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REVIEW: July Release Masterpost – “Spin the Dawn,” “Maybe This Time,” and “Symptoms of a Heartbreak”

Posted on August 8, 2019January 24, 2020 by Sarah S.

I am very behind on reviews.

Seriously. I haven’t written a review in 10 books – 20 if you count the Kasie West books that I binge-read for the rankings masterpost. But I’ve read a lot of recent releases that I loved, as well as some less-recent (“Under a Painted Sky” was one of my favorite reads this year, and I also read and enjoyed “Field Notes on Love”). So…I’m lumping all of those July reads into a masterpost. Enjoy!

1. “Maybe This Time” by Kasie West

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Summary:

One year. Nine events. Nine chances to . . . fall in love?

Weddings. Funerals. Barbecues. New Year’s Eve parties. Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas.

Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn’t so bad after all . . .

Told over the course of one year and following Sophie from event to event, this delightful novel from master of romantic comedy Kasie West shows how love can blossom in unexpected places.

What I Liked: first off, the format. I like books that are broken into smaller, narratively separate chunks that form a whole story, so I really enjoyed the “nine events” setup (each event gets a section). Secondly, the enemies-to-lovers romance (ANGER KISSES! I’ve never seen one in a Kasie West novel before and there’s one here!) was a lot of fun. The small-town Southern setting was new, as well, and I liked the atmosphere it created. I have no idea why, as I’m not artistic, but fashion design books always appeal to me, and Sophie’s love of design was a key plot point, so I really liked that. The florist job aspect of the book made me want to work in a flower shop and I loved the contrast in tone and setting created by each of the events – all of them were very unique.

What I Didn’t Like: the characters were a little hard to warm up to, and, as in most Kasie West books, “Maybe This Time” threw in a heaping dose of friendship drama that felt wholly unnecessary. I feel like this story would be much stronger if it incorporated conflict from a source other than friendship drama and family dysfunction. There are a LOT of other things that typical teenagers struggle with that could easily be used to create conflict in a contemporary novel and that don’t make me want to scream as much as the classic “my friend group is fighting over something that could easily be resolved if someone saw reason” scenario does.

Rating: 4.5/5

2. “Spin the Dawn” by Elizabeth Lim

Summary:

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

What I Liked: almost everything, honestly. “Spin the Dawn” completely blew me out of the water: its worldbuilding was rich and reminiscent of our world circa-1200ish (the country where it’s set, A’alandi, reminds me of Yuan Dynasty-era China minus the Pax Mongolica bc everyone’s at war; the Spice Road gives me major Silk Road vibes, while Samarand is very reminiscent of the early Ottoman Empire, and the western countries they mentioned reminded me of Venice circa 1300ish, etc. – sorry guys, history nerd in the house) while also being wholly unique; Maia was a lovable and interesting protagonist; Edan and Maia’s star-crossed(ish) romance was surprisingly sweet; and the DESIGN CONTEST. IT’S LIKE YUAN DYNASTY PROJECT RUNWAY. Lim’s descriptions of the clothes each contestant designed made my mouth water (metaphorically). I absolutely loved this. All of it. READ THIS, GUYS.

What I Disliked: the cliffhanger. >:/

Rating: 5/5

3. “Symptoms of a Heartbreak” by Sona Charaipotra

Summary:

Fresh from med school, sixteen-year-old medical prodigy Saira arrives for her first day at her new job: treating children with cancer. She’s always had to balance family and friendships with her celebrity as the Girl Genius―but she’s never had to prove herself to skeptical adult co-workers while adjusting to real life-and-death stakes. And working in the same hospital as her mother certainly isn’t making things any easier.

But life gets complicated when Saira finds herself falling in love with a patient: a cute teen boy who’s been diagnosed with cancer. And when she risks her brand new career to try to improve his chances, it could cost her everything.

It turns out “heartbreak” is the one thing she still doesn’t know how to treat.

What I Liked: the premise – I love child prodigy books. Saira shines most when she’s bonding with her patients, and I really loved her relationship with Alina, an adorable 12-year-old with cancer who becomes one of her first patients. Her huge extended family also injects a lot of heart and humor into the story, and her grandmother in particular was great.

What I Disliked: Saira herself. She has her moments, but for most of the book, she is absolutely obnoxious. I get why – very talented people tend to be that way – but that understanding made it no less annoying when she mouthed off to her superiors and was just generally an extremely rude human being whenever someone challenged her. I was mystified as to why everyone was so upset that Dr. Davis, one of her bosses, didn’t like Saira when Saira literally took every possible opportunity to flip her the metaphorical bird. Also, her relationship with Lincoln struck me as a little sketchy – yes, it’s a nice idea, and it could easily happen, but a) it begins with a lie, and b) doctor-patient relationships will always come with a degree of sketchiness even if they are the same age. There’s something that feels a little off about Saira, who, even though she is a teenager, is in a position of power, falling for someone in such a vulnerable one.

Rating: 3/5

Next up: two ARC reviews, and possibly a few other things. What have you guys been reading this summer?

Lists and Rankings

Ranking the Works of Kasie West (so far)

Posted on July 10, 2019January 24, 2020 by Sarah S.

I’ve been having a bit of a Kasie West binge lately. She’s a popular contemporary author (and all her stuff is super clean – bonus!) but I hadn’t picked up any of her books until I found “On the Fence,” one of her early novels, at a used bookshop for a dollar, and “The Fill-In Boyfriend” at the library the same day. I’d never read any of her books, but I was looking forward to “Maybe This Time” (which will be reviewed later – I have it in my possession but have yet to read it), so when I enjoyed both of those books, I decided to check out her other works to prepare myself.

Yes, all eight of them. (Except the “Pivot Point” duology, because I didn’t want to read them, and “The Distance Between Us,” because my library somehow doesn’t have it.)

And after the initial two, I read all of them in five days. I know. The things I do for this blog. (JK…I really enjoyed it.) So, being the competitive soul that I am, I’m going to rank them, least favorite to favorite. But there are a few things to realize here.

While on this massive binge, I realized that most of these books follow a sort of formula, tweaked a little for each story. I like finding patterns in related media (during the Christmas season, I love to find and point out the recurring similarities in every Hallmark movie I watch), and I noticed that there are certain things that ALWAYS show up in Kasie West’s books. That isn’t a knock on her work – hey, I still love it – but there are definitely a lot of observable patterns and recurring motifs here to keep in mind as you read. Re the list I made in my reading journal, they are as follows: [there are a few spoilers here, so be careful when you see something in brackets!]

