Celebrity Reads Part 1

Recommendations Based on Celebrities

Part 1

Yeah, so this post doesn't really have a whole lot of sense to it, other than I wanted to give book recommendations because we could all use some reading right now, and I wanted to give it a fun theme too.
:)
I also realized that this was a lot longer than I thought it would be, so I took out half of the list and I will make that a Part 2 to this list later. 


Taylor Swift
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
"Admire" isn't a strong enough word for the sentiment I feel when I think about how amazing Taylor Swift's storytelling is. And the same applies for literally anything written by Sarah J. Maas in my opinion. The other series are phenomenal too, but ToG is 7 books long, so take your time and enjoy the nuances and twists and character developments. It's wonderful, just keep going and trust me on that one.


Theo James
Evelina by Frances Burney
Maybe little known, but Theo James was a producer on Sanditon, an amazing and beautiful adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished work. I think he also studied philosophy (?) which, combined with this production history, makes me think he would really enjoy the classics. Evelina is a treat in my opinion. I don't think it's as widely read, but it is so funny and so interesting.


Kerry Washington
Still Life by Louise Penny
The start to a mystery series, Still Life is set in a cute little Canadian town and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is the new Sherlock/Pirot. It edges just a little bit on the side of a cozy, but there's still a lot of good mystery and small town relationship exploration there to make it a full mystery. Based on the intense roles that she has had, I think she would really love a good mystery that had this extra complexity of exploring town life.




Michael B. Jordan
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The first thing I think of when I think of Michael B. Jordan is Killmonger from Black Panther. There's also all the Creed movies, but generally these are action-packed intense character development stories. So is An Ember in the Ashes! It's set in a world inspired by ancient Rome and the training that Elias and Helene go through is intense, to say the least. There's just so much strength in these characters, in all sorts of different forms. 


Amandla Stenberg
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
To this day, I associate Amandla Stenberg with Rue from The Hunger Games. She has done so much more since that, I know (like The Hate U Give and Everything, Everything --> great stuff, go read and watch), but to my brain I first knew her as Rue. With that, another dystopian book that I really enjoyed is Article 5.  I know some people have been so done with dystopians for ages now, but if you're not, voila- a (hopefully) new dystopian for you.


John Legend
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
This recommendation is a weird brain child of combining some La La Land vibes with a love for music. If you don't remember, John Legend was in La La Land and it was amazing, and then I needed a book with music in it because. . . John Legend, ya know? SO, Eleanor and Park. :) I personally haven't read this book yet, which is tragic, but I have only ever heard glowing reviews about how adorable and heartwarming this story is.


Florence Pugh
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
It seems to me that Florence Pugh has really only taken super serious, dramatic roles so far in her career. And while I haven't seen Midsommar because I don't handle horror well, there's also stuff like Lady Macbeth and Little Women. I think she would really like Shatter Me because (A) Juliette is a strong female lead, and (B) it is a little psycho and intense, which I love and think fits into the other roles that Florence Pugh has taken on so far.




Ken Jeong
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This book has been around for awhile, and I still think just so highly of it. It's a WWII book about Liesel, a young girl growing up in Germany and how she processes death and the horrors around her. I picked it for Ken Jeong for two reasons. (1) There are some funny moments in this despite the intensity, and Ken Jeong is hilarious. (2) There is a great father figure in this book and not only does he play a great father in Crazy Rich Asians, but I get great-father vibes from him in general.


Emma Watson
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Another Brooklyn is one of those rare books that somehow is able to check so many different literary and storytelling boxes that the only way I can describe it is that it is a beautiful work of literature. I don't know if Our Shared Shelf has read it ever, but if they haven't, then they totally should. And if the group won't read it, I still think it's an Emma Watson book because it shows a shade of the female experience in such a wonderful, articulate manner.


