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Books I Loved But Never Reviewed

By Brookelorren on August 11, 2020August 10, 202028 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, so you know what that means! It’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! I have to apologize, I went on a last minute camping trip (I guess that’s one advantage to having everyone in your family unemployed) and I just got back today, so I haven’t been able to visit people’s sites and reply to comments. I hope to get back into our routine tomorrow.

But today, we’re talking about books I loved but never reviewed. I hate to admit it, but that’s most books these days. Maybe it’s having my dh around all the time that’s keeping me from getting all my reading/reviews done, but this year has been less productive than normal. So here are some I missed this year, and some I read before I started reviewing books:

Timeline – Michael Crichton

I read this book a very long time ago, long before I had a book blog, so I never had the chance to review it. But I remember liking it a lot. Maybe if I reread it at a future date, I’ll review it.

Jo & Laurie – Margaret Stohl & Melissa de la Cruz

I listened to Jo & Laurie on audiobook last month, but haven’t reviewed it yet. I still could? Let’s see if I get around to it. I’m so far behind in my reading though.

Rilla of Ingleside – L. M. Montgomery

Rilla of Ingleside is the final book in the Anne of Green Gables octalogy, but I think it’s my favorite. I think I read these last in high school, so it’s been a while. I really should read these again.

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour – Morgan Matson

I listened to this on audiobook just a couple weeks ago, but haven’t reviewed it. It’s a great book though! Perfect for summer. Maybe I’ll review it still? Don’t know.

The History of the Ancient World – Susan Wise Bauer

I just finished rereading this book last month, but I’ve never reviewed it. Unless someone wants me to review this book, I probably won’t. Especially not right now, when there are many other books I’ve recently read but haven’t gotten around to reviewing.

Twilight – Stephanie Meyer

I just read these books in the last couple of months. I probably won’t review them, 1) because I have so many other books to review and 2) because I’m sure a billion people have already reviewed this story.

My niece told me that Stephanie Meyer was doing an appearance in Shelton, Washington, for her new book, Midnight Sun, last Friday. I actually was within driving distance of Shelton last Friday, since I was camping up in the Olympic National Forest in Washington state (I live in Colorado), but I didn’t go.

The Autobiography of Malcom X – Malcom X, Alex Haley

I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X in high school, but even though I did a book report on it for Honors English, I never reviewed it here. I really liked it though.

The bottom of this book says “As told to Alex Haley.” Alex Haley is famous for writing Roots. True story: when I was taking AP History, we were going to get to meet Alex Haley (I think he was coming to our classroom). Unfortunately, he died the night before we were supposed to meet him, so I never got the chance. I’m still kinda bummed about that.

King of Scars – Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars is another book that I’ve read during the pandemic that I’ve never reviewed. I really liked it though. At least I read it though. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while, and finally got around to it on audiobook.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy – Eric Metaxas

I really liked this book and would like to reread it at some point. Especially with the way the world is going.

The Weight of Feathers – Anna-Marie McLemore

I read this book shortly before I started book blogging. I never ended up getting around to reviewing this though. If I ever reread this story, I might review it, but there are so many books I want to read, I don’t know if it will ever get a reread. Especially if I keep reading at the slow-ass pace I have been.

What about you? What books have you read and loved but never reviewed? Next week we’re going to talk about books that should be adapted into Netflix shows/movies. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I’m sure that there’d be a few books I’d be interested in seeing as movies. See you then!

Today Tonight Tomorrow

By Brookelorren on July 27, 2020July 26, 2020Leave a Comment

There are some books that, just hearing the title, brings a smile to your face. Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon is like that. I had the opportunity to receive an advanced reader copy (thank you Netgalley and Simon Pulse!) and this is a book that will probably get a reread from me sometime in the future.

Rowan Roth is an overachieving graduating senior at a Seattle high school. She always tries to be the best at everything. There’s only one thing that keeps her from being the best: Neil McNair.

They fight about being the best at everything. It’s the last day of school, and there’s only one more day to try to best Neil. Question 1: which one of them is going to be valedictorian? Question 2: will one of them win Howl, the senior year scavenger hunt, which comes with a pretty sweet prize?

