DB

The anthology is split in two. A before and after if you will. The before being about a bad relationship, and the after is about love, finding that person who understands you, who knows you. And you feel the heartbreak, in the first half; and then in the second half, you feel the love. The second half also focuses on building a new life and creating new stories. It made me hopeful and just like the first poem says – I'm lacing my boots with my words and dropkicking the world – I'm ready to face the world head on.

Parker is one of those poets who paints pictures with the words in the poems. As you read their poems, it's like you're not simply reading anymore, you're more floating gently and listening to the words. If it makes sense. This is the first poetry book I've read from Parker and I'm definitely wanting to read more.

Favourite Quotes:

her shadow:
what is more innocent than a girl and her cat?

I'm not sure if the next quote is considered an official quote from the anthology but I do like it very much:

I'm lacing my boots with my words and dropkicking the world.

a web of hopeless romantics:
we have the entire world/at our fingertips,/so why should we limit ourselves/to only what's around us?

Short read but very cute. I know it was adapted to TV which I hope will keep the crayon/kids drawing look because I like it! It's a kid's book so it made a lot of sense (to have the look be childlike). Even though the drawings are more childlike they still show emotion on the characters' faces – which I like seeing in older graphic novels so I'm glad to see it here too.

It's just really cute and I smiled all the way through (the very tiny bit of reading) and I recommend it to others.

Stunning, my fave of the trilogy

I liked this book. It was a good debut and I'll want to read from this author again. I'm such a big fantasy reader that I sometimes forget just how nice a light fantasy/magical realism can be.

I did, however, really want this to be a 5 star book, and while I did really enjoy it, it just didn't grasp onto that 5 star rating that I wanted it to. There wasn't anything wrong with the book, I think I was just expecting a lot more from what I got from the synopsis and comps – perhaps more action. But that didn't deter me too much from liking it, which is good.

I liked the three main characters, but not one specifically stood out to me – but that was also good. I like it when I don't have an immediate favourite. I liked the bond they created with each other and the romance between Theo and Jaime. It was sweet and I liked how it was friends first, then the romance.

I've been meaning to actually sit down and read Dracula since I got it whenever in 2022 or '23, whichever. I subscribed to the original Dracula Daily emails, even read a couple, and then missed a bunch of ones.

I liked how it was formatted in the review copy. The original text normal (so like any other book) and the comments and/or fan art made by readers on the margins of the pages.

Really, I think all classics should be read like this or sort of like this. The bite-sized chapters makes it easier (of course not every classic has dates like in here but you could still read one chapter a day). You could even follow along in a normal copy of Dracula – keep to the dates in the book and browse the tag on various social media sites. Obviously it will be different to what was gathered in this book, but still nonetheless fun.

Review also posted on my blog: https://dbsguidetothegalaxy.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/poetry-mini-reviews-1/

I thought I loved Princess (The Princess Saves Herself in this one) more than Witch, but I loved them both for different reasons. I also have the third book so I can't wait to post that review. Where Princess speaks more of self-love and self-acceptance, Witch is about taking all that self-love and -acceptance and using it to show others you are unafraid of them or the world or trials that appear in your path. Witch is about facing those who said ‘you can't' with a ‘watch me'.

Witch is also about reminding yourself you're strong, that you can go ahead. It's about finding that power within you and using it. It's a message to the world that we will fight back. We will let you know when we've had enough and we'll stand up and I mean, I think if you read this poetry books, you'd probably find that out.

Lovelace has quickly become one of my favourite poets. I believe I found her on Pinterest – or a few of her quotes and really liked it! Which is cool because I'm slowly getting into expanding my list of genres I read.

Favourite Quotes:

bewitching

women: we can spin g o l d out of d i r t
bewitching ii

women: we can magic f i r e out of a i r
women are some kind of magic ii

I'm pretty sure you have w i t c h c r a f t running through those v e i n s

Reading and liking A Curse of Salt didn't go hand in hand at first. I think it was maybe around the 20% mark that I actually started to enjoy it? And – I know – I should've dnfed if I wasn't really enjoying it – but I decided to carry on for a bit. I was rewarded for that as I enjoyed myself the more I carried on! It'll definitely stay in my mind as a favourite and a title to recommend if someone's looking for a sea-faring journey or a retelling.

And a retelling it certainly is! As I said at the start – it's Beauty and the Beast – which probably is one of my favourite Disney movies and Belle a top Disney Princess. Street definitely knew what made the movie so good and she captured the magic of the movie and the couple very well. A good part of what makes Belle, or in this case, Ria, a good person is that she has a good heart. Ria put herself in danger to save her family – knowing very well she might not coming back because of how, well, heartless, The Heartless King is.

