Review: Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

Title: Neverworld Wake
Author: Marisha Pessl
Genre: Mystery, Magic Realism
Source: TeenReads & Delacorte Press
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: June 5th 2018 

Summary: 

Once upon a time, back at Darrow-Harker School, Beatrice Hartley and her six best friends were the cool kids, the beautiful ones. Then the shocking death of Jim—their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend—changed everything. One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft—the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world—hoping she'll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim’s death. But as the night plays out in a haze of stilted jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she’s never going to know what really happened. Then a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them has become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions. Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers... and at life. And so begins the Neverworld Wake.

Would this really be a review is I didn't take a moment to gush about how much a love this cover? The colors and the design are stunning and really attracted me into looking into this book. Neverworld Wake is a little different then the books that I typically read. I am a die hard science fiction/fantasy/high fantasy kind of girl. So a contemporary/magic realism/mystery book is quite a stretch for me, but I was down for the challenge! (It also appears dark and moody and I am a dark and moody person so I figured it would be a good fit.) 

After the unfortunate death of her boyfriend Jim, Beatrice looses contact with their other best friends Whitley, Cannon, Kipling and Martha. After a year and little answers to what happened the night Jim died Beatrice is invited to a weekend getaway with her once best friends, which she decides to attend with the intentions of finding out what happened to Jim once and for all. After a freak accident leaves the five in a perpetual time loop of the same day over and over for an undisclosed amount of time that is called Neverworld Wake, only one will survive it, for in the real world they are all lying in a ravine slowly dying. A unanimous vote must decide the one survivor of the Wake, but before that the group decides to use this as an opportunity to learn what happened to their friend once and for all. 

The book is split up into three parts. The first dealing with the groups fate and the basics of the Neverworld. This part mainly deals with how each character deals with their impending fate. Who is going to die? Who is going to live? How did this happen? I enjoyed learned about the Neverworld and why it happens and why this specific set of characters were there. I do wish that the Keeper was more involved in the story. He is there and constantly watching, but we don't know much about him, plus his explanation of the Neverworld was super complicated to understand which resulted in me having to reread it several times. 

The transition from the first part of the story to the second threw me off a bit. We go from how each character is in their own little hell in dealing with their fates and coping in their own ways. But then over the course of several pages they are all together and randomly decided that it was time to figure out what truly happened to their friend once and for all. It was a fast shift, not one that was eased into. I thought that Neverworld Wake was going to go in a different direction considering how the first fifty pages went. 

Neverworld Wake was captivating. I was one of those books that I started reading and suddenly I was 200 pages in and questioning almost everything that I had learned so far. The mystery aspect of the story was alright, it wasn't my favorite mystery and I predicted part of it earlier on but it still held my attention. It had a depth to it that not many mysteries do. Neverworld Wake brings up the question of whether or not you can trust your best friends to tell you everything and what if it is your dark secrets that nobody knows that unknowingly brings you together. 

We are all anthologies. We are each thousands of pages long, filled with fairy tales and poetry, mysteries and tragedy, forgotten stories in the back no one will ever read.

Overall I enjoyed Neverworld Wake more then I thought I was going too. It did have it's few quirks that I talked about but those still couldn't take away from the underlying meaning of the story. The ending did pull at my heart a little bit and left me with tears in my eyes.  Neverworld Wake is a story that will make you think about those around you and what love really is. 

Review: Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Title: Alex, Approximately
Author: Jenn Bennett

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Paperback, 388 Pages
Published April 2017

Summary: Classic movie fan Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as Alex. Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush. Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new archnemesis. But life is a whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever it is she’s starting to feel for Porter. And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.

So, the story of how I ended up with a copy of this book was actually an amazing and super heartwarming one that reminds me of why I love this bookish community so much. As some of you may know, on our Twitter account, we Tweet a bookish Question of the Day every morning. A few weeks ago, I asked what everyone's favorite romance story was, and one of our awesome and super sweet followers, Brooke, responded and said Alex, Approximately. I told her that I hadn't heard of that book or read it yet, and she immediately DMed me and told me I just had to read it, so she sent me a copy! Which was super sweet and kind of her and definitely something that she didn't have to, which made it all the more special.

