3.5

Audiobook Review: Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven

November 14, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: 04/04/16 | Contemporary | 9 hours 3 minutes

In the romance genre there is always talk about the grovel–the moment when the hero has to fully take responsibility and beg forgiveness from the heroine for whatever stupid thing he did and prove he is deserving of his happily ever after.

So, when our male protagonist Jack Masselin decides to hold on to Libby Strout ,our 350 lb female protagonist, for a cruel game his friends invented call Fat Girl Rodeo, he basically has the entire book to earn his redemption

And you know what ? He does it. It’s a journey though and I almost turned this book off because I just couldn’t with Jack being theBilly Bush to his two idiot friend’s Trump, but in the end Niven made it work.

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Audiobook Review: You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

October 22, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: 06/07/16 | Contemporary | 6 hours 36 minutes

When a series of happenstances bring high schoolers Mark Rissi and Kate Cleary to the same bar during San Francisco Pride, they form an instant friendship and navigate a night of unexpected twists, anxiety, unrequited loves exploring what it means to have people who know you well.

I’ve been reading a lot of “quiet YA” and this book is probably the quietest YA to ever quiet. I mentioned that my last book, Gem and Dixie was a quiet YA but I can at least point to a turning action in that book while You Know Me Well just moves dreamily along, as we follow Kate and Mark through San Francisco Pride Week. This book started off slow and to be honest I almost DNF’d, but LaCour and Levithan do such a good job developing their characters and side character that over time I was drawn in.

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Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab (Monsters of Verity #2)

August 29, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: 06/13/17 | Urban Fantasy (Horror?) | 10 hours 32 minutes | Harper Audio

Trigger Warning: Violence

I’m going to warn right at the top that this book is violent AF. While violence is a central theme in the first book, it is relentless and borderline disturbing in this sequel. Sexual violence or anything never comes up in this series but there is just like a lot of throat ripping. Like a lot.

On Twitter Victoria Schwab described Our Dark Duet as being the second half of a whole but this duology felt like it was missing a book to explain how our characters went from high school students on the run to rough and tumble monster fighters. Especially concerning August Flynn who goes from bright-eyedWoobie who wants to be human to a stoic badass. It was like watching the original The Fast and The Furious movie and then immediately watching Furious 7 when they were all suddenly jumping cars through skyscrapers.

Speaking of The Fast and The Furious franchise that is exactly what this book felt like. The plot was muddled, a lot of characters carry Idiot Balls and the whole thing probably could have been solved with a text message chain but all that said… I was just swept away in Schwab’s cinematic storytelling, breakneck action sequences and creative set pieces. Look, I’m not sure why characters are suddenly using call signs and August is getting around by jumping from skyscrapers but you know…Rule of Cool.

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Audiobook Review: Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

August 24, 2017 Leave a Comment

Release Date: 03/03/17 | Contemporary | 10 hours 45 minutes

17-year-old writer Carver Briggs believes in the power of words, but he never imagined a few words, written in a text, would kill his three best friends.

Goodbye Days opens with Caver at the last funeral for Sauce Crew–the nickname for his friend group. From there the book is almost a little too prescriptive as Carver has a final day with each of Sauce Crew’s family members sharing and learning about the sides of his friends he never knew. The time between the goodbye days is punctuated with some mini-plots plot about Carter facing possible manslaughter charges, therapy session and his budding relationship with, Jesmyn, a Sauce Crew member’s girlfriend.

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A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima

May 7, 2017 Leave a Comment

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The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

December 6, 2016 Leave a Comment

Release Date: November 1, 2016
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Crown (Random House)

Tasha Kingston’s family is 24 hours away from being deported to Jamaica after her father drunkenly tells a police officer they’ve been in the country for over a decade on expired travel visas. Tasha isn’t ready to leave America, she has a fake social security number and was prepared to go to college and become a data scientist. She resolves to spend her last day doing everything she can to find a way to delay the deportation. What she doesn’t plan on is meeting Daniel Bae, the idealistic aspiring poet who believes their meeting was an act of faith. Tasha is pragmatic and doesn’t believe in fate or soul mates but as they spend the day together Daniel starts to change her mind and get inside her heart. But what does any of it mean when in 24 hours she won’t be allowed back in the United States ?

Honestly, I was kind of lukewarm on the romance, I just have a hard time investing in romances in such a condensed timeline. To me the most interesting thing about this book is how the story is structured. Not only do we get Daniel and Tasha’s POVs we also get these mini sections called “brief histories” that give you a minor characters past and future or give you a history on a certain subject. I liked the way these sections broadened the 24 hour timeline a little bit.

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