Book Review: A Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

                                The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy Review 

The Lady's Guide to  Petticoats and Piracy is the follow up book to A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue expect this time around we follow Felicity Montague as she tries to become a doctor in the 1700s when all the men believe that woman can't be doctors and won't even let her study medicine let alone practice it. Felicity hears from one member of the hospital that her idol when it comes to practicing medicine Dr. Alexander Platt might be more progressive than most men and might be willing to hire her as an assistant. Felicity finds out that Platt is soon going to marry her childhood friend Joanna Hoffman, so Felicity makes it her mission to get to the wedding of her former friend to beg for a job from Platt. A female pirate named Sim ends up offering to take Felicity to meet with plate since there is something that she believes Joanna's family took from her family and she wants to get it back, Felicity naively believes that Sim won't steal anything after she promises not.

Felicity and Joanna's friendship is one that didn't end on good terms since Felicity felt like Joanna was abandoning her and their mutual love for scientific discovers to be a proper lady which lead to Felicity lashing out at Joanna implying that she was stupid and shallow. Joanna ends up welcoming Felicity warmly despite the bad terms their friendship ended on and the fact that Felicity's father claimed that she and Monty had been kidnapped by pirates while they were on tour which makes anyone who recognizes Felicity's name a bit suspicious about what she's doing there. While Felicity reuniting with Joanna starts off better than expect she doesn't have as much luck at convincing Platt that she would be a good assistant for him and it doesn't help matters that Platt is uninterested in even having an assistant in the first place.

After awhile Felicity and Joanna end up getting into a fight with each other about the different ways they choose to live their lives and it doesn't help matters that soon after that Felicity finds Sim trying to steal some of Joanna's late mother's research and when she tells Joanna about this Joanna no longer wants to see Felicity since she knew Sim was a thief when she brought her there. Felicity ends up deciding to leave the next morning but she ends up discovering that Joanna had ran away on the day of her wedding this leads to Felicity to insisting that she goes with Platt to find her and hopes that she can use this opportunity to convince Platt to hire her. As the story goes on Felicity starts to discover that there is a lot more going on then she is aware of.

Overall this a good book that has Felicity struggling to find her place in the world and through out the story she learns that her way of being a smart woman isn't the only way in which a woman can be smart which is something she learns through reconnecting with Joanna. While I liked this book I feel like the first book in the series was better and I think that was probably because our main characters stuck together through out the book which is not true here since Felicity ends up separated from Joanna and Sim for large parts of this book which makes it a bit harder to invest in her relationships with them. Please tell me your thoughts on this book in the comment section below.

Book Review: If I Stay

                                                              If I Stay Review

If I Stay is about a seventeen year old named Mia who ends up in a car crash that sends her into a coma but kills the rest of her family. Mia spends the book deciding whether or not she wants to wake up and live in a world without her family while she watches her friends, boyfriend and her grandparents worry about her possibly dying. There are many flashbacks to Mia's life before the coma which shows us how close Mia was to her family and why it's so hard for her to decide to live while knowing that they won't be there. There are also quite a few flashbacks to Mia's relationship with her boyfriend Adam who is a big part of why she's not sure if she wants go despite her grief that is equally important to her decision making process as her family is. This book does a good job at making us feel for Mia and also fleshing out all the characters that are part of Mia's life which is what makes this book as good as it is.

This book is one where not a whole lot happens in this book plot wise but the characters and their emotions are engaging enough that it really doesn't take away from the book but it does leave me with not much to say about the book. This book is good, it had good characters and ended up making me emotional invested in characters that die at the beginning. Please tell me your thoughts on this book in the comment section below.

Book Review: P.S. I Like You

                                                     P.S. I Like You Review

P.S. I Like You is about how a high school student named Lilly ends up becoming pen pals with someone who writes notes on the desk that they both have in science class when she finds that someone continued writing out the lyrics to a song by her favorite band that she thought no one else in her school listened to expect her. The two become friends through their exchanging of notes and move on from scribbling on the desk to leaving paper notes tucked under the desk. After awhile Lilly starts to develop a crush on her pen pal and the pen pal hints that he feels the same way despite not knowing who she is. Lilly is working up the courage to suggest that the two of them should meet up in real life when she discovers that her pen pal is Cade someone she has known and hated for years and now that she learned that he's her pen pal she doesn't know how to deal with the two different sides that Cade has and doesn't know how to feel about him know that she knows these two sides of him.

This story is mostly a cute love story that is mostly shown through the exchanging of notes and it works better than I expected that it would. The book also has Lilly dealing with being a member of a big family that causes her problems that while aren't hugely dramatic are unique to someone who has a lot of siblings and we also learn a fair bit about Cade's dysfunctional family through him opening up to Lilly in the letters, these two storylines allows us to have a bit more insight into the characters life. There is also an interesting friendship conflict between Lilly and her best friend that also adds to her character as well.

Overall I really liked this book it was a sweet and fluffy read that had likable main characters that were fun to read about. Please tell me your thoughts about this book in the comment section below.

Book Review: Asylum

                                                                Asylum Review

Asylum is about how sixteen year old Dan Crawford ends attending college preparatory program over the summer and over the summer he stays in a dorm in a building use to be an insane asylum which was shut down years ago because of the inhumane treatments that were being done there. Shortly after arriving Dan finds a photo of man that looks exactly like him who turns out to have been the warden for the asylum and has the same name as Dan. Dan ends up meeting two friends Abby and Jordan and the three of them break into the old file room which leads Dan to become obsessed with the who the warden was and Abby to become obsessed with a photo of a young girl.

Dan tries to find out more about the asylum and the warden and why things had to be shut down but he doesn't actually end up learning much other than their was a serial killer that was patient there. Abby learns that the girl that she was obsessed with is actually her aunt and she wants to tell her dad about it and figure out where she is now. After awhile someone is killed and another person is attacked in ways that are similar to the serial killer that was a patient there which leads Dan to wanting to know if what is happening now is similar to what is happened in the past.

Overall this book had an okay plot but I found the characters to be a bit dull and one note which made investing the story a little hard for me. The writing in this story seemed to have a lot of scenes that could have allowed for us to get a better understanding of the characters personalities and their relationships told in summary rather than in scene which puts a lot of distance between the characters and the audience which isn't a good thing here. I felt like every scene that was in scene was one that moved the plot but every scene that could've developed the characters was in summary which I think is a problem. Please tell me your thoughts on this book in the comment section below.

Book Review: Crank: Fallout

                                                                 Fallout Review

Fallout is the third book in the Crank trilogy and this book follows the story of Kristina's three oldest children who are now teenagers. Hunter is a college student who was raised by Kristina's mother and step-father he's mostly well adjusted but resents that Kristina couldn't get it together enough to raise any of her kids. Autumn lives her grandfather but doesn't even know that Kristina is her mom and she OCD and is overall very anxious. Summer is in the foster care system but sees Kristina the most out of the three siblings but that still doesn't mean that they have a good relationship.

This book basically deals with Hunter, Autumn and Summer's relationships with their romantic partners and their parents and how those two relationships can affect one another. Despite both the characters romantic relationship and parental being more or less developed than each other all of the main characters are affected by both relationships through out the book. The book ends with all three of the siblings romantic relationships in different places but in somewhat similar places with Kristina with them all seeming to give up any hope of her being a mom to them.

Overall this was a good book with interesting characters that were compelling to read about. The writing is this book was beautiful with the way it was written in verse like Ellen Hopkins other novels. Please tell me your thoughts about this book or the Crank series as a whole in the comment section below.

Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

                                    The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Review

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is about how an inexperience journalist, Monique Grant, is specifically requested to interview Evelyn Hugo a legendary Hollywood actress who hasn't given anyone an interview in the decades since she's retired from acting. The magazine that Monique works for reluctantly asks her to do the interview with Evelyn since she refuses to do any interview with anyone else but it turns out that Evelyn isn't interested in giving an interview but rather she wants Monique to write her life story.

The majority of this book is Evelyn telling her life story to Monique and through out this story we learn about how Evelyn grew up in poverty and dreamed of becoming an actress since it was her mother's dream before she when Evelyn was still young. Evelyn learned shortly after going through puberty that men where very attractive to her which at first she saw as a burden but soon learned to use men's lust for as a tool to get what she wants. The book follows Evelyn's life story by dividing into sections which cover her seven different marriages. Evelyn first marriage is one where she uses her first husband in order to get to Hollywood and the marriage ends once she starts to get real success as an actress. Evelyn second marriage is one that actually started off based in love but soon turned sour when her husband reveals a cruel side and they both end up falling out of love with each other by the time their marriage ends. The next several marriages Evelyn has are more about her wanting the public to believe a certain narrative that she weaving for them then about love for any of her husbands. Another aspect of the book is about the love of Evelyn's life that she never got to married by their relationship with each other spanned longer than any of Evelyn's marriages.

Overall this book was fantastic and Evelyn was a fantastic and complicated character that you weren't always sure if you liked her or not but you always respected her none the less. Please tell me your thoughts about this book in the comment section below.

Book Review: The Luxe

                                                              The Luxe Review

The Luxe is set in the late 1800s and is about the young elite of Manhatten's social scene and all the scandals and problems they have. The main characters we follow are Elizabeth Holland who comes from old money and is a proper young lady which makes most of the other main characters hate her because they think she's dull, fake or snobby. Elizabeth is willing to do whatever she has to keep her family stable but she is also in love with a servant named Will. Diana Holland is Elizabeth's younger sister who is a free spirit and cares not for the conventions of upper class society and she is full of life which is something that attracts Elizabeth's betrothed Henry to her since he is something of a kindred spirit to her. Henry Schoonmaker is a bit wild he likes very much to party and fool around with quite a few ladies this is something that has gotten him written about in quite a few gossip articles in the papers which is something that displeases his father who hopes to run for mayor. Henry is forced into an engagement with proper and boring Elizabeth in order to keep getting money from his father which he needs because he doesn't have a career of his own. Penelope Hayes is from new money and she's a friend of sorts with Elizabeth and she had been dating Henry before he got engaged to Elizabeth. Penelope is someone who is into social climbing and believes in keeping her enemies closer than her friends so she is one to watch out for. The final main character we follow is Lina Broud who is Elizabeth's personal maid and former friend she dislikes Elizabeth, is in love with Will and wishes to rise to a higher social class.

This book is one that deals mostly with interconnected relationships that go on between the main characters that we follow through out the book as well as having them have to find ways to work within the guidelines of how society thinks that they should behave. I felt I like this book was a bit of a slow start but as time went on I found myself more invested and interested in the characters relationships with each other. Overall I thought that this book was pretty good and I find myself wanting to read the next book in the series which is always a good thing. Please tell me your thoughts on the this book in the comment section below.