This review is spoiler-free. Content warnings for the book are listed at the end.

Maurene Goo has a lot of potential as a YA contemporary author—she’s brilliant at writing authentic teen voices, and balancing fluff, humor, and drama. I Believe in a Thing Called Love was a super cute book that I sped through and enjoyed much more than I expected to. Beware the secondhand embarrassment, though, right from the start. Oof.

I really liked all of the relationship dynamics at play here. Desi and her dad have such a good, sweet bond, as he’s raised her since her mom died when she was seven. They cook together and watch K dramas and she occasionally helps him fix cars for his auto shop. Possibly one of the best parent-child relationships I’ve read. So wholesome.

Continuing on that point, I also liked Desi’s friends, Fiona and Wes. Unfortunately, they weren’t as present in the second half as the romance developed, but I did like them when they hung around. As for the romance? Desi and Luca, despite my early reservations about him, ended up being quite a cute couple.

One unique thing about this story is the focus on K dramas, as both a way for Desi and her father to hang out, and as inspiration for Desi’s love life schemes. I know nothing about them, but I did enjoy that element. It added something interesting, something to make this book stand out against other contemporaries.

My issue, though—the reason I’m not giving the book four stars—is with Desi’s problematic behavior. I cringed at plenty of scenes as I read, or urged her to calm down, but didn’t realize just how wrong it all was until I finished and thought about it. This girl causes not one or two but three dangerous incidents to occur, two of which could’ve killed her and/or Luca, just to get his attention. While she’s trying to get to know him, she stalks him online. It goes past being quirky and straight to weird and wrong.

Not only that, but the drama in the last fifty pages occurred and was resolved rather quickly. Given the severity of some people’s—*cough*Desi*cough*—everything shouldn’t have been smoothed over so easily, at least in my opinion.

I did enjoy I Believe in a Thing Called Love. I did find the romance cute, and a few other elements appealing. But I can’t look past how creepy and wrong some parts of it were. And, if I’m being fully honest, Luca’s bad relationship with his dad felt unnecessary. His mom was worse, in my eyes, and he favored her.

I don’t know if I recommend this or not, as I have quite mixed feelings. Despite that, I do plan to read more from Goo, and hopefully those books are just as cute without being problematic. Fingers crossed.

Representation:
• Korean-American protagonist
• Mexican-American sapphic side character
• Korean side character

[second read, February 2023]
Rating raised from 4.5 stars to 5.

This book. This one. It’s the best in the trilogy, and anyone that disagrees can argue with a wall.

I never expected I’d grow to love Jude and Cardan as much as I do, but here I am. They’re just brilliant. They’re iconic, and impossible not to love. Their enemies to lovers journey is delicious, and Cardan has some of the best romantic lines in YA, up there with the other Biggest Simps™️ like Thomas Cresswell and Nasir Ghameq. I said what I said.

Also. I am absolutely CACKLING at Past Me calling them Stab Queen and Tail King. Because like…. I’m not wrong. But it’s still highly amusing.

As for some of my other comments from the first time around—I’m not sure I agree with my opinion on Taryn and Vivi. Sure, it was nice to see more sisterly support, but Present Me is still bitter about Taryn’s past actions. I don’t want to forgive and forget, I want to revenge and remember. (Jude’s rubbing off on me, clearly.)

I still think Vivi is better than Taryn—I didn’t explicitly say that before, but I know I thought it—but, this time around, she also bothered me more than she used to. The way she was always so flippant about her sisters’ struggles in Faerie, and never seemed to truly care about anything that Jude was trying to do… it left a bad taste in my mouth.

And also, cool as Heather is, why was she there literally the whole time?? I feel like the page time dedicated to the Vivi/Heather drama could’ve been better used on the main story. (And I say that as a sapphic myself. Sorry not sorry, girls.)

Because, speaking of—last time, I said the book felt too short, felt anticlimactic, and I’m torn on whether or not I agree with that now. On one hand, the political machinations, curses and kisses, threats of malevolent magic and war were fascinating; they made for a quick read. On the other, at ~300 pages, this book is the shortest in the series, and I do kind of wish we’d gotten a bit more, in terms of both main story and epilogue. Hmmm…..

It’s still the best in the series though. I might have a couple of doubts, but that’s not one of them.

[first read, September 2020]
The Queen of Nothing might be my most surprising read of 2020. Not only did I speed through it in three and a half hours, I enjoyed it. After being thoroughly unimpressed by The Cruel Prince and reading The Wicked King on a whim, finding it entertaining without getting attached to any of the characters, I didn’t know what to expect from this final book. But here I am, extremely and pleasantly surprised, to say that not only is this my favorite in the trilogy, but it also saved the series for me.

I was intrigued by the high stakes and cunning schemes. I was shocked when characters didn’t do what I expected. I was especially shocked when I realized that, somehow, at some point, I started liking Jude and her sisters, even Cardan. I wanted their relationship to work out and develop properly. My lack of interest or investment was my main issue when I read the first two books, but this time, I cared. I never thought I’d care about Stab Queen and Tail King, yet here I am.

And their romance? Lowkey feels like one specific scene took things from zero to one thousand really fast, but honestly, I’m okay with it. Their dynamic is complex, which makes sense given that they’re both more complex characters than I ever gave them credit for. I...... ship it.

I also liked the roles Taryn and Vivi played, and I feel like over the course of this book, their past sibling issues were resolved. They were sisters and friends, and I love to see it.

My main problem (only problem?) with this book is that it’s so short, and ultimately, rather anticlimactic. While I liked the route Black took, I don’t think it was fleshed out enough or given the proper amount of page time. Despite the build-up, things ended quickly, and to be quite honest, it all felt too easy.

Complaints aside, I did really like the ending. I’d have liked more from the epilogue, but what we did get was quite happy and satisfying.

So, yeah. I had low expectations for The Queen of Nothing, but I ended up enjoying it. I’m surprised and kind of excited. When it comes to books, I’m almost always happy to be proved wrong.

Representation:

This review is spoiler-free. Content warnings for the book are listed at the end.

Although I was a bit skeptical of the story’s quick pace when I started reading, I adjusted without much issue and ended up enjoying Our Wayward Fate immensely.

I really liked Ali and Chase, which I’m quite glad about since I didn’t immediately like Chase. But both of them grew on me and Yun did too, even though he was only significant in the last third of the book. Ali and Chase are an adorable couple, and I loved all of their puns and inside jokes. This was more mysterious than I expected, but it worked. I also liked the integration of the Butterfly Lovers folktale, retelling though it was.

As this is the second book by Chao I’ve read and enjoyed, I can confidently say that she’s one of my favorite YA contemporary authors, alongside Kacen Callender, Rebecca Barrow, Julian Winters, and Sandhya Menon. If you’re in the mood for a quirky love story with plenty of intrigue, Our Wayward Fate is the book for you. This might be the book for you even if you aren’t in such a mood. It’s just that good.

Representation:
• Taiwanese-American protagonist
• Taiwanese love interest
• Gay side character

CW: xenophobia

I got 21% through Ink and Bone before giving up. Despite seeing bloggers I follow enjoy this series, I couldn’t push through. The concept of the book was intriguing to me, but I was quite bored. Even when I had time to read, I didn’t want to read this.

I got 25% through The Merciful Crow and decided it wasn’t for me. While the story, characters, and world were all fine, I just wasn’t invested in the story. I also wasn’t a fan of the audiobook narrator.

Despite some issues with the second book, I enjoyed Charaipotra’s Tiny Pretty Things duology, co-written with Dhonielle Clayton. I was curious to see what her solo debut would be like, and overall, it was an enjoyable contemporary written from a unique perspective: Saira, a sixteen-year-old nicknamed the Girl Genius, is starting an oncology internship at the hospital her mother works at. I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like this before, and it was interesting to some extent.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. Saira was well-written and I did admire her dedication, but I wasn’t invested in her story. The same can be said about most of the side characters, though I liked some more than others.

I was tempted to give this book four stars, say it was good but not my cup of tea, and move on. But after a bit of reflection, I was able to pinpoint what was preventing me from doing that. There are two queer side characters, and at times, both rubbed me the wrong way. One is Saira’s close friend and “boyfriend”, a cover they’re using since he’s still closeted and dating a guy in secret. There were some moments where I don’t think Saira was being fair to him, including toward the end when she talked about looking like the “bad guy” in a situation (in which she was partially at fault) because he wasn’t out.

The other was one of Saira’s higher-ups at the hospital, the antagonist for most of the story. It’s revealed at the end that her attitude was influenced heavily by personal issues, and even if we look past how unprofessional that is, the situation with this character doesn’t sit right with me.

One positive thing, though, is that, despite some skepticism on my part in the first half of the book, the romance ended up being very sweet. I wouldn’t have minded if Saira and Link stayed friends, and their dynamic is a bit predictable, but I do like them together.

Despite the issues I had with the queer representation and my general lack of interest in the story, Symptoms of a Heartbreak isn’t a bad book. I just think that it’s best suited for a specific audience, one I’m not part of. If you think you’ll like this book, you should definitely read it. I will, most likely, read more from Charaipotra in the future.

Representation:

• Indian-American protagonist

• Indian family members & side characters

• Korean-Dutch love interest

• Queer side characters (gay guy, sapphic woman)

CW: death (one prior to story & one on-page), grief, cancer & discussions of cancer, hospital setting

[second read, December 2022]
I question my past self’s taste on a lot of things, but I can say one thing with absolute certainty: when she said “Vicious Spirits is perfect,” she was ABSOLUTELY GODDAMN RIGHT. THIS BOOK IS A MASTERPIECE.

I love all four characters in this duology’s quartet, but Junu is in an entirely different category. The love I have for him knows no bounds. I went into this reread knowing I loved him but not really remembering why, and came out of it adoring him even more fiercely. HE IS THE SWEETEST CINNAMON ROLL!!! MUST PROTECC!!! 🥹💞🫂💞🥹

Seriously though, words cannot describe how much I adore him. I’ve always sympathized with him, that’s nothing new, but I did notice something this time around that I didn’t before. Maybe the nuance of it all was lost on me because I listened to this on audio, or maybe I just forgot because I’ve read so many books and had so much else on my mind in the two years since reading this initially. I don’t know which it is. But the way he just crumbled inside, bit by bit, every time one of the other characters doubted or berated him, even as he continued to smirk and joke and pretend he was fine… IT KILLED ME. HE NEEDS THE BIGGEST HUG AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE NICE TO HIM. JUNU DEFENSE SQUAD 2022. 🥹🥹💗💗

And the romance??? SO HELP ME. KAT CHO HAVE MERCY ON MY SOUL.

“But it’s not Miyoung who made me hope.”

[[MUFFLED SHRIEKING]]

JOMIN IS HATE-TO-LOVE DONE RIGHT AND THAT’S THAT ON THAT.

And… y’know… they‘ve almost made me cry twice now. So there’s that. Fun times. :’)))

In other news!! Read this duology!! It has no fandom and that is a TRAGEDY!! Join in my awe, adoration and intense feelings!! ✨✨✨

[first read, September 2020]
If Wicked Fox was phenomenal, then that must mean that Vicious Spirits is perfect. I put the audiobook on hold via Libby immediately after finishing the first book, and I was so freaking excited the day it was ready. Once again, despite it being nearly twelve hours long, I marathoned it in about a day. I even chose listening to this over playing The Sims, which, for me, means a lot.

I didn’t read the synopsis for this book, so I was not aware that it was a companion, not a direct sequel. I didn’t know that Somin and Junu were the protagonists this time around, with Miyoung and Jihoon still quite prominent but no longer narrating. It was a surprise, but not an unpleasant one.

I don’t think I have the words to describe how much I love this book. I keep a note on my phone while reading, to track reactions and thoughts to put in my reviews. This time around, that note is just a long list of panicking and fangirling and emojis. It’s fitting, to be honest, as this story was even more of a whirlwind than that of the first book.

I adore these characters with my whole heart. I already knew that Miyoung and Jihoon were amazing, but learning more about characters that were on the sidelines in Wicked Fox and falling in love with them was a treat. Somin and Junu are just as amazing, in my opinion, and that’s that on that.

My favorite part of the story was undeniably the relationships between the four leads. Miyoung, Jihoon, and Somin’s friendship. The way the three of them antagonized Junu, even though sometimes they took it too far and I wanted to give Junu a hug. (Who am I kidding, I want to give them all hugs.) Miyoung and Jihoon are properly together now, and adorable. Then there’s the agonizing but adorable, heartbreaking yet heartwarming hate-to-love situation with Somin and Junu. I did wonder if something would happen between them, though it was a passing thought. But wow, I love and support it so much!!!

I will say, on that note, that this book seriously stressed me out. I thought the ending of Wicked Fox was intense, but that honestly feels like child’s play compared to the second half of this. I was, essentially, freaking out for six (seven?) hours of the not-quite-twelve hour experience. One minute I’d be laughing at cute banter, and five minutes later I’d be concerned because there was a fight. Then after another ten minutes or so, I’d be panicking completely. Cho does not go easy on readers’ emotions. The worst of it was about 80% in, and around the 85% mark I was unbelievably close to crying. That just doesn’t happen to me, but I am attached to these characters and I feared the worst.

But thankfully, thankfully, things worked out. I’m so, incredibly happy with how everything wrapped up, and now I’m wondering a) when I can buy my own copies of these books and b) what I’m supposed to do now that the duology is complete. There’s not even any couple fan art I can put as my phone’s lock screen. Or, at least, none that I’m aware of. (If you find some or draw some, help a girl out and let me know please.)

So, yeah, I have a new series to be obsessed with and shout about at every opportunity. Vicious Spirits was even more brilliant than its predecessor, something I hoped for but wasn’t sure was possible. I look forward to Cho’s future work. In the meantime, PLEASE READ WICKED FOX.

Representation:

This review is spoiler-free. Content warnings for the book are listed at the end.

Lovely War is one of the most unique historical fiction novels I’ve read to date. Narrated by some of the Greek gods, it’s a story of love, hope, music, and tragedy, set during World War I. The gods come into play in a separate timeline, thirty years later, when Hephaestus catches Aphrodite and Ares in the midst of an affair in a Manhattan hotel room. A sort of mock trial occurs, wherein Aphrodite defends herself by telling two wartime love stories, with the help of Ares and, eventually, Apollo and Hades.

While it’s certainly one of the most interesting roles I’ve seen Greek gods play in a story, I didn’t understand why they were included. Aside from a few amusing snippets, the narrative method and even the whole second timeline seemed rather pointless. Maybe there’s some symbolism I missed; that was never my strong spot in any high school English class.

But you know what? Sometimes I enjoy things even if they don’t make sense to me. I do play The Sims, after all. The Sims 4 is a weird game. Anyway, my point here is, I enjoyed Lovely War despite not understanding some of Berry’s storytelling methods.

The best part of the book was, undeniably, the characters. Hazel, James, Colette, and Aubrey are all wonderfully written and developed, with charming personalities and multiple sweet dynamics between the four of them. One romance developed much faster than the other, bordering on insta-love, but they were both so touching, I couldn’t be annoyed. I especially liked Hazel and Colette’s friendship.

This could’ve been a four star read if not for two things: 1) the significantly uneven pacing and 2) the use of one of my least favorite tropes. I’m not sure if “trope” is the right word, but I’m referring to when an author kills/nearly kills a character and instead, said character miraculously recovers or is resurrected. This is obviously not something I can elaborate on, but in my opinion, it rarely works. It often feels like a lazy way to further the plot and/or up the page count, and such was unfortunately the case here.

Although, I will begrudgingly admit that end of the book was cute. I really liked how everything wrapped up. Happy endings get me nearly every time, and this was no exception. The ride was a bit bumpy, but the final destination satisfying nonetheless.

I did enjoy Lovely War, despite the issues I had with it. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, romance, and/or Greek mythology, you definitely want to read this.

Representation:
• Aubrey is Black
• There are some Black side characters

CW: war, explosions, death, murder, grief, PTSD, mention of rape & arson (both prior to story), lynching, attempted sexual assault, racism, Blackface (condemned on-page)

4.5 stars

Nearly everyone I follow loves this book, so I jumped on the opportunity to get it from Libby. I was immediately enthralled by the three-dimensional characters and vibrant setting, and with each chapter I read, I became even more invested. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is, in my opinion, worthy of every ounce of hype it’s received thus far.

Words are escaping me at the moment, so here’s a short list of the elements I enjoyed:
• Karina, fierce queen not in the mood for anyone’s crap, and Malik, sweet disaster boy (I would like to give both of them hugs please)
• Karina experiences frequent migraines, which isn’t something I can recall seeing in any other fantasy
• The unique magic system
• The way every side character ended up being important in some often unexpected way
• So many wild plot twists!!
• So much pining!!!
• I didn’t guess who the big antagonist was or literally anything in the last 75 pages
• No awful cliffhanger! Thankfully! Although, there’s no way I could just not read the sequel after the way things ended...
• Great audiobook! With two narrators to match the dual POVs

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is a fantastic story and an incredible debut. I can’t wait to get my own copy, and to read the sequel as soon after its release next year as possible!

Representation:
• Entirely Black cast
• Malik has anxiety and panic attacks

CW: mild self-harm ideation, fantasy violence, emotional and physical abuse, anxiety and panic attacks, parent death and animal death
(This list is included at the beginning of the novel.)

3.5 stars

Mejia’s YA duology We Set the Dark on Fire is one of my all-time favorites, so I was curious to see how she would approach a Middle Grade novel. While I do think Paola Santiago and The River of Tears is a good story, I don’t think it’s a story for me.

This was much spookier than I expected, though that could simply be because I didn’t read the synopsis. I knew the author wrote a story about La Llorona, and legitimately nothing else. But honestly? It was kind of fun that way. That aside, it was spooky enough to be atmospheric, maybe give you slight chills, but not actually scary. Props to Mejia for that.

As for the characters, I liked them as well. Paola and her friends Emma and Dante are a close-knit trio of twelve-year-olds, enjoying the summer leading up to seventh grade. I’m sure we all know that there’s a specific kind of angst that comes at that age, and Mejia wrote it well—present, but not overbearing. I liked the three of them both as individuals and as a group.

Yet, despite these positives, I found myself not really invested in the story until close to the end. I was curious about what would happen, but not super eager or desperate to find out. I almost gave the novel three stars, but raised my rating by a half star because of Bruto. Such a good boy.

I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel, but if you like Middle Grade and/or are searching for books for a sibling/child/etc., I recommend Paola Santiago and The River of Tears.

Representation:
• Latinx protagonist & many Latinx side characters

CW: kidnapping, brief mention of child death