By now, you must have noticed a bold disclaimer statement at the beginning of my post and links to purchase books I’ve reviewed.
Well, I’ve officially joined bookshop.org ‘s affiliate program. Bookshop.org was created at the beginning of 2020 and aims to be an ethical alternative to Amazon. Every book purchased on bookshop.org supports independent bookstores, even those who are not on BookShop.
Of course, you can still support your local bookstore by searching for it on Bookshop’s store map, and when you purchase from that bookstore through bookshop, they’ll receive the full profit of your order.
If you don’t have a favorite bookstore, you can still support local bookstores because Bookshop.org has an earnings pool that they distribute among independent bookstores.
I earn a commission from purchases made through my bookshop online storefront. I also earn a commission from purchases made through the affiliate links that I’ve included at the end of my book reviews. If you would like to support me and support independent bookstores, you can do so while also purchasing a cool book!
Currently, BookShop only ships within the U.S, but you can still support me by following this blog or my other social medias
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I receive a commission if you click through and purchase the books mentioned.
Hey readers! I hope you have been having a fantastic month! In today’s review, I’d like to talk about my latest book binge; The Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews.
Authors Ilona Gordon and Andrew Gordon penned The Hidden Legacy series, a five part series told through the eyes of two sisters. For today’s post I’ll be focusing on the first three novels.
Hello readers! I know you have all been busy living in books, but today I have a review for one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. I read this book back in the Spring, but saved my review for fall. I thought it would be a good spooky read, if you’re in the mood for a paranormal YA romance set in Medieval France.
Hey book readers! I hope you have gotten a great start to your October, whether that be diving into your spooky book stack, decorating your space for falloween, or watching some spooky faves.
This past week, I’ve been neglecting my reading of Wayward Witch, and have instead been focusing on spooky crafts. If you follow me on IG, you got to see me work on some Halloween PJ shorts and scrunchies. Since I haven’t been doing much reading, I thought I share with my readers some perfect books, movies, and podcasts to get into the Halloween spirit.
Do you love reading about baddies in lit? We all know I do! What about reading about death gods? Mayan mythology? Road trips? 1920s Mexico? Then Gods of Jade and Shadow is probably the book for you!
Gods of Jade and Shadow is an adult fantasy novel set during the Jazz Age and in Mexico. Author of Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia pens a fantastical adult fantasy story about revenge, love, and redemption.
Is what Mr. Ethan Winston of Historically Inaccurate would say!
Hi readers! Remember last week when I shared some of my favorite quotes from Historically Inaccurate? Well today I’m sharing my review for the novel. I received an advanced readers copy of Historically Inaccurate in exchange for my honest review thanks to the team at Colored Pages Blog Tours.
Historically Inaccurate is a new adult story by debut author Shay Bravo. Historically Inaccurate was originally on Wattpad but is now going to be published for the masses. This novel features diverse characters, a Black love interest, College clownery, and finding yourself.
Hello readers! Today I’ll be sharing my review for the highly anticipated book Cemetery Boys!
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas has made its way onto the New York Times Bestseller list shortly after its release. But more importantly, this paranormal romance is also an Own Voices read and stars a transgender protagonist.
Today is my stop on the Historically Inaccurate book tour! I received this arc from the team at Colored Pages Bookish Tour. Check them out if you’re a fellow book blogger.
Historically Inaccurate by Shay Bravo is a new adult fiction novel that’s out everywhere September 29.
Soledad just wants things to go back to normal after her mother’s deportation she’s had to move homes, switch schools, and adjust to life without her. When Sol decides to join her College’s history club she doesn’t expect to have to sneak into a house and steal a fork. However, Sol is caught by Ethan Winston a resident of the house and the chance encounter forever changes her life.
To celebrate it’s release I thought I turn some of my favorite quotes into graphics that you may download if you please.
