The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot- Reshelved Books

Guys... I haven't been this excited about a book in a long time...

I just started a new job in a library, and part of this new job is to take the books that patrons return and discharge them from their library card record.  Once you've discharged a book, they get placed on a shelf until they're moved back to their home within the stacks. 

It was in doing this process that I found my book for this week... The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot.  I looked at the cover of the book and thought "No way!" and then I checked the title page and saw that this book was published in 2016 (10 years after the first three books!!)! 

I almost fell over.

Yes, that is a ceramic cat... Once you read the book, you'll understand... :)

I kid you not.

The Boy Series has to be my absolute favorite series from Meg Cabot.  The way that these books are set up is the best.  In The Boy is Back, Cabot presents the story through text conversations, emails, chats and voice transcriptions.  Cabot used the same set up in the three books preceding The Boy is Back (except maybe she didn't use texts in those three.. I can't remember- I read those books about 10 years ago).

So.  I did want any reasonable and responsible adult would do.

On my way home from work, I signed up for a library card at my local library and I headed straight to the adult fiction stacks to find The Boy is Back!

That was this past Thursday night and I just finished the book this morning which is Sunday (the day that I am writing the review. Not the date that the review will be posted). Three and half days isn't bad when you work full time and have an 8 month old to take care of!                                    

Reed Stewart is the boy that comes back to his hometown- Bloomville, IN.  It seems that his parents got themselves into quite the jam with paying for dinner with a postage stamp... One thing leads to another and it's revealed that maybe, Reed's parents are in a little too deep with cats and judge's gavels...

After a plea from his sister-in law Carly; Reed comes back home to help his brother, Marshall and her with "The Judge" and Connie.  Reed hasn't been back home in 10 years, he was kicked out of town by his father and Reed never looked back.  When Reed left all of those years ago, he walked away from his high school girlfriend, Becky.  

Like all great love stories, there is a story behind what happened the night that Reed's father kicked him out of Bloomville for good.  The story involves Becky and Reed... Someone may have been injured after a golf cart may have crashed into a pool...

Becky, who is a true homegrown girl, took over her father's moving business and now helps seniors adjust and move into senior friendly homes.  Reed and his family hire Becky to help with The Judge and Connie. 

Will Reed and Becky re-connect??  Will the cats take over?? Was Becky really the one who drove the golf cart that fateful night into the pool?!

You'll have to read to see!!

The Boy is Back is every much of adorableness and awesomeness that The Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl and Every Boy's Got One are.  I found myself giggling when I was reading this book (like the uncontrollable kind).  Even though the book is written through messages and from the perspective where the characters are telling each other of their encounters with one another, it was easy for the reader to see the picture that Cabot was painting.  The book is a lighthearted and easy read- it quenches the thirst for those who want to be instantly satisfied. 

I would totally recommend this book in a heartbeat. Which is why I can't help but give it 5 out 5 coffee beans.  Everything from the ceramic cats, to the gavels, to the feral cats and raccoons- it was a book that is capable of putting a smile on your face. 

   
See you all next week!
~ Jillian

The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle- Reshelved Books

**Jillian's Bonus Review**

This week's bonus review is brought to you by the letter "L"! "L" is for library and for the happiness that comes being surrounded by books all day :)

 I'm have some serious mixed feelings on this book... The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

I never look at review of books, but this one was necessary.
(Note: I started to quickly skim through reviews about half way through the book)

The more reviews I found, the more I saw that readers felt the writing style was a rough, the plot was cheesy. One review even said the book was sexist!
I thought that the book presented the spark that brings two people together. Yes, they met by a weird happenstance but I don't feel that their relationship was unbelievable. 

This book is story about Wren and Charlie, two seniors who on their last day of high school, feel this instant connection to one another. Two people who never had true interaction with each other- are now pulled together!  They spend so much time together! They eat, sleep and breath each other!  They're enamored with one another and they can't get enough.  Now, I don't know about you; but that sounds like young love to me!

I liked this book in the beginning- I did! I got halfway through the book and then I decided that I was going to start writing the review. Which lead to Google. Which then lead to GoodReads, which lead to a mixed bag of feelings.

I was sad to see that many readers gave it such a low rating on GoodReads :(

Yet at the same time, I understood where they were coming from.

I felt like the emotions between Charlie and Wren were real.  I thought that their feelings were the ones that everyone has at some point in their life.

I'm a believer that young love is raw- it's something that's just as emotional as it is physical.  So to hear Myracle explained the actions in the manner that she did... I don't know, it didn't seem like it was that unbelievable.

THAT being SAID...!!

Once you pass the middle of the book, AFTER Wren's first time with Charlie, then the writing style used to describe their relationship is really rather adult.  (Think the teen version of Fifty Shades of Grey....Not my personal favorite...) Hot and heavy and something that you would read about in an adult novel. 

Not a YA novel.

I did find Charlie to be an adoring character, Wren...eh... She became needy and got on my nerves. (But what else is new??)

I give this book 2.5 coffee beans out of 5.  Two and a half because I only enjoyed the beginning of the book which was the only part that was worthy of the review.

~ Jillian

The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms - Reshelved Books

Happy almost fall everyone!

How has everyone been?? I am sorry for my absence but I am back and ready to go! 

Would you believe me if I told you that this book sounds *very* familiar to me and that I have read it before...?

Well, this book sounded very familiar to me and I felt like I've read it before. 

You guys also know that I've never given a novel a crappy review before but I suppose there's a first time for everything!

The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms is going to be my first review on a book that I did not like. 

