Showing posts with label Wednesday Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wednesday Books. Show all posts

Friday, January 31, 2020

Book Review: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord


Tweet Cute
By: Emma Lord
Published: January 21, 2020
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Add to: Goodreads
Source: eARC from the publisher in exchange for a honest review
A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected. 


Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account. 

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time. 

All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built. 

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.



My Thoughts:

Tweet Cute was a delightful and charming read! If you are looking for a light-hearted, feel-good romance, look no further.  Pepper and Jack had me smiling and giggling, like I was back in high school. 

Pepper misses small town living and the family deli, where she grew up in Nashville. As the family business, Big League Burger grew, her parents grew apart and divorced. Now living in New York alone with her mom, Pepper demands perfection from herself.  She gets straight A's, is in all A.P. classes, and is captain of her private school swim team.  However, Pepper is lonely.  She misses her older sister Paige, who is estranged from her mother, her dad who still lives in Nashville, and the life she use to have.  Living in the big city is vastly different from the comforts of small town living, everyone knowing each other, and the ease of built in friendships.

Jack works hard in his family's deli, Girl Cheesing.  He is tired of living in the shadow of his identical twin Ethan, who is very popular, successful in school, and expected to leave high school and do big things; while it is expected that
Jack will run the family business one day.  Jack is resentful and has secret ambitions of developing apps.  He anonymously develops Weazel an app where the teens from his school are paired up with another person, but identities are kept secret.


When Big League Burger steals Grandma Belly's grilled cheese sandwich recipe and posts it on twitter, Jack is outraged.  He tweets a comment that ends up sparking a twitter war between him and Pepper.  Pepper is pressured by her mother to post tweets on the corporate page, because she has quick and witty comebacks, while Jack, and at times Ethan, post tweets on their family business' page.

As secret pen pals on Weazel, and anonymous comments on twitter pile up, these two interact with one another all day long, and don't even know it!  However, in real life Pepper and Jack start getting closer due to participating in swim captain duties for their high school.

I loved all of the interaction between Jack and pepper.  It was fun, sarcastic and witty at times, sweet at times, and all around such a great time.  I love #pepperjack!  These two connected with one another on such a deep level, and filled emotional needs in one another.  They became best friends, each other's biggest support, and I was rooting for them to figure everything out and be together!

If your looking for a super sweet, cute, fun, feel-good story, pick up Tweet Cute!  It was such a delightful treat!!!






Connect with Emma Lord:


Monday, April 8, 2019

Book Review: Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1) by Emily A. Duncan



Wicked Saints
Something Dark and Holy #1

By:
Emily A. Duncan

Published:
April 2, 2019

Publisher:
St. Martin's Press

Add to:
Goodreads

Source:
eARC from publisher for honest review

Book Synopsis:

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself. 

A prince in danger must decide who to trust. 

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings. 

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war. 

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy..



My Thoughts:


I was attracted to Wicked Saints when I read the book synopsis.  It sounded magical, and I've been on a fantasy reading binge lately!  This made Wicked Saints the perfect choice for my next reading adventure!

A century of holy war has raged between Kalyazin and Tranavia.  Seventeen year old Nadezhda "Nadya" Lapteva resides in a secluded monastery in the mountains with her best friend Kostya, where she is to be protected at all costs.  Nadya can communicate with the gods and goddesses, and they give her their power, magic, and language to speak powerful spells into existence.  Marzenya, goddess of magic, sacrifice, and death, is Nadya's patron in the pantheon, and claimed her as an infant.  

The Tranavians use blood magic, a dark and powerful magic.  Their magic profanes the gods and is the antithesis of the Kalyazins form of magic.  There is none more powerful than the Tranavian High Prince, who is just a couple of years older than Nadya. If he were to take her, her blood and magic could be used to make him even more powerful. When the Tranavians overrun the monastery in search of Nadya, dear mentors and friends are forced to sacrifice themselves, so that she can escape.  The Kalyazins believe that she is powerful enough to win the war for them.

While on the run, Nadya and her friend Anna, an ordained priestess, meet and team up with Parijahan (a girl that wants Nadya to murder the Tranavian King), Rashid, and Malachiasz, a Tranavian Mage.  Thus, begins Nadya's perilous and magical journey... Simultaneously, Tranavian Prince Serefin Meleski, and his friends and fellow soldiers, Ostyia, and Kacper are in pursuit of Nadya. 

I enjoyed the opening scene of the story!  I thought it was an excellent beginning and had my undivided attention.  However, after that first scene, the story didn't continue to hold my interest.  I felt like the plot wasn't moving fast enough for me.  I was bored, and found myself falling asleep each time I would attempt to read more of the story.  

I liked that we got the dual viewpoints of Nadya and Serefin, the Tranavian High Prince.  I enjoyed the supporting characters, the elements of the different forms of magic, and learning about the opposing viewpoints on religion, politics, and magic.  I found the Vultures of Tranavia; twisted, violent, powerful and dark blood mages, that were no longer human, and instead had become monster-like; to be extremely fascinating.

Overall, this story had a lot of ups and downs for me.  There were moments of fascination and interest, as well as a majority of moments of boredom, where the plot fell flat, and  the story just wasn't moving fast enough.  This story just wasn't for me and didn't measure up to my high hopes.    



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Purchase At:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble 



About Emily A. Duncan:

Emily A. Duncan was born and raised in Ohio and works as a youth services librarian. She received a Master’s degree in library science from Kent State University, which mostly taught her how to find obscure Slavic folklore texts through interlibrary loan systems. When not reading or writing, she enjoys playing copious amounts of video games and dungeons and dragons. She is represented by Thao Le of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.