Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

Of Curses and Kisses (St. Rosetta’s Academy #1) by Sandhya Menon
Publisher/Year: Simon Pulse, 2020
Format: ARC – paperback
Pages: 361
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads

Summary

Will the princess save the beast?

For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: make Grey fall in love with her and then break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn her in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…Right?

His Lordship, Grey Emerson, is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed once he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s lived an isolated experience–until Jaya Rao bursts into his life. Sparkling and elegant, Jaya’s unlike anyone Grey has ever met. Still, he can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…

As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it’s possible to write your own happy ending.

What I thought

Thank you to Goodreads and Simon Pulse for the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Reader friends, the type of review I’m about to write is my absolute least favorite to write. The “it’s not you, it’s me” review.

I want to stress–this was a good book, and I think many young adult readers will enjoy this. And I did like it, I just didn’t love it like I had hoped. I appreciated the nods to Beauty and the Beast, and my favorite part of this story was Grey. I am all about angsty male leads, and he had my heart melting more than once! I do love a good slow burn romance.

It’s just…I think I am too big a fan of Beauty and the Beast to view this even remotely objectively. I went into this with BIG expectations. And it truly was a fresh take on the original tale, unlike many that I’ve read. I loved the boarding school setting, I guess I was just expecting it to be a bit more magical and a bit less contemporary. Again, I think this just comes down to my own personal bias.

Like I said before, I think plenty of readers will enjoy this one. And while I didn’t love this one, I did like it enough to want to continue with the series. I am genuinely curious to see where Sandhya Menon takes these characters next, I think I will just need to adjust my expectations.

The Christmas Star by Ace Collins

The Christmas Star by Ace Collins
Publisher/Year: Abingdon Press, 2012
Format: Paperback
Pages: 216
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads

Summary

Can the broken heart of a child be healed by an unexpected Christmas letter?

Robert Reed gave his life for his country in the early days of World War II. His sacrifice was honored when his widow and son were presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor. Every Christmas, the final decoration Marge Reed hangs on the family’s tree is that medal. Rather than being a symbol of honor for young Jimmy Reed, that shining star represents loss, pain, and suffering.

However, a message delivered by one of Robert’s fellow soldiers and a mystery letter found in a Bible put a father’s sacrifice and faith into perspective and bring new meaning to not just the star hanging on the Christmas tree but the events of the very first Christmas. Then, when least expected, a Christmas miracle turns a final bit of holiday sadness into a joy that the boy has never known.

What I thought

Something you need to know about me (which will explain A LOT): I LOVE Christmas. It is my absolute favorite holiday–so much so that I’m one of those weirdos who can listen to Christmas songs or watch Christmas movies or read Christmas books at any time throughout the year.

So right now, when I need literally anything that will bring me happiness, when I saw this come up on my list, I welcomed it with open arms. And turns out, its sentimentality was just what I needed. Reminiscent of It’s A Wonderful Life and with a bit (but not too much) of a Christian focus, I found this to be a sweet and simple tale of a WWII Christmas that will remind you of what this season is all about. Aside from its message about the importance of hope and faith, it wasn’t a very deep book, but I was okay with that. And the Christian message was simplistic without being preachy. My favorite character was Calvin, hands down. I will say that I found the ending 100% unnecessary, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a complete sucker for a cheesy Christmas miracle.

A super sweet, nostalgic Christmas tale was just the thing to make me feel better, and I really enjoyed this one! It has definitely earned a place on my shelves to be enjoyed during Christmases yet to come.

The Hairbrush and the Shoe by Jeanne D. Stanton

The Hairbrush and the Shoe by Jeanne D. Stanton
Publisher/Year: SparkPress, 2020
Format: ARC – paperback
Pages: 204
Rating: ⭐⭐
Goodreads

Summary

A hairbrush vanished. The piano played. A bed moved out from the wall. But when a workman was pushed and hissed at by something invisible on the stairs, Jeanne Stanton began to take the idea of a ghost seriously. The Hairbrush and the Shoe is the story of her attempt to find out if a ghost is living in her family’s 150-year-old townhouse–and, if so, who that ghost might be.

Formerly a case write at Harvard Business School, Stanton approaches the ghost issue with the discipline of a skeptic, asking first if ghosts even exist. Armchair research soon leads her into the byzantine world of the paranormal, where a flourishing subculture of mediums, psychics, ghost hunters, and amateur sleuths seeks contact with spirits of the dead. She learns that many scholars and writers have shared a belief in spirits, including William James, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Charles Dickens, and that research into telepathy is ongoing. Fascinated, Stanton joins the London-based Ghost Club and consults a psychic, who assures her that more than one ghost is occupying her home.

Wary of fraud, and curious to know how science might approach her query, Stanton studies current research in psychics and neurology, and learns that spirits and the afterlife are dismissed and research into telepathy is mostly discredited. Tackling the final question of who the ghost might be, she discovers a new website listing a number of eminent “Boston Brahmins” among her home’s former families–including one strong candidate for her resident ghost.

