Read in July

Book Review: The Magic of Found Objects

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“Just take your place in the world with as much grace and gratitude as you can muster and try to see the best in us.”

Conceived at Woodstock in a serendipitous liaison between a free-spirited hippie and farmer’s son, Phronsie Linnelle was born with magical wonder flicking in her DNA and rationally knit into her bones. Torn between the two for most of her life and now that she’s been betrayed by both love and the the mother she once idolized, her rational is winning out. So when her childhood best friend proposes that they give up on romance and marry each other, she couldn’t think of a better idea. What’s better than spending the rest of your life with your best friend who you know won’t hurt you? But as fate has it, right when she’s about to embark on this journey, someone from her past makes a very convincing argument for revisiting romance, Phronsie must look at her own heart to find that the answers that have been there all along.

What a delightful and fun read from beginning to end! I was so invested in the story and had to force myself to sleep or I would’ve stayed up way too late to read more. This book was so wild and entertaining and that’s really what I loved the most because just when I thought I knew what was happening, it would go in the different direction. I really loved how well written the characters were even the secondary characters were fleshed out and felt so human. They were all so deeply flawed and complicated which is so nice to have in books. Phronsie was such a likable protagonist and I really felt for her while she was trying to sort out the events that transpired in her life and I really liked her growth. The plot and how everything tied up nicely in the end was so well done, I really enjoyed this one and I’m going to check out more of Dawson’s work. Highly recommend this!!

Book Review: FLOAT PLAN

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“I’m starting to understand that some people come into your life when you need them, and go when it’s time.”

Float Plan follows Anna as she navigates through the loss of her fiance to suicide, she is grief stricken at the loss and unable to integrate back into her normal routine. Her life kicks back up when she gets a reminder about a trip that the two were supposed to take together but now she is alone and on a impulse she decides to go on the trip alone. But, it turns out to be too overwhelming for her and she realizes she needs an extra hand, someone who is good with sailing and she finds that Keane, a professional sailor to help. Much like Anna, his life has been thrown into a tailspin and he is trying to make his way through and soon a budding friendship starts to form with the two realizing that their might be more than friendship in their future.

This was such a great book! I binged it in one day as I was glued to my book to find out what was going to happen next and I found Anna so relatable and easy to like. I really felt for her while she was working through her own grief and how she went about it felt very real. Losing a loved one is never easy to deal especially with suicide as that brings out a lot of guilt and shame with thinking about what you could’ve done to help that person. It’s so difficult to process especially with by yourself and i thought the way the author developed the friendship and eventually romance between Anna and Keane was really well done, it didn’t feel so forced especially with the other issues that both characters are dealing with. Overall, I really enjoyed the book so defintely check it out if it sounds like something you’d enjoy!

BOOK Review: ACCIDENTALLY Engaged

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“Reena’s heart was safe. But she felt fine about their meddling. Truly. Friends who cared enough to meddle were hardly something to complain about.”

For Reena Manji, her life could be better but for right now she’s not complaining for while she’s not thrilled about her love life, she doesn’t really want to be involved in a relationship right now. If only her family got that memo and didn’t insert themselves into every aspect of her life. Reena is trying to do the best she can and drown out the noise but when her father moves his newest employee, Nadim across the hall from her with hopes that he’ll be the one, she’s going to get much more than she bargained for.

I absolutely loved this story, it was so pure and wholesome with heart warming and angst moments that made me glued to my book for more. Reena was such a relatable protagonist, I really felt for her and enjoyed seeing her character growth throughout the book and found her chemistry with Nadim very real and I loved both of them on their own and together. They were both very interesting and flawed and the development of the relationship didn’t happen so quickly or felt forced and that’s always good cause that can really be a downer. I did enjoy Reena’s relationship with her family and even if they did meddle in her love life, they truly cared for her and just wanted her to be happy. They were very close and there were some really great heartwarming moments and loved how Heron developed the secondary characters and made them just as important as the main characters. Highly recommend this one!

Book review

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“Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense. It doesn’t even stop when the person you love dies. It does what it wants.”

Part Of Your World follows Alexis and Daniel, two people who couldn’t be more different on a journey of love, hope, and finding true happiness within yourself and with others. Working as a ER doctor, Alexis is perfectly content with how her life is now even though her ultra rich parents want her to carry on the family legacy of being world renowned surgeons and while she doesn’t want to disappoint them, she knows that it will be inevitable. But, her life changes in ways that she couldn’t have expected when she meets Daniel Grant and the more time she spends with him, the more she is learning to let go and enjoy being present in the now. But, she knows the longer this goes on the more she will have to make a very important decision? True happiness or sacrificing her new found love for what her family expects from her.

What a beautifully written story about hope, love, and finding true happiness in yourself and others. I really enjoyed this book even if it did hit home at times because of Alexis’s trauma and relationship with her parents which I despised the more I read about them. I think what I found myself feeling for Alexis so much is because of how her parents treated her and it was really great to see her grow into a more confident, assertive, and self-assured young woman by the end. The relationship she has with her parents was difficult to get through because it reminded of my own issues with my mom. I really felt for her and I was glad that she had Daniel, I found their romance very real and steamy. The book flowed really well together with heavy and light moments, it felt very relatable to many issues that people are facing right now. In the end, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.