Well, that I won’t give you the answer to. But I will tell you that circumstances force them to work together, and that over the course of the competition, they end up falling in love.

There are so many things I loved about this book! Before coronavirus closed down the gym, it was my hot tub book. I’d go to the gym, get a good workout in, and then reward myself by sitting in the hot tub with my waterproof Kindle, reading this book. I was happy to sit there and prune up because this book was so good. When the gym closed down, it was one of the things I was sad about. I had to find a new routine to finish this book.

For one, I loved Rowan and Neil’s competition. You know how in a book two characters say they hate each other, but as the book progresses, you realize that their professed hatred actually masks caring for each other? That’s what goes on in this book. It cumulates in a scene at the top of a Ferris wheel that put me in tears.

Another thing I loved about this book is that it focused on regrets. On wasted time. Haven’t we all been in a situation where we wished we had done something differently? Rowan realizes that maybe she should have spent a little more time living throughout high school rather than fighting with Rowan to be the best.

Since this is a romance, it does end with a happily ever after (or at least a happy for now). And of course, you can see on the cover that they eventually will get together. This is a wonderful journey with funny moments, touching moments, and moments that will leave you in tears. It has an overall happy vibe that–in this world currently overrun with social distancing and viruses–may be just the thing you need in this world. I highly recommend it.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky

By Brookelorren on July 26, 2020July 26, 2020Leave a Comment

Sandhya Menon’s books are always so amazing! Her most recent book (out last Tuesday) was 10 Things I Hate About Pinky. It’s the third book in the Dimpleverse, and if you haven’t read the others, you should! This latest book stands on its own, but! If you read them in order, you’ll be familiar with some of the characters and situations and it will be a little bit cooler.

I haven’t written a lot of reviews lately (I’d love to fix that at some point) but today’s review is going to be a little different than normal. I’m writing a list:

10 Things I Love about 10 Things I Hate About Pinky

1. Pinky. Pinky is such a great character! We meet her first in There’s Something About Sweetie, but we get to know her a lot better in this book. She’s such a sweet, caring person. I love how we get to see this side of her in this book.

2. Samir. Samir, who begins a fake-dating relationship with Pinky, is almost her opposite. While Pinky is a free-spirit, Samid has a planner and his life revolves around it. Over the course of 10 Things I Hate About Pinky, he learns that some things just can’t be planned. Including how he ended up fake-dating Pinky in the first place. It happens towards the beginning of the book, but I’ll leave that up to you to discover.

3. Family relationships. We mostly get to see the relationship between Pinky and her mother, but there are other relationships here. Her mother starts out as very antagonistic towards Pinky, but they work things out. Samir and his mother have some things to work out too. We don’t see much of her here, but their relationship does evolve.

4. Friendships. The main friendship here is between Pinky and Dolly, whom we haven’t met before. We hear a little from Ashish as well. Summer friendships are great!

5. Saving the World! Okay, Pinky and Samir don’t exactly save the world, but they do try to save their little part of the world, which is under threat. While I won’t say whether they succeed or not, they get involved in a little protesting.

6. Animals! Pinky rescues a wild animal early on in the book. Also, there’s a butterfly habitat that Pinky and Samir visit. Both animals play roles in the book.

7. Laugh out Loud. One of the things I love about Sandhya Menon’s books is that they are funny. There were several places where I couldn’t help but to laugh out loud.

8. The Cover. This is such a beautiful cover! I think it personifies Pinky perfectly. It would have been cooler, maybe, if there was a butterfly on the cover, but it matches the rest of the Pinky set, and it’s so happy.

9. Uh Oh. The Big Misunderstanding. Of course, not everything in this book could be as happy as the cover, could it? There are several misunderstandings that are cleared up, including a huge one that almost tears Pinky and Samir apart.

10. The Happily Ever After. You couldn’t call this book a romance without it.

So, was there anything I hated about 10 Things I Hate About Pinky? Absolutely not! I loved this book. It just came out last Tuesday, and I encourage you to go pick it up. If you like fake-dating and enemies to lovers, then you’ll probably like this too.

Fractures

By Brookelorren on June 19, 2020June 19, 20201 Comment

It’s been a while since I read (and loved) Echoes by Alice Reeds. So when I got the chance to review Fractures, the sequel to Echoes, I was excited! Thank you Netgalley and Entanged Teen for the Advanced Reader Copy. Echoes was a twisty story with two different timelines. It ended on a cliffhanger, but when I originally read it, I wasn’t sure whether it was meant to be continued or not. The sequel did not disappoint. You can see my review of Echoes here.

Because this review is for the second book in a duology, there may be spoilers.

Things To Like

Just like in Echoes, it’s twisty and there’s two timelines! In the original book, it took a while to figure out what was going on. Are these two different timelines? Is one of them real and one of them not? What’s going on? Eventually you figure it out, as do Miles and Fiona, our main characters.

You get to know Miles and Fiona more. Some people thought there was instalove in the first book, although I liked how their relationship went, but we get to learn more about their characters here. Once again, they’re facing danger, and we get to find out more about them, their families, and how did they end up in this mess?

New characters! Fiona and Miles make new friends in their struggle (which I’m purposely being vague about). Can they be trusted in a world where nobody can figure out what is real and what is imagined? I can’t reveal that.

A satisfying ending. While the end of Echoes made me think ??? is this deliberately a weird ending like the rest of the book? Fractures has a logical and satisfying conclusion. We finally find out what happens to them!

Other Notes

I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t find it as compelling as Echoes. Perhaps it’s just because I’ve been having difficulty reading as much as I had been. I don’t know why. I couldn’t put the first book down and read it in one day. It took three days to read Fractures.

Conclusion

Are you looking for a duology that is twisty, mysterious, and keeps you turning pages? I recommend this duology. If you haven’t read Echoes yet, you’d definitely want to start there. If you have read Echoes, then you’ll probably want to find out what happens to our two main characters. You won’t be disappointed.

Tell Me Everything

By Brookelorren on June 4, 2020June 1, 20202 Comments

Hello! I’ve been horrible at writing reviews lately, but I need to turn Tell Me Everything, by Sarah Enni, back into the library and I haven’t reviewed it yet! I liked this story and the pages flew by. I think the description doesn’t really do it justice.

Ivy and Harold are best friends. Ivy is shy and retreats into her art and photography; Harold is a high-achieving academic who wants to be involved in almost every club in school.

Things change when Harold goes to summer camp. He comes back stressed about getting into a selective college; Ivy spent the summer taking pictures and following the new anonymous art app, VEIL. VEIL allows people in your local area to post art anonymously, which gives people more freedom to be themselves. Once school returns, Ivy starts figuring out who some of these VEIL posters are, and starts to give gifts to them anonymously.

The Issues

I didn’t expect Tell Me Everything to be a book that explored important issues. Nothing in the description indicates that. But then, someone posts an anti-homosexual rant on VEIL. The site goes from being a fun place for teens to express themselves to one that has gathered the attention of unhappy parents. The book explores the issues of anonymity, free speech, and how sometimes anonymity causes people to behave in ways they wouldn’t do if they had to have their name attache to it–and not always in a good way.

When Ivy starts figuring out who these people are and starts giving them gifts, I start to see how this might not end well. Because not everybody wants other people to find out their secrets. And even if you do figure out someone’s secret, sometimes it’s better that they don’t know you know. I don’t want to give the ending away, but Ivy ends up learning that her good intentions don’t always work out so well.

Plot Twist!

Tell Me Everything has an interesting plot twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. In a good way though. I thought the end was going to go one way, but it went in a different direction. It was a believable end though, so I wasn’t left disappointed or confused. I was very happy with the end.

Conclusion

I liked Tell Me Everything, and was glad I ended up reading it. It’s a book that I didn’t really hear much about when it came out (I heard about it through someone’s book recommendation) but I hope more people hear about it. The voice is great, the issues it discusses are relevant to what teens (and adults) are going through today, and it’s got a storyline that makes you want to keep reading. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you give it a chance.

