Make Me Reread

I have so many books I want to read, but I also have a lot I want to reread. So, if y'all don't mind, I'd love your help in deciding what to reread next! All you have to do is vote in the polls below. Super easy! :) 

I'll choose one book from each post to put in my immediate reread stack.

What should I reread next?

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

Lucky Few by Kathryn Ormsbee

Do Riddles

What should I reread next?

The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

Poll Maker

What should I reread next?

Prisoner of Night and Fog duology by Anne Blankman

Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale

The Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer

quiz

Thanks for voting!

Review: Invictus

Review: Invictus by Ryan Graudin
Grade: C
Release date: September 26, 2017
An e-galley was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Time flies when you're plundering history.

Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far's birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he's ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past. 

But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far's very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.

In this heart-stopping adventure, Ryan Graudin has created a fast-paced world that defies time and space.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Since I quite enjoyed Ryan Graudin's Wolf by Wolf duology, I expected to like Invictus as well. Unfortunately, it didn't meet my expectations.
I liked how the book started with Far's mother's POV and then launched into his POV right after. However, I think there was a lot of worldbuilding early on that wasn't quite clear enough. I was never quite sure how Recorders actually recorded everything, and some of the science felt a little too wobbly to me (that could also be because my mind is not built for science). And while I thought I'd like the main cast of characters (minus Eliot because she was annoying from the moment she appeared), they never seemed to be anything but surface-deep, even Far who was supposedly the protagonist. I felt like Priya and Gram would be my favorites, but I didn't get to know them well enough for them to become my favorites.
The way the ending worked out made a lot of sense, but I guess the plot in general wasn't what I wanted from Invictus, so I found myself not enjoying what I was reading, which is always a bummer.
There are substitute swears which sort of makes sense since Invictus is set 300 years in the future? But they were also a bit startling because I wasn't sure why the characters were using words like "hashing" and "shazm" in situations where those words wouldn't make sense.

The Verdict: If you're looking for a good time travel book, The Girl from Everywhere does it better.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: It's unlikely.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books Published 5+ Years Ago

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

When writing this post, I was determined to not include any books that would be considered classics (like Jane Austen or stuff you'd read in high school). The result is a list of books published in the last 20 years (although most were published 5-10 years ago) that I love.

1. Heist Society by Ally Carter

2. Holes by Louis Sachar

3. You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

4. Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

5. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

6. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

7. Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

8. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

9. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

10. Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

What books do you love from 5+ years ago?

Rewind & Review #93

Created by Shae Has Left the Room.

~I caught a cold. :( 

~More Taylor music! This time, I like the pre-chorus and chorus better than the verses (with "Look What You Made Me Do," I preferred the verses and pre-chorus).

~Did lots of revisions on a short story for advanced creative writing and my novel, since I wanted to submit a few chapters of that for workshop.

Books I Received for Review

Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy (from Sourcebooks via Edelweiss) 

Books I Won/Traded for/was Gifted

Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson (won from Wednesday Books)

Books I Bought

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

Books I Read

Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally (3 stars)
Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (4 stars)
Planting an Empire by Jean B. Russo and J. Elliott Russo (3 stars)
Who's That Girl by Blair Thornburgh (3 stars)
Things I'm Seeing Without You by Peter Bognanni
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han (reread)
You're Invited Too by Jen Malone and Gail Nall (3 stars)
The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (reread)
Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George
Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo (4 stars)
These Ruthless Deeds by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas (3 stars)
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas (5 stars)

Blog Posts You Might've Missed in the Last Few Weeks

   (from 8/28-9/2)

• Top Ten Tuesday: Hidden Gem YA Contemporary Books
• So You Like... #56
• Random Friday: Hogwarts Houses
• Review: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West (4 stars)
• Odyssey Article: Taylor Swift, Reputation, and Me

   (from 9/3-9/9)

• From the Bookshelf to the Kitchen: Lara Jean's Brownies
• Why I Love Don't Touch
• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I've DNFed Recently
• Review: Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones (3.5 stars)
• Review: Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore (3 stars)

Review: Jane, Unlimited

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
Grade: C
Release date: September 19, 2017
An ARC was provided by Read Between the Lynes in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Jane has lived an ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia—an adjunct professor and deep sea photographer. Jane counted on Magnolia to make the world feel expansive and to turn life into an adventure. But Aunt Magnolia was lost a few months ago in Antarctica on one of her expeditions.

