Mallory Books

  Hello and welcome to my stop  on the THE COUSINS by Karen McManus Blog Tour hosted by  Rockstar Book Tours ! Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway! About the Book: Title:   THE COUSINS Author:  Karen McManus Pub. Date:  December 1, 2020 Publisher:  Delacorte Press Formats:  Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook Pages:  336 Find it:   Goodreads ,  Amazon , Kindle ,  Audible ,   B&N (Signed Edition) ,  iBooks , Kobo ,  TBD , Bookshop.org From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You'll never feel the same about family again. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they've never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they're surprised . . . and curious. Their parents are all clear o

REVIEW: Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur This novel is a beautiful sapphic romance with a Seattle backdrop and all the adored angst from Pride and Prejudice, and it’s #ownvoices, which I love to see! We follow Elle (Elizabeth) Jones, co-owner of the astrology social media sensation, Oh My Stars, who is a hopeless romantic looking for her soulmate, and Darcy Lowell, a neat and serious actuary focused on anything but dating. But Darcy’s brother is persistent, and he sets her up with Elle who is consulting his dating app company. Their date goes up in flames of disaster, but Darcy makes the split second decision to tell her brother otherwise, hoping to keep him off her back. Elle agrees to the mutual benefits a fake relationship will get her with her family’s high expectation. But the lines between fake and real start to blur, opposites attract after all, and you can’t change what’s written in the stars... This books was a perfect match for me! Angsty + sapphic + fake dating

  🔮 REVIEW: The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige  🕯 Westerly College’s campus is full of sororities and frats, but Kappa Rho Nu (The Raven’s) isn’t just the most selective sorority, it’s also a secret coven of real witches. Vivi Deveraux sees joining Kappa as her chance to finally be who she wants away from her hectic childhood. Scarlett Winters was raised to become a Raven leader and this is the year she has to prove herself, without the secrets of her past coming to light. Vivi and Scarlett are chosen to be each other’s Big and Little, forced to work together when dark magic threatens to destroy the coven, and it is connected to both of their pasts.  The Raven’s was a refreshing modern day witch tale, full of magic, a college setting, girl power, and dark, morally grey characters. I loved the magic system used, it was unique to other stories I’ve personally encountered, while being easy to understand. However, a lot of the magical information was dumped into the plot at the

  🎄  Review: In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren  🎄 What it’s about: Maelyn Jones is finally getting a reprieve from her stagnant life with the holiday vacation she’s looked forward to every year for her whole life. The family filled cabin holiday packed with tradition and festivity is everything she needs until it ends in disaster. Not only did she kiss the wrong person, the cabin that holds her most sacred family memories is being sold. In a desperate moment on her way to the airport, Mae asks the universe to show her what will maker her happy. In the next moment, her car is crashing and she wakes up on an airplane. Only, it’s the same plane she was already on a few days ago. Maelyn is now living the same holiday over again, and again with one goal: fix her mistakes and get what she’s always wanted. Maybe this is the universe giving her a second chance, but you know what they say: be careful what you wish for.  My thoughts: My favorite romance author duo is back with a perfect holida

  REVIEW: The Love for Code and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor What it’s about:   The Code for Love and Heartbreak is a modern twist on Emma by Jane Austen. It follows Emma Woodhouse, who relies on math, numbers, and logic, but remains clueless to people. Her sister is moving across the country for college, leaving her to fend for herself during senior year along with George, her Co-president of the Coding Club. This year, for the state coding competition, Emma decides to find “The Code For Love” designing an app that gives you your perfect mathematical match based on her algorithm. It starts strong, bringing Emma popularity in her school as everyone seeks her out for their own perfect match. But then couples start breaking up, people start falling for the wrong ones, maybe even including Emma. What happens when Emma can’t count on numbers anymore?  My thoughts: I thought this was a cute story and a fun twist on the classic tale. I enjoyed most of the characters and the concept was reall

