Review: Cane and Able by Jonathan Matos // The Deadly Sin of Envy

Series: Seven Deadly Sins #1

Publication: October 23rd 2016 (Self-published)

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Christian

Source: I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 4/5 stars

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Dennis Caine knows what it’s like to be different. Born with a rare muscle disorder, he is no stranger to surgeries as he goes through his childhood. After a near-death experience during a scoliosis treatment surgery, Dennis’s life is changed and he strives to find purpose in his life. When Dennis reaches high school, his life seems to improve greatly as he retains his first female friend and dives more into chemistry in an ambition to discover a cure for his disorder. But as his life starts to take some bad turns with his newfound friend rejecting him and his increasing rivalry with Jason Bell, the star of the football team, Dennis’s chemistry interest starts to become an obsession. As unfortunate events continue to pile up in his life, the sweet purpose-driven Dennis descends into darker and darker thoughts causing him to act out in devastating ways—including the ultimate crime which changes his life forever. Told in multiple points of view with some interesting twists thrown in, Cane and Able is a well-written debut to Matos’s Seven Deadly Sins series.

With this being a somewhat historical fiction book with it taking place in the 90s, I enjoyed reading about how life was like for teenagers then and comparing it to my own experience in the mid-to-late 00s. When I first started reading this book, I had no idea that there were alternating points of view and I feel that it really added depth to the book. Each of the characters’ points of view had a unique voice which is always something I pay attention to because it is so common for authors to make every character sound the same.

The book did start off slowly for me and I personally don’t feel that the amount of detail given into Dennis’s life before high school was really that necessary. I would’ve been fine with a few pages of explanations with his health hardships and moved on to his current life where the book picked up speed. However, I do really like Matos’s writing style. It is well-written and filled with metaphors that add color to the writing without being irritating in any way which is a difficult balance. Along with that, one of the best things in this book for me was how realistic it was. I am always a fan of raw emotionality in books and this one definitely had it without becoming melodramatic or over-the-top in any way. Reading Dennis’s descent into semi-madness kept me intrigued and had just the right amount of unease and suspense thrown in.

If you’re a fan of complex, YA/A contemporary reads that make you think, this would be a good book to look into. Even with some difficult themes, the writing and emotionality is accessible for all readers. With the next book in the series diving into the 1950s with themes of racism and censorship, this series continues to show promise in producing thought-provoking books.

What do YOU think? If you were afflicted with chronic health problems, would you seek to find a cure yourself? If someone bullied you constantly, would you seek revenge? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Review: All the Stars Left Behind by Ashley Graham // A Girl Born to Be a Weapon

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Series: Standalone

Publication: June 6th 2017 by Entangled Teen

Genre: Sci-fi, Romance, Young Adult

Source: I received an ARC copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 2/5 stars

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Leda Lindgren has never had it easy in life. Born with spina bifida, she is no stranger to struggling in life and certainly has no shortage in courage. With a mother who wants little to nothing to do with her, Leda has always been extremely close to her father. When her father dies, Leda moves in with her uncle and grandmother in Norway, wanting nothing to do with her new frozen home. But when she meets her uncle’s new gorgeous employee Roar, Leda is instantly attracted to him—in more ways than one. It’s not long before Leda learns that nothing in her life is what she thought it was. Her new crush is actually an alien; her father biologically engineered her birth; and she’s actually a weapon made to destroy the enemies of Roar’s home planet. After learning that Roar has been sent to find her to help end the long-raging war of his world, Leda soon embarks on a journey to help save Roar’s planet, and nothing is going to stop her—not even her crutches.

The premise of this book sounded so incredibly cool that I knew I had to read it. I’ve never read a book that took place in Norway and it was so cool to be able to read the names and places of the country in a YA book. I’ve also not read many alien books which made this book even more appealing to me. However, I just could not get on with this book overall.

Firstly, the characters in this book are so unique! Disregarding that they are aliens, this book holds a ton of diverse characters so if that is something you love, you will definitely find it in this book. I really liked Leda as a main character. She isn’t like many YA protagonists, not only because she has a disability, but because of her personality. She is an extremely strong yet kindhearted character and those are some of my favorite types to read about. This book also has dual point of views so I loved getting to read from Roar’s perspective as well. I loved that Roar was characterized the way most guys probably feel at 17—awkward and shy—rather than being some bigshot, overly-confident love interest as is typical in YA. It was incredibly refreshing to read. The supporting characters are all diverse and interesting as well.

