Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara’s beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged.
When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it’s too late.
My Review
I read VANISHING GIRLS in the middle of a suspense binge. I like that it blended suspense elements with psychological elements. Nick is a complex character. She wants to be close to her sister, but has a lot of feelings of guilt and resentment toward her.
Weirdly, VANISHING GIRLS is the second suspense book I read this summer where the main character works at a theme park. (The other is TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET in which Ellery works at a horror-themed park.) I had some parts of the plot related to the theme park figured out pretty quickly. Other things took me completely by surprise.
One big twist didn’t make sense to me. It’s one of those moments that turns your whole perception of the story on its head. I love those kinds of moments. I love looking back through the big moments earlier in the book to see how the new information changes what was really happening there. But one moment didn’t seem to fit with the new reality. So I got kind of caught up on that.
On the whole, I think VANISHING GIRLS is an interesting book, and some of the issues it deals with are big issues. I definitely appreciate that and think it’s awesome that this novel addresses an issue that most people don’t want to talk about. I think I like PANIC by Lauren Oliver better, but it ‘s a different kind of story– more community-oriented whereas so much of VANISHING GIRLS is about what’s happening in Nick’s head.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Representation Characters are white and straight.
Profanity/Crude Language Content Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content A girl and boy kiss. References to sex. A girl and her boyfriend kiss while both are topless. He asks her to have sex with him, but she refuses.
References to child pornography. Someone finds an image of a teenage girl posing topless.
Spiritual Content Dara and Nick’s aunt believes in energy and crystals and seances. The girls don’t buy into her beliefs.
Violent Content Some brief descriptions of a violent car accident. A man threatens a teenage girl.
Drug Content Several scenes show teens drinking. Dara has a history of smoking pot and experimenting with other drugs like mushrooms and cocaine.
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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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Claire Martinson and her sister Sophie have decided to stay in Arden–the magical land they discovered by climbing up a chimney in their great-aunt’s manor. If what they’ve learned is true, the sisters are the last descendants of the royal family, and only a true heir of Arden–with magic in her blood–can awaken the unicorns.
Since Sophie has does not have magic, the land’s last hope rests on Claire. The sisters journey to Stonehaven, a famed Gemmer school high in the mountains of Arden, so Claire can train in the magic of stone. As Claire struggles through classes, Sophie uncovers dangerous secrets about the people they thought they could trust. With Arden on the brink of crumbling, can Claire prove she is the prophesied heir and unlock the magic of the unicorns before it’s too late?
My Review
Sister books are so much fun. Sophie and Claire’s relationship felt super realistic to me. There’s a bit of a competitive edge. Sometimes Claire feels caught in Sophie’s shadow, or like Sophie doesn’t believe in Claire’s ability to be a hero in her own right. And Sophie pressures herself to be the leader and have all the answers because she’s the oldest.
SECRET IN THE STONE took some interesting turns. I don’t want to give things away, but there were two things in particular that I didn’t see coming at all, and they changed the book. I would have been curious to read the next novel in the series, but after those two things happened, I’m super interested to see where the story goes.
I liked that there’s a theme about trying new things and how harmful it can be to make assumptions about other people or hold on to grudges or judgments about others. Generally, each magic group remains separate from other groups in the story. Romances or relationships between people of different types are strictly forbidden. Under this system, magic has started to fade or die, which makes Claire wonder if isolating each type of magic has something to do with its diminishing. I thought that was a cool element to the story and a neat way to start conversation about how valuable it is to have relationships with people who are different than we are.
Overall, I enjoyed reading SECRET IN THE STONE. I liked the sister relationship and the unexpected twists the story took. Click the link to check out my review of THE UNICORN QUEST (book one in the series)
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Representation None.
Profanity/Crude Language Content I think all the characters are white/straight.
Romance/Sexual Content Sophie and a boy like each other and blush and act a bit awkward around each other.
Spiritual Content A unicorn healed Sophie and saved her life with its magic in the first book in this series, and that moment is referenced in this one, too. Other characters have magical abilities as well. Claire learns to make gems glow with her magic. Other characters can manipulate plants or metals. Deep shadows called wraiths chase the girls and try to overwhelm them.
