Category: Reviews

Apr 23

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre: A Dual Review with Danielle Hammelef

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Dual Reviews, Reviews 14 ★★★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.) Today I have another dual review of a book from my Make Me Read It Giveaway (as part of the Wrap-Up Round-Up). Danielle Hammelef was once again my winner (which just goes to show that entering often is well worth it!) and she chose to make me read The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things. Once I read the book, I sent it along to her. Once again, Danielle took me up on the option of doing a dual review, which I was really excited about since it’s such a fun way to review! Read on to see what we thought of the book… Danielle and I disagreed about this book somewhat (which sort of makes this review more fun, in my opinion). I think it mostly came down to whether… Read more »

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Apr 13

Picture Us In the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert: So Much I Want to Say About this Book (But I Can’t)

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 18 ★★★★½

This is one of those books that I’ll be thinking about for a long time. There was just so much substance to it, and it addressed several important topics from unique perspectives. The problem is, this is a tough book to review without spoiling things, so I’m going to be very general in my review. Trust me when I say you should just read it for yourself! What Fed My Addiction: Covers all the issues. Without feeling like an issue book. This book touches on so many topics, and honestly, that’s hard to do well. Oftentimes when I read a book like this, I feel a little overwhelmed or like I’m constantly being hit over the head with another issue, but somehow Gilbert manages to weave them all in so seamlessly that I almost don’t notice they’re there. This is because Gilbert focuses so much more on Danny’s emotional journey than she does on the… Read more »

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Apr 06

Bite-Sized Reviews of Tyler Johnson Was Here, Dark Breaks the Dawn, Tom Sawyer and What Maya Saw

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 12 ★★★★

I’ve got four bite-sized reviews for you today: three YA books and a classic! I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! I’d read that this book was a bit grittier than other books with similar storylines, so I was ready for that when I started reading it. I would agree with that assessment, but I don’t think that it necessarily made the MC less relatable. The story is told from the POV of Tyler’s twin brother, Marvin. Marvin realizes his brother has flaws and has gotten himself involved in some things he shouldn’t, but he also knows the person Tyler is—he knows him in a way no one else can. So, when Tyler is killed, Marvin has trouble reconciling people’s reactions—both the people who want to paint Tyler as a thug and people who want to use him as some sort of symbol of… Read more »

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Apr 03

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi: This Book Is the Definition of Delightful!

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 18 ★★★★★

You guys, I think I could sit here and gush all day about this book! Just everything about it—love the characters, the setting, the pacing. And then there’s the writing … the book took me a little longer to read than usual because I sat down and underlined every line that I loved. And there were a lot of them. I regret nothing. What Fed My Addiction: Fantastic middle grade voice. The main reason I started underlining my favorite quotes was because I’m using this as a study of how to nail middle grade voice—which is tough, trust me. If I can get my book even halfway to this level of amazingness, I will die and go to writerly heaven. Chokshi manages to make Aru funny and sarcastic and flawed and still oh-so-lovable. I think that just about every middle grader on the planet will be able to relate to Aru in one way… Read more »

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Mar 27

In Her Skin by Kim Savage: Review & Giveaway

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 21 ★★★★

What a twisty ride this book was! Kim Savage knows how to take you on a journey with her books—and you’re not always sure you’re going to end up somewhere pretty. That was definitely the case with this one. What Fed My Addiction: Life hijack. I don’t know what it is, but I’m always fascinated by stories where the main character takes over someone else’s life. In this case, Jo sees an opportunity to pretend to be Vivienne, a girl who was kidnapped from an affluent family years ago. Since Vivi’s parents died, Jo thinks she can convince their close friends to believe that she’s Vivienne and that she’s escaped from her kidnapper after years of being hidden away. Not so smart plan. Jo isn’t nearly as smart as she thinks she is, and things start to go wrong pretty early on. Sometimes it might bother me to have a main character… Read more »

