Inspired Inner Genius is a new publishing house that believes every child is a genius. They are founded with the purpose to inspire, educate, and empower young minds across the globe from a tender age. The first book in the series is the story of Albert Einstein.

I don’t have children, but was more than happy to read and review this story. I think that the illustrations were very cute and really liked how this story teaches kids that they might not be the best at school, but can make something of their lives if they follow their dreams. Here’s a quote from the story that I thought was great:

“Whenever you’re feeling sad, remember that Albert Einstein started out as a kid whose future didn’t look promising. But he was very curious and he had a dream to learn as much as he could and share his knowledge with everybody around him. Deep down, Albert Einstein was just an ordinary kid with very big dreams!”

If you have children, I would highly recommend this series. The second book is about Steve Jobs and the third is about Amelia Earhart. I’m looking forward to reading them as well!

Thank you Inspired Inner Genius for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

When Mariana Andros’ niece, Zoe, calls her from Cambridge University asking her to come immediately, she knows something is wrong. Zoe thinks her friend Tara was murdered and is positive that Edward Fosca, a professor at the university, is the one who killed her. The problem is that Fosca is untouchable. Adored by the staff and students no one believes Mariana when she accuses him. Then another girl is murdered, and a secret society known as The Maidens is uncovered. An all-female, secret society that Fosca leads. Mariana becomes obsessed with proving his guilt, which threatens her credibility and her close relationships, but Mariana is determined to catch the killer.

Alex Michaelides does it again with his second novel, The Maidens. I enjoyed The Silent Patient, but I really loved The Maidens. This book is a bit of a slow burn in the beginning, but by Part 3, it picks up the pace, and I could not put it down at that point. I enjoy Michaelides writing style, and the shorter chapters made this book a complete page-turner. Greek mythology was woven throughout the story, and it was done so well that instead of taking up too much of the plot, it helped it progress. I thought I knew how it was going to end then a huge twist is thrown at us that I didn’t see coming at all. There is also a little surprise thrown into the story as well, that I thought was super clever on Michaelides part.

It’s best to go into this story blind so I don’t want to say more that would give anything away. All I will say is read The Maidens as soon as you can when it’s released on June 15th. While you do that, I’ll be waiting impatiently for Michaelides next book!

Thank you Celadon Books and NetGalley for my advanced copies in exchange for an honest review.

Happy Pub Day!

August is a 23-year-old, bisexual woman who has just moved to New York City. She’s super cynical and likes to go through life alone. She doesn’t see how her eccentric roommates and job at a 24-hour pancake diner could change that. Then she meets Jane on her subway commute.

Jane is beautiful and mysterious and has this edgy punk rocker vibe. August is drawn to her and looks forward to her daily commute so she can see her. Then August realizes that Jane isn’t from this time. She’s literally displaced from the 1970’s and can’t get off the train. Maybe it’s time August starts believing in something so she can help Jane.

I really enjoyed this story. It’s a fun LGBTQ+ romance with some magical realism thrown in. Being from NY originally, I really loved the setting. August was written so realistically, and I enjoyed her relationship with Jane.

The best part of the book was all the secondary characters. The roommates and the diner employees were all fantastically written. I loved the scenes that included them. The character development was great for all of the characters.

The one negative I had was that I found the premise a little far fetched and was surprised this book wasn’t classified as magical realism. You really need to have an open mind when going into this one.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the the narrator, Natalie Naudus did an incredible job. You could feel her emotions while listening.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

”We begin at the end Duchess. If you believe that you’ll be alright.”

Thirteen-year-old Duchess calls herself an outlaw. She has seen more heartache than most adults have. She will do whatever it takes to survive and to protect her five-year-old brother. Walk is the sheriff who grew up in this small town. He turned his best friend, Vincent in for murder thirty years ago, and now Vincent is being release. When they were young, they hung out with Star, who is now Duchess’s mother and has many issues she’s dealing with. When something happens, it will bring all these characters together in a devastating way.

We Begin at the End really surprised me. What started as a slow burn turned into a really powerful and moving story. The way Chris Whitaker intertwined the lives of these characters was truly impressive. This story tells the lives of people who deserve so much more than the hand they’ve been dealt. It is a coming of age story, a story of loss and hope, and a devastating story that truly touched my heart. This is one of those books where it is hard to review without giving too much away, and I don’t like giving spoilers. This was a beautifully written journey of self-preservation. I highly recommend this one.

I listened to the audiobook, and thought that the narrator, George Newbern, was the perfect choice.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Alice Lindstedt is a filmmaker who has decided to do a documentary on the residents of an old mining town known as “The Lost Village” who all vanished. In 1959, her grandmother’s family all disappeared there in a mysterious tragedy. The only people left were a woman stoned to death and an abandoned newborn baby. Alice gathers a small crew to make a film of what really happened.

Once they arrive at camp, mysterious things start to happen such as walkie-talkies malfunctioning, destroyed equipment, and people going missing. Alice really wants to get to the truth of what happened in the village back in 1959, but she begins to fear they are not alone. Something sinister is lurking around the lost village and seems to be looking for them.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten is told from dual timelines. “Now” is from Alice’s point of view, and “then” is from her great-grandmother Elsa’s perspective. I found the “now” perspective to be a bit creepier, but preferred the storyline of “then”. I felt it brought more to the story giving us the background of what happened to the people of the village.

