Top Ten Tuesday (7): Top Books I Read Because Someone Recommended Them to Me

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday since 2015, but I wanted to participate in this week's topic because so many of the good books that I've read, I've only read because they've been recommended to me, so I can easily list ten of them. In case you're curious, most of these books were recommended to me by CM Alsop at YA Lit Reviews for Teens and Libraries

So, in no particular order, here is my list:

1. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (review here)

2. Need by Carrie Jones (review here)

3. Unwind by Neil Shusterman. For some reason I never posted a review, but I read it in 2013, and to this day it's still one of my favourites.

4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins. Another book I read, but for some reason didn't review. This novel introduced me to a new writing style. It was the first novel I ever read that was written in verse.

5. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I think I read this book in 2013, I didn't review it, or get around to reading the other ones in the series. I'm not sure why I never got around to reading the other ones, because I absolutely loved this introduction.

6. Variant by Robison Wells (review here) 

7. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (review here)

8. Marked by P.C Cast & Kristen Cast. Yet another one that I read in 2013, liked, and then didn't review.

9. After Obsession by Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel (review here)

10. Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart (review here)

And so that wraps up my list. It's not often I'm actually able to finish these lists with all ten items on them. I usually hit around 6-8 before I give up, but this time I did it. A totally complete Top Ten Tuesday. Truly an amazing feat for me.

Teaser Tuesday (13): Castle School (For Troubled Girls) by Alyssa B. Sheimel

 
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can participate in Teaser Tuesdays. Just do the following:
• Grab your read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your 
teasers!

This week I'm bringing you teasers from The Castle School for Troubled Girls by Alyssa B. Sheimel. I have been loving this book recently. I should have a review up very soon for it, and I wanted to share a few teasers of the writing before that. So my teasers for this week are:

"I’m saying that the people we love never leave us, not entirely. We carry them with us. I don’t like terms like moving on or getting over. I prefer moving forward."

" Pain cannot be avoided, but it can be accepted.”

Page 250.

I have been adoring this book this week, thanks to NetGalley. I can't wait for it's release in 2021 so even more people can love it as much as I do.

Stacking the Shelves (4)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It's all about sharing books you've added to your shelves be it physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in a  physical store, or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks.

I haven't done a Stacking the Shelves in five years, but I want to participate again to let people know the books that I added to my shelf this week! There are three:

 I was granted access to these titles via NetGalley, and I've already finished Revenge of the Sluts and The Wise One, and the reviews for those will be up before the end of the month. I just got my hands on The Poppy and the Rose today, and I'm really looking forward to starting it.

Fine by AmyLea Murphy

Title: Fine

Author: AmyLea Murphy

Expected Publication Date: November 17, 2020

Publisher: Self-published

Pages: 195

Trigger warnings: Eating disorders, drug use, mental health struggles.

Introduction

Six years ago, Katie's sister Anna disappeared. Katie was 12 at the time, and Anna was 18. Because Katie was so young when Anna disappeared, there was a lot that she didn't understand. Katie has never truly gotten over the disappearance of Anna, and now that Katie is 18, she feels like she's been in the dark about the details about her sister's case for too long,  and she begins spending time at her local police station, looking through Anna's files. Through evidence and personal items collected in her police file, Katie soon begins to realize that she maybe didn't know Anna as well as she thought she did.

Format

The story is told almost completely through media found in Anna's police file, like diary entries, transcribed interviews, reports, text messages, and emails. I absolutely love when books use elements like this to tell a story. However, these media pieces took up more of the book than I thought. It is the only way that Anna's story is unraveled. Very little of the story takes place in the present, so we don't see very much of Katie's life as it is now. If I had to estimate, I'd say that maybe 30 pages of the book are dedicated to what Katie is doing in her life, besides sifting through police reports.

 Characters

Because most of the story is told through Anna's file and very little of the story is actually focused on Katie, I had a hard time caring about her. We don't learn very much about her personality besides the fact that she harbors a lot of anger, about what happened to her sister and otherwise. 

From the little that we do see of Katie in her personal life, I found her to be annoying. She was written more like a 14-15 year old than an 18 year old. She has very childish tendencies that I wouldn't expect somebody of that age to have, such as almost run her car off the road when she had a passenger that was only trying to help her, lashing out when she's asked about college, or stealing a customer's smoothie when she got fired from her job. In a way, I am sort of glad that most of the book was just sifting through Anna's file at the police station, because Katie is set up to be a very annoying protagonist.

Just as I didn't learn enough about Katie to care about her, I also didn't learn enough about Jack, Katie's neighbor and love interest, to care about him or their budding romance.

Plot

There were some parts of the book that I felt were never actually resolved or fully developed. There were several instances where a falling out was mentioned between Anna and her father, but what the rift was about was never disclosed. Since the falling out apparently played such a big role in her emotional turmoil, I would have liked to have known what actually happened.

Spoilers ahead!

I feel like I was a little bit mislead plot-wise in general. For the entire book, it seems that Katie and her family don't know where Anna is/what happened to her, but when the ending comes, it is apparent that they do know what what happened to her/where she is, but they don't know why she ended up how she did. I understand why it had to be written that way, but because the official synopsis of book seems to allude to a bit more of a mystery, finding out that all the characters knew Anna's fate all along felt a little anticlimactic.

Conclusion

This book was okay, but I probably wouldn't pick it up again due to the lack of character depth and slightly disappointing ending, but it was okay and is suitable if you're just looking for a quick read that has the interesting elements of diary entries, emails, text messages, etc.

First Line Friday (4): Revenge of the Sluts by Natalie Walton

         

        First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

       There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

       

       I know I already posted a First Line Friday today, but I couldn't resist the chance to talk about the book Revenge of the Sluts by Natalie Walton. It doesn't hit bookshelves until February 2, 2021, but I was granted access to an ARC thanks to Netgalley, and let me just say, I am loving this book, and I want more people to be excited about it. So, without further ado, the first line of Revenge of the Sluts is as follows:

       "It had all started with a pair of boobs. More specifically, a photo of Salone Mayer's."

       When I started this book, this first line threw me right into the story and I was hooked from the very beginning. My review will be out at some point this month and I can't wait to share my full thoughts.

First Line Friday (3): The Castle School (For Troubled Girls) by Alyssa B. Sheimel

This week, my First Line Friday comes from The Castle School (For Troubled Girls) by Alyssa B. Sheinmel, a contemporary novel about a girl who is sent to a school for "troubled" girls after her parents realize that they aren't enough to help their child through the grief of losing a friend.

The first (few) lines are as follows:

"The first thing they tell me is that the school is called the Castle and the campus is called the Kingdom.

   “Doesn’t that sound nice?” my mother says, her voice maddeningly upbeat.

    I roll my eyes. No matter what they call it, my parents aren’t sending me to a fairy-tale charm school for aspiring princesses. Not when there are two enormous men waiting by our apartment’s front door to take me there."

I am loving this book, and I think that these few lines are a perfect set up for the rest of the novel. It introduces you to the protagonist's attitude about The Castle School and also introduces you to a little of the weird vibes surrounding the school in general.

Waiting on Wednesday (1): The Wise One by K.T Anglehart

Waiting on Wednesday's is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I can't believe I've had this blog for so long and this is the first time I've done a Waiting on Wednesday, a popular weekly event that I've seen many book bloggers do. *Note that it appears that Breaking the Spine hasn't been active since 2016, I still want to participate and credit them as the creators!

For my first Waiting on Wednesday ever, I want to spotlight The Wise One by K.T Anglehart.

Expected Publication: October 28, 2020

Publisher: Kat Biggie Press

Goodreads synopsis

Mckenna’s never thought much of her nightmares, but on her seventeenth birthday, a vivid dream of burning at the stake awakens her dormant abilities, thrusting her into a world where faeries are real, spirits hold a grudge, and a High Priestess obsessed with a 16th-century prophecy is tracking her every move.

​Now, her overprotective dads, Seán and Andre, are forced to tell her the truth—they know who her birth mother is, and her life is not the surrogate story she’s ​always ​been told. Abigail, Mckenna’s mom, is some sort of mystic, and Mckenna a Wise One.

​Whatever the hell that means.

​With the help of a persistent little wren and company of a newfound friend, Mckenna journeys to Ireland in search of her mother and real answers. Along the way, she learns to harness her innate magic and trust her intuition, as best she can anyway—Cillian, a kind and passionate delegate ​who crosses her path, is proving much harder to read.

​Only her mother could truly help her halt her ill fate and prepare her for what’s to come…before she gives in to the darkness she knows is buried deep within.

Why I Can't Wait

I am a sucker for anything set in Ireland or anything that has to do with Celtic folklore, so this book seems right up my alley. I am also fairly certain that this is Anglehart's first book, and I love reading debut novels. Plus, the book seems to be part of a series, so maybe I'll be setting myself up to love multiple new books. Lastly, the advanced reviews are all very positive, so that's just hyping me up even more.