whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 13::goal 25}

here’s a secret
that’s not really a secret…
i love fairy tales.

and this felt like a fairy tale to me.

a little girl lost and abandoned,
secrets kept and whispered and wondered about…
a mystery,
a book of fairy tales,
a hidden garden, walled away from the rest of the world…

oh, i loved this book.

i will warn you though…i had to make notes at one point
of who was who and how this person knew that person
and so on and so forth. :)

5 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥’s
NEXT UP:: GIRL WASH YOUR FACE - RACHEL HOLLIS

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 12::goal 25}

i finished this
quite a while ago
and when i was done
i didn’t give it 5 hearts…
i gave it
5 broken hearts.

i made a note in my phone
as i was reading this…
it said:
i am reading it.
and it is very good.
but i cannot say i am enjoying it.
so sad. so fucking sad.

and that is still how i feel.

the story was harrowing and yet
somewhat hopeful
and the descriptions
so vivid, it made me feel ill
and unable to sleep…
i often catch myself thinking
who could do this,
who could be this monstrous,
this inhuman
and then i think
of the gradual descent,
the blurring of lines…
of lost morals and the absence kindness or empathy…
of misplaced hatred and fear…of the power of propaganda…
of children kept in cages
and i wonder
how backwards
we are willing to let ourselves slide
and honestly
that keeps me awake at night, too
wondering if we have
learned
nothing.

5 out of 5 broken ♥♥♥♥♥’s
NEXT UP:: THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN - KATE MORTON

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 11::goal 25}

I really didn’t know a lot about this book
when I picked it up.
It had gotten a lot of attention on blogs
and websites so I thought I would give it a shot….
I don’t want to say that I enjoyed this book
because that feels wrong…
it didn’t feel like a book that you were meant to enjoy…
it seems more like something
that should anger you, surprise you, make you think,
make you want to change things,
make you grateful for the things that you take for granted
in your own life…
and, in that sense, it was very effective.

It is unfortunate that a book like this has to be written
and it’s equally unfortunate that there are so many
real life examples of exactly the type of scenario
that happens in this story.

4 ♥’s out of 5 ♥’s
NEXT UP: THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ - HEATHER MORRIS

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 10::goal 25}

I debated on how many hearts
to give this book.

The writing was pretty good but,
occasionally, in places,
it felt forced…
like…too much…
it reminded me of how I loved books like
VC Andrews and SE Hinton when I was a teenager
but, now, the writing makes me
cringe
just a little…
it’s just trying a tiny bit too hard.

But…the story totally carried me along
and held me til the end.

In the end, I gave it

4 ♥’s out of 5 ♥’s
NEXT UP: THE HATE YOU GIVE - ANGIE THOMAS

whatcha readin'? 2019 {book 9::goal 25}

This book.

Wow.

This book.

This book broke my heart
into a million jagged little pieces
and then stomped all over them
with big black combat boots
and then
melted it all back together again
and left me a
jumbled crying mess.

I fell in love with this book…
the story, the intensity, the brutal descriptions
contrasting so sharply against the
tender moments….

Read this one.
(and when I rated it in the log I keep on my phone,
I rated it with five broken hearts).

5 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥'s

NEXT UP:  GIRL, WASH YOUR FACE - RACHEL HOLLIS