Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray

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Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray

Heir of Storms (Storm Weaver #1)
Lauryn Hamilton Murray
Roaring Brook Press
Published June 3, 2025

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About Heir of Storms

Red Queen meets Shadow and Bone in this explosive start to a YA romantasy trilogy about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and a cut-throat competition for the throne in an empire where crowns are not inherited — they’re won.

The very day Blaze came into the world, she almost drowned it. A Rain Singer born into one of the most powerful fire-wielding families in the empire, Blaze’s birth summoned a devastating storm that left thousands dead. She’s been hidden away ever since with a dark secret: the same torrential power that branded her an outcast disappeared that fateful day. And she’s not sure she wants it back.

When an unexpected invitation arrives for Blaze and her twin brother, Flint, to compete as future rulers of the empire, she’s suddenly thrust into the limelight again — and into battle. Threats abound at the Golden Palace, where intrigue and romance await with not one but two handsome suitors: the enchanting Crown Prince and a dangerously alluring newcomer at court.

As Blaze explores her untapped power, she discovers the throne may be within her grasp. But in order to take it, she’ll have to leave behind the stories that others have told about her, and find the courage to write her own.

My Review

Wow. Okay. I am having a hard time organizing my thoughts about this one. It was super easy to read. I just had surgery, so I was struggling to get back into reading, having a hard time focusing, stuff like that. And when I picked up this book, the story immediately drew me in.

Blaze has a lot of guilt. She’s a twin child in a family with powerful fire magic, but she somehow has water magic. And not just water magic, but water magic that killed a ton of people on the day she was born.

I thought it was interesting that the book created this moment to focus on what might happen when babies are born with magic power. She had no understanding of what she was doing to anyone else. She was literally a baby. And yet, people died. It’s one of those things that maybe other magic-based fantasies skim past or overlook. It was interesting for this book to highlight that and make it a critical moment in Blaze’s life.

I loved the magic competition. Basically, the gods of the story world determine when it’s time to pass the crown to the next generation. When this happens, there’s an eclipse. Competitors with different types of magic fight for the top positions serving the emperor as kings or queens. They remain rulers of their own magic users and serve as advisors to the emperor. So that process begins and Blaze, of course, must compete.

The competition brings up some interesting magic rules and political intrigue. Blaze herself feels caught between the attention of two powerful guys. I wasn’t the biggest fan of either one of them, but I’m intrigued to see where the story goes. The conclusion of the book kind of makes it clear who the true love interest is, and I think I’m willing to see if he’s actually worthy of her.

Conclusion

Overall, I definitely see the comparisons to Red Queen and Shadow and Bone. There’s a lot of politics and magic, as well as at least one possible love interest who might turn out to be the villain? I will absolutely follow this series into the second book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are born with the ability to do certain kinds of magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Bullying. Battle scenes. One character is enslaved.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol at social functions. One character gets very drunk on a painful anniversary.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa

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These Vengeful Gods
Gabe Cole Novoa
Random House Children’s
Published May 27, 2025

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About These Vengeful Gods

ALL GODS MUST DIE in this searingly relevant YA from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Bargain and Most Ardently. In a world bound by violence, a teen descended from the god of Death must keep their true identity a secret as they fight their way through a gladiator-style competition towards victory and rebellion against the gods who murdered their family.

Years ago, the descendants of the god of Death were murdered. The few that remain are in hiding, including Crow, a teen who survived the genocide and hides their magic to stay alive. After fleeing their village, Crow now lives with their uncles in the lowest part of the the Shallows.

Life in the Shallows is tough, but Crow’s even tougher. Hiding their magic has made Crow resourceful, cunning, and unbeatable — which comes in handy as a fighter in the city’s lucrative underground fighting ring.

Then, Crow’s uncles are arrested for harboring Deathchildren.  

With fists tightly clenched, Crow vows to set their uncles free. But to do that, they’re going to need to enter a world that threatens Crow’s very existence. Carefully navigating the politics of the wealthy and powerful, they enter the Tournament of the Gods — a gladiator-style competition where the winner is granted a favor. As they battle their way towards the winner’s circle, Crow plans to ask the gods for their uncles’ freedom as their reward.

But in a city of gods and magic, you don’t ask for what you want.

You take it.

My Review

I absolutely devoured this book. When I first opened it, I wanted to read the opening line, and I think I literally didn’t look up from the pages until twelve chapters later. So, yeah, this one is pretty immediately engrossing.

The story world is rich. A class system divides the people in Crow’s world, with levels ranging from literal gods to the poor barely scraping by in the Shallows. Crow’s one chance to escape the Shallows and rescue his family from prison comes in the form of a game in which competitors battle, often to the death. This part has a little bit of a Hunger Games vibe. Crow and the other fighters are signed up to compete in this tournament, and there’s all this pageantry surrounding them. And yet, essentially, their potential deaths are part of the entertainment.

