Category: Reviews

The Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting | ARC Review

Posted July 30, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 8 Comments

You know when you never knew you needed something in your life, and then once you’ve experienced it you don’t know how you managed to live without it? Well that’s pretty much where I’m at with hockey player centered romances, thanks to The Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting. Two days after finishing and I still can’t stop thinking about it, despite not knowing a single thing about hockey or having ever really read this genre of romance novel before. The Good Luck Charm has a second chance romance at its center, following Lilah, a nurse in her mid twenties […]

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert | ARC Review

Posted July 23, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

This year at YallWest I was lucky enough to have a chance to meet Brandy Colbert and receive a signed ARC of her newest novel, Finding Yvonne. I’ve been wanting to read a Brandy Colbert novel for a long time, since I’ve heard amazing things about her ballet book, Pointe. I was excited to pick up this quick contemporary novel that drops some major themes in its synopsis and seemed like it wasn’t afraid to confront controversial topics head on. Finding Yvonne is on the shorter side for a contemporary novel (under 300 pages) but in its pages its able […]

Dear Martin by Nic Stone | Review

Posted July 16, 2018 in Reviews / 4 Comments

I decided to try Dear Martin on audio because I had heard that it’s a short book that packs an emotional punch, and still being one to ease myself into listening to audiobooks regularly, I was eager to see how a vivid tale could be told in just four short hours. However, Dear Martin doesn’t disappoint and is by far the best contemporary audio book I’ve read so far, as the varied format kept me on my toes and the narrator does a phenomenal job telling the tragic yet extremely important tale of Justyce McAllister. More and more YA books […]

Crazy Rich Asians Series Review

Posted July 9, 2018 in Reviews / 14 Comments

*Warning: While the reviews are not inherently spoiler filled themselves, each successive review will talk about what happened in the previous book(s). I’d seen Crazy Rich Asians at bookstores for years, and always pondered what it was about, with it’s stark salmon cover and rather brash and forward title. When I caught wind that it was going to become a movie, I decided it was time to finally pick it up and see what it was all about, so I joined the 30+ Overdrive waitlist back in October and patiently waited for my hold to come in. When it did, […]

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson | Review

Posted July 2, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 10 Comments

Let’s be upfront here: This book was really good, but it was WAY too long. The length of Since You’ve Been Gone scared me off and I ended up DNF’ing at about 100 pages in, so I was wary about The Unexpected Everything, but I was super intrigued by the political slant of Andie’s dad being a politician, so I picked up a paperback during an Amazon sale and decided to give Morgan Matson another try. I’m so glad I did, because despite another slow initial 100 pages, I really became invested in Andie (and her friend group, and her […]

Spring 2018 YA Contemporary Mini Review Roundup: Royals, Puddin’, and Leah on the Offbeat

Posted June 25, 2018 in Reviews / 10 Comments

Somehow Royals flew under my radar until right before it’s release date, and I was shocked. How could I, who credits The Princess Diaries series as being the reason for my love of YA, not be in the loop about a book about modern day royalty, which is one of my FAVORITE fiction tropes EVER?! So when I came home from YALLWEST I immediately put this on hold at my library and flew through it in just 2-3 sittings. While this was certainly NOT my first contemporary royalty story, it was my first Rachel Hawkins book, and I have to […]

Blog Tour | Dive Smack by Demetra Brodsky

Posted June 19, 2018 in Blog Tours, Reviews / 4 Comments

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks If the cover of Dive Smack doesn’t pull you in, the synopsis is sure too: fire, family secrets, hidden memories and a possibly unreliable narrator are just some of the core elements that make up Dive Smack, a new thriller right in time for the summer reading season. I had the privilege of joining the blog tour for this buzzy YA thriller that runs in a similar vein to the Mara Dyer series where nothing is as it seems and the lines between psychology […]

The Way You Make Me Feel | Review

Posted June 18, 2018 in Reviews / 5 Comments

The way this book made me feel was definitely hungry! I am 100% here for all foodie related books so I was stoked when I heard that this story focused on a Korean Brazilian food truck in my beloved Southern California. The Way You Make Me Feel did not disappoint in the food descriptions or in its portrayal of a summer in LA (Maurene Goo truly captures the essence of the beautiful smog filled summer skies). However, the wonderful setting and delicious descriptions were offset by a protagonist who made me facepalm more often than not. They Way You Make […]

Stay Sweet | Keep Ice Cream On Hand At All Times When Reading

Posted June 14, 2018 in Reviews / 8 Comments

*Thanks so much to the publisher for providing a giveaway copy at YALLWEST!* So Stay Sweet and I have been on a bit of a journey. I came across it at the end of 2017 when I was doing a post on the top 2018 books I was excited for, and EVERYTHING about it called to me. Ice Cream? Check. Female run business? Check. Absolutely adorable cover? Check. I then started seeing some bloggers receiving promotional packages with the book and they were utterly amazing and adorable, and I was basically the heart eyes emoji every time I came across […]

Scythe by Neal Shusterman | Is This Even Dystopian?

Posted June 11, 2018 in Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 6 Comments

Hello again dear readers. Another one I was excited for. Is this a common theme? It’s almost as if I only read books I like… Lucky me, eh Cristina? Any who this one was a real hum-dinger. A real page turner at a scant 435ish pages, I blistered through this one shortly after I bought it. Now after having read this and Thunderhead, I am looking back even more positively on this one. This one is worth your time if you want something that breathes fresh life into a horse that (let’s all be honest) has been beaten and re-beaten […]