Sasha has been in love with her best friend, Xavier, for a while, but just when she's about to tell him how she feels, he gets back together with Ivy, his ex who cheated on him and broke his heart. In an effort to prove to Xavier that Ivy hasn't changed, Sasha poses as a guy online and starts a flirtation with Ivy. Soon, however, Sasha's plan goes way, way wrong, and eventually, each of them will do something they can't take back.

BAD GIRLS WITH PERFECT FACES is an edge of your seat thriller with high drama. The main characters are all deeply flawed and frequently make poor choices. What's really well done in this book is that even if you don't like the choices they make, you can understand the logic for each person, what led them to believe the path they chose was the only one or the best one available to them.

While I appreciated the characterization, I ultimately just wasn't super invested in the story. I liked the twists at the end, but I might have put the book down if it wasn't as short as it was. The type of drama (love triangle, backstabbing, blackmail, etc) ended up not being my particular cup of tea, but fans of series like Pretty Little Liars will likely love it.

Princess Aurelia has blood magic, something banned in her country, and she knows just how much she isn't wanted as an heir. When she's almost assassinated, she leaves her home and sheds her name, disguising herself as a commoner. Without the pressures of her old life, she finds a new happiness and freedom, as well as possible love. But the past won't leave her alone, and as the ghosts come back to haunt her, she will have to decide if she can take responsibility for the path ahead of her.

I didn't know much about BLOODLEAF going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it! It has Goose Girl vibes with the princess describing herself as a commoner, which I love. What I enjoyed most was Aurelia's growth once she became a commoner. She really adapts to her new life and finds so much happiness there. It was heartbreaking knowing that something bad was always creeping up on her and that her happiness wouldn't last forever.

The romance was also super swoony. It has a forbidden love trope woven in.

Saki Yamamoto dreads spending the summer in her grandmother's isolated village, far away from her friends in Tokyo. While preparing for the Obon ceremony, Saki gets an opportunity to hang out with some local kids who want to sneak into a shrine. After a dare to ring the sacred bell, Saki gets more than she bargained: she accidentally invokes a death curse. With 3 nights to undo it along with the help of several spirits, Saki must brave the Night Parade, spirit guardians of the shrine, and more if she wants to stay on her side of living.

THE NIGHT PARADE is full of awesome creepy scenes that sent chills up my spine (especially the scene with witch's son). This would be a great read-a-like for Tracey Baptiste's Jumbies series for the creep/scary level.

I enjoyed how realistic Saki's feelings are. She feels immense pressure to fit in so she isn't as directly bullied as some of her classmates are, but she also starts to think that the 'friends' she has back in Tokyo might not be worth it. She has to learn to stand up for herself and push back against the pressure to go along with something just because others are.

Yumeko is a half kitsune raised by monks who guard a piece of a priceless prayer that will summon the great Kami Dragon for a single wish. With the time of the dragon's return arising, multiple dangerous parties are after the prayer, including Kage Tatsumi, a shinobi working on behalf of the Shadow Clan. When he is sent to retrieve the prayer from the temple, he finds it in flames with everyone, except Yumeko, dead. The monks' last command to Yumeko was for her to guard the scroll and bring it to another temple where another piece of the prayer is located. Unaware that Yumeko has the scroll (and that's she's half kitsune), the two journey to find the other temple together in a tentative, temporary alliance, fighting demons, witches, and more along the way.

What I love most about any Julie Kagawa series is how compulsively readable it is. From the first chapter of SHADOW OF THE FOX, I was hooked. We get a glimpse of Suki, a maid turned ghost, who stumbles into a plot at the palace before we move to Yumeko and Tatsumi, and I love how we later see how Suki and her story ties into theirs.

Yumeko and Tatsumi are a fun grumpy x sunshine pairing with forbidden romance and secret identities sprinkled on top. Tatsumi, wielder of a demon blade, comes from a cold, cruel world, and he has a beautiful arc learning to lower his guard and feel his feelings. Yumeko is torn between her kitsune and human sides and judged harshly on both by the people and yokai who understand what she is. She has to learn to accept herself as is, even if others won't.

With high action, a horror edge, and banter-filled character chemistry, SHADOW OF THE FOX is the first in an exciting series about discovering and accepting yourself and letting others see you, all while battling demons and trying to prevent the bad guys from getting access to a powerful wish of their choosing.

This was a really interesting read! Like Walton's prior book, this one involves generational threads with magic. In THE PRICE GUIDE TO THE OCCULT, we have a family, whose magic was lessened by the effects of a spell several generations ago, living on an isolated island. The spell is set to 'expire' with Nor, a teen girl traumatized by a mother who wanted everything and was willing to sacrifice anything, including her daughter, to have it.

The voice and setting are strong. You can really get the feel of being a local at a place where tourists flock seasonally, where the atmosphere always has a tinge of magic (and as the novel goes on, not always good magic). Like many young adults in small towns like Nor's island, Nor and her friends wonder about the future, if they'll always be on the island (which some would like, while others would feel trapped by) or who might leave (and not return). Nor left high school and got her GED, if I remember correctly, which was refreshing to see. Sometimes she and her best friend joke about homework, but Nor's decision is never looked down upon.