Category: Review

House Of Sky and Breath – By: Sarah J. Maas – Review

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The Book:

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal―they may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax. Slow down. Figure out what the future holds.

The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.

In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it.

The Author:

Sarah J. Maas is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Throne of Glass, Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City series. Her books have sold millions of copies and are published in thirty-seven languages. Sarah lives with her husband, son, and dog.

I’m going to try to keep this short, as I dislike long reviews, but there is so much to say about this book. I’ll start with I loved every single second of it. It never gets boring, or drags, and for 800 pages that’s a feat of its own kind. It helps that I enjoy every single character in this book. The new ones introduced I just automatically fall in love with. It’s so amazingly written.

As most or all SJM books this one had twists thrown at you at times you weren’t expecting them. The unknown makes SJM books so well loved, because you just never know what that woman is going to do. I felt all the emotions the characters were feeling from skepticism, to hate, to love, and it’s just a wild ride. I wanted to pick it right back up and read again the moment I finished it.

The plot was interesting, and fun to learn from both sides of this incoming war and how they feel. It leaves you taking no sides, and just bewildered on what you want the characters to actually accomplish.

This book is so perfect in every way, I can’t find one critique to make in all honesty. I just absolutely loved it. That ending! Ugh it had me pacing, screaming, crying, my nerves were shot at the end of this and I loved it. Her writing is just genius.

5 glowing beautiful stars!

With Love,

Pixie

Project Hail Mary – By: Andy Weir – Review

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The Book:

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

The Author:

Andy Weir built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail. He lives in California.

This book was so much fun! It’s like it doesn’t even matter that you don’t understand 80% of the science. I feel like Andy Weir can make anything entertaining at this point. His previous book The Martian was fantastic as well, even though I had no idea what was said half the time lol. He is just that good of an Author.

I absolutely loved the characters in this book. Ryland is snarky and smart, his best friend (trying to avoid spoilers here lol) is hilarious and adorable. The people in this novel are so well written and thought out. I honestly couldn’t see one flaw in any of this writing.

The plot was amazing! I was hooked from the start. I was nervous I was going to be confused because sci fi is such a new genre for me, but I wasn’t at all. The issues in this novel are laid out so well, and the solutions easy to follow.

That ending!! Ugh I cried a little, I did. This book had me laughing out loud more times then I could count. It is amazing and if you are on the fence about reading it, I would say just do it, you won’t regret it.

5 Stars!!

With Love,

Pixie

The Hating Game – By: Sally Thorne – Review

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The Book:

Nemesis (n.) 1) An opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.

                     2) A person’s undoing

                     3) Joshua Templeman

Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman hate each other. Not dislike. Not begrudgingly tolerate. Hate. And they have no problem displaying their feelings through a series of ritualistic passive aggressive maneuvers as they sit across from each other, executive assistants to co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy can’t understand Joshua’s joyless, uptight, meticulous approach to his job. Joshua is clearly baffled by Lucy’s overly bright clothes, quirkiness, and Pollyanna attitude.

Now up for the same promotion, their battle of wills has come to a head and Lucy refuses to back down when their latest game could cost her her dream job…But the tension between Lucy and Joshua has also reached its boiling point, and Lucy is discovering that maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua. And maybe, he doesn’t hate her either. Or maybe this is just another game.

The Author:

Sally Thorne is the USA Today-bestselling author of The Hating Game. She spends her days climbing into fictional worlds of her own creation. She lives in Canberra, Australia with her husband in a house filled with vintage toys, too many cushions, a haunted dollhouse and the world’s sweetest pug.

Source: Amazon

I picked this up for A quick fun Valentines read…. I was not disappointed. This is fast paced, witty, and just down right hilarious. The humor in this book is my favorite, it’s funny but not trying to be funny. Like when the cute guy is just clueless to everything and has no idea what’s going on.

I really loved these two characters. I felt they meshed well together, the backstories were good, and they were just in general really rounded out well people. The banter between them really makes this book special and what I adored about it. The personalities were so different but some how worked out so well together.

I really enjoyed the setting of this novel, it being in a publishing house. There are a couple more places these characters travel and it is all just done really well. There was a couple slow parts that to me kind of dragged, but still a fun 4 star read. I’m excited to check out the movie next!

4 Stars!!

With love,

Pixie

Court – By: Tracy Wolff – Review.

