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Book Review: Finale by Stephanie Garber

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Book: Finale by Stephanie Garber

Published May 2019 by Flatiron Books|416 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Caraval #3

Genre: YA Fantasy

Welcome, welcome to Finale, the third and final book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Caraval series! All games must come to an end…

It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates were freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella saw Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.

Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finally, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun—with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win…and those who will lose everything.

I was really nervous going into Finale.  I really liked Caraval, and Legendary was just okay, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I ended up really liking it!

Both Scarlett and Tella narrate the book, and we see what’s going on with both of them.  Scarlett learns a lot about her family, and trying to decide between Nicolas, her former fiance, and Julian.  Tella, on the other hand, is keeping watch on her mother and is dealing with Legend’s impending coronation.

There’s a lot going on, and I wondered how everything was going to get wrapped up.  Between Scarlett’s love life, and the Fates, I wasn’t sure where things were going to go.

We learn a lot about Scarlett’s family, and it was not what I expected.  The Fates get defeated, and how that happened was interesting.  I wasn’t expecting it to happen the way it did, but it did make things interesting.  Everything really was leading to this book, and I liked seeing it all come together.  The history we get was really interesting, and I’m glad we got more of it.  I liked seeing more of the fates and the destruction they cause.

I really liked Scarlett, and she’s always been a great character.  I really felt for her, and all of the family stuff she had to deal with.  Tella was just okay, though I liked seeing her interactions with both Julian and Jacks.  While I’m glad we got her side of things, I also would have been fine if the book had just focused on Scarlett.  Still, Tella’s story needed to be wrapped up, so I was fine with both her and Scarlett narrating.

I was surprised by the ending, and I really want to know what it means for Legend and Tella.  It makes me wonder about the future of Caraval, and if it will come back.

I like the world, and it’s gotten bigger and bigger with each book.  It’s come to life, and it’s so vivid and magical.  I’m curious to see this series as either a movie or a t.v. show, because I’d love to see the world of Caraval on the screen, but at the same time, I’m worried it wouldn’t be as magical as the books.  And I don’t know how all of the letters and notes would translate to the screen.  At any rate, the world is pretty magical.

4 stars.  I really liked Finale, and it’s a great ending to the series.

Book Review: You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn

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Book: You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn

Published April 2019 by Wednesday Books|256 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Annie Mathers is America’s sweetheart and heir to a country music legacy full of all the things her Gran warned her about. Superstar Clay Coolidge is most definitely going to end up one of those things.

But unfortunately for Clay, if he can’t convince Annie to join his summer tour, his music label is going to drop him. That’s what happens when your bad boy image turns into bad boy reality. Annie has been avoiding the spotlight after her parents’ tragic death, except on her skyrocketing YouTube channel. Clay’s label wants to land Annie, and Clay has to make it happen.

Swayed by Clay’s undeniable charm and good looks, Annie and her band agree to join the tour. From the start fans want them to be more than just tour mates, and Annie and Clay can’t help but wonder if the fans are right. But if there’s one part of fame Annie wants nothing to do with, it’s a high-profile relationship. She had a front row seat to her parents’ volatile marriage and isn’t interested in repeating history. If only she could convince her heart that Clay, with his painful past and head over heels inducing tenor, isn’t worth the risk.

Erin Hahn’s thrilling debut, You’d Be Mine, asks: can the right song and the perfect summer on the road make two broken hearts whole?  

I absolutely LOVED You’d Be Mine.  It seemed like it was right up my alley, and I’m glad I read it.

I loved Annie, and her story was amazing.  I can’t imagine stumbling across what she did, and she must have been conflicted.  She loves singing and performing but she also lost her parents to it, and it must have been hard to reconcile that.  Annie is a pretty lovable character, and I rooted for her the whole time.  I just wanted her to be okay and help her through it.

It seems like people definitely had their expectations for her, and she tries so hard to not be like her parents.  There’s one scene where she’s really angry at her parent’s graves, and that really stuck with me.  I don’t blame her for that at all, and I feel like I would be angry at them too, especially her dad.

I actually really liked her and Clay together.  Their romance felt really natural, and she does have some reservations because of her parents, but things seem to work out between them.  I also completely get her reservations.

