ARC Book Review: Tilly in Technicolor by Mazey Eddings

August 10, 2023March 27, 2023 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Mazey Eddings
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: August 15th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Tilly in Technicolor is Mazey Eddings’s sparkling YA debut about two neurodivergent teens who form a connection over the course of a summer.

Tilly Twomley is desperate for change. White-knuckling her way through high school with flawed executive functioning has left her burnt out and ready to start fresh. Working as an intern for her perfect older sister’s start up isn’t exactly how Tilly wants to spend her summer, but the required travel around Europe promises a much-needed change of scenery as she plans for her future. The problem is, Tilly has no idea what she wants.

Oliver Clark knows exactly what he wants. His autism has often made it hard for him to form relationships with others, but his love of color theory and design allows him to feel deeply connected to the world around him. Plus, he has everything he needs: a best friend that gets him, placement into a prestigious design program, and a summer internship to build his resume. Everything is going as planned. That is, of course, until he suffers through the most disastrous international flight of his life, all turmoil stemming from lively and exasperating Tilly. Oliver is forced to spend the summer with a girl that couldn’t be more his opposite—feeling things for her he can’t quite name—and starts to wonder if maybe he doesn’t have everything figured out after all.

As the duo’s neurodiverse connection grows, they learn that some of the best parts of life can’t be planned, and are forced to figure out what that means as their disastrously wonderful summer comes to an end.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an eARC.

SUNSHINE.

Oh my gosh, I LOVED THIS BOOK. It is everything I love about reading upper YA and I am a puddle of goo over Tilly and Oliver. THEY ARE PRECIOUS. The whole book is swoony and absolutely one of the sweetest books ever. I loved the descriptions of how Tilly and Oliver were both feeling towards each other. That burst of first love that overtakes your soul is next level and it was brought to life by Eddings.

I loved both of the main characters separate and together. I loved Tilly for her continual resilience and perseverance while maintaining this breath of optimism. She’s been put under so much pressure to succeed a “certain” way that watching that unravel broke my heart. Those conversations with her Mom and sister, Mona, in the second half of the book pulled at all of my heartstrings. And Oliver?? The cutest grumpy boy EVER. I loved his journey too and learning about how he saw the world as well. The undeniable chemistry between Tilly and Oliver will make you giddy.

The setting and general plot was fantastic. I loved all of the color aspects, the nail polish business, traveling around Europe, sight seeing and all of the falling in love scenes. It’s a perfect balance of the romance with the sub-plots that brought this whole book together. I had a hard time putting this down because it brought a smile to my face every time I picked it up. It’s full of meaning and impact and gosh dang everyone should pick this one up.

I LOVED IT SO MUCH PLEASE READ IT.

Overall audience notes:

YA Contemporary Romance
Language: a little strong
Romance: one very brief & super vague scene
Trigger/Content Warnings: ableism towards ADHD and autism, alcohol consumption

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Book Review: Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez

May 24, 2023June 20, 2022 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: YA Fantasy Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Isabel Ibañez
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: May 31st, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Eighteen-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and daughter of the most famous Dragonador in Hispalia. People come for miles to see her father fight in their arena, which will one day be hers.

But disaster strikes during their five hundredth anniversary show, and in the carnage, Zarela’s father is horribly injured. Facing punishment from the Dragon Guild, Zarela must keep the arena—her ancestral home and inheritance —safe from their greedy hands. She has no choice but to take her father’s place as the next Dragonador. When the infuriatingly handsome dragon hunter, Arturo Díaz de Montserrat, withholds his help, she refuses to take no for an answer.

But even if he agrees, there’s someone out to ruin the Zalvidar family, and Zarela will have to do whatever it takes in order to prevent the Dragon Guild from taking away her birthright.

An ancient city plagued by dragons. A flamenco dancer determined to save her ancestral home. A dragon hunter refusing to teach her his ways. They don’t want each other, but they need each other, and without him her world will burn.

ALMOST FOUR STARS.

I was really on my way to super enjoying this. I LOVED the setting and cultural aspects. Easily one of my favorite parts of this book. I felt the world come alive with the language, food and cityscape descriptions. There was great writing involved in much of that and the audiobook helped create that tenfold.

Zarela was a main character who I liked as a YA heroine lead. She truly was just trying to do her best in a rough situation. I liked her tenacity to hold on to her family’s legacy and the willingness to learn new things and make tough choices to see everything through. The romance between her and Arturo had the best kind of banter. A bit of enemies to lovers that grew into something more. I do think the steam went a bit past YA levels, but it was still relatively low overall.

