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Between the Lines by Freya Wolfe. A book review

Hello, Little Bears!!!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking Book Sirens and the author for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 3.5 stars.

This is an adult mystery/thriller where Vida Henrikson, an acclaimed forensic linguist is asked to look into a case in which a young woman is supposed to have committed suicide and GI Slater is a detective investigating a very different case. These seem to have nothing to do with each other, but end up being intertwined. This investigation leads them towards a dirty net of abusers and their lives will be at stake.

T/C Warnings: sexual abuse, blood, drug abuse, retaining someone against their will.

Characters were relatively relatable, but not that believable because they’re close to representing good vs evil and, as adults, we know this not to be true.

I’m not sure if I saw things too soon or if the author wanted me to see those things before they happened. The answer to this could change the whole rating.

The writing style is good, although there some character thoughts take too long. It anyway helps you wanting to know what’s next.

I’d say this is a mix between a plot and a character driven book.

I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with this book, so I’d recommend it. Many people could enjoy this one.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins. A Book Review

Hello, Little Bears!!!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and the publisher, Penguin Young Readers Group, for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book a huge 5 stars!!!

This is a YA magical realism book where all women in the same family develop some kind of magic at 15 and Nel is eager to find out what hers is. Yet, when she gets it, she hates it so much she wishes for it to stop. Will she see the good this magic is doing to her?

Each woman’s magic in the book represents a psychological defense mechanism and I cannot praise this book enough for that. How emotions are portrayed and dealt with in this book is incredible and has nothing to compare that to, at least nothing I’ve read.

I think it’s genious and everybody who wants to understand or is interested in emotions better, even women, or how defense mechanisms work, should read this book.

I’d also love to know the author’s profession, aside from writing itself, because if she isn’t a psychologist or another mental health professional, she’s incredible at learning about that or informs herself properly.

T/C Warnings: Self-harm, sexual harrassment, sexual assault, mental illness, blood, pedophilia, eating disorder, forced institutionalisation, child abuse, suicide attempt, war, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual violence, suicide, gaslighting, body horror, medical content, toxic friendship, abandonment, animal death, injury/injury detail, infidelity, sexism, suicidal thoughts, bullying, alcohol.

Characters, as I cannot stop mentioning, are really well done and developed. Their emotions and the management of these is perfectly shown. They are real, raw and relatable.

The writing style was magical and perfect. Exactly my cup of tea; flowery, but not overly dramatic.

This book is atmosphere driven, but plot and characters are equally well done.

Of course, I gave this book 5 stars!

Would I recommend it? What are you waiting for to go read it!?!?!?!

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Johnie Irish by TN Jones. A book review

Hello, Little Bears!!!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and the publisher, Tomara Jones | Phoenix Jones Publishing, for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

This is an adult mystery/thriller in which Bayer Thompson has just come out of jail, having paid time for something he didn’t do (he was trying to help somebody). He, actually, has always been focused on doing the right thing but, as people keep on trying to take advantage of him and as policeman becomes obsessed thinking he’s part of a huge criminal organisation, and is ready to go out of his way to make Bayer pay for that, Bayer realises sometimes plans need to include things that are not necessarily ‘correct’, but that help you protect your people and yourself.

T/C Warnings: Kidnapping, injury, violence, harrassment, weapons and torture.

Characters in this book are real, morally grey and palpable, so I found it quite hard not to get attached to them up to some extent and hate the bad guy. The author portrayed what happens when you’re obsessed with something or someone masterfully, where your hyperfocus on the thing or person makes you blind to the trugh and easy to catch.

The writing style made this constantly interesting and the story believable, wanting to read and know more all the time.

I thought it had a mix of plot and character development.

I’d definitely recommend it!

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Beta Bots by Ava Lock. A Book Review

Hello, Little Bears!!!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and the publisher, Semiscope (IBPA), for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

This is an adult humorous sci-fi where Cookie Rifkin, after having escaped a really oppressive partner, is sought by the police for having robbed a bank with her new boyfriend, Wayne Dixon and their non-binary frine Ana, to be able to disappear from view. She finds interesting places to hide and plan, but the police are given orders to end them.

This book is all about diversity within the community in every possible way, topic that should be talked about every day, given our current situation. I think it’s necessary to make others aware that diversity is NORMAL and it is unnatural not to have it around. It actually helps us learn from differences instead of attacking them because we feel threatened.

As I mentioned in the review on my channel, this book has a heavily political and social dark sense of humour, which I love, but I understand it’s not for everybody, so check that out before diving into it.

T/C Warnings: sexism, death, drugs, mental illness, toxic relationship, physical/mental abuse, betrayal, toxic friendship, FV.

Characters are either lovable or hateable; not because they’re angels or demons, but because, being morally grey (as we all are), they choose to do good or bad, or they do the best they can with what they have. They don’t let us forget that life is a bunch of decisions, which are made based on the priorities we have at a certain moment in time, and not all decisions can be as good, if it makes sense.

The writing style makes this book really easy to read, so I frew through it without even realising.

I’d say this work is plot driven, although characters are not shallow and well-explained.

Of course I’d recommend it, but check the humour first.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Harry Rides the Danger by Lancelot Schaubert, Illustrated by Tony Otero. A book review

Hello, Little Bears!!!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and the publisher, Vale | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 2.75 stars.

This is, allegedly, a Children’s horror story in which Harry wakes up in the middle of the night to find Danger at his doorstep. He tries to fight it, but ends up following and taking it to save lives.

It is meant to tech courage in a fun way and commemorate those who passed away during the Joplin Tornado, which I, as a reader, am really thankful for.

The art in this book is incredibly well done, sticks to your head and has a pretty peculiar technique. However, I don’t see it as suitable for children.

In the first place, I think most children will have nightmares from the illustrations here and just leave the book to never get back to it or do so as adults.

Furthermore, I didn’t see how the purpose is met. The blurb says it is supposed to teach children to be courageous, but I don’t see the morals of the story anywhere. We all know writing for children means you have to be overexplanatory to make it understood to those who are just learning about emotions and what things are like, but I did not see enough explanations or at all, for that matter. If you didn’t have the introduction, you’d never guess this was in honour of those gone because of a natural disaster event or that this was meant to teach courage.

Now, I’m not sure how safe it is to teach children to follow danger everywhere just because saving lives is important. It is, don’t get me wrong, but survival comes first and children should be protected, so it is good they learn empathy and understand the relevance of giving and helping, but there should be reflections on this regard within the story.

There’s another thing bugging me from this book and it is the animal species chosen to represent danger, a dog, the animal that can actually teach most empathy to a child. So, a dog being danger would teach children they’re dangerous, so children could grow scared of them, or would they follow any unknown dog everywhere just because they should be corageous? Anyway, I don’t think that works.

So, I gave this book 2.75 because its purpose is noble and illustrations are incredible.

It is dark and atmosphere driven, which is something I also enjoy a lot.

I’d recommend this to adults, but still. Just read it having understood it’s not for your children.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. A Book Review

Hello, Little Bears!!!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and the publisher, Penguin UK, for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4.25 stars.

This is an adult cosy mystery, that’s the second book in a series called Thursday Murder Club.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron have found calm and new friends. However, an old friend from Elizabeth’s life asks her a favour that nobody else can do. He’s been accused of stealing milliond worth of diamonds from the Colombian trafficking mafia and he’s being followed and his life threatened. Will she be able to help? Will Elizabeth and her friends put their lives at stake? Will she get to the truth before the mafia reaches him?

I guess you’ll have to read this book to find out.

The characters are the reason why I continued reading this series and I loved having made the decision to do so because they didn’t disappoint. They’re cute, funny and smart; impossible not to love.

The writing style is amazing and I’d consider these books a mystery/thriller mixed with cosy mystery because let’s say their tone is too strong for the second one alone, so they could be used for genre blend.

It’s also mixed media, moving between diary pages/letters and the actual story, making it more dynamic and easier to read.

Nevertheless, I found a huge problem with this book: it again classifies the most dangerous criminals, the traffickers, the assassins as Colombian. Listen, this country has suffered and still its citizens continue being joked and pointed at as being drug dealers, traffickers, and any other criminal offender on the planet. They have suffered through this, actually (especially on the 80s and 90s) and the last thing they need is to continue being stigmatised for that. Normal people don’t do any of those things, they’re polite, educated, amazing hosts, generous, happy and ready to open their heart to you, but what do we see? This again and again. Well, this is the last thing a Colombian person needs or wants right now, so stop.

And I’m telling you this because I’m Spanish, but have been living in Colombia for nearly 17 years, so I know what I’m talking about.

T/C warnings: murder. death. gun violence, dementia, violence, medical content, physical abuse, gore, drug use, blood, medical trauma, infidelity, chronic illness, death of parent, police brutality, suicidal thoughts, child death, panic attacks/disorders, fatphobia, drug abuse, alcohol, grief, hate crime, injury/injury detail, terminal illness, body horror, mental illness, kidnapping, stalking, cursing, gaslighting, sexism, sexual content, eating disorder, confinement, homophobia, car accident, pandemic/epidemic, trafficking, toxic relationship, suicide attempt, abortion, misogyny (these according to The Storygraph).

Had I considered this wrong stereotype, I’d have given this 2 stars but, as I said on the review on my channel, I proritised educating the public on this and judging the book for other elements.

This is a mix between character and plot driven.

I’d recommend it, but take the problem into account if you don’t want to fall into believing the stereotype.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Life Lived Wild by Rick Ridgeway. A review

*no spoilers*

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and Patagonia (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4.25 stars.

This is a standalone adult non-fiction.

This is a summary of Rick’s travels, friendship journeys and inner changes and processes throughout life.

It is also an advocacy for the planet and some life lessons that could be useful to all of us.

I really liked life events and the feelings/thoughts that resulted from them, I had no idea who Rick Ridgeway was before reading this book and I had chosen it given my love for travelling and I loved how he changed from being a self-centered man that wouldn’t worry that much about others to the sensitive and reflective older man that came out from those experiences.

Trigger/content warnings: death, cancer, child death, blood, injury/injury detail, grief.

Given that this is a non-fiction, there will be no talk of characters or plot.

His writing style made the telling of the story natural and easy to read, although paragraphs were too lengthy at times.

This book is more character driven because, of course, it’s a biography; but it doesn’t disconnect this from events.

I would surely recommend reading this if you’re interested in these topics.

If you want to know more, you can watch the review on my channel.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn. A review

*no spoilers*

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of these books in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 3.75 stars!

This is a standalone adult women’s fiction/contemporary romance.

Georgina Wagman’s life is perfect. She and her husband are successful lawyers, they have a place of their own and an also perfect group of friends. Everything is a dream until it turns into a nightmare.

She has to go back to the office one day and finds her husband cheating with a junior partner. Her whole world is now upside down and there’s nothing she wants more than getting it back to normal. So, when she’s talking to a client who mentions swingers, she decides that’s where the answer to their problems lay and, surprisingly, her friends want to join. What will come out of this?

Trigger/content warnings: infidelity, sexual content, cursing, toxic relationships, alcohol.

Characters were relatable because nobody was perfect and there were consequences to their decisions. Even though you wanted to scream at them sometimes (I actually did it), you felt you understood the steps they took and their reasoning behind them.

Georgina and her husband are the typical unhappy couple and they don’t even fit together, but they still make the wrong decisions every time.

The writing style made this book very easy and quick to read. I, in fact, didn’t want to close the book until I finished because I needed to know what came next.

This book is character driven.

I gave it 3.75 stars because it isn’t my cup of tea (my problem), but I really enjoyed reading it and this is not a bad rating by any means.

I would surely recommend it unless you have an issue with any of the trigger or content warnings in it. It was so much fun!

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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A Touch of Light by Thiago Abdalla. A book review

*no spoilers*

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of these books in exchange of an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

This is a YA epic fantasy where The Domain, a territory in the realm of Avarin, is the bastion of life. They have a religion where people cannot be mourned or remembered.

Their God is The Seraph, “the True God” (any similarities with what we know is mere coincidence -note the sarcasm-); they believe keeping death away up to the point of erasing those who died from life itself would help The Seraph return one day.