What I really enjoyed seeing was how Ria comes to know the Blood Rose‘s crew – seeing past the fearsome front they all put on. Going “Oh, they're super scary” at the start of their journey to “they're family now” at the end was a delight to read as I also got to know them and saw them like Ria did. It's also a found family story – something I always enjoy seeing and reading about. And it was done well in here! I could tell they cared fiercely about each other and would indeed take up arms if one of their own got hurt. Which is exactly what I like to see (re found family).

The romance in here is my favourite – enemies to lovers! I'm glad Street wrote it well because that allowed me to root for them all the more. There's nothing that I like more indeed than enemies moving to friends and then eventually lovers. It literally never gets old for me

Technically, I guess this is a 3.5 but I enjoyed it quite well so I bumped it up to 4 because it was cute. The characters did annoy me at times but they're also kids so I let it slide quite a bit.

I went back and forth on whether I liked Jolina or not. Sometimes I would and then she would say or think something slightly annoying and then I wouldn't like her again. But also she's a child! Who's recently moved to a new place so that almost gives her right to be annoying (in my eyes). In the end I did like her so that was good. I liked Claudine more but also I'm a sucker for the mean girl turns into a friend trope. It's one of my favourites and I don't mind seeing it repeatedly because I'll enjoy it every time. I liked that both of them were cat and dog people and that was cute to see.

I did like how the book let both of them be messy and that didn't bother me. Books should have kids be messy characters more often. It won't make them annoying, they're kids and a lot of people want messy characters nowadays. I really like messy characters and I think kids being messy make even more sense because, well, they're kids! Their personalities are still developing, they're still developing, and we shouldn't force adult expectations about their personalities just because we're adults (or insert your age here).

I liked the plot! It started out quickly and then wrapped up quickly as well. It's under 300 pages so of course so the plot has to advance fast. It was a sweet one as it shows the start of a friendship that doesn't start out the way you'd necessarily want it to. But friends can come in any ways and quite often from unlikely places.

I liked the low fantasy aspect of the book – I kept reading the synopsis before I picked it up because I didn't know if it contained actual magic or like suggestive magic? But then I read and saw that it was magic – but also had that bit of suggestive magic. Or rather, your intentions and emotions influence your magic/the way you cast the spells. Which is something I like!

The other characters were sweet. I liked how close Jolina and Claudine were with their families and also might be friends with the other's in the future.

I felt for Everly quite a lot throughout the book and definitely related to her. I knew exactly what she was feeling because I've definitely had those thoughts and more before. I also liked that she was an adult and she felt like she didn't have everything together. We were able to see her coming more out of her shell as the book carried on and even her helping others with their anxiety! That's a big thing being able to help others because you know how they feel and are able to give advice.

Everly and Chris worked really well together. They were quickly able to understand each other and Chris wasn't dismissive of Everly's anxiety – something I appreciated seeing. Their becoming friends and then obviously ending up at the end were all felt very natural – something to commend Sullivan as authors aren't always able to write natural relationships.

I liked that we were able to experience the dates with her – the bad and the good. And that all of them sort of led back to Chris. Their romance was so cute! I smiled so many times throughout reading because I really enjoyed how kind and sweet Chris was. He wanted Everly to have fun, cared about her a lot – if she would enjoy the dates, how she felt on them etc. I think him caring meant a lot for her and probably made it easier to fall in love with him.

Seeing as it's a trilogy, and each book follows a different brother, we got a chance to see Noah and Wes (book 2 and 3 respectively). I liked that they were close with each other and encouraged each other. They had an easy banter and a good balance between sibling insults and “I'm pushing you because I love you”.

Hey kids!

Here's a protip: Don't think yourself above people and assume you need to be omnipotent - because you will die!

Oops, was that a spoiler? Well it's a pretty known fact (for those of you who watch Supernatural) that you don't make deals with a demon!

It's just plain common knowledge.

The play was good. Gives out handy tips/morals:
1. Don't make deals with the seedy inhabitants of the Underworld.
2. Don't think too much of yourself (Remember Narcissius?).

I mean that's pretty much all. There's an adaption of Faustus with Richard Burton (as the good old stupid Faustus) and Elizabeth Taylor (as a woman) - though she doesn't do much other than have extremely annoying screechy music as her entrance music.

