Category: Reviews

Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young | ARC Review

Posted March 18, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I’ve only read one book by Suzanne Young and it wasn’t my favorite, and I somehow completely missed the hype train for her successful The Program series. Couples with the fact that I’m not a huge dystopian fan, I didn’t think much of Girls with Sharp Sticks when I first came across it on Goodreads. However, I started seeing more and more of my trusted blogger and reviewer friends post about how intensely good the story was and […]

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley | Blog Tour + ARC Review

Posted March 11, 2019 in Blog Tours, Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

I’m so excited today to be partnering with the Fantastic Flying Book Club for the An Affair of Poisons Blog Tour! This book has been on my radar for a while as I really enjoy historical fiction and am loving this trend of more and more YA reads being set in France! Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo French historical fantasy seems to be a new trend happening this year in YA and I am ALL about it. France has so much rich history (both great and terrible), so much grandeur surrounding it that […]

The Wicked King by Holly Black (Folk of the Air #2) | Review

Posted March 4, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

*Warning: This review will contain spoilers for The Cruel Prince* While I enjoyed The Cruel Prince, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t really get the HYPE surrounding it- it was good but it was also full of excessively cruel bullying, confusing court politics (at least for me) and non-romances that didn’t do anything for me. But oh, how I stand corrected. Once I got into The Wicked King it was compulsively readable, and it finally CLICKED for me why this series is so successful. Also, infinite bonus points to Holly Black for managing to write a super […]

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum | Review

Posted February 25, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 1 Comment

The Wicker King had been lingering on my TBR for a while, and when it was announced as the first read in the Dragons & Tea Book Club, it shot to the top of my TBR so I could participate. When I received my paperback copy in the mail, I actually initially though it was damaged as the pages slowly fade into the black the further along the novel progresses, which seemed an ominous sign for what I was getting into while reading. As expected from both the description on the book design, The Wicker King is a tale of […]

A Psalm for Lost Girls by Katie Bayerl | Review

Posted February 18, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

If you follow my reviews at all, you know I’m fascinated by YA books that incorporate the theme of religion into them. As a Religious Studies major in college (think of it as “comparative world religion” rather than theology) I was fascinated by studying different customs, rituals, rites of passage, etc. So when I read the synopsis for A Psalm for Lost Girls I was hooked. Focusing on the events AFTER the death of the protagonists sister (Tess) who was thought to be a miracle worker, it follows a town’s trek to have the sister canonized as a Catholic saint […]

Love á la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm | Review

Posted February 11, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

One of my favorite things to do after a long day at work is to unwind with a cooking show. Can I cook or bake? Barely, if you count boiling pasta or making a salad. Yet anything food related on tv- Master Chef, Chopped, Holiday Baking Championship, Chef’s Table, etc.- and I am here for it. Cooking shows are the number one thing taking up room on my DVR, so when I found out about Love á la Mode I was PUMPED. A YA series set in Paris with the backdrop of an intensive cooking school? 100% right up my […]

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas | ARC Review

Posted February 4, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 4 Comments

It’s no secret that everyone’s been waiting for On the Come Up since The Hate You Give took the YA world by storm. Angie Thomas’ debut novel was bold, tackling tough topics and unafraid to confront harsh realities concerning race, police violence, class, and interracial relationships. In her sophomore novel On The Come Up, Thomas spins another story about a girl from The Garden, but focuses on Bri, an aspiring rapper, who faces the threat of poverty, drug abuse, grief, and stereotyping on her journey to “make it” in the music industry and provide stability for her family. One of […]

Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren | Review

Posted January 28, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

2018 was the year I discovered Christina Lauren, and I absolutely fell in love with my first two reads by the duo, Roomies and My Favorite Half Night Stand. When my library hold of Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating became available, I was eager to dive in, sure I was in for a treat given I had rated my two previous Christina Lauren reads 5 stars. Josh & Hazel still had all of the elements of a Christina Lauren novel that I love- an unlikely romance, a fun cover, and hilarious moments that had me flying through the […]

The Au Pair by Emma Rous | ARC Review

Posted January 21, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

*Many thanks to Berkely and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review!* In today’s over saturated world of mediocre thrillers, it can be hard to find one that simultaneously manages to surprise me and that’s well written. So many thriller novels I actually find work better for me in a movie format, so I’m always on a hunt for a solidly written mystery/thriller that manages to create an unsettling, atmospheric world on the page. That’s exactly what I experienced with The Au Pair to my delight, and found myself completely immersed in a mystery that not […]

Blanca Y Roja by Anna- Marie McLemore | Review

Posted January 14, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

Anna-Marie McLemore is no doubt known as one of the best Latinx magical realism voice in YA literature. Her prose is always beautifully crafted, her stories otherworldly, and her writing able to take readers into different worlds with a turn of phrase or small action. Her debut The Weight of Feathers was beautifully crafted and reading it was a transcendent experience. Unfortunately, though there were many elements of Blanca & Roja that I liked, I didn’t find it as immersive as the prior work I read by the author. Blanca & Roja is a triple fairy tale retelling, pulling from […]