I was late to the RITA reviewing party but there was a gap for a reviewer of either YA or Inspirational: I’m not inspirational but I was young once so YA it is. Checking out the title of Affective Needs was itself an education: apparently it’s a term for having emotional and social difficulties. Which I would have thought summed up pretty much everyone in high school, but there you go. Right. Here we are … Continue reading Affective Needs by Rebecca Taylor →
Affective Needs is a YA romance with classic teen characters, like an angsty, academically-focused young woman ready to leave the confines of high school and a broody, mysterious bad boy who just started at the school. Rebecca Taylor’s story trod well-worn paths, but injects some fresh insights with an eye toward the realities behind high school experiences. On day one hundred and forty-four, Bella Blake emerged from winter break with freshly dyed atomic-pink hair. Everyone … Continue reading Affective Needs by Rebecca Taylor →
Our heroine Mei is summoned to the Emperor’s palace after her father’s untimely death. There she quickly discovers the social stratification among the emperor’s many concubines. She also learns the intricate politics among the women, though not as quickly as perhaps she should have to succeed in her overriding goal: attracting the Emperor’s attention quickly so that she could assist her mother. The most intriguing aspect of this book is the interpersonal dynamics between the … Continue reading The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel →
I’d like to start by applauding a series about mature adults finding romance – Gen-X adults even! As a woman who falls into that category I wholeheartedly approve. And if you can get past the crazy-sauce goofiness of the underlying book, you’ll probably enjoy it. Our hero, Lawson Monroe, or Law for short, is a chef looking for a restaurant. He makes a deathbed promise to Jake, the man who saved him on many occasions, … Continue reading Barefoot at Midnight by Roxanne St. Claire →
I loathe this book. LOATHE. With the fiery passion of a thousand suns. It is the absolute worst. Wow, I need to start learning to express myself, don’t I? I almost wrote a DNF review for this at the 53% mark, but since I already did that (although that was out of apathy, not complete mind-numbing rage), I tried to force myself to read it – challenging myself that maybe it wouldn’t end like I … Continue reading Tell Me How This Ends by Victoria De La O →
This book is good. So goooooood. But dark. So daaaaaark. Content Warning: aggressive/stalker ex, disease/threat of death from disease, cheating, failure to have significant conversations, assumptions about what other people can handle. Characters: Charming female hero with family issues. Brooding male hero with ALL. THE. ISSUES. Also, when I say brooding, I mean brooding. Makes Heathcliff appear happy-go-lucky. Makes Darcy seem positively Pollyanna. Makes Sebastian Ballister, Marquess of Dain, look like a preschool teacher. In … Continue reading Make Me Sin by J.T. Geissinger →
First off, I am absolutely smitten with the heroine, Wil. She is pretty much everything I wish I was at seventeen. To be honest, she’s pretty much everything I wish I was today at twenty-seven. She is strong-willed and so incredibly clever and cheeky. Woods definitely has a way with providing so much of her character just through Wil’s incredible internal dialogue – I caught myself I giggling out loud many times. Butts aren’t meant … Continue reading Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods →
Squee from the Keeper Shelf is a feature wherein we share why we love the books we love, specifically the stories which are permanent residents of our Keeper shelves. Despite flaws, despite changes in age and perspective, despite the passage of time, we love particular books beyond reason, and the only thing better than re-reading them is telling other people about them. At length. If you’d like to submit your reasons for loving and keeping … Continue reading Keeper Shelf: Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster →
I’m a sucker for word nerd characters in my reading. Devotees of books, language, writing, libraries—bring ‘em on. And when a novel is as well written as The Pages of the Mind, it’s time to bring on the squee as well. Hence my whole-hearted enjoyment of The Pages of the Mind comes as no surprise, nor does my affection for the character of Dafne. Dafne is librarian, scribe, historian, and advisor to Ursula, the recently crowned … Continue reading The Pages of the Mind by Jeffe Kennedy →
This year, when selecting my choices to review for the RITA Reader Challenge, I made sure to choose books I actually own. I got this in one of many e-book sales, intrigued by the notion of a fantasy romance with a librarian heroine, not exactly something you see that often. It turns out that Dafne, as well as being a devoted librarian and archivist, is a scholar and a linguist who delights in learning new … Continue reading The Pages of the Mind by Jeffe Kennedy →
So, while I’d like to start this review off by describing why I loved this book – and I did love this book – I instead feel the need to begin with a content warning for self harm and some suicidal ideation. There’s no indication of this in the book’s description and the first mention happens only a few pages in. I found it abrupt, but it wasn’t so unsettling that it turned my opinion … Continue reading The Leopard King by Ann Aguirre →