Hey book lovers! It’s that time of year again when the weather cools down, sweaters come out, and leaves begin to fall. But with the start of Autumn also comes the start of Latinx Heritage Month! In case you didn’t know, Latinx Heritage Month spans from September 15 to October 15 and if you need some ideas on what books to pick up this month, keep on reading.
In today’s post, I want to give some K-drama recs for book lovers. Korean dramas are television series produced in Korea, and they range from a variety of genres such as romance, crime, melodrama, or science fiction. I enjoy the romance ones.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m either finishing a K-drama or starting a new one. If you’re new to K-dramas, or just curious about all the hype, I hope you find this list helpful.
Hey readers! In today’s post, we will take a look at a fluffy YA summer romance featuring an art hoe and an emo-pop star. The story is set in the backdrop of Georgia and on the set of a hot new movie. If all these things sound good, continue reading. If this sounds boring, check out my review of Princess Jellyfish.
Midnight Sun was a dreadful read, but Bet me yanked me right out of my feelings and into a world of bets, Elvis, chicken marsala, Krispy Kreme, and love stories. This enemies to somewhat friends to lovers story will keep you guessing and make you fall in love with all the characters. It might be the best book I read this year. Keep reading if you want to hear what I thought about this romantic contemporary.
I am a fool for reading this. I wanted to salsify my curiosity for Midnight Sun, having read the leaked version long ago, but tbh it was not worth it.
Any enthusiasm I had for this book turned into boredom, and well, if you want to find out what went wrong, continue reading.
Also, the Quileute Tribe is currently raising funds to get their tribe out of the Tsunami zone. If you buy Midnight Sun considering helping the tribe preserve their traditions and culture by donating here.
I Wanna Be Where You Are is an Own Voices YA novel written by Kristina Forest starring a Black ballerina, a stinky dog, a bad boy, and a road trip! Add it to your Tbr now!
The Sun is Also a Star is an #ownvoices novel the author, Nicola Yoon, grew up in Jamaican and Brooklyn, and falls under the YA romance genre. This book is not a quick read, but if you’re up for it, check it out.
Hello, book lover, it’s your girl, Gaby back it again with another review about another baddie. This time I’m diving into the recently published The Cursed Prince by C.N Crawford.
The Cursed Prince is a dystopian-fantasy-romance novel that sprinkles in Norse mythology and zombies. Yep, a lot is going on in this short book, but let’s dive into the review.
This book is written in a series of vignettes by renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo and follows the life of a young Dominican American girl from Harlem. The Poet X is prefect for lovers of poetry and slam poets.
“I only know that learning to believe in the power of my own words has been the most freeing experience of my life. It has brought me the most light. And isn’t that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark.”
“I scored a 1560 and a 34 on my SATs and ACTs respectively, and despite growing up in a “bad” area (not too far from your old stomping grounds), I have a future ahead of me that will likely include an Ivy League education, an eventual law degree, and a career in public policy. Sadly during the wee hours of this morning, literally none of that mattered.”
Many of us have probably read or heard about Brock Turner, a Stanford student who raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. During the trial, we only knew this woman as Emily Doe, until now. Chanel Miller pens and narrates her powerful Memoir, Know My Name, to finally tell her story and humanize herself after Brock and his lawyers defamed her.
I considered myself to be a very inclusive reader, someone who reads books by BIPOC authors, but one glance at my Goodreads tells me that I can do better. So I decided to begin June reading Odd One Out by Nic Stone. Not only is Odd One Out an Own Voices novel, literature written by someone who identifies as a part of the same marginalized book as their character(s), but it’s also YA, which makes it accessible to many. Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble comprehending some of the older literature with its superfluous vocabulary? I studied English in college, and during my first years, reading Shakespeare was a struggle!
Sorry for the delayed posts but I felt that I needed to take a step back from publishing reviews on this blog and listen. As many of you know by know, the death of George Floyd sparked a revolution and I felt that my energy could better be spent sharing/signing petitions, donating, and listening.