July Wrap Up

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I can’t believe July is over!! It flew by so quick and I enjoyed all the books for this month, they were well worth the read and I can’t wait to share them all with you! So let’s get started!

Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimde
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Am I Normal Yet? By Holly Bourne
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 5/5

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
Genre: LGBT, YA, Fantasy
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
Genre: LGBT, Sci-Fi, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Don’t Call The Wolf by Aleksandra Ross
Genre: Fantasy, Retellings, Fiction
Review: Here

Rating: 3.5/5

Fly With The Arrow by Sarah K.L. Wilson
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Review: Here

Rating: 3/5

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Young Adult
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Review: Here

Rating: 3/5

Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore
Genre: Fiction, Romance, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Neon Gods by Katee Robert
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Night Spinner by Addie Thorley
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
Genre: Romance, LGBT, Young Adult
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai
Genre: Graphic Novels, Magna
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

Sing Me Forgotten by Jessica S. Olson
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, YA
Review: Here

Rating: 3.5/5

Sisters Of The Snake by Sasha & Sarena Nauna
Genre: Fantasy, Retellings, Romance
Review: Here

Rating: 3.5/5

The Sea Is Salt And So Am I by Cassandra Hartt
Genre: Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult
Review: Here

Rating: 3/5

The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Genre: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy
Review: Here

Rating: 3.5/5

This Poison Heart by Kaylnn Bayron
Genre: Fantasy, LGBT, Young Adult
Review: Here

Rating:3/5

Witchshadow by Susan Dennard
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult
Review: Here

Rating: 4/5

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

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Rating: 4/5

The Darkness Outside Us tells the story of Ambrose and Kodiak, two sworn enemies having to stick their dislike and animosity towards each other aside if they want to survive. Ambrose, was sent into space to find answers of what happened to his sister, Minerva was the first human sent to colonize Saturn’s moon. The two men must put their differences aside and work together to find answers while also uncovering dark secrets behind their mission.

Wow! What a delightful, entertaining, and interesting book! There is so much that I loved about it and I didn’t even intend on reading it and I’m glad that I picked it up. The two leads, Ambrose and Kodiak stole my heart with their banter and I love their contrasting personalities and felt like they were very developed and easy to empathize with. Kodiak was closed off while Ambrose was open and warm and the more the two men are around each other, the closer they become. The romance was well done, I didn’t feel like it was rushed or lacking any development and it felt right. The story and the pacing was incredibly beautifully written and I felt invested to the end. It was a really entertaining and heartfelt story about two people realizing that they aren’t that different than they thought.

The book is actually marketed wrong in my opinion. It’s more adult sci-fi than young adult so a lot of people are missing out on this fantastic book! Even if you don’t like sci-fi, I feel like you would still enjoy the book because of the other aspects of it. Sci-Fi is my go to genre but it’s becoming more of a genre that I read more and more.

The Sea Is Salt and So Am I by Cassandra Hartt

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Rating: 3/5

“When all you know is sea and the sky, everything on land is something to look at.”

The town of West Finch is one hurricane away from falling into the sea. Determined to save her home town, Harlow Prout wants to devise a plan but there are obstacles in the way. One of those obstacles is Harlow herself as she has a habit of getting in her own way, then there is her best friend Ellis McQueen who instead of fixing his problems, runs from them and lastly, his twin brother Tommy who has hit a new low and not in the fixing mood to do anything. But, when Tommy ends up surviving a swim that he intended not to survive, it sets a change in motion that will test loyalties, sparks new romance, and uncovers painful secrets.

Well, I really wanted to like this book but sadly it fell very short and I almost didn’t finish it. First, I love when authors write about mental health and when it’s done well you can really tell and I didn’t find that in this book. Secondly, the characters weren’t developed or fleshed out enough so it was hard to relate to them even with the mental health aspect. Criticism aside, how Hartt captured the atmosphere was beautifully done and that is a definite plus of the book but considering the other stuff I mentioned, I couldn’t really invest in the book too much which was sad. It always stinks when you go into a book thinking you’ll love it and then that ends up not happening.

Don’t Call The Wolf By Aleksandra Ross

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Rating: 3.5/5

“Perhaps it is easier to believe some are born evil, rather than admit that predilection exists equally in every one of us.”

Don’t Call The Wolf tells the story of Ren, a young queen who is losing her battle fighting a hoard of monsters that descended into the forest. She feels that nothing will save them until she meets Lukasz, the last survivor of the regiment of dragon slayers and the two strike a deal. If she helps him find his brother who dissapeared in her forest, he will slay the dragon. But, we don’t always keep our promises now do we?

A lush and entertaining retelling of eastern-european myths that intertwines beautifully written dialogue, world-building, and characters with retelling that fans of Leigh Bardugo and Katherine Arden will love. I would’ve never picked up this book if I hadn’t struggled to find an underrated book for a readathon that I was in. I couldn’t pick one that I felt was underrated, I had to find one that didn’t have a lot of reviews and came upon this and it was an entertaining read with absolutely gorgeous writing and a retelling that captivated me from the beginning. The only thing I didn’t like was the ending as I felt like it was too rushed and didn’t make much sense so that was disappointing.

I would recommend this story to anyone who loves dark fantasy, fairy tales, and retellings as it was fun and entertaining so if you’re looking something like this then check it out!