Simone and Her Books

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  • Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren // Book Review

    Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren // Book Review

    I’ve been a fan of Christina Lauren ever since I read Love and Other Words last year. However, it feels like ever since that book came out I’ve been expecting something similar from them.  While I’ve loved their romantic comedies they put out every few months, I keep hoping the next one I’ll read from them will blow me away like Love and Other Words did. After reading Twice in a Blue Moon, I feel like I found something of substance with a ton of potential, but a few flaws I couldn’t overlook.

    Twice in a Blue Moon follows Tate Butler aka Tate Jones aka the daughter of the famous movie actor, Ian Butler. While she’s lived away from the spotlight for ten years, she and her family don’t take any risks with being noticed by the paparazzi or someone else. But Tate is 18 now and she wants to explore the world, so she and her grandma set off to London on a two-week vacation filled with sightseeing and exploration. It’s Tate’s first time out of the country and she couldn’t be more excited especially after meeting Sam and his step-grandad, Luther.

    While on their trip in London, Sam and Tate’s relationship evolves from a friendship to more as the couple travels across London together, spending their evenings staring up at the London sky, and falling asleep next to each other. Tate is so comfortable with Sam that she tells him the one secret she’s not supposed to tell anyone, who she really is. And while Sam appreciated Tate for telling him this huge secret, he doesn’t view her any different than the girl he originally met. That is, until one day when Sam and Luther inexplicably leave London early and the news broke out; Tate Butler’s been spotted in London.

    From that point on, Tate’s life has soared to great professional heights. Her unexpected run in with the press has launched her acting career and 14 years later, she’s about to start filming what could possibly be the role that will win her an Oscar alongside her father who’s still grasping for late career fame. While she never saw Sam again, she hasn’t forgotten him or what he did to their family. But it isn’t until Tate sees Sam on set while filming that she realizes that Sam wrote the screenplay. Now she needs to manage the role of a lifetime, her fame-hungry dad, and her ex-first love who betrayed her in the worst way.

    For what it’s worth, I thought the story was cute. I love books that go deeply into a world I know nothing about like being an actress and filming a movie. I loved the touches that made the story feel real including Tate’s best friend being the make up artist on set. However, there were a lot of flaws in this story that I couldn’t overlook that muddies it for me.

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    First off, I didn’t believe in Sam and Tate’s relationship. While Sam’s explanation for telling the press about Tate seems to be noble, I wouldn’t be able to get over the major trust violation. Forgive, but not forget is kind of my motto so I didn’t see how Sam and Tate were able to rekindle their relationship from when they were younger. It would take time and in this book, it was only a few short weeks before Tate and Sam were back together. Suspending belief here works for a little bit, but their insta-love and quick turnaround made it feel a little less real and a little more satirical.

    The first half of this book takes place in London while the second half is the present day. While I get why Christina Lauren needed the space to give the reader backstory, I thought the London portion was way too long. Because it was nearly half the book, I thought the switch to present day made the book a little disjointed. The tones were different too. The first half felt a little more serious and then the second half felt like the rom-coms I’m used to reading from Christina Lauren. If the first half was a little shorter (or at least not half the book), then there might have been room for the ending which felt rushed.

    I also felt like Ian’s presence in the book was close to nothing, but then he’s responsible for a big reveal all the way at the end. That kind of irked me, but also made sense for his character. I just wish he was a bigger annoying presence to Tate throughout the story.

    But overall, it was a cute and quick read. Christina Lauren still know how to write a great story and while it isn’t the next Love and Other Words, I still stand hopeful that the next one will be.

    I received a copy of this book from Gallery Books for free in exchange for an honest review. My opinions have not been influenced by the publisher or the author.

  • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir // Book Review

    Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir // Book Review

    If you’re a fan of Nevernight and experiencing a giant hole after finishing Darkdawn, then you’ll need to pick this up and fill that gap with some more dark fantasy.

    The entire story read like you’re watching an anime. It was like Soul Eater plus Tokyo Ghoul and Assassination Classroom and any other horror/humor anime there’s out there. I absolutely ate it up with a giant freaking spoon! I love me some dark humor and some dark fantasy and this delivers both.

    Gideon the Ninth follows Gideon Nav, a young orphan who’s lived in the Ninth House for her entire life and she’s had enough. After hundreds of attempted escapes, Gideon thought she was finally close to leaving the wretched planet and enlisting as a solider to the bigger planetary system. However, Harrow, a young necromancer and Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House has other plans for her. Instead of letting Gideon go, she decides to enlist her as a cavalier, basically the muscle for each necromancer house. Once Gideon is assigned cavalier primary, she and Harrow travel to the First House where they’ll meet representatives of the other houses and start their training to become Lyctors; the most powerful necromancers in the world. Of course, the honor isn’t just handed to them. There are tricks and twists within the First House all leading to this ultimate power.

    Ok, so that basically gives you some insight into how the book starts, but I won’t be going into the story’s details because it might be too spoiler-y.

