February 14

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Evie Thomas believed in love once. That was before she began having visions of couples’ relationships, from sweet beginnings to heart breaking ends. Trying to understand what is happening to her, Evie stumbles upon La Brea Dance Studio, a ballroom dancing studio. There she meets X. X is the complete opposite of Evie and yet between time spent in the studio preparing for the competition X pulled her into, and the time they spend together alone, Evie can’t help but start to fall. She knows all too well that nobody escapes love unscathed, yet she finds herself wondering if Love is worth the risk in the end.

This book was, if anything, interesting. I have read and loved Nicola Yoon’s other two works so when this book was coming out I knew I had to read it. It was a little bit underwhelming, but overall a solid book. There was an element of magical realism that Yoon played with in Instructions for Dancing that she had not touched in her past works. I have never read anything with magical realism so it was a bit weird adjusting to this new kind of storytelling, but I think that Yoon pulled it off well. While I do prefer her other works, I still thoroughly enjoyed what I think Yoon does best, which is her love stories in unlikely places. I fell in love with Evie and X and their stories. While I did not love the plot of the novel, the characters pulled it through and I would still recommend you pick it up. If you know that you like magical realism you will definitely love this and if this is the first exposure you have to Yoon and you do not love it I highly recommend you give her other works a try before you completely knock her.

Rating: 3/5
by Camryn

Category: Contemporary, Romance | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 14

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

The novel opens describing how Quan, an African American young boy, ended up in prison after an encounter with a, now dead, white police officer. Quan will admit that he was present for the shooting and with several members of a gang that was involved, but he knows for certain that he did not fire a gun. The book follows Quan’s letters to Justyce, the main character in the author’s previous book. After a series of interactions, Justyce, a pre-law student at Yale, agrees to help defend Quan in his upcoming court case. 

Dear Justyce was an incredibly powerful, and fascinating book. It was almost like a mystery at times, trying to figure out what actually happened with the murder of the police officer and why Quan was blamed. Stone develops the character very well, and I found it almost impossible not to like them. I think that this book is such a powerful insight into systematic racism and the daily struggles that people of color face – and the fact that these are just two young boys contributes heavily to the reader’s frustration at this real world scenario. I think that this book is a great option for any skill-level of reader, as it focuses more on the overall meaning of the story, rather than complicated word choices and sentence structure. I would highly recommend this book as a sequel to Dear Martin or even as a stand-alone read.

by Anna

Category: Contemporary | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 16

The Summer of Broken Rules By K.L. Walther

The book starts out following an 18 year old girl named Meredith to her cousin’s wedding shortly after losing her sister and then later breaking up with her boyfriend.  The wedding is held at their family place in Martha’s Vineyard, her sister’s favorite place and she is processing her loss.  She promises herself and her friends that she is just going to spend the time finding herself before college and having fun before she meets Wit, one of the young groomsmen.  She finds herself spending more and more time with her new friend… and possibly more.  YOU can find out by reading the book and experiencing all the heart-gutting emotions along with each word. 

I absolutely loved this book.  I received this book in my stocking at Christmas and it was just some random Target feel-good romance novel at the time, but after finishing it, I realized it was so much more.  It was witty and made you long for a relationship, something a book has never done before to me, a happily single pringle.  It was like the book The Summer I Turned Pretty and would be the perfect beach read.  The one flaw about this book is its name The Summer of Broken Rules BECAUSE NO RULES WERE BROKEN and it is so much more than a taboo romance story.  But I looked it up and the author apparently has a lot of trouble naming her books (she just renamed another one, so I hope she does the same with this one).  

-Gabi

Category: Contemporary, Romance | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 13

The Bridge By Bill Konigsberg

The Bridge is about two teenagers, each with their own problems, preparing to jump off the Washington Bridge. There’s Aaron, a gay musician who just wants people to listen to his music, and be noticed. And then there’s Tillie, who feels her father hates her for some reason as he will not speak to her, and is jealous of her little sister, who is great at everything, she was also ghosted by her boyfriend, Arnim. The story goes through the scenarios of what would have happened if Aaron jumped and Tillie didn’t, if Tille jumped and Aaron didn’t, if they both jumped, or if neither of them jumped. It shows each of their lives and how they changed after this moment, and formed an unlikely friendship between the two of them.

-Sophie

Category: Contemporary, Realistic fiction | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 13

10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston

Sophie wants nothing more than to spend Christmas break away from her overprotective parents and with her boyfriend Griffin. Griffin had other plans. 

After overhearing Griffin talk about wanting a break from their relationship, Sophie breaks up with him and decides to spend Christmas with her huge extended family. 

They devise a plan to set Sophie up on 10 Blind Dates to take her mind off of recent events. Reuniting with her cousins and navigating crazy dates, family dinners, and her feelings for the boy next door she has known since childhood, Sophie discovers just how much she needed this break. 

I loved this book. It was filled with fun, family drama, chaos, and just the right amount of romance. Sophie has a huge family, but Elston does a great job of writing the characters and the family dynamic so that it does not feel confusing. Instead it feels like a warm hug. You truly want to be transported into the world and into the Messina family. This book does not tackle huge worldly problems or morals, but it is just a feel good book. Elston created the perfect balance of humor, conflict, and wholesomeness. If you are looking for a book to lift your spirits or get you back into the reading game, I highly recommend 10 Blind Dates.

