Tag Archives: Romance

Review: Takedown by Ali Bryan

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,
Takedown by Ali Bryan

Takedown
Ali Bryan
DCB Young Readers
Published May 11, 2024

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About Takedown

Sixteen-year-old star wrestler Rowan Harper’s biggest fan is her father.

But he has ALS, and his symptoms are getting worse. Saving his life will cost more money than the family has, but Rowan finds a solution. Will she risk her chances at a scholarship by competing in a lucrative, but illegal, underground MMA fight?

Takedown is a high-intensity coming-of-age story about family illness and competitive combat, with lots of heart, hope, and headlocks.

My Review

This is a fiercely compelling read about a girl wrestler readying herself for a big tournament and struggling with the grim progression of her father’s ALS. The author doesn’t pull her punches. These scenes are filled with big emotions, high-stakes combat, and heartwarming family moments.

It’s also got a lot of attitude. Rowan, definitely not a morning person, grouches her way through the early hours of the day. She keeps secrets more and more as she faces greater pressure to do something to help her dad. She doesn’t always think things through– which made me grind my teeth sometimes, but reads so realistically.

I liked that both Rowan and her best friend, Pia, are wrestlers, and they’re super different from one another. Pia thrives on fashion and is an online influencer. Rowan is more of a purist athlete: most of what she does is train and compete around moments with her family and boyfriend.

I cried multiple times while reading this book. Sometimes, a moving line caught me just right, and other times, a heartbreaking turn of events brought me to tears. I feel like I didn’t even have a lot of time to ask myself whether I *liked* Rowan. She is such a compelling character that it almost didn’t matter, if that makes sense.

I think I like her. Although her choices often frustrated me, I understood why she did what she did.

All in all, this book is a win for books about girls in sports, and books about wrestling. It’s one of those books that draws you in and won’t let you go until the last page.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Rowan’s dad has ALS. She’s a wrestler on a competitive team. One character is Lebanese on one side of his family and has two dads. Another character is South Asian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
F-bombs appear at intense moments. Other swearing used moderately.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. In one scene, a boy and girl quickly undress so they can have sex. (Not shown on scene.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Several scenes show Rowan in a fight and wrestling matches in practice and competition. She punches a guy in the face. She helps someone who has obviously been in a fight.

At one point, Rowan wonders if her dad is checked out of life. Like, not depressed/suicidal, but maybe thinking about assisted suicide.

Spoiler: Death of a parent. (Select text to view.)

Drug Content
Rowan and her friend drink beer at her friend’s house. They attend a party and drink more. Rowan ends up super drunk and sick and embarrassed about it later. Rowan’s brother, Ike, smokes cigarettes he gets from a neighbor. He comes home smelling like weed in one scene.

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

Review: Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu

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Icon and Inferno (Stars and Smoke #2)
Marie Lu
Roaring Brook Press
Published June 4, 2024

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About Icon and Inferno

Spies meet romance meet popstars in this thrilling follow up to Stars and Smoke by bestselling author Marie Lu.

A year has passed since superstar Winter and secret agent Sydney Cossette went undercover – on a dangerous mission to bring down the baddest man in London.

Winter hasn’t stopped thinking about Sydney since, and she’s been trying not to think about him

Family secrets and nasty newspapers has Winter desperate to re-enter the secret world. And it’s not long before he gets his chance.

Sydney is back, and this time the mission goes right to the heart of the United States of America. A rescue gone wrong, an assassination attempt – and the return of an old flame – puts Winter right back into the action . . . and into a country on the brink of chaos.

And when a murder accusation has Sydney on the run, suddenly it’s not just a life at stake, but all-out war.

My Review

Winter and Sydney are back, and I am so excited! Stars and Smoke, the first book in the series, swept me away with its romance and danger. I knew I’d be back for more. I love the contrast between these two characters. When he’s with people he trusts, Winter is wide open with his heart totally available. Sydney, however, never opens herself that way. That kind of vulnerability terrifies her, which makes sense for someone with a life as a secret agent. For her, letting people in is literally dangerous.

The story begins with a bit of miscommunication or maybe bad assumptions between Winter and Sydney, where she thinks he’s seeing someone and is disappointed but trying not to show it. And he’s hurt that she’s not disappointed, etc. It’s not my favorite romance trope, but the story doesn’t lean into it too heavily since the romantic tension between Sydney and Winter is secondary to their assignment from Panacea.

I like that the task gets layered with complications, though. Winter has to manage the expectations of his ex, whom he invited to a social event as his date. Sydney must find and rescue her own ex, the guy who ended their last tryst by stealing her passport and stranding her overseas. So, yeah, she’s really looking forward to that. Mr. To-Be-Rescued has his own agenda as well, and Sydney and Winter have to decide whether to listen to him or stick with the original plan.

One thing I absolutely loved is the way the story uses Winter’s fame to achieve objectives in his work as a secret agent. It seems like being internationally celebrated and recognized would be a setback for someone on a secret mission, but he makes it work. I love how he uses his position as an asset for Panacea on their missions.

Conclusion

I think even more than the first book, Icon and Inferno leans more into adult fiction. The characters have full-time careers. They’ve had adult relationships. They have adult independence. It’s marketed as YA, and I think will have a fair amount of crossover appeal. Fans of Chloe Gong’s Foul Lady Fortune will enjoy this.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Winter is Chinese American and has had romantic relationships with boys and girls in the past.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used pretty infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a past relationship Winter was in, in which he slept with his partner. Same for Sydney. Kissing between boy and girl. In a couple of scenes, the characters kiss and undress. One vaguely references a sexual encounter.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Sydney and Winter witness someone killed by a gunshot and explosion. A couple of scenes involve a high-speed car or motorcycle chase. Someone points a gun at another person’s head. Someone injects a drug into another person, knocking them out.

Drug Content
References to Winter’s dad smoking cigars.

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

Review: Better Must Come by Desmond Hall

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

Better Must Come
Desmond Hall
Atheneum
Published June 4, 2024

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About Better Must Come

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

Deja is a “barrel girl”—one of the Jamaican kids who get barrels full of clothes, food, and treats shipped to them from parents who have moved to the US or Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When he meets Deja at a party, he starts looking for a way into her life and wonders if they could be a part of each other’s futures.

Then, one day while out fishing, Deja spies a go-fast boat stalled out by some rocks, smeared with blood. Inside, a badly wounded man thrusts a knapsack at her, begging her to deliver it to his original destination, and to not say a word. She binds his wounds, determined to send for help and make good on her promise…not realizing that the bag is stuffed with $500,000 American. Not realizing that the posse Gabriel is in will stop at nothing to get their hands on this bag—or that Gabriel’s and her lives will intersect in ways neither ever imagined, as they both are forced to make split-second choices to keep the ones they love most alive.

My Review

One of the things I love about a good YA thriller is how fast it feels to read them. This one is no exception. The early chapters start out a bit slow, with the real plot taking off a little before the 100-page mark. Once that acceleration happens, though, buckle up. From there on, I felt like I couldn’t look away from the page for a second.

Deja and Gabriel each have chapters from their points of view. Sometimes, several chapters in a row follow one person’s viewpoint before switching back to the other person’s. Though less predictable, the switches happen at critical moments and build a lot of tension.

I think I’ve only read one other book set in Jamaica (a memoir called Funny Gyal by Angeline Jackson and Susan McClelland), and I’ve never visited, so I’m not very familiar with the landscape. I thought the descriptions of the setting did a great job anchoring the story and helping me picture the scenes without slowing down the action.

The relationship between Deja and Gabriel carries its own tension. It doesn’t dominate the story but adds a lot of interest, especially for Gabriel as a character. Ultimately he has to make a choice whether to help Deja or take action to protect himself and his best friend. I liked the way this part of the story resolves. It feels both realistic and satisfying.

All in all, readers looking for books in international settings will find this one a fresh, intense read. It’s also a great choice for readers who enjoy crime thrillers. Definitely a great summer read!

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Deja and Gabriel are Jamaican.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently. Several F-bombs and some Jamaican swear words used in intense moments.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some attraction between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Deja and Gabriel both seek spiritual counsel from a local pastor. Deja references praying when she’s scared. She says she wants to believe in God but hasn’t seen a lot of evidence in her life that He’s real.

Violent Content
Gabriel is a member of a posse, or gang and carries a gun. Someone discovers a man gravely injured from a gunshot wound. Someone discovers the bodies of two young men. People, including corrupt police officers, threaten one another at gunpoint. More than one scene describes an intense chase, in which someone flees from others who intend to harm them.

