Mid Year Check In

It has been a hot minute since I checked in on here. A lot has happened in very little time frame! As my life is stabilizing I hope to be more consistent in my reviews and posting more on Bookstagram and this blog.

As of today, 08/27/2019, I  have read 105 books for the year!

Goal this year was to get through some of my owned books. Between my book friends and I, we have been playing games that encourage us to shop our own shelves for books to read. I have found some real winners among them! I really enjoyed Below by Ryan Lockwood and White Hot by Sandra Brown. I also got to read several free books that were sent to me by publishers. Picture Us in the Light, slow start but had a deeper meaning that I was able to hook into eventually was one of those!

I got caught in the hype for some books like The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare. I absolutely LOVED this book and raced to read the next one in the series, The Governess Game. They are historical romances and worth every drop of ink on their pages. I also picked up Saga series. If you read nothing else this year, read Saga. My heart is still in pieces.

Book club continued to pick some great reads! I was able to select Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and was so very happy to get this one read. I enjoyed it immensely and cannot wait to pick up more by the author.

I discovered some new to me BookTubers and read Come As You Are, another five star read that I would recommend to woman and men to read. It does have a narrow focus on straight woman since that is the author but I think everyone can learn something from it. 

I also read hyped books that were disappointing like 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne. I loved The Hating Game so much and had high hopes for this but...man on man. I could have totally skipped it.

Mid year the books fell this way and that. I had some amazing reads like The Bird King that came our of left field and then some duds like The Clockmaker;s Daughter that dragged on a little too long.

Overall the reading year has been fantastic and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

For more ratings/reviews/images check out my social media!

Instagram: @shelf.loving

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The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

Published 05/22/2018

A free ebook, the following review is my own.

A slow- burn mystery. This book took a long winding path of revealing simple clues throughout. There was nothing gigantically shocking but a slow slide into intense drama. I think the story did a great job showing a marriage falling apart. How perceived wrongs and being on the wrong page causes tension and bigger problems room to move in. I think couples can relate to Caroline and Francis and how the child is one of the major glues holding them together during some of the rough patches.

Caroline wants to shake things up so when the opportunity for swapping houses for a vacation comes available she jumps on it. As Caroline and Francis settle into their borrowed home their relationship tensions start bubbling to the surface. It doesn’t help that the house seems to be cropping up clues of a past Caroline does not want to remember.

Instagram: @shelf.loving

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The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian

Published 03/13/2018

A free ebook, the following review is my own.

This book was a bit slow for me. I felt like the author focused so hard on Cassandra's drinking problem and repeated it so much that I was too bored to enjoy any of the other workings of the plot. There were some twists at the end that I didn't see coming so that gave it what I needed to enjoy the story. If you like slow burn plots I would highly recommend.

Cassandra “Cassie” Bowden is used to being hungover in the mornings. She is not used to waking up next to dead men. Afraid to call the Dubai police she cleans up and sneaks out of the hotel. The lies build up from there until she thinks she is safely in New York. Trying to piece together the night, and remember if she killed the handsome stranger, she falls too deep into her lies to climb back out and ask for help.

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The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Published 10/18/2016

A free physical copy, the following review is my own.

First, the cover on this book is so pretty!

Second, this story… It made me feel all types of uncomfortable, in a good way. Albert Einstein is a well-known historical figure, but what about his first wife? She gave birth to three children and was a brilliant physicist. What is the phrase, behind every great man is a woman who pushed him there? 

While Albert’s fame grew, Mileva gave up on her own budding career, or did she? As a woman her thoughts and findings would not have been readily accepted by the public. If Einstein, a man, were to publish them as his own though…

This was a very intriguing book and makes you think more about history that is not told in school. What if Einstein’s theories were not his own? Based on found letters this book could be history, or it could be fiction. Either way it was engaging.

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Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Published 05/08/2018

This was a free ebook from Penguin First to Read, the following review is my own.

I LOVED this book. It was constantly on the verge of being cheesy but damn! It was funny, it was sad. It had powers, it had teenage hopes and dreams. It was a great murder mystery with a twist! So happy to have received a copy and I cannot wait to push it onto my friends to read!

Mila Flores is an overweight teenage Wiccan, this doesn’t exactly translate to popularity in high school. When Mila’s one and only friend Riley dies she is devastated. Add that to the two deaths just a week earlier and things just don’t seem to be right in their small town. Mila uses the things Riley taught her and tries to bring Riley back to life to help her resolve what she thinks was a murder. It is not just Riley that comes back from the grave though. With a week deadline before the girls going back to their graves Mila is trying to get the girls to focus on their murders before the killer strikes again.

Instagram: @shelf.loving

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The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

Published May 1, 2018

I received a free ebook copy from Penguin First to Read, the following review is my own.

The first chapter had be hooked. I LOVED Tash's point of view. Then the point of view started switching constantly and initially I thought that it did not add a ton of value. I think the first third of this book could have used some ruthless editing. I know there needs to be world building but it didn’t have to be so dumpy in the beginning. That being said I did enjoy it, the last third especially saved the story for me. I would pick up the second!

The synopsis could use an overhaul as well.

Tash was sold to a demon hunter and has quickly learned and mastered her share of the trade, being the bait. Hunting demons and capturing their smoke to sell is illegal though and when a petty argument leads to a local boy stealing the hard earned bottle for cheap thrills an adventure starts for more than just Tash and the thief. In a town over, the Princess Catherine is about to be forced into marriage. Her knight in shining armor though is the man she really wants to be with. Her father just tortured and publicly humiliated and murdered his sister though. He last words signed though lead her searching for answers to why her death needed to be so brutal and public, what does it have to do with boys and smoke?

Even though it had pacing issues, it was a great YA fantasy and I cannot wait for the rest of the series!

Instagram: @shelf.loving

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The Pisces by Melissa Broder

The Pisces by Melissa Broder

I received a free ebook from Penguin First to Read, the following review is my own.

Wow, just wow, and not in a good way. This book was trash. I should have known from the first page.

“I liked the smell of his meaty breath, which he didn’t know was rancid. I liked the warmth of his fat belly, the primal way he crouched when he took a shit. It felt so intimate scooping his gigantic shits, the big hot bags of them.”

It only got worse from there.

Next couple pages the author took several paragraphs to describe another girls butt cheeks hanging out of her shorts and how the questions a guy was asking her has nothing to do with the question, but about the girls butt line… like…what…

Everything was super repetitive like Bubba Gump listing the millions of way to prep shrimp (thank you Nate).

“I only wanted to lie around and eat sugar and fats: giant chocolaty drinks from Starbucks, bags of Hershey’s minis and gummy candy, tortilla chips with nacho cheese dip.”

As the reader, I am pretty sure I know what has sugars and fats in it. So much wasted space, yet not enough.

The only good part of this book was the description on her split from the boyfriend:

“The confusion of just wanting it to end, seeing someone you don’t love, but then seeing the person you did fall in love with. Getting what you want but it not being what you meant/want now.”

I personally connected on this since I was in a long, serious relationship of almost 7 years and it came to this same feeling. It was an in the same moment, I love him but I am not in love with him realization. This was basically the only sentence I liked though.

This book has a ton of BAD BAD BAD stuff. It was gross. It was not poetic. It was terrible. I only scratched the surface with the "intimate gigantic shit" with how gross this book is.

Instagram: @shelf.loving

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/shelfloving