Just because the movement appears to be fizzling out, our work is not done. Systematic racism and the oppression of Black bodies has always been an issue in the U.S and moving forward we must continue to listen and undo the racial bias in ourselves.
Sign these petitons
Beware donating to change.org as that money go directly to the company
Hello readers! I am finally back with another book review. For this week’s review, I’m jumping away from the spicy crazy romance of Beautiful Bastard to the spicy space adventure that is Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes.
As mentioned before, this novel is on the spicy side, and that includes lots of bilingual swearing and implied sex scenes. So keep that in mind if you’re planning to gift this to a younger reader.
If you are a sci-fi fan and have been longing for a story starring a Latinx Capitan and psychic cats, continue reading.
Hello everyone, I hope everyone is doing well and taking care of themselves. If you read my quarantine post, then you know that making bookmarks was one of the ways I’m combating quarantine stress.
For today’s post, I wanted to share a fun DIY project to help keep you busy.
It’s been a while since my last post and safe to say the quarantine stress finally got to me. To combat it, I threw myself into sewing and watching animal crossing streams. That was great and all, but I was not able to focus on reading nor creating content for this blog.
I’m feeling much better now, and I hope to be able to get some bookish crafts up soon. For now, though, here is a book review for Beautiful Bastard.
Beautiful Bastard is one of the first books best writing friends Christina and Lauren published together. The first draft of Beautiful Bastard was a twilight inspired fanfiction written by Christina. Although readers won’t be able to tell while reading Beautiful Bastard. To read more about the origins of Christina Lauren, check out this interview.
Hello readers! Did you love reading Love and Gelato by Jenna Eva Welch? Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas, may not be set in Italy or feature a dreamy soccer-playing Italian, instead it offers up the French countryside, a handsome Spaniard, and an aspiring chef.
Everleigh Blair is a noblewoman turned orphan turned Gladiator turned Queen and the star of the Crown of Shards. This underrated series falls under the adult fantasy genre and shares similar themes to Game of Throne. What sets this series apart from other fantasy novels is that in this universe, there is a way to snuff out magic. Evie may be the queen of Bellona, but unlike the other royals, she has no magic, rather she is immune to it, which makes her far more dangerous.
If you want to know more about the previous books in this series here’s the link to my review of the second novel in the series, Protect the Prince.
Are your negative thoughts taking over? Have you been feeling wound up because of current events? Today I’ll be sharing my top 6 things to do during self-isolation so you can breath for a second.
Imagine this all the Amars suddenly becoming onboard with sewing and creating clothes for women like them. I never thought I’d see it either, but that’s exactly what happens in the last volume of Princess Jellyfish.
Disclaimer: this post contains an affiliate link for Volume 9 of Princess jellyfish at the end of this post. It is marked with an asterisk* If you click the link and make a purchase I earn a commission.
Back in February, I put The Worst Best Man on my February TBR. It had everything I was looking for to spend my February alone romance and a Latina protagonist. I was finally able to check The Worst Best Man out from the library, after waiting a month. I spent many mornings consumed by this book. Now that I’ve hyped up this book, I’m going to dive into a summary.
I don’t want this story to end! However, I am excited for the conclusion of this series.
After Kuranosuke wraps up a photo shoot at Mr. Fish’s building, he flirts his way to the top floor and meets Fayong, Fish’s secretary and childhood friend, instead of snitching to her boss that Kuranosuke has come for Tsukimi, she takes Kuranosuke to the basement and leaks key company secrets before letting him know where Tsukimi is.
In my previousPrincess Jellyfish review, I stated that volume 6 was going to kick things into motion, well I was right, and now I’m anxious for the conclusion!
I don’t always read YA novels, and when I’m not reading them, you can bet I’m reading a contemporary romance! The Swedish Prince piqued my interest because it’s marketed as a Roman Holiday retelling.
However, The Swedish Prince promises a Happy Ever After.
Pride and Prejudice is one of those rare books that I was not required to read in any of my English classes. Even while studying English in college, Pride and Prejudice was always absent from the syllabus. Given my love for the 2005 film, I don’t understand why I never read this book sooner.
