I'll start by saying I did not just recently discover John Green. I'd known about him since his guest appearances on PotterCast (going back to around 2008? 2009?), the NerdFighters, and The Fault in Our Stars, which I read and reviewed in 2013. I'd just never kept up with his other works. I'm not exactly sure … Continue reading Book Review: An Abundance of John Green
Title: The Dead Girls of Hysteria HallAuthor: Katie AlenderGenre: YA Horror/SuspensePage Count: 336 pagesPublisher: Scholastic PointRelease Date: August 30, 2016 Publisher’s Summary: Delia's new house isn't just a house. Long ago, it was the Piven Institute for the Care and Correction of Troubled Females -- an insane asylum nicknamed "Hysteria Hall." However, many of the inmates were not insane, just defiant … Continue reading Book Review: The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender
Title: Where the Forest Meets the StarsAuthor: Glendy VanderahGenre: Adult Contemporary Fiction, Romantic SuspensePage Count: 328 pagesPublisher: Lake Union PublishingRelease Date: March 1, 2019 Publisher’s Summary: After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove … Continue reading Book Review: Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah
Title: Where the Crawdads SingAuthor: Delia OwensGenre: Adult Fiction, Women's FictionPage Count: 379 pagesPublisher: G.P. Putnam's SonsRelease Date: August 14, 2018 Publisher’s Summary: For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals … Continue reading Book Review: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Title: Genesis Begins AgainAuthor: Alicia D. WilliamsGenre: MG/YA Own Voices Contemporary FictionPage Count: 385 pagesPublisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy BooksRelease Date: January 15, 2019 Publisher’s Summary: There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about herself. She knows the exact number because she keeps a list. Like #95: Because her skin is so dark, people call her charcoal and … Continue reading Book Review: Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
Title: What I Saw and How I LiedAuthor: Judy BlundellGenre: YA FictionPage Count: 300 pagesPublisher: ScholasticRelease Date: February 1, 2010 Publisher’s Summary: National Book Award Winner | When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than … Continue reading Book Review: What I Saw and How I Lied (*National Book Award Winner) by Judy Blundell
What happens when you take a futuristic YA dystopia and mash it up with clones and elite kids at a prestigious academy? You get the absolutely flippin’ awesome, unputdownable duet by Rebecca Hanover, The Similars (Book 1) and The Pretenders (Book 2). We meet Emmaline when she’s reeling from the recent suicide of her best … Continue reading Book Review: The Similars Series (The Similars & The Pretenders) by Rebecca Hanover
I was sick throughout a lot of last winter (2019), and it was the most I could do to lie in bed and listen to audio books. I discovered Mary Anderson’s free reading Pollyanna through LibriVox, and was hooked from Chapter 1. Pollyanna Whittier is an optimistic little girl who has endured great trials in … Continue reading Book Review: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
Title: Song for a WhaleAuthor: Lynne KellyPage Count: 224 pagesGenre: MG FictionPublisher: Delacorte Books for Young ReadersRelease Date: February 5, 2019 Publisher’s Summary: From fixing the class computer to repairing old radios, twelve-year-old Iris is a tech genius. But she's the only deaf person in her school, so people often treat her like she's not … Continue reading Book Review: Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly
Title: The BreakoutAuthor: Rachelle HarpSeries: Genesis: Book 1Page Count: 224 pagesGenre: YA DystopiaPublisher: 48fourteenRelease Date: November 1, 2019 Publisher’s Summary: Trina Hauk isn’t good at following the rules, despite her elite genetic designation. She’s never really fit in, kind of a loner who has a major crush on Kalen. Raised by the government, Trina has … Continue reading Book Review: The Breakout (Genesis: Book #1) by Rachelle Harp
I had never expected this to be "my" kind of book. I'd seen the title a million times on the shelves (virtual and otherwise) and it never appealed to me. I was expecting a sappy, melodramatic teen romance. How wrong I was! It was actually the ad for the Netflix movie that compelled me to … Continue reading Book Review: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
*Full disclosure: I was the editor of this novel for 48fourteen Publishing. The Songs We Remember is the heart-rending yet lovely sequel to The Songs in Our Hearts by Chantal Gadoury. In the next installment of this contemporary YA love story, we return to our lovably conscientious heroine, Charlie, and her now-boyfriend, the charmingly laid-back … Continue reading Editor’s Review: The Songs We Remember (The Songs in Our Hearts #2) by Chantal Gadoury