What I thought

Thank you to BookSparks and Jeanne D. Stanton for the free finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read, but I have to say, it wasn’t quite what I had expected. As someone who is utterly fascinated by everything to do with the paranormal, there was a lot of information here that I already knew. I did learn a few things that kept me interested though, and I did like that I was able to pick up a few book recommendations based off of some the author read herself.

I think that the reason why this book was just okay for me was that this was more of a contemplation of belief on the author’s part than I was expecting. The bulk of this book was the author presenting her research into both sides of the question of whether ghosts exist or not. I think I was expecting more about the experiences that took place in her home.

As someone with firmly held beliefs maybe this book just wasn’t meant for me. This was an intelligently written and interesting book. I would definitely recommend this book to you if you are unsure of which side of the fence your beliefs fall upon.

Been There, Married That by Gigi Levangie

Been There, Married That by Gigi Levangie
Publisher/Year: St. Martin’s Press, 2020
Format: ARC – paperback
Pages: 324
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads

Summary

Agnes Murphy Nash is the perfect Hollywood wife–she has the right clothes, the right career, the right friends, but the wrong hot-shot movie producer husband.

Surrounded by menopausal adolescent moms, TMZ videos gone wild, and a tween with DOATM (Disgust of All Things Mom), Agnes is riding the escalator down to the bowels of divorce hell. Her only way out is to throw a grenade the size of a Beverly Hills diamond onto anyone that gets in the way of taking back her life.

A fabulously fierce and hilarious romp, Been There, Married That delivers an irresistibly outrageous blend of Crazy Rich Asians meets Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce.

What I thought

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I seem to be in the minority here. While this book was not at all what I was expecting, I did think it was a wickedly funny satire of a Hollywood divorce, which made for an excellent escapist read for the moment.

I won’t lie, I found this rough-going at the start. It took me a while to get used to Levangie’s choppy, almost stream-of-consciousness style. But her little quips and asides and one-liners were so damn funny to me that I felt like I had to keep going.

Once I did get into the story, it really did feel like escapism at its finest. This book 100% read like a trashy Hollywood TV drama, if you’re into those. There weren’t really any likeable characters, although I did root for Agnes, flaws and all, and I did really like Fin. The Hollywood lifestyle here is so over-the-top ridiculous as to be completely unrelatable, but it truly was like a TV show, so ridiculous and cringeworthy that you couldn’t turn away. Side note, I totally pictured Agnes as Kristen Wiig–which probably had to do with Agnes being SO HILARIOUS to me.

All in all, I had mixed feelings about this one. I liked it for its entertainment value, but it really was all over the place. So, if you need something right now that reads like The Kardashians, then yes, I recommend it. But if you, like I did, go into this expecting a heartwarming, redemption story of a rom-com, you might look elsewhere.

The Eye of Zeus (Legends of Olympus #1) by Alane Adams

The Eye of Zeus (Legends of Olympus #1) by Alane Adams
Publisher/Year: SparkPress, 2020
Format: Paperback
Pages: 301
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads

Summary

Meet Phoebe Katz, a twelve-year-old foster kid from New York City who’s been bounced around the system her entire life. Things happen around Phoebe, but it’s not like they’re her fault! But when a statue of Athena comes to life, Phoebe gets the stunning news: she’s the daughter of Zeus and was sent away from ancient Greece as a baby to stop a terrible prophecy that predicted she would one day destroy Olympus.

Athena warns Phoebe to stay in hiding, but when the vengeful god Ares kidnaps her beloved social worker, Phoebe has no choice–she has to travel back to Ancient Greece and rescue him. There, she and her friends Angie and Damian discover a new prophecy, one that may fix everything. The catch: Phoebe has to collect talismans from six Greek monsters, including the fan from a nine-headed hydra, a talon from the Nemean lion, and a feather from the Sphinx. No problem for a girl with the power to call up lightning bolts and change the weather–but can Phoebe collect them all and stop the prophecy before she destroys Olympus?

What I thought

Thank you to BookSparks and Alane Adams for the free finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

When in times of stress, sometimes you just need a good, old-fashioned adventure story, and The Eye of Zeus definitely fits the bill!

Alane Adams’ writing skill shines through this story, as she takes readers to ancient Greece alongside Phoebe and her friends, Damian and Angie. The plot moves continuously forward in a way that will draw even the most reluctant reader, and Adams uses description in a way that’s light so as not to bog down the story while still bringing the adventure vividly to life. Phoebe is a spunky and funny protagonist, and the reader will find it easy to relate to her while still being amused by the antics of Phoebe and her friends.

I haven’t read Percy Jackson, so I can’t really speak as to how these two stories compare, however I think it’s safe to say that if you have a reader itching for another book involving Greek mythology, The Eye of Zeus is a solid and accessible tale of ancient Greece. Told with tons of heart and humor, this book was a fun way to spend a weekend!