The worldbuilding was fairly well done. I felt some parts were explained well while others weren’t. The aliens and their planet and technology were really neat to learn about and I really loved the way that their technology works through mind control. Shooting through space while reading this book was also a cool aspect of it and I loved getting to picture how their spaceships look.

My main issue with this book however was the plot. The plot was incredibly difficult for me to follow at times. I’ve never struggled with reading comprehension, even as a kid, yet I found myself having to reread scenes and dialogue over and over again to try to figure out what was going on. Not only did I struggle with this during the action scenes but even in the backstory of the book. I constantly felt like there was a piece of the puzzle missing that my brain just could not find while reading this. Furthermore, the plot was a bit repetitive for me—I got tired of reading about the same character undergoing surgeries throughout the course of the book and the aliens arguing about what they should do. And I also have absolutely no clue what happened in the ending of the book. I know that it was meant to have some kind of whiplash effect based on how the characters acted but it was so muddy and hard to follow that I am still completely confused about all of it. Some of the mystery air about this book should’ve been done away with in the editing process. With it being a standalone, the confusion I’m sure many readers will experience is not going to do this book any favors or earn it any high stars.

What do YOU think? Would you run off to help save an alien planet? What if you realized that you were born to be a weapon? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

ACOWAR Celebration Giveaway [CLOSED]

Hey guys!

Just a quick post to share that I’m hosting a giveaway on my BookTube channel at the moment. It is a $15 credit to Book Depository (open internationally) in celebration of the release of A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas. The giveaway is being hosted on my old blog (since WP doesn’t allow JavaScript) and I will link it down below for you guys along with my BookTube channel with my review and giveaway instructions. Good luck!

Giveaway Link

Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas // 700 Pages of Build-Up

Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #3

Publication: May 2nd 2017 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Genre: Fantasy, New Adult

Source: Purchased

My Rating: 4/5 stars

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Goodreads Summary: A nightmare, I’d told Tamlin. I was the nightmare.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

My Thoughts:

All right, babes, let’s get to this. ACOWAR was…okay. Not fabulous. Not great. Not mind-blowingly-amazing like ACOMAF was. Just plain okay. I knew it might be difficult to top what happened in ACOMAF. The emotionality, the events, the twists—I knew those same things couldn’t happen in ACOWAR. But I still had high hopes for this book, especially considering that this was originally the end of the characters’ stories. But, alas, ACOMAF will still forever hold my heart (which I am totally fine with), but I still enjoyed this book and was fairly satisfied with the ending.

All right, so let’s start off with the things that I did like about ACOWAR.

1. Getting to see all of my favorite characters again. Yes, give me more of Cassian, Mor, and Azriel. Give me more of the Night Court in general. Let it become real. Let me live there. Even if the quiz says I belong in the Winter Court. We are friends and allies. I will eternally vacation in the Night Court instead. And I don’t think it’s necessary to mention that I loved getting to see my OTP again and all the magicalness that is their relationship.

2. The character development of Feyre’s sisters. After being so upset with them during ACOTAR and thinking they were basically the worst sisters to ever walk the planet, I was glad to see a different side to them after what happened in the ending of ACOMAF. Once upon a time, I was Nesta in every way; and although I am very glad that I am not like her anymore, I still loved getting to see her character develop and read as she broke out of her shell.

3. Tamlin. Yes. Who would have ever thought that I would say that I like Tamlin? Well, I mean, I still don’t but I LOVE what Sarah did with his character in this book. It’s so real and “human” and raw in so many ways that I actually felt some sympathy for him. Yes, that is right. I felt sorry for Tamlin in this book. And I really liked seeing his motivation behind his actions throughout the book. Even though ACOWAR wasn’t really meant to focus on Tamlin whatsoever, I still think he was one of the best developed characters in it.

And now on to the things that I didn’t like about ACOWAR.

