Sophie Reads YA

Review: The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes #3) by Brittany Cavallaro

10:00

The Case for Jamie
Series: Charlotte Holmes #3
Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Published March 6th 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books

Goodreads Synopsis
The hotly anticipated and explosive third book in the New York Times bestselling Charlotte Holmes series.

It’s been a year since the shocking death of August Moriarty, and Jamie and Charlotte haven’t spoken.

Jamie is going through the motions at Sherringford, trying to finish his senior year without incident, with a nice girlfriend he can’t seem to fall for.

Charlotte is on the run, from Lucien Moriarty and from her own mistakes. No one has seen her since that fateful night on the lawn in Sussex—and Charlotte wants it that way. She knows she isn’t safe to be around. She knows her Watson can’t forgive her.

Holmes and Watson may not be looking to reconcile, but when strange things start happening, it’s clear that someone wants the team back together. Someone who has been quietly observing them both. Making plans. Biding their time.

Someone who wants to see one of them suffer and the other one dead.
Goodreads

Review
I have loved each instalment of this series, and The Case for Jamie was no different. After August's death in the previous book, Charlotte is on the run, and Jamie is trying to come to terms with his role in it, and get back to 'normality'. Being at Sherringford without Charlotte is weird, and and his new girlfriend is nice, but something is missing. When things start going wrong, again - because, let's face it, with these two, something was bound to happen - they reunite, and have to work together once more, or else.

I love Charlotte so much, and especially how she is so real in all of these books. She has suffered so much in her young life, from PTSD, to eating disorders, to sexual abuse, and none of that is glossed over. She wants to be better, for Jamie, but for herself too, and in this book I definitely saw that beginning to happen. Jamie too, has not escaped the mental anguish, and being away from Charlotte allowed him time to refocus and reassess his life choices, and whether normality of school was what he wanted or not (spoiler, it's not).

The plot wasn't as nuanced in previous books, but I did still enjoy it, and some of the twists and turns were ones I wasn't expecting. I've really happy that there will be a fourth book, and hope Jamie and Charlotte's relationship is explored more.

Dates Read:

March 18-26, 2018

Rating
4 Stars

Hafsah Faizal

Waiting on Wednesday: We Hunt the Flame (We Hunt the Flame #1) by Hafsah Faizal

10:00

2018 Debut Author Challenge

ARC Review: Everless (Everless #1) by Sara Holland

10:00

Everless
Series: Everless #1
Author: Sara Holland
Published January 4th 2018 by Orchard Books

Goodreads Synopsis
Time is a prison. She is the key. Packed with danger, temptation and desire - a perfect read for fans of The Red Queen.

In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything - even time. Ever since the age of alchemy and sorcery, hours, days and years have been extracted from blood and bound to iron coins. The rich live for centuries; the poor bleed themselves dry.

Jules and her father are behind on their rent and low on hours. To stop him from draining himself to clear their debts, Jules takes a job at Everless, the grand estate of the cruel Gerling family.

There, Jules encounters danger and temptation in the guise of the Gerling heir, Roan, who is soon to be married. But the web of secrets at Everless stretches beyond her desire, and the truths Jules must uncover will change her life for ever ... and possibly the future of time itself.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

This book was a debut that I'd heard a lot about, and when I was approved for an ARC, I dove right in. Everless is the story Jules, who has had to go on the run with her father from the palace of Everless, after saving the life of prince Roan. After struggling for so long to earn time - as time is a currency in this world - Jules agrees to take a job at the palace, hoping that the Gerling family don't remember her from her youth, in order to save her father from sacrificing himself. Roan is getting married to the daughter of the queen, Ina, and Jules is hired to help work the wedding. When Jules is chosen to be the queen's handmaiden, she soon finds herself at risk of being discovered, especially once she discovers her true identity. As she works to remember her true childhood, and not what she's been told, Jules realises that no one is quite how they appear, and she must learn who she can trust.

I really enjoyed the world building and premise of this book. Jules character was a bit weak at first, but as she started to come into her own, and really discover herself, I found myself enjoying her, and the story, a lot more. There were a lot of twists and turns in the book, some I saw a mile off, and others which I didn't realise until the very end. I am looking forward to book 2, Evermore, which I have preordered, so here's hoping that will be a good one!

Dates Read:

January 3, 2018

Rating
5 Stars

May

Stacking the Shelves: May 4th 2019

10:00

5 Stars

Review: The Traitor's Ruin (The Traitor's Circle #2) by Erin Beaty

10:00

The Traitor's Ruin
Series: The Traitor's Circle #2
Author: Erin Beaty
Published July 10th 2018 by Imprint

Goodreads Synopsis
After proving her worth in book one as a deft spy and strategic matchmaker, Sage Fowler is now comfortably positioned in high society as the royal tutor. When she’s called upon to teach his majesty’s soldiers how to read and write, she jumps at the chance to serve her kingdom of Demora—and to be reunited with her fiancé, Captain Alex Quinn.

