2020 Book #77 – The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor

Posted in Book Genre, Book reviews, Fiction, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: The Code for Love and Heartbreak
Author: Jillian Cantor
Date finished: 10/25/20
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: October 6, 2020
Pages in book: 215
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

In this contemporary romcom retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma by USA TODAY bestselling author Jillian Cantor, there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.

When math genius Emma and her coding club co-president, George, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born.

George disapproves of Emma’s idea of creating a matchmaking app, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.

Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other, and Emma’s own feelings defy any algorithm?

My rating: 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I was very interested in reading this book based on the description, and I haven’t read as much young adult lately. This book was the perfect amount of nerdy for me, I loved Emma’s character. I was a little worried it might end up being too angsty (young adult can be hit or miss for me), and while it was a little angst-ridden it was just a reasonable amount for me. I think part of the reason it worked so well is that Emma’s character is doesn’t connect to her emotions in the same way as others. She seemed like she might be autistic since she was very literal, didn’t really understand social interactions, and had trouble identifying emotions in others. I thought the author’s portrayal of her was really well done and genuine. I loved all the nerd talk with coding (which I’m not familiar with the terminology on but could still get in the spirit) and the competitiveness of the competition. The romance plot line was a bit of a miss for me but I know it was kind of following along the lines of a classic plot line. It just felt confusing with the switch on who liked who all the time. The other characters in the book didn’t feel as fleshed out to me as they could have but I did really like to varied cast of characters. It was a cute read and I enjoyed it though I wouldn’t say it was my favorite. I’d still recommend it though – it was a good book!

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

16Jan2018

2018 Book #6 – The Rogue Is Back in Town by Anna Bennett

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by rebeccabook17

Title: The Rogue Is Back in Town
Author: Anna Bennett
Date finished: 1/16/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
Pages in book: 366
Stand alone or series: #3 in the Wayward Wallflowers series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Equal parts scoundrel and seducer, he’s returned to London determined to mend the rift with his older brother. All Sam must do is take possession of a tumbledown town house. A seemingly simple task, except the house is occupied—by an infuriating, whip-smart beauty who refuses to do his bidding.

Miss Juliette Lacey’s wallflower days are over. She has a plan to turn her eccentric family into the toast of the ton—but the devilishly handsome rake trying to oust them from their home thwarts her at every turn. How can one man be so vexing and make her simmer with desire?
As her attraction to Sam deepens, Julie’s problems grow—she may have, once upon a time, secretly shared a kiss with his honorable older brother. Suddenly, Julie’s caught between a rogue and a marquess, between passion and respectability. Torn between two brothers, what’s a girl to do?

My rating: 2.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Can a confirmed rascal really turn himself around?

Samuel Travis has historically been a self-confirmed rogue, but he is now determined to prove himself worthy and turn himself around and start accomplishing something. Juliette (Julie) Lacey is the youngest of three sisters (hence she is featured in the third book in the series) and is the most adventurous of her three sisters. Even though she’s the most daring though, I found it hard to believe that someone with her strong personality would even give thought to Nigel’s proposal (I won’t say what it was but it was shitty). I would’ve kicked him right in the nuts and told him to go F off. And the thing that disturbed me the most really was the lack of closure regarding what happened with the “villain” of the story. He’s a complete and total ass but he just kind of fades into the background in the end and nothing bad ever happens to him, which while it may be realistic is not really something that I end up enjoying in a book. I want to see a little karma take place, and really this guy should’ve been RUINED. Sam’s character was really good and I liked the character development there, plus this was a fairly easy read. And while the ending was kind of a let down for me personally I still thought it was a fairly good romance novel and would say its worth the read!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

8Oct2017

2017 Book #85 – The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Posted in Book reviews, Fiction, Magical realism by rebeccabook17

Title: The Rules of Magic
Author: Alice Hoffman
Date finished: 10/8/17
Genre: Fiction, magical realism
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: October 10, 2017
Pages in book: 384
Stand alone or series: Prequel to Practical Magic
Where I got the book from: Edelweiss NOTE: I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Find your magic.

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is a story about the power of love reminding us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself.

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Sally and Gillian’s aunts, Bridget (Jet) and Frances (Franny). We first met these two when Sally and Gillian were newly orphaned and went to live with their aunts they’ve never met after the death of their parents. In this book though we get to hear about the lives of Jet and Franny before we meet them in Practical Magic, when they were still young and full of hope. They also were affected by a curse that caused anyone the Owen’s women love to die, and it changed they’re lives in a dramatic way. We also learn about their brother Vincent, who we don’t really hear about in Practical Magic. We learn about these three as they grow from adolescence into adulthood and beyond. As they learn about their powers and the curse, and as they fall in love and as they learn about loss and grief. We learn about their family’s history and all the things that led up to where Practical Magic begins.