*Full disclosure: I was the editor of this novel for 48fourteen Publishing. Foretold (48fourteen, 2018) by Holly M. Campbell is the third - and final? - book in the Near Deaths Series. As a mega-fan of Mrs. Campbell's previous works, including Foreshadowed (Book 1), Forewarned (Book 2), and Without Curtains, I was beyond honored to … Continue reading Editor’s Review: Foretold (Book 3 of the Near Deaths Series) by Holly M. Campbell
I'm so glad I came upon the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Annihilation (FSG, 2014) is exactly the book I needed on this lazy, cold spring weekend. I read the whole thing in a day, and immediately purchased book #2 on my Kindle the instant I was finished. I plan to devour this series. … Continue reading Book Review: Annihilation (Southern Reach Trilogy #1) by Jeff VanderMeer
*I was the editor of this novel for The Parliament House Press. Nocturnal Meetings of the Mispalced (The Parliament House Press, 2018) by R.J. Garcia is my favorite book I've edited to date - and one of my all-time favorite novels ever. This unputdownable debut blends my favorite elements of YA, horror/mystery, small towns, a … Continue reading Editor’s Review: Nocturnal Meetings of the Misplaced by R.J. Garcia
Happily Ever After: Companion to the Selection Series (HarperTeen, 2015) is a compilation of previously published novellas and new bonus material, all pertaining to The Selection series by Kiera Cass. The bonus material was a nice touch. I loved the scenes from Celeste's point of view; those were definitely the highlight. I feel like I … Continue reading Book Review: Happily Ever After: Companion to the Selection Series by Kiera Cass
"'...you're not a mistake. In fact, you're kind of a miracle. ... The girl who shouldn't exist.'" Trigger 17, p. 152 Brave New Girl (Delacorte Press, 2017) is a YA dystopian novel by Rachel Vincent. The story is about Dahlia 16, a clone who was engineered to become a hydroponic gardener. Dahlia is one of … Continue reading Book Review: Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent
"'Someone or multiple someones are intentionally rewriting history,' Alice says. 'And keeping the Titanic stuck in time before its sinking,' Susannah says." - p. 249 Haunting the Deep (Knopf, 2017) is the sequel to How to Hang a Witch by #1 NYT bestselling YA author, Adriana Mather. In Mather's second YA paranormal thriller, we pick … Continue reading Book Review: Haunting the Deep by Adriana Mather
"I have to convince a group of people who hate me to help solve a curse that could be killing our families." - p. 125 How to Hang a Witch (Knopf, 2016) is a YA paranormal novel written by Adriana Mather, an actual descendant of the Salem Witch Trials' Cotton Mather. The protagonist in this … Continue reading Book Review: How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
This is my first TV series review on this book blog. I read far more than I watch TV, this is true. In fact, I don't watch television at all, unless it's late night political satire (think Colbert, Bill Maher, John Oliver), and I watch those via YouTube, so my TV is mainly for films. … Continue reading Netflix Review: Stranger Things Seasons 1 & 2
Perfect Scoundrels (Disney-Hyperion, 2013) is the third and final full-length book in the spectacular Heist Society trilogy by Ally Carter. This time, it's personal. There's a con at play, but Kat Bishop and her gang aren't the ones running it. Instead, the mark is one of their own: Kat's boyfriend, Hale. When Hale's grandmother dies and leaves her billion … Continue reading Book Review: Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3) by Ally Carter
Kat and the team are back in Uncommon Criminals (Disney-Hyperion 2011), the second installment of Ally Carter's Heist Society series. Now that Kat has established her line of thievery as a noble "Robin Hood" sort, she can't resist when a kind, elderly lady approaches her, begging Kat to right a decades-old wrong. Constance Miller beseeches Kat to … Continue reading Book Review: Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society #2) by Ally Carter
"...[T]his might be, in every way, a ghost hunt, a fool’s errand. The greatest con the greatest con man to never live had ever pulled." - 57% Since I so thoroughly enjoyed her Embassy Row series, I've embarked up Ally Carter's Heist Society trilogy. Heist Society (Disney-Hyperion, 2010) is the first book in this fun, YA … Continue reading Book Review: Heist Society (#1) by Ally Carter
"The internship was all kids my age who were here to sharpen their talents. They wanted to create the next wave of fashion. And I’d lied to them. I was lying to all of them." - 23% Alterations (2016) is a YA novel by debut author Stephanie Scott, and I'm going to jump right in … Continue reading Book Review: Alterations by Stephanie Scott
"I don’t want to be a princess. I don’t want the spotlight and the chaos and the duty. But more than that, I want the people I love to be safe, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen." - 52% Take the Key and Lock Her Up (2016) is the third installment in … Continue reading Book Review: Take the Key and Lock Her Up (Embassy Row #3) by Ally Carter
C.K. BROOKE 