L-L-L-Little Reviews #70: December 2024 – Part 2 – Non-Holiday Reads

Here are the books I read this past month that were not part of scheduled reviews and are not holiday themed!

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
Narrator: Isabella Star LaBlanc
Published by Macmillan Audio on May 2, 2023
Genres: YA Mystery
Length: 11:32
Source: the library
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Barnes & Noble, Buy on Audible
My Rating:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter comes a thrilling YA mystery about a Native teen who must find a way to bring an ancestor home to her tribe.
Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.
Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.
But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.
Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right – for the ancestors and for their community.
Runtime: 11 hours 32 minutes

My Review:

This was another audio I listened to for the possible Gateway Award nominees. And boy was I blown away! I had really wanted to read the author’s first book when it came out. I think I even bought it through the Book of the Month Club when I belonged. But I have yet to read it. I believe it deals with characters from this story too, so now I have to go back and read it. This book kept surprising me over and over and over! There were twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and they kept coming even when I thought I knew where the story was going. They went in ways I didn’t see, but totally made sense. And it even was surprising when we found out the culprit, because I believed it was someone else! I can’t wait to share this book with my students and wow, I highly recommend it!

What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile #1) by Isabel Ibanez

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez
Series: Secrets of the Nile #1
Published by Wednesday Books on October 31, 2023
Genres: YA Fantasy, YA Historical Fiction
Pages: 416
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Barnes & Noble, Buy on Audible
My Rating:

Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.
When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and an ancient golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.
With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.
The Mummy meets Death on the Nile in this lush, immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race.

My review:

This was one of my Book of the Month purchases before I finally cancelled my membership since I never seemed to get around to reading these books on my shelves! I still have several I can’t quite seem to get rid of, because I just KNOW, lol, that I’m going to read them some day. Anyway, I ended up really, really liking this one! So much that I immediately went and ordered the sequel on Amazon with Christmas money I got. Not that I’ll probably read it right away, lol. I have always been intrigued with Egyptian history just like the main character, Inez. For part of my young life, probably before I got in high school and remembered my love of science, I wanted to be an Egyptologist. There was so much interesting history, and the little magical aspect of the story was unique and fun as well. There was a lot of betrayal and back and forth of not knowing who to trust. There were people I wondered about, people who won me over and then maybe betrayed. And then people she didn’t trust that I just couldn’t see that they were the bad guys no matter what others kept saying. It was a bit of a cliffhanger with the betrayal letter/chapter at the very end, so I may get to this one. I will end up donating my copies to my school library as I I probably won’t read them again, but still a good read!

Stealing Second (Lucky Charms #2) by Michelle Sodaro

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Stealing Second by Michelle Sodaro
Series: Lucky Charms #2
on May 19, 2017
Genres: Adult Sports Romance
Pages: 358
Source: the author
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Barnes & Noble
My Rating:

Stacey Adams has been in love with her best friend, Chris Jasper since way before he was a shortstop for the Kansas City Royals. Jasper loves baseball and hanging out with his friends, never taking life too seriously. Then a surprise from the past shakes up his world and a kiss that started out as a joke, won the Royals the game and has his whole team calling Stacey his lucky charm.
Book Two of the Lucky Charms series has the whole gang from First Down trying to get the Royals to the World Series, if Chris doesn't manage to screw everything up in the process.

My Review

Okay, this is going to be a very short review. Because this is my friend, it is harder to review. The story is good. I just still had a little trouble with some of the third person POV and not having separations when it would skip from one scene to another or one character to another. However I still enjoyed the story as I said, loved little Lilly and her collecting money every time someone would use a bad word. Loved how they started saying Hello Kitty instead of hell or asphalt instead of you guessed it, ass. Will be reading on in the series to see how the next romance goes. For sure you have to read all of these in order, they aren’t standalone like other similar series, as you get parts of all the characters’ stories intertwined throughout and might be confused if you hadn’t read the book before.

A Long Stretch of Bad Days by Mindy McGinnis

A Long Stretch of Bad Days by Mindy McGinnis
Narrator: Brittany Presley
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on March 14, 2023
Genres: YA Mystery
Length: 09:08
Source: the library
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Barnes & Noble, Buy on Audible
My Rating:

From award-winning author Mindy McGinnis comes a thrilling and gripping YA mystery about a small town's past and the secrets unearthed by way of two teen girls—and a podcast. Perfect for fans of Sadie, The Cheerleaders, and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
A lifetime of hard work has put Lydia Chass on track to attend a prestigious journalism program and leave Henley behind—until a school error leaves her a credit short of graduating.
Bristal Jamison has a bad reputation and a foul mouth, but she also needs one more credit to graduate. An unexpected partnership forms as the two remake Lydia's town history podcast to investigate the Long Stretch of Bad Days—a week when Henley was hit by a tornado, a flash flood, as well as its first, only, and unsolved murder.
As their investigation unearths buried secrets, some don't want them to see the light. When the threats escalate, the girls have to uncover the truth before the dark history of Henley catches up with them.

My Review:

Yet another listen for the Gateway nominee list. And once again I was hooked and loved it! I find that I don’t read a ton of mystery, but I’ve listened to quite a few YA ones for the Gateway lists and end up really liking them. This one had lots of twists and unexpected turns, even a betrayal that was worse than even expected. The two girls having to work together and overcome their issues with each other made for a great storyline besides the whole mystery. This author has had other books on the nominee list in years past, and some have won the student vote, so I can see this one making it as well!

Hot Winter Nights (Bear Mountain Rescue #1) by Codi Gary

Hot Winter Nights by Codi Gary, James Patterson
Series: Bear Mountain Rescue #1
Published by BookShots on December 6, 2016
Genres: Adult Romance
Pages: 137
Source: Stripped cover
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Barnes & Noble, Buy on Audible
My Rating:

The Bear Mountain days are cold, but the nights are steamy....
Allie Fairchild made a mistake when she moved to Montana. Her rental is a mess, her coworkers at the trauma center are hostile, and her handsome landlord, Dex Belmont, is far from charming. But just when she's about to throw in the towel, life in Bear Mountain takes a surprisingly sexy turn....
BookShots FlamesOriginal romances presented by JAMES PATTERSONNovels you can devour in a few hoursImpossible to stop reading

My Review:

Okay, so I have had this book since the year it came out. When they published these little “book shot” novels/novellas, they sold them for pretty cheap, like $4.99. I was working at the bookstore and we were able to take the paperback books that they were told to send back, because they only tore the covers off to send back and then threw the rest of the book away. I grabbed this one. At the time I hadn’t read this author. Since that time I’ve fallen in love with her holiday rom-coms, and so when I pulled this to fit in quickly before the end of the year and saw it was by her, I knew I had to read it. It wasn’t bad, had some of the humor I expect from her, but also was just a quick romance. I figured there must have been a second book which I didn’t grab, and now I wish I had, because I know one of the characters that it is about is one I would love to read his HEA! A quick romantic read.