Fire and Heist
by Sarah Beth Durst

Synopsis:
In Sky Hawkins's family, leading your first heist is a major milestone--even more so than learning to talk, walk, or do long division. It's a chance to gain power and acceptance within your family, and within society. But stealing your first treasure can be complicated, especially when you're a wyvern--a human capable of turning into a dragon.

Embarking on a life of crime is never easy, and Sky discovers secrets about her mother, who recently went missing, the real reason her boyfriend broke up with her, and a valuable jewel that could restore her family's wealth and rank in their community.

Mini-Reviews: Some Mystery Books

In case you haven't notice with my recent reviews, I am slowly but surely becoming a mystery fan. So here are some more mystery books that I finished this year:

Review: Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
by Arwen Elys Dayton

Synopsis:

For fans of television shows Black Mirror and Westworld, this compelling, mind-bending novel is a twisted look into the future, exploring how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimen and what it means to be human at all.

Set in our world, spanning the near to distant futures, Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a novel made up of six interconnected stories that ask how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimens, and how hard that will push the definition of "human."

PH Blog Tour: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao (Review+Giveaway)

I have immensely adored Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (FoTL) so I am more than happy to be part of the crew of Filipino bloggers to promote it’s sequel, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix (KoBP).

Kudos to Erika of The Nocturnal Fey and Rafael of The Royal Polar Bear Reads who organized this blog tour and who also hosted a successful Twitter party last October 27. Check the hashtag #FPBChat to see what went down with that online event graced by Julie C. Dao’s presence herself.

But first, let’s check what Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix is all about.

Review: The Witch Elm by Tana French

The Witch Elm
by Tana French

Synopsis:
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life: he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

Review: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light
by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis:
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

Review: The Lady Killer by Masako Togawa

The Lady Killer
by Masako Togawa
Translated from Japanese by Simon Grove

Synopsis:
A dizzying tale of lust and murder, from one of Japan’s greatest mystery writers.

A hunter prowls the night spots of Shinjuku
But he’s the one walking into a trap…

Ichiro Honda leads a double life: by day a devoted husband and a diligent worker, by night he moves through the shadow world of Tokyo’s cabaret bars and nightclubs in search of vulnerable women to seduce and then abandon. But when a trail of bodies seems to appear in his wake, the hunter becomes the prey and Ichiro realises he has been caught in a snare. Has he left it too late to free himself before time runs out?

10 Author-Character Lookalikes

Photo by elen aivali on Unsplash

CONFESSION TIME! The main reason that I am not big in participating book events is because I am extremely uncomfortable mingling with crowds of strangers. On the few book events that I have attended and recapped here on the blog, my sister was always with me. (Sissy, I love you. You are my rock.) I cannot always drag her to events tho. Thus one time, I braved going to a panel ALONE and WHAT HORROR! I was a BIG panicky mess inside. I was calming myself, taking deep breaths and half-wishing that I become invisible the entire time. The Gryffindor in me managed to ask questions to the panel and to quickly say hi to some book bloggers but the ordeal exhausted me so much to the point that on the way home tears are leaking incessantly down my face for no apparent reason. I am not certain if that was just my chronic shyness or if I am suffering from a case of social anxiety disorder (Full disclosure: I am not diagnosed). One thing I’m sure of is I don’t intend for a public meltdown to happen anytime soon. SO HELLO HERMIT LIFE!

Review: What They Don't Know by Nicole Maggi

What They Don't Know
by Nicole Maggi

Synopsis:
Three secrets. One decision. A friendship that will change everything.

Mellie has always been the reliable friend, the good student, the doting daughter. But when an unspeakable act leads her to withdraw from everyone she loves, she is faced with a life-altering choice―a choice she must face alone.

Lise stands up―and speaks out―for what she believes in. And when she notices Mellie acting strangely, she gets caught up in trying to save her...all while trying to protect her own secret. One that might be the key to helping Mellie.

Review: The Second Life of Ava Rivers by Faith Gardner

The Second Life of Ava Rivers
by Faith Gardner

Synopsis:
Ava's disappearance was the crack in the Rivers family glacier. I wish I could explain to you how we were before, but I can't, because the before is so filmy and shadowed with the after.

The after is all Vera remembers. When her twin sister, Ava, disappeared one Halloween night, her childhood became a blur of theories, tips, and leads, but never any answers. The case made headlines, shocked Vera's Northern California community, and turned her family into tragic celebrities.

Wandering Thoughts: Why one-star ratings are rare among book bloggers?

Wandering Thoughts is where I let my mind stray, think and talk about non-routine things. This is an avenue for bookish personal stories, fun posts, musings and discussions.