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The Book:

No one survived the last battle unscathed. Flint is angry at the world, Jaxon is turning into something I don’t recognize, and Hudson has put up a wall I’m not sure I’ll ever break through.

Now war is coming, and we’re not ready. We’re going to need an army to have any hope of winning. But first, there are questions about my ancestors that need answers. Answers that might just reveal who the realmonster is among us.

And that’s saying something in a world filled with bloodthirsty vampires, immortal gargoyles, and an ancient battle between two gods.

There’s no guarantee that anyone will be left standing when the dust settles, but if we want to save this world, I have no choice. I’ll have to embrace every part of me…even the parts I fear the most.

Don’t miss a single book in the series that spawned a phenomenon! The Crave series is best enjoyed in order:
Crave
Crush
Covet
Court
Charm
Cherish

The Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Tracy Wolff wrote her first short story―something with a rainbow and a prince―in second grade. By ten, she’d read everything in the young adult and classics sections of her local bookstore. A one-time English professor with more than fifty novels to her name, she now devotes most of her time to writing and dreaming up heroes. She also writes under the name Tracy Deebs and lives in Austin, Texas, with her family. Visit her online at tracywolffbooks.com.

Source: Amazon

Little late on this review as I wanted to reread this entire series before I got to court. This is one of my favorite guilty pleasure, feel good reads. I enjoy all the characters and banter they bring. I love all the different students and supernatural creatures that go to the Academy.

Now, Court was amazing. We finally got some answers to questions that were brought up in book 1!! Not only are questions finally being answered, but we get to meet a group of new people that I absolutely adore, and old friends from previous books we haven’t seen in a bit. The characters in court are well written and fleshed out decently.

The plot of these books hook me. There is always this one thing the kids are trying to achieve, and it leads them in separate quests to get there. I am a big fan of quest based plots so these really work for me. I love how it all makes sense as well, nothing is just thrown in for fluff.

This book also introduces our first non binary character, and I love them. They are like a big mystery rolled into one. Always surprising the group with skills they weren’t aware they had.

Anyway, I feel like I could talk about this series forever. Is it amazingly written…. No, but is it my favorite feel good read…. Absolutely. I can not wait until Charm and to see what happens next.

5 Stars!

With Love,

Pixie

The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires – By: Grady Hendrix – Review

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The Book:

Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this ’90s-set horror novel about a women’s book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town, perfect for murderinos and fans of Stephen King.

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

The Author:

Grady Hendrix is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, We Sold Our Souls, and the New York Times bestselling The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, which is being adapted into a series by Amazon Studios. Grady also authored the Bram Stoker Award-winning nonfiction book, Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the horror paperback boom of the ’70s and ’80s.

Source: Amazon

Hmm this book haha, this was a ride! I have read two Grady Hendrix previous to this, and this one is by far my favorite of the 3. I really enjoyed the horror aspect of this novel, it’s not scary in a sense of not being able to sleep at night, but it has a definite creep factor. I feel like I can never see which direction a Hendrix novel is gonna go and I absolutely love that. This is also one of the only novels that in a way, gave me real Bram Stoker Dracula vibes.

This was for sure a slow burn creep factor, is that a thing? It is now. With the possible unreliable narrative always being played with in Hendrix’s books, it really worked for this one. I couldn’t say what was actually happening and what wasn’t. The characters were so well written, and the plot kept me guessing until the end.

Some issues I had was the husbands. I know that not one of them was supposed to be particularly liked in this novel, but I loathed them to the core. When ol boy starts blaming the Mrs for his kids emotional distress, or the hospital scene, ( if ya know, ya know.) I almost chucked my kindle out the window. Like girl, get a back bone my goodness. I wish I could have slapped the dumbass for her, but I digress.

The ending did it for me though, brought it up from a 3 to a 4. It was spectacular, and I didn’t want to see it end any other way.

4 Stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

With Love,

Pixie

Summer Sons – By: Lee Mandelo – Review

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The Book:

Lee Mandelo’s debut Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer Southern Gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost.

Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble.

And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall.

The Author:

LEE MANDELO is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. They have been a past nominee for various awards including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo; their work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, and Nightmare. Aside from a brief stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Lee has spent their life ranging across Kentucky, currently living in Lexington and pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.

