ARC Review: Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

Title: Queens of Geek Written by: Jen Wilde Published: March 21, 2017 by Swoon Reads (Macmillan (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: When BFFs Charlie, Taylor and Jamie go to SupaCon, they know it’s going to be a blast. What they don’t expect is for it to change their lives forever.  Charlie likes to stand out. SupaCon is her chance to show fans she’s over her public breakup with co-star, Jason Ryan. When Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie’s long-time crush on her isn’t as one-sided as she thought.  While Charlie dodges questions about her personal life, Taylor starts asking questions about her own.  Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there’s one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with Jamie—no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about the Queen Firestone SupaFan Contest, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.

*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This fact has not changed my opinion. ***

I knew this was going to be the kind of contemporary that I knew that I would really enjoy. It's a cute and quick read full of adorkable characters and fun romances that I finished in a day. It's light-hearted and engaging with a coming-of-age story and a great setting. It's everything I hoped it would be.

Firstly, I really enjoyed the setting of this book. It takes place at SupaCon which I assume is meant to be ComiCon. It was such a great setting for this book. And while I've never been to ComiCon it definitely gave me BEA feels. It perfectly captured the overwhelming but exciting feeling of going to a huge event for the first time and what it's like to meet people and stand in crazy long lines to meet an author (or celebrity) that you love. It made for a really interesting setting and you can tell that the  authoris coming from a real place of love when it comes to Cons.

And I think the setting also lended it so well to the coming-of-age plot that this book had. Much of this book was about the characters breaking out of their comfort zone and doing things they had never done before. Going to SupaCon was just the tip of the iceberg for that. I loved seeing the characters try different things and honestly grow and develop by the end of the book. It wasn't a huge change but it felt realistic in the challenges that they faced in just a few days out of their lives.

Plus I'm a huge fan of books that involve geeky or nerdy characters, especially when it involves some part of geek culture and that is exactly what Queens of Geek had. The book alternates perspectives between Charlie and Taylor. Charlie is a YouTube star who just did a movie and is doing publicity for it. Taylor is just along for the con and is trying to meet her hero, the author of her beloved Queen Firestone series. While Charlie's story is easier to describe, Taylor's is easier to connect with. I really loved Taylor as she dealt with her anxiety and the excitement and then disappoint that came from the events of the book. They're both really likable but I saw more of myself in Taylor.

Both girls also had some pretty cute romances. Charlie is dealing with a very public breakup from her costar and then learning that her crush on a fellow YouTube celebrity is returned explores that in a way that I liked. Alyssa was really sweet and I liked that there was a mutual appreciation and that the two related to each other so well. I would have like Alyssa's character to be flushed out a little bit more and I did think that things moved too fast for my liking but it was cute. Taylor's romance however I did enjoy. Jamie was a great character and I liked the way the friends to more relationship developed.

But I think my least favorite thing about this book was the pacing. I've read plenty of books that took place over a day or a few days that felt natural and made sense but here it just felt like a lot and a little at the same time. In some respects it was hard to suspend disbelief that so much was happening in a day but in other ways it felt like nothing was really happening. It was very weird and hard to explain. I think that it was because this is a very short book. It's under 300 pages and it definitely reads quickly. It took me a day to read this and I honestly finished it without even realizing. You can just fly through this book because it's not super complex. But that is sometimes a good thing. A fast and cute read is sometimes just what we all need in our lives.

On the whole, Queens of Geek was a good YA contemporary. It was a bit basic when it came to the plot development but it had a great setting and likable characters as well as an interesting coming-of-age story that I think a lot of people will enjoy and relate to.

I give Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde 8 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Borrow/Buy. This is the perfect palate cleanser read I would say. You can definitely read it in a day and it will cheer you up and keep you reading. If you like books about nerdy characters and are looking a quick and entertaining read with relateable characters and cute romances then definitely check this out.

