Book Review - Sam Saves the Night by Shari Simpson + Giveaway

Photo Credit - Amazon

Thirteen-year-old Samantha has no friends because she is constantly exhausted. She is constantly in a state of chronic exhaustion because she sleepwalks every night. She has broken into stores, stolen walkers, and build tree houses in her sleep.  And she, unfortunately, remembers none of it in the morning. After her latest sleepwalking stunt, her mother takes her to see a sleep specialist who happens to run a sleep clinic out of the creepy strip mall store.

Sam is hesitant that the doctor would be able to help. However, the night after her procedure, she wakes up outside of her body and is watching herself sleep. After her panic subsides, she realizes there's a world of detached souls called SleepWakers. Each child is a member of their own clique including the Achieves, the Roamers, and the OCDeeds. 

Madalynn Sucret is the nicest girl in Sam's school and is the leader of the Mean Dreams. She shows Sam how to use her power to get back at bullies who are tormenting her. After hanging out with Madalynn, it becomes clear that Madalynn is the bully and Sam needs to put a stop to her. Sam is faced with uniting the various tribes to fight back against the Mean Dreams before it's too late.

The novel was a fun read and had an interesting premise. I like that each person had their own community that allowed them to be themselves. I thought the premise of "people show who they really are in the darkness" was going to be involving monsters and demons but, it didn't. However, the book does offer nuances of friendship, loss, family, and dealing with pain and emotion. The book reminds readers that things are not always as they appear. Overall, the novel is a good read for both adults and young adults.

**Disclosure - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. This post may contain affiliate links which means I earn advertising and/or referral fees if you purchase an item through my link. Please note, there will be no extra charges to you. Thank you for your support.**

 

About the Book

Title: SAM SAVES THE NIGHT

Author: Shari Simpson

Pub. Date: October 1, 2019

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 304

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

What would you do if you could stay out all night and not get in trouble?
Thirteen-year-old Sam has no friends, but you can't really blame her. She lives her life in a state of chronic exhaustion thanks to her nightly sleepwalking jaunts, which include trips to the store, treehouse-building projects, and breaking-and-entering escapades-none of which she remembers in the morning. Her condition is taking its toll on her family (and her life), so when her mom takes her to see a wacky strip-mall sleep specialist, Sam is wary, but 100 percent in.
The night after the doc works his mojo, Sam wakes up outside her body, watching herself sleep. FREAKY! But once she gets over the panic attack, she realizes there's a whole world of detached-souls out there, called SleepWakers-cliques of kids like the Achieves, who use their sleep time to learn new things; the Numbs, who eat junk food and play video games all night long, and the OCDeeds who search for missing things and organize other people's stuff. And then there are the Mean Dreams, led by Madalynn Sucret, the nicest girl in Sam's school, who shows Sam that she can use her power to get back at a bully who's been tormenting her. Sam is intrigued-until it becomes clear that Madalynn is the real bully and the "tormentor" is just, well... sad. Now Sam is faced with uniting the various tribes of SleepWakers to fight back against Madalynn and the Mean Dreams in the most epic battle the night has ever seen. 

About Shari:

Shari Simpson is a playwright and screenwriter who cowrote the off-Broadway hit Maybe Baby, It's You and the Disney Channel Original Movie The Swap, both with her longtime writing partner, Charlie Shahnaian. She also won the 2012 BlogHer Voice of the Year for Humor Writing. Shari lives in Hoboken, NJ, with a patient husband, two hilarious teenagers, a demonic cat, and her pug, Mila Kunis. This is her first novel.

Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of SAM SAVES THE NIGHT, US Only.

Rafflecopter link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2991/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

10/1/2019- Cindy's Love of Books- Excerpt

10/2/2019- Portrait of a Book- Review

10/3/2019- Moonlight Rendezvous- Review

10/4/2019- BookHounds YA- Excerpt

Week Two:

10/7/2019- Struck by Stories- Review

10/8/2019- Twirling Book Princess- Excerpt

10/9/2019- Shortcake_bibliophage- Excerpt

10/10/2019- Love, Stars and Books- Review

10/11/2019- Dazzled by Books- Review

Week Three:

10/14/2019- YA Book Nerd- Review

10/15/2019- Life Within The Pages- Review

10/16/2019- fictitious.fox- Review

10/17/2019- Fyrekatz Blog- Review

10/18/2019- The Try Everything- Excerpt

Week Four:

10/21/2019- Novel Novice- Excerpt

10/22/2019- Nerdophiles- Review

10/23/2019- Southern Girl Bookaholic- Review

10/24/2019- Two points of interest- Review

10/25/2019- Little Red Reads- Review

Week Five:

10/28/2019- PopTheButterfly Reads- Review

10/29/2019- Savings in Seconds- Review

10/30/2019- Wonder Struck- Review

10/31/2019- Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers- Review

Book Review - Beast Rider by Tony Johnston and Marí de Rhoads

Photo Credit - Amazon

 Manuel is just twelve years old when he leaves his small town in Mexico. He travels across the US border, on a train to join his older brother in Los Angeles. Becoming a "beast rider" is dangerous but, Manuel faces other perils even if he manages to survive the jump on the train. 

The first time he is on the train, he is robbed then beaten and arrested by the Mexican police. Manuel doesn't allow his first defeat to deter him. He is attacked by an infamous Mexican gang and they leave him for dead. When he was about to lose hope, the villagers help restore his spirits and health. He leaves again for his journey and finally arrives in LA to be with his brother. He is excited that he is back but, then realizes he feels something is missing.

I thought the novel was an interesting read. However, I have conflicting feelings about this novel. While I thought it was brave that  Manuel risked everything to be with his brother. But, when he finally is reunited to his brother, he realizes that isn't what the heart wants. It's an interesting premise about what the heart and the mind wants. Although, I feel like Manuel risked and lost a lot before he learned what he really wants. I personally hoped Manuel would have found out what defined him before he lost his innocence.

 **Disclosure - This post may contain affiliate links which means I earn advertising and/or referral fees if you purchase an item through my link. Please note, there will be no any extra charges to you. Thank you for your support.**

Book Review - Waking Isabella: Because Beauty Can't Sleep Forever by Melissa Muldoon + Giveaway

Photo Source - Amazon

Nora is an assistant research who feels like her life hit the wall. She is going through a divorce and feels like her life is missing something. After coming across a photo of a friend who was surrounded by two men in the vineyard, Nora realizes she is jealous of her friend and hopes that her life changes for the better. However, instead of sitting around and moping, Nora decides to create a documentary about the rebellious Medici princess, Isabella. While working on her documentary, Nora explores the history of two strong independent in the past and hopes that she can use them as a guiding source for her own life. Will Nora be able to have the life she always wanted? Will she be able to use Isabella as a source of empowerment?

The novel starts off with the murder of Isabella by her estrange husband and then switches to modern day with Nora. At first, I loved the concept of meshing the past with the present with a common thread uniting the two. However, when it started doing that for multiple characters and sometimes the novel would switch time without much of a warning and it became hard to keep track of.  While, I am not a dual language speaker, I do enjoy reading novels that have some dual lingo as it helps readers feel immersed in the culture. I would have found it helpful in the author included a dictionary of the Italian terms because I feel like I missed out part of the story when I couldn't understand all of the Italian bits and it was a bit overwhelming to constantly use Google Translate. If you are an Italophile, and/or enjoy art and history, this would be a treat to read.

**Disclosure - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion**

Book Details:
Book Title:  Waking Isabella: Because beauty can't sleep forever by Melissa Muldoon Category:  Adult Fiction,  250  pages Genre: General Fiction Publisher:  Matta Press Release date:  December 2017 Format available for review: print & ebook (mobi, ePub, PDF)
Will send print books out: internationally Tour dates: Feb 19 to March 23, 2018 Content Rating: PG-13 + M (The story begins with violent rape and murder scene, touches on themes of miscarriage, murder, Nazi violence during war, adultery) ​  

Book Description:
Waking Isabella is a story about uncovering hidden beauty that, over time, has been lost, erased, or suppressed. It also weaves together several love stories as well as a few mysteries. Nora, an assistant researcher, is a catalyst for resolving the puzzle of a painting that has been missing for decades. Set in Arezzo, a small Tuscan town, the plot unfolds against the backdrop of the city’s antique trade and the fanfare and pageantry of its medieval jousting festival. While filming a documentary about Isabella de’ Medici—the Renaissance princess who was murdered by her husband—Nora begins to connect with the lives of two remarkable women from the past. Unraveling the stories of Isabella, the daughter of a fifteenth-century Tuscan duke, and Margherita, a young girl trying to survive the war in Nazi-occupied Italy, Nora begins to question the choices that have shaped her own life up to this point. As she does, hidden beauty is awakened deep inside of her, and she discovers the keys to her creativity and happiness. It is a story of love and deceit, forgeries and masterpieces—all held together by the allure and intrigue of a beautiful Tuscan ghost.

 

Meet the Author:

Melissa Muldoon is the Studentessa Matta—the crazy linguist! In Italian, “matta” means “crazy” or “impassioned.” Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and art history in Florence.

Melissa promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog, Studentessa Matta (studentessamatta.com). Melissa began the Matta blog to improve her command of the language and to connect with other language learners. It has since grown to include a podcast, “Tutti Matti per l’Italiano,” and the Studentessa Matta YouTube channel. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Tours, which she co-leads with Italian partners in Italy.

Waking Isabella is Melissa’s second novel and follows Dreaming Sophia, published in 2016. In this new novel about Italy, the reader is taken on another art history adventure, inspired by Melissa’s experiences living and traveling in Italy, specifically Arezzo, as well as her familiarity with the language and art. For more information about Waking Isabella and links to Melissa’s blogs and social media sites, visit www.MelissaMuldoon.com.

As a student, Melissa lived in Florence with an Italian family. She studied art history and painting and took beginner Italian classes. When she returned home, she threw away her Italian dictionary, assuming she’d never need it again, but after launching a successful design career and starting a family, she realized something was missing in her life. That “thing” was the connection she had made with Italy and the friends who live there. Living in Florence was indeed a life-changing event. Wanting to reconnect with Italy, she decided to start learning the language again from scratch. As if indeed possessed by an Italian muse, she bought a new Italian dictionary and began her journey to fluency—a path that has led her back to Italy many times and enriched her life in countless ways. Now, many dictionaries and grammar books later, she dedicates her time to promoting Italian language studies, further travels in Italy, and sharing her stories and insights about Italy with others. When Melissa is not traveling in Italy, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Melissa designed and illustrated the cover art for Waking Isabella and Dreaming Sophia. She also curates the Dreaming Sophia blog and Pinterest site: The Art of Loving Italy. Please visit the Pinterest page for pictures of Arezzo, the Giostra del Saracino, and all the places we go in Italy in both books. Visit MelissaMuldoon.com for more information about immersion trips to learn the language with Melissa in Italy, as well as the Studentessa Matta blog for practice and tips to learn the Italian language.

Connect with Melissa:Website ~ Twitter ~  Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ Youtube