shelbyanoel's reviews
389 reviews

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

"The Poppy Fields" unpacks and makes you sit with grief, stages of grief, and the love that surrounds us when we have lose in our life. Nikki Erlick intertwined the loss and resiliency with a new-age and scientific and mild dystopian approach to how others can deal with grief. Through screening, entering a program patients who are admitted to the Poppy Fields sleep program for 1-2 months and rejuvenate their senses to cope with significant loss and trauma in life.

 I think that this is the piece that will resound most with readers- loss and dealing with the loss of those we love, hold dear, and learning to cope with putting pieces together in our own lives afterwards. The Poppy Fields was filled with sad, yet moments of happy and still joy evoking in road tripping across America, hot air ballooning, falling in love, and how each character has a different life walked and love that surrounds them. 

Thank you so much Netgalley, Nikki Erlick, and William Morrow for granting my ARC wish! 

We Won't All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Kate Alice Marshall delivers once again! I was so excited to get this YA ARC. This was a quick paced thriller filled with lots of twists and turns. When Mercy is brought with a group of other teenagers, who has each survived a traumatic event and are thrown into a new game in a ghost town, where triggers are thrown around and very tension filled survival situation where each is tried and tested on who to trust and who is killing them off one by one. Teaming together with their survival skills, each teen tries to survive, and it’s just not about the money anymore. Mercy’s character works to help others and fight instincts about surviving together. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Kate Alice Marshall for this ARC. It was delightful to read! 

We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

“We Could Be Magic” is for those of us who believe in love, hard work, and making our dreams come true. Tabi has dreamed of being a princess cast member of SommerLand theme park, since she was a little girl. She stomps down her dream regardless of stigmas, others attitudes, or the norm of what expectations are around her. As a lover of Disney, this graphic novel was charming, cute, and witty. Marissa Meyer delivers, yet again. Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillon Children’s Publishing Group for this ARC. 

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Wicked King by Holly Black

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This Stays Between Us by Sara Ochs

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I absolutely loved “This Stays Between Us”. I’ve never had the pleasure of reading Sarah Ochs books before, but I do love a good thriller. I devoured this one in a day and I’m not sad about it. Set in the diverse, unique, and stunning Outback of Australia, a group of travel abroad friends is reunited years after their original adventure. What they think is that it’s just a reunion, but they’re thrown into a police investigation of their missing friend and her remains being discovered. Forcing the group of Claire, Josh, Declan, Adrien, Kyan, Tomas, and Hari to be reunited together and relive the loss of their friend; however, one of them isn’t who they seem and Claire seeks to find the truth of what happened to Phoebe. 

The twists and turns of who can be trusted, who’s being honest and real, and who has withheld more than what they’re sharing we seek to discover and find out. I really enjoyed the twists and turns, trying to put the pieces together. I really loved the alternating viewpoints of the characters from then and now as we discover what happened to Phoebe and the events that happened that summer. I also appreciated the setting. I mean, Australia?! It all came together in the end and buckle down to read and reread the epilogue! 

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Sourcebooks, and Sarah Ochs for this wonderful read! I’m looking forward to recommending it to my friends and bookclub groups!