Dear Emmie Blue is a very cute, quirky, and lovely contemporary romance. The premise was unique and fun and added a good touch of whimsy. A twist on the old message in a bottle, the message tied to a balloon approach was what initially drew me to try it on. The story has good writing and moves with just the right pacing. I didn't want to set this one aside and wound up finishing it in just a couple of days.

The writing style moved incredibly well and sucked me into the story quite nicely. There was a good balance of description and movement and I felt I was able to see the characters with fairly honest and clear exposition. The use of dual timeline through flashback moments was well executed and I liked seeing the bits of history and how they wove into the present. I sped through my read and really came to adore the development of the majority of the characters. It was mildly predictable, but not overly so, and even those pieces that were predictable really didn't make me that upset.

Emmie is a charming character and the romantic setup of the book was fairly well done. It was very enjoyable to read about the friendship, which mostly felt read and well done. I will admit that Lucas's side of the relationship did grow a bit overly tarnished during the movement of the plot, with his own character coming into question in a bit of a heavy-handed way. He came off as selfish and a bit creepy, which I wish wouldn't have been the case as it would have added to the need for Emmie to fully explore her feelings without having external bias based on some crap actions.

The story does have a few conceptual flaws that need mentioning. The background plots for Emmie are problematic. Sexual assault is used as a bit of an overly tropey backstory and that storyline really isn't explored well enough or dealt with in a way that felt healthy. I think the impact of this storyline could have been better done with the use of a bullying backstory for Emmie's school days instead. As it was, this felt a bit too much. Additionally, Emmie's family issues felt somewhat tacked on as pieces to simply aid the movement of the plot rather than issues that were fully impactful and important.

Despite the inclusion of these questionable characters, not all was lost. The majority of the side characters were just genuinely wonderfully well-created. I loved Rosie and wanted her to have so much more of the story. She could easily star in her very own novel as I found her quite intriguing. I felt similarly about Louise. I would have loved more of Eliot's backstory, and even could have used a bit more of the awful Ana. I suppose I just wanted more of them for a fuller picture. It's always a good sign when you even appreciate the most awful of the characters though.

Overall, my feeling with Dear Emmie Blue was a good one. It was a quick read that kept me captivated and I did find myself fairly invested in the outcome. I enjoyed myself, would recommend it to other readers, and will look for more from this author as her writing talent continues to develop.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. * 

Not my favorite of the Oz books, but still an imaginative adventure. This felt a little more disjointed than the previous works and really didn't seem like it had a specific goal in sight. I still enjoyed Baum's creative characters and interactions, I just wasn't able to connect to this one as easily and somewhat pushed myself to make it to the end. It won't stop me from completing the series, but felt more like an extraneous work meant to simply generate more money and maybe somewhat appease fervent fans than a work of artistic effort. 

I remember my best friend raving about this one when we were younger. I don't know why her enthusiasm about it didn't prompt me to read it. She even had a copy that I could have easily borrowed. Let's just say that it is a classic for a reason. I didn't love it as much as I probably would have at the middle school age, but I still saw value in it despite being old and worn. It is both heartwarming and heartbreaking with great narrative style. I'm going to start sounding like a broken record with my middle school reviews, but I think it is SO important for the middle grade protagonists to tell their own story rather than having an outside narrator. It makes the emotions and events so much more powerful and honest. This is pulled off wonderfully with this one. I also listened to the author interview that was a tandem interview with her son. It was additionally impactful to learn that this story was loosely based on her son's personal experience as a young child. Got me right in the feels. 

Why had I not read this one before?? A fantastically written novel with good examples of racial injustice presented in a way that the middle grade set can process and understand. This is an incredibly important piece of literature and I'm both glad I read it and extremely sad that I hadn't been presented with it before. The writing is beautiful, but presented in a voice that is age appropriate, allowing the young Cassie Logan to tell her own story. I think that approach is the key to this book's success, as an external narrator would have certainly taken away from some of the impact. This one needs to be a must read. It will certainly be on the shelf for my kids when it is age appropriate. 

 We Were Restless Things is a little bit of a fever dream. A bit of a mix between Anna-Marie McLemore and T. Kingfisher, it is both magical and dark. It is a bit of a tough read to fall into, but once things get moving, it can be terribly encompassing. The multiple point of view approach gives it a bit of extra depth, but also works very well to add to the tension and the mystery.

Nagamatsu's characters are diverse and independent, each coming through on the page with great emotional roundness. I will admit that there were certain characters who felt more realistic and believable than others (the character of Lyle honestly just drove me bonkers).

