Tag Archives: Blended Families

Review: The Reunion by Kit Frick

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,
The Reunion by Kit Frick cover shows four people. A boy with a surfboard faces left with his back to the camera. Two figures stand in profile back to back with their arms crossed in the bottom center. A girl stands in profile, her face toward the right edge of the cover, her hands over her heart.

The Reunion
Kit Frick
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published August 29, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Reunion

From the author of I KILLED ZOE SPANOS comes a YA thriller in the vein of THE WHITE LOTUS and Karen M. McManus’s THE COUSINS following a doomed family reunion gone wrong at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.

Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.

It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect:
The peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place.
The outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences.
The romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.
The hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.

It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.

My Review

I KILLED ZOE SPANOS was one of those books I really wanted to read but wasn’t able to get a review copy of and haven’t (thus far) managed to pull from my backlist. All that to say that I’ve been looking forward to reading a book by Kit Frick, and THE REUNION is the first one I’ve read.

One of the things I found really intriguing about this book is the amount of screen time the soon-to-be-dead person gets. I don’t read tons of thrillers, so I’m not sure how commonly this is done. I can’t think of another book that I’ve read that does this, though. In any case, I found the idea that I got so much information about the murder victim really cool.

The story is told from four points of view. The twins, Addison and Mason, each share their perspectives. Their cousin Natalia and their stepbrother-to-be Theo also tell the story from their viewpoints. As the outsider to the family, Theo has the least backstory drama, though he plays a pivotal role in some of the other characters’ conflicts. I think he was probably my favorite character. I loved Natalia, too.

Something about the book reminded me a little bit of BAD THINGS HAPPEN HERE by Rebecca Barrow, which I really liked. Both books include really wealthy characters who are used to getting what they want and explosive secrets. I think fans of Karen McManus will enjoy this one, and I’m even more eager now to check out I KILLED ZOE SPANOS.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Natalia and her sister Mia are biracial: white and Puerto Rican. They have two moms. Theo is bisexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some references to being attracted to someone off-limits.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Addison and Mason’s dad is an alcoholic with anger issues who crashed his car while driving drunk, injuring his family members. References to a past accidental death. One scene very briefly tells about a boy beating up another boy. Some descriptions of a man losing his temper and accidentally or purposely injuring a restaurant worker. One scene briefly describes a person’s death.

Drug Content
Adults drink alcohol at the resort. One adult buys alcohol for a teenage boy and pressures another boy to drink with him.

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

Review: Not if I Can Help It by Carolyn Mackler

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

Not If I Can Help It
Carolyn Mackler
Scholastic Press
July 30, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Not If I Can Help It

Willa likes certain things to be certain ways. Her socks have to be soft . . . and definitely can’t have irritating tags on the inside. She loves the crunch of popcorn and nachos . . . but is grossed out by the crunch of a baby carrot. And slimy foods? Those are the worst.

Willa can manage all these things — but there are some things she can’t deal with, like her father’s big news. He’s been keeping a big secret from her . . . that he’s been dating the mom of Willa’s best friend Ruby. Willa does NOT like the idea of them being together. And she does NOT like the idea of combining families. And she does NOT like the idea of her best friend becoming her sister overnight. Will she go along with all of these changes? NOT if she can help it!

My Review

Just when I needed a spunky heroine in my life, I found Willa in NOT IF I CAN HELP IT. She has fierce opinions and specific ideas about how she wants things to go. Some of these things are related to her Sensory Processing Disorder, like her needs for clothes to fit a certain way and feel a certain way, but others are simply her own personal preference, like where she wants to go to school next year, and who her dad happens to be dating.

After her dad and her best friend Ruby’s mom announce that they’re dating, Willa realizes she and Ruby aren’t on the same page about it. This begins a big challenge to their relationship and a challenge to Willa’s way of looking at things. She begins to learn that situations and relationships don’t a;ways look the same from other people’s points of view.

For me, that process is precisely what makes this book amazing. Willa navigates that tug-of-war between her own preferences and needs and those of the other important people in her life, mainly her dad and her best friend. She remains a fierce person, fiercely committed to her way of thinking, but also fiercely committed to the people she loves, which makes her all the more lovable and amazing.

NOT IF I CAN HELP IT makes a great read for kids navigating transitions to blended families in their own lives or helping them develop empathy and understanding for the transition in the lives of people close to them. It’s also a great pick for encouraging understanding and empathy toward children with sensory issues. I highly recommend it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 up.

Representation
Willa has Sensory Processing Disorder. Another character battles anxiety. Willa’s best friend, Ruby in Indian-American. One minor character is gay.

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. I received a free copy of NOT IF I CAN HELP IT in exchange for my honest review.

Review: White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

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

White Rabbit
Caleb Roehrig
Feiwel & Friends
Published on April 24, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About White Rabbit

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to “talk.” Things couldn’t get much worse, right?

But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying.

My Review

It’s been a while since I read a book purely for the fun of it, but I think I needed this book. It was so much fun to read. I got carried away by mystery elements and the complex relationships between characters.

