Tag: young adult contemporary

ARC Book Review: Never Vacation with Your Ex by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka
Publisher: Viking Books
Release Date: April 4th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Forgetting Sarah Marshall meets Crazy Stupid Love in a YA second chance romance from fan-favorite author couple #Wibbroka!

Seventeen-year-old volleyball star Kaylee Jordan lives a life of player rankings, constant training, and a carefully curated social media full of followers watching to see if she’ll go pro out of high school like her famous mom. Her one refuge, and the thing she looks forward to every summer? The vacation her family spends in Malibu with the Freeman-Yus. This year, there’s only one problem: Kaylee and their son, Dean, dated for the past three months, and Kaylee just unceremoniously dumped him. Hoping to spare them the worst summer ever, Kaylee comes to Dean with her unconventional solution: she’s going to walk him through her rules for getting over an ex. When Dean grudgingly cooperates, Kaylee’s got her work cut out for her. But helping Dean follow her own rules starts becoming difficult when the pressures of Kaylee’s family legacy and perfect life start to feel less like a plan and more like a prison…and amid warm California nights and stolen laughs, Kaylee feels herself falling for Dean for the same reasons and some new ones. With their trip coming to an end, Kaylee has to make the complicated choice between doing what’s expected and taking a (second) chance on love.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC.

I LIKED IT.

I feel kind of surprised by this one. Initially I didn’t know what I would think about it all, but in the end, I think it has a pretty good message and is set up really well for the audience (young adult!).

The pressure of perfectionism, especially in teens, was a big theme and WOW did I resonate with that. Kaylee struggling with trying to be the best volleyball player out there with the best image and everything else truly hit home. Everything in this vein was well written.

Now the otherside of that is the romance. I LOVED Dean. He was fantastic. Swoony, sweet and full of feelings. I love seeing his emotion and commitment to getting Kaylee to express some raw feelings. Kaylee though, I don’t love how she handled the whole situation. She didn’t come off in the best light and I wish she had been a little quicker to sensitivity.

Perfect beach, summery setting. Made me wish I was on a beach right this second. OH, lets talk about the PARENTS. I LOOOOOVE that there were present and active parents in this book y’all. It’s not seen enough. Even better, we saw that they weren’t perfect and made mistakes too. It was a great contrast to the young adults in the book making decisions too. A great cast all around.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: heated make-outs

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ARC Book Review: Stars and Smoke (Stars and Smoke #1) by Marie Lu

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Length: 336 pages
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Roaring Books Press
Release Date: March 28th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Meet Winter Young—rookie backup dancer turned global pop phenomenon. His star power has smashed records, selling out stadiums from LA to London. Now he’s bringing his swoon worthy assets to a whole new arena…

Infamous criminal tycoon Eli Morrison has just one weakness—his daughter, Penelope. And Penelope has just one wish for her nineteenth birthday—a private concert with Winter Young. When covert ops organization The Panacea Group approaches Winter with this once-in-a-lifetime chance to infiltrate Morrison’s inner circle, Winter must use his fame, cunning, and charisma to pull it off—only he won’t be on his own.

Posing as Winter’s bodyguard is the fiery Sydney Cossette, Panacea’s youngest spy. Sydney may be the only person alive impervious to Winter’s charms, but as the mission brings them closer, she’s forced to admit there’s more to this A-lister than slick dance moves and a handsome face. Panacea’s unlikeliest partners just might become its biggest heroes—and maybe even more—if they can survive each other first.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC.

LIKED BY THE END.

This wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The Hating Game tagline felt like a misnomer (so if someone can point out where that was, please let me know). But the Mission Impossible vibes were there at least! I like this trend of a more romantic comedy + suspense. It’s a mood I am here for.

There wasn’t as much romance as I was hoping for. Though the second half did a better job of adding to those elements. I would have loved to have seen them be able to connect more and not just about the job they were on. I liked both Sydney and Winter as standalone characters. There were some flashbacks that helped flesh out their personalities and I think there’s going to be some great development in book two for both of them.

The antagonist was painfully obvious so don’t expect to be surprised by necessarily that piece. Action wise, I definitely enjoyed those scenes. High intensity, not quite sure what was going to happen. Waiting for the next page kind of on edge.

I do have plans to read the next book and I’m curious to see what the next adventure will bring!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romantic Suspense
  • Language: very little
  • Romance: make-outs
  • Violence: med-high
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: near death experiences, gun violence, kidnapping, poisoning, loss of a parent

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Book Review: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publisher: Viking Books
Release Date: June 16th, 2009
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

TEAM STEPMOM.

These were some tough parents to read about. A Dad who brought me to rage induced rants because of his lack of care for his wife and new baby. A Mom who was incredibly stubborn and seemed incapable of seeing other’s view points and was constantly passive aggressive. And they honestly brought the story down for me. I was expecting to see some growth from them (and for Auden to talk it out) but I don’t feel like that happened enough at the end to be satisfied.

I enjoyed the story overall. It’s very much classic/older YA and that’s part of it’s charm. I purely picked this up to watch the movie and am not upset that I did. I liked the friendships that Auden was able to develop. I especially loved her step-mom. Instead of being the usual trope of awfulness, she was a woman stuck in a rough post-partum situation and I liked that they leaned on one another (even if Auden wouldn’t recognize it).

The romance was very lackluster. Honestly it almost felt as if there wasn’t one? It’s a slow burn with little page time. I would have loved a lot more of Eli and how he could have better factored into the story.

A formulaic YA contemporary that is, ya know, perfectly fine.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: make-outs
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: teacher/student relationship mentioned (side character), cheating, alcohol consumption, post-partum depression, loss of a friend (side character, but plays central role)

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ARC Book Review: You Wouldn’t Dare by Samantha Markum

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Rating: ★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Samantha Markum
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: March 28th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A rom com about trying to have the summer of your life before everything changes – only to realize change might be exactly what you need…

When Juniper Nash Abreheart kissed Graham Isham for the first time, she had no idea it would nearly be the end of their friendship.

More specifically, she had no idea that the terrible, unforgivable thing she did to keep their summer fling a secret wouldn’t just ruin their friendship, but also Graham’s entire life. Now, months since the fallout, Junie and Graham spend most of their time sidestepping conversational landmines on the journey back to normalcy.

Junie is sure the strangeness between her and Graham is her biggest problem – until her mom hires Tallulah, her boyfriend’s surly teenage daughter, to work at their family café, and then announces they’ll all be moving in together at the end of the summer. The only bright spot ahead is Junie’s dad’s upcoming visit, just in time for her community theater production. And then poor turnout soon threatens that.

But when Junie starts to realize the feelings she swore to take care of last summer have lingered, saving her production and managing her hostile relationship with Tallulah might be the least of her problems. Graham isn’t just off limits – their friendship has been mended to barely withstand a breeze, and the gale force of Junie’s feelings could be just what breaks them.

Samantha Markum’s You Wouldn’t Dare is about the risks and triumphs that come with being brave enough to take a chance at what you really want, including love.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an eARC.

*sigh*

I will still recommend Markum’s first book, This May End Badly. But unfortunately, I can’t recommend this one. It was the complete opposite of everything I loved about TMEB.

Junie spends over 3/4 of this book selfishly entitled, saying every wrong thing, being mean to her almost half sister AND the cute boy and I couldn’t take one more bit of it. I’m all for a character arc with growth, this ain’t it. She did one nice thing at the end and that was great and all, I guess.

The only true saving grace here was Graham. He was sweet and the steadfast kind of hero I loooove. Frankly I don’t know why he kept putting up with Junie.

And the play?? It did NOTHING for the plot other than help me move faster through the book because I skimmed right over these scenes. I did not care that Junie was in a play. Or that she dragged all of her friends into it. Or they had to recast someone. Or etc. etc. etc.

Alright I’ll stop. I hope to try Markum’s third book and that it is a redemption.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: a little
  • Romance: heated make-outs
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: small scale injury, emotionally unavailable father, underage drinking and smoking, loss of a mother (off-page), near drowning

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