This is a cute YA romance that centers around an elite private school and video game culture. I thought it was a fun, easy audiobook. There's nothing super notable until the final quarter, but in those pages Jesse Q Sutanto does some truly amazing things. The astute observations of gamer culture, discrimination against girls and women, and complex family dynamics accompanied by cultural expectations are really something. 

Family Family is another gripping, immersive emotional family drama from Laurie Frankel. In this novel, Frankel presents a thought provoking perspective about the many beautiful ways to make a family, the complexities of all families and adoption, and throughout all of it is love. 

India Allwood has always dreamed of being an actor. When she gets pregnant at sixteen, India decides that having a baby and being an actor don't have to be mutually exclusive. She decides to place her baby for adoption, and that specific language is important throughout this book. 

Told across multiple timelines, we bond with India as a teenager, as a young adult, and as an adoptive working mom. As the storylines merge, the character development is just beautiful. My only complaint is that I would have liked more from some of the very special side characters and a little less constant focus on India. 

Overall, I loved this book and the audiobook narration was fantastic. Another gem from Laurie Frankel!

It's read by J D Jackson. Enough said. 

First Lie Wins is getting all the hype right now in bookish parts of the Internet. I'm here to say, yes it was a fun time and also possibly no, the hype may be a bit overstated. For a con-artist story, this is a great read and exemplifies that genre. If you liked Julie Clark's The Lies I Tell, this is a perfect fit for you. Also if you like thrillers that are tense but not violent and don't mention anything that might make you feel squeamish, this might also be a good fit. 

I'm not rehashing the synopsis, but I do agree that this is well paced and has reveals throughout. Shocking twists? Nah. But did I fly through this in a few days? Yes, absolutely. 

Mexikid is an endearing childhood memoir about the author's large family and a huge RV trip to Mexico in the 1970s. Pedro is one of nine kids, and he's part of the younger crew. He's grown up hearing stories of how amazing his Abuelito is and now he will finally get to meet him.

On this saga of a trip, Pedro learns about his family, has a ton of shenanigans, and figures out his place in this large, loving family. The paneling is so beautiful and creative, with lots of different organization styles throughout. This is an excellent example of the graphic novel genre greatly enriching a wonderful story. This one is full of laughs and depth, making it a great read for all ages. 

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways is a wickedly fun book about a vigilante serial killer. Millie is around thirty, living alone, working a dead end job, and she cherishes her younger sister more than anyone else. Millie has never thought she had an anger problem until her sister experiences trauma and starts withdrawing from the world. 

Suddenly, Millie is on a quest for revenge. And her unofficial phone line for saving women and girls in distress is a perfect in. 

This book is eventful from the start. Literally, things start hitting the fan at 10%. I had so much fun with this book. I saw a lot of the big events coming, but the end truly surprised me! I can't wait to read more from Eve Kellman. 

Watch It Burn grabbed me from the beginning and didn't put me down until I finished it on a cold, rainy day that begged for cozy reading. I discovered Kristen Bird at the library when I found I Love It When You Lie on the new release shelf. I flew through it as well, loving the three main characters and the interwoven mystery in a small Southern town. Bird brought all of what I loved in that book to Watch It Burn. 

This novel is full of flawed, relatable female characters who are connected by their small hometown but very different. And now they find themselves connected by receiving mysterious postcards from a dead woman. And not just any dead woman, the dead wife of the richest man in town (Mr. Hoffman) who has managed to drown in a few inches of water. The small town Texas setting is a character in itself, and while she's also developing these fantastic characters Bird also manages to create an absolutely disturbing atmosphere as the MCs attend a retreat hosted by the rich Mr. Hoffman and his company Genetive. 

I want to tell you SO much about the vibes in this book, but I think that would take some of the fun away. Let's just say Bird has a talent for writing complex women and for writing despicable men. I really don't think you should miss this one. 

The year is 1983 and Kat Bird wakes up from a coma after a terrible accident. The only face she remembers is that of her twin sister Jude. They are mirror twins, even more similar than identical twins- according to Jude. And Jude is all Kat has to rely on to fill in all of her missing memories. 

Kat begins noticing strange people following her, and starts to doubt some of the larger than life stories Jude tells her about their lives before the car crash. This story is creepy, confusing, and very unsettling. 

I personally would have liked a little more clarity in the final quarter, but I can also rationalize it as an intentional decision by the author. I also wanted one final twist, but the big twist at around 80% was fairly shocking. 

I think this is a good choice if you like character driven mysteries and if you like strange novels like Bunny by Mona Awad. 

The Women by Kristin Hannah- if you haven't seen this all around Bookstagram and other areas of the bookish internet, are you living under a rock? Assuming you may have been under a rock, I'll give you a little run down. This book is about Frankie McGrath, a young woman who has been raised in privilege by conservative parents. When her brother is drafted to serve in Vietnam, Frankie signs up to join the Army Nurse Corps. 

Frankie is soon serving multiple tours of duty in Vietnam, seeing so much devastation and taking care of men who have been wounded. She builds a found family in the nurse corps, and connects with a gentleman despite her best attempts to guard her heart. 

This book is kind of a saga, which is totally what we expect from Kristin Hannah. Frankie eventually returns home and has significant trouble reacclimating to civilian life. She is turned away from veteran support groups because "there were no women in Nam" and she struggles with addiction and symptoms of PTSD. And of course, there are all the struggles that go with that. She flounders with her family who can't wrap their mind around her service, she doesn't feel connected to romantic partners, and eventually her addiction comes to a head. 

I think this was the best Kristin Hannah I have read. I did appreciate that she incorporated some Black characters and acknowledgements of the additional discrimination faced by Black people who served in Vietnam as well as nods to the racially charged climate back in the states. These aspects were minor, but show progress from her past novels. 

Overall, if you like a gut wrenching character driven saga this might be one for you. If you've read past books by the author, this is true to her style. 

Baby X, what genre would I put you in? I'm not entirely sure. And because I didn't go in expecting a traditional mystery or thriller, I had such a good time reading this book. Baby X is part mystery, part near future dystopia, part "realistic" sci-fi, and has moments that feel like general fiction.

This story is told in several parts and from the perspective of a handful of women: Quinn, Ember, and Lily. Quinn is a surrogate about to pop. Ember is a security professional who has fallen in love for her pop star client. And Lily is a young, struggling journalist trying to secure a job at the end of her internship. 

They all live in a world where unplanned pregnancies are a thing of the past, and nearly every baby is "selected" for the best genetic profile that can be created with parental cells. Selected folks seem to far exceed "Unforeseens" in all aspects of life, and being unforeseen is Lily's big secret. Quinn is carrying a selected fetus. And Ember? Well you'll have to pick this one up, because I don't want to give anything else away. 

Some of the twists I definitely predicted which was fun and satisfying, and the final twist of this genre bender totally got me. Should I have guessed it? Maybe. But dang, that was fun. This is easy reading sci-fi so don't let that scare you off. If you like a bit of dystopia, a bit of mystery, and a lot of how the heck are these stories connected, this is well worth the quick, engaging read.