North Texas Teen Book Festival 2020 Recap | #NTTBF

Hello, world! I’m finally out of my cave after holing myself up to study for the midterm season! Although I’m not entirely done with testing just yet, I’ve decided to rejoin the land of the living to bring you this recap of one of my favorite events of the whole entire year: the North Texas Teen Book Festival!

In the past, I lived within relative driving distance to the convention center it is always held at, but now that I’ve moved, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to attend this year. When I saw that John Green was attending as one of the authors, I couldn’t say no. I’ve been a fan of his for years. First, it was discovering his YouTube channel that he hosts with his brother, Hank. Then, I fell in love with his books (I didn’t even know he was an author when I first stumbled across Vlogbrothers). Then I respected the heck out of him because he is one of the sole reasons I survived my high school classes with Crash Course. And more recently, I’ve been falling in love with the podcast that he does called Dear Hank & John.  Basically, I appreciate all the work he has done and continues do to. I booked a bus ticket to visit my parents back home and that was that.

Do I Have That Book Challenge

I was just scrolling through my YouTube feed to find a video so I had an excuse to procrastinate, when I came across this book challenge. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched a BookTube video, so I was intrigued. After watching Keeping Tabs (the creator) take a stab at her own challenge, I wanted to give it a shot!

Click here for the original creator of this challenge!

Granted, I recently got rid of 60+ books from my shelf so this might be a bit more difficult.

Oh well.

The general rules I got from her instructions were this:

1. Time yourself trying to find each prompt on your shelf
2. Try and beat the time of the person who challenged you.
3. Don’t forget to tag your challenger and the original creator.
4. Have fun!

I decided that rather than time myself and cause my stress levels to go off the charts, I would just try and find each prompt on my shelf. Each prompt that I find a book for will count as a point. The max amount of points is 20 (since there’s 20 prompts). Plus, me just telling the time it took me to find all these books would not be that exciting.

It occurs to me now that this challenge is probably more enjoyable in video form, but alas, I am not a BookTuber. I apologize in advanced.

Nine YA Books with Cute Romances

I don’t know about you, but I’m currently on a To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before high right now. After watching the movie, Peter and Lara Jean are all I can think about.

(I probably won’t stop fangirling about them for a while. Just a warning. Speaking of fangirling about Noah and Lana, I read this Buzzfeed article about them and I honestly can’t handle how cute they are together. Just when you don’t think they could get any cuter they hit you with something like this.)

Anyway, I wanted to suggest some books for those who are looking for some cute book relationships after watching/reading To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Girl (or guy), I get it. I can’t handle the adorable-ness either.

Some of these book/series are mega popular and you’ve probably already read them, but I hope you find some gems in here that you haven’t tried out.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli | Book Review

Title: Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Series: Creekwood, #1
Author: Becky Albertalli
Published: April 7, 2017
Genre: YA, contemporary, romance
Pages: 303
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

(This synopsis is from Goodreads.)

This review does not contain spoilers.