Review: House of Rougeaux by Jenny Jaeckel

 

I won this book a couple years ago in a Goodreads Giveaway win and it has always been on my mind. I finally picked it up thanks to the Buzzword reading challenge. May's word was House + Home and when I was making my TBR for the words, I immediately wrote this title down and I am so glad that I did. This is now one of my favorite books of the year and I knew that it would be from the very first chapter or part. 

At first, I thought it would be confusing and hard to follow because in the index, the chapters are family names and what year they lived, and the years weren't chronological. It was confusing at one point but I looked back on the index and it was fine. 

This book starts off on the island of Martinique in the middle of the Caribbean. We are following a slave girl named Abeje. She lives and works on this sugar estate with her mom and her brother. Her mom is murdered one night by the Master and the rest of the village takes in the kids. One day a healer from another estate on the other side of the island comes to her village and helps heal some of the sick and the healer zooms in on Abeje and sees that she has a spiritual mark and helps her hone in on her abilities. 

This first part when her mother died hurt me and made me very sad and I felt horrible for Abeje because even though she had her brother, she still felt alone in the world and I just wanted to hug her and just give her all the love.

The rest of the story is from her family members living in Canada and their lives dealing with racism, and finding their way in the world. There is LGBTQ+ representation and sexual assault and rape. 

BLOG TOUR: 10 Truths and A Dare by Ashley Elston

 

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the 10 TRUTHS AND A DARE by Ashley Elston Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About the Book:

Title: 10 TRUTHS AND A DARE

Author: Ashley Elston

Pub. Date: May 4, 2021

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 304

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

This companion to Ashley Elston's beloved 10 Blind Dates follows Sophie's high-achieving cousin Olivia as she juggles last-minute P.E. credit, end-of-year parties, and a secret new romance in the chaotic week before graduation.

It's Senior Party Week, that magical in-between time after classes have ended but before graduation, chock-full of gimmicky theme parties, last-minute bonding, and family traditions. Olivia couldn't be more ready. Class salutatorian and confident in her future at LSU, she's poised to sail through to the next phase of her life.

But when the tiny hiccup of an unsigned off-campus P.E. form puts Olivia in danger of not graduating at all, she has one week to set things straight without tipping off her very big and very nosy extended family. Volunteering to help at a local golf tournament should do it, but since Olivia's mom equipped her phone with a tracking app, there'll be no hiding the fact that she's at the golf course instead of all the graduation parties happening at the same time. Unless, that is, she can convince the Fab Four--her ride-or-die cousins and best friends Sophie, Charlie, and Wes--to trade phones with her as they go through the motions of playing Olivia for the week.

 

Praise for 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston:
2020 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers Top Ten Title

2020 Florida Teens Read Book List

"POSITIVELY DELIGHTFUL—all caps—from beginning to end."—NPR

"This piece-by-piece romance doesn't need its Christmas theme to sell, but it makes it glitter all the more."—Booklist

"A fun story of finding love, getting to know yourself, and getting to know your family."—Kirkus Reviews

"In a funny holiday romance that has Sophie dog-sitting in a hockey rink, watching porn at a drive-in theater, and playing the Virgin Mary in a middle school Nativity, Elston cleverly reflects the family members' personalities through their choices of dates for Sophie."—Publishers Weekly

Grab 10 BLIND DATES now!

 

REVIEW: COMING SOON!!

About Ashley:

Ashley Elston is the author of several novels including: 10 Blind Dates (a Top Ten ALA Quick Pick and the companion to this book), The Rules for Disappearing (a finalist in the Best Young Adult Novel category of the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards), This Is Our Story, and The Lying Woods. She has a liberal arts degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport and worked for many years as a wedding photographer before turning her hand to writing. Ashley lives in Shreveport with her husband and three sons. For more information about Ashley and her books, please visit www.ashleyelston.com.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of 10 TRUTHS AND A DARE, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

5/1/2021

The Book View

Review

Week Two:

5/2/2021	What A Nerd Girl Says	Excerpt
5/3/2021	YA Books Central	Excerpt
5/4/2021	Fire and Ice	Review
5/5/2021	BookHounds YA	Excerpt
5/6/2021	YA Book Nerd	Review
5/7/2021	Lifestyle of Me	Review
5/8/2021	Moonlight Rendezvous	Review

Week Three:

5/9/2021	Jenguerdy	Review
5/10/2021	Ficticiouswonderland	Review
5/11/2021	Book-Keeping	Review
5/12/2021	Amani’s Reviews	Review
5/13/2021	booksaremagictoo	Review
5/14/2021	Eli to the nth	Review
5/15/2021	Emelie's Books	Review

