AGAIN, BUT BETTER By Christine Riccio

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

AGAIN, BUT BETTER By Christine RiccioAgain, but Better by Christine Riccio
Published by Wednesday Books on 5/7/19
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 377
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal -- but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change -- there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic - the possibilities are endless.

Short and Sweet Review

Shane is about to do a semester abroad in London. Shane is excited for a new start, back home she’s premed which makes her parents happy but here in London she’s about to pursue her passion for writing. Shane is about to do things she hasn’t before like make friends, go on adventures, and maybe find romance. But this new Shane in London is going to have to deal with everything she’s been trying to hide about what her life is really like back home. Things go awry but somehow Shane gets a second chance to try things again and make them better.

We first meet Shane in 2011 on her way to London. She basically lied to her parents about there being a premed track abroad but what’s really happening is Shane is going to take classes and get an internship at a magazine. We meet Shanes roommates and she spends the most time with Babe and Pilot. They go on a lot of trips together and are having the time of their lives. Pilot is Shanes romantic interest and we can tell that they like each other but Pilot actually has a girlfriend so that doesn’t work out. When Shanes parents find out she’s been lying she goes back to New York without the job she really wants, without the boy, and ultimately with unfinished business. We meet Shane again in 2017 and she realizes that she’s not happy and basically wants a do over. She finds Pilot and somehow they’re transported back to 2011 to try everything again. Although those two are happy Shane realizes that she’s been slacking with her internship and starts to rethink things again.

I did like the first half of the book and found myself connecting with Shane and the position she’s in because college is hard especially when you’re going for someone else’s dream instead of your own. When we meet Shane again she kind of forces Pilot to go on this endeavor with her and at first he’s pretty upset but they both realize this is a chance to see where things kind have gone. I think what annoyed me about this is when Shane realizes she’s not focusing enough on the internship she kind of ghosts Pilot. Anyway things do get better in a way, and we can see how things changed from the first time in London to the second. I will say Shanes parents were toxic and I just couldn’t stand them not understanding her position. So romance was good, adventures and roommates were also good. Shane did learn a lot about herself during this time and for that I was happy, but I do think she needed to think things out a bit better.

Overall, this book was good. I did prefer the first half to the second I do think the redeeming quality the second half had was the ending. I would recommend this book its a good representation of coming of age and truly living life for yourself and not those around you.

WE’RE NEVER GETTING HOME By Tracy Badua

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

WE’RE NEVER GETTING HOME By Tracy BaduaWe're Never Getting Home by Tracy Badua
Published by Quill Tree Books on 4/16/24
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 316
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Jana Rubio and her best friend, Maddy Parsons, have an epic senior year finale queued up: catching their favorite band at the Orchards, an outdoor music festival a two-hour drive away. When a blowup over Maddy’s time-sucking boyfriend exposes a rift that may have already been growing between them, Jana calls off their joint trip and gets a lift to the festival from her church friend Nathan…only to realize Maddy and her boyfriend are along for the ride, too.

All Jana wants is to enjoy the concert and get home as soon as possible. But then Nathan loses his car keys crowd-surfing, and it’s up to Jana and Maddy to find them. As they navigate stolen phones and missing friends, scale Ferris wheels and crash parties, the two of them are forced to reckon with the biggest obstacle of all: repairing their friendship.

Will Jana and Maddy find their way home—and also back to each other?

Short and Sweet Review

Jana and her best friend Maddy are about to see their favorite band at an outdoor music festival two hours away. After the two have a fight Jana has to find another ride to the show, and she ends up asking Nathan a friend from church. Funny enough Maddy and her boyfriend Tyler are also carpooling with Nathan. At this point Jana just wants to go to the concert and go home right after, but after Nathan loses the car keys it’s chaos. Jana and Maddy have to resolve their issues and also look for the keys so that Jana can get home.

Jana and Maddy have been friends since elementary school and just recently Maddy started dating Tyler and Jana feels left out which is the reason for their fight. I get where both girls are coming from and I don’t blame Maddy for the fight in her mind she was trying to include Jana but whenever he was brought up Jana would make excuses to not hangout. I will say that things that Jana perceived weren’t true but she wanted them to be and she came across as a victim. Anyway Nathan his younger brother Everett along with Maddy, Tyler, and Jana head to the festival. It doesn’t take long for Nathan to lose the keys after crowd surfing and that’s when things start to go downhill for Jana. After the festival Jana promised to pick up her dad at a work conference and she feels like she’s letting her parents down so she’s stressed and also determined to find those keys. I think the pressure that Jana feels to make her parents happy shapes her to be the person she is. I found Jana to be someone who wanted to be perfect and was afraid to step one foot out of line but also it was hard for her because she had a friend like Maddy who was able to be a little more carefree. Over the course of the book we see the group try to find the keys and also a whole bunch of shenanigans like Nathan hurting his knee, Jana’s phone being stolen and crashing parties, but the biggest thing is resolving her friendship with Maddy. I feel like Jana did go through some character development but I thought she could have grown some more. The ending wasn’t my favorite mainly because somethings happened so late in the book it felt like the resolution was just solved way too fast.

Overall, I liked the premise of this book and the festival was a fun setting. I do like that Jana ended up learning a lot about herself during the course of the book. I will say that I enjoyed Maddy a lot and I think Jana should have spent more time trying to see things from her perspective. It was a good book and a lot of important lessons were learned.

FOUR LETTER WORD By Gretchen McNeil

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

FOUR LETTER WORD By Gretchen McNeilFour Letter Word by Gretchen McNeil
Published by Disney-Hyperion on 3/5/24
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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For most of her life, Izzy has been looking forward to fulfilling her mother’s dream of studying abroad in Italy. Going into her senior year, Izzy is counting down the days until she can leave her humdrum life behind, until Alberto, a handsome and mysterious Italian exchange student shows up for his stay with her family. Now life in her hometown doesn’t seem so drab, as Izzy, and everyone else, is immediately charmed by Alberto and his irresistible accent.
But something about Alberto isn’t quite…right. As an avid true crime fan, Izzy has been following a serial killer case in San Francisco and the murderer, whose description bears a passing resemblance to the Italian exchange student living in her house, seems to have made his way north. As Izzy pays closer attention to Alberto—his actions, his temper—she finds more and more holes in his story that he has trouble explaining away.
When a local girl is murdered, Izzy thinks Alberto might not be who he seems. Worse, a series of “accidents” seem to target Izzy herself. In a race against the clock, Izzy must convince anyone that Alberto could be a notorious killer before another girl ends up dead.

Short and Sweet Review

Izzy has wanted to follow her mothers dream of living in Italy and now that it’s her senior year she’s counting down the days until she can leave. When Alberto an Italian exchange student comes for his stay with Izzy’s family things in town don’t seem so dull anymore. Alberto is able to charm everyone around him with his Italian accent and curiosity but Izzy feels that something is off with him. Izzy have been following a crime case about a serial killer in San Fransico and she thinks it may be Alberto. When a girl is murdered Izzy knows she needs to convince everyone around her about who Alberto really is before someone else ends up dead.

Let me start by saying I usually love McNeils books but this one was not good, in the slightest. I gave it a rating of 2 and I think that was being generous. Izzy and her family are dysfunctional, her dad is around but not really there and her mom has anger issues and is taking them out on people around her. The only thing that seems to make her mom happy is Albertos pressence. Izzy has a horrible best friend Peyton who has a boyfriend but likes to flirt with Alberto, and this ends up causing a lot of trouble. Anyway we see how Peyton doesn’t like to take the blame for her actions and she’s also keeping a big secret from Izzy. I won’t ruin it for you guys but Peyton would not be my friend after the way she acted in this book. Anyway someone ends up murdered and the gears in Izzy’s head start turning and then someone attempts to kill her multiple times. The only person who believes Izzy is Jake and she spent most of the book trying to avoid him because she thought he was trying to break things off with her. I think Izzy was a hard character to root for and honestly everything about this book is a mess. The characters are just off and its called four letter word because the mom doesn’t like four letter cuss words. Oh and the ending and what the mom does is just crazy like she definitely needed to be in a psych ward.