However, there are more nations in Avarin with different beliefs. On the other side, we have the clans, the savage outcasts.

There’s a sickness that had already happened and this time it seems to be worse. It makes people evil and fearless, but also turns them into zombie with awareness, dead and indestructible at the same time.

Trigger/content warnings: Violence, mental illness, bloood, death, classism.

Characters were somehow unrelatable because they tended to be really good or really bad, but good characters had flaws and mental health issues that made them real. They were quite interesting (of course, I’m a psychologist) because I believe a person is their mind and what goes through it given their experiences and genetics is what makes the person who they are.

Prince Adrian, our MMC was quite annoying and so well done, I couldn’t stand him LOL. I don’t think you should give a book a low rating just because you’re annoyed by a character because, if the characters are making you feel things, they’s well done and developed.

Going back to Adrian, he was quite childish, egotistical and needy, but what teenager is not?

I loved the writing style. I thought it helped an epic fantasy be quicker to read and more digestible and reminded me a bit of Brandon Sanderson’s, but not quite, if it makes sense. It was easy to read, but not too simple. Everything was properly explained without taking you out of the story and there were plot twists that I didn’t exactly see coming.

It is mainly character driven, although there’s kind of a mix.

After reading all this, do you have any doubts I recommend it? I surely do!

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Authentically, Izzy by Pepper Basham. A book review

*no spoilers*

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Thomas Nelson (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of these books in exchange of an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 5 stars!

This is a contemporary Christian romance, first one in the Skymar series.

Izzy Edgewood is a your woman and a book nerd who, as becoming an orphan as a child, was taken as one addition to her aunt’s family. She dreams of having a book store and of the perfect book nerd for her as a partner.

One day, her cousin Josephine decides to enroll her into a dating website without her consent and someone starts chatting to her. However, they seem to be too perfect, so she suspects her cousin is also creating the guy to encourage her to meet some people.

Secrets and fears threaten to destroy everything, though. Will they?

Trigger/content warnings: toxic realtionship, death, infidelity, death of parent, pregnancy, gaslighting and grief.

Most characters are people I’d want in my life, so they’re relatable, lovable and our MCs are every bookworm’s dream. They are also well explained, they make mistakes even if they have the best intentions, which makes the story feel more real and mental health issues are a main thing that is talked about and assessed.

I loved the writing style and the mixed media with letters, texts, thoughts and conversations, including how these were strategically placed to help the story flow.

This book is mainly character driven.

I enjoyed it and its cute love so much that I had to give it 5 stars.

PS: It made me ugly cry.

I would definitely recommend it. It’s unforgettable, a quick read, deep, fun and extremely cute without being too cheesy.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. A book review

*no spoilers*

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of these books in exchange of an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

This is an adult sci-fi/fantasy and the 7th and last book in the Mistborn series, 4th in Era Two.

In this instalment of the series, Waxilium Ladrian, his wife and friends (Harmony, Wayne, Marasi and Steris trying to end the organisation run by his uncle and sister called The Set, because they’re kidnapping allomancers (people within the world who have the power to get metals to help them to certain things; basically like obtaining superpowers, but always coming from the metals that they must ingest.

This organisation has been growing quite easily in the countryside, given the conflicts between the capital and other provinces caused by the government (any similarity with reality is mere coincidence LOL).

Trigger/content warnings: gun violence, death, violence, blood, injury, injury detail, murder, gore, grief, war, kidnapping, alcohol, body horror, fire, fire injury, gaslighting, genocie, alcoholism, drug use, sexism, suicidal thoughts, torture, confinement, abortion, death of parent, classism, mental illness, xenophobia, animal cruelty, confinement, excrement, pregnancy, ableism, trafficking, cursing.

As usual with Sanderson, this is a quick to read epic fantasy that you fly through and a great beginning to the genre.

It is a mix between character and atmosphere driven, but all the aspects are properly developed.

Characters are relatable, fun, with flaws and funny. Impossible not to love our 4 main characters.

I do recommend this as well as all Sanderson books that I’ve read so far. Actually, this is my favourite of the 4 books in Mistborn Era 2 and I personaly loved the closing of the series.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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When You’re Dying by M. Q. Webb. A book review

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and TBR Press (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of these books in exchange of an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4 stars.

This is an adult mystery/thriller standalone about a sister who’s obsessed with her sister’s disappearance and is ready to risk everything to find out what happened to her.

Verity Casmere has recently been told she has terminal cancer, so her main life purpose now is to find out what happened to her sister, Ashlee, who mysteriously disappeared. She has nothing to loose.

Both Verity and the man who she suspects kidnapped and killed her sister are taken to the same hospital by police officers and the lead psychologist of this health center asks another specialist, Oscar, to talk to both and see why they were both found together and why the alleged criminal was more injured than Verity.

T/C warnings: violence and kidnapping.

This book uses a chiché female main character who puts herself in danger solving a case on her own and with no major consequences. Not that it is bad in itself, but had to mention it just in case this deterrs someone from reading it.

Characters are not so relatable. Verity is too lucky to be real, gets to do things that are not possible in life without dreadful consequences and even characters feel to “hollywoodesque”.

This is book #2 in the Oscar de la Nuit series, but can be read as a standalone.

It alternates between the past and the present and between different characters’ perspectives and the reader never gets lost. There are interesting plot twists and you won’t know what’s going to happen until the very end. I liked the writing style, but nothing caught my eye enough to make it stand out.

It is a mix between character and plot driven.

I gave it 4 stars, merely out of enjoyment.

Would I recommend it? Yes, if you knwo what to expect and enjoy it. I certainly did!

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Into the Riverlands and Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo. A review

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of these books in exchange of an honest review.

*All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave these books 4.25 stars.

These are adults sci-fi fantasy books, numbers3 and 4 in the Singing Hills Cycle series, and are retellings of Viet mythology from traditional folklore.

For the first 3 books of the series, Chih, a monk, is travelling through the lands with her funny avian companion, Almost Brilliant. They go through many perils and meet other creatures that would either help or try to destroy them and that come from Eastern mythology.

The fourth one represents a change because Chih and Almost Brilliant are going back to the monastery, because of the illness and death of her mentor.

Trigger/content warnings for “Into the Riverlands”: death, violence, murder, injury, injury detail, body horror, blood, war, gore, suicide, grief, abandonment, rape, cursing, animal death, sexism, death of parent, chronic illness, physical abuse, kidnapping, sexual assault, mysogyny, trafficking, cannibalism, infidelity, child death, panic attacks/disorders.

Trigger/content warnings for “Mammoths at the Gates”: grief, death, domestic abuse, deadnaming, alcohol, death of parent, self-harm, physical abuse, animal cruelty, violence, abandonment, violence, animal death, injury, injury detail, physical abuse, blood, terminal illness, transphobia, religious bigotry, classism, body horror, bullying, chronic illness, cursing, emotional abuse, toxic relationship, excrement, dementia, war, alcoholism, ableism, medical content, murder, outing.

These books are full of metaphors and told ingenously with hillarious notes that keep you interested and wanting to know more. The stories are not about the action, as is regularly the case in Eastern mythology, although they have a great plot, but about the reflections that can be extracted from them.

They also show how everything in life is as simple as it is complex and how there’s never just one side to the story, but they end up being as many stories as sides to it.

These books are plot driven, but the atmosphere was spot on and characters were really funny, which increased the enjoyment when reading.

I surely recommend this series.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Someone Is Always Watching by Kelly Armstrong. A book review

Hi, Little Bears!

How’s everyone doing?

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada (publisher) for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*All opinions here are my own. Nobody forced or payed me to give any of them.

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

This is a YA mystery/thriller about a group of friends in secondary school who even start doubting who they are because of suspicions about some really serious event after a mental health breakdown from Blythe’s best friend, Gabrielle.

As the teenagers start investigating, others start trying to kill or mislead them, which makes them think this is a lot darker than any of them would have even imagined. Suddenly, some of them start remembering certain things. What could possibly be going on?

Trigger/content warnings: death, murder, blood, gaslighting, mental illness, child death, child abuse, violence, gore, medical trauma, death of parent, toxic friendship, toxic relationship, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, gun violence, sexual assault, suicide, bullying, forced institutionalisation, suicide attempt, fire, fire injury, kidnapping, religious bigotry, lesbophobia, body shaming, pedophilia, abandonment, drug use, homophobia, phusical abuse.

I think all characters were realistic, even though some of the parents were shown as purely evil, but the reason was their obsession with the project they were carrying out, which, to be honest, is quite real in humans.

Our priorities are twisted.

The writing was well done, but I felt paragraphs were too long at times, especially taking the target audience into account. It made sense they were that long because of the topics explained, but the author may have been able to find another way to makes those topics compelling for young adults.

My opinion on this book is biased because I’m a psychologist really interested in neurosciences, I just couldn’t put the book down and hated certain characters, but I believe this book is anyway enjoyable

It was a mix between characters and plot, even adding a nice atmosphere to certain sections of it, which made me gap several times when new discoveries were made.

I would certainly recommend this book.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Who Killed Jerusalem? by George Brown. A book review.

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Galbraith Literary Publishers (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this 4.25 stars.

This is an adult mystery thriller where Ded Smith is called to become the lead investigator in Ickey Jerusalem’s death in 1977 on a plan. He was San Francisco’s Golden Poet and the whole world was eager for answers.

In order to do this, he must get to know everyone who was relatively close to Jerusalem and he’s even asked to attend family events with a peculiar group of famous and eccentric individuals who are not going to make it easy for him and are trying to kill each other contantly. They’ll also try to convert him to whatever beliefs Ickey and his group had.

The whole book is taking people and situations to the absurd, including people’s names, which means they will be caricatured. I found it quite funny, but I understand this absurd humour is not for everyone.

There’s quite a strong criticism of religion, dogma in general, closemindedness, eccentricity and just absurd events that can happen in life. My mum used to say “never say never” because the first thing you said you’d never do would be something life would lead you to some day.

Taking this premise into account, characters are coherent and really well built. There’s obviously no perfect one and they portray many flaws we regularly see in humanity. Nothing out of the ordinary if we take the caricature out of the picture.

The book is clearly character driven.

I would certainly recommend this book if you like this sense of humour.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Confetti Realms by Nadia Shammas. A graphic novel review

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Mad Cave Studies (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this graphic novel 5 stars!

A group of friends get together on Halloween to get some treats. While outside, they meet a setient puppet that takes them to an alternate world where they must collect a certain amount of teeth in order to go back home. On their journey, they separate in smaller groups and we see real people with their own emotions and unresolved issues that make some of then consider staying in this dangerous place.

Aside from TJ Klune’s books, I don’t often come across emotions that are so vivid and real as the ones the characters of this graphic novel had. The issues, ups and down, feelings, emotions and interactions made me feel I was a firts line espectator or what was happening in the book. At times, I even screamed at them LOL.

I thought characters were really well built and the progress their emotions went through helped make the reading experience much more enjoyable and believable. None of them was perfect and talked/thought like regular teenagers nowadays.

The art and colour palette were gorgeous and enhanced the atmosphere of the story. If you’d like to know the names of all the contributors, you can go to my BookTube channel, The Book Dreamer’s Alley, and check my video review of this work.

This graphic novel kept a perfect balance between atmosphere, characters and plot (importance in this order), which made me really happy because I’m an atmosphere driven reader, but dislike having the other aspects mentioned kind of left out or not taken care of.

With how much I enjoyed this, there’s no way I don’t recommend it.

Let me know if you decide to read this graphic novel or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. A Book Review

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and Tor Books (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 4 stars.

This is an adult dystopian novel where Giovanni (an android), Victor (his human son) and two robots (Nurse Ratchett and Rambo) live peacefully on a house built on the branches of a tree. Although not everything is as good as it seems.

Victor regularly goes to a dumpster site for robots and androids where he never finds anyone or anything interesting. One day he’s attracted to an android he calls HARP that seems to still have some life in him and, when he takes him home, secrets and old fears start unveiling, which leads to really serious issues and deep reflections that put .