Drug Content
Gabriel finds evidence that his aunt is using heroin. She has a history of drinking too much as well. He asks her to get treatment, but she refuses. Gabriel encounters a man who is high on cocaine. He sets out to find a case of drugs that’s gone missing.

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

Review: Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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

Past Present Future (Rowan & Neil #2)
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Simon & Schuster
Published June 4, 2024

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About Past Present Future

They fell for each other in just twenty-four hours. Now Rowan and Neil embark on a long-distance relationship during their first year of college in this romantic, dual points of view sequel to Today Tonight Tomorrow .

When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.

In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.

In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.

Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?

My Review

It can’t be easy to write a romance in which the characters begin already in love and in a relationship. Yet, this book does it, and does it well. Rowan and Neil begin their college adventure uncertain about many things, but their relationship isn’t one of them.

Reading a story about high achievers in high school having to completely readjust for college life was really fascinating. Rowan and Neil both worked hard in high school, so it wasn’t like they got to college and didn’t realize it would be hard. They just didn’t realize what kind of hard it would be, if that makes sense? They were prepared for academic challenges. But other parts of college life took them by surprise. I loved the way the author highlighted that and showed the things they struggled with in a nuanced way. It’s far more complex than nerds struggling to make new friends, though both Neil and Rowan face unexpected social challenges.

I love reading about characters who write, so I loved following Rowan’s creative journey as well. Her struggle in class, her dissatisfaction with her work, and her feelings of being stuck made so much sense.

The book has great minor characters, too. Rowan and Neil make new friends, and their closest relationships from Today Tonight Tomorrow reappear here and there. Even when they’re only on scene for a few pages, these characters felt fully formed and, in many cases, like friends I’d want to have myself.

I think readers who fell in love with Rowan and Neil in Today Tonight Tomorrow will love seeing the continuation of their story. It’s less a romance between two people, though, and more a romance of falling in love with yourself. It’s about how having a stable, loving relationship doesn’t solve everything, but it can ground you and offer a boost of confidence to help you face those questions. Past Present Future is a sweet summer read, perfect for recent high school graduates preparing to embark on the next chapter of their own journeys.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Both Neil and Rowan are Jewish. Rowan is also Mexican American on her mom’s side. Several characters are queer. At least one character has depression.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Regular use of swearing, including F-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some scenes show deep kissing. A few scenes show or lead up to the characters having sex. It’s not overly described, but there are some details. Characters exchange explicit text messages. One scene includes masturbating.

Spiritual Content
Neil attends Shabbat services. His and Rowan’s families celebrate Hanukkah. As Neil learns about psychology, he learns about the connection between the Jewish value of self-actualization and how that drove many Jewish psychologists to pursue knowledge and advances in understanding within the field.

Violent Content
A boy gets hit in the face with a frisbee. References to a past violent altercation in which a man attacked a teenager with a baseball bat. References to domestic violence.

Drug Content
Neil’s father is an alcoholic. Both Rowan and Neil attend parties or gatherings at which alcohol is served. Neil has one drink. Rowan drinks as well. At one point, she drinks too much and ends up violently ill and hung over. A minor character uses a vape pen. Neil notes the smell of marijuana at a party.

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

Review: The Worst Perfect Moment Shivaun Plozza

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

The Worst Perfect Moment
Shivaun Plozza
Holiday House
Published May 14, 2024

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About The Worst Perfect Moment

Equal parts tender and edgy, this inventive queer romance imagines what it might feel like to come of age in the afterlife.

Tegan Masters is dead.

She’s sixteen and she’s dead and she’s standing in the parking lot of the Marybelle Motor Lodge, the single most depressing motel in all of New Jersey and the place where Tegan spent what she remembers as the worst weekend of her life.

In the front office, she meets Zelda, a cute and sarcastic girl Tegan’s age who is, in fact, an angel (wings and all). According to Zelda, Tegan is officially in heaven, where every person inhabits an exact replica of their happiest memory. For Tegan, Zelda insists, that place is the Marybelle—creepy minigolf course, revolting breakfast buffet, broken TV, and all.

Tegan has a few complaints about this.

As Zelda takes Tegan on a whirlwind tour through Tegan’s past to help her understand what mattered most to her in life, the stakes couldn’t be higher. If Zelda fails to convince Tegan that the Marybelle was the site of Tegan’s perfect moment, both girls face eternal consequences too dire to consider. But if she succeeds…they just might get their happily-ever-afterlife.

Full of humor and heartbreak, The Worst Perfect Moment asks what it means to be truly happy.

My Review

First of all, what a fantastic opening line. I love it. This book starts off with a bang, for sure. I like Tegan, too. She’s sparky, but so wounded and vulnerable underneath, and even when she doesn’t mean to let readers into that, she does. Her character easily kept me reading the book.

Zelda, the angel who designed Tegan’s personal heaven, grew on me a little. She’s very Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which I love seeing in a female-female romance, but isn’t my favorite trope, so I struggled with that. She’s goofy and fun, but determinedly crude, which, again, is not my favorite. Too many “butt-face” comments for me.

The scenes that revisit Tegan’s past and show what actually happened, especially the moments she doesn’t want to remember, hit hard. They showed how complex trauma and grief can be. Each one built up emotionally so that by the time I hit the final flashback, it hit hard. That was so well done.

Readers looking for a new spin on the Manic Pixie trope and who enjoy no-holds-barred humor will probably enjoy this one a lot.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Tegan and a few other girl characters are romantically interested in girls..

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Lots of crude comments. Lots of swearing. A few f-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
Tegan wakes up in the afterlife, in which heaven is supposed to be living at the site of your best memory forever. Purgatory is for people who die with too much unresolved trauma, and means people watch memories of their lives and have the emotions they experienced painfully scrubbed away. Hell, of course, is eternal torture.

Angels are assigned different jobs. There are guardian angels and angels who design a heaven scenario for someone. Tegan visits a counselor, someone who helps her process her death.

Tegan attended Catholic school for a part of her education. There are some references to sins and Catholic doctrines like purgatory, but very little reference to God or faith practices.

Violent Content
References to a girl on a bike being hit by a car, which killed her.

Tegan remembers arguments between her parents, which seem scary and chaotic to her. She sees her dad lose it and kick a door repeatedly. The story deals with abandonment by a parent.

Drug Content
Tegan’s aunt gets drunk and tells her something cruel.

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

Review: Not If You Break Up With Me First by G. F. Miller

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Not If You Break Up With Me First
G. F. Miller
Aladdin
Published June 4, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Not If You Break Up With Me First

Two friends who have unhappily found themselves in an accidental relationship try to drive the other one to call things off in this tongue-in-cheek middle grade romance.

Childhood friends Eve and Andrew are destined to be together— everyone says so, especially their friends and classmates who are all suddenly crush-obsessed. So when Eve and Andrew’s first eighth grade school dance rolls around and Eve, feeling the pressure, awkwardly asks Andrew to go with her, everyone assumes they are Officially Dating and Practically in Love. Overwhelmed, Eve and Andrew just…go with it.

And it’s weird. Neither of them wants this dating thing to mess up their friendship, and they don’t really see each other that way. But they also don’t want to be the one to call things off, the one to make things super awkward. So they both—separately—pledge to be the worst boyfriend or girlfriend ever, leaving it to the other person to break up with them. It would be genius…if the other person weren’t doing the exact same thing.

My Review

This is kind of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, but make it middle grade and where they’re both trying to get the other person to break up with them.

What really makes this great is the writing. Some scenes are hilariously awkward. Others nailed middle school so perfectly, I felt like I had time-traveled. It’s silly, sometimes gross (fart jokes, etc), but it doesn’t skimp on heart.

The chapters alternate between Eve and Andrew’s points of view, so readers are in on each person’s plan to drive the other to dump them and why it seems like a good idea. Writing both viewpoints also shows us how much Eve and Andrew miss their friendship, what they value about one another, and their hurt feelings and loneliness.

The short chapters make this one an easy, quick read. This would work well for readers who aren’t quite sure they’re interested in romance books yet or readers looking for books about changing relationships in middle school or friend drama.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Eve and Andrew are white. Also of interest: Andrew plays quads on his school’s drum line. Eve loves science, specifically space, and compares lots of things to space phenomena. Eve’s parents separate during the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Brief crude humor.

Romance/Sexual Content
A boy and girl hold hands. Some mentions of kissing between other couples, but not on scene. At one point, someone asks a girl what her sexual identity is, and she responds that she doesn’t want to think about that yet, can’t she just be thirteen for now? A nice nod to kids who aren’t sure and resent the pressure of being asked as a way to explain why they aren’t dating or reject someone who asks them out.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A prank war escalates, causing some hurt feelings and consequences when shool property is damaged.

Drug Content
None.

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

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs posting about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.