Envisioning a bleak future for a United States shattered by a second civil war, American War definitely will find a timely release in April 2017. Focusing on one family, and specifically one girl who comes of age and is radicalized in a displaced persons camp, all with harsh consequences for herself and her family.

Overall, I found it hard to connect with the story, as many details are left to the imagination or to be assumed by the reader. Also, the inclusion of "factual sources" didn't really work for me as it does more effectively in other dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels (see Mira Grant's Feed Series).

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Takes the premise of the film "While you were sleeping" and sets it in Regency England with far less likeable characters. Poppy, our shop girl heroine who is secretly in love with the duke who is the flower shop's best customer is accidentally mistaken for his fiancee after a carriage accident puts him in a coma. Of course, his sexy Scottish half-brother becomes too much for Poppy to resist, throwing her into web of lies and deceit.

I didn't like the characters. Poppy was annoying, and nothing like awesome Lucy from the movie. Struan, the Scottish bastard, is really a bastard. He is constantly pushing Poppy into compromising situations, treats her badly, and yet somehow she falls in love with him. I didn't find their romance very believable.

Seven days before Sophia aka "Sofa" has to leave Tokyo and move back to the USA, a boy from her past returns, causing her to question her current friendships, her feelings, and what she truly wants from life.

This was okay. The setting was Japan, which I was excited about, but I was really feeling the lack of actual Japanese characters. All of the characters speak English and none of them are actually from Japan. There are a lot of Japanese vocabulary words thrown in to describe/name certain things, but they are not always well defined or described enough for you to understand what they mean.

Also, I found the whirlwind romance unconvincing and overall felt the main character was unlikeable, which can be fine in the right circumstance, but I do not think it was what the author intended.

The ending will infuriate some, and satisfy others. I liked that it ended on an indefinite note.

Besides the Japan setting, the book reminded me of a poor version of [book:Anna and the French Kiss|6936382].

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

A remarkable and horrific story, written as a part memoir, part legal drama, and part true-crime tale, sure to please fans of Serial, The Jinx, and Making a Murderer.

Author Marzano-Lesnevich pulls no punches as she explores the three trials of a convicted pedophile-murderer and her own family's dark secrets that haunt her, and effectively make her give up her legal career.

I was enthralled and given nightmares by this story, but it is excellently written and well researched.

I was provided a copy as part of the Goodreads First Reads program. Thank you for the ARC!

A divorce lawyer who doesn't believe in love and investigative journalist who isn't looking for a relationship work together to find the man who got the journalist's sister pregnant after a one night stand. Naturally, sparks fly as they also figure out they are neighbors and have the hots for each other.

I enjoyed the Chicago setting, but the overall storyline wasn't my favorite. James writes great, independent heroines which was no exception here.

The collected short stories featuring Simon's path to becoming full-fledged Shadow Hunter, in audiobook format! Originally published one at a time, each tale had a new narrator which was a bit disconcerting at first. Overall I enjoyed the majority of the stories but especially liked the ones which focused on Simon instead of the ones that went back in time to feature other characters from Clare's 'verse. Damn, that ending though! Not expecting

poor George to melt into a pile of goo like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harsh.

Aubrey was a mean-girl beauty queen in high school, but mostly as a coping mechanism to deal with the various disappointments in her life, especially her parents' divorce. Years later, she is back in her hometown and trying to renovate her deceased Aunt's beloved bookstore. She can't afford much, so her uncle secretly hires Ben, Aubrey's former crush to do the work. Ben is also recently returned after a long stint working on building water systems in dangerous parts of the world, a job he took after the death of his wife. Sparks fly, but Ben doesn't know he is on Aubrey's list of people to make amends with...

A sweet story, with lots of heat.

Every time McLean moves she adopts a new persona. This is her fourth move in less than two years, but this time maybe she'll try to be Mclean again if only she herself could figure out what that means.

Not my favorite Dessen, as I found the overall story arc to be a bit bland. Mclean has struggles and she handles them nicely and fairly neatly, which lends to the lack of excitement.

American Gods was a total slog for me. I always go into a Gaiman thinking the premise sounds very intriguing, but his style just leaves me cold. I really struggled for the first 500+ pages and was ready to give up and FINALLY the last two hundred pages caught my interest, and I finished. I'm glad I'm done and I'll never read it again.

I think Gaiman may be one of those authors you need to read at the right moment in time and for me, that time has been never.

A classic case of I read too many rave reviews and my expectations were too high. I found this London theater actors romance okay, but nothing mind-blowing. The acting and theater details were nice but the actual romance featuring a cranky Darcy-type and a hardworking and heart-broken actress were not my favorite couple.