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

By Brookelorren on May 7, 2020May 7, 20202 Comments

Hello! Welcome to the Save the Cat! Writes a Novel Blog Tour! I was lucky enough to be chosen to review this amazing book. If you’ve ever wanted to write a novel, or have written a novel and want to make it better, this book may help you out.

The first time I heard of Save the Cat! was at an Ask Me Anything with Marie Lu. She suggested it for people who want to learn to write. Pffft! I’ve already written five novels! I’m actually not sure how many books I had written at the time, but I had written several. I believe when I finish writing Saving Adelinetta, it will be my tenth novel.

But! For me, the more I write, the closer I become to having a book I want to send out to agents, the more I want to learn. What makes a successful story? Even if I have this story now, how can I write another one? How do I write a story that people will want to read? This is one of the beautiful things about Save the Cat! It’s a book that brand-new storytellers can use to put together their first novel, as well as a book that intermediate storytellers can use to make sure their books are ones that people will want to read.

What’s in the Book?

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel can be broken up into three different sections:

An introduction to the Save the Cat beats.
How these beats are used in different kinds of stories.
Pitching and troubleshooting your novel.

If you read any part of this book, you’ll definitely want to use the first section for reference. You might think Jessica Brody made these up, but they’re actually pretty much universal to most successful stories. I wrote The Brightness of Shadow without knowing about these beats. You know what? I pretty much hit all the beats without even knowing what they were. However, Save the Cat has further information and examples about things to include in the beats. As I’m revising my book, I’m using this book to help me. Additionally, I have some unfinished books I’m working on. These beats have and will help me finish these books.

This book spends a majority of its time giving examples of different types of stories that can be written using these beats. By types of stories, I don’t mean genre (romance, mystery) or category (young adult, middle grade). An example of a story type is an underdog story or a road trip. Perhaps there are other story types than the ten mentioned here, and books can fit into more than one story type, but if you read through the examples in this book, you should be able to get a good idea of how story beats fit into the kind of story you want to tell.

The final section of the book deals with how to pitch your book and deal with any problems you may have. If you’re going to query your book, you need to write a query letter. And probably a synopsis. There’s a chapter for that. The final chapter deals with other problems writers might have.

Conclusion

Do you want to write a novel? Have you written a novel? Save the Cat! Writes a Novel can help you with that. It’s a book I plan to use in the future (and have used it to put together something of an outline of a fanfic I plan to write at some point, The Rift). This book can help most people plan out their next book. Even if you’re a pantser, Save the Cat! can give you an idea of where your characters should go next. I highly recommend it.

In addition to Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, Jessica Brody has written several other books. I reviewed Sky Without Stars on this blog before. I really have to review its sequel, Between Burning Worlds, because it’s amazing.

Want to learn more about Save the Cat! Writes a Novel? Follow the blog tour! Also, you can learn more about how to save the cat (including the new software, which I haven’t tried) over at savethecat.com.

About the Author:

Jessica Brody worked for MGM Studios as manager of acquisitions and business development before becoming an internationally best-selling author of more than fifteen novels for adults and teens including The Geography of Lost Things, The Chaos of Standing Still, A Week of Mondays, and Better You Than Me. She travels the country teaching Save the Cat! workshops to novelists.

Fallen Glory

By Brookelorren on April 22, 2020April 21, 2020Leave a Comment

I have recently been trying to read more nonfiction. The real world is so interesting and it’s fun to find out more. Fallen Glory wouldn’t have been my first choice of nonfiction books though: the lives and deaths of history’s greatest buildings. I don’t know a lot about architecture. However, when I went to the Penguin Teen Tour in March, Marie Lu said she was reading this book, and the way she described it made it seem amazing (she was right).

Fallen Glory is not just a book about a bunch of destroyed buildings. It tells the story of the people that created the buildings and the people that destroyed the buildings. At times, it is a sad reminder of our lost history. For example, the first chapter is the story of the Tower of Babel. While we don’t know exactly where the exact site for the tower was, this book tells about some of the possibilities. It also tells the story of many of the artifacts of the time that were lost during the Iraq War, when thieves broke into an area museum and ransacked it.