    Gideon the Ninth was an 800-page novel cleverly disguised as a 400-page novel. This book is DENSE filled with heavy character development and massive action sequences. The story starts off sprinting and that’s where I found it to be the most confusing and eventually became a running theme to this novel for me.

    Tamsyn Muir kept her cards very close to the chest being careful not to reveal too many secrets and surprises until the end. While I did scratched my head for a lot of the book, I also spent a good deal wanting to know more. I love books like this because there’s so much missing that you know will eventually show up so you keep reading and the world reveals itself to you. The downside to this method is that you might get some impatient readers who can’t wait until page 300 to get to the point.

    But as the story unfolds and more info is revealed, you start to see the twisted and demented world Tamsyn Muir invented here. What Tamsyn Muir packs into this book is enough for probably the entire series, but we’re only dealing with the first book!

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    Aside from issues with the writing style, the rest of the story is fantastic. I think what really sells this book is how many surprises it can give you and the characters themselves. Gideon is probably my favorite character ever just because she was so direct. She didn’t know something, she asked. She got the gist of the situation, she started fighting. She had the weirdest things to say and to be honest, it felt like I was hearing myself speak. Harrow was also a great character and her dynamic relationship with Gideon felt like two sisters who’ve been fighting each other forever. It felt natural and I loved it.

    Overall, a brilliant story with some amazing characters and a very strong start to a new bold series. This isn’t a scary book. There are horrors here, but nothing that will creep up on you and freak you out. But it is a dark fantasy with a lot of bones and blood and sinewy, so please be cautious if you’re not into that. If you like fantasy stories that are wildly imaginative and action sequences where the fighters are ruthless, then you’ll love this story. I can’t wait to see the second installment!

  • Fireborne by Rosaria Munda // Book Review

    Fireborne by Rosaria Munda // Book Review

    Dragons. Back when I was a kid, dragons were everywhere and it fatigued me. I didn’t get the obsession with dragons back then. Now, with Daenerys Targaryen mothering dragons in Game of Thrones, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, and Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, I can feel the flutter of dragon wings across the pages of my books.

    Fireborne definitely brings a unique perspective to the dragon story creating a world who’s class system is determined by your closeness to them. Let’s start with the setting.

    This is a world that has had a long lineage of people who tamed dragons. From there, they created a monarchy where those aligned with the dragons were the supreme rulers. The rest of the caste system obviously doesn’t benefit from what the dragon people have, so they all struggled and suffered. That is, until the revolution happened. The revolution, led by Atreus, helped eradicate the old caste system, remove the monarchy, and created a process where you can test for your class position. Of course, the classes still existed but depending on your skills and intelligence, you can move on up.

    This system also created Guardians, average people who can test to protect Callipoli’s citizens. The power to keep a dragon is moved from the ruling class to basically, it’s police force. And that is where we find our main characters, Lee and Annie, as they test to see if they can be the best guardian, The First Protector; who will oversee Callipoli when Atreus steps down as its leader.

    Lee is a young guardian with a mysterious past. While no one knows much about him other than the time he spent at an orphanage, he’s determined to be First Protector. Annie is also a young guardian who lost her family before the revolution. Growing up in the same orphanage with Lee, she was timid about everything including her training to become a guardian. But they helped each other overcome their hardships and made it to the semi-finals for First Protector. However, when Lee’s secret is revealed to the reader, you also realize that it’s a secret Annie’s been protecting too. Lee is a member of the royal family said to have died during the revolution along with the rest of his family.

    But after years of hiding in captivity, Lee is so close to First Protector; a position that would have been bestowed on him if his family wasn’t slain. He’s also doing his best to cover his true identity while Annie struggles to prove herself. When word arrives that survivors of the revolution are looking to get their revenge and return the throne to Callipoli, Lee and Annie start to work in opposing position. Will Lee return to his kingdom? Will Annie report him before he does? What will happen to their friendship and what will happen to the people of Callipoli?

    I really loved the way Rosaria Munda approached the dragon story. Instead of it being a bonding story between a dragon and its keeper, it’s more about the politics of this little country. It’s about how one form of government can mean freedom and peace, but really looks like the same as everything else. I really loved here that she started with a world who’s recovering from the monarchy. I love that you travel to the different cities within this world and see how it affects its citizens. I love how it changes a few things, but there are other things that never change at all.

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    Lee and Annie were also very interesting characters. While Lee felt a little bit stronger in this story than Annie did, you can see how Lee struggles between knowing who he is and assimilating to the world that exists. It’s obvious he wants to continue holding up the traditions of his family, but at the same time knows that his strength can benefit the current regime.

    Annie is completely the opposite, but I absolutely love her growth in just this first book alone. She starts off as this timid person who barely speaks up in class to turning into the guardian people need her to be. It was really nice to see this, but I really wish she had more involvement in the bigger story.

    I was also a huge fan of the dragons! The dragons here had their own personalities and that was really well shown. I love that there was a deeper connection between the dragon and the rider which made it kind of interesting to see how battles and duels played out. I hope that there’s more dragon stuff in the rest of the series.

