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
(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.
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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.
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The perfect YA book concept doesn’t exi–
Okay, that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but you get my point. The premise for The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist sounded so wild and fun, I had to check it out. Protagonist Ivy finds that her favorite fictional hero Weston Razorbrook has come to life — but something’s off. It’s not just the character but the fanfic version of the character Ivy wrote. He’s literally made for Ivy, yet it doesn’t take too long for Ivy to realize he may not be exactly what she wants.
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**CW: Contains themes of child abuse and trauma.
This book is ~sweet~. Like sipping lemonade out on the front porch kind of sweet. In the Orbit of You had me from the very beginning, when we meet young Nova and Sam playing in the dirt by their connected fence. The queen and king of Snailopolis, as they call it. (Freaking adorable.) They’re torn apart, however, when Sam is taken away from his abusive home to live with his uncle. Snailopolis and its royalty become a distant memory. Until Nova and Sam meet again in their final years of high school.
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Breathing Underwater‘s gorgeous cover was calling me like a siren — I mean, look at that thing. 😍 But it was the synopsis that really got me. The book, by Abbey Lee Nash, centers on teen competitive swimmer Tess during the summer she’s diagnosed with epilepsy. As she grapples with this news, everything she’s ever dreamed of and planned for her life is screeched to a halt. How can she swim when she’s constantly at risk of having a seizure? But then, how can she not swim, when that’s all she’s ever known?
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Nothing like a good summer read in the winter time. 😎 The Getaway List is the latest YA novel by Emma Lord (author of the adorable Tweet Cute), as well as the latest book I’ve snuggled up to with hot cocoa this season. The fun vacation vibes of the story is a nice escape, as it follows protagonist Riley fresh out of her high school graduation and desperate for some change. Like, now.
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Y’all, I might have found a new author to add to my “Read Everything They Ever Write” list. Brianna Bourne came in with her debut YA novel You and Me at the End of the World in 2021, and later with The Half-Life of Love this past March — two contemporary romances sprinkled with the right amount of fantasy. I love discovering realistic stories and characters that seem like they’re touched with just a liiiittle bit of magic. Enough to make you want to believe in it.
Continue reading “Double Feature: You and Me at the End of the World & The Half-Life of Love”
If there’s one thing that makes me squirm, it’s bugs, and supernatural thriller Together We Rot is crawling with them. I just — I can’t do bugs. *shivers* I can’t, but good writing has a way of pulling me in and keeping me there. Skyla Arndt’s creepy and chilling debut novel follows ex best friends Wilhelmina and Elwood navigating the horrors of a small-town cult. Bugs aside, I am allured by all things dark, and exploring all the mystery and complexity of that, so I was excited to get to the bottom of this cult business.
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So much to say about All That’s Left to Say. The novel, written by Emery Lord, follows protagonist Hannah MacLaren after her cousin and best friend Sophie dies from an overdose. Hannah’s world is completely shattered, as she deals with this loss and the mystery surrounding it. The Sophie she knew wouldn’t have used drugs, wouldn’t have kept such a huge secret from her. Yet that’s the truth she’s left with. Her grief is big and all-consuming, the only thing driving her forward being her determination to find out who gave Sophie the pills that ended her life.
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Sara Bechtol 