Tag Archives: Romance

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 by Brigid Kemmerer cover shows paper hearts lined up and one out of line.

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

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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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Review: No Place Like Here by Christina June

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

No Place Like Here
Christina June
Blink/Zondervan
Published May 21, 2019

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About NO PLACE LIKE HERE

Ashlyn Zanotti has big plans for the summer. She’s just spent a year at boarding school and can’t wait to get home. But when Ashlyn’s father is arrested for tax evasion and her mother enters a rehab facility for “exhaustion,” a.k.a. depression, her life is turned upside down.

The cherry on top? Ashlyn’s father sends her to work with a cousin she doesn’t even know at a rustic team-building retreat center in the middle of nowhere. A self-proclaimed “indoor girl,” not even Ash’s habit of leaving breadcrumb quotes—inspirational sayings she scribbles everywhere—can help her cope.

With a dangerously careless camp manager doling out grunt work, an overbearing father trying to control her even from prison, and more than a little boy drama to struggle with, the summer is full of challenges. And Ashlyn must make the toughest decision of her life: keep quiet and follow her dad’s marching orders, or find the courage to finally stand up to her father to have any hope of finding her way back home.

My Review

My favorite thing about Christina June’s writing is the way she voices her characters. I found Ashlynn, the main character in NO PLACE LIKE HERE, cute and funny and awkward, all super endearing qualities. She shows a lot of growth through the story, too, which I enjoyed.

I thought having her domineering, perfectionist dad in jail for tax fraud was an interesting element to the story, too. While I’ve read a couple other young adult books featuring characters with a parent or loved one in prison, it’s always for murder. I thought it was cool that NO PLACE LIKE HERE follows a family dealing with white collar crime and all the shame and weirdness that a kid might feel when she has a parent involved in something like that.

If you’re a big fan of summer camp stories, you’ll probably like this one. While it’s not a camp for kids, the retreat center where Ashlynn and her cousin work for the summer creates a lot of the same vibes as summer camp counselor stories. Ashlynn and her friends watch over kids in the pool and supervise activities like a zip line course and scavenger hunt. They develop a team spirit and share inside jokes.

NO PLACE LIKE HERE is the third novel in the story world created by Christina June. Each book features a different character from the first book, IT STARTED WITH GOODBYE, but you don’t have to read one before another, so if you’re unfamiliar with the collection, you can start with any book you want.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Ashlynn is Italian. Most other characters are white and straight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A girl and boy kiss.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content 
None.

Note: I received a free copy of NO PLACE LIKE HERE by Christina June in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing but which help support this blog.

Review: Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

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

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3)
Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published March 13, 2018

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About OBSIDIO

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they’ll find seven months after the invasion?

Meanwhile, Kady’s cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza’s ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha’s past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. 

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.

My Review

I’ve probably said this about all the other books in the Illuminae Files series, but I really liked the format of the story. It’s told in a series of instant message chat logs, video transcriptions, and emails. It’s funny — I wondered earlier in the series who was transcribing the videos, because sometimes the transcriber adds some humor or clearly has an opinion about the character in the video feed. OBSIDIO mentions how those transcriptions came to be. I didn’t pay enough attention to figure out who transcribed which videos, but I bet someone has figured it out.

I read a hardback version of OBSIDIO which was really different for me. For ILLUMINAE, think I had an eARC and then read an ebook version of GEMINA. I liked the hard cover version because some of the pages are meant to be seen in a two-page spread, which I haven’t figured out how to do on the Kindle app. So that would be my recommendation for this series, to read a physical copy rather than an ebook, where you’ll lose those two-page spreads or as an audiobook, where you would lose the illustrations that tell some of the story, too.

If there is a drawback to this book, it’s that we’re keeping tabs on so many characters in order to wrap up the whole series that we don’t really get to focus on some of the individual stories. I liked Asha and Rhys and found their story interesting, but not as compelling as Hanna and Nik or Kady and Ezra, and I think it’s because there wasn’t time in the story to focus on them as much.