T/C Warnings: Grief, genocide, violence, death, death of a minor, fire, fire injury, murder, blood confinement, panic attacks, panic disorders, injury detail, dementia, kidnapping, sexual content, animal death, abandonment, gore, mental illness, medical content, animal cruelty, suicide xenophobia, war, body horror, gaslighting, bullying, physical abuse, hate crime, gun violence, cursing, sexual harrassment, pandemic/epidemic, deportation, forced institutionalisation, police brutality, torture, excrement, acephone/arophobia, psychosis, terminal illness, slavery, self-harm, outing, body shaming, suicidal thoughts, dysphoria, domestic abuse, colonisation.

Characters are, as usual, peculiar. I’ve heard some people say it’s not ok to somehow show that killers are forgivable and that this is promoting their actions should be accepted and they should be loved no matter what they do, but we also have a psychopath in The House in the Cerulean Sea and we wtill love him.

What’s different about this one? That it’s more obvious for us the history it carries. Now, I get the whole point of this book, I think. This is about acceptance, which is part of love, and how that can really change your life and the way you act. Most psychopaths are people who got deep wounds in their minds and souls early in life and most of them, if not all, come from some form of rejection, so real love and acceptance can change the outcome those wounds have in life and, in turn, people’s behaviours. For reference, you can check the story of Beth, the psychopath child. Things can be changed until your brain is fully developed, which happens at around 25.

TJ Klune’s stories are also about giving second opportunities because mistakes are ok. Of course some of them have deeper consequences than others, but we all deserve to be better and given a second chance. Who wouldn’t like that?

All the things he promotes in his books are what actually promote emotional intelligence and make the difference between a brain whose structures are damaged and another one whose life is successful: support makes a whole difference.

However, in this book I saw important/deep/philosophical discussions were cut short with humour as a way to avoid tension, which is quite common in real life, to be honest, but not always healthy.

Regarding the story, I thought it felt flat after the beginning until everything started happening, when it picked up.

Tropes were more cliché, but this is not at all something negative; cliché just means common.

I loved the political criticism and, as usual, how TJ Klune really warms your heart through a deep understanding of love and support.

I certainly recommend this book, as I do all of this author’s works.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Stalked by Revenge by Lynn Lipinski. A Book Review

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by thanking NetGalley and Majestic Content Los Angeles, Independent Book Publishers’ Association (IBPA), (independently published) for granting me access to an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 3.25 stars.

This is an adult mystery thriller (3rd book in a series) about Zane Clearwater and his family, who are living in a trailer park, trying to keep a low profile while hiding from Zane’s half-brother and father, who are in jail after having tortured and tried to kill them not long ago. However, Clyde’s sentence is just about to be reviewed…

Just when Zane had gotten a spot to train with the police and life seemed to be treating them fairly well, Clyde may get out of jail and it soon becomes clear he has friends outside and they’re ready to fight and know where his family lives.

T/C Warnings: Stalking, death threats, death, lies, death, torture.

I thought characters were not believable because they were either too bad or too good, which isn’t realistic. It seemed, at times, that she just wanted them to have certain ability or think/do a specific thing and would make them do it, even though it wouldn’t fit the character.

The writing style was quite acceptable. However, the feeling Zane had of being scared and so full of fear he could do anything to protect himself and his family was constantly repeated and there was no need; I mean, there are many other ways to show something without repeating it again and again.

On ther other hand, there was no depth regarding mental health or much consequence to people’s actions. I also felt the views of the author were extremely conservative and not adapted to the current times, given that they were clearly (to me) put on the views of characters.

This book was mainly character driven.

This doesn’t mean I don’t recommend it. If you want kind of a cosy mystery and something entertaining and cute at times (Zane gets a lovely dog), this book is for you.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Feed them Silence by Lee Mandelo. A book review

Hello, Little Bears!!

I’d like to start this review by deeply thanking NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge (publisher) for granting me access to an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I gave this book 5 stars.

This is an adult dystopian about Sean and her team, scientists who are attempting to introduce a device into wild wolves to understand how they live and think, given that it’s a time where these animals are nearly extinct.

Sean is the lead neuroscientist in the team that’s getting a device into the wolves’ brains and she’s obsessed. Although she affirms to just want to help the pack, the whole team is more focused on their own personal gain, not caring about the consequences and even betraying one another.

Her life is also a disaster because her obsession with her job is so big, she doesn’t even realise she’s losing her wife, Priya, forever.

T/C Warnings: Animal death, animal cruelty, medical and sexual content, injury detail, violence, grief, blood, toxic relationships, infidelity, death, medical trauma, vomit, alcohol, cursing, abandonment, racism, mental illness, sexism, body horror, emotional abuse, dysphoria, terminal illness, mass shootings, kidnapping and confinement.

There’s no likeable character here and most of them are morally grey, but, who isn’t? This makes characters relatable and the story much more interesting because you never know what they’re going to do. They’re as unpredictable, greedy, self-centered, obsessed and ready to betray as many humans are in real life.

Another thing I loved about this book is the depth and portrayal of mental health. No system is perfect, for we are too complex and this book doesn’t dissapoint on that regard, not even a bit. Humanity is rotten.

This book is so good that I read it years ago (yes, I know I’m behind on reviews) and still remember every single detail. Loving neurosciences and animals also helps on this, though.

Reationships are far from ideal, everyone thinks their reasons are the only ones valid and they see themselves as righteous and perfect, there’s a total lack of real communication or profound interest in others and their passions are twisted. What else can you ask for to make a book interesting?

The writing style made this book even more interesting, having the perfect balance between thoughts and conversations. It’s easy to read, but never simplistic. Every professional term is explained, but feels part of the story itself.

It also gives the same amount of importance to atmosphere (something I cannot give 5 stars without), characters and plot.

I surely recommend this book, unless there’s something that triggers you. Anyway, give it a try and stop if you feel it’s going to be harmful to you in any way.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses by LV Russell. A Book Review

Hi, Little Bears!

How’s everyone doing?

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Quill & Crow Publishing House (publisher) for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 5 stars.

This is an adult gothic paranormal horror that follows Theodora Corvus, a young girl whose father has been depressed since they lost her mother and whose grandmother takes care of.

Theodora has to work at some point because her family lost all the wealth they had is gone and she wants to send money to the family, but when she finds a job as a housekeeper and carer at another family’s mansion, the carriage where she was travelling has an accident and she falls on the lake, from where she gets out to reach the mansion where she’s about to start a new life full of surprises.

C/T W: Death (parent, child), child abuse and mention of sexual content. All of them just briefly mentioned.

There’s a range of types of personality and morals. Some characters are really sweet and good people, some others are evil and some are morelly grey, even though the number of characters is not big whatsoever. I still didn’t feel the characters really relatable, except for Theodora’s grandmother, but I understood their motivations and thought they were really well developed.

I already said this on my video review, but I cannot stop myself for repeating it here; there are two films that I thought of throughout the book, specifically at the end. Shamefully, I cannot tell you which ones until you’re read this because I’d be spoiling the book!

I really liked the writing style and the structure of the story including the descriptions and when events were introduced, made it so atmospheric, I couldn’t not like it. Highly recommended if you love a gothic atmosphere and sudden plot twists.

I very highly recommend this book.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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The Catch Me If You Can. A Book Review

Hi, little bears!!!

Hope you’re doing great, reading and otherwise. I’m still running against time to get the money for my semester (still not sure if I will), but I got an extension to pay until the first day of class.

I gave this book 4.25-stars and it was an inspiration.

This is a non-fiction adult book written by Jessica Nabongo, an African American traveler and photographer who became the first black woman to travel all 195 countries on her own.

Jessica takes us through a summary of the most important aspects of her trips and the countries visited in order, taking the first visit she paid to each one of them.

She didn’t only tell us her experience in the country in political and touristic terms, but also showed, in the exact amount of words, how kind people were to her, how your set of mind can change every situation and how she made friends with people from many of those countries, just by being open.

Her writing style and focus on what makes travelling a positive experience, no matter the situation, made this book highly enjoyable and an inspiration to realise no matter how hard life is at times, you can make it better in most occasions by never forgetting what your goal is and remembering there’s always a way to get where you want, even if it’s a completely different path to the one you initially planned.

I would highly recommend this book, not only to those who need inspiration to achieve their goals, but also to every woman who finds her path hard in life, or to anybody who’s considering travelling.

Hope you liked this review and that you read the book. Let me know if you did, what you thought of it and if you want to read it now.

Sending bear hugs!!

Anne

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Wolfsong by TJ Klune. A book review

Hi, little bears!!!

Hope you’re doing great, reading and otherwise. I’m running against time to get the money for my semester (still not sure if I will), because I have until tomorrow to pay, so anxious, but still fine.

This book was, as most TJ Klune’s work, a 5-star read and a warm touch to the heart.

This is the first book in the Green Creek trilogy, first published in 2016 and republished with new gorgeously illustrated covers in 2023. Expect the review of the second book and the series, once I’m done with it.

This is an urban fantasy for adults in which Ox, a boy whose father abandoned and always made him feel like useless and stupid, but never lost his honesty, openness and heart full of love. It is a story that shows that happy endings are possible, that life can give you all the godness back at some point, that there’s hope and that those who are marginalised deserve to be accepted no matter what. We all deserve to be loved, and that includes acceptance.

As it has become a tradition every time I review a book by this author, HE DID IT AGAIN!!!!! He warmed my heart from beginning to end in a neverending rise, he made me laugh and cry; this cry is nothing like I’ve ever cried before. It’s like there’s so much warmth and love in my heart, my body cannot take it and the explosion or such beauty comes out in the shape of tears.

His characters have been marginalised and rejected at some point or, why not, their whole life. They’re incredibly relatable because, as Toni Morrison states in The Bluest Eye,

“There can’t be anyone, I am sure, who doesn’t know what it feels like to be disliked, even rejected, momentarily or for sustained periods of time. Perhaps the feeling is merely indifference, mild annoyance, but it may also be hurt. It may even be that some of us know what it is like to be actually hated -hated for things we have no control over and channot change. When this happens, it is some consolation to know that the dislike or hatred is unjustified -that you don’t deserve it. And if you have the emotional strength and/or support from family and friends, the damage is reduced or erased.”

This summarises perfectly TJ Kune’s books and explains why his characters are so relatable and his creations so fulfilling. As a person who is still bullied at times and has been rejected many times for being who they are, I can tell you there’s nothing better than these books. Reading them is a must and this book is no exception.

I highly, highly recommend this book.

Hope you liked this review and that you read the books. Let me know if you did, what you thought of them and if you want to read them now.

Sending bear hugs!!

Anne

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Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell. Book review

Hi, Little Bears!

How’s everyone doing?

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday (publisher) for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 3.5 stars.

This is a contemporary that follows Circus Palmer, a jazz musician who treats women as objects and is too scared to commit to anyone or anything. His daughter will suffer for it, but life will also force him to learn and love.

CW: Sexual content, abandonment, child neglect, infidelity, alcoholism, pregnancy, toxic relationships, emotional abuse, physical abuse, mental illness, cursing, blood, injury detail, gun violence, grief, adult/minor relationship, body shaming, misogyny, racism, sexism, eating disorder, paedophilia, suicide attempt.

I loved the relationship some characters had with their instruments and with music in general, but felt this book means to tell readers musicians must be genii to succeed on the field, that male musicians are mainly promiscuous and scared of committment, with may be true for some people, but not the standard. I know because I am a musician myself and I have enough colleagues to have understood those stereotypes do us no good.

Koko, Circus’s daughter, deeply suffers her father’s neglect and inability to love, which even shows in her life/love choices from an early age. As a psychologist, I believe it is essential for this book to portray the consequences our actions and not working on our mental health has on the children around us.

Bakc to topic, I enjoyed the writing style because the book was easy to read, but sometimes it felt a bit simplistic, which made me have the constant feeling that there was something missing. However, this is not the author’s problem because that’s my own taste and doesn’t make the book better or worse.