And you guys, I absolutely loved this book. It was seriously so awesome, and I'm so glad that Brooke recommended it to me! I started it while waiting on some lines at BookExpo and BookCon, and several people went out of their way to come up to me and tell me how much they loved that book and hoped I enjoyed it, too. And I definitely did! I flew through the nearly 400 pages of this book and wasn't able to put it down because it was such an adorable and hilarious love story. I was super sad when this book ended, because I definitely didn't want to get to the last page. :(

As the summary explains, Bailey (nicknamed "Mink") has been spending a large portion of her time on a film fanatic message board with a boy named Alex. They start to crush on each other a little bit, and Bailey finds out that Alex lives in the same town as her dad, and he's been begging her to come visit him IRL forever. But Bailey's problem is that she doesn't like confrontation, and she's afraid of things going south, so she doesn't tell Alex that she's going to move in with her dad, instead laying low and staying under the radar while trying to figure out who Alex is herself, from afar.

The only problem? Bailey meets Porter, and he's more than she expected. Soon, she starts to feel herself falling for him and his cocky, surfer-boy charm...but what about Alex? Is she even sure that she wants to be with him anymore?

What happens next will shock you. 

What I loved most about this book was all of the adorable banter between Porter and Bailey. They were both super cute and it was even funny to see the moments when they were clashing and bantering with each other. And all of that sexual tension? Pffft. You could cut through it with a knife. (Which definitely results in some steamy stuff...........)

My favorite character in this entire book was Porter, OMG. I am absolutely in love with that boy, without any shame. His cockiness and his humor was just as attractive as his sweet moments, and I found myself swooning throughout the entire book. My poor boyfriend had to listen to me swoon over this fictional guy for the longest time, but it was fine, because I LOVE PORTER SO MUCH. Ugh.

There really wasn't anything I disliked about this book. The entire story kept me hooked from the beginning until the end, and I was so sad when I finally got to the last few pages because I just wanted this book to keep going and going. Which is the sign of a really good story, and that's why I'll be recommending it to everyone I know that's a huge fan of YA contemporary stories, because this book was perfect for me!

Overall, I absolutely loved Alex, Approximately. It was the perfect summer romance story that had me hooked from the very beginning until the very end! I'm super grateful that Brooke recommended this book to me, because now it's safe to say that I'm officially a Jenn Bennett fan and I will absolutely be reading more of her books in the future. 

Review: From Twinkle, with Love by Sandhya Menon

Title: From Twinkle, with Love

Author: Sandhya Menon
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Hardcover, 336 Pages
Published May 2018

Summary: Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy—a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2. When mystery man “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil. Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?

**My review for this book was originally posted on TeenReads.com!**

I received an advanced copy of From Twinkle, With Love in exchange for an honest review, and I’m honestly so glad that I did! I first became a fan of Sandhya Menon when I read her debut story, When Dimple Met Rishi. It was an adorable, hilarious story of true love, pursuing your dreams, and overcoming the social challenges that tend to come about in high school (and also later on in life, if we're being honest).

As the summary explains, Twinkle is an aspiring film maker stuck in a high school where she feels like nobody notices her. She feels like a dork, a loser, or, as she so aptly puts it, one of the "groundlings" that Shakespeare used to appeal to when he put together performances in theaters. So she hatches a plan to enter her school's film contest and create something that will be so amazing that it will be possible to ignore her. But in the process, she makes some new friendships, ruins some others, and even picks up a secret admirer that she's pretty sure she has figured out...but everything isn't always what it seems, and Twinkle's about to learn that trying to reinvent yourself doesn't always mean the grass on the other side is always greener.

What I loved about From Twinkle, With Love is how adorable this story was. I flew through this book because it was told with journal-style entries that were short enough that I kept wanting to flip the page and read the next one to figure out what would happen next. I also really liked how all of the diary entries were addressed to Twinkle's famous female filmmaker idols. It was really inspiring! And her journal entries were so thorough so there were times that I completely forgot it was even being told in journal-entry format. Regardless, this book had me hooked and I flipped through the pages at the speed of light because I couldn't put this one down!

My favorite character in this book was definitely Sahil. He was sweet and caring and kind, and he was always there for Twinkle with whatever she needed. He was also super adorable as their feelings for each other started to develop. I found myself blushing and squealing and rooting for them from the very beginning because they were just so adorable and perfect. I definitely shipped them so hard!

Twinkle's character was also really relatable and I found myself rooting for her throughout the story as she fought to make her dreams come true. She was quirky and funny and super smart, and she was also really creative and loyal to her friends, even when things started to get complicated with them. She reminded me a lot of Dimple from Sandhya's previous book character-wise, which was refreshing and sweet since I miss that story so much! But Twinkle also had her own spunk and personality that made her different as well, which was something else that I also really appreciated.

(Minor spoilers here!) The only thing I wasn't super crazy about in this book was Twinkle's outburst toward the end, when she started being a really terrible person to everyone in her life. I know that it was intentional and that we were supposed to learn the lesson that all that glitters isn't gold, but she became really mean and envious toward everyone around her. But I'm glad that she eventually came to her senses and realized that her behavior was uncool, because she ended up making a bunch of huge changes that were really inspiring and heart warming.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading From Twinkle, With Love. If you're looking for another adorable, hilarious story to add to your bookshelf, I absolutely recommend this one. Sandhya Menon has done it again with a story that manages to tug at your heartstrings while also making you keel over with laughter...and there's also a sense of mysterious secret admiring going on as well! Definitely the kind of adorable book for me -- and I will certainly be reading more of Sandhya's books in the future!

Waiting on Wednesday: Wrong in All the Right Ways by Tiffany Brownlee

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine where we highlight some of the upcoming books we can't wait to read!

Jessica's Waiting on:

 
Title: Wrong in All the Right Ways
Author: Tiffany Brownlee
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Publication Date: July 17th, 2018



Summary: Everything in Emma's life has always gone according to her very careful plans. But things take a turn toward the unexpected when she falls in love for the first time with the one person in the world who’s off-limits–her new foster brother, the gorgeous and tormented Dylan McAndrews. Meanwhile, Emma’s AP English class is reading Wuthering Heights, and she’s been assigned to mimic Bronte’s style in an epistolary format. With no one to confide in, she’s got a lot to write about. Emma and Dylan try to constrain their romance to the page–for fear of threatening Dylan’s chances of being adopted into another home. But the strength of first love is all-consuming, and they soon get enveloped in a passionate, secretive relationship with a very uncertain outcome.

The first thing that caught my eye with this book was definitely the cover -- it's absolutely gorgeous! *heart eyes* And I know I shouldn't judge a book solely by its cover, which is why I decided to check out the summary...and that's when I immediately knew that this book needed to be on my TBR. Romance and literature references? Count me in!

July is almost here, and I can't wait for it!

What are you waiting on this week? Leave your links so I can stop back! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I’ve Given Up On/Don’t Plan to Finish

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which we create bookish lists about everything from our favorite characters to love triangles and everything in between!

This Weeks Topic: Series I’ve Given Up On/Don’t Plan to Finish

  

  

  

A lot of these books I actually enjoyed and gave good ratings and reviews on. My choice not to continue on is the basic fact of time and my ever growing to-read and ARC pile. Also, some of these were read so long ago that to read the next books in the series I have to do a reread and I just don't have time sadly. 

Have you read any of these and continued on in the series? Leave your link of your TTT below so I can stop on by!

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Alpha by Jus Accardo

Alpha
Jus Accardo
(The Infinity Division #3)
Published by: Entangled: Teen
Publication date: July 3rd 2018
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult

“A fun YA sci-fi story with a compelling cast of characters.” —Kirkus Reviews on Infinity
Sera is the obsession of a killer chasing a ghost. G is a soldier with too much blood on his hands.
Dylan lost the only person he ever loved—and will stop at nothing to get her back.
In a whirlwind chase that takes them back to where it all started, Sera, G, and Dylan will have to confront their demons—both physical and mental—and each other, in order to win their freedom.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

—

EXCERPT:

The rain stopped, and the wind outside had settled, leaving an uncomfortable silence in its wake. I didn’t have a problem with the quiet. I liked it, in fact. But this was something a little different. This was uncomfortable. The kind of stillness that came from forced proximity to someone or something that made your skin itch and your stomach roil. The kind of hush that usually set in right before a devastating storm or a natural disaster.
He did this sometimes. Just sat across from me and stared. He usually wouldn’t even say anything. I didn’t think he expected me to say anything, either. He just looked. Sometimes it lasted a few minutes, just long enough to send that chill skittering up and down my spine. Other times it would go on for hours. He’d blink and breathe and fidget, but his eyes…those remained locked on me, his unhealthy mix of sadness and lust and greed and anger crushing me to the point of breathlessness.
We were at it again, and I was just about out of patience. It was one thing to have been ripped away from my home, from my life, by that madwoman, Cora Anderson. It was another to have her poke and prod and use me as a science experiment. She’d altered my mind. Made me forget most of my life before the day I woke up a prisoner on the floor of her cold, dank cell. Those things were all bad, but having been “rescued” by this bastard and forced to stay by his side at all times? That was an entirely new level of torture.
“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?” His tone was acidic and his jaw tight. He had a temper, this guy. I’d seen it multiple times. He’d never done anything more than scream at me, but it was only a matter of time with people like this. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I felt it in my bones. Maybe I’d known someone like him at home. Maybe it was just intuition.
“Yes,” was all I replied. I found that simple, one-word responses went over the best. Or, more accurately, the worst. When I said too little, he grew agitated. He wanted me to talk to him, yet the things that came out of my mouth weren’t ever what he wanted to hear. I didn’t act like he’d hoped I would, didn’t say the things he longed to hear. Some days he was determined to change me. Others, he was rabid, blaming me for not behaving like myself and demanding that I wake up.
Forget that I had no idea who I was.
“While it’s not okay, I understand.” He offered me a smile—a small, tentative twitch of his lips and gentle shrug of his shoulders. He was making an effort to be kinder today, going out of his way to speak softer and move slower.
That made me even angrier.
“You understand? Then my life is complete. All I’ve ever wanted was the understanding of a serial killer.” Even if I hadn’t been thinking about…someone else, I would have lied. The fact that I wasn’t focused on him, and him alone, drove Dylan—my savior, my captor—crazy. But the truth was, I was thinking of him. That other him. How could I not? Even if I didn’t find myself missing him every moment of every day in an almost physical way, I wouldn’t be able to put him out of my mind because he was technically sitting here across from me.

