published: 2017
pages: 262
read: 10/3-4/2019
book: 57 in 2019
Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again.
Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all . . . even without arms.
Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all . . . even without arms.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
another one from Dusti Bowling FTW! <3
LONG VERSION
another good one for 2019.
after reading her first book, i went into this one a little hesitant because i was all "how am i going to be able to love another gang of friends when i already loved the first ones so much!?" well, turns out, there was more a lot more space because i ABSOLUTELY loved this book and everyone in it!
man, kids books are really made out of something.
(this book is recommended for 5th-8th graders.)
just like all the other kids books i have read this year, this is another good one to read for yourself or with your kids if you have any.
i love the way DB talks about Aven and her disability and how she feels about it when people judge her but also how she knows she's more than her disability. it might take her longer to do things but she can do them just as good, if not better.
another thing i loved were Aven's parents.
they did not baby her at all.
she might not have arms but she can still do what she needs to do when she wants to get it done. and it is all in thanks to her parents showing her that she can do just basically everything everyone else can. since day one, they showed her that she is just as capable. but you know they are doing it for her own good to so she can take care of herself when she grows older.
what an amazing message.
and i love that the book is covered in this funny style of writing. there are little gems, such as this one, "...mom always came to all my games. she was like one of those embarrassing crazy people you hear about who take kids' sports way too seriously. she would constantly yell at my coach and my coach would threaten to ban her from the games. the coach was my dad." i just find little passages like that so endearing.
i also loved the friendships Aven creates when she moves to Arizona.
I love Connor and Zion. <3
and i love how all 3 of them compliment each other.
i believe this book would have been fine just ending as it did.....buuuuut there is a second one so im off to read that one!
ill be back.
jump on over for spoilers!
published: 2019
pages: 432
heard: 9/26-28/2019
book: 56 in 2019
Life was sometimes unbearably unfair.
Time passes and Mimi comes and goes, and concentrates on her career. Yet as their lives continue to intersect over the years and emotions (or relationships) become tangled, it's Cal who makes her feel most welcome whenever she does return to Goosebrook. But if he's The One, will it ever be the right time for them both?
MY THOUGHTS
another case of me requesting the wrong audio book even though i had JUST seen the cover seconds before i placed the hold.
*le sigh* when will i learn.
...but no fear! i love Jill Mansell. i love her stories and i will forever read all of her books and at this point, I'm not even sure what number this is because i don't think I've counted them on Good Reads and I'm pretty sure i haven't blogged all of them so i have no idea. anyway, never fear cause this just means i get to knock another one of her books out of my invisible Jill Mansell TBR!
like most (i wont say all because i have horrible memory!...but I'm pretty sure...) of her books, this is another love story that's a little tumultuous before they end up together. and the ride she takes you on is the best!
the meeting between Mimi and Cal was the funniest thing ever. that sheep! haha. i heard that bit over and over because i couldn't stop laughing. and i could've sworn they were going to end up together BUT THEN you learn that they can't because Cal is married and i was like NOOOOO!!!! ...then i was trying to guess who the heck Mimi was going to end up with only to learn that Jill is very good at messing with my emotions.
by chapter 6 i was crying my guts out because OMG! i was not expecting that at all!
chapter 7 jumps to 4 years later and WOAH!
talk about everything happening for a reason!
things start to switch around so that they can fall into place but woah!
shit really hits the fan for Mimi before they start to pick up.
i liked the way everything connected once it started falling into place.
i liked the way it all, even after a bit of turbulence, ended.
even the village "party animal" was just about the best. i loved Patty. haha. he was the best. and funny too!
overall, glad i heard this! love JM!
her books are always a quick pick me up read that sets me in a good mood.
jump on over for spoilers!
thanks for reading!
published: 2019
pages: 310
read: 9/14-18/2019
book: 55 in 2019
that's the thing I always love best about the human race: how we pick ourselves back up over and over and just keep going.
Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she’s seen her fair share of them, and she’s a total pro at other people’s tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to give up her whole life and move to Boston, Cassie suddenly has an emergency of her own.
The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie’s old job as it could possibly be. Hazing, a lack of funding, and poor facilities mean that the firemen aren’t exactly thrilled to have a “lady” on the crew—even one as competent and smart as Cassie. Except for the infatuation-inspiring rookie, who doesn’t seem to mind having Cassie around. But she can’t think about that. Because love is girly, and it’s not her thing. And don’t forget the advice her old captain gave her: Never date firefighters. Cassie can feel her resolve slipping . . . and it means risking everything—the only job she’s ever loved and the hero she’s worked like hell to become.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
100,000 times yes! i love this book SO MUCH!
LONG VERSION
This is one of those stories that I love because of what the
stories says to me and how I'm making a connection to it personally vs what
it's just trying to say in general to all of us.
This one was so good!!!!
2019 has had some woof's but man has it given me a lot of books to love and this one has just made the latter.
I didn't know what to expect from this book.
This one was so good!!!!
2019 has had some woof's but man has it given me a lot of books to love and this one has just made the latter.
I didn't know what to expect from this book.
I've never heard of this author and even though I've been burned before (no pun
intended) with IG books, I'm so glad that I still listened to myself and checked
this one out and I'm even more glad that it turned out to be so goooooood!!!!!!!
I'm still trying to decide if this is a story told by Cassie from the future as like a look back vs just a story as its happening but I honestly think its the former if not a bit of both. Because there's time where I catch her talking about "now that I look back then...." kinda deal but then she goes back to an in the moment story telling kind of point of view.
I love this story because it sets up a perfect example of how only having one side of the story, can ruin a relationship. How it can affect you as a human and how it can affect the decisions you make into adulthood.
I'm still trying to decide if this is a story told by Cassie from the future as like a look back vs just a story as its happening but I honestly think its the former if not a bit of both. Because there's time where I catch her talking about "now that I look back then...." kinda deal but then she goes back to an in the moment story telling kind of point of view.
I love this story because it sets up a perfect example of how only having one side of the story, can ruin a relationship. How it can affect you as a human and how it can affect the decisions you make into adulthood.
Let's get this out of the way: I loved her mother, Diana. So I guess its safe
to say how her story arch ends up, but I do wonder if after the circumstances,
couldn't she have found a way to explain her side of the story? i don't think she should have had to wait so long to explain her side of the story. ..but then again maybe she also had her own things to work out before she could make that move? idk, all of the possibilities!
when we're little, they're everything - the gods and goddesses that rule our worlds. it takes a lot of growing up, and a lot of disappointment, to accept that they're just normal, bumbling, mistaken humans, like everybody else.
Of course, we learn that it wasn't just Diana's decision that caused a cosmic
shift in Cassie. (I wont spoil that here but it does become pretty evident in the story) but you can see how one leads to another that leads to all of Cassie's life choices.
i love how Cassie is such a tough ass but you can see her start crack little by little.
i love how this book is set up to show you how one reaction leads to all of these situations that would have never happened otherwise.
i love that they both have a chance to reconnect and learn each other once again and how it just gave Cassie all that she needed to become the person that she was meant to be.
...and the Rookie!!!
OMG! i have fallen in love with him myself!
OMG! i have fallen in love with him myself!
this guy!
what wasn't there to love about that guy!
ahhh!
i felt all sorts of emotions reading this book.
i am so glad i read it. i cant wait to re-read it.
i loved it so much i bought it right away.
...but also please note all the notes and highlights i took!
gah!, this one was great <3
im so thankful for this book.
the answer wasnt to never love anyone. it was to love like crazy whenever you could.
jump on over for spoilers!
thanks for reading!
published: 2019
pages: 292
read: 9/4-8/2019
book: 54 in 2019
"This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out."
In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses--and into the owners' computers as well--learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.
Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?
In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .
In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses--and into the owners' computers as well--learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.
Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?
