Read the full review here

Full review to come!

Read the full review here!

The way this book unfolded was really interesting, and the way it ended was totally right for the story. I went into it thinking that it would be in Nix's perspective, but Mary's perspective was definitely different from what we usually get.

Review to come! :)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is another book that is seriously harmed by its summary. I actually put off reading this one for a few years because of it’s summary. Goodreads summarizes Fangirl as:

"Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?"
I’m honestly sorry I waited so long to read Fangirl, because this book was witty, simple and straight up enjoyable to read.

As the summary states, Cather Avery is a Simon Snow fan and a college freshman. She also has a twin sister named Wren. Where Cather, known as Cath, is shy and a little bit afraid of everything, Wren is outgoing and goes into college looking for something a little bit different than her high school experience, starting with not rooming with her sister.

Cath has to get used to being in an entirely new space, tons of new people, taking a fiction writing class that is meant for juniors and seniors, and not really knowing who she is, like most people in their freshman year of college. I think she was also a little bit bi-polar, like her father.

Cath resonated with me as someone I easily could have known - she actually reminded me of my freshman college roommate in a good way. Most of the other characters felt like people I would have met at school, as well. The problems she dealt with were things I saw regularly, and for that reason, I really enjoyed this book.

I loved Reagan and Levi as characters and as friends. Reagan particularly I’m not sure I’m sold on Levi and Cath as a romantic couple. Their getting to know each other was adorable, and I love their friendship, but it just didn’t read as romantic to me. It felt like it could be, but Cath really wasn’t ready, in my opinion, to be in a romantic relationship.
All of the characters felt incredibly real to me, but I couldn’t believe some of the choices Cath was making, especially in regards to her fan fiction - turning it in in class and choosing it over her class, but also with the Nick situation. I don’t think I ever would have made the choices that Cath made in those situations, but it made sense for her character to make them, if that makes sense.

I also thought that the cover art was completely appropriate and adorable! If you enjoy authors such as Sarah Dessen, I think you’ll also enjoy Fangirl.
I do wish we’d gotten more resolution on her relationship with Laura and her dad. That being said, I really enjoyed this novel. I think it will be one that I pass on to other people and that I re-read on occasion.

From the author of The Meryl Streep Movie Club, a “heart-warming, spirit-lifting read just in time for beach season” (Kirkus Reviews), comes a new novel about three women, connected in secret and surprising ways, who are in for a life-changing summer when rumor has it that actor Colin Firth is coming to their Maine town to film a movie.

After losing her job and leaving her beloved husband, journalist Gemma Hendricks is sure that scoring an interview with Colin Firth will save her career and marriage. Yet a heart-tugging local story about women, family ties, love, and loss captures her heart— and changes everything. The story concerns Bea Crane, a floundering twenty-two-year-old who learns in a deathbed confession letter that she was adopted at birth. Bea is in Boothbay Harbor to surreptitiously observe her biological mother, Veronica Russo—something of a legend in town—who Bea might not be ready to meet after all. Veronica, a thirty-eight-year-old diner waitress famous for her “healing” pies, has come home to Maine to face her past. But when she’s hired as an extra on the bustling movie set, she wonders if she is hiding from the truth . . . and perhaps the opportunity of a real-life Mr. Darcy.

These three women will discover more than they ever imagined in this coastal Maine town, buzzing with hopes of Colin Firth. Even the conjecture of his arrival inspires daydreams, amplifies complicated lives, and gives incentive to find their own romantic endings.

I picked Finding Colin Firth up at Netgalley because my Mr. Darcy is and always has been Colin Firth. However, the story I got was intricately woven together, and you find yourself enveloped in the writer's warm way of bringing the characters' past's and future's together. Boothbay Harbor sounds very similar to the town I grew up in and loved, and while this is the second book in the series, Finding Colin Firth completely worked as a standalone novel as well.

I definitely recommend this novel to anyone looking for a fun but substantial read. (And now I'm going to go watch Colin Firth & Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice!)

