Like the Comet

Well March felt like a year long but also kind of like we blinked and it was April, amiright?

This month, I made sure to incorporate more guilty pleasure books to give my brain the break and escape it needed after being in such a rut during February.

So, let’s get into it.

*All summaries are taken or paraphrased from Goodreads.

TWICE IN A BLUE MOON by Christina Lauren

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: her first love… and her first heartbreak. During a whirlwind 2-week vacation in London, Sam and Tate fell for each other in the only way first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate - the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest movie stars - ever revealed her identity to. So, when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good. Fourteen years later, Tate is now an up-and-coming actress and only thinks about Sam every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason, and whether “once in a lifetime” can actually come around twice.

My Thoughts: Ugh this was just what I needed to kick off a new month of reading. This book has been in my TBR pile for quite some time, and I finally hit the top of the request list at the library for it at the beginning of March - kismet timing, if you ask me. This is a true blue “what’s meant to be, will be” love story - which means if books that are borderline saccharine aren’t your taste, then this may not be your jam. Though the whirlwind romance between young Tate and Sam felt a little naive to my cynical heart, the experience also ended up making Tate a character I really enjoyed. She was a strong, independent woman who was extremely confident in her career and had a “fool me once shame on me, you’re not going to fool me twice,” kind of attitude. What I appreciated about this storyline the most is that although you want to be on Team Tate, Sam’s character is impossible not to like. Also, he had some sexy lumberjack vibes going on and you cannot convince me otherwise. The supporting characters sprinkled throughout like Tate’s best friend, her father, Sam’s grandfather, etc. were also very lively and distinct, which made the whole story meld together perfectly. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy romance read.

THE TWO LIVES OF LYDIA BIRD by Josie Silver

Rating: 3.4/5 stars

Summary: Lydia and Freddie had been together for more than a decade, and Lydia thought their love was indestructible until her twenty-eighth birthday when Freddie dies in a car accident. So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide and cry, but she also knows Freddie would want her to try to live happily - even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps to living and, perhaps even loving, again. But then something inexplicable happens that gives Lydia another chance at her old life with Freddie where none of the tragic events of the past months have happened. Lydia is pulled across the doorway of her past, living two lives at once. But, there’s an emotional toll returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new/real life, who wants her to stay.

My Thoughts: I had heard great things about The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, and I absolutely adored Josie Silver’s other book, One Day in December. So, I was pretty excited to finally get my hands on this one. Let me start by saying, overall, this was a cute book and I enjoyed it. However, I honestly had no idea where it was going or the path that I, the reader, should be taking to grasp what the book was going to be about until about halfway through. Like it was a love story, but not completely a love story? For a majority of the first part of the book, Lydia is grieving her dead fiance, Freddie. After being supplied with special pink pills to help her sleep, she begins bouncing between her world and a parallel world where Freddie is still alive, and life is moving forward as planned. Throughout this whole narrative, I’m thinking the book is going down a route of existential questions about “what happens when you disrupt worlds parallel to yours?” Then it kind of took a jump to Lydia finding herself through various events like speed dating, an impulse trip to Croatia, and confiding in her longtime friend, Jonah, who was Freddie’s best friend and who she had been on the rocks with as he grieved too. While it continues to bounce back and forth between the parallel world traveling and the “finding yourself” storylines, the author sprinkles in a budding love story in there as well. By the end of the book, everything feels like it’s tied off in a semi-decent bow, but it was kind of a mess getting there lol. Like I said, overall, it was a sweet book and I enjoyed it, but, in my biased opinion, it definitely doesn’t hold a candle to One Day in December.

UNTAMED by Glennon Doyle

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. It is the story of how each of us can start to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.

My Thoughts: I basically agree with all of the other reviews out there saying this book was really inspirational. Glennon Doyle is raw and unapologetic as she takes us through the highs and lows she’s experienced over the last decade including divorice, her book publication, falling in love with Abby Wambach, finding her voice, navigating her faith and more. Highly recommend to anyone looking for some kick ass woman mojo. The only thing I didn’t relate to, and never do with these types of memoir/self help books, are all the sections about motherhood. Otherwise, great read. Here were my favorite takeaways from Untamed:

It’s nearly impossible to blaze one’s own path while following in someone else’s footsteps.
We can do hard things.
Explaining/defensiveness is fear preparing its case.
The miracle of grace is that you can give what you’ve never gotten.
Blessed are those who are brave enough to make things awkward, for they wake us up and move us forward.
Be careful with the stories you tell yourself about yourself.
It is wild to let others be wild.
When a woman learns that pleasing the world is impossible, she becomes free to learn how to please herself.

THE BLACK GOD’S DRUMS by P. Djeli Clark

Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary: Creeper is a scrappy young teen who is done living on the streets of New Orleans. She wants to soar and set her sights on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon known as The Black God’s Drums. Creeper keeps another secret close to her heart though -- Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants Creeper divine powers. And, Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie.

My Thoughts: This was one of the first novellas I’ve read and it definitely won’t be my last. Creeper is an orphan who gets by on pick-pocketing tourists at the port in New Orleans. What I liked most about her as a main character was her resilient and independent spirit. After living on the streets and fending for herself for so long, you could feel how strong she was, and the strategies she used to reach her end goal of leaving New Orleans were admirable for someone so young. The other main character, Ann-Marie, was an absolute badass. It was entertaining to see how the two were connected and how that played into the big event of the book as well. The only thing that made this book hard to get into was how the author structured the setting. It’s based in a post-Confederate New Orleans that is accented with sci-fi features, but because he had to build this world in just 108 pages, it felt a little clunky at times - especially for someone who has never been to New Orleans and doesn’t know the general layout of the city. So, my brain had to keep pivoting how this world looked as the story went on based on the various descriptions he provided throughout that conflicted with what I was picturing initially. Overall, I enjoyed this novella and recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read!

