Mama Needs a Book Club

<iI Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book follows Fixie Farr, a girl tragically still obsessed with her high school crush at 30. Fixie works in her family’s hardware store, Farrs, just as she’s done for years, when one day she has a chance meeting in a coffee shop with a man who might just be “the one.” After saving his laptop from a roof leak, he leaves her with an IOU, which leads to repeated meetings in order to cash in the IOUs that they pass back and forth from that day on.

Overall, I’d say this book is cute, but nowhere close to as good as all of Sophie Kinsella’s other novels. I’ve been reading Kinsella’s books for over a decade now, ever since I came across Confessions of a Shopaholic in high school and I’ve loved them all. If you’re looking for a quick chick-lit read or are a big sophie kinsella fan, I’d say give this one a chance.

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Master of His Fate by Barbara Taylor Bradford

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ok, I’m not even sure what I just read here.

Master of his Fate follows two characters, Alexis Malvern and James Falconer over a period of time until their lives inevitably intertwine. I really can’t give you more detail on the plot because not much else happens. Its just these two characters going about their daily lives.

I really wanted to like this book because I know I’ve read other books by Barbara Taylor Bradford before and enjoyed them, so I specifically requested a copy of this book to review. But man, it was a struggle to get through. I think I read more about what the two characters were wearing than actual events that happened to them. Overall, I cannot recommend this book unless you are just a diehard fan of the author.

However, I do want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC digital copy to review.

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OK, apparently I forgot to post my review of this book to my blog even though I finished it a while ago and had posted it to goodreads! Full Review below:

Cassie is a 26 year old firefighter based out of Austin, TX. After an “interpersonal conflict” she is forced to relocate to Rockport and live with her estranged mother (*gasp*). This book explores Cassie’s relationship with her mother as well as her tough new assignment at a fire station that doesn’t look too kindly on female firefighters. But Cassie is hellbent on proving herself and doesn’t mean to fall in love in the process….

I was excited to read this book as I received an ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press. I have never read Katherine Center’s books before, and I was pleasantly surprised to be pulled in by Cassie’s character right away. I was rooting for her the entire journey. It’s such a sweet love story while also hitting on some harder topics in the process. Overall I would recommend this book! I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Today I became a professional reader! More on this later, but the link to NetGalley is below:

I received an ARC of this book from penguin random house (thank you). Had I not received a free copy, I probably would not have picked it out for myself. However, I ended up really liking it! It’s a cute rom-com story about a 30 year old Indian girl who agrees to go on a series of dates set up by her nani because apparently being un-married at 30 is unacceptable. I would definitely recommend giving this book a try if you are looking for a light fluffy chick lit read.

I read this book because I won it in a goodreads giveaway….that is also the only reason I finished reading this book. I feel like this book had a lot of potential: the plot was there, the storyline was intriguing, and I liked the main character. However, this book needed a heavy edit. Half of the reason for the poor rating is because it read like a stream of consciousness, which I personally find extremely difficult to read. I.e. it read like “I did this. Then i did this. This is how i felt about it.”

I appreciated the opportunity to read this book and hope that the author keeps writing.

Welcome to my new blog! I created this blog because very few of my friends read (I mean they say they do, but in my opinion, one book a year doesn’t count) and I wanted somewhere that I could share my opinions about books and other book-ish things. Another reason that I started this blog is that I just had a baby boy in May and didn’t read any books for 3+ months. When I finally picked up a book again last week I realized how important books and reading were to me and how much I hadn’t felt like myself when I wasn’t reading.

A little more about my reading habits:

I will pretty much give any type of book a try, especially if a book comes highly recommended. However, I mostly read YA novels (particularly those involving some sort of fantasy/magic type element), historical fiction, and contemporary fiction. I also occasionally will read sci-fi. But, above all else, if its Harry Potter related, I will read it. Love me some Harry Potter.

I won an ARC of this book from goodreads. First, I’ll admit, I thought the goodreads giveaways were a scam. I’ve been entering them for YEARS and have never won anything. But then, all of a sudden, three days into my maternity leave, I got an email from goodreads saying that I’d won a giveaway!! I was so excited to read Furyborn, since not only was it a free book, but it’s one that I had wanted to read anyway. Since the book arrived only a few days after I had a baby, it got put on the shelf for awhile. Once I picked it up though, I couldn’t stop reading and finished it in only 3 days.

This book is really good if you are a fan of YA magic/fantasy novels (my favorite).  It reminded me a lot of the grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, but was different enough to keep me interested. I really enjoyed how the author juxtaposed the two stories from the past and the future and wove them into one cohesive story. Overall I would recommend reading.

See below for links to the books discussed:

To see other books that I’ve read this year, please visit my goodreads account!

 
my read shelf: