Book Review - Loveless by Alice Oseman + Giveaway

 

Georgia is struggling to understand why she is different from her friends. She doesn't crush on anyone and nor does she have any interest in kissing and making out like her friends do. She feels trapped in the current narrative that dating and sex means that you are in love. 

When she enters college she discovers the A range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and she starts to understand more about herself. She decides to disrupt the narrative and choose her own path instead of the one decided at birth. As Georgia learns to discover herself, she makes mistakes along the way but, it opens her up to new people and experiences.

I thought this would be a funny and interesting book to read. I did find Georgia to be relatable but, maybe because I been out of college for a few years but, I found the story a bit boring. I found that it just moved slowly along. While I didn't particularly care for the story, I did like that it was different from other romantic novels and had a different point of views. I feel that young readers/adults on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum or have an interest in it, will enjoy this book more than I did.

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

 

About The Book:

Title: LOVELESS

Author: Alice Oseman

Pub. Date: March 1, 2022

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 432

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

For fans of Love, Simon and I Wish You All the Best, a funny, honest, messy, completely relatable story of a girl who realizes that love can be found in many ways that don't involve sex or romance.

From the marvelous author of Heartstopper comes an exceptional YA novel about discovering that it's okay if you don't have sexual or romantic feelings for anyone . . . since there are plenty of other ways to find love and connection.

This is the funny, honest, messy, completely relatable story of Georgia, who doesn't understand why she can't crush and kiss and make out like her friends do. She's surrounded by the narrative that dating + sex = love. It's not until she gets to college that she discovers the A range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum -- coming to understand herself as asexual/aromantic. Disrupting the narrative that she's been told since birth isn't easy -- there are many mistakes along the way to inviting people into a newly found articulation of an always-known part of your identity. But Georgia's determined to get her life right, with the help of (and despite the major drama of) her friends. 

 

About Alice Oseman:

Alice Oseman was born in 1994 in Kent, England. She graduated from Durham University and is the author of YA contemporaries Solitaire, Radio Silence, and I Was Born for This. Visit Alice online at aliceoseman.com or on Twitter @AliceOseman.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of LOVELESS, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

2/28/2022	Nonbinary Knight Reads	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post
2/28/2022	BookHounds YA	Excerpt
2/28/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
3/1/2022	@badlandsbooks_	Review
3/1/2022	Nerdophiles	Review
3/1/2022	@booksaremagictoo	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post
3/1/2022	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt
3/2/2022	Dana's Book Garden	Review
3/2/2022	Reading Wordsmith	Review/IG Post
3/2/2022	@thebookishfoxwitch	Review
3/3/2022	popthebutterfly	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post
3/3/2022	Emelie's Books	Review
3/3/2022	patrickfromperks	TikTok Review or Spotlight
3/4/2022	@emmreadsbooks	Review/IG Post
3/4/2022	onemused	Review/IG Post
3/4/2022	A Bookish Dream	Review/IG Post

Week Two:

3/7/2022	Midnightbooklover	Review
3/7/2022	Eli to the nth	Review
3/7/2022	The Bookwyrm's Den	Review
3/8/2022	YABooksCentral	Excerpt
3/8/2022	Utopia State of Mind	Review/IG Post
3/8/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
3/9/2022	Not In Jersey	Review/IG Post
3/9/2022	More Books Please blog	Review/IG Post
3/9/2022	@drewsim12	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post
3/10/2022	Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers	Review/IG Post
3/10/2022	Celia's Reads-blog	Review/IG Post
3/10/2022	@coffeesipsandreads	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post
3/11/2022	Zainey Laney in all 3	Review/IG Post/TikTok Post
3/11/2022	My Fictional Oasis	Review

Book Review - Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti

 

Twenty years ago near the Oregon coast, Myra Barkley's daughter has disappeared from the rocky beach near the family inn. For the past twenty years Myra has stayed at the front desk of the inn waiting for her child to come home. One rainy day, Myra's wish comes true. Someone who looks like her daughter, Charlotte,  walks through the door and with a child of her own.

Elizabeth Lark is on the run with her son, Theo, from an abusive husband. She return to her hometown against her better judgment to hide from him. She decides to stop at the Barkley Inn to figure out the next steps. Myra insists that Elizabeth is her long lost child and offers Elizabeth a safety net she desperately needs for her son. Elizabeth knows that she isn't Myra's daughter and she finds herself intertwines with the family.

Elizabeth's return sparks a renewed interest in her disappearance. The new spreads of her return but, someone knows that Charlotte  didn't disappear on her own. Someone is desperate to keep what happened twenty years ago a secret.

I thought this book was an okay read. I had a hard time liking some of the characters and couldn't understand them. For example, Myra was upset that  Charlotte disappeared and kept hoping she would return. I felt like she was devoted to this daughter but, all her other kids it was like she didn't really "care" for.  There was two separate times when her daughters needed her but, she chose her husband but, then she seems to be fighting with him all the time. I found some of the dialogue to be unrealistic and choppy at times. The book was slow in the beginning and the middle and then towards the end everything just happened so fast that it felt unrealistic. The twist at the end was a bit predictable and expected.

Book Review - Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke

 The book is a collection of young adult authors who write thrilling and terrifying thrillers. Each of the author draw inspiration from different sources to create a new and unsettling story. I found most of the short stories to be an interesting to read. Three stories I didn't care for and stopped reading before I finished. However, I did enjoy reading most of the stories and trying to find out what the inspiration was for each short story. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes scary short stories.

 

Book Review - Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Daisy is a young girl coming of age while living in L.A. in the late sixties. She is sneaking into clubs, doing drugs, and sleeping with rock stars. She finds the sex and drugs to be thrilling but, she really wants to sing. When Daisy turns twenty, she gets noticed for her voice along with her untamed beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Around the same time Daisy is getting her big break, a band led by Billy Dunne called The Six, has also started becoming popular. While on their first tour, Billy's girlfriend, Camila, finds out she is pregnant and Billy is unable to deal with the pressures of fatherhood and fame. Billy finds himself struggling and goes off on the deep end.

When Daisy and Billy crosses paths everyone can see that there is charged energy between the two of them. Their producer realizes that together they will achieve success that will help them climb the charts and become rock legends.

I heard many good things about  this novel and I am familiar with the author. I thought the book was an okay read. While the narration told as a documentary style was interesting, it got boring after awhile. I felt like there was barely any story and sometimes, there was too many people to keep track of. I had a hard time relating or caring for any of the characters. I did like the twist at the end but, I am not sure I would read another book if it was done this way again.

Book Spotlight - Midnight Horizon: Star Wars: The High Republic by Daniel José Older, Todd Haberkorn + Giveaway

About The Book:

Title: STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC: MIDNIGHT HORIZON

Author: Daniel José Older

Pub. Date: February 1, 2022

Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm Press

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 496

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

Centuries before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in the era of the glorious High Republic, the Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy!

After a series of staggering losses, the Republic seems to finally have the villainous Nihil marauders on the run, and it looks like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Until word comes of a suspected Nihil attack on the industrial cosmopolitan world of Corellia, right in the Galactic Core.

Sent to investigate are Jedi Masters Cohmac Vitus and Kantam Sy, along with Padawans Reath Silas and Ram Jomaram, all fighting their own private battles after months of unrelenting danger. On Corellia, Reath and Ram encounter a brazen young security specialist named Crash, whose friend was one of the victims of the Nihil attack, and they team up with her to infiltrate Corellia’s elite while the Masters pursue more diplomatic avenues. But going undercover with Crash is more dangerous than anyone expected, even as Ram pulls in his friend Zeen to help with an elaborate ruse involving a galactic pop star.

But what they uncover on Corellia turns out to be just one part of a greater plan, one that could lead the Jedi to their most stunning defeat yet….

The New York Times best-selling series continues.... For light and life!

 

About Daniel José Older:

Daniel José Older, a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic, is the New York Times best-selling author of the upcoming Young Adult fantasy novel Ballad & Dagger (book 1 of the Outlaw Saints series), the sci-fi adventure Flood City, the monthly comic series The High Republic Adventures. His other books include the historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, The Book of Lost Saints, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, Star Wars: Last Shot, and the Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher, including Shadowshaper, which was named one of the best fantasy books of all time by TIME magazine and one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. He won the International Latino Book Award and has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, The World Fantasy Award, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, and the Mythopoeic Award. He co-wrote the upcoming graphic novel Death’s Day. You can find more info and read about his decade long career as an NYC paramedic at http://danieljoseolder.net/

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of STAR WARS THE HIGH REPUBLIC: MIDNIGHT HORIZON, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

2/1/2022	Mythical Books	Excerpt/IG Post
2/2/2022	Daily Waffle	Excerpt
2/3/2022	Living in a Bookworld	Excerpt
2/4/2022	Sadie's Spotlight	Excerpt/IG Post
2/5/2022	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt

Week Two:

2/6/2022	YABooksCentral	Excerpt
2/7/2022	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt
2/8/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
2/9/2022	Lifestyle of Me	Review
2/10/2022	@lexijava	Review/IG Post
2/11/2022	Wishful Endings	Review/IG Post
2/12/2022	Kait Plus Books	Review/IG Post

Week Three:

2/13/2022	Nerdophiles	Review
2/14/2022	Eli to the nth	Review/IG Post
2/15/2022	The Desert Bibliophile	Review/IG Post
2/16/2022	Dr Roha Tahir	Review/IG Post
2/17/2022	A Bookish Dream	Review/IG Post
2/18/2022	@coffeesipsandreads	Review/IG Post
2/19/2022	BookHounds YA	Review

Week Four:

2/20/2022	Karen Dee's Book Reviews	IG Spotlight
2/21/2022	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt
2/22/2022	@jypsylynn	Review/IG Post
2/23/2022	@thebookishfoxwitch	Review/IG Post
2/24/2022	The Momma Spot	Review/IG Post
2/25/2022	Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog	Review/IG Post
2/26/2022	@drewsim12	Review/IG Post

Week Five:

2/27/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
2/28/2022	onemused	IG Spotlight

Book Review - Finding Tessa by Jaime Lynn Hendricks

 

To outsiders, Jace and Tessa appear to be a happily married young couple who are deeply in love with each and have nothing to hide. However, looks can be deceiving especially when Tessa goes missing.

Jace Montgomery returns home late one evening from entertaining clients, when he discovers his wife Tessa is missing. The back door has broken glass with clumps of her hair and blood. The cops believe Jace is guilty after he exploded on a reporter during a press conference. Jace claims he is innocent even as the evidence against him is mounting. A coworker he is accused of having an affair with goes missing and then an illegal gun turns up in his home during a search conducted by the police. He fears that with all the signs pointing to him that the police will stop searching for other leads to Tessa.

Tessa finally feels like she has left behind all the years of abuse and that she can finally be safe. She even set up a trap for her husband to take the fall for her disappearance. She enlisted someone close to him to help execute her plan and put him behind bars. She is desperate to start over and avoid men who abuse and hurt her. However, while she is trying to start over, she realizes that she can't run for her past and someone is after her.

The novel started out to be an interesting read. As readers, we were constantly left guessing who is behind Tessa's disappearance or is this something she is plotting. Towards the middle of the book, I felt like the story was dragging and it felt like that the plot was a bit unbelievable especially with the amount of red herrings that appeared. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters and didn't care for any of them. It was an okay read but, I felt like books like this are overdone and can be boring if not done correctly.

