Starting 2025 With a Clean Slate

 

I opened my Goodreads in December, looked at my TBR, took a deep breath.... and removed everything.

The last time I updated that list was in 2016, and to say I'm a different person now would be an understatement. While there were a number of books there that I do still want to read, many were on there for specific challenges from groups that are currently not active. 

So I decided to start 2025 with a clean slate.

Just looking at the list was making me feel overwhelmed. I'm going to use it as a place to keep the books I'll be soon reading, rather than a list of hopefuls, sometime in the future.

My plan for this year are to review all the books I read (excepting the many repeats of kid's books... one review per book is my limit). I'm pretty sure most of the grown up books I read will be through NetGalley as that is just the easiest way to access books for me right now. I'm finding I'm having difficulty with getting the books I want to read in the time I want to read them through the library. Many books I search either aren't in the catalogue or have months long waiting lists. That's not very conducive to buddy or challenge reads.

My goals this year are:

1. Read 12 grown up books this year. I think planning on 1 per month is reasonable, and I may even get more!

2. Read 1 new book to the kids each week. Considering their books take less than 10 minutes to go through normally, this is totally achievable. I'm mainly doing this so we don't get stuck in a rut of re-reading the same 5 favourite books over and over.

3. As stated above, review all books that I read, and as a subsection to that, start cross posting to social media. Any NetGalley books will obviously be reviewed there, however I want to get my reviews on here, as well as Goodreads. I have Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky, and it would be nice to get them going with reviews. I'm not looking to become a Bookfluencer or anything, just to honestly review stuff for the authors and people looking. Especially the kids books because there isn't as much out there as for those written for adults.

4. Be more active on my Goodreads groups. I'm part of Challenge Corner, NetGalley Readers, and NetGalley Buddy Reads and I just want to be more active and part of the community.

5. Continue to be active on Librivox. I host the podcast, proof listen, and book coordinate over there and I want to continue what I've started. The only issue with being a proof listener rather than listening to the finished story is that I quite often listen out of order, so I'm not sure I can count those books. I may include a Librivox post each month just to keep track of my activity and give it a little promo.

6. Play around with the NetGalley Reading Journal. I don't expect this to be something I actively update throughout the year, at least not on a book by book basis. I'd like to at least do the Month Summary pages though.

I think these are all reasonable goals for the year. The biggest challenge will be time, but I'm planning on taking that time after the kids are in bed now, even if it means hopping out to a coffee shop to get it done.

What goals or plans are you looking at for the year?

Review: David

Title: David
Series: Stand Alone

Author: Mary Hoffman
Publish Date: Oct 11, 2011

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Genre: Young Adult, New Adult, Historical Fiction
Started Reading: March 8, 2016
Finished Reading: March 10, 2016

Book Summary from Goodreads:

Michelangelo's statue, David, is famous around the world. Millions flock to Italy every year to admire the physical perfection of the young man captured within the marble. But the identity of the model has never been known . . . until now.

In this epic tale, acclaimed author Mary Hoffman imagines the story of Gabriele, a naive but incredibly handsome young man who is hired as Michelangelo's model, only to find himself drawn into a world of spies, political treachery, and murder. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Florence in its most turbulent times, this rich, colorful, thrilling tale gives life to one of the world's greatest masterpieces.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars (I loved it)

If you enjoy Assassin's Creed, specifically Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, then you are likely to enjoy this book. This book takes the same idea of putting a fictional story in the middle of real events and runs with it.

David is set in the same time period as Assassin's Creed, but is located in Florence, rather than Rome. We follow a fictional character through the political turmoil that held the city captive during the years it took Michelangelo to carve his master piece - the marble David.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice meander through a bygone time, but told in a way that you felt was non-fiction. More than anything, I found myself learning more about Michelangelo and Florence than any history class or art class had taught me. I actually looked up more information about Michelangelo to see if there was a person that the main character was based on.

I really liked the fact that it didn't skirt around some of the more unsavoury aspects of the time. I think this book would lean more toward New Adult than Young Adult, but that would depend on the teen.

This is not a book I would have picked up on my own, I read it for a challenge on Goodreads, and I am very glad I did. 

Now I'm going to go pull out Assassin's Creed again.

To Sum Up: A fantastically written historical fiction that feels like non-fiction. Definitely one I'll read again.

Review: Just Another Quiet Little Town

Title: Just Another Quiet Little Town
Series: Stand Alone

Author: J.S. Frankel
Publish Date: March 1, 2016

Publisher: eXtasy Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Started Reading: March 2, 2016
Finished Reading: March 6, 2016

 

Book Summary from Goodreads:

 

City dweller Gabe Common, seventeen and a high school dropout, has just moved with his mother to Chumsville, South Dakota, a speck in the eye of humanity. With a population of around three hundred people, Gabe is resigned to spending his summer studying online and watching the wheat grow.

