It’s time for my first half of February book review post! I am sharing what I read in February so far, although I am skipping my 5 star reads to share later in the month – and this month I’ve had quite a few 5 star reads so far! The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: Those Pink Mountain Nights
Author: Jen Ferguson
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Heartdrum, 9/12/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Loved her previous
My Rating: 4 Stars
Those Pink Mountain Nights is a YA book by an Indigenous Canadian author writing about Indigenous teens. This book features three main characters – Berlin, Cam, and Jessie. All work at Pink Mountain Pizza and are affected by a missing teen, Cam’s cousin Kiki.
“Overachievement isn’t a bad word—for Berlin, it’s the goal. She’s securing excellent grades, planning her future, and working a part-time job at Pink Mountain Pizza, a legendary local business. Who says she needs a best friend by her side? Dropping out of high school wasn’t smart—but it was necessary for Cameron. Since his cousin Kiki’s disappearance, it’s hard enough to find the funny side of life, especially when the whole town has forgotten Kiki. To them, she’s just another missing Native girl. People at school label Jessie a tease, a rich girl—and honestly, she’s both. But Jessie knows she contains multitudes. Maybe her new job crafting pizzas will give her the high-energy outlet she desperately wants. When the weekend at Pink Mountain Pizza takes several unexpected turns, all three teens will have to acknowledge the various ways they’ve been hurt—and how much they need each other to hold it all together.”
I previously read and loved the author’s book The Summer of Bitter and Sweet. I liked this one, but found it to drag in parts and I wasn’t sure why Jessie was part of the story. This book contains grooming and anti Indigenous racism.
Title: How To Raise The Perfect Dog
Author: Adam Spivey
Genre: Non Fiction
Publisher: Rodale, 12/12/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
How To Raise The Perfect Dog by Adam Spivey was more of a manual than a book which I picked up between two books about wars as a bit of a palette cleanser. This straight forward guide is full of advice on how to raise a puppy from choosing a breed through adolescence.
“The first twelve months or so of a dog’s life are the hardest work, but Southend Dog Training founder Adam Spivey can help. In this handy guide to your puppy’s first year, he teaches you everything you need to know to understand your dog and help you both thrive. He shares essential guidance on:
• The top five dog breeds for a first-time owner and what to know about temperament
• What to buy (and not buy) to prepare your home for a puppy
• Crate training, puppy potty training, and bedtime routines
• Basic training and leash walking
• Socialization, puppy separation anxiety, and more!”
I found the instructions on puppy training to be a little overwhelming, and I became unsure of my ability to one day raise a puppy of my own. I felt this way even though I did in fact raise a puppy from the age of 5 months and in spite of the fact that I know most people don’t follow such strict instructions and manage to have pretty great dogs anyway!
Title: Rubi Ramos’s Recipe For Success
Author: Jessica Parra
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Wednesday Books, 5/16/23
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Waiting on my shelf
My Rating: 4 Stars
I received this book in the spring and didn’t get around to reading it until now. I listened to the audio version. It is about Rubi, who gets waitlisted at Alma University, which she hides from her parents. Her mother has banned her from baking, her true passion, in order to encourage her to concentrate on other things. Instead, Rubi winds up entering a baking contest, even while being occupied by the debate team, developing a crush on her new math tutor, and dealing with a bully.
“Graduation is only a few months away, and Rubi Ramos’s ‘recipe for success’ to get into prestigious Alma University is already off track. When Alma waitlists Rubi’s application, Rubi will need to be distraction-free to make the grade and keep her parents―who have wanted this for her for years―from finding out. Which means falling for her cute surfer-slash-math tutor, Ryan, definitely won’t work. And neither will breaking her mother’s ban on baking―her parents didn’t leave Cuba so she could bake just like them. But some recipes are begging to be tampered with. When the First Annual Bake Off comes to town, Rubi’s passion for baking goes from subtle simmer to full boil. Add to the mix her crush on Ryan may be turning into a full-fledged relationship and Rubi’s life is suddenly so different from what it was. She’s not sure if she has what it takes to win the Bake Off, or where the relationship with Ryan is going, but there’s only one way to find out―even if it means going against her parents’ priorities. Now Rubi must differentiate between the responsibility of unfulfilled dreams she holds and finding the path she’s meant for.”
This book reminded me of A Whole Song and Dance, which I read last year. I didn’t think the romance really needed to be a part of the story. I enjoyed the Cuban cultural references and seeing Rubi work to choose to find joy in what she loves.
Title: Heroes
Author: Alan Gratz
Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2/6/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I have really enjoyed Alan Gratz’s books in the past and was excited to receive and read this one. It is about Frank and Stanley, who live in Hawaii on a naval base with their parents. They are caught on a ship in Pearl Harbor during the attack.
“December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. With their dads stationed at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, the boys get to soak up the sunshine while writing and drawing their own comic books. World War II might be raging overseas, but so far America has stayed out of the fight. There’s nothing to fear, right? December 7th, 1941: Everything implodes. Frank and Stanley are touring a battleship when Japanese planes zoom overhead, dropping bomb after bomb. As explosions roar and sailors scream, Frank and Stanley realize the unthinkable is happening: Japan is attacking America! The war has come to them. Frantically, the boys struggle to find safety. But disaster and danger are everywhere–from torpedoes underwater to bullets on the beach… to the shocking cruelty that their friends and neighbors show Stanley. Because his mom is Japanese-American, Stanley is suddenly seen as the ‘enemy.’ And Frank, who is white, cannot begin to understand what his friend is now facing. If the boys make it through this infamous day, can their friendship–and their dreams–survive? Or has everything they know been destroyed?”
