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Review: A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass

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A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass

A Thousand Heartbeats
Kiera Cass
HarperTeen
Published November 29, 2022

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About A Thousand Heartbeats

“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time.”

Princess Annika has lived a life of comfort—but no amount of luxuries can change the fact that her life isn’t her own to control. The king, once her loving father, has gone cold, and Annika will soon be forced into a loveless marriage for political gain.

Miles away, small comforts are few and far between for Lennox. He has devoted his life to the Dahrainian army, hoping to one day help them reclaim the throne that was stolen from them. For Lennox, the idea of love is merely a distraction—nothing will stand in the way of fighting for his people.

But when love, against all odds, finds them both, they are bound by its call. They can’t possibly be together—but the irresistible thrum of a thousand heartbeats won’t let them stay apart.

Kiera Cass brings her signature sparkling romance to this beautiful story of star-crossed lovers and long-held secrets.

Geeking Out

It took me by surprise when the publisher offered me a review copy of this book– I was pretty over the moon, honestly.

It’s been a while since I read anything by Kiera Cass, but I’ve recommended her books to some teen readers. I remember good things about The Selection series, though I’ve only read the first three books in the series.

This book struck me as kind of having America/Aspen vibes– it’s a completely different story, nothing like The Selection series, but I guess the princess and soldier romance maybe triggered that thought?

Anyway. This is a LONG book at a little over 550 pages, which I found really intimidating at first. I tend to avoid long books because I try to read so many titles. I probably still would have agreed to review it even if I’d known it was so long. It’s Kiera Cass, y’all. How can I say no?

My Review

Okay, so the book. I liked Annika and found some things about her character really compelling. She’s all about justice and fairness. But there’s definitely kind of a weird self-sacrificial thing about her that kind of… made me sad? I don’t know. Like, I feel like she tended to divide things into two possible outcomes: either she could be happy and everyone else miserable, or everyone else could be happy while she was miserable.

There were definitely some conflicts that split themselves that way where those were legit her only options. But it felt like she tended to view all conflicts that way.

Lennox… That guy took me on a journey. At certain moments, I did not think I could like him. He serves his leader as a kind of enforcer, doing the dirty tasks that no one else wants, but have been decreed to be done. It takes him a long time to realize his own worth and even longer to really decide what to do about it.

I will say that early in the story, we learn that Lennox has done something Annika finds unforgivable. (And I agreed with her.) I wasn’t sure how the story was going to lead us around that fact and build a believable romance. In my opinion, Kiera Cass did a pretty good job at that, though.

Romance aside, I did struggle with some of the other story elements. For example, at one point, a hurricane descends on two battling forces. It’s described as basically a wall of rain approaching with winds so strong they rip trees from the ground. I was like, okay, is this a hurricane or a tornado? Because the thing about a hurricane is that it’s approach weather-wise is more gradual. Winds picking up. Periodic raining. Gaps in between where things slow a little bit. Then, like birth labor, the gaps get shorter and the wind and rain get stronger until the storm reaches its maximum.

Anyway, that’s my experience from the hurricanes I’ve weathered as a native Floridian. So the abrupt arrival of the hurricane kind of took me out of the story a bit. There’s also an earthquake in the middle of the hurricane, which was odd? But okay. The bigger thing was that both armies had arrived at the battle site via ships, and it appeared that the ships were okay after the hurricane forces so strong that trees were ripped from the ground.

In the grand scheme of the plot, those were minor details. But there were things kind of like that at different points throughout the book. Just little things that didn’t make sense.

The romance is absolutely the selling point of the story, so I think readers who pick up this book for a sweet, star-crossed love story will get exactly what they came for. I think fans of Kiera Cass’s earlier novels will enjoy getting carried away in another princess romance.

Content Notes

Content warning for references to torture and physical/emotional abuse.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A boy and girl spend the night together a couple of times. It’s hinted that they just sleep next to one another.

In one scene, a girl strips down to her underwear so she can escape from a prison cell.

Spiritual Content
Annika speaks to a portrait of her mother, keeping a connection to her mother who has been missing for years. Lennox speaks to someone in an unmarked grave.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle scenes. References to torture. References to physical and emotional abuse.

Drug Content
None.