ARC Review: Cure for the Common Universe by Christian McKay Heidecker

Title: Cure for the Common Universe Written by: Christian McKay Heidicker Published: June 14, 2016 by Simon & Schuster (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Jaxon is being committed to video game rehab . . .  ten minutes after he met a girl. A living, breathing girl named Serena, who not only laughed at his jokes but actually kinda sorta seemed excited when she agreed to go out with him.  Jaxon's first date. Ever.  In rehab, he can't blast his way through galaxies to reach her. He can't slash through armies to kiss her sweet lips. Instead, he has just four days to earn one million points by learning real-life skills. And he'll do whatever it takes—lie, cheat, steal, even learn how to cross-stitch—in order to make it to his date.  If all else fails, Jaxon will have to bare his soul to the other teens in treatment, confront his mother's absence, and maybe admit that it's more than video games that stand in the way of a real connection.  Prepare to be cured

*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This fact has not changed my opinion. ***

There is nothing worse than not enjoying a book you were really excited about. But honestly, it happens. You can't love 'em all. I really wanted to like this book. It has all the trappings of the YA contemporaries that I love but unfortunately it did not work for me.

One of the reasons this one didn't work for me is the fact that I never connected with the main character. Now you are not supposed to like Jaxon/Miles. He is a self-centered jerk who frankly treats people like crap. That's kind of the point here. He's not the lovable nerd that we are used to And while liking unlikable characters is nothing new for me, that concept didn't work here for me. For most of the book I was actively rooting against the character. I wanted him to fail and be brought down a peg. But that didn't really happen for me.

And while not enjoying the character isn't necessarily a deal breaker, the character development is kind of important when it comes to a coming-of-age story like this one. The majority of the plot here is about Jaxon/Miles' development and him getting over his addiction to video games and addressing the root cause as to why he needs them to cope. That sounds like a great story. And it would have been if that happened. But instead everything went the character's way and he never really learned anything. Even when it looked like there were challenges it quickly righted itself into his favor. And honestly for me, it got a little frustrating by the end. It just didn't feel like a full-realized coming-of-age story. 

But one thing I did like about this book were the secondary characters. Everyone else at v-hab was fantastic especially the members of the guild. Their guild leader Fezzik was supportive plus really funny, Meeki was a kickass female character who said exactly what I was thinking, Aurora was a kind and caring, and then there was Soup who is the most precious of all cinnamon rolls. These were the characters I connected with and wanted to succeed. There were also some good antagonist with other guilds and the people who worked at v-hab. To be honest this book may have benefited from some multiple perspectives and given us someone to root for as an MC.

The other decent thing about this book is that it's fast-paced and had some good moments of action. When this book was at it's best it was during the less introspective moments. The competitions, the challenges, the times where you wanted the guild to succeed if not for Jaxon/Miles than for the other members. Not to mention that it's a quick read. It's something that you can get through in a few days which was nice.

On the whole, I just think that Cure for the Common Universe wasn't for me. I have seen a lot of really great reviews for it but the characterization really impacted my enjoyment of this coming-of-age story.

I give Cure for the Common Universe by Christian McKay Heidicker 6 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Bypass. By no means would I say this is a terrible book you should completely avoid. I just think it is for a very specific audience and I am not in that subset. If you like very different contemporaries that play with the tropes and/or books about unlikable characters then check this out.

Have you read Cure for the Common Universe? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

ARC Review: The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson

Title: The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You Written by: Lily Anderson Published: May 17, 2016 by St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan) (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.  Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books--well, maybe not comic books--but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.  The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on--and they might not pick the same side.

*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This fact has not change my opinion. ***

I did not expect to be able to read this book any time soon but I had a small window in my reading schedule after finishing something earlier than planned so I squeezed this in and am really glad I did. It was seriously fantastic.

In one respect this is a really fun modern rebelling of Much Ado About Nothing. I'm realizing more and more that I love these Shakespeare retelling and this was no exception. It was an interesting and modern spin on the classic, one of my favorites. I like the comedies so much more than the dramas. But even if you don't know the original story you will appreciate this book. The author does a great job of taking the basics of the original story and not only bringing it into the current period, but putting her own spin on it. It's not a shot for shot retelling but it's pretty close in the best possible way.

The real heart of this book, and let's face it Much Ado About Anything, is in the relationships. If you're familiar with that play then you know the infamous Beatrice and Benedick relationship. Here we have Ben and Trixie. Like their classic counterparts this is a fantastic hate to love romance, a trope that is one of my all-time favorites and I will almost always get behind. Because oh the banter, you guys! When they were competing and fighting I absolutely loved the snarky digs and verbal jabs between them. But then when the love part clicked in, it was so freaking fluffy and adorable I could barely handle it in the best possible way.

But in general I really loved these characters. Part of the modern spin is that the book takes place in a school for geniuses, which worked so well with the quick-witted characters of the original. But they were also fantastic nerdy type characters talking and arguing about pop culture and geeky references that had me seriously fangirling. Trixie and Ben were fun but they also had a great group of friends around them. I loved that Trixie's friends Harper and Meg called her out for being too mean. And while Ben's friends did kind of blend together in my mind, it was great to see a solid group of nerds with shared and varying interests supporting one another. And another great thing about this books was the parents. Not only were they involved but they added something positive to the plot. It's sad that that is refreshing. But I honestly like Trixie's parents, they were fun in a realistic kind of way.

Plus on top of all of that, there was a fun mystery to the book. I wasn't able to predict who the culprit was hear and so I really love this book for keeping me guessing and the subtle clues that it unraveled. But the mystery is also my main criticism. The synopsis kind of gives away a bit too much (you may have noticed that I hid a portion of it, that's intentional) and the actual mystery elements didn't kick in until two-thirds of the book. I honestly thought that there would be more to this aspect of the story but I was perfectly fine with the contemporary romance aspect of the story then suddenly the mystery changed the plot completely. It's not that I didn't like the mystery, because I did, it just felt a little too late. I think more of it throughout the book or just rework the synopsis so it doesn't give away so much.

On the whole I absolutely melted for this book. I flew through it, laughing, fangirling, and swooning along the way. It's an amazing modern Shakespeare retelling with great geeky characters that I think everyone will love.

I give The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson 9 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Buy. I really loved this book and I would totally recommend it to basically anyone. If you are a big contemporary fan then definitely get your hands on it. If you are a Shakespeare fan grab it for that aspect. But even if you just want something quick and fluffy then check this out.

Blog Tour: The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson Excerpt

Hi Everyone,
I'm so excited to be a part of the blog tour for The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson. I can't remember when I first learned about this book but I knew I needed to read it. I mean basically it is a modern retelling of the Beatrice and Benedict story from Much Ado About Nothing. But on top of that it has geeky characters which I love in my contemporaries. But enough from me, I'll let the book do the talking.

About the Book:

Title: The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You Written by: Lily Anderson Published: May 17, 2016 by St Martin's Griffin (Macmillan) (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West—and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing—down to number four.  Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books—well, maybe not comic books—but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.  The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on—and they might not pick the same side.

Excerpt:

Chapter One

       Ben West spent summer vacation growing a handlebar mustache.

       Seriously.

       Hovering over his upper lip—possibly glued there—was a bushy monstrosity that shouted, “Look out, senior class, I’m gonna tie some chicks to the train tracks and then go on safari with my good friend Teddy Roosevelt. Bully!”

       I blindly swatted at Harper with my comic book, trying to alert her to the fact that there was a mustachioed moron trying to blend in with the other people entering campus.

       “I know I should have made flash cards for the poems that Cline assigned,” she said, elbowing me back hard, both acknowledging that she wasn’t blind and that she hated when I interrupted her monologues about the summer reading list. “But I found Mrs. Bergman’s sociolinguistics syllabus on the U of O website and I’m sure she’ll use the same one here.”

       The mustache twitched an attempt at freedom, edging away from West's ferrety nose as he tried to shove past a group of nervous looking freshmen. It might have been looking at me and Harper, but its owner was doing everything possible to ignore us, the planter box we were sitting on, and anything else that might have been east of the wrought iron gate.

       “So,” Harper continued, louder than necessary considering we were sitting two inches apart. “I thought I’d get a head start. But now I’m afraid that we were supposed to memorize the poems for Cline. He never responded to my emails.”

       Pushing my comic aside, I braced my hands against the brick ledge. The mustache was daring me to say something. Harper could hear it too, as evidenced by her staring up at the sun and muttering, “Or you could, you know, not do this.”