    Something I wasn’t a huge fan of was the writing style. For all intents and purposes, it reads comfortably, but there were a few paragraphs that were a little overdone with the language or description. There were a few repetitive lines and info, but nothing too bad. It was something that made me pause and focus on the words than on the story, which isn’t my favorite feeling in the world.

    But aside from that, this was a super action-packed first novel. The world is really well built and the characters are already showing signs of their personality throughout the story. Really solid start to a great fantasy series!

    I received a copy of this book from Penguin Teen for free in exchange for an honest review. My opinions have not been influenced by the publisher or the author.

  • I Forgot About Witches: Eight Witch-y Books to Read this October

    I Forgot About Witches: Eight Witch-y Books to Read this October

    A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about my favorite vampire books from when I was a kid and growing up. And as much as everyone loved the post, the one thing people asked me about was witches. Why don’t I have any witch books? Why did you go into October with Halloween looming behind me without considering the witches? What, do you have a thing against witches?!

    No! In fact, I believe in witches more than vampires. I believe in the power of spirit that flows through everything and believe in the magic force of good over evil. So I decided to put my thinking cap on and get a list of some witch books I loved reading or would love to read in the future.

    Before I get into my list, I did want to mention some factors that went into it. First off, I tried to keep this list to books about witches. I didn’t want a witch in a book to be the dynamic of all witches. I always feel like there’s more power in knowing a witch’s life than seeing the good/evil things they’ve done. For example, The Wizard of Oz. On one end, you can definitely call this a witch book, but on the other, you can imagine that this is actually a book about a young girl trying to get back home from a magical place where witches exist. This is why books like Wicked exists. Sadly, Wicked didn’t make this list because 1) I hated that book 2) I make the rules.

    Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

    As a person who watches Practical Magic almost every year around this time, I couldn’t have a list of witch-y books without the Owens sisters. It’s the story of Sally and Gillian; two sisters who recently lost their parents and living with their crazy aunts in a small Massachusetts town. But their strange family lineage makes them responsible for all the bad things that happen around town and abused by its inhabitants. Sally and Gillian both hope for some release of the daily taunts of their neighbors and both receive it; one gets married and the other runs away.

    When I think of witches, this is the book and movie I think about. It’s not about casting big spells, but being one with nature and the divine creating beauty in the subtle ways. I also envy the house they live in because it’s gorgeous and all the witch-y aesthetics you can dream of.

    A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

    I was actually considering putting this book with my vampire list, but I didn’t because I felt like this was centered more around the witchery than that. A young scholar and witch named Diana Bishop comes across a strange little book among the library stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. While to her this was just some ordinary book that needs to be sent back to the stacks, it opens up a world for her filled with witches and demons and vampires. As she continues to research the happenings around this book, a very old and very attractive vampire named Matthew Clairmont finds her and helps her with both discovering the book and herself.

    Uprooted by Naomi Novik

    I will be honest and say that I tried to read this book, but failed to finish. While I love the prose and the story, I thought it was a little long. However, I also didn’t really appreciate the slow burn back when I read this book, so I’ll have to try again in the future. The story is about Agnieszka, a young girl who comes from a village not too far from a very powerful wizard named Dragon. Every few years, Dragon comes down from his tower to pick a girl from their village. While villagers don’t know who he’s going to pick, they all automatically assume it will be the pretty girl named Kasia. However, when it turns out to be Agnieszka, the village is shocked. Agnieszka isn’t prepared for life with Dragon, but willingly goes to his tower to serve him the way he sees fit. As she settles into her role, Dragon warms a little to her and offers to teach her his magic since she showed signs of having some magic within her.

    Rereading this synopsis, I do want to give this book another chance. It is breathless and lyrical and I do love Naomi Novik’s writing. I guess I’ll have to accept its slow burn and just enjoy the ride.

    Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

    I really love diverse fantasy and the reason why I love diverse fantasy is because authors add in their culture and world into the stories. And for Zoraida Cordova, she calls her witches “bruja” because of their Latin heritage. But the best part about bruja is that it’s not the same stake-burning ones we had in the Northeast of America. Brujeria combines many forms of witchcraft including santeria and voodoo. When you’re digging from this well of witchcraft for your novel, then you’re going to have something set apart from the other witch stories

    And the same goes for the actual story. The story follows Alex, a very powerful Bruja who doesn’t really care for magic. In fact, she hates it. On her Deathday celebration, she casts a spell to rid herself of her powers, but it backfires erasing any trace of her family. All she has is another brujo to help with returning her family, but she doesn’t trust him. I haven’t read this one yet, but it’s on my list of books because the story sounds so interesting and I love the YA tropes I can already see forming.

    Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

    First off, I’m going to hate on this movie tie-in photo for the book. I would have much rather used the original cover, but that doesn’t allow me to inundate you with affiliate links and help me make a little money.