As long as you’re aware of the trigger/content warnings, I’d say this is a good black fiction book to read, especially if you like music and mental health.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang. A review

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday (publisher) for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4 stars.

This is a memoir that takes the reader through Qian and her family’s experiences in China and emigrating to the US. It tells of struggles, hardship within and without the family, as well as in each of their members.

As an immigrant myself, I related quite closely to rejection for being a foreginer, emotional issues because you’re mourning your old life and your own country, the people you left behind. However, Qian’s family had problems I’ve never had to go through, such as arriving to a place whose language you don’t speak, being treated inhumanly for the colour of your skin or inner family struggles that I never suffered when travelling because I have no family. I reckon everything has its positive side.

It also shows that people don’t really change, but adapt or not to new situations in life which, at some point, shows other aspects of their personality that had not been seen before. We all have the good, the bad and the ugly inside; it’s up to each individual and the tools they have to cope, what side comes to the surface.

Back to the book, the writing style made it an easy and fast read, not being simplistic at all, but blunt and honest.

There were only two objections for me. One is I cannot understand how she could continue loving her father. I totally get that family is sacred in certain cultures and you cannot just unlove them, but there are limits to things. Anyway, that’s just a personal opinion and she has every right to love him has much as she wants.

The second thing was that were were given some details that were unnecessary for the reader, but I also get why Qian deemed them important. It is her life anyway that’s being told.

All in all, I do recommend this memoir, even if you’re not used to reading them.

Let me know if you decide to read this book or if you’ve read it and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari. A review

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for granting me early access to an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 3.5 stars!

Saffron Everleigh’s uncle is a botanists, so she fell in love with that path, even though she was the only woman in the field on her time. The professor she’s assisting is wrongfully accused (at least she’s sure he is) and she starts a race against the clock to prove his innocence with a bit of help a loads of hardship. Will she make it? Does she have investigative skills? Will she be allowed to find the truth?

I had a really good time reading this book and the rating is not bad by any means.

I felt somehow attached to the characters and felt like, even though it was plot driven, characters were properly developed and relatable on their behaviours. Loved that there was a romantic story, it never outshined the story or justified irrational behaviours. It was funny and added intrigue.

As a cosy murder mystery, this book was somehow predictable from a certain point onwards, but this is not a reason to like it less or the author’s fault. It is a characteristic of the genre, so it makes this book even better.

The writing style made this a really quick read and gave enough details to keep the reader engaged.

Lastly, I’d love to emphasize the importance of a book with a female lead that represents the first woman in a scientific field, which was not simply shown, but also talked about. First women (and not only first, but many) have always been suspected to have gotten “that” far because of sexual or other type of favours done to males within the business they meant to grow in. This caused frustration in most and gave reasons to some to effectively do so to give people real reasons to talk about them. Sad, but true.

I’d recommend this historical mystery for sure.

Hope you read it, so we can chat about it and every details that’s worth discussing about it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful month!

Sending bear hugs!

Anne

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The Summer We Forgot by Caroline George. A review

Hi, Little Bears!!

First of all, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Thomas Nelson (publisher) for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4.2 stars.

Trigger and content warnings:

Mentions of child abuse, car accident, attempted rape (minor), memory loss (forced), statutory rape, kidnapping (hostage situation), mention of the death of a pet and blakmailing.

Summary:

Darby and her friends have distanced from each other in the past couple of years and they don’t even seem to know why. However, certain recent events force them to understand what really happened that summer and why they seem to have forgotten everything from the moment they entered the camp as counselors at the request of their favourite teacher.

A wonderful coming of age YA contemporary thriller with several plot twists also focused on the importance of love and friendship, fighting for what matters and how much it means to have the support of those you love.

Character, plot or atmosphere driven?

Although I’m inclined to say this book is plot driven, both the story and the characters were well developed.

The plot made sense and, even if we percieve some aspects of it as improbable, they happen more commonly than you’d think. There are no untied ends, which makes the ending quite satisfying, aside from the ending of the story itself.

Romance was never the main focus, which I definitely appreciated, but rather interpersonal relationships themselves and how we deal with our own issues much better when we leave pride aside and can rely on those we love.

As this is also a coming of age story, character development happens along with the plotline.

Writing style:

This made the story an even easier read. There are multiple POVs, each with a clearly distinct voice and thoughts, which allows the reader to put the story together and never get confused on who’s talking. I believe this is a hard skill and the author did it masterfully.

Every chapter begins with a flashback of police interviews made to each of the friends regarding the events that ended the camp, as part of the murder investigation. This is intermingled with the plot so nicely, it help clarify what happened, but never gives away enough before it should.

Who would like this book?

If you like thrillers, are not triggered by the TW above and love that romance is not the main focus of the story, being friendship a priority, this book may be for you.

I’d definitely highly recommend it.

Let me know if you read this or what you thought if you’ve already read it.

Cannot wait to hear your thoughts.

Hope everyone’s doing great.

Sending bear hugs!

Anne

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The Shadows by Alex North. A very late review

Hi, Little Bears!!

I was granted an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review 2 years ago. Not long after, I started seeing many 2-star reviews which, for some reason (anxiety played its part), stopped me from reading a book I had been dying to get my hands on. Well, it turned out I wasn’t wrong and this one was definitely for me.

I gave it 4.5 stars.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Celadon Books for granting me early access to this work. I have to let you know I was given the chapter sampler, but had to buy the book, given the amount of time passed (and I’m glad I did), so that’s what I’ll be reviewing.

Paul Adams has to go back to Gritten Woods, his hometown, because he finds out his mother is dying after an accident probably caused by her deterioration because of her dementia. However, there’s a reason why he left 25 years ago, the ghosts than hunt him for what happened, and they seem very much alive.

I have to say this review will be biased, as the book gave me the #1 thing that catches me and doesn’t let me go in books, atmosphere. I constantly felt the need to continue reading, the shadows lurking around me, the creepiness. I never knew exactly if the explanation was going to be supernatural or if Alex North was going to come up with something totally rational for the dark events, until the very end.

There are also a few plot twists that, at least I, was not expecting at all, so the rating for this horror skyrocketed when they were revealed. I kept speculating on who did what until the last couple of chapters, because I needed theories!

The writing style makes the story easy to follow and allows for easy distinction between dialogue and thoughts without having to stop to do so.

It is plot driven, but incredibly atmospheric and with proper character development, even though there are a couple of them for whom I’d have loved more time and action in the story.

To summarise, I don’t know why I didn’t pick this up before, but I should have. The only reason why I didn’t give it 5 stars was that I would have liked to have felt more emotion on the last couple of chapters, which doesn’t mean action whatsoever.

If you like creepy psychological horror/thriller books that keep you hanging, this book is for you.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read this book or if you may get it.

Bear hugs!

Anne

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Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. A review

Hi, Little Bears!!

Hope you’re having a good time.

Coming with another book review.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday for granting me early access to a copy of this book.

I gave it 2 stars.

Ray Carney established an honest furniture business and has tried to live live as straight as possible, but he grew up and lives in Harlem. Surrounded by heist, crime and dangerous people, he finds himself involved in trouble regularly, especially because of his cousin, who for some reason tends to put his name up for things he didn’t do.

This is an adult standalone historical fiction that takes us through the life of Carney for three decades from the 1950s.

I loved how it emphazises the importance of Juneteenth, explains what it means and what life was like for black people in those years. We should all become better allies and feel shame at how the white man treated others, segregation, racism, classism, oppression, slavery and an endless list of issues that continue to this day.

This book is character driven, so we get to see people act and reflect on their own reasons to live a certain life, understanding that you cannot always choose how it’s going to go.

However, the story is full of reflections and remembrances that don’t take us anywhere. Just in the last part is that we see the logic in some of what happened before, but throughout the book, the general feeling I had was that everything just jumped form one place to another, many characters where simply thrown in without explanation and there were pages that were just there, not having a purpose. Very messy indeed.

Shamefully, I gave this book 2 stars, having loved his previous work. Well, not all your books can be as good, right?

Let me know in the comments if you’ve read any book by this author. I wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be for you.

Bear hugs!!

Anne

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1414º by Paul Bradley Carr. A review

Hi, Little Bears!!

Hope you’re having a good time. I’m back with another book review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Snafublishing for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 3.5 stars.

A gripping technological adult thriller that discusses sensitive but important issues for the current society.

Lou McCarthy is a journalist and has spent her life exposing powerful men from Silicon Valley whose position has allowed them to abuse women. After she publishes an article agains Alex Lou, one of the biggest fish, she’s mysteriously invited to a party hosted by his company and, when asked to apologise, he seems to have committed suicide. Another powerful man commits suicide the same week and Lou is accused of murdering both men, so she starts an investigation to clean her name and find the killer. However, she ends up kind of wanting to help them once she learns their reasons.

This book is definitely plot driven. Characters are relatable, nobody’s perfect and mistakes have consequences that are sometimes deadly or irreversible. I would have loved side characters’ backgrounds to be explained more, though.

There are certain topics that I found essential to make readers think about, such as the discussion of who owns the world (a.k.a. white males, mainly), the fact that those who are powerful confuse equality with oppression and that no matter how far we’ve come along the journey, there’s still a long way to go and one of the best ways to become allies is to publicly put cases in the spotlight.

Although the topics were interesting, there were sections of the book, especially around two thirds of the way through, in which I was not interested.

I’d recommend this book to you unless the abovementioned topics or physical, verbal and psychological abuse are a trigger to you.

Hope you’re having a great month and don’t forget to comment!

Sending bear hugs,

Anne

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Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood. A review

Hi, Little Bears!!

Hope you’re having a good month and that you enjoy this new review.

First of all, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Hachette UK for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4 stars.

TW: Sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, being lied to, being forced to do things you do not want to.

This is a new adult or adult mythology retelling of the story of Sparta and Troy told from the women’s perspective. Helen and Klytemnestra are the pricesses of Sparta and told from an early age that they have to marry the appropriate candidate chosen by their father, and so they do. But, what will come of their lives? Will they see each other again? Did their view of live and the world change throughout their experience?

I was expecting a story pretty similar to Circe in the sense that we’d see female rebellion and independence in a time where that was not really a possibility. However, this was far from what I found.

I strongly belief that one’s expectations for a book should never determine your rating, so I tried to be faithful to this, because that isn’t the book’s or the author’s responsibility.

I felt the writing style was quite YA, although most topics are adult, but it was quick and easy to read despite how hard it was to face the reality of those women.

This work shows how women were treated in the Greek culture, how they were told they could not marry someone they loved because, either their father chose the most suitable candidate for them or several suitors would participate in tournaments and the woman was forced to marry the winner. They also had to do as told by males and had no right to talk or do anything unless the man gave them permission to do so. Many of them, hence dreamed of being loved and/or having a pretty different life to the one they were obliged to follow, so some tried to make this real and this book demonstrates that what is said to have happened, was simply the result of the oppression women were suffering.

I find these topics essential in books, so we can understand what their situation was like, how far we’ve come, and reflect on the fact that many women are still living like that in many parts of the world.

Another topic that is shown as a secondary one, but not of lesser importance, is slavery. Those in the ‘lower layers’ of society would be considered objects that nobles could decide on and do with as they pleased. They existed merely in order to do what others didn’t want to or, on the contrary, demanded. Their feelings, as those of women, were not taken into account, if others thought they had them, even. So they were not humans.

Despite being plot driven, characters are deeply developed and show evolution of lack thereof for plot purposes. They were real, full of flaws and led me to believe everything that happened to them because their feelings and thinking processes were perfectly portrayed.

I highly recommend you read this book if you’re not triggered by the contents.

Let me know if you’re read the book, what you thought of it or if you’re planning to read it.

Bear hugs!

Anne

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Heat Wave by TJ Klune, a review.

Hi, little bears!!!

Hope you’re doing great, reading and otherwise. I’m still working on my thesis, but happy that’s the only thing left to obtain my degree.

This book was, as most TJ Klune’s work, a 5-star read.

