So I went to Las Vegas this past weekend to see the Silk Sonic show which was the best show ever. Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak and the Hooligans (Bruno’s band) are phenomenal. My friend and I ate good food, we got massages, we gambled a little and then flew back home. But on the flight home, I felt a tickle in my throat. I thought it was just my allergies because I was dealing with that all weekend in Vegas. I went from humid Hawaii air to very dry Nevada air and my body was dealing with it but way better than my friend who was congested all weekend in the dry air.
Anyway, an hour prior to landing my nose started running. Again, I thought it was just the dry airplane air. There were lots of people coughing and sneezing but I wore my mask on both flights, and in Vegas (my friend and I were the rare ones that wore masks lol) – of course we removed it to eat and that was it, covid got me! I came home Sunday night, took a test real quick and it said it was negative 15 minutes later. So I thought it was okay to hug my daughter and she wanted me to sleep next to her so I did. I woke up at 3am coughing and went to the bathroom and the test that said I was negative had a strange crooked line 2nd line. I was like oh no….so I quickly took another test and that showed up positive right away. I felt horrible for exposing my daughter.
And I feel even WORSE because it was my husband’s birthday yesterday and he had to take care of me. I can’t hug my kids and my daughter was acting up because she wanted to be next to me. And to top if off…we were supposed to fly to NYC today and drive down to Philadelphia. But I can’t fly and I’ve exposed my family. I know my hubby is upset – he was supposed to be in his friend’s wedding on Sunday, he had plans to go to a Phillies baseball game, we had so many plans. He was so looking forward to this trip, the kids too. 🥺 They haven’t been showing symptoms yet and I hope they never do. But I feel like this is all my fault. Of course we could have flown to NYC and caught covid and spent the time in Philadelphia recovering also…but still, I feel SO bad. 😭
As for me – I slept the whole day on Monday. I was exhausted from flying and my symptoms and just couldn’t do much. I had no fever, but I had chills and some body ache (I couldn’t tell because I was already achy from flying!). Tuesday my head felt clearer and now I’m just coughing up stuff but I have more energy. Many people told me their worse day was day 3 and yesterday was day 3 for me so I hope this means I’ll be good soon. 🙏🏼 I think I caught it on the plane ride from Hawaii to Vegas. Hawaii has a covid surge right now and half the people on the plane wasn’t wearing masks. My symptoms showed up 2 days later.
I think my hubby said he will be rescheduling the trip – I just don’t know when. But I wish Covid would just go away already. I managed not to catch it for 2 years. I’m glad my symptoms are mild though. So that’s my update – I’m bummed, but I had such a good time in Vegas…it was the mental break I needed!! It just came at the cost of catching covid and ruining the big family trip though. SIGH.
Fans of The Gilded Ones and Children of Blood and Bone will love the second book in an epic fantasy series about a girl who is the key to saving the empire–or its greatest threat.
It’s been six months since Deka has freed the goddesses and discovered who she really is. There are now wars waging across the kingdom. Otereans now think jatu are traitors to the nation. Deka is called a monster.
But the real battle has only just begun and Deka must lead the charge. Deka is tasked with freeing the rest of the goddesses. Only as she begins to free them, she begins to see a strange symbol everywhere in places of worship and worn on armor. There’s something unnatural about that symbol; just looking at it makes Deka lose her senses. Even worse, it seems to repel her powers. She can’t command or communicate with the new deathshrieks. In fact, she can’t even understand them when they speak.
Deka knows freeing the goddesses is just the beginning. She can tell whatever dark force out is powerful and there is something sinister out there threatening the kingdom connected to that symbol–something merciless–that her army will need to stop before humanity crumbles. But Deka’s powers are only getting stronger…and her strongest weapon could be herself.
Beatrice is queen, and for the American royal family, everything is about to change.
Relationships will be tested. Princess Samantha is in love with Lord Marshall Davis—but the more serious they get, the more complicated things become. Is Sam destined to repeat her string of broken relationships…and this time will the broken heart be her own?
Strangers will become friends. Beatrice is representing America at the greatest convocation of kings and queens in the world. When she meets a glamorous foreign princess, she gets drawn into the inner circle…but at what cost?
And rivals will become allies. Nina and Daphne have spent years competing for Prince Jefferson. Now they have something in common: they both want to take down manipulative Lady Gabriella Madison. Can these enemies join forces, or will old rivalries stand in the way?
The first rule of watching K-dramas: Never fall in love with the second lead.
