Tag: YA

I wanted to read Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco since I first discovered Booktube. The OG place where books got their hype before TikTok was a thing. Something about it always appealed to me, but the more time passed, the less likely I was to pick it up. I was scared the book would feel too young or just too cliche. Fiction changes a lot in a short time. A book published a decade ago is very different from one similar to the one published now. So, I thought my opportunity to enjoy this book was in the past. Thankfully, I was so incredibly wrong. Title: Stalking Jack the Ripper Author: Kerri Maniscalco Series: Stalking Jack the Ripper #1 Publication year: 2016 Length: 9 hours 26 minutes Genre: YA, Murder Mystery, Historical Fiction Pace: Medium Story focus: Character & Plot Audrey Wadsworth has a life of wealth and …

It finally happened. I finished my first prompt! Light the fireworks. Cut the cake. Let’s celebrate! I’m beyond excited for this accomplishment. Thank you all for your support. I couldn’t do it without you. Thank you to my mom and dad… Too soon to make an acceptance speech? The challenge isn’t over yet? Ups. Sorry, I got carried away. Still, it was a good month, and I made much progress in the challenge. The books of October For the October new release, I read Blasfamous‘s complete edition of the three-issue comic book. This is by the Italian author Mirka Andolfo, who created the Unnatural, a comic book series published by Image Comics. I haven’t finished that series yet, but there’s something in her illustrations and storytelling that I enjoy a lot. Also, her characters tend to be gorgeous curvy females, and I’m here for it. As I mentioned in the …

Mysteries are the cornerstone of autumn. The falling leaves, paired with falling dead bodies, fill the air with some creepy magic. To gruesome? I’m sorry. I’m still feeling the remnants of Halloween. The A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series isn’t weird or scary – at least from what I’ve seen so far. If you are new to this series, hi! Welcome! This is a review for the second book, so be careful since there will be spoilers below. And may I interest you in the review of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder? It’s a fun time, and you should read it. However, if you are here because you are unsure if you want to continue with Good Girl, Bad Blood or looking for reviews to make sense of what you just read, then join me. We are in the same boat. Title: Good Girl, Bad Blood Author: Holly …

June marks a new year. A new reading year. Another year of reading my TBR. But before I do anything else, I need to recount my books. I want to start with a clean sheet. I’m afraid I miscount some books. Here’s the thing, I never wrote down a list of all the books. So, I’m not sure which books I counted for the TBR and which I didn’t. Not every book I own is part of this challenge. Some books I sort of inherited, and others were given because the other person didn’t want them anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m interested in reading those books. Now, with a list, there will be no more mistakes. June I was still feeling the downfall of a subscription to Everand. I like the idea of reading whatever you want at any moment, but it always takes a toll on my TBR. …

Every time I have to write an update for the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ve Ever Done, I get so excited. I would lie if I said it was so easy and that I’m not starting to question my life choices… BUT! I’m enjoying to see the progress. The books of September After the flop of A Study in Charlotte last month, I was missing a 4+ book series to read. The next one on the list was Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. Now, this is the book I was looking for. I don’t care if any part of the book is historically accurate because it was what I wanted from a mystery set in the late 1800s. I loved the characters. I loved the banter. I loved the mystery, even though there isn’t much hands-on investigation. I wanted to read this book for a long time, and I’m …

I don’t know about you, but this summer hasn’t been very summery. I think the weather is still trying to make up its mind. And while I wait for better days, it’s best to keep up with my summer reading. This time, I went to summer camp. Although this isn’t any ordinary summer camp, it’s Camp Lanier, where kids have been “going missing” for quite some time. Camp Lanier by Sylvester Barzey is a new release to bring some horror to your summer. Disclaimer: Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for free. All the thoughts and opinions here are my own. Title: Camp Lanier Author: Sylvester Barzey Publication year: 2024 Length: 5 hours 37 minutes Genre: YA, Mystery, Horror, Fantasy Pace: Fast Story focus: Plot Special offer alert! The ebook is currently FREE as a release promotion on various platforms like Kindle, …

From the author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series comes her recent standalone thriller Five Survive. Holly Jackson has become an author for me to keep an eye out for since I read AGGGTM. I haven’t finished that series, but I enjoyed the first book so much I’m reading everything she writes. So when I saw her newest book, I didn’t think twice. I wanted to read it. Eight hours. Six friends. One sniper. It was everything I needed to know. Title: Five Survive Author: Holly Jackson Publication year: 2022 Length: 10 hours 31 minutes Genre: Mystery, Thriller, YA Pace: Fast Story focus: Character & Plot Red and her friends are taking an RV for a road trip for spring break. Things are going as fine as they can be with six people cramped in a small space until they take a wrong turn in an isolated area …

More than a decade since the release of The Hunger Games, we go back once again to the dystopian world of Panem. The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes is the prequel to the highly acclaimed series. When it came out, it received mixed reviews since the protagonist is none other than President Snow. But that didn’t push me away, especially since I didn’t enjoy The Hunger Games as much as everyone else seemed to. I wanted one thing from this book and one thing only: to see more of Panem. Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Author: Suzanne Collins Series: The Hunger Games #4 Publication year: 2020 Length: 16 hours 16 minutes Genre: YA, Dystopia Pace: Medium Story focus: Character Ten years after the rebellion of District 13, Coriolanus Snow is a mentor in the Hunger Games. The house of Snow has fallen since the war. While keeping up …

If you are reading this, I’m hoping you have also read We Were Liars by E Lockhart. If not, run like the wind to my spoiler-free review before it’s too late. Or proceed and spoil yourself. Either way, I’m not holding back because I had way too much fun working on this post. I’m diving deeply into the story and answering the question once and for all: were the Liars ghosts or hallucinations? When I finished reading We Were Liars for the first time, I wanted to read it again to see everything I missed and if there was any “proof” of what the Liars were. That reread took 5 years to come, but it’s here. So I opened the book with a pencil in hand and underlined anything and everything I saw relevant to the plot, the characters, and the Liars. In my original review (no longer published), I …