Book of the Month YA

I chose Hello Girls as my BOTM YA title this month!

I've been getting Book of the Month for quite a while now and really love this subscription. In fact, I have run out of space on my BOTM shelf and have to expand to a second one! I love both YA and adult reads, but BOTM's picks were 99% adult books, so I was incredibly excited when BOTM came out with a YA specific subscription! Even more so, I was over the moon to be chosen as a YA BOTM affiliate. 

Just like the regular Book of the Month subscription, BOTM YA allows you to pick a book from a curated list of 5 new release titles each month. If you don't like any of the choices, you can skip that month! You can also add on more books to your box if you would like more than one choice. You can cancel at any time, so it's great if you're not sure about committing long term. And there's always free shipping!

For those already subscribed to BOTM who want to sub to the YA box also, you still can! Just be sure to sign up for the YA version using a different email address than the one you used for the regular BOTM.

If you'd like more information, or want to sign up, you can do so here. As an affiliate, I do get a small commission when you use my link. And this month, you can use the code FLEX when you sign up to get your first book for $9.99! Be sure to follow @yasofthemonth on Instagram for great bookish content. They are also still looking for affiliates, so let me know if you are interested in applying!

Have you ever subbed to BOTM? What are your favorite book subscription services?

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I've been saving this post, even though I read this book weeks ago, because today Stevie Nicks gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the first woman to ever be inducted twice! Keep reading to find out Stevie's ties to this story.

There has been no shortage of hype surrounding this book, so I snatched it right up for my Book of the Month. After reading it, now I know that the hype is real. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid follows this band on their rise to the top in the 1970s, and their break up right as their star has gone as high as it could possibly go. Even though this is technically a historical fiction, it really didn't seem like one to me even though it took place about 40 years ago. If you read my blog regularly, you'll know I'm typically not a fan of historical fiction. But this book? This book I loved.

The band The Six is slowly making a name for themselves, at the same time as the young and beautiful Daisy Jones. When their record label forces them together, no one knows what will happen. Will it be chaos? Will it be magic? Turns out, it's a little of both. It's sex, drugs, and rock and roll all the way for this band.

About halfway through reading this I switched over to the audiobook. As much as I loved the book, I knew that the interview format would be that much better on audio, and I was right. I've seen some comments that the interview format was hard to follow, but I found it very easy to get used to, both written and in audio. I thought it was a very appropriate format for the subject matter.

This book absolutely SCREAMED Fleetwood Mac to me. And if you know me, you know I LOVE Fleetwood Mac. A Stevie Nicks biography was actually the first physical ARC I ever received! Even the voice of Daisy Jones on the audiobook sounds remotely like Stevie Nicks. The Aurora album mirrored Rumors, the Daisy/Billy relationship was absolutely Stevie and Lindsey, and Karen was Christine through and through. There's even a reference to Stevie in the acknowledgements at the end. Therefore, I obviously loved this book. 

I want the Aurora album to be real. I want to blast it on my record player. But even though I will never get to do that, there are lyrics in the back of the book, and a bonus track of Honeycomb (without vocals) on the audio version. There's also a playlist on Spotify inspired by the book, so be sure to check that out! 

This was my first Taylor Jenkins Reid book, and it will absolutely not be my last. I've seen that The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo gives serious Marilyn Monroe vibes, so I think I will pick that one up next.

This book had everything I love in a book: engaging characters, a dramatic storyline, and was realistic as hell. Even though it's only March, I'm convinced this will be one of my favorite books of the year, and I've already decided to collect as many editions of this as possible.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

**Sign up for Book of the Month with my link and we'll both get a free book!**

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I picked this for my January Book of the Month, expecting a really intriguing mystery/thriller. Unfortunately it just wasn't quite what I had hoped. 

In The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, famous painter Alicia Berenson is in a psych hospital after apparently killing her husband. I say apparently because Alicia refuses to speak. She has not uttered a word since her husband was killed, in her defense or otherwise. Now, psychotherapist Theo Faber has made Alicia his personal pet project, hoping to finally get her to speak and learn the truth about what really happened that day.

