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READ IT AND REAP
Book Reviews and Recommendations

WHAT I'M READING NOW
IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER
Italo Calvino
THE GEOGRAPHY OF LOST THINGS
Jessica Brody
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Fate Be Changed by Farrah Rochon - Review
Book Synopsis: What if the witch gave Merida a different spell? If you could change your fate, would you? Merida understands that as...
Lyra Thompson
Jun 173 min read


Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill
Book Synopsis: Evalina Cassano’s life in an Italian-American family in 1941 is everything it “should be” until she falls in love with...
Lyra Thompson
Jun 32 min read
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: A portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship. Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 272 min read
The Socialite by J'Nell Ciesielsky - Review
Book Synopsis: As the daughter of Sir Alfred Whitford, Kat has a certain set of responsibilities. But chasing her wayward sister, Ellie,...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 93 min read
Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb - Review
Book Synopsis: August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for...
Lyra Thompson
Dec 29, 20243 min read
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys....
Lyra Thompson
Oct 24, 20242 min read
The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki - Review
Book Synopsis: Everyone knows Benedict Arnold--the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British--as history's...
Lyra Thompson
Sep 11, 20243 min read
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart - Review
Book Synopsis: Nine-year-old Nicholas Benedict has more problems than most children his age. Not only is he an orphan with an unfortunate...
Lyra Thompson
Jul 25, 20243 min read
Walls by L. M. Elliott - Review
Book Synopsis: Drew is an army brat, a hotshot athlete poised to be his high school’s star pitcher, when he has to move for the sixth...
Lyra Thompson
Jul 16, 20243 min read
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris - Review
Book Synopsis: 2 CHILDREN FOR SALE The scrawled sign, peddling young siblings on a farmhouse porch, captures the desperation sweeping the...
Lyra Thompson
Jun 4, 20243 min read
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Book Synopsis: During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie...
Lyra Thompson
May 8, 20243 min read
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a...
Lyra Thompson
Apr 25, 20242 min read
(SPOILERS) Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy - Review
Book Synopsis: For Marit Olsen, magic is all about strategy: it flows freely through her blood, but every use leaves behind a deadly,...
Lyra Thompson
Mar 24, 20244 min read
Always Emily by Michaela MacColl - Review
Book Synopsis: Emily and Charlotte Brontë are about as opposite as two sisters can be. Charlotte is practical and cautious; Emily is...
Lyra Thompson
Mar 13, 20243 min read
(SPOILERS) Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 22, 20243 min read
(SPOILERS) All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - Review
Book Synopsis: Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis...
Lyra Thompson
Jan 13, 20243 min read
Annie, Between the States by L. M. Elliott - Review
Book Synopsis: Annie Sinclair's Virginia home is in the battle path of the Civil War. Her brothers, Laurence and Jamie, fight to defend...
Lyra Thompson
Aug 11, 20233 min read
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - Review
Book Synopsis: August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to...
Lyra Thompson
Aug 9, 20233 min read
(SPOILERS) This Quiet Sky by Joanne Bischof - Review
Book Synopsis: There is nothing extraordinary about Tucker O’Shay’s dreams. Go to college. Become president. Fall in love. And pretend...
Lyra Thompson
Mar 17, 20232 min read
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - Review
Book Synopsis: Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 20, 20232 min read
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