Recently Read #4: ‘Box Of Shame’ Edition

Hello fellow bookworms and welcome back to another Recently Read post! I kind of can’t believe how frequently I’m posting these at the moment but I’ve been so lucky with my reading recently that I just don’t want to stop.

This time around we’ll mainly talk about books that were in my ‘Box Of Shame’ (as I lovingly refer to it as) for up to a year at this point and that I finally got to recently. And you wouldn’t believe the gems that I’ve already found in there! Let’s hope there are more to come! 😀

As I’ve done before, I’ll link previously reviewed/talked about books first as to not bore you guys by repeating myself over and over again – which I’ll probably do anyways. 😂

The first two books I read as part of an impromptu readathon and actually reviewed them in my wrap up post for said readathon:

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I have to say, my little readathon really motivated me to get more reading done after the weekend was over too so I picked up another book and got to reading right away.

Monica Hesse’s The Girl In The Blue Coat is a Young Adult historical fiction novel, published on April 5th, 2016 by Brown Books For Young Readers.

I actually ended up receiving the translated edition of this book as a review copy last year and just now got around to actually reading and reviewing it. I just never quite found myself in the mood to read historical fiction and I never want my reading mood to effect how I feel about any book I read.

Overall, I did enjoy this book but I was hoping for more, if I’m being honest. I never quite connected with the characters which in turn meant I didn’t root for them or worry about them the way I expected I would – I mean, we’re in occupied Amsterdam during World War 2, it was a horrible point in time.

However, I really loved the different setting we were in as it gave the reader a chance to learn about what the Dutch did to help their Jewish population and how they resisted – it was quite fascinating to learn about! I may not have loved this book as much as I wanted to, but I’m still really happy I picked it up – I ended up giving it 3 stars.

We’re only about halfway through March at this point and I’ve already read two books I absolutely didn’t plan on picking up and in a plot twist ended up loving both of them. One of them is Godsgrave and the other one is:

Mackenzi Lee’s The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats And Piracy, a Young Adult historical novel released on October 2nd, 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books.

As I said, I wasn’t even going to pick this book up but then Caro informed myself and Sandra about a great deal they had (just over 5€ for a brand new hardcover) and with an added coupon this book ended up being somewhere around 4€ and I just couldn’t pass that up. Sure, I didn’t love Mackenzi’s first book as much as everyone else but I remembered being excited for Felicity’s story so I took a chance and man, was it worth it!

I pretty much read this book in a single sitting and early on found myself tabbing and writing in my copy, nodding my head like ‘YES. YES. YES.’ over and over again at the commentary that was being made and just overall being absolutely sucked into the story and wanting to learn more.

As soon as I had finished this book, I went back through my tabbed scenes to read over some quotes and I got all teary eyed because they were just so good and true and powerful and I want everyone else to read those words and take them to heart too.

Let me just share one of my absolute favorite quotes that I want printed onto a million different bookish items:

I do not need reasons to exist. I do not need to justify the space I take up in this world. […] I have as much claim to this world as anyone else.

The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats And Piracy, Mackenzi Lee

That might’ve been the quote that got to me most right after finishing this book and there are honestly so many more throughout the entire book.

I ended up giving this book 5 stars and it immediately found its way onto my favorites shelf on Goodreads and my 2019 list too!

The last book I want to talk about in today’s post is Ava Dellaira’s In Search Of Us, a Young Adult contemporary novel published on March 6th, 2018 by Hot Key Books.

I actually ended up receiving a review copy of this book in early 2019 and just now got around to actually reading this book and I honestly regret not getting to it sooner as I ended up really enjoying this book a lot!

In this book, we follow two different timelines as we are introduced to mother and daughter Marilyn and Angie.

We join Marilyn and her mother as they move in with Marilyn’s uncle while she tries to land more jobs in acting/advertisement and as she meets the downstairs neighbor James for the first time and their relationship slowly progresses into more.

In alternating chapters, we also follow Angie as she’s on a mission to learn more about her father after she finds some clues that her mother might have lied.

I really enjoyed learning more about these two women and how they arrived at the point in the present we meet them in and to see Angie wanting to learn more about her history and heritage since she’s biracial.

This is definitely the type of book you’ll end up reading in a single sitting and I wouldn’t be surprised if you find yourself shedding a couple of tears (I sure did!) while you read it too – especially if you listen to the song A Drop In The Ocean by Ron Pope after (I was such a mess).

I ended up giving this book a solid 4 stars and would definitely recommend you guys read it too! However, I also want to make sure I mention the fact that sexual harrassment is mentioned in this book, so please be careful going into this.

And we’re officially back to being up to date with everything I’ve read so far this year (all 18 books that I am constantly blown away I’ve managed to read already). I’m honestly so excited about what I’ve read so far this year and seeing how there are so many more months to come – I can’t wait to see where my reading is going to take me!

Have you guys read either of the books I talked about here? What did you think about them? Or are they on your TBR? Let’s chat in the comments below – I can’t wait to hear from you guys!