One of my favorite book tropes is friend to romance. Once I figured out while reading that this is what SYBG would become, I was immediately more hooked than I was from the start. Emily has been left a list of 13 tasks that are completely out of her comfort zone. Emily dedicates the summer to completing this list that her best friend, Sloane has left her - who has disappeared and only left her this list. This has Emily frantic and confused by the whole situation. However, SYBG is not about wondering where Sloane could have went, it's about Emily completing the list and how the list changes her life that used to just be her and Sloane. I loved that Emily was discovering herself and the summer she wasn't expecting. Emily meets some great friends, gets a summer job at Paradise Ice Cream and takes risks.

Emily is very awkward and antisocial which was something I could really relate to. Emily was a very relatable and realistic character. However, she did bother me at times by the way she treated Frank. I really enjoyed the friendship Frank and Emily had and their development. I think YA needs more male/female friendships. Frank was by far my favorite character as well as Collins and Dawn.

This is a perfect summer read and it inspired me to make my own summer bucket list!
If you've read Matson's other novels, you'll like to see them pop up throughout the story.

Any cat lover will adore this graphic novel filled with cat comics! As a cat lover myself, this was such a funny and relatable read!

I was sent this by the publisher, Swoon Reads in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

CW: eating disorder, panic attacks
rep: fat mc, sister is a lesbian, anxiety

I loved this so much! It gave me a lot of The Upside of Unrequited vibes. The romance was so cute, I shipped George and Savvy the whole way! This book is also very body positive! Savvy mentions to her mother, a former contestant on a weight loss show, “News flash: fat is not a bad word”.

To Be Honest has a great sister relationship and friendship. I loved Savvy’s relationship with her sister and her best friend, Grace! They were great influences for Savvy.

I could relate to Savvy in many ways especially her anxiety. I suffer from anxiety myself and I could totally relate to Savvy during her anxiety spirals and panic attacks.

I also really loved the aspect of Journalism. Savvy and her best friend, Grace uncover the truth about the schools baseball team scandal for their school newspaper. I liked reading about the story and the girls passion for writing.

Like Maggie’s debut novel, The Big F, this novel also dives into the topic of college. Savvy has to adjust to her sister, Ashley not being in the house and later on in the novel, Savvy revisits the idea of going to the same college as her sister.

I felt many similarities to The Big F, in particular the addition of pizza! I definitely was craving pizza and it felt like I was reading The Big F, again. Also some of the characters felt similar to those in The Big F. But I liked how the stories were opposites.

As I did love this book, some of my complaints are that I felt George’s character could’ve had more back story, I thought he definitely would’ve taken Savvy to homecoming and his excuse didn’t seem plausible. I also found some misspellings, yet I did have an ARC copy so I am hoping they will be fixed. Also, I wanted to see Savvy working, I was really bummed that she didn't have a job because it's normal for high school students to work part-time. Those are just a few issues I had.

Overall, I highly recommend this for fans of The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli and Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen.

If Candy Crush was a book it would be this.

Great read about a teenage girl exploring herself in gender and sexuality but is held back from her father who is a minister. Great friendship aspect and "chosen family". I also loved the small town aspect and that she is still figuring herself out in the end. We also have other characters who are discovering their sexualities. Including a demisexual character. Plus, cosplay!! Overall, really enjoyed this read.

I enjoyed this book so much and I need MORE. There is transgender FTM representation and the MC is asexual. This author definitely did her research and I really appreciate that. She goes into detail with dialogue by showing transphobia toward Kade, the trans/FTM character and including " gender dysphoria is a form of torture" said by one of the other students.

The story really picks up once the mystery begins when the students start getting killed and other students are being framed. I really liked that the mystery was unpredictable because I hate predicting exactly who did it and it ruins the book for me. Luckily, that didn't happen here!

I really enjoyed all of the characters. They all had their own personalities and attributes that made them unique. This gave me a Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children vibe, but I'll say I enjoyed this much more.

However, I can't give this a full five stars because I am still left with confusion on how the world works and what the doors mean. Also, what are Wayward children exactly? Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it.

"You shouldn't close doors just because you don't like what's on the other side"

A very sentimental and heartwrenching read. I do feel differently than I did reading this novel 10 years ago (2008). I do feel like Ponyboy sounds more like a middle schooler than a teenager. But, also it was interesting to see how differently he interacted with adults. I also loved the friendship between Ponyboy and Johnny! It was so genuine and so cute.