About Janine
posts by Janine:
Book Reviews / DNF Reviews#ownvoices / Bangladeshi-American / Contemporary / depression / diversity / emotional abuse / high-school / Muslim / parents / South-Asian / Tashie / Tashie Bhuiyan / YANo Comments
Dear Tashie Bhuiyan, Last year I enjoyed your debut, Counting Down with You, a YA contemporary about a Bangladeshi-American high school student’s struggle with anxiety, demanding and controlling parents, and falling in love with a white boy. I liked it enough to request an ARC of your second book, A ... more >
Book Reviews / C Reviews / C- Reviewsbullying / Contemporary / fake relationship / Photographer / self-reformation / Small Town Romance15 Comments
Dear Cate C. Wells, This contemporary romance came up after I did not finish the first book in this series, Hitting the Wall. Commenters on the review described this one as better and I was in the midst of a three-month free trial of KU, so I decided to give ... more >
Conversationsbad dialogue / dual-timeline / exposition / flashbacks / infodumps / nonlinear timeline / prologues11 Comments
Janine: Every book requires exposition (the conveying of background information) but sometimes it’s handled well and other times clumsily. Multiple techniques can be used and authors often employ more than one in the same book. I thought it might be fun to share our thoughts about them. For the sake ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviewsanimals / bisexual heroine / Captivity / child abuse / environmentalism / fox / Graceling Realm / kidnapping / Kristin Cashore / political intrigue / queen / romantic-elements / sex positive / YA / YA fantasy4 Comments
Dear Kristin Cashore, I consider myself a fan of your YA fantasy even though not all of your books have worked for me. I really liked Graceling, the first book in the Graceling Realm series, did not much care for Fire but loved Bitterblue, and Jane Unlimited, a book separate ... more >
Book Reviews / Open ThreadOpen Thread13 Comments
Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general?
B Reviews / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / C Reviews / Reading Listsbisexual hero / Black heroine / diversity / gay hero / LGBTQIA+ / m/m / POC / POC author / political intrigue / rock band / romantic-elements / singer / Supreme Court / thriller / YA2 Comments
If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich After enjoying Sophie Gonzales’s 2021 YA novel, Perfect on Paper, I decided to try this one, also YA, since it had been recommended by Dear Author commenter Susan S. Like Perfect on Paper, If This Gets Out has queer characters, ... more >