Review: The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily (Dash & Lily #2)
By Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Publisher: Ember
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: It’s Lily’s absolute favorite time of the year, but the Christmas season just isn’t the same with all of the changes happening in her family. As much as Dash has tried to be there for her, Lily worries that things just aren’t right between them. Now it’s up to Dash, not exactly the biggest Christmas fan, to try and revive Lily’s holiday spirit.

Review: It’s been a hot minute since I read a YA book. It’s been an even hotter minute since I wrote a book review. And just to belabor the point, I last read a Christmas book in 2018.

So what prompted 2023’s sudden burst of motivation to do all the things? A strong possibility is the steady diet of self-help and business books I’ve been reading all year. It was time to switch gears, and what better way to do so AND get into the holiday spirit by catching up with some familiar fictional characters?

I loved Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares and felt a bit dismayed when I saw meh reviews for the follow-up, The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily. But it’s been such a strange year that I summoned some optimism and dove in.

First, let me say how wonderful it was, indeed, to read about these two characters again. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Dash’s snark and Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s gift for capturing New York City’s incomparable character, especially during the holiday season.

I get why some readers viewed the book with mixed feelings. We quickly learn that Lily’s beloved grandfather has suffered a heart attack and is still undergoing a challenging recovery, with Lily insisting upon being his primary caregiver. All the time she’s been spending with her grandfather has not only meant seeing less of Dash, but it’s also put a huge damper on Lily’s normally indomitable Christmas spirit. Dash is trying to support his girlfriend as best he can, but sometimes Lily longs for more from him, especially with expressing his feelings.

I admit that at first, Lily wishing that Dash fit the perfect boyfriend mold prompted a small eyebrow raise from me because it came across kind of petulant in a, “Why can’t Dash just do X?” “Why can’t Dash be more Y?” way. But Lily learns from some older and wiser adults in her life that Dash can’t read her mind. That’s when I also called myself out for also being guilty of the same expectation. So then I applauded Lily’s character growth for its realism.

While Lily is understandably not the ebullient Lily from the first book, that’s not to say there’s not lots to love about this sequel, like anatomically correct gingerbread men, glitter-related injuries, the logic (or lack thereof) of Dash’s friend, Boomer, and the sage observations of Lily’s great-aunt, Mrs. Basil E. If you enjoyed Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, go ahead and give this one a read.

All in All: Just what Santa ordered in a Christmas read.

Review: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #1)
By Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Lara Jean’s life is about to change in some big ways—the start of a new school year and the departure of her beloved older sister for college abroad in Scotland. Nothing can prepare Lara Jean, however, for the horror of seeing the secret letters she’s written to every boy she’s loved somehow mailed out to the recipients. In an equally bizarre twist, Lara Jean finds herself pretending to be the girlfriend of one of the addressees, Peter Kavinsky. At first she thinks she’s long over him, but as their supposedly fake relationship continues, Lara Jean realizes that she just might want it to be real.

Review: Once again, I’m way behind the curve in reading a massively popular book, in this case Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. This book had been on my radar even before the release of the equally popular Netflix adaptation, in part thanks to the gorgeous cover. I don’t read much contemporary and so didn’t make this much of a priority read until Twitter exploded with all the love for the film. And then it still took me a while to finally read the book.

Seeing all of that love for the movie on social media made me feel like I already knew Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky before reading a single page. It took reading maybe five pages to fall in love with MC Lara Jean’s narrative voice. It was instantly engaging, and I also loved the immediate sense of closeness between her and her sisters. When the novel opens, eldest sister Margot is preparing to head off to college in Scotland, leaving Lara Jean to step up to being a mother figure for their younger sister, Kitty. Margot took on the role of looking after her sisters and their father a few years before after the death of their mother. Taking on more family responsibilities, having her sister in another country, and starting a new school year end up being the least of Lara Jean’s worries, though, when something unthinkable happens. The letters she’s written to every boy she’s loved and keeps hidden in a hatbox her mother gave her somehow get mailed to each boy.

Enter Peter Kavinsky, a past love of Lara Jean’s and therefore the recipient of one of her letters. In order to do damage control with another letter recipient, Lara Jean enters into a pact with Peter to fake being a couple, an arrangement that benefits Peter, too. At first Lara Jean finds him to be true to his reputation around school—arrogant, egotistical, and the kind of guy who eats the last slice of pizza. Peter is also pretty unfiltered and unapologetic about it, which may not appeal to everyone, but which I often found hilarious.

Part of Lara Jean’s growth in the novel is discovering that there’s more to Peter K.’s handsome face and too-cool-to-care attitude. He does, in fact, care about a lot of things. I thought that Lara Jean’s character development was well done. She can be petty and even mean at times and makes some less than wise decisions, but she has the self-awareness to call herself out.

I was very much enjoying this book until the end. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with how things were left. I’m not into Hallmark Channel Christmas movie-perfect endings, but I felt this one could have some more closure, even if it is the first book in a series. On the upside, now I absolutely have to read the sequel to see if my questions are answered.

All in All: I typically don’t go for contemporary YA romance, but this was a sweet, winning read. Perfect if you love breezy novels like Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss.

Review: The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta

The Place on Dalhousie
By Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Ivy Press
Format: eBook
Source: Borrowed

To Sum It Up: Rosie Gennaro and Jimmy Hailler meet during a flood in Queensland, and their brief time together forever changes both their lives. Two years later, Rosie has moved back to Sydney and into the house on Dalhousie Street that her father, Seb, was supposed to renovate for her and her mother, Loredana. Now it’s Rosie’s stepmother, Martha, who occupies that house and whom Rosie has never accepted because Martha and Seb married less than a year after Loredana lost her battle with cancer. Meanwhile, Jimmy has also returned to Sydney and back among the school friends who are like family to him. He’s never been this close to having a family to call his own, though, and it’s Rosie who may be able to help him finally find one.