It all changes when he wakes up one morning and finds most of Chumsville’s population gone, including his mother. Along with the other survivors, he finds that an impenetrable barrier has surrounded the town which allows people to enter but not leave. To make matters even stranger, he finds wings growing from his body, and the other residents exhibit changes as well, some of them interesting and many of them frightening.

Soon the Changed, as Gabe comes to call them, are met by the FBI, and they are just as bewildered as everyone else is. Tensions mount as the heat rises, harsh words are exchanged, and sides are drawn. Once Gabe discovers the reason for their transformation, he has to deal with another matter—the darkness of the human heart. It is only then that he learns what it is to confront evil and face it down, even if it might cost him his life.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 2 Stars (I didn't like it)

I want to start this review off by saying that I was really rooting for this book. I got a review copy from the author, and the synopsis that I read sounded very interesting and in line with the types of books I enjoy. I thought it would be something like Under the Dome and was excited to read it.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I've actually delayed writing up this review because I kept going over the book trying to tell myself I was wrong about my first impressions.

First, the book could have done with another go over or two by the editor or a beta reader. The writing's a bit clunky but I was able to get past that by looking at it as the main character's inner monologue. This isn't a deal breaker, and I kept reading even though it bugged me a bit.

The first half of the book dragged, and not just a little like some books slow down in the middle to set up for an action packed finish, it's just meeting after meeting after meeting and really felt like it was just spinning its wheels. By the time the plot started moving forward I really didn't care any more.

The characters were fairly one dimensional, if we even got more than their names an a short description. The more 'fleshed out' characters, if you can call them that, were very stereotypical. The one and only character with even a little bit of religion was a fanatic, the FBI agent was spouting off one liners that appear in every cop show, the character with any kind of real leadership experience has let it go to his head.

The villains appear somewhat out of nowhere with very little back story other than "oh those guys, they're jerks".

When the story was heading to a climax I really didn't feel connected at all to the characters or care whether things turned out all right for them. 

The part that really did it in for me was in the first third where a leader needs to be picked, and one of the youngest characters is chosen as the 'speaker' and leader for the remaining villagers and even the Sheriff of town steps back. There is a reason for this, and it's explained... three chapters after initial decision is made.

To sum up: This book had a good premise, the bare bones of a good book are there. All told, it feels like a first version of a book that a good editor could help to shine.

Review: Dorothy Must Die

Title: Dorothy Must Die
Series: Dorothy Must Die, Book 1
Author: Danielle Paige
Publish Date: April 1, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Started Reading: February 28, 2016
Finished Reading: March 2, 2016

Book Summary from Goodreads:


I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy.

They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas.

I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.

I've been trained to fight.

And I have a mission.
  
My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars (I loved it)

This book was a lot of fun. That's probably the best way to describe it. This was totally a 'judge a book by its cover' thing, it stopped me dead in my tracks in my LBS and after reading the summary I knew I needed to read it.

So of course, it had a waiting list at the library.

After waiting a few months, it finally came available to read and I was not disappointed. This wasn't a race of an adventure, but it was a lovely trek through the world of of Oz, and boy did it pack a lot of emotions from the start.

Much like the original Dorothy books, it follows the same pattern of 'disgruntled girl at home wishing for a different life who then gets whisked away on an adventure'. I really liked that in this world, the story of Dorothy exists as a work of fiction. That the Judy Garland movie is referenced a few times made me giggle.

From there, everything gets turned on its head in a lot of really good ways. The descriptions of this version of Oz were fantastic. The emotions that are dragged out in the first third, both in the real world and in Oz, run the gamut. (WHY INDIGO WHY?!).

I felt the training and espionage sections lagged a bit, I understand that it was to give a breather and get things ready for the action packed conclusion, and set up the relationship, but I think it went on a bit long. 

The biggest thing this book did was make me really want to read all the original Oz books, as I only ever read the first book as a kid. With all the cameo appearances of characters from the older books, I feel like they would have a bigger impact if I knew more than just their names.

To Sum Up: This book was a lot of fun, brought on a bunch of nostalgia, and ended with just enough pull to make me excited for the next book without being angry that I have to wait.

Review: Reboot

Title: Reboot
Series: Reboot, Book 1
Author: Amy Tintera
Publish Date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult, Sci Fi, Dystopian
Started Reading: February 26, 2016
Finished Reading: February 27, 2016

Book Summary from Goodreads:

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars (It's Amazing)

THIS BOOK! This book had me from the first sentence! While I've had a number of recent books that I loved and read quickly, this is the first book in a while that gripped me and wouldn't let go till I finished it.
  