    While most of the books on this list are about a witch or witches, this particular book is about a witch who makes a ton of predictions about the future and all of them are absolutely right. It’s also about an angel and a demon assigned to live alongside humans and causing havoc or creating miracles within their history. And it’s also about how this angel and demon messed up the end of the world. The witch in question has already predicted the mistakes Aziraphale and Crowley make as well as where the real ending of the world will take place. It’ll take Anathema, an occultist, and her lover, a witchfinder, to disseminate the prophecies and stop the apocalypse from making its way to a small town in England.

    Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

    While I wasn’t the biggest fan of this story, I did love the inclusion of witches, a witch-y family, and an outsider who doesn’t know how important he is to this coven. Lena is a new student who recently moved to the small town of Gatlin in South Carolina. While she looks like your average teenage girl, she has a dark secret; she will inherit the full strength of her magical powers on her 16th birthday and renounce the human world for her magical one.

    Ethan is a young teenager who’s lived in Gatlin his entire life, but recently he’s been having these dreams of a mysterious girl with long hair and the song “Sixteen Moons” playing on his MP3 player. When Ethan meets Lena, he finds her attractive but would settle for a friendship. But when they find a mysterious locket, it reveals to them the terrible past their ancestors had during the Civil War. As the secrets behind their family heritage reveal themselves, Lena gets closer to her 16th birthday where fate will decide whether she’s a good witch or a bad witch.

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

    I hope you weren’t perusing through this list waiting for me to get to this point. I honestly thought whether or not it made sense to include this book because it is a beloved and well known series about a young wizard who goes to a fancy wizarding school and learns that he’s a part of a bigger plot of an evil wizard who didn’t have enough love in his life. I’m just teasing.

     

    The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

    This one has been on my TBR since it came out, but sadly I haven’t had a chance to read it (of course). Tea is a young witch who just raised her brother from the dead. While that might sound like something a witch would normally do, it’s not. Necromancy means that Tea is a bone witch; a name that makes her people fear her and ostracize her from their community. But Tea isn’t alone and she finds solace with another older bone witch who takes Tea and her brother away to learn more about her powers. Of course there are dark elements coming her way and prepared to fight. Tea just needs to get herself as powerful as they to defeat whatever is coming.

    What other witch-y books could you recommend for the witchiest time of the year?

  • The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L Armentrout // Book Review

    The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L Armentrout // Book Review

    I have no idea how I’m going to write this review without giving too much away. But I’m dedicated to sharing with you all my thoughts so let’s see how this goes shall we?

    I picked up this book because of @thebiblioteque on Instagram is obsessed with Jennifer L Armentrout and I’m so thankful for bookstagrammers like her because she’s not wrong with her obsession and these books are amazing.

    The Burning Shadow follows Evie right after The Darkest Star ends. As she’s trying to get back to her normal life with the new knowledge she has about Luc, the Luxen, and herself, the news starts displaying strange incidents of people catching flu-like symptoms and dying not too long after that. The government suspects it to be a Luxen virus making people sick, scared, and hateful about the Luxen populations living on Earth. It doesn’t help that one of Evie’s friends, April, is leading the protests against Luxen at school.

    However, when Evie sees a sick classmate transform from teenager to bone-cracking, black-blood-dripping, and deadly-a-f, she reports the news to Luc who has no clue what’s going on either. Thus begins the second book where Evie, Luc, and the others find out the bigger nature of the fight against the Luxen and Origins.

    Ok, I think I was able to describe the book without getting into too many details. Jennifer L Armentrout sets off running with this book so it’s tough to describe it without giving too much away. Granted, there’s a lot of nuances to Evie and Luc’s story that are fleshed out in this book, but all of it would give away the plot and some of the twists and turns JLA loves to include in her books.

    This story gets bigger. The first book was about building the world and where everyone is in terms of the new Luxen. The conflict was more personal (I thought) relating back to Luc and Evie’s past versus being a bigger fight for Luxen rights. And The Burning Shadow is now getting into the bigger picture of what’s going on with these aliens. There’s a lot of new information being shared in this book including what happened to Evie that we didn’t discuss in the first book. The universe feels like it’s expanding and really showing you this world JLA is trying to create. I loved it!

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    I am also now a devotee to Jennifer L Armentrout. I want to check out her Lux series. I want to read her Dark Elements series. And I want to dive into the Harbinger series (I have the first book for that). She doesn’t waste time with slow burns, which I like because the story just keeps moving. But she also doesn’t skip on anything. There’s still character growth and story development and giant ass conflicts. I even love the fact that her characters don’t fall into many of the YA tropes we see in books nowadays. It’s marketed to young people, but it read adult. I had to keep reminding myself that these were still teenagers.

    The last thing I do want to touch on which I feel like won’t give away the story is that a lot of what she’s writing here resembles a lot of what’s going on today. In this book, we see what happened to the Luxen after the invasion and the pardon from the president. We see their conditions and how they live and it reminds me a lot of the conditions down at the American-Mexican border.

    I love that despite this being a story about aliens from another planet, it’s also a story about the aliens from other countries and the level of care America is giving them. All I could think about is how much this reminds me of the kids in cages and ICE and the deportations going on right now. It makes me happy that this isn’t just a frivolous YA novel and that there are real issues being discussed here. It brought a realness to the story and makes you care much more for the Luxen population within it.

