Review: Unaccompanied Minor (#1) by Hollis Gillespie

Title: Unaccompanied Minor (#1)

Author: Hollis Gillespie

Published by: Merit Press

Released: 2014

Source: Library

Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old April May Manning spent her life on airplanes with her flight attendant parents. When her father dies in a crash, April's mom marries a pilot who turns out to be an abusive jerk, and gets Mom confined to a psychiatric hospital. So April takes off, literally, living on airplanes, using her mother's flight benefits, relying on the flight crews who know she's been shuttling between divorcing parents for a year. Then, there's a hijacking, but why is April's "dad" on board? April flees to the cargo hold with another unaccompanied minor she's met before, and they fight to thwart the hijackers, faking a fire, making weapons from things they find in luggage. At last, locked in the cockpit with a wounded police officer, the boy, and his service dog, April tries to remember everything her parents said to do in a crisis above the clouds. But she knows it won't be enough. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

My Thoughts: This was a fun little surprise. I had never heard of Unaccompanied Minor before. I just happened to come across it while browsing my library shelves and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did because this was a lot of fun.

April Mae Manning is a trip. I guess you'd call her a precocious teen. She's independent, resourceful, a survivalist, and just a tad bit crazy. She never shuts up, can talk a mile a minute. I was very entertained by her.

When the book first starts, she's giving an interview to the authorities. They'd ask her a simple question, like When did you first notice the hijackers? And April proceeds to go on an hours long spiel about her mother, best friend, Officer Ned, her adopted father (who she hates), her long lineage of family airline employees, everything you did and did not want to know about airplanes, and on, and on, and on. If I had been the investigator, I would have been so pulling my hair out in annoyance. April's ability to ramble on is really unparalleled to any other character I've read. So what should be a rather short story, becomes one epic tale. She was very entertaining.

I loved the cast of characters. I very much felt their pain when it came to dealing with some of April's shenanigans. Officer Ned had to put up with a lot from April. I loved her older flight attendant friend (Flo??) who looked out for her. It was just a very zany ride that I really enjoyed.

Near the end, I won't say I understood all the motivations for everything. After all that rambling, the reveals were very fast and sometimes not the most explained. I also do wonder what's going to happen with April after all that she has discovered.

I'd definitely recommend this for people who are looking for a fun read. It is very entertaining. I enjoyed it. It does feel a little like a hidden gem when it comes to a YA book that is a little different from all the other things being published. I'm definitely getting my hands on the second book because I want to see what April has in store for me next. Unaccompanied Minor was a fun time! And I now know more about aircraft crashes than I ever wanted to. My fear of flying might just be a little more heightened after this.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

One high flying plane adventure!

Reading Right Now! (189)

What I'm Reading Right Now! is...

Unaccompanied Minor (#1) by Hollis Gillespie and I'm enjoying it. It's about this girl named April Mae Manning who has a complicated family life, which has resulted in a convoluted custody arrangement between her adopted father (who she hates) and her mother who is currently residing in a mental institution. They both work for an airline. April gets so fed up with her adoptive father that she runs away. She hops from airport to airport, plane to plane. She knows the ins and outs of airports, so it's fairly easy for her to book herself on a flight and live in airport lounges. Then one of the flights she's on gets hijacked.

The FBI agents are trying to get the story of what happened out of her, but April likes to ramble, so those poor FBI people are in for a long, drawn out story.

I'm a little over halfway through, and I'm enjoying it. April Manning is a precocious teenager. She's annoying, but she's funny. She's resourceful too. If I was one of the grown-ups trying to interview her, I'd pull my hair out. She's amusing though.

That's what I'm Reading Right Now! What are you reading?

Review: Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Title: Bird Box

Author: Josh Malerman

Published by: Ecco

Released: 2014

Source: Library

Synopsis: Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

My Thoughts: I finally read it and it did not disappoint. I've been wanting to read Bird Box for the longest time and the Netflix Adaptation gave me that extra push to finally read it so I could then watch the movie. I can't say I was expecting what this book delivered. I'd heard it was scary, so I was thinking a generic kind of horror book, but I was wrong. Bird Box is a slow, quiet kind of scare. It sneaks up on you and wraps its fingers around you. It's not in-your-face, but it's quietly malicious. There's a sense of panic and claustrophobia to it just imagining being deprived of your sense of sight. I really enjoyed it.

I liked how it had that post-apocalyptic vibe to it. I love post-apocalyptic stuff. I also thought the creatures were kind of interesting, because you never got to really see what they were. They could be anywhere, they could be everywhere, and that blindfold was the only thing protecting characters from madness.

Malorie's boat ride down the river was terrifying. That blindness played a large part to it. Not being able to see anything and just imagining all the terrors that could be around you. Without that sense of sight, the mind plays mean tricks. There were parts of her boat ride that were really intense, the ones involving the animals really come to my mind, animals of all kinds.

I also liked going back in time to right when the apocalyptic events were starting, and Malorie's journey to the house with Tom, Don, Cheryl, Olympia, Felix, Jules, and Victor. That whole thing was an interesting storyline to follow and so tragic.

Malorie was a very strong character. All the things she did for those kids, raising them, protecting them all by herself. She might have been tough, but she was determined for them to survive.

Bird Box was an experience that I really enjoyed. I can't put into words all the things I'm feeling and I don't want to spoil things for future readers. Just know, it was an intense ride.

Thoughts on Movie Adaptation: And because I watched the movie just a couple days after finishing the book, I thought I'd discuss it just a little bit. I thought it was a good adaptation. Of course they changed some things, they cut out some bits, added some other bits, but I'm not mad at it. I think it made for a very tense, enjoyable movie. 