The premise of this book sounds great, a thiller/mystery with an italian exchange student who might also be a serial killer sounds like it’ll be intriguing. Instead I got a book full of dysfunctional characters some who just had blinders on and their heads in the clouds. It was also very predictable. I think this book would have been better off it was just Izzy facing off with Alberto and she didn’t have all her crazy family members and friends get in the way. This book is a prime example of if your child is telling you something you should believe them but the only people who believed Izzy were Jake and the police. As hard as this is for me to say this I think this is a book that should be skipped.

ICARUS By K. Ancrum

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

ICARUS By K. AncrumIcarus by K. Ancrum
Published by HarperTeen on 3/26/24
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Mythology, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target in revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught.

Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules.

As reluctance and distrust become closeness and something more, they uncover the gilded cage that has trapped both their families for years. One Icarus is determined to escape. But his father’s thirst for revenge shows no sign of fading, and soon it may force Icarus to choose: the escape he’s dreamed of, or the boy he’s come to love. Reaching for both could be his greatest triumph—or it could be his downfall.

Short and Sweet Review

Icarus is a thief and he and his father work together to steal valuable things from Mr. Black and replace them with forgeries. Mr. Black has been the target because of his involvement in the death of Icarus’s mother. To avoid being caught Icarus has to follow his father’s strict rules and that mainly leaves Icarus very isolated. One night while Icarus is in Mr. Blacks house he runs into Helios the son of Mr. Black who is under house arrest and like Icarus is pretty isolated and just wants a friend. This new friendship puts both boys in danger but Icarus is willing to risk it all.

Icarus is our main character and he tries to be a normal kid by day and by night he’s a thief. We see Icarus struggle with balancing these two things and it’s interesting when people at school start to notice. I will say one of the rules his father gave him is not to get close to people so Icarus doesn’t really know what its like to have friends which is why I appreciated when Luca and Celestina became his friend and taught him the meaning of friendship. Icarus is good at a lot of things but he does lack social skills which I will blame on the fact that he isn’t really allowed to have social time. When we meet Helios we see he’s currently being treated like a prisoner in his father’s house so even though he knows Icarus is stealing from his father he welcomes his company. We see Icarus risk his safety to spend more time with Helios and they begin to form a bond. I did like their relationship and how they cared about each other, I do kind of think they trauma bonded. The more time Icarus and Helios spend together they realize that their families hatred for each other is what led them to this very moment. Icarus wants to break the cycle and I liked that he was brave enough to stand up to his father to make a change for him and Helios.

Overall, this book was beautifully written, and the characters were ones you could connect to and want to see a happy ending for. I would recommend this book!

WITH A LITTLE LUCK By Marissa Meyer

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

WITH A LITTLE LUCK By Marissa MeyerWith a Little Luck by Marissa Meyer
Series: Fortuna Beach #2
Published by Feiwel & Friends on 2/13/24
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy & Magic, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 363
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw comics, host D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck.

Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His art is being published. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he wins a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he can use to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school.

But how long can Jude’s good fortune last? And why does he find himself thinking about Ari, his best friend since forever? If Jude has been dreaming of the wrong girl this whole time, does that mean he's doomed to be unlucky in love forever?

Short and Sweet Review

Jude is okay with staying low-key, he wants to play dungeon and dragons with his friends and draw comics when he has the time, and work at his parents record shop. One day Jude finds a 20 sided dice and he finds himself with a lot of luck. Almost everything Jude has wanted is now in reach and he uses his new found luck to the best of his ability but he doesn’t think about what will happen when his luck runs out.

With a Little Luck is a companion novel to Instant Karma. I didn’t read Instant Karma before reading this book and I don’t think you have to for this one to make sense, but I did realize characters from that book are in this one. Jude is our main character and I feel like he likes to keep a low profile one of those people who’s super nice but likes to stay within his friend group. Judes best friend is Ari and she’s a musician and they spend a lot of time together. When Jude begins to get lucky he decides to ask out Maya a girl he’s had a crush on for a while and it was okay but from the start you could tell that these two were better off as friends. I do think that Jude went for Maya instead of going with his gut and asking out Ari. Anyway we see Jude use his luck to get his artwork published, win concert tickets, and get Ari into a songwriting competition. There’s a lot of things I liked about this book, like seeing Ari’s song lyrics, the D&D game nights, and also seeing Judes artwork.

With a Little Luck, was a cute book and I enjoyed it. I did like Jude as a character and seeing him with all the luck, he didn’t always use it for himself he did think of others. I also liked seeing the romance between Jude and Ari even if it took a while for both of them to realize that they were meant for each other. Overall, this was a fun contemporary romance and I would recommend it!

UNDER THIS RED ROCK By Mindy McGinnis

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

UNDER THIS RED ROCK By Mindy McGinnisUnder This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 3/19/24
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 331
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Neely’s monsters don’t always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she’s in trouble. With a history of mental illness in her family and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. There . . . she meets Mila. Mila is everything Neely isn’t—beautiful, strong, and confident. As the two become closer, Neely’s innocent crush grows into something more. When a midnight staff party exposes Neely to drugs, she follows Mila’s lead . . . only to have her hallucinations escalate.

When Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her monsters now out in the open and her grip on reality slipping, Neely must figure out who killed Mila . . . and face the possibility that it might have been her.

Short and Sweet Review

Neely has monsters and they don’t always follow her rules. There’s a history of mental illness in her family and she recently lost her older brother Lance to suicide. Neely decides to get a first job where her monsters won’t follow her, so she becomes a tour guide at the caverns. At the caverns she meets Mila who seems to understand her and give her a chance. When the employees have a staff party to get to know each other. Neely ends up trying drugs and her hallucinations seem to go from 0-100. When the staff comes back after the weekend Mila is found dead and Neely has no idea what happened or if she was even the cause of it.

Let me start by saying mental health is really important and our main character Neely is suffering from something that I can’t diagnose but I can tell you guys that she hears multiple different voices in her head, from the girl under her bed to the guy in her closet. It was interesting to see how Neely would deal with this and honestly she would just go with it and have conversations with these voices so she looked crazy to everyone around her especially her coworkers. I think because its a small town and people knew about her brothers suicide it didn’t make it any better that she would be in public having conversations with herself and doing different voices. Neely lives with her grandparents and they know something isn’t quite right with her but I wish they would have gotten her help sooner. I also think because Neely has been so isolated she doesn’t have great social skills so when she does start asking people questions about Mila’s murder she’s not so tactful. The setting of the caverns were pretty cool and I liked that Neely was somewhat okay while she was there. It’s there that she meets Mila and eventually gets a crush on her. I think on Neely’s side it was more of a crush and in her head it could go places but Mila really just saw their interactions as friendship. When Mila dies Neely kind of spirals and I think people take the fact that there’s something wrong with her to pin the murder on her. I think because of this we have a narrator we don’t know if we could trust or not which I liked because we have to think about what could have happened in the caverns that night.

Under This Red Rock, was a great book. I liked McGinnis’s portrayal of mental health and the plot of this book. Neely is a character you want to root for but there’s also seeds of doubt that make you question her. I definitely recommend this book, it was a unique and a captivating read!

BAD LIKE US By Gabriella Lepore

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

BAD LIKE US By Gabriella LeporeBad Like Us by Gabriella Lepore
Published by Inkyard Press on 3/5/24
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 281
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Partying with popular classmates they barely know is not what Eva and her BFFs had in mind for their spring break. But things have been off ever since Miles' academic career took a turn for the worse (they don't talk about it), so a trip to a private beach lodge might be exactly what they need. And Eva won’t admit it, but the chance to reconnect with Colton is worth putting up with Piper’s constant livestreams to her thousands of “besties.”

At first, it’s all sand and waves, but tensions run high when an anonymous letter shakes up an already-flailing love triangle.

When someone turns up dead, Eva can’t even trust her closest friends—but she thinks she can trust Colton. As they get closer to the truth, they uncover secrets that upend everything they thought they knew about their fellow spring breakers.

Short and Sweet Review

Eva and some of her close friends head down to a beach lodge for spring break, the only thing is, Eva doesn’t really know everyone that well its just when you’re friends with someone their friends become your acquaintances. Anyway things go well for the first few days, until tensions between a love triangle start to rise and then someone ends up dead. Eva doesn’t know who to trust but she knows she needs to figure out what happened even if it puts herself in harms way.

Eva is one of main characters and we get to read from her POV as well as Colton and Piper. There’s also six other characters in this book who are basically filler characters and in the background. There is a lot of tension within this group and you can tell not everyone is friends. Eva brought her friend Miles along and he’s currently dealing with some academic trouble that he really doesn’t want to talk about. Colton is kind of a bad boy but Eva likes him and is hoping that this time at the lodge will help them get closer together. Colton also likes Eva but after someone is found dead on the beach his main priority is looking out for his brother Danny. There really isn’t much time for romance between Eva and Colton, we see them talk and flirt but once the murder happens they focus most of their attention on that. Piper is an influencer and she livestreams any chance she gets even if she is invading everyone else’s privacy she doesn’t care. Piper used to date Danny but now she’s in a relationship with Javi, and it’s interesting because they should not all be on vacation together, even if they’re saying there’s no hard feelings. When one of our characters ends up dead we see everyone start to turn on each other and try to come up with motives. Eva and Colton are the only ones who actually try to do some investigating. This group of teens had a lot of secrets and uncovering each one was satisfying it also gave the reader a chance to see if a character actually had motive. I enjoyed reading the police interviews and seeing how each character had a different story or if they were trying to cover for someone else. The end was okay the motive for what happened was weak, but believable, honestly people will commit murder for any reason.

Overall, this book was okay, it’s not Lepore’s strongest book but I still enjoyed it. I will say I liked the short chapters and the characters and the further I got in the book the more hooked I was. Even though I said it wasn’t the best of Lepore’s books its still worth the read!

WE GOT THE BEAT By Jenna Miller

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

WE GOT THE BEAT By Jenna MillerWe Got the Beat by Jenna Miller
Published by Quill Tree Books on 2/20/24
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 347
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Jordan Elliott is a fat, nerdy lesbian and the first junior to be named editor in chief of the school newspaper. Okay, that last part hasn’t happened yet, but it will. It’s positive thinking that has gotten Jordan this far. Ever since Mackenzie West, her friend-turned-enemy, humiliated her at the start of freshman year, Jordan has thrown herself into journalism and kept her eyes trained on the future.

So it’s a total blow when Jordan discovers that she not only didn’t get the editor in chief spot, but she’s been assigned the volleyball beat instead. And who is the star and newly crowned captain of the volleyball team? Mackenzie West. But words are Jordan’s weapon, and she has some ideas about how to exact a long-awaited revenge on her nemesis. Then things get murky when forced time together has Mack and Jordan falling back into their friendship and into something more. And when Mack confesses the real reason she turned on Jordan freshman year, it has Jordan questioning everything—past, present, and future.

If Jordan lets her guard down and Mack in, will she get everything she wants, or will she be humiliated all over again?

Short and Sweet Review

It’s Jordan’s junior year and she wants to be the editor in chief of the school newspaper, but instead she gets the job of writing about the schools volleyball team. It would be a doable job if Jordan’s former friend Mackenzie wasn’t the captain of the team. Jordan and Mackenzie used to be friends until Mackenzie humiliated Jordan Freshman year for reasons she still doesn’t understand. When Jordan starts spending time with Mackenzie it feels like old times, and she eventually learns why Mackenzie did what she did which changes everything. The only thing is, Jordan doesn’t know if she can let Mackenzie back in.

We Got the Beat is a cute book. I did enjoy following Jordan’s character. She had a good support system and I liked her best friends Audrey and Isaac, I will say even though Audrey was looking out for Jordan she did overstep at times. The main reason I wanted to read this book was because I wanted to know what caused the falling out between Jordan and Mackenzie. The reveal was pretty good and made sense and I feel like Mackenzie didn’t handle it the best way but she did what she thought was best at the time. I did enjoy the little snippets of Jordan’s articles that would eventually be in the paper. I think the build up to Jordan and Mackenzies new found friendship had a lot of obstacles in the way like Jordan not completely trusting Mackenzie because of what happened in the past and Jordan choosing to believe everyone except for Mackenzie. I’m trying to avoid spoiling what happened between these two because it really makes everything come full circle in the end. The writing was good and had me looking forward to what would happen next. Honestly my only issue was Audrey, who I know had good intentions, but she should really run things past the people who are involved before just making the decisions for people.

Overall, this was a cute book and I loved Jordan and Mackenzie try to figure out how to move forward and get over what happened in the past. It’s a quick and easy read and it has two characters who may be meant to be more than just friends.

THE SOMEDAY DAUGHTER By Ellen O’Clover

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THE SOMEDAY DAUGHTER By Ellen O’CloverThe Someday Daughter by Ellen O'Clover
Published by HarperTeen on 2/20/24
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 335
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Audrey St. Vrain has grown up in the shadow of someone who doesn’t actually exist. Before she was born, her mother, Camilla St. Vrain, wrote the bestselling book Letters to My Someday Daughter, a guide to self-love that advises treating yourself like you would your own hypothetical future daughter. The book made Audrey’s mother a household name, and she built an empire around it.

While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla’s family. Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla’s daughter, and she’s looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother’s world.

But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book’s anniversary, Audrey can’t help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other’s lives—not as the someday daughter and someday mother but as themselves, just as they are. What Audrey doesn’t know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff—including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas—will upset everything she’s so carefully planned for her life.

Short and Sweet Review

Audrey St. Vrain wasn’t even born when her mother Camilla wrote the novel “Letters to My Someday Daughter” a self-help book for women. That book shot Camilla to fame and she ended up building an empire. Everyone thinks Audrey is lucky to have Camilla as a mother but Audrey has an almost nonexistent relationship with her mother. When the anniversary of the book rolls around Camilla asks Audrey to join her on tour but Audrey declines because she has plans to attend a premed program for the summer. What Audrey doesn’t know is that her mom wasn’t really asking she was telling Audrey that she was going on tour, now Audrey is on tour with a mom she doesn’t know how to communicate with and a tour staff that has her questioning things she thought were set in stone.

Audrey knows what she wants for her future and she has a plan to get there, but her plans get disrupted when she’s forced to go on her mother’s book tour. Audrey and Camilla have a complicated relationship, when Audrey was eleven she was sent to boarding school, so she feels like she doesn’t have this relationship that people who have read Letters to My Someday Daughter would think she would have with her mother, instead Audrey feels like she’s being used. It was interesting to see how their relationship got the way it is and also how during this tour Audrey reveals more about her anxiety and how Camilla dealt with everything. We see Camilla try to understand Audrey and where she’s coming from. I do like how O’Clover is able to write authentic mother daughter relationships. I think my favorite thing about this book was the talk Audrey had with her dad, which shed a light on some of the things in her mom’s past which shaped how she is today. I will say the mother daughter relationship is the biggest focus of this book but the subplot is more romance focused. Audrey has a boyfriend who she was supposed to do the premed program with, but things start to change between them when Audrey doesn’t get accepted for an internship program. Audrey also meets Silas, one of the interns who she ends up having feelings for. I will say Silas is a sweet guy and he cares about Audrey but I feel like their relationship progressed a little too fast. The book is good we follow the team as they travel around the U.S and we see Audrey learn to be more free as she spends more time with the interns. I do think the plot twist could have been handled better but not by the author but by the characters when the twist happened I felt so bad for Audrey.

Overall, I loved this book! This is the second book I’ve read by O’Clover and she just knocks it out of the park. I love her characters and her plots, I will say that this book seemed a little more heartfelt on the mother daughter relationship aspect than Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, but still a solid book that everyone should read!

OUT OF BODY By Nia Davenport

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

OUT OF BODY By Nia DavenportOut of Body by Nia Davenport
Published by Balzer + Bray on 2/6/24
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 271
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon

Seventeen-year-old Megan Allen has been jumping from friend group to friend group in her high school, trying on identities like outfits. Nothing ever seems to fit—until she meets LC, the adventurous, charismatic girl who appears at her favorite coffee shop one day like magic. Finally, Megan feels like she’s becoming the person she’s meant to be: someone like LC.

On the night of their friendiversary, what was supposed to be a bonding experience ends in a waking nightmare. Suddenly, Megan is no longer herself. Too late, she realizes that LC has secrets—dangerous ones. Betrayed by her best friend, thrust into another girl’s life, and targeted by LC’s enemies, she must claim what makes Megan Megan to get her life back . . . or die trying.

Short and Sweet Review

Megan has bounced around from friend group to friend group until she meets LC. LC is like her friend soulmate. One night Megan and LC celebrate their friend anniversary and get matching piercings and go out to a party. Things seem to be going alright until Megan wakes up the next morning and finds that she’s not in her own body but LC’s and LC is in her body. Megan has no idea what’s going on but she knows things aren’t right, and even worse LC is avoiding her and pretending like she didn’t just do something absolutely out of line and messed up. Now Megan is forced to pretend to be LC and while doing that Megan realizes that LC was running from her enemies. Megan just has to successfully pull off being LC, avoid the people coming for LC, and get back into her own body.

Let me just start off by saying that this book was amazing! We follow our main character Megan as she tries to come to terms that someone she trusted would betray her in the manner they did. We get to see why Megan has such a connection with LC and then we see how hurt she is after LC basically takes over her body and her life like nothing is wrong. Megan then has to pretend to be LC or someone named Jade and then she realizes that she never really knew LC the way she thought she did. While Megan is pretending to be Jade we see how she has to earn the trust of Jades parents and try to get a little freedom in order to be able to get back to LC in a whole different part of town. We also see the actually Jade’s friend Ryan and at first Megan has to pretend that she is Jade but eventually she’s able to confide in him about the body swapping and get his help. We also see Megan get help from someone she used to be friends with who she ended up leaving behind when she became friends with LC. I will say that Megan had a lot of character growth, during her time as Jade or LC she was able to see the way she treated people and try to reconcile. I did like that we got little snippets of what LC was doing and we could kind of see her motive of why she did what she did and we kind of end up feeling for her. There was a lot going on in this book but not so much that you can’t keep up, but in a way that you want to keep reading to see what happens next. We find out that there’s more than just Megan who is involved and I liked that even though people were looking for LC they end up finding Megan and she has to be the one to think of a way to fix everything, I also loved the teamwork that went on towards the end. I do think there’s a bit of a sci-fi element going on in this book, with the body swapping and the technology needed for that it did give me sci-fi vibes and I could see this being a movie.

Out of Body quickly became one of my favorite books of 2024. The book is fast paced and it definitely keeps you on your toes and wondering what’s going to happen next. I loved Megan as a character and how she was able to adapt to help her situation but ultimately get her to her final goal of getting back into her own body. I recommend this book 100%, go pick it up and be captivated by the writing and the plot!