Tag: books

ARC Review: Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review6 Comments
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Rob had it all – friends, a near-guaranteed lacrosse scholarship to college and an amazing family – but all that changed when his dad was caught embezzling funds from half the town. Now he’s a social pariah. 
Maegan always does the right thing. But when her sister comes home from college pregnant, she’s caught between telling their parents the truth about the father and keeping her sister’s trust. 
When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a project, they form an unexpectedly deep connection. But Rob’s plan to fix his father’s damage could ruin more than their new friendship …

Disclaimer: Thank you to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was my first Brigid Kemmerer book, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I spotted this one on Netgalley and the synopsis intrigued me straight away – and the book didn’t let me down!

I love a good contemporary with a twist, and this one had everything. It had great romance, friendships, complicated emotional families, some lovely LGBTQIA+ rep in side characters, and a dark, twisted element that really made the story for me.

The metaphor this book left me with will stay with me for a long time – we all make mistakes. No one is perfect, but it’s how we deal with these mistakes that make us who we are. The character arcs of Maegan and Rob were so interesting, both trying to be happy again after big events in their lives changed them forever. In Maegan’s case, she had made a mistake herself, and in Rob’s, he was trying to survive after his parents made mistakes that ruined his reputation. Throughout the story, he is trying to find himself and become his own person, without making the same mistakes his parents did.

Seeing two different scenarios and both characters worked really well. Each character was flawed, but real and lovable. I really enjoyed reading both of their POV. The romance was tasteful and believable – not too ‘insta’ but the natural reaction of two struggling teens finding each other in the chaos.

I have to also include how much I loved the cast of side characters, including the parents and friends. Everyone had their own story, their own quirks and struggles, and we even saw the flaws of the characters parents and I sympathised with them, too.

The plot left me feeling like I’d just come off a rollercoaster. It threw me, and the added drama made this book fly by. I constantly wanted to learn the next twist or turn, and couldn’t put this book down after around 40%. My only small criticism is I would have liked more of an insight into the actions of Rob’s dad, and I wish the exact workings of his crimes would have helped.

I’m definitely now looking forward to A Curse So Dark and Lonely and I’d love to read more of Kemmerer’s books!

★★★★

4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review9 Comments
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Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most cruel.
But this year, there’s a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it’s Lei they’re after–the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king’s consort. But Lei isn’t content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable–she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.

It’s been a while since I’v read a good fantasy, and this one was just a delight to dive into. I admired this book so much, it was such an immersive experience with beautiful writing, and I’m so glad I picked it up.

Girls of Paper and Fire follows a world with 3 castes, Paper (fully human) being the lowest, followed by Steel (partly demon) and Moon (fully demon, with animal like qualities). The premise is somewhat like The Selection series, with 8 Paper girls being chosen each year to please the King, who is of the highest caste. This story follows Lei, who was unexpectedly chosen and taken away from her family to become a Paper girl, and seeks revenge for an attack on her village that killed her mother.

‘But time has a way of folding itself, like a map, distances and journeys and hours and minutes tucked neatly away to leave just the realness of the before and the now,’

I say this book is like The Selection, but the likeliness stops there. This book, this world, holds so much more. More depth, more emotion, more intrigue and fight and hardship. It’s no secret that this book tackles some difficult topics, such as sexual abuse, and even though I was prepared, I was left with tears in my eyes in parts. Despite, or maybe because of these difficult subjects, this book is just so powerful.

The politics were interesting to read about and I loved hearing the side of the story from the people who wanted revenge against the Palace. It balanced out perfectly with the gentle friendships the girls found in each other, a unique bond with intriguing characters I could easily read more about.

‘as close as hands pressed on the either side of a rice-paper door.’

The romance that blossoms within this story is beautiful, powerful and healthy. I found myself being reminded of my own relationship and seeing reflections of how myself and my partner support each other, and it was so lovely to read about. I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers, but it felt so wholesome and made me love the characters even more.

