🌷APRIL Wrap-Up Part 1🌸
I know this is a bit unexpected of me, but I know that I sometimes don't want to read a lengthy blog post so I figured I would try and break mine up so that they will be easier to digest. Here are the first three books that I read in the month of April, and while none of them are 5-star books, I'm glad to have enjoyed them and added them to my read list. I just wanted to say a disclaimer that these ARE MY OPINIONS and mine alone, while you dear reader might have given these book 5 stars or more your reasons are your own as these are mine. I hope you enjoy my little bit of commentary and will come back to see the next three books I read in the month of April. To the books!
Beneath The Sugar Sky- ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The third book in the Wayward Children series was a very delightful read. In this 174 page, novella we follow Cora a girl who was once a mermaid and now back in our world living at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She and her BFF Nadya are just about to go swimming in one of the ponds on the grounds of the school when a young girl falls from the sky, splashing both of them with murky pond water and turtles. When the young lady finally recovers herself she tells them that she in need of assistance and is in search of her mother.
At first, I gave this book 3.5 stars, but I bumped it up to four mainly because of the world building that took place and the background we got of characters that I found interesting in book 1 that we only got a glimpse of. I can't really say more about the book because it's a complete spoiler to the first book. What I will say is that I like the real world beauty "standards" that McGuire put on its head with regards to plus-size/athletic body type for women.
I think with each installment she gets better with fitting a whole story within such limited pages, as well as the writing. While sometimes it can be a little too flowery for my taste, I understand that in a world where at any moment, these kids are waiting for their door "home" to open up to them again, they have been witness to things that no one in this world/realm even thinks is possible. So I think that helps dictate how these books are written. I will be reading the rest of the books in this series and I hope we get to see more of Christopher and his bone flute, I find that very intriguing.
Crazy Rich Asians- ⭐⭐⭐.5
This was the Mocha Girl's Book Club book of the month and I was a little skeptical about it. I've heard nothing but great things about the book and the rest of the series and my library had it available in both physical and audio formats so I figured why not? And I was not disappointed. It was funny, outrageous, over the top, dramatic and everything that the title and summary made it out to be and more.
Rachel and her boyfriend Nick are traveling to Singapore to witness his best friend Collin get married. What Rachel thinks is just a fun getaway for them two turns into one of the most outrageous summer vacations she has ever been on. She has no idea that Nick is actually, what I guess you can say Singapore "royalty". He is part of one of the richest families in Singapore but that has never shared that part about himself with Rachel. There's an evil plot against her and people trying to bash her, and that because Rachel doesn't come from wealth, she's an ABC (American Born Chinese) and pretty much everything that Nick's people would find insulting to their worth and heritage. There's so much more, but this is a review that I'm trying to keep spoiler free.
What I liked the most about this was that it read just like a soap opera would read. We got to see not only Nick and Rachel's POV, but other close family member and friends as they scheme their way into their lives and the train wrecks that their own lives held. Very much trying to keep up with the Joneses or in this case the Youngs, the Shangs, and the T'siens.
While I did like the story and being a debut novel I was impressed, my two grips would be 1. Rachel NEVER sticking up for herself there were many times where I wanted to slap Rachel for not putting her foot in someone's ass and 2. the amount of writing that was dedicated to showing us just how rich these crazy Asians were. But again, I can understand that with all this detail in the writing it goes to add to the whole story, but I didn't care for it ALL THE TIME. I think if people reading it by the 200-page mark don't get how crazy rich they are, then they will never know. There were times where I went and looked up just what some of the things he was talking about looked like and wonder to myself why would people have them in their homes. It was a fun read, I'm not sure if I'll read the rest of the series, but I will be watching the movie when it comes out.
Children Of Blood And Bone- ⭐⭐⭐
Before I get into what I didn't all too much care for let me tell you what the book is about, in the land of Orïsha, magic has been dead and gone for about 11 years and those who could one do magic, called maji, are known for their snow-white hair and are forever highly taxed and abused just on that fact alone. One day, the king gets his hands on an artifact that can change the face of magic forever and with that and the death of a maji servant girl set in motion a quest of bringing magic back to the lands of Orïsha. And the kings' undying need to kill it forever! From page one, it has been nothing but action, action, action.
This was very much a YA book and that is not a bad thing. It followed so many of the common tropes in YA fantasy: a cruel king, the chosen one, a hate to love relationship, a magical quest with multiple stops to save the innocent, an unlikely friendship, an old wise woman pointing them in the right direction and denying one's own true self. It had it all and still, I felt that I got great action, a fast read, a new take on a fantasy set in the African diaspora and I was very much gripped and intrigued by the story. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year!
On the flip side of that I got teen angst, that "I shouldn't be on this journey cause I'm not worthy", or the, "this all falls on me thing". And while once in a while that is okay, it can build towards the plot but for more than 50% of the book? I was over it. But by the second half of the book when thing started to turn I started to really love this book more and more. One last small thing that I couldn't shake was sometimes I felt that the voice of Zélie and Amari were so close that I had to flip back to the start if the chapter to see who's talking.
Now that I've said all that, I will go on to say that I really like the images Adeyemi writes for us as we go along with Zélie on this journey to bring magic back. I loved the different magical tribes that we get introduced to and where all their powers were derived from. I loved the multiple POVs, and I loved the short chapters. SO while I did have some issues with it, I still really liked it and don't regret for a second all my time reading it. I think this series has a great base and I can't wait to see what the second book is going to be, because that whole second half of the book was my favorite and that ENDING? Wow.
