What I'm Reading Wednesday

Reflection: The Stranger in the Mirror by Rachel R. Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.This book started out wonderfully. I love the descriptions of the places and the people. I love the characters and genuinely cared about what would happen to them. About mid-way through is where it fell apart for me. The story took a quite sudden slowing. It was so frustrating. Not going to say much because I don't want to give away spoilers. I will say that it didn't have much of an ending. You are left with a cliff hanger and oh man do I hate cliffhangers. Overall I enjoyed the book, but not enough to re-read it. I will likely be picking up the next book in this saga, just to see what happens.


Tempest by Julie Cross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I freaking loved this book.

First of all, loved the concept. A time jumper is something new to me. Secondly, I love that this features a main character who is male. Refreshing for this genre. One thing I really didn't love was the ending. While it wasn't the ending I would have chosen, it was a good one for this story. I loved this book so much that I immediately reserved the rest in the trilogy. I totally recommend this to lovers of the YA dystopian novels.


Wonder by R.J. Palacio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has been on my radar awhile. It's the story of a boy with "a terrible facial abnormality." You get the medical term later in the book, but it doesn't mean anything to most people. I have been following the blog of a woman whose daughter has had some facial surgeries. This made the book feel a lot more real to me. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The struggles that August deals with are very real. Even kids who aren't severely deformed get teased, I can't even imagine having a child who looked like that or being one! This story was a look at his first year of school. He had never been before because his mom home-schooled him. In this book, the school goes above and beyond to make him more comfortable and feel welcome. But kids, being as they are, aren't that friendly toward him. Seeing the struggles he goes through and the joy he still has is wonderful. It was real to life, you could see the struggles that he was having and also how it hurt him for people to treat him differently. I loved that this book ends the way it does. Not going to give it away, but it gave me closure and left me feeling like there could more stories about August in his future. I one hundred percent loved this book. Whole heartedly recommend to everyone who has ever been a kid or has a kid.


This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl by Esther Earl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a story about a girl with thyroid cancer, but it is so much more than that. I love the style of this book. It is a compilation of Esther's journal posts, drawings, pictures and letters as well as updates posted by her parents. This book showed her life, what she loved, what she was passionate about. I love that it included lots of pictures. Esther lived a short but full life. Going in to the book I knew it would be sad, but I had to read about this girl who impacted so many lives in her short 16 years.

View all my reviews on Goodreads