Books and Sensibility

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Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka

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320 pages | Candlewick Press| Contemporary | Release Date: 10/13/2020

On the blog, Kat and I sometimes refer to slice-of-life books that don’t make it into the hype rotation as “the quietest YA to ever quiet” and that’s how I feel about Everything I Thought I Knew. It’s the low-stakes story of Chloe, whose senior year is thrown off balance when she discovers she needs a heart transplant. Soon someone else’s tragedy becomes her miracle and after the transplant, Chole begins to see flashes of her donor’s life and begins a journey to give them closure.

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Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore

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Rating: Unrated | 320 pages | Harper Teen | Contemporary/Magican Realism | 09/22/2020 |

I’ve been wanting to specifically read A-M forever. From what I’ve heard their novels are a blend of fantasy and contemporary which is a genre mash-up that has always been right up my alley, so when I had a chance to review the audio for Miss Meteor, jointly written by Tehlor Kay Mejia, I jumped at the chance.

In Miss Metoer a small-town beauty pageant brings together estranged best friends, Chicky a loner and outcast who doesn’t quite fit in with her three larger-than-life big sisters; and Lita, en eccentric girl born from the stardust of the meteor that gave their small New Mexico town its name. Yes, there is a magical realism element to this story that the authors quietly weave in that I think adds a layer of actual alien to the alienation the girls already feel being brown girls in a town that often rewards blonde-haired white girls.

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Book Review: The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

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Unrated | 358 pages |  Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)| YA Fantasy | Release Date: 03/03/20 

Years ago I read Marie Rutkoski’s much-buzzed-about The Winner’s Curse. I mean this book was the ARC to have in 2013. When the book debuted in 2014 I actually purchased a copy from Books-A-Million because of all the buzz … and it just didn’t live up to the hype for me. 

However, I 100% believe that just because one book in the authors’ backlist doesn’t work for me, that doesn’t automatically cross the author off my list. I mean I didn’t love the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo but I enjoyed Six of Crows and while Holly Black’s Cruel Prince was a no for me I’ve always been a fan of her Curse Workers series.

How did Midnight Lie hold up ?

Well, I liked it better The Winner’s Curse. I think I enjoyed it more after I had a few days to sit with it.

Book Review: Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

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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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Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest

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Unrated| 336 pages | Roaring Brook Press| Contemporary | Release Date: 8/25/2020

Evie may come from  Hollywood royalty but she’s about to become a breakout star on her own…until an internet scandal costs her everything. Evie has one last shot to reclaim stardom–but to seal the deal she’ll need her legendry grandmother’s permission to star in a remake of her classic film. The only problem? Her grandmother has runaway from home. Now Eve has to traverse New York City with the help of Milo, an upstart viral internet musician, to bring her grandmother home.

This a YA novel I’ll have to file under books I know teen me would have enjoyed. Mostly because this is an easy book to recommend with one of my teen favorites This Lullaby. I mean who doesn’t want more books featuring a protagonist with a celebrity family who finds themselves tangled up with a group of lovable goofy aspiring musicians?

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Book Review: Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

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Unrated | 384 pages | Simon Pulse | Contemporary | Release Date: 2/18/2020

Of Curses and Kisses is an introspective slow cooker ( I saw this term on Twitter and I couldn’t wait to use it !) of a romance about Jaya,  a reserved modern-day princess at St. Rosetta’s International Academy. She’s on a mission to take down a rival family’s heir, Grey Emmerson, for a slight against her sister. It’s a lofty goal, but Jaya discovers instead of being a fierce rival, Grey Emerson is a broody, introverted outcast.

We follow Jaya as she is entrenched in Rosemont drama, this book is genre-savvy and Emerson sees through Jaya’s start-a-fake-relationship-and-dump-him plan so the initial premise of the book is dropped pretty quickly. The book is a lot of Jaya and Emerson working through their emotions and coming to terms with who they want to be versus who their families expect them to be.