Amy 
historical fiction
A Gentleman in Moscow is not my kind of novel. Most of it is plotless. Sure, the main character, the Count, oozes charm and you can’t help but like him despite the fact that he really does nothing substantial with his life for over 6 decades. (Of course, since he is under house arrest, he doesn’t have that chance for over half of his life.) He just exists with his upbringing and his family money and tries to make the best of it. He is not without his merits. He does care about manners and propriety. He does care about other people. And, he does a fine job raising a young woman when the situation is bestowed upon him. Only at the end of the novel does he truly DO something meaningful of his own accord to make him worthy of being a novel protagonist. And it is satisfying that the ending does have a plot, finally. But, it sure was a slog sometimes to get to that point.
The writing is well done and the stories told around his daily life are often interesting, but not always. The characters are all engaging. The author, Amor Towles, enjoys analogies and archetypes as a way of defending some of the Count’s attitudes and actions. In fact, I felt the allusions to the Swiss Family Robinson were apt because they, like he, were stuck in a location outside of their control in which they had to learn to survive and adapt.
Since I listened to the audio book, I am unable to provide a couple quotes that I might otherwise have given as a) an example about the author’s analogous listings and b) his fun description of jazz. The narrator, Nicholas Guy Smith, did a wonderful job with the material. I give him an A for his voice acting, various voices, and accents.
But, despite the writing and charming characters, its slow pace and lack of plot never drew me in. In fact, I might have stopped listening to it except that I had no other audio books on hand with which to set this one aside. In the end, I’m not sorry I read it but I can’t say that I loved it. I debated giving it 2-1/2 hearts but will allow the ending to edge it up to a 3-heart review.
Lynnie 
contemporary fiction
For the 3 people who haven't read this yet- The Circle is an extreme
social network, like Facebook on steroids. Our main character Mae lands a
dream job with The Circle & continues to get hooked deeper & deeper
into the culture and norms of the company and all of its expectations. All information is
centralized online, public, and constantly rated & reviewed with the
idea that everyone is participating in the society (which of course,
they aren't). This is a cautionary tale for modern times.
I
understand what Dave Eggers was trying to portray in The Circle & I think the idea
behind it is more relevant now than even a few years ago when it was
released, BUT... I honestly hated it. I kept waiting for some sort of "a-ha" moment, but sadly I just became more & more frustrated as I read.
Unfortunately, I thought the characters were one-dimensional, the dialogue was
unrealistic & repetitive, & worst of all, the story was
predictable. Honestly, I don't have much to say about it other than the
story I had in my head when I read the book summary was much better than
the book that I read.
Amy 
Lynnie
young adult, sci-fi
This is a compilation of nine novellas from The Lunar Chronicles world.
Amy's Review
I won this bound manuscript of Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection by Marissa Meyer from MacMillan Children's Publishing Group and Fierce Reads. This was just the book I needed to read during these past stressful weeks. I got to revisit with old friends from the Lunar Chronicles series through this collection of novellas about the histories and futures of the characters. The stories managed to explain all the remaining mysteries from the novel series. They were well-written and engaging.
I normally do not appreciate novellas as much as their associated sequel novels. In fact, I usually dislike novellas because they take the author away from the business of writing the next full-length novel and are normally not as enjoyable, or of as high quality, as the novels. Perhaps I liked these novellas more than I thought I would because I had already read the full series of novels when I read this collection of novellas. In that way, these novellas were simply a bonus—a gift of more time with the characters. Whatever the reason, I felt these were all fun stories on their own with well-developed story arcs and engaging storylines. I didn’t feel that they had been crafted as fluffy afterthoughts to appease the fans who demanded more. Instead, these were enjoyable additions to the main story. The last one was my favorite (Something Old, Something New – or Stars Above) as it picked up after the series left off. But, I really enjoyed them all.
Lynnie's Review
I really enjoyed this cute addition to the Lunar Chronicles, much more than I expected to. I don't tend to like a lot of the novellas that are trendy these days but perhaps I had just enough time away from the series to be happy to visit with the characters again. I enjoyed all the backstories & the little segments that filled in information we didn't previously have & I thought the final story- the only one that takes place after the series- was enjoyable though it also caused me to roll my eyes more than any other story as it was almost too cute; the neat little bow on the package as it were. I don't understand how this is book 4.5 though as there are 5 books in the series & the last story clearly takes place after the end of book 5. So, if you haven't read book 5, DO NOT read this one first!!!
Anyway, a fun little journey back into this world. Thanks Marissa Meyer!
Amy
historical fiction
This story is told from two alternating points of view—that of 19-year-old Dottie and her 42-year old mother Rose. They both consider themselves to be Modern Girls. They live in a poor Jewish area of New York City during the mid-1930s. Both find themselves unexpectedly, and inconveniently, pregnant.
The characters were interesting and convincing. Life in that time period and neighborhood jumped off the page with the clear writing. And the dilemmas were intriguing and caused me to want to read further to see how they played out.
