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      Review: The Boys by Katie Hafner

      July 26, 2022

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Author

Allison

Allison

I'm a southern girl living in St. Paul, MN. I can often be found hiding from the real world and avoiding responsibilities by reading a copious amount of books. You can also find my ramblings about life and literature over at mynovelife.com.

  • Book ReviewsHistorical Fiction

    Review: The Poppy Wife

    by Allison November 18, 2019
    by Allison November 18, 2019

    The Poppy Wife is a debut novel by Caroline Scott taking place in Europe during WWI. The year is 1921 and Edie is grieving the loss of her husband, Francis, whom disappeared in France four years earlier. Out of the…

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  • Book ReviewsFiction

    Review: Family Trust

    by Allison November 8, 2019
    by Allison November 8, 2019

    With the holiday season upon us, it is the perfect time to read a good family drama. The Family Trust is all of that and more. Family patriarch, Stanely Huang, learns he has pancreatic cancer and is faced with his…

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  • Book ReviewsGeneral Non-Fiction

    Review: Lost Child

    by Allison November 1, 2019
    by Allison November 1, 2019

    As a former public school teacher, I’m all too familiar with the daily tragedies that exist within society. Torey Hayden made a name for herself decades ago writing about her experiences as a special education teacher. Since then, she moved…

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  • Book ReviewsCrime/Mystery

    Review: A Bitter Feast

    by Allison October 10, 2019
    by Allison October 10, 2019

    A Bitter Feast is a much anticipated addition to the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series. Fans of Louise Penny and Tana French will love the tightly-wound, yet twisting plots of these addictive mysteries. The series centers around Scotland Yard…

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  • Book ReviewsCrime/Mystery

    Review: The Hound of Justice

    by Allison August 20, 2019
    by Allison August 20, 2019

    The Hound of Justice is the second installment in the Janet Watson Chronicles, a variation of Sherlock Holmes with a modern-day twist. In the first book of the series, A Study in Honor, we met the series’ protagonist, Janet Watson.…

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  • Living Life Bookishly

    Review: Westside

    by Allison June 27, 2019
    by Allison June 27, 2019

    Westside takes place in an alternate version of 1920’s New York. Manhattan has been divided between the East side, where the rich and prosperous live, and the West side, teeming with crooks, con men, and deviants. The story’s protagonist, Gilda…

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  • Book Reviews

    Review: One Minute Later

    by Allison June 19, 2019
    by Allison June 19, 2019

    One Minute Later shows just how fragile life is and how everything can change in an instant. Vivienne is living the fast-paced life of a modern 27-year-old when a heart conditions brings everything to a screeching halt. Susan Lewis is…

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  • Book ReviewsHistorical Fiction

    Review: Realm by Alexandrea Weis

    by Allison June 10, 2019
    by Allison June 10, 2019

    When her homeland is conquered by the mighty Alexander the Great, Roxana—the daughter of a mere chieftain—is torn from her simple life and thrown into a world of war and intrigue. Terrified, the sixteen-year-old girl of renowned beauty is brought…

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  • Book Reviews

    Review: How We Disappeared

    by Allison April 30, 2019
    by Allison April 30, 2019

    Why do we read stories of unimaginable suffering? Why do we revisit the pain, heartache, and shame others experience in their darkest times? I found myself asking these questions as I read debut author Jing-Jing Lee’s novel How We Disappeared. The…

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  • Book ListsLiving Life Bookishly

    TBR Mix N’ Mingle – April 2019

    by Allison April 3, 2019
    by Allison April 3, 2019

    Welcome back to another edition of TBR Mix n’ Mingle where you can get excited about your next read or add another book to your ever growing TBR! Join us the first Wednesday of each month as we share our most anticipated…

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I just started Last Summer on State Street last night and almost stayed up too late. I couldn't put it down! Happy to have nabbed this one in a @goodreads giveaway.

Synopsis:
Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild.

Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.

As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.

Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home — both in one’s history and in one’s self.

#bookfeature #bookstagramfeature #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookblogger #bookobsessed #bookhoarder #goodreadsgiveaway #readersofinstagram #readreadread #lastsummeronstatestreet #amreading #currentlyreading #currentread
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Breaking my summer hiatus for this fantastic memoir! It was so very good. It reads like immersive fiction, and I was so invested in Faleeha's life. I can't believe some of what she went through, and how she's been able to put it all into words. This book is so unique in that I've not read any other accounts like this of life in Iraq during the war and subsequent embargo. 

The whole thing is fascinating, brave, and inspiring. I highly recommend War and Me! 5 full stars.

Put it on your TBR now! It did take me a chapter or two to get used to the translation, but it worked. Just pick this up, her story will have you rapt.

Thank you so much to @otrpr for having me on the War and Me book tour!

#bookreview #warandme #faleehahassan #5stars #memoir #bookrecommendation #bookrecs #amreading #currentread #currentlyreading #bookstagram #bookstagramfeature #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookishlife #bookblogger #bookblog #readersofinstagram #readreadread
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Look look 👀 at what someone left in my Little Free Library today 🤩😍! The Vanishing Half has been on my TBR list for ages!! I better try to read it soon so I can put it back in there 😁.

#littlefreelibraryfinds #littlefreelibrarystewards #littlefreelibrary #bookstagram #thevanishinghalf #amreading #booksbooksbooks #booksbooksandmorebooks #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #readreadread #bookish #bookishlife #readinglife #tbrlist #tbr #bookworm #bookwormlife
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My library started keeping a big shelf area of newer releases and it gets me juuuust about 90% of the time I'd say 😅. I remember seeing GOD SPARE THE GIRLS on bookstagram and being intrigued 🤔. Anyone have read it or nah feelings on this one?

Synopsis:
A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover a dark secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a coming-of-age story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception.

Luke Nolan has led The Hope congregation for over a decade, while his wife and daughters patiently uphold what it means to live righteously. Made famous by a viral sermon on purity co-written with his eldest daughter, Abigail, Luke is the prototype of a modern preacher: tall, handsome, a spellbinding speaker. But his youngest daughter Caroline has started to notice the cracks in their comfortable life. She is certain that her perfect, pristine sister is about to marry the wrong man—and Caroline has slid into sin with a boy she’s known her entire life, wondering why God would care so much about her virginity anyway.

When it comes to light, six weeks before Abigail’s wedding, that Luke has been having an affair with another woman, the entire Nolan family falls into a tailspin. Caroline seizes the opportunity to be alone with her sister. The two girls flee to the ranch they inherited from their maternal grandmother, far removed from the embarrassing drama of their parents and the prying eyes of the community. But with the date of Abigail’s wedding fast approaching, the sisters will have to make a hard decision about which familial bonds are worth protecting.

An intimate coming-of-age story and a modern woman’s read, God Spare the Girls lays bare the rabid love of sisterhood and asks what we owe our communities, our families, and ourselves.

#bookfeature #librarybook #hclib #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookblogger #bookreviewer #bookish #bookishlife #bookobsessed #bookhoarder #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #amreading #librarylove #godsparethegirls #amreading
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Historical fiction lovers, I've got one for ya! A Dress of Violet Taffeta was full of Gilded Age fashion and history, and reading about fashionista Lady Lucy Duff Gordon was a blast. My full review is on the blog - link in bio!

SYNOPSIS
Lucy Duff Gordon knows she is talented. She sees color, light, fabric, and texture in ways few other people do. But is the world ready for her? A world dominated by men who would try to control her and use her art for their own gain?

After being deserted by her wealthy husband, Lucy is desperate to survive. She turns to her one true talent to make a living. As a little girl, the dresses she made for her dolls were the envy of her group of playmates. Now, she uses her courageous innovations in Belle Époque fashion to support her own little girl. Lucile knows it is an uphill battle, and a single woman is not supposed to succeed on her own, but she refuses to give up. She will claim her place in the fashion world; failure simply is not an option.

Then, on a frigid night in 1912, Lucy’s life changes once more, when she becomes one of 706 people to survive the sinking of the Titanic. She could never have imagined the effects the disaster would have on her career, her marriage to her second husband, and her legacy. But no matter what life throws at her, Lucile will live on as a trailblazing and fearless fashion icon, never letting go of what she worked so hard to earn. This is her story.

#bookreview #bookfeature #historicalfiction #lucyduffgordon #adressofviolettaffeta #bookreviewer #bookblogger #bookworm #bookwormlife #amreading #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookish #bookishlife
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I cleaned off my desk (which fits in a corner and has shelves) and made a shelf just for my @theglossbookclub books 🤩. It's fun to be a host and give away a book at every meeting 😊. 

July: The Guncle
August: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
September: The Messy Lives of Book People
October: The Bohemians

Are you reading anything awesome for a book club?

#bookclubreads #bookclub #bookclubsofinstagram #bookclubpick #amreading #bookstagram #theglossbookclub #booksofinstagram #shelfie #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #readreadread #bookobsessed #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookish #bookishlife  #booklover
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Well this book is just stealing my whole gosh dang heart, and today is its pub day!! I highly suggest adding this one to your TBR, book friends, if you're into quirky, big-heaeted, character-driven stories. I have only about 50 pages left and can't wait to see how this ends! The writing is superb, too. Thank you so much to @katiehafner, @spiegelandgrau, and @ehpmarketing for the ARC of THE BOYS.

Synopsis:
When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. She fills his world with a sense of adventure, expanding his horizons beyond his comfortable routine. Because Ethan fears becoming a father, one day Barb brings home two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, for them to foster, and Ethan immediately falls in love with the two boys. When the pandemic hits, he becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for them. But instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his children are. This hauntingly beautiful debut novel—a bold and original high-wire feat—is "a treat with a surprise inside” (Publishers Weekly).

#bookreview #bookfeature #amreading #currentread #currentlyreading #bookstagram #bookstagramfeature #bookblogger #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookish #bookishlife #booklover #booksbooksbooks #readreadread #readersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #bookobsessed #arcbook #pubday
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Little Free Library find alert! Two Nights in Lisbon by @chris.pavone is now available! Thank you @littlefreelibrary for the opportunity to share this hot recent release with my community 🤩! Won this #thriller in their giveaway 😄

#twonightsinlisbon #littlefreelibrarystewards #littlefreelibraryfinds #lfl #amreading #booksbooksbooks #booksharing #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #readreadread #bookworm #bookwormlife #bookish #bookishlife #readinglife
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Literary Quicksand
  • Book Reviews
    • Book Reviews

      Book Review: Take Me With You When You…

      August 8, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: The Guncle by Stephen Rowley

      August 6, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: War and Me by Faleeha Hassan

      August 4, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: Fox & I by Catherine Raven

      August 3, 2022

      Book Reviews

      Review: The Boys by Katie Hafner

      July 26, 2022

  • Book Lists
    • Book Lists

      What We Read in July 2022

      August 1, 2022

      Book Lists

      4 YA Books Set in the Middle Ages…

      July 29, 2022

      Book Lists

      5 YA Books Featuring Characters with Bipolar Disorder

      July 10, 2022

      Book Lists

      What We Read in June 2022

      July 6, 2022

      Book Lists

      5 Funny Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels: Humorous Reads…

      July 3, 2022

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