I had a wake to go to and was miffed that I had to put the book down for it.

The world created for this series is defined and well explained. I was pulled into it from world one, and could really picture the areas that were described. The nice thing was that it was detailed with simplicity so the book didn't become bogged down with describing, but you could really get a feel for the setting.

The voice of the main character as she describes her story is written so clearly, at the beginning it's sure and strong in the belief in the world and how she fits in it, and slowly changes as her knowledge and awareness changes.

The action is constant, with a few breather moments to let your heart rate come back to normal, but with enough intrigue to let you know the calm won't be long lasting. When the climax starts going, it stays at full throttle till the end.

The characters are great, diverse, and interesting. I really wanted to know more about them, their pasts, and their motivations. The fact that there are so many unknowns due to holes in their memories or them being kept in ignorance is an itch that wants to be scratched. They give just enough info to keep that itch from being annoying, but not enough to completely satisfy the need to know.

The sequel jumped to the top of my To Be Read list, and will likely be reviewed very soon. I was actually a little disappointed that it is only a two book series, as this is a world I know I'd love to see more of.

To Sum Up: This is a buy it now for me. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and will definitely be reading again in the future.

Review: Hero

Title: Hero
Series: Books of Arilland, Book 2
Author: Alethea Kontis
Publish Date: Oct 1, 2013
Publisher: Harcourt Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Reworked Fairy Tale
Started Reading: February 20, 2016
Finished Reading: February 26, 2016

Book Summary from Goodreads:

Rough and tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she's the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, "Did romance have to be part of the adventure?" As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.







My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars (It was ok)
  
This review has taken me a bit to figure out. I enjoyed the book, but I found it quite slow when compared to Enchanted. I wasn't sure why I had such a struggle with it, because as a sequel, it's set up similarly to Scarlet.

First there are new characters to meet, as well as already known characters to follow up with. There are parts where you see what's going on with different sets of characters at the same time. These were all well written when compared to Scarlet, but it didn't catch my interest as much.

After pondering it for a while, I came to realize that it was due to who was being written about when in the book. In Scarlet, we start off, and stick with, the new characters for a while. In Hero, we get a quick glimpse at our new characters, and then go back to ones we know for a number of chapters. This really seemed to slow down the start of the book, because the new characters had a big question mark and I wanted to know more about them before we went back to Saturday and what she was doing.

I also think that this book may have been trying to keep tabs on too many characters while trying to keep focus on the main plot at the same time. It's along the same line that I mentioned in the first book's review where things seemed to get muddled a bit with too many side plots. This is probably to try and keep the overall arc of the series moving, but I felt it gave more questions than answers.

This book didn't have so many recognizable fairy tales mixed in, or the fairy tales used as inspiration were obscure. It felt more like an original plot than Enchanted. The tropes, however, were very present and were turned on their head in some instances. I quite enjoyed how these were employed, and it's part of what made the second half of the book so fun.

The ending tied up the primary plot nicely, while leaving a small amount open for the sequel I will be continuing with this series, and look forward to the continued mash up of fairy tales, I just hope that the next book has a bit more of the magic that was in Enchanted.

To Sum Up: This book was decent and I enjoyed it, but compared to Enchanted I felt it was quite slow to start and lagged in the first half. The writing was fabulous and the mix up of fairy tale tropes is well done. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Review: Scarlet

Title: Scarlet
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, Book 2
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publish Date: Feb 5, 2013
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: Young Adult, Sci Fi, Reworked Fairy Tale
Started Reading: February 16, 2016
Finished Reading: February 19, 2016

Book Summary from Goodreads:

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars (I loved it)

I came to this series with high expectations as it was strongly recommended by my friends. I then had to wait rather impatiently for months for it to come available at my library. My expectations were totally met, it's no wonder that this series is popular.

This is a fabulous second outing for Lunar Chronicles. I was warned by other readers that it's the weakest of the series, but having only read the first two books I disagree. I felt that this book held its own when compared to the first book.

I loved the new characters and the way their adventure tied into Cinder's. The changing perspectives was written very well. I enjoyed the fact that I got to see what was happening with different groups of characters over the same period of time but the plot kept moving forward. 

The way that some of the characters motives were unclear and kept you guessing was fun to read. I was tense during a lot of this book just because situations could go very well or very poorly and there was no certainty as to how it was going to go. There was very little that I found predictable with this book.

