Category: Book Reviews

Review: Lies That Bind by Diana Rodriguez Wallach (Anastasia Phoenix #2)

Posted 6 March, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

**SPOILER ALERT: This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series. Please do not read this review if you have not yet read Proof of Lies. Without reading the synopsis, I totally thought this book was going to be an adventure finding Marcus’s brother Antonio. I was wrong. They found him in the first chapter or two. He claims he no longer works for Department D and is no longer a spy. Therefore, he becomes a part of their group. (I don’t know about you, but I found that quite suspicious…) Since that obviously wasn’t the story… The story is actually about Anastasia, Marcus, Keira, Charlotte, Julian, and Antonio trying to take down Department D after the death of Anastasia’s close friend. To do so, they travel the world looking for Dresden Kids whose families have been wronged by Department D hoping to collect evidence. The overall story […]

Review: Darkest Night by Tara Thomas

Posted 2 March, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I love romantic suspense novels. I have also enjoyed novels of a different genre by Tara Thomas under a different pen name. Sadly, while I did love the Benedict brothers and Tilly Brock, I did not enjoy Darkest Night as much as I hoped to. Overall, I thought Darkest Night simply had too many elements leaving it feeling a bit underdeveloped. There was Tilly and Keaton’s second chance romance. There was the mystery behind the embezzlement case that separated Tilly and Keaton as teens. There was Tilly’s ex-best friend that was scheming to be the future Mrs. Keaton Benedict. There were more family secrets, people getting falsely accused and arrested, dead bodies, and a mysterious man determined to bring down Benedict Industries. As a reader, it was a difficult story for me to follow and get into. (The formatting of the eARC also did not help.) With all of the different things going on plot-wise and […]

Review: Assassin of Truths by Brenda Drake (Library Jumpers #3)

Posted 9 February, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

**SPOILER ALERT: This review may contain spoilers for the first two books in the series. Please do not read this review if you have not yet read Thief of Lies or Guardian of Secrets. Assassin of Truths by Brenda Drake was by far my favorite book in the series. There was action, romance, and a ton of feels. Assassin of Truths was a thrilling end to the Library Jumpers series. I truthfully don’t know how to talk about Assassin of Truths without giving it away. There was so much going on in Assassin of Truths and talking about any of it feels like I’m giving away major spoilers. I mean, how do I talk about a book that is all about this epic battle where Gia either saves the human world or lets it fall to the Mystik world? One thing that truly struck me about this book, however, was how 180 my thoughts about Arik […]

Review: Guardian of Secrets by Brenda Drake (Library Jumpers #2)

Posted 5 February, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

**SPOILER ALERT: This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series. Please do not read this review if you have not yet read Thief of Lies. In Guardian of Secrets, Gia, Nick, Arik, and the rest of the team are back to the human world. This time they’re hiding from the Mystik world by blending in with the human population. Gia and the rest of the Sentinels are training, Gia and Nick are on the hunt for the missing keys to unlock the Tetrad, and unrest is brewing in the Mystik world. Everything she learned about the Mystik world is starting to come into question. There was a ton of action in Guardian of Secrets. A ton of revelations was made, and people that were thought to be dead were found. Of course, the book ended in an epic battle to set up the next and final installment. Guardian of Secrets […]

Review: Thief of Lies by Brenda Drake (Library Jumpers #1)

Posted 29 January, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This review is based on my reread of Thief of Lies. For my initial review, please check out my review on Goodreads. I reread Thief of Lies in anticipation of the final book coming out on February 6th. I frequently suffer from book amnesia. Unless we’re talking about the book I’m currently reading, don’t expect me to remember much. So a reread was necessary. Anyway, I truly enjoyed my reread of Thief of Lies. I may have even enjoyed it a bit more the second time around. Thief of Lies is a story about a girl that finds out she is able to travel through gateway books into libraries around the world, that there’s another magical world that exists including bad guys and monsters, and of course, that she’s the “doomsday child” destined to save or destroy the world. (Don’t expect there to be any talk about books though. Just because they can travel […]

