Penguin Teen hyped up this book so much! I was so excited for it, I snagged it when they offered it to me and couldn’t wait to start reading. But I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sucked into it like I thought I would be. This was more of a slow intro, a book to take your time with, and then, when everything is set up, then the fun begins.
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review. This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own.
I read a sample of this book on BookishFirst, and while I didn’t win a copy, I did find a book that I was dying to read! The sample was so good and immediately peaked my interest. I was so happy when Penguin Teen offered this as a book I could download for review, I immediately jumped on it.
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for review. This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own.
Holy. Shit.
I just finished this book. My mind is blown. I didn’t think I could read a book so intense with an ending that made me want to scream, but here I am. Literally screaming.
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review! This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own.
Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday!
I’m here with another reading update for this week. I think I’m on track for this month, but I will post a mid-month update on Friday with what I’ve read, what I’m reading, and what I plan to read for the rest of the month. This week has been okay – I read what I needed to read, but I have had a chance to finish the book I’m reading right now. Even though I’m loving it, my time has been split up a lot, so I hope to finish it soon!
I love the cover of this book and how simple, yet eerie it is. I wasn’t sure how scary or intense this book was going to be, but it ended up being really good and not too much! I love the historical fiction elements, the murder mystery, and the female empowerment all wrapped up into one book.
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review! This is a spoiler free, honest review, and all thoughts and feelings are my own.
One perk of being a Penguin Teen Partner is getting access to their titles early, usually through NetGalley, which means I get quite a few books to read ahead of time. I love being able to read the books early and help promote them come release day. Most of the ARC reviews I post are from books I read through NetGalley and without it, I wouldn’t have been given the chance to read and review them early. If you haven’t check out NetGalley yet, I highly recommend it!
So, here are some of the most recently downloaded titles I received from Penguin Teen through NetGalley!
Okay, listen. I know I’ve been reading a lot of paranormal thrillers (I mean, come on, they’re so good!) and I know we’re ready for some new genres, but listen. LISTEN! This book is so, so good and it just came out on Tuesday, so you need to do me a favor and pick it up ASAP!!!
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review. This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own!
Another day, another thriller novel review! But this one is just thriller, no paranormal/fantasy thriller today. I know, you’re so sad! I promise you though – this book is so good. And terrifying. I was dumb enough to read this late into the night and ended up finishing it at 2am. Yeah, not a great idea. But I can definitely say that this book will creep you out and scare the heck out of you. So, let’s dive in!
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review! This is an honest, spoiler free review and all thoughts and feelings are my own.
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I managed to snag an ARC of Goddess in the Machine at YALLFest 2019 with my friend Grace and I really liked it! It was hard to get into at first with the changes in vocab and syntax from the futuristic characters, but once I got the hang of things, I was so excited for the story.
Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an e-ARC and a finished copy of the sequel, Devil in the Device, for review! This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own.
***This may contain spoilers for the first book, Goddess in the Machine. If you’ve not read the first book, feel free to check out my spoiler free review here, or proceed at your own risk!
Welcome back to another review of a paranormal thriller! If you missed these, me too, so I’m back again to review the upcoming release of Dark and Shallow Lies!
Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for review. This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own! And with that, let’s dive in.
I have been reading so much fantasy lately that I needed something different to switch things up. I loved They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman and I was so excited to receive an e-ARC of her next book, They’ll Never Catch Us! While both murder mystery/thrillers, these books have totally different vibes and I was happy to see this book wasn’t a carbon copy or remixed version of her debut.
If you haven’t read They Wish They Were Us, no worries! These stories are unrelated, so you can read one and not the other. If you want to check out my review of They Wish They Were Us though, you can find it here!
A gender-bent Beauty and the Beast retelling. A world where curses are given out like candy. A thief brought in to help a beast find a husband, but is he willing to give her up?
This book sounded so good and I was so excited to receive a copy from Penguin Teen!
I am obsessed with this cover and after reading the contents of this book, I’m obsessed with this story too. While I have some issues on background and the general spooky world, mostly the lack of information, this book is too good not to read. This book made me cry and think and feel so many different things that I read it in less than three hours because I couldn’t put it down.
Thank you to TBR & Beyond Tours for allowing me to participate in this tour! Be sure to follow along with the tour schedule and check out all of the other amazing posts!
As a Penguin Teen Influencer, I get access to e-ARCs of their upcoming titles and because of that, sometimes they’ll ask if they can use part of my review in their promotion for the book. I’ve had one of my quotes used before for House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland and now, another one has been used for The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass!!!!
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae back in 2019 and since then, I’ve been obsessed! I couldn’t wait for the sequel and oh my goodness, it lived up to my expectations and then some!! If you haven’t read The Kinder Poison, check out my spoiler free review here!
Have you ever wondered what an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery would be like with an island full of influencers? Well, then this book is the one for you! With a bisexual main character and a lot of horrendous jokes, this book is such a middle of the road read for me, I can’t even explain it.
Honestly, I requested this book solely based on the cover. The colors, the two girls staring at each other lovingly, the lightening – everything was coming together and screaming “READ ME!!!”
And what I got was a complex story about two girls trying to survive the end of the world and it was so freaking good!
Ah high school. It’s so bizarre to think I graduated six years ago. I haven’t walked the halls or gone to classes and yet this book pulled me right back in and I loved it. With this enemies to lovers story, two rivals do everything in their power to outdo the other leading to an intensely passionate relationship that I am IN LOVE WITH.