1. The pacing. It was weird. I went into this book thinking I was going to get some serious kickbutt scenes while Feyre was in the Spring Court. ACOMAF basically promised me that. And then Feyre spends less than 100 pages there. I guess I just expected us to take more time there than we did. And I also just expected more of an epic climax in the Spring Court than the subtle cave-ins Feyre planted. I didn’t hate the Spring Court parts; I just expected more. Furthermore on the pacing, this book was slow for me. After the whirlwind I experienced with ACOMAF, I was ready for another whirlwind experience again. But instead I felt like I was reading a book with far too many details and far too much suspense-building for its entirety. Nothing really happens until the end honestly. The entire 700-page book is a build-up for the end. Not my favorite thing to be honest.

2. What was even the point of Lucien throughout this? I hated that he had no real resolution (especially considering that this was supposed to be the end! I mean, we know he’s pretty much guaranteed to be one of the companion novel characters but what gives for poor Lucien??). The entire time I felt like he was just this loose character that Sarah didn’t really know what to do with so he just floated around for a while before being sent on his mission. I’ve always liked Lucien and still do after this book but he deserved more.

3. The prose and characterization felt repetitive. I’ve never noticed Sarah before using the same words over and over again. But if I had to read “stared and stared and stared” one more time, I was gonna lose it. I get it. Nesta isn’t the most talkative person ever. But I didn’t need the repeated words every time her character was talked about. And not only that, the characterization carried on to Elain with her “staring and staring.” There was also at least twice that I feel that Nesta and Elain got mixed up. Something was said about Nesta only for it to be thrown with Elain even though it didn’t happen to Elain (if that makes sense). Simply put, I felt that the writing was just a bit weaker in this book than any other book I’ve ever read of Sarah’s before (except maybe ACOTAR but it’s been years since I’ve read that book and I need to reread it soon).

And then the ending. It was a bit predictable in some aspects. But I was really, really, really mad at one event that happened (I’m sure we all know what I’m talking about). The resolution of the event was predictable and I was okay with the outcome. But I’m still angry about it. My characters deserve more!

I am interested to see what the companion novels will be like for the series. I have an idea of what characters are going to get spinoffs but you really never know what Sarah is going to throw in with them. I just hope to see more of my OTP because I am not done loving these characters.

What do YOU think? Did you like ACOWAR better than ACOMAF? What court would you like to live in? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Review: Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller // Let the Auditions Begin

Series: Untitled #1 (Just go ahead and announce it’s called Mask of Shadows #1 lol)

Publication: August 29th 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, GLBT

Source: I received an ARC copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 3/5 stars

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Sallot Leon knows what it’s like to fight for what you want. Growing up on the streets and being forced to rob noblemen and street fight by your gang leader will teach you that very quickly. But Sal isn’t like all of the others forced into this behavior—Sal is the last of their race. After a brutal civil war during their childhood, Sal’s entire country is wiped out by a devastating magical force that becomes banned from the continent by the end of the war. But not before Sal lost everything they ever had. When Sal robs a noble girl who has a flyer stating that the new Queen needs a new member of her inner circle that she keeps to do her bidding—and killing—Sal seizes the opportunity for freedom and the chance at revenge for those who left their country to die. But Sal is tested far beyond what they imagined as they and twenty-two other auditioners are put through a series of tests—and are allowed to discreetly kill each other to eliminate the competition. There can only be one Opal…and Sal has to be it to avenge Nacea. Welcome to the Left Hand Auditions.

First things first—am I the only one who thought “Ha, Sallot. Shallot…They’re an onion. Lol”? Just me? Okay.

As I’m sure is the case for many other readers, I saw this book being compared to Sarah J. Maas’s work and I was sold. Was that an accurate description? Not really. If we’re going to compare this book to another well-known fantasy series, I’d go with Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series and I would anticipate a similar divide in its receipt with some readers loving it and some hating it.

