B- Reviews / Book Reviews / C+ Reviewsadvice / Black characters / Black culture / caregiver burnout / cultural history / dating / Detroit / high-school / POC / POC author / radio DJ / recluse / sexual-assault / Writer / YA / YA romanceNo Comments
Dear Ebony LaDelle, I don’t t recall how your debut Young Adult novel came to my attention, but I liked the eye-catching cover and the premise sounded interesting. A bit gimmicky (a high school boy tries to get a girl to fall in love with him in three dates) but ... more >
Book Reviews / DNF Reviews#ownvoices / Bangladeshi-American / Contemporary / depression / diversity / emotional abuse / high-school / Muslim / parents / South-Asian / Tashie Bhuiyan / YA2 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 >
B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readsadvice / bisexual heroine / epistolary / friendship / hidden identity / high-school / LGBTQIA+ / love triangles / relationship in trouble / Relationships / Sophie Gonzales / YA6 Comments
Dear Sophie Gonzales, Perfect on Paper was a finalist in the Goodreads Awards YA Fiction category and I thought it sounded interesting and different, so I picked it up. (A warning to readers: the blurb for this book contains spoilers and I recommend avoiding it if you don’t want to ... more >
Book Reviews / C+ ReviewsAsian Americans / Athlete / bullying / class differences / First-Person / high-school / murder / POC / POC author / racism / Violence / Young-Adult3 Comments
She’s a liar. A cheater. A murderer. And it’s only her first semester. From the author of The Obsession and Dial A For Aunties comes a story of a deadly game of cat and mouse set in the halls of a school that is hiding more than secrets in its ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviews#ownvoices / anxiety / Bangladeshi-American / being true to oneself / Contemporary / diversity / epistolary novel / expectations / fake relationship / high-school / immigrants / multicultural romance / music / Muslim / parents / POC / POC author / poetry / South-Asian / star-crossed lovers / YA5 Comments
Dear Tashie Bhuiyan, I picked up your romantic contemporary YA novel, Counting Down with You, after it was nominated for the Goodreads Awards in the Young Adult Fiction category. It didn’t win but I am glad it was nominated because I wouldn’t have found it otherwise. Karina Ahmed is a ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviewschildhood friends / enemies to lovers / high-school / misunderstanding / music / Nebraska / YA romance / Young-Adult4 Comments
In this rom-com about rom-coms, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door. Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really ... more >