Revolution, war, survival, and romance. Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the Syrian revolution came. she lived a happy life with her parents, her brother, and her best friend... yet now she’s lost everything and has been forced to become a doctor. She volunteers at a hospital to help the wounded that are arriving in numbers daily. Salama is secretly trying to find a way to get her and her pregnant best friend/sister-in-law out of the country before it’s too late so that her sister-in-law can safely give birth. In a worn torn country everyday is a struggle, from affording food, to survival snipers, and barely any water. Salama is also plagued by painful hallucinations ever since her mother was killed in a bombing... so painful she begins to see a mysterious figure who torments her with visions. Salama then runs into Kenan, someone who will completely change her life. But in a time of war and survival, Salama will find that she will have to make difficult decisions that will make her question her own morality if she wants to survive and how far she will go to protect her loved ones. This was a beautiful story of survival and perseverance, Salama is just trying to survive and save people, she’s seen and experienced things that will haunt the soul. Despite everything she fights and tries her hardest to do whats right when faced with impossible scenarios. This was a glorious story that I would absolutely recommend for everyone to read.

*Thank you Little Brown Books and The Novl for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Stay by Erica Waters: 4/5

A girl who lives with her grandmother and cousin after the death of her parents... in a small town... where it is believed her home has ghost. She’s just trying to get by to take care of her grandmother who firmly believes that there are worms under her skin and that she has to take them out. But in this town you have to bury your own dead... and she hears the dead, the ghosts... and they are coming for her, yet when the girl at work begins to notice her... maybe there is an escape?

The Tallest Poppy by Chloe Gong: 2.5/5

A girl who needs to save up money to pay for the plane ticket to escape her town to go to her dream college finds herself the nanny of two children... in the home that is known to have it’s owners mysteriously disappear, die or become afflicted... yet as she begins her stay as a. live in nanny strange things begin to happen. The mother is cryptic, there are dolls everywhere, and something in this home wants her to stay permenantely.

Loved by All, Save one by Tori Bovalino: 4/5

A girl is obsessed with the murder of another girl who use to live in her home. Before it was her home, there was a girl who lived there but was murdered and decapitated by home invaders. Three friends are obsessed with the ghost of this girl... yet soon they find themselves in the exact same situation as her... and call upon her to help them.

One Love Bridge by Hannah Whitten: 2/5

Four friends summon a demon on a bridge.... yet a breakup occurs mid summon and now two months later the consequences of this ritual comes back to haunt them. One girl is extremely angry, she’s angry at her boyfriend for cheating on her, she’s angry at her friends for not being friends at all, and most of her anger is growing... can she survive the thing that wants her?

The Ghost on the Shore by Allison Saft: 3.5/5

After the tragic death of her friend a girl goes to visit the lake where she died... only to run into a watery version of her... did the lake give her back... or who is this? She will have to come face to face with the question of whether or not she can let go.

Petrified by Olivia Chadha: 5/5

Revenge, trees, and pain. One girl will exact revenge on the person who took from her, took something that he should have never had. It started off as a game but as they go deeper into the forest... the trees have a game of their own.

Third Burn by Courtney Gould: 3/5

A girl sets a church on fire, she doesn’t know what compelled her to do so... but this isnt the first time a girl has tried to set this church on fire... in fact she is the third girl to have done so.... and finally it is revealed to her why she did it... and what it means to burn it all down.

It Stays with You by Aden Polydoros: 4/5

A game of bloody mary goes too far as three friends must now face their greatest fears and defeat them if they want to live. Trauma, pain, and strength come together in this story as these friends must face their greatest demons and find strength in each other to overcome everything.

Truth or Dare by Alex Brown: 5/5

Truth or dare? How far would you go for love... when is enough enough? One girl will have to re-evaluate her feelings and through a game of truth or dare... only one of them will get out. One girl will have to ask herself how much she is willing to let herself be badly treated and open herself up to what she knows she shouldn’t have to feel if she were truly in love.... cue mysterious cave, a game of truth or dare.... and a skull.

Winter Has Come by Shakira Toussaint: 4/5

A girl who has lived Above all her life years for something more... she watches, she sees, and then one day she meets a boy.... but this boy will be the undoing. Her mother warned her about the Below, about the danger... and after witnessing a horrific sight this girl will become the monster she was always meant to be.

A descendant of the god of medicine on the run in the middle of a deadly family squabble finds herself intertwined with the half-elf top fixer of his company, renown for how deadly and cold he is... yet he has a curse upon him. Both of them are dealing with secrets, obligations, and yearning for freedom... and have been secretly yearning for each other for some time now. Elle is the descendant of the god of medicine, but when her older and younger brother get into a deadly battle that results in one of them wanting to kill off the rest of the family and Elle having to take matters into her own hand, finds herself trying to keep a life of low profile, hiding her skills and even her name to protect her brother. Elle is gifted, but she hides her abilities, taking mediocre magical jobs yet she has one exception, half-elf Luc, a security expert that is as handsome as he is feared... yet for Elle he has only ever shown her kindness and affection. Luc is cursed, he is under the control of his tyrannical boss and forced to do things he doesnt want to. He’s been living a life of isolation, cutting off emotions and attachments because his job has forced him to become a shell of a person... yet the moment he met Elle and began to befriend her he can’t help falling in love with the beautiful and sweet magical calligrapher who doesn’t know his reputation, who doesn’t know what he’s done, and who has only ever treated him with kindness unlike how everyone else treats him as a monster. Yet when Luc’s latest mission coincides with Elle’s own family troubles soon both of them well have to reveal their secrets... and also their feelings for one another. They’ll have to ask themselves what they’re willing to fight for and how far they’re wiling to go to protect each other. This was such a fantastic contemporary fantasy romance filled with elves, magic, romance, duty, and so much more. Seriously the romance between Elle and Luc was just precious and I had such a great time reading this book!

