Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

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Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

Love Radio
Ebony LaDelle
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published May 31, 2022

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About Love Radio

Hitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this witty and romantic teen novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can get a girl who hates all things romance to fall in love with him in only three dates.

Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted.

Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners.

Until he meets Dani Ford.

Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago.

And that’s one thing Dani can’t do.

When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for.

Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever.

My Review

I really enjoyed LOVE RADIO. It’s not easy to write in a way that’s both really natural and really emotive, but this book is very much both. I found it very easy to get lost in the story. The writing makes it feel as though you’re sitting down with someone, listening to them tell the story directly. It’s both entertaining and heartfelt, and I loved following both Prince and Danielle’s stories. I loved their families and friend groups, too.

LOVE RADIO celebrates music and literature and how both inspired Prince and Danielle. I loved the way both of those passions were woven into the story. Danielle writes letters to some of her favorite writers as part of processing some things that happened to her. I loved that as Prince and Danielle got to know each other, they each found ways to celebrate things the other person loved. They also respected each other’s commitments to family and friends and the boundaries they set with one another.

I loved this sweet, playful romance that celebrates music and literature as well as treating one another well. I’m super glad I read it, and I can’t wait to see what Ebony LaDelle writes next.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Danielle and Prince are Black. Prince’s mom has Multiple Sclerosis. His younger brother has ADHD. One of Danielle’s friends is Muslim.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – content warning for sexual assault.
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. In one scene a girl and boy take their shirts off together.

A college boy kisses and touches a girl after she repeatedly tells him no. He rips her dress. She runs away from him.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
See sexual content section.

Drug Content
Danielle and her friend drink alcohol at an apartment where college boys are hanging out.

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.

Review: The Boy Who Met a Whale by Nizrana Farook

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The Boy Who Met a Whale
Nizrana Farook
Peachtree Publishing
Published on February 1, 2022

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About The Boy Who Met a Whale

From the author of THE GIRL WHO STOLE AN ELEPHANT comes another brilliant escapade. A thrilling adventure set in fictional Sri Lanka, jam-packed with peril and kidnap and a huge blue whale!

Razi, a local fisherboy, is watching turtle eggs hatch when he sees a boat bobbing into view. With a chill, he notices a small, still hand hanging over the side… Inside is Zheng, who’s escaped a shipwreck and is full of tales of sea monsters and missing treasure. But the villains who are after Zheng are soon after Razi and his sister, Shifa, too. And so begins an exhilarating adventure in the shadow of the biggest sea monster of them all…

My Review

I really enjoyed reading THE BOY WHO MET A WHALE. Razi and his sister are still grieving over their dad’s death when Zheng washes up on their beach. Zheng tells all kinds of wild stories, and at first Razi and Shifa aren’t sure what to believe about them. When two of Zheng’s former shipmates make it clear they intend to kill Zheng, though, Razi and Shifa decide they have to help him escape.

The three go on an adventure over the sea, following clues on a map Zheng’s captain left him. They’re determined to find an important treasure and return it to its rightful owner. Zheng’s two former shipmates, Marco and Cook, pursue them, making it clear they’ll stop at nothing to get the treasure.

I loved so many things about this book. The way they worked together to decode the treasure map. All their plans to outsmart the men chasing them. The way the three of them bonded and became close friends. I kind of wish there had been more scenes with Maalu the whale, though. She definitely played an important role, I think I just wanted more scenes with her or maybe something where the kids helped her, too?

On the whole, I loved this book, though, and I would love to read THE GIRL WHO STOLE AN ELEPHANT, which is also by the same author.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Razi and Shifa are Sri Lankan.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Two men chase and threaten to kill the kids. A boy hits a man in the face with a fish.

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 book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson

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The Agathas
Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
Delacorte Press
Published May 3, 2022

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About The Agathas

Last summer, Alice Ogilve’s basketball-star boyfriend Steve dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days. Where she went and what happened to her is the biggest mystery in Castle Cove, because she’s not talking. Or it was, at least. But now, another one of Steve’s girlfriends has vanished: Brooke Donovan, Alice’s ex–best friend. And it doesn’t look like Brooke will be coming back. . .

