Tag Archives: YA

ARC — She Gets the Girl — Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBTQIA
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses alcoholism.

“She Gets the Girl” follows Molly and Alex, two university freshman who are trying their best to get their girls. Molly, being close to home and having a deep relationship with her family, is looking to grow more independent and have her high school crush fall for her. Alex, running half way through her state to attend university as far away from her alcoholic mother, is trying to win her ex girlfriend back and looking to become a better person. After meeting in a party, Alex takes on the mission of helping Molly break out of her shell and get the girl, all the while Alex is trying to show her ex she’s changed, that she can have friends and do selfless things for them.

First things first, it’s SO cute that this book was written by a couple. Rachael Lippincott is an author I hold close and dear to my heart ever since I read “The Lucky List”. Alyson Derrick is Rachael’s wife and “She Gets the Girl” is her debut novel—even though she’s already set to publish another book next year, that’s how promising she is. They both built an interesting world through alternating points of view.

Now on to my review of the book: The self-pity and the “uh I’m too damaged to love or be loved” isn’t a trope I necessarily like, but this book delivers a nice feel-good story and I’m trying to focus on that instead. I don’t know who was more stubborn and annoying, Alex or Molly, but they were definitely exasperating.

I see books as, yes, works of fiction—but fiction in a way that they try to imitate real life at the best of their abilities. Even when reading dystopian or fantasy novels, those works of fiction carry real-life emotions and situations that seem possible in other realities. Sadly, this work of fiction did not hold this to be true. I felt like the characters and all the situation they lived through were so farfetched for the sake of being unique that they somewhat lost their magic.

I would recommend this book to high schoolers and young adults that enjoy LGBTQIA+ books. It’s a nice, light read, and could be a great book to give as a gift.

And yes, even though this wouldn’t be the first Rachael Lippincott book I would recommend, I still wouldn’t dismiss it.

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ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: April 05, 2022

ARC — Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak — Charlie Jane Anders — Unstoppable #2

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Content Warning: Some violent imagery, as to be expected in a sci-fi novel.

“Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak” is the second book in the Unstoppable series, following directly after the events in the first book. This time around, we live the story through different points of view: Rachael, as she lives with not being able to make art anymore; Tina, who is studying at the Royal Space Academy in hopes of becoming the hero she’s supposed to be; and Elza, Tina’s girlfriend, who’s competing to become a princess.

This did not read like a book, it read more like an elaborate AU fanfic. The world-building and character introduction weren’t the absolute worse there is, but I personally consider there are better ways to introduce a character’s gender than adding their pronouns after their name. The (she/her), (he/him), etc. threw me off from the start. Also, why break that science fiction, futuristic feel by talking about real-world things like Tiktok? I get that they’re teenagers in space, but those references and mentions threw me off.

Overall, it’s entertaining and relatively fast-paced. It’s a fun read that isn’t necessarily short, but it’s so action-packed that it feels like it’s short, in a good way. I really enjoyed the different gender and sexuality representation in this book, it mostly felt organic to the story. I think my favorite parts of this book were told through “letters” sent through Joinergram, which tells you a lot about why I gave this book 3 stars.

If you read the first book in this series, then by all means grab this one too, you will know what to expect and will get to see the main characters again. I would also recommend this book to younger readers trying to get into science fiction writing, or young readers who have enjoyed reading “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card.

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ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: April 05, 2022

We’ll Always Have Summer — Jenny Han — Summer #3

Genre: Young Adult, Coming-of-age
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings: Mentions cheating, but it’s not a real troupe in this book tho.

“We’ll Always Have Summer” follows Belly as she starts college and delves into her relationship with Jeremiah—the relationship that Conrad, her ex boyfriend and forever crush (and Jeremiah’s brother), encouraged them to have. Told between the points of view of Conrad and Belly (but mostly Belly’s), this book is the perfect conclusion to the Summer trilogy.

