Category Archives: ARC

ARC Book Review: An Ocean Apart by Jill Tew

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The Basics:

The Book: An Ocean Apart by Jill Tew

How long is it? 352 Pages

Will Be Published: October 14, 2025 wherever you buy books (bookshop.org is a great place for books- clicking on the link will take you to my affiliate link)

The Genre: YA Dystopia (Standalone)

I got an advanced reader copy from netgalley!

What It’s About (Via Goodreads):

An electrifying dystopian novel packed with a tantalizing love triangle, gripping political intrigue, and a Bachelor-style competition from the critically acclaimed author of The Dividing Sky, Jill Tew.

Eden Lowell has plenty to be frustrated about. In the flooded Marshes of former Miami, each day is about survival. Even her feelings for her best friend Henry are more complicated than they should be. Luckily, Eden knows exactly who to the Cruisers, corporate elite who sail the world on massive ships instead of facing the environmental crimes they’ve committed on land.

When Eden learns that a Cruiser family is hosting a dating competition for their heir, Theo Desjardins, she seizes an opportunity. Aided by a political agitator known as the Ringmaster, she’ll infiltrate the competition, break Theo’s heart, and then steal his money for the Marshes. A perfect plan…

Until she gets to know Theo, who’s not only handsome but surprisingly kind…

As Eden drifts deeper down into the Cruisers’ world, the line separating truth and lies becomes murky. Torn between two identities, two loves, and two futures, will she choose the mission, or her heart?

What I Thought:

I wanted to start off my review with the fact I had an advanced reader copy.  I saw the author at a panel at YALLWEST back in May and was intrigued by this book.  I was glad I got approved for it, because I ended up loving it!

It is action-paced and fast-paced, and I think part of it is because the book is pretty short.  Well, it seemed short to me, but maybe that’s because I really enjoyed it and because there is a lot that happens.  It’s a stand-alone, which is actually refreshing for dystopian novels, but there is part of me that wishes we had another book.  I kind of wish we had a little more time to sit with some of the things going on in Eden’s world, but overall, it works well as a stand-alone.

The book reminded me of The Selection and The Hunger Games but on a cruise ship in a world ravaged by climate change.  You definitely see the differences between the wealthy (or cruisers) and those living in the Marshes (the ruins of Miami) after a pretty destructive hurricane.  Eden warms up to the cruisers pretty fast, realizing they’re not all bad.  Especially Theo, one of the love interests we see in the book.  I’m not sure how I feel about the love triangle and I thought her choice was pretty obvious.  I admit that I have mixed feelings about love triangles, so I am not necessarily the best person to talk about that.  If you’re a fan of love triangles, I think you’ll love this one!  Theo and Henry represent two very different futures for Eden, not just romantically, but for life in general.

This world is not too different than the one we’re currently living in.  We’re in a world where the gap between the wealthy and poor is growing wider and wider, the things we’ll do for money, and how much social media can control our lives.  There’s a lot about the environment in this book too, and I liked seeing how those elements came together.

I loved Eden, and I was rooting for her the whole time.  I found it interesting that she saw that not all of the Cruisers were terrible, though she warmed up to them pretty quickly, considering the huge differences between Eden and everyone around her.  At the same time, I also understood why she joined the competition.  She really was just trying to survive and take care of her loved ones, while taking her revenge on those responsible.

My Rating:

This is a 5 star read!  Eden’s world reminded me of the our world so much, and it’s a fast-paced, thought-provoking read.

ARC Book Review: Lore Of The Tides by Analeigh Sbrana

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The Basics:

The Book: Lore Of The Tides by Analeigh Sbrana

How long is it? 464 Pages

Will Be Published: July 8,2025 wherever you buy books (bookshop.org is a great place for books- clicking on the link will take you to my affiliate link)

The Genre: Adult Romance/Fantasy (Book 2 in a duology)

I got an advanced reader copy from netgalley!

What It’s About (Via Goodreads):

From the author of Lore of the Wilds comes the exciting and passionate conclusion, as Lore navigates Fae magic amid looming dangers that threaten to destroy her world.

