Gabriella M Reads

For as long as I can remember every time I went over to my best friend's house, the television show FRIENDS would be playing as a kind of background noise. I caught a few episodes here and there, but it wasn't until it was on Netflix that I finally began to watch it. Of course I texted my best friend every single thought I had along the way, no matter what time it was. So when Mariam tagged me for this post, I was crazy stoked about it! Here we go! "So no one told you life was gonna be this way." - A book which surprised you. I was pleasantly surprised by The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley and I don't think I'll ever stop pushing this book on people. It's an adult contemporary about a man facing a tough decision in regards to his wife's care. That's all I'm willing to say.  However, I know that a lot of people my age read young adult more than they do adult so I'll also mention The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer. I recently...

Tucson Festival of Books March 12th & 13th of 2016 If you've been around for a while, then you'll know that last year I went to the Tucson Festival of Books for the very first time and had an absolute blast. I've been waiting for it to be time again ever since. I never knew that my city hosted an event full of my people, crazy right? This year was absolutely amazing and I am left waiting for the same great experience next year. Day one I went with my cousin and his girlfriend as we all planned to see R.L. Stine . My favorite quote from his presentation happened to come after some story telling, "I always make up my true stories." This earned a laugh from the audience. Afterwards, the plan was to meet him and get my copy of Eye Candy signed, but after 45 minutes in line we gave up. Turned out that his line was going to be around 3 hours long and I had other things to do! It's still quite the bummer though. While I stopped at the Sweet Sixteens ...

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken 5 Stars The Darkest Minds was the Better Read Than Dead book club pick for February 2016 and boy did I enjoy it. For those of you who don't know a "disease" swept through the country and seemed to only affect children. Those who survived were not the same afterwards and thus were sent away. I found the beginning to be a little slow and was unsure about my feelings toward our main character, Ruby. However, when we were introduced to Liam and his eclectic bunch I just could not put it down. It's safe to say that I loved him. Maybe a little too much. Lol. I found Zu to be absolutely precious and also quite the mystery. I was drawn to her partially because we knew so little about her. Chubs however, rubbed me the wrong way for a good amount of the novel. He did eventually grow on me, so I encourage you to hold out hope. One character that I had severe mixed feeling for was Clance. He pulled me in so much, but my brain w...

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood 5 Stars To start off, I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me with yet another lovely novel. I went into this book thinking it was basically about some family curse where the women die young and talented. I was wrong. This is a contemporary novel that, in my opinion, centers around family issues, finding your voice, and acceptance. Boy did I eat it up. I found our main character, Ivy, to be smart, strong-willed, but also a tad whiny. I understand her issues, believe me, you will too. But sometimes I just wanted to scream at her for not speaking up when she truly needed to. It was one of the most frustrating things and often it had to do with her grandad. I absolutely adored Grace and Ella. I hope you will as well. These two, while young, can really teach you something. On to my least favorite characters. I wasn't a huge fan of Alex, he seemed quite possessive, but maybe if there is a future book, he can redeem himself. My most...

Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider 5 Stars I am so incredibly happy that I was able to read this book early. Thank you so, so much to NetGalley and the publisher for "granting my wish". Summer of Sloane is a novel about friendship, betrayal, forgiveness, and finding yourself. I'm not going to say what, but a huge bomb was dropped right on the first page. WHAT?! I wasn't sure where it was going to go, but I needed to find out.  The characters all felt very real and relatable in a sense and I found that quite refreshing. I will say I found myself very angry at Mick throughout the whole novel. The actions of this character just rubbed me the wrong way, but also it felt like that was intentional so it's not a bad thing. My favorite character had to be Finn. He was charming and funny, he just pulled me in from the very start. As I got to know more about him, I loved him even more. A book from his perspective would be welcomed with open arms. *wink wink* ...

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall 5 Stars Around Valentine's day I was looking for a super cute read and so I picked up A Little Something Different. The title definitely fits. If you don't already know this is a love story and it is told from fourteen different perspectives, none of which are the actual couple. I must say, while that is a lot of vantage points, there was only one that bothered me. Her name is Hillary and boy did she just rub me the wrong way. Other than that, I enjoyed them all. I especially loved the meddling friends and the creative writing professor (the squirrel was cute too). Now on to the actual story. While I did give it 5 stars because I enjoyed it overall, I had no idea it was going to be full of so many near misses! It was incredibly frustrating, but I guess that's what you get when you don't have "instalove". Gabe and Lea were both so adorable and the connection was there. I just would have liked to see them as a co...

Holding Court by K.C. Held 5 Stars Holding Court caught my attention because the description seemed so different. A book about a girl working in a castle who finds a body? Not to mention her "PTS", wow. I needed to see what this was all about and I'm glad I did. I found myself falling in love with Juliet, her gran, and yes, Grayson Chandler (There's an obvious need to use his full name once you read it). I can tell you Juliet's gran is absolutely hilarious. Back to the story, the focus of Holding Court is this mystery of who died and where did the body go? Even though I kind of figured out who did it around halfway through, it was still entertaining and I didn't know 100% that my suspect was indeed the guilty party until it was revealed. Bottom line, I could not put it down. I needed to know who had done the deed and I was also rooting for a certain couple. K.C. wove together an intriguing mystery that's also hilarious and adorable at the same time....