Social Distancing Check-In

Hello For the Love of Dewey Readers!

Today we are 1 week into social-distancing in NJ and it looks like it's not going to be getting better anytime soon.  So today we'd like to check in with everyone.  How are you doing?  What are you doing?  And how are you finding joy during this time.

So far I read 6 book! I was averaging one book a day, but then I had to let up on the reading because I sprained my left eye.  Heed this warning... Binge reading is a total sport and can be dangerous. 

I thought that I would be taking the time to write more blog posts, but instead I find myself being more active on our Instagram @ForTheLoveOfDewey.  

Here are the books that I finished so far and my For the Love of Dewey Coffee Bean Rating of each one:
Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Seritella - 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans 

The self isolation to-read / read pile.

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover - 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans 
My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald -  5 out of 5 Coffee Beans 
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone - 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans 
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult - 3.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans (It was good! But the print was small and it was long... I think this book hot my eye.)
All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols - 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans (I read an ARC of this and it was hard to make out some of the words.) 

Currently Reading: 
Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley.  

Close Enough to Touch is about a librarian who is allergic to touch.  If someone touches her she'll die.  This seems like a fitting read given our current situation, and it takes place in NJ! 

What are you all reading?

~Jessica 

Dewey Shorts - New

Hey everybody!

Jessica and I are happy to announce that new things are coming to our IG!

(Hopefully you've been to our IG page to see what we're adding)

We're introducing what I'm calling "Dewey Shorts".  A "Dewey Short" is going to be a video that's 30-60 seconds in length.  We're going to quickly talk about a book that we've read; whether we liked it or we didn't like it.

These are books that we have something to say about but not enough to warrant an entire blog post. 

You can check out the quick video over to the left of this post, under Instagram.

Let us know what you think! 

~ Jillian

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer- Reshelved Books

Happy Monday everyone!

It's very gray here in the Tri-State area today.  Gray days make the best reading days!

My book for this week is Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer. A review that is short and sweet.

This book is sheer perfection. (Which is why my review is so short.  I don't want to take away from the book.)

Juliet Young is a seventeen year old who lost her mother in May.

Declan Murphy is a seventeen year old who lost his little sister at the hands of his alcoholic father 4 years before. 

Both Juliet and Declan lost themselves. 

Brought together by lose and grief; Declan and Juliet are able to find themselves in each other. 

The reason why this is sheer perfection is how Kemmerer is able to tell the story- bringing two characters together in a way that is unconventional.  Kemmerer was able to keep Declan's secret from Juliet and as a result, Juliet never ran away from Declan.  Juliet's feelings for Declan only grew, even after finding out who he was. 

Through the power of honesty and words, Declan and Juliet are able to heal. 

This book is worth all 5 coffee beans. Hands down. Without a question. 
Kemmerer told a wonderful story that came full circle.  There weren't any holes.  You weren't left wondering what could have been when it was over. 

~ 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

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus- Reshelved Books

Who is ready for a new review on a new book?! 

I hope you all are eagerly waving your arms up in the air! haha.

I don't know how old the majority of our readers are but if you fall into the mid to late twenties and up, you should know about all of those classic John Hughes films from the 80s! 

Sixteen Candles! Pretty in Pink! St. Elmo's Fire! The Breakfast Club!

And this 90s baby does love Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club   :)

Let me know what you're favorite John Hughes movie is!  You can post down below OR find us on Facebook! FortheLoveofDewey is now a group and we'd love it if you joined!

But onward to the good stuff...   

One of Us is Lying is Karen McManus' debut novel.   As a YA fiction story, One of Us is Lying is a story about five teenagers, one who mysteriously ends up dead in detention.  The "who done it" and the why are what you as the reader are trying to figure out.  

This book is a mash up between the game of Clue and The Breakfast Club.

From what I could find out there on the great internet, it seems like McManus was influenced by the writings of Agatha Christie for her debut novel.  According to Book Club Babble, McManus used The Breakfast Club as her primary inspiration. 

Which is something I can totally see... Take for example Brian and Simon.  For anyone who has seen this movie, do you think that McManus loosely based Simon on Brian?? Brian had the intentions of suicide but was never success.  Simon actually *dies*...

Tabitha Lord of Book Club Babble did an *amazing* review with Karen McManus. I strongly recommend to everyone to go and check out her review!  Another good review on the book was done by The Big Thrill- you can check out that review here.

Lord brings up great questions that included awesome points.  I love how she brings up how nowadays, teenagers don't have a sense of privacy (which is true, when I was in high school, TEXT MESSAGES were just becoming a thing! and I am by no means old!).  How social media has taken over and made things that were once private, public.  (Not only that, but suicide is something that's increasing in teenagers :(  )

I very much liked the delivery of the story!  I liked how as the reader got deeper into the novel, the plot became more twisted.  The police were pitting Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper and Addie against each other- something that should have pulled them apart, made them stronger together in the end.  You slowly learn about Simon's life and 

As, I said before (because for anyone who knows me, I love to repeat myself) I liked how the book was a spin on The Breakfast Club: you had the athlete, the criminal, the brains, the outcast and the pretty girl.  While the five of them were able to walk out together at the end, One of Us is Lying loses the outcast. 

There was a twist at the end of the story that I was not expecting.  I could see how the "killer" was who they were, but I would never have imagined who was helping them.

I give this book 5 out of 5 coffee beans.  It held the right amount of suspense and it answered all of the questions that it laid out.  I didn't get tired of the characters and I didn't find them to be annoying.  The book progressed in a way that didn't leave you feeling ripped off. 

~ Jillian

Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck- #TheBookDrop

Happy July Dewey Family,

While my posting has become sporadic, my reading has not! I have a few reviews for you guys in the upcoming weeks that I will post.  At this moment, I will present you all with Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck.

This was the book from the June 2017 #bookdrop box- Jane Edition. 

The author prefaces the book with a letter informing the reader how she came up with her story line. In the letter included from Erika Robuck in #TheBookDrop, she tells us subscribers how Ernest Hemingway came to her one night in a dream. 

As usual with the wonderfulness that is #thebookdrop, they included a letter from Erika Robuck to us subscribers. Robuck said how Ernest Hemingway visited her one night in a dream.  In the same letter, Erika does say it herself that Hemingway's Girl does not follow The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  For those of you who are wondering, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is the story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley.  

I have yet to read The Paris Wife but it is a book that I have seen before at the book store, and one that I have picked up and put down before.  I did add it to my Goodreads, maybe one day I'll get the chance to read it!

Hemingway's Girl reminded me of Flight of Dreams in that a story was formed around people who did exist.  While Ariel Lawhon based her story line for Flight of Dreams around actual passengers on the flight at the time of the crash; Robuck based her story line around one actual person and used the voice of a fictional character to tell her story. (Anyone who is curious about Flight of Dreams, can find that review here).

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't so sure that I was going to like this book. Learning that the book was about Ernest Hemingway and a young Mariella Bennett; I knew that I didn't want to read a story about how a young girl gets caught up with the infamous and captivating Hemingway. 

The book did pique my interest and I did find Ernest Hemingway to be an oddly intriguing man.  Outside of the letter that was included in #thebookdrop box, I found an interview with Erika Robuck about her novel with The Dividing Wand. The interview highlights the development of her storyline, including the ways in which she researched this novel. 

Even when I started reading the book, I was reading it with caution.  I guess you could say that I was like Pauline when she said "'You know, Mariella', said Pauline, 'I need to apologize. I used to think that you and Papa had something going on.'" (Robuck, 218).

The ending of the story... Kinda ruined it for me, as sad as it is to say....

Once the book was over, the book was over... 

To me, the book just ended abruptly. We see that Jake, Mariella and Gavin's son, is given letters Hemingway wrote to Mariella, including one from Pauline.  (If Hemingway had lost contact with Mariella, I would have been surprised.  I was however, a little sad to see that their correspondence wasn't more frequent).

Robuck did end the book with Hemingway taking his own life and reporting it in the same manner that it did happen back in 1961. 

But that was it. 

I'm giving this book 2.5 coffee beans out of five. I really didn't like it. The more I thought about the book for the review, the less I liked it.  There was a lot of build up and for the storyline to end so shortly, was kinda blah.

~ Jillian

About That Man by Sherryl Woods- Quick Review

Hi everyone!

Long time no post for me! Life has been a little hectic with balancing baby C and going back to work. 

Two weeks ago, baby C and I were strolling the aisles of the local Stop and Shop when I stumbled upon the book section. (Coincidence? Maybe...) Causally, I couldn't helps myself and I ended up reading back covers until I found a book that sparked my interest. 

I give you all my quick little review of About That Man by Sherryl Woods. 
The story follows Daisy Spencer and (Detective) Walker Ames in the fictional town of Trinity Harbor, Virginia. Daisy and Walker have a cross encounter when Daisy fosters Walker's nephew, Tommy. 

Walker and Daisy were instantly attracted to each other when they first met. And who could blame Daisy for getting swept away by Walker? Who doesn't love a man in uniform!?

I found About That Man to be a quick read, and one that was packed with a lot of emotion.  

Do Daisy and Walker become a couple? Does Tommy end up staying in Trinity Harbor with Daisy or move to Washing D.C. with Walker? 

Read About That Man and found out!

Happy readings and see you guys real soon!
~ Jillian