ARC Review: Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

Summary

A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment.

Being the middle child has its ups and downs.

But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—

Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.

And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

Sourced from Goodreads. 

Review

My rating:

Hi there, fellow readers! I’m back with another review, this one being on the book Far From the Tree by Robin Benway! I was pretty excited to read this book since it’s by Robin Benway, author of Emmy and Oliver! I remember how much I loved that book and couldn’t wait to get into this one because of it. While I didn’t read it in one sitting (I never get to these days 😦 ), I did read it fervently, wanting to know more about Grace, Maya, and Joaquin. I read anywhere I could, making sure that these characters had my full attention.

As I said, it was all about the characters for me. Benway has done it again by portraying this lovely complex characters that you’d like to know in real life and just hug them. Each one was going through their own struggles, but together, they took that step to moving forward. I loved this immensely! It was as if they needed each other this whole time without realizing it. I also am a fan of each of their POVs, how they fit and correspond with one another. I’m really glad that she chose to write it that way because I first thought it was only through Maya’s perspective for some reason. It was really gratifying to read and easier to empathize with these amazing characters!

I’m not going to lie: this book had me in tears by the end. These characters got to develop and learn more about themselves in the duration of the novel than in years! My only qualm is that the end was a bit too fast, which made wrap-up a bit short and simple. The ending, while satisfying, was kind of jarring since the pacing didn’t really match up to the rest of the novel…

Well, that’s all I have to say about Far From the Tree by Robin Benway. It was a pleasant surprise to read another book of hers, especially after Emmy and Oliver. I can’t wait to see what she writes next! Full disclosure, though: you might end up needing a Kleenex box or equivalent with you near the end. But for those of you who are still interested after the sniffles warning, the book comes out this Tuesday, on October 3rd, 2017!

Take care, everyone! And keep reading!

–  Sumaya

I received this copy from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

 

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 19

Hi, everyone! It’s Monday and you know what that means: another segment of “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn @ Book Date. While last week might not have been as productive as I would have liked, reading-wise, I loved what I was reading! 😉

What I Read Recently: 

What I’m Currently Reading:

What I’m Planning to Read Next: 

Well, that’s all for now! At the moment, I’m really getting into Far From the Tree and excited to see where it goes! Are there any books you’re reading this week that have you feeling that way as well? Let me know in the Comments Section below!

Thanks for reading, everybody!

–  Sumaya

Review: I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

Summary

Dear Best Friend,
I can already tell that I will hate everyone but you.
Sincerely,
Ava Helmer
(that brunette who won’t leave you alone)

We’re still in the same room, you weirdo.
Stop crying.
G

So begins a series of texts and emails sent between two best friends, Ava and Gen, as they head off to their first semesters of college on opposite sides of the country. From first loves to weird roommates, heartbreak, self-discovery, coming out and mental health, the two best friends will document every moment to each other. But as each changes and grows into her new life, will their friendship be able to survive the distance?

Sourced from Goodreads. 

Review

My rating: 

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hi, everyone! I finally finished I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin and it was amazing! I was excited for this book since I first found out about it in May. Then, when I finally got the chance to read it, I dug in, looking forward to all the little moments where I’d have time to enjoy the text messages and emails between Gen and Ava. You could see the connection they had through just a few words and not being in the same place and time! There was that and the fact that I’m always on the lookout for a good femship that has complex characters as friends but also focuses on them as individual people and not just stock character best friends. I Hate Everyone But You pulled that off by giving voice to So, yeah, I really liked it! 🙂

What really had me with this book was the characters within it. They added more to the story; no, they made the story! Gen’s side of the story was completely dramatic and what you’d expect a soap opera to be like. There were just so many “what?” moments, but it just stopped short of overwhelming and made the book work. Ava’s adventures were a bit different. Though she didn’t have as much going on as Gen, Ava was facing her own troubles, plus her social anxiety. However, she still managed to have a few “what” moments of her own. What I liked most about Ava’s relationship with Gen is that she’s never felt like she had to be a “yes woman” in order to stay friends with her. Ava’s honesty is definitely needed some times, even when it comes off as rude or naive. It helps move the story along, plus later on she does apologize whenever Ava felt like she had overstepped.

Well, that’s all I have to say about I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin. I really enjoyed it and would recommend this to anyone looking for a good femship read! If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the Comments Section below. And for anyone who wants to know, I Hate Everyone But You has already been out since September 19th!

Have a nice day, everyone!

–  Sumaya

 

Which Cover Wednesday 78

Hey there, fellow readers! I’m back with another Which Cover Wednesday! For those of you who don’t know, Which Cover Wednesday is a weekly meme I host. What happens is that I compare two different covers of a book and give my opinion of which cover looks better. And you can join in on the fun as well! Just leave your thoughts about these covers in the Comments Section below. Speaking of covers, here are our covers for this week:

1.  I Hate Everyone But You by Gabby Dun and Allison Raskin

 or 

I really like the second cover. While both covers seem similar, I feel as if the first cover is a draft of the second one. I think that the second cover has a polished look to it, with the phone in the middle actually looking real, the text is bold, legible, yet not out of place. Plus, I think it was a good idea to put the authors’ names inside the phone, like it’s a random chat. The only this I’m not a fan of is the background art of all those emojis…

2. I Know I Am, But What Are You by Samantha Bee

 or 

Loving that second cover. Simple, but it gets the point across just as much as if the author were wearing a bee costume. Also, I really like the typography of the second cover in comparison to the first one, which looks much more bland.

3. A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Marby

 or 

First cover for the win! I love how vibrant it looks with all those colours, leaves and flowers! And that typography is looking pretty fierce with those thorns around it! 😉 The second cover, while giving an air of mystery with its model shrouded in shadow, wouldn’t make me want to grab ahold of it as the first book does.

4. Seven Days of You by Cecily Vinesse

 or 

In this case, I’d go with the second cover. I like seeing covers that try to use other enticing factors rather than a picture with a model. The second cover looks super cute with its cover art all over the place! It just screams light contemporary without having to use models holding hands or whatnot.

Well, that’s all I have to say for today! I hope you enjoyed this week’s Which Cover Wednesday! Did you see anything you liked? If you have any thoughts or questions about Which Cover Wednesday or this week’s titles, I’d love to hear about them in the Comments Section below. Thanks for reading!

– Sumaya

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 18

Hey there, wonderful readers! I’m back with another post of “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn @ Book Date. As I guessed, I didn’t make my reading goals last week. But seeing as I was really busy, I wasn’t too torn up about it. I’m really excited for the books I’m reading this week, though! 😀

What I Read Recently: 

What I’m Currently Reading: 

What I’m Planning to Read Next: 

So that’s what I want to read this week! I think I can pull it off. 😉 What’s everyone else reading this week? Let me know in the Comments Section below!

–  Sumaya

ARC Review: Top Ten by Katie Cotugno

Summary

Ryan McCullough and Gabby Hart are the unlikeliest of best friends. Prickly, anxious Gabby would rather do literally anything than go to a party. Ultra-popular Ryan is a hockey star who can get any girl he wants—and frequently does. But somehow their relationship just works; from dorky Monopoly nights to rowdy house parties to the top ten lists they make about everything under the sun.

Now, on the night of high school graduation, everything is suddenly changing—in their lives, and in their relationship. As they try to figure out what they mean to each other and where to go from here, they make a final top ten list: this time, counting down the top ten moments of their friendship.

Sourced from Goodreads

Review

My rating: 

Hi, everyone! I’ve just finished reading Top Ten by Katie Cotugno and I just had to talk about it! It’s pretty enjoyable overall, but there were some parts I just couldn’t get into. It’s funny, but I didn’t expect myself to get as invested so quickly as I did with this book! Now if only the chronology of the story was a bit more linear…

Like i said, I had an issue with the chronology. At first, it was fine, with a flashback explaining the foundation of Gabby and Ryan’s friendship. But then it just got super complicated for me when there was a huge gap in time, only to go back in time again to fill in the blanks. Not only did I know exactly what was going to happen, and basically had the book spoil the book for me, but I felt really confused about why the author was playing with their time line. It seemed as if there were a reason for it, yet I didn’t know why. If someone could explain it to me, now or in the near future, I’d be eternally grateful! 😉 However, once I got past that part, I started to enjoy the book again.

I think Katie Cotugno did a really good job with her main characters, Gabby and Ryan, though. They seemed fully fleshed out on the page to the point where I don’t think I preferred one character over the other, but liked them both, which is rare for me. Usually, I have a favourite character in dual POVs; not this time, though! And that’s nice. To me, it shows that the author didn’t develop one character over the other, or try to make the readers sympathetic to one protagonist. Did I think there were moments where these characters could be a bit much? Yeah, but since both of them were a bit much at times, it didn’t really matter in choosing a favourite character. The only thing I could say that was missing from this book character-wise is more inclusion of the secondary characters. Sometimes, they’d drop off the face of the Earth, only to resurface without any explanation or summary of where they’d been.

Well, that’s all I have to say about Top Ten by Katie Cotugno! I liked it, but not enough to get passed what happened in the second half of the book… If you’re looking for a book with great protagonists though, this would be the one! And for those of you who are wondering, Top Ten comes out on October 3rd, 2017. Any other questions about the book that you might have are welcome in the Comments Section below. Thanks for reading! 🙂

–  Sumaya

I received this copy from the publisher via HarperCollins Canada and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Book Bargain: Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway

Hey there, fellow book lovers! Just wanted to let you all know that on Amazon Kindle, Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway is only 1.99 CAD! It’s one of my favourite Contemporary reads, hands-down, so if you’re looking for a good contemporary, look no further than Emmy and Oliver!

Have a nice day, everyone. 🙂

–  Sumaya

Which Cover Wednesday 77

Hello, fellow book lovers! Welcome back to another Which Cover Wednesday! Which Cover Wednesday is a weekly meme I host. What happens is that I compare two different covers of a book and give my opinion of which cover looks better. Feel free to give your opinion of these covers as well! And this week’s covers are:

1.  Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ulman

 or 

Second cover hands-down! Even though both covers look similar, I like the second cover’s absence of curtains, even though they pertain to the story being told. Without the curtains, I can appreciate the night sky a bit more, especially with exquisite depiction of stars! Then there’s the typography, which doesn’t draw attention away from the background, the obvious star of the cover. What I’m trying to say is that there’s a balance between typography design and cover art that I really like!

2. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

 or 

Huge fan of the first cover! I love the detailed illustration, especially the shadows on the buildings and of the boys. Plus, I think it’s safe to say that I’m real sucker for starry sky backdrops! There’s just something so peaceful and ethereal about them that just appeals to me… The second cover attempts a more playful approach but ends up looking random to me, with the huge hourglass and the boys standing on top of it… Now if the boys were in the hourglass, that would make for an interesting cover, at least in my opinion.

3. All is Beauty Now by Sarah Faber

 or 

While the first cover is okay, it has nothing on the gorgeousness of the second one! 😉  I love the splash of colour and the brightness involved as well as how the leaves frame the edges of the cover. It seems as if the illustrator had put a lot of detail into eve the placement of their cover art, which I really admire! Then there’s the bold typography that suits the cover well without overwhelming it too much.

4. Uglies by Scott Westerfield

 or 

In this case, I prefer cover number two over the first one. The second cover is more simplistic in its depiction than the first, yet it still is able to convey the plot through just one image. The first cover, however, seems to rely on a bunch of scenes put together into a collage. Instead of clarifying the book’s subject matter, it just makes things more confusing and unnecessarily complicated.

That’s it for this week’s Which Cover Wednesday! If you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the Comments Section below. Have a nice night!

–  Sumaya

ARC Review: Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson

Summary

The sequel to The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You, inspired by The Importance of Being Earnest.

Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn’t going to do this summer.

1. She isn’t going to stay home in Sacramento, where she’d have to sit through her stepmother’s sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn’t going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn’t going to the Air Force summer program on her mother’s base in Colorado Springs. As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender’s Game, Ellie’s seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it’s much less Luke/Yoda/”feel the force,” and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep. And that just isn’t appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she’d be able to defeat afterwards.

What she is going to do is pack up her attitude, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and go to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. And she’s going to start over as Ever Lawrence, on her own terms, without the shadow of all her family’s expectations. Because why do what’s expected of you when you can fight other genius nerds to the death for a shot at the dream you’re sure your family will consider a complete waste of time?

This summer’s going to be great.

Sourced from Goodreads

Review

My rating: 

(3.25 stars)

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hey, everyone! Another day, another book to talk about! And today, I’d like to express my thoughts on Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson. Now, Lily Anderson has already written a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing and Not Now, Not Ever is her second go at another retelling, this time of The Importance of Being Earnest. What really drew me into reading Not Now, Not Ever was the camp aspect of it all. I always love reading about summer camp and thought that this book would be no exception. Except it kind of was…

Now, when I say kind of, I mean that I liked some parts of the book and wasn’t much a fan of other parts. I’d have to encourage myself to read the book instead of wanting to read it on my own at times. There would be moments where nothing would happen, and then wham – the plot thickens. While those latter moments were great to read, it didn’t make up for the fact that I was previously bored and, for a good chunk of the book, wanted to  move onto something else. Then there was that ending, which left me more confused than not. The book’s conclusion just left me with more questions than answers to the point where I wasn’t at all satisfied with it.

Also, I didn’t really like the protagonist as much as I thought I would. In the beginning, I couldn’t really relate to her and the choices she makes, but I did warm up to her nearer to the middle. By the end though, I was back to square one in not understanding her decisions again. I preferred reading about other characters though, like Leigh, Jams, Hunter, Meg, even Trixie and Ben! Sure, Elliot/Ever could be really fun sometimes, but I thought she was way too rash and in the end, I didn’t witness much character development from her.

Well, that’s all I have to say about Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson. I know that a lot of people loved this book, but, for me, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I would recommend it for people who like retellings as there are a whole bunch of references from the book’s primary source, The Importance of Being Earnest. If you have any thoughts or questions about the book, I’ll be happy to answer them in the Comments Section below. And for those of you who are wondering, Not Now, Not Ever is released on  November 21st, 2017. Thanks for reading, everyone!

–  Sumaya