Sources: Amazon

I went into this book knowing very little. I knew there were friends, one dies, the other tries to figure out why and what happened. I thought it would be an interesting read on just those facts alone, but there was so much more! The plot is interesting, the characters are well developed, and I just thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

It started off a little slow going, and took me about 50 or so pages to really get interested. Once I was into the thick of it though, I couldn’t put it down. We start off with Andrew getting ready to start in school, where he and Eddie should have been together. We follow our main character travel this journey alone, and although the schooling wasn’t a big point in the novel, I was just really bored of it. That, and the fact that I feel like this could have been 100 pages less had Andrew just been more upfront about what was going on and talk about things, but I respect the journey of trust and loyalty all the same. Had those two things not been such a turn off for me this would have been a 5 star read 100%.

Things I absolutely adored about this book far outweigh the annoyance at said previously mentioned issues I had. I LOVE a good found family trope, and this has that in spades! Again coming back on the earlier trust and loyalty issues, would it have been as good if those weren’t involved? I can’t be sure. Did one dislike improve the love I have for this family? Can’t answer it, so roll with it! Another thing I loved about this is the slow burn romance we get to see work it’s way out through a jumble of confusion and messy feelings Andrew had for Eddie. All of that plus all the amazing rep that was in here, poly relationships, trans, allies, and it was done in a way that wasn’t in your face.

Anyway, kind of rambling on this, but it was a lot to unpack, haha.

4 Stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

With Love,

Pixie

Home Before Dark – By: Riley Sager – Review

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The Book

Twenty-five years ago, Maggie Holt and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. Three weeks later they fled in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called  House of Horrors. His horror memoir of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling  The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism. 

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in  House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction. 

Alternating between Maggie’s uneasy homecoming and chapters from her father’s book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman’s quest to uncover them—even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting.

The Author

Riley Sager is the pseudonymous author of five thrillers. Riley’s first novel, Final Girls, was a national and international bestseller that has been published in more than two dozen countries and won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel. Sager’s subsequent novels The Last Time I Lied, Lock Every Door, and Home Before Dark, which received the Crimson Scribe Award by Suspense Magazine, were New York Times bestsellers. His next novel, Survive the Night, is forthcoming in Summer 2021.

Source: Amazon

Really enjoyed Home Before Dark! It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I just couldn’t figure it out. The mystery in it is frightening, and I love how the story twists and turns into all these different possibilities.

Throughout this book you are not only following the main character trying to figure out some creepy family lies, or truths? As well as reading her fathers Novel written about their time spent in their haunted house. I loved that we got to see the book written by the father as well, it was so different.

The entire story is creepy. Not keep you up all night creepy, but you’ll jump if someone coughs at you creepy haha! Does that make sense? Probably not. It was a fantastic, Edge of the seat, creepy read, definitely check it out!

—Pixie

Spilled Milk – By: K.L. Randis – Review.

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Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call to social services about the escalating brutality in her home.When they jeopardize her safety, condemning her to keep her father’s secret, it’s a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she’s been hiding. In her pursuit for safety and justice Brooke battles a broken system that pushes to keep her father in the home, and she risks losing the support of family, coming to the realization that some people simply do not want to be saved.Spilled Milk is a novel of shocking narrative, triumph and resiliency.

From the Author

Writing  Spilled Milk was very emotional, and as a self-published and first-time author, I know now that the first edition of Spilled Milk (2013) was not in its “best form”, but I also couldn’t bear to have a professional editor or proofreader make changes to it. It was all still too raw and personal for me.  

Since several colleges and high schools have incorporated the novel into their lesson plans and I’ve received tons of feedback from my voracious fans- I knew I needed to come out with a more polished and professional edition that was appropriate for the education system, my fans, and in general. The second edition of  Spilled Milk (2015) has been proofread by two amazing professionals in the industry and I am proud of the outcome. The story is exactly the same, so anyone with a first edition is not missing out on anything. I hope that the second edition will allow people to continue to enjoy  Spilled Milk in the way it was intended. Thank you all so much for your support in my journey as a writer and survivor.

