lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

I’ve only read one in this series so far, but it was one of my favorites last year. This one was pretty intense as well. While I wasn’t a fan of when Caroline was smoking, even if I get why she was doing it, the rest of her life and rebellion made sense for the most part. Although I think maybe I need to go read another one or two in the series to catch up on a few things that were mentioned and alluded to in this but weren’t spelled out since it was Caroline’s story and not her sister or brother’s stories. A lot of the adults were not reliable, as it has been in the other books, they can’t be trusted to do what is best for the teens, as is what the main characters are. Not that I would recommend this for my high school students.

I like how there was a bit of a time jump at one point in the story that was a little unexpected, but the way it played out was definitely interesting. But reminded me of another story I’ve read in the past year or so. The girl Caroline made friends with I did really like, and then there was the girl who was the mean girl, Mercedes, and boy, wow, did I NOT like her. It’s crazy to think about how all the Lancasters had their own dorm to live in, meaning when Caroline was there, because she was the only Lancaster at the time, she lived in a building alone. That would be creepy I would think. But it worked out for the most part. Although I’m also surprised it didn’t require a pass code all day long, that it would just be unlocked, letting certain things happen later in the story.

Another intense, deep story in the Lancaster Prep series.

This book grabbed me from the first few pages and I was hooked! It’s so hard to review right now because I loved it so much I don’t know what all to say! While I’ve been reading more books lately with characters that have some sort of disability, this one about a girl who was deaf really blew me away. I learned some really interesting things about how the deaf community may consider certain things rude that for the hearing world wouldn’t be considered that way. I also really enjoyed how much Molly just lived her life and didn’t let her deafness define her other than just that it was a part of her. 

And then there was Zack. Gah, such a sweet guy, who just really didn’t know how to be himself because of how or should I say who his father was. He tried so hard with Molly, making so many mistakes, some understandable, others just cute/funny, and still one or two just terrible. While I understood Molly’s feelings about when his dad just showed up that morning, I also disagree with her a bit, because who wants that to be your first meeting with the dad of your current date/relationship, especially knowing what she knew about him from Zack’s stories. 

I loved Zack’s nerdiness and how Molly had fun with him with their texting and teasing with the pop culture references. Although I disagree again with her, and maybe a lot of people, because I never really liked Kylo Ren. I always thought of him as a bad guy. Whereas I definitely had moments where I felt for Draco Malfoy and wanted to see him maybe change. I mean Kylo had good parents. Draco had a horrible father, so who had more reason to behave the way they did? Lol, sorry for the ramble on my nerdy opinions. 

But this story will probably end up being one of my favorites of the month, if not the year. I keep thinking about so many bits and pieces. I definitely love some of Zack’s mistakes with his signing, like what he mistakenly signed instead of pink. Highly recommend this one, and hoping to read more by this author in the future!

This was a wonderful addition to the Green Valley Heroes series in the SmartyPants Romance Universe. It had some of the best banter and silly situations that I love in a rom-com. Not to mention the random tidbits here and there, like about male duck genitalia, something that once I learned about I could never get out of my head again. 

Both of our main characters had such hilarious personalities and also great family members and friends that added to this world perfectly as well. I loved Sebastian’s brother that they visited in Nashville. His sister was a great addition to the story, at times totally moving the plot along, and the meet up with his parents when Gwen was buying stuff at their store and Sebastian had the kitten in the story was cute as well. Gwen also had a funny brother, his basically life-long grudge about missing out on a piece of pie was hilarious. We also got a lot of little walk-on time with beloved Green Valley characters too. 

For the most part all of the characters’ issues fell into place and fit the puzzle perfectly to come to the right solution. The ending of one chapter at the end though was a perfect way to keep me on my toes, with a misleading bit of a cliffhanger, fade out before starting the next chapter. I was a little irritated with Gwen thinking Sebastian might actually be getting back with his ex after all they’d talked about. But I do really like the way they worked it out in the end.

The narrators for this story were great, both made their characters come alive. Highly recommend this one and look forward to reading more by this author in the future!

I loved the way this story fit into the Donner Bakery world! It was perfect! The characters were both ones that I fell in love with, and I adored how their romance came together, fake dating trope for the win! 

First there was Noah’s mom and how she was pushing him at every woman in Green Valley, trying to get him to fall in love and move back home to give her grandbabies. Noah had memories that kept him away, and his own demons driving him to keep up the dangerous job of being a stuntman, even as it wasn’t really a passion or something he loved doing. 

Carla was such a real person, and her issues were of a physical sort, a type of disease that people often look at and assume people just need to buck up and try harder. It was really interesting to get to read more about it and learn just what kind of symptoms/effects types of things people might deal with for this. I loved how she was taking her own illness and using it along with her tech expertise to try to create an app or something to help others with her disease, or in a way, even just help other people who were sick.

For the most part the story worked perfectly for me, other than a few kind of awkward moments towards the beginning, and possibly some that felt a little forced. But once the actual fake dating and romance began building, it all fit together and developed into a wonderful story and addition to the SmartyPants Romance Universe.

The beginning to this book was such an attention grabber and had me pulled in right away! I was excited for this couple’s story as we met them in the author’s last book, Only You, and got a glimpse into the first inklings of their connection. Walker had a hand in helping that couple get together, so it was definitely turnabout/fairplay when that couple helped him, in a little way, to get together with Sloane in this book.

But as with all of this series, there is more than just romance. Sloane’s background will come back and catch up to her, the background that was the grabbing point at the start of the story. One thing that I did like a lot about this story was how even though she was able to take care of herself, doesn’t mean that something couldn’t happen again. But again, with a little help from Walker, but also on her own, she was able to take care of things as best she could herself. 

Walker had a background as well that was a little dark. Not quite the same way as Sloane’s, but enough that he was suffering through survivor’s guilt. It was a little frustrating him feeling he had to keep that secret from her, when he knew all her secrets, even if it was something she had to tell him to help him keep her safe. Again, I know that is the miscommunication drama we get in these types of stories, even if it bugs me a bit every time any author does it.

But their connection was perfect, the steamy scenes were very hot, as well done as this author always does! I think I possibly see a future romance between Callie and Lewis, lol. Oh yeah, and I really hope the author will give that single dad that was interested in Monroe in the last book, and then Sloane in this book, his own HEA at some point. Even as a side story, I just feel so bad for him because he seems like such a nice guy who keeps losing out on some great women. 

Another series by Samantha Young that I look forward to reading the rest of as they come out!

This is my first book by this author, although I’ve wanted to read her for a while. And while there was definitely a lot of tension and suspense in this one, I don’t know that I’ll necessarily read many more in the future. While I get how the author was trying to drop little hints/misdirections throughout the story with bits and pieces of a letter and news stories, etc., I almost needed more actually said or done within the actual story with the characters and what was happening.

There’s also the fact that the main character, Jo, is supposedly planning to be a doctor, however I just don’t see that she seems like it is something she could do based on how she behaves. And while the reasons why she wants to do that make sense, she still doesn’t give off any sort of future doctor vibe. But that could just be my own opinion. There is another character who ends up having a health issue that is definitely one that is interesting and does create some issues at some points, but it almost seemed a bit like an after-thought or an add on to me. Overall it didn’t do a lot for the story in the end. As well as the little bit of a romance that kind of just showed up part way through the story, again, not necessarily needed?

So I gave it 3.5 stars because it was as I said at least action-packed that it kept me reading, but other things just didn’t work for me in the end with how the story panned out.

So, I was extremely glad I gave this author a second chance after I did DNF her first book, because I really liked this one a lot! As much as I do enjoy a good zombie movie, zombie books aren’t always my favorites, or I do prefer a little extra with them to keep my interested. And this one had some definite uniqueness and such a fun take on what if zombies weren’t actually undead, but just people who had only a taste for human flesh now. I mean I guess that is kind of just cannibalism in one way. But it was more than that because these zombies also transformed their bodies when they ate, mouths and jaws unhinging and opening really wide, claws on their hands and feet, lots of physical changes similar to maybe more of a werewolf type of monster in some ways.

The whole illness/pandemic that started the new order of things was called The Hollowing, and I liked how it was woven throughout the story instead of just a bit at the beginning. Almost every chapter began with a flashback for one of the main four characters, except for a few at the end with more recent outside story details. I liked that even though the story was told from Zoey’s viewpoint for the most part, we got our little inside information on each of the other girls with these chapter starters.

The blurb talks about how the people like Zoey and her friends, or ghouls as most people call them, are being targeted at this festival. And while that is basically a part of what was going on, the book went in a lot different way than I expected from that bit of the blurb. The representation of LGBTQ characters in this story was really good in my opinion, but was also done in a way that it wasn’t necessarily made the focus point of the story like it sometimes ends up being. I like reading when that’s just the people and who they are and while it obviously feeds into where romance and other things might go, it isn’t brought out in a way that feels awkward or added on.

So I’m pleased to say that I really really enjoyed this one and will definitely be continuing to give this author a chance in the future!

So I loved the last book I read by this author, So This Is Ever After, and I jumped at the chance to read this when the publisher offered to send me this copy. Then things came up in my life and I got to it later than planned.   But once I picked it up, I was hooked!

I loved the different take on magic and it being in the world and there are just kind of like the muggles and the magical, only it’s not secret that there is magic, just that if you aren’t magical you can’t know the secrets on how the magic works or learn about it. The characters were all very interesting, and it definitely had some good representation for LGBTQ characters, as well as a pretty perfect world they lived in that they didn’t have to deal with what types of issues are in our real world.

The romance was sweet and fun and snarky, just the way I like it. I could almost see a sequel coming to this, as I feel there is a lot in this magical world I’d love to have more adventure in!

I really liked the whole Back to the Future feel of this one. For the most part I also really enjoyed all the things that Samantha noticed differences in between her time and the 90s. It was definitely so interesting to see all the things that she was shocked about the students just putting up with or accepting as normal compared to what students today do. Another thing that really grabbed me was how she tried to help her mom win homecoming queen using strategies again from her future timeline, or our present, things that back then just weren’t the way people consumed information or made decisions. Not to mention when they talked about shopping malls in the 90s how nostalgic that made me. I miss shopping malls like that. And there was a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, but I liked it for sure!

The way the author handled how Sam actually had to complete things a little differently than she thought to get back to her own time was something I’d kind of figured. The way the future was “changed” thanks to her time in the past was good, and I liked some of the things we learned might have been different than she thought all along. I only had a few issues with some of the things Sam tried to push in the past, but nothing major, as it totally fits with kids of today. And the way the happily ever after ending worked out for this book, for more characters than might have been expected, was perfect! This book was a winner for me!

This is one of the nominees for the Gateway Award for the 23-24 school year. I had to read it in order to present about it at the Missouri Association of School Librarians spring conference, which I then didn’t get to go to because of my parents’ health issues popping up right when I was supposed to go. However it was a really good book, and I look forward to sharing it with my students. I liked how the characters had to realize what they needed to do for themselves. I liked that Guillermo didn’t immediately just become perfect right away. How he got into a bit of an altercation at one point, but was able to figure out when it really mattered, how to keep himself from going that way. I liked how Regan finally was able to tell her family what she wanted. I liked her storyline and how she didn’t let the pressure get to her. A really great book and definitely one deserving to be on the award list next school year!