Tag: young adult romance

ALC Book Review: Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Sci-Fi Romance
Length: 288 pages
Author: Amie Kaufman
Publisher: Knopf Books
Release Date: February 10th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

8 HOURS TO STOP AN EXPLOSION… 8 HOURS TO FALL IN LOVE.

From the NYT bestselling co-author of Illuminae and Aurora Rising comes a high-stakes, high-chemistry sci-fi romp about a stowaway girl and the richest boy in the galaxy, racing the clock to outwit a gang of mercenaries.

It’s 2067, and the Graves family has transformed Mars from lifeless rock into a chaotic patchwork of settlements—and everybody wants a piece.

Enter Hunter Graves: handsome, ambitious, and with spectacularly bad timing. He shows up at the United Nations base just as an emergency evacuation sends everyone scurrying for safety. Except he’s left behind. Uh oh.

Also stranded: Cleo, a sharp-tongued stowaway with no intention of dying today, and even less patience for overconfident trust fund boys. But the enemy of your enemy might just help you survive, so here we are.

Turns out the evacuation was just a cover for the mercenaries who came next, and they plan to blow up the base—and every trace of their crime—in eight hours.

Now, Hunter and Cleo have one shot to stop the explosion, escape alive, and deal with the inconvenient fact that they’re falling for each other.

The clock is ticking.

Thank you PRH Audio for the gifted audiobook and Get Underline for the gifted copy.

STELLAR STANDALONE.

I admit to thinking this was a series starter before seeing another friend’s review and I’m glad I knew going in this is a STANDALONE because my frame of mind was much better.

I think Amie Kaufman writes some of the best overall dialogue in the young adult genre. I love the quippy comebacks and sentiments, the right amount of snark and gentleness. This combined with the incredible audiobook made this story come alive. I loved the multiple narrators and sound effects that made the downfall of this Martian settlement all the more intense.

The romance wasn’t 100% believable for me within such a short time line, but I did like it well enough. Hunter and Cleo are a reluctant allies from different walks of life and I liked seeing them come together and find a stronger understanding between them.

This really covered a lot of ground for 250 pages and I had such a good time reading/listening to it. Highly recommend!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Dystopian Sci-Fi Romance
  • Language: mild
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: moderate

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Book Review: Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: YA Sports Romance
Length: 320 pages
Author: Jennifer Iacopelli
Publisher: GP Putnam’s
Release Date: December 2nd, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

For fans of Emma Lord and Abbi Glines, Jennifer Iacopelli’s swoony, romantic new novel follows elite ice dancer Adriana Russo as she finds herself drawn to both her old dance partner and her new one.

Adriana Russo is figure skating royalty.

With gold-medalist parents, and her older sister headed to the Olympics, all she wants is to live up to the family name and stand atop the ice dance podium at the Junior World Championships. But fame doesn’t always mean fortune, and their legendary skating rink is struggling under the weight of her dad’s lavish lifestyle. The only thing keeping it afloat is a deal to host the rest of the Junior Worlds team before they leave for France.

That means training on the same ice as her first crush, Freddie, the partner she left when her growth spurt outpaced his. For the past two years, he’s barely acknowledged her existence, and she can’t even blame him for it.

When the family’s finances take another unexpected hit, losing the rink seems inevitable until her partner, Brayden, suggests they let the world believe what many have suspected: that their intense chemistry isn’t contained to the ice. Fans and sponsors alike take the bait, but keeping up the charade is harder than she ever imagined. And training alongside Freddie makes it worse, especially when pretending with Brayden starts to feel very real.

As the biggest competition of her life draws closer and her family’s legacy hangs in the balance, Adriana is caught between her past and present, between the golden future she’s worked so hard for, and the one she gave up long ago.

I WILL NOT BE WATCHING THE SHOW.

I picked this up on a pure whim because the Olympics have me in an ice skating mood and I heard there’s a Netflix show so I decided to test the waters with the book first.

AAAAAND I shall not be watching the show (I also did discuss with a few friends spoilers about the show and I would be mad soooo). Ultimately this is a love triangle and if you get angry when your side isn’t chosen. which I totally did, then you’ll be upset. Reader discretion advised.

It was trying hard to be cool and edgy with the characters ages and some of the scenes but the overall vibe and dialogue reads as a young teen. The clash made it difficult to read and I was grateful that it’s a short book. It was one of those books with potential but too many eye rolls.