Enter Iris Adams, Alice’s tutor. Iris has her own reasons for wanting to disappear, though unlike Alice, she doesn’t have the money or the means. That could be changed by the hefty reward Brooke’s grandmother is offering to anyone who can share information about her granddaughter’s whereabouts. The police are convinced Steve is the culprit, but Alice isn’t so sure, and with Iris on her side, she just might be able to prove her theory.

In order to get the reward and prove Steve’s innocence, they need to figure out who killed Brooke Donovan. And luckily Alice has exactly what they need—the complete works of Agatha Christie. If there’s anyone that can teach the girls how to solve a mystery it’s the master herself. But the town of Castle Cove holds many secrets, and Alice and Iris have no idea how much danger they’re about to walk into.

My Review

I really enjoyed that this book celebrated Agatha Christie as an author and celebrated her books in a very accessible way. I’m not very familiar with the books, though I’ve seen a movie version of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. I also watched this Drunk History video on The Mysterious Disappearance of Agatha Christie. That’s about the whole of my knowledge of Agatha Christie.

The book includes a lot of quotes from Christie’s books. I thought those were really well-placed, and they added a lot to my expectations of each chapter where they were used.

In terms of the characters, THE AGATHAS is told from Alice and Iris’s points of view. I liked both girls right away. I felt like it was a little harder to get to know Alice, since she keeps everyone at arm’s length. It was hard to tell how she truly felt about her ex-boyfriend, Steve, and Brooke, her former best friend. I liked how she always had a plan and was clever.

The plot kept a good pace, and I really enjoyed the read. Sometimes mysteries are so serious that reading them is kind of intense, but I didn’t get that feeling here. It was like reading a mystery that also celebrated the genre, if that makes sense? So there were lots of elements of fun.

At the end of the book, the girls talk about the other unsolved mysteries in their town. Could they solve them? It made me wonder if there’s the possibility that this book could become a series? I haven’t seen anything about that anywhere, but I’ll be watching for news just in case.

Content Notes for The Agathas

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Both main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief references to sex. No graphic descriptions. No sexual contact on scene.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Content Warning for domestic violence and murder.
Brief, graphic descriptions of murder. Some brief descriptions of a girl who was found after being in water for two days. Descriptions of and references to domestic violence.

Drug Content
In some scenes, teens drink alcohol. Twice, someone is drugged by a prescription pill in their beer.

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 AGATHAS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Family of Liars by E. Lockhart

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Family of Liars
E. Lockhart
Delacorte Press
Published May 3, 2022

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About Family of Liars

The prequel to WE WERE LIARS takes readers back to the story of another summer, another generation, and the secrets that will haunt them for decades to come.

A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.

Welcome back to the Sinclair family.
They were always liars.

My Review

I first read WE WERE LIARS in one sitting, telling myself, “just one more chapter” all the way to the end. So, when I heard there was going to be a prequel, I knew I had to read it. It’ll be a little tricky to review the book without giving any spoilers for WE WERE LIARS, but I’ll do my absolute best!

FAMILY OF LIARS takes place on the same island that WE WERE LIARS does. It’s an island owned by the Sinclair family, where they stay every summer in beautiful houses with hired staff. The story is told by Carrie, the oldest of four sisters, the aunt of Cadence, the main character in WE WERE LIARS.

Carrie is grieving the loss of her youngest sister, who drowned on the island. Her family never talks about her sister, though, so Carrie feels isolated in her grief. She’s also addicted to pain pills, something that began during her recovery from cosmetic surgery to reshape her jaw.

That summer, for the first time, Carrie falls in love. It’s not like she expects, and the boy, Pfeff, is unpredictable and… odd. He’s very odd. Charming and impulsive. Daring and forgetful.