On the whole, though, I found OBSIDIO funny– definitely had some laugh out loud moments– and thought-provoking. A really entertaining end to a super fun series. This is a series you need to read from the beginning, though, so start with ILLUMINAE if you’re new to the books.

Recommended for ages 12 up.

Representation
Asha has darker skin. Nik and his cousin Ella are from a mafia family. Ella is wheelchair bound.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One thing that’s kind of clever about this series is that they black out all the uses of profanity. It’s like someone went through the transcripts with a sharpie and colored over them. There are lots of black marks where characters used curses, but I didn’t catch any that were exposed.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Some innuendo. For instance, at one point I think a girl says she’s going to change clothes and the boy responds with a comment like, “down boy”. Things like that. Couples sometimes talk about plans to share bunks in their limited sleep hours. (Anything that happens between them happens off-scene.)

Spiritual Content
Some exploration of what it means to be alive and to love. AIDAN, a computer system, develops feelings and attachments.

Violent Content
A gas kills thousands of people. Conditions on the mining colony are pretty grim. Workers comply with BeiTech because they have family members imprisoned. Thousands of bodies lie in a mass grave. Soldiers are ordered to kill any unidentified person immediately. At one point, characters witness a young girl murdered by soldiers.

Drug Content
Nik smokes cigarettes.

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Review: The Truth About Romantic Comedies by Sean McMurray

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The Truth About Romantic Comedies
Sean McMurray
Anaiah Press
January 15, 2019

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads

About The Truth About Romantic Comedies

Sixteen-year-old Timothy Gephart’s life is a chronicle of loser-hood. Trapped by the decaying walls of his family’s trailer and saddled with the responsibility of caring for a grandmother stricken with a wicked combination of Alzheimer’s and cancer, Timothy isn’t exactly thriving in the teenage chapter of his life. To make matters worse, his girlfriend inexplicably dumps him through a text message. Heartbroken, Tim drives his grandmother to and from her radiation treatments as if the last page of his life has already been written. And then the enigmatic Rachel Wilson struts into the cancer center’s waiting room.

Self-proclaimed social scientist Rachel Wilson hasn’t reconciled herself to her mother’s cancer, but she’s doing her best to stay positive…and distracted. With his dry wit and easy acceptance of her bright blue hair, Timothy might be the answer to a prayer Rachel hasn’t had the strength to ask.

As a fast friendship blossoms into something more, Timothy and Rachel learn that Rachel’s father’s job will soon take her family to a new life across the country. Knowing that their time together is running out, Timothy and Rachel go all in on an experiment that will put every romantic comedy cliche to the test, to say nothing of the foundation on which their relationship was built. Happily-ever-after has never been so hard.

My Review

This is such a cute book! It took me a couple chapters to really get into Tim’s character, but I found it easy to like him once I did. He’s caring and sweet, funny and a little bit awkward. The romance develops in that classic, sweet way with bumps and unexpected reveals here and there keeping it interesting.

Only a couple small things stuck out to me as not working, and they’re all pretty minor. If a girl dyed her hair as often as Rachel did, I think it would all fall out. At one point I kind of expected that Tim would discover her hair was all wigs. Ha. But she’s quirky and fun, always a bit of a mystery to Tim, which again, made THE TRUTH ABOUT ROMANTIC COMEDIES a fun read.

Later in the story, Tim goes with Rachel to a youth convention and listens to a speaker talk about online bullying. I liked the message, but it’s kind of a pet peeve for me when a story includes a long sermon section. It feels like taking a time out from the novel for a PSA, which most of the time doesn’t work. It’s just the one scene, and it’s not that long, so it’s kind of a minor deal.

On the whole, THE TRUTH ABOUT ROMANTIC COMEDIES reminded me a little bit of ZAC & MIA, another contemporary romance with a pretty straight line narrator and quirky love interest. Plot-wise, it has a little of the John Green (think PAPER TOWNS or THE FAULT IN OUR STARS in terms of the list element) vibe to it in that Rachel and Tim have a list of things (romantic comedy clichés) to do together before their relationship ends.

