Book Review: The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James / ★★★★☆

Summary: In 1950, Idlewild Hall boarding school is a place for girls no one wants. There, Katie, CeCe, Sonia, and Roberta band together in misery, fear and close friendship until one of them mysteriously disappears. In 2014, sixty four years later, Fiona is determined to finally put together the pieces of how her older sister was murdered and dumped on the old, abandoned grounds of Idlewild Hall. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure looms in the background…

The police don’t have all the answers, and neither does the government. The people are where you find things. Like those records you just found. The people are the ones who keep the memories and the records the powers that be would rather erase. 

Book Review: Warcross by Marie Lu

Warcross by Marie Lu (Warcross #1) / ★★★ 1/2

Summary: Emika Chen is drowning in debt when she accidentally glitches herself into the opening tournament of the biggest game in the world, Warcross. Convinced she’s about to be arrested, a bigger shock comes when she receives a phone call by the game’s creator, Hideo Tanaka, asking her to spy on the inside of the game this year instead.

Imagine wandering through the most realistic virtual Paris ever, or lounging in a full simulation of Hawaii’s beaches. Imagine flying through a fantasy world of dragons and elves. Anything. 

Book Review: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio / ★★★★☆

Summary: Oliver Marks is released from jail. Ten years prior, he was part of a close-knit group of fourth-year actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, where, one day, one of them turns up dead. There, the fourth years face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.

“Oh my God,” I said, shaking my head. Alexander let the breath he was holding burst out, chuckled softly. “When did we become such terrible people?” 

“Maybe we’ve always been terrible.” He shrugged and watched the white cloud of his laughter shimmer and fade.

Book Review: The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle / ★★★★☆

Summary: Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it’s bad, and some years it’s just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season is going to be a bad one. Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: There’s a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises.

It’s the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom. 

Book Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee / ★★★★★

Summary: Pachinko follows a Korean family through the 20^th century, beginning with an unplanned pregnancy in the 1900s that ignites a story filled with struggle, war, discrimination, and unexpected blessings.

“You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.”

Book Reviews: Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley & Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley / ★★★ 1/2

Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/Romance

Summary: Rachel moved away three years ago after confessing her feelings to her best friend, Henry, and never speaking to him again. Since then, her brother has died, and when she moves back and gets a job at Henry’s bookshop, things with Henry, and her life, begin to grow back together.

Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman / ★★★★☆

Summary: Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. She’s nearly thirty, works the same office job she has been for the last nine years, and chats with her mother on the phone once a week. When she and her new coworker, Raymond, witness an old man fall in the street and bring him to the hospital, a friendship begins to form and events are set into motion that will rock the mundane course of Eleanor’s existence.

By careful observation from the sidelines, I’d worked out that social success is often built on pretending just a little. Popular people sometimes have to laugh at things they don’t find very funny, or do things they don’t particularly want to, with people whose company they don’t particularly enjoy. Not me. I had decided, years ago, that if the choice was between that or flying solo, then I’d fly solo. It was safer that way.

Book Review: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones / ★★★★★

Summary: When The Witch of the Waste puts a spell on young, sensible Sophie that turns her into an old woman, she leaves home to pursue a new life. When she boards the moving castle of the infamous wizard, Howl, who loves to make young  women fall in love with them only to break their hearts, things in her life get interesting for the very first time.

“Yes, you are nosy. You’re a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You’re victimizing us all.”

Book Review: The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey (The Monstrumologist #1) / ★★★★★

Summary: Twelve year old Will Henry is the assistant of Dr. Warthrop, a Monstrumologist, or a studier of monsters. It’s the late 19th century and a horrifying discovery is made in their small New England town. Dr. Warthrop and Will Henry must undertake their most deadly case yet- that of the Anthropophagi, who thirst for human flesh and will tear them limb from limb to get it.

If the doctor had known what horrors awaited us not only at the cemetery that night, but in the days to come, would he still have insisted upon my company? Would he still have demanded that a mere child dive so deep into the well of human suffering and sacrifice- a literal sea of blood? And if the answer to that question is yes, then there are more terrifying monstrosities in the world than Anthropophagi. 

Book Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (The Winternight Trilogy #1) /★★★★★

Summary: Vasilisa is a creature of winter and nature. When her father brings home a stepmother who forbids her family from honoring household spirits, and a priest arrives who teaches her happy village to fear, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on gifts she has long concealed to protect her family.

You are. And because you are, you can walk where you will, into peace, oblivion, or pits of fire, but you will always choose.