Category Archives: Romance

Review: The Gamer’s Guide to Getting the Girl by Kristine Scarrow

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Romance, , , , , , ,
The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl cover shows a small boy figure and a girl figure with a line drawn between them that weaves between the title letters. Everything is in blocky, video game graphics.

The Gamer’s Guide to Getting the Girl
Kristine Scarrow
Dundurn Press
Published July 16, 2019

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Strategy is everything when it comes to gaming — and girls.

Zach is used to living in a world of legendary battles, epic journeys, and life-or-death situations. As a gamer, he is hard-wired for adventure, even though it’s from the comfort of his parents’ couch. But nothing has prepared him for battling the biggest storm in Saskatchewan’s history. 

On top of this, Zach has finally met the girl of his dreams, but he finds himself helping everyone else stay safe while his best friend spends time with her. What Zach doesn’t realize is that love always finds its way when you’ve found the right person and are ready to risk it all to save the day.

My Review

The concept of this book really struck me as fun– kids trapped in a mall during a storm, avid video gamer’s using gamer strategy to win at real life. I liked Zach’s character. He’s caring and genuine and a bit awkward.

I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more tie-ins to gaming throughout the book. Each chapter has a short title representing Zach’s strategy for the next scenes, but I didn’t really see much connection to gaming in those headings. It felt like a missed opportunity.

The tricky thing about the plot of THE GAMER’S GUIDE TO GETTING THE GIRL was always going to be keeping Zach an active hero rather than just a kid following some adults around who know what to do. For the most part, there was some balance there. Zach stepped in to help others who got hurt or overwhelmed. But he wasn’t usually the one calling the shots, so he did remain in some ways more of a passive character.

On the whole, GAMER’S GUIDE is a fun, clean book that younger teens or older elementary school-aged readers will enjoy for its friendship and adventure. Readers looking for more of a computer-focused story might like GENIUS by Leopoldo Gout.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 13.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kiss between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
One character prays several times through the story.

Violent Content
People rob a pharmacy and jewelry store while trapped in the mall. One man resists arrest by a mall officer. A tornado rips apart a section of the mall, sending shrapnel into a crowd.

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. I received a free copy of THE GAMER’S GUIDE TO GETTING THE GIRL in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

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

Spin the Dawn
Elizabeth Lim
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published July 9, 2019

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About SPIN THE DAWN

Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

My Review

Wow wow wow!!! I was pretty much hooked on the idea of this book from the description: Project Runway meets Mulan because that’s so different than anything I’ve read. And the book absolutely lives up to that description.

I love Maia so much. There just aren’t enough stories featuring strong women who SEW. Ha. I like that she isn’t a typical heroine– good at fighting or amazing at words, or super smart. She’s determined, loyal, honest, and hardworking, which aren’t always headliner qualities. But she definitely deserves her place in the center of the story.

The beginning of the story dragged a little bit for me, particularly the contest where she sews for different challenges. I can see how that was important to the story, and I thought maybe some of the characters introduced in those chapters might reappear later in some critical way. But it seemed more of a self-contained part.

Once Maia started her quest to make the three impossible dresses, things sped up considerably. Some parts happened really fast, which heightened the tension, but left me wanting more story in those moments.

On the whole those were small issues, though. I loved the setting and the cultural details and the wide array of characters. This is a must-read for fans of FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS by Julie C. Dao (or readers who are looking for a lighter story in a similar setting) and THE CRYSTAL RIBBON by Celeste Lim.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The setting has an Asian feel to it. Edan is described as having bronze skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. At one point a couple undresses and a brief, vague description shows that they have sex. During the time Maia dresses as a man, some people assume she’s romantically involved with another man, something which Maia calls a forbidden romance.

Spiritual Content
Maia’s people worship many different gods and goddesses, but the story primarily references one goddess, Amani, who once had dresses made from the sun, moon, and stars.

Maia and a companion visit a monastery and meet monks devoted to the service of Amani. At one point, she has an encounter with the goddess.

Edan is an enchanter, a person born with magic but who trades freedom for greater power.

On her journey, Maia battles ghosts and a demon, a monster who was once a human until he was transformed as punishment for his crimes.

Violent Content
Maia loses family members to the civil war in her country. At the palace, Maia becomes trapped in a fire, clearly an act of sabotage by a jealous competitor. At one point, a man crushes her hand. Another threatens her with a sword at her throat, making reference to assault. She battles humans, ghosts, and a demon on her journey.

Drug Content
Other tailors in the contest drink alcohol. Later, Maia drinks with a group of travelers and suffers a terrible hangover the next day.

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

Review: Past Perfect Life by Elizabeth Eulberg

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

Past Perfect Life
Elizabeth Eulberg
Bloomsbury YA
Published July 9, 2019

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About PAST PERFECT LIFE

Small-town Wisconsin high school senior Allison Smith loves her life the way it is-spending quality time with her widowed father and her tight-knit circle of friends, including best friend Marian and maybe-more-than-friends Neil. Sure she is stressed out about college applications . . . who wouldn’t be? In a few short months, everything’s going to change, big time.
But when Ally files her applications, they send up a red flag . . . because she’s not Allison Smith. And Ally’s-make that Amanda’s-ordinary life is suddenly blown apart. Was everything before a lie? Who will she be after? And what will she do as now comes crashing down around her?

My Review

Ally starts the story with this cute life in a small town. She and her dad don’t have money, but they share daily rituals that show how close they are and how much they love each other. Taco Tuesday, movie night, Packers games. Things like that. The Gleason family makes up the larger part of Ally’s inner circle. I think those characters had the most spark and variety in them. The banter between Rob and the rest of the group made those scenes a lot of fun to read.

I felt like the story stalled out a little bit around the 3/4 mark. Ally’s kind of just trying to get by and biding her time until she comes up with another idea. I think that was a necessary moment in the story, but I felt like it dragged on longer than it needed to.

Other than that, PAST PERFECT LIFE is a pretty smooth read. I’m a sucker for a story that touches on themes about the importance of family and community, so this book definitely scratched that itch for me.

Overall, I’d say PAST PERFECT LIFE is perfect for fans of IN ANOTHER LIFE by C. C. Hunter or WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE by Trish Doller.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Characters are white and straight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Ally’s family is Catholic and goes to mass on Christmas.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content 
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of PAST PERFECT LIFE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

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

Field Guide to the North American Teenager
Ben Philippe
Balzer + Bray
Published January 8, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Field Guide to the North American Teenager

Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas. Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs.

Yet, against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris. Be it loner Liam, who makes it his mission to befriend Norris, or Madison the beta cheerleader, who is so nice that it has to be a trap. Not to mention Aarti the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who might, in fact, be a real love interest in the making. He even starts playing actual hockey with these Texans.

But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. As he tries to pick up the pieces, he realizes it might be time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life—along with the people who have found their way into his heart.

My Review

My favorite thing about this book is Norris’s voice. I’m a total sucker for witty banter, and he’s full of quips and side comments. Some tender moments completely sneaked up on me, too. His conversation with his mother about his mistakes had me in tears. I couldn’t help asking myself how many moms have exactly that conversation with their black sons. It shouldn’t be that way.

I felt like Aarti and Madison had really similar voices, so that sometimes I couldn’t tell them apart. I also didn’t totally follow the sharp turn where Norris ends up apologizing to Aarti toward the end. (Sorry, trying not to include spoilers.) They start a conversation where Norris feels pretty righteous in his anger and then suddenly Aarti flips the situation and he feels like he’s the bad guy. Not that he did nothing wrong, but I guess I didn’t feel like the story supported Aarty’s view of what happened.

I loved Norris’s relationships with Liam and Eric. They felt like real friendships, and added a lot of depth to Norris’s character, too, because we got to see things like loyalty and dedication.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading THE FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN TEENAGER quite a lot. The fast-paced dialogue and banter between characters combined with lots of heart and tough lessons about love and growing up made it a great read. Perfect for fans of THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN YOU IS ME by Lily Anderson.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Norris is a black teen from Canada. His mom is from Haiti. Aarti’s parents are Indian immigrants to the US. They share a bond over the pressures of being minority kids who are also the children of immigrants. Norris’s best friend Eric is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used regularly but not super frequently. One instance of a slur used.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between girl and boy. A couple brief mentions of Norris feeling aroused in response to something. Norris’s best friend makes a comment about whether his boyfriend might intend for them to have sex and wondering if he’s ready for that. No descriptions of anything beyond kissing but Norris carries condoms with him just in case he might possibly need them.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Someone slaps Norris.

Drug Content 
Scenes include teens drinking alcohol. Norris makes some mistakes while drunk which land him in some trouble.

Note: This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing but which help support this blog.

Review: Finale by Stephanie Garber

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

Finale (Caraval #3)
Stephanie Garber
Flatiron Books
May 7, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | Book Depository

About FINALE

A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

My Review

I’m not gonna lie, when I first read CARAVAL, I wasn’t sure I would actually finish this series. I liked the book a lot. The story world was amazing and different. I liked the game elements. I liked that Scarlett did so many things to protect her sister and learned to risk loving someone.

But I wasn’t sure I would like Tella, the girl who wasn’t interested in anything serious and seemed so shallow. Then I read LEGENDARY and actually, I think I grew to like Tella more than Scarlett! Oops.

So reading FINALE, sometimes I wanted to rush through Scarlett’s scenes and get back to what was happening with Tella because omg was she actually going to figure out how to win Legend’s heart or what?! The suspense was intense. Ha.

I read a review of FINALE awhile ago that kind of made me wonder if I’d enjoy it. The reviewer said that there really wasn’t much in the way of the game and that it was really more of a love story. I can see why she said that. I liked the battle between the Fates and the sisters and all the things Tella goes through to try to figure out how to actually kill an immortal being.

Some of the story got a bit dark. Some things the Fates would do were kind of creepy. I guess the series as a whole has had an edge of darkness to it, so maybe this won’t surprise you if you’re familiar with the earlier books.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading FINALE so much. I had a lot of trouble sleeping the nights I was reading it, so actually, it was nice to have something so captivating to read while I was awake.

If you’re looking for a twisty, realistic fantasy romance, I recommend this trilogy. You definitely want to read them in order, though. Check out my reviews of CARAVAL and LEGENDARY for more of my thoughts on the books.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Julian and Dante have bronze/brown skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between girl and boy. At one point, a girl and boy go to bed together, meaning to have sex, but he stops before they’re even undressed.

Spiritual Content
Powerful immortal beings called Fates have escaped their prisons and now fight for power. If they rule, they’ll punish humans pretty severely. Legend has his own magic and seeks to use it to conquer the Fates. The only way to kill them is to make them mortal. And the only way to do that is to make them fall in love.

Violent Content
Some of the Fates do pretty ugly/horrible things. One sews the mouths of her victims closed. Another forces them to drink poison which turns them to stone. One ties their limbs to ropes, turning them into human marionettes.

Drug Content 
Some scenes show characters drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing but which help support this blog.

Review: Call It What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer

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

Call It What You Want
Brigid Kemmerer
Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Published June 24, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | Book Depository

About CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT

When his dad is caught embezzling funds from half the town, Rob goes from popular lacrosse player to social pariah. Even worse, his father’s failed suicide attempt leaves Rob and his mother responsible for his care.

Everyone thinks of Maegan as a typical overachiever, but she has a secret of her own after the pressure got to her last year. And when her sister comes home from college pregnant, keeping it from her parents might be more than she can handle.

When Rob and Maegan are paired together for a calculus project, they’re both reluctant to let anyone through the walls they’ve built. But when Maegan learns of Rob’s plan to fix the damage caused by his father, it could ruin more than their fragile new friendship…

This captivating, heartfelt novel asks the question: Is it okay to do something wrong for the right reasons?

My Review

Yay for a new Brigid Kemmerer book! I loved both LETTERS TO THE LOST and MORE THAN WE CAN TELL, so as soon as I heard about CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT, I wanted to read it.

I devoured this book in less than 24 hours, which is a pretty rare occurrence for me now that I have both a teenager and a toddler in the house. Falling in love with Rob and Maegan was so easy to do. Brigid Kemmerer is brilliant at creating these scruffy underdog characters with complex layers who are undervalued and underappreciated by the people around them.

CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT has more language and sexual content than I remember her earlier books having, though. See the content section below for more information.

I loved the characters’ journeys through the book. The story tackles a lot of situations where characters have to make really difficult choices. Doing the right thing is always the harder option, which is so true to real life, right?

I also thought it was cool that not all of Rob’s friends felt about him the way he expected them to. As he softened and allowed people to reach out to him, he discovered some people were doing so in ways that he previously didn’t notice or wrote off as sarcastic. That struck me as true to life, too. Sometimes we wall ourselves off from people when we’re afraid they’ll reject us, and then we feel totally abandoned by everyone when that isn’t the real way of things. So I felt like CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT was kind of an important reminder to me not to assume I know what everyone else is thinking.

One other note: the summary from Goodreads makes it sound like Maegan keeps her sister Sam’s pregnancy a secret from her parents. That’s not true. Her parents know about the pregnancy before the story begins. They do not, however, know the identity of the baby’s father and the reasons Sam doesn’t want to tell them.

If you’re a fan of Kemmerer’s other books or of underdog romance, put CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT at the top of your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
One of the side characters is gay. Rob’s dad tried to die by suicide prior to the story’s beginning. He now lives in a wheelchair and is unable to speak or move.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

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

Maegan’s parents discuss whether Sam should have an abortion so she can continue playing lacrosse and keep her scholarship. It’s clear that they feel very torn about it, and admit that they don’t want her to get an abortion. But they also worry about her future with a baby.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A couple scenes show teenage boys fighting. References to some abusive behavior, including locking a kid outside overnight during the winter in freezing weather and choking the kid.

As mentioned in the review, Rob’s dad attempted suicide prior the opening of CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT. Rob found him afterward, and there are some brief descriptions of things like blood on the walls, or carpet being removed.

Drug Content 
At a party, teens drink alcohol. Meagan and her sister
(who’s pregnant) drink. Maegan confronts her sister about how dangerous it is for the baby for her to drink alcohol.

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