Crow becomes part of a team who help each other within the competition. I enjoyed the way those relationships developed and the balance it brought to the story. Crow is the kind of character that gets pretty lost in his own head, so it worked well for there to be allies that drew him out.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, tournament-focused fantasy novel, I highly recommend this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. In one scene, a couple fall into bed kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are literal gods with certain kinds of magic. Runemagic also allows people to cast spells.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to genocide. Battle scenes. Also, spiders appear in multiple scenes.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Time After Time by Mikki Daughtry

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Time After Time
Mikki Daughtry
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

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About Time After Time

From the screenwriter and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel and film Five Feet Apart comes an epic YA sapphic romance, unfolding over two sets of lives, one hundred years apart.

Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself—even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn’t take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia. A love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth’s journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?

My Review

Sometimes when I read a book, the premise strikes me as something so clever or unusual that I wonder if that’s what brought the book to publication. This is one of those books.

The narrative has a lot of moving parts. We have chapters set in 1925, from the perspective of a young woman whose family lived in the Victorian house. We also follow two points of view from the present day. First, there’s Libby, a girl who just bought the house, and Tish, a girl she meets in her college classes and who offers to help her fix up the house.

As we get to know each narrator, we notice some striking similarities between Elizabeth from 1925 and Libby from 2025. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that those similarities are more than simple coincidences.

One of the story’s strengths is in its minor characters. I enjoyed the banter between Tish and Joe, the junkyard owner who helps her fix up her scooter, and Tish and her best friend Bari. Libby’s relationship with her mom was also fascinating.

I think readers interested in LGBTQIA+ stories in a historical setting will like getting to see the 1925 timeline in this novel. If your taste for romance leans a little more in the Hallmark movie vein, I can see this being a great pick. It feels a little more like a book to curl up with under a warm blanket, so maybe save it for a stormy summer afternoon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Two characters wake up in bed together.

Spiritual Content
Some references to reincarnation.

Violent Content
Brief prejudiced statements against an Irish woman. A man becomes violent in a confrontation. Someone sustains injuries in an accident.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking wine together.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Summer Girls
Jennifer Dugan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

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About Summer Girls

From the author of Some Girls Do comes a YA sapphic romance about two girls from different sides of the tracks.

Cass has a rule about dating summer girls—just say no. Every year the idyllic beach town Cass’s working-class family calls home is flooded with summer girls, the obnoxious daughters of the rich, who stay in their families’ summer homes, sail their yachts, and generally make things unbearable for townies like Cass.

Birdie is the ultimate summer girl. She’s the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer dad and a social media influencer mom, and this summer Birdie happens to be in big trouble for accidentally crashing her boyfriend’s very expensive car.

As punishment, Birdie must spend the summer with her father at the beach—but it won’t be a vacation. He’s enlisted the help of Cass, whose dad works for him, to keep Birdie on the straight and narrow, including getting her a job as a beach parking lot attendant.

As the summer heats up, Cass realizes some rules are made to be broken, and Birdie just might be different from other summer girls. Soon they can’t help falling for one another . . . But will the love the two girls have discovered be strong enough to overcome their differences?

My Review

Summer Girls is the first book by Jennifer Dugan that I’ve read. I’d heard great things about her other books, especially Hot Dog Girl or Melt with You. So, she’s been on my list of authors to check out for a while. Now that I’ve read one of her books, I only want to read more.

I’ve read more than one book lately that shines light on the harmful effects of gentrification on neighborhoods and communities. Summer Girls shows the classism at the root and offers a version of a “Prince and Pauper” kind of romance.

I like that in Dugan’s world, people are more than one thing. The characters continually wrestle with the moral weight of their choices, and struggle to evaluate the decisions others make on a moral scale. For example, Birdie’s dad makes a lot of money buying up foreclosure properties and flipping them as vacation rentals, something which exacerbates the housing crisis for local residents. Yet, he appears to be a big supporter of Cass’s dad’s community organization which helps homeowners retain their property. So, is he a good guy or bad guy? Is he taking advantage of a system and pretending friendship with Cass’s dad to keep his enemies close, or is his support genuine? I liked that the story explored this question.

The romance between Cass and Birdie is also very sweet. It’s got an estranged friends to lovers vibe that was a lot of fun. Birdie is also bisexual and wrestles with some biphobia. I like that Dugan brought this to the page, too.

All in all, I think this is a lovely summer romance, especially perfect for a beach or vacation read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Someone posts a photo of a boy cheating on his girlfriend with another girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One scene includes a car accident with minor injuries.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler

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Come As You Are
Dahlia Adler
Wednesday Books
Published May 27, 2025

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About Come As You Are

Hot on the heels of a broken heart, Everett “Evie” Riley arrives at Camden Academy ready for a new beginning – one far away from her cheating ex-boyfriend, the sister who stole him, and the best friend who let it happen. But her fresh start is stopped in its tracks when she’s accidentally placed in an all-boys dorm, with no choice but to stay.

