Category Archives: Contemporary

Review: Take Me with You by Tara Altebrando

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,
Take Me with You by Tara Altebrando

Take Me with You
Tara Altebrando
Bloomsbury YA
Published June 23, 2020

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About Take Me with You

Eden, Eli, Marwan, and Ilanka barely know each other beyond having a class or two together. But when they are all summoned via messaging app to an empty classroom after school, they find a small cube sitting on a desk. Its sides light up with rules for them:

Do not tell anyone about the device. Never leave the device unattended.
And then, Take me with you . . . or else.

At first they think it’s some kind of prank or a social experiment orchestrated by the school administration. Still, they follow its instructions until the newly-formed group starts to splinter. Nobody has time for these games–their lives are complicated enough. But the device seems increasingly invested in the private details of their lives. And disobeying its rules has scary–even life-threatening–consequences . . .

My Review

You know you’re in for a wild ride when an author creates a simple black cube and makes it creepy as all get out. I had no idea what I was in for when I started TAKE ME WITH YOU.

As soon as Eden took the cube, I knew I was hooked. I sneaked in a few pages between things I had to get done. Anytime I had a couple minutes, I was right back in the pages of the book.

Eden and Marwan are my favorites. I loved the fact that we got to see what they were each thinking about each other but not brave enough to say. And I loved that even though the cube opened up a nightmare for all the people involved, it also forced people who were isolated in different ways to take risks and form friendships. That part was really cool.

I think I stayed on the edge of my seat with this book all the way until the end. It’s definitely the kind of book where you just want there to be another chapter that really, finally, explicitly says what you’ve hoped will happen. But all the possibilities are there, and there’s something really sweet in leaving the story with that kind of open doorway to something great.

I really enjoyed TAKE ME WITH YOU. I’m not usually a big suspense reader, but I definitely enjoyed this book a lot. I think fans of WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS by Adi Alsaid or THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp will like this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Marwan’s famiy is culturally Muslim. His parents are from Egypt. Ilanka’s family is Russian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Description of kissing between boy and girl. He asks for her to send him a “fun” picture. She takes a picture of herself in a bra and considers sending it to him.

Spiritual Content
Marwan and his family are Muslim but not practicing.

Violent Content
Someone throws eggs at and a rock through the window of Marwan’s family’s restaurant. A racial group name appears in spray paint on the sidewalk near the restaurant.

Drug Content
Parents drink alcohol socially.

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

Review: P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

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

P.S. I Like You
Kasie West
Point Publishing
Published July 26, 2016

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About P.S. I Like You

Signed, sealed, delivered…

While spacing out in chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk and added a message to her. Intrigue!

Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters—sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she’s kind of falling for this letter writer. Only, who is he? As Lily attempts to unravel the mystery and juggle school, friends, crushes, and her crazy family, she discovers that matters of the heart can’t always be spelled out…

My Review

I. Loved. This. Book. I can’t believe it took me so long to actually read it. I’ve had it since I got it signed at a book con in 2016. Usually I tend toward more angsty books rather than lighthearted, funny books, but lately I’ve been needing a little Rom Com in my life. P.S. I LIKE YOU was exactly the book I needed.

Lily has a big, loud, crazy family, but they’re warm and open to outsiders, which I love. They’re the family that invites others to Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed the chaos and warmth of those characters and getting to see Lily with her guard down and feeling open and at ease.

When she’s not with her family, Lily tends to be ridiculously awkward and says the wackiest things. I couldn’t help laughing at some of the situations she lands herself in and some of the banter between her and other characters.

The letters between her and her mystery pen pal were great (I guessed who it was early on and that did not ruin anything for me) and kept me turning pages. I couldn’t wait to get to the next letter. I might have been as eager as Lily. Ha!

