This book has left me conflicted. I felt like I needed to ruminate on it for a couple of days before I wrote my review. You can read my full review here.

The whole time I was reading this, I kept feeling this this almost became a continuation of the Sevenwaters series. Read my full review here!

DNF'd at 30% because I didn't like or connect with any of the main four characters. Not the book for me.

Some books may be suitable for only one person, but I think this one is one that would be suitable for a million by Jean Perdu’s standards. This story touched my heart as I read my way slowly down the Seine river with Perdu, Jordan and Salvo.

“The Little Paris Bookshop” draws you into Perdu’s life with a Parisian bookseller frustrated by a reader who doesn’t know what they ought to be reading, and confounds us with the importance of a dining room table, bringing us to meet Catherine, who leads us to meet the true Jean Perdu.

Goodreads summarized the novel with these words: “Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can’t seem to heal through literature is himself; he’s still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

“After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.”

The way that this book is written is stunning, whether author Nina George is writing about books, scenery or her characters, without the snobbery that often comes through in books written about literature. Books from every genre are mentioned throughout the novel, without saying that one is better than another, simply saying that some books are not meant for everyone, which is something that resonated with me.

However, I felt that this book kind of meandered around its point for a while, and although it was good for character development, I thought that it maybe wasn’t all entirely necessary. Some of the meandering felt like filler to me, which I didn’t necessarily dislike, but wasn’t my favorite.

The book begins with a map and ends with Perdu’s literary prescriptions, to be taken in “easily digested doses (between five and fifty pages) unless indicated and if possible, with warm feet and/or a cat on your lap.” In between, there is a tale woven from pieces of Monsier Perdu’s life, the diary of a woman we come to know, and his letters to Catherine.

I’m giving this book a four star rating out of five, because of the meandering. However, I still really enjoyed it. I got this book as an uncorrected ARC from Netgalley, so I know just the person to give this book to when it comes out! I honestly can’t wait to share it with them. I hope that you find the right person for this novel, too!

This book is the embodiment of the #blackgirlmagic tag on twitter, y'all. It's all about finding your voice and being your best. You need to read this.
Read the full review here!

I really enjoyed this book. Read my full review here!

This was a sweet story, although it takes you for a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

I think I enjoyed this even more than the first book, which surprised me. The characters became much more real and less fluffy. I can't wait for Book 3!

Amy E. Reichert’s The Coincidence of Coconut Cake is a novelized love letter to the city of Milwaukee, to the joys of cooking being passed down from generation to generation, and to finding someone who shares the joys of life with you.

The book opens with Milwaukee chef Lou going to dinner with her obnoxious fiancé, Devlin, and turns to a scene of British food critic Al getting a tip to review her French restaurant, Luella’s, under his pseudonym. As you will learn, Devlin is the worst person in this book, and he is soon out of the picture for the most part once Lou catches him with an intern.

Unfortunately, the day that Lou dumps him is the same day that Al decides to come in for a review. Unsurprisingly, Luella’s food is not up to its usual standard, and Al writes a scathing review of the restaurant, which leads to Luella’s business slowing to the point of failure.

Al and Lou meet in a bar after the review is published and become friends, neither of them realizing who the other one is after saying they each don’t want to talk about work. Al, a recent transplant to the city, doesn’t believe there’s anything good about Milwaukee, and Lou shows him differently.

The characters were absolutely the best part of this novel. Lou was a thoroughly enjoyable character to share headspace with while I read this. Her friends Sue and Harley were a breath of fresh air and sanity for Lou, and their sass definitely helped Lou get her head on straight. Otto and Gertrude were the sweet old couple that all of us hope to be someday. Devlin was truly atrocious, but even he felt very real. All of them were people I would absolutely love to meet someday. Even Devlin, if only to punch him in the face.

I also feel like I got to know the city of Milwaukee while reading this in my small Southern town. A lot of the foods in here were absolutely mouthwatering in their descriptions. I had no idea that cheese curds were edible, but they sound delicious even to my lactose-intolerant body.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake has a wonderfully alliterative title, a beautifully appropriate cover, and an amazing set of characters. If you’re looking for a light fluffy read with a great recipe for coconut cake in the back, this is definitely the book for you. I had no choice but to give this book a 5 star rating.

I really hope you pick it up once it’s released on July 21, because you definitely won’t regret it. Find other reviews on Goodreads here.

What does it mean to do wrong, when no one punishes you? A smart and unflinching look at friendship, the nature of entitlement, and growing up in the heartland.

Paige Sheridan has the perfect life. She's pretty, rich, and popular, and her spot on the homecoming court is practically guaranteed. But when a night of partying ends in an it-could-have-been-so-much worse crash, everything changes. Her best friends start ignoring her, her boyfriend grows cold and distant, and her once-adoring younger sister now views her with contempt. The only bright spot is her creative writing class, led by a charismatic new teacher who encourages students to be true to themselves. But who is Paige, if not the homecoming princess everyone expects her to be? In this arresting and witty debut, a girl who was once high-school royalty must face a truth that money and status can't fix, and choose between living the privileged life of a princess, or owning up to her mistakes and giving up everything she once held dear.
"I'd always taken my life for granted, assumed that the path I'd been traveling was absolutely the correct one. Never gave it a second thought, until last spring. But after the accident, and a summer away, it all seemed narrower than I'd remembered, harder to navigate."
I finished this book, and the first thing I did was recommend it to several of my friends with whom I generally do not share books. You guys might have noticed that I tend to read the fantasy-type books, but I picked this book off the shelf because it looked like an interesting concept, and I ended up reading it late into the night when I really should have been sleeping.
The Princesses of Iowa was stunningly well-written and the characters were very realistic. I would absolutely love to have met Shanti and Ethan in real life. Shanti was actually my favorite character throughout the book, though Mirror (also known as Miranda) was also really great. And Paige, well, I think I would like who she ended up being once she got her head out of the ‘Princess’ game.
Paige’s voice was in my head the entire time I was reading this, which is the mark of a great author. At first, I thought it was just going to be another story about the privileged girl who got everything she wanted, bullying her way to the top, but as soon as the creative writing class started, I started to realize she was more than she seemed. The writing exercises that she did really helped us to get into her head, and helped to show how she was changing from the inside out.
I couldn’t stand Lacey, Jake, or any of the other athletic boys. They were everything that I hated about the popular kids at my high school, and even more homophobic, which I wasn’t sure was possible. I wanted to shake them and attempt to bring them to the realization that they were not the top dogs of the world, whatever their coaches and parents had told them. In the real world, you have to work for what you want, not just go to football practice and get away with everything else because of it. Like, I get that your parents molded you into this, but like Paige said to Jake in the end, you do have your own choices in the matters at hand, no matter what your parents teach you.
I also really enjoyed the LGBTQ positive themes in this, even though I kind of expected there to be a trial and issues, but Mr. Tremont was able to calm everybody down, even though he wished he could have been there as a teacher. In an age where it seems everyone’s ready to drop a lawsuit, it was nice to see a character who wasn’t entirely obsessed with the lawsuit, and even though he was upset to be fired, filing a claim was not his priority. That being said, there really should have been, in my honest opinion. Not only was the reason for his termination a lie, it was also serious discrimination, though if it had been the truth it would be a reasonable reason for termination. Mr. Tremont was the kind of writing teacher that I wish I’d had in high school, or even in college. I might even try some of the writing exercises again.
My final rating for this book is five stars, and I definitely recommend it to people who enjoy mature, contemporary young adult literature. Some other recommendations for those who enjoyed this book are Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zebin and Dead Poet’s Society by N.H. Kleinbaum.