Format: E-Book

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi | Review

Posted January 20, 2020 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

I apparently missed the wagon on Emergency Contact because I still haven’t gotten around to reading Mary H.K.Choi’s debut (oops) but I saw so many bloggers flailing about the gorgeous dust jacket for Permanent Record that I decided to request it from my library via Overdrive to see what all the fuss was about. It turns out that Mark H.K. Choi can write a great New Adult novel and I really enjoyed this slice-of-not-so-ordinary-life novel. I am a huge fan of books that have regular protagonists who somehow end up dating celebrities/royals/etc (I just find the premise so improbable and […]

The Beautiful by Reneé Ahdieh | Review

Posted December 16, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments

We were all thinking the same thing, weren’t we? As soon as the news of a vampire YA book coming out hit, we were all hoping this would revive our emo little Twilight hearts (at least, this is certainly what happened to me). After many, many years of vampires being almost taboo in mainstream YA after the slew of paranormal novels that followed the Twilight craze, burning everyone out on the topic. I, however, always bemoaned the decline in popularity of paranormal YA literature so you can bet that when I heard of The Beautiful it instantly shot to the […]

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen | In Which I Fall In Love With Dessen’s Summer Stories Again

Posted August 26, 2019 in Bookish Thoughts, California Here We Come, Reviews / 6 Comments

I think there are few adult readers in the YA communities that didn’t grow up with Sarah Dessen being a staple on their summer reading list. Whether it was set on the shores of the lake in Colby or in the quiet suburban streets of Lakeview, reading her novels are like coming home to one of the best summers of your teenage life. I was, however, a little scared that this magic was starting to wear off when I was terribly underwhelmed with Once and For All and then reread This Lullaby and could not fathom why it was a […]

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven

Posted August 5, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

I can’t quite remember how The Exact Opposite of Okay made it onto my TBR, but I found myself downloading it to my Kindle in preparation for my honeymoon as I wanted to be stocked with YA contemporary reads for the long plane rides ahead of me. I went into the story with little to no expectations and was surprised to find that it had a journal format (something that’s not as common in YA these days, though it was hugely popular in the early 2000s). I settled in for a story that honestly reminded me of a more crass […]

Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum | Review

Posted July 22, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 2 Comments

How often do we think or speak about 9/11? For an event that was so traumatic and formative, it honestly baffles me how little it came up in my US public school education. Yet I can tell you exactly where I was when I found out about 9/11, even though it was 18 years ago: I was in elementary school, eating breakfast and waiting for my ride to school when my parents frantically called our house landline asking if me, my brother and our babysitter were OK. I remember being confused, I was so young I didn’t know what the […]

Mini Reviews | The Book of Essie and The Afterlife of Holly Chase

Posted June 10, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 4 Comments

The Book of Essie had been on my radar for a while because if you know me, you know I am fascinated with any contemporary books that tackle the topic of religion. I’m also a sucker for reality TV so this novel was right up my alley as it focuses on Essie, a teenager who has grown up in a very conservative, religious household with her pastor father, controlling mother and various siblings, a life which is all captured on the reality tv show “Six for Hicks.” As expected, there’s more than meets the eye with the Hicks family and […]

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 […]

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 […]

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi | When the Teenage Feels Are Too Real

Posted December 10, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments

Clearly I am late to the Tahereh Mafi party, as A Very Large Expanse of Sea is the first book by her I’ve read, despite her popular dystopian and middle grade series. I honestly had not heard much about her first contemporary YA novel and decided to check it out on a whim when browsing my library’s Overdrive selection and seeing it was available, as I wanted a shorter contemporary novel to read in conjunction with my long, time consuming TOG reread. What I didn’t expect to find was a story that would so viscerally remind me of what it […]

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas | Review

Posted October 8, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 12 Comments

I’m always proclaiming my love of thrillers, yet it feels so rarely do I find YA thrillers that don’t leave me feeling disappointed. They’re often predictable, unbelievable, or over dramatic and lack the ominous feeling that I crave when diving into a thriller. When I heard about The Cheerleaders, I was immediately struck by how simple (and unsettling) the cover was, so I decided to add it to my TBR, hoping it might stand out. I’m happy to report that it did indeed stand out and proved to be an unsettling and surprising story that left my thriller craving self […]