Booked with Abby

 Despite July being a pretty busy month for me, I managed to read sixteen books. I've had a pretty good month which is great since I didn't read a lot in June. Book Reviews: XOXO  by Axie Oh Rating: 4 stars I loved the setting of this book! Based on the cover alone, Souel looks like a beautiful place! I really enjoyed this cute romance. Synopsis:  Jenny is a cellist. She's always known what she's wanted to do in the future. After attending Manhatten Music School, she wants to become part of an orchestra. Jaewoo is a member of an up-and-coming k-pop group. When being together means throwing their dreams away, they have to decide if they're willing to risk everything to be together. My review Lost in the Never Woods  by Aiden Thomas Rating: 5 stars One of my favorite books of 2020 was Cemetery Boys  and Aiden Thomas's second book was just as amazing as his first. Lost in the Never Woods  was a dark and creepy Peter Pan retelling.  Synopsis:  It's be...

Cas, Diana, Rashid, Tad, Z couldn't be more different. The depressed girl, the perfect daughter, the star football player, the kid who everyone makes fun of, the closeted gay, and the trouble maker. What brings them together is an experience that will change their lives forever. The six are all trapped in a school. A school that has bombs inside. Even worse, they overhear on the radio that the bomber is still inside the building. And it happens to be one of them. Time Bomb  had me on the edge of my seat. It was gripping, fast-paced, and I couldn't put it down. From the moment I picked it up, I wanted to know who set off the bomb. Each character had a motive that was clear from the start- except Dianna and Tad. He was such a sweetheart.   At every moment, I found myself trying to guess who set off the bomb. What was the motive? I want to solve this mystery. And solve this mystery I did.  I kept switching between a couple suspects and this really crazy idea.  You proba...

If you like joyful stories, I would recommend checking out another book for the tale of the Baudelaire orphans is no happy tale. After losing their parents in a tragic fire, Violet, Kalus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to live with Count Olaf. They soon discover Olaf is after the Baudelaire fortune and will stop at nothing to get it. Soon, the Baudelaires find that their lives are in danger due to Olaf's frightening plans. The audiobook was amazing! It was fully cast and I love that each character had a different narrator. This melancholy tale was full of mystery and I loved it. I also loved the Netflix series so much. I think this might be one of the rare instances where I like the show better than that the TV show is so much better than the movie though. At some points, The Bad Beginning  would get a little slow but for the most part, I found the book thoroughly entertaining. I love all three Baudelaire orphans and I can't help but care for their tale. A Series of Unfortunate...

Logan and his friends are back as they prepare to go on a tour of the Harmoicandy. Several days before they leave, Logan notices a change in the Harmonicandy. The chocolate is different! And so throughout their road trip, Logan, Miles, Daisy, and Philip must solve the mystery of the missing chocolate ingredients. Almost everyone has a missing relative so that's a subplot too. The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase  is the sequel to The Candymakers . This book was so disappointing. I remember loving The Candymakers  when I first read it so naturally, I thought the sequel would be equally as great. But it wasn't. The story was so boring. I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. I hated it so much. I will admit that the first two parts of the book were the worse. Once I got to Daisy's part it got much better and Philip's part was okay. However, when I got to part five (all), I lost interest once again. Literally, nothing happened the first two hundred pages ei...

When Dorothy turns sixteen, she returns to Oz. With help from Glinda, she finds herself back in that magical land, this time with her aunt and uncle. When she gets there, however, Dorothy finds that things are different. A strange woman named Ozma is ruling and Glinda is nowhere to be found. Shortly after, Jellia, one of Dorothy's maids, is whisked off to Glinda's summer palace. She finds out that Glinda a Dorothy are planning sinister things for Oz. Ar the same time, the Wizard returns.  Dorothy Must Die Stories was a bundle of the first three novellas in the Dorothy Must Die series. In this collection is Return to Oz, The Witch Must Burn , and The Wizard returns.  My favorite of the three novellas was undoubtedly Return to Oz .  I liked Dorothy and Jellia's POV so much better than I liked Amy's from the original series. I think that Amy was so annoying compared to Dorothy was a bit of a brat but I was able to look past that.  I liked the first two novellas more tha...

I recently started watching the TV show Glee . So far, I love it! In this post, I'll be giving a book to go along with each character. There will be multiple parts to this post so stay tuned!      If you don't know what Glee is, so let me explain. The show is about a high school glee club. There are all sorts of drama but the show also deals with more serious issues. It's quickly become one of my favorite TV shows! Rachel Berry Rachel is undoubtedly the star of the show. Seriously, she will literally quite glee club when she doesn't get the solo. Besides that, Rachel is unstoppable. Like Cassie from The Mall,  she has a lot of determination and even a broken heart never stops her.  Finn Hudson I'll admit, it was a little hard to find a book for Finn. Like Nox from Dorothy Must Die , he's strong and loyal. That's really all I got!  Quinn Fabray Quinn is one of those characters you don't really like in the beginning but after a few episod...

  What if Meg had to become a god? After Hercules defeats Hades, he becomes a god on Mount Olympus. When Zeus tells Meg she can't be with Hercules because she's mortal, she's absolutely crushed. Luckily, Hera offers Meg a chance to become a goddess. All she has to do is go on a dangerous quest. Meg must save her ex's current wife from the underworld. Out of all of Disney's villains, Hades has always been my favorite. I'm so glad a Hercules  retelling was finally added to the Twisted Tales series. I really liked Meg. In the movie, she was snarky and kind of sassy and I really liked that. She seemed a lot different in this book though. She was still a great character. She still had a short temper, but she seemed so much softer. Like, I know she's in love with Hercules and realized that she shouldn't block herself off from the world, but she just forgave her ex so easily. I liked how Go The Distance  provided Meg with a sad backstory. It added so many more ...

