This book kinda raises some questions about Bethenny's parenting/dog-caretaking skills, and it's not clear who the audience is? (OK, the audience is women who watch RHONY and need to get a gift for their friend's baby shower?) It's not like, offensive, just...not recommended.

The illustrations are cute though.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-68-cookie-meets-peanut/

I found this because I was putting together a book list for Peace Corps week and, as an RPCV, was intrigued by a romance novel featuring a Peace Corps volunteer. But: the novel apparently starts at the end of her service and she barely ever talks about it, so if you're interested in this for the Peace Corps hook, honestly don't bother. There's way more in here about the CIA and "Endgame Ops" which is like the CIA but better, because the CIA is kind of the villain of this book? But also: Boko Haram, which seems like.......too real for a mass-market romance novel, if you ask me. Also: very quickly dismissed.

anyway, I get it, most people aren't picking up a romance novel to read about Peace Corps life, fine. BUT there was tons of boring skimmable CIA intrigue shit. and also the "romance" was...gross. Like I get the alpha male/protective/whatever thing as a romance trope but these characters were so cardboard and his actions seemed so unreasonable. And, I know I already said this, but: gross.

I have taken the liberty of Storifying my livetweet of this book if you would like some more detail on this matter.

https://storify.com/renatasnacks/peace-corps-cia-romance-novel

I'm always interested in books about cults or cult-like-situations, so I picked this up after reading its description on a previous year's Amelia Bloomer list. Possibly because I have read other, similar books to this, I didn't totally jive with this one? It felt a little too...neatly resolved? But I enjoyed the characters and it was still a good page-turner.

Spoiler

And honestly, given the current ~political climate~ it was nice to read that everything worked out pretty well for Rachel, all things considered.

This was a super fun way to dip a toe back into the Lunar Chronicles world! It wasn't quite as engaging as the actual books, but it was also a much quicker read. I'll definitely pick up the next volume when it comes out.

I do think it would be pretty confusing to a reader who hadn't read the previous books in the series, so calling this "Wires and Nerve: Vol 1" is a little...misleading, maybe? I guess it would also be misleading to call it Lunar Chronicles Vol 6 or whatever, though.

I was a little thrown by this since I'm used to A. S. King's YA books, which are a little...weirder, which I like. This was more straightforward BUT still employed some cool twists, like the passages from 100 years ago. I loved Obe as a narrator; very sweet and observant. The friendship troubles here were so realistic, combined with the somewhat fantastic (meaning fantasy-y, not like, great) Marvin...there's a lot going on here and I think it'll especially hit home for sensitive, environmentally-aware kids (which are a lot of kids)!

I guessss tbh I don't see a ton of value added from reading these books vs just laughing at the covers & enjoying Chuck Tingle's twitter feed?

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-69-tinglers/

I guessss tbh I don't see a ton of value added from reading these books vs just laughing at the covers & enjoying Chuck Tingle's twitter feed?

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-69-tinglers/

This was super fun and sweet! I love a well-meaning garbage boy and Monty is juust the ticket. Plus: super smart lady rebelling against society! Plus: dapper biracial gentleman forcing his garbage boyfriend to check his privilege! Plus: pirates!

Spoiler

There was a subplot about alchemy that felt like.....a little unnecessary? Like I think I would have preferred just the pirates and highwaymen and more grounded-in-reality problems? But ehh whatever it was really fun and I liked it a ton!

** edit: I've been thinking about it and I do like how the alchemy plotline made Monty kinda ~check his ableism~ but I, as a reader, maybe would have preferred it if he thought he could solve Percy's problems with alchemy but it turned out he couldn't really...the fact that the alchemy definitely worked was...a little weird for me...but whatever!

I was hype to read this because I loved Zentner's first book, [b:The Serpent King|22752127|The Serpent King|Jeff Zentner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435673762s/22752127.jpg|42298618], so much, but I have to say I really struggled with the central premise of this? Well, not the whole premise--see, Carver has a crew of 3 best friends, and one day when he has to work and he knows his friends are out having fun without him, he texts one of the friends and asks where they are and says "Text me back." The driving friend texts him back--and rear ends a semi truck and all 3 friends die. That, I think, is a really solid and plausible tragedy to center your tearjerker YA novel about. BUT then the friend's dad wants to press charges against Carver for sending the text?? And that's what lost me bc I was like "REALLY???" I even googled it and it turns out there has been one case of a lawsuit like that but it just seemed like...c'mon really, you're gonna sue this sad teen boy who already blames himself???

I think it would have been more interesting if it were just about his own self-blame, or even like, feeling judgment/disapproval without this actual legal threat???

I did like the characters, and I like a good teen angst book, and I liked that therapy and meds were shown as helpful, useful tools rather than like "something that steals your personality away", and I liked that Carver got called on some other shit (not related to texting)....but the whole legal investigation just felt like Too Much and it bugged me the whole time (even with the justification that the dead friend's dad is a judge...IDK IDK).

uhh I wanted to like this? I like almost all of these characters individually but as a team-up this is super convoluted and, uhhh dumb and bad. These characters deserve better!