About More Than We Can Tell
Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay…until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.
Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage. She can solve any problem with the right code, but when an online troll’s harassment escalates, she’s truly afraid.
When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in ways they never expected.
My Review I loved Letters to the Lost, which was Kemmerer’s debut novel, and as soon as I heard that one of the characters from that story—Rev—would be starring in his own companion novel, I knew I had to get ahold of a copy. Then once I got the copy in my hands, I worried about how it would stack up to Letters. I know—I always do this. So finally, I broke down and started to read.
And even though I’m still not getting a lot of sleep with my new littlest one underfoot, I could not put this book down. If I didn’t read it in one sitting, I read it in two. I flew through the pages.
Getting to know more about Rev and his history and getting to see him confront his inner demons sucked me straight into the heart of this tale. I also love that it features not only a hardcore gamer girl, but one who coded her very own online video game! Go, girl! The experiences she describes as a player—the way some other players say ugly things or harass her—is terrible but too true. I can’t help but hope that a story like this will continue to bring light to these situations and start some conversations or change some hearts.
Brigid Kemmerer is quickly becoming one of those authors whose books I want to pre-order as soon as the option becomes available. I loved both Letters to the Lost and More than We Can Tell and I absolutely can’t wait to see what story she tells next.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Rev is part of a multi-racial family. He’s white and his (adoptive) parents are black. Other characters are white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity used fairly infrequently. Rev himself feels negatively about cursing.
Romance/Sexual Content Emma receives threatening emails which contain sexual innuendo. Kissing between boy and girl. A man attempts to assault a girl.
Spiritual Content Rev was raised by an abusive father who misused scripture as an excuse to torture him. Nevertheless, he still feels a close bond with the Bible, though we more often see him use it to govern his behavior rather than as a source of comfort. Rev meets a girl outside a church several times, which also carries this unspoken feeling that he feels safe near religious things.
Violent Content Rev shares brief memories of physical abuse at the hands of his father: a forced tattoo, a burn, broken arm, etc. One scene shows a man slamming a girl’s head against a car window and attempting to assault her.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
About Ghosts of Tupelo Landing Small towns have rules. One is, you got to stay who you are – no matter how many murders you solve.
When Miss Lana makes an Accidental Bid at the Tupelo auction and winds up the mortified owner of an old inn, she doesn’t realize there’s a ghost in the fine print. Naturally, Desperado Detective Agency (aka Mo and Dale) opens a paranormal division to solve the mystery of the ghost’s identity. They’ve got to figure out who the ghost is so they can interview it for their history assignment (extra credit). But Mo and Dale start to realize that the Inn isn’t the only haunted place in Tupelo Landing. People can also be haunted by their own past. As Mo and Dale handily track down the truth about the ghost (with some help from the new kid in town), they discover the truth about a great many other people, too.
My Review Three Times Lucky was one of my favorite books from my reading list last year, so as soon as I started listening to audiobooks (after my daughter was born at the end of the year), I knew I needed to get the sequel. While it’s packed with the same great characters as Three Times Lucky, I felt like the story didn’t have the same oomph. Maybe because I was already familiar with the town and people, so it didn’t have that same freshness as the first book. The ghost mystery didn’t have quite the same weight as a murder mystery, either, and it had some definite willing-suspension-of-disbelief requirements. Which is okay. It still had the same killer descriptions and hilarious antics and dialogue as well as a fantastic cast of characters.
I still enjoyed The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing a lot. I’m glad I read it—nothing wrong with more Mo and Dale in my reading. I would be interested in reading the third book. Fans of books like Because of Winn Dixie and Elsie Mae Has Something to Say will want to check out this series and won’t be able to help falling head over heels for Mo and Dale.
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Cultural Elements
Takes place in a small southern town. I think all the characters were white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Mo talks about her wish to marry Dale’s older brother someday.
Spiritual Content Mo and Dale meet a ghost living in the old inn. They decide to interview her for a school project and hope they can figure out what happened to her so she can be at peace. They have some other ghostly encounters, like seeing ghost cars in the middle of the night.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content
One of the men in Mo’s town is rumored to have a still where he brews alcohol.
About Every Day Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.
My Review Conceptually, this is probably one of the most intriguing books I’ve read this year. It reminds me a tiny bit of the show Quantum Leap, except that we don’t ever learn why A travels from body to body. And of course, Every Day takes a lot more time for exploration of what this kind of existence would mean in terms of understanding gender and sexual orientation. On that topic, I felt like the story sometimes got a bit preachy.
I think my favorite character by far was Rhiannon. I liked that she’s obviously a good person even though she’s sort of blind to her boyfriend’s flaws and therefore flawed herself. She struggles to understand life around her and embrace the relationships in her life. I liked that.
A was tougher for me. I liked him a lot more at the beginning of the story than the end. At the beginning, he tries to be really respectful of the person’s life into which he’s trespassing. But as the story progresses and his obsession with Rhiannon grows, he takes bigger and bigger risks and soon pretty much hijacks the life he’s occupying in order to spend the time with her, regardless of the consequences to the other person. As the story resolves, A tries to be the bigger person and do what he sees as right, but even in that, I felt like he was a bit controlling. I don’t want to spoil the ending, so I don’t want to say more. I just felt like he again took the choice away from other people Even though it was well-meaning, it still felt selfish to me.
On the whole, Every Day is a truly unusual book that did make me think about relationships and the things in life we so easily take for granted, like actually being able to have relationships and even possessions from one day to the next. To be honest, I felt like while the story posed some interesting questions, the content and ideas might be confusing for younger teen readers. For me personally, this would be one to wait on introducing or to read together and discuss some of the ideas and what they mean in the context of faith. See below for more content information.
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Cultural Elements
A has no body and therefore no gender, though he still falls in love—once with a boy, once with a girl. A experiences life as straight, gay, and transgender teens. Sometimes A is white, sometimes Asian, sometimes black or Latina. At one point A is an obese teenager, and makes some disparaging comments about the person’s character because of his weight.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content A knows Rhiannon and her boyfriend have had sex. When A is Rhiannon’s boyfriend, they sit on the “make-out blanket” and kiss. Later, A and a girl plan to have sex, but A ends up feeling it’s not fair for him to take that experience from the person whose body he’s using. They do climb into bed naked and kiss one another. Some scenes show kisses between two boys or two girls or a boy and girl.
A believes gender is sort of meaningless and doesn’t understand why Rhiannon is more comfortable showing affection to boys than girls. The narrative occasionally gets a bit preachy about this.
Spiritual Content A has some really negative feelings about Evangelical Christians in particular. One person A “borrowed” later claims he was possessed by the devil for a day. A pastor supports his theory.
Because A has experienced life as a participant in many different religions, he feels they’re all the same and ultimately share the same goals. There’s a short passage in which the narrative focuses on this topic and emphasizes a belief that all religions are essentially equal.
Violent Content A boy punches another boy in a school gym.
Drug Content
A, as a sixteen-year-old girl, watches her brother smoke a joint in the car on the way to school. She helps him lie to their parents about his drug use so he doesn’t get into trouble.
Teens drink alcohol at a party. A doesn’t drink because the boy whose life he is in wouldn’t do so.
A boy makes a comment about how much he enjoys using his girlfriend’s mom’s pills.
Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.
The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?
My Review
This was a very different look at The Little Mermaid tale. And by different, I mean on the complete opposite end of the spectrum compared to the Disney version we are familiar with. This tale pays more homage to the Brothers Grimm than it does to Andersen.
Setting: The world-building was neat, and I’d like to learn more about the various countries represented in the story. I especially liked how the royalty of each country had their own unique myth or legend that made them stand out compared to the rest of the citizens.
Characters: The characters were entertaining, on the whole, even if they did fall a little flat. Lira’s character arc stuttered a bit, and I struggled to understand and empathize with what she was going through. I felt like she changed a lot without enough description of what was going through her head to make it believable. Elian, on the other hand, was more enjoyable to read about; however, I felt like he was two different characters, depending on if I was reading from his perspective, or Lira’s perspective. I get the author was doing that on purpose, but it just made it harder to connect with him.
Plot: Nothing special here. It’s a typical band of YA characters going on a mission to save the world from an oppressive ruler. Read it for the retelling, not for the plot.
Overall: I didn’t like this one. It had waaay too much violence (it really should have been a DNF), and the characters weren’t especially endearing. If you like brutal, bloodthirsty fairytales, then this book is for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something with a little less content, and a little more a unique plot, then I suggest checking out The Mermaid’s Sister by Carrie Anne Noble.
Recommended for Ages 16 and up
Cultural Elements
Some characters are described as having brown skin. Some characters are described as being pure white, with blue lips. One lesbian couple. Sirens seduce both men and women.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Frequent profanity, and some innuendo.
Romance/Sexual Content One heavy, detailed kiss. A monster forces a kiss. Sirens kiss seduced sailors. Some innuendo, and veiled mentions of castrating people. One royal family has the power to seduce anyone they touch.
Spiritual Content A goddess, Keto, is frequently mentioned and referred to. Magic is attributed to her.
Violent Content There is a lot of graphic violence in this one. Torture, beatings, attacks, blood, wounds, burns by acid, etc. Very gory.
Drug Content
A brief mention of using poison/sedative to get what a character wants.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
About If You’re Gone Lillian White was planning for the perfect summer- spending every waking minute at the lake with her heartthrob boyfriend, Brad Lee. But her world is shattered when Brad mysteriously disappears the night of his graduation ceremony- the same night he tells her he loves her for the first time. After law enforcement dismisses the case, classifying Brad as voluntarily missing, Lillian becomes desperate to prove that he couldn’t have just walked away. Not from his family. Not from his friends. Not from her.
Heartbroken but determined to find answers, Lillian begins to uncover secrets from Brad’s past that force her to question everything she thought she knew about him and their relationship. Will the truth lead her to him? Or are Brad’s lies just the beginning of the mystery?
My Review
I liked that this story explores a different side of a missing person case. While Lil believes only something terrible would keep her boyfriend Brad from coming home, she can’t help but be concerned about the things he kept from her. She believes he must be out there somewhere, which only makes it harder for her to find her way through her grief process—something she struggles to communicate to her family and friends.
Her mom’s response to Brad’s disappearance frustrated me. I felt like there were several characters all hitting the same flat note where they had used up all their patience and compassion and sort of wanted Lil to snap out of her depression and worry. I’m sure that’s a realistic experience, but I guess some of the similarities in response made some of the scenes and characters feel repetitive or two-dimensional.
The end definitely wasn’t what I expected, which I also found appealing in concept. What was harder, though, was that there are several things that happen in close succession near the end which feel like sharp turns, and I felt like I didn’t always understand the abrupt changes in Lil or the people around her. It felt like there should have been more explanation or a slower progression or some additional development to better anchor those changes into the story.
Overall, though, If You’re Gone is a quick read with an unusual take on a popular YA theme. If you’re into missing person stories, put this one on your list.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Few race/cultural details. Most characters seem to be white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief kissing between a boy and girl.
Spiritual Content Lil prays sometimes, usually in the desperate way of someone overwhelmed and longing for God to ease burdens. She and her family attend church regularly, and church values are a significant part of Lil’s life.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content
Lil celebrates with friends, sharing a bottle of champagne with them.
About Tess of the Road
In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can’t make a scene at your sister’s wedding and break a relative’s nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.
Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it’s a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl–a subspecies of dragon–who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she’s tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.
My Review Since I enjoyed the books about Seraphina, Tess’s half-sister, I looked forward to revisiting the story world in Tess of the Road. I still enjoyed the complex and intricate setting with its cultural and spiritual elements. It took me a while to get into Tess’s character. At the beginning of the story, she’s bitter at the world and desperately trying to drown her sorrows and her self-pity in wine or spirits. At first I felt like she was self-focused and self-pitying. As the scenes revealed her backstory, I felt more sympathy for her.
Tess’s journey gave the story a bit more structure. I didn’t find her goal super compelling because it was really about helping her friend Pathka reach a goal he had set, and she still seemed to be floundering as far as her own goals and needs. The most dominant force in the story remained the politics of equality (or really, lack of it) in Tess’s world. Sometimes the narrative felt preachy and forced.
Once Tess began her interior journey of healing from past trauma, I began to like her a lot more. I liked her journey companion, Pathka, too. Overall, it might be cathartic for someone who has endured some past sexual trauma to make this journey with Tess toward healing and recovery. See below for content information, though. Tess of the Road contains some strong sexual content.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
I don’t remember race descriptions of the characters. Tess’s cousin is gay. She meets another gay man on a job she works. She also meets a traveling prostitute who tells Tess she services both men and women.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently. More often there are made up curses related to the saints in the story. My favorite is, “St. Daan in a pan!”
Romance/Sexual Content Tess has been curious about sex from a young age. At one point she made her sister and her cousin play wedding, and tried to get them to play wedding night by sending them to bed together, but they were little kids and none of them were sure what was supposed to happen. She remains ignorant, other than teachings from St. Vitt, whom her mom believes in. The teachings place a lot of shame and blame on women for any sexual acts, even if they didn’t wish to engage in them. The culture allows men freedom to sleep with whomever they choose, but a woman who becomes pregnant or is found to have had sexual partners is treated poorly.
Tess has had a sexual experience with a young man whom she admires. For most of the story, we don’t really know what happened other than that she got pregnant and he’s gone. It was an unhealthy relationship, clearly, but not until almost the end of the book do we learn what actually happened between them. See spoiler section below for more information and trigger warning.
Disguised as a man (she believes it would be too dangerous to travel as a woman unaccompanied), Tess meets a prostitute who will service both men and women. She does not sleep with the prostitute, but marvels that this woman seems content even happy about her choice of vocation. It flies in the face of everything she was taught to believe about women like this. The woman also challenges Tess by suggesting that women can enjoy sex as well, which Tess wasn’t raised to believe. Much later, Tess masturbates (it’s implied rather than described) and marvels again at how different the experience was from her previous sexual experience.
Eventually, Tess meets a man and develops feelings for him. He teaches her about herbs which prevent a woman getting pregnant and again suggests to Tess that she should enjoy sexual acts. She eventually becomes his lover and they sleep together. It’s not graphically described, but some details are mentioned.
Several people make comments about Seraphina’s relationship with the queen and her consort, implying that she has a sexual relationship with one or both of them.
Quigutls like Tess’s companion change gender several times in their lives. When Tess knew Pathka initially, she was female. Now he is male, though another character still refers to him as mother, since Pathka did lay the egg that hatched her.
Spiritual Content People worship various saints with various creeds on how to live life. The saints are actually people who are part dragon, like Tess’s half-sister Seraphina. When Seraphina gets pregnant without being married, Tess marvels that since her sister is a saint, no one can judge her the way they judged Tess.
Violent Content Tess punches a seminary student in the face for insulting her. Later, she smashes the back of her head into a man’s face when she feels threatened by him. Tess’s companion, Pathka, is a quigutl, a small reptilian creature, and in Pathka’s culture, problems are resolved by the offended party biting the other party. Pathka has several bite encounters with others in the story, some causing pretty severe injury.
Early in her journey, Tess steals food and supplies. She feels guilty, but doesn’t stop for a long time.
Drug Content
At the beginning of the story, Tess has a drinking problem. She gets drunk to avoid remembering the man with whom she got pregnant and to block out her mother’s harsh words. She gets drunk and spills a secret that hurts someone she loves. She also punches someone while drunk. She eventually wrestles with the problem and tries to give up drinking and learn other coping strategies.
SPOILER AND TRIGGER WARNING
Late in the story, Tess reveals what happened between her and her first lover. She tries to tell it as a funny story, but the truth is that he took advantage of her and raped her. There are some graphic details. Her attitude is more reflective rather than being caught in the trauma of the event, but still might trigger readers with past experiences.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
