The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow (Read 2/17/20 to 2/23/20) – 4 Star

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. It will be published February 25, 2020. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.

Earth is invaded by the Ilori when Janelle Baker was 15. Janelle is now 17 and she lives in an Ilori prison camp, and she is a librarian of sorts. She loans and finds books for fellow prisoners she calls her patrons. Which Janelle has to do super secretly, because if she is caught sharing books she could be executed by the Ilori. Janelle’s Dad works for the Ilori on the half-solutions program, a monthly mood-enhancing vaccine that turns humans into obedient Ilori servants. Jaenelle’s mother has become a drunk. Commander M0Rr1S is a labmade Ilori, he is the head scientist working on a vaccine. The Ilori plan to cleanse Earth of its pollution for their own habitation, for the true Ilori and make their new colony a truly immersive experience, a vacation planet. M0Rr1S loves human music, and is searching the basement for more of it when he finds Janelle’s library. This kicks off an adventure full of mistrust and earned trust, and finding common ground between species that are never meant to live next to each other. I really enjoyed he characters, and yes it was dystopian sort of, it wasn’t the end of the world. I felt like Dow wanted to write about hope, hope that the world could be different if we set aside some of our prejudice and hate. This was a good book, and I hope there is a sequel.

This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagan (Read 2/14/20 to 2/15/20) – 5 Stars

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. It will be published February 25, 2020. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.
This book is told in the format of letters/emails and journal entries written by Annie. Annie’s fiancé Jon has left for France for a month, and requested no contact so he can “get his head on straight” six months before their wedding. Annie is a chemist who just left her job because a co-worker sexually harassed her and is banned from the sanitation chemistry field for 2 years. Jon is a French teacher. While she is unemployed she is cleaning houses to make ends meet. Annie’s mother suffers from depression and Annie lives with her.
Annie is very pessimistic/realist, and her one-liners are very witty. Reminds me a bit of Fredrik Backman, whom I really like his writing g style. It even reminds me a bit of Holly Banks Full of Angst, where there isn’t really anything but daily life happening, but the characters perception and commentary is very enthralling for the reader and we are definitely engaged in the mundaneness.

A Witch in Time by Constance Sayer (Read 1/30/20 to 2/10/20) - 3 Stars

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. It will be published February 11, 2020. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review. 

Helen Lambert has been set up on a blind date with Luke Varner. It’s going so so. Then he asks her if he looks familiar to her and goes on to tell her this isn’t the first time they have met. They they have met in 1895 in France, 1935 in LA, and 1970 in Taos. Now it is 2012 in Washington DC. Then he says she called her and asked him to do something, and he did. And strangely she remembers doing so.  Then we begin to see flashbacks to Helen's previous lives, and Helen needs to figure out how to end the curse that keeps having her reenact her same first mistake of loving the wrong man.
This was a good book, the first 3rd was really slow and I had a hard time getting into the story, but then it really began to pick up and sprinted to the finish. I really liked all the characters, and the premise. There were some hard scenes especially in Nora’s early life. But overall it was a solid read.

The German Heiress by Anika Scott (Read 1/25/2020 to 1/29/20)

For BOTM this year we decided to do prompts and everyone choose their own books rather than everyone reading the same book.  January's prompt was Historical Fiction, and I chose this book.

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. It will be published April 7, 2020.
Net Galley's description was that this book was "for readers of The Alice Network and The Lost Girls of Paris, an immersive, heart-pounding debut about a German heiress on the run in post-World War II Germany."  BOOM I was sold!

The book takes place after 2 years after WWII had ended in Germany. Clara Falkenberg has false documents saying she is Margarete Müller, but in reality she is an heiress to a pre-war iron working empire. She is in hiding because she is wanted for war crimes for her and her families support of the Nazi’s. Clara is trying to return to Essen to find her best friend Elisa and Elisa’s son Willy. The path she ends up following is full of twists and intrigue, and an ending that hits all the feels and surprises you too.

The opening of the book paints such a bleak picture of post WWII Germany. That is something we rarely think about. We think about the Yay Nazi’s defeated, but what about the other Germans. The ones that weren’t in the military and weren’t necessarily Nazi’s but had to find a way to survive when the Nazi’s were in power. Did they get saved by Adolf’s defeat or were they punished for crimes they had no choice in? Wow this was just a wow book! I’m not sure I even have words, it was so well written and the story was so compelling. None of the characters turned out to be who you thought they were. The depth and breadth of the character development was fantastic, and as any good book should, made me feel all the feels.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Read 1/17/20 to 1/24/20)

This is the 3rd book I have read for my Quarterly Book Exchange. This has been on my TBR list for a while. It has had so much hype.

"The The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called "Le Cirque des Reves," and it is only open at night."  (Goodreads excerpt)

What patrons don't know is that behind the circus facade is a magical completion between Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood for this competition.  They are not informed of the rules, or the consequences, but both are expected to win by their instructors.  This competition has many unplanned consequences and changes the lives of so many.

I liked it, but the middle parts dragged for me – much like the games, so much time passed for so little movement. I love the imagery in the characters, I just wanted the action closer together. I enjoyed it and I understand why so many others have too.

Perfect Little Children by Sophia Hannah (Read 1/13/20 - 1/17/20)

I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley.  It will be published February 4, 2020

12 years ago Beth and her husband Dominic had a falling out with their best friends Flora and Lewis Braid.  It seems the women decided the close friendship must end.  While taking her son Ben to a football (I.e soccer) practice Beth drives by the Braid’s home on Wyddial Lane, very stalker style.  There she sees Flora get out of a car and get her two children Thomas and Emily out, BUT all three look exactly as they did 12 years ago.  Thomas and Emily are still 5 and 3!  This leads down a rabbit hole of events that lead to a shocking reason for Beth's sighting or Flora and the children.  

I LOVED this book, I got so caught up in the story and lost track of time.  I wanted to know so badly what happened that  I found myself staying up late I could read a page or two more.  I thought this book was on parr with the Girl on the Train or The woman in the Window, but the main character wasn’t the damaged one.  I absolutely loved it!  This is my first 5 Star read of the year!!!!

Ana Eva Mimi Adam by Marina Antropow Cramer (Read 1/9/20 to 1/12/20)

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from LibraryThing, it will be published February 13,2020.

This was a very short book for me, only 161 pages and yet it felt like it took forever to read.

This is a very dysfunctional family.  The story takes place at the end of Adam’s kindergarteners.  But there are a lot of flashbacks.  Anna’s husband died from cancer when Eva was 16, this event seems to have caused a trickle down effect.  Eva married Joe, and had Mimi.  Eva left Joe before Mimi was one.  There was some sort of incident with Eva and Mimi, where Eva beat Mimi once.  It takes most of the book to find out the detail and the premise is that this incident shaped the relationships of Ana, Eva and Mimi. 

I’m not sure how I feel about this one.  I mean it was good, but I also felt like there was no resolution, Eva and Mimi’s relationship wasn’t repaired.  They just were a little kinder at the end, maybe Cramer wanted to leave the reader to decide if the cracked door opened or not, but I felt unsatisfied at the ending.  This was a small book, and I kept reading because I kept hoping to see the relationship between Eva and Mimi repaired, but it never really happened.  I enjoyed the characters they were flawed, and I think if the book had been longer there could have been some real character growth.