As the story progressed and Rufus drew closer and closer to the murderer, things got more and more dangerous. I was totally biting my nails and practically jumping at every noise while I read. Add to that the fact that Rufus has this really fabulous voice, which again made it great fun to read. I loved the side comments and the way the dialogue gave these light moments away from the tension without disrupting the storytelling.

I loved that Rufus (okay, first, I loved that he’s called Rufus. There aren’t enough Rufus characters in literature. Love it!) battles this deep anger, part of which seems perhaps hereditary and part of which might be environmental. But he doesn’t just make excuses about Hulking out. He recognizes how damaging it can be and really wrestles with his angry impulses. That made him so easy to understand and so admirable to me.

Also, I loved his relationship with his mom. It felt very real, and I felt like there was this great balance in the story where she was there, and obviously a big force in Rufus’s life, but the relationship with her didn’t dominate the story. I also loved the moment where one character has to confront a family member about a secret he’s been keeping. He’s worried the family member will reject him over it to the point that he’s expecting to lose the relationship. And instead, the family member talks about how they love him no matter what. We need those kinds of stories and moments, and the reminders that there are good parents out there, and that sometimes we expect to be rejected but are instead surprised by love and acceptance.

Anyway, I read this book in less than a day, I think. I had so much fun reading it, and I absolutely want to read Roehrig’s other book, LAST SEEN LEAVING.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Rufus and Sebastian are both gay. Sebastian is black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Regular use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex. Some details leading up to the event. Some sexual comments.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Rufus has some pretty serious anger management issues which he speaks pretty candidly about. He’s trying his best to manage via medication and other healthy strategies, but he’s still bearing some consequences from fights in his past. In several scenes he’s very tempted to fight again. At one point a man threatens him and handles him pretty roughly. A couple characters are downright physically threatening. Someone fires a gun at another person in two scenes. A character threatens others with a gun in another scene. More than one character gets drugged.

Drug Content
Teen alcohol use is pretty normalized. Some references to smoking pot. References to a dangerous psychedelic drug that causes some violent outbursts.


Review: Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

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

Little & Lion
Brandy Colbert
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published August 8, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Little & Lion

When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn’t sure if she’ll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support.

But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new…the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel’s disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself–or worse.

My Review

My favorite thing about this book has to be the relationship between Suzette and her stepbrother, Lionel. My household is a blended family, and we spend a lot of time talking about how family isn’t always only people related to you by blood. Sometimes life puts other people into your path and they become part of your family, too. I’ve read lots of young adult and middle grade books about the difficulty of transitioning to a blended family home and how hard it can be to develop those relationships. Those stories are important, too, but it’s nice to see books that present other parts of the family journey. So reading a book in which the family had already forged those complex bonds with step-members was awesome.

I liked and appreciated the diversity in the story. Little & Lion creates a community with members across varied orientations and has characters with physical and mental health issues. It could be said that perhaps some of the handling of Lionel’s illness gets a little stereotypical in that he decides to throw out his medication at one point. (I’m not sure I can think of a story about someone with bipolar disorder which doesn’t involve throwing out meds.) But it’s not the focus of the story, and Lionel never felt defined by his illness, especially not to Suzette, who longs for the kind of close relationship they had before she left for boarding school.

On the whole, I thought the storytelling and the writing were strong. I found it easy to connect with the characters emotionally. I struggled with some of the casual attitudes about teen drinking and some of the sexual content. See the content notes below for more specifics.

Readers who liked Jess, Chunk and the Road Trip to Infinity will enjoy Suzette’s journey toward self-understanding and the diverse cast of characters.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Very diverse cast of characters. Suzette is bisexual. Her best friend is a lesbian. Her brother has bipolar disorder. Her mom is black, her stepdad and brother white. They are also Jewish. Suzette begins dating a boy who’s black and Korean and diagnosed with Meniere’s disease.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some references and brief descriptions of sexual situations—making out and touching. In one scene a boy and girl have sex. Other scenes reference two girls in a sexual exchange.

Spiritual Content
Suzette meets a girl whose mother kicked her out of her home for religious reasons when she got an abortion.

Violent Content
A couple of boys get into a fist fight.

Drug Content
Teens drinking alcohol. Suzette worries about her brother drinking because she feels he doesn’t know his limits. Both are underage.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Life Just Got Real by Sadie Robertson with Cindy Coloma

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

Life Just Got Real
Sadie Robertson with Cindy Coloma
Howard Books / Simon & Schuster
Published on June 7, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Life Just Got Real
Sixteen-year-old A.J. Smith grew up in backwoods Louisiana, repairing cars with her dad and hunting with her brothers. But when her dad dies, her mom drags the whole family to Nashville where everything is different—except A.J. And A.J. knows it will take everything she has to live original.

Kate Kelly grew up in Nashville’s best schools, jetting around the world with glamorous people and wearing clothes from her mom’s trendy boutique. But when A.J. Smith―a new girl from the sticks—shows up, suddenly she’s all the rage: her unusual sense of style, her accent, and especially her dumb converse high tops. Even Kate’s brother, Kaden, seems to be under the new girl’s spell. But Kate has bigger things to think about, including the reality show Real Life. Everyone says the show is her chance to make it big. But then the producers decide to bring A.J. into the show.

Because these girls are so different, the producers of Real Life know that their conflict will be television gold. So the cameras start to roll. Then Kaden asks A.J. to prom, Kate flips out, and things with Kate’s (almost) boyfriend Alex start unraveling fast—all on camera. As the producers try to stir up the drama, Kate’s idea of the perfect prom spins out of control. When Kate’s life goes disastrously wrong, it is A.J. who steps up to help—no questions asked. A friendship between the two girls just might grow—but only if they both live original and stay true to who God made them to be.

My Review
As a girl who also grew up peeking at engines with her dad, I loved that this is a book about a girl with mechanical tendencies! How fun. I loved AJ’s genuine character and her vulnerability. Both those things made it so easy to root for her as the story progressed.

I also identified with Kate’s driven, high-achiever nature. I liked how both girls were juxtaposed against each other not just within the frame of a reality show but also in their alternating points of view in the story.

In a couple of scenes, Kaden gets a bit pushy with AJ. While as a reader I believed in Kaden’s goodness and his good intentions toward AJ, I was uncomfortable with the way the story made his behavior seem like an admirable thing. She resisted or straight up said no she didn’t want to do something a couple of times and he kind of pushed until she caved. I don’t think this is a great model for teen relationships and can actually be a dangerous pattern. So I struggled with that.

The story explores some of AJ’s spiritual beliefs and the comfort she finds in church and Christian faith. So there’s more spiritual content here than in some other books by major Christian publishers that I’ve read lately. I loved seeing these elements grafted into the story but wished they played a role in the story’s resolution as well.

The plot got a little murky toward the three-quarter mark of Life Just Got Real. I’m not sure what the big conflict/final battle is exactly. I felt like the story sort of lost focus and became more event-driven at that point. The ending left me wanting to know more (in a good way), though I don’t see any evidence that there are plans for a sequel.

Readers looking for a clean reality show novel will want to put this one on their lists. If you liked Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos or liked the concept but wanted a clean alternative, Life Just Got Real should be on your reading list.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white. The story takes place in Nashville and focuses on a wealthy white family and a poorer white family.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
AJ reflects on the change in her Christian life since her dad’s death and realizes she hasn’t prayed much lately. She begins attending church again and tries to make her spiritual life a priority. She also introduces Kaden to her church. He develops his own belief and mentions studying the bible. He also talks to his sister Kate briefly about believing in God and how maybe that’s what he’s been missing in his life up to that point. Kate wants to be supportive but doesn’t seem interested in spirituality.

Violent Content
A boy publicly humiliates a girl by saying some unkind things about her.

Drug Content
A boy gets drunk and says some ugly things about a girl publicly. He later apologizes for what he said and did.

Review: First & Then by Emma Mills

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

First & Then
Emma Mills
Henry Holt & Co.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

With college application deadlines fast-approaching, Devon is under pressure to be her most extraordinary self. The problem? How would Jane Austen say this? She’s remarkably uninteresting. Devon has never minded the sidelines. Especially when her best friend Cas and secret love takes the football field. When her socially awkward cousin Foster moves in with Devon’s family, his presence changes everything, bringing the local unapproachable football star, Ezra, into Devon’s path. Like, almost constantly. Ezra’s new closeness seems to stir some jealous feelings in Cas, and at first Devon thinks this might be the moment in which he discovers his deep love for her. But as she gets to know Ezra better, she starts to wonder if it really is Cas she wants.

I have to be honest. If you had asked me if I’d like to read a book equal parts football and Jane Austen, I would have looked at you as if you’d just asked whether I’d like ice cream on my nachos. Um, what? No. Just no.

But.

I think this really worked. It had a lot more profanity than I was expecting and felt was necessary, but I did enjoy the way Devon kept this inner monologue of Jane Austen describing her modern life. I liked that it celebrated Austen without making the story a straight-up retelling of a familiar tale or something like that. I also enjoyed Foster’s rambling monologues and totally inappropriate questions. I laughed out loud at some moments.

As far as the plot goes, there were definitely some unexpected twists and turns. I liked that, in keeping with true Austen tradition, this isn’t a story with explicit sex. Devon’s on a quest for love, and while she recognizes that sex is out there, she’s not eager for it for its own sake.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
One of Devon’s high school friends is pregnant. There’s not much discussion about who she’s been involved with or anything like that. Devon laments her lack of sexual experience. As a senior in high school, she’s never even been kissed, and she hasn’t dated since eighth grade. There are a couple of scenes in which kids are described as making out or kissing. Devon knows that some of her friends are sexually active, but they don’t talk about it explicitly.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Devon’s cousin joins the football team, and she witnesses some practices and games. One player is tackled and suffers a concussion. He is rushed to the hospital. One boy shoves another boy’s head under water repeatedly in a swimming pool. It’s clearly a threat and not a joke.

Drug Content
Devon attends parties where teens are drinking alcohol. She doesn’t enjoy the parties and often doesn’t stay late. Her cousin and another friend each throw parties without any alcohol which are still well-attended, though some guests show up drunk already or plan to leave for other parties in order to get drunk.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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