 “Hey, West,” I called, ignoring the clucks of protest coming from my left. “I’m pretty sure your milk mustache curdled. Do you need a napkin?”

Ben West lurched to a stop, one foot inside of the gate. Even on the first day of school, he hadn’t managed to find a clean uniform. His polo was a series of baggy wrinkles, half tucked into a pair of dingy khakis. He turned his head. If the mustache had been able to give me the finger, it would have. Instead, it stared back at me with its curlicue fists raised on either side of West’s thin mouth.

“Hey, Harper,” he said. He cut his eyes at me and grumbled, “Trixie.”

       I leaned back, offering the slowest of slow claps. “Great job, West. You have correctly named us. I, however, may need to change your mantle. Do you prefer Yosemite Sam or Doc Holliday? I definitely think it should be cowboy related.” 

       “Isn’t it cruel to make the freshmen walk past you?” he asked me, pushing the ratty brown hair out of his eyes. “Or is it some kind of ritual hazing?” 

       “Gotta scare them straight.” I gestured to my blonde associate. “Besides, I’ve got Harper to soften the blow. It’s like good cop, bad cop.”

       “It is nothing like good cop, bad cop. We’re waiting for Meg,” Harper said, flushing under the smattering of freckles across her cheeks as she turned back to the parking lot, undoubtedly trying to escape to the special place in her head where pop quizzes—and student council vice presidents—lived. She removed her headband,  pushing it back in place until she once again looked like Sleeping Beauty in pink glasses and khakis. Whereas I continued to look like I’d slept on my ponytail.

Which I had because it is cruel to start school on a Wednesday.         

       “Is it heavy?” I asked Ben, waving at his mustache. “Like weight training for your face? Or are you just trying to compensate for your narrow shoulders?”

       He gave a half-hearted leer at my polo. “I could ask the same thing of your bra.”

       My arms flew automatically to cover my chest, but I seemed to be able to only conjure the consonants of the curses I wanted to hurl at him. In his usual show of bad form, West took this as some sort of victory. 

       “As you were,” he said, jumping back into the line of uniforms on their way to the main building. He passed too close to Kenneth Pollack, who shoved him hard into the main gate, growling, “Watch it, nerd.”

       “School for geniuses, Kenneth,” Harper called. “We’re all nerds.”

       Kenneth flipped her off absentmindedly as West brushed himself off and darted past Mike Shepherd into the main building.  

       “Brute,” Harper said under her breath.

       I scuffed the planter box with the heels of my mandatory Mary Janes. “I’m off my game. My brain is still on summer vacation. I totally left myself open to that cheap trick.” 

       “I was referring to Kenneth, not Ben,” she frowned. “But, yes, you should have known better. Ben’s been using that bra line since fourth grade.”

As a rule, I refused to admit when Harper was right before eight in the morning. It would just lead to a full day of her gloating. I hopped off of the planter and scooped up my messenger bag, shoving my comic inside.

“Come on. I’m over waiting for Meg. She’s undoubtedly choosing hair care over punctuality. Again.”

Harper slid bonelessly to her feet, sighing with enough force to slump her shoulders as she followed me through the front gate and up the stairs. The sunlight refracted against her pale hair every time her neck swiveled to look behind us. Without my massive aviator sunglasses, I was sure I would have been blinded by the glare.

“What’s with you?” I asked, kicking a stray pebble out of the way.

“What? Nothing.” Her head snapped back to attention, knocking her glasses askew. She quickly straightened them with two trembling hands. “Nothing. I was just thinking that maybe senior year might be a good time for you to end your war with Ben. You’d have more time to study and read comics and…”

       Unlike the tardy Meg, Harper was tall enough that I could look at her without craning my neck downward. It made it easier to level her with a droll stare. Sometimes, it’s better to save one’s wit and just let the stupidity of a thought do the talking.

She rolled her eyes and clucked again, breezing past me to open the door.  

       “Or not,” she said, swinging the door open and letting me slip past her. “Year ten of Watson v. West starts now. But if one of you brings up the day he pushed you off the monkey bars, I am taking custody of Meg and we are going to sit with the yearbook staff during lunch.”