Week Four:

5/16/2021	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt
5/17/2021	Zainey Laney	Review
5/18/2021	onemused	Review
5/19/2021	Midnightbooklover	Review
5/20/2021	amandainpa	Review
5/21/2021	Geauxgetlit	Review
5/22/2021	two points of interest	Review

Week Five:

5/23/2021	Book Briefs	Review
5/24/2021	Momfluenster	Review
5/25/2021	Star-Crossed Book Blog	Review
5/26/2021	michellemengsbookblog	Review
5/27/2021	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
5/28/2021	Do You Dog-ear?	Review
5/29/2021	Books and Zebras	Review

Week Six:

5/30/2021	My Fictional Oasis	Review
5/31/2021	Popthebutterfly	Review

BLOG TOUR: Stuffed Into Darkness by Liz Braswell

 

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the INTO DARKNESS (Stuffed #2) by Liz Braswell Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: INTO DARKNESS (Stuffed #2)

Author: Liz Braswell

Pub. Date: May 4, 2021

Publisher:  Disney-Hyperion

Pages: 315

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

From New York Times Bestselling Author Liz Braswell, comes the second novel in the STUFFED series! Set at summer camp, Foon’s boy, Clark, is kidnapped by an evil monster bent on revenge and Foon must enter the Darkness in order to save him.

No Stuffy has ever gone into the Darkness and returned....

Clark can’t wait to go away to camp this year. For the first time ever, he has actual friends to hang out with. Catherine-Lucille and D. A. will both be at Camp I Can with Clark, and C. L. has already promised to induct him into her exclusive camp club—the one for campers who know everything there is to know about the world of Monsters and how Stuffies protect kids from them. And now that he knows (or suspects . . . very strongly) that his grandma-made Stuffy, Foon, heroically saved his own father from a horrible fate, Clark is obviously bringing Foon to camp along with him.

But once Clark gets to camp, he and his friends discover things are off. There are strange, gooey findings in some of the bunks, the adults are acting weird, and, worst of all, their Stuffies and dolls go missing right at the moment they need them the most—when they go on the intersession camping trip and end up trapped in a creepy old cabin. What Clark and his friends don’t know, and what the mighty Foon soon discovers, is that the Monsters have launched a revenge campaign against Foon—a campaign that entails sucking the very life out of Clark. Now it’s up to Foon to enter the World of Darkness and take on the Monster in charge in order to stop the plot and save Clark’s life. 

In the long tradition of Stuffies vs. Monsters, this one’s a battle for the ages—one that will certainly go down in Stuffy history.

PRAISE FOR STUFFED:

“A warm and engaging tale” – Kirkus Reviews

 Grab Book 1, STUFFED Now!

REVIEW: Imagine all of your stuffed toys that you had as a kid coming alive to fight all the shadow monsters that come out at night. You can leave your foot hanging off the bed and no more running leaps into bed so the monsters underneath wont have a chance to grab you because all your stuffies will be there to the rescue. I have three young daughters and my oldest is 12. I now have a good reason to continue to buy her Animal Crossing and Pokemon plushies her little heart desires. 

 

About Liz:

Liz Braswell spent her childhood reading fairy tales, catching frogs, and going on adventures in the woods with her stuffed animals. She has a degree in Egyptology from Brown University (and yes, she can write your name in hieroglyphs). After making video games for ten years Liz now writes full-time and plays video games for fun. She has written Snow, Rx, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, and several books in the best-selling Twisted Tale series, including Part of Your World and As Old as Time. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two children, a cat, a part-time dog, three fish, and five coffee trees, and still sleeps with a Stuffy.  You can email her at me@lizbraswell.com or find her on Instagram and Twitter @LizBraswell.

Website | Twitter |Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | Goodreads | Amazon

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of INTO DARKNESS (Stuffed #2). US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/26/2021	Kait Plus Books	Review
4/26/2021	PopTheButterfly	Review
4/27/2021	Nerdophiles	Review
4/27/2021	booksaremagictoo	Review
4/28/2021	The Momma Spot	Review
4/28/2021	BookHounds Ya	Review
4/29/2021	For the Love of KidLit	Interview
4/29/2021	fictitious.fox	Review
4/30/2021	Moonlight Rendezvous	Review
4/30/2021	I'm Shelfish	Review

Week Two:

5/3/2021	Midnightbooklover	Review
5/3/2021	Two Points of interest	Review
5/4/2021	Books a Plenty Book Reviews	Review
5/4/2021	Eli to the nth	Review
5/5/2021	The Book Nut : A Book Lovers Guide	Review
5/5/2021	Little Red Reads	Review
5/6/2021	Lifestyle of Me	Review
5/6/2021	Celiamcmahonreads	Review
5/7/2021	michellemengsbookblog	Review
5/7/2021	A Dream Within A Dream	Excerpt

TOP TEN TUESDAY: 10 MOST RECENT READS or April Wrap Up

 

Today's top ten Tuesday prompt is your Ten Most Recent Reads and is hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl. This post also serves as my April Wrap Up because I read 11 books last month. 