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 A THOUSAND HEARTBEATS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: If You Could See the Sun by Anna Liang

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If You Could See the Sun
Anna Liang
Inkyard Press
Published October 11, 2022

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About If You Could See the Sun

Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.

When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.

But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

In this genre-bending YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates’ most scandalous secrets.

My Review

I think one of my favorite things about this book is actually that Alice never learns to control or perfectly predict her ability to become invisible. She knows about how frequently it happens, so she can kind of hope and loosely plan, but that extra tension made every job she took risky because she couldn’t guarantee she’d become or stay invisible when she needed to.

In other teens-with-superpowers books that I’ve read, I’m pretty sure all of them learn to control their ability at least to a certain degree, so I also liked that Alice never having dominance over her ability set this book apart and made me feel like it added a new type of story to the supernatural ability book list.

Alice is driven and smart, but not in a prodigious way. I liked that though she is used to keeping to herself, her ability and decisions about it forced her to open herself up to others in a way she hadn’t before. It made her realize how lonely she’d been and that people weren’t always who she initially thought them to be. I really liked Henry and Chanel, and I was glad that she formed bonds with them.

IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN explored a lot of themes that resonated with me, including friendship and family. I’m super glad I read it. I think readers who enjoyed HOW WE FALL APART by Katie Zhao or BOYS I KNOW by Anna Gracia definitely need to read this one.

Content Notes for If You Could See the Sun

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Main characters are Chinese.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Alice follows a man accused of having an affair to find out if he’s meeting another woman. Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Alice has an uncontrollable ability to turn invisible.

Violent Content
One student plots harm against another student and requests Alice’s help. A man injures a student.

Drug Content
None.

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 IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Tell Me Everything by Sarah Enni

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Tell Me Everything
Sarah Enni
Point
February 26, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

About Tell Me Everything

YOUR SECRET’S SAFE … UNTIL IT’S NOT

Ivy is the shy artist type and keeps a low profile—so low that she’s practically invisible to everyone at Belfry High School except for her best friend, Harold. As sophomore year begins, Harold takes up a hundred activities, leaving Ivy on her own. Luckily she’s found a distraction: the new anonymous art-sharing app, VEIL.

Soon Ivy realizes that one of her classmates is the VEIL user who needs new paintbrushes … and another is the one visiting the hospital every week … and another is the one dealing with their parents’ messy divorce. While she’s too scared to put her own creations on the app, Ivy thinks of an even better way to contribute—by making gifts for the artists she’s discovered. The acts of kindness give her such a rush that, when Ivy suspects Harold is keeping a secret, she decides to go all in. Forget gifts—Ivy wants to throw Harold a major party.

But when all those good intentions thrust her into the spotlight, Ivy’s carefully curated world is thrown into chaos. Now she has to find the courage to come out of the shadows—about her art, her secrets, and her mistakes—or risk losing everything and everyone she loves the most.

My Review

In TELL ME EVERYTHING, Ivy has the best voice of anything I’ve read in a while. I loved her awkwardness and the way she paid attention to people. The writing felt really natural and funny.

I enjoyed the story a lot, too. I liked that even though she was figuring out secrets of people around her, her judgments weren’t always accurate. And she also has to learn that even when they are accurate, it doesn’t mean that her interference will be welcome.

She also wrestles with this desire to be part of things but also invisible, which really resonated with me. It’s hard to find the right balance for me, too.

Overall, I loved so many things about TELL ME EVERYTHING. Somebody go read it so we can have coffee and gush about it together! Ha!

Seriously, though, if you like Sarah Dessen’s books or THE UNLIKELY HERO OF ROOM 13B by Teresa Toten, then you definitely want to check out TELL ME EVERYTHING.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Ivy discovers one of her friends is gay. Her best friend is black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Someone posts slurs against someone who’s gay.

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 TELL ME EVERYTHING in exchange for my honest review.

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.

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

Review: The Girls of Firefly Cabin by Cynthia Ellingsen

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The Girls of Firefly Cabin
Cynthia Ellingsen
Albert Whitman & Company
Available May 28, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About THE GIRLS OF FIREFLY CABIN

Lauren, Isla, Jade, and Archer meet the first day of summer camp, and friendship magic is made in Firefly Cabin. If only they could immortalize their summer memories by winning the contest to be the face of the camp’s website. But it won’t be easy; not with rival cabins, distracting crushes, and of course, the girl’s own secrets getting in the way. Can friendship—and the Fireflies—triumph over all?

