“Some days it’s fine. Others it nearly breaks me. The emptiness of the horizon, and the hunger in my body, and how will we ever survive this if we can’t survive each other? “We’re gonna make it. Tell me we’re gonna make it.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: quarantine, black bears, blind eyes, a fresh orange, the Tox, gun shooting, snow, limited food supplies, blonde braids, forbidden kisses, face masks, the woods, a cure and wild girls.

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

I had very high expectations for this book. The cover is absolutely beautiful and I was so drawn to the synopsis… but it was a flop to me. To be fair, I was really into the beginning and I loved how wild the girls were, but the rest of the story didn’t meet my expectations. I personally didn’t like the course the book took, and the explanation the author gave for their sickness felt off and rushed. And that ending…? That ruined it for me.

I would not classify this a horror novel, but it has some creepy and eerie elements in it. That was definitely my favorite part of the book: the atmosphere. Still, I would like it better if the story was focused solely on the school and woods. Also, I really liked that the story was not focused on romance! That was a breath of fresh air.

The story itself had so much potential to become a really cool book. I’m so sad, I really wanted to love this!

“Every successful person is someone who has failed, but never considered himself a failure.” – 3.25/5 stars!

Attitude can make or break you and the people you lead.

Good attitudes on a team do not guarantee its success, but bad attitudes guarantee its ruin. So says New York Times best-selling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell in this highly practical primer, Attitude 101. Anyone who has tried to lead people with bad attitudes knows the frustration it can bring.

With this concise and reader-friendly guidebook, you can master attitude issues. Learn to:

Recognize how individuals’ attitudes impact their performance
Pinpoint problem feelings, behaviors, and thinking in yourself and others
Identify six common attitude problems that undermine teamwork
Discover the secret to changing a bad attitude
Create new definititons of failure and success that will improve performance
Adopt the attitude that helps a leader keep going to the next level
Attitude is contagious!

You want to make sure your team is catching the right one!

This small book is perfect for a dose of motivation! It focuses on why we should have a good attitude in order to be successful. Maintaining a good attitude is essential to every area of our lives, and that’s exactly what this book is trying to teach.

The book is packed with great, organized advice. The author gives a lot of examples when a point is being made, so that helped a lot with visualizing what he was trying to say. I would say this is a great book for people who are getting started on the self-development world. For me, it was a good opportunity to remind myself of a few concepts on this subject and check on my overall attitude.

It’s a great book to pick if you want to read something inspirational. It is very easy to read and you’ll get through it quickly! I recommend the audiobook version because the narration is great and it is only about 2 hours long.

“One day I’d like to find the story of my past, and I hope it’s something more magical than being unwanted and abandoned as a baby. I hope it’s a tale filled with wonder, that explains who I am and why I’m different, why I hear the trees whispering secrets, and why I always feel the forest, pulling me in.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: maps, magical stories, claw pendants, real friendships, notes, houses with chicken legs, quests, talking animals, war dances, bear caves, curses, enchanted trees, true friendships and… bear legs.

Found abandoned in a bear cave as a baby, 12-year-old Yanka has always felt out of place in her small village. When she wakes up to find that her legs have become bear legs, she sets off into the forest to discover who she is, on a journey that takes her from icy rivers to smouldering mountains, with an ever-growing group of misfits alongside her… Interwoven with traditional stories of bears, princesses and dragons, Yanka’s journey is a gorgeously lyrical adventure from the best-selling author of The House With Chicken Legs.

This was such a cute story! It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Sophie Anderson’s books and whenever a new book comes out, I’m always looking forward to diving into them!

There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this book, but my favorite was definitely the characters. I loved the main character Yanka and her trusty companion, the weasel Mousetrap.! They made the perfect duo and I was rooting for them the entire time. To be honest I liked all the characters – a special mention to Sasha, the Yaga and Elena.

The writing is beautiful and immersive. This story is based in Russian folklore, just like the other books from the same author. I always learn one thing or two by reading these stories! The only thing that I didn’t like that much is that I found it a little too slow-paced for my taste. Somewhere after she left for the forest, the story slowed down and my interest decreased a little.

One thing that surprised me was the crossover with “The House With Chicken Legs” book. I didn’t know there was a crossover, so I’m just glad I picked up the books in the right order! For this reason, if you’re considering picking this up I would highly advise you to pick up “The House With Chicken Legs” first!

It’s an amazing story for every age. It’s not only a story for children, but a story for young adults and adults as well. It’s full of magic and I’m sure your imagination will run free!

The illustrations are beautiful as always. Judging by the art style, I’m assuming the same illustrator is still working with Sophie Anderson! They make a great team to create these amazing stories. I just love how well the story is told with the beautiful pictures… It’s a match made in heaven!I really liked this book, but my favorite from this author is still “The House With Chicken Legs”. If you want to pick a book from her, that would be my recommendation!

“As I stood there surrounded by three people who had the ability to do just that-crack my chest open to all the disappointment and difficulty and grief-I knew I still wanted it. The risk of the bad stuff was so worth the good stuff. People who would be there for you when you messed up and behaved like a little jerk? They were the good stuff.” – 4/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: waterpark rides, kimchi, instamodels, spontaneous plane rides, food trucks, arrow signs, food competitions, Carrie the musical, pranks, first love, single dads, improbable friendships, Korean-brazilian culture, pasteis, the KoBra, summer jobs, LA and starry nights.

From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn’t so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?

With Maurene Goo’s signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

Another book where the book cover spoke to my soul… the cover is beautiful!
Now, the review of the book itself: this book was adorable! I really liked how Clara’s dad runs a food truck and (surprise surprise) it made me very hungry… constantly. All the food descriptions made me crave everything!
Clara’s relationship with Rose was very interesting to watch as well. They started as mortal enemies, and ended as best friends. They made great friends when they got to know each other better, which was nice.
I also thought the romance was very cute! The love interest was very nerdy and respectful. Just thought it was insta-love, but it was still cute.
I felt like Clara grew a lot this summer, it was nice to watch her develop and become more mature. And I really liked her personality in general, very different from the regular lead girl. She’s incredibly funny and sarcastic and weird, and I love it!
It’s a great book for a light summer read! It’s funny and sweet, perfect if you just want to grab something easy and fast to read.

“The easiest way to steal something, is for it to be given willingly.” – 4.75/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: pumpkins, magical hats, loyal maids, dreams, tight corsets, bakeries, riddles, black velvet gloves, red dresses, hedgehogs and flamingos, too much pepper, a three-pointed hat, jabberwocks, madness, disappearing cats, white roses, three little girls in a well, lemon tarts, tricks, rose macarons, golden eyes, black curls, jolly kings, black ravens, cut out heads and a heartless queen.

Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But according to her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for the young woman who could be the next queen.

Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.

In her first stand-alone teen novel, the New York Times-bestselling author dazzles us with a prequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

I think my heart is officially shattered. Or maybe it’s just gone now. Which is kind of appropriate given the title.

I knew this book would be in some way tragic since it is the story of how the Queen of Hearts became the way she is. I thought I was mentally prepared for it, but I was wrong, I wasn’t. So many emotions, but most of all, I feel really bad for Catherine (that character development though… yikes!).

I’m so glad I picked the audiobook for this one (even if it was almost 15 hours!). The characters’ accent contributed very positively to the story and all the magical atmosphere was set perfectly. With that said, the book is SO slow-paced! But that didn’t bother me that much to be honest. The story made up for it.

This is an amazing retelling of the Queen of Hearts story, I highly recommend this for Alice in Wonderland lovers!