So let’s just jump right in here to the main reason most readers will probably pick this book up: the main character’s genderfluidity. Firstly, if I had read the entirety of the description on Netgalley, I wouldn’t have requested this book. Simply put, I’m still learning about the different gender spectrums and don’t know enough or can identify with the main character’s identity. But from the little that I know, I don’t think this is the best representation. Sal prefers to identify with whatever gender they’re currently dressed as whether it be male or female (“they” is never used after Sal gives this explanation). I know that this is not valid for all genderfluid people and how they want to be addressed isn’t hinged upon how they chose to dress that day. But, okay, if we’re going with this “address me as I’m dressed” concept, then why doesn’t Sal ever select their clothes themselves? They consistently allow their servant to choose their clothes every day and Sal seemingly just runs with whatever Maud chooses and identifies as that gender for the day. I don’t really think that’s how it works. Maybe Sal simply doesn’t hold their gender that closely to their heart? Nope. Sal repeatedly gets angry at another auditioner for referring to them as “she” when they’re dressed as a “he.” So why doesn’t Sal choose their own clothes and gender for the day??? Furthermore, the only detail we get about Sal’s clothes is that they’re mostly all black so the identifying marker that Sal hinges their gender upon is if they’re wearing a dress, and therefore a girl for the day, or pants, and therefore a guy for the day. Great way to reinforce gender norms and basically imply that girls can’t wear pants?? Beyond all of that, the way that Sal’s gender is represented makes it seem as though genderfluidity is commonplace and widely accepted in their world. However, there are scenes where Sal’s gender is assumed (i.e. when Elise states that she isn’t only attracted to men yet doesn’t ask Sal what they identify as) and scenes as aforementioned when Sal becomes upset at another person for assuming the wrong gender, implying that it is not so commonplace or accepted, especially considering no other characters are ever asked what their gender is. It was all just confusing for me and I definitely can’t say I feel any more educated than before reading this which is truly a shame.

Because of the characters all being referred to as numbers rather than by names, I found it quite difficult to keep all of them straight. The main ones that are focused on eventually became separated in my mind but I often found myself thinking “wait, who’s that again?” when an auditioner would die. I do think the number concept was cool and original but with there being so many it was just too difficult to remember them all. Although admittedly I am not the best at keeping large castings of characters straight as I had the same problem in Throne of Glass, The Hunger Games, and every other book along the same lines as this one. And along with a large cast, usually comes little to no character development which is exactly the case here. Sal did have some development along the way but there isn’t much to say about the other characters, including the Left Hand of the Queen which were the only characters I actually cared about the entire book.

I did like the plot and the pacing of the book mostly. I do hope that when this book is printed a map is included of the world as it was difficult to picture all of the places mentioned by the characters. However the world is fairly well-explained and I enjoyed learning about the history of Igna and how it became a country. I also really enjoyed the twists that were thrown in and didn’t connect the dots myself when reading so they were a cool surprise. I do think that some parts of the plot were a bit clunky, such as Sal seemingly being able to read after two lessons and the characters only having to complete one conditioning class the entire time, but overall I did enjoy the plot and it kept me engaged.

Lastly, the romance was just a little too insta-lovey for me. Insta-love is a fine line for me between loving it and thinking it’s too farfetched. This is the latter. I just cannot picture how a character can go from being robbed by someone to falling in love with the person after one tutoring session. The interactions definitely felt genuine between the characters but a few hour tutoring sessions in a week doesn’t exactly add up to I-would-die-for-you feelings in three lessons.

Overall, this isn’t a remarkable book by any means. If you’ve read Red Queen, The Hunger Games, and by some stretch Throne of Glass, then you have read this. With the unique feature of a genderfluid character being written so muddily, I can’t really even recommend this on that level. But I did find myself entertained by the book and I am invested enough in the storyline at this point that I am going to read the next book when it is released.

What do YOU think? If you were the last of your people, would you seek revenge on who was responsible? Would you want to do the bidding of your Queen in a fantasy world? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Review: The Lives of Desperate Girls by MacKenzie Common // Two Missing Girls, Nothing in Common, Or So They Thought

