Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I have been wanting to re-read this book for some time, and this year I made it a goal to do so. I am a fan of Rainbow Rowell for a while. I hope to one day read all of her books that she has written and any future books.

Fangirl follows Cath who has been writing Simon Snow fan fiction for a while. We follow her and her twin sister as they start their first year of college.

I relate to Cath a lot. I feel like a lot of the feelings she has in college, I also had in college and like many more will discover and walk through. Cath has a hard time letting go of her old high school habits like writing Simon Snow fan fiction. Simon Snow is similar to Harry Potter in our world. Cath only finds comfort in Simon Snow as her world turns upside down in college. She and her sister find different interests and seem to drift apart. Her dad goes through health issues while she is away/. And college is hard. Getting kicked out of the nest and having to discover yourself again is tough.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars. I want to purchase the comics and hopefully be able to update you on how those compare to the book.

The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg

This was my first book by Bill Konigsberg that I have read. I read this book last summer and still think about it today. It is a cute rom-com read that is fluffy and heartwarming. I want to read more books by this author.

The Music of What Happens follows Max who is running a food truck over the summer. Max is confident, a jock, and popular. He meets Jordan who is looking to earn some extra money to help his family out. Jordan starts to help Max run the food truck. The two become fast friends. Jordan finds out that his family is in need of more money than just a little extra so Max tries to help him earn the money with their food truck by making different dishes and drinks to gain popularity around town.

I would say this book is for fans of Love Simon by Becky Albertalli, or even What if It’s Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli. It has a smaller feel to these two authors and this book is defiantly more under-hyped.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Weekend Reading Update

This past week at work has been crazy! I am training a new store manager for one of our other locations so my lunch breaks haven’t been as long as usual. I usually sit at my local coffee shop to write these blog posts and catch up on my next review I want to do. But that wasn’t possible the last few days. So I missed Wednesday’s Reading update blog post. So instead am I here to present this weeks weekend reading update! Yay!

Because I have been busy at work I also have not read a lot. I am currently reading 3 books. Crazy I know. I have this awful habit of reading multiple books at once. Two of these books are audiobooks.

So far Bear Town by Fredrik Backman, has me hooked. I am half way threw and have so many theories of the ending of this book. It doesn’t help that I have also started to get into a new Neflix show while I am reading this book. I am a Killer on Netflix has me wondering what motives are going to lead us to the end of this book. I am truly a true crime junkie that refuses to get sucked into all the shows and podcasts that are out there.

I am also listening to Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle. I received this book as a ARC from the publisher after it was released. This book came out last month, I believe so it is still new. I have always wanted to read a book like this. Basically there are twin princesses but one was separated at brith. It’s like the Parent Trap of fantasy YA books.

Lasting I am still working on The Sunbearer Trails by Aidan Thomas. I am getting hunger game vibes from tis book and can’t wait to see where it goes. I want to see how The Hunger Games and this book will match. I have so many questions of what will happen.

What do you plan on doing this weekend? I am working everyday for the next two weeks so I am hoping to get in some reading time. What are you going to read this weekend?

Witchings by Claribel A Ortega

I received Witching’s as a ARC for an honest review.

Witching’s is a book about Seven and her journey to becoming a full witch. She has been studying hard. She and her best friend will be picked together for the same coven at the Black Moon Ceremony, she just knows it.

However, things do not go as planned when her best friend is picked by another coven. On top of that Seven is picked as a Spare witch with the new girl who just moved to town and her school bully. She doesn’t want to be a Spare witch, they have the worst reputation in town and are treated poorly by others. So Seven declares the impossible challenge so she and the other two witching’s can have a new chance to become a full witch.

I loved this book. It is a middle-grade book but honestly kids in elementary school who are advised readers will be able to read this book. The plot flows well and it is well written to make sense. I say advanced readers because some of the usual terminologies like all fantasy/witchy books have I could see being a challenge for young readers.

I also loved this book because it talks about bullying. Seven has to become group partners with her school bully. And seeing how the other girl lives her likes, and that maybe there was some miscommunication and missed opportunities getting to know each other well, could turn into a great friendship.

I think this would be the perfect fall read for young readers, especially around the spooky season. I enjoyed this story a lot and want to read more of Claribel’s books. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Out of The Blue by Jason June

Jason June has been an author on my “need to read” list since last year. I was super excited to see Jason come out with a new book this year and knew I needed to read it and not let it sit on my shelf as most books do.

I saw Out of the Blue get hyped pretty well on TikTok and instagram. I think it was a good summer read. We follow Crest who has to go on a journey on land to help one human. Crest tumbles into Sean’s life and decides that Sean is the human he will help. However, Crest has never seen or been in the human world before because Crest is a mer-person, or mermaid.

Sean was recently dumped by his boyfriend and the last thing he needs is to babysit Crest. Not knowing Crest is a mer-person, Sean finds himself seeing Crest every day and can’t figure out why this kid keeps following him around. It low key stalkerish.

I liked the idea of mer-people being non-binary. In a way it just made sense. However, I struggled with the narration of the story. It was hard to follow between characters’ ideas and actions. There seemed to be a conflict between the characters’ development and narrative. I personally did not like that almost every chapter all Crest could think of was sex. This is not a smut book and I felt like it was overused and done in an uncomfortable way.It was pretty cringe when Crest would bring up the topic. But that wasn’t the only hard-to-read spot. The characters go back in forth with wanting a relationship to being just fired which I felt was done in a poor way and just needed to be cleaned up to work.

I did enjoy the story that was trying to be told but overall it just needed a little more development to be a really good novel. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars

June 2022 Month Wrap Up

Here we go agin.. Another Pride month come and gone. The has been a strange month. I don’t know what moo is in retrograde but it needs to knock it off.

