Sivinski's charming debut novel pulls gently on the threads of fate, family, and legacy for the three Quigley sisters and their beloved tearoom. Cozy fantasy doesn't usually hit for me so I was pleasantly surprised by this one- Sivinski struck a perfect balance between soft, thoughtful emotions and high enough stakes to keep it moving.

 This ridiculous but entertaining little book about the slippery slope of capitalism is a must read, if only to understand that being a little nicer is in fact easier than outsourcing. 

 Zootopia gets a little more deadly in Horvath's graphic novel debut, where the residents of a charming small town are harboring bloody secrets. The jarring contrast of art style and subject matter really hit all the right creepy, unsettling notes for this one. 

 Page 40 is hanging in my house. Farazmand is once again all hits, no skips, with his very specific (but endlessly relatable) style of humor and wit. 

While starting with an intriguing premise, this book suffered in its incredibly slow pace and, honestly, lack of dragons. Austenian era society with high fantasy world building and the memoir storytelling style created an interesting mix, but an imbalanced one that slowly lost my attention as it dragged on. If I had to pick one word, it would be "tedious."

"The hard thing about being a lesbian athlete is that women are always doing hot things around you." Agreed. 

The road to the 8th Grade City Championship has been anything but smooth for Mel and Tory: they're two parts of a used-to-be-best-friends group still reeling from a dramatic falling out for starters, and tack that on top of new family dynamics, identity crises, and a school project that seems determined to make them both fail.

Becker's debut is full of heart, grit, and passion as these two teens learn to dig for their own strengths, stand up for themselves, and maybe, just maybe, make it out the other side of the city championship better for it. Mel and Tory will melt your heart and send you cheering with every shot they take. 

 Apocalyptic New York City sets the scene for this haunting debut, where constant acid rainstorms are the least of the worries for the residents of one apartment building. In close quarters and surrounded by ghosts both literally and figuratively, Leung's characters are forced inward in a surrealist exploration of love, loss, grief, and heartbreak. RIP Shin, you were the only cockroach I will ever like. 

 Don't quite know what to say about this book except I was pulled into it so suddenly by the deep, visceral emotion in the writing. I both wanted to walk away and couldn't put it down for just about the whole book 

 I loved the world of Orïsha and Zélie's journey until...this series took a hard left and seemed to stop being about Orïsha and Zélie at all. There are bits and pieces of this third installment that I enjoyed (Amari's queer awakening, of course, and the intriguing-but-hard-to-picture vine world of New Gaia) and overall I am glad to have read an ending, even though it was not a particularly fulfilling one.