I’m assuming a lot of readers have read this book since it is a classic, feel free to skip to my commentary. It will be marked with MY THOUGHTS in bold, followed by a star rating.
Hello everyone! I finally made it to the thrilling conclusion of the FolkoftheAir series and I really wanted to go all out for my Queen Of Nothing review. Stay tuned to see my Jude Duarte inspired looks.
Happy Valentines day readers! If you want cute valentine’s day book recommendation check out this post here. But if you want to hear more of Princess Jellyfish volume 3 continue reading.
And if you haven’t read my previous posts on Princess Jellyfish the manga series and would like to read more check out my review for Volume 1 and Volume 2
Ever since I finished the first volume of Princess Jellyfish, I have been hungry for more of this story. If you haven’t read my review of volume one, check it out here.
I finally got my hands on the Wicked King this week, and it did not take me long to finish the book. I was surprised that this book looked thinner than The Cruel Prince however, I knew that thinness doesn’t matter when we are dealing with author Holly Black. Now onto my favorite couple, *looks at the smudged ink on my palm* Cardigan and Juice.
Here is the opening title sequence for the Princess Jellyfish manga try not o fall in love while watching it.
Princess Jellyfish is one of my favorite animes to rewatch when Ineed a mood boost. Although, like most of my favorite animes, it is unfinished. Luckily for me, I spotted a majority of the volumes at my library, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes after the anime ended.
*This post contains affiliate links if you click through and purchase the Princess Jellyfish Manga I earn a small commission.
I am continuing on my reading rainbow journey of the Red Queen series, and today I’ll be reviewing the sequel, Glass Sword. I loved Red Queen and the ending of the book threw me for a loop. However, I didn’t feel the same for Glass Sword.
One day in October, I was living my best carefree life-blissfully unaware of the Folk of the Air series until my dearest friend Nessa decided to ruin my life by casually mentioning this series followed an enemy to lover’s trope.
In case I haven’t made myself clear on my feelings about this Trope, I loved them! This trope is top-quality writing, redemption arcs, soft moments. I live for it all.
Red Queen starts as a typical dystopian novel, but all the twists and turns are like slipping on a banana in Mario Cart. I want to preface this review by stating the first part of this blog post will be the review, while the second part will be me reacting to the plot and will contain spoilers.
I’ve done this a thousand times before, watching the crowd like a wolf does a flock of sheep.
Ninth House was released this October, and it is Leigh
Bardugo’s first adult novel. Ninth House tells the story of Galaxy “Alex” Stern,
a high school drop out from California, who is enrolled at Yale University to
join a secret campus organization named Lethe. Lethe is part of nine magical
houses, and their main jobs are to regulate the activities of the other houses
to make sure they are falling the rules. Lethe is small and consists of a core
group of people: Dante, Virgil, Centurion, and Occulus. Centurion goes by the
name Turner, an African American Police officer of New Haven, who has been paid
by Lethe to cover up any magical crimes despite Turner’s involvement in Lethe,
he is a good guy and a good cop. Occulus is also known as Dawes, a grad student
who spends the majority of her time working on her dissertation at the Lethe
house, but Dawes’ main job is to assist Dante and Virgil. Alex is Dante, and
Darlington is Virgil. Darlington’s job is to show Alex the ropes of all Lethe
house duties, one ritual involves scaring off ghosts or greys while another
house cuts some random person open to read the future at least that’s how I
interrupted it I’m still confused about the intricacies of that ritual.
Alex’s first semester at Yale is overwhelming, as she has to complete her assignments as an English major as well as her nighttime duties at Lethe. Darlington’s disappearence complicates everything, and Alex is left to carry out the duties of Lethe house on her own. Alex starts to sense that things are amiss when Tara Hutchins, a New Haven girl, is murdered outside one of the magical houses. Everyone insists that Tara’s boyfriend is the culprit, but Alex thinks there is something off about Tara’s death. Alex enlists the help of Dawes and Turner to help her follow the trail of clues that suggest the other houses might have had some involvement in Tara’s death.
