Category Archives: Young Adult/Teen 12-18

Review: Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

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Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

Furia
Yamile Saied Méndez
Algonquin Young Readers
Published September 15, 2020

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About Furia

An #ownvoices contemporary YA set in Argentina, about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line—even her blooming love story—to follow her dreams.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.

At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.

On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.

But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol—and she needs their permission to go any farther. And the boy she once loved is back in town. Since he left, Diego has become an international star, playing in Italy for the renowned team Juventus. Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by her feelings for him. Things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

My Review

I remember really wanting to read this book when it came out. I haven’t read a lot of soccer books, and I’m not super familiar with the game, but that didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this book at all.

At the surface, this is a story of a girl who wants to win an important soccer tournament that could open doors for her to play on a professional team. She must balance school, an after-school job, family pressure, and the pull of romance with her passion for soccer. The team experiences trouble, from losses, injured players, and people forcing players to quit, so the stakes rise as the story progresses.

In the early chapters, the romance kind of dominated the story. I loved the relationship between Camila and Diego, so I didn’t mind this at all. It also allowed us to see the contrast between how Diego treated Camila and how her father and other men in her life treated women.

We still got to see a lot of scenes of Camila practicing and playing soccer, and I loved that, too. I felt like those scenes were very easy to follow, even for someone who isn’t super familiar with the game. I found it easy to lose myself in the intensity of the game and Camila’s fierce desire to win.

Underneath all of that, though, the author shares commentary on Argentinian culture. Not too long ago, it was illegal for women to play soccer. Even still, the players in the book faced enormous prejudice and pressure to quit. The story references how often girls disappear and how little law enforcement has done to address the problem. As a result, Camila worries for her safety when she has to be out at night and while she rides the bus. Sometimes family members use the danger as reason to squash her independence.

FURIA is definitely a book that swept in during the pandemic and didn’t get nearly as much notice as it should have. I think fans of YOU DON’T HAVE A SHOT by Racquel Marie or WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH by Elizabeth Acevedo will love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Camila is multi-racial, with a Russian great-grandmother, Pakistani grandfather, Andalusian grandmother and Black great-great-grandmother. She is also Argentinian and lives in Rosario.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used once. Mild profanity used fewer than a dozen times.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A woman tells Camila she wasn’t allowed to play soccer because her parents thought it would make her a lesbian. Two of the female soccer players on Camila’s team are dating.

Spiritual Content
Camila thanks la Virgencita for a good thing that happens. She buys a card for La Difunta, a saint who died in the desert and was found still nursing her baby in a beam of sunshine. Camila makes plans to bring water to a shrine for the saint and asks for her help. Camila visits a healer who calls on the saints and the Lord to heal her and says the healing will depend on Camila’s faith.

Violent Content
Camila gets hit in the face by a soccer ball and knocked down during a game. A twelve-year-old girl goes missing and is later found murdered. Camila reflects on how often this happens to young women in Rosario and the injustice of that. A man knocks a teenage girl down and hits her with a belt.

Drug Content
References to alcohol and smoking.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog.

Review: The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

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

The Poisons We Drink
Bethany Baptiste
Sourcebooks Fire
Published March 5, 2024

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About The Poisons We Drink

In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.

Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.

Then an enemy’s iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother’s killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.’s most influential politicians.

As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it’s hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.

My Review

I loved so many things about this book. First, of course, I loved the relationship between Janus and Venus, who are sisters. They’re very different from one another and argue a lot, but at the end of the day, each one knows her sister has her back.

I also loved the magic system. It’s complex, but really interesting. Venus is a “brewer,” meaning she makes potions. But in order to do this, she must commit to only one kind of potion brewing. She has committed to brewing potions in love magic, so things that impact relationships.

She gets embroiled in a political scheme when legislators propose a bill that would mean witchers (magic users) would be required to register with the government, which, considering the way witchers are already treated by the government, would be a terrible thing. I liked the way the political issue drove the story forward. It made for high stakes and some intense reckoning over morals and what someone might be willing to do to protect the people they love or avenge a loved one’s murder.

While I loved the magic system, there were a couple of moments– not a lot of them– where I got confused about how things worked. An action suddenly broke a bond. A character could suddenly do a kind of magic I thought she wasn’t supposed to be capable of or didn’t pay the price that I thought she said would be exacted if she took certain actions.

It’s possible that those were fixed before the book was released (I read a pre-release copy). Even with those few hiccups, I was super carried away reading the story of this wild, pink-haired witcher ready to mete out justice or vengeance, as the situation demanded, no matter the personal cost.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Venus and other characters are Black. Venus is queer. Another character is nonbinary.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two people. One chapter opens with an explicit sex scene. A couple takes a bath together.

Spiritual Content
Some characters can perform magic, limited by the energy they have in their bodies, which they can replenish with special baths and teas or naturally replenishes over time. Powerful magic can sap so much energy from a person that it kills them. When someone breaks a magical oath or does something terrible using magic, a deviation or corrupt magical being can become part of them. This deviant will continue to try to break free or take control of its host.