When rumors and gossip about Evie’s housing predicament spread like wildfire, she decides the only way to survive is to lean into her questionable new reputation… but she’s definitely going to require help. Her grumpy emo dorm mate Salem Grayson isn’t exactly her first choice, but he does need her help to repair his relationship with his parents every bit as much as she needs his to learn how to be cool. And so they make a pact – he’ll teach her how to be bad, if she teaches him how to be good.

It’s a flawless plan, except while Salem thrives academically, even romantically, and – annoyingly enough – even physically, Evie’s quest feels like one dead end after another, and the girl she’s becoming certainly doesn’t feel remotely cool. But when Evie realizes what she wants more than anything, she’ll have to contend with her thrice-broken heart and figure out how to become someone capable of chasing happiness.

Dahlia Adler’s Come As You Are is about refusing to accept less than you deserve, and realizing that the best relationships are with people who know exactly who you are.

My Review

Okay, y’all. I feel like Dahlia Adler is one of those authors who just doesn’t get enough recognition for writing emotionally real, genuine, and hilarious characters and character casts. I mean, I know she gets recognition. But like… every time I read one of her books, I go in expecting high entertainment and a fun story, and I get so much more. She seems to hit the perfect balance between humor and vulnerability. The friendships between characters feel as real and complex as those we encounter in real life. I love the antics between friends and the banter between characters with the potential to be more.

In Come As You Are, Evie has enrolled in boarding school to escape a horrifically toxic family situation. The only emotional hiccup for me as I read the whole book was that I wanted to grab Evie’s parents by the ears and shake them, or I wanted her to be able to do that. And the truth is, as the kid in the situation, it’s not her job to address the problem. She did fine. And the truth is that sometimes, we do not have the power to initiate a healthy confrontation within our family circles. Sometimes the healthiest thing is to find a way to create boundaries and space. That’s really what Evie did, and bravo to her for it.

I had a great time reading this book. Every book I read by Adler is my new favorite of hers, and this one is no exception. If you’re looking for a smart, funny summer romance, grab this one immediately.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to sex (not shown on scene). Evie notes that she caught her sister and ex-boyfriend in bed together.

Spiritual Content
References to Christian and Jewish faith services and practice.

Violent Content
List.

Drug Content
References to smoking pot.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Under the Neon Lights by Arriel Vinson

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Under the Neon Lights
Arriel Vinson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Published June 3, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Under the Neon Lights

In this sparkling and heartfelt debut YA novel in verse, a young Black girl discovers first love, self-worth, and the power of a good skate. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Joya Goffney.

Sixteen-year-old Jaelyn Coleman lives for Saturdays at WestSide Roll, the iconic neighborhood roller rink. On these magical nights, Jae can lose herself in the music of DJ Sunny, the smell of nachos from the concession, and the crowd of some of her favorite people—old heads, dance crews, and other regulars like herself. Here, Jae and other Black teens can fully be themselves.

One Saturday, as Jae skates away her worries, she crashes into the cutest boy she’s ever seen. Trey’s dimples, rich brown skin, and warm smile make it impossible for her to be mad at him though. Best of all, he can’t stop finding excuses to be around her. A nice change for once, in contrast with her best friend’s cold distance of late or her estranged father creeping back into her life.

Just as Jae thinks her summer might change for the better, devastating news hits: Westside Roll is shutting down. The gentrification rapidly taking over her predominantly Black Indianapolis neighborhood, filling it with luxury apartments and fancy boutiques, has come for her safe-haven. And this is just one trouble Jae can’t skate away from.

Debut author Arriel Vinson’s lyrical and contemplative story of young Black love and coming of age in Indianapolis ushers in an exciting new voice in YA literature.

My Review

The descriptions of the skating rink were so perfect. My memories of going skating and the sounds, smells, the stickiness in the air, all of that, came springing back to life in my head as I read this book. The descriptions of the music let you know what’s going on without ever slowing down the story. I felt like I was right there with Jae.

What’s really awesome, too, is that the story paints the picture of the skating rink as this hub for community. It’s a space where people gather and celebrate music, relationships, and the joy of roller skating. I loved every one of those scenes.

The story also makes space to explore the ways that relationships change. Sometimes things break, and we don’t know how to fix them. Sometimes people let us down. And sometimes people change. Figuring out when to fight or confront versus when to let things go is not easy, and Jae faces several complex choices in her relationships.

Jae also lives in a town that’s facing increasing gentrification. It’s no the theme of the story. This isn’t a book about mobilizing the community to stop what’s happening. It’s about figuring out how to be who you are in an ever-changing world, and how to hold onto the things that matter to you even when the world keeps changing. There are some great moments in which Jae calls out gentrification and acknowledges the harm it’s causing. So while it’s not a story that centers on saving the skating rink, it does address the impact of the closure on the community.

I was engaged from the first page to the last. The verse lines move quickly, drawing our attention to the perfect amount of detail and creating a rich emotional story. I cannot wait to see what the author writes next.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few instances of strong profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Scenes show people falling while skating. References to racism and prejudice. Jae’s neighborhood faces increasing gentrification.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.