Genre: Young Adult

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West | Mini Review

Posted January 4, 2016 in Reviews / 10 Comments
The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West | Mini Review

I picked up my first Kasie West books in the hopes that it would add some levity to my reading schedule. I was in the middle of slogging through Illuminae (which is very good, but also very depressing) and needed something easy and fun to read- you know, something I could read in the bathtub or while waiting for an appointment. While The Fill-In Boyfriend definitely was fun, fluffy, and quick, I felt like I missed the rave-worthy aspects that I’ve heard so much about regarding West’s writing. The best and worst thing about this novel was the character development. […]


Book Buddies Review: Snowed Over

Posted December 30, 2015 in Book Buddies Reviews, Reviews / 1 Comment
Book Buddies Review: Snowed Over

Cristina and Lauren Read: Book Buddies is a discussion style review I participate in every other month with my friend Lauren who runs the blog Bookmarklit. We choose a themed book for the month, read it, and the have a discussion where we both discuss themes and aspects that really stood out to us. Book Buddy Reviews are posted during the last week of the month.You can see our review in a Q&A format with half posted here, and half on Lauren’s blog! 1) Do you feel this really fell into the “New Adult” category? Why or why not? C: […]


To All The Books I Neglected to Review…

Posted December 28, 2015 in Reviews / 19 Comments
To All The Books I Neglected to Review…

I’m sorry. It’s not you, it’s me. Life just got in the way and I forgot to flesh out my thoughts about you, with fingers to keyboard. With 2015 coming to a close, I realized I absolutely could not allow the new year to dawn without writing at least a mini review for you. Some of you were great, and some of you left much to be desired, but your lack of a previous review was due to my own frenzied schedule. I am now doing you your due diligence and letting the world know what I thought. I’m actually […]


An Unpopular Opinion on Winter by Marissa Meyer | Review

Posted December 21, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 30 Comments
An Unpopular Opinion on Winter by Marissa Meyer | Review

I am an outlier. A black sheep. The reader who seemed to have missed the memo that this was an amazing, flawless, work of utter perfection. So I’m going to start with a disclaimer: I love Marissa Meyer. I’ve met her twice. I think her skill at writing fairy tale retellings is magnificent. Her characters have depth and feel like my own friends. I coveted the release of Winter. I dragged myself to Barnes & Noble after an eleven hour work day to buy it in person to ensure that I received a copy that was in pristine condition. And […]


Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin | ARC Review

Posted December 9, 2015 in Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 13 Comments
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin | ARC Review

Boyfriend Book Reviews is a feature where my book-loving boyfriend, Max, reads and reviews YA that I either haven’t yet read or is outside of my current TBR. If you want a thorough and thoughtful perspective on a guy’s take on YA, keep reading!   “Once, just once, Henryka had been thoughtful enough to ask Yael what she really looked like… Yael opened her mouth to answer and realized, with a start, that she did not remember. She did not remember. She did not remember. What kind of person forgets her own face?” –Graudin, 44-45. I don’t think I can […]


Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski | ARC Review

Posted November 23, 2015 in Books, Challenges, Reviews / 7 Comments
Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski | ARC Review

Boyfriend Book Reviews is a feature where my book-loving boyfriend, Max, reads and reviews YA that I either haven’t yet read or is outside of my current TBR. If you want a thorough and thoughtful perspective on a guy’s take on YA, keep reading! “They soon reached the flag stone path leading to Deep Well House. They could see the white paper hanging from the front door, but it was only when they were a foot away they could read what had been written. It was a single word scrawled in a childlike script: HIDE.” -114 I wanted to like […]


You Won’t Catch Me Extending My Stay Anytime Soon

Posted November 16, 2015 in Reviews / 4 Comments
You Won’t Catch Me Extending My Stay Anytime Soon

Hotel Ruby was another coveted addition to my collection thanks to ALA this summer in San Francisco. I had heard some buzz about the book prior to the event, and the cover was absolutely stunning. When I found out that Suzanne Young was going to be signing ARCs of either Hotel Ruby or her “The Program” books, I knew I wanted to opt for Hotel Ruby because it has a total Tower of Terror Vibe to it from the synopsis (I am a huge fan of the Tower of Terror ride at the Disney resorts, and I love the haunting […]


Nantucket Red by Leila Howland | Review

Posted November 4, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 4 Comments
Nantucket Red by Leila Howland | Review

My Review There’s something about Leila Howland’s writing that makes it compulsively readable among the huge selection of YA contemporaries on the market today. I think it’s due to a combination of the dreamy, beachy setting of Nantucket along with her willingness to go just a little farther than other YA authors in her heavier content, from sex to grief to bullying. There’s a rawness around Cricket’s experiences that makes the narrative hit home a little more without compromising its status as a fun, beachy read. The first thing that I, (and many other reviewers, I’m sure), have to bring […]


Celebrating One Year of Book Buddies: A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (& Giveaway!)

Posted October 29, 2015 in Book Buddies Reviews, Reviews / 10 Comments
Celebrating One Year of Book Buddies: A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (& Giveaway!)

Cristina, Kaitlin, and Lauren Read: Book Buddies is a discussion style review I participate in every other month with my friend Lauren who runs the blog Bookmarklit. This month marks the one year anniversary of book buddies, and to celebrate Lauren had the fantastic idea of doing a group Book Buddies read with Kaitlin from Next Page Please!, who serves as her other book buddy. In keeping with the spirit of Halloween we chose a book that we had all been curious about that seemed appropriately eerie. You can find the last part of the chat below, but be sure […]


A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston | ARC Review

Posted October 19, 2015 in ARCs, Reviews / 13 Comments
A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston | ARC Review

My Review “Good men fall to monsters every day. Clever men are tricked by their own pride or by pretty words. That is what happened to the king in the tale she tells.” Very rarely do I find myself reading -and finishing- a book that was completely and totally not what I was expecting. Somehow, however, A Thousand Nights slipped through my bookish radar and when I finally got my hands on a much-coveted copy at ALA, I was somehow convinced it was going to be your average, run of the mill, Disney-washed Arabian folk tale retelling that was heavy […]