kelsbookzone1's reviews
242 reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for access to an early release copy.

Devon and Drew, sisters till the end, until Drew’s advanced IQ finally propelled her into a special private school in middle school. As graduation approaches, she scoffs at her sister, Drew who says “you want to hang out with my friends” and this is where our story truly begins.

Twins who have grown apart, last summer together and Devon wants to spend her last summer finding out who her sister is now and what she wants to become. But an ouija board gets pulled out and you can guess what happens from there. 

As much as I loved Their Vicious Games, this book could do no wrong. As usual, the characters are fun and interesting. This definitely had a slower start to the action- I would not consider it fast paced. And it had a little too much predictability for me. Once the ending hit, it rushed through it too quickly and needed a little more detail. Currently I’m seeing it as thriller genre and really hope it gets marketed as young adult horror.

I might be biased (ps, I definitely am) but as long as I had fun with this one, I knew I was going to enjoy it. If you’re looking to dive into Joelle Wellington, I would start with Their Vicious Games. But she does write a great ensemble! I would round up to 3.5 if GoodReads would do half stars.

Just not making good progress- want to revisit in future 

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for an early release copy.

Camille is a fantastic mom- or at least she’s trying not to be the mom her mom was. The opening chapter lays it all out, pulling you in immediately. Then her daughter comes home from school to talk about her new friend “imaginary” which has the intent to bring Camille’s whole world down and her past back to the present. 

The story is told with a couple of different timelines: past situations with her mother Lucinda, conversations with a psychologist, and present time. The author creates empathy from the reader in her flashbacks. But I kept waiting to see what was so bad that Camille did to be so terrified of her secrets coming out. In her flashbacks with the therapist, we find her being diagnosed with being a sociopath and how it affects her present day. The way this played out, was a lot more telling than showing and I think I would have preferred it the

opposite. I did like the character of Camille, her journey and background when we could get past some of the repeating patterns. 

Some of my Camille’s reactions felt contradicting, like people judging their parenting style if they put their daughter in therapy, when she herself had been in therapy. And wouldn’t it be the opposite? The therapy flashbacks grew pretty tiresome and repetitive to the point of being able to skim them and still get the gist of them.

Not a bad tale, I just can’t fully decide if the ending was worth the journey.  And not to give the ending away, but the whole thing panned out pretty ridiculously. 

Thanks to Net Galley and Hanover Press for access to an early release copy 

A magical and whimsical tale, Penny gets the break of her lifetime to interview for a job at the Dallergut Dept Store, a small place where dreams are sold. Albeit honest and pure, I’m surprised this isn’t genres for either children or at least young adult. If you have ever worked retail or interviewed for a retail job, be prepared to enter a world of the familiar. Go into this story with an imagination and child like wonder, don’t go in looking for either character development or plot.

Each character at the dept stores feels personalized and unique, so it was easy to separate them out. Also on the familiar side as someone who has worked retail in a department store. I enjoyed the chapters in regards to how bad dreams are addressed. Like why would anyone pay for those? 

A cute and light hearted tale that never fully felt conceptualized, but sweet enough if you’re looking for a sugary story and a happily ever after feeling. A cozy story but the execution of this might have been a little stronger if the author had fully committed to telling the story in a short story concept, instead of feeling like switching between interconnected short stories and a novel. But an easy read still. Not quite 4 stars but would round up to 3.75. I would definitely recommend this as a perfect story for the imagination. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Amistad for an early release copy 

A historical novel starting a story with an arranged marriage for the unwanted niece and orphaned daughter of a white man and a black woman , a marriage situation that seemed to cause more anger than warranted for something that was more customary at the time. I was surprised to find how many pages the author dedicated to that fact. Unfortunately the first fifty or so pages started to lose me over the contradictions. 

You will fall into the scene, particularly that of the manor from the author’s use of descriptions. A little too heavy in places at times and may have made the story a little stronger to leave a little more to the reader’s imagination.  Orabella was an interesting character and I would have loved to seen her with a little more growth. But I think that may just be the story- stagnant. The transitions of the reality and the fantasy weren’t always smooth and could come across as muddled, as if the writer couldn’t decide the nature of the beast, so to speak.

Unfortunately, the back half of the book didn’t seem to know what it wanted to do with itself. It came across as if it wanted to have the readers question but I needed more investment from the writer to care enough to be confused. I even found myself laughing at a part in disbelief in how the author did not have the characters question certain situations. 

I really do hope the story goes through the editor a few more times from the arc to the published copy, as I do feel like there is some potential here.