It started out good and then it just went up and down

Jay Reguero, a Filipino-American teenager, travels to the Philippines after the death of his cousin. His aunt and uncle are not at all willing to talk about what happened, leaving him to piece together the mystery of how his cousin died, what the country's going through, and how that all connects to his identity.

Content/Trigger Warning: Drug use, addiction, death, death of an animal, human trafficking (discussion of).

FIRST OF ALL, I am not Filipino, so therefore I am unable to speak about the issues addressed in the book. I recommend you search for ownvoices reviews about this book, because it deals with a very real and current and intense issue, which I do not have much knowledge of it. But I did absolutely love and adore this book, which is why I wanted to review it and talk about it.

I LIKED how the book took me along with Jay – I could feel myself sitting in the same room as him, felt his pain, shared his feelings about Jun. And that's always a way to tell if a book is a favourite – if I am able to be in the same place as the character, if I feel what they feel. I liked seeing the Philippines, I like seeing new places and this book also deals with having to claim your identity, who you are, and what all that means. And while I can't exactly connect with all of that, I can try to understand it.

JUN was definitely my favourite character, I did really like Jay, but the letters Jun wrote to Jay just took my heart and ran with it. There was so much of Jun that I absolutely loved – his personality, his way of speaking, the way he looked up to Jay, how he started to look at the world as he grew up. And the letters, oh my goodness, I could literally go on for about hours about the letters he wrote. Jun had so much going for him and I think one of the reasons why I like him so much is because this is a case of the character having a lot (to do in their life or a lot to look out for etc) and then by circumstances (whether they be beyond their control or social-environmental); those plans begin to fall apart.

THERE'S this trope – well, it's sort of a trope but maybe more like a subgenre, or a subject if you will – I like (and I think I usually come across it in movies and series) where the kids/teens get justice or try to get justice. Like they see something's wrong and they try to fix it. It's probably because I grew up with Enid Blyton and all her books about kids solving mysteries. And this is important because so often we see things happen and adults do nothing about it and it's the kids who decide to take action, it's the kids who see something wrong and want to fight for the right thing. And especially now – in a world where people try to put kids or teens down because

JAY – oh my goodness this boy. I felt so much for him and he just needed to be held!! Like just let someone hold him. He wanted to know more about his family and the culture and what's all going on. And that even though not everything in his family might be good or that the country has its wrongs and faults, he still wants to claim that identity. He still wants to learn more.

I ALREADY mentioned I spoke about the letters, but I'm going to speak about it again. I loved reading Jun's letters to Jay. They're little parts of him (Jun) and then you get to see Jay's reactions to the letters – rereading them, and how he feels about Jun now and everything going on around him and it's so good. They deserved to spend more time with each other and I'm sad they didn't get to do that.

Although this was a super quick read I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted t or though I would. It helped that it was a dual-pov. I preferred Jacob over Hannah so I might've dnfed if the book was solely Hannah's pov. It's not that I didn't like Hannah, I just didn't really have much of an opinion of her. Jacob (to me) was more interesting and I wanted to know more about him over Hannah. I was fine with Hannah when her and Jacob had scenes together but that's about it

It's a pretty decent plot, but then again, I honestly don't remember much of it. I remembered I liked Jacob's family and his whole storyline. I thought Hannah's ex was really annoying so I rolled my eyes basically whenever he was on the page (well screen because ebook). Like, Hannah, I'm sorry, but can't you tell you and Nate don't have much in common? Like clearly you and Jacob are better together! I liked their romance (Hannah and Jacob) but I really didn't remember much of it to tell you lot. Cute read, but that's about it in my eyes.

not a full dnf but a soft dnf. will pick up later and do a hybrid read

Technically it's 3-and-a-half, but Goodreads doesn't know how to play nicely.