I really liked Clay as well, though not as much as Annie.  I wish we got a little bit more on Clay’s family and his backstory, because it didn’t seem like enough.  I still felt for him, and he really struggles with who he has to be, and who he wants to be.  Things do seem to be headed in the right direction for him at the end of the book, and hopefully, it’ll stay that way.

I loved that the book was set during the summer, and that it was about country music!  I love country, and even though I was a sobbing mess by the end of the book, I still had a lot of fun reading it.  It’s a great summer read, at least for me.  There’s something heartwarming about the book and it’s a pretty emotional read.  But it was worth it.

5 stars.  I LOVED this book so much, and I’m glad I read it.

Book Review: We Rule The Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett

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Book: We Rule The Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett

Published April 2019 by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers|400 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA

Two girls use forbidden magic to fly and fight–for their country and for themselves–in this riveting debut that’s part Shadow and Bone, part Code Name Verity.

Seventeen-year-old Revna is a factory worker, manufacturing war machines for the Union of the North. When she’s caught using illegal magic, she fears being branded a traitor and imprisoned. Meanwhile, on the front lines, Linné defied her father, a Union general, and disguised herself as a boy to join the army. They’re both offered a reprieve from punishment if they use their magic in a special women’s military flight unit and undertake terrifying, deadly missions under cover of darkness. Revna and Linné can hardly stand to be in the same cockpit, but if they can’t fly together, and if they can’t find a way to fly well, the enemy’s superior firepower will destroy them–if they don’t destroy each other first.

We Rule the Night is a powerful story about sacrifice, complicated friendships, and survival despite impossible odds. 

I’m not sure how I feel about We Rule The Night.  I liked it but it was hard for me to get through, and I could only read the book for a little bit before needing to put it down.

The story itself is pretty interesting.  The backdrop reminded me of World War 2, but with a fantasy/steampunk twist.  The book is described as Shadow And Bone meets Code Name Verity, and Code Name Verity came through pretty strongly.  A lot more than Shadow And Bone, at least for me.  I thought the magic was interesting, and explained well enough you knew how it worked.

According to the author’s note at the end, it is loosely inspired by the Night Witches, who were Russian female aviators who flew during World War 2.  That’s pretty much all I know about them, so I don’t know how much of their story actually made it’s way into the book, but I can see how they’d inspire a book.

I did struggle with the book, mostly because I was really bored reading it.  There were a few points where I considered not even finishing it.  The book focused on training and the girls getting ready for combat, and it took most of the book for there to be any action.  The book ended in a pretty good place, but I wanted a little more of them in battle.  It felt pretty slow, and I just wasn’t interested in seeing page after page of Linne and Revna hating each other but trying to work together.  Even though there’s no romance in the book, I honestly thought, for a while, that they’d end up for falling for each other.  They do learn to work together eventually, which is nice and I’m glad there wasn’t any romance.  I think that would have taken away from the story.

I don’t know that I cared for Linne or Revna, though I did like Revna a little bit more than Linne.  I’m not sure why, but Revna was a character who felt more real and fleshed out that Linne.  Which is weird, because they both narrate the book.  I was definitely rooting for Revna the entire time, and wanted her to succeed.

2 stars.  We Rule The Night ended up being okay.  I was bored reading it, and I wanted a little more action.

Book Review: Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh

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Book: Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh

Published February 2010 by Berkley|352 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Guild Hunter #2

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel-and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan’s power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena…

I liked Archangel’s Kiss!  I don’t know if I like this series as much as her Psy-Changeling series but I’m only a couple books in, so maybe I’ll have a better idea once I read more of this series.

This book picks up after Elena wakes up from a coma to find that she’s become an angel.  I liked seeing Elena deal with becoming an angel, and getting ready for a ball thrown by Lijuan.  She has a lot to learn about being an angel, and this book deals with that.  It’ll be interesting to see what else is in store for Elena, and if it’ll affect her Hunter abilities.  We see a little bit of it in this book, and I’m curious to see how all of that will work out in the future.  It could be an interesting combination.

I also thought that everything with Lijuan was interesting.  So far, it seems like the books are focusing on the other archangels.  The first book focused on Uram, and Lijuan is pretty important in this one.  It makes me wonder if each of the archangels are going to have an important part to play in the rest of the series.  The cadre does seem to be dropping like flies, and I wonder how long that can be kept up.

