Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Suddenly a Murder by Lauren Muñoz | ARC Review

Posted September 15, 2023 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

I love a good thriller, and the elements of this novel having a Latinx protagonist and a 1920s themed party had me instantly sold from the synopsis! Protagonist Izzy goes on a graduation trip thrown by her very privileged BFF, Kassidy, at a famous estate owned by an eccentric mogul that served as the setting of many of their favorite silent film era movies. It gave me MAJOR Heart Castle vibes (a landmark on the Central Coast of California that was owned by William Randolph Hearst who threw parties that were rumored to have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby parties). […]

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 […]

A Psalm for Lost Girls by Katie Bayerl | Review

Posted February 18, 2019 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments

If you follow my reviews at all, you know I’m fascinated by YA books that incorporate the theme of religion into them. As a Religious Studies major in college (think of it as “comparative world religion” rather than theology) I was fascinated by studying different customs, rituals, rites of passage, etc. So when I read the synopsis for A Psalm for Lost Girls I was hooked. Focusing on the events AFTER the death of the protagonists sister (Tess) who was thought to be a miracle worker, it follows a town’s trek to have the sister canonized as a Catholic saint […]

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 […]

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh | Review

Posted October 23, 2017 in Reviews / 10 Comments

So I promised myself that this fall I would make more of an effort to read fantasy books, especially ones that I own. I decided to start this initiative with a book that’s been on my radar for years, The Wrath and the Dawn. Armed with the paperback that I had preordered over a year ago and the First Draft podcast featuring the author, I embarked on a journey into Eastern fantasy and folklore and indulged in this A Thousand and One Nights retelling. Now, I was saving this book in a sense, as literally almost every single one of […]

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson | Mini Review

Posted April 24, 2017 in Reviews / 6 Comments

2017 seems to be a year rife with diverse titles, and one of my reading challenge goals has been to read more widely and diversely this year. City of Saints and Thieves seemed like a great way to expand my reading horizons as it’s a book featuring diverse characters, set outside of the United States (in Kenya) and deals with many political and humanitarian rights issues. What I also didn’t glean until I started the book and paid attention to the synopsis more closely is that it’s a thriller, with the protagonist on the hunt for revenge for her mother’s […]

To All The Books I Neglected To Review: 2016 Edition [Part 1]

Posted December 31, 2016 in Reviews / 11 Comments

Last December I compiled a post at the end of the month with mini reviews for all of the books I had read but never got around to penning my review for. Most of the time I try not to let the stress of missed reviews get to me, however I always seem to be hit with last minute guilt at the end of the year for those missed reviews. So I decided to turn this into an end of year tradition, and have compiled mini reviews for most* of the books I read but did not review upon finishing […]

Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski | ARC Review

Posted November 23, 2015 in Books, Challenges, Reviews / 7 Comments

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 […]