Book Review - A Rogue to Remember by Emily Sullivan

 

After enduring five seasons, Lottie Carlisle is tired of the polite London society. She wants more adventure in life and wants her uncle Alfred to stop meddling in her life. Lottie is devastated when he announces that if she doesn't accept a proposal by the end of the next season, he will choose a husband for her. She decides to create a shocking scandal that will make sure no suitor wants her and she will instead spend her life as a spinster in the country.

Five years ago, Alec Gresham left Lottie without saying a word. When the two crosses path again, Alec isn't surprised that Lottie is annoyed at him. He brings news that her uncle is dying and that she will need to return home. As the pair make the journey back to London, it becomes obvious that the pair still have feelings for each other.

This was the second book I read from the author and I thought the second book in the series was a better read. I found Lottie to be annoying and Alec to be boring. Lottie wants to be treated as an adult but constantly acts like a child by stomping her feet and pouting. She knows that Alec is working as an undercover spy but, she puts them in danger because she feels jealous and wants his attention on her. I  was more than 75% done with the book before I lost interest in the novel. The story was so slow and boring with too many details that didn't add to the story. Each novel can be read as standalone so, I would recommend skipping this one and reading the second book in the series instead. 

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

Book Spotlight - Bluebird At My Window by H. Noah + Giveaway

About The Book:

Title: BLUEBIRD AT MY WINDOW

Author: H. Noah

Pub. Date: February 15, 2022

Publisher: H. Noah

Formats: Papreback, eBook

Pages: 394

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, TBD, Bookshop.org

When faced with trauma, how would you react?

Would you survive, succumb, or lose yourself to your own meaning of justice?

Ann was only seventeen when she died. She tried to be a dutiful daughter, to pray, to repent. But it wasn’t enough. Her mother, Diane, didn’t mean to kill her but when she found Ann consorting with devils, she had no choice. She believed the angels—that in the end, the water would save them both.

But every choice holds weight.

One death, and Arthur is thrown back into the work he wanted to leave. One death, and Richard must face the reality of his choices. One death, and Maddie and Marie are confronted with the hardest parts of love.

If only good intentions were enough to keep them from the carnage of their own decisions . . .

A dark contemporary fiction drenched in blood, this debut novel from H. Noah has an intricate true crime feeling with psychological depth.


Content Warning

The following book centers around processing trauma. Please be aware that it will touch upon such topics as violence, sexual assault (not overly descriptive), racism, microaggressions, misogyny, incest, and homophobia. This book also focuses on mental health and will cover depression, anxiety, PTSD, suicidal ideation, hearing voices, religious fixations, delusions, self-harm, and drug abuse.

This book is dark due to the topics covered. This is not a horror or thriller meant to scare you. Please be kind to yourself and put the book back if you are not in a good place to read any of the things mentioned above.

About H. Noah:

They’ve been a massage therapist, social worker, poet, teacher, and more. Picking up a B.A. in Criminology and an M.S. in I-O Psychology. They’ve also lived in Alaska, Maine and many places in-between. They are currently still trying to find a forever place as they travel the US.

 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

2/7/2022	Rockstar Book Tours	Kickoff Post
2/7/2022	@jaimerockstarbooktours	IG Post
2/8/2022	Mythical Books	Guest Post/IG Post
2/8/2022	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt
2/9/2022	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
2/9/2022	BookHounds YA	Guest Post
2/10/2022	Daily Waffle	Excerpt/IG Post
2/10/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
2/11/2022	The Girl Who Reads	Review
2/11/2022	Jazzy Book Reviews	Review

Week Two:

2/14/2022	Take A Look At My Bookshelf	Review
2/14/2022	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Review
2/15/2022	Adrienne Woods	Excerpt /IG Post
2/15/2022	Karen Dee's Book Reviews	IG Spotlight
2/16/2022	Sadie's Spotlight	Excerpt/IG Post
2/16/2022	@coffeesipsandreads	Review
2/17/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
2/17/2022	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt
2/18/2022	Momfluenster	Review
2/18/2022	Dr Roha Tahir	Spotlight