In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .
MY THOUGHTS
by now, y'all know i love Shari.
and that still hasn't changed.
....but i gotta say that this one wasn't my favorites. i didn't not like it but i wasn't crazy about it.
as always, i did look for spoilers and found them pretty quick but unlike last time, i don't think it bit me in the ass this time around. i just....i don't know. i knew who did it...and why and well, the entire story didn't make sense to me in the sense of the killer.
you legit do not know who did it until you do. there wasn't a build up in regards to the character. but there was a build up for basically everybody else.
its all a bit of whoddunnit and then you find out and its all "was this really all necessary?"
i cant really say much of why because i think its a bit of a spoiler.
it also left me with some unanswered questions. (fuck it, sorry for some spoilers)
like who has the burner?
why does Robert think it was Becky?
was it Becky?
what else was on the phone?
why did homeboy wait SO LONG to open his mouth!?
...i guess i can see why Robert would think it was Becky but if it was....then HOW!? wasn't he always home?
what are the other secrets!?
I D K!!!!
I'm wondering if its raising so many questions because there's going to be a second book?
but iduno....i don't think there is. i just think she's giving us an "up to you" kind of ending.
either way, i liked reading this book. its just not my fave of hers.
this cast was blah.
it wasn't that exciting. i was kinda hoping for it to be over soon which is saying something because i really only wish for books to be over when i really want to know and in this case i was just over it.
maybe ill re-read it when i come across a paperback copy (planning to own all her books and this is the only one i need) maybe ill see more than i did this time.
anyway, jump over for super quick spoilers.
thanks for reading!
#bookslesreads on IG
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published: 2019
pages: 296
read: 8/25-27/2019
book: 53 in 2019
Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he's defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.
As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can't turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn't go as planned. Esme's lessons in love seem to be working...but only on herself. She's hopelessly smitten with a man who's convinced he can never return her affection.
With Esme's time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he's been wrong all along. And there's more than one way to love.
As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can't turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn't go as planned. Esme's lessons in love seem to be working...but only on herself. She's hopelessly smitten with a man who's convinced he can never return her affection.
With Esme's time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he's been wrong all along. And there's more than one way to love.
MY THOUGHTS
is this like a thing?
are all books now a part of a series that can be read without reading any other in the series and they're all about love but take the destructive path just to end up in, hmmm, what do you know...LOVE!?
*breathes out* rant over.
okay so, i read this because of course i read the first one without knowing that it was going to be part of a series. and because i cant just not care, i had to read this one.
i was going to skip it but i said to myself "shut up, suck it up and read it."
and guys, i mean.
pre authors note: meh. it was like whatever. definitely okay NOT reading this book
after authors note: well, i love her note but still the same.
see here's the thing:
i LOVE love stories. i can read them forever.
and i know that they are usually more likely than not the same damn thing. and i'm okay with that.
100%.
but there is something about stories that start as a plain ol' love story that then introduces all these characters that are okay just doing their one thing in that story only to then get a notice that a character from that one story is now going to get their own story.
AND ITS THE SAME DAMN STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...das a lot of story.
...das a lot of story.
so, this story.
it didn't do anything for me.
it was the same damn thing as the first one. with the same damn plot.
the one good thing about this story was Esme's story line.
....and even then....
here's my thing:
as part of Esme's struggle, Hoang does right by her. she's trying her best to exist BUT its things that are out of My's control that are stopping her from being who she wants to be. the short of it, the universe is conspiring against her.
and that's about it on the good.
now for the bad (?) maybe not bad but more like "it doesn't make sense."
-the entire beginning, My kept going on about how it was a bad idea and how she didn't want to leave her daughter but then she realizes that she needs to do this in order to improve all their lives.
i know this is a story (so maybe i should just let it go?) but did they not think about how this could possibly be dangerous? (I'm imagining Hoang cut this short for our benefit...lol) she's leaving her country to who knows where and her mom is all team for it! what if it hadn't turned out this way for her (and at this point im basically turning a love story into a horror one.)