We meet a lot of characters and I honestly can’t remember most of them.  Hopefully, we’ll get to see of them, and I’ll actually be able to remember them.  But I also wish we hadn’t met so many of them in this book.  It felt like too many were introduced.  Hopefully this won’t continue, but maybe she’ll start doing a list of characters, like she did with her Psy-Changeling series.

I do like Elena and Raphael, and I do like them together.  I like that it’s not immediate and that things are moving relatively slow.  At least in terms of romance novel land.  There are definitely going to be a lot of adjustments in their future, that’s for sure.

3 stars.  I liked it, and I can’t wait to see where things are headed next.

Book Review: Honeybees And Frenemies by Kristi Wientge

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Book: Honeybees And Frenemies by Kristi Wientge

Published June 2019 by Simon Schuster Books For Young Readers|256 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary

Twelve-year-old Flor faces a bittersweet summer with a pageant, a frenemy, and a hive full of honey.

It’s the summer before eighth grade and Flor is stuck at home and working at her family’s mattress store, while her best friend goes off to band camp (probably to make new friends). It becomes even worse when she’s asked to compete in the local honey pageant. This means Flor has to spend the summer practicing her talent (recorder) and volunteering (helping a recluse bee-keeper) with Candice, her former friend who’s still bitter about losing the pageant crown to Flor when they were in second grade. And she can’t say no.

Then there’s the possibility that Flor and her family are leaving to move in with her mom’s family in New Jersey. And with how much her mom and dad have been fighting lately, is it possible that her dad may not join them? Flor can’t let that happen. She has a lot of work to do.

Honeybees And Frenemies was a really cute read, and I’m glad I read it.  I ended up really liking it!

This book was really cute, and I really felt for Flor, who is teaming up with a former friend to win the summer pageant.  Something about all of the festivals mentioned made me think of Gilmore Girls, where they have random festivals and town events throughout the years.

It was interesting to see them team up, but I’ll admit to wanting more of why Candice was horrible to Flor.  I mean, I get being bitter about losing the pageant crown…but they were seven, and I kind of think it would have made more sense had they been older.  But this is also middle grade, so I guess it had to happen earlier?

Anyway, I liked seeing them work together.  They both realize they have their reasons for wanting to win, and even though their talent gets them into trouble, it was still pretty cool, and I’m glad it didn’t get them disqualified.  Saving the bees is pretty important to Candice too, and she would be a great bee ambassador.  Plus, winning helps Candice a lot more than it helps Flor, but I think things will work out for Flor.  I know she had a lot going on, but the book ended on a hopeful note.  I really felt like things were going to be just fine for everyone.

I also liked the facts about bees at the beginning of each chapter.  That was a really cute tie-in, and it makes me want to learn more about bees.  I wasn’t paying enough attention to see if the facts actually tied into what happened in each chapter, but either way it was cool.

I did think helping out at her family’s mattress store and her best friend going away to summer camp would be more of a thing than it really was.  Maybe that’s just me, thinking things mentioned in the summary are going to be more important than they really are.  We do get a little bit of it, though we get bits and pieces of the family stuff throughout the book while the best friend stuff is pretty much towards the end of the book.

I also wanted a little more to the ending, and while things are pretty wrapped up, I still wanted to go a little past where the book actually ended.  Still, it’s a pretty good ending point, so I’m not going to complain too much about it.  I think it’s just wistful thinking on my part.

4 stars.  I really liked Honeybees And Frenemies!  It’s a super cute middle grade and worth checking out.

Book Review: We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal

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Book: We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Published May 2019 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux|472 pages

Where I Got It: I own the hardcover

Series: Sands Of Arawiya #1

Genre: YA Fantasy

People lived because she killed.
People died because he lived.

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, We Hunt the Flame is a gripping debut of discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands.

I really liked We Hunt The Flame!  It was a great read, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Arawiya is a very vivid place, and it felt so real.  Like it was a living, breathing place, and it really had a life of its own.  Arawiya was the perfect backdrop for the story, and it really felt like it was a character as well.  I could picture everything that was happening so perfectly, and Faizal did such an amazing job at describing everything.