The only small problem I had with this book was the pacing at the beginning. Unfortunately, it took me a good few days to get through the first 100 pages, but after that I couldn’t put it down! I was soon whirled away with the lovingly written landscapes, friendships, romances, action and much more. In fact, I want to end by saying the writing was just incredible. I saw a Goodreads review describing it as sensuous, and that is just spot on. Ngan has such a way with words, that resonated with me and has stolen my heart.

★★★★★
5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review5 Comments
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17 year old Rukhsana Ali tries her hardest to live up to her conservative Muslim parents’ expectations, but lately she’s finding that harder and harder to do. She rolls her eyes instead of screaming when they blatantly favor her brother and she dresses conservatively at home, saving her crop tops and makeup for parties her parents don’t know about. Luckily, only a few more months stand between her carefully monitored life in Seattle and her new life at Caltech, where she can pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.
But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend Ariana, all of Rukhsana’s plans fall apart. Her parents are devastated; being gay may as well be a death sentence in the Bengali community. They immediately whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh, where she is thrown headfirst into a world of arranged marriages and tradition. Only through reading her grandmother’s old diary is Rukhsana able to gain some much needed perspective. 
Rukhsana realizes she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life? 

What a perfect book to start pride month with! I delved into this book with little expectations and not knowing a lot about it, and I ended up really enjoying it. I always like contemporaries with a twist that stand out from the crowd, and this one did because of it’s Bengali culture and diverse characters. Reading about how other people live is so important and fascinating, and so fun to find out how other cultures celebrate.

In fact, the representation of Bengali culture and Rukhsana’s religion (Muslim) were probably my favourite things about the book, and made me want to go back to it. Learning about how deeply flawed Rukhsana’s parents/families viewpoints are kept it so interesting and engaging, but was also written really well. For example, she understood that even though they were misguided more because of their culture, Rukhsana made us understand everyone is flawed, no matter their background or religion. Hence this quote, which I loved and found so important: “Every time I say something bad about my family, it becomes more about where I come from than just regular stuff people go through with their parents.”. Discussing this topic felt so needed.

‘We must be the masters of our own destinies. I did not learn that until it was too late. You have to fight to take back control of your life.’

From a plot point of view, this book flew by. It’s only short but not at all lighthearted, and discusses super heavy topics that left me with tears in my eyes at points. I just couldn’t help but feel heartbroken over Rukhsana’s situation, and that shows how emotionally connected to her I felt. However, it wasn’t all sad and the lighthearted scenes were so fun and heartwarming, and often included lots of food! I think the descriptions of food and drink meant so much in this novel, specifically because it pushed the feeling of Bengali culture.

Talking of more heartwarming parts, I adored the cast of characters. Rukhsana’s friends and distant relatives, plus people she found along the way, made this book what it is. Considering we had such a large group of people, I also coped pretty well, and rarely got confused. That’s definitely a testament to the writing!

‘Sometimes you will hurt the ones you love the most. But in the end, it will always have to be your choice.’

Which brings me onto my only real issue, and unfortunately the reason this book didn’t get 5 stars for me. The writing felt very disjointed and jumpy in places, especially when Rukhsana would change her mind about things so quickly. It’s very hard to describe how the writing impacted the book, but it’s almost as if the book had a very detailed plot line with a timeline of events, but the jumps between those events didn’t run as smoothly as they could have?

However, the writing only stopped me from enjoying the book a little bit, and it’s definitely something I can see improving as Khan writes more. Because of that, I’d definitely pick up other books by her!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Midnight Bites by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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MIDNIGHT BITES, the new Morganville Vampires short story anthology! It will bring together almost everything that I’ve written in short form about Morganville … though I did leave out some of the original “diary” entries that appeared on an earlier version of the Morganville website, simply because they were just scenes and not stories, and were generally really short snippets. This is all short fiction, and it’s been carefully organized into the timeline, so you can read from the earliest adventures (some of which belong to vampires) all the way through some post-Daylighters goodies.
MIDNIGHT BITES includes a total of more than 50,000 words of brand new content, which makes me very happy indeed (and I hope will also make you happy, too). From stories featuring our favorite bunny-slipper-wearing mad scientist to a mystery solved by police chief Hannah Moses, I think you’ll find this is a diverse group of stories that will shine a little more light in the murkiest corners of Morganville.

This was such a lovely way to wrap up and leave Morganville. I love reading short story collections, and even though they hardly ever meet my love of whole books, they provide such a great way to revisit worlds we know, love and miss.

And this book was just the same. I know that if I ever need a Morganville fix, I’ll go to this alongside my favourites from the series!

‘“Just wanted to remind you that we’re out of milk again. And hot sauce.”
“Why are those two always out at the same time? Because those do not go together.”‘

These stories were such a mix, and I loved how they were in order of how they would be if they were in the series. Each one seemed to have a new narrator and style, and they each stood out from each other. They all gave me the great atmospheric feeling only Morganville has in that creepy way.

I love the mix of romance, action, humour etc. Each story brought something new, or had a mixture of scenes which was great. Some of the stories were included in my UK paperback editions, so I’d read them as I went and that meant the book wasn’t too daunting for me as a whole as I skipped those. However, the 500+ pages and small font threw me after such an easy to read series!

‘”I suspect Shane. He’d put hot sauce in anything,” Michael said.’

Overall, a great way to finish up this series for me. I’ll be sad to leave this eccentric and brilliant cast of characters behind, it’s been a fun ride!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Daylighters (Morganville #15) by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review5 Comments
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Something drastic has happened in Morganville while Claire and her friends were away. The town looks cleaner and happier than they’ve ever seen it before, but when their incoming group is arrested and separated – vampires from humans – they realise that the changes definitely aren’t for the better. It seems that an organisation called the Daylight Foundation has offered the population of Morganville something they’ve never had: hope of a vampire-free future. And while it sounds like salvation – even for the vampires themselves – the truth is far more sinister and deadly. Now, Claire, Shane and Eve need to find a way to break their friends out of Daylighter custody, before the vampires of Morganville meet their untimely end …Includes a brand new and exclusive Morganville short story. 

Wow, it’s so weird, sad and exciting to be leaving Morganville behind. Although I don’t feel like I’m truly finished with this town as I’ve just picked up Midnight Bites, the short story collection, I know I’ll feel the loss of such a wonderful town and cast of characters.

As we saw in Last Breath and Black Dawn, this book carries on from the last. With the Daylighters being such a threat in Fall of Night, I was ready for this, and expectant. Overall, this book didn’t disappoint, and I found it was layered wonderfully.

‘But if these past years in Morganville have taught me anything, it’s that sometimes you have to just . . . jump.’

Of course, this book focuses on Claire and her friends, but I also enjoyed the little wrappings-up of other characters stories. It really felt like a bittersweet ending to such a long journey. There are so many aspects of this book that I didn’t expect, including the massive part the Hellhounds played. But I think we needed new, fresh ideas to keep the story alive even in it’s final moments.

I was so happy the last book took place almost entirely in Morganville! After a bit of a break in book 14, I was missing the atmosphere of the town I’ve grown to know and love. These books have taken me through many twists and turns, and the town was one of the most atmospheric settings I’ve ever read about.

‘It’s not safe. It’s never safe. But sometimes you have to live dangerously.’

It’s going to be very bittersweet leaving these books behind, and once I’ve got Midnight Bites out of the way, I’m going to be writing about my experience of reading my way through Morganville, the longest series I’ve ever read.

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Fall of Night (Morganville #14) by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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Claire thought she’d never get to leave Morganville, but she can’t pass up the chance to finally attend her dream school, MIT. After all, getting to invent anti-vamp devices with Professor Anderson – a Morganville exile herself – sounds like a dream come true… until Claire realizes there are sinister forces at play, and she’s not the only one with a vampire-related agenda.
Without her friends Shane, Eve, and Michael, Claire finds that surviving a killer schedule may be hard… but with them, it might turn out to be impossible.