Review: First, let me say how absolutely wonderful it was to read one of the magnificent Melina Marchetta’s books again. Second, let me say that if you haven’t read any of her books, you need to fix that immediately because you’re missing out on sheer brilliance.

It’s been almost five years since I last read a Marchetta book, and that book was, fittingly, The Piper’s Son, one of two companion novels to The Place on Dalhousie. We first met Jimmy Hailler, one of the latter’s protagonists, back in the equally superb Saving Francesca. Two books later, we still didn’t know what happened to Jimmy, and finally, finally, finally, Marchetta has given us the answer. It turns out that Jimmy has been looking for his family, and this book sees him presented with the chance to truly have one that’s all his, though maybe not in the way he expected.

The Place on Dalhousie also tells the story of Rosie Gennaro, whom Jimmy meets amidst a flood in Queensland. Like Jimmy, Rosie originally hails from Sydney, where too many painful memories drove her to leave. Two years after their short time together in Queensland, Rosie finds herself back in Sydney and back in the titular place on Dalhousie Street. It’s the house her father, Seb, was going to restore for his family. Rosie’s definition of family was never meant to include her stepmother, Martha, whom Seb married eleven months after Rosie lost her mother, Loredana, to cancer. Martha lives downstairs and is considering selling the house, which infuriates Rosie even though Martha has offered to split the money from the sale with her. In Rosie’s mind, Martha has zero right to the home that was supposed to belong to Rosie, Seb, and Loredana. Selling it means losing another part of her parents.

At its core, The Place on Dalhousie is a story about family. Rosie, Jimmy, and Martha all learn that family isn’t limited to one’s parents or siblings but also includes friends and even the family of those friends. Watching the extended family in this book grow and grow as they laugh, fight, and cry together is sure to melt your heart because Marchetta’s writing makes you so invested in these characters’ lives, whether it’s Rosie or Jimmy or Martha or Rosie’s formidable grandmother Eugenia or Martha’s sort-of-boyfriend Ewan’s father, John. And don’t even get me started on how emotional I got whenever the name of a member of the St. Sebastian’s crew from Saving Francesca, where it all began, popped up.

I knew as soon as this book had referenced Game of Thrones and Elvis Costello by the end of Chapter 3 that this was going to be an amazing read. I wasn’t wrong. Sometimes reading a book is like viewing a pleasing landscape painting. You enjoy it in the moment, but it’s not especially memorable. Then you read a book like The Place on Dalhousie in which the characters have been created with the detail of a Renaissance masterpiece that lingers in your mind long after you’ve had the privilege of viewing it. The latter experience is what reading a Melina Marchetta book is like—expert storytelling and unforgettable characters.

All in All: Another stellar novel from Melina Marchetta. While I think you can skate by reading this as a standalone, I highly, highly recommend reading Saving Francesca and The Piper’s Son beforehand to get the most out of The Place on Dalhousie. After reading this, I wanted to reread the previous two companion books to relive their brilliance all over again.

Review: I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman

I Have Lost My Way
By Gayle Forman
Publisher: Viking
Format: eARC
Source: First to Read

To Sum It Up: Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel are three very different people leading three very different lives, but they do have one thing in common. They have all reached turning points and know they are on the edge of something. A freak accident brings them all together, and in each other, they begin to find the intangible piece that’s been missing from each of their lives.

Review: On the rare occasion when I read contemporary, Gayle Forman is my go-to author for the genre, and she hasn’t disappointed me yet. Her latest novel, I Have Lost My Way, is another page-turner, centered around three strangers who meet by what seems like chance. Thanks to her magical storytelling, though, Forman convinces you that these three characters were absolutely meant to find each other.

I Have Lost My Way has a fairly simple premise that belies how deep the characters and the story are. I should say “stories,” because the book not only follows the development of the friendship between the three main characters—Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel—but it also explores their individual backstories. The book switches between third person omniscient and first person narration. Through the latter, we learn how the title applies to each character.

Freya is an up-and-coming singer who mysteriously loses her voice in the middle of recording her debut album. Harun is nursing a broken heart but can’t tell anyone, especially his traditional parents, because no one knows he’s gay. Nathaniel’s character poses a bit of an enigma, but as the puzzle pieces fall into place, what emerges is a story that will shatter your heart.

It’s been a while since a book captured my attention almost instantly and held it all the way to the last page. I devoted every spare second I had to reading this and was reluctant to put it down whenever real life called. Gayle Forman is so gifted at writing characters you feel compelled to read about and care about. I also loved her beautiful portrayal of the diversity that makes New York the greatest city in the world (in this native New Yorker’s not so humble opinion). If you enjoy exquisite storytelling with characters so authentic they could step right out of the pages, then this book is a must-read.

All in All: Another winning novel from Gayle Forman. Contemporary usually isn’t my cup of tea, but her books, including this one, are always compulsively readable.

ARC Review: Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

Down and Across
By Arvin Ahmadi
Publisher: Viking
Format: eARC
Source: First to Read
Publication Date: February 6, 2018

To Sum It Up: After barely starting a summer internship that he has no interest in, Scott Ferdowsi hops a bus to Washington, D.C. to seek out the Georgetown professor whose online grit quiz he took. Scott hopes to find a direction for his future, which looms uncertain as his parents try to steer him towards a career in medicine or engineering. Scott’s singular mission in the pursuit of grit morphs into a wide-open field of possibilities after meeting free-spirited college student and crossword enthusiast Fiora Buchanan on the bus to D.C. Whether or not he gets to meet Professor Cecily Mallard in person, this trip is sure to change Scott’s life.

