Felix Love has never been in love. Oh, the irony! He wants to fall in love, but needs to figure out his own identity first. Felix is black, queer, and transgender. When an anonymous student starts sending Felix transphobic messages, he decides to catfish the person who he thinks is his bully. Too bad they end up with feelings for each other. As Felix navigates his complicated feelings, he begins his own journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship and how he feels about himself.

I loved Felix. He's a great character and written wonderfully. His journey of self discovery was honest and relatable to all teenagers whether LGBTQ+ or not. The storyline was realistic and the bullying was handled in an appropriate way. Felix's friendship with Ezra was my favorite part of the story. The way they cared for and supported each other was really nice to see in a young adult book.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator, Logan Rozos, was perfect.

George is a fern. George does not want a human to buy him from Garden Palace and bring him home. George doesn’t want to be trapped indoors in a house. George wants to be free in the garden with the other plants. One day, Brenda buys George, brings him home, and takes care of him. At first, George is not happy about this, but then he learns to appreciate Brenda and everything she does for him.

The House Plant is a short story that totally gave me Toy Story vibes. I loved George’s story, and how he learned about unconditional love and how it’s okay to depend on the people willing to give that to you. I liked how it was written from George’s perspective while Brenda is telling her friends how he came to live with them. It was cute how George disagreed with Brenda’s story at first, but then you can see how he softens towards her.

Jeremy Ray wrote an endearing story that totally captured my heart. Now I need to go buy a fern!

Thank you to the author for an ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Inspired Inner Genius is a new publishing house that believes every child is a genius. They are founded with the purpose to inspire, educate, and empower young minds across the globe from a tender age. The third book in the series is the story of Amelia Earhart.

Being a woman, this was my favorite of the series so far. It showed how Amelia Earhart decided to break the mold of women going into nursing and followed her dreams to succeed in aviation instead. Gender roles were very different in the early 1900's, but Amelia was able to achieve so much and become a role model for many women. Here is a quote I loved in this book:

"While we still may not know what happened to Amelia, we do know that she revolutionized aviation and redefined what society thought women could and couldn't do. This "Queen of the Air" showed us all that - with big dreams and relentless determination - not even the sky is the limit."

Inspired Inner Genius is a new publishing house that believes every child is a genius. They are founded with the purpose to inspire, educate, and empower young minds across the globe from a tender age. The second book in the series is the story of Steve Jobs.

I don’t have children, but was more than happy to read and review this story. I like how it tells a child friendly story of Steve Jobs and his journey to becoming one of the biggest tech moguls in the world with his inventions of the iPod and iPhone. I think that the illustrations are cute, but realistic. They portrayed Jobs very well I love how these stories teach kids to never give up on their dreams no matter what obstacles they may face. If you have children, I would highly recommend this series. The next book in the series is about Amelia Earhart.

I have owned Simon vs the Homo Sapien Agenda by Becky Albertalli for a few years, but never read it. What was I waiting for? I loved Simon. His coming of age story was written beautifully, in my opinion, however, I only gave it 4 stars because I felt the ending was rushed. Like he finds out who the anonymous person he’s been emailing for months is, and then we didn’t get them together as much as I liked. It wasn’t insta love because of the emailing, but it felt that way at the end for me.

Nick Bell is a completely ordinary teenage boy who writes fan fiction about his superhero crush, Shadow Star and his nemesis Pyro Storm. The Extraordinaries exist in Nick’s real life, and he would do anything to be one of them. With the help of his best friends and his maybe-ex-boyfriend, he sets off to figure out how to make himself an Extraordinary.

Although this book is a superhero story, there is so much more to it. It’s the story of friendship, of finding and accepting yourself, and of love. Love from friends and family alike. I enjoyed that the main characters are all queer, and really loved the friendship between these teens. There’s also the relationship between Nick and his father which I found to be so realistic and caring. The author did an amazing job of blurring the lines between hero and villain and although I thought I knew who Shadow Star and Pyro Storm were, I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that the narrator, Michael Lesley did an amazing job of bringing these characters to life. He was able to address Nick’s struggle with ADHD in a realistic way, and he gave each character their own voice. I think I have a new favorite narrator.

This is an own voices story from author T.J. Klune. I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea and now this one. I look forward to reading his upcoming releases - Flash Fire (the sequel to The Extraordinaries) and Under the Whispering Door.

Darcy Phillips is great at giving love advice, but not so great at making it work for her own relationships. Darcy is bi-sexual and in love with her best friend Brooke. Brooke is not aware of Darcy’s feelings, and she is in love with someone else. Students in Darcy’s high school leave letters in locker 89 asking for relationship advice, and Darcy responds anonymously typically giving spot on advice, but sometimes using her anonymity to her advantage.

When the star of the swim team, Alexander Brougham catches Darcy taking the letters out of locker 89, he makes a deal with her. He will keep her secret if she helps him get his ex-girlfriend back. There are things that Darcy doesn’t want to come to light if people find out she’s behind locker 89 so she agrees to help Brougham. How hard can it be to make someone fall in love with someone they’ve already broken up with?

I really enjoyed this contemporary young adult romance. I thought the premise was original and liked that the main character was bi-sexual. It brought a diverse aspect to the story. Darcy was relatable because although she was trying to help people she also wanted to find happiness herself. Sometimes she didn’t make the best decisions when it came to her own happiness, and while she makes mistakes, she learns from them. I enjoyed Brougham’s story as well and liked reading as his business deal with Darcy progressed into friendship.

I really enjoyed everything about this story – the friendships, the romance, and the familial bonds particularly the relationship between Darcy and her sister Ainsley. Sophie Gonzalez has a way of writing rom-coms where they are funny, but not over the top.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Alice and her boyfriend, Leo move into a newly renovated house in an exclusive, gated community called The Circle. The house is everything they have dreamed of. When they host a party with all of their new neighbors, a strange man shows up, who Alice mistakes as one of the neighbors. When he shows up at her door again, Alice finds out that this man was not a neighbor, but a private investigator. He tells her that someone was murdered in their house and he’s investigating it.

Alice finds herself drawn into the investigation of the therapist, Nina who was murdered there. Alice becomes obsessed and can’t figure out why none of the neighbors wants to talk to her about it. Most say they just want to put it in the past, but Alice thinks they are all hiding something.

I really enjoyed this mystery especially the beginning. It was intriguing; fast paced, and held my interest. I did not want to put it down. I liked how difficult it was to figure out the neighbors in The Circle especially with all their secretiveness. Each one of them seemed to have a motive to murder Nina. The problem I had with this book was the last third of it. It was so hard to like Alice especially with her obsession with someone who was murdered that she never met. She put herself in danger throughout the book and made some awful decisions. There were times I just wanted to yell at her or shake some sense into her! For the most part, I did enjoy this book though. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.