AuthorSarah

Sentimental and Perfervid: Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

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Series: Twilight Saga*

Release Date: August 4, 2020

Synopsis

When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting Bella is both the most unnerving and intriguing event he has experienced in all his years as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he justify following his heart if it means leading Bella into danger?

Ending

 HFN
Representation
• Quileute side characters
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Violence (Blood and gore)
• Torture (Psychological and physical)
• Planning of murder
• Murder
• Death
• Allusions to rape
• Allusions to pedophilia
Safety Rating: Safe
• No cheating
• Does have OW and OM drama
– Tanya has been into Edward for decades and thought him going to Alaska was for her (nothing happens though)
– Rosalie is upset that Edward never wanted her and yet he falls for unremarkable Bella
– Bella is asked out repeatedly be three boys, all of whom she turns down
• Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

*Companion to Twilight (told in Edward’s perspective)

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Brilliant and Kickass: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

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Series: Dread Nation

Release Date: April 3, 2018

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

<strong>Ending</strong>

• Plot – Cliffhanger
• Character – HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Black biracial main character
• Black biracial (white passing) supporting character
• Black side characters
• Bisexual main character
• Asexual supporting character
• Lenape side character
<strong>Possible Triggers: </strong> Yes
• Violence (Blood and gore)
• Torture (whipping)
• Corporal punishment (of children)
• Allusion to sexual violence and assault
• Racial slurs
• Unwanted experimentation (“vaccination”)
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• References to sex
• Allusions to drug use
• Discussion of prostitution
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 4.25/5 stars

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Important and Transformative: Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson et al.

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Also by Bonnie Balliff-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli and Chad F. Emmett

Series: Standalone

Release Date: April 7, 2012

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
“Sex and World Peace” unsettles a variety of assumptions in political and security discourse, demonstrating that the security of women is a vital factor in the security of the state and its incidence of conflict and war.

The authors compare micro-level gender violence and macro-level state peacefulness in global settings, supporting their findings with detailed analyses and color maps. Harnessing an immense amount of data, they call attention to discrepancies between national laws protecting women and the enforcement of those laws, and they note the adverse effects on state security of abnormal sex ratios favoring males, the practice of polygamy, and inequitable realities in family law, among other gendered aggressions.

The authors find that the treatment of women informs human interaction at all levels of society. Their research challenges conventional definitions of security and democracy and shows that the treatment of gender, played out on the world stage, informs the true clash of civilizations. In terms of resolving these injustices, the authors examine top-down and bottom-up approaches to healing wounds of violence against women, as well as ways to rectify inequalities in family law and the lack of parity in decision-making councils. Emphasizing the importance of an R2PW, or state responsibility to protect women, they mount a solid campaign against women’s systemic insecurity, which effectively unravels the security of all.

<strong>Ending:</strong> Non-Fiction

 • Impactful
<strong>Representation</strong>
• BIPOC representation
– Including people (and cultures) from the Middle East, India, Africa as well as Asia
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Rape (including of children)
• Female genital mutilation
• Physical abuse
• Psychological abuse
• Forced marriage
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Teenage pregnancy
• Teenage marriage
• Polygamy
• Prostitution
• Pornography
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5/5 stars

Trigger Warning: This review discusses topics that can be triggering for some. Please read the ‘Possible Triggers’ tab above for details.

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The Weekly Wrap: July 20th to July 26th

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I’ve decided to start doing a weekly, monthly and yearly wrap up/review of my reading habits. I have so many books I want to read that I’ve purchased and still need to read, books I need to investigate and books I want to review. I also only review two books a week on my blog, which is not indicative of how many books I’m reading during the week.

Hopefully, by doing this weekly and monthly wrap, I’ll be able to expose more readers to some excellent books!

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Performative White Feminism: Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given

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Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 11, 2020

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
‘THE BEAUTY MYTH’ FOR THE INSTAGRAM GENERATION
‘Rallying, radical and pitched perfectly for her generation.’ – Evening Standard

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty is the ultimate book for anyone who wants to challenge the out-dated narratives supplied to us by the patriarchy.

Through Florence’s story you will learn how to protect your energy, discover that you are the love of your own life, and realise that today is a wonderful day to dump them.

Florence Given is here to remind you that you owe men nothing, least of all pretty.

WARNING: CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT (AND A LOAD OF UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS).

THE FEMINIST MEMOIR EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT.

<strong>Ending</strong>
• Empowering
• Self-reflective
<strong>Representation</strong>
Addresses each of the following:
• Queer sexuality
• Racism
• Transgender
• Transphobia
• Oppression of women
• Ableism
• fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Rape
• Sexual assault
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
Discussions of:
• sex and masturbation
• slut-shaming
• the objectification of women
• rape culture
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4/5 stars

Trigger Warning: This review discusses topics that can be triggering for some. Please read the ‘Possible Triggers’ tab above for details.

Note: This novel is very similar to What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflower’s Guide to Why You Are Already Enough by The Slumflower (Chidera Eggerue) which was published in 2018. Women Don’t Owe You Pretty was published in 2020. If Given’s book looks like something you want to read, I highly recommend reading What a Time to Be Alone first.

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Impactful and Reflective: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

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Series: Standalone

Release Date: October 8, 2019

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

<strong>Ending</strong>
Bittersweet
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Lesbian supporting character
• LGBTQIA+ side character
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Murder
• Death
• Cannibalism
• Rape
• Sexual assault
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Allusions to sex
• Slut-shaming
• Teen pregnancy
• Girl-hating
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 5/5 stars

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Gorgeous Yet Sorrowful: The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver

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Series: Standalone

Release Date: January 30, 2020

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’d been together for more than a decade, and Lydia thought their love was indestructible.

But she was wrong. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident.

So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life–and perhaps even love–again.

But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened.

Lydia is pulled again and again across the doorway of her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.

Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Death of fiancé
• Grief
• Miscarriage
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe with Exceptions
Note: The book is not a traditional romance … so the Hero is kind of ambiguous.
No cheating
Does have descriptive sex scene with OM
Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

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Lovely and Relatable: When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk

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Series: Standalone

Release Date: March 10, 2020

<strong>Synopsis</strong>
You can’t rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again.

It’s been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla’s friendship imploded.

Nearly a month since Cleo realized they’ll never be besties again.

Now, Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn’t exist isn’t as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she’s assigned to be Layla’s tutor. Despite budding new friendships with other classmates—and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom—Cleo’s turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.

Alternating between timelines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.

<strong>Ending</strong>
HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Black MC (main character)
• Muslim Bengali American SC (supporting character) with a stutter
• Black SC
• Chinese American SC
• Lesbian Korean American SC
• Hijabi Bengali SC
• Indian American SC
• Gay SC
• FF side romance
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Death of a loved one
• Grief
• Bullying
• Divorce
• Adultery/cheating
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Allusions to sex
• Underage drinking
• Discussions of statutory rape
• Slut-shaming
• Teen pregnancy
• Absentee parents
• Girl-hating
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4.75/5 stars

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