This was a fantastic book. A story about a teenage girl named Cassie who is navigating the death of her father, a new life, and new emotions when she is blindsided by “hive justice” after a tasteless but harmless BLINQ. I really liked the parallel drawn from the world we live in. I felt an eerie “this could be where we end up” kind of feeling reading about how people’s actions online are handled in the story by their peers, and how easily manipulated the program is by the government. This is absolutely a book I will be recommending to everyone I know while I lecture them about our online presence and how we should be more careful when hiding behind our screens.

———SPOILERS———

The Southern Reach Trilogy is composed of three novels (Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance) written by Jeff VanDerMeer. I will be completely honest. I picked up this book(s) because I had just seen the movie (and despite popular opinion I loved it) and also because the cover is just gorgeous. It was a very hard read. The writing was incredibly well done and I loved how the stories broke down between a few major characters, to see their interactions and ideas behind Area X. However... the way it was written was incredibly detailed and observant and I found myself sucked in and exhausted by the experience. Trying to piece together the mystery of Area X and how everyone experiencing it fit could be very difficult and confusing.

I truly loved these books. I got a feeling of the X files on Eco steroids. The world grew tired of human interference and indifference and did some necessary cleaning and reorganizing. It was interesting how we touch on Sci Fi, nature, religion, and relationships among these people while they struggle with understanding the changes and the unknown that is Area X.
📓

As a whole I give this trilogy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I highly recommend reading these books uninterrupted from each other, and take your time. If you’re like me and actually enjoyed the movie throw that interpretation out of the window before you begin reading the books. It took me a while to let that idea go and then I was enjoying the book more than when I began.

Marigold Star lives in Brambycrumbly and is struggling with five problems. One of which is not knowing what her special power is, even though she has a bright glowing star above her head which she’s told means she is marked for greatness.

The one thing Marigold Star excels at is being a wonderful friend. She shows us how powerful friendship can be both in Brambycrumbly and the human world where she finds herself stuck. In order to get back she must put her faith in her new fiends and herself.

This is a magical story. I love the characters in both worlds (Baddy Longlegs and Granny Cabbage are my favorite characters). This is a great story for elementary school aged children to show them the importance of friendship and being true to who you are.

Thank you to Smith Publicity, Elise Primavera and Harper Collins for sending me an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

The Long Flight Home- @alanhlad

I apparently LOVE historical fiction. I’m finding that many of my immediate TBR books are this genre. When I saw the beautiful cover for #thelongflighthome it was no different. The synopsis was so different and intriguing I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I was lucky enough to receive a copy from @netgalley and even MORE lucky to receive a hardback from @kensingtonbooks through Between the Chapters on Facebook.

The story of a young lady Susan and her Grandfather Bertie who raise pigeons during WWII. A young crop duster from Maine named Ollie who loses his family, his farm, and his future leaves for Britain to aid the British against the Germans. Their lives are forever changed during the war, particularly focusing on the Blitz. Young love blossoms quickly in spite of the war, and quickly grows with the help of Susan’s pet pigeon Dutchess. Informative, heartbreaking and beautiful. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone. I loved every second and spent the last hour biting my nails and wiping the tears from my eyes.

The very first reason I wanted to read this book was the cover and the title. I absolutely judged this book by its cover. It was so stunning and eye catching I didn’t even care what it was about. It was so much more than I expected. A story of love and loss, woven into two parallel times in Cohens life. This book touches on the struggles Cohen has within himself, his relationships with his parents, his faith, his past and the loss of his father. I thought the depiction of life and death coexisting in a somewhat symbiotic way was beautiful and sad. It was also beautiful to see how different people deal with (and don’t deal with) grief. I found the battle Cohen had inside himself while he struggled to find his faith was really well done, and relatable even if you are not a religious person.

I was given a copy of The Gems of Elsana: Into the Wild Barrens from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Fantasy is such a fantastic genre, and also one where it’s entirely hit or miss. For me, this book was a HUGE hit!

We follow our young wizard Falin across Elsana as he searches for four Gems that will help him control the elements and increase his wizard powers. With the help from his six champions he tries across an incredible landscape meeting foes of all shapes and sizes. The build up for the second novel has me sucked right in, while we get some closure and happy feelings at the end of this book.

This story of determination, love, friendship and understanding is well written and beautifully described. I get a real Lord of the Rings/Hobbit meets Xanth kind of journey and I am absolutely not complaining about that! Tolkien and Anthony are

Some key elements I loved:
The creation story and the “religious”/“evolution” style stories were really well done. I get these stories made it believable and relatable to the real world, which I love in a fantasy novel.
I love that this is not an entirely male trek and that we have some strong female characters along side of the men.
Red and Jimmy are absolutely great, while all of the champions and Falin have their own personalities and traits I like I really found these two to be my favorite right from the start.
The sarcastic and silly banter between our characters made it easy to connect with them all.
Bujijis. I am tempted to put this under elements I didn’t like, but they were so well written I was tempted to back away from the book in order to not give myself nightmares.

I honestly cannot wait for the next instalment in this series.

A fascinating story about a young girl named Gwen and her classmates who were students at Chefoo school. This book documents their lives in the Weihsein internment camp which is run by the Japanese imperial army.

They eat nothing but Broomcorn, eggplant and stale bread, sleep on pallets, and disease runs rampant through the camp. When two of the young boys escape life become even harder for the prisoners.

I loved the girls teacher Miss E. their Girl Guide leader who continues to practice the Girl Guide codes and keep them positive throughout their whole terrible imprisonment. She kept her head high and helped the girls always look on the bright side even when it seemed impossible.

As a lifelong Girl Guide I really loved to see how the Girl Guide codes helped these girls through the worst time of their lives.

The Speed of Falling Objects-Nancy Richardson Fischer

𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠, 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒, 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑠, 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒.

𝐷𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠.

I finished this book last night. I normally try to do my reviews immediately after I finish a book because I have a fuzzy memory sometimes (even with notes I like the fresh emotions to write reviews). I finished this book and I didn’t know how to put into words how I felt.

This book was fantastic. It truly was. The writing was wonderful. There were numerous quotes I fell in love with and the characters were real (in the sense that they could be real people with real flaws). The whole premise was terrifying and what the characters endured and lost was often unbearable. Their plane crashes in the Amazon and they have to beat the odds and survive when every thing is against them.

Where I struggled was with Danny’s relationship with her parents. She does her best and does truly love Danny, but she seems to often make decisions based on spite. A loving mother who had Danny young and gave up her dreams to raise her. We get views of her resentment towards Cougar, her using Danny as a pawn under the guise that she doesn’t want her to be hurt by Cougar and her rigid “love” that feels lukewarm at best. She redeems herself by silently making Cougar seem like a half decent father when he is barely even that. Then We have Cougar who at first comes off as a charismatic man, the light in the room kind of man. He’s a star on television and thinks highly of himself. But he is a man who abandoned his family when things got tough. He uses, puts down and humiliates Danny when she is with him. She sees him a handful of times since her accident and when she does it’s definitely not warm and fuzzy. Cougar is a narcissist and his love for Danny is mirrored as love for himself, her flaws reflect poorly on him and he constantly makes her feel insecure about herself. I immediately wanted to be on her moms side, and most of the book I hated Cougar. His ability to abandon his child left me feeling angry. Danny’s need and longing for his love, and her feelings of worthlessness and shame made me feel angrier. The author made these parents real. Their flaws and their love felt like a true to life sad story about parents who’s child gets caught in the crossfire.

In the end I admired Danny’s strength and ability to find herself, accept the things she couldn’t change and let go of the past hurt. She is a broken girl who becomes this fierce woman. As a character her growth and personality were fantastic imo. Her relationship with Gus was cute. I loved how his character progressed. Personally, out of everyone I adored Jupiter. 100% he is someone I could hang out with in the real world.

Truth.

𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑤𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛𝑒

𝐵𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛.

Sifters. Minders. Ghosts. Shadows. Hunters. Hollows. I really enjoyed this book. I LOVED the idea behind it. Memories being used as currency, bribery, ammunition and more... what a scary thought. I like that for the most part it has a good flow and it was easy to follow. I hit a few plot twists and couldn’t put it down! The twists were well done and didn’t leave me confused or over saturate the story with useless filler.

The only thing I didn’t like was the anti climactic ending. I liked HOW it ended but I felt the way we got there was rushed.

I received this book from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I can honestly say that I can’t even begin to imagine having to use my memories and experiences as currency. Or have someone use a bad memory to hurt me mentally or emotionally. This to me is worse than physical pain.