White Rose ~ Kip Wilson

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I remember reading the description for this book a few months ago and being interested in it. Then a month or so after that seeing it in a bookstore, but deciding that I wasn't going to purchase it. Then it seemingly disappeared off of my radar; I never saw it on Goodreads or at Barnes & Noble. But after returning to college and going to back to one of my favorite places, the public library, it seemingly made its way back into my life.

Yes I had read this description and was interested by the subject matter, however I didn't know going into this that it was written in verse. I didn't know, but it was exactly what I needed to help pick me up out of my reading slump. It went by so fast that I didn't have to plot chase because the story just glided along smoothly, in a way that was enjoyable for me. I think the verse is what made this good. The author did the research on the true story, but presented it in a way where only the most important details were discussed and not much was fabricated. I liked this a lot.

It really is heartbreaking to learn about what happened to these people for their efforts to try to stop one of the most horrific parts in world history. But it also is important for these kinds of stories to be written, for people to know of the ones who fought against what was perceived as right in that time. World War 2 is one of my favorite historical events to learn about, despite it also one of the most heartbreaking and horrible. Usually, the stories I read about the war are about soldiers or generals or allies or something along those lines. However, this story was about the rebellious Germans who distributed pamphlets hoping to get people to abandon Hitlers cause. What made this story even better was the alternating time perspectives between before they get caught and after they get caught. I also like how some side characters thoughts are featured as well.

Overall I'm glad I picked this up on whim after not hearing about it for some time. It was exactly what I needed right now.

Imaginary Friend ~ Stephen Chbosky

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Received an arc from NetGalley for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity of reading this amazing book. As soon as I heard that Stephen Chbosky was writing another book I got insanely excited, without even knowing what the book was about. What I had in mind was something in the same genre as his last book, Perks of Being a Wallflower. This book is almost the complete opposite of that, and for that I am grateful.

This book was very intimidating to me. 700 freaking pages. For some people that's nothing. They can read four times that amount in a month! Well this book took me a majority of the month to read.. meaning I didn't read much else. I was not disappointed by this book in the slightest though, so I'm not upset that I haven't read any other books. Before jumping into this 700 pages seemed like an excessive amount, and some of the other reviews I have seen believe that this book could've been shorter. And I agree, but I don't at the same time. This book would've have been as intense or crazy had it been any shorter. The action-packed last half of the book would've felt incredibly rushed had this book been shorter.

Chbosky truly took me for a ride. It was like riding a roller coaster that starts out really slow, but the intensity continues to grow as you climb up the incline of the plot. But as you're climbing the incline, everything goes pitch black so you can't anticipate what the rest of the ride entails. Before you know it, everything is speeding up and there are so many unexpected twists and turns that continue until the very end of the ride. That is this book in a nutshell. The first half of the book builds the story, creates a foundation for you to feel connected to the characters. Not just Christopher or Kate either but also for the side characters that you barely know anything about, you learn just the perfect amount to remember them and their stories later down the line. All of the characters had their quirks but that is what made them interesting. The different backstories and unsaid trauma that they've gone through left me intrigued and wanting to know more about them.

Another part that made both the characters and the overall story more enjoyable was the attention to detail. I feel like this book would've been very lackluster had there not been such carefully placed descriptions throughout the entirety of the book. You know the details of the setting, characters, their thoughts, the vibe of the room and other people surrounding the scene. It makes it feel more true to life, at least in the first half. The descriptions in the second half of the book are meant to incite fear. It's supposed to be as crazy as it sounds. The fact that that first part seems so real due to the descriptiveness, it makes the second half more crazy like, "How is this happening?? There is no way this is really happening..."

I had many guesses throughout the book of what was going to happen and none of my guesses were correct. Usually I know I'm far off but this time I felt like my intuition about the nice man was close, but I couldn't have been more off. I loved how it kept me guessing. I was never bored with what was going on because something was always happening, even if it was subtle.

Another thing I liked was how the plot connected all of the characters. It wasn't like they were all separate. Some parts of the plot connected a set of characters and then one of those characters to another and another. That is another part that made me feel so invested in all of them is because their stories were all somehow related, at least that's how I saw it.

Usually this isn't a genre I would pick up, but based on how much I enjoyed this book, I would definitely pick up another horror based book. And I would very much recommend this to people who like horror or suspense filled books.

Truly Devious ~ Maureen Johnson

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

This really was amazing. I didn't realize it but I had been craving a mystery like this. I didn't think mystery was my genre but man did I love the mystery aspect of this. Especially the cliff hanger ending... man. I wanted to go to the bookstore right now (10:08pm) to pick up the next book in series. I'll probably get it before work tomorrow.

There were a lot of things about this that I really enjoyed. I enjoyed the characters, especially Stevie (clearly), and I liked that each of the characters had some background and extra details given to them. However, I still didn't feel super close or connected to any of them. This might be exactly what the author intended, just so you don't trust or get to know anyone fully, which I would respect if that was truly the intention, but if not, I think more could've been done to get a more connected feelings to the closer side/main characters; I'm not super sure how to explain what I mean, Stevie's friends, the ones she interacted with the most, whatever.

Something that I didn't expect to like was all of the detail throughout the book. I am not one for descriptions and extra long rambly nothings in a book. In this book, it wasn't rambly but it was just enough for me to be like hmm okay I know more about whatever is being described and I liked that. In a mystery I like to know what's going on, all the details and descriptions matter so it's important for me to have those. However, I did skim a few times just because I got so invested that I started plot chasing. So not a fault of the book because like I said I did enjoy the descriptiveness.

The beginning of the book to me felt really slow though. I know I said I enjoyed the descriptive parts of it and I clearly did, but I just felt like it took forever for the book to actually get going. It was just they traveled from here to here. Stevie did this and then she did this. Contributing what seemed like nothing to the actual story or plot. I got to learn about Stevie and her parents and the other characters but oh god the plot just never actually started, it was all just building and building and even more building. Again, I'm not complaining about the actual descriptions because I did enjoy learning what I did but I didn't enjoy how long it took for the plot to actual get somewhere. This was why the book isn't a five star read.

Once the plot did get going, man it got going. The alternating perspectives between what is current day with Stevie and the past where the original mystery took place was perfect. I loved learning everything about the mystery and the riddles and how everything just related. Something about the intrigue made it so incredibly enjoyable for me. I found myself trying to guess the mystery but I didn't guess the cliffhanger ending (although if I was looking for clues I probably could've, then again I may be giving myself too much credit).

This really was a great book and I enjoyed it a lot! Going to definitely pick up the next book tomorrow at work.