ARC Review: Poppy by Mary Hooper

Title: Poppy
Author: Mary Hooper
Publication Date: August 30, 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Format: eARC*
Goodreads | BookDepository

“England, 1914. Poppy is fifteen, beautiful and clever, but society has already carved out her destiny. There's no question of her attending more school; it's too expensive and unsuitable for a girl. Instead, Poppy will become a servant to the aristocratic de Vere family . . . and bury her feelings for their youngest son, Freddie. It doesn't matter that Freddie seems to have fallen just as hard for Poppy. He could never marry a girl like her.

But the set path for Poppy's life is irrevocably altered when it becomes clear that the war isn't going to be over soon. The chains of class, wealth, and her gender no longer matter--England needs every able bodied person to serve in battle in some way. Which, for Poppy, means volunteering on the front lines as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. As she experiences what people are capable of--the best of humanity and the very worst--Poppy will find an unexpected freedom and discover how to be truly her own person.”

Poppy and its sequel, Poppy In the Field, were previously published in the United Kingdom to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, and now Bloomsbury USA Childrens will publish Poppy on August 30. I haven’t come across much YA literature set during the First World War, so I was very excited to receive an eARC of Poppy via Netgalley.

The eponymous heroine of Poppy is Poppy Pearson, a parlor maid for a wealthy family at the beginning of the war who ends up enlisting as a volunteer nurse. This first book focuses mainly on the societal expectations of 1915 England, especially as it relates to an ill-advised romance between Poppy and Freddie, the son of the family for whom Poppy works. The class divide and its subsequent break down following the war is a constant theme of WWI literature, because it marks such a shift in British society. But Poppy, and all of England, is still beholden to the “above/below stairs” mentality that would prevent them from being together. The way society and class relations are portrayed in Poppy were so intriguing and well written that it was one of my favorite aspects of this book.

That Poppy becomes a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse is obviously the biggest draw into this story, and it was fascinating to learn about how these young women were trained and their experiences aiding soldiers. This book allows Poppy (and the reader through her) to acclimate to the often horrific injuries soldiers sustained at the front, but also the methods of treatment available at the time. The soldiers joke about the “tin shop” where doctors could perform facial reconstruction on soldiers, and there’s even mention of “Dottyville,” the nicknamed hospital where soldiers suffering from shell shock were sent, including famed poet Siegfried Sassoon.

All that being said, this felt like a filler book, since it’s just setting the stage and giving us enough background information for Poppy to be sent off to the front lines in the sequel, Poppy In the Field. I am intrigued to read the sequel, because I think it’ll provide some of the more action-oriented excitement missing in Poppy. Poppy as a protagonist was lovely, and I liked seeing her grow as a person and into her role as a nurse. I did find that nearly all of the other characters felt overly simple, and at times a bit too trope-ish for my taste.

Someone without much knowledge of World War I will undoubtedly learn a lot of good, basic information about the war and society at the time. However, as an historian who did her masters dissertation on WWI, I felt it was a bit heavy handed at times. The best way I can think of to describe this is that Poppy read quite like the old Dear America books that Scholastic published when I was growing up. An imaginary girl at a certain historical event kept a journal, and throughout the book it was like the author ticked points off a list, so that by the end you knew all about say, voluntary nurses in England during WWI! And a very similar effect is accomplished by reading Poppy. Did that lessen my enjoyment? Not really.

I think Poppy is a great book for those historical fiction fans who want to learn more about WWI, and it also does a great job of representing the experience of women, especially working class women, in England during the war. I’ll be eagerly anticipating the sequel, should Bloomsbury decide to publish it in the US.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ . 5

*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review. 

ARC Review: Hunter

Title: Hunter*
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Goodreads | Book Depository

“They came after the Diseray. Some were terrors ripped from our collective imaginations, remnants of every mythology across the world. And some were like nothing anyone had ever dreamed up, even in their worst nightmares. Monsters. Long ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were ripped open, and it’s taken centuries to bring back civilization in the wake of the catastrophe. Now, the luckiest Cits live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the hideous creatures fighting to break though. Others are not so lucky.

To Joyeaux Charmand, who has been a Hunter in her tight-knit mountain community since she was a child, every Cit without magic deserves her protection from dangerous Othersiders. Then she is called to Apex City, where the best Hunters are kept to protect the most important people. Joy soon realizes that they city’s powerful leaders care more about luring Cits into a false sense of security than protecting them. More and more monsters are getting through the barriers, and the close calls are becoming too frequent to ignore. Yet the Cits have no sense of how much danger they’re in – to them, Joy and her corps of fellow Hunters are just action stars they watch on TV. When an act of sabotage against Joy takes an unbearable toll, Joy uncovers a terrifying conspiracy in the city. There is something much worse than actual monsters infiltrating Apex. And it may be too late to stop them.”




For a very long time, I didn’t believe in DNFing books. I simply refused to quit, and would force myself to keep reading, even if I hated every line. As I’ve gotten older and taken my reading more seriously, I’ve come to realize that not every book needs to be finished. There are too many books that I want to read and will actually enjoy to waste my time trudging through books that I just don’t enjoy. Enter Hunter by Mercedes Lackey, stage right.

This book sounded intriguing, although I didn’t have quite so intricate of a synopsis with my ARC to go off of. Perhaps I would have been better prepared for the battle to come. Mercedes Lackey has written many, many books, of which I have read none. But I love female warrior protags and usually enjoy whatever Disney-Hyperion publishes, so I went in blind but with high hopes. This book was, in a word, awful. So awful in fact that I couldn’t even force myself to finish it. I had to DNF this book at a measly quarter of the way through. I did not read far enough to encounter any of the real plot conflict, or even more than a couple characters, and barely a handful of dialogue scenes. 25% of this book gone and nothing happened.

Allow me to explain my decision to DNF this book, and why I won’t be recommending this to anyone. The first reason is, for me, the most unforgiveable: the writing. Lackey’s writing in this book (as I said, I have no experience with any of her previous works), was painful to get through. Written in the first person, the prose is juvenile and uninspired. Even though you’re in Joy’s head the entire time, I have no idea if she even has a personality or interests. Lackey spends the first 15% of the book info dumping, and not even in a clever way. It’s lazy world building, and I don’t appreciate that. Even the target audience, which is admittedly much younger than me, wouldn’t appreciate it. So fifty pages or so have passed, and we know all kinds of random information about post-Diseray agriculture and religion, but nothing about our main character besides the fact that she’s the best. Just take her word for it.

The inevitable comparison to other YA dystopian novels is undeniable, The Hunger Games chief among them. Even if you could get past the writing, the simple fact of the matter is that this book is wholly unoriginal. It is every other YA book in which a girl is plucked from her humble beginnings because of her special skill and brought to the shining capital city to become the Chosen One, discover the secret evils of society, and probably fall into a love triangle along the way. And that makes me unspeakably angry. YA readers deserve better than the same recycled plot points. And adding in monsters from another world with the oh-so-clever name “Othersiders” does not an original story make. I weep for the lack of originality in YA these days, and Hunter exemplifies all of this.

Did I finish reading this book? No. Do I know what happens after Joy reaches Apex City? No, but I could take a guess and almost certainly be right. Will I ever finish reading this? No. Do I recommend it, or it’s inevitable sequels in a forced trilogy? No, a thousand times no.

I do genuinely want to thank Disney-Hyperion for the advanced copy to review, but they have published other, far better books that you should read instead of this. Hunter comes out September 1, but so do three other books you should read instead – such as Everything, Everything, which I reviewed last week.

Rating: ⭐️

Have you read any books lately that you had to DNF? What are your thoughts on DNFing books? Let me know in the comments!