Review: As a longtime crossword geek, I was instantly sold on reading Down and Across because of the title alone. Fellow cruciverbalists will find plenty to love about this novel, starting with the assurance that the title isn’t a mere passing reference. Crossword puzzles figure prominently throughout the book, which even namechecks New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz. That alone won this book a special place in my heart.

The plot of Down and Across centers around Scott Ferdowsi’s search for direction. He’s never been good at sticking with anything, and with high school graduation on the horizon, he doesn’t know where his future lies. Scott’s parents want him to go into medicine or engineering, but he knows these fields just aren’t for him. I could absolutely relate to Scott’s struggle to figure out what he wants to do in life; in fact, I can still relate, even as someone who’s still trying to work out this whole adulting thing.

Scott’s narrative voice was easily my favorite aspect of the novel. He’s funny, snarky, self-deprecating, and most importantly, engaging. He’s the type of guy who you just want to see catch a break for once. Scott gets knocked down a few times in Down and Across, sometimes literally, but he never wallows in self-pity. He’s a finely crafted character, as is Fiora, the college student he meets on the bus to Washington, D.C., where she attends George Washington University. Fiora is a crossword fiend, skilled not only at solving but also at constructing. She’s also prone to moments of spontaneous boldness that Scott never would have dreamed of pulling off before meeting Fiora. Their budding friendship hits some bumps along the way and isn’t perfect—just like them. I can’t say enough about how realistic the book feels, from the dialogue to the problems the characters face to the elation one feels after solving a New York Times crossword puzzle.

I rarely read contemporary, but I’m so glad that I gave Down and Across a shot. You don’t need to be a crossword fan to enjoy the book, either; Scott’s story is more than compelling enough on its own. The very clever way that the puzzles are woven into the novel, however, is sure to bring a smile to readers who also love the challenge that a blank puzzle grid poses.

All in All: What a wonderful and winning debut from Arvin Ahmadi! Down and Across was exactly my kind of contemporary novel, and featuring my all-time favorite crossword (the New York Times, of course) just melted my heart.

Review: Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse

Seven Days of You
By Cecilia Vinesse
Publisher: Poppy
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley

To Sum It Up: In seven days, Sophia is set to return to the United States, leaving the life she’s led for the past four years in Tokyo behind. Before going, however, Sophia must first face the return of Jamie Foster-Collins, a former member of her group of friends. Sophia still isn’t over the hurt he caused her before being sent to an American boarding school three years ago, but the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes that he’s not the same Jamie she remembers. With the days ticking away until Sophia’s departure, saying goodbye becomes increasingly difficult.

Review: Seven Days of You caught my attention because of comparisons to Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss, which was a lovely surprise way back when I read it about four or five years ago. The latter’s sweet romance made me, a reluctant reader of YA contemporary, more willing to try other books like it. And so I gave Seven Days of You a shot, but unfortunately, it did not work out for me.

I had a really tough time trying to find protagonist Sophia and her friends Mika and David likeable. For friends, they turn on each other quite easily, and there’s a lot of drama between them. David is acknowledged to be an arse, and yet everyone continues to hang out with him and Sophia continues to crush on him. The only OK character for me was Jamie, who was part of the group before his parents sent him to a boarding school back in the United States and whose return to Tokyo at the beginning of the novel sends Sophia into a tizzy. She’s still not over an incident that happened right before he left three years ago, and while I could understand why she was upset with him initially, I didn’t feel the situation warranted the amount of time she spent stewing over it. I actually expected the misdeed to be much worse considering how much Sophia went on about it. On top of that, I couldn’t help thinking that there was some truth in what Jamie had said to set Sophia off.

Sophia was not an easy character for me to scrape together much sympathy for. She’s very woe-is-me, and I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly pity someone who’s lived not once but twice in Japan and has been to Paris. I also found her condescending and judgy; I especially took issue with her rather looking down on Jamie’s geekish tendencies. Sophia totally lost me here because there is nothing wrong with reading Harry Potter twenty times. Not now. Not ever.

While other readers might find the conclusion to Sophia’s character arc satisfying, her character development throughout the novel was too choppy to convince me that she had matured significantly by the end. If Seven Days of You hadn’t been a quick, short read, I’m not sure I would’ve stuck it out until the last page. I just wasn’t into the frequent melodrama between Sophia and her friends, and for me, it overshadowed everything else about the book.

All in All: Sadly, this did not measure up to the delightful Anna and the French Kiss for me, but don’t let me discourage anyone from seeing for themselves how the two books compare.

ARC Review: Cloudwish by Fiona Wood

Cloudwish
By Fiona Wood
Publisher: Poppy
Format: Print ARC
Source: Publisher
Publication Date: October 18, 2016

To Sum It Up: Vân Uoc Phan tries to fly under the radar, far, far away from the spotlight. She harbors a secret crush on Billy Gardiner, star of her school’s rowing team and totally unattainable because of the difference in their social and economic statuses. Vân Uoc is a scholarship student, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who fled their homeland to Australia, where Vân Uoc was born. Vân Uoc doesn’t believe in magic, but when her wish that Billy would like her suddenly seems to start coming true, she can’t help but wonder if magic might just be possible.

Review: I’ve wanted to read a Fiona Wood book for quite some time, and, thanks to some wish fulfillment that perfectly ties in to the plot of Cloudwish, I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of the novel. The book’s pretty cover also complements its story wonderfully, capturing the sweet, heady romance that develops between protagonist Vân Uoc Phan and her dream crush, Billy Gardiner.

This is like the zillionth time I’m saying this, but contemporary, and in particular contemporary romance, isn’t usually my thing, so for me to fall hard for that type of book, I had to have really, really, really liked it. And I really, really, really liked Cloudwish. Vân Uoc has a lovely, engaging narrative voice that is occasionally (and hilariously) self-deprecating but never self-pitying. Fiona Wood is also a prose genius, which made reading this such a delight. In her talented hands, what could have been a very formulaic story instead exudes charm, poignancy, and wit.

Vân Uoc is a richly drawn character whose personality I related to very, very much. We both try to attract as little attention to ourselves as possible and react like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights when we end up attracting it anyway. We’re also both skeptics when good things happen to us; we struggle with accepting them at face value and instead wonder when our luck will run out, which it’s bound to do. So when Vân Uoc makes a wish for her crush at school, Billy Gardiner, to like her and it starts coming true, she figures that Billy, a known prankster, is just playing a joke on her. She looks for every possible sign that the relationship that’s slowly building between them isn’t real. Thanks to Wood’s knockout writing, the build-up is simply exquisite.

The other, equally compelling side to Vân Uoc’s story is that of the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who have high hopes of their only child becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Vân Uoc, meanwhile, aspires to be an artist, something that she hides from her parents. At school, she often feels the social and economic divide between her and her classmates, a difference that a clique of mean girls constantly reminds her about. For Vân Uoc, only able to attend the elite Crowthorne Grammar thanks to a scholarship, the school’s casual clothes day is something to dread, as everyone else turns up wearing designer labels she and her family could never afford. Vân Uoc, however, isn’t the type to feel sorry for herself, making you want to root for her even more. You want her to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. You want her to see herself as the lovely person her friends see. And you absolutely want her and Billy Gardiner’s romance to be 100% for real and forever.

Fans of Jane Eyre will also adore all of the references to Charlotte Brontë’s novel and Vân Uoc’s musings on what Jane would do in a particular situation. Even if you don’t love Jane as much as Vân Uoc does, there’s still plenty to love about Vân Uoc herself and her tale here.

All in All: Cloudwish is a winning contemporary romance, and it’s completely hooked me on Fiona Wood’s writing.

Review: Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Wink Poppy Midnight
By April Genevieve Tucholke
Publisher: Dial Books
Format: Print ARC
Source: YALLFest

To Sum It Up: Wink Poppy Midnight follows the intertwined stories of three very different characters. Midnight, a sensitive and unusual young boy finds himself caught in between two very different girls. Poppy, the beautiful and very mean girl refuses to relinquish her claim on Midnight, but the strange and fairytale obsessed Wink seems to be winning him over. A haunted house in the woods will force the characters to reveal who they really are.

Review: I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I got this ARC while at YALLFest, but the important thing is that I finally got to read it! I have been in a severe book hangover since reading The Raven King, but Wink Poppy Midnight was the perfect book to help me out of the dark depths of depression. It was a quick and enjoyable read with short chapters and fluid transitions that kept the pace moving. That being said, I was able to finish it in a matter of hours. Although the book was nothing like I expected (I thought it was going to be paranormal for some strange reason) it successfully accomplished capturing the extraordinary in the ordinary. The complex characters, the fairytale-esque setting, and the shocking end worked well together to pull the reader into the world of the novel.

I love a good book with a haunted house, and Wink Poppy Midnight truly delivered. Throw in a charming farm and a wooded area and you have the perfect recipe for a place where anything can (and does) happen. While the characters are somewhat ordinary high school students, this setting is an excellent opportunity to do more extraordinary things while away from the routine normality of school.

Another thing I enjoyed about this story was the complexity of the characters. No one is truly what they seem, and I love when characters defy the expectations of the reader. I thought Wink, Poppy, and Midnight were somewhat gray characters, and I think that complexity brought the story to another level. Watching them reveal themselves to each other threw me for quite a loop. Although I did not particularly like any of the characters, I still had a lot of fun reading about them. Yes, I know how very little sense that makes, but it’s true!

Surprise endings can be a hit or miss with me. My golden rule is that above all else, the ending must fit the characters, and I was very pleased to find that this one did just that! The pace of the novel kept the reader moving quickly, so the end is even more of a jolt (but in a very good way!).

All in All: Wink Poppy Midnight was a quick and enjoyable read. It is definitely not what it appears to be, but I thought that was what made it appealing. I didn’t find anything wrong with this book, but for whatever reason this book was not able to work its way into my heart. That being said, you should really give this one a try!

Review: Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz & Kat Helgeson

Gena/Finn
By Hannah Moskowitz & Kat Helgeson
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publication Date: May 17, 2016

To Sum It Up: Genevieve “Gena” Goldman and Stephanie “Finn” Bartlett’s shared love for a TV show brings them together online. They form an instant rapport that quickly develops into friendship both online and in real life. All of the time Finn spends texting, emailing, and chatting online with Gena starts taking a toll on Finn's relationship with her steady boyfriend, Charlie, who isn’t aware of how deep Finn’s devotion to her fandom runs. When Gena desperately needs a friend by her side, though, Finn can’t turn away, even if it means not having a future with Charlie.

Review: I don’t remember the last time I read a book in a day, and a contemporary to boot. The narrative format of Gena/Finn is quite unique; the story is told through blog posts (with comments!), fanfics, texts, emails, chats, and even good old-fashioned handwritten journal entries. I’d never read a novel structured like this; I’ve read an epistolary novel or two, but Gena/Finn includes just about every form of digital communication. As a blogger, my interest was definitely piqued when I opened the book to a blog post, and once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.

The novel’s format is a winner, and perhaps because the blog posts and email/text exchanges aren’t all that long, the book is a very compulsive read. I confess that I’m usually a little skeptical of books that go out on a limb with the narrative structure because I’m afraid they’re going to end up being a gimmick that overshadows everything else. There is no such issue with Gena/Finn, and I’m really impressed with the creativity that went into telling this story in a rather unconventional fashion.

Gena is a boarding school student who’s about to graduate and attend a prestigious university. Finn is a college graduate who followed her boyfriend to California and is working jobs that help pay the bills but which don’t utilize her degree in art history. What Gena and Finn share is a hardcore love for a TV series called Up Below. Both post online about it, and that’s where they meet. They click immediately, united by their passion for their fandom. I completely understood the instant connection; it’s the same thrill I feel every time another book blogger says, “Hey! I LOVED that book, too!” There’s something very comforting in knowing that there’s another person out there in the world who loves the same thing, whether it’s a book, a TV series, a movie, etc., on the same level that you do, especially when your family and friends greet you with quizzical looks whenever you fangirl over Book X or Movie Y. Yet again.

Gena/Finn features lots of hilarious snark, which I very much enjoyed. The book takes on a heavier tone later on, but the shift doesn’t feel abrupt, and the turn of the plot underlines just how strong Gena and Finn’s friendship has become. This is a cleverly written novel that grabbed my attention straightaway and didn’t let go. It was also a very relatable book; truly the greatest thing about blogging has been the friendships that have formed over the past few years. There’s quite a bit of resonance to be found within the pages of this book for anyone who’s part of an online community, as well as a poignant story told in a very unique way.

All in All: This book was a super fast read, and an enjoyable one. My inner nerd especially loved all of the details that went into the book’s formatting, like the vertical scroll bar graphics on the edges of each page that accurately marked your progress in the book. Clever!

Review: Whatever Life Throws at You by Julie Cross

Whatever Life Throws at You
By Julie Cross
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: When Annie Lucas’s father accepts a job as pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals, they uproot from Arizona to Missouri. Not only does Annie find herself in a new city and a new school, but thanks to her dad’s new position, she’s in the frequent company of Royals rookie pitcher Jason Brody. Brody has the potential to be a pitching ace if he can overcome the bad reputation that’s followed him to the majors, one that will only be given credence if he and Annie get too involved.

Review: Whatever Life Throws at You falls outside of my typical reading fare as both a contemporary and a straight up romance, but it also has . . . BASEBALL. I love baseball! Lifelong New York Yankees fan here! Although the Yankees are referenced a couple of times in the novel, it’s the Kansas City Royals who are the featured team here. But still: BASEBALL!

I bought Whatever Life Throws at You almost a year ago, with the intention of reading it before the 2015 baseball season ended. That didn’t happen. We are, however, just in time for the start of the 2016 season! Even more coincidentally, the Royals are the current reigning World Series champs. So this turned out to be a pretty good moment to finally dust this off my Kindle shelf, coupled with just feeling like reading something different.

While we’re talking baseball, I’ll mention that you don’t need to know the ins and outs of the game to read this. The sweet, slow-burning relationship between protagonist Annie and Royals hotshot rookie pitcher Jason Brody is the book’s centerpiece. As a baseball fan, I really liked how the sport was worked into the novel, and I got very sentimental at one point when the Royals’ manager and close friend of Annie’s father reminisces about the Yankees’ 1995 season. It was a lovely trip back in time for me, too. I did think that a few elements of the game were stretched to suit the story, like Brody batting in a game against another team in the American League, which uses the designated hitter. I know I sound nitpicky and it probably won’t matter to most readers; I just happen to go full geek over things I’m passionate about, baseball being one of them.

I loved that Annie and Brody’s romance took its time reaching that point—not a whiff of insta-love to be found in this book. There’s also zero pressure from either side to take what begins as friendship to a level that the other isn’t comfortable with. The progression develops at a really wonderful pace; I’m quite impressed with how the romance was written.

Something that I wasn’t so keen on was the way Annie came across judgy at times. Brody’s reputation as a guy with a troubled past precedes him, but even after getting to know him better, Annie is still prone to jumping to the conclusion that Brody is living it up as a 19-year-old bachelor who’s just come into a sizeable payday. The book also feels a bit angsty when things start getting serious between Annie and Brody and both fear her father’s reaction if he finds out about them. I mean, I understand that every story needs a conflict and this is a significant one, especially since Annie is extremely close to her dad and he’s become a mentor to Brody, even outside of baseball. But, I don’t know, all the talk about how the long term wasn’t going to work out because Annie’s dad wouldn’t approve and the fact that Annie was still in high school while Brody was an adult got to me somewhat.

In the end, though, the truly irresistible romance made this an overall enjoyable read. And now please bear with me as I indulge in some bad baseball puns to close this review: the book as a whole is a solid triple; the romance between Annie and Brody: a bona fide grand slam homerun.

All in All: I probably wouldn’t have picked this up had it not been for the baseball, but I’m glad I did. I don’t think non-baseball fans needs to worry about being overwhelmed by the game’s lingo. Just sit back and enjoy watching the romance bloom.

Review: Just One Night by Gayle Forman

* This review contains spoilers for Just One Day and Just One Year.

Just One Night (Just One Day #2.5)
By Gayle Forman
Publisher: Viking
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: After a year apart, Allyson and Willem are reunited at last. They fill each other in on everything that’s happened since they last saw each other in Paris, and to the surprise of both, they narrowly missed meeting again. But they’re together now, and neither plans to say goodbye this time.

Review: I considered skipping writing a review for Just One Night since it’s on the short side, but the completist in me demanded that I see the reviews for this series through to the end. And so here goes a review that’s short and sweet, just like Just One Night.

Although I was okay with the ending of Just One Year, I wasn’t going to complain about the existence of a continuation of Allyson and Willem’s story. Just One Night is like an extended epilogue; we find out what happens immediately after Allyson turns up on Willem’s doorstep in Amsterdam.