California or Bust: set in southern or central California (this is true of 6/8 books – “P.S. I Like You” was set in Arizona and “By Your Side” took place in Utah).
Fractured Friendships: features a tight-knit friend group or pair of friends experiencing drama. This is definitely my least favorite of what I call the “Kasie West Archetypes,” or KWAs. [Examples: Gia vs. Jules in “The Fill-In Boyfriend”; Lily and Isabel’s fight in “P.S. I Like You.”]
Three’s a Crowd: involves a quasi-love triangle that never truly threatens the endgame pairing. [Examples: Autumn, Dax, and Jeff in “By Your Side”; Charlie, Braden, and Evan in “On the Fence.”]
Branching Out: the events of the book spark a new friendship between the protagonist and someone she’d never expect to befriend – said new friend sometimes further removes her from her former friend group. [Example: Maddie and Trina in “Lucky in Love”; Gia and Bec in “The Fill-In Boyfriend.”]
Family Ties: there is some sort of tension in the protagonist’s family life. [Examples: Maddie’s dysfunctional family in “Lucky in Love”; the strain placed on Charlie’s family life by her mother’s death in “On the Fence.”]
Lost in Translation: the plot hinges on on misunderstandings and mishaps that prevent the endgame couple from admitting that they like each other until the end of the story. [Examples: Abby’s botched confession in “Love, Life, and the List”; Cade and Lily’s refusal to make amends in “P.S. I Like You”].
Know Thyself: the protagonist undergoes some sort of process of self-discovery. [Examples: the Heart List in “Love, Life, and the List”; Charlie’s exploration of femininity in “On the Fence.”]
Lies of Omission: features a fight resulting from the romantic leads, or the protagonist and her friends, hiding things from each other. [Examples: Maddie’s lottery win and the article leaker in “Lucky in Love”; the entire Bradley debacle in “The Fill-In Boyfriend.”]

I know. I’m a geek who loves to analyze books – what can I say? But I swear this actually has a purpose. Given that all of these books largely conform to those basic criteria, I have an easy metric for ranking them: a) which books use those archetypes in the most creative and compelling ways, and b) which books diverge the most from those archetypes to show versatility? Granted, simply judging by how much I enjoyed the book is going to be a part of this as well, but keep those KWAs in mind as you read through this list.

8. The Fill-In Boyfriend”

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KWAs Included: all of them. Literally – all eight are there.

This was the first Kasie West book I read, and it didn’t leave me with the strongest first impression. It was a fine book, but there was nothing particularly compelling about any of the characters. The premise was fun and I love fake-dating tropes, but “The Fill-In Boyfriend” is a lot shallower than Kasie’s other books – most of them are fluffy contemporaries, but they have depth as well, while this one tried to say something (ironically, its message was about turning away from superficiality) that never really got across. It uses all of my least-favorite KWAs to little effect, and it’s a decent story, but not very compelling or creative. Fun but mindless – 3/5.

7. “By Your Side”

KWAs Included: Three’s a Crowd, Branching Out, Know Thyself, Lies of Omission

I really appreciated that this book attempted to cover issues that none of Kasie West’s other romance novels brought up – anxiety disorder, the foster system, consequences of reckless behavior, etc. – and it definitely gets props for that, but “By Your Side” was…well, I hate to say it, a little boring. Autumn and Dax’s time in the library wasn’t nearly as interesting as it could have been (it’s a LIBRARY, for crying out loud!) and none of the characters stood out to me as a particularly interesting person. The only reason it isn’t in the bottom slot is because it doesn’t involve all that many KWAs definitely gets points for sensitive depictions of tough, relevant issues.

Also. Irrelevant but worth mentioning: I can’t hear Dax’s name without thinking of Drax from “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which…is probably not the association I was supposed to make. (There’s also a guy named Dallin. The names are a little offbeat in this one.) 3/5

6. “Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss”

KWAs Used: California or Bust, Family Ties, Lies of Omission

A cute story with a novel premise and a relative dearth of KWAs (it has the least of any of her books, to which I think we owe the unorthodox setting), but…it sort of fell flat. I loved the movie-set aspect (that was very unique and fun) and that it featured Lacey, but I preferred her characterization in “Love, Life, and the List” to her characterization here. On the bright side, I feel like Lacey and Donovan’s romance was one of the more realistic ones (if you can say that of a movie star and her tutor) – it seemed to happen more naturally than a lot of the others – but it wasn’t really swoonworthy. And it had a little less depth than most of KW’s other romance novels. This seems like it should’ve been one of my absolute favorites, but it fell kind of flat. 3/5

5. “P.S. I Like You”

KWAs Used: Fractured Friendships, Three’s a Crowd, Family Ties, Lost in Translation, Lies of Omission (sort of)

I loved the fact that “P.S. I Like You” was about a musician, and the letters were adorable, but I was lukewarm on the characters. Lily and Cade are witty and entertaining but didn’t endear themselves to me the way that my favorite KW couples do. Additionally, their enemies-to-lovers arc – normally one of my favorite tropes – fell flat for me because their exchanges usually came off as unbearably catty, rather than charmingly acerbic. This was a massive improvement over “Fill-In,” and I liked it a lot, but I often found myself wincing at how nasty every single character in this book could be to the others. (Not just Cade and Lily – Sasha, Cade’s original love interest, was even worse.) This definitely would’ve been high up on that list if the constant stream of insults had been toned down a little. 4/5

4. “On the Fence”

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KWAs Used: California or Bust, Know Thyself, Branching Out, Lies of Omission, Branching Out, Lost in Translation

I think my favorite thing about this was that it wasn’t afraid to be heavier than KW’s other books, but I liked a lot of things about it. Charlie was a very likable, down-to-earth character; I *love* that the romance sprang from years of friendship, which made it feel very real; Charlie’s growth and self-discovery is done much better than it is in most KW books in that it doesn’t cause Massive Amounts of Drama, and the family’s dynamic was really sweet. Charlie’s new job and the period of self-discovery that it sparked were really satisfying to me, for some reason, and I loved her family. It was because of the book’s focus on the family that allowed it to get a lot heavier than I expected (to minimize the spoilers: Charlie’s family experienced something very tragic and disturbing, which Charlie represses her memories of). Having that aspect to the story allowed it to get a lot deeper and more meaningful; it was sensitively handled, and the fact that the family was still loving and supportive even though they didn’t fully understand Charlie was wonderful. “On the Fence” had a good balance of depth, fluffy romance, and self-discovery – really excellent. 4.5/5

3. “Love, Life, and the List”

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KWAs Used: California or Bust, Branching Out, Three’s a Crowd, Family Ties, Lost in Translation, Know Thyself

NO FRIENDSHIP DRAMA. That alone secures this one a top slot. But it’s also a super unique premise with characters I really enjoyed. The fact that it couldn’t fall back on the drama subplot forced “Love, Life, and the List” to avoid a few of the KWAs I don’t particularly like, and the story’s resolution felt fresher for it. Also, I want to do a Heart List now! And can we get a hallelujah for an intact friend group? (Also, Lacey is DELIGHTFUL, and definitely my favorite of the Unexpected New Friends in these books. She’s great and I can’t wait to finish “Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss,” where she’s an MC!) 4.5/5

2. “Lucky in Love”

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KWAs Used: California or Bust, Fractured Friendships, Branching Out, Family Ties, Lies of Omission

No one raves about this book, which totally mystifies me. I *loved* it. It has a fun premise, the best set of KW protagonists by far, A ZOO, and an absolutely adorable romance. Studious, happily-married-to-my-GPA protagonists are my favorite thing ever (because hello, self-projection!), which meant that I was automatically going to love Maddie. I saw a lot of myself in her even outside of that – she loves animals (yup), feels responsible for other people’s happiness (yup), and trusts others too readily (YUP). And SETH. Oh, Seth, you are a treasure. He was a soft friendly boi who I would 100% swoon over IRL. And the fact that their relationship takes place at a zoo – the place I spent most of my most formative childhood moments – is !!!. That’s enough for me to overlook the fact that this is one of the most petty-drama-filled KW books, easily. Yes, I cringed at times (I’m not kidding about the level of drama here), but it was more than worth it. 4.75/5

1. “Listen to Your Heart”

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KWAs Used: California or Bust, Fractured Friendships, Three’s a Crowd (well…sort of a love square?), Lost in Translation, Know Thyself, Lies of Omission

I think the reason I chose “Listen to Your Heart” as my favorite KW novel is its freshness. It uses all the same archetypes as her other books, but the way it’s all presented is so new that they don’t feel like the same plotlines. The podcast was super fun and a very unique way to frame the characters’ struggles; the setting was probably my favorite out of all of the ones I’ve read (it had serious Lake Tahoe vibes); and Diego and Kate had wonderful chemistry. (Also, Diego is a SMOL BEAN, and I want to know where I can find one of those.) Because it pulls off a compelling story and introduces instantly likable characters while putting a fresh spin on the classic KWAs, “Listen to Your Heart” takes top honors in this non-definitive ranking.

Okay, how off am I? Do you guys agree or disagree with my rankings? Please let me know in the comments, and be on the lookout for a review of Kasie West’s latest (as yet unread by me) novel, “Maybe This Time,” coming soon!

Reviews

REVIEW: “I Wanna Be Where You Are” by Kristina Forest

Posted on July 5, 2019July 6, 2019 by Sarah S.

GUYS, THIS BOOK. I’ve been reading (well, listening to…this one was an audiobook) a *lot* of five-star-worthy books lately and this is definitely at or near the top of that list. Why? Read on to find out!

Summary

When Chloe Pierce’s mom forbids her to apply for a spot at the dance conservatory of her dreams, she devises a secret plan to drive two hundred miles to the nearest audition. But Chloe hits her first speed bump when her annoying neighbor Eli insists upon hitching a ride, threatening to tell Chloe’s mom if she leaves him and his smelly dog, Geezer, behind. So now Chloe’s chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast―two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist on repeat.

Filled with roadside hijinks, heart-stirring romance, and a few broken rules, I Wanna Be Where You Are is a YA debut perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon.

Review

Make no mistake: this book is ADORABLE. But there were a lot of other reasons I fell in love with it, and those include:

Chloe’s love of dance, and the fact that the author clearly loved it just as much as she did. The ballet scenes were among the best in the book, as they were a) the most compelling parts of Chloe’s story and b) where the author’s knowledge of and passion for dance really shone through.
The rom-com-y road trip shenanigans. I was absolutely DYING every time something went horribly wrong (which sounds sadistic, but trust me, you’ll see why if you read this), which happened…a lot. Two teens with an axe to grind with the other on a road trip – what could possibly go wrong?
Chloe’s relationship with her mom. It rang very true while also being unusually healthy and sweet. Yes, they have their issues, as most teenagers do with their parents, but at the end of the day, Chloe and her mom love and support each other as much as they can, and it’s really nice to see a parent-child relationship like that portrayed in a genre that is often dominated by abusive/controlling parents.
REINA. OMG. I LOOOOOOVE REINA. We didn’t really see much of her, but what little we did get was the best. Not only was she a genuinely great friend (another thing we don’t see a lot of in YA lit), but she was. Freaking. Hysterical. Her obsession with theater and overdramatic personality were so relatable to me, as a theater kid, and also made for some of the funniest moments in the story. Case in point: apologizing to Chloe’s mother for lying about her daughter’s whereabouts in song. (DEAD. I WAS SO DEAD.)
The way Eli and Chloe’s problems ended up being resolved. It’s very realistic that it would take a lot of argument and misunderstanding for them to come to a truce after mismanaging the situation for so long; because of that, when they finally made up, it felt earned.

Honestly, the only thing I didn’t love about this was, oddly, the romance. It was cute, and it definitely didn’t cheat on its development (it took most of the book to get going), but…I just didn’t see the chemistry between Chloe and Eli? They seemed like they would have been better as friends, to be totally honest, but others might not share that opinion. Regardless of that one little miss, I HIGHLY recommend “I Wanna Be Where You Are” – it’s the perfect summer rom-com. Trust me: I know this sounds hyperbolic, but it really is.

Running the Numbers

Plot: 5/5 – I mean, road trip comedy-but-super-pure-and-with-romance-and-ballet? Uhhh…yes. Automatic 5.

Execution: 5/5 – definitely achieved everything it set out to do, and everything that was promised in the description. The premise was well-written and fully-realized.

Characters: 5/5 – there are so few major characters on-page most of the time that get a pretty in-depth look at all of them, and all of them are now my children.

Writing Quality: 4.5/5 – as I’ve said in almost every review ever: it takes an extraordinarily well-written book to get that 5th star, and while “I Wanna Be Where You Are” is quite good on that front, that area of the book didn’t really stand out much.

Content: 4/5 – no sexual content to speak of (like, one kiss, but it wasn’t detailed), and all incidences of underage smoking or drinking are shown to be bad decisions which the characters duly learn from, but there’s a LOT of profanity. If this were a movie it would be easily rated R just on the basis of language (it exceeds the PG-13 “two f-bomb” limit by quite a bit).

Overall: 4.7/5 Befuddled Giraffes

Interviews

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Taylor Simonds on “Collateral Damage”

Posted on July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by Sarah S.

GUYS. READ THIS BOOK.

*clears throat* okay, now that I’ve gotten my mandatory “Collateral Damage” endorsement out of the way, I’m SO excited to bring you…*more* CD content! I’m so pumped to have been able to interview its esteemed authoress, Taylor Simonds – she’s a total sweetheart AND we got to geek out about superheroes, which is always a plus. So…I can’t wait to present you with my second-ever Author Interview!

Superheroes are very on-trend in pop culture right now. Are there any specific stories, characters, franchises, films, comics, etc. that particularly inspired you to write a YA novel about them? If yes, how did those inspirations carry over to the page, and what changed?

*COMBINED WITH the below because they have the same answer*

Where did you get the idea to tell a story about superheroes from the perspective of someone who not only isn’t one, but rather dislikes them? I’ve never seen that outsider-perspective take on a superhero story before and am curious as to what sparked that idea.

(I’m cramming these two questions together because they’re the same answer lol)

So I actually first got the idea for COLLATERAL DAMAGE while watching Man of Steel back in my senior year of high school (seven years ago). It’s so bad. It’s such a bad movie. And on top of being bad, I remember watching the giant fight between Superman and Zod at the end that goes on for way too long and destroys absolutely everything, and thinking to myself, “Wow, what if you were just like, trying to go to work, and then this happened? Why would you ever want to live in a city where Superman existed?” And by this point the movie was so slow and the fight was going on for SO MANY MINUTES that I started doing that in my head, narrating what background extras might be thinking if they were stuck in this scene. “Dammit, I just paid off this car.” “So…trains are gonna be late today, then?” “That’s it. I’m moving.” And then I was like, “This would be a fun book. I’m gonna write this book.” So. Wrote the book.

But in terms of what media actually influenced me while I was writing, I looked to Teen Titans and The Avengers for superhero team dynamics, the relationships between Lois Lane/Clark Kent, Gwen Stacy/Peter Parker, and Iris West/Barry Allen for how super-powered people interact with the non-powered people they care about, Deadpool for humor, Spider-Man for setting, The Incredibles for satirizing common elements of the genre without disrespecting it… there’s a long list.

One of the highlights of “Collateral Damage,” for me, was the witty banter between characters. What did maintaining that kind of humorous back-and-forth in the dialogue require? How’d you develop character voices that were distinct enough to make that kind of banter work?

Ahh, thank you so much!! I’m really glad people seem to be liking the banter, it’s kinda my favorite part too. There’s a few different things I did to make each character feel unique, but I think the most consistent was just constantly reminding myself that if I couldn’t imagine one of my real-life friends saying something I’d written down, it probably didn’t belong on the page. Even fictional characters should still talk like real people. But I watched a lot of ensemble comedies—lots of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl, Parks and Rec, etc.—which are such great examples of how to balance lots of differing personalities with unique humor. I also had a reference sheet of fictional personalities that matched not just individual characters overall, but how they interacted with others or their surroundings in different situations. Meg is the best example of this: her list was full of sarcastic voices I love, including Mia Thermopolis, Veronica Sawyer, Haruhi Fujioka, Darcy Lewis [AUTHOR’S ADDITION: not gonna lie, I did a little squeal when I saw this. DARCY IS AN ICON. “Meuhmeuh? What’s muehmeuh?”], Alex Russo. So no matter what scene I put her in, if I lost my momentum and wasn’t sure what she might say or do next, I could use one of these references as a base to work from—Haruhi is the only person in Ouran High School Host Club who gets irritated instead of seduced by the host boys’ antics, so she was a great reference for how Meg acted around the Supers that everyone else loves, for example. Mia Thermopolis just keeps on truckin’ even though she’s invisible and her life is sad, making her a good base for Meg’s setup at the beginning of the story (I had a screenshot of her muttering resignedly “Someone sat on me again” saved to stare at while writing the opening chapters).

Making reference lists like this as well as making myself as familiar with my characters as possible made imagining them as real people easy, and the dialogue just sort of followed naturally.

The one question I must unerringly ask in every author interview: how would you describe your novel in six words?

Mia Thermopolis living in Marvel’s NYC.

If you had to describe “Collateral Damage” to a prospective reader but could *only* use pre-existing, popular superhero movies to explain its vibe, plot, characters, etc., which ones would you use? Similarly, to what heroes would you compare your characters?

Ooh! Okay, satirical elements/tone of The Incredibles meets characters of Big Hero Six meets plot of Into the Spiderverse meets comedy of Deadpool. And for the heroes… good thing I’ve got my *whips out desktop folder* REFERENCE FILES. Here we go:

SuperVariant One—Raven, Negasonic Teenage Warhead

SuperVariant Two—Spider-Man

SuperVariant Three—Superboy, Nightwing

SuperVariant Four—Kid Flash, Beast Boy, Chat Noir

If “Collateral Damage” was going to be made into a movie/TV series, who would you want to be cast as the characters if you could only use actors/actresses who had already played superheroes in other shows/movies?

Oh DANG. That had only played other superheroes?? Okay. Oliver first, because he’s easiest: I’ve been yelling since I saw The Umbrella Academy that Justin H. Min (Ben Hargreeves) is my Oliver. Done. Danielle Panabaker would be Juniper, because one of Juniper’s character references is Cait Snow, who Danielle plays in The Flash. Robbie Amell would be Three/Sam, which is fun because he played Ronnie Raymond on The Flash as well. Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead) would be One. Ryan Potter (Beast Boy) would be Four. I can’t cast Two! It’s a spoiler! The whole middle of the book is about Meg figuring out his identity. And Meg… I’m so reaching because Gwen Stacy wasn’t TECHNICALLY a superhero in The Amazing Spider-Man, but I’m snagging Emma Stone from that and cramming her into her hair color/ personality from Easy A, and that’s Meg. But let it be known that Liv Hewson is my Meg forever.

*WARNING! LOTS OF FLASHING LIGHTS AND CAUTION TAPE HERE, FOLKS, I AM NOT KIDDING ABOUT THIS BEING A M A S S I V E SPOILER! SO LIKE, YEAH, AVERT THOSE EYES IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS, DEAR READERS!*

Lastly, and this is very trite but I had to ask: if Meg and friends are now a superhero team…WHAT ARE THEY CALLED? Now that they’re no longer associated with the SuperVariant program, will they have cool aliases? Inquiring minds want to know.

I really tried to think of a team name, but all I could think about was how much Meg would hate having to come up with a team name. So I wrote that instead. BONUS SCENE

We’re exactly fifteen seconds into enjoying the movie, and then Sanjeet gasps.

“What? What?” I yell, thinking the wall’s ruptured or something.

“Team name!” he cries. “We need a new squad name!”

I groan, sinking further into the couch. “A squad—now? You want to do this right now, right in the middle of—” I look from the gore onscreen to Penny and back. “What are we even watching?”

She shrugs and increases the volume without moving.

“I mean, we can’t really call ourselves SuperVariants anymore,” Juniper admits. “The name sort of implies we’re… you know. Varied. Different.”

“Right.” I nod fervently. “And we’re not. Because everybody is.”

“ ‘The Revengers,’” Oliver suggests, panning his hand like he’s making a banner in mid-air. “ ‘The Defenders.’”

“Those are both definitely already taken.”

“ ‘The Originals.’” A second invisible banner painted below the first. “Because we were Super before everyone else.”

“That’s a show. About vampires.”

He flicks a piece of popcorn at me, too fast to track until it’s hitting me in the face. “You pick one, then.”

I don’t want to pick one. Picking a superhero squad name would indicate that that’s what we are—heroes. And we’re absolutely not. There’s gonna be no more saving of citizens in this house. People can take care of themselves now.

We’re all officially retired.

But they’re all staring at me, Sanjeet and Juniper looking hopeful, Oliver looking like he’s waiting for the punchline to a joke, and even Penny emanating a vague, near-intangible interest, so I give up. I’m about to say something purposely dumb, something that’ll make Oliver groan, like the “A-friend-gers,” but then I realize that against my will, I actually have an idea I don’t hate.

“Team Trashface,” I say. “Okay? Superhero squad name. Now watch the movie.”

^^Non-spoiled readers: don’t look at that either.

*SAFE TO LOOK NOW. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’VE SUCCESSFULLY RUN THE SLOW-AND-PAINFUL-SPOILERY-DEATH GAUNTLET!*

*Extended high pitched squealing*

Okay, okay. I got it out of my system.

But let’s face it, I will never stop screaming about this amazing book and its wonderful authoress and I am 100% okay with that. Seriously. If this interview didn’t make you want to read this, whomst even are you? (Nah, it’s cool, but still. *gently prods you with book*)

I’d like to extend a hearty thanks to Taylor for letting me interview her and for her thoughtful answers, of course. And if I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a hundred times:

READ.

THE.

FREAKING.

BOOK.

Reviews

REVIEW: “Collateral Damage” by Taylor Simonds

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Sarah S.

MORE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THAT THIS BOOK EXISTS. I’m normally pretty up-to-date on YA releases because, well, blogs typically have to feature new content if they want to get views, but I had no idea this was coming out until a few weeks before the released date. (Criminal.) I honestly don’t remember how I found it, but I did…and now it is my mission to make everyone read this. I’ve got a feeling that the intensity of my gushing in this review might help with that.

SUMMARY

Power. Courage. Invincibility. The marks of a true hero.

Meg Sawyer has none of these things.

Meg has never stopped a moving bus with her bare hands, been bitten by a radioactive insect, or done anything moderately resembling saving the world. She doesn’t have to. She’s a background citizen, a nobody, one of the swarms of faceless civilians of Lunar City–where genetically enhanced superhumans straight out of the comics have thwarted evil for years.

For as long as the Supers have existed, Meg has had one goal: to not become a casualty in their near-daily battles for justice. And for the last seventeen years, she’s managed to do just that. Sure, her minimum-wage job at the local coffee shop isn’t great, she can’t even leave her apartment without loading herself up with protective gear, and her car was just hijacked to throw at a supervillain (again), but she’s not dead yet.

But when Meg accidentally finds one of the city’s perfect, invincible protectors murdered under extremely suspicious circumstances, her whole “innocent bystander” strategy falls apart. After being coerced by his determined girlfriend into a mission to help prevent the deaths of the remaining Supers, Meg finds herself forced into the foreground of a story she never wanted to be part of-one that challenges everything she thought she knew about both her city and herself.

REVIEW

I am so obsessed with superheroes that it’s a little bit ridiculous. Slapping a Marvel logo on a movie is pretty much the only way to get my butt in a theater seat, I have a MCU Tumblr and an AO3 account that is populated almost solely by MCU and/or X-Men fanfiction, I’ve spent the last several days plotting how to smuggle home comic books from my volunteering shift at the library without being caught (this is a very closeted obsession), and I’m even working on a superhero-related WIP. So…yeah. This was an auto-buy the second I found out it existed. And did it disappoint?

No hecking way.

I actually feel like this was written for me. Even discounting the superhero theme, it has everything I love in a book: humor, heartwarming and supportive friendships, high-quality writing, exciting action set-pieces, strong morals, and a wonderful sense of camaraderie. Meg and her friends (I can’t reveal much about this without spoiling a major plot point, so you’ll just have to trust me on this) are all fantastic, most of them very snarky and all of them fundamentally great people, and Juniper (the girlfriend mentioned in the summary) is delightfully terrifying. And the outsider-perspective element introduced by having the story narrated by a non-enhanced character works surprisingly well. The action is high-stakes but fun, and the sense of camaraderie among the young heroes is fantastic.

Meg and friends had a great group dynamic; superhero team-ups are another thing I’m extremely weak for and this was a really fun take on that gang-of-misfits concept. It’s not really Avengers-like despite that being the obvious comparison – I’d say that it sort of had an earthbound “Guardians of the Galaxy” vibe (my favorite movie, so that’s a HUGE PLUS for me), what with its featuring a ragtag group of people with nothing in common coming together to defeat a common enemy. Just…*squees* I have all the good feelings after reading this. I don’t even mind the fact that there is zero moral grey area in the story whatsoever and everyone is either totally pure-hearted or irrevocably evil – sometimes that can be refreshing.

Guys, READ THIS BOOK. It deserves all the things.

RUNNING THE NUMBERS

Plot: HARD 5/5. (Can you tell that I was absolutely *heart eyes* over this premise?) Teen superhero adventures = literal automatic 5/5 from me in all cases, but it didn’t hurt that “Collateral Damage” featured well-executed twists, fantastic banter, and a compelling “more-than-meets-the-eye” dynamic. I have absolutely zero complaints about that.

Characters: 5/5 – I loved all of them, okay? I’m very invested in this gang of smol powered kids. All of them were absolutely delightful, *especially* in the second half when *spoiler* the team members finally got to showcase their abilities in a banter-and-stakes-filled final battle worthy of the MCU. *end spoiler*

Content: 4/5 – largely clean, but there’s a bit of language and typical comic book-style violence.

Writing Quality: 5/5 – I almost never give out 5s in this category because few books are of standout quality technically, but banter is the quickest way to my heart, and the writing is of excellent quality otherwise as well.

Overall: 4.75/5

Reviews

REVIEW: “She’s the Worst” by Lauren Spieller

Posted on June 27, 2019 by Sarah S.

Note: thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the e-ARC – special thanks to Lili Feinberg for going out of her way to make sure that some issues I initially had with the format of the file were resolved.

“She’s the Worst” will be released on (date).

SUMMARY

Sisters April and Jenn haven’t been close in years. Jenn’s too busy with school, the family antique shop, and her boyfriend, and April would rather play soccer and hang out with the boy next door.

But when April notices her older sister is sad about staying home for college, she decides to do something about it. The girls set off to revive a pact they made as kids: spend an epic day exploring the greatest hits of their childhood and all that Los Angeles has to offer.

Then April learns that Jenn has been keeping a secret that could rip their family—and their feuding parents—apart. With only one day to set things right, the sisters must decide if their relationship is worth saving, or if the truth will tear them apart for good.

REVIEW

Holy crap, I did not expect this book to hit me as hard as it did.

Going in, I thought this would be a fun road trip-ish comedy about sisters. Great, funny, entertaining. I love stories about siblings and road trip comedies, so I thought I’d love it. I did – but not for any of the reasons that I thought I would.

I’m not going to lie, there are points where I nearly teared up. I, like April, have an older sibling who’s going off to college this fall, so “struggling to cope with a sibling leaving for college” subplot = cue the waterworks. I also related in that, as a sibling, I’ve been in both Jenn and April’s positions. I’m the younger and more socially-inept sibling, so my parents sometimes treat me as such, like April; but, like Jenn, I’m very focused on academics and tend to take on more of the burdens of maintaining our family than my brother is, and that’s come to be expected of me. Being treated like I have a few screws loose? I get that. But…being treated like an adult who isn’t allowed to make mistakes anymore? I get that too. Watching Jenn and April navigate those challenges felt very real to me, even though my parents are nothing like theirs. I’ve seen very few young adult novels that handled sibling relationships as well as this one did, and my heart is in pieces. That was intense. (Makes me want to hang out with my brother, who – like Jenn – probably has 0 interest in doing so. Oops.)

There were other things going on here – some romantic subplots, the sisters’ college decisions, etc. – but everything else in the story took a backseat to Jenn and April’s day out. My main issue with the book was in that. I understand that that part of the story had to be bleak at points, but I think it would have been well-served if the day-out portion of the story had at least a few light moments in the midst of all the family angst. The situation is supposed to dire, but it need not be so dreary.

All in all, this was an unexpectedly heavy book that meant more to me than I ever could have imagined, and although it could have done with a few lighter beats in between fights, “She’s the Worst” was a very strong exploration of sibling relationships, family dynamics, and what it means to move on with one’s life.

RATING

PLOT: 5/5 – a really sweet idea that was largely cashed in on. A word of warning, though: the premise that was used to advertise the book – a road trip-ish story – takes a backseat to family drama that can’t really be revealed in the description without spoiling things. Understandable – and the plot was still very strong – but there was definitely a bit of a disparity there that some readers who aren’t looking for a story like this won’t expect. Not docking points for that because spoilers are spoilers, but it’s something for readers to be aware of.

CHARACTERS: 5/5 – April and Jenn, essentially the only two characters who matter, read as very real and authentic; I could find things I related to in both of them, and even though they both made awful choices (as was kind of the point), they were genuinely likable and fleshed-out characters.

CONTENT: 3/5 – scattered cursing (some of it very strong), frequent allusions to adult situations that are never shown on-screen, and some majorly dysfunctional parents.

WRITING QUALITY: 4/5 – it’s fine, but a 5 requires *truly extraordinary* writing, and almost no book I’ve read achieves that, so if tl;dr: good, but not what stands out about the book.

OVERALL: 4.25/5

Reviews

REVIEW: “Aurora Rising” by Jay Kristof and Amie Kaufman

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Sarah S.

By the time I found out about this book, it seemed like everyone had read it except me. That’s what happens when you request a recent release from your library and there are 13 holds on it. So…was it worth the wait?

Completely.

SUMMARY

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-a** techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They’re not the heroes we deserve. They’re just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

REVIEW

I read almost no sci-fi.

Seriously. If you looked at my Goodreads lists of books I’ve read in the last two years, I think you would find exactly three sci-fi novels: the semi-well-known recent release “Last of Her Name” (AMAZING), an obscure YA novel called “Invictus” about time travel, and “Frankenstein.” So clearly, this is not my genre. Reading books like “Aurora Rising,” though, makes me wonder why that is.

Because, guys. This book was FRIGGIN’ AMAZING.

A short list of reasons:

SPACE ADVENTURES.
A team of misfits, a-holes, and overachievers, thrown together by the Powers That Be, crosses paths with more terrifyingly perilous adventures than you can shake a sickstick (read the book to get that one) at, and somehow manages to be hilariously snarky and unspeakably romantic while running for their lives.
All of said characters are incredibly endearing in their own ways; I grew quite attached to them. I love my space babies.
There’s a lot that teases potential for a sequel, which it is definitely getting by virtue of being part of a series. MORE SQUAD 312!
Many, many incredible twists, surprises, and refusals of the plot to follow expectations. And we get to experience all that through the eyes of characters who don’t know any more than we do (seriously, this team is SO in over its head…it’s great), which makes the twists seem even twistier.
This is the only futuristic sci-fi novel I’ve ever read that actually includes some element of religion: most people in this future believe in and seem to worship a vague higher power (not many specifics are given about the religion itself, but an entity they call the Maker is referenced frequently). This story takes the “science supplanting all forms of religion in the future” trope and flips it, explaining that discovering very similar bipedal, intelligent life throughout the galaxy (almost all of the alien species in “Aurora Rising” are humanoid) caused the spacefaring generations to believe in intelligent design and, hence, a higher power. I thought that was a clever trope-subversion.
The team’s banter is fantastic and I loved the snark and the way they played off of each other.

That’s a very noncomprehensive list, granted, but you most likely get the point. There was very little that I did not enjoy about “Aurora Rising”; I’d highly recommend it and can’t wait for the next book in the Aurora Cycle! …whenever that is…

RATING

Plot: 5/5 – gripping and so unputdownable that I read, no lie, the entire last 335 pages of it in a single day. It never takes its foot off the metaphorical gas and I found myself completely sucked into it.

Characters: 5/5 – all of them were absolutely delightful even though most of them were supposed to be total a-holes. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the seven(!) members of Squad 312, which gives us a look into each of their brains – that helped to flesh them out.

Premise: 5/5 – TEENAGE SPACE ADVENTURER TEAM-UP? COUNT ME THE HECK IN. ‘Nuff said. It was like “Guardians of the Galaxy”-meets-“Star Trek”-meets-every heist movie ever-meets that “Plague Inc.” game where you’d try to invent a disease to kill the entire world that was super popular in, like, 2013. Uh…YUP.

Content: 4/5 – a smattering of salty language, sci-fi violence, a general air of impending doom, and the occasional presence of oblique sexual references that you’d expect in a group of teenagers. Nothing distractingly terrible.

Writing Quality: 4/5 – it was excellent but not !!!-special, so I’ll give it a solid 4.

Overall: 4.6/5 Befuddled Emu

Reviews, Updates

Five-Minute Reviews and Summer TBR: June 2019

Posted on June 23, 2019June 24, 2019 by Sarah S.

Happy summer! I’ve read quite a few books since the month started but haven’t reviewed them (not including the two monthly classics I’ve read but am no longer reviewing because I’ve realized that this is A YA Blog), I’ve decided to do a set of short reviews in one post. Each book will include short lists of things I liked and disliked as well as a rating. Let’s get started!

REVIEWS

1. American Panda by Gloria Chao

Things I Liked:

The MIT setting was very novel and, based on descriptions of the school that I’ve heard from peers who go there, quite accurate.
Darren was an adorable bean.
Mei’s relationship with Xing. Really heartwarming, and gives the reader faith in Mei’s ability to think for herself and do the right thing on her own terms for the first time in the story.
The in-depth look at Taiwanese culture.
The recurring Ying-Na joke, and its eventual resolution – nope, *SPOILER* Ying-Na isn’t a disgrace…she’s a comedian. *END SPOILER* Perfect payoff.

Things I Didn’t Like:

The disownment side-plot came off as pretty heavy-handed.
It seemed like everyone cursed way more than was realistic?
I didn’t get Mei’s roommate, Nicolette. What was the deal, exactly? She goes from being a jerk to being her bestie in .13 seconds….what?
Why does everyone talk so much about, uh, transmissible diseases? I know it’s presented as a part of the reason Mei doesn’t want to be a doctor, but the sheer amount of times that it came up seemed weird and a bit excessive for such a short book.

Rating: 4/5

2. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

51Srtf0nS3L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Things I Liked:

Academically-obsessed protagonists? Hellooooo, self-projection!
Both Genie and Quentin were absolutely hilarious. I died laughing multiple times because of their banter and one-liners.
The way Chinese mythology was seamlessly incorporated into a Silicon Valley setting. I love a good urban fantasy.
Genie’s relationships with her mother and Eunie, her best friend (a violinist – hello again, self-projection!), are both very well-handled. I wished we would’ve gotten more of Eunie, but I loved her.
Did I mention the humor?

Things I Didn’t Like:

I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of the fact that *SPOILER* Genie was a literal inanimate object in a past life. That was…???? *END SPOILER*
The romance didn’t really convince me – it seemed sort of slap-dash and like a foregone conclusion that didn’t need to be backed up with actual development rather than something that grew and changed naturally over time.
Eunie could have used a lot more page time.
Ditto @ Genie’s dad.
WHY THE CLIFFHANGER? THIS BETTER BE GETTING A SEQUEL.

Rating: 5/5

3. The Bird and the Blade by Megan Bannen

Things I Liked:

The setting was super unique and the historical/geographical context of said setting was clearly well-researched.
Jinghua and Khalaf’s slow-burn romance was one of the few slow-burn romances I’ve read recently that I actually enjoyed. Usually that drives me nuts.
Because there are only three characters with significant page time, their relationships and personalities get to be explored in a great deal of detail. Jinghua, Timur, and Khalaf are all very fleshed-out.
The source material: more historical fiction about the Mongols needs to exist. In addition, this book is partially inspired by Turandot, an opera that I only know of because it contains an aria that literally every figure skater has done a program to (“Nessun Dorma” – it’s pretty bomb); I didn’t know a ton about the plot, but opera-inspired novels need to be a thing. The classical music nerd in me is :))).
The twist, and THAT ENDING. OW. I almost cried, and I NEVER cry while reading.

Things I Didn’t Like:

The way people spoke seemed really anachronistic. Everyone largely spoke like a modern person – they even used modern curse words, which seemed weird and jarring given the fact that most of our curse words didn’t exist back then. For a setting as well-researched as this one, I’m surprised that more thought wasn’t given to the way the characters spoke.
As well-told as the story was, holy crap, it was depressing.
Makes use of the “push away the person I’m in love with after they make a move to protect them” trope, which I hate.
Did I mention depressing?
THAT ENDING. OW.

Rating: 4/5

4. I Love You So Mochi

51b0B0rDClL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Things I Liked:

Setting the story in Japan, through the eyes of someone who’d never been there, made for a lot of great visual descriptions, and helped to create the “tourist in a new country” sense of wonderment that comes from traveling. Everything was super vivid and I felt like I was traveling with Kimi.
Kimi and Akira were absolutely ADORABLE and I loved them. That deer attack-and-rainstorm scene? *heart eyes*
The fabric store scene. As I said, this book makes use of fantastic visual imagery, and that scene lent itself very well to that. *happy sigh* really, all of the parts about clothes and sewing did.
The fact that the “pressured to go into a career for the parents’ sake” Asian-American protagonist is being pushed into the arts, rather than the usual paths of the medical field or engineering, is super refreshing, and made for a unique set of challenges that I’ve never really seen explored in a YA novel before.
Kimi’s grandparents and their changing relationship with her. They are absolutely adorable, and I loved that her visit forced her entire family to have hard conversations about their fractured relationship.

Things I Didn’t Like:

Really, the only *major* issue I could see was that Kimi’s fight with her friends was sort of unrealistically resolved. Other than that, this was a fantastic book; it had been on my TBR since January, and it was absolutely worth both the wait and the full price of a hardback book (my mom wasn’t happy…oops).

Rating: 5/5

UPCOMING TBR

Collateral Damage by Taylor Simonds: a superhero YA novel? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. This one is coming out in a few days, and I’m absolutely stoked for it. A lot of people who got ARCs described it as being like “a PG-13 Deadpool”, and I don’t know how I feel about that (that’s the one superhero movie that this superhero-movie-obsessed girl will not watch), but it sounds fantastic otherwise. Will definitely be E-book-ing this when I finish the two books I already have to get through (see further below).

I Wanna Be Where You Are: this looks like an adorable rom-com, and I’ve wanted to read it for a while, but it keeps getting put on the back-burner. Hopefully my library will get a copy soon? Definitely one I want to read in July, but not really a priority.

The Tiger at Midnight: I’m actually reading this one right now! My library had it, and it’s gotten rave reviews, so I’m looking forward to reading more of it (I’m only about fifty pages in). It’s very long for a YA novel (almost 600 pages), so I’m hoping I enjoy it, because it’s going to be rough going if I don’t.

Maybe This Time: this seems SO FREAKING CUTE. It isn’t going to be out for a few weeks, but it’s released right before a church trip I’m going on, so I’ll definitely be getting this – whether on Kindle or in hard copy – for one of the flights. I’ve never read a Kasie West book, but this seems really cute, and I can’t wait to read it.

Aurora Rising: I saw this in the bookstore the day I went looking for “I Love You So Mochi” and “Fake It Til You Break It” and wanted to read it, but realized with regret that purchasing three hardcover books at full price was excessive. To get around that, I requested a copy from my library…and it took a freaking MONTH to arrive because there were thirteen(!) holds on it. But it’s here now! I can’t wait to start this one – the “space team adventure” premise looks really fun.

That’s it for this June/July Catch-Up post! Have thoughts on any of the books I’ve mentioned? Are there any books in your TBRs that you can’t wait for? Leave me a comment – I’d love to know.

Reviews

REVIEW: “If I’m Being Honest” by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Sarah S.

SUMMARY

High school senior Cameron Bright’s reputation can be summed up in one word: b***h. It’s no surprise she’s queen bee at her private L.A. high school—she’s beautiful, talented, and notorious for her cutting and brutal honesty. So when she puts her foot in her mouth in front of her crush, Andrew, she fears she may have lost him for good.

In an attempt to win him over, Cameron resolves to “tame” herself, much like Katherine in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. First, she’ll have to make amends with those she’s wronged, which leads her to Brendan, the guy she labelled with an unfortunate nickname back in the sixth grade. At first, Brendan isn’t all that receptive to Cameron’s ploy. But slowly, he warms up to her when they connect over the computer game he’s developing. Now if only Andrew would notice…

But the closer Cameron gets to Brendan, the more she sees he appreciates her personality—honesty and all—and wonders if she’s compromising who she is for the guy she doesn’t even want.

REVIEW

I did not intend to read this when it first came out.

I’d heard very good things from other book blogs, but it didn’t seem like my thing, so I skipped out on it. But, when I realized that I was spending an obscene amount of money on books and it was one of the few new-ish YA releases that my library had, I decided to go for it. I’m glad I did.