So Carrie tells us the story of the summer she met Pfeff and all that happened to her family. The secrets that devastate them quietly behind the masks of perfection.

The Tension Gradually Builds

I felt like the story began a little more slowly, building gradually. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure I was going to love it. I couldn’t get a feel for where it was going and whether it was going to have that same emotional, destructive darkness that WE WERE LIARS had that I found so compelling.

Then, the story began to build speed. Power. I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened to Carrie, her sisters, her mom. All these broken girls with their secrets and lies. I needed to know what would happen to them.

So I stayed up waaaaay too late finishing the second half of the book, and now I really want to read WE WERE LIARS again to see how knowing these things about Carrie’s generation of the Sinclair family fits into what we learn in Cadence’s story.

All in all, though, I’m so glad I read FAMILY OF LIARS, and I recommend it to anyone who loved WE WERE LIARS. You don’t have to have read WWL before reading this book, but know that FAMILY OF LIARS contains spoilers for WE WERE LIARS, so if you plan on reading both, read WWL first.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Most characters are white. One character is Jewish. One boy is gay. Two girls have a romantic relationship with each other.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Brief touching. In one scene they undress and it’s understood they have sex. Reference to sex. Reference to two girls in a romantic relationship.

Spiritual Content
Ghosts visit Carrie.

Violent Content
Someone hits another person over the head and kills them.

Drug Content
Carrie takes codeine and sleeping pills. Carrie and the other teens drink alcohol.

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.

Review: Arden Grey by Ray Stoeve

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Arden Grey
Ray Stoeve
Amulet Books
Published April 26, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Arden Grey

Sixteen-year-old Arden Grey is struggling. Her mother has left their family, her father and her younger brother won’t talk about it, and a classmate, Tanner, keeps harassing her about her sexuality—which isn’t even public. (She knows she likes girls romantically, but she thinks she might be asexual.) At least she’s got her love of film photography and her best and only friend, Jamie, to help her cope.

Then Jamie, who is trans, starts dating Caroline, and suddenly he isn’t so reliable. Arden’s insecurity about their friendship grows. She starts to wonder if she’s jealous or if Jamie’s relationship with Caroline is somehow unhealthy—and it makes her reconsider how much of her relationship with her absent mom wasn’t okay, too.

My Review

This was kind of a last-minute pick for me, but ARDEN GREY seemed like a book that I didn’t want to miss. I’ve read a few other books with photographer narrators– TELL ME EVERYTHING by Sarah Enni and BREATHING UNDERWATER by Sarah Allen are the two I remember off the top of my head– and I’ve enjoyed all of them. And complex family relationships are another pretty sure-fire win for me in a book.

I guess all that to say that I had pretty high expectations when I went into Arden Grey, and the author absolutely delivered on them. Arden’s shyness and small social circle, her struggle to connect with others, definitely resonated with me. I felt like she was on a clear emotional journey, and I wanted to be there for every minute of it.

As she finds new friends and the confidence to share her photography with others, she’s also grieving a lot of changes in her family and personal life. Her relationship with Jamie really struck me. Knowing someone you love is in a bad situation, but won’t leave it is truly heartbreaking, and the pages of ARDEN GREY really capture both the grief over the loss of friendship, the fears and worries that something is deeply wrong, and the helplessness that comes from being a bystander that’s shut out for trying to speak the truth.

Arden also faces huge changes in her family. Her parents have separated, and her brother isn’t doing well. She can’t figure out how to reconnect with him or her dad. Then Arden’s brother opens up to her, breaking open a family secret and asking Arden to accept it. Arden reels. She struggles. She grieves even more. But she also learns. Listens. Tries new things. Tries to find ways to heal. She’s a hero. I love her.

Most of the abusive relationships or situations happen off-scene or are briefly recounted in memory. I think this helps keep the story from centering on an abuser. It also means we must trust Arden, her brother, and Jamie for their descriptions of what happened and how it made them feel. This resonated with me, too, because that’s very often the position friends or family members are in, where we’re trying to understand what happened and what it means.