What threw me was the villain. I can get behind a lot of background antagonist stories. This one was fine, I’ve seen it before, but what got me was his obsession with claiming Zarela? I don’t want to spoil so I can’t really say much more, it just didn’t click for me.

I’d say this is a pretty solid fantasy for a standalone (which are hard for me to be pleased by). A fast paced read that covers a lot. I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention there’s DRAGONS and flamenco dancing. Lots of incredible things, just a few meh.

Overall audience notes:

YA Fantasy Romance
Language: a little
Romance: brief/vague open door
Violence: high
Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of parents, kidnapping, animal death and cruelty, murder, misogyny, grief/loss depiction

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ARC Book Review: Begin Again by Emma Lord

January 19, 2023August 19, 2022 GoodeyReads2 Comments

Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Emma Lord
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: January 24th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.

Filled with a friend group that feels like family, an empowering journey of finding your own way, and a Just Kiss Already! romance, Begin Again is an unforgettable novel of love and starting again.

Thank you Wednesday Books for the eARC!

LOVED, AS ALWAYS.

Emma Lord books just hit different. They are everything I wish I could have read at the young adult age. Filled with promising outlooks, taking on new challenges and letting go of things holding you back, Begin Again was yet another beautifully crafted read.

I adored Andie. Yes, she definitely was making some poor decisions, but character arcs are my jam and I LOVED her self revelations and discoveries about how she had been handling many facets of her life. I found myself teary every time these books come to a close because they’re just so GOOD. I love the parent discussions, the formation of life length friendships, and falling in love (with the right guy).

College plots need more books. I thought it was a lot of fun with the broadcasting segments, finding ribbons, work/study jobs and more. There were all of these little aspects of the setting that I know contributed to my love of this book.

And the romance was so sweet!! It was a slowwww burn. But the development from friendship to relationship was wonderful. Filled with the tender moments and then (when the time was right) realizing that those feelings had become more. Milo was an absolute gruff sweetheart and I LOVED IT.

I’ll just be sitting here waiting for the next book from one of my favorite auto-read authors.

Overall audience notes:

YA Contemporary Romance
Language: a little strong
Romance: kisses
Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a mother from cancer (off page, mentioned), cheating, loss of a father from a car wreck (off page, mentioned)

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ARC Book Review: Saint (The World of the Narrows #0) by Adrienne Young

November 23, 2022November 17, 2022 GoodeyReadsLeave a comment

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 336 pages
Author: Adrienne Young
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: November 29th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

New York Times bestselling author Adrienne Young returns to the world of The Narrows with Saint, a captivating prequel to Fable and Namesake.

As a boy, Elias learned the hard way what happens when you don’t heed the old tales.

Nine years after his lack of superstition got his father killed, he’s grown into a young man of piety, with a deep reverence for the hallowed sea and her fickle favor. As stories of the fisherman’s son who has managed to escape the most deadly of storms spreads from port to port, his devotion to the myths and creeds has given him the reputation of the luckiest bastard to sail the Narrows.

Now, he’s mere days away from getting everything his father ever dreamed for him: a ship of his own, a crew, and a license that names him as one of the first Narrows-born traders. But when a young dredger from the Unnamed Sea with more than one secret crosses his path, Elias’ faith will be tested like never before. The greater the pull he feels toward her, the farther he drifts from the things he’s spent the last three years working for.

He is dangerously close to repeating his mistakes and he’s seen first hand how vicious the jealous sea can be. If he’s going to survive her retribution, he will have to decide which he wants more, the love of the girl who could change their shifting world, or the sacred beliefs that earned him the name that he’s known for―Saint.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for an ALC.

SOLID PREQUEL.

I know a lot of us are hit/miss on prequel books after the fact the original books are already out. This would be a case of me saying, if you enjoyed Fable / Namesake I think you’ll enjoy Saint too.

I loved getting much of Saint’s background. The heated intensity that is Saint is something else and seeing it with a romantic edge was *chef’s kiss*. It’s a super fast, read in a day, kind of story that gives you a great peek at the fated meeting of Saint and Isolde. It was great getting both points of view because I really wanted some background on Isolde as well. The attraction between them was undeniable and that instantaneous connection worked perfectly here.

The timeline didn’t end where I thought it would (forever wishing Adrienne Young books were a bit longer), but I guess it ended well enough? We all know what happens so I do understand [after the fact] why it closed here, buuut would have loved a bit more in a few different areas.

Audiobook wise: PERFECT. No complaints. Both narrators did an amazing job of reading at the same pace so I was able to keep the speed at the same for the rotating chapters. I felt like it only enhanced my reading experience and would recommend this avenue easy.

Overall audience notes: