Archive for August 2021

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they're likely to bring about the end of days. But the children aren't the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn. An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place - and realizing that family is yours.

Hello everybody good morning good afternoon good evening good night whatever time might be where ever you are I hope you’re having an amazing day I hope your summer is going amazing I hope your month is going great I hope you’re staying safe and healthy and that everyone you love it’s OK which is most important thing and that’s the first order of business.

when I open my blog now it’s to wish everyone an amazing day because whenever I read a post where they start saying that it’s just it’s so much brighter and you read the rest differently you know what I mean like you just feel it more but anyways let’s get into today’s review because I go off topic so easily.

The house in the cerulean sea it’s a book that I actually listened on audiobook I have been wanting to read this book for the longest time and I just never got to it until I did and then a lot of people that I followed gave it a bad review meaning that it wasn’t as good as expected so I decided to put it off a little bit more until I was really in the mood for it. The other day I found the audiobook and I thought OK might as well just listen to it right.

I think my expectations were incredibly high for this book for some reason and it was because I’ve heard that it’s similar to miss peregrine and I absolutely loved the book and the movie it’s amazing it’s stunning it’s beautiful I’ve seen a couple of times and every single time I love it more than last time so obviously my expectations were high going into the house in the cerulean sea and it KIND OF lived up to it.

The characters are so lovable so heartwarming I loved every single one of those kids, they were stunning and they were so cute and I don’t know I really really like them as characters and I also loved Linus Baker character I thought there was something about him that was so relatable and I just laughed out loud reading his part of the story and what he was thinking and the stuff that he did just because I loved him and I really did found him relatable and as a character that you can 100% feel how they are feeling is something I love in a book, to be able to to feel like they represent you is such a special thing.

something about him just made me wanna keep reading to be honest the kids and the character of Linus Baker where the cherry of the book if it wouldn't have been for them I would have DNF this book way too quickly.

The plot, on the other hand, was something else. I honestly dont think that this type of books genre are my thing. This is super personal because i´m sure so an people have loved this books but since its not my cup of tea I didn't find the plot that interesting.

Something I really liked is that at the beginning, Linus Baker was such an inflexible character he was very square minded into what he had to do in rules and regulations and going into this different environment that he has never been to made him open himself and made him be different and made him care for someone which was so nice and also care for himself because he was in such a bad place with himself before going to the island and honestly I love that part of it, I thought it was amazing and the character growth was remarkable.

There were moments of cuteness, there were moments that I literally laughed out loud which is amazing and I love that in a book it was such a feel good and heartwarming.

if you like this type of stuff 100% read it it’s so worth it it’s so good and I did really like it and I wanna buy this book physically because it’s stunning, I dont know who design the cover but OMG they did an amazing job.

3.5/5⭐️

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TJ KLUNE is a Lambda Literary Award-winning author (Into This River I Drown) and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company. His novels include The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries. Being queer himself, TJ believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories.

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.

Helo everyone! I hope you are having an amazing day so far. Now lets get right int the review ecause today i am not feeling chatty hhahaha.

This was a fascinating one and that I thoroughly enjoyed. At the beginning it was a little bit confusing because suddenly you get introduced to a lot of characters and you were going back in time and reading another story that happened in the past and then you go back to the present.

in both stories there are a lot of different characters so my mind was so confused at times and I didn’t know what was happening and who was the one that was talking and what It had to do with the story but as you keep reading, you really get into it and you start to understand the plot and everything starts to come together.

We follow Stevie who is our main character and in this particular book we don’t get to see a lot of character growth or development I don’t know if in the upcoming books it would be different. I felt like this book was mainly focused on the plot and the mystery rather than the characters , however the plot was so interesting that you don’t even notice that you were not getting to know them and it was more when I finished the book when I realized I knew nothing about Stevie or any of other character , that’s how hooked I was in the story.

There is also a romantic story line and I have to say I was so not interested into it I couldn’t care less for some reason I really didn’t get to feel as if they truly cared for each other like I said this is the first book in a series the relationship might develop further in time or at least I expect so. as for right now and just in the first book there isn't a lot of romance.

Talking about the romantic interest I don’t know if this might be a spoiler so just be aware of that and don’t read until the next paragraph if you don’t get it you don’t want to get spoiled about this but I thought it was such a cliché the fact that he is the bad boy the one that looks at her in a weird way the first time that they saw each other and the typical guy that you were like you’re a damn ass but still you’re gonna end up with me main character and I did not like that however the ending was absolutely stunning I was not expecting that and I was shocked about it, that’s the only reason why I forgive him hahaha.

So basically generally talking about the book it was so worth it. it was really good I did find that the beginning was a little bit slow it took me a while to get into story but once I got into it like I said I lost track of time I lost track of characters and I was so into the misery I really really enjoyed this book and I will for sure be doing the next ones I have already asked for the second one to my local library so that will be coming over soon. With all that being said, my rating is very solid

4.5/5⭐️

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Maureen Johnson is the bestselling author of several novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, the Truly Devious series, the Suite Scarlett series, and the Shades of London series. She has also written collaborative works such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle and The Bane Chronicles with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan. Maureen lives in New York

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.
Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Good morning good afternoon good evening I hope everyone is having an amazing summer so far we are more than halfway through the year and that it’s nuts to think about anyways I am back from a huge huge reading sump. I’m not gonna lie I have picked up a couple of books and in one occasion I was about to finish it and I was just pushing myself too hard at that moment so I decided to stop there and not finish it. However I am so glad I gave myself time to reconnect and now I’m stronger than ever and back hopefully for a long time if I don’t get burned out quickly so yeah let’s just get into today’s review.

But first before we talk about today’s book are you wanted to give a huge shout out to all of my Australian readers out there that are in lockdown at the moment my heart is with you all and I hope you’re doing OK, I hope you’re staying healthy and I hope you’re staying sane and mentally doing OK. my advice would be keep close the people that you love, keep contact with them lockdown has done so much damage to so many relationships and I think being in touch with people that makes you happy it’s so important especially during this times. also try to get in some movement, whatever that may be, maybe is doing a yoga flow, or maybe it’s Pilates or going for a walk if you can, go for a run to clear your mind, just do some thing that is not just looking at the news and looking at social media that could be so hard as well so yeah hope you are staying safe and that you were doing OK which is the most important thing.

All right so now let’s get into the actual book review. I read this book because I have previously read yolk which I will leave the review right here if you haven’t read it, it is definitely one of the best books that I’ve read in 2021 so far zero doubt so since I loved so much the authors writing style I decided to try another of her books to see if it was just as good as yolk was for me. I decided to pick up emergency contact not in any particular reason I just wanted it to read it, I was in a mood for a romance contemporary and since I wanted to read another of Mary HK Choi books I decided to pick up this one.

For me the romance at the beginning of the book was very slow I was halfway through the book and felt as if not a lot has happened (romantic wise) they did developed tho a very nice relationship, I really did like the progression that they had as friends and getting to know each other but not necessarily as romance interests which for me was a bit slow and it didn’t really ended up happening.

I did really enjoy the fact that they were texting, the message format was super interesting and It made it very easy to read and quick and you felt as if you were flying through the story however sometimes the conversations were interesting but not so much that a chapter was all about it. it was a little bit too much in depth and it had nothing to do with the actual story and was kind of getting out of the way but still I did enjoy them and I did found them very very interesting.

I also feel like I missed more time of them together obviously the whole book was the texting format and them getting to know each other with text messages and calls and all that stuff but still I did missed a little bit more of contact.

One thing I can say, and that is that this is not your average romance book at all they were so mature and they were so real, they felt like real people, with real struggles and with really normal lifestyle which is something that I loved about Mary HK choi books she always does that and I love it.

Also the fact that they bond on their past and their struggles and that they created this amazing relationship based on that and based on where they came from was amazing and was so incredible,i will say it definitely has some TW so have that I mind ifyou decide to pick it up.

For me while I was reading this book I thought OK this is a three star read it is a good romance nothing too special but when the end was coming I started crying and it suddenly became a 4.5 star read right at the very end of the book I don’t know why I don’t know if I was emotional when I was reading this I don’t know if it was very late at night and I was feeling really emotional but I loved the ending of this book, it was everything, I loved the way that the mother and the daughter relationship wrapped up and how they overcame their differences and created this very special relationship and I also loved how the romance story finished as well. it was so heartwarming and I just loved , I wanted to hug them I wanted to get into the book and hug both of them it was amazing it was incredible and my mind changed 100 at the very end of this book like two last chapters were everything.

So like I said before, this is for sure a

4.5/5⭐️

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mary H.K. Choi is a writer for The New York Times, GQ, Wired, and The Atlantic. She has written comics for Marvel and DC, as well as a collection of essays called Oh, Never Mind. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, Permanent Record, and Yolk. She is the host of Hey, Cool Job!, a podcast about jobs, and Hey, Cool Life!, a podcast about mental health and creativity. Mary grew up in Hong Kong and Texas and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner.