July Book Haul

Well I haven't bought books in a long time and here I am buying ALL THE BOOKS!

... only not really because I don't think the two book orders I made will come in time to be considered part of my July book haul. So really... I only bought 3 books. Two of which, I have already read. Well then, here goes...

We'll Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn - I loved this book. It is a travel memoir about several trips that Jennifer Coburn makes with her daughter. She wants to try and do as much as she can with her daughter before she dies, which she thinks will happen soon despite being in perfect health and having no reason to believe that she will die young. I have a full review here. Through this book I felt like I was able to travel to all the places that they traveled to. And really the only reason that I bought it in the first place was because it seemed to be about Paris and it had the Eiffel Tower on the cover. I really have an unhealthy fascination with a city that I've never actually been to.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - The first in a fantasy trilogy. Love, love, love. I absolutely love this book. I read it very soon after I bought it. I am hopefully going to do a full series review on it once I am able to read the second and third books. This series is about a girl called Karou who is caught between two worlds. She grew up in this "Elsewhere" that it's called but doesn't know anything about it. She goes to school, lives, and has friends in the human world. She doesn't know much about her past and is always curious about where she came from. She is confronted by someone who makes her even more curious about her past and she goes out to find it.

The Selection by Kiera Cass - The first in another trilogy, only distopian this time. I'm currently on chapter 4 so I haven't been able to make any judgements yet. But it's supposed to be about this distopian society where there is a monarchy and some sort of caste system. The monarchy always marries off their princesses to foreign rulers to promote diplomacy between the countries. But when the prince comes of age, they seek a wife for him (and the future queen) from the population of their own country. At least that's what I've gotten from how much I've read and from the back of the book. It seems to be somewhat of a Bachelor type situation but only not really. I don't know. I might do a series review on this as well once I read all of them.

Well that's it, unless by the time I post this in a couple days one or both of my packages have come.

So one of the packages I was expecting came today! Yay! It contained:

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima - This was the Booksplosion book for July. I'm a little late but I'm hoping to read it this month. I don't really know what it's about though.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - This is the Little Book Club book of the month for August. I'm planning to read it this month in order to participate in the discussions. It's also another one that I don't know much about.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare - I had this book at one point because I bought the first 5 books in a boxed set last year, but I seem to have lost it. I had to buy it again in order to continue reading the series and then of course I had to order it because when I went to the bookstore, they didn't have any in hardback and I thought that it would look a bit weird for me to have all of the series in hard back except for this one.

And yet another package came in the mail just another day later :)

Days of Blood and Starlight and Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor - I absolutely loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone so I pretty much immediately ordered these two after I finished that one! I can't wait to finish the series.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - I was intrigued by this book when I saw that people on BookTube were reading it so I planned to pick it up myself. I added it towards the top of my list when I realized that Leigh Bardugo is going to be at the Decatur Book Festival at the end of August so I wanted to read this book before I got the chance to meet her. I don't know much about it but it seems to be a high fantasy novel (from what I read on the back). I'm really interested in reading this book and learning it's story.

Okay so that is definitely it for my July book haul. I have to wait until I get paid again to buy anything else so this will officially (and finially) be the end of this post :)

xoxo Jennie

Review: We'll Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn

So here it is, my first book review ever. (real quick before I start reading for the read-a-thon)

We'll Always Have Paris is a memoir written by Jennifer Coburn. It describe her time traveling with her daughter as she gets over her fear of dying. Throughout the book, they take 4 trips to Europe because Jennifer wants to not have any regrets if she dies young.

Coupled with the stories of all the places that Jennifer and her daughter Katie visit, are flashbacks to her childhood with her father. He is the reason why she is so scared of dying young; he died when he was 49 and she is convinced that she will, too. As we travel to Paris, London, Italy, Spain, and Amsterdam with Jennifer and Katie, we watch as Jennifer learns to live in the moment and enjoy life.

I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't sure what it was going to be about until I actually took a good look at it when I went to read it. When I bought it at the bookstore, I just saw that it was about Paris and bought it. I didn't really notice that it was a memoir or that it was written by a best-selling novelist. I just have this strange fascination with Paris. So, not knowing what it was really about and knowing that it was the second book that I had brought on vacation with me, I just started to read it.

I really loved how Coburn was able to tie in what she was experiencing with her daughter with what memories she had of her father. I really want to know more about her father's life and more about her travels through Europe. Of course, the fact that the most recent trip that she took with her daughter was last year, makes knowing more about their trips through Europe a little difficult.

I thought that the book was really well written. I felt like I was experiencing the Paris night life with them. I also laughed and I cried and everything in between.

I would give the book 4/5 stars. And would really recommend it.

xoxo, Jennie