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Monday, August 17, 2020

Book Review: Reign by Siobhan Davis

It has taken me a while to write this review...why?  Because I'm still not over this book, I still dream about it, I still think about it all day LONG.  And I'm just not okay that this series is over; when I finished this book, I was happy with how it ended and overall everything but now?  Now, I want more, I just greedy, right? Right...and let's just get to the review:


REIGN by Siobhan Davis

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Everything changed after the attempt on my life, and now, I’m more determined than ever to crush my enemies until they lie in pieces at my feet.
Sinner believes he has pushed me into a corner, but he underestimates my thirst for revenge.
Nothing will stand in my way.
And I’m no longer in this alone. Saint, Galen, Caz, and Theo have won my trust and my heart. Together, we are an unbreakable team and an unstoppable force.
Staying one step ahead of the game is critical to our success, so we’ve little choice but to partner with the most unlikely of allies. The situation is tense and fraught with danger, and it’s not just our lives at stake.
Everything rests on finding the evidence that links The Sainthood to Daphne Leydon’s kidnapping and murder, and we’re running out of time.
Sinner thinks war has already come to Lowell. But he has overlooked his deadliest enemy and the challenge that comes from within.
We won’t stop until he’s defeated and we have taken his crown.
Sinner is going down.
 

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Reign picks up where Rebellion ended and damn was I glad to see our girl and boys okay after that cliffhanger.  Galen has come a long long away, and all my doubts and hate is totally, completely out the window.  He has won my heart in a million different ways and in this book I was more in love with him than I wanted to admit to myself.  The Saint boys, Oh Man; Harlow, Harlow you lucky girl. (fanning over here a little lol).

Guys, in this third and final book we FINALLY get to see our gang go all out to destroy the monster that have been trying to destroy not only them but a lot of more innocent lives too.  And this group was able to do so much and let's admit; I would never be able to do any of that crazy stuff (chicken over here).  But, one of the things that I loved to see in this book, was all of them admitting that they need extra help and reaching out to get the help to destroy all the people that needed to be destroyed.  And let's not forget they put themselves on the line so many times to see that goal reached.  

The goal was reached but not without consequences, loved ones were lost, others suffered along the way, but they never gave up and that's we need to remind ourselves, right? Even if we don't live in a world like Harlow and the guys, but we can take that little part with us to our own little battles; don't give up, fight, even when you don't think there is an end, fight more and you will succeeded.  

I'm never one to give up spoilers, however I can tell you this, you will not be disappointed with this final book, you will get to see how Harlow and the guys end and how their lives will be a little ahead, so what are you waiting for, go and read it.  And Thank Siobhan for the amazing story line and life lessons that she give us along the way :)

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced complimentary copy of this book.

And let's not forget my rating; 5 out of 5 stars, totally recommend, not only this book but the whole trilogy!

XOXO,

Nelia

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Book Review: One Last Second by Sam Vickery

This book was deep and scary and so many feelings...a read that you'll not forget.


One Last Second by Sam Vickery

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What if your child was dying and no one believed you?


I never expected to be doubted, but if I can't make them believe me, what then? I sit here beside her stroking her tiny hands as she sleeps and she looks so perfect. It never crossed my mind that something would be wrong with my sweet girl and I’d be powerless to do anything to help her.

When Madeline's six-year-old daughter Tilly collapses one Sunday night, Madeline’s world is turned upside down. Racing to the hospital, she imagines the worst scenarios in her mind, but when they arrive the doctors say that Tilly is fine.

Madeline’s ex-husband Adam and her best friend Laura think Madeline is being overprotective, that Tilly fainted because of her fussy eating. But Madeline is sure something is seriously wrong with Tilly. She can feel it. And she believes that a mother’s instinct is never wrong.

As Madeline embarks on a desperate journey to have Tilly re-diagnosed, taking her in and out of hospital, Adam and Laura begin to wonder if Tilly would be safer in Adam’s care. Madeline just wants to keep her daughter safe, but the harder she pushes the closer she comes to losing her…


One Last Second is an emotional reminder of just how far a mother will go to protect her child. Readers of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain and Kate Hewitt will never be able to forget this heartbreaking and beautiful story.
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This book is hard to read, it will reach for your heart and squeeze it and then tear it out and then put it back in like nothing happened.  Man, was it painful to read it, I was in the edge of my seat reading this, I wanted to cry so hard and at the same time I didn't know who to believe and then I wanted to go and smack those doctors so hard it's not even funny.  Man, this book messed with my feelings so much, not cool, not cool at all.  