Zafira and Nasir were both interesting, though I liked Zafira a little bit more than Nasir.  I’m not sure why, but I felt like we got to know Zafira a lot more than Nasir.  I was definitely a lot more interested in her story, and I really felt for her.  She had a lot going on, and she really wanted to do right by her people.  Still, both Nasir and Zafira have their own really unique stories and I could definitely tell that Faizal put a lot of thought into their backgrounds and how it informed them as people.

The names and places did get a little confusing at times, and I did have some trouble keeping up with who was who.  I don’t know if it’s because it took me quite a while to read it, or if I wasn’t paying enough attention when I was reading it, but sometimes I had a little trouble with names and places.

The world is pretty distinct, and while some elements of the story is pretty familiar- you read enough YA fantasy, and eventually, everything starts to blend together- the world stands out.  I don’t think there are many worlds like this one, and I don’t know if it’s because of how it’s described or just the world in general, but it’s pretty distinct, at least for me.

The story does move pretty slow, but there’s enough going on that I stayed pretty interested in what was going on.  And with how the book ended, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

4 stars.  I really liked We Hunt The Flame, and I thought the world was very vivid and unique.  I did have some trouble keeping some of the characters and places straight but We Hunt The Flame is a great read!

Book Review: There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

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Book: There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

Published May 2019 by Simon Pulse|384 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Dimple And Rishi #2

Genre: YA Contemporary

The irresistible companion novel to the New York Timesbestseller When Dimple Met Rishi, which follows Rishi’s brother, Ashish, and a confident fat athlete named Sweetie as they both discover what love means to them.

Ashish Patel didn’t know love could be so…sucky. After being dumped by his ex-girlfriend, his mojo goes AWOL. Even worse, his parents are annoyingly, smugly confident they could find him a better match. So, in a moment of weakness, Ash challenges them to set him up.

The Patels insist that Ashish date an Indian-American girl—under contract. Per subclause 1(a), he’ll be taking his date on “fun” excursions like visiting the Hindu temple and his eccentric Gita Auntie. Kill him now. How is this ever going to work?

Sweetie Nair is many things: a formidable track athlete who can outrun most people in California, a loyal friend, a shower-singing champion. Oh, and she’s also fat. To Sweetie’s traditional parents, this last detail is the kiss of death.

Sweetie loves her parents, but she’s so tired of being told she’s lacking because she’s fat. She decides it’s time to kick off the Sassy Sweetie Project, where she’ll show the world (and herself) what she’s really made of.

Ashish and Sweetie both have something to prove. But with each date they realize there’s an unexpected magic growing between them. Can they find their true selves without losing each other?

I really liked There’s Something About Sweetie!  It’s really cute and I really liked Sweetie.

Sweetie’s a great character, and she was really easy to relate to.  I think, at some point in our lives, we all feel like we’re not good enough for some reason or another, and that made her really easy to relate to.  She really wanted to prove people wrong.  In particular, I think she wanted to prove her mom wrong, and show her that she can do anything she sets her mind to.

I finished the book with the sense that her mom meant well, and just wanted to protect Sweetie.  Sweetie is this amazing athlete, and a great student, and that never seemed to be good enough for her mom.  Overall, she’s a pretty good kid, and she really could have used a lot more support from her mom.  Her dad’s pretty awesome, though.  I was glad to see that her mom came around, and did stand up for Sweetie in the end.  It was long overdue, in my opinion.

Seeing Sweetie and Ashish together was really cool, and I liked them together!  They balance each other out pretty well, and they have more in common than you would expect.  He’s definitely a different Ashish than the Ashish we see in When Dimple Met Rishi.  Speaking of…both books are set in the same world, but they stand on their own, so you don’t need to read When Dimple Met Rishi to know what’s going on in this book.  I still think you should read it because it’s a great book and you’ll understand Ashish a little bit better but overall, you’ll know what’s going on in this book without reading the other one.

I liked Ashish in this one and he’s definitely different after everything that happened with Celia.  I was angry at him for texting her back when he was so into Sweetie.  And the fact that he didn’t mention anything about it, and she just happened to see the messages…that didn’t help at all, but I’m glad they were able to work it out.

Their dates (planned and approved by Ashish’s parents) were definitely different but the cover made a lot more sense after one of their dates.  I couldn’t figure the paint out on the cover and I’m sad to say that I cannot remember the festival if my life depended on it but it did sound really interesting.  It also reminded me of that one run where they throw paint at you throughout the race, though I’m positive this festival came first.

