Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: This Is Why We Lie by Gabriella Lepore

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This is Why We Lie by Gabriella Lepore

This Is Why We Lie
Gabriella Lepore
Inkyard Press
Published September 21, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About This Is Why We Lie

Everyone in Gardiners Bay has a secret.

When Jenna Dallas and Adam Cole find Colleen O’Dell’s body floating off the shore of their coastal town, the community of Gardiners Bay is shaken. But even more shocking is the fact that her drowning was no accident.

Once Jenna’s best friend becomes a key suspect, Jenna starts to look for answers on her own. As she uncovers scandals inside Preston Prep School leading back to Rookwood reform school, she knows she needs Adam on her side.

As a student at Rookwood, Adam is used to getting judgmental looks, but now his friends are being investigated by the police. Adam will do whatever he can to keep them safe, even if that means trusting Jenna.

As lies unravel, the truth starts to blur. Only one thing is certain: somebody must take the fall.

My Review

This one had me on the edge of my seat.

I liked the complexity of the characters. There wasn’t really anyone who was all good or all bad. Everyone had layers and made choices for reasons that, even if I didn’t agree with them, I understood what they were thinking or what motivated them to do those things. Adam especially had a lot of conflicting feelings and guilt, and it was obvious that he wanted to be a good person but struggled to believe his past hadn’t already decided what kind of person he was.

There were a few frustrating moments where Jenna would do things that seemed naïve, but I think that fit her character. She wanted to believe the best in everyone, from her best friend whose explosive argument with the girl later found murdered put her in the center of the police investigation to her absent mom. So even though I was ready to shout at the book because I didn’t want her to do something, her choices made sense, and her optimism and compassion often led to things in the story being revealed. I liked that it had more of an impact than just potentially placing her in danger.

I think fans of ONE OF US IS LYING by Karen McManus or PRETTY LITTLE LIARS by Sara Shepard will love THIS IS WHY WE LIE.

Content Notes for This Is Why We Lie

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
One minor character is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex. Kissing between boy and girl. Two boys are caught coming out of the woods together after obviously having some kind of romantic contact.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Trigger warnings for drug overdose, domestic violence, and murder.
Situations of peril. A girl’s body is found with bruises on her neck showing she was strangled. A boy dies by drowning after being drugged with Rohypnol. A girl is hit on the back of the head.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol in several scenes. One character sells drugs to other teens.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of THIS IS WHY WE LIE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Kate In Between by Claire Swinarski

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The Kate In Between
Claire Swinarski
Quill Tree Books
Published May 18, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Kate In Between

Kate McAllister is desperate for a change. Something to hit refresh and erase the pain of her mother leaving town without her. So when a group of popular girls folds Kate into their clique, it feels like the answer to all her problems—even if it means ditching Haddie, her childhood bestie.

But when Kate’s new friends decide that Haddie is their next target, Kate becomes a passive participant in a cruel incident that could have killed Haddie…had Kate not stepped in, at the last minute, and saved her. The next day, a cell phone video of the rescue goes viral, and Kate is hailed a hero. But Kate knows the truth—she was part of the problem—and it’s only a matter of time until the full version of the video is released and everyone knows it too.

With so much at stake, Kate must decide who she wants to be: a liar, a follower, or someone greater.

In this timely, call-to-action contemporary middle grade novel from Claire Swinarski, author of WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, a twelve-year-old girl must face herself, and the truth, after her participation in a bullying incident goes viral. 

My Review

When I saw that Claire Swinarski had a new book out, I was super excited to read it. I loved her debut novel, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, so I had high expectations for THE KATE IN BETWEEN.

Just like in her previous book, Swinarski gives us a main character with a rich emotional landscape. Kate’s juggling a lot of things: rejection and anger at her mom for leaving her; warring love and embarrassment about living with her dad, a police officer in their small town; and a whole ton of friend guilt over leaving her friendship with her best friend for the cool girls’ group.

So that’s a lot. I loved the relationships between the characters, too.

Haddie is this optimistic, quirky individual, yet she has deep feelings, too. Her friendship with Kate isn’t perfect, but it’s so genuine. Kate’s frustration with Haddie for being oblivious to how other people saw her felt real and understandable. But so did her love for Haddie and her longing for the relationship they had.

Kate and her dad have this really sweet relationship, too. He’s not perfect either– one of the things he does that hurts Kate is to say harsh things about Kate’s mom. It’s easy to see that those comments come from a pretty deep place of frustration with her mom, since she is an impulsive, not very responsible parent, even though she loves Kate a lot. When Kate first moves in with him, it’s like he’s not sure how to reach her or what to do to make her comfortable. Watching him settle into being a full-time dad was really cool. I loved him so much.

I thought Kate’s relationships with Taylor (her new bestie, and the cool girl at school) and with Kate’s mom were also complex and realistic. Kate knows Taylor’s mean, but she sees more in her than that. She sees the hurt and the longing to have real friends. And Kate loves her mom even if she feels pushed aside by her mom’s infatuation with a make-up company and her dreams of making it big as a sales consultant.

So there’s a lot in terms of the relationships making up the story, too. I feel like the risk there is that having so much going on could dilute Kate’s journey, but I didn’t feel like that happened here. Kate’s struggle echoes through each of those relationships. Over and over she’s faced with the question about who she wants to be: the girl who speaks softly and never gets upset? The girl who pushes back and fights when she wants something? Something in between?

THE KATE IN BETWEEN was a quick read for me. I finished it a few days ago and I still find myself thinking about it. I think readers who enjoy books by Kate Messner or Gillian McDunn will love THE KATE IN BETWEEN.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12

Representation
The major characters were white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Kate and her dad go to church regularly.

Violent Content
There’s a lot of discussion about bullying in this book. Taylor and her crew were tossing Haddie’s hat around, trying to keep it away from her before Haddie fell in the pond. They say mean things about her. When everyone learns Kate’s full role in the events that day, some people say ugly things about her, too.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of THE KATE IN BETWEEN in exchange for my honest review.

Review: We Can Be Heroes by Kyrie McCauley

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We Can Be Heroes
Kyrie McCauley
Katherine Tegen Books
Published September 7, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About We Can Be Heroes

“Welcome to Bell, proud home of Bell Firearms for two hundred years, and where five months ago, the teen heir to the Bell fortune took his father’s guns to school and killed his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Queen.” —WE CAN BE HEROES PODCAST

Beck and Vivian never could stand each other, but they always tried their best for their mutual friend, Cassie. After the town moves on from Cassie’s murder too fast, Beck and Vivian finally find common ground: vengeance. They memorialize Cassie by secretly painting murals of her around town, a message to the world that Cassie won’t be forgotten. But Beck and Vivian are keeping secrets, like the third passenger riding in Beck’s VW bus with them—Cassie’s ghost.

When their murals catch the attention of a podcaster covering Cassie’s case, they become the catalyst for a debate that Bell Firearms can no longer ignore. With law enforcement closing in on them, Beck and Vivian hurry to give Cassie the closure she needs—by delivering justice to those responsible for her death.

Kyrie McCauley, author of If These Wings Could Fly, delivers a powerful contemporary YA novel about a trio of girls fighting for each other in the aftermath of a school shooting and the lasting bonds of friendship. Perfect for fans of Laura Ruby and Mindy McGinnis.

My Review

This. Book. Just wow. There are a couple scenes toward the end in particular (which I won’t spoil) but which absolutely wrecked me. The relationships between the characters are so incredibly well done. The friendships between the girls. The relationship between Beck and her gentle, not to be pushed around, strong but silent type grandfather. He’s my favorite literary grandpa EVER.

Then. The layering! The way the story wove together truths about domestic violence and powerful snapshots from Greek myths and the story of two girls grappling with crushing grief in a town refusing to face what killed their best friend. The clips from the podcast focused on exposing violence against women. The Latin expression that was so precious to Cassie that comes up again and again through the story: collige virgo rosas.

I just.

I feel like there’s no way that I can review this book and do it justice at all. It might be the best book at weaving all these things together simultaneously and telling a story that bears the weight of the important topics it explores without being dominated by them.

I loved this book. This is going to be the book you hear about from me for like the next year, so if you know me in real life, probably go ahead and read it now. Ha! Really, though. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that felt as gripping and as weighty as this and had the moving writing style to back it up, too. Like maybe since I read THE BOOK THIEF? I’m not sure. I can see why McCauley is compared in the back cover copy to Laura Ruby, who wrote BONE GAP, which was also a densely packed, lyrical, moving book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are three white girls. One girl is a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kiss between boy and girl. A girl recalls briefly that she slept with her boyfriend before she was ready and implies that he pressured or perhaps even forced her to do so.

Spiritual Content
Cassie is dead, but every night she appears as a ghost in the van owned by one of her two best friends.

