3.5

4.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I had no idea this was a title released a while back, but the audio version is going to be released later this month. I read Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler late last year and really enjoyed it, so when I realized she had more titles, I had to pick them up immediately.

This book follows Lizzie in the aftermath of her parents' sudden death. Not only is she dealing with her grief, but she has to pull her grades up in order to keep her college scholarship, and now has to parent her two younger brothers. Oh yeah, and she's suddenly realizing that her history TA is kinda cute and maybe someone who could love and support her.

I cried and laughed and swooned my way through this entire book. I loved all of the emotions and just how imperfect all of our characters were. They are real people trying to do their best in a horrible situation-- desperately failing sometimes, but heroically loving one another at other times. Lizzie was such a great main character and I was devastated when the book ended. I wanted Lizzie and Connor's story to just keep going and going because I enjoyed it so much.

My one complaint is the big climax around 80% of the way through the book. I think it wasn't necessary and I would have enjoyed the book more if this conflict had been avoided.

The narration was fabulous and raw and real. I would definitely pick up more titles read by this narrator.

Highly recommend for romance readers-- especially those who enjoy a more serious title (less romcom, more "issues" romance)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I generally never do anything like this.... but this book absolutely blows. It's possibly the worst book I have ever read (and I read about 300 books a year).

Nothing at all happens for at least 55% of the book, and then when things DO happen, they're still boring AF. Svetlana and Andrew fall in love in the course of about 20 pages and decide to get married (WTF) and then the following 50% of the book is just.... their life of doing nothing except being annoyed by Andrew's family who lives too close and is way too nosy. His family is so obsessed with the young couple having a baby, they actually tamper with Sveta's birth control in order to force her to get pregnant (hello sexual assault!).

Then a huge spoilery event happens (which is still boring and dumb) and afterwards, simultaneously everything is happening and nothing is happening. Sveta finds herself in a lot of danger, but it's never explained how any of it is actually dangerous. It pretty much just looks like her life before *the event* except that now she lives with Andrew's family. The last 10% of the book is complete nonsense and nothing at all makes any kind of sense. It was confusing and stupid and left an utterly open ending.

I literally couldn't have cared less about anything in this book. I will most definitely not be picking up the next book in the series or even anything else by this author. Ever.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really cool little book introducing kids to an important historical scientist. The art was fabulous and it did a good job of keeping things pretty simple for kiddos who enjoy science.

I personally learned a lot from this book and am interested in seeing the rest of the titles in the series.

My one complaint is that there's a good amount of a scripted font used for things written on scroll images and I found that relatively difficult to read. I wish it had been a regular (printed) font that was easier to parse.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I like the idea of a series of books for kids about adventure and discovery and science. But parts of this book felt really disconnected and odd. I didn't like the first part about the inventor of the hot air balloon or the weird interlude where Roald traveled to the pole NOT in an airship.

This would have been a better story if it stuck to just the story of Amundsen and his airship journey to the North Pole.

But all that being said, I do think kids who like nonfiction/adventure/historical/scientific titles would enjoy this book. I'm also intrigued to see the other titles in the series.

The audio was amazing, but I think I missed out by not having the illustrations. Will definitely have to reread in physical format

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just... absolutely perfect. It was the most gorgeous story of a high school senior trying to figure out who she is. Ophelia has always been the boy-crazy, romantic, flower-loving, and kind girl who is a great daughter and friend. But what if you realize that you are growing into a different person? Can you tell the people in your life that you are different? Does it change their expectations of you or how they treat you?

I was completely smitten with Ophelia and her deep relationships with her parents and with her friends. She has a great friend group and possibly the best parents I've ever seen in a YA novel. The dynamics in the friend group felt so realistic of high school without being overly dramatic and silly. Racquel wrote Ophelia and her friends so beautifully-- I can't believe this is her first novel. I immediately ordered this book from bookshop.org (gotta support your local indie!!) and will definitely pre-order anything Racquel writes from now on.

The audio version of this title was great. The narrator was animated and entertaining without being annoying, and she seemed to speak Spanish fluently and with a good accent. Her narration really added a lot to the story for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Okay so.... This book was just not for me. It seems like a lot of other people like this one, so take my review with a grain of salt.