Series: Standalone

Publication: September 19th 2017 by Penguin Teen

Source: I received an ARC copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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Jenny Parker doesn’t really fit in anywhere in her tiny town in northern Ontario. About as unremarkable as someone can be, Jenny isn’t particularly pretty, smart, or talented in any way. And her one defining feature that everyone knows is that she’s Chloe Shaughnessy’s best friend. Chloe is pretty, vibrant, and outgoing. With her family well off, Chloe knows she is destined for greater things than what is given in Thunder Creek. But after a terrible incident at a party, Chloe’s life starts to spiral out of control and shifts to the worst year she’s ever experienced. When Chloe disappears, Jenny is suddenly the talk of the town after being the last one to see her. But more is going on in the so-called sleepy town of Thunder Creek when a few weeks later a dead Native girl is found in the woods—and the police don’t seem to care. In this coming-of-age story, Jenny is stretched and challenged as she starts to investigate Helen’s murder and discovers how little she knew about her town. And all the while she is pressured by the police about her silence on Chloe’s whereabouts the night she disappeared. It seems Thunder Creek is a dangerous place for a teenage girl.

This book is focused largely on real issues. Although the plot lends an interesting backdrop, I really feel that Jenny’s experiences and growth is the real feature of this book rather than plot progression (though there is that as well!) Being an American, I honestly had no idea what life is like in the parts of Canada this book is set in and I loved becoming more educated while being able to read a fiction book.

Jenny was a really interesting character for me. Though she wasn’t particularly likeable in any way, I really felt like I got to know her through the writing style and through her actions in the book. Although some readers may find her behavior odd and un-relatable, I like that Jenny portrays that grief doesn’t have to look a certain way. She shows the other side of human reaction in that she decides to take action and stay busy with investigating the other girl’s murder rather than sitting around and worrying about the disappearance of her best friend. Jenny’s denial and many coping mechanisms, including her spontaneous relationship with her brooding classmate Tom, were a large part of the book and I found it to be extremely intriguing. Jenny is a very complex character yet she was kept simplistic in her portrayal throughout the book so she never became overwhelming.

The plot was rather slow but like I mentioned before, I don’t think the plot is really the focus of this book. I certainly enjoyed following Jenny on her journey to investigate Helen’s murder and the people that she met along the way. I personally had no idea that there was a race issue in Canada like there is in America and I like that Helen’s family brings more attention to Canada’s First Nations peoples and their struggles. Although I wish that the book had had more of a solid conclusion, I do understand why the author chose to end the book the way she did. The portrayal of how life really is runs rampant in this book to the end and, just like life, it was just a bit frustrating.

In the wake of 13 Reasons Why, this book continues with hitting the hard issues with teenagers. With themes of bullying, depression, rejection, and racism, this book isn’t shy by any means. If you can handle these themes, along with rape (not depicted), suicide mentions, and murder, you’ll want to pick this book up. Take a look at what it’s like to live in the North, and what it means to be human.

What do YOU think? How would you react if your best friend suddenly disappeared? Would you ever be brave enough to investigate a murder on your own? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Review: The Things They’ve Taken by Katie McElhenney // When the “What Else” Stares Back at You

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Series: The Things They’ve Taken #1

Publication: May 1st 2017 by Entangled Teen

Source: I received an ARC copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 2.5/5 stars

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Dolores is used to her mother searching, always looking for that greater purpose in life. Jumping from one faith to another and subsequently from one state to another has become commonplace in Lo’s life. But she’s had about as much as she can handle by the time her mother joins up with some witches in Kentucky. Lo convinces her mother to stay so she can have more of a normal life and actually make some friends. When her mother agrees, Lo decides to focus on her own life for a change instead of constantly pulling her mom back from the brink when she goes too far in her search. As the months go by, Lo’s relationship with her mother becomes more and more strained as her mother becomes more deeply involved in her new faith and Lo wants nothing to do with it. But when her mother messes with something far more dangerous than she should have and is taken by a supernatural being, Lo is pulled headfirst into the deep end in this new side of life that she never wanted to know about. After enlisting the help of a gorgeous Tracker named Shaw, Lo departs on an adventure to find her mother—and discovers just how much actually goes bump in the night.

I really wanted to love this book. It sounded really cool and I am always down for an adventure with a cute guy. But for many reasons, I just didn’t really care for this.

Firstly, I found the world building to be a bit lacking. While Shaw chooses not to share much information with Lo, it was still difficult to really grasp how big the supernatural world was and how many creatures lurk in it. The creatures we do get to meet were vividly described and, quite frankly, terrifying, but I wish I’d have been able to get a bigger picture of the world.

