Serious Moonlight, by Jenn Bennett

Format: e-ARC, 432 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Children’s

Published: May 16, 2019

ISBN: 9781471180729

Genre: Romance, Teens & YA

Back cover blurb: Raised in isolation and home-schooled by her strict grandparents, the only experience Birdie has had of the outside world is through her favourite crime books.

But everything changes when she takes a summer job working the night shift at a historic Seattle hotel. There she meets Daniel Aoki, the hotel’s charismatic driver, and together they stumble upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—is secretly meeting someone at the hotel.

To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell, and in doing so, realize that the most confounding mystery of all may just be her growing feelings for Daniel.

My review: Jenn Bennett can write swoony boys. No doubt about that. This book was a little different in that the main couple had hooked up before the story even started and it had ended weirdly, so there was an awkwardness to their subsequent meeting which felt so real. I enjoyed the mystery they were trying to solve, even though all the elements were pretty obvious to me from quite early on, the live-action Cluedo game was THE BEST, and the adults were all fabulous human beings. There is diversity, important messages for teens, and some quite sad moments. But Daniel is definitely a keeper.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

Amazon

Stacking the Shelves #21

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books!

I’ve been a bit AWOL from this meme for a few weeks, but the book gathering has continued. I signed up to the blog tour for the Rising Storm serial and unexpectedly started receiving e-ARCs via InkSlingerPR. I didn’t receive the first book, so bought that myself from Amazon after the ARCs started turning up. I now have the first six in the series, and have read and reviewed three.

I also joined the mailing list for the series and received the free prequel novella, Storm Season, by Dee Davis, which tells the story of Ginny and Jacob.

While I was there, I also joined the mailing list for 1001 Dark Nights, and received the free first novella, The First Night, by Lexi Blake and M.J. Rose.

Netgalley continued feeding my addiction by granting me access to the e-ARC of The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever Made, by Jeff Strand. Love that cover!

Also from Netgalley was All That is Lost Between Us, by Sara Foster, a new-to-me author that Netgalley recommended. Looks interesting and has a pretty purple cover.

An author contacted me to read her ARC, The Marshall Plan, by Olivia Folmar Ard. It’s a sequel and I haven’t read the first book, but it looks good and features a journalist, so I’m there.

And, finally, since they were both free on Amazon, I grabbed Hide Your Heart, by local New Zealand author Tracey Alvarez, and When the Perfect Comes, by my friend and colleague, Susan Ward. Looking forward to both of these.

Whew! So that’s it for the last few weeks. When will I find time to read them all??? Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

This Book Will Change Your Life, by Amanda Weaver

Format: e-ARC, 193 pages

Publisher: Entangled Embrace

Published: September 28, 2015

ISBN: 9781633754317

Genre: New Adult, Romance

Back cover blurb: Take a chance and change your life…

College is where Hannah Gregory plans to follow in her dad’s footsteps as a chemistry prodigy-except she bombs her first test. And now her future isn’t so certain. Worse, she’s not sure she wants it anymore. Salvation comes from an unlikely place-a used bookstore and the sexy Ben Fisher, the passionate college senior who works there.

Ben is trapped in a life mapped out for him. Trapped in a future career as a lawyer to make his father happy. Trapped pursuing a girl he doesn’t even like because she fits into a world he doesn’t want but can’t escape. But then he meets the beautiful and quirky Hannah. And for the first time, he knows what it means to truly want something.

So he gives in to being her friend. Then to wanting her. Then to kissing her. But freedom comes with a cost, and it isn’t long before their carefully planned lives begin to fall apart…

My review: I’m a bit sad I can’t give this sweet, easy read a full five stars. On paper, I should have liked this more. Bookstore Boy and the whole premise of falling in love in a bookshop is totally swoony, and I loved the first part of this so much as Ben recommended books to Hannah and their relationship grew. I even added some of Ben’s recommendations to my TBR list. But then Ben fell into the trap of being a stupid boy, and the thing with Alex made me suspect his motives. His issues with his father were realistic, but it became a little repetitive after a while. I wanted more Ben and Hannah and more book recommendations! Nevertheless, I enjoyed the writing and will definitely read Amanda Weaver’s other work.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

Amazon

Stacking the Shelves #17

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books!

I got a bit carried away on Netgalley this week, and have requested far too many books! So far two of them have been approved, but there are still several pending – I just hope I can find time to read them all! The first was The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong, which looks soooooo good!

The second was The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone, which was a featured book as part of Netgalley’s 2015 challenge. This one took my fancy because of its blurb and the quirky cover.

Finally, I bought Shadow’s Claim by Kresley Cole from Audible this week. I needed a book with the word “shadow” in the title to complete a reading challenge, and haven’t read this IAD series offshoot yet.

So that’s it for this week. Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

Stacking the Shelves #10

 

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books! Here is my haul from this week.

Free on Amazon Kindle

It’s been a little quiet this week. From Amazon I purchased NightDrake by Lara Adrian, which was free, and iBooks sent me my pre-order of Never Never: Part Two by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher. Looking forward to reading more of that one!

Pre-ordered from iBooks

From the public library I downloaded the e-book of The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski.

Downloaded from the public library

And that was it! Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

Stacking the Shelves #2

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books! Here is my haul from this week – oooh, and I can’t wait to get started on some of them!

Netgalley e-ARC requests

As I mentioned last week, I have just joined Netgalley, and this week I was granted access to a surprising number of my requests. I’m clearly going to have to pace myself! So far I have already read Sea of Stars (Kricket, book 2) by Amy A. Bartol and the sneak peek of Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen and absolutely loved them. You can read my reviews here and here. Also in my Netgalley haul were Lone Star by Paullina Simons, In the Shadow of Winter by Lorna Gray, The Confectioner’s Tale by Laura Madeleine, The Blondes by Emily Schultz, 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die by Mimi Sheraton, and Techbitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza. Such pretty covers, don’t you think?

Bought by me this week

New Zealand iBooks had a promotion this week on New Adult series, with the first in several series free. I can’t resist a freebie, and managed to pick up I Want It That Way by Ann Aguirre, After by Anna Todd, All Lined Up by Cora Carmack, and White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout. There was also a sale at Audible, through which I managed to pick up Snow Falling on Bluegrass by Molly Harper, and Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Not bad for one week, eh? I’d better get reading! Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.