Lore Alemeyu wakes up to discover she’s on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Held prisoner and with no way to escape, she’s faced with a dire set of circumstances…

A crew that’s distrustful of Lore’s magic capabilities…

Her betrayal by a Fae she thought she could trust…

A dangerous quest for the sun book, which, if placed in the wrong hands, will make the Alytherian Fae even more powerful.

Lore must navigate threats on the ship and beyond, into the ocean’s magical and mysterious depths, in order to find the sun book herself and help free the humans. All the while, Lore can’t help but feel the intense pull of one Fae male who has been helping her all along. But is she willing to risk her human heart for creatures that have burned her in the past, and jeopardize her people’s future?

What I Thought:

I wanted to start off my review with the fact I had an advanced reader copy.  I loved this book so much, and it’s such a great ending to this story!  I really wanted more of Lore’s world, and I’m glad we got to see more of it in this book.  I would read another book set in this world in a heartbeat!  We meet so many new but cool characters, and this adventure is new and exciting, but one that Lore really needed to go on.  She is so amazing, and I loved seeing her explore a new world and navigate changing relationships.

I was curious to see Lore’s relationship with Asher (AKA Syrelle) with how Lore Of The Wilds ended.  I wasn’t the biggest fan of Syrelle, but I did love Lore and Finn together.  I also thought that all of the characters grew a lot in the this book, but I especially loved seeing Lore grow and tap into her inner strength.  I also loved seeing her make a lot of different decisions and seeing her try to balance what she wants for herself, for her friends and for the people of Duskmere.

This book has a very different feel to it, and it’s not one we see in the first book.  I think it’s a combination of Lore being more aware of what’s going on and the difference in setting.  I love the forest we saw in the first book, but I also love the underwater world we see, as well as the time spent sailing across the ocean.  I really felt like I was in Lore’s world, and it was so vivid and full of detail.  Her world really came to life, and it was the little things that made her world feel so real.

One moment that really stood out was when Finn offered to braid Lore’s hair, which I absolutely loved reading.  My hair is nothing like Lore’s, but no matter what’s going on, her hair still needed to be taken of care, and I was glad that Finn was able to care for her in that way.  It’s not something I would stop to think about, but it is something that others have to think about, and I’m glad we got to see that.

My Rating:

This is a 5 star book in my opinion!  I love the world and the characters and I can’t to have this book sitting on my bookshelf.  I haven’t talked about the cover, but it is absolutely beautiful, and I would 100% buy a print of it to hang up on my wall.  I don’t reread books often, but I know this is one I’ll be revisiting again!

ARC Book Review: And They Were Roommates by Page Powars, Narrated by Ben Balmaceda

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The Basics:

The Book: And They Were Roommates by Page Powars, Narrated by Ben Balmaceda

How long is it? 9 Hours, 6 Minutes/320 Pages

Will Be Published: May 27, 2025 wherever you buy books (bookshop.org is a great place for books- clicking on the link will take you to my affiliate link)

The Genre: YA Contemporary (Standalone)

I got an advanced listening copy from netgalley!

What It’s About (Via Goodreads):

A hilarious, unputdownable second-chance-romance about the most unlikely, gay roommate mishap. Perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Gwen & Art Are Not in Love.

Romance is the last thing on Charlie’s mind.

On his first day at Valentine Academy for Boys, Charlie’s carefully crafted plan to hide his identity as the school’s only trans student is set in motion. Only to be immediately destroyed. Charlie has been assigned the worst roommate in the world (possibly the universe): Jasper Grimes, the boy who broke Charlie’s heart the year before he transitioned.

Except, Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie.

Who knows how long until Jasper realizes the truth? Charlie has one shot at freedom and a dorm room all to himself, but only if he helps Jasper write love letters on behalf of their fellow students first. No problem. Charlie can help Jasper with some silly letters.

Long nights spent discussing deep romantic feelings with Jasper? Surely, no unintended consequences will arise…

What I Thought:

I wanted to start off my review with the fact I had an advanced reader copy, though listening copy might be more accurate since I had the audiobook.  I was randomly browsing netgalley for the first time in ages, and knew I had to request it since the book club I’m a part of will be reading it next month.  I was glad that I got approved!

Onto the book itself!  I actually really liked it on audio, and I thought Ben Balmaceda did a great job narrating Charlie’s story.  It is cute, and if you like mistaken identities and second-chance romance, this is a great book for you!  I felt for Charlie, and how he was just trying to survive the school year.  Especially after finding out that he wasn’t going to have a private room, like he had requested.  With the person who he was in love with at a long ago summer camp, and who initially didn’t recognize Charlie as the person that he met before.

For me, this book was okay, and I can’t quite figure out why.  I mean, the narration was great, I liked Charlie and Jasper, and I liked the setting.  STRIP and the letters were interesting too.  I don’t know that I like Jasper and Charlie together, but maybe have a few chapters from Jasper’s perspective would have helped.  It would have been nice to see what Jasper was thinking, and how he felt about Charlie.

I liked the elements individually, but I didn’t love them together.  I’m not sure why, but that’s just how it worked out.  I think a lot of people are going to love this book.  It’s not the book for me, but I think it’s a book that will appeal to a lot of people.

My Rating:

As much as I hate to do this, this book gets 2 stars.  I liked each element on its own but not as a whole.  It’s cute, and I think a lot of people are going to love it!

ARC Book Review: All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney

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Book: All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney

Expected Publication Is November 12, 2019 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux|Expected Number Of Pages Is 256

Where I Got It: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Allie Abraham has it all going for her—she’s a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family, and she’s dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. One problem: Wells’s father is Jack Henderson, America’s most famous conservative shock jock…and Allie hasn’t told Wells that her family is Muslim. It’s not like Allie’s religion is a secret, exactly. It’s just that her parents don’t practice and raised her to keep her Islamic heritage to herself. But as Allie witnesses ever-growing Islamophobia in her small town and across the nation, she begins to embrace her faith—studying it, practicing it, and facing hatred and misunderstanding for it. Who is Allie, if she sheds the façade of the “perfect” all-American girl? What does it mean to be a “Good Muslim?” And can a Muslim girl in America ever truly fit in?

ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM GIRL is a relevant, relatable story of being caught between two worlds, and the struggles and hard-won joys of finding your place.

I really liked All-American Muslim Girl!  I loved Allie and she’s a great character.

Allie struggles a lot with faith and I love that we get to see her explore her faith.  Having to hide my faith and heritage because of how other people see it is something I will never have to experience.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are treated differently because of what they look like or what they believe, and Allie has to deal with that as well.  She recognizes she has a lot of privilege, and it was interesting to see her as she started to stand up to the Islamophobia she sees around her.

I loved Allie’s integrity and determination.  She was open to exploring while wanting to do the right thing.  I felt like we saw her change over the course of the book, and she went from hiding who she was to standing up for herself and others.  We see her figure out what she wants, even when things get a little bit different with both her dad and the people around her.

I loved the friendships Allie forms, and her family was great too.  I wish we saw more of her extended family because they seemed pretty awesome when we did see them.  I especially liked her parents, and I get why her dad is concerned.  Things were rough between them for a while, but hopefully, they’ll be able to work it out.  I really think they will, because they have a pretty good relationship.

Accepting who you are and finding your own path were really strong and great messages in the book.  And even within different groups, you see a wide range of beliefs, which was nice.  I liked that her study group had different takes and relationships with Islam, and the author does a great job at showing how different a group of people can be.  I know it may be simple and maybe even a little bit obvious.  But she really does do a wonderful job at showing how different the girls are.

This book is a great read and I definitely recommend it!

My Rating: 4 stars.  I really liked All-American Muslim Girl and it’s worth reading!  It has great characters and a great story.

ARC Book Review: Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

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Book: Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf

Expected Publication Is November 5, 2019 by Entangled Teen|Expected Number Of Pages: 400 pages

Where I Got It: I received an advanced reader copy from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: Bring Me Their Hearts #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

No one can save her.

In order to protect Prince Lucien d’Malvane’s heart, Zera had to betray him. Now, he hates the sight of her. Trapped in Cavanos as a prisoner of the king, she awaits the inevitable moment her witch severs their magical connection and finally ends her life.

But fate isn’t ready to give her up just yet.

With freedom coming from the most unlikely of sources, Zera is given a second chance at life as a Heartless. But it comes with a terrible price. As the king mobilizes his army to march against the witches, Zera must tame an elusive and deadly valkerax trapped in the tunnels underneath the city if she wants to regain her humanity.

Winning over a bloodthirsty valkerax? Hard. Winning back her friends before war breaks out? A little harder.

But a Heartless winning back Prince Lucien’s heart?

The hardest thing she’s ever done.

I really liked Find Me Their Bones!  I’ve been looking forward to reading this book, especially with how the first book ended.  I really wanted to know what happened.

We learn a lot more about Veria, and I’m glad we did.  She had a really interesting story, and it was nice to learn so much more about this character we’ve only heard about.  Getting her backstory was a really good thing for this book, because I felt like things started to fall into place.

Find Me Their Bones picks up right where Bring Me Their Hearts left off.  There is no gap in time between the ending of the first book and the beginning of this one, and that made me happy because I was pretty desperate to know what happened.  Things definitely changed for Zera and Lucien but there’s a lot going on for all the characters.

Zera is still her snarky self, though I loved the moments with Yorl and with the valkerax.  I loved the concept of true names.  Granted, the idea of true names isn’t unique to this book, but I loved how it was used.  Names really do have power, and it makes me wonder if it was something specific to this book or if we’ll see it again in the next book.

The mythology gets an added dimension in this book, and I loved what it added to Zera’s world.  There is so much more to this world than I ever thought possible, and I’m glad we saw more of it in this book.  I hope the world gets a little bit bigger in the next book, but if the next one is the last one, then I don’t know how much more we’ll see since things need to get resolved.  Still, I feel like what we learn in this book moves the story forward, and I’m definitely interested to see how everything gets wrapped up.

There’s a lot of twists and turns and I’m having a hard time talking about this book without giving anything away.  I am glad I read it and it was interesting, from start to finish.

4 stars.  I really liked Find Me Their Bones, and I can’t wait to read the next book!

ARC Book Review: Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

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Book: Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw

Expected Publication is November 5, 2019 by Simon Pulse|Expected Number Of Pages: 320

Where I Got It: I received an advanced reader copy from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance set deep in the magical snow-covered forest, where the appearance of a mysterious boy unearths secrets that awakens the enchanted, but angry, woods.

Be careful of the dark, dark wood . . .

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

I really enjoyed The Wicked Deep when I read it around a year ago, and I’ve been looking forward to read Winterwood for quite a while.  I liked it but not as much as I thought I would.

I really liked the atmosphere.  There’s something quiet, creepy and isolating about the woods and the houses that are nearby.  With the snowstorm, and not being able to leave, it felt suffocating.  Gothic comes to mind, and there were times when I forgot that this book wasn’t set decades ago, but was set in our present.  Something about the woods and lake felt so old.

The setting is as much as a character as the actual people we see.  I’m amazed Ernshaw was able to do it, and do it well but this book was the perfect book to read this time of year.

I knew something was going on with Oliver but I wasn’t sure what it was.  You think you know what happened, but you really don’t.  Unless you’re better at guessing and figuring things out than I am, which is possible.  In all honesty, I’m not sure how I feel about him.

I don’t have strong feelings either way, and I honestly couldn’t tell you much about him.  Even though he does narrate part of the book, not a lot stands out.  You do see him struggle with telling Nora about what happened the night that led him to being in the woods, and seeing the mystery unravel was interesting but I wasn’t super-interested in that part of the book.

Don’t get me wrong, I was interested in unraveling the mystery of Oliver but it wasn’t what kept me reading.

What kept me reading was the magic and the forest.  Nora’s family had quite the history, and I loved seeing the sections of the book that described someone in her family.  I was wondering if Nora had anything magical, and it turned out she did, but it’s not something we see until the end of the book.  I was surprised by her abilities, and it makes me wonder why we didn’t see it before.  But maybe there wasn’t a need for her ability to make an appearance until the events of this book.

Some things were repetitive- like how weird people thought her family was, and how her mom didn’t acknowledge they were witches.  It didn’t detract from the book, but it did get tiring to hear it throughout the book.

3 stars.  Winterwood is definitely slow-paced, and not a lot happens in terms of plot, but the atmosphere and the setting were amazing.

ARC Book Review: The Library Of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey

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Book: The Library Of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey

Expected Publication Is October 8, 2019 by Inkyard Press|Expected Number Of Pages: 384 pages

Where I Got It: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

From the moment she first learned to read, literary genius Darcy Wells has spent most of her time living in the worlds of her books. There, she can avoid the crushing reality of her mother’s hoarding and pretend her life is simply ordinary. But when a new property manager becomes more active in the upkeep of their apartment complex, the only home Darcy has ever known outside of her books suddenly hangs in the balance.

While Darcy is struggling to survive beneath the weight of her mother’s compulsive shopping, Asher Fleet, a former teen pilot with an unexpectedly shattered future, walks into the bookstore where she works…and straight into her heart. For the first time in her life, Darcy can’t seem to find the right words. Fairy tales are one thing, but real love makes her want to hide inside her carefully constructed ink-and-paper bomb shelter.

Still, after spending her whole life keeping people out, something about Asher makes Darcy want to open up. But securing her own happily-ever-after will mean she’ll need to stop hiding and start living her own truth—even if it’s messy.

I liked The Library Of Lost Things!  I wanted to like it more, which seems to be happening a lot lately, but I still liked it.

I loved that Darcy worked at a bookstore.  I really wanted the Yellow Feather to be a real bookstore that I could visit, but it seems to be just a fictional place.  Still, it felt like a living, breathing place that I could actually visit, and it very much felt like a character itself.  I could totally see it sharing a space with a wig shop, which was a character in and of itself, even though we don’t spend as much time there.  I definitely wanted to visit Mysterious Galaxy after reading this book.

I also liked how important books were to Darcy, and all of the books that were mentioned.  As a reader, I really liked that, and it made it fun to see what would be referenced or mentioned.

I really liked Darcy, who had to deal with a lot.  There’s a lot going on with her family, and with some of the family secrets that come out, I really felt for Darcy.  I can’t imagine trying to deal with a mom who hoards, or dealing with she learned about both her mom and her dad.  She had to be a lot more responsible than she needed or should have been, and I really hope she has a lot of carefree moments in her future.

I can see why she’s so closed off, and how hard it is for her to let people in.  I feel like I’d act the same way if I were her, but we do see that change over the course of the book.  It seems like things start to change with her mom and her grandma, and hopefully, they’re all able to work through everything.  It will take time, of course, but hopefully, they’re able to get to a better place someday.

3 stars.  I liked The Library Of Lost Things, but I didn’t love it.  I really liked the Yellow Feather and all of the book references.

ARC Book Review: The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate Williams

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Book: The Babysitter’s Coven by Kate Williams

Expected Publication Is September 17, 2019 by Delacorte Press|Expected Number Of Pages: 368

Where I Got It: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: The Babysitter’s Coven #1

Genre: YA Fantasy

Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil.

Seventeen-year-old Esme Pearl has a babysitters club. She knows it’s kinda lame, but what else is she supposed to do? Get a job? Gross. Besides, Esme likes babysitting, and she’s good at it.

And lately Esme needs all the cash she can get, because it seems like destruction follows her wherever she goes. Let’s just say she owes some people a new tree.

Enter Cassandra Heaven. She’s Instagram-model hot, dresses like she found her clothes in a dumpster, and has a rebellious streak as gnarly as the cafeteria cooking. So why is Cassandra willing to do anything, even take on a potty-training two-year-old, to join Esme’s babysitters club?

The answer lies in a mysterious note Cassandra’s mother left her: “Find the babysitters. Love, Mom.”

Turns out, Esme and Cassandra have more in common than they think, and they’re about to discover what being a babysitter really means: a heroic lineage of superpowers, magic rituals, and saving the innocent from seriously terrifying evil. And all before the parents get home.

