Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Fantasy, Queer Lit, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Fated love, Forbidden love, Past lives
Rep ✔️: Queer main characters, POC side characters
CW ⚠️: Homophobia, bullying, off-page hazing
Rating ⭐️: 4.5/5
Genre 📚: YA/NA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Literally all the tropes (Main ones being Rivals to lovers, Fake dating)
Rep ✔️: Korean American main characters
CW ⚠️: Anxiety
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Queer Lit, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Workplace romance, Former friends to lovers, Opposites attract
Rep ✔️: Black and queer main characters, Korean American side characters, nonbinary and aroace side characters
CW ⚠️: Off-page death of a parent
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Fantasy, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Fated love, Family curse, Friends to lovers
Rep ✔️: Disabled main character, queer side characters
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Sci-fi, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Friends to lovers, Amnesia (à la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Rep ✔️: Korean-Canadian main characters
CW ⚠️: PTSD, Loved one with Alzheimer’s, brief discussions of grief and abuse
Rating ⭐️: 5/5
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Queer Lit, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Forbidden love, Friends to lovers, Falling for pastor’s daughter
Rep ✔️: Bisexual main character, POC side character
CW ⚠️: Religious trauma, Homophobia
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary/Fantasy, Dark academia, Romance, Coming-of-age
Tropes 💁♀️: Body swapping, Hidden identity, Friends to lovers
Rep ✔️: Chinese American main characters, POC and queer side characters
CW ⚠️: Depression, Self-loathing, Grief, Off-page death of a parent
Rating ⭐️: 5/5
Genre 📚: YA/NA Contemporary, Romance, Coming-of-age
Tropes 💁♀️: Rivals to lovers, Ex-friends to lovers, First love
Rep ✔️: Bisexual love interest, Indian best friend character, queer and non-binary side characters
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
(Laughing at the fact that my review title is basically DF: D and D & D and D 😅 but yeah, anyway — )
I’m not a roleplaying game person, so the first couple of times I saw Kristy Boyce’s Dungeons and Drama floating around online, I gave it a pass. Then I peeked at the reviews, many of which stressed that the novel is enjoyable whether you’re into RPGs or not. Thank god I listened, because GAHHHDHGBSKJAGGBJKGJD. It is one of the cutest freaking books I’ve ever read and definitely my favorite comfort book of 2024. It is very much a love letter to DnD, and you really feel the author’s passion for it, but it’s also a well-crafted coming-of-age story about discovering new things, whether that be in hobbies, in glasses-wearing love interests, or in parents we thought we knew.
Continue reading “Double Feature: Dungeons and Drama & Dating and Dragons”
Throwback by Maurene Goo is a coming-of-age fantasy YA novel about a Gen Z Korean-American named Samantha who travels back to the 1990’s and meets her teenage mother, with the mission to change their future. With that description alone, I was ready to swan dive into this book. It sounded like a wonderful package of the things I love, like a zany k-drama meets 90’s teen movie. And I’m so glad that it fully delivered.
Continue reading “Review: Throwback”
Sara Bechtol 