Life Update + Mini Book Reviews

Hello, everyone! I haven't posted anything since my first book review of the year. It's only March 8, but this year has been awfully rough for me. 

In December I went through a really nasty breakup. Whilst still reeling from that I had a client go into a seizure on me at work, by the time they got her to the hospital she had very little brain activity and her mother decided to take her off the ventilator. I knew her from before working with her so I took it especially hard.
A few weeks after that, my half-sister's sister got into an accident with a train and she ended up passing away along with her friend. Seeing my sister so distraught really took a toll on me too.
Finally, my uncle got a really bad infection in his arm and had to go stay in the hospital for 15 days. He's rather old and I think he knows his time is up soon because he refused to stay in the hospital any longer. He checked himself out against the wishes of others and is home now. He had a heart attack yesterday morning but was revived. Hospice is in his home now and I suppose it's just a waiting game now.

In 4 short months so much has happened but I'm trying my hardest to remain as positive as I can. Sometimes it's hard and I break down but I always manage to get myself back up and keep it moving. A few good things have happened as well. I found a person I really enjoy spending time with. He likes the same music I do and enjoys showing me new movies and music. He's been my silver lining in all of this recently and I'm really appreciative of all the support he's given me.

Recently Read + Mini Reviews

Survive The Night by Danielle Vega - I gave this a 4/5 stars simply for how weird it was. It went from a normal creepy book to WTF really quick and I love that. I read a lot of reviews on Goodreads that were less than great but if you want an easy to get through book that will leave you saying ummm...what? This one is the one for you.

Tommyland by Tommy Lee - 4/5 Everyone knows Motley Crew's drumer Tommy Lee. The guy I'm talking to lent me this book to read. Another reason why I really enjoy him because never have I talked to someone who recommended me a book before. I devoured it in about a week and we actually talked about it. I don't listen to Motley but hearing how wild Tommy and the band were was pretty cool. There were some parts that made me cry and some parts that made me howl with laughter. I definitely recommend it!

Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage - This one follows two sisters and their cousin who the whole town is obsessed with. After the three girls' deaths one of the sister's, Mira, left notes for Ben. These are clues that led him to the truth about what really happened with the girls. I can't give too much away but if you like stories with tragedy, a bit of intrigue, obsessive teenage boys, and mysterious girls this one is for you!

Currently Reading

I received a wonderful package from Entangled: Teen with Crave by Tracy Wolff. It's been quite a long time since I read a book about vampires. I'm a little bit into it and it has quite a few tropes I despise, yet for nostalgia I'm gonna stick with it. I'm getting Twilight vibes even though the setting for this is a boarding school in the middle of a snowy nowhere. It came with a ton of swag and I enjoy the cover quite a bit.

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you all next time!

Book Review | All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor

Hey, y'all! First book review of the new year. I had been wanting to read this one for quite awhile. I saw it one day browsing BookOutlet during a Christmas sale and finally picked it up.

All of This Is True is about four girls who befriend an author named Fatima. The author ends up using the girls and their friend Jonah to her advantage and writes a novel that ends up putting them in a pretty horrible predicament.

The concept was amazing. I love books that are set up like this one, through diary entries to note-taking and interviews. What I didn't like was the fact that some of these characters weren't as fleshed out as they needed to be. The only character I connected with was Jonah and Fatima because they were the most emotionally compelling characters to me. Everyone else was just background noise to them.

Nothing too jaw-dropping but I did love how it was a slow-burn with the few reveals and twists the novel did have. That ending was maddening to me, though!

Book Review | War Is Over by David Almond

Short review for a super short story! I received a package via Candlewick Press filled with some ARCs and this gem was among them. Almond wrote War Is Over out of respect for the hundred year anniversary of the First World War.

This book is an illustrated short story about a little boy named John. His father is away at war and his mother seems to always be at work at the munitions factory. War doesn't sit well with John and he begins to feel for social outcast Uncle Gordon and for some reason has a sudden connection with a picture of a boy from Germany.

I was in love with the illustrations by Litchfield and how Almond didn't hold back on his talk of how war was. I'll be passing this one onto one of my client's so she can read it! I think it's a book that she could learn from as well as enjoy simply for the poignant story itself. 

Book Review | Scythe by Neal Shusterman

I know, I know. "Sabrina, how come you haven't picked this one up yet?" I have an issue where I have too many books on my TBR and too little time to read all of them. I did finally get around to buying and finishing this one finally so I can mark at least one more book off my TBR and feel at least a decent amount of satisfaction about it. Scythe by Neal Shusterman is the first book I've picked up by this author. He's extremely well-known, he just wasn't ever on my radar until this series came out.

What It's About:
The perfect world has been achieved. Death has been conquered. In order to keep population down, Scythes were formed. Scythes are basically reapers who have the ability to "glean" (kill). A girl named Citra and a boy named Rowan were chosen by a Scythe named Faraday to be his apprentice. Under his wing, they learn endless ways to glean others and why it's necessary but that it's also an extremely necessary job to have around.
Not every Scythe is fair in their gleanings, though. It's up to Citra and Rowan to stop that by any means necessary.
At the end, only one of them can be chosen as an apprentice. The winner's first task? To glean the loser.

