4 Glasses of Lemonade – Page 3

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Hello Kittens! I hope that wherever you are, the weather is not awful. We have continued the trend of basically skipping Winter here in the South and going straight into Spring. My primary complaint about that is that without snow days, I don’t get bonus days to read where I’m still being paid unless I actually start using my PTO for these things. I’m not that desperate. Yet. In any case, I did manage to finish a stellar novel last month that is starting to get some buzz, but that I still want to recommend to all of you. It’s called Oona Out of Order and it came on my radar a few months back. I was fortunate enough to win an advance copy in a giveaway from the publisher, and I flew through it once it arrived. This novel would be a great selection for book groups because it deals with the practical complications of time travel as well as the emotional complications of growing up. It deals with all sorts of relationships and is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I think y’all will like this one if you give it a read.

Title: Oona Out of Order

Author: Margarita Montimore

Author website: https://www.montimore.com/

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Publish date: February 25^th, 2020

ISBN: 9781250236609

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

The book opens with Oona Lockhart getting ready to celebrate her 19^th birthday, which also happens to fall on January 1st. She is excited, but also anxious, because she is on the cusp of making some very important decisions about her life, her future, her relationship with her boyfriend, her place in her band, and her acceptance to a prestigious university. She is faced with a series of choices, because she can’t have everything that is available to her.

As the party really gets started at midnight, Oona is suddenly transported. She wakes up in a different time, and in a different body…or at least a different-aged body. She comes to with the mind of a now 19-year-old, in a body that is significantly older. There is a young man in the room, who tries to help her understand what has just happened. She comes to find out that this is a part of her life in the future. Every year on her birthday she will be transported to a different year of her life. The leaps will be random and very few people will ever be able to know about them. Every year, Oona starts over. In theory, her future self leaves her a letter each year, trying to prepare her for what the next year holds without letting her know too much.

In theory, it all sounds great, but in practice, it’s a bit like making a wish with a genie…it rarely turns out the way that you expect it to. Even when her future self warns her, Oona often finds herself in difficult situations. The story revolves around how she lives her life with the next year’s leap constantly overshadowing the current year’s life. Oona falls in love, loses important relationships, is betrayed by the people closest to her, and she constantly has to worry about doing or saying the wrong thing.

This book was a phenomenal read for me. Time travel can be a very tricky subject to tackle, and Montimore does it in a way that is seamless, while not bogging the reader down with the “whys” of it all. Oona reacts the same way that I think anyone would if they suddenly found themselves transported into the future. I particularly like when she adjusts to having certain modern comforts, like cell phones and the internet, but then the following year is transported back in time and has to re-learn what life is like before they were invented. Oona is the centerpiece of the book, of course, but it is her relationships with her mother and her trusted assistant that really make this story something special. Her relationships understandably morph throughout her time, but since Oona is unable to tell most of the people in her life about what is going on, these two relationships become so important to her development as a character.

If I had to come up with a negative comment about this book, I would say that it ended too soon. If you’re the kind of reader who likes to have all of the loose threads tied up by the end of the story, you’re going to be disappointed. That’s not to say that the ending was bad. I personally thought it was beautiful, but I wasn’t done with the character of Oona. We end up getting a few snapshots of her life, but we don’t get the full story, and I would love for Montimore to write a follow-up.

Disclaimer: I won an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in a giveaway from the publisher, but there was no expectation of a review in exchange.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

I would have loved to have given this one 5 glasses of lemonade, but it does have a few scenes that some readers might object to. Oona gets involved briefly with drug and alcohol abuse. She also has friends with differing sexual preferences and she engages in a drug-infused sexual escapade at a club. All in all, it’s not extremely graphic, but I still might hesitate to recommend it to everyone who comes in to the library.

