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If You Could Be MineIf You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This should be required reading for everyone. This is the kind of thing my teachers should have given the class back in high school rather than Lord of the Flies or The Great Gatsby, and other male dominated books that I found did not relate to my life in any way, nor give me any insight into what real life was for others. The depth of this book comes from a soul who lives in a country ruled by misogynistic males, who prize their women for what a woman can do for them. Those who follow a religion written by the same type of misogynists.

The main character of this story is an example of the least of the least people. She discovers when she is 10 that she is in love and wants to marry her best friend. When she tells her mom that fact her mother tells her it’s a sin and never to speak of it again. So she becomes spiritually and emotional alone. Even the person she loves denies her hope of continuing a relationship into adulthood.

If You Could Be Mine includes other LGBTQ beings and how they deal with the issues even our own American counterparts deal with, but in Iran and that part of the world, the bigotry is even deeper. Sara Farizan has written a believable story and opened our eyes to the plight of our Iranian sisters. I think that fiction is often easier to deal with than any other media. It is the next best thing to climbing inside another person and finding out how it is to live someone else’s life. Isn’t that how Reality TV started? We all are curious as to how others live.

I was surprised by the ending. I wanted more, yet could see it was a more realistic ending. I wish for a part two to see what happened next. Not that we were left on a cliffhanger, but because of loving the character so much I want to see more about this character’s life as an adult.

Please read this if you get the chance. It is free through Kindle Unlimited. But I plan to buy the Kindle and Audible versions when I get the chance. It is worth a second read.

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Atlantis RiptideAtlantis Riptide by Allie Burton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have always wanted to be a mermaid. I lived for my time in the water. I never understood my friends who spent hours working on their tans when a perfectly good body of water was there calling me. In late grade school, early junior high, my brother and I walked three miles over a hill. We stopped at the bottom of the hill where my aunt lived so we could get a drink of her Sparkletts water then continue our walk to the pool. There we would pay our first dime for the first session of swimming (I think it was an hour and a half) then we’d dry off and hang out in the park until the second session. Then we’d pay our second dime and swim some more. After all that swimming we would walk back to our aunt’s for another drink then attack that three-mile-hike over the hill. I loved summer and all that swimming! A secret I learned later was that our aunt would call our mom each time we stopped so that Mom would know we were okay. Thank goodness I wasn’t raised now. I can’t imagine not having that kind of freedom. Anyway, I say all this because I still wish I was a mermaid. The only difference now is that I cannot handle cold water with my fibro. I miss swimming so much. Thereby, I read.

I must have really wanted to read this book. I picked it up twice from BookRooster.com then once again for free on Amazon. (It is free right now.) The version I read was the BookRooster as I can listen and read on the same machine (MoonReader Pro). By the way, I don’t know what’s up with BookRooster site. I can’t seem to find it so I won’t be able to post the review with them. Anyone know what’s up with them?

Back to the book. It is a Young Adult/Romance. Romance is the part I hate most. For all the angst wondering about the love interest, this mermaid could have been swimming and enjoying the flora and fauna beneath the waves. More time could have been spent talking about the freedom there is in swimming, the sensations of water as the body slices through it. But the author did give me the best gift: if you are a mermaid you don’t notice the change in temperatures. Your body can stand the cold of deeper water or the heat of being near the volcanic vents. Now I wish I were a mermaid even more. Oh, and if a mermaid breathes into an air breather more than 5 times an air breather can then live in the water as a merperson. Where do I find a merperson to do this for me?

Romance or not, I was happy that this poor mermaid found a friend who cares for her since her life didn’t seem to have much of that. And having this extra person to help her opens her life for new experiences. I don’t know if my writing is coming across rather haltingly, I am trying not to give spoilers. Hope I succeeded at piquing your interest in reading this book without giving too much away.

This book is part of a series, but the book didn’t leave the reader on a cliffhanger. Whew! I was glad about that. It did leave me wanting to see what happens next. So as soon as I can afford it I will pick up the next in the series. My inner mermaid needs more!

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The Scriptorium Daily.


Dar49 Daily.


Problems Showering With Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. This is the hardest part of having Fibro. When I nearly faint a few times in the shower and barely make it back to my bed to recover.


The Scriptorium Daily.


Dar49 Daily.


Legend (Legend, #1)Legend by Marie Lu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am SO impressed with this series! Especially since I had to read it backward. For the most part, I read it on my local library’s Kindle and listened to the library Overdrive version. This last book, book one, I actually had had the chance to buy the Audible version. I figured I will eventually buy all of this series (Kindle and Audible) so that someday I would read it in the correct order. If it is good and held together reading it the way I did, imagine how good it is reading it the right way!

Spoilers are hard to avoid as I write this. In fact, I thought by knowing what was to come I wouldn’t be able to continue. Then something happened between Metais and Day. Something seemed off as I remembered what was to happen in book two. Luckily, by the end of book one that issue revealed itself properly. Everything else held together very well. Again, I am so impressed with the world, characters and story that Marie Lu (author) built.

In this first book, you get to see how June and Day meet and start falling for each other. I had wondered about that. You get to see how Day meets Tess. You actually meet Day’s family. You meet all the people who play crucial roles later in the series and now you know why (if you read it back to front, that is).

Yesterday, I saw that Legend is on sale on Amazon. It is $3.00. If you can, I suggest you buy it. If I had more than a dollar to my name, I would buy it now. Alas, that will have to wait.

Now a comment on the narration by Mariel Stern and Steven Kaplan who play June and Day respectfully. I don’t know if this is their first narration gig or if they were finding their voices to these characters, but this one felt like they were new. Especially, Mariel Stern, whose voice appeared higher and a little crackly in comparison to the later books. Maybe she was attempting to sound younger? And, of course, if they recorded them in order that would still be the case, right? But as this story continues both voices become stronger and true to the characters. I was often in a situation where wearing headphones and listening were impossible and I had to read the book strictly by sight, and there were times my eyes were tired and I just listened, either and both methods hold up and maintain a fantastic story. An author who writes very well, combined with narrators who read very well, makes a wonderful experience, even in a dystopian world.

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