There was a pretty good twist in this book, but unfortunately it wasn't enough for me to completely save the rating. This book was very dry, and I was more interested in Alicia's interspersed journal entries than the actual plot parts. I thought it ended way too abruptly. I didn't like any of the characters, and didn't really care what the outcome was. 

I've seen a ton of people giving this really high ratings, but this was far from a 5 star thriller in my opinion. It just wasn't very special, and didn't live up to the caliber of some of my other favorite mystery thrillers. I would have given it 2 stars, except I did really enjoy the twist and didn't see it coming.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Disclaimer: Post may contain affiliate links.

Severance by Ling Ma

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I recently resubscribed to Book of the Month, and this was my December pick. Severance by Ling Ma promised plagues and zombies, and a post-apocalyptic New York City. While it did deliver on those promises, it did not deliver in the way that I had hoped.

Candace lives in New York City, and works at a company who outsources the publishing of books. When a major pandemic hits, people are left as shells of their former selves, technically alive but forced to repeat the mundane tasks in their lives over and over again in a zombie state. Candace escapes New York after being found by a group of survivors, and embarks on a journey with them to a promised safe-house facility.

I just could not get behind this story. It was told in alternating chapters of before the plague and after, and I thought most of the before parts were unnecessary and didn't add anything to the story. I thought Candace was boring, and I didn't care what happened to her character. So many of the plot elements didn't make sense with what had been established already, and lots of questions were left unanswered. I also hated the way it ended.

When I saw this was a post-apocalyptic novel with zombies caused by a plague, I was excited, but this story just left me bored. The zombies aren't scary. There are no real high-stakes. It had all the bad parts of The Walking Dead with none of the excitement. I did enjoy the pieces about the NY Ghost blog, and the descriptions of desolate New York were good.

I found myself barely skimming towards the end just to get through it. Maybe there was a deeper meaning here that I just missed. All I know is I wanted an exciting zombie story and did not get it.

Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I was in desperate need of a short, fluffy read, and I thought The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle would be the perfect answer. This was a Book of the Month pick for me a few months back, and the gorgeous yellow cover drew me right to it. Well, fluffy, this coming of age contemporary was not. But I did really enjoy it!

You know the premise. If you could have dinner with any 5 people, living or dead, who would they be? But Sabrina never expects to actually get to have that dinner. Yet on her thirtieth birthday, she walks into the restaurant and there they all are: Audrey Hepburn, her estranged father, her best friend, her favorite college professor, and her ex. Throughout the course of the evening, Sabrina learns and laughs with this unexpected group, as well as reminisces on times both good and bad, and tries to pinpoint what went wrong with the main relationships in her life.

I was not expecting this book to get to my emotions as much as it did. Whether it was the relationship with her estranged father, drifting apart from her best friend, or trying so hard to make a doomed romantic relationship work, I really felt for Sabrina. I saw her grow and mature a lot throughout the dinner, and enjoying seeing how she interacted with and learned from each guest.

This read super quickly, so it was definitely the short read I was looking for. It was just a little more emotional than I was expecting! I liked how it alternated between the dinner scenes themselves (prefaced by times so you knew how much time was left in the night before the group had to disband) and flashbacks to different parts of Sabrina's life.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

As a side note, I think my 5 people would be Walt Disney, Stevie Nicks, Princess Diana, my late grandfather, and Steve Irwin.

Book of the Month Overview

Today I wanted to share with you guys something that I absolutely love, my Book of the Month subscription. I'm sure you've seen in my posts that various books were BOTM picks for different months. Since a lot of people are unfamiliar with this subscription, I wanted to explain it in a little bit more detail! Book of the Month is a monthly book subscription that allows you to either choose one (or more) books from a set of predetermined picks, or skip the month if none of the books interest you. You can pay monthly (which is what I do) or pay for a longer subscription up front, and you can cancel at any time. The subscription covers one book per month, and you can add additional titles for $9.99. Shipping is always free, which is fantastic, and it's super fast as well! 

While the books are primarily adult fiction, they occasionally throw in a YA title, a biography/memoir, or a nonfiction option. They also frequently offer exclusive titles. For example, this month, BOTM was offering three different books that don't release to the public until January. All the books in the monthly offerings are hardcover new releases and have a special BOTM logo on the cover and spine. Sometimes they even include little extras, like luggage tags, wine glass cozies, or stickers, and each book comes with a bookmark.

