First Monday of the New Year!….Does it still feel like we’re just in 2020…for…like, idk, ever? Oh well, here are some mini reviews for you all!
A gripping new page-turning thriller from the USA Today bestseller!
When bad girls lie, good girls die
A young girl found dead in a neighbor’s field.
A fourteen-year-old who confesses.
Just a child herself, could Chrissy Cornwall really be a cold-blooded killer?
Years later, the murderer is getting out and Natalie Bryers, unable to forget the night of Jenny’s murder, still has questions.
Did Chrissy lie then or is she lying now? Did she really kill Jenny? And if so, will she kill again?
My Review
I always appreciate a good quick thriller to read especially after I’ve had a lot of heavy reads before or maybe I’m just super busy which happens to be the case this time. The writing style for this was effortless to read and definitely enjoyable. We have a bit of a mystery to solve and the truth to uncover.
This was the past meeting the present in a head on collision that you wanted answers to that you knew were going to be possibly painful for the MC to uncover and the MC knew it as well. Fun to read and intense enough to keep you hooked. I deinitely recommend this to fans of thrillers/mysteries. There wasn’t much development in the characters but there didn’t really need to be in this case though that might deter some from reading this, so I’ll just add it in as a forwarning to those. Thanks so much to the publisher for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5/5 cups of coffee from me.
In this second thrilling installment of the Gunnie Rose series, Lizbeth Rose is hired onto a new crew for a seemingly easy protection job, transporting a crate into Dixie, just about the last part of the former United States of America she wants to visit. But what seemed like a straight-forward job turns into a massacre as the crate is stolen. Up against a wall in Dixie, where social norms have stepped back into the last century, Lizbeth has to go undercover with an old friend to retrieve the crate as what’s inside can spark a rebellion, if she can get it back in time.
My Review
I’ve not had the pleasure of reading Charlaine Harris before though I am familiar with her works and I did like the True Blood show for the few seasons that I watched so I was totally psyched to read this book. The premise is just so damn creative and it was such a joy to read! She created this world that is just so unique and as I said, creative, we have gun slinging HRE, Dixie, Mexia, Britannia, so many countries in what was once the united states and now a post-USA era that has started around the earlier 1910s. Alexei survived the massacre of the Romanov family and he is the ruler of the new Russian Empire that is in the area of the USA that was once California amongst other parts as well. The grigories are a magical sector of ‘wizards’ started by Rasputin as the founder and there is still the advancement of technology such as cars and guns. The wild west is at its wildest in this setting.
Lizbeth Rose is a really just cowboy/rogue character and I loved her as this almost legendary gunner [well definitely legendary but she’s spreading out her area of where she’s known as legendary].
The plot is straight forward, there aren’t any huge surprises and it’s a really easy read in that respect, and while the characters aren’t these deeply fleshed out beings, they’re real and quite capable of at least keeping you interested in their antics in regards to the plot. So, plot heavy, character light for those who want to take that into account.
Thanks so much to the publisher for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review! 3.5/5 cups of coffee from me and I look forward to reading more of this series.
Love, life, dreams, and a world beyond reach.
Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she’s trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story. And yet there’s Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her.
Note: official publication date is December 2017 but only for IndieGoGo backers. Wide release for everyone else on July 2018.
My Review
Great Sci-fi novella with a call back to old school sci-fi films. It’s a tribute to the Mars of our dreams before we knew what was up there and I think Moreno-Garcia did such a great job at this ‘tribute.’
Not to mention, I’m a huge fan of her from Mexican Gothic and already loved her writing style. This novella had the same amazingness that I’ve come to associate with the author but the style was also completely different, fitting right into this existential space vibe. I think it most reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey in that almost not eerie but otherworldly feel.
This is escapism at its best, our MC is searching for an escape, to get to Mars as she’s always dreamed while very much having to live on Earth, grounded in this ‘real world’ everyone insists is much better than the terraforming and colonizing of Mars which is at the early stages. I felt this desire, it’s something I think quite a few of us have experienced, turning our eyes to the sky and though we want the glamor of the shiny new technology, we also desire to get our ‘hands’ (space suited hands haha) dirty and bring a part of space up to that dream.
Amelia was perfect as the MC and once more we’re seeing the real Mexico instead of something conjured by tourism companies or by those who want to make it out to be all its worst parts instead of being diverse and real. And the introduction really nails that.
I loved this so much! 4.5/5 cups of coffee from me!
Ella’s life was picture perfect. She had a circle of close friends, a jam-packed social life, and an amazing boyfriend. But then something completely unexpected happened: a car accident after a Valentine’s Day dance. When Ella woke up in the hospital, she couldn’t remember the accident . . . or anything about the weeks before it, including the reason she broke up with her boyfriend.
Now, a year later, she begins receiving paper hearts from a mysterious admirer who seems to have the answers she craves. Ella is intrigued. The hearts contain clues to help Ella remember her life before . . . and take her on a journey she never imagined. Following the paper hearts is the most spontaneous thing Ella has ever done . . . but will she find love?
My Review
An ADORABLE read! Sure, it was a bit predictable, but, that didn’t damper my enjoyment of it. I think I liked it BECAUSE it was a little predictable, I wanted the things to happen that was going to happen…if that makes sense.
I tell you though I thought for sure I knew who was leaving the hearts, I was a bit wrong on that, so, not entirely predictable for me as it’ll probably be for others who are going to read this.
Let’s get back to the adorableness though. It was SO CUTE in the sort of way that ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ or ‘The Kissing Booth’ was which this book is compared to in the synopsis, and I have to agree for what sort of ‘feel’ the book gives, they were spot on. (I haven’t read so I can’t compare the style or calibre of writing styles, but I’ve seen the movie adaptations of those two books)
It’s fluffy, sweet, and also a bit about embracing change and the unknown while making sure you KNOW who you want to be or don’t want to be because we’re not always sure of who we are in the moment.
Ella was one of the popular girls and she still is but I loved watching her morph, to change her own perception of her friends and herself, and not to mention I also adored her sister and both Pete and Andy as the boys in this book.
3.5/5 huge cups of coffee from me, thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion.
A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes.
She looks me hard in my eyes
& my knees lock into tree trunks
My eyes don’t dance like my heartbeat racing
They stare straight back hot daggers.
I remember things will never be the same.
I remember things.
With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend.
My Review
A stunning cover and an amazing verse read that I pretty much fell in love with from the start. [And it was definitely a cover pick]
This is a coming of age story and how our MC also is growing out and away from her best friend after a falling-out.
THE MC.
GUYS.
She is AMAZING.
AMAZING.
She is a ball player, a great friend, and so vulnerable in the emotions she feels. We see her go through her first love, her first fall out with her best and possibly only friend at the moment and we all see her finding new friends. I loved the descriptions of her doing drills and how she describes herself and her sister and cousin. The three of them are just so different but shown so with the tiniest of nuances. Her cousin Inga is this supportive fierce role while her sister Essa is lacking in the loyalty you would want her to have for her younger sister so you always feel her pain as her sister puts her down or doesn’t see her for who she is.
Overall really a raw and emotional read written with a vibrant and powerful -verse- voice.
4.5/5 cups of coffee from me, thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Caffeinated Reader 
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