Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Mini Reviews: The Silver Blonde and Killing November

Posted January 17, 2022 in Books, Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve really been enjoying historical fiction the past few years, so when I heard about The Silver Blonde I was excited to add another title to my TBR! I was also curious as I hadn’t read anything set in post WWII Los Angeles and was intrigued to see how the entertainment industry was impacted by the war, especially in the context of a mystery. This story had a lot of interesting elements going on- a mystery, an exploration of the film industry in the aftermath of WWII, the German immigrant experience in America after the war, the journey of women […]

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez | Review

Posted December 11, 2017 in Reviews / 3 Comments

*Warning- this review will contain some mild spoilers.* I will be 100% honest and say that this book was not what I was expecting. With the Jane the Virgin reference in the synopsis and the “laugh out loud” funny claim, I was expecting something heavy but with moments of levity and a strong thread of self aware humor throughout, much like the 2018 release American Panda, which also focuses on a protagonist who is a child of immigrants navigating two cultures. However, I found I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter to actually be quite heavy, and at times hard […]

Haunting the Deep (How to Hang a Witch #2) by Adriana Mather | ARC Review

Posted August 30, 2017 in Reviews / 8 Comments

One of my favorite things in the YA genre has always been paranormal stories, especially ones focusing on good, old fashioned witches. It seems like the genre has moved passed paranormal in many ways after the “Twilight” years, so I was excited last year when I found out about How to Hang a Witch, which focused on a witch and ghost story set in the infamous Salem and inspired by the Salem Witch Trials. The book gave me so many Halloween-town esque vibes (albeit much darker). When I found out that the author was writing a companion novel about the […]

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven | Review

Posted February 10, 2017 in Reviews / 6 Comments

I missed the All the Bright Places bandwagon, so Holding Up the Universe is my first encounter with Jennifer Niven’s writing. While it featured two interesting protagonists who had unique circumstances surrounding them, it was an enjoyable contemporary read that didn’t exactly blow me away in the sea of options available in YA. I remember when I first read the synopsis, I was sort of shocked, as Niven was using rather a rather extreme physical condition for her protagonist (Libby, who was at one point so overweight that she had to be lifted out of her house with a crane) […]

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather | Review

Posted November 16, 2016 in Reviews / 14 Comments

I have a confession to make: I love all things witch-y. Whether fantasy wizards or modern day sorceresses or just basic witch Halloween costumes with the pointy hat, I am all about the witch theme. Somehow How to Hang a Witch sort of slipped my radar when it first came out, but I came across it a few weeks from Halloween and used the magic of the library hold system to acquire it into my greedy hands right before Halloween. How to Hang a Witch not only dabbles in the paranormal, but in historical fiction as well, which endeared the […]

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman | ARC Review

Posted October 17, 2016 in Boyfriend Book Reviews, Reviews / 2 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! “Quiet fell. Quiet so deep it was deafening. And into that quiet, Falk spoke again. ‘Who is in command of this jump station?’ Nobody replied this time. Everyone knew the answer now.” *Author’s note; I will be referencing the events of Illuminae as if you, the reader, have read it. That means spoilers for the […]