It was a mystery about a girl named Vera who disappeared 6 months ago. Her family is falling apart without her, and her mother refuses to believe that Vera is dead. Weirdly, Vera's great great grandmother Alveira disappeared on the same day 110 years ago. Alveira was a suffragette who mysteriously disappeared only 3 months after having her first child. Is there any connection? Is the name Vera cursed?

Overall there were several things I really didn't enjoy about this title:
- The author was just trying SO HARD to make sure you know what timeframe it was. Making a million references to COVID or what's on TV. In sections of the book set in the past, she mentions American Idol and who the finalists were that season and the series finale of Gilmore girls about 100 times. Yes, we get it. It's the past!
-Similarly she was trying way too hard to make one of our main characters, Felicity, a "cool mom." She's always saying things like "that's sus. My daughter Vera taught me the slang." Please. You doing that is cringy.
-One of our main characters, Marin, is half white- half Black. The author is not Black and didn't seem to write Marin's Blackness or mixed race-ness very well. It made me uncomfortable to read some of the things Pamela wrote about Marin since she isn't Black. Specifically, there's a scene with Marin's racist boss who says a lot of supremely ugly racist and sexist comments about Marin. It just felt..... wrong?... to know that that had been written by a white woman.
-The story had so many twists and turns. Just for the sake of having twists and turns. Many of them didn't really make sense or were just SO coincidental that I found myself rolling my eyes and snorting at the absurdity.
-The "mystery" with Vera's disappearance is dumb. I won't spoil the mystery here, but just know that it was incredibly stupid, especially for a smart teenager like Vera. It felt completely out of character and unresolved.
-The mystery of what happened to Alveira wasn't anything at all. It never ties into anything and is just there for no reason. It could have been completely cut.
-The resolution to the other things that happen to the family (threatening phone calls; vehicular intimidation) was also ridiculous. When we got the answer to this, I literally laughed out loud.
-Felicity's narrator had really sibilant S's in her narration and it was distracting.


The narration for Marin and the other secondary voices was fine. Nothing special; nothing egregious. Like I mentioned before though, Felicity's narrator was really annoying to me-- and unfortunately, hers is the voice we hear most often.

I wouldn't recommend this book to any avid mystery readers as they would likely find this title over-the-top and melodramatic. If you're new to the genre though, this may be a fun place to start.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The authority gap is an in-depth exploration of the lack of authority women have in places of power, but also in their regular day-to-day lives. Numerous studies have shown that women are just as capable as men, and in some ways are even more capable than men. And yet, women continue to be passed over for promotions, not selected for positions, and ridiculed for their looks and fashion rather than their policies.

I can't tell you the last time I've been this angry. It was so hard to listen to because it was so enraging. So much of the research is just absolutely shocking. I did have to stop listening a few times and take a break because it was so painful to hear.

This is going to be an auto-recommendation for me from now on. I think every person I know could benefit from reading this book. I am immediately recommending it to my supervisor and will also be purchasing my own copy for my personal library.

The narration was very well done and I would listen to more by this narrator any time.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

You truly assumed is the story of three Black Muslim girls who are reeling from a recent terrorist attack by an Islamic extremist. They are seeing a lot of backlash in their individual communities and hate crimes against Muslim people increasing exponentially. They no longer feel safe and feel like they've lost their identities in some way-- the intersection of Black and Muslim is a hard one.

Bri writes a private blog post expressing her thoughts about how Muslims are painted by society as a whole and how that impacts her family. There's only one problem. She accidentally didn't make that post private. She starts getting a lot of support from other Black Muslim girls who want a place where they can connect and build a community. This is where Bri meets Zakat and Farrah, two other girls who want to contribute to the blog.

The rest of the story follows each girl as she figures out how she's going to be part of "YTA" and also consider how she's going to follow her dreams.

I sincerely enjoyed this book. I learned so much and really was able to broaden my horizons by reading something written from such a different perspective. I liked seeing how each girl was committed to her faith and living it in the best way she knows how.

I do think that some of the scenarios were a bit far-fetched and that made it hard for me to suspend my disbelief. My only other complaint is that the voices of each of the girls was too similar-- not the narrators. Just the words and inner monologues of each girl. I think they needed to be a little more different in order for each girl to stand apart more.

Each of the three narrators was great and I would listen to an audiobook read by any of those narrators in the future.