It’s the story of buildings lost in both ancient and modern times, from Asia to America, with stops in the Middle East and Europe. With this as a backdrop, the author, James Crawford, weaves a compelling story. Chapter eight, for example, tells the story of the Nika riots in Constantinople. While you may or may not have heard of them before, Crawford gives all the background information you need to know for this to be an interesting story. Even if you’ve never heard of the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora before.

The book tells stories of the obscure, such as Vilcabamba, to the well-known, like the Bastille. Not knowing about the former didn’t make it less interesting than the latter. Crawford is a great storyteller.

I thought one of the most interesting stories was the chapter on GeoCities, which wasn’t even a real city in the first place. Crawford tells how it was developed and later became popular. Eventually it was bought out by Yahoo! I could write a lot about Yahoo! I remember when they were so small that they still added their entries by hand. Yahoo! eventually closed down GeoCities, and in that one moment, years of early Internet history was erased (although some people were able to archive a lot of the site).

Conclusion

I really liked Fallen Glory. It’s not just a book about buildings: it’s a book about the societies that built the buildings, lived with the buildings, and watched its destruction. The stories it told were interesting. Some buildings I had heard of before, but others were new. Whether they were new to me or not, the stories brought a fresh perspective to the locations. If you’re interested in history ranging from the Tower of Babel to the 21st century, you may enjoy this book.

Chosen Ones

By Brookelorren on April 19, 2020April 19, 20201 Comment

What do you do for the rest of your life after you save the world? I recently had the chance to read Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth, which explores this question. It is her first adult book. While it was good, I don’t think it had quite the same magic as Divergent (which, after reading page 50, I finished, along with Insurgent and Allegiant, in two days).

Alternate Universes

Chosen Ones takes place in an alternate Earth. I thought this was a pretty cool concept, and think that so many interesting stories could be told this way. It is a little confusing at first, as it covers a time period that I lived through and–I don’t remember a monster called The Dark One invading the earth and almost destroying it. When you get to part 2 of this book, it makes even more sense.

Characters

Sloane, the main character, is suffering from PTSD. She was one of the Chosen Ones that saved the world 10 years ago, and she has never truly recovered and moved on with life. Her boyfriend, Matthew, another Chosen One, happily meets with people and is your typical extrovert. Esther, another Chosen One, has turned into an Insta! superstar. Perhaps the only person that seems to get her is Albie.

I don’t personally connect with Sloane as much as, say, I connected with Tris. I think some people will though.

Story

About a third of the way through the book, something happens where they have to save the world again. I can’t say too much without being spoilery. Sloane isn’t really happy with this–didn’t she already serve her time? Things are not exactly as they seem though. As the story progresses, we find out the truth, Sloane begins to make peace with her life, and of course… there’s a resolution, which I also can’t give away without being spoilery.

Conclusion

Chosen Ones is a fairly unique book. There are a lot of things I really liked about this book. I didn’t like this quite as much as I liked the Divergent and Carve the Mark series–there wasn’t a FourTris or Akos and Cyra that really drew me in, and that might be part of it. Although both Cyra and Sloane were characters that had been through trauma and were trying to deal with it, Cyra had Akos, and while Sloane wasn’t exactly alone, the book spends most of its internal focus on Sloane battling her demons, and there wasn’t as much of a connection to the people around her.

If you like Veronica Roth’s other books, read her other books and wish there was less emphasis on the romantic relationships but otherwise liked the books, or maybe would like a sci-fi book with very little romance in it, you might like Chosen Ones. I did like it. although I’m unlikely to be obsessive over it like I was with Divergent.

The Best Laid Plans

By Brookelorren on April 14, 2020April 14, 20204 Comments

I hope everybody is doing well staying inside and social distancing. Recently I requested The Best Laid Plans by Cameron Lund from my library, and they kindly bought it. If you’re looking for a sweet end-of-high school story about first loves, this might be the story for you.

It’s Keely’s 18th birthday, and she’s having a horrible time. Her best friend, Andrew, is having a party–and the last of her friends has lost her virginity. Keely feels all alone and inexperienced. Are things going to be worse when she’s in college?

Then, she meets a cute boy that looks like James Dean, and he seems to like her. Only now Keely has an even bigger problem. Her friends are telling her that he’s not going to like her if he finds out that she’s a virgin. So she hatches a plan. Ask her best friend Andrew, who’d never hurt her, to help her gain experience. After all, he always seems to be with a different girl.

The Characters

The characters in The Best Laid Plans seem realistic. Keely, the main character, is insecure about her experience with boys and has ideas of how she needs to behave in order to keep the boy she wants. Her girlfriends think they’re experts on relationships, but like a lot of high school girls, they aren’t. Andrew is a sweet boy and–some of the boys in the school are a little crude. But aren’t they in real life? Dean also seems like a lot of college boys that might find themselves interested in high school seniors without really developing a friendship first.

The Story

Over the course of the story, Keely realizes what she really wants. Her high school friends are involved in a little drama, and we realize at the end of the story what the cause of the drama is all about. I thought the story was great and tied up nicely at the end.

Controversy?

Some readers may or may not find the book controversial, especially if they don’t finish the book. There are things that are revealed at the end of the book that clarify the meaning of the book. For one, everybody seems to be sex-crazed. Seems is probably the best word for it, because we’re seeing this through Keely’s eyes, and this is something she’s anxious about. It’s something her circle of friends seems to care about. Are there people in her school that aren’t? Probably, but since the book is from Keely’s perspective, we don’t see that.

The other controversy in this book is that one of the characters is being slut-shamed. The book doesn’t condone that happening. By the end of the book, we find out who is doing it and why. Not all of the people in this book are nice. Some people in this book are pigs. But isn’t that reality? Especially in high school?

Conclusion

Overall, I thought the book was good. Perhaps not everybody is going to agree with Keely’s choices, and Keely’s view of the world may be skewed, but I think that makes it a realistic first-person POV book. The ending was sweet and slightly surprising–obviously since this book is categorized as a romantic comedy we know there’s going to be a happily-ever-after (or at least, for now), but I really enjoyed the lessons Keely learned and how things ended up turning out. If you’re looking for a sweet, best-friends-to-lovers book to take your mind off the news, I recommend it.

Once a King

By Brookelorren on April 4, 2020April 4, 2020Leave a Comment

One of the things I’ve been doing since this coronavirus threat started strangling the world is taking more walks. This means… more audiobooks! I just finished listening to Once a King, part of the Clash of Kingdoms series by Erin Summerill. While I enjoyed the book itself, I didn’t care for the audio narration.

The Story

Once a King is narrated by Aodren, king of Malam, and Lirra Barret, daughter of the Arch-Traitor of Malam, and a wind channeler. Many people in the kingdom are gathered at a summit of nations. King Aodren is concerned because his father murdered channelers; he’s trying to right the wrongs of the past, but a lot of people don’t want to put the past behind.

Lirra’s father sends her a letter and asks her to deliver it to the “Bloody King of Malam,” as she calls him. They don’t have any respect for each other at first, but as they work together to solve a problem that is threatening the citizens of Malam–and Lirra’s da–they begin to like each other.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed the story, but I don’t think I was as enthralled by Once a King as I was with Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave. I think the character’s relationship in the first two books of this series was more engaging. However, part of this could be due to the fact that I listened to this via audiobook, which I’ll get to later.

I enjoyed the setting in this book, and the villain did surprise me. There were tense moments and how they got out of these situations surprised me as well.

The Audiobook

I really did not like the audiobook narration. Almost everybody’s accents were unnatural and got on my nerves. King Aodren narrated half the book and I especially didn’t like his voice. He spoke with drawn out words that made him seem like he was bored. The side characters often had nasally, drawling, or otherwise unnatural voices that were often more annoying than not.

Overall

If you enjoyed Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave, you’ll probably like Once a King. This book can be enjoyed without reading the other two books; however, they do give the background information on the magic system that would make getting into this book easier. Britta and Cohen get the briefest of mentions in this book (they’re away on their honeymoon), so don’t bother looking for more on that couple. If you liked the world and the magic system and want a little more of the world, I recommend this book. I don’t recommend the audiobook though.