Week 46 Review: Lies Jane Austen Told Me

From Goodreads:

Ever since Emma read Pride and Prejudice, she's been in love with Mr. Darcy and has regarded Jane Austen as the expert on all things romantic. So naturally when Emma falls for Blake Hampton and he invites her home to meet his parents, she is positive an engagement is in her future. After all, Blake is a single man in possession of a good fortune, and thus must be in want of a wife.

But when it turns out that what Blake actually wants is more of a hook-up than a honeymoon, Emma is hurt, betrayed, and furious. She throws herself deeper into her work as CMO of Kinetics, the fastest growing gym franchise in the nation. She loves her work, and she's good at it, which is why she bristles when her boss brings in a consultant to help her spearhead the new facilities on the East Coast. Her frustration turns to shock when that consultant turns out to be Blake's younger brother, Lucas.

Emma is determined not to fall for Lucas, but as she gets to know him, she realizes that Lucas is nothing like his brother. He is kind and attentive and spends his time and money caring for the less fortunate.

What she can't understand is why Lucas continues to try to push her back into Blake's arms when he so clearly has fallen as hard for her as she has fallen for him.

Realizing that her love life is as complicated as anything Jane Austen could have dreamed up, Emma must find a way to let Blake know that it's time for him to let her go and to let Lucas know it's time for him to love her back.

My Review:
I really enjoyed reading this book! The idea of someone who has grown up pretty much obsessed with Jane Austen, and for real life, in our time, not working out the same way, sounded really great! I had a great time reading Emma's story!

When Blake didn't want marriage, Emma was pretty distraught, that the ideals that she's loved aren't playing out like she wants them to. So I can understand leaving them behind. But oh, that really is too bad! Maybe they just need to be simplified, so they can change and grow with the times.

That she's falling in love with Lucas, Blake's brother, makes the situation even more complicated, with Blake trying to get her back. I had such a blast watching as she dealt with her feelings for both the brothers and for romance in general, especially since Lucas is falling for her as well, but he doesn't want to hurt his brother. Complications galore! 

Really, this was a sweet story of someone wrestling with her idea of romance taught to her by Jane Austen, and what she wants out of life, and I had a great time seeing her make the decisions that were best for her and her life! 

Loved reading this book and I'm so glad that I read it! 

Author: Julie Wright
Read: November 14th, 2023
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a SAC 2023 Book! 
Publisher: Shadow Mountain 
Published:  November 7th 2017

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Week 44 Review: Death Thieves

From Goodreads:
You're dead, Summer Dawn Rae.

When Summer Rae is stolen from the moment of her own death and taken to a future where mankind is dying, it is with the hope that she, and other teenagers like her, can save it. But after only a short time in the future, Summer discovers a darker side to the altruistic reasons behind her abduction. She is determined to fulfill her purpose in a world gone literally mad, but can an ordinary girl save a whole world when she only cares about saving one person? 

My Review:
This book was really awesome! I've previously read-and enjoyed-a Julie Wright book, which is why I read this one. And yeah, this book was really fantastic! I loved the world, these characters, and yeah, the injustice made my blood boil!

I loved the world building! What with the time jumps in the middle, we had very quick, but a very broad slice of what life was life in plenty of years. Like the cupboards cleaned the dishes, more effectively than dishwashers, and with less waste, too! That was awesome and hilarious!

Summer was taken from her life-and death-of 2010, and taken to 2100's. So be a brood mare, basically, but she fell in love with Tag, a solider who was infected and if she was with him, their kids might be crazies. Yeah, she was defiant like that!

Things were pretty horrible in the future! That kids were killed when they reached age 3 if they were crazy, and infertility, and stealing people from their deaths to repopulate the future, and a whole bunch more, not cool! But I really enjoyed how everything worked out!

This book was just utterly fantastic and so enjoyable! I loved reading it, so much!

