Thank you William Morrow for sending me an early copy of this book. The following opinions are my own.
Survivor Song is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. Here are a couple of things that this story is not:
This is not a zombie novel.
This is not an apocalypse novel.
This book follows Dr. Ramola Sherman and her best friend, Natalie, after an outbreak of a super rabies illness. This illness is unlike the rabies we know and love where the symptoms can take several weeks to appear and we have all kinds of time to treat it before it becomes fatal. The super rabies has an incubation time of an hour or even less in some cases. Once it passes the brain barrier there is no hope of return.
Natalie calls Ramola when her husband is viciously attacked and killed by an infected neighbor and shares the news that she, too, has been bitten. Natalie is due to give birth in 15 days. As Natalie pulls into the driveway of Ramola’s home the clock starts ticking. The two women head out determined to get Natalie treated before the illness can do permanent damage and kill her friend and possibly her child.
This entire book, with the exception of the ‘postlude’ at the end, spans several hours as Ramola desperately tries to get Natalie to a hospital and a vaccine before it’s too late. On this journey through a chaotic Massachusetts that’s been set upon by the outbreak, everything that can happen does. It becomes a survival of the fittest type of situation and Ramola is willing to do just about anything to save her best friend. The chapters alternate between Ramola’s and Natalie’s point of view and the reader starts waiting with bated breathe to see if Natalie will mentally deteriorate like those all around her or if she was vaccinated in time to save her. One thing is for sure, though. They must deliver the baby by emergency c-section to save the child’s life in the event Natalie does not survive. Ramola doesn’t spare a single thought for anything else other than Natalie and her unborn child.
The story was gripping the whole way through. At every turn the two women face another challenge and you never know what they will do to meet it. They find themselves face to face with infected people and animals, conspiracy-believing zealots, car crashes, and two teenage boys who become more entangled in the story than expected. It’s a wild ride from beginning to end. This book goes a bit deeper than that, though. What I saw when reading this was the love and loyalty these women shared and what they were willing to do to help each other. I saw a doctor who is extraordinarily compassionate and held on to her morals with an iron fist no matter what. So while this is a horror novel about rabies-infected humans going around chewing on each other, it’s also a story about resilience and hope and I couldn’t put it down.
Some other aspects of the book I really liked were the creepy pages with the gothic writing peppered throughout and I also loved that the main character, Ramola, is a half white, half Indian, asexual woman with a British accent. Her character represented these qualities, not to further the plot, but just because that’s who she was. She has a really interesting background story that features her parents who are in an interracial relationship. I’d love to see more of this representation in books just for the sake of being there and not because it’s the focus of the story.
There are only a couple small criticisms I have as far as this book goes. One being that the chapters, especially Rams (Ramola), are very long. This doesn’t hurt the story and luckily this is a very fast-paced read so those long chapters don’t drag like they sometimes do in other books. I just prefer shorter chapters. And the second being that I don’t understand what the purpose was behind the decisions the teenage boys, specifically Luis, made after leaving Romola and Natalie. I thought that was an odd addition to the story and it felt like it didn’t fit. I think I would have enjoyed that part more if specifics from their background had been revealed and we could have learned what their secret was in more detail.
Do I recommend this book? Absolutely. I enjoyed this infinitely more than The Cabin at the End of the World. If you weren’t a fan of that book but want to give Paul Tremblay another shot or if you haven’t read anything by him and want to then I’d definitely pick this one up when it releases in July. I love Paul’s writing. It’s really fantastic, and I felt that way when reading the previous book as well. But here the storytelling and writing are in sync to create an awesome book.
Beware of some triggers for: blood/gore, violence, loss of a spouse/loved one, animal deaths, and xenophobia.
Hello, Friends!! In the month of August I participated in the Magical Readathon hosted by G from the YouTube channel Book Roast. This is a two-part read-a-thon that begins with the O.W.L.S. in April and finishes with the N.E.W.T.S. in August each year. The read-a-thon is themed after the wizarding tests taken in the Harry Potter books and they are so much fun! If you love to read, whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not, I enthusiastically recommend joining us in April of 2020 for the next round. It’s an amazing community and adds a bit of a challenge to your reading which just spices things up a bit! Ok, enough about that; let’s get to the books!
