Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Bad Like Us by Gabriella Lepore

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Bad Like Us by Gabriella Lepore

Bad Like Us
Gabriella Lepore
Inkyard Press
Published March 5, 2024

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About Bad Like Us

Two friend groups collide when someone turns up dead over spring break in this heart-thumping YA thriller for fans of ONE OF US IS LYING and WE WERE LIARS.

Spring break is a vibe—until someone gets murdered.

Partying with popular classmates they barely know is not what Eva and her BFFs had in mind for their spring break. But things have been off ever since Miles’ academic career took a turn for the worse (they don’t talk about it), so a trip to a private beach lodge might be exactly what they need. And Eva won’t admit it, but the chance to reconnect with Colton is worth putting up with Piper’s constant livestreams to her thousands of “besties.”

At first, it’s all sand and waves, but tensions run high when an anonymous letter shakes up an already-flailing love triangle.

When someone turns up dead, Eva can’t even trust her closest friends—but she thinks she can trust Colton. As they get closer to the truth, they uncover secrets that upend everything they thought they knew about their fellow spring breakers.

My Review

I read this book really fast, which was really great, since the last few books I’ve read seemed to take a long time. The plot of BAD LIKE US moves pretty quickly, and the chapters are short– another thing I love in a book!

The story follows two points of view and then includes videos recorded by a third person, so it feels like three different viewpoints. I liked both Eva and Colton, both of whom have real-time scenes from their perspectives. The story has a bit of romance that develops, and I thought that was balanced well against the murder mystery. It never felt like those two story elements were competing with each other. The progression of the romance felt natural.

I liked the setting, too. The whole story takes place at a beach resort in Oregon that one character’s uncle owns. It’s in a secluded area near the beach, which makes it pretty isolated. Some of the characters surf, so there were some scenes featuring surfing. One character is a social media influencer, so there are a bunch of scenes showing her making videos and other people reacting to the way that she behaves and the things she says in the videos.

If you’re looking for a quick read in the vein of Diana Urban or Karen McManus, I recommend this one. I think BAD LIKE US is my favorite of Gabriella Lepore’s books so far.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
The three point-of-view characters are white. The friend group includes at least one person who is queer and two people of color.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. A girl confesses that she has romantic feelings for another girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Eva learns a boy discovered the body of a girl who has died. (She doesn’t see it happen.) One scene shows people threatening someone. Someone shoves another person into the water. Another person has injuries from surfing.

A girl uses her social media account to say harmful things about other people.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol while hanging out at a beach resort.

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 BAD LIKE US in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

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

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

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: Kyra Just for Today by Sara Zarr

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Kyra Just for Today
Sara Zarr
Balzer + Bray
Published March 5, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Kyra Just for Today

From award-winning author Sara Zarr comes a gorgeously crafted and deeply personal story about a young girl, her alcoholic mother, and the hope that ties them together. Krya has always felt like she’s a bit too much. Too tall. Too loud. Too earnest. But she’s okay with that, because she’s got her mom. Ever since Mom got sober about five years ago, she and Kyra have always been there for each other—something Kyra is thankful for every week when she attends her group meetings with other kids of alcoholics. When Mom is managing her cleaning business and Kyra is taking care of things at home, maybe, she thinks, she’s not too much. Maybe, she’s just enough.

Then seventh grade starts, and everything Kyra used to be able to count on feels unsure. Kyra’s best friend, Lu, is hanging out with eighth graders, and Mom is unusually distant. When Mom starts missing work, sleeping in, and forgetting things, Kyra doesn’t dare say “relapse.” But soon not saying that word means not saying anything at all—to Lu or to her support group. And when Kyra suspects that her worst fears might be real, she starts to question whether being just enough is not enough at all.

With sensitivity and candor, acclaimed author Sara Zarr tells a heartfelt, personal story about finding hope in even the most difficult places, and love in even the most complicated relationships.

My Review

I haven’t read everything by Sara Zarr, but I’ve really enjoyed the books I have read. She has this incredible ability to bring complex family situations and complex emotions or relationships to the table in a way that feels vulnerable and authentic and never preachy.

This book also nails that transition from childhood to adolescence, where so many of our friendships change. Sometimes the connections we treasured morph or stretch into new shapes. Having those changes on top of Kyra’s worries about her mom made for a story with a ton of emotional depth.

The scenes in which Kyra attends a support group for kids who have loved ones who are alcoholics were incredible, too. I think I sobbed through a couple of those right along with the characters in the scene. They were so moving.

All this makes the book sound like it’s packed with big emotions and tears, and there are some heavy scenes, for sure. I also enjoyed the scenes that showed how friendships can surprise us and how watching a beautiful snowfall can make everything else fade away for a little while. I cracked up during one scene in the cafeteria.

I think kids navigating transitions in friendships will enjoy the peer relationships in this book. I was around this age when it became openly discussed in our family that one family member was an alcoholic. I really didn’t understand what that meant beyond the excessive drinking behaviors, so a book like this may have really helped me put things into context. It may have given me a view of what recovery could look like and the ways in which supportive friendships or groups could look.

All in all, I loved this book, and I’m so glad Sara Zarr wrote it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Kyra’s mom is an alcoholic in recovery. Her best friend’s dad is also an alcoholic and is still drinking.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Kyra’s grandparents are very religious and pressure her and her mom to come to their church with them. Kyra’s mom believes in the importance of a higher power, but she thinks of the ocean as her higher power because it’s so vast and deep.

Violent Content
A parent pushes a child away when the kid jokingly tries to grab her mom’s journal. A girl injures herself cooking and has to call for help.

Drug Content
References to adults drinking excessively. (The drinking happens off-scene.)

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 book 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

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

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.