Rating: ★★★+.5 | 15 hrs 14 mins | Brilliance Audio | YA Fantasy | 09/29/2015
I’m on a mission to read the Grishaverse series before the Netflix show comes out and right now I have Crooked Kingdom and King of Scars left.
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We're an Open Book
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Rating: ★★★+.5 | 15 hrs 14 mins | Brilliance Audio | YA Fantasy | 09/29/2015
I’m on a mission to read the Grishaverse series before the Netflix show comes out and right now I have Crooked Kingdom and King of Scars left.
…
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.320 pages | Contemporary | Roaring Brook Press | Release Date: 6/4/2019
When 17-year-old Chloe Pierce gets the opportunity to audition for her dream ballet school she’ll have to break her overly cautious mother’s rules for the first time to audition. Her carefully planned day trip is quickly derailed into an unexpected weeklong road trip, when her troublemaking neighbor Eli Greene–and his dog Geezer–tag along for the ride.
I read this book while on vacation and it was the perfect YA vacation read. Forest has crafted a solid debut about discovery, friendship and confidence-building in a fun rom-com package. In our 19 to 2019 I said this looked like the kind of book teen me would have enjoyed and it totally was!
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Book Review
If someone were to ask me what it means to have a book with
a strong sense of setting I would 100% point to A Psalm For Lost Girls. New Haven, MA is a small
immigrant city where everyone knows everyone and some secrets just can’t be
kept.Callie da Costa wants to believe her sister Tessa, whose
untimely death she is still grieving , wasn’t the miracle making saint the
town and church think she might have been. That maybe the fortuitous voices her
sister heard where. . . just in her head?
But when a missing girl miraculously appears on a shrine to Tessa, Callie has to rethink what she truly believes. This is a great read for those who, like me, don’t think
contemporary is for them. While the story has hints of magical realism the
events in the novel are grounded in grief and loss.
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4 Hours 32 Minutes | Harper Audio | 3/7/17
Book Review
I think in a world where every other teen non-fiction book is by a YouTuber or reality show star, there is something refreshing about a book by two everyday teenage girls; whose project with Girls Who Code became a viral sensation.
There is something accessible about the success in this book that I think will appeal to teens. Sophie and Andy each bring their unique experiences to the table . Andy is a second-generation Filipina whose drive and discipline constantly push her forward, and Sophie’s quirkiness, selfawareness and need to speak out (and possibly her mom running a start-up media company) keeps her looking for the next challenge in life. At times the book stretched to form a narrative, but delves into the sacrifices and anxieties the girls face as they explore the world of programming.
Audiobook Review
The authors give listeners an inside look at how two teenaged girls are breaking the tech world’s glass ceiling while challenging the taboo of discussing menstruation. In 2014, Andrea “Andy” Gonzales and Sophie Houser’s summer project at Girls Who Code became the viral computer game Tampon Run. The girl coders lend their voices to the narration, taking on separate chapters as well giving listeners an introductory lesson on how to find tools and resources to start coding. An accompanying PDF supports this part of the audio presentation. Since the success of their game, the pair have been invited to Silicon Valley and offered numerous media appearances and interviews, experiences that are reflected in their thoughtful, straightforward performance. They expertly reflect the highs and lows of their incredible journey. J.C. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine—as published in AudioFile
Katherine Pinkerton knows better than dream of owning her own bakery baker, she knows her destiny lies in becoming the queen of a wacky, quirky, surreal little Kingdom of Hearts. On the night she is to be betrothed she sets eyes on the handsome court joker, who has more than cards up his sleeves.
Unlike the Lunar Chronicles where the fairytale aspects are subtext and set in a modern world, Heartless is an overt-played-straight prequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Meyer digs into the Kingdom of Hearts and all its little oddities. It’s a place where animals talk, playing cards are courtier and if one bring something back from a dream. . . well then so be it.
What we don’t really get to dig into in this novel is the plot. Plot points in the novel are hung like painting with no nails, there are a lot of them, you want to see them. . . but they have a tendency to fall off. One of the many plot in this book is about a forbidden romance that never really started for me. There is also a beta romance, a monster, intrigue, war and magic. . . but we never get fully invested in any of it.
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