What I Liked:

• Dystopian isn't my favorite genre by far, but somehow Shusterman managed to make me fall in love with this insane world of reapers doling out death to people as they see fit. There's no racism or war or negativity. Every complaint we have right now as a world is gone in this fictional one.
• It's a subject I've never read about before. I know they're called Scythes but we all call them grim reapers in our world. Some of them are good, some are bad, but all of them are without a doubt badass.
• The evil characters were extremely evil. They had zero conscience and were all-around everything I could have asked for in villains. 
• Even though humans don't have to worry about politics or war or anything like that anymore, it's very apparent that within the Scythedom there is unrest. Extremely complex politics and non-stop headbutting between the good and the bad Scythes are seen. 
• It brought a ton of questions to my mind. What would life be without death? Would I be able to become a Scythe if it were required of me? How far would I go, and how do you keep your morale whilst still killing others?
• It's an alternating viewpoint novel. Told in Citra and Rowan's perspectives as well as diary entries from different Scythes. I love books told in different perspectives rather than just one the whole time I'm reading.
• The main characters are also bad-ass and they struggled with asking themselves the same questions I would ask of myself had I been put in their positions. They were both extremely relatable. 

What I Didn't Like:

• I feel like I could have gotten more out of Rowan. We caught glimpses of him and his inner workings but I feel like he was always removed from the story and never actually really there. This may have been due to the fact that he was in a very stressful situation but I wanted so much more dialogue from him that I didn't get in this first novel. Hopefully I'll get my fill of Rowan in the next one. Literally my only complaint! 

All in all, I'm definitely ready to pick up the next two novels ASAP. Enjoy the book trailer below.

Book Review | Tear Me Apart by Sara Sligar

Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar definitely threw me for a loop. For some reason I expected this novel to be one of those cliche thriller tropes that are chalk-full of twists and turns just to end up with an ending so out there there's no way anyone would be able to guess it.

This was not one of those novels.

In Callinas, California, a well-known artist named Miranda Brand suddenly died and the shock-waves were felt high and low. Years later, Miranda's son, Theo, hires an archivist (also an ex journalist) named Kate to go through his mother and father's things to create an archive of their work to put up for an auction.

As Kate delves deeper into Miranda's personal belongings she begins to piece together tiny fragments of her life and in turn, learning more about her enigmatic yet frighteningly handsome and sometimes terrifying boss. Through Kate's discoveries we see that Miranda was under so much pressure due to her job, motherhood, and being a wife that she was slowly buckling underneath it all.

Kate doesn't have it all together herself, so we slowly see her decline as well over her summer stay at her aunt and uncle's. She soon spirals into an obsession over trying to figure out who killed Miranda and it takes over her very being. There are quite a few parallels to Kate's life and the deceased Miranda so we can understand Kate's need to figure things out.

What I Liked:

• Learning about Miranda and her life through her personal belongings like receipts and diary entries was interesting. You can see her slow decline and feel her pain and confusion through them.
• It deals with more than a few tough subject matters like spousal rape/abuse, post-partum depression, bosses taking advantage of their positions, and gas-lighting. These issues are handled with care yet still provides an honest and raw depiction of the matters at hand.
• It had The Seven Lives Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes. With that being one of my favorite books within the past few years, I had to check to make sure the author of this book wasn't the same author as that one. It isn't. Lol!
• The ending. While there wasn't a massive amount of twists and turns to end up at a mind-blowing revelation, I quite enjoyed how everything was wrapped up in the end.
• I did not feel like I was reading a debut book from a debut author. I feel like I just read a novel by an extremely well-seasoned author who's been around for awhile and I believe that speaks volumes to Sligar's writing abilities. 
• It's a slow-burn novel. Things aren't in your face so it's definitely more psychological than anything else.

What I Disliked:

• I only have one complaint and it has zero to do with Sligar or her writing, it's more of a personal quarrel with things in general.
  Why do most characters seem to make their minds up then when one thing happens they end up questioning literally EVERYTHING about the thing/person they made their mind up about. If you're so sure of something, why does one tiny thing someone else says sway your opinion so easily? Maybe Kate was purposely written that way to show how having a mental illness can warp your sense of judgement or something but it's so aggravating because I know people in real life do this as well. Que eye roll. Lol.
  
  

  So yeah, there you have it! I definitely enjoyed this one and I'm going to start following Sligar as I can tell she has promise and talent. She'll be going far for sure!

Book Review | Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire

I bought this at Half-Priced books in Louisville, KY and I am just honestly so taken aback by how much this amazing novel by Gregory Maguire managed to move me. I'm not normally into the kid-lit fantasy genre if it's not a short novel. This one was 475 pages of an amazingly epic fairy tale-esque adventure and I did not regret a page of reading it.