During a skirmish, Sage and Alex are separated. She watches him die before he can deliver important military intel—or so she thinks. She escapes from the enemy and makes an unlikely alliance with a mysterious soldier from a third nation. As Sage tries to rally their support against a common foe, the important political alliance is plagued by secrets and betrayal.

Can Sage complete Alex’s mission and save her kingdom once more?
Goodreads

Review
This book, this series, is just perfection, and I will scream it from the rooftops that everyone and their gran needs to get a copy and read it ASAP! As you'll be able to see, I read this book in less than a day, and that's no mean feat - it's just so unputdownable, that I could stop for anything!

Picking up after the trauma of book 1, Alex and Sage are both in love, but struggling with their demons. Alex blames himself for his brother, Charlie's, death, and Sage feels the guilt of 'failing' in her role. However, they both have important jobs to do - with Alex being promoted to Major of his own unit - a unit of the elite Norsari soldiers, trained for desert combat to defeat their enemy, the Kimisara; and Sage now the royal tutor to the prince and princesses. With very little time to be together, and the whole rule on military men not marrying before 24, any moment they can be together, they jump at the chance. Once Alex is given his command, and is told he will have to train in the desert, with Prince Nicholas in tow, Sage plots to steal away and join them. When she's discovered, because let's face it, it was bound to happen, Alex is conflicted, as he thinks that with her being there, he'll be more likely to do something rash, which could lead to people suffering, or dying, as in book 1.

However, the mission is a lot more dangerous than they might've first thought, and when a group of rogue Kimisar attack the camp, Sage and Nicholas barely escape with their lives, also thinking that Alex has died in the escape. They arrive in Casmun, and are treated like royalty by the king, and his sister, Princess Lani. While there, they help to uncover a plot to restart the war, and help the Casmuni people overthrow those in the government who are plotting against them, and against Demora. It all culminates with Alex and the Norsari being reunited with Sage, and they and the Casmuni battling the Kimisar, leading to some deaths and major injuries. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, which I hated as I had to wait so long for book 3.

The romance in this book, even though Alex and Sage were separated for a lot of it - not by choice - is phenomenal, and these two are my ultimate OTP. But this isn't a romance book, no, it's so much more than that. We have true political and historical worldbuilding, complete with intrigue and fighting, and I found myself sometimes believing it all to be real, that's how well written and researched it is. There are no plot holes anywhere, everything is done for a reason, and the diverse cast of characters, all individual with their own backstories are developed further from book 1, with the introduction of a new bunch of characters, whom I love too - especially princess Lani.

Really, I'm not joking when I say everyone needs to read this book, and the series. Go get a copy, if you haven't already!

Dates Read:

July 9, 2018

Rating
5 Stars

Her Royal Highness

Waiting on Wednesday: Her Royal Highness (Royals #2) by Rachel Hawkins

10:00

books on my radar

May books on my radar

10:00

Lady Smoke
Series: Ash Princess Trilogy #2
Author: Laura Sebastian
May 2nd 2019 by Macmillan Children's Books
The sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller that was "made for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Sabaa Tahir" ( Bustle ), Lady Smoke is an epic new fantasy about a throne cruelly stolen and a girl who must fight to take it back for her people.
The Kaiser murdered Theodosia's mother, the Fire Queen, when Theo was only six. He took Theo's country and kept her prisoner, crowning her Ash Princess--a pet to toy with and humiliate for ten long years. That era has ended. The Kaiser thought his prisoner weak and defenseless. He didn't realize that a sharp mind is the deadliest weapon.
Theo no longer wears a crown of ashes. She has taken back her rightful title, and a hostage--Prinz Soren. But her people remain enslaved under the Kaiser's rule, and now she is thousands of miles away from them and her throne.
To get them back, she will need an army. Only, securing an army means she must trust her aunt, the dreaded pirate Dragonsbane. And according to Dragonsbane, an army can only be produced if Theo takes a husband. Something an Astrean Queen has never done.
Theo knows that freedom comes at a price, but she is determined to find a way to save her country without losing herself.
Goodreads

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Series: None
Author: Holly Jackson
May 2nd 2019 by Electric Monkey

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. Almost everyone. Having grown up in the small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Amobi chooses the case as the topic for her final project. But when Pip starts uncovering secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden, what starts out as a project begins to become Pip’s dangerous reality . . .