  What it’s about: Hal Westaway comes home to find a letter about an inheritance left to her by her grandmother. However, Hal knows it can’t be meant for her, even though it is her name and address on the paper, her grandparents have been dead for years. Hal has been scraping by financially after the tragic death of her mother, working as a Tarot reader on the pier, not to mention, she’s also got involved with some sketchy loan sharks. She wants so badly for there to be even a little money left to her, anything to help her back to her feet. She ends up at the funeral, and then the family home, assuming a role, but everything is not what it seems in the giant estate full of secrets and lies.  My thoughts: I really enjoyed this! I had no idea what to expect going into this which I think is the best way to read a horror/mystery. Hal was a strong protagonist, and I really rooted for her as she faced so many problems, however, some of her inner monologue felt repetitive. The pacing of the

What it’s about : Ten years ago, two young girls went to play in the woods, only one came back. Delia Skinner, Dee, has been thinking about that fateful day in the woods for the last ten years, wondering why her best friend Sibby was taken instead of her, and especially feeling the lasting guilt of not being able to prove the authority’s with anything that could bring Sibby back. Ten years later, Dee now hosts and anonymous true crime podcast where she tries to help locate missing people with the help of her listeners. But then Layla Gerrard goes missing from the exact same house Dee lived in ten years ago, and evidence shows the two cases are connected. As the case grows, mysterious tips about Sibby’s whereabouts appear too. With the help of the mysterious new girl, Sarah, and her best friend, Burke, Dee tries to get to the bottom of it all.  My thoughts : This story was super quick paced! I finished it in less than a day actually. The most important part of a mystery novel is that p

All Our Worst Ideas Vicky Skinner Published by: Swoon Reads Publication date: August 11th 2020 Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult Two teens who have nothing in common work together at a record store in All Our Worst Ideas , a powerful and voice-driven YA novel from Vicky Skinner. When Amy, on her way to becoming valedictorian of her graduating class and getting accepted to her dream school, gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she takes a job at a record store to ease the pain. She needs a distraction, badly. Oliver, Amy’s record store co-worker, isn’t so sure about Amy—his complete opposite—but what he is sure of is his decision not to go to college. He just can’t figure out how to tell his mother. As they work late-night shifts at the record store, Amy and Oliver become friends and then confidantes and then something more, but when Amy has a hard time letting go of what she thought was her perfect future with her ex, she risks losing the future she didn’t even know she w

                                          Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson  What’s it’s about: Ellingham Academy is a private school for the most elite, creative thinkers. Albert Ellingham, who was the richest man in America, founded it to create a special place of learning, games, and riddles. During its first year, Albert’s wife and daughter are kidnapped. Only one real clue from the case is ever connected, a creepy poem that was previously mailed to Albert signed “Truly, Devious”. The crime was never solved. Decades later, crime-lover Stevie Bell is beginning her first year at Ellingham Academy. She has one goal: solve the Ellingham Case. But it’s not so simple, she has her hard curriculum and strange housemates to figure out too. But then, Truly Devious returns to The Academy, and so does death. The two mysterious start to connect and Stevie is determined to figure out the truth.  . . My thoughts : I cannot begin to express how perfect this mystery is. The setup of the story with

Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins  What it’s about : Millie Quint is having an ideal summer break, until she sees her best-friend-sort-of-girlfriend, Jude, kissing someone else after blowing her off. Millie has been dreaming of Scotland for years, thats why she applied to a prestigious boarding school on a whim. Weirdly enough, an acceptance letter arrived earlier that summer, but Millie was hesitating because of Jude. But now that acceptance letter is her perfect escape. Her new Scotland school is receiving its first class of girls and Millie is making history. Everything about Scotland is a dream, until Millie meets her roommate Flora. Millie calls her out for her bad attitude only to find out later Flora is an actual real life Princess. They can’t stand each other, until well, they can. But Flora is the most off-limits crush Millie could have, and everything will try to keep them apart.   . . . My thought s: This book met all my favorite tropes: enemies to lovers, roommates, and