Basically, a peasant girl from Russia named Elena is taking care of her mother all alone. Her brothers gone, her dad dead, her mother on the brink of death. She thinks everything is hopeless until a train stalls in her village due to a lightening bolt. 

This is when she meets a girl named Ekaterina. She's rich and is traveling to St. Petersburg in order to impress the Tsar's godson, something she doesn't really much care for to begin with.
One day, the girls were hanging out and with a jolt of the train, their lives change forever. They end up switching places when Elena decides she should go ahead and try to find her brother and bring him home to help her take care of their mother.

While Elena is pretending to be Ekaterina, Ekaterina encounters a witch named Baba Yaga and together they travel to St. Petersburg. Baba for her own reasons, Ekaterina to reunite with the people she knows after being ran out of Elena's village.

Even though this book is aimed towards the younger crowd, I think you have to be older to truly acknowledge some of the aspects of Maguire's novel. There's struggle between classes and they're discussed in an type of way that makes you pay attention.

The narrator is someone with infinite amount of wisdom, and wise beyond his years. You can tell it in his dialogue as he tells Elena and Ekaterina' story.

This one was fun and entertaining, but also a novel to ponder over. I know I'll be thinking of it for months to come.

"Your life story is really about how the hands of history caught you up, played with you, and you with them. History plays for keeps; individuals play for time."

I'm All Booked! - A Monthly Bookish Q&A

Hello everyone! I happened to stumble on this monthly Q&A that's being hosted by Library of March and I decided to go ahead and give it a go. I'm trying to start posting more often so I believe this is one way to get started in doing so! She'll basically be posting 10 bookish questions at the start of every month. Easy way to get to know bloggers and it also seems pretty fun as well!

1. If you could change one thing about the latest book you read, what would it be?

The last book I read completely through was The Backstagers and the Theater of  the Ancients by Andy Mientus. It's a middle-grade novel so I can't expect it to be aimed for adults, so I don't have any complaints. It was a really good second book to The Backstagers and I'll definitely read any others published after. Such a cute and funny cast of characters!

2. If you could have cofee/tea with your favorite character, what are 3 questions you'd ask them?
Hmmm. I have to pick a top favorite character? I pick Dimitri Belikov because he's...handsome. Lmao! Definitely have a massive crush on that fictional man, not gonna lie.
1. How did you mask the Strigoi smell? Rose still loved you during your stint as a Strigoi yet we all know you stunk horribly.
That's pretty much the only question I have, other than, "How did you get so perfect?" With googly eyes. Hahahaha.

3. If you had to form a team of your fave characters, Avengers-style, who would you choose?
I'll be honest, I had to look up how many people were in the Avengers so I could make sure I have enough on my team. Lol! Can you tell I'm not a big super-hero fan? It says there are 9 after 3 were added in Age of Vultron.
My team would be Dimitri Belikov and Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy, Rhysand from ACOTAR, Blue Sargent and Ronan Lynch from The Raven Boys, Monty from The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Stevie from Truly Devious, Penny from Emergency Contact and last but not least, Camellia from The Belles.

4. You have the choice to either live in your favorite fictional world without your favorite character or have them live with you in the real world, what would you choose?
I'd probably live in my favorite fictional world without my favorite character. The real world sucks, which is why my favorite fictional world is my favorite fictional world to begin with. I definitely wouldn't want to subject anyone to this world if they don't have to be. Lol!

5. Do you have any insta-buy authors?
Yes! Jodi Picoult has been an insta-buy author since I discovered her in say...8th grade? I'm pretty sure it was 8th grade. I love how raw all of her stories are and how heavy the topics are while still maintaining a respectful grace in her writing.

6. If you could spend a day with 3 authors of your choosing, who would you choose?
I'm gonna go ahead and be cliche. I have no shame! Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, and J.K. Rowling.

7. You work at a traveling agency. How would you convince your clients to travel to your favorite fictional world?
My favorite fictional world is located in Harry Potter. Cliche again? Pretty much. I think I'd mentioned the way The Three Broomsticks stays busy on cold winter days and how all the creatures are beautiful yet dangerous so you have to admire them carefully. I'd explain the sprawling forests and deep, dangerous lakes. I'd explain everything. The whole place is beautiful!

8. Pick 5 characters and then pick 5 actors to play them.
I always suck at this question. I'm gonna skip it because that requires more brain power than I have right now. Lol!

9. Which characters do you think would fit perfectly in your current job/school/university?
I work with mentally disabled women in their homes so I would need to think of someone who's patient and really kind. A soft persona. Hm....probably Mary Poppins! She's a nanny, but she still has gusto and the ability to take care of anything pretty much. She fits the bill!

10. You're dropped into the universe of the last book you read. How screwed are you?Depends on if the Backstagers will help me out or not and show me the ropes! They're a funny and accepting crew so I'm pretty sure I'd be okay. ;)