Book Review: The International House of Dereliction by Jacqueline Davies

The International House of Dereliction by Jacqueline Davies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This middle-grade read was SO CUTE. I really enjoyed reading about Alice fixing a house and helping the ghosts haunting the house move on. I almost cried reading this book, I laughed and giggled throughout the entire thing, and on top of that, I really cared about the characters as they tried to help one another with the thing they lost, and it wasn't that scary at all. It was just right, and I'm really surprised at how much I really loved this book. I wish there were more because of how much I really enjoyed this book. I didn't want it to end at all.

My favorite ghost in the book had to be Mugwort. At first, he was a bit grumpy and was repeating himself, but then he opened himself up to Alice more and more and even told her that she would make a fine soldier for everything she was doing for them. Danny had to be the sweetest ghost of them all, even though he hid in the walls and wailed all the time. I really liked how he put his poetry into code and Alice found someone who could encode it for her so Jenny, the girl Danny was crushing on, could read it. And I almost held my breath when Alice and Ivy went upstairs to retrieve Ivy's old book that she didn't turn in, but at least it was turned in when they fought off the Fury...which turned out to be a really old family member.

The mother and father in the book cracked me up a little bit while I was reading it, including the Mother's lectures, the titles were quite enjoyable and it made me wish I was there to actually listen to the lectures. As for the dad, he reminded me of my own daddy and how he would fix stuff or start a new project when he could. And I really loved Alice and how she had the mind and knack to put things back together again, that is something I've never seen in a character before.

I highly reconmend this book, it was really good and I enjoyed myself very much reading it.

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Book Review: Death Overdue: A Haunted Library Mystery by Allison Brook

Death Overdue by Allison Brook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book when I read it as an audiobook. I gave it three stars because I felt like the narrator took me out of the story for just a bit, and the story was so cozy and sometimes a bit boring. I think if I read it physically or on my Kindle it would've been better and I would've enjoyed myself. But anyway, this one is about Carrie Singleton, who moves back to Clover Ridge and is living with her aunt and uncle, and is also working at the local library. When she's called into the head librarian's office and is offered a new position at the job. When she was about to open her mouth to turn it down, that's when someone in her ear told her to think about it. When she did, that's when things started to change in her life.

After a day of thinking about it, she accepted the position of Head of Programs and Events, and thanks to the ghostly help, along with gaining a rival, Carrie is starting to enjoy living at Clover Ridge. Her first event is an ex-cop named Al Buckley, who claims that he has new evidence about the murder of Laura Foster. During the event, Al got poisoned and died, thus leaving Carrie feeling sorry for herself for even having the event.

While she was feeling sorry for herself, she teams up with Jared Foster to find out who killed Al and his mother, all the while she's settling down, getting a cottage that's not that far from town, almost working with Evelyn, the ghost who haunts the library, to find out who did it and why. When she found out who did it at a house party, I was kinda surprised, but at the same time, I wasn't. I thought it was Ryan, Jared's brother, because of how uncomfortable he made me and Carrie. Dylan was just...Dylan, to be honest.

But if I read this again physically, I think I would've enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. The voice just took me out of the book, and the ending shocked me a little bit.

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Book Review: Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone who read this book said they either get hungry because of the food descriptions, or the action in it. BUT NO ONE WARNED ME ABOUT PRINCE WRATH. Nope. Not a one. In my head, Wrath is Wrath from the Black Dagger Brotherhood. But this Wrath? Mr. I Have A Golden On My Arm, I Am Basically War, has the sass of Hellsing Ultimate Abridged!Alucard with the elegance of the Castlevania Alucard? All y'all fired. I'M SO MAD THAT EMILIA DIDN'T WIFE THIS MAN UP IN A HEARTBEAT. I loved this book so much-the magic, the summoning, the demons, all of it. It was so much fun, and the shocking part about everything was Prince Envy being the villain. I didn't even pick him up as the villain, but he was just *chef's kiss* beautiful in the book.

The food in the book made my mouth WATER. I wanted to sit at the restaurant and eat all that good food-that's how much I loved it. I even cracked up when Wrath discovered the magical dessert of cannolis before they were attacked by the demon.

The Prince's powers and how each of them uses them were very interesting. I wanted to know more about the rest of them, but I don't think I wanna know more about Lust's powers, because I felt like he violated Emilia to forget and to have fun without her consent-that's the only thing I didn't like about it. Other than that, I loved how Greed's power worked and how Envy worked. I also liked how the magic worked in the Kingdom of Italy. I wasn't even expecting the Church (did I? Did I though?) or the priest that both Emilia and Vittoria knew would betray them. I was honestly expecting something else.

I think my favorite part about the whole entire book was the summoning part. I really, really enjoyed them summoning part. And the mystery of what happened to Vittoria was very spot-on. I was following along with Wrath and Emilia to find out who did it and why they did it. I cannot wait to dig into book two to read more and cross my fingers that Wrath and Emilia gets together. If not, then I'M WIFING UP WRATH.

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Book Review: All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I first read Murderbot in May, I felt like I wasn't going to like the series because of the narrator-he was too clunky in my opinion. But when I finally read it-OH MY GOD. I loved it. Every bit of it. Murderbot was the funniest character I've ever encountered in my whole life, and on top of that, I loved the action, I loved how Murderbot interacted with the people they were looking after, and I also loved how sweet it was each time Dr. Mensah cared for Murderbot.

I would die for Murderbot because of how they were blunt, straightforward, and actually caring at the same time, even though they don't care about anything, and all they wanna do is live their best life watching their serials and not give a damn about pretty much all humans.

I also liked how serious Dr. Mensah was throughout the whole entire thing. She was smart and straight to the point, and she made sure everyone was alright during the entire mission. I really liked the fact that she was also trying to understand Murderbot when they didn't want to know anyone at all. But their friendship bloomed into a friendship of understanding and the ending...it did gut me though because I wasn't even expecting it.

I thought that they were going to stay with them once they were brought from their contract, and they just up and left and left Dr. Mensah the entire recording of their mission, which made me sad a bit, but it's okay, because it left me wanting more and I need to know more. I can't wait to read the next book to see where this takes me, because its SO GOOD.

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