What I really love about this subscription is that it introduces me to books and authors that I normally wouldn't have picked up on my own. While I do read adult fiction, I tend to gravitate towards the YA section in the bookstore, often missing out on good adult reads. Thanks to BOTM I've read some FANTASTIC adult books this year. I always look forward to the first of the month when I can log in, see the new picks, and make my selection.

Some of my favorite Book of the Month picks have included:

• Final Girls by Riley Sager
• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
• The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

This post is not at all sponsored, I just really wanted to share with you guys a bookish service that I as a reader absolutely love and couldn't live without. I just subscribed to a few more bookish boxes and can't wait to review them here in the new year.

Remember, you can cancel at any time so it's the perfect opportunity to try the service and get a new release cheaper than listing price, with no strings attached! To check out Book of the Month, you can visit their site here (warning, referral link ahead): https://www.mybotm.com/dk7pla8kfjn61or

Happy reading!

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

I've been so into thrillers lately that I had to snag this as my December Book of the Month pick. Just the title and cover alone made this book have the creep factor that I'm always looking for. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor follows Eddie and his friends, both in 1986 and in 2016. As children, the group of friends witnesses a gruesome act that could only be pinned on "The Chalk Man." Now, years later, the group gets a mysterious message, a note and a piece of chalk each, and one of them turns up dead. Is The Chalk Man back and trying to tell them something? Are they in danger? Or were they wrong about everything all along? Now they must figure it out, or another one of them could end up dead.

This book is told in a format alternating from present day to flashbacks by the main character Eddie. One interesting thing about this book is that you think all along that who the murderer is is obvious, until the end that is. The flashbacks were easy to understand, and I liked all the characters, but I still unfortunately had some issues with this book.

First, it really wasn't that THRILLING for a thriller. Normally I can't put these types of books down, but this one just didn't grab me like that. Also, there is an unnecessary dog death in this story, and things like this always turn me off of a book, no matter how good it may be. It was also confusing when it came to who is related to who and why people are suddenly reappearing in Eddie's life. Who the murderer was was not as exciting as I had hoped, although the last few pages blew me away!

I feel bad for not loving this book, really I do, especially since others on Goodreads are just raving about it. But when it comes down to it I think there are much better thrillers out there. Luckily it wasn't too long, so even though I wasn't obsessed with the story I was able to get through it fairly quickly. I think this might be a good read for someone just getting into thrillers who isn't sure about the genre yet, as it is definitely on the milder side in my opinion. You win some, you lose some I guess, so hopefully my next read will hit it out of the park!

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Christmas/Holiday TBR

I can't believe we're already into December and so close to the end of another year! I love this time of year, because it's so cozy and I feel like the rush of regular daily tasks slows down a bit. It's the perfect time of year to curl up in front of a roaring fire and tackle some good reads. I've complied my TBR for the holiday season and wanted to share it with you guys. While there aren't a ton of Christmas-themed books on here, they're all books I'm very excited about.

• My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, edited by Stephanie Perkins: YES I KNOW this book came out forever ago and I still haven't gotten around to it. This time I will, I promise!

• No-one Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day by Tracy Bloom: This was described as similar to Love Actually, so as a huge fan of that movie I'm going to give it a go!

• The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor: This was my Book of the Month pick for December. I'm loving the thriller genre right now so I had to jump right into this one.

• Artemis by Andy Weir: This was last month's BOTM pick but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If it's anything like The Martian I'm going to love it.

• A Simplified Life by Emily Ley: As a planner girl, I love anything by Emily Ley. Going into the new year with a more simplified vision might be just what I need!

I'm sure I'll end up reading more than just these, but this is my starting point. I've already started two of these so I'm not worried about completing this list. What is on your TBR list for the holiday season? 

Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

When this came up as a Book of the Month choice for October, I read the synopsis and immediately knew this would be my pick. Not only did the cover look beautiful, but the plot seemed full of fantasy and wonder, something we all need a little more of in our lives. Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang follows Weylyn Grey, a boy of the wilderness, and those he leaves an impression on throughout his life. These include Mary, a girl who once ran away with him to live with wolves, and Lydia, his foster sister when he was brought back into civilization, in addition to a small-town mayor who hired him to handle a problem plaguing the town, and his supervisor at a logging company who witnessed some very unique characteristics in Weylyn.