About the Author

K.L. Randis, author of bestselling novel Spilled Milk and the Pillbillies series, started journaling at the age of six and had short stories and poetry published by the time she was thirteen. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and has since written numerous local publications that brought awareness to domestic violence and child abuse. K.L. Randis engages audiences on a local and national level to raise awareness about child abuse, serving as a frequent commentator to media outlets and traveling to be the keynote speaker at various events. She has developed various high school presentations, was named Community Woman of Distinction, and was invited to the Pentagon several times to speak to the department of defense about child abuse. Spilled Milk is her first novel, which grabbed the #1 bestseller spot in the genre of Child Abuse on Amazon only 24 hours after its debut, where it has remained since 2013. She resides in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania with her family. Contact the Author: spilledmilkrandis@yahoo.com

Source: Amazon

This book was very heavy, frustrating, and heartbreaking. I didn’t know what I was expecting going into this story. I knew it was based on a true story, and that it had domestic and sexual abuse.

The woman who wrote this book has to be the most frustrating, strong, and stubborn woman in the world. The way she endured all that she did in hopes to save her siblings from the same torture is heroic. The way that she worked so hard to change her life is inspiring.

It’s so hard to read books like this and know that it is happening all over the world. That children don’t feel like they have a safe place, or they think that the abuse they endure is normal human behavior.

As someone who endured sexual molestation as a child, this book does an amazing job at explaining how children think during those times. At first it isn’t known that its wrong, then eventually you realize that somethings not right, you feel uncomfortable, and it snowballs. You won’t talk until your ready, and the shame and embarrassment is horrible.

This entire book is why we need to make sure we are educating our children on what’s right and what’s wrong at a young age. Why it is so important to have an open dialogue with your kids about inappropriate behavior, and to make sure they know they are safe to talk to you.

5 Stars, very well written.

—Pixie

Red, White, and Royal Blue – By: Cassie McQuiston – Review

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The Book

What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. 

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic.

The Author

Casey McQuiston is the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue, as well as a pie enthusiast. She writes books about smart people with bad manners falling in love. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, she now lives in New York City with her poodle mix and personal assistant, Pepper.

Source: Amazon

Reading other reviews on this book I can see most loved it, but those who didn’t – really disliked it! So I was a little nervous going in. Fortunately enough for me, I either don’t know much about the topics in this book, or the book was so well done any small discrepancies in it just didn’t matter.

I LOVED this book! I couldn’t put it down. I seriously read this in one night because I was so hooked. I enjoyed all the characters so much. The diversity, the inclusion of all the LGBTQ+ people, their personalities, their humor I seriously loved it all. I think Alex and Henry are the most adorable couple ever, the journey they took to be together is hard and stressful, but will their love be enough to fight through it?

I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud while reading this, or I would physically punch the air because I was so excited. Yea I got that into it haha! My family probably thought I was insane.

It’s also so much fun being “in” the White House and just seeing that even the president is just human, she likes to eat pizza, and curses like a sailor and I loved it. The friendships and relationships In this book will put a smile on my face every time I think about them, I’m honestly thinking about picking it up for a reread immediately!

—Pixie

The Ravens – By: Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige – Review.

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At first glance, the sisters of ultra-exclusive Kappa Rho Nu—the Ravens—seem like typical sorority girls. Ambitious, beautiful, and smart, they’re the most powerful girls on Westerly College’s Savannah, Georgia, campus. 

But the Ravens aren’t just regular sorority girls. They’re witches.

Scarlett Winter has always known she’s a witch—and she’s determined to be the sorority’s president, just like her mother and sister before her. But if a painful secret from her past ever comes to light, she could lose absolutely everything . . . 

Vivi Devereaux has no idea she’s a witch and she’s never lived in one place long enough to make a friend. So when she gets a coveted bid to pledge the Ravens, she vows to do whatever it takes to be part of the magical sisterhood. The only thing standing in her way is Scarlett, who doesn’t think Vivi is Ravens material. 

But when a dark power rises on campus, the girls will have to put their rivalry aside to save their fellow sisters. Someone has discovered the Ravens’ secret. And that someone will do anything to see these witches burn . . .

I loved the plot of this book. The sorority of witches, the friendships, the magic, all had me hooked. The mystery within the book kept me reading, and the ending twist was pretty good also. I can’t say I seen it coming but it wasn’t a complete surprise either.

The main problem I had reading this is the characters all come off a bit young. I know they are only in College, but it all just felt very high school to me. I can’t for sure say what turned me off, but it just came off as too much. Of the duel prospectives I definitely enjoyed the older Raven then the Freshman.

It was definitely worth the read! Well written, fun, and interesting. Just go in knowing you’ll probably be rolling your eyes often haha.

Thank You NetGalley and the Publishers for an arc of this book for an honest review.

3/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

— Pixie