Overall, There’s Something About Sweetie is a super-cute romance and worth reading!

4 stars.  I really liked There’s Something About Sweetie, and Sweetie is pretty awesome, though her mom frustrated me at times.  Her mom did come around in the end, which was nice.

ARC Book Review: Glow: Book 1, Potency by Aubrey Hadley

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Book: Glow, Book 1, Potency by Aubrey Hadley

Expected Publication is February 13, 2019 by Ruby & Topaz Publishing|Expected # Of Pages: 699

Where I Got It: I got Glow as an e-arc from netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Series: None

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

The Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome has returned after a six-month hiatus. This time, it’s popped up in New York, and it’s wiped out an entire homeless shelter.The same night of the outbreak, Harper, a seventeen-year-old girl, stumbles across a glowing figure in the desert outskirts of her neighborhood. As her suburb goes on lockdown, Harper finds herself isolated from her friends and family, and soon begins to suspect that the events — though thousands of miles apart — may have something in common. Harper must find her bravery and embark on a plot-twisting adventure that will have her looking for answers in unexpected places… and worlds.

I was looking through the books on netgalley one day, and came across this book.  It looked interesting, and the idea is pretty cool.  For the most part, I didn’t like Glow.

It started off really good, and I think that’s why I ended up being so disappointed in it.  Harper has this really protective mother who homeschool’s Harper and her sister.  Harper’s barely allowed to the leave the house, and her mom has one of the neighbors watching the house in case Harper leaves.  You’re not really sure why her mom’s like this, especially since it seems like things were like this before the Maasai Mara Sleeping Syndrome.

At first, I was definitely intrigued, and it seemed like we had a mystery on our hands.  We eventually learn what’s going on, but that’s when the book started to lose me.  Once her neighborhood goes on lockdown, and she gets whisked away on this…adventure, I started to lose interest.  It was hard to keep track of what was going on, and it had the potential to be really interesting.  Instead, I was really bored, and it was page after page about why one group was better than another, and Harper trying to figure out this new world.

It’s sci-fi and it felt like I was reading about the end of the world.  I expected a lot more action and excitement and danger, and I didn’t get any of it.  It felt really slow, and we’re told things as opposed to seeing them.  It was a lot longer than it needed to be, and too much time was spent explaining things.  It looks like this book is the first book in a series, even though I couldn’t find any information about a book two.  I expect to see the world and story get set up but we got more than what we needed.

I’m not interested enough to pick up any other books in this series (if there are any) and I’m not completely sure where things are headed in any future books.  With the how the book ended, it seemed like there was going to be a lot of waiting until the next thing happens, and I don’t particularly want to read through pages and pages of Harper waiting until the next big thing happens.  I could be wrong, but I just don’t particularly want to find out.  Especially if it’s anything like this book.  Hopefully not though.

My Rating: 1 star.  I like the idea, and it started off really good!  It just got bogged down in the details, and I really did expect a sci-fi story involving aliens with an apocalyptic feel to be more exciting and action-packed.

Book Review: Summer Of A Thousand Pies by Margaret Dilloway

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Book: Summer Of A Thousand Pies by Margaret Dilloway

Published April 2019 by Balzer + Bray|378 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary

When twelve-year-old Cady Bennett is sent to live with the aunt she didn’t even know she had in the quaint mountain town of Julian, she doesn’t know what to expect. Cady isn’t used to stability, or even living inside, after growing up homeless in San Diego with her dad.

Now she’s staying in her mother’s old room, exploring the countryside filled with apple orchards and pie shops, making friends, and working in Aunt Shell’s own pie shop—and soon, Cady starts to feel like she belongs. Then she finds out that Aunt Shell’s pie shop is failing. Saving the business and protecting the first place she’s ever really felt safe will take everything she’s learned and the help of all her new friends. But are there some things even the perfect pie just can’t fix?

Summer Of A Thousand Pies is a super-cute middle grade, and I really liked it!

Definitely don’t read this while hungry, because the book is centered around a pie shop.  I was super tempted to actually drive to Julian to get some apple pie…maybe one of these days, I’ll make the drive up there for pie.  I love that the book is set in Julian, and that it’s about pie.  I mean, when I hear Julian, I think of apple pie, and it’s only about an hour or so drive for me, so I really will have to one of these days.