The romance was built believably, and I am in love with a number of the side characters and how they interact with the mains. I also was very intrigued with the little bits of insight we saw from the villains, I'm definitely looking forward to learning more.

I've spoken of my love of reworked fairy tales before, and this is truly one of the best examples out there. I'm very eager to continue reading this series, apparently so are all the people ahead of me on the hold list at the library.

To sum up: This book was fantastic, the story was gripping, and I adored the new characters and what they added to the overall tale.

Review: Enchanted

Title: Enchanted
Series: Books of Arilland, Book 1
Author: Alethea Kontis
Publish Date: May 8, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Reworked Fairy Tale
Started Reading: February 12, 2016
Finished Reading: February 18, 2016

 Book Summary from Goodreads:

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past—and hers?

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars (I loved it)

I'm a big fan of re-written fairy tales, it's one of my favourite genres. I originally read this book as part of a challenge so I read it quick and didn't retain much of anything in regards to the plot or characters. I noticed it on my read list and couldn't for the life of me remember how the book went.

Normally this would be a bad sign for the book, but in this case, it was a sign of a bad reader who was reading for a deadline and not for enjoyment.

I know when I first read this I didn't realize that it was part of a series, so finding out that there was more to read, I decided to start back at the beginning and read this again. I am so very glad I did.

This is a wonderful book that I didn't give enough time our first time around. The story is so sweet, and the relationship between the main characters, while very quick to build, was handled quite well and was much more believable than normally found in normal fairy tales.

The way that Alethea Kontis merged the stories of The Princess and the Frog with Cinderella is almost seamless. It works surprisingly well to the point that it feels that these tales should have been combined ages ago.

Some of the side plots seemed to come out of nowhere, and the explanations were a bit vague, but I would guess that there will be more explanation for them in further books. I'm looking forward to finding out more about this family.

To Sum Up: This book was just as good the second time around! I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series. This is a beautiful mash up of a bunch of fairy tales and is very well written! 

Review: Library of Souls

Title: Library of Souls
Series: Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, Book 3
Author: Ransom Riggs
Publish Date: September 22, 2015
Publisher: Quirk Books
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror
Started Reading: February 2, 2016
Finished Reading: February 10, 2016

Book Summary From Goodreads:


A boy with extraordinary powers. An army of deadly monsters. An epic battle for the future of peculiardom.

The adventure that began with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and continued in Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls. As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.

They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. Like its predecessors, Library of Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

My Two Cents:

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars (It's Amazing)

First and foremost, if you pick up this book and you haven't read the first two recently, read them again before you read this one! Library of Souls picks up at the exact instant that the second book lets off. I was actually a bit lost for the first couple of chapters because it had been a while since I'd read the previous books.

The story starts off running and doesn't stop. It's action and terror from the gate. The amount of story packed in here is so much that I was two thirds of the way through and really didn't believe that the story could be completed in the pages that were left. The end was satisfying though and had a nice bit of humour to finish the series off.

As with this whole series, I loved how the photos were used to bring the book to life. I read this in ebook format, so I didn't have forewarning when a picture was coming up. It was a nice surprise when they did, and I found myself trying to guess what scenes I was reading would have a picture to go along with it on the next page. 

What struck me the most was how the main character's emotions and thoughts were written so vividly. He has some serious decisions to make and no clear answer as to which way is the correct path. The ambiguity of these choices and the emotions involved were so realistic in the fall out of how they were handled. There was no sugar coating in the moment, and while some choices were given their fairy tale happy ending, it wasn't the immediate solution.

To Sum Up: This was a fantastic conclusion to the series! I had to stop and look up if there were going to be more books because half way through I could see it being a cliff hanger and continuing on with so much left to tie up, but it all worked out in the end. Ransom Riggs did a phenomenal job writing this series and I'm very much looking forward to his book of Peculiar tales and the first movie coming out this year. I'm also glad that we will be seeing more of this world in Ransom's next book.

Hello Book Lovers!

Hello there and welcome to my review blog. I am Jessie and will be your reviewer for the duration of time this blog keeps my interest. Hopefully it will be longer than previous blogging attempts.

For more information about me you can check my about page.

As for what to expect in regards to reviews, I am fairly eclectic in my reading preferences, but right now it's all YA (Young Adult) all the time. I have been diving head first into the amazing amount of new YA books that have been coming out in the last couple of decades.

I grew up in a time where good YA was hard to come by, my school library was a lot of V.C Andrews and Sweet Valley High and not a lot else.

I'm going to start off this blog by catching up on the books that I've read so far in 2016, and I may go back and write some reviews for books I read prior to that if I feel that they deserve a recommendation.

I hope you enjoy what I have to say and maybe find some new favourite books and authors along the way.