-My came off as a very shy, humble woman. how the fuck did she just flip a switch and turn on all this sexuality. especially since she was burned before. there was no build up, it just happened. how!? she went from A to Z without even seeing the rest of the letters of the alphabet (for lack of a better paraphrase).
-My is very..., not sheltered but it doesn't seem like outside of work she does much. so when she gets to Khai's and she takes off on the bike.....how the fuck did she know to use the motorcycle? i can drive a car. i have no idea how to drive a moped. let alone a motorcycle.
-that bike. (sorry if its a spoiler)
a) the accident was 10 years ago. ergo, its been sitting in the garage for 10 years
b) Khai has NEVER ridden it since
c) everyone just drives off with it...WHAT ABOUT GAS!? i googled it. its bad to drive on gas that's been sitting for 6 months. so 10 YEARS!!!!!! and it evaporates. so what is it living on? a prayer? (Khai being Khai i can imagine him just adding gas to it every so often just to keep going. but Khai being Khai and numbers being numbers.....i can't picture him justifying wasting money (even though money is of no object to him) that's just going to waste over and over again. (again, something else that isn't explained.)
oh! and what are the chances of finding a person with only THEIR NAME AND SCHOOL info!?
of the thousands there were......really!?
oh! and what are the chances of finding a person with only THEIR NAME AND SCHOOL info!?
of the thousands there were......really!?
i know there's more to it than this but i cant remember....but those were some major ones.
it wasn't a bad book i just personally do not see the need to write the same book over and over no matter the character. its the same as Jasmine Guillory in my opinion. same shit different book.
and i should note that even though i feel that for me the book was of no need (FOR ME), it still made me tear up in the end. LOL.
so yea.
FOR ME there was no need for this one, there's going to be another one and I'm placing my bet that a) i am going to read it and b) its probably going to be about Quan. or maybe Khai & My's wedding. or fuck it, maybe the love story between Esme's parents.
i don't know.
we'll see.
anyway...
jump over for spoilers
i don't know.
we'll see.
anyway...
jump over for spoilers
thanks for reading!
#bookslesreads on IG
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published: 2017
pages: 386
read / heard: 8/7-14/2019
book: 52 in 2019
A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.
Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return.
MY THOUGHTS
motherfu....!!!!!!!
i had started a review and it was already long and i had made all these damn points about why the story was good and it freaking got deleted and now my heart is broken and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and so I'm not going to dive into all that again because, well, ugh.
anyway, its a good read.
i went into it knowing the spoilers of the story as far as who dies and who did it but i didn't really know the why so i was really interested in finding that out. ....and woah!
first off, this is not like the girl on the train.
if you are going into it thinking that its going to be similar, put the book down, walk away and come back once you have forgotten TGOTT even exists. give this its own chance because it deserves it.
and once you do come back, come back with a notepad because there are about 14 (that i kept count of) characters that you're going to need to keep track of. im telling you this because this is how i have learned to keep track of different people in any of the stories i read....and then once i learn more about them, i go back and make notes because well, it never hurts to have info to look back on.
once you get the hang of them, you don't really need that list much anymore but i did find that it helped me out a lot more than if i wouldn't have done it in the first place.
anyway......because I'm heartbroken, ill just jump over to spoilers.
(i honestly had written a pretty dope detailed review. probably one of my best😢ðŸ˜)
....bit of a tip: if you can, listen to this while you read along. i think that's why i ended up liking the book so much. it was nice to have a voice to the characters and it forced me to slow down a bit and take more information in than if i had just read it on my own.
oh! also, book 50 was a joke so not posting that (i got it from Net Galley trying to up my score even though i don't mess with that site anyway) and book 51 will go up sometime in November. i somehow lucked out and scored an ARC of Lance Rubin's new book, crying laughing so I'm waiting for that to be released.
jump over for spoilers!
thanks for reading!
#bookslesreads on IG
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