Violent Content – Trigger warning for domestic violence/abuse and for gun violence and suicide and bullying.
Some descriptions of domestic violence. Some descriptions of a school shooting in which Cassie was killed and one of her best friends injured before the gunman ended his life. Those things happened before the book begins, so they’re related in short flashes of memory by the characters.

At one point, a girl finds a hateful message spray painted on her door. (I’ve referred to this as bullying, but I’m not sure what the right label for it is.)

Drug Content
The girls drink alcohol together and get drunk together as teens more than once.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of WE CAN BE HEROES in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Take Three Girls by Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell, and Fiona Wood

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Take Three Girls
Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell, and Fiona Wood
Sterling Teen
Published April 6, 2021 (Orig. 2017)

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Take Three Girls

Popular Ady seems cool and confident at school, but at home her family is falling apart. Brainiac Kate wants to pursue her dreams of playing music, even if it jeopardizes her academic scholarship. And swim champ Clem finds herself disenchanted with the sport . . . and falling for a very wrong boy. When these three very different girls are forced to team up in a wellness class, they’re not too pleased. But over time, they bond—and when they’re all targeted by PSST, a website that dishes out malicious gossip and lies, they decide to take a stand, uncover the culprits, and fight back. But can they really fix a broken system? With each girl’s story told by a different author, as well as intriguing questionnaires from the wellness class included throughout, this empowering novel explores today’s most relevant topics— from cyberbullying and fat shaming to drug abuse and financial stress.

“Mean stuff spreads so fast. One click. Post. Send. Share. Online bullying = sometimes suicides, so all the private schools have strategies for dealing with it. At St Hilda’s, it’s Wellness classes. We greeted the idea with genuine enthusiasm. Why not? Everyone loves the chance to slack off.”

Three authors. Three appealing and relatable characters. One smart YA novel about a trio of unlikely friends who team up to take down the school cyberbully. 

My Review

My favorite thing about this book is the way the friendships develop between the girls. At the beginning of the story, it’s clear they don’t really like or respect one another. They do have things they grudgingly admire about each other, though, which felt really real. The way their friendship grows felt so natural and believable. I wanted to celebrate every moment of it. It totally took me back to those deep friendships I had in high school, too. I loved that.

There can never be enough stories that shine a light on the power and empowering effect of girl friendships. I love that this book paid such a beautiful tribute to them.

One of the things I feel like I can never get enough of in a book are characters who are artistic in some way. I love living vicariously through them. So I really enjoyed all the scenes in which Kate is playing her cello. I loved that she took playing music, something we’ve all seen done before in books, in a fresh direction, too, by having her also mixing in other sound tracks and giving it a tech aspect– that’s something I’ve never seen done before, I don’t think. And while I know nothing about that process, I felt like I followed what she was doing just fine and loved it. It made me wish I could listen to the music she was writing.

Ady’s family crisis over substance abuse really drew me in, too. I felt like her experience of trying to figure out what was going on and especially doing that through reading the other people in the room and even some eavesdropping felt totally real to me. I remembered a lot of those kinds of moments in my own teen life during the process of discovering someone close to me was addicted to alcohol.

I think I struggled the most with Clem’s story, even though to be honest, that resonated with me, too. For me it was painful to read, not because the story was bad, but because it also kind of called up some things in my own life that were hard to think about. Falling in love can be so hard. I love that Kate and Ady admired things about her from the beginning, and that the story kind of helped reframe her certainty about what she wanted as a positive thing, even though it came with some really hard lessons.

I feel like the back cover copy is a teeny bit misleading because taking down the school bully is really one girl’s idea moreso than the others for most of the story. I thought from reading the cover copy that the story would focus on that takedown, and that doesn’t really emerge until late in the book. Each section does begin with what would be a screenshot of content posted to the online bullying site, so the bullying is a central part of the story that impacts many of the characters. Eventually the girls do all work together on a plan to make it happen, though.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading this book, though I found some of the content was hard for me personally. I’ve made notes below on other potential triggers in the book, so please check those out. Here’s my review of GRAFFITI MOON by Cath Crowley, one of the TAKE THREE GIRLS authors, in case you’re interested in that, too.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
One main character is bisexual. One main character is struggling with her weight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning for Sexual Bullying
Kissing between boy and girl. A man asks for nude photos of a sixteen-year-old girl, which she sends him. He also sends some explicit pictures to her. Several brief descriptions of sex and sexual acts. Kissing between two girls.

