Book Review: Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar-4 Stars

Having never read anything by Stephen King I was a little worried that this might be too scary or gory, but it’s not! It’s just a little spooky and thrillery.

Gwendy’s Button Box is a short story about a young girl named Gwendy, who, right before school starts, decides she is fed up with fat jokes and wants to get healthy, so she runs the suicide stairs up Castle Rock daily. One day, a man in a black hat invites her to sit and talk with him. Mr. Farris claims Gwendy is the perfect recipient for a button box he has. The box has various colored buttons that correspond with all of the continents, as well as levers, a black button, and a red button. The red button is the only one Gwendy can push multiple times and wish for whatever she desires. The levers dispense a tiny, intricately detailed animal shaped chocolates and Morgan dollars of very high value.

Gwendy notices her life slowly begin to change for the better after acquiring the box. But at what cost? Just how magical and powerful is this box?

For a short story I was still pretty thrilled and entertained. I found myself thinking WTF multiple times but I found the ending lacking and abrupt. Overall, still a pretty decent mind boggling read.

Book Review: The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser-3.5 Stars

Oh, what a gorgeous cover and exciting synopsis! Unfortunately, I was left slightly disappointed.

Amy and her mom (who she calls by her first name, Alexis) leave their home in Germany after some heartache and travel to Scotland where Alexis was raised and her grandmother still lives. Once there, Amy finds out her family comes from a line of book jumpers. They “jump” into books, making sure all is well within the story. They are not allowed to interfere with the plot, they are just there to check on things. I really liked the premise-I mean, how awesome does that sound, to be able to jump into your favorite stories and chat with Shere Khan from The Jungle Book or Peter Pan?!

Not long after Amy arrives on the island it becomes clear bad things are happening in the stories we all love. Main ideas that fuel the stories are being stolen-the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, the flower from The Little Prince, and so on. Amy is determined to travel through the Margins of stories to find the thief.

Unfortunately, this story ended up not exciting me as I was left with a lot of confusion and questions, and a lack of world building.

Book Review: Save the Date (Chicago on Ice #3) by Aven Ellis-5 Stars

Luca is a hockey goalie obsessed with constantly trying to improve his game. Collins is an events planner, and she does a great job, but her heart is in working with horses.

The two hit it off instantly at a mutual friend’s engagement party. After a few dates, it’s obvious they fit together perfectly. Collins tries desperately for Luca to see that he is already great at what he does and shouldn’t devote so much time to training and nothing else. Luca has his mind made up that he will help Collins’ dream of working with horses come true. But between Luca’s unwavering hockey dedication, and Collins’ fear of hurting Luca like she did with her last boyfriend, can the two of them overcome the obstacles and believe their love is real and meant to last?

This book gave me butterflies. Every single one of Aven’s books seems to be a favorite, but honestly, Luca and Collins’ story is in the top spot at the moment! The easy way they joke between each other over Collins’ love of pumpkin spice and seasonal flavored treats, and the fact that Luca loves every single freckle on Collins’ face (that her mom desperately wants her to cover) to the more intimate moments-the heat between these two is enough to melt the ice but the sweet romance just warms your heart.

Save the date for this winning romance-it releases 5/17/17!!

I was gifted a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you Aven!

{Children’s} Book Review: Jesus Loves Me: A Sing-Along Book

This padded board book includes animal illustrations and the text to the song “Jesus Loves Me.” It is cute but I was put off a little by the fact that Jesus is depicted as a moose…I understand that the book features animals but I still think Jesus should be interpreted as human…just my opinion-it was weird! Still a pretty cute sing-along. I received a copy of this book free from BookLookBloggers.

Book Review: The Secrets You Keep by Kate White-4 Stars

Bryn is a successful author who is currently facing writer’s block. She was in a fiery car crash in which the driver died while she survived. She’s struggling mentally, physically, and emotionally, and having terrible nightmares, and can’t seem to work on her next novel. Her husband Guy was great at first after the accident, but now it seems like Bryn is just an annoyance to him. A few days after hosting a catered dinner party, the chef turns up brutally murdered and secrets and confusion abounds. Bryn begins to distrust her husband after another murder occurs in town. Is Guy just becoming bored with playing nurse to the ailing Bryn while she recovers, or is something more sinister going on?
While this didn’t capture my attention like the Bailey Weggins series by the same author, I did enjoy the mystery and was completely surprised at the revelations throughout the novel and especially the ending!

 

Book Review: Little Black Dress by James Patterson (Bookshots)-2 Stars

I thought this was going to be another Bookshots thriller but it was more of an erotic romance that left me a little disappointed.

Jane Avery is a divorced magazine editor whose family and friends constantly try to set her up on dates and she’s just not having it. On a whim, she buys a sexy, expensive, little black dress and she’s suddenly transformed. She’s jumping in to bed with a different stranger every day, picking out the most attractive man from a crowd and enticing him to go to a hotel with her.

It wasn’t a sexy romance, rather, it just seemed kinda sleazy. Meh.

Book Review: The House Husband by James Patterson (Bookshots)-5 Stars

This was crazy! I’m still enjoying these fast paced Bookshots thrillers!

The House Husband starts out with a stay at home dad taking care of his children while his wife works. He loves staying home and taking care of his children and helping out his wife whom he loves dearly.

Homicide detective Teagan Beaumont has just come back to work after  giving birth to her son via c-section. She is still in pain but determined to jump back into her job. Her first day back she’s investigating a familicide- a case where it seems like the husband killed his wife and children and then himself. Something doesn’t fit right to Teagan so she starts researching and finds two other similar cases that happened recently in the area also. Are these really cases of husbands and wives gone mad or is someone trying to make it look that way and murdering all of these families?

With a crazy twist I didn’t see coming, The House Husband kept me hooked the whole time!

{Coloring} Book Review: That’s So ’90s Pop Coloring/Activity Book Review-3 Stars

This was a little disappointing. I love adult coloring books as well as the pop stars from the ’90s so I thought, what could be better than this? Some of the illustrations of the singers are terrible and downright scary looking! It might be fun for children but for a true ’90s pop star lover, it falls flat. There’s pages to color, activities, and facts that make it an interesting premise, but it just didn’t wow me.
I received a copy via Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan-5 Stars

This story was pure perfection. Nina is a librarian whose job has been affected by recent budget cuts. Nina decides to make her dream come true of owning a bookshop, so she ends up buying a huge van and moving to Kirrinfief, Scotland, which works out perfectly as the little town there has no library or bookshops. Nina has a way of sensing the perfect book for each person that comes in to her shop. As Nina adjusts to farm life in the Highlands, welcoming the food, music, and traditions, she begins to create friendships with the locals that can sense her passion with reading and are eager to pick up a book again for themselves.

This is just such a feel good story if you love books, dream about books, cherish books…you will LOVE it. Every single character Nina encountered added so much dimension to the story. There is a little bit of romance in this story which I felt played out marvelously as it didn’t take away from the main plot of Nina running an extremely successful bookshop! Highly recommend for bibliophiles. I can’t say enough positive things about it!