Well, after all that ranting, let me tell you a little what the book is all about it.  We follow Maddie and Tilly, her six year old daughter.  Maddie is recently divorced and Tilly and her tiny little six year old who has always had a hard time with food and for the last year she has gotten worse.  She eats less and less, she now is vomiting non stop when she eats and she has collapsed.  She knows there is something medically wrong with her daughter and she will not stop at anything to get to the bottom of it.

But her ex husband and best friend Laura think that Maddie is being overprotective, and think that Tilly is just fussy about her eating.  And because of both sides conflicting things go so wrongly wrong before they can go to the bottom of things.  And both Maddie and Tilly have to suffer the consequences of everyone not believing them.

Bottom line, never underestimate a mother's word...this story was so well written and it been a mother it touched me hard and I hope this really doesn't happen that often in real life.

5 of 5 stars for this wonderful written book.

XOXO,

Nelia

Book Review: Again Again by E. Lockhart

There is always something that brings me to read YA, comfort zone?  Maybe, more life definitely.  Whatever it is, I love when I find some that has deep stories within and this one was sure one of them.


Again Again by E. Lockhart

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In this novel full of surprises from the New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud, E. Lockhart ups the ante with an inventive and romantic story about human connection, forgiveness, self-discovery, and possibility.

If you could live your life again, what would you do differently?

After a near-fatal family catastrophe and an unexpected romantic upheaval, Adelaide Buchwald finds herself catapulted into a summer of wild possibility, during which she will fall in and out of love a thousand times—while finally confronting the secrets she keeps, her ideas about love, and the weird grandiosity of the human mind.

A raw, funny story that will surprise you over and over, Again Again gives us an indelible heroine grappling with the terrible and wonderful problem of loving other people.
 
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In this book we meet Adelaide, a teenager on the summer before her senior year, her summer job is dog walking (dream job, right?).  Right at the beginning of the book we know that Adelaide and her boyfriend of always a year have broken up and she is pretty sad about.  But, at the park with the dogs she meets a boy and the book takes off from there.  Adelaide, plays a few scenarios of what could happen with this boy, if she talked to him or if she ignored him, or if an accident with the dogs happened and he helped her or if he just ignored her.  The world could go a lot of different ways depending on how one conversation starts or doesn't start.

We also get to see Adelaide's relationship with her brother, which in my opinion is the most important and the main point in this book.  Adelaide's brother has gone through something that changed their whole family, but especially change his and Adelaide's relationship and throughout the book we see what happened and how she can do to change their relationship to be the way they were before or leave how it is now or making worse.  What will she do?   

Again and again life can change and you make can the changes however you want, you just have to be careful how you do it.  Right?

E. Lockhart writes in a way that makes you think about life...think twice before you speak, and never forget to forgive!

4 out of 5 stars

XOXO,

Nelia

Book Review: Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul

Wow, this book was not I was expecting but somehow what I wanted...review time.


Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul

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From the #1 bestselling author of The Secret Wife comes a story of love, passion, and tragedy as the lives of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas are intertwined―and they become the ultimate rivals, in love with the same man.

The President's Wife; a Glamorous Superstar; the rivalry that shook the world...

Jackie Kennedy was beautiful, sophisticated, and contemplating leaving her ambitious young senator husband. Life in the public eye with an overly ambitious--and unfaithful―man who could hardly be coaxed to return from a vacation after the birth of a stillborn child was breaking her spirit. So when she's offered a holiday on the luxurious yacht owned by billionaire Ari Onassis, she says yes...to a meeting that will ultimately change her life.

Maria Callas is at the height of her operatic career and widely considered to be the finest soprano in the world. And then she's introduced to Aristotle Onassis, the world’s richest man and her fellow Greek. Stuck in a childless, sexless marriage, and with pressures on all sides from opera house managers and a hostile press, she finds her life being turned upside down by this hyper-intelligent and impeccably charming man...

Little by little, Maria’s and Jackie’s lives begin to overlap, and they come closer and closer until everything they know about the world changes on a dime.
 
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The whole world knows Jackie Kennedy and that was my main reason to read this book, I wanted to know how her life would intertwine with this Maria Callas and man was it amazing how Gill Paul did this book and made a masterpiece.  I loved reading how these two women's life, so different and so far away from each other but at the same time so close together with each other.  