I actually found that I read a bit less than my average in August which is totally fine but surprising. Although, I did read a couple lengthier books! My Stats for August:
Reading Goal: 129/150 (28 books ahead of schedule)
Books Read: 14
Pages Read: 5,249
Longest Book: Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4) By Sarah J Maas 645 pgs
Shortest Book: Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter 296 pgs
Genres Read: 8 YA/Adult Fantasy, 5 YA/Adult Contemporary, 1 Horror (of these 14 books 12 are physical books, 1 is Audiobook, and 1 is a Graphic Novel. 8 are Young Adult, 6 are Adult.)
And finally… here are the books from lowest rated to highest! 🖤
The Bookshop of Yesterdays completed the challenge: Herbology- Read a book between 350 and 390 pages.
This is the book that doomed my reading this month. I was so bored with it that it took up an entire week of my life and prevented me from reading anything else. I know I should have DNFed it but the mystery involved had me intrigued enough that I wanted answers. Once I got them I was pretty underwhelmed and regretted my decision to continue reading long past the ‘I’d rather go to the dentist than continue this book’ stage. No one is to blame but myself for this one! The writing isn’t bad but the main character is extremely annoying, the relationship between the MC and her boyfriend is completely unnecessary to the story and not even a good representation of what a relationship should be like. The MC is also spoiled rotten and terrible to her mother which was never addressed. Instead it was meant to be accepted because of the sad things that happened to her. BOO-HOO. No. You’re a crap person, Miranda. Please don’t show up in any more books.
Ironside completed the Challenge: History of Magic-Read a fantasy.
I read this book as part of the Faerie-A-Thon as well as the N.E.W.T.S. Faerie-A-Thon is hosted by the sweet and truly lovely Melanie from the YouTube channel Meltotheany. She can also be found at her blog of the same name. If you do anything at all today, visit Melanie. You will instantly love her! This read-a-thon is also hosted by the wonderful Alexa from the YouTube channel Alexa Loves Books, Kristin from the channel Super Space Chick, who is so sweet and gives me serious bookshelf envy, and Jane from the fantastic YouTube channel It’sJaneLindsey. If you’re ever looking for some BookTubers to follow these gals are a great place to start. As for the book; it was mediocre. Not bad but about what you’d expect from a YA Fantasy book published in 2007. It was entertaining, a super easy read, and a great introduction into Holly’s world of faerie which is the same world the The Cruel Prince (The Folk of Air, #1) is set along with the rest of the series and her other previous books!
Say You Still Love Me completed the challenge: Muggle Studies- Cover that includes an actual photo element.
I received this as an ARC for review from Netgalley and Atria books. To see my full review of this book visit this post. I was really hoping to love this book since I had heard such rave reviews for Tucker’s previous novel, The Simple Wild, which I have on my shelf and haven’t read yet. I found this book to be pretty average. It definitely wasn’t a bad book but it didn’t do anything special or manage to stand out in my mind in any meaningful way. If you like second chance romances with a female MC in a position of power I’d recommend this. I think there are a lot of people who will love this book; it just wasn’t for me.
Britt-Marie Was Here completed the challenge: Herbology- Read a book with green on the cover.
Fredrik Backman has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I’ll read anything he writes. He’s just so gifted with words and really specializes in human emotion. He just GETS people. All of Backman ‘s books tell poignant stories about self-discovery, self-reflection, and relationships. That being said this was my least favorite book I’ve read by Backman so far. Even so, this book is still really well done and funny. Britt-Marie is a character we first meet in My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry. In that book I pitied Britt-Marie but I didn’t like her. I found her to be meddling and annoying. This companion novel promised to tell her story and change the way you see her once you know who she really is at heart. It succeeded. I ended up caring about Britt-Marie and hoping for everything good in the world to happen for her. I’d recommend this book and anything else written by this author… even his grocery list.
