Source: Personal Library

Serpent & Dove by Shelby ..

Posted 10/05/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 4 Comments

I’d been hearing about this book on Bookstagram, BookTube, and BookTwitter as an anticipated release for September 2019. And then the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club chose it as the book for the October 10, 2019 meeting. So of course, I picked up a copy as soon as I had the money. I’m definitely not sorry I did. Serpent & Dove is Shelby Mahurin’s debut novel. As such, it does suffer a bit from “first book syndrome” where the story starts off rather slowly and takes a bit to get into. In fact, the only reason I stuck it out was because when I went in to purchase November’s YA book club book, the bookseller who was helping me with my purchase told me she’d read the book and that it should start getting better around page 125. It took me a little longer than that – I had […]

The Testaments by Margaret Atw..

Posted 09/22/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you want to see inflammatory reviews, just go look at the reviews for The Testaments on Goodreads. Several people have panned the book majorly, stating that the book wasn’t necessary. I’m here to tell you that while those people might feel The Handmaid’s Tale was fine as it was, it really wasn’t. What those illustrious readers and reviewers failed to understand was that The Handmaid’s Tale left off with so many unanswered questions. What happened to Offred in the end? Did she survive? Was she ever reunited with her daughter? How long did Gilead exist after Offred’s story ended? How did Gilead fall? We needed answers. This book provided them. I was ecstatic to hear this book was coming out. I immediately set out to obtain a copy as soon as it was released, although it took me a few days to get to it. This book was amazing. […]

I’m Not Dying With You T..

Posted 09/12/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This was another book I read for the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club. I have to say, it was completely different than what we thought it was going to be. Somehow, we got the idea it was going to be some sort of post-apocalyptic or dystopian thing. Instead, we got a very real look, in fiction form, at reality. Campbell is a white girl from Pennsylvania who has been tossed into a high school in Georgia city. Lena is a black girl who’s lived her whole life in this Georgia city and knows full well how the police and everyone else there sees black people. During the course of the book, Lena calls Campbell on her naivety when it comes to how the police and black people get along in their city. She calls Campbell on her views about black people. But Campbell calls Lena on her own views […]

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Posted 07/15/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

When I saw the cover to this book, I was intrigued. It’s the August book for the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club and I was anxious to see what the book was about. I can’t say the story was terrible, because it wasn’t. But there was no feeling, no emotion between the characters. Reese, Byatt, and Hetty are supposed to be such great friends, best friends, but the story doesn’t convey that. You’re told that they’re best friends, but you just don’t get that feeling from the story. Honestly, I think the only thing that truly kept me reading was wanting to see if an explanation for anything – the Tox, why they were being kept on the island – would be forthcoming. It does, but not in a very satisfactory way. Then there is the ending of the book. The end of the book left me feeling like […]

Again, but Better by Christine..

Posted 06/14/2019 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I read this book for Barnes & Noble’s new YA Book Club. I hadn’t even heard of the book and didn’t know who the author was, although once I saw her YouTube channel name, I vaguely recognized who she was. I have to say, I wish she’d gone back and watched some of her own videos when writing this book. The biggest problem is that the characters don’t grow and develop, they either stay exactly the same or they devolve. The character development was great in the beginning and then just started to fall apart. You’re not only still cringing at Shane in Part 2, you might find yourself cringing even more than you did before. And don’t even get me started on Shane’s parents. I get that there are parents like that in real life, but seriously, Shane’s father is just plain scary at times. Also, in the words […]