In my humble opinion, his book was bs. What Jeremiah did that spring break? Bullshit. What Conrad did the day of the wedding? Bullshit. What Belly did to absolutely everyone in this book? You guessed it: bullshit. But yeah, I still loved it. This book hits too close to home this time around. I almost did what Belly almost do: get married ridiculously young. And even though, yeah, I’m still with the same partner I was back then, now, 6 years later, I can see how crazy that was. I think this book can easily be my favorite out of the series.

Grab these three books. They’re short and fast-paced and heartwarming and heartbreaking and funny and sweet and sad. This series has it all. It’s YA for sure, but it’s good YA.

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It’s Not Summer Without You — Jenny Han — Summer #2

Genre: Young Adult, Coming-of-age
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses cancer and death.

“It’s Not Summer Without You” follows Belly and the Fisher brothers into the aftermath of sickness and heartache. It’s summer, they’re not at Cousins Beach, and Jeremiah calls in to let Belly know Conrad is gone and no one knows where he is. Nothing is how it’s supposed to be, but there’s still time for this summer to be turned around.

In the second book of this series we can finally get a closer look at Jeremiah and Belly’s friendship. We get to see how they bicker and care for each other. I know they implied at that the first time around, but we didn’t get to see it as much. Belly is still a child but at the same time we can see how she’s grown, and how her thinking has evolved. Maybe it was heartbreak, maybe it was grief, but she’s grown.

I felt like the ending was a bit rushed and slightly unrealistic, and that’s why I gave this book 4 stars, not because I didn’t love the writing and the characters and all the feelings they made me feel this time around. Well, that’s one key difference I can point out about this book: there was less fluff and much more true feelings in this one.

I would recommend this series without any hesitations, keeping in mind it’s directed to pre-teens and teens (and young adults like myself that just want to relive these things one more time around).

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The Summer I Turned Pretty — Jenny Han — Summer #1

Genre: Young Adult, Coming-of-age
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses cancer and divorce.

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” follows Belly through her summer, as she, her brother, and her mother join her mother’s best friend and her sons, Conrad and Jeremiah, in their beach house—a long standing tradition that Belly’s been doing pretty much her whole life. But this summer is different. This summer she’ll get it right. She’ll pursue Conrad, her forever crush, and live out the perfect summer… or will she?

This book is childish in all the right ways. And yes, I have definitely outgrown this type of narrative, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think this will always be my go-to YA series when giving recommendations to younger readers, there’s something ageless about this book. It was published 13 years ago but it still hold true: summer love is the shortest and sweetest thing.

The only reason I didn’t give it the full 5 stars I gave it 8 years ago on Goodread is because at times the chapters wouldn’t fit together. I’m not sure how to explain it, but I guess it’s that sometimes the transition between one chapter and the next was very abrupt and just felt forced, as if the author was trying to dump some information or flashback on us.

I highly recommend this book to pre-teens and young teenagers, and would also recommend it as gifts for any young nieces or daughters you may have. This was one of the series that made me get into reading when I was younger, it’s easy to read and relatively fast-faced. It’ll catch anyone’s attention pretty early on.

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Lovestruck — Kate Watson

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: None that I can think of.

“Lovestruck” follows Kalixta, a 16-year-old cupid-in-training, who’s the daughter of Eros and Psyche and is very frustrated over the fact that the Fates control everyone’s future. In a turn of events, she accidentally gets struck with one of her own arrows and ends up head-over-heels over a young, human boy called Ben—but that may or may not be her fate. This book follows this young goddess as she searches for a way to break the love spell put on by the arrow and make everything right.

Mixing mythology and young adult literature together, Kate Watson has brought together a nice, light read. This book is fast-paced and entertaining, but I would say it’s been wrongly labeled as being a romance. Young Adult and Fantasy? Yeah. Romance? Absolutely not. But it was still a nice read, maybe just not my speed anymore.

I would recommend this book to teenagers, around the ages of 14-18, who like Greek mythology and light-hearted books.

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King’s Cage — Victoria Aveyard — Red Queen #3

“Now I’m in a king’s cage. But so is he. My chains are Silent Stone. His is the crown.”

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy
Actual Rating: 2 stars
Content Warnings: Contains violence and is extremely boring.

“King’s Cage” is the third installment in the Red Queen series. It follows Mare Barrow as she is kept as a war prisoner by the Silver royalty, a.k.a. by her ex-fiancé, now-boy-king Maven, and brother of her ex-love-interest Cal.

I guess this one is supposed to be about Stockholm syndrome—but is it? Mare is a “prisoner” in a palace, treated like no other normal prisoner would be treated. She literally gets everything she wants, except access to her powers… the powers she didn’t even know she had not too long ago. Her wining was excruciating and repetitive. There was no character development on any fronts and honestly all “different” points of view just sounded like the same narrators, they just happened to have different names and were supposed to be different characters.

Sadly, I won’t be embarking on the last book of this series. I tried, I really did, but it’s just really not worth the time.

I will not be recommending this series to pretty much anyone. The first book was the best one in my opinion, and it wasn’t even that good.

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Glass Sword — Victoria Aveyard — Red Queen #2

“If I am a sword, I am a sword made of glass, and I feel myself beginning to shatter.”

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings: This one is so so so violent.

“Glass Sword” is the second book in the Red Queen series. This series takes place in a dystopian reality where people are born either into the upper class Silver bloods or the lower class Red bloods. Silvers have super powers while Reds are just regular humans… or are they? “Glass Sword” still follows Mare Barrow, this time around as she grows stronger and sets out to find others like her—Reds with super powers—with the help of the rebels, the Scarlet Guard.

This one was action packed to an extreme. Essentially all they did was fight and have conversations in between and as they traveled to their next attack site. Did I like it? Well, I liked it better than the last one. Will I keep reading this series? I’m not sure. I came to this series with the thought that it’d have more romance involved, but it really hasn’t (even though the publisher keeps marking it down under “YA Romance”).

If you like violent fantasy books, this series is for you. I wouldn’t recommend this to people that read the Hunger Games mostly for the love triangle and not for the adventurous action side of it.

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Red Queen — Victoria Aveyard — Red Queen #1

“Anyone can betray anyone.”

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses death, war, and discrimination. Mentions suicide.

“Red Queen” takes place in a dystopian future where everyone is defined by the color of their blood. Red versus Silvers, powerless versus powerful. Silver blood gives you superhero powers, while red blood confines you to a live of servitude… or does it? Mare Barrow is a 17-year-old red girl that discovers she actually does have a power of her own. This book follows her story, as she infiltrates the world of the Silvers and is set to be betrothed to one of the Silver princes.

The reason why I gave this book such a low rating is kind of ridiculous. I liked the story, I liked the plot twists, I liked the characters, but for some reason I wasn’t passionately invested in them. It’s like I was a witness to their story while having absolutely no sympathy for them. And for that I gave this book 3 stars. It’s a good story, but the characters feel distant at this point. I can’t wait to read the second installment in this series and see if it’s any better.

I would recommend this book to fans of dystopian novels, like The Hunger Games. But when thinking about dystopian novels, this wouldn’t be the first one I recommend.

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The Crown — Kiera Cass — The Selection #5

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Romance
Actual Rating: 2 stars
Content Warning: Mentions of abuse.

“The Crown” is the last installment I’ll read from The Selection series. Having a radically different arc from the first three books, I must say the last two books have been my least favorite… And considering I did not like the first three all that much, it means a lot. This last book follows Eadlynas she comes to choose who’ll be her prince consort and as she becomes queen. There’s no other way to put this: it sucked.

Eadlyn’s faults were worse than the first time around. The only redeeming quality of this book was that the writing wasn’t terrible—but what’s good writing without a good story? Well, it’s a waste of your time, that’s what it is.

I would not recommend the second arc of The Selection at all. Maybe read The Selection #1-3, if you like reality TV shows like The Bachelor, but other than that, I wouldn’t even recommend those books that much either. Reading this series has been the worst decision I’ve made this year. What a shame.

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