Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson

A fun, lighthearted novella!

In this sequel novella to Sorcery of Thorns, Nathaniel and Elisabeth are together at Thorn Manor and trapped inside with Silas and the new maid Mercy. The manor is protesting the fact that Nathaniel isn’t married or engaged and in this protest, the manor has locked them inside and created a tremendous storm outside that will continue until he does something to remedy the situation. A fun, lighthearted novella, 4 stars!

Likes/dislikes:
I thoroughly enjoyed the charm and light humor in this novella. The characters are fun and care for each other’s wellbeing. It’s a quick lighthearted read.
Violence:
None
Mature content: PG for kissing and the mention of a kiss between Nathaniel and an old acquaintance, Felix.
Language Content: G for no swears.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

A fun, clean romance!

The story opens as the main character, Prudence, awaits her class partner for their group project presentation. Quint shows up late and acts nonchalant. She believes that she’s done all of the work but the teacher gives her the lower grade because she struggles with teamwork. She’s allowed an extra credit assignment and grade if she’ll do more research on the topic and demonstrate her ability for teamwork. She volunteers at Quint’s family owned sea animal rescue center for her research. During summer break, Prudence expands her horizons and broadens her perspective. She also helps catch an embezzler. A clean read with some unexpected happenings, 4 stars!

*I also listened to the audiobook which was fun to listen to!

A Many Feathered Thing by Lisa Gerlits

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Heartwarming!
Thanks to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read and review A Many Feathered Thing by Lisa Gerlits!
This book tells a story about Clara and how she found her “voice”, gained confidence and built her self esteem. Clara continued to have ear infections when she was a baby and a toddler. When she was two, her parents realized she was having hearing problems, surgery helped with her hearing but she struggled to learn speech and lost confidence because of teasing from others and the frustration of trying to get the sounds right. Clara is reading The Diary of Anne Frank with her class at school. As she learns about Anne and her life, Clara sees parallels of Anne’s experiences and feelings in people she knows and associates with. This healing story inspired me to sketch again and that’s something I love to do but haven’t done for decades. Clara grows tremendously within the confines of this story, all because her self awareness grows and her confidence builds, thanks to the realization that she can do things, she can be brave and the faith that others have in her. Sometimes, all we need to grow is to have a chance to see outside ourselves and get a different perspective on life’s situations. A truly heartwarming story, 5 stars!

The Boyfriend Whisperer 2.0 by Linda Budzinski

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Fun, romantic read!
Thanks to the author for the complimentary copy of The Boyfriend Whisperer 2.0 by Linda Budzinski from Swoon Romance!
Alicea Springer is the new Boyfriend Whisperer and her app is supposed to be very accurate. She wants to get back with her ex-boyfriend Ty, but the app says her match is Darius Groves. Alicea gets paired up with Darius for an English assignment and she begins to see the truth about him. Her eyes are opened to her past, present and her possible future. Another clean, romantic young adult read from Linda Budzinski that brings fresh characters to the world of the Boyfriend Whisperer, 5 stars!

Can Your Conversations Change the World? by Erinne Paisley

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Become an activist for equality with another guide from Erinne Paisley!
Thanks to Orca Book Publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Can Your Conversations Change the World? by Erinne Paisley!
This book takes a look at feminism and the continuation of working towards equal rights. As part of the POPACTIVISM series, this book focuses on the importance of discussing feminism and what it means for equality. The author shares a bit of her upbringing and the educational background her parents gave her that has helped foster her independence throughout her life. The author has written other activism books and she’s still a teenager. Very impressive! Feminism simply means believing in equality and human rights for both males and females. 5 stars for this impressive book!

Cinderella’s Dress by Shonna Slayton

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Magical historical fiction!
Cinderella is the Queen and is in possession of the dress that holds magic. Her stepsisters have married into a rival kingdom and Cinderella sends her most trusted servant on a mission to protect the dress. Time moves forward to the servant’s descendant granddaughter during World War II, Kate Allen. Kate Allen lives with her brother Floyd and their mother. Mr. Allen is in Europe, during the war, protecting art. Floyd joins up and goes to basic training and eventually over to Europe after the war is over. Their great aunt and uncle arrive at the Allen’s apartment with a mysterious trunk that holds a precious secret. I love Shonna Slayton’s writing style and how she mixes true historical facts into a fairytale story. The complicated story line brings many dynamic characters together to tell a Cinderella tale within the awesome World War II setting. I am anxious to read Cinderella’s Shoes, the sequel to this book worth a magical 5 stars!

