Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D Jackson @WriteinBK @Harper360UK #bookreview

Hello book friends,

I hope you are all doing well and not suffering too much in this heat, us UK’ers are not used to it LOL

I am so happy to bring you a review for this stunning book

My Review

I received this gorgeous covered book by Harper 360 and I was super excited to read it, I also wanted to start reading more books by Black Authors and Own Voices, and helping out more, so I also purchased the Audio version, so this will be a review for both!

Set in Brooklyn 1998 we follow 3 friends, Quadir, Jarrell and Jasmine.

The book starts at the funeral of Quadir and Jarrell’s best friend Steph, Jasmine is Steph’s little sister, who was shot, and murdered.

Jasmine takes herself off into Steph’s bedroom for a moment to herself, and is soon followed by the 2 boys, they then find Steph’s stash of tapes of his own music under his bed, and notebooks of lyrics.

The 3 kids are so in awe of how brilliant Steph’s music is, that they decide that the whole world needs to hear it, but how do they get it heard, especially when the artist himself is dead and they themselves are only teenagers?

Well, being in Brooklyn, the Rap scene was the place to be, and while managing to get CD’s printed and a few well-connected people to listen, they manage to get Steph’s music noticed, and by changing his name to “The Architect” they didn’t have to mention the fact that Steph isn’t around anymore.

But what happens when a big time record producer want to meet the Artist? And how were the kids to know that some of the lyrics could cause a lot of trouble for everyone?

🎧🎧

The narration for this book was by a full cast and it was fabulous, the lyrics are Rapped and very poignant for the late 90’s and also today.

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, grab it if you can.

**Many thanks to Harper 360 for sending me a copy of this beautiful book**

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

In this standalone novel, Tiffany D. Jackson tells the story of three Brooklyn teens who plot to turn their murdered friend into a major rap star by pretending he is still alive.

Biggie Smalls was right. Things done changed. But that doesn’t mean that Quadir and Jarrell are okay letting their best friend Steph’s tracks lie forgotten in his bedroom after he’s killed—not when his beats could turn any Bed-Stuy corner into a celebration, not after years of having each other’s backs.

Enlisting the help of Steph’s younger sister, Jasmine, Quadir and Jarrell come up with a plan to promote Steph’s music under a new rap name: The Architect. Soon, everyone in Brooklyn is dancing to Steph’s voice. But then his mixtape catches the attention of a hotheaded music rep and—with just hours on the clock—the trio must race to prove Steph’s talent from beyond the grave.

Now, as the pressure—and danger—of keeping their secret grows, Quadir, Jarrell, and Jasmine are forced to confront the truth about what happened to Steph. Only each has something to hide. And with everything riding on Steph’s fame, together they need to decide what they stand for before they lose everything they’ve worked so hard to hold on to—including each other

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Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart @Erin_N_Stewart @Lovereadinguk @simonkids_UK @hashtagreads #BookReview #ScarsLikeWings #ErinStewart #Netgalley

Hello again book friends,

I am so happy to be able to bring you a review for this gorgeous book coming to you in October

My Thoughts

🆈🅾🆄 🅰🆁🅴 🅱🅴🅰🆄🆃🅸🅵🆄🅻 🅽🅾 🅼🅰🆃🆃🅴🆁 🆆🅷🅰🆃 🆃🅷🅴🆈 🆂🅰🆈

My heart just about broke in half reading this book

Scars Like Wings follows 16 yr old Ava Lee a year after she was horrifically burned in a house fire, that took the life of her parents, and her best friend.

She lost everything that day, her home, her family and even her identity, because now she doesn’t even look like herself, as although Ava was pulled out of the fire, she sustained 60% of burns across her whole body.

After many, many operations (19) her aunt and uncle who she now lives with, decide that it would be best for her to go back to school, to put some “normal” back into her life.

But Ava doesn’t look normal, she knows this, and so does everyone else that stares at her and call her names.

After nearly giving up on the whole school situation, Ava meets a girl called Piper who is a fellow survivor, and later a boy called Asad, who is a theatre nerd just like her.

But soon Ava discovers that some scars on the inside are not always so easy to see.

I was sobbing reading this book, there were some truly touching moments, and I read the whole book pretty much like this:

Please, please grab this book when it comes out, you won’t regret it.

