Author: Holly Black


Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Review: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories Edited by Stephanie Perkins

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I received this book for free from St. Martin's Griffin in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories Edited by Stephanie PerkinsMy True Love Gave To Me by Ally Carter, David Levithan, Gayle Forman, Holly Black, Jenny Han, Kelly Link, Kiersten White, Laini Taylor, Matt De La Pena, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on October 14th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Romance, YA
Source: St. Martin's Griffin
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four-stars

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

I love the holidays, so when I was approached about reviewing this book I couldn’t pass it up. I also always love “feel good” stories and knew this would be filled with them. It didn’t disappoint. It has twelve different stories having to do with the holidays written by an amazing variety of authors. No matter what holiday you celebrate, this book will make you smile. Some even had me tearing up with happy tears. I always really have a hard time reviewing anthologies because I don’t want to have a review that is super long or too short, but I am going to try to do it as good as I can, but be assured, this is a book you want to read around the holidays or any time of year.

In this book we get stories about family, friends, romance, and just stuff that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Each story feels so full and lets you get to know the characters and their story enough so that you care what happens. It is always a pleasure when short stories can tell such a complete story that you are satisfied in such a small amount of words. I enjoyed each and every story in this book whether it was about getting a Christmas tree, getting that New Years Eve kiss, or making holiday magic through the joy of food. We even get a story about a sort of faerie, though it’s not really called that. Either way, we get a range of typical holiday stories and ones that include fantasy and magic. I don’t really want to get into each story and make this super long, but there is something for everyone in this book.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or other holidays, this story has a bit of everything. The best thing is since it’s short stories, you can read one quick story or read them all. When I am really enjoying a story, I don’t like to put it down until I finish. With this, I could finish a complete story rather quickly and not feel like I was missing something until I could get back to it. Not only is this book fabulous to read for yourself, it would also make a great gift for any of the readers in your life. So even though I haven’t gone much into the details of this book, it’s really great and I have a lot of love for it. Some of the stories I really loved, and some I just liked, but all together it was fantastic! Buy it for yourself or someone else. You won’t regret it.

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Posted by on 01/28/2015 • 14 Comments

It’s been a while since I have read a fae book so I thought it was time. Besides that, I bought this when I went to the release day launch at a local book store and the little parts that the author read had me really wanting to read it. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t one that will go on my favorites list. The main character was really great and I loved that we discover her secrets and the truth about herself along with her. I really loved the writing too, it was very beautiful and descriptive. The fae world always intrigues me, and I loved getting to visit Faerieland. It’s enjoyable to read about fae when they are portrayed the way old folklore does it. As the creepy…

Review: The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

Review: The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

Posted by on 08/18/2014 • 24 Comments

I really wanted to love this one, and I could almost give it a 3-star after the fascinating twist at the end, but I just can’t. For the most part, I couldn’t stop seeing the glaring parallels with Harry Potter which annoyed me endlessly. I’m not one to roll my eyes at similar storylines – I don’t curse all MG novels about magic school for being Harry Potter rip-offs, but there are only so many similarities I can tolerate.

So let’s see, we have this kid, Call, who was marked at birth by the most evil of its kind – someone corrupted by his desire to become immortal (called the Enemy of Death but I call him Ed, sounds much more ominous don’t you think?). When Call gets to magic…

Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Posted by on 08/19/2013 • 35 Comments

“What are they? Are they diseased or demonic? Are they citizens who have become ill, deserving hospitals and care, as some have argued? Or are they the bodies of our loved ones animated by some dark force that we ought to seek to destroy?”

And here I thought originality was gone from vampire stories! It takes none other than Holly Black to prove me wrong. Coldest Girl in Coldtown is not only unique, it’s a fun, exciting story full of horror and blood with a little flair of post apocalyptic.

Ever since a sudden outbreak of vampirism spread throughout the world, vampires are out and feared; even though they’re kept quarantined in gated cities, you’re never quite safe from the stray ones. Tana learns how true this is when…

Review: Doll Bones by Holly Black

Review: Doll Bones by Holly Black

Posted by on 05/06/2013 • 30 Comments

Holly Black is one of few who can write something as cute as it is creepy!

Doll Bones is a Middle Grade novel that is full of adventure and friendship–really the only type of MG books I read and enjoy. It’s the story of Zach, Poppy, and Alice who have been friends for such a long time that their friendship feels familiar even to us. I immediately felt attuned to their mutual trust and support. Not giving in when the other kids laughed at them for playing with action figures. But then one day the game got a little bit more real, and it involves a creepy devil doll who is made of little girl bones!

“Her clay was made from human bones. Little girl bones. That hair threaded…

Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Posted by on 09/19/2011 • 5 Comments

White Cat (Curse Workers, #1)Holly BlackFirst published January 1st, 2010

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something….