(update: I bought it down a star after thinking about how trope filled it was)
So that's it, folks, those are my first three books in my rather ambitious TBR. I hope that once you pick up and enjoy or if you already have hit me up so we can chat about these stories. Till next time!
The third book in the Wayward Children series was a very delightful read. In this 174 page, novella we follow Cora a girl who was once a mermaid and now back in our world living at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She and her BFF Nadya are just about to go swimming in one of the ponds on the grounds of the school when a young girl falls from the sky, splashing both of them with murky pond water and turtles. When the young lady finally recovers herself she tells them that she in need of assistance and is in search of her mother.
At first, I gave this book 3.5 stars, but I bumped it up to four mainly because of the world building that took place and the background we got of characters that I found interesting in book 1 that we only got a glimpse of. I can't really say more about the book because it's a complete spoiler to the first book. What I will say is that I like the real world beauty "standards" that McGuire put on its head with regards to plus-size/athletic body type for women.
I think with each installment she gets better with fitting a whole story within such limited pages, as well as the writing. While sometimes it can be a little too flowery for my taste, I understand that in a world where at any moment, these kids are waiting for their door "home" to open up to them again, they have been witness to things that no one in this world/realm even thinks is possible. So I think that helps dictate how these books are written. I will be reading the rest of the books in this series and I hope we get to see more of Christopher and his bone flute, I find that very intriguing.
Crazy Rich Asians- ⭐⭐⭐.5
This was the Mocha Girl's Book Club book of the month and I was a little skeptical about it. I've heard nothing but great things about the book and the rest of the series and my library had it available in both physical and audio formats so I figured why not? And I was not disappointed. It was funny, outrageous, over the top, dramatic and everything that the title and summary made it out to be and more.
Rachel and her boyfriend Nick are traveling to Singapore to witness his best friend Collin get married. What Rachel thinks is just a fun getaway for them two turns into one of the most outrageous summer vacations she has ever been on. She has no idea that Nick is actually, what I guess you can say Singapore "royalty". He is part of one of the richest families in Singapore but that has never shared that part about himself with Rachel. There's an evil plot against her and people trying to bash her, and that because Rachel doesn't come from wealth, she's an ABC (American Born Chinese) and pretty much everything that Nick's people would find insulting to their worth and heritage. There's so much more, but this is a review that I'm trying to keep spoiler free.
What I liked the most about this was that it read just like a soap opera would read. We got to see not only Nick and Rachel's POV, but other close family member and friends as they scheme their way into their lives and the train wrecks that their own lives held. Very much trying to keep up with the Joneses or in this case the Youngs, the Shangs, and the T'siens.
While I did like the story and being a debut novel I was impressed, my two grips would be 1. Rachel NEVER sticking up for herself there were many times where I wanted to slap Rachel for not putting her foot in someone's ass and 2. the amount of writing that was dedicated to showing us just how rich these crazy Asians were. But again, I can understand that with all this detail in the writing it goes to add to the whole story, but I didn't care for it ALL THE TIME. I think if people reading it by the 200-page mark don't get how crazy rich they are, then they will never know. There were times where I went and looked up just what some of the things he was talking about looked like and wonder to myself why would people have them in their homes. It was a fun read, I'm not sure if I'll read the rest of the series, but I will be watching the movie when it comes out.
Children Of Blood And Bone- ⭐⭐⭐
Before I get into what I didn't all too much care for let me tell you what the book is about, in the land of Orïsha, magic has been dead and gone for about 11 years and those who could one do magic, called maji, are known for their snow-white hair and are forever highly taxed and abused just on that fact alone. One day, the king gets his hands on an artifact that can change the face of magic forever and with that and the death of a maji servant girl set in motion a quest of bringing magic back to the lands of Orïsha. And the kings' undying need to kill it forever! From page one, it has been nothing but action, action, action.
This was very much a YA book and that is not a bad thing. It followed so many of the common tropes in YA fantasy: a cruel king, the chosen one, a hate to love relationship, a magical quest with multiple stops to save the innocent, an unlikely friendship, an old wise woman pointing them in the right direction and denying one's own true self. It had it all and still, I felt that I got great action, a fast read, a new take on a fantasy set in the African diaspora and I was very much gripped and intrigued by the story. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year!
On the flip side of that I got teen angst, that "I shouldn't be on this journey cause I'm not worthy", or the, "this all falls on me thing". And while once in a while that is okay, it can build towards the plot but for more than 50% of the book? I was over it. But by the second half of the book when thing started to turn I started to really love this book more and more. One last small thing that I couldn't shake was sometimes I felt that the voice of Zélie and Amari were so close that I had to flip back to the start if the chapter to see who's talking.
Now that I've said all that, I will go on to say that I really like the images Adeyemi writes for us as we go along with Zélie on this journey to bring magic back. I loved the different magical tribes that we get introduced to and where all their powers were derived from. I loved the multiple POVs, and I loved the short chapters. SO while I did have some issues with it, I still really liked it and don't regret for a second all my time reading it. I think this series has a great base and I can't wait to see what the second book is going to be, because that whole second half of the book was my favorite and that ENDING? Wow.
(update: I bought it down a star after thinking about how trope filled it was)
So that's it, folks, those are my first three books in my rather ambitious TBR. I hope that once you pick up and enjoy or if you already have hit me up so we can chat about these stories. Till next time!
👩🏿💻PEACE✌
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