**Many thanks to the Author, Netgalley, and Simon and Schuster UK Children’s for my copy of this book**

About The Book

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Publish Date: 03 October 2019.

16-year-old Ava Lee is heading back to school one year after a house fire left her severely disfigured. She’s used to the names, the stares, the discomfort, but there’s one name she hates most of all: Survivor. What do you call someone who didn’t mean to survive? Who sometimes wishes she hadn’t?

When she meets a fellow survivor named Piper at therapy, Ava begins to feel like she’s not facing the nightmare alone. Piper helps Ava reclaim the pieces of Ava Before the Fire, a normal girl who kissed boys and sang on stage. But Piper is fighting her own battle, and when Ava almost loses her best friend, she must decide if the new normal she’s chasing has more to do with the girl in the mirror — or the people by her side.

 

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis @MindyMcGinnis @harperteen @brit_pressley #AudiobookReview #YA

Hello book lovers,

I’m so pleased to bring you my review of this very deep, dark, but riveting audio book!

Why did you pick it up Vicci? – Because it is a pretty new release there has been a lot of talk about this book, especially on Goodreads, most of it was shouting TRIGGERS and BE CAREFUL warnings, so naturally it made me want to pick it up…I’m a bit of a rebel like that LOL.

My Thoughts

When I wake up, all my friends are dead.

The first line of the book…….makes you want to read it right??

Be warned that this is, and has very graphic detail on drug addiction, if you are a recovering addict then this book could be extremely triggering for you, and you would be best to stay away from it until you are in a better mindset.

If you are OK reading this sort of thing, then this one is well worth a credit.

The story follows our MC Mickey Catalan, the narrator of this story, a young high school student that has a pretty good life, she is the star catcher in her Softball team and they are probably going to make it to the local history books with a win in a large tournament in the upcoming season.

We meet Mickey in the months before that hard hitting first line of the book, her and her friend are involved in a car crash as she is driving home from Softball practice, her friend damages her arm, and Mickey badly damages her leg.

She is obviously not able to play softball until her leg has healed properly and she is given a timescale for this, 12 weeks, but this is just before the new Softball season starts and she doesn’t want to be sidelined.

She is given medication (Oxy) for the obvious pain that she is in, but Mickey realises quite soon that if she takes more, then she can push herself a little bit harder, and will therefore be fit in time for the new season.

Unfortunately her problems are only just beginning, unbeknown to her, Oxy is is highly addictive, she is taking it for the pain, but she is soon not in so much pain, but still taking the tablets.

She begins to up her dosage as she becomes more and more addicted to the high, when she runs out of her medication she needs more, immediately!  but her prescription shows that she should still have at least 2 weeks supply left, what is she to do?

This is where things start to go more and more downhill for Mickey, she buys them from someone, who then becomes friends with her, and introduces her to other people that can ‘help’

This book doesn’t pull any punches, it is brutal and dark, you see the slow downward spiral of Mickey, how she becomes disengaged with her other life and starts to slowly become a shadow of her former self.

This is a Young Adult book, but it really didn’t read that way to me, yes it is about young adults, but that is as far as the YA went for me. I think that it is an extremely important book, it shows that drug addicts don’t always look like the images that you see on TV, they don’t always end up laying in a park or a back-street somewhere, that can look quite normal and function just as well as you and me, and you would never know. It is only when the addiction starts to get out of hand, that the red flags and the warning signs start showing.

🎧🎧 – Brilliantly narrated by Brittany Pressley a new to me narrator, but one I will definitely be looking out for again.

About the book

Heroine
By: Mindy McGinnis
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
Release date: 03-12-19



A captivating and powerful exploration of the opioid crisis – the deadliest drug epidemic in American history – through the eyes of a college-bound softball star. Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a visceral and necessary novel about addiction, family, friendship, and hope.

When a car crash sidelines Mickey just before softball season, she has to find a way to hold on to her spot as the catcher for a team expected to make a historic tournament run. Behind the plate is the only place she’s ever felt comfortable, and the painkillers she’s been prescribed can help her get there.

The pills do more than take away pain; they make her feel good.

With a new circle of friends – fellow injured athletes, others with just time to kill – Mickey finds peaceful acceptance and people with whom words come easily, even if it is just the pills loosening her tongue.

But as the pressure to be Mickey Catalan heightens, her need increases, and it becomes less about pain and more about want, something that could send her spiraling out of control.

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Vicci 📚💛✨