Vassa in the Night completed the challenge: Astronomy- Read a book with the word night in the title or series name.
Vassa in the Night is an extremely strange retelling of the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful. This book made no sense at all and all the sense in the world. It’s twisty, weird, maniacal, and entertaining as hell. Even though this is possibly the strangest book I’ve ever read I still marveled at the authors imagination and ability to draw you in and keep you reading. The writing was spectacular. If you were to pull elements of this book apart and look at them separately you’d probably find that you weren’t interested in this book. Amputated hands that do their master’s evil bidding, a convenience store that dances on chicken legs, a talking wooden doll. All of these things seem so childish on their own but brought together they work seamlessly to create an extremely dark and creepy tale. This isn’t a book that can be explained, you just need to read it for yourself.
The Wicked Deep completed the challenge: Astronomy- Read a book with a moon on the cover or anywhere in the title.
This was the August pick for my reading group on Goodreads, The Reading Frenzy. There are 4 of us MODs and we create new read-a-thons and challenges each month to keep reading fun. Anyone can join, it’s a group for lover’s of all books and all genres. September’s Pick is A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab and we have something special and exciting planned for October 👻☠️🎃👀. As for the Wicked Deep, I went into this with very low expectations based on some of the reviews I had seen. Due to that I was pleasantly surprised. I quite enjoyed this witch-y book set on a spooky island, completely separated from the town. Ernshaw knows how to build up the atmosphere, that’s for sure. I love being surprised by a book and even though some of the plot twists were predictable there were some that I never saw coming. If you haven’t read this yet and want to I’d recommend holding off until we really get into Fall. It’s the absolute perfect book for the Halloween season.
The Right Swipe completed the challenge: Muggle Studies- Read a book set in our world.
I read this book with the Goodreads Dragon’s and Tea Book Club hosted by Melanie (meltotheany) and Amy (acourtofcrownsandquills). This reading group focuses on marginalized and own-voices authors. I’ve been reading with them for several months and have had a successful reading experience so far. This month they are reading Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson. Y’all should definitely check it out! For the first time since joining this book club I was wavering on whether to join in on The Right Swipe; mainly because I had such a lengthy TBR already and it just wasn’t a book that was on my radar. After seeing so many people getting excited closer to its release I decided to go for it. I’m really glad I did. This book was great. It features an intersectional MC, which is always refreshing to see represented. The book doesn’t explicitly say that the MC has any mental health issue but it’s clear that she does have something going on. It read to me like anxiety and I personally thought it was well represented and realistic. This book also features a woman of color in a position of power and she’s tough as nails. I felt she was too tough at times but was able to understand her better by the conclusion of the story. If you like diversity, second chance romance, feminism, or football players 😉 than I wholeheartedly recommend this book!
Origin is the only title I read outside of the Magical Readathon this month. I listened to this on audio.
What is there to say about this book? It’s an oldie but goodie that I just recently discovered! I’ve been slowly listening to this series from book one. It’s become my guilty pleasure when driving to and from work or running errands. Although, guilty pleasure is just a figure of speech; I’m not feeling guilty at all. 😉
Wilder Girls completed the challenge: Herbology- Read a book with a flower on the cover.
Ever since the day this cover was revealed I wanted to read this book. I didn’t even need to know anything about it. I’m exciting to do a post at the end of 2019 featuring my favorite covers of the year. This one will be at the top of the list, guaranteed. I read this book with my Goodreads book club, The Reading Frenzy, for the Bookish Treasure Hunt Read-a-thon that I created. This was another creepy island story but instead of witches and ghosts like you find in The Wicked Deep, this story features an all girls school quarantined to their island while a sickness called The Tox spreads from the plants to the wildlife to the girls and women who live there. Grotesque things are happening to their bodies and rarely are any two girls sharing the same symptoms. When one of the girls in a particular friend group disappears after a flare up it becomes clear more is going on than meets the eye and the story really takes off from there. This book was fantastically gory and creepy and twisted. I loved it. The only real criticism I have is a pretty big one and one that prevented me from giving this five stars and that is the ending. The ending was bad. Period. This is a stand-alone story and yet the book just abruptly ends with a lot of things still unanswered. This isn’t a spoiler as many things are cleared up and the way in which it ends is still a mystery if you haven’t read it but if you go to Goodreads and read any random review you will see the majority of people complaining about the same thing. The terrible ending. Maybe some people could see past it and maybe it’s supposed to have some metaphorical meaning, but I didn’t see it. I was just annoyed. I’d still recommend this though if you like body horror. it’s a damn good book.
