Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The One True Me and You

Author: Remi K. England

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Queer romance, Lesbian MC, Non-binary pansexual/questioning/prefers girls MC, Bisexual character

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, romance, LGBT+, fandom

Publication Date: March 1, 2022

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Age Relevance: 14+ (slight body dysphoria, homophobia, sexism, misgendering, romance, slight language, parental death mentioned, suicide death mentioned, racism mentioned, outing)

Explanation of Above: The book features a character who is questioning their gender identify and their sexual preference. They experience a little body dysphoria and misgendering. They are also outed and it’s shown in the book. Homophobia and sexism are discussed in the book. There are slight mentions to a parental death and death by suicide. There is lots of cute romance in the book. There is also one very slight mention to racism in regards to pageant officials (how they do the bare minimum) and very slight language (there’s just a handful of curse words in the book).

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Pages: 272

Synopsis: Up and coming fanfic author Kaylee Beaumont is internally screaming at the chance to finally meet her fandom friends in real life and spend a weekend at GreatCon. She also has a side quest for the weekend:

Try out they/them pronouns to see how it feels
Wear more masculine-presenting cosplay
Kiss a girl for the first time

It’s… a lot, and Kay mostly wants to lie face down on the hotel floor. Especially when her hometown bully, Miss North Carolina, shows up in the very same hotel. But there’s this con-sponsored publishing contest, and the chance to meet her fandom idols… and then, there’s Teagan.

Pageant queen Teagan Miller (Miss Virginia) has her eye on the much-needed prize: the $25,000 scholarship awarded to the winner of the Miss Cosmic Teen USA pageant. She also has secrets:

She loves the dresses but hates the tiaras
She’s a giant nerd for everything GreatCon
She’s gay af

If Teagan can just keep herself wrapped up tight for one more weekend, she can claim the scholarship and go off to college out and proud. If she’s caught, she could lose everything she’s worked for. If her rival, Miss North Carolina, has anything to do with it, that’s exactly how it’ll go down.

When Teagan and Kay bump into one another the first night, sparks fly. Their connection is intense—as is their shared enemy. If they’re spotted, the safe space of the con will be shattered, and all their secrets will follow them home. The risks are great… but could the reward of embracing their true selves be worth it?

Review: If it can be possible to fall in love with a book, then I have completely fallen in love with this one. The book is so so sweet and I loved the story. The romance is between a pageant queen and a fanfic writer. It gives me a lot of Geekerella vibes and has a lot of fandom mentions, the biggest being Sherlock (johnlocke especially). The book is not only a sweet romance, but it also is a sweet tale about a person who is finding their gender identity and sexuality, which I think is hugely important in today’s day and age. I felt like the character development was amazingly well done and the world building was fun and well done as well. The pacing is on key and I honestly will reread this one day (and I never reread!).

The only issue I had with the book is that I felt like the ending was a bit too open-ended so I hope that we get another book that follows Teagan and Kaylee or a side story with the other characters, especially Jess and Miss Oregon.

Verdict: I highly recommend this one!

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Killing Time

Author: Brenna Ehrlich

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, mystery books, thriller reads, true crime like

Publication Date: March 8, 2022

Genre: YA MysteryThriller

Age Relevance: 17+ (death, animal death, language, sexism, gore, violence, stalking, sexual content, alcohol consumption, grief)

Explanation of Above: There is death and murder in this book and the book discusses a lot of it. There is one particular scene where an animal’s death is graphically described and it’s off-putting. There is some sexism and stalking shown in the book, as well as some briefly mentioned sexual content related to sex offenders and sexting. There is gore and violence in the book and some alcohol consumption. There is also grief shown in the book.

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Summer in Ferry, Connecticut, has always meant long, lazy days at the beach and wild nights partying in the abandoned mansions on the edge of town. Until now, that is.

Natalie Temple, who’s never been one for beaches or parties in the first place, is reeling from the murder of her favorite teacher, and there’s no way this true-crime-obsessed girl is going to sit back and let the rumor mill churn out lie after lie—even if she has to hide her investigation from her disapproving mom and team up with the new boy in town…

But the more Natalie uncovers, the more she realizes some secrets were never meant to be told.

Review: For the most part this was an ok book. I really liked the premise and it seemed to be a good book at first. The book did good to show the two separate cases and present them well. The book also had me intrigued with the podcast angle.

However, I felt like the book was just bad. It had a lot of promise, which is why it’s a 3/5 and why I kept reading it instead of DNFing it, but I really did not like the book. The book has a back and forth between the past and the present and in a couple of chapters I noticed that sometimes we slipped into the past while we were in the present chapters, but overall the format was confusing and I didn’t really like having two separate stories going on at once. I felt like the characters, aside from the side characters, weren’t well developed and the world building was non-existent. I also felt like the pacing was just all over the place. I also very much disliked the animal gore that was shown in the book.

Verdict: It was not for me.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and finished copy from the publisher for a tour. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Anne of West Philly

Author: Ivy Noelle Weir & Myisha Haynes (illustrator)

Book Series: Standalone for now

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Black foster care MC, Black characters, Hispanic characters, siblings living together

Recommended For...: middle grade readers, graphic novel, retelling, Anne of Green Gables retelling

Publication Date: March 1, 2022

Genre: MG Graphic Novel Retelling

Age Relevance: 10+ (sexism, foster care trauma, alcohol briefly mentioned, slight bullying, medical emergency)

Explanation of Above: Sexism and foster care trauma is discussed and shown slightly in the book. There is a very small brief mention of alcohol, but nothing was drunk in the book. There is some slight bullying that only lasts a few scenes. There is a medical emergency and hospital stay shown.

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 245

Synopsis: When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert decide to foster a teenage girl for the first time, their lives are changed forever. Their redheaded foster daughter, Anne Shirley, is in search of an exciting life and has decided that West Philly is where she's going to find it. Armed with a big personality and unstoppable creativity, Anne takes her new home by storm as she joins the robotics club, makes new friends in Diana and Gilbert, experiences first love, and turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. But as Anne starts to get comfortable, she discovers one thing she wasn't looking for: a family.

Review: I absolutely fell in love with this Anne of Green Gables retelling. Anne was one of my first book series that I fell in love with as a child and that I identified with greatly. She was feisty and spirited and didn’t take anything from anyone. And I feel like that spirit translates well to modern day retellings. I absolutely loved this iteration of Anne and she was everything I always remembered and loved most about Anne. The story of foster care kids is something that’s not really changed since L.M. Montgomery wrote Anne and making a retelling of Anne’s story can only help current foster care kids who are going through the system now. I also loved all of the updates to the story, including STEM! The character development of Anne was so well done, I love the illustrations and feel like they conveyed the heart of the story well. The world building was artistically illustrated and detailed. The whole book is a masterpiece that I would love to see in libraries and freely available to foster care kids.

The only issue I had with the book is that it did feel a little disjointed when we skipped times, but it was otherwise well done and I can’t wait to read another iteration of Anne of West Philly.

Verdict: I highly recommend this one!

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Mirror Girls

Author: Kelly McWilliams

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Black Mixed MC, Black mixed white passing MC, Twin MCs

Recommended For...: young adult readers, historical fiction, Civil Rights Movement era, fantasy, magic mirrors, ghosts

Publication Date: February 8, 2022

Genre: YA Historical Fiction Fantasy

Age Relevance: 14+ (parental death, death, grief, racism, murder, lynching, language, passing, assault, child abuse, starvation, gore, violence)

Explanation of Above: There is death mentioned and parental death and murder mentioned and detailed in the book. The book also goes into themes of grief. The book heavily revolves around racism, including lynchings and assault on a Black minor in which an adult woman kissed him and then got him killed when she realized he wasn’t white. Passing and colorism are also discussed and shown, especially in the context of how two twins are treated differently because of their differing skin color. Child abuse is shown in the book, along with starvation. There is some gore, blood and burning with a curling iron, and violence including gun violence and physical assaults. There is also some slight cursing every now and then.

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 320

Synopsis: As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia.

Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past. When Magnolia finally learns the truth, her reflection mysteriously disappears from mirrors—the sign of a terrible curse. Meanwhile, in Harlem, Charlie's beloved grandmother falls ill. Her final wish is to be buried back home in Georgia—and, unbeknownst to Charlie, to see her long-lost granddaughter, Magnolia Heathwood, one last time. So Charlie travels into the Deep South, confronting the land of her worst nightmares—and Jim Crow segregation.

The sisters reunite as teenagers in the deeply haunted town of Eureka, Georgia, where ghosts linger centuries after their time and dangers lurk behind every mirror. They couldn’t be more different, but they will need each other to put the hauntings of the past to rest, to break the mirrors’ deadly curse—and to discover the meaning of sisterhood in a racially divided land.

Review: This will go down as a Paige Forever Fave! I thought it was an absolutely fantastic read and I loved it so much! The story was touching and I loved that it not only explored themes of racism in the South at the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement, but also explored passing and colorism, which I feel a lot of people will be able to identify with. The book had a duel POV narrative, which I thought really worked for the book, and it was a compelling book where, while involving fantasy elements, the magic took a backseat to the very real issues that the girls were dealing with. I thought the characters were very well developed and I loved how the girls were very different in personality, but also had many similarities that ultimately worked for them in the end. The MCs grew because of the story, but most of their growth occurred with each other, which is what I also thought was unique with this book. The world building was also well done and I think this is one of those books that should be recommended reading in schools.

The only issue I had with the book is that sometimes the events of the book were fast paced and I wanted it to slow down. I also desperately want more of Charlie and Magnolia and I’d love to read another story with them in it, but this is kind of the curse of Kelly McWilliam’s writing: it’s so addictive it makes you crave more after the final page.

Verdict: Highly recommend!

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: A Night To Die For

Author: Lisa Schroeder

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, mystery, murder mystery, prom night

Publication Date: March 1, 2022

Genre: YA Mystery

Age Relevance: 16+ (underage alcohol consumption, abelism, death, sexual content, language, drugs, religion)

Explanation of Above: There is one slight comment about abelism and talking down to a character because they have cancer. It felt a little infantizing, but the character who said it was a rude character so it fit their MO a little. There is a lot of references and mentions and showings of underage alcohol consumption. There is death mentioned, a dead body described, and some slight gore mentioning vomit and slight blood. There is some slight mentions of sexual content, mostly in jokes. There is very slight cursing; there are probably just a handful of curse words in the book. There are drugs that are just mentioned a couple of times. There is also one mention of religion.

Publisher: Underlined

Pages: 288

Synopsis: All Mario wants is one normal night before he graduates. He's spent most of high school riding solo and gaming with his only friend, Lucas. But when his mom asks him to take Elana Dexter to the prom as a favor to her father, his mother’s boss, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner.

Only, the night takes a turn quickly. First, Mario gets crowned Prom King alongside the school’s it-girl, Maribelle Starr. Which is weird enough. But what’s weirder is that when they put the crown on his head, hundreds of worms slither out of it and all over Mario. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving Elana home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead.

All Mario wanted was to go to prom...but somehow, he ended up in hell.

Review: This was an ok book. The book was a fast paced mystery read with mixed media format. The book had a good premise and it was interesting as it kept my interest throughout. The book also did fairly good with the mystery aspect of it.

However, the book was a bit of a let-down. There are a ton of POVS (10+) and I didn’t feel like I got a good sense of who was talking and I didn’t feel like any of these voices were distinct. The character development itself is horribly lacking and nothing clearly defines anyone. The only character who is developed is the dead girl and while this style could have been played off well, it wasn’t in this instance. There was a weird back and forth between the timelines without indication of where we were. The world building was lacking in a bunch of scenes. I had a big issue with how the investigation was handled. One of the characters questioned is a minor and should not have been questioned without being in the presence of her parent. The said minor also later went to the police twice and gave them further information, again without their parent which is illegal and something the “competent” detectives would have known. It was also foggy if the other character was a minor or not, but it was found out he was. I also was reminded of how unfair the criminal justice system was in this book, in which a family’s life savings are completely drained proving another’s innocence and they’re not paid back for the police’s mistake in arresting the wrong perpetrator, which I think needs to be overhauled when we start prison reform in this country. Anyways, aside from that I think the book would have been better if it was just a bit more developed and if the author took more time to develop the killer through hints and clues.

Verdict: It’s good, just too fast paced and needs a bit more details in it.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Light Years From Home

Author: Mike Chen

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Diversity: very slight mention that a MC is attracted to women, character with dementia

Recommended For...: sci-fi, generational trauma, aliens

Publication Date: January 25, 2022

Genre: Sci-Fi

Age Relevance: 16+ (language, parental death, drugs, theft, mental health, gore)

Explanation of Above: There is cursing in the book. There is a mention of parental death and it is detailed. There are drugs mentioned occasionally in the book. There are a couple of scenes involving theft of property. Mental health is discussed a lot in the book, including dementia, schizophrenia is mentioned, and delusions of grandeur are discussed. There is some gore with blood shown in the book.

Publisher: Mira Books

Pages: 352

Synopsis: Every family has issues. Most can’t blame them on extraterrestrials.

Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused—and convinced he'd been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob.

When Evie's UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate. And discovers Jakob is back. He's different—older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war—but the tensions between the siblings haven't changed at all. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, then Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues, and fast. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada, too.

The perfect combination of action, imagination and heart, Light Years From Home is a touching drama about a challenge as difficult as saving the galaxy: making peace with your family…and yourself.

Review: For the most part I liked the book. I liked how the book discussed the strain of family relations when someone goes missing and I loved how it was in the context of an alien abduction. Mostly when we read sci-fi, most of the story is from the viewpoint of the abductee but in this book 90% of the POV is from the family members who are left behind and who are picking up the pieces. I’ve been getting into generational trauma a lot since the Encanto movie, and this book explores some themes of that as well (the strain the father put on the family is the same that the young sibling puts on the family and the mother who is left to pick up the pieces falls to the oldest sibling who does the same while the middle one is missing and has their own adventure free of family). While the trope used in the book is a well known one and the book is predictable, I loved how the reactions of the family wasn’t and it did keep me guessing until the end. The character development was well done, the world building was good, and the pacing was pretty good.

However, I did have a couple of issues. The book spent a lot of time going back and forth between the past and present, but the way that it was presented in the book was confusing at times. The ending was also rushed in my opinion.

Verdict: It was good!

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher for a tour. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: A Brush With Love

Author: Mazey Eddings

Book Series: Untitled Series Book 1

Rating: 5/5

Spice: 3.5/5

Diversity: Vienamese character, possible Chinese character, Lebanese MC, Ashkenazi Jewish MC with chronic pain disorder and PTSD/anxiety, ADHD character

Recommended For...: romance, medical romance, contemporary, residency school, college

Publication Date: March 1, 2022

Genre: Romance

Age Relevance: 18+ (language, sexual content, racism, parental death, parental abandonment, sexism, social anxiety, academic anxiety, panic attack, grief, trauma, romance)

Explanation of Above: There is some cursing in the book. The book is a romance story with romance elements and a lot of sexual content. While the actual smut doesn’t start until 68% into the book, there are little bits of sexual content and mentionings here and there throughout the book until then. There is racism mentioned and sexism shown. There are two scenes where parental death is detailed, grief is shown occasionally in the book, and one scene where parental abandonment is mentioned. There are two scenes that shown a panic attack and a couple of scenes that have social and academic anxiety shown. Trauma is also mentioned.

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Harper is anxiously awaiting placement into a top oral surgery residency program when she crashes (literally) into Dan. Harper would rather endure a Novocaine-free root canal than face any distractions, even one this adorable.

A first-year dental student with a family legacy to contend with, Dan doesn’t have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does. Though he finds himself falling for her, he is willing to play by Harper’s rules.

So with the greatest of intentions and the poorest of follow-throughs, the two set out to be “just friends.” But as they get to know each other better, Harper fears that trading fillings for feelings may make her lose control and can't risk her carefully ordered life coming undone, no matter how drool-worthy Dan is.

Blood, gore, and extra-long roots? No problem. The idea of falling in love? Torture.

Review: I really liked this book! The book took me a little over 2 hours and 30 minutes to get through and I read it all in one sitting because it was just so addicting! I love that the book was a residency romance and that the love interest was a nervous, tongue-twisted man while the main MC was a smart, brainiac girl who had a lot of past trauma she needed to deal with. The book is told in a duel POV narrative for the most part, but a lot of the chapters are from Harper’s POV, and the book is an insta-love romance. The book also had really good moments where it showed feminism and consent. The book had great character development and good worldbuilding. The book had great pacing and the story was well plotted. I really enjoyed reading it and I already want to reread it.

The only issue I had with the book is that there was a bit of confusion with where Harper was towards the end of the book. She mentions moving, but she’s still at the residency school, but then she’s moved. It’s a little bit confusing but doesn’t affect the main story overall.

Verdict: It’s so good! Highly recommend!

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Bright Ruined Things

Author: Samantha Cohoe

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 2/5

Diversity: 1 queer side character

Recommended For...: young adult readers, fantasy, mystery, The Tempest retelling… kind of, set in the 1920s

Publication Date: February 15, 2022

Genre: YA Fantasy Mystery

Age Relevance: 15+ (Parental Death, Abelism, Violence, Animal Violence and Death, Parental Abandonment, Sexism, Drug Abuse, Death, Classism, Sexual Content, Coercion, Romance, Homophobia, Outing, Suicide, Suicidal Ideation)

Explanation of Above: There is parental death mentioned and parental abandonment is shown very slightly. There is one scene where an abelist comment is said in regards to mental health. There is one moment where the MC questions about an animal death and how they died, but it’s very brief. There is some sexism in the book, some homophobia and a case of outing, and classism is sprinkled throughout. There is drug abuse mentioned very briefly and, because it’s in historical terms, you wouldn’t know it’s talking about drugs unless you knew the terms. There is death shown in the book. There is some sexual content in regards to talk about sleeping together, but nothing is shown, and there are some characters who try to use coercion/sexual advances as manipulation. There is also some romance scenes with kissing and feelings. There is also some mention of suicide and suicidal ideation in the book by a character. There is also a bit of violence in the book, including fighting, guns mentioned and seen, airplane crash land (non-graphic), fire being set, slaps, and imprisonment.

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Pages: 352

Synopsis: The only life Mae has ever known is on the island, living on the charity of the wealthy Prosper family who control the magic on the island and the spirits who inhabit it. Mae longs for magic of her own and to have a place among the Prosper family, where her best friend, Coco, will see her as an equal, and her crush, Miles, will finally see her. Now that she’s eighteen, Mae knows her time with the Prospers may soon come to an end.

But tonight is First Night, when the Prospers and their high-society friends return to the island to celebrate the night Lord Prosper first harnessed the island’s magic and started producing aether – a magical fuel source that has revolutionized the world. With everyone returning to the island, Mae finally has the chance to go after what she’s always wanted.

When the spirits start inexplicably dying, Mae starts to realize that things aren’t what they seem. And Ivo, the reclusive, mysterious heir to the Prosper magic, may hold all the answers – including a secret about Mae’s past that she doesn’t remember. As Mae and her friends begin to unravel the mysteries of the island, and the Prospers’ magic, Mae starts to question the truth of what her world was built on.

Review: This was a so-so book. The book had an interesting premise with the arranged marriage, set in the 1920s, and I was really intrigued with the spirits and how they worked. I also liked the mystery/fantasy element and how the book was set over the course of one day. The book is also The Tempest inspired, but it’s very slight.

However, I really did not like this book. There’s not a lot of backstory to this book and I was confused throughout the text on what was going on and how we got to where we were. To my *not* surprise, when I was writing this review I discovered that most of the backstory is in the synopsis, which I absolutely hate in books. Books and synopses should stand alone and one shouldn’t depend on the reader having read the other for it to make sense. The beginning of the book was so cluttered and confusing I almost DNFed at 13% and sometimes I wish I did just go ahead and DNF it. There was a bit of flowery language, so maybe that’s what the cause was, but I also felt that the magic was just too unexplained and that things happened but weren’t explained. The book didn’t really explain why the story was set where it was either and there was some sort of weird love quadrilateral thing and then it went to a triangle and then to a regular romance, but it was like the author didn’t know where to go with the book for most of it. I never got a sense of who the main character was as there was no character development beyond “all of these kids are horrible and say horrible homophobic or sexist things or try to do sexual coercion, and their parents are either dead, not there, or addicted to drugs”.

Verdict: Overall, this book was not for me but you might have better luck.

Disclaimer: I received this e-book from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Remember the Stars

Author: Eris Marriott

Book Series: Tales of Selyento Book 1

Rating: 4/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, dark fantasy

Publication Date: August 31, 2021

Genre: YA Dark Fantasy

Age Relevance: 16+ (cult, religion, abuse (graphic), religious abuse (graphic), grief, death, violence, gore, mental abuse)

Explanation of Above: The main focal point of the book is this religious cult. There is religious abuse shown, mental abuse, and child abuse shown, both of which are graphic. There is grief and death mentioned in this book as well as violence and gore.

Publisher: Indie Published

Pages: 213

Synopsis: In a world of forbidden magic, two wolves fight for a lost soul. All Clarisse wants is to be free. Her life has been governed by abuse, control, and the Church of Light. Tired of ritual exorcisms and condemnations, she’s at the brink of exploding. Her power is a curse—the reason she can’t be free. Clarisse never asked to be in the center of a centuries-long battle between Terrence, a Reaper-wolf gone rogue, and Death, himself. If she has to spend one more minute under the controlling thumb of her parents and the Church of Light, she’ll die. In order to escape, she must choose a side: Death is convinced that mortals wielding power is a recipe for disaster and damnation. Terrence believes magic is a mortal’s key to freedom, enlightenment… maybe immortality. Will she follow the light of the stars? Or will she let herself fall into the grasp of the shadows?

Review: For the most part I liked this book. I thought the book did well to show the harm of religious cults and to give hope to people who might read the book who are in the same predicament. The book was intriguing and kept me interest from start to finish. The book also did well with character development for the most part and world building.

However, some of the details of the book are a bit confusing, such as how Terrence finds Clarisse and how exactly her powers work. I think the book is just a bit too short and if it was expanded it could have been more impactful and gave the author more time to explore the little confusing bits. I also felt some of the pacing was off in a few places.

Verdict: It was good!