I liked The Babysitter’s Coven but like a lot of the books I’ve read this year…I didn’t like it as much as I wanted to.

For some reason, the book felt like it should have been middle grade and not YA  I kept forgetting that the characters were around 17, and it would be interesting to see this book as a middle grade series.

I can’t speak to the comparisons to Buffy or Adventures In Babysitting, since I haven’t seen Buffy or Adventures In Babysitting.  I kept thinking about the Babysitter’s Club, though, if they were witches and trying to defend against demons and whatnot.

Esme wasn’t always my favorite character, and Cassandra wasn’t either, but maybe they’ll grow me, should I pick up the sequel.  I’m not sure if I will but we’ll see when the next one comes out.  I did like Janis, though.  And I did like the backstory for Esme’s mom.  It wasn’t what I was expecting but I did like it.  Pig was great too, and it’s so hard not to love.

I was expecting expecting babysitting to have more of a connection to the weird goings-on.  It would make a great cover but it didn’t go that way at all.  Still, it was fun to see what adventures they got themselves into, and I liked seeing them try to figure things out with pretty much no information.

I do wish they struggled a little more than they did, because things were pretty easy for both Esme and Cassandra.  They did figure things out pretty fast, and they seemed to do things really well after practicing a handful of times.  I think it would have made their achievements a lot more fun and it would have been a little easier to root for them.  But maybe that’s just me.

There was this 90’s teen movie vibe to it, which was fun.  Now that I think about it, I can totally see this book being a Disney channel series/original movie.  It would be pretty fun to watch, and it’s certainly light and fluffy enough to work well as a movie or tv show.

The outfits sounded pretty cool too, and that, more than anything, made me think of the outfits that Stacy and Claudia would wear in the BSC.  Which I now feel like reading, by the way.  A movie would bring the outfits to life, and it would be pretty cool to actually see the outfits.

3 stars.  I liked The Babysitter’s Coven, but I honestly thought it sounded younger than I expected.  It was a fun read but I had my issues with it too.

ARC Book Review: Sword And Pen by Rachel Caine

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Book: Sword And Pen by Rachel Caine

Expected Publication Is September 3, 2019 by Berkley|Expected Number Of Pages: 368

Where I Got It: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: The Great Library #5

Genre: YA Steampunk/Alternate History

With the future of the Great Library in doubt, the unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone must decide if it’s worth saving in this thrilling adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.

The corrupt leadership of the Great Library has fallen. But with the Archivist plotting his return to power, and the Library under siege from outside empires and kingdoms, its future is uncertain. Jess Brightwell and his friends must come together as never before, to forge a new future for the Great Library…or see everything it stood for crumble.

I absolutely loved Sword And Pen!  It was such a great read, and I’m sad to see this series end, but I’m also really glad to see how everything turned out.

This series is so worth reading, and ever since I started reading Ink And Bone years ago, I loved the series.  The world is amazing, and we see Jess and everyone else try to save the world they’ve lived in their entire lives.  They really are trying to make it a better place for everyone, and while we don’t see all of the changes that are bound to happen, I feel like the library is going to be in a very good place.

I can’t help but think that there will be a lot of really good changes but that there’s also going to be some trouble as well.  I feel like people are going to have trouble with this new library, especially at first, but hopefully things will calm down and be okay.

While I was reading Sword And Pen, I was wondering who was going to make it out alive.  There was no way everyone was going to survive, but that’s what I was hoping.  My hopes were dashed but in this world, I would have been surprised if everyone had survived.  With all of the battles and destruction, it just wasn’t going to happen.  And I think I would have been disappointed too, because I don’t think it would have been as realistic.

The characters were great, and I feel like, years from now, they’ll still be talking to each other.  That’s what I want for them.  I think they all have great things in store for them, and I wish we had some sort of epilogue that shows what happened several years later.  I can imagine, of course, which is fun but I also kind of want to know what Caine imagined for them.

I really liked Wolfe, Santi and Khalila in this book.  Khalila really came into her own in this book, and she’s had a really great story line throughout the whole series.  Wolfe and Santi were protective adoptive dads, and I felt like they saw all of the kids as their own.  Especially Jess.  They seemed especially protective of Jess, which is understandable after everything Jess has been through.  I can’t imagine losing a twin, and you really see how much it affected Jess.  I liked that you saw his grief and how he didn’t want to lose anyone else while also going after the old Archivist.

There’s a lot of action and destruction but there’s also a lot of hope, and I really liked it balanced it was.  I really felt like things would be okay at the end of the series.  Even though a lot of really terrible things happens to the characters, I also felt like they made it through okay.  There may be some wounds and scars for them, but they survived and made it through.

5 stars.  I loved this book, and the world and characters are amazing!  I’m sad to see this series end but I thought Sword And Pen did a great job at wrapping everything up.

ARC Book Review: American Royals by Katharine McGee

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Book: American Royals by Katharine McGee

Expected Publication Is September 3, 2019 by Random House Books For Young Readers|Expected Number Of Pages: 448

Where I Got It: I received American Royals as an E-ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: American Royals #1

Genre: YA Contemporary

What if America had a royal family? If you can’t get enough of Harry and Meghan or Kate and William, meet American princesses Beatrice and Samantha.

Two princesses vying for the ultimate crown. 
Two girls vying for the prince’s heart. 
This is the story of the American royals.

When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne. Like most royal families, the Washingtons have an heir and a spare. A future monarch and a backup battery. Each child knows exactly what is expected of them. But these aren’t just any royals. They’re American.

As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America’s first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling. Nobody cares about the spare except when she’s breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn’t care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her. And then there’s Samantha’s twin, Prince Jefferson. If he’d been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart.

The duty. The intrigue. The Crown. New York Times bestselling author Katharine McGee imagines an alternate version of the modern world, one where the glittering age of monarchies has not yet faded–and where love is still powerful enough to change the course of history.

At first, I wasn’t sure about American Royals, but I ended up really liking it!

It was a little hard to get into at first, and I think it’s because we’re getting to know 4 very different girls.  I’m always hesitant about multiple narrators, especially when it’s 3 or more, and this book had 4.  I was worried we wouldn’t get to know each girl and while we don’t know them really, really well, we still get a really good idea of who each girl is.

Beatrice and Samantha are very different girls, and I liked both of them.  I did have a pretty good understanding of who they were, and, in Samantha’s case, why she acted the way she did.  One thing that came to mind in some of their chapters was that the grass really is greener on the other side.

I don’t envy either girl but I really don’t envy Beatrice.  She’s under a lot of pressure, considering she’s going to be the first queen one day.  Samantha does have some more freedom than her sister, but it also means she doesn’t get the attention her sister does.

We also see Daphne, the prince’s ex, and Nina, who is Sam’s best friend.  I liked Nina and Daphne was ambitious but also horrible.  Daphne was definitely my least favorite character, but she really is willing to do anything to get Jefferson back.  She was interesting, I’ll give her that.  I don’t have as much to say about them but it will be interesting to see where their stories go in the next book.

The story is pretty predictable in a lot of ways, but I honestly didn’t care because the book is a pretty interesting What If.  It really makes you wonder how different America would be if we were a monarchy.  We get a little bit of history, and it seems to be a little bit different in the book.  Like, Russia still has a tsar.  That’s the biggest thing that’s different.  At least from what I can remember.  It seems like there’s a lot more monarchies in this world than there actually is in real life.

It makes me wonder how different history is, especially American history.  I had trouble keeping track of some of the kings and queens mentioned, and I hope there’s a family tree included in the final version.  There wasn’t in this book, and that’s just what I’m hoping for, so by no means is it actually going to be included.

Still, a little more background would be interesting to see.  I mean, how much would having a monarchy change America’s history.  Like, did we still have a Civil War?  Did slavery still exist, and at what point did it get abolished if it did?  I have so many questions, but I know it’s not going to get answered.  Still, we might get little bits of history, and I’m okay with that.

My Rating: 4 stars.  I didn’t love it, but I still really enjoyed it.  It was hard not to cry and I was definitely crying by the end of the book.