Where to even begin with this review? Many, many people have touted The Serpent King as the book of the year, and I wouldn’t say they’re wrong. This book has received a ton of praise and it is worth every bit of it. To put it plainly, The Serpent King broke my heart.

It’s a beautifully written, emotional roller coaster that I cannot recommend more. I know I recommend books all the time (more often than not), but hear me out. Jeff Zentner took all of my feelings, crushed them, and yet here I am telling you to READ. THIS. BOOK. Do it. You will not regret it.





Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy.

Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.









Life in small town, rural America is not easy by any means, but Dill Early’s life is not one that I envy in any way. I could not imagine growing up with Dill’s parents or his lifestyle. The amount of extreme religion, bordering on fanaticism, that ruled their lives and skewed their judgment was frightening – made even more so by the fact that this type of radicalism is alive and present in the real world. His parents viewed him as a tool; a sinner; something to be used, tread upon.

Luckily he had Lydia and Travis, his two and only friends, to help keep him going. Without them, he probably wouldn’t have made it through his narrow and confined life. Dill is a great person, who has faith in God but believes that his father’s and grandfather’s demons are in his blood and he can’t outrun them. When tragedy strikes their group, he has trouble fighting the darkness that threatens to take him under. The weight of obligation he feels to his parents and this life is dragging him under, and it’s only with his friends that he can see the light.

I loved their little trio. Such a vast and dynamic group that you wouldn’t expect to work so well together, but they just clicked. Lydia is so outgoing with great parents, a wonderful home life, money, and a whole future in front of her. Travis is happy with his small town life and his love of an epic fantasy book series. He doesn’t fit a traditional southern mold, wearing a dragon necklace all the time and carrying around a staff. He doesn’t have a great home life, but he has plans for a better future for himself. Zentner wrote them all in a way that made them real, and raw, and human.

I was angry for Dill, that he didn’t have parents who supported him and who could be so selfish and cruel. It really made me take a step back to think about how lucky I am. While I don’t really see eye to eye with my parents on everything, at least they believe in and support me. I loved Lydia’s parents and I kept thinking, “I hope I’m like them when I have kids. I hope if my kids have friends in that type of situation, I’m that supportive, that understanding.” I wanted to yell at Travis’s dad that he was perfect and to get off his case. I literally had to turn the audiobook off while driving to work one morning because it was making me cry so much that 1. it wasn’t safe, and 2. it was ruining my makeup that I had just applied before I even got to work.

If my ratings scale went above 5 this one would go to 11. I will probably be recommending it to people until forever and will probably buy copies to slip into Little Free Libraries and to lend out.

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?


I listened to the audiobook of Fangirl and I’m glad I did. Rebecca Lowman is a great narrator and she has a way of bringing Rainbow Rowell’s characters to life in a way not many audio narrators can – she also narrator Eleanor and Park and I loved that one too. Okay, back to Cath and Fangirl.

Fangirl is a relatable story for most in that she’s from a dysfunctional family and she doesn’t know how she fits in the world. She has one thing she loves and knows well, Simon Snow, and doesn’t know how to give it up in her transition from childhood/high school into college/adulthood.

Cath is a major introvert. Fangirl explores her freshman year at college, which starts with her not on the greatest terms with her twin sister Wren – who is attending the same college. She’s big into Simon Snow, which is like Harry Potter in their world, but Harry Potter also exists – don’t ask. When I say she’s big into Simon Snow, I mean posters on her wall, commemorative busts on her desk, t-shirts, one of the most popular Simon Snow fan fiction writers out there. She and her sister used to collaborate together but Wren has drifted away from Simon and that world, wanting to “meet new people” and explore her new life. Cath wants the opposite of this. She wants to go to class and hole herself up in her room and talk to no one. She hates the world and basically everyone in it, including her roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend. Cath is witty and smart, but she’s also scared of the world. Through Fangirl you get to see her come out of her shell.

It’s a heartwarming story of a year of heartache, and pain, and growing. Rowell isn’t afraid to write about tough subjects like parents leaving or binge drinking because it’s taboo. It’s real life; it happens. It’s raw and emotional, and I appreciate that about her novels. I liked that Cath wasn’t afraid to say what she wanted, she wasn’t afraid to tell others that she wasn’t okay with something and she wasn’t afraid to stand by her convictions when it came to certain aspects of her life. BUT on the same token, she also knew when to forgive and when to move on.

All in all I have Fangirl 4 out of 5 stars because I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending. It left me with the, “Wait, it’s over? That’s it?!” feeling, and that’s just not okay!

The first installment of an adventure featuring stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who with librarian spies!

Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.









“Don’t be ridiculous…we may collect fiction, but we are not required to imitate the stupider parts of it.”

“…chases through the street, dangerously flamboyant personalities, [and] cyborg alligators” – this perfectly sums up the crazy whirlwind that is The Invisible Library. It truly took me by surprise. I went in expecting one thing, and the opening scene totally threw me for a loop. I was picturing Irene as the maid from The Leaky Cauldron in The Prisoner of Azkaban, then all of a sudden she’s being chased by gargoyles and running for a magic portal into the Library! From there the real story begins in earnest, and you get to see Irene in a whole new light.



