Adelina has now conquered a vast swatch of land and kingdoms but is evermore plagued by the demons in her head and to her inner villain. Meanwhile, the her old band of Young Elites may have found the reason, and the solution, to the sicknesses causing them to become increasingly weak. This will require an alliance of enemies, one that will cost many their lives.

I only wish this was a bit longer, and perhaps a bit more thought out? I found the 'solution' and ultimately the ending to be a bit too perfectly laid out, but overall still a fairly satisfying end to a very unique trilogy.

A bit too jumbly and pretentious for me.

A rapid read gives a glimpse into Lauren Graham's thought process and experiences, mostly revolving around her career as a TV star. I enjoyed most of the chapters, but I did feel like I was reading a Lorelei Gilmore book. Perhaps Lorelei IS Lauren Graham, or vice versa, but still a fun read.

I also had to tear up a little bit when Graham referenced President Hillary Clinton as her best guess, as this book was finalized prior to the election results. Sigh.

Spare in both color and images, we soon find out there is only one Mooncop, and everyone is leaving the Moon. Sad without being in your face and still hopeful, this was a great lunch break read. I also liked how the equipment was a bit retro, giving the story a timeless feel.

One of those books I can't believe I finished, because it has so many things I detest, but once I did finish I saw the appeal.

A loose retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights, except with an annoying female protagonist who is SO FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. Did you read the description of how beautiful she is? Her hair, oh her hair. The jewels. The sparkles, THE OUTFITS! Throw some more adjectives.

She is also very certain of how special she is and so is everyone else. But, besides the pretty and a hot temper, that is about it. She's volunteers to be the next bride-sacrifice of the murderous Caliph who killed her best friend, along with many other young girls, because she's different and she's going to kill his ass, but of course he is also super beautiful. And despite the fact he rapes her (perfunctorily) the first and second night of her stay and doesn't kill her immediately at dawn like the others, she immediately starts to fall for him and have angry inner-dialogue about how she is still going to kill him, but never, ever does. He's so intriguing, strangers tell her to trust him, he has never actually slept with any of the other girls he's had killed (so romantic). He has SECRETS, so so what if she's kept waiting for him in a bedroom for the majority of the first half of the book? And then he stops sleeping with her when he realizes it means something (WHAT?)

Sigh.

However, despite all this annoyance, I was still entranced and really wanted to know how the story ended (with a terrible flippin' cliff hanger). Also, after getting over that first part I genuinely bought the chemistry between Shazi and Khalid, and the scenes between them are great in the latter half of the book.

Gah. So, basically a hate-read. Also the narrator for the audio book didn't really differentiate the voices of the different characters which is a huge annoyance, but did have a lovely voice.

Emmaline lives in a castle-turned hospital for children displaced by WWII in the UK, a gray place where many come to stay, but most never leave. Emmaline can see beautiful winged horses in the castle's many mirrors and believes there is a secret land just on the other side of these reflective surfaces. Emmaline's world collides with the the land of the horses when she finds a beautiful white horse with a damaged wing in the castle's garden. She also finds a note from the Horse Lord begging her to find special objects to help protect Foxfire from the sinister Black Horse who has also crossed over into Emmaline's world.

A lyrically masterful novel for mid-grade readers, I adored how you never quite found out if the horses were an object of Emmaline's fantasies, spurred by her own illness that slowly becomes more apparent to the reader as the pages go on, or if they were indeed real. The ending is also ambiguous enough that readers can draw their own conclusions on the fate of Foxfire and Emmaline.

Both hauntingly sad and beautiful, this is a perfect book for both adults and more mature mid-grade readers, akin to The Secret Garden or The Little Princess.

Two FBI agents who detested each other during their training at Quantico six years ago find themselves partnered up for a white collar under-cover operation. Jessica, recently divorced and newly transferred to the Chicago FBI office, remembers John as a cocky ex-Marine who irritatingly challenged her both mentally and physically. John, soon to be leaving Chicago to start training for an elite part of the FBI similar to SEAL Team 6 remembers Jessica as the hyper-intelligent and frosty woman who rebuffed his offer of camaraderie on day one of training, and embarrassed him in front of their entire class. He said, she said has never been hotter.

My first Julie James, and I loved it! The characters were both intelligent, professional, and had such simmering sexual tension I could feel it oozing off the page. The story, while a bit too bloated with technical information and side stories, was dramatic and exciting. I am sucker for FBI stories (thanks X-Files), but this is the first traditional romance book I've found featuring agents that aren't doing absolutely crazy missions that just seem too ridiculous to be true.

Thank you to Negalley for the ARC!

Who knew Tetris was created by a Russian scientist who barely received any payout for his creation until he immigrated to America in the late 90s? Who knew Tetris was involved in a series of legal battles between Russian bureaucrats and tech giants like Atari and Nintendo? I sure didn't! A highly enjoyable graphic novel detailing the creation and subsequent world domination of the highly addictive game we all know and love. A bonus are the highly readable and deceptively simple panels colored in only black, white, and yellow. Would make a great gift for a gaming geek.

A memoir from a Canadian women of Yugoslavian descent detailing her launch of a successful small cooking academy in her home to her travels to learn more about Iranian cuisine and her subsequent love affair with the son of the Iranian woman who is teaching her traditional recipes.

There was a lot of description of eating various parts of animals, mostly offal, and a focus more on the feelings evoked by home-cooking as opposed to the more technical aspects (not a recipe in sight), plus the book quickly devolved from a food memoir to a love story. I was intrigued by the aspects of Iranian culture Klinec was exposed to, especially in regards to women's issues and sex. I did not think Vahid (her lover) came off very well in the text and found her leap from sort of detesting him to secretly bonking him and searching for a mullah to temporarily marry them (title) a bit of a stretch.

I read this to fulfill the "Read a food memoir" task for the 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Kids find a body in the woods. Sounds like [b:The Body|11574|The Body|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328182521s/11574.jpg|2334601] (AKA Stand By Me), but that is where the similarity ends. I gasped out loud at least two different junctures and enjoyed the characters and the muted color palette. The ending was a bit abrupt, and I hope there will be more to come!