Author: Julie Wright
Read: October 23rd, 2016
Source: Ebooks for Review, Review Copy
Reason Why: Loved her other book, and it's a 2016 Dystopia Book and a SAC 2016 Book!
Publisher: Heart Stone Press
Published: August 27th 2016

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Week 45 Review: Spell Check

From Goodreads:
A skeleton is rattling its way out of the closet marked "FAMILY SECRET! KEEP OUT!"

Allyson Peterson believes that being hanged by the Salem High Witches is the absolute worst thing that can happen. But when her powers, wrested from the trolls of ancient Sweden, manifest themselves, she realizes that a prank hanging by vindictive cheerleaders is the least of her worries. 

Ally accidentally sends her parents to the jungle to fight anacondas, turns her brother into a mute, and curses the entire cheerleading team with an illness that has no cure, proving that her spells need a little checking. Her Swedish grandmother shows up to help her through the worst part of all—surviving the Troll Trials and saving the guy of her dreams from a vengeance that has festered through-out generations. 

The power is in her, if she can just get the magic right.

My Review:
I really enjoyed this book, so much! It was a nice, cute, sweet book, with a thread of seriousness,i n the magic, and the responsibilities there, between the trolls and the treaty made, but yeah, there were just a lot of hilarious comments!

I really enjoyed the notes to self, they were hilarious, like one was a repeat of a previous one, and then a sub note, was to remember to look at and heed the self notes, they were just hilarious! And they told a bit about what would happen in that chapter!

Lisa, as an antagonist, is strange. Well, she's the leader of the popular people, and she's just pretty much had a hate on, on Ally, calling her Ally Cat, and yeah, pranking Ally. And then she says she's nice, and actually believed it. So yeah, liked when Ally stood up for herself!

That the whole bad guy thing was because of how the male trolls took the magic from the females, and then some human hunter ladies found it, and it became absorbed into their bloodlines? And that the female trolls wanted it back? And so she lied about the oaths? Yeah, that was a some nice twisty-ness, not for Ally, though!

Favourite lines: "What would a good little Puritan be doing with a witch and a vampire?" Good question. Oh, how I wish I'd read this on Halloween! "So not only was I the tramp, I was also the murderer." I love Clue, it's such an awesome game, and I really love the movie, it's one of my top 3 movies! "Having a birthday in October meant a few things. It meant nicknames like Pumpkin. It meant orange wrapping paper with black ribbon. It meant cakes with bats and cauldrons swirled into the frosting. It meant most birthday parties were costume parties. Most of the time punch had dry ice in it, and games consisted of pin the bolt on the Frankenstein while we listened to haunted noises off my mom's playlist. I did have one pink party. That was the year we went to Princess Pizza. But it was still a costume party. Everyone had to come as either a fairy or a princess. My mom even dressed my brother, who was a brand new baby at the time, like a little elf." So cute! "...while trying to stamp down the panic that I might get caught spying on Lisa and worse, I might wet my pants while getting caught spying on Lisa." Yeah, that would be worse! "'Well, we know where they are now.' 'We do?' I asked. 'They’re in the Amazon fighting anacondas.'" Yeah, that's a weird thing to be the only thing you'd be willing to do with your ex-husband! So funny! "Your father believes in aliens, but he'd eat his own socks before suspecting his mother is anything aside from a bit odd." A bit drastic, but funny! "We were driving twenty seven miles per hour in my mom's beat-up Civic through a jungle." That sounds awesome! "And I wasn't hitting you. I was hitting the snake who was trying to eat your father." Uh oh, hope the snake didn't get him when she left!

Really enjoyed this book, it was really funny and great, and yeah, it was just really, really good!

Author: Julie Wright
Read: November 2nd, 2014
Source: E-Books for Review Review Book
Reason Why: Sounded really good! And it's a SAC 2014 Book!
Publisher: Heart Stone Press
Published: June 10th 2014

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

4.5/5 Stars