The Library lives in this in-between place, between universes/dimensions/realities, that is also impervious to time. When in the library, you don’t age, and no one can be born or die. It’s a very interesting concept really. The Library has those that work for it – from what I gathered they recruit those that have no families; people who wouldn’t be missed. Librarians live long lives in their service, spending their younger years retrieving rare books from alternate worlds for the Library’s collection, and retiring to their research once they’re older (they age while out of the library). For the Library, and its Librarians, books matter above all else. They do not interfere in the worlds themselves.

Irene is unique in that both her parents are Librarians; she was raised with the Library. It’s all she’s ever wanted to be. After returning from her mission from the opening of the novel, she’s immediately assigned a new one, and a new assistant, Kai. Neither of them is prepared for this, or for the state of the alternate they’ve been assigned. Each alternate world is unique; there is magic, fae, werewolves, dragons, and all kinds of fictional and mythical creatures and the like in existence in different places, to varying degrees. In this particular world, chaos has taken hold and there’s a great deal of the supernatural. As the synopsis says, their mission is to retrieve a dangerous book, but by the time they arrive, the book has already been stolen. True to her job and love for the Library, Irene and Kai go undercover to find it and end up on a path that is far more dangerous than she ever dreamed.


As I said before, The Invisible Library took me by surprise. I went in not sure what really to expect and I ended up loving every minute of it. The story took so many twists and turns and was so full of imagination! The idea of multiple dimensions has always intrigued me, and the idea of this Library being at the center of it all it really interesting, but creepy at the same time. The Library has the ability to travel between the alternates, and possibly do real good and help people, but it won’t, all it cares about it its quest for knowledge and keeping itself hidden. I also really appreciate that the dimensions can be so wildly different, not just some are space age and some are like the dark ages, but some have magic and supernatural creatures. It's very steampunk crossed with magic and fantasy, with a good mix of all.


Overall, I give it a 5 out of 5! The writing was clever and on point. Cogman knew how to make me laugh out loud and keep me on the edge of my seat. I was able to guess a few of the twists but some I didn’t see coming at all. I have a few theories for book two, which I can’t wait to see if I’m right about! The great thing about The Invisible Library is that the whole series is already written and was released in the UK, so we won’t have to wait long between releases!

The Invisible Library is available June 14th with The Masked City, book two, scheduled to publish September 6th, and The Burning Page, book three, scheduled to publish on December 6th! How awesome is that?! So mark your calendars and add them to your TBR!

How was May for you? It's been a bit crazy here in Northern California. The weather has gone from mild, to 90 degree days, down to rainy and in the 50's, back to 106 deg by the end of this week. 106.



May was a successful month for me book-wise! I finished 13! Reviews of some are still to come, including Fangirl and The Invisible Library, but overall I'm happy with my numbers. This brings me to 56 books read for the year, well on my way to my initial goal of 100 for the year (and my secret ultimate goal of 120).

1. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine  5/5 🌟
2. Ruins by Dan Wells*  4/5 🌟
3. Rosie by Anne Lamott  2/5 🌟
4. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling* 2/5 🌟
5. The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry by Gabrielle Zevin  5/5 🌟
6. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith*  4/4 🌟
7. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell*  4/4 🌟
8. Ignite the Shadows by Ingrid Seymour 3.5 🌟
9. Lady  Midnight by Cassandra Clare  4/4 🌟
10. A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray* 3/5 🌟
11. Starflight by Melissa Landers  4/4 🌟
12. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews* 5/5 🌟
13. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman  5/5 🌟

*I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review




Sixteen-year-old Marci Guerrero is one of the best teen hackers in Seattle. However, she’d give up all her talents to know she isn’t crazy.

Marci feels possessed by what she perceives as shadowy spectres that take control of her body and make her do crazy things. While spying on the clandestine group known as IgNiTe, she’s confronted by the leader, James McCray. His presence stirs the spectres inside her brain into a maddening frenzy. Her symptoms and ability to control them don’t go unnoticed by James, who soon recruits her and shows her the awful truth.

Half of the world’s population is infected by sentient parasites. They bind themselves to the human brain and replace the pathways for all thoughts and actions. The creatures then morph their hosts into grotesque monsters with extraordinary strengths. Winged, clawed, fanged half-humans become living nightmares. Now Marci wishes she was crazy, because the truth is worse.

She’s infected.


The premise behind Ignite the Shadows is very creepy. I mean, a parasitic race of sentient beings (Eklyptors) that managed to systematically work its way into controlling half the human population, without the rest of us knowing? Anyone could be one and you’d never know. Scary, right? Marci has always known there was something different about her. She’s been battling the shadows in her mind since she was 5 years old, never knowing what they were or if she’d finally succumb to them. When she meets James and the group Ignite the shadows, they finally *shed light* on what’s been plaguing her, and the world, and their fight to bring the Eklyptors down.

I’m a fan of sci-fi/fantasy and the whole concept of Eklyptors really intrigued me. They creeped me out, but intrigued me all the same. Seymour has quite a way of writing scenes that can make my skin crawl! The story is fast paced and full of action, as well as normal teenage life for Marci, well as normal as you can get for a hacker genius whose father is dead, mother is mentally checked out, and twin brother was kidnapped 30 seconds after birth.

I thought the novel was very good but I did have some problems with story. For one, there were several plot lines started and minimally explored. For example, the story line with Marci’s twin brother was really intriguing to me and seemed like it should have played a much bigger part in the book, but only had a minimal part in the story. I have a feeling we’ll see a lot more of him in book two, but I feel as a reader we could have benefitted from more of him in this one as well.

Marci was a strong character and I liked that she wasn’t just ready to take whatever crap this group, or anyone for that matter, was feeding her. She knew they weren’t giving her all the information (which, why weren’t they giving her all the information?), and she was going to protect herself. Of the several side characters, I liked James the most. While I don’t understand why he hid so much from Marci when he wanted, and needed her help, he seems like a good guy that wants to right by the world. I think we’ll find out more about him and why in book two also.


Overall, I give Ignite the Shadows 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s a great starting point for a series and has excellent potential to grow!

Ink and Bone has a really great premise and Rachel Caine delivers the story beautifully.




This is a world where the Library at Alexandria never burned down, but grew to eventually take over and control all the information and knowledge of the world. Personal ownership of books is outlawed and if you're caught with one, it means imprisonment or death. Information is controlled through the use of The Codex and blanks. The Codex is a database of publicly available knowledge and texts, as well as a communication device, and blanks are used to read those volumes. This is a world where teleportation exists, but telephones do no. There's alchemy, steampunk technology, and knowledge matters above all else.

The Brightwell's are a an upstanding London family for all intents and purposes, but in truth deal in the black market of original prints and hard copies of books. Jess Brightwell, is faced with a choice that will decide the rest of his life: test for a placement to become a Scholar for The Great Library, become his father's spy within the Library, or be thrown on the streets. It's not much of a choice really. After Jess tests and is accepted, he goes down the rabbit hole, learning what he can and fighting to keep his place. He makes friends, and enemies, and begins to learn the true nature of the Library. The Library doesn't have peoples' best interests at heart. Their power and control over knowledge is what matters, more than human life; a lesson Jess learns the hard way.





This was a cover buy for me and it did not disappoint!  While I didn't quite understand what was happening in the beginning and it took the first chapter to orient myself, once I did, Ink and Bone sucked me in and there was no turning back. I was reading it any chance I could get just to find out what happened next. This was such a wholly new concept and fresh story, at least to me, that I couldn't get enough. The characters were wonderfully written and developed, just the right amount of romance-but not overdone- to keep me interested, and fantastic world building.

I just couldn't help but love Jess, I mean how could you not? The poor guy has a heartless father, a distant mother, and an aloof twin brother. Then said father forces him to either risk his life and work for the enemy and be a spy OR be disowned, penniless, and thrown on the streets. Thanks dad. The side characters were great too. It had just the right amount of drama and was paced very well. I never felt like the story was dragging.

Did I mention the world building? While it is earth, it's very steampunk with alchemy and strange technology that's not quite magic, and yet the world is still very underdeveloped in many ways. The only means of communication are verbal, through the Codex, or hand written - which is kind of a no-no - transportation is limited to trains, ground vehicles, or animals. With so much knowledge, they were still so limited....

I officially give Ink and Bone 5 stars. I loved it and can't wait for Paper and Fire (July 5)!

*I received a galley of this book from the publisher, but this review and opinions are entirely my own

Your best friend is possessed and no one believes you, what do you do?

Early thoughts: Wow, just wow. Major creep factor? Check. Awesome 80's references? Check. Gave me nightmares? Check - just once, but still. My Best Friend's Exorcism really sucked me in and I continually found myself wanting to pick it back up every time I had to put it down to find out what happened to Abby and Gretchen.




“Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act…different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?”








I really liked the way Hendrix set up this story. It focuses on Abby and how she deals with the fact that her best friend, Gretchen, changes before her eyes, becomes a completely different person, turns on her, and yet she doesn’t give up on her or their friendship. She knows something’s wrong, knows Gretchen wouldn’t act this way, and looks for help in all the places you’re told to when you’re 16: parents, teachers, the principal. What does she get for it? Blame, threats, and slander. Abby is put through the ringer trying to help Gretchen, yet she doesn’t give up. Abby and Gretchen have that unbreakable bond that seems to only form between the young, that can seemingly withstand life and everything it throws at them, but Gretchen being possessed really pushes it to the limits.

The possession itself plays second fiddle to Abby and her part in helping Gretchen overcome. It wasn’t the main focus of the story, which I liked. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still major, and messed up, and creepy as hell, but it’s more subdued seeing it through Abby’s eyes. I appreciated this, to me it helped make the story seem more believable in a way. Not to mention all of the 80’s references! The music, trapper keepers, scrunchies, big hair-sprayed hair, E.T, the works. Hendrix did a great job immersing the reader. I really felt the injustice of Abby's treatment and I wanted to slap someone on her behalf.



If you’re enjoy cult classics, the 80’s, suspense, the supernatural, or just a great story, you should add this to your TBR list. You can pick up your own copy on May 17!