 It's been so long since I've done a book tag, so I'll be doing the mid-year freak-out book tag today. This tag is basically a check-in to see how my reading has been going for the first half of the year. Best book you've read so far this year I've read a bunch of great books so far this year, but the best has been Lost in the Never Woods   by Aiden Thomas.  Best sequel you've read so far this year Usually, sequels aren't nearly as good as the first book, but once in a while, I find one that really blows me away. My favorite sequel so far this year is Between Burning Worlds  by Jessica Brody and Jonne Rendell.     New release you haven't read yet but want to Two new releases that I've really been looking forward to reading Cold Hearted by Serena Valentino and Goldilocks: Wanted Dead or Alive  by Chris Colfer. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year My most anticipated release for the second half of the year is The Hawthorne Legacy...

Kallia has never left Hellfire House. The place that kept her prisoner for so long made her feel trapped. When she escapes, she finds out about a competition to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus. When she enters alongside her assistant, Aaros, they find sinister things lurk in the shadows. Magicians start disappearing, the walls of the city of Glorian keep them trapped, and tricks start going wrong. Even stranger, someone seems to be sabotaging her. I liked  Where Dreams Descend  a lot! But, it's really no surprise that I liked the book so much though. Like seriously, you can't tell me this book is a "combination of  Moulin Rouge  and  Phantom of the Opera " and expect me not to love it.  For the most part, the story kept moving at a steady pace and it wasn't slow at all! Janella Angeles made magic literally come to life with this novel. I felt like I could see each of Kallia's performances as they were happening. I loved Kallia. She was...

 After escaping from prison, Cinder is on the run, trying to avoid capture as the Lunar Queen hunts her down. Meanwhile somewhere in France Scarlet's mother has recently disappeared. In a desperate attempt to find her, she teams up with the mysterious Wolf. Also, Queen Lavana is threatening war on Earth and if Cinder and Scarlet don't do something she will kill everybody so we also have that problem to deal with. I liked Scarlet  a lot more than I liked the first book in The Lunar Chronicles. I mean, Cinder  was great, I just liked Scarlet's character better. She was really feisty, stubborn, and strong. So like basically the same person as Cinder but like not cyborg. Most of the book was split following Scarlet and Cinder. I think Marissa Myers was able to combine these two storylines really well. I liked Scarlet and Wolf's relationship so much better than Cinder and Kai's. Cinder and Kai felt a little forced. The writing of Scarlet and Wolf's relationship flowe...

 When Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, she finds a fantastic world full of wonders. Alice's journey introduces her to many weird and wacky characters. It wasn't until recently that I realized that Alice in Wonderland  has no real plot. Alice's journey doesn't have a purpose but somehow, Lewis Carroll made that work with the upside-down world known as Wonderland. Russell Punter's adaptation of the classic tale was just as great! The story flowed so effortlessly and the transition between scenes was perfect. The artwork in this graphic novel done by Simona Bursi was amazing! I loved that she stuck to the original character designs rather than the ones made popular by Disney. I'm so excited to read and collect the other graphic novels adapted by Russell Punter. I already have Dracula, The Hound of Baskervilles, and Robin Hood. This is such a great book to read if you're a fan of the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Page Count:...

 After Summerland was overrun with zombies, Jane McKeene and Katherine Deveraux have no choice but to head west. The girls set out for California to find Jane's mother and kill the notorious Giddion  (was that his name??? I already forgot lol). So there were some surprising- S U R P R I S I N G- revelations in Deathless Divide . I thought the first book in this series was great but wow. Deathless Divide was even better. As the second and final book in the Dread Nation  series, it was a great ending. So I'm not sure how I skipped over this fact while reading Dread Nation , but it appears that Jane is bi! As a fellow bisexual, I'm a little disappointed about how my gaydar missed that fact. I mean, she never came right out and said it, but I recently saw a post on Instagram saying that she was so we're just gonna go with that. I like Jane. She's such a great main character and I think Katherine really grew in this book. I also kind of hate Jackson now. I can't beli...

1776, New York City. (How many Hamilton fans sang that?) Sophia Calderwood witness the hanging of Nathan Hale, the American spy. Sophia is horrified by the event. New York is occupied by the British and it's dangerous to be a patriot. Sophia is recruited as a spy and becomes a maid in General Clinton's house. That's how Sophia uncovers a plot that could decide the fate of the revolution.  The story was good but I can't say the same for the writing. The story was just so slow. It was hard to get into the book. I really wanted to like it but I just didn't.  I did enjoy some parts. Adding to the little I liked this book, there were some Hamilton references in the beginning.  I read this book with two other friends of mine. Just like Matched , one loved the book, one thought it was okay, and I hated it. I feel like this book would have been better with a love interest or some type of romance and I know I'm not the only one. I probably would have never picked up thi...

 It's been five years since Wendy's brothers, John and Micheal, have gone missing. Now, kids in her small town have started disappearing without any explanation. When these strange circumstances hit the news, questions about Wendy's brothers start to resurface. In an attempt to escape all the questions and uncertainties, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy in the road. A boy named Peter who pulls her deeper into this mystery. I loved this book! Aiden Thomas's debut novel, Cemetery Boys , had me wanting more and he really delivered with Lost in the Never Woods . This book was everything! It was dark and twisted and defiantly my favorite take on Peter Pan . Scratch that, it's my favorite retelling. I think Aiden Thomas portrayed Peter Pan perfectly. There were those little moments where Peter would just start making flower crowns or do anything else off-track. One moment that I loved was when Wendy and Peter were talking about tracking down the missing kids and ...