Tag: young adult contemporary

Book Review: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Kasie West
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: July 2nd, 2013
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

SHORT AND SWEET.

I’ve been sitting on this review because I don’t know that I have much to say? Not in a bad way or anything, this was just a very quick, predictable read. Which is sometimes exactly what you’re looking for, and in this case I was!

I love the audio books for Kasie West novels because they fly by so fast. I finished this in a day. I thought the romance was pretty cute. It was an opposites attract/coming from different worlds vibe that I was definitely feeling.

This was another warm and fuzzy West book. I would rank this on the higher side of books by her that I enjoyed. It’s cute and fluffy with no big surprises. I love that this was heavily romance focused, but allowed for growth and development for the characters. I always love seeing great movement from them because it really helps bring the story home.

Still continuing my quest to read all of Wests’ books. I think I have only a few left!

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult contemporary romance
  • Language: none
  • Romance: kisses

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Book Review: What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

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Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult contemporary romance
Length: 416 pages
Author: Marisa Kanter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: April 7th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can… but in the real world, it’s more complicated. In this debut novel Marisa Kanter explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.

REVEAL TOOK TOO LONG.

I finished this in a day, a testament to the quick-readability of a contemporary. And I enjoyed the first half, but started to find myself more annoyed as I went on.

Why you ask? Halle.

What started out as an honest mistake/nervous moment, quickly became something dragged on WAY TOO DANG LONG. I was cool with it up to a certain point because I love a good reveal moment, but all my hopes were dashed. It felt like a missed opportunity and a severe lack of communication between close friends.

Without that glaring issue, this book was pretty adorable. I loved the bookstagram / cupcake combination. It was fun to have elements I am currently immersed in. Nash and Halle were also cute themselves when they got to hang out and really get to know each other.

I thought that Halle DID learn a lot of about herself and her actions in-person and online. This really had some great aspects for a younger audience. It was clearly heavily geared towards them (as YA usually is).

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult contemporary romance
  • Language: some
  • Romance: kisses / heated make-out

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ARC Book Review: Chasing Lucky by Jenn Bennett

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult contemporary romance
Length: 416 pages
Author: Jenn Bennett
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: May 5th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In this coming-of-age romance perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Dessen, scandal and romance collide when an ambitious teen returns to her hometown only to have her plans interrupted after falling for the town’s “bad boy”—a.k.a. her childhood best friend.

Sometimes to find the good, you have to embrace the bad.

Budding photographer Josie Saint-Martin has spent half her life with her single mother, moving from city to city. When they return to her historical New England hometown years later to run the family bookstore, Josie knows it’s not forever. Her dreams are on the opposite coast, and she has a plan to get there.

What she doesn’t plan for is a run-in with the town bad boy, Lucky Karras. Outsider, rebel…and her former childhood best friend. Lucky makes it clear he wants nothing to do with the newly returned Josie. But everything changes after a disastrous pool party, and a poorly executed act of revenge lands Josie in some big-time trouble—with Lucky unexpectedly taking the blame.

Determined to understand why Lucky was so quick to cover for her, Josie discovers that both of them have changed, and that the good boy she once knew now has a dark sense of humor and a smile that makes her heart race. And maybe, just maybe, he’s not quite the brooding bad boy everyone thinks he is.

Thank you to the publisher, Razorbill and Netgalley for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own!

I’D CHASE LUCKY TOO.

This was a more mature YA book. That’s what I kept thinking every time I was reading this. The main character was a high school senior and I kept picturing her as a college girl home for the summer. Take that for what you will, I still enjoyed the book.

There’s a lot of depth to this novel. It isn’t a super fluffy YA rom-com. The further I read, the more of the inner story unfurled in front of me. And I really like what I got from it. That communication is critically important to maintaining the bonds we value.

And usually, I hate when communication is clearly an issue and a brief conversation would solve all the problems. Bennett does a great job of not making me feel this way. While yes, I got frustrated with them (mostly Josie’s mother), I also understood the pain and heartache that each of the Saint-Martin women were struggling with. Another highlight, the fact that this was also heavily about a group of women in a family learning how to be together and not let differences tear them down. I liked the way reveals and emotions came out towards the end as the real picture of everyone’s past came to light. Josie took in a lot of information in a small amount of time. Did she make some mistakes? YES. Did she also learn from them? YES. And that’s what really sold this book for me.

The trope of choice for Chasing Lucky was childhood friends. Lucky and Josie knew each other back when she still lived in town, but after moving away, lost touch. Enter Josie coming back, enter cute Lucky 2.0. I, for once, dare say, I liked the way this trope was written. There was good banter, a little bit of angst as they figured each other out again and I felt the connection between them. I WILL ALSO SAY, I have rolled my eyes at love scenes in Bennett’s previous books, this was not the case this time. Oh it was so much better, and so much more realistic. I definitely adored this story a lot more because of it.

I constantly found myself wanting to pick this book up to read it. It was a solid YA book and I love the journey this story took me on. I appreciate the sentiments that were expressed and thought the conclusion was everything it should be.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses; one little detailed fade to black scene
  • Trigger warnings: someone being arrested for destruction of property; a secondary character posting and showing off a nude photo of Josie’s mother and using it for revenge; car wreck (no one is critically injured)

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Book Review: Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult contemporary fiction
Length: 432 pages
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Release Date: May 5th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

AMAZING.

This might be the first time I can remember reading a full book in verse. I didn’t know how I would enjoy it, but this ended up being the perfect dynamic for this story. I loved the way it flowed and moved.

Reading the complex and dynamic thoughts of Camino and Yahaira broke my heart. This was raw and real and I felt the emotions they were both struggling with as they coped with significant loss and finding out someone they both loved was not all he seemed. Yet, while they unraveled their father’s secrets, they also remembered to love the man that they did have. And I love how complicated this was. There was room here to feel what they needed to and how they could move forward.

I liked seeing both sides of the story and understanding more how this plane crash affected these communities across an ocean. It caused me to look up, research, and learn more about something that I hadn’t heard of. Clap When You Land was beautiful and a quick read. The musicality of the language brought so much to the surface.

The bond that starts to form between Camino and Yahaira gave the ending light. Finding hope in a tragic storm and looking towards a better future.

Overall audience notes:

  • Young adult contemporary fiction
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: plane crash, loss of a loved one, physical, sexual harassment

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