The Ones We're Meant to Find Blog Tour: Review + Spotlight

Today I am so excited to be taking part in the blog tour for The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He :D I read this book some weeks ago, and I loved it so very much. Sigh. It broke me to pieces, though. I have already posted my review, but posting it below too. Along with a spotlight post for the book, with all of the details you need. Thank you very much to Paola at Love, Paola for letting me take part in this blog tour :) I'm so excited to be part of the first day. This gorgeous book comes out on May 4th. You need this in your life. Also. Joan has the most amazing pre-order offer if you order this book. <3 See that here. Go order it.

There is so much for me to love about this book. That cover is beyond stunning. There has been artwork shared that killed me with beauty. And so I knew I would end up loving this one. Also because I adore Joan and her first book. It was such a stunning story of two sisters, living in a floating city, set far in the future.

I loved this world that Joan created. It is science and the future and the world ending. Natural disasters killing almost everyone, because of what humans did to this earth. It is the story about Cee and Kasey surviving in their floating city. Or trying their best to. There is so much going on in this book. Loved every moment.

The writing was pretty much perfect too, and I loved that. I felt connected with these characters and I adored them so. Though they also ruined me most of the time. How rude. They were two sisters. Alike, but fully different. The beginning of this book is not easy to completely understand. The book is told from both point of views. We begin with Celia. Whom we learn has been alone on an island for the past three years. Then there is her sister, Kasey. It has been three months since her sister went missing. So we get to see from both sisters, at different times. We get some memories of them together, and I loved that so much. Wish we had gotten more of them together, though. Yet reading about them apart was all kinds of stunning. As I grew to love them so.

There is so much going on in this story. I shall not spoil anything big. Simply sharing my thoughts about certain things. This is a story about two sisters. A story about an earth that is dying. And how one sister might be able to save those who are still alive, if she wants to. We get to know them both so much and I adored them so. We get to see so much of Cee and her abandoned island. It was heartbreaking at times. But so very good and I loved it the most. She had a small bot with her, but not one she could truly talk to.

And we get to see a lot about Kasey and her life while living in the floating city about the sea. Where she shares about the failing earth and how no one knows how to save it. How she misses her sister, yet how she does not feel the same as everyone around her does. She was different. And I liked her very much. I may have loved Cee and her island life the most, but I loved Kasey just as much. And I loved how they were both searching for each other. All the secrets that were revealed. They all killed me, though. Sobs.

I cannot decide what I felt about the different types of romances in this book. Cee and Hero was the most adorable thing and I loved them so very much. But Kasey and Act. Well. I shipped them. And then I didn't, except I still did. And I am so confused about that whole thing. So well written, though. I loved getting to know Hero. He showed up on Cee's island, without memory as well. And I found him to be every kind of precious. Then there was Actinium. Felt so conflicted about him, and needed to know much more of him.

There was also the sister relationship between Celia and Kasey. We see more about them being apart. Thinking about the other. And they had a complicated relationship too. Yet so much love for each other. And I very much enjoyed that. I loved learning more about their past. Who they both were. And what they meant to each other. Kasey was difficult to love. Set more apart from others. And yet I loved her so very much. Cee was very easy to love, yet had such a gentle heart too. I simply adored these two sisters so.

It is a four star for me because of a few things. Firstly, some of the science was a little too much for me to understand at times. It also took me a little time to get into the book. Wish that the timing had been made clearer. Like how Cee was at three years, and Kasey at just three months. Then that ending. It feels fully open with many things not clear yet. Summary says "Lost with a satisfying resolution." I feel a bit tricked. Thought there would be a sequel, there won't be. And there is so much I do not know. What happened?

And yet I loved this book so very much. It captured me from beginning to end, made me love these two girls. I just wish the ending had been clearer. It does not feel like an end to me. It feels very much ready for a sequel. And oh, how I wish there will be one. Though I see that Joan has said there will not be. And that is breaking my heart a little, to be fully honest. I wish to know what actually happened so badly. I wish more so so much. And so I will try being hopeful, that Joan might be writing a sequel one day. Want it so.

The Ones We're Meant to Find was such a beautiful book. And I very much loved it. It was everything I had hoped it to be. And yet so much more. Such a huge twist that I did not at all see coming. I probably should have seen it, but I did not. And I very much loved that, haha. But it so ruined me. Then everything after the twist ruined me even more. It was so good, but oh, my poor heart. Okay, the ending was not that open. But I need answers even so. It was such an incredible story and I shall never forget it. Do read this.

Goodreads - The Book Depository - Amazon #ad

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Studio Ghibli. 

Cee awoke on an abandoned island three years ago. With no idea of how she was marooned, she only has a rickety house, an old android, and a single memory: she has a sister, and Cee needs to find her.

STEM prodigy Kasey wants escape from the science and home she once trusted. The eco-city—Earth's last unpolluted place—is meant to be sanctuary for those commited to planetary protection, but it’s populated by people willing to do anything for refuge, even lie. Now, she'll have to decide if she’s ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered most.

Buy The Ones We're Meant to Find: Amazon - B&N - The Book Depository - Indiebound - Kobo - signed copies, author website

 

Joan He was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favorite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the Delaware River. Descendant of the Crane is her debut young adult fantasy. Her next novel, The Ones We're Meant to Find, will be forthcoming from Macmillan on May 4th, 2021.

Where to find Joan He:

Twitter. Goodreads. Instagram. Website. 

See the full Tour Schedule here.

Rebel Spy Blog Tour: Review

Today I'm taking part in the blog tour for Rebel Spy by Veronica Rossi :) Hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club. Thank you for letting me take part in this tour. I'm such a huge fan of Veronica and have loved her and her books for years now. And so I knew I had to read Rebel Spy. And I knew I would enjoy this so very much. Which I did. Today I'm sharing my four star review of this lovely book. You all need to read this precious book too. It looks so stunning and it was so incredible too. Most definitely worth reading. Buy it :)

Review of Rebel Spy.

I have been waiting so long for the chance to read this book. Been a fan of Veronica for years now; she is amazing. And I knew I would end up adoring this book. So happy to say that I did. I am giving it four stars, as I had a few small issues. But for the most part I really adored and loved this story. The writing was fully stunning. I had to problem connecting with this beautiful book. The setting was incredible; I loved that this took part between 1776 and 1780. I very much loved how historical and lovely it was. Very interesting too.

This book tells the story about Frannie. She lived with her mom and stepdad on an island in the Grand Bahamas. There is so little of her life there, but gosh, it was so exciting. Wreck diving. A great best friend. I wish there had been even more of it all. Sigh. When she was fifteen, her mother died. And her stepdad wanted to marry Frannie next. Which was beyond gross and terrifying. And so Frannie did the only thing she could to get away. She took over the life of a dead girl she found floating in the sea after a ship crash.

Which is how this story begins. With Frannie escaping from her violent and so awful stepdad. And taking over the life of someone else. We see a bit about her few weeks aboard a ship after she was rescued by them, before she was taken to her new stolen life. We see how Frannie struggles to live the life of a rich young lady. How she has to learn to behave like she would have done, how Frannie has to change pretty much everything about herself. Which was kind of sad, yet the only way she would be able to live at all.

And oh, how I adored Frannie. She was such an amazing girl to get to know. I loved her fighting spirit. I only wish that there had been more about her as Frannie, and less of her as Emmeline. Though I loved her life as her too. But yeah. Frannie was much more awesome. I loved the small parts of her diving. It was so lovely to read about. On the ship, for a few weeks, she meets a boy. Asa. And falls in love right away. I liked reading about them together so much. A bit too fast, but so adorable too. But it ended badly.

Which is all I will say about that. It was so interesting too, though. I just so liked reading about them both. She was on this ship for a little while, until she arrived in New York ready to start her new life as someone else. Then the book skips three years. I wish we had seen more of the missing years, but also loved this jump. During those years, Frannie had to learn how to be a lady. How to do everything right, so that none would learn that Frannie was not really Emmeline. Her life was good, but also so boring for her at times.

But yes. I very much did like reading about Frannie in her new life too. Though her past life was way more exciting, haha. But her life as a lady was good too. I adored her new family. Lucy was fully adorable. And Charlotte, their friend, was too cute as well. I liked how they were her friends, even though she could not tell them her secret. Frannie hadn't seen Asa in three years. Until now. There was some drama, which I did not like very much, but it was not a lot of it. And I just loved this boy a whole lot. And shipped them so.

This book is about Frannie turning into a spy. Everyone she knows are with the British and the King. But she is secretly wishing for the Americans to win this war. She wants to help. And so she starts spying on those she spend time around. It was interesting, but it was also a little boring, as I had hoped there would be higher stakes and more happening, haha. It was good, though, despite that. The prologue shares that she will be caught spying. I liked this, but how she got caught was a little boring too, ha. But written well.

Okay. So. This book was about Frannie and her life as Emmeline. A bit about her spying too. But mostly just about her life and her feelings. Which is one thing I had issues with. The romance. Ack. Frannie was courting this guy, Duncan, for about a year. A few kisses. I did not really like him, as we had loved Asa first. And then he is there too, and somehow a tiny love triangle. Yet not really too, as it was not dramatic or silly. But I still wish the Duncan thing had not been included, haha. But it was a good thing for Frannie.

Anyway. The few things I had issues with in this book was as I mentioned the romance. And I wish that the ending had been longer, I needed to know more. Did any others get to know her truth? How did they react? I really wanted to see that. I wanted to see her come back to her home too. Sigh. I also felt like the whole spying this was a bit too tame. I liked the prison ships. Horrible and so real. But also wanted a little more horror and pain. Still. It was good and I liked it a lot. But wished there had been more of island life.

I must confess that I do not really know much about the war between America and Britain during this time period. Oops. Only the parts I remember from watching the Sleepy Hollow show, haha. Which is not a lot. And so I very much liked learning more about it all in this book. Learning about this war and things that took place during it. And how it was for people living in New York during this time. It was interesting and exciting too to read about. I think I must look more into this history of time. As I am now curious about it.

Rebel Spy was just as good and exciting as I thought it would be. Despite the few issues I had with it, I still loved this book. And I'm so glad that I read it. I cannot wait to get my gorgeous hardcover in the mail. Big thank you to the publisher and to The Fantastic Flying Book Club for letting me read this via Netgalley for the blog tour. It was such a great book. I only wish it had a longer ending. Hmph. How rude, haha. You all need to read this book too. Now I simply can't wait to read even more books by Veronica in the future.

Goodreads - The Book Depository - Amazon

A reimagining of the story behind Agent 355--a New York society girl and spy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War--perfect for fans of Tatiana de Rosnay's Sarah's Key and the novels of Julie Berry.

Rebellious Frannie Tasker knows little about the war between England and its thirteen colonies in 1776, until a shipwreck off her home in Grand Bahama Island presents an unthinkable opportunity. The body of a young woman floating in the sea gives Frannie the chance to escape her brutal stepfather--and she takes it.

Assuming the identity of the drowned Emmeline Coates, Frannie is rescued by a British merchant ship and sails with the crew to New York. For the next three years, Frannie lives a lie as Miss Coates, swept up in a courtship by a dashing British lieutenant. But after witnessing the darker side of the war, she realizes that her position gives her power. Soon she finds herself eavesdropping on British officers, risking everything to pass information on to George Washington's Culper spy ring as agent 355. Frannie believes in the fight for American liberty--but what will it cost her? Inspired by the true "355" and rich in historical detail and intrigue, this is the story of an unlikely New York society girl turned an even unlikelier spy.

Buy Rebel Spy: Amazon - B&N - The Book Depository - Indiebound - Kobo - iTunes - Google Play

VERONICA ROSSI is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the UNDER THE NEVER SKY series. She was born in Rio de Janeiro, grew up in California, and graduated from UCLA. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two sons, one of whom just surpassed her in height. Find her online at veronicarossi.com or on Twitter at @rossibooks.

 

Where to find Veronica Rossi:

Twitter. Facebook. Instagram.

Goodreads. Website.