Tag: science fiction

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I was really excited to read this, and I even pre-ordered it…and then it sat on my shelf like oh so many books do! I finally picked it up and read it, and I’m glad I did. I appreciated reading about Snow and how he became the monster he was in the first three books. I actually really enjoyed his story…for 2/3 of the book. I lost a lot of interest in the final 1/3, and I know it was necessary, but I think it could have been significantly shorter.

The first two sections of the book focus on how Snow ends up being a mentor of someone in the games, and how they become attached to each other. I really became invested in that entire storyline. However, the final section of the story follows Snow in the aftermath of the Games, and it just dragged for me. I wasn’t really interested, and it took forever to get through it.

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Fairy Tale by Stephen King

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Book Genre Tag "Fantasy" with image of fantasy world of mountains and water

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Well, I just absolutely loved this book! Stephen King has such an amazing mind for creation of worlds and storytelling! This story was filled with friendships, magic, evil and good, action, and saving the world, and I loved every second of it!

Charlie is our hero of this story. When his mother dies, and his father falls into the bottle, he makes a deal with God. He will pay it back in ANY way if only his father would stop drinking. And his father stopped drinking. So, the day Charlie hears crotchy old man Bowditch yelling for help, and the barking of his ferocious dog, Charlie decides this is his moment. He rescues Mr. Bowditch and finds a friendship in the most wonderful dog EVER as well as in the still grumpy, but quite heartwarming Mr. Bowditch.

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Cake Eater by Allyson Dahlin

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Book Genre Block - "Young Adult" with 4 young adults
Book genre block - "Royalty" two small crowns

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I thought this was such a fun retelling for Marie Antoinette. I loved the historical facts that were woven into the story and updated to have a futuristic feel. In this reimagined story, Marie Antoinette is marrying into a royal family and a country filled with turmoil.

The author did a great job of sticking with the major situations and issues happening in the OG Marie’s life. I found myself getting really stressed out as we got closer and closer to that awful beheading. I have to say, Allyson did a great job with the ending…no spoilers! But I was happy with the entire story and the wrap up.

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Child of Etherclaw by Matty Roberts

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Welcome to the blog tour for Child of Etherclaw hosted by Iread Book Tours!
Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I absolutely love dystopian stories, and this one did not let me down! There is fantastic world-building, compelling characters, and an interesting plot!

This dystopian world has highly advanced technology, a bit of magic, and oppressed people. The story follows Fenlee Harper, a teen trying to help her family move up in the world. I don’t want to give away everything, but as the story progresses, there are so many surprising reveals, I couldn’t stop reading!

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A Measure of Serenity by Bryan K. Prosek

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Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water
Book Genre Block - "Young Adult" with 4 young adults

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Wow, this book was so interesting, and also kind of terrifying LOL! Serenity is a genius and then some. Looking for her dad on the Harvard campus, she accidently falls into another version of reality, and there is danger everywhere…

This is a YA story, but Serenity is such a mature young lady, it didn’t even feel YA. She is such a different main character. With her incredible intelligence she observes things others miss, and it makes her narration fascinating.

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Death Warrant by Bryan Johnston

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Person peeking through hole titled "Thriller"
Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Well, wow, this was a fun, inventive story that had me hoooooked! First of all, this concept, I can actually imagine people watching a show like this…which is probably why Bryan Johnston wrote this story. It was fast-paced and wildly entertaining!

There’s a TV show, Death Warrant, where people volunteer to be murdered on live TV, for a very large payout that is given to their designated family member. After the sign up, the person’s memory is wiped clean, and they do not remember that they have signed up to be assassinated. We follow Frankie’s story as she signs herself up for this, and then goes about her life, forgetting that she is a ticking time bomb.

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She Wouldn’t Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha

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Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Okay, wow. I’m a little all over the place with this one! This was truly a wonderful story, but it broke my brain a bit! Wrapping my head around the twists and connections through the time travel was amazing, and it had me dropping my jaw at multiple moments!

This story broke my heart a bit. I didn’t expect that, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for it. The choices given to the characters in this story are heavy and while I can’t say impossible, they are truly awful to consider. I can’t say impossible because a character in the story lets us know that no choice is truly impossible 🙂

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Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long

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Book Genre Tag "Fantasy" with image of fantasy world of mountains and water
Book Genre Block - "Young Adult" with 4 young adults

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Holy smokes, this book was AMAZING! I couldn’t stop reading this one!

When Sena was young, she lost her moms to the famous race that her planet is known for. That’s really all her planet has. It’s freezing cold all the time, constantly under some sort of storm, and filled with corporate gangsters. When Sena ends up in trouble with one of the gang boss’s she ends up unintentionally stealing a fighting wolf from him. On the run from the boss, she ends up doing the one thing she swore she would never do…help with the race.

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Unraveling Eleven by Jerri Chisholm

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Book Genre Tag "Fantasy" with image of fantasy world of mountains and water

Rating: 4 out of 5.

So, to be totally honest here, I picked this one up without reading the synopsis because it’s book 2 and I just KNEW I wanted to read it! So…I was surprised to find that this wasn’t going to be a book about survival above ground, but instead one of surviving below…still. So, it took me a little to get over being a bit grumpy about that 😂!

If you haven’t read the first book in this series, Escaping Eleven, you definitely need to start there! It’s an amazing story that I loved!! Book 2 jumps into the story where book 1 left off…SPOILERS… Eve and Wren are above ground, but they soon realize they can’t survive up there. They don’t know anything about the world, what to eat, how to fight animals off, what water is safe, etc. And so, they return to Eleven. Their lives return to normal a bit, there are lover’s spats, Eve punches people, and they realize they need to try to save everyone in the compound, not just themselves. But obviously that’s not as easy as it seems!

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Meet the Candy Crew book held to sky with clouds

Captain Cake: Meet the Candy Crew by Chris Skinner

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Rating: 4 out of 5.
"Childrens" Genre Block - 4 kids laying on stomachs looking at book
Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water

This was a cute kids book. It’s broken into chapters, so it’s easy to start and stop for little ones. The chapters are pretty short, and it can absolutely be read in a single sitting for an older child.

This story is about a group of friends that are part food/part human. They are in space, and need to go on missions. The story has some points where it asks the kids questions about what they would do, which was fun. My kids enjoyed those parts a lot!

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Book "Stormland" held up to the sky at sunrise

Stormland by John Shirley

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Rating: 4 out of 5.
Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water
Book Cover "Stormland" with two
Person in dark woods titled "Suspense"

I love a good post-apocalyptic story, and I completely got one in Stormland! I loved that the story made me feel the danger from the weather, from the travel, and from the people. It created a heart racing, edge-of-your-seat roller-coaster ride that I didn’t want to get off of.

I really enjoyed the characters. They fill the story out. The storm is always there, it might get quiet for a bit, but it always comes back, and I felt like I could rely on that throughout the story. The characters though, there was so much surprise, change, and growth, it complimented the steadiness of the roaring weather really well.

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e-book on tray

Endemic by D.M. Taylor

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Rating: 5 out of 5.
Copy of Science Fiction with pink background and oversized moon with reflection in water

This book weaves the lives of two people and one family together in such a thrilling way! I loved the perspective of the three main characters. I kept bouncing all over the place about what was actually going on, and I didn’t really understand until the end, so I got to enjoy all the surprises!

Endemic is the second book in D.M. Taylor’s time travel thriller series. Endemic picks up where The Reckoning left off, following the same main characters as they work for the secret government agency, The Patriot Party.

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