When I first cracked this book open in mid-November I
was intrigued, but my attention was not fully captivated. I felt like I was in
a slump, and when I’m in a reading slump I distract myself with either watching
Tv or reading fanfiction. In this case, I did both.
I rewatched most of Bunheads and read some Star Wars fanfiction in case anyone was wondering.
Me tossing aside my responsibilities to devour Ninth House
However, when I realized I had three days to compete Ninth House, and I was only 100s pages deep, I knew I had to start reading and fast if I wanted to complete it this month.
When Alex became entangled in the murder of Tara Hutchins, so did I become entangled in this book. I begin to wonder what exactly happened to Darlington and maybe if Alex had killed him herself. However, after reading Alex’s longing to see Darlington again, I was even more confused. Where the two lovers? Should I be rooting for their ill-fated romance?
“I will serve you ’til the end of days.”
Darlington to Alex Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
As I continued to read Ninth House most of my questions were slowly piecing together answers. Although the world is elaborate and all the houses and what they do, are at times, confusing I found it helpful to just get consumed in the story until you forgot about all your questions.
Despite the complexities of Ninth House this book is sure to reel you in with all the cool charaters. Aside from Darlington, Lethe house’s golden boy, and Alex’s mentor into the dark world of magic, and Dawes a reserved grad student who is always saving Alex’s ass, there is also North, a ghost who lurks around New Haven and is believed to have murdered his Fiancée.
As Alex gets deeper into the investigation of Tara’s death so does North’s character development and soon North goes from becoming a suspected murderer to a real softie who scares off other ghosts from following Alex.
Ninth House is also abundant with California and English writer’s references. If you are currently studying English in college, a lot of the poetry and stories referenced will be familiar to you. The whole Dante and Virgil dynamic should be a big hint on both the themes of the novel and that other prominent English writers may be referenced. If you grew up in Southern California, the landmarks mentioned will be easy to picture.
What surprised me about Ninth House was that Alex, the main character is brown. Alex’s grandmother often sung lullabies to her in Spanish, but the dialect in which these lullabies were spoken was one that I had never heard of or knew existed. The Spanish used in this novel is called Ladino, a Judaeo-Spanish, that was spoken by Jews who lived in Spain before Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand decided to kick out the Jewish population. This little piece of information was super cool for me to learn, and it’s also insanely cool that this language becomes one of the biggest tools that Alex uses to defend herself from the greys.
“Quien se prestado se vestio, en medio de la calle se quito.”
Ninth Hose by Leigh Bardugo
Overall, Ninth House is a book that may have a slow start, but it will quickly suck you into the plot once things become interesting. Although Ninth House is the first book of the series there is no big cliff hanger in the end. However all the plot twists in this book are sure to keep you guessing. I loved this read, and I will considering adding it and the next installment onto my shelf forever.
Now for the real question.
Do I ship Alex and Darlington? Maybe so. Is this a bad idea considering what happened to one of my otps in Crooked Kingdom.
Probably.
But I’m going to casually ship them anyways.
And now a brief rant on Alex and Darlington
Sure Alex is a bit suspious, considering what she did to her “friends” back in LA, and Darlignton is the nerdy gentleman of Ninth House. The pair really have no business being together romantically. However, they’re a great team and if Darlington had been present for Tara’s investigation Alex probably wouldn’t have put herself in as much danger as she’d liked.
Plus Darlington has a cat and an attachment to his grandfather’s big mansion and if that doesn’t scream love interest then we clearly have different definitions.
I give Ninth House a five-star review, and if you have
any bookish friends who love gothic-fantasies or books with a morally gray
character, definitely pick up Ninth House. However, be aware that Ninth House
deals with serious topics such as sexual assault, rape of a minor, drug use,
suicide, self-harm, drowning, and lots of blood and gore.