This book had all the makings for a great horror story. It has been compared to The Blair Witch Project, which I can see because it does have similarly eerie vibes; however, the story did fall short for me. I feel like there was not enough character development, which would have helped the story a lot. There were times the author would bring something up that would have benefited the book, but then it was never mentioned again. I’m not going to give examples to avoid spoilers. I also think the author would have benefited to include more about the creepiness of the village itself. It would have set the mood better. Overall, this book had a good premise that fell a little short.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ava Greene is a flight attendant who is turning in her wings now that she is engaged and going to start the stable life she’s always dreamed of. She is excited that her last flight has a 24-hour layover in Belize. That is, until she finds out that Jack Stone is also working this flight. Jack is handsome and flirtatious, but Ava doesn’t like him. They met years ago, but it seems Jack has forgotten that night and how humiliating it was for her.

The Layover is a romantic comedy that takes us all over the United States and eventually to Belize where the story really gets hot! There is definitely something between Ava and Jack from their first interaction, but besides the fact that Ava does not like him, she’s also keeping a secret from him and everyone else on their crew. As the chemistry between them heats up, we can see that Ava is going through some inner turmoil, wondering if the steady life she hoped for or if a life in the skies is what’s best for her.

This is a slow burn, enemies to lovers story, but at about the 50% mark, the story definitely picks up. I flew through the second half of the book. I really liked Jack as a character. Although Ava describes him as a bad-boy, player throughout the book, there is a lot more depth to his character. The scenes where he was being flirtatious and playful were great, and I enjoyed learning about his past. My problem is that I didn’t really like Ava. She is so rude to Jack based on something that happened years ago and rumors she has heard about him. Jack may tease her at times, but he is never as mean to her as she is towards him.

Gen, another flight attendant, is a secondary character that I loved. She brings some comedic relief to the story, and I really looked forward to the parts of the book with her in them. I’d be willing to read a spin-off of Gen’s story!

The Layover is Lacie Waldon’s debut novel, but I definitely look forward to reading more by her.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ambrosia “Amb” Wilson has no desire to go to her 10-year college reunion. She wants to put the past behind her especially what happened one night during her freshman year with her and her friend Sloane “Sully” Sullivan. When Amb receives an anonymous note that says, “We need to talk about what we did that night,” she decides to attend the reunion. During the reunion, her and Sully keep getting more threatening notes, and they realize this isn’t just a prank, but that someone is looking for revenge for what they did all those years ago.

This story is like mean girls on steroids. These girls were so not nice! They were cruel, manipulative, and horrible, and with that said, I loved every minute of this story! Not sure what that says about me, but the author, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, did a great job of writing these characters in a way that made it hard to look away or put the book down. Sully was the master manipulator, and she made many girls’ lives a living hell. Amb only wanted to be friends with her, but she started to act more and more like Sully, which ultimately lead them to do some awful things to their dorm mates.

The book is told from Amb’s perspective and in dual timelines, freshman year of college and the reunion 10 years later. I thought this was the perfect way to tell this story. It made it more suspenseful as the author did not let on too early what exactly these girls did. It was a bit of a slow burn, but I was hooked from them beginning. This book is evil and disturbing in the best way possible! 4.5 stars rounded down.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

When four Wall Street colleagues are brought to a closed office building for a team building, they find themselves in an escape room scenario. They not only need to solve the puzzles to figure out why they are trapped in this elevator, but they also need to get out alive.

The book alternates chapters from the past where we see how these co-workers were in their office environment to present day when they are trapped in the elevator. We learned so much about each of these characters and how working in the cutthroat world of Wall Street shaped them into the people they are in the present day.

Megan Goldin did an excellent job of making you feel like you’re in the elevator with these characters. I felt claustrophobic while reading the story, and if I wasn’t afraid of elevators before, I certainly am now! These characters are all start out ruthless, but we see their lives fall apart the longer they’re in the elevator together and the more their secrets come out. It’s hard to say anything else without giving too much of the plot away so I just highly recommend that you read this one especially if you like thrillers or locked room-mysteries.

Three months ago, Lena Nguyen’s twin sister Cambry committed suicide in the middle of nowhere Montana, on Hairpin Bridge, also known as Suicide Bridge. Lena does not believe her sister actually committed suicide so she drives from Washington to meet with the state trooper, Corporal Raymond Raycevic, who supposedly found Cambry’s body. Lena is determined to find out what really happened to her sister that night on Hairpin Bridge.

I loved No Exit by Taylor Adams. That book had all the makings of a great thriller so I was extremely excited when I won an advanced copy of Hairpin Bridge from a Goodreads giveaway. Sadly, this one did not live up to my expectations though.

The story is told from a few different perspectives/timelines. Present day where Lena is confronting Ray, blog posts written by Lena the day prior to her meeting him, and what we think is Cambry’s story which were my favorite parts at first, but then it became unclear to me if it was really her story or Lena’s idea of Cambry’s story. This does become clear later on. The book has three sections, and I really loved the first section. It was a complete page-turner for me with some parts that had my heart racing. I had to know what was going to happen next. When I got to part two, I was still very invested, but then things started to get weird. I cannot say more than that without giving away spoilers.

I found the ending drawn out and disappointing. There was a lot going on, and I did not find it believable. I wanted to love Hairpin Bridge as much as No Exit, but it just was not for me.

Thank you Goodreads, NetGalley, and Joffe Books for my advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.