May 24
Bite-Sized Reviews of Now a Major Motion Picture, Captain Superlative, Smile and Sisters

Bite-Sized Reviews of Now a Major Motion Picture, Captain Superlative, Smile and Sisters

Reviews 4 ★★★½

I’ve got three more bite-sized reviews for you today. One YA, one MG contemp and one for two MG graphic novels. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This book will bring out the fandom geek in just about anybody. I loved the fact that Iris couldn’t care less about her grandmother’s famous series, even while the world was busy adoring it. She’d spent her life avoiding her grandmother’s fans, especially after an incident with an overeager and disturbed one nearly ended in tragedy. I will say that Iris’s negativity was a little hard to handle at first—it took me a while to warm up to her, even though I understood why she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. As Iris was won over by the movie (and, especially, by the people involved), though, she started to win me over as well. I… Read more »

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May 22
Refugee by Alan Gratz: A Dual Review with AJ @ Read All the Things

Refugee by Alan Gratz: A Dual Review with AJ @ Read All the Things

Dual Reviews, Reviews 6 ★★★★½

(No actual dueling—or even arm-twisting—was involved. Don’t worry, this is a dual review, not a duel review. Sorry if you’re disappointed.) AJ @ Read All the Things was the latest winner of my Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up “Make Me Read It” giveaway, and she chose to make me read Refugee by Alan Gratz. I was very happy with the selection since I’d been meaning to read this one for quite a while. I read the book and then bought a copy for AJ (since I wanted to hold onto mine), and we did a dual review together. Read on to see what we thought of the book… AJ and I both loved this book! I will say right up front that the book is sad. That shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the subject matter, but I mention it as a trigger warning, in case you have kids like my daughter, who has a hard time processing… Read more »

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May 20
Sunday Post: Pre-Order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 5/20/18

Sunday Post: Pre-Order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 5/20/18

Sunday Post 27

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): Yesterday was my daughter Danielle’s final track meet of the season. It was a great way to end since she made it to the finals for her 200 and got second place on the high jump (4’2″ — which is pretty good considering the first time she ever tried the high jump was on Tuesday). Other than that, there’s not too much to report. I did pretty well with spending at least a couple of hours on my writing (almost) every day. I still need to finish up a few things for my students though (I’ll confess I took… Read more »

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May 18
Bite-Sized Reviews of The Way You Make Me Feel, The Girl and the Grove, Long May She Reign, and The Inventors at No. 8

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Way You Make Me Feel, The Girl and the Grove, Long May She Reign, and The Inventors at No. 8

Reviews 10 ★★★★

I’ve got four bite-sized reviews for you today, all review books (though one of them I ended up listening to the audiobook eventually instead of reading). Three of them are YA’s and one MG. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! This is a cute summer read that features an MC who has a lot of growing up to do (luckily she does!). Clara starts out pretty unlikeable—she’s a jokester and a prankster, but it all feels a little mean-spirited. She has a never-try attitude and doesn’t really care when things blow up in her face. On the one hand, it was refreshing to see a girl portrayed in a stereotypically guy role, but on the other hand, it was hard to get behind her. Things get a little better when she ends up befriending her nemesis (a mean girl who turns out to… Read more »

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May 17
Fun with SPAM! #4

Fun with SPAM! #4

Let's Discuss, Spam 31

It’s time for a new installment of Fun with SPAM! Ah, the dreaded spam comments … we all know them well. Since that last SPAM post, I’ve been saving up all the good ones that make it through my filter. It doesn’t take long to collect quite a few, so I decided it was time to revisit one of my favorite goofy topics: SPAM. Once again, I decided to take a peek into the abyss of the Spam folder to find a few gems and imagine … what if I was really going to reply to these random crazy comments? Take a look at what I might say: Un manga est une bande dessinée japonaise. Yes. Thank you for that information. All my French readers should certainly be aware that “a manga is a Japanese comic.” I should have made this clearer for them. Good thing I have you around!  … Read more »

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May 14
The Rain on Netflix: Danish or English? (Subbed or Dubbed?) Let’s Discuss.

The Rain on Netflix: Danish or English? (Subbed or Dubbed?) Let’s Discuss.

