We're an Open Book
Rating: ★★★★| Macmillan | Contemporary | Release Date: 05/21/2019
After Brooklyn teenager and aspiring rapper Steph is shot to death, his two best friends and sister hatch a plan to give Steph the legacy he always dreamed of. They use his recordings to turn him into Brooklyn’s hottest rapper and unexpectedly uncover secrets to solve Steph’s murder.
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Rating: Unrated | 384 Pages| Contemporary YA | Release Date: 2/26/2019
Angie’s family has always been her and her mother Marilyn. Their bond is unbreakable but when Angie finds evidence that there might be more to the death of the father she never knew; she sets off on a road trip to L.A with her estranged ex-boyfriend to where the story of her past began. Which is where Marilyn’s story starts in 1998 Los Angeles.
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6 hours 30 minutes | Contemporary | LBFYR | Release Date: 8/20/2019
16-year-old Dove “Birdie” Randolph obediently follows every expectation her strict mother sets out for her. But the summer before her junior year her estranged Aunt–recovering from addiction–moves in with the family and Birdie starts to challenge everything she’s ever been told.
This book delivered a lot of what I expect from Colbert; quiet, deeply character-driven, slice-of-life YAs that can serve as an introduction to sensitive topics to teens. I liked the journey Dove went on as she learns about addiction and recovery from her aunt and starts dating a new boy.
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Unrated | 304 pages | Contemporary/Romance | Macmillian | Release Date: 4/2/2019
I’ve seen this book recommended as Nashville meets A Star Is Born which I don’t think is fair because this book was so much better than A Star is Born. Like, this book was what I wanted A Star Is Born to be. I will say music is my pop culture blind spot. I’m not a music person but I’m fascinated by media about music.
Annie Mathers’ is a bright, talented and humble country girl raised by two country music icons whose lives came to a tragic end six years ago. Now she’s is ready to head out on her own and tour with the bad boy of country music; Clay Coolidge. Clay and Annie become a sensation on tour with enough chemistry and talent to sell out stadiums.
What the world doesn’t know is that Clay Coolidge’s swaggering party frat boy persona is just an act that Jefferson Daniels wears to cover the pain of losing his brother and grandfather. The more Jefferson embraces “Clay” the more he sinks into depression and alcoholism and when Annie and her band join his tour for the summer, they pull him out of his siloed world and remind him what it is to be young, talented and free.
The characters in this book all have a lot of fun together, they form a bond only performers (and theater kids) can understand. Clay and Annie’s bands both have fiddlers who have an instant spark and passionate summer romance.
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Release Date: 05/8/18 | Contemporary YA | 8 hours 49 minutes | Harper Audio
Toby, an academic wisecracking high school senior and his best friend Luke–a dedicated star wrestler are an unlikely pair. The two survived their abusive and impoverished home lives together and with Luke’s college wrestling scholarship locked down, they were prepared to head into the next chapter of their lives together.
But now Luke is on death row.
Told partially in Luke’s letters from death row and partially in a close omniscient third person, Bliss crafts a story of friendship, coming-of-age and poverty that manages to deliver a gut punch at the end–even though you know where Luke is going to end up from page one.
I really liked the way this book is set up with Luke’s letters opening the book and then having it slowly build to the precipitating event. It reminded me of Big Little Lies and it adds so much tension to every scene because you keep thinking is this it? Is this the thing he did? With that in mind though the book moves at a slower pace.
I picked up this book because James Fouhey did the audio, I’ve enjoyed his narration in other things and his performance in this book is one of the best I’ve heard. He takes on each character perfectly with a nuanced and intentional performance. I think he could have easily done stereotypical Southern accents but he avoids that completely while still making the characters sound authentic. Needless to say Fouhey has remained on my auto-buy audiobook narrator list.
Between this and Jeff Zetner books I’m really starting to think any YA book by a straight white dude will be sad AF.
8 hours 12 mins | Hachette Audio | Contemporary YA | 08/08/2017
I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of “tough stuff stories about marginalized identities, so I’d been circling this book for a long time; assuming a book about a bisexual black Jewish teenager and her bipolar stepbrother would be a “the struggle” book. However, from the very first few lines of Alisha Wainwright’s narration, I was pulled into the vibrant world of 16-year-old Suzette as she returns to her artsy and eclectic West Coast community of friends and family after a year in boarding school. Colbert does an amazing job building Suzette’s world and I know it’s corny but Los Angeles is almost a character in this book.
But seriously, Imma need one of those LA street tacos.
Alisha Wainwright is a new narrator on the scene and her voice has this cool West coast vibe that brings Suzette’s first-person POV to life. Props to all the work Bahni Turpin and Robin Miles have been doing, but I ’m excited we are getting some newer and younger narrators for black characters to spice things up. Wainwright is probably best known by some YA fans as Maia in the Freeform show Shadowhunters. It’s so crazy to me that she fell into acting only a few years ago because she is so good in this, every line is filled with intention. Give her all the books. All of ’em.
The only thing I didn’t love about this book was the love triangle that shows up. It felt a little sloppy and out of left field but I do like how it all ended up.
Little & Lion is a quiet story brimming with compelling characters and a captivating audiobook narrator.
I don’t know if Colbert is taking requests but there is a character in here named Emil Choi and I need him to get his own book.