Category Archives: Romance

Review: The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White

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The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White

The Camelot Betrayal (Camelot Rising #2)
Kiersten White
Delacorte Press
Published November 10, 2020

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About The Camelot Betrayal

EVERYTHING IS AS IT SHOULD BE IN CAMELOT: King Arthur is expanding his kingdom’s influence with Queen Guinevere at his side. Yet every night, dreams of darkness and unknowable power plague her.

Guinevere might have accepted her role, but she still cannot find a place for herself in all of it. The closer she gets to Brangien, pining for her lost love Isolde, Lancelot, fighting to prove her worth as Queen’s knight, and Arthur, everything to everyone and thus never quite enough for Guinevere–the more she realizes how empty she is. She has no sense of who she truly was before she was Guinevere. The more she tries to claim herself as queen, the more she wonders if Mordred was right: she doesn’t belong. She never will.

When a rescue goes awry and results in the death of something precious, a devastated Guinevere returns to Camelot to find the greatest threat yet has arrived. Not in the form of the Dark Queen or an invading army, but in the form of the real Guinevere’s younger sister. Is her deception at an end? And who is she really deceiving–Camelot, or herself?

My Review

I love this series. I feel like I can’t say that enough. It has so many of the things I really needed it to have. There are strong women everywhere you turn. Camelot feels every bit as revolutionary and magical (but without actual magic) as it should be. Arthur is so very… Arthur.

There are good men. Like, really complex, interesting, well-written, captivating men, but they never steal the scene or the show from the women. These girls more than hold their own.

I love Guinevere– her questions about her past and her identity, her longing to be loved, her relationship with her maids and her knight. Her powerful magic. I love her so much.

Then there’s Lancelot. The decision to have a woman as Lancelot surprised me, but I’ve loved it. I love that she’s an amazing warrior and that she has every bit as much heart and passion as any other knight out there. I love the way the story explores whether it’s more right to treat her just like the men or for Guinevere to treat her in a different way. It’s not the focus of the story at all, so it doesn’t feel like a political question or preachy or anything. It simply feels like people trying to figure out how to get through the best way they can.

I feel like the only thing CAMELOT BETRAYAL lacked over the first book in the series was an over-arching plot or the drive toward a particular battle. Through the whole book, Guinevere is on the lookout for the Dark Queen’s next attack, but she sort of spends the actual story itself running around handling side quests. Figuring out how to handle her sister. How to reach and/or rescue Isolde. What to do about her feelings for Arthur and Mordred.

I guess all that to say that it definitely feels like a second book which sets up for a third and final battle kind of book. I loved all the conflicts and plots here, so I can’t complain. I’m only sad that I have to wait until next year to read the finale.

Definitely read the first book, THE GUINEVERE DECEPTION, first. There are a lot of characters in this one, and it’ll just make a lot more sense if you’ve read the first book and know how they all came to be allies or enemies.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Most characters are English/white. Two minor characters are lesbians.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used two times.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between man and woman. Reference to two women having an intimate relationship. Reference to sex as a means of consummating marriage and producing children.

Spiritual Content
Guinevere and other characters perform magic. Arthur’s kingdom is supposed to be a Christian kingdom, but there isn’t much celebration of or reference to faith shown.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle violence.

Drug Content
Characters drink wine socially.

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

Review: Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch

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

Love & Olives
Jenna Evans Welch
Simon Pulse
Published November 10, 2020

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About Love & Olives

Liv Varanakis doesn’t have a lot of fond memories of her father, which makes sense—he fled to Greece when she was only eight. What Liv does remember, though, is their shared love for Greek myths and the lost city of Atlantis. So when Liv suddenly receives a postcard from her father explaining that National Geographic is funding a documentary about his theories on Atlantis—and will she fly out to Greece and help?—Liv jumps at the opportunity.