I am a big thriller fan, but I’ve never been someone who could get into horror. While this isn’t Stephen King esque, it is pretty gruesome and intense and there were several moments that I had to take a break to calm my heart rate down. But this book was so fantastic that I could get past all of the horror elements because I had to know what was going on. The mystery of this world, of Sophia’s experience, and the disappearances on this island captivated me and I absolutely loved it!
I was so excited for this book. I really, really was. But once I started reading it, the only thing I could think of was “please stop”. It was tragic.
Ever since this book came on my radar, I knew I was going to love it. This book took what I thought I knew, twisted it on its head, and spat it back at me. I am still reeling at what I read.
I finished the Seafire trilogy and I’m so sad!! But thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me a finished copy for review. I have loved this series since June 2018, which feels like forever ago, and I’m so grateful to have been able to follow along with this series since the beginning.
I won an ARC of The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold from BookishFirst, so thank you BookishFirst and Penguin Teen for sending me a copy! I was pulled in by the premise and the first few chapters and wow, this book only gets better from there! I absolutely loved this story and once I got halfway through I physically could not put this book down.
I received an e-ARC of Meme by Aaron Starmer through NetGalley from Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve been on such a thriller kick recently I couldn’t resist requesting this book. This is one of the titles from Penguin’s Influencer group and it was a really good pick. I honestly think I’ll re-read it for the spooky season and if you’re hunting for spooky books to read this year, you’ll want to check this one out!
I received this book from Penguin Teen through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
First off, can we just admire this cover? Like, I absolutely love how beautiful it is. And the contents match it. This book was so beautiful and healing for me, I couldn’t put it down. With less than 300 pages, this was a book I devoured in two sittings – 50% before bed, 50% when I woke up. I really enjoyed Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour and couldn’t stop myself from reading.
I received an ARC of Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher from Penguin Teen through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I don’t think I’ve ever written a DNF (did not finish) review before, so this is a first. Usually when I DNF a book, it’s not an ARC I’ve been given by the publisher for review, it’s one that I decided to read on my own. After the whole debacle on Sunday regarding an author calling out a reviewer for DNF-ing and posting a “bad” review on Goodreads, I am a little nervous to post my thoughts.
But, the whole point of reviewing books are to review them, good or bad. So I’m gonna talk about why I DNFed this book and what my thoughts are. Surprisingly, they’re not bad at all!
I received an eARC of Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho from Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review.
Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
I received a copy of The Whitsun Daughters by Carrie Mesrobian from Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review.
So my initial read of the description got me really excited! Until I got to the ending. There were so many good things in this book and then it ultimately flopped for me. There will be some spoilers in this review, but I have marked them in case you want to remain spoiler free.
I received an electronic galley of The Companion by Katie Alender from Penguin Teen in exchange for an honest review. This review will be spoiler free.
Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:
The other orphans say Margot is lucky.
Lucky to survive the horrible accident that killed her family.
Lucky to have her own room because she wakes up screaming every night.
And finally, lucky to be chosen by a prestigious family to live at their remote country estate.
But it wasn’t luck that made the Suttons rescue Margot from her bleak existence at the group home. Margot was handpicked to be a companion to their silent, mysterious daughter, Agatha. At first, helping with Agatha–and getting to know her handsome older brother–seems much better than the group home. But soon, the isolated, gothic house begins playing tricks on Margot’s mind, making her question everything she believes about the Suttons . . . and herself.
Margot’s bad dreams may have stopped when she came to live with Agatha – but the real nightmare has just begun.
I’ve been on a thriller/horror kick recently, so when I received this book from Penguin Teen, I was jumping for joy! I really enjoyed this story and how it builds up on itself. We go from a somewhat calm beginning to terror filled mayhem and it was pretty epic!
For starters, poor Margot is suffering from nightmares after she is the sole survivor in a car crash that killed her entire family. After losing all her friends and no family to take her in, Margot ends up at a group home. Luckily, her father saved the life of Mr. Sutton, who wants to repay his debt by taking Margot in.
But Margot is not brought in selflessly – they want her to be a companion for Agatha, who has come down with a mysterious illness. Unable to talk, barely take care of herself, and generally absent from reality, Agatha isn’t much of a bother. Weird things start happening in the house and Margot realizes that things aren’t what they seem.
There were some moments in this book where I thought this was going to be a ghost story. If you’re not into that, don’t worry, it’s not! But from the creepiness level of this book it was a strong possibility. Margot experiences some scary and weird things in the house and those experiences alone would have made me run screaming for the hills. I don’t know why she didn’t run on the first day!
This book was not only very well written, but the story, the cast of characters, and Margot’s experiences made this book one of my favorite thrillers. I had suspicions on what exactly was happening, but the ending still blew my mind! I really liked the set up of Agatha and Margot’s friendship. Even though Agatha is not coherent, they still manage to communicate and cultivate a trusting friendship. It was really cool to watch this progression, especially later on in the book as Margot starts to figure out that something isn’t quite right.
One thing I didn’t like about the story though was the ending. Specifically, the fact that it ends so shortly. We get some kind of resolution, but not enough details that I felt satisfied. The book leads up to the climatic moment and the resolution afterwards fell flat for me. I either wanted a better recap of what happened or another scene before the end that explains what is going on. The ending is just too short and quick in my opinion. It’s why I can’t give this book 5 stars.
While the ending may have not been to my liking, the rest of the book is so well thought out and planned, I’m still reeling over what happened. The last 25% of the book was so fast paced and intense I didn’t want to look away to take a sip of water. With a different ending, this book probably be a 5 stars for me, but with what we have, this is a 
.5 // 5 stars. The Companion releases on August 25th, 2020, so be sure to preorder your copy today!
Thank you again to Penguin Teen for sending me a copy for review!
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If this sounds interesting, check out They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman
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We Write At Dawn 