This is the last book in a YA fantasy/contemporary trilogy in which Nick, a 16-year-old gay young man with ADHD doesn’t have any powers in a world of superheroes. His city is protected by these special humans and he sometimes feels helpless, but he dreams of them and puts this into words on a fanfic he writes regularly. He lives just with his dad, who loves him, but he’s not the only one to appreciates Nick, who’s surrounded by love from family and friends. Will our villains destroy his city, or will Nick be able to support this justice league with other kind of superpowers?

All I can tell you is TJ Klune did it again and got right to the root of my heart, amking me cry and laugh althogether. Love his sarcastic sense of humour, which permeates all his work and makes it much more enjoyable. He uses it in all the right places and moments, so we have bittersweet moments and nostalgic smiles in all his books, and this one is no exception.

I have no idea how he does it, but he has an incredible ability to write people’s thoughts and emotions, making his characters alive and leading the reader to feel the characters’ emotions as their own. I personally have no support network in life (understood as those people who, no matter what, will be there for you and do anything in their power to get where you are if you need them), so it was beautifully painful, if it makes sense, to read this book. My heart was so full to see such a good quality support network full of so much real love, I cannot even put it into words.

Psychologically speaking, I have no complain whatsoever about this book. Every mental health issue that arises is portrayed exactly as it is and its consequences are spotlessly shown. What amazed me the most is how Klune writes the inner being of each character in such a way that they feel too real and always hit home.

As if it was not clear enough, I highly recommend this story of love, acceptance, diversity and support to absolutely every human on earth and beyond.

Hope you liked this review and that you read the books. Let me know if you did, what you thought of them and if you want to read them now.

Sending bear hugs!!

Anne

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On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. Review of the graphic novel.

5 stars!!

Hello, little bears!!

I have a few (a lot of them, really) ARCs to review, so you’ll at least see one review per week here and on my YouTube channel (The Book Dreamer’s Alley) for the ones granted to me by NetGalley and just here for those for which I’m part of a blog tour.

First of all I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Ten Speed Press, for granting me an early copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. I’m sorry for the delay, but my last semester at university was driving me crazy, which is starting to change now because I’m just working on my thesis for the time being.

This is a non-fiction graphic novel about tips to make wiser political decisions, resisting and identifying authoritarianism.

The points are stated clearly, there text included to accompany the illustrations is just what is needed, so it’s not too much or too little.

This was quite an enjoyable experience that allowed the reader to stop and reflect constantly on the points given as a guide and the explanations offered.

Images were stunning, the colour scheme was brilliantly chosen to produce certain emotions and attract attention to the right details. I cannot even put into words how incredible I thought the illustrator, Nora Krug, was. I also loved the illustration style and cannot wait to see more of her job.

I personally agree with every single point stated by the historian Tymothy Snyder and believe everybody should read this to realise how close certain world leaders are from being dictators and act accordingly.

I do recommend this to everyone!

Let me know if you have read this and if you’re interested in reading it. Would love to discuss this.

Hope you’re doing well.

Bear hugs!!

Anne

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The Revelations by Erik Hoel. ARC review

3.5 stars

Hi, little bears!! I’m back with another review, which is becoming the main reason why I write here, although I hope that changes soon.

First of all, I’d like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to have early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

Kierk, a neuroscience brilliant student, is living on the streets on his car after a heavy fight with the director of the doctorate he had been undertaking. Alone and with personal issues, he receives an invitation to be part of a postdoctoral fellowship, which would allow him to hit two birds with one stone and try to get both courses certified and done, getting his life and fame on the field again. But someone seems to be obsessively attacking every scientist working with him.

This is am adult psychological thriller that keeps you hanging. You need to understand the characters’ struggles to survive and to push forward on their studies; the importance of their investigations.

The main topics are neurosciences, conscience in the brain and, especially, neurophilosophy, so this book gets deep in to reflections and different opinions on the topic of consciousness, ethics and how to approach them when investigating. What should be our main hypotheses? Where to stop to make sure we’re not damaging our participants or the damage is minimal? When does your investigation become an obsession and forcing you out of reality?

This book is topic driven, which means everything that happens is focused on taking the reader on a ride through the reflections the author wanted to discuss. The plot is logical and, as crazy as it may seem, it is feasible. We also get to know and understand each of the characters, their emotions and the reasons for their behaviour. However, I didn’t attach to any of them and did not feel them particularly likeable, but they don’t have to be.

Being into the fields of psychology and neurosciences, I understood the discussions that took place throughout the story, but if you know nothing of these, you’d get deeply lost, so I recommend this book if you have at least some idea of what it’s being mentioned, given that it goes deep on the topics mentioned.

Let me know in the comments if you’ll read this book, if you’ve read it already or if you want to read it. I cannot wait to discuss it with more people who are into the field.

Hope you’re having a great month and please, take good care of yourselves.

Bear hugs!

Anne

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Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers. Blog tour and mood board

Hi, little bears!

Here I come with another book review I hope you like.

4 stars to this adult historical fiction/cosy mystery.

Summary:

My summary:

Dolly McClean is a woman ahead of her times who inherits and saves the family business, a hotel. She represents a real feminist and progressive female. On the other side, there’s Julian (Paddy), a young gay man of 18 years old who decides to reinvent himself, change his name and travel whilst attempting to become a writer. Life makes his first stop, Dolly Considine’s hotel, where he gets a job and meets the variety of guests and a tangle of stories.

The events and individual stories represented in this book are mainly historical and essential for current discussion of the topics they’re about, aka abortion, sexual orientation, etc. I personally love historical fiction and felt this helped me have a bigger picture of how these subjects developed in Ireland and the world to reach where were’re at nowadays.

The sense of humour was witty and quite funny, once I grasped it. Yeah, I have to say I did not find it funny at the beginning because I wasn’t used to it, but once I became accustomed, I couldn’t help but smile and laugh in every chapter.

The reason why I could not give this book 5 stars is that I was mostly confused for about 20% of it regarding the change of timelines and the writing style. It was hard for me to get used to the style, although I love the avant-garde in this cosy mystery and recognise the author’s writing skills.

So this is the link to my mood board for the book:

Even though I saw this work as character driven, I believe the plot is greatly developed, given that it was created as an excuse (if I’m not wrong) to discuss the sensitive topics it touches and to show that, even in the hardest of times, there were those who went out of their way to fight, raise their voice and help us get where we’re at now (I know there’s still a long way to go, but we have moved forward). Our life and freedom would not have been possible without them. Let’s thank these heroes, even if we don’t know their names.

But, hey, I realised I haven’t introduced you to the author here!

PS: He has my flag behind him!!

Eamon Somers grew up above the small corner shop run by his parents in Dublin’s inner city. After brief careers as a shop assistant, trainee motorcycle mechanic, courier, office worker, lounge boy, community facilitator, double glazing installer he moved to London. He worked for two years in Haringey Council’s Lesbian and Gay Unit, drawing on his several years’ experience of community development work with the National Gay Federation in Dublin. Redundancy from Haringey caused him to stumble into the social housing development career he enjoyed for the following thirty-two years.

From his early writing classes in the People’s College in 1970s Dublin, his studies at Birkbeck College London, summer schools at the Irish Writers’ Centre, to more recent zooming sessions with poet Diana Goetsch (via Paragraph NY), Eamon’s lifelong commitment to learning the art of creative writing, is obvious His short stories have been published in various magazines including Tees Valley Writer, Automatic Pilot, Chroma, The Journal of Truth and Consequences (which nominated his Fear of Landing for a Pushcart Prize), also in Quare Fellas, a collection of LGBT+ fiction published in Ireland. He is currently working on revisions to his novel A Very Foolish Dream, – Highly Commended in the 2019 Novel Fair sponsored by the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin. Dolly Considine’s Hotel is Eamon’s debut novel.

Eamon is the happy father of three children. He and his Civil Partner Tomás are proud to be called Papa and Papi by their two lovely grandchildren. They increasingly divide their time between London, Dublin, and other parts of Ireland.

What a better month to read this?

So, here’s where you can get the book:

And you can also check it at:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57826740-dolly-considine-s-hotel

Hope you liked this review as much as I enjoyed the book and that you’re having a good time.

Take care!

Sending bear hugs!

Anne

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The Last Keeper by J. V. Hilliard. Blog tour

Hi little bears!!

I apologise for not having posted in such a long time, but my health took a toll for the worse and I’ve been worried about that, going to many doctors’ appointments, getting tests and also trying to finish my degree (which is closer every day).

4.6 stars!

The Last Keeper is an epic fantasy story and the first one in a series. Daemon belongs to an order of Keepers whose main power are visions, which are normally immediate, but he’s been having these weird ones that are even leaving him with real marks on his body. He’s not sure what to do with them and is too scared to share them. What do they mean? How do these risk the community and what problems will arise?

This is the official summary:

I was hooked to this book from the prologue. It kept me wanting to read more and it became quite hard to close the book whenever I needed to do something else. I thought of the story and speculated on every character’s role constantly. The writing style also helped this being a quick read despite it being an epic fantasy and the length was perfect for me.

Nothing was overly explained, neither was the reader left in doubt. The world building was fair and characters were not flawless, which meant you could relate to each of them easily and feel with them throughout the story. I felt you could enjoy this book either if you were plot, character or atmosphere driven. Descriptions of places were incredibly vivid too.

The story doesn’t show perfection because life is not perfect. Sometimes we must make hard decisions and people die along the way, so I did appreciate no false hope or perfect endings in it.

Before I finish, let me show you the author.

Born of steel, fire and black wind, J.V. Hilliard was raised as a highlander in the foothills of a once-great mountain chain on the confluence of the three mighty rivers that forged his realm’s wealth and power for generations.

His father, a peasant twerg, toiled away in industries of honest labour and instilled in him a work ethic that would shape his destiny. His mother, a local healer, cared for his elders and his warrior uncle, who helped to raise him during his formative years. His genius brother, whose wizardly prowess allowed him to master the art of the abacus and his own quill, trained with him for battles on fields of green and sheets of ice.

Hilliard’s earliest education took place in his warrior uncle’s tower, where he learned his first words. HIs uncle helped him to learn the basics of life—and, most importantly, creative writing.

Hilliard’s training and education readied him to lift a quill that would scribe the tale of the realm of Warminster, filled with brave knights, harrowing adventure and legendary struggles. He lives in the city of silver cups, hypocycloids and golden triangles with his wife, a ranger of the diamond. They built their castle not far into the countryside, guarded by his own two horsehounds, Thor and MacLeod, and resides there to this day.

I would highly recommend this epic fantasy and cannot wait to read the next book in the series ASAP!

Here’s where you can get the book!

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Keeper-Warminster-Book/dp/B09QMGFSP4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3IN9HU7DOOOFL&keywords=the+last+keeper&qid=1653507189&sprefix=the+last+keep%2Caps%2C589&sr=8-1

And where you can check it:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59832835-the-last-keeper?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=QvTap7Bl6L&rank=8

Let me know what you think of the book and if you want to read it. I’d also love to know what you’ve thought of it once you’re done. Cannot tell you anything else because I felt it was necessary to discover the book as you go.

Bear hugs!!

Anne

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Under the Whispering Door by T J Klune. A review

5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for granting me early access to this book.

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Wallace is an important and deeply hated businessman who does not care whatsoever about being human or making and keeping interpersonal relationships. One day he’s in his office and wakes up to see his own body dead on the floor. Unable to accept his death, a reaper is finding it quite hard to take him to a resting place; Hugo’s house, where he can find peace and himself until he’s ready to get to the other side.

I cannot say this enough, Klune always makes me smile and cry in equal parts and gets so deeply into my heart that I’m left with a huge empty hole in the pitch of my stomach that makes me need to cry and laugh out loud at the same time. Not many books have been able to do this throughout my life.

The story seemed to be going ‘the wrong way’ for a while and I was praying (I’m an atheist) the author had not written what I thought was going to happen. I’m so glad he didn’t, but he made me suffer!

I believe his books are mainly character driven and it’s literally impossible not to fall in love with these characters, not to understand and respect even their bad decisions and consequent actions. No character is perfect, which makes them human, relatable and, in general, real.