                                        A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson What it’s about : Sal Singh murdered Andie Bell five years ago. Everyone knows he did it, everyone but Pippa Fitz-Amobi, who takes on the case as the topic for her final capstone project. She starts finding connections and secrets everywhere that someone in town is desperate for her to unsee. If the killer is still on the loose, is it safe for Pippa to keep investigating, especially when she might be on to them?  . . My thoughts : I’ve been craving a good thrilling mystery novel and I’ve seen this one around a lot, and it did not disappoint! It was very complex and twisty. I was amazed how everyone seemed to be connected and tied together in that town. It was so captivating to see Pippa’s thought process unfold in her project logs. The audiobook experience made it even more incredible, with the interviews and voice actors. It truly seemed realistic that someone like her could follow the trail of evi

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall What it’s about : Luc O’Donnell is going to be fired from the only job left that will have him: a charity to save beetles. Luc is the son of long ago rockstar parents who split when he was young, leaving him with anger and resentment towards his absent father, and just enough left-over-fame to warrant bad publicity. After a compromising photo from a night out lands in the tabloids, the threads keeping his life together snap. He decides to fix his image by finding a respectable, perfect (fake) boyfriend. Who better than, ethically conscious, vegetarian, lawyer extraordinaire, Oliver Blackwood. It turns out, Oliver could benefit from having a fake boyfriend in return, but their mutual need for each other is about all they have in common... or so it seems. And fake-dating starts to become something more.  . . . My thoughts : OKAY SO PREPARE FOR GUSHING!!!! I so did not expect to fall in love with this book and ALL the characters. Firstly, Luc was such an

  Night Owls and Summer Skies by Rebecca Sullivan *eARC copy provided by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.    What it’s about : Against her wishes, Emma is being sent to spend the summer with her mom. However, as soon as she arrives her mom whisks her away to Camp Maplewood, while she goes on a cruise with her new husband. Everything Emma hates is at Camp Maplewood, phobias, enemies, and the past she’s been running from since the first summer she stayed there. She devises a plan to get out: she must get kicked out. But the mysterious Camp Counselor, Vivian Black, seems determined to keep her there.   . . What I liked :  One of the main things I liked about this story was Emma’s secureness of her sexuality. I feel like so many books I read with LGBTQ+ characters revolve the whole plot around coming out or discovering their sexuality, ect. It was refreshing to see Emma be confidant and secure. Even the simple point of her dad causally asking if she had

REVIEW: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff  What it’s about : This is the second book in the Illuminae Files series, which continues the space saga to expose a corrupt company that invaded a planet and stay alive. This is a companion series so while we still get some story from the previous characters, the main plot shifts to a new location with new characters. We follow Hanna Donnelley, the daughter of the space station’s commander, and Nik Malikov, a member of an illegal crime family on board the station. They are a very unlikely pair connected only by thee deals they do together. The space station is unaware that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are on their way to being news of the invasion. Beitech send an operative strike team to invade the space station and further erase their tracks, and Hanna and Nik, along with the Little Spider (Niks cousin) must come together as the last defense for the space station and and the truth. But don’t worry, they just have to get past an elite str

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff  What it’s about : Kady Grant broke up with her boyfriend and thought things couldn’t possibly get worse, but then her planet was invaded. She was forced to flea and fight her way to evacuation with none other than said now-ex-boyfriend, Ezra Mason. Kady and Ezra make it onto one of the three evacuees ships (of course not the same one) but this is only the beginning of the story. They are being chased through space by an enemy warship, desperate to erase and survivors from telling the rest of the universe of their attack, a mutating plague has started circulating a ship, something is up with the ships Artificial Intelligence, and the command is keeping secrets. Kady uses her hacking skills to figure out what’s really happening, and she needs help from Ezra to do it. The best part is this story is told through hacked classified documents, weird AI files, emails, IMs, security video transcripts, and MORE.    My thoughts : INCREDIBLE. this story