Slay by Brittney Morris

Hello my Kitten Gods and Goddesses! I have an absolutely stunning debut YA novel to tell you about today. Being a Southerner and a Librarian, race is an ever-present part of my life and I am constantly challenging myself to make sure that I don’t allow my white privilege to overwhelm my perceptions of interactions with patrons. Even so, this next novel I’m telling you about opened my eyes to an experience I previously had not considered. Slay by Brittney Morris tells the story of a young black female video game designer named Kiera and her experiences when her game becomes a hot button topic in the news. This novel deals with social justice issues in an elegant format that delivers an emotional gut punch. I have already recommended this one to tons of people that I work with and I can’t wait to recommend it to patrons. The dedication reads, “To everyone who has ever had to minimize who you are to be palatable to those who aren’t like you.” My dear readers, we need more of that in this world.

Title: Slay

Author: Brittney Morris

Author website: https://www.authorbrittneymorris.com/

Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster)

Publish date: September 24, 2019

ISBN: 9781534445420

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Kiera Johnson is just trying to live her life, going to a predominantly white private school, making good grades, being with her boyfriend Malcolm, and planning their future at HBCU’s (historically black colleges and universities for those of you not in-the-know). She’s just a normal teen…with a little bit of a secret. When she’s not at school, or hanging out with her friends or Malcolm, she is Emerald, a nubian Queen in the virtual reality video game “Slay”. Not only is she one of only two moderators of this game, she is one of the creators along with another gamer, username: Cicada. Slay is a video game that celebrates black culture and black identity. Entry into the game requires an invitation from an existing player and is a carefully guarded secret that helps to protect the safe space that the game has become. Kiera was just a gamer who noticed that many of the characters in mainstream video games, even ones with non-human characters showed a stunning lack of diversity. Either there were no black characters or they were portrayed as villains or somehow “less-than” characters. When she encountered this racism in gaming, she came up with her own solution: create a game that celebrates blackness in all its forms. The result is a triumph, with hundreds of thousands of users.

Kiera chooses to keep her gaming identity a secret from everyone in her life, essentially isolating a second persona that is just for herself: Emerald. Of course, her two lives can’t stay separate forever and when aspects of the game invade real life, Kiera becomes trapped in a nightmare. Media outlets have seized on the game and claim it is a refuge for violence that is exclusionary and discriminatory towards white players. Faced with the enormous task of protecting the safe space she has made for her players while also protecting her own identity, Kiera is in a crisis and doesn’t know how or who to go to for help.

This book was a phenomenal read. In addition to the primary tension between Kiera’s online life and her real life, there are layered stories of her relationships with her boyfriend, her sister, her predominantly white friends, and even her parents. The reader experiences all of the different pulls on Kiera’s time and attention and her fear when it all threatens to come crashing down is palpable. I have seen this novel described as Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give and I think that’s a fair description, but it is also so unique. Having read a good deal of YA fiction, Morris’ style of writing, blending inner monologues with game text and phone messaging to tell the story is unlike anything else that I have read.

This is a fast read that will stick with the reader long after the last page has been read. The story reads as though it could take place in almost any town in America, although it is actually set near Atlanta. Kiera deals with so many of the issues that minority students across the country deal with in school. She is put into spokesperson-like roles for her entire race by students who she considers friends and she’s frustrated by the responsibility that she feels for educating them on these issues. This book does what all truly important books do, it challenges the reader to look into themselves and make a judgment. This is must-read for 2019 as far as I am concerned.

Want to go further into this world? The book has its own website where you can see some of the features about the game described in the book. Plus, if my review hasn’t sold you, there is an epic book trailer on there! https://www.slaythebook.com/.

In general, I’m leery of what happens when a book becomes a movie, but please, someone try to make this book into a movie. It’s that good.

Disclaimer: No disclaimer needed here. I heard about this book several months back on a podcast and added it to my Goodreads TBR list. When Goodreads emailed me that it was now available, I checked with my library and lo-and-behold, there it was. There was almost no line on this book, and that is an absolute shame.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

Social justice can be a tricky subject, but actually, I put this one at 4 glasses of lemonade because of an emotionally abusive relationship in the book. It also includes a physical relationship between teenagers that I can promise you some of my patron’s parents would flip their lid if I gave them. This story is absolutely appropriate for adults and I think most teens could not only handle it, they would benefit greatly from reading this story.

Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton

Hello Kittens! My experiment to read a little bit from every genre continues to succeed beyond what I could ever imagine. Had you asked me a few years ago, I would have told you vociferously that I do not read the Science Fiction or Fantasy genres. More and more, I am discovering that I am wrong about that. This week’s book is a case in point. I had never heard of Duncan Hamilton before, but now I am hooked and incredibly frustrated that the next book in this fantasy series is month’s away from publication. Also, I can now bond with my patrons on a certain library-related matter because my library does not currently carry Mr. Hamilton’s books! I’ll be working on that from my end, but in the meantime, I’ll be going to the next county over to read more from this author who shows us that chivalry is not dead, but it has put on a few pounds.

Title: Dragonslayer

Author: Duncan M. Hamilton Dragonslayer

Author website: https://duncanmhamilton.com/

Publisher: Tor

Publish date: 7/2/19

ISBN: 9781250209719 (for the uncorrected proof copy I read)

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Many people are looking for a great adventure now that the Game of Thrones TV series has come to an end and it’s going to be a while before we get the next book in that series (fingers crossed all you book optimists). Dragonslayer may help slake the thirst of those who want to dig in to another adventure featuring noble knights, sellswords, magic, and dragons. The story is set in the land of Mirabaya and focuses on the stories of Guillot de Villerauvais (also known as “Gill”), Solène, and Alpheratz. Gill is the last living Chevalier of the Silver Circle, a legendary group of knights that were known for ridding the lands of dragons, at least until the last few generations, when they became known for less-chivalrous activities such as drinking and gambling. Solène is a young woman living in a village in Mirabaya who is trying very hard to hide the fact that she possesses magical abilities. Magic has been outlawed throughout the land and she risks her life if she is discovered, but she is not in complete control of her abilities. Alpheratz is a dragon who has awoken from a long slumber to find that the world is nothing like he remembers.

As Gill is called upon to serve his country after years of wallowing in self-pity and alcoholic beverages on the outskirts of civilization, many will wonder if he is up to this task. Dragons were thought to be either extinct or a fairy tale and Gill hasn’t won a fight against something as measly as his own willpower in many years. Facing this threat will help restore some of his lost honor and give his life meaning again…possibly. Either way, as the last Chevalier of the Silver Circle, he’s the only option that Mirabaya has.

Solène, on the other hand, is finding the potential for freedom in this new quest. On the run for most of her life, she has finally found a community that does not shun her abilities. In fact, they appear to welcome it. She’s not out of danger, since magic is not accepted in the world at large, but with the protection of a seemingly all-powerful benefactor with connections to the king, Solène begins to relax her guard. Having met Gill, she has not doubt about his honor, but some significant concerns about his ability to get the job done. She’s willing to risk a lot to see that he succeeds.

Alperatz is out for vengeance. The humans have taken his family and his community from him. They have invaded his inner sanctum and misused the magic of this world. He intends to see them all punished for that. After all, with all of his kind gone, what does he have to look forward to other than an extended lifetime of loneliness?

At the beginning of the story none of these characters know each other but their destinies become entwined as everything progresses. The story has political intrigue, power struggles, betrayals, magical objects, and an only partially recovered history of events. It is incredibly fast-paced, putting a lot of storyline and history into 300 pages. Hamilton’s earlier works are also set in this world, but are not necessary to understand this story. The world-building is complex but not overwhelming for the first novel in this trilogy. There are plenty of questions left unanswered, but the reader gets all of the information that they need in the meantime.

The writing is simply beautiful. Hamilton’s work appears to have primarily been self-published up until this series, so hopefully working with a mainstream publisher will give him the recognition to launch these books to a larger audience. Fans of fantasy will enjoy the action-packed fight scenes and character development. With a cliffhanger ending that will have readers asking how soon the next book will be published, this is a promising start to a series I intend to see through to the end.

Disclaimer: I received an advance uncorrected proof of this title from the publisher through BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.

My rating: The book has some death scenes that can get a little gruesome. It is an epic battle for survival after all. I don’t think that will stop most readers, but it is worth mentioning.

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Good day to you Kittens! This week I have for you pure delight in the form of a book. There are certain books that, when you read them, you know are written by a person for whom books bring great joy. Everything that I have ever read by Jenny Colgan brings this feeling to mind. She loves books and she loves people who love books. Her books tend to revolve around female characters and they typically end up being love stories. For those of you who might not be into that kind of thing, let me be clear, there’s more to each story than a romance. I would argue that Colgan’s stories are more about women finding themselves than they are about women finding a man. For these stories, the men are just window dressing. “The Bookshop on the Shore” is a follow up to Colgan’s 2016 release, “The Bookshop on the Corner”. A word to the wise, when you are looking for these books just keep in mind that Colgan’s U.K. Editions sometimes have slightly different titles and they have drastically different covers. “The Bookshop on the Shore” is out today!

Title: The Bookshop on the Shore

Author: Jenny Colgan

Author website: https://www.jennycolgan.com/

Publisher: William Morrow

Publish date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 9780062913555

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

The Bookshop on the Shore continues the story of Nina Redmond, a Librarian we met in The Bookshop on the Corner. Colgan returns to the town of Kirrinfief in Scotland, but this time the story focuses on a young woman named Zoe. Zoe is a single mom to an adorable boy named Hari. She is struggling to make ends meet in London as Hari’s deadbeat dad continues to come up with excuses for why he can’t help take care of his son, why he can’t tell his family about Hari, and why they can’t make their relationship work for Hari’s sake. At the end of her rope and unable to afford her rent, Zoe accepts a job offer in Kirrinfief. She will be acting as au pair to a well-established, though mysterious, family while also assisting Nina with the book van. Zoe has experience working with children and loves books…plus, she’s desperate, so this has to work out.

So, of course, it doesn’t work out at all. The children of the Urquart family are little hellions. She is not their first au pair and they want her gone. Their mother has left them and their father is absolutely no help at all and the housekeeper isn’t go to throw Zoe any bones. The one redeeming factor was supposed to be helping Nina with the book ban, but the citizens of Kirrinfief don’t know what they want in a book and they don’t want anything Zoe suggests for them. Hari’s father is still falling down on his responsibilities. Zoe’s at her limits and then, things get even worse.

This book is Jenny Colgan as her readers have come to expect. There’s humor, there’s romance, there’s plenty of unexpected mayhem caused by the very nature of the Scottish weather and people. Zoe is definitely given the fish out of water treatment by the locals. Colgan conveys some of the struggle of being a single parent, particularly to a child with some peculiarities with beautiful poignancy while not weighing the story down too much. Zoe’s life is hard and it wouldn’t be a stretch to understand how she could give up on herself and her dreams, but you know that she will always keep fighting for Hari. This story is about a mother’s unfailing love for her child and the strength of that same women when life throws everything it’s got at her.

The writing is clean and precise. The colloquialisms are easy to gather from context (at least they were for this American reader) and the interspersed cultural details about Scotland and it’s traditions will inspire readers to want to learn more. This book is an easy read. It doesn’t hit the reader over the head with the romance, and in fact I consider that the least important element to the story. Zoe is a triumph who will inspire so many people to get back up when life has bowled them over. This book was lovely while still dealing with the harsh realities many women face when it comes to motherhood and making a living.