I think that one of the reasons I avoided this book was because I expected it to be a 300-page justification of cruel behavior in the name of “self-expression.” One of my greatest pet peeves is when people cite their circumstances to explain why they’re total a-holes, and I thought that was what Cameron would spend this book doing. She didn’t. Though she started off as a total jerk, she genuinely came to realize that treating others with decency and respect is worth the effort. I was really impressed by the way the authors developed her character – having her quest to become a kinder person start off for selfish reasons was very believable and made her accidental revelation about the value of kindness later on feel far more grounded and earned. It didn’t hurt that Cameron and those around her were all very multifaceted characters and, even when they acted out of line, it was impossible not to see where they were coming from because their motivations were so well-developed. The depth of the characters and genuineness of its message made “If I’m Being Honest” feel meaningful – surprisingly wholesome despite the amount of adult content it contains (more on that in the Rating section). Add in an adorable romance (“nerd gets the girl” is my FAVORITE THING), endless fun geek moments, and an inspiring side-message about forging a path that is truly yours rather than the one others choose for you, this was an excellent read, and I’m very glad I decided to give it a chance.

RATING

Plot: 5/5 – I love retellings (well, this wasn’t a retelling in the traditional sense, but sort of), and how this pulled off the level of trope-iness (that should be a word #fightme) that it did while somehow also being a refreshingly unique take on the typical rom-com is beyond me. It was built on a really intriguing concept and handled with enough deftness to make it both fun and surprisingly meaningful.

Characters: 5/5 – no one was two-dimensional here. Every character was extremely real and vivid, flawed but (unless they weren’t supposed to be) likable – and the principal characters were all explored in enough depth to let us into their minds a little.

Pacing: 5/5 – I mean, it didn’t flag or lose steam, so I guess that’s an automatic 5? Man, this is a pointless category…

Writing Quality: 4/5 – generally excellent, but it takes something truly incredible to make a solid 5 in this category, and pretty writing was sort of not the point of this book.

Content: 2/5 – by far my least favorite part of the book. This was not clean in the slightest. Everyone hooks up with everyone (always off-page, but it’s discussed constantly), kissing scenes tend to get intense, and the language is very strong. For me, some of that negates a bit of the message, but others might not find any of it objectionable; it depends on the person.

Overall: 4.2/5 Confused Llamas

Reviews

REVIEW: “The Lady Rogue” by Jenn Bennett

Posted on June 10, 2019August 10, 2019 by Sarah S.

Thanks to NetGalley, author, and publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I have a lot to say about this book…so I think a different post format is in order.

SPECS

Author: Jenn Bennett

Release Date: September 3, 2019

Page Count: 384

Summary:

Some legends never die…

Traveling with her treasure-hunting father has always been a dream for Theodora. She’s read every book in his library, has an impressive knowledge of the world’s most sought-after relics, and has all the ambition in the world. What she doesn’t have is her father’s permission. That honor goes to her father’s nineteen-year-old protégé—and once-upon-a-time love of Theodora’s life—Huck Gallagher, while Theodora is left to sit alone in her hotel in Istanbul.

Until Huck arrives from an expedition without her father and enlists Theodora’s help in rescuing him. Armed with her father’s travel journal, the reluctant duo learns that her father had been digging up information on a legendary and magical ring that once belonged to Vlad the Impaler—more widely known as Dracula—and that it just might be the key to finding him.

Journeying into Romania, Theodora and Huck embark on a captivating adventure through Gothic villages and dark castles in the misty Carpathian Mountains to recover the notorious ring. But they aren’t the only ones who are searching for it. A secretive and dangerous occult society with a powerful link to Vlad the Impaler himself is hunting for it, too. And they will go to any lengths—including murder—to possess it.

A Calculated Risk

I won’t sugarcoat the fact that I’ve avoided Jenn Bennett’s work in the past. A lot of reviews have indicated that it is has much more sexual content than I am comfortable with. It just isn’t my deal – I don’t want to put that kind of stuff in my brain. So requesting one of Bennett’s books from NetGalley was a bit of a risk – I knew I might come across some content I didn’t want to read and have to DNF. However, I decided it was a risk worth taking because a) I though an adventure story would be a lot less sexually-charged than a high school contemporary and b) THE SUMMARY SOUNDED AMAZING. I was willing to risk it. Was it worth it? Mostly.

The Pros: Rich Settings, Adventure, and History

On the plot side, The Lady Rogue was absolutely superb. The treasure hunt aspect of the story was as tense, compelling, and fun as I expected it to be. The various European settings were richly described and I learned a lot about the history and geography of Romania, which I have never known much about, through reading this book. And I loved the way it turned remnants of real history into a compelling fictional storyline – though the author’s note explains that the ring never actually existed, it fits into the unedited history of Romania, which Bennett also incorporates, very naturally. The adventure, travel, and treasure hunting were wonderful – no complaints there. Theo and Huck were relatable and fleshed-out characters and the people they met along the way – even their adversaries – were all compelling as well. And the twists! All of the many plot twists were held close enough to the chest to be surprising, but not so close that an observant reader couldn’t pick them up. Having somewhat predicted a twist while getting enough wrong to be caught off-guard when the truth was revealed made for a very satisfying reading experience.

The Cons: As Expected (HEAVY SPOILERS)

So, let’s talk about the romance.

Huck and Theo were cute, but it was hard to get behind them, for me, because of the way their relationship was set up. Given my intro, it’s pretty clear that if there was any sex in this book, I wasn’t going to appreciate it. Well, there was, and I didn’t. Not on page, mind you (I would have stopped reading if there was, as is my practice), but a previous incident in which Huck and Theodora were caught in the act by her father was the driving force behind most of their interactions, romantic or otherwise. This could have been okay with me if the two had realized that spontaneously getting scandalous was not a good idea for any reason and been able to rekindle their relationship while agreeing not to do so again. But, of course, that wasn’t what happened.

Nope. The ultimate lesson learned? “There was nothing wrong with our irresponsible and ill-advised fling and we should do so again if we ever want to.”

Sigh.

Yes, Theo’s father was wrong to throw Huck out of the house, so they have a point there, but…sigh. I really, really don’t like the glorification of the idea that happiness = doing whatever you want without regard for the consequences that this subplot perpetuates. The two were drunk when it happened, for heaven’s sake! That in and of itself should be telling. But the book never acknowledges that doing what Huck and Theo did could have had consequences for both of them. It did for Huck, for that matter, but the two both state that the risk was worth it. In coming to that conclusion, the book gives teenagers the green light to act without thinking, believing it’s okay as long as it feels good. (Another pervasive modern philosophy I vehemently disagree with.)

Generally speaking, the sexual content here wasn’t explicit (the worst thing in the book was really the profanity), but it’s a driving force behind the plot, and the message it sends is one that potentially validates immature decision-making in regards to sex. Not my kind of moral.

Conclusion: Mixed Feelings

This was such a good story – it even made me not mind magic, which I almost always hate! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Really, it would have been easy for this to be a five-star book. It’s right up my alley. But I put a lot of stock not only in what a book is, but what it says to its reader; in that area, “The Lady Rogue” wasn’t a winner. For that reason, I’ll give it a final rating of 4/5.