ARC Review: Aristotle & Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ .5

I received an advanced copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing this galley!

Publication: October 12, 2021

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, LGBT+, Realistic Fiction

Synopsis: The highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an achingly romantic, tender tale sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi.

In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.

Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.

The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.

ARC Review: Trouble Girls by Julia Lynn Rubin

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★

I received an advanced copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to Wednesday Books for providing this galley!

Publication: June 1, 2021

Genre: Young Adult, Thriller

Synopsis: A queer YA #MeToo reimagining of Thelma & Louise with the aesthetic of Riverdale, for fans of Mindy McGinnis, Courtney Summers, and Rory Power.

When Trixie picks up her best friend Lux for their weekend getaway, she’s looking to escape for a little while, to forget the despair of being trapped in their dead-end Rust Belt town and the daunting responsibility of caring for her ailing mother. The girls are packing light: a supply of Diet Coke for Lux and her ‘89 Canon to help her frame the world in a sunnier light; half a pack of cigarettes for Trixie that she doesn’t really smoke, and a knife—one she’s just hanging on to for a friend—that she’s never used before.

But a single night of violence derails their trip and will forever change the course of the girls’ lives, as they go from ordinary high schoolers to wanted fugitives. Trying to stay ahead of the cops and a hellscape of media attention, the girls grapple with an unforgiving landscape, rapidly diminishing supplies, and disastrous decisions at every turn. As they are transformed by the media into the face of a #MeToo movement they didn’t ask to lead and the road before them begins to run out, Trixie and Lux realize that they can only rely on each other, and that the love they find together is the one thing that truly makes them free.

Review: Release by Patrick Ness

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, LGBT, Contemporary, Fantasy

Synopsis: It’s Saturday, it’s summer and, although he doesn’t know it yet, everything in Adam Thorn’s life is going to fall apart. Relationships will change, he’ll change, but maybe, just maybe, he’ll find freedom in the release.

Time is running out though, because way across town a ghost as risen from the lake. Searching, yearning, she leaves a trail of destruction in her wake…

Review: The Black Veins (Dead Magic #1) By Ashia Monet

Review by: Mara

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

While I didn’t read this book as part of the Black Veins readathon, shortly after I finished the book I realized one was occurring! Hosted by Andrea, the readathon will run from August to the beginning of September. Check out this link for more info!

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, LGBTQ

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Blythe is one of seven Guardians: magicians powerful enough to cause worldwide panic with a snap of their fingers. But Blythe spends her days pouring latte art at her family’s coffee shop, so why should she care about having apocalyptic abilities?

She’s given a reason when magician anarchists crash into said coffee shop and kidnap her family.

Heartbroken but determined, Blythe knows she can’t save them alone. A war is brewing between two magician governments and tensions are too high. So, she packs up her family’s bright yellow Volkswagen, puts on a playlist, and embarks on a road trip across the United States to enlist the help of six strangers whose abilities are unparalleled—the other Guardians.

Review: More Than This by Patrick Ness

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Synopsis: A boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies. Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive. How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?

As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope. Might this not be the end? Might there be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife?

From multi-award-winning Patrick Ness comes one of the most provocative and moving novels of our time.

Review: Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT

Synopsis: Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

Review: People Like Us by Dana Mele

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, LGBT

Synopsis: Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple. 

The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay’s finally backed into a corner, she’ll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make…not something that happened.

Review: The Wicker King by K. Ancrum

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fantasy, LGBT

Synopsis: When August learns that his best friend, Jack, shows signs of degenerative hallucinatory disorder, he is determined to help Jack cope. Jack’s vivid and long-term visions take the form of an elaborate fantasy world layered over our own—a world ruled by the Wicker King. As Jack leads them on a quest to fulfill a dark prophecy in this alternate world, even August begins to question what is real or not. 

August and Jack struggle to keep afloat as they teeter between fantasy and their own emotions. In the end, each must choose his own truth.

Review: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance, LGBT

Synopsis: Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

ARC REVIEW: Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

I recieved this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Publication: September 5th, 2017

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Synopsis: At sixteen, Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, LGBT

Review: I’ve always been a fan of retellings, but what grabbed my interest about this one in particular was the overtly feminist message it advocated from the beginning. The author is fully aware about how this book will be received by readers, and I think, surprisingly, that’s a good thing. The novel takes pains to never pit the two women against each other, instead focusing on building their relationship. As a result, the fallout that occurs is made that much sadder.

Miscommunication is the crux of this novel. What it lacks in obstacles and exposition, it makes up for in exceptional character development. Although often frustrating, there are points in this novel where you see real change occur, and they are special. Seamless transitions between narratives in the past and present allow for the story to flow naturally, to provide important background which leads to development. However, that development, that depth, falls only on Lynet and Mina. I truly wish Nadia had been developed more, as she brought a new component to an often revisited tale. I also thought that for a stand-alone, it was lacking in real progress. It seemed to set the stage for more than what actually occurred. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the LGBT+ representation.

This is a wonderful novel and a wonderful retelling. It sets the bar high for authors in the future who seek to write feminist endings for well-loved fairytales.

Add it on Goodreads!