Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson

Review: The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson

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The Scammer
Tiffany D. Jackson
Quill Tree Books
Published October 7, 2025

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About The Scammer

A ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, following a freshman girl whose college life is turned upside down when her roommate’s ex-convict brother moves into their dorm and starts controlling their every move.

Out from under her overprotective parents, Jordyn is ready to kill it in prelaw at a prestigious, historically Black university in Washington DC. When her new roommate’s brother is released from prison, the last thing Jordyn expects is to come home and find the ex-convict on their dorm room sofa. But Devonte needs a place to stay while he gets back on his feet—and how could she say no to one of her new best friends?

Devonte is older, as charming as he is intelligent, pushing every student he meets to make better choices about their young lives. But Jordyn senses something sinister beneath his friendly advice and growing group of followers. When one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, she must enlist the help of the university’s lone white student to uncover the mystery—or become trapped at the center of a web of lies more tangled than she can imagine.

My Review

I’m posting about a lot of books that are my first time reading books by authors this week, and this is no exception. Tiffany D. Jackson has been on my reading list for a LONG time, but I finally managed to read one of her books.

And, wow. You know that feeling on a roller coaster, where you’re being propelled upward, and you know the fall is coming any minute? That’s how it felt reading this book. It’s called The Scammer, and the back cover copy offers some pretty strong clues about what kind of story this is, so I had no reason to be surprised by Devonte’s behavior. But I felt like I wanted to jump between him and those girls, or at least to tell Jordyn to listen to herself so many times.

It was easy to feel Devonte’s magnetism, both in how people responded to him and in the way his character was written. While I wanted Jordyn to escape, I also felt how affected she was by his words and ideas.

I thought it was a really interesting choice to set the story on an HBCU campus. This posed some interesting questions and introduced ideas that a different setting may not have centered as easily.

The story is timely and bold. Jordyn’s hunger for connection with her peers, especially her roommates, was so powerful. Her grief was also easy to sense. The balance between the mystery/suspense elements and the romance was perfect. I felt like both fit well within the story.

I’m a huge fan of this author now, and I want to read everything else she’s written. I think I already own several more of her books, so hopefully I’ll get to those this year.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to sex. One character tells another that their family abused them, even if they don’t remember it.

Spiritual Content
One character shares some brief information about her Christian faith. Another character directs others to refer to him as a god.

Violent Content
References to death by suicide (happens off-scene). Some scenes show domestic abuse and a group attacking one person at another’s direction. References to gun violence resulting in death.

Drug Content
Some scenes show teens (college students) drinking alcohol. Someone drugs another person’s drink.

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: Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters by Yevgenia Nayberg

Book Review and Content, Graphic Novel or Adaptation, Memoir, Middle Grade 8-12, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters
Yevgenia Nayberg
Holiday House
Published April 14, 2026

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About Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters

Strong-willed Genya sets her mind to attending art school in 1980s Ukraine, amidst the turmoil of Soviet control, the Cold War, and the unfolding Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Genya—the nickname of the book’s author and story’s protagonist, Yevgenia—knows from age five that she wants to be an artist. When she turns eleven, she’ll apply to the same prestigious art school that her mother attended. But making the cut won’t be easy, especially with the school’s open-secret rule that no more than 1% of the student body can be Jewish.

The years before Genya’s eleventh birthday bring plenty to distract her. Nothing in Soviet Ukraine is quite as it seems; adults mock the government, but only in private; and her classmates are terrified of American bomb strikes. And that’s all before April 26, 1986, when Genya’s police officer neighbor gets called to an emergency in a town she’s never heard of: Chernobyl.

A graphic memoir account of creator Yevgenia Nayberg’s childhood, Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters is both deeply personal and a glimpse into broader Soviet intelligentsia experiences. Young readers curious about life elsewhere, particularly in the face of disaster, will find ample details to devour, while those dreaming of a creative life will take inspiration from Genya’s perseverance. Salient and yet often slyly funny, this is a must-read for any graphic memoir fan.

My Review

Genya wants to go to art school, but while she’s preparing, a reactor at Chernobyl explodes, upending her life. I really appreciate that, though her memories about the Chernobyl disaster are striking, the story is framed by her larger childhood goals and experiences.

In some ways, this story made me think of what it must have been like for children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The news was often shocking and riddled with more questions than answers. In the absence of information, people tried to protect themselves however they could (microwaving their groceries before putting them away, for example).

Though it’s a completely different situation, I suspect that some readers will identify with Genya’s experience. She tries to live her normal life and balks at the strange requests that adults make, even when those turn out to be decisions that keep her safer.

The writing and illustrations pair in very clever ways, playfully examining how children interpret what’s happening around them and discover hard truths about life.

This book was a lot of fun to read. Fans of Eugene Yelchin‘s work will not want to miss this.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
One panel shows a friend telling Genya that parents have sex to make a baby. Later, Genya reads a human biology book, and is horrified to discover that menstruation is actually a thing that many women experience every month.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Fear and rumors about potential American bomb strikes. References to prejudice against Jewish people. References to the oppressive government regime. References to deaths caused by radiation exposure and fears about spreading contamination.

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: Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , ,

Only This Beautiful Moment
Abdi Nazemian
HarperCollins
Published May 9, 2023

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About Only This Beautiful Moment

From the Stonewall Honor–winning author of Like a Love Story comes a sweeping story of three generations of boys in the same Iranian family. Perfect for fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club and Darius the Great Is Not Okay.

2019. Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed. When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself.

1978. Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country’s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises. And even worse—he’s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed.

1939. Bobby, the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted MGM studio contract. But the fairy-tale world of glamour he’s thrust into has a dark side.

Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this tale of intergenerational trauma and love is an ode to the fragile bonds of family, the hidden secrets of history, and all the beautiful moments that make us who we are today.

My Review

I read this book as part of a kidlit book club. I’d read Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian before and have Like a Love Story on my reading list. As I’m writing this review, his next book, Exquisite Things comes out shortly. I have to say that so far, I’m really loving all the selections we’ve read for our book club.

One of the powerful things about this book is that it follows three generations of young Iranian/Iranian-American men from three different time periods. How often do we really get to know a teen character and then see their parent and grandparent’s experiences up close in this way? I thought that was really cool.

The story opens with Moud in 2019. We meet his dad in this opening chapter, and I know I made some assumptions about him. To then zip back through time to witness Saeed as a teenager in Tehran challenged a few of the preconceptions I’d made about who he was and why he was that way. The extra time periods added a lot of layers to his and Bobby’s characters.

This is a heavily male-dominated story, but I think this is one of the instances in which that’s necessary to make the point the author is making here about generational relationships between men. Each time period shows strong women who defy gender expectations in their own ways, too, though those relationships are not the focus of the book.

All in all, Only This Beautiful Moment is a powerful story that sets a tall goal for itself and delivers on every promise.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used fairly infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. A couple of short scenes show a couple touching each other. One character walks into a bathroom where a stall door gets kicked open, briefly revealing two men having sex. The description is very brief and startling to the character.

Spiritual Content
References to prayer in a life-and-death situation along with an acknowledgement that the person praying isn’t sure they believe in the God they pray to in that moment. A couple of characters repeat religion-based homophobic claims.

Violent Content
Soldiers break up a political protest, shooting into the crowd and hitting people. Bobby encounters homophobic beliefs prevalent in the 1930s. A couple of characters react with anger after discovering that people close to them are gay. One scene shows someone arrested for being gay. Moud learns of friends arrested for being gay.

Drug Content
Saeed reluctantly drinks alcohol at a party. A doctor gives Bobby a prescription medication and tells him it will help with performance nerves. (The doctor also tries to pass the pill off as a decongestant.) Another character warns Bobby about taking the pills or drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I purchased a copy of this book and borrowed the audiobook version from my library. All opinions are my own.

Review: Sparking Fire Out of Fate by Brigid Kemmerer

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

Sparking Fire Out of Fate (Forging Silver into Stars #3)
Brigid Kemmerer
Bloomsbury YA
Published January 27, 2026

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About Sparking Fire Out of Fate

Broken loyalties. Uncertain fates. Two kingdoms hanging in the balance. . . The exhilarating finale in bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer’s Forging Silver series will leave readers breathless!

Callyn has grown closer to Queen Lia Mara in Syhl Shallow, bonded by the secret magic they share. But their magic can stay hidden only so long, especially when a dangerous plot on the Queen’s life forces Callyn to work with the man who betrayed her.

In Emberfall, Tycho and Jax are struggling to rebuild their connection after months apart, complicated when they learn of Truthbringers causing trouble at the borders. Sent to investigate together, Jax and Tycho soon discover that the rebellious faction has formed a devil’s bargain with the magical scravers to destroy human magic once and for all.

When their missions bring them together, Tycho, Jax, and Callyn find themselves facing threats from all sides. With one last chance to save their magic and their kingdoms, they must work together, or lose everything.

War has erupted. Love is tested. And without sacrifice, magic could destroy everyone.

My Review

It’s so weird to finally reach the end of this series, which is itself a spinoff of the Cursebreaker series, which started in 2019. (I think the first book in that series is still my favorite of them all, but I’ve enjoyed all the books. It’s hard to beat watching Harper and Rhen fall in love.)

By this point, so many books into this fantasy universe, I felt like I knew Kemmerer’s writing and the rules of the world, so I felt pretty confident that I knew what to expect from the book. And for a story like this, I feel like that’s a pretty great place to start reading. The series had made certain promises, and this book delivered on them all.

I liked the way that all the threads of the story (both stories, really) came together in the end of this one. I liked seeing the evolution of Tycho and Jax’s relationship as well as Callyn and Alec’s. There was a time when I did not think I could give Alec a chance, so it was cool to see how the story softened my feelings toward him and made me start rooting for him and Callyn to truly open up to one another.

I’m glad I stuck this series through to the end. It’s been a fun one to read, and really cool to follow especially the characters who appeared in Cursebreakers across both series to the end.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. A couple of scenes include explicit sexual contact.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic. In certain circumstances, magic can be used to control others, which causes a lot of fear. Scravers are humanlike with wings, sharp claws, and long fangs. They have their own magic.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle scenes in which people sustain serious or fatal injuries. A group of soldiers discovers a courier who was murdered. A mob clearly intends to kill mages.

There are a couple of vague references to sexual assault that happened to one character long before the story began.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol. References to one character drinking way too much and sort of absenting herself from her life and responsibilities for a time.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.

Review: In Time with You by Kristin Dwyer

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

In Time with You
Kristin Dwyer
Wednesday Books
Published March 3, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About In Time with You

A gripping speculative romance about one girl saving her first love’s life by falling for the last person she ever should – his best friend.

Nieve Monroe is devastated after her boyfriend Carter dies saving her from drowning. Even worse she blames herself for his death… and so does his best friend, Max. He was there with them on that fateful day, and he’s never liked Nieve.

Unable to pull herself from her grief and wanting to hide from the accusation in his eyes, Nieve goes to stay with her grandmother, who has always had strange stories to tell of uncanny happenings, of magic and make believe. The next morning, Nieve wakes up on the first day of college, the year before.

This time she plans to make sure Carter never follows her into that river. She’ll do everything in her power to keep him safe, even if it means losing him in other ways. But the more distance she puts between her and Carter, the closer she gets to Max, drawn to him in ways she never expected.

But is she betraying Carter if the only way she can save him is to move on? And can she ever forget her past to embrace her future?

Kristin Dwyer’s In Time With You is a heartbreaking story of first love, loss, and one chance to change everything.

My Review

In Time With You is the first book by Kristin Dwyer that I’ve read. One of her earlier novels, The Atlas of Us, was on my radar the year it came out, but I haven’t read it yet. Both that one (hiking romance) and this one (enemies to lovers) have elements that appeal to me, so I feel like it was inevitable that I’d read one of her books eventually. I’m glad it was this one.

I liked the way that the story used the time travel elements to reveal parts of the relationship with Carter that Nieve hadn’t been ready to face. Her task was never really as simple as leaping backward in time to prevent her boyfriend’s drowning and save their relationship.

It’s almost like she needs a do-over to actually examine what was happening and what led her to the river that day. She needs to see her friend group from a more removed position in order to sift through her feelings and evaluate what was really going on. Those elements drew me into the story as much as the romantic plot.

I also liked the focus on art and the back-and-forth between Nieve and Max about their artwork. The family connection between Nieve, her grandmother, and her cousin was also really sweet. I thought the part about the sheep was nicely done, too. All in all, a pretty engrossing college time-travel romance.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. A couple of scenes include brief descriptions of sex.

Spiritual Content
Nieve’s family celebrates holidays like Samhain and the Winter Solstice. She and her cousin follow different rituals and customs shaped by their grandmother’s beliefs.

Violent Content
References to an accidental drowning.

Drug Content
Several scenes show teens (college students) drinking alcohol.

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: One Word, Six Letters by Adib Khorram

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

One Word, Six Letters
Adib Khorram
Henry Holt & Co
Published March 17, 2026

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About One Word, Six Letters

Two teen boys grapple with identity and accountability and set off a ripple effect within their community after a school assembly is disrupted by a shouted slur.

Freshmen Dayton and Farshid couldn’t be more different—or so it seems.

When Dayton takes a dare and shouts the f-slur at a visiting author during a school event, it sets off a chain reaction that forces both boys to face parts of themselves they’d rather ignore.

Dayton, grappling with the fallout of his actions, faces rejection from his friends, disappointment from his parents, and a growing awareness of the harm he’s caused. Meanwhile, Farshid is left to untangle his own feelings—about himself and about the quiet struggle of coming to terms with his queerness in a world steeped in heteronormativity.

As their lives unexpectedly intersect, Dayton and Farshid must reckon with what kind of men they want to become and whether they have the courage to defy toxic masculinity and societal expectations.

Timely, raw, and deeply thought-provoking, this novel is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Nic Stone.

My Review

I think the way that the author chose to write this book is really interesting. First, it’s in second-person point of view (“You do this; you do that…”), which is an uncommon choice. Here, it really works to keep the narrative feeling immediate and to bring the reader as close to the story as possible. We are the protagonists, and the narrative never lets us forget that.

Additionally, the story alternates between Dayton and Farshid’s perspectives. We see both the circumstances that led Dayton to make a terrible choice and the harm that it causes.

I like that the story also highlights Farshid’s interest in boxing, a sport that not a lot of middle grade books explore. We also witness his battle with dysmorphia and how entangled that is with his identity and his fears about being outed.

I imagine it wasn’t easy to write Dayton’s perspective. While his viewpoint offers a deeper understanding into his behavior and his deep regret afterward, we are never asked to excuse what he did.

This is the kind of book that will start meaningful conversations about language and bullying and the harm that can come from using words carelessly. One Word, Six Letters is the first book by Adib Khorram that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
References to a slur. The slur itself never appears in the text.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a crush.

Spiritual Content
References to faith and Muslim prayer practices.

Violent Content
References to a homophobic slur. Some homophobic comments and behavior. Bullying behavior.

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.