book reviews – Cosmic Lattes and Books

September Wrap-up

September was a wild and crazy month. Between work and school I didn’t have much time to read, but these are all the books I read. I finished Wanderers on the first of October, but I’m including it here since I read the majority of it in September.

What have you been reading this month? Are you staying safe and healthy? I hope that you and your loved ones are safe.

That being said, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stay HOME. Stay home and quarantine. When you go out, wear a mask. Don’t leave for things that aren’t necessities. Wash your hands and think of others.

I’m going to include the bit that I posted in my wrap up last month here with links included:

As crazy as the world has been, I hope that everyone knows how much their lives matter. With that being said, all lives will not matter until black lives matter. I was incredibly saddened by the murder of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor that occurred what feels like many months ago. That doesn’t change how important it is for them to get justice. Breonna Taylor still have not gotten justice. Her killers, Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove are still free and she has not seen justice. If you haven’t please sign the petitions here:

Petition for George Floyd
Petition for Breonna Taylor
Petition for Tony McDade
Petition for Ahmuad Arbery
Petition to Stop the use of rubber bullets (Graphic Content Warning for the image associated with this petition.)
Defund the Police Petition
Life Sentence for Police Brutality
Hands Up Act
More Petitions

Find ways to speak up about senseless violence, racism and police brutality in your communities, and in your social networks. Don’t let this pass us by with nothing changing. This has gone on for long enough. I hope for the safety of all the protesters and activists who are on the front lines. Use your voices to make a change. If you can, there are ways that you can help monetarily, but obviously this is not something that everyone can do, but if you are able, I have included links to many different organizations and the GoFundMe for the families of three of the victims below. (I couldn’t find one for Tony McDade).

GoFundMe for George’s Family || GoFundMe for Breonna (and Legal Representation) || GoFundMe for Ahmaud || Minnesota Freedom Fund (Helps pay for bail for those who cannot afford it) || ACLU || The Bail Project || To The Protestors || Black Owned Businesses || Organizations || To the Victims || Other Ways to Help

Want to donate, but can’t afford to? Watch the video linked here. Watch the ads, as the ad revenue will be donated to Black Lives Matter, and many other charities who are helping Black people and helping protesters.

Like I said, not everyone can donate, and not everyone is in a position to protest, especially given the fact we are in the middle of a pandemic, but please know that there are many things you can do to help. I am using my platform here to talk about it. If you can do nothing else, talk about it, and vote for politicians who abhor police brutality and violence. Stand up against racism when you see it. Don’t let this be something that continues past out generation. That being said:

Have a wonderful day, stay safe and healthy,

~Cam

Mini Reviews: ARCs #1

***All of these books were provided to me through Netgalley for free in exchange for a review. I want to thank Netgalley and the authors for this opportunity.***

1. DRAGONFLY MAID- D.D. CROIX

The e-book to this had some formatting issues that made reading it difficult. There were sentences that were repeated (I think due to the formatting). This is nothing against the book itself, as this is a review copy.

D.D. Croix makes you care about the characters and makes you rather invested in what happens to them. The characters all have their own voices and are complex. Jane can be too trusting at times, but overall, I enjoyed reading from her perspective.

The world feels real, and Victorian England has always interested me.

That being said, I don’t feel like the action in the book takes place until I had gotten about 60% into the book. Once the pace of the book picked up though I felt like it progressed nicely. I plan on reading more books in this series.

I want to thank Net Galley for allowing me to review this book!

Places to Buy: Amazon

2. THIS ETERNITY OF MASKS AND SHADOWS- KARSTEN KNIGHT

Representation: Queer characters, Inuit characters (I’m not sure about how valid the representation is, so you may want to check out Inuit reviewers)

This was an interesting read.

Gods and goddesses walk the Earth, reincarnated every few hundred years. This book follows Cairn, the daughter of Sedna, Inuit goddess of the Sea.

The story follows her as she is trying to discover what, or who killed her mother. She discovers that her mother went on a voyage that ended in unspeakable tragedy and that every member that went on that voyage, one by one, is dying. Cairn with the help of Detective Nanook, Inuit Master of Polar Bears, they try to find who, or what is killing off Gods and Goddesses.

When I first started this, I was worried that it would not keep my attention, but boy was I wrong. This book is a wonderful blend of myth, superhero tale, and urban fantasy. The world here is so similar to our own but the world-building here was amazing.

The characters were all varied and complex and the villain didn’t seem like a caricature either. I would highly recommend this!

Also, there is LGBT rep, and I loved the main couple. The casually queer relationship was so wonderful to read about. It didn’t overtake the story, it just…existed. It wasn’t a main plot point, it was just a part of the characters and who they were. I loved the way that it was done. It wasn’t a struggle to overcome or anything. It was widely accepted and wasn’t questioned.

Places to Buy: Amazon

3. SPRING GIRLS- KAREN KATCHUR

Another Spring. Another Dead Girl.

This was a thrilling read that followed Detectives Geena and Parker as they attempt to find the serial killer that has been terrorizing their hometown. Every Spring a new body is found in a nearby lake. The killer has come to be known as the Spring Strangler, and his victims? Spring Girls.

This is the third book in the Northampton County mystery series, but it can be read as a stand-alone.

While we get the point of view from the detectives, we also get the point of view from Janey Montgomery, the first victim. The one who survived. The characters were interesting to read from the perspective of. I liked the main characters, which were mainly Geena and Janey. I liked how they interacted together and I liked how Janey handled herself. She was very obviously a victim of a horrific crime and she acted in a way that a victim would act. By the end of the book she was much stronger and was more sure of herself and she had a lot of character growth.

Overall, I enjoyed this. It was certainly thrilling and took some very unexpected twists and turns. The plot kept me engaged and had me on the edge of my seat. It kept me guessing and led to places that I didn’t expect it to.

The conclusion was good and it didn’t pull any punches. Neither was it totally out of left lane. It was like being in a Criminal Minds episode and I would highly recommend it.

Places to Buy: Amazon

4. ODESSA- JONATHAN HILL

A story about 3 siblings, Virginia, Wes and Harry as they traverse a post apocalyptic United States. Eight years ago, a major earthquake destroyed much of the Western U.S. But, for Vietnamese-American, Virginia Crane, her life changed shortly after the earthquake, when her mother left the family and never returned.

This story follows the siblings years later while they go in search of their mother and meet many other characters along the way.

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I expected it to be…more. The bad guys didn’t have any real reason to be bad other than the fact that they just were? Their motivations felt a little non-existent to me. There was more action at the end of the novel, so the rest felt slow moving.

The relationships in here felt like true sibling relationships. They bickered and fought just like siblings do, and they also had some heartwarming moments, which I appreciated.

The art style was okay? It wasn’t for me, but it definitely fits with the narrative of the story and the rough nature of the world that the story takes place in.

It looks like this might be the first book in a series, so there was definitely a lot of set up that is going to lead up to future plot lines. I would be interested to see where this goes.

This book is going to be released November 10th! Pre-order below!

Places to Buy: Amazon

5. THE HOUSE OF STYX- DEREK KÜNSKEN

Representation: Queer, Trans, Autistic characters

This book was… not for me. Don’t get me wrong, the idea was soooo interesting, but this book could have been 300 pages shorter. It went in LABORIOUS amounts of detail in describing the different things about living on Venus.

The characters were interesting to read about and varied. You really felt for them and wanted them to succeed. A lot of that was hidden behind the fact that I didn’t want to keep reading the long winded text that could have been simplified. That being said, I appreciated that there were some very diverse characters, along with some neuro-divergent characters.

The plot was good, I really wanted the d’Aquillon family to prevail over the “enemy” of the story, but I felt like this was -A LOT- of build up for following stories and I had a lot of periods of being kind of bored throughout reading. That being said, just because I didn’t love this one does not mean that others won’t! If you like family sagas with lots of science and details, you’ll love this one!

This book comes out August 20th! Pre-order below!

Places to Buy: Amazon

These are just some of the ARCs that I’ve had the pleasure of reading over the last few weeks! What are some anticipated reads for you for the months of August and September?

~Cam

June Wrap-up

June has been….busy to say the least. I finished a class that was keeping me crazy busy, so I had a lot of time to read at the end of the month! I’ll have so much more time to read in July and I’m excited for some of the books that I have in mind for July! 🙂

I started The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms at the very end of the month, so I do not have a rating or review for it quite yet, but I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be a 5 star book. All of the other books that have reviews are linked below. You can click the links provided to read them if you want more of my thoughts!

Between The World and Me- Ta-Nehisi Coates

Inkheart- Cornelia Funke
Read my review here!

In the Woods- Tana French
Read my review here!

Guild of Tokens- Jon Auerbach
See my Book Tour Stop post here!

A People’s History of the United States- Howard Zinn

Currently reading this!

Dragonfly Maid- D.D. Croix
Review to come!

Paragon- Shauna Alderson
Look at my book tour post here!

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms- N.K. Jemisin
Review to come!

Forest of Souls- Lori M. Lee
Check out my review here!

What have you been reading this month? Are you staying safe and healthy? I hope that you and your loved ones are safe.

I’m going to include the bit that I posted in my wrap up last month here with links included:

As crazy as the world has been, I hope that everyone knows how much their lives matter. With that being said, all lives will not matter until black lives matter. I was incredibly saddened by the murder of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor that occurred over the last month or so. If you haven’t please sign the petitions here:

Petition for George Floyd
Petition for Breonna Taylor
Petition for Tony McDade
Petition for Ahmuad Arbery
Petition to Stop the use of rubber bullets (Graphic Content Warning for the image associated with this petition.)
Defund the Police Petition
Life Sentence for Police Brutality
Hands Up Act
More Petitions

Have a wonderful day, stay safe and healthy,

~Cam

December Wrap-up

Read my review here.

Read my review here.

Read my review here.

Read my review here.

Read my review here.

I read this recently, there will be a review upcoming shortly (most likely at the end of December, or start of January.

I only started reading this at the end of the month and did not get the chance to finish it. I will be posting a review for this in January!

A Last note

Wow! I cannot believe that December, and the year of 2019 is over! I got a lot of reading done, including some of my new favorites this month, and this year was a really productive reading year! I read 6 books in their entirety and started a 7th in the month of December, and I read 40 total books! I’m actually quite happy with that number, but I plan to read much more next year. Look out for “bookish and not so bookish” goals post soon! I hope that everyone else had an extremely productive reading month, and year and I hope that next year is even better. What are some of the books that you read in December? Which one was your favorite ? What about your least favorite? What about the books that you read in 2019? The same questions about favorite and least favorite apply. I will also be posting a “Favorites of the Year” that should be posted later today. I’ve had a tough time finding the time to write and post things in a timely manner with the holidays etc.

I’m hoping to change that in 2020, but time will tell. Anyways, that’s it for me! Happy New Year, from me to you! ❤

~Cam