The only sort of risk 18-year-old Laila Piedra enjoys in Final Draft is the peril she writes for the characters in her stories: epic sci-fi worlds full of quests, forbidden love, and…
Tag: contemporary fiction

Review: The House that Lou Built by Mae Respicio
Lou Bulosan-Nelson is going to build her dream in The House that Lou Built. She shares a room with her mom in her grandmother's house in San Francisco, and longs…

Review: All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor
Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they…

Review:: Descendants by Rae Else
There are lots of stories about the children of gods. But what about those cursed by the gods, and their descendants... El, a seventeen-year-old has inherited an ancient and deadly…

Review:: Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee
After a shout-out from one of the Internet’s superstar vloggers, Natasha “Tash” Zelenka finds herself and her obscure, amateur web series, Unhappy Families, thrust into the limelight: She’s gone viral…

Review:: How to Make A Wish by Ashley Herring Blake
All seventeen year-old Grace Glasser wants in How to Make A Wish is her own life. A normal life in which she sleeps in the same bed for longer than three…

Review:: Noteworthy by Riley Redgate
It’s the start of Jordan Sun’s junior year at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing Arts in Noteworthy. Unfortunately, she’s an Alto 2, which—in the musical theatre world—is sort…

Review:: Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman
In Girl Out of Water, Anise Sawyer plans to spend every minute of summer with her friends: surfing, chowing down on fish tacos drizzled with wasabi balsamic vinegar, and throwing…

Review:: The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: The Summer That Melted Everything the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.…

Review:: The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera
Pretty in Pink comes to the South Bronx in The Education of Margot Sanchez, a bold and romantic coming-of-age novel about dysfunctional families, good and bad choices, and finding the…

Review:: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which…

My NaNo Rebellion!
I'm not really a rebel, most of the time. I like to follow the rules, unless they're stupid or I absolutely can't. In the case of National Novel Writing Month,…

Review:: This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Please be aware that This is Where It Ends is about a school shooting. If this is something that will upset you, I'd recommend not reading this review and probably…

Review:: Tempting Isabel by Rissa Brahm
In Tempting Isabel, Wedding planner Isabel Ruiz is cursed. Her hometown of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico agrees, considering her tragic track record. Alone and loveless, she creates fairy-tale weddings for others.…

Review:: Root, Petal, Thorn by Ella Joy Olsen
I received a copy of Root, Petal, Thorn as an eARC from the publisher, Kensington Books, and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Root, Petal, Thorn follows the stories of five…