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

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A swashbuckling read!
Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Children’s Publishing for the opportunity to read and review To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo!
Lira is a siren that steals someone’s heart every year for her birthday. Lira captures a Prince while her cousin Kahlia steals a queen. The Midasan prince is introduced next, Prince Elian. This prince has two lives- one in the castle and one as a pirate, captain of his own ship and crew and a siren hunter. Lira will take her mother’s place as the Sea Queen someday, but in the meantime her mother is cruel and abusive. The Sea Queen punishes Lira for being kind and weak by turning her human and leaving her stranded in the ocean. Elian and his crew rescue Lira, thinking she’s an orphan that’s lost her family to drowning, but they are wary about her story. Elian’s goal is to kill the Prince’s Bane- the siren that kills princes. Elian has no idea that the Prince’s Bane is Lira and she’s keeping her background hidden from the crew and everyone they come in contact with. As Elian works toward his goal, he makes deals along the way with separate princesses and a slave trader. Eventually, Elian and his crew start to trust Lira because of the loyalty she’s shown by saving Elian’s life. Lira’s goal is to take over as Sea Queen and rid the world of her monstrous, manipulative mother and she hopes for peace as an end result. To Kill a Kingdom bursts with action, adventure and intrigue. This fantasy full of magic creates an amazing world with unique characters and backgrounds of their own. A wonderfully fun read worth a swashbuckling 5 stars!

Where the Sea Takes Me by Heidi R. Kling

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Brilliant and eye-opening!
Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for the opportunity to read and review Where the Sea Takes Me by Heidi R. Kling!
Sienna has just finished college finals and is planning a Team Hope trip to Cambodia. Her friend, Spider, wants to make their relationship more than just friends and Sienna isn’t too sure about that idea. Her father knocks her off her feet when he calls to tell her that Deni will be visiting soon. Deni, as in the Deni that Sienna fell in love with two years ago and who she helped recover from the tsunami in Indonesia on her last Team Hope relief trip. Deni arrives and he and Sienna fall instep with each other and Spider doesn’t quite know how to handle the situation. Team Hope travels to Cambodia on a long ride and Sienna has her eyes opened wide to the beautiful country torn apart by war, poverty and sex trafficking. The Cambodian people have extreme perseverance and are living in the results of Pol Pot’s destruction. Realistic fiction, adventure and history create the story and a touch of romance brings it all forward. Where the Sea Takes Me is a brilliant, eye-opening read, 5 stars!

Burning Bright by Chris Cannon

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The World of Bryn!
Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for the opportunity to read and review Burning Bright by Chris Cannon! Bryn’s story opens three months after the tumultuous events of the last book of the Going Down in Flames series. She’s had the summer break to be proper and forge ahead without anytime to mourn or recuperate since she’s had to spend the whole time with her stoic grandparents. Now Bryn’s returning to school with her friends, Clint and Ivy and Jaxon, her betrothed. As the school year moves forward, a weird and creepy set of attacks occurs, leaving everyone untrusting of each other and scared to go anywhere alone. I appreciate how easily the author brought the world and story background up to speed in Burning Bright because my memory was refreshed like I had just recently read the first four books of the series, even though it has been a while. I enjoy Bryn and her relationship with Clint and Ivy and how they work so well together, personality wise and with loyalty. It’s fun being in Bryn’s world again! 4 stars for the good story; I just felt like the ending flew by too quickly.

Spies, Lies, and Allies by Lisa Brown Roberts

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An all-around good read!
Thanks to NetGalley and Entangled for the opportunity to read and review Spies, Lies, and Allies by Lisa Brown Roberts! Laurel wants to spend more time with her father, so she convinces him to let her work at his company for the summer. Her job is to monitor and assist five interns vying for a one hundred thousand dollar scholarship from Emergent, her father’s company. Laurel is also supposed to get to know the interns well enough that she can make the deciding vote for the scholarship. She’s anxious about her assistant position and she’s worried about what the interns will think of her. The summer job becomes more than she bargained for and turns into a roller coaster of events and stress for Laurel, the interns and the entire company. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, their differences and their complexities. This book contains adventure, intrigue, humor, loyalty, compassion and friendship. The added fun of fandom and Comic Con will make all nerdy readers giddy. The characters are relatable and show depth and Spies, Lies and Allies is an all-around good read- 5 stars!