    Overall, this is an amazing book and only the second in her series. After talking to my friends, I feel like there will be lots so I’ll be here waiting for the next part of the story.

    I received a copy of this book from Tor.com for free in exchange for an honest review. My opinions have not been influenced by the publisher or the author.

  • Pride and Prejudice and So Many Retellings

    Pride and Prejudice and So Many Retellings

    It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single book in possession of a huge fanbase must be in want of a whole lot of retellings.

    Recently, I finished reading Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev; a modern retelling of the classic Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and it got me thinking about one thing; sheesh there’s a lot of retellings of Pride and Prejudice out there.

    So I did a little bit of research to unmask a whole lot of P&P retellings spanning across cultures, across countries, and across timelines. There’s books, movies, TV shows, YouTube series, etc. Jane Austen is constantly quoted, constantly a figure of the literary world, and unafraid to shut down a marriage proposal with a paragraph long speech about how much the guy sucks. If Jane Austen was alive today, she would probably be as rich as the Queen. She probably will go all JK Rowling and build herself a Pemberley the likes that Mr. Darcy couldn’t even afford.

    And with each retelling, no one is going straight verbatim of the book. Each book I’ve read has themes and parts that relate back to the original story. Mainly they relate back to the Elizabeth/Darcy/Wickham weird love triangle that didn’t happen. The prejudice always plays a huge role and I’m pretty sure Jane Austen invented the enemies-to-lovers trope.

    But I did want to highlight a few that I came across in my readings and on my shelves. I haven’t read these all, but I plan on it in the future. Here’s some notable Pride and Prejudice retellings for fans who love the original.

    Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

    This particular story isn’t a retelling. In fact, it’s literally Pride and Prejudice with the added bonus of zombies. When this book first came out, everyone was screaming because it was their favorite story with some little additions. I think a lot of people loved this novel because it’s clever. Pride and Prejudice isn’t the most fun book to read with a lot of words I’m pretty sure the English language has forgotten, but the added bonus of zombies gives this book a little kick in the pants for the newer generations.

    Pride by Ibi Zoboi

    This is Afro-Latinx version of Pride and Prejudice when the young and rich Darcy family moves in across the street from Zuri in her rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood. The story is very close to Jane Austen’s story, but with diversity. I love diverse stories and I love when folks can take a story like Pride and Prejudice and relate it back to their own world. I’m also a sucker for stories that take place in Brooklyn since I lived there for eight years of my life.

    I haven’t read this one yet, but I totally plan to. The modernity and diversity in this book is definitely what I love and I can just imagine the level of prejudice Zuri has for the Darcys even before meeting them just knowing that they come from money. I can most definitely relate to that.

    Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

    While Bridget Jones may be obsessed with the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, I don’t know if she knows she’s living in her own version of the book. The story follows Bridget Jones, a woman who is on the verge of finding herself. It’s a new year and she’s vowed to keep track of her life; less cigarettes and booze, more gym time and making meaningful friendships. But what Bridget Jones also wants is a stable relationship with a steady man. Of course that’s when she meets two men, her Darcy and Wickham, both with the potential as her future boyfriend. But when she finds out what happened to her Wickham and Darcy in the past, she most definitely makes the decision on who will be the right man for her.

    I’ve read this one before and despite all the great reviews, it wasn’t a well-written story. I thought it was weird that her weight was also only 130 pounds and that’s not overweight, girl. That’s normal! But I absolutely loved this movie and think about how clever that they casted two actors that Bridget Jones literally mentions in the book (Colin Firth and Hugh Grant). It’s a laugh-out-loud story with a woman who’s scarily self-aware and just trying to live her life.

    Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

    The most ultra modern version of Pride and Prejudice. This story follows Liz, a mid-30s magazine writer, and her family (the whole Bennett gang is represented here). They meet Chip Bingley, a wealthy doctor and recent bachelor of a famous reality dating series similar to The Bachelor. While Chip has an immediate liking to Liz’s 40-year-old sister, Jane, it’s Fitzwilliam Darcy who swoops in to tell them otherwise. This series sticks much closer to the original Pride and Prejudice story with all its supporting cast and disasters playing out.

    However, after reading this one I was a little disappointed. I thought that the situations they were in were a little unrealistic and didn’t really buy the conflict. Perhaps it’s because the adaptation was too literal and not using the themes of the story to their full potential.

    Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

    It wasn’t until recently that I heard Ayesha at Last is an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. While I haven’t read this one yet, I do have a copy on my shelf and plan to make it a priority! A young Muslim-Canadian woman named Ayesha who’s focused on paying off her debts to her uncle as a poet and writer. She meets Khalid, a young conservative, and for all intents and purposes,  you assume this is Darcy. But when he turns out to be engaged to Ayesha’s younger cousin, she starts to look into Khalid and his family secrets.

    While I haven’t read this one yet, it’s high on my list of reads. It sounds like Darcy’s character is a mix of Wickham and Darcy, which makes for an interesting idea. I can see a lot of that enemies-to-lovers trope in this and I think the prejudice themes are also present here. An interesting take on the story that isn’t straight up Jane Austen.

    Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

    This is the book I recently read and really ended up enjoying. It isn’t the most prolific piece of writing and there’s a few issues I had with her style, but the story here about Trisha, her family, and DJ will definitely keep you reading. It’s not a direct retelling with a gender swap on Darcy and Elizabeth and changes to the characters, you still get the sense that Pride and Prejudice is the inspiration for this story. When Julia Wickham shows up, that’s when this story really turns into a Pride and Prejudice retelling.

    I loved the usage of themes here. It’s got the prejudice themes. It has some resemblances of the triangle between Wickham, Darcy, and Elizabeth, but the way it’s played out is much different than what Jane Austen did. I really liked this story because it took the elements of Pride and Prejudice and really spun it. It almost makes you question if there is a Pride and Prejudice theme within the story!

    Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

    Similarly to Eligible, this is an almost straight retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan where the Binat family has lost a lot of face within their community. Alys is a young English teacher sharing with her students the stories of Jane Austen she’s come to love, but when she and her family are invited to the biggest wedding of the season, the story launches right into the perfect retelling of Pride and Prejudice. There’s a Bingley, Jane, a Mrs Bennett trying to marry off her daughters, and a Darcy. There’s prejudice themes, class themes, and others. I haven’t read this one, but it’s also one I’m very interested in.

    What kinds of Pride and Prejudice retellings are you into? Is there any I missed on this list that you would recommend?

    *Please note that this isn’t an extensive list and I carefully chose my options here. There are plenty more retellings and you can actually find the list on Goodreads.

  • Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev // Book Review

    Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev // Book Review

    If you follow me on bookstagram, then you already know that I pre-judged this book as a meh story. I was so set to give it three stars and voice my strong opinions on the writing tearing Sonali Dev a new one in my review. How PREJUDICE of me because this book turned out to be one of my favorite stories and a nice way to get out of the 3-star book slump I’ve been feeling lately.

    Before I launch into this review, I do want to mention I read a few reviews where the readers dissect the medical stuff that takes place here. Not being a healthcare worker, I wasn’t aware of those issues, but I thought I would share a couple of reviews that highlight them and share how problematic they are:

    Also do want to mention that there are discussions of sexual assault, rape, and terminal illness.

    Pride and Prejudice and Other Flavors follows Trisha, a young neurosurgeon dedicating her life to helping blind people see again. She comes from a pretty prominent family of lawyers, doctors, and a brother who’s running for Governor for the state of California. However, her past keeps her from living her present to its fullest potential. DJ is a chef born to cook, but comes from humble beginnings. His sister, Emma, is diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her head wrapped around her optic nerves. Trisha will do everything in her power to save Emma’s life and hopefully, her eyesight.

    When Trisha finally meets DJ for the first time, at an event thrown by her parents, she’s already pegged him as just the hired help. DJ’s already pegged Trisha as a snotty rich girl who never had to work a day in her life. However, their prejudice against each other is the start of a relationship neither of them see coming until the very end.

    Let’s talk about some of the big ticket items that I loved about this book. First off, food descriptions. NOMS! I will always love a good food description and the usage of Indian food will keep you salivating while you read. Next, I loved the characters. I didn’t think I would fall in love with the characters as much as I did, but they became so complex that even the secondary characters were really well written and made you want to know more about them.

    As I mentioned before, the biggest flaw for me was the writing style. I’m not a fan of overwritten sentences and repetitive info. I understood quite clearly that DJ came from nothing despite the hundred times I was told that he came from nothing (OH BTW, HE CAME FROM NOTHING).

    I think having the omniscient voice in this book made reading it a little bit tougher because it almost felt like the narrator knew even more than it was telling. Like it knew the name of a police officer before he’s introduced and then you have to match up the fact that the person they’re referring to was the police officer. It almost felt like Sonali Dev was holding herself back, trying not to write a romance novel so it’s not until the end that Sonali Dev’s writing felt comfortable and maybe it’s because the ending felt like the ending of a romance novel.

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    But aside from its flaws, I told myself I wouldn’t DNF. I wanted to read this book for my book club discussion and so I told myself to keep reading. Just one more chapter and if this chapter sucked, then I’ll put it down. But as I kept reading, the book kept getting better and better. Suddenly, I couldn’t put down the book. I needed to know what happened to DJ and Trisha and their families. I think it was at the moment when Julia Wickham is finally introduced that made me stick around to see what happened to these characters.

    And I loved the characters so much. I even loved Julia Wickham! The reason why I loved them is because they were so complex. Sonali Dev can write a really great character even ones that you’ll hate for the rest of your life and what I loved about her characters is that they’re real.

    I feel like there’s a big cop out for authors to have these complex characters who’s problems all go away by the final page, but I loved that everyone here stayed true to who they were even after the book was done. Real people need a lot of time to change and Sonali Dev provides them that time.