And what a lovely reunion it is. These two characters have traveled the world to find each other and to find themselves as individuals, and now here’s their well-deserved happily-ever-after. Just One Night marks a departure from the first person narration of the novels and is instead written in third person omniscient. Not only do we glimpse into the minds of Allyson and Willem, but occasionally we also view them through the eyes of their friends who, in one way or another, have all played a role in bringing them together.

Often I find these eBook-only short stories/novellas give or take, but this one was more than worth 99 pennies. Just One Night provides the perfect amount of closure to Allyson and Willem’s tale, and if you rooted for them all along, you won’t want to pass on this.

All in All: There’s no reason not to check this out, really. I was so thrilled when I found out that there was a bit more to this epic romance, and I was not let down in the least.

Review: Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Just One Year (Just One Day #2)
By Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Willem only got to spend one day in Paris with Lulu, a girl he met first during a Shakespeare performance and then again on a train headed for London, but that single day has left an indelible mark on him. Lulu is gone, presumably back home to the United States, and Willem has almost no way of tracking her down, even though he does try. He attempts to move on and finally returns home to Amsterdam after two years of nonstop traveling, but Amsterdam doesn’t feel much like home anymore. Everything keeps circling back to Lulu and the day that Willem felt more alive than he had in a long time. Even if he never sees her again, which seems likely, he’ll always feel connected to her and remember the impact she's had on his life.

Review: Sometimes you just need a feel-good read, and the double shot of Just One Day and Just One Year has been exactly that. The journey isn’t all sunshine and smiles for sure, but by the end of both novels, there’s an irrepressible sense that if things are meant to be, they’ll find a way of happening, no matter how high the odds are stacked.

Yet again, Gayle Forman has worked her magic and made me love contemporary. Just One Year is billed as a companion to Just One Day, and that is an apt description. Just One Year is told from Willem’s perspective this time and picks up with explaining why he failed to return to the Parisian art squat—and to a waiting Allyson, whom he only knows as Lulu. Forman employed a similar narrator swap with If I Stay and Where She Went, and once more, it’s put to effective use. But whereas Adam’s story in Where She Went begins a few years after Mia’s in If I Stay, Willem’s arc runs concurrently with Allyson’s in Just One Day. I highly recommend reading these two books back-to-back; as I read Just One Year, I often thought back to where Allyson was at different points on the shared timeline. It was particularly poignant to see how they could be thousands of miles apart, sometimes on opposite ends of the world, yet experiencing the same emotions.

Willem’s backstory gets filled in here, and what emerges is a portrait of a lost young man, still strongly feeling the loss of his father and unable to find comfort from his mother, with whom he’s always had a distant relationship. But, just as that one day in Paris together forever changed Allyson, so too has it altered the course of Willem’s life. Slowly he begins to discover direction, where previously there had been none. I especially loved watching him reconnect with some old friends in Amsterdam; they even help him search for Lulu, despite having so little information at hand. As the novel goes on, Willem’s circle of friends and family widens, and he starts to realize that he’s not so alone.

As they did in Just One Day, Shakespeare’s works play a significant role here. I’ve always been more of a tragedy aficionado, but reading Just One Day and Just One Year has definitely piqued my interest in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Even without being familiar with the latter, the lines that are quoted here just feel so fitting; that’s how powerfully this story is conveyed on its own. I’d love to reread both books someday after reading As You Like It; I have a very good feeling that I’ll only love the two more than I already do.

All in All: This is an absolute must-read if you read Just One Day, and again, I highly recommend reading the books one after the other if possible. Although Allyson’s story resonated more with me just because we share quite a few personality traits, I still found Willem’s tale compelling and brilliantly told. Gayle Forman has such a knack for writing about love but without making it saccharine, and that is why I keep returning to her novels whenever I need a good dose of contemporary.

Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Just One Day (Just One Day #1)
By Gayle Forman
Publisher: Dutton Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: While on a European tour the summer before beginning her freshman year of college, Allyson Healey meets Willem, an actor with a roving Shakespearean performance troupe. After a second chance encounter on board a London-bound train, it seems that fate keeps putting the two in each other’s path. And so, on an uncharacteristic whim, Allyson’s journey takes a detour to Paris with Willem. But after spending an unforgettable day together in the city, Willem disappears. Shattered, Allyson returns home and tries to move on and maybe become more of the daring person she was that day in Paris.

Review: Still dealing with a vicious book hangover from Queen of Shadows, I felt the need to totally change gears with my next read. Just One Day called out to me from the shelf, and at long last, I picked it up.

I loved Gayle Forman’s If I Stay and Where She Went, plus the short story she contributed to the holiday-themed anthology My True Love Gave to Me, so I was very excited for Just One Day. Once again, Forman’s characters, storytelling, and this time, international locales, reminded me why she’s my go-to author for contemporary, a genre that I often struggle with.

I don’t think I’ve ever connected with a protagonist in a contemporary novel as much as I did with Allyson. Like her, I find it difficult to step outside of my comfort zone and would rather retreat to its safety than give in to impulse and the unknown. I also completely understand the compulsion to please everyone, even when it comes at the expense of your own goals and desires. Allyson must further deal with a micromanager for a mother; there is no aspect of Allyson’s life that her mother doesn’t involve herself in. All of these factors create the impression of a life that’s at the very least stifled, but Allyson gets her chance to break out and inhabit a different person once she meets Willem.

About the first third of the book centers around Allyson and Willem’s chance meeting in Stratford-upon-Avon followed by their whirlwind day in Paris. Their instant chemistry is astronomical and makes a very convincing case for the existence of soul mates. This is a huge concession coming from a skeptic like me. The beginning of Allyson and Willem’s story is the stuff that swoons are made of—exhilarating and sweet and for Allyson, liberating. With Willem, she’s Lulu, the person she might have dreamed of being but would never dare to in real life. Their connection is forged so strongly that it’s easy to forget that they’ve just met, making Willem’s disappearance once that single day draws to a close all the more devastating.

When the novel resumes, Allyson is at college and having an extremely hard time moving past what happened in Paris. She’s doing poorly in school and keeps to herself. Her climb out of a deep depression is slow and arduous, but progress is steadily made. Along the way, Allyson learns what it means for her to be Allyson and not the Allyson everyone else, especially her mother, wants her to be. Shakespeare’s plays figure prominently in Allyson’s road to figuring out who she is, and I absolutely loved how Forman interweaved them throughout the novel.

I also love when books carry you away to places you’ve never been, in this case, Paris for me. Just One Day paints a vivid tableau of the City of Light that completely immerses you; it’s like you’re right there. I’ve always wanted to visit Paris, but now more than ever after reading this book.

This was such a fantastic, engrossing read—thought-provoking, poignant, and wonderfully developed. It’s always a little extra satisfying whenever a contemporary read works out for me, as this one did. I can’t wait to dive into the companion novel, Just One Year because I must know the rest of Allyson and Willem’s story.

All in All: I identified on so many levels with Allyson’s personality, so Just One Day turned out to be quite a personal read for me. Even if I hadn’t felt drawn to Allyson’s character from the start, though, I think I still would have gotten as much out of the novel because it’s so moving and so beautifully written.

Review: Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss #3)
By Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Isla Martin never thought that the crush she’s had on Josh Wasserstein since their freshman year at the School of America in Paris would develop into anything more than that. Running into Josh in New York during summer break, though, marks the start of something for both of them that continues when they return to Paris for the school year. Soon Isla is living a dream, but with graduation looming for her and Josh, the two must figure out a way to stay together.

Review: Anna and the French Kiss was one of the first YA contemporary romances I read shortly after I’d begun reading in earnest again as an adult. I remember being pleasantly surprised by how it told a sweet story that had substance to it. There’s a fine line between sweet and cloying, and with Isla and the Happily Ever After, Stephanie Perkins delivers another winning novel that warms your heart without getting sappy or melodramatic whenever the characters face conflict.

Two things that I’ve especially loved about Anna, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and now Isla are the main characters’ interesting backstories and how engaging they are as narrators. They also strike an excellent balance between being characters you can’t help but root for and being realistically flawed. Even as some of Isla’s actions made me go, “No, no, no!” I couldn’t fault her for them because I completely understood her reasoning behind them. It’s just that I so badly wanted to see Isla’s fairytale romance with Josh reach an equally fairytale ending that it pained me whenever insecurity got the better of her.

I think “fairytale romance” is an apt description of Isla and Josh’s relationship. It’s epic and sweeping and swoon-worthy. It’s about falling totally, absolutely, madly in love. It’s not fleeting teenage infatuation, either; what Isla and Josh have is the real deal, complete with the very real problem of what happens to them when they graduate high school. Josh is ready to take his drawing talents further, but Isla is unsure of what career path she wants to pursue. Perkins wields an expert touch with her writing whenever her novels take on a more serious tone, and I think that’s what sets her books apart from other YA contemporary romances. They’re just believable, from the characters to the story lines. Even contemporary fiction is, well, inherently fictional, but some books succeed better than others at immersing you so thoroughly in the story that at times you forget that you’re reading a work of fiction. Isla is that kind of book.

Isla’s descriptions of Paris, Barcelona, and my beloved New York were absolutely beautiful and just one more reason to love this novel. Love stories don’t always agree with this stony heart, but all three of Stephanie Perkins’s novels have been notable exceptions to that.

All in All: The charming story that began with Anna and the French Kiss comes full circle in this equally sweet conclusion.

Review: The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

The Piper’s Son
By Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Tom Mackee’s family fractured after the death of his uncle, and Tom himself is at a low point. He’s exhausted his friends’ patience after their repeated attempts to help him have been to no avail. His family members don’t have much support to offer him, either, as they’re all dealing with various issues in their own lives. So it’s up to Tom to pull himself together—if that’s what he wants.

Review: The Piper’s Son is unique in a couple of ways. First, it’s not quite a sequel to Saving Francesca, although characters from the latter make appearances. The Piper’s Son takes place five years after Saving Francesca and focuses not on Francesca Spinelli this time but on one of her friends, Thomas Mackee.

Tom is 21, which I suppose technically makes him a few years older than the typical YA protagonist, but then, I think Melina Marchetta’s novels transcend intended audience age groups anyway. Another intriguing aspect of The Piper’s Son is the narration, which occasionally shifts from Tom’s POV to that of his 42-year-old aunt, Georgie (although the entire novel is written in the third person). If you asked me to nearly categorize this book, I couldn’t, and that’s a huge part of what makes it stand out.

I will admit to not immediately finding the love for The Piper’s Son that I have for some of Marchetta’s other books, including Saving Francesca. It’s hard to say why, too, other than I just wasn’t feeling it for a while. It’s not that Tom, Georgie, and the rest of the Finch-Mackee clan, whose complicated relationships form the heart of the novel, aren’t compelling. Marchetta digs deep into this family, good and bad times alike, and it’s an intricate, mesmerizing portrait painted with the finest detail. When it comes to breathing life into the characters on a page, Marchetta is in a class by herself.

Returning to the question of why this book needed some time to grow on me, well, I’m still working that out. I mean, I couldn’t wait to start it after finishing the superb Saving Francesca. I don’t know. But, The Piper’s Son did grow on me. I started finding myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, a sure sign that it had made quite the impression on me. Would Tom ever forgive his father for leaving him? Would Georgie ever forgive the father of her unborn child from breaking her heart years before? Would Tom ever see Tara Finke, another figure from his St. Sebastian’s days, again? I developed an investment in these characters that pitted my brain, which needed to know how the book ended, against my eyelids, which very badly wanted to close from exhaustion. (My brain also said that Will Trombal, one of my favorite characters from Saving Francesca, might very well be in those last 60 pages; I managed to stay awake.)

In the end, I think all this book needed was a little patience from me to allow it to tell its story at its own pace. And it turned out to be a powerful story, one that I won’t be forgetting soon, especially since I’ve officially run out of Melina Marchetta books to read. A sad day, indeed.

All in All: Another brilliant character study from Melina Marchetta. I found it slightly slow moving compared to Saving Francesca, but the novel’s final impression is well worth any wait. I also highly recommend reading Saving Francesca first to maximize your experience reading The Piper’s Son.

Review: Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Saving Francesca
By Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Francesca Spinelli wishes that she didn’t have to attend St. Sebastian’s, a former all-boys school where Francesca is completely without her friends from her old school. Life becomes even more tumultuous for Francesca when her mother falls into a severe depression and is unable to even get out of bed. It’s school that becomes Francesca’s unlikely haven, as friendships gradually develop between her and some of her St. Sebastian’s classmates.

Review: Add Saving Francesca to the ever-growing list of books I should have read much, much sooner. Melina Marchetta is only one of my favorite authors, and here I allowed one of her works to languish on my bookshelf for nigh on two years. How did that even happen?!

With every Melina Marchetta novel I read, the more awestruck I am by her writing. Contemporary can be a tough genre for me sometimes, but not with Marchetta’s books. I think it’s a combination of her realistic characters and expertly crafted storytelling. Marchetta’s dialogue is also razor sharp, both in terms of wit and sounding natural, not labored. There’s a magic to her prose that I just adore, and I can’t articulate my love for it any better than that.

How could I not love a book that references Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy, Les Misérables the musical, and Macbeth? But I also loved Saving Francesca because it’s funny, sad, sweet, and resonant. My heart broke for Francesca as her outspoken mother, Mia, fell into a deep depression that left the rest of the family at a loss to help her. At the same time, my heart warmed to see Francesca find friendship among a group of individuals who, at the beginning of the book, you don’t quite picture ever hanging out together. There’s the Marchetta magic at work yet again: not only does she bring these characters together, but she does it effortlessly and makes you fall in love with them and their little quirks, too.

At a bit less than 250 pages, Saving Francesca is quick read, but that’s also because it’s such an engrossing one. Don’t let its size mislead you, either; there’s a substantial story, as well as substantial characters, packed into those pages. It’s not often that I find myself wholeheartedly recommending contemporary novels, but there’s so much to love about this one. Like . . . everything.

All in All: I savored every page of this book, and it still ended way too quickly!

Review: This Is Sarah by Ally Malinenko

This Is Sarah
By Ally Malinenko
Publisher: BookFish Books
Format: eBook
Source: Author

To Sum It Up: Colin Leventhal has been fighting to hold his life together since the night his girlfriend, Sarah Evans, vanished. Everyone keeps telling him that he needs to accept that Sarah is gone and he has to move on with his life, but Colin clings to a thread of hope that she’s still alive. Meanwhile, right next door to Colin, Sarah’s younger sister, Claire, is also dealing with the loss of Sarah, mostly on her own because her parents have retreated into their own grief.

Review: Sometimes you read the blurb for a book and you just know that it’s going to be a really, really good read. My instincts were 100% on the mark with This Is Sarah. It’s the type of novel your eyes and mind want to devour in a single sitting, which is totally feasible. Don’t let the book’s compact size, however, fool you into thinking that it’s short on emotional punch because by the time I finished reading it, my heart had been thoroughly hammered. And then some.

Sarah Evans is the character who lends her name to the book’s title, and the impact of her disappearance on her boyfriend, Colin Leventhal, and younger sister, Claire, drives the novel. Both Colin and Claire narrate the story, and it’s through their eyes that you learn who Sarah was, the Sarah they loved and the Sarah who’s left a chasm in their hearts and lives that’s seemingly impossible to fill. Believe me when I say your own heart will break over and over again for the searing loss that Colin and Claire feel and what they experience in the aftermath of Sarah going missing. Claire practically becomes invisible to her parents, who are facing their own difficulties coping with the tragedy that has struck their family and so are not in an ideal position to offer comfort to their remaining child.

As for Colin, his chapters are utterly, utterly, utterly gut-wrenching. That is not an exaggeration. His life has fractured into a billion pieces. Sarah was his world, and the absolutely desperate hope that he has that she’s alive is his only oxygen. His pain is so brutal and raw that it’s not far into the novel before you, too, hope Sarah is okay, if only to see Colin stop hurting so much. This is a young man with his whole life ahead of him who should be looking forward to going to college instead of calling his missing girlfriend’s phone multiple times a day to hear her voicemail greeting. Almost everyone around Colin—his parents, his friends—thinks he’s headed for a breakdown, if he’s not there already. As you read, you understand where their alarm comes from, yet you also see where the things he does make sense to him in his state of mind. Colin is a meticulously crafted character, as are all of the characters, and so real that it’s very easy to forget he exists in the pages of a book.

This is one of the most realistic contemporary YA novels I’ve read, and that’s because of the writing. The prose in this book—it’s beautiful, bordering on poetic. Not a single word is extraneous. As somber as the tone of the book is, it never feels overwrought or cloying. Every line of dialogue sounds like it would be spoken by an actual person. In keeping with its realism, This Is Sarah doesn’t offer any easy answers, and that’s just another reason why I loved it, even as it broke the vital organ that’s responsible for that particular emotion.

All in All: Just perfect. That is all.