CHARACTERS: Boom! Elizabeth is damn right awesome and yass!! Female character!!! Elizabeth comes so prepared I should ask her to summarise my college subjects. Wowee, Elizabeth figures things out so wonderfully I want to ask her to figure out why data is so expensive in South Africa (no really, tell me how much you guys have to pay for 1GB) and why the hell Donald Trump is still running, much less alive.
Received a copy of this eBook as a thank you for beta reading it. Then proceeded to promptly forget about it until I saw it a few days ago. Managed to find time amongst all my crying and stressing about college to read this.
One can never have enough Sherlock Holmes inspired books. I mean, sure, you can say no, but you know you'll be reading it.
Who stops while running from a murderer/downright weirdo to write down a few paragraphs of your thoughts? Unless she was using a text-to-speech app (if you have one that doesn't need constant data to work, please message me), which would actually prove to be harmful, as the weirdo can hear you and kill you. But I do like the fact that she's recording everything.
ACDH – I'll try not to call it ACDC
What kind of gym class do you have if they teach you archery? We had a basic of swimming and running (though sometime we did ‘rounders') and weird summery games (hoops, bok in die hok – a type of dodgeball – and in the winter, P.E/P.T was inside, and we mostly did Aerobics or something like that. I would have given my left arm to learn archery (though I'd probably hurt a few people in the process).
People in American get detentions for the weirdest things. I mean, what Cassy said wouldn't bet worth a detention in my high school (it's not even that bad, that's something I would tell my friend in the hallway even with teachers around me and they would probably just laugh.
If Elizabeth doesn't think the police chief doesn't have the skills, how would she have them? I mean, I'm sure people would raise an eyebrow if you buy the same equipment police stuff.
The writing is at times boring, but stilly good.
Elizabeth has a very good and realistic relationship with her father. It's actually interesting because if this book were a YA, you'd see a case of absent parents and odd relationships with the protagonist's parents. Perhaps it's changed because it's an MG novel? Or maybe it's just the author' doing? So well done on this. Half a star added for the whole parent-daughter relationship and it feeling real.
Professor Martin sighed. He looked like someone about to do something he knew he would hate. “The whole building is encased in a powerful lockdown spell. There's no way to get out without breaking through the spell and I need some time to sit and study it carefully. If I'm not careful, the person who put it there will know.” Seeing Elizabeth's mouth start to open, he cut her off, “I know you have questions; I talked to Albert, and we'll give you a history lesson after we get out of here. For now, let's get dessert and I'll do my best.”
: Oh yeah sure. Let's just go from not wanting to tell them things to let's just tell them everything. I'm sure if Professor Martin just said, “Some security problems” it would be okay, but let's go with it for plot and exposition.
So if the runes were enchantment runes and not locking runes, hence the reason why everyone's so calm, why is Elizabeth so against it and awake/aware? Did she not drink from the Kool-Aid as it passed through the crowd? Is she more aware of magic than others? And if she is, then why does she still ‘drink the Kool-Aid'?
Even though the action's good, there are times when there's a sentence of action and then that's it. Like a character does something that'll usually be an entire paragraph worth of imagery, is only one or two sentences. It's not much of an annoyance, but I'm pretty sure you want your readers to imagine a lot of the world.
So yes, this book is good. It's interesting and it's about magic and mystery and female characters doing things. Add it to your list for a good, quick read.

To Liv From The Ruin is one of those books that you have to stop every once in a while to think about the paragraph you have just read. While, I'm not going to give the plot away, (for you can read the summary and then read the book yourself) I will say that I enjoyed the book; albeit it took me about 80 pages to really enjoy the book.

All in all, the book is well-written and I would like to read more from Adrienne.

Loved this extremely short novella! I don't often read these type of stories and I quickly read this one. It's a short read, so you can't really say much of it, other than it's amazing.

It was a great read. It was great to see a book about ADD/ADHD that uses words and explanations that are on the same level as the teenagers who would read the novel - as they would be able to understand how their brain works and how to help it. Teenagers would definitely liked to write in the spaces provided about how they felt about themselves and their disorder.

A copy of this book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is a paranormal romance that captured my heart from the beginning with its gorgeous style of writing. And then it went on and introduced its characters and adorable moments; and by then I was ready to perform outrageous dance moves to read more of the series.

Iona is a college freshman on an island that seems to be perfect, but is it? Iona is one of the best characters I've read-because she's someone I'll love to be

Then there's Ariston, a handsome neighbouring prince who sets his eyes on Iona. He captures Iona's (and mine-easily) with his just-glorious personality.

Yes, it is a slow book and there isn't a lot of action, but there will be more action in the 2nd book (I know this because I've already read most of the 2nd book's chapters-perks of being an editor/beta reader).

Would I recommend it: Yes, I would. I've known this novel for a while and would love to see it become famous. And you should definitely read My Deadly Prince Charming, because it is a beautifully written novel.

A copy of this book was e-mailed to me in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, before I start the actual review, let me just fangirl for a moment.

cue fangirlingOh my days, this is an absolutely amazing book! I hope the author writes a thousand books akin to this, because I'll read the heck out of all of them. And of course, what would a fangirl moment be without this: asdfghjkl I just can't even! Scance/Vacar (ship names for the two main characters-don't judge me, those are the best I could come up with-I like Scance the best) are OTP and I hope this book becomes a movie so I can see some Scance action on the screens! EEPcease fangirling

Are you looking for a New Adult novel that once you start reading, you physically cannot stop until your eyes feel like they're in hell? Well, look no further! Get off your horse, make camp and get ready to read a fantabulous book!

