PopSugar Reading Challenge 2019 Part 3
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
— Joseph Addison
For me this year has been a time of trying to get some of my ducks in a row. When I see those memes about how I don’t have ducks, I don’t have rows – I have squirrels and they’re at a rave, I totally understand it. I have been feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, so I decided to do something about it.
The first thing I decided was that I needed to respect that this was a journey (still is). I would be kind to myself, and know that setbacks were bound to happen, and there would be bad days. Then I set out two things to work on – my body and my mind.
For my body I have been exercising regularly and focusing on getting enough water. There are still days where pizza is definitely on the menu, but overall it’s gotten progressively better. For my mind it was to meditate more and delve back into reading more regularly. PopSugar Reading Challenge 2019 fit right in.
My journey isn’t over, but I definitely am doing better. I can’t wait for next year’s challenge and to continue this overall journey. Another set of mini-reviews is below. I hope you enjoy and I’d love to hear your thoughts! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram at booktreasures.15.
A debut nove: The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
3.75 / 4 stars. This is another mystery/thriller on my list. A baby is missing, and the mother is under suspicion, along with her mommy group of “May Mothers” who all had babies in the same month. There is definitely a lot of intrigue here, and I was moderately surprised by the ending, although I was a bit disappointed that the ending seemed disjointed from the rest of the book. Some of the book dragged a bit, but it was an interesting treatise on motherhood and how lives are shaped, combined with a pretty good mystery.
A book published in 2019: Connections in Death by J.D. Robb
5/5 stars. I just love the In Death series by J.D. Robb. This is the 48th book in the series, and I have loved them all. Set in a future that is just enough like ours to be recognizable and just enough different to be fascinating, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roark find themselves embroiled in interesting cases and surrounded by a wonderful cast of characters. This is one of those worlds in which you wish you could be best friends with the entire cast of characters.
A book that features an imaginary or extinct creature: Wicked Never Sleeps by Gina LaManna
4/5 stars. There is an underworld of magic living in the midst of us. Dani DeMarco lives in this world, and is trying to have as normal of a life as possible amongst the goblins, witches, and vampires. Dani left the police force and has opened a pizza parlor. As these things do, that plan goes sideways.
Her magical skill set is unique and necessary to the case. She also has too much of a soft spot for the victims and the vampire captain of the police force to say no, even though she wants to. There is nothing out of the ordinary or spectacular about this book for its genre, but I like the genre and it was a fun little read in a fantasy world combined with police work.
A book recommended by a celebrity you admire: Kill The Queen by Jennifer Estep
5/5 stars. I found this on a recommendation list from Tess Gerritsen. I loved this book so much I immediately got side tracked from the book challenge to read the rest of the series. Evie is a very distant relative to the queen. Her distance to the throne becomes much shorter when she’s the sole survivor of a massacre. That’s only the beginning of the trouble she faces. Upon escape, where to go, what to do?
She ends up in a gladiator troupe, and there her journey to recover her life – really to start her life – begins. Evie is a great character, as are the supporting characters. The descriptions in the book are detailed and beautiful, and the author does a great job of giving enough background at the right times to keep the reader intrigued and close to the characters, and holds just enough back to make you want to keep reading to learn more.
A book With love in the title: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
4/5 stars. When Tate moves in with her brother, she finds herself confused and wildly attracted (physically only) to his best friend Miles, who lives across the hall. Miles doesn’t want love, Tate doesn’t want love. So this works out perfectly for them both, as they engage in hot sex with abandon, and don’t have to worry about emotions getting in the way. Yeah, right.
Naturally, feelings then proceed to get in the way. It’s a story as old as time in the romance book world, but it’s still well-written and Tate and Miles make you root for them the whole way through. Will they find their way through the heart-breaking secrets they’re holding? Of course they will, but it’s a fun ride to go along on.
A book that features and amateur detective: The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher
2/5 stars. I barely finished this book. There is magic in the world, and a secret society with a branch known as the Brotherhood of the Wheel protects the roads and highways for both the normal people who don’t know what the world contains and for the supernaturals. The set up sounds great. The problem is I found the entire thing boring, and it took forever for things to start linking up. I didn’t like the characters. I didn’t even find the monsters particularly scary. I did finish, but will definitely not be reading any more in the series.
A book about a family: Black Rose by Nora Roberts
4/5 stars. This is the second book in the In The Garden series (the first is reviewed here). This book is very similar to the first book. I honestly liked this one even better than the first. I think that’s because it features the matriarch of the family, Ros, who is my favorite character in this series. She is a no nonsense woman who has raised her sons, built a business, and thrived in a tough world.
Unfortunately, her house is haunted by a ghost that doesn’t like love. As the make-shift family that has gathered in the garden with Ros tries to figure out the ghost’s history, she hires a genealogist. Love blooms. It is a lovely story, a very easy read with ultimately extremely like-able characters. It makes me want to find a garden and spend my days there.
A book by an author from Africa, Asia, or South America: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
3.5/5 stars. I heard really great things about this book, and I wavered a lot on my rating. Trevor Noah takes you into a world that is so very foreign from what Americans can really imagine. He vividly describes what it was like to grow up with a black mother and a white father in Apartheid South Africa. The stories are told with detail and a great deal of humor.
The biggest struggle I had with the book is that it seemed very disjointed. It was more like listening to a series of podcasts than a cohesive book. At times the timeline seemed so odd that I could hardly follow what was happening and even caused me to feel like there were conflicting timelines. I also enjoyed the ending of the book a lot more than the beginning and wish there was as much about his teen and young adult years as there was about his childhood.
A book with a Zodiac of Astrological symbol in the title: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
4/5 stars. This fiction novel is a darkly written piece revolving around a race called the Scorpio Race. The riders brave training on deadly water horses and riding them in a race in which death is not an infrequent occurrence. There has never been a female rider until Puck Connolly enters the race. She doesn’t really want to, but she feels she has to. What follows is a beautifully and hauntingly written exploration of Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick – the returning champion
What makes someone risk their life for a race? How much is someone willing to risk to hold on to what is familiar and dear? The world this is set in is a foreign one, but every word applies to our modern world’s humanity.
That’s the part 3 of the list! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. If you missed part 1, check it out here. Part 2 can be located here. Stay tuned for the next part of the list, and don’t forget to follow the blog and drop me a line if you’ve read any of these books, want to read them, and what you think of them!
Some of the treasures I found in this set of books are below.
Nuggets of gold from the first 9 of the PopSugar Challenge 2019
1. That’s how it is when a person develops an attraction toward someone. He’s nowhere, then suddenly he’s everywhere, whether you want him to be or not. – Colleen Hoover, Ugly Love
2. Sometimes not speaking says more than all the words in the world. Sometimes my silence is saying, I don’t know how to speak to you. I don’t know what you’re thinking. Talk to me. Tell me everything you’ve ever said. All the words. Starting from the very first one. – Colleen Hoover, Ugly Love
3. Didn’t it take courage, wasn’t it harder to blend one life with another, to share and to cope, to compromise than to live that life alone? It was work to live with a man, to wake up every day prepared to deal with routine, and to be open to surprises. – Nora Roberts, Black Rose
4. We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and depending on where you came from, your imagination can be quite limited. – Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
5. Comfort can be dangerous. Comfort provides a floor but also a ceiling. – Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
6. There are moments that you’ll remember for the rest of your life and there are moments that you think you’ll remember for the rest of your life, and it’s not often they turn out to be the same moment. – Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races
7. I think every now and then about Sean’s thumb pressed against my wrist and daydream about him touching me again. But mostly I think about the way he looks at me – with respect – and I think that’s probably worth more than anything. – Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races