Book Review: Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine & Ann Aguirre

Release Date: February 13th, 2018
Read: July 17th, 2018
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Series: The Honors, #1
Format: ARC, 467 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Description from GoodReads:

   Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead of moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.

   Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.

   Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.

Book Review: Campfire by Shawn Sarles

Release Date: July 17th, 2018
Read: April 14-20th, 2018
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 304 pages
Source: McNally Robinson

Description from GoodReads:

   While camping in a remote location, Maddie Davenport gathers around the fire with her friends and family to tell scary stories. Caleb, the handsome young guide, shares the local legend of the ferocious Mountain Men who hunt unsuspecting campers and leave their mark by carving grisly antlers into their victims' foreheads.

   The next day, the story comes true. 

   Now Maddie and her family are lost in the deep woods--with no way out--being stalked by their worst nightmares. Because there were other, more horrifying stories told that night--and Maddie's about to find out just how they end...

Book Review: Emergency Contact by Mary H.K Choi

Release Date: March 24th, 2018
Read: April 6-7th, 2018
Publisher: Simon and Schuster for Young Readers
Series: Standalone
Format: Signed Hardcover, 400 pages
Source: Bought

Description from GoodReads:

   For Penny Lee, high school was a nonevent. She got decent grades, had a few friends, and even a boyfriend by senior year but basically she was invisible. Having just graduated from high school, she’s heading off to college in Austin, Texas, and she’s ready for it.

   Sam has had a rougher time over the last few years. He grew up in a trailer park and had to bail when he caught his addict mom taking out credit cards in his name to buy more crap from the Home Shopping Network. He gets a job at a café whose owner is kind enough to let him crash on a mattress in a spare room upstairs. He wants to go to film school and become a great director but at the moment he has $17 in his checking account and his laptop is dying.

   When Penny and Sam cross paths it’s not exactly a Hollywood meet cute: they’re both too socially awkward for that. But they exchange numbers and stay in touch—almost entirely by text message, a form that allows them to get to know each other while being witty and snarky and intimate without the uncomfortable weirdness of, you know, actually having to see each other in person.  

Book Review: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Release Date: March 6th, 2018
Read: March 26th-April 2nd, 2018
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 342 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for honest review

Description from GoodReads:

   Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

   The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

Book Review: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

Release Date: October 2nd, 2018
Read: May 20th- June 14th, 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 416 pages
Source: BEA 2018

Description from GoodReads:

   It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods. 

   Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

   The only thing is: they didn’t do it. 

   On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.

Book Review: Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Release Date: May 8th, 2018
Read: June 8-10th, 2018
Publisher: Razorbill
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 320 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for honest review.

Description from GoodReads:

   Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There's not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley's favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

   So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

   Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.

Book Review: My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

Release Date: June 26th, 2018
Read: December 29th 2017- January 1st, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: My Lady Janies, #2
Format: ARC, 464 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for honest review

Description from GoodReads:

   You may think you know the story. After a miserable childhood, penniless orphan Jane Eyre embarks on a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall. There, she meets one dark, brooding Mr. Rochester. Despite their significant age gap (!) and his uneven temper (!!), they fall in love—and, Reader, she marries him. (!!!)

   Or does she?

   Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Brontë, and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights.

Review:

 
 I feel like we're getting a bit off topic.
   It's been almost two years since I first read the hilarious and exceptionally cute book My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows. It was one of my favourite reads of 2016, and I couldn't have been happier to hear that the publisher had purchased two more books in the series. Flash forward to a month or two ago, when I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of it's sequel My Plain Jane.

   With both books, I knew the history of the original story of both Janes going into the books. Unlike My Lady Jane, I never enjoyed the original Jane Eyre story. So it was exciting to go into My Plain Jane and expect a comical twist to the originally bland story.

   Of course with a trio of such fabulous authors working together, I couldn't have expected anything less than perfection. My Plain Jane turned out exactly as I'd imagined, and more. The humour from their first novel was back and even stronger than before.

   With My Plain Jane you had the perspectives of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brönte and the supernatural ghost hunter, Alexander Blackwood. What made this book all that more intriguing was that while having the perspective of Charlotte Brönte, the original writer of Jane Eyre story, the authors made Jane Eyre a real life friend of Charlotte, and that she was the object of Charlotte's novel that she continues to write throughout the book.

     Like the first book, you did not need to know Jane Eyre's story to understand My Plain Jane. I found in this case that if you had read it before picking up this book, then you would have noticed a few head nods in it's direction. But otherwise you will find that you will be rather pleased with the book no matter what your situation was before reading the book.

   One of my favourite parts of the book was when we got a bit of a peak at a few of the characters from My Lady Jane, confirming that the stories take place in the same world but rather at a different place in time.
   

   My Plain Jane was a absolute hit with me, written with the perfect amount of wit and romance. I can not wait for it to release for everyone else to read it, and I look forward to the next in the series, My Calamity Jane. 

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"Let's start with the girl.
 Her name was Jane."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Paranormal, Humour, Jane Eyre, Ghosts, Retellings