Source: YALLWest

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti | ARC Review

Posted December 24, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 3 Comments
A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti | ARC Review

As the year comes to a close, my biggest question of 2018 is: How is it that everyone isn’t raving about this book? A Heart in a Body in a World snuck up on me and is quite possibly my favorite book of 2018. The novel is heartbreak and activism and politics and grief all wrapped up in a story that manages to capture a tragedy in such a deeply visceral and personal way that the media and news cannot. The novel follows Annabelle, a teenager who has suffered a terrible tragedy and decides to run from Seattle to Washington […]


What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera | ARC Review

Posted October 22, 2018 in Books, Reviews / 6 Comments
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera | ARC Review

This ARC and I have been on quite a journey. It wasn’t even on my radar when I attended the 2018 YALLWEST festival and then I heard ~rumors~ that Epic Reads would be giving it away at some point and frantically planned my afternoon around the drop. Too many people ended up attending the event so it turned into a long, tedious, hot raffle in the sun for who would walk away with a copy of this much coveted author mash up. After being convinced it wasn’t meant to be (I never win ANYTHING), my number got called and I […]


Stay Sweet | Keep Ice Cream On Hand At All Times When Reading

Posted June 14, 2018 in Reviews / 8 Comments
Stay Sweet | Keep Ice Cream On Hand At All Times When Reading

*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 […]


The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton | ARC Review

Posted February 5, 2018 in Reviews / 10 Comments
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton | ARC Review

Have you ever gone into a book with little to no expectations and then end up being BLOWN AWAY by how much you adore it? That is what exactly happened to me when I picked up The Belles on one of my last days of my Hawaiian vacation. Feeling burnt out from reading about a book a day, my boyfriend suggested I switch up genres to keep from falling into a reading slump. Having read 3 contemporaries already that week, I decided to pick up my ARC of The Belles that had been waiting for me since last summer’s YALLWest, […]


Prince in Disguise by Stephanie Kate Strohm | ARC Review

Posted December 4, 2017 in Reviews / 8 Comments
Prince in Disguise by Stephanie Kate Strohm | ARC Review

Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with contemporary books that feature royalty (an obsession likely starting with my love of The Princess Diaries series and continued currently by the Netflix drama, The Crown). So when I saw this at the Disney-Hyperion booth at YallWest I KNEW I had to grab it despite knowing literally nothing about the plot or premise, but the cover and title were enough to know it would firmly fall into my modern day royal obsessed brain. Couple that with the recent news of Prince Harry’s engagement and I couldn’t have read Prince in […]


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

Posted August 30, 2017 in Reviews / 8 Comments
Haunting the Deep (How to Hang a Witch #2) by Adriana Mather | ARC Review

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 […]


Lucky In Love by Kasie West | ARC Review

Posted July 10, 2017 in Reviews / 13 Comments
Lucky In Love by Kasie West | ARC Review

*Many thanks to Scholastic for providing a review copy of this book!* Lucky In Love was a book I wasn’t planning on picking up at YallWest, having had mediocre experiences with West’s other works (The Fill-In Boyfriend, The Distance Between Us). However, when I heard Kasie was signing the copies and got a look at the GORGEOUS ARC (seriously, the cover AND the back are too cute!) I knew I had to give her books another shot. While Lucky In Love won’t be topping my list of all time favorite books anytime soon, it was a very cute, very easy […]


Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy | ARC Review

Posted May 31, 2017 in Reviews / 9 Comments
Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy | ARC Review

Ramona Blue was the first ARC I picked up at YallWest this year, and also the first one I read. It’s cover, unique title, and the fact that I adored Dumplin’ made me eager to dive into another novel by Julie Murphy. I personally have always been attracted to water more than any other element, so I gravitated toward this book where the protagonist hears the siren song of water in so many ways: in her coastal hometown, in the swimming pool where she works away her stress and fears, and even in the destructive storm and flooding that changed […]


I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo | ARC Review

Posted May 17, 2017 in Reviews / 14 Comments
I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo | ARC Review

Many thanks to the publisher, Maurene, and YallWest for providing ARCs of this adorable book at the Fierce Friday preview night! I Believe in a Thing Called Love caught my eye a few months ago on the internet because the title and cover were SO adorable, and I adored the K-Drama inspired concept! It seemed like everyone was reading it early, and I oh so pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the Fierce Friday preview night at this year’s YallWest and found out that Maurene was going to be signing ARCs! It quickly shot to the top of my TBR […]


The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon | ARC Review

Posted October 31, 2016 in Reviews / 8 Comments
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon | ARC Review

Nicola Yoon’s writing contains a grace that I haven’t ever seen another author capture in quite the same way. She takes difficult, heavy, and at times overwhelming topics and manages to have her prose dance through them, keeping her characters challenged by not bogged down by them. Everything, Everything was a beautiful story of trust, deceit, illness, and physical and mental strength, and Yoon’s sophomore novel build upon its the expectations set by its predecessor with an even stronger delivery. First and foremost, the thing I adored above all else in The Sun is Also a Star was the narrative […]