We get to follow Jackie's story line from when she met JFK and how they started dating and we even get some stories of her past boyfriends from before JFK.  From when she decided Jack was her love, we see how her life changed, for better or for worse?  Well, you be the judge, at least from this book.   However, from this book's point of view, Jackie is the wife that follow's Jack even if she hates politics, but she stays by his side and "supports" him.  She becomes the first lady that America loved, or hated at the beginning because of her expensive clothes (sounds kind of familiar).  She becomes legendary when JFK dies and even afterwards.  But years after she gets married to a very rich man, Aristotle Onassis.

Maria Callas, opera singer, a legend on her time.  Can you see her and Jackie's lives intertwined?  No, right?  Well, we are wrong, so wrong.  But back to Maria.  Maria started her career very, very young, but her voice was magic and she stole the hearts of millions with it.  But one thing that didn't go right for Maria?  The hearts of the people that loved her.  Starting with her family, her mother never loved her, and took advantaged of her even when she was a little girl,  Then, she got married really, really young to someone who was much, much older than her.  She thought she had found the love of her life, her husband did everything for her, he was her manager, managed all her business.  Why couldn't she trust him, she rescued her from her family so she trusted him, the only thing she was missing was a child.  And, as the years went by, the older she got and the older the husband got and the less he touched her and no kids for them, it was like he lost interest in her.  And then she met Aristotle Onassis.  He woke something in her that she didn't even realize she was missing, and she was so happy when she was near him and with him.  And she left her husband and him his wife so they could be together.  With Aristotle in her life, she finds that her life is turned upside down with this man, but being this happy she will do anything to continue to be this way.  Until Aristotle does the unthinkable.

And these two women's world collide with each other and they will never be the same.

Man, there was so much going one at all times, so much family drama, so much romance drama...it was epic and even at the end you wanted more because you knew there had to be more, right?

Beautifully done.

4 out of 5 stars.

XOXO,

Nelia

Book Review: The Little Teashop in Tokyo by Julie Caplin

Romance, travel, tea and, Tokyo, pictures and what else can I mention?  Let's just jump to this review, right now.


The Little Teashop in Tokyo by Julie Caplin

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Grab your passport and escape to the land of dazzling skycrapers, steaming bowls of comforting noodles, and a page-turning love story that will make you swoon!

For travel blogger Fiona, Japan has always been top of her bucket list so when she wins an all-expenses paid trip, it looks like her dreams of the Far East are coming true.

Until she arrives in vibrant, neon-drenched Tokyo and comes face-to-face with the man who broke her heart ten years ago, gorgeous photographer Gabe.

Fiona can’t help but remember the heartache of their last meeting but it’s not long before the Japanese art of contentment and a special, traditional tea ceremony work their magic…

Amidst the temples and clouds of soft pink cherry blossoms, Fiona and Gabe start to see life – and each other – differently.
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Ah, where to I start with this book.  I knew I had to read it when I saw that it was about a travel blogger and she was going to Japan (Tokyo) and she was going there to take pictures so it could be later displayed on a exhibit.  It sounded amazing and I wanted, no, I needed and once I started reading it?  It was more than I expected, it was beyond was I was expecting and I never wanted to leave this little paradise that I discovered.  I want all of Julie Caplin's books and why did I start on book number six of this series, where have I been?  Under a rock?  Yes, for sure.  Okay, okay, let's talk more about this book.

Fiona, is the travel blogger who has won the contest to travel to Tokyo and to work with a professional photographer while there.  She couldn't be more happy, this is something she has dreamed forever but she has the worst surprised ever when she arrives in Tokyo, right at the airport.  There, waiting for her is a professional photographer, but no the one she was expecting, but no the less one that she knows well, it's the one that ruined the last ten years of her life, Gabe.   But, it looks like Gabe doesn't remember her and she is just going to go along with it and enjoy her stay in Tokyo, she is there to work and enjoy this beautiful country.  What's the worst that can happen?  Fall in love again, Gabe recognize her and fall in love with her?  Ah, yeah right?  Right?  Japan is magical place and lots of things can happen.

I loved the romance in this book, it was slow and magical and funny, it was everything you want in a romance.  And Japan?  Ah, the way things were described, I want to go there, I want a tea ceremony more than anything.  I want to go live with a local family than stay at a hotel.  I want to visit all the local points that were mention in the book.  The cherry blossoms has been something in my bucket list and now more than ever.  

Maybe is the quarantine talking, but I felt more connected with this traveling more than ever and makes me want to travel more.  I loved Julie Caplin's writing and I'm so picking up all the previous books in this series. 

5 out of 5 stars for sure.