I’m so glad Morganville picked up again after the disappointment that was the 13th book. I find when any of the gang leave Morganville it can be really hit and miss, but I definitely needed a break from the crazy town after book 13.

Having Claire finally leave to follow her dream of studying at MIT (in one weird way or another) really worked for me. Her standing up and proving to herself, her friends, and us as readers, that she can leave Morganville, gave me new found respect for her. In fact, I spent a lot of this book respecting and evaluating how far the characters have come!

‘In real life, you don’t get a reset,’

I did miss the antics of the other Morganville residents, and the atmosphere of the town itself however, and I was grateful for the different POV showing what everyone was up to back home. I guess I was a little torn between leaving Morgnaville, but when a series is based on a place and is 15 books long, it does need some breathers.

Even though we’d left Morganville behind, of course Claire’s life isn’t without new adventures and dangers. It wouldn’t be this series without a little danger, and at least one mention of vampire bunny slippers, would it? I have to say, Caine also didn’t disappoint with action, adventure and twists and turns that made this book fly by!

‘and you don’t get extra lives, and I got the crap pounded out of me.’

So overall, I’m very happy to say book 14 has picked this series back up off the ground. Bring on the next and final book!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Bitter Blood (Morganville #13) by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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For years, the human and vampire residents of Morganville, Texas, have managed to co-exist in peace. But now that the threat to the vampires has been defeated, the human residents are learning that the gravest danger they face is the enemy within…
Thanks to the eradication of the parasitic creatures known as the draug, the vampires of Morganville have been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim, the town’s human population is determined to hold on to their lives by taking up arms. But college student Claire Danvers isn’t about to take sides, considering she has ties to both the humans and the vampires.
To make matters worse, a television show comes to Morganville looking for ghosts, just as vampire and human politics collide. Now, Claire and her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news… or worse. 

Maybe it’s because of the 11th and 12th Morganville books being so good, but I was so disappointed with this one! I guess I did expect a bit of a lull after so much action, but this one seemed downright ridiculous.

As with most of the books, it really picked up in the last 100-200 pages. But I keep thinking was it enough? Sure, I enjoyed this book and I’m still loving the series overall. But compared to the recent marvels Caine has come up with, it left me feeling…kinda flat.

“It’s not your enemies who are likeliest to hurt you.”

Not all was bad about these books and as I said above, I still enjoyed it. We had a number of small plotlines happening alongside each other, which was kind of fun and made the pacing pretty quick. I also still enjoyed flicking between different characters POV.

As always, the characters were the best thing about this book. I love the main 4, and we had a new member of the Glass House that gave a completely different and fresh addition I loved. I can see Claire growing up and developing as her own person, and looking back on her at the start of the series makes me feel like I’ve really followed her journey. However, we also had some Morganville visitors which felt flat and just annoying.

“It is, always, those you trust.”

Overall, very mixed feelings about the book itself and it’s definitely the most disappointing yet for me! But I have to say, I’m still enjoying the series and I know I’ll miss it when I finish.

★★★
3 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Black Dawn (Morganville #12) by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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The Morganville vampires are fighting a losing war, and it will fall to the residents of the Glass House: Michael, Eve, Shane and Claire, to take the fight to an enemy who threatens to destroy the town, forever.

For the first time in the Morganville books, this one carries on with the same subplot as the book before it. Usually, the books kind of wrap up at the end of each, and just leave a small something for the next one to continue with. Here, we have two books taking up one subplot, but it really works. The story Caine started in Last Breath definitely needs time to finish!

There was a very emotional aspect of this book that is possibly one of my favourites, if not my absolute favourite part of the whole series. Shane is a big focus in this (trying not to give giant spoilers here!), and I felt so deeply connected to the characters because of it.

‘”News flash, lady. There are no queens anymore,” Shane said. He loaded shells in a shotgun and snapped it shut, then searched for a place to strap it on that didn’t interfere with the flamethrower.’

