April 2018 Wrap Up

Hello and welcome to the April wrap up!

Such a great month for reading! I read a total of 10 books, with a single DNF, but three of these books are 5 star rating! It’s a miracle for meXD

Mr Confidence by Rahiem Brooks: sadly a one star rating for me. I feel sorry because I received it from the publisher.

Full circle by Regina Timothy: a great book about women. I gave it 4 star!

Truthstone by Mike Shelton: I received this book for a blog tour, and it was awesome! 5 star!

Child of Nod by C.W. Snyder: DNF for the second time. I’ve tried to read and understand it, but I fail. But the cover is gorgeous, right?

The twistrose key, by Tone Almhjell: omg, the world and the characters in this book! I can’t even express how much I loved it! Review coming soon!

The ugly princess by Henderson Smith: ok, probably I’ve found my new fave book of all time. The ugly princess is pure perfection. A million stars!

Liberty divided, by Alicia Dean: sequel of Liberty awakened, I found it frustrating, and I decided to not continue the series. The first was full of clichè, but somehow interesting.

How was your reading month? What’s your fave cover from these?

 

 

Truthstone by Mike Shelton, Review

Truthstone (Truthseer archives #1)

Author: Mike Shelton

Pages: 283

Genres: YA, fantasy

Rating: 5/5

Add on: Goodreads, Amazon

Summary:

One little lie won’t hurt, will it?
When fifteen year old Shaeleen unexpectedly is given a TruthStone, every lie she hears or tells causes her immense physical pain. As she struggles to control her new power and curb the pain, she learns a powerful truth that could thrust an entire continent into civil war. She must choose: reveal the truth and stop the pain – or sacrifice her own well-being to protect her kingdom.
For two hundred years the five kingdoms of Wayland have been protected by the stones of power. Now those stones are failing and a darker power is trying to take control. With the help of her brother, Cole and a newfound friend, Orin, Shaeleen sets out to gather and restore the power of all the stones.
But will she succeed before the endless lies destroy her?

Review:

First of all, thanks a lot to Ya Bound Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Truthstone is a lovely fantasy, and I was totally hooked from the beginning to the end.

Do you know the feel when a really good book changes the way you look at the world?

That’s what happened to me with Truthstone. I spend the days when I was reading it thinking about “what I will do if I had a truthstone?” “What if everyone arounds me are telling me lies?”

Maybe the story doesn’t seems so original, right? But in this case is written so good.  There are all the descriptions of the surroundings, of the dresses and the characters; their emotions are well descripted, as well the differences between the class.

Shaeleen is a good main character: at the beginning she’s not sincere, but with the help of the truthstone, of her brother Cole and her friends, she grow up to a beautiful and honest woman.

The magic of the stones, the history and the geography of the different countries are well written, interesting and without plot holes. I appreciate it.

I really can’t find something that it’s wrong with this book: the writing style is good without long boring description; it’s not so difficult to read for me (english isn’t my first language); I love the characters and the world, and I think that the cover is lovely too.

There’s no violence or curse words in this book, so I recommend it to young readers too. There’s a sequel too, called Truthspell, and I can wait to read it!

 

 

Full Circle — Mr. Confidence, mini reviews

Full Circle

Author: Regina Timothy

Pages: 314

Genre: contemporary

Add on: Goodreads, Amazon

Rating: 4/5

Summary:

Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, Samia-Al-Sayyid an Iraqi immigrant is living a quiet life in New York City after she fled her home to avoid imminent death.
She works hard for her cold, heartless, high-strung boss, loves her seventeen-years-old-son, and cherishes the close friendship she has formed with her best friend Susan.
Nothing can go wrong, or so she thinks – until the estranged brother she left back in Iraqi shows up on her door step. Then she finds herself in a cab, on her way to the hospital to identify her son, a terror suspect who has blown the city, and with it her boss’ husband, and her best friend’s son. With everything lost, she is forced to flee to Iraq where she confronts her past. Will she make peace with her past? Can she get forgiveness for all the damage she has caused?

Review:

First of all, I want to thank Regina for send me this book. She’s the first author who writes to me and my little blog, and I’m so grateful!

So I received this book for free in exchange of a honest review.

I really like it! It starts with a tragic event that has changed our lifes, our way to travel around the world, our way to look at muslim people: the attacks of 9/11.

All the book is original and so rich of emotions. To me, a european woman who was only 14 on 2001, this book open up a world, and I always like this in a story.

It was so interesting and heartbreaking to read the story of Samia, how the life has changed for her, how all the american people had reacted because of the attacks.

Full circle is a story written by a woman, about the women and how badly the world sometimes treats them, but they can carry on, broken and sad. Sometimes I cried when I was reading, so I can easily say that I liked Samia and her story so much.

Everyone needs to read this story. I highly recommend it.

Mr. Confidence

Author: Rahiem Brooks

Pages: 230

Genre: crime thriller

Add on: Goodreads, Amazon

Rating: 1/5

Trigger Warning: language, s*x, misoginy

Summary:

When a wrongly accused man (Don Juan Jackson) gets out of prison, he focuses his attention on becoming a good example for his six-year-old daughter, who at her tender age has been terribly influenced by her mother and her mother’s many paramours. He plans to get a job to be a family good father, but his plans are derailed soon after his release.
His life becomes packed with unbelievable excitement when he is drawn into a life of white-collar crime by his childhood pal, Lex. They commit several scams and schemes–and Secret Service agents are watching. But with the money abundantly flowing in, Don Juan takes explosive measures to get custody of his daughter and to avoid another trip to the penitentiary.
Pulse-pounding seconds pass as Don Juan risks his freedom and fatherhood for the score of a lifetime.

Review:

I received this book for free in exchange of a honest review.

I’m feeling so bad writing this, because I didn’t like this book.

I was expecting a good thriller/crime, maybe a little violent, because in the summary I didn’t read about sexual content or something like that.

The first two chapter begins with s*x scenes, a lot of curse words and I was: ok, this guy was in jail, this is a urban thriller, I can resist some bad word.

But all the book is like the first chapters, or even worse: every woman in this book is described as a b***h, a se*ual doll, or a nightmare walking on stiletto.

All the ex-girlfriends of the two MC are the worst women in the world: crazy, manipulative, liar and thief.

All the other women in the book are only good for one thing, and the men tell them out loud in the street just to see them pass by.

As a woman, I was feeling so bad that I was thinking of DNF the book.

And the swear words! OMG they’re everywhere!!

I tolerate a certain number of swear words, and I totally understand that the author would describe a certain world and a culture, but I prefere to know this before read a book.

I DNF “The second coming” of Niven for all the swear words!

I saved just the daughter in this book, sorry.