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Sandra Cisneros

Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary: Told in a series of vignettes, The House on Mango Street is the story of a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she wants to become.

My Thoughts: Another satisfying novella! This book was compiled of short stories narrated by Esperanza who gives you a glimpse into her life and those around her in Chicago. What I liked most while reading this is watching the subtle character development as the vignettes progress. Esperanza had a much younger point of view in the stories told towards the beginning, but as time progresses, you can see her character start to mature as she questions what’s expected of her and girls her age, assesses the opportunities available to kids living in her neighborhood, and enhances the dreams she has for herself. Specifically moving out of their house on Mango Street as soon as she can. The emotional undertone continuously changes throughout the pages as well - going from heart breaking to really happy. If you’re looking for a quick read that puts you in someone else’s shoes for a while, this is a good book for that.

FABLE by Adrienne Young

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Summary: As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, for seventeen-year-old Fable, the sea is the only home she’s ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during a storm and the next day abandoned by her father on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. For survival, she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one, and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal to get off the island, confront her father, and demand her rightful place in his crew. To do so, Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the sea.

Since she saw him last, her father’s rivalries and dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied. Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the awful storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.

My Thoughts: Y’all know I love a good YA fantasy and this book was just what I needed. This is the first book in a while that sucked me in so much, I read it in a day. The imagery the author provides through Fable’s eyes is so perfectly illustrated and colorfully visualized, it made me feel like I was the one dredging for pyres underwater, getting the shit kicked out of me by thieves, feeling the sun on my skin out at sea, and more. I also enjoyed that Fable, though young, was not naive or childish. After fending for herself for four years on a rough island, her character was strong, independent, strategic, and determined. That said, the usual teenage behaviors she had, such as extreme stubbornness, brought her a wholeness to her character that was realistic and satisfying. The supporting characters were also great in helping her story along, but I will say, West’s character felt kind of like a filler to close gaps in the story whereas I think his purpose was to be more of a connector. There’s a part towards the end involving his character specifically that feels kind of rushed and out of the blue. It just wasn’t foreshadowed enough for me throughout the beginning of the book and only mildly towards the middle. So by the time it happened, it felt like “oh? Okay. I mean, I guess I’ve seen that coming… kind of?” We just didn’t receive a great set for it to be the perfect spike, so it wasn’t considered a kill, yanno? (Volleyball reference, if you missed it lol). Overall though, if you’re looking for a book that will take you on an adventure for a while, this is the one for you!

THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead

Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary: When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in the 1960s, Jim Crow-Era, Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children.

My Thoughts: It took me a while after finishing this book to figure out how to articulate my thoughts on it because I also had a physical response from it. This story is based on the very real Dozier School, which has a dark and ugly history rooted in the systematic racism that our country was built on. It is a vivid rendering of history riddled with trauma and heartbreak told through immense depth and detail. The unexpected friendship between Elwood and Turner is a beacon of light and peace in this horrifying place that is supposedly making upstanding men of the boys who are sent there. In addition to having their identities and rights stripped away after walking through the front gates of Nickel, any sort of insubordination against the school’s policies can lead to punishment, so bad it made my skin crawl and stomach turn. The worst form of punishment being Black Beauty, which is a giant whip used to punish black students with repeated lashings across the back and legs - often leaving them unconscious and bedridden for days. This book was also a horrifying reminder of the dehumanization of and violence against Black people that happened during the civil rights movement and Jim Crow-era. Not to mention, a shocking reminder that these same things are still happening today. There’s a subtle plot twist that creeps up on you so quietly, once you realize what’s happening, it’s absolutely devastating. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed reading this book, it’s incredibly sad and packs a serious emotional punch for only being 210 pages, but I think it’s a book everyone should read.

A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill - the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price.

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

My Thoughts: OKAY Y’ALL BUCKLE UP. So, I need to preface this by saying I stan SJM’s other series, Throne of Glass, like there is literally no tomorrow. I am obsessed with it, okay? So coming into ACOTAR, which is EXTREMELY HYPED on Bookstagram, I had to take a step back and remind myself not to compare the two, and maybe lower my expectations a little for this series lol. Taking all of that into consideration, this was a pretty solid book overall. It had all of our favorite SJM themes and attributes included:

Strong female protagonist (not as strong as ToG, but I digress)
Strong female antagonist who is accompanied by a weaker male antagonist (lol)
A hot, brooding protagonist with a v sarcastic sense of humor that you initially think is an antagonist until you get to know the character better <3
Sexual tension :)
Faes, faeries, and other mythical creatures that bring the world and story to life
World domination via magic
Etc.

I really enjoyed the character development arcs, getting to know them more, and seeing them grow as the plot thickened. However, there were a couple of things that fell flat for me that I can’t necessarily get into detail about without spoiling the book. I think the main reason they fell flat though is because I’m familiar with the author’s writing and where her storylines usually go. So, when this particular book did not go the way I expected, it was just kind of a side-eye. It felt like she was serving the expectation I had on a silver platter, but then quickly pivoted and went a different direction which left me in a wtf state lol. OVERALL THO, I think if you enjoy YA Fantasy and/or SJM, then you’d enjoy this one. I’m just a tough critic because Throne of Glass is where my heart lies lol. Though I won’t be jumping directly into the next book in this series, I will probably pick it up within the next month or two.

Welp that’s March for ya!

2021 Book Count: 20/55

YOUR TURN! Let me know if you’ve read any of these books in the comments below - especially if you want to weigh in on my ToG vs. ACOTAR debate. ;)

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