I think I can say this was my least favorite Kasie book and I have now read all of her published contemporary books. I really liked having Skye back since I still have a good memory of The Distance Between Us! I really didn't like how the romance between Charlie and Braden built up and we didn't see it evolve until 230 pages. I really loved Charlie's brothers and I hope we get a book about one of them! I would love to read it.

I think I found my favorite book. I picked this up on a whim because this author was being recommended to read on Booktube, and so I picked it up and I'm so glad I did. I suggest going into it blind, that's how I went into it and I think it made my experience better.
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This story is told in Before and After of Serena's life when she met Sawyer and the aftermath. Serena has so much character development throughout this story as well as the other characters in the story. We see Serena's struggles as she's a single mother, 16 and pregnant. This story has so much important issues in it, and I loved how they were tied in.

Serena is one of my favorite characters, now. I really loved how different she was, in her high school days, she was a smart girl and anticipating early graduation to pursue her dreams of being a travel journalist. She also works at her father's restaurant, Antonia's. She's such a realistic and unique character, I really loved her! Despite some of her bad decisions, however I had to keep reminding myself that she was 16 and was making stupid decisions because of her age.

Sawyer is another character who we meet a lot and learn to really dislike. I really hated him throughout the book and was yelling at him. Katie designs the book this way. You really hate Sawyer like Reena does but you learn to forgive him in the end. It was a really cute end and I'm just so glad I read this.

This book will stick with me for a very long time.

This is probably my favorite of the series. However, it was super sad! Be warned!

I listened on audio, I liked the audio! I felt like some of this was like Perks of Being A Wallflower and it's kind of a funny story. I wish there were more sci fi to it but I understand how it could be like a metaphor. The grief was strong. Charlie and Zoey grieve, Henry grieves as well as his mother over her mother who has dementia. I liked Henry and Diego's relationship, it was nice and I liked how Diego treated Henry opposed to Marcus....hated him.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE LGBTQIA+ BOOK OF THIS YEAR, LOVED IT SO SO MUCH.

Riley Cavanaugh is a gender fluid teenager. Gender Fluid is not a common theme in LGBTQIA+ YA books that I have read and Garvin did it justice. Before reading the book, I did not have any knowledge of gender fluid however after reading I fully understood this. Garvin does a great job of being informative for the reader to better understand gender fluidity and other members of LGBTQIA+ community.

Garvin does not write Riley with pronouns in this book because Riley will one day feel like a girl and the next feel like a boy or neither on any given day. Seeing Riley's struggles through this novel were very realistic. There are severe bullying scenes which felt like a realistic because the LGBTQIA+ community does deal with the dangers of their sexuality and many are abused for their sexuality. Mental health also appears in this book. TRIGGER WARNING FOR SUICIDE.

Riley is trying to find an outlet to discuss being gender fluid because Riley's parents just weren't understanding. Riley resorts to blogging and becomes what we know was "tumblr famous" on a site similar to Tumblr. Riley becomes very popular in the Internet world, an icon to the LGBTQIA+ community. Also, Riley can relate to the feeling of getting lost in the Internet and realizing the screen says 2AM when it did say 8PM.

As this book is about a gender fluid teen, we also see many other aspects of the LGBTQIA+ community within the characters Riley meets and other instances such as Riley reading stories of other people in the LGBTQIA+ community and helping a blog follower make a life-changing decision. Therefore, I learned a lot about other sexualities of the LGBTQIA+ community than just gender fluidity. I absolutely loved this book and devoured it.

If any book fits into the LGBTQIA+ YA genre, it's this one. Garvin did an outstanding job representing LGBTQIA+ as a community rather than just focusing on the Gender Fluid aspect of this novel.

3.75 RATING
I feel like this was close to a 4 star. But not quite. I haven't read a book like this before, so I can't compare it to anything, but I have my reasons for the rating & a SF review.

This story was very enthralling and I was definitely addicted to what would happen next. However, the story is told within the span of one hour. Being told only during one hour made it really hard to connect to the characters and watch them develop. This was really about getting to know the characters and learn their stories.

Multiple POV's really interest me and I enjoyed how it was done in this book. There are perspectives from students witnessing the shooting, outsiders, and social media posts. This was very, very different and I liked having many more perspectives from different characters & sources.

At times, I felt it was predictable and not much of a surprise or shock factor. As well as not much dialogue from the shooter - so at times it was confusing to understand what was going on. Having not ever witnessed a school shooting personally, it was harder for me to really know if it was realistic or not.

Diverse characters stood out to me the most during this read. Some of the students are POC; for example: Fareed who is from Afghanistan. Also, a LGBT romance is involved in the story, which was fascinating to read.

The story told really shows that you don't really know everyone's story, even if they're your former classmates. Many of the students had elaborate stories from their home life and personally as well.

Overall, I did enjoy this read but it definitely had some flaws.

I was so glad to dive into a new Sandy Hall book. Since discovering her last autumn, I wanted to read Signs Point to Yes, very badly!!

It was different from her debut, A Little Something Different (and that will always be my fave) but I thoroughly enjoyed this. It was very diverse and interesting, no insta-love. The thing I love most about Hall's writing is that she builds up the romance as in the MC's forming a crush and going through that crush. Though, everyone around them has the "just get together, already!!!" mind-set.
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Jane is looking for a summer job to get away from the house and her mother nagging her about college decisions and living up to her sister, Margo's achievements. She can't spend all summer writing crossover fanfiction of Doctor Who and her other favorite BBC shows. Jane ends up landing a babysitting job of three young girls around the corner from her house. Teo Gracia lives here -- whose friend Ravi, is NOT a fan of her due to an incident in middle school.

Teo Gracia has been sporadically searching for his father and trying to deal with his stepfather, Buck ordering him around the house. His mother always brushed off the idea of Teo's biological father.

Margo is her parents prized possession child, she's finished her internship for the summer and her first year of college..She's contemplating the idea of telling her parents that she is bi-sexual.

Sandy Hall packs in many heavy messages into this light, fluffy contemporary. I love Sandy Hall's writing process and storytelling because she can write a great contemporary filled with messages that need to be implemented more. I rarely read about bi-sexual fictional characters and Margo was definitely a great one.
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A mini-roadtrip is involved in this story when Margo, Teo's friend, Ravi and Jane set off to drive from Pennsylvania to Illinois! I love a good road trip.
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Lately, I've been thinking about contemporary as Realistic Fiction and trying to see it. Signs Point to Yes is definitely Realistic Fiction.

Recommend this for Doctor Who fans, fanfiction lovers, and just everyone who can relate to this story. It was very, very good :)

(3.5 stars) Clare and Aidan go on a "scavenger hunt" for their last night in town before departing to college. Clare will be going to Darmouth in New Hampshire and Aiden will be at UCLA in California. They're trying to determine the outcome of their relationship to stay together or to break-up. Throughout this night, they follow the list of their first-times and special places that have meaning to their relationship. It's a wild night full of emotions and what-if moments, as well as goodbye's to their friends and to each other.

I really liked the organization of the story. The chapters are divided by each stop from #1 to #14. Each stop is described in detail of why it's significant to their relationship. As well as some detours that get in the way.

Friendship is a significant part of this book, especially with their friends Scotty and Stella. Scotty is acting out because of his emotions toward the fact that he's staying in town at community college while his friends are going away to college. I could relate to Scotty because I felt disappointed when my friends went to college and I went to community college. It hurt and I didn't talk to them as often as I thought I would. It was a big change.

However, I have trouble with Smith's books. I always feel disappointed with the story and the characters until the end. The end is where I feel that I liked the book, but I wish that the book would've been like that the whole time. Clare was a character that annoyed me. She could never make up her mind, she was whiny and it seemed that everything revolved around her. Her friend, Stella calls her out and says that it's always been about Clare and her complaining about what to do with Aiden, but she never once asked her what was going on with her. It was "why aren't you there for me?"...ugh. Clare is very, VERY indecisive in this book. I always have a problem with Smith's female characters, they always seem the same. Stella was my favorite character, by far. I loved her personality and how she put Scotty in his place!

I usually have a problem with Smith's writing because it's not what I'm used to. But, I didn't have a problem with the writing in this book. It was clear for me and I wasn't confused like I usually am.

I really liked the storyline of what happens next when you're going off to college. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is graduating high school, you'll resonate with this story - for sure!

I NEED HALF STARS, GOODREADS!!! 3.5 Stars is my overall rating.

I was sent this book for the Backstage Pass Series Box Set from Entangled Teen via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinions on the book in any way.

We follow Aimee whose summer gets turned around when her friend, Becky ends up getting mono and cancelling their fun summer plans. Instead, Aimee has to go on tour with Seconds to Juliet with her brother, Nick and the band for three weeks while her parents are on a trip for Doctors Without Borders. Aimee isn't thrilled, but deep down she's a secret superfan of the band. She ends up rekindling a friendship and relationship with Miles - a friend of her brother from their childhood- who is in the band. Miles is known as "The Heartthrob" of the band due to his past relationships. Her brother, Nick forces her to stay away from him because he is a player.

Nonetheless, Aimee and Miles go against the rules because of their love for eachother. I felt this book was SUPER cringey at times because of the things they said.. Aimee's phrase to say is "nut-burgers" Huh? Also, some of the cheesy lines that Miles would say had me cringing!!!

This was super cute, as I expected. It read like a boy band fanfiction. Miles is probably my least favorite character, though. I kinda hated how he kept having to hide his relationship with Aimee and he was sort of a hypocrite! He would always say, I can't be with you blah blah blah and then he'd sneak Aimee and make out with her. GAH.

Miles got super cute at the end, though!! I shipped them together by the Epilogue. Glad there was an epilogue b/c I really wanted to know where they were after the tour!

Aimee was a GREAT character!! She's a YouTuber!! I thought that was amazing, she and her friend, Becky run a vlog channel where they review books, movies and music. I would so watch them if they were IRL!!

This was a cute, short and sweet read following a seventeen year old girl who loves writing fan-fiction for her favorite show, Lycanthrope High. But, her world is turned upside down when the show is cancelled. Along with her fellow LH friends on Tumblr, Scarlett finds herself writing a new fan-fiction including her friends, and classmates.

Personally, the fan-fiction wasn't my type of story and it stressed me out because she was including full names of people she knew IRL! However, being an Internet person, I could relate to Scarlett through her internet friendships.

Scarlett is a Jewish character, which I thought was unique! And her best friend is an old woman, Ruth who smokes pot & is gay!


If you're a writer and love fan fiction, pick this up!