As an avid watcher of K-dramas, Hana knows all the tropes to avoid when she finally lands a starring role in a buzzy new drama. And she can totally handle her fake co-star boyfriend who might be falling in love with her. After all, she promised the producers a contract romance, and that’s all they’re going to get from her.
But when showrunners bring on a new girl to challenge Hana’s role as main love interest—and worse, it’s someone Hana knows all too well—can Hana fight for her position on the show while falling for her on-screen rival in real life?
-K-drama lovers will fall for all the fan-favorite tropes that make for a hit show. -Romance is everywhere in this swoony, joy-filled novel, with fake dating, a secret relationship, and a classic love triangle! -Visit South Korea as Hana takes readers through popular spots and hidden gems.
The Notebook meets Love & Gelato in this heart-wrenching novel about a teen girl who travels to her late mother’s majestic summertime home to learn of the romance—and the tragedy—that changed her life forever.
Seventeen-year-old Lexi has always wanted to know more about the mother who passed away when she was only a child. But her dad will barely talk about her. He says he’d rather live in the present with Lexi, her stepmom, and her half-brother. Lexi loves her family, too, but is it so wrong to want to learn about the mom she never got to know?
When Lexi’s grandma dies and secretly leaves her a worn blue chest that belonged to Lexi’s mother, Lexi is ecstatic to find a treasure trove of keepsakes. Her mom held onto letters, pamphlets, flyers, and news articles all from the same beautiful summertime getaway: Mackinac Island—plus a cryptic postcard that hints at a forbidden romance. If Lexi wants answers, this island is where she needs to go.
Without telling her dad, Lexi goes to the gorgeous Mackinac Island in Lake Superior, reachable only by ferry. Cars are forbidden and bikes are the number one mode of transportation along the quaint cobblestone streets, and the bright white hotel that looms like a high castle over charming cafés and bookshops. While following her mother’s footsteps, Lexi befriends an elderly former Broadway star and a charming young hotel worker while quickly falling in love with her surroundings.
But though the island may be beautiful, it’s hiding unfortunate secrets—some with her mother at the center. Could some questions be best left buried beneath the blue waters?
A sweet and swoony contemporary Young Adult novel about a cross-country family road trip that puts one girl and her childhood best friend on an unexpected road to romance!
Norah hasn’t seen her childhood best friend, Skyler, in years. When he first moved away, they’d talk all the time, but lately their relationship has been reduced to liking each other’s Instagram posts. That’s why Norah can’t wait for the joint RV road trip their families have planned for the summer.
But when Skyler finally arrives, he seems…like he’d rather be anywhere else. Hurt and confused, Norah reacts in kind. Suddenly, her oldest friendship is on the rocks.
An unexpected summer spent driving across the country leads both Norah and Skyler down new roads and to new discoveries. Before long, they are, once again, seeing each other in a different light. Can their friendship-turned-rivalry turn into something more?
New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang delivers a heartfelt and powerful YA romance about a Chinese American girl who gets help from the new boy in town to search for her dad after her successful fashion designer mother is diagnosed with cancer.
Serene dreams of making couture dresses even more stunning than her mom’s, but for now she’s an intern at her mom’s fashion label. When her mom receives a sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, all that changes. Serene has to take over her mother’s business overnight, dealing with ruthless investors who do not think a seventeen-year-old can run a fashion empire, while trying to figure out what happened with her dad in Beijing. He left before she was born, and Serene wants to find him, even if it means going against her mom’s one request—never look back.
Lian Chen moved from China to Serene’s mostly white Southern California beach town a year ago. He doesn’t fit in at school, where kids mispronounce his name. His parents don’t care about what he wants to do—comedy—and push him toward going to MIT engineering early. Lian thinks there’s nothing to stick around for, until one day, he starts Chinese Club after school . . . and Serene walks in.
Worlds apart in the high school hierarchy, Serene and Lian soon find refuge in each other, falling in love as they navigate life-changing storms.
A contemporary young adult romance about moving on, finding your place, and recovering after life falls apart.
Gymnast Caroline Kepler has three state balance beam titles, a new trick even most elites can’t do, and chronic, undeniable back pain. While she might never be an Olympian, she has dreams of leveling up to elite, making Nationals, and competing in college. But when one epic face-plant changes all that and Caroline’s back pain goes from chronic to career-ending, her dreams are shattered and her life is flipped upside down.