My Review

THE GIRLS OF FIREFLY CABIN is one of the cutest books I’ve read in a long time. I loved all the summer camp stuff– references to campfires, silly songs, and shared jokes that are so iconic of the experience of summer camp. But it’s more than simply a cute book.

Each girl comes to camp with a secret and a deeply held belief that the other girls simply can’t or won’t accept her if they find out the truth. For Lauren, the secret is her life at a group home, where going to a fancy camp is impossible. In fact, she’s only attending because she won a scholarship through a contest.

Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her, Lauren decides to make the weeks at camp the best she’s ever had. She decides the girls will be her best friends for life. As soon as they’re together in the cabin, she plunges through the awkwardness of first meetings and leads the girls into a deep, lasting friendship.

Of course, the inevitable happens: at some point, secrets all come out. Winning the contest to be the face of camp gets jeopardized. And the girls have to decide how strong their newfound friendships are. Strong enough to stand the test of the secrets they keep?

One of my favorite characters was the chef who becomes Lauren’s friend and confidante. I LOVED her, and I really didn’t see where that part of the story was headed until it happened. Which was even better.

In terms of its plot, the story might be a little too neat and tidy, but that fits the summer camp feel and new friendship vibe in THE GIRLS OF FIREFLY CABIN. Fans of CATERPILLAR SUMMER by Gillian McDunn or ELSIE MAE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY by Nancy Cavanaugh will enjoy the outdoor scenes and important relationships in THE GIRLS OF FIREFLY CABIN.

Recommended for Ages8 up.

Representation
Jade’s best friend is Latina.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

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

Spiritual Content
The girls help Jade process her grief over losing her best friend. They hold ceremonies honoring her, and Jade feels that she senses Kiara’s presence all around her in nature.

Violent Content
Some references to bullying. Archer and her sister have a difficult relationship. Archer’s sister plays cruel tricks on her, at one point ruining her artwork. Archer and her friends play pranks on her sister and their friends, too. They do things like putting a fake snake in her shoes.

Drug Content
None.

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 support my blog.

Review: One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

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One of Us Is Lying
Karen McManus
Delacorte Press
Published May 30, 2017

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About One of Us Is Lying

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

My Review for One of Us is Lying

This is definitely the kind of story that keeps you turning pages late into the night. Every chapter hints at and slowly reveals new secrets that change what you know about each character in the room with Simon when he dies.

I liked that each character had a lot more going on than it originally appeared, and each is a lot deeper than her classmates initially perceive her to be. I liked each of the characters a lot, especially as I got to know them.

Throughout the story, important clues come from surprising places, which again kept me guessing. There was a point at which I thought I had the plot figured out and was pretty close. Honestly, by then, I was so invested in the story and so curious as to what would happen to the truly innocent parties, that I didn’t care if I turned out to be right.

If you’re a fan of the cult classic The Breakfast Club or murder mysteries in general, you need to add this one to your summer reading list. If you’re like me, once you read the first chapter, you won’t be able to put it down.

The series continues with One of Us Is Next, out in early 2022.

Content Notes for One of Us is Lying

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Bronwyn and her sister are half-Latino. One character comes out as gay midway through the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
Addy’s mother teaches her that the only way to keep a man is to keep him sexually satisfied. She and her boyfriend make out on her bed, and it’s clear she means to have sex with him. Through the course of the story, she begins to question her mom’s advice and eventually decides to take a break from dating and be herself.

Some kisses are exchanged between boy and girl or between two boys.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A boy goes into anaphylactic shock and dies.

Drug Content
Nate sells drugs to pay the bills his father ignores. After Simon’s death, he stops, knowing the police investigation puts him at too great a risk of getting caught. Eventually he finds other reasons not to pick the habit up again.

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 ONE OF US IS LYING in exchange for my honest review.

Read the Next Book in the Series

One of Us Is Next by Karen McManus

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads | My Review

The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller everyone is talking about, One of Us Is Lying! There’s a new mystery to solve at Bayview High, and there’s a whole new set of rules.

Bronwyn’s younger sister, Maeve, and her best friend/ex-boyfriend, Knox, and their friend Phoebe become targets of the next gossip attack. Appearances from the original Bayview Four.