1. Living Dead Girl by Kelly Gunderman
2. Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed
3. Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali
4. Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab
5. The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
6. Trouble Girls by Julia Lynn Rubin
7. Amulet: The Cloud Searcher by Kazu Kibuishi
8. Cog by Greg Van Eekhout
9. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engles
10. Smile by Raina Telgemeier
11. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Also here is my Top Ten Tuesday YouTube video for the ten May releases that I want to read. 

Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

 One of my favorite movies growing up was Coraline. I was obsessed with stop motion movies as a teen and this was the number one on my list. When I got into books, I learned that it was a book written by Neil Gaiman. I have only read three now four books by him and some are definitely a hit and miss. 

Coraline is about a girl that moves into this old house that has been divided into apartments. Her parents are somewhat neglectful emotionally. They don't pay attention to her and mainly want her out of the way. She is annoyed with her neighbors because they keep saying her name wrong. One day, she is exploring because she loves to do that and she finds a locked door in the drawing room that when opened, the side is completely blocked over.

At night, the bricks vanish and a corridor opens up. She goes through the door into an apartment that has the same layout, furniture and decor. There she meets her Other Mother and her Other Father who have buttons for eyes. They try to give her everything that she would want and promise to love her forever and that she can stay only if she puts buttons on her eyes.

I found this to be way creepier than the movie and I enjoyed it way more than the movie. I wish that the movie would have stuck to the story in some parts but it was still spooky. The other mother in the book was nightmare inducing and my oldest daughter Sammy read it before I did because she loves the movie as well and she didn't find it scary. 

I will be getting to the novel which is the OG source material as this graphic novel was adapted from the novel. I don't know when I will get to it, but it will definitely be around Halloween. 

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Favorite Animals From Books

 

Top ten Tuesdays make time fly by, I swear. It seems like everyday is a Tuesday it seems. This is a prompt that I am having a little trouble with. I am a huge animal lover but I find that I don't really pay attention to the animals unless it is a main character. Thanks to Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl

1. Alastair from Simple Art of Flying by Cory Leonardo

   An African gray parrot who is fiercely protective of his sister and has an attitude.

2. Cat from Coraline by Neil Gaiman

  A solid black cat that talks to Coraline and attacks the other mother.

3. Boo from Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

  A former Hindu God who has been transformed into a pigeon and is tasked with mentoring the Pandavas.

4. Buttercup from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

  Who did not love the cat, even though the cat was the wrong color in the first movie. And the end of Mockingjay where Buttercup didn't run away from Katniss.... *SOBS*

5. Church from City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

  This is another cat who had attitude and was bossy.

6. Dewey from Dewey: Small Town Library Cat

  Nonfiction about a cat named Dewey who was found in the drop off box of a small town library

7. Beauty from Black Beauty

  No explanation needed for this magnificent horse.

8-9. Wilbur and Charlotte from Charlotte's Web

  Wilbur seriously has top spot in my heart and I do not like spiders at all, but Charlotte is not a normal spider.

10. Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia

   The true King of Narnia and better than all the other lions. 

Review: Smile by Raina Telgemeier

 If It wasn't for my oldest daughter, I would not have picked this book up. My 12 year old is obsessed with graphic novels and she has a graphic novel TBR for this year. She loved this one and begged me to read it too, so we could talk about it. I really loved it. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars. It reminded me that I need to make an dentist appointment for my daughters. It actually hit close to home because a couple of days after, my daughter fell and face planted the kitchen floor. Thankfully, it wasn't a major injury, just a cut across her nose. 

This is a sort of memoir of the author's childhood. The story starts off when she is 12 and in 6th grade and she is in girl scouts. She is walking to her house with some of her troop friends and they start racing. Raina trips and severely injures her top front teeth. This whole graphic memoir is her four year journey of mouth reconstruction and growing up. Making new friends and leaving old ones behind. She deals with bullying and crushes on boys. She goes through puberty and enters high school. 

This was an absolutely great read and I am happy that my daughter got to read and connect with this character. I am happy that she got me to read it because it took me down memory lane and what I can expect as my daughters grows into a woman.