And then the story just ended with only partial resolution and no sequel planned. It became obvious to me as I neared the end of the novel that there was not going to be a satisfying conclusion and it tainted my entire opinion of the book. Why bother writing an incomplete story? There are very real concerns at the end, which is why I feel it’s incomplete. It leaves me feeling like Jennifer S. Brown hit some deadline (although, this is her only novel so that can’t be true). And with no announced sequel, it just seems like a cop-out to me. Did the author not know how to give closure to these characters? Did she feel she hit a word limit that indicated the end? It makes no sense to me and I’m assuming that her publisher and readers will eventually convince her to write a sequel. However, if she truly did not intend one, then it’s bound to be a disappointment like so many other forced sequels. Alas, I get ahead of myself. My dissatisfaction at the end simply overtakes any other thoughts I might be able to voice about this otherwise enjoyable novel.
Lynnie
young adult, fantasy
Once every year, Caraval takes place on a secluded, magical island by invitation only. To participate in Caraval is to be involved in an interactive game/theater experience where the winner's prize is a wish.
There were things I really enjoyed about this book & things that I found absolutely maddening.
Caraval
is book that lives or dies on its ability to sell you on the convenient
notion that everything is a lie, unless it isn't, then it's real. I'm
not even kidding, that's what they say over & over & over again
in this book. Well... okay, so the narrator is unreliable. Did whatever
happened really happen or didn't it? The truth however is that it's
pretty darn easy to figure out what's real & what's not because
everything you want to be untrue, largely is and the things you wish
were real usually are. Not always, but as a general rule. How
convenient!
There is also the matter of wading through the most
flowery purple prose to perhaps ever grace the page of a book. Literally
purple- feelings have colors, people and emotions have scents &
they are all described in such detail (often repeated) that I found
myself regularly skimming through the flowers to find the action.
That
said, the idea & Stephanie Garber's story itself are both interesting. When things
are happening in the book, other than fretting, worrying, & endless
descriptions, I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen. There
are also several characters that I really liked. I judge a book series based on whether or not I plan to read the sequel & I am definitely curious enough to continue this series when the next book is released.
This was a solid three stars; not fabulous, not horrible, but an enjoyable distraction from a rainy weekend.
Amy
Lynnie
young adult, fantasy, action/suspense
Following the events in Ruined, Avenged by Amy Tintera follows the efforts of sisters Emelina and Olivia Flores in their efforts to rebuild their country of Ruina. They have a tentative alliance with another country, as well as alliances with some individuals from other countries, but no one can really be trusted. On top of that, Olivia is using her vast powers and unleashed temper to murder innocent people for the sake of revenge and hatred which serves to only further feed the flames against Ruina. Meanwhile, Emelina must try to keep everyone working together and figure out what is best for her people.
Amy's Review
Bummer. I had high hopes for this series but this novel, the second in the series, has left me disappointed. I wasn’t into it until the midway point when it finally got interesting. (Annoyingly, Damian was mentioned several times and I don’t even remember that character from the first book in the series. A reminder of who he was/what he did would have been nice.) Unfortunately, as the ending neared, the scenes became frantic and Olivia became so unhinged that the story lost any joy and I lost interest. I have no desire to continue reading this series. I don’t enjoy the characters enough to maintain any sort of link to the series. The only ones I like are Aren and Iria but not enough to keep reading through the insanity into which this story derailed.
Lynnie's Review
Like the first book in this series, Ruined, the action in Avenged is pretty much non-stop. Starting right after the events in the first book, this book shifts its focus mainly between, Olivia, Em, Cas, and occasionally Aren. Regardless of the circumstances, Em & Cas seem destined to be drawn together leading to lots of far-fetched coincidences. Don't get me wrong, it's still fun to see it all unfold but if you are prone to eye-rolling you'll get ample opportunity to stretch those muscles.
Overall though, this is a fun second book that only left me disappointed with the cliffhanger ending (as all series do). If you liked the first book, you'll enjoy this one as well, but since it really is more of the same, stay away if you were not a fan of Ruined.
Amy
thriller
Quincy is a Final Girl--someone who is the sole female survivor of a group murder (as in a horror movie) that took place in a cabin in the woods. I haven't read a thriller in a long time.
Final Girls by Riley Sager will be released July 11th and I picked up an Advance Reader Copy from the ALA Midwinter Convention. Since it was already highly rated on Goodreads, I decided to give it a try. It was alright. I was happy that I had not figured out the mystery myself. But, the protagonist became such a stupid person in the middle of the novel that it was painful to read. I did not like the person she was becoming or her moronic behavior and choices. If it wasn't for her unappealing personality, I would have enjoyed the book more. But the last third of the novel was very gripping so it ended well.
Lynnie 
memoir, humor, non-fiction
I
don't remember who suggested this book to me, but I'm glad they did! Getting its title from one of the enclosed vignettes, You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams is an interesting glimpse into the life of Alan Cumming who is
remarkably charming, while being completely self-aware about how absurd his life is sometimes as a
celebrity. Telling the stories behind some of his personal photos (or
sometimes just sharing the photo to share it) is much more entertaining
than I expected, particularly because the photos are generally not of
the "everyone-put-your-arms-around-each-other-and-smile" variety; rather
they are photos of body parts, everyday scenes, and all out party
photos. I read this book on the Kindle, so the photos were black &
white to me which made many of them more interesting (in my opinion). I
have since downloaded the book onto the kindle app so I could see the
photos in color- a very different, but still enjoyable experience!
Overall,
this book is a lot of fun- great while you're on a plane or sitting outside
with a glass of wine & you don't want to think too hard. You won't
learn anything but you will be endlessly entertained.