There’s a topic I feel is a MUST when reviewing a book by T J Klune, and it’s mental health. He does a fantastic job at making the reader know -and helping psychologists tell them- that it’s ok not to be ok, that there’s something that doesn’t work properly in all of our heads. Mental health is all about acquiring the tools to deal with that in the best way possible and not let it stop us from living.

I said this to him on a live show about The Extraordinaries and wanted to say it again here. As a psychologist, thank you! Thanks for that, thanks for telling people it’s ok to mourn and not be ok for some time when you lose someone and that the process will take its time, which is also different for everyone; thanks for reminding us that it’s ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them, which is actually the point of being alive (or dead for the case of this book).

This, to summarise, has been my favourite TJ Klune so far and I need to continue reading all his books! Everybody should read them.

Please, let me know in the comments if you’ve read this and what you thought of it.

Hope you’re having a wonderful time.

Bear hugs!

Anne

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The Car with a Soul by Ruchira Khanna. Blog tour

Thanks a lot to Travelling Pages Tours and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars.

Book summary

“Rahil is a car geek and attributes his desires to the four wheels of the car.

Amy is hungry for happiness as her career has hit the brakes.

Joan is on the lookout for a meaningful relationship as her unpleasant past gives her nightmares.

Tara was living a fulfilled life until her wheel of health gets a puncture.

When the four of them go on a journey of a lifetime, can each of them endure the travel while keeping their wheels balanced, or will their car lose its momentum along the way?

The Car with a Soul is an emotional, uplifting story of love, heartbreak, laughter, and friendship.”

This is a literary fiction about 4 people who are trying to get the best of the life they chose to live, their struggles through it and how their stories intertwine. The complexity of feelings and life itself are perfectly portrayed in their stories. I’d say it’s a character driven story in which psychology makes total sense.

Characters are believable, real and so relatable it’s impossible not to feel attached to any of them in their differences. I felt closer to Joan, the one who pushed everyone away from them because they couldn’t take rejection, humilliation and pain from human relationships any longer. Although she had her long-term friends to get through hardships, she tended to keep things to herself and somehow isolate from others.

The guiding theme of the story is the comparison between human life and a car. I loved the parallels I would have never throught of, the tyres being key aspects of human relationships and how easy and logical it seemed to compare both.

The writing style made this a really quick and easy read that I could not close. Had to read it in one sitting! There was only one issue I found in it; the characters’ thoughts. Let me explain myself. In many occasions I thought they were designed so the reader would know certain things, but I found that’s not how you talk to yourself. For example, at some point one of the characters is reflecting on the clothes they were wearing and detailed them as if thinking to themselves they didn’t look good, but I believe if you’re talking to yourself and thinking about it you’d say something like “Oh, these clothes look terrible”, but would not specify what they are; you’re looking at them.

But let me introduce you to the author:

Ruchira Khanna, a biochemist, turned writer, left her homeland of India to study in America, where she did her Master’s in Biochemistry and a certificate course in Technical Writing.

Her love of writing grew, and she started working on her books. After four years of freelancing, Ruchira published her first book, a fiction novel for young adults called Choices.

Ruchira Khanna draws inspiration from the issues that stalk our minds, she addresses such matters through her tales of fiction. Her character’s undergo a contemplative arc she hopes her readers will, which is why they classify each of her novels as, “one that will make you ponder.”

She blogs at Abracabadra which has been featured as “Top Blog” for three years. Many of her write-ups have been published on LifeHack, HubPages to name a few.

I’m so glad she started writing fiction!!

If you’re curious, you can find her here:

Twitter

https://www.instagram.com/ruchira.khanna/

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

If you like contemporary books focused on the characters and their emotions, this book is for you! I’d highly recommend.

Finally, I have a surprise if you read this far. There’s a giveaway!!

I encourage you to enter because you can get money for books! So, this is the link:

Car with a soul

Hope you get to it. If you do so, please let me know in the comments.

I’ll live the blog tour schedule here, so you can visit the other bloggers!

Would love to know you’re having a great time this month!

Bear hugs!

Anne

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Letters to Bizzy by John M. Tabor. Blog tour

Hi, little bears!!! I’m back with another book review.

Thanks to the author and Travelling Pages Tours for granting me an ARC of this book to review.

3.5 stars.

Letters to Bizzy finds a man, John Tibbits, past his prime staring down the barrel of old age, having to come to grips with his mother’s death and regrettable fact his dysfunctional youth has burdened him with a lifetime of unwelcome baggage. As he sorts through his mother’s personal effects he discovers boxes of unopened letters written some 50 years earlier from a man, Robert Guthrie, to his daughter, Bizzy. They tell the story of a life lived on a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina, Bogue Banks. There is nothing sensational in the telling, average by most accounts. However, through the eyes of Robert Guthrie we come to see beauty in the tragic, humor in the absurd, and sensitivity from the susceptible. It is in fact an apologetic to the ordinary lives we live. Those of John Tibbits and Robert Guthrie are inexplicably intertwined; and, it is only until the end, do we learn how. For both it is a journey through their own private battles.

John Tibbits is going through his mother’s things after her death, not feeling quite ready to do so. However, he finds a bundle of letters that seem unopened and spark his interest, truning this task from annoying and hard to eye-opening and compelling in this adult literary fiction.

The premise was really promising. A son being able to put the pieces of his mother’s family and herself together through a bunch of letters sent from his grandfather to his mother. She was alienated from him by her mother who, due to differences with his wife, decided to part ways, even though he did not want to leave his daughter.

It shows how important it is for a person to know their family history; how much understanding of yourself comes with this and how much peace it brings to put the pieces of it together.

I felt those letters didn’t exactly make sense when directed towards a daughter, though. He was talking to her as if to his best friend, but that’s not the tone a father would use when writing to their child, including some of the events shared in them. I felt he was writing his story to be published or to a brother. There was no connection between Robert Guthrie’s story and his daughter either up to the last letter, whente author explains to the reader why father and daughter don’t know each other.

The writing style was pleasant, but didn’t help me connect with the characters. I only cared about Thomas because he got an illness my mother had when she was a child and about the animals, that I always connect to. Did not feel with the characters as I was detached from beginning to end.

There are certain reflections on life that made me smile, though. It shows how society’s way of thinking and traditions have changed throughout centuries, such as starting to bath in public and the development of swimsuits, how males saw females, the identification and classification of Asperger syndrome and the invention of vaccines. These are so well included into the story that you never feel them forced at all.

Characters were realistic and believable. Even side characters’ personalities were so well portrayed through their actions and feelings that you felt you were reading a non fictional story.

But, hey! I haven’t introduced you to the author.

Where to find him:

https://www.johntaborauthorspage.com/

https://www.facebook.com/John-Tabor-authors-page-108386350692728

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4838181.John_Tabor

I think it’s better if you know history from the USA, or have visited Boghe Banks, so you can imagine the places better and jump into the scenery in your mind.

It’s just 176 pages, so a quick read to connect you to history, family and processing loss (TW).

I’d recommend it, so if you feel curious and want to get it, just click any of these links: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60133769-letters-to-bizzy or Amazon: https://geni.us/letters-to-bizzy Amazon: https://geni.us/letters-to-bizzy

Please, take good care of yourselves. I hope you’re having a great time!

Bear hugs!!

Anne

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Surrogate Colony by Boshra Rasti. Blog Tour.

4.5 stars

Hi, there, little bears!

I’m back with another book review today. Hope you enjoy!

First of all, I’d like to thank Travelling Pages Tours and the author for granting me access to an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and a Music Playlist (you can find this one on my Bookstagram account, the.book.dreamers.alley).

After a huge pandemic situation (TW), Arthur Mills, the only surviving polititian, creates a massive community segregated from the rest of the world, in which population now lives, MicroScrep. It is ruled by a computer system that seems impossible to hack and decides the fate of each citizen. Yes, it’s manipulation, but they’re safe thanks to the system. However, not every member of the community is happy with this. Will they be able to escape?

This is a dystopian thriller that made me not want to stop reading at all since I started. It kept me intrigued and actually nervous all the way through and, trust me, this does not happen often.

The writing style made it a quick and easy read, even though there are such heavy topics being approached here, so I flew through the book. I’m not sure I would have been able to wait any longer to know what happened.

Adriana is a particular citizen, having one blue and one brown eye. Nobody knows why, but her mother hides this from the world. Although she was eugenically created -like everyone else-, it is rare that she and several of her close ones, are questioning the system.

I really loved this character something happened and she started making decisions that did not at all fit her personality and thoughts. I’m pretty sure, though, the author meant for you to transfer your love to another character right after, who takes over the story.

This change of perspectives was done so swiftly, that I was not aware of the intention until it actually took place. Really well done here!

There are surprises, twists and turns that make this a gripping page-turner.

I do not want to go into detail as to tell you the types of citizens and how they serve the community or fit in it, but loved how the author merged elements from several famous books to create this. I could see a really strong influence of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley here, the idea of the castrati -originally taken from classical music- and surrogacy, to name a few, in a world in which the population cannot see the truth and, to be honest, most of them just refuse seeing.

A brilliant work! I’ll read more books by the author in the future and I encourage you to pick up this book is you are not triggered by:

TW: the pandemic, rape of a teenager (no details given), being manipulated by the system, hormone manipulation, castration, control.

Let me know if you get to read the book and leave a comment with your thoughts!

Hope you’re having a wonderful month.

Bear hugs!

Anne

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Gasoline Dreams by Simon Orpana. A review

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

2.5 stars.

This is a non fiction graphic novel focused on a necessary purpose creating awareness about the excessive use of petrol based energy that’s destroying our planet at a staggering speed.

I loved the fact that it mentions and goes deep into every aspect of how this usage is a huge problem for every form of life within this planet and the multiverse itself. It also shows there are other options and illustrates his arguments with clear examples of the aspects that are problematic about excess and the use of non-renewable sources of energy.

There are, however several objections I have towards how this graphic novel was done.

The first of these is that I found the density of illustrations and text to be constantly overwhelming. This was probably intentional given the aggressive attitude towards the so-called Petroculture the author shows, but I believe regular readers would not appreciate it as positive, given that it makes the reading experience too heavy. It even gave me anxiety at times.

The writing style gave the impression to be more appropriate for a dense non fiction book, being full of citations of formal texts and investigations at a rate of one or more per page, which also took it further from being a graphic novel.

Regarding certain topics, I have to say that the arguments given at times were not exactly scientific. With this I do not mean to state they are invalid, but that to prove a point it is rather preferable to choose arguments that have scientific validity, which in many occasions they did.

An example of this is the explanation of Sigmund Freud and his definition of Thanatos or death/destruction drive. This is the same evolution theories explain in the mention of humans being a dominant species and this translating into the fact that we tend to our own destruction and that of our environment. Even if Freud talked about this (long after Darwin, by the way), having the support of science would certainly make it stronger.

This ‘undead urge’ Simon takes from psychoanalysis is the excess that is not at all strange, but normal in dominant species, who just believe they can do as they please and dominate their environment without major consequences. Least can an example of this behaviour be given through a psychopath with PTSD. Does he have any idea how a person with PTSD feels? I mean, it is not pleasant or even voluntary and the feelings of a sufferer of this disorder (I am a psychologist) are far from suitable to explain or illustrate the abovementioned behaviour. Even a person with Antisocial Personality Disorder (what he should have mentioned instead of ‘psychopath’) does not feel empathy towards others, but the reason is the structure of the brain in charge of making this happen are not working properly, mainly as a result of neglect, abandonment and/or abuse as a child and/or adolescent -I recommend checking scientific articles and the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders on its fifth version-.

Another issue I had with this work was that, instead of making a certain parallel, he affirms certain films, such as Aliens, Taxi Driver, A Quiet Place and The Shining have direct references to Petroculture when they’re not even obvious. The author assumes that the type of energy used has something to do with Petroculture or the dialogue itself. Well, I consider it closer to the truth to state that he sees or can give examples from and not assure the reader they are references to a topic that is not even mentioned in them.

The typography was too hard to read sometimes -at least for me- and I found it to be quite a Baroque graphic novel in a way, if it makes sense, as it is too overloaded and dense either on images (rare), text or both. Sometimes the language is also too complex.

The topic, don’t get me wrong, is essential to discuss and many people need such a shock to start grasping the very basic ideas of this topic.

Finally, I would love to point out the author’s ideas seem to be congruent on every field and properly portrayed on every aspect of this graphic novel.

You could decide this book is for you and I would actually love to hear different perspectives if you have or are planning to read it.

Please, take good care of yourselves.

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham. Blog tour review

Thank you wo much to The Book Review Crew (now Travelling Pages) and the author for allowing me to have early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars!

Eamon feels different from everyone and has come a long way to be able to talk to others normally and get close to them, which he mainly does with those who share his passion for a specific book, Winterset Hollow. That’s how he met his best friend, Caroline, and her boyfriend (not really a reader) Mark. One day, the three of them receive a free ticket to go to the very place where their favourite book takes place and there they find there’s not much difference between fiction and reality.

As for many readers, one of my favourite tropes is a book within a book, category that this story fits into. The first time I saw the cover, I thought it would be a horror/mystery/thriller and I was not wrong. Actually, when I chose it, it seemed to be giving me similar vibes to Bunny by Mona Awad, but even darker. I’m so glad I was right!

I found the plot somehow predictable given that many tips are left some time before events take place, but I was not bothered by this in the slightest. Those who have watched my channel (The Book Dreamer’s Alley) will know I’m not plot or character driven, but atmosphere. Well, this book delivered such a dark and attracting atmosphere that it was impossible for me to close it. Whatever I had to do throughout the day, I’d feel the pull of the book calling me. It was really hard to put it down even for a few minutes.

Characters are properly developed, although I’d have loved to have learnt more from Caroline’s and Mark’s backgrounds. The animals (the main characters of Winterset Hollow, the book within the book are such) were incredibly anthropomorphed, their language expressions distinctive from the others’ and their descriptions so vivid, you could see all of them and imagine their behaviour and manners as if you, as the reader, were another spectator of the story. This is to say that the character development was impeccable.

This story is so well done and twisted (meant as a compliment) that I’m not quite sure how to classify it. It’s surely adult, but you could see it as a fantasy with magical realism elements or a magical realism that already includes some fantastic elements, but to me, it’s more of a purely horror story about a book within a book in which the dividing line between reality and fiction blurs to the point of disappearing completely from view.

The writing style is engaging and takes you deeper into the atmosphere. Here’s the author!

Jonathan Edward Durham was born near Philadelphia in one of many satellite rust-belt communities where he read voraciously throughout his youth. After attending William & Mary, where he received a degree in neuroscience, Jonathan waded into the professional world before deciding he was better suited for more artistic pursuits.

He now lives with his partner in California where he writes to bring a unique voice to the space between the timeless wonder of his favorite childhood stories and the pop sensibilities of his adolescent literary indulgences.  His debut novel, Winterset Hollow, an elevated contemporary fantasy with a dark twist, is mined from that same vein and is currently available everywhere.

You can find him at:

https://www.jonathanedwarddurham.com

https://www.facebook.com/jonathanedwarddurham

https://www.instagram.com/thisone0verhere

https://reedsy.com/discovery/user/jonathandurham

https://amazon.com/author/jonathanedwarddurham

What will they discover in the island? What parts of the story may seem too real? What will they be shocked and surprised about?

If you like dark stories and a book within a book, if your atmosphere driven and like surprises and twists, this book is for you.

I really hope you read this and let me know in the comments what you thought of it afterwards. I’d love to have a nice discussion about it!

Hope you’re taking good care of yourselves and that you read this book!

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

The Crowns of Croswald by D. E. Night, a review

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Thank you so much to Net Galley and Stories Untold, the publisher, for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 3.7 stars.

Ivy Lovely grows up as a maid and is constantly mistreated by her supervisor her whole life. However, at 16, she escapes the castle where she worked and finds out she has magical abilities when she’s given an invitation to enter a famous magical school, where she’s meant to unveil many secrets and mysteries.

I saw this as a late middle grade/early YA fantasy story.

The writing style was appropriate for the target audience and sometimes gravitated towards the lower end. It made this book a quick and easy read without being too simplistic.

The story is full of well-known tropes, such as “the chosen one”, “the evil queen”, “the servant that ends up being the heir”, etc., which makes the plot quite predictable although you never really know what’s going to end up happening until the last chapters. This may be biased given that I was expecting something completely different or the previous information to be misleading.

However, I did enjoy reading this and it took me back to my adolescent years. I would have given the world to have a female chosen one badass heroine’s story for emotional support and validation. Ivy is not perfect; she makes mistakes and is too sassy at times, which gets her into trouble, but she’s real and doesn’t really need a partner’s love to succeed, but friendship.

I feel I still need an explanation to how certain things were too easy they didn’t make sense even in a fantasy story, such as her friendships and her winning over the bully.

The world building was quite well done and I could vividly imagine every character and place described throughout the story, including the colours.

If you want a fast-paced, tropey, and beautiful fantasy story with a happy ending, this book is for you. It warms the heart and puts a smile upon your face.

Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in reading this, what was the last ARC that put a smile upon your face and what you think about books like this one.

Please, take good care of yourselves.

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

The Mad Trinkets by Cameron Scott Kirk. A review

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

4.2 stars.

I have to deeply thank NetGalley and The Mage’s Lantern (the publisher) for granting me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is an adult dark fantasy novel about Tristan de Merlon and a group of his former war comrades, who discovered a cave just before going back home that contained some strange trinkets that would later show strange powers on their bearers.

Even though this book is character driven, I thought the plot was nicely threaded and clearly showed the logic order of events even though we don’t only have current events, but also remembrances from some characters that would allow us to understand certain reasons or the logic for specific behaviours they portrayed. There was an initial confusion every time a memory started, but it was the same feeling as when a dream starts or you’ve just woken up and it takes you a couple of moments to adjust to the new reality and comprehend which one you’re in.

Characters, although some of them were somehow supernatural, were quite relatable. Most of them had their personalities ups and downs, which is generally true for people. We’re full of contradictions, at least in most cases, which makes us human. There’s good and bad, evil and purity in all of us; we decide where to focus each minute of our lives. Just one character stands out for pure goodness, which confirms the rule by showing there’s an exception.

The amount of characters could seem overwhelming, but I never felt lost or needed to go back to clarify some differences. They all expressed themselves in a particular way and you always knew who was talking, also having distinct personalities.

It would seem to much talk about our characters, but trust me, there’s a lot to say.

Some of them made me feel like reading A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, or watching the series. The curious aspect of this is that I was on a live interview with the author right when this book was released (yeap, I read it ages ago and hadn’t written the review because I was not ready yet to publish it on my channel) and he stated he has not even watched an episode of those series or read the books! I couldn’t believe that as I read. The similarities among some of his characters and some of those in GOT are shocking, so who knows where the inspiration came from.

Now, I just had an issue with this book, that I’m not yet sure it be such. The sense of humour was sexist and aggressive. I’m still not sure if this was linked to those who were negatively influenced by the trinkets -these made them turn evil and not care for others whatsoever- or if the author found it funny, which would worry me.

The writing style, in general, made things conversational -so, quick- or allowed the reader to vividly imagine the scenes. I actually had a constant sense of needing the film ASAP.

If you like cinematic dark fantasy that’s character driven but has a solid plot, this book is for you. I highly recommend it!

Please, take good care of yourself.

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

At the Fields of Fire and Blood. A blog tour spotlight

Hi there!!

Today, I’m coming with another book spotlight for you. I saw this one, read the synopsis and was already intrigued, so I decided to participate on this blog tour. Thank you so much to the author and Erik (Breakeven Books, you should check him out) for allowing me to be part of this.

It is a 500+ pages web novel that I now need to read.

First of all, I’d like you to admire this stunning book cover! Isn’t it interestingly dark? It certainly sparked my curiosity.

Now that you’re (I’m pretty sure) already interested, let me show you the book synopsis!

Humanity set out to achieve Godhood and failed. Their attempt left a ruined world behind, one touched by magic for the first time, but blighted by Heaven and Hell seeping into it. The ones who were left behind hide in great walled cities, caught in the throes of a timeless undeath, and almost completely decimated by the monsters set loose from the deepest abyss of their collective unconscious. The Scions — warrior-mages who ate the fruit of hell and became possessed by fragments of God known as “Archons” — are the only ones who can fight these nightmares and cross the barriers between the worlds. They’re kept locked and isolated in abbeys, reared to protect the cities and their inhabitants. And, one day, to undertake the Pilgrimage,
the mythical heroic journey through Heaven and Hell that will finally open the doors to Eden and grant humanity what it once sought and couldn’t grasp: eternal peace.
But, inside the walls of one of the abbeys, rebellion is brewing. Kayla, Joshua, Sarah, Matthew, Vivien and Darren tire of their captivity and plot to gain back their freedom and find answers to the mysteries of their dying world. Yet it’s not only monsters that stand in their way. Some humans will fight for secrets to remain hidden, while others don’t wish to see the scales of power they’ve so carefully balanced tip. The Scions will have to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps and attain what their predecessors couldn’t to succeed: kill the Godhead and become gods themselves.

But what’s a book without its author? Her profile makes the book even more appealing to me. This is she:

Author Bio:
Crisyah is a Portugese, queer, neurodiverse writer who left traditional publishing behind in order to be able to write about characters like herself with no limitations.
Raised on a steady and varied diet of horror movies and epic fantasy, JRPGs and anime, her first big project was a horror mahou shoujo starring her middle school classmates as the heroines. It’s no wonder her current series, At the End of the World, is a gothic fantasy Soulsborne and Madoka Magica mash-up. You can find her on Twitter @crisyahwrites, yelling about videogames, BTS and her giant, fluffy cats.

Please, let me know if you get to read this because I cannot wait to read and discuss the book with other readers. You tell me gothic and I’m instantly interested! Are you too?

You can also support the book here:

Support on Indiegogo:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/at-the-fields-of-fire-and-blood–2/
coming_soon/x/27793666

Please take good care of yourselves.

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

The Apology Box by Naomi Ulsted. Blog Tour Review

4.5 stars

Thanks to The Book Review Crew and Naomi Ulsted for granting me early access to this wonderful book.

This is a contemporary drama for YA readers that wouldn’t do any harm to adults. Here’s the summary:

First of all, I’d love to say that I’m not generally that fond of contemporary because it tends to be focused on romance and this one has some because it’s part of life, but this aspect is never our main focus. When the romance appeared, I swore everything would take a turn and it would be a case of saved princess by blue prince. I was wrong.

Tessa is 17 and finding it incredibly hard to forgive herself and, after years of a loss that shook her whole family, she has not been able to forgive her mother either, which is just adding to everybody’s pain and making it impossible for her to deal with the hardships coming her way, even though there are beautiful people around her who are trying really hard to be there and give her their hand.

I found the book to be character driven, especially focused on their emotions and how these lead to behaviours that would affect themselves even for life and their future relationships with life, others and nature itself.

It shows how, when you don’t love yourself enough or cannot forgive yourself, anything and everything you do is directed towards pushing away those things and feelings from others you believe you’re not worthy of. Mental health should not be ignored or thought of as lees important. We have to stop thinking going to psychotherapy is for those who are crazy. We are all crazy in that sense. Nobody’s head is perfect because the system is too complex not to have problems. We all need help and, as we go to the doctor when we have a physical symptom, we should go to the psychologist when there’s something that’s not ok in our head. Let’s normalise psychotherapy!

Now, on this regard, the book could be misleading. Depression is not the main cause for suicide or self-harm. Borderline Personality Disorder is. If you need more information on this or want me to make a post on the topic, please let me know in the comments, but be clear on this issue, because this disorder is the most misdiagnosed one.

Characters are incredibly well portrayed. They’re likeable or hateable, real with all their flaws and mistakes, relatable. I felt so close to Tessa because the feelings she has are much closer to BPD than those of depression or anxiety. These two appear to be features of the disorder in this case. This made me cry and laugh with her throughout the story, even though I’m 39 and she’s 17. I loved her relationship with Effby, my favourite character in this book by far.

TW: anxiety, depression, loss, self-harm, BPD, death of a child.

There’s just one thing I found not believable in the romance, that she makes comments that are too much for the first time you meet a person. He’s working on her car, which is why they meet, and after a very brief encounter in the car shop, she seems to be deeply in love and not be able to live without him. And again, this would be normal in a person suffering from BPD.

The writing style was perfect for me. The author has a great sense of humour, the style made it a quick and easy read without making it simplistic and helped the reader get closer to the characters’ emotions.

I’d highly recommend this book if the trigger warnings are not an issue for you. It’s totally worth it and helped me think of ways to forgive myself.

Let’s also raise awareness on mental health, suicide and BPD!!

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

Your Career, Your Business by Gina Cajucom. Blog Tour. Book Spotlight

Hi everyone!

Today, I’m coming with a spotlight of a book I was not likely to have accepted to read, but I had the hunch that I’d love this one and I was right.

First, I’d like to thank the author and Erik McManus from Breakeven Books for allowing me to become part of this blog tour.

I have it 4 stars and it’s my first 4-star rating for a self-help book! I was pleasantly surprised by the content and organisation of this book. It was really useful for me at this precise moment of my life and it reminded me that you should do anything and everything you can to reach your goals and achieve your dreams.

Here is the summary, for a sneak peek:

“This self-help book is about managing careers and managing self through self-coaching. It is NOT a book about job search strategies or techniques. It is not about doing a job interview or presenting yourself well. It is not about what you’re doing wrong and what you can do about it. Instead, the book is a reflective companion about you and your work life. It is about finding the power within you and using it to coach yourself to success.
It is a self-coaching book that goes through the journey of reflections that clarifies what’s essential in the hope of helping you to manage your career better. Managing a career is much like growing a business. The entrepreneurship aspect is not apparent until you get self-employed and need to create your opportunities, which is quite comparable to a job search. If you’re reading this book, you might be seeking fulfillment, or satisfaction at work or recognition of one’s talent being unused or potential still to develop. On the other hand, you might be ambitious and strategic and would like to position yourself for bigger things.
Whether you’re stuck and looking to jump-start your career or doing well but want to fast-track it or feeling unfulfilled and looking for clarity in your work life, you can coach yourself to success. The book presents self-coaching opportunities to enable forward movement, especially when there’s a sense of being stuck in career development.

  1. It’s a primer that engages the reader to act and do something. It’s a call to action.
  2. It’s a self-coaching book that uses reflective questions or inquiries. It invites you to reflect upon, dig deep, and increase self-awareness and self-empowerment.
  3. The language is short and straightforward but still refers to sources when necessary and available.
  4. This primer hopes to speak from the voice of a friend and a perspective of a coach.
    Your Career Your Business is a self-help handbook that you can read over time, hoping that you will take the time to stop and reflect upon the inquiries at specific points. You will see the rationale for the book and who might benefit from reading it, and how in the Introduction. Hopefully, you can identify yourself as the book’s subject and set aside time for reflection using the questions in every chapter.
    The first chapter illustrates how thinking over your career can be solution-focused instead of problem-centric. Taking the former perspective opens up possibilities, while the latter can be self-defeating. The second chapter introduces the idea that you can coach yourself to success by focusing on your best hope, amplifying what is important, looking back at past achievements proving your strengths and moving forward with small doable steps.
    A paradigm shift presented in Chapter Three needs to happen to reclaim your ability to take charge and control your future. Chapter Four will show how taking charge of your career is necessary for responding to environmental shifts and the changing workplace. Then, as presented in Chapter Five, these developments call for an ability to reinvent yourself and your career when necessary. Finally, it speaks of how changes in the past point to the possible significant shifts in the future.
    The book emphasizes that your career is your business, so nobody will if you don’t take charge of it. Through time, career management and development have shifted from the employer to the employee. So how should you manage your career? Chapter Six presents the parallel process of managing a business and managing a career, while Chapter Seven explains how strategies can be intentional or emergent in some cases. Like a business, careers can develop with the goal of continuous growth. Chapter Eight presents how careers can grow very similar to how a business can grow and thrive over time.
    Chapters Nine and Ten ask the reader to look inwardly to reflect on how their purpose and mission play a role in making career decisions and how the search for a resonant career can veer one toward one direction instead of another. The search for authenticity, meaning, and passion could influence career choices. These are some of the best predictors of fulfillment.
    Chapter Eleven is a call to action reiterating how managing oneself and personal leadership can engender commitment to career success by listening to your own voice. The inquiries serve that purpose. If you reflect upon the questions and listens to your authentic inner voice, it could open up some possibilities that you don’t see being drowned out by the day-to-day busyness of life.”

Now, it is structured in a way that allows you to reflect on the important aspects of every step to take and thought to modify in order to get exactly where you want to.

I’d also like to update you on the author, who made me feel close to her by giving me a situation I think all of us have lived, choosing a job that’s not making us happy over love and family, not even stopping to think about the importance of enjoying what you do and creating balance in your life.

Gina Cajucom, author of Your Career, Your Business

“Gina Cajucom is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) who promotes better conversations in the workplace using ©Authentic Workplace Engagement (AWE).
These are future-focused, progress-oriented, and co-constructive dialogues that need to happen in the workplace to break the selfdefeating cycle of attributing cause or casting blame. AWE emphasizes strengths and small steps toward progress using essential dialogues and touchpoint conversations.
Gina’s extensive experience working with upstarts, small businesses, and large
corporations across industries, gives her the unique ability to see organizations in
their duality. Top executives, owners, and major stakeholders are focused on the
bottom line—productivity and profitability. People at the grassroots level, who
grapple with work-life balance and career development, are either partly engaged
or completely disengaged. Gina’s strength and commitment is to work-life
integration while contributing to bottom-line business results through leadership
coaching.
With over fifteen years of experience in human resources management (H.R.)
and organizational development (O.D.), her stints in coaching emerging leaders
and executives across industries awakened her passion for leadership development
and work-life integration. This unique experience inspired her to help young
leaders and professionals with their career management challenges within or
without their organizations through Career Coefficient http://www.careercoefficient.ca.
A Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) in Canada, Gina completed
two years of graduate study in MS Human Resource Management at the
University of Santo Tomas in Manila and has completed a Master’s Certificate
in Organizational Development (MCOD) from the Schulich School of Business
Your Career, Your Business
at York University in Toronto. Her extensive training in co-active coaching
techniques with the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and Solution-Focused
Brief Coaching with the University of Toronto, complements her undergraduate
degree in B.S. Psychology. She currently contributes to the development of
Brief Coaching in the Philippines in partnership with the Canadian Centre
for Brief Coaching http://www.briefcoaching.ca. She also volunteers her time with
The Coaching Fellowship http://www.tcfs.org, helping young international women
leaders of impact accelerate their leadership potential.”

I do not read self-help books because after doing so with a few, I was fed up. However, this book has been an eye-opener and I’m already planning to read it again and take notes on my answer to the questions made in it, so I can make plans for my future ASAP.

Before leaving you, I’d love to allow you to read the excerpt and the link to the promotional video I added to this post, so you feel that urge to get to this great book. Also, it’s a short one that gives you so much in so little!

Without further ado, let’s just read it, shall we?

Hope you enjoy if you decide to get to it.

Cannot wait to hear your thoughts!

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

Mischief Maker, a Norse mythology retelling reviewed

4 stars

This book was kindly granted to me by The Book Review Crew and the author, Bruce Nesmith, in exchange for an honest review and as part of a blog tour. Thank you all for that.

This is a new adult or adult (does not specify) retelling of Norse mythology from Loki’s perspective in which there are epic and fierce battles, love, betrayals and, basically, every typical aspect of mythology and its intrigues. But not all is tradition. It focuses on making Loki look like a good guy; one that receives the wrong treatment and image from most other beings in Norse mythology.

I have to confess something. I have never liked Loki and feel instant rejection at an annoying being who show themselves as good, not being able to help themselves or just generally mistreated. I believe there’s a high probability that many others effectively mistreat you throughout life, but if there’s a majority the evidence suggests it will initially be your own fault and there’s always something you can do to improve it, even though it might not be easy at all; but, hey!, a little bit of effort is not going to kill you, is it?

So I do appreciate how well the author did his job and achieved his goal. Loki is here shown so nicely that it’s quite difficult not to feel somehow related to him.

I loved how he rejects being called “god of mischief”, so the reality of his nature is explained and people who believe he was such, get clarified. I was also quite interested in the amount of Norse mythology that is explained here, although it may be overwhelming for someone with no deep knowledge of it, given the amount of events and names.

The writing style was initially hard to read for me, yet I flew through it and enjoyed the sense of humour (especially that of Runnin, the raven) considerably. This happens to me quite regularly when there’s a new to me author, so I never felt stuck by that.

Although the book is plot driven, I realised characters are so deeply analysed and explained that no action is surprising in the sense that they’re coherent with their personalities. However, the reader may reach a few climatic points in which shocking reactions could arise.

The world-building could have been a bit more detailed, but it didn’t feel too short. I could imagine the places and characters easily and really felt on the scene as one more spectator several times.

I’d recommend this book if you’re into Norse mythology and somehow like Loki (Thor was portrayed as evil, which I disliked, but some people may) no matter if you’re character or plot driven. I’m atmosphere driven and, once I got into it, I was totally in!

Hope you enjoyed reading this review and don’t hesitate to comment here if you’ve read the book.

Bear hugs!

Anne

Featured

The Last Sketch by Gosia Nealon Blog Tour.

Hi, there! I’m back with another book review and it was totally worth it!

An adult historical fiction that gets you closer to WWII than any other book I’ve read before.

4.2 stars.

Wanda lives in a Poland at war invaded by Nazi Germans. One of these will take the world from her while another one will desire to give her his, but she hates him deeply and, let’s face it, he’s engaged! Because in war, you never know if there’s tomorrow.

I have to be honest and say I avoid reading romance (especially enemies to lovers), which is why, when considering if becoming part of The Book Review Crew, I checked every book but this one. I am glad I got a second e-mail inviting me to participate on this blog tour because I would have hated to have missed such a book.

Although we never miss a historical event regarding the last couple of years of WWII, I felt there was so much information omitted from historical events surrounding it. Every historical aspect of the book is accurate and crude, which is what I appreciated the most, given that there’s nothing that discourages me more than reading an alleged historical fiction that ends up not being as historical. However, it did not include millions of victims who also suffered and died in concentration camps, such as gypsies (4 millions of them died in concentration camps), LGBTQIA+, black or disabled. I just feel it’s important we do not forget any.

Having such an crucial topic as the main plot, it was quite character driven and I surprised myself if love or hate with each and every one of them. If you’ve ever read this blog or watched my Booktube channel, you’ll know by now that I’m first atmosphere driven, then plot and lastly character driven, but I felt so close to our MCs and to may of the side characters, they were so well developed and not left just there unexplained, that the author made it impossible for me not to completely fall in love with them or just feel utter disgust against them to the point of becoming physically nauseous! I just couldn’t take some of them, even though I believe they portrayed what they were meant to represent to the point of perfection.

No character felt fake. Every single one of them was human and morally grey somehow. In these you can find the whole range of human nature, from the purest to the worst kind.

The writing style made this book a quick and easy read full of deep emotions and relatable characters that you cannot put down (at least I couldn’t). It includes quite an appropriate balance between dialogue and text, including characters’ thoughts, struggles and feelings; a language appropriate for the target audience and even teaches you some words in a few languages.

If you’re into enemies to lovers, love at first sight, historical events, heroic and evil characters, and a hard, beautiful and deep romance story, this book is for you. You don’t need to be character driven because it’ll get to your heart anyway.

If you get to read this, let me know!

Oh! Go to my Bookstagram (the.book.dreamers.alley) to find out about the Giveaway!

Bear hugs!

Anne

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