sarahsbookstack's Reviews (2.55k)

Lily is a daughter of a famous treasure hunter who loves riddles, puzzles, and the thrill of chasing down legends. She fell in love with Leo at her father's ranch but when he had to go back home to New York, he never got in touch with her. 10 years later, she leads groups on trips in Southern Utah and Leo ends up on one. 

This is not a typical romance storyline from our fabulous duo but this book worked!

I love that most of it is set in my beautiful state in the red rock areas of Southern Utah. It sent me down a rabbit hole of information in Google on Butch Cassidy, his robberies and money stolen.

At about 34% in, there is a moment that just made my jaw drop and from there it's just non stop adventure and a bit of craziness.

I have not read any of the connecting books with this one but that didn't stop my enjoyment of it.

This book is centered on May and Naomi. May gets pregnant by a man that didn't want to marry her and she had to figure out how to raise a daughter with a disability. 

Naomi is a leader of the newer NAACP and a nurse who buys a home in a predominantly white neighborhood. Issues arise of organizing against coloreds moving there.

There were so many issues present in this book that are still around today. Prejudices, racism, abortion issues, women centered issues of equality, Spanish Flu pandemic, etc. But at the heart of this is motherhood. Both these woman show their strength as mothers.
Please read the author's note!

I loved learning about the meaning of a carnation and the original meaning of Mother's Day.

What this book had going for it:
-great setting
-easily readable in a few hours
-some very unlikeable characters (that's not for everyone but it is for me)

What wasn't great:
-one character that is so flip floppy in her moral code, she just totally goes dark at the end
-you find out later that 3 people knew each other but they didn't think to warn others?

I wouldn't call it a thriller. The thrilling parts were only at the end so I'd call it more just a contemporary

First of all, I had NO IDEA this was a retelling until after I read the book and looked at some reviews. I just thought it was a fantasy that probably pulled from Asian mythology.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. A princess escapes her betrothed on the wedding day, she finds out her stepmother is not all she seems and on consequence of finding that out-she is cursed and her brothers too. She cannot speak or make sounds or her brothers will die. The 6 brothers are cursed to spend days as cranes and nights hidden away.

I like the perseverance of Shiori. She finds ways to survive without sounds until she can reunite with her brothers. She has the help of a bit of magic within her, a paper crane she is able to bring to live Kiki as a friend and companion and there is a dragon that can turn into a human to help her too.

I'm excited for the next one as she takes on the next journey!

This is the perfect beach read with so much warmth and heart! 

If I could have ever single character, I mean EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER....Rosemary, Cami, Violet, Franklin, Jon, Alex as my small community of neighbors- give them to me wholeheartedly!

The way they all are as people and the struggles they are all going through, though vastly different, connect and unite them. I love the glamping on Moonlight Farms. If that could be at real place (yes I know they exist but I want THIS one) situated where it is, it just sounds downright magical!

This review is going to be short because I would say the best part of this were the actual seven tales inside the story. I didn't really care for Rebecca, she wasn't doing anything for me. I think Ellis was maybe the most interesting character, but even he wasn't that great.

I would say this had a lot of potential and it was okay for what it was. I would have been fine just reading the seven tales inside!

So good! This is a modern day blend of Romeo + Juliet and West Side Story. I love that it's about dueling mariachi bands of two families that have a long sated hated for each other.

Mariana and her sisters are so ready to prove that an all female band of mariachis CAN and SHOULD be allowed to be. But when Mariana accidently kisses a man, Angelo, unknowingly from the family her father has a feud with; she knows she about to be in trouble. He can't distract from her plan for her family's band to win the mariachi competition to help save their business and pride of their community.

Mariana is such a caring person. I loved her passion for her family, her job as a nurse, and as a musician. I loved that Angelo could see the wrongness of this feud and the pain it causes seeing the way his uncle acts. I see his love for his sister and know that he can give her the best life from under their uncle's thumb. 

The Capuleta sisters and their adoptive parents are such a wonderful family. I love the support they give and the help they give to all they can! 

This is a dark retelling of Peter Pan that I needed to read! This was executed in such a fantastic way.

The story is told through the eyes of the famous Wendy's granddaughter Holly. She's a scientist who runs a skincare company Darling. She has had tragedy in her life. Lost her husband, one half of her twin boys and a daughter in a 10 year long coma... Who suddenly disappears.

What I loved the most is that in this story, Wendy was a real person and she knew the author J.M. Barrie who wrote her tales down and made the family famous.

I liked that Peter was a very bad person and "Captain Hook" an ex-military rogue turned PI good guy. Holly is a mother first and foremost that does what she can to try and protect those she has left in her life. (Even though I'm 99.9% sure it's unethical) I FLEW through 80% of the book because I just couldn't put it down!

As more of a Sense and Sensibility fan, I can't tell you the similarities between this and Pride And Prejudice but I enjoyed the book.

You get Georgiana Darcy in a very privileged high school. She has something happen her sophomore year that seemed to turn the whole school against her. She's determined to make things right this year. Though even the safest place she ever felt at this school, being as part of the marching band, she's feeling ostracized.

I liked her friendship+ with Avery. I knew the reasons he stayed her friend from a mile away, way before she realized it. 

I just love the band stuff. I wasn't in the band but was in Color Guard that does stuff with the band so it's very nostalgic for me in those scenes!

Less than 300 pages and this is easily readable in a day. I didn't feel a lot of connection with the characters. I liked Sam the most but just barely. 

This is hailed as a post #metoo story but we get very little of that and it's at the very end. It does help you understand a bit of how Fiona acted out when she was young.

I wanted more from this. I felt sometimes Fiona forgave Sam too easily and quickly. I wanted more drama from both of them. Which is a weird thing to say if you read this.