Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Enemies to lovers, Best friend’s ex, Secret pen pals
Rep ✔️: POC side characters
CW ⚠️: Messy divorce, emotionally distant parents
Rating ⭐️: 4.5/5
Review: P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
Tag: Young Adult Fiction
Review: Twin Tides by Hien Nguyen
Genre 📚: YA/NA Horror, Thriller, Paranormal
Tropes 💁♀️: Long-lost twins, Family secrets, Murder mystery
Rep ✔️: Vietnamese American main characters, POC side characters
CW ⚠️: Loss of a loved one, grief, intergenerational trauma, brutal deaths/kidnapping
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
Review: The Cuffing Game by Lyla Lee
Genre 📚: YA/NA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Reality TV romance, Showrunner x Contestant, Enemies to lovers
Rep ✔️: Korean/Korean American main characters, Bisexual main character, BIPOC and queer side characters
CW ⚠️: Brief mention of homophobic parent
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
Review: My Roommate From Hell by Cale Dietrich
Genre 📚: YA/NA Contemporary, Paranormal, Fantasy
Tropes 💁♀️: Demon x Human, Opposites attract, Forced proximity, Fake dating
Rep ✔️: Queer main characters and side characters
CW ⚠️: Religious bigotry, drugging/kidnapping
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5
Review: And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun
Genre 📚: YA Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy
Tropes 💁♀️: Family curse, Resurrection, Revenge
Rep ✔️: Korean American main characters
CW ⚠️: Loss of a loved one, grief, body horror, animal mutilation
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
Review: Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Sports romance, Fake dating, Former friends to lovers
CW ⚠️: Social anxiety, panic attacks
Rating ⭐️: 4.5/5
Review: All the Way Around the Sun by Xixi Tian
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Coming-of-age, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: College road trip, Former friends to lovers
Rep ✔️: Chinese American main characters
CW ⚠️: Loss of a loved one, grief, anxiety, diaspora, brief moment of racism
Rating ⭐️: 4.5/5
Review: Wish You Were Her by Elle McNicoll
Genre 📚: YA Contemporary, Romance
Tropes 💁♀️: Celebrity romance, Small town romance, Rivals to lovers, Secret pen pals
Rep ✔️: Autistic main characters
CW ⚠️: Ableism, cyberbullying and harassment
Rating ⭐️: 4/5
Double Feature: Dungeons and Drama & Dating and Dragons
(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”Mini Review: I Wish You Would
This checks all the boxes for me. ✅Stubborn AF friends-to-lovers. ✅Forced proximity in a cozy beach setting. ✅And angst. Lots and lots of delicious angst. Eva Des Lauriers’ debut YA novel I Wish You Would is as addicting as the Taylor Swift song it’s named after. It follows best friends Natalia and Ethan, who are so in love but oh-so terrified to rock the friendship boat. After a disastrous prom night and a summer of ghosting each other, they reunite for their Senior Sunrise school trip. Giving them 24 hours to fix things.
Continue reading “Mini Review: I Wish You Would”
Sara Bechtol 