Now, with no direction, a year out of high school, and obsessed with making umbrellas that look like her own dreams (but mostly just mourning her aunt), she is easily swept away by Kiran Thrash—a glamorous, capricious acquaintance who shows up and asks Jane to accompany her to a gala at her family's island mansion called Tu Reviens.

Jane remembers her aunt telling her: "If anyone ever invites to you to Tu Reviens, promise me that you'll go." With nothing but a trunkful of umbrella parts to her name, Jane ventures out to the Thrash estate. Then her story takes a turn, or rather, five turns. What Jane doesn't know is that Tu Reviens will offer her choices that can ultimately determine the course of her untethered life. But at Tu Reviens, every choice comes with a reward, or a price.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Jane, Unlimited was a very unexpected book. It was written in third-person present tense, which tripped me up a bit (I'm used to first-person present tense and third-person past tense), but Jane was an interesting main character. She was a bit passive at times but very curious, and I loved that her passion was umbrellas of all things. I loved hearing about her creations and endeavors. The cast of secondary characters is fairly large, and I felt some didn't get enough description for how often they were mentioned. (I seriously believed Cook was the cook for, like, half the book.) I'm seriously puzzled by Kiran still, and her plotline felt so unresolved. I liked Ivy, Patrick, and Ravi best of the secondary characters, but their plotlines all felt unresolved as well. I don't need happily ever afters and perfectly tied-up endings, but I do like more resolution than what Jane, Unlimited gives readers.
After the initial section when Jane arrives at Tu Reviens, the book divides into five paths, and you definitely can't pick and choose which you want to read because information from earlier paths trickles into the later ones (also it's kind of fun to realize you know what's going on in one plotline while Jane has involved herself in another). I liked the first two paths best - one is about art and an art theft, the other about...well it would be a spoiler to tell you. However, after those two sections, Jane, Unlimited took a weird turn into fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi that totally threw me. I knew there would be a teeny bit of fantasy with how much they talked about the house being alive, but I did not expect all of the crazy stuff that happened in the last three sections. The section about Charlotte's disappearance could have been done really well (especially with the Winnie-the-Pooh references), but I never felt like I understood why the books were different and once again, the section was not resolved well. And once the final two sections took the turns they did, I stopped caring about the characters because nothing felt believable by any stretch of the imagination.
Some f-bombs and s-words.

The Verdict: An interesting book that turned weird. I was disappointed.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: No.

Review: Murder, Magic, and What We Wore

Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones
Grade: B-
Release date: September 19, 2017
An e-galley was provided by Random House via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: The year is 1818, the city is London, and 16-year-old Annis Whitworth has just learned that her father is dead and all his money is missing. And so, of course, she decides to become a spy.

Annis always suspected that her father was himself a spy, and following in his footsteps to unmask his killer makes perfect sense. Alas, it does not make sense to England’s current spymasters—not even when Annis reveals that she has the rare magical ability to sew glamours: garments that can disguise the wearer completely.

Well, if the spies are too pigheaded to take on a young woman of quality, then Annis will take them on. And so she crafts a new double life for herself. Miss Annis Whitworth will appear to live a quiet life in a country cottage with her aunt, and Annis-in-disguise as Madame Martine, glamour artist, will open a magical dressmaking shop. That way she can earn a living, maintain her social standing, and, in her spare time, follow the coded clues her father left behind and unmask his killer.

It can’t be any harder than navigating the London social season, can it?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: That title absolutely drew me to this book, and I stuck around for the historical fiction.
Characters were well-developed, and I loved how women were important to the story. Usually historical fiction is, like, one or two women and then just tons of male characters, and it's nice to see a balance. I also appreciated that there wasn't a romance because that would've meant waaaayyyy too much would've been going on. I loved that dresses and being feminine were important to the story as well. However, the magic was the most underdeveloped part of Murder, Magic, and What They Wore. I don't remember it being clearly stated at all where the magic came from and why it's kind of acceptable but not really acceptable for upper classes to use it. There was mention of other types of magic, but those were never fully expounded upon either. The ending was also a bit more open than I expected, and I'm not sure if this is a series or not. If it is, I'm excited to see where it'll go, and I hope the magic will be further explained.
Language, violence, and romance were all pretty clean.

