Favourite Books of 2017

Hey guys! 2017 is finally coming to a close, so we thought we would let you in on our favourite 2017 releases. Below are just a few of the books we adored, and feel free to tell us your favourites in the comments!

Lauren:

• Dreamfall by Amy Plum
• The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
• The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West
• If There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Follow Me Back by A.V. Geiger
• The Masked Truth by Kelly Armstrong

Ola:

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
• First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy
• The Case of the Missing Men by Kris Bertin
• Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills
• The Muse by Jessie Burton
• The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed

Happy New Year!

Your friends here at The Autumn Bookshelf

Book Review: All The Crooked Saints

 All The Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

Released: October 10th, 2017

Read: October 2017

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Format: ARC, 311 pages

Series: n/a

Description from GoodReads: Here is a thing everyone wants: a miracle.
Here is a thing everyone fears: what it takes to get one.
   Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.
   At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.
   They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

Review: This book is kind of like a bedtime story. The narrator meanders and builds the world and characters so you can fall in love with each of them in turn. I don't mean it as an insult when I say that there's no pulse-pounding, gut-wrenching action. It's something I haven't seen before, and I really like it. There's a lot of character. If you can picture a bunch of characters standing out in the desert, you are about halfway to the amount of characters in the story, and you didn't even count the desert as one. Sometimes, like a true bedtime storyteller, the names or backstories get a little confusing. (#itsDarlenesRooster) But all the characters are lovely, with complex but simple wants and fears that are developed through clear story arcs. Like I said, the narrator meanders. The book describes side character's side characters background stories. It compares radio waves to miracles, and informs us in detail of a plant that takes over its environment. The intricate details set the storybook tone throughout the book. Altogether, the novel has a languid, bedtime storyteller feel that may bore some people, but I found it interesting and relaxing.

Book Review: Crooked Kingdom

 Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Released: September 20th, 2016

Read: August 2017

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Format: E-Book, 536 pages

Series: Six of Crows #2

Description from GoodReads: When you can't beat the odds, change the game.
Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.


Review: Just like Six of Crows, the ending to this duology hits every note right and kept me at the edge of my seat with every single jaw-dropping twist and turn. The gang returns with a vengeance, reminding at least me why I loved them the first time around. The book delved deeper into the backstories and life-changing moments that shape their decisions until the very end. Comparitively the side characters fall vaguely flat, but their scenes hint at more things that we just didn't have the chance to discover. 
   It was also really fun to read characters so close to each other that you almost learn more about one character from someone else's perspective than you do from their own. The gang is written so tightly-knit that it's almost like I am personally friends with all of them.
   Leigh Bardugo also keeps up the beautiful descriptions and dedicated world-building from the first book. I may be biased because she's one of my favourite authors, but I adore her writing.
   All in all, the book kept the pace, feeling, and excitement going from one end to the other and wrapped the duology up well enough for it to be over. But hopefully, maybe just maybe, there will be a follow-up.

Quoteable Quotes:
- "You like things that you can see. Like piles of snow and benevolent tree gods."
- "Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return."
- "You aren't a flower, you're every blossom in the wood blooming at once. You are a tidal wave. You're a stampede. You are overwhelming."
- "But if you couldn't open a door, you just had to make a new one."
- "It's shame that lines my pockets, shame that keeps the Barrel teeming with fools ready to put on a mask just so they can have what they want with no one the wiser for it. We can endure all kinds of pain. It's shame that eats men whole."
- "That's where you're wrong, I don't hold a grudge. I cradle it. I coddle it. I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the best schools. I nurture my grudges, Rollins."
- "When one plan was blown, you made a new one. When they backed you into a corner, you cut a hole into the roof."
- "And that was what destroyed you in the end: the longing for something you could never have."
- "But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. She'd dipped her fingers into its current, heldthe eddy of its power in her hands. She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown."

Rating: 10/10

Read if You like: crime novels, bank heists, the Grisha trilogy, well built worlds.

Optimistically yours, Ola

Book Review: Meg & Linus

  Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinski

Released: April 17th, 2017
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Format: ARC, 323 pages
Read: March 2017

Description from GoodReads: Meg and Linus are best friends bound by a shared love of school, a coffee obsession, and being queer. It’s not always easy to be the nerdy lesbian or gay kid in a suburban town. But they have each other. And a few Star Trek boxed sets. They're pretty happy.
   But then Sophia, Meg’s longtime girlfriend, breaks up with Meg. Linus starts tutoring the totally dreamy new kid, Danny—and Meg thinks setting them up is the perfect project to distract herself from her own heartbreak. But Linus isn’t so sure Danny even likes guys, and maybe Sophia isn't quite as out of the picture as Meg thought she was. . .

Review: This book was exactly the way I thought it was going to be. That's not a bad thing, necessarily. It sounded like the main focus would be on relationships, whether platonic or romantic, and it was. I figured it would have complex and flawed characters that didn't fit in the stereotypes put on them, and it did. I guessed that it would be an easy read, and yeah, it was. 

   Everyone needs books like this, where you worry about the characters, but you know they're going to be fine in the end. This book makes a good "break" novel. When you need a break from super-dramatic books, this one is here for you.

   This book also dealt well with more than a few issues. The sexualities of the main characters wasn't their identity, but it did dip casually into the bullying they had faced. It also, I feel, pretty accurately described the feelings after a breakup. I mean, I don't think most people meddle in their best friends love life instead of dealing with their issues, but apart from that, it seemed realistic.

   Some of the dialogue can be a little off, but I can let it slide, since the author is German.

Rating: 8/10

Read if You Liked: Queens of Geek, most books published by Swoon Reads, meddling

Optimistically yours, Ola <3

Book Review: Things I Should Have Known

 Things I Should Have Known
by Claire LaZebnik

Released: March 28th, 2017

Read: January 2017

Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers

Format: ARC, 311 pages
Series: n/a

Description from Goodreads: From the author of Epic Fail comes the story of Chloe Mitchell, a Los Angeles girl on a quest to find love for her autistic sister, Ivy. Ethan, from Ivy’s class, seems like the perfect match. It’s unfortunate that his older brother, David, is one of Chloe’s least favorite people, but Chloe can deal, especially when she realizes that David is just as devoted to Ethan as she is to Ivy.
   Uncommonly honest and refreshingly funny, this is a story about sisterhood, autism, and first love. Chloe, Ivy, David, and Ethan, who form a quirky and lovable circle, will steal readers’ hearts and remind us all that it’s okay to be a different kind of normal.

Review: I almost didn't read this book, because contemporaries aren't really my kind of books, but because of Marianne's cupcake, here we are. And I am so glad! This book was great!
   This book was full of growing up. Everyone changes and understand themselves a bit better by the end, everything is closed up neatly, nicely and not too quickly.
   I'm also such a sucker for simple romances that are the backdrop for larger plots and character arcs. And if one of the people has opened up to the other? I'm dead. This book is so full of positivity it was almost blinding. Yet somehow, despite the cliches, it remained realistically open to not ending well. Or not ending at all, in that sort of lingering, closed-chapter-of-life kind of way.
   Altogether, the characters are lovely, the plot is great, and if you need a pick-me-up, this relatively short book is right up your alley!

Quotable Quotes:
"Why are you asking me? I'm seventeen and don't know anything about what to do when you're autistic and gay."

Rating: 9/10

Optimistically yours, Ola <3