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Fiction

I Think I Love You by Auriane Desombre

July 3, 2021      Leave a Comment

Underlined | Contemporary | Release Date: 03/02/21

This YA Romance is from a new imprint called Underlined, a genre-focused collaboration between Delacorte and the Underlined teen writing community. The books are described as “highly-commercial and compulsively-readable” which is why I think this book hits the ground running. Within the first few pages, we are quickly introduced to all our characters, their backstories and then we dive into the plot as this group of New York City teens enter a short film competition.

Fifteen-year-old Emma has big ideas for the group’s short film, she loves romance and wants to make the queer rom-com of her dreams. That is until Sophia, her anti-romance frenemy objects, so they decide to split up their friend group and make two opposing films. Cue enemies-to-lovers.

I thought this was a great book for the younger YA set if they can handle the language. It’s very plotty and earnest but allows the teens to talk and act like actual teenagers. Desombre is a teacher and I feel like she narrowed in on what is important to teenagers. The romance between Emma and Sophia felt natural and they both have to put the work in for their HEA.

This cover confounds me because this book clearly takes place in an idealized New York City so why are there palm trees on the cover? Yes, the prize for winning is a trip to California but that is the only California reference.

Book Review: Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

November 24, 2020      Leave a Comment

Unrated | 352 pages | Park Row | Contemporary | 6/16/2020

Trigger Warning: sexual assault, incest and domestic violence

Saving Ruby King examines the past and present of Southside Chicago’s Calagary Baptist congregation after the murder of Alice King. I feel like this could be a read-a-like to The Mothers by Brit Bennett because it’s the story of a specific Black community told through multiple POVs that moves through time.

Alice’s daughter Ruby is left to contend with her abusive father Lebanon–an ex-con who is holding a dark secret over Calgary’s hard-working preacher.

…

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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

October 26, 2020      2 Comments

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

16 hours 7 minutes| Bloomsbury | Fantasy| Release Date: 5/15/2015

I’m really good at reading super hyped YA releases several years after they come out. Like, I pre-ordered The Fault In Our Stars and then didn’t read it until the movie trailer came out three years later. I can’t believe it’s been five years since ACOTAR debuted and I finally decided to see what all the hype (and controversy) was about and read my first Sara J Maas.

…

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Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

March 16, 2020      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

 9 hours 58 min. | G.P. Putnam’s Son | Adult Fiction  | Release Date: 12/31/19 

2020 has been kind of a meh reading year for me so I decided to switch it up with some upmarket book club-y fiction. This is one of those books where it’s better to go in with as little information as possible. Such a Fun Age starts with 25-year-old Emira, a Black girl living in Philadelphia, being racially profiled while babysitting a white child. The book then follows Emira as she tries to figure out how to become a “real adult” and her boss, Alix Chamberlain, who starts noticing Emira in a new way after the incident.

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Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley

January 1, 2020      Leave a Comment

414 pages | Simon & Schuster | Historical Fiction|  Release Date: 04/24/18

It’s sort of fitting that I read this book at the end of the year because the end of this book was such a letdown. Bellwether is a blend of historical and contemporary fiction revolving around the Wilde Family and their lasting legacy in small-town Millbank, NY …

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Serpent & Dove Shelby Mahurin

December 31, 2019      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

 HarperTeen | Fantasy | Release Date: 09/03/2019

Okay, is it just me or is this one of those books in the YA book world that people either really love or really don’t like? I feel like the other books series that fall into this category are Daughter of Smoke and Bone and The Raven Cycle. I like a polarizing book so I had to check this one out.

I started this having no idea what it was about, I just knew it was a YA fantasy and was stirring up some controversy. As I was reading (listening on audio) my interested was piqued as we enter Cesarine, an opulent city forged in a land once ruled by witches—who have been ruthlessly conquered by the religious and devout Le Blanc royal family.

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