       “I accept those terms,” I grinned. “Now help me think of historical figures with mustaches. Hitler and Stalin are entirely too obvious. I need to brainstorm before we get homework.” 

About the Author:

Lily Anderson is an elementary school librarian and Melvil Dewey fangirl with an ever-growing collection of musical theater tattoos and Harry Potter ephemera. She lives in Northern California. THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU is her debut novel.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Wesbite: http://mslilyanderson.com/about/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mslilyanderson

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ms_lilyanderson

Tumblr: http://mslilyanderson.tumblr.com/

YAY! Thanks to St. Martins for having me on the blog tour and providing me with an excerpt. I hope you enjoyed it and that you are as excited as I am to check this book out when it comes out next week. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

July Wrap Up & August TBR

I was planning on posting this tomorrow but I need an extra day to finish my current read (The Good Girl) so I bumped this up a day.

Read in July

July was kind of a slow reading month for me. Life got in the way and I went through a bit of a reading slump caused by temporarily losing one of my most anticipated books of the year. But I was able to read a total of 9 books and am very close to finishing a 10th book. Okay so it's eight books but I will finish 9 by the end of the month.. And now that I say it, that is a good month. 

1.) Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: 9 out of 10 Full Review

2.) The Awakening of Miss Prim 

by Natalie Sanmartin Fenorella

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Full Review

3.) Looking for Alaska by John Green

Rating: 9 out of 10 Full Review

4.) Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Rating: 9 out of 10 Full Review

5.) The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Full Review

6.) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 Full Review

7.) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Rating: 9 out of 10 Full Review

8.) The Fracking King by James Browning

Rating: 6 out of 10 Full Review

9.) The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Rating: ??? Full Review to Come

10.) The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

Rating: ??? Full Review to Come

To Be Read in August: Historical Fiction

So first things first I will be taking part in an amazing and very cool challenge hosted by Octavia and Shelley over at Read.Sleep.Repeat called ARC August. The goal of the challenge is to tackle that giant pile of ARCs and that Netgalley or Edelweiss Queue that have just been sitting there unread. I have barely made a dent in my BEA ARCs and I keep requesting eARCs on Netgalley even though I have tons that I haven't read. So I am taking part in the the challenge. So most of my planned books this month are ARCs and I hope to read at least five of them.

Now onto my theme! This month I will be reading one of my absolute favorite genres, Historical Fiction. It was originally going to be historical fantasy but then I realized my theme for next month and decided to stick with straight Historical Fiction. I know a lot of fellow bloggers are just getting in to Historical Fiction but I love it and I'm really excited to read a lot of different books and hopefully you can find some you may be interested in. Here's the list!

ARCs from Netgalley

1.) Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little - Add to Goodreads

This one doesn't fit the theme, it's a mystery/thriller but it's an ARC 

2.) Grace and the Guiltless by Erin Johnson - Add to Goodreads

A YA Historical Fiction set in the Wild Wild West with a kickass female heroine? Yes, please!

3.) Neverhome by Laird Hunt- Add to Goodreads

I'm so intrigued by this book about a woman who disguises herself as a soldier when her husband leaves for the American Civil War. I usually love those kinds of stories!

Physical ARCs

1.) Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper - Add to Goodreads

YA Historical Fantasy about whaling and a witch who has to live in a non-magical world. Also the phrase "tattooed harpoon boy" is a serious draw!

2.) Jackaby by William Ritter - Add to Goodreads

A supernatural detective in Victorian England. I cannot wait to read this one!

The Classic

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Add to Goodreads

My original theme was historical fantasy and this is classic Historical Fantasy!

The Series 

1.) Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard - Add to Goodreads

2.) A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard - Add to Goodreads

3.) Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard- Add to Goodreads

The final book just came out so I'm really excited to binge read this steampunk series about zombie fighting in the Victorian era. I've heard nothing but good things!

What have you read in July and what are you planning to read in August? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING! 

Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Author: Betty Smith Published: Originally 1943 by Harper & Brothers Amazon Goodreads Synopsis: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

One of the most interesting things about this book is that I'm not really sure how to categorize it. It's a fictionalization of the author's upbringing, so it's not quite a memoir but it's also not quite fiction either. But if it is in fact fiction it's hard to place it in a genre. The book was written in 1943 but takes place in the early 1900s. You could accurately say that it is Historical Fiction but it also feels very current and contemporary. What this book absolutely does is make the reader feel what it was like to grow up poor at the start of the 20th century in Brooklyn. It's a completely immersive experience.

