A- Reviews / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readsboarding school / British Indian main character / class differences / competition / diversity / Fantasy / friendship / high school sweethearts / joint review / magical powers / magical school / Naomi-Novik / POC / prickly heroine / prophecy / students / survival / YA / YA fantasy16 Comments
Jennie: Janine, Sirius, and I reviewed the first book in the Scholomance series (originally slated as two books; now a trilogy). Sirius gave it a C- and said she wouldn’t be reading this sequel, but Janine and I, though we had some reservations, ended up liking A Deadly Education quite ... more >
B Reviews / B Reviews Category / B- Reviews / Book Reviewsm/m romance / SFF / YA6 Comments
Two boys, alone in space. After the first settler on Titan trips her distress signal, neither remaining country on Earth can afford to scramble a rescue of its own, and so two sworn enemies are installed in the same spaceship. Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor, with no memory ... more >
A Reviews / A- Reviews / B Reviews Category / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / C Reviews Category#ownvoices / amateur sleuths / book clubs / Brooklyn / childhood friends / children / civil rights / families / female friendship / Historical / India / Japanese-American history / Kentucky / librarians / Los Angeles / Memoir / mystery / POC / POC author / Reading lists / South Carolina / Womens-Fiction / YA10 Comments
I run a virtual book club for seniors, volunteering for a non-profit (check it out and see if you’d like to help, or consider participating in the national village movement closer to your home), and we take turns picking out the books we read. One of the advantages this has ... more >
Book Reviews#ownvoices / Arranged Marriages / California / Chef / coming-of-age / cops / m/m mystery / Missouri / Muslim / POC / POC author / police procedural / Reading lists / revenge porn / South-Asian / YA8 Comments
More Than Just a Pretty Face by Syed M. Masood Jayne’s review of this #ownvoices YA novel got me to pick it up and I was glad I did. Danyal Jilani is a good-looking and sweet nineteen-year-old in his senior year of high school (he was held back a year ... more >
Book Reviews / Recommended Reads / Top Ten ListsAgent/Spies/Undercover / boarding school / Cold War / disabled hero / found family / genius loci / historical romance / king / Literary fiction / loner / m/m / magic users / one day courtship / passing / Reading lists / SF / thief / twins / UF / voting / war / YA / YA fantasy14 Comments
I spent much of 2020 grateful to books and authors for giving me a way to visit other times and places while stuck at home because of Covid. Below, listed in alphabetical order by author, are my top eight favorite books of 2020. Some grades have been adjusted since my ... more >
B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Reads#ownvoices / activist / black MC / cat / election / grief / high-school / one day courtship / POC / POC author / romantic-elements / students / voting / YA10 Comments
Dear Brandy Colbert, I’ve been meaning to read one of your books for a long time and when The Voting Booth was published I was struck by the cleverness of the concept. This romantic YA novel takes place over the course of one day—Election Day—with Marva Sheridan, an activist eighteen-year-old ... more >