The reader meets Lily Stewart, an artist who gets evicted from her apartment after missing one rent payment.  While Lily is cleaning out her apartment, we see that Lily finds annulment paperwork from her Las Vegas marriage. Annulment papers from TEN YEARS AGO! TEN (10) count 'em, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, years ago!! HOW CRAZY!

After meeting with her best friend-divorce attorney, Renee, Lily decides that she's going to find Ben Hutchinson and tell him all about her delay in the paperwork and how it was all a big misunderstanding!!  (I'm still confused as to how you could even consider Renee to be a best friend when for most of the book, she's been a horrible person).

Ugh.

Then as the book continues we see the interactions between her and Ben; how the town of Minnow Bay tries to keep her and Ben together. Blah blah blah.

My issues with this book reside with Lily herself.

As a character, she is so flat! She does the same things over and over again and there is no change. (What's that saying? Doing the same things over and over again when the outcome is the same is the definition of insanity??) She's too stubborn to believe that anything new could be of benefit to her. 

I don't understand how helping Simone played any part of the development of Lily's character. Ben seemed like a big jerk and then he turned and became this tolerable person on a dime. He was mean and nasty to Lily YET everyone knew that they were perfect for each other.  (...What?)  I feel like there wasn't enough dialouge between the two of them, we didn't learn a lot about Ben. 

No one deserves to be treated like a jerk.  Even if it's a character in a book. 

The title "The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay" is confusing because there were no matchmakers.  Unless Colleen and Jenny were the matchmakers.  But I don't feel like that can be said when all they did was make a flat tire, kept Lily from getting a new tire and throwing a birthday party for Ben's mom, Carla.

I mean... Really?

The only part of the book I found to be funny was when Lily attacked Renee with the bristles on the broom because there was a robber in her apartment. 

(I probably laughed waaaaay too hard at that.)

I am sad to say that I can only give this book 1 coffee bean out of 5...

I was able to snag a copy of this book on sale for $9.00 and I think that's a fair price.  I wouldn't go out of my way to read this book....

~ Jillian

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

I never read E. Lockhart before but I always felt like I had.  I liked her, even before I knew that I liked her.  Does that make sense? Probably not.

Anyway, I was super excited to read Genuine Fraud.  I was even more excited when it came in to the library, and being the librarian who places the ya book orders, got to check it out first. *happy dance!*

This book wasn't what I expected it to be, even though I'm not really sure what I expected.  For most of the book I wasn't sure if I liked it or not, but at the same time I couldn't put it down.   Maybe this post doesn't make much sense, but I think the whole premise of the book was to not make sense in the sense of hiding the true sense.  (what?)

 

So, for a brief summary of this book.  

There's a girl named Jule.  When Jule was little (7 or 8) her parents were brutally murdered.  They were spies, and Jule grows up to follow in their footsteps.  She's tough, she's beautiful, and she's not afraid to kill.  There's also a girl named Imogene.  She was / is Jule's friend, but she's been missing.  Is she dead?  Is she alive? Why is Jule pretending to be her?  How many people has Jule killed?  Is Jule even who we really think she is?  Are the romances that Lockhart suggests in the novel real, or are they part of Jule's games?

This is the uncertainty that encompasses this book.  

I'm not a fan of action novels, and sometimes the uncertainty of this novel threw me off.  However, there were some really interesting lines and prose made me keep wanting to read.  That being said, I had assumed that once I reached the end of the novel, everything would sort of tie together and fall into places, but I'm not quite sure that it really did. But I kind of liked it??

So For the Love of Dewey Readers, I give you a rating of 3.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  

Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan - Reshelved Books

Hello everyone!

As we enter fall, I leave you with my last beachy summer read... soon I'll be reviewing beachy winter reads (insert girl with hand-flip emoji here).  Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan is everything that a summer beach read should be.  It's light, but not air-headed, it's beachy, but not overly, and it talks about food in a way that doesn't leave you too hungry.  

I really wanted to take a cute picture of this book with a cupcake....
but here's my pumpkin iced latte and fish named Shamu Pitbull Bielen-Ward.  

This novel follows the story of Polly, a young woman in her twenties who recently separated from her husband after their advertising business tanks.  During this separation, Polly is forced to move onto an island off the Cornish coast called Waterford.  Waterford is a town strictly and primarily made up of locals.  There is a bridge connecting Waterford to the mainland, but this bridge goes underwater depending on the tides at various times during the day.  So it's safe to say that people don't venture out too often, nor do people venture in.  There is one bakery in town, which is run by a grumpy older woman who just so happens to be Polly's landlady.  

I'm not always crazy about novels that take place in other countries, at least with regards to chick-lit.  I always seem to have the Kinsella's Shopaholic series in my head when I read British slang within chick-lit novels.  However,  I wasn't put-off by that in this novel.  Colgan tackles tough issues such as death, tragedy, change, and growing old to realize that you might no longer be needed -- at least not in the same capacity you were before.  Throw in Polly's love for baking, her friendship with the local fisherman, a love interest with a beekeeper, a pet  Puffin, and wa la! 

On the back of this novel (the paperback  U.S. version) there are reviews by other authors such as Jane Green and Meg Donohue that proclaim this novel to be "delicious" and "cozy."  I can ascertain that yes, it is.  

So dear For the Love of Dewey Readers, I leave you with a review of 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  Colgan also has a novel called The Bookshop on the Corner (about a librarian who quits her job to drive a book truck!)  I think I'll be putting that on my to-read list!

Until next time!
~Jessica