genieinanovel's Reviews (752)

I said after reading McManus’s second book that she was going to become one of my favorite authors, and now after finishing her fourth novel, I stand by what I said. She is definitely one of my favorite authors and now my go-to for YA mysteries.

The Cousins follows Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story – cousins who barely know each other – and they’ve been invited out of the blue to work at their estranged grandmother’s island resort for the summer. Though surprised and apprehensive as to why she’s reaching out now, they’re also curious.

Besides, their parents aren’t giving them a choice: they’re going whether they want to or not. This could be their chance to get back into their mother’s good graces after she suddenly cut them off twenty-four years ago. But when the cousins arrive to the island, they realize that something is off, and that there might be more family secrets lying around than they ever imagined.

Like her other novels, McManus does not disappoint with keeping my mind on its toes, looking for clues to figure out the mystery myself. And even when I do figure out something, she immediately throws another twist at I never expected. The beginning starts slow, easing you into the Story family and a teeny bit of their history with one another, which allows you to invest in the characters more. But once the mystery starts, it’s one thing right after another… and I love it!

As usual, the story is told in the POV’s of the main characters – Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah – but there are a few chapters with flashbacks to Milly’s mother, Allison, that help tie the story together. I found it really worked with this particular story and enjoyed the flashback moments just as much as reading the POV’s of the cousins. It’s McManus’s style and way of telling a story that has me as one of her fans, and I look forward to more of her work coming (hopefully) soon!

With that said I completely enjoyed this book and my first thought after I finished was...



The Cousins comes out December 2020 and I highly recommend it to YA mystery fans. You don't want to miss this gem of a book!

Thanks to NetGalley for a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

How to Eat a Cupcake is a light read that I'd recommend for anyone who likes stories about estranged friends coming back together for a cause.  Of course, in this case, the cause is a cupcakery, which is honestly the part that really drew me in.

Though the story is slow to get to it, the element that kept me wanting to read was Julia's secret that prompted her to suddenly quit her job in New York and return home to San Francisco.  I was wrong with my guess of what her secret was, which felt weird because I'm normally better at predicting these things.  It did give me a better perspective on why Julia was acting the way she was in the beginning of the novel and when it was revealed it was definitely a turn for the better of her mending friendship with Annie.

Annie was a character I liked for the most part.  She was guarded due to the hurt she experienced in high school and from losing her mother at only 18 years old.  I could relate in the way that I'd be lost without my mom if anything happened to her, even though she's not my only family (I'm just very close to her).  It was more her playful sarcasm that won me over, especially when it was aimed toward Julia, because it showed that she was learning to forgive Julia's actions as a teenager and give their friendship another shot.

The mystery behind who is trying to sabotage the cupcakery was another plot point that is worth reading for, though the answer is a little weird in my opinion.  I think I would have preferred the author to go a different way with it, but it is what it is.

Overall, I liked this book for the most part, and I think others will too, as long as you don't expect too much from it.

So I’ve read this book before, but instead of reading it this time I decided to use one of my Audible credits to get the audiobook version and give it a listen. I know that one of the stars of Descendants, Sofia Carson, is the narrator for all four Descendants novels, and I’m a fan of her music so I figured she’d do a great job narrating the novels. And a great job she did.

It was very easy to invest my brain in the story as I listened to her narrate. She was definitely the perfect candidate for this job – she even captured the tones of her co-stars’ characters perfectly! I have to say that at some times of reading Mal’s dialogue, she imitated Dove Cameron very well!

The story itself was good, and I enjoyed once again getting the backstory of Mal and Uma’s rivalry. There was also some good tension that had me a little worried about the characters (even though I’d knew they’d be fine) while they were recovering the trident and honestly if this wasn’t a Disney middle-grade novel, there would’ve been a different outcome that could’ve possibly had me flipping my lid.

My favorite scenes however had to be between Evie and Doug because they’re my OTP of the entire Descendants franchise. What irks me about the movies is that their relationship is overshadowed by Mal and Ben’s, and I really would’ve loved to see more Devie in the movies because their relationship has the most to be explored given the characters’ family histories. At least the book gave me some good Devie moments.

Overall, I enjoyed this book the first time reading it, and even more so this time around listening to the audiobook, and if you’re a Descendants fan you should definitely make sure you get your hands on this book if you haven’t already. And if you’re not a Descendants fan… what are you waiting for?

The Case for Jamie takes place a year after the last book, in which Jamie and Charlotte haven’t seen nor heard from each other in that time. Jamie finally felt that it was best to move on from Charlotte Holmes, and Charlotte felt that she needed to hunt for Lucien Moriarty on her own. And now that the two are separated, we were introduced to more of Charlotte’s point-of-view in alternating chapters with Jamie’s, which was a nice change of pace.

I really felt bad for Jamie throughout this book. He began to feel bad about himself and kind of just wanted some of that normalcy he had before meeting Charlotte, but also missed her incredibly. Right now I can really relate to that with where I am in my life switching jobs – I miss the normal way of my life for the past four years, but also think I might like my new setting. It’s hard; change is hard. Though I am happy that Jamie and Charlotte are eventually reunited and take care of things together once again.

There were some “I should’ve seen that coming” moments in the book, and I loved that I missed them because it just made my jaw drop. Though I feel like there wasn’t too much of a plot in this one, now that I’m looking back on it. It was more like the after effects of the past two books and honestly what Lucien pulls in this book is like… why???

Regardless, this book is another good one that I’d recommend, and the last four pages of the book between Jamie and Charlotte is so friggin’ adorable!