Idris Elba
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The main Idris Elba role that I first think of for him is the one from all the Marvel/Thor movies. Because those are very action based, I thought I would give an action based book. Also, I just straight up love this book and this series and needed to find a way to fit it onto the list. While there are the Divergent movies, I highly highly highly recommend reading the books. Please. Read the books. Whether you've already seen the movies are plan to never see them, go read the books. :)

Thanks for reading and stay safe!
Part 2 to come!

Review of Crave by Tracy Wolff

Crave by Tracy Wolff

4.07 out of 5 Stars

I feel like this book could spark some big controversies and opinions, but at the end of the day, I really just got sucked into the story, cheesy moments and dramatics and all. Crave is the story you get when you take the odds and ends of Harry Potter and Twilight and put them together. Remember how there used to be "games" where you can create new crayons out of old melted crayons? Crave is the new crayon.

I could see myself giving this a higher rating IF the beginning wasn't as awkward as it was. That's really the biggest, and maybe even only, reason why I can't give this above a 4.5. I can get past a couple of awkward scenes or developments throughout a book, but the first 25-30% of this book had some severe awkwardness in the development. At one point, it was super self-aware as a YA romance/new girl/bad boy story, and I literally had to put the book down I was laughing and cringing so hard. Maybe some people enjoy that, but the way that self-awareness was executed was like a punch in the face. It got so much better though after the beginning and I literally couldn't stop reading.

Spoilers Below

Plot:
One of the ways that this felt like an homage or a throwback to early/mid-10's YA was the setup. We got no parents (which hasn't faded out of YA, let's be honest), moving from a big warm city to small cold town, the bad boy in the school, the boarding school, angst. . . a classic recipe. I sort of saw the ending with Lia coming, but it was still gripping when the final scenes came about. And I'm really interested to get more information about where the hell Grace and Hudson are now, because that whole last chapter was kind of vague.

It's mostly all about Grace though and how she is almost killed multiple times for different reasons. Again, this is hella dramatic, but I was here for it. The different motivations were also interesting. Flint wanted her dead to save the world. Lia wanted her dead for revenge and to get love back. There are probably other people out there who want her dead just because. And NOW, she and Jaxon are officially together, so there's an extra target on top of the fact that, suprise!, she's actually not human. She's a gargoyle, which I'm so curious about now because we don't see any other gargoyles and apparent they're super rare. But her dad was a warlock, so was her mom a gargoyle in secret? What else can she do with her gargoyle-powers?

Speaking of creatures, I also really really really loved that there were dragons. I don't know why-- maybe I just loved Flint. But I also don't think dragons with human forms are ever really seen, at least not in YA lit. I just want to see more of them I think. Also, in the back of my mind, I keep spinning the scene between Flint and Grace in the library in my mind. What was that? Is that a ship?

Characters:
Grace:
Grace was pretty cool. My heart went out to her the most and I don't think we're done seeing her cope with the loss of her parents yet. Especially not with the bomb that Lia dropped at the end. I could totally see that revelation pop up at least one more time or haunt her in some way, even as things are going fast paced around her. Speaking of fast, I really loved seeing a YA character embrace and initiate a relationship that she's interested in. I know that she felt the ability to act on her feelings toward Jaxon because of what she learned from the accident, but I think that just shows a certain kind of growth for her character. I'm having trouble thinking of too many other YA books/characters where the female protagonist felt comfortable enough to show her interest in someone, even knowing she may get turned away.

Jaxon:
I love that Jaxon was the stereotypical bad guy warning the main character away with vague threats and comments. But then you peel back the curtain and he's actually all gushy inside and has a stellar moral compass that said bad-y refuses to acknowledge. Jaxon does have his issues. Like, he's a bit too assertive and temperamental, but I think Grace handles that well. The biggest thing I want to see from Jaxon is how he balances Grace being stone and the possibility of his brother coming back to wreck havoc on the world. I think... (and this is very speculative) he would want to take back the "hero" title he refused from Grace. I don't necessarily see him shutting Grace out of the Hudson-debacle, but I could totally see him raising his protectiveness up a dozen or hundred notches since Grace saved him.

