Chloe drew the short straw to work on Christmas Eve at GoodFoods Market. The presence of her crush, Tyson, is a slight silver lining, but considering she can barely speak coherent sentences to him it’s not enough. All her co-workers are very different so she doesn’t have any friends at work. To add insult to injury, when the charity money the store has been collecting for a month is stolen, Chloe and her co-workers are accused of the crime.
The Good
Top 10 lists – Chloe writes top 10 lists for everything – Top 10 things she likes about Tyson, Top 10 Worst Mom Phrases, etc. I’m a sucker for Top 10 lists.
Diverse Cast – The characters are diverse and amazing. Liz Czukas found the perfect way to give each character depth and a backstory in a pretty standard length novel. At the beginning of the book, none of the characters interact much. Several of them dislike each other based on stereotypes and misunderstandings. By the end of the book you can see genuine friendships 
Minimal Angst / Not Romance focused – Chloe isn’t overwrought. She’s self conscious like most teenagers, but doesn’t take it overboard and that makes reading this a pleasant experience. I also loved that while we know right away that Chloe has a crush on Tyson, that relationship is not a focus of the book. She gets to know him just like she gets to know the rest of her coworkers.
The Bad
Not so Mysterious – I was fairly certain almost immediately who stole the charity money and absolutely certain by the midpoint of the book. It wasn’t that big of a deal for me, because the mystery wasn’t the focal point of the novel for me. I cared way more about the interaction between Chloe, Tyson, Gabe, Zaina, Micah, and Sammi than the mystery.
The Results
A really fun book that made me immediately add Czukas’ other book to my TBR. I can see myself re-reading this down the line.
Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10.
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This week is a Freebie. I was going to do top 10 Book covers, but I couldn’t narrow it down to anything close to 10. So here’s my “Top 10 Book Cover Trends”. See what I did there?
In case you were wondering, I just squeezed 44 books into this Top 10 list. What cover trends are you drawn too?
Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10.
This week is “Top Ten Series I Have Yet to Finish”. This topic was done three years ago – here’s my 2012 post. I thought I’d have trouble coming up with another ten, but it actually wasn’t that difficult although some of these are series that haven’t been completely written yet and I just haven’t read book two.
I read Shadow & Bone last year and immediately ordered the second and third books from Amazon. I thought I’d read them right away, but they’ve just gotten away from me. Maybe Winter this year since that’s my preferred season to read fantasy.
2. Bounce by Noelle August
I know it’s only been out for a week, but it’s right up my comfort alley and I loved Boomerang so it’s shocking and I didn’t jump on it right away.
I love Jenny Han and I was so anxious for the next book after finishing To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I think this book is a victim of my library usage this year. Library books are taking priority over books I own.
These Broken Stars was great, but somehow when I had This Shattered World checked out from the library I was never in the mood. I fully intent to finish the series, but I’ll probably binge books 2 & 3.
5. Evertrue by Brodi Ashton
I blew through Everneath and Everbound, but have lost my enthusiasm for the series for unknown reasons. I still think I’ll finish it eventually.
6. The Hunted by Matt De La Pena
The Living was an amazing thriller. The premise is so believably possible that it added a scary element. I just haven’t gotten to The Hunted yet.
I really enjoyed Grave Mercy. I didn’t feel the need to rush out and read the next two, but was excited to have them as options the next time I was in the mood for historical fantasy.
8. Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
Companion book, not series but I’m counting it anyway. I got this from the Secret Santa last year and still haven’t read it.
9. Endlessly by Kiersten White
Paranormalcy and Supernaturally were so much FUN. I can’t remember what distracted me from finishing the series, but I will.
10. City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
Totally cheating here. This book isn’t out yet, but the last book in the series came out three years ago and the release on City of Mirrors keeps getting pushed back. It was suppose to come out last year and now it’s projected for 2016 and there’s still not even a cover. I need to know what happens.
I had a very solid reading month after a disappointing July. I read 13 books. I posted one review and I’m really proud of it…Not the review exactly, but I’ve been trying to achieve that formatting in HTML for awhile and finally got it.
Books Read
Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
Girl, Stolen by April Henry
What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi
The Devil You Know by Trish Doller
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The Royal We by Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks
Crazy for Love by Victoria Dahl
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Challenge Update
I finished two more books for the Read Harder Challenge from Book Riot this month. Ironically, neither of them are the books I mentioned as in progress in my July Recap. In total I have 19 complete out of 24, and hoping to finish All the Light You Cannot See by Anthony Doerr for sure in September.
On My Blog Roll
Gotta love unique book storage even if some of it isn’t practical. I WANT the checkmarks!
19 Rad Bookshelves For Your Home (Or Dream Home)
I want self-driving cars ASAP so I can read on my commute.
Why Google's self-driving cars will be great for cyclists and pedestrians
In Other News
I picked up two bookcases and a hutch on Craigslist to turn my basement into a library of sorts so you can probably anticipate a post on book organization in the future.
I helped my parents move a couple weeks ago (with only a few weeks left to use the pool) and we’re still waiting for Cox Communication to visit the apartment to install. The original schedule for install was 8/16.
