The Birthday Book Tag

 Hey, do you want to hear my dumb issue with preparing blog content and looking at emails? I tell myself I will watch YouTube for a bit, and then I end up watching for half a day. Before I knew it, it was Sunday, so I had to rush to schedule the five posts in one go, which was super stressful, but I still made it somehow. The content I’m putting out isn’t great in terms of views, but I’m enjoying that if I have an idea or a tag I want to do, I’m just doing it. So before I go to sushi for my birthday dinner, I want to start the birthday book tag. The original creator is  Antonia Always Books.

Birthday Cake: A Book with A Plot That Seems Cliché, But You Adore It Anyway

The first time I picked it up, I DNF’ed it, but in the end, I gave it four stars. That’s my take not to judge a book by the first few pages.

Goodreads Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Finley has only ever had one to become a famous podcaster. This includes coming up with the perfect pitch to land her on her school’s podcast team. But when her football-obsessed boyfriend, Jensen, decides to also try out—and uses her idea—she’s left confused and betrayed. 

Determined to get back at him, Finley and her friends try to find the perfect revenge scheme, but quickly discover that Jensen is almost-impossible to best. Keyword, almost. 

By chance, Finley discovers a knack for kicking and decides to take Jensen’s spot on the football team. To help her train, she recruits Jensen’s cute but conceited nemeses, Theo. Soon the two discover that their connection runs deeper than football. But Finley can’t let herself get distracted, and Theo has secrets of his own. Is true love really better than the perfect revenge?

Party Guests: Your Most Anticipated Book Release for This Year

Goodreads Blurb:

A sweeping, epic tale of a young boy’s journey to find home…

Following the death of his beloved father, Arthur is sent to Canada for safety with a group of evacuees on the eve of the Second World War. Alone and afraid, plagued with sea sickness, and an unknown future, he can’t imagine things getting any worse.

Far from what he feared, Arthur is welcomed with warmth and kindness. But even on the other side of the world, the war can’t be escaped and before long, his new family are touched by it too.

Faced with another dramatic change in his life, everything starts to change again for Arthur. Will he find himself alone once more, or can he hold on to the love and happiness that he always dreamed of?

Goodtrads Blurb:

Maggie’s hands tremble as she lowers her camera, unable to bear the little girl’s haunted eyes pleading at her from behind the gates. This camp is hell on earth. And this roll of film is enough for the Nazis to kill her. But she won’t rest until the world knows the truth…

Germany, 1944: Nazi banners blowing in the wind, Maggie Sullivan takes her first steps into enemy territory. Armed only with a camera and a US press pass, Maggie never backs down from danger. But close to her heart is a secret; one that she can never share. Maggie was born in Germany. Years ago, she and her mother were forced to flee Berlin, leaving her siblings behind. The US Army are Maggie’s protectors for now, but she wakes each night in a cold sweat what will they do if they discover her past?

Every day Maggie works tirelessly to prove the horrifying truth about what Nazis are doing in the camps. But inching closer to the barbed wire, an inscription on an officer’s report grips her with an ice-like fear. Her family’s name. She’s desperate to know more, but it would risk her entire mission. She must save the innocents, even if it means letting the secrets of her own past slip through her fingers…

Both are out, so I will add them to my secret list of WW2 historical fiction. The only reason I haven’t started reading it is that I’m trying to read from my Kindle as much as possible.

Birthday Presents: A Book That Surprised You with How Much You Loved It

Goodreads Blurb:

The hunt is on… How far will she go to add the guilty to her own trophy collection?
A spate of distressing big-game hunter posts fill Philippa’s newsfeed. As they brag about the exotic animals they’ve killed, the passionate veterinarian can no longer sit back and do nothing. She’s about to return the favour.

To stop the killings, she creates her own endangered list. By stalking their online profiles and infiltrating their inner circles, she vows to take them out one by one.
And she won’t stop until their kind are extinct.
DC Jack Rutherford and DS Amanda Lacey join forces with the Greater Manchester Police to investigate the murders. If you like British crime dramas featuring ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, then you’ll love this thrilling tale of karma.

It was a random read for me since I was just looking for a book with the word hunted for a prompt I was doing, but it kept me on my toes, which is rare for a book to do to me.

“Happy Birthday” Song: A Book That Certainly Deserved All the Hype It Got

Goodreads Blurb:

She has his dead wife’s heart; the one she wants is his. The author of The Family Plot brings her signature prose to a twisty novel about a heart transplant patient who becomes romantically obsessed with her donor’s husband.

Rosie Lachlan wants nothing more than to find The One.

A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, she’s working at her parents’ bridal salon, anxious for a happy ending that can’t come soon enough. After receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows her health is precious and precarious. She suspects her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect, ostensibly to learn more about Daphne. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together.

As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears, even if Rosie’s keeping some cards close to her chest. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death? And can Rosie’s heart sustain another break—or is she next?

I finished it yesterday, and it deserves all the love it has been getting, in my opinion.

Happy Music: A Book with Some Very Beautiful and Truly Memorable Quotes

Goodreads Blurb:

Aurora Garner and Eva Star are former college roommates investigating the link between missing tomato shipments and heinous crime activity. They find themselves in numerous predicaments as they delve into the seedy world of drugs, kidnapping and murder.

Things heat up when Aurora meets Connor Anderson. Connor is working on the tomato farm but he appears to be hiding a secret and can’t be trusted. The attraction between Aurora and Connor becomes explosive and filled with heat and desire, but will Aurora be burned when she learns the truth behind the man?

“I heard it once said that the reason people get married is to have someone there to witness the lives they live and I believe that to be true. If no one was there to witness living, there would be no living.”

Getting Older: A Book That You Read a Long Time Ago, But You Think You Would Appreciate More If You Read It as A More Mature Reader

Goodreads Blurb:

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

Read it as a teen, and it was indeed a shock to the system. As an adult, I would know what I’m getting into.

Sweet Birthday Memories: A Book That Kept You Incredibly Happy During a Sad Or Demanding Period Of Your Life

Goodreads Blurb:

Twelve-and-three-quarter-year-old Felix Knutsson has a knack for trivia. His favorite game show is Who What Where When; he even named his gerbil after the host. Felix’s mom, Astrid, is loving but can’t seem to hold on to a job. So when they get evicted from their latest shabby apartment, they have to move into a van. Astrid swears him to secrecy. He can’t tell anyone about their living arrangement, not even Dylan and Winnie, his best friends at his new school. If he does, she warns him, he’ll be taken away from her and put in foster care.

As their circumstances go from bad to worse, Felix gets a chance to audition for a junior edition of Who What Where When, and he’s determined to earn a spot on the show. Winning the cash prize could make everything okay again. But things don’t turn out the way he expects. . . 

I read it when I was unemployed, and even though it dealt with heavy topics, the characters gave me hope.

Tagging:

Anyone who wants to do it, whether it’s your birthday or not, please link me so I can see your answers. I won’t tag people one by one since I want to post this on time.

Alex