An interlude:
One word- mates. I am TRAAAAAASH for a good mate-ship. I'm so beyond curious though as to how mates and those bonds work in this world. In Twilight for example, Bella is Edward's "mate," but it doesn't seem like a primordial spiritual bond between them. It's more like a marriage. That isn't what the mate thing sounds like in this one. This version of "mates" sounds a lot more like a Sarah J. Maas mating where you don't get a say in it. Like, it's there. Jaxon does mention something about Grace needing to accept the mating, but we don't how she would do that. Will it be like ACOTAR and she needs to offer him a bowl of soup or something? Whatever it is, we all know that Jaxon knows about the mate thing, and Grace knows about the mate thing, but neither character knows that the other knows. *UGH* Dramatic irony...

Flint:
So I know Flint tried to kill Grace, but I loved him and I'm glad Grace understood where he was coming from. Because it wasn't like he was trying to kill her for spite or power. He didn't even want to kill her, but he needed to. And before that, he was so kind to her, probably just to get close to her to kill her, but still. That moment in the hallway at the end makes me believe that he genuine does want to be friends with her. ALSO, I need someone else to tell me what they think of that adorable scene between them in the library. Because, while I love Jaxon and I'm 99% sure that's my ship, there's a tiny voice in the back of my head poking at that scene with the marshmallows. I don't know, but I think there is the small possibility of a love triangle even with the mate stuff going on.

Macy:
I want Macy to teach Grace some magic. :) I actually don't even know if that would ever be a thing because Grace is a gargoyle, but her dad was a warlock, so I'm just generally confused as to what that means for her. Macy is just such a sweet character though and I love how her bubbly energy lifts the mood of the story. Her earnestness and protectiveness makes her the perfect bff/family member for the story.

Lia:
Not gonna lie, I saw Lia being the bad guy pretty early on. I don't think it was poorly done or anything, but whenever she wanted Grace to drink some tea I just thought, "Nope. Don't drink the tea." It was like in horror movies when someone's about to go into the dark basement with no protection. You just know it's not going to be good. Lia's character was actually pretty sympathetic though, especially since we've now seen how attached Grace and Jaxon are to each other after only a week. So compare that to Lia and Hudson's relationship for like a year and I could totally see how she would be in that much pain over Hudson's death.

World:
I think I will always love a boarding school fantasy setup. I just will. It also made complete sense in my mind for this school to be in the middle of like a mountain in Alaska. It just all really worked for the scenery. HUGE question though: when was this edited??? I loved the pop music references because I knew them and I love "Put a Little Love On Me" by Niall Horan, but that came out early December. This came out two days ago. That's a four month turnaround for that song to get added in and I'm just sitting here like, huh...? Just a passing thought, that's all.

I think there's actually a lot more going on in this world than what we go to see in the book. Like, the casual mention that Jaxon is the vampire prince (because, of course) could lead to a lot of interesting exploration of the vampire politics. Grace is his mate, but she's not a vampire, or even human I guess. What does that mean for them? Are Jaxon's parents going to throw a hissy fit? Will Grace have to become a vampire? There's so many possibilities running through my head.

There's also the larger political relations between the different species(?). The DrAMa betwen the vampires and dragons for example. What's going to happen there? Are Jaxon and Flint going to fix their friendship? What would that mean for their species? Does each group have a "royal" family or something? Is there like a giant all-species summit once a year? How does this all work? I hope we get to see more of this in future books.

Crave is just what I was craving. (I'm not even sorry for that sentence, just accept it.) It was fun, it dramatic, it had magic and fantastical beings. . . it was great. Some weird moments to start with, but by the end I was shipping people, I was rooting for the characters, and I so badly want the next book. I would definitely recommend this one to pretty much everyone. I think people may sometimes need to remember to just enjoy a read. Enjoy the ride! It's so much fun!