The characters were okay. I did like Lo, especially her sense of humor. Her sarcasm and jabs added a lot of color to the dialogue and made the book more fun to read. Her determination and bravery were proved over and over again in the book and I like that she chose not to adopt the victim persona. Shaw, however, was hard to get on with for me. He has no personality. He never jokes, never laughs or smiles, and barely speaks. Shaw’s dialogue is probably under 200 words if we’re going to be honest here. I like that he did finally open up a bit about his past and how he became a Tracker, but instead of seeing him as the tragic, brooding hero, I just saw him as a flat, boring character. (I would totally steal his dog though.)

Which brings me to the fact that the main characters had no chemistry. I am totally down for the “I’m just drawn to you and I’m not quite sure why” trope. I normally don’t mind insta-love honestly. But this isn’t really even insta-love, it’s just unbelievable love. Shaw barely speaks. Lo never talks about feeling a connection to him at all, let alone on a deeper level. She basically falls all over Shaw because he is pretty. There are so many awkward encounters between them that I just couldn’t buy in to the progression of their relationship.

Lastly, I felt the book was just too predictable. It’s not stated but this book is obviously the first part in a trilogy. With how slow the plot progression was, I knew we weren’t going to get a real ending to the book and we didn’t. From the first occasion of Shaw disappearing to do things on his own, I knew where the plot twist was going to go. Honestly, this is just a story that I’ve read a dozen times before with different characters. If the romance had been amazing, I may have rated this higher in stars but even that was lacking for me. If you are a very forgiving reader who likes the adventure aspect more than the world building or characters, this may be a book you want to pick up. But it’s not a series that I will personally continue when the second book is released.

What do YOU think? Would you hire someone to help you rescue a family member? Have you jumped from faith to faith, looking for the “what else”? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Review: Edge of Glory by Magan Vernon // Falling in Love with an Olympian

Series: Friendship, Texas #1

Publication: July 12th 2016, Self-published

Source: I received an ARC copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 4/5 stars

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Imagine if you actually got to meet your idol. The person you have posters on your wall of. The person that you follow religiously on social media and can recite their favorite color, every award they’ve ever won, and maybe even the size of their shoe when they were thirteen, if you’re a super stalker—I mean fan, that is. Well that’s exactly what happens in Edge of Glory. We follow twenty-year-old Lia Conti, the only daughter in a very protective Italian family. And like a lot of young adults, Lia has a fandom: she’s obsessed with the Olympic team of men swimmers, and one swimmer in particular Jay Morningstar. With Morningstar recently getting into a lot of trouble that has affected his career, his coach brings him and his teammates to a tiny Texan town to refocus them; a neighboring town to Lia’s own. When Lia actually comes face to face with her idol in her father’s Italian restaurant, she feels like she has died and gone to heaven, especially when Jay actually shows interest in her. As Jay’s and Lia’s relationship develops, Lia is faced with much more than she anticipated in dating her idol including being thrown into reality TV, dealing with his famous ex-girlfriend, and feeling out-of-place in his rich, polished family compared to her crazy, over-protective one. With all the drama that comes with dating the gorgeous, talented swimmer, Lia has to decide if her heart can keep up or if she will have to go her own way.

Surprisingly I really liked this. Don’t get me wrong, this is full of cheese. But I anticipate a certain level of cheesiness with every new adult romance novel. I normally need to be in a certain mindset to enjoy them and I certainly was when reading this book.

I think I enjoyed this so much because of Lia. She was so incredibly relatable to me, regardless of the fact that I am not Italian in any way. I really enjoy reading about large families, like the ones you get to see in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the like. Perhaps it’s because they are so vastly different from my own but I really, really loved Lia’s family dynamic and felt it brought a lot of fun and character to the book. Lia herself has so many aspects that I feel a lot of readers will be able to relate to. She’s wanting to go to college out of state but her parents want her to stay home; she’s constantly using humor as a defense mechanism; she often doesn’t see her own worth or beauty and puts herself down more often than not. Some of these things may be annoying for some if they are more mature than the average new adult reader, but for someone like me, I found a lot of common ground with Lia. Jay was okay as a love interest. He’s definitely not going down in any book boyfriend list of mine but he was at least real and not one of those ridiculously perfect love interests. I did find the characterization of his Olympic swimmer friends a little cringey to be honest. They’re both so clearly a girl’s attempt at writing typical guy behavior that I got secondhand embarrassment from it.

The plot was okay. Most of what happened was fairly predictable and a little overdramatic. I do wish that we would’ve gotten to see Jay in a competition sooner than we did and with more detail than what was given since his being a swimmer was such a giant part of the book. It was fast-paced enough to keep my interest however and it was a quick read for me. This is definitely more of a character-driven book than plot-driven if that is something that you like in books.

Overall this was just a fun, easy new adult read for me. I did find it a bit cringey knowing that this is basically glorified fan fiction, but I did appreciate the author’s note in the beginning and it was nice to know where the story originated from. I probably will not pick up the other companion novels in this series but I’m glad I finally got around to reading this.

What do YOU think? Would you ever want to date an Olympian? Do you have a thing for the American Men’s Swimming Team? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Review: Maid of the King’s Court by Lucy Worsley // A New Version of the Story of Katherine Howard

Series: Standalone

Publication: March 14th 2017 by Candlewick

Source: I received an ARC copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

My Rating: 3/5 stars

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Elizabeth Camperdowne has always known her place in the world. As the only daughter of the oldest noble family in Derbyshire, she is destined to marry a man who will bring wealth and title back to her family after her uncle’s treason to the king. After a botched engagement with a local earl’s son, Elizabeth is sent to stay with a relative who runs a school that trains up girls to serve the English court. There Elizabeth meets a cousin she never knew she had, vivacious and flirtatious Katherine Howard. When it comes time for the English court’s need of new maids of honor for the new Queen Anne of Cleves, Katherine and Elizabeth get the chance they’ve been waiting for. While Katherine soon sets her sights on winning the heart of King Henry VIII, Elizabeth endeavors to fulfill her family’s wishes, while constantly being drawn to the king’s page Ned Barsby. What seemed such a simple yet glamorous life in the English court, soon turns dangerous and chaotic as Anne of Cleves loses favor with the king and Elizabeth is drawn into court intrigue more than she ever wanted when her cousin Katherine becomes the new queen. And history knows how that turned out.

This was a confusing read to say the least. When I saw a young adult novel featuring Henry VIII’s court, I was extremely excited. I’m not sure where my fascination of the Tudor time period comes from, but I have been known to watch documentaries on Henry VIII. For fun. So of course when I saw this on the new releases list that I check and found it on NetGalley, I had to request it.

The characters were okay but I didn’t find any of them to be particularly engaging, especially the main character of Elizabeth. She was kind of bland for a main character and didn’t really do anything exciting to liven up her life in the book. Katherine was an interesting character, albeit frustrating at times, and she was certainly known for being lively in real life as well. I did really enjoy the glimpses that we got of King Henry and they definitely seemed to ring true with what is known about his personality.

I think the main issue of this book for me was the plot. Or maybe I should say the lack thereof. It never seemed like the book had any direction and I found myself struggling to figure out what the book was supposed to be about. I initially thought that Elizabeth was eventually going to end up with the earl’s son from the beginning of the book because of the wording used during her botched engagement. Then I thought we were going to follow Elizabeth to where Anne of Cleves spent her life as the king’s sister. It wasn’t until the end of the book and I read the author’s note that I realized this book was supposed to be about Katherine Howard and her possible motives of her betrayal of King Henry. I admit that when Katherine’s confession to Elizabeth was first told, I found myself completely surprised and intrigued with the possibility of what she said. But the plot lacked so much direction that I really feel the theme was done an injustice. The writing style was also nearly middle grade in its simplicity which didn’t do this book any favors either.

Overall I think because this book portrayed one of my favorite periods of history to read and learn about, I enjoyed it more than the average reader. With the writing style being simplistic and the chapters short, it’s definitely a quick read. If you are as intrigued as I am about this time period, this may be worth the read for you. However if you’re looking for something full of intrigue and excitement, this isn’t the book for you.

What do YOU think? Would you have ever wanted to be involved in court life when it was still a possibility? Would you have set your sights on King Henry VIII? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.