 19th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Life and a dismal last name are the only two things Beyah’s parents ever gave her. Forced to carve her own path alone, Beyah is well on her way to bigger and better things, thanks to no one but herself.
With only two short months separating her from the future she’s built for herself and the past she desperately wants to leave behind, an unexpected death leaves Beyah with no place to go during the interim.
Forced to call her last resort, Beyah has no other option than to spend the remainder of her summer on a peninsula in Texas with a father she barely knows.
Beyah’s plan is to keep her head down and let the summer slip by seamlessly, but her new neighbor Samson throws a wrench in that plan.
Samson and Beyah have nothing in common on the surface. She comes from a life of poverty and neglect; he comes from a family of wealth and privilege.
But one thing they do have in common is that they’re both drawn to sad things.
Which means they’re drawn to each other.
With an almost immediate connection too intense for them to continue denying, Beyah and Samson agree to stay in the shallow end of a summer fling. What Beyah doesn’t realize is that a rip current is coming, and it’s about to drag her heart out to sea.

NO SURPRISE, I LOVED THIS.

I’m a Colleen Hoover fan for life, this is a fact.

Once again, I’m here with a broken heart, that has been stitched back together by the kind of soul-searching contemporary romance I didn’t know I was craving. This had the lows and highs and all the inbetween.

I adored these characters and felt for them in their struggles and trials. I won’t be able to ever understand the choices and reasons that they made them, and that really pulled on me. Desperation for hope and a step forward had me tearing up. I cared for everyone involved (even the side character) and just felt this entire book.

For Samson and Beyah to have a romance over the summer and for be to not even feel a *twinge* of insta-love is all I ever want in a faster-paced romance. They truly connected and came together in more ways than one. I loved their relationship, and even when it was making me frustrated, I understood, and that’s the important part.

The ending was beautiful and romantic, and I let out the biggest sigh and broke out in a huge smile. For 250 pages, this book will hit you hard, and make everything positive in the end.

Overall audience notes:

  • New adult contemporary romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses / make-outs; a few open door, mild-detailed scenes
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a parent, death by drug overdose, sexual assault and harassment (including that of a minor), extreme poverty

Instagram || Goodreads

Book Review: Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman

GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult contemporary
Length: 384 pages
Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman
Publisher: Ink Road
Release Date: March 10th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Harley Milano has dreamed of being a trapeze artist for as long as she can remember. With parents who run a famous circus in Las Vegas, she spends almost every night in the big top watching their lead aerialist perform, wishing with all her soul that she could be up there herself one day.

After a huge fight with her parents, who continue to insist she go to school instead, Harley leaves home, betrays her family and joins the rival traveling circus Maison du Mystère. There, she is thrust into a world that is both brutal and beautiful, where she learns the value of hard work, passion and collaboration. But at the same time, Harley must come to terms with the truth of her family and her past—and reckon with the sacrifices she made and the people she hurt in order to follow her dreams.

SOME GOOD.

I liked this book. I did, just some main character issues that were hard to continue to look past as the book went on.

Harley was so intensely selfish, the entire book. Everything she did hurt someone around her and she would acknowledge this, but then do nothing to work on changing and growing from her choices. Maybe by the end were some new insights from Harley. By then though, I was over her attitude and her treatment of others.

I did love the circus theme. It’s a small sub-genre I also enjoy. I like the setting and all of the magical acts and characters that come with it. Harley’s coworkers were fun and helped find her footing after she had ran off.

The romance was cute! I enjoyed the slow movement and how it didn’t overtake the story since this wasn’t a romance at its heart. Harley had to learn a lot while she was on her own and did at least get something out of it.

Harley, biracial, often felt disconnected with her cultures and a large family pulling her different ways. I really liked this diversity aspect and conversations she had with herself and others. I loved that by the end she had started to find herself and where she fit in and how she could feel like she was apart of her family.

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult contemporary fiction
  • Language: some mild
  • Romance: kisses
  • Trigger/Content warnings: some suicide ideation, and discussion of mental health (anxiety and depression)

Instagram || Goodreads