WAIT! I just saw that Universal has already picked up the movie rights to this. Ummmmmmm.... what??? Holy ----. This really is the beginning of like a second Twilight wave. :):):)

Thanks for reading!

Review of The Redpoint Crux by Morgan Shamy

The Redpoint Crux by Morgan Shamy

3.86 out of 5 Stars

~ Thank you to The Parliament House and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ~

No Spoilers :)

***Lets out a long, low whistle.***
 So, first things first, holey moley I got some really great creepy vibes out of this book. In terms of genre, I think it may be a little confused. It's most clearly a mystery, but there are paranormal undertones that are roped in and out of the story a bit inconsistently for me to decisively say that this book is also a paranormal. A part of me also wants to call it a horror story, but that could just be me getting easily creeped out. The atmosphere was great though. It was excellently creepy and cold and added to the paranoia around the city.

The Redpoint Crux was a surprising twist in my reading schedule. I didn't realize it was going to be as dark as it ended up being, but creepiness aside, the way Shamy describes the theater and the ballet was beautiful. I seriously want to see a live performance of Giselle now. I don't know that I would ever pick it up in a bookstore for myself, but I could definitely see myself recommending this to some friends that are more into creepy/mystery/horror(?) genres.

I'm not sure I completely enjoyed the character development. There were times when I thought the relationships could have been drawn out a bit more, or even have more scenes between the characters to draw out the connections and the plot more. I also don't buy that Liam, a 19-year-old, would be running a theater. I could be very wrong about that and maybe that sort of situation could happen in reality. But, I just had to swallow it in this book and it didn't go down easily. I do however, know that I liked the banter between Meg and Bellamy. I'm not sure if it was an entirely good relationship, but they definitely had strong chemistry on the page.

The biggest issue I took the book was that, and I'm about 85% sure about this, there's a massive plot-hole. I don't want to spoil the book so I won't say what it is, but I finished the book and was like, "But. . . what about. . ." It wasn't super frustrating because I really liked the ending as a whole, but it still is just dangling in my mind unresolved.

I loved the mystery. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out the murderer with way the characters were laid out and introduced. I also really loved how ballet was described in the book. I have never done ballet; I have never studied ballet; I don't know anyone in ballet. There's something so potent though about a niche or fine art like that being described by someone who lived it.

Thanks for reading!

Review of That Night in Paris by Sandy Barker

That Night in Paris by Sandy Barker

3.46 out of 5 Stars

~ Thank you to One More Chapter and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ~

No Spoilers :)

That Night in Paris was such a cute little break. It's essentially a road trip, but it's a road trip across Europe and there was an adorable romance that I had fun reading. 

We follow Catherine on this last-minute trek on an organized bus tour to places including Paris (lol duh), Venice, Rome, Amstersdam, etc., etc. She and the small group of friends that she forms each have their own romance troubles but in a low-key adorable re-meet cute, Catherine runs into an old childhood friend who has had a serious glow-up since they've last talked. All of the characters are a little cliche, but Jean Luc was a literal dream and the romance between him and Catherine was very charming.

My favorite part of this was the romance element to it. If I were to break down the book into two plots, there would be the romantic plot, and the traveling plot. The romance part was the part of the book that I really enjoyed. It was sweet and relatively simple and made the book something that I could totally see me reading on vacation somewhere. There was just enough of a bump in the road to happiness to make me want to pick the book back up, but it wasn't so gripping that I was on the edge of my seat. It had a nice relaxed tone around it. 

Maybe surprisingly, I didn't really love the traveling plot of the book. There is something that is almost compellingly interesting about a random group of strangers bonding and spending so much time together, but it wasn't carrying the day for me. Also, while the descriptions of the different locations were beautiful (I definitely added some to Pinterest), I just got to the point where I wanted less of that and more of the romance between Catherine and Jean Luc. 

This would for real be a great vacation book for anyone. It's more than because the characters are all on vacation; there's a lightness to the atmosphere and sweetness to it that is refreshing. The series is perfectly titled as "Holiday Romance Books."