But when she arrives to gorgeous Santorini, things are a little…awkward. There are so many questions, so many emotions that flood to the surface after seeing her father for the first time in years. And yet Liv doesn’t want their past to get in the way of a possible reconciliation. She also definitely doesn’t want Theo—her father’s charismatic so-called “protégé”—to witness her struggle.

And that means diving into all that Santorini has to offer—the beautiful sunsets, the turquoise water, the hidden caves, and the delicious cuisine. But not everything on the Greek island is as perfect as it seems. Because as Liv slowly begins to discover, her father may not have invited her to Greece for Atlantis, but for something much more important.

My Review

I have some mixed feelings about this book, but I liked a lot of things. First, the stuff that I loved.

The setting is gorgeous. LOVE & OLIVES made me feel like I was in Santorini enjoying the outdoors and the sea and excited about hunting down rumors of Atlantis. I loved a lot of things about Liv. She’s smart and artistic, and I couldn’t help feeling for her as she faced this unexpected trip to reunite with her estranged father. I liked Liv’s mom, too. She’s sharp and I felt like she tried really hard to walk that balance between interfering when necessary and letting Liv make her own life choices.

I really struggled with Liv’s feelings and relationship with her dad. I feel like I’ve been burned by that kind of visionary, head-in-the-clouds type of person before. He just seemed like he might flake out on her any second. It was hard not to worry that Liv was going to end up hurt again. Sometimes that made me angry.

I also had a hard time with Theo. I really didn’t like that he filmed her without her permission and ignored her when she asked him to stop. There were reasons in the story that made it a “good thing” that he had that footage, that’s still not okay. I don’t like stories where the guy overrides a girl’s no because he “knows better” than she does or knows her better than she knows herself, etc. I think it’s a dangerous behavior to idealize because it romanticizes someone who ultimately isn’t respecting a point-blank refusal.

That aside, I did like that Theo asked her thought-provoking questions. He also acted as a buffer between Liv and her dad. He did eventually grow to trust and respect Liv’s boundaries.

Her relationship with her dad went some places I wasn’t expecting. I still had a hard time because I worried that somehow he wouldn’t be accountable for the hurt he’d caused. I think the way the story explored the reasons why he disappeared and why he’d wanted to be a part of Liv’s life again were ultimately satisfying. It just took me a long time to warm to him.

Altogether, this book feels like a sweet summer romance, with a beautiful setting guaranteed to make you feel like you’re escaping reality. Ultimately I’m glad I read it. I think fans of Jennifer E. Smith will enjoy the romance of this story.

Content Notes for Love and Olives

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Liv and her father are Greek. So is Theo.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple instances of mild profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of LOVE & OLIVES 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: Dear Hero by Hope Bolinger and Alyssa Roat

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, Romance, , , , , ,

Dear Hero
Hope Bolinger and Alyssa Roat
INtense Publications
Published September 28, 2020

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About Dear Hero

Cortex and V need a new nemesis. 

Up-and-coming teen superhero Cortex is on top of the world–at least, until his villain dumps him. If he’s going to save his reputation, he needs a new antagonist, and fast.

Meanwhile, the villainous Vortex has once again gotten a little overeager and taken out a hero prematurely. Will any young hero be able to keep up with her? Maybe she should work on finding a steady relationship with an enemy she won’t kill in the first round.

So the two turn to Meta-Match, a nemesis pairing site for heroes and villains, where they match right away. But not everything in the superhero world is as it seems. Who are the real heroes and villains? And just how fine of a line is there between love and hate? When darkness from the past threatens them both, Cortex and V may need to work together to make it out alive. 
Told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages, this darkly humorous chat fiction novel goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

My Review

So this whole story is told in what looks like direct messages through an app called Meta-Match, which is like a browsing site for villains and heroes to help them pair up and fight each other.

The opening chats were a little bit awkward, but I feel like it’s hard to write scenes where characters meet online without having at least a little bit of the feeling each other out and trying not to give too much away. Right away I knew I’d love V’s tough exterior and soft heart and Cortex’s awkwardness.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It’s really different. Definitely a great read for anyone really needing an escape. I haven’t read RENEGADES by Marissa Meyer, but I wish I could say how it compares to something like that.

