On The Come Up

I'll admit it: I HATED! THUG. I couldn't even finish it because I couldn't stand it. But I LOVED THIS ONE. I loved Bri--she's awesome and so likable. I loved her support system, even thought they sometimes failed her they were still there. I loved the story: it was written realistically and so well. This book makes me excited for the next one by Angie Thomas. I truly could not put this down and can't recommend it enough. 5/5 stars

Savage Appetities: Four True Stories of Women, Crime and Obsession

Thank you to Edelweiss, Scribner and Simon and Schuster for providing an ARC of this book!

I really liked this book. I am partial to true crime books written about women and crime, so this jumped at me. This was written more like an essay, I thought, but I feel as though that made it easier to read.

I like the research the author did with this book, and I like how she mentions Crime Con as well. I would love to go to Crime Con!

This is a decent read. I would recommend it to other true crime interested friends.

4/5 stars

Descendant of the Crane

Thank you to Edelweiss and Independent Publishers Group (AW Teen) for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this more than I first thought that I would. I really like Chinese fantasy and mythology, and this story was perfect.
It's a quiet novel, but there is definitely some good drama packed in here as well. There were some parts that dragged a bit, but overall I thought the story weaved together well. It was vivid, although I think that if this had been an adult novel it would have done a little better. Parts of the story seemed as though they were being held back because of the younger audience target.
There is a sequel in the works, and I will for sure be reading that!

4/5 stars

Daisy Jones & The Six

I have mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand I did enjoy it. I liked reading about the 70's rock and roll atmosphere and the rise and fall of the band, but I could not connect with any of the characters and most of them annoyed the hell out of me. Plus you could see the break up coming a mile away and when it finally did happen, my only thought was: "That's it?"

For me the large cast of characters was really confusing at times. Obviously you know who the band is and Camila, but with the extra people thrown in it's hard to keep track. They appear throughout different areas of the book, and I would have to go back to figure out who they were again.

As others have said this would have worked much better as an audio book because of it's documentary style. I'm glad I read this, but it didn't blow me away like the majority of people it seems to have. I'm certainly glad I did not buy this; I would not read this again. 

3.5/5 stars

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Thank you to Edelweiss, Penguin Publishing Group and Riverhead Books for providing an ARC for exchange for an honest review.

This was wonderful! It was original and lived up to the "African Game of Thrones" comparison.
I loved everything about this story and I could not put it down. I hope the author continues to write more stories such as this; maybe doing another trilogy along the same lines but of different African mythology.

5/5 stars

Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story

Thank you to Edelweiss and Prometheus Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

True crime is my favorite go-to genre, so when I saw this for an ARC through Edelweiss I was really excited to have the chance to read it.
I also really like Ron Franscell; I've read other books by him and like the way his stories flow.

Alice & Gerald was an interesting case for a writer to take on. It looks to be on the surface as open and shut and if law enforcement at the time had taken it seriously, it may have been. Instead it was ignored and went completely cold, as did the other murder tied to this.

These two clearly fed off of each other, and this book took a good in depth look at the relationships surrounding the people tied to the cases, not just the cases by themselves. I had never heard of this one before and I started doing research on my own as I was reading. Franscell's narrative is outstanding. Some parts are a little long, but I feel like it did the book justice.

I definitely would recommend this for fellow true crime lovers. It's a very interesting case and worth the read.

4/5 stars

The Beast is an Animal

DNF at about 75%

I just couldn't anymore.

The cover is so beautiful I didn't want to give up on reading this. But holy hell this was starting to become painful.

The first part of this book is really good and suspenseful; dramatic tension is everywhere. But by the second half...gone. Nothing. Flat and drawn out and I didn't care anymore about the characters or where the story was going. I really don't know what happened with the author's writing, but it changes drastically in the second part of the book.

Maybe the author lost interest too?

I have to say this was a first for me. I never have suddenly not cared about the characters in a book so much that I stopped reading this close to being finished.

2.5/5 stars