Hello, internet land! This week I bring you something I don’t do very often: a guest post! Today’s guest is Philip Barker, who recently released Climb, a coming-of-age story about tragedy, grief, and resilience. Hope you guys enjoy!
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Heartstopper, Volume Two
Series: Heartstopper, #2
Author & illustrator: Alice Oseman
Published: July 19, 2019
Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books
Category: YA
Genre: contemporary, LGBTQ+
Pages: 320
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“History, huh? Bet we could make some.”
Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue
Title: Red, White & Royal Blue
Series: standalone
Author: Casey McQuiston
Published: May 14, 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Category: adult
Genre: contemporary, romance, LGBTQ+
Pages: 421
My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5)
Goodreads page
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A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends…
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue reading[ An ARC was given by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ]
✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
Title: Firekeeper’s Daughter
Series: standalone
Author: Angeline Boulley
Published: March 16, 2021
Publisher: Henry, Holt and Co.
Category: young adult
Genre: mystery, thriller
Pages: 496
My Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads page
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Debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.
As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when her family is struck by tragedy, she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother.
The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, certain details don’t add up and she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into the heart of a criminal investigation.
Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, but secretly pursues her own investigation, tracking down the criminals with her knowledge of chemistry and traditional medicine. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home.
Now, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
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Heyo, internet land! I was perusing the anticipated releases of this year to add more books to my TBR, and I thought I’d share a couple of the YA diverse reads that I’m excited for!
[Edit: I realized that by the time this is uploaded, a good chunk of these books are already going to be released (I drafted this post early January). That means some of these books aren’t anticipated releases anymore. I still hope you’re able to find a book you’ve never heard of that you’re interested in.]
Continue reading✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧
“You know,” she’d said, “they say people are like snowflakes, each one unique, but I think they’re more like skies. Some are cloudy, some are stormy, some are clear, but no two are ever quite the same.”
V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V.E. Schwab
Published: October 6, 2020
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: adult
Genre: historical, contemporary, fantasy, romance
Pages: 442
My Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5 stars)
Goodreads page
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A life no one will remember. A story you will never forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]
Continue readingMy Top Books of 2020
Happy New Year (and thank goodness 2020 is over)! We have a tradition on this blog to showcase the top 10 books that I read every year. However, this year I wanted to do something different. Since it was 2020, I wanted to list my top 20 books instead of my top 10. It just has a better ring to it. However, I haven’t read that many novels this year, so I decided to split it into my top 10 books and my top 10 graphic novels. I read a lot of comics (although I don’t review them that much), so it’s only fair that I include them on the list.
In no particular order, I present to you my top books of 2020.
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The Awkward Book Blogger 