Disclaimer: I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

I really went back and forth on whether to give this one the full 5 glasses of lemonade rating, but I held back for one reason: the story delves into mental health with both adults and children. For that reason, the book might need a trigger warning for some readers, especially those who are sensitive to the idea of medicating young children for mental health purposes. In general, I feel that I can recommend anything Jenny Colgan writes to any reader I come across who just needs a boost.

Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia

Hello Kittens! I’ve got a great backlist title for you today. It’s going to appeal to fans of non-traditional thrillers and all the “city folk” who get freaked out just thinking about going into the woods. “Leave no trace” is a well-known concept when it comes to responsibly interacting with the great outdoors. The main idea is that whatever you bring with you must also leave with you so that you leave no trace that you were ever there. Letting nature remain undisturbed by your unnatural presence. This was an impulse grab at the library for me. I read an excerpt of the first few chapters quite a while ago on BookishFirst, but I wasn’t a winner in that drawing so I kind of moved on and forgot about this title. Too many books, too little time. I’m glad I found the time for this one and I hope you will clear a little time and space in your TBR for it.

Some of you may be thinking to yourself, “Hey Dani! You haven’t posted anything in a really long time. Aren’t you going to explain why?” To which I reply, “Nope. We’re just going to gloss over it and all move on with our lives. Enjoy the review darlin’.”

Title: Leave No Trace

Author: Mindy Mejia

Author website: https://mindymejia.com/

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publish date: September 4, 2018

ISBN: 9781501177361

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Lucas Blackthorn and his father Josiah disappeared in the wilds of Minnesota over a decade ago. They vanished without a trace from a camping trip and were never heard from again…until now. Lucas is discovered in a town not far from where he and his father originally disappeared. Josiah is nowhere to be found and Lucas won’t speak to anyone, not even to explain what happened to him and where his father is. The justice system delivers the uncommunicative Lucas to a local mental health facility where the Senior Psychiatrist for the facility makes a bold decision to pair a relatively inexperienced speech therapist with this challenging patient. Maya Stark has a history of her own and isn’t overly sure about this whole plan, especially not when her first encounter with Lucas results in Maya unconscious on the floor and Lucas attempting the first of many escapes.

This story kept me mesmerized for all 319 pages. The reader knows very little about either Lucas or Maya in the beginning of the story, but there are hints at darker pasts for both of them. Lucas comes across unhinged and extremely dangerous. He attempts to escape multiple times and always seems to be trying to return to the woods. The reader is left asking again and again, if he wanted to be in the woods so badly, why did he come out? He’s completely disconnected with modern society and doesn’t understand most of what is happening to him in the mental health system.

Maya, on the other hand, knows the system inside and out. She was a patient before she went to school for speech therapy, and her history with the facility is a persistent teaser throughout the first half of the book. As Maya struggles to acclimate to her new role and to this challenging patient, she also has to confront the decisions that led her to this point and the past that is still influencing her daily interactions. Maya’s character is well-developed and intriguing.

The book will have the reader fascinated by the inner workings of the mental health system and the courageous, hopeful, and sometimes disappointing staff who work within it. While the social commentary isn’t laid on too thick, the point is made well that the pipeline between the judicial system, the mental health system, and a successful re-entry into society is riddled with holes and switchbacks. Mejia paints a rich cast of characters, both patients and staff, and challenges the reader to not accept the first version of a story as the only version of the story.

It takes a lot to surprise me with a mystery, but this one got me. There are great twists throughout, and the final one is gut wrenching. You won’t be sure who to root for, if anyone, but the ending was extremely satisfying. There’s nothing like a story that wraps itself in a perfect little bow at the end. Sometimes a person just gets tired of cliffhangers.

Disclaimer: None needed. This was a library find and I fully encourage you to go pick up a copy from your local library too.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

I don’t recall any curse words in this one. There are a couple of homicides, drug use, and an attempted rape, so it won’t be everyone’s glass of lemonade. Still, it’s a good addition to the genre and the underlying themes of the mental health system should keep a book group going for a while.