It reminded me a teeny bit of the ILLUMINAE books in the way it used direct messages and transcribed conversations. DEAR HERO does leave you to fill in the blanks on some of the scenes because you’re strictly getting dialogue unless someone narrates what’s happening.

All in all, it was definitely an entertaining, cute read. I’d say perfect for middle school readers.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Cortex is Japanese-American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
There were some teasing comments about race. For instance, in one scene V comments to Cortex (who is Asian) something like, aren’t you supposed to be good at math? He calls her out for stereotyping.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Reference to V attending Mass with Cortex’s family.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some references to violence and descriptions of battles between heroes and villains.

Drug Content
None.

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


Review: The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor

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

The Code for Love and Heartbreak
Jillian Cantor
Inkyard Press
Published October 6, 2020

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About The Code for Love and Heartbreak

From bestselling author Jillian Cantor comes a smart, edgy update of Jane Austen’s beloved classic Emma.

Emma Woodhouse is a genius at math, but clueless about people. After all, people are unreliable. They let you down—just like Emma’s sister, Izzy, did this year, when she moved to California for college. But numbers…those you can count on. (No pun intended.)

Emma’s senior year is going to be all about numbers, and seeing how far they can take her. When she and George, her Coding Club co-president, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born—a matchmaking app that goes far beyond swiping, using algorithms to calculate compatibility. George disapproves of Emma’s idea, accusing her of meddling in people’s lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.

Emma’s code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other and her own feelings defy any algorithm? Emma thought math could solve everything. But there’s nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.

My Review

As a contemporary romance, I really enjoyed CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK. I tend to like smart heroines, so it was a pretty strong possibility that I’d love Emma going into the book. And it turns out, I totally loved her.

I’m also a pretty big fan of sister relationships, so I loved the relationship between Emma and Izzy. I loved that they were so different from each other and that sometimes that caused sparks to fly and other times, they needed each other in ways that only sisters truly do.

As an update of Jane Austen’s EMMA, though, I have much more mixed feelings. I missed some of the dynamics in some of the relationships. I missed the Miss Bates of Austen’s version, in all her sweet, trying chattiness. I missed the connection between characters– the Westons and Frank (Sam) Churchill, and between Jane and Miss Bates.

In fairness, I don’t know how someone could bring all those relationships and the complexities they add AND tell CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK without adding like 100 more pages. Which I probably wouldn’t have minded once I was into the story, but I imagine the average reader might not feel quite the same! Ha.

All in all, I think this is a super cute romance with smart characters and interesting relationships. Fans of friends to lovers or of sister stories will find lots to love here. I think the story will appeal to fans of WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU by Marisa Kanter and TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW by Rachel Lynn Solomon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are white. Some minor characters are gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Couples hold hands. A group of senior class boys who make a bet on who can have sex with an underclass girl first. This behavior is pretty strongly condemned. Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Emma remembers a party her sister threw that someone brought alcohol to. She hid upstairs and didn’t participate in the party.

Note: I received a free copy of THE CODE FOR LOVE AND HEARTBREAK 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.

About Jillian Cantor

Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter | Website

Jillian Cantor is the author of award-winning and bestselling novels for adults and teens, including In Another Time, The Hours Count, Margot, and The Lost Letter, which was a USA Today bestseller. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Cantor lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.

Review: Smash It! by Francina Simone

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

Smash It!
Francina Simone
Inkyard Press
Published September 22, 2020

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About Smash It!

Refreshingly authentic and bold… Don’t miss this smashing #ownvoices novel from Francina Simone! Filled with heart, humor and a heroine to root for, Smash It! is a perfect read for fans of Julie Murphy, Ibi Zoboi and Ashley Poston.

