A hilariously fun book! A fun story about a little boy who just wants to express himself through dance. The artwork was gorgeous and the story was really funny and sweet!

Magic, assassins, and political intrigue ensue in the sequel to An Illusion of Thieves. The story picks up right where the first one finished, with Romy and her friends given a new job that involves them infiltrating an assassination plot and retrieving a secret list. We are also introduced to a new character, Teo who is covered in markings and has magical powers, who stumbles into Romy’s life. The story was a good read but it just didn’t pack as much of a punch as the first book did. I was interested in learning more about Romy’s abilities but the plot dragged on with the whole political aspect and I just found myself a bit more bored, I was interested in Romy and Teo’s abilities and the mystery that surrounds them though.

You get a con and you get a con, everybody gets a con! This story follows Brynn Hilder, a girl who has nothing and will con her way to the top. After her savings are stolen from her mom’s boyfriend she finds that she’s being followed and offered an opportunity to attend Vale Hall, a school for aspiring con artists. She is offered room and board, a promising future, and a scholarship, and a way out of her current life, and she takes it. Brynn is then dropped into a whole new environment where the only thing that matters is collecting secrets and perfecting the con in order to not only secure her place in Vale Hall but in order to keep her past life from destroying her promising future. Things get out of hand fast when you throw in a mark who has a dark secret, a drug dealer who thinks she stole from him, a complicated boy who she can’t get out of her mind, and the fact that everyone is competing to keep their spot in school. Brynn is tasked with gathering secrets from her mark, a senator’s son who is hiding secret that threatens more than she knows, but the deeper she digs the more complicated the overall situation gets. The director of the school seems to be asking something more of Brynn than she initially thought, and overall, nothing comes free and there are debts that need to be paid at Vale Hall. An overall really fun beginning to the trilogy. I really had a fun time reading this and I loved Brynn as a character, she’s got edges but she’s empathetic and she’s had it rough but is trying to do the best she can. I really liked a lot of the characters and the romance was light and sweet. I can’t wait to read the next book!

The cons continue and the stakes are higher. Continuing where the first book left off, Brynn is now attending Vale High, and the mark she thought she helped is back and unfortunately for her he is now at her school and is her assignment. This does not bode well for her sort of boyfriend Caleb and the tensions are high. The more Brynn tries to work her assignments while managing Grayson and earning his trust. Things start to become complicated as Dr. Odin is not as he seems and Caleb is lying to her all the while she is being warned that Grayson isn’t the victim he claims to be. The mysterious continue and the more she works the deeper she finds her life and the lives of those she cares about at stake. I really enjoyed the continuation of the story and had fun reading about the gang at Vale High. Though this one had a lot more romantic drama, it was still a fun book to read and I can’t wait to read the last book in this trilogy.

Can Brynn and her friends pull off the ultimate con and get out with their lives? In this thrilling conclusion to the Vale High series, Brynn and her friends are tested to the limit as lives are at stake and they all have to come together to con the ultimate man and beat him at his own game, the man who brought them all there together and holds all their lives in his hands, Dr. Odin. The book is a constant thrill ride of cat and mouse games and attempts to take down Dr. Odin all while maintaining their covers. Friendships, romances, and trusts are all tested, but with a few surprising turns people can surprise you. I had such a blast reading about Brynn and her friends, I loved all of them, even Geri who grew on me. The story was a great conclusion to this amazing trilogy. I can say happily that this is a must read for anyone who enjoys action, cons, and life staking stories that have friendship and romance in them. Brynn has been a character I’ve liked since the first book and seeing her grow into someone who is accepting love and building relationships and having a family of her own was a wonderful experience.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A mysterious castle used as a place to help treat girls with mental illnesses and “difficulties” and a girl grieving after her best friend has died come together to bring about a story about dealing with grief and mental illness. The story follows Moira who is being sent to “The Castle” (school for troubled girls) since she has been acting out after her best and only friend has died. Moira has been heavily grieving, skipping school to the point where she can’t graduate, not eating, visiting her friend’s grave, and avoiding everything. Moira is steeped in her grief and when she gets a tattoo, it’s the last straw for her parents, and she is being sent off to hopefully heal at The Castle. However, upon arrival, things are not as they seem. The Castle only has 12 students, all girls, is a castle set in a location that is not disclosed, time is not told, and there is essentially no school, just daily therapy, and there are bars on the windows. Moira meets Dr. Prince, the head of the school and the therapist who is in charge of all the girls. Besides Dr. Prince, there is Randy (Bertrand) his son who also stays at the school but is treated as invisible by all the other girls except Moira. There she also meets the other girls:
ELEANOR- her roommate, finding her relief by cutting herself
MEI-pulling her hair because she doesn’t want to be defined by her beauty. She’s more than that.
VIRGINIA- suffering from ADHD. She has hard times to concentrate and be the daughter her parents want.
GREY- just like her name she sees everything grey, suffering from chronic depression
ALICE- cannot be happy about her appearance, fighting with anorexia.
RYAN- wants to keep her special treasure by suffering from kleptomania.
RAINA- stopped talking after witnessing something so tragic and she never feels safe to come clean.
REVA- she cannot stay at the same place for a long time. She’s at flight risk. She cannot restrain her uncontrollable instinct of running away.
BETH- her sports injuries resulted with drug addiction.
HALSEY- her desire to get approval of her inner circle pushed her to be an alcoholic.
CASSANDRA-having problems with authorities, she cannot be told what she’s going to do.

One night Moira notices the bars on her window are broken and her and her roommate sneak out to follow the music they hear at night only to find another castle, a school for troubled Boys except in that school there is warmth, music, light and it appears to be better, but not everything is as happy as it appears. The story is told from Moira’s point of view but throughout the book we get a chapter of each girl and her backstory about why/how she ended up going to The Castle. I thought that was a great touch to the book. There is light romance and mystery but overall, this is a story about dealing with grief and accepting it. It has a lot of very relatable things and was a touching story. I was surprised by how much this story touched me. I would definitely recommend this book as a read! My favorite quote from the arc was “ That’s the never-ending strangeness of grief: Even after you accept it, it doesn’t go away. In fact, I think accepting it means acknowledging that it may never go away.”

*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Deceit, revenge, and childhood lost love come together in this conclusion to the Devil You Know trilogy. Note, these books can be read as a standalone and I have only read the second book in the series before reading this one, but it worked out. The story is told in two POVS and follows Pippa (aka Francesca) and the Devil of Dorset ( aka Chandler), childhood friends, though Pippa harbored a one sided love for Chandler while Chandler was in love with Francesca. Francesca, Pippa, and Chandler were in a traumatic experience in which the Cavendish family was all killed off, ( with Pippa thinking Chandler died, and Chandler thinking Francesca and Pippa died). Fast forward 20 years and Pippa has taken on Francesca’s identity (after Francesca died) in order to exact revenge on the people who killed her family and killed her love. Chandler has molded himself into a spy and has found out that supposedly Francesca is still alive and goes to investigate only this Francesca isn’t how he remembered her. Chandler is instantly (obsessively) drawn to her while Francesca herself is mostly working on her revenge until Chandler crashes into her plans. *SPOILERS:*

Spoiler

Chandler doesn’t know she is Pippa and the entire 90% of the book is him going on and on about how much he loved Francesca and how Pippa was just a friend and little sister to him, to her face. Francesca tries a couple times but never actually gets the words out and I am just sitting here like “the longer you wait the worst it gets and my god woman he’s going on and on about how much he loves FRANCESCA” seriously Pippa, no. I guess that’s what annoyed me the most about this book was just how Chandler was in love with Francesca and never really in love with Pippa and all of the sudden he is.

This was a fun romance read and I enjoyed it. I definitely like the overall series and will get around to reading the first book, though I highly recommend the second book ( I gave it 5 stars).

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Marriage proposal or business offer? Gavin Turley has finally proposed to Georgie Featherton and she couldn’t be happier, that is until she hears his actual proposal which sounds more like a business offer than him saying he loves her. When she asks him if he loves her he just goes silent and that’s enough for Georgie to refuse his proposal because she will only marry for love. Georgie leaves town and now Turley must find a to win Georogie back while trying to get her to understand he can never love her....... or will Georgie be able to convince him he is in love with her? Throw in friends and family who all come together to help these two people get together. Overall this story was a bit lackluster and missing something, it just wasn’t as exciting to me as other Ella Quinn stories I’ve read. It wasn’t bad it just was not memorable and as fun as other historical romances from this author. This was a quick and easy read, the romance was light but overall just okay.

What happens when you’re born in a pizzeria? Well you become known as the Pizza Princess, along with free lifetime pizza and a guaranteed job when you’re 16. Beck has been living under the shadow of the Pizza Princess name. She can’t wait to get as far away from it as possible, yet she needs the money, so she takes the part time job. There she finds that maybe it’s not as bad as she thought, maybe theres more to the cute snarky pizza delivery guy and that maybe she might find friendship in her coworkers. This is a great story about a girl falling in and out of love, of discovering friendships, and about discovering that it actually rocks to be a Pizza Princess. Beck throughout the story is struggling to maintain her friends and social life but finds that they give her a bit of anxiety. But she starts working at the pizza store and suddenly she’s found new friends who don’t mind geeking out with her and even a guy who, though he might be a bit cold and snarky, has a bit of a soft spot and a pretty cool car. I absolutely loved Beck’s coworkers and her struggles with accepting herself and trying to keep her friends while feeling a little left out is very relatable. This is a very sweet romance and coming of age story about a girl learning that you can have tons of different types of friends and that you should just be yourself. Beck has very relatable struggles and overall I had a fun time reading this story. Bonus points to the pizza crew and of course the oh so cute Tristan.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

When your job is being a teen fairy godmother and someone has found out your secret and starts blackmailing you...what’s a girl to do? Charity is a fairy godmother, she gets “glimpses” of people’s true desires and makes it her mission to make it come true. The only rules? 1. Never reveal that she’s your fairy godmother, 2. after your wish comes true the relationship is over, 3. Do whatever Charity says. One day she receives a message telling her someones found out her secret and if she doesn’t meet them, they’ll reveal it. Cue, Noah, a geeky guy who says that Charity is manipulating, brainwashing, and destroying people’s lives and if she doesn’t grant his wish he’ll reveal her identity and then pepper-sprays her. Great start to a rom com right? Turns out one of her previous wishes she granted was for a girl Noah was in love with and Charity has to help him by making that girl break up with her boyfriend and get together with Noah. Easy peasy? Not so much. So begins a very rocky relationships, as Noah says Charity can’t grant anymore wishes and gets Charity to question whether the wishes she granted actually did any good and if being a fairy godmother actually helps anyone get what they want. The problem is that Noah can’t seem to stop surrounding Charity, they end up spending so much time together, maybe wishes change and maybe Charity will have her own wish granted for once. Besides dealing with Noah, Charity has another wish she has to grant and it is not going as well as she hopes....Throw in fake dating, snacks, hair dye, and a little magic, and what we have a pretty magical story about a fairy godmother getting her own wish granted.

The story was a rollercoaster, filled with wish granting shenanigans, hair dye mania, and of course rom com mischief. I absolutely loved Charity, she’s sweet, fierce, and always trying her best. She works so hard to try and do everything she can to make her Cindys ( cinderella’s) wishes come true, at her own cost. She doesn’t take any crap and honestly, yes queen. I initially didn’t like Noah at all, I can see where he’s coming from but the way he approaches Charity about it was a bit aggressive and he’s rude. Plain and simple rude. Though after getting to know him more and seeing just how hard he works to win over Charity, he grew on me. His family is great and Charity’s friends are amazing, Sean completely has my heart. The romance grows on you and by the end I was rooting for them so much. I had so much fun reading this book and seeing Charity grow as a fairy godmother was amazing!