Spies, Lies, and Allies: A Love Story by Lisa Brown Roberts:

Summers are supposed to be fun, right? Not mine. I’ve got a job at my dad’s company, which is sponsoring a college scholarship competition. I just found out that, in addition to my job assisting the competing interns, I’m supposed to vote for the winner. Totally not what I signed up for.

 

My boss is running the competition like it’s an episode of Survivor. Then there’s Carlos, who is, well, very distracting––in a good way. But I can’t even think about him like that because fraternizing on the job means instant disqualification for the intern involved.

 

As if that’s not enough, an anonymous informant with insider intel is trying to sabotage my dad’s company on social media…and I’m afraid it’s working.

 

Much as I’d love to quit, I can’t. Kristoffs Never Quit is our family motto. I just hope there’s more than one survivor by the end of this summer.

Buylinks: https://entangledpublishing.com/spies-lies-and-allies-a-love-story.html

 

About Lisa Brown Roberts:

Award-winning romance author Lisa Brown Roberts still hasn’t recovered from the teenage catastrophes of tweezing off both eyebrows, or that time she crashed her car into a tree while trying to impress a guy. It’s no wonder she loves to write romantic comedies.  

Lisa’s books have earned praise from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the School Library Journal. She lives in Colorado with her family, in which pets outnumber people. Connect with Lisa at www.lisabrownroberts.com.

Author Links:

Author Website: WWW.LISABROWNROBERTS.COM

Author Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LBROWNROBERTS

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorLisaBrownRoberts/

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisabrownroberts/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8287979.Lisa_Brown_Roberts

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Excerpt from Spies, Lies, and Allies:

“Let’s see where helping me on my project falls on this list.” Carlos picks up a pen and clicks it, eyeing me from underneath ridiculously long lashes.

Cautiously, I take a tiny step toward his desk so I can read the list.

“Number three.” I point to the napkin. “Teamwork.”

He nods and underlines the word. I notice he’s added numbers six through ten. Nothing is written next to those numbers, except for ten, next to which he’s drawn a smiley face.

“What’s that for?” I point to the smiley face. He leans back in his desk chair and grins up at me.

“Not sure yet.”

My heart throbs in my chest and my imagination is off and running, fantasizing about number ten.

Carlos points to number five: nicknames. “I think this is where we left off at lunch.” He clicks his pen repeatedly and I resist the urge to snatch it out of his hand. “I’d prefer not to be nicknamed for a pasta, but I gave you a cereal nickname, so…” He shrugs but keeps his eyes on mine.

“I…pasta…what?” He’s not making sense.

He bites his bottom lip, and I have no trouble picturing what will make me “smiley face” if we ever make it to number ten. Also, I’m pretty sure he’s a mind reader because his gaze drifts down to my lips, then back up to my eyes.

“The Manicotti. Who is it?” He glances across the room. “Elijah? He can be sort of cheesy.”

My mind analyzes his words, sliding them around like one of those puzzles where you have to move a string through twisted metal. And then it clicks.

“You read my notebook! You’re the one who—” Panic zings through me as I remember what I wrote about him, Carlos is trouble, and his editorial comment, True. Is Carlos adorable?

Apparently I’m not the only spy around here.

“Why’d you pick this desk?” I’m desperate to change the subject.

“I like the view.”

“But it’s better by the windows.”

“Depends on which view we’re talking about.” He gives me a cryptic smile, one that makes my stomach dip. “Anyway, I saved your notebook. You’re lucky no one else read your notes.”

Mortified and defiant, I cross my arms over my chest. “You didn’t have to read it. You could’ve just returned it.”

“I was just checking to make sure you’d listed all of Mr. Mantoni’s rules.”

“Uh huh.”

Across the room, Elijah stands up and stretches. He glances at us, an amused smirk twisting his lips like he knows something I don’t.

Carlos writes on the napkin again. Number six: healthy disagreement.

“You’re kidding, right?”

His responding grin packs more heat than it should.

“I think we’ve gone off track.” I’m proud of how calm I sound, even though my nerve endings are exploding like firecrackers.