Oh geez, I felt so lost here...

I love the freaking 80’s! But holy toledo the romance was fast... basically, “Hi my name is (enter name), okay lets’s make-out.” Anything with carnivals or oddities can hold my interest, so that part was freaking awesome. But they mystery aspect didn’t captivate me ad much as I had hoped.

I really liked Hocking’s Trylle and Kanin series, but wasn’t really a fan here. The whole Valkyrie thing was a cool concept, and the main girl is bisexual so that was cool. But of course there was a weird love triangle and overall the book just felt slow... But the cover is gorgeous!

This would have been good, but an annoying love triangle ruined it with an indecisive girl!

There was a whole lot of food talk for me in this one! Given the blurb and the cover, I should have been expecting this! But still!!

I really loved the concept of this one, and the first and last chapter were amazing... but this wasn’t as cool as I’d hoped. I was hoping for it to be a little darker, and maybe since the main character loses her heart, for her to act different? The romance was really cute, but the rest wasn’t as what I’d hoped it would be. The writing was good, and I did like the main character’s personality, though!

Excellent sequel! The writing, character development, and world building completely swept me up. I am a huge fan of a certain couple and after that ending, I need to know what happens next!! I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll keep this short for now!

This year has been a struggle and awesome. A struggle with myself as a writer, my migraines constantly kicking in, dealing with my mom who is still missing my dad, and my husband who at 33 has diabetes (Type 1, since the age of 10), rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure.

The good - My daughter had no seizures this year, we went to London, I wrote 4 books, and have read some really great books!

There are a ton of amazing books I have read this year and even the ones I have not been fond of, have in some way shaped me into the person that will be crossing into 2018.

So, I actually listened to the audio the second time around and found myself loving the book. Maybe because it actually read better because I knew the “stuff” beforehand. The first round I still guessed what was happening pretty early on and just couldn’t get into a lot of it, but sometimes books at a a certain time in my life just don’t fit, but today it did.

Now, not sure why people keep saying Mulan because I have never seen anywhere that this was a Mulan retelling. It definitely reads more like a society type book? I don’t know... I don’t read the classics! But, also sexist? Come on! What, because every single girl didn’t like Sage? I was never friends with all girls in high school, at my job or in real life?? In the real world, people don’t like each other, jealous exists, and not everyone gets along. If anything it felt real.

I actually felt the book was pretty diverse. I know people are “offended” over the words “dark skin” being used. Granted, there could have been different adjectives sprinkled in. But even in other books, authors use the term “pale” to describe Caucasian skin, so should I be offended? No!

Now, the only thing I was super weirded out about, which should have had more attention than the skin color situation, was a side character named Claire. She was 15, and the soldier she liked was 21! It just had me cringing.

The romance was great, and one of my favorite parts of the book, and the author writes extremely well! I’m ready to see what book two has in store!

The pirate life was not for me in this one...