Overall I really liked this book. I loved returning to this magical world where anything is possible. I loved hearing Franny and Jet and especially Vincent’s story. I loved hearing about the history that brought us to Sally and Gillian and all the magic that was to come. And I really liked that some of my long burning questions (about how Gillian and Sally were related to Franny and Jet) were answered. This book was heart-wrenchingly sad and honestly I sobbed for like the last 5% of the book at least. There were also some pretty dry parts to the story and some of it was a little hard to get through. I still really enjoyed it though and I would definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who was in love with the Practical Magic story already.

The bottom line: I liked this book a LOT. Although it was slow in parts, it was so wonderful to return to the world of Practical Magic and also it was so heart-wrenchingly sad/beautiful. I loved hearing the back story to Sally & Gillian. I would recommend this to fans of Practical Magic.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

27Apr2016

2016 Book #39 – The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander

Posted in Book reviews, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: The Art of Not Breathing
Author: Sarah Alexander
Date finished: 4/26/16
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 26, 2016
Pages in book: 288
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE:I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Since her twin brother, Eddie, drowned five years ago, sixteen-year-old Elsie Main has tried to remember what really happened that fateful day on the beach. One minute Eddie was there, and the next he was gone. Seventeen-year-old Tay McKenzie is a cute and mysterious boy that Elsie meets in her favorite boathouse hangout. When Tay introduces Elsie to the world of freediving, she vows to find the answers she seeks at the bottom of the sea.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Elsie Main. The story mostly centers around the history behind Elsie’s missing brother, Eddie. Eddie was either autistic or mentally challenged and walked off into the ocean at age 9 and hasn’t been seen since. Elsie starts remembering things about that day and when she starts “free-diving” at age 16 she starts having vivid recollections of time that had been missing from her memories of that day. During this time she begins to fall in love with a boy names Tay, who unfortunately is hiding a few things from Elsie.
Overall this was a good book. It was an interesting story and I liked learning about free-diving since I had never heard of it before. I think the story just didn’t really appeal to me and I had some trouble connecting with the characters and the story line. There were some good conflicts within the plot and goo amount of tension between characters, it just wasn’t one of my favorites personally.

The bottom line: I thought that the free-diving information in this story was interesting but other than that I had trouble connecting to the characters. Was a good story, just wasn’t one of my favorites. I would still recommend though!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

17Jun2015

2015 Book #59 – Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Posted in Book reviews, Young Adult by rebeccabook17

Title: Vanishing Girls
Author: Lauren Oliver
Date finished: 6/17/15
Genre: Young Adult – Thriller
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 10, 2015
Pages in book: 357
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Terryville Public Library

Blurb from the cover:

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver delivers a gripping story about two sisters inexorably altered by a terrible accident.
Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara’s beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it’s too late.
In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: This book was a little weird. Dara and Nick are supposed to be best friends and sisters and then an accident supposedly marks their separation and they don’t talk to each other for months. Its really what happens right before the accident but you’ll find all that out. Anyway, their supposed to be such good friends but the description of their relationship is awful. Also there is a LOT of underage drinking in this book. Like every person you are introduced with who is in high school is getting drunk on a regular basis. Where are they getting all this alcohol? And do their parents really just not notice that their kids are drunk every weekend? There are a lot of heavy drugs mentioned in connection with Dara as well. I know when parents get divorced they can sometimes become a little more absent in their children’s lives but still, no one besides Nick noticed that there were weird pills in Dara’s room?
Besides the drug thing and the slightly intense sibling rivalry for “best friends,” this book was pretty good. I was hooked fairly quickly, though the first half of the book was a little slower than the second half. I liked the story line and I was interested in what the reason for the accident was and where Madeline Snow was and what the hell was really going on. I can 100% say that I never saw the twist at the end coming and to be honest when it was revealed my first thought was “no way you read that right, better go backwards a little and read it over.” But turns out I read it correctly, it was just a little confusing. The plot twist at the end was a great twist but the way it was done was a little far-reached to me. Still very good though, I usually can see twists coming but I never saw this one coming.

The bottom line: Eh. It was ok. Not my favorite but wasn’t awful either. There were some things about it that bothered me I little. You could try it I guess.

Link to author website
Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page