ARC Review: Everything, Everything

Title: Everything, Everything*
Author: Nicola Yoon
Publisher: Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Goodreads | BookDepository

“My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in 17 years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black – black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare back. His name is Olly. Maybe I can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster. “

Everything, Everything – coming like the Hogwarts Express on September 1st – has received major buzz in the book community, as far back as BEA and Yall West when the first ARCs were released into the world. But rather than an intense PR campaign, it was readers who generated the most hype for this book. I’m always more inclined to read a new release when other readers loved the book itself, not just the marketing gifts. (But that’s a discussion for another day.) Spoiler alert: this book is worth the hype.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I do not enjoy YA contemporary on the whole, and am highly critical of the books in that I genre I do read. Nicola Yoon’s debut novel is a powerful representation of one girl’s isolation and desire to experience the world beyond her house – a world that could kill her. Maddy has Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), a disease that makes her allergic to everything, so her life is strictly regimented inside of the house she can never leave. This premise drew me in, but the characters kept me committed to the story.

Maddy, our protagonist, is held apart from the world, but not completely removed from it. Maddy felt so vibrant to me, and I enjoyed her personality and that she makes the most of her situation. She reads and posts reviews on her Tumblr, but everything that enters her house has to be sterilized. When Olly moves in next door with his black clothes and harsh family, Maddy knows she shouldn’t get attached. But inetivably, Olly and Maddy strike up a friendship, and then more, and Maddy realizes more than ever how unhappy she is within her bubble. The relationship between Maddy and Olly is really earnest and cute, and the reader gets to chart their progress through instant messages and drawings (all done by Yoon’s husband!)

Everything, Everything is so much more than “sick lit,” and I appreciated that there was another side to this story I didn’t expect. The ending completely took me by surprise, and I won’t say anything remotely spoilery other than: wow. Just, wow. Did not see that one coming. But it was, at the same time, brilliant. This is contemporary with some punch, y’all.

It’s also worth noting that Everything, Everything brings a dose of much-needed diversity to contemporary YA. Maddy is a POC and has a disability, which I honestly don’t think I’ve encountered before this book. There have been some mentions of another 2015 release with a female protag who’s allergic to seemingly everything (cough Magonia cough), and whether the two books are similar. In short: no. Everything, Everything is nothing like Magonia – and we all remember how I felt about that one. I adored Everything, Everything and highly recommend it as your next contemporary YA read. This may not be a fantasy book, but Nicola Yoon’s debut novel is nothing but magical. Pick up a copy when it hits shelves September 1!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Penguin!

ARC Review: The Boy Most Likely To

Title: The Boy Most Likely To*
Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Dial Books/Penguin Teen
Publication Date: August 18, 2015
Goodreads | Amazon (currently less than $9!)

"Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blind folded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a house. Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To...well, not date her brother's baggage-burdened best friend, for starters. For Tim, it wouldn't be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the "smart" choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard. Then the unexpected consequences of Tim's wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn't all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted...but maybe should have. And Alice is caught in the middle."


The Boy Most Likely to is the sequel to My Life Next Door, which I adored for all of its contemporary glory. This follow up feels slightly more serious, as everyone deals with the repercussions of the events in My Life Next Door. If you haven't read My Life Next Door, you can still read this review...there are no spoilers for either books.

One of my favorite things about The Boy Most Likely To is that we return to the Garrett family and see how they're all faring. I adore little George, he's hands-down my favorite character. Seeing how their family functions with so many children is such a fascinating part of these books, and every sibling still very much has their own identify and unique relationships. But the best part of The Boy Most Likely To is that it's split POV of two characters that were portrayed in a rather limited way in the first book: Tim and Alice. Tim is Sam and Jase's alcoholic friend who was kicked out of school and has to get his life back on track. Alice is Jase's older sister who's trying to balance nursing school with the needs of her family. These two characters provided such brilliant voices from which to hear this story. I don't think the dual POV would have worked nearly as well in My Life Next Door, but with the characters and stories in The Boy Most Likely To, it was a great choice.