I will say, it doesn't quite have the same punch as the book. When it comes to Malorie's raft ride, let's just say that book Malorie had a much tougher time than movie Malorie. I was waiting for the wolves and the birds, but they never came. I think that would have added some really scary scenes to the movie.

But as a movie adaptation, I think it did a pretty good job.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

A Quiet Kind of Terrifying

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I wish you a Merry Christmas. I wish you a Merry Christmas. I wish you a Merry Christmas because it is today!!! And for those that don't celebrate, Happy Tuesday!

I just wanted to thank everybody for supporting my Blog Life, my Book Life. I know I haven't been as active the past couple weeks and that's just because I got a little burnt out. But never fear, I hope to be better about posting.

I want to thank all the people that invited me to be on Blog Tours or sent me books for review. I am sorry for being a failure at reading all those review books, but I promise they will get read eventually. I want to thank all the people that visit my blog and read my posts. I know I tend to ramble. And I also want to thank all the authors and publishers who keep producing awesome books. And all the libraries for being awesome and letting me check out all kinds of book. Thanks Netgalley for letting me review early copies. Thanks to Goodreads and BookishFirsts for letting me win book giveaways. And thanks to Bookoutlet for helping to feed my addictions.
So that's all I wanted to say. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Reading Right Now! (188)

What I'm Reading Right Now! is...

Bird Box by Josh Malerman and I've had this book on my TBR forever! I've been eyeing it and eyeing it and I finally decided to give it a read. After I read the book, I would like to watch the new Netflix movie adaptation. 

I'm about 60 pages in, and so far, I'm intrigued. It's got this post-apocalyptic vibe, which I'm always a fan of. It also has some mystery horror aspects to it too. I have no idea what these creatures are, but just imagining going everywhere outside blindfolded makes me a little nervous and claustrophobic. Not knowing what is making all these people go insane so you literally can't look outside anymore. Craaaazy!

I'm also liking how this book is told from the future and the past. If the whole book had taken place with future Malorie, I don't know if I would like it as much. I appreciate getting the backstory.

So that's what I'm Reading Right Now! What are you reading? Have you read Bird Box? What did you think of it if you did?

Fresh Releases: December 18, 2018

Here's the Fresh Fresh Releases for this week! There are some good ones.

 

 

 

The Disasters by M.K. England, which I'm really excited for.  Verity by Colleen Hoover, this one might have come out earlier, but it's still a December Release. The Cursed Sea by Lauren DeStefano, still need to read the first one, but look at that cover! Hunting Annabelle by Wendy Heard. I love a good thriller and this one sounds very interesting. Dear Heartbreak edited by Heather Demetrios. Not the Duke's Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt. I just had to sprinkle in a little historical romance. My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn. Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about this one, but I was sold by the cover alone.

And those are the Fresh, Fresh Releases for this week! All Pictures are from Goodreads.com 

What releases are you excited about? I really want to buy some of them, but I've been kind of bad about buying too many Christmas presents for me, if you know what I mean. I've been taking Treat Yourself a little too literally. 

BLOG TOUR: The Fog by Amanda McKinney

The Fog
Amanda McKinney
(A Berry Springs Novel)
Publication date: December 4th 2018
Genres: Adult, Mystery, Romance

Former Marine turned ballistics expert, Wesley Cross is known around town for two things, his rugged good-looks and cocky attitude—until he finds his ex-girlfriend lying in a puddle of blood in his basement. The scene screams setup, but the discovery of a rare gem and a puzzling autopsy suggests the murder goes much deeper than that. Wesley will do whatever it takes to clear his name, including calling in a notoriously headstrong—and sexy—scientist.
While most little girls were playing dress up, Gwyneth Reece was digging in the dirt collecting bugs. Now one of the top forensic entomologists in the country, Gwen reluctantly accepts a job from a pushy cowboy and travels to the small, Southern town of Berry Springs. Heavy storms are brewing, and when she’s forced to check into the creepiest hotel she’s ever seen, she instantly regrets her decision to help out the former Marine.
Following up on a tip, Wesley heads to the Half Moon Hotel but quickly realizes his visit was not by chance. The killer lured him there, and suddenly everyone from the uptight bellman to the wealthy couple just passing through town become suspect. Bodies begin to disappear, and Wesley knows the killer will do anything to get to him…. including hurting the woman who’s kept his head spinning since he first laid eyes on her.

My Thoughts: I'd just like to thank Amanda McKinney and Xpresso Book Tours for letting me be a part of this awesome tour and providing me with a free copy of The Fog for honest review.
I really enjoyed The Fog. I'd been reading a lot of fantasy and science fiction, so it was nice taking a step back from that and reading some good ol' romantic suspense, and it was romantic suspense at its finest. I'm a sucker for these types of stories.
So, The Fog is actually the fourth book in the Berry Springs Series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Our two main leads are Wesley Cross and Gwyneth Reece and when they meet, sparks fly! Wesley needs Gwyn's help to prove he didn't murder his ex-girlfriend. Gwyn checks into a creepy hotel where everyone is suspcious.
The Fog was a quick, fun, romantic read and I'd definitely recommend it for those that love Romantic Suspense novels. Gwyneth is a very smart girl and she keeps Wesley on his toes. I liked the romance, I liked the mystery, and I liked the thrills and chills. I want to read more in this series.

Goodreads / Amazon

Author Bio:
Award-winning author of romantic suspense and mystery, Amanda McKinney wrote her debut novel, LETHAL LEGACY, after walking away from her career to become a writer and stay-at-home mom. Set in small, Southern towns, Amanda’s books are page-turning murder mysteries peppered with steamy love scenes, and include the BERRY SPRINGS SERIES and the BLACK ROSE MYSTERY SERIES, with many more to come.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook

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