While I was reading the book, my husband commented that I looked happier than usual. And he was right! I definitely needed this fun book with its sweet romance. My only dilemma now is which book by Kasie West to read next!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Lily’s best friend is Mexican-American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between girl and boy.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Finally, Something Mysterious by Doug Cornett

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , , , ,

Finally, Something Mysterious
Doug Cornett
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published April 14, 2020

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About Finally, Something Mysterious

Paul Marconi has always thought that Bellwood was a strange town, but also a bit of a boring one. Not much for an 11 year old to do. Fires are burning nearby, Paul’s parents are obsessed with winning a bratwurst contest, his best friend, one of the founding members of their only-sibling detective club, The One and Onlys, is about to have a younger sister, sort of undoing their whole reason for existing. But then! Hundreds of rubber duckies have appeared on the lawn of poor Mr. Babbage without any explanation. Finally! There is something that Paul and his friends can actually investigate.

In the face of all these strange occurences, Paul is convinced that solving who put the duckies on that lawn will finally bring some sense to what has become an upside down world. Soon the three friends have a long list of suspects, all with their own motives, but no clear culprit. When everything comes to a head at the town’s annual Bellwood Bratwurst Bonanza, Paul discovers some that some things don’t have an easy explanation and not everything can be solved.

A perfect summer story about friends, amateur sleuthing and a whole lot of rubber duckies.

My Review

You can probably guess from the title that FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS is going to be a funny book, and you’re right! These three friends won’t back down in the face of weird alibis, scary teachers, or midnight tuba solos. I had so much fun reading this book. I loved the friendship between Paul and the One and Onlys. His small town is packed with quirky people sharing interesting connections.

I love that the mystery they’re solving involves loads of rubber ducks. It’s random and strange and a great representation of the kind of goofy humor that fills the pages of the story. If you’re looking for a good laugh, this book delivers.

It reminded me a little bit of THREE TIMES LUCKY by Sheila Turnage and Lemony Snicket’s All the Wrong Questions series. If you liked either of those, or you just need a good laugh, you’ll want to check out FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
I think all three main characters are white kids.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: My Life as a Potato by Arianne Costner

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , , ,

My Life as a Potato
Arianne Costner
Random House Books for Young Readers
Published March 24, 2020

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About My Life as a Potato

For anyone who has ever felt like a potato in middle school, this hilarious story about a boy forced to become the dorkiest school mascot ever will have readers cheering!

“A grade A, spudtastic (not to mention FUNNY) debut. Arianne Costner sure knows middle school and middle schoolers!” –Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

Ben Hardy believes he’s cursed by potatoes. And now he’s moved to Idaho, where the school’s mascot is Steve the Spud! Yeah, this cannot be good.

After accidentally causing the mascot to sprain an ankle, Ben is sentenced to Spud duty for the final basketball games of the year. But if the other kids know he’s the Spud, his plans for popularity are likely to be a big dud! Ben doesn’t want to let the team down, so he lies to his friends to keep it a secret. No one will know it’s him under the potato suit . . . right?

Life as a potato is all about not getting mashed! With laugh-out-loud illustrations throughout, hand to fans of James Patterson, Gordan Korman, Jeff Kinney, and Chris Grabenstein!

“A hilarious, relatable story for any kid who has ever felt out of place.” –Stacy McAnulty, author of The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl.

My Review

This book is full of all the right kinds of silliness. Ben fumbles his way through one hilarious disaster and right into another, always thinking he can fix it all by himself. He’s a hard worker– and even when he’s punished by being forced to serve as the school mascot, he tries his best to do it well. I loved the ways he challenges himself– to learn more about mascots, to examine his behavior toward a kid who seems to be a bit of an outcast.

He doesn’t do it all the right way, but he has a good heart, and that makes him so easy to love. His relationships with his family members were sweet, and his friendships felt very much like those ports of safety we all needed in middle school.

MY LIFE AS A POTATO is a super fun read. It does show Ben transitioning toward dating and having relationships, so it might be best suited to readers who are thinking about those transitions themselves. It has a lot of humor and friendship issues in it, too, which make it a great story for upper elementary school readers.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Ben’s friend Ellie is Latina.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One boy accidentally trips another with a hot dog. A boy knocks some girls over accidentally. One boy plans pranks against another boy. Kids get into a food fight.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

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

The Boy Who Steals Houses
C. G. Drews
Orchard Books
Published April 4, 2019

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About The Boy Who Steals Houses

Can two broken boys find their perfect home? By turns heartbreaking and heartwarming, this is a gorgeously told, powerful story.

Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.

But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

Heartfelt storytelling, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Jennifer Niven.

My Review

I’ve been in such a weird reading place lately (as so many of us have during the pandemic), so while I wanted to read this book at some point, it wasn’t in the short stack of books I felt like I needed to read this month.

And yet.

As soon as I started the first page, I had to know what came next. The chapters are pretty short (or at least, they seemed that way?) and I kept “one more chapter”-ing myself into reading long past a reasonable bed time and sneaking reading time into every spare minute during the day until I’d finished. So it’s super addicting and a really compelling story.

Sam is one of those boys you just want to shake (Gently… Come on. He’s been through a LOT.). He’s a mess, and he’s quickly becoming something he fears and hates, but he so desperately wants to be loved and to protect those he loves that I really couldn’t help loving him and wanting him to figure out a way through.

Though the whole story is in his point-of-view, a lot of it centers around a girl he’s quickly falling for. Moxie is amazing. I loved her from the very first moment she appeared on the page. She is fierce, creative, and vulnerable. She confronts Sam’s issues, but she sees beyond them, too.

Conclusion

Some of the abuse elements in THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES are pretty dark. I’m sensitive to that type of content, and it was very close to the line for me because it’s so cruel, and because more than one character behaves cruelly toward Sam and his brother. There are maybe four scenes that were really hard to read and then other quick mentions of or references to abuse that happened to the boys. I still loved the book, but it does live up to the promise of being heartbreaking in its descriptions of these things.

If you like tragic heroes and stories about found families, THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES must go on your To Be Read list! I think fans of MORE THAN WE CAN TELL by Brigid Kemmerer will really like this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Sam’s brother Avery has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Moxie’s brother is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Graphic scenes show an adult physically abusing a child. Some scenes show cruel bullying and a teen beating up other teens.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking alcohol.

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

Review: Again Again by E. Lockhart

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Again Again
E. Lockhart
Delacorte Press
Published June 2, 2020

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Again Again

In this novel full of surprises from the New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud, E. Lockhart ups the ante with an inventive and romantic story about human connection, forgiveness, self-discovery, and possibility.

If you could live your life again, what would you do differently?

After a near-fatal family catastrophe and an unexpected romantic upheaval, Adelaide Buchwald finds herself catapulted into a summer of wild possibility, during which she will fall in and out of love a thousand times—while finally confronting the secrets she keeps, her ideas about love, and the weird grandiosity of the human mind.

A raw, funny story that will surprise you over and over, Again Again gives us an indelible heroine grappling with the terrible and wonderful problem of loving other people.

My Review

It took me a little bit to get my footing with this book. Basically, as a scene unfolds, there are other possible outcomes that appear in bold (at least, they’re bold in the ARC). So you read a scene as it plays out several different possible ways. Then the text goes back to normal and you read on.

At first, I found it a little confusing. In a way, that made the story reflect Adelaide herself– because she’s definitely confused and kind of going in circles at the beginning of the story.

The more I read, the more I liked the style of storytelling and the characters in the book. I especially liked Adelaide’s relationship with her brother, Toby. It felt so raw and aching and yet like there was so much potential for joy there. The way they spoke about their parents felt so real in terms of sibling relationships.

I feel like AGAIN AGAIN delivered a thing that drew me to E. Lockhart’s writing in the first place (She also wrote WE WERE LIARS, which I LOVED!). It’s like she has this uncanny ability to peel back the outer layers and cut straight to the core of emotions and grief and sort of reinvent the experience of reading a book. I wouldn’t want every book to be told in this way, but I feel like it really worked for this particular book with this particular family. All in all, I am so glad I read it, and would definitely recommend it to others.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Adelaide’s roommate is a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used a couple dozen times or so throughout the book.

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

Spiritual Content
Some reference to a higher power.

Violent Content
A girl gets bitten on her wrist pretty severely by a Pitbull.

Drug Content
Adelaide and Toby’s parents are pretty permissive about teens drinking alcohol. One character develops an addiction to opiates and then heroin. One scene describes finding out a person has overdosed on heroin.

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