Let's Discuss, Movies 34

I know this is off the topic of books, but I started to write about it in my Sunday Post, and it was really long, so I thought I’d just turn it into a non-bookish discussion. I’m allowed to have some of those, right? (Well, it’s my blog, so I’ve decided I am. 🙂 ) My Hulu wasn’t working for some reason, so I couldn’t watch Fear the Walking Dead while I worked out on Friday. Instead, I decided to try out a new show on Netflix: The Rain. I didn’t realize how foreign (to me) shows worked on Netflix, though. It took me a few minutes to realize that it was dubbed. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I watched the whole episode (and really enjoyed it—I think I’ll keep watching), and then I went and looked it up and found out that I could have switched it to subtitled… Read more »

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May 13
Sunday Post: Pre-Order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 5/13/18

Sunday Post: Pre-Order Deals & Giveaways Galore – 5/13/18

Sunday Post 37

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what’s coming up in the week ahead. This past week on FYFA (and in my life): Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there! We’re celebrating Mother’s Day and my daughter’s birthday with family today. Should be a wonderful day! I decided to rename my Sunday Post so that people will realize that pre-order deals are included. I realized that only people who know me and care enough to come check out what’s going on with my week would click on my Sunday Post, and I want everyone to be able to find all the amazing pre-order deals that I have listed here! Hopefully this will help more people find them. (I’ve been including… Read more »

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May 11
My First Time Switching Between an Audiobook and a Print Book. Let’s Discuss!

My First Time Switching Between an Audiobook and a Print Book. Let’s Discuss!

Let's Discuss 43

Have you ever tried switching back and forth between an audiobook and a “regular” book? I’ve noticed that Amazon offers the option to switch back and forth between a Kindle book and an audiobook (they often offer the audiobook at a discounted price), but I’ve never really considered trying it. Until recently. I put the audiobook of Alex, Approximately on my list of books to listen to from the library and then promptly forgot and purchased it from The Book Outlet. (Go figure.) I decided to give the book a listen a week or two ago and listened to it while I was in the car. I was enjoying the story and the narration was great. Wished I didn’t have to park the car and get on with my day. That night when I headed upstairs to bed, I caught sight of the book in my bookcase and thought, Why not? It… Read more »

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May 09
Bite-Sized Reviews of Hiding Lies, A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Alex Approximately, The Lost Path & Bubble

Bite-Sized Reviews of Hiding Lies, A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Alex Approximately, The Lost Path & Bubble

Reviews 42 ★★★½

I’ve got five bite-sized reviews for you today: three YA’s, a graphic novel and a thriller! It’s an odd combo, I know. Still, I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! In this second installment of the Eleanor Ames YA spy thriller series, Ellie is trying to make up for her con artist past and her mistakes in the first book, especially putting the wrong person in prison (well, sort of) and hiding things from her boyfriend (though he hid more than a few things himself). Of course, it’s not that simple. Ellie ends up embroiled in another FBI investigation, and this time she’s determined to get it right. I’ll confess that I felt like the first half of the book was a teensy bit slow—or, actually, lots of things were happening, but I just wasn’t emotionally invested in the plot. At about 65% a… Read more »

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May 08
March/April Wrap-Up Round-Up “Make Me Read It” Giveaway

March/April Wrap-Up Round-Up “Make Me Read It” Giveaway

Current Giveaways, Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up 5

I created this giveaway to encourage people to visit people’s wrap-ups. There are entries for commenting on the wrap-up posts in the link-up. I didn’t end up posting the giveaway for March because things got a little hectic, so this month’s giveaway will include entries for comments on both March and April wrap-up posts. The last winner was AJ @ Read All the Things. She chose for us to read Refugee by Alan Gratz, which I loved! Watch for a dual review coming sometime this month. The Link-Up Check out the March and April wrap-up posts in the linkies below. These are the posts that can be used for the giveaway. Didn’t have a chance to link up your April wrap-up post? That’s okay—you can still link up until the giveaway is over! March: An InLinkz Link-up April: An InLinkz Link-up The giveaway is open to everyone! You don’t have to link up… Read more »

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