    The last thing I want to talk about is the Pride and Prejudice retelling portion. When I was just starting this book, I guffawed at the fact this book didn’t read at all like Pride and Prejudice. There’s gender reversals (Trisha is Darcy and DJ is Elizabeth) and there was usage of the names, but I didn’t see how it was a retelling.

    However, when you think about the characters and how they judged each other prematurely, how they were so stubborn about changing their minds about each other, and how they slowly learned that the other person is actually a good person all brought me back to Elizabeth and Darcy and their dynamic. It’s not an exact retelling, but the pieces of Pride and Prejudice are so expertly interwoven that you would love this book if you’ve never read Pride and Prejudice before.

  • September 2019 Bookish Wrap Up

    September 2019 Bookish Wrap Up

    September always feels like a transition month. It’s the end of summer, but the beginning of fall. It’s the end of summer vacation and the start of the new school year. I always consider September as the beginning of a new year because of my old school days. It makes me excited and also makes me so impatient for fall.

    This September, I read nine books. While not many of the books I read really spoke to me or brought me to a new level of fandom, I did run a small experiment with my reading this month.

    Here’s basically what I did. I put together a TBR, but not your average monthly TBR where I designate 30 days to read X number of books. No, I just put some intention into my next few reads and read from the pile of books I created. It’s a TBR stack because they are the books I will be reading in the order I’ll be reading it, but I refused to let this dictate only my month and gave myself the room to approach each book within my own time. And funnily, I kept to it!

    The diversity of genre and style also really helped to read these books without feeling too bored. I didn’t lose track of the upcoming releases so that I had reviews of books prior to their publishing date. I don’t know what happened specifically, but I feel like I freaking owned TBRs!

    I switched off my genres and I removed the stress of having to read all these books within a month. Whatever I didn’t read is going to roll over to next month and I’ll just keep adding to that pile. It finally feels like I can read my books, not get backtracked by my mood, and own this TBR issue I have!

    While I read nine books this month, they weren’t the greatest. Most of the books I picked up were 3-star books for me. It’s not a bad review, but it’s also not so amazing that I will be pushing these on my friends. But there were a couple of good ones including some new authors that I can’t wait to check out in the future or share with you here.

    The Darkest Star by Jennifer L Armentrout

    I devoured this book and can now safely say I’m a fan of JLA. The Darkest Star is a spin-off series of the Lux series. However, you don’t need to read the Lux series before you can read this book because the world building is pretty good in this book and it doesn’t miss a beat. This book has adventure, mystery, aliens, and a little love. Some of the plot was pretty predictable, but it’s never the predictability of a novel that makes me cringe. I don’t mind if I can figure out the ending, but I expect it to take charge afterwards and this book delivered. I will say that I found some of the teen stuff a little annoying because they’re teenagers, but as long as it works with the plot I’m not going to fault a teenager for being a bit angsty.

    Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane

    I read this womens fiction novel because it was described as the next Bridget Jones’s Diary and it totally delivered. I love how close the friends were to the MC. I loved how the book has a complicated past, which is then revealed as the story unfolds and you end up really loving these characters. Also, the growth level on the main character was exponential. It’s most definitely a book for folks who love to see a character redeem themselves, find themselves, or discover a whole side of themselves that they didn’t expect. Definitely recommend if you need a little break from the heavy reads, but be warned that there is some cringe-y stuff in here for those who may be easily triggered.

    The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

    While this book wasn’t my favorite of the month, I’m always excited to read a new (to me) author. Also, if I wasn’t doing my TBR thing I would have left this book on my shelf and read it three years from now. The magic of my TBR system is working because now I’m reading books I wouldn’t normally read right away and discovering new authors! Annalee Newitz definitely brought that time travel vibe in their newest book The Future of Another Timeline where they explored a world where time travel has existed since pretty much the dawn of time. While the book was flawed in its execution, I fell in love with Annalee Newitz’s writing style. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from them in the future especially if they’re bringing some highly diverse speculative fiction to the table.

    What did you read this month? How did you fair?

  • Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory // Book Review

    Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory // Book Review

    I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Jasmine Guillory. I love her little stories, but I hate that they’re not twisty and complicated like some of my other favorite romances. Am I being a little bit too demanding when it comes to my romance books?

    Royal Holiday follows Maddie, the female MC in The Wedding Party, and her mother, Vivian, to London where Maddie will be dressing the Duchess of Sussex (y’all know who exactly that is) for a bunch of holiday parties and soirees. When Vivian first arrives, she’s greeted with a cup of tea, a warm scone, and Malcolm, the Queen’s private secretary who just so happens to be in town for some work and sipping a little tea as well. Immediately, these two start enjoying each other’s company only to culminate to romance. But when it starts coming time to saying goodbye, will Vivian be able to go back to the States when her heart is in London?

    This was such a cute book. It’s got romance and London and food and really made me want to go back to one of my favorite cities. I also loved how easy and mature the relationship between Vivian and Malcolm was. I felt like because the couple was older and have had some life experience, they knew exactly what they wanted so there wasn’t a lot of conflict throughout the story.