Also, if the FMC mentioned ONE MORE FREAKING TIME that she had outgrown her previous partner (literally) and that’s why she had to drop him I was going to light my phone on fire.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Sports Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low
  • Content warnings: strained parent relationships

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ALC Book Review: Lights Out by Jenni Fletcher

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: NA Sports Romance
Length: 346 pages
Author: Jenni Fletcher
Publisher: Simon Audio
Release Date: February 3rd, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A sizzling Formula One romance perfect for fans of BookTok faves Hannah Grace, Lauren Asher, and Kat Ransom.

He’s a future F1 champion, but she’s making it hard to stay on track…

F1’s resident bad boy Giovanni Bauer isn’t used to losing, but when his non-stop partying leaves his position on the team at risk, he needs to turn his reputation around – fast.

Maisie Evans is a dedicated psychology student, desperate to break into Gio’s competitive world and reignite her dreams of a glittering sports career, but with no clue how to do it.

When Gio and Maisie’s worlds collide, the answer to their problems seems a fake relationship. She gets to travel the world and brush shoulders with sports royalty, and he gets to fix his image by settling down.

But as sparks fly on and off the track, will their ‘relationship’ see them cross the line together, or crash and burn?

Thank you Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook.

I’M NOT FEELING IT.

I’m 0/2 on F1 romances right now and that sucks. I did like the F1 content in this book. It felt present but not overwhelming and the behind the scenes stuff and such worked well for the plot. I also did enjoy the audiobook narrator and had no issues listening.

Both of the main characters caused me to be annoyed one too many times. It was as if this book was marketed/labeled as young adult, but actually had adult content with characters who acted 15. It was not a good look and the drama wasn’t drama-ing well.

Some of the romance was sweet/swoony and other times it went right back to the trying to hard to be dramatic issue. I did like both of their families and the kindness and love in those scenes.

I’m not really vibing with idea of picking up another book by this author, we’ll see.

Overall audience notes:

  • NA Sports Romance
  • Language: moderate
  • Romance: 2 open door
  • Violence: mild
  • Content warnings: car crashes and resulting injuries, mentions of loss of a parent

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ALC Book Review: Love Me Tomorrow by Emiko Jean

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Emiko Jean
Publisher: Simon Teen
Release Date: February 3rd, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tokyo Ever After comes a laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving rom-com about a girl who starts receiving letters from the love of her life—writing to her from years in the future.

What if your true love could write to you from the future?

Seventeen-year-old Emma Nakamura-Thatcher doesn’t believe in love, not after her parents’ bitter divorce. So when she attends the festival of Tanabata, her wish is simple: proof that love is real and can last.

Emma thinks little of her wish…until she finds a note from someone claiming to be her greatest love writing to her from the future. It has to be a prank, right? But as the notes pour in, each revealing secrets only she knows, Emma is forced to accept the impossible: This is really happening. Someone is actually reaching out to her from across time.

But who? Ezra, the musical prodigy who makes her pulse race? Theo, the literal boy next door who’s known her since childhood? Or Colin, the overly confident, overly handsome, overly rich kid she meets while cleaning his mega-mansion?

As Emma races to uncover the identity of the letter writer, she’ll discover that love is more than real—it’s the most powerful force in the universe. And it’s been waiting for her all along.

Thank you Simon Teen for the eARC and Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook.

A SWEET READ.

I will say I loved that this felt truly YA and a book I could hand to that audience as well. It’s content appropriate with relatable characters and a storyline that works for the age group. As a fellow child of divorce I thought the rep here was on point too.

The one thing I’m still tilting my head at was the *letters from the future*. I was intrigued by the idea initially and based off of how I thought it would end I was excited to see everything come together. BUT BUT BUT then, when the ending did come up I felt like the letters didn’t even matter anymore and it took away from the overall story for me.

I adored the soft romance for Emma. And I just liked Emma. She’s likeable and endearing and making mistakes while also trying to do the right thing and was someone I wanted to cheer on. I liked seeing her relationship with her parents and those around her and how Emma tried to navigate many different situations.

I’ll definitely continue to read Emiko Jean’s books!!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: low
  • Romance: kisses
  • Violence: low
  • Content warnings: divorce