The book was an extremely real and gritty portrayal of the life and the time period it was presenting. It didn't gloss over the difficulties of life and being poor. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn focuses almost entirely on those difficult and sad moments in life but it also shows how you need those moments to appreciate the good and happy moments in life. When you're reading this book you feel as if you are part of the Nolan family, struggling to make ends meet and wondering how you are going to find a nickel to buy food. But you also feel the sense of love within the family and the sense of hope that a better life is possible. I expected to have a serious emotional reaction to this book and while it didn't bring me to tears (which a lot of books do) I did feel a deep connection to this family and their struggle.

The plot of the book could very easily have become monotonous and dull but Betty Smith effortlessly immersed the reader in the world of Brooklyn and the Nolans with beautiful prose and a style of writing that allows you to easily connect with the characters. I read this book as part of my "Geek Books" month and the main character of Francie definitely fit the bill of the types of characters in this theme. She is a voracious reader who finds it hard to make friends and loves school but with her family situation employment has to take the place of further education. I instantly connected with Francie and her desire to succeed despite and because of her upbringing. I loved being along for the ride for her coming-of-age story.

This book made me appreciate so much about my life and personal experience. It made me appreciate my family and the opportunities I had, and it made me appreciate the fact that like Francie I can read to escape, learn, and explore something outside of myself. The book was a phenomenal classic and reminded me a lot of books like Little Women and Little House on the Prairie.

I give A Tree Grow in Brooklyn by Betty Smith a 9 out of 10

I would definitely recommend this book if you like modern classics from the mid 20th Century like To Kill A Mockingbird or The Catcher in the Rye. If you like coming-of-age stories with beautiful writing that illicits an emotional response then check this book out. 

Have you read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. If you haven't read it, what are some of your favorite Modern Classics, I love these kinds of books and would love to read some more. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING! 

Book Review: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Title: Vicious Author: V.E. Schwab Published: September 2013 by Tor Books (Macmillan) (Amazon / Goodreads / Audible) Synopsis:A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

This book has been in my TBR pile for a while now. I have heard nothing but great things from fellow bloggers and was really excited to read it. And despite my high expectations and the fact I was just blown away by a book about antiheroes with supernatural powers I thoroughly enjoyed Vicious.

What first struck me about this book was how brilliant the world-building is. It's hard not to compare it to the last superhero/antihero book I read (Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson), but that would be an unfair comparison. However, what they both did extremely well is create numerous characters with very different powers. What Vicious did even better was establish why they had these powers. I read a lot Sci-Fi/Fantasy and it sounds like a weird thing to say but the best books have a clear set of rules that they operate in and Vicious absolutely does. The way you receive these powers directly relates to the powers that you have and it is all about you and your personality. With each new EO we meet we got explore not only what their power is but how they earned this power. It was a fascinating and compelling story with a complicated and interesting world and I was hooked from the very beginning.

Plus, like a lot of stories about superheroes and villains, this is a story about power and control. A story about how to respond to a responsibility that you never really expected to receive. The characters in Vicious are given or give themselves supernatural powers and need to then decide how they will react to these powers. Do they use them for good or for evil? Or both? And what this book does so well is live in that grey area between the two. The main characters view their powers in completely opposite ways, and their different reactions cause some pretty serious conflict.

Throughout the book we explores the competitiveness of the relationship between Victor and Eli. It is told in a unique format where the chapters alternate between Eli and Victor both in the past and the present. When we first meet them they are studying science and competing over who is the top of the class (making this fit my Geek Books theme), but when they give themselves superpowers things explode and that competitiveness, and their opposite opinions, turn them into arch-nemeses. As the book develops we slowly learn what led them down the paths that they are on ten years later. This kind of format of switching timelines can get confusing but Victoria Schwab expertly crafts an interesting and complex story. The plot slowly build to a thrilling conclusion and along the way there gut-wrenching and surprising twists that kept me interested and intrigued.

But perhaps the best part of this story is the characters themselves. Victor Vale and Eli Ever could not be more compelling antiheroes. They're the types of characters that I always love who have odious moral codes and it is difficult to say if they are doing the right thing for the wrong reasons or the other way around. As the story develops and you begin to learn why they are doing what they are doing that line becomes even blurrier. Your opinion of them changes and you unexpectedly begin to empathize with them but at the same time you are hating them for what they are doing. It's a very conflicted feeling and I love that!

Vicious is a phenomenal novel that hits you in all the right places. There were times where I laughed, times where I cried (and oh boy did I cry). There were times where I could barely handle the mystery and my theories of how the book was going to develop (theories that were surprisingly inaccurate). There was tons of action that kept me on the edge of my seat, and characters that had me hook from page 1 to 364.

I give Vicious by V.E. Schwab a 9 out 10

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes stories about superheroes or antiheroes with complex and interesting world-building. If you like books about characters who walk the line between good and evil this is the book for you.

Have you read Vicious? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

Book Review: Looking for Alaska

Title: Looking for Alaska Author: John Green Published: December 2006 by Speak Amazon Goodreads Synopsis: The award-winning, genre-defining debut from #1 bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars. Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award. Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist. New York Times bestseller Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green about a year ago and really liked. My favorite part about the book was John Green's writing style. The voice of his characters was spectacular and a book that was heartbreaking still managed to be hilarious. I wanted to read another John Green book this month so I asked the experts (Twitter) and settled on Looking for Alaska after much debate with myself, others, and my best friend. And when the book was all over I was extremely happy with the choice.

My biggest trepidation with this book was the characters. The synopsis makes the title character of Alaska sound like a cliche "Manic Pixie Dream," a trope that I absolutely despise. And while Alaska had a lot of elements of the type she didn't feel cliche, she seemed to have a lot more depth that I had initially predicted. I enjoyed her story and learning more about her as the book developed. But maybe she didn't feel like a MPDG because of how her story developed.

And just like most John Green books there were tons of amazing and fantastic characters that felt realistic and complex. I was reading this book as part of my "Geek Books" month and these characters absolutely fit the built. They were all a litlle quirky and weird with something they were totally obsessed with. I was instantly a fan of the main character Pudge and his odd fascination with famous last words and his desire for experience "the Great Beyond." He was a great character to follow on a coming of age story like this. I also became totally enamored with "The Captain" who is completely hilarious and weird, and the other secondary characters like Takumi, Lara, and The Eagle weren't bad either. Mostly I really liked the relationship that they all had together. It was a genuine friendship and so fun to read about.

And like all John Green books, Looking for Alaska was full of laugh out loud moments and heartbreaking moments. At one point in the book I was ugly crying in the dark wondering how things could possibly continue with all the pain I was feeling, but when the book was over I was surprised to feel happy and satisfied. How something that ripped my heart out could proceed to put it back together I'll never know! If anyone can do it, John Green can. That is something few authors can do, and John Green is on that list! He is just another fine example that the Contemporary novels that I love are able to balance the heavy moments of life with lighthearted and happy ones.

This book perfectly captured what it feels like to be young. It communicated the angst and ecstasy that is being in love for the first time, losing someone you care about for the first time, and making your way in the world without really knowing who you are and who you want to be. It was all about exploration and ended up being a brilliant coming of age story that made me remember those days when the whole world was in front of me and it was up to me if I wanted to succeed or screw up. The book also took on a much deeper meaning as it examined more philosophical and spiritual ideas but avoided being too preachy with the concepts. It was a fun and engaging read that made you think and feel.

This is definitely a John Green book I would recommend to not only teens but adults. It does deal with some heavy concepts including sex, but it does it tactfully and expertly. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed this book.

I give Looking for Alaska by John Green a 9 out of 10

I would recommend this book to fans of Young Adult Contemporary novels or someone looking for a book that will give them a good cry. This book will touch you deep in your soul, will rip your heart out, but you'll be happy about it!

Have you read Looking for Alaska? What did you think? Also what is your favorite John Green book? I'm hoping to read some more of his books but would love to hear your opinions on them. Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!