ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

REVIEW:  Thank you to  netgalley  and Wednesday Books  for a free copy of this book.  I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.  A group of 5 teenagers are sent out to the woods for 55 days of wilderness therapy.  No one is happy to be there. After the 2nd night the counselors disappear and the kids are left on their own. At odds with each other and not wilderness savvy they all feel this is an odd way to start the trip. Soon factions form and as things start to get weird trust starts to erode.  When they start to realize they are being hunted they need to come together to survive. However trust is not an easy thing when you are broken. Then imagine your worst nightmare come true, and tracking you trying to beat you down to take your body.  Yikes.   Haunting and atmospheric this YA horror story takes off and has you staying up all night and making pledges to never go ca...

REVIEW:  I really wanted to like this book. I was looking forward to it since I really enjoyed Hidden Pictures but this one missed the mark for me. Maybe it was the narration since this was an audiobook and I read the last one in Hardcover but I found the main character to be too naive and pathetic to have been a single dad who worked a blue collar job his whole life. It just came across as very unrealistic to me.  The daughter was off from the beginning but I wasn't sure what was up, her soon to be husband seemed entirely disinterested in the whole affair. The mother of the groom was completely absent until the end  and the grooms father was your typical out of touch rich guy.  The events leading up to the wedding left a bad taste in my mouth and I felt myself wanting to shake the characters - I actually could think of several more realistic endings to this book than the one that was chosen which just fell flat. The only person in the entire book I liked was the ...

REVIEW:  Thank you to netgalley and Joy Revolution for a free copy of this book.  I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.  I loved this unique take on vampire lore. Once again a really strong female lead character who knows what she wants and is determined to prove that she is just as capable as the men in her world. Only her grandfather believes in her.  After hunting for the vampire that killed his parents Lalo himself is turned and is desperate to find a cure and protect his sister. They travel to where the first vampire is said to live in order to find him, kill him and rid him of the curse before he turns into an animal.  Carolina's whole family are vampire hunters and protectors of their village. When she first encounters Lalo she tries to kill him until she actually listens to him and learns more about her family, their connection to the vampires and what she can do to help. ...

REVIEW:  The Full Moon Yearbook is beautiful and easy to read. It tells you about the full moon at every season - what it stands for what types of rituals or meditations you should do at this time of year and even gives a yoga pose that helps connect your body with the season.  The Wheel of the Year is a great companion book to the full moon book giving you information about the season, recipes, and activities to do by yourself or with your kids. It shows how different cultures have similar ways of celebrating certain times of the year. For example the Celtic tradition of Samhain honoring the ancestors and the thinning of the veil and the Mexican Dia Des Los Muertos celebrating the ancestors and those who have come before us.  Putting gardens to bed for the season (death) and getting ready to hunker down for the winter (a hibernation of sorts).  I love these two books and use them to plan full moon ceremonies. It feels good to be connected to the earth with these r...

REVIEW:  I placed a library hold on this so long ago I've forgotten why I did, but I'm glad I did. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this at first but it hooked me pretty quickly and I thought it was unique and fun. The main character has no memory of who he is or what he was doing. Slowly he realizes that he is a Dark Lord, and not a very good one. He also realizes he doesn't really want to be that anymore.  This book has themes choosing good or evil, starting over, how looks can be deceiving and how sometimes the way someone looks dictates how we react to them. Never judge a book by a cover! (which when it comes to books I am totally guilty of).  All of the characters are fantastic - well maybe with the exception of one. I think people of all ages would love this book and actually may learn something about how we treat people who don't look like us.  Publ...

REVIEW:  Beth takes refuge in Kates van but what is she running from? Kate is on a mission to find her missing sister, Phoebe.  She is using her sisters social media as a map and retracing her steps.  After the initial shock of finding Beth, Kate agrees to take her with her. They form a friendship even though Beth is holding things back.  There is a lot of mystery and some chapters that dive into Beths past and what she had been doing prior to winding up in Kate's van. With the boom of van lifers and van life instagrams this is a timely and interesting read with a lot of emphasis on how women should be allowed to travel alone and not feel unsafe. There are all these cautions and rules for solo women travelers that men don't have to deal with.  The ending of this book was a fast pace race with a crazy twist. I loved it. You discover what happened to Phoebe.  Beth and Kate's relationship loses the lies and becomes stronger and Beth gets closure on why...

  REVIEW:  Keeping in mind that this book is geared toward middle school age children I thought it was pretty good. The killer is actually revealed before the end of the book which was different. It reads like one of the teen slasher movies. It is not overly gory but it is definitely creepy.   There was a party several years ago with all the same people. Something happened at the party that seems to be triggering the events in the present. With alternating chapters we learn about the past party and what is happening on a school trip in a secluded cabin, snowed in at the top of a mountain. The ending was fantastic and really left you guessing and while I'm not a fan of open ended endings this one hit its mark. I would say that this definitely skews for a younger audience and not a YA mystery.  It was a bit campy but I liked it.  Publication Date:  October 15, 2024 ...