Weylyn has never fit in with society. He has always felt more comfortable in the company of animals. Even though he tried to fit in numerous times, he always retreated back to the comfort of nature, whether that be living with a wolf pack, sleeping amongst a colony of bees, or befriending what appears to be a magical horned pig named Merlin. Throughout the story, readers come to discover that Weylyn is more than meets the eye, with some magical abilities that connect with his love of nature, but that could also destroy him and those he loves.

This was a fun, lighthearted read that makes you want to appreciate the beauty and wonder all around you in nature. The characters were easy to identify with, although sometimes the constant flipping back and forth from one point of view to another made it difficult to understand who was talking. I enjoyed the magical elements in the book but at times they just didn't make sense, and a lot of things were left unanswered. It also took longer to get through this book than I would have liked. Overall the story was great, but I think the execution left something to be desired.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips

Cover art courtesy of Goodreads

I chose Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips as my August Book of the Month with high hopes. It follows Joan and her son Lincoln as they get trapped in a zoo at night during a shoot out and have to figure out a way to survive. Hiding in an empty porcupine enclosure, they narrowly avoid the shooters, then later are united with some other lone survivors to await rescue.

Unfortunately, this book left much to be desired. I haven't felt this strongly about a book negatively (that I finished anyway) in a long time. First, it's unrealistic. The son Lincoln is supposed to be 4 years old, but the vocabulary he uses is insane (the kid actually uses the words vile and assassination in sentences). Smart or not, it completely contradicts the immaturity that Lincoln shows throughout the book. Secondly, the main character Joan REALLY bothered me. I'm not sure if she was just stupid or what, but her actions throughout the entire incident were horrible. She yelled at the girl who tried to save her by bringing her into a safe hiding spot. She went to the FULLY ILLUMINATED snack machines to get snacks for her son (who while he has the vocabulary of an SAT student, can't stand being hungry without screaming). The whole time I really disliked both Joan and her son, which is not something you want to feel about the main characters of a book. Third, this entire book only spanned about 3 hours of time, and I think trying to drag this story out into a full length novel was unnecessary. It could have been a great short story or novella, but it spent way too much time on virtually nothing to fill length. And the ending? Totally anticlimactic and SUPER ambiguous with a lot of questions still remaining. 

What I will say about this book was that the writing was great, and the overall idea behind the plot was incredible. I also liked how you got multiple points of view, even though it primarily followed Joan. The cover art for the book was beautiful, even though that doesn't count for much. I think Phillips did a good job addressing a really challenging topic: young boys feeling hurt by the world looking to do some damage as revenge. I imagine writing in the point of view of the shooters for those few sections of the book were incredibly challenging, and even though I was disappointed in this book overall, some of those scenes really made my spine tingle.

You win some, you lose some, and unfortunately this book was a loss for me. It seemed marketed as a thriller but was really more about the mother/son relationship, which left me disappointed. I am still giving it 2.5 stars, because I think some people might really enjoy it, and overall the premise was good.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

Yes. Yes. Yes. This book. I can't.

Aside from it's kickass cover, the story itself was incredible. It follows Quincy, a "final girl" who was the lone survivor of brutal massacre, as she battles with herself and her identity following the incident. Along the way she is connected with two other final girls, Sam and Lisa, but when Lisa turns up dead things start getting weird. Is someone hunting down the final girls? Is Quincy in danger? And what about Sam, this mysterious third final girl who appeared out of nowhere and seems to be turning Quincy against herself? Is Quincy really as malicious as she is now appearing, or is Sam turning her into someone she's not?

The character development in this book was spot on, and the writing was great. Since Riley Sager is a pen name, I would love to know who the actual author is! I loved how Quincy used baking to escape her demons. It's written so that you get occasional flashbacks of the night of the massacre, so you get the same bits and pieces of memory as they come back to Quincy. This was a page turner until the very end. And without spoilers, the ending is DEFINITELY unexpected! So glad I chose this as my July Book of the Month.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars