Book Review: Secret Saturdays

Secret Saturdays by Torrey  Maldonado

Release Date: April 15th, 2010

Publisher: G.P Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Format of Novel: Paperback

Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary: A poignant look into one fatherless twelve-year-old’s struggles with friendship and trust. Sean is Justin’s best friend, at least Justin thought he was. But lately Sean has been acting differently. Sean’s been telling lies, getting into trouble at school, and hanging out with a tougher crowd, even getting into fights. This isn’t like Sean at all.

When Justin finally discovers that Sean’s been secretly going to visit his father in prison and is dealing with the shame of that, Justin wants to do something to help before his friend spirals further out of control. But what if confronting Sean means Justin loses his very best friend? In the end, he decides it doesn’t matter; he’s got to man up.

Set in one of New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Secret Saturdays is an affecting read highlighted by strong characters and an authentic, heartening voice.

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This middle grade story was one of the fastest books I've ever read in a long time. I picked up at the local book festival my old high school had back in May and got it because I wanted to explore diversity and middle grade fiction. This story was about Justin and his two friends who are just reaching teen hood and figuring out what their other friend Sean has been doing while attempting to maintain their 'normal' lifestyle. The entire story involves the 'secret' of Sean's weekend trips and odd behavior when around them, which made the story pretty straightforward once you get into it.

While I did enjoy the simplicity of the story and the little development the main character gains throughout the book, I did have minor problems with it. One I can quickly think of was the general plot. Even though the story is more focused on how the kids are growing up in a rough environment and without fathers; I did have issues with how narrow the overall concept of secrets. I didn't feel that the story was resolve in any shape or form and for a middle grade novel, I feel that kids within that age group would feel the same as well. Another issue I had with this story was the characters, while they quite relatable and young, they were also faded in a way. I mean, the only focused character we get is the narrator Justin and like the other ones, he is at odd standstill, and we don't get to see much growth from him as well. We only got to see bits and pieces of it, but nothing exciting at all.

Overall though, the story was a straightforward read and the message of being honest is quite strong within Maldonado's writing. I believe that the younger age group would enjoy this book. Unfortunately, I'm in my early twenties so I couldn't really enjoy it as much as I wanted too. This book is a great addition to the diversity we need in books, but I wish this was a little bit stronger in terms of plot and the characters had more growth than they did in the short amount of time we got to know them. :)

Gods meet children, children meet Adventure of a lifetime! (Part one)

The Lightning Thief/Sea of Monsters/The Titan's Curse: Written by Rick Riordan
Release Dates: 4/16/05, 4/1/06, 5/7/07
Format of Novel: Nook
Ratings: 5/5, 4/5, 4.5 Stars

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I need to make a confession, I only just started reading books by this author as of early this year. When I first heard of it, I was in my freshman year of college and listening to book tubers fan girl/boy about it. And I'll be honest, I wasn't going to pick up his books like Percy Jackson or his Egyptian-inspired trilogy because I fell in love with other books. However, when I started taking classes like mythology, fantasy, and so forth; Rick Riordan's name kept popping up. And as a result to it, I started buying his books, specifically a bind up of the first three books to his Percy Jackson series. And Let me just say, I regret not reading them in the past. I loved them and read them in a three day's span. Riordan has such a way with his writing that allows people to connect with the lore and characters naturally. I very much enjoyed the writing style, Rick Riordan was able to activate his inner child to make the start of this series so entertaining for children who are starting to take reading as an interest.

I'm sure you all know what this series is really about, but if you don't then allow me to explain. This series focuses on the young protagonist by the name Percy Jackson and his discovery of being a demi-god, a son to a God of Greek mythology. We follow his adventure as he tries to uncover more of his powers and the new world around him. We see him meeting characters with their own personalities and god-like abilities I.e Annabeth and Grover, and many more that I probably shouldn't state right now since most of you already read this series already.

One of the things I really like in this series is the concept of the magical realism we are told throughout the books. It reminded me a little bit of Harry Potter, minus the spell names of course. But, we are forced to focus on the importance of names, and other common fantasy tropes we don't tend to notice right away. This is just me stating these things due to the classes I took in college, but I felt that this was cool and well done. It makes us aware as fantasy readers/writers and sometimes we have to follow these tropes to make our stories more pronounced I wanna say, but yeah. Rick Riordan took his time with this series and it turned out so beautiful and my younger sister and cousin enjoy his books too.

Overall, the start of this series was fantastic and I'm dying to spend the money to purchase the rest of this series (and yes, I plan to buy the companion series as well). Percy Jackson is such a fun and humorous character and I want to see how far he's willingly to go stop Hades and Ares from possibly taking over the world. And also see how far Percy and Annabeth's relationship is gonna take place!

December TBR List

Good day everyone, hope you're doing well today. Today, I'm revealing to you all my monthly TBR list from now till probably beginning of the new year. As far as the list goes, this month is mainly going to be filled with e-books or arcs that I requested from Net galley. Due to work, I fell behind in maintaining a personal promise to myself as a blogger to read and review more of these books on a regular basis. But, since I figured this month will be the e-book focused month, I should be able to read/review more for you guys and post them on here when I get the chance too.

Let's get started on the TBR list because that's what you've been waiting for right? Right.

1. Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin (E-ARC)

2. The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse by Brian Farrey (E-ARC)

3. The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden (E-ARC)

4. Wolf, WY by A.F Henley (E-ARC)

5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (E-Book)

6. Slammed by Colleen Hoover (E-Book)

7. Her Dark Curiosity by Meghan Shepherd (E-Book)

8. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas (Physical book)

9. Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Physical book)

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I think that's plenty, right? Or should I keep adding more to it? No? Probably will keep adding more to the list on my own time or whatever. What are your tbr books for this month? Tell me in the comments below and I'll see you tomorrow with a book review. Happy howling my fellow wolves!