Review: Proof of Lies by Diana Rodriguez Wallach (Anastasia Phoenix #1)

Posted 16 January, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Proof of Lies by Diana Rodrigues Wallach was a fun spy-themed mystery/thriller. The story had a ton of secrets, lots of action, and even a bit of romance. Anastasia has been jet-setting around the world with her scientist parents and her older sister. She’s a black belt and knows four languages. At the beginning of the story, Anastasia loses her parents after an argument about moving away from Boston. Soon after that her sister/guardian disappears and is presumed dead. Believing that her sister is alive has her digging into her sister’s life and traveling to Europe with Marcus, a boy she barely knows and whose parents work for the same company as her parents did. Dresden kids stick together after all. On this adventure to find her sister, secrets are revealed that may possibly turn her life around more than it already has. As a YA thriller, Proof of Lies was on […]

Review: Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy

Posted 2 January, 2018 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Let’s talk about Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy. I picked it up for two reasons. 1) I’ve loved EVERYTHING I’ve read by Monica Murphy thus far, and 2) I love YA mystery/thrillers. Pretty Dead Girls started off strong for me. I loved Penelope and Cass, the main character and her love interest. I loved the catty-ness between the friends/frenemies in the Larks group, the most popular girls in this small affluent community. It was fast-paced, and quite the page-turner. It was a bit predictable but a solid YA mystery. While it was a solid mystery with great characters, one thing really nagged me about this story: the lack of parentals. The parents were physically present, but they weren’t really parenting. Perhaps, that’s to be expected with this sort of story. However, I just couldn’t shake it off. Considering there were kids dying, felt like they should have at least made sure their kids […]

Series Review: The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Posted 11 December, 2017 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater is a series I’ve been meaning to read for ages. I’ve heard so many good things about it. I knew I had to at least give it a try. The series as a whole is quite unique and different. It’s about a group of friends and the search for a King. It’s a fantasy set in a contemporary world with a whole lot of mystery and a bit of romance. Maggie Stiefvater’s writing isn’t for everyone. I thought her writing was beautiful but also quite slow. It took more effort for me to continue reading this series because of the pacing, but I was so intrigued by Blue, her Raven Boys, and their search for the King that I had to continue. It was such a struggle though. I think, out of all the books, the third installment of the series, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, […]

Review: Love Me By Christmas by Jaci Burton

Posted 10 November, 2017 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Note: I received this book for free from Sullivan and Partners. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I’m not a huge Christmas fanatic or anything, but I do LOVE Christmas themed romance novels. I don’t know what it is about Christmas that makes everything seem a bit more magical. When I was asked if I’d like to read an eARC of Love Me By Christmas by Jaci Burton, I jumped on it. Overall, I enjoyed reading Love Me By Christmas. It was a cute, quick read featuring lovely characters. My favorite was probably Nick and Ellie’s friend. Nick knew what he wanted and was pretty straightforward with Ellie about it when he finally decided to put his feelings out there. Ellie’s friend was also very no nonsense with Ellie in delivering advice. They were fantastic characters for a novella! My only problem was […]

Review: Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

Posted 9 October, 2017 by Amy in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

**SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers. Please do not read this review if you are looking for a spoiler-free review. Once and for All by Sarah Dessen is the first book and only book I’ve read by Sarah Dessen. While it was a good read, I think there were elements in Once and for All that just didn’t work for me, and to talk about said elements, I can’t do a spoiler-free review. So if you haven’t read Once and for All yet and don’t want to be spoiled, please STOP READING NOW. Granted, it is already October. I’d like to assume anyone that truly wanted to read Once and for All without spoilers would have read it already. Let’s proceed… Dessen’s Once and for All was a wonderful YA contemporary romance, and if it took out the whole bit about Louna’s, the main character, boyfriend dying in a tragic shooting and the fact that EVERYONE […]