Thanks for reading!

Review of Anna K by Jenny Lee

Anna K by Jenny Lee

4.17 out of 5 Stars

~ Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ~

So this book was a lot of fun to read (until I was crying at the end but that's fine) and it was definitely an interesting mix up from the last book I read which was a mystery/thriller. The narration had a near-flippant, gossipy kind of tone to it, which I really enjoyed and I think fit perfectly for the story. Anna K was a little on the long end, but from looking at my own copy of Anna Karenina, that book was a long one too so the reimagining fits the original perfectly in that regard. Admittedly, I haven't read Anna Karenina, so I can't make any other comparisons to the inspiration for this book.

Plot: 
The story follows a lot of extremely wealthy teenagers in high-society Manhattan. There were times it was insanely fun to see how they spent their money and the kinds of things that they would be able to do, who they knew, etc., etc. For example, it's crazy to think they could have a dinner party with like five new celebrities and then throw an all-out party with tents and themes, but damn was it fun to read. And then there were other times that I thought the display of wealth was a little too over the top. Then again, they're wealthy teenagers with close to zero parental supervision, so I could still believe it. 

What I really enjoyed though about the plot was that it took an extreme (kids with crazy amounts of money), and brought those characters closer to the average person by connecting them through common courtesy, friendships, pets, and awkward teenage interactions. Yeah, they had some pompous airs about them, but like, Bea is going to look out for Murph to make sure he's having a good time at her party. Those little details of these kids' awareness about their surroundings really brought a nice touch to the story.

Characters: 
There were soooo many freaking characters. It was almost frustrating at times because while it was all third person, we would go from Anna to Stephen to Lolly to Kimmie to Dustin to Bea to Vronsky and honestly it was a little maddening. Just as one character's chapter started to really get me hooked, the next chapter would be someone else's plot entirely.

The characters had pretty interesting dynamics but oh my God, Anna and Vronsky-
Definition.
Of.
InstaLove. 
For real, if you don't like InstaLove, you will go insane over this relationship. This is also what ultimately led to me crying of course, but at the beginning, I remember chuckling and thinking, **** is happening, these kids just met. Not all of the relationships are like that though. Stephen and Lolly certainly aren't and Kimmie has a really interesting arc throughout the book, so not every relationship is instantaneous. They actually all had different nuances that they were trying figure out for themselves, both as individuals and as couples, and it made for a good coming-of-age.

Writing: 
Right when I started reading, I imagined the narrator sitting back, taking all the attention from the room, and going, "All right, here's the tea." The tone just fit perfectly for the story, being completely lighthearted when things were going great, drawing out the tension when there was drama going on, and taking the hard stuff serious. I really enjoyed it. I could see where some people might think it is an immature narrator, but to me it sounded like a teenager embellishing a story to a group of friends. Maybe a bit over the top, but the story itself is about kids who can drink away $700 dollars in a single shot, so again, it fits. 




I'm so excited for the HBO adaptation of this! Where it might fall short as a book, I think a TV show can really bring out the crazy and the nuances even more, without seeming like the story is taking too long. Plus, it's HBO, so I am going to have high expectations and I think they'll do a really good job with it in general.

Thanks for reading!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here are some books that fit the holiday and would be wonderful things to start if you're in the Irish St. Patty's Day mood!

Books Set in Ireland

The Call by Peadar O'Guilin 

Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale by Donna Jo Napoli

In the Woods by Tana French

Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly

The Wren Hunt by Mary Watson

Books by Irish Authors
The Accident Season by Moira Fowle
Dubliners by James Joyce
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Books with Fae and/or Faeries 

(I tried to go for lesser known ones, or at least, ones I don't really talk about)

Coexist by Julia Crane

Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Switched by Amanda Hocking

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa

**I myself have not read all of these.**
Thanks for reading! And HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!

Review of The June Boys by Court Stevens

The June Boys by Court Stevens

3.43 out of 5 Stars

~ Thank you to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review ~

While the formatting of the version I read this in was horrible, The June Boys was fairly good. It wasn't the most thrilling mystery I've ever read, but I was still intrigued enough to see it through. What The June Boys did best was give me strong atmospheric near-summery vibes, but there were moments every now and then that just didn't make logical sense to me. (Would an FBI agent really give the kids that much access, even as a relation?) It was just a little bit creepy. It had great emotional ideas behind it. It had an answer to the mystery that I enjoyed. I just wish I had a little bit more of all those things than what was given in the book.