No, but like seriously, the amount of times I swooned in this book is more than when I read All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (if you haven't read it, you're wasting your time!). By the time you're onto the second chapter of Use Somebody, you'll want to stay home and do nothing until you've finished the book (I was contemplating not going to work).

The story is that Scar (full name Scarlett Rossi-thumbs up for the Italian surname) moves back to her hometown after a traumatic experience at college (which you, the reader, can read it and cry for yourself). She begins at an ice cream shop (a place I should never work at, because all the ice cream would be eaten on the first day, more like in the first hour.) Her co-worker is Vance Holloway, an adorable little s*t who loves pancakes, has great taste in music and somebody I would love to go out, mostly for his enthusiasm. Along with adorable moments, like the inevitable thinking of the pair's friends that the two are together (because, of course, a guy and a girl can never be simply friends-eye roll), this novel is so adorably heartbreaking, you'll find yourself reaching for a tissue and wanting to work at an ice cream shop.

Final Verdict: An undoubtedly wondrous well-written novel that reaches into your heart and squeezes it so hard that you won't be able to breathe for a few days.

Would I recommend this novel to anyone?: Abso-flogin'-lutely.

Reason why I chose the book:

It was mostly the title. It made me instantly think of Peter Pan and I just love Neverland, and the description sounded like it was good – because the main character could talk and heal animals, and that really intrigued me.

Reason why I'm not finishing it:

Nothing interesting happens or something that would make me want to read on instead of forcing myself to read on. I think I read until Chapter Nine and realised I should have stopped at Chapter Three. Also, there's major discrimination and racism against the main character in the book, because she's Romani. I did not like how the other characters treated the main character and how they flung insults at her. There were too many insults, most of them coming from kids her own age, which annoyed me and then a teacher also contributed to the discrimination, which resulted in my (metaphorical) closing of the book (as it was an e-book).

Any thoughts I had while reading the book:

Do the animals she talks to speak English or does she understand each and every single animal language? Does she speak to them in English or in their language?

So this was sort of a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin (whom I love, thanks, Robert). Add gif of Robert. And it had some Cinderella elements to it too, so that was cool.

It was a quick read (I first thought it was a full-length novel and was disappointed when I saw it was actually a novella. But then I realized that if it were a full-length novel, I would probably lose interest along the way.

It was a cute read, yes. But that was all it was. The characters, as adorable as they were, lacked that certain thing about them that made me want to care about them.

The main character (Pip) is cute and I did like him, but I found him to be spineless – he didn't really stand up for himself and there was a definite theme of instalove with the prince – Ren, and really, can't we get away from the idea of instalove?

The descriptions and the setting were done rather well. I can tell the author spent time on that and crafted the world rather well. If only she spent more time on the characters, they too would be as good as the description.

Honest review because I beta read it.
So I beta read this book and the author kept me up to date with what was happening - and I was very happy that he did because I loved the book.

It's a story about people with superpowers, which already gets like 2 stars. And the imagery of the people using the powers gains another star. And I gave it another star because I liked the book so much.

The Rising is basically Percy Jackson, which is amazing because PJO is amazing.

I recommend this book to everyone that wants a good, fast paced and interesting read. You won't regret it and I can't wait to read the next book in the series

*Received from Netgalley.

So this my first graphic novel and may I just say that it is absolutely wonderful. Very dark and fantastically written. The fact that it's gruesome just makes it all the more better and the writer even made the teenagers speak how they would normally.

Four (#2)
Archer Kay Leah
Stars: 4
I received this e-arc through Less Than Three Press in exchange for my free and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Note that even though this is the second book in a series, it can be read as a standalone.

This (Four) was Mayr's book, which I was excited for as I loved him in A Question of Counsel. I loved Tash (aka Halataldris – still trying to figure out how the author got Tash from that mouthful, but it's probably the same as getting Dick from Richard). He (Tash) was a good love interest and he and Mayr balanced each other out.

Something that annoys me when I read a fantasy romance book is that the pacing and flow of the story is nearly always sped up due to the romance aspect, and when you speed up the pacing and flow of a fantasy book, the plot tends to unravel and even move away from what the original plot was meant to be. This did not happen in Four. The romance and fantasy worked together to ensure that neither plot nor romance was lost.

I loved this book and will definitely read it again in the future, or even manage a series reread when the fourth book comes out (I saw it on Netgalley and am itching to request it).