Violent Content Some situations of peril. One of Claire’s friends is convicted of a crime, and Claire believes she may be sentenced to death. Some characters seem to be plotting to go to war
Drug Content None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
About Legendary
A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.
After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister, Scarlett, from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.
The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister’s. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice, but now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever…
Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . the games have only just begun.
My Review
I really enjoyed Caraval (see my review), but Tella’s character in that story seemed shallow, and I didn’t like the way she treated her sister, Scarlett. At the end of Caraval, I wasn’t sure if I was going to read Legendary. Then a few people said how much they enjoyed it, and that Tella’s character in Legendary is a lot different than the way she comes across in Caraval, so I decided to give it a try.
And I’m really glad I did. As soon as the story begins and we get to see Tella’s point-of-view, it’s clear there’s a lot more going on in her heart and mind than fun and adventure. She carries some deep wounds from her mother’s disappearance. She’s promised herself never to love because she believes it will only lead to heartbreak. Ultimately, I found her much more compelling in Legendary than I expected.
I also totally got into the way Caraval gets switched up. When Scarlett played the game, everything was magic and make-believe, and she was constantly cautioned not to take the game seriously. This time, over and over, Tella is told that the game is real. There are a lot of layers of intrigue. Tella searches for clues to the identity of the game master and races to find her mother before the game ends. The stakes were high, the plot was fast-paced. It kept me hooked from start to finish.
The last book in the series, Finale comes out later this year, and I’m already eager to read it.
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Cultural Elements
Legendary takes place in a fantasy world which feels like it has a lot of European/Spanish influence. Tella and her sister are fair-skinned. Julian is described more like he’s Spanish.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
At the beginning of Legendary, Tella wakes up after spending the night with a young man in the woods. She’s still dressed, and other than kissing, details about what happened between her and the boy are vague. She has a personal rule for herself never to fall in love and rather to just have fun, only kiss someone once, etc.
Some descriptions of kissing between a girl and boy get pretty intense. At one point, he puts his hand under her top and over her heart.
Spiritual Content
Tella visits a tattooed fortune teller looking for information. She also depends on readings from an oracle card which shows the future.
Violent Content
Masked opponents attack a young woman, critically wounding her.
Love, mystery, and danger collide in this new literary thriller with the dark heart of a Gillian Flynn novel and the lyrical prose of Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun.
A triumph of authenticity, grace, and nail-biting suspense, Lucia DiStefano’s ingenious debut is an unflinching, genre-bending page-turner.
As seventeen-year-old Linnea celebrates the first anniversary of her heart transplant, she can’t escape the feeling that the wires have been crossed. After a series of unsettling dreams, inked messages mysteriously appear on her body, and she starts to wonder if this new heart belongs to her at all.
In another Austin neighborhood, Maxine braces for a heartbreaking anniversary: her sister Harper’s death. Between raising her brothers and parenting her grief-stricken mother, Max is unable to ignore her guilty crush on Harper’s old flame or shake her lingering suspicion that her sister’s drowning wasn’t really an accident. With Harper as the sole connection, Linnea and Maxine are soon brought together in fantastic and terrifying ways as the shocking truth behind Harper’s death comes to light.
My Review
I would describe Borrowed as Return to Me (as in the movie starring Minnie Driver and David Duchovny) meets The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
The premise totally fascinated me. What if this girl who received a heart transplant started getting messages from the new heart inside her? I loved this idea. And I loved Max and Linnea. Both are pretty unusual teens—Linnea because she’s a transplant recipient, so for much of her life, she’d been sick and waiting for the transplant. She doesn’t go to school (though she’s supposed to get her GED), and she works full time as a pastry chef. So not an entry level thing. This makes her seem a lot more like an adult than a teen.
Max manages the care of the rest of her family and clearly wrestles with survivor’s guilt after her sister’s death. So she, too, feels more adult than teen.
But both situations seemed understandable and worked in the story. Max’s care for her siblings and the hard calls she has to make with her mom definitely won me over. Linnea had me with her spirit and her creativity.
Somewhere around the three-quarter point, the story takes kind of a dark turn. I’m not good with stories like this—ones that show sexual trauma, even if the details aren’t outright explicit, so I struggled with this part of the book. I definitely think it could trigger sensitive readers.
I liked that each girl handled the situation very differently, fighting in their own ways. But it was too intense for me. I finished reading it—didn’t want to stop in the dark part. For readers who like this kind of intense, dark story, Borrowed really hits those notes and packs some interesting characters as well. I’d say it’s a good fit for fans of The Lovely Bones.
Recommended for Ages 17 up.
Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described. One of Linnea’s best friends is Latina.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing, references to sex. For instance, Max uses sex with her boyfriend as a way to escape the pressures in her life for a while. The last part of the story contains some scenes with some intense content including rape and assault. There’s not a play-by-play description of the event, but we’re in the mind of the victim and see a great deal of the emotional trauma and some of the physical trauma she endures. Definitely not for sensitive readers. Honestly, this was probably a bit too much even for me to read.
Spiritual Content
Some references to God and a brief “Thank you, Jesus”… more cultural references than spiritual ones, if that makes sense? At one point Chris gives Max a cross he carved from wood as a sort of good luck charm or symbol. It’s clear neither of them mean it as a spiritual symbol.
One character believes fervently that he is called by God to do some horrible things and uses scripture references to defend some awful treatment of others.
Violent Content
See notes in sexual content. Some brief memories and descriptions of someone attacking a girl.
Drug Content
Harper smoked weed and drank with a boy before she died. Teens smoke cigarettes. Max and her boyfriend get drunk together.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
A former high school English teacher, Lucia DiStefano currently works as an editor, ghostwriter, and writing coach. First-generation Sicilian-American and daughter of an olive farmer, she admits to having recurring pasta dreams. Hailing from central Connecticut, Lucia lives near Austin, Texas with her husband and an old bloodhound named Waffle.
About To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.
My Review
I can’t believe how long it took me to finally read this book! I really wanted to read the book before I watched the Netflix adaptation of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and I’m glad I did. More on the book to movie adaptation in a minute.
Reading the book was so much fun. I love stories about sisters. I have two sisters, too, so it reminded me a lot of my relationships with both my sisters (though I’m the oldest in my family.).
At first I thought I had the romance plot pegged, and I worried that would make the story boring. But actually, a lot of things happened that I didn’t predict, and so much of it was either sweet or funny or packed with emotion that I found myself super invested in what would happen to Lara Jean as she confronted her real reasons for writing the letters and the unresolved issues between her and her older sister.
Also, can I just say that Lara Jean’s youngest sister Kitty is my favorite. I love her quirkiness and the comic relief she provides. Her commitment to a grudge also kept her from being one of those too-perfect little kid characters.
If I’m totally honest, I wasn’t planning on reading this whole series, because I don’t often read contemporary romance. But after reading To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I really want to know where the story goes next. So I will probably try to read Lara Jean’s other adventures, too.
Thoughts on the Book to Movie Transformation After reading the book, I sat down and watched the Netflix movie version of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. There were a lot of differences between the book and movie. Some things I totally understood because they simplified the plot (like skipping Lara Jean’s car accident) and other things seemed like they changed the story (like Kitty’s relationship with Lara Jean). I missed Kitty’s capriciousness, I think.
Also, am I the only one who found it super weird that the groom from My Big Fat Greek Wedding was the dad in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before? I don’t know why that threw me for a loop, but I kept doing a double-take for every scene he was in. He did a great job. I just had to adjust to it being him. All in all, I liked the movie. If my daughter was into contemporary romance, it’s the kind of movie I’d want to watch together.
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Cultural Elements
Lara Jean’s mom was Korean and her dad is white. (Her mom died years before the story begins.)
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. Lara Jean herself doesn’t like cursing (though she does briefly swear at one point).
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Rumors about and references to characters having sex but no details, and nothing more than kissing happens on scene.
Spiritual Content
None. Violent Content
None.
Drug Content
Lara Jean goes to a party where some other kids are drinking alcohol. She doesn’t drink.