When I first started reading Sword in the Stars, I thought I might find it somewhat familiar because of how many books I read in this genre, but after Wayne Thomas Batson found his path, it surprised me fairly often. It took me about thirty pages to really find myself interested in the story, but once it got going, I couldn’t put it down. Batson tried things that other authors in the genre rarely even attempt.For example, how many fantasy epic writers introduce a baby to the story 70 pages in? And for those who do, how many of them have the skill to write them and the womenfolk properly? I’m just gonna tell you, not very many that I’ve read. I found that Batson did a fairly good job of writing his female characters as real people, in both Maren’s case as well as Abbagael’s.
Centuries have passed since the Silence, and the few remaining faithful cling to the ancient prophecies of the First One. They wait for the Caller and watch the skies for the Sword in the Stars, even as the world they've always known unravels around them.
Murderous Gorracks have secretly penetrated the kingdom's borders. Their attacks grow more brazen...more horrific, threatening to touch off a war on a scale that hasn't been seen in seven ages.
In the capital city of Anglinore, noble King Aravel ponders the advice of this twin brother Morlan: declare all out war on the Gorrack nation. While Anglinore's High Shepherd, the wise Sebastian Grenlaff urges caution and listens to troubling voices on the wind.
Queen Maren, due to deliver a child any day, suspects the unthinkable about her husband's brother Morlan. She sets off alone to Morlan's castle in Dunharrow, hoping against hope that she can keep old wounds from erupting in war.
Alastair Coldharrow, tortured by an addiction to the outlawed Witchdrale and haunted by a violent past, wagers his life on the hope that the foretold Halfainin, the Pathwalker, would come. When at last, the Sword appears in the Stars, Alastair begins a fruitless search for the Halfainin that leaves him disillusioned, broken, and lost. Used to caring only for himself, Alastair will enter a maelstrom of conflict as loyalties are tested, dark schemes are hatched, and the many realms of Myriad brace themselves for war.
Will Alastair realize what he has before its too late...for everyone?



I also wasn’t sure that I was going to like Alastair at all, from what I saw of him in the beginning. But throughout the novel, he grew on me, which was really nice. His struggles – with witchdrale, with forgiving himself, with love – throughout the book really made me find myself attached to him, despite his horrific past.
One character that I particularly liked from introduction to the last page was Queen Maren. I kind of wanted to know more about her past, particularly where it involved Morlan. There’s something about a woman who’s in love with her husband/wife/partner and would do anything to protect them as well as her country.
Another character that I wanted more about was King Ealden. He was so harsh with Alistair about the witchdrale, but then he prayed that he hadn’t pushed him away like he had the person who was introduced to us as taking to him like an older brother.
I think you might have noticed that I always wanted more information about my favorite characters, if you read my reviews on a regular basis. Thankfully, it’s a series, so perhaps I will get more of Ealden and Maren’s respective backstories as well as their futures.
The cover for this book is actually brilliant. I didn’t realize it until after I’d finished the book that it was Araval and Morlan on the card. I was going to say it was incredibly misleading, because there’s nothing to do with cards in the book, but then I realized it was the two Kings on the card that were the point of the cover, not the card itself.
I’m going to rate this book with four out of five stars, because it was really well written, and very enjoyable, but it didn’t entirely capture my heart. I definitely look forward to reading the rest of the series!

Book: The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard
Rating: 5/5 Stars

The Midwife’s Revolt, by Jodi Daynard, takes the reader on a journey to the founding days of America. It follows one woman’s path, Lizzie Boylston, from her grieving days of widowhood after Bunker Hill, to her deepening friendship with Abigail Adams and midwifery, and finally to her dangerous work as a spy for the Cause. Much has been written about our founding men. But The Midwife’s Revolt is unique in that it opens a window onto the lives of our founding women as well.

This book was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. It was certainly unique, as the summary suggests. When I requested it as an ARC from Netgalley, I kind of expected a romance-y historical fiction novel, but that was not the case at all, much to my delight. It had a small amount of romance but, unlike other historical fiction novels that are from a woman’s perspective, it was not the focus of the novel, which was great.

The main character, Lizzie Boylston, was brilliant. She was clever and useful, but she messed up sometimes. She was rude to her mother-in-law (with plenty of good reason!) and got things wrong about her friends and neighbors. She was true to her cause, and tried her best not to be bitter about the loss of her husband around her happily married friend, Abigail Adams. I also loved that she was so attached to Star.

The other characters were equally as well written and enjoyable. I loved figuring out who actually was a spy in the end, and who worked for whom.

It was great getting to see a different perspective on the Revolutionary War, especially considering that the events that took place could actually have taken place during the time period, both in the social sphere as well as in her work.

I definitely recommend this to anyone that enjoys Revolutionary America. It’s a great read, sure to keep you reading.

Review to be written when I have recovered.