Violent Content
Humans fear and hate magic users. They legislate ways to control them, from limiting the number of witchers who can be in a single area legally at a time to proposing a bill that would require each witcher to register with the government (because that always goes good places). Terrorists target witchers. Enforcers use violence to break up witcher gatherings.

In addition, some scenes show violence during magic use, such as bones shifting or breaking, and brief descriptions of body horror. A powerful blood ritual binds two people after they press their cut palms together. References to murders by gunshot, bomb, or other means. Venus attacks a few people who have tried to harm her or her family members. In one scene, a person uses a magical bond to control another and makes them stab themselves.

Drug Content
Venus can create potions that convince people to forgive one another, love someone, or make them highly susceptible to new ideas. There are also potions that can restore health or save someone from death.

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

Review: Daughter of the Bone Forest by Jasmine Skye

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Daughter of the Bone Forest (Witch Hall #1)
Jasmine Skye
Feiwel & Friends
Published February 27, 2023

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About Daughter of the Bone Forest

Two girls reluctantly bound by fate must weather a dangerous courtship as a prophesied war grows ever closer in Jasmine Skye’s high-stakes, queernormative dark fantasy debut, DAUGHTER OF THE BONE FOREST.

Rosy is a bone familiar, gifted with the power to shift into animals marked with exposed bone. She spends most of her days in the magical Bone Forest, caring for her feral grandmother and hiding her powers to avoid conscription by the Witch King’s army. Until the day that Princess Shaw, a witch known as Death’s Heir, visits the Forest. When Rosy saves Shaw’s life, the princess offers her the chance to attend the prestigious school, Witch Hall, as payment. Though Rosy is wary of Shaw’s intentions, she cannot pass up the opportunity to find the cure for her grandmother’s affliction.

But at Witch Hall, Rosy finds herself embroiled in political games she doesn’t understand. Shaw wants Rosy for her entourage, a partner to help lead the coming war. All Rosy wants is to stay out of trouble until she can graduate and save her grandmother, but she can’t deny her attraction to Shaw or the comfort Shaw’s magic gives her. Will Rosy give in to her destiny, or will the Bone Forest call her home once and for all?

My Review

I got totally lost in this book. It’s the first in a series, but I kept forgetting that as I read it. I loved both main characters– Rosy and Shaw. Rosy’s scenes are told in first person point of view, and Shaw’s are in third person, so I immediately felt closer to Rosy, which I think was the point. Shaw is so closed and carefully measured and controlled.

The romance arc in this one was honestly pretty perfect for me. I think a higher percentage of the girl/girl romances I’ve read have either had an insta-love vibe, and that’s really not my favorite kind of romance to read. This one is much more in the slow burn lane, which has (especially lately) been a favorite flavor of romance for me. So DAUGHTER OF THE BONE FOREST knocked it out of the park for me as a reader in terms of its romance elements.

I also find the magic system really intriguing and different. There are magic users (witches) and shapeshifters (familiars) who often bond with one another for magic and life benefits. I can’t remember all the different magic classes, but I know there was bone magic, which the main characters use. There’s also flower magic and maybe ice magic?

Most of the story takes place at the magic school (Witch Hall) so the book also has a magic boarding school vibe to it, too. I see that more often in middle grade books, so it was really fun to get to read a young adult novel with that element for a change.

All in all, I would absolutely call this one a win for me. I really look forward to where the series goes. I’m already excited for the second book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
I don’t remember there being a lot of physical character descriptions. One character is nonbinary. Another is bigender. Some minor characters are in same-gender couples. The two major characters (both girls) enter a courting relationship with each other.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls. Kissing between two boys.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic of certain types. Other characters have the ability to shapeshift into one or more animal forms. Often, a witch (magic user) will bond with a familiar (shapeshifter), and both receive a power boost.

Violent Content
Situations of peril and battle violence. In one scene, men light a group of unarmed students and a young villager on fire.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Conditions of a Heart by Bethany Mangle

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Conditions of a Heart
Bethany Mangle
Margaret K. Mc Elderry Books
Published February 20, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Conditions of a Heart

For fans of Talia Hibbert and Lynn Painter comes a funny and unflinchingly honest story about a teen who must come to terms with her disability and what it means for her identity, her love life, and her future.

Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.

But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being, Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one herself.

My Review

One of the things that this book does so expertly is beginning in the middle. Brynn and Oliver have broken up. Brynn has crafted an entire pretend identity in which she isn’t disabled because she had some terrible experiences when the people around her knew about her health issues. We walk immediately into Brynn’s careful house-of-cards life with just enough time to understand what’s happening and why before the whole castle crumbles around her.

Another thing that I thought was really cool is Brynn’s relationship with her dad. He has the same condition she does, so he’s able to understand and empathize with her in a way that her mom and sister can’t, even though they want to help her.

Brynn has a really interesting character growth arc, too. At the beginning of the book, she’s convinced that keeping her medical diagnosis a secret will make her relationships with her peers less complicated and more stable. As the story progresses, though, she begins to see how many doors she closes by choosing to keep her disability secret (a choice that several characters are careful to point out is hers to make). It takes a lot for her to begin to imagine what a different life could look like, but once she does imagine it, she pushes up her sleeves and starts the work of trying to make that life happen.

All in all, I found this book to be a thoughtful, funny, and endearing story. I loved the romance elements, and the way the family and friend relationships impacted the story and grew through its telling. I think fans of EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY by Abigail Johnson would really enjoy this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Brynn has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She’s biracial– white and Asian American. Her best friend is a lesbian and Latine.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A boy hits another boy and a girl. Some bullying and ableist comments.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Someday Daughter by Ellen O’Clover

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

The Someday Daughter
Ellen O’Clover
HarperTeen
Published February 20, 2024

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About The Someday Daughter

Years before Audrey St. Vrain was born, her mother, Camilla, shot to fame with Letters to My Someday Daughter, a self-help book encouraging women to treat themselves with the same love and care they’d treat their own daughters. While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family.

Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world. But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives—not as the someday daughter and someday mother, but as themselves, just as they are.

What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff—including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas—will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life.

My Review

While I didn’t feel the immediate connection with this book that I did with O’Clover’s debut, I think there’s still so much to love about her sophomore novel. There’s lots of room in the young adult book sphere for mining mother-daughter relationships, especially complex ones. At times, I worried that the story would drift into condemning Audrey for her wounds and boundaries with her mom, and though there were a couple of conversations I wish had gone differently, the story explored those hurts and responses to hurts with a lot of sensitivity and depth.

The romance subplot moves very slowly, which actually really works here. Because the story is largely focused on Audrey’s relationship with her mom, the way her mom’s book has made her feel, and the way people treat her because of her connection to her mom, I think the romance needed to be more of a back-burner-simmer rather than demanding the spotlight. It also helped to showcase what supportive relationships can look like– they don’t demand centerstage when the moment isn’t right.

All of that to say that two books in, I’m still a huge fan of Ellen O’Clover’s writing. I love the depth that she creates and explores in her main characters, and I’m absolutely here for whatever book(s) come next.

Fans of Emery Lord or Ashley Schumacher will want to check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
One minor character is Asian American. Another is gay. Another is a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Audrey recalls a time that her mom showed up at her school (for other reasons) and wound up having a sex education with the other girls in her dorm. References to sex.

Kissing between boy and girl. In one scene, they undress together, and the scene ends with their intention to have sex.

Spiritual Content
A girl gets out an Ouija board, intending for the group to use it.

Violent Content
A girl nearly drowns in a lake. A tropical storm brings violent wind and rain.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol at a club.

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

Review: This is How You Fall in Love by Anika Hussain

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

This is How You Fall in Love
Anika Hussain
Hot Key Books
Published February 2, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

This is How You Fall in Love

Zara and Adnan are just friends. Always have been, always will be. Even if they have to pretend to be girlfriend and boyfriend…

Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she’s desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn’t the kind of thing she had in mind. But there’s something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs.

So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings… And when a new boy turns up in Zara’s life, things get more confusing than ever.

The course of true love never did run smooth, but Zara’s love story is messier than most…

A hilarious and heartfelt romcom, told with a light touch, perfect for fans of TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, EXCUSE ME WHILE I UGLY CRY and HANI AND ISHU’S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING.

My Review

I haven’t read EXCUSE ME WHILE I UGLY CRY, but I’ve read the other two books the cover copy compares this book to, and I can see the comparison– both the other titles have fake dating scenarios.

Zara is easy to love. Her relationships with her family members felt real, and I loved the big Desi family/community feelings in some of the scenes. The whole story is from Zara’s perspective, so we really saw how she feels about the people in her life. Some passages show transcripts of text messages or online message exchanges, and I especially liked that they showed messages she typed and deleted. Some of those hit me hard.

There are two boys in the book with whom Zara has moments exploring her feelings. The first is Adnan, her best friend and the boy she ends up in a fake dating relationship with. The second is Yahya, a boy she meets randomly and connects with really easily.

I immediately liked Yahya. Adnan was a little more of a challenge. He seems kind of in his own head and does some thoughtless things that have a big impact on Zara’s life, so it took longer for me to see what Zara saw in him and why they were so close.

I liked that this book doesn’t hit all the usual fake dating beats, but it mixed things up a bit. Readers looking for a romance with a South Asian lead will find lots to love here, and readers looking for a fake dating story that defies a few expectations here and there will find THIS IS HOW YOU FALL IN LOVE to be a refreshing, fun love story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Zara, Adnan and their families are Bangladeshi and British? I think this is set in the UK. A couple other characters are Latine.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Zara opens a gift containing sexy underwear and condoms. References to sex.

Spiritual Content
References to Muslim holidays and celebrations. Zara mentions prayer or Allah a few times.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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