Olivia “Liv” James is done with letting her insecurities get the best of her. So she does what any self-respecting hot mess of a girl who wants to SMASH junior year does…

After Liv shows up to a Halloween party in khaki shorts–why, God, why?–she decides to set aside her wack AF ways. She makes a list–a F*ck-It list.

1. Be bold–do the thing that scares me.

2. Learn to take a compliment.

3. Stand out instead of back.

She kicks it off by trying out for the school musical, saying yes to a date and making new friends. Life is great when you stop punking yourself! However, with change comes a lot of missteps, and being bold means following her heart. So what happens when Liv’s heart is interested in three different guys–and two of them are her best friends? What is she supposed to do when she gets dumped by a guy she’s not even dating? How does one Smash It! after the humiliation of being friend-zoned?

In Liv’s own words, “F*ck it. What’s the worst that can happen?”

A lot, apparently.

My Review

SMASH IT! is a lot in some great ways and a few problematic ones. First, the great stuff:

I love that the story tackles body image but isn’t about conformity. Liv faces her own insecurities about her body and learns some lessons about the value of having friends who celebrate you for you rather than tear you down, even if it is meant to be teasing.

SMASH IT! really celebrates girl friends in a way that I love as well. At the beginning of the story, she mostly spends her time with Eli and Dré, two boys. She reluctantly makes friends with two girls and, though it’s not always easy to navigate those new relationships, she comes to really value the way they affirm her and check her behavior when she needs it.

The writing is solid. I always struggle with books that have as much profanity as this one does, and so that’s true here, but I feel like Francina Simone’s writing is strong and her characterization is super consistent through the course of the story. Liv is funny and vulnerable and flawed, and I loved reading about her journey.

I also struggled with some of the racial comments, particularly those directed at a Hawaiian character and an Israeli-Palestinian character. Though they were uttered by pretty irreverent characters, and Liv sometimes frowned on the insensitive or racist comments, they were just hard to read, and I don’t think they were necessary.

On the other hand, I felt like some of the conversations about race that the story explored were great for opening up discussion on things and showing some nuance that’s often overlooked. When Jackie gets into it with a white theater kid because she’s using the N-word and he calls her out, Liv serves as a referee, giving another perspective on the conversation.

The story also explores a lot of ideas about sex. Liv wants to have sex, but hasn’t yet. One of her friends encourages her to sleep with someone she doesn’t care about but who’d be a good lover to get the experience. Another friend doesn’t believe in casual sex and encourages Liv to wait until she’s found someone she wants to be with. Liv views having sex as taking ownership of her body in a new way, but the motivation to do it seems to overtake other reasoning. Ultimately, she causes some hurt, and at first is super unrepentant about that– as though feeling bad for her choice is synonymous with feeling guilty or ashamed of sex and of her body.

Though she does stop and re-examine those feelings and take another look at how her actions have affected others, I felt like the emotional fallout sort of fizzled if that makes sense? Like everyone kind of shrugs and says it’s all cool. Could that happen? Maybe, but in my experience, it usually takes a lot longer for people to feel okay for something they initially viewed as a huge betrayal.

At any rate, on the whole, I loved some things about this book a huge ton. Liv is a flawed character, for sure. But she’s also trying to learn and grow as a person and willing to face her mistakes, and I loved that.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Liv is black. Her best friend Dré is Puerto Rican. Her other best friend Eli is Israeli-Palestinian. One of her newer friends is bisexual. Liv dates a boy who’s Hawaiian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity and crude comments used lots.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to masturbation. Explicit descriptions of sex between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Liv briefly wonders if Eli wants to practice Judaism like his dad or Islam like his mom.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
Some racist and insensitive comments about a Hawaiian character (objectifying and sexualizing him because of his race). A racist sexual comment about an Israeli-Palestinian character.

A boy throws things at his dad. His dad slaps him. Two boys get into a fist fight.

Drug Content
References to teen drinking and one reference to smoking pot.