Seeing Alice struggle in this book is so heart breaking. She's trying to keep everything together for her parents - her siblings, mounting bills, and nursing school, but to do so she puts her own life on hold. I felt so much compassion for Alice and appreciated what a strong character she is. Tim's perspective was really enlightening, and I enjoyed seeing how snarky and self-deprecating his voice came across. The relationship that develops between Alice and Tim was nothing like Sam and Jase - not all sweetness and rooftops. Alice and Tim really have to fight throughout this novel, and I feel like that was a good representation of their characters.

I have to say that the "unexpected consequences of Tim's wild days" weren't so unexpected for me. Less than 50 pages in I knew what was going to happen, and it honestly felt a bit too obvious. But at the same time, it produced results. I ultimately thought the book ended the right way - I know some people may disagree with me on this, but I think the alternative would be too unrealistic and cliche. The Boy Most Likely To was a wonderful sequel to My Life Next Door, and brought two of the most complex characters in this cast to the forefront. The interactions between Tim and Alice and their respective families, and with each other, really leave an impact on the reader. But at the end of the day (and book), both Alice and Tim find such personal strength along the way, and that's why I enjoyed this book so much. If you enjoy contemporary, especially if you're a fan of Sarah Dessen, then you need to check out Huntley Fitzpatrick's novels.

Rating: 3.5 stars

*I received an eARC from Penguin via their First to Read program in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Penguin for this advance copy!

ARC August | 2015

Hey everyone! Today's post is to let you know that I'll be participating in an exciting project this month - ARC August. Created by the lovely ladies over at Read.Sleep.Repeat, the purpose of ARC August is to read the ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) on your TBR shelf and work on reviewing them. I know that I'm bad about getting ARCS and then putting off reading/reviewing - it really takes a toll on my Netgalley percentage! So I'm excited to join in and get my ARCs to a manageable number. I'll be posting updates on my progress over at my Goodreads page, but also my Twitter and Instagram - go check those out for more weekly check ins and such. I'll do a final check in at the end of the month, letting you know if I met all of my goals!

These are the ARCs I'm planning to read and/or review in August:



The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick. I received an eARC via Penguin's First Reads program. This is the sequel to My Life Next Door (which I adored!), and follows Tim and Alice in a dual-POV. I read this ARC in July, but I need to refresh my memory and post a review before the release date (August 18th).









Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. I received an eARC via Netgalley. This wonderful book follows a girl who is allergic to everything, and lives in her strictly controlled home. When a cute boy moves in next door, she has to decide if she can let him into her bubble, and her heart. I read this in July, but need to write and post a review before its release date on September 1.







Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin. I received this physical ARC from Little Brown/The Novl and I am SO EXCITED TO READ THIS. It doesn't come out until October, but I've already included it in my BookTube-A-Thon TBR, so I'll read this in the first week of August. An alternate history in which Germany and Japan won World War II, Yael enters the Axis Tour race with one goal: kill Hitler. I plan to read and draft my review this month, but won't post my final review until closer to the publication date.






Hunter by Mercedes Lackey. I received this eARC via Netgalley. Monsters are crossing over into Joyeaux's world, and she becomes a hunter to protect others. When she gets called up to the capital, Joy realizes just how much is being kept from the citizens, and that there may be a more sinister reason these monsters are attacking her world. I haven't heard any buzz about this book, so I'm intrigued to see how it goes. The publication date is September 1, so I need to read and review Hunter this month.






A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston. I also received this eARC via Netgalley. A Thousand Nights is a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, in which a girl volunteers to marry the king who has killed three hundred previous wives in order to save her sister from that same fate. As she survives in his court and finds magic she hopes will be strong enough, her sister mourns and finds powers of her own. I am really excited to read this, and have my fingers crossed that this will be better than The Wrath and the Dawn. A Thousand Nights doesn't come out until October 6, so I will read and draft a review in August, and publish a final review in late September.



Those are the ARCs I'm definitely planning to read during ARC August - let me know if you've read any of the books mentioned, or want to!