XOXO

Nelia









Book Review: The Queen's Secret by Karen Harper

Historical Fiction is a genre that I don't read often but Oh Man, do I love it when I do and when it is a really well done book.  And this book was everything that I was craving in one book. Let's get to it.

The Queen's Secret by Karen Harper


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1939. As the wife of the King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth—“the queen mother”—shows a warm, smiling face to the world. But it’s no surprise that Hitler himself calls her the “Most Dangerous Woman in Europe.” For behind that soft voice and kindly demeanor is a will of steel.

Two years earlier, George was thrust onto the throne when his brother Edward abdicated, determined to marry his divorced, American mistress Mrs. Simpson. Vowing to do whatever it takes to make her husband’s reign a success, Elizabeth endears herself to the British people, and prevents the former king and his brazen bride from ever again setting foot in Buckingham Palace.

Elizabeth holds many powerful cards, she’s also hiding damaging secrets about her past and her provenance that could prove to be her undoing.

In this riveting novel of royal secrets and intrigue, Karen Harper lifts the veil on one of the world’s most fascinating families, and how its “secret weapon” of a matriarch maneuvered her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the century.
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It's WWII and we get the story in the eyes of queen mother, who is Queen Elizabeth and man it is such a ride in this book.  King George is reigning after his brother has abdicated the throne so he could marry his American mistress and now both King George and Queen Elizabeth are facing the worst of their reign, a world war with the worst enemy ever, Hilter.  

While the whole world is at war, England is now part of it and Elizabeth and George have to prepare not only themselves and their two daughters but the whole nation two.  And it's not an easy task.  Even though Hilter calls Elizabeth the "Most Dangerous Woman in Europe" she is terrified in multiple levels.  She has to prevent Edward and his horrible wife to ever set foot in England again.  And she, herself has secrets that has been troubling her mind more and more as the war last more and more.  Should she tell George her secrets, should she keep them?  How much should she tell him?  

While everyone sees her a force of nature, deep inside she is just as troubled as everyone else.  But for England she must and she will power through to the end.

It was...refreshing in way to read this book.  Yes, it was during WWII and we read some troubling and devastating things, but at the same time?  We got to see a different side of the royals in this book, it felt like they were just another regular family.  Karen Harper did an amazing job with this book and I just want to read more of her books after this.  She makes you closer to the characters in a way you don't think it would be possible, by the end of the book, you just don't have a choice but to fall in love with all of these characters.

4 out of 5 stars.

XOXO,

Nelia

Book Review: The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

I have nothing to say right now, so let's get to the review:

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult


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Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She's on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?
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This book, where to I even start? The book starts right off with a plane crash, so we know that Dawn, our main character is on a plane crash and she survives. But from there? We go back and forth, back to her past self and forth to some part of her future, but this back and forth? We don't really have dates of them, so what do we know? We know that she is telling us part of the past past, part of still past? And then part of her present? We won't know what the present is until...well you will have to read to find out or I will spoil you.

But, let's talk about so of the things that I did like and found interesting in the book.  I really enjoyed and learned about Egypt and Egyptology and learning about Dawn when she was just a college student, where she was fascinated by all things Egyptology and how she ended up in Egypt and the best time of her life.  Where she was just pretty much starting her life, find lost tombs and find pharaohs and learning all about Egypt life from thousands of years ago.  And about The Book of Two Ways, something she has always been wanting to find out more about it.  But one thing she didn't think it would happen was also finding love while there, and with the boy that she hated at first.  Both were young and students and stupid in love and thought that the whole world were theirs to see and learn together, however things don't always work out the way we want and Dawn learned it on the worse way possible.  One day she got a call that she never thought she would and her whole world and life changed and she never looked back.  Until many years later, when her life is as simple and complicated as a normal life can be.  And sometime simple changed everything for her this time and she decided to take charge and see it through this time.

This book is not an easy book to read, you need to pay attention, you need to have patience with it, but in my opinion, if you ask me if it was worth it?  Yes, it was, yes for sure.  I loved the history part of the book.  I loved the complicated part of Dawn's life and how she was struggling with it and let's be honest, it's how we all fell.  Life is not as easy as a book or a movie shows us all the time, and I loved how this book for once made a character as uneasy as Dawn, so unsure of herself and not knowing all the time if she was making the right the decision.  So, with that been said, was it a perfect book? No, it was still confusing at times with back and forth and not know which part of the characters life we were reading.  

Overall, still a solid 4 stars reading and I totally recommend it.  I'm still thinking all thinks Egypt and want to travel there more than ever now lol.  

XOXO,

Nelia