Author Bio:
JUS ACCARDO spent her childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her grandfather's footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. But at the last minute, she realized her true path lay with fiction, not food.
Jus is the bestselling author of the popular Denazen series from Entangled publishing. A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Guest Review: The Diminished by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

Title: The Diminished
Author: Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

Rating: 5/5 Stars
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Hardcover, 454 Pages
Published April 2018

Summary: In the Alskad Empire, nearly all are born with a twin, two halves to form one whole…yet some face the world alone. The singleborn. A rare few are singleborn in each generation, and therefore given the right to rule by the gods and goddesses. Bo Trousillion is one of these few, born into the royal line and destined to rule. Though he has been chosen to succeed his great-aunt, Queen Runa, as the leader of the Alskad Empire, Bo has never felt equal to the grand future before him. The diminished. When one twin dies, the other usually follows, unable to face the world without their other half. Those who survive are considered diminished, doomed to succumb to the violent grief that inevitably destroys everyone whose twin has died. Such is the fate of Vi Abernathy, whose twin sister died in infancy. Raised by the anchorites of the temple after her family cast her off, Vi has spent her whole life scheming for a way to escape and live out what's left of her life in peace. As their sixteenth birthdays approach, Bo and Vi face very different futures—one a life of luxury as the heir to the throne, the other years of backbreaking work as a temple servant. But a long-held secret and the fate of the empire are destined to bring them together in a way they never could have imagined.

Today on the blog we have a guest review from Michaela over at Librarium Dream! She was kind enough to stop by and review The Diminished and share her thoughts on it, and we couldn't be more excited to have her here as our guest reviewer for today! So without further ado, let's get into it!

I seriously appreciate having my twin with me 24/7 after reading this book! As much as I grumble about having a twin when people who don’t , say “Oh, I wish I had a twin,” I’m quick to say No. No you don’t. I think this is because having a twin is special thing that only other twins understand. Ok, now onto the book. 

Well for one, I breezed through this story, it was that good --- I cannot wait for Book 2. Bo is being groomed to be named the crown prince of Alskad when he is betrothed to his cousin Penelope, who, along with his mother, suddenly dies. Claes, Penelope’s twin brother succumbs to being dimmy and dies. Shortly after, Bo heeds the queens mention of checking his own finances and records to show the nobility that he can manage his own affairs. He finds some interesting information in his mother’s ledgers, a payment of 200 drott per annum to an X.A.-G.O.A.T. Bo writes to Gerelene, his mother’s solicitor, that he will be there when X.A comes for their next payment and that he was going to look in his deceased father’s journals for any clues of this X.A.-G.O.A.T. 

Vi gets caught with her stash of pearls and sent away to Ilor to work for the temple, she with the help of Mal and Quill a pair of twins on board the ship giving her passage, wormed her way into a new contract with a rich man named Phineas Laroche. He also is the man who bought Lily and Sawny’s labor contracts. Long story short, she goes in hope of being reunited with her best friends; turns out Phineas is a horrible guy and the twins are no longer alive, and Vi desperately tries to make the best of her situation gone wrong. Bo befriends a dimmy named Swinton who helps find Vi and Mal and Quill on Ilor.

Together Bo and Swinton uncover more dark secrets about Bo’s relatives.  Vi befriends another twin, Myrna who works in the horse barn on Phineas’s land, there Vi is being groomed to be of assistance to Aphra, Phineas’s wife who is an amalgam. In the end Aphra was truly against her husband. Vi, Mal, Quill, Bo and Swinton along with a few others begin to work on making changes to the future where Bo is King and will have that ability. Vi and Quill have an adorable relationship. Mal is a great source of entertainment and Bo and Swinton have an interesting relationship but it adds to the story. 

We'd like to once again thank Michaela for stopping by The Book Bratz today to post this guest review. Don't forget to check out her blog!

** Psst! Interested in guest reviewing on The Book Bratz? Shoot us an email at thebookbratz@gmail.com or DM us on Twitter (@thebookbratz) and we'd love to have you!

Facts About Some of the World's Most Iconic Book Covers!

Hi everyone! We have something super exciting for you on the blog today. We teamed up with the awesome group over at Invaluable to share this really cool infographic with you, which we absolutely loved reading! We learned all about 18 of the world's most famous book covers and the stories behind it that we never knew before. So if you're interested in learning a little more about the secrets behind these book covers, keep reading!

Did you know that after seeing the cover art midway through writing The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald decided to incorporate it into the book’s plot? Pretty neat stuff! The process of designing a book cover is one that takes much consideration and collaboration between the designer and editors or publishing house. The vision of the cover is sometimes even decided upon two years before the date of publication. The best kinds are those that prompt us to pick up a book and buy it to read on the spot.

Invaluable created a neat infographic on some of the most iconic book covers and how each designer made their visions a reality. Browse through and see if your favorites made the list!

We'd like to thank the lovely team over at Invaluable for being awesome enough to reach out to us and offer to share their beautiful graphic so we could post it. There were so many interesting facts we've learned and will now be telling to all of our fellow bookworm friends! :-)

Review: The Girl and the Grove by Eric Smith

Title: The Girl and the Grove
Author: Eric Smith

Publisher: Flux
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Paperback, 320 Pages
Published May 2018

Summary: Teenager Leila’s life is full of challenges. From bouncing around the foster care system to living with seasonal affective disorder, she’s never had an easy road. Leila keeps herself busy with her passion for environmental advocacy, monitoring the Urban Ecovists message board and joining a local environmental club with her best friend Sarika. And now that Leila has finally been adopted, she dares to hope her life will improve. But the voices in Leila’s head are growing louder by the day. Ignoring them isn’t working anymore. Something calls out to her from the grove at Fairmount Park. 

I received a copy of The Girl and the Grove by author Eric Smith in exchange for an open and honest review. And you guys, I really loved this book! It hooked me right from the start. So without any further ado, let's get into the review!

As the summary explains, Leila is a teenager who spent most of her life in the foster care system, and now she's settling in with her adoptive parents. While trying to get used to that routine (and trying not to worry that her situation is only temporary), she's also super into the environment and conservation efforts. Throughout all of this, Leila is hearing voices in her head that are calling her into Fairmont Park, and she does her best to ignore them -- but suddenly, she can't ignore them anymore. So she follows them...and what she finds is not anything you could have predicted.

What I loved most about this book is how it turned out to totally be something that I wasn't expecting, in the best of ways. The book caught me right from the very beginning, with Leila hearing the voices and her love for the environment and her struggles with trying to get comfortable in her new life. And then, as the story goes on, things start to pick up, and then before I knew it, I was flipping the pages so quickly and I was unable to put the book down because I kept wanting to see what would happen next. There was so much drama, lots of friendship, some flirting, and even some sadness and thrills. This book takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, and you're not going to want to let go once you get on the ride!

As far as characters go, my favorite character in the entire story was Sarika. She reminded me a lot of my best friends -- always loyal, funny, kind, and all kinds of sarcastic. She kept me laughing throughout the book and added some levity to some of the more serious situations in the story. She was definitely my favorite character, especially because she was so loyal to Leila and it was clear how much she loved her.

Another thing that I really loved about thus book was how much it dealt with the conservation of the environment, which is something that I haven't seen become a major focus in any YA books that I've ever really read. It was really inspiring to see Leila and her friends care so much about something and fight so hard for something that many people in a town wouldn't necessarily regard as "important" (which is sad and I totally disagree that it's unimportant!!). But yeah. They fought hard, even when it seemed like everyone else was against them, because they knew what they loved and forced themselves to stand up and fight for it.

Overall, I really loved reading The Girl and the Grove. I'm so thankful that I was given a chance to review this book because I ended up finding a brand new story that I loved and will now be recommending to all of my bookish friends. If this book isn't on your TBR yet, I encourage you to check it out, because this is such a gripping, emotional story about so many different things -- love, adoption, and even the environment -- that I think you'll definitely enjoy. 

Hats off to Eric Smith -- I'm so grateful that I was given a copy of this book and I can't wait to sing its praises to everybody, and of course, read more of his books in the future!!