The final book following the Fuentes brothers, Chain Reaction focuses on adrenaline junkie, Luis. He’s the youngest of the three brothers and the only one to not have gotten himself in any serious trouble… or so it seems.

The book opens with his immediate need for adrenaline as he free climbs a cliff formation in Colorado, only to end up bitten by a snake and falls, though not too seriously injured. Then we meet Nikki, who goes to tell her boyfriend something important, then is left in the dust when he leaves her to join the infamous Latino Blood, which leaves her to throw away any belief in love that she had.

So when Luis and Nikki meet, it gets interesting.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the other two. I like how the author went along and did a story for each of the brothers, showing how similar they were and also how different. Luis is definitely more level headed than his brothers, at least for most of the story, and I loved how they thought he was so sheltered by their previous gang affiliations when in reality Luis knew what was really going down. Nikki’s pessimism about relationships was a refreshing viewpoint to read about, especially when you see how she got to that point. It was that fact that also made me enjoy her friendship with her best friend, Kendall, because Kendall really wanted Nikki to be able to let go of the past when she saw how Nikki was starting to feel about Luis, but also didn’t push her to something she wasn’t ready for.

What I really enjoyed about this book though (as well as the others) is the family aspect – how these brothers are willing to risk everything for their loved ones in order to keep them safe. So it had me sad at one point when Luis felt like he had no choice but to give up the dream he’d been working towards his entire life in order to keep his mom and brothers safe.

Overall, I feel like this book isn’t quite up to the same standards as the previous ones, and I will say that Perfect Chemistry is my favorite of all of them… but Chain Reaction is still good and a nice little conclusion to the saga of the Fuentes brothers.

Weeks have passed since Mal defeated her mother, Maleficent (now a tiny lizard), and everything seems peaceful for her and her friends. However, there have been some weird weather patterns happening throughout the United States of Auradon that cannot be explained, and there have been some mysterious attacks in a nearby kingdom.

Then, there are the messages.

Mal and her friends each receive a message telling them to return to the Isle of the Lost before Saturday night. They have no idea who sent them this message or why they want them to return, but after some hacking Carlos is able to find out that there is going to be a meeting of the Anti-Heroes club the night they were told to return to the Isle. Going against their better judgement, the four former villains decide to travel to the Isle to find out what this club might be plotting and to stop them before they disrupt the peace in Auradon.

To my surprise, I did not enjoy this book as much as its predecessor, The Isle of the Lost. Part of this is due to the fact that the villain kids are lacking the edge they had in the first book and the beginning of the Descendants movie. I get that they chose good in the movie, but it seems as though their transformation to good was too drastic in such a short time. Yes, Mal and Jay had a few moments where their bad side showed, but they were still much more tame than the first book.

Aside from that the plot was interesting, since it book took some turns that I wasn’t expecting and it kept me on my toes as I waited for certain events to either happen or not happen. It was similar to the first book where each of the kids had their own battle to face on the Isle, only this had more of a focus on the new friendship the four now share.

There were some new characters who made small appearances that I liked, including Genie’s daughter, Jordan, and a few more of the villain kids that our old VK’s encounter on their trip home.

I’m still on the fence whether I like this one more than the first book or not, but I do know that I prefer the movies because, well, the music guys… come on. Still, I treat the Descendants books and movies differently because it’s not necessarily a book made into a movie or vice versa.

Didn’t you know? Villains have kids too.

Twenty years ago when Belle married her Beast they rounded up all the villains and banished them… to the Isle of the Lost. During their banishment these notorious villains have been raising their young, preparing them for the day when they’d escape the magic dome allowing them to finally get their revenge.

This book, being the prequel to the 2015 hit TV movie Disney Descendants, introduces us to the four main villain children – Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos – and gives us a glimpse of what their life was like before the movie. The food is rotten, the houses are shoddy and the parent-child relationships are nothing like the ones in Auradon. What do you expect? They’re villains and they pretty much only see their children as a way to carry on their evil legacies… assuming they get off the island eventually.

The book also gives us a glimpse of Prince Ben in Auradon and his training to becoming King once he turns sixteen. There are not many chapters dedicated to his character, but we do get to see in which ways he takes after his parents, King Beast and Queen Belle.

Meanwhile, on the isle Mal is given an assignment from her mother (Maleficent) to retrieve her treasured scepter, which holds the Dragon Eye, from the other side of the island. However, there’s a catch – the eye is cursed. The first person to touch it and ‘wake the dragon’ will be cursed to sleep for a thousand years (classic Maleficent). Enlisting the help of her three acquaintances (because villains don’t have friends) Mal conducts a plan that will help them retrieve the eye and she’ll be able to prove once and for all that she is as evil as her mother.

So… this book is definitely a great read. I like that we get to see more into the lives of the villain children before they go to Auradon in the movie. However, there are some differences between the book and movie that irk me a little, but isn’t that always the case?

First of all, the villain children are not as close in the book as they make them out to be in the movie, and neither are the parents. In the book we learn that Mal hates Evie for an incident that happened when they were six, and just as well their parents, Evil Queen and Maleficent aren’t exactly fond of each other. In the movie, it’s completely opposite. It seems as though EQ and Maleficent are best friends, along with Jafar and Cruella De Vil.

Now that I think about it, that’s really the only thing that bugs me between the book and movie.

I guess it works out though, because during their quest to find the Dragon Eye we see the four villains-in-training doing something they never thought possible – bond.

In any case, if you are at all interested in reading about the children of some of the most famous villains I’d definitely recommend this book… and the movies of course. It’s up to you of course whether you want to read the book first or see the movie, since you don’t necessarily need to read the book before watching the movie.