I didn’t like Cady at first, but she grew on me.  She didn’t seem to have the most stable living situation, and I definitely understand why she acted the way she did.  Cady didn’t have a safe space, and with what we learn about her mom and dad, I can understand why she’d think that it might get taken away.  And with everything going on with the pie shop her aunt has…Cady has a lot going on.  I’d probably act the same way if I were her.

It’s definitely more structured environment than what she’s used to, and it seemed like she had a hard time with it at first.  I think she did get used to it by the end of the book, and she was definitely more settled by the end of the book.  I think learning to bake and having a stable environment really helped her.

I loved the moment when the title made sense, and the title was one of the things that drew me to the book.  Plus, that cover is really cute, and it makes me think of a hand-lettered sign you’d see hanging up in a pie shop or one of those signs you’d see on the sidewalk outside.

Also cool was the recipes at the end of the book!  I had to return the book to the library so I didn’t even think to make any of the pies at the back of the book, but maybe when it starts to cool down a little, I’ll get the book so I can try them out.

I really liked the relationships they had with some of the customers and business owners.  They really came together to help out the shop when it was needed and there’s a sense of community that they have.  It was nice to see, and I hope things work out for all of these fictional characters.

4 stars.  Summer Of A Thousand Pies is really cute, and I loved seeing Cady open up and have a little more stability.  I also loved that it was about pies and baking and seeing Cady experiment with different pies was really fun too!

Book Review: Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins

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Book: Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins

Published May 2019 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers|304 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Royals #2

Genre: YA Contemporary

Millie Quint is devastated when she discovers that her sort-of-best friend/sort-of-girlfriend has been kissing someone else. And because Millie cannot stand the thought of confronting her ex every day, she decides to apply for scholarships to boarding schools . . . the farther from Houston the better.

Millie can’t believe her luck when she’s accepted into one of the world’s most exclusive schools, located in the rolling highlands of Scotland. Everything about Scotland is different: the country is misty and green; the school is gorgeous, and the students think Americans are cute.

The only problem: Mille’s roommate Flora is a total princess.

She’s also an actual princess. Of Scotland.

At first, the girls can barely stand each other–Flora is both high-class and high-key–but before Millie knows it, she has another sort-of-best-friend/sort-of-girlfriend. Even though Princess Flora could be a new chapter in her love life, Millie knows the chances of happily ever afters are slim . . . after all, real life isn’t a fairy tale . . . or is it?

I liked Her Royal Highness!  I don’t know that I liked it as much as the first book in the series, but it was still fun and entertaining.

I wasn’t sure about Millie and Flora at the beginning, and by the end of the book, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about them as characters. They’re thrown together since they have to share a room for part of the school year.  They did have some pretty interesting interactions and I was curious to see what Flora would do next to get out of boarding school.  It didn’t work but it was fun to see what she would actually do, and I was glad that she actually found a reason to stay.

The nice thing about Her Royal Highness is that you don’t need to read the first book to know what’s going on in this one.  Some of the characters from Royals make an appearance in this book, and while it’s a good idea to read the first book for some background, you’ll know what’s going on in this one if you don’t.

One thing I didn’t like about the book was the timeline.  It seemed liked things were going really fast with not a lot of explanation of what was going on.  I felt like there were a lot of gaps in time with no indication time had passed and yet it also felt like it took forever to get to Millie and Flora getting together.  Don’t get me wrong, the book was entertaining and fun but at the same time, it did drag in the beginning.

As a couple, I didn’t really feel any connection between them.  Maybe because it felt like there were these weird gaps in time?  Honestly, I couldn’t tell you much about Millie and Flora, and maybe that’s why I’m not sure about them.  I wish there had been a little more time developing them as characters.

Speaking of characters, I couldn’t even begin to tell you about the other characters.  I can’t remember much of anything about Millie and Flora, so there’s no hope for any of the other characters that we meet in the book.  It’s also been a while since I’ve read the book, so that might be part of it, but you’d think something would stick.  Millie does make friends, which is great, and hopefully they’ll stick around for awhile.

3 stars.  Her Royal Highness was fun and entertaining, but things seemed to jump around and the characters didn’t stand out.