It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #4

Weekly meme hosted by Book Journey

So it's been a while but this meme will be a permanent feature for the foreseeable future especially since I've got my posts planned out. So I hope you enjoy the wonderful books I read and reviewed for the new year. I plan on having discussion posts as well every Wednesday plus a new meme that I will be starting up next week.

Past Week Reviews

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a classic to remind us the meaning of Christmas.

Book Club Read

We are just starting the last book in this trilogy. The trilogy hasn't been the best experience ever with the fast and rushed writing style as well as a story that probably could be better planned... There have been some highlight moments. It just takes a while to get to them. I'm hoping the conclusion of this trilogy is satisfactory and I honestly really want to read another book for my book club already. I actually just found out that it's not a trilogy. A new book is coming out next year... not reading it. It's just a continuation anyways and I don't really care.

Possible Reads

Although I won't be able to give you the reviews of these books this month I do have some possible books I want to read this week. I have a week off before school so lots of options. Problem is I'll have to double my discussions and memes with reviews to catch up to where I'll be at reading wise. I might not be that far ahead as I think I will be but if I am that's like 50 books I want to read that I would need to review. It most likely won't be a problem but if you see in February and March a meme and a review posted on the same day - that's why.

Reviews Coming Up

So happy to have books to show you now! I enjoyed them all so you can look forward to some great books to read about. Yes, I finally read Two and Twenty Dark Tales. Three of these books were given to me by authors in return for a review. I can't help but love indie authors but it also reminds me of the couple of indie books I have yet to read! All my indie reviews will be up by February.

New Book Discoveries

The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress

An action-packed tale of gowns, guys, guns - and the heroines who use them all

"Set in turn of the century London, The Friday Society follows the stories of three very intelligent and talented young women, all of whom are assistants to powerful men: Cora, lab assistant; Michiko, Japanese fight assistant; and Nellie, magician's assistant. The three young women's lives become inexorably intertwines after a chance meeting at a ball that ends with the discovery of a murdered mystery man.

It's up to these three, in their own charming but bold way, to solve the murder-and the crimes they believe may be connected to it-without calling too much attention to themselves.

Set in the past but with a modern irreverent flare, this Steampunk whodunit introduces three unforgettable and very ladylike-well, relatively ladylike-heroines poised for more dangerous adventures."

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross

"When Maude Pichon runs away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive. 

Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect foil.

But Isabelle has no idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to lose."

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

"Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It's quiet and peaceful. You can't get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere's museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe's psychiatric practice. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver's license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she's dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward? This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned."

Creepy & Maud by Dianne Touchell

"Hilarious and heartbreaking, Creepy & Maud charts the relationship between two social misfits, played out in the space between their windows.

Creepy is a boy who watches from the shadows keenly observing and caustically commentating on human folly. 

Maud is less certain. A confused girl with a condition that embarrasses her parents and assures her isolation.

Together Creepy and Maud discover something outside their own vulnerability — each other’s. But life is arbitrary; and loving someone doesn’t mean you can save them.

Creepy & Maud is a blackly funny and moving first novel that says; ‘You’re ok to be as screwed up as you think you are and you’re not alone in that.’"

Furious by Jill Wolfson

"Three high school girls become the avenging Furies of Greek legend.

We were only three angry girls, to begin with. Alix, the hot-tempered surfer chick; Stephanie, the tree-hugging activist; and me, Meg, the quiet foster kid, the one who never quite fit in. We hardly knew each other, but each of us nurtured a burning anger: at the jerks in our class, at our disappointing parents, at the whole flawed, unjust world.

We were only three angry girls, simmering uselessly in our ocean-side California town, until one day a mysterious, beautiful classmate named Ambrosia taught us what else we could be: Powerful. Deadly. Furious."

What are you reading this week?