Blog Tour: Enchantée – Gita Trelease

Enchantée by Gita Trelease

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: Raincoast Books
Published: February 5th, 2019
Publisher: Flatiron/Macmillan
Recommended Age: 12+
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Magic, Family, Romance

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REVIEW:

Let me just take a quick second here to say that I finished four novels this weekend. It feels like I’m binge-reading (so you know it won’t last), because I only recently got back into reading fiction so it’s like my subconscious (and body overall) is trying to make up for the ‘‘lost time.’’ That said, if this book had been awful, I would not have forced myself to read it. My experience reading it may be a little different than an Anglophone’s experience because I went to a Francophone school and we looked at the French Revolution again and again and again. I also studied Marie Antoinette in my Art History classes, which helped humanize her in my eyes, because her family portraits showed her love for her children.

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Famous in a Small Town – Emma Mills

Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: Raincoast Books
Published: January 15th, 2019
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Recommended Age: 12+
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Romance, Friendship, Family

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REVIEW:

I opened this gorgeous book expecting to smile and laugh at every chapter. Emma Mills always makes me think that, what with her original and feel-good-sounding premises. And her stories do start in a lovely, fun manner. But eventually and slowly, heavy themes creep into the storyline and grow. This is good, because it means we are gently guided towards more impactful situations instead of being thrown into them without warning. That doesn’t mean this book didn’t make me smile or laugh. On the contrary, I loved it BECAUSE it made me feel such diverse emotions: happiness, sadness, befuddlement, surprise, warmth…

Two Can Keep a Secret – Karen M. McManus

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: Random House Canada
Published: January 8th, 2019
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, High School, Romance, Family

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REVIEW:

Overall, I found this to be much less eye-roll-worthy than ONE OF US IS LYING. The author still is too much in love with stereotypes… I mean, homecoming queens dying? Please. But I felt more engaged somehow with only two narrators, a boy and a girl (Ellery and Malcolm), love interests to each other and both involving themselves in the mystery case(s). Both are likeable and smart(ish) leads. Actually, anything I say about one of them basically immediately applies to the other because, frankly, they have such similar voices it’s hard at times to distinguish them.