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Mar 16

Bite-Sized Reviews of Lake Silence, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, Deception So Dark and Some Kind of Happiness

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 26 ★★★

I’ve got four bite-sized reviews for you today: one adult, two YA and a MG. (I know—I considered splitting them up, but this is what I’ve been reading lately, and two of them are newer releases that I really wanted to get reviewed). I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! Lake Silence is being called The Others #6, but it’s really more of a spinoff series. It focuses on completely different characters, with only a few minor mentions of our friends in Lakeside Courtyard. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s good to know up front. For some reason, I just didn’t connect to this story as much as I did the original Others Series—I think that’s mostly due to the fact that I didn’t connect to Vicki, the MC, nearly as much. She’s got a lot of trust issues when it comes… Read more »

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Mar 09

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: 5-Star Review & Giveaway!

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 37 ★★★★★

Reviewer: Official Captain of Reviews Nicole M. Hewitt Date: 03/09/2018 (four days pre-release) Timestamp: 06:30 CT All contents herein are top-secret, CLASSIFIED. Read this review at your own risk. Please disregard any sections with a strikethrough. Any inappropriate language will be blacked out. (In real life, I don’t generally swear, but let’s pretend. In my head, as I’m writing this, I’m probably just saying wimpy words like frickin’, but you can imagine they’re whatever you want.) I swear to you that this series has just gotten better and better, and this finale is ing FANTABULOUS!! If you’ve been a fan of the series up till this point, you will not be disappointed. If you’ve been holding off on starting it because you wanted to see how the series would hold up, it’s definitely time to jump in and start reading. The unique formatting of these books just ing fascinates me. I especially love… Read more »

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Mar 07

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan: A Dual Review

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Dual Reviews, Reviews 26 ★★★★

(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.) Today I have another dual review of a book from my Make Me Read It Giveaway (as part of the Wrap-Up Round-Up). Danielle Hammelef, a faithful FYFA reader, was again my latest winner, and she chose to make me read You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan. Once I read the book, I sent it along to her. Once again, Danielle took me up on the option of doing a dual review. This time, she gave me her thoughts first (which I was grateful for, since I had waited way too long to review—I really need to get better about that), and I responded. Read on to see what we thought of the book… DANIELLE SAYS: I enjoyed my time reading this book as it is well-written, lots of… Read more »

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Feb 17

Bite-Sized Reviews of The Belles, The Hazel Wood, The Ambrose Deception, The Altered History of Willow Sparks

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Reviews 36 ★★★★

I’ve got four bite-sized reviews for you today: two YA new releases (one of them is an audiobook), a MG contemp and a YA graphic novel. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction! The central messages in this book are fabulous! The book highlights our images of beauty and how far we will go to attain them. This is a society that sees itself as “ugly,” so people will endure great pain (and spend tons of money) in order to “fix” themselves. This is such an interesting commentary on our world, and not that far off from the truth. How many people will go to great extents to achieve a certain standard of beauty? We’re sort of obsessed. Camellia’s personal desire to be the Favorite (an official title of the Belle that works for the royal family) leads to a break in her relationship… Read more »

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Feb 08

By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell: Review, Giveaway & Questell’s Top Ten Addictions

Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction Author Top Ten Lists, Giveaways (Ended), Reviews 20 ★★★★

Buy Links: Who doesn’t love a book about a magical circus? A circus with both a charm and a curse? Sign me up! What Fed My Addiction: The circus atmosphere. I don’t know what it is about a traveling circus or carnival, but I just love this setting. There’s already such a sense of awe and wonder there that it works really well for a fantastical story. Plus, they’re a little creepy (I think I always think back to Something Wicked This Way Comes), which works well for this story. Emmaline’s curse. The curse itself is, again, creepy in all the best ways. Emmaline is turned into something along the lines of a living puppet. She’s solid, her senses are dulled, and she’s suddenly living a sort of shadow life. There was a lot to play with here, and Questell does it well. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for Emmaline as… Read more »

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