🌟 Hi bookish family! I hope you’re having the most wonderful day & a GREAT weekend, today I’m more than happy to bring you a double review of my most recent readings.❤️ I love and it’s a pleasure to be able to bring you a double review of two ARCs that I’ve read recently, but in addition to sharing my opinion you know that it’s always a pleasure to meet yours, so don’t hesitate to let me know everything in the comments, not only what you think about these books in particular, but also tell me a little about what you’ll be reading this week, it’s always fun to know. 😊
So, as I said, this time I bring you two ARCs from 2021, that I read during the month of March, both books have been provided to me by publishers via NetGalley so I’m super grateful. 🥰 One of these books is a teen drama full of vampires and supernatural creatures 🧛& on the other hand, we have a story with elements of sci-fi, but also focused on the contemporary side that gives us a new perspective on ambition and human consciousness. 📽 
One of them a unique idea with a solid execution although kind of precipitated & the other a story that could be defined as crazy and funny, but at the same time, it’s everywhere without a clear path to follow.
I’m very excited to tell you EVERYTHING about these books! So without further ado, make yourself comfortable, prepare your favorite drink & let’s get started! 🌟

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Black Mirror meets My So-Called Life in this fast-paced, timely YA thriller about separating fact from fiction–and how far we’ll go to create our own version of reality.

Like any other teenager, Jess Flynn is just trying to get through her junior year without drama … but drama seems to keep finding her. Between a new crush on her childhood best friend, overprotective parents cramping her social life, and her younger sister’s worsening health, the only constant is change–and her hometown of Swickley, which feels smaller by the day.

Swickley is getting weirder by the day, too. Half the population has been struck down by a mysterious flu. Conversations end awkwardly when Jess enters the room. And then one day, a tiny, sleek black device–with an apple logo on it–falls out of her best friend’s backpack and lands at Jess’s feet. 

| Goodreads |

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I want to thank NetGalley & Quirk Books for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is extremely smart and I really enjoy many factors in it, which makes me happy because I adore the author and her past works. Maybe I haven’t managed to connect 100% with what was happening due to the fast-paced of the story, and the amount of information that’s given very early, but still I think it’s a great book that’s built on a very solid base and well thought out idea, so I liked it a lot, the idea is very good and interesting to explore.

In this book, we follow Jess Flynn an ordinary girl who’s trying to get through her senior year without too many complications, but drama seems to get to her anyway no matter what she does & one day Jess sees a strange device fall out of the backpack of a friend, and that arouses many suspicions in her about her life and the people around her.

I don’t want to give too much information about the book since I think that discovering it is the magic of this story, so I would recommend that you enter it knowing as little as possible, I’ll also try to be kind of vague with my review so as not to ruin anything for you. I think one of the strengths of this story is the base idea and the revelations, it’s a concept that has been used in movies before but, I’ve never read it in a book, so I loved having this new side of the story. I also love the construction of characters, I think that even though I don’t have a super favorite, they’re generally quite good and have marked personalities which is interesting.

On the other hand, I have a conflict with the fact that it’s a book that gives too much info to the reader and in this type of stories where the surprise factor is everything, I don’t know if it is something very beneficial, in my opinion, it is more fun to go discover everything little by little and create that atmosphere of mystery and then give all the information, but the author has chosen another way to tell her story and it’s valid as well. The fact that the information is given so deliberately and so quickly also affects a bit the weight and impact of the reveals, which are great in themselves, and I liked them, they just come with less force when you already know what to expect. In my opinion, it’s more fun when you don’t expect what’s coming, you know?

I was expecting something more sci-fi, and I found a highly contemporary story, which isn’t a problem at all, but I think it’s important to clarify it in case it’s something more sci-fi what you’re looking for. Anyway, it obviously has a dystopian or fantastical factor, due to the main theme.

I liked and I also appreciate the work that’s put into the construction of the setting not only in the town itself where we began to meet the characters, but also in the world itself, we’re talking about a super particular situation that surrounds Jess’s life so each character forms a super important role as well as the society and obviously each one of the places, so I loved that the author took her time to build all this atmosphere that surrounds the main story.

I wanted to mention that I don’t think this book is well classified when referring to it as a thriller, it may be many things even mystery but it’s definitely not a thriller, and I wanted to make that clear. I would like there to be a second book, in fact, I think there will be, because there are many things that were left unexplained and others that were touched in a very superficial way, of which it would be amazing to have a greater depth and learn more.

In summary, although I expected a darker point of view on the plot itself and especially a slower-paced, I enjoyed it anyway, I think it’s wonderful to give life to such an intriguing entertaining story, the characters are very good, the revelations don’t disappoint either and makes you question many things about the human being and how far we are able to go for money or for fame, there’s a great discussion about morals in the book and at one point you find yourself judging the whole world, but at the same time that’s the captivating thing about this book, that we’ll all have different opinions and exploring the human being in these ways is extremely cool for me. From a psychological point of view this book is brilliant as well as its plot base, I would highly recommend it. 

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3.5/5

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 The bestselling author of the Dead Is… series is back with a snarky, hilarious take on the vampire romance novel.

When my best friend Skyler told me about this party in the Hollywood Hills, I was less than enthused. As it turned out, my feelings were more than justified. That party ruined my life.

Tansy didn’t even want to go to the party. It’s hard enough living in one of your best friend’s shadows and secretly in love with your other best friend.

And now she’s leaving it a vampire.

Now her best friend Skyler is stuck on the road trip from hell, on tour as a groupie with a literal band of vamps. Tansy sets out with Vaughn, her other BFF turned maybe more, to save Skylar’s life and take down the band. But when they find themselves in the middle of a vampire war, will Tansy be able to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends?

| Goodreads |

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I want to thank NetGalley & Entangled: Teen for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly, this book wasn’t made for me, I was able to enjoy some scenes that made me laugh and I can also say that the positive thing about this book is that at least it kept my interest in knowing what would happen, even so, there’s not much else to highlight. The plot itself is about vampires, there are a bit of boyish bands, travel and friendship too, it has a very old-school style in terms of structure and plot, which can be a fun factor, just didn’t resonate with me this time, plus it didn’t help the fact that it’s pretty cliche. I felt everything quite flat, there are scenes that are absurd that come out of nowhere to keep the plot moving, the characters aren’t strong enough to be highlighted and sadly I don’t have much to say about the descriptions or the setting since there’s not much development there.

The book basically follows Tansy as she tries to save her friend Skyler from a gang of vampires while trying to discover the meaning of her feelings for her other best friend Vaughn. From here they’ll find themselves in impossible situations surrounded by dangers and challenges which will push Tansy to make a decision as the last sacrifice to save the lives of her friends.

I think this book ended up being too childlike for me, I don’t mean that I don’t enjoy books with this youthful vibe where anything can happen as long as the plot continues to move, but in this case, it didn’t work for me. I think the idea itself is fun, and I was super excited to read it just because there would be vampires and that’s always an entertaining factor for me, and while I did enjoy that particular point, I think the execution itself and the way in which the author has handled the development of it is something disastrous at times, I don’t want to sound mean, but I really think there were many ways to take the story down an interesting path and this hasn’t been my favorite. There are a lot of good ideas in the book, but I don’t know, it just felt too carefree to be 100% interested in what was going on.

There’s a very great lack of descriptions and this makes it difficult to locate within the story in time and space, this is not always something that personally requires to enjoy a plot, but here I do think it would have been a great touch that would probably have done a lot more for the plot. On the other hand, we also have the development of the characters, and this is probably what I liked the least about the book, the characters themselves aren’t remarkable nor do they really have anything that makes them special to me , plus many attitudes, especially from Tansy, are silly, and it’s okay, I understand that the characters must go wrong to carry out and grow at some point, but OMG, she was desperate for me, I don’t like this character and I feel like she has had too many opportunities within the story to re-vindicate herself and she hasn’t known how to take advantage of them.

I had high hopes that the book would improve in quality towards the end and at some point, I almost thought it would, but it didn’t, and it fell again to end in an unsatisfactory way for me. I think one of my biggest problems with the book is that it doesn’t follow a clear line when telling the story, it’s like random things happen all of a sudden to make it more “exciting” I guess. I can’t deny that it has a lot of twists and turns and revelations, which makes it feel a bit more interesting when reading, but even so, a book doesn’t stand up on revelations alone, so after the surprise and the initial shock again falls into being even a little repetitive and cliche at times. Although I must admit that romance hasn’t been one of the worst I’ve read, it has adorable moments, which is good.

In some way, I can see the author wants this story to be sexy and funny something like True Blood but more youthful(? Or something like that, so maybe this crazy and reckless factor that characterizes it is here on purpose and is the style the author wants to give to the book, in that case, I can see other readers enjoying it without problems, perhaps I’m not simply the target for it, since a certain part of me expected a greater development of the plot, more explanations in general, and above all a seriousness that’s lost as you progress through the reading.

I’ll not judge the author based on only one of her works, nor it’s my intention to speak badly of her style, I believe that each writer has a unique imprint that will always work wonderfully for some readers more than for others, so I would probably be willing to give her a second chance maybe with another type of genre.

This book isn’t for me, and that’s clear, but even so, I think it could work if you’re looking for something light to read, it may be the absurdity of its plot and the crazy actions of the characters, as well as the youthfulness of their dialogues and paranormal factors works for you at the end. Obviously, I cannot recommend it as fervently as I usually do, since it hasn’t been a book that I enjoy with that intensity, but even so, this is just my opinion and I hope it doesn’t stop you from trying it if you feel like it. It’s clear that I was looking for a much more serious, intense, and action plot, so this book really fell short in those aspects. I still think, from my humble opinion, that it could be an interesting plot with a little more work.

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2/5

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