This one was so good, you guys. This is one of the most irresistible, easy-to-love YA reads of the year. Pining for You has a great, relatable, funny and enthusiastic heroine, and she kept me coming back to this one. I fell immediately in love with the prose, too. Pining for You is going to end up being a book I go back to again and again – a rare thing for me, as I … Continue reading Pining for You by Stef Ferrari
This guest squee is from Jeevani Charika! Jeevani Charika (also known as Rhoda Baxter) writes romantic comfort reads with a dash of fun. Her books have been shortlisted for multiple awards. Jeevani is British-Sri Lankan. She loves all things science geeky. She also loves cake, Lego and playing with Canva. You can find out more about her (and get a free book!) on her website. Her next book, How Can I Resist You? is available … Continue reading Movie Review: KPop Demon Hunters
Warrior Girl Unearthed is thrilling, upsetting, and edifying. There are some structural problems with this book, it still delivered the squee factor, in that I was totally absorbed and emotionally invested in this story. This is a stand-alone novel set in the same community as in the book The Firekeeper’s Daughter, another excellent read. Both books tackle difficult issues that face indigenous young women in America with empathy, perception, tenderness, and grit. Neither is a … Continue reading Warrior Girl Unearthed, by Angeline Boulley
A young woman, Utage Kinoshita, who loves the popular boy band F/ACE, has a job as a house cleaner. When she covers for a colleague who calls out, she discovers the assignment is for her favorite member of F/ACE, Tamon Fukuhara. However, Tamon’s charming, bad boy persona is fake and the poor guy is riddled with imposter syndrome and anxiety. A lot of manga feature teenagers as the main characters; that’s the case with all … Continue reading Tamon’s B-Side, Vol. 1 by Yuki Shiwasu
Escaping Mr. Rochester is not the book I hoped for but it’s OK. This is a YA retelling of Jane Eyre. If you’ve been reading SBTB for awhile, you know that Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. I read it annually, and each year it gives me a new experience, ranging from comforting and empowering to deeply challenging. I liked the basic content of Escaping Mr. Rochester, but wished it delved more deeply … Continue reading Escaping Mr. Rochester by L.L. McKinney
If you are even remotely on bookish social media, then you are aware of Fourth Wing. It’s been much-hyped and sold out and everywhere I look online there are rave reviews for this YA-fantasy-romance. I am not here to yuck anyone’s yum. If you read Fourth Wing and you loved it, I am totally happy for you. I want people to love what they read. This was not a book that worked for me, though, … Continue reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
If you are into cryptids/imaginary beasts/monsters from mythology and folklore, then you’ll find Once There Was to be a real treat. In this story, a teenager named Marjan is left an orphan when her father, a veterinarian, is murdered. Marjan soon discovers that her father had an unusual clientele consisting of magical animals and that she has inherited a gift of sensing their feelings and needs, a discovery that upends her life in every possible … Continue reading Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef
This Time It’s Real is a YA celebrity romance that focuses a lot on identity and fitting in. Eliza Lin’s mother is a corporate crisis manager, and as a result of her mom’s career she’s spent her childhood living all over the world. Now she’s in Beijing, and even though she’s Chinese, she doesn’t feel like she fits in at her new school any better than her last one. Eliza’s passion is writing, and for … Continue reading This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang
At Midnight, edited by Dahlia Adler, is a creative, inclusive mix of fairy tale reimaginings from a diverse YA perspective. Some of the stories are funny, some horrifying, but all are inventive and subversive. Different people will of course have different favorites, but my favorite story was “In the Forests of the Night.” In this retelling of “Fitcher’s Bird,” author Gita Trelease creates a bloody, vengeful, feminist and anti-colonialist version of the fairytale set in … Continue reading At Midnight edited by Dahlia Adler
Threadneedle was not at all the book I expected, but I found myself engrossed in the story even though I was upset by the content. In this YA novel, Anna, who has been taught to suppress her magic by her abusive aunt, falls in with a group of teens who are all too eager to explore their magical skills. As they hex bullies and dabble in romance, Anna must determine whether her aunt is to … Continue reading Threadneedle by Cari Thomas
Don’t start Our Crooked Hearts unless you have time to finish it. It’s such a wonderful, spooky, thrilling story that it’s hard to put down. It’s a book about imperfect parents, teenage dissatisfaction, and female empowerment and it unfolds beautifully. It’s also a remarkable ghost story. While this book has horror elements to it, it wasn’t especially scary and would be appropriate for a teen. I do want to warn readers about some violence to … Continue reading Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