Each boy has his own difficulties to cope with during and after the attack – Frank is scared of getting hurt and must overcome his fear to help others. And Stanley is part Japanese and experiences direct racism due to his background. I found the heroism shown by the young teens to be unrealistic, but the book is exciting and action packed, which kids who enjoy this type of story will like. It includes death, injuries, etc. There is also a comic included as Frank and Stanley are aspiring comic strip creators.
Title: The Jetsetters
Author: Amanda Eyre Ward
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books, 3/3/20
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Backlist Challenge
My Rating: 4 Stars
This book is part of my 24 in ’24 backlist challenge. It is about Charlotte, a mother of three grown children, who wins a cruise and brings her kids on it. Each of them have secrets, are dealing with childhood traumas, and seem to repeat certain patterns that their mother did when she was younger as well.
“When seventy-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the Become a Jetsetter contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can’t seem to find a partner; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday. Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young, when she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When she wins the contest, the family packs their baggage—both literal and figurative—and spends ten days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed and old wounds are reopened, forcing the Perkins family to confront the forces that drove them apart and the defining choices of their lives.”
Lee, an actress who broke up with her boyfriend has just returned home to her mother. Cord is a single man who has his reasons for this. Regan is married to an awful man and trying to escape her marriage. Meanwhile, Charlotte is a religious person who secretly longs for a sexual partner. There was a lot of content that this book does not imply based on its cover or description, including infidelity, suicide, miscarriage, minor / adult relationships, alcoholism, and grief. I really enjoyed this book but I felt the end was rushed and some things weren’t fully concluded. I’m glad I finally read this one!
Title: Averil Offline
Author: Amy Noelle Parks
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2/13/24
Source: Storygram Book Tours
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This middle grade book is about Averil, whose mom tracks her obsessively using an app called Ruby Slippers. If Averil stops walking for a few minutes, her mom sets off an alarm on her phone! Being tracked leaves Averil with very little to tell her parents about. A fellow student, Max, asks Averil to help him find and meet the creator of Ruby Slippers in order to convince him not to add a further invasive app update. The kids hide out on a college campus and have to solve puzzles that allow them access to the Ruby Slippers offices. But can they actually convince the creator that the app is causing the kids to lose their autonomy?
“Twelve-year-old coder Averil can’t do anything without her parents knowing. That’s because her mom uses the Ruby Slippers surveillance app to check where she is, who she texts, and even what she eats for lunch. Averil wonders how she’s ever going to grow up if she’s not allowed to learn from mistakes. When she learns that Ruby Slippers is about to become even more invasive, she teams up with Max, a new kid at school dealing with overbearing parents of his own. Together they figure out an almost foolproof way to ditch their parents and run away to the college campus that’s home to the quirky Ruby Slippers creator. It’s an extreme challenge just getting to meet with him—but the two kids cleverly figure out a series of puzzles and get their meeting. What they find gives them pause—and gets them thinking about the value of honesty in a new light. After all, isn’t trust at the heart of their parents’ need to know?”
This was a cute story about STEM, coding, and the line between privacy versus parental concern for their children. It was an interesting topic for a parent to read as well!
Title: Village In The Dark
Author: Iris Yamashita
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Berkley, 2/13/24
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This is the second book in a series about Cara, a police officer whose husband and son went missing and whose bodies were found – this takes place in the previous book, City Under One Roof. I highly recommend reading that one first! This book picks up where that one left off and also features Ellie, whose son has just been found dead, and Mia, a woman who grew up in a village where people come to hide from their pasts.
“On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances. Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet. Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.”
The mystery in this book develops around a pharmaceutical company and it contains twists and lots of action. I loved the first book but this one was full of coincidences and I felt the ending came from nowhere, so I didn’t love it quite as much!
Title: Controlling Women
Author: Kathryn Kolbert & Julie F Kay
Genre: Non Fiction
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 7/13/21
Source: Library Audio, Publisher Print Copy
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Waiting on my shelf
My Rating: 4 Stars
There have been plenty of times in this past few years since I received this book that would have been the right time to read it, but somehow I kept putting it off. I finally found the audio version of it and made the time to listen. This book was published prior to the overturning of Roe, but the authors knew it was coming so it was written with that change in mind.
“Reproductive freedom has never been in more dire straits. Roe v. Wade protected abortion rights and Planned Parenthood v. Casey unexpectedly preserved them. Yet in the following decades these rights have been gutted by restrictive state legislation, the appointment of hundreds of anti-abortion judges, and violence against abortion providers. Today, the ultra-conservative majority at the Supreme Court has overturned our most fundamental reproductive protections. With Roe toppled, abortion is now a criminal offense in nearly one-third of the United States. At least six states have enacted bans on abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy—before many women are even aware they are pregnant. Today, 89% of U.S. counties do not have a single abortion provider, in part due to escalating violence and intimidation aimed at disrupting services. We should all be free to make these personal and private decisions that affect our lives and wellbeing without government interference or bias, but we can no longer depend on Roe v. Wade and the federal courts to preserve our liberties.”
This book focuses on the expansion of reproductive and sexual rights and how the Supreme Court has been set up to take these rights away. They detail the common problems women can face in accessing abortions, including the lack of providers and the punishing laws in effect in many locations. They include personal stories they encountered as lawyers and they suggest new strategies to fight for going forwards, such as a gender equity amendment. They provide advice on how to advocate for work towards more rights and freedoms from the local level. It was quite interesting and worth the listen, especially in an election year. The print version also includes photographs of some of the people and events in the book.
This post includes 8 of the books I read this month. 6 were print books and 2 were on audio. 4 were adult books, 2 were YA, and 2 were middle grade. Genres included contemporary, non fiction, historical fiction, and mystery.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