Enter Alex Zavala, a three-sport athlete who’s both incredibly cute and incredibly off-limits. He offers to give Caroline a crash course in all the sports she’s missed, and she has an offer for him in return: For every sport Alex teaches her, she’ll play matchmaker for him. Deal done, Caroline “dates” new sports with Alex for the rest of the summer, which is loads more fun than wallowing in despair. Just as Caroline starts to see herself as more than her past athletic successes, she picks up something she didn’t bargain for: a big fat crush on Alex. Turns out life was way easier when it was just layout-fulls and beam burns….
A fresh and vital new voice in romance. —Entertainment Weekly
Paris, 1889
The Exposition Universelle is underway, drawing merchants from every corner of the globe. Luz Alana Heith-Benzan set sail from Santo Domingo armed with three hundred casks of rum, her two best friends and one simple rule: under no circumstances is she to fall in love.
The City of Light is where Luz Alana will expand Caña Brava, the rum business her family built over three generations. It’s a mission that’s taken on new urgency after her father’s untimely death and the news that her trust fund won’t be released until she marries. But buyers and shippers alike are rude and dismissive; they can’t imagine doing business with a woman…never mind a woman of color.
From her first tempestuous meeting with James Evanston Sinclair, Earl of Darnick, Luz Alana is conflicted. Why is this man—this titled Scottish man—so determined to help her? And why, honestly, is he so infuriatingly charming?
All Evan Sinclair ever wanted was to find a purpose away from his father’s dirty money and dirtier politics. Ignoring his title, he’s built a whiskey brand that’s his biggest—and only—passion. That is, until he’s confronted with a Spanish-speaking force of nature who turns his life upside down.
Evan quickly suspects he’ll want Luz Alana with him forever. Every day with her makes the earl wish for more than her magnificent kisses or the marriage of convenience that might save them both. But Luz Alana sailed for Paris with her eyes on liquor, money and new beginnings. She wasn’t prepared for love to find her.
Are you getting any new books this week? Happy Reading! ~ Yolanda
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!
This week’s topic is: (freebie topic)
10 Comfort Reads
(Share which books or kinds of books you turn to when you need to escape. You can either share specific titles if you love to re-read, or you could share qualities of books you look for in a comfort read.)
This series – the books and the movies are just pure comfort. It’s got a loving family, fun friendships, a childhood crush that turns into something so much more.
In no way is this a snuggly-comfort kind of series…unless you like bad princes and a human who is not afraid to kick ass. 😅 But Holly Black’s writing always comforts me.
Books with food in them – especially if it’s a dessert definitely falls into the comfort read category for me!
I think Sarah J. Maas books are a sort of comfort to me because I know what she writes – it never really strays off the path. I’m just so familiar with her work and I know reading one of her books will have romantasy and lots of action and fae. All things I love.
Christmas romance stories! I didn’t exactly read this one but it was on my TBR list! Maybe I’ll read it this year. But holiday romances always give me the cozy, comfort feels!
Of course a good romance book always comforts me! Romance was the genre that got me into reading so it will always be my first love!
I love an inspirational story! It brings me great comfort and satisfaction when a character overcomes so much adversity and has succeeds.
Books that are a blast from the past for me are comfort reads. I read this series so many times back when it first came out! A lot of book series fall in this category for me, this is just one of them.
A good enemies-to-lovers trope will always be a comfort read to me! I can’t get enough of it.
Is this a surprise? Anything Jane Austen is a comfort read but I haven’t re-read the books in a long time since I don’t have to re-read anything these days. I watch the movies or tv series at least once a year though! So anything Jane Austen is a comfort to me – her books, the movie and show adaptations, the retellings…etc…give it all to me, just make it good!
Categories: Young Adult, Mystery, Romance, Coming of Age
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
Seventeen-year-old Lexi has always wanted to know more about the mother who passed away when she was only a child. But her dad will barely talk about her. He says he’d rather live in the present with Lexi, her stepmom, and her half-brother. Lexi loves her family, too, but is it so wrong to want to learn about the mom she never got to know?
When Lexi’s grandma dies and secretly leaves her a worn blue chest that belonged to Lexi’s mother, Lexi is ecstatic to find a treasure trove of keepsakes. Her mom held onto letters, pamphlets, flyers, and news articles all from the same beautiful summertime getaway: Mackinac Island—plus a cryptic postcard that hints at a forbidden romance. If Lexi wants answers, this island is where she needs to go.