The Verdict: A fun read, but not developed enough.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Hmm...it's unlikely.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I've DNFed Recently

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

A couple years ago, I started giving myself permission to DNF books more often, and while I've kept up that trend, I've DNFed fewer this year than in the past, primarily because I've started to just remove them completely from my shelves and not even mark them as read if I didn't get past the first chapter or two. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's definitely the book, but these are books I've DNFed in 2017 for various reasons.

1. Definitions of Indefinable Things by Whitney Taylor

2. Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

3. The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera

4. RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

5. Waking in Time by Angie Stanton

6. The Friendship Experiment by Erin Teagan

7. Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts

8. Maud by Melanie J. Fishbane

9. The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian

10. The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash by Candace Ganger


Feel free to ask me why I DNFed these titles! What books have you DNFed recently?

Why I Love Don't Touch

While I love a lot of the big YA titles, there are also some #quietYA picks I love with all my heart. Don't Touch is one of those.

Not enough people talk about this book, so that's what I'm here to do today.

1. The friend group
Their personalities really come to life, and I appreciate that they weren't terribly catty. Sure, there was conflict, but it wasn't the same old drama.

2. Caddie's anxiety
In my opinion, it is well-portrayed (although I do not have OCD, so I cannot say for sure). But Rachel M. Wilson wrote it well, showing us how Caddie feels and why she feels that way.

3. Peter and his gentleness
The love interest is great. He's not your typical YA love interest; he's gentle, smart, and kind and genuinely wants to be Caddie's friend.

4. SO MUCH HAMLET
A big chunk of Don't Touch revolves around the production of Hamlet and Caddie's parallels with Ophelia, which I really appreciated as a Shakespeare geek. (Especially because Hamlet is my favorite.) Caddie even references the Kenneth Branagh adaptation, and there are quotes throughout the book.


So get on it. Buy Don't Touch or request it at your library. Read it and love the quietness.


Goodreads  Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

From the Bookshelf to the Kitchen: Lara Jean's Brownies

I'm so happy to complete my series of FtBttK posts focusing on Lara Jean Covey's recipes. This one comes from the Target edition of Always and Forever, Lara Jean, and it's actually Katharine Hepburn's recipe originally for...brownies!

Books with characters who bake are almost always some of my favorites, so Lara Jean will always have a special place in my heart. 

Goodreads  Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Lara Jean's Brownies

1/2 cup cocoa powder (make sure it's not dark chocolate)

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs (use 3 eggs for cakier brownies)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

1 cup chopped or broken-up walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the cocoa and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a large bowl. 

3. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt (plus nuts, if you so choose). Add to the cocoa-butter mixture. Stir just until combined.

5. Pour into a greased 8 x 8 pan. Bake 30-35 minutes. Do not overbake; the brownies should be gooey. Let cool, then cut into bars.

I forgot to take a picture of the book with the brownies, oops! The mixture was super thick and dark, so I'll definitely try a third egg next time and also a sweeter cocoa powder. Bon appetit!

Have a book/recipe suggestion for From the Bookshelf to the Kitchen? Leave it in the comments below!

Review: The Distance Between Us

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
Grade: B+
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Distance Between Us was the first Kasie West book I ever read, way back in 2013, and I didn't appreciate it as much as I did a few months later or even now. It's not my favorite Kasie West book, but it is one of her more solid offerings.
The Distance Between Us characterizes Caymen, Xander, and Caymen's mom well. The supporting characters are a little weak, though, and I would've liked more time with Caymen's grandparents. I enjoyed the career plot, and that Caymen and Skye had jobs. I feel like, too often, YA protagonists don't have jobs, and most real teenagers earn money one way or another (even it's just babysitting or yard work). I also thought Caymen's sarcasm was done nicely, and I appreciated that she wasn't always portrayed as the ordinary girl who bumbled her way through the upper class world. I liked that Xander's family did defy Caymen's expectations at times, although I really wish his grandmother had been in the story even more.
Language and romance are super clean. There's underage drinking, but Caymen doesn't participate.

The Verdict: A solid choice if you like contemporary romance.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this to my library?: Already have.