Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Xiomara isn’t your typical teenager. Although she wants to be.

Struggling while her body starts changing into a women’s. Trying to find herself while living under her parents roof. With her mother’s strict rules, and families religious beliefs. She finds herself questioning their beliefs while becoming more guarded, keeping her feelings to herself.

Twin, her brother seems to be the “better child” in her parents eye’s but Xiomara knows better. Even though she knows her brother has his own secrets, she is very protective of him and doesn’t want to shade the way their parents see him. Even if this means she may fall into more trouble while protecting him.

Xiomara turns to writing her thoughts and feelings down. Invited to attend a slam poetry class. She finds her true talent that provides the perfect outlet. Giving her a chance to take that deep breath she deserves while venting all her locked in feelings.

Then along comes Aman, the perfect crush that turns into so much more.

Now Poet X has two things she needs to keep hidden from her Mother, slam poetry and this cute, cute guy.

***

5 out of 5 stars

Elizabeth amazed me with this novel.

Unlike any coming of age story I have read. It is so uniquely written all in poetry format. This intrigued me immensely. Although I will admit there was a part of me that wondered how such little words on a page could paint a full picture in my mind.

All of my doubts were wiped out within the first few pages.

Xiomara’s story is so beautifully written. The whole story flows perfectly leaving you wanting more with every page.

A truly stunning read.

-Nichole

*** Photo from my Bookstagram account. Check it out nichi.i_readpastmybedtime

The Disappearance of Timothy Dawson by Nathan Parker

For most of his life Tommy Dawson has been told his father, Timothy Dawson ran out on him and his family when Tommy was only 2 years old.

Timothy’s disappearance had such a negative effect on Tommy’s mother and older brother Derek. Leading them into a bad drug and alcohol addiction. Which isn’t hard for them to get their hands on in this corrupted town of Granville. Over the years, Granville has been taken over by the drug king pin who goes by “Smiler”.

Now 14 years later 16-year-old Tommy still struggles with not knowing what happened to his father, he refuses to believe he truly walked out on them.

With Tommy’s best friend Kirsten by his side he starts to dig deep for answers. But Tommy and Kirsten need to be careful, as uncovering some information is heading them into a quickly spiralling danger with the wrong people.

This read was absolutely stunning. Nathan Parker is such a talented indie author. If you read my post mentioning some of my favourite indie authors, you may remember Nathan’s name popping up.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nathan through my bookstagram account. When I found out he was writing as a hobby. I was so excited and told him to let me know when he finishes his book. I wanted to read it!

The Disappearance of Timothy Dawson has easily become one of my favourite reads of all time. You can’t help but just devour this book. The realistic feeling in this book is unbelievable, these are things that truly happen day-to-day in drug and alcohol saturated places all over the world.

You can’t help but fall in love with Tommy, his family and not to mention his best friend Kirsten. Kirsten is such a fire cracker and is so admirable. You relate with all the characters in one way or the other.

The Disappearance of Timothy Dawson truly is a roller coaster of a read. It will not disappoint, keeping you deeply engaged throughout the entire read.

AND!!!! it is just book one of this amazing YA series. How amazing is this?

If you haven’t got your hands on this book yet, you need to!

-Nichole

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39897915-the-disappearance-of-timothy-dawson?from_search=true

https://www.instagram.com/parker_book/

The Disappearance of Timothy Dawson

Canadian Book Subscription Boxes

Book Subscription Boxes — Are AMAZING!

Who doesn’t LOVE a book subscription box. They are HUGELY popular among us book nerds and so they should be!.

For some countries it can get frustrating. It could be that the company doesn’t ship to your area, taking the exchange rate into consideration, crazy shipping costs, they use their local vendors making it hard to purchase replacements and/or more items diretly from the vendor. Which also sucks for the vendor, then we can’t support them seperatly.

None of these problems are really in control of the company itself. They can’t help shipping locations, shipping costs, exchange rates and when it comes to their vendors they need to do whats best for their box and the majority of their subscribers.

Really it comes down to research, what works best for you! Or sometimes you just need to purchase from a few different companies and see what fits. I mean nothing wrong with that!… right? gives you an excuse to buy buy buy! ha..ha.

So today I am here to share a couple of my favorite CANADIAN book subscription boxes. One is fairly new and the other is brand new. Both well worth checking out!. You will fall in love, I promise you!.

VIBookcrate: Ships to Canada only

Boxes: Monthly JR subscription boxes for ages 8-12: (or any age in my eyes…. but I am just a big kid). They also have a seasonal box for us oldies!

Monthly JR subscription boxes for ages 8-12: $25/month + shipping

Each month your reader will receive:

A middle grade novel.
2-4 related items picked to engage the reader (Items you could expect: bookmarks, puzzles, art supplies, stationary, crafts, treasures, treats, etc).
Exclusive access to online content for both kids and parents.
AND don’t forget each month has such a fun theme!

Seasonal Box for ages 19 and up: $60/box + shipping

Each season you will receive:

2 novels to reflect the season.
2-4 extra items that will enhance your reading experience
And don’t forget each season has a perfect matching theme!

VIBookcrate is run out of British Columbia by the lovely Kristen, she along with her amazing daughter and awesome son curate these exciting JR subscription boxes that every kid will love!. This is a must for anyone that has a child in their life that has the love of reading emanating in them!. Or if they don’t, pick this up as a gift for them it just may spark something in them to read. My son loves to read and when he gets into a good book it captivates him but it is not his go to activity (video games are!). With these boxes it has really been drawing him towards reading more often!

Then if Kristen wasn’t busy enough she also curates the seasonal box. I had to pick one up for myself when I saw how awesome my sons first JR box was. I purchased the September’s “Fall Cozy” box and it was stunning!. It was so well put together! AND it was all Canadian vendors. So if I want to buy more of an item, replace a consumable, or just support the vendor directly! I can and without being worried if they ship to my country, or crazy shipping costs and exchange rates! How cool is that? Besides Kristen and her family are so adorable and sweet you cant help but love them!

Check VIBookcrate out:

https://vibookcrate.com/

https://www.instagram.com/vibookcrate/

Wicked Treasure Book Box: Ships to Canada, U.S.A and Internationally (First box ships October 2018!!!!)

They are a one time purchase company, with boxes released bi-monthly: $60/box + shipping.

Each XL Box will have:

A book of some sort (novel, graphic novel, Manga)
AND will be filled to the brim with wicked goodies. These goodies will be perfect to feature in your Bookstagram photos or all over your house for everyone to admire.
And of course each box will have a new theme, but there will be a little something wicked in each!

Wicked Treasure Book Box is also run out of British Columbia and Co-founded by 2 best friends and fellow bookworms. Who I absolutely love! Echo and Sarah are so crazy talented and creative. Echo’s Bookstagram page is stunning her set ups are always perfect. Then Sarah has an Etsy page where she sells bookish items such as, pendants, bookmarks, magnets, earrings, etc and every handmade item she creates is absolutely amazing!. I would know… I own a few!

This is how you know each and every item they stuff into their boxes will be well worth it. Especially considering they are making the majority of it. That also goes to show you just how dedicated and hard-working they are. This box is very time-consuming, but when its something such as this that they love, they poor their hearts into it! I can’t wait for my first box you guys!

Check Wicked Treasure Book Box out:

https://wickedtreasures.wixsite.com/mysite

https://www.instagram.com/wickedtreasuresbookbox/

Those are a couple of my favorite CANADIAN boxes. You NEED to go get your hands on them now. Check each of these amazing companies out! I have conveniently left their websites and Instagram pages above! for you.. 😉

-Nichole

Over Hyped Books

Over hyped books (Example: A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas)

Alright! There are so many over hyped books out there, that you hear about every day. Especially when you are apart of any type of book community. Whether it be BookTube, Bookstagram, Goodreads, you name it!

I find myself either right on the train with everyone else or extremely skeptical on just how good the read is going to be.

So far in 2018 I have read a good amount of over hyped books and I either loved them or thought meh, it just didn’t do anything for me.

What are your thoughts on over hyped books?

I will tell you. I NEVER planned to read A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES or anything by Sarah J. Maas for that matter. No matter how much I heard it was so good, or you will love it. It was just too over hyped for me, I had no idea what it was even about. I just dusted it off all together.

Recently I met some really awesome Bookstagram gals and we became pretty close! I inquired about ACOTAR to them and all of them agreed that I NEED to read it. Well… except one, but thank goodness she was like me and hadn’t read it yet (I wasn’t the only one!!!) So I finally picked it up.

Now this may affect my pride a little bit …haha! I was so adamant on the opposite side to this.

MAN!!! I can’t believe it took me this long to read it!

I LOVED it!

It kept me engaged, I loved the story line, loved the characters, everything about it. I wanted more!!! So bad I had to go out and get the other two books. I had the “itch” as one of my besties says. Now I am patiently awaiting them in the mail.

WHO KNEW?!?!?!? (Well other than all the people over the years telling me I need to read it).

Now I know I don’t need to go into the details on this book or trilogy as it is so well-known. But I honestly didn’t have any clue on what it was about and never took the time to look into that, not even when I finally decided to pick it up. Had I know it had such a beauty and a beast vibe I would have picked it up years ago. That is one of my absolute favourite Disney movies.

This just goes to show you. Never say never and give everything and anything a try I mean if it’s not for you. You can always move on to something else. You never know when you will find a new favourite. Could just be that one you told yourself you would never bother with!

Seriously!!! WHO KNEW?!?!?!

-Nichole

Full Time Working Mom AND An Avid Reader

Where are my book-worm Mom’s out there? ….I know you’re out there!

Struggles of being a full-time working mom and an avid read? Or the best of both worlds?

If you are an avid reader and not a mom, please don’t take this as me saying you’re not busy and you have all the time in the world. Not what I am saying at all! I know everyone is busy and we all have our struggles doing the things we need to be doing instead of want to be doing. This is just my rant on my personal situation.

I am a full-time working mom of two amazing boys! My oldest is going to be 9 on September 17th, 2018 already and my youngest is almost a year and a half! Man how the time flies.

My absolute favourite personal thing to do for myself is reading a good book. It truly is an addiction. But such a good, healthy (yet expensive) addiction! ..haha. But getting time to read is so hard. Aside from working full-time I am either cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, bringing my boys to school or daycare, helping with homework, packing bags and lunches, running to Taekwondo, running errands, bathing my little one, trying to get a workout in, etc. With doing all these things I am also running a bookish YouTube channel and a Bookstagram page. WHERE do I even get the time sleep, let alone read?

Autopilot! It has to be autopilot. Somehow I get it all done. Sure I get frustrated at times, when there is something I want to be doing but know I have to put it off and complete my adulting for the day!

But I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I mean I have the best of both worlds. I have a beautiful family that I get the joy of taking care of every day and who love me unconditionally. Yet I make time for myself when I can to sit down and do a little something for me.

Maybe not enough, but I do.

I also get to share my love of reading and books with my precious boys!

Fingers crossed they grow to have the same love for it as I do.

So all you book-worm Moms out there… kudos to you! You run every job there is in the world being a mom! But you are sure to take the time to enjoy and expand your mind.

Let’s not forget, enter into a new world with each book you pick up and escape from reality for a short time.

Let’s hear it for living the best life!

-Nichole