I highly recommend THE TRUTH ABOUT ROMANTIC COMEDIES to anyone looking for a sweet, funny contemporary romance.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
I think all the major characters were white and straight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to making out or kissing for longer periods of time. Rachel discusses not being ready to have sex.

Spiritual Content
Rachel is a Christian and goes to a Christian school, but she’s not preachy about her faith. Tim has pretty limited experience with and interest in Christianity. He’s pretty much just an observer on that front. At one point Tim goes with her to a youth conference and listens to a Christian speaker talk about his past as an online bully and how damaging/wrong the behavior was.

Violent Content
Tim briefly wonders if he should have fought another boy who’s interested in Rachel.

Drug Content
A grief stricken adult calls Tim for a ride home from a bar after becoming too drunk to drive.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing, but help me buy more books.

Review: Forsaken by Gina Detwiler

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

Forsaken
Gina Detwiler
Vinspire
Published September 2017

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About Forsaken

He was forsaken but not forgotten.

Nine months have passed since Grace Fortune saw the boy she loves, Jared Lorn, die before her eyes. But Grace’s suspicions have her wondering if Jared really dead. Along with her friends, she sets out to find answers, and the investigation leads to an unexpected place: Silo City, an abandoned silo complex that houses as many dark secrets as it does forsaken people.

Very much alive, Jared’s on a mission to save the girl he loves by collaborating with the enemy—a young, brash rock star named Lester Crow who fronts the punk metal band Blood Moon. Jared’s “deal with the devil” will take him on a cross-country journey into the heartland of darkness. The music of Blood Moon is a weapon against God, and Jared must wield this weapon while trying desperately to preserve his mind and soul from its power.

Jared and Grace are desperate to be reunited, but first, they must defeat the demonic forces arrayed against them. And pray that Jared, a Nephilim forsaken in God’s eyes, has a chance at a future.

My Review

I feel like I had a lot of strong thoughts about this book. Some things I really liked a lot. The way the author describes music really pulled me into each scene. I loved that so much of the story followed Grace’s singing (or her inability to sing) and Jared’s talent with the guitar. I wanted to sit in on their jam sessions. The big concerts felt very realistic.

In terms of the spiritual elements, I struggled with some of the doctrine. Jared, the son of a powerful demon and a human woman, had a lot of questions about his value and identity. I like that he’s a complicated character, that he wants to do good and be good despite his origin. Honestly, I think that’s pretty relatable. I don’t think it’s something that’s within the bounds of Christian ideology, though.

Music in the story has a strong spiritual component. I thought this was also pretty cool to show this spiritual component to songs depending on who’s playing them, what the songs glorify, and the motives of the musicians playing them. Early on in FORSAKEN, a mentor character shares a theory that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones artists were Satanists. He cites some interesting evidence.

I looked it up because I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be an in-the-book thing or a this-is-real thing. The individual things the character points out are true (an occult founder being pictured on an album cover and some lyrics about Lucifer), I felt like those were probably things the artists used for their shock value. I didn’t see any indication that the artists themselves had any real love or worship for Satan, so I had a hard time following that thread of the plot.

Sometimes I felt like I had missed something – I think because I started reading this series with book two. I think FORSAKEN makes a good choice for TWILIGHT or BEAUTIFUL CREATURES fans or readers who like a sweet paranormal romance. I’d recommend starting with the first book, FORLORN.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
I think all the major characters were white and straight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to two characters having sex (off-scene).

Spiritual Content
Jared is the son of a demon and human, but he wants to be worthy of God’s love, and seems to be part of God’s plan as he has visits from other angels. Grace has a guardian angel who tries to keep her safe. At one point, characters start talking about a church where the pastor preaches that God wouldn’t send anyone to Hell because he loves us so much, and that Hell doesn’t really exist. One of the girls scoffs and responds with something like, “Why would anyone believe in God if there’s no Hell?” From a Christian perspective, I didn’t think this made any sense. I could see not believing in Jesus if there was no Hell, since his death and resurrection are the reason people don’t have to go there. I didn’t understand the point being made there, maybe?

See my review for more on the spirituality of FORSAKEN.

Violent Content
Jared has some anger issues and gets into fights when provoked. At one point, the girls venture into a dangerous part of town and a man attacks one of them. At another point, one character stabs one of the girls.

Drug Content
One of Jared’s companions uses a lot of drugs and is very often drunk. He has a girl with him who’s often high or drunk as well. Jared doesn’t participate in any of that.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing, but help me buy more books.


Review: In Another Life by C.C. Hunter

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

In Another Life
C.C. Hunter
Wednesday Books
Publishes March 26, 2019

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About IN ANOTHER LIFE

Chloe was three years old when she became Chloe Holden, but her adoption didn’t scar her, and she’s had a great life. Now, fourteen years later, her loving parents’ marriage has fallen apart and her mom has moved them to Joyful, Texas. Starting twelfth grade as the new kid at school, everything Chloe loved about her life is gone. And feelings of déjà vu from her early childhood start haunting her.

When Chloe meets Cash Colton she feels drawn to him, as though they’re kindred spirits. Until Cash tells her the real reason he sought her out: Chloe looks exactly like the daughter his foster parents lost years ago, and he’s determined to figure out the truth.

As Chloe and Cash delve deeper into her adoption, the more things don’t add up, and the more strange things start happening. Why is Chloe’s adoption a secret that people would kill for?

My Review

Usually I’m not a big fan of those dreamboat oddball hero names. You know, the kind that don’t really sound like actual names. In this case, though, Cash’s name really works because his dad was a con man, and money was all he valued. So it was kind of perfect and made sense.

I liked Chloe right away. You could definitely feel her hurt and frustration at being caught between her parents. She had reasons to be angry with both of them, but also loved them both, too. I liked that her family wasn’t perfect going into the story. It added a lot of tension right at the beginning of IN ANOTHER LIFE.

In terms of Cash’s character, I’m kind of a sucker for the unworthy, heart-of-gold guy. It’s hard for me not to like someone like that. On the other hand, that unworthiness creates huge problems for anyone trying to have relationships with him, and I liked that IN ANOTHER LIFE addressed that as well – it wasn’t just about Chloe’s history. Cash also had to confront some demons and he wasn’t a purely romanticized character, even though the main focus of the novel is unraveling the circumstances surrounding Chloe’s adoption and what really happened to the missing girl.

The story reminded me a little bit of THE FACE ON THE MILK CARTON by Carolyn Cooney, so it struck some nostalgia for me. I think fans of that duology or THE LOST AND THE FOUND by Cat Clarke will enjoy IN ANOTHER LIFE.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Brief mention of one character’s mom being a lesbian. Brief appearance by Chloe’s dad’s cousin and his husband.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. Some crude comments.

Romance/Sexual Content
Lots of kissing. Chloe mentions losing her virginity to her last boyfriend. At one point Chloe removes her top and lies down with her boyfriend while they kiss and touch. There’s a cut scene later, where they lead up to going to have sex and then the scene picks up afterward.

At one point, a man watches a girl sleep and has some sexual thoughts about her. They’re not super graphic, but it’s definitely creepy

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Cash remembers bits of his past, including getting shot by police while his dad tried to run from a crime. He gets into a couple of physical altercations with another student– a boy who bullies others. At one point, someone shoots at the car Cash and Chloe are in. Another woman gets shot, which is briefly described

Drug Content
Chloe’s mom abuses sleeping pills for a short time. She ends up taking antidepressants, and almost as soon as she starts taking them, she feels better. I didn’t think this was very realistic, but I did like that it was a positive portrayal of taking medication for depression.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing, but help me buy more books.

About C. C. Hunter

Website | Facebook | Twitter

C.C. HUNTER is a pseudonym for award-winning romance author Christie Craig. She is lives in Tomball, Texas, where she’s at work on her next novel.

Christie’s books include The Mortician’s Daughter series, Shadow Fall Novels and This Heart of Mine.