Review: We Regret to Inform You by Ariel Kaplan

We Regret to Inform You
by Ariel Kaplan

Synopsis:
Mischa Abramavicius is a walking, talking, top-scoring, perfectly well-rounded college application in human form. So when she's rejected not only by the Ivies, but her loathsome safety school, she is shocked and devastated. All the sacrifices her mother made to send her to prep school, the late nights cramming for tests, the blatantly resume-padding extracurriculars (read: Students for Sober Driving) ... all that for nothing.

As Mischa grapples with the prospect of an increasingly uncertain future, she questions how this could have happened in the first place. Is it possible that her transcript was hacked? With the help of her best friend and sometimes crush, Nate, and a group of eccentric techies known as "The Ophelia Syndicate," Mischa launches an investigation that will shake the quiet community of Blanchard Prep to its stately brick foundations.

Review: Fresh Ink: An Anthology by Lamar Giles

Fresh Ink: An Anthology
Edited by Lamar Giles

Synopsis:
In partnership with We Need Diverse Books, thirteen of the most recognizable, diverse authors come together in this remarkable YA anthology featuring ten short stories, a graphic short story, and a one-act play from Walter Dean Myers never before in-print.

Careful--you are holding fresh ink. And not hot-off-the-press, still-drying-in-your-hands ink. Instead, you are holding twelve stories with endings that are still being written--whose next chapters are up to you.

Because these stories are meant to be read. And shared.

10 Fluff Books to Get You Out of a Reading Slump

I know we all have differing reading tastes. But hear me out as I make a case that fluff books are the best kind of books  to pull you out from a reading slump.

Say Hello to My 2018 Favorite Book Blogs!

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

I mentioned before that I want to put up a blogroll on my sidebar. It's a bit of a difficult process of culling a handful of book blogs when we all know that there are lots and lots of amazing book bloggers out there. Rest assured that this is not an all-inclusive list of book bloggers that I read from, but more of a list of my current personal book blogging idols. They made this list because I am a fan of the overall personality of their blogs, or their ability to read hundreds of books a year, or I enjoy reading their book reviews, or they have unique trailblazing content, or they organize blog events that are relevant for the reading community.

PH Blog Tour: 4 Important Messages From Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? by Holly Bourne + Giveaway

I admire and respect Holly Bourne for tackling topics of mental health in her YA books. She did it with aplomb in “Am I Normal Yet?” and she’s done it again with her newest title, “Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes?” It cannot be stressed enough how books like these are so relevant for diverse representation and oh so helpful in breaking the the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Review: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

The Incendiaries
by R.O. Kwon

Synopsis:
"In dazzlingly acrobatic prose, R. O. Kwon explores the lines between faith and fanaticism, passion and violence, the rational and the unknowable." —Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere.

A shocking novel of violence, love, faith, and loss, as a young woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2018 by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Time, Parade, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, PBS, Vulture, Buzzfeed, BookRiot, PopSugar, Refinery29, Bustle, The Rumpus, Paste, and BBC.

Review: The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

The Cheerleaders
by Kara Thomas

Synopsis:
There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.


That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

Review: So Glad to Meet You by Lisa Super

So Glad to Meet You
by Lisa Super

Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Daphne Bowman, a bookish drama nerd in public school, might never have crossed paths with Oliver, the popular, outgoing mascot for his private school's football team, but one event has bound them inextricably. Daphne's older sister, Emily, and Oliver's older brother, Jason, who were high school sweethearts, committed suicide together seven years earlier.

When Daphne uncovers Emily and Jason's bucket list—a list comprised of their "Top Ten" places to visit before they die—she knows she has to tell someone. The one person who might actually get what she's going through and who might not think it's silly that she wants to complete the list, is also someone she's never spoken to—Oliver Pagano. Throwing caution to the wind, Daphne sends Oliver a Facebook message that will come to change the course of both of their senior years—and maybe their entire lives.

Wandering Thoughts: I Am Proud of My Own Blog Design

Wandering Thoughts is where I let my mind stray, think and talk about non-routine things. This is an avenue for bookish personal stories, fun posts, musings and discussions.

Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver

by Naomi Novik

Synopsis:

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand. nd up finding what they never knew they needed—each other.

Wandering Thoughts: Why I Don’t Bookstagram, But Now I Think I Should

Photo: Pixabay

Wandering Thoughts is where I let my mind stray, think and talk about non-routine things. This is an avenue for bookish personal stories, fun posts, musings and discussions.

Review: Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

Tell the Machine Goodnight
by Katie Williams

Synopsis:
Pearl's job is to make people happy. Every day, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion?

Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of "pursuit of happiness." As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett--but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job--not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either.

PH Blog Tour: Films That Remind Me of LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff

Listen up, sprogs! Today is the glorious day of my stop for the PH Blog Tour of LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff and I am so excited to welcome you all. Huge thank you to Rafael of The Royal Polar Bear Reads for hosting. 

Reading is like watching a film in your head using the author’s words and your own imagination, true cert'. So for my stop, I will be dishing out a list of 20C virtch that are a lot like reading LIKEL1K3. Fizzy, eh? (Ok guys, sorry if I am using too much of the book slang here. Blame book hangover.)

Review: The Good Son by You-jeong Jeong

The Good Son
by You-jeong Jeong
Translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim

Synopsis:
The Talented Mr. Ripley meets The Bad Seed in this breathless, chilling psychological thriller by the bestselling novelist known as "Korea's Stephen King" 

Who can you trust if you can't trust yourself?

Early one morning, twenty-six-year-old Yu-jin wakes up to a strange metallic smell, and a phone call from his brother asking if everything's all right at home - he missed a call from their mother in the middle of the night. Yu-jin soon discovers her murdered body, lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs of their stylish Seoul duplex. He can't remember much about the night before; having suffered from seizures for most of his life, Yu-jin often has trouble with his memory. All he has is a faint impression of his mother calling his name. But was she calling for help? Or begging for her life?

Review: The History of Jane Doe by Michael Belanger

The History of Jane Doe
by Michael Belanger

Synopsis:
A poignant, deeply funny coming-of-age story about first love, first loss, and the power of history to give life meaning.

History buff Ray knows everything about the peculiar legends and lore of his rural Connecticut hometown. Burgerville's past is riddled with green cow sightings and human groundhogs, but the most interesting thing about the present is the new girl--we'll call her Jane Doe.

Inscrutable, cool, and above all mysterious, Jane seems as determined to hide her past as Ray is to uncover it. As fascination turns to friendship and then to something more, Ray is certain he knows Jane's darkest, most painful secrets and Jane herself--from past to present. But when the unthinkable happens, Ray is forced to acknowledge that perhaps history can only tell us so much.

Review: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

The Kiss Quotient
by Helen Hoang

Synopsis:
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice--with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan--from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Wandering Thoughts: Things That I Inadvertently Revealed About Myself in the Blog

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

Wandering Thoughts is where I let my mind stray, think and talk about non-routine things. This is an avenue for bookish personal stories, fun posts, musings and discussions.

The Slytherin in me loves to win in blogging by having interaction in the comments so I am going to link up this post in both the Book Blogger Hop and Discussion Challenge.

Blog Tour: Always Forever Maybe by Anica Mrose Riss (Review+Fave Quotes+Giveaway)

Welcome to my stop for the blog tour of Always Forever Maybe by Anica Mrose Riss.

Thanks Fantastic Flying Book Club for organizing the blog tour.

Page vs. Screen: The Girl on the Train + Me Before You

I just discovered Book Blogger Hop hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addict Writer and decided that I want to join in. It's a weekly meme where you answer the question of the week in a post, link it to the host, and visit other participants' answers.

This week (May 18th - 24th), the question is "What were your worst movies based off of books?"

Review: The Pisces by Melissa Broder

The Pisces
by  Melissa Broder

Synopsis:
An original, imaginative, and hilarious debut novel about love, anxiety, and sea creatures, from the author of So Sad Today.

Lucy has been writing her dissertation about Sappho for thirteen years when she and Jamie break up. After she hits rock bottom in Phoenix, her Los Angeles-based sister insists Lucy housesit for the summer—her only tasks caring for a beloved diabetic dog and trying to learn to care for herself. Annika’s home is a gorgeous glass cube atop Venice Beach, but Lucy can find no peace from her misery and anxiety—not in her love addiction group therapy meetings, not in frequent Tinder meetups, not in Dominic the foxhound’s easy affection, not in ruminating on the ancient Greeks. Yet everything changes when Lucy becomes entranced by an eerily attractive swimmer one night while sitting alone on the beach rocks.

Wandering Thoughts: Bookworm Superpowers That I Don't Have

Photo by Raj Eiamworakul on Unsplash

Wandering Thoughts is where I let my mind stray, think and talk about non-routine things. This is an avenue for bookish personal stories, fun posts, musings and discussions.

Are you aware that there are highly evolved people with heightened reading abilities walking amongst us? I am here to expose them and gripe about how come I have none whatsover of these bookworm superpowers.

My 2018 Book Blog Discussion Challenge Sign-Up Post

Hello book wanderers! How are your weekends going so far? Are you comfortably settled on your reading nook with a book on hand? You might have noticed that I've been solely posting book reviews since the beginning of 2018 and I feel that my blog is becoming too bland because of that. So to add some spice to Rurouni Jenni Reads, I decided to sign-up to the 2018 Discussion Challenge. Last year, I also joined this challenge and it's a great experience for me mainly because discussion posts get more interaction than review posts. I aimed the Discussion Dabbler level (1-10 discussion posts) and I was able to do 7, so Achievement Unlocked! Yay for me!

Review: Neanderthal Opens The Door To The Universe by Preston Norton

Neanderthal Opens The Door To The Universe
by Preston Norton

Synopsis:
Cliff Hubbard is a huge loser. Literally. His nickname at Happy Valley High School is Neanderthal because he's so enormous-6'6" and 250 pounds to be exact. He has no one at school and life in his trailer park home has gone from bad to worse ever since his older brother's suicide.

There's no one Cliff hates more than the nauseatingly cool quarterback, Aaron Zimmerman. Then Aaron returns to school after a near-death experience with a bizarre claim: while he was unconscious he saw God, who gave him a list of things to do to make Happy Valley High suck less. And God said there's only one person who can help: Neanderthal.

Review: Fatal Throne by Candace Fleming et al.

Fatal Throne
by Candace Fleming,  M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, Lisa Ann Sandell

Synopsis:
Fatal Throne, a book about Henry VIII and his six wives, coordinated by Candace Fleming. Fleming and six other authors will each contribute a story from different points of view: M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, and Lisa Ann Sandell.

Review: The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species
by Mindy McGinnis

Synopsis:
A contemporary YA novel that examines rape culture through alternating perspectives.

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it.

Three years ago, when her older sister, Anna, was murdered and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best—the language of violence. While her own crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people. Not with Jack, the star athlete who wants to really know her but still feels guilty over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered. And not with Peekay, the preacher’s kid with a defiant streak who befriends Alex while they volunteer at an animal shelter. Not anyone.

Review: The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik by David Arnold

The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik
by David Arnold 

Synopsis:
This is Noah Oakman → sixteen, Bowie believer, concise historian, disillusioned swimmer, son, brother, friend.

Then Noah → gets hypnotized.

Now Noah → sees changes—inexplicable scars, odd behaviors, rewritten histories—in all those around him. All except his Strange Fascinations . . .

Review: Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin

Paper Ghosts
by Julia Heaberlin

Synopsis:

Carl Louis Feldman is an old man who was once a celebrated photographer. That was before he was tried for the murder of a young woman and acquitted. before his admission to a care home for dementia. Now his daughter has come to see him, to take him on a trip. Only she's not his daughter and, if she has her way, he's not coming back . . .

Because Carl's past has finally caught up with him. The young woman driving the car is convinced her passenger is guilty, and that he's killed, other young women. Including her sister Rachel. Now they're following the trail of his photographs, his clues, his alleged crimes. To see if he remembers any of it. Confesses to any of it. To discover what really happened to Rachel. Has Carl truly forgotten what he did or is he just pretending? Perhaps he's guilty of nothing and she's the liar. Either way in driving him into the Texan wilderness she's taking a terrible risk. For if Carl really is a serial killer, she's alone in the most dangerous place of all . . .

Mini-Reviews: David Levithan Books

It just happened that I have three David Levithan books popping on my bookshelf so why not read and do mini-reviews with them?!

Mini-Reviews: #romanceclass titles

Hello you, it's time for another round of mini-reviews. I’ve been meaning to share some Filipino authors on the blog, so in this post I will say my thoughts on some of my #romanceclass reads.

Mini-Reviews: Complicated YA Heroines

Complicated characters make reading interesting. In this post of yet another mini-reviews, let me talk about backlist books with complicated Y.A. heroines.

Mini-Reviews: YA Backlist Titles # 1

Um yes, hi. I know there is no excuse and proper explanation for my unplanned absence these past few weeks, -er months, -er what?! Oh wow is 2017 over? Yeah, it seems so. And looking around the reading community, everyone seems pretty settled in with 2018 already. Well, except me of course. Gah, I wasn’t even able to make any New Year’s post or anything!

Okay, I will process and panic privately about this later. In the meantime, let me unceremoniously drop mini-reviews of some books that I’ve read while I was away from this blog. It’s my first time doing mini-reviews and it’s basically just bullet points of bookworm blabber, not my usual word wall style of reviews. You probably know how I’m a proponent of do-not-abandon-your-TBR-of-backlist-titles movement, so these mini-reviews are all for YA backlist books.