Genre: Contemporary

The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls by Jessica Spotswood | ARC Review

Posted August 13, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 10 Comments

The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls is pretty much exactly what it looks like from the cover- a cute, summery coming of age novel in the vein of sisterhood of the traveling pants or a Sarah Dessen novel. Split across 4 narratives for the 4 Garret sisters, each protagonist is dealing with some major life changes as they navigate the last summer that they’re all together before one of them leaves home for college. Though a bit predictable and not especially memorable among the many, many YA novels with similar concepts, I did appreciate the feminist narrative voice that […]

Katie Cotugno Mini Reviews | 99 Days and 9 Days & 9 Nights

Posted August 6, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments

So I’m getting more and more into audio books this summer thanks to Scribd, and when I saw 99 Days I thought I’d give it (another) shot. I had originally tried a trail of Scribd like two years ago but quickly quit because they had moved to a points system I disliked, and never got a chance to try more than on chapter of 99 Days. I had remembered the book causing quite a bit of controversy based on the content, so I decided it was exactly the type of drama I needed to accompany me through my boring commute. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Blog Tour | Save the Date by Morgan Matson

Posted June 6, 2018 in Blog Tours, Reviews / 10 Comments

I could not have been more thrilled to have been selected to participate in the Save the Date Tour, especially as this date holds special meaning to me- today is exactly one year from my wedding date! Thank you so much to Fantastic Flying Book Club for this opportunity! Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo | IndieBound | iBooks For me, books about weddings are right up there with books about royalty or food- they’re indulgent, fun, and never get old no matter how many times I read about them. After recently reading and […]

From Twinkle, With Love | ARC Review

Posted May 31, 2018 in Reviews / 0 Comments

*Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing and NetGalley for providing a galley in exchange for an honest review!* What’s not to love about From Twinkle, With Love? The title is adorable, the cover is STUNNING, and the epistolary format was really fun to read. In some ways, I loved Menon’s sophomore novel even more than her first, because it was just so much fun. Twinkle’s personality coupled with some of the tried and true YA tropes and laugh out loud writing had me itching to pick up the story at every spare moment I had the week […]

The Art of French Kissing | ARC Review

Posted May 28, 2018 in Reviews / 6 Comments

*A huge thank you to NetGalley and Sky Pony Press for providing an ARC free of charge in exchange for an honest review!* I am a HUGE fan of any sort of competition cooking show out there- Chopped, Master Chef, Holiday Baking Championship, you name it, I watch it. So my interest was definitely peaked when I came across The Art of French Kissing, which combines two of my favorite things: YA novels and cooking competitions. I’d never read a book that actually focused on a cooking competition (though I’m always on the lookout for food-centered novels) so I was […]

Adult Fiction Mini Reviews: The Immortalists, The Party, & Forever, Interrupted

Posted May 21, 2018 in Reviews / 8 Comments

I’ll admit I didn’t go into this book knowing much- mostly that is was about a group of siblings that know their death date after a chance encounter with a psychic when they are children (a terrible thing to find out but a great premise for a book). I had also heard it was pretty literary, but I was ready for it since contemporary literary fiction was my JAM in college. And while the plot of the book overall was interesting, I really wasn’t blown away by anything happening here. A few thoughts: I liked how the book was divided […]