"10 Blind Dates" by Ashley Elston

I must admit I almost quit reading this book about 15% in. However, I am glad I decided to stick with it. Our main character Sophie is a high school senior and is looking forward to spending time with her boyfriend Griffin during the winter break while her parents are visiting her older sister. However, Sophie's joy is short-lived. The same evening as her parents leave town, she overhears Griffin telling his friend that he wants to break up with her. Sophie is devastated and goes to stay with her grandparents who live in a town a couple of hours away. There, she is surrounded by her large extended family, who take upon themselves to cheer her up and draw up a schedule to arrange 10 blind dates for Sophie. And so the adventure begins.

The book ended up having some really funny moments. I found myself laughing out loud a few times. Sophie's grandparents have 8 children, so her family is large, noisy and everyone is in everyone else's business. If you like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you will probably enjoy this book. As often with YA contemporary novels, the main characters sometimes feel much older than they are supposed to be in the book: the fact that can be irritating to some readers. I myself almost quit reading it, as the beginning was a bit too melodramatic and hard to believe. I did end up enjoying the book and rated it 3 out of 5 stars. This would make a nice light holiday read.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"Enormity" by W.G. Marshall

With my book club this month, we read a Sci-Fi novel by a local Rhode Island author. The book is called Enormity. It is reminiscent of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and more modern takes on giants such as Godzilla or King Kong. So even though the subject is not new, W.G. Marshall puts a new spin on it. The setting is South Korea. Our main character Manny Lopes finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and accidentally gets blown up to giant proportions by a dark matter device.

Marshall’s giants are much bigger than we are used to seeing in this genre. Manny is over a mile tall which makes any sort of interaction with regular humans impossible: he cannot see them and basically causes havoc and destruction simply by moving around.

Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed are geo-political and military implications. Parts of this book are really witty and clever and I found myself chuckling as I was going through the novel.
It is a very quick and enjoyable read, and the book is definitely grossly underrated. I highly recommend it.

One word of caution: the book does contain several graphic sex scenes. When we met with the author, he said he included them to demonstrate how much privacy factors into our lives, and for a giant being privacy is just not even an option. Overall, a great read. 4 out of 5 stars.

"Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun" by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke

I grabbed this book from the shelf in my local library and it turned out to be a huge surprise. This is one of the best books I've read so far this year. It reads as a spooky fairy tale, and is a faithful adaption of the film Pan's Labyrinth. There are definitely parts in this book that are quite dark and macabre. At the same time, it is filled with magic and love.

The setting of the story is the fascist Spain in the 1940s. Our main character is a little girl named Ofelia whose father is dead and mother recently remarried and is about to give birth to a new baby. Ofelia stumbles upon an ancient labyrinth in the forest surrounding the mill where her mother's new husband (Captain Vidal) lives. There, she meets a Faun who tells her that she is a long-lost princess of the Underground Kingdom where her parents and loved ones have been waiting for her for a very long time.

The story is written from multiple perspectives. It also includes legends/stories from the past that allow the reader to see how the various characters and physical items are connected to the main heroes of the story. It also alludes to the invisible ways our past and our emotions shape us. Overall, the story is multilayered and complex. I definitely want to go back and re-read it just so I can trace all the connections. It quite unexpectedly gave me the vibes of reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez: same dreamlike and surreal atmosphere layered over real historic events. 5 out of 5 stars. Loved it.

My favorite quote from the book:
Mortals don't understand life is not a book you close only after you read the last page. There is no last page in the Book of Life, for the last one is always the first page of another story.

"Tiger Queen" by Annie Sullivan

Tiger Queen is a new standalone YA fantasy novel that is coming out in the US next week (September 10, 2019). Unfortunately, this book was very predictable and filled with typical YA fantasy tropes. The name of the novel also pretty much spoils the entire plot. In addition, the writing style was not my cup of tea. The author had to many "sand" things in the novel and an exorbitant amount of sand similes (sand dancers, sand blessings, etc). Finally, I thought the world was not very well developed and the entire book is set in the one city and the surrounding desert.

That being said, I do think this book could appeal to young (i.e., Middle School) children, particularly girls. The main character is a warrior princess fighting for the throne. All characters are pretty much either totally evil or good and noble. The plot also includes elements of both Peter Pan and Robin Hood, where "Desert Boys," a ragtag band of orphans, steal water from the King's wells and distribute it to the people. I did like the fact that this is a stand alone. I think it will be more accessible to younger readers who do not necessarily want to get invested in a trilogy or a series.

Overall, I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars. It was not for me, but I can clearly appreciate that younger readers could love it.

I received e-ARC from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.