First Lines Friday

First Lines Friday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Grab your current read(s).
• Share the first line(s).
• Include the title and author.

"Daddy, you need to check for ghosts."

~ Home Before Dark by Riley Sagar

   

All This Time

"You just...pretended?"

The writing duo of bestseller and movie adaptation Five Feet Apart is back with a new collab titled, All This Time. It almost slipped by my radar because of the damn near identical book cover. It's just as beautiful! However, after a closer look the story is definitely different.

Kyle and Kimberly are high school sweethearts until their breakup on graduation party night. Their car crashes; Kyle has a brain injury and Kimberly is dead. No one can possibly understand what Kyle is going through.

Then he meets Marley, a girl suffering from her own loss that she blames herself for. The same pain reflects in their eyes. Their feelings are the same yet unspoken. Their wounds begin to heal each other. And I don't know what happens next because I did not finish.

It is hard to read a love story when you dislike the characters. Kyle is the master of projecting his feelings on others and obsesses over Marley to the point where it's annoying. Their co-dependency (an issue I diagnosed as a reader and not purposely portrayed by the author) was the last straw for me. This couple was heading down a toxic rebound road and I didn't care to ride along.

Is this 30-fine-year-old black chick over the YA romance genre?!

Title: All This Time

Authors: Mikki Daughtry & Rachael Lippincott

Published: September 2020

Pages: 336

Edition: Hardcover

Rating: DNF

 

Love Your Life

"The End, I type carefully, and feel a knot of tension unravel deep within me." ~ 85%

Ditch the dating app and go on a writer's retreat! This is what Ava decides since she believes in feelings, not algorithms and filters. After a dating app debacle, she escapes to coastal Italy to finish writing the novel she dreams about. At the retreat she meets a man nicknamed "Dutch" and the two begin a whirlwind love affair. But when they return to London, both realize their real lives are way different. Not compatible at all! They love each other but not each other's lives.

"Life, huh? It's a shitshow." ~ 98%

I'm not over Sophie Kinsella. I'm really not over Sophie Kinsella. I am not over Sophie Kinsella. 

Her writing is often funny, heartwarming and light. Usually chick lit fiction helps me to escape reality. What better form of entertainment than a cute British read, right? But with a global pandemic and racial unrest surrounding me, it seemed too cute. It certainly did not help that the main character was unlikable throughout. There are times the novel jumps months and no kind of character growth is shown. You'd think I could relate to a single woman opting for a writer's retreat...but nope. 

I only finished reading on the strength of my being a Sophie Kinsella fan, having read all of her works and will continue to do so. Either bad timing or my own state of mind, Love Your Life was just okay overall. Nevertheless, if you can separate reality from fiction enough to lose yourself in a cute romance, Love Your Life is it!

Happy Pub Day to the Sophie Kinsella! Love Your Life is now available.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins.

Title: Love Your Life
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Published: October 2020
Pages: 432
Edition: Galley
Rating: 🖤 🖤

Series Sunday: Dear Justyce

(Dear Martin #2) 

Series Sunday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Read an installment of a series.
• Share your review/recommendation below.
• Include the title, author and series name.

"That he could run straight into a darkness so thick and complete, it would swallow him whole." ~ pg. 47

My Series Sunday pick is Dear Justyce, the second book in the Dear Martin series by Nic Stone. Justyce McAllister and Vernell LaQuan Banks grew up a block apart, went to the same elementary and middle school, had classes together and even shared the same hideout. But they turned out so different. While Justyce is walking the halls of Yale University, Quan is sitting behind bars of a youth detention center for a murder charge. Opposite paths!

I loved Dear Martin so was anxiously waiting for the sequel to release. I featured it on Coming Soon post. So imagine my disappointment when I had to implement my 50-Page Rule. Maybe it's me. I had trouble following the style: flashbacks, vignettes AND letters. It made the story seem disjointed. I am all for raising awareness of the American juvenile justice system but it was harder for me to figure out what the injustice was. I think the intended audience is young black men so I recommend they try reading and getting a lesson out of it. This 30-fine-year-old black chick did not finish!

Title: Dear Justyce

Author: Nic Stone

Published: 

Pages: 260

Edition: Hardcover

Rating: DNF

  

First Lines Friday

First Lines Friday is a bookish meme hosted by Literary Marie. I encourage all of my fellow book bloggers and bookhearts to play along.

• Grab your current read(s).
• Share the first line(s).
• Include the title and author.

"I refuse to acknowledge time, famously so."

~ The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey 

Breathless

"The loneliest place in the world is my house." ~ pg. 47

It's graduation season! Claudine is a graduate focused on college in the fall, becoming a famous author and the possibility of sex. The announcement of her parents splitting up shakes her world. Now she feels anything but stable. 

Her mom takes them on a quality-time trip to mend their broken hearts. There she meets Jeremiah, a local trail guide with a secretive past. Surprise, Surprise...Claudine decides to have "it's just sex" with Jeremiah with the notion that she won't fall in love or put her heart at risk. 🙄

I should have read the preview before borrowing from the library. Let me back up; I should have read the description before adding it to my TBR list. But I saw Jennifer Niven as author (All the Bright Places) and assumed it was a good read. Approaching my 50-Page Rule requirement and it was apparent that I wouldn't make it to page 381 with this sex-on-the-mind-complaining-about-mosquito-bites-whiny white teenager so this 30-fine-year-old black chick did not finish!

Title: Breathless

Author: Jennifer Niven

Published: October 2020

Pages: 381

Edition: Hardcover

Rating: DNF

  

Make Me Rain

"Good for us and all the Literate World." ~ 76%

What an honor, pleasure and delight to review an advance copy of Make Me Rain by one of thee most celebrated poets. This new collection speaks to the injustices of our society in Nikki Giovanni's signature sharp style. She even lets readers into her personal home life by sharing stories of loved ones and proudly displaying her black heritage through verse.

Nikki Giovanni minces no words. There is no guesswork in her prose. She unapologetically writes about racism, marriage, black athletes, the current political administration and shares her own truth. It's a treat whenever authors give a glimpse into their personal bubble. To get her perspective on the current state of our lives was enlightening and motivational. 

In the midst of today's highly emotional unpredictable times, read Make Me Rain to nourish your soul. I recommend. I stan, periodt.

Happy Pub Day to the G.O.A.T. Nikki Giovanni! Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose is now available.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins.

Title: Make Me Rain: Poems & Prose
Author: Nikki Giovanni
Published: October 2020
Pages: 128
Edition: Galley
Rating: 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