This plotline is just epic, and I was once again kept guessing and on the edge of my seat. I think it’s just getting predictable again, and then Caine will throw me a massive twist that makes me react out loud. What a feat. And alongside this, we had numerous subplots (romantic, political, etc) that kept me interested.

These books might be fun and I do love them so much, but they’re not without their problems. Sometimes I struggle to find the things that keep the group tied to Morganville, especially in the middle of chaos like this. Like why not just leave? Even though my niggles have explanations, it doesn’t stop the annoyances sometimes.

‘”No queens, no kings, no emperors. Not in America. Only CEOs. Same thing, but not so many crowns.”’

I think it’s because this series is so long that despite my small annoyances, Morganville always feels like coming home. I can’t quite believe I only have a few books left, because I’ll definitely be sad to leave it behind completely!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Last Breath (Morganville #11) by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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Claire finds out that vampires aren’t the top predators. There’s something worse that preys on them. So if Claire and Morganville want to live, they will have to fight on to the last breath.

Wow. So this book turns Morganville on it’s head, and I’m impressed. Caine’s ingenuity is amazing, and the fact she keeps coming up with new and refreshing ideas for this small town astounds me.

There’s definitely something different about this book that the series really needed in my opinion. I’ve been feeling the tension throughout the whole series, but it ramps up so much in this one. There’s an overall feeling of hopelessness, and of real possibility of loss. I think the fact we now have multiple viewpoints puts everyone’s life on the line, and it’s kept me so interested in the series.

‘”Yes,” she whispered back. “I promise.”‘

Without giving away any massive spoilers, something massive happens in this book. Something I never saw coming, and made me question the comfortable routine I’ve got into with this series. Because the series is so long, it’s easy to expect everything will be okay in the end. But honestly, not anymore. I was shocked. I gasped out loud.

Talking of those other points of view, I loved them! Not only do we have our group of friends, but also an insight into Amelie’s head, the Founder of Morganville. She’s one of those characters you never know how to feel about, and it was great to find out more about her inner workings. Despite her flaws, I really love and admire her as a character!

‘And she kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him, while the sun came up and bathed Morganville in one last, shining day.’

This series, that I thought had found it’s gentle rhythm, has been revitalised for me. What an awakening, and a new taste of a great series.

★★★★★
5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Bite Club (Morganville #10) by Rachel Caine

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review5 Comments
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Claire has come to realise that the undead of Morganville just want to live their lives. But there’s a new extreme sport being broadcast over the Internet – bare-knuckle fights pitting captured vampires against one another – or, worse, against humans. What started as an online brawl will soon threaten everyone in Morganville.

I feel like these books almost alternate from being about a wider enemy, to being about something happening inside Morganville that brings the humans and vampires together. As you may have guessed from the synopsis, this is one of the latter and I really enjoyed it!

I actually think it’s a great way of writing about Morganville that manages to keep the tension for such a long time and for so many books, but I do enjoy seeing everyone working together.

‘”You think that because I want to do what’s right, because I want to make things better, I’m weak,” Claire said.’

The emotional scenes from Ghost Town continued in this book, and I really liked that. This book focuses on Shane, which was great. He’s a character with a really intriguing background that is discussed a lot throughout the series, and it was interesting to see more about his feelings in depth.

One way Caine showed this was through different viewpoints of the different characters. This is the first time in the whole of Morganville that we’ve seen multiple points of view, and it helps so much. Due to the books being in third person, it’s not so jarring when the viewpoints change, and in fact we just learn more as a reader without Claire having to physically be in every scene!

‘“Or that I’m stupid. But I’m not. It takes a lot more strength to know how bad the world is and not want to be part of that, give in to it.”‘

Unfortunately, Morganville still isn’t perfect, and I want to take this chance to warn you all again that it’s definitely a guilty pleasure series. Although I find them less trashy as the series carries on, there’s still a certain degree of cringe. Luckily, I love them for the entertainment value!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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