Format: E-Book

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen | ARC Review

Posted March 30, 2020 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

There are so many things I loved about Loveboat, Taipei. It was like a crazy summer camp book yet set in a breathtaking, international setting with a backdrop of constant, amazing cultural experiences. Yet at the same time, there are some elements that didn’t always sit the best with me personally as a reader. I’m extremely glad I read it (it was a lot of fun!) and am looking forward to the sequel, but there were some elements I personally wish had been handled a bit differently. Loveboat, Taipei follows Ever Wong, an American-Chinese 18 year old living in Ohio […]

A Heart So Fierce and Broken (Cursebreakers #2) by Brigid Kemmerer | Review

Posted March 2, 2020 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

***Warning, this book will include spoilers for the first book in the series, A Curse So Dark and Lonely, and some spoilers for A Heart So Fierce and Broken. You’ve been warned!*** I enjoyed this book much more than it’s predecessor. It’s not that I disliked A Curse So Dark and Lonely, but I was ultimately underwhelmed and didn’t love the romance between Harper and Rhen. This book, however focuses on my (and many other’s) favorite characters of the series, Captain Grey who’s on the run and trying to hide his identity after the events of the previous novel. The […]

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett | Review

Posted February 17, 2020 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

There’s something exciting about going into a story knowing very little about it, and that was my experience with The Grace Year. I had, I suppose, read the synopsis at one time when I added it to my TBR way back when, however I tend to forget synopses really fast and only vaguely remembered it having a Handmaid’s Tale and Lord of the Flies vibe. I’ve been leery of dystopian for a while now since the YA market became so over-saturated with them a few years ago in the wake of The Hunger Games, but I find that more often […]

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi | Review

Posted January 20, 2020 in Books, Reviews / 2 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 / 4 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 […]