Books

Book 735: The Jane Austen Society – Natalie Jenner

Talk about a change of pace! I kept putting this off when it came up from my library. I was loving all the MM romance and young adult books I’ve been reading, but I finally just said okay. It was 100% worth it to slow down and take the village life pace to read this and not rush through it like some of the high-intensity romances I’ve read recently.

I’m pretty sure I stumbled across this on bookstagram and new I’d get to it eventually. I don’t discriminate between books inspired by Austen’s works, life or legacy—they’re all fair game to me and each new one I read adds a new dimension to my understanding/enjoyment of Austen and her continued impact on society.

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Books

Book 731 & 732: Date Me, Bryson Keller – Kevin van Whye

It’s so nice I read it twice—no, seriously. I finished it and then the next morning decided I wanted to read it again. That’s twice this year (excluding illustrated/graphic novels)! The other double read this year was Two for Trust and the real connection of the two is that they could both be easily turned into one of those wonderfully cheesy made-for-TV movies that whenever you see it you just leave it on and inevitably get drawn into it.

You could definitely see where van Whye got his inspiration for this #ownvoices story. He acknowledged he was inspired by She’s All That (IMDb link) from the 90s, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han. And this definitely deserves to be up there with these great coming of age stories.

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Books

Book 730: Conventionally Yours (True Colors #1) – Annabeth Albert

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing I let so much time pass between finishing this and writing this review. If I would’ve written this right after I finished it would’ve been effusive and glowing, but about a week later it’s much more measured (I think).

It’s no secret that I adore Albert’s books—seriously, I created an Annabeth Albert tag so it’s even easier for you to find them and I’m slowly working my way through her entire back list, but this one hasn’t stayed with me like some of her other series. Don’t be mistaken, I thoroughly enjoyed it and my adoration of Albert has not lessened, I think maybe it’s just matured.

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Books

Book 729: Star Wars: Ahsoka – E.K. Johnston

This book reads a lot like a multi-episode arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show (IMDb link), which is great because that’s the reason I read the book. When I started the TV series I was not a fan of Ahsoka, but she grew on me as a character and I desperately wanted to know what happened to her after the incredibly wonderful series finale of Clone Wars. I knew I needed to read this before I watched (or got too far into) Star Wars: Rebels and I did.

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Books

Book 727: We Contain Multitudes – Sarah Henstra

I think I saw this on some bookstagram post and liked the cover and blurb enough to request it from the library. I had no expectations going into it, but I can tell you I was NOT expecting to have the air pulled out of my lungs constantly through the last half of the book.

Seriously though, the only thing I can compare it to is when you’re sobbing so hard and you can’t catch your breath and you just keep gasping trying to breathe but you’re only getting enough oxygen to keep sobbing. Jo and Kurl’s story was brutally beautiful.

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