[ARC REVIEW] The Agitated Agenda by Candace N. Ford (@PRbytheBook)

Title:  The Agitated Agenda

Author:  Candace N. Ford

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Interracial Romance

Year Published: 2018

Number of Pages:  260 pages

Date Read: 2/9/2019

Publisher:  Above the Line Press     

Source:  Physical ARC (PR by the Book)

Content Rating:  Ages 18+ (Some Language, Death and Sex Scenes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

I would like to thank the author Candace N. Ford and PR by the Book for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh man! How long has it been since I last read a romance novel?  Since the middle of 2018?  A long time then!  Anyway, when PR by the Book sent me a copy of Candace N. Ford’s latest book “The Agitated Agenda,” I was a bit surprised by this since it is rare that I would receive a copy of a romance novel just as they are being released!  So, I just read this book and I have to say that it was one of the most shocking yet heartwarming stories I have ever read!

Priscilla Richardson was a young African-American woman who was trying to the graduate at the top of her class at Georgetown Law School.  Even though Priscilla had suffered a tragic loss when her mother died in a car accident, Priscilla still tried to move on and make it her goal in life to work in one of the most prestigious law firms and become a partner within five years. When Priscilla finally got into a law firm, she meets up with a young Caucasian man named Tom Ward and the two automatically fell in love with each other.  After staying a year at the law firm and with Tom, Priscilla started feeling sick and her illness got so bad that her best friend Sylvia had to take her to the hospital.  It was then that Priscilla discovers that she is pregnant and she starts panicking due to the fact that she never planned on being a mother and that the pregnancy came out of nowhere.  Now Priscilla has to discover for herself that not everything in her life will go according to plan and that she has to make the best of her situation and restore her faith in God to help her get through this unexpected turn of events.

Wow!  I am beyond amazed with this book!  Candace N. Ford has done a great job at writing this book as all the characters and the events were so relatable to me!  It is rare that I read a romance novel that actually takes a more realistic look at how romance works in the real world and how sometimes life throws curveballs at us that we were not prepared for.  I also loved the way that Candace N. Ford threw in so many twists and turns to the plot as I was not expecting Priscilla to go through so many horrible situations, which included the death of her mother early on in the book.  I really loved Priscilla herself as she is probably one of the most relatable protagonists, I have ever read in a romance novel!  I actually felt bad for Priscilla throughout the story as she had made big plans for herself and was prepared to follow through them.  But there were many unexpected situations that happened to her that prevented her from following her dreams.  I actually related to Priscilla through her ordeals as I myself had also made some plans for myself once I left college, like getting a high paying job from the get go.  But, when the recession hit, my plans ended up being put on the backburner when I could not find a high paying job due to the job market taking a hit during the recession.  But like Priscilla had to do in this story, I had to make the best of the situation and just hope that my life got better from that point forward and have faith in myself during that time.  I especially loved the fact there is an interracial relationship in this book (between Priscilla, a black woman and Tom, a white man) as it is rare that I see interracial romances in romance novels.  Priscilla and Tom’s relationship with each other was the highlight of this book as their relationship felt so genuine and I loved the fact that Priscilla and Tom are always there for each other, especially when Tom was trying to help Priscilla deal with her unexpected pregnancy.

The reason why I took off a few points from the rating was because I felt that the narrative jumped around a bit too much at some points, as there were too many events happening, that it got a bit hard to follow the story at times.   I also felt that the climax was a bit too abrupt since I was getting used to the turn of events that had just happened and then the climax suddenly introduced a new problem for Priscilla that came out of nowhere.

Overall, “The Agitated Agenda” is a truly shocking yet heartwarming story about the importance of true love and keeping your faith, that I think romance fans will enjoy!  Now, let us hope that a sequel gets made soon because that cliffhanger is brutal!

  You might also like:

• It Takes a Cat Burglar by Cailin Briste

• Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James
• Something About You by Julie James

[BOOK REVIEW] And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss

Title:  And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street

Author:  Dr. Seuss

Genre:  Children's / Fantasy

Year Published: 1937

Year Read:  2019

Publisher:  Vanguard Press, Inc.   

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 5+  (One Offensive Image)

Buy on: Amazon  //  Book Depository

I have been reading Dr. Seuss’s works ever since I was a child (it is pretty much a requirement as a child to read a Dr. Seuss book). So of course, I still have not read all of Dr. Seuss’s works and one of the books that I had owned ever since I was little, but I never really read was “And to Think that I Saw it On Mulberry Street!”  I only picked up this book after all of these years when some of my Goodreads friends had recommended it to me and I must say that it was quite a decent beginning for Dr. Seuss’s early works.

The story starts off with Marco’s father telling Marco to keep his eyelids up and see the things he can see on the street.  So, when Marco walked down Mulberry Street, he noticed a horse pulling a broken-down wagon down the street.  Marco thought that this sight was too boring and he started to imagine seeing more lavish decorations to the horse and wagon such as imagining it as a chariot being pulled by a reindeer or a sleigh being pulled by a large blue elephant with a Rajah riding on the elephant.

I have been reading many of Dr. Seuss’s works ever since I was a child and this book just happened to pass under the radar for me at the time.  It is amazing in seeing how Dr. Seuss’s earlier works differs heavily from his later works (for one thing, Dr. Seuss’s earlier works are a lot wordier than his later works).  So, of course I was a bit curious about seeing how this early work of Dr. Seuss’s would turn out and I ended up being quite interested in the subtle yet creative storytelling of this book!  Dr. Seuss had done a great job at writing this story as the story explores how far Marco’s imagination can go and teaches the reader about the beauty of having a vivid imagination. I loved the scenes of Marco using his imagination to make the sight of Mulberry Street much more interesting as it made the scenes much more entertaining to look at.  I especially loved the scenes of Marco imagining a musical band being pulled by a blue elephant as it was such a creative sight to see!

The reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because while the story was quite creative, I do not think that this book was as memorable as some of Dr. Seuss’s later works.  For one thing, the writing is much lengthier than most of Dr. Seuss’s works and that can make this book a bit of chore to read through. Also, this book does not have Dr. Seuss’s signature odd creatures that usually appear in his books (with the exception of the blue elephant).  There is also a controversial image in this book of a Chinese boy being shown as an offensive stereotype of Asians that might offend some people (although this book was written during the 1930s).

Overall, “And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street” is a great introduction to Dr. Seuss’s earlier works and would be a great read for children who are huge fans of Dr. Seuss’s works!  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the portrayal of the Chinese boy might offend some people.

You might also like:

• The King's Stilts by Dr. Seuss

• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

• Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss

[BOOK REVIEW] Alex + Ada Volume 1 by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn

Title:  Alex + Ada Volume 1

Authors:  Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn

Artist:  Jonathan Luna

Genre:  Science Fiction / Romance / Drama

Year Published:  2014

Year Read: 2/17/2018

Series: Alex + Ada #1

Publisher: Image Comics

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Some Language)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

Introduction:

Alright, so I have heard of stories where human beings fell in love with monsters and such, but I had never read a story where the main character develops feelings for an android and starts questioning about what it means to be human all at one time!  So, the moment I picked up Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn’s graphic novel “Alex + Ada Volume One,” I knew that I just had to give this graphic novel a shot!

What is this story about?

Alexander Wahl (Alex for short) had just gone through a tragic breakup with his ex-girlfriend Claire and ever since then, he’s been having a tough time trying to move on with his life and find someone else to love.  One day however, Alex’s grandmother decided to send Alex a female android for his birthday so that way, he would not be so lonely anymore.  At first, Alex did not want this new android since he was not ready to move on from his ex-girlfriend and he believed that he could never love this android like he could with a real human being.  But, when Alex discovers some terrifying secrets regarding the Androids and what happened to their free will after the events of the Nexaware massacre, he decided that he will do anything to allow Ada the android the will to be able to think for herself, even if that means that Alex could get into big trouble with the government if they found out about this.

What I loved about this story:

Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn’s writing:  Wow! I was seriously impressed with this story!  I loved the way that both Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn wrote this story as this story explores both how humans judge the sentience of technology and what it means to have free will and have the right to think for yourself.  I like the way that Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn wrote Alex’s character as he was quite an interesting character to read about.  Even though there were times where Alex seemed like a flat character, I like the fact that his curiosity about the sentience of androids makes him want to explore the society he lives in and decide on whether or not he wants Ada the android to have human emotions so that he could give her the right to think for herself.  I was also interested in Ada’s character as she is shown to be a regular android at first and the fact that Alex wants to give her real human emotions makes me excited to see where Ada’s character will go after this.  I also like the fact that Ada’s character introduces the themes of what it means to be a human being and whether or not humans considered non-human beings such as androids as being capable of feeling true human emotions.

Jonathan Luna’s artwork:  Jonathan Luna’s artwork is just so gorgeous to look at as all the characters seem to glow off the pages.  I also loved the artwork of the futuristic setting that the characters reside in, such as seeing futuristic technology like holographic television and having humans equip sensors in their brains to do their daily chores.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because I felt that the beginning of the story was a bit too slow in pacing as it took a long time to get to the exciting part of the story and there were times where I felt that the story was a bit too dialogue heavy, especially during the news reports scenes.  Also, for anyone who does not like language, there is a bit of it here, although it is not as strong as some of the more mature graphic novels.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Alex + Ada Volume One” is a truly intriguing story about what it means to be human and I am definitely interested in seeing what happens to both Alex and Ada in the next volume!

You might also like:

• Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

• Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews

• Fray by Joss Whedon

[BOOK REVIEW] The Martian by Andy Weir

Title:  The Martian

Authors:  Andy Weir

Genre:  Science Fiction 

Year Published: 2011

Number of Pages: 435 pages 

Date Read: 1/29/2018 

Series: The Martian #1  

Publisher: Broadway Books

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 18+ (Strong Language)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

“I guess you could call it a "failure", but I prefer the term "learning experience.”

Finally!  I got the chance to read Andy Weir’s bestselling classic (now turned into a movie) “The Martian” and now I am seriously kicking myself for not reading this book sooner!  Who would have thought that I would be reading a science fiction novel that is full of adventure, drama and humor?

The book starts off with a space crew going on Mars to explore the red planet when suddenly, a dust storm shows up and the space crew is forced to leave the red planet to survive.  Unfortunately, they accidentally left behind Mark Watney, who was one of the astronauts going on the mission! Now that Mark is stranded on Mars, he will have to use his skills in botany and engineering, along with having a good sense of humor, to survive Mars’ dangerous atmosphere until he is rescued.

 Wow…just wow… Who would have thought that I would read a science fiction novel that dealt with trying to survive on another planet, while also being humorous about the whole situation at the same time?  Well, Andy Weir managed to balance all of that perfectly as I found myself being so intrigued with Mark Watney’s situation about being stranded on Mars and trying to figure out ways to survive in Mars until help arrives.  I loved the way that Andy Weir inserted information about how physics and science work in outer space into this novel as not only was this the first time I was actually interested in how physics and science works, but it made the narrative extremely unique to read through as it is rare that I read books that try to educate the reader about how science and botany works in a general scale.   But, probably my favorite part of this novel was seeing the situation from Mark Watney’s point of view.  I loved the way that Andy Weir wrote Mark Watney’s character as Mark is shown to be an extremely intelligent character who can easily adapt to Mars’ dangerous environment due to being knowledgeable in both engineering and botany and I loved the fact that Mark uses his expertise in these subjects to study Mars’ environment and try to survive in such an environment.   What I loved the most about Mark Watney himself is that he manages to crack jokes and remain optimistic despite his whole ordeal as it made me really love his character and also manages to relieve some of the tension about being trapped in an environment that could potentially kill you

For anyone who does not like strong language, there is some strong language in this novel, with the “s” word and the “f” words being used quite frequently and some readers might want to skim over these words if they do not like strong language.  Also, the idea about being trapped on another planet might be too scary for some readers (even I found the idea about being trapped on Mars to be pretty scary).  Luckily, Mark’s sense of humor can relieve some of that tension.

Overall, “The Martian” is a truly fantastic book that anyone who loves reading science fiction novels or loves reading books about space will definitely enjoy for many years!

* 2014 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction & Nominee for Debut Goodreads Author
* 2015 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Nominee for Best Novel
* 2015 Audie Award for Science Fiction
* 2015 ALA Alex Award
* 2015 Seiun Award 星雲賞 for Best Foreign Novel
* 2015 本屋大賞  Nominee for Translated Fiction
* 2016 Green Mountain Book Award Nominee

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• Golden Son by Pierce Brown

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[ARC REVIEW] Herding Cats: A "Sarah's Scribbles" Collection by Sarah Andersen (@SarahCAndersen, @AndrewsMcMeel)

Title:  Herding Cats: A "Sarah's Scribbles" Collection

Author:  Sarah Andersen

Genre:  Humor / Life / Art

Year Published: 2018

Year Read:  12/13/2017 

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC 

Series: Sarah's Scribbles #3

Source: eARC (NetGalley)

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Some Language and Suggestive Humor)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

I have been hearing so many good things about Sarah Andersen’s popular “Scribbles” series and yet, I was not able to pick up any of her books when they were coming out.  Well, now I finally got the chance to pick up one of her books through NetGalley, which is the third book in the series called “Herding Cats” and I was quite amazed by the humorous antics shown in this book!

What is this story about?

In this volume, Sarah shows her experiences in both real life and the internet life through her artwork (or scribbles as they are known as) to relate to the readers such as trying to get through one page in a book only to keep on reading the book even after you promised yourself to just read one more page or seeing some progress happen in the United States only for the 2016 elections to cause mayhem afterwards.

What I loved about this story:

Sarah Andersen’s writing: Wow! I was quite amazed by how Sarah Andersen wrote this graphic novel series!  I loved the way that Sarah Andersen relates her observations about real life both through her life and through the internet in a humorous yet thought provoking way as I found myself agreeing with a majority of her thoughts about real-life.  I really loved the part about the 2016 elections as it was stated in one of the panels about how politics was making progress before 2016 and then the 2016 elections hit and there was chaos and mayhem!  I was also impressed with the fact that this graphic novel series is similar to Allie Brosh’s series “Hyperbole and a Half” as both series have the authors relating their own lives through their artwork and both are done in a hilarious way!  I also loved the fact that Sarah Andersen provided some advice at the end of the book about how to deal with the pressures of both the real world and the internet community and how if you encounter some struggles in your life, just keep on creating things that you love (in Sarah Andersen’s case, it is continuing to draw her comics no matter how hard things get in both the real world and the internet community).

Sarah Andersen’s artwork: Sarah Andersen’s artwork is truly hilarious to look at as the characters are drawn in a squat comic book fashion and I especially love the images of Sarah herself as she is drawn as having spiky hair and is wearing a black and white striped shirt.  I also loved how Sarah Andersen conveyed some of the situations in real life through the images such as the state of politics being shown as a person with an American flag shaped head and then the next panel shows lots of people fighting each other in a fiery landscape after the results of the 2016 elections.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason I took off half a point from the rating was because I felt that the story telling was a bit disjointed at times and it was hard for me to really follow what is really going on in the story, even though this is meant to take on different aspects of real life and put them in comic book format.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Herding Cats: A Sarah Scribbles Collection” is a truly hilarious graphic novel to read, especially if you want to see a more humorous take on real life!

You might also like:

• Tales from the Crib by Henrik Drescher

• Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
• Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd

[ARC REVIEW] Hockey Karma by Howard Shapiro (@hockeyplayer, @Animal_Media)

Title:  Hockey Karma

Author:  Howard Shapiro

Artist: Andres J. Mossa

Genre:  Friendship / School / Drama / Drugs / Sports

Year Published: 2016

Year Read:  7/11/2017

Publisher: Animal Media Group 

Series: Forever Friends Trilogy #3

Source: eARC (NetGalley)

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Drug Abuse and Mature Themes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I would like to thank NetGalley and Animal Media Group for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction:

YAY!  NetGalley has sent me the final volume to Howard Shapiro’s hit series “Forever Friends Trilogy” called “Hockey Karma” and I must admit that after I read this graphic novel, it was a worthy conclusion to this series!

What is this story about?

In this volume, Jeremiah “Jake” Jacobson is now thirty-two years old and is known as being the best hockey player in the world.  Unfortunately, because Jake is getting older now and he is starting to lose his edge, especially to new and upcoming star teammate Barclay Pedersen, his family life and career is starting to rapidly come apart.  Meanwhile, Tom Leonard has got his own issues to deal with as he is trying to get a project that would help improve their city off the ground.  But Jake refuses to help out with the project due to dealing with his addiction to some medical pills to keep him in the game and Tom is wondering if he would ever get the project off the ground.  Also, Tom’s old high school crush, Jaelithe returns to town and Tom rekindles his relationship with Jaelithe and the two are thinking about staying together.  But unfortunately, Tom will soon discover that he may have to sacrifice his current lifestyle just to maintain a long-lasting relationship with Jaelithe.

Will Jake be able to get his life back together and will Tom soon discover what he really wants for his future?

Read this graphic novel to find out!

What I loved about this story:

Howard Shapiro’s writing:  Howard Shapiro’s writing continues to amaze me in this volume as all the characters are written extremely well and I just enjoyed the character development that each character goes through in this story.  I loved the way that Howard Shapiro portrayed Jake’s condition as he is still recovering from his alcoholism from the last volume, only this time, he is dependent on pain medication and it realistically shows that even though Jake is trying to get help for his dependence on drugs, he is still struggling with trying to overcome his drug addiction.  I also enjoyed the relationship shared between Tom and Jake as Tom is still trying to help Jake become a better person by helping him deal with his drug abuse and trying to help him mend his relationship with his family.  I liked the way that Howard Shapiro also gave some focus to Tom in this volume as we finally get to see Tom have some of his story arcs resolved in this volume (him reuniting with his high school band “The Stereotypical Freaks” and him trying to rekindle his relationship with his high school crush Jaelithe) and I enjoyed seeing how much growth Tom goes through when he reunites with his old high school friends.

Andres J. Mossa’s artwork:  Andres J. Mossa’s artwork is extremely gorgeous in this volume as all the characters are drawn realistically and seem to glow off the pages.  I also loved the fact that Andres J. Mossa’s artwork is much more detailed in this volume than in the previous volumes as it greatly reflects the growing maturity in the stories and as the stories become more mature, the artwork becomes more detailed and realistic in tone.

What made me feel uncomfortable about this story:

The reason why I gave this book a four-and-a-half-star rating was because I felt that pacing was a bit too slow in some places and there was a lot of dialogue going on in this book that sort of slowed down the story a bit.  I often had to speed through the dialogue just to get to the meat of the story and I kind of wished that some of the heavy dialogue was trimmed a bit so I could get to the more essential parts of the story.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, “Hockey Karma” is a great conclusion to Howard Shapiro’s “Forever Friends Trilogy” that really cemented the importance of true friendship and I hope to see more works from Howard Shapiro soon!

You might also like:

• The Stereotypical Freaks by Howard Shapiro

• The Hockey Saint by Howard Shapiro
• The Hardy Boys: The Deadliest Stunt Volume 13 by Scott Lobdell