Spoilers Below

Plot:
Personally, I don't think I'm the best authority as to if this mystery was predictable or not because I just let myself get dragged along for the ride without trying to piece it together. It was a strange way to read a mystery, but I didn't have the brain capacity at the time to try to engage more with the text. That being said, Welder's reveal at the end was a good one. It wasn't something that I saw coming and I enjoyed how it all came together as well as how it was all resolved after Welder dies.

Audiobook Cover

The concept for this book seems unique to me as well. Albeit, I don't read a lot of thrillers or mysteries, so I could be very off on this point. But the structure of the serial kidnappings and then breaking down Welder's psychology at the end are things that I don't think I've come across too frequently in pop culture, let along a YA book. I've maybe seen something like this in an episode of Criminal Minds, so I really enjoyed it because I haven't seen something specifically like this before.


Characters:
Thea: I feel like I couldn't really get a grasp on Thea's character. There were times that I thought she was so incredibly strong, even with the horrible things happening around her. But then there were times that I though she was a complete idiot. And especially given her role in the story as Aulus's cousin and one of the ones really out there constantly trying to find him, this got to be really frustrating at times. It was like I couldn't rely on her to make any decisions.

Nick: I liked Nick. He wasn't the greatest, but he wasn't completely flat either. He and Tank felt a little bit too much like stock characters to me, but I think in Nick's situation, it worked because it was twisted from the kidnappings. I really, really, wish there was a more in depth exploration of his relationship with Thea too because he's a full-time student and I would just love to know what his thoughts were on starting a relationship with someone because a loved one they had in common was kidnapped. I would love to know more of Thea's thoughts on this too.

Aulus: Aulus was easily my favorite character even though we saw him the least out of all the others. My heart hurt for him and his chapters were so sad, yet so hopeful that I couldn't help but feel the strongest about him. He was the tragedy, and even though he lived, his whole arc throughout the story was still horribly horribly tragic, and I think it was really well done.


Writing:
I really enjoyed the two points of view here. The formatting was so incredibly frustrating for Aulus's perspective because there would be random breaks and blank pieces of notebook paper and the images wouldn't line up. . . it wasn't pretty. Hell, it wasn't even readable at times. But I really enjoyed his perspective of things. It was a little confusing when Tank was in both his chapters as well as Thea's, but by around 50-60% of the way through I had figured out what was going on, and it just added to the suspense for me.

In Thea's chapters, I wish the writing brought us closer to the characters. There are clearly strong emotional ties between the characters driving the story forward, but it was all kept at a distance from me as a reader. I don't think this is necessarily because it was third person, but the narration in Thea's chapters was almost clinical at times. Her relationship with Nick, for example, I really wanted more from, and not just because I'm a sucker for a romance. There are glimpses of the bond that they've formed out of this tragedy but they're so random and objectively portrayed that it was hard to attach onto that emotion. This connection though ends up being important because they go through their own doubts about their relationship and need to completely trust each other at the end to find Aulus and Tank. It is an interesting relationship that was born out the loss of Aulus, and yet, it was deeply explored at all because the reader is kept so distant from the characters.

The June Boys was a nice mystery to break up my reading patterns. Despite the things that I couldn't suspend my disbelief about, I enjoyed myself while reading it. It was a great atmospheric book for a rainy day, I just wished I could connect to the characters some more.

Thanks for reading!