Book Review – Burro Hills by Julia Lynn Rubin

/ Leighton Jae Williams / Leave a comment

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

I was given an eARC of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review will be spoiler-free.

I’d like to get this out in the open right away: I was disappointed with this book. Now, this may have been partially my fault. I think I went into it with high expectations, hoping it would be similar to one of my favorite novels, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Not that I wanted it to be the same plotline. Rather, I was just hoping it would hit me as hard as that novel had. I wanted this book to make me feel something, and it just didn’t deliver.

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Book Review – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

/ Leighton Jae Williams / Leave a comment

Rating: 4/5 Stars

This will be a spoiler-free review.

I’m not going to lie. When I was assigned this book to read for my fiction workshop, I anticipated that I would hate it. Not because I don’t like classic literature–in fact, I love the classics–but because it was assigned to me. In my experience, if a piece of classic literature is assigned to read, it isn’t the good stuff. I’ve never been assigned to read Little Women or Pride and Prejudice, and although I read Wuthering Heights for a class, it was a classic that I was allowed to pick for myself. So, going into this novel, I was filled with dread. I thought I was in for a rough 325 pages. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and I actually ended up really enjoying myself.

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Book Review – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

/ Leighton Jae Williams / Leave a comment

Rating: 5/5 Stars

This will be a spoiler-free review. For my spoiler-y thoughts, check out my Book Breakdown on my YouTube channel, which will be posted on 3/21/2018 (My Channel).

Very rarely can I say that a book affected me like this one did. By the end of chapter two I was sobbing, and at that point I knew I was in for a very powerful reading experience. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I feel like I’ve come out of this experience changed in some way. This book really forced me to confront prejudices that I hadn’t even realized I’d had, and during the incredibly moving finale of this novel I made a promise to myself that I would no longer stand by and watch as atrocities like these happened to the people around me. My voice is my weapon, and I need to start using it.

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Book Review – The Elysian Prophecy by Vivien Reis

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Rating: 3/5 Stars

I was given an eARC of this novel by the author in exchange for an honest review. This review will be spoiler-free. (Disclaimer: I meant to finish and review this novel before its release date, but since it was only sent to me a little over a week before publication and I had other obligations, I wasn’t able to. Sorry!!!)

The best way I can describe this book is to say it was enjoyable. Not great, but not bad either. A true three out of five stars. I was actually considering giving it 3.5 stars, but enough issues piled up by the end that I couldn’t justify the half star.

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Book Review – The Savior’s Champion by Jenna Moreci

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Rating: 5/5 Stars

I was given an eARC of this novel by the author in exchange for an honest review. This review will be spoiler-free.

For full disclosure, I want to put it out there that I am on Jenna Moreci’s street team for this novel. However, I can assure you that this did not cloud my judgement at all. I was prepared to give this novel a bad review if it deserved it, though, luckily for me (and for all of you), Moreci wrote an amazing book.

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Book Review – A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

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Rating: 5/5 Stars

This will be a spoiler-free review. For my spoiler-y thoughts, check out my Book Breakdown on my YouTube channel, which will be posted on 2/21/2018 (My Channel).

When I heard all of the hype surrounding this book, I thought, Will it really live up to the expectations people are setting for me? Now all I have to say is: V.E. Schwab, I’m sorry I doubted you.

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Book Review – I Should Be Writing: A Writer’s Workshop by Mur Lafferty

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

This book was a quick read with a lot of really great information that was delivered in an entertaining way. Though I consider myself to be a somewhat seasoned writer, I found myself learning quite a few things from this book, from editing tips to information about the publishing industry. It was also incredibly inspiring, urging writers to keep working toward their dreams and to ignore their inner “bully.” Though there was nothing necessarily new revealed in this book, all of the information was presented in a unique way that I believe would be incredibly beneficial to an amateur writer.

I would absolutely recommend this book to any aspiring authors looking to learn a bit more about what it’s like to be a writer professionally, or who may be second-guessing their abilities. Lafferty’s writing is witty, charming, and all-around fun to read.

Book Review – The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken

/ Leighton Jae Williams / Leave a comment

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

This will be a spoiler-free review. For my spoiler-y thoughts, check out my Book Breakdown on my YouTube channel, which will be posted on 1/17/2018 (My Channel).

This novel had so many great things going for it. Bracken’s use of language was amazing, from her vivid imagery to her hilarious one-liners sprinkled throughout. This book had a tendency to make me laugh in one instance, and then gasp at the sheer beauty of the prose in another (something I wasn’t expecting to experience while reading a MG novel). Bracken was also very skillful in describing her characters, introducing their appearances and personalities in only a few short lines that easily got the point across nicely.

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