Without telling her dad, Lexi goes to the gorgeous Mackinac Island in Lake Superior, reachable only by ferry. Cars are forbidden and bikes are the number one mode of transportation along the quaint cobblestone streets, and the bright white hotel that looms like a high castle over charming cafés and bookshops. While following her mother’s footsteps, Lexi befriends an elderly former Broadway star and a charming young hotel worker while quickly falling in love with her surroundings.
But though the island may be beautiful, it’s hiding unfortunate secrets—some with her mother at the center. Could some questions be best left buried beneath the blue waters?
Content Warning: Death of Parent
I really love the cover of this book and that’s the main reason I requested it.
Lexi doesn’t know much about her mom but when her estranged grandmother dies and leaves her a box of her mom’s things she wants to find out more. With encouragement from her step-sister Chloe, they concoct a plan for her to find out more about her mom and visiting Mackinac Island in Michigan. It requires lying to her dad and step-mom, but Lexi feels like she has no choice.
The story starts off fine and we have two timelines going on – Emma (Lexi’s mom), is telling her story in the past, and Lexi continues in the present. Emma is a sunshine girl, who’s life has been easy so far. Her parents own a lovely hotel resort on Mackinac Island. She’s friendly with the employees, especially one guy named JR who she’s known from when they were little kids. But this summer is different – Emma has befriended brother and sisters, Linda and Ryan. They become a foursome all summer long until things start to change.
Emma is a sweet girl who loves art, she’s always late to things, she loves her summer dresses and being carefree. Her parents want her to learn more responsibility though because they hope she will take over the hotel business but Emma doesn’t want the hotel to be her future. She’s not sure what she wants. Even when it comes to guys. JR is her best friend, and he’s known her forever but Ryan has an amazing smile and a charming personality like her.
I was invested in finding out Emma’s history for Lexi’s sake. Lexi just needs to know more about her mom, and I sympathized with her. But I had a few issues with the story. Lexi’s character wasn’t someone I could connect to. I felt like a lot of the characters weren’t very developed outside of Emma, JR, Ryan and Linda. Lexi is a very indecisive character and needs encouragement from her step-sister Chloe who we only get to know over the phone. Chloe is there in the beginning of the story but barely there, anywhere else in the story. For someone who is investigating her mother’s history, Lexi was strangely reluctant to follow the plan she has, even ignoring advice from people on the island – which was so strange to me. Instead she tries to force some random worker to help her and clearly he doesn’t want to. It was bizarre.
I was drawn to Emma’s upbringing in the beginning, mostly because the setting of Mackinac Island sounded wonderful, but she is as indecisive as Lexi. She gets herself into a love triangle and it’s super frustrating. I usually don’t mind love triangles but Emma comes off as innocent yet has two guys in love with her and she can’t seem to choose which one she wants to be with. It ruins the friendship between all of them, including Linda. It was just sad. Everything revolved around Emma even beyond her death.
Another thing that wasn’t vibing with me was the whole mystery of Emma’s life and Lexi’s investigation of it. It was slow, add the love triangle to it and I felt unsatisfied with the story. I guess I thought from the cover this would be a more light-hearted story.
Why you should read it:
Mackinac Island setting
summer of friendship
Why you might not want to read it:
love triangle with a girl who couldn’t really make a choice and stick with it (until it had ruined relationships)
slow developing story, Lexi’s investigation went nowhere at times
indecisive characters: Emma and Lexi
My Thoughts:
I love the cover and the concept of the story. The setting was wonderful and I even had to Google it to see if it was real! It is. The setting was my favorite part. The execution of the story fell short for me. I didn’t connect to Emma or Lexi, they were both way too indecisive for me. The story moved a bit too slowly and I didn’t enjoy the love triangle. Unfortunately this story wasn’t for me.
Categories: Family, Grief, Coming of Age, Contemporary, Young Adult
Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.
Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.
Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.
When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.
From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.
Content Warning: Grief, Death of Loved One, Abuse, Addiction, Overdose, Trauma, Prison, Racism, Islamophobia
I am a fan of Sabaa Tahir because of her fantasy series but her venture into contemporary young adult is powerful. This is not a happy story. It is filled with trauma, hurt, despair and the characters in it just seems so desolate and lost – add to that the setting of a motel in a town near Death Valley in California and I felt as trapped as Noor and Sal does in the book.
Noor is an immigrant, her parents are dead and her uncle brought her to California from Pakistan. She is grateful to him for saving her but her dream is to leave Juniper, California after high school. I cannot imagine what Noor’s been through and then to come to a new country and try to fit in, learn the language and lifestyle? It’s a lot for anyone to deal with – on top of dealing with an uncle who resents her presence. I love that she had good moments though, especially with Salahudin’s mother, Misbah, before she dies. And I adore her love of music. I know she used it to escape the bad things happening in her life but every time she mentioned a song I could totally relate to her mood.
Salahudin’s parents immigrated to California and bought a motel they named the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel. It was his mother’s dream – she loved running the motel but Sal’s dad is an alcoholic and when his mother gets very ill and dies, it’s up to him to keep things going but he doesn’t know how. He’s a high school student just barely surviving the loss of his mother and his drunk and grieving father. Sal is also dealing with some of his own issues – he hates being touched and doesn’t know why and not sure if he wants to know why.
I love all the characters and how the story unfolds. The characters are solid and I felt I got to know them so well, well enough to care about them. Usually flashbacks in a story can be jarring but having this story told through Noor, Salahudin and Misbah (her tales of the past), were seamless and it flowed so well. As I read the story, I felt rage also – for Noor and Sal. Here are these two high school kids just trying to make the best of their lives. They are strong, they will do what it takes to either get out or keep their family afloat but it seems so lonesome for both of them. I felt like there was hardly anyone in their corner. I also love that this story wasn’t preachy on faith and the message here was that religion is there for comfort, for people to have when they need guidance through life because life is tough. There are so many hard times.
As mentioned above, this story is not light and fluffy. It’s full of despair, it’s raw and real and deals with tough things like drug dealing, drug addiction, racism, discrimination, abuse, death. I wanted to reach into the book and help Noor and Sal because they are just kids! Bless Misbah’s heart – she tried, that dear woman tried her best. They all did the best they could under all the circumstances.
Why you should read it:
a powerful story and wonderful Pakistanis and Muslim representation
it will break your heart and fill you with despair but the writing is so good and the characters are so real
getvto know Noor, Sal and Misbah’s story
Why you might not want to read it:
triggers everywhere so be in the right mood to read this one – a mood to have your heart broken and to rage at the world!
My Thoughts:
This story is a real look at the Pakistani immigrant experience and gives us a peek at the beautiful culture of the people, and the religion of Islam, especially through Misbah’s words, memories and actions. It’s a story about love – love of family, and falling in love with your best friend. It’s a story about many scary things that happen to good people also – drugs, death, abuse, making desperate choices and facing consequences. And also, it’s a story about hope and how to keep going when life doesn’t go as expected. This book is heartbreaking, captivating, and so powerful and definitely a must read.
📚 ~ Yolanda
Quote from the Book:
I’ll survive this. I’ll live. But there’s a hole in me, never to be filled. Maybe that’s why people die of old age. Maybe we could live forever if we didn’t love so completely. But we do. And by the time old age comes, we’re filled with holes, so many that it’s too hard to breathe. So many that our insides aren’t even ours anymore. We’re just one big empty space, waiting to be filled by the darkness. Waiting to be free.|
-Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Shock has faded into numbness. But grief is an animal I know. It’s retreated for now. But it’ll be back.
-Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Because what religion—many religions, really—offers is comfort when it’s all too much. A reason for the pain. A hand in the darkness if we reach for it.”
-Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Sometimes we hold on to things we shouldn’t. People. Places. Emotions. We try to control all of it, when what we should be doing is trusting in something bigger.”
-Sabaa Tahir, All My Rage
Rage can fuel you. But grief gnaws at you slow, a termite nibbling at your soul until you’re a whisper of what you used to be.”
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Please check out her website for more TTT topics!
This week’s topic is: (freebie topic)
10 Book Quotes from Book Lovers by. Emily Henry
I just read this book and honestly I highlighted a few sentences in them because they were really good or hit me in some way. Here are my favorites!
“That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them and you’re a heartless bitch.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“Birth is a kind of death,” she says, rubbing her tummy. “Death of the self. Death of sleep. Death of your ability not to pee yourself a little when you laugh.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“I’ve always considered myself an introvert, but the truth is I’m used to having people on all sides of me. You adapt to living life with a constant audience. It becomes comforting.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“Maybe this is why people take trips, for that feeling of your real life liquefying around you, like nothing you do will tug on any other strand of your carefully built world.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“It’s a feeling not unlike reading a really good book: all-consuming, worry-obliterating.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“The last-page ache. The deep breath in after you’ve set the book aside.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“Somehow, it never occurred to me that this was an option: that two people, in the same hug, could both be allowed to fall apart. That maybe it’s neither of our jobs to keep a steel spine.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“Maybe it’s possible to belong in a hundred different ways to a hundred different people and places.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
“Maybe love shouldn’t be built on a foundation of compromises, but maybe it can’t exist without them either. Not the kind that forces two people into shapes they don’t fit in, but the kind that loosens their grips, always leaves room to grow. Compromises that say, there will be a you-shaped space in my heart, and if your shape changes, I will adapt. No matter where we go, our love will stretch out to hold us, and that makes me feel like . . . like everything will be okay.” – Emily Henry, Book Lovers
Seriously…this book gave me so many feels, some triggers – I didn’t expect it to be emotional but I found myself relating so much! Have you read it yet?
I managed to finish a few books this week! More than last week at least. So my week was pretty mild. Now this Friday I’ll be on a plane to Las Vegas and seeing Silk Sonic in concert on Saturday night. My bestie and I plan to do a little gambling, get a massage, eat, dance, sleep and then hop back on a plane to Hawaii on Sunday. 😅 I’m so excited! This is my first trip in 10 years and my first weekend away from my kids ever. After Las Vegas, I come home for 2 days- unwind as best I can, do laundry, clean the house, do last minute shopping and then hop on a plane to Philadelphia. I hope my body can handle all these flights and time changes. And I pray I stay healthy! 🙏🏼
Hope you had a good week and have a nice new week!
Senior Year (Netflix) – it was a bit cringey but I got a few laughs out of it
Bling Empire (Netflix) – oh the DRAMA of the rich lol
Games I Played:
My Singing Monsters (app)
Just Dance – cardio
Music I Listened To:
Silk Sonic – getting in the mood for the concert!💃🏻
How was your week? Did you get a lot done? Watch anything good? Read any amazing books or books you didn’t finish? What are you reading?…Leave me a comment below!
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
“Pa was taking too long to cut the boys’ throats.”
⬇️
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Can you guess what book it is?
Did you guess it? Have you read this one? I finally got this one on Kindle Unlimited and started reading it!
Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.
Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.
And Sam picks up the phone.
In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.
Content Warning: Grief, Death of Loved One
First off, I love this book cover, it’s so pretty and perfectly reflects the story. Julie and Sam had future plans but the future changes when Sam dies in a car accident.
Julie is grieving and grieving has many stages – we see Julie go through lot of them in this story about love, death and letting go. As a character Julie comes off as unlikable but what do we really know about her outside of grieving Sam? I’ve experienced grief but not in high school, when you are young and think life is so long. Some people see Julie as selfish for not attending any of Sam’s memorials or even the funeral, others know to give her space and maybe a break. Everyone grieves differently. I did find it kind of wild that she was trying to get rid of some of Sam’s things a week after he died. Like…I know we all grieve differently but wow, I couldn’t part with my late husband’s things after just a week, even if it was hard to look at it.
I thought talking with Sam through the phone was interesting. It definitely helped her get through some of the beginning stages of losing Sam but other than that, I didn’t see the point except when we hear Sam’s explanation. That part almost made the tears come – almost! I thought it would be super emotional for me but surprisingly, it wasn’t as heartbreaking as I thought it would be. I think it’s because there really wasn’t any conflict between Sam and Julie until the night of the accident, which sucks bad, but everyone can see how it was an accident and that they were crazy about one another. Strangely, I felt it was more meaningful when Sam got to talk to Mika and his brother, because they were having a hard time with his death.
As for Julie moving on – I didn’t feel like she really did have a life outside of Sam. Her connection to her friends wasn’t a strong one, the one she did seem close to, Mika (Sam’s cousin) – was someone she pushed away the moment Sam dies. I thought that sucked for Mika who clearly needed a friend and someone who knew Sam like she did. But the great thing about her is that she does try her best to move on with the help of Sam and her friends.
Why you should read it:
takes a look at grieving and the different ways people grieve
Sam and Julie’s sweet love story
see how Julie learns to move on
Why you might not want to read it:
didn’t really connect to the characters
at some points Julie comes off as unlikable but she’s grieving, she’s in high school on the verge of graduating and lost her first love in a tragic accident but she does come off as immature as times
My Thoughts:
For me this book was okay – I was expecting to be bawling my eyes out but I didn’t. In a way I’m relieved I didn’t cry my eyes out but I wanted to feel more than I did. This is a story that takes a look at grieving and moving on. Julie does move on, with a little help from Sam.
📚 ~ Yolanda
Quote from the Book:
Letting go isn’t about forgetting. It’s balancing moving forward with life, and looking back from time to time, remembering the people in it.”