The Grand Dark completed the challenge: Arithmancy- Read a book that ends on an even page number.
I reviewed an ARC of this book that was provided by Netgalley and Harper Voyager. To see my full review visit this post. This was the month of strange and unconventional books. This is another title that was so unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It felt like a mixture of steampunk, gothic architecture, 1920’s Noir, and a bit of a lovecraftian feel to polish it off. The world was brutal and dark. The characters range from savages, disabled, desperate, poor, rich, sick, healthy, powerful, and weak. The is a twisted story set in a twisted world and I definitely recommend it!
Legendary completed the challenge: Defense Against the Dark Arts- Read a book that’s black under the dust jacket.
Reading Legendary was so exciting since I had been waiting for what seemed like forever to get to it. I wasn’t disappointed. While this book was much darker than the more whimsical setting of Caraval, the main character’s had much better chemistry and the angst was palpable between them. I am so glad I have Finale already on my shelves after that kicker of an ending!
Heartstopper Vol. 2 completed the challenge: Transfiguration- Read a book with LGBTQ+ representation.
This graphic novel is everything. These characters were first featured in the full length novel, Solitaire, as side characters; this is the second volume of their back story. The MC’s are literally precious and I just want to hug them. Alice Oseman has a very distinct art style that I’m living for. The color scheme is beautiful as is the story she tells. If you’re looking for a queer graphic novel than look no further. This is a gem of a book!
An Easy Death completed the challenge: Defense Against the Dark Arts- Read the first book you remember from your TBR.
Charlaine Harris is an auto-buy author for me. She writes two of my favorite series, the Sookie Stackhouse series which is the inspiration for the HBO show True Blood, and the Midnight, Texas series, which was adapted into a T.V. show on NBC. I would never have picked up a book classified as a western under normal circumstances but all I needed to know before purchasing this book was that Charlaine wrote it. I was not disappointed. This book is so unique; I’ve never read anything even remotely like it. At first I was weirded out by the writing style because it was unusual and nothing like the author’s other books. But I quickly realized that she wrote the whole book in the way the MC thinks. It’s genius, honestly. The next book in this series, A Longer Fall, releases January 2020. I’ve requested an ARC so hopefully I’ll have a review up soon. Fingers crossed!
Queen of shadows completed the challenge: History of magic- Read a book that includes a map.
I’ve been slowly making my way through my reread of this series along with the girls hosting the #TOGreadalong, Kassie from MissSassyKassie & Brittni from Brittni’s Book Finds. Queen of Shadows was just as amazing the second time around. Shit. Goes. Down. in these books and I’m living for it! I’d lay down and die for my boy Rowan. I don’t think there’s much to say about this series. People either love it or hate it. How you could hate it is beyond me but hey to each their own! Next up is Empire of Storms and then there is only one book between me and Kingdom of Ash! I cannot wait to finally read the last book in this series… I’m sure it’s gonna kill me but sacrifices must be made.
That’s it for last month’s reading wrap-up. Also, I am now a Book of the Month YA affiliate! Click on the links on my page to sign up. I receive a small commission when you do, thank you kindly! I’ll see you soon for more bookish content!
Say You Still Love Me by K.A. Tucker is a second chance romance between two people from very different worlds. In their teens, Kyle and Piper both attend summer camp as counselors and quickly fall into an intense romantic relationship. When Piper’s father finds out that his daughter is dating the child of a criminal from the wrong side of the tracks he demands that Piper end the relationship immediately. When she fails to follow his orders and finds herself getting into compromising situations that land her in a load of trouble, the summer comes to an abrupt end and Piper doesn’t hear from Kyle again. That is until he reappears thirteen years later as a security guard for the building her family owns and in which she is the VP of the company. Yet, when Piper approaches Kyle he seems to have forgotten her name… and their romance entirely.
I really wanted to love this book. I had heard many good things about this author’s previous novel, The Simple Wild, and was expecting her most recent novel to be similarly good. And it was, but nothing more. The story alternates between the past when Kyle and Piper were teens at summer camp and current times when they are reconnecting after thirteen years. The current timeline was very dull. Chock full with the day to day luxurious life of Piper and her job as VP of a huge real estate company. At first I thought this was just a slow burn type of romance and I was totally down with that. Well, it was a slow burn all right. So slow the flame nearly snuffed itself right out. At the 40% mark of the book there was still nothing happening between Piper and Kyle. Instead we were learning about her job and family dynamics. The flashbacks were the only element carrying this story along and I found I enjoyed those chapters infinitely more even though it had turned this adult romance into more of a YA romance. The scenes between the two MC’s at camp were steamy and pretty graphic, while the adult portion was the polar opposite. Even after Piper and Kyle’s adult story finally starts moving along the steamier parts are pretty much grazed right over. This isn’t a huge deal to me but I was a bit surprised since the scenes involving them as teens were so detailed.
There were definitely elements of this story that I liked quite a bit. Piper is snarky and smart and I really liked her character. I liked seeing how she handled being a woman in a position of power in a male dominated world. She’s down to earth without being unrealistically so and I really enjoyed that, too. I liked that Kyle was a bit different than your average teen love interest with his lip piercing, faux hawk, and tattoos. The chemistry between the two of them was palpable. I just wish there had been more of that chemistry in their adult relationship. Several times I found myself laughing out loud. The characters were definitely witty and interesting. Unfortunately, I felt like I was waiting for the entirety of the book for something to happen and when it did it kind of fell flat. I enjoyed my time with this novel but it was nothing to write home about.
There was very little diversity, a gay couple was mentioned once or twice and the story features a disabled MC, but that’s really it. There are themes of divorce, absent parents, cheating, underage drinking, loss of virginity, and some derogatory comments towards women and the people who work for the wealthy. Nothing I would consider majorly triggering.
ARC provided by Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press. The following opinions are my own.
Summoned to a royal wedding, the first family heads to England. Alex, First Son of the United States, is dreading the idea of facing his nemesis, Prince Henry. Unsurprisingly Alex promptly begins drinking to save him the pain of such a meeting and a confrontation between the two men finds them in a shoving match in which a $75,000 dollar wedding cake is decimated, the whole thing witnessed by the guests and media. In order to save face the two families have decided that they would play off the whole interaction as a mishap between friends and several meet-ups and hang out sessions are planned in which Henry and Alex will look for all the world as if they are the greatest friends. What could go wrong?
As your mother I can appreciate that maybe this isn’t your fault, but as the president, all I want is to have the CIA fake your death and ride the dead-kid sympathy into a second term.
Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an ARC of this book. The following opinions are my own.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: October 9, 2018
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery
Clara has finally moved in with her dream guy; tall, handsome, charismatic Luke Lawson. Things are really coming together for her and her happiness is limitless. Until the night Luke doesn’t come home. At first, she thinks he went out with the guys and crashed at one of their places in a drunken stupor. It becomes clear quite quickly that this isn’t the case when he misses a huge job interview. When an entire day has passed Clara becomes convinced that something is very wrong. After reporting Luke missing at the police department, she starts her own investigation at home, looking through Luke’s files and computer and that’s when she finds the emails. Many, many emails from a woman who has been stalking Luke and, towards the end, threatening his life. Clara is certain that these emails are connected to his disappearance but the police department don’t seem to be making any headway. So, Clara enlists the help of Mac, the couple’s best friend, to help her uncover and investigate the things the police won’t. What they learn paints a much different picture of Luke and his past and Clara wonders if she ever really knew him at all.
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