Thank you to NetGalley and the L.N. Loch for the ARC of this story!

Ivan is a pretty miserable man that works for a miserable company (ala SeaWorld) that mistreats all its animals. He has some not-great pre-conceived notions about a LOT of people and things, and he is absolutely a flawed character. He's set in his ways and a complete rule-follower that would rather fade away than be seen. And yet, I found myself feeling for him and hoping he would just OPEN HIS EYES to see what was really going on around him.

Winston, on the other hand, is a whole mess. He's loud and messy and not afraid to stand up for what he believes in, consequences be damned. He's determined to save a whale names Seymour that GalaxySea is mistreating. He is also kind of stupid (affectionate) and far too forgiving, but I adored Winston from the get-go.

When these two bump into one other- quite literally, and begin to see colors for the first time, they figure out that they're soulmates. Which, hello, one of my favorite tropes!

What follows is the two of them falling in love and finding themselves and facing some harsh truths about who they are as people. And man, Ivan kind of sucks as a person sometimes. Oh, and they might also be determined to break a five-ton whale out of a tank.

This was a super fun, at times angsty and FRUSTRATING read. It wasn't perfect, for sure, and I cursed out loud a few times at some of the things the characters did (hello, Winston, you were well within your rights to make that apology go on FAR longer, sir) but overall, I enjoyed it!

TW for gaslighting, homophobia-related storylines, and a shitty character named Mike. Honestly, fuck that guy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sending me an ARC of this book!

3.5 stars.

I really hate that this book is compared so much already to Red, White, and Royal Blue because I feel like it's going to be criticized way harsher for that comparison. It was a super fun read, but I just know it's going to get way more criticism because of this comparison.

Carter Odgen is an event planner living in New Jersey. Frankly, he's a mess and I loved that about him. Carter meets Prince Edgard, the actual friggin Prince of England at an event his company is hosting for the Prince, and they hit it off. They end up kind of dating, kind of immediately falling in love and taking off on a whirlwind of a romance very quickly. Complete with SO MANY obstacles. Seriously, poor Carter is a wreck and I felt so much secondhand embarrassment for this kid at times. One word: trifle.

This book is very funny. The Queen had me laughing out loud several times, as did Carter's inner monologue. the side characters have some excellent lines and were some of my favorite parts of the book. However, I struggled a bit with the pacing. I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief most of the time, but even I struggled with how quickly these two got together. Also, and this is admittedly nit-picky, but there was a quite a bit of telling me what happened after the fact vs letting me read and live it with the characters. That took me out of the story a bit.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, light read. I loved Carter and Edgar and I think this will do well as long as people don't go into it expecting it to be exactly like another royal prince story we all know and love.

whooo boy, each one of the books hurt me more than the last.

i love gavin with my entire heart and i think this was a perfect ending.

3.5 stars.

i enjoyed this and i think it’s an important story, but i struggled to really form a connection with any of the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever publishing for the ARC of this one!

Guys. GUYS . This is a goddamn delight of a book.

Cade and Selena are fantastic characters, together and on their own, and you can't help but pull for them to figure their shit out and realize what's right in front of them the entire time. Selena is a mess and so incredibly relatable. I loved her from her very first introduction (and oh my GOD, what an introduction) and she just grew more and more relatable and endearing as the story progressed.

And Cade. Oh, Cade. I wanted to cuddle her and tell her everything was going to be okay and that it was okay to relax and just BE.

UGH. This was so much fun. The story was quirky and ridiculous (in the best way) and I want to be friends with every single side character.

Also, I think I'm moving to Portland now and opening my own see shop. I have to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quill Tree Books for the ARC!

tw: transphobia, homophobia, misgendering, deadnaming, suicidal thoughts and ideation, religion, conversion therapy

August Greene is an aspiring actor from a tiny town in Pennsylvania that just landed a spot at his dream high school, the School of the Performing Arts in New York City. The issue? His parents, who refuse to let August transition and insist that's he's "sick" and the only way to "fix" him is by sending him to conversion therapy, do not want him to attend the school. Thankfully, August's aunt steps in and gets him his audition and offers him a place to live in New York while he attends the school of his dreams. To get his mother to agree,, August promise's he won't transition and will stay his mother's daughter while in school. Can August keep his life together while trying to live the way everyone else wants him to in a new school?

First of all, I love that this book starts out with trigger warnings. I read Tobly's Stay Gold book and while I really enjoyed it, I was super unprepared for how dark it really got. So, I appreciate the heck out of this one for telling up front there are some harsh and very real things discussed in this book.

I really loved this book. August trying his best to live the way that he thought everyone in his life wanted him to be was just such a relatable experience to me. He talked a lot throughout the book about how he acted every day to be the daughter his mother wanted, even though he knew he was her son. I loved that the book connected that to August's love of acting and how that was affecting him as a person.

This book dealt with so many intense, important things (and I think it will help to spark a lot of important discussions) but it didn't feel too heavy and ultimately was an uplifting story of a trans teenager finding himself, and the importance of family- chosen, found, or biological. I definitely cried a few times, and I adore August and the crazy group of friends he found at SPA.

If the trigger warnings are something you can handle, I definitely recommend picking this one up. I enjoyed it immensely.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC of this book!

3.5 stars

Jay is an 18-year-old openly gay boy living in the middle of nowhere, Washington. He's the only out kid at his school, and he spends the majority of his time lately third-wheeling it with his friend Lu and her new boyfriend Chip. Jay's worried he's going to be a virgin forever, stuck in his hometown. But! When his mom lands a promotion and they move to Seattle, he's suddenly immersed in school with a lot of other kids like him. So, Jay makes a list- his Gay Agenda, determined to experience his gay life to the fullest. What could possibly go wrong?

I liked a lot about this book, but it was just not written in a tone that I connected well with. I thought Jay was a great example of a horny 18-year-old trying to experience sex and everything that goes along with it for the first time, but the excessive "ohmigawd"s and "frack!"s (Jay refuses to say fuck) were distracting and took me out of the story often.

I loved the frankness and openness with discussing sex- seriously sex-positive, love that! But, one of the main plots of the storyline is (in my opinion) not exactly something that meshed well with me. Jay and a boy he's seeing never say they're "official," and he sleeps with another boy, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. He cheated, in my opinion. It's written in a way that is very honest and believable, but just not something I enjoyed.

Anyway, the characters were LOVELY- Albert and Max were absolutely my favorites, and I want nothing more than to protect than from any and all harm ever, I loved the look at an accepting and open high school where everyone is having the same problems and their sexualities aren't one of them.

Overall, I think this will be a great book for YA going through things exactly like this, and it's going to help in some important and open discussions about sex. It was an enjoyable, honest read, and I recommend checking it out!

tw: cheating, lots of mentions of sex and (positive!) sex talk

Okay. So.

We all know I think Casey can do no wrong, and this book just further proved that to me. I loved every minute of it.

One Last Stop follows super senior August as she moves to New York to keep continuing her education. She meets and moves in with literally the coolest group of people you will ever meet in an apartment building above a Popeye's Chicken in Brooklyn. On the train, August meets Jane- a mysterious, and frankly far too attractive for a fictional character has any right to be, vintage-looking punk that always seems to be around. Sparks fly (heh) and as they get to know each other, August notices things about Jane that are a little... odd. Can August help solve this mystery without falling in love?

Spoiler alert: no, she can't. Who wouldn't love Jane?

Honestly, though, this book is a delight. I admittedly know nothing about sci-fi or time travel, and I am fairly good at suspending disbelief, so the whole stuck-in-time thing (while not really plausible) I easily accepted because 1. It was cool, and 2. I am completely obsessed with Jane and want several more books detailing her interesting ass life before she got on that train, please.

As I have come to expect from a Casey novel, all the supporting characters were wonderful and full and real and feel like people I want to be friends with immediately. Also in this book, everyone in August's circle was LGBTQIA+ and I am here. for. it. Every character feels like someone I could know and I think that's just an amazing thing to do as an author and I'll never get tired of reading Casey's books because of it.

This book made me want to pack up my bags and move my ass to Brooklyn, immediately. Preferably into a building with a Popeye's Chicken attached.