Goodreads

Somewhere Only We Know
Series: None
Author: Maurene Goo
May 7th 2019 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
10 00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she's just performed her hit song "Heartbeat" in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She's about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She's in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger.
11 00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She's very cute. He's maybe curious.
12:00 a.m.: Nothing will ever be the same.
Goodreads

The Lovely and the Lost
Series: None
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
May 7th 2019 by Freeform
Kira Bennett’s earliest memories are of living alone and wild in the woods. She has no idea how long she was on her own or what she had to do to survive, but she remembers the moment that Cady Bennett and one of her search-and-rescue dogs found her perfectly. Adopted into the Bennett family, Kira still struggles with human interaction years later, but she excels at the family business: search-and-rescue. Along with Cady’s son, Jude, and their neighbor, Free, Kira works alongside Cady to train the world’s most elite search-and-rescue dogs. Someday, all three teenagers hope to put their skills to use, finding the lost and bringing them home.
But when Cady’s estranged father, the enigmatic Bales Bennett, tracks his daughter down and asks for her help in locating a missing child—one of several visitors who has disappeared in the Sierra Glades National Park in the past twelve months—the teens find themselves on the frontlines sooner than they could have ever expected. As the search through 750,000 acres of unbridled wilderness intensifies, Kira becomes obsessed with finding the missing child. She knows all too well what it’s like to be lost in the wilderness, fighting for survival, alone.
But this case isn’t simple. There is more afoot than a single, missing girl, and Kira’s memories threaten to overwhelm her at every turn. As the danger mounts and long-held family secrets come to light, Kira is forced to question everything she thought she knew about her adopted family, her true nature, and her past.
Goodreads

Aurora Rising
Series: The Aurora Cycle #1
Author: Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman
May 7th 2019 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

From the internationally bestselling authors of THE ILLUMINAE FILES comes an epic new science fiction adventure.
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…
A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering
And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.
They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

Goodreads

Romanov
Series: None
Author: Nadine Brandes
May 7th 2019 by Thomas Nelson
The history books say I died.
They don’t know the half of it.
Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.
Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .
That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.
Goodreads

Her Royal Highness
Series: Royals #2
Author: Rachel Hawkins
May 7th 2019 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Regal romance abounds in this flirty, laugh-out-loud companion novel Royals, by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins.
Millie Quint is devastated when she discovers that her sort-of-best friend/sort-of-girlfriend has been kissing someone else. And because Millie cannot stand the thought of confronting her ex every day, she decides to apply for scholarships to boarding schools . . . the farther from Houston the better.
Millie can't believe her luck when she's accepted into one of the world's most exclusive schools, located in the rolling highlands of Scotland. Everything about Scotland is different: the country is misty and green; the school is gorgeous, and the students think Americans are cute.
The only problem: Mille's roommate Flora is a total princess.
She's also an actual princess. Of Scotland.
At first, the girls can barely stand each other--Flora is both high-class and high-key--but before Millie knows it, she has another sort-of-best-friend/sort-of-girlfriend. Even though Princess Flora could be a new chapter in her love life, Millie knows the chances of happily ever afters are slim . . . after all, real life isn't a fairy tale . . . or is it?
This second book in Rachel Hawkins' fun, flirty Royals series brings a proud perspective to a classic romance.
Goodreads

We Hunt the Flame
Series: We Hunt the Flame #1
Author: Hafsah Faizal
May 14th 2019 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

People lived because she killed.
People died because he lived.
Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.
Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.
War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.
Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, We Hunt the Flame is a gripping debut of discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands.

Goodreads

Red, White & Royal Blue
Series: None
Author: Casey McQuiston
May 14th 2019 by St. Martin's Griffin
A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends...
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
Goodreads

There's Something About Sweetie
Series: None
Author: Sandhya Menon
May 14th 2019 by Simon Pulse
The irresistible companion novel to the New York Times bestseller When Dimple Met Rishi, which follows Rishi’s brother, Ashish, and a confident fat athlete named Sweetie as they both discover what love means to them.
Ashish Patel didn’t know love could be so…sucky. After being dumped by his ex-girlfriend, his mojo goes AWOL. Even worse, his parents are annoyingly, smugly confident they could find him a better match. So, in a moment of weakness, Ash challenges them to set him up.
The Patels insist that Ashish date an Indian-American girl—under contract. Per subclause 1(a), he’ll be taking his date on “fun” excursions like visiting the Hindu temple and his eccentric Gita Auntie. Kill him now. How is this ever going to work?
Sweetie Nair is many things: a formidable track athlete who can outrun most people in California, a loyal friend, a shower-singing champion. Oh, and she’s also fat. To Sweetie’s traditional parents, this last detail is the kiss of death.
Sweetie loves her parents, but she’s so tired of being told she’s lacking because she’s fat. She decides it’s time to kick off the Sassy Sweetie Project, where she’ll show the world (and herself) what she’s really made of.
Ashish and Sweetie both have something to prove. But with each date they realize there’s an unexpected magic growing between them. Can they find their true selves without losing each other?
Goodreads

Serious Moonlight
Series: None
Author: Jenn Bennett
May 16th 2019 by Simon and Schuster UK Children's

Raised in isolation and home-schooled by her strict grandparents, the only experience Birdie has had of the outside world is through her favourite crime books.
But everything changes when she takes a summer job working the night shift at a historic Seattle hotel. There she meets Daniel Aoki, the hotel’s charismatic driver, and together they stumble upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—is secretly meeting someone at the hotel.
To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell, and in doing so, realize that the most confounding mystery of all may just be her growing feelings for Daniel.

Goodreads

What has caught your eye for May? Have you read any of these? Let me know :)