Tag: contemporary fiction

The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord | ARC Review

Posted April 19, 2017 in Reviews / 12 Comments

*Many thanks to Lauren @ Bookmark Lit for being a rock star and letting me borrow her copy! In some ways I don’t even know how to begin reviewing this book because my heart is so full after reading it. The Names They Gave Us has a tiny sprinkling of every ingredient you need for a powerful and moving YA book, but the product is so cohesive and beautiful and seamless that it’s almost impossible to analyze each individual component. However, I am a book blogger and this is my book blog, so review I must (and I really […]

Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon | ARC Review

Posted February 15, 2017 in Reviews / 12 Comments

Sometimes when you request an e-galley you really don’t know what you’re going to get, especially if it’s by a debut author or an author that you’re not familiar with. Done Dirt Cheap was a book that fit that criteria for me, but I felt drawn to it with its sassy cover and gritty synopsis. I’m happy to report that Done Dirt Cheap has 100% renewed my faith in trying out new authors and diving into unfamiliar plots, because it was a truly engaging and utterly fantastic read that I wish I could completely purge from my brain so I […]

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) […]

The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee | Review

Posted January 25, 2017 in Reviews / 14 Comments

Many thanks to the wonderful Lauren @ Bookmark Lit for this book! Stacey Lee has built herself a reputation of writing strong YA female protagonists with very distinct personalities, and The Secret of a Heart Note is no exception. The story follows Mimosa, one of the last living aromateurs, and her mother as they mix elixirs to help their clients win the affections of their crushes. The entire novel has a bit of a magical realism feel, with the beautiful and wild garden Mimosa and her mother cultivate, their rambling cottage they live in, and their seemingly magical sense of […]

This is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang | Review

Posted January 18, 2017 in Reviews / 4 Comments

“Miracles do not belong to religions. Miracles belong to the desperate, which is why every religion, every philosophy, and most importantly, every fairy tale always has a moment of salvation, a eureka, an enlightenment.” It’s rare that I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into with a book, but This is Where the World Ends can’t really be explained in any other way for me. Like everyone else, I had heard a lot of people rave about the author’s debut, Falling Into Place, so when I saw her second novel available immediately on Overdrive I thought it would […]

The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick | Review

Posted December 28, 2016 in Reviews / 6 Comments

I think everyone goes into reading The Boy Most Likely To with two thoughts in mind: they can’t wait to see more of the Garretts, and they can’t wait to hear more of Tim’s cutting sarcasm. The novel definitely hits the mark on both counts- the Garretts are an ever present entity in Tim’s life as he tries to refocus and reevaluate his life. Huntley Fitzpatrick is so gifted at bringing such a large and vibrant family to life in her stories, and it juxtaposes so well with lost and lonely souls such as Tim, or Samantha from My Life […]

The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia | Review

Posted November 7, 2016 in Reviews / 1 Comment

Technically, you owe my grandmother. She says people can learn everything they need to learn from life from a good telenovella. -pg 171 Oh gosh. For some reason I went into this book thinking I was going to 100% love it because of diversity! Hype! Pretty Cover! Beautiful Creatures! Sadly, The Lovely Reckless was, while still overall an OK read, a bit of a letdown in a lot of areas. This is what I get, once again, for impulse buying books off of Amazon (I’ve been burned before recently). The Good: Undercover cops: I thought the plotline with Frankie’s father […]

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

Posted October 31, 2016 in Reviews / 8 Comments

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 […]

Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynne Weingarten | Review

Posted June 13, 2016 in Reviews / 4 Comments

“The world is only as fair as you make it.” *Please note this review may contain some spoilers, both in and out of spoiler tags. You’ve been warned! Sometimes I’m in a mood where nothing will appease my reading palate but a really good thriller. I’ve been on an ebook reading streak recently, and all of those books have happened to be heavier in their content and story lines. I decided to continue the streak with Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls as soon as I saw it become available on Overdrive, as the cover has always struck me as being […]

Two Summers by Aimee Friedman | ARC Review

Posted May 10, 2016 in Reviews / 8 Comments

I’ve never read a parallel-universe theme booked, and I never thought when I did first read one that it would come in the form of a summer contemporary novel. However, when I was lucky enough to find an ARC of Two Summers in my hands, I found myself confronting the new-to-me sub-genre of parallel universes with equal parts skepticism and excitement. I’m extremely glad to say that Two Summers was a wonderful, compelling contemporary novel in its own right, with gorgeous settings, juicy secrets, and fascinating family dynamics. The fact that it utilized a parallel universe structure extremely cohesively and […]