Each section includes a post from the PSST site which uses explicit, often sexual language to demean and bully girls whose real names are used.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One boy punches another in the face.

Drug Content
Underage drinking. One character discovers that her dad is an alcohol and cocaine addict.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of TAKE THREE GIRLS in exchange for my honest review.


 

Review: Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

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Girl on a Wire (Cirque American #1)
Gwenda Bond
Skyscape
Published October 1, 2014


Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Girl on a Wire

Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni’s dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies.

Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather—an infamous object of bad luck—planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque.

As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.

My Review

So I guess it’s been more than four years since I read the companion novel to this one, and when I reread my review, I said it would be smarter to read this one first so you didn’t get any spoilers. Fortunately for me, my reading brain is so porous that I have zero memory of anything that I read in GIRL IN THE SHADOWS that might have spoiled GIRL ON A WIRE for me. (In fact, I kind of want to go back and reread it to see what happens to Jules and Remy after this story ends.)

First of all, I loved the circus setting. It felt live and exciting and full of adrenaline and I had no trouble picturing the scenes or imagining the smells and sounds of the circus performances.

I thought the nod to the story of Romeo and Juliet was fun and sweet– Remy’s full name is apparently Romeo and Jules’s is Julieta, and they’re from families with a long history of rivalry and distrust. I enjoyed the mystery and suspense as they learned how to trust each other and work together to figure out who was trying to sabotage Jules and her family.

I thought the story was a really fun adventure to read and a nice escape from reality. I’m only sorry it took me so long to read it!

You can check out my review of the companion novel, GIRL IN THE SHADOWS here.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Jules and her family are Italian Americans. Remy and his family are Latinx Americans.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used once.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Jules wonders about sex and how to know when she’s ready for that kind of intimacy in a relationship.

Spiritual Content
Jules’s grandmother reads Tarot cards and believes she can perform magic. She also believes that certain artifacts contain a kind of bad luck curse that will hurt anyone connected with them. One item contains good luck for whoever possesses it.

Violent Content
Two boys square off to fight. A performer is killed in an accident during a performance.

Drug Content
Jules (and other performers) drinks champagne to celebrate her success.

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

Review: Pretty Funny for a Girl by Rebecca Elliot

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Pretty Funny for a Girl
Rebecca Elliot
Peachtree Publishing Company
Published October 1, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Pretty Funny for a Girl

Haylah Swinton is an ace best friend, a loving daughter, and an incredibly patient sister to a four-year-old nutcase of a brother. Best of all, she’s pretty confident she’s mastered making light of every situation–from her mom’s new boyfriend to unsolicited remarks on her plus-sized figure. Haylah’s learning to embrace all of her curvy parts and, besides, she has a secret: one day, she’ll be a stand-up comedian star.

So when impossibly cool and thirstalicious Leo reveals he’s also into comedy, Haylah jumps at the chance to ghost-write his sets. But is Leo as interested in returning the favor? Even though her friends warn her of Leo’s intentions, Haylah’s not ready to listen–and she might just be digging herself deeper toward heartbreak. If Haylah’s ever going to step into the spotlight, first she’ll need to find the confidence to put herself out there and strut like the boss she really is.

My Review

Okay, so when I first asked to review this book, I had it mixed up with a different book that I’d wanted to read. Then when I got the book and read the cover copy, I realized it was not the book I’d been thinking of, and I was a little disappointed. Then.

I started reading. And I found that I really liked Haylah’s voice. She’s blunt and pragmatic and, as the title hints, hilarious. I loved her relationship with her mom and little brother. I also loved the way she leaned into her awkwardness. Her way of dealing with kids picking on her is as genius as it is heartbreaking. I wanted to stand up and cheer for her when she changed the name she wanted to be called.

Haylah wrestles with a lot of things on her journey, from finding confidence to believe she can be a comedian to wrestling with how she feels about her body and how to be beautiful in a way that’s authentically hers and stays true to her feminist values. I loved that the story tackled some of those nuanced issues in this really frank, believable way, and in a way that made me laugh out loud and cheer.

If you’re looking for a book packed with humor and personal triumph, PRETTY FUNNY FOR A GIRL needs to be on your shelf.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Haylah is a self-described fat girl. Leo is Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used a few times. Some crude language used throughout.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some bullying and name-calling.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of PRETTY FUNNY FOR A GIRL in exchange for my honest review.