*Thank you Tachyon Publications for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

An investigative journalist working on a story that could make or break her career runs into her childhood crush after their flights are cancelled... and what was only suppose to be a one night stand turns into something more... and he just might hold the answer to breaking her story. Georgia Ross is hungry to get her story out, she’s been interviewing and chasing down leads to break the story but with a deadline looking and on the verge of a breakdown she gets notified that her flight has been cancelled and she’s stuck overnight.... so when a familiar face appears it’s the last person she ever expected, the older brother of her childhood friend and the guy she had a crush on for so long appears and offers to let her shower in his room and even to stay in it. Alec Kim is handsome. kind, and humble. Over an evening of drinks and reconnection and what was suppose to be a no-strings-attached one night stand changes, Gigi knows she’s in over her head, especially when she realizes why his face seems so familiar... apparently he is now a extremely famous actor. Between stolen moments, kisses, and so much more Gigi and Alec are beginning to fall for one another and fast, yet this can’t be a long term thing... with only two weeks to spend together... how can this possibly work? Especially when Alex reveals he might know more about her case than she expected... Will they both be able to keep their hard earned careers or will everything go up in flames, is the growing feelings between them something worth risking it all? This was one steamy and hella romantic story. I am still processing just how amazing this read was. The romance between Gigi and Alex was so good, both of them are hard working and love their careers yet they also cherish one another and work on communicating and expressing themselves to each other. I adored this book and would definitely recommend it!

Deadly mermaids who collect the souls of those who have died at sea and tasked with blessing their journeys back home, a boy who was suppose to have died, gods, betrayals, and monsters. Simi was a girl who died but has now been turned into a Mami Wata, a mermaid who collects souls of those who have died at sea and must bless them on their journey. Despite being given a new life, she still gets flashes of her old one and she holds onto them... making her yearn to be human once again. When she finds a boy who is thrown overboard she saves him rather than let his fate be decided by the sea... and by saving him she has broken a sacred rule. By saving his life she has now endangered all the other mermaids of her kind and in order to fix it she must beg forgiveness from the Supreme God and in order to summon him she must find the mystical rings... but first she must deal with the boy she saved. Simi has saved Kola, a boy who was taken and desperately needs to get back home to his family to make sure they are safe. In exchange for getting him back home he will help give Simi the ring’s she is looking for. Yet things are never as easy as they seem as they face many different complications on their journey, from vicious monsters, to the trickster God who has grown greedy and seeks the rings for himself to become as powerful the strongest god, and not to mention the growing feelings between them which is forbidden. This definitely gave me Little Mermaid but make it deadlier and filled with more myth, and I really enjoyed it.

What do you do when you lose your school paper election to be editor in chief and write a scathing article about why the only reason you lost was because you were a female and that everyone in your club was misogynistic... well apparently you launch a full on feminist movement at your school and demand the guy who won resign... and maybe fall in love with him. Eliza Quan is the perfect candidate for editor in chief, she is qualified and does her job well, except when it comes down to the votes she loses to ex-jock nice guy Len DiMartile who has only just joined the school paper. Eliza writes her frustrations out in a viral essay... but it accidentally gets published and now the entire school is awakened to the feminist movement as well as picking between Eliza and Len. But as tensions rise, Eliza and Len find that they’ll have to be working side by side and showing they can be civil... except the fact that they might be falling for each other. Living up to the title, Eliza is extremely prickly, in fact that’s the main reason she loses the election. Eliza is cold, blunt, and just an outright bitch to people and she doesn’t regret anything. She looks down on her sister for just wearing makeup and wanting to dress nice, and definitely gives off a “pick me” girl vibe and that just... so... well at least Eliza is now getting to learn about what it means to be a feminist. Eliza is solely focused on getting Len to resign, she does some pretty bad things, like making everyone believe he is a misogynist, making an entire campaign to get people to hate him, and just treating him badly in public. The main issue here that she just couldn’t seem to grasp was that ELIZA was the issue, she was rude to people, she was mean, and honestly if you know how elections work why do you think most people went for the nice chill guy over you Eliza when no one actually likes you because you literally don’t like them?? Now onto the other issue of the book, the way it addresses feminism. Belittling, making fun of, and just judging other girls for wearing makeup and wanting to look pretty? Really Eliza? Her entire feminist movement solely focused on getting Len to resign and honestly the feminism felt superficial at best. So sadly, even though this had all the things to make a book I would generally love like : enemies to lovers trope, feminism, asian rep.... this book just didn’t hit the mark for me.

A spooky island, a mysterious boy, and a girl healing from injuries who will find that she is talking to ghost and sleeping walking. After dying ( for a few minutes and then coming back to life) from a free diving accident, Addie Spencer is healing and in recovery. It is her mother’s honeymoon and she doesn’t trust her to stay alone so Addie has offered to come along. Destination: Eulalie Island, a paradise. It’s a remote island and the trip is two weeks long, its filled with strange color changing flowers and forests. When Addie meets a strange boy on the beach all the flowers that were white start turning pink, “the island loves you” he tells her... but strange things keep happening including the fact that birds keep calling her name, she is sleep walking, and theres the ghost of a young girl running around and the ghost of her older sister who is haunting Addie specifically. As Addie searches for more clues of who these ghosts are and what they want she will discover herself stuck in the middle of a twisted love story and worse of all the boy she’s falling for has far more dark secrets than she could have ever imagined. This was a pretty fun ghost story set on an island, I enjoyed the description and atmosphere that was created in the story but I didn’t really like the ending and was hoping for something else. Overall an interesting summer spooky read though.

A thief who is forced into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a terrible emperor... the challenge: kill him and be set free in 14 days... or die. Shin Lina is a famous thief and assassin known as the Reaper of Sunho. She is the last of her gang... her family... they all were killed by the man that has captured her and forced her to work for him. He threatens to kill her little sister if she does not comply, so when he forces her to steal a priceless tapestry from a Dokkaebi (Goblin) she does... only to be faced with even deadlier consequences as this long thought to have been gone god has come back to claim her to face his wrath after stealing from him. Rui just so happens to be the emperor... and the legendary Pied Piper, a god who can play a flute that controls people... and he has offered her a chance to win back her life: if she kills him in 14 days. Killing an immortal god should be easy for someone like her right? It doesnt help that he kidnapped her crime boss ( despite her wanting to kill that man herself) but her current employers are threatening to kill her sister if she doesn’t return him in 30 days... she’s running on two timers. But trapped in an unknown kingdom, with a mysterious emperor who wants her to kill him yet is taking her to fancy dinners, balls, moonlight walks, and horse rides around his kingdom... something is going on and Lina is going to unravel it. Besides the infuriating and handsome Rui challenging her, Lina also finds herself in the middle of a revolution.... yet who can she trust? Can she allow herself to open up after all the pains that haunt her, after all the trauma and grief that lingers? This was an amazing enemies to lovers story. I adored the dynamic between Rui and Lina. Seriously Rui, I swoon for him. Their relationship was giving me Catherine x Peter vibes from The Great ( esp. season 2):

Spoiler

Shin Lina ends up falling for Rui because he’s basically in love with her. He’s constantly worried about her, looking after her health, trying to see how she feels. He wants to help her heal because they are both going through grief and they both can see it in one another. Their bickering and threatening to kill each other/ attempts at each other is just their way of flirting. When Lina ends up helping the rebels who actually turn out to be evil, she is poisoned and almost dies, but Rui gives her a toxin/medicine that heals her (she had a sword in her) and that said toxin has changed her ( literally, girlfriend can now transform into snakelike creature , i.e. scale for hand and claws) . Lina kills the rebel leader after he hurts Rui and they both agree to work together to stop the others and to help Lina get revenge. Rui brings her younger sister to her and Lina vows to get revenge against her former gang, ( she sets the crime lord free and pretends that she has died to create a false sense of safety to later go and get revenge). Rui and her have confirmed their feelings for one another and have agreed to visit one another and work together. Lina is working on her grief, promising to live for herself, to find love, to try and heal. ( Yes Queeeennn).

A former horror movie actress finds herself bracing a storm to get her daughter but finds herself back on the horror movie set that traumatized her... the set in which people died and where her husband went missing a year earlier. Lexi has refused to return to the Pinecreast Estate on the Florida Keys after her husband’s death. Memories of meeting her husband on set as well as her experience in the iconic horror movie Breatheless have left Lexi swearing to never go back. The set was supposedly cursed, from one unfortunate incident after the next, but the real issue was that someone died. When her daughter sneaks away to spend time with her grandfather, aka. the director of the movie and owner of Pinecreast Estate, Lexi is determined to get her back, but Lexi soon finds out that her father in law is planning to recreate a sequel... but someone is determined to put a stop to the movie permanently. With a Category Four hurricane coming up Lexi has to battle both nature and save her daughter because strangely things are starting to occur just like they did in the horror movie... stuck on a desolate bit of land with the horror director, the actress who was once the final girl, and a young teen trying to find clues about her father’s disappearance, Lexi will do anything to get off the island with her daughter, but they are slowly being picked off one by one. This was a fun mystery and I enjoyed the whole horror movie aspect of it as well as the natural disaster that is impending. It was interesting to see how the timeline went back and forth from present day Lexi to when Lexi first came on set and started acting for the movie. The overall conclusion of the mystery was fine and I overall had a good time reading it.