    And as much as the story was cute and their relationship only fell prey to a few issues, I wanted more. I felt this way with Guillory’s other book The Proposal. While the story was cute and I absolutely love the representation, I was expecting more. I’m always looking for that one big conflict that will make you wonder if it’ll work out. I know that the major one (the fact that they live on opposite ends of the world) is a big one, but that seemed to resolve itself.

    It was definitely one of the issues of this book; everything just resolved itself. Any conflict they faced was an issue for half a minute before going back to being this sweet romance. I wanted more and have been looking for more with Jasmine Guillory’s books.

    But that isn’t to say this book isn’t good. Guillory is still an exceptional author with a great writing style. I just hope that she’s done writing these Wedding Date series books and will open up to writing something a little more challenging with a lot more heat and conflict in it.

    Overall, this is definitely a sweet romance to get you in the Holiday spirit and if you’re a huge London fan, then there’s really nothing to complain about.

    I received a copy of this book from Berkley and Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review. My opinions have not been influenced by the publisher or the author.

  • How to Build a Positive Reading Habit

    How to Build a Positive Reading Habit

    Over the years, I’ve encouraged many people to read more books. With my bookstagram, I’ve even brought people to pick up their reading habits again and that brings such a huge smile to my face. I love helping people rediscover books and how much fun it is to read.

    But there are a few people who always tell me they never have the time, or they want to read more but they’re just so tired after work to do anything other than watch TV. I completely understand that as well. Working all day and then coming home to your family all you want to do is spend that quality time with them. Or without them. I’m not here to judge (lol).

    If you are one of those people who would love to get into a reading habit, but struggle with responsibilities of life, then I hope this blog post helps you to create a new reading habit.

    Read What You Want

    I cannot express enough how important it is for you to read what you want. Don’t read what you think is important to read and don’t read what you don’t want to read. This is a golden rule for all the books you’ll ever read in your life. Let’s think of it this way. If there are 15-20 novels being put out by an editor every year and there are 20 editors at one imprint, that’s already 400 books being published in a year by one imprint. Now tack on all the publishing houses and their imprints and you’ve probably got over 1000 books being printed each year. With that many books being printed a year, why waste your time reading something someone said you should read?

    Instead, consider picking up a few books from your library; things that you might not read normally, things you would absolutely love to read, things that struck you as interesting. Start with these books and don’t get sucked into the popularity of a book or the whole “intellectual” thing where people scoff you for not reading Ta-Neishi Coates.

    Start Small

    When trying to start a new reading habit, start small with both your time and your reads. I would strongly discourage anyone from jumping into War and Peace or a 1000-page fantasy novel right off the bat. Instead, start small. There’s this great YouTube video that explains that reading for at least 30 minutes a day will accomplish more reading in your life than if you tried to sneak it in every once in a while. Here’s the video cued up to the moment where the math is explained:

    So when it comes to creating a healthy reading habit, start small. Read what might be a quick read everyday for 30 minutes a day and then move on from there.

    You can also start a book club and read that one book. If you were read one book every month for an entire year, you would have read 12 books. Perhaps keeping a book club with some close friends will keep everyone accountable and give you a group of folks to talk about the book together. I think one of the most key factors to reading a book is the discussion after and I’ve had some amazing conversations with friends about some books.

    Keep a Journal

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    For all intents and purposes, I think the first two steps are probably the most valuable. Read what you want and do it in a small, digestible way, everyday to build the habit. However, if you want to go full reading mode you can also keep a journal of what you’re reading.

    Journaling in general is said to improve everyone’s life. Writing in a journal helps process emotions and thoughts that might need a moment on the page to make sense. Why not keep a journal of your reading progress? The only thing I would keep in mind with your journal is not to be upset if you only got to read for five minutes one day and ten hours the next. Life demands different things from us everyday so if reading is impossible one day, don’t feel bad about it. Just pick up your book when you have the chance next time and move forward.

    DNF Books

    If you’re unaware what this phrase means, it means “did not finish.” It’s a common acronym people in the book world use when they didn’t finish a book. It’s also an extremely contentious activity because a lot of people will continue through a book they hate because they just can’t not finish a book.

    I’m here to tell you to put down the book. If a book you’re reading isn’t fun or interesting to you, then don’t read it. Even if it’s a book you’re reading for a book club. Even if you begged the publisher to read the book for an early copy. I can’t express this enough; don’t read books you don’t like. It’s a waste of time to read something you don’t like. It’ll make you unhappy. And it’ll reverse the work you’ve put into creating a reading habit. Remember, there’s thousands of books that get published every year so why are you stuck reading the one book you hate?

    Do As Much As You Can

    The final piece of advice I’m going to give you is this; do as much as you can. There’s no competition to read all the books. There’s no one on your back telling you that you have to read. You can even be a bookstagram lurker who just goes on Instagram to look at all the pretty book pics. Just read as much as you can, do as much as you can, and forget what other people think. Because this reading habit is yours and despite the community and all the ways you can connect with someone over a book, the reading part is completely on you, so make your own terms and own your own reading habit.

    What other advice would you give to a new reader?