Format: E-Book

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 […]

Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry | Review

Posted October 1, 2018 in Reviews / 6 Comments

If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time, you know I’m a HUGE fan of any YA books that incorporate religion as a theme- not because I’m by any means super religious, but because as a Religious Studies major in college it was my job to study and learn about religion from a sociological and anthropological perspective, and old habits die hard. When I heard about Heretics Anonymous I was especially intrigued as I myself grew up Catholic, so I was curious to see how it would portray the Catholic school experience (though I attended public school, I […]

Roomies by Christina Lauren | Review

Posted August 27, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 16 Comments

Roomies was my first Christina Lauren book, and I have to say that it did not disappoint! I was a little weary going in because I am not really a huge musical theater/Broadway sort of person, but I was excited to read about a mid/late twenties protagonist finding herself (because real talk most people have not grown into themselves completely by that time in their life). I found Roomies to be the perfect blend of New Adult/Adult, and it took a crazy premise- two strangers marrying each other for immigration purposes- and actually made it not only believable, but romantic! […]

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, […]

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 Astonishing Color of After | Review

Posted May 7, 2018 in Reviews / 4 Comments

The Astonishing Color of After caught my eye as it’s a mix of a lot of wonderful elements that I hadn’t quite seen put altogether before: magical realism, death & grief, mental illness, and an Asian protagonist. Excited by the synopsis and by the prospect of a setting in Taiwan, I dove into the novel curious to see how all of the elements meshed together. What I encountered was a beautifully written story with vivid settings and prose that was literary without being too weighed down or pompous. A longer contemporary (clocking in at almost 500 pages), there are quite […]

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory | Review

Posted April 30, 2018 in Reviews / 4 Comments

There’s been so much buzz around The Wedding Date for months now that I was certain it’d be a perfect read for me: diverse, set in California, adult fiction (which I’ve been craving more and more of these days). etc. I’m also 100% obsessed with all things wedding related since I’m in the midst of planning my own wedding, so I was thrilled to see the protagonists meet and bond over a ritzy San Francisco wedding. Unfortunately, The Wedding Date completely missed the mark for me, and has fallen to the bottom of my list of 2018 reads so far. […]

Mini Reviews: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda & The Book of Broken Hearts

Posted April 23, 2018 in Reviews / 6 Comments

Ugh I can’t believe I waited so long to read this book because it was SO ADORABLE. I mean I actually know WHY I waited so long (I was extremely worried about the astronomical levels of hype this book received) but it was definitely worth the wait. Simon was everything you want in a high school YA: hilariously funny (sometimes at the protagonist’s expense), heartfelt yet cringey family dynamics, social structures that felt realistic, and just the lightest touch of teenage angst. Pair that with Simon’s completely and totally unique narration (I love the way he talks, I don’t even […]

Everless by Sara Holland | Finally Getting Back Into Fantasy!

Posted April 16, 2018 in Reviews / 2 Comments

I am thrilled to say that I think I’m *finally* getting back into reading fantasy (not that I completely stopped but my fantasy reading has definitely tapered off in the past few years) and Everless was another novel I really enjoyed that’s helping me slowly rebuild my love for the genre. The book came on my radar a few months ago when I keep seeing it featured on Instagram stories (the UK cover, which is super stunning and I’m using it in my post because I like it better lol) and the whole concept of blood as currency was really […]