I got really slumpy at the start of June. I had plans to read as many queer books as I possibly could for pride month and ended up reading nothing for the first two weeks of June.

I did slowly get out of my slump but all the books that I read this month just didn’t really blow me out of the park. They were good reads but I wanted something mind blowing.

I read Gallent by V.E Schwab. I have been hearing a lot of mixed reviews about this book. For me I got lost a few times with the plot. It was very unclear of what was truly happening and maybe that was the point, to read between the lines. But when you mostly listen to audiobooks you don’t have the chance. I did listen to this one and I think I should have read it. The book is put together beautifully with a lot of great easter eggs in the pages but I did not get it. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

I had high hopes for my next read and that was why I chose it. I read Out of the Blue by Jason June. I liked the idea of this book. The fact that mer-people are non-binary was genius. However it feel a little flat for me. Over halff the book is about a teen with inner thoughts about sex. Which can be important for teens if done well. And in this case, in my opinon it was not done well. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars.

The last book I read this month was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I went into this one blind, like most of the books I read. I realized within the first chapter that this book is meant to be a deep and heavy read. And it starts out this way. But about half way through it forked to another idea of several universes happening all at the same time. This book had a choice, contrite to be heavy or go the weird universe-time traveling way. And it did neither. It all ended abruptly like the author didn’t want to give the book either choices. I gave this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Today is July 3rd and I have already finished 1 book this month and am a third of the way threw 2 others. I am hoping that means this month will be a better reading month.

Do you prefer to use a TBR jar/list or are you a mood reader?

What if it’s Us and Here’s to Us By Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli

These two books are extremely hyped. It took me a long time to finally pick them up. It wasn’t until the second book was released this year that I decided to rapid fire read these.

Jumping into it: What if it’s Us is a cute rom-com that is purposely easily predictable. It starts out when Arthur bumps into Ben at the post office. Ben is struggling to get is an ex-s box of stuff sent when a flash mob comes into the post office. Arthur thinks that this is it, it happens this way in the movie where he meets his perfect soulmate during a flash mob at a post office. But when he turns around Ben is gone. At the start of this book is Arthur trying to find Ben from this point. I struggled with this book because I personally did not like Arthur. He is overly dramatic and comes off as annoying. But this is truly who Arthur is, a broadway fanatic who loves all things drama. I could not relate to Arthur and I think that was why this book was hard for me to like it. It was a fast-paced fluffy read that would be a great book to add to a read-a-thon pile.

Here’s to Us is what happens to Ben and Arthur a few years later. I did like this one a lot more. Usually these types of “extra books” are added to a stand-alone flop because they feel forced. And maybe because I did not like What if it’s Us that well, I found Here’s to Us a better book out of the two. I am curious to know what others thought of the second book.

I personally hate it when a stand alone book get’s a second novel. I think What if it’s us did not need a second book. I gave both these books 4 out of 5 stars.

What are you reading Wednesday. 6-22-2022

This past week I finally went on my 2020 vacation. After 3 years of waiting I went to Buffalo New York, Niagara falls, and Toronto Canada. I was expecting to read a lot more on this trip than I did. But I did finish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Out of the Blue by Jason June.

Harry Potter is my go to audiobook on planes. There is two reasons for this. 1 I have it on audible so its already downloaded and will play on airplane mode. And 2, the biggest reason, if I fall asleep and lose my spot I do not need to go back since I have read this book so many times. I do like Harry Potter a lot, I grew up with it. However I do not agree with the authors personal views. So this will be the only post I will be making about this book.

I did finish Out of the Blue by Jason June. Overall I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I had some issues with the story and how it was written. Some spots where confusing. I also did not like that there was so much sex mentioned in the book when the characters are barley 16 years old. There is more to a story than YA sex scenes…and before you say it no, this was not s smut book. I did however love the ideas of this books. How mer-people are thought of. It was a nice story overall.

This week I am kicking my butt into high gear to finish Aiden Thomas new book The Sunbearer Trials. I received this book as a e-ARC in return for a honest review. I really really want to read this one. My problem is lately I have not been reading ebooks or physical books so it has been challenging to get back into a book not as a audiobook.

This week is also Pride week in my State so happy Pride! I hope you have a great day.

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei

I decided to subscribe to rainbow Crate each month. Icebreaker was the first book from Rainbow Crate that I have decided to read. This follows Mickey James who is a college freshman, and a hockey player who is promised to become a NHL legend like his father and grandfather before him. The only problem is Jaysen Caulfield, one of Mickey’s reveals now turned team mate.

I enjoyed this read. I thought it brought forth a lot of issues that we don’t usually see in books such as mental health. The author really based this book around Mickey’s mental health and his battle with depression. This is a enemy to lovers romance based around hockey. I loved the writing style and the story.

The only issue I had with this book was I felt like it was missing something. I am a drama seeker. I need a book to have a big drama spot. And yes there is drama in this but not as much as I personally liked. I just needed something big to happen and felt like I was waiting for something that never happened.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 star.

“Seventeen-year-old Mickey James III is a college freshman, a brother to five sisters, and a hockey legacy. With a father and a grandfather who have gone down in NHL history, Mickey is almost guaranteed the league’s top draft spot. 

The only person standing in his way is Jaysen Caulfield, a contender for the #1 spot and Mickey’s infuriating (and infuriatingly attractive) teammate. When rivalry turns to something more, Mickey will have to decide what he really wants, and what he’s willing to risk for it.

This is a story about falling in love, finding your team (on and off the ice), and choosing your own path.”

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I re-read this book in preparation for a book signing with Casey McQuiston at a local indie store last month. However, I was unable to attend the signing last minute. I still really enjoyed this book. For me it is a nice comfort read. It is funny, light and addicting. I believe the hype is real on this book. I still gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

“First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. 

As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?”