Note: I received a free copy of SMASH IT! 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: Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera

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Never Look Back
Lilliam Rivera
Bloomsbury YA
Published September 15, 2020

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

About Never Look Back

Eury comes to the Bronx as a girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything in Hurricane Maria–and by an evil spirit, Ato. She fully expects the tragedy that befell her and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up with her in New York. Yet, for a time, she can almost set this fear aside, because there’s this boy . . .

Pheus is a golden-voiced, bachata-singing charmer, ready to spend the summer on the beach with his friends, serenading his on-again, off-again flame. That changes when he meets Eury. All he wants is to put a smile on her face and fight off her demons. But some dangers are too powerful for even the strongest love, and as the world threatens to tear them apart, Eury and Pheus must fight for each other and their lives.

This Own Voices retelling of the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice is perfect for fans of Ibi Zoboi’s PRIDE and Daniel José Older’s SHADOWSHAPER.

My Review

The thing that drew me to NEVER LOOK BACK was the spirituality of it and the fact that it’s a retelling. I feel like I have so much to say.

First– I really enjoyed the story. The characters feel so real and Eury and Pheus are so different that I could always tell whose point-of-view I was reading, even if I just flipped to a random page.

I liked that Eury’s curse was a complex problem with multiple pieces. (I’m being vague because there’s some of this that doesn’t get revealed until later in the story.) She keeps Catholic faith, praying every day, and finds comfort both in her belief that she is “beloved of God” and in the rituals of prayer and mass. It’s sincere and sweet, and I loved that.

But that’s not the only spirituality in the story. She also sees a spirit, whom she calls Ato, who is a spirit of the dead. He wants to take her to the land of the dead, El Inframundo, to be with him forever. Pheus, in trying to help Eury break the power Ato holds over her, encounters other gods and goddesses like Guabancex, the goddess of chaos.. I thought this was really cool, because though it’s a retelling of a Greek myth, NEVER LOOK BACK pulls in and celebrates some Afro-Latinx mythology.

In both Pheus and Eury’s points-of-view, the setting is rich and vibrant. Eury has a deep connection with Puerto Rico as her home– with the forests and the birds and flowers that brings those things to life. Pheus feels at home in the Bronx, with his friends, going to the beach, hanging out in the stairwell of his apartment building.

I also loved seeing the growth in both characters. Pheus begins to see himself as others have seen him and to see where he misjudged or to recognize his selfishness or the parts of his life where he’s living in fear.

Eury has spent so much energy running from Ato, trying to hide what’s happening to her, and trying to distance herself from others so that Ato can’t use them to hurt her. Watching her come out of her shell, to begin to trust and to find her own strength was so amazing. I loved that she plays and active role in the outcome of the story.

Bottom line: I really recommend this book. I loved so many things about it. It’s a rich story that celebrates faith and heritage and love. Definitely a win, and a perfect story if you’re looking for an escape from reality right now.

If you enjoyed DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE, be sure to check out NEVER LOOK BACK.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Pheus is Afro-Dominican. Eury is Puerto Rican.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty infrequently.

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

Spiritual Content
See my review above. Eury practices Catholicism and is haunted by a spirit of the dead. Pheus meets other gods and goddesses.

Violent Content – Trigger warning for hurricane, depression, mentions of suicide, and sexual assault.
Some description of Hurricane Maria and Eury’s house collapsing and the trauma this has caused her. Pheus hunts for Ato, intending to beat him up. A man touches a woman’s arm suggestively even though she’s asked him to leave her alone. He follows her and corners her, seeming to intend to assault her. A woman hits a man over the head with a bottle. A woman slips and falls, hitting her head.

Pheus’ uncle, a veteran, had PTSD and died by suicide. (Happens off-scene.) More than one character has depression. Pheus visits the gateway to the underworld and sees creepy attendants who are rotting/dead or being tortured.

Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol in a basement at a party. A man offers a alcohol to teens at a club. One drinks with him.

Note: I received a free copy of NEVER LOOK BACK 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.