-Camryn

Category: Contemporary, Romance | 2 Comments on 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
October 25

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, published in 2021,  is a contemporary fake dating story.  The book starts out with the main character, Olive, a PhD student at Stanford kissing a random man in the hallway as an elaborate ruse for her friend. The random man turns out to be an extremely successful professor/ researcher.  They continue with their fake relationship and grow a close friendship.  Watch what happens when a PhD student falls for her boss in the Love Hypothesis! 

I really enjoyed this book!  It is a beautifully written slow burn romance with flares of passion since it is also a forbidden romance.  The twist and turns in the book lead the reader to believe that nothing is going to happen, then BOOM FLARE OF ROMANCE, then nothing happens.  The author, Ali Hazelwood, keeps the reader interested by giving tastes of the possibility of the forbidden relationship, and it is worth the journey.  One thing I did not really like about this book is that it was mainly PG with some swear words woven in, then all of a sudden it was graphically R and hard to read.  So, I recommend skipping chapter 16 completely- it is very awkward and nothing of importance happens. 

-Gabi

Category: Contemporary, Romance | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 7

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I have been in a cycle of rereading books that I have loved in the past.  I have always been a fan of John Green and have read almost all his books.  The Fault in Our Stars is one of my favorites of his, so much so that I did a prose piece on it in the 8th grade.  The book follows Hazel, a teenager with lung cancer, who moves through life depressed, until she meets August at a cancer therapy group.  He had a form of bone cancer and was there to support his friend with eye cancer.  He jokes around with her and they form a connection.  The book then follows them on their journeys of life with the side effects of cancer.  I do not want to spoil too much, but you should read this book!  It will make you laugh, cry, and cry some more and fill your heart with a sense of love.  

I really loved this book.  It was my favorite for years, before being dethroned by The Song of Achilles.  It is an easier book to read, which makes it favorable for a nice weekend.  The book just flows, making it a page turned for what is going to happen next to the main character, Hazel.  Additionally, The Fault in Our Stars gives its reader a deeper meaning for life and how it should not be taken for granted.

-Gabi

Category: Contemporary, Romance | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 7

Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton and other great authors

Six stories of love and friendship, transformed by a Blackout.  Summer in NYC has a reputation for being hot, but when a heatwave strikes and a citywide blackout ensues nobody is prepared. 

Normally rating short story collections is hard because each story is so its own. But this was different. Blackout really was like a novel told from multiple POVs but also each story had its own distinguishable voice and impact. The setting made the book. Without the setting the characters would not have been intertwined and brought together in the beautiful way they were. It was also a super amazing, and cool backdrop for a novel. The main aspect of course was the romance. The love and light born into both the literal darkness of a blackout and the figurative darkness of 2020 was magical. These 6 authors worked incredibly together to truly make a masterpiece that is filled with light, love, hope, in such a dark time.

Rating: 4.5/5

-Camryn

Category: Contemporary, Realistic fiction, Romance | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 7

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

TW: Suicide

 

The Midnight Library is a book about a 19 year old woman named Nora Seed, who is suicidal. She wants to discover what it’s like to live in the gray area between life and death. She enjoys playing chess in the Hazeldene library with the librarian Mrs. Elm, who serves as an amazing supporting character, encourages Nora to leave her hometown and take up glaciology. A while later Nora discovers that her father has passed away from a heart attack. The book then jumps 19 years ahead and Nora just can’t catch a break. Within the span of two days she loses her cat, her brother visits town and ignores her, she gets fired from her job. She is met with many intriguing opportunities and yet she turns all of them down, like canceling her wedding two days prior, turning down the opportunity to live in Australia with her best friend. She writes a suicide note and overdoses. She wakes up in a state that is in between life and death, and to her surprise it’s a library with what seems like an image of Mrs. Elm. Nora struggles with the concept of being in this library that is between life and death but Mrs. Elm encourages her to look around. Each book in the library represents an alternate version of her life, one where she marries her fiance for example. At the end of the book, Nora learns how valuable life is. In order to get out of the Midnight Library she would need to reconnect with loved ones through love and kindness. 

This was a wonderful book to read, though it was depressing it sent a very significant message. It was hard to read at times because it was so real, the feelings of depression and emptiness, there was a heaviness to the beginning of the book because you have to acknowledge that there are suicidal people in the world and they deserve to gain hope and happiness. It was also difficult to read at times because Nora simply wanted to die, even when she was in the library she was confused and really just wanted to die.  In the second half of the book I was very intrigued, a library where every book represents an alternate life seems like an incredible experience if you experience it without the fear of it crumbling by midnight. I think the fact that it crumbles at midnight reminds Nora and the reader that there is so much opportunity in your life but that there is a limited amount of time. I feel like this is really significant because if you are met with an opportunity, you only have a limited amount of time to accept which perhaps Nora did not realize when she was suicidal and desparate. I wouldn’t recommend this book if the topic is sensitive to you, but I found it an interesting read.

-Tatiana

Category: Book review, Contemporary | LEAVE A COMMENT