Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson: ARC Book Review

I really appreciated how Love is a Revolution is a YA novel written for a YA audience. Nowadays YA encompasses such a broad range of maturity levels. So, sometimes I’ll read a YA book and it’ll includes some seriously adult-like problems/contexts, and have wonder if I would actually recommend it to a young teen to read.

You can tell Watson wrote this story with a teen audience in mind. Meaning that it may not be the most mature, nuanced book, but nor does it boast to be. The characters in Love is a Revolution feel real, are realistically flawed, and read like actual teenagers. This is the sort of book I would highly recommend to young teens, as I can easily believe they’d feel themselves represented in its pages. And its main message: to love yourself and be true to you, is a one I think a lot of teens could benefit from hearing repeated.

Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli: Blog Tour & Book Review

I’m so excited to share my review of Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli with all of you – I had so much fun reading this book!

As someone who spent the better part of her high school career as a certifiable musical theatre geek, this book felt so nostalgic to me, in the best way. There’s just something so magical about putting on a high school musical, and Albertalli really captured that feeling in this novel. It made me long for my old musical days. ❤️

The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth: Book Review

This book utterly destroyed me. I’m talking wave after wave of emotion. Not to be dramatic, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. You know that first time you read a book and you just know it’s going to be one of your favourites for ever and ever and you’ll definitely read it over and over again and feel the exact same way? Yeah, that was this book for me.

The Falling in Love Montage is everything I’ve ever wanted in a book: a cute – sapphic! – romance, strong family themes, and a coming-of-age story. The main character, Saoirse, is such a treat. I really appreciated that even though throughout the story she’s figuring a lot of things out, one thing that she never questions is her sexuality. (I am so sick of that trope in queer romances.) She’s sassy, quirky and incredibly relatable. It’s impossible not to feel something while reading her story, and I for one was obsessed with her voice. SO fun and heartfelt all at the same time.

The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch: Blog Tour & Book Review

Sky Baker is a 17-year-old – soon to be 18 – openly gay student in his small town of Rock Ledge, Michigan, who is both dreading and anticipating the end of high school. Dreading, because as soon as school is done both his best friends will be moving away for college while he’s stuck in Rock Ledge, and anticipating, because once he’s graduated he’ll finally be able to get away from the homophobic bullies at his school. At least his constant daydreaming about asking his crush, Ali Rashid, to prom makes these final school days bearable.

That is, until an anonymous hacker somehow leaks Sky’s plans for his promposal to Ali on their senior class’s weekly e-blast in a super homophobic (and racist) way. Now everyone – including Ali himself – knows how Sky feels. Sky is devastated, but soon realizes he’s not as alone in this fight as he first thought, and that friendship can be found in the most unlikely of places. And while trying to track down the hacker, learns the much more important lesson about being true to yourself.

Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher: ARC Book Review

Amelia Griffin and Jenna Williams are best friends, practically inseparable. They’ve been that way ever since they bonded over their shared love of novels, specifically the Orman Chronicles, written by the elusive N. E. Endsley. And ever since then, Jenna’s had their whole shared lives mapped out.

But everything goes quickly astray when, while travelling in Ireland, Jenna is in a fatal car accident and dies. Now Amelia is alone, set-adrift, and unsure what to do. That is, until a mysterious package shows up and contains none other than a rare edition of the Orman Chronicles – one that shouldn’t even exist. Believing it must be somehow related to Jenna, Amelia sets out to find out where it came from, a journey which takes her all the way to a small bookstore in Michigan… and N. E. Endsley himself. Who turns out to be very different than Amelia expected.