This book is not for those who are looking for a largely plot-driven novel. It is very focused on the interactions and relationships between the characters and the intricacies of their own personal experiences. It is a slow burn that dives well into the individual ways we process grief and the not-so-simple act of coming-of-age. Oddly, the character I really connected with most was Gaetan, who is really a side character along for the ride. I wanted more of him. Noemi was fine and Jonah was someone I was able to comprehend, but something about Gaetan just gripped me. He was the most emotionally vivid for me and I was here for it.

The romantic (and non-romantic, as Noemi is asexual) aspects of the plot were well explored and nicely diverse. This component added some wonderful depth to the plot and made these characters quite a bit more human and realistic. It captured the teen experience of "finding oneself" that I think was both important and unique.

While I certainly enjoyed the journeys taken by the majority of the characters, perhaps the best part of this novel for me was the atmospheric and descriptive nature of the narrative. It was haunting and vivid in a misty kind of way. (That probably makes no sense to anyone but me.) There was a lot at work and there was a lot of tension present in both the "real" and the magical worlds carved out by the plot.

This novel is not for everyone, but it certainly worked for me. I like my books odd, I like them dark, and I like them different. This delivered on all three of those aspects. It was creepy and mysterious and occasionally vague in a way that left me lost and swirling. That vagueness could admittedly be frustrating, but it also made me think harder about what was happening and why. I may not have interpreted it exactly as the author intended, but I think that is just part of the individual experience with a book like this. I enjoyed it and think a reread could only serve to make me fall deeper into the plot and come up with more ways to analyze every weird thing taking place. A challenging, but intriguing read.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. * 

The Forgotten Kingdom is a fantastic sequel to The Lost Queen and I actually liked it better than the first book in the trilogy. Signe Pike's writing continues to be wonderful to read. Her prose is easy to fall into, yet presents so much information. The constant feed of historical content was nearly effortless to absorb and it was all given in a way that felt interesting and compelling.

The pace is really fast in this installment and there is a lot of action that kept me on the edge of my seat for a good majority of the novel. The multiple POV approach again worked wonderfully for this story and allowed for so much more of the picture to be painted. I particularly enjoyed the Angharad storyline, though she is mostly a fictionalized character. I loved how Pike was able to weave in so much historical content and introduce so many of the players during this tumultuous time in Scottish history. It is incredibly clear that a lot of research went into the construction of the novel and that a lot of care was taken to piece all of it together. I am not able to verify its accuracy as my knowledge of this location and time period is very minimal, but others with greater knowledge than mine have stated that the contents do largely ring true.

The characters continued to improve in this installment. They grew quite a bit of depth, becoming even more rounded and complicated as individuals. The introduction of new characters created an additional level of complexity to the story that worked quite well. The actions and interactions of the characters felt more natural in this than the original novel and the overall feel of the book was one of greater writing maturity. I enjoyed being able to witness this progression.

I have really enjoyed this series so far and I am itching to read the final book in the trilogy. This is a section of historical fiction that I am not well versed in, but reading Pike's work has definitely inspired me to look for more works written during this time period.

** Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ** 

This is a very powerful book with great historical information and good social commentary that is still relevant in present day. Toni Morrison's writing is beautiful and flows incredibly nicely. However, I struggled with the organization and construction of the narrative. It seemed very jarring, moving this way and that and focusing on character after character and their individual storylines rather than slowly weaving everything together. That left me confused a few times as I wondered where things were going and why certain pieces were significant. The construction of Pecola as a character was very well done however, and some of this disjointed story organization was effective in adding to the general feeling that Pecola was someone easy to overlook and who wasn't all that important to those around her. I found some impact in this story and will definitely read more of Toni Morrison's works, I just found this read a little more challenging than it needed to be. 

This sequel to The Book of Koli amps up the action and really gives the trilogy some solid movement. In this installment it moves from an okay dystopian to one that really grows some legs and has some clout.

The dual POV was an excellent choice and really adds a lot of complexity, depth, and interest to the story. Spinner's sections were much easier to read and flowed very well. This was a good balance to the chapters from Koli, which continue to be a little more work to get through due to the broken English style. This makes his pieces of the story feel much more choppy, but does fittingly give each character a distinct storytelling style.

The movement in this novel is much faster paced than the first. There is a lot going on and this makes the narrative much more engaging. I am loving the progression of the two stories and I'm excited to see how things round out in the third book.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *