FAITH: GREATER HEIGHTS By Julie Murphy

October 25, 2021 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FAITH: GREATER HEIGHTS By Julie MurphyFaith: Greater Heights by Julie Murphy
Series: Faith Herbert Origin Story #2
Published by Balzer + Bray on 11/2/21
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, LGBT, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Buy on Amazon

Faith Herbert can finally admit that she’s not a regular teen—and take advantage of her new flying superpowers. After the chaos of her first semester, Faith just wants to end her senior year in a normal way—enjoying all the hallmarks of graduating high school, like prom, with her best friends Matt and Ches.

But a new journalism teacher at school means things are off to a strange start, and suddenly Colleen Bristow, the quiet nerd-turned-supervillain, reappears, acting as if nothing ever happened. Fires are cropping up all over town. Then Faith hears that psiots have been going missing.

As if that weren’t enough, reports of sightings of Faith’s ex, the beautiful Dakota Ash, start to emerge. Everyone thinks she’s dead, but Faith knows better. . . . Will she make a reappearance?

As Faith tries to balance her quest with a memorable senior year and the heartbreak of Grandma Lou’s increasing decline, she learns to have faith in herself—and that sometimes fate will point you in the right direction.

Short and Sweet Review

Faith Herbert is back in this high flying sequel! This sequel picks up where things left off. Faith is starting her senior year and she’s going to try to enjoy it but things in town are still off. There’s a new journalism teacher, Colleen has reappeared, there’s been sightings of Dakota Ash, and psiots are going missing. Faith has a lot on her hands but she learns that with help and a little faith in yourself can go a long way.

The Faith Duology is about Faith’s origin story and a lot of that has to do with how she got her powers which we saw in the first book and in this book we saw a bigger focus on her grandma Lou’s declining health and how Faith was dealing with that. We also got more of an explanation on other psiots and what was happening to them. I love that Matt and Ches were always there for Faith because she had to make some hard decisions in this book and sometimes she didn’t make the best decisions but Faith did what she thought would keep the people she loved safe.

The ending felt a little rushed for me, I felt like I predicted where the final climax would take place but I think overall Julie Murphy did a great job wrapping everything up. We know where all the characters end up and I can say I’m happy. This was a cute series and Faith was a fun character to follow on this journey I loved her through the good times and the bad!

Filed Under: Reviews

FAITH: TAKING FLIGHT By Julie Murphy

July 7, 2020 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FAITH: TAKING FLIGHT By Julie MurphyFaith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy
Series: Faith Herbert Origin Story #1
Published by Balzer + Bray on 7/7/20
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

Faith Herbert is a pretty regular teen. When she’s not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, she’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove.

So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. Of course, there’s also that small matter of recently discovering she can fly….

When the fictional world of The Grove crashes into Faith’s reality as the show relocates to her town, she can’t believe it when TV heroine Dakota Ash takes a romantic interest in her.

But her fandom-fueled daydreams aren’t enough to distract Faith from the fact that first animals, then people, have begun to vanish from the town. Only Faith seems able to connect the dots to a new designer drug infiltrating her high school.

But when her investigation puts the people she loves in danger, she will have to confront her hidden past and use her newfound gifts—risking everything to save her friends and beloved town.

Short and Sweet

Faith is your typical teenager, she usually spends her time hanging out with her two friends Ches and Matt, volunteering at the animal shelter, or obsessing over her favorite show The Grove. Over the summer Faith discovered she has the ability to fly and it might just come in handy especially when people and animals in town start to go missing.

Characters

Faith: Faith is our main character and she’s a pretty normal high school senior. She cares about those she loves and I liked that she always tried to be there for everyone. Over the summer Faith went to a “camp” and came back home with the ability to fly, she’s still getting used to her new ability though.

Matt and Ches: Matt and Ches are Faith’s best friends. They hangout all the time. These two keep Faith grounded and they are who Faith go to when she needs help. These two mean well and I love the friendship that the three of them share.

Dakota: Dakota is an actress from the Tv show the Grove. She seems pretty down to earth and friendly. She didn’t act like she was too good for anyone just because she was an actress.

Romance

Faith and Johnny: Faith and Johnny are in journalism class together. These two like each other but they don’t act on their feelings. You can tell that they like and care for each other. They went on one date but it ended short. I would be interested to see where their relationship goes or if it would even begin.

Faith and Dakota: Faith and Dakota meet at the fair and ever since then they’ve been spending a lot of time together. There was obviously chemistry between the two and I liked that they got to know each other and felt safe sharing things about their lives with each other.

My Thoughts

~ So, Faith’s parents died in a car crash, now she lives with her grandma Lou. I loved the relationship that Faith and her grandma had they just love each other so much! I felt for Faith when she learned that something was wrong with her Grandma.

~ Ches is on a journey to become a better student so when she starts to become distant Matt and Faith just think it’s because she’s stressed but there’s something that Ches is hiding from them.

~ Faith is a huge fan of The Grove and even has a blog dedicated to it. So it was a basically a dream come true when she meets Dakota, and through Dakota she meets other members of the cast and gets to tour the set.

~ People and animals start disappearing in town and honestly this mystery worked well and it also gave us a glimpse of Faith’s time in “camp”

~ I love the pace of this book, everything just worked. I loved the characters and I was not expecting some of the things that ended up happening.

Overall

I loved the mystery aspect and how the story progressed. I would love to see how Faith progresses with flying and seeing more of the characters! I’m excited for the sequel and to see where things will go with this series, this was a great start!


Filed Under: Reviews

DUMPLIN’ By Julie Murphy

December 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

DUMPLIN’ By Julie MurphyDumplin' by Julie Murphy
Series: Dumplin' #1
Published by Balzer + Bray on 9/15/15
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 380
Format: Hardcover
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

ReviewedbyDani

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body.

With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any girl does.

Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.


Short and Sweet Review

Willowdean or Dumplin’ is a self proclaimed fat girl and in this book she’s learning a lot about herself and the relationship she has with those around her. Willowdean is happy with who she is but she does struggle with insecurities at times. The first half of the book we learn who Willowdean is and why she loves Dolly Parton so much, and its because of her now passed aunt Lucy. It isn’t until the second half of the book that Willowdean decides to join the pageant. Theres not much that goes on in this book plot wise there isn’t a big plot or anything huge we just navigate life with Will. There’s a lot of relationships in this book with Will and her mom, Will and her best friend El, Will and her aunt Lucy, there is also a love triangle with Will, Bo, and Mitch. Lets start with Will and Lucy. Lucy was basically a second mother to Will and she’s the one who introduced Will to Dolly’s music. We also see Will try to keep Lucy’s memory alive by listening to Dolly and going through her stuff often. Will and her mom, Rosie have a tense relationship. Rosie won the beauty pageant when she was a teen and now she is on the pageant committee. Will feels that because of her size her mother doesn’t see her as beautiful, these two clash a few times in the book. Will and El, I love these two they’ve been friends for the longest time and its Dolly’s music that brought them together. These two support each other but they do learn that sometimes even though you love someone you could always use a little space. So the boys… Mitch is in Will’s class and he asks her out and they hangout a few times. Bo is someone Will works with and eventually he starts going to the same school, these two made out a few times during the summer but Will felt as if Bo was trying to keep her a secret and she didn’t like that. During the second half of the book Will hangs out with Millie, Amanda, and Hannah a few other girls that have joined the pageant. This group of girls are misfits but in the end they learn to embrace the things that make them different and I think that this is one of the most beautiful things about this book. I enjoyed reading Dumplin’ and once I got into it it didn’t take long for me to finish it. I love that these girls learned to embrace who they are and I also like how Will realized how important the people around her really were. I would recommend this book its cute and has a good message and I also watched the Netflix movie and obviously some things were changed but it was also pretty good.

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Filed Under: Reviews