On the whole, yeah, I loved this book for its deep, wrenching emotional journey through difficult relationships and facing abuse. The author shares some great resources in a note at the back of the book, which I will post here, too.

Power and Control Wheel

I’d never heard of this, but when Arden’s brother brings it up as something he learned about in health class, I searched online to see if it was a real thing– and it is! I wish I’d known about this a lot sooner than now, but I will definitely be sharing it with others. Basically, it’s a graphic that describes different behaviors and how they fit into a cycle of abuse.

National Domestic Violence Hotline

What is a Healthy Relationship? – from the Domestic Violence Hotline website

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Arden is asexual and a lesbian. Jamie is a trans boy. Vanessa, a minor character, is Latina. Marc, another minor character, is also asexual and Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. Reference to sex between Jamie and his girlfriend. Arden holds hands with someone.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Content warning for abuse and mentions of self-harm.
Arden hears her mother slap her brother.

Arden begins to recognize signs of abuse in her relationship with her (now absent) mom and in Jamie’s relationship with his girlfriend. Most of the abusive behavior happens off-scene and is either summarized or reported on later. One person uses self-harm and threats of self-harm to try to control another’s behavior.

Drug Content
Arden’s younger brother comes home late and drunk several times. Arden drinks a beer with her friends at a party.

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.

Review: This May End Badly by Samantha Markum

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This May End Badly
Samantha Markum
Wednesday Books
Published April 12, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About This May End Badly

Pranking mastermind Doe and her motley band of Weston girls are determined to win the century-long war against Winfield Academy before the clock ticks down on their senior year. But when their headmistress announces that The Weston School will merge with its rival the following year, their longtime feud spirals into chaos.

To protect the school that has been her safe haven since her parents’ divorce, Doe puts together a plan to prove once and for all that Winfield boys and Weston girls just don’t mix, starting with a direct hit at Three, Winfield’s boy king and her nemesis. In a desperate move to win, Doe strikes a bargain with Three’s cousin, Wells: If he fake dates her to get under Three’s skin, she’ll help him get back his rightful family heirloom from Three.

As the pranks escalate, so do her feelings for her fake boyfriend, and Doe spins lie after lie to keep up her end of the deal. But when a teacher long suspected of inappropriate behavior messes with a younger Weston girl, Doe has to decide what’s more important: winning a rivalry, or joining forces to protect something far more critical than a prank war legacy.

THIS MAY END BADLY is a story about friendship, falling in love, and crossing pretty much every line presented to you—and how to atone when you do.

My Review

The cover copy on this book made me think of an older favorite: THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU by Lily Anderson. It’s also a boarding school story with an enemies to lovers arc and loads of banter and snark. I LOVED that book when I read it, so I as soon as I read about this book, I knew I wanted to read it.

And it totally delivered on all my hopes for it. I loved Doe’s character with her single-minded passion. I loved Wells with his mysterious sorrow peeking out beneath the “I don’t care” attitude he had going on. On top of that, I loved Doe’s friends, when they pushed her, made room for her, loved her despite her misguided or hurtful actions. I loved the way they operated as a team and protected one another.

I also loved the banter! The pranks. The teasing comments. The awkward, hilarious conversations. I laughed out loud more reading this book than I have in a long time. It was exactly the story I needed this week.

If you like fake dating, boarding school stories, or prank wars and banter, this book is one you won’t want to miss.

Content Notes for This May End Badly

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. Doe has a diverse friend group. Her dad is bisexual. Some discussion about how single gender schools exclude trans and nonbinary students.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. In one scene, a boy and girl take their shirts off.

A teacher is rumored to be a sexual predator. The girls try to warn new students and look out for each other. One girl comes forward with details about inappropriate behavior on the teacher’s part